Podcasts about ji packer

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Play Episode Listen Later Aug 31, 2021 78:31

JI Packer says: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." What we believe about God affects how we live, how we make decisions, how we view ourselves and others, and how we respond to circumstances we face in life. Our beliefs about God also affect our relationship with Him or the lack of it. It's important to have a right and healthy knowledge and view of God—one that is based not on our feelings, experience or opinion but on the truth of His Word. The God of the Bible is beyond predication. He is incomprehensible and yet He chose to step into human history and reveal Himself and desires to be in relationship with His creation. This month we are diving into the Attributes of God - the nature and character traits of God as they are revealed to us in the Scriptures.

Jon and Justin talk about adoption--how God has brought us into his own family through the blood of his Son. We now call God, "Father." The guys also get into some law/gospel stuff and a biblical understanding of God's holiness. Giveaway: "The Bruised Reed" by Richard Sibbes Scripture References: John 2:13-17 Mark 2:23-27 Luke 6:6-11 Luke 13:1-5 Mark 7:1-23 Luke 18:18-27 Luke 15 Matthew 9:12-13 Matthew 11:28-30 Matthew 12:18-21 John 10:14-18 John 14:1-3 John 17:24 Luke 12:32 Luke 7:36-50 Romans 8:15 1 John 3:1 https://youtu.be/mrW_BEPI1Fw Semper Reformanda Transcripts Justin Perdue: Welcome to the Semper Reformanda podcast. I know we were being funny with the title For God So Hated the World, but that is so often how it comes across. "God is just really angry and reluctantly at best is saving sinners. But really, I don't even know if He wants to do that. If it didn't bring in glory, He surely wouldn't do it because He has no interest in our wellbeing." That's just so far from the biblical picture. He is holy, He is righteous, He is just, and He is gracious, merciful, tender, and delights to save sinners, and that's why He is so worthy of worship. Here we are to talk about that more. I'm mindful of Luke 12:32, about how Jesus says, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's delight to give you the kingdom." That's a wonderful thought here, too. But where I'd love to pivot this conversation to is like a Romans 8 idea, along with other passages, of how we have been adopted into God's family. Like 1 John: we're now sons and daughters of God. And how we've not been given a spirit of fear, but we have been given the spirit of adoption through which we cry, "Abba, Father," and God is no longer our judge. God is no longer scary. I'm preaching to myself here. He's no longer scary, He's no longer threatening, He no longer condemns us, He's not our judge anymore—He is our Father. We don't have to do anything to climb up into our Father's arms to be held by Him and to be loved by Him. That's already been given. Jon Moffitt: He picks you up. John 20, Jesus comes out of the tomb and Mary realizes that Jesus is not the gardener, but is Jesus. The King James mistranslated it and it was very confusing. It says, "Don't touch me." Justin Perdue: Don't you criticize the King James version. Jon Moffitt: Oh my. I got myself in trouble with that. She grabs him—I'm imagining that she's holding him around the legs as if she's saying, "I'm not letting you go." Jesus gives her motivation to let go. This is what he says: "Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and to your God.'" I love it. It's like he's saying, "We're brothers. We're family. Your Father and my Father." Why can Jesus proclaim the inclusion that he makes? Because he gave the right to adoption to sinners. His blood is the ink on the page that says you belong. It's amazing. Justin Perdue: Thinking about adoption, JI Packer's book Knowing God is a Christian classic. I think the best chapter in that book is the chapter on adoption. Packer makes the argument—and this was written in the 1970s—that it is one of the most neglected doctrines in the Scriptures. Like you said, the ink is literally the blood of the son of God. Our adoption is secure and our status as adopted children is going nowhere. Just to think about God's love for us and how He did these things for us. If we thought more about it, we would be greatly helped—and I think he's right. Martin Luther famously wrote the hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. And there's that line, I think, at the end of the third verse (at least the way we sing it at CBC) where he's talking about the devil. That song is about God being our fortress and how the devil and spiritual warfare is real, but we're safe and secure in the Lord, and in particular in Christ and what he's done for us. But at the end of that one verse, Martin Luther writes that one little word that will fell the devil. Luther was cited as saying that that one little word, as he had it in mind when he wrote the hymn, was Abba and how us being able to call God "Father" is what ultimately undoes the devil in all of his work and power. That's a remarkable thought: God being our Father and us being able to call him that and being able to, with confidence, approach the throne of grace because of God's fatherly, gentle disposition toward us is the undoing of the evil one. What a blessed thought. Jon Moffitt: You said a couple of things. When you are dealing with someone who says, "Yeah, but I think you guys are deemphasizing the holiness of God. And because of that, if you continue to present this position of Jesus, then people will not see it necessary to be holy." Your response to that is? Justin Perdue: A number of thoughts. One of them is what I said in the regular show that I think that when we rightly present the totality of God's nature, rightly emphasizing His holiness, justice, righteousness, and His love and grace and mercy, and help us understand that the holy God is the one who delights to save sinners, what is actually produced by that whole accurate presentation is reverence and awe before the Lord. I am amazed that this God loves me and has saved me and sent His Son to live, suffer, bleed, and die for me to the extent that I am moved to worship and my desire is to love and serve and obey this God. So that's one of my responses. Yes, we uphold the holiness of the Lord and His righteousness so that we can accurately represent Him in His grace and mercy. That is most obviously seen in the work and in the cross of Christ, which I think is the most moving, gripping, epic message in the universe and would produce awe and reverence before the Lord. It would do anything but produce licentiousness, looseness, and apathy towards the things of God. I think, if anything, the message where holiness is overemphasized and it's all about righteousness and wrath and the like, what that ends up producing is either hatred of God or it produces a fear of God, like I said before, where the last thing in the world we want to do is be near Him. And it's like He's not really worthy of worship, except for the fact that like a dictator, I feel like I have to or I'm going to die. In the other position, my heart's cry is that I love God because of what He has done for me. I don't deserve it—I'm a wretch and He loves me. He is incredible and awesome. Praise be to His name and I will delight to live in His presence forever with the other redeemed saints. It's a disconnect for me. I think my other response is a basic law and gospel response. I was having this conversation the other day with the guy who was on staff with me here at the church, and we were on our way to a meeting with some people from our church. We got into just talking about some other churches in our area that we know of and some things that have been brought to our attention lately. Just talking about how there is such a lack of law and gospel preaching, and how if I or the guy on our staff were ever invited to a church like this particular church, our sermon is a law and gospel sermon. We just begin with what the Lord requires. The 10 Commandments are great, but let's just even simplify it more than that and let's take it straight from the lips of Christ himself: we're to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and we're to love our neighbors as ourselves. How are you doing with that? We preach the law of God in all of its holiness, because the irony is many of the people that scream about wrath and scream about God's holiness else are over there relativizing the law. They are telling people to live a certain way, and they can, in one sense, please God. Or they take a scalpel to the law or a machete to the law and say, "I'm just going to cut some parts out and leave in other parts. I'm going to emphasize this and throw this over here." Whereas, I think what we need to do is preach the law in all of its holiness and frankly, in all of its terror apart from Christ because we are ruined and crushed by that. Then, having preached the law to people who cannot keep it and then showing us that we can't keep it, then we preach Christ and his work and what he came to do in his own words, that he, "did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it." And then you begin to see that this is what the Lord has been doing all along. This is why he gave the law in the first place. This is what the sacrificial system, the priesthood, the day of atonement, the Passover, and all the feasts and all these things were about. This was about what God would accomplish through Christ, and we preach that message. That's my response. I agree with you that we need to emphasize holiness, and we need to do it in such a way where we are astonished at the grace of God and the fact that He loves sinners and actually celebrates when we come to faith and repent—which is His work anyway, but He celebrates that. And then preach the law and preach the gospel. I don't think anybody's going to get it twisted that we don't think God's holy. Jon Moffitt: As you were speaking, these are the thoughts that came to my mind: mercy, rightly taught, creates merciful, Christians. And grace, rightly taught, creates gracious Christians. But what ended up being taught in the modern Calvingelical legalistic context is law, and it creates legalistic Christians. Justin Perdue: Self-righteous Christians. Jon Moffitt: Right. Legalistic, self-righteous Christians. When I think about the woman at the feet of Jesus in Luke 7, what did Jesus constitute to her disposition? Much forgiveness. When I see people in my congregation who see that their sins have been massively forgiven, they tend to have a mass amount of mercy and patience and grace. When Paul says in Ephesians 4 to "walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called," and immediately points to graciousness, mercy, and longsuffering, God has been merciful and patient and long suffering towards us. He says, "Look, I will not forgive you if you are unwilling to forgive." The response of a Christian should be mercy and grace, and yet what I hear is legalism and law and self-righteousness. Justin Perdue: It's not surprising. I'm picking up on your idea and I think you're exactly right. I just jotted this down as you were talking. I think when the law is mishandled, which is what you're saying, 1 Timothy 1:8, we uphold the law when it's used lawfully, but when the law is not used lawfully and is used irresponsibly, damage occurs. And in particular, what often happens is the law is preached to Christians and it's confused. In our churches, Jon, you and I mean to do two things in preaching to the redeemed. We do mean to preach the first use of the law every week to continue to remind us all that we can't keep it and we need Christ for that and that he's done it. So we do that. But then we also preach the third use of the law as the guide for our lives, but we do that in a way that is gentle and not threatening and not condemnatory because the law can no longer condemn us in Christ. It doesn't mean that we don't love it and that we don't want to follow it—of course we do—but we're not afraid of the law anymore. But what happens often is that the third use of the law, in the minds of many Calvingelical preachers, the guide part is actually preached with this threatening tone like it's the first use. Then what occurs is when people are being told effectively to live better, it's done with this edgy and threatening tone, which then produces people that are edgy and threatening in how they interact with everybody else when it comes to obedience. It's always about doing something or else. That's how we interact with each other. It's not shocking. The tone and tenor of the preaching in how the law and the gospel are understood then affects the tone and tenor of all the relationships in the church. Jon Moffitt: Justin and I could do this all day—we'd go off each other. But as you're talking, what I hear is that preaching that should be relieving people of their burden and giving them hope for their burden, like in Galatians 2, bearing one another's burden, instead, we are putting a burden on top of them and we're exhausting Christians with the law inappropriately preached with the first use. And Jesus is saying, "No, no, no. My burden is light. The yoke that comes with me is a relief." Justin Perdue: Why is that? Because he's done. Jon Moffitt: That's right. So when I or any preacher of the gospel or even you who are sharing Jesus with your friends, neighbors, and your congregation, and you're building each other up, it should be the relief of the burden off of them. You weren't adding to the burden, but you're carrying that burden. Galatians 6:2: "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." What gets me upset is there are people preaching Jesus and they give more burden. Paul says you preach Jesus and carry burdens; you don't put more burdens on people. Justin Perdue: Suffice it to say that Jesus is gentle, lowly, and compassionate toward those who know that they need him. He is always that way: he is not scary, he is not threatening, he is not disappointed. He welcomes us in love, he invites us to come to him, he reminds us that in him are found peace and rest and life, and we can approach him for those things. And he wants us to be with him. If anything, for me, one of the takeaways is that God so loves us that He rejoices to save us. That is a reminder that I don't think we can hear enough. Grace and peace to you saints who are listening to this podcast. We hope sincerely that you've been encouraged in Christ and in the love of your heavenly Father today. We have been as we've talked about it. Keep pressing on, keep trusting Christ, keep loving each other in your local communities. We pray that things continue to develop with SR and the app and the groups and all that good stuff so that even more community and encouragement can ensue. So pray for us. Please continue to support this ministry. We're very grateful for you and your partnership. We look forward to more of this and more rest in Christ and more joy in him and all that stuff, should the Lord tarry in the months and years to come. Jon Moffitt: Join some groups. If you're not in a group, join an online group or a local group. Let's get this thing rolling. Justin Perdue: Jon's condemning all of you who haven't joined the group yet now that we're done with the gospel part. Jon Moffitt: I'm encouraging you, not condemning. Justin Perdue: Jon's encouraging you. He is your kind adviser. Anyway, before this goes off the cliff, we're going to say goodbye. We will talk with you guys again next week on SR. Peace.

Christian Family Life

Youth Culture Today with Walt Mueller

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 17, 2021 1:00

J.I. Packer writes, “The way we behave as children and parents is a prime test of both our humanity and our godliness. Love – the caring love of parents who respect their children and want to see them mature, and the grateful love of children who respect their parents and want to see them content – is our great need.” Dr. Packer continues, “In these days it is urgent that parents and children together relearn the ways of Christian family life. In the West, yesterday's extended family has shrunk to today's nuclear family; social security and community affluence has reduced the family's importance as an economic unit, and all this has weakened family relationships. Parents are too busy to give time to their children, and young people, identifying with current youth culture, are more prone than ever to write off their parents as clueless. But the fifth commandment recalls us to God's order.”

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KHESED _ God of Steadfast Love and Faithfulness

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Play Episode Listen Later Aug 12, 2021 86:32

YAHWEH _ GOD of Mercy, Patience and Grace

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Play Episode Listen Later Aug 5, 2021 0:37

GOD of PURPOSE

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Play Episode Listen Later Aug 2, 2021 71:54

The Safekeeping of the Splendorous God

Veritas Community Church Sermons

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 25, 2021 38:14

RESOURCES: ESV Study Bible; Commentaries by Dick Lucas, Tom Schreiner, and Tomas Manton; BDAG ed. by Frederick William Danker; Knowing God by JI Packer

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ELOHIM _ Moral Attributes of GOD

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Play Episode Listen Later Jul 18, 2021 73:48

Part 2: ADONAI _ The Be-Everywhere, Do-Everything and Know-It-All God

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Play Episode Listen Later Jul 11, 2021 44:12

Part 1: ADONAI _ The Be-Everywhere, Do-Everything and Know-It-All God

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Play Episode Listen Later Jul 11, 2021 42:19

I AM_The Incommunicable Attributes of God

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Play Episode Listen Later Jul 4, 2021 67:35

Episode 24: Socks and Thorns

Remain

Play Episode Listen Later May 17, 2021 36:15

In this episode, we discuss the joys of missing socks as well as an article with a distasteful title. Really. But it does get your attention. In this article, JI Packer speaks on warped ideas about sickness but then offers some helpful reflections based on II Corinthians 12. Weakness is when and where God works maybe the most in our lives. It is not a waste, not something to be avoided. It will not be comfortable but we hope this will be encouraging to you.

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Job's First Lament: Why Was I Ever Born? (Job Sermon 3) (Audio)

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Play Episode Listen Later Mar 7, 2021

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a sermon on Job 3 and talks about the first time Job opens his mouth to lament following the trials he has experienced. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - So, turn in your Bibles to Job, chapter three. Jesus said, as he was preparing his disciples for his own death, "In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world." The apostle Paul said, "Through many tribulations, we must enter the Kingdom of God." Peter wrote, “It is hard for the righteous to be saved.” These are verses that come heavy on us and as we think about it, we realize, especially the older we get in the faith and the more mature, how true they are. It is not easy for us to walk through this cursed world. Even as Christians with the promises of eternal life, it is not easy to be saved. Finally saved. So, in God's goodness, he's called us together today to hear his word. You just heard Job 3, 1 through 15 read and think wow, these are gloomy words, these are difficult words, and they are, but I am relying on the wisdom of God, the Holy Spirit, to put these words in the perfect scripture that has been passed down generation after generation. He wants us to hear these words. He wants us to read them and to understand what Job said as he went through this terrible crushing trial. I. Job Speaks at Last We've already begun the prologue of this great book. We looked last week at Job one and two we've learned who Job was. A godly man unlike anyone who lived at that time on earth. He was blameless and upright. A man who feared God and shunned evil. He was a man who was lavishly blessed materially in this world. He had abundant possessions. He had a large happy family. He was a man who understood the deepest truths of a healthy spiritual life. He understood that appearances can be deceiving. That even his children, as they were feasting and having a good time with one another, might somehow be cursing God in their hearts. And so he himself was no whitewashed tomb who looked good on the outside but inside was corrupt. We've learned even more significantly that almighty God, the ruler of the universe, was very pleased with Job. That he actually boasted about Job. Singled him out among any that lived at that time saying, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is none like him on earth. A man who is blameless and upright," and this commendation from God is infinitely more valuable than anything else Job could possibly have taken delight in, for it is not the one who commends himself or the one whom people commend, but it is the one whom God commends, who is truly righteous. We've been led by the scripture into the heavenly courts, into the heavenly realms. Ordinarily we'd not have access, but through the word of God, that's where God the king reigns and we've also seen the presence of the accuser, of Satan, who says all of Job's piety is based on his prosperity. That God had put a hedge of protection around Job. And he said, “If you take away that hedge and let me get at him, he will curse you to your face.” Said that to God. God permitted Satan to do that. One terrifying day, Job lost every earthly blessing that he had. An avalanche of suffering poured down upon him wave upon wave, culminating in the news of the instant death of all 10 of his children. And if that weren't enough, then Satan came at God and at Job a second time, this time concerning Job's physical health. He claimed that a man would give all of his possessions for his health and that if God struck Job's body, he would curse God to his face. Once again, God permitted Satan to go out and afflict Job, and Satan struck this tragic man with a terrible disease resulting in physical agony from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Beyond this, Job's own wife tempted him openly to despair, effectively speaking Satan's words to her own husband. It's terrible how we can, through certain circumstances, do Satan's work in the lives of others. Satan can take us captive to do his will. We can say things that we shouldn't say; “Are you still holding onto your integrity? Curse God and die.” With her own heart breaking, certainly. Job responded with amazing patience. He worshiped God and he said all the right things. “Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I will depart,” “The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised,” “Shall we accept good from God and not difficulties?” Said all the right things, but trial always goes on longer than we want it to. Keeps on going. Grinds away. For Job, at that point the trial was just beginning. Job's friends came to comfort him and when they saw him, they could scarcely recognize him; he was so changed. They were stunned into seven days and seven nights of silence, just sitting there with him, lamenting with him wordlessly. Wordlessly. Job just sat there with them. Wordlessly. But the words are about to come aren't they? They're about to flow. They're about to flow like a river, and they start with this chapter, this bitter lament from Job. Job's not a lifeless stone. He's not a brute beast. He has a mind, he has a heart, and these events have shredded him from within. Jesus said, "Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks," and it's time for Job to speak what's in his heart, and so we get Job three. II. Job Curses the Day of His Birth (Job 3:1-10) He begins in chapter 3, verse 1 through 10, by cursing the day of his birth. Look at it with me. “After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. He said: ‘May the day of my birth perish in the night it was said, 'a boy is born.' That day - may it turn to darkness; may God above not care about it; may no light shine upon it. May darkness and deep shadow claim it once more; may a cloud settle over it; may blackness overwhelm its light. That night - may thick darkness seize it; may it not be included among the days of the year nor be entered in any of the months. May that night be barren; may no shout of joy be heard in it. May those who cursed days curse that day, those who are ready to rouse Leviathan. May its morning stars become dark; may it wait for daylight in vain and not see the first rays of dawn, for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me to hide trouble from my eyes.’” Why did Job do this? Why did he curse the day of his birth? Well, he doesn't want to curse God. To charge God with wrongdoing, but his heart is broken. He's reeling. He's swimming in an ocean of agony, pain, and he must speak. He has to say something to express the inner volcano of pain. The pain within him. He doesn't curse himself and he doesn't curse God, as his wife urged him to do. Instead, he curses the day of his birth. He just wants that day removed from the calendar of the year. Sort of an anti birthday. Birthday celebrations are a way of people saying to a person: “I'm glad you were born. It's a good thing you came into the world. It's a good thing you came into my life.” That's what we do at birthdays. Job wants the opposite message, engraved with an iron stylus on an iron tablet of the years' calendar and the history books: “May it be as though that day never existed, for I am immeasurably sorry that I was ever born and I certainly don't want to celebrate that fact.” What are the details of the curse? Well he says, "May that day perish like it never existed. May the day turn into darkness. May God turn away from that day, like it seems he's turned away from me. May he refuse to care for that day like has withdrawn his care for me. That day, may it swim in deep darkness." A day happens when the sun rises and the light expands to fill the world and the day becomes the full brightness of noon day. It illuminates a world of sunlight and warmth. That's what a day is. “Now, I am saying, I wish that day had never occurred at all. I wish that blackness would just overwhelm that day, with no sunrise at all. And that celebration that happened when I was born; may it be stricken from the record books of history. There was a shout of joy. A boy is born. A son is born into the world. Maybe a messenger running to my father, bringing him the good news. You have a son. And may we assemble all those that are good at cursing days, all the great cursers of days on the earth. Talented people, to stand as a chorus, all of them, to curse that day with all the powers of their skills as cursers of days. And may the morning stars not sing in anticipation of the dawn. May that dawn actually never come. Let the days stay shrouded in darkness of the night that preceded it, like that day never happened at all. Why? Because I was born into the pathway of life that led to this. That's why. Because of the pain that I'm feeling.” III. Job Questions Life Itself (Job 3:11-23) So Job is questioning life itself in verse 11 and following. He says, "Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb? Why were there knees to receive me and breasts that I might be nursed? For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest with kings and counselors of the earth, who built for themselves palaces now in ruins, with rulers who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. Or why was I not hidden in the ground like a stillborn child, like an infant who never saw the light of day? There the wicked cease from turmoil, and there the weary are at rest. Captives also enjoy their ease; they no longer hear the slave driver's shout. The small and the great are there; the slave is freed from his master." Verse 20. "Why is light given to those in misery and life given to the bitter of soul, to those who long for death that does not come, who search for it more than for hidden treasure, who are filled with gladness and rejoice when they reach the grave? Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?" So, what's going to follow this initial outbreak of cursing of the day of his birth is a series of questions. One after the other they flow. With that word: why? Again and again, why? They pour from the deepest recesses of Job's agonized mind: “I don't understand, oh Lord, what you're doing. I have some serious questions. There must be a reason why. Why all of this has happened, why did I not perish at birth, why did I not die as I came out of my mother's womb? Why at that moment did I get what I needed to survive? When I was so vulnerable, it would've been just so easy to let me perish at that moment. Why instead were their knees to receive me and a mother to nurse me? What was the point of all that? Of my ever being born, and then from that point on being sustained day by day? If only I had died then, if they had just cast me out at that moment, then I would now be at peace.” So Job looks at the grave as a place of peace and rest and quiet. Of rest from all of this agony, far better than the melting in the crucible of this cruel fate. He's in a hot fire and he's getting melted and he hates that pain and he just wants darkness and peace: “Now, if I had died then like so many infants do die, in infancy, then I would now be in that place of dark nothingness. I would be in that place of absolute stillness. I would not be feeling anything. I'd be like those kings and the counselors, the great men of old, who lived prosperous and successful lives, but now they lie unmoving and unmoved in a dark grave somewhere. Those successful kings went through the whole process of building up great kingdoms that now lie in ruins, in the ruins of the dust. They learned from experience that everything is vanity and dust in the wind, but if I had died the day I was born I would be with them in the exact same place of darkness and nothingness, and that would've been far better for me. Far better than the journey from that first day that I was born until this moment that brought me here. My mother scooped me up. She hugged me. She wrapped me in a blanket. She nursed me, met all of my needs, did it day after day, but what for? So I could eventually be tormented like this? Now, if I had been a stillborn, like so many babies are, I would've been wrapped up and planted in the earth, and that's what's going to happen to me anyway, so why was I ever born? Now, in the grave where I long to be nothing ever happens; even the wicked cease from turmoil; the successful achieve nothing. In the grave where I long to be, slaves are free at last from the lash of their wicked slave drivers. Everything is still. It's motionless. It's quiet, and especially there's no pain, no world of bad news coming upon me, wave upon wave.” So why are suffering people born at all? In verses 20 through 23, Job gets down to the business at hand: “Why is light given to those in misery and life given to the bitter of soul? To those who long for death that does not come? Who search for it more than for hidden treasure? Who are filled with gladness and rejoice when they reach the grave? Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?” “Why does God knit people together in their mother's womb who just end up living in this level of pain and agony, yearning for the grave? That makes no sense to me,” cries out Job in his agony. “I don't understand it.” IV. Beginning to Question God (Job 3:23-26) Now in verses 23 through 26, Job begins to question God. Now, it's going to ramp up over the chapters that follow. Here it's just beginning. “Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?” verse 23, “For sighing comes to me instead of food. My groans pour out like water. What I feared has come upon me. What I dreaded has happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness. I have no rest, but only turmoil.” Job speaks of a man of sorrow whom God has, he says, hedged in. It's the second time in the book of Job we have the concept of Job inside of a hedge. The first time, Satan says it, “Have you not put a hedge around Job?” and Satan is frustrated by the hedge, because he'd like to pummel this man. He hates him, but he can't get at him. God won't let it happen. Job 1:10, “Have you not put a hedge around him in his household and everything he has?” But here Job says, “God has hedged me in, in my misery. I'm in a prison of misery and sorrow and God has bound me in behind and before. He's held me in this place and I can't get out.” So whereas Satan is saying God has hedged Job in for his own protection, Job is saying God has hedged me in for my own misery and sorrow and I can't get out. There's no escape for me. And he begins to question God. Though he doesn't do it overtly, it's starting to bubble to the surface. He'd like to ask God, even at that point, why God gives life to those who end up suffering. Why God hedges their way in so they suffer and there's nothing they can do. Job's agonies are very great. “Sighing,” he says, “comes to me instead of my food. I have no desire to eat. All I do all day long is sigh. My heart is broken. From deep within, from my intestines, from my heaving stomach, many groans come. My muscles are groaning in pain. Groan upon groan. They pour forth from me like water out of a fountain and they're not going to stop,” and he says, "What I've feared has come upon me. I was always afraid this would happen.” What about you? Is there anything you fear in this world? What would you put in here? “I always feared this would happen.” What? What do you have in mind? Well, I guess it might be similar to the things Job went through: loss of material possessions, loss of loved ones through death, physical agony coming on your body. That probably would be it. The loss of everything in this world that you find delightful. “I always feared that this would come on me.” So this is a glimpse into Job's heart life even before any of this happened. Like yeah, things are going well, but waiting for the other shoe to drop. That's exactly, isn't it, why Job offered sacrifices for his sons and daughters thinking they might have cursed God in their hearts? To forestall this kind of thing? That some great tragedy might sweep in and snatch them from him, he feared this. I have no peace, no quietness, no rest, just a raging turmoil in my mind. So Job is experiencing, even at this point, extreme anxiety and deep depression all at once, “Why, oh Lord?” "What about you? Is there anything you fear in this world? What would you put in here? “I always feared this would happen.” What? What do you have in mind?" V. Beginning to Give Answers All right, that's the chapter. Now, what are the answers? What are the answers? Well, Job's friends are about to speak. They have some answers. As we'll discover, God willing, next week, they're going to say a lot of right things and they're going to say them in some very wrong ways. So we're going to see what's right and what's wrong about the friends and so we'll push them off to the future, but they do want to give an answer. The desire to give an answer wells up inside them. And since we believe, based on the scripture, in a rational God who's sovereign over everything that on the earth, we do believe that there must be a very good answer or an array of very good answers, but we've come to the limits of our knowledge. Come to the edge of our knowledge. We saw last time the things that Job knew nothing about. Number one, he didn't know about God's high esteem for him. My sense is that was at the root of his misery, “What does all this mean about God and me? Does God actually hate me? Is he actually against me?” the vertical aspect is the biggest question. Job doesn't know, what God thinks about him, what he expressed about him in the heavenly realms. He doesn't know about it. Secondly, he doesn't know about Satan's activity in destroying him, which God willingly permitted. He wasn't aware of that. And he doesn't understand thirdly, the infinite dimensions of wisdom whereby his suffering actually will make sense. There are reasons why. Now in his classic, Knowing God, theologian JI Packer writes powerfully of the kind of wisdom that God gives us here on earth. So what can we expect by way of answers? What answers does scripture give? What answer will God give? This chapter in the book Knowing God was entitled: “God's Wisdom and Ours,” and he uses an analogy from the York train station, which is one of the busiest terminals in England, outside of London. He says, “If you were to stand at train level and watch all the trains coming and going, you might be bewildered as to the actions and the schedule and timing of many of those trains. You wouldn't really know what's going on. However, if you had a friend in a high place there who led you up into the control room and you could look at the digital control panel and see on the master panel you could see all of the lights representing the lines and the trains coming in and out, and then he began to give you an education from the train master’s perspective of why this particular train is held on a siding for five minutes, why this one's allowed to go right through without stopping, and on and on, each one of those things has an explanation.” Then JI Packer says this, “The mistake that is commonly made is to suppose that this is an illustration of what God does when he bestows wisdom. People feel that if they were really walking close to God, he would impart wisdom to them freely and they would, so to speak, find themselves elevated into the heavenly realms and get a look at that control panel. They would be at the signal box and they would discern the real reason of everything that's happening to them and to the people they love. They'd get an explanation. If they were walking close with God, that's what you can expect. Well, that's wrong.” Packer is right to set our expectations far below that. During our lifetimes, God does not invite us up into the heavenly realms to hear those heavenly conversations. To gain a perfect perspective on what others have called the mystery of providence, and it is mysterious. As the apostle Paul said, "Oh, the depth of the riches, of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out," Romans 11:33. "God's ways on earth cannot be plumbed to their depths, they cannot be searched to their limits, they cannot be tracked in their sequence. Instead of detailed inside information,” Packer says, "God gives theological principles, rules of the road, by which we can drive. We can navigate the twists and turns of the complex road that Providence takes us on.” At the end of that chapter, JI Packer, tied off his meditation with these words: "Let us see to it then that we do not frustrate the wise purpose of God by neglecting faith and faithfulness in order to pursue a kind of knowledge which, in this world, it is not given to us to have." So let's not neglect faith, let's keep trusting in God, even though we don't have the explanations. And let's not neglect faithfulness; let's do what God's called on us to do in the time we have to do it. Faith feeds our faithfulness. Let's not neglect that, and let's not seek that specialized insider information which Packer says, “in this world, it's not given to us to have.” Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “the secret things belong to the Lord, our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever that we may follow the words of this law.” "So let's not neglect faith, let's keep trusting in God, even though we don't have the explanations." So there's two different categories: things revealed, things concealed. There's some things that he has revealed and explained to us and some things he hasn't, in this world, but what about the next world? What about the next world? I believe God will give us an explanation of everything. We have plenty of time and we'll have greatly improved minds and the danger will be past, dear friends, and there'll be no more death, mourning, crying or pain, and can you imagine almighty God shrugging and saying, "You know, I really don't know what I was doing at that moment in your life. Very sorry for your pain. There really was no reason for it, but welcome to heaven." It's impossible. Can you imagine he had a perfectly good reason, but he won't tell it to you? “Yes, I can imagine, why would he tell it?” Because that's the direction of salvation. He's letting you into his councils. We're no longer slaves not knowing the master's business, we're actually adopted children, in which he's explaining himself to us, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do? No, I won't hide it. I'm going to explain what I'm doing.” Full explanations, however, will happen in heaven and they will be satisfying. They will be satisfying. You'll delight in them, and you'll have so many “Aha!” moments, and guess what? You won't just care about your own misery and pain and all that. You'll care about your brothers and sisters and the journeys they went through, and you'll see all of the wisdom of God and all of it. You're like, “wow, that's a big study!” We have plenty of time, and at the core of that study is the glory of God. How good and wise and powerful God is in all of this. As William Cooper said in the hymn I quoted last time, "God is his own interpreter and he will make it plain," just not now. Not now. And he has given us, in the New Testament, some more detailed explanations of the theology of suffering than Job had available to him at his point in redemptive history. We have some more explanations. So let's borrow a few of those lessons and apply them in the remaining time that we have here. Why were you born? Why are we born into a life of sorrow and suffering? First of all, just knowing that there is a very good reason why you were born. You're not here accidentally, that's actually impossible. There are no accidental human beings. None. I understand that there are strange circumstances by which two human beings can come together and a child can be conceived. I understand that those individuals may not have planned the child, but understand God's direct activity in knitting babies together in their mother's wombs. As Job himself will say in Job 10, 10-12, "Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? Clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness and in your providence, you watched over my spirit." Not only are there no accidental babies, it's not accidental that they stay alive and that they do receive what they need to stay alive from infancy and then every day of their lives, it is God's kind providence that they stay alive. It's not accidental. God had a reason. We know theologically the reason is spiritual. God made you to have a relationship with him. As Augustan put it, "You have made us for yourself, oh Lord, and the heart of man is restless until it finds its rest in you." That's why God made Job, and that's why God made you and me. To have a relationship with him. An intimate, loving relationship as Jesus himself said in John 17:3. "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, in Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." So why did he make you if all you're going to do is suffer? Well, if you were chosen from before the foundation of the world to be one of God's children, holy and blameless in his sight, he did not choose you ultimately to suffer. That's not his intention, but rather to dwell in a perfectly glorious world, beyond all death, mourning, crying and pain, and to spend eternity in that world. That's what he chose you for, but as I said at the very beginning of this sermon, the journey there will inevitably involve suffering and pain. It can be no other way. Part of that, I think, is just God giving us what Adam on our behalf asked for. An education in evil. An education in evil. That's what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was about. How are we thinking about evil? “Well, I hate it.” You don't hate it enough, but you will hate it with a perfect hatred when you get to heaven. You will, and so will I. We'll be conformed to Jesus who loved righteousness and what? Hates wickedness. We're not going to get a memory wipe and forget all wickedness. We'll benefit from this education and we will, like God, love righteousness and hate wickedness. In the meantime, there's a painful journey we have to go through and it is painful. So why was I even born? Job's deep cry is answered, “So I could know you in eternal life with pleasures forevermore at your right hand,” as Psalm 16:11 says. That's why I was ever born. That's why there were breasts to nurse me and knees to receive me and a mother to wrap me up. That's why. So that I could spend eternity at your right hand with pleasures forever more. That's why God made me. "So why was I even born? Job's deep cry is answered, “So I could know you in eternal life with pleasures forevermore at your right hand,” as Psalm 16:11 says. That's why I was ever born." Now, there is a tension between God's goodness and his heavenly purposes. I understand that. We learned about the goodness of God as Job has. Psalm 34 verse eight, “Taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.” And so you, like Job... Maybe not to his level. Maybe you don't have 5,000 camels, thank God you don't have 5,000 camels, but you've been blessed. You've enjoyed good at God's goodness. You've seen beauty in this world. You've tasted things that have been pleasurable to you. Taste and see that God is good. Every good and perfect gift you ever gotten has come from God. You've tasted and seen that God is good. But what happens when the inner sense of the goodness of God conflicts mightily with what is actually going on in our lives or right around us, or in the world even, as we extend our feelings out to people we don't even know but we care about and they're suffering? There comes an almost, it seems, insoluble tension between the two. “Taste and see that God is good, but this doesn't feel good to me.” And so there's that tension and that tension can stretch our faith, it seems, to the very breaking point. So what can we possibly say to such a suffering person? What advice would you give him? We'll try to walk through as much of that counsel as we can, if God gives us time in these sermons, not finished at all today. We'll try to walk through. And I would advise such a person, I would advise you: begin by focusing on Christ's sufferings for you. Start there. Start with Christ's sufferings for you on the cross. Draw near to Jesus. Draw near to him. Don't let Satan trick you into getting further away from Jesus during trials. That's a deception, maybe even the central deception. Draw closer to Jesus, to Christ and him crucified. I love the hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” and the counsel's there again and again. You can't hear that hymn and not understand what the author wants you to do, hymn writer: “Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful who will all are sorrow share? Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer.” This is just reflecting what the author to Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter 2, verse 17 and 18 concerning Jesus, “For this reason, he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.” Our merciful and faithful high priest has once for all, by his bloody death on the cross, made atonement for the sins of his people for all time. And through faith in Christ, sinners like you and me can be completely forgiven for all time of our sins. And Hebrews 2:18 says, “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” He's able to help you. He knows what suffering's about. Hebrews 4, 15 and 16 says, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Draw near to Christ. He sympathizes; that's why he wept in front of Lazarus's tomb, it's out of sympathy for Martha and Mary and for us. He knows this feeling, he knows what it's like to suffer far better than you or I ever will. Wasn't it Jesus who asked that why question on the cross as he's dying under the wrath of God and he cried out, “‘Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani,’ which means ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” There's a why question. And he received no answer then and neither will we in this world, but in heaven, all things will be made plain and we will learn the true purpose behind every pain we ever endured. Christ's sufferings were to atone for our sins. I'm going to say this again over the next several weeks, but we cannot excuse ourselves from sin when we're suffering. We can't say, “Well, I know it's not because I sinned that I'm suffering. I know that we learn from the book of Job, that there's a... It's possible to be blameless and upright, one who fears God, and I know therefore that the suffering in my life is not connected to my sin.” Do you really know that? Are you like Job? The fact is some of our suffering is connected to our sins. Sometimes we need to just say, Lord, is there something in my life that is displeasing you? Is there something, and if something immediately pops in your mind you know what that is. Then it's an opportunity to repent. It's an opportunity to ask God forgiveness. But Christ's sufferings were in our place for our sins; 1 Peter 2, 24 and 25 says of Jesus, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed for you are like sheep going astray but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.” So when you are suffering in your trial, whenever it is, maybe it's going on now, maybe it's in the future, just look to the infinitely, greater suffering of Jesus in your place on the cross. Trust in him. Your sins don't necessarily directly lead to your sufferings, but our sins did directly lead to Jesus' sufferings. Ponder that. Your sins don't necessarily directly lead to your sufferings, but our sins directly lead led to his. Why else would he have suffered? It's because he was suffering as our substitute. Now occasionally, like I said, you know that there's sin in your life. You know that there are issues and it could be there's a connection between your sins and your sufferings. That's where Hebrews 12 comes in. God does discipline us for our sins from time to time; we'll talk more about this next time, but Hebrews 12, we'll just read it without comment, we'll talk more next time, it says, “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood and you've forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons. My son do not make light of the Lord's discipline and do not lose heart when he rebukes you because the Lord disciplines those he loves and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. So endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as sons for what son is not disciplined by his father?” like I said, we're going to more fully develop this, God willing, next time. So, draw near to the suffering. John Calvin, in his marvelous sermon on early text in Job said, "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away, makes a powerful point about Job's embracing of his sorrows." He noticed that when he said that Job tore his robes, he shaved his head, he threw himself on the ground and worshiped. He said, "this is a role model for us. We should see the hand of God in all of our suffering. Because the Lord is sovereign, we can know it is the Lord who has done this and because he is wise, we can know that he knows what he's doing and that there's a very wise rational purpose behind it. Because the Lord is good, his purposes toward us and toward others are very good." So don't numb yourself at that time. Don't deny what's happening. Step into it. Go towards it. Some unbelievers numb themselves with alcohol and drugs and other escapes. John Calvin said, "Those who are patient bear well their affliction." There is actually no valor in a man who's suffering but is completely unaware of his suffering. There's no virtue in it. It's terrible physical suffering, but he's not aware of it like someone in a coma, something like that. But when you know what's happening, you have the opportunity to glorify God. You're aware. Job is very aware of what happened. So face the facts. Look at what's happening. Say, “this has happened. This is hurting me. This occurred. God is doing it. It's not an accident. There's an intention, a purpose, in this.” Face the facts. I'm reminded of Romans 4, 19-21 about Abraham, “Without weakening in his faith, Abraham faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and that Sarah's womb was also dead, yet he did not waiver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” So step into the suffering, into the circumstance, talk about it, take it back up to God in prayer, don't numb yourself or distant yourself from it or say, “I just won't think about it.” Don't do that. It's a chance to glorify God. Be thoughtful in your suffering. Ask why is this happening of the Lord, but not in an angry way. Don't say, “Why me oh God?” as though there could be no possible reason. Say, “Why me, oh Lord?” and wait for the answer. Let God give you insights into what he may be doing in your life. Then finally, and we're going to learn this, this is the lesson of the book of Job: God is enough. In the end, you will find God is enough. You're not going to get all the explanations. You may not get any explanations, but God is enough and live like that; put that on display in the people around you: That God is enough. Close in prayer. Lord, thank you for the things that we've learned. Thank you for the timeless message of Job 3. It's not a chapter that I've ever really stepped into and immersed myself and tried to understand before, but I realize, oh Lord, that you and your wisdom have given us all of these chapters so that we can understand what suffering really is like and that we can suffer well and trust in you and grow through it. Lord strengthen us and I pray that you'd help us to draw close to Christ crucified and resurrected, our savior. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

The Beauty of God’s Grace: Particular Grace

Plowing & Planting

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 16, 2021 81:18

Books recommended in this episode: Humble Calvinism by JA Medders The Joy Project by Tony Reinke PROOF by Daniel Montgomery Grace Defined & Defended by Kevin DeYoung Concise Theology by JI Packer The post The Beauty of God's Grace: Particular Grace appeared first on Waverly Place Baptist Church.

