Christ Church

Why We Worship On Sunday (CCD)

Grace Sensing on

INTRODUCTION

With a handful of exceptions, Christians are overwhelmingly united in their willingness to worship God on the first day of the week. After all, we have been doing this for two thousand years, and we are rarely questioned about it. Why not just go with the flow? The answer to that question is that we should want to be deliberate Christians in everything we offer up to God. We never want to be guilty of the “will worship” that Paul condemns in Col. 2:23. We are constrained to offer to God what He requires of us, and not anything else. So why do we worship on the first day of the week? Why didn’t the Church remain with the seventh-day Sabbath of the Jews?

 THE TEXT

“Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come” (1 Corinthians 16:1–2). 

SUMARY OF THE TEXT

Paul is reminding the Corinthians about his directives for how they are to gather up the collection for the saints in Jerusalem. He is doing with them just as he did with the saints in churches throughout Galatia (v. 1). The Corinthians were to take up their collection in same fashion as did the Galatians. But how was that? The first thing to note is that Paul was authoritatively requiring them to do it in a particular way. On the first day of the week, everyone was to set aside a particular amount, as God had blessed him. This had to have been a collection at church because otherwise the problem that Paul was trying to avoid (“no gatherings when I come”) would not have been avoided at all. But thing about this passage that should interest us is how Paul describes Sunday. Many modern translations simply say “first day of the week,” but this is misleading. The phrase literally is mian sabbatou—“first [day] Sabbath.”

WHAT IS THE WORD FOR WEEK?

In Greek, the usual word for week is hebdomas. The common rendering of mian sabbatou as “first day of the week” appears to be taking “sabbath” as a synecdoche, taking the part for the whole—as in, “many hands make light work.” But this seems strained to me, especially considering the fact that the gospel writers appear to be using the phrase to point to something really significant about the importance of the resurrection.

Here are some literal renderings [Kayser]: “Now after the Sabbath, as the first [day] Sabbath began to dawn” (Matt. 28:1). “Now when the Sabbath was past . . .  very early in the morning, on the first [day] Sabbath, they came to the tomb” (Mark 16:1-2, 9). “Now on the first [day] Sabbath, at early dawn, they came to the tomb” (Luke 24:1). “Now on the first [day] Sabbath Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early” (John 20:1).

We worship God the Father in the authority of the resurrected Son in the power of His Spirit, and we do this on the first day of the week. And yet, a very common greeting that we use is happy Sabbath, and we call our preparatory meals Sabbath meals. This is no extension from our theology. The New Testament repeatedly calls the first day of the week a Sabbath. It is God’s way of marking how He made all things new in the resurrection of Christ (Rev. 1:10; 21:5). Sunday really is a Sabbath. 

 AND SO CHRIST RESTED

Read through Hebrews 4 very carefully. We should take care not to fail to enter God’s rest in the way the Israelites in the wilderness failed to enter it. Faith is the way to enter (Heb. 4:1-3). God’s works were finished at the foundation of the world, and then He rested. But then, centuries after that, He said that faithless ones would never enter His rest, in just the same way that faithless Israelites had not entered His rest (vv. 3-5). This means that coming into His rest is still an open invitation—“it remains for some to enter.” So God in His mercy has again appointed a certain day, calling it Today. Do not harden your hearts as His voice comes to you Today (vv. 6-7). If Joshua had accomplished this through the invasion of Canaan, God would never have spoken of another day after that (v. 8). And this is why . . .

“There remaineth therefore a rest (sabbatismos) to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his” (Hebrews 4:9–10).

Who is being referred to here with the pronouns of v. 10? It cannot be referring to some discouraged Pharisee, finally giving up on his vain works, and then entering into a holy rest. That is nothing at all like God creating the world and then resting—and that is the explicit comparison that is made. So what is like that? Just as God created the world in six days and then rested, so also Christ recreated heaven and earth in three days and nights, and then He entered His rest. And that is why Christians still have a sabbath-rest, which is on our first-day Sabbath. 

Let us therefore labor to enter into that resurrection-rest (v. 11). Let us not fail to enter into resurrection-Sunday rest the way the Jews fell short in the wilderness. Why is that? The eighth day, the first day of the week, the first day Sabbath, is the glorious Today. Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.   

