The Sin of Abortion

March 1, 2012 in Abortion, Bible - OT - Amos, Meditations

Amos 1:13–15 (NKJV)
13 Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of the people of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, Because they ripped open the women with child in Gilead, That they might enlarge their territory. 14 But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, And it shall devour its palaces, Amid shouting in the day of battle, And a tempest in the day of the whirlwind. 15 Their king shall go into captivity, He and his princes together,” Says the Lord.
This last Wednesday marked the beginning of a roughly 40 day period that has since the 10th century been called Lent. This period calls us to anticipate and prepare for the celebration of the great feast of Easter – that most momentous of holy days when we commemorate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus from the dead. But the very fact that we celebrate His resurrection reminds us that Jesus died – died for our sin and rebellion, died for our transgressions. And Jesus’ death reminds us that we are called to die to sin, to die to the old Adam, the way of life that despises God and His law and substitutes human wisdom in its stead. And so Lent is appropriately  a time to focus upon specific sins that call for public confession and repentance.
In our congregation the specific issue that we have tied to this period of time is that of abortion. This is the greatest blot on our much blotted national character. Since 1973 we have slaughtered approximately 50 million children, 50 million children who will rise up and condemn this generation in the day of judgment.
Just this week Secretary of State Clinton called the actions of Russia and China “despicable” – that was her word – because they failed to authorize UN sanctions against Syria. In the last several months Syrian President Assad has used increasing force to suppress a rebellion in his country and several thousand individuals have lost their lives as a result.
Regardless of the Syrian question in itself, let me remind us all that this Hilary Clinton who declared the failure of Russia and China to stand against the death of a few thousand individuals in Syria “despicable” is the same Clinton whose hands are red with the blood of innocent children here within our own borders. This is the same Hilary Clinton whose husband while President and whose current President countenance the slaughter of millions of children while still in the womb. And she has the gall to declare the actions of Russia and China despicable? How dare we Americans condemn Syria for deaths in the thousands when each year we slaughter over a million of our own children within our very borders? Will not the Lord hold us accountable for such shameful hypocrisy? Indeed he will.
And it is this that our text from Amos declares to us today. The people of Ammon are condemned for ripping open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to expand their own borders. In other words, the people of Ammon slaughtered these children for their own advantage. They wanted greater power, greater welath, greater prestige, greater influence, greater control – and these children stood in the way of all that. And so Ammon slaughtered the infants of Gilead.
And is this not the driving force behind abortion? Selfish convenience? I want to avoid the shame of having conceived a child out of wedlock, so I slaughter my child. I want to have more disposable income, so I slaughter my child. I want to avoid the inconvenience of raising a child, so I slaughter my child. And what is God’s attitude toward such selfishness; nay, more than selfishness, evil? He detests and abhors it – and promises that His hand of judgment will fall on Ammon and bring her to the ground. 
And so reminded of our sin, reminded that like Ammon we have made war on those children yet in the womb, let us kneel and confess our sins to the Lord. We will have a time of private confession followed by the public confession found in your bulletin.

Is Mormonism Christian?

February 14, 2012 in Uncategorized

Letter to the Editor of the Coeur d’Alene Press
Submitted February 12, 2012


I get the unsettling suspicion when I read letters about the
Mormon question that the entire point is being missed. Many
Mormons respond to the charge that Mormonism is not Christian
by replying, “But we believe in Jesus Christ; therefore we are
Christians.”

The assertion of Christianity, however, has never been that
Mormons don’t believe in a person named Jesus. Quite
obviously they do. But then again so do Muslims, Unitarians, and
Jews.

The critical issue is not whether one believes in a person named
Jesus but what one believes about him. Who is Jesus? Historic
Christianity has always insisted that Jesus is God Himself in
human flesh, the Second Person of the Trinity. He is “God of
God; Light of Light; very God of very God…being of one
substance with the Father.” (Nicene Creed)

This teaching Mormons repudiate. Indeed, Joseph Smith went so
far as to ridicule the Trinity as “a strange god indeed.” He had
no desire to be associated with historic Christianity – according
to him all Christian churches are “wrong” and all their teachings
“corrupt.”

