Taste and See

Honey. We all know that honey is made by honeybees. The bees collect nectar from flowers and then transform the saccharides in the nectar into honey through a process of repeated regurgitation until it is partially digested. The last regurgitation is still high in water content, so the process continues through evaporation and enzymatic transformation. The enzyme invertase synthesized by the bees and digestive acids hydrolyze the sucrose from the nectar to give the same mixture of glucose and fructose. So, honey gets its sweetness from these monosaccharides, and depending on the variety is slightly sweeter than granulated sugar.

Sweetness is almost universally regarded as a pleasurable experience. Foods rich in simple carbohydrates such as honey are those most commonly associated with sweetness. The tongue uses a different taste receptor pathway for each of the five basic tastes: sour, bitter, savory, salty, and sweet. So, when incoming sweet molecules in the honey bind to their taste receptors, it causes a conformational change in the molecule. This change activates certain proteins, which in turn cause the release of ions that ultimately cause neurotransmitter release, which is then received by a primary afferent neuron. So basically it takes all that for your taste buds to tell your brain that honey is sweet.

Now, I have just described to you more than you probably ever wanted to know about how the human body determines the sweetness of honey. But one thing I did not do, in fact cannot do, is cause you to experience the sweetness of honey.

The following quote comes from Jonathan Edwards’ sermon A Divine and Supernatural Light –

There is a twofold knowledge of good of which God has made the mind of man capable. The first, that which is merely notional…And the other is, that which consists in the sense of the heart; as when the heart is sensible of pleasure and delight in the presence of the idea of it…Thus there is a difference between having an opinion, that God is holy and gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. There is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet and having a sense of its sweetness. A man may have the former that knows not how honey tastes; but a man cannot have the latter unless he has an idea of the taste of honey in his mind.

In other words, there is this “head knowledge” of God where you believe certain truths about Him. But then there is a “heart knowledge” where you not only acknowledge these truths about God, but you sense them, you feel them, because you experience the pleasure of His presence with you. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible to accurately describe the taste of honey. That is because honey was not meant to just be described, and analyzed and studied. Honey is meant to be tasted and experienced; its sweetness is to be enjoyed. In the same way, the Holy Spirit is not Someone merely to be described and studied, but He was given to us as a pledge of our inheritance, a deposit, or a taste, if you will, of the sweetness we will experience when we are with the Father for all eternity.

This may be overly simplistic, but it seems there are two extremes in churches today. Some emphasize knowing the truth of God’s Word. Others emphasize experiencing the Holy Spirit. But shouldn’t there be both? Isn’t that what Jesus meant when He said to the Samaritan woman, “the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.” (John 4:23)

Which extreme do you think Three Rivers leans towards? And if you think we are a good balance, then I would suggest you are guilty of what is called confirmation bias; you have surrounded yourself with people and information that confirms your own beliefs and bias. But how many of you woke up this morning and begged the Holy Spirit to impart to you a supernatural gift so that you could edify the church? How many truly understand what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit? I don’t mean you can write a paper on it, but you understand it because you have experienced it. It has been real to you. None of us have arrived, not your pastors, not Mitch, not Emmett, and especially not me. The Apostle Paul himself confessed that he hadn’t obtained it, but he longed to gain Christ so he pressed on to make it his own, because Christ Jesus has made him his own (Philippians 3:12-14). He wanted more of Christ.

Many of us stop short of a supernatural encounter with the Holy Spirit because we are satisfied with good theology. Let me be clear, there is nothing wrong with good theology; it is essential and without it we will not come to a saving knowledge of the truth. Just before Jesus explained to the Samaritan woman about worshiping in spirit and in truth, He told her that she worshiped what she did not know; the Jews worshiped what they knew. The Jews knew, but they had not yet experienced Immanuel – God with us. As someone once said, “The word of God is to lead us to the God of the word.” People without experience tend to be overly confident in their beliefs or theories, or good theology. To continue the analogy, they can describe to you down to the molecule the sweetness of honey, but they have rarely if ever tasted it. But people with experience tend to long for more; they crave the frequent and tangible interaction of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

Christ came to earth to die and be resurrected so that we could experience Him. He left earth so that He could send the Holy Spirit to be with us and in us so that we could proclaim to the world with King David: “O taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Psalm 34:8)

Holy Spirit we confess that we do not know You as we should. We know about You, and we are intrigued with the idea of You, but the realness of You in our lives is sporadic at best. We want to know You in a deeper way. We want to experience You. We want to be continually filled with You. Jesus, You suffered and died to make that possible. You purchased that on the cross. Father, You are seeking worshipers of You in spirit and in truth. Seek us out, Father; make us pleasing to You. Let us taste and see that You are good.