Calvinism's Contradiction Revealed

Soteriology 101: Former Calvinistic Professor discusses Doctrines of Salvation

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 25, 2020 49:50

Dr Flowers walks through a message by JI Packer and a rebuttal offered by John Piper to reveal the underlying, insurmountable problem with the claims of Calvinism and its reliance on "theological doublethink." To SUPPORT this broadcast please click here: https://soteriology101.com/support/ DOWNLOAD OUR APP: LINK FOR ANDROIDS: https://play.google.com/store/apps/de... LINK FOR APPLE: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/soterio... Go to www.ridgemax.co for all your software developing needs! Show them some love for their support of Soteriology101!!! To ORDER Dr Flowers Curriculum “Tiptoeing Through Tulip” please click here: https://soteriology101.com/shop/ To listen to the audio-only be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or one of the other podcast players found here: https://soteriology101.com/home/ For more about Traditionalism (or Provisionism) please visit www.soteriology101.com Dr Flowers’ book, “The Potter’s Promise” can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/Potters-Promis... Dr Flowers’ book, “God’s Provision for All” can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Provision... To engage with other believers cordially join our Facebook group: https://m.facebook.com/groups/1806702... For updates and news follow us at: www.facebook/Soteriology101 Or @soteriology101 on Twitter Please SHARE on Facebook and Twitter and help spread the word! To learn more about other ministries and teachings from Dr Flowers go here: https://soteriology101.com/2017/09/22... To become a Patreon supporter or make a one-time donation: https://soteriology101.com/support/

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Chapter 10 - Knowing God by JI Packer

Various Speakers on SermonAudio

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 23, 2020 46:00

A new MP3 sermon from Audubon Drive Bible Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Chapter 10 - Knowing God by JI Packer Subtitle: Knowing God Speaker: Various Speakers Broadcaster: Audubon Drive Bible Church Event: Sunday School Date: 11/22/2020 Length: 46 min.

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Finishing our Course with Joy - Book Review

Running the Race - The Last Lap

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 23, 2020 5:04

In this episode we will a conversation about an excellent resource for Christians considering retirement in the near future or for those recalibrating their retirement. Finishing our Course with Joy, by JI Packer is one of the first books I read very early in retirement inspiring me to consider searching for God’s plan for me in my latter years. Below is a link to Apple Books and Amazon books for your convenience.Apple Books – Finishing our Course with Joy by JI PackerAmazon Books – Finishing our Course with Joy by JI PackerI’m Tom Mauss, and this is Running the Race – The Last Lap, a conversation for Christians about living a healthy retirement. Are you considering retirement within the next five years? Retirement planning is more than financial planning, its life planning. All music produced by Jason Shaw on AudionautiX is released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. All artwork graphics provided by Snappa.com.Your thoughts and comments are welcome at thomasemauss@gmail.com

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Chapter 4 - Knowing God by JI Packer

Various Speakers on SermonAudio

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 12, 2020 45:00

A new MP3 sermon from Audubon Drive Bible Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: Chapter 4 - Knowing God by JI Packer Subtitle: Knowing God Speaker: Various Speakers Broadcaster: Audubon Drive Bible Church Event: Sunday School Date: 10/11/2020 Length: 45 min.

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JI Packer's Knowing God - Lesson 1

Various Speakers on SermonAudio

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 16, 2020 45:00

A new MP3 sermon from Audubon Drive Bible Church is now available on SermonAudio with the following details: Title: JI Packer's Knowing God - Lesson 1 Subtitle: Knowing God Speaker: Various Speakers Broadcaster: Audubon Drive Bible Church Event: Sunday Service Date: 9/13/2020 Length: 45 min.

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The Favor of God in a Foreign Land

Faith Community Bible Church

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 23, 2020

Introduction Okay, so we are in this incredible story which narrates the life of Joseph. And I use this word incredible in the most literal sense of the word. In-credible. Not credible. I mean who would believe this story. How does a Hebrew slave in Pharaoh’s prison rise to the most powerful station in the Ancient Near Eastern context? Statistically speaking this is an impossibility, socially, economically, and politically. Impossible. And you’d think that if something like actually did get pulled off, some incredible insertion of force would be necessary to overcome the powers and forces that make this statistical impossible. But that’s not what we read. In the most free and natural way, God uses the uncoerced choices of men and women, believers and unbelievers, Hebrews and Egyptians, to do the statistically impossible. In other words, as we read the story, nothing is forced. Nobody is forced to favor or hate Joseph. Nobody is forced to imprison Joseph or elevate Joseph against their will. Everybody does exactly what they want. The Pharaoh rules the way he wants, the brothers hate the way they want, Jacob grieves the way he wants, Judah sins the way he wants, Potipher’s wife lusts the way she wants, and in the end, the entire nation is saved from famine, the family members are redeemed, and Joseph is vindicated. It’s one of the greatest redemption stories ever penned. One of the main lessons we learn from Joseph is to trust in the hidden providence of God. Providence is the doctrine that God has a purpose in the most normal things in the world. That there is a design and purpose in everything we do, from the toothpaste we buy, to the bones we break, to the meals we eat, to the mail we read. And the reason the doctrine of God’s providence is so helpful is that when we experience seemingly pointless, painful circumstances void of any apparent meaning, we remember Joseph and trust that God is working his plan for our good and his glory. Now let’s watch how God redeems Jacob’s family through his remarkable providence. Every rags to riches story has to start with rags. If you are going to have a redemption narrative you need something to be redeemed from. If you go from the valley low to the mountaintop high, well, then you have to start in the valley. In fact, if you were writing a novel with this exact plot, where God as the hero of the story redeems a bunch of undeserving people, how would the story begin? You’d put in a bunch of material in the front about just how undeserving these people are. And the more effective you are at denigrating the character of these men, the more effective your hero-redemption narrative is going to be. Well, the Joseph story begins in exactly this way and today we come to Genesis 38 which slings even more mud on the faces of the family of Joseph. If you’re just reading along, Genesis 38 seems out of place because all of a sudden, Joseph disappears and we are reading this horribly disturbing story of Judah and Tamar. But its purpose from a literary point of view is to allow us to spend some time on the valley floor. Smell the putrid air down here. Look at the sewage flowing down the stream. I mean the moral temperature here is well below zero. This place is terrible. Genesis 38 an embarrassing narrative. It’s a pretty ugly scar on the character of Judah and in the history of the nation of Israel. Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber skipped this one. Now today we aren’t going to look at the narrative. We are going to come back to it later. Many of you know the story. All you need to know for today is that this story is an embarrassment. If you were looking for a hero, Judah in this story fails in every single respect. He’s an absolute loser. So we will come back to chapter 38. Today we want to continue to advance the Joseph story. We ended last week with the word “meanwhile.” And all seemed lost, but there was a foreshadowing in the word “meanwhile.” Do you remember how Genesis 37 ends? And God is in that meanwhile. God is doing something. And now we begin to see what God is up to. Genesis 39 picks up the story. And today we are only going to read 6 verses. And so let’s read them all together. Now, this is just narrative and there are a thousand questions we want to ask when we read this. Here’s a place that I wish a little more ink was spilled. Tell us more about what this was like! One thing you know for sure is that this was beyond hard. Beyond. Even though the text mentions none of these things, please, try to fill in the blanks with what certainly would have been the case. If ever there was a situation that would tempt you to despair, bitterness, hopelessness, anger, and resentment, it was this. Think of what he suffered. Just think of day one. Joseph is in the pit. And he’s bruised and thirsty and his pride is wounded. And he’s wondering how serious these death threats really are. At first, he would have got his hopes up as they lowered a rope, and perhaps he was thinking that the cruel joke was over. Maybe they were having mercy on him hoping to teach him a lesson. And then he sees the look in their eyes. It’s not compassion. Hatred. Betrayal. He’s sold for a handful of silver. He would have watched that exchange take place, the handshake to seal the deal and their backs turned to him as they walk away forever. That scene would have stayed in his head. And then he begins the walk. And by the way, he’s certainly walking. There is no chance in the world that land traders are going to waste a precious pack animal to carry a slave when he can carry himself. He’s certainly walking. And what is he wearing? Well, he was stripped of his cloak so he’s probably, naked or barely clothed which means he sunburned. Do you think he has a good meal waiting for him at the end of the march? Think again. Minimal water. Minimal food. He’s been tied up all day so he’s got rub marks, rope burns, and aching feet. Let’s say they traveled 15 miles that first day. How did you feel the last time you walked 15 miles in good hiking shoes, totally hydrated, eating power bars, granola, and jerky? That’s day one. He’s got 220 miles to go. If they travel at that same pace then he’s got another 15 days to go. Not sure the last time you walked 220 miles in flip flops with a guy yelling at you in Arabic and eating rice and beans without enough water. The text doesn’t say any of this but some version of this happened. And what is awaiting you in Egypt? A warm bath? Try a slave market. You walk into an auction room with cows and chickens and fish all being sold and you are up next. And everyone is yelling at you in a foreign tongue. They bring you up on stage and tie you by a string to a post and people come right up to you but they are not looking at you. They are looking at your eyes but not in them. They are poking at you and examining your muscles, looking at your eye color, looking to see if you have rotting teeth like you would check the tire pressure and the oil in a car you were about to purchase. You are 17 years old. How mature were you when you were 17? How would you have responded to this pressure and inhumane treatment? What would it have been like to go to bed at night and remember the home life? Joseph would have probably thought of his youngest brother Benjamin who was just 5 years old at the time. What would it be like to imagine the torment of his father and mother as they heard the news that he had been killed? His father would never come looking for him if he thought he was dead. To scream out in your dream, “Dad, I’m alive!”, only to wake up in a cold sweat with sores on your feet and be reminded that you are all alone and nobody cares. EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED Your language gets changed. Your name gets changed. Your food is changed. The smells are different. The music is different. The humor is different. The gods are different. The culture and values are different. Your clothing is different. This kind of change would destroy most of us in the room. Some of you guys have worn the same jeans for 20 years and consider it a trial of a severe degree to go shopping at Ross. His entire identity is stripped away from him. Who am I? If you are Joseph, not a single identity marker remains. Everything is stripped away like a skinned animal. And there is no hope of any end in sight. It will never return to normal. This is your new home. Make the best. So I repeat, if ever there was a time when a person would be tempted toward bitterness, depression, malice, grudge-holding, despair, anger, and hopelessness it would be now. If ever there was a situation where a person would be angry at God, resentful, frustrated, it would be this. But when we read the text, we see no evidence of this whatsoever. Instead, we read: “The Lord was with Joseph.” We see that this closeness of the Lord was observable by his master. “His master saw that the Lord was with him.” We read that he was successful in his work, which we are told is a direct result of his closeness to the Lord. We read that he found favor in the eyes of his master which is further evidence of his positive attitude. No master favors a slave who is bitter, angry, and resentful. Joseph must have been joyful, pleasant, helpful, courteous, above reproach, honest, and full of integrity. These are incredibly remarkable traits given the situation in which he found himself. The sermon is entitled “The Favor of God in a Foreign Land.” Joseph chose to worship God in the midst of suffering. How did he do this? For the rest of the time today, we are going to explore this question. Because this is not a theoretical question. Some of you are suffering right now. It could be psychological suffering where you are enduring an injustice, alone in your suffering and nobody but you and God know about it. Maybe it’s physical suffering where you have cancer or someone you love very dearly has cancer and is suffering and again, it’s just you. Sure others may know about it, but you suffer in a unique way that others do not. And you are alone. Maybe you are at a low point of a relationship, a financial crisis, or a legal battle. Or maybe you just watch the news. All of this has the potential to destroy you. The goal of the message today is to realize you have a choice in suffering. You have a choice. We are going to talk about three things: What is the Choice? When you suffer, here’s the choice: will you choose to worship and serve God in your terrible circumstances or will you choose to be bitter and complain against God because of your terrible circumstances? That is the choice. Now I want to really emphasize the fact that this is the choice before us in suffering. Because oftentimes, when we suffer, we don’t consciously realize what we are doing psychologically. We just want to vent our complaint and it doesn’t feel like we are blaming anyone in particular. We say, oh, I hate masks. I hate traffic, man, remember when Boise used to be 100,000 people. I hate all this traffic. Gripe, gripe. And it doesn’t feel personal. We may even convince ourselves, I’m not bitter at God. I’m just bitter at my circumstances. I’m bitter at other people in general that caused those circumstances. But guess what, only an atheist can say that. A Christian can never say I generally just don’t like my circumstances. Because those circumstances are never without sovereign design. Sovereign means that no event is without purpose. All happenings and all your circumstance, even though it comes from the minds of completely free men and women, plays a role in God’s ultimate decreed will and therefore is never accidental. And therefore, our discomfort in circumstances always must be tempered by the reality that a good, loving, in-control God says, “I allow this for the good of my people and the glory of my name.” Always. Do you remember the Israelites in the wilderness? They go out to the wilderness and they almost immediately run out of food and water. And they begin to grumble. They see themselves as victims. And they start complaining. We have the right to complain because we have been victimized. Liberty and justice for me. That’s what they start chanting. And the reason that sin was so serious in God’s view is that they are questioning his goodness. God is saying to them, “You are out of water according to my plan, but I did not stop loving you. I want you to glorify me in this moment. Of course I love you and will take care of you. Do you see that I just delivered you from a charging army of Egyptian warriors? Trust me.” You see, this is exactly what Joseph must have done. Even though the text doesn’t go into detail here, he must have done this. There’s no other way the attitudes represented in the text could be present without having done this. Be like Joseph. Joseph didn’t have control of the era into which he was born, or the family into which he was born, or the parents he would have, or the dreams that God gave him, or the way his brothers would hate him for those dreams, or the pit he would end up in, or the march he would make, or the slave owner that would possess him. And it might have been easy for him to say, I had no control of these things. The wheels of fate have ground me to pieces and destroyed me. I am a victim of my circumstances. There’s nothing I can do. But there is always something we can do, regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves. We can always praise God. Whatever the circumstance you find yourself in, that is the circumstance in which God wants you to glorify, worship, and thank him in. There’s no such thing as an ideal place to serve God. Actually, there is an ideal place to serve God; it’s the exact circumstance in which you find yourself. The recently promoted JI Packer once said something like (it’s not a direct quote), “If you ask, ‘Why is this happening?’, you may get no light. If you ask, ‘How do I glorify God in this circumstance?’, there will always be an answer.” Joseph chose to glorify God in his circumstance. Is that not inspiring? I want to press one final point in hopes of painting us all into a corner so that we have no escape. We might look at Joseph here and say, “Man, he’s a super Christian. Really impressed. Good job Joseph!” as if we were watching an Olympian break the 2:00hr marathon. Man, he really did an amazing job. And you clap your hands and applaud. But you aren’t thinking you could do that. It’s not even a question. I’m not a spiritual superstar like Joseph. I could never do that. So let me say this really hard sentence. If you choose not to glorify God in hard circumstances it’s not that you could not, it’s that you would not. We are never given circumstances so hard that we cannot glorify God in them. Now if I am going to defend that statement from the Bible, some of you know what verse I’m going to quote right now don’t you. First Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.” But do you know the context of that verse? This verse comes in 1 Corinthians 10. The context of 1 Corinthians 10:13 is Paul recalling to mind the grumbling and complaining in the wilderness. He references Numbers 21 where the people come to Moses and spoke against God, “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” He recalls to mind that complaining in Numbers 21 and then says: So what temptation is he referring to in 1 Corinthians 10? The temptation to complain when your circumstances are difficult. The temptation to say, “God you aren’t doing a very good job at running this universe.” The temptation to say, “I am a victim.” The exact temptation of Joseph! I have the right to be gloomy and grumpy and hold a pity party and mope and cry and whine. The choice is clear. Will you worship God or curse God in your circumstances? Will you be like Job and say, “The Lord gives and takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord,” or will you be like Job’s wife who says, “Curse God and die”? These are your only options. We are never given circumstances so hard that we cannot praise God in them. Now that sets us up for our second point. Okay, I have to admit that it’s possible. But it’s hard. It’s really hard to do. Why is it Hard? There’s one main reason and I’m not going to sugar coat it. The main reason it’s hard to choose to glorify God in suffering is because we are immature. There’s a saying in psychology that says, “It takes 50 years to overcome the first 20.” What’s hard about praising God in trials is plain and simple immaturity. The first 20 years of your life make us think the world is all about us and then by the time you’re 70 you finally realize it’s about God and others. In the first 20 years you say, “If I find myself in an uncomfortable situation, I panic and pull the injustice alarm of the universe and frantically call the divine 911. God, do you have any idea what’s going on down here? I’m not getting recognized for my accomplishments. People aren’t amazed at me. There are other people down here that are smarter than me, more athletic or artistic than me, and more beautiful than me, who are getting more attention than me. Can I get a little help here?” We tend to see it as a cosmic disaster that I am uncomfortable and that the circumstances of my life are not aligning for my pleasure and my glory. And so immediately we start blaming. All these problems are a result of other people. Other people have caused all these things bad things to happen to me. Everyone should feel sorry for me. This is immature thinking and every one of us battles this. It doesn’t seem like God is in control because ‘in control’ is defined by our egos as a world in which I don’t suffer and am worshipped. So mentally we have a construct of a world that is fundamentally flawed. I’ve often wondered if we already know the answer to the problem of evil. It’s not mysterious, we just don’t like it. When we get to heaven there will be no great reveal. We will just be sanctified in such a way that we will finally love the answer. Why do bad things happen to good people? Because the universe was never designed to be about their happiness. Oh, okay. And we will come to understand why that is a good thing. What if Joseph just got stuck on this? What did I ever do to deserve this treatment? I’m the victim, God. This would result in bitterness, resentment, self-pity, anger, and depression. But instead, he trusted and in trusting you learn. We learn things in suffering we could never learn any other way. Nobody ever learned about their faults by being told. They have to be shown. Life has to show you. Trials show you. Failure shows you. Joseph surely was refined through suffering. But the same is true of God’s love. Nobody learns God loves you by being told. You have to be shown. Suffering shows you that. Struggle shows you that. Need shows you. When Joseph was all alone and he could not be comforted by his father or mother, when he had no earthly security, no identity he could cling to, he must have learned about the love of God in a profound way. What’s the choice? Will you glorify God in suffering? Why is it hard? Because we are immature. How is it Possible? To endure suffering, what do I need? You might think, I need some pain medication. I hate pain, and I can’t possibly imagine life without pain medication. You might think, I need resources and money. That can help alleviate the pain. I need respect. I need friends that can help share the burden. You might think I need answers. I could endure this if I had answers to what was going on behind the scenes. And no doubt all these things could help. But you know what, there’s only one thing you need. And if you had this thing, all those other things could be stripped away and you could still choose to worship him. Because after all, Joseph didn’t have any medication when he was hurting, didn’t have resources, didn’t have friends or family, didn’t have respect, and he certainly didn’t have answers. What’s the one thing you need? You need to know that God loves you. You see, when you know that God loves you, it creates in you a power that can endure anything. Let me illustrate why this is. Think about the real suffering you’ve been through or watched others endure. When people are facing death, massive injustices, or when they are broken from suffering and mistreatment, what do they need? When I came out of seminary, I thought, well, they need answers. Oh, I have a section on that in my seminary notes. Let me flip there and tell you the answer to your problem. Here’s a theology textbook that I’m going to leave with you. I have to rush off to a meeting, but I think you might find some help on page 872. People don’t need answers primarily. What we say to people will not amount to a hill of beans unless they know we love them. They don’t need our answers. They need us. They don’t need our talking. They need our presence in suffering. When you are suffering, do you know what you really need from God? Answers? Answers are good. Answers help. Even if that’s what you think you want, that’s not what you really need. Because answers are either too complex to do us any good or too insulting to be accepted. Whenever Apple reveals a product and shows the exploded diagram of a phone, what if you stopped the presentation and asked, “What’s the little chip for?” You can save your breath. There’s an intellectual insufficiency. But we probably aren’t mature enough to handle answers we could understand. Why am I suffering? Well, because you are extremely self-centered, prideful, arrogant, and conceited. It would probably be too much for us to take in. We don’t need an intellectual answer. It probably wouldn’t help us. What we need to know is that God loves us. We need to know God’s with us. We don’t need his answers. We need his presence. Psalm 52. The more confident you are that God loves you, the more you are able to stare at horrific tragedies and say, “I know this looks bad, but God loves me. God will never forsake me. Nothing can separate me from the love of God.” I know this looks like God has abandoned me, but I know he hasn’t because he’s already proved his love to me on the cross. No greater love has a man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend. He’s the One, the ultimate Joseph. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” Sold for silver, stripped naked, crying out in the dark, lost so we could be saved. I know God loves me and I trust this circumstance is for my good and his glory. I don’t need any answers, because I know God loves me. You want to know what the love of God does for you? It gives you an unshakeable identity that no set of circumstances can shake. Because ultimately, for a Christian, your circumstances don’t define you. For everyone else, they must define you. There’s nothing else that could define you. For a Christian, it’s the exact inverse. For the Christian, nothing should define us because the identity that Christ gives eclipses all other lesser identities. Communion When everything that defines your worth has been stripped away, what gives you worth? When you find yourself in circumstances like Joseph, what gives you hope? What helps you worship? The favor of God. The favor of God in a foreign land. We are going to sing a song as we prepare for communion and I want you to think about the lyrics: My worth is not in what I own Not in the strength of flesh and bone But in the costly wounds of love At the cross My worth is not in skill or name In win or lose, in pride or shame But in the blood of Christ that flowed At the cross I rejoice in my Redeemer Greatest Treasure, Wellspring of my soul I will trust in Him, no other. My soul is satisfied in Him alone. Baptism Speaking of redemption. Coming to a park near you, we are having a church baptism next Sunday.

What is God calling me to do with my life? with Dr. Steven Garber

Re-integrate

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 17, 2020 32:58

Now that I know what I know (about myself, this world, and God), what am I going to do with my life? According to Dr. Steven Garber, this is the essence of the word, “Vocation.” For decades, Steve has been thinking and writing on the deep things of vocation, on finding a vision for life, responding to the call of God, and how to live wisely so that our ordinary lives are filled with meaning and purpose. Steve discusses these topics with Brendan Romigh and Dr. Bob Robinson, providing insights for people Bob’s age (in his mid-life crisis) and Brendan’s age (in his quarter-life crisis) and everyone in between. What is the difference between "vocation" and "occupation?" Do you have a vision for life that shapes what you will do day-by-day, year-by-year? As you live in a “dis-integrated” and frustrating world, how do you “re-integrate" so that all of life has meaning and purpose? What does it look like to live in light of God's wisdom? Dr. Steven Garber has been the wise sage of the faith-and-work movement for decades. He started The Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation and Culture, has mentored scores of pastors and marketplace leaders, served as a consultant for foundations, corporations, and universities, has taught at seminaries and colleges, and has written amazing articles and fantastic books. His wife is Meg and they have five children and several grandchildren. His latest book is The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love & Learning, Worship & Work from InterVarsity Press. https://www.ivpress.com/the-seamless-life Two of his earlier books have made a deep impression upon Bob and his way of life and of doing ministry: The Fabric of Faithfulness: Weaving Together Belief and Behavior, and the second is Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good, both also published by InterVarsity Press. https://www.ivpress.com/the-fabric-of-faithfulness https://www.ivpress.com/visions-of-vocation Please consider purchasing these books from our friends Beth and Byron Borger, independent bookstore owners of Hearts and Minds Bookstore. https://www.heartsandmindsbooks.com/booknotes/ Links to things discussed in the podcast: Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation and Culture: https://washingtoninst.org/ Steven Garber, “Making Peace with Proximate Justice”: https://www.cardus.ca/comment/article/finding-our-way-to-great-work-even-in-politics-making-peace-with-proximate-justice/ Walker Percy, The Second Coming: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780312243241 JI Packer, Knowing God: https://www.ivpress.com/knowing-god-paperback Thanks for listening! Go to https://www.re-integrate.org/ for years’ worth of articles on reintegrating your callings with God’s mission, resources for further learning, links to the Reintegrate YouTube channel, and more. On Reintegrate’s podcast page, you’ll find ways to email us or call us to comment on this podcast. https://www.re-integrate.org/reintegrate-podcast/ If you like this podcast, please write a quick review at Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app to encourage others to listen too.

god culture hearts behavior visions knowing god second coming fabric vocation making peace common good god calling intervarsity press washington institute love learning walker percy ji packer steven garber minds bookstore byron borger

Jim Packer & moving middle class people

Building Jerusalem

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 8, 2020 29:31

moving packer middle class resourcing ji packer midd church in hard places

105 - JI Packer

Westminster Effects Doxology Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 28, 2020 45:07

In this week's episode, Bradley and Cody reflect on the passing of JI Packer and his importance to the church in the last several decades. Support us on Anchor! Subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and Overcast. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/westminsterdoxology/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/westminsterdoxology/support

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Sunday 7 - 26 - 20

Calvary Baptist Church

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 27, 2020 40:41

Previously: God loves people of all races and religions, but Jonah’s heart is cold toward others Jonah 1:17 A Great Fish Swallows Jonah Some people view the account of the fish as something not meant to be believed. But Jesus accepted the account of Jonah as historic. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. – Matt 12:40-41 “The Lord appointed a great fish” – God stirred up the ocean, the wind, now a fish. God is acting sovereignly over his creation to accomplish his will. If you believe in the virgin birth & resurrection, believe that God appointed a fish. God will use this fish for his purposes: To rescue Jonah from drowning To return Jonah to the place to renew his commission To teach Jonah that he too needs the grace of God “The belly of a fish is not a happy place to live, but it is a good place to learn.” -RT Kendall Jonah 2:1-10 Jonah’s Prayer v. 1. His prayer is mostly giving thanks to God for rescuing him from drowning. v. 2. “I called to the Lord… he answered me.” See v. 7 – Jonah called out when he was in trouble, when his life was fainting. And God heard him – even this rebellious prophet. v. 3 Jonah learns he is guilty and deserving of God’s judgment. (3) “You cast me into the deep…” “Your waves and billows passed over me.” v. 4. “I am driven from your sight” – Jonah ran from God’s presence. God let Jonah feel far away from him, though God never let him go. Jonah learns he can turn back to the God of grace. (2,4) “yet I shall again look on your temple”. Now return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious & compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in love – Joel 2:13 ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Return to Me,” declares the Lord of hosts, “that I may return to you,” says the Lord of hosts – Zech 1:3 If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored. – Job 22:23 “Grace is God drawing us sinners closer and closer to himself.” -JI Packer, Knowing God vv. 5-6 Jonah learns he is hopeless to save himself. (5,6) “Waters closed in over me…Deep surrounded me…Bars closed upon me forever” Jonah was sinking into the deep and he could not save himself. Jonah’s descension –Jonah drove himself deeper into a pit. Jonah went: “down to Joppa” (1:3a), “down to a ship” (1:3b) “down to the bottom of the ship” (1:5) “down to the bottom of the sea” (2:6) v. 7. “My life was fainting away…I remembered the Lord…my prayer came to you” There, at the bottom, you lose misconceptions of self-sufficiency. We hope for some people that they will “hit bottom” and change. It is not hitting bottom that changes us. But finding God there that changes us. In the dark, alone with God, he comes to himself – like the prodigal son. “You never realize that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.” v. 8. “Those who cling to worthless idols forsake their hope of love.” Jonah learns that clinging to idols forfeits the grace of God. (8) v. 9. Jonah remembers that God saves by extreme and costly measures. (9) See v. 7 – “your holy temple” where costly sacrifices were made, and God showed mercy. “Salvation belongs to the Lord!” It is a proclamation, a declaration, an exclamation. God saves him, lifts him out of the pit. People talk about God’s love, but few are actually changed by it. 1. I am a sinner worthy of God’s judgment 2. I am helpless to save myself. 3. God saves by extreme and costly measures.

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JI Packer was a friend o’ Mine - Titus 1:1-4

Geocaching Scripture

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 22, 2020 13:08

A tribute to my professor the late JI Packer, who I had half a conversation with once. Paul greets Titus with his usual salutation but it’s packed (hehe) with treasures.

friend mine titus1 ji packer

Anglican Unscripted 612 - Anglican Communion consents to Communism

AnglicanTV

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 22, 2020 25:50

Kevin Kallsen and George Conger discuss the passing of JI Packer, Bp Howe, and the collapse of the Anglican Church of Hong Kong.https://www.facebook.com/kkallsen https://www.facebook.com/geoconger

hong kong communism unscripted anglican anglican church anglican communion consents ji packer

The Global God Divide, China and Christians, and Kanye Rallies

Zera Today with Dr. Lorenzo Neal

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 22, 2020 68:00

This week saw the passing of legends of faith and freedom John Lewis, CT Vivian, and JI Packer among many others, A new Pew Research report states that globally, more people are questioning the necessity of belief in God for moral goodness and China forces Christians to remove crosses and replace them with photos of Communist leaders. Finally, in his first campaign rally this past weekend, Kanye West opened up on his views of abortion and said something about Harriet Tubman that may have ended his portential run before it even began. Join Dr. Neal as he discusses this and other topics of the day.

god china christians global kanye west abortion divide northwest communists john lewis harriet tubman rallies pew research ji packer

Episode 29 - Gentle and Lowly Part 3, JI Packer, and Satchel Paige

Various and Sundry Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 21, 2020 49:14

Join the conversation as Mat and John discuss Gentle and Lowly, remembering JI Packer, and Satchel Paige. J.I. Packer Brief biography sketch Biography: Leyland Ryken (2015), J.I. Packer: An Evangelical Life: https://www.amazon.com/J-I-Packer-Evangelical-Life/dp/1433542528/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=J.I.+Packer+biography&qid=1595337649&sr=8-2 Sam Storms, Packer on the Christian Life: Knowing God in Christ, Walking by the Spirit: https://www.amazon.com/Packer-Christian-Life-Knowing-Walking/dp/1433539527/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=packer+on+the+christian+life&qid=1595337716&sr=8-1 Key Books: Knowing God (1973): https://www.amazon.com/Knowing-God-J-I-Packer/dp/083081650X/ref=sr_1_2?crid=10KWM1CEODGKD&dchild=1&keywords=j.i.+packer+books&qid=1595337783&sprefix=J.I.+%2Caps%2C226&sr=8-2 Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (1971): https://www.amazon.com/Evangelism-Sovereignty-God-J-Packer/dp/083083799X/ref=sr_1_3?crid=10KWM1CEODGKD&dchild=1&keywords=j.i.+packer+books&qid=1595338327&sprefix=J.I.+%2Caps%2C226&sr=8-3 Fundamentalism and the Word of God (1958): https://www.amazon.com/J-I-Packer/dp/0802811477/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=j.i.+packer+books+fundamentalism&qid=1595338549&sr=8-1 Hot Tub Religion (1987): https://www.amazon.com/Hot-Tub-Religion-Christian-Materialistic/dp/0842313818/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=j.i.+packer+books+hot+tub&qid=1595339418&sr=8-1 The Quest for Godliness (1990): https://www.amazon.com/Quest-Godliness-Puritan-Vision-Christian/dp/1433515814/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=j.i.+packer+books+quest&qid=1595339440&sr=8-1 Concise Theology (1993): https://www.amazon.com/Concise-Theology-Historic-Christian-Beliefs/dp/0842339604/ref=sr_1_11?dchild=1&keywords=j.i.+packer+books+fundamentalism&qid=1595338574&sr=8-11 Key Controversies Divisions within Anglicanism - attempts to be a bridge-builder met with criticism from both sides (led to split with Martin Lloyd Jones) Evangelicals and Catholics Together Resources Justin Taylor: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/j-i-packer-1926-2020/ D.A. Carson: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/j-i-packer-appreciation-don-carson/ Matt Smethurst - 40 Quotes: John Piper: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/reformation-theology-in-the-hands-of-a-servant

god jesus christ spirit walking quest evangelism mat sovereignty gentle godliness packer fundamentalism anglicanism satchel paige sam storms matt smethurst ji packer

THE RIDE HOME - Monday July 20, 2020

The Ride Home with John and Kathy

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 20, 2020 114:19

This Week in the Nation’s Capitol GUEST Greg Clugston ... SRN News White House Correspondent Racism ... GUEST Pastor Eric Andrae American History Is Not Canceled: While Christians can’t erase the church’s slaveholding past, we can change the symbols, statues, and namesakes we celebrate ... GUEST Dr Thomas Kidd ... James Vardaman Death of civil rights icon John Lews and British theologian JI Packer on the same day: The Life & Legacy of JI Packer ... GUEST Dr. Bruce Hindmarsh See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Alibaba called out on child sex dolls, online church only, JI Packer dies

Seriously Good News

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 20, 2020 1:40

Alibaba, stop selling child sex dolls; Knowing God author JI Packer dies; why a small church is staying online.