So let us be clear. Muslims are not Christians because they
teach Jesus was simply a great prophet. Unitarians are not
because they teach he was simply a great man. And Mormons
are not because they teach that he is a separate being from the
Father who earned his divinity by virtue of his hard work. If
Mormons want to believe that, that is their prerogative; but
don’t confuse others by calling it Christian.

For Three Transgressions, even Four

January 30, 2012 in Bible - OT - Amos, King Jesus, Meditations

Amos 1:3-5
Thus says the LORD: 
    “ For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four,
      I will not turn away its punishment,
      Because they have threshed Gilead with implements of iron.
       4 But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael,
      Which shall devour the palaces of Ben-Hadad.
       5 I will also break the gate bar of Damascus,
      And cut off the inhabitant from the Valley of Aven,
      And the one who holds the scepter from Beth Eden.
      The people of Syria shall go captive to Kir,”
      Says the LORD. 
A couple weeks ago we began a series of exhortations from the prophet Amos. God chose the sheepherder Amos to speak the Word of God to the corrupt people of Israel and Judah. However, before Amos speaks to the people of God, he speaks the Word of God to the nations around Israel. Though God was not in covenant with the nations surrounding Israel, he makes very clear that He is nevertheless their Ruler and Judge. He is Lord of all the nations of the earth.
In our text today God speaks a word of judgment on the nation of Syria with its capital at Damascus. The ancient king of Syria, a man by the name of Hazael, had been chosen by God Himself to rule Syria. Once a servant of the King of Syria, Hazael was sent to the prophet Elisha to discover whether the king would recover from his illness. There Eliasha announced that Hazael would be the next king of Syria. But even as Elisha made the announcement, he wept openly. Hazael, astonished, asked why he wept. And this was Elisha’s reply:
“Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel: Their strongholds you will set on fire, and their young men you will kill with the sword; and you will dash their children, and rip open their women with child.”
It is for these cruelties that Syria is condemned by the prophet Amos:
“For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four,
         I will not turn away its punishment,
         Because they have threshed Gilead [in n. Israel] with implements of iron. 

So what would be the consequence of Syria’s cruelty toward the people of God? God would hold them accountable. He would bring down the throne of Hazael, destroy his palaces, bring desolation on his land and people, and take many of the Syrians into captivity – words that were fulfilled when the mighty nation of Assyria destroyed Damascus within the next 50 years.
Now if it was true that God was Lord of all the nations of the earth in the Old Covenant, when God was permitting the nations of the world by and large to go their own way, how much more true is it now that Jesus is exalted as the Ruler of all the nations. Jesus rules and reigns among the nations of the earth and calls them to implement justice, righteousness, and purity on the earth. And even as God executed judgment on the nations of the ancient world for three transgressions and for four, so Jesus executes judgment on the nations of the modern world. Why have the governments of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya fallen this year? Why is the modern nation of Syria facing serious unrest? Because Jesus rules and reigns in history and overthrows wickedness and injustice, especially when that injustice is practiced against His people. And so the call to all the nations is, “Kiss the Son lest he become angry and you perish in the way.” Jesus is remarkably patient; he waits for three transgressions, even four before he strikes. But strike he will if we refuse to give heed to Him – especially if we strike out against His people.
And this is a sober reminder; after all our own nation is practicing cruelty. We are threshing the unborn with implements of iron, slaughtering our children in the womb; we are removing ancient boundary stones and meddling in affairs that are not our own; we are corrupting ourselves and others through the perversity and coarseness of our media; for three transgressions and for four Jesus judges – so let us kneel and confess our sins, requesting that God in His mercy would grant us repentance.

