Fellowship of Christ

Marriage and Divorce: Part 5 (Malachi 2.10-16)

2011-11-18T16:00:00.000-06:00

The Picture of Marriage
God has an affinity toward marriage because it pictures His relationship and the relation of His Son with His people. Many times in Scripture you find that God calls Himself the Husband of Israel. And we see in Ephesians 5 that Christ is the Husband of the Church.
What then does it say to wives and children when their husbands or fathers leave them? It sends the message that they cannot rely on their husband and they must rely upon themselves. It also sends the message that they cannot rely on God or Christ. What happens when husbands leave their wives and children is that it skews their idea and understanding of God.
How terrible it must be to tell someone that Jesus is their husband when their husband abused her and then left her with nothing! How awful it must be to a child to say that God is our Father when their own father beat them and abandoned them!
For those who are married and for those who will be married: Your marriage is not about yourself. Yes, you get perks and benefits and enjoyment out of it. But your marriage is a much higher calling than we could ever realize this side of heaven! God has great plans in marriage and we must be faithful and watchful and be on guard in our spirits to see to it that by His grace we follow those plans.
Yes, Christ is our husband. He did not abandon us. He has not and will not, has never and will never, leave us. He will not forsake us. He will not leave His church to go after another. He is faithful and not only guards His own spirit but ours as well!
I know there are people here who have had marriages end in divorce. I also know that I am not aware of all the circumstances. But what I do know is that by the blood of Jesus Christ there is forgiveness and that because of Jesus you can never (not just may never but can never) be thrown out of the city of God. He loves you as much as He can. He cannot love you less and He cannot love you more! He loves you fully! And He has forgiven you and everyone here for all sins for all times.
Knowing that, let us love as God has loved. Let us not be faithless to our fellow man, but faithful in love, both word and deed.

Marriage and Divorce: Part 4 (Malachi 2.10-16)

2011-11-16T16:00:00.001-06:00

The Importance of Faithfulness in Marriage
But why does God regard faithfulness so important? What is it about marriage that God finds so wonderful? Why would the divorce and adultery be such an abomination to God? The answer is in the verses 14-16.
But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth. “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless." (Malachi 2.14-16, ESV).
Why would God not except their sacrifices? Because God was there when the husband and wife took vows and made a covenant of love for one another. God was there and saw the entire ceremony. God had joined them together. And as Jesus said in His talk about marriage and divorce, "What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate," (Mark 10.9, ESV).
God put husband and wife together for His glory. He was looking for husbands to be husbands and dads to be dads. He was not looking for husbands and fathers to abandon their homes seeking someone else, especially a woman who was an idolater. Godly offspring was God's focus in marriage, but it wasn't the focus of the men of the home. And sad to say, it still isn't their focus. They may not be focused on other women, per se, but they are focused on many other objects rather than their children and wives. The focus of today's man is a million miles from producing a godly family.
God tells us that marriage is important enough to guard. We are to, "guard [ourselves] in [our] spirit, and let none of [us] be faithless to [our] wives." The idea is one of a watchman whose job it was to protect the city. In today's world you are a sniper in a unseen place watching the moves of the enemy protecting the army beneath.
Sadly, like Malachi's day, many soldiers have gone awol, leaving their families behind, defenseless, alone, and defeated. We've all heard the statistics:
63% of teen suicides are from fatherless homes
85% of behavioral disorders are from fatherless homes
71% of high school dropouts are from fatherless homes
70% of juvenile detention inmates are from fatherless homes
Vastly more boys who have a problem with gender identity are from fatherless homes
There is double the chance for adult criminal activity in individuals from fatherless homes.
Is it any wonder, "For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard your spirit, and do not be faithless." (Malachi 2.16, ESV).

Marriage and Divorce: Part 3 (Malachi 2.10-16)

2011-11-14T16:00:00.000-06:00

Adultery = Idolatry
"Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god," (Malachi 2.11, ESV). Malachi's explosive argument here is that the people are living their everyday lives in faithlessness. It's not that they had an indiscretion here or made a mistake there. The very lifestyles are ones of betrayal. Their very existence was one of treachery. And it was an abomination to God.
The people believed that they could commit such atrocities and then go into the temple as though nothing were happening. They believed that they could live lives of betrayal or of disloyalty and waltz on into a holy place like the temple and think there was nothing wrong. Malachi tears into them saying that these acts are abominable and have profaned the sanctuary of the LORD. This was God's house. It was a holy place, unlike any other. Never was the house of God to be taken lightly. It was not a place to go into just willy-nilly. There was to be great respect and admiration for the temple.
Yet the priests led the way, didn't they? They allowed and offered for themselves blemished animals and foul food. So if the priests will do it why not the regular ol' people? Just as a side note...When the world see Christians treat their place of worship with little respect, we cannot expect them to do otherwise. At the same time, when the world see Christians treat their own bodies with disrespect, it simply gives them license to do the same.
God loved His house. Even though God never descended upon Zerubbabel's Temple, and even though the people never saw the holy smoke or the Shekinah glory, didn't mean that God did not love the place of worship. He did. It was still to be a place where His name was made great and He was exalted. But by not coming to Him with lowly hearts but doing everything but bragging about their abomination, they profaned God by profaning His sanctuary.
What was it that the people had done? The men had taken foreign wives who worshipped idols. And if that wasn't bad enough (and it was), they had already been married once, but divorced in order to marry these women. "But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the LORD was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant," (Malachi 2.14, ESV).
What we have is an inward movement of adultery and idolatry. Verse 14 clearly lays out that adultery was taking place. God is upset with the men of Israel because to God the covenants that they made with their wives was binding. It was not to be broken except in extreme circumstances. They were the helpers and companions of their husbands and the husbands treat them like dirt and walk all over them, committing adultery and divorcing their wives. And then they would go to the temple like they did nothing wrong. How ludicrous!
God, through Malachi, informed the men that this was going to stop. "May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob any descendant of the man who does this, who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts," (Malachi 2.12, ESV)! These men would no longer be regarded as part of Israel. To be cut off from the tents of Jacob could mean as something small as being thrown out of the city to being stoned to death. This was probably more of a being thrown out of the city. Much like the priests who offered sacrifices unworthy of God would be desecrated and thrown out of service so the men would be treated the same.
But why? Because their adultery was a sign of their idolatry. When there is adultery there is inevitably idolatry. If anything, those who commit adultery have placed themselves and their pleasure above the Person and pleasure of God. They have usurped God from the throne of the heart and placed upon it their own image.
God had enough. Those who were divorcing so they could marry someone else, thus committing adultery would have no place in the city and no place at the altar. Their very sacrifices would be rejected. "And this second thing you do. You cover the LORD’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand," (Malachi 2.13, ESV).

Marriage and Divorce: Part 2 (Malachi 2.10-16)

2011-11-12T16:00:00.001-06:00

Litmus Test
One day a man came up to Jesus and asked Him what the greatest commandment was. "And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets," (Matthew 22.37-40, ESV). The two greatest commandments in the Bible are to love God and love your neighbor.
What we see here is a litmus test in our daily living. How is it that we can know whether or not we love God? We know by how we love each other and how we treat each other. John wrote, "If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother," (1 John 4.20-21, ESV).
So how we love each other will show us how much we truly love God. This was Malachi's dilemma. "Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers" (Malachi 2.10, ESV)? God was the Father of the Jewish people. He called Abram out of Ur, from the land of the Chaldea. He created a new nation from His own desire to covenant with a people. So why then, if God was the Father of every Jew, were they being faithless to each other? If they were bound together through God's creative work, then why were they going against each other? Where is the love and respect for God within such treatment of each other?
It wasn't so much that they had their disagreements and they simply walked away angry with each other. The word faithless here has the idea of dealing treacherously or betraying their fellow brothers and sisters under God. Malachi is not dealing with petty arguments and disputes. He is dealing with the majority of the people actively seeking out the hurting of their fellow people. The people are plotting against their brothers and sisters, and it is evident in one real and major way.

Marriage and Divorce: Part 1 (Malachi 2.10-16)

2011-11-10T16:00:00.000-06:00

According to one study, 41% of first time marriages in the US end in divorce, 60% of second time marriages in the US end in divorce, and 73% of third time marriages in the US end in divorce. These are staggering numbers! It is no wonder that many people are simply opting out of marriage in the first place. It's messy, it's expensive, it's an awful experience all the way around. So why not forego the marriage altogether and if things don't work out then the worst thing that happens is someone has to find a new apartment.
But marriage is a good thing. It is a great thing! The problem comes when people misunderstand what marriage is and what marriage requires. The problems come when people misunderstand God's intentions in marriage, and His intentions for its testimony.
Men and women have been taught to think about number one, themselves, rather than others. And because they have been taught all their lives to be wrapped up in their own desires and wants they have a hard time gaining any type of compatibility with their spouse. When another man or woman comes about that they believe will make them happier, they simply leave the hard work of marriage behind and instead opt in for some extra-curricular activities.
Is adultery the cause of all divorces? No. But selfishness is. You can link all divorces to pride and selfishness either on the man's part, the woman's part, or both parts.
This morning we are going to be looking at a situation going on in Judah, to whom Malachi is speaking. The men have divorced the wives of their youth to marry foreign women who worship foreign gods. It's my hope to bring out the greatness of marriage in God's eyes and the absolute abomination of divorce as well.

God's Peace Contract: Part 4 (Malachi 2.1-9)

2011-11-08T16:00:00.000-06:00

Conclusion - The New Covenant
But how do we get out of such fear? At this moment God is tackling us to keep us from going over the edge of the cliff. How then do we turn back? Trust in the covenant of peace by way of Jesus Christ.
That seems like a fallacious argument. It is this very covenant that we are afraid to proclaim. But the argument is valid. We are afraid to proclaim this covenant because we are not fully convinced of the covenant. The problem of the priests in Malachi's day was that they were not convinced of God's love and they did not fear God as their ancestors. However, what we see in every other example is fear and love. It is complete trust in God, no matter what would happen. This is true with the midwives, with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, with Peter and John, and with Paul. There was a deep abiding trust in the promise and contract of peace.
Acts 13.39 states, "By him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses" (ESV). That includes the fear and distrust that you feel now. And incidentally this includes everything. This includes any lust, desire, habit, hurt, unforgiveness, bitterness...you name the sin, you are freed from it by the blood of the covenant in Jesus. Those of you who are convinced by this will find the freedom that Jesus promised in John 8.
Jesus died to set us free. He died setting up a new contract of peace for us. It is greater than all other covenants or contracts made in the past. By the blood of this covenant all sin is washed away. But even greater still, as Paul testified in Acts 13, everyone who believes is freed (not just from the penalty of the sins, but) from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. Paul also said it another way. By the blood of Jesus we are dead to sin, even the sin of fear and timidity. "For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God," (2 Timothy 1.7-8, ESV).
This new covenant in Jesus blood frees us from the penalty of sin and the actual sin itself. And for that reason we see that it truly is a contract of peace. "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," (Romans 5.1, ESV).
The priests in Malachi's day believed not in the covenant that God had made with and for them. The great difference between the two covenants is that the first was in response to the zealous actions of Phinehas. The second is based on the zealous love of God and comes to us without any deserving on our part. It comes out of the love that God has for us, not as a reward for our love for Him. So then, let us never made that same mistake the priests did. Let us believe whole-heartedly that since God's love is everlasting, He will forever keep His covenant and in that covenant we forever have peace with God. And if that is what we believe, let us be unashamed of the God who cares so much for us.

God's Peace Contract: Part 3 (Malachi 2.1-9)

2011-11-06T16:00:00.000-06:00

The Failing
But that zeal was gone in Malachi's day. That ship had sailed long ago. These priests despised God's name. They made a mockery of God's name among the people. Aaron, Eleazar, Phinehas and all the rest back in the day were all about the great name of the LORD. They taught the people to revere it and to fear it and to love and adore it. They instructed the people on the Law. Their delight was seeing the people live uprightly before God. But not the priests in Malachi's day. Their actions and their words and every role of the eyes and every huff and puff taught the people that God was tiny and insignificant and was someone just to be put up with.
But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts, and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction," (Malachi 2.8-9, ESV).
And since that is who God was to them, that is what God would make them to everyone else.
But here is really where the priests began to fail. God brings it to light. "Inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction" (v. 9). In other words, the priests began to care more about what people thought of them than they did about God's Word. They showed partiality, which means they became respecters of persons, and so they did not keep God's ways. The people became more important to them than to God. And so they failed.
And so it has become with the church. We care more about what people think than we do about God's glory. We care more about what people think than we do about His Word. We care more about what people think than we do about the gospel. We care more about what people think than we do about obedience.
I wonder what the Hebrew midwives in Egypt would say about our partiality to this love this world offers, as we read, "But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live" (Exodus 1.17, ESV). I wonder what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, would say about our fear of rejection. " If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up," (Daniel 3.17-18, ESV). I wonder what Peter and John would say to our lack of boldness in matters of proclaiming the good news. "But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard,” (Acts 4.19-20, ESV). I wonder what Paul would say of our desire to appease our unbelieving friends, family, and coworkers. "For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ," (Galatians 1.10, ESV).

God's Peace Contract: Part 2 (Malachi 2.1-9)

2011-11-04T16:00:00.000-05:00

The Covenant
But what is this covenant? What was the covenant that was made with Levi. As I said, this was more of an indirect covenant. If you look at the various covenants of the Bible you are likely not going to find this one among the lists, but it was still a contract that God made with Levi.
My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts, (Malachi 2.5-7, ESV).
Now let's put this into perspective. I want to give you a brief history lesson. Back in when Jacob was still alive he had 12 sons and some daughters. One of the daughters that we know of by name was named Dinah. Dinah was a beautiful woman whom the Prince of Shechem took a liking to, to the point he raped her and then wanted to marry her. This was fine with Jacob but not Dinah's brothers, Simeon and Levi. They devised a plot of vengeance and carried it through. All the men of Shechem were slaughtered under this plan. This on the other hand did not please Jacob, and he held on to this anger until he died. At his death he handed out blessings upon some of his sons and curses upon others. This is what he said to Levi.
Simeon and Levi are brothers;
weapons of violence are their swords.
Let my soul come not into their council;
O my glory, be not joined to their company.
For in their anger they killed men,
and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.
Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce,
and their wrath, for it is cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob
and scatter them in Israel.
(Genesis 49.5-7, ESV)
In other words, Jacob cursed Simeon and Levi. They were to have no great part in the story of Israel. Simeon went on to live up to that curse. His tribe ultimately was absorbed by the tribe of Judah. But the tribe of Levi, beat the curse, though not exactly how you would expect.
Another incident occurred after Israel was delivered from Egypt. You may have heard about it. Aaron fashioned a calf made of gold for the people of Israel to worship. Moses, rightly angry, stood firm against such sin. This is the account of what happened next:
And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies), then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the LORD’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’” And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day," (Exodus 32.25-29, ESV).
Did you see what happened? The tribe of Levi, after nearing the edge came back, stood with on the side of the LORD their God, and because of their willingness to stand firm with the LORD, they received God's blessing!
God had turned their cursing by their own father, into a blessing! But because now the Levites were no longer willing to stand on the side of the LORD their God, God threatened to discipline them and turn their blessing back to a cursing.
Not too much later the Israelites were camping in Shittim and the Hebrew children began to worship false gods again and the men began sleeping with the foreigners. God sent a judgment upon them in which ultimately 24,000 people died, and it would have been more if Phinehas, Aaron's grandson, (not Eli's son who acted wickedly) had not stepped in and stopped the adultery. And it is here, due to Phinehas' zeal for God, his love and devotion to the Lord that God made a covenant with the Levites.
And the LORD said to Moses, “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel,’” (Numbers 25.10-13, ESV).
This covenant that God made with Phinehas and all the Levite priests was to bring peace to the Levites as well as the nation of Israel. It was God's promise to continue on with the Aaronic priesthood through Phinehas' descendants. And it was done because of the devotion and the zeal for which they had for God's name!

God's Peace Contract: Part 1 (Malachi 2.1-9)

2011-11-02T16:00:00.000-05:00

Over the past few decades one of the great foreign policy quests of every President of the United States has been to bring peace to the Middle East, which is mainly due to Israel's presence. And yet, this quest, has been the "Holy Grail" of every presidency. Not one president has been to attain peace in or for Israel. It doesn't matter their politics, their party, their methods, their fervor, not one has ever obtained any type of peace with Israel.
But there is a greater peace that Israel seeks, and has not yet found, and that is peace with God. In fact, the name Israel actually means "Wrestles with God." It would seem that Israel is doom to be in a perpetual struggle with God and man. But this wasn't always the case. God had set up with Israel various covenants that was to assure their peace with Him, and yet at every turn practically, Israel sought ways to void the contracts of peace that God made with them.
That included the priests in Malachi's day. God had set up a contract of peace for the people of Israel and part of that contract of peace came by way of the priests, an indirect covenant with the priests. But soon after the exile the priests voided this contract by their actions.
This morning we are going to take a look at what this covenant meant for the priests, how the priests responded to this covenant and how we as believers can easily fall into the same trap, the same snare that the priests have fallen into. And yet we will see how easy it is to get out of such a trap.
The Discipline
Last week we left off with Malachi excoriating the priests for their disobedience and their discipline that would, and had already started, coming upon them. And it was a discipline. It was not punishment. It was discipline because God was indeed trying to teach them a lesson. He was not trying to hurt them for hurting's sake. He was not simply trying to get back at them for hurting Him so He would hurt them. He was not simply wanting to inflict pain on the priests for no reason. There was a lesson to be learned, and like most of us, the priests needed a lesson in the University of Hard Knocks. They had to learn the hard way. The lesson is to be hard enough that it brings us to our knees knowing there is no other place to be.
Back in the early 90s DC Talk, a Contemporary Christian band came out with this song, that I simply loved, probably because it described my life. It was entitled "The Hard Way." And the makeup of the chorus was, "Some people have to learn the hard way. I guess I'm the kind of guy who has to find out for myself. I had to learn the hard way, Father. I'm on my knees and I'm crying for help." That is the point in God's discipline. It is there to teach us what we are too stubborn to realize without the pain.
What lesson was it that the priests were too stubborn to realize? Verse 4 tells us. "So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the LORD of hosts," (Malachi 2.4, ESV). God sent them this command of bringing honor to His name, and if not then the warning of cursing, in order for His covenant with Levi to continue! That's huge. I am disciplining you so that the covenant that I made so long ago to your ancestor, Levi, can continue. If I don't step in now, then this contract, this covenant is over. It's ruined if I don't remind you and teach you a lesson! This discipline comes for the sole purpose of bringing back from the brink. It is coming to pull you back from the edge of the cliff.
God knows the steps of the priesthood and they are walking straight off the cliff. His love for them is great enough that He is willing to tackle them to keep them from walking over the edge. Yes, there's pain in the tackling. They will get bruises and scrapes. Some may have a broken arm or a dislocated shoulder. But they will all wake up to what they were doing. But if they refuse to wake up to God's discipline, then God's wrath will be upon them. He will allow them to walk right off that cliff, if they fight against Him for too long. That is what Paul wrote in Romans 1.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them, (Romans 1.18-32, ESV).

Again, sometimes the worst thing that can happen to us is that God gives us what we want. There are people who want and lust and crave and desire and fight for and struggle for things that are ungodly and things that are unfit and these things finally are given them. And what is not realized is that when it is given it is not a blessing, but a curse. It is judgment. The phase of discipline is past, now they are being punished. For the true child of God, he or she, will accept the discipline of their Father, and turn away from the cliff. But the one who is simply pretending will refuse the discipline of the Lord, fight against consistently and ultimately walk off the cliff. That happened in the apostle John's day, of which He wrote,
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us, (1 John 2.15-19, ESV).

The very things desires of this world that people are after have in fact become the antichrists, those things which oppose Christ. And there were some in John's day, and in Malachi's day, as in our day, who seek the very things of this world, and have such a passion for them, that they turn away from Christ and their God, and run passionately for those very lusts, and though they were tackled many times, they continued to get up and run, running right off the cliff.
Let us learn the lesson that God is teaching. Let us wake up and turn from the lusts of our flesh, and eyes. Let us wake up and turn from the cliff, returning to the covenant that has been made with us!

When it Hits God's Fan: Part 5 (Malachi 2.1-9)

2011-10-31T16:00:00.000-05:00

Conclusion

So many of God's servants, His children, have not taken God's honor to heart. They give Him their leftovers defiling His name and bringing upon themselves discipline. Oh that we would learn that we are to do as God instructs. That we are to abide by His Word as His has so given it. Let us learn that good enough is not good enough. God deserves excellence and glory in all that we do. If there is no excellence, if there be no glory may it not come from us, His beloved children.

"He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things" (Romans 8.32, ESV)? The answer is He would not. And yet we cannot say the same for us. We hold back the greatest that we have. We hold back our best, our excellence. We hold back giving God glory and honor, not taking to heart that His command and His promise.
God gave us Jesus, His only-begotten Son. He sent Him as the High Priest, not in the line of Levi, but in the line of Melchisidek. And it was Jesus who not only became our High Priest, but also our sacrificial Lamb.
When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, (Hebrews 10.8-12, ESV).
Praise God for the great High Priest, who knows our every weakness, and who has been tempted in every way as we are yet without sin, who died a sinner's death, and rose again to sit at God's right hand so that all who believe in Him will live forever and ever with God on high.
Oh that we would learn from Him, giving God all we have to give, not that it would be taken from us, but that we would lay it down willingly.

Next week we will finish this segment in Malachi 2.1-9.

When it Hits God's Fan: Part 4 (Malachi 2.1-9)

2011-10-29T16:00:00.000-05:00

And it will not just affect us, but our children as well, as it did with the children of the priests in Malachi's day. The sins of the priests would be visited upon their children just as God had promised. They would be affected by the cursing of God's blessing. Their lives would be forever changed. Their names would be forever marked as the children of the disobedient.

I remember watching a documentary on the life of Hitler's family. Many of his immediate relatives came to the states after the war because they could not stay in Germany do to the threats on their lives. But it would not be as though they were welcome here in the US either. How would they be able to live? They had to change their names, change their identities. They were forever cursed by the name Hitler. That which once was an honorable name is now the very face of evil. So it would be with the priests. Their children would receive the same rebuke as the priests. The same humiliation as their parents would be upon them.

We seldom see how our lives affect our children. Our children notice our lives and how we may profess belief with our mouths and yet live life as if we do not. We talk about the peace that passes all understanding and yet we worry to no end at the least little problem. We talk about being angry and not sinning and yet we get angry and fly into sin. We talk about being generous and not being selfish but when the offering plate comes by or a missionary comes to talk about the needs on the mission field we let the plate pass us. Then we head out the door and go out for lunch. Our children see the inconsistencies that exist between our mouths and our lives. And we wonder why they turn from the faith the first chance they get.
One commentator wrote about the pastorate, but I believe that all parents should take it to heart.
We can rest assured that our children are well aware of whether the things of God are a burden or a blessing to us.
It is a sobering thought to contemplate how many children of pastors have little or no interest in spiritual things because of what they have seen and not seen in the lives of their fathers. Every pastor would do well to consider that he has a congregation at home as well as at church. If the one at home is to turn out well, the children must be able to see that their fathers’ hearts are sincere and true, hearts that truly delight in the things of God. If our children detect that we are mere religious professionals who unfeelingly handle spiritual things, it will not go well with them.

Finally God told the priests that they would be gone from His service. He gave a very vivid description about how He would take the very dung that came from the sacrifices on the altar and smear it all over their faces. In other words, God would put on the outside of their bodies the very vileness and uncleanness of their hearts. Their sins had found them out. They were no longer fit for service and just as the vile parts of the animals were taken outside the camp and done away with so the priests would be.

It was not that the priests ceased to be priests, but rather they lost the privilege to serve. In fact, in chapter 1, verse 13 we are told that this was no privilege to them but a wearisome burden. And God does not desire His work to be wearisome or burdensome upon anyone. His yoke is easy and burden light. He does not desire anyone to serve Him hypocritically. So if His servants do not repent and take to heart His Word, but continue to serve Him in hypocrisy then He will remove them from their burden. And so it will be with us.

When it Hits God's Fan: Part 3 (Malachi 2.1-9)

2011-10-27T16:00:00.000-05:00

The Consequence
But just the opposite is true. A lack of growth in seeking God's honor and glory is indicative of our hearts as well. Jesus said these words,
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits, (Matthew 7.15-20, ESV).
The prophets Jesus warns of are like the priests in Malachi's day. They both spoke well, but neither of their hearts belonged to God. Their lives were indicative of their spirits. It would be one thing to have an occasional slip up or a moment of weakness. But a life that never focuses on God's glory cannot be a life that is redeemed. How do I say this? Because this is what the Bible says: "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them, (Ephesians 2.8-10, ESV). What do those good works lead to? Jesus told us: "In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven, (Matthew 5.16, ESV).
So what does God do with these priests who simply will not return to the honor of His name. What is the consequence for those who do not seek the glory of God? Malachi gave them three dire warnings of what God would do. First, their blessing would become their curse. Second, their children would experience this curse. And finally, they would be removed from the service of God. Watch it as we read, "Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it," (Malachi 2.2b-3, ESV).
The very word of God which at one point in time was a blessing upon the priesthood and the people of Israel would be their undoing. The very blessing becomes a curse. For the obedient God's Word is a blessing, just as David wrote in Psalm 1.
Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
Psalm 1.1-2, ESV

It is a blessing to Him because of his love for God and his desire to be obedient. At the same time it is a cursing for the disobedient. As Paul wrote in Galatians 3. "For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them," (Galatians 3.10, ESV). The very same law that the priests used to abide by provided them at one time blessings beyond measure. They were honored, revered, feared, loved, deferred, and lauded. But they have since began to neglect God's Law, and the very law that blessed them in so many ways was now going to be to them a cursing. No more would they be honored, but rather humiliated. No longer revered, but reviled. No longer feared but fooled. no longer loved but loathed. No longer deferred but disdained. No longer lauded but laughed at.

And you say, "What a dire warning to our pastors." And you are correct. It is a dire warning to pastors, but it is more than to pastors. Peter told us that we are all priests, and so this is a dire warning to any believer, and the makeup of believers, the church. When a church begins to slip away from the Word of God that church brings upon itself a cursing. That which was once a blessing to the church has become its cursing. We need only look at the churches in Revelation. Many had fallen away from God's Word, and we see that those who did received rebuke and an opportunity to repent lest they receive a discipline and a cursing. To Ephesus, Jesus said, "Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent," (Revelation 2.5, ESV). To Sardis, "Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth," (Revelation 2.16, ESV). To Thyatira,
I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works, (Revelation 2.21-23, ESV).
To Smyrna,
Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you, (Revelation 3.2-3, ESV).
To Laodicea, "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent," (Revelation 3.19, ESV).

Oh that we would see what will come upon a church that ceases to be faithful to God's Word and their love for Him! The very blessing will become a curse.

When it Hits God's Fan: Part 2 (Malachi 2.1-9)

2011-10-25T04:00:00.001-05:00

Take it to Heart!
The problem that the priests have is that they have not taken God at His word! They know His word. They loosely abide by His word. But they really don't believe in their hearts that God is faithful to His Word. Because of God's patience, because God hasn't struck them with lightening at the drop of a hat, these people have allowed themselves to get lazy in their honor and devotion to God. God through Malachi is trying to awaken their hearts. He is giving this warning in order to rekindle the flame that once burned in the heart of the priesthood.
"And now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the LORD of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings," (Malachi 2.1-2, ESV). Too long the priests have gone through the motions, saying one thing and living life as though they could care less. There is no passion for the Lord. There is no desire for His ministry and service. It's wearisome and burdensome. It's just another job. Malachi is saying wake up! I'm talking to you! Listen to me! Stop dozing! Stop ignoring my words! This is going to happen, believe me! Take what I am saying to heart. Let your heart feel again. Let God's commands, God's Word burn again within you.
For years you have lived as though you do not serve an honorable God. You have lived lives that never really seek to glorify God. You are living lives that are not purposeful to God's glory. In other words a life that gives God the leftovers, rather than give Him the best. There is no honor in that, but now, I give you this opportunity to come back to the place of honor. I give this time to take to heart my honor. "Take it to heart to give honor to my name."
So many of us can identify with these priests. We have been going through the motions. If God could receive honor and glory from what we do great, but it we are purposing to give it in our hearts. We've placed God's glory and honor on the back burner and have forgotten about it. We are too busy living our lives. And it's not necessarily that our lives are sinful. Our lives simply are busy and normal, wearisome in some instances and burdensome in others. We simply are too exhausted and too busy to really put God's glory and honor on the front burners. We already have enough to think about. We simply don't have the energy to rank every decision and move based on God's glory. Sure that verse that says, "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God," (1 Corinthians 10.31, ESV) sounds great on paper. And it's an awesome verse to memorize and use to scold other people with, but in practical, everyday living, it's just plain hard. And we have neither the energy or the patience to live by it.
If that's you God says, "Wake up! Take to heart to give honor to My name! That is what I created you for. That is why you live and exist!" Yes, it is tough. And I can honestly say that I do not live my life with God's glory constantly on my mind. No one does. But just because we can't always live for God's glory is no reason not to start striving to do so. We will never be perfect this side of eternity, but our growth on this side is indicative that we will have the other side.

