Are you listening?

February 8, 2015 in Bible - NT - Luke, Judgment, King Jesus, Meditations, Word of God, Worship
Luke 8:18 (NKJV)
18 Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.”
Did you bring your ears with you to worship today? I know, of course, that unless you have a physical abnormality, you did of course show up with those two floppy things on the side of your head. But did you bring your ears with you to worship today?
Jesus consistently ends his parables with these words: He who has ears to hear, let him hear.One of the things that characterizes us as human beings – characterizes our interactions with one another and even with God – is that we can “hear” and yet “not hear.” We hear the words of our spouse; we hear the criticism of our employer; we hear the corrections of our parents; we hear the very words of God – but when that crucial question comes our way, “Are you listening to me?” we often have to confess, “No, I’m not.”
In our passage today, Jesus warns us to take heed how we hear, how we listen to His Word. If we hear the right way, increased blessings will come our way; if we hear the wrong way, even what we seem to have will be taken away. Hence, it is not enough simply to walk our ears into the sanctuary; we must take heed how we hear.
So how are you listening? How have you been listening? Are you taking heed how you hear? Are you coming to worship week by week expecting to hear the very voice of God? Expecting God to correct you? To comfort you? To challenge you? To sanctify you? Do you petition God to help you understand more of Him, more of His word, more of His world?
Or are you coming to worship just because? Just because your parents make you? Just because that’s what good people do? Just because it’s beneficial for your kids? Do you find yourself bored, disinterested, expecting only to hear the voice of a man and not the very words of God? “And when will that guy stop preaching,” you say to yourself, “so that I can start talking to my friends? So that I can get home and rest? So that I can listen to my music, watch my movie, play my game?” Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.

Reminded of our need to bring our ears with us to worship and that we often leave them behind, let us confess our sin to the Lord and petition Him to pour out His Spirit upon us, that He might give us ears to hear. And, since we are confessing our sins, as you are able, let us kneel in humility before our Lord.

False Prophets, Priests, and People

February 2, 2015 in Authority, Bible - OT - Jeremiah, Church History, Coeur d'Alene Issues, Confession, Homosexuality, Judgment, Meditations, Sexuality, Ten Commandments, Word of God
Jeremiah 5:30–31 (NKJV)
30 “An astonishing and horrible thing Has been committed in the land: 31 The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule by their own power; And My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?
One of the reasons that it is critical for us to draw correct lines of parallel between the Old and New Testaments is that it equips us to understand the course of church history and our own moment in the story of redemption. In the history of the Church there are times of great blessing and growth – as in the days of King David and King Solomon – there are also times of judgment and shrinkage – as in the days of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah lived at a low point in Judah’s history. During his lifetime the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar besieged and destroyed Jerusalem including the temple. Jeremiah’s words today help illumine why God’s judgment was falling upon Judah: prophet, priest, and people had exchanged God’s Word for their own words; they had hardened themselves to the truth and embraced lies. Listen to Jeremiah: The prophets prophesy falsely – they speak not the words of God, not truth, but their own words, falsehood; the priests rule by their own power – not by God’s power but their own; and my people love to have it so – this is the sober finale, the people delighted in the deception practiced by prophet and priest. Leaders and people alike exchanged the truth of God for a lie. Consequently, God was judging Jerusalem.
We live in a day not unlike that of Jeremiah. Many of our prophets and priests – pastors and pastorettes in historically Christian churches – proclaim falsehoods and lies in the Name of God. They say that there are many ways to God; they say that Jesus was just a great man; they say that male and female are interchangeable; they say that God’s forgiveness makes holiness unnecessary; they say that homosexuality is acceptable to God; they say that we mustn’t judge unrighteousness or lawlessness. The prophets prophesy falsely, the priests rule by their own power, and my people love to have it so.
God’s assessment of this sin is found at the beginning of our text: An astonishing and horriblething has been committed in the land. Here we receive God’s twofold assessment of Judah’s sin. First, it is “astonishing” – hard to believe. After all, what can be more astonishing than to place one’s confidence in man rather than in God? God is eternal and unchangeable; His Word is sure and fixed, a solid and everlasting foundation. And man’s word? Fickle, unreliable, biased; subject to constant revision and change; influenced by the latte he had at breakfast and the paycheck coming next week. So it is astonishingto exchange God’s truth for man’s opinions.
But not only is it astonishing, it is also “horrible” – devastating in its results. In the end, what will all these lies profit? God sees infallibly the outcome of this sin: Jerusalem will be in ruins; many of the Israelites will die; and then they will stand before God to answer for their sin. Their exchange of the truth of God for a lie is not only astonishing but also horrible.
So here’s the challenge Jeremiah gives you: whose voice do you want to hear? Don’t be surprised that there are many voices, even among priest and prophets, articulating opinions contrary to God’s Word. This has happened before among our people. So don’t be surprised; but do be warned: God is calling you, in the midst of these unfaithful voices, to hear and obey His voice. Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as our fathers did. Determine to understand and submit to God’s Word, God’s wisdom. Have no problem texts; bow before the Lord and seek His grace and mercy to understand and to apply His Word aright.