Suspension from the Supper

January 24, 2012 in Bible - NT - 2 Thessalonians, Discipline, Ecclesiology, Meditations

Public Suspension of —– —–
2 Thessalonians 3:13-15 (NKJV)
13 But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good. 14 And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. 15 Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
Paul closes his letter to the Thessalonians with several exhortations to the congregation at large. He begins by urging them, “brethren, do not grow weary in doing good.” Note that Paul’s command presumes that it is possible to grow weary in doing good – after all, we don’t warn about things that aren’t possibilities. In endeavoring to do good we face much opposition – both from within and from without – and so Paul commands us to never grow weary. The temptations of the Evil One, combined with the allurements of the world and the lusts of our own flesh, often make the task of doing good challenging, the temptation to grow weary alluring.
Because of the strength of this temptation, the temptation to give up doing good and simply start doing whatever, Paul exhorts the church to take seriously those who refuse to obey the Word of God. As Paul remarks elsewhere, a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. If a congregation permits sin to go unchecked, then that congregation cannot be surprised when such sin spreads. So notice that Paul urges the Thessalonians to act – “if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed.” Paul’s command involves two parts – first, the Thessalonians are to “note” – mark – point out – publicly identify such a one. Second, they are to refuse to keep company – refuse to enjoy communion, including normal fellowship at the Lord’s Supper – with such a one. Why? What is the purpose of this marking? This suspending of normal fellowship? Note Paul’s words: “that he may be ashamed.” In other words, the purpose of this discipline is to awaken the sinner to the seriousness of his sin. As Solomon writes in Proverbs 20:30, “Blows that hurt cleanse away evil, As do stripes the inner depths of the heart.”
It is with sober hearts that the elders inform you today – in accordance with Paul’s words that such things are to be announced in the public assembly (1 Cor 5:4) – that —– —– is being suspended from fellowship in the Lord’s Supper.
For some time —– has been wavering in her service of Christ. During this time numerous folks have endeavored to encourage her and come alongside her. Within the last two weeks, however, she has made clear that she is turning away from Jesus and embracing a life of sin. It has become plain that for many months she has been lying to and deceiving her parents and others, using them to further her own selfish ends. She has been committing and is continuing to commit sexual immorality. She has rejected the Bible’s authority, declaring that it is not relevant for today. She has intentionally absented herself from corporate worship and avoided accountability.
—–’s parents and the elders have spoken to her and urged her to turn back to Jesus, to beware trampling under foot the blood of the covenant by which she was distinguished from the world. She has rejected these overtures. Our Lord commands us in Matthew 18:15-17:
““Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church…
In accordance with these words of our Lord, that when a brother or sister will not hear the exhortations of two or three witnesses the matter is to be brought before the church, the elders are bringing —–’s sin to your attention. Our purpose in so doing is twofold: first, that you would pray for —– and her family that the Lord would give —– eyes to see and ears to hear, that she would return to the Lord and flee from the foolish and destructive path that she is choosing. We know that all of us by nature are frail and prone to sin and deception, that but for the grace of God we would turn from him and serve self, and so let us pray that He would indeed have mercy upon her, bringing to her mind and heart the many things which she has been taught over the years.

Second, our purpose in bringing this to your attention is that you would consider writing to —–, expressing your love for her as a member of this body and urging her to repent and return to Jesus. The elders will provide you with contact information in the week to come should you choose to do so.
Suspending —– from the Lord’s Supper is an act of love, “For whom the Lord loves he disciplines even as a father the son in whom he delights.” —– is our sister and so as we admonish her we treat her “not as an enemy but as a beloved” sister who has lost her way. And these reminders of the deceitfulness of sin remind all of us of our need to confess our sins to the Lord. So let us kneel as we confess our sins and pray for our sister.
Our Father,
We are prone to sin, tempted to grow weary doing good. The temptations of the Evil One distract us, the enticements of the world draw us away, the lusts of our own flesh incline us toward evil. But for your sustaining grace we would each pursue our own way rather than the way of Jesus. We none of us by nature desire to take up our cross and follow Jesus – for following Jesus means dying to sin and self and none of us relish the prospect. We pray your mercy upon us. Remember your lovingkindness and mercy toward our sister —–. Restore her to her knees that she would bow before you and seek your forgiveness, that she would abandon the path of sin and destruction on which she has set herself and that she would return ot the narrow way that leads to life. We pray also that you would keep all of us from sin and deception, pour out your grace upon us that we would hunger and long for righteousness and purity and every good way. Through Jesus Christ our Lord and by the power of Your Spirit,
Amen.


