Song of the Drunkards

JESUS FACED A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF OPPOSITION FOR HIS HARD WORDS AND UNFLINCHING DEVOTION TO YAHWEH. NO SURPRISE THEN IF WE FIND OUR NAME FESTOONED IN BARROOM BALLADS (CF. PS 69:12).

What Happens in Baptism?

February 28, 2021 in Baptism, Bible - NT - 1 Corinthians, Children, Faith, Liturgy, Meditations, Sacraments

1 Corinthians 12:12–13 (NKJV)
12For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.

Later in the service we have the privilege of welcoming ——– into membership and then baptizing their son —– into the body as well. ——- dad, Alan Burrow, who is the pastor of our sister church in Meridian, Idaho will be assisting with the baptism and so I wanted to say a couple words about baptism for our exhortation today.

We see here in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians that baptism connects us not only with the Triune God in whose Name we are baptized but also with the body of Christ, with the Church. In baptism, the Spirit unites us with Christ and with one another, that together we may worship the Father and experience the transforming work of the Spirit.

In Biblical Theology sacraments are visible words not magic talismans. Even as God speaks to us in His written Word, the Bible, so He speaks to us in visible words, in covenant signs and seals – what we call sacraments or ordinances. One of the earliest covenant signs was the rainbow – God placed the rainbow in the sky as the sign of the covenant that He made with Noah (cf. Gen 9:12). The rainbow visibly proclaims God’s promise that He will never again flood the earth. Every time we see the rainbow, God invites us to believe His promise and trust Him. In other words, the rainbow isn’t our word to God but God’s word to us.

What is true of the rainbow is also true of baptism: it is primarily God’s Word to us, not our word to God. This is why Paul uses the passive voice to describe baptism, “For by one Spirit we all were baptized into one body…” We were baptized; we didn’t baptize ourselves. Why not? Because, first and foremost, baptism is God’s act, God’s word, not my act, my word. In Paul’s words, it is the Spirit who baptizes us into the body of Christ. Hence, the human agent who baptizes us represents God Himself. When Alan comes forward to baptize —— today, he does so not primarily as —–‘s grandfather, as wonderful as that is, but as a minister of the Gospel, a representative of Christ Himself. Robert Rayburn explains:

The reason why no one [but the minister] baptizes someone in our churches… is so that it be absolutely clear that baptism is not our act; it is Christ’s…. Suppose we were to have an infant baptism here next Lord’s Day: and suppose on this moment alone of all the moments in the history of the Church since the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ this was a sacrament by sight and not by faith: Just as the minister was prepared to begin, with a loud, tearing sound the roof of the building parted; and lo and behold, the Lord Christ Himself descended to where I am standing right now… He took the baby in His arms and He pronounced the Divine Triune Name over the child and made the promise of His Gospel and covenant to this child by name and then by name summoned him or her to the life of faith and godliness and consecration… Then He blessed the child and poured water on its head and ascended back into Heaven and with a loud crash the ceiling came back to where it was before and everything was as it was.

Let me tell you a few things that would be inevitably true. One is that that child, though he or she would be too young to have any personal recollection of that moment, would remember his Baptism forever and better than he would remember any other event in his life because scarcely a day would pass without his parents telling him what happened in the church when he was three weeks old and what the Lord Christ said and demanded and promised. He would live as he grew up—at 3, at 4, at 6, at 8, at 12, at 18, at 26—he would live under the specter and under the mercy, the glory of Baptism. His whole life would be colored and shaped and formed by it. That’s what Baptism is. That’s exactly what happens in the Baptism of a child or adult when it happens in this church. The only difference is that it is by faith that you see it and not by sight.

Baptism, therefore, is an invitation to trust God’s Word; it is a call to faith. In baptism, God speaks to each of us individually. He claims us as His own and promises us forgiveness and newness of life through faith in His Son. Consequently, baptism is not only for adults but also for our children – for God graciously claims them as His own and gives them His promises as well. Today, therefore, God speaks to —– and assures him that His promise of forgiveness and renewal is for him; even as He spoke to you in your baptism and made the same promise to you.

So reminded that in baptism God claims us as His own, puts His Name upon us, and summons us to trust Him and to walk in newness of life, let us confess that we often respond to His Word with unbelief. We often despise our baptism and forget the call that He has issued to us in it. Hence, we have need of His forgiving and cleansing grace as even our baptism signifies. And, as we confess, let us kneel as we are able and seek the Lord’s forgiveness. We will have a time of silent confession followed by the corporate confession in your bulletin.

The Purpose of Trials and Tribulations

February 21, 2021 in Bible - OT - Deuteronomy, Church Calendar, Discipline, Meditations, Temptation

Deuteronomy 8:1–5 (NKJV)
1Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. 2And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. 4Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 5You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.

On his first missionary journey, as the Apostle Paul traveled through the various cities where he had planted churches, he encouraged the brethren and reminded them, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). That which was true for our fathers in Paul’s day had likewise been true for the Israelites in the wilderness. As Moses reminds the Israelites in our text today, for forty years they had wandered in the wilderness, suffering various tribulations.

So why do such tribulations come our way? If we are sons of God, children of God, objects of His love and affection, then why must we enter the kingdom through many tribulations? Our text offers three reasons.