Repentance that Leads to Life

The Church has used catechisms throughout its history to teach people the truths about God and His relationship to His creation. Catechisms are set in the form of questions and answers to aid in the learning of biblical truths.

In The Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question #87 asks: What is repentance unto life?

The answer is:  Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience.

That is a mouthful, so I want to try to briefly break that answer down for us. First, repentance that leads to life is a “saving grace.” In other words, it is something that is granted by God. Remember, “grace” is God’s unmerited favor. Paul instructs Timothy to correct those who are in opposition “with gentleness…if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,” (2 Timothy 2:25). The implication is that they will not repent unless God grants it to them.

Secondly, we are motivated toward repentance not only because we grieve over our sin but because we begin to feel the depth of God’s mercy in Christ. Paul tells us that it is “the kindness of God leads you to repentance.” (Romans 2:4) As Pastor Ray Ortlund writes, “We have zero motivation to repent, unless we see the mercy of God awaiting us. Not the slap of God, but the embrace of God. Repentance is not just turning from sin, not even that primarily. Repentance is primarily turning to God, moment by moment, because He has promised His mercy to the penitent.” “For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation.” (2 Corinthians 7:10)

The Greek word that the New Testament writers used for repentance is metanoia, which means “a change of mind.” So to repent means to change your mind or your way of thinking about something. In other words, “I used to think this was okay, but now I see that it is wrong,” or “I used to believe that this was not worth my time, but now I believe it is of utmost importance.”

But let us not be deceived with our Western mindset that often somehow divorces “belief” from action and think that repentance is merely a logical exercise of the mind. Instead, true repentance is with “full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience.” Pastor Ortlund continues, “the outcome of repentance is not a restored status quo, getting back to ‘normal,’ getting back to where we were before we sinned, evading the consequences of sin. The outcome of true repentance is new obedience, unprecedented obedience, perhaps unheard-of obedience. Newness of life.”

That is why John the Baptist rebuked the crowds coming to be baptized by him by saying, “bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘ We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.” (Luke 3:8) Repentance was to be evidenced by their actions, not by their pedigree.

And that is why Paul told King Agrippa that he “did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, but kept declaring…that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance.” So repentance – if it is true – must of necessity result in action that comes from a change in the inner man.

Jesus began His ministry preaching repentance: Matthew records “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” (Matthew 4:17) After His resurrection Jesus ended His ministry instructing the disciples to preach repentance: Luke records that “He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations.’” (Luke 24:45-47)

When the crowd at Pentecost asked the apostles what they were to do in response to the gospel message, Peter’s instruction to them was to “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” (Acts 2:28)

Repentance is not just a one-time event at the beginning of a Christian’s walk. Instead we are to develop a lifestyle of daily repenting – of changing or renewing our minds – as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We must be a people whose lives are marked with repentance through the renewing of our minds and the resulting action that comes from a renewed mind.

Repentance is a blood-bought grace of God where we not only grieve over and hate our sin, but we are embraced by the mercy of God that produces a “full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience.” Repentance leads us to the knowledge of truth (2 Timothy 2:25). Repentance leads us to salvation (2 Corinthians 7:10). Repentance leads us to the foot of the Cross where we look up to the broken body and spilled blood of our Savior so that through His death we might have life.

Saving Us from Ourselves

We often use the phrase that we are “saved.” To be saved implies that we are saved from something, from some imminent danger. Scripture describes a number of things that we are saved from by the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. For example, we are saved from God’s wrath (Romans 5:9), we are saved from sin (1 John 1:7), and we are saved from eternal, spiritual death (Romans 6:23).