When it Hits God's Fan: Part 1 (Malachi 2.1-9)

2011-10-23T16:00:00.000-05:00

Instructions are important. No matter what anyone says, instructions are important. Anyone who has ever had to put together a bicycle or a table or a set of chairs that come unassembled knows that instructions are key. But at the same time instructions are useless if they are left unread or unheeded. I can have instructions at my fingertips but if I don't abide by them what good are they? They're useless!
This is a hard lesson to learn but almost everyone learns it the hard way. That includes the priests in Malachi's day. The problem was that these people should have already learned the lesson from their ancestors. Look in Leviticus 10 for a moment. Moses and Aaron, along with Aaron's four sons have just been given instructions about how to offer a sacrifice and incense on God's altar. "Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD" (Lev. 10.1-2, ESV).
These were the very first priests that God had appointed and they were immediately disobedient to what God had told them to do. They did exactly opposite of what God said. It wasn't that they didn't know any better. They did. They were given the instructions about what to do and how to do it. But they didn't take those instructions to heart. They simply said, "Whatever! We know what we're doing!" And because God had given His instructions and the priests did not heed them or take His word to heart, they died at the hand of God.
You know the priests had to know about this story. You know that it had to have been passed down. It was in the Torah which they should have read and known. It would be like a developer at Apple not knowing that Steve Jobs died. For them to not know what had happened to the founding priesthood would have and is still unthinkable.
The problem is that they did not learn from this. Out of the various principles one could learn from the deaths of Nadab and Abihu the most basic is this: do what God says.
If they didn't learn from Nadab and Abihu then surely they would have learned from Hophni and Phinehas. These were the Eli's sons. They also became corrupt and immoral, going against God's instructions and doing as they so desired. Eli's response to their corrupting the priesthood was basically a "shame on you" lecture, but no real discipline. And so we see God's response.
And there came a man of God to Eli and said to him, “Thus the LORD has said, ‘Did I indeed reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh? Did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel. Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?’ Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,’ but now the LORD declares: ‘Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. Then in distress you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep his eyes out to grieve his heart, and all the descendants of your house shall die by the sword of men. And this that shall come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you: both of them shall die on the same day. And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever. (1 Samuel 2.27-35, ESV)
And what we see is that God did as He promised. Both Hophni and Phinehas were massacred at the battle of Hob soon after. Eli himself fell off a wall and broke his neck. The priesthood was handed over to the family of Zadok.
Again, the priests should have listened closely to the overlying principle: do what God says! But they didn't. They became lazy and bitter. They no longer listened to God's instructions and so what we have is God's patience running out. And if you've never noticed, God is patient. He is longsuffering and merciful and patient. But there comes a time when God's patience runs out. And it is never a good thing when God loses His patience. Some examples of God having enough with man's sin. One of the first ones is the worldwide flood in Noah's day. We have the serpents in the wilderness that bit the Israelites killing many of them, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire and brimstone, the death of thousands of Israelites due to David's census, and probably still fresh in the minds of theses priests was the exile to Babylon.
God is patient and merciful. He does not simply blow His lid and just let loose on people. He is slow to anger and abundant in mercy. It takes a lot to get God so angry He does things like exiling and destroying and such. And we tend to think that because God is so patient that He will always be patient. What we tend to forget is that God's patience is a two-edged sword. On the one side is the length of time God is giving us to repent and return to Him. On the other side is the length of time that we can and usually do build up more wrath upon us.
And the priests in Malachi's day were receiving this same warning. Malachi is trying to warn the people, "It's about to hit God's fan. And you do not want to see it hit the fan." This morning we are going to take a look at God's warning to the priests in Malachi's day so that we too may heed what He is telling us through the prophet. What will happen when it hits God's fan?

Giving God Your Leftovers: Part 5 (Malachi 1.6-14)

2011-10-21T16:00:00.003-05:00

Conclusion
But you know, even if the priests offered up the best grain, the best lambs, and best bullocks, they still would not be ultimately good enough.
Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins (Hebrews 10.2-4, ESV).
The most perfect spotless lamb here on earth could not even compare with the perfect spotless Lamb of heaven. God did not require of us what He was not willing to do Himself. He required our best, and He gave us His. Jesus, His only-begotten Son, came down and sacrificed Himself on the cross and rose again three days later. Christ shed His blood to reconcile us to His Father. Only by the shed blood of Jesus Christ can we enter into friendship with the Father. It is not by giving our best that we earn God's favor. In fact, we could never earn God's favor ever! It is all Christ and none of us. It is a trust, a deep abiding faith in Jesus, God's Son that reconciles us to God. "Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved" (Romans 10.9-10, ESV).
Giving and doing your best is not something you do to earn God's favor. It is not something you do to keep God's favor. God cannot love you any less than He does right now. At the same time, God cannot love you any more than He does right now. Giving and doing your best is just simply what those who are madly in love do. It is what those whose love is fresh every morning do. And when you and I and the entire Body of Christ in the world love God afresh every morning the world will take notice and God will be glorified. "For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts" (Malachi 1.11, ESV).

Giving God Your Leftovers: Part 4 (Malachi 1.6-14)

2011-10-19T16:00:00.001-05:00

Nothing is Better than Scraps
We think we do God a favor by giving Him scraps. But hear closely the words that God gives to the priests.
And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you? says the LORD of hosts. Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand (Malachi 1.9-10, ESV).
So let's treat God like a dog and then expect Him to bless us. Let's give God of our least favorite. Let's ask God to sacrifice for us but not be willing to sacrifice for Him. And then when we do it let's expect God to bless us beyond imagination. How crazy is that?
Francis Chan wrote in his best seller, Crazy Love,
God is holy. In heaven exists a Being who decides whether or not I take another breath. This holy God deserves excellence, the very best I have. "But something is better than nothing!" some protest. Really, is it? Does anyone enjoy token praise? I sure don't. I'd rather you not say anything than compliment me out of obligation or guilt. Why would we think God is any different?[1]
God would rather have nothing from your hand than to have leftovers. In fact, Malachi told the priests that he wished that just one of them would love God enough to see that what they were doing was an abomination, just pure evil God says, and shut the doors of the temple. God doesn't want their sacrifices. He takes no pleasure in getting the dross while the people kept the gold.
But you profane it when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised. But you say, ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the LORD of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the LORD. Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished (Malachi 1.12-14, ESV).
Oh that we would get what God is saying! He is calling us back to love. Remember when you would do things for me because you loved me? Remember how you would give of your time and get up early just to talk with me and have breakfast with me? Remember how you would come home and tell me about your day? Remember when you gave me your very best? Whatever happened to those days? Now you wonder how long service will take. You look at your watch and tap on it to make sure it hasn't stopped. You say in your heart, I don't like this song and refuse to sing my praises. You won't get up in the morning and you won't stay over to be with me.
There is no honor in this. I cannot accept your doing what you do because you've always done it. You don't even remember why you do it. Remember when it used to be "I get to spend time with you, God"? Now it's, "I have to spend time with God." Such vileness deserves curses not blessings, and yet you seek blessings from me.
Oh that there would be a shred of decency and just admit what is already in your heart. The door of your heart has been shut for a long time. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20, ESV).
[1] Francis Chan, Crazy Love, (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook Publishers, 2008), p. 92.

Giving God Your Leftovers: Part 3 (Malachi 1.6-14)

2011-10-17T16:00:00.000-05:00

The Evidence
There may be some of us who just simply don't realize that we are in that situation. We're kind of like the priests whose response Malachi anticipated, "But you say, ‘How have we despised your name'" (Malachi 1.6, ESV)? Most of us live lives in which we are oblivious to how we treat God. We go about life living retroactively rather than proactively. God is part of our lives but just one part of our lives. He is just part of our unconscious lifestyle and so we simply don't realize that we are living lives which display a disdain for His name. When someone approaches us about it we get just as defensive as the priests did with Malachi. "Say what? How have we despised God's name? Prove it!"
By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ By saying that the LORD’s table may be despised. When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the LORD of hosts (Malachi 1.7-8, ESV).
Back on Mount Sinai God gave Moses and the people of Israel the Ten Commandments. The third one down the list was this: "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain" (Exod 20.7, ESV). We normally take this to mean that we ought not use God's name in vain verbally. But we can live lifestyles that make God's name worthless. We live lives that show the world that God, though we say differently with our mouths, is nothing to us! And that was what the priests were doing. The words, "We despise You, God!" never came out of their mouths but their actions spoke louder than their words. And they were taking the name of the Lord in vain by their very actions! As Jesus reminded the Pharisees what Isaiah had said centuries earlier, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me" (Matthew 15.8, ESV)
Malachi shows the priests and people that they are doing exactly opposite of what God requires. The priests were putting polluted food on the altar. There were various kinds of sacrifices that God required for certain times and reasons. Some were animal and others were grain. But no matter what the offerings and sacrifices were to be the very best of the very best. They were to be the cream of the crop. But instead the priests were putting up polluted food. The grain offerings were beginning to mold. The animals were lambs that were blind and crippled and sick. They were the animals that no one wanted. They were no good to anyone. They couldn't be sold. They were too sickly to eat. So....let's give them to God!
Really? This isn't just, we will keep the best but give God what is good. This is, we'll keep the best, the good, the mediocre, and even the bad, and give God what is left over!
Thank goodness we don't do these things. Praise God we are not like these evil priests! If that's our thoughts we are boastful and prideful no better than the Pharisee who stood upon the Temple steps thanking God he wasn't like the tax collector. It very well may be that we give God the leftovers. We will go to church if we can get up in the morning (after all it is our only day to sleep in). We'll go to prayer meeting and Bible study if there's nothing else going on and if it doesn't last too long. I'm not going to talk about the tithe as Malachi deals with that subject later. But when there is a project to be done at the church and maybe donations to be taken up we give couches that are ripped and chairs that are stained, keeping the good furniture for ourselves. When we buy coffee for ourselves we buy our favorite brand but when we buy coffee for the church we buy the store brand, or whatever is cheapest. We donate clothes that are 3 decades out of style and then go to the mall and buy ourselves a new wardrobe. We are too tired to give God time for prayer and Bible study or reading but somehow we can spend hours on the computer and watching television. So at dinner we say a token prayer of thanksgiving and maybe a quick, "As I lay me down to sleep," kind of prayer before we go to bed.
God dared the Jewish people of Malachi's day to invite the governor over for a meal. "Serve the governor what you're serving me. What do you think he would say? Do you think he would be happy with the meal? Do you think he would be grateful for the invitation?" The implied answer is not in a million years.
Imagine you just invited your favorite celebrity to dinner. What are you going to do? Would you have to laissez faire attitude? Que sera sera? Whatever will be will be? Would we leave our houses looking like a pig sty? Would we make sandwiches on moldy bread, wear our work clothes, and serve Hamburger Helper? Not in a million years. We would give our best. We would clean our houses, dusting and vacuuming every crevice. We would prepare appetizers and make our best dish. Now if our best dish is Hamburger Helper, that we cannot afford more then so be it. That is perfectly acceptable and respectful and loving. But the idea is there, is it not? We would give our best for the one whom we love and respect. But we give God the leftovers, as if He were a dog eating table scraps.

Giving God Your Leftovers: Part 2 (Malachi 1.6-14)

2011-10-15T16:00:00.001-05:00

The Honor Due
Israel has been a rebellious son, and God has been a beneficent and merciful Father to them. He has loved them and protected them, disciplining when necessary and being gracious always. There has never been a time when God did not love Israel. From the beginning of the nation, starting with Abraham, you hear the words, "Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed," (Gen 12.1-3, ESV).
This was a blessing from God upon His first "child" Abraham and it was a blessing that he made to all His children Israel through Abraham (their representative). He would love them and bless them and protect them and make their name great! And how did they respond? By rebelling and complaining. "But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness," (Psalm 86.15, ESV). God responded as any good father would. He lovingly disciplined His children. Again, discipline is a form of love. It displays a care for the individual because the one disciplining is attempting to teach the one disciplined. Remember that discipline comes from the same word as disciple. God does not punish those whom He loves. Punishment is to feel the wrath of God upon your life and it is pain for pains sake. There is no lesson to learn. But God so desired for Israel to learn to love Him and trust Him that He would discipline her in such a way that every time they would come running back to Him. But rather than becoming someone they loved, He became more like an old security blanket. When times are rough we can always go back to God.
And so all the love and honor that God was seeking did not come. Rather a lazy, self-centered, taking advantage and using of God became the norm. When I need Him I will let Him know, otherwise He needs to stay out of my life. That's not love! If your husband or wife or child or friend said something like that to you or treated you in a similar fashion you would instinctively know that there is no love there. But this is how Israel, and so often, we treat God.
And so God asks, "A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name" (Mal 1.6, ESV). How is it, God wants to know, that He can love this people like a Father, and yet receive no love or respect back from them? Isn't it natural for a child to love his mom and dad. Sure they are disobedient at times but one of the greatest concerns to children is to have their parents pleased with them, especially young children.
When Katie and I took fostering classes the teachers would remind everyone that the goal was to get children back with their parents. And inevitably the question arose as to why they would want to go back to their parent who abandoned them or abused them or neglected them. And the answer was that children inherently love their parents and want to please them. So if a child loves and honors a parent who does not show nearly the same love that God shows for us, why could Israel not then show such love and honor to their heavenly Father?
The same goes with a master and his servant. We in America have a view of slavery that was different than that of the Hebrew slavery of the Old Testament. God instructed Israel to be kind to their slaves and release Jewish slaves after 6 years of labor. It was a picture of Israel's relation to God. As John MacArthur wrote in his book, Slave,
From the Exodus to the Exile and beyond, Israel's corporate identity as God's slaves was an integral part of the nation's history. Many of Israel's heroes, including Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Elijah, and the prophets, are specifically referred to as His slaves.[1]
Even a slave would honor his master even if it was simply out of sheer obedience and nothing else. Even if love had nothing to do with what the slave did. It was only due out of obedience and fear, the slave still honored his master.
Not so for Israel. There was no obedience. There was no fear of God in the people, even in the priests! Rather than love, rather than honor, rather than any fear from the priests there was a sense of despise toward God. They despised Him.
Now remember, we might be willing to give these priests and people a pass, due to their situation. We would probably agree with them if it didn't sound so "unholy." Remember that nothing is the same. The temple is a sham of what it used to be. There is no sacred fire, no ark of the covenant, no mercy seat. What's the point. For all the people knew God had abandoned them. But through it all God had been behind the scene showing them His love. Yet they allowed their situations in life to smokescreen God's displays.
So we might be tempted to give them a pass. To agree with them would be a natural response, especially since we could identify with them. We've had those times in our lives. We've been where they have been, where we feel abandoned by God and His love. We've been blinded by our own circumstances in life. And some of us may still be blinded by them. And so, we've allowed our love to grow cold, though God's is burning hot. We allowed ourselves to disrespect God, and have no fear of Him. And some of us may have not just allowed, but purposefully and spitefully disrespected Him. So we can relate. But the fact that we can relate makes neither what they have done nor what we have done or are doing ok.
[1] John MacArthur, Slave: The Hidden Truth About Your Identity in Christ, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2010), p. 33.

Giving God Your Leftovers: Part 1 (Malachi 1.6-14)

2011-10-13T16:00:00.001-05:00

A young man is going on his first date. He buys her flowers and candy, shows up in his best suit and opens the door for her everywhere they go. As they fall in love he begins to buy her jewelry. First earrings, then a necklace, and finally an engagement ring.
The couple gets married and the first year is great. They go on an exotic honeymoon, they go out every weekend, and he even remembers her birthday and their anniversary! But, and you all know where I'm going with this, life happens. He wakes up later and later, so there is no time in the morning to talk before work. He gets home from a hard day at work and eats, watches television, and falls asleep on the couch. He no longer shaves on the weekend and rarely do they go on dates anymore. If they do it's to a sports bar and grill so he can keep one eye on the game. Birthday? What's that? Anniversary? For what? If you look closely you will see that the once joyous heart is now broken.
But the reverse can happen. The wife used to wake up every morning to make her hubby breakfast. They would talk before he had to leave and she would kiss him bye. But then the children came and she was exhausted and she got up later and later. No more breakfasts, no more talks, no more kisses. He would come home to Hamburger Helper and a wife unkempt. On weekends he was given a "honey-do" list a mile long. And whereas they once worked on projects together, he is now on his own. Years pass and he wonders, does she still love me?
Oh how time can change relationships. Oh how time can bring a person to take their loved one for granted. The special touches and the special moments begin to fade away over the years. What was once so important, time and energy, is now not as important in the hearts of the lovers. Instead of a nice, nutritious meal for dinner, Hamburger Helper and leftovers are made. Birthday cards are no longer written in with well thought out notes of love, but whatever Hallmark says is just fine with a "love, me," scribbled at the bottom.
A newly wedded couple would look at this couple and swear that this will never happen to them, but almost all who say that fall into the same trap. It's easy to do. It's comfortable. It's natural.
What happens though when this becomes our relationship with God? What happens when we start taking God for granted and start showing less and less love for Him? You may say that God is above that. He's not. You may say that God would never hold that against me. He will.
This was the situation in Malachi's day. They were taking God for granted. They were just going through the motions. There was no meaning behind them for the people. And God has had enough. This morning we are going to look at this confrontation that Malachi had with the people, particularly the priests. And we are going to then go through the difficult process of self-examination.

A Funny Way of Showing Love: Part 4 (Malachi 1.1-5)

2011-10-11T16:00:00.000-05:00

Punishment not Discipline
That is exactly what happened with Edom. "Jacob I have loved," thus I disciplined him and sent him into captivity. "But Esau I have hated," and thus he received punishment, even to the point of eradication.
"Is not Esau Jacob's brother?" declares the LORD. "Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste to his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert." If Edom says, "We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins," the LORD of hosts says, "They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called the wicked country," and the people with whom the LORD is angry forever. Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, "Great is the LORD beyond the border of Israel!" (Malachi 1.4-5, ESV).
God destroyed Edom. There would be no coming back from this. Israel came back from their discipline, never to go back to idols and false gods. Though they lowered their reverence for the true God. Edom, though, would never come back. They would never recover. They had faced God's punishment, His wrath. It was a clear testimony of God's scorn for that nation. It was as much a testimony of His scorn for the Edomite as exile was a testimony of His love for the Israelites.
Out of all of Israel's enemies, the Edomites were the only ones not to receive any word of mercy and forgiveness. The Ninevites did, the Philistines did, the Hittites did, the Assyrians did, the Babylonians did, but never the Edomites.
Conclusion
There are probably people here that are questioning God's love. They are angry with God over how their lives have gone. They are angry because their lives did not turn out like they have expected. The green grass that they saw growing on the other side of the fence is dead and brown. "God loves me? Really? He certainly has a funny way of showing it!"
He does. I can admit that. But we have a funny way of showing love to Him also. When things are good, we give credit to the economy, the president, our jobs, luck, hard work, right timing, coincidence, family, friends, and a host of other things. We say the token prayer of thanks and go on our way enjoying our possessions and activities rather than delighting in the Giver of all good things. We say we've been blessed, but that's because we are expected to say that, not because we mean it. It's the Christian thing to say.
When the blessing is gone though it's not as though a curse has been brought in its place. However, we tend to think that's what is going on and so we curse God for His meanness and audacity. We turn our backs on Him and like some hormone driven teenage boy, we accuse God of not loving us because he doesn't give us what we want.
Now that's a funny way of showing love. Not spending time with the one we say we love. Taking the credit for what He gives us, and cursing Him when things go wrong, accusing Him of not loving us because we don't get what we want. Some may venture to say that's not love at all.
The highest aspiration we can seek is to love God. And God knows that. He loves us enough to teach us that, but in our rebellious hearts we refuse to see this fact. So, if we will not learn the easy way, then we must learn the hard way. Discipline is hard. It is difficult. But God's discipline is a lesson of His love for us, and asking us to love Him in return.
We must then also realize that it is indeed discipline that we are going through, if in fact, we are believers. Let us not forget that it was Jesus who took upon Himself the sins of us all, and the very wrath of God that came violently against those very sins. "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5.8, ESV). There is no punishment for us in this life nor the next. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8.1, ESV). Oh that we would see the love of God, that He will not and even cannot punish His beloved children, but rather He disciplines us because He desires us to learn of Him and from Him and through Him. Better for us to be hurt by the Father who loves us than the man or spirit who hates us! So let us learn to fly into the arms of our dear Father and stay there for all time.

A Funny Way of Showing Love: Part 3 (Malachi 1.1-5)

2011-10-09T16:00:00.000-05:00

Funny Way of Showing It
Here is the thing though, God has a funny way of showing His love sometimes. In fact, a lot of times the demonstration of His love is nothing like what we would expect.
God answers His accusers, "'Is not Esau Jacob's brother?' declares the LORD. 'Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste to his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert'" (Malachi 1.2b-3, ESV).
If you don't look hard, if you are just doing a cursory reading of these verses you miss what God is saying here. The reason that I went over the history of Jacob and Esau, Israel and Edom, is so that we wouldn't miss what God was telling the people of Judah.
"You've loved us? Really? How?!"
"You want to know how?"
"Yeah! Tell us how!"
"You know Esau, right? I utterly destroyed his people, his nation, his place in history. I loved you, but I hated Esau."
In other words, the truth that God was revealing to the Jewish people was that they were still alive and kicking. And we probably have the tendency to go, "Wow, really? That's the best God could come up with? I haven't destroyed you." But the answer is actually, yes.
From the very moment Jacob was born, and even before, as we saw earlier, Israel had a disposition of scheming and rebellion. Jacob schemed and rebelled against his brother, his father, his father-in-law, God, his children, and the list goes on. His descendants were no better. Jacob's children schemed and rebelled against their father and their brother, Joseph. Joseph tricked and imprisoned his brothers. Ultimately though, God saved the entire lineage of Israel in Egypt rather than eradicating them with a famine. Do you see God's love, even in the midst of a rebellious people? He actively saved their very existence.
When God rescued the Israelites out of Egyptian captivity, they again rebelled against Him and against Moses. He was going to destroy them if not for the plea of Moses, which reminded God of His love for His name and His people called by His name. He led them in the wilderness giving them food and water and kept their clothes from wearing out. But they only complained, but God continued to show an active love, sustaining this rebellious people.
He brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, and would fight their battles for them, if not for the sake of their own rebellion. Though they were surrounded on every side by enemies who wanted to destroy their lives and take their land, God would never allow it. He allowed the attacks when the people ignored and forgot the great I AM, but the moment He was remembered He would once again step in and save them.
He was their King, but much like with Jesus, they did not want Him as their king and would rather follow a mere mortal, sinful man. The people rejected Him, rebelled throughout the time of their kingdom worshipping false gods, and sacrificing children to them. God sent prophet after prophet to warn them but they initially just ignored them, then imprisoned them, and then when they could not shut them up, murdered them. Yet God, actively loving them, saved them alive. But something had to be done with this rebellious people. There had to be a greater discipline because the lesser disciplines were not getting through their thick skulls.
But! "My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights" (Proverbs 3.11, ESV). The very act of discipline was a sign of love. To discipline is to care. The exile was not a punishment. It was a discipline. Punishment is a penalty that is meant to inflict pain for pains sake. It is done purely out of anger and wrath. Discipline on the other hand comes from the same word that disciple comes from. Its goal is not to inflict pain, though that may happen as a byproduct. Its goal is to teach. A disciple learns from his teacher. The disciplined learn from the discipliner.
To discipline shows that God cares. It shows that He still loves. If He didn't care, if He didn't love, He would simply inflict a punishment bringing about pain for vengeance sake and not so that we would learn.

A Funny Way of Showing Love: Part 2 (Malachi 1.1-5)

2011-10-07T16:00:00.000-05:00

The Question
Malachi begins his prophetic ministry by speaking on God's behalf. His words are simple. "'I have loved you,' says the LORD" (1.2, ESV). Clear and simple. God has spoken. He has loved them. Tada! Thanks, Malachi! Couldn't have been more clear. Thank you for the word of encouragement!
But those words weren't enough. They were just as trite in Malachi's day as they are today. Have you ever said those words to someone? You know, "Smile, God loves you." I have...just for fun. Just to see if the person smiles. All the times I have said those words, I have never gotten a genuine, I feel better kind of smile. I have gotten sarcastic smiles, but usually I get a look that tells me that the person is using all their restraint to keep the fist off my face.
God's words, which were meant to encourage, fell on deaf ears. In fact, they brought about this attitude of derision and animosity. Much like they do to people today. There is this inherent hatred for God's love. We don't care for it; we don't want it; and we think we don't need it. People don't change, especially people angry with God.
"'I have loved you,' says the LORD. But you say, 'How have you loved us'" (1.2, ESV)? Their answer was one of anger. They couldn't see God's love if it had smacked them between the eyes! They were blinded by their circumstances and their home lives and their constant lookout for who or what would attack them next. Israel had been enslaved, and upon their release from Egypt they spent 40 years in the desert wandering and then finally allowed to enter the Promised Land. But there was a problem. It was occupied. They had to fight for their land. And war after war was fought. Once they were established the Philistine armies were constantly at them, and their judges had to take troops to fight them. When Saul became king there were more wars. When David was king even more wars. Solomon, Rehoboam, and all the rest fought war after war after war, until finally their land was destroyed and they were exiled to Babylon. They were allowed to return, but there were constant threats about them.
These people not only feared for their livelihoods but feared for their very lives, and Malachi has the audacity to utter the words, "I have loved you." Oh yeah?! When?! "How have you loved us?" "If this is love, I would hate to see hatred."

A Funny Way of Showing Love: Part 1 (Malachi 1.1-5)

2011-10-05T16:00:00.001-05:00

Introduction
Isaac and Rebekah are expecting twins. They are very excited, but Rebekah is a little concerned. Ever since she can remember the two of them have been fighting with each other. She would wake in the middle of the night and look down at her bulging stomach and see the pushing and shoving, the kicking of one brother and the punches of another. They were constantly at each others' throats even in womb (Gen 25.22).
They were finally born. Esau was first, red and hairy. Jacob was next holding on to his heal as if he was trying to trip him up on the way out of the womb.
There was never peace in the home. There was a time when Jacob schemed his brother into selling his birthright. Esau's entire inheritance was sold to his younger brother for a bowl of stew. When it came time to collect, Esau seemed to be reneging on the deal, so Jacob schemed his father into giving it to him anyway. This of course, enraged the older, much stronger brother so that Jacob had to flee his own house.
It would be many years later that Jacob and Esau saw each other, and it would seem as though all was forgiven, but such was not the case. Esau, whose nickname was Edom, meaning Red, established his own family which soon became a city and ultimately a nation. Jacob, who at one time wrestled with the Angel of the LORD, had his name changed to Israel and he too established a nation. From their inception the nations were constantly hating each other. It was the Edomites, aka Amalekites, who refused to allow Israel to go through their land during the wilderness journey. Just to spite them.
It all came to a head though, when Nebuchadnezzar attacked Judah. The Edomites allied with the Babylonians and totally destroyed Jerusalem and murdered thousands of Israelites. The Psalmist recalls the incident in Psalm 137, "Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, 'Lay it bear, lay it bare, down to its foundations" (v. 7, ESV)! And so they did.
Judah was taken away to Babylon, Jerusalem was destroyed, and as a reward from Babylon Edom's borders were extended tremendously. It would be short-lived however. Just as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Obadiah, and some others had prophesied, Edom was destroyed completely. And it was a direct result of their cooperation in the destruction of Israel.
"Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob," Obadiah wrote, "shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever" (v. 10, ESV).
When Cyrus allowed the return and rebuilding of the temple, the people went back and began their lives over, but soon were discouraged and ceased their endeavors. The temple's foundation was built, and nothing else. It was a disgrace. Haggai comes upon the scene and revs everyone up and the temple, which had been stalled for 20 years got built in just 2 years. Ezra is there for the dedication of what was now called Zerubbabel's Temple. Nehemiah also joins the crew, but not at this time, but later to help rebuild and restore the walls of Jerusalem.
Years have gone by now, and the Levitical practices and sacrifices have been going on for just as long. However, it was just not the same. Ezra wrote that, "old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid" (3.12, ESV). There were things missing, important things. There was no ark of the covenant. There was no sacred fire. The Urim and Thumim were missing as well. And of course, the Holy Spirit and Shekinah glory never graced the temple with their presence.
Other than that, things are just about back to normal. Zerubabbel was now out of the picture, Nehemiah has returned to the service of his King, Artaxerxes and Haggai has apparently died. When the youngsters of Babylon heard the stories about Jerusalem you have to imagine their vivid imaginations going wild. Things would be much greater in Jerusalem than in Babylon! The grass must be greener on the other side. But when they arrived life was anything but how they imagined. And so, everyone, princes, priests, and people, have grown calloused and careless. And so is the setting for the prophet Malachi.
All we know of Malachi is his name, and some people are not so sure about that! Malachi is the Hebrew word for "My Messenger." There is no mention of his name anywhere else except for this book. Even when he is quoted in the New Testament the writers never mention his name. Some people say that Malachi is more of a description than a name. Thus this book is either anonymously written, or one of the writers of another book of the Bible also wrote this one. Some of the theories are Ezra, Haggai, or Zechariah. There is no evidence for any of these theories and more evidence that Malachi is the actual name of the author.
This great prophet begins by reminding the people about the love of God.