First, trials and tribulations humble us. God led our fathers through the wilderness, “to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not” (8:2). Nothing reveals the depths of our hearts and the many ways in which we continue to need to grow in grace than trials. We’re sick and what do we do? We, who when healthy are remarkably patient, begin snapping at the kids, are short with our spouse, or grumble and complain against God. So what are we learning about ourselves? We’re learning we aren’t quite as sanctified as we thought, learning there is still work to do, learning to confess our sin and acknowledge our need for grace. Trials and tribulations humble us.

Second, trials and tribulations teach us to rely on God’s Word. God tested Israel “that you might know that man does not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord” (8:3). Rod Dreher, in his book Live not by Lies, recounts that, during the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia, Silvester Krcmery [kirch-MERRY] faced persecution, imprisonment, and even torture for his faith. Krcmery wrote later in his biography that he came to realize “that the only way he would make it through the ordeal ahead was to rely entirely on faith, not reason. He says that he decided to be ‘like Peter, to close my eyes and throw myself into the sea’” (153). Trials and tribulations force us to rely on God’s promises even though we cannot see the fruit of them at present.

Finally, trials and tribulations remind us that we are children of God. “You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you” (8:5). In times of trial, know in your heart that this trial has not come because the Lord hates you but because He loves you. As a loving father, the Lord sends trials to chasten us that we might learn to remain faithful to Him and to grow in maturity.

As you may know, today is the first Sunday in Lent. Like Advent, Lent is a time of preparation and anticipation, a time of longing. We await the coming of Easter and the celebration of Christ’s triumph over death. Lent reminds us that, until our own resurrection, we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. Lent harkens back to Israel’s 40 years, and to our Lord’s 40 days, in the desert. Hence, Lent is a time to remember that times of trial and tribulation are not strange. Paul writes that even our Lord Jesus, “though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered …” (Heb 5:8). So if our Lord Jesus had to learn obedience by suffering, dare we think that we should be exempt? Let us then “count it all joy when we fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect work, that we may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (Jas 1:2-4).

Reminded that times in the wilderness, times of trial humble us, teach us to rely on God’s Word, and train us as His children, let us acknowledge that we often respond to such trials in unbelief rather than in faith. And as we confess our sin, let us kneel as we are able. We will have a time of silent confession followed by the corporate confession found in your bulletin.

The Mystery of a Man with a Maid

February 14, 2021 in Bible - OT - Proverbs, Covenantal Living, Love, Marriage, Meditations, Sexuality

Proverbs 30:18-19
18 There are three things which are too wonderful for me, Yes, four which I do not understand: 19 The way of an eagle in the air, The way of a serpent on a rock, The way of a ship in the midst of the sea, And the way of a man with a maid.

The world that God has made is full of wonders – wonders in the air, wonders on land, wonders in the sea, and wonders among men. Since today is Valentine’s Day, the day our culture has historically celebrated the wonder of romantic love, I thought I would meditate upon, as Solomon calls it, the way of a man with a maid..

There are few things more evident about young men than that they begin to develop a rather keen interest in young women. Proverbs 30 reminds us that this interest is good. After all, it was God who designed man and woman to be together. He said that it was not good when the man was alone; He put the man to sleep and extracted a rib from his side; He crafted and shaped the woman; He presented her to the man. God designed the affection that men and women have one for another.

So perfect was the design, that when God presented Eve to Adam, he spoke his first words. And these weren’t just run of the mill words. No, they were astonished words, glorious words, affectionate words – words of wonder, words of poetry:

This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh,
She shall be called woman Because she was taken out of man.

The first couple was designed by God and celebrated by man. And every couple since has been His handiwork as well. Wedded love is a gift from God, one of the best gifts from God to man.

Evolutionary culture would have us believe that the attraction of a man and woman for one another is a mere matter of biology. We are mere animals and the sight of certain things arouses us. But as Solomon meditates upon God’s gift of love, and the gift of lovers, he confesses that it is all mystery – not biology.

18 There are three things which are too wonderful for me, Yes, four which I do not understand: 19 The way of an eagle in the air, The way of a serpent on a rock, The way of a ship in the midst of the sea, And the way of a man with a maid.

How is it that a man otherwise taciturn and sullen, suddenly awakens and becomes sociable and amiable? How is it that a man directionless and purposeless, suddenly develops a clear and distinct vision? How is it that a man intent and disciplined, suddenly forgets himself, finds it difficult to focus, and is distracted from his work? And how is it that any man convinces a maid to love him and covenant with him?

All these things, Solomon confesses, are a mystery – but not because they are petty and foolish, rather because they are glorious and wonderful. We often marvel at the fool who wastes his life with drugs, drink, or gaming. Sin is a mystery. But this is not the type of mystery that confronts us when considering the way of a man with a maid – no this is a mystery of God’s making. It is a marvel like eagles in the air, serpents on a rock, and ships in the sea.

So, young men, God himself gave you the desire to be with a woman. Desiring to earn the hand of a woman is a good and noble thing. But a woman whose hand is worth having is a woman who makes you earn it – so be purposeful, be intent, be honorable – and treat all the women in your life with respect until God in His grace and kindness gives you one specific woman upon whom to shower your affections.

And older men, let us not forget the ardor with which we pursued the woman by our side. Let us remember that she is a gift of God – and let us continue to pursue her to the glory of God and the beautification of our bride.

Reminded that we often despise the gifts of God, that we often seek His gifts in unlawful ways, that we often fail to thank Him for the gifts that He has given, let us kneel as we are able and confess our sin to Him. We will have a time of silent confession followed by the corporate confession found in your bulletin.