Another aspect I want us to look at is that Christ died to save us from ourselves. Romans 1:18-28 reads, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

Now, let’s stop there for just a second. Clearly, we don’t have time to delve into this too far, but suffice it to say that Scripture is very clear that mankind is without excuse before God. You see, in our twisted self-centeredness we ask the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” When the truth is that we have flipped the question on its head. Instead, we should be asking, “Why do good things happen to bad people? Why, O God, have you been so patient, so kind to mankind who is inherently wicked and continually defying You? Why have we not been swept away in a tsunami, or wiped out by civil war, or starved to death through drought?”

See, we must move beyond this idea of equating man’s moralism with God’s righteousness, and we must correctly define “good” the way God defines it. Just like Jesus pointed out in Mark 10… “Why do you call me good?…” Jesus’ point was not that He was not good, but that this man had no clue what ‘good’ really was.

Let’s continue in Romans 1:21, “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man …Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, …  For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator…  For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; …  And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,”

So three times here Paul emphasizes that God “gave them over” to their own desires – the lusts of their hearts, degrading passions, and depraved minds. In other words, God gives them (us) what they want. Mankind says, “I refuse to believe that I have to answer to some Higher Power; I am my own master; I control my own destiny. I am self-determining.”

Just listen to the poem Invictus by the 19^th century English poet William Henley:

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Mankind reads this poem that reeks of agnostic stoicism and feels inspired and invigorated. But God says, “A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy.” (Prov 29:1)

And ultimately God says, “Okay, you want to believe that you are the master of your fate, the captain of your soul? You are not, but I will let you believe that. I will give you what you think you want. If separation from Me is what you desire, then that is what you will receive.” And so Paul writes that “For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false.” (2 Thess 2:11)

And ultimately, that is what hell is. That is why Paul describes “the penalty of eternal destruction” in 2 Thessalonians 1:9 as “away from the presence of the Lord.”

J.I. Packer writes:

“Scripture sees hell as self-chosen…[H]ell appears as God’s gesture of respect for human choice. All receive what they actually chose, either to be with God forever, worshipping him, or without God forever, worshipping themselves.” (J.I. Packer, Concise Theology p.262-263.)

So after our physical death, we end up getting what we truly wanted while we were here on earth – either to be forever in the presence of God or forever away from Him.

The problem is that we are so corrupted by sin that, apart from Christ’s work, we will not, indeed we cannot choose God.

Charles Spurgeon said,

“Free will I have often heard of, but I have never seen it. I have met with will, and plenty of it, but it has either been led captive by sin or held in blessed bonds of grace.” (“Our Change of Masters” sermon delivered on July 6, 1879 at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington)

That is why the Person and work of Jesus Christ is of supreme importance. Unless and until we have a true, biblical understanding of “good” and of hell, we will never even begin to understand the extent to which God in Christ Jesus pursued us to save us from ultimate, self-chosen destruction, and therefore our utter and complete dependence on Him to save us.

2 Corinthians 5:15 says, “[Christ] died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”

Another way to state that is: Christ died to save us from ourselves so that we can live for Him.

As we take communion together, let us think about how Christ’s death makes His proclamations of grace and love even more astounding, so that we no longer have to be slaves to our own evil desires, and instead stand in awe of Christ’s strength, honor, leadership, and self-sacrificing love.

Yom Kippur

The Jewish holy day Yom Kippur begins this Tuesday at sunset and ends at sunset on Wednesday. It is considered the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people and is marked by fasting and prayers of repentance. Yom means “day” in Hebrew and kippur comes from the root kaphar in Hebrew, which means “to cover or hide”; a secondary meaning is “to appease, propitiate, or to make an atonement.” Thus Yom Kippur means “Day of Atonement.”

On this Day, the priests were instructed in the Law to perform a complex set of special services and sacrifices that were considered to be most sacred because through them the High Priest made atonement for the entire nation of Israel (see Leviticus 16). During the service, the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies in the center of the Temple behind the veil where the Ark of the Covenant was located. This was the only time of the year that the priest was allowed inside the Holy of Holies, and then only by entering with blood, otherwise he would die (Leviticus 16:2; Hebrews 9:1-7). And doing so required special purification and preparation of the High Priest, including five immersions or baptisms in a mikvah (ritual bath), and four changes of clothing. He had to enter the Holy of Holies first with the blood of a bull for his sins and the sins of his household and then with the blood of a goat for the sins of the people. So, it could be seen that on the Day of Atonement, God allowed the blood of bulls and goats to kaphar  or “cover over, hide” the sins of the people.