The Case for Communion (Part 6)

2011-10-03T16:00:00.000-05:00

Sincerity
Which leads us to the last point: sincerity. There before Jesus were twelve disciples. All were present when Jesus revealed a betrayer was in their midst. And what was their reaction? "They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, 'Is it I?'" (Mark 14.19, ESV). Luke tells us, "And they began to question one another, which of them it could be who was going to do this" (Luke 22.22, ESV). They searched diligently among them, suspecting even themselves as to who it was that would betray Jesus.
They wanted to know. They needed to know. Only one among the disciples continued to eat. Only one seemed to not care about the betrayal. His heart was not into what had been revealed by Jesus. He did not care that he was about to be the one leading to the broken body and shed blood. He just continued to eat. To everyone's question, "He answered, 'He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me'" (Matt 26.23, ESV).
Like Judas the people in Corinth thought very little of the very institution Jesus had set up. "When you come together," Paul wrote, "It is not the Lord's supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk" (1 Corinthians 11.20-21, ESV). Just as Judas pretended there was nothing special going on, and thus no sanctity in the partaking of the Lord's Supper, so it was the members in the Church of Corinth acted as though the Lord's Supper was just another meal. People would just bring packed lunches and begin eating, while others had nothing and were going hungry. There was no unity in which the people offered to share. It was every man for himself. To top it all off, the very wine that was to represent the blood of Christ was taken to excess so that the very believers professing Christ would then get drunk. This was no way to act during the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper!
Thus Paul instructs the people, "Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself" (1 Corinthians 11.28-29, ESV). In other words, let us be as the disciples, and search ourselves. Let us take a look deeply and ask ourselves the hard question, "Is it I?"
If we ask that question we are very likely to come away like some of the disciples, if we are not careful. As they began to ask who the betrayer was, "A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest" (Luke 22.24, ESV). You see, asking the question can lead to pride if we are not careful. We must ask the right question, and when we do we will have the right answer.
Is it I who has betrayed the Lord? Yes, it is I. Is it I for whom Christ died? Yes, it is I. Is it I who come before the table in solemnity and sanctity, and sincerity so that I may partake of the Lord's goodness and blessing that is in the symbol of the bread and blood? If you cannot answer in the affirmative then you must stop and ask God to readjust your heart and mind through prayer.

Conclusion
The Lord's Supper is for all believers all times. The only time we are in danger of taking the Lord's Supper unworthily is when we are taking the Lord's Supper for granted, thus making it unholy. None of us is worthy to partake of the Lord's Supper in reality. Yet is that not the point?! We are partaking of the very symbols of the salvation that we do not deserve. Just as the actual body and blood of Christ is a grace to us, so the Lord's Supper is as well. It is the body and blood that do make us worthy.
So let us loose the chains that bind us! Let us take the cup and bread with gladness, knowing that God's grace is rich and greater than all our sins. And that upon this meal that Jesus left for us to eat God heaps upon us grace upon grace.
Soon we shall exchange the table below for the table above, where we shall give full expression to our love to all eternity. There no betrayers can come--"no unclean thing can enter." Jesus shall be at the head of the table, and God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes.[1]

1 Bonar, Memoirs, p. 435.

The Case for Communion (Part 5)

2011-10-01T16:00:00.000-05:00

Solemnity
And at the moment of the Lord's Supper He was a Man of Sorrows. And with Him were men who were sorrowful. "And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, 'Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.' They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, 'Is it I?'" (Mark 14.18-19, ESV).
Can you see the look on their faces. Surely Jesus could not hide His sorrow. Within hours He would be arrested, unjustly tried, and killed on a torturous cross. The grief must have been great upon Him, and when He revealed the betrayer, the grief quickly spread.
Do you think that Jesus said the words, "This is my body...this is my blood" as easily as we say it or read it? Was there not a solemnity to His voice. As He broke the bread do you think in His mind's eye He could see the scourging of His body, the plucking of the beard, or the rapping upon the head with a reed? Do you think that as He passed the cup that He imagined the blood pouring from His hands, His feet, His side, His head? To Jesus and His disciples this was no joyous occasion. It was no time to celebrate. "Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God" (Mark 14.25, ESV). No, he would not drink of the fruit of the vine, but there was another cup which He would drink.
Hanging over the wine, the cup of fellowship and gladness, it is noteworthy that Jesus himself did not drink it (Matt 26:29). Instead he withdrew to the garden of Gethsemane, where with blood-tinged sweat he prayed to the Father about the other cup he would drink to the bottom (26:39, 42). Jesus drank the cup of wrath on the cross, down to its bitterest dregs, so that he might extend to us the cup of blessing in salvation.[1]

Sanctity
Thus we see that this time of Jesus, was a special time. It was time set aside just for Jesus and His disciples. It was not special because it was the Passover. It was special because Jesus was now telling His followers that His death was their life. His broken body would heal their souls. His shed blood would bring life to their spirit. It was a special time, set aside for those who believed in Him. It was a holy time, a holy experience. It was a time of sanctity.
The literal death of Christ on the cross was time of holiness, of sanctity, and thus that which symbolizes it is a time of holiness as well. Thus Jesus instructed, "Do this in remembrance of me" (1 Corinthians 11.24, ESV). Jesus told us that we must do this, time and again. It is not like all other times. It is not simply just another thing to do if and when we get around to it. It is a special time, a holy time, a time of sanctity. Treating it like a normal part of our day or just taking lightly the meaning of what is going on is to take the Lord's Supper unworthily.

1 Phillips, Give Praise, p. 213.

The Case for Communion (Part 4)

2011-09-29T16:00:00.001-05:00

The New Testament
There are four places in the New Testament where we read about the Lord's Supper. The three Synoptic Gospel Accounts (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), and 1 Corinthians. I generally read from the account in 1 Corinthians because it is a nice concise summary of what Jesus did and said.
As we study the Lord's Supper this morning from the New Testament I want to focus on three areas, briefly. They are the symbolism of the Lord's Supper, the solemnity of the Lord's Supper, the sanctity of the Lord's Supper, and the sincerity at the Lord's Supper.
Symbolism
There is definitely symbolism in the Lord's Supper. When Jesus "took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, 'Take, eat; this is my body.' And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, 'Drink of it, all of you, for this is the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for the many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matthew 26.26-28, ESV), He was using symbolism. The Bible is abundantly clear that there is only true forgiveness in the death of Jesus. The write of Hebrews wrote, "we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (10.10, ESV).
The very moment that Jesus spoke those words that the bread and the wine were His body and blood He had not died. He was very much alive, and so there was no body on which to eat and no blood of which to drink. The Roman Church readily admits that Jesus was the bloody sacrifice that was needed, but now instituted a bloodless sacrifice. If so, what sacrifice was at the Last Supper? The bloodless sacrifice is to no effect, if there is not yet a bloody sacrifice. If that is so, then the very first Lord's Supper was a farce that was planned and promoted by Jesus, making Jesus no better than a swindler.
Jesus had told scores of people that He was the Bread of Life and that all were to partake (eat) of Him. His body did not become bread. His substance was not doughy. He was human (and God), and nothing changed about Him because He spoke metaphorically. All He did at the Passover Meal was simply reverse the metaphor. There before Him was bread. It was custom to break the bread and eat it. Since He was about to die it was the perfect symbol of what was about to happen.
Jesus once said He was the Light of the world. Does that mean that He became like the Sun and brightened the globe? No. He was spiritual light. He said it during the Feast of Purim in which lights were used to brighten the city of Jerusalem. He not only was light for the Jews, but for everyone. Jesus spoke metaphorically all the time, and the Lord's Supper is no different. He would use what was around Him to reveal who He was (and is).

The Case for Communion (Part 3)

2011-09-27T16:00:00.001-05:00

Manna
Probably the second most known symbol of the body of Christ is the manna that fell upon the wilderness land that sustained and nourished the Israelites.
Day after day they ate manna, the "bread from heaven" (Exodus 16:4), miraculously provided by God. The Israelites complained about its taste (Numbers 11:6), but actually it was sweet tasting (Exodus 16:31), reminding them of the sweet goodness of God the Provided (cf., Psalm 19:10). it came with the dew and looked like frost (Exodus 16:14), reminding them of the fact that God provides rain and dew to water crops, which in turn provide food. It looked like coriander seed (Exodus 16:31), again reminding them of the association with crops. Thus God by His supernatural provision indirectly pointed to the fact that He provides food to us every day by natural means (Matthew 6.11). He is the Creator and Sustainer of agriculture...
...A portion of manna was permanently kept in the Most Holy Place to signify its holy character and to encourage the Israelites to remember its lessons (Exodus 16.32-35).[1]
Remember what the lesson was? God is our Provider. He is our Sustainer. The bread was given to provide food to the body and to sustain and strengthen the person. But manna was simply a mere shadow which found its fulfillment in Christ! It was Jesus who revealed the true meaning behind the "bread from heaven." The very first of the seven "I AM" statements that Jesus makes, we see Him say,
I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. (John 6.48-51, ESV).
As the Puritan pastor and theologian, Thomas Watson, wrote in his book, The Lord's Supper
The manna was a lively type and emblem of Christ's body. Manna was sweet: 'the taste of it was like wafers made with honey' (Exod. 16:31). It was a delicious meal; therefore it was called, 'angels' food' (Psa 78:25), for its excellency. So Christ, the Sacramental Manna, is sweet to a believer's soul: "His fruit was sweet to my taste' (Song of Sol. 2:3). Everything of Christ is sweet; his Name is sweet, his virtues sweet. This 'Manna' sweetens 'the waters of Marah'....
Manna was corruptible: it ceased when Israel came to Canaan; but this blessed manna of Christ's body will never cease. The saints shall feed with infinite delight, and soul satisfaction, upon Christ for all eternity. The joys of heaven would cease, if this manna should cease.[2]
The feeding upon this soul-satisfying manna begins the moment we believe upon the Bread of Life, but is manifest every time we partake of the Lord's Supper. Richard D. Phillips correctly stated,
We are pilgrims on our sojourn to Canaan, and here is the spiritual manna through which we gain strength for the long journey yet ahead. Here is the drink for the parched lips of our souls, brought forth not by the striking of the rock but by the striking of Christ upon the cross. Like Abraham coming to Melchizedek from the weariness of his battles, we come to God through Christ to be fed, provisioned, refreshed, and renewed. The sacrament is a mighty lesson in the history of redemption and therefore on God's provision for us in the trials of this life.[3]

The Bread of Presence
Another symbol of the body of Christ, thus the Lord's Supper is the Bread of Presence, also known as the Showbread (Shewbread). The Bread of Presence was bread placed in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle and later the Temple. It was put there every Sabbath by the High Priest and stood there lighted by the golden lampstand, which symbolized God's glory. There were twelve loaves of bread, representing the twelve tribes of Israel. It was a perpetual reminder that they Israel was continuously in the presence of God (hence the Bread of Presence). Only Aaron and his sons were allowed to eat the Bread of Presence. It was a meal specifically for the priests. It was to nourish them as they performed the Lord's work, which was never ending.
So we see it with Christ, the Bread of Life. Jesus, the true Israel sits at the right hand of God, eternally in the presence of the Father, yet represented by the bread in the sacrament. Just as the Bread of Presence was only for the twelve tribes, so Jesus only shared His bread with the twelve disciples. It was only for His followers, and for no one else. No one other than a believer is to take of the Lord's Supper, for only believers are said to be priests. "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2.9, ESV). So as the Bread of Presence nourished the priests in their work before the Lord, so Christ nourishes us in a special way through the bread and cup.

1 Vern Poythress, The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses, (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1991), p. 20.
2 Thomas Watson, The Lord's Supper, (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2004), pp. 31-32.
3 Phillips, Give Praise, p. 214.

The Case for Communion (Part 2)

2011-09-25T16:00:00.000-05:00

Old Testament Pictures
Now, I will say that I agree more with Calvin than I do with Zwingli, and I would definitely disagree with Luther and the Roman Church. And I want to take a few minutes to go back to God's Word, which obviously is the foremost authority on the Communion. So, first, let's go back for a few moments and take a look at the types of Lord's Supper, and by that I really mean types of Christ's death that deal mainly with bread.
The Passover
The most obvious is seen in Exodus with the deliverance of the Hebrew children out Egypt and slavery. Of course, this is the very memorial that Jesus was honoring when He instituted the Lord's Supper. The Passover was celebrated every year at the same time by the Jews as they looked back at how God delivered them from slavery. The Passover meal was somewhat arduous as the people had to clean their homes of leaven, sweeping it out thoroughly so as to not leave even the slightest morsel. There were bitter herbs which represented the bitterness of their slavery. There was unleavened bread, representing the holiness of God and the swiftness of His deliverance. They would drink the wine, as it was a symbol of four different aspects of Israel's sojourn in Egypt. There were four cups of wine. The first represented God's promise of deliverance. The second represented God's judgment upon Egypt, with the ten plagues. The third represented the blood of the Lamb. And the fourth represented and was followed by praise to God. And so we see that God told the Israelites: "This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statue forever, you shall keep it as a feast" (Exodus 12.14, ESV).
When we take of the Sacrament which is the Lord's Supper, we are demonstrating what Christ demonstrated, namely that Passover pointed to Him. The unleavened bread that was broken and eaten is the sinless body, the sinless life of Jesus who was broken and bruised for us. It was the third cup of Passover when Jesus said, "This is my blood of the covenant" (Matthew 26.28, ESV). This was the cup of redemption. It was representative of the blood of the Passover Lamb, blood that was shed and painted on the posts and lentil of the Jewish doors. It was that very night, the night when death visited the house of every Egyptian and the firstborn died. It was the night when God delivered not only the firstborn Jewish child, but delivered all His people from the hand of Pharaoh. So it would be with the true Lamb of God.
Now, I differ from some on this, but I believe that Jesus stopped at the third cup and did not drink the fourth. Others would say that the fourth cup was the cup in which Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper. I believe it was the third cup and thus He said, "I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it with you in my Father's kingdom" (Matthew 26.29, ESV). Since the fourth cup represented praise to God, in essence, a celebration, I can see this being most greatly fitting at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, when all the saints of God are joined together and the bride of Christ, that is the Church, is with her Bridegroom, Jesus.

The Case for Communion (Part 1)

2011-09-23T16:00:00.000-05:00

"For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."
1 Corinthians 11.26, ESV

Introduction
Over Labor Day weekend, Katie and I, along with some others played the game Apples to Apples: Bible Edition® and one of the Green Apple cards that was flipped was the word Confusing. Katie and I each go through our cards and place ours face down. We couldn't help but chuckle when all the cards were flipped over and revealed. After the winning card was picked Katie revealed that she had selected baptism, and I revealed I had selected the Lord's Supper. Others didn't think that these were confusing in the least, but they hadn't listened to my sermon on baptism....wait that doesn't sound good. And they had not read what I had read studying for the Lord's Supper.
We naturally assume that what we believe is right and thus all others are wrong. We naturally believe that there is no point in understanding what other's believe because, well, they're wrong. Why would I want to study something that is wrong? So we don't. We don't realize all the history that goes into what we now take for granted.
Something like the Lord's Supper, so cut and dry for us, was not so cut and dry back during the formation of the reformation. In fact, the reformation could have just a memory, if not for the providence of God, because of the debate over the Lord's Supper. Ulrich Zwingli and Martin Luther varied greatly on what the Lord's Supper signified and how it was to be understood. It divided the Reformers greatly, leaving them without any true unity. Even when they finally agreed to come together Luther and Zwingli argued time and again over Communion, including mere seconds after both sides agreed to peace. Unfortunately, while there was peace, "At the end of the conference, Luther refused to clasp hands with Zwingli as a brother in Christ."[1] John Calvin also had his differences, though not as severe as Zwingli and Luther.

Brief Church History
Now quickly, I want to go over some quick church history, so that everyone knows where we are coming from, and then we are going back to the Bible so that everyone knows where we are going.
In 1215, at the Council of Exeter, the Romanists declared that the doctrine of Transubstantiation would be the official Roman view. Before then there was a back and forth as to this doctrine, but once the Council spoke on the issue and officially adopted the doctrine there was no more to be argued. All Romanist priests, bishops, archbishops, cardinals, Popes, and laity were to believe it. Transubstantiation comes from 2 common words, trans which means to change, and substance which is what something is made of. Thus when we refer to the Lord's Supper, the bread and wine, transubstantiation means that the bread and wine change what they are made of. The bread ceases to be bread and changes to the body of Jesus. The wine ceases to be wine and changes to the blood of Jesus. Now here is the problem, "The Roman Church acknowledges that in the mass there is no visible change in the bread and wine, that they continue to have the same properties: the same taste, color, smell, weight, and dimensions."[2] If that is the case, then it begs the question as to how its substance, its makeup, changed.
There is also the issue that we brought up before with baptism. The Eucharist/Mass is considered to be ex opere operato, which means from the work done. Remember that it doesn't take faith so much as it does the action. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2:1:1, it is stated,
From the moment that a sacrament is celebrated in accordance with the intention of the Church, the power of Christ and his Spirit acts in and through it, independently of the personal holiness of the minister. Nevertheless, the fruits of the sacraments also depend on the disposition of the one who receives them.[3]
So while there is still grace given, and the sacrament must be done for the salvation of the soul, one may not get as much grace as another depending on his disposition. This, by the way, flies in the face of grace. Grace can never be dependent upon the worthiness of a person, lest it no longer be grace.
Transubstantiation was readily accepted by everyone in the Roman Church until Martin Luther came along. He changed the doctrine, though only slightly. What the Romanists understood as transubstantiation, Martin Luther understood as consubstantiation, though it seems like he didn't like the word itself. Martin Luther, agreed more with the second century church fathers it would seem that the bread and wine did not become Jesus' body and blood, but rather that Jesus was physically present with, in, and under the bread and wine. The greatest difference however was the Luther rejected teh idea of ex opere operato, and proclaimed that there is no good in the taking of the bread and wine without faith. "Therefore, while emphasizing the role of faith along with the Zwinglians, Lutherans also agreed with Rome that in the sacrament Christ's body and blood are physically eaten "with the bodily mouth."[4]
Zwingli lived during the same period as Luther and he developed the doctrine of a memorial service. That is all it is. There is no presence of Christ, physical or spiritual, in, with, under, around, or anywhere else. We observe the Lord's Supper to remember the death of Christ, and we do it because we are commanded. If there are any blessings from the Lord's Supper they are not unique to it, and thus can be obtained in other ways. As Zwingli, himself wrote, in the Sincere Confessions of the Ministers of the Church of Zurich:
Believers have in the Lord’s Supper no other life-giving food than that which they receive elsewhere than in that ordinance. The believer, therefore, receives both in and out of the Lord’s Supper, in one and the same way, and by the same means of faith, one and the same food, Christ, except that in the supper the reception is connected with the actions and signs appointed by Christ, and accompanied with a testifying, thanksgiving, and binding service. . . . . Christ’s flesh has done its work on earth, having been offered for our salvation; now it no longer benefits on earth and is no longer here.”[6]
In other words, since Christ's work is done and He is seated at God's right hand, how can He be here on earth in the elements of the Lord's Supper. He couldn't be and He wouldn't be. There is no need. "The Lord's Supper, then, is no more than a memorial that sets forth the symbols so as to prompt the exercise of faith, although it is an occasion 'accompanied with a testifying, thanksgiving, and binding service.'"[7]
John Calvin held a very similar view to that of Zwingli but a little different. While Zwingli said that Christ was not present at all, physically or spiritually, Calvin believed that there was a spiritual presence of Christ. However, the spiritual presence of Christ must not be understood as Jesus' presence spiritually as was the case with Paul on the road to Damascus, but rather the Spirit of Christ, i. e. the Holy Spirit. In his Institutes, Calvin wrote:
For though he withdrew his flesh from us, and with his body ascended to heaven, he, however, sits at the right hand of the Father; that is, he reigns in power and majesty, and the glory of the Father. This kingdom is not limited by any intervals of space, nor circumscribed by any dimensions. Christ can exert his energy wherever he pleases, in earth and heaven, can manifest his presence by the exercise of his power, and always be present with his people, by breathing into them his own life, can live in them, sustain, confirm, and invigorate them, and preserve them safe, just as if he were with them in the body; in fine, can feed them with his own body, communion with which he transfuses into them.[8]
What Calvin says there is that Jesus, while in heaven physically, can send His "energy" (Spirit) wherever He so desires, including the Lord's Supper. Thus, the Lord's Supper does contain the spiritual presence of Christ. Later in Institutes he likens this to Jesus' baptism. John the Baptist saw the Holy Spirit descending as a dove. John did not actually see the Spirit, but rather the form the Spirit inhabited. So it is with the bread and wine. The Holy Spirit then, is in this "spiritual feast, at which our souls feed, for a true and blessed immortality."
Thus to Calvin, our spirit's are fed when we partake of the Lord's Supper because the Holy Spirit is present. Thus as the stomach is filled with food and drink so the Spirit is filled by the partaking of the bread and wine. It is then, a special blessing with which Christ has left us. It strengthens and builds the faith. As Robert Murray McCheyne would say, "It is a sweet declaration of your own helplessness and that Christ is all your strength."[9]

1 Wayne Pipkin, Twenty Centuries of Great Preaching, (Waco, TX: Word Publishers, 1971), p. 85.
2 Loraine Boetner, Roman Catholicism, (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1962), p. 178.
3 http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s1c1a2.htm as of September 7, 2011
4 Richard D. Phillips, The Lord's Supper: An Overview: Philip Ryken, Derek Thomas, J. Ligon Duncan III, Eds., Give Praise to God, (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 2003), p. 202.
5 http://www.ccel.org/ccel/hodge/theology3.iii.vi.xvi.html as of September 7, 2011
6 Ibid, p. 200.
7 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 1989), pp. 570-571.
8 ibid., p. 570.
9 Andrew A. Bonar, Memoirs of McCheyne, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1947), p. 432.

The Case for Baptism (Part 4)

2011-09-21T04:00:00.000-05:00

Symbols of Baptism

Now, even though baptism is a symbol in itself, we do see in the Bible symbols, or if you will pictures, of baptism. The first of which is when the earth was flooded.
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, no saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3.18-21, ESV).

The earth, and especially the people of the earth were full of sin. Moses wrote, "The LORD saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6.5, ESV). So, in judgment over the evil God flooded the earth, putting to death sin. So we have the earth immersed in water, but floating on top of the earth was an ark, saving eight people from the judgment and sin.

Hayden gives a great explanation of this baptism.

As far as God was concerned these people were dead before the flood came. Then God sent the great flood and the earth was buried in water (Genesis ch. 7). Then there was death over the face of the earth, and the earth buried in water. In order to make this a prophetical picture of Christ's Atoning Baptism we need a resurrection. You can be sure that we have it, for floating above those burial waters and resting upon the earth as it rose out of its burial, was the ark with Noah and his family ready to begin a new world. thus we have death over the face of the earth; the earth buried in water, and the earth rising out of its burial with life immediately coming upon it. It was the first picture of the coming death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.[1]

But that is not the only place. What we also see in the Old Testament is the crossing of the Red Sea as a testimony to baptism.

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, "Let us flee from before Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians."
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen." So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the LORD threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left (Exodus 14.21-29, ESV).

Did you see it there? The salvation of Israel, the judgment of Pharaoh. Death to sin and evil, new life on the other side. Again, we have Israel, dead where they stand. They knew it, Moses knew it, Pharaoh knew it, and God knew it. And yet what we see is that God did a great work, a great miracle, by saving His chosen people by water, and separating them from the evil that had once enslaved them, burying it in the water, so that they come across on the other side free from their past. Thus we see Paul saying, "For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Corinthians 10.1-2, ESV).

And of course there is Jonah, who ran from God, and in his sin was thrown into judgment waters of God, and yet, brought out saved by the fish, and spewed out a new man, obedient unto God's Word.

In case you are getting the wrong idea that there is something to the baptism itself that would save you, I want to read from Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology.

Wayne Grudem wrote,
Therefore those who go down into the waters of baptism really are going down into the waters of judgment and death, death that they deserve from God for their sins. When they come back up out of the waters of baptism it shows that they have come safely through God's judgment only because of the merits of Jesus Christ, with whom they are united in his death and resurrection. This is why Peter can say in 1 Peter 3:21 that baptism "corresponds to" the saving of Noah and his family from the waters of judgment in the flood.[2]

Conclusion

The same could be said about the Red Sea or Jonah. Remember the verse we read at the beginning. "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death" (Romans 6.3, ESV). We are baptize spiritually in the death of Jesus. We are baptized physically as a sign that this has happened. Let there be no mistake though. Jesus' death was God's judgment against sin. The fact that we go down into the water as a symbol is the symbol of God's judgment upon Christ on our behalf for our sins. We are displaying for all who will see that the judgment of our sins has taken place in the death of Christ, and only by His death do we have new life.

1 Clarence Hayden, Baptism in Relation to the Atonement, (Bay City, MI: Self-Published, 1957), p. 40.
2 Footnote #7 from: Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, (Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing, 1994), p. 968.

The Case for Baptism (Part 3)

2011-09-19T16:00:00.000-05:00

Imitators of Christ

Baptism not only shows a commitment to Christ, but it also imitates Christ. Just as the Lord's Supper imitates the death of Christ so does baptism. As we stand we are as Christ on the cross, we go under the water, as He was buried, and then we rise from the water, as He rose from the dead.

Every baptism becomes a living picture of what Jesus did for us. Paul wrote the Romans, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life" (6.3-4, ESV).

Outward Sign of Inward Change

Now this verse, if taken only at the shallow level shows that baptism does bring about an imitation of what Jesus did on the cross, but if you take it for all it is worth it also shows that we are no longer the same person, but we are someone new. Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come" (2 Cor 5.17, ESV). Those who believe in Jesus have died to their old ways. As Paul told the Romans, "How can we who died to sin still live in it?" (6.2, ESV). Or a little later, "We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin" (6.6, ESV).

We were once born in darkness. We were spiritually blind. Paul even went so far as to say that we are spiritually dead. That is what we are symbolizing as we stand before the people about to be baptized. This was who I once was. I was a man who was spiritually stillborn. While I was living physically I was dead spiritually. I had never received the living water of Jesus Christ. But then I died to my sin by the death of Jesus Christ, thus you are buried under the water. The immersion into the water shows that your sins have been left behind, grieving its loss of power over you. But then we are raised from the dead, raise out of the water showing that though we are now dead to sin, we are alive to God. Paul shows this time and again! As we just read, "Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life" (Romans 6.4, ESV). He told the Ephesians, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved" (2.4-5, ESV). He wrote the Church in Colossae,

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross (Col 2.13-14, ESV).

So what we see, as the greatest meaning behind baptism is that it is an outward symbol of the inward change that God has wrought within us. It is to tell all who witness the baptism, "I am not the person you used to know. I am made new."
As Clarence Hayden wrote,
The burial of Christ sets forth the disposal of sin or the separation of sin from the sinner. Our sins are buried, as is were in the depths of the deepest sea, or cast as far from us as the East is removed from the West. Glorious truth is this. Who of us should shrink from giving the kind of baptismal testimony that would vividly portray this truth. How wonderful is the privilege to do this.[1]

1 Clarence Hayden, Baptism in Relation to the Atonement, (Bay City, MI: Self-Published, 1957), p. 40.

The Case for Baptism (Part 2)

2011-09-17T16:00:00.000-05:00

Commitment to Christ

One of the meanings of baptism is that it shows commitment to Christ and the Church. Again, I agree with Clark that baptism is not so much about us, but really about God. However, there is a clear sign of commitment when we are baptized. I quickly want to show how I've come to this conclusion.