FROM THE BEGINNING

The Epistle of Barnabas (c. 100 AD) says this: “You see how he says, ‘The present Sabbaths are not acceptable to me, but the Sabbath which I have made in which, when I have rested from all things, I will make the beginning of the eighth day which is the beginning of another world.’ Wherefore we Christians keep the eighth day for joy, on which also Jesus arose from the dead.”

In the first giving of the Ten Commandments, the reason for sabbath observance was the creation of the world in six days and rest on the seventh (Ex. 20:11). In the second giving of the Ten Commandments, the reason given has been changed. It was now because of the Exodus from Egypt (Dt. 5:15). In the third giving of the Ten Commandments, we are reminded that the resurrection of Christ changed absolutely everything (Rom. 13:9-10; 14:9). This is because Christ is all. Christ is our creation-rest. Christ is our Exodus-rest. Christ is our resurrection-rest. And this means that Christ is the foundation stone for every successive first-day Sabbath. 

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Psalm 144: Genuine Health and Wealth

Grace Sensing on

INTRODUCTION

This psalm overlaps a good deal with what David prayed in Psalm 18, as well as in 2 Samuel 22, near the end of his life. His life had been a long series of battles and conflicts, and he certainly knew the truth of what he was expressing here. This is a psalm of jubilation, rejoicing in the sort of prosperity that the deliverances of Jehovah can bring to a people. It begins with war, but concludes with the harvest of true peace.

THE TEXT

“A Psalm of David. Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight: My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; My shield, and he in whom I trust; Who subdueth my people under me. Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! Or the son of man, that thou makest account of him! Man is like to vanity: His days are as a shadow that passeth away . . . Happy is that people, that is in such a case: Yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 144). 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

David was a man of war, and he blessed the name of Yahweh, the one who had taught him how to fight (v. 1). In battle, the Lord was both his strength and his instructor. God Himself was his goodness, and his fortress—high tower, deliverer, and shield (v. 2). The word for fortress is masada, and it is possible the place called Masada is in view. Why would the infinite God condescend to deal with man, who is a trifle (v. 3)? Man’s lifespan is like that of a mayfly, with an average life span of a day (v. 4). The plea is for God to bend the heavens and come down (v. 5). David wants God to answer with volcanoes, lightning storms, emptying the divine quiver (v. 6). David then prays for his Fortress God to undertake for him (v. 7), saving him from the strangers. All men are vanity, but these adversaries speak vanity (v. 8), and they lie with great dexterity (v. 8). David anticipates the resulting victory, and he promises to praise God with a new song (v. 9). God even gives salvation to kings, and so He delivers David (v. 10). He prays for deliverance again, and repeats his point about how they speak vanity, and lies are their right-hand weapon (v. 11). What will the peace that follows this victory be like? Our sons will be strong and sturdy, like well-rooted plants (v. 12), and that our daughters might be the sort of cornerstones you would find in a palace (v. 12). In short, that our sons would be strong and brave, and that our daughters would crucial and beautiful. His anticipation continues—that our storehouses might be full (v. 13), that our flocks would be abundant (v. 13), and that our oxen would be strong (v. 14). The crime rate would be low—no burglaries, no need to flee in a refugee column (v. 14). Under godly rule, the people rejoice and there is no complaining in the streets (v. 14). Such people would be happy (v. 15) . . . but then he catches and corrects himself. Such people are happy provided God is their Lord (v. 15). 

DON’T WASTE YOUR BATTLES

The psalmist routinely assumes that God, when He intervenes in human affairs, does so in order to take sides. There is a division in the human race between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Remember the antithesis. Always remember the antithesis (Gen. 3:15). You have enemies. We all have enemies. And God instructs to fight them, and to fight them in the way that He leads. He provides the strength to fight, and He teaches the techniques of fighting.

This is one of the reasons we are to sing psalms. The psalms are filled with enemies, and in our music we are learning how to deal with them. The hymnody of the last few centuries is distinguished by its singular lack of enemies.  

