How often do you consider the effect that your private sins—the sins you do in the dark, the sins no one knows about—how often do you consider the effect of these sins on those around you? Is there an effect? Does your secret hidden sin as an individual effect this body of people gathered in this room? This is important to consider because to be part of this fellowship, the church, the people of God, is to be covenantally bound to one another. In other words, God does not view us, King’s Cross Church, merely as individuals but as a covenantal body. 

Now consider the sin of Achan in Joshua 7. Achan defies God’s commands and keeps some of the plunder from Jericho for himself. And because of the unknown sin of this one man, God punishes all of Israel and they are defeated in battle at Ai. And it’s only once Israel puts Achan to death for his private sin, purging the evil from among themselves, that God relents from his wrath and punishment on them.

We need to remember this morning that as a body, the holiness of the parts matters for the holiness of the whole. If you are here this morning, if you are baptized into Christ, and if you proclaim to have faith in him, you belong to Jesus, and you belong to his bride. And if you choose to walk in darkness—hiding your sin, sneeking around, thinking its not that big of a deal—you are making a mockery of Christ and his bride for whom he died. You are incurring judgment on yourself and bringing reproach upon this body. 

Be assured, God is not mocked: “For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light” (Luke 8:17). Be assured, your going to step into the light. You’re going to have your sin exposed one way or another. It will either happen despite your best efforts to keep it hidden. Or if you would humble yourself, casting yourself upon the mercy of God this morning and bring it into the light willingly, a promise awaits you: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). 

Zach Wilke – February 4, 2024

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“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

We often think of meekness as synonymous with mousy or shy. Sometimes we even associate the word with passivity or effeminacy. And in the face of such thinking, the common phrase “Meekness is not weakness” is certainly true. Scripture names men such as Moses, David, and the LORD Jesus as examples of meekness. Moses, who boldly stood before Pharaoh. David, who tore lions apart with his bare hands and slaughtered giants. And Jesus, who whipped money-changers out of the temple. Surely, such men were anything but mousy or effeminate. 

Meekness is better understood as being temperate or self-controlled. Meekness towards men, Thomas Watson says, “is a grace whereby we are enabled by the Spirit of God to moderate our angry passions.” Meekness toward God is marked by a cheerful submission to His word and a willingness to forgo one’s own will or desires for the sake of His glory. 

Meekness is strength surrendered to God’s will. It is self-control fueled by submission to God’s control over all things. It is the resolve, the conviction to direct and order your passions toward a God-glorifying end rather than a self-gratifying one. It is a non-anxious state of being that takes to heart in every circumstance the truth that God is the final judge of all and vengeance belongs to him alone. And because of this, meekness knows the wisdom of taming the tongue, of tempering rage, of letting go of bitterness and resentment, of withholding immediate gratification for the sake of far greater pleasures. 

And thus we can begin to see why the promised inheritance offered to the meek would be so enticing. As comfort appeals to the mourners and a kingdom appeals to the poor, what might the meek find attractive about inheriting the earth? As the meek continue to put off the immediate gratification of seeking revenge, of withholding from themselves the twisted pleasures of rage and wrath, as they tame their tongues and choose not to speak the spiteful word at the wrong time, what greater promise, what greater hope, could they have than that God would avenge them, that he would put their accusers to flight, and cause them to possess the land of their enemies? Surely, meekness is a great blessing, for by it we come to inherit the earth.

Zach Wilke – January 21, 2024

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“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

As Christ opens the Beatitudes with the promise that the poor in spirit possess the kingdom of heaven, we cannot assume that in his reference to “those who mourn” here he means a generic sadness. Certainly, the “mourners” refers to those who mourn as citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Or, in other words, those who mourn righteously and in faith. Or even those who mourn what ought to be mourned.

Chiefly, of course, we are to mourn our sin against our holy God and our neighbors. Paul says that godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, while worldly sorrow produces death (2 Cor. 7:10). Godly sorrow in this instance is an acknowledgment of our own depraved states apart from Christ, by which we come to realize our need of him and his work on our behalf. 

But there are other things godly saints may mourn over as well: Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus. Paul acknowledges the pain of lost loved ones experienced by the Thessalonian church.

So no, the Christian life is not one of being blissfully unaware of life’s hardships. Nor is it an attempt to hover above them or pretend that the loss we experience in life doesn’t really hurt. The Christian life is a life of sins forgiven, of brokenness healed, of the dead raised, and of mourners comforted. The promise of comfort is not a promise of immediate relief from hardships. Like Job, many of us will endure great and deeply painful trials. The comfort comes to us in the presence of Christ himself by His Spirit, whom he calls “the Comforter.” Our comfort is not that God will withhold trials and hardships from us, but that he will be with us through them and that he will use such trials for our good and that he will see them to completion whether in this life or in the life of the world to come. 

A passage like this is always particularly relevant at Christmas time as many of us can no longer enjoy the fellowship of our friends and relations whose earthly lives have ceased. Whether parents or children, siblings or friends, many of us are currently mourning the loss of these loved ones as we remember past Christmas celebrations and feel the searing lack of their presence at our tables. Still, others of us are mourning the loss, not of the lives, but of the relationships that we once enjoyed that are now marred by years, even decades, of estrangement and bitterness. Each Christmas comes with a reminder of sin’s devastating effects on those around us. 

In these and many other scenarios which we currently mourn, let us now look to Christ’s promise here that we shall be comforted in them that we might have peace that surpasses all understanding.

Zach Wilke – December 24, 2023

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