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THE RIDE HOME - Monday July 20, 2020

The Ride Home with John and Kathy

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 20, 2020 114:19

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SPECIAL: JI Packer: An evangelical lion - with Mark Thompson and Peter Jensen

The Pastor's Heart with Dominic Steele

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 19, 2020 29:11

An evangelical lion: JI PackerToday we remember JI Packer with two of Australian evangelicalism's most respected leaders Mark Thompson and Peter Jensen.Dr Packer died yesterday in Vancouver, leaving his wife Kit and children Ruth, Martin and Naomi.Moore Theological College Principal Mark Thompson says Dr Packer was one of the three great giants of 20th century evangelicalism.Former Archbishop of Sydney Dr Jensen says Dr Packer gave us a robust confidence in the authority of the word of God, and taught us the crucial importance of evangelism.Dr Thompson says “Jim's book Fundamentalism and the Word of God (1958) was life-changing for many. He gave our confidence in the Bible a new depth and resilience. Slightly later, his book Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (1961) demonstrated the way a clear reformed theology, with an emphasis on God's sovereignty in all things, not least in salvation, went hand in hand with a confident and gracious evangelism.”To purchase JI Packer's books click here.Header image credit: The Gospel CoalitionSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/thepastorsheart)

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46 - Lil' Sumpin, General Resurrection and Judgement Seat

Beers & Bible Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 12, 2020 66:35

This week Rick and Patrick are just a week away from wrapping up their almost year-long discussion of the book Concise Theology by JI Packer. They also review the beer Lil Sumpin from Lagunitas Brewing. Lagunitas can be found here: https://lagunitas.com/

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#85 Which Art In Heaven?

Cooper & Cary Have Words

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 2, 2020 54:30

James and Barry have a chat about why art produced by evangelicals is often a bit... well, artless. They also wonder aloud if we're understanding the second commandment correctly.David Field, Not The Least Lash Lost (is evangelism really all that matters in this life?)John Piper weighs in on JI Packer's view of the second commandmentInterview with ND Wilson where he talks about how novels lastAmazing Grace on Amazon Prime UKPrince of Egypt on Amazon Prime UKPrevious pods of relevance:Episode 22 The Art Is Fine - Ally Gordon Episode 65 I Wish I'd Danced - Murray Watts.Get longer, uncut versions of each new episode, in video format, several days in advance, when you become a Cooper & Cary Patron. You also get lots of other goodies, plus the chance to talk more about issues raised by the show. To make sure you get the next episode of C&C, click "Subscribe" in your favourite podcast app. And if you liked *this* episode, we're always grateful for your reviews of the show in the Apple podcast app - it helps other people find us.Our theme music is by Roger Taylor and his latest album is The Rubicon Moment. Production and incidental music by Cooper & Cary.Tweet us @cooperandcary, comment on our Facebook page, or go old skool and email us here. Love you bye.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/cooperandcary)

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Episode 71 - Coronavirus with a Lemon or a Lime?

The Gospel Underground Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 18, 2020 50:35

Show NotesBooks Referenced Knowing God by JI Packer https://www.amazon.com/Knowing-God-J-I-Packer-ebook/dp/B006NZ66RC)Running Scared by Ed Welch https://www.amazon.com/Running-Scared-Fear-Worry-Rest/dp/0978556755Links Referenced We Don't Want a Relationships Pandemic by Robert Hall https://ifstudies.org/blog/avoiding-a-relationship-pandemicJI Packer - 6 Things to Tell Yourself Every Day by Justin Taylor https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/j-packer-6-things-tell-every-day/ Scriptures ReferencedEcclesiastes 12:13, 14; Proverbs 1; 1 Peter 5:7; Ephesians 2:8,9; Psalm 56:3,4

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The Christ Has Come

Grace Church

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 8, 2019

# 1. The Incarnation was God's surprising plan # 2. The incarnation was God's planned surprise ## A. The scope of God's plan: Son of David > The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham > — Matthew 1:1 (ESV) > So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations. > — Matthew 1:17 (ESV) ## B. The mission of God's plan: Jesus > Jesus was a common name, like Jim or John or Jerry. When Mary and Joseph called their son Jesus, there were no prayers in his name. No one used it as a swear word. No one sang songs about this name, just like there is no religion I am aware of that sings songs to Jim (except that he's not to be messed around with). We don't name our sons John with the expectation that over the next 2000 years 8 billion people will pray in his name. We don't croon, “Jerry, Jerry, Jerry, there's just something about that name!” > — Kevin DeYoung > And 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 (ESV) > More than a great teacher, more than an enlightened man, more than a worker of miracles, more than giving us meaning in life, more than a self-help guru, more than a self-esteem builder, more a political liberator, more than a caring friend, more than a transformer of cultures, more than a purpose for the purposeless, Jesus is a Savior of sinners. > — Kevin DeYoung ## C. The glory of the plan: Immanuel > All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: > “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, > and they shall call his name Immanuel” > (which means, God with us). > — Matthew 1:22-23 (ESV) > The Word who was with God and who was God became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. > — John 1:14 (ESV) > The more you think about it, the more staggering it becomes. > — JI Packer

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The Incarnation - Audio

Main - all mp3's

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2019 37:29

Today is the start of a new series, and we are calling it the awesome wonder of Christmas. Really it’s about worship. And the big idea is that we are looking at the Christmas story but we’re not focusing on the Nativity characters, except one. What does the Christmas story reveals to us about God, about who he is and what he’s like? And I am convinced that if we take a really good look at the Christmas story, like a really good look, it will cause us to do something maybe we haven’t done for a long time- be filled with awe and wonder, it will make us just go – wow! Now let me start here: How important would you say it is for us to be in awe and wonder of God? Like how important would you say that is? If I’m honest, there is a part inside me and maybe inside you that’s kind of like- Who’s got time for that? Like last week, as I’m preparing for this message, I was feeling like, I’m too busy to be in awesome wonder of God. I have a turkey to make, actually Rana made the turkey, but I had to support her. Who’s got time to awe and wonder? Because we value activity, and busyness, and performance, and something tangible... So how important is it to be in awe and wonder of God? In the book of Acts, chapter 2, is very famous passage about the early church, and normally we remember that passage based on all the cool things they did: they were devoted to the apostles teaching, they were breaking bread, they were selling everything they had and sharing it all. You know that passage right? But one thing that gets overlooked is not just what they did, but how they did it. The passage says that awe came upon every soul. In other word, everything they did they did from a heart that was in awe and wonder of God. Now how important was that? I believe all and wonder what is the secret sauce that brought all the things they did together. I mean imagine them just doing stuff for the sake of doing stuff. Imagine one of them going OK now we got to go to Bible study, and then I have to sell my house and give it to the church… No no no, all these things they did because they were inspired because they were lost in wonder of their amazing God, and the most natural thing to do was all the things they did… How important is it for us to be in awe and wonder of God? It’s like if you get one thing, get this, you get this and all else will follow. You miss this and it all become drudgery and busy work. Maybe that is why theologians say that worship of God is the highest form of human activity. To be lost in wonder of God is a human being at their very best! So when you wake up in the morning and you are tempted to skip devotions and just get busy. Maybe you can preach to yourself. You are not a human doing you are a human being. And our first and primary role is just to BE sons and daughters of the living God, who stand in awe and wonder of Him! Same thing during this Christmas season. Let’s make time to experience God! Can I get an amen? OK so what is in the Christmas story full of awe and wonder? And you don’t have to go too far before you start to see it. Share J I Packer’s thoughts… JI Packer in his book Knowing God shares about all the Christian doctrine that is hard to believe. He’s like some people find certain doctrine hard to understand: the atonement, the resurrection, the virgin birth, all the miracles that Jesus did in the gospels. Then he writes this- “but in fact the real difficulty… does not lie here at all. It lies, not in the Good Friday message of atonement, nor in the Easter message of resurrection, but in the Christmas message of incarnation. The really staggering Christian claim is that Jesus of Nazareth was God made man…” Packer is like of all the doctrines in the Bible the most staggering one is the Christmas story the Incarnation of Christ, the story of God becoming a human being! To be clear, it wasn’t Jesus becoming 50% human 50% God. It was Jesus fully God also becoming fully human. Someone put it like this: Remaining what he was, he became what he was not. Remaining God, he became a human being. All right that is a very big idea. Now if we’re going to unpack this in the right way we have to start at the right starting point which is… The greatness of God and then from there we’ll talk about the Incarnation. But let’s start at the Greatness of God. Have you guys ever been to Yosemite? Amazing, Amazing, once you go to Yosemite than you start to compare everything with Yosemite. Across from Curry Village is this meadow and in the middle of this meadow is a wooden dock that cuts right through it. And the first time I went to Yosemite as an adult was like 15 years ago, and the youth were like, Andrew when it gets dark we have to go to this meadow. So we waited until it was dark and then we went for a night hike. Got to the meadow and walked all the way down to the middle of this wooden dock and we all laid down. And we turned off all the flashlight so it was pitch dark, and we all looked up and it was like…Whoa. Not a cloud in the sky. All the stars came out in this beautiful brilliant dazzling display. And I remember thinking who has the creative energy to create all this? How powerful does a person have to be to create all these heavenly globes in their spare time? Isaiah 40:26 Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing. Now before we unpack the Incarnation of God we first need to go to the God who created the galaxies who bring out each and calls them by name… This is how the first chapter of Matthew opens OK? The first chapter of the book of Matthew tells us that Joseph who was betrothed to Mary was thinking of quietly divorcing her. Because she was pregnant. Because he wasn’t the father. Verse 20 But as he considered these things, behold an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. So the angel tells Joseph that the human life growing inside Mary has come not from any human being but from God. Mary is pregnant by the Holy Spirit – what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit, so the real father is God. Verse 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord has spoken by the prophet: “behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). OK boom. The identity of Jesus is even more clear and direct here. Matthew quotes from Isaiah Who says that a virgin will give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel, which means God with us. You know, for centuries, Jewish leaders and scholars knew this prophecy but they never took it literally. They thought it was predicting the coming of a great leader and through their work and through their speaking, God would figuratively be with them. But they never took it literally, I mean like in human form, who would take that literally? But Matthew is saying this promise is greater than anyone imagined. That this son who is called “God with us“ is actually literally God coming down from Heaven as a human being TO BE WITH US! You guys Today the crazy awesome idea of Christmas is that this God Who created the stars and the galaxies. That the God who is bigger than the universe put himself inside a human body! That the Uncreated One who all things created depends on to exist…became…a created thing! What? Whoa! Now I know you guys know that, but can we just step back and look at this with fresh eyes? Like, Really? Are you kidding me? Like maybe you’ve been a Christian for a long time can you just imagine explaining this to someone who didn’t grow up in the church? Oh yeah God who created everything the earth the stars the galaxy yeah he became a human being. Really? BUT there is every more! Not only does he became a human being. But…but…he is born in a barn. And so they put him in an animal feeding trough. Really? Are you kidding me? God made Himself into a baby and that baby was lying in a feeding trough. Imagine being there. Right in the middle of the barn in a feeding trough… is God Now I didn’t have a feeding trough But I did have a box Imagine God putting himself in a box. Imagine if you were there knowing what you know, you could walk up to God and look at him in the Face. I mean in the Old Testament, often when people would have an encounter with God they would be really scared afterwards because they thought they were going to die. And here you could walk up and look at God right in the eye. You could pick God up in your arms. You could touch God. Like the person who was actively involved in creating all the stars and the galaxies is here and you are able to hold Him in your arms!! He’s a baby and he would need to be fed and he would need to be changed and that is like so weird. All right all of this is just shocking and staggering. If you really think about it. Why did God become a baby? Why in the world would God become a human being? I have heard that the equivalent of God becoming a man is like one of us becoming a piece of lint. Now I don’t know about you but when I was small my parents wanted me to grow up and become a lawyer, they wanted me to make a name for myself. No one wants to grow up and become a piece of lint. Why would God do this? Why? The book of Hebrews says that Jesus was made like us, “fully human in every way“ (Hebrews 2:17.) That means “because he himself suffered when he was tried and tested, he is able to help those who are being tried and tested“ (Hebrews 2:18). Because Jesus became a human being and suffered the way he suffered, it means that he is the one person in all the universe who can look at us and say, I know what it’s like. He is the one person in all the universe who can say I’ve been there before. I know what you’re going through. God became a human being, and if that wasn’t enough, He suffered the worst kind of suffering on the cross. He was torn apart in every way emotional spiritual physical. And because the infinite God suffered Jesus has an infinite power to comfort. OK let me put it like this. When you are hurting really bad, how would you like a really good friend to care for you? Or put it another way- when a really good friend is hurting how many of you struggle with knowing what to say? You’re doing a hospital visit, loved one is going through a lot of pain, and you don’t know what to say? Now if you’re like me you natural impulse is to to give advice. And some people have to learn the hard way. I had a friend Mitch who was going through a really hard time so I took him out for dinner and gave him what I thought was really good sound advice. Well done Andrew! and at the end of our time Mitch says to me- Andrew I really learned something today. I’m like, Glad I could help you! He goes I learned that when someone is hurting really bad you should just be quiet and really listen and really try to empathize. That’s what I learned today. I’m like Glad you learned...wait a second, I didn’t do any of that. Oh you’re trying to tell me, OK… That is not how we all feel. Like when you’re hurt and you want someone not to just spit out answers to be Bible answer Man you want someone who gets it. Who understands and feels your pain. Doesn’t just feel sorry for you but understands your experience… They know cancer. Or they know the loss of a loved one. Or they know how hard a certain career is. Or what it’s like to have cantankerous in-laws. Or have a best friends stab you in the back. They know what it is like. You you know what that feeling is like to have someone totally understand your mess and to just get you in that place. Why did God become a human being? Because by becoming a human being and by suffering the worst kind of suffering, Jesus can say to you and me I get it. I’ve been there before. I know the kind of stuff you’re going through! He can say, I am here with you! The Incarnation is God’s way of giving Infinite Comfort to all of us who are suffering. But, I would say, it’s even more than that. Why would the 2nd Person of the Trinity become a human being? Why would He leave the comfort and the glory of Heaven and become a human baby? To provide Infinite Comfort to all those who suffer, but I would say there are still more reasons, and I would like to close on one more. The Christmas Story reveals another thing about the very nature of God. Why would the Galaxy Maker become a baby? Why would cosmic power confine himself to an itty bitty living space? I think it has to do something with this. The very nature of God is self-giving love. The willingness of Jesus to give up His life on the cross is the same willingness He showed to come down from Heaven and become a human being. Jesus loved us so much that He gave us His very self. It wasn’t enough to send a prophet. It wasn’t enough just to give us a book. Jesus loved us so much that He gave us His very self. John chapter 1 verse 14: 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory The Greek word for dwelt literally means to pitch one’s tent. So imagine us in Yosemite looking up at the stars and the Person who made those stars literally comes down to pitch his tent among us. He pitched his tent to be with us What does that tell you about the self-giving nature of God? He loves us so much that is gave us His very best, He gave us Himself! My brother was dating Rana’s best friend Michelle for about two years. And he loved her so much and he knew that she was the one for Him. And so for a couple of months he was planning the whole proposal. And Rana and I were living downstairs from Michelle. It was a duplex. And he was like, Can you guys help me set it up? And so the big day comes, and Michelle drives across the Bay Bridge to drop David off at his apartment in San Francisco. And they say goodnight. And David runs to his car and he wants to speed past Michelle on the Bay Bridge to get to her apartment before she does. And He’s thinking, Oh, I hope she doesn’t see me! Meanwhile Rana and I break into Michelle’s apartment to set things up. Lighting candles and putting in place this big huge refrigerator box, OK? And then we hurry back home. David gives us a call. “I don’t think I’m going to make it in time. She is beating me to her apartment. You guys need to distract her.” We’re like, OK, OK. So when Michelle comes back home, we’re like, Hey Michelle, Why don’t you come over for a little visit? She’s like, Uh, OK. So she comes in and we’re talking. And I’m not kidding you, all the sudden my brother comes in upstairs. and it sounds like a herd of elephants. Michael is freaked out like what is going on upstairs in my apartment! We’re like, It’s not David, OK? Oh that’s John the landlord who is fixing something up there. Yeah. We saw him. You should go up there. Michelle goes to her apartment. Opens the door. There are candles everywhere. And right in the middle of her kitchen is a big refrigerator box with a big bow on top of it. And she opens up the box, and there is my brother and later that night her proposes. In effect he says, I want to be with you for the rest of my life. Because when you really love someone You will give to them your very self. You want to be WITH THEM. Who is this God who made the galaxies and then is willing to come down and put himself in an animal feeding box? He is Immanuel which means, God with us! Because when you really love someone You will give them your very self You want to be WITH THEM. This is your God! He is a manual, which means God with us

Episode 7: Balvenie 14 Year + Thanksgiving Day!

Distilling Theology

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 28, 2019 31:28

Happy Thanksgiving! Justin and Blake pour a glass of Justin's favorite single malt whisky: Balvenie 14 year old Caribbean Cask finish. They discuss Thanksgiving in America and explore some Christian discourse around the concept of thankfulness. Join us for the special tasting!Disclaimer: some bad puns ahead.Check us out on Patreon for exciting exclusive content and pre-release episodes!https://www.patreon.com/DistillingTheologyLearn more at www.DistillingTheology.com Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/DistillingTheology)

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18 - Shake chocolate Porter and Covenant

Beers & Bible Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 22, 2019 41:10

This week Rick and Patrick review a Chocolate porter from Boulder Beer Company and talk about Covenant from JI Packer. There may also be a reference to a Tim McGraw song and Shai Linne to spice things up. You can find Boulder Beer Company here: Website: https://boulderbeer.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BoulderBeerCo Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boulderbeerco/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BoulderBeerCo You can find Beers & Bible Podcast Here: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beersandbible_/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/beersandbiblep1 email: beersandbiblepodcast@gmail.com

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Faith Needs Doubt

The Master Class

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 14, 2019 47:12

Talking points: Haiti, taking care of our bodies, holiness, JI Packer, Intellectual issues with Christianity, and faith vs. belief.r/supermegacorpJoin, or start, the discussion for this episode on our sub reddit.CONTACTCall us @ 815-277-9215 Leave us a Voice Message with your thoughts on the episode or provide an Intro or Outro to the show that we can use in future episodes. Be sure to give us your name and where you are calling from so we can give you a shout out on the show. @davidjhogue@cambrennanhello@supermegacorp.netSUBSCRIBEIf this show has earned your interest, you can subscribe on Itunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or in your Podcast App of choice. BECOME A PATRONSupport our show!Thanks to our Patrons for supporting us again this month! SHOW NOTES FOR EPISODE 145Top GolfRediscovering Holiness by JI PackerHoliness by JC RyleIf you are able, we'd really appreciate it if you left a review on iTunes.

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04 - Classic City Lager, Creation, Self-Disclosure, and Self-Existence

Beers & Bible Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 16, 2019 50:31

This week Rick and Patrick review the Classic City Lager from Creature Comforts Brewing in Athens, GA. Take a listen to see what rating the Classic City Lager receives. They also continue through Concise Theology from JI Packer talking about God's Creation, Self-Disclosure, and Self-Existence. All that we know and see is from and sustained by God. Enjoy the discussion! Friends who care are friends who share! Please take a minute to give us a 5 Star (or Luther) rating and share with your friends! You can find Creature Comforts Brewery online here: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creaturecomfortsbeer/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/creaturebeer Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CreatureComfortsBeer/ Website: http://www.creaturecomfortsbeer.com/ As always you can find Beers & Bible here: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beersandbible_/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/beersandbiblep1 Email: beersandbiblepodcast@gmail.com

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Sunday 12 - 23 - 18

Calvary Baptist Church

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 28, 2018 19:10

In darkness, Jesus is Great Light In fear, he brings hope In trouble, he is Prince of Peace In sorrow, he brings joy In separation, he brings love Matthew tells about Jesus’ birth from Joseph’s perspective. Luke tells of Jesus’ birth from Mary’s perspective. Mark starts with the prophesy of John the Baptist, who came before Jesus John tells about Jesus’ coming from heaven’s perspective. John 1:1-5 “In the beginning” – John starts his account of Jesus’ life the same way the account of the creation – before the creation – Jesus exists eternally. John uses a metaphor for Jesus Christ, he calls Jesus the Word. In the OT, the “word of God” was connected to God’s self-expression. In creation – “God said, ‘Let there be light; and there was light.’” (Gen 1:3) In revelation – “the word of the Lord came to me…” (Jer 1:4) in salvation – “He sent out his word and healed them and delivered them from destruction.” (Ps 107:20) Jesus, the Word Jesus reveals God’s mind Jesus expresses God’s will Jesus displays God’s perfections Jesus exposes God’s heart - A.W. Pink John 1:1-5 Jesus has always existed (1) Jesus was with God (1) Jesus is God (1) Jesus created all things (3) Jesus is life (4) Jesus is light (5) John 1:14 “the Word became flesh” – Jesus became flesh These are the most shocking words ever written. The transcendent, eternal, all-powerful, majestic God stepped down from his glory to become a man – and dwelt with us! Jesus became flesh To be tempted • Jesus suffered temptation, but never sinned • He broke the reign of sin over us • He was made a perfect high priest, who could sympathize with our weakness To be our example • He showed us how God intends for us to live To die • He became weak to suffer and die to take the wrath of God that we deserved – sin separated us from God, but Jesus came in love to restore Jesus left the glory of heaven to take on the lowliness of man. He stepped down from reigning with the Father to the obscurity of poverty. He humbled himself from heaven’s beauty to the shame of death on a cross. JI Packer, Knowing God The crucial significance of the cradle of Bethlehem lies in its place in the sequence of steps down that led the Son of God to the cross of Calvary, and we do not understand it till we see it in this context…the taking of manhood by the Son is set before us in a way which shows us how we should ever view it – not simply as a marvel of nature, but rather as a wonder of grace. “We have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son, from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 3:16 God gave his glorious Son to be our example, win victory over sin, die in our place. “in him was life, and the life was the light of men.” May the glory of the Son fill your lives, your homes, our church.

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God's Servants Humbled, Then Used and Rewarded (1 Corinthians Sermon 10) (Audio)

CLASS - Compass Bible Church

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2018

One Night in Babylon Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 3:5-9. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, was a staggeringly talented man. He was the ruler of the greatest empire the world had ever seen up to that point, he was a military genius, an amazingly gifted administrator, and he was a shrewd judge of men. He had penetrating discernment. He was able to organize lesser talented men, to maximize their abilities, and through sheer willpower and fear, he galvanized the Babylonian people into a force for world domination. By his conquests, he made Babylon amazingly wealthy. Gold and silver and jewels flowed into the city from the distant corners of his mighty empire, and with the wealth of his conquest, he made the city of Babylon brilliant. The walls were heightened and fortified, the houses were embellished and enriched with the finest materials. His own palace was the envy of the world. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, mythological perhaps, but a symbol of the beauty of the capital city of that empire. It was planted with trees from all over the world, and the fruit trees were lush and abundant. Now, one night, King Nebuchadnezzar was walking on the roof of his palace, and he looked out over his capital city with deep-seated pride. He was looking out over the city that his genius had built. He was in awe of what he had done, the things that he had built, and he breathed in the fragrant air of his creations and his successes, and he spoke in self-worship. "Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?" He didn't, it seemed, speak these words to anyone in particular, for I don't think he really much cared what any other human being thought. He was drunk with self-worship at that moment, but Almighty God heard what he said and he read accurately the pride of his heart. God knew that the spirit of Babylon was dominating this man's heart, it was a spirit of soaring arrogance that led the Babylonians centuries before that to build a lofty tower, the Tower of Babel, to make a name for themselves. And it was also the spirit of self-worship that led the true king of Babylon, Satan, to ascend in heaven to topple Almighty God from his throne, as it's reported for us in Isaiah 14. The king of Babylon, Satan. "You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." God hates that arrogance in Satan's heart, and he hates the fact that we, the human race, have joined Satan in the same arrogant rebellion. And so, he had warned Nebuchadnezzar in a dream, a year before that evening walk out over the rooftop palace, that if he didn't repent of his pride and give God the glory for his empire, he would be struck by God and given the mind of an animal for seven years, until he acknowledged that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men, and gives them to whoever he chooses. Now, friends, there's nothing wrong with a certain level of joy in accomplishment. God has created human beings in his image, and has given us remarkable brains and dexterous fingers. And we can make beautiful things, even amazing things. With our skillful labors, we can build strong, soaring buildings, we can paint masterpiece paintings, we can compose concertos for violin, and some of us have the skill to play them. And there's nothing wrong with working hard at our tasks in our jobs and feeling a certain level of satisfaction in our labors. As Ecclesiastes 2:24 says, "A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God." However, everything we put our hands to in this world, every physical thing, is temporary, and someday it will all become dust in the wind. God’s Servants Must be Humbled Everything that God builds through the church, by the power of the Spirit, is eternal. All of the work that we do in the spiritual fields, the harvest field, spiritually, is eternal. The building that we do in the spiritual structure that is rising to be a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit, is eternal. The glorious work of the harvest, the glorious work of the building of the spiritual church of Jesus Christ, that's eternal. And to be qualified for this work, the highest and most glorious work there is, God's servants must first be humbled, and I mean humbled to the core. We must acknowledge, from the depths of our hearts, that we are merely servants who can accomplish nothing apart from Christ and apart from his Spirit. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Someday, we'll be in Heaven, we'll be in a far more glorious city than Babylon ever was. And I can imagine we might walk on the rooftops of aspects of the new Jerusalem, and when we do, God will not have a single one of his servants walking arrogantly before him, as Nebuchadnezzar did that night, saying, "Is this not the new Jerusalem I have built by my courageous missionary work, or by my boldness and workplace evangelism, or by my skillful teaching or preaching of the Word of God, or by my faithful hidden prayer life, or by my lavishly generous financial giving to the work of the Kingdom, or by my tireless unsung labors as a servant behind the scenes, or by my works, my sacrificial works of mercy to the poor and needy?" He will not listen to any of that and we will not want to do it, for we will be so completely humbled and understand that every one of the living stones that went into building that city were quarried by the sovereign power of Almighty God, and we're just part of it, and God was gracious to us. And if God is going to use you greatly, brothers and sisters, he must humble you greatly, and this text will do it. This text has the power to humble the servants of God, to humble us deeply. Remember the context here, the Corinthians were carnal in their mindset, they were focusing too much on hero leaders, great leaders. They loved the philosopher, the traveling philosopher types that would set up schools of philosophy and, by their skillful rhetoric, would gain followers for themselves. They were used to that in Greece. And along comes Paul, and he does this kind of thing, and they say, "Okay, he's our new leader." Apollos came later. And so we have that division uncovered for us in 1 Corinthians 1:12. "One of you says, 'I follow Paul;' and another, 'I follow Apollos;' and another, 'I follow Cephas.'" (Cephas is Peter). Paul returns to this in 1 Corinthians 3:3-4, says "You're still worldly, you're still carnal" "For since there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? For when one of you says 'I follow Paul,' and another, 'I follow Apollos,' are you not acting like mere men?" The gospel trains us in a whole new way of thinking about everything, and here, especially about human leaders. A humble way that recognizes that God alone can make this field produce a harvest. God alone can build the spiritual edifice, the structure, that is the living church of Jesus Christ. Yet, though God could have done all this himself, or he could have chosen to use angels to do all of this work, instead, he chose to redeem us from being his enemies and serving his enemy, king Satan. He redeemed us from that dark domain and brought us into the kingdom of his beloved son, and enlisted him in his service, adopted us as his sons and daughters, and involves us in the family business. And we have a role to play in that family business, which is salvation for the elect to the ends of the earth, that's what God is doing. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. And so he will assign to each of us, as we walk with him, helpful, beneficial tasks to the end of building that kingdom, but it is vital for us, as his servants, to be humbled as we do those tasks. I. What Are Paul and Apollos? Only Servants And that's what 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 is all about. So Paul begins by asking, in verse 5, some rhetorical question. This question's for impact. "What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe, as the Lord has assigned to each his task." So Paul humbles himself and humbles Apollos. What are we? For the effective power behind the church, the Corinthians were looking at the wrong place, they were looking at human leaders, human hero leaders that God had used to plant and develop the church. Now, some of your Bibles, some of the translations say, "Who is Paul and who is Apollos?" Possible that that's what the text says, the original text. As though we are men with no name, no reputation, nothing special, no suitable qualifications. You remember when the Lord called Moses to lead the Jews out of Egypt, and when Moses realized, as he's looking into the flames of that burning bush, the magnitude of the calling, he said to God, "'Who am I, that I should go to pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?' And God said, 'I will be with you.'" As though Moses were saying, "I'm not the kind of man you would choose for an important mission like this. I'm not qualified for it. I didn't go to prophet school, or ambassador school, or public speaking school. I'm not qualified for such a challenging mission, so who am I that I should do that? My credentials don't line up." God's answer to Moses' question, "Who am I, that I should go to pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" Was no answer at all, at one level. He didn't build up his ego or his self-esteem, like in a counseling session. "Oh Moses, you're underestimating yourself, you're exactly the kind of person that I need. You are qualified in ways you don't even really imagine." He didn't do anything of the kind. Instead, he just simply said, "I will be with you," and that's all that matters. The power for the deliverance of the Jews from physical slavery in Egypt was not going to be human, it was not all about Moses' skill set, not his eloquence, not his clever diplomacy, not his military tactical skill. Just the outstretched arm of Almighty God. Now, if that was true with the Exodus, how much more true is it with hearts and souls being won to Christ and an invisible, spiritual church rising to the glory of God? Even more true, when it comes to that task. But actually, I think the text doesn't say, "Who is Paul, and who is Apollos?" I think it, rather, it goes even deeper. "What are we?" It's almost more dehumanizing. Like, "what am I?" Not "who am I?" But "what am I?" It's more humbling. It goes to the core of what we are. I am a clod of dirt that was scooped up in the hand of God and God breathed breath into me. It's the same feeling, I think, that came over King David when he wrote Psalm 8, "When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place…" one thought dominates my mind: "What is man that you are even of him?" So I think it goes to that level. What is Apollos, and what is Paul? Then Paul answers the question. We are "only servants, through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each his task." Compared to Christ, compared to the Holy Spirit, we played a minor role. So your focus, oh Corinthians, on Paul and on Apollos is twisted, and it's actually bizarre, if you see it properly. So imagine you and your friends have been invited to a lavish banquet at an incredible palace by a monarch. And he welcomes you in warmly, and commands his servants to care for your every need, and his servants seat you at your place at the banqueting table. And the servants are there to feed you and to give you whatever drink you desire, and they come and go, and you're eating, and you're amazed, you're looking around. It's just an incredible atmosphere, just an amazing time, but then you and your friends start to argue about which of the table waiters is the best. "Well, mine brings our food a little more quickly than the other." It's like, "No, no, but this guy knows how to pour the drink like I've never seen, didn't spill a drop." And they go on and on for hours about the servants. Bizarre. In this analogy, you should be thinking about the king and his generosity and his lavish kindness to you in letting you be seated at the table. The servants don't matter. II. The Lord Assigns to Each His Task That's about the point that Paul's making here. "And we are just servants, as the Lord assigned to each his task." We had a task assigned to us. Now, the goal is the same, and that is the saving faith of the Corinthians. We are "only servants, through whom you came to believe, as the Lord has assigned to each his task." God used human instruments to bring the Corinthians to saving faith in Jesus Christ, an eternally consequential work. He used humans as servants to that end, through whom you came to believe in Jesus. So God assigned to Paul to arrive first in Corinth, and to serve as a trailblazing, church planting apostle to the Gentiles, that was his call. He was called, we're told in Romans 15, not to build on someone else's foundation, but to go to some new place, where no one had ever heard the name of Jesus, and do that kind of work. That was Paul's calling. And so he went first, like he always did, to the Jews, and he reasoned, Sabbath by Sabbath in the synagogue with the Jews, seeking to prove, from the Old Testament scriptures, that Jesus was the Messiah that had been prophesied. And if he followed the same pattern that he did in other Gentile cities, he would go, during the day, to the marketplace, and would reason, day by day, with those who were there to buy and sell. After his work in Corinth was done, because he was just a trailblazing church planter, it was time for him to move on and go do that same work in another Gentile city. Along came a different man, Apollos. And in Acts 18, we learned about Apollos. That he was "a learned man with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures, he had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately." Now Priscilla and Aquila had to instruct him a little more accurately about the facts concerning Jesus' life, but once he got that, he just took off. And he was powerful in speech, and "he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate [Acts 18:28], proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ." That was Apollos. And he seems to have been a better speaker than Paul, very polished in his public presentation, very gifted. Now, through both of them, Paul says, the Corinthians came to believe in Christ, but they had different tasks as the Lord assigned. Look at verse 6, "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it." So Paul uses actually two images here, but first an agricultural image he's going to move for the rest of the chapter to an architectural image. They're just teaching the same thing different ways. But he starts with the agricultural image, the farming image as Jesus often did. The Kingdom of heaven is like a seed that a farmer went out and scattered or like a single seed in the garden that grows. It's a lot of agricultural images. In verse 9 he makes plain what this field is, "we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building." So Paul's task is the planting of the seed with the Word. That would be initial evangelism, reasoning from scripture to the end that God's elect will first hear about Jesus, and begin to come to faith in Christ. Maybe just like we heard in the testimony that it's like a light switch for some, or like a dimmer switch for others. So maybe it was a process for some people, maybe others got it right away the same day they heard they could see it. But that was Paul's task, planting the seed. And along came Apollos and his task was to water seed that had already been planted to build on someone else's foundation, and continue the work. So I don't know a lot about agriculture, I know a lot about Biology. I know I can kill any seed that God has ever made. We can put it in the ground and nothing can come of it. I've proven that. My wife has a little more skill, she can put seeds in the ground and things come from it, good things that we can eat. So, I'm out of that business but I appreciate it. But I think my understanding is the seed has a hard shell that protects it until the time has come for it to grow. So it can be in a bag of seeds, nothing's happening, but you put it in the soil and there's moisture in the soil, and then you add water. And I think the hard shell dissolves, to some degree, like Jesus said it dies, the seed dies and the internal genetic material starts to flourish. Tap root goes out and a root system starts to develop, and the thing starts to grow. That's as far as I'm going to go with that analogy, I can't carry it any further. But we see here, Paul planting the initial seed, Apollos coming and adding the necessary water. They had different tasks, different roles. And God is very wise. Jesus is very wise in dividing the labor. He talks about this, Jesus does in John 4. You remember the encounter he had with the Samaritan woman at the well. And Jesus's disciples were in that town in Samaria, they were probably saying to each other. What are we doing here? Because they're Jewish people, they hated the Samaritans, Samaritans hated them, and they're like, "look, let's go and get lunch, buy lunch, and let's get out of here. I don't know why we're even in Samaria…" I don't know that they actually said this, that's not in the Bible, but you have that indication they're there to buy lunch and come back. Jesus is winning a soul. And he wins her. And she is so excited she leaves her water jar there and goes into the town and says to the Samaritans, "Come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" And they all come immediately, and follow her to go find out more about Jesus. In the meantime Jesus's disciples have come back and said, "Okay we got lunch. Let's eat. Oh, they're about to get a spiritual lesson and if you look for it properly, a spiritual rebuke. I have food to eat, that apparently you know nothing about. My food is not the food, you went and bought in Samaria. "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and finish his work." And then he said this. "Do you not say four months more and then comes the harvest? I tell you open your eyes and look at the fields. They are white for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages. Even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying, One sows and another reaps is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard labor and you have entered into their labor." It's the exact same teaching. God’s Division of Gospel Labor God wisely does a division of labor in the advancement of the gospel. In mission work, in evangelism, very rarely is it one person from beginning to end that brings a soul to Christ. In the history of the Christian church and especially in the history of missions, it is often the case that a trail blazer goes out ahead of everyone else, like a morning star and sees very little return on the costly investment. And then someone else comes along and things start to flourish. But it could never have happened without the hard initial trail blazing work. I get the image of our forbearers, the settlers, the colonial settlers, they were just a different level of human being than us. You get that feeling? I actually once tried to chop a tree with an axe that had blocked... My chain saw wouldn't start and I was swinging at a tree that was about eye level and after five strokes, this is a shameful thing to admit, I was done. And after about five minutes, I could give another four whacks. I'm like, If Daniel Boone could see me now. But what were they like? They went through the Cumberland Gap on the wilderness road and settled in some valley somewhere in Kentucky. It was covered with trees and they got to work and they started cutting those trees down. Maybe they girdled it by taking the bark 360 degrees around and it eventually would die, but it would not produce leaves and so they could... The sunlight could stream through and they could plant a small crop, subsistence crop of beans, but it was a work in progress. And as the winter went on, they would chop down these trees cut it up for fire wood or for building timber. I just can't... It's staggering the amount of labor. And then you got stumps and you got your team of oxen out there. And they use a certain kind of hewing axe to get the root system out and they pull up those stumps and they begin to plow. And they bump into some rocks and they pry them up and at some point they have a plow-able field and then they can start planting a crop. So, I have a similar image here with evangelism. Jesus uses a similar image. Others have done hard labor before you. You came along and you reaped what others have labored for. There's an example of this in church history in the Puritan era in England, Medieval Roman Catholicism had not preached the true Gospel, there was centuries of spiritual darkness in England and then the Reformation came, and rediscovered the true gospel of justification by faith alone apart from works of the law and the Puritans came along and began preaching that true gospel but it was hard work. The earliest Puritan pastors had to plow some tough, hard soil. Richard Greenham was an example of this, he was a pastor in a place called Dry Drayton. Seems to be like a spiritually a suitable name for the analogy here. Seven miles from Cambridge during the years 1570 to 1590, he worked extremely hard. He rose daily at 4:00 in the morning and each Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, he preached a Morning sermon at day break to catch his people before they dispersed into the fields for they were farmers and he preached twice on Sundays, and he preached with such fervor that his shirt was drenched in sweat, and he catechized their children every morning and then spent every afternoon in evangelism, walking from field to field preaching the gospel among the farmers. He would walk along plowing farmers as they're plowing, sharing the gospel as they walked. He was renowned especially as a skillful counselor of souls, he was really skillful at marshalling biblical truth to help troubled souls, but no one in his immediate vicinity cared about that counsel. People would come from miles away, to come and listen to his counsel. He had very little visible fruit in his own parish. JI Packer said about him, For all his godliness, insight, evangelical message and hard work, his ministry was virtually fruitless. There was, at the time, a little rhyme that was spoken of his, Greenham had pastures green, but his flocks were full lean, meaning they were like starving. But the generation that followed, other pastors came and reaped a bountiful harvest in that area. He did the hard work, others reaped the benefits of his labor. Packer said about England at that time, "There was much fallow ground to be broken up. It was a time for plowing and sowing but the reaping time was still in the future." And so it is on the mission field. Missionaries may work among an unreached people group for a decade or more and see very little fruit but then God blesses and all of them are working for the glory of God. And Christ, I want you to notice is very wise in doing this, to assign to each is task. People have different gifts, different talents, spiritual gifts, different personalities and different callings and this division of labor humbles all of us. Because no one person is all competent, independent, able to do the whole thing himself or herself. III. God Alone Gives Spiritual Growth So verse 6 and 7, it's plain, God alone gives spiritual growth. "I planted the seed, Apollos watered, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants, nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow." Biological growth is a gift of God. The apple farmer can do all the right things, but he cannot make the seed grow into a sapling or the sapling grow into a sturdy tree with vigorous branches or the tree produce buds, or the buds turn into apples, or the apples come to full fruition. We can't do any of those intermediate steps. Something only God can do. Every step of the way is produced by the secret activity of God in the plant and the farmer cannot say he produced any of it. In the same way only God can give spiritual growth, this is what we've been seeing in 1 Corinthians 2. Remember the Apostle Paul came to Corinth, and when he came, he resolved to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ and him crucified. He was with them in weakness and fear and much trembling. And his preaching were not a display of human skill, human rhetoric, but of God's power through the Holy Spirit, so that their faith would not rest on man's skill and effort but on God who sends his Spirit. He told us very plainly in chapter 2:14, The natural man cannot accept the things that come from the Spirit of God because they are foolishness to him, and he cannot accept them, because they're spiritually discerned, and those people are blind, and we have not the cure to that blindness. And so, in all evangelism and in all missions, we have a limited role to play. The real work can only be done by God, through his Holy Spirit. So also, once an individual has come to faith in Christ, their growth, their progress and sanctification, is only by the sovereign Spirit of God. A pastor like me, I can preach the Word week after week, godly parents can raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, a discipler can meet with a disciple and pour out scripture and exemplify the Christian walk, but we can only do so much only God actually produces spiritual growth in a human heart. And so Paul goes so far as to say we're nothing. We are nothing. So neither he who plants, nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow. So that's the answer. What am I? What is Apollos? We are nothing. God is everything. Now, listen, Paul isn't meaning to insult us, he's not trying to insult Apollos or any human being, we are created in the image of God. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, God knit us together in our mother's wombs and God sent his only begotten Son into the world to save human beings. "It's not angels he helps, says in Hebrews 2, but human beings. So he's not saying we're nothing in that sense, but what he is saying is God doesn't need us for any of this. No one man or one woman, is indispensable to the work of the Kingdom. God is able to raise up from stones, preachers of the gospel, and evangelists and missionaries as John the Baptist said. God doesn't need us, but he graciously gives us a role to play, Isn't that marvelous? So that you're not wasting your life on dust in the wind, you actually are called to do something of eternal consequence. Look at the next verse, in the next passage, that I'll preach on, God willing. Verse 10, where he says, "By the grace God gave me I lay the foundation, as an expert builder, and someone else is... " But God's grace gave me a role. God's grace gave me a ministry. It is by the mercy of God that we have this ministry, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:1. IV. The Servants are One, and Each Will Be Rewarded for their Labor And he says The servants, all of whom are called by Christ and empowered by the Spirit, we're all one. Look what he says again in verse 8, he who plants, and he waters are one and each will receive his wages or rewards for his labor. So, we're one strong assertions of unity here. We're part of the same body. He will talk about that in Chapter 12, one may be a hand, another foot we're all part of the same body with Christ as the head. Different roles, different function, same body, and we have the same purpose. Apollos, and I we're on the same page. We have the same goal. And that is your completion your perfection in Christ, and Heaven. That's our goal. We have the same purpose, same Lord same calling. Different tasks, but we are one. Essentially he's saying, we're not in competition with each other, we're not rival factions. Paul versus Apollos like an MMA bout. Come and watch big fight Friday night. We'll see who wins. Not at all, they didn't have MMA back then, but you know what I mean. They did have wrestling. But no, it's nothing like that. We are actually one in purpose. And we're not in competition. Like you're saying. I follow Paul and not Apollos? Oh yeah, I follow Apollos and not Paul. That whole thing's wrong. It's foolish. Picture you're out in an orchard and it's planting time and you see two people wearing the shirt of the orchard with the logo on the back and this one individual is planting all these little saplings and someone else is coming along with this sprinkler hose system. And as you're watching, you're not saying, Alright they're in competition, I wonder which one's going to win. They have the same purpose, and that is that the orchard will eventually be even more fruitful at harvest time, the same purpose. That's what he's saying. And then he mentions rewards the one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. Now I'm not going to talk about this at all today. I'm just saying God in His grace will reward faithful service. We're going to talk about this for the next two sermons in 1 Corinthians as we talk about gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay and straw, and how God will reward, faithful service for His glory. V. Applications Applications. To all you who are hard-working, servants of God. I just want this passage to humble you. Just be humbled by this. Learn to say I am an unworthy servant. I've only done my duty. Luke 17. Someday we're going to be there. Brothers and sisters, we're going to be there, we're going to see the glorious city, and I believe that God is going to show the human labor that went into building it. I think the rewards don't mean anything apart from that, the crowns don't mean anything if we don't know the story so we're going to learn the story, but all of us are going to be so thoroughly saturated in the mindset of the glory of God, we're going to see all of the human labor that went into building the new Jerusalem in the proper light. And we're going to recognize and honor the human servants, but we're going to know to God be the glory, for all of it. So we're going to see that and we're going to be filled with a sense of the greatness of God in Christ. So the more you can do that now the better, don't think of yourself as indispensable. If you're a hard-working, fruitful servant of God, think of yourself with sober judgment, not too highly of yourself, or too lowly. However, I think you should celebrate the kindness and mercy of God in involving you in this work. Isn't it a good thing that you're not going to see all of your works, torched and turned to ash on Judgment Day? You actually get to do something that's going to survive and last, if you are serving God faithfully now. Now to those of you who are believers in Christ, but maybe you're feeling some conviction, you're like... I actually just don't know what my ministry is. I would not say that I actually have a definable ministry. I mean I have a life and I go to church on Sunday and we pray, we give God thanks before the meal, and we do some things but I don't actually honestly have a ministry. Well, this passage then should convict you. It should convict you to say, God, would you please show me what my spiritual gifts are, and get me going, get me busy in the building of the kingdom of God, so I don't waste my life on an empire that will become dust, in the wind. Babylon is gone. All of the things that mighty Nebuchadnezzar built are dust in the wind. They're gone. I don't want any of you, my brothers and sisters, to see that happen to your life work. So this may be a call to a fork in the road for you to say, "What can I do for the spread of the gospel here in Durham and to the ends of the earth? How can I be involved with the International Mission Board? How can I encourage some missionaries? How can I give more money, financially? What can I do to lost people in my company or on my college campus? What can I do to be involved? How can I encourage brothers and sisters that are already Christians, how can I help them grow?" Now to you who are not yet Christians, I just want to give a final word, I just thank God you're here. Week after week, we pray that God would bring us people who are not yet converted. And I just want to reach out to you and say, "Oh that today would be for you the day of salvation. That you would realize through the preaching of the Word, that there is a creator, God who made the universe, and who made you. And because He made everything, he is a mighty king and because he is a king, he has a right to make laws and he has made laws, the Ten Commandments and the two great commandments, and we don't follow them, none of us do, all of us have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God and we are convicted by the law as law breakers. And we have no hope, we cannot make it right. But God in His love and His mercy, sent His Son Jesus, who was born of a virgin, and who lived a sinless life, and walked on this earth. And taught many parables and teachings and did incredible miracles but He came especially to die. "All we like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him on Jesus the iniquity of us all." He is our substitute. And all you need to do to be completely forgiven of all your sins is trust in Jesus, repent, turn away from the darkness, turn away from the sin and trust in Jesus and you will be forgiven. Close with me in prayer. Lord, we thank you for the time that we've had to study your Word. We thank you for the wisdom that flows to us from that Word. We thank you that you have taught us not to boast about men, but to trust in you, the one who gives good gifts to all of us. Thank you for the ministry of the Word. Thank you for faithful servants who bring it to us, but Lord, we know that the true growth, the real growth only comes from you, and so we give you all the glory in Jesus' name. Amen.