First let's take a look at three examples of baptism in Scripture. First, let us go back and see the story of the Ethiopian eunuch. We find the story in Acts 8. Philip is in Samaria proclaiming the gospel as Jesus had commanded. God reveals to him that he should head south to a road headed to Gaza. When he gets there, he sees the eunuch on his way back to Ethiopia. But he's reading from Isaiah 53 and doesn't understand whom it is to which Isaiah refers. So Philip explains to this man about Jesus, the Messiah. Finally the Ethiopian understands exactly who Jesus is and we read this.

And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?" And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him (Acts 8.36, 38, ESV).

The moment the eunuch believed in Jesus, he wanted to express his commitment. There was no one but the chariot driver and Philip to witness this act of baptism. It was not so much a show for others to see, but a personal ceremony of commitment to Jesus for God to witness.

There was also the passage of Paul's baptism. We just read it a moment ago, and we see there that Ananias instructed Paul not to wait, but to get baptized. He gives a reason for this. "For you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name" (Acts 22.15-16, ESV). Paul was a Hebrew of Hebrews who persecuted the church. He then became a believer, but how would people know that he was not a fake? How would they know that he was not a wolf in sheep's clothing? Ananias told him, you will preach, but before you do, prove yourself and get baptized.

And then there is of course those who were from Ephesus. Paul finds this group of men, and asks them if they had received the Holy Spirit and they responded that they had not. They didn't even know there was a Holy Spirit. So he asked, "'Into what then were you baptized?' They said, 'Into John's baptism'" (Acts 19.3, ESV). In other words, these mean were not Christ's disciples but rather John the Baptist's disciples. They committed themselves to John, but never Christ. Thus they were baptized into John's baptism. Paul went on to explain, "'John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is Jesus'" (Acts 19.4, ESV). What then was their response? They changed their commitment from John, to the One John referred to. How then did they show that commitment? "On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 19.5, ESV).

So what we see then, is that if we are believers then baptism is the perfect way of showing our commitment to the one in whom we say we believe. All we need to do is look through Acts. "Throughout the Book of Acts, baptism is an important part of the believers commitment to Christ and witness for Christ."[1] It is as if we are the bond-servant who pledges his commitment to his master and has his ear bore through with an awl, showing to all who see him that he loves and follows his master.

1 Warren Wiersbe, Be Dynamic, (Colorado Springs: Chariot Victor Press, 1987), p. 106.

The Case for Baptism (Part 1)

2011-09-15T16:00:00.000-05:00

Introduction

Baptism. That word means a lot of things to a lot of people. If you ask a Pentecostal you would probably hear an answer involving the Holy Spirit. If you asked a Church of Christ member you would hear of its necessity for salvation. If you talked to a Presbyterian you would hear about its value and ceremonialism as infants are brought into what is called the covenant community. If you asked a Romanist you would hear about how it is a means of grace by which sin is removed. If you asked a Baptist you would probably hear in the conversation the word, "dunk." Apparently believers are like donuts. We get dunked.

With all of the different views on baptism it has gotten to the point in many people's minds to ignore the subject altogether. If the churches can't agree and if scholars can't agree on the means and the mode of baptism why then should I even worry about it? And there are many churches who have gone that same route.
Still there are those who are taking a parallel street believing that they are justified in ignoring baptism because it has been made such a big deal of that they want to avoid looking like Pharisees or baptism tyrants. "It's not that important," they say, "so why make a big deal of it."

The answer is that it is important. Baptism is actually very important. To ignore it or to avoid it is simply disobedience and thus it is sin. Historically speaking, baptism is so important that people have died over it. In fact, you can even relate it back to the Reformation and one of the causes of it. The Romanists held to and still hold to what is known as the ex opere operato, which means from the work done. In relation to baptism, the idea is that it does not take faith on the one baptized, thus infants, but only the fact that they are baptized in the first place.

In [Martin] Luther's eyes such a view made the sacrament mechanical and magical. He, too, had no mind to subject it to human frailty and would not concede that he had done so by positing the necessity of faith, since faith is itself a gift of God, but this faith is given by God when, where, and to whom he will and even without the sacrament is efficacious; whereas the reverse is not true, that the sacrament is of efficacy without faith. "I may be wrong on indulgences," declared Luther, "but as to the need for faith in the sacraments I will die before I will recant."[1,2]

John Calvin thought it so important that he said, "We ought rather to fight even an hundred times to death for the ceremony itself of baptism, inasmuch as it was delivered us by Christ, than that we should suffer the same to be taken from us."[3]
Being that the Reformation was largely based on Justification by Faith and not by any form or means, including baptism or any other sacrament, then it is correct to say that baptism played a large part in the Reformation.

But going beyond the Reformation and the fact that there were Christians martyred over baptism, we need only go to Scripture where we are commanded to be baptized. After Peter's first sermon, giving a scathing review and message about what the people there had done to Jesus they asked, "Brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2.37b-38, ESV). Upon Paul's conversion he was commanded by Ananias in Damascus, "And now why do you wait? rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name" (Acts 22.16, ESV).

But in case, the words of Peter and Ananias were not enough Jesus of course commanded the ordinance of baptism. "And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit'" (Matthew 28.18-19, ESV).

So baptism is much more important than what many believers and churches like to think. D. Marion Clark correctly wrote, "The sacrament of baptism is intended by God to feed our faith, to comfort and assure us. Thus the focus of this ordinance must be on what God has done and is doing for us, and not on what we have, are, or will be doing for God."[4]

Thus if it is worth dying for, commanded by apostles and, more importantly, Jesus, and it is God's way of feeding our faith, then it ought to be something that we as believers take seriously. Thus for the rest of this sermon we are going to look at what baptism is. We are going to look at its lowest form of meaning to its greatest meaning.

1 Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther, (New York: Meridian, 1977), p. 107.
2 This is Luther's response to the Mass vs. Lord's Supper, and the giving of the Sacrament by priests to those who had no inward faith. However this same belief of ex opere operato was and is accepted in baptism as well; see Grudem, Systematic Theology, p. 972.
3 John Calvin, Calvin's Commentaries: Vol. XVIII, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 2005), p. 364.
4 Philip Ryken, Derek Thomas, & Ligon Duncan, eds., Give Praise to God: A Vision for Reforming Worship (Philipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 2003), p. 180.

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: How? (Part 5)

2011-09-13T16:00:00.000-05:00

Suggestions

I would suggest three things to help your prayer life. The first is to read all you can in the Bible about prayer, especially what Jesus said about it. This list is not extensive, but I will give you a few passages to begin and then you can go from there.
Matthew 6.1-15; 18.1-5; 19.13-15; 21:12-13
Mark 14.32-42
Luke 6.28; 10.2; 11.1-13; 18.1-14; 20.47
John 17
Read these Scriptures and others as well. There is nothing like knowing what God's Words says about a subject. Understand what Jesus wants us to know about prayer.
Second suggestion: once you have read and studied the Scriptures pick up some books on prayer. Again, I can recommend some to you. I would highly recommend

A Praying Life by Paul Miller,
Teach Them to Pray by Paul Tautges,
Successful Praying by Charles Spurgeon,
Andrew Murray on Prayer by Andrew Murray,
Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Jim Cymbala
Fresh Faith by Jim Cymbala
Any book on prayer written by E.M. Bounds
The Power of a Praying Husband, The Power of a Praying Wife, and The Power of a Praying Parent, all by Stormie OMartian

And then finally, my third suggestion is read prayers from other people. Again you can get these in books. Yes, it seems odd, but I have found that reading prayers can help me express what I want to say better. Two good references are Valley of Vision and A Pastor Prays for His People by Wendell C. Hawley. If you do not have a copy of Valley of Vision, get it. Obviously the second book is geared toward pastors but it would suit private pray-ers as well, and I highly recommend it.

Conclusion
How should we pray? We should pray like a child. Believing God and trusting that He hears and loves us. We should pray like an old woman, who doesn't give up when she knows that what she wants is what is the makeup of the one she is asking. We should pray like a sinner who knows his place before God's throne and humbly asks of His King.
We can pray using the ACTS Model: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. We can pray using the Lord's Model: Praise, God's will, Supplication, Confession, Deliverance, and back to praise. Or we can pray Scripture back to God. In fact, you can intermingle all of these together in your prayer life. Doing so can help you keep from getting into a rut while praying.
Please read Jesus' own words on pray. When you have, read what other prayers have written about prayer, and then of course read other's prayers as well. All of these will most definitely help your prayer life.

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: How? (Part 4)

2011-09-11T16:00:00.000-05:00

Models of Prayer
At this moment I want to present to you three models of prayer that may help in your prayer life. I did not come up with these models, but I have used them and they are all good models.
ACTS
The first model is ACTS. It stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. As you pray you simply go through each step. Beginning your prayer with praise, and then confessing your sins (as many as you can remember) and of course repenting of them. When that is done, you move forward with thanking God for His blessings in your life and the lives of others. Thank Him for answered prayers and so forth. Finally you would bring supplication before God. Supplication is a long word that simply means grocery list. Bring your prayer list to God. It is humbly seeking God's hand to supply your needs.
The Lord's Model Prayer
Another model prayer is the model prayer, the Lord's Model Prayer. Remember when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He responded, "Pray then like this" (Matthew 6.9a, ESV). He never said to pray His own words, but rather pray something similar to what He prayed.
The way to do that then would be begin with praise but with specifics, move to God's will in your life and in His Kingdom (again in specifics). Go on to supplications, or your prayer list of needs and desires. Then go on to confession and repentance. Go on to deliverance and finally back to praise.
Scripture Prayer
The third model, and this one I especially like is Scripture Prayer. You are praying back to God what God has promised and said in His Word. I don't do this with every person I pray for but I do it for every missionary I pray for in my quiet time at home. Every missionary has a personal Scripture that I pray for so that God's name would be glorified in their work just as He promised.
There are other people for whom I do not quote direct verses but themes. I pray certain elements of Scripture. I may pray that a person may put on the full armor of God, and quote what the pieces of that armor are. I may pray that God will bring a certain characteristics that I see evident within the fruit of the Spirit.
I love this praying, because it is hard to not pray the will of God when we are praying His own Word back to Him! Paul Tautges said it well,
Since the Word of God is the mind of God in written form (1 Cor. 2:10-16), and since the words of our mouths are acceptable to God to the degree that they agree with His word (Ps 19:14), then to pray in accordance with Scripture is to pray in the will of God as best we know how.

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: How? (Part 3)

2011-09-09T16:00:00.000-05:00

Pray Like a Sinner

But there is still more. Part of our problem with prayer is that we often times forget our place. We tend to make ourselves the king and bring God in subjection to us. We most definitely can go to the throne of grace with boldness, but not with pride. Any pride in prayer makes the prayer an abomination to God. We must remember our place. We are sinners clothed with the righteousness of God received only because of the shed blood of Jesus our Savior.
In Jesus' parable about the Pharisee and the Tax Collector He showed how different prayer can be between one who has pride built up and one who has been humbled by his own sinfulness. Jesus said, "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 18.14, ESV).
It is key to remember who we are in prayer and who God is. When we mix up our roles, devastating things happen. Prayers go unanswered, humbling happens.

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: How? (Part 2)

2011-09-07T16:00:00.000-05:00

Pray Like an Old Woman

We shouldn't just pray like a child though. We should also pray like an old woman.
And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'" And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? (Luke 18.1-7, ESV)
Jesus' intent here is to bring us into this spirit of prayer. An injustice was done to this woman and she needed the judge, who in this case was unjust, to fix what she was incapable of fixing. The same goes with us. With man it was impossible, but all things are possible with God. We need only to ask. And when we are done asking we must ask again, and then again.
Here is the catch. What this woman, and what we as God's children must do in asking, is make sure that what we are asking for is in God's makeup. This woman asked a judge for justice. If he was a judge he ought to know how to administer justice. It ought to be his practice to administer justice. The same goes with God. We cannot and ought not ask for things that are outside the makeup of God. We mustn't ask for things that are contrary to godliness or what are clearly against God's will. Remember, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions" (James 4.3, ESV). However, the opposite is true, "And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us" (1 John 5.14, ESV).
The thing is that God does hear, but He does not answer right away, usually. Thus, we must continuously ask of Him. D. A. Carson told a story of how his daughter had seen a concert when she was young and immediately asked for a flute and to take lessons. Being the good parents they were they did not give her the flute she requested. Instead they gave her a recorder. Would she be faithful in the little before given much? As she practiced it, she continued to ask for the flute. And when she was ready, she received that which she had asked.
This is Jesus' point. Don't ask once and then give up. Remember verse one: "And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart."
Spurgeon said,
When we ask God for a mercy once, we are not to consider that now we are not further to trouble him with it, but we are to come to him against and again. If we have asked him seven times, we ought to continue until seventy times seven...In spiritual mercies, and especially in the united prayers of a church, there is no taking a denial. Here, if we would prevail, we must persist; we must continue incessantly and constantly, and know no pause to our prayer till we win the mercy to the fullest possible extent. "Men ought always to pray." Week by week, month by month, year by year; the conversation of that dear child is to be the father's main plea.
McCheyne wrote to his congregation while away from them, "Do not be silenced by one refusal. Jesus invite importunity by delaying to answer. Ask, seek, knock. 'The promise may be long delayed, but cannot come too late.'"

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: How? (Part 1)

2011-09-05T16:00:00.000-05:00

Introduction
We have come to the end of our series on prayer. We have dealt with quite a few questions about prayer, including to whom do we pray, for whom do we pray, with whom do we pray, in whose name do we pray, what is prayer, for what do we pray, when do we pray and when do we not pray, where do we pray, why do we pray, and now how do we pray.
Last week's message and this week's message are probably the most important, if not most asked of all the questions on prayer. In fact, as we have looked at many times, the disciples asked to be taught how to pray. After seeing Jesus pray many times, they sensed a closeness toward God. They sensed as though there was pleasure in his praying. And they probably saw Jesus' prayers answered. How then should they pray? How should we pray?
This morning's prayer is my attempt to take a lot of what Jesus teaches about prayer and put them in one place to help us in our learning about how to pray. It is my hope that this will be a message dealing with a lot of application and helps to help us move forward in our faith and prayers. At the end of the message I will also give three models in our prayers and some suggestions that have helped me in my prayer life.
Like a Child
I would say that the biggest problem that we have in our prayer lives is that we are too grown up, and we try to make our prayers grown up. We want to use big words that sound important and long drawn out sentences. We want to say what sounds good in the head, but has absolutely no meaning in the heart. We get embarrassed when our prayers don't cut the muster that we think they ought. That's a problem. It is a big problem.
We have had this problem since we were children. We always want to grow up. When we're 5 we want to be 10, when we're 13 we want to be 16. When we're 16 we want to be 18. When we're 18 we want to be 21. It's an on-going problem that we have, until (at least with age), we wish we could reverse time a little bit, or at least have time stand still. We have this mindset with age, and we tend to have the same mindset with prayer. We want to grow up our prayers. But in reality Jesus said the opposite must happen.
Toward the end of Jesus' ministry the disciples were having an argument as to who the greatest among them was. The finally went to Jesus and asked Him. His response must have stopped them in their tracks. They must have felt like they were hit by a bus, or at least a chariot.
And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of God" (Matthew 18.2-4, ESV).
Children were nothing in Jesus' day. They were to be seen and not heard. They were extra help around the house. But they had no social status, and no greatness. But God saw them differently. Jesus saw them as more than mere helpers. He saw their innocence. He saw their trust. He saw their faith. Children were children. No matter how grown up they try to act or look, they are still children and have open hearts and open eyes. They see the world with wonder and trust everyone.
We, as adults, actually teach our kids not to trust, not to have faith. Don't trust strangers. You can't believe everything you hear. You can't judge a book by its cover. Slowly, our children become young adults in their thinking, and they begin mimicking their parents in their thought life. And over time, they become cynical and suspicious just as everyone is.
But go back to when your children were younger. Remember how they used to speak to you. They would ask a million questions without embarrassment. They would say whatever was on their mind without hesitation. They would ramble on and on about their day and what they did and with whom they did it. They wanted to tell you everything. They wanted you to be involved in their lives. Their entire world was wrapped around one thing: you. You were their world.
How do we pray? We pray like children. We talk to God about everything. We wrap our world around God and our relationship with Him. We pray with confidence, having complete faith in God. After all, "Let God be true though every one were a liar" (Romans 3.4, ESV).
Paul Miller gives us some examples about praying like children. First we must ask like a child. "If we earthly parents, with all our brokenness, still give our kids good gifts, won't our heavenly Father do even more? Our kids' requests, no matter how trivial, tug at our hearts. God feels the same."
Second we must believe like a child.
"Children are supremely confident of their parents' love and power. Instinctively, they trust. They believe their parents want to do them good. If you know your parent loves and protects you, it fills your world with possibility. You just chatter away with what is on your heart.
It works the same in the world of prayer. If you learn to pray, you learn to dream again."
Then we must play again. He reminds us how children play. They usually don't play with one particular item for very long. Within minutes they are playing a new game or with a new toy.
"How can that teach us to pray? Think for a moment," Miller wrote, "How do we structure our adult conversation? We don't. Especially when talking with old friends, the conversation bounces from subject to subject. It has a fun, meandering, play like quality. Why would our prayer time be any different?"
And finally he reminds us that it is okay to babble. "When it comes to prayer, we, too, just need to get the words out...Don't get embarrassed by how needy your heart is and how much it needs to cry out for grace. Just start praying."

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: Why? (Part 7)

2011-09-03T16:00:00.000-05:00

Solicited
And finally, my last reason for praying is simply that God solicits it. In other words God commands us to pray to Him. A couple of weeks ago we saw this verse, "and call upon me in the day of trouble" (Psalm 50.15a, ESV). That's not just a request by God. It's not just a good idea. It is a command that God gives to His children. Call upon Me!
Paul wrote to the Colossians, "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving" (4.2, ESV). Again, there is no qualifier for it. He doesn't say, you might want to keep praying. He doesn't say if you can squeeze some prayer into your busy schedule you should. It is an explicit command to keep praying. He said virtually the same thing to the people in Thessalonica. "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5.17, ESV). A solicitation. Jesus told a parable about prayer for one specific reason, "to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart" (Luke 18.1, ESV).
There is no option here. It is commanded to pray. Jesus said, "Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11.28-30, ESV). Keeping this in context Jesus tells those who are oppressed by the law and teachings of their rabbis to leave them and come to Him to learn. Yet the idea of their learning was to do questions and answers. It was a communication, not a lecture. It is the very same idea we have in prayer. God has called us, solicited us, commanded us to pray.
Conclusion
Prayer is power. It really is. When we pray we receive the very power of God. We have access to the sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient, immutable God. People brag when they go to a restaurant and know the chef. They boast if they know the CEO of a fortune 500 company or if their great niece is a pop artist. But these people with all their power combined do not contain the power that God has in an eyelash.
But we have access to Him, to this kind of power. I do not know if this can be overstated. There are more reasons to pray than the ones I gave you, but these that I have given you should suffice for now, and if you obey in prayer you are sure to discover other reasons on your own.
Why pray? God is sovereign. It builds our sonship. It subjects us to God's will, willingly. It is a solace to the soul. And God solicits our prayers. So let us pray without ceasing.

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: Why? (Part 6)

2011-09-01T16:00:00.000-05:00

Solace
But there is also great solace in prayer. There is peace. It calms the heart and anxieties. Life has a funny way of tying us up in knots. It easily traps us in the day to day worries and concerns. Parents are concerned that their children will do well in life and in school. Husbands and wives who have their spouses overseas in Afghanistan or Iraq worry that they will not return home safely. Kids are worried about bullies and friends and guns and safety in their schools or online. There are daily concerns that everyone deals with.
Prayer can bring solace to the soul and peace to the heart. The Psalmist wrote,
"Cast your burden on the LORD,
and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
the righteous to be moved" (Psalm 55.22, ESV).

Peter reemphasized this in his first epistle. "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you" (5.6-7, ESV).
Paul wanted us to remember to pray because when we pray, thankful for and in all things God brings peace. There is peace that passes all comprehension. We cannot explain the peace and cannot articulate or describe how or what it is.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4.4-7, ESV).

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: Why? (Part 5)

2011-08-30T16:00:00.000-05:00

Subjection
But it is more than just sonship, it is also subjection. When we pray, we are praying because we are helpless; we are weak; we are powerless. Praying to God proves all of that and it proves then that we are subject to His sovereignty. We pray for that which we cannot do ourselves. Whatever that may be. We may pray for the salvation of one of our friends or family members or co-workers. We cannot elicit their salvation. We are powerless to save them, but God is not and so we pray that He would turn their stony heart to a heart of flesh. We pray that God will change the leopards spots since we cannot. And when we pray we know that God is in control and His will must be done and we must accept that will, subjecting ourselves to it.
We may want to see change in our own selves. We don't like our attitudes. We don't like our looks. We don't like our job. We don't like our lives. And so, we have no control over these things or circumstances that bring about these things in our lives so we pray. God I don't want to be angry anymore. God I don't want to work here anymore. God I don't want to live like this anymore. But in the end we subject ourselves to His will accepting whatever that may be.
This is good, but it does not mean that prayer is futile or that prayer is worthless. Remember the promise that Christ gave about the son who asked for a fish and an egg. Matthew gives the same account but adds also, "If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give god things to those who ask him" (Matthew 7.11, ESV)! And also the promise that John gave, "And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us" (1 John 5.14, ESV).
So praying is a necessity because it places our trust and our very lives in the will of God, willingly. No matter what we are under subjection to God but better to be under subjection willingly than fighting it.

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: Why? (Part 4)

2011-08-28T16:00:00.000-05:00

Sonship
If He knows already, then what's the point? The point is that it grows our Sonship, or another way (a non-"S" way) of saying it is relationship. Whenever a couple gets married I always tell them that the key to their relationship is communication. It does no good and is the cause of a very sick relationship if someone clams up and won't speak. The same goes for our relationship with God. If we want the relationship to grow then we must speak to one another. God has given us His word, and no matter how many times we read them, they are new every time. We grow in our relationship by reading what God has written to us.
If you were to ask nearly anyone when Katie and I first got married if we would last almost all of them would have said no. We had seen each other maybe a total of two months. How could that kind of relationship last? What they did not realize was that while we didn't see each other face to face we spoke to each other daily, for hours usually. She told me her dreams and revealed herself to me over the phone or on ICQ, and I did the same to her. We communicated and talked about everything. And last June we celebrated our 11 year anniversary. I am the only one of my siblings to have never been divorced, and yet no one thought we would last more than a year or two.
Communication, actual speaking must take place. Whether it is in writing or in words. When the communication dies so does the love. And I would venture to say that the one who stops communicating is almost always the one who stops loving. Why would I not talk to the one I love?
Our prayers, our talks with God, show there is a relationship as a Father and Son, a Father and daughter. That relationship builds and grows on prayer. "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!' The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8.15-16, ESV). Again Paul wrote, "And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hears, crying, 'Abba! Father!'" (Galatians 4.6, ESV). When Jesus taught us to pray, He told us to, "Pray then like this: 'Our Father in heaven" (Matthew 6.9, ESV)...
There is this relationship that God has with all His children that grows leaps and bounds, but only if we talk to one another. God has given us His word, but we have many words to give back to God. And so, while He knows our thoughts and our words before we even know them, the only way to grow in our sonship is through expressing them.

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: Why? (Part 3)

2011-08-26T16:00:00.000-05:00

But for the rest of this message I want to focus on the last question: If God is sovereign, why pray? Why should we pray if He is in control and has destined everything to happen? Why should we pray if He is immutable and thus He cannot change His mind? Why should we pray if God is omniscient and knows our very thoughts and words before they come. After all is that not what the Bible says?
O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and
when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
Psalm 139.1-4, ESV

He knows what we think before we think it. He knows what we will say before we say it. If that is really who God is, then why pray in the first place? He knows what we are going to say anyway. And to answer that question, I give five answers. The "5 S's as to Why Pray". The most important S is the first as the other four are sub-points to the first.

Sovereignty
Why ought we pray to a God who is sovereign? For that very reason. The answer is in the question. He is sovereign. He is the only one in complete control. If He is in control then we might want to talk to the one who is in control.
When I worked at the hotel there would be occasions when I would be in my office doing some important documents, when I would hear a guest say, "I want to talk to your manager." You've probably done it at a retail shop or on the phone with a representative who cannot or will not do what you need them to do. "I want to talk to your supervisor." You need to go to someone who has more power than the lowly retail clerk, customer service agent, or Front Desk staff. You want to talk to a person who has real power and can make a difference.
There ought to be no difference in our approach to God. If God is sovereign and in control of everything, then He's the one I want to talk to. But Chris, He can't change. God even said, "For I the LORD do not change" (Malachi 3.6a, ESV). That's true. To have a God who changes is to have a God who is not omnipotent or omniscient. It means that He is not all-powerful because if He can change then could His strength not change? If His mind could be changed then could it not be changed back or changed again simply by prayer? We would have an indecisive, weak God who cannot do anything or get anything done. We might as well have Homer Simpson as a God.
But what we do have is a God who cannot change, thus His mind cannot change. He has made a decision and He will carry that decision through, and that decision is always right. So why pray? We pray because while it does not change God's mind or God's plan it is part of God's plan. At the risk of sounding heretical (so please hear me out fully) people say that God does not have a "Plan B" but He kind of does. Let's go to the most popular of Old Testament verses on prayer. "If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7.14, ESV). What is the key word there? It's a small word but a very powerful word. "If." In other words God declares that He will not forgive sin and He will not heal their land, but if they pray and repent He will. Plan A, judgment and destruction, is to go forward business as usual. Plan B, forgiveness and healing, comes about the moment prayer begins. James wrote, "You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask" (James 4.2, ESV). In other words it is the lack of prayer that keeps God from giving you good gifts. The moment we ask (according to God's will) He hears and sets an answer in motion. Jesus spoke of this beautifully.
And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks the door will be opened. What father among you, if (there's that word again) his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if (notice a trend) he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! (Luke 11.9-13, ESV).
It is not necessarily a matter of changing God's mind as much as it is that God will continue with His plan as usual until such time as you or I pray and ask.
Now as for the question as to if God knows our thoughts already why pray it still falls under the heading of Sovereignty but it is best explained under the next four sub-categories.

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: Why? (Part 2)

2011-08-24T16:00:00.000-05:00

On to the Star Wars people who say there is as much evil in the world as good and so there is this balance, thus no amount of praying is going to tip the scale. There is evil in this world, and in all actuality Satan is said to be the god of this world. More people follow Satan than God. But that does not mean that evil is as strong or in balance with good. This is also, by the way, part of the ancient Eastern religions, especially Taoism. We've all seen the yin yang. There is equal good and bad and there is always a little bad in good and a little good in bad.
However, this is simply not true. John wrote in his first epistle, "This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1.5, ESV). God is completely good. There is not one shred of evil in Him. And He is over all evil. He is in control of Satan. Let's not forget who told Satan about Job. Let us not forget who sent the lying spirit in 1 Kings 22. Let us not forget who it was that cursed Satan with an everlasting curse and forged a place of punishment for Him and His demons. Let us not forget who it was that said, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven" (Luke 10.18, ESV). It was Jesus and what He saw was the very defeat of Satan by the ministry of the gospel, and John reiterates it in Revelation.
Satan is under the control of God and can only do as God permits. Evil is only as strong as God so desires it to be at the moment. There is nothing but God Himself who allows evil to be so prevalent or so restrained. It is all for His good pleasure and for His glory.
Then of course there is the quasi-deistic point of view that God has set things in motion, and thus has limited Himself willingly to what He has started. In other words, there is a watch-maker, and He has wound the watch and now sits back to watch it tick. He will not interfere with natural law and so it does not matter if we pray. It does no good. To this I would simply point out a few passages. "And Moses said to the people, 'Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent'" (Exodus 14.13-14, ESV). Somewhere we see that after saying that Moses prayed. We don't know that prayer, but God sends a response, "The LORD said to Moses, 'Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground'" (Exodus 14.15-16, ESV).
Another would be, "At that time Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,
'Sun, stand still at Gibeon,
and moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.'
And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,
until the nation took vengeance on their enemies'" (Joshua 10.12-13, ESV).
Now it does say that this has never happened before and it never has happened since, as far as the sun standing still. But that doesn't mean that it could not happen if God so desired it to. God has stepped in other times. "Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore fruit" (James 5.17-18, ESV).
There are more and more Scriptures that teach us that yes, God is in control of all elements of nature and that He can at any moment of His desire step in and change what is natural with and by His supernatural power. And he does so many times at the request and prayers of regular people.

