Extortioners, Swindlers and the Kingdom of God

September 21, 2015 in Bible - NT - 1 Corinthians, Bible - NT - 1 Timothy, Bible - NT - Matthew, Meditations, Ten Commandments
1 Corinthians 6:9–11 (NKJV)
9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Today we bring our series of exhortations on 1 Corinthians 6 to a close. Paul has catalogued a number of sins from which God in His grace and mercy has determined to free us in Christ. While these sins did characterize us in our unbelief, they are not to characterize us in Christ. We close with Paul’s declaration that extortioners will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Extortion is the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats. Paul has already condemned thieves – those who take others’ possessions as their own – he now condemns a certain type of thievery – a thievery that uses one’s superior strength or wit in order to take advantage of others. The ESV captures the full extent of the Greek with the translation “swindle” – to put forward plausible schemes or use unscrupulous trickery to defraud others; to cheat.
It is likely that the group of people that Paul particularly had in mind were false prophets who used their slick speech to line their own pockets. Jesus warned in the Sermon on the Mount, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves” (Mt 7:15). That word “ravenous” is the same Greek word found in our text. False prophets extort and swindle people; they get from the sheep whatever they can for their own advantage, not caring for the sheep or feeding them or protecting them.
The modern church has no shortage of such swindlers from televangelists who capture gullible men and women to certain mega-church pastors who tickle people’s ears with feel-good sermons. Paul describes them well as men who suppose that godliness is a means of gain (1 Tim 6:5).
But religious swindlers are just one type of a breed – we find the same type of person in politics and business and health care and social services and relationships. Swindlers include all those who twist the good gifts that God has given them – whether strength or wit or speech – and then use that gift to aquire that which God hasn’t given them. They are acting on the adage, “Might makes right.” Rather than use their strength and wit to glorify God and serve others, they use them to take advantage of others.
So what of you? Are you using the gifts that God has given you for for the glory of God and the good of your neighbors? Or are you using those gifts to swindle others?

Reminded that extortioners shall not inherit the kingdom of God, let us confess that we often use our gifts to take advantage of others rather than serve them. Let us kneel as we confess our sin to the Lord.

Planned Slaughterhood

August 2, 2015 in Abortion, Bible - NT - Luke, Meditations, Ten Commandments
Luke 1:39–45 (NKJV)
39 Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, 40 and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. 45 Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”
This week The Center for Medical Progress has continued its expose of Planned Parenthood’s barbaric treatment of the unborn. Not only has Planned Parenthood participated in the slaughter of the innocents on a scale that King Herod would have envied, it has sold the body parts of those slaughtered children to lab workers whose white coats can never cover the blood that is upon their hands.
Our passage today reminds us that infants in the womb are fully and completely human. When Mary came to visit Elizabeth, it was not only a meeting of mothers but a meeting of the boys they were bearing. And the meeting of these boys was electric. John, a fetus developing in Elizabeth’s womb, leapt for joy to meet Jesus, a fetus developing in Mary’s womb. They were not mere tissue but tiny human beings interacting with their environment.
David declares the wonder of God’s creative genius in Psalm 139:13-16 – “For You formed my inward parts; you wove* me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they were all written, the days fahioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” God is the Master Craftsman – he not only created the first man, Adam, from the dust of the earth; not only formed the first woman, Eve, from the rib of Adam; but He fashions each man and woman in the womb, giving each a unique identity, calling, and dignity.
Human beings are made in the very image and likeness of God – and yet our laws protect those who kill them and our tax dollars have been used to fund one of the main institutions that slaughters and, now we have learned, sells their body parts. For forty years the blood of our unborn has cried out to God for vengeance and the God of vengeance has heard their cry. And it is our calling as God’s people to hear their cry as well.

So this morning, reminded of the dignity and honor which God has invested in every member of our race, let us confess that we have often mistreated those made in His image and that, as a people, we have too long countenanced the slaughter of the innocents.