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JI Packer - Modern Day Puritans

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 17, 2018 61:25

Message from Pastor Pete Lasutschinkow on June 17, 2018

modern day puritans ji packer

Dr JI Packer: Knowing God

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 7, 2017 80:20

This week's spotlight sermon is from Dr JI Packer: Knowing God. This is from our sermon collection, 100 Best Sermons of All Time. Click here to Listen! Join us on Facebook! Click here to “Like” our page and see our latest additions! As always, if you want to contact Paul Carmody you can at paul@moreofgodplease.com. Thanks […] The post Dr JI Packer: Knowing God appeared first on More Of God Please.

knowing god ji packer

Dr JI Packer: Knowing God

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 7, 2017 80:20

This week’s spotlight sermon is from Dr JI Packer: Knowing God. This is from our sermon collection, 100 Best Sermons of All Time. Click here to Listen! Join us on Facebook! Click here to “Like” our page and see our latest additions! As always, if you want to contact Paul Carmody you can at paul@moreofgodplease.com. Thanks[...] The post Dr JI Packer: Knowing God appeared first on More Of God Please.

knowing god ji packer

JI Packer: The Self Sufficiency of God

god character self sufficiency divine attributes ji packer

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 3, 2016 48:39

This week's spotlight sermon is from JI Packer: The Self Sufficiency of God. This is from our sermon collection, The Divine Attributes and Character of God. Click here to Listen! Join us on Facebook! Click here to “Like” our page and see our latest additions! As always, if you want to contact Paul Carmody you can at […] The post JI Packer: The Self Sufficiency of God appeared first on More Of God Please.

JI Packer: The Self Sufficiency of God

god character self sufficiency divine attributes ji packer

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 3, 2016 48:39

This week’s spotlight sermon is from JI Packer: The Self Sufficiency of God. This is from our sermon collection, The Divine Attributes and Character of God. Click here to Listen! Join us on Facebook! Click here to “Like” our page and see our latest additions! As always, if you want to contact Paul Carmody you can at[...] The post JI Packer: The Self Sufficiency of God appeared first on More Of God Please.

Knowing God By JI Packer

Teaching

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 25, 2016

knowing god ji packer

Feb 2016 – Lebanon, JI Packer & 4 new theolgoies

Premier Christianity Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 12, 2016 28:55

Justin and Sam bring you some of the key articles from the February edition of the mag including Sam’s trip to Lebanon to find out how Christian believers there are bringing hope to Syria’s Muslim refugees. They also discuss Justin’s article on new theological ideas, including annihilationism. Read the February edition of Premier Christianity mag https://www.premierchristianity.com/Past-Issues/2016/February-2016 Get a FREE copy of Premier Christianity Magazine at http://www.premierchristianity.com/freesample Get the MP3 podcast of Premier Christianity Magazine, or Subscribe Via a href=“https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/premier-christianity-podcast/id959882582?mt=2”>iTunes

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Crossway Connected Episode 2.5

Crossway Christian Church

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 1, 2014 59:40

In this episode, we address the important and often intimidating task of evangelism. Various aspects of sharing the gospel are discussed. Pastor John recommends some helpful books related to evangelism (Dever, Packer, Stiles, and others) and we have personal stories from a few Crossway members about how they heard the gospel and came to faith in Christ.

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Walking by the Spirit: Power for Bitter Warfare - Part 1 (Galatians Sermon 19 of 26) (Audio)

Crossway Christian Church

Play Episode Listen Later May 11, 2014

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on Galatians 5:16-18, and how the Holy Spirit helps us survive the bitter spiritual warfare. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Next month, my daughter and I, God willing, are going to be in Serbia, ministering to some folks there with the IMB. And that same month, actually, right around the time that we're there, will mark on June 28th 2014, the 100th anniversary of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, thus beginning World War I, Which as I've said before, I think is one of the greatest tragedies in all of human history. I mean the war, in particular. Obviously, assassination is a grave crime, but all of the nations of Europe had armed themselves to the teeth and were ready to show off what they could do in the battlefields. And these mighty modern economies, these post industrial revolution economies, with all of the technological development and all their weapons, were ready to be unleashed on each other. Each nation convinced the war would be a short one and that the troops would be home by Christmas. And so, the guns of August were unleashed in 1914 and devastating war resulted in just casualties by the tens of millions. 37 million people killed in World War 1. And perhaps, as finally, when it ended in the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 and a generation of young men lay in their graves as a result of just political insanity. And a poet said, "The lights had gone out all over Europe." The only hope for many in the world at that point, lay in the name that many gave to that war which was 'the war to end all wars'. Well, from the perspective of the 21st century, know that was absolutely not true. World War I gave birth to an even greater conflagration in the World War II, which the death toll rose to more than double. 85 million people died as a result of that one. And so, the 20th century was really a century of warfare, of huge warfare, of world cataclysmic shaking warfare that has shaped the world as we know it today. But as we look at the text that we're looking at today, Galatians 5:16-18. I would say as a Christian pastor, despite the fact that World War I and World War II and other subsequent wars have captured all of the headlines and given rise to countless books and documentaries, and poems, and essays, and movies and all kinds of things. Massive scale that dominates the landscape of human history and catches the eye. I think that the warfare described in our text today is infinitely more significant. And it is the warfare that goes on inside every true Christian every day. The spiritual warfare, the warfare that goes on between the Spirit and the flesh, that's what we're going to talk about. This battle field is internal, its ebbs and flows are invisible, yet the destiny of the world lies in the balance. As Christians conquer the flesh by the Spirit they move out and do the good works that God has ordained, build the church, including evangelism and missions. We talked much in this church about two infinite journeys, the internal journey of sanctification and the external journey of worldwide gospel advance. So those two are absolutely interconnected. Today, we're going to focus on the internal journey and understand it as a warfare, bitter warfare between the Spirit and the flesh. Allow me to set these three very small but significant verses in context; we're in the book of Galatians. Galatians to the letter written by the Apostle Paul, he was called the Apostle to the Gentiles. He went out as a church planting, trail blazing missionary, evangelist. He went into the lands of unreached people groups, Gentiles and Asia Minor, modern day Turkey. And he went to a region called Galatia and there were some Gentiles there, and God blessed his preaching of the gospel, many came to faith in Christ. They understood the message of the gospel and they were saved and believed. He organized them into churches and then left to go work in another place. After he left, some false teachers came in who have been called Judaizers. And they preached a poisonous mixture of Christ plus Moses, or Christ plus works, faith plus works, and that believing in Jesus is not enough for the salvation of your souls, you must also obey the laws of Moses, beginning with the law of circumcision. Paul says that is no gospel at all, it's a false gospel. I call it poisonous. Paul lifted up and made plain in Galatians 2 the center piece of the gospel, which is justification by faith alone, apart from works of the law. Sinners are made right with the Holy God simply by faith in Jesus. We who are guilty, we who have violated the laws of God, we can be made right, we can be forgiven through faith in Jesus and through faith alone. Paul then says that, that their own experiences with the gospel, how they received the gift of the Holy Spirit and began the Christian life proved it out. And then, the Bible itself, the Old Testament proved it out. Abraham was justified by faith not by works, and there a number of verses he sites in Galatians 3 and 4 that show that this idea has been woven throughout the Bible. Sinners are made right by faith and not by works. In our chapter now, Galatians 5, he calls them to freedom. He warns these Galatian Christians, concerning these false teachers, that want to wrap chains of legalism around you and tell you that you are made right by God and made right in the sight of God and you continue in that status by your own obedience to the law. Well, that's a yoke. It's a chain of slavery. So in Galatians 5:1 he says, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not allow yourself again to be burdened by a yoke of slavery." But as we've been saying in the last few weeks, this freedom is not freedom the way the world defines it. To sin with impunity and do whatever you want, doesn't matter how you live, you can pursue happiness as your own fleshly appetites define and there are no repercussions, once saved always saved, doesn't matter how you live, go to heaven when you die.

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Crossway Connected Episode 2.3

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 27, 2014 62:04

Pastor Richard Taglauer joins us for a special episode of Crossway Connected. We review books by RC Sproul, JI Packer, and Matt Perman, and we talk to Pastor Richard about his involvement at Crossway Christian Church.

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No Longer Slaves, but Sons (Galatians Sermon 11 of 26) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 2, 2014