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: Why? (Part 1)

2011-08-22T16:00:00.000-05:00

There are two big questions that come up when we talk about prayer. Why? and How? All the others that we've talked about while important are not necessarily the top two. What people want to know is why should I pray. And if you can answer that, then tell me how to pray.
We live in a very skeptical world that teaches us first, that there is no God. He does not exist and if He does not exist then there is no reason to pray. Or, there is a God but there still is no reason to pray because there is just as much evil in the world as good, if not more and so at minimum the forces of good and evil are balanced, if not actually tipped in evil's favor. This is what I would call the Star Wars mentality. Or it is no use praying because God has set things in motion and they have to, by natural law or inevitable events, play themselves out. In other words, God has limited Himself willingly, to His own creation. And then again, there is still one more reason not to pray: God is sovereign. He is in control of everything, and He has predetermined everything. He is immutable and omniscient, thus He does not change and He knows everything. If God is in control of everything, why pray? If He cannot change then why try to change His mind? If He knows everything then why even ask since He knows what we will say in the first place?
I quickly want to answer the first few doubts, and then I want to spend the rest of the morning answering the last question as to sovereignty.
First, the objection comes that there is no God. There is no reason for praying because there is no God in the first place. My answer to this is quite simple. "The fool says in his heart, "There is no God" (Psalm 14.1a, ESV). I don't say this lightly. To be called a fool in the Hebrew is a very serious assertion. It wasn't as mild as when someone did something silly or foolish and thus be called a fool. We sometimes will say flippantly, "you're an idiot," and never think about it. My sister says that to me all the time. But if you were a Jew and someone called you a fool it meant you are wicked. Is it not wicked to not believe in God? After all, do not, "The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork" (Psalm 19.1, ESV)? You could say, yeah to the religious they declare God's handiwork, but to the scientist they declare the process of evolution or natural order or the big bang or what have you. But what I would then say to you is that you still are saying they declare a god's handiwork, but instead of worshipping God, you worship the smaller deities of science. And because like the idols of old, science (or at least what passes for science) cannot hear your beckon call because it is a god made by human hands, then you believe that it does no good to pray to any god, even the one true God.
You know that when you have cancer that you cannot call out to science for miraculous healing. When you have AIDS science has its hands tied. You would say, "Yes, but what of the people who have cancer and cry out to God? What about those who have AIDS and pray for healing? Where is your God, then?" To which I would answer, that there is a difference between my God and yours. Your god, the god of science can't. My God won't. And when your god can, if it ever can, there will always be something it cannot do. My God will have no one force Him to do that which He will not. Just because God can do all things, does not mean that He wills to do them.

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: Where? (Part 4)

2011-08-20T16:00:00.000-05:00

Home
The final place that I am going to talk about praying is the home. We must, absolutely must, have prayer in our homes. Spurgeon said, "A house without prayer is a house without a roof." It is sad to say that there are many Christian homes that are prayerless homes. Fathers do not pray with or for their children. Husbands do not pray with or for their wives.
In many homes the only occasion for praying is at dinner time. It is a quick prayer of thanks, and a half-hearted attempt to do so. I am not knocking meal-time prayer. It is important. We see Jesus giving thanks for the food when He fed the 5,000. But it is not the only time to pray.
Praying at home means praying with and for family. This is especially the job of fathers. As a father you are God's representative to the family. As the children view you, so they view God. If you are a pushover they will see God as weak and benign. If you are a tyrant, God becomes tyrannical. If you care, God cares. If you are absent, God becomes absent to your family. Just as you are a quiet part of the family, though you are there, you are not really there. So it is with God. He's there, but He's silent and not "there." Why? Because the family will get their cues about God from you. It is natural.
Here is the testimony of Francis Chan, author of Crazy Love and many others as well.
The concept of being wanted by a father was foreign to me. Growing up I felt unwanted by my dad. my mother died giving birth to me, so maybe he saw me as the cause of her death; I'm not sure.
I never carried on a meaningful conversation with my dad. In fact, the only affection I remember came when I was nine years old: He put his arm around me for about thirty seconds while we were on our way to my stepmother's funeral. Besides that, the only other physical touch I experienced were the beatings I received when I disobeyed or bothered him.
My goal in our relationship was not to annoy my father. I would walk around the house trying not to upset him.
He died when I was twelve. I cried but I also felt relief.
The impact of this relationship affected me for years, and I think a lot of those emotions transferred to my relationship with God. For example, I tried hard not to annoy God with my sin or upset Him with my little problems. I had no aspiration of being wanted by God; I was just happy not to be hated or hurt by Him.

Just look at your own past and see how you thoughts about God reflect many of the same thought you have about your father, some good and some bad. Can those thought change, absolutely they can. Chan continued to write, "My own love and desire for my kids' love is so strong that it opened my eyes to how much God desires and loves me."
But fathers, look upon your own life and ask yourself if the way you act and react toward your children or your wife is how you want them to view God. All of us know of at least one change we would like to see in ourselves. And if you can't I can give you one. Pray more. Pray with your wife. Pray with your children. Pray by yourself. But be sure that your house is a house a prayer as well. "Negligence in the house of God is often an indication of negligence of one's own house." Pray with them at the dinner table, but also pray in their rooms. Pray with them in your family worship times. Pray with them before they leave for school and work. There are many times and places in the homes that can and should be bathed in prayer.
Jesus told us, "But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you" (Matthew 6.6, ESV). And of course what He meant by that was not to go out in public and make a big deal about your prayers. He's not forbidding us to pray with others, but just don't let your prayers be showy. But He also presents the idea that we should have a solace place of prayer in our homes. Most of our prayers seem to be interrupted by phones, televisions, children, and other things. Jesus tells us to get away from the distractions and get alone to pray.
Conclusion
The greatest prayer times generally come when you are alone without distractions. Of course this can come in the home, but it helps to have a consistent time and place for quiet prayer, but it can come when you are out in nature or in your car.
You cannot limit where prayers can be prayed. Daniel prayed in his room as well as the Lion's Den. Joseph prayed in the palace as well as prison. There is no wrong place to pray. My friend, Tim, told me the other night that they can never take prayer away from you. That's true, I can pray everywhere and no one can ever stop me.
Never neglect prayer. Never allow your environment to stop you. Pray in secret and your Father will see and hear your prayers.

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: Where? (Part 3)

2011-08-18T16:00:00.000-05:00

Nature
A very good place to pray is in nature. After all, should nature not shout the praises of God to such an extent that you want to shout back those praises? "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handwork" (Psalm 19.1, ESV) is how the Psalm begins but it ends like this, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock, and my redeemer" (Psalm 19.14, ESV).
Jesus often times went up to the mountains to pray. Was it not Jesus who went to the Garden of Gethsemane, surrounded God's very own creation, to pray?
It was the fierceness of nature that was the great inspiration for Carl Gustav Boberg. He was inspired by the Carpathian Mountains for this song, as well as the sound of birds singing, and as he walked home from church a storm quickly came upon him and then left as quickly as it came. All this was the inspiration for one of the most loved hymns of praise of all time. Why? Because Boberg understood that nature causes us to rejoice in an Almighty, infinite God!
O Lord, My God,
When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, My Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

However, I like the translation by E. Gustav Johnson even better,

O mighty God, when I behold the wonder
Of nature’s beauty, wrought by words of thine,
And how thou leadest all from realms up yonder,
Sustaining earthly life with love benign,
With rapture filled, my soul thy name would laud,
O mighty God! O mighty God!

It is good to allow that to happen. Seek out nature, not to glory in it, but to glory in the Creator! Yes, take time to smell the roses, but not for the sake of the rose, nor for the sake of the nose, but for the sake of God's praise.

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: Where? (Part 2)

2011-08-16T16:00:00.000-05:00

Prison
Another fantastic place to pray is in prison. Now most of us have probably never gone to prison, but we probably all know someone who is either there now or has been there before. When you think about places to pray prison is probably not the first place of which you would think. But it is a fantastic place to pray. Many of Paul's prayers that we have came from when He was in prison.
"I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him" (Ephesians 1.16-17, ESV). "I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy" (Philippians 1.3-4, ESV). "And so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding" (Colossians 1.9, ESV). "I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ" (Philemon 6, ESV). "I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day" (2 Timothy 1.3, ESV). All of these prayers were prayed while Paul was in prisons. Again we see in Acts that as Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into prison, "About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the prisoners were listening to them" (Acts 16.25, ESV).
Was it not Samson, who after living a very unruly life, while imprisoned by the Philistines, cried out to God? "Then Samson called to the LORD and said, 'O LORD GOD, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes'" (Judges 16.28, ESV).
There are many people in prison who turn from God, and yet there are also many who seek Him. The Lord promises that, "You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29.13, ESV).
Many of us may not actually be in a physical prison, but perhaps a more spiritual one. Jesus said, "Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8.34-36, ESV). So that kind of imprisonment might be where we are, but even then we are to cry out to God so that we may have deliverance.

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: Where? (Part 1)

2011-08-14T04:00:00.000-05:00

Over the past few weeks we have been studying prayer and specifically, to whom do we pray, for whom do we pray, with whom do we pray, in whose name do we pray, what is prayer, for what do we pray, and when we ought to pray and when we ought not to pray. This morning we are going to deal with where we are to pray.
Obviously the short answer is: everywhere. Just like for whom do we pray? Everyone. For what do we pray? Everything (of course we know this is not true, but it sounds right). When do we pray? Every moment. Where do we pray? Everywhere.
The problem with saying everywhere is that it is too broad; it's too abstract. Most people need the concrete not so much the abstract. When definitions are too broad and too abstract and include "every" people tend to turn away. We tend not to wrap our minds around every; it's just too big, so we turn away and don't do whatever it is we are called to do. But if there are concrete ideas, firm, set-in-stone ideas, we are usually able to get behind that kind of thinking and move forward. So this morning we are going to deal more in the concrete and less in the abstract. I'm going to name just a few places, some obvious, some not so obvious maybe, of where we ought to be praying.

Church
The most obvious place, or at least should be the most obvious place is at church. The church should be a safe place where people can come and lift up their hearts and souls to God. Remember what Jesus said to the money-changers and the sellers of sacrifices. "My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers" (Matthew 21.13, ESV)!
Jesus was quoting from Isaiah when God was proclaiming that He would draw all the nations to Himself and that they would come and meet in the temple and that they would all have access to Him by way of prayer. But the temple had ceased to be such a place. It had changed from a house of prayer to a den of robbers. And I fear that the same thing is happening with our churches today. They may not be dens of robbers, though some are, but they become something other than a house of prayer. We turn away from prayer because prayer is, to so many people, boring. Boring just will not do. We have to have lively services, great children's programs, and a million other ideas that don't involve prayer. That way we can be a mimicker of the church of Sardis, "I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead" (Revelation 3.1b, ESV).
In direct contrast, Charles Spurgeon wrote, "The prayers of the church measure its prosperity. If we restrain prayer, we restrain the blessing. Our true success as churches can only be had by asking the Lord for it." It's not hard to see that prayer was of utmost importance to the first century church. It was a standard practice to them. Before even the Holy Spirit came to dwell in believers we find this being said, "All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers" (Acts 1.14, ESV). Once Pentecost came and the Spirit was given we see the same concept of prayer. "And the devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2.42, ESV). When Peter was arrested and was to be martyred the following day the church gather together for one reason and one reason only. "So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church" (Acts 12.5). And they were still praying in the middle of the night when he came to their door miraculously released by an angel.
We are to be a house of prayer. If you had to describe our fellowship in one sentence to others how would you describe it? Would it be a house of prayer?

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: When? (Part 5)

2011-08-12T16:00:00.000-05:00

When Not to Pray

Now as I said at the beginning we are not only looking at times to pray, but times not to pray. I can see three of them, and I am just going to deal with them shortly.

When Your Prideful

The first one is simply when there is pride in your heart. Now I say do not pray, but what I really mean is that your first prayer is a prayer to humble yourself. So you are praying, but not about anything until your pride is dealt with. Remember Peter's words about prayer, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you" (1 Peter 5.5b-7).

Doubt

The second time is when we are doubting. We can't pray if we doubt the prayers will be answered. McCheyne wrote to his congregation a letter in which he reminded them, "There never was, and never will be, a believing prayer left unanswered." But there will be inevitably times when we just don't believe and yet desire to pray. Again, like with pride, what I am saying is that when there are doubts we must first pray about our doubts. When Jesus was stopped by a father of a demon-possessed boy his father said to Jesus, "If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. And Jesus said to him, 'If I can! All things are possible for one who believes" (Mark 9.22-23, ESV). Now, what is interesting is the man's response to Jesus. "Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, 'I believe; help my unbelief'" (Mark 9.24, ESV)! Is that not really and truly where most of us our? We have faith in but certain aspects of Jesus' power, in God's power. He is mighty to save or soul but not mighty to save us in our present circumstance. Our prayer must be like this father's prayer. "I believe; help my unbelief."

Without Fervency

Lastly, we ought not pray if we do not have a fervency in our prayers. We need to have passion in our prayers, but not necessarily pray for our passions. We must be passionate about what God can and will do. We must be excited to see God answer prayer. "He who prays without fervency does not pray at all. We cannot commune with God, who is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24), if there is no fire in our prayers." Look at how Daniel prayed. "Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes" (Daniel 9.3, ESV).
We tend to have a casualness about prayer. There is very little fervency in them. We could care less if they are answered usually. We pray for others and yet we don't pray with the fervency we do when we pray for ourselves. And so with a lack of fervency on our part we see that there are many times a lack of fervency on God's part to answer.

Conclusion

Now all that is to say this: it is impossible to come to God in prayer without first coming to Christ. Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14.6, ESV). That includes both the eternal and the temporal. We cannot hope to go to heaven without Jesus, but neither can we hope to pray without Him. Jesus said in John 9.31 "We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to Him" (ESV). And of course one cannot worship God without first believing on His Son, Jesus Christ.
It was by the death and blood of Jesus that the veil that separated God from believing humanity was torn. It was because of Jesus that we have access to the throne of grace. It was because of Jesus that we are no longer condemned where we stand but rather loved as children of the Almighty.
If you do not have Christ you do not have anything. There is no relationship with God apart from Christ, and if there is no relationship with God then there is nothing left but condemnation and eternity in hell, seeing all that could have been yours but is no longer yours for the taking.
Our sin has separated us from God by such a large chasm that nothing can cross from one side to the other, except the cross of Christ. It is the only way to receive forgiveness. But you must call on Him for the salvation of your soul. "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10.13, ESV).
You cannot make up for your own sin. No amount of good can outweigh the bad. In fact, Isaiah says that all of our good is bad. And if that wasn't clear enough, Paul wrote that none of us are good, not even one. So if there is no good in us we cannot ever hope to have our good outweigh our bad, all we do is heap up more reasons to condemn our souls. Instead we must cry unto the Lord for our salvation. "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame" (Romans 10.11).
Be fervent for your own soul and do not doubt in God's love and forgiveness that came from the blood of His only-begotten Son. Strip yourself of pride, knowing that you cannot save yourself and come to Jesus. If you are still in your sins, you are in a great deal of trouble, the greatest trouble you could ever be in. But God said, "Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me" (Psalm 50.15, ESV).

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: When? (Part 4)

2011-08-10T16:00:00.001-05:00

No Matter How you Feel

There are inevitably times when we are going to feel like praying. And there are just as many times when we don't feel like praying. The strange thing is that these times can be very similar in nature. You are weak and so you want to pray. Yet at other times of weakness you don't want to pray. In times of strength you want to prayer, but at other times you don't. But what we must do is pray at all times, whether we feel like it or not. We must pray.
The reasons we generally do not pray can be many. But usually as I have said before it is because we are cynical about prayer. We don't believe it will do any good. But it also is simply because we don't want to let go of what is in our hearts. We feel safe in not letting go. We don't know what will happen if we release our thoughts to God. We have this war inside that fights within us. On one side is the liking of the situation. We like bottling it up and keeping it to ourselves. And on the other side we hate the feeling that comes from bottling it up and keeping it to ourselves. And they war against each other and our lives are miserable, and in the end we don't pray because we simply don't want to pray. It is too dangerous to open it up. Our liking side is afraid that the thoughts and feelings will change and we will no longer feel the same way, and our disliking side is afraid they won't change. And so we do nothing. And our whole lives are burdened down. We are tired of the war. We are weary of the fighting and the conflict within our hearts. Jesus said, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11.28, ESV).
J. C. Ryle expressed it in this manner:
Prayer can lighten crosses for us, however heavy. It can bring down to our side One who will help us to bear them. Prayer can open a door for us when our way seems hedged up. It can bring down One who will say, "This is the way, walk in it." Prayer can let in a ray of hope when all our earthly prospects seem darkened. It can bring down One who will say, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Prayer can obtain relief for us when those we love most are taken away, and the world feels empty. It can bring down One who can fill the gap in our hearts with himself, and say to the waves within, "Peace; be still." Oh that men were not so like Hagar in the wilderness, blind to the well of living waters so close beside them.
James wrote, "What causes quarrels and what causes fight among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask" (James 4.1-2, ESV).
The warring within will never get any better unless you ask: pray unto God for deliverance from the evil one. Remember what Spurgeon correctly said, "All of heaven lies within the grasp of the asking individual. All the promises of God are rich and inexhaustible, and their fulfillment is to be had by prayer."
Never allow feelings to get in the way of your prayers. Pray when you feel like it, and when you do not. Pray always and pray without ceasing.

In the Morning or at Night?

Now the question comes, should we pray in the morning or at night? The answer is, yes. You should start your day in prayer. You should end your day in prayer. We see Jesus doing both. "And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed" (Mark 1.35, ESV). "And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself, to pray. When evening came, he was there alone" (Matthew 14.23, ESV).
It is not a matter of either or. It is a matter of both and. If we are praying at these various times in our lives we will not need to worry about whether we should pray in the morning or evening. We will always be praying, throughout the day. We've all been there when days have been roller-coasters. We started out having a good day and then everything went south. We've started off having a bad day and things got better. But our day took us through joy and laughter and sorrow and grief. We've felt strong and weak all in the same day. We've been in trouble and in safety and went from one to the other in mere seconds. Everything is going great and then our world crashes in on us.
That was my experience with my dad's death. I was on a mission's trip, and we had just gone and lit fireworks. We were all laughing and having a great time. We got stopped at the gate and the park ranger asked if Chris Hughes was in the van, and that I needed to call home. In mere seconds my world caved in on me. Things went from great, having just graduated high school one week before, on a missions trip, joining the Army, and all the rest. And in seconds nothing mattered anymore.
Did I contemplate at that moment, I can't pray now, it's not morning or I'm sure glad it's night time. No, those thoughts never crossed my mind. I had to go to God in prayer immediately.
But I know the reason behind the question. Should our deepest, most ardent, focused praying come at the start of our day or at the close of our day. I think again the answer is yes. We must start our day in prayer. These can be our times of petitions and supplications. A few praises and thanksgivings. And then end the day with reflecting back on how God answered those prayers, and ending it in even more praises and shouts of victory.

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: When? (Part 3)

2011-08-08T16:00:00.001-05:00

In Sadness

But it's not in joy only, but in sorrow and sadness as well. When King David was sick he cried out unto God in great sorrow. His words may sound like how we would sound if we were as bluntly honest with God as he.
I am weary with my moaning;
every night I flood my bed with tears;
I drench my couch with my weeping.
My eye wastes away because of grief;
it grows weak because of all my foes.
(Psalm 6.6-7, ESV)
God desires to hear our hurts and our pains. We need to cry unto Him, not just in times where we are in trouble, not just in times of security or joy, but in times where we are just simply sad. We've all had days where we are in bad moods or experiencing overwhelming sadness for no reason we can think of. It's just there. We don't want to talk to anyone and don't want anyone to talk to us. But we must talk to God. If we ever hope to defeat such sadness we must talk to God! Prayerlessness will inevitably lead to sustained sadness.
John Piper in his book, Desiring God, points out,
Prayerlessness produces joylessness...
Separation from Jesus means sadness. Restoration of fellowship means joy.
Therefore, we learn that no Christian can have fullness of joy without a vital
fellowship with Jesus Christ. Knowledge about Him will not do. Work for Him will
not do. We must have personal, vital fellowship with Him; otherwise Christianity
becomes a joyless burden.
[P]rayer leads to fullness of joy [because] prayer is the nerve center of our
fellowship with Jesus.

In Strength

Yet again there is the time to pray to God when you are strong. It is a time to express dependence upon Him. It is a time to glory in Him. If you and I are strong it is only because we have a strong God who is being our strength.
The Psalmist wrote his prayer to God saying,
"You have a mighty arm,
strong is your hand, high is your right hand.
Righteousness and justice are the
foundation of your throne;
steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.
Blessed are the people who know the festal shout,
who walk, O LORD, in the light of your face,
who exult in your name all the day
and in your righteousness are exalted.
(Psalm 89.13-16)
Strength comes from God. Without Him we are weak. Thus in our strength we cannot forget to glorify and magnify Him for the very strength that we are feeling and having. Spurgeon once said, "A person who steals God's glory must be quite a villain." And yet that is what we do so often when we confide or trust in our own strength.

In Weakness

And it could be that because of our confidence in our own strength God has taken measures to make us weak. Or it could be that He has taken measures to make us weak so that He might continue to be seen as strong and receive even greater glory. Thus we must continue in prayer during times of weakness. It is clear that we can pray for strength, but it is just as clear that we may not always receive it as we would like.
The most riveting passage on this is Paul's own letter to the Corinthians when he expressed his weakness and seeking strength from God. "Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness'" (2 Corinthians 12.8-9, ESV).
Perhaps you don't feel as though you have the strength to make it another day, another hour, another moment. Perhaps you feel like if one more word, thought, or event happens you will pass out from exhaustion or simply fall down dead, then you must cry out to God. We hear it all too often, but the verses are true,
"He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the LORD shall
renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint."
(Isaiah 40.29-31, ESV).

Paul took the knowledge of his experience and turned it around in that what he prayed at one time for himself, he now prayed for others. "For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. your restoration is what we pray for" (2 Corinthians 13.9, ESV). May we pray as Paul did if we see our brothers and sisters in times of weakness.

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: When? (Part 2)

2011-08-06T16:00:00.001-05:00

In Trouble

The most obvious time to pray is when we are in trouble. When things are simply not going our way. When it seems that the weight of the world is on our shoulders. It is when our enemies attack and everything is going wrong. God said, "Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me" (Psalm 50.15, ESV).
Spurgeon wrote that, "We undoubtedly find in Scripture that the groan of a burdened spirit is among the sweetest sounds that are ever heard by the ear of the Most High."
God wants to hear from us when we are in trouble. He doesn't just want us to pray, He commands us to pray. And He doesn't just command us to pray, He promises to do something when we pray. Namely deliver us.

In Safety

But we shouldn't just pray when we are in trouble. That is what most people do. We should also pray when we are in safety. When things are going well for us. When there isn't a storm cloud looming over us. These are the normal days that we experience. There's nothing bad happening, and not necessarily anything that we would consider extraordinarily good happening either. These are the days when we go to work, do our job, come home eat dinner and go to bed. It's days when we do our daily chores and we don't get in trouble, don't get yelled at, and don't cry ourselves to sleep. It's days when all is well, but not necessarily great. It's just an average day.
We should be praying at these times. Samuel Shoemaker said in a sermon of his about prayer, "Prayer is not calling in the fire department; prayer is seeking to live so that the house does not get on fire." This is the life of Enoch in the Old Testament. Moses tells us twice that Enoch walked with God. He enjoyed constant communication with the Father, even on ordinary, mundane days.

In Joy

But there is something to be said on happy days. We should also be praying on days of joy. This is typically prayers of thanksgiving. When we have joy in our lives we should be thanking God, and not simply with a mere "thanks, God," but a joyful expression of what wells up within us. If you were stuck in a burning car and you were crying out for help and you were pulled out by someone just as the flames were beginning to lick at your feet, you would be overwhelmed with joy and not just look over as you watch your car burn and say, "By the way I appreciate you pulling me from the fire." Your joy would be overflowing and you would not be able to stop expressing your thanksgiving. Words would not come fast enough and those words would not be telling enough how thankful you are.
Andrew Murray gets to the heart of it:
To the spiritual mind, answered prayer is not only a means of obtaining certain blessings, but something infinitely higher. It is a token of our fellowship with the Father and the Son in heaven, of their delight in us, and our having been admitted and having had a voice in that wondrous interchange of love in which the Father and the Son hold counsel and decide the daily guidance of the children on earth. To a soul abiding in Christ that longs for manifestations of His love and that understands to take an answer to prayer in its true spiritual value as a response from the throne to all its utterances of love and trust, the joy which it brings is truly unutterable.
What kind of child would we be if we asked for a car for our sixteenth birthday and our parents gave us a brand-new car. We then proceeded to slap them on the shoulder and said "Thanks," and ran off, jumped in our car and let that be the end of it? We'd be a spoiled-rotten child who had very little consideration for what our parents had done for us.
Is this not why Paul wrote to the Colossians, "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving" (4.2, ESV).

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: When? (Part 1)

2011-08-04T16:00:00.000-05:00

Prayer is the first thing every Christian must do and the last thing every Christian must do. Sadly, it is usually lacking at the beginning and forgotten at the end. It usually comes as a last resort, when people generally do not know what else to do.
This morning we are going to see why it is important to pray at the beginning and at the end of whatever comes in our lives. More specifically we are going to look at when we should pray. There are a number of times when we are told to pray. We are also going to look at when we should not pray.
Always Pray
As we look at God's Word we see that it tells us in more than one place that we should always be praying. In First Thessalonians 5.17, we read, "Pray without ceasing" (ESV). And in Luke 18.1, Jesus told a parable so that we "ought always to pray and not lose heart." The question of course becomes, what does it mean to always prayer or to pray without ceasing. It's not as though I can sit on my knees all day and fold my hands and pray. I've got work to do. I have a life to live. I have expectations and responsibilities.
Of course, that is not what God wants us to do. He has plans for our lives as well. He has a mission for us to accomplish also. Jesus did not spend all of His time with a bowed head and bent knee. He prayed and He lived. The same goes for us. We must pray and we must live. The key to living though is praying. Paul Tautges comments once, "Without prayer our spiritual lives will shrivel up and return to an infantile state." Spurgeon wrote, "All the promises of God are rich and inexhaustible, and their fulfillment is to be had by prayer." This is exactly what Jesus was getting at when He said, "All things have been handed over to me by my Father" (Matthew 11.27, ESV). Note that just before this verse Jesus prayed to His Father and now is revealing that all things are His. This is what Jesus said in John 5.19, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise" (ESV). Jesus' life is filled with seeing and talking with God and in return Jesus is living the life that God so desires for Him. Jesus says the same about us. "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me" (John 15.4, ESV). In other words, we as believers cannot do anything at all that is really living, living for God and His kingdom if we are not abiding in Christ.
Andrew Murray made this a point to emphasize in his book on prayer. He wrote,
He had destine you to something better than a short-lived blessedness, to be enjoyed only in times of special earnestness and prayer, and then to pass away, as you had to return to those duties in which the far greater part of life has to be spent. He had prepared for you an abiding dwelling with Himself, where your whole life and every moment of it might be spent, where the work of your daily life might be done, and where all the while you might be enjoying unbroken communion with Him.
Abiding in Christ affects our lives; it affects how we live and He desires our every moment to be lived in Him and that means to be in a continuous state of prayer.
But let's work that out. What does that mean exactly. Let's look at a few examples of what it means to be in a perpetual state of prayer.

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: What? (Part 4)

2011-08-02T16:00:00.000-05:00

Wisdom
That is a quick synopsis of what is commonly called the Lord's Prayer, better entitled, The Model Prayer. But it is not the only place that we find topics of our prayer life. We also find in James, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him" (James 1.5).
I think we value wisdom too little. We value knowledge, we value strength, we value material things, but place very little value on wisdom. I'm not even sure if I even need to defend my position. Let's just look back over the past few weeks of our own lives and see how much foolishness we have gotten ourselves into. Wisdom is valuable, and we need to pray for it daily. Solomon wrote, "Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold" (Prov 3.13-14).

Healing
We also find that it is okay to pray for healing. James also instructs those who are sick to call for the elders to come and anoint them with oil and pray over them. There were 10 lepers who came to Jesus begging him to heal them. Blind Bartimaeus asked for Jesus to heal him. It is not wrong to ask the Great Physician to heal the sick and the broken hearted.
As we already saw, we are to bring all our anxiety and place them at the feet of our Lord, for He cares for us. Paul also emphasized this to the Philippians,
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (4.6-7)
Note that the peace in the heart comes directly from prayer. Also note though that in this prayer is thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving
All prayer should be bathed in thanksgiving. J. C. Ryle instructed us that, that there is,
So close a connection between prayer and praise in the Bible, that I dare not call that true prayer in which thankfulness has no part...Surely we should never open our lips in prayer without blessing God for that free grace by which we live, and for that loving kindness which endureth forever.
It is easy to overlook God's kindnesses. All of the cares of the world can be overbearing on us. We consider all that wars against us in this age and our hearts are heavy. We do not feel like thanking God. In many cases we ask what is it that God has done that we should thank Him. But there are many graces upon us. Even when the most evil comes upon, we must be thankful that it is not even more evil.