Epiphany and Miscommunication

January 9, 2012 in Bible - OT - Isaiah, King Jesus, Meditations, Tongue

Isaiah 60:1–3 (NKJV)
1 Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. 2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the Lord will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you. 3 The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.
Communication is a good thing. As creatures made in the image of God, spoken into existence by the Word of God, one of our most god-like capabilities is the ability to communicate – to articulate with words our thoughts, feelings, desires, longings, ideas, fears, etc. Words make us human.
Ideally when we communicate both parties get the same message. But sometimes – either because we forget to speak with one another or because the person speaking communicates something other than that which the other hears – our messages just don’t get across. And this is what happened last week with our service of worship.
You see Epiphany in the church calendar, the day that celebrates the revelation of Christ to the Magi and, many years later, His baptism and His first miracle at the wedding in Cana, is celebrated on a fixed day, January 6th. Churches in the west that don’t celebrate Epiphany itself but who celebrate Epiphany on a Sunday instead have to decide which Sunday on which to celebrate. And while Carrie and I were treating last Sunday as Epiphany, Jim and Cassandra assumed we would celebrate this Sunday. Miscommunication.
So what do we do when we have a miscommunication? First, of course, the one responsible for the miscommunication should take responsibility for it. So, mea culpa – I should have communicated better. Second, knowing that our God is sovereign over all and that He intended this miscommunication for our good, our next calling is to be thankful. One of the glorious things about miscommunications is that they frequently result in multiplied blessings: we got to sing additional Christmas hymns last week and we get to sing Epiphany hymns this week and what’s wrong with that? Praise the Lord! After all, the church calendar is just a tool, a means to enable us to focus our lives on the life of our Great King Jesus. The church calendar declares that his life is the pattern for our own – and Jesus was routinely misunderstood and yet continued to give thanks to God.
And it is the centrality and magnetism of Christ which we find celebrated in Isaiah’s vision today. What happens when the light of the world comes? When the glory of the Lord rises and shines upon His people? The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.Men are drawn to that light, to the character of Christ, like moths to a flame.
Today throughout the world, millions of people will gather to worship Him and to pay Him tribute. Why? Did he march forth into battle with sword and shield, scimitar and daggar, battle axe and hammer? No; he did something far more fearsome. He faced the wrath of the thrice-holy God in order that he might pay the penalty for our sin. He went through the fiery furnace of judgment in order to bring us to safety and peace. He loved us and gave His life for us – upholding justice by causing justice and mercy to kiss in peace. He has conquered millions by His love.
And it is into this image that we are being transformed. So should we strive to communicate well? Yes for Jesus is the Word of God and faithfully communicated all that the Father had given him to say. But when we fail to communicate well, what should be our response? To acknowledge that we are yet fallen creatures in need of the grace of God and to give thanks that despite our miscommunications God has taught us to love one another and is enabling us, by His Spirit, to become more like Jesus.
So what miscommunications have dogged you this week? Have you and your spouse failed to understand one another? Have you and your children been like ships passing in the fog? Has your boss failed to hear your suggestions or your employee failed to implement what you thought you communicated so clearly? Whatever the miscommunication, God sends it as a reminder of our frailty, a reminder of our need for the sacrifice of Christ, and so let us kneel and seek His forgiveness for failing to respond to these miscommunications in a godly fashion.

Why did Jesus come?