THE GREATNESS OF GOD, THE BREATH THAT IS MAN

When man, who is vanity itself, speaks of the greatness of God, he is doing so because God has placed eternity in his heart (Ecc. 3:11). But when man, who is vanity itself, takes up a lie in his right hand, he starts to speak vanity, which he has no business doing (vv. 8,11). 

God is infinitely high, but we learn in Scripture that He is also infinitely condescending.

“For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isaiah 57:15). 

God dwells in two places. He inhabits eternity—He dwells in that high and holy place. That is one. But He also dwells in the hearts of the lowly. Men cease to be vanity when they acknowledge that they are vanity, and confess the greatness of Almighty God. 

When a mayfly puffs himself up in his own conceits, imagining himself to be the next Alexander or Bonaparte, it is clear that he has no scriptural map of the cosmos, and he has no x on that map indicating his actual position, and the actual state of affairs. Man is scarcely a breath . . . and yet, created in the image of God. And yet, the prayer of v. 5 was answered. Bow the heavens and come down, which is exactly what He did in the Incarnation. 

DEUTERONOMIC BLESSINGS

And this brings us to a subject that is guaranteed to make the pietist’s left eye twitch. It is easy for pietism to say that the simplistic “health and wealth” gospel is a heresy, which it is. But it is equally true that the masochistic “sorrow and borrow” gospel is also a heresy. The former assumes that we are just so many swine, happy when the trough is full. The latter assumes that we are just emaciated swine, who ought to be happy with the occasional acorn.

Balance, always balance. Not Epicureanism, and not Gnosticism. What is the fruit here of learning how to fight with God the instructor? What is the fruit of adoring the greatness of the Almighty? What happens when vain men repent of speaking vanities? The answer is that God exalts them, and this is not limited to the spiritual plane. I call these Deuteronomic blessings. Take care that when the blessings multiply that you do not forget the Lord your God (Dt. 8:7-14). Remember the conclusion of this psalm—provided that God is their covenanted Jehovah. 

Remember Him . . . in the name of Christ, remember Him.

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Psalm 143: When Sinners Withstand the Wicked

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INTRODUCTION

This psalm is offered up to God in a time of great distress. We do not know if it is from the time of Saul’s persecution, or from Absalom’s rebellion, or from some other time. Regardless, the need is pressing and great, and David is presenting his prayers to God with great urgency.

THE TEXT

“A Psalm of David. Hear my prayer, O Lord, Give ear to my supplications: In thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness. And enter not into judgment with thy servant: For in thy sight shall no man living be justified. For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; He hath smitten my life down to the ground; He hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead. Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; My heart within me is desolate. I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands. I stretch forth my hands unto thee: My soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah. Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth: Hide not thy face from me, Lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; For in thee do I trust: Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; For I lift up my soul unto thee. Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me. Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: Thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness. Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name’s sake: For thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble. And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, And destroy all them that afflict my soul: For I am thy servant” (Psalm 143). 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The psalm is from the pen of David. He begins with the plea that his prayers and supplications be heard (v. 1). He makes the request on the strength of God’s faithfulness, God’s righteousness (v. 1). David is taking a stand against his persecuting enemies, but he well knows that if God wanted to get him, he could not be justified (v. 2). The enemy is persecuting his soul, and has struck his life to the ground. He has been made to dwell in darkness, like a long-dead carcass (v. 3). David’s spirit is overwhelmed; his heart is desolate (v. 4). It was not always this way. David remembers when times were better. He thinks about that. Why could not God do that again? (v. 5). So he stretches out his hands to God, pleading with Him (v. 6). His soul is like cracked earth, parched and dry (v. 6). Pause and reflect. Selah. David urges God to hurry up because he can feel his spirit failing. He does not want to go down to the pit (v. 7). He prays for a hesed-deliverance, and wants to walk uprightly (v. 8). He hides in God, seeking deliverance from God (v. 9). He prays that God teach him to do God’s will, which is distinct from merely knowing it (v. 10). That will is necessarily good because God’s Spirit is good (v. 10). He prays that God would enliven him. And the basis of the prayer to deliver his soul from trouble is for the Lord’s name’s sake (v. 11), for His righteousness’ sake (v. 11). He concludes the prayer with the desire that God (in His mercy) cut off David’s enemies, destroying all those who afflict his soul (v. 12). For David is His servant (v. 12). 