Reminded of our sinful propensity as God’s people to reject God’s Word and replace it with our own; reminded that many in our day have done this very thing; let us confess our individual and corporate sin to the Lord and petition Him to have mercy upon us; and since we are confessing our sins, let us kneel in humility before our Lord.

Death is not Normal

May 25, 2014 in Baptism, Bible - NT - 1 Corinthians, Bible - NT - John, Easter, Eschatology, Judgment, Meditations, Resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:29–34 (NKJV)
29 Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead? 30 And why do we stand in jeopardy every hour? 31 I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 32 If, in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” 33 Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.” 34 Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.
Prior to becoming a pastor I used to daydream about preaching a sermon on the text in John, “Jesus wept.” I found myself frustrated by the way in which death is often trivialized in our current discourse; by the way in which even well-meaning Christian people speak of death as though it is a normal and natural part of human existence. And so I wanted to preach on that text, “Jesus wept.” There in the face of death, the death of his close friend Lazarus, Jesus wept. Tears that were a protest against death; a protest against the notion that death is natural. Jesus wept.
And we all sense this, particularly we who know our Bibles and who know that Jesus has risen from the dead. We know that death is unnatural; we know that death is an enemy. Jesus wept. And it is this knowledge of the abnormality of death which Paul highlights in our text today.
How can some of you say, Paul has been insisting, that there is no resurrection of the dead? How can you say that death has the final word? How can you say that Jesus’ resurrection from the dead has not transformed all of human history? Jesus is the firstfruits of those who sleep! Because Jesus has risen from the dead, we too shall rise from the dead.
Now Paul appeals to the absurdity of their claim, their claim that death will basically continue on indefinitely. If death is normal, if death is not something that God intended from the very beginning to eliminate when the Seed of the Woman crushed the head of the Seed of the Serpent, then why did God command our fathers be baptized, to be washed with water, whenever they touched a dead body? Further, why do we Christians keep putting ourselves in harm’s way? Subjecting ourselves to ridicule, to criticism, to persecution, to death? Why endure all this pain and agony? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then let us eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.
But Jesus wept. Jesus wept because death is not natural; it is an invader; it is not a normal thing; it is a foe. But glory be to God, it is a defeated foe. There shall be a resurrection of the dead. Jesus has risen – so we too shall rise. We shall stand before our Creator and give an account of what we have done in the body.
Therefore, we must beware how we conduct ourselves during the time of our stay on earth. We must pursue righteousness and holiness; we must beware departing from the simple Gospel of the death and resurrection of Christ; we must beware embracing ideas that undermine our hope in the resurrection.

So what of you? Are you prepared to stand before your Maker? Have you sought His forgiveness through Christ and endeavored to conduct yourself in righteousness? It is the reminder that we must all appear before our Creator that is issued to us every Lord’s Day. Today we enter into God’s presence – and so we must kneel before God and confess that only in Jesus are we worthy to enter into His presence. So let us kneel and seek His forgiveness in Christ.

Two Humanities, Two Representatives

May 18, 2014 in Baptism, Bible - NT - 1 Corinthians, Creation, Easter, Eschatology, Judgment, Meditations, Resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:20–28 (NKJV)
20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. 24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. 27 For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. 28 Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.
Today we continue to make our way through 1 Corinthians 15 in celebration of Eastertide, the time of year when we are invited to give special focus to the significance of Easter, the significance of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.
Here Paul unfolds for us the point that we endeavored to make last week: there is an indissoluble connection between the resurrection of Jesus and our resurrection. Because Jesus has risen from the dead, we shall rise from our graves. Jesus came, Paul tells us, as a Second Adam, head of a new and renewed humanity. While the sin of the First Adam plunged not only himself but all humanity into death and judgment, the resurrection of the Second Adam, Jesus, brings new life not only to Himself but to all those who are in Him.
What this means is that throughout history there are two humanities: the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent; the sheep and the goats; the circumcised and the uncircumcised; the wheat and the tares; those who have the First Adam as their representative before God and who will, therefore, face death and judgment; and those who have the Second Adam as their representative before God and who will, therefore, inherit eternal life and salvation.
You see, when Jesus returns in glory, every human being shall be made to appear before our Creator – and when we appear before Him, there will be but two fundamental groups of men and two spokesmen. There will be those who stand with the First Adam and who say to God through their representative, “I will rule my life by my own standards; I will be my own authority.”Then then there shall be those who stand with the Second Adam and who say to God through their representative, “All glory be to You, O Lord; for you have created me so I will live for your glory not my own.”
So in which group shall you be found? Will you stand with the First Adam? Will you stand in rebellion against God, choosing your own way and ignoring the commandments of God? Or will you stand with the Second? Will you stand in submission to God, choosing His way and treasuring the commandments of God? These are our two options; these are the two spokesmen. You must choose one to speak for you; there is no viable third option.
Of course, there are those who try to fool God; there are those who unite themselves with the Second Adam in baptism but who really embrace the life of the First. But on the final day there will be no fooling God or others. He knows the Adam with whom you identify.