These sacrifices and baptisms were symbolic gestures; but therein lies the problem – they were only symbolic. They did not truly remove their sins. God did not deal with them fully and finally; He only covered over them. The Day of Atonement was only a shadow of things to come, and those who walked by faith understood that it could not, in the true sense, take away their sin. The Prophet Samuel understood this: “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” (1 Samuel 15:22) King David understood this also: “For You, O Lord, do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering.” (Psalm 51:16). The Prophet Micah understood this, as well: “Does the Lord take delight in thousands of rams, in ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my rebellious acts, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” (Micah 6:7)

In fact, the writer of Hebrews says, “For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” (Hebrews 10:1,3-4)

The Apostle Paul understood this when he wrote in Romans 3:25, “in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed”. However, later in Romans Paul quotes an Old Testament passage that prophesied, “This is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” (Romans 11:27) When Christ came, He came to deal with sin fully and finally. He did not come merely to cover over sins, but He came to take sins away. So you can hear the joy in John the Baptist’s voice when he pointed to Jesus and proclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Imagine what a profound statement that must have been for a first century Jew who had heard all his life that his sins had only been covered or hidden. But now the Apostle John writes, “You know that [Jesus] appeared in order to take away sins…” (1 John 3:5)

The blood of Jesus, our Savior, did not simply cover or hide our sins, but was powerful and effective to take away our sins. What does that mean for those of us who come to Him by faith? It means that Jesus has fully and finally removed our condemnation, completely fulfilled the requirements of the Law in us, and has given us the power to overcome sin that we were once enslaved to. (Romans 8:1-4; 2 Peter 1:3-4)

So the culmination of the Day of Atonement – the reality of that Day, not just a shadow – was presented in the person and work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. “Every priest [stood] daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God.” (Hebrews 10:11-12)

As we take part together in the sacraments, we remember Jesus’ death and resurrection; but this is not a reminder of our sins year after year. Instead, it is a reminder of Christ who removed our sins and “by [His] will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10) And that is why it says that He “will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.” (Hebrews 9:28)

Disciples, Not Converts

If you have been to Three Rivers for any amount of time, you have probably noticed that we tend to do things a little differently than many traditional Southern Baptist churches here in the Deep South. One of the things you may have noticed is that we do not have an “altar call” or an “invitation” at the end of the sermon. This, of course, is intentional.

The altar call or public invitation is where the preacher tries to persuade his listeners to pray the “sinner’s prayer” and make a public profession of faith in Christ. Interestingly, godly preachers such as George Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards, and John Wesley never once gave an altar call. In fact, they did not even know what it was. The reason is that public invitation is a relatively new phenomenon that was made popular in the early 1800’s during the Second Great Awakening by Charles Finney’s frontier camp meetings. It’s worth noting that Charles Spurgeon, arguably one of the 19^th century’s greatest preachers, was adamantly opposed to the altar call. [1]

Now, let me say: there is nothing wrong, per se, with the altar call. Paul wrote to the Corinthian church “knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men.” (2 Cor 5:11) Our pleas to those who do not know Christ should be passionate and our speech persuasive. As Jude wrote, it is as though we are “snatching them out of the fire” (Jude 23).

But there are problems that have resulted in this method of evangelism. Historian Iain Murray wrote in his book Revival & Revivalism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism that opponents to the altar call “alleged that the call for a public ‘response’ confused an external act with an inward spiritual change.” Murray goes on to say that the altar call effectively “institute[d] a condition of salvation which Christ never appointed.”