MY SERVANT DAVID

This psalm concludes with David entering his final plea—“for I am thy servant.” To be a servant of God is a great honor, and like all such honors, it is not one for us to take upon ourselves. We do not get to appoint ourselves to this station, even if outsiders consider it to be a lowly station. And David certainly does not take such an honor upon himself.

When David wanted to build the Temple, and Nathan the prophet comes back to countermand what he had earlier approved, this is how that passage begins. “And it came to pass that night, that the word of the Lord came unto Nathan, saying, Go and tell my servant David, thus saith the Lord, shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in?” (2 Samuel 7:4–5, cf. 8). The Lord tells David no regarding the Temple, but then gives him a staggering promise instead. Someone descended from David will reign on the throne of David forever (v. 13). It is after this that David dares to call himself God’s servant (vv. 19, 20, 21, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29), and he does so again and again.

BEFORE MAN, BEFORE GOD

The basic plea of this psalm is for God to defend. But there is an interesting comment made right near the beginning. “And enter not into judgment with thy servant: For in thy sight shall no man living be justified” (Psalm 143:2). He is asking God to defend, and here he asks that God not attack.

There is righteousness before men, and there is righteousness before God. It is possible for a man to claim righteousness over against other men. The charges and accusations they make are false. They are liars. “False witnesses did rise up; They laid to my charge things that I knew not” (Psalm 35:11). At the same time, in a different respect, what would happen if God took over the prosecution? “If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” (Psalm 130:3). 

This is the set up when sinners are used by God to withstand the wicked. Those of us who are involved in the controversies of the day should recognize that if our enemies knew just a fraction of what God knows about us, it would be all over. But they don’t, and He’s not telling. 

RIGHTEOUS FORGIVENESS

Why is He not telling? There is something very strange in this psalm. David is praying for deliverance here, and in the first verse, he is asking for it on the basis of God’s faithfulness, God’s righteousness. He is not asking for mercy, but rather righteousness. How can a sinner ask for anything remotely connected with righteousness? And he does it again in v. 11—“for thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.”

“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).

This is a great mystery, and the only possible solution to it is found in the blood of Christ’s cross. That is the only place where you could ever find a righteous forgiveness. God intends to be just and the one who justifies (Rom. 3:26).  

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State of the Church 2024

Grace Sensing on

INTRODUCTION

As you might know by now, the tone coming out of Moscow has gained a little bit of notoriety. For good or ill, this reputation shows no signs of going away, and because you are likely to be fielding questions about it, I thought that it would be good to use our annual “state of the church” message to help you sort through the relevant issues. 

THE TEXTS

“And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village” (Luke 9:52–56). 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXTS

The basic lesson we should take from our text is this. Just because it is biblical . . . doesn’t make it biblical. As I learned from my father, there is always a deeper right than being right. James and John were nicknamed “sons of thunder” by the Lord (Mark 3:17), meaning that they were almost certainly hot-blooded. When a Samaritan village denied lodging because they were Jews on the way to Jerusalem, the two brothers appealed to the example of Elijah. When he had sent a message to King Ahaziah that he was not going to recover from a fall, the king sent an armed guard of fifty men to arrest Elijah, and Elijah called down fire from heaven and consumed them all (2 Kings 1:10). The king dispatched a second troop, and the same thing happened (2 Kings 1:12). The third captain was a great deal more polite—having seen what happened to the first two bands. This is the same Elijah who had summoned fire from heaven to consume the sacrificial altar on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:38), followed up by executing all the priests of Baal. So the prophet Elijah was no buttercup, and James and John had a biblical example to point to. But Jesus said that they had wildly misjudged the two circumstances—and they had particularly misjudged the nature of the mission that Christ was on. Christ had come to save, not destroy. It is not enough to “have a verse.” 

THIS KNIFE CUTS BOTH WAYS

If there is always a deeper right than being right, then this must apply to every kind of “right.” Not just the right that has hard lines and straight edges. This also applies to the right of being kind, or generous, or sacrificial. C.S. Lewis once commented on a woman who was the sort of woman who lived for others, and you could tell the others by their hunted expression. Maybe he was afflicted by this sort of thing himself because he even wrote a poem in the form of an epitaph about it:

Erected by her sorrowing brothers

In memory of Martha Clay.