Pastor Andy Davis preaches on Galatians 4:1-11, and how God frees people from the slavery of sin. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - One of the most powerful Christian novels of all time, historical novels, and probably one of my favorite movies of all time is Ben-Hur. It was written by a former Civil War general, named Lew Wallace, who was a strong believer in Christ. It's an amazing story of a Jewish nobleman, a wealthy Jewish man, who was wrongly condemned for attacking the Governor of Judea by a boyhood friend, a Roman friend named Messala, who had become a passionate convert to the Roman Empire and was zealous for the glory of the Roman Empire. And it led him falsely to accuse his boyhood friend. And for three years, Judah Ben-Hur was enslaved. He was in chains, as a galley slave, rowing on a Roman warship. And you have this picture in your mind's eye of what that bondage was like, what that slavery was like. A chain around his ankle and the lash of the taskmaster on his back or on the backs of the other slaves, if they needed to row faster and they weren't doing what the master wanted done. And in the story, Judah Ben-Hur comes to save the life of his Roman commander, Quintus Arrias, a Roman tribune named Quintus Arrias, very powerful man. And in the course of events, this Roman man is so filled with love for Judah Ben-Hur, that he comes to adopt him legally as his son, as his heir. In the novel, General Wallace writes these words. These are the words of Quintus Arrias. He's speaking to his friends about this Jewish man. He said, "Good friends, this man is now my son and my heir. Who as he is to take my property, if it be the will of the Gods that I shall leave any, shall be known to you by my name. I pray you all to love him as you love me." Now, this story may have struck many at that time as preposterous. How could a high-ranking Roman official ever adopt a Jewish slave to be his heir and his son? But General Wallace was a genuine Christian and he understood the Gospel. And he knew that something far more amazing than that, far more preposterous happens every time an individual sinner is brought to faith in Christ. Something far more amazing than that, and what is that? That the holy God of the universe, who can't even look at sin because his eyes are so holy. This holy God adopts sinners who were rebels, fighting against him, adopts them to be his sons and daughters, and makes us heirs with his only begotten Son. Heirs of the universe that he is going to make for us. That's even more amazing than anything General Wallace wrote in the novel Ben-Hur. Perhaps the most astonishing aspect of our salvation is our adoption. It's really amazing. It was JI Packer that summed up the Christian message in these very brief words, "Adoption through propitiation." By the blood sacrifice of Jesus, the wrath of God is turned away. We are reconciled through that propitiation work and we are adopted into the family of God. And it is astonishing. We get to study that today. I mean, there's no better way we can spend our time, Amen? I think this message has the power to make you Christians far happier than you were when you walked in here. Amen? And even better, it has the power to make any of you who are presently outside the Gospel, who are living in darkness, who are living in bondage, to set you free, as well. And you can walk out of this room, every bit as adopted, and every bit as much an heir as a Christian has been so for 50 years, when they walked in here today. I. From Enslaved Childhood to Free Maturity (verses 1-3) So let's get to it, shall we? Enough of the introduction. Probably should have just jumped right in, but I like these kind of stories. I think they set up the issue very, very well. We're looking here in verses 1-3, in Galatians 4:1-3, of a movement from enslaved childhood to free maturity. Look at the verses. He says, "What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his Father. So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world." So, we've got a train of thought here. We're jumping in the midst of a flow of thought. Sometimes, the chapter divisions break things up a little bit more than they should be broken up. But we're in the middle of a train of thought here. Verse 1, "What I'm saying is... " Paul says, or to kind of unfold this thought a little bit more. So, we want to go back to Galatians 3:23-29, which I think in many ways was the climax of a lot of Paul's reasoning or train of thought. Again, to step back and look at what's going on. The Apostle Paul was a trailblazing, church-planning missionary. He was the Apostle to the Gentiles. He came to this region in Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, and he preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And many Gentiles, many pagans came to faith in Christ and became Christians as a result, then he left. And after he left, some other false teachers came along. Jewish people, who claimed to believe in Jesus, but also said that these Gentiles had to be circumcised and required to obey the Law of Moses, in order to fully and finally to be saved. They were called by many, not in the text, but they were called Judaizers, they were false teachers. And so, Paul is reasoning against that, and he says that the Gentiles, these Galatians, the moment they heard the Gospel and believed it, they were justified by faith in Christ, all of their sins were forgiven. And they received the gift of the Holy Spirit, they were adopted as sons and daughters of God, they became sons of God. And they received the spirit who cries out, "Abba, Father." We see that in Galatians 3:26, he says, "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." Simple and clear declaration. And then, in verse 29, "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs, according to the promise." Now, Paul talks about it in both passages, the last one and this one, a time of confinement before the time of freedom. So we're moving from confinement or somewhat bondage, to a time of freedom. Both of these scriptures, these sections talk about it. Both passages speak of a guardianship that has now ended, both passages speak of a transition, so that we're no longer under that confinement. Both passages speak of our status as sons of God, no longer slaves. Both passages call us heirs, standing ready to receive a vast inheritance. So in effect, he's repeating these same themes, he's going at it again. Why does he repeat it? Well, he wants to emphasize it, he wants to help these Gentile believers in Christ to realize their freedom and their status as children of God, and that they would not submit to a yoke of bondage. And he wants to do it because it's evident that they've relapsed into their old way of thinking, when they should be living a whole new kind of life as adopted children of God. Instead, they're thinking like slaves again, and they seem to be bound in servitude to a pattern of relating to God and he wants to set them free. He yearns for them to understand their status as adopted children of God and to live out that freedom in holy lives that honor God. And so, he begins with this image of a movement from childhood to maturity. Every culture has rites of passage, in which sons become men. The time of childhood has ended, now it's time of adulthood. And so, this movement from childhood to adulthood is what was well understood in those days. And also, the movement of liberation, from being in bondage to being set free, and you become a freedman, you're no longer a slave, that was understood as well. So first, this movement from childhood to adulthood. Look at verses 1-2, "What I'm saying is that, as long as the heir is a child, he's no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. And he is subject to guardians and trustees, until the time set by his father." Now, again, we have to look at this in terms of the big picture of Israel as God's people, the Jewish nation. And he's trying to answer the question, "What then is the purpose of the Law? Why did the Law of Moses come? If it's not meant for our salvation, if it's not meant to be the ladder by which we climb up to heaven by our good works, if that's not what it was for, then what was it for?" And he's going to answer it, both in terms of the nation as a whole, and in terms of individual sinners. So why did God give the Law, only to repeal it later? Now, these are very important questions. It was God who said, "You must circumcise your sons on the eighth day." You can read chapter and verse, it's very clear and there's indications there because Moses hadn't circumcised his sons, that God was ready to kill him. It's a whole other passage. But God was serious, this was something he commanded, if you disobeyed, you were cut off from your people. This was a serious thing. Why did God put it in, only to take it off later? The same thing with the dietary regulations. Why would he make it very clear what they could and couldn't eat, if later all foods were going to be declared clean, why? Why would God have all these ceremonies and special days and months and seasons and years and a whole calendar of religious observances if he's only going to take it off later? Why even do it at all? And so, Paul reverts to this image of childhood and then a movement to maturity, to adulthood. The Jewish nation was in some metaphorical sense the son of God, a child of God. God told Moses to say to Pharaoh these words, Exodus 4, "This is what the Lord says, Israel is my firstborn son. And I told you, let my son go, that he may worship me." So that's a clear statement. He sees that metaphorical connection between himself and the nation as a whole, "Israel is my firstborn son." Then, in Deuteronomy 1, Moses talking to the Jews, says about their experience for 40 years out in the desert and how God had cared for them. He said, "You saw how the Lord your God carried you as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place." And then in Hosea 11:1 it says, "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt, I called My son." So, for an extended period of time, the Jewish nation was held under guardianship to the Law, that's what Paul's saying. The nation was subject to guardians and trustees, to these precepts and laws, and rules. And they had to obey these laws and regulations, and strictures and precepts, like circumcision, the dietary regulations, and the ceremonial rhythm of the calendar and all that. And yet, the whole time, the Jewish nation was seen by God in the big picture to be Abraham's seed and heirs, according to the promise, and that someday, they will come into their full maturity. Now, in many ways, Paul says, the child in a wealthy home, picture this child in a wealthy home, little different than a slave in that home. Some of you children are saying, "Amen. That's exactly how it is." I've been saying that and you're just not listening. We're just like slaves around here. But that's a different topic, different message. That's not what I'm talking about here. But in many ways, that's how it is. The child has to obey the laws, and the rules, and the regulations of the household, or there's going to be consequences, there's going to be punishments to come. The child is not free to walk away, child's not free to do as he or she pleases, child's a little different than a slave, though someday, Paul says, "They're going to come into the whole estate." And so, also the descendants of Abraham, the Jewish nation, would someday inherit not only that patch of promised land, but as we've seen in Romans 4:13, "It was through a promise that Abraham received the news that he would be heir of the world." And how awesome is that? So, the status of the Jewish nation under the law was temporary, like that of a child who has to come to his maturity. They were schooled by the constant demands of the Law. Charles Spurgeon put it this way, "The Jewish nation of old was under the yolk of the Law. Its sacrifices were continual. Its ceremonies were endless. New moons and feasts must be kept. Jubilees must be observed. Pilgrimages must be made. In fact, the yoke was too heavy, heavy for feeble flesh to bear. The law followed the Israelite into every corner and dealt with him upon every point of his life. It had to do with his garments, it had to do with his meat, his drink, his bed, his board, everything about him. It treated him like a boy at school who has a rule for everything. Now that faith has come, we are full-grown sons, and therefore, we are free from the meticulous rules which govern the school of the child." I bet you're wishing he would just come preach a sermon and not me, right? Isn't that powerful? But Spurgeon really just makes it clear, when the heir gets to the set age, he then comes into the full status in the household, and that's a picture of salvation in Christ. The status of the Jewish nation under the law was temporary, like that of a child who has to come to his maturity. They were schooled by the constant demands of the Law." Look at verses 4-5, "When the time had fully come, God sent His son, born of a woman, born under Law, to redeem those under Law that we might receive the full rights of sons." So those under the law, at that time, were Jews, and not Gentiles. But they were locked up under the guardianship of the Law, until Jesus had made his entry into the world. Now, the same image is applied to individual Christians, as well. There's a sense of confinement, a sense of bondage under the Law, under the lash of the Law, your conscience accusing you, all of that, until you come to the freedom of faith in Christ. Same thing for the individual. II. From Slavery to Adoption (verses 3-8) So let's go to the next section of the sermon, verses 3-8 "From slavery to adoption." The fact of our slavery is established in verse 3, "So also, when we were children, we were in slavery, [he says] under the basic principles of the world." Then, he gives us the good news of our redemption by Christ. Verse 4-5 say, "When the time had fully come, God sent His son, born of a woman, born under the Law, [verse five] to redeem those under the Law." Just like Daniel was saying about the ransom, a price paid, we're set free, not slaves anymore. Redemption through His blood, to redeem those under the Law that we might receive the full rights of sons, and then, the declaration of our status as sons. Look at verse 7, "So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And since you are a son, God has also made you an heir." Isn't that beautiful? Look at verse 7. Verse 7 has the power to give you joy in any and every circumstance of your life. You are now a child of God. So look at the facts of our slavery. Paul puts all Christians in one analogy, in verse 3, "So, too, when we were children, we were in slavery," he says, "under the basic principles of the world." The essence of slavery is bondage. No freedom, no way out. Sense of domination, especially if the master is cruel, but to what were we bound? Paul says, in verse 3, "We are in slavery under the [NIV gives us] basic principles of the world." Basic principles of the world. ESV has, "elementary principles of the world." The Holman translation has, "elemental forces of the world." Clearly, this is an interesting idea. It's an interesting word. He's going to mention it again in verses 8-9. Look down at verses 8-9, "But in the past, when you didn't know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not God's. But now, since you know God, or rather have become known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and bankrupt elemental forces?" Same word, see that? Do you want to be enslaved by them all over again? Now, the word is a very interesting word. I don't usually pronounce Greek words here. I'm not trying, in any way, to impress you with my Greek knowledge. Just a few minutes with me and you won't be impressed. But 'stoicheia' is the word. Now, my parents are both chemists, and I learned that there's something in chemistry called 'stoichiometry.' You don't need to know this, there's not going to be any quiz, it's not on the final. But what it is, is it's a process by which chemists can figure out what elements are in a chemical, in a compound. Stoichiometry. They're able to break it apart into its elemental parts. What does Paul mean, though, by this word? Well, in Paul's day, it could either refer to the fundamental components of the universe, what we would call atoms, so the basic building blocks from which everything is made. They had elements like air, earth, fire, water, but we have the elements in the periodic table, basic elements. Or the word could refer to essential principles of some area of study, like the ABCs in a primer, like the kind of elemental lessons, the things you learn when you're just a little kid, beginning something that you're studying, like basic piano skills or something like that. Or it could refer to invisible spiritual beings, what we would call demons. All three of those are really actually very interesting, and the scholars go on and on about what they think it is. But Paul says, in any case, we were enslaved to those elemental things, whatever they were. We're enslaved by them. It could mean that then, before faith in Christ, the Galatians were all enslaved to the basic forces of the universe, the basic laws of morality they could never keep, and the demonic forces that rule the world of the unregenerate. So if the basic principles of morality are in mind, they were a cruel master, in that they could only bring death. Jews, under the Law, or moral Gentiles under their conscience, and under their sense of right and wrong. Either way, it was a form of bondage. If the elemental forces of the world were demons, they were malicious and vicious, and wanted to enslave and to beat people up because they're murderers and they hate human beings. "Galatians were all enslaved to the basic forces of the universe, the basic laws of morality they could never keep, and the demonic forces that rule the world of the unregenerate." Now, the slavery analogy is very powerful. Apart from Christ, every single person, every sinner, is a slave. Jesus said in John 8:34, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin." In bondage to sin. And you heard Daniel read Ephesians 2:1-3, powerful words, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live, when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath." Jesus likened Satan to, in Luke 11, a strongman fully armed who guards his possessions carefully. Well, his possessions are people. People in bondage, people in a house of slavery, and he's standing like a strongman at the door and he won't let anyone get in. Jesus says, "If I want to rescue them, I have to overcome him. I have to overwhelm him and strip him of his armor and subdue him and then, I can rescue you." And that's exactly what he said, I am doing by driving out demons. Powerful image there. Jesus, it says, in Matthew 9:36, "When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Harassed by demonic assaults, helpless to get out." It says in Romans 5:6 that we were powerless, at the right time when we were powerless, Christ delivered us. We were powerless to set ourselves free, that's the essence of our slavery. And even worse, we were in bondage to death. We were en route to death, judgement, hell. It says in Romans 5:21 that “sin reigned in death.” Paul there personifies sin and makes sin sit like a vicious tyrant on a throne, the throne of death, and we couldn't get out, could not set ourselves free. We were all slaves before faith came, before Christ came, our condition was desperate. No matter how we understand this word, 'stoicheia,' this elemental forces, we come up losers. We couldn't even keep the most basic moral principles you learn from your mommy when you're little, be good, do good, think good, things like that. ABCs, be generous, treat others well, don't hurt people. I mean, just the basic lisping principles of morality, we couldn't keep them. And we were afflicted by the basic human drives of human existence. We were enslaved to our stomachs. We couldn't get out, the drive for food, the drive for love, the drive for significance, all of these things, and pleasure, we're enslaved to them. And though we couldn't see this, and an atheist would never acknowledge it, etcetera, but we were enslaved to demonic forces. We had demons that were inflicting us and harassing us and crafting special temptations for us, and flogging us. Couldn't see it, but it was true. We were enslaved to sin and Satan and death and there was not a thing we could do about it. III. Christ Redeemed Us From Slavery (verses 4-5) But Christ redeemed us from slavery. Amen? How sweet is that? Look at verses 4-5, "When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those under the Law, that we might receive the full rights of sons." In the fullness of time, God had a perfect timetable. Isn't that beautiful, how God has worked everything out so carefully before the foundation of the world and orchestrated a timetable? I believe he did that for all of human history and he did it for your life, as well. You came to Christ at the perfect time, in the fullness of time. And so also, Jesus entered the world in the fullness of time, at the perfect time. Now, why was that the perfect time? Well, John Calvin says don't speculate, it's none of your business. That's kind of the way he is. He just hates speculation. It doesn't say why it was the fullness of time, the perfect time, it just was. John MacArthur said it was perfect for four different reasons. Either way, I think it's interesting to look into, so with apologies to Calvin, we're going to go ahead and look at why was it the fullness of time? Well, it was the perfect time religiously because the Jewish diaspora had already happened. The Jews were scattered all over the Roman Empire. And they'd spread the idea of monotheism, and they had set up the laws of Moses that were read in the synagogues on the Sabbath every week and that was already infiltrating and there many Gentile converts to Judaism and they were aware, so it was the perfect time religiously. But the Jews had come back from dominion under Gentile power and they were still under the Roman boot and so, it was just perfect for a delivery to come, it was just the right time culturally because Alexander the Great had swept through, with his zeal for Hellenism, his zeal for Greece and everyone pretty much in that region spoke Greek. And so, as a result of that, there was a unified language. The Romans spoke Greek and the Jews spoke Greek and it was the common language and so that really facilitated the preaching of the Gospel. It was the right time politically because the Pax Romana had subdued that whole area, made travel easier, there were the Roman roads and it was just a great time for travel and for moving out. I don't know, all I know is that's when Jesus was born and God thought that was the perfect time! God is the Alpha and the Omega, he is the first and the last. He is the beginning and the end and everything's been sequenced, down to the atom, every moment. He knows exactly the right time for everything, perfect time. God sent forth his Son. The exact same verb he's going to use to talk about the Spirit, isn't that awesome? God the Father sent forth Jesus, and God the Father sent forth the Spirit to achieve the ends of the sermon, that you would be liberated from bondage and adopted as his sons. This is God the Father doing this and he sent forth his Son into the world, as an ambassador. The idea here is of a missionary or emissary or an ambassador. Jesus was a heavenly missionary sent from heaven to Earth, a heavenly ambassador from the heavenly country, down to this rebellious land, and he came. God sent his only begotten Son into the world to save the world from sin, says in John 3:17, "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world would be saved through Him." And it says he was born of a woman, marvelous phrase. At Christmas time, we celebrate this, but we can celebrate this year-round, amen? I had the thought that I might line up my sermons with Christmas, but we're what, we're five, six, seven weeks off, sorry. I just love the details, there was no chance we're going to preach this at Christmas time, but here we are, we can still think about it, can't we? We celebrate the incarnation of Jesus, the mystery of the God man, fully God, fully human, born of a woman. "God the Father sent forth Jesus, and God the Father sent forth the Spirit ... that you would be liberated from bondage and adopted as His sons." The deity of Christ, very plain, the humanity of Christ, also very plain. John 1:1, "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God." And verse 14, "The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us and we have seen His glory, glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." The incarnation, focus here, is specifically on Jesus born of a woman, and I think that must hearken back to the first prophecy about Jesus, back in the Garden of Eden, you remember? How the serpent came with his subtlety and guile and approached the woman, Eve, and deceived her and led her into sin, and she gave some fruit to her husband, who is with her, and he ate and then God comes in judgment to deal with the situation? And as he deals with the serpent, as he deals with the snake, who we know is Satan, he's taken on this deceptive guise, as he always does, God judged the serpent directly. To some degree, the serpent had made kind of a deal with the woman, kind of a pact. And God came and severed it in a beautiful way. He says, "I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head and you will bruise his heel." It's a clear prophecy for us of Christ, isn't it? Jesus is the seed of the woman and it's very unique because of the special movement of the Holy Spirit on her body, so that there was no human father and this is the mystery of the incarnation. Mary wrestled with it first, really. When the angel told her what was going to happen, the angel said in Luke 1:30-35, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God, you will be with child and give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the most high." There's the deity of Christ. "The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father, David," that's the humanity of Christ, "and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, His kingdom will never end. 'How will this be?' Mary asked the Angel, 'since I am a virgin?' The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you, so the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.'" So Jesus was born of a woman specifically because he had no human father. There was no human father in this amazing conception of Jesus, but Mary was fully human and so Jesus has connection to the genealogy of David, his father, as he was called Son of David, was through her, he was born of a woman. It also says he was born under the Law and how beautiful is this? Jesus came from absolute freedom on the throne of the universe and put his neck under the yoke of the Mosaic Law. It's just amazing to think of the humility, the condescension of Jesus to do that. He was under the yoke, it was said a yoke that neither we nor our fathers are able to bear. Jesus, this mighty Samson, really comes and he can bear it. This moral Samson, this powerful ruler, who comes and puts his neck under the meticulous precepts of the Law of Moses and fully obeys it, perfectly obeys it. He was completely obedient to the Law of Moses. Now, in many ways, Jesus is the only one that really perfectly fulfills the words that Paul gave us at the beginning of this text. Look again, verse one and two, this is really of Jesus, I think. "What I am saying is that as long as the heir," read Jesus as the heir, "as long as the heir is a child, He's no different than a slave, although He owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees, until the time set by His father." Isn't that true of Jesus? Jesus is the heir of the world, He's the heir of the universe, Son of God, but he submitted to his parents, right? Submitted to Joseph and Mary, didn't he submit to them? Says he was submissive to them, in Luke 2. He obeyed all of the laws, submitted to that. He was under guardianship until the right time, perfectly law-abiding. Jesus alone, fulfilled his own summary of the Law. Remember that, the twofold summary? "Jesus came from absolute freedom on the throne of the universe and put his neck under the yoke of the Mosaic Law. It's just amazing to think of the humility, the condescension of Jesus to do that." The first and greatest Commandment of the Law is this, "You should love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength." Only one man has ever done that. Jesus obeyed that. He loved God every moment of his life, with every fiber of his being. And the second is like it, "Love your neighbor as yourself." The cross, really, is the measurement of Jesus's love for his neighbor. He was willing to die for us. Perfectly, day by day, healing infirmities, feeding the hungry, counseling those that needed wisdom. Jesus loved His neighbor perfectly, He was submissive to that. He actually obeyed all of it, every minute detail. Those are just the summaries. He obeyed it all, all the 10 Commandments, perfectly obeyed. Some scholars have counted 613 commandments given in the Mosaic covenant, he obeyed them all. All of them. Jesus said, in Matthew 5:17-18, "Do not think that I've come to abolish the Law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until Heaven and Earth pass away, not the smallest jot or tiniest tittle, the little pen stroke of the Law will pass away, until everything has been fulfilled." Jesus was under every jot and tittle, every little minute, meticulous law. And Jesus's perfect obedience to the Law won a righteousness in the sight of God, that He then offers you as a gift. Isn't that awesome? His active obedience to the Law for those 30 plus years that he lived under the Law, wove a garment, everyday that he lived under the Law of Moses, another thread in the loom of a beautiful, radiant garment and he just hands it to you in the Gospel and says, "Here, put this on. You're going to need this on Judgment Day. So put it on and I will see you. God, the Father, will see you as perfectly righteous in me." We are not saved, except by the active obedience of Christ, under the Law, day by day, plus the passive obedience of Christ to take the curse of the Law on himself. Both of those are essential to our salvation. Tim Keller beautifully put it this way, "Jesus lived the life we should have lived, and died the death we should have died." It's beautiful, isn't it? To redeem, it says, those under the law. The word 'redeem' here fits this context perfectly. We were bought out by the payment of a price. Says in 1 Corinthian 6:19-20, "You are not your own, you were bought at a price." It is so vital for us to remember that. We don't own ourselves. Jesus shed his blood, says in Ephesians 1:7, "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace." So by Christ death, the Law no longer has any claim on us, in that sense. The Law does not stand over us any longer to condemn us to hell. We are free from the accusations and the condemnation of the Law through Jesus. Roman 6:14 also says, We are not under sin at all. "Sin shall not be your master because you are not under Law, but under grace." It's a whole different way to live now, we are free. We're not under what once bound us, we are redeemed from tyrannical masters. We are set free. But free to what? Free to what? Free from the Law and all that, now what? We're on our own? Think about how it was with the slaves here in America. After the war was over, millions of them instantly set free. For what though? Some of them had nowhere to go. Some of them actually stayed in the same plantation and worked in much the same way because they had no other... Now, they had to be paid. But they just didn't... Into what kind of life were they being freed? Now, definitely, it was superior to slavery, but there's a question. IV. The Full Rights of Adoption (verses 5-7) The text says we are not merely set free, we are also adopted by our Father, who will now take care of us and provide for us and protect us the rest of our lives. We have been adopted, not just set free, not just emancipated. And so we have verses 5-7, the full rights of adoption, "To redeem those under the Law that we might receive the full rights of sons, and because you are sons, God sent the spirit of His Son into our hearts, the spirit who cries out, 'Abba, Father!' So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And since you are a son, God has made you also an heir." This is the most astonishing aspect of our privileges in Christ, we are adopted, adopted sons and daughters. Now, our status as sons and daughters is not by nature, but by grace. You could say, in one sense, there's only one natural Son of God, what we call only begotten Son of God, and that's Jesus. Forever, there'll be an essential and infinite difference between Jesus and us, in that sense. He is the only one of his kind, only begotten. The Son, Jesus, is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, that's what Jesus is. We are adopted by grace, what was our nature? Well, you know what our nature was. How about this? Titus 3:3, "At one time, we too are foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envied being hated and hating one another." That was our nature. Contrary to our nature, by grace alone, we are adopted now, as sons and daughters of the living God. This is a supernatural work, something only God could do. We are born of the spirit. It says in John 1:12-13, "as many as received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. Children born not of blood, nor of the will of man, nor of human nature, the will of the flesh, but born of God." It's a supernatural... Every Christian is a miracle, supernatural movement of God's grace on you. And when he did that, then God sent forth, like he sent forth Jesus, he sent forth his spirit into your hearts, crying out, 'Abba, Father!' Crying out, 'Abba, Father!' It's almost like a homing mechanism, a beacon going inside you, saying, "Father, Father, Father, Father," or you could also say, "Heaven, Heaven, Heaven. I'm coming home, I'm coming home." And the spirit is leading us along that beam, right to that celestial city. How awesome is that? The spirit in our hearts crying out, 'Abba, Father!' By the way, Abba, the very same thing Jesus called his father in Gethsemane, daddy, in Arameic, "Abba, Father," he said, "All things are possible for You. May this cup be taken from me." But that intimacy, the spirit of Jesus, the spirit of sonship is in us. Crying out, not just whispering, crying out, "Abba, Father!" And it's so awesome, the Father now in Christ loves us as much as he loves his own son. It's incredible teaching, but Jesus prayed that. He said, in John 17:23, "I, in them and you, in me. May they be brought to complete unity, to let the world know that You have loved them even as You have loved me." That's awesome. And that spirit testifies, it says in Romans 8, "With our spirits, that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs of Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings, in order that we may also share in His glory." And we are infinitely rich in that. Infinitely rich, as adopted sons of God, and we are going to be made rich. It says in Revelation 21:7, God has made this clear promise, "He who overcomes, will inherit all this." New Heaven, new Earth, new Jerusalem, and "I will be his God, and He will be my son." V. The Insanity of Sons Living Like Slaves (verses 8-11) Alright, so that's what we are. Do you not see how insane it is to live like a slave? Do you not see how insane it would be for us, who are redeemed sons and daughters of the living God, to live like slaves? Look at verses 8-11. "Formally," it says, "when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not God's, but now that you know God or rather are known by God, how is it that you're turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You're observing special days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you." He's talking there about their former life as pagans. Ignorant of God, they did not know him. They didn't know his holy ways. Living in lust and pagan revelry. Sacrificing to pagan deities. Living under the dominion of demons. It says in 1 Corinthians 10:20, "The sacrifices of pagans are given to demons." They were enslaved by those who, by nature, were not God's: Demons, wicked, hostile, restless, murderers. That was your former way of life, oh Galatians. That's the way you used to live. "Now that you know God, and even more importantly are known by God," how sweet is that? We love. Why? Because He first loved us and you know what? We know him. Why? Because He first knew us. It's vastly more important that God knows us than that you know God, just so you know. It's so important that on Judgement Day, he claims you as one of his own children. And so he claims, everything has changed for you now. You know God and are known by God. This God, who it says in the Psalms, "Oh Lord, You have searched me and You know me. You know when I sit and when I rise. You perceive my thoughts from afar. You know when I come in and when I go out. You hem me in behind and before." This God knows you intimately and loves you completely. How can you now go back to your old way of life? How can you turn back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you want to be enslaved by them all over again? You're observing special days and months and seasons and years. Now, I want you to listen carefully what I am about to say. It's probably one of the most explosive things in this whole sermon. Here it is. The implication of that statement is this, that by going after legalistic Christianity, in which the Law of Moses dominates, it's no different than it was before the Gospel ever came to their town. Let me go a step further. Christless Judaism is every bit as demonic as paganism or animism or anything else. They're equally demonic. We tend to think, "Well, you know, it's monotheistic, at least. It's a step closer to it." No, it's just the deception of the devil to ensnare people with moralistic, legalistic principles and teach them that they can save themselves by their own good works. It's just demonic. So Christless Judaism is every bit as demonic as animist or paganism or pantheism or any of those things. There is a beautiful circle of light and that's called the Gospel. We stepped inside of it because everything else is darkness. And Paul says, "you're going back to the same thing you had before I came to your town and preached. I am afraid, I fear that somehow, I may have wasted my efforts on you." "Christless Judaism is every bit as demonic as paganism or animism or anything else." VI. Applications So what application can we take from this? Well, first, understand the spiritual condition of every non-Christian around you, enslaved to these demonic principles and they can't get out. They can't set themselves free, there's nothing that they can do. There's only one power that can set them free and that's the power of the Gospel. It is the power of God to salvation for all who believed. Secondly, understand the gift of redemption through faith in Christ. Blood redemption is full payment for our sins. Understand the joy of that, freedom from guilt and condemnation. Trust in Christ, all of you, trust in him. You may have been Christians for decades, trust in him still. Look to Christ and trust in him. Don't lapse back into legalistic patterns, trust in him at every moment. Those of you who walked in this place outside of the Gospel, come in now. Come in while there's time, come into the circle of light, come into freedom, come into adoption. Then you get to celebrate your emancipation for the rest of your life. So I can just say this to you Christians, celebrate. Smile, not just because the sermon's almost done, because it is. But celebrate, celebrate that you are set free from sin and bondage and demonic forces, celebrate that. Be joyful and delight in the privileges of your adoption as sons and daughters. You have a Father now who loves you, you have security in his family. He will never kick you out. He will provide for all of your needs until the day you die. He will protect you from all attacks, nothing can harm you, accept what passes through his hands and it won't harm you. All trials come from him. You have discipline. If you sin, he's going to discipline you, he's going to treat you like a son. If you sin, he will discipline you. You have free access to the Father in prayer. The spirit cries out within you, "Abba, Father!", so pray. Pray freely, pray with great confidence, pray with great zeal and energy. You have fellowship with brothers and sisters, you're in a vast family. You have now a shared family mission with the Father. He's doing some work, He wants you to join Him in the family business, we can put it that way. You have the Holy Spirit as counselor and guide. You have authority to reign with Christ. You can be called, are called by God's name. You are known by God and you can know him. So don't live like a slave. Finally, very practically, a good number of the members of our church are excited about in the process of literally adopting children. It's a very costly process, it takes a lot of money, it takes a lot of energy. It takes a lot of resources. Our church should get around the people who are doing that. We should encourage them. We should find out who they are, we know who they are, I'm not going to list them right now, but we should encourage them. We should say, "How can we help?" They'll let you know, alright? But let's be financially generous to help them. Let's pray for them and encourage them, and let's just rejoice in adoption itself. It's such a great picture of the Gospel, isn't it? Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time that we've had to study Your word and I pray that as we close now this worship service, oh Lord, I pray that You would fill us with Your spirit, the spirit of sonship, by which we cry "Abba, Father!" and that we would walk in the joyful freedom that is ours, as adopted children of God and as co-heirs with Christ. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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The Word of God is Living and Active (Hebrews Sermon 17 of 74) (Audio)

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Play Episode Listen Later Feb 6, 2011

The Secrets of Swordmaking I am so excited to preach this message. I said that last week didn't I? I just am. I just feel blessed to the core of my being, for the privilege of unfolding the Word of God before you week after week. And I celebrate today that the topic is the Word of God itself, for I love the Bible, and I love everything that it says. Throughout history, no technology was so carefully developed and guarded, protected as that of swordmaking. The sword itself, the most powerful weapon in the world before the advent of gunpowder. And thus, it became a symbol both of military conquest and of the governmental power that followed it. To live by the sword, or to die by the sword, meant to live or die by that military conquest. David said, "The sword devours one, as well as another," referring to the power of the sword to take life. Swords are mentioned over 400 times in the Bible. The merest mention of the word sword conjures up in our hearts, our memories, the thoughts of heroic courageous figures or terrifying figures from history, the Roman gladiators, the Roman legions who carried that short stabbing sword. English Knights. King Arthur who pulled Excalibur out of the rock, as you remember. Or the terrifying power of the Viking warriors. Or the stealth of Japanese ninjas, the sword. When I was a missionary in Japan, I was fascinated by the katana. The legendary Samurai sword that was forged with astonishing precision by ancient technologies. If you looked at the edge of one of these exquisite swords, you could see them on display in museums. They had an interesting kind of ripple quality to them. You know, smooth as silk, smooth as glass, but still, you can see these ripples within the crystal structure of the actual steel. And that's because they use two different kinds of steel and they sandwich them one after the other, and pounded them down under the heat of the forge. They use high carbon steel which is exceptionally hard and could be honed to a razor-sharp edge, but was very brittle and it just won't do in the middle of a battle to have your sword snap in half. And so, they would put in then a layer of low carbon steel, which was softer, more malleable, which absorbed the blow and could give the sword a kind of a toughness and through secret technologies were able to make these remarkable swords, a katana.It took centuries for the Japanese blacksmiths to develop this art and they guarded the secrets of it very closely and then stories, a kind of mythology, grew up around the katana, around this special Samurai sword, specifically of two individuals, one named Masamune and the other Muramasa, two men who actually lived at different times from each other, but no matter for the myth or the legend. The legendary contest that occurred between them had the elder Samurai blacksmith, Masamune, as the mentor and trainer to the younger Muramasa. Masamune's swords are regarded as the most beautifully crafted, most skillfully katana ever made. Surviving swords are priceless national treasures. By contrast, Muramasa's swords were regarded as violent, brutish and evil. The swords of Masamune considered to be deeply spiritual, pure, and benevolent. In the legend, Muramasa was Masamune's student. The student became arrogant and at some point challenged his master to see who can make the finer sword. To test the swords, each sword was held into the current of a mountain stream. And the student Muramasa's sword was so perfectly sharp, honed to a razor sharp edge, it was said to have cut a leaf in half that floated down the stream and just met the edge of its blade. But the Master Masamune's sword did not cut a thing. When the leaves would get near to its edge, it would miraculously avoid the sword and float around it, showing that the sword somehow possessed a benevolent power that it would harm nothing that was innocent or undeserving a punishment. The Cutting of the God’s Word Friends, that's just a legend, it never happened. But I say to you in the passage that we read of today, you just heard read, we hear of a more perfect sword, sharper, more penetrating and more pure, more spiritual than any of these legends can describe. As a matter of fact, this sword is actually said to be alive even better than the Samurai legend, the sword only ever cuts in order to heal, it only ever cuts in order to bring life, it cuts in order to engraft faith, it cuts in order to surgically remove the tumors of sin. The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to the dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything's uncovered and laid bare, before the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account. Every time you pick up a Bible, you're holding in your hands a miracle, a living miracle spiritually alive. Only the power of Almighty God can explain the existence and the potency of this book. Over the centuries, God forged this sword in the furnace of human history, on the anvil of human experience and hearts. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we have this Scripture. Now why does the author celebrate the Word of God here in Hebrews 4? What is the context of this celebration of the living and active Word of God? Why here? Well, remember the overall context of the Book of Hebrews, the author to the Hebrews is deeply concerned about a congregation of Jewish people who had made an outward profession of faith in Christ, but who under the pressure of persecution were waffling in their commitment to Christ. Their commitment to Christ outwardly seemed to be decaying. Some of them weren't attending church anymore, they were afraid to do so. And so they were in a decaying orbit with Christ, and so he writes this letter of warning, this letter of exhortation to stimulate and strengthen them in their faith so that they will not fall away. And for the last two chapters in Hebrews, Hebrews 3 and 4, he has been marvelously meditating on just five verses in the Old Testament, Psalm 95. He's just ruminating very deeply on phase after phrase of Psalm 95. And he's taking the spiritual lessons of that Psalm from the Old Covenant, and moving them over to New Testament, New Covenant believers like you and me, and applying those lessons to our spiritual situation to our condition. He's taking Psalm 95 and bringing it over. "Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts" as that generation did when they refused to enter the promised land. And so it says, "I declared on oath in my anger, they shall never enter my rest." So, the author has meditated powerfully on some key words like the concept of today as long as it is called today, today is the day we have to believe Christ. Today's the day we have to take in the Word of God to live for Jesus. We have today. It's all we'll ever have. So, he's meditated on this idea of today or he's talked about God's rest. "I swore an oath in my anger, they shall never enter my rest." What is God's rest? We found last week very clearly that it's the Sabbath rest, of eternity in God's presence, in heaven. And the danger then, of a hardening of a heart. "Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." And so he's warned them about the danger of a hardening heart and the only remedy there can be to the deceitfulness of sin that comes and hardens our heart is this, the living and active Word of God. It's the only remedy. And so he's wielding this sharp double-edged sword. He's been wielding it now for these two chapters, he's been wielding it really from the very beginning, The Book of Hebrews is saturated in Old Testament quotations, saturated in the Word of God, but I think he's really specifically saying, "Look at all that Psalm 95 can do in your life." And it's just five verses of the Old Testament. Oh, the beauty of the Scripture, the power of it, how it can be unleashed in your life. So he's talking about it, that's the context. And so what does he say? What does he say about the searching qualities of the Word of God? I. The Searching Qualities of the Word of God Well, look again at verse 12, "The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow." The Word of God is Living – It Imparts Life First he says that it's living. The Scripture is living. The Word of God as a living thing. It's alive in some mysterious way, it is a mystery, this life of the Scripture, it's a mysterious thing, but it is alive. These are living words. JI Packer, the Puritan scholar, speaking of Richard Baxter's 'Reformed Pastor' said this, "Its words have hands and feet. They climb all over you, they work their way into your heart and conscience and will not be dislodged." Well, dear friends, if that is true of Richard Baxter's uninspired book, 'Reformed Pastor,' how much infinitely more is that true of the Word of God? It has hands and feet and it climbs into your heart. These words are living things, they run into your brain through your eyes as you read and your ears as you hear. They find their way quickly through your spiritual bloodstream, into the vital organs of your spiritual experience, and they settle in there, they are alive, they begin to multiply their effects on you, they send off related thoughts and implications, they challenge an ever widening circle of issues in your heart and mind. They're multiplying, replicating, they're moving and churning, they're running roughshod over every objection you may have. They take your whole way of viewing everything in the world captive and transform it and make it like God's. The Bible is living and it's also life-giving, Basic principle and biology is life comes from life. If any biologist anywhere in the world is studying looking through a microscope at a living cell, plant or animal, that biologist knows one thing, that living cell came from something living. If something is alive, something living gave it birth. So also dear friends, if you are alive spiritually, it is the living Word of God that gave you life. That's where you got it from. Life comes from life, so the Word of God is living. We were spiritually dead, and now we are alive forever more. It says in Ephesians 2:1 1, "But as for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live." You were the living dead. You were biologically alive, but you were spiritually dead. But in Ephesians 2:5, it says God "made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions, it is by grace you have been saved…" and God used as an instrument of that spiritual life-giving, that spiritual resurrection of you, the Word of God, the Word of the Gospel. Jesus said in John 5:24, "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life and will not be condemned, he's crossed over from death to life." So the Word has power to give life to the dead. You remember that story in 2 Kings 13, where some dead person was being buried and it was a time of turbulence, military turbulence, as frequently happened in Israel's history, some raiders rode into that town and so the people in the middle of the funeral hurriedly took that dead body and threw it into Elisha's tomb where his bones were and suddenly that dead person sprang to life. That really happened. But it's also a kind of a living parable. If Elisha's bones can give life to a dead corpse, how much more can the living and enduring Word of God give life to a spiritual soul. Just spring to life when you hear the Gospel. We live on a living planet, don't we? This green, glowing, pulsating, alive, Emerald-like thing, just in the middle of blackness of space. Where does all that green come from, all those plants? Well, they come from seeds. Where do the seeds come from? They come from plants, and on and on. Read about it in Genesis 1. But the most remotest piece of land on earth is an island in the South Atlantic called Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic. It's 1509 miles from the nearest landmass, which is also another tiny little island in the South Atlantic, St. Helena, where Napoleon was exiled because it was so distant itself from every other landmass. It is just like half the continent of North America away from any land, and yet it's just covered with lush green vegetation. How in the world did that happen? So, biologists study this, and they wonder how the seeds got there to begin with. Well, I have no idea. Maybe they were carried there on wind currents. Maybe they were lodged in logs that floated from South America or from Africa, I don't really know. Maybe they were in the intestines of birds that ate some plant and then died, flew there and died and then the plant sprang to life. People have different theories, but it doesn't matter how distant or how far life can get there, how much more than to the distant shores does the gospel go with life in Jesus' name? And it doesn't matter how old it is either. I was reading recently about an archaeologist that found some old wheat seeds in the burial shrouds of a mummy from Egypt, he decided to plant them and he got wheat out of them. They were 3000 years old. But apparently no water had ever touched them and so they were vital, they were ready to go. In the 16th century, there was a copy of the Scriptures in some old Augustinian cloister, Martin Luther blows the dust off the pages, reads and comes to life spiritually, and the Reformation just jumps up out of that. It doesn't matter how old the Bible is, it is still vital, still alive. Bible also has power to revive you spiritually, to renew you, to give you new life in your walk with Jesus. As it says in Psalm 23, "He restores my soul." Or in Isaiah 40, "Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar on wings as eagles, they'll run and not be weary, they'll walk and not be faint." All of that gets ministered to you through the Bible. That's how it comes, the Scripture comes and gives you life. Have you ever heard it said of a great teacher, a preacher, "That individual makes the Bible come alive"? I hate that expression. The Bible is already alive. We are the ones with the problem. No, a skillful teacher is using the Bible to make you come alive. The Bible's forever young, it's forever ancient. It will never lose its youthful vitality or its ancient wisdom and experience. It's never gonna get old and feeble, or decrepit. It cannot become out of date and uncool or is the word "vintage." The Bible is never gonna be vintage, dear friends. The Bible is alive and active today. It's younger than you are, and it's older than you are. It doesn't matter how old you are, how young you are. It's vital, it's strong. And also beautifully, the Bible cannot be killed, though many have tried to do it. You just can't kill it. The Roman Empire sought to do it, they couldn't do it. The barbarian Dark Ages that spread over Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire couldn't do it. Vikings and all their depredations on the monasteries, they didn't care about the Word of God at all, so they sacked the monasteries, because there is no one there that could fight them, or would fight them. And they burned all these worthless scrolls, and took the gold and silver they found, and off they went. About 150 years later, they're converted to Christianity. That's what happens with the Vikings. You can't destroy the Word of God. You can burn some copies of it. You can burn some scrolls. Many have done that. The Medieval Roman Catholic church burned Luther's German translation of the Bible, they burned the Bible, because it was in the vernacular, but still it lives. The enlightenment's mockery under Voltaire couldn't stop it. The enlightenment philosophy under Immanuel Kant couldn't destroy it. It's still here. And the murderous and totalitarian regimes of the 20th century Nazism and Communism, they tried to destroy it. Nazism is dead and gone, communism is going to join it soon, but the Bible still stands and it will stand forever. Persecution can't kill the Bible, neither can worldliness. Our worldliness will not kill the Bible. It may kill us but it's not gonna kill the Bible. Doctrinal error can't kill the Bible, lazy neglect of its teachings cannot kill the Bible, nor slanderous misrepresentations of its teachings, that cannot kill it, nor unbelief by whole regions and generations of people, that cannot kill it either, it still lives. Charles Spurgeon put it this way, "The gospel is such a living gospel that were it cut into a thousand shreds, every particle of it would spring to life and grow. If it were buried beneath a thousand avalanches of error, it would shake off the rubble and rise from its grave. If it were cast into the midst of a fire, it would simply walk through the flame, as it has done many a time as if it were in its native element." So, the Bible is living. The Word of God is Active Secondly, the Bible is active. And now, you're wondering how long this sermon is going to be. Now you're wondering, Okay, we're only on the second descriptor. Well, don't worry, Eric already said you're going to get out before the Super Bowl, right? When is that? 6 O'clock, 7 O'clock. Worry not, dear friends. The Bible is active, the Word of God is living and active. What does it mean active? Another translation, would be powerful or perhaps energetic. I take it to mean effective. The Bible is effective, it's able to produce the effect it desires. When drug manufacturers want to test the effectiveness of a drug, they have to remove any questions about what's called a psychosomatic effect. In other words, people who take pills and medication think they're going to get better and that helps them to get better. So in order to test that they come up with things called placebos; they have the same shape and size and color of the other pill and they do tests. The placebo however is studied because it has absolutely no chemical effect on the body at all, at least in the areas that they're trying to study. So, it just removes that at all, and then they can compare. Let me tell you something, the Bible is no placebo. It is effective, it's an effective agent, it steps in and does what God sends it to do, every time. And the clear testimony of this, Isaiah 55:10-11, "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth, it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." God sends forth His word and it comes back to Him having done the job. By the way, in that passage, Isaiah 55, I discovered this morning. I hadn't thought it through. The Word of God is compared to rain there, precipitation. In other places, it's compared to the seed, so the Word of God is everything, it's the rain that comes down, it's the seed that it receives. God's all over the whole process. The Word of God produces an unmistakable effect and God said, "Let there be light and there was light." Genesis 1:3, or in Genesis 1:9, "And God said, Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place and let dry ground appear, and it was so." The Word of God produces the effects specifically on human hearts spiritually, for the elect, those chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. The word brings them to life, and sustains them in life until they are glorified in the presence of God. For the non-elect, they are hardened and offended by the Word. They are confirmed in sin and in patterns. They are given over to their sin, as it says in Romans chapter 1, by the same Word. And so it says in 2 Corinthians 2:15-16, "For we are to God, the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and to those who are perishing, to the one the smell of death and to the other we are the fragrance of life." Now, preachers need to trust wholly in the Bible to transform the church. Put your trust here. Anyone who wants to see a church transform, they must put their trust in the Word and not in some technique or gimmick coming from a Christian book store that you can buy for $39.99 and you get out of a box. Reformation of a church doesn't come out of a box, it comes out of the Scripture. Spurgeon says this to his fellow pastors, "You may study your sermon, my brother, and you may be a great rhetorician, you may be able to deliver it with wonderful fluency and force, but the only power that is effectual for the highest design of preaching is the power which does not lie in your word nor in my word, but in the Word of God." Have you never noticed when persons are converted that they almost always attribute it to some text that was quoted in the sermon? It is God's word and not our comment on God's Word, which saves souls. So, what effect does the Word of God produce? Well, it releases those that are held captive to sin, it unlocks the doors of hearts and the prison cell of unbelief, and lets the captive go free into a free life of Jesus. It unlocks the doors of depression and discouragement and sets the captive free into lives of joyful selfless service to the Savior. It convicts sinful twisted hearts of deep patterns of selfishness, it reveals hidden lusts and the cliff edges of materialism and other things in the heart to keep that soul walking in Jesus, that's what the Scripture can do. And all servants of Christ, pastors or not, it doesn't matter, should put their full trust in the Word of God because the Word of God alone is effective. The Word of God is Sharp Thirdly, the Word of God is sharp, sharp. It says sharper than any double-edged sword, the sharpness of the Word of God. Its ability to divide and render asunder things that ordinarily would be together, that's what's discussed here. What is a double-edged sword? Literally, the Greek is two-mouthed sword, one that cuts both ways, two sharp edges, two honed edges. No dull side. Friends, there are no dull passages in the Bible. There are only dull minds as we come to those passages. Spurgeon was relating a story of a man who was just reading a Sunday school lesson, just reading the Sunday School lesson. And he came to that genealogy in Genesis 5, which goes from Adam to Noah. And it's just this kind of rhythmic so-and-so lived so many years after the birth of so and so, and they had other sons and daughters, and then he died, and then he died, and then he died and then he died, and then he died, and the man was converted because he was considering his own death. He was cut to the heart by that passage because it has piercing, it has cutting abilities. The Word is sharp. It is sharp and it cuts both ways. A preacher unleashing the powerful convicting word of the Bible ought to see, does see, if he's a godly man, that it's cutting both ways. It's not just the people that are being cut, but it's the preacher as well. He stands under the convicting, converting, the transforming power of the Word, because he is having those same things happening in his life. And I was meditating on this cutting because there's a Greek word that relates to the cutting. It made me think of another passage of Scripture, 2 Timothy 2:15, which says, Paul's talking to Timothy, a young pastor. He says "Study to show yourselves approved unto God, a workman who doesn't need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth." Orthotomeo is a Greek word, rightly cutting it, cutting it right. So I thought, Now this is strange. In Hebrews, it talks about how the word is sharp, but then in 2 Timothy, it's that he's to cut the word straight. So I was meditating on this and I came up with my onion illustration. About two or three months ago, I was making spaghetti with fresh onions, big white onions from the produce section. And I got a sharp knife and I sliced right through the center of that onion, and opened it up, and I was weeping within 30 seconds. I was just weeping as the pungent chemicals just oozed and flowed up into my face. And so I think that's how these two relate. A skillful pastor cuts open the Scripture so it can cut you open, just unfolds the Word of God so that you are cut open before it and brought to tears over sin, brought to conviction and brought to joy over what Jesus has done at the cross. And so the Word of God does have power to hurt you and it also has power to heal you from that hurt. He wounds, and then he binds up the wounds, and he does it by the Word. Take someone with a malignant tumor growing up inside their body, strangely, the body is supporting and nourishing that malignant tumor with blood vessels, feeding that tumor with blood vessels. The surgeon comes in with a scalpel and cut those blood vessels and there is bleeding. But the intention is healing because that tumor will kill you. And so the Word of God is sharp to heal you from sin. The Word of God is Penetrating And it's also penetrating. The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates to the dividing of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. So it's not just a slashing kind of thing, but a piercing kind of thing. There's a sense of piercing. Well, what's being pierced? Our hardened hearts. That's what's being pierced. It says in Hebrews 3:12-13, "See to it brothers that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." Sin is deceitful. And the effect is a hardening of the heart. The Word of God has a remedy, it pierces the hardness that sin has produced. As in the days of Peter's sermon at Pentecost in Acts 2:37. When the people heard his sermon, it says, "They were cut to the heart," they were pierced in their hearts, "and they said to Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?'" "Repent and believe in Jesus" is the answer. But because they were pierced. The Word of God can pierce like a rapier point. One of my favorite stories from church history concerns George Whitefield, he was a powerful preacher of the Word of God, very dramatic but very biblical, very God-centered. He was an expository preacher but very passionate and dramatic in his presentation. He's just going verse by verse and going through this and unleashing the power of the Word of God. And the Great Awakening, just by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Great Awakening was just pouring down as this man and others preached this Word. However, everywhere Whitefield went, he stimulated tremendous opposition, people hated him, and opposed him. Some would blow trumpets in his ear while he's up on the stand preaching, others would throw dead cats at him or worse. He had enemies, and as he was doing it in one particular ministry in Bristol, England, he had stimulated some specific opposition. Now, George Whitefield had a defect with his body. His eyes were constantly crossed. He had crossed-eye like that, and so those that sought to mock him called him Dr. Squintum. And so he had these squinty kind of crossed eyes, and there was this one particular group of young men who made it their business to mock Whitefield everywhere he went. They organized themselves in something called the Hell-Fire Club and there was a particular man named Thorpe, who was kind of the ring leader of the Hell-Fire Club, and they just kind of mocked him wherever he went in Bristol, England. And apparently, Thorpe was very good at doing impressions, he was good at it, and he had all of Whitefield's mannerisms and gestures down pat. So he went with his buddies, the Hell-Fire Club, to a certain pub like a bar and he got a copy of one of Whitefield's printed sermons, and he has the copy in his hand, gets up on the table and starts to mock Whitefield by preaching one of Whitefield's sermons. Ten minutes into it, he is converted by the power of what he's mocking. He just sinks down on his knees in tears and begs Jesus to forgive him, forgive. This piercing power of the Word of God, and then he became himself a preacher of the Word, and led many to faith in Christ. It's the piercing power of the Word of God. You can't escape it, if you're one of God's elect; and the Word of God has power to discriminate in your mind between this and that, to set it apart, to divide soul and spirit, joints and marrow. I don't know what that means exactly. Some theologians say that there's a difference between the soul and the spirit. They say that the soul is that part of you that relates to God and they even, some of them, talk about it being implanted at the new birth, relationship with God. And then they say the spirit's the natural kind of immaterial part of you that enervates you, that gives you life, etcetera. Look, I don't know, I think that the word soul and spirit are frequently used interchangeable in Scripture, but I know this, if there can be a distinction made between soul and spirit, it's the Word of God that can do it, and it can divide between joints and marrow too. And so it discriminates. Charles Spurgeon put it this way, "The Word not only lets you see what your thoughts are, but it criticizes your thoughts. The Word of God says of this thought it is vain and of that thought it is acceptable. of this thought it is selfish and of that thought it is Christ-like. It is a judge of the thoughts of men and the Word of God is such a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart that when men twist about and wind and wander yet it tracks them down." II. Judgment Day Before the Word of God And so, the written Word of God is vibrant, and its job is to bring us now, now, today, while there's time, spiritually in our minds to bring us to Judgment Day. That's its job. It brings Judgment Day to you or you to Judgment Day because it says it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. The function of Scripture is to save your soul. 2 Timothy 3:15, "How from infancy, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." That's what they can do. And so, before salvation can happen, a sinner has to be made to see himself as guilty in the eyes of the holy God. That sinner has to be brought to the judgment bar of God and stand guilty, and the Word of God has power to do that. It's a mirror that shows you your corruptions, and it has power to illuminate your thought-life and reveal it to be godly or corrupt at any moment, it has the power to lay open the twists and turns of your tricky heart. It says in Jeremiah 17:9 and 10, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" That's not a rhetorical question, it's a real question. Who can understand the human heart? Next verse, "I the Lord search the heart and the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve." God knows your heart. He knows everything about it, even in its sinfulness. Hunters catch foxes by studying their habit patterns and how they are clever and tricky, and how they double back on their ways and all that, what their layers are, and so human beings can hunt foxes successfully. But we can't hunt our own hearts successfully, can we? But God through the Word can hunt our hearts successfully and the Word of God works together with the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit uses the Word, and the Word and the Holy Spirit go together. And so the Spirit brings conviction of sin and it brings us to the judgment seat of God. And why is that? III. The Searching Omniscience of God Himself Look at verse 13, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account," of God. This is God's universe. He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and His holy eyes search out everything there is on this planet. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. We in our sin yearn to hide, we yearn to hide. Adam and Eve made those fig leaf coverings for themselves and then when they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, they ran and hid behind trees. They're looking for a covering and they think that God cannot see what they do in the dark. But even the darkness is as light to God, there's nothing in all creation hidden. Our secret lusts, our secret deeds, our secret desires, our secret histories, the things we've done in the past, the Word of God uncovers them in His holy presence so that we can bring them to the cross of Jesus for forgiveness. So that we can bring those things to Jesus and say, "Lord I am a sinner, oh Be merciful to me. Oh, Jesus, you shed your blood for sinners. I am a sinner. Save me, save me." Even the best men in the Bible forget that God sees everything. We always think we sin in the dark, don't we? So Moses right before he kills the Egyptian, what's he do? He kind of looks here and there. Well, what's he looking for? For eyewitnesses. Seeing that there were none, he proceeded and killed the man, but he forgot the most important eyewitness of all, Almighty God. Or Jonah, he runs down and gets on the ship. Why? To get away from God. You can't do that. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. There's nowhere you can go from His Spirit, nowhere you can flee from His presence. And we yearn for a covering. And why? IV. Judgment Day Before God Himself Because some day in verse 13, we are going to give God an account. We are going to stand before Him and we will give Him an account. Later in this book of Hebrews, "Man is destined to die once and after that to face judgment." And we are not ready, in our naked sin, we are not ready to stand before Him. We need a covering, amen? We need a covering. And there is a covering; the covering is the blood of Jesus, and so it says in Romans Chapter 4, "Blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered." We need a covering and the covering is provided. His name is Jesus, His blood was shed that we might be covered, that we might be forgiven, that we might stand clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. V. Application And so, what application can we take from this? Prize and reverence the Word of God, revere it. I don't mean set the book in front of you, and bow down to it like some heathenish idol. Not saying that. I'm saying open it up and read it, listen to its message and realize that God's speaking to you by it. And let the Word of God convert you. You may be here in an unconverted state, you should tremble about that, it should cause you to be worried and concerned about your soul. I plead with you to flee to Christ. Jesus shed His blood for sinners like you and me, God raised Him from the dead on the third day, trust in Him. The Word of God has power to convert you. And if you're already a Christian, but you're feeling saggy in your Christian life, you're feeling drained, you're weak, especially in your prayer life, let the word of Christ revive you spiritually. Go to the Word to derive new strength from it and let the Word of God strengthen you for His service. You're given a ministry but you're getting weary in it, you're not seeing the fruits of the results, you're tired of it. Go back to the Word through the Spirit, and let the Word of God revive you and renew your strength so you can go out and serve Him. And let the Word of God be your main strategy for fruitfulness. If the Lord tarries and if the Lord calls me away from this pulpit, either by death or by some other calling, which I don't intend at all, it's not in my mind... I'd like to stay here till death. But if you're here and the time comes to get another pastor, get one that'll preach the Word, that's what you're searching for. And if you're looking, you're searching for a church, if you should leave from this place as our covenant says, or you're not a member yet, find a church that preaches the Word above all else, that's what you need. And finally let the Word of God search your innermost heart. I would suggest you physically lay down on your bed from time to time and say Psalm 139:23 and 24, "Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me, and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way and lead me in the way everlasting." And then having been renewed and revived and strengthened, then take the Word of God out to a world that needs it. You're surrounded by people without hope and without God in the world, minister the Word of God to somebody this week, say the words of Scripture to a lost person this week, get into a great conversation like Jesus did with that woman at the Samaritan well. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank You for the power of the living and active Word of God. We thank you for everything it does in our souls. I pray that you would take the words that I've spoken and that You would blow away the chaff, the influences and effects that I have given that are unhelpful for human hearts. Blow them away, but let the eternal seed of the Word of God take root in hearts and grow to bear fruit for eternity. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Jesus, Death-Destroyer and Gentle Priest (Hebrews Sermon 8 of 74) (Audio)