January 2, 2012 in Bible - OT - Malachi, King Jesus, Meditations

Malachi 4:5–6 (NKJV)
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. 6 And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.
When God created the world, He created it a realm of righteousness and peace – a place of blessing. When human beings rebelled against Him, however, the entire creation became twisted and distorted, it came under judgment. Where once there was only blessing now curses touched the animate and inanimate creation.
This was no surpise. After all, God Himself had announced that were our first parents to reject His Word they would surely come under His judgment. Further, since God Himself is the source of righteousness and peace, to turn away from Him is to sever ourselves from all that is good and right, from that which gives us blessing; even as a lamp depends for its light upon the electrical outlet, we depend for blessing and joy upon the living God. To reject God and imagine that we could preserve righteousness, peace, and joy is foolish – yet this was the sin of our first parents – and it is a sin repeated by countless millions of human beings to this day.
The ultimate end of rebellion is always judgment. Satan’s intention in tempting the man and the woman was to destroy all creation, to destroy that which God had designed and made, by bringing it like himself under God’s wrath and curse. Human beings became his tools, his instruments, to accomplish this objective.
But God had other plans. God intended to rescue the world not abandon it to the folly of our first parents or to the malevolence of the Evil One. He would rescue His creation. And it it this intention that is celebrated every Epiphany Sunday when Jesus was revealed to foreign kings, to the magi. It is also this intention that is announced one final time in the closing verses of the Old Covenant:
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.
Uniformly the NT interprets the promise of Elijah’s arrival to refer to John the Baptizer. He is Elijah who was to come before the arrival of the Messiah; he was the one commissioned to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers – a worthy theme for discussion in and of itself. But I’d like you to note the reason God gives for sending John. Why send John to restore family relationships and bring people back to the Lord? “Lest,” the Lord declares, “I come and strike the earth with a curse.”God sent John as the forerunner of His plan of salvation, His plan to rescue the entire creation from the bondage in which it was trapped.
And this is precisely what Jesus declares to us. “For God so loved the world, the kosmos, the creation which He had so lovingly and painstakingly crafted, that He sent His only Son that whosoever believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life…He did not send the Son into the world to judge the world but that the world might be saved through Him.”God acted in Christ to rescue the creation from its bondage to decay. And how did He accomplish this?
Remember that the ultimate end of rebellion is always judgment. In justice our rebellion must be judged. And so, wonder of wonders, the eternal Son of God took on human flesh by being born of the Virgin Mary, he lived among us, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He bore the judgment that was due to us because we had rebelled against Him. And what’s more, God raised Jesus from the dead. In this way, He broke the power of death, reversing the curse that once enslaved all creation. He came lest the earth be struck with a curse; he came to rescue all creation.
So what of you? The ultimate end of rebellion is always judgment. Either we face that judgment ourselves – the end of which will be our condemnation – or we turn in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, who bore the judgment for all His people, and so receive blessing from the Lord in Him. None of us can face the Lord in ourselves; we have all rebelled against Him. And so, as we enter into His presence this day, He commands us to seek refuge from judgment through Jesus. Reminded of our need for a Savior, let us kneel and confess our sins to the Lord.