Here lies one who lived for others;

Now she has peace. And so have they.

Is it possible to bestow all your worldly goods to feed the poor, and have no love, no charity (1 Cor. 13:3)? It certainly is, and that profits nothing. Was Judas concerned about the poor when Mary anointed the Lord’s feet with spikenard? Judas was the treasurer, and was concerned about the extravagance (John 13:29). And he said that it was for the poor (John 12:5), but his motives were clearly mixed (John 12:6). It is the White Witch who is concerned about conspicuous consumption, remember. “What is the meaning of all this gluttony, this waste, this self-indulgence? Where did you get all these things?”

And there have eras when the saints were prone to miss the deeper right through a zeal to be hard line. That really is true. But to assume that this is the error of our age is to waver on the threshold of a serious delusion.

BUT WE MUST RESIST OUR OWN TEMPTATIONS, NOT THOSE OF OTHERS

Godly satire should come from within a worshiping community of orthodox and faithful Christians, only some of whom are called to it (Eph. 5:21). The satire should arise from the language and categories of Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Those exercising these gifts should warm and affectionate relationships with family. No close member of his family should flinch when he walks into the room (Col. 3:19, 21). The practice should continue a long and worthy tradition, and there should be broad acquaintance with that literature. There needs to be an instinctive knowledge of the quantitative difference between satire and scurrility. There may not seem to be a logical difference between 37 lashes and 42 lashes, but Scriptures say there is (Dt. 25:1-3).

There is a qualitative difference between the two also. This is a matter of timbre and tone. No mechanical rules can be set down for it, but it is a very important distinction to make (Heb. 5:14). These weapons should not be entrusted to anyone too young (1 Tim. 3:6). The whole point is to target lack of proportion, not to exhibit lack of proportion (Matt. 23:24). What effect is all of this having on those who aspire to fighting Amalekites with a chain saw (2 Cor. 11:1)? Is the satire coming from a community that has long experience in letting love cover a multitude of sins (1 Pet. 4:8). 

This requires a courageous disposition, not a bullying one. Lawful satire is leveled at targets that know how to defend themselves, and that will defend themselves. As King Lune of Archenland put it, “Never taunt a man save when he is stronger than you: then, as you please.” And if a man is too proud to humble himself when he has sinned (Jas. 5:16), then he is too proud for this calling. Man’s anger does not advance God’s righteousness (Jas. 1:20). Anger, even when it is righteous (Eph. 4:26), is like manna and goes bad overnight (Eph. 4:27). This should never proceed from “little man syndrome,” where a man has something deep inside to prove, usually to his father. We must be free, completely free, of envy (Jas. 4:1-6). Envious satire is brittle satire, and not very effective.

The target should always be arrogance, not weakness, and, as far as possible, reserve his arrows for the former. There must be a general knowledge of church history, which will dislodge the very provincial notion that the current rules of academic etiquette are somehow binding on all generations of the Church. Scripture is the norm, not our current traditions. We must love to sing all the psalms that God has given us (Eph. 5:19). Nothing serves like the psalms if the goal is to nurture and restore a vertebrate church. We must never get stuck on one speed (Ecc. 3:1-8). All satire, all the time, would be tolerable for about forty-five minutes. We must learn as a community to really hate what is evil. The fear of God is not only the beginning of knowledge, but it is also defined as the hatred of evil. “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate” (Prov. 8:14). And last, we must all grow in our love for what is good (Tit. 2:14), motivated by a love that yearns to defend what is noble and right, or weak and defenseless, and never be motivated by a bitterness that seeks to bite and tear (Gal. 5:13-15).

A BODY LIFE THING

Some people assume that if you move to Moscow, you are committing yourself to making fun of everybody, all the time. Not a bit of it. We are the body of Christ, and here, as with everything, each part of the body does what it was fashioned to do. So the eye doesn’t have to do what the ear does. But the eye needs to be committed to the ear, and should expect the ear to have a completely different outlook. But the whole body is Christ.