Conclusion
I could go on and on as to what to pray. As I said last week, we must pray for the lost, and of course in that prayer we are to pray that God would change their hearts, regenerate and grant them repentance. We ought to pray for knowledge of God's Word, growth of our spirits, and so much more.
A person who now says that they do not know for what to pray must be lying. I have just given you 10 different ideas for your prayers. If we did them daily we most certainly would end up having a "sweet hour of prayer," as the song has said. If we combine them with the idea of for whom we should pray we should have no problem even filling up 2 or 3 hours of prayer. Am I saying that we should spend that much time in prayer? I'm not saying we shouldn't. Spending that much time in prayer can be daunting, but I assure you that the more you pray rightly the more you will hunger for prayer. The more you hunger for prayer the longer you will pray. The longer you pray, the more joyous you will be.
The only way to be really happy in such a world as this, is to be ever casting all our cares on God. It is trying to carry their own burdens which so often makes believers sad. If they will tell their troubles to God, he will enable them to bear them as easily as Samson did the gates of Gaza. If they are resolved to keep them to themselves, they will find one day that the very grasshopper is a burden.

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: What? (Part 3)

2011-07-31T16:00:00.000-05:00

Provision
Give us this day our daily bread. (Matthew 6.11)
This is when we pray for our needs. We need food to stay alive. We have needs, and needs are different than wants and passions. Jesus said,
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?" or "What shall we wear?" For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 7.31-33).
It is reminiscent of the Hebrews children in the wilderness when each new day they would awaken to find manna on the ground so they could eat. They were not to pick up more than what they could eat that day. "Wherefore, we are only enjoined to ask as much as our necessity requires, and as it were for each day, confiding that our heavenly Father, who gives us the supply of to-day, will not fail us on the morrow."

Forgiveness
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors. (Matthew 6.11)

The question arises as to whether Christians need to pray for forgiveness. I would venture to say that according to Scripture we do not, for all sins of the believer have been forgiven already. However confession needs to be made. An agreement must be made that we have indeed sinned against God. "This act of declared admission give God access into the heart of a believer, removing all hindrances to effective prayer. It could well be described as a spiritual work of surgery."
Confession prayers remind us of who we really are. We are sinners, wretched and vile in the face of God, were it not for the blood of Jesus Christ. In so doing, it ought also remind us that those around us, brothers and sisters, parents and children, friends and enemies are also wretched and vile. As Tautges wrote,
Unforgiving people (those with bitter hearts) think themselves superior to others. Their shallow recognition of their own depravity makes it difficult for them to imagine that they themselves are quite capable of committing the very same sins for which they stubbornly refuse to forgive their brothers and sisters. Unforgiving people have not lately thought about the profundity of their own sin.

Deliverance
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. (Matthew 6.13)

First, "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one" (James 1.13). Jesus does not say, and does not even imply that God can or will tempt us and thus we should ask Him not to do so. What he is telling us to pray is simply that He would not put us in the crosshairs of Satan.
In the Gospel According to Mark, we see, "The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him" (Mark 1.12-13). Jesus is telling us to pray that what happened to Him would not happen to us. God deliberately put Jesus in the crosshairs of Satan. He did the same with Job. "And the LORD said to Satan, 'Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil" (Job 1.8)? This is what Jesus instructed the disciples to pray in the Garden, "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26.41). This is what Jesus was getting at when Peter objected to Jesus' prophecy of death. "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail" (Luke 22.31-32a). Jesus prayed that Peter would not be led into temptation. Jesus tells us to pray for this because this is not simply having to say no to a piece of chocolate cake after dinner, but rather trial by fire. Pray that it will not happen.
The deliverance is not simply from evil in a generic type of way. The correct translation, which is hard to find, would rather be, "Deliver us from the evil one."
Jesus therefore shows us that we should pray for protection against Satan. We may thus pray: “Lord, please do not let me be exposed to a time of testing in which I will face the full fury of the Devil’s assault. Protect me from the enemy and deliver me from his hands.”

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: What? (Part 2)

2011-07-29T16:00:00.000-05:00

For What Should We Pray?
So that being what prayer is, what then ought we pray? There are many things for which we can and should pray. I'm going to briefly deal with a number of them today. And I don't mean to exhaust all that we should pray. We are going to begin with Jesus' Model Prayer.

God's Glory
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name (Matthew 6.9)

This of course, is not praying that God's name would be holy, but; it already is that. It is rather praying that God would be holy to us. In other words, it is that we would see His name for what it is: holy. As Augustine testified that we should ask "That He be reverenced, not despised. Thus you see that in expressing this wish, you are wishing a god thing for yourself. For if you despise the name of God, it will be bad for you, not for God." It is a prayer that God would be glorified in you and not blasphemed.
Kingdom Work
Your kingdom come (Matthew 6.10)
Praying God's Kingdom is praying for the gospel to be spread. God's Kingdom is not made up so much of buildings and statues and such, but of people. It is that the gospel will penetrate the hearts of people, all people. Paul Miller gave some helpful hints as to what this means:
• Change in others (too controlling, too hopeless)
• Change in me (too scary)
• Change in things I don't like in our culture (too impossible)

God's Will
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6.10)

This is the great promise of Jesus and God. "And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us" (1 John 5.14). God's will means that we are submitting ourselves to what God wants, when He wants, how He wants, with whom God wants. Like the angels in heaven, we gladly subject our lives to God. In Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream, David Platt duly noted,
God beckons storm clouds, and they come. He tells the wind to blow and the rain to fall, and they obey immediately. He speaks to the mountains, "you go there," and he says to the seas, "You stop here," and they do it. Everything in all creation responds in obedience to the Creator...until we get to you and me. We have the audacity to look God in the face and say, "No."
We must learn to surrender to God's will, especially since we pray it be done. "To surrender to, and the prayer for, a life of heaven-like obedience is the spirit of childlike prayer."

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: What? (Part 1)

2011-07-27T16:00:00.000-05:00

Last week we saw the "Who" of prayer. To whom should we pray? God. For whom should we pray? In short, everyone. With whom should we pray? Those whom we are praying for: everyone and the Holy Spirit. In whose name should we pray? Jesus'. But this morning we are going to look a little deeper. We are going to look at the "What" of prayer. Particularly two "whats". What is prayer? And for what shall we pray.

What is Prayer?
Last week I quoted Spurgeon, when he said, "Prayer is the slender nerve that moveth the muscle of omnipotence." And I quoted, MacDonald saying, "Prayer brings power in our lives and peace to our hearts. When we pray in the Name of the Lord Jesus, we come the closest to omnipotence that it is possible for mortal man to come." As I said, it is simply power. Prayer is power. Undeniable, unfathomable, unquenchable power! Andrew Murray said,
As long as we view prayer simply as the means of maintaining our own Christian lives, we will not fully understand what it is really supposed to be. But when we learn to regard it as the highest part of the work entrusted to us--the root and strength of all other work--we will see that there is nothing we need to study and practice more than the art of praying.
Simply put, prayer is a conversation with God which invokes His power for us and to us. The problem is that we underutilize this communication and thus underutilize God's power.
But there must be a reason for it. When the Bible tells us over and over again that we are to pray--and not just pray often, but prayer always--and we don't do it we must as the reason why? And I think Paul Miller has the answer. "Praying exposes how self-preoccupied we are and uncovers our doubts. It was easier on our faith not to pray. After only a few minutes, our prayer is in shambles. Barely out of the starting gate, we collapse on the sidelines--cynical, guilty, and hopeless."
Rather than seeing prayer as something to look forward to, and a time of strength and power, we find it boring, hopeless, and a waste of time. Cynicism sets in because we are looking for answers that seem to never come. It is not just true in your life or in my life, but millions of Christians everywhere. Why is it that the least attended church service is prayer meeting? Is it not because people don't want to go and "just pray." There is this wide-spread idea that praying is something that you do that doesn't do much and thus something else must be done to improve on it. It is simply not enough to pray, we must pick ourselves up by our bootstraps and carry on. If we want something done right, we don't pray, we do it ourselves. And so we spend our existence outside the confines of prayer, and live lives exhausted and miserable.
Herbert Lockyear once wrote that the patriarchs and prophets, "knew little of the philosophy of prayer, [but] they certainly knew a great deal about its power." It is my concern that people today know very little of either. We don't understand prayer, and we definitely don't understand the power of prayer. And because we don't know the power of prayer we misuse it and underutilize it. We misuse it by praying for things displeasing to God, and we underutilize when we need to be praying for things but don't. James said, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions" (James 4.3, ESV). And Peter tells us, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you" (1 Peter 5.6-7). So on the one hand James has to tell us to stop asking for things just to fill our passions, and on the other hand Peter has to tell us to start praying for things that really matter.
John Piper reminds us,
It is a wartime walkie-talkie for spiritual warfare, not a domestic intercom to increase the comfort of the saints. And one of the reasons it malfunctions in the hands of so many Christian soldiers is that they have gone awol...When we try to turn it into a civilian intercom to increase our material comforts, it malfunctions, and our faith begins to falter.
Am I saying that there are prayers that don't matter to God? Yes. In fact, as James just told us, there are prayers that are just plain wrong, and thus they are just plain sinful. Does God care who wins the next baseball game? Does He care if you are able to get a new television? Not really. These are asking things out of our passions, our lusts, and are wrong. We misuse prayer! If I used a wrench to drive in a nail or a spoon to cut my steak, I would come away saying that they don't work! Why? Because I wrench is not meant to drive in a nail and a spoon is not meant to cut a steak. I would become frustrated and refuse to use them anymore. I blame the tools rather than blame myself for misusing and mishandling them. So it is with prayer, when we misuse it we get frustrated and refuse to pray. Instead we should realize that it is we that must begin using prayer correctly.
So, what is prayer? If we are going to use it correctly we must know what it is. John Knox gave a good definition for prayer.
Prayer is an earnest and familiar talking with God, to whom we declare our miseries, whose support and help we implore and desire in our adversities, and whom we laud and praise for our benefits received. So that prayer containeth the exposition of our dolours [distresses], the desire of God’s defence, and the praising of his magnificent name, as the Psalms of David clearly do teach.
According to Knox prayer is
1) Earnest and familiar talking with God.
2) Seeking support and help
3) Praising God.

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: Who (Part 4)

2011-07-25T16:00:00.001-05:00

In Whose Name Should We Pray
So we need to pray with others, and we most definitely need to pray with the Holy Spirit as our guide. But what we tend to see is at the end of our prayers, we generally end them with the words, "In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." Why? For what purpose do we do that? In today's prayers it has become a mantra. It is something that is trite, something said without any real thought given to it. But in the beginning there was a reason behind it, and we have since forgotten why.
And it would do us good to remember why, and let it change our prayer lives. So what we must remember is our status before God. On our own, we are nothing. We are wretched and vile sinners who cannot come to God. We see that the Bible says things such as, "If anyone turns his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination" (Prov 28.9, ESV), "If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened" (Psalm 66.18, ESV), and perhaps most dreadful of all from the very mouth of Jesus, "We know that God does not listen to sinners" (John 9.31a, ESV).
On our own our prayers are futile. We must have someone who is righteous and in good standing before God. We must have someone who is closer to God than we could ever hope to be. We are in need of a mediator who knows what it is like to be like us, and yet at the same time knows what it is like to be God. We need someone in authority who can stand before God and make our prayers known and heard.
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4.14-16, ESV).
Jesus Christ, the Son of God became man and was tempted in the same ways we were and because He is sinless we can pray. It was at the death of Christ that the curtain separating the Holy of holies from the temple was torn in two, the symbol being that the separation of God and man was gone.
Only the priests could enter into the Temple and only the High Priest could enter the Holy of holies and then only once a year. But because of Jesus' death there no longer is a distinction between the Levitical Priesthood and regular man. As Peter testified we are now all priests if we are believers. "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2.9, ESV).
Just as the priests would go into the temple and offer up prayers and sacrifices before God so we now can go to Him because our High Priest is the Son of God who will take our prayers before Him as our perfect Mediator. "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." He is our go-between since we are unworthy to go based on our own righteousness. Thus we must go to God in the name of Jesus, our Advocate and Mediator. That is why Jesus told His disciples, "In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full" (John 16.23-24, ESV). And He did it more than once: "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you (John 15.16, ESV).
Paul Tautges gets to the nitty gritty of what it means to pray in Jesus' name. He gives three meanings behind praying in Jesus' name.
"Praying in Jesus's name means acknowledging that His death and resurrection have opened prayer's door" The veil is torn in two, and we can now stand before God in prayer in the name of Jesus.
"Praying in Jesus's name means praying for that which will bring God the most glory." God will do nothing that does not bring Him glory, so the pray in Jesus' name is desiring to see God glorified.
"Praying in Jesus's name means praying in submission to His revealed will." Jesus' name is an authoritative phrase. It acknowledges that He is in control and if so we must submit to Him.
Jesus is our Savior. All who are in Christ are forgiven of every sin for all eternity, and thus we are able to stand before God having our sins washed by the blood of the cross. So let us pray with power and authority for, "Christ never loses one believing prayer. the prayers of every believer, from Abel to present day, He heaps upon the altar, from which they are continually ascending before His Father and our Father; and when the altar can hold no more, the ful, the eternal answer will come down."

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: Who (Part 3)

2011-07-23T16:00:00.000-05:00

With Whom do We Pray
So we have come to see that we pray for everyone, especially for God and His glory. But with whom do we pray? The answer is the same: everyone. Pray with those for whom you are praying. We find that after Jesus ascended to heaven there were people in the upper room, waiting for the Spirit. And what was it that they were doing?
And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All theses with on accord were devoting themselves to pray, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers (Acts 1.13-14, ESV).
There is an uneasiness in the church of today when it comes to praying with each other. We will say we will pray for so and so, but rarely do we actually take the time to pray with them. We feel uncomfortable on Sundays when we are asked to grab a partner and pray with them. Rarely do we pray with someone over the phone when they call on a prayer request. And yet it was and should still be normal for believers to pray with each other.
And of course, we pray with the Holy Spirit. It is He who guides our prayers, and prays when we know not what to say. It is He with whom we should be filled. It is He who convicts, encourages, and admonishes us in our prayers. It is He who comes, revealing God's Word and making it afresh in our hearts.

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: Who (Part 2)

2011-07-21T16:00:00.000-05:00

For Whom do We Pray?
So we now know that we ought to pray to God the Father, but the question becomes then, for whom do we pray? The short answer of course is everyone. But this is a sermon and we can't just leave answers short. We need long, drawn out answers. So we are going to deal with various groups, each shortly, for whom the Bible specifically mentions we are to pray.
Ourselves
With the risk of sounding selfish and self-righteous we ought to pray for ourselves. We see tons of prayers in the Psalms in which the writer prays for himself. Probably one of the most famous of Psalms is Psalm 51. It is here that David prayed, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (v. 10, ESV). Elsewhere we find David asking God for justice. "Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, and I have trusted in the LORD without wavering" (Psalm 26.1). Jesus instructed the disciples, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation" (Luke 22.40, ESV). Lehman Straus once said, "No one can both sin and pray. True prayer will prevent us from sinning, or sin will prevent us from praying." Much of the Lord's Prayer is praying for the self. "Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" (Matt 6.11-13, ESV).
We ought to pray for ourselves. It is vital that we do. We ought to pray for both our physical selves and our spiritual. We are to pray when we are sick in our bodies, and when we are sick in our souls. Repentance is necessary. Strength is necessary. Calvin wrote, "In fine, supplication for pardon, with humble and ingenuous confession of guilt, forms both the preparation and commencement of right prayer...this is the key by which believers open the door of prayer." We must confess and repent if any prayers are to be heard. Repentance is key, and so we must pray that God would grant us repentance and thus we then repent.
Government Officials
We ought also to pray for government officials. Paul wrote to the Timothy, who was pastor of the church in Ephesus, "First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life" (1 Tim 2.1-2, ESV).
John MacArthur is more than correct in his commentary regarding these verses.
Because ancient (and modern) rulers are so often tyrannical, and even disrespectful of the Lord and His people, they are targets of bitterness and animosity. They are also remote, not part of the everyday lives of believers. hence there is a tendency to be indifferent toward them.
Such neglect is a serious sin because of the authority and responsibility leaders have. The injunction here calls for the Ephesian assembly to pray for the emperor, who at the time was the cruel and vicious blasphemer, Nero. Although he was a vile, debauched persecutor of the faith, they were still to pray for his redemption. The request for kings and all who are in authority is not limited to just a petition that they would be wise and just, but that they would repent of their sins and believe the gospel for the sake of their eternal souls.
Paul does not command us to pray for the removal from office of evil rulers, or those with whom we disagree politically. Believers are to be loyal and submissive to their government (Rom 13:1-5; 1 Peter 2:17).
Missionaries
We must also pray for missionaries, and those who are telling others about Christ. Before Paul and Barnabas went off on their first missionary journey, we read, "Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off" (Acts 13.3, ESV). We cannot by any means assume that was the last time they prayed for them.
The Psalmists would pray things like,
"May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face to shine upon us, Selah
that your way may be known on earth
your saving power among all nations."
(Psalm 67.1-2)

That is a prayer for missionaries that God would do something through them!
The Persecuted
Many of those missionaries are also being persecuted, but persecution comes to more than just missionaries. We ought to pray for those being persecuted. I read an article just the other day about a pastor in Iran who is in the midst of persecution.
Iran's Supreme Court says an evangelical pastor charged with apostasy can be executed if he does not recant his faith, according to a copy of the verdict obtained by a religious rights activist group.
Christian Solidarity World says Iranian-born Yousef Nadarkhani, who was arrested in 2009 and given the death sentence late last year, could have his sentence suspended on the grounds that he renounce his faith.
Those who know him say he is not likely to do that, for if he were disposed to giving it up, he would have done it long ago.
There are thousands of stories like this one every day of our brothers and sisters in Christ who desperately need our prayers, and yet we so often neglect to pray for them. Yet Paul instructed us to pray, by "praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints" (Eph 6.18, ESV).

Was it not the first century church who saw Peter go to jail, and just days away from execution. What did they do? "So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church" (Acts 12.5, ESV).
The Persecutors
And when there are those who are persecuted, there of course are those who persecute. We must pray for them as well. Jesus said, "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matt 5.44, ESV).
Jesus is referring to people who have seriously hurt you deeply. These are not just enemies of the state or enemies of your country. These are personal enemies who have personally hurt you. So what are we to do when they hurt us? Pray for them. What are we to do when they hurt our brothers and sisters in Christ? Pray for them. We must get to the place where we can say, "I cannot change that wicked man's heart; and while it is unchanged he will continue to harass me: God alone can change it: then I must implore him to do that which will at once secure the poor man's salvation, and contribute so much to my own peace."
Lost
This of course leads us to praying for the lost. Only God can change their hearts. They are lost sheep who have no shepherd. Jesus prayed for them in His High Priestly prayer. "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word" (John 17.20, ESV). Paul Tautges wrote,
We must get beyond praying, "Lord help so and so to get saved." We must expose people to the word of truth and then pray for the Spirit to complete the work of conviction that Jesus promised. Then, and only then, will His convincing power be unleashed upon the minds and hearts of our unsaved loved ones, friends, and neighbors in order that they may be brought to Jesus.
Family and Friends
Of course we know there is biblical evidence for praying for family and friends. We are to pray for their infirmities and their salvation. We are to pray with them and over them in times of need.
God
But I want to focus for a moment on one that we may tend to forget in our prayers: God. We are to pray for God's will to be done as Jesus instructed in the Lord's Prayer, and then demonstrated in the Garden Prayer. We must pray for His glory as Jesus did in the High Priestly prayer.
We come to God with all our requests, all of our supplications and intercessions, all of our desires and pleasures. But "we need to come to a place where we desire His glory more than our own pleasures."

The Sweet Smelling Aroma of Prayer: Who (Part 1)

2011-07-19T16:02:00.001-05:00

"Prayer is the slender nerve that moveth the muscle of omnipotence." That is what Charles Spurgeon said of our personal conversations with God. William MacDonald said, "Prayer brings power in our lives and peace to our hearts. When we pray in the Name of the Lord Jesus, we come the closest to omnipotence that it is possible for mortal man to come."
In other words, prayer is power. It is probably one of the most underutilized sources of power there has ever been. An invitation has gone out to all believers to come partake of God's power by calling on His name. We have been invited to the omnipotent source of power and we either turn down the invitation outright by not praying, or we come ill-dressed for the occasion, and thus come ill-prepared to actually pray.
That's why, I am hoping that over the next 6 weeks we are going to grow in our knowledge of prayer. It is not so much my intention to beat any of us down in how we pray, or how often we pray, or any such matters as that. It is more of my plan to be an encouragement to each of you to go forward with prayer and if need be improve it, and hopefully fill in some holes that might be about prayer.
Over the next 6 weeks we are going to take a journalistic look at prayer, and by that I mean we are going to look at the "5 W's and an H" of prayer: who, what, when, where, why, and how. So obviously, this morning I am dealing with the who. To whom do we pray? For whom do we pray? With whom do we pray, and in whose name do we pray?
To Whom it May Concern
To understand prayer we first must know to whom it is we are praying. Many would say that this is a no brainer but there are at least three different ideas as to whom it is you can pray. My conclusions on each of these all stem from the same verse of Scripture so I am going to hold off on giving that Scripture until the end of this question as to whom it is we should pray.
Saints
One of the prominent views in America, and in the world is that we can and should pray to the saints that have died. This of course is the Roman Catholic view. You will find in their Catechism:
The witnesses who have preceded us into the kingdom, especially those whom the Church recognizes as saints, share in the living tradition of prayer by the example of their lives, the transmission of their writings, and their prayer today. They contemplate God, praise him and constantly care for those whom they have left on earth. When they entered into the joy of their Master, they were "put in charge of many things." Their intercession is their most exalted service to God's plan. We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world.
Being that Romanism claims 1.1 billion followers that means that this is a very prominent view on prayer. But Romanists are not the only ones who believe in prayer to saints. There are a few protestants, though not close to a majority, that believe praying to those departed in Christ, though I don't know of any denomination that does. However, in personal prayers, I know of, personally, non-Romanists who have prayed to saints.
That being said, there is no Scriptural foundation for praying to saints. As Loraine Boetner wrote in his book Roman Catholocism, "There is nothing in the Bible to indicate that any departed human being, however good, has any further contact with affairs on this earth, or that he can hear so much as one prayer from earth."
That is not to say that departed saints don't know what is going on here on earth. Of that we do have evidence. "The cried out with a loud voice, 'O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth'" (Revelation 6.10, ESV). This clearly shows that they are aware, and that they make intercession for us on their own accord, but not that we should pray for that intercession, and there is, as I stated before, a reason behind this idea.
The Trinune God
There is then the idea and belief that we can and should pray to the Triune God. That is that we can and should pray to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Wayne Grudem in his book, Systematic Theology would defend this position.
Though there is a clear pattern of prayer directly to God the Father through the Son (Matt 6:9; John 16:23; Eph. 5:20) there are indications that prayer spoken directly to Jesus is also appropriate...Though no prayers directly addressed to the Holy Spirit are recorded in the New Testament, there is nothing that would forbid such prayer, for the Holy Spirit, like the Father and the son, is fully God and is worthy of prayer and is powerful to answer our prayer.
Now to Grudem's credit he does discourage too much prayer to the Holy Spirit, and says, "it should not become the dominant emphasis in our prayer life"
However, it is the Holy Spirit that helps us pray because we are weak and powerless in our prayers. "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us on us with groanings too deep for words" (Romans 8.26, ESV). The Holy Spirit is all about the exaltation of Jesus and the Father, not about Himself. Should He be worshiped and adored? Absolutely; He is God. Should He be prayed to? Though it is a form of worship, I see nothing that indicates that He should and evidence in Romans that He is the one doing the praying in us.
So though I really like Wayne Grudem in much of his theology, he is not infallible in his doctrine. Then again, neither am I.
To the Father
The final belief is that all prayers at all times should be addressed to the Father. I would agree with this view. As Bruce Ware, the Senior Associate Dean and Professor of Christian Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, points out: "The Christian's life of prayer must rightly acknowledge the roles of the Father, Son, and Spirit as we pray to the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit"
When Jesus taught us to pray, He did so by saying, "Pray then like this: 'Our Father in heaven..." (Matthew 6.9a, ESV). He personally instructs us to pray to God the Father. There is no one else to whom He tells us to pray. He himself always prayed to the Father, never to Himself (which would seem absurd), and never to the Holy Spirit. Even when He prayed that the Spirit would come, He never directly asked the Spirit to come, but rather asked the Father to send the Spirit (cf. John 14.16).
Now, I purposefully did not answer the idea of praying to the Son until now. That is because of that one verse that I mentioned before, that should hopefully answer all questions as to whom to pray. That verse comes out of John 16.23-24, "In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full" (ESV). The context here is that Jesus is revealing His death, resurrection, and ascension. He will no longer be around to ask, and speak with, thus they are to ask of the Father, in Jesus' name.
He is our all in all. When we are lost and do not know which way to turn, we can call on the name of Jehovah Raah (The LORD my Shepherd). When we are sick we can call on the name of Jehovah Raphah (The LORD my Healer). When we are lonely we can call on the name of Jehovah Shammah (The LORD is there). When we are guilt-ridden from sin we can call on Jehovah Tsidkenu (The LORD our Righteousness). When we are penniless we can call on the Jehovah Jirah (The LORD our Provider). When we are troubled and worried we can call on Jehovah Shalom (The LORD our Peace). And when we are attacked by the enemy on all sides we can call on Jehovah Sabaoth (The LORD of Hosts). He is all these and He is Father God, who cares for His children.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

2010-12-31T14:32:00.001-06:00

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)
Enfield, Connecticut
July 8, 1741
Their foot shall slide in due time. Deuteronomy 32:35