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 7, 2010

A Slave Trader’s Fear of Death The Famous hymn says, "T'was grace that taught my heart to fear. And grace my fears relieved." Of course that's coming from Amazing Grace, arguably the most popular hymn in the world. One immediately recognizable even to many non-church people. Written by John Newton, I think, as a personal testimony that he was giving of how God saved him. "A wretch," he called himself in that hymn. He was a famous sinner. The ship's captain, where he served as a slave-trading vessel, said he had never heard anyone blaspheme and swear like John Newton. Later, God put those gifts of verbal skill to better use. When he was converted, God transformed that ability but the captain of that ship, the Greyhound, said he invented swears no one had ever heard before. That was John Newton, he was a wretch, he was a wicked man. A blasphemer. But there was a night in March of 1748 while that ship, the Greyhound, was in the North Atlantic that a storm threatened to destroy the entire ship and everybody aboard. And Newton saw a man swept overboard where he had been standing just moments before. And after hours of the crew bailing and just trying to empty that rapidly filling ship of water and just trying to stay afloat, he offered a desperate suggestion to the captain that might save the ship in some way. Captain ordered that it be done and Newton said, "If this will not do, then Lord have mercy on us all." He said those words. He then returned to the pump where he and another sailor were pumping and lashed himself to it so he wouldn't be swept overboard, and for 11 hours fought the storm and fought to stay alive. And during that time, he says in his later writings, he was thinking again and again about his own words. If this will not do, then the Lord have mercy on us all. And he started thinking about how afraid he was to die. He was afraid to die. He was afraid that after he died, he'd be sent to hell. And he knew that the only thing that could deliver him from death and hell was the mercy of the same Lord that he'd been blaspheming earlier that day. And that was the beginning of his conversion. T'was grace that taught his heart to fear and grace his fears relieved. These fears must be tied to death. To be afraid of death and the judgement that follows. It is appointed unto each one of us to die once and after that to face the judgement. Some people don't have any idea why the grace of God would teach someone to fear. I remember Phil Driscoll who plays incredible trumpet and sings songs, did his version of Amazing Grace, changed the lyrics a little bit. T'was grace that taught my heart to love and grace my fears relieved. I think the original's better. It is God's grace that teaches us to fear his judgement, to fear death and hell. It is God's grace to us to teach us to fear those things. And I say to you, and I say it tenderly, there are some people sitting here today who do not fear death enough, who ought to fear death immeasurably more than you do. I say it to you tenderly because you are lost. You are not yet converted. You're not ready to face judgement, you're not ready to stand before God. You don't have Jesus as your Lord and Savior. And therefore, you greatly underestimate the danger that death is to you. Greatly underestimate it. Jesus said this, "Do not fear those who kill the body and after that can do nothing to you. I'll tell you who to fear. Fear the one who after the death of the body has power to destroy both soul and body in hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him." It is grace to take Jesus' command there to heart, isn't it? And to fear the one who has power to destroy both soul and body in hell. But I also say to you tenderly that there are some here who fear death too much and ought not to fear death at all because you are Christians and Jesus has died for you, and he has liberated you from the bondage of slavery to fear of death. And that's what the text is talking about today. It's my delight to proclaim to you your Savior again, and to speak to you what he has achieved for you, and to speak to you Christians and encourage you and say, "Do not fear death ever again. Do not fear death." And so we're going to unfold Hebrews 2:14-18 in a very orderly and logical way. It's not a three-part outline, you notice. But it's a careful stepping through the text. I. Jesus Shared in Our Humanity I just want you to understand where we're heading but basically, we're going to cover this. Jesus became incarnate, he took on a human body, so that he could die, so he could destroy the devil and death, and so he could rescue us from bondage, from slavery to fear of death. So that he could take hold of Abraham's descendants and rescue them and be for us a merciful and faithful high priest, and in that way, step into our temptations and our sufferings when we are tempted and help us at our time of greatest need. So if I could sum all that up, Jesus took on a body to help you in your temptations. That's what it's about. We're going to learn how to invite Jesus, our merciful and high priest into our time of greatest weakness, our time of greatest suffering, that time of temptation. That's what this sermon is about. Let's start at the beginning. In verse 14, it speaks of the mystery of the incarnation of Jesus taking on a human body. Verse 14, "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity." This is the infinite mystery of the incarnation. The mystery of Christmas. God became man. AW Pink commenting on this verse said this: "Another thing which makes it so difficult for us to grasp the wonder of the Divine incarnation is that there is nothing else which we can for a moment compare with it; there is no analogy which in any wise resembles it. It stands unique, alone, in all its solitary grandeur. We are thrilled when we think of the angels sent forth to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation: that those wondrous creatures, which so far excel us in wisdom and strength, should have been appointed to be our attendants; that those holy creatures should be commissioned to encamp round about poor sinners; that the courtiers of Heaven should wait upon worms of the earth! Truly, that is a great wonder. But oh my brethren, that wonder pales into utter insignificance and, in comparison, fades away into nothingness, before this far greater wonder—that the Creator of angels should leave His throne on High and descend to this sin-cursed earth; that the very One before whom all the angels bow should, for a season, be made lower than they; that the Lord of glory, who had dwelt in "light unapproachable," should Himself become partaker of "flesh and blood"! This is the wonder of wonders." - Commentary on Hebrews, 131. We can never get done thinking about the mystery of Christmas. It's an infinite mystery, beyond all question the mystery of godliness is great. He became a man, took on a human body. And so here we have described the fact of the incarnation and unfolded from that its reasons why Jesus became a man. It says since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity. And the children are those that Christ is coming to save. And because they have flesh and blood, speaking there of their physical existence, because they have bodies, because they have a physical existence, not like the angels. The Greek expression says that these children have a fellowship together in flesh and blood. It unites the human race. We are all of us flesh and blood. It doesn't matter what race we come from. We share together this flesh and blood existence. It unites us. And Jesus had to join with us in that he had to become a partaker, a willing partaker of our human nature in order to save us. And so He had to take on a flesh and blood existence. Strong Family Language Now, there's a very strong family orientation to Hebrews 2. Lots of family language. I went over that last time that I preached on Hebrews. But just look again at some of the verses. Verse 11 it says, "Both the one who makes men holy, and those who are made holy are of the same family." So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. And then we have here in verse 14, "Since the children have flesh and blood, He shared in their humanity." Verse 17, "For this reason He had to be made like his brothers in every way." This is a family thing. God has in view the family of God with Jesus as our perfect elder brother, and Jesus is a brother to all of those that he's saving. Or we use the language of children since the children have flesh and blood. And He wanted them to become partakers of the divine nature that we should become like God. Isn't that beautiful? We were originally created in the image of God. Sin has marred that image badly. But now redeemed in Christ we are created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. It says in 2 Peter 1 that his precious promises are given to us so that through them, we "may participate in the divine nature." Now there are some words that can keep you busy at night meditating on them. That we may participate in the divine nature. Become like God. In order for us to become like God, he had to become like us and take on this flesh and blood existence. And this plan was in God's mind before the creation of the world. It says in Romans 8:29, "For those whom God foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." It was God's plan from the beginning that Jesus would be the firstborn brother of a family of brothers and sisters, all of us conformed to his image, that we would be like Jesus. This is what we're predestined for in Jesus. And it's a beautiful thing. And so Hebrews 2 reverses the whole thing and says, what Jesus had to do to make that happen? In order for that to happen, he had to leave his father's throne and then come down to that stable in Bethlehem and take on flesh and blood. II. So Jesus Can Die And so he took on this existence and he did it so that he could die. These are the reasons for the incarnation. "Since the children have flesh and blood he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy" the devil. Jesus did it so he could die. You should just marvel at the courage and love of that. He entered the world with his eyes open. Now, of course, once a baby had to learn many things. But before he took on human flesh, he knew very well, he was doing it to die. Now, the Hebrew word for flesh, word is "basar." It's used of both man and beast. We're very similar to the beasts. It says in Genesis 2:7, "The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." Later in that same chapter, Genesis 2:19, it says, "Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and the birds of the air." Both of us are formed out of the ground. We're very much like each other in this fleshly nature, flesh is muscle, sinews, intestines, vital organs, brains, those kinds of things. And we are very much like the animals in that regard. It also means we're mortal. We can die. Our flesh can decay in this sin cursed world, not much different than deer that are dying by the side of the road and decaying. So it is with our bodies as well. Mortal bodies. The focus though in the verse is actually on blood, it reverses it. It's interesting that NIV puts it back in the normal order, flesh and blood. But it's actually blood and flesh in the Greek. The emphasis is really on blood. And I think in two senses, one in terms of kinship, family. It says in Act 17:26, in the King James Version it says, "And God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth." We are all of one blood, we're of one race together. And so, Jesus had to partake in that race. He had to be of the same blood as us. But I think even more significant is the fact that that blood had to be poured out for sin to be forgiven. He had to have blood in order to shed the blood for our sins. Blood for Atonement It says in Leviticus 17:11, "For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar. It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life." Hebrews later will say in Hebrews 9:22, "without the shedding of blood there's no forgiveness." For us to be forgiven, Jesus had to come on from heaven to earth and have blood flowing in his blood vessels, so that he could shed his blood for us. He came to die. And so it says in Romans 3:25, it was Christ whom God put forward as a propitiation. We'll talk more about that in just a moment, but he put forward as a propitiation by his blood. Propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. I think there's also a focus here in Jesus' humanity on suffering. He took on blood and flesh so that he could share in our suffering. The pain that we go through, the pain that all of us endures. No one makes it through here unscathed, friends. We all go through pain and suffering, and Jesus, in order to become a merciful and faithful high priest had to do it too. He had to go through suffering. And so, he goes through the pain of weariness. Think about Jesus sitting by the Samaritan well, where the woman is about to come, weary as he was from his journey or picture him asleep in the back of the boat on the cushion. He's tired. Or you think about the pain of thirst, how Jesus asked the Samaritan woman for a drink. And why did he do it? Well, first and foremost, he was thirsty. And secondly, he wanted to save her. And then on the cross, he cries out in fulfillment of scripture, but just out of his bodily needy, he cries out, I thirst. He was thirsty. He was also hungry. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights in the desert, it says in Matthew 4, in one of the great understatements, Jesus was hungry. That he was hungry. He went through all the pain that we do. He goes through the pain of temptation, which is I think the point of the passage here in verse 18, Jesus "suffered when he was tempted." And so he's able help those who are going through that kind of suffering. He knows what fleshly temptation is like. The pain of injury, the flogging that the Roman soldiers gave to him, ripping his back to shreds and certainly, ultimately, the pain of death by crucifixion. Jesus took on flesh and blood so that he could suffer. The atonement could not be worked for us without death. Jesus came into the world to save the children from death. From the very beginning of our sin, there's a link between sin and death. Genesis 2:17, God said, "You may eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For when you eat of it, you will surely die." That is the death penalty, and it was linked to disobedience, transgression of God's law from the very beginning. We know that the wages of sin is death. And if Jesus is going to save us, he must die. He must die. He must take on that death penalty. And so, we have in verse 17, propitiation. Propitiation by death. Look at verse 17, "Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people." Now, some of the translations are going to give you atonement there. They do that to reason with us that we don't know the word propitiation, or most people don't know it. Can I tell you? No one is born knowing the word propitiation. Everybody has to study and learn it at some point. If you don't presently know what the word propitiation means, this is your happy day. God has brought you here to learn that word. And not just so you can impress your friends with your knowledge of theology, but so that you can understand your salvation. What is propitiation? Propitiation has to do with the turning aside of the wrath of God by the shedding of a blood sacrifice. That God's wrath is averted because blood was shed on our behalf. That's what propitiation's all about. Now earlier in last century, liberal theologians thought that the idea of propitiation was far too pagan for the noble high-minded religion of the Bible, which they were crafting or re-crafting. They figured the idea of an angry deity who is then appeased by blood sacrifices is clearly pagan and having nothing to do with the high-minded religion of the Bible so they wanted to do away with it. So they started re-translating the words giving you things like expiation, other things like that. But they were trying to get away from propitiation because it offended them that God would ever be seen to be angry with us. Surely God is never angry with us. We may be angry with God, but he's never angry with us. Friend, that's just not biblical. God's passionate reaction to our sin is wrath, it's anger. He is angry about sin. And he does avert his own wrath by the shedding of the blood of Jesus. That's called propitiation. And so this idea of propitiation, it is a pagan idea. I don't think it originated with the pagans. I think it originated with animal sacrifice that God established at the very beginning after Adam and Eve sinned. God originated it, but then the pagan religions twisted it and perverted it. You know the story in the Trojan War Legend, JI Packer tells us this of Prince Paris, that he carried off Princess Helen to Troy and the Greeks were going to send their army and go rescue Helen, the face that launched a thousand ships. They're going to get her back and they're led by their general, Agamemnon. The problem is, that Poseidon apparently, perhaps with some other of his cohort gods or goddesses, is sending contrary winds and the fleet can't get underway. What does Agamemnon do? He calls for his precious daughter and sacrifices her to the gods. Packer, I think tongue-in-cheek, said the move paid off and the wind subsided and they were able to go. So JI Packer talks about this idea of pagan propitiation. He says this is how it works, There are various gods, none enjoying absolute dominion, but each with some power to make life easier or harder for you. Their temper is uniformly uncertain; they take offense at the smallest things—or they get jealous because they feel you are paying too much attention to other gods and other people and not enough to themselves, and then they take it out on you by manipulating circumstances to your heart. "The only course at that point is to humor and mollify them by an offering. The rule with offerings is the bigger the better, for the gods are inclined to hold out for something sizeable. In this they are cruel and heartless, but they have the advantage, so what can you do? The wise person bows to the inevitable and makes sure to offer something impressive enough to produce the desired result. Human sacrifice, in particular, is expensive but effective. Thus pagan religion appears as a callous commercialism, a matter of managing and manipulating your gods by cunning bribery. And within paganism propitiation, the appeasing of celestial bad tempers, takes its place as a regular part of life, one of the many irksome necessities that one cannot get on without." - In My Place Condemned He Stood, 29-30). Well, that's pagan propitiation. That's not what happened with Jesus. But I tell you this, God had an aggressive wrath against our sin and he appeased that wrath in only one way, by the shedding of Jesus' blood. Hence, the word propitiation in verse 17. JI Packer said, "If I could sum up the New Testament message in three words, sum the whole thing up and get as much as I could into three words, it would be this: Adoption by propitiation." And that's what we have in the text. We are the children of God. We have been adopted by his grace. We are in his family. How could it be that sinners like us could be adopted as his sons and daughters? Only by one way. By the propitiation that came through the blood of Jesus. Adoption by propitiation, friends, is the gospel. The biggest problem of an unbeliever's life has nothing to do with their finances, has nothing to do with their health, nothing to do with their marriage, nothing to do with their sin habits even. The biggest problem of an unbeliever's life is the wrath of God against them for their sin. In John 3:36, it says, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. But whoever rejects the Son will not see life for God's wrath remains on him." Though he or she may not feel it at all. They may be just going through the ups and downs of their everyday life not feeling at all that the biggest problem of their life is the wrath of God. Let me give you an illustration. Let's say there's a wealthy couple on the Titanic on a certain night, in 1912. And they're in their expensive luxury berth and they're having an argument; they're going back and forth. They are really getting heated up, they're really focused on their own position, they want to win the argument when suddenly there's a lurch and a screeching sound and all that, and then nothing more after that. What was that? They look at each other. I don't know. Anyway, like I was saying and off they go. And they continue their argument little knowing that their biggest problem is the gash along the side of the ship and the thousands, even hundreds of thousands of gallons of sea water that at that moment are pouring into that doomed ship. So I think that the ship was doomed before everyone on board knew it was doomed. And so it is with us with the wrath of God. The biggest danger of your life, if you're an unbeliever, is the wrath of God against you. You may not see it, you may not feel it. But I'm here as a messenger of the gospel to proclaim it, that God has an aggressive wrath against sin, and if you do not know Jesus as Lord and Savior, that wrath will come down on you for eternity in hell. But God sent his Son who took on flesh and blood, that he might die as a propitiation for the wrath of God, that he might avert the wrath of God and take it away completely from you, so that you can be free from it forever. And that is the essence of our freedom from slavery to fear of death. We don't fear it anymore because the wrath of God has been removed. So can I just plead with you if you're here in an unsafe state. I don't know who you are. I don't know your hearts. I can't read your minds. I don't know how it stands with you and God. But if you're an unbeliever, the wrath of God is your great danger. Flee to Christ. Come to Christ. He is your only your hope, the only possibility of salvation. This is the propitiation that's proclaimed plainly here. III. So Jesus Can Destroy the Devil and Death; Jesus took on flesh and blood so that he might propitiate the wrath of God, and so that He could destroy the devil and the fear of death that plagues us. Look at verse 14, "So that by His death, He might destroy him who holds the power of death," that is the devil. So here we have in some marvelous, mysterious way, a contest between Christ and the devil. Jesus versus the devil. What I would call an infinitely unequal fight. Amen? Infinitely unequal. But there it is. Christ is pitted against the devil here. Hebrews 1 has already proclaimed that Jesus is greater than any angel. It seems possible that Satan was the greatest of all the angels. Filled with his own arrogance and pride, he decided to try take God's place in heaven. He led a rebellion of some of the other angels, they fought in heaven. Michael the archangel and his angels fought, and Satan lost and he was cast down to the earth. I believe all that happened before God made Adam and Eve. Put Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, made them king and queen of the worlds and put them on larger heads with Satan who thought he was king of the world. Satan, I believe was, in some mysterious way, brought to the tree to be judged. But instead he co-opted the whole trial, the court trial turned the thing around, drew in Adam and Eve into his rebellion, and we came under his thrall. We became slaves of sin and death. And so Satan in some way held the power of death. How did he hold it? Well, Jesus said in John 8:44, "He [the devil] was a murderer from the beginning. Not holding to the truth for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language for he's a liar and the father of lies." So you have to unravel that to figure it out. Satan holds the power of death through his lies, leading to our sin, leading to the death penalty of the judgment of God's law. That's how it works. He uses God's law against us to kill us. And he does that by lying to us. It's lies, sin, death. That's how he holds the power of death. 1 Corinthians 15:56 says "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law." What does Satan do? He lies to you. He entices you. Baits you to sin. And then once you've committed sin, he turns around and gets all righteous on you and points the finger and says, "You sinner." And accuses you before the judgement seat of God based on your sin and seeks to use God's law against us to kill us. It would have been effective except for Jesus who stepped in and took the death penalty and crushed to use Satan's own weapon, death, against him by dying in our place. How Christ’s Death Destroys that Power I love the story of David's mighty men. You know how they're all listed and there's just little vignettes about each one. I want to choose one of them though, Benaiah, son of Jehoiada. Speaking of him, he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. Stop right there. What courage does that take? Here's this huge Egyptian with a spear, he's like, "Anybody have a club? It's all I need today." But he goes against this man and listen to what it says, "He snatched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear." Amen! You read the same thing in Habakkuk 3. Just look it up this afternoon. With his own spear, he was killed. Satan was killed by death, because Jesus died. Amen? And so He destroyed the devil. And in that way, made Satan's own future in the lake of fire certain. The devil knows that his time is short. He's filled with rage because of it. There's nothing that can change it for surely it's not angels he helps. No fallen angel's going to be saved by the death of Jesus, not one. Satan has no redeemer. Satan has no atoning sacrifice. There is no gospel for Satan or any of the fallen angels that fell with him. They're all lost forever. Do you see the grace of God to us that there even is a gospel for us? But He has come, Jesus, to destroy the devil and his works, and He's snatched from the devil the keys of death and Hades. Amen? Revelation 1:18 says, "I am the living one, I was dead and behold, I'm alive forever and ever. And I hold the keys of death and Hades." Jesus has the keys. It is Jesus' to kill and it is Jesus' to raise to life, even eternal life. He holds the keys of death and Hades. And so therefore, He can free us from fear of death. Look at verse 15, "And free those, who all their lives, were held in slavery by their fear of death." The greatest bondage there is, is bondage to sin. Bondage to sin. And Jesus says, "Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. But if the Son sets you free," What? "You will be free indeed." Amen. Free indeed. And what was the nature of our bondage? Well, Ephesians 2 says, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you follow the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time. Gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature, our flesh, and fulfilling its lust and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But God, because of His great love for us, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved." That is our salvation. We were in bondage to sin, and therefore, in bondage to fear of death. Not everybody's equally afraid of death, some people just because they're young and strong and vigorous and ignorant and haven't been to many funerals, they ain't scared. I've seen the bumper stickers. "I fear nothing." Look, God can make you afraid. We are flesh and blood. What are we? We ought to be afraid of death apart from Christ. I was reading recently a little biography of Howard Hughes, the billionaire aviator. I don't think I've ever seen a man so afraid to die as this man. He was especially afraid to die of infection. He was mortally afraid of germs so he spent the last few years of his life lying naked in hotel rooms that have been sanitized with tissue boxes on each feet. He gave special instructions to his staff on how to prepare canned peaches. Yes, that's right, prepare canned peaches. You had to take the label off, you had to scour the can until fresh metal showed. You had to basically grind the can down. Disinfect the can, and then you had to open it and pour the contents, the peaches into a bowl without the can touching the bowl. Can touches bowl, I ain't eatin' peaches. He lived in mortal fear of dying by disease. I say he's dead already. That's no life. He lived in bondage to fear of death, and there are all different versions of that bondage, all different versions. Jesus came to set us free. And no Christian ought to live anything like that at all. Don't be afraid of death. We'll get to that in a moment. But Jesus frees us forever from fear of death. Many Christians have lived boldly unafraid of death. Boldly unafraid. Think of Stephen in Acts 7. Stephen gives that incredible sermon, that awesome message. Sanhedrin didn't like it very well. Actually, they were incensed by it, they were enraged. So they wanted to kill him. And with murderous intent, they get up out of their seats to start to rush at him. "But Stephen," it says, "full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 'Look,' he said, 'I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." At this, they covered their ears and yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him." I tell you in a very beautiful way, different than Howard Hughes, Stephen was already gone. He was already in heaven. Wasn't dead yet but they're stoning him, they're killing him and he says, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And then one last thing, one last thing he says, "Lord, please do not lay this sin to their charge." Just like Jesus, and off he goes. Awesome. Many saints have testified that they no longer fear death at all. Charles Spurgeon says that he knows saints that actually talked to death, they say, "I will not fear you death, why should I? You look like a dragon but your sting is gone." For these saints, says Spurgeon, "To die has been so different a thing from what they expected it to be, so light, so joyous. They have been so unloaded of all care. They felt so relieved instead of burdened. They've wondered whether this could be the monster that they had been afraid of all their days. They find it to be a pin's prick when they feared it would be a sword thrust. It is the shutting of the eye on earth and the opening of the eye in heaven." Thomas Goodwin, a Puritan pastor said this, he was laying on his death bed, he said, "Ah! Is this dying? How have I dreaded as an enemy this smiling friend." Charles Wesley, quoting a Psalm, said, "I shall be satisfied with thy likeness." Satisfied. Satisfied. He just kept saying that over and over. Satisfied. William Everett said just one word for 25 minutes over and over, "Glory, glory, glory." Do you feel that they're already there in some mysterious way, that the deposit through the Holy Spirit had been amply poured out on them at that moment? Poured out on them and they were already in heaven? Every time a child of God dies like that crisis, already one yet another marvelous victory over fear of death. IV. So Jesus Can Take Hold of Abraham’s Descendants So, Jesus took on flesh and blood so that he could die, so that he could destroy the devil and death, so that he could free us from fear of death, so that he could take hold of Abraham's descendants. I'm not going to say much about this except I'm going to tell you he doesn't do this for everybody. He doesn't save everybody. We don't believe in universal atonement. We don't believe in universal salvation. There are going to be some people in hell and they ought to fear death right through it and on, and they will when they see what's coming. But it's Abraham's descendants he helps. This is a covenant salvation. And we, whether Jew or Gentile, who follow our Father Abraham's footsteps of faith, who trust in God's promises the way Abraham did, who believe in him and it's credited to him as righteousness, we are adopted into Abraham's spiritual family and he's become for us a spiritual father. We are descendants of Abraham by faith. Galatians 3 makes this very plain. It says, "You are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ." He says if you belong to Christ then you're Abraham's seed, that means Abraham's descendants and heirs according to the promise. You are adopted children of Abraham by faith. Those are the ones he helps. And you know what helps means here? Literally, the Greek word is to grasp or take hold of as if you're drowning. Surely it's not angels he grabs and saves, but it's Abraham's descendants. I picture exact same Greek word, Peter walking on water, remember, seeing the wind and the waves, looks around and beginning to sink cries out, "Lord, save me." And Jesus saves us as we cry out for help, reaches down and takes hold of us. V. So Jesus Can Be a Merciful and Faithful High Priest So, Jesus took on flesh and blood so that he could die, so that he could destroy the devil and death, so that he could free us from death, so that he could take hold of Abraham's descendants, so he can be for us a merciful and faithful high priest. Look at verse 17, "For this reason, he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God and that he might make propitiation for the sins of the people." Now, this is the first time in the Book of Hebrews that Jesus' priestly ministry is mentioned. It will be abundantly unfolded for us in later chapters so I'm not going to say much about it here. I'm just going to tell you, Jesus is both merciful and faithful. Merciful horizontally to us and faithful to God. He is merciful to you, friends. He shows a great mercy and tenderness and compassion to you. And this is getting right to the pastoral application. He is tender towards you as you suffer. VII. So Jesus Can Help Those Suffering in Temptation And so therefore, the final point is, though Jesus can help those suffering in temptation, this is the point of it all, look at verse 18, "because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." You already knew it but I'm going to say that based on this text, temptation produces suffering. You already knew that, didn't you? Have any of you ever suffered temptation? It is a bitter thing. Hence, in the Lord's prayer, we ask to avoid it, lead us not into temptation, because it produces suffering. But if you want to live a holy life in this, world you must resolve to suffer. You must resolve to suffer the temptation. It says when you say no to ungodliness, it hurts. It's hard to change your habits. Think of a dieter who has come to the conclusion that he or she needs to lose a significant amount of weight but they're in really, really bad food habits. They've made an idol of food for decades. Their stomachs probably physically too large. And when they reduce their calorie intake and they are sticking to their diet, I tell you, it is physically painful to say no. Amen? Physically painful. But so it is for all sins. You may be in the habit of gossip or slander, and the Lord's convicted you, that you don't want to lay someone low, throw them under the bus. They may have been unkind to you but you don't want to say things about them behind their back anymore. You don't want to assassinate their character. But you have these habits. And somebody, let's say, is mean to you, they're unkind. And then you've got a sympathetic ear and it's just so comfortable and you're just talking about the things that have been happening to you recently and then... Ugh, no, I'm not going to say anything, I'm not. To God be the glory, I'm going to say no. That is suffering temptation. To stand firm. Somebody addicted to Internet pornography, they've had habits in this, I've done counseling in this area. And they want to make the change, they know it's destroying their life. They want to make the change. When the time has come to fight the battle, they have to suffer the temptation. Jesus knows what it's like to suffer temptation. He sweat great drops of blood to not give in to the temptation of saying no to his Father. He knows what it's like. He's been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. I have a bunch of applications, I'm going to throw them all out. There's just one I want to give you. I want to get to the application of this. The Hebrew Christians were being tempted to turn their backs on Jesus. You know why? Because their Jewish friends and neighbors and relatives and rabbis were putting pressure on them, hurting them, confiscating things from them, taking things from their lives. And so they were needing to stand firm in a time of temptation and testing. And the author here, you know what he's doing in these verses? He's giving them Jesus at that moment. When you are being tempted, call Jesus into that moment. Have Jesus' hand reach down like he did for Peter and pull you up. That's what its all about. The hymn, we were riding back from a wedding yesterday and we were doing our family devotion in the car, I was like, "Sing a hymn." Alright "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." That's the one I chose cause it was in my mind. "All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. O what peace we often forfeit. O what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Listen to the second verse, have we trials and what? Temptations. Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer. That's what this text is about. A merciful and faithful high priest who took on flesh and blood, who died on the cross to deliver you from fear of death, to give you a promise of eternal life, and then stand with you in the fight for holiness. Call on him to be holy. Close with me in prayer.