With Reverence and Godly Fear

December 19, 2011 in Bible - NT - Hebrews, Ecclesiology, Meditations, Worship

Hebrews 12:25–29 (NKJV)
25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, 26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” 27 Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.
Today in this final Sunday of Advent we close our meditations upon Paul’s words to the Hebrews. Paul reminds us that as Christians we have received the unshakeable kingdom; that the temporary kingdom of the Jews has given way to the eternal kingdom of the Messiah. Therefore, as members of the Messianic kingdom, we are to approach God in corporate worship in a way that is acceptable, in a way that is pleasing to him. Note Paul’s words, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.”
Last week we insisted that Paul’s use of the word “serve” in this passage is specifically addressing corporate worship. Latreuwmeans ‘to perform religious rites, to worship, to venerate.’ We also saw that Paul insists that there is a right and wrong way to worship God. He says that by grace we may worship God acceptably – implying, of course, that there is an unacceptable way of worshiping him. So what does it mean to worship God acceptably? Paul does not leave us to answer this question on our own – for he immediately qualifies his exhortation.
We are to worship God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire. Paul’s language leaves us in no doubt of his reference point. Ages ago when God appeared to Moses and called him to rescue Israel from Egypt, he appeared to Moses in the burning bush. And when Moses became curious and would have searched out the secrets of the burning bush God declared, “’Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals from off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground…I am the God of your father – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God” (Ex 3:5-6). Moses’ response to the awe-inspiring presence of the Lord in the burning bush is the paradigm that Paul uses to describe acceptable worship.
First, acceptable worship is reverent worship. The word that Paul uses here alludes to Moses hiding his face. It is the word used elsewhere to be ashamed, shame-faced, or embarrassed. By extension it means to bow one’s head with a self-conscious acknowledgment of inferiority or fault. When we come here week in and week out to worship, we come to meet with the high and holy one – the very one with whom Moses met on the mountain, the very one whose presence was transfigured on the mount such that Peter, James, and John couldn’t look upon him. So as we come, we are to come remembering that the One we worship is a consuming fire and so we are to be reverent.
Second, acceptable worship is fearful worship. When Moses was confronted by the living God, he was in awe, afraid to look upon him. Knowing that God is not to be trifled with, not to be treated lightly, we are to worship with this due sense of awe. And awe will manifest itself in obedience – when we hear the voice of the one we fear we listen attentively. God rebukes the Jews in Isaiah’s day for fearing men rather than fearing Him: “I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die, and of the son of a man who will be made like grass? And you forget the Lord your Maker?” (Is 51:12) So when we come to worship we are to have godly fear.
So why do we do what we do? Why isn’t our worship hip and trendy? Why do we sing stodgy old psalms and hymns? Why don’t we dance and skip in the aisles? Why do we kneel? Why do we raise our hands together? Why do we recite creeds, pray sober prayers, greet one another with promises and even warnings? Because we are called to worship the Lord with reverence and godly fear.
And so, reminded that this is our calling, reminded that we come this morning into the presence of the same God before whom Moses quaked in fear, let us kneel and confess that we are unworthy in ourselves to be here and that we stand in great need of the sacrifice of Christ to cover our sins.

What is Acceptable Worship?

December 12, 2011 in Bible - NT - Hebrews, Ecclesiology, Meditations, Worship

Hebrews 12:25–29 (NKJV)
25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, 26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” 27 Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.
This advent we have introduced a number of changes to our Sunday worship, to our liturgy. At such times it is good and right to take note of why we do what we do – and so I have been spending the last couple weeks meditating on this passage from Hebrews.
Paul reminds us that as Christians we have received the unshakeable kingdom. The temporary kingdom of the Jews has given way to the eternal kingdom of the Messiah. And the consequence of this change is not lesser accountability – as many wrongly believe, “we are not under law but under grace” – but greater accountability. Therefore, we stand in constant need of the grace of God to enable us to do that which is pleasing in His sight, including to worship the Lord faithfully week in and week out as His covenant people.
And it is this precise application which Paul makes in our passage today. He writes, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.” Since we are members of the Messianic Age, let us be diligent to possess the grace of God and in that grace to serve God acceptably with reverence and awe.
First, note that Paul wants us, in the grace of God, to “serve” God. The word that is translated “serve”doesn’t mean service in the sense of labor on behalf of another. Frequently we are called upon to serve the Lord in that sense, but that is not what is being mentioned here. Instead Paul uses the Greek word latreuw which means “to perform religious rites as a part of worship—‘to perform religious rites, to worship, to venerate.’” In other words, Paul is explicitly addressing the nature of corporate worship, the religious rituals that we use to approach our God. Even as the old covenant community, priests and people alike, served God by worshiping Him in accordance with His Word, so the new covenant community is to serve God by worshiping Him in accordance with His Word. By grace we are to worship God.
Second, note that Paul immediately gives parameters to describe what this worship should look like. He says that we are to worship God acceptably; we are to worship God in a way that pleases Him. This implies, of course, that there are ways of worshiping God that do not please Him, ways of worshiping Him that are unacceptable. You will recall that at the beginning of the old covenant era God struck down Nadab and Abihu for offering strange fire to the Lord – their worship was not pleasing to the Lord.
Why not? First and foremost, Paul is implying here, because they did not worship God in the grace of God. “…let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably…” It is only by grace that we can worship in a way that pleases God. We cannot approach God acceptably on the basis of our own merits; we cannot approach God acceptably on the basis of our righteousness; we cannot approach God acceptably on the basis of our wisdom. It is only by gracethat we can serve Him acceptably. And this is what Nadab and Abihu fundamentally missed. They did not worship God mindful of the One to whom all their religious rites pointed – Jesus Christ. Nadab and Abihu thought they could tweak the religious rites because they were just conventions of men and any way of worship is acceptable as long as it is sincere. But God had explicitly designed these rites to point to the One and Only Sacrifice through whom human beings can approach God – Jesus.
As we come to worship today, therefore, the message that God delivers to us is that we must approach him acceptably by resting upon His grace in Christ. We must come to worship clothed in the white robes that only He can give. And the only way to worship God acceptably in this fashion is to kneel and confess our sins to God, beseeching mercy through Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
So let us kneel and seek the forgiving grace of our God.