In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, who were God's visible people, and who lived under the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God's wonderful works towards them, remained (as vers 28.) void of counsel, having no understanding in them. Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the text. -- The expression I have chosen for my text, their foot shall slide in due time, seems to imply the following things, relating to the punishment and destruction to which these wicked Israelites were exposed.
That they were always exposed to destruction; as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall. This is implied in the manner of their destruction coming upon them, being represented by their foot sliding. The same is expressed, Psalm 73:18. "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction."
It implies, that they were always exposed to sudden unexpected destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall, he cannot foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once without warning: Which is also expressed in Psalm 73:18,19. "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction: How are they brought into desolation as in a moment!"
Another thing implied is, that they are liable to fall of themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of another; as he that stands or walks on slippery ground needs nothing but his own weight to throw him down.
That the reason why they are not fallen already and do not fall now is only that God's appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when that due time, or appointed time comes, their foot shall slide. Then they shall be left to fall, as they are inclined by their own weight. God will not hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go; and then, at that very instant, they shall fall into destruction; as he that stands on such slippery declining ground, on the edge of a pit, he cannot stand alone, when he is let go he immediately falls and is lost.
The observation from the words that I would now insist upon is this. -- "There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God." -- By the mere pleasure of God, I mean his sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation, hindered by no manner of difficulty, any more than if nothing else but God's mere will had in the least degree, or in any respect whatsoever, any hand in the preservation of wicked men one moment. -- The truth of this observation may appear by the following consideration.
There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment. Men's hands cannot be strong when God rises up. The strongest have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his hands. -- He is not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but he can most easily do it. Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a great deal of difficulty to subdue a rebel, who has found means to fortify himself, and has made himself strong by the numbers of his followers. But it is not so with God. There is no fortress that is any defence from the power of God. Though hand join in hand, and vast multitudes of God's enemies combine and associate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces. They are as great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind; or large quantities of dry stubble before devouring flames. We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so it is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by: thus easy is it for God, when he pleases, to cast his enemies down to hell. What are we, that we should think to stand before him, at whose rebuke the earth trembles, and before whom the rocks are thrown down?
They deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never stands in the way, it makes no objection against God's using his power at any moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, justice calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their sins. Divine justice says of the tree that brings forth such grapes of Sodom, "Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?" Luke 13:7. The sword of divine justice is every moment brandished over their heads, and it is nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and God's mere will, that holds it back.
They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell. They do not only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the sentence of the law of God, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness that God has fixed between him and mankind, is gone out against them, and stands against them; so that they are bound over already to hell. John 3:18. "He that believeth not is condemned already." So that every unconverted man properly belongs to hell; that is his place; from thence he is, John 8:23. "Ye are from beneath:" And thither he is bound; it is the place that justice, and God's word, and the sentence of his unchangeable law assign to him.
They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell. And the reason why they do not go down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in whose power they are, is not then very angry with them; as he is with many miserable creatures now tormented in hell, who there feel and bear the fierceness of his wrath. Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth: yea, doubtless, with many that are now in this congregation, who it may be are at ease, than he is with many of those who are now in the flames of hell.
So that it is not because God is unmindful of their wickedness, and does not resent it, that he does not let loose his hand and cut them off. God is not altogether such an one as themselves, though they may imagine him to be so. The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened its mouth under them.
The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him. They belong to him; he has their souls in his possession, and under his dominion. The scripture represents them as his goods, Luke 11:12. The devils watch them; they are ever by them at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back. If God should withdraw his hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost.
There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles reigning, that would presently kindle and flame out into hell fire, if it were not for God's restraints. There is laid in the very nature of carnal men, a foundation for the torments of hell. There are those corrupt principles, in reigning power in them, and in full possession of them, that are seeds of hell fire. These principles are active and powerful, exceeding violent in their nature, and if it were not for the restraining hand of God upon them, they would soon break out, they would flame out after the same manner as the same corruptions, the same enmity does in the hearts of damned souls, and would beget the same torments as they do in them. The souls of the wicked are in scripture compared to the troubled sea, Isa. 57:20. For the present, God restrains their wickedness by his mighty power, as he does the raging waves of the troubled sea, saying, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further;" but if God should withdraw that restraining power, it would soon carry all before it. Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God should leave it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make the soul perfectly miserable. The corruption of the heart of man is immoderate and boundless in its fury; and while wicked men live here, it is like fire pent up by God's restraints, whereas if it were let loose, it would set on fire the course of nature; and as the heart is now a sink of sin, so if sin was not restrained, it would immediately turn the soul into fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone.
It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand. It is no security to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he does not see which way he should now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no visible danger in any respect in his circumstances. The manifold and continual experience of the world in all ages, shows this is no evidence, that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the next step will not be into another world. The unseen, unthought-of ways and means of persons going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that they will not bear their weight, and these places are not seen. The arrows of death fly unseen at noon-day; the sharpest sight cannot discern them. God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell, that there is nothing to make it appear, that God had need to be at the expense of a miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of his providence, to destroy any wicked man, at any moment. All the means that there are of sinners going out of the world, are so in God's hands, and so universally and absolutely subject to his power and determination, that it does not depend at all the less on the mere will of God, whether sinners shall at any moment go to hell, than if means were never made use of, or at all concerned in the case.
Natural men's prudence and care to preserve their own lives, or the care of others to preserve them, do not secure them a moment. To this, divine providence and universal experience do also bear testimony. There is this clear evidence that men's own wisdom is no security to them from death; that if it were otherwise we should see some difference between the wise and politic men of the world, and others, with regard to their liableness to early and unexpected death: but how is it in fact? Eccles. 2:16. "How dieth the wise man? even as the fool."
All wicked men's pains and contrivance which they use to escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, do not secure them from hell one moment. Almost every natural man that hears of hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it; he depends upon himself for his own security; he flatters himself in what he has done, in what he is now doing, or what he intends to do. Every one lays out matters in his own mind how he shall avoid damnation, and flatters himself that he contrives well for himself, and that his schemes will not fail. They hear indeed that there are but few saved, and that the greater part of men that have died heretofore are gone to hell; but each one imagines that he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have done. He does not intend to come to that place of torment; he says within himself, that he intends to take effectual care, and to order matters so for himself as not to fail.
But the foolish children of men miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in confidence in their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow. The greater part of those who heretofore have lived under the same means of grace, and are now dead, are undoubtedly gone to hell; and it was not because they were not as wise as those who are now alive: it was not because they did not lay out matters as well for themselves to secure their own escape. If we could speak with them, and inquire of them, one by one, whether they expected, when alive, and when they used to hear about hell, ever to be the subjects of misery: we doubtless, should hear one and another reply, "No, I never intended to come here: I had laid out matters otherwise in my mind; I thought I should contrive well for myself -- I thought my scheme good. I intended to take effectual care; but it came upon me unexpected; I did not look for it at that time, and in that manner; it came as a thief -- Death outwitted me: God's wrath was too quick for me. Oh, my cursed foolishness! I was flattering myself, and pleasing myself with vain dreams of what I would do hereafter; and when I was saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction came upon me."
God has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises either of eternal life, or of any deliverance or preservation from eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and amen. But surely they have no interest in the promises of the covenant of grace who are not the children of the covenant, who do not believe in any of the promises, and have no interest in the Mediator of the covenant.
So that, whatever some have imagined and pretended about promises made to natural men's earnest seeking and knocking, it is plain and manifest, that whatever pains a natural man takes in religion, whatever prayers he makes, till he believes in Christ, God is under no manner of obligation to keep him a moment from eternal destruction.
So that, thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out: and they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of; all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.
Application
The use of this awful subject may be for awakening unconverted persons in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ. -- That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell's wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.
You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of hell, but do not see the hand of God in it; but look at other things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life, and the means you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it.
Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock. Were it not for the sovereign pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment; for you are a burden to it; the creation groans with you; the creature is made subject to the bondage of your corruption, not willingly; the sun does not willingly shine upon you to give you light to serve sin and Satan; the earth does not willingly yield her increase to satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to be acted upon; the air does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service of God's enemies. God's creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God with, and do not willingly subserve to any other purpose, and groan when they are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and end. And the world would spew you out, were it not for the sovereign hand of him who hath subjected it in hope. There are the black clouds of God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God, for the present, stays his rough wind; otherwise it would come with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you would be like the chaff on the summer threshing floor.
The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose. It is true, that judgment against your evil works has not been executed hitherto; the floods of God's vengeance have been withheld; but your guilt in the mean time is constantly increasing, and you are every day treasuring up more wrath; the waters are constantly rising, and waxing more and more mighty; and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, that holds the waters back, that are unwilling to be stopped, and press hard to go forward. If God should only withdraw his hand from the flood-gate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God, would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would come upon you with omnipotent power; and if your strength were ten thousand times greater than it is, yea, ten thousand times greater than the strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing to withstand or endure it.
The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood. Thus all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an angry God. However you may have reformed your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of God, it is nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction. However unconvinced you may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone from being in the like circumstances with you, see that it was so with them; for destruction came suddenly upon most of them; when they expected nothing of it, and while they were saying, Peace and safety: now they see, that those things on which they depended for peace and safety, were nothing but thin air and empty shadows.
The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell.
O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell. You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment. -- And consider here more particularly,
Whose wrath it is: it is the wrath of the infinite God. If it were only the wrath of man, though it were of the most potent prince, it would be comparatively little to be regarded. The wrath of kings is very much dreaded, especially of absolute monarchs, who have the possessions and lives of their subjects wholly in their power, to be disposed of at their mere will. Prov. 20:2. "The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: Whoso provoketh him to anger, sinneth against his own soul." The subject that very much enrages an arbitrary prince, is liable to suffer the most extreme torments that human art can invent, or human power can inflict. But the greatest earthly potentates in their greatest majesty and strength, and when clothed in their greatest terrors, are but feeble, despicable worms of the dust, in comparison of the great and almighty Creator and King of heaven and earth. It is but little that they can do, when most enraged, and when they have exerted the utmost of their fury. All the kings of the earth, before God, are as grasshoppers; they are nothing, and less than nothing: both their love and their hatred is to be despised. The wrath of the great King of kings, is as much more terrible than theirs, as his majesty is greater. Luke 12:4,5. "And I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that, have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear: fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell: yea, I say unto you, Fear him."
It is the fierceness of his wrath that you are exposed to. We often read of the fury of God; as in Isa. 59:18. "According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries." So Isa. 66:15. "For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire." And in many other places. So, Rev. 19:15, we read of "the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." The words are exceeding terrible. If it had only been said, "the wrath of God," the words would have implied that which is infinitely dreadful: but it is "the fierceness and wrath of God." The fury of God! the fierceness of Jehovah! Oh, how dreadful that must be! Who can utter or conceive what such expressions carry in them! But it is also "the fierceness and wrath of almighty God." As though there would be a very great manifestation of his almighty power in what the fierceness of his wrath should inflict, as though omnipotence should be as it were enraged, and exerted, as men are wont to exert their strength in the fierceness of their wrath. Oh! then, what will be the consequence! What will become of the poor worms that shall suffer it! Whose hands can be strong? And whose heart can endure? To what a dreadful, inexpressible, inconceivable depth of misery must the poor creature be sunk who shall be the subject of this!
Consider this, you that are here present, that yet remain in an unregenerate state. That God will execute the fierceness of his anger, implies, that he will inflict wrath without any pity. When God beholds the ineffable extremity of your case, and sees your torment to be so vastly disproportioned to your strength, and sees how your poor soul is crushed, and sinks down, as it were, into an infinite gloom; he will have no compassion upon you, he will not forbear the executions of his wrath, or in the least lighten his hand; there shall be no moderation or mercy, nor will God then at all stay his rough wind; he will have no regard to your welfare, nor be at all careful lest you should suffer too much in any other sense, than only that you shall not suffer beyond what strict justice requires. Nothing shall be withheld, because it is so hard for you to bear. Ezek. 8:18. "Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them." Now God stands ready to pity you; this is a day of mercy; you may cry now with some encouragement of obtaining mercy. But when once the day of mercy is past, your most lamentable and dolorous cries and shrieks will be in vain; you will be wholly lost and thrown away of God, as to any regard to your welfare. God will have no other use to put you to, but to suffer misery; you shall be continued in being to no other end; for you will be a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction; and there will be no other use of this vessel, but to be filled full of wrath. God will be so far from pitying you when you cry to him, that it is said he will only "laugh and mock," Prov. 1:25,26,etc.
How awful are those words, Isa. 63:3, which are the words of the great God. "I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment." It is perhaps impossible to conceive of words that carry in them greater manifestations of these three things, viz. contempt, and hatred, and fierceness of indignation. If you cry to God to pity you, he will be so far from pitying you in your doleful case, or showing you the least regard or favour, that instead of that, he will only tread you under foot. And though he will know that you cannot bear the weight of omnipotence treading upon you, yet he will not regard that, but he will crush you under his feet without mercy; he will crush out your blood, and make it fly, and it shall be sprinkled on his garments, so as to stain all his raiment. He will not only hate you, but he will have you in the utmost contempt: no place shall be thought fit for you, but under his feet to be trodden down as the mire of the streets.
The misery you are exposed to is that which God will inflict to that end, that he might show what that wrath of Jehovah is. God hath had it on his heart to show to angels and men, both how excellent his love is, and also how terrible his wrath is. Sometimes earthly kings have a mind to show how terrible their wrath is, by the extreme punishments they would execute on those that would provoke them. Nebuchadnezzar, that mighty and haughty monarch of the Chaldean empire, was willing to show his wrath when enraged with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; and accordingly gave orders that the burning fiery furnace should be heated seven times hotter than it was before; doubtless, it was raised to the utmost degree of fierceness that human art could raise it. But the great God is also willing to show his wrath, and magnify his awful majesty and mighty power in the extreme sufferings of his enemies. Rom. 9:22. "What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?" And seeing this is his design, and what he has determined, even to show how terrible the unrestrained wrath, the fury and fierceness of Jehovah is, he will do it to effect. There will be something accomplished and brought to pass that will be dreadful with a witness. When the great and angry God hath risen up and executed his awful vengeance on the poor sinner, and the wretch is actually suffering the infinite weight and power of his indignation, then will God call upon the whole universe to behold that awful majesty and mighty power that is to be seen in it. Isa. 33:12-14. "And the people shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut up shall they be burnt in the fire. Hear ye that are far off, what I have done; and ye that are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites," etc.
Thus it will be with you that are in an unconverted state, if you continue in it; the infinite might, and majesty, and terribleness of the omnipotent God shall be magnified upon you, in the ineffable strength of your torments. You shall be tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and when you shall be in this state of suffering, the glorious inhabitants of heaven shall go forth and look on the awful spectacle, that they may see what the wrath and fierceness of the Almighty is; and when they have seen it, they will fall down and adore that great power and majesty. Isa. 66:23,24. "And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh."
It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: For "who knows the power of God's anger?"
How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in the danger of this great wrath and infinite misery! But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congregation that has not been born again, however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. Oh that you would consider it, whether you be young or old! There is reason to think, that there are many in this congregation now hearing this discourse, that will actually be the subjects of this very misery to all eternity. We know not who they are, or in what seats they sit, or what thoughts they now have. It may be they are now at ease, and hear all these things without much disturbance, and are now flattering themselves that they are not the persons, promising themselves that they shall escape. If we knew that there was one person, and but one, in the whole congregation, that was to be the subject of this misery, what an awful thing would it be to think of! If we knew who it was, what an awful sight would it be to see such a person! How might all the rest of the congregation lift up a lamentable and bitter cry over him! But, alas! instead of one, how many is it likely will remember this discourse in hell? And it would be a wonder, if some that are now present should not be in hell in a very short time, even before this year is out. And it would be no wonder if some persons, that now sit here, in some seats of this meeting-house, in health, quiet and secure, should be there before tomorrow morning. Those of you that finally continue in a natural condition, that shall keep out of hell longest will be there in a little time! your damnation does not slumber; it will come swiftly, and, in all probability, very suddenly upon many of you. You have reason to wonder that you are not already in hell. It is doubtless the case of some whom you have seen and known, that never deserved hell more than you, and that heretofore appeared as likely to have been now alive as you. Their case is past all hope; they are crying in extreme misery and perfect despair; but here you are in the land of the living and in the house of God, and have an opportunity to obtain salvation. What would not those poor damned hopeless souls give for one day's opportunity such as you now enjoy!
And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands in calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God. Many are daily coming from the east, west, north and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are now in a happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him who has loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. How awful is it to be left behind at such a day! To see so many others feasting, while you are pining and perishing! To see so many rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you have cause to mourn for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of spirit! How can you rest one moment in such a condition? Are not your souls as precious as the souls of the people at Suffield, where they are flocking from day to day to Christ?
Are there not many here who have lived long in the world, and are not to this day born again? and so are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and have done nothing ever since they have lived, but treasure up wrath against the day of wrath? Oh, sirs, your case, in an especial manner, is extremely dangerous. Your guilt and hardness of heart is extremely great. Do you not see how generality persons of your years are passed over and left, in the present remarkable and wonderful dispensation of God's mercy? You had need to consider yourselves, and awake thoroughly out of sleep. You cannot bear the fierceness and wrath of the infinite God. -- And you, young men, and young women, will you neglect this precious season which you now enjoy, when so many others of your age are renouncing all youthful vanities, and flocking to Christ? You especially have now an extraordinary opportunity; but if you neglect it, it will soon be with you as with those persons who spent all the precious days of youth in sin, and are now come to such a dreadful pass in blindness and hardness. -- And you, children, who are unconverted, do not you know that you are going down to hell, to bear the dreadful wrath of that God, who is now angry with you every day and every night? Will you be content to be the children of the devil, when so many other children in the land are converted, and are become the holy and happy children of the King of kings?
And let every one that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now hearken to the loud calls of God's word and providence. This acceptable year of the Lord, a day of such great favour to some, will doubtless be a day of as remarkable vengeance to others. Men's hearts harden, and their guilt increases apace at such a day as this, if they neglect their souls; and never was there so great danger of such persons being given up to hardness of heart and blindness of mind. God seems now to be hastily gathering in his elect in all parts of the land; and probably the greater part of adult persons that ever shall be saved, will be brought in now in a little time, and that it will be as it was on the great out-pouring of the Spirit upon the Jews in the apostles' days; the election will obtain, and the rest will be blinded. If this should be the case with you, you will eternally curse this day, and will curse the day that ever you was born, to see such a season of the pouring out of God's Spirit, and will wish that you had died and gone to hell before you had seen it. Now undoubtedly it is, as it was in the days of John the Baptist, the axe is in an extraordinary manner laid at the root of the trees, that every tree which brings not forth good fruit, may be hewn down and cast into the fire.
Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let every one fly out of Sodom: "Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed."

Gabriel's Christmas

2010-12-19T12:59:00.000-06:00

I remember it like it was yesterday. Though in your time frame it was thousands of years ago. My friends and I stood in the throne room of heaven and saw God through King Jesus make the entire universe. With every new created thing we would sing a song of praise. It may sound silly to you, but my friends Michael and Lucifer and I played this little game, to see who could sing louder. Mike had this deep booming voice. It would nearly shake the heaven when he sang. I was more of a tenor. I simply loved to proclaim the excellencies of His glory. Lou, he had a beautiful voice. It was almost mesmerizing. There was something off about it though. He always seemed to hold out his esses a little too long. Sometimes he sounded a little to much like a snake. And sadly, that is exactly what he turned out to be.

You see, there was this tree in the middle of a garden here on this planet. He had created earth dwellers to inhabit the garden. Every day for a few moment God would veil Himself in earth-dweller flesh and walk in the garden with them. I remember how he told the male earth-dweller not to eat of that tree I was telling you about. He told him that if he did he would die. Die? What did die mean? I didn't know at the time, and still wouldn't feel the far reaching effects of it for a few thousand years later.

These earth people, Adam and Eve, would sing praises to God much like we would and God would sit in His thrown room smiling, enjoying every word. There wasn't anything special about their songs, or even their voices. In face, their voices were somewhat pitchy. But God loved to listen. He still loves to listen to His people sing. He has a "Father's Ear" and every one of His children sound beautiful to Him. As for mike, Lou, and myself, we would sit back and listen and nod approvingly. They were singing their praises and there was absolutely nothing wrong with that. They sang them with love, and that is the only way to sing. It would cause Mike and me to begin our own song of praise, but Lucifer seemed to be upset that, though his voice was much more beautiful than that of the earth-dwellers, God seemed to be infatuated with the praises of His people. And then it happened.

Michael and I were walking down Golden Street and talking, every once in a while skipping a pebble across Crystal River. And it dawned on us that Lou was missing. How does one go missing in Heaven? We searched everywhere. We called out his name. "Lou?! Lucifer?!" But he never answered. We met back at one of the Pearly Gates and Michael had this look of despair on his face. "I found him," he said. "He on Earth."

"Earth?" I asked.

He whispered "Listen."

Then I heard it. His voiccccce. "He said to the woman, 'Did God actually say, "You shall not eat of any tree in the garden"?'" (Gen 3.1b, ESV).

I looked at Michael, and said, "We've got to do something. We have to stop him!"

"I was halfway down to earth when God called me back. He told me not to go. He said, 'I have been waiting for this day from eternity past. I knew this day would come, and I have ordained it to come.' And then, Gabe, He told me this, 'Michael, you have the heart of a warrior, and you will be my warrior, but this battle will not be won by the sword.' He said though that there would be bloodshed, precious bloodshed."

By the time Michael had finished telling me what God said, it was all over. We both turned to see the two earth-dwellers running away, hiding in the bushes. And as we watched, God casually walked by us; he was headed down for His daily walk. I did not want to see this talk.

To my surprise, God spoke very gently and lovingly to Adam and Eve, though you could tell the disappointment and hurt and anger in His voice. But I will never forget His voice when he called Lucifer back down from heaven. It shook the very foundations of the universe. Never had I seen God so angry.

Lou didn't come back that day, or the next. In fact, it was a long time before he stepped foot through those pearly gates. And quite frankly I was shocked that he even had the nerve to go into the Throne Room of Heaven. Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden. But then it happened. I didn't understand it at first, but God took a hold of one of the lambs and by His mighty hand cut it open. Blood went everywhere. There ceased to be any more life in it. This was the death that God had promised to Adam and Eve. He imputed their disobedience to an innocent lamb, and in covered them with it's wool.

They experienced a lot of cursing from God. He cursed the ground, child birth, and some other things, but among all the curses God gave another promise. "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel," He said.

I wasn't sure what He meant by that, but I was very happy to hear that God would be victorious, though I never doubted it.

We watched, all of us angels, as the people went from bad to worse. The deplorable, awful things with which Lou filled up their minds and consciences amazed and sickened me daily. How long, my Holy God, will You allow this vileness? How long until You vanquish Your enemy? And then I heard my name called. "Gabriel," He whispered. He only had to say it once, and I was there.

"Gabriel, I promised some time ago that in the fullness of time I would send One who was born of a woman, born under the very law that I gave to the earth-dwellers and that time is drawing near, quickly."

I responded by telling Him that I was honored, but I did not see myself as worthy enough to do such a tremendous task.

"I know," He told me with a chuckle. "I am not sending you, but Another. There is a man on earth that I want you to talk to."

And so I made my trek to your planet. It was not my first visit, mind you, but up to this point I don't believe I was given any greater message.

As I arrived I saw him. He was an older man. He kind of reminded me of Abraham. He was putting on his garb and was entering the temple. I watched Him for a while. The sacrifice always brought wonder to my heart. Every time I saw it, I could not help but think that my God, My King, was the first one to shed the blood of an animal, for He loved the people so much. As he finished with the sacrifice I decided to make my entrance. He nearly keeled over!

Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife
Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you
will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be
great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he
will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will
turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go
before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers
to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make
ready for the Lord a people prepared.

He couldn't believe it! Literally! Even the most faithful men doubt at times, and so Zachariah doubted my words and so to prove that I meant business I closed of his vocal chords. Don't worry, once John was named I let him speak again.

I thought I was all done after telling Zac about John, but it was just a few short months later that God whispered my name again. "Gabriel." no matter how hard I try I cannot get the sound right. Oh, if only you could hear Him whisper your name. You would never forget it. Like lightning I was kneeling at His throne.

"There is a young woman, named Mary in the town of Nazareth."

"Nazareth," I interjected, "Can any good come out of Nazareth?"

He laughed (again). "There will not only be something good, but something righteous. Someone righteous. Go and tell her that all that I am telling you." My eyes were filled with tears. It seemed the victory was coming. The end was near! God patience had run out and He was ready to do away with Lou and his cohorts and save the world!

And so I went.

"Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!"

But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

"Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."

And Mary said to [me], "How will this be, since I am a virgin?"

And [I] answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy-the Son of God." (Luke 1.28-35, ESV).

God the Son, would become the Son of Man. King Jesus would humble himself and take the form of a man, even a servant. It was all to exciting and I have to admit I still didn't get it all even then. But I could see that God was up to something good.

But Joseph, well Joseph didn't take to kindly to the news that his new wife was pregnant. He knew they had not done anything together so that meant one other thing. My one-time friend, Lou was putting thoughts into his mind that I couldn't believe. And so I approached the throne of God and asked permission to speak with Joseph.

"You have a special interest in this case, don't you, Gabriel," God asked. "Of course you can go tell Joseph what is happening."

It was late at night. Joseph had already retired for the evening. Rather than disturbing his sleep I went inside his dreams and said,

"Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

"All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 'Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel'" (Matt 1.20-23, ESV).

And so, Joseph and Mary stayed together. They got a lot of angry, judgmental looks from the city-folk, but they knew the truth, whether anyone else did or not. They trusted each other, but even more, they trusted in God. Even when within a week of the due date they had to make the arduous journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. They should have left earlier, sure, but Joseph had a last minute job making a baby bed for little John. They were going to drop it off on the way, but after all that time, John forgot to pack it. You should have seen the look Mary gave to him! It was priceless. I got to tell you, Joseph sent a few silent nights on that trip.
They finally arrived in the little town of Bethlehem. There were people bustling around trying to find shelter and lodging and food. Unfortunately, the were too many people for that little town and all the inns and boarding houses were filled. I wasn't worried, but Joseph seemed to be a little. You see, the night before Mary had felt a few contractions. He told himself it was nothing to worry about, but now they were really getting strong and were much closer together. Some where just a couple of minutes a part.

God led him to a cave. It was the most sanitary place in the world, but hey, it builds the immune system, right? I was watching all this happen, and then I hear it, "Gabriel."

I hated to miss all that was going on, but I ran to God's beck and call. "Do you see those men, Gabriel?"

"You mean those shepherds?"

"Yes. Go and announce the greatest message ever! Tell them that my Son has come to dwell on earth. They can behold His glory, glory as the only-begotten Son of God!"

He didn't have to tell me twice. In the still of the night I came to those shepherds, and my Holy God's glory shone all around me. For a few moments I lit up the sky. And told them not to be afraid, "For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
"And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." (Luke 2.10-12, ESV).

And suddenly there was with the [me] a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!" (Luke 2.13-14, ESV)

You should have seen their faces. Some were rubbing their eyes as if this were a dream and others were shell-shocked. Some just stood there with mouths hanging open. Finally one of them said, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us" (Luke 2.15b, ESV).

And they went.

I wanted to tell the whole world, but God said I couldn't. The telling of the good news to the world would be left up to those who dwell on the earth, to the shepherds and the magi and the coming disciples and all believers everywhere. It was no longer my job to tell of Jesus birth, but the job of His followers. And boy did those shepherds tell everyone.

I am running out of time, so I will have to hurry the story along. I was able to watch the God whom I worshipped and adored in heaven grow up to be a man. It blows my mind even today just trying to think about how it even happened. We rejoiced when Jesus responded to Lucifer in the desert. God gave me to opportunity to minister to Him and give Him encouragement straight from His Father. We laughed and praised God as we saw Him cleanse the temple and take on the self-righteous people. The masses loved Him, until they didn't.

It all happened so quickly. I saw praise and adulation for my King as He rode to town on a donkey. Bt within a weeks time, everyone turned against Him. His poll numbers went from their highest to their lowest in a week! Before I knew it he was being arrested. I immediately went to His Father.

"Almighty God," I said' "Allow your servant to go and release Your Son, since He is not doing it Himself."

"No," was His only reply.

They began to beat Him. Again, "Most holy God, let me go to earth and slay those who dare touch Your Son with more than a feathery touch."

"No."

They nailed Him to this rugged, make-shift cross. "Please, Your Grace, allow me to take ten-thousand of the host of heaven and take Your only-begotten off that cross, slay the blasphemers, and wipe the place called Calvary off the map!"

"No."

"But He will die!"

"Yes. Through this bruising, He shall bruise."

"That doesn't make any sense. I don't understand."

"You will." And with that the conversation was over.

All of heaven watched. For the first time, we did not find joy. We praised God, yes,but praised Him in our mourning, for we knew He was sovereign. But no one understood this route He chose to take.

It seemed like an eternity, but it was only 3 of your earth days. It was just before dawn. I had been up sense it happened. Sleep fled from me. I kept watching the tomb. "Gabriel."

My summons. I went to the Throne Room. "Gabriel, perhaps you would like a better view."

I looked up with my watery, stinging eyes, and said, "No. I would rather just forget that this ever even happened if I was able."

"Trust me." He said. "Go to the tomb where My Son is. There will be some women coming later that I need you to talk to."

I asked Him what I should say, and He just told me that I would know when the time came.

So I went to the tomb. There His body lay. I sat in silence. God's great announcer completely silent. Head in my hands, "Gabriel." I heard my name. But this time it wasn't God's voice. At least not the Father's voice. It was a voice that I had not heard call my name for many years. It was...it was Him! My King was alive! I shouted for joy. My voice should the very earth beneath me so that the was a great earthquake in the land. He gave me a hug and disappeared on me. I was ecstatic!

And just as God said, some ladies came looking for Jesus, being jut as sorrowful as I had been mere moments ago. Before I could say anything a friend from the heavenly host stood with me and together in perfect harmony and unison, we said, "Why do you seek the living among the dead."

At first they were confused, but then light bulb started going off in their heads one by one. It was a magnificent sight. And so we sent them off to tell everyone. Their Savior, our King is alive!

And told they did. They saw Him as I saw Him. And though I only got tell of His resurrection once, they got the privilege to tell it over and over again. What better news is there? What else is there to talk about? "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3.16).

As you remember the birthday of the King, remember that He was born so that you may be born again. He lived to die so that you who are dead may live.

Being Jesus in the Devil's World (Part 1)

2010-12-19T12:55:00.002-06:00

Being Jesus in the Devil's World
(Part 1)

A Sermon to be Preached on the Lord's Day,
December 5, 2010

Romans 12.14-17

Introduction

Listen closely to the words of our Master.
If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it
hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love
its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose
you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.
Remember the word that I said to you, "A slave is not
greater than his master." If they persecuted Me, they will
also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep
yours also (John 15.18-20, NASB).

He said these words to His disciples on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane. Mere hours before He died He is instructing the disciples about what will happen to them, and not only to them, but also millions of disciples that were yet to come. Among them is a woman living in Pakistan by the name of Asia Bibi. Right now she is awaiting her death because she dared speak out against Islam. Listen to what Voice of the Martyrs had on their website about the situation.

On June 19, there was an intense discussion among the women
about their faith. The Muslim
women told Asia about Islam, and,
according to VOM sources, Asia
responded by telling the Muslim
women that Christ died on the
cross for our sins.
She told them Jesus is alive.
“Our Christ is the true prophet
of God,” she reportedly told
them.
Upon hearing this response, the
Muslim women became angry and
began to beat Asia. Then some men
took her and locked her in a
room. They announced from mosque loudspeakers that she
would be punished by having her face blackened and being
paraded through the village on a donkey.
Local Christians informed the police, who took Asia into
custody before the Muslims could carry out their plan. She
is currently being held at the police station in Nankana
city. Christians there had urged the police not to file
blasphemy charges, but police claimed that they had to go
forward because of pressure from local Muslim leaders.