christmas god jesus christ fear death father lord bible internet man speaking friend christians holy spirit creator blood devil romans satan acts revelation psalm jewish sin greek corinthians biblical divine ephesians human savior jews captain sermon hebrews act galatians sing new testament adoption titanic egyptian iv amen priest hebrew commentary gentiles trust in god bethlehem samaritan verse newton leviticus gentle habakkuk temptations hades physically merciful amazing grace satisfied bondage lord god flee destroyer niv mortal in john packer boldly sanhedrin faith in jesus christ greyhound vii poured poseidon puritan spurgeon charles spurgeon north atlantic propitiation father abraham that god howard hughes king james version john newton infinitely charles wesley deity of christ jesus' death agamemnon baits benaiah surely god jehoiada andy davis friend we have how christ hebrew christians two journeys ji packer thomas goodwin prince paris hebrews 2:14-18

Celebrating God's All-Conquering Grace (Isaiah Sermon 12 of 81) (Audio)

god jesus christ music friends trust father lord english israel earth bible spirit giving water hell gospel christians brothers worship pray romans holy satan revelation psalm jewish salvation biblical praise ephesians savior jews sermon hebrews chronicles greatness wars lamb galatians sing nations syria eternity evangelism lazarus hebrew gentiles samaritan repent verse conquering king david insanity glory of god knowing god o lord flee new earth zephaniah his spirit eph god himself praise god narnia proclaim new jerusalem judgment day cs lewis most high woe almighty god nebuchadnezzar holy one because god hope in christ east asia jn assyria new heaven english channel john piper aslan jonathan edwards tarsus propitiation lord almighty in isaiah new heavens lord god almighty near east ephesians chapter sinfulness alcorn randy alcorn surely god christ is andy davis mike waters two journeys ji packer biblical themes

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 27, 2008

Introduction There are a number of books that come along in a Christian’s life and change his entire way of thinking. Those things are good. It’s a gift of God, a gift of His grace, that teachers in the church can lift up a theme or an insight and so press it to our hearts that we’re never the same again. There have been a number of books like that in my life. Of course, I’m not speaking of the Bible here. That’s in a whole different category. The Bible lifts us up every day and speaks the blessing and promises and commands of God. I’m talking about books written by Christians that strengthen us in the Christian life. One of those books, for me, has been Randy Alcorn’s book “Heaven.” This book has been an incredible blessing to me because it’s shown me how much I underestimate my heavenly reward and the power of meditating on heaven and heavenly life. I underestimate the joy that meditating on heaven gives, the strength and the energy for Christian service. Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is not a guilty pleasure for us to think a lot about heaven. It’s actually commanded. We should be thinking about heaven. Alcorn, in the beginning of his book, talked about somebody that was trying to swim across the English Channel. There was fog and the person failed in his attempt. After being pulled out and saved, he said, “I think I would have made it if I could’ve seen the shore.” I think there’s such a lesson for us: we have to keep the shore in front of us every day. We’re going to make it, friends. We’re going to be there someday. We’re going to see God face to face, and we need to rejoice with great joy. What Alcorn’s book did for me more than anything was to blow away the idea that we’re going to be sitting on wispy clouds and bored for eternity, that we’re going to be strumming on these harps and chanting songs that after the first 100 years aren’t so exciting any more. We’re going to be bored and we’re going to look around and all we’re going to see is white everywhere. We’re going to long for color and something under our feet other than this wispy cloud that we’re sitting on all the time. This vision of heaven is actually satanic because it’s not true. We’re going to be resurrected in physical bodies, and we’re going to be living in a physically resurrected world called the New Heaven and the New Earth. Heaven is going to come down in the form of the New Jerusalem and God’s throne is going to be there. It’s all going to be so very real. We’re going to walk on resurrected feet on a resurrected earth. We’re going to see glory and we’re going to touch things and taste things and work and experience things that we can scarcely imagine. For the Praise of His Glorious Grace God’s Ultimate Goal: His Glory All of that’s wonderful. It’s glorious and it’s good. It’s good for us to meditate on these things. But you know something? In the end, the center of our joy in heaven will be worshipping and praising Almighty God. That actually hasn’t changed. I think what Alcorn’s book did for me was to help me to remember again that it’s impossible that worshipping God could be boring. It’s just impossible. Giving praise and honor and glory and worship to God could not possibly be boring. He is the One who created the physical world we live in now (even in its corrupted state) with all of its beauty and its variety. He is the One who created all the different kinds of birds and animals and plants, all of the things that we experience in the immense variety of our physical lives here on Earth. All of that comes from someplace, friends. It comes from the mind of Almighty God, and it’s going to be even better in the New Heaven and New Earth. There will be even more clear and powerful displays of the glory of God’s thoughts, His character, His love for us, and His goodness towards us in Christ than we can possibly imagine. All we’re going to want to do all the time is praise Him and give Him honor and glory. And you know something? That’s what we are created to do. We just don’t do it well here on Earth. Jonathan Edwards, in a sermon entitled, “Praise, One of the Chief Employments of Heaven,” says, first of all, there’s going to be employment in heaven. We’re not going to be sitting around doing nothing. We’re going to be busy in heaven, but the chief employment will be praising God. He said the reason we don’t do it now like we should is because we don’t really see God clearly now. We see Him through a glass darkly, but then we shall see face to face. How rich that will be when, at last, we see how much He has loved us in Christ. When we see the greatness of His mercy to us in Christ, how great it will be. We know from scripture that God created the heavens and the earth for the praise of His glorious grace. Even more than that, we know from many places in scripture, but I think especially in Ephesians Chapter 1, that God has crafted the Salvation Plan. He has crafted redemptive history for the praise of His glorious grace so that we might worship Him for His grace to us in Christ Jesus. He says it three times in those verses. In Ephesians 1:3-6, it says, “Praise be to the God and Father our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will. To the praise of His glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One He loves.” That’s why He did it all. That’s why He predestined us. That’s why He is working out “everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory. And you also were included in Christ” (Eph 1:11-13) so that you also might be for the praise of His glorious grace. That’s why he’s done it all. And so we are going to be worshipping God. We’re going to be praising Him. We’re going to be standing in awe as history itself unfolds with a fresh vision of what God did in it, of His amazing grace to a variety of sinners. We’re going to see who we really were and how gracious God was to us. How plentiful were His effusions of grace to cover us moment by moment in all of our weakness and our acts of rebellion! We’re going to see in a fresh way just how much patience He showed to Saul of Tarsus, that blasphemer and murderer. Paul will be right there, astonished and amazed at the grace of God shown to him in Christ. We’re going to see God’s mercy and the tenderness that He showed here in this world, in space and time, to those who were weak and frail, broken by sin patterns, habits, drunkenness, sexual immorality, and all kinds of bad decisions. We’re going to see how gracious He was to each one of them. We’ll see how much power He has extended to each one of us to protect us from the evil one, all of his demonic intentions, and the powers and principalities that are against us. God’s Second-Highest Goal: Our Joy in Him How much power He extended to us in Christ so that we would make it through! We will know just what kind of power held us through it all so that we would not drift away, turn away, or fall away from Christ. We will see it all and that will be for the praise of His glory. That’s the center of heaven, this throne of God’s grace and the greatness of the praise that he deserves. But the second reason that God did it all is because He just loves us and wants us to be happy. The greatest thing He can give us is Himself so that we might see it, we might experience Him, we might be joyful in Him, and we might have experiences of pleasure and joy and satisfaction in Him. That’s the secondary reason. It’s not first because man can’t be first. God is first. God is glorious and displayed as glorious. That’s the highest reason for everything. But secondly, that we would taste and see that the Lord is good, and that we would be tasting it forever. To this end, Jesus prayed in John 17:24, “Father, I want those whom you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” “I want them to see it, Father. I want them to experience it. I want them to know how much you love me, and in me, how much you love them. I want them to see my glory." He prays for it. To this end, Christ entered the world. To this end, He lived a sinless life. To this end, He shed His blood on the cross. He died in our place. To this end, He was raised from the dead. To this end, He sent forth His Spirit to advance the gospel to the ends of the earth so that all of God’s chosen people from every tribe and language and people and nation might be there and see His glory. So that they might enjoy it, have a good time in His presence, eat at His table, and be refreshed for all eternity. That’s what He’s doing. What Grace had to Conquer Now, as we come to Isaiah 12, we come therefore to a psalm of praise. Right in the middle of the unfolding of this magnificent prophecy, we get these six verses of praise. It just seems so appropriate. To the praise of His glorious grace and already in 11 chapters of Isaiah, we’ve seen just how much grace God had to show them and us. It’s just been an unfolding, a river of sin among the Jews and the Gentiles alike. We’ve seen in Isaiah 1 that God expressed his disgust at their religious system, this trampling of God’s courts, all the animal sacrifice without any righteousness at all, without any concern for the poor, the needy, the widow, and the orphan. This machinery of Jewish religiosity, it made Him sick. He didn’t want any part of their prayers or their worship. In Isaiah Chapter 2, God speaks vigorously against their arrogance and their pride. All human arrogance will be cast down and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. All the idols will totally disappear. Then in Isaiah 3, we saw the wickedness of Israel’s leaders: their kings, their magistrates, their prophets, their priests, and all of their leaders. We saw how they led Israel astray, how they confiscated the houses of the poor and needy. They used their positions of influence to dominate and crush God’s people. We saw how evil they were and how they led Israel astray. In Isaiah 5, we saw how God likened the Jews, the Jewish nation, to a vineyard that was cleared of stones with a wall put around it and the choicest vines planted in it. That was the Jews in the promised land. God set up a watchtower. He watched out for them to protect them. Despite all of that, the vineyard yielded only bad grapes, and we saw that God was going to take away their protection. They were going to be trampled. Then it got intensely personal in Isaiah 6, where Isaiah in his calling had a vision of the Lord seated on His throne, high and exalted. The train of His robe filled the temple and above him there were seraphs crying aloud to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory.” Isaiah felt his own sinfulness crying out from within him. “’Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined!’ For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’” (Is 6:5) He felt his own wickedness. We see how God dispatched an angel to atone for his sin. Sinfulness, even of that prophet, he the best of men it seemed, the best perhaps of his generation, and he felt his own sinfulness within him. In Isaiah 7, we see wicked King Ahaz who had no interest in the things of God and who was threatened by an invasion from Israel, the northern kingdom, and from Syria. He was terrified; terrified of dying, terrified of losing his kingdom. Isaiah, the prophet, goes from the Lord and hands King Ahaz a blank check: ask for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or the highest heights. Anything you want and God will display His power for you. King Ahaz throws it in God’s face. He makes an alliance with Assyria, of all people! Of all the nations, he asks these wicked people to deliver him from Israel and Syria. The wickedness of this king! In Isaiah 8 through 10, we see the wickedness of Assyria itself and of the Jews again displayed. After all of that, in Isaiah 11, is a depiction of the coming reign of the Messiah, a shoot coming up from the stump of Jesse, from his roots a branch bearing fruit. He’s a king who reigns in righteousness and rules in justice. He loves righteousness and hates wickedness. He’s going to strike the earth with the rod of his mouth. The wolf will live with the lamb and the leopard lie down with the calf and the lion and the yearling together, a picture of peace to the ends of the earth. It’s a peaceful reign where righteousness is at the center. You almost get the feeling that Isaiah says, “how can it be that a race, the human race, as wicked as us could get a king like that, reigning like that in righteousness?” “How can it be? Oh, praise You, Lord! I praise You and I give you thanks! I’m going to take six verses here, in the middle of it all, and I’m just going to praise You for that coming kingdom. I’m going to worship You and I’m going to give You praise and glory in Isaiah12. I’m going to give You honor for what You’re going to do, for your salvation work force in Christ.” Now, of course, Isaiah didn’t know about Chapter 12 or six verses or any of that. He just wrote under the inspiration of God. But we have the privilege to come along centuries later and join him in a celebration of God’s grace. How much has that grace had to overcome in their lives and how much in yours? But where sin abounds, my friends, grace abounds all the more. Grace wins. Praise His holy name! Praise: Healed from Insanity to Healthy Delight And so we come to a time of praise and of worship. And as we do, we recognize that this is a healing of the human soul. We don’t naturally praise God, frankly. We naturally curse Him and hate Him. But we are being healed from the insanity of sin, the insanity of not praising God. We’re going to be healed into sanity. It really is insane not to praise a God like this. I don’t just mean because He can destroy us in hell. I don’t just mean that He’s got that kind of power. I mean just because He’s so glorious and beautiful and wonderful. Can’t you see Him? Well, we can, just through a glass darkly. It’s just a reflected glory we see now. You know what? The redeemed are going to be singing in heaven. It says this in Revelation 15:3-4, while history’s still unfolding there, “Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages. Who will fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy.” It’s almost a sense of amazement. How can they not worship you? Oh, I look forward to being healed as Nebuchadnezzar was from his beast-like insanity. At last, the Lord took that from him and he lifted up his eyes and he praised God, the Most High. And so we will do in heaven. Your Personal Theme: “God is my salvation” (vs. 1-2) Personal Salvation, Personal Praise Look at Isaiah 12: 1-2. It says there, “In that day you will say, ‘I will praise you, O Lord. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.’” That’s your personal theme. For you individually: God is my salvation. The Hebrew here is singular. In that day, you, singular, will say, “God is my salvation.” You, individual sinner, are saved by grace. You’re going to stand before Him and you will say this. This is a word of prophecy, spoken to individual persons who God will save. After that immense work of salvation is completed in your soul, you’re going to stand in front of Jesus. And you will say this. We’re saved as individuals. We’re personally called as individuals to the Savior. John 10:3 says, “He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” He gives them eternal life. Your name is your individuality. It’s who you are. He calls you by name. And so Paul says beautifully, in Galatians 2:20, making it very intensely personal, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Paul’s not there denying that Jesus also died for a multitude greater than anyone could count, from every tribe and language, people, and nation. He’s just saying that this is also true: He died for me, for me personally, for me individually. Isaiah says to the individual sinner that, saved by grace, in that day you’ll praise God. In what day? Well, whenever that phrase shows up in Isaiah (and it’s many, many times) it refers to a future day of judgment. Of wrath poured out. But here, it’s speaking of grace. So I look ahead to Judgment Day when at last I, a sinner, am vindicated by the blood of Jesus and welcomed into eternity in His name. In that day, I’m going to be thanking Him for His salvation because things are going to be very clear that day. It will be very clear on Judgment Day that I was saved by grace and that my works could not help me at all. Why? Because God’s wrath has been satisfied. Look again at verse 1, “I will praise you, O Lord. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me.” God’s Wrath Satisfied God has a passionate, emotional reaction to evil. He hates it and He gets angry about it. He is a God, it says, who expresses His wrath every day. JI Packer, speaking of God’s anger and wrath, says this in his book “Knowing God,” “It is not the capricious, arbitrary, bad-tempered and conceited anger which pagans attribute to their gods. It’s not the sinful, resentful, malicious, infantile anger which we find among men. It is a function of that holiness which is expressed in the demands of God’s moral law. ‘Be holy because I am holy.’ 1 Peter 1:16” Throughout the first ten chapters of Isaiah, we saw depicted again and again the wrath of God. Remember there was that phrase, “Yet for all of this his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.” It says it again and again. For example, in Isaiah 5:25, “Therefore the Lord’s anger burns against his people; his hand is raised and he strikes them down. The mountains shake, and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.” But in Isaiah 12:1, he says, “I will praise you, O Lord. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me.” What can turn away the wrath of God? What can turn away His wrath so that it’s not on us anymore as individuals? We come now to that doctrine called propitiation: the turning away of the wrath of God by the giving of a sacrifice. It is the foundation of our faith. God’s wrath can turn away from us to a substitute, and the substitute can be our lightning rod. He can draw the wrath of God away from us so that we never have to experience it. Jesus Christ is the One who made this verse come true. It is because of Jesus that the anger of God has turned away from me as an individual. God’s not angry with me anymore. There’s no wrath for me to experience. It’s been removed. It’s been absorbed. It’s been propitiated. Jesus has stood in my place. He drank the cup of God’s wrath on the cross. God will never be angry with me because of sin again. Oh, how hard it is for us sinners to believe this! I dare say it’s hard for you. I tell you it’s hard for me. I mean to really believe that God’s anger has turned away and He’s now in a state of comforting us. I’m not saying that God doesn’t discipline us for sin. He does. But that’s not wrath, friends. That’s not anger. That’s a loving, caring stroke from a Father who knows that the biggest evil in our lives is sin and wants to wean us from it. From our insane love of it. But the wrath is gone, my friends, if you’re in Christ. It’s gone. Are you in Christ? I see some unfamiliar faces here today. Some guests. Praise God that you’re here! I’m glad that God brought you. I don’t know your spiritual state. Even if I knew you well, I wouldn’t definitely know your spiritual state. Do you know that the wrath of God has been removed? Do you understand that Jesus is your substitute? Isaiah will say later in Isaiah 53:5-6 “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Friends, in paganism man propitiates the gods by choosing a suitable sacrifice that will avert the gods’ wrath. It’s a work of man to find something big enough that will turn the gods’ wrath away from that person. We can’t do that. It’s impossible for us to avert the wrath of God. It’s something that God must do Himself. And He has done it in Christ. JI Packer said that kind of pagan view of propitiation opens up a kind of commercialism with God, a transactional approach. If I can find something good enough, I can pay for my sins this way. Well, you can’t. It’s something only God can do. And you can only receive it by faith, simply by trusting in the blood shed on the cross for you. It says in Romans 3:23-24, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that come by Christ Jesus.” Listen to Romans 3:25, “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.” Propitiation means that the wrath of God is averted by the giving of a blood sacrifice. That’s the key to our faith. Have you received it? Are you standing forgiven now before the throne of God? If not, I urge you to flee to Christ. I think about Luke’s testimony, as he was sitting there in the pew. Doug, I think that’s where you’re sitting right now. I praise God for your salvation, brother. But it could be that someone else in the sanctuary doesn’t know whether he’s under the wrath of God. You don’t know. You came here today to just go to church, to hear a sermon. Flee to Christ, look to Christ now, while there’s still time. Because today is the day of salvation. Trust in Him. It’s the only way that this verse will be fulfilled for you. God IS Salvation Look what else it says in verse 2, “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.” This is a profound concept here. God is not merely your Savior. You know, the one who rescues you from danger? The one who does that, gets you out of danger, that’s a savior. He is your savior, but He’s more than that. He is your salvation. So what’s the difference? Well, when you’re saved out of danger, you get Him. He’s what you get. He is heaven. I’m not saying that there’s not going to be a new heaven, a new earth, but God’s going to be woven all through it. You’ll know it. You’ll just see God in everything He’s made, the glory of God everywhere. He is your salvation. That is the good news of the Gospel. The good news of the Gospel is God. He is the Gospel. He’s what you get. He’s the one who saves. He’s the one who redeems, who calls, who sanctifies, who glorifies. After all that, He’s the reward you get. As God said to Abram in Genesis 15:1, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” It says in Revelation 22:3-4 “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” You get God. John Piper, in his book “God Is the Gospel,” asks a very poignant question, very powerful. Listen to this. “If you could have Heaven, with no sickness, with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven if Christ were not there?” I can’t. I can’t imagine it. I’d wonder where He is! After all I’ve learned about Him, I want to see Jesus. I want to be in His presence. I don’t want all of that and no Christ. Christ IS heaven to me. He has become my salvation. It’s very personal. Is He your salvation? Heaven is heaven precisely because Christ is there. Hell is hell precisely because He’s not there, not in that way. He’s there in wrath, but He’s not there. He has become our salvation. Our Corporate Pleasure: Joyful Satisfaction in God (vs 3) Something shared Now that’s all individual and personal, but He’s not going to leave it there. Isaiah then moves to the corporate experience. You don’t see it in the English because we just have one word, “you,” for both single and plural, but the rest of the hymn of praise is plural. It’s got to do with all of you folks. I can’t say “all y’all” with the joy of a native speaker of southern English. I can’t do it, but you know what I mean, okay? All y’all. Mike Waters has been training me in that. I still can’t quite do it the way I need to, but this is corporate salvation, our joyful satisfaction in God. Verse 3 is plural, “With joy [all of] you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” Oh, what a sweet verse that is! Something shared. Deep Satisfaction He’s addressing the whole community of believers and he’s giving an image of deep satisfaction. In the ancient Near East, it’s very dry and they understand very well the value of water. Water is life. Wells are life. To draw water from a healthy, clean well, that is life. Wars are fought over those wells by nomadic tribes. They dig the wells and they’ll fight for them. Ongoing Refreshment for Eternity in Christ The image here is finding an endless source of cool refreshing water from which you can drink whenever you’re thirsty. As Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks the water that I give him will never be thirsty again. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (Jn 4:3-14) You can drink from it any time you want. With joy, you’re going to draw buckets of water from the wells of salvation. You’re going to drink abundance in God’s household. You will be deeply and richly satisfied. You’re not going to be alone. You’re going to be looking around and there’s going to be this countless multitude from every tribe and language and people and nation. They’re going to be drinking too. They’re going to be satisfied too. They’re going to be giving praise and thanks to God with you. You’re not going to be alone. Satan keeps lying to us about pleasure. “I am the god of pleasure,” he tells us. “Follow me and you’ll enjoy yourself.” He’s not the god of pleasure. He’s the god of anti-pleasure. He’s the god of misery and death. John 10:10 says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” That doesn’t sound like pleasure to me! “I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly. I want to give you abundant life. I want you to know the joy that comes from being in a right relationship with Almighty God.” With joy, he will draw water from the well of salvation. Heaven is a place of eternal pleasure. Psalm 16:11 says, “You have made known to me the path of life.” His name is Jesus, by the way. “You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” And so we’re going to be drinking from the river of the water of life flowing clear as crystal down the center of the city, coming right from the throne. It’s coming right from the throne and on each side of the river there’s going to be the tree of life with crops every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. It’s going to be a rich, full experience, and we’re going to be there with people from all over the world. Our Universal Mission: Magnify the Greatness of God Evangelism: Proclaiming Among the Nations the Greatness of God So that leave us, thirdly, with our universal mission, which is to magnify the greatness of God. This is for all of us as well. “In that day, you will say, ‘Give thanks to the Lord, all in his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.” (Is 12:4-6) This is missions, friends. This is evangelism. This is sharing the gospel with people who don’t know your joy. And more than that, this is missions and evangelism done as worship. You’re just overflowing with joy. You’re just happy in Jesus and you’re making known among the nations what He has done, all of His great works of redemptive history. What He did with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What He did with the Jews and how He led them out of Egypt by a mighty hand and outstretched arm, with all the plagues and with the water walling up on the right and on the left. And what He did through the history of Israel and the Jews through King David and all of the kings that followed. God’s patience in dealing with sin. And then how in the fullness of time He sent His only begotten son, born of a virgin, and how Jesus lived a sinless life and did great miracles. You can tell lost people these miracles. They’ll be interested. If they get past the initial weirdness of talking to you, a total stranger, about spiritual things, they’ll actually want to hear more about Jesus’s miracles. Tell them! Tell them your favorite miracle. If you don’t have one, get one, alright? The resurrection of Lazarus will do just fine. Four days dead. Lazarus, come forth! I tried that with someone once. They said, if they’d been there, they’d have been running away screaming. All right, so that didn’t work too well. But I said, “Look, to me, it’s a happy thing that Lazarus came back to life.” They were thinking it was like a zombie movie or something like that. I said, “No, it’s a resurrection. He’s alive. He’s healthy. They had a feast and celebrated.” We get to proclaim the greatness of God and all the great things He did and how Jesus himself was dead. And on the third day, God raised Him from the dead. We get to share some of His promises; “Because I live, you also will live.” “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” That’s what we get to say. We get to proclaim that His name is exalted. We get to say that great is the Holy One of Israel among us and proclaim these great things. If you think about missions and evangelism this way, you’ll lose your fear because you’re going to just have an awesome time of worship, whether the non-Christian joins you or not. Oh, but I hope they do! “I hope you’re with me,” you can say. I hope that you can spend eternity praising a God like this. Repent and believe the Gospel, that your sins can be forgiven. Proclaim that His name is exalted. And so we’re involved in missions. And why? Because there’s going to be a multitude greater than any we can count, from every tribe and language and people and nation. It’s our job to tell them, to go out and proclaim this to people who’ve never heard of His name and to sing among them. Worship: Immersed in the Greatness of God I know some of you think singing is weird. Maybe it’s not your favorite thing now. I’ve talked to you. Some of you think, “Kinda just not great on singing.” You will be. You will be. Because it says in the Book of Revelation that you’re going to sing a new song. Music, when done well, just resonates spiritually inside your heart. It just does. I just love good worship. Don’t you? I just love to sing praise songs. There’s a kind of music that’s reserved for heaven. None of us have heard it yet. It’s called a new song. We will resonate with it in our resurrected bodies and minds, and we will love it, and we will sing to it, and we’re going to be joining Jesus who sings. He does. It says so right in Hebrews 2:12, “I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation, I will sing your praises.” Now, that’s some special music I’d like to hear! Jesus singing in the assembly, the praises of Almighty God, but God Himself singing. Zephaniah 3:17 says, “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” In the Chronicles of Narnia, CS Lewis said, “It was by song that Aslan created the world.” In “The Magicians Nephew,” when Digory and Polly and the rest go into Narnia for the first time, they find it a void. Then a voice, later revealed to be Aslan (representing Christ), sings the new world into existence. It’s by singing that He creates. Perhaps by metaphor, by singing He will create the New Heavens and the New Earth as well. We’ll hear that song and we’ll join in singing it. Application Do you praise God like this? These six verses, memorize them. They’re rich. Just set them in front of you and say, “With joy, I’m going to draw water from the wells of salvation. For great is the Holy One among us.” These are great words. Do you praise God like this? You know, right from the beginning, it says, “In that day, you will say, ‘I will praise you, O Lord.” Now stop there. It’s just a way of thinking. “I will praise you today.” That sounds like an act of my will. Well, that’s about what it is. You have to determine that you’re going to praise Him today. You’re going to rejoice in the Lord today. I know some of your hearts are breaking. I know you’re struggling with sin. You may have come here today feeling defiled and guilty because of sin. Your heart may be breaking for other reasons. You may be going through trials. There might be sickness or death hanging over a loved one, or maybe even over you. You may be facing economic difficulties. You may have lost your job and you haven’t been able to find another job. There may be any one of a number of things causing your misery today. “I will praise you, O Lord. Although you are angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me.” Can you say that? Will you praise Him? It’s a choice you make, really. It really is a decision as a Christian that you make by the power of the Spirit. “I’m going to praise Him. And Spirit, pass me things all day long that I can praise God for.” He’ll do it. Finally, are you involved in the mission? Are you involved in evangelism? Have you shared the Gospel with anyone? Have you proclaimed among the nations that His name is exalted? That’s what it says that we’re to do. Find somebody whose spiritual situation you’re unsure about and just praise God in front of him. I would urge you to get into a conversation first or they might have you arrested as somebody insane or something like that. Just get into the conversation and then just talk about the greatness of God, of Christ. You might find that to be the greatest witnessing opportunity you’ve ever had. It’s our responsibility and joy and privilege to proclaim among the nations that His name is exalted. One final thing: be praying for our friends that are serving the Lord right now. We can join them in their work by praying for them. Pray for the trip that’s out there in East Asia and for the friends that are hosting them and that live there all the time. Pray for that work. Close with me in prayer.

Theology: Who Is God? - Audio

Faith Community Church

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 15, 2006 24:05

If you were to say to somebody, I know God, whats their response? If you were to make a statement that says, I know the God of the Universe, do they look at you funny when you say something like that? Do they think you may be a little kooky? A little weird? Maybe they think youre arrogant to make such a statement. You know God, ha? What an arrogant thing to say. Yet, when we read Gods word, thats exactly what God wants us to be able to say. One of the most profound scriptures is found in the Book of 1 John 5:20 (Page 1210 of pew Bibles). John says, We know, not we have a good idea or we think so, We know. …also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding… What the man [in the film that was played at the beginning of the service] said, Hey, knowing God, thats just a fantasy concept to me. It doesnt have to be. …He came to give us understanding so that we may know Him who is true... We can know truth. We can know God in a personal way, not just know about Him. God says know Him. …We are in Him who is true... Intimacy is in that word. …-even in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Who? Jesus. True God and eternal life. Lets read that together out loud, shall we, as a profession of faith? We know also 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-even in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. The Bible says there are four ways that you and I can know God, four ways that God has revealed Himself to us. The first is found in the Book of Romans 1:18 (page 1112). We wont elaborate on this very long because it really was our subject matter last week when Michael Powers spoke on science and talked about creation. Paul says, The wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. How has God made it plain? Paul says, For since the creation of the world, Gods invisible qualities-His eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. What Paul is saying here is you and I can use our reason. We can use logic when we look at the universe. I was driving home from a trip, and my daughter and I were together. The moon was a particular kind of beautiful. It had an orange color. It was very full. I said, Honey, thats a harvest moon. Its just a beautiful moon in the sky. We were talking about the cosmos and how we go around the sun, and the moon goes around us, and how theres an orbit and an order where the planets arent knocking into each other. Theyre not falling from the galaxy. Were just there in space, and isnt God amazing? Isnt God something? So you can just look, Paul says, and you can see theres a God. Theres order and design in the universe. GK Chesterson said if only one elephant came out with a long trunk, we would think it odd; but the fact that they all come out with long trunks makes it seem like theres a plot. Maybe theres design here. Maybe theres order here. One of the greatest theologians, possibly the greatest theologians who ever lived, was a man by the name of Thomas Aquinas, and he lived in the Middle Ages. He wrote like very few who have ever written. In fact, when he was in high school, he was called the dumb ox, ironically. He didnt speak much, and he had an appearance that did not portray the intelligence that he possessed. I started reading his work; I dont want to tell you how long ago back in the late 70s that was. Its amazing the words that come out of this mans mouth. He started to write a book called the Summary of Theology. It took him seven years to finish it, seven years! Three scribes had to write down everything he was saying, and he talked about the world. You know how we talk about intelligent design verses evolution? Thomas Aquinas was one of the first people we got that from, intelligent design. He said there cannot be design without a designer. There cannot be laws without there being a lawgiver. He was one of the first proponents of the teleological argument for the existence of God. Paul says we can look at creation-we can know that God exists. Secondly, lets turn to Hebrews 1, the second way we can know who God is-the second way Hes revealed Himself. My dog is afraid of the dark. She is. The reason we know this is because when you take her out at night, the darker it is, the louder she will bark. Brenda took her out a couple of nights ago. Remember how dark it was a couple of nights ago? She doesnt see anything, mind you, because its so dark, but its the thought of what might be out there that she cant see that frightens her. So she goes out there, and the fur stands up on her neck. She starts barking and growling, sending a message, Whatever is out there, you better watch out. Im a killer puppy. You better run and hide. Im going to get you. If there ever were anything out there, shed run in the house likidy-split, as fast as she could. The darker it is, the louder and more furiously she will bark. Darkness and the unknown promote fear within us. We fear what we dont know, what we dont understand. But when its light and you bring my dog out, she doesnt do that. If its a moonlit night, she doesnt do that, but when she cant see, fear rises up in her. God brought revelation. He brought light to our understanding. It talks about that in the Book of John, the first chapter. It says that the light came into the world, and that light enlightens every man. It enables us to see and understand our world and whom God is. It removes fear. Hebrews 1:1 says, In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways. Not just one time and not in one way, but He used people, and He spoke through people. As we read the Word, we learn even more about God because we can see His divine attributes in the creation, but we dont know His nature. Through the Word of God, we see His nature. We learn that He is immutable, that He does not change. We learn that He is righteousness and just. We learn that He is good and loving. We learn that He is gracious, but also just. We read the Prophets and see how God pours out His heart through the Prophets. God talks about emotions; what makes Him angry; as Janet [DeRosier] said-what makes Him jealous; and about His thoughts. You know, God has thoughts, and He shares those thoughts with us in His word. So this is a written revelation of whom He is. It helps us to know His character and to know His nature, so we can know what Hes like. Del Tackett does an excellent job talking about this in his DVD teaching this week. The third way that God reveals Himself to us, and not only through the creation-not only through His written revelation, is also through the incarnation. The author of the Book of Hebrews 1:2 (page 1184) says this, …but in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. The son is a close approximation to the Father? Nope. The Son is the radiance of Gods glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful Word. In John 1:18 (page 1049), John writes these words, No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Fathers side, has made him known. He has made Him known. He has brought a revelation through the incarnation of whom God is so we can know God. One of my favorite passages of scripture is found in John 14:5 (page 1067), if you would turn there please. We are going to be here for our duration together. Jesus was speaking about going away, and Thomas said to Him, Lord, we dont know where you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you really knew Me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him. This was going to be a turning point. He says, From now on, from this point on, you know Him and have seen Him. What Jesus is saying is, I am about to reveal to you more of whom I am, and doing so, Im going to reveal to you more of whom the Father is. Hes baiting them for a question, and the question is asked by Philip. Philip says, Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us. You show us God, we wont need anything from You again. We promise. No more questions, just show us God, and were done. Our lips are sealed. Jesus answered, Dont you know me, Philip, even after Ive been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, Show us the Father? How can you say show us God? Whatever I say is what the Father says. Whatever I do is what the Father does. If youve seen me, Philip, youve seen God. We see Jesus love personified, dont we? We see grace personified. We see how He went out of His way to minister to the broken-hearted, to reach the lost, to lift up the down-trodden. Last Sunday, my family and I, as part of my studies, had to go to a Greek Orthodox church. Our class got to take a field trip. My wife likes to make fun of me because we color maps, and we go on field trips. The priest even addressed us as The Sunday School class from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. That was the hardest Sunday School class I ever had. So, were there, and its a very different experience. The service was an hour and a half long, and you stood for about an hour of that, so I dont want to hear anybody complaining about standing too long. It was different. During the service, they took an offering. Our class and their families were mostly in four pews in the back of the sanctuary. The offering came by, and they were passing the bucket; but when they got to our row, I guess they thought we wouldnt want to give, so the ushers pretty much passed us by. They didnt even make eye contact. They didnt even try to pass the plate. You come to our church, and youre a visitor, the plate is going to get to you. They didnt do that there. They just walked right on by us. It was like, Hey, hey, hey. Ive got money. I wanted to give something, so I reached in my pocket, and I pulled out a five dollar bill. Ive been carrying this five dollar bill for a long time. I know what it looked like because I would always pull it out when I was either grabbing my keys, a piece of paper, another bill or something. This five dollar bill seemed to be hanging around. I knew how it was folded. I knew the angles. I recognized this bill. So I pull it out, and he turned around. I had to reach back. I put my five in the offering. At the conclusion of the service, we were walking out. Im just kind of looking around the foyer, kind of taking in some of the iconography, seeing what else I can identify. There on the table is my five dollar bill. Its just lying there. I recognize it. I know the folds. Thats my five. My first response is What? You dont want my five? Is it like Protestant money, ewww? I dont know. Is it you dont present a folded bill in the offering? Im starting to wonder. I have to be honest with you; I was a little put off. I was a little offended. The thought crossed my mind, You dont want it? Fine. Ill put it back. It spends. Why dont you want my five? What is it? (Congregation is chuckling.) I just felt really put off by it, kind of like second class, You dont even want my money. I had no idea what the reasoning was behind why they singled out that bill and took it out, but you know what? Some people feel like that five dollar bill. There are a lot of people that feel rejected. There are a lot of people that feel like they just dont measure up. They feel they arent worthy, that theyre not accepted. They feel because of what theyve done, they could never earn Gods love or acceptance. Thats true-we cant earn Gods love. But what Jesus demonstrated to all those five dollar bills out there, and youd never know them… Sometimes those of us who feel unworthy or unloved or rejected, we put on a pretty good act, a pretty good mask. We dont talk about it, or we put on a nice smiley face. We dont share what is going on inside, but inside you feel like a very second class Christian. How does God feel about you? You dont even have to wonder or ask that question, because Hes already addressed it in His Word. Look at Jesus; if you see Jesus, youve seen the Father. Jesus went out of His way to minister to the broken-hearted. I think of Zacchaeus. I think of the woman at the well, Sychar, in John 4. I think of the woman in John 8 who is caught in adultery. I think of the woman who came and wiped off the tears with her hair. I think of so many people, blind Bartimaeus. I think of the beggar that couldnt walk, all of the lepers, all of these outcasts and rejects. Through Jesus Christ, we know God cares about all people. We know that He loves people. We know Hes a gracious God because of the incarnation. We see God in His birth, Christmas. We see God in the life He lived. We see God revealed: His wisdom as He spoke, His power as He worked miracles. We see His great love in the cross. One of my favorite books, I read this back around 1980, was called Knowing God by JI Packer. I can still remember a quote from this book. Has anybody read that? Its a good book. Packer is no relation to the Green Bay Packers. I dont think. I dont think I would have read it if it were (congregation laughing). Im going to decide here and now, because of whats going on, Im not going to say another bad thing about Green Bay the rest of this year. Im going to declare a truce, right? Okay. So JI Packer said, The most amazing thing, if Jesus Christ is God in the flesh-if He is the divine Son of God, is not that He would rise from the dead. If He were the Son of God, one would expect that He would have victory over death. The most amazing thing, if He is the incarnate Son of God, is that He would die. I read that, I underlined that, put stars by that, and I went, Wow! The most amazing thing is that He would die. Revelations 1, right around Verse 17-18: this is in the beginning and the end, the Alpha Omega, Im God. I was dead, and Im alive forever more. So in His death, He reveals His nature to us that He is a loving God. Through his resurrection, He reveals His glory. In the incarnation, God has shown Himself to us. The fourth way that God lets us know who He is, is the witness of regeneration. In John 14:15 (page 1068), just a few verses down here, Jesus is trying to comfort them because He is leaving. If youve ever lost a loved one or a close friend, youre saddened by that. So, Hes trying to bring comfort to them. He says, If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor… Counselor is the word comforter. In the Greek, its Parakletos, one called alongside to help us. Jesus is saying, Im going to send another one just like Me to you to be with you till you sin. Then Hes gone. To be with you until you die… then youre on your own. The comforter comes, and He will be with you, how long does Jesus say? Forever. Last time I checked, forever was a long time. …the spirit of truth. Hes going to bring you into Gods truth. Hes going to reveal Gods truth to you, He says elsewhere in this chapter. Hes going to bring back to your mind the things I have taught you. …the spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be… where? … in you. We talk about intimacy; it doesnt get any closer than that. It doesnt get any more intimate than that, than in you. Thats the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. He comes within us at the new birth and makes us alive. It enables us; it empowers us to do Gods will and to know God. I will not leave you as orphans; Jesus said, I will come to you. Whos coming? The Holy Spirit. Jesus says, I will come to you. Do you see the Trinity here in this chapter? Jesus says, If youve seen me, youve seen the Father. The Father is in Me. We receive the Holy Spirit; Jesus is in the Holy Spirit, so through the Holy Spirit, the fullness of the Godhead, it dwells the believer. The Trinity is seen here in Chapter 4. The Father is in the Son; the Son is in the Spirit; and the Spirit is in us. Jesus says, You can know Him, not just know about God, but know Him-not just be able to point out from creation whats been made, but you can know Him. Years ago, my family and I were on vacation down south and decided… I grew up in Illinois, and that affected my choice of sports teams, of course. There was a player youve probably never heard of who played for the Bulls, whose name was Michael Jordan, an obscure name. He went through like a period of temporary insanity where he decided he was going to leave basketball and play baseball. Do you remember that? He played for the Birmingham Barons, if you remember that. While we were on vacation, we were going near Alabama, so we said, Lets see if Birmingham is on the schedule. Sure enough, it was a home game. I said, Hey, lets go, and maybe well see Michael Jordan. The point wasnt to see him play baseball; thats not something you really want to see, but it was to see him. So we got there early, and I thought to myself the night before, What if I got to see Michael Jordan? What would I say? Its a more intimate setting; its not a packed-out United Center with cameras, press, and security all around. Its a ballpark, and were there early. What if hes there early? What if we can see him? What if I can talk to him? What would I say? Everything I said sounded stupid in my head. Then I thought, What will he do? Will he reject me? Will he look at me in disgust and shake his head? Will he ignore me, and if does that, Im going to be embarrassed and embarrassed in front of my family. What will I say? I thought about everything. Finally, the scenario happened. Were down there, and Im looking at the field. Ive got my video camera with me, and Michael Jordan comes walking by. Hes closer to me than Ben is right now. Hes like halfway between us. So this is my moment. My sports idol is walking by, and my whole family is just gawking. So what will I say? Ill tell you what I said. Ive got the camera going, and heres what I said, There he is (congregation laughing). That was it! I could have had a conversation with him. In fact, he says one of his favorite things to do is not to sign autographs-its to talk to fans. He says in the long run, that would mean more to you than an autograph, if you actually had a conversation and got to know each other a little bit. I could have said something like, So what part of the game are you working on today, Michael? Maybe he would have responded and told me, Im working on hitting a curve ball. I would have said, Well, were the Williams family from Wisconsin. Were here to support you today. We could have had a conversation! I could have said, I dont just know about Michael Jordan, but now I feel like I know him a little bit. Ive talked to him; and somewhere in some remote part of his brain, he has a memory of me, but it didnt happen. When you are with somebody who you think is greater than you are, the tendency is they need to talk first, and you will respond. Its true. God doesnt want us to just say, There He is. There He is. I see evidence of Him. His word says He wants us to know Him. He has told us whom He is through His creation, through His Word, through His Son, and through the Holy Spirit-through creation, through revelation, through incarnation, and through regeneration. He has revealed Himself to us, and whats more, He has made the invitation. It would be as if Michael came up to me and said, Hey, where are you guys from? Lets talk. Matthew 11:28 (page 966), Jesus is speaking to whoever will listen, and He says, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. What an invitation you and I have! How foolish we would be to walk away from such an invitation. So my question this morning is this: If God has revealed Himself, He wants us to know Him so we can say, I know God, what are you doing with that invitation? What are you doing with that revelation? Are you seeking to know Him more? Not just know about Him. Thats not what The Truth Project is about. Its about knowing Him. Hes given us the privilege to do that. Amen? Amen.