So today as we confess our sins, let me remind you to confess them in the Name of Jesus Christ, trusting in Him as your representative. Only in this way shall we rise unto life on the Last Day. And as we confess, let us kneel before the Lord.

Shod with Wool

January 1, 2014 in Bible - OT - Jeremiah, Bible - OT - Psalms, Church History, Judgment, Sovereignty of God

While reading Spurgeon’s Treasury of David today I came across an old Roman proverb:

The feet of the avenging Deity are shod with wool.

 Spurgeon comments: With noiseless footsteps vengeance nears its victim, and sudden and overwhelming shall be its destroying stroke. One of our follies as human beings is that we imagine that God’s silence means that He doesn’t care.

Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; They speak a vision of their own heart, Not from the mouth of the LORD. They continually say to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD has said, “You shall have peace” ’; And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’ ” (Jeremiah 23:16–17)

The Bombing in Boston and God’s Justice

April 21, 2013 in Bible - OT - Deuteronomy, Bible - OT - Proverbs, Hell, Islam, Judgment, Meditations

Proverbs 20:26 (NKJV)
26 A wise king sifts out the wicked, And brings the threshing wheel over them.
Deuteronomy 19:11–13 (NKJV)
11 “But if anyone hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises against him and strikes him mortally, so that he dies, and he flees to [a city of refuge], 12 then the elders of his city shall send and bring him from there, and deliver him over to the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. 13 Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.
This past week national attention has been focused upon the tragic bombing in Boston during the marathon. Three killed and hundreds wounded. Two men sought in a city wide manhunt – one killed in a shoot out with the police and the other apprehended later. At such times it is fitting to consider what the Word of God has to say about justice and the punishment of crime.
Shortly after the second bomber was arrested the Boston police tweeted, “CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody.” This was indeed good news – and worthy of celebration. But the police department should have known better than to call their arrest the triumph of justice. For as we all are often reminded, the mere arrest of a suspect is far from the accomplishment of justice.
In ancient Israel accused criminals would flee to cities of refuge – the equivalent of our jails – in order to await a fair trial and avoid the blood lust common in such tense times. But confinement to the city of refuge was not justice.  In order for justice to be served the individual must not only be arrested but tried swiftly and, if found guilty, punished in accordance with the severity of his crime. And it is this execution of justice that God declared would “put away the guilt of innocent blood in Israel that it may go well with you.” God’s blessing follows societies that practice justice.
But it is this that proves so difficult in our current legal system. As anyone who has found himself embroiled in our current legal system knows, justice is rarely served. Our legal system is in many respects broken and victims frequently suffer much while criminals escape justice. This is a blight on our national character and a sin for which the Lord on High will hold us accountable as a people.
It is the frustration of dealing with our defunct legal system that has led Senator Lindsey Graham to suggest that the Boston bomber be tried by a special court. Graham knows how frequently justice is foiled in our legal system and so has suggested some alternative. But is this not to confess that the whole system is broken and that we must, as a people, repent of the injustice of our legal system and begin to hold criminals accountable for their actions?
Solomon reminds us today, A wise king sifts out the wicked, And brings the threshing wheel over them. The reason that we are witnessing increasing crime in our streets is because of the failure of our legal system to administer justice. Justice administered quickly deters crime. But our judges have failed us – and, here’s the critical part, they have failed us because we ouselves have failed. We have sought to avoid justice; we have sought and are seeking to avoid accountability for our transgressions.
How often do we and our countrymen complain about God’s justice? We dispute the righteousness of His law; we grumble at his judgments; we take him to task for the judgment of hell; we demand why bad things happen to good people; we fancy ourselves upright and just and that God is the one who must answer for the problems in the world. In all these ways we adjudge ourselves unworthy to receive just decrees from our courts. We don’t want justice and so God has handed us over to unjust courts. And this reminds us that as a people we need to confess our sin to the Lord and seek His forgiveness in Christ petitioning him to restore justice to the land.