Responding to Obergefell

June 28, 2015 in Bible - NT - James, Bible - OT - Isaiah, Bible - OT - Psalms, Homosexuality, Law and Gospel, Meditations, Politics, Ten Commandments
James 4:12a (NKJV)
12 There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy.
Isaiah 5:20–21 (NKJV)
20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight!
Psalm 94:20–23 (NKJV)
20 Shall the throne of iniquity, which devises evil by law, Have fellowship with You? 21 They gather together against the life of the righteous, And condemn innocent blood. 22 But the LORD has been my defense, And my God the rock of my refuge. 23 He has brought on them their own iniquity, And shall cut them off in their own wickedness; The LORD our God shall cut them off.
God is the Lord. He is Himself the embodiment of all that is good and beautiful and true. As human beings, however, we often go astray, seeking to define these things for ourselves. This inevitably results in evil, ugliness, and lies. The brutality and wickedness of the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Romans, the Huns, the Vandals, the Mongols, the Turks, the Japanese Empire, the Nazis, the Soviets, the Saudis, and, increasingly, the United States of America are well known and grievous. Woe, says Isaiah, to those who call evil good.
This past week the Supreme Court of the United States continued to exalt itself against the Most High God and pretend that it can make laws contrary to the moral law of God. It declared that same sex unions are a constitutional right. Such a declaration is an abomination to God, an affront to our forefathers, a violation of our Constitutional Republic, and a further invitation of divine judgment. God will destroy the throne that devises wickedness by law.
CREC Response to the Obergefell Decision
In light of the Obergefell decision by the United States Supreme Court on June 26th, [our denomination] the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches makes the following declaration.
All the varied expressions of transgressive sexuality currently being celebrated in our culture, and now by the highest court in the land, are out of accord with God’s creational design for human sexuality, and are therefore sinful in the eyes of God. Whenever men set themselves up arrogantly to challenge God’s holy standards for sexuality, seeking to teach contrary to what God has taught us in His Word, they are vainly attempting something that is not within their authority to accomplish. We cannot bestow dignity where God has withheld it, and we cannot join together what God has determined shall remain forever separated.
Because we in the CREC submit to the full and complete authority of Scripture, we accept our responsibility to reach out in true compassion to those caught in the snare of such sexual sin. At the same time, we refuse to accept that false compassion which leaves men and women alone with their sin, and so we declare that Jesus Christ died and rose, and we plead with all such to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ so that they might be forgiven, just as we have been forgiven.
In light of this decision, the CREC calls upon the leaders of these United States, whether elected or appointed, whether legislative, judicial, or executive, whether local or national, to repent of this egregious and arrogant sin of attempting to define reality contrary to how God has defined it. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen.

Reminded that the Sovereign Lord is the Lawgiver and Judge, let us confess our own sins and the sins of our nation this morning. We’ll have a time of silent confession followed by the corporate confession in your bulletin.

The Sin of Covetousness

June 7, 2015 in Bible - NT - 1 Corinthians, Meditations, Politics, Ten Commandments
1 Corinthians 6:9–11 (NKJV)
9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Today we return to Paul’s catalogue of sins from which God in His grace and mercy has determined to free us through Christ. These sins damage and distort the image of God in us, destroy our humanity and subvert community. Today we consider covetousness.
Paul declares that the covetous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Among the sins that Paul catalogues this is the only one that is exclusively an attitude and not also an action. Fornication, idolatry, adultery, homosexuality, sodomy, theft, drunkenness, reviling, extortion – these are all things we do. Covetousness gets at the heart; it is a twisted desire that motivates action. Webster defines it as “a strong or inordinate desire of obtaining and possessing some supposed good.”
The tenth commandment highlights the deadly nature of covetousness: You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.
The tenth commandment reminds us that God is the Creator and Lord of all. He is the One who has made us and not we ourselves. He has given to us our wealth, status, gender, spouse, body type, color, hips, and our shoes. These all come from Him – and what another man has honestly acquired is absolutely his own, given him by God. I may not take it from him; I am to respect God’s gift to him.
Covetousness is at heart an assault both on God and neighbor, a fundamental violation of the two greatest commands to love God and to love our neighbor. Consequently, covetousness is idolatry, the worship of some god other than the Living God.
We live in a day and age that is awash with covetousness. Our system of taxation is founded on covetousness – the poor are encouraged to lobby their congressmen to make the rich pay their fair share and “fair” always means more than they’re paying now because they still have those nice cars. This week Bruce Jenner’s transformation has been much in the news. And what is his transformation but a visible display of covetousness. He wanted what God had not given him.
Jesus has sent His Spirit into our hearts to teach us to be content. He is teaching us to receive life as a gift from Him and to rejoice in the gifts that He has given to each of us. Covetousness destroys human life. When I am covetous, I am unable to worship and serve the Living God because I am consumed by a deep and abiding resentment at the way God has made me or the gifts that He has given me. No man or woman who is thus resentful at God can inherit the kingdom of God.