Another problem (I believe) is that it has come to place too much emphasis on the beginning of a person’s walk with Christ. No doubt, beginnings are essential; every race has a starting gun, and every prize fight has an opening bell. But no one ever won a race by simply acknowledging the starting gun, and no prize fighter ever won a match by simply announcing at the opening bell that they are now a boxer. Jesus taught that “the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.” (Matt 24:13)

The clear distinction is this: Jesus calls us to make disciples, not converts. Christ’s righteousness freely given to us as His students makes us righteous positionally in Him. It is based solely on the Person of Jesus Christ and His work on the cross. But it cannot stop there. This righteousness will, of necessity, work itself out in practical acts. As Mitch Jolly (Three Rivers Community Church teaching pastor) has pointed out in his teaching through Hebrews 11, the men and women of faith, as the writer of Hebrews penned, by their faith gained God’s approval (Heb 11:2), and through their faith working itself out in practical action, obtained God’s testimony that they were righteous (Heb 11:4). In other words, faith works.

Now, this is a very narrow path, with steep slopes on both sides. So let me be clear: We have no righteousness, we are not righteous, and we cannot obtain righteousness apart from Christ. Even the faith that we have is a free gift of God (Eph 2:8, 9). We are not saved by anything we have done or can do, but we are saved to do good works in the name of Christ. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Eph 2:10)

On the other side, we must move away from this notion that we are “in” simply based on our correct doctrine, and we do not need to strive to gain God’s approval. Paul warns of those who are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim 3:7). Again, as Mitch has said before, there is absolutely nothing we can do to earn God’s love; we can’t get Him to love us any more than He already does. The Apostle Paul makes it clear that in spite of the fact that while we were God’s enemies, helpless and hopeless sinners, God still went to the greatest extent of demonstrating His love for us by Christ dying for us (Rom 5:6-8).

So, just as a child (in a healthy, godly family) does nothing to earn love from his parents, so we do nothing to earn love from our heavenly Father. At the same time, the parents want their child to be pleasing to them, and the child gains their approval and is commended by his parents by doing things that make them happy. When the child does something that is not pleasing to his parents, it certainly does not mean that they will love their child any less. It simply means that they will not approve of or commend the child for what he has done.

We, too, must labor, striving according to God’s power within us (Col 1:29) and make it our ambition to be pleasing to Him (2 Cor 5:9) so that we will present ourselves approved to God as workmen who do not need to be ashamed (2 Tim 2:15); and like the men and women of faith in Hebrews 11, we will gain God’s approval and be commended by Him. Again, this faith that works itself out in action is begun by, continues through, and is completed in Jesus Christ and His work on the cross.

J. C. Ryle, English pastor and author during the 19^th century, wrote:

“Sanctification is the only sure mark of Gods’ election. The names and number of the elect are a secret thing, no doubt, which God has wisely kept in His own power, and not revealed to man. It is not given to us in this world to study the pages of the book of life, and see if our names are there. But if there is one thing clearly and plainly laid down about election, it is this — that elect men and women may be known and distinguished by holy lives.” (J.C. Ryle, Holiness, p. 12)

As we take communion together, let it remind us that we are to be men and women who are “known and distinguished by holy lives.” And our sanctification lies solely in the work of Jesus Christ, for “by [God’s] doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.” (1 Corinthians 1:30)

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[1] An interesting article written by Douglas A. Sweeney and Mark C. Rogers on the history of the altar call can be found at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/thepastinthepresent/storybehind/walktheaisle.html

Solus Christus

“‘God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” (James 4:6-10)

God Himself has promised grace to the humble, to those who are miserable and mourn and weep because they see the total depravity of their souls. But we will never realize this condition of humility unless we first realize that salvation is completely and utterly beyond our own efforts, will, and power and lies completely and utterly in the efforts, will and power of God alone. As long as a person believes that he can make even the smallest effort toward his salvation, he is not humbled before God. He is simply resting in a false hope of moralism.

One of the great deceptions of our generation is that we believe we are basically good. We hear it every day from Oprah and Osteen to the Dalai Lama: in order for us to achieve our potential, we must find the good within us and push out the negativity surrounding us. There is a glaring problem with this line of thinking: Jesus did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. (Luke 5:32). He did not come to call those who just need a little nudge in the right direction. He did not come to call those who are looking for a fix to their morality. He did not come to call those who needed a little help. Because at the heart of the belief in the inherent goodness of man is pride. But as we read, God is opposed to the proud in heart. (Psalms 138:6; Proverbs 3:34; Matthew 23:12; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5) And John declares, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8)

Pastor and author Jared Wilson wrote,

“The message of the gospel is not ‘Behave!’