How ought she respond? What should be her way of dealing with all that has happened to her and her family? How can she be Jesus in the Devil's world? How do we respond? How do we deal with all that happens to us, which is nothing compared to what is happening to Asia? How are we to be Jesus in the Devil's world?

This morning and next week we are going to take a look at the rest of Romans 12. This is a two part series entitled, "Being Jesus in the Devil's World". What Paul instructs us to do in these last few verses that we see in Romans chapter 12 we can easily see Jesus doing throughout His life. Now that being said, I give you this warning: the way Jesus lived His life, ended up costing Him His very life. If you and I so chose to live our lives with His being our example, then we need to know that the same thing could happen to us. That is why Jesus said, "Whoever does not carry his own cross cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it" (Luke 14.27-28, NASB)?

If we are followers of Jesus Christ we must calculate the cost of following Him. If the cost is too great for us to bear, then we must turn back now, live a life of ease, and then face eternity of pain and agony. If we can bear the cost know that this life will be filled with pain and agony, but eternity will be filled with everlasting joy and peace. If we bear our crosses then we must know how we are to act and react as Jesus would in the Devil's world. And so this morning we are studying Romans 12.14-17.

Bless and Do Not Curse

Imagine for a moment going to prison for a crime that you didn't commit. You were falsely accused and when the trial came you had false witnesses making accusations against you and lying through their teeth so that you get the death penalty. Imagine getting the death penalty but before it was carried out you were beaten within an inch of your life and humiliated before an entire nation by being stripped naked. Imagine then having to carry your own execution weapon uphill as others spit on you and reviled you and plucked your beard out. Imagine being so weakened by all the events of the day that you pass out on the way and then imagine having the very people whom you came to love and redeem turn their backs on you and murder you through this whole kangaroo court. What do you say? What do you do?

Here is how Peter described Jesus' response.
For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ
also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to
follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any
deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled did not
revile in return; while suffering He uttered no threats,
but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously
(1 Peter 2.21-23, NASB).

Here is how the writer of Hebrews described Jesus' reaction.
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses
surrounding us, let us lay aside every encumbrance and the
sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with
endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on
Jesus the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy
set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and
has sat down at the right hand of God. For consider Him
who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself,
so that you will not grow weary and lose heart (Heb 12.1-3,
NASB).

Did you see what those two passages had in common? There was not one iota, one hint of cursing the people on the part of Jesus. He did not return their vile hatred. He did not curse them even under His breath. What did He do instead? In a loud voice He cried, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23.34, NASB).

What greater blessing can you give to those who kill you than complete and utter forgiveness? Jesus did not curse them, oh no, He blessed them. Paul wrote, "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse" (Rom 12.14,NASB). Satan would have us curse our enemies and be done with it. But Jesus, as an example to us blessed them beyond all measure.

Rejoice and Weep

Jesus was a man with emotions. We see Him angry, happy, fearful, sad, and almost everything in between. In John's Gospel Account we see two sides of Jesus that are extreme opposites. And while John is focused on presenting to us the Deity of Jesus, he has not neglected to show us His humanity either. In John chapter 2 we see Jesus in Cana. "On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there, and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding" (John 2.1-2, NASB). Now as I pointed out a few weeks ago in our Wednesday night Bible study, these weddings would last a week. They we times of celebration and rejoicing. There would be laughing, and dancing, and lots and food and wine. It was a time to celebrate! And so it is no doubt that Jesus celebrated along with everyone else.

But then we have a few years later Jesus suffering the loss of a dear friend, and when He arrives on the scene the funeral is taking place. And what we have is the shortest verse in the Bible but oh the humanity that it brings upon Jesus. In John 11.35, John recorded, "Jesus wept" (NASB). Everyone is in an emotional turmoil and Jesus having suffered such a loss and seeing the pain of those whom He loved gave way to the God-given emotions that come so naturally and wept.

Unfortunately, today we usually find Christians that are emotionally turned off. They couldn't cry if they wanted to, and most of them don't want to. Too many of us can't laugh and rejoice at the joy and happiness of others because we are too focused on our own lives and the discouragement that we suffer from. We can't weep with our family and friends or even strangers because we have been numbed and calloused by all that goes on around us, and trained into thinking that weeping is a sign of weakness.

No, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13, we do not rejoice in unrighteousness, only in truth. But we are to rejoice. As Paul told the Philippians, "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice" (4.4, NASB)!

We are not carried away by our emotions; we are not controlled by our emotions, but we do allow our emotions to exist. Otherwise we miss a part of being Christlike. Paul wrote, "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep" (12.15, NASB). Satan would have us do one of two things, cut off our emotions, so that we are numb to life, or be controlled by our emotions and not think logically. Jesus, as our example, allowed His emotions access to His personhood but was never overcome by them. He controlled them and yet manifested them as well.

Be of the Same Mind

No matter ones view of Jesus' deity, everyone would say that He was a great, if not the greatest teacher to ever live. More than 2000 years have passed since Jesus was born, and He still influences people, great and small, all over the world. Yet, what we see is that Jesus was not among the elite. He was not a Pharisee or a Sadducee. He was not a high priest like Caiaphas, or even Aaron. He was not rich. He didn't even own a home. Yet, He is more influential than any other person in history.

He influences, yes, but rarely do we imitate. Unlike Jesus, we seek, so often the limelight. We seek to be among the elites and the rich. We want to be well-liked and honored. This is nothing like Jesus, or Master though. What was He like? Luke told us in the 15th chapter of his Gospel Account. "Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, 'This man receives sinners and eats with them'" (1-2, NASB).

He associated with the lowly. Those whom no one loved, Jesus loved. Those whom were the butt of everyone's jokes, Jesus exalted. Those who were disdained, Jesus had compassion on. He is who very God of very God humbled Himself to receive sinners. Paul wrote, "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men" (Phil 2.5-7, NASB).

The word for attitude is also translated as mind. Have this mind in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus. In other words we are to be like-minded with Christ, and thus like-minded with one another. What does that look like? Thinking of each other as more important than yourselves (Phil 2.3-4), submitting to one another (Eph 5.21), husbands: loving your wives as Christ loves the church and gave Himself up for her (Eph 5.25), wives: be submissive to your husbands as the Church is to Christ (Eph 5.22), treat people the same way you want to be treated (Matt 7.12). And as Paul wrote in Romans, "Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation" (12.16, NASB). We are not as great or as good as we tend to think we are. Yet Satan would have us think we are that good. Praise God that we have Jesus, the only who rightfully deserves to be exalted, humbling Himself, so that we might also do the same.

No Evil for Evil

We end this morning much like we began. There is much evil in this world. There is so much injustice and maltreatment. But we have the words of Jesus who said,
But I say to you, "Do not resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you" (Matt 5.39-42, NASB).

This goes against everything that is within us. Most people, including Christians, say something to the effect of, "I'm not going to start a fight, but by golly I'll finish it!" But that is against what our Master has taught.

Paul wrote, "Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men" (Rom 12.17, NASB). The last prt of this sentence may not be translated the best. The ESV has a better translation. "Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.". In other words, before you do anything, think about whether or not it has any honor or virtue in it. If not, don't do it.

Satan desires us to lose our witness by losing our temper with others. He wants us to finish the fight and do that which would not bring glory to God. But Jesus, to beaten, bruise, and battered, hanging on the cross never fought back. He never called forth His angels. He did what was honorable in the sight of everyone.

Conclusion

What do all of these verses have in common? They go against the conventional wisdom that we all seem to agree with. When someone does something to us, we want to get back at them. We want to close our emotions off, lest we be on an emotional roller coaster. We want to exalted ourselves and our pursuits rather than others. We want to compromise integrity and honor in order to get others to like us.

Everything we have studied this morning goes against what we want and thing to be true. But this wanting and thinking are the wants and thoughts of this Devil's world. That is why Paul began this section with these words: "Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect (Rom 12.1-2, NASB).

Prayer
Father God,
We come to you this morning having read and studied Your Word. We admit that this not our natural way of thinking or acting, and acknowledging that the natural way of thinking and acting is almost alway sinful. We pray then, that You the God who can change the leopard's spots and can turn a heart of stone to a heart of flesh, will establish our way to keep your statutes. May we treasure Your word in our hearts that we may not sin against You. Bring to mind Your precepts that we may regard Your ways, and let us delight in Your statutes, and not forget Your Word. This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Master. Amen.

The Body in Christ - Part 2

2010-09-19T23:16:00.001-05:00

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The Body in Christ - Part 1

2010-09-19T23:00:00.000-05:00

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Above Your Pay Grade - Part 2

2010-09-03T21:45:00.000-05:00

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Above Your Pay Grade - Part 1

2010-09-03T21:09:00.001-05:00

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Stop Snorkeling and Start S.C.U.B.A. Diving - Part 2

2010-08-30T08:06:00.002-05:00

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Stop Snorkeling and Start S.C.U.B.A. Diving - Part 1

2010-08-30T07:50:00.003-05:00

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The Church's Attempt at Heaven on Earth

2010-08-21T17:40:00.002-05:00

In Revelation 21 and 22 you will read about the New Heaven and New Earth merging into one, along with the New Jerusalem coming down from the heavens. What you will read is a beautiful, exquisite description of what awaits us. Of course we know of the streets of gold and the walls made of jewels. We hopefully know about the gates of single pearl and the crystal clear river. It will be a wonder for sure. Paul quoted Isaiah and wrote, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined,what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Cor 2.9, Isa 64.4, ESV).

Heaven is hard to imagine. Not even the greatest artist or most advanced thinker could ever contemplate what heaven is going to be like. But I'm afraid that we have changed course in our even trying to think about what the future has in store. Instead of steering our ship for heaven, we are setting our sails towards "heaven on earth," which is a cheap (if you can even elevate it to that status) counterfeit.

Rather than seeking to usher the Kingdom of Heaven in, we seem to be building our own. We have given up the bejeweled walls of heaven for stucco, brick, or even cheap steel/aluminum walls. Rather than having streets of gold, we would rather have paved parking lots so our buses can pick up the myriad of members in our churches. We have replaced the crystal river with a man-made pond and a playground for our over-stimulated, under-exercised (exorcised?) children (just kidding).

Our churches seem to have an inferiority complex. We think the bigger we build the greater people will think we are. That may be true. But that doesn't seem to paint too rosey a picture on God. It may be that we believe that God will be glorified in our buildings and in our community centers, but I'm not so sure that's the case. God no longer dwells in temples and tabernacles, but in the lives of believers in Jesus. Are we trying to subconsciously or consciously build grander structures in an effort to cover up a big problem? Namely, the trivial, tiny, small-God theology/doctrine that is in the pulpits.

Who cares what the pastor(s) know as long as my child has a place to play basketball, soccer, and volleyball. Who cares about the preaching as long as the singles department has an active, "meaningful" ministry so that men and women can meet the person of their dreams. Does it matter what kind of literature is used in Sunday School so long as there's a place big enough for children's church and drama classes?

It would seem that what churches attempt these days is to make heaven on earth. They seek to make a monument unto themselves, but not one that simply rises to the heavens as the Tower of Babel did, but one that reaches to the four corners of the earth (or at least to our communities). We tend to spend massive amounts of money on these buildings and recreational centers.

What is the result?

I see two in the negative (of course). The first is that there is a lot (A LOT) of money going into these facilities and not into missions. I cannot help but wonder what would happen if Lottie Moon, Eric Liddell, Jim Elliot, David Brainerd, and others who gave up, literally, everything they had, came back to see our monuments to ourselves. Would they ask the question, "Did I give all so that church's could keep it all?"

What would Christians in North Korea think if they came to America and saw the grandiose buildings and huge rec. centers, while they quiver in some shack whispering their songs of praise and reading their Bibles by candle-light. I wonder who wants heaven (the real heaven) more?

Imagine what the money of a multi-million dollar complex could do in a country like Sudan or Ukraine.

My mother is a big proponent of the Southern Baptist Convention Cooperative Program. This program pools the resources of SBC churches and distributes it to their missionaries. One of the main reasons she loves this program is because the missionaries are so well taken care of. She illustrates this by the fact that SBC missionaries even support independent missionaries with whom they work because they do not get enough from sponsoring churches. Perhaps if more churches saw Kingdom growth to be more important than church growth they would not have to do this.

The second problem I see occurring is that it turns the church monastic/conventic. Rather than playing sports among the lost they play it with fellow believers. I don't have a problem with playing Christian basketball, but again, not much is done in the way of Kingdom growth. Why should men interact with non-Christian men when their a hunting club at their church? Why should women intermingle with unbelieving women when there is a book club at church? Rather than engaging the lost world, we become secluded in our facilities.

There will come a time in which we, as believers, are secluded, but that doesn't happen until Christ returns. And even then, it's not so much seclusion because only believers will actually be alive.

Perhaps, you say, that we ought not be apologetic for having money and using it to make worship "easier" or even "enhancing" worship. We need not be sorry for having big fancy buildings and recreational facilities of Olympic proportions. We should be proud of what God has given us. And therein lies the rub. It is pride. It is a love of what God has given versus why God has given it. Surely by now we are all thinking of the Church of Laodicea. "For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see (Rev. 3.17-18, ESV). The churches in America are rich, but rich toward the world, and not toward God.

Churches today have fund-raisers because the members are not willing to give more to send their youth on mission trips (of course many of these trips are anything but missional). They have thousands, if not millions, in their building fund, but only about $100 in their benevolence fund, and with that they are stingy. Yes, let us be proud of our riches. " let us make a name for ourselves" (Gen 11.4, ESV).

Perhaps some of us are thinking about the Rich Fool who had received all the grain he would need for a lifetime. Who decided that he would tear down his barns and build bigger ones! It was a display of his wealth, no doubt. And what did God have to say about that? "'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be" (Luke 12.20b, ESV)? And then Jesus said this, "So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God" (Luke 12.21, ESV).

I cannot help but think that many churches, big and small, lay up for themselves treasures here on earth. They build their own little kingdoms and forget about the Kingdom of God. They try to build heaven on earth while allowing fellow believers and unbelievers to live in a place just outside of hell itself.

Romans 12:2 Part 4

2010-08-11T07:20:00.000-05:00

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Romans 12:2 Part 3

2010-08-11T07:19:00.000-05:00

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A Warning about Conformity Part 2

2010-08-01T15:17:00.000-05:00

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A Warning about Conformity Part 1

2010-08-01T15:15:00.002-05:00

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Original by Albert Mohler on AlberMohler.com

2010-07-31T20:03:00.001-05:00

The front cover of the magazine asks the question: “Is this the new front in the abortion wars?” If the magazine’s editors did not believe that indeed this is the next front in this long war, they would never have asked the question. Now, thanks to Emily Bazelon and this report, we all know the answer to that question.

Monday, July 19, 2010

The tragedy of abortion remains one of this nation’s greatest reasons for shame, and the fact that over a million abortions are performed each year is nothing less than horrifying. In light of this tragedy, it is at least encouraging to know that abortion, though an industry of death, is not a growth industry. At least for now.

All that may change if a new movement meets with success. As reported by Emily Bazelon, a new movement seeks to move abortions from abortion clinics to your local hospital, medical school, and physician’s office. In other words, those behind this new movement intend to mainstream abortion as medical practice, and to hide it behind a facade of medical respectability.

Bazelon’s report, “The New Abortion Providers,” appears as the cover story in the July 18, 2010 edition of The New York Times Magazine. As she reports, this new movement is training family physicians and other doctors to perform abortion as a standard part of their medical practice. As the cover of the magazine states, “They are doctors seeing patients in their offices. They have quietly learned how to terminate pregnancies.”

The background for this new movement is itself interesting. When the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the infamous Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion in 1973, 100 obstetricians and gynecology professors released an open letter, suggesting that abortion clinics would be unnecessary if half of the nation’s obstetricians would make abortion part of their medical practice. They also called upon hospitals to do “their proportionate share.”

But, as Bazelon reports, this was not to be. As a matter of fact, hospitals largely worked their way out of the abortion business. Hospitals accounted for 80 percent of abortion facilities in 1973, when abortion was legalized. By 1988, 90 percent of abortions took place in an abortion clinic. In Bazelon’s words, “The American Medical Association did not maintain standards of care for the procedure. Hospitals didn’t shelter them in their wings. Being a pro-choice doctor came to mean referring your patients to a clinic rather than doing abortions in your own office.”

This was not what the architects of the abortion rights movement had in mind. “This was never the feminist plan,” Bazelon explains. She goes on to argue that the founders of the abortion clinics also did not intend those facilities to become the mainstays of the abortion industry, but this is rather hard to square with the financial incomes those clinics defend.

Nevertheless, the fact is that abortions were largely isolated to abortion clinics, and most doctors kept themselves far from involvement in abortion. In the words of a much-cited 1992 medical journal article, “Under pressure and stigma, more doctors shun abortion.”

The turning point in Bazelon’s article comes when she explains that this new movement is doing everything it can to reverse these trends — and to put abortion in the mainstream of American medical practice. Bazelon calls this “a deliberate and concerted counteroffensive.”

Further:

This abortion-rights campaign, led by physicians themselves, is trying to recast doctors, changing them from a weak link of abortion to a strong one. Its leaders have built residency programs and fellowships at university hospitals, with the hope that, eventually, more and more doctors will use their training to bring abortion into their practices. The bold idea at the heart of this effort is to integrate abortion so that it’s a seamless part of health care for women — embraced rather than shunned.

The center of the movement is the University of California at San Francisco. There, Professor Jody Steinauer told the magazine, “The ’90s were about getting abortion back into residency training and medical schools . . . Now it’s about getting abortion into our practices.”

Steinauer was a leader in founding Medical Students for Choice, a group that pushes for more visibility and for residency programs in abortion procedures and reproductive health. Largely due to the MSFC and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, fully half of the 200 OB-GYN programs in the country “integrate abortion into their residents’ regular rotations.”

The University of California at San Francisco medical school has also established a two-year “Family Planning Fellowship,” designed to attract promising young physicians. The program has now spread to 21 medical schools.

What this fellowship program and the larger movement aim to accomplish is nothing less than the normalization of abortion within the practice of medicine. As Bazelton observes, “The providers that make up the new vanguard don’t define themselves as ‘abortion doctors.’ They often try to make the procedure part of their broader medical practice — by spending much of their week seeing patients for general gynecology or primary-care visits, and by being on call on the labor and delivery floor. If the young doctors succeed at making abortion mainstream and respected within medicine, abortion could move from clinics to doctor’s offices and hospitals.”

Another part of this movement is driven by the Kenneth J. Ryan Residency Training Program, started by former National Abortion Federation director Uta Landy and her husband, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California at San Francisco. That program finances abortion training for medical students and doctors on 58 campuses. That program, Bazelon reports, is funded by one foundation and one anonymous donor. The foundation is the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for the late wife of investor Warren Buffett. According to Bazelon’s report, Warren Buffett contributed $3 billion to the foundation, and most of the foundation’s spending goes to “abortion and contraception advocacy and research.” Bazelon cites a report in the The Wall Street Journal that credited Buffett with funding the research to produce the abortion pill. Even with this massive funding in place, Warren Buffett has largely escaped public attention on the abortion issue.

And that is the aim — to normalize abortion without public notice, avoiding the protests outside abortion clinics. “We want to fight the battle, but not all of us are martyrs,” said one physician.

They have a long way to go. The report states that only 2 percent of abortions are now done in a physician’s office and only 5 percent are performed in a hospital. The medical profession is still reluctant, at the very least, to embrace abortion as normal practice.

As Bazelton explains:

This highlights the challenge of making abortion truly mainstream — of moving beyond residency training and outside the haven of medical-school faculties, so that more doctors offer abortions when they join a regular OB-GYN or primary-care practice. As yet, all the success in training new doctors hasn’t translated into an increase in access. Abortion remains the most common surgical procedure for American women; one-third of them will have one by the age of 45. The number performed annually in the U.S. has largely held steady: 1.3 million in 1977 and 1.2 million three decades later. In metropolitan areas, women who want to go to their own doctor for an abortion can ask whether a practice offers abortion when they choose an OB-GYN or family physician. But in 87 percent of the counties in the U.S., where a third of women live, there is no known abortion provider.

Emily Bazelon’s report offers a fascinating and important look at abortion in American today — past, present, and future. She points sympathetically to this new movement and its aims, but she seems to sense that the medical profession is still resistant to abortion, and may remain so.

She writes with great skill and insight, but she lets her own disposition slip when she refers to the aborted contents of a womb as “pregnancy tissue.”

This new movement, fueled by fervent abortion advocates and financed, in part, by Warren Buffett’s billions, may make real headway. We must pray that it does not. The normalization of abortion within the practice of medicine would be a tragedy beyond words — the embrace of death within a profession dedicated to life.

The front cover of the magazine asks the question: “Is this the new front in the abortion wars?” If the magazine’s editors did not believe that indeed this is the next front in this long war, they would never have asked the question. Now, thanks to Emily Bazelon and this report, we all know the answer to that question.

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I am always glad to hear from readers. Write me at mail@albertmohler.com. Follow regular updates on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AlbertMohler.

Emily Bazelon, “The New Abortion Providers,” The New York Times Magazine, Sunday, July 18, 2010.

The Mercies of God - Part 2

2010-07-30T11:13:00.001-05:00

The Mercies of God - Part 1

2010-07-30T11:11:00.001-05:00

Whom God Foreknew He also Predestined Part 2

2010-07-27T23:23:00.001-05:00

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Whom God Foreknew He also Predestined Part 1

2010-07-27T23:13:00.003-05:00

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Your Spiritual Service of Worship

2010-07-26T21:02:00.000-05:00

Your Spiritual Service of Worship
A Sermon to be Preached on the Lord’s Day
July 25, 2010
Romans 12.1

Introduction
Over the past two weeks we have learned quite a bit about this one little verse. We have learned first that God is the most mercifulest God ever! We went back and saw how He saved wretches like you and me by His own mercy, not because He had to, but because He wanted to. And then we saw that because God has been so merciful is should not be so hard then to give our bodies completely over to Him. We are to offer up to our Lord and Savior our bodies, living and holy sacrifices before a living and holy God. We are to die daily, for a lifetime. We are to separate ourselves from the world and for God. He has already called us to do such a thing anyway.
But now we come to the last part of the verse. It’s one in which we need to pay close attention. Too many people forget about this part of the verse. They ignore it. They don’t understand it. They leave it behind. But it’s an important part of the verse. If you leave this part of the verse behind you leave a fundamental part of what true Christianity behind. If you ignore this part then you have no hope of giving God what He truly desires and seeks.
This morning we’re going to take a look at this last part of the verse in hopes that we can come to an understanding, a better understanding so that our lives are changed and our lives are lived in a spiritual service of worship.
Jewish Worship
In Paul’s day there was the time in which men and women would go to Temple. You could see at any given time people going to worship through sacrifice. They would take whatever method that God had commanded, whether lamb, turtle dove, or grain, or what have you, and present it before God in a sacrifice. If you read Leviticus you would see the various ways in which the services were performed.
The main service, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is probably the most famous of services, in which the High Priest would take a bullock and place his hand on it, symbolically placing his sins upon the animal. He would then slit its neck, take some of the blood sprinkle it 7 times before the veil of the sanctuary, take some more and spread it on the horns of the altar, and the pour the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. He would then have to remove all the fat from the offering, the kidneys as well, and then burn them on the altar, but the rest of it was to be carried outside the city and burned. Then he could begin the offering of goats for people. He would have 2 goats, and use one for an offering and one for a scapegoat. He would draw lots to decide which one would do which job. Again he would place his hands upon it, symbolically transferring the sins of the nation upon it and then he would kill it and use its blood in offering before the Lord. He would sprinkle it upon the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies. He would take the second goat and place hands upon it. He would take it outside the city and chase it away, symbolically separating Israel from its sin.
As you can imagine this took a long time to perform. But it wasn’t the only act of worship that the Jews had. Many would meet daily at the synagogues/temple to pray (3 times in many instances). They recited prayers and Scriptures. They would hear someone read from the scrolls and comment on them.
There were other offerings that could be given. There were burned offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings, free-will offerings, guilt offerings, etc. Each one would have its rites and procedures. Each one would be symbolic of something.
What is Spiritual?
And we must not confuse spiritual with the symbolic. I think many Christians tend to do that. Why do you wear a cross? Maybe it reminds you about what Jesus did and that you should bear your cross daily. Is that symbolic or spiritual? It is symbolic. It is a symbol of Jesus and a symbol of what I should do. It is by no means spiritual.
Why do we observe the Lord’s Supper? It reminds us of Jesus death and the New Covenant that He made with us. Is it symbolic or spiritual? Many would say that it’s spiritual. Romanists would say this as they believe in transubstantiation. Lutherans may say this as they believe in consubstantiation. But the Bible does not say that this is spiritual but rather symbolic. It represents and reminds us of what Jesus did for us.
Why do we baptize? It is a symbol of our lives being devoted to Christ and Christ alone. It is to be an outward symbol of an inward change. Is it spiritual? Not really. It has nothing to do with being truly saved or not.
You see, much of what we do is symbolic. But what about spiritual? Is closing our eyes during prayer or songs spiritual? Is lifting our hands while singing or in prayer spiritual? We tend to look at what people do during worship service and determine spirituality, but closing eyes and lifting hands are not biblical definitions of spirituality.
It’s popular to say these days that one is spiritual. There’s no concrete definition as to what this means. Some say it because they are too ashamed to confess Christ. Others say it because they are Wiccans. Others mean it because they believe in some cosmic force out there somewhere.
Believer’s Worship
So what does spiritual service of worship mean? Let’s take a look at our bulletins for a moment. Here in our hands we have a layout of a corporate worship service. It is a tangible, physical service. We use books; we use binders; we use our Bibles; Ms. Lu plays the piano; Robbie and I play guitars; you sing, pray, and read Scripture. It’s a tangible, physical service in which we as a local body of believers come together and praise God.
Then there is our worship in our homes. Katie and I are not a great at this as we once were, having family worship only once or twice a week, rather than nearly nightly like we used to, but it’s still a time of family praising of God in which songs are sung, the Bible is read, and prayers are prayed.
There is personal worship, again there are songs sung, the Bible is read and prayers are made before God. But again all these are tangible, physical expressions of worship.
Do not get me wrong. Tangible, physical expressions of worship are not wrong, nor unbiblical. They are very right and very biblical. We are told to teach the Bible to our children daily in Deuteronomy 6. We are told to not neglect public, corporate worship by the writer of Hebrews in chapter 10. We are shown by Christ’s own example that personal worship is a must to be close to God. These are very important, but they are tangible, physical expressions of worship.
Am I saying that there is nothing spiritual in them? Not at all. They can be spiritual; but we must not think that because they are expressions of worship that they are by definition spiritual.
Spiritual worship, as Paul wrote is the total surrender of your body to God. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12.1, ESV). The presentation of the body as a living and holy sacrifice is your spiritual worship. So yes, we can present our bodies in such a way at corporate worship, but only if we have done so in our daily living.
Spirit and Truth
When Jesus was at the well speaking to the Samaritan woman she questioned Him about the correct place of worship. Was it in Jerusalem at the Jewish Temple, or on Mt. Gerizim at the Samaritan Temple? Jesus replied to her, “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him” (John 4.22-23, ESV).
What Jesus was telling this woman was that it’s not about place. It’s not about ritual. It’s not about the externals. It’s about the spiritual. He used the word pneumati which is Greek for having to do with the spirit. It’s not exactly the same word that Paul used. He used the word logiken, which has to do with the mind and/or soul/spirit. This is why the King James Bible translated it “reasonable.” However, in light of 1 Peter 2.2, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual (logiken) milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation,” it seems likely that the word spiritual is appropriate in Romans 12.1.
In other words, the terms are interchangeable. Both are done when the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, works in our lives so that we give ourselves completely over to God in a living and holy sacrifice.
Conclusion
So it’s not about the prayers you prayer, or what style of music you prefer. It’s not about where you go or whom you are with. None of those things matter so much as the life you live. Is the life you live one that is being lived in daily death and in holiness, where we are in the world, but not of the world. Where we do not do the things of the world, but the things of God. Is it a life separated from the world but separated for God’s work?
That is spiritual. That takes a spirit that is in tune, in line with God’s Spirit. That is what worship is all about. How worthy is God of your life? Does He deserve it? After all that He has done for us, after all His wonderful mercies does He not deserve to have us all?
Did Jesus not die to redeem the whole of us? At present moment our spirits are made new, but there will be a time when our bodies are resurrected and glorified. There will be a time when our minds are perfected. God has redeemed or is redeeming our whole selves; does He not then deserve our whole selves now?