So what of you? Are you covetous? Or are you content and thankful? Reminded that the covetous shall not inherit the kingdom of God, let us kneel and seek the Lord’s forgiveness for our own covetousness and for the covetousness of our nation.

Pentecost and the Ten Commandments

May 24, 2015 in Bible - OT - Exodus, Law and Gospel, Meditations, Pentecost, Ten Commandments
One of the ancient associations of Pentecost is with the giving of God’s Law on Mt. Sinai. While the feast of Passover was associated with the deliverance from Egypt, Pentecost 50 days later came to be associated with the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai. As Christians, it is important, as we celebrate the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, that we not drive a wedge between God’s Law and His Spirit. For the Spirit who has been poured out upon us is the Spirit of holiness who enables us, by His grace, to live lives that fulfill God’s law. The Spirit teaches us to cry out with David, “O how I love your law! It is my meditation day and night.” So this morning we mark our celebration of Pentecost with a responsive reading of God’s law – I will be reading each of the Ten Commandments and you will respond with passages from the New Testament that parallel these commandments.
Responsive Reading of the Law of God (Exodus 20:1-17)
Minister: Then God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me.”
People: For us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. (1 Corinthians 8:6)
M: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
P: Little children, guard yourselves from idols. (1 John 5:21)
M: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.”
P: “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.’” (Matthew 6:9)
M: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
P: And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.(Hebrews 10:24-25)

M: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.”
P: Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord. (Colossians 3:20)
M: “You shall not murder.”
P: Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Romans 13:8, 9)
M: “You shall not commit adultery.”
P: Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. (Hebrews 13:4)
M: “You shall not steal.”
P: Let him who steals steal no longer; but rather let him labor, performing with his own hands what is good, in order that he may have something to share with him who has need. (Ephesians 4:28)
M: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
P: Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth, each one of you, with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. (Ephesians 4:25)
M: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
P: Do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints. (Ephesians 5:3)

All: Amen!

The Sin of Theft

May 10, 2015 in Bible - NT - 1 Corinthians, Creation, Meditations, Politics, Ten Commandments
1 Corinthians 6:9–11 (NKJV)
9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Jesus has risen from the dead; and because Jesus is the firstfruits of those who believe, we know that we too shall rise from the dead. This mortal shall put on immortality – death has lost its sting. But not only does the resurrection give us hope for the future, it also gives us hope in the present. Jesus’ resurrection has broken not only the power of death but also the power of sin. For those who look to Christ in faith, He grants us, by the Spirit, His resurrection power so that we can overcome the sins that enslave us.
Today we consider theft. Paul tells us that thieves will not inherit the kingdom of God. A thief is someone who takes as his own that which belongs to another – whether possessions or ideas or relationships or credit. God is the Sovereign Lord – He is the Owner of all things. Everything in heaven and earth belongs to Him. Consequently, we are all stewards of what we possess. This has a number of implications.
First, because we are stewards, we will all give account to our Creator for how we use our possessions. We are to use that which He gives us – whether great or small – to the honor of His Name and the advancement of His kingdom. And we are to imitate His generosity with our own – being open-handed and generous, freely sharing with others. One day we will give account of our stewardship.
Consequently, second, we are called to pay tribute to God with our possesions. God claims the tithe as that which is His own – and to withhold the tithe is to steal from God. It is to act the thief – to take as our own that which belongs to God.