The People who Know Their God (Daniel Sermon 16 of 17) (Audio)

united states god jesus christ lord israel bible state west struggle christianity kings north carolina romans suffering holy satan south resurrection acts jewish scripture north greek rome biblical jerusalem cnn jews south carolina sermon trials circle greece terrible babylon feast scriptures prophecy syria egyptian thessalonians bc iv context hebrew athens gentiles consistent application jupiter verse persecution divide apostle paul fell hosea won sovereign carpenter knowing god zeus ships verses persia pacific ocean niv atlantic ocean packer macedonia faith in jesus christ nebuchadnezzar sparta struck sadducees thessalonica spurgeon american church syrians that god holies euphrates hannukah bojangles tigris persian empire babylonia ptolemy god daniel antiochus antiochus epiphanes greg boyd maccabean andy davis fertile crescent two journeys antiochus iv epiphanes seleucids mattathias antiochus iv ptolemies ji packer biblical themes seleucus kittim

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 8, 2001

I. Knowing God The age we live in is an age which is characterized in many respects, by an insatiable thirst for knowledge. The other day I was driving by the prison down here and there was a Channel 17 news truck there. Have you see those news trucks with the big kind of boom that goes, I don't know how they work but there's an antenna and cords and wires, and there was a woman coming out with a microphone, they were getting ready for some kind of on-the-spot news. I remember when I was growing up news was just somebody sitting behind the desk reading and now it's just any time anything goes on, we want to be there and see it, isn't it true? And that's the whole basis of CNN. If there's anything going on anywhere in the world, whether it's a house fire or a major war or anything in between, CNN will bring it to you or local news will bring it to you and you will know about it, because you need to know, and that's why you tune in. And so we have an insatiable thirst for knowledge, we see that with the internet, you can tie in instantly to databases all around the world. You can know anything you need to know. The whole issue is you never have quite enough time to do all the research and the thought and you never realize that you just spent six and a half hours scanning through and surfing the internet. But that's what we're willing to trade six hours just so we can know some things we didn't know before. A question I want to ask this morning is knowledge a good thing? Is knowledge a good thing? Well Spurgeon dealt with this issue and he said, "Well, let me ask you, is air a good thing? Yes, you can't live without it but noxious or poisonous air can kill you. Is food a good thing? Yes, you can't live without it but the decaying meat that they removed from the market yesterday would kill you. Is water a good thing? Yes, water sustains our physical existence but poisoned water from an old well can kill you. And so it is with knowledge, knowledge is essential to our lives, even to our eternal life. But there is a kind of knowledge which like stagnant or poisoned water can kill the soul." Spurgeon said this, "The tree of the knowledge of good and evil stood in paradise when paradise was good," Mark that, "But it ruined paradise" Mark that too. So there is a kind of knowledge that is dangerous. And so what kind of knowledge should we crave? Well, I would recommend that we crave the very knowledge, we sang about earlier, knowing God, knowing God and knowing Jesus Christ. JI Packer in a book by that title, Knowing God, said this, "What were we made for? To know God. What aim should we set ourselves in life? To know God. What is the eternal life that Jesus gives? Knowledge of God." John 17:3, "Now this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." And what is the best thing in life, bringing more joy, more delight and contentment than anything else? Knowledge of God. Jeremiah 9, this is what the Lord says, "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts, boast about this, that he understands and knows me." Packer continues, he says, "What of all the states God ever sees man and gives him the most pleasure it is knowledge of himself." Hosea 6:6, "I desire knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." it is knowledge of God that brings delight to God when he sees that in us. Now, in our passage today, if you were to look at verse 32, Daniel 11:32, there's a group of people there right in the middle of this prophecy that are characterized this way. It says the people who know their God shall be strong and do great things. There's different translations to that verse, but I think that's the best one. The people who know their God shall be strong and do great things, the people who know their God. The Context of the People Now they lived in the context, the people referred to here in Daniel 11 were a specific group of Jews who lived a certain time. And we'll find out about that as we go on this morning. Their context was that Gentile kingdoms, Greek kings, were fighting back and forth over the promised land. Jewish people were suffering greatly under an anti-Christ figure, Antiochus Epiphanes. We'll learn more about him. And there were some Jewish heroes who defended their old covenant religion, even at the cost of their lives. They were willing to stand up and be counted for the Lord, they were willing, courageously to take on this man Antiochus and to lay down their lives. And who were they? They were people who knew their God, those were the ones who were strong and courageous, those were the ones who stood up and did great things. The people who knew their God, that's their context. What is our context? Well, the American Church is characterized in many respects by strange ideas about God. And by a weakness, an inability to act or be courageous to stand firm for God in a culture which is questioning him, defying him and mocking him. There is weakness in the church. We don't stand firm, and we don't do great things. And that's because I think you root it back to a lack of knowledge of God. Jesus said to the Sadducees, "You're in error because you don't know the Scriptures or the power of God." We don't know God the way we should. And there are strange theories abounding about God, his nature, his purposes, his intentions. How can we be sure that we're breathing pure air not noxious air? How can we be sure we're eating healthy meat not rancid meat? How can we be sure we're drinking pure water not water from the bottom of an abandoned well? Well, we know it through scripture and through Jesus Christ. Scripture alone gives us true knowledge of God and it can only be rightly interpreted through faith in Jesus Christ. Now, we've been looking through the book of Daniel at a God who reveals himself there. That is the God I want to... I want you to know, that is the God I want to preach, that is the God worth living for and worth knowing for. He is sovereign over world empires. He is mighty to rule over all of human history, he works through the events, great events and small events of human history to bring about his purpose and what is his purpose? It is an eternal kingdom, a kingdom which will never end into which he invites people from every tribe and language and people and nation. It is a kingdom of the everlasting life, through Jesus Christ. We're going to talk about that next week. Resurrection. Those who rise and shine like the sun for all eternity, Daniel 12. But there's a kingdom that he's building and he's demonstrating his perfect knowledge and his sovereign power even in the pages of the book of Daniel. That God, the God of the book of Daniel, the God of Daniel, the one he prayed to and worshipped, that God is well worth knowing, he's worth fighting for, he's worth even dying for. II. A Modern Heresy: The “God of the Possible” But that God, the God of the book of Daniel is a God that Satan will fight against every step of the way and he's going to fight against the book of Daniel and he's going to fight against specific detailed prophecies in Daniel, he's going to lie about it and say that the events in chapter 11 are too detailed, too specific, the prophecy is too clear they must have been written after the fact. It's been said from the very time that people started thinking about the book of Daniel right up until our present day. And so Satan is going to attack this idea of a sovereign all-knowing, all-powerful God because he hates that being. It's the very one he rebelled against at the start. And so we have some strange ideas about God floating out around there. There's a professor, very winsome likeable person named Greg Boyd. I've mentioned him before but I want to warn you, an under-shepherd, a good under-shepherd has to warn sheep about false teaching. And he's written a very popular book called The God of the Possible. The basic idea of the book is that God cannot specifically know the future, it's impossible for him to know. And why is that? Because human beings have absolute free will. Any decision they make, any idea that they have, anything they choose to do, they can do. And so, because their decisions are completely free God cannot possibly know them ahead of time. He is rather the God of the possible, whose sovereignty and power is so great that he can handle whatever we decide and still work around us to accomplish his ends. Does that sound like the God of the book of Daniel to you? But that's what's being taught. Now in the chapter we're looking at here from verse 1-35 alone there are 135 specific, detailed prophecies about a period of history that most of us have never come close to studying, 135 specific prophecies. Let me ask you a question, do you think we're going to go through all 135 this morning? I'm sure some of you have lunch reservations at Bojangles' and you're not going to be able to stay. [laughter] So no, we're not going through all 135 specific prophecies. In one sense, it's a pity because you're not going to get the full power of the book of Daniel 11, unless you lay down verses 1-35 alongside a secular history of that age and see how many places they connect right on down the line. It's astonishing, I've been astonished. And I'd like to communicate my astonishment to you, but I don't have much time. So, I would urge you to study it for yourselves. But there's specific prophecies in here, and it totally rejects the idea of Greg Boyd's God, a God who cannot know in detail the future. III. Summary of Chapter: History Written Ahead of Time Now let's get our context here. Remember last week, the angel Gabriel appeared to Daniel after 21 days of fasting Daniel had... Didn't take any choice meats but my guess is that he just ate bread and water for 21 days, he was an old man in his 80s, and he was praying and God sent the angel to give him a revelation. And so chapter 10, 11 and 12 are all that same time. It's the same revelation, the third year of Cyrus the Great, it's the end of Daniel's life. And so chapter 11 is a series of wars and all kinds of things that go on over the promised land, predictions of details. And then in chapter 12, the end of the matter, resurrection and eternal life, even for God's people. So it's all one kind of revelation. We talked about it, the beginning of it, last week and now we're going to look more specifically at it. Now if you would look at chapter 10 verse 14, he gives basically the topic of these revelations. Chapter 10 verse 14, the angel said to Daniel, "Now, I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future for the vision concerns a time yet to come." So the focus or the center of the prophecies are the Jewish people, the promised land, the city of Jerusalem, that's the center of what we're going to look at in chapter 11, 12. But we as Gentiles, we are grafted into a Jewish tree, it says in Romans 11. And so these things are also our things as well. And so we should be intensely interested in what is talked about here in chapter 11, chapter 12. The Rule of Persia Now in chapter 11, we got a focus on the holy land, that literal chunk of land that was promised to Abraham the promised land, and what's going to happen in a future time. Remember, future to Daniel. He lived about 550 so were talking several hundred maybe even 250 to 300 years after Daniel, predictions and prophecies about what happen. Now the chapter itself breaks into five major sections, the first section talks about the kings of Persia, that's verse 2, the second section, verse 3-4 talks about the king of Greece. We know who that is, Alexander the Great. And then the next section is about Egypt and Syria, up through verse 20, Egypt and Syria. The fighting between Greek kingdoms that goes on back and forth there. The next section about this one Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes, who plays out in history the role of anti-Christ. He's not the anti-Christ, but he acts like him in history and so he gives a little dress rehearsal for the final anti-Christ who's described in the fifth section of this chapter. The final anti-Christ, the final Gentile ruler, who will be ruling when Jesus Christ returns on that white horse to end history. So that's the whole chapter. It's all laid out before you and he's spreading out history centered around Jerusalem and the promised land. Now look a little more carefully. We do not have time to read the whole chapter, as you can tell it's the lengthiest chapter in the book of Daniel but we're going to take little snapshots so that we have an understanding of what's here. Look at verse 2, for example. This is the section on Persia it says, "Now then I will tell you the truth," he's speaking, the angel is speaking to Daniel, "Three more kings will appear in Persia." That's three more after Cyrus the Great, "And then a fourth who will be far richer than all the others and when he has gained power by his wealth he will stir up everyone against the kingdom of Greece." So you can count off four kings from Cyrus the Great, and that one was Xerxes I. Xerxes gathered together a huge army. He was wealthier than any other king that had preceded him in the Persian Empire, and he threw it in a war against Greece. That really precipitated Alexander the Great coming back in reprisal afterwards. So this is all a matter of history, but this was written 250 years before it ever happened. So the fourth king after Cyrus the Great is going to be wealthy and he's going to gather together this army and he's going to fight against Greece. Greece: Alexander the Great (vs. 3-4) Now verses 3 and 4 talks about the next king, doesn't say he's Greek here but we know from history and from the earlier prophecies in Daniel that this is Alexander the Great, it can be no other. Look at verse 3, "Then a mighty king will appear who will rule with great power and do as he pleases. After he has appeared his empire will be broken up and parceled out toward the four winds of heaven. It will not go to his descendants, nor will it have the power he exercised because his empire will be uprooted and given to others." This is definitely Alexander the Great. He died at age 32 or 33, the height of his power, in a drunken feast in Babylon he died and he had no ancestor ready to take over the kingdom and so it was divided among his four top generals. The Struggle of Greek Kings: South (Egypt/Ptolemies) vs. North (Syria/Seleucids) (vs. 5-20) Now two of those generals were Ptolemy, spelled P-T-O-L-E-M-Y, in Egypt and Seleucus in Babylonia. Now I've given you a little map there in your bulletin. It's really kind of hard to follow chapter 11 without seeing the map. The Ptolemies were Greek rulers of Egypt. Remember that Alexander the Great conquered Egypt. And he built a city there in his name, remember what it's called? Still there to this day, Alexandria. So, they conquered down in Egypt and the Greeks were ruling down in that part of the world, including the promised land where the Jews lived. In the northern section around the Tigris and Euphrates, the Fertile Crescent and Babylonia, that whole center section went to a general named Seleucus. So we have the Seleucids, the northern kingdom, and we have the Ptolemies, the southern Greek kingdom, we have the Syrians versus the Egyptians, do you see it? The northern kingdom's that kind of gray area, the southern, the cross-hatched area. Can you read it? You can see what's going on. These are the kings of the North and the kings of the South. And you won't understand Daniel 11 unless you see this map and understand what's going on. The kings of the North and the kings of the South were fighting each other, and they were both Greeks, they were all Greeks. And this shouldn't surprise us because this is the way Greece was. Greece was made up with a bunch of city-states Sparta and Athens and Macedonia that used to fight against each other. And so now they've just kind of exported it to the rest of the world. This is what they did. And so, there's this internal struggle going on. And they're warring and they're fighting over stuff. We read this beautiful... I mean we sang this beautiful song, knowing you Jesus, it says, "All I once held dear, built my life upon all this world reveres and wars to own, wars to own, all I once thought gain I have counted loss, spent and worthless now compared to this, knowing you Jesus, knowing you." Well that's what these Seleucids and Ptolemies were fighting over stuff, power, materials, gold and silver and authority and fertile land, and all this kind of stuff. They're fighting over it, and that's been human history, hasn't it? That's what's been going on since the beginning of sin with Cain and Abel. And so there's this struggle, this fight going on, the kings of the North and the kings of the South, and they're warring over who's going to have the upper hand. Now in these verses we have amazing detail, verses 5-20. We can't go through it all, but you would derive tremendous benefit from looking at it. For example, a daughter given in marriage later assassinated, it's predicted and you can read about it either in the Bible 250 years ahead of time or you can read about it in history afterwards, but it's all right there. And then we've got this regular pattern of the kings of the North basically triumphing over the kings of the South. The reason was the kings of the North had a greater power base. They had that Fertile Crescent in Babylonia, all that area up there. So they had economic wealth and therefore they always seemed to have the upper hand. One of the kings, Antiochus III, not Antiochus IV Epiphanes, but Antiochus III was the most successful military general. Initially he lost a battle that's predicted in here too but then in the end he gained the upper hand and just conquered that whole area. He was the most powerful militarily of this era, but then he got a little ambitious, he over-reached himself and he lost his kingdom. And why is that? Because as he reached too far west, he bumped into a new power that was rising in the West, who is it? Who started to rise and take over where the Greeks had taken over? It was Rome. This is right around the time that Rome starts to ascend in power. Look at verses 18 and 19, it's all predicted in there. It says, "He will turn his attention to the coastlands, and will take many of them but a commander... " is all it says, A general "will put an end to his insolence and will turn his insolence back upon him." verse 19, "After this he will turn back toward the fortresses of his own country but he will stumble and fall to be seen no more." Antiochus III the Great. And he's trimmed off by the Romans at this point. The Little Antichrist: Antiochus IV Ephiphanes (vs. 21-35) Now, verses 21-35, this is a focal point, Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Now, who is Antiochus? He is the little horn of Daniel 8, he is the imitation anti-Christ. And so he's going to do things in his life, he's going to do things in the promised land that mimic what will happen later at the end of the world. He's acting it out in drama, Antiochus IV Epiphanes and we can read about it. We already saw him in Daniel 8:9-12 and chapter 8 again, 23-25, he's the little horn that grows up on the shaggy goat in that vision in Daniel 8. And what do we learn about it at that time. Well first, it would happen at the latter part of the Greek reign. In other words, once Antiochus is done pretty much the Romans take over. There's a little history after that but it's not long after that the Romans are in charge. And so it's at the latter part of the Greek reign and this man Antiochus IV is going to wage war on the Jews. There's going to be a time of religious persecution, the sacrifices will be stopped, many of the Jews will be slaughtered, and he, Antiochus IV, will be destroyed but not by human power. He will not be assassinated or poisoned, he will not die in battle, he's going to die in a remarkable way by the hand of God I think. Now, if you look at more detail in verse 21-28, we see the rise and early success of Antiochus IV. Look at verse 21. It says, "He will be succeeded by a contemptible person." the contemptible person is Antiochus IV. "Contemptible person who has not been given the honor of royalty. He will invade the kingdom when its people feel secure and he will seize it through intrigue." This is Antiochus' modus operandi, this is what he does. He's not a powerful military conqueror, he's more of a supreme politician. He's able to divide people by making alliances and by intrigue and by making plots, that's what he does. And so just when the kingdom feels secure he's able to worm his way in there and take power and take control. Now we see some military successes in verses 22-24. It says, that an overwhelming army will be swept away before him. Both it and a prince of the covenant will be destroyed. Verse 23, "After coming to an agreement with him, He will act deceitfully." I mean that's just the way he does it, he makes an agreement and then he breaks it when it's convenient for him to do it, that's Antiochus. "After coming to an agreement with him he will act deceitfully and with only a few people he will rise to power." Verse 24, "When the richest provinces feel secure he will invade them. And will achieve what neither his fathers nor his forefathers did. He will distribute plunder, loot and wealth among his followers. He will plot the overthrow of fortresses but only for a time." So that's when he's doing well. He's ascending up, he's reaching the height of power and he's doing it militarily, but even more he's doing it through knowledge of politics. Divide and conquer, tricking people, working it through that way. His biggest successes of all are described in verses 25-28, it says, "With a large army he will stir up his strength and courage against the king of the South. The king of the South will wage war with a large and very powerful army but he will not be able to stand because of the plots devised against him. Those who eat from the king's provisions will try to destroy him. His army will be swept away and many will fall in battle." Verse 27 is remarkable, "The two kings," now who is this? The king of the North and the king of the South, we've got the Syrian-Egyptian king... I mean Syrian-Greek king coming down, that's Antiochus IV and then we've got the Ptolemian king and they're sitting at one table. Verse 27. The two of them are going to sit at one table and are going to try to work it out. "The two kings with their hearts bent on evil will sit at the same table and lie to each other but to no avail because an end will still come at the appointed time." So you got these two kings sitting a table and they're going to lie to each other. This was written 300 years before it happened. You know what I wonder? I wonder what God was thinking when the table was being built? When the Carpenter was building the table that they were going to sit at. It'd been predicted 300 years beforehand, all this. He didn't know what it was, it was just a table he's building, he built 30 that month. It's just another table. But it's the one that these two kings are going to sit at opposite sides of and lie to each other. And you're telling me God doesn't know the future. I mean, details about the future, the God of the possible. No, God knows everything before it happens in detail. Look at verse 27 again, the two kings are going to sit at opposite sides of the table and they're going to lie to each other but to no avail. And why to no avail? "Because an end will still come at the appointed time." Who's appointed time? God's appointed time. They can lie to each other all they want, they can make their schemes and plans. When God says it's over, it's over and not until. This is the God of the book of Daniel. It's consistent, isn't it? Consistent picture of God who rules over great kings like Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander the Great and minor kings like this one, or these two. Verse 28, "The king of the North will return to his own country with great wealth but his heart will be set against the holy covenant. He will take action against it and then return to his own country." We're going to talk about that. He's going to attack the holy covenant. But then in verse 29 and 30 we see something new, "At the appointed time," Circle that. "At the appointed time he will invade the South again." at who's appointed time? At God's appointed time. Do you see the picture again and again? God rules over these things. At the appointed time he will invade the south again. But this time the outcome will be different from what it was before. Now look at this, it's remarkable. Verse 30, "Ships of Kittim," is what it literally says in Hebrew, NIV translates it, "Ships of the western coastlands will oppose him and he will lose heart then he will turn back." What is this? Well, he invades Egypt and he's doing well, he's kind of taking over the king of the South again and then out of nowhere come these ships and some troops land. It's a Roman commander. And Rome has had just about enough of this guy and they intervene. It was a man, a commander named Popilius Lenas, and he comes down from Thessalonica with some ships. It's all a matter of history. You can read it. Daniel saw it 300 years ahead of time. And so the ships land and this commander comes and confronts Antiochus IV Epiphanes and he said, "You've got to go back to your home territory and stay there. You've got to go back to your home area and stay there." And Antiochus looked at him and with his little wheels turning, you know how he is, wheels turning, planning what he can do, he says to the Roman, "Well, I need to think about it." and he said, "Alright." so the Roman drew a sword and he drew a circle around Antiochus IV on the ground, he said, "You think about it as long as you want but you must decide before you leave that circle." Well, there's a threat there, isn't there? You decide now what you're going to do and if you decide to rebel we'll know it right now, we'll cut you down before you make it out of the circle. He forced the decision on him, he drew that circle around him and forced the decision and said, "You decide now." And if you want to take us on we're ready. Well, he lost heart and went back with his tail between his legs. Antiochus’ Persecution of the Jews (vs. 30-35) Well, a prideful guy like this isn't going to take that standing up and so he's going to go back and he's going to kick the dog at home, and that's what bullies do. He's going to go home and he's going to kick the dog, he's going to take it out on people who are defenseless, he's going to take it out on the Jews. He's angry, he's enraged and he's going to turn and he's going to vent his fury, verse 30, on the holy covenant. He's going to pour out his rage. Now he hated the holy covenant, why? Because he loved Greek culture and Greek religion, he loved the Greek gods, especially Zeus or Jupiter and he wanted all the people in his conquered land to follow his religion. The Jews would never do it, they had this temple and they had all these sacrifices, they had the old covenant, the whole thing that God had commanded them to do. And he is going to fight against them. But he is going to do it his way. He's going to... Look at verse 30, "He will return and show favor to those who forsake the holy covenant." Do you see that? He's going to bribe some Jews and he's going to give them positions of authority, he's going to give them honor, titles, money if they'll turn their back on the holy covenant and sadly some of them do. He's going to divide politically, that's the... What he did. That's his approach. But he's also got armed forces and in verse 31, "His armed forces will rise to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. Then they will set up the abomination that causes desolation." It is at this point in history, December 168 BC, that Antiochus defiled the Holy of Holies. He set up a statue to Jupiter. We've talked about this before. And he sacrificed pigs in the Holy of Holies and used pigs' blood to defile the sanctuary and to kind of take it over for Greek religion. Any of you who know anything about Greek temples know that there are also temple prostitutes, and he defiled it further in that manner. It was a horrendous scene, total defilement. The temple therefore became not a center of prayer for all nations and of holy sacrifices and worship, but a center of wickedness and sin and sadly some faithless Jews corrupted and... Were corrupted and defiled by the temptation in verse 32 it says, "With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant." The Jews Who Knew God Resisted But some Jews stood fast. And why? Because they knew their God, because they knew their God. You will not stand firm if you don't know your God. As long as culture, the surrounding culture is amenable to Christianity and times are easy and things are friendly, you can have a fake faith and make it through but not during times of persecution, you will not stand if you don't stand by faith. They knew their God, and they were willing to lay down their lives. Terrible persecutions came on, verse 33-35, "Those who are wise will instruct many though for a time they will fall by the sword or be burned or captured or plundered. And when they fall they will receive a little help and many who are not sincere will join them. Some of the wise will stumble so that they may be refined, purified and made spotless until the time of the end for it still comes at the appointed time." At the appointed time. What is this talking about? The Maccabean revolt. There was a priest named Mattathias and he had five sons, the Maccabean family. They raised a banner of revolt and they started to fight against Antiochus IV. They were willing to risk their lives. One of them in one fight, Antiochus had elephants in his army, he got up under the elephant and stabbed it with a sword right up to the heart of the elephant. What do you think the elephant did after it was stabbed to the heart? Fell to the ground and crushed the man who did it. The courageous actions of these Maccabeans, the willingness they had to lay down their life for the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And they won many victories. And they were able to cleanse the temple. And so, the Jews celebrate Hannukah every year, the Feast of the cleansing and the dedication of the temple when it was taken back from Antiochus IV. But what happened to Antiochus IV Epiphanes, well he died. In 164 BC in fulfillment of the prophecy of Daniel 8:25, "He will be destroyed," it says, "But not by human power." He went down to a village near the temple of Elymais to plunder it and he was suddenly struck down by an illness. Said he would die but not by human hands. Struck down with an illness, he had severe abdominal pains that never left him coupled with intestinal worms and a terrible stench. And he died with vain petitions to the God of Israel on his lips to spare his life, he died praying to the God of Israel. Can you believe that? And he died. And in his death, it leaves some verses in chapter 11 unfulfilled, doesn't it? The Final Antichrist (vs. 36-45) From verse 36 on is not fulfilled in the life of Antiochus and therefore it's referring to the anti-Christ, the future. You want to know what's going to happen? Read verses 36-45, because there is nothing in history that lines up with these verses. Verse 36, "The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard of things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed for what has been determined must take place." determined by who? Well determined by God at the right time. You see, God is sovereign even over the final anti-Christ. And when his time is over then Christ will come. Verse 37 is not true of Antiochus it says, "He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the one desired by women nor will he regard any god but will exalt himself above them all." That's not true of Antiochus, he revered the god of his fathers. Jupiter and all the Greek pantheon of gods, he revered them. This one will not. He will reject all gods, anything that is called God and set himself up to be god in their place. This is none other than the man of sin in 2 Thessalonians 2. This is the anti-Christ. He's going to honor them, verse 38, "with a god of fortresses; a god unknown to his fathers he will honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts. He will attack the mightiest fortresses with the help of a foreign god and will greatly honor those who acknowledge him. He will make them rulers over many people and will distribute the land at a price." So we see this end time king rising up to power and he's going to dominate and he's going to be successful. And he's going to win militarily. He's going to win battles one after the other. Verses 40-45 talk about it, and remarkably, if you take that map I gave you and look, he's going to be running along the same coastlands up and down along the same area that the kings of the North and the kings of the South fought it out so long ago. It's the same area. It's going to be re-enacted at the end of the world. He's an end time king ruling powerfully over the nations, and he's going to succeed until his appointed end, days measured out by God himself. He's going to establish a false religion, exalting himself and glorifying himself above every god and in the end he will be defeated by Jesus Christ himself at the second coming. IV. Application: “The people who know their God...” Now, chapter 11 of Daniel is filled with incredible prophecies. We've only lightly touched on them. 135 specific prophecies, every one of them fulfilled except those which refer to the anti-Christ, the final ruler. And all of it, not only known meticulously ahead of time by God but determined, decreed and appointed by God. These are the words used again and again. Do you know this God? Is this the God you know? Is this the God you worship? A God with this kind of sovereign knowledge and power and control, even over minor kings and kingdoms. Do you know this God. JI Packer said, "The people who know their God have great energy for God, the people who know their God have great boldness for God, the people who know their God have great contentment in God, fearing nothing." The people who know their God, verse 32, shall be strong and do great things. How Can We Know God? Well, the question is how? How can we know this God? How do we know him? Well, we know him by scripture. You know him better now than before we started reading the book of Daniel. Just by reading scripture to know that God knew all this ahead of time, that's how you know. I printed out in your bulletin Acts 17:26. And Acts 17:26 explains very plainly what was going on here. This is a sermon that the Apostle Paul preached to the Greeks in Athens. And it says, "From one man he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live." He determined the time set for them and the exact places where they should live. Where do you live? United States lives between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. State of North Carolina has its boundaries to the North, Virginia, to the south, South Carolina. Who drew those lines? What does Acts 17:26 tell you? He determined the time set for them and the exact places where they should live. Do you know this God? A God who's this powerful, who knows this much. Is this the God you know? Sovereign. The lines on the map move from generation to generation but all of them under his sovereign hand. Kings of the North fight the kings of the South and all of it under his sovereign hand. Is this the God you know? Verse 27, "The two kings with their hearts bent on evil will sit at the same table and lie to each other but to no avail because an end will come still at the appointed time." Is this the God you know? Verse 29, "At the appointed time he'll invade the South again." And even the anti-Christ's days are measured out. Verse 36, "He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined must take place." Sovereign knowledge and control and power, supernatural prophecies meticulously weighed out. How in the world can Greg Boyd thesis be true that God has no knowledge of the future and the book of Daniel still be Scripture, it's impossible. But more than anything, do you know God's salvation plan? Because that's the core of what's going on here. You might say, who cares about kings of the North and kings of the South. Well, I think you ought to care, God cares. But even more realize what is the big picture of the Book of Daniel. A kingdom which will never end. Not like these earthly kingdoms but the kingdom of Jesus Christ, a kingdom in which death itself has been conquered. We'll talk about that next week. A kingdom of his son, Jesus Christ, a kingdom for the Jew first but also for the Gentile, a kingdom centered in Jerusalem and the promises and the prophecies made to Abraham. And so how can we know this God? We know him through the king himself, Jesus Christ. Jesus came to reveal God. It says in John 1, "No one has ever seen God at any time but the only begotten God, the Son of God has made him known." By knowing Jesus Christ, you can have eternal life. Jesus came and this week we celebrate his atoning sacrifice on the cross. You can't just make up your mind to know this God you have to have your sin problem dealt with and that's fully paid for through the blood of Jesus Christ. Do you know him today? Have you come to faith in Christ? Have you ever given your life to Jesus Christ? Do you know for certain that your sins are paid for? Have you ever yielded to him? It could be that you don't know for certain that your sins are forgiven. That you don't know for sure whether Jesus died for you or not. Can I urge you not to leave this sanctuary before you're certain that you have made a commitment to Jesus Christ. Popilius Lenas the Roman commander drew a circle around Antiochus IV and said you can think about as long as you want but don't leave that circle without making up your mind what you want to do. Well, I think God draws a circle around us today, and do you know what he calls it? He calls it today, that's what he calls it and he says, "If today you hear his voice don't harden your hearts." he also says, "In the time of my favor I heard you and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you now is the time of God's favor. Now, today is the day of salvation. Do you feel the circle drawn around you? Don't leave before you've made up your mind. Won't you close with me in prayer?

The Glowing Heart of the Gospel, Part 2: Propitiation Through Christ (Romans Sermon 17 of 120) (Audio)