I believe many Christians in America would be satisfied if “the culture” just stopped using pornography and drugs and alcohol and stopped aborting babies and started “acting right.” As far as I can tell, that would be a Win.

But it’s not a win. A land where everybody acts right and is on their best behavior, where peace reigns and social decay is no more and the poor are helped and the hungry are fed, but Christ is not worshiped as the sole supreme satisfaction in all the universe, is a big fat FAIL.

There is a great difference between “being good” and the gospel. Some call it moralism. Moralism, in fact, blinds us from the gospel by giving us something of “the real thing” ensuring that we miss out on the true gospel all together. We must remember that Christ came first not to make bad people good but to make dead people live. If we forget that, our Christianity will turn out to be Christless.”

I think many Christians in America have been duped in this politically-charged atmosphere. If moral reform is all you are looking for, you do not know Jesus, nor do you understand the gospel.

As C.S. Lewis wrote: “We must not suppose that if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls. A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world.”

Dr. Michael Horton offers this insight in his book Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church

“Over half a century ago, Presbyterian minister Donald Grey Barnhouse offered his own scenario in his weekly sermon that was also broadcast nationwide on CBS radio. Barnhouse speculated that if Satan took over Philadelphia (the city where Barnhouse pastored), all of the bars would be closed, pornography banished, and pristine streets would be filled with tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The children would say, “Yes, sir” and “No ma’am,” and the churches would be full every Sunday…where Christ is not preached.”

Wilson goes on to say, “We are called to preach not moralism but Christ crucified, foolishness to American culture and a stumbling block to American Christians.”

By taking communion, we are identifying ourselves with Christ, and we confess that our hope lies wholly and completely on the Person and work of Jesus Christ alone. We must confess along with the hymnist:

Not the labors of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s commands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

(Rock of Ages, written by Augustus Montague Toplady, published 1775)

Honoring the Father

Michael Horton wrote in his book The Gospel-Driven Life,

The Bible is not a collection of timeless principles offering a gentle thought for the day. It is not a resource for our self-improvement. Rather, it is a dramatic story that unfolds from promise to fulfillment, with Christ at the center. Its focus is God and his action. God is not a supporting actor in our drama; it is the other way around. God does not exist to make sure that we are happy and fulfilled. Rather, we exist to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

This dramatic story in scripture tells us that mankind was created in the image of God. And throughout the Bible, we clearly see that mankind was created to glorify God and give Him the honor that is due His name. God’s law demanded that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our might. (Deuteronomy 6:5)

Yet we have disfigured the image in which we were created. We have turned our affections elsewhere and have loved other things more. And in so doing, we have heaped shame upon ourselves. This is what sin is – it brings great dishonor to God by preferring lesser things rather than God and acting on those preferences. The Bible tells us that all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) Even the good we try to do, our “righteousness”, is as filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6; The Hebrew word used here refers to a woman’s bloody menstrual rags. Yes, it’s that bad.) Our thoughts and actions give telling evidence that we glorify what we enjoy most, and it isn’t God.

Throughout history, dishonoring a king was often times punishable by death. If dishonoring an earthly king brought the sentence of death, how much more do you think is deserved for dishonoring the one and only heavenly King of kings? This immense dishonor to God must be made right because God is supremely holy and supremely just.

We hear people talk about fairness and how unfair or unjust it is for God to condemn a seemingly innocent person to hell. But do we really want fairness from God? To be fair would mean for each and every one of us to get exactly what you or I deserve. To be fair, the punishment for offense to a supremely holy and eternal God would have to be commensurate with the crime. Therefore, the wages– what we have earned, what we deserve – for our sin is death, that is, eternal punishment and separation from God. (Romans 6:23)

God could have been fair and rightly displayed His justice and destroyed all of mankind for this great offense. But where would have been the Lord who was gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness? (Exodus 34:6)

So, even before time began, God had a plan for the history of the world. That is what the Apostle Paul meant when he speaks of God’s “purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.” (2 Timothy 1:9)

The bottom line is this: Man substituted himself for God; God, in the person of Jesus Christ, substituted Himself for man.