Finally, because God is the Owner of all things, He has the right to give things to whom He chooses. And when someone has lawfully obtained something by God’s gift, it is absolutely his own. He may give it away; he may use it to purchase something else; but it may not be taken from him without his consent. God commands, “You shall not steal.”
With this command, God establishes the glory and integrity of private property. God has given you and your neighbor the things you possess. And God wants each of us to look at the things that our neighbor has and to rejoice with him. But thieves don’t rejoice; thieves envy. Thieves think that what their neighbor has managed to acquire just isn’t fair. “He shouldn’t have that car, I should. He shouldn’t have that house, I should. He shouldn’t have that job, I should. He shouldn’t have that fame, I should.” This envy then gives rise to the act of theft.
So what of you? Do you rejoice with those who rejoice? Kids, do you rejoice when your sibling or your friend get a really neat toy? Or are you envious? Adults, do you rejoice with those who through ingenuity or hard work or frugality or inheritance have come to have more than you or something better than you? Or are you envious?

Reminded of our propensity to envy others and to steal from them  rather than to rejoice and share with them, let us confess our sin to the Lord; and let us kneel as we confess our sins together.

The Sin of Adultery

April 26, 2015 in Bible - NT - 1 Corinthians, Bible - OT - Song of Solomon, Meditations, Sexuality, Ten Commandments
1 Corinthians 6:9–11 (NKJV)
9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
We find ourselves in Eastertide, the time of year that we celebrate the way the resurrection of Jesus has transformed the world and our individual lives. Hope has arrived: forgiveness has been achieved and new life has entered into the world. And to everyone who turns from his sin and trusts in Jesus’ death and resurrection, God grants that forgiveness and new life.
In our text, Paul catalogues a number of sins from which Jesus’ resurrection power frees His people. Today we consider the sin of adultery. Marriage is a covenant of companionship, a covenant in which a man and woman swear to be exclusively loyal to one another until death. It is an oath of, among other things, sexual exclusivity. All people, therefore, whether married or single, are to assist married couples to fulfill their oaths by reminding them of their vows and refusing to tempt them to betray them.
God commands married men and women to turn from adultery to his or her spouse. The first motion is from adultery. The 7thcommandment clearly expresses God’s hatred of adultery. He commands in no uncertain terms, “You shall not commit adultery.” In its most basic sense, to commit adultery is to engage in sex with someone who is not one’s spouse. However, the law of God always points to the heart. The act of adultery is the consummation of perverse desires hatched in the heart. Consequently, spouses must watch over the heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life (Pr 4:23). To turn from adultery is, as married couples, to so control our sexual desires that we not pursue in fantasy or reality any person other than our spouse.
But not only are we to turn from adulterywe are to turn to our spouse. You husbands are commanded by Scripture to drink water from your own cistern and to rejoice in the wife of your youth. You are to be satisfied with her breasts and intoxicated with her love. You wives in turn are commanded by Scripture to welcome the advances of your husband. The Shulamite sings in the Song of Songs, “Let my beloved come to his garden and eat its pleasant fruits” (4:16). So Paul summarizes in 1 Corinthians 7:3-4, “Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another…”
So husbands and wives, how are you doing? Husbands, have you been consistently turning sexually from others and to your wife? Are you watching your eyes, controlling your thoughts, governing your words, and monitoring your actions? Your wife is the woman God has given you – treasure her exclusively. Wives, have you been consistently turning sexually from others and to your husband? Are you welcoming your husband, controlling your thoughts, governing your words, and monitoring your attitudes and actions? Your husband is the man God has given you – treasure him exclusively.

Reminded of the call on married men and women to turn from others and to their spouse let us confess that we have treated adultery lightly, we have courted sexual unfaithfulness, and we have failed to pursue our spouses faithfully. And, as you are able, let us kneel as we confess our sin to the Lord.