Let us Have Grace

December 5, 2011 in Bible - NT - Hebrews, Ecclesiology, Meditations, Worship

Hebrews 12:25–29 (NKJV)
25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, 26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” 27 Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.
Last week we learned that in these verses Paul contrasts the temporary, shakeable kingdom of the Jews, the period of the old covenant, with the eternal, unshakeable kingdom of the Messiah, the period of the new covenant. He insists that it is this latter kingdom of which we, in the Lord Jesus, are members. With the final dissolution of the Jewish kingdom, followers of Christ have received a kingdom which cannot be shaken.
Therefore, Paul insists, we must be careful how we respond to this kingdom. We must not refuse Him who speaks. Because God has revealed Himself even more clearly, even more certainly in the life of His only begotten Son, the Christian era is a time not of lesser accountability but greater. To reject the unshakeable kingdom is to invite the cornerstone to fall upon you and grind you to powder. If God took seriously our fathers’ transgressions in the old covenant, how much more seriously will he take ours.
But all of this could lead us to respond incorrectly – to imagine that having begun by grace, having been delivered from our sins by the sacrifice of Christ and the gift of faith, we are now left on our own to live lives of righteousness and purity. Like the British monk Pelagius we can begin to fancy that holiness is our own doing. Sure God has been gracious – after all, he has given me the Bible, he has given me Jesus’ life as a role model, he has given me other believers for accountability – look how gracious God has been. But having received these graces, holiness of life is something we must achieve by our own will power.
It is certainly true that all these things Pelagius mentioned are signs of God’s grace. But none of them in themselves are sufficient. After all, our problem as humans beings is not that we fail to will and choose and even, at times, to make great sacrifices. Our problem is that our nature is inclined toward sin and so even when we choose these great things we do so not for the Living God but for some other object of devotion. Even our most righteous acts are tainted, marred by sin.
For this reason, Paul begins his practical exhortation in our text this way: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverance and godly fear.” Paul clearly understood that the foundation of Godly worship is the grace of God – grace that does not merely give us good gifts externally but grace which sets our hearts free from the clutches of sin. “Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” It is God Himself, the same God who patiently endured the failings of our fathers in the Old Testament, the same God who sent His Son to rescue us from our sin on the cross, the same God who sent His Spirit to open our hearts and eyes so we could embrace the Gospel, who gives us grace to escape our sinful pollution and to worship Him with reverence and godly fear.
So as we come to worship Him together, as we enter into His gates with thanksgiving and praise, let us be diligent to enter there clothed in the blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And the only way to enter clothed in His blood is to kneel and confess our sins to God, seeking His forgiveness. So let us kneel and do so.