Isaiah 53: 4-6 says, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”

What is so astounding about this substitution of Christ for sinners is that it was God’s idea. Jesus did not wrestle the whip from the hand of an angry God; he did not intrude on God’s plan to punish sinners. The Apostle Paul tells us that God reconciled us to Himself through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:18). So, the triune Godhead of Father, Son, and Spirit in complete agreement planned for Christ to stand in the place of man and absorb every ounce of His wrath.

Isaiah goes on to say, “the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief” Another translation says “it was the will of the Lord to crush Him.”

So, what at first appears to be the ultimate disgrace by heaping all of our shame on Jesus and punishing to death the innocent and perfect Holy One in our place actually becomes the most glorious act of honor by demonstrating both God’s justice by punishing sin, and His mercy by providing payment for that sin in the form of Christ’s blood for all who believe, thereby restoring the God’s honor as well as the honor of all who believe for all eternity.

As we take the cup symbolizing Christ’s blood and the bread symbolizing Christ’s broken body, we honor God by proclaiming both God’s justice and His mercy in Christ. God poured out His wrath on Christ so that, through Christ, He could pour out His mercy on us.

Freed from Fear

Fear…I’m sure some of us felt a little of it as the storms blew through last Friday. There are, of course, some healthy fears, like what a parent feels when their toddler is running toward a busy street. God gives us those times of a heightened sense of awareness to cause us to spring into action.

Throughout Scripture we learn that the healthiest of all fears is the fear of the Lord. King Solomon tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). Over and over, we are instructed to fear the Lord (i.e., Leviticus 25:17; Deuteronomy 6:1-2, 24; Joshua 4:23-24; Psalm 33:8; 34:9; Proverbs 3:7; 24:21). Yet at the same time, God Himself tells us not to fear.

To Abram God says, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you” Genesis 15:1

To Isaac He says, “I am the God of your father Abraham; Do not fear, for I am with you.” Genesis 26:24

And to Joshua, the Lord says, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

There is no contradiction here. I think one of the clearest descriptions comes in Psalm 2:11 “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.” We approach a holy and awesome God with joyful trembling, because He is the only Person or thing that we should fear. As Mr. Beaver in C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia rightly explained: “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver.”Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

But we, as sinful, fallen creatures, fear many things other than God. The greatest fear to mankind may be the fear of death. And Jesus Christ came to remove even that fear. Listen to what the writer of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 2:14-15:

“Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same,” What that simply means is that Jesus physically became a human being just like you and me. This is crucial to our doctrine because, of course, God cannot die. So He took on flesh and blood in order to be able to physically die.

“[So Christ shared in our flesh and blood] that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

Now, I want us to look closely at that phrase, “him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.” When the writer says that Satan has the power of death, he does not mean that he has the ability to kill whomever he chooses. God has not given him that ability. Scripture is very clear that the power of life and death lies solely in the hands of God alone.

God says in Deuteronomy 32:39, “See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides Me; It is I who put to death and give life.”

1 Samuel 2:6 says, “The LORD kills and makes alive”

And in Revelation 1:18, Jesus makes clear that He is the One who holds the keys of death and Hades.

Satan does not have unbridled control over anything. Everything that Satan does, he must ask permission from the Father. (see Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6; Luke 22:31). What Satan has is the ability to tempt and to accuse. Revelation 12:10 calls him the accuser of our brethren who accuses them before our God day and night.

What does he accuse us of? He continually brings before God our sins, our shortcomings, our falling short of the glory of God. He knows that the wages of sin is death; the just penalty for our sins is eternal separation from God. So he brings the evidence of our sins before God to try to demand penalty for those sins, namely death. That is how he held the power of death.

But Christ conquered sin and death by dying and being raised to life, thus rendering Satan powerless. But not only does He render Satan powerless, He removes his ability to effectively accuse us, thereby freeing us from slavery to sin and the fear of death.

Therefore, we no longer fear death because Christ has removed the punishment of death. “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law” (1 Corinthians 15:56), and Christ has removed them both by conquering sin and fulfilling the law on our behalf.

As we take the elements together, we take them with joyful trembling, knowing that Christ Jesus, in His flesh, removed the fear of death, because “He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” (2 Corinthians 5:15)