The Sin of Idolatry

April 19, 2015 in Bible - NT - 1 Corinthians, Easter, Meditations, Ten Commandments, Worship
1 Corinthians 6:9–11 (NKJV)
9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
We find ourselves in Eastertide, the time of year that we celebrate the way the resurrection of Jesus has transformed the world. The entire cosmos has been changed, shaken at its very core. And because the world has been changed, we can be changed. Hope has arrived:  forgiveness has been achieved and new life has entered into the world. And God promises that forgiveness and new life to everyone who turns from his sin and trusts in Jesus’ death and resurrection.
In our text, Paul catalogues a number of sins from which God in Christ has determined to free His people. Today we consider the sin of idolatry. In Romans Chapter 1, the Apostle Paul declares that because of our fallen nature all human beings worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator. In other words, we are prone to idolatry, to the worship of false gods rather than the Living God. Though we all know the Living God deep in our hearts and consciences, we suppress that knowledge, refusing to glorify God as God.
In modern America we like to think that idolatry is a distant problem – it conjures up in our minds images of primitives bowing before graven images. But idolatry is far more pervasive than we like to think. Because human beings are religious creatures, we always worship something. As Bob Dylan sang, “You gotta serve somebody. It may be the devil or it may be the Lord but you gotta serve somebody.”
An idol, therefore, is anything that we place above the Living God in our affections. The first and second commandments demand that God be first in our affections. Idolatry is the inverting of our priorities and placing the Living God lower on the scale or repudiating Him altogether. Our idol may be something relatively good like our reputation or our family or our career or our country; it may also be something intrinsically evil like a false god or a perverse behavior. Regardless, any time the Living God is not first in our list of allegiances, then we are guilty of idolatry.
So how does idolatry manifest itself? Idolatry reveals itself in our desires and actions. Whose approval do you want most? Whom do you strive to please above all others? Whom do you most fear disappointing? Whose precepts and commandments are supreme for you? What makes you really upset? For whose honor are you most concerned? These questions help get to the heart of the issue: we are to fear the Lord and serve Him come what may. We are to seek His glory above all – more than our own, more than another’s, and exclusive of any other deity.

Reminded, therefore, of our calling to place the Living God first in our affections, to turn from the worship of idols to the Living God, let us confess that we have often placed other things before Him. And as you are able, let us kneel as we confess our sins to the Lord.

It is the Spirit Who Gives Life

March 22, 2015 in Bible - NT - 1 Corinthians, Bible - NT - 1 Thessalonians, Holy Spirit, Meditations, Regeneration, Ten Commandments
1 Corinthians 6:9–11 (NKJV)
9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Who is it that brings us from death to life? Last week we emphasized that our problem as human beings is not primarily our manners but our heart. There is many a man who has done “righteous acts” for all the wrong reasons.
Our problem as human beings is that we worship and serve gods other than the Living God of Scripture. These gods are idols of our own creation rather than the Living God who has created us. By nature it is to these false gods that we offer our service. Sometimes our service is crude; sometimes it is cultured; but when it is offered to one of these idols rather than to the Living God, it is despicable in the eyes of our Creator. Whether our service be given to the self-made-god of Mormonism or the world force of Hinduism or the mother nature of paganism or the narcissistic self of humanism, all such service is displeasing to the Creator.
So God is in the business not first and foremost of changing our behavior – many people who worship false gods change their behavior – but of altering our fundamental loyalty; He is in the business of changing hearts. He moves us from the worship of false gods to the worship of the Living God. As Paul writes to the Thessalonians, you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God… (1 Thes 1:9b). Christianity, as a familiar saying goes, is not first about putting a new set of clothes on the man but a new man in the set of clothes. When the man inside the clothes changes, he begins to change the clothes he wears.
So how do we change? Can we change ourselves? No – this is the true tragedy of our situation. We often sense something is wrong; we stumble through life like a man in a dark room; we bang into furniture and wound ourselves and others. And though the light comes into the world, we love the darkness rather than the light. Unless – unless – God in His mercy send forth His Spirit and give us new life, eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to understand what is true. Remember Paul’s words – such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. It is the Spirit who gives us new life.

So this morning, as we enter into the presence of the Living God, let us beware lest we come here serving other gods, gods of our own creation rather than the Creator of all; and let us, if we are here to worship the Living God, give thanks to the Spirit of God who has placed such a desire in our hearts. It is He who enlightens our minds in the knowledge of Christ and renews our wills and makes us ready and willing to obey God – including by confessing our sins. So let us confess our sin to the Lord; and let us kneel as we do so.