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Have Yourself a Merry Little Postmill – Christmas Eve Service (Doug Wilson)

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The point this evening is not to load your Christmas down with any exegetical postmill work, which has been done elsewhere. This is just intended as a simple word of Christmas encouragement—I do not seek to persuade you in these few minutes, but rather to embolden you.

It may well be that you even call yourself postmill and are happy to say that it is your doctrinal stance. You certainly live in a community that is characterized by postmill teaching and expectations. Well and good, but it may still be possible that this goon show of a century has gotten you down a time or two.

Your eschatology may say that the name of the Lord will be great among the Gentiles, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same (Mal. 1:11). Your doctrinal commitments may well affirm that the earth is going to be filled up with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Hab. 2:14). The books on your shelf may well argue that the root of Jesse will be raised up as a standard, and all the Gentiles shall seek Him (Is. 11:10). Yes, certainly.

But the last time you checked, dudes could marry dudes, teens were being legally mutilated in the name of pronoun madness, and half the population believes that if we raise our taxes and give more power to the EPA, the government promises to fix the weather.

It is easy, in other words, to come to feel like a thick fog can somehow erase the sun, moon and stars. This is a possible discouragement even in our postmill circles. And so this message of Christmas grace is that our sovereign God has stooped down to us in order to remind us how transient evil is, and how permanent His goodness is. Christmas is a stiff breeze that demonstrates that a fog is a lot easier to scrub than the sun, moon and stars are.

But when you look for God to move, remember that He doesn’t do things the way we would have predicted. Take, for example, how He established the first beachhead of His everlasting kingdom in an animal’s food trough. Who among us would have called that move beforehand?

“Of the increase of his government there will be no end.” But we should know by now that we do not define increase the same way that He does. John the Baptist said that he was going to decrease, while the Lord was going to increase. But then what did that increase look like? It looked like agony in the Garden, and a flogging, and spittle in the face, and a crown of thorns. He will increase, but you must read all the way through to the end.

After God had spoken all His raw materials into existence, speaking to a darkness that was nothing at all, that created matter was still shrouded in darkness. And so at that point, what was the first thing God ever said in this world? “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). He simply said light, and there it was. And so when the earth was an inchoate and shapeless mass of dark matter, when darkness was over the face of the deep (Gen. 1:2), all He did was simply speak.

This created darkness was His raw material, and it provided the apostle Paul with a marvelous illustration for God’s power over a different sort of darkness—the darkness of our rebellious iniquity.

“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.”

2 Corinthians 4:6–7 (KJV)

The created darkness of the shapeless void and the rebellious darkness of mankind’s sin and rebellion have this one thing in common. Neither one can resist the voice of God’s authority when that authority says anything like, “Let there be light.”

Tiglath-pileser, Caesar Augustus, Herod, Pilate, Sanballat, Shalmaneser, Pharaoh, Bismarck, Napoleon, Attila the Hun, Woodrow Wilson, Genghis Khan, what are they? They are all of them principalities and powers who breath through the nose. Let there be light.

Pornography, propaganda, pandemics, police states, what are they? Let there be light.

Darwinism, socialism, feminism, egalitarianism, fascism, environmentalism, mysticism, what are they? Let there be light.

The God who spoke the cosmos out of nothing is certainly capable of speaking a new cosmos out of the old one. He can make sons of Abraham out of rocks, remember.

So when you look around at all the black rock of man’s iniquitous folly, you should certainly look straight at it without flinching. You should confess that it is in fact an enormous amount of iniquitous folly, all of it dark, bent, and twisted rock. But never forget that you are also looking at God’s own quarry, from which He is going to speak into existence a cathedral of light, built entirely out of living stones, and the pavers all made from transparent gold.

So the Christmas message is much more than the fact that God conquers and overcomes evil. He does do that, but there is a greater mystery involved. The Christmas message is that God is in the process of creating something marvelous, using evil as His raw material. All the laws, and conspiracies, and plans, and movements, and resolutions, and plots . . . all the things that have us so worried . . . are nothing but scraps on His workshop floor.

“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

Luke 12:32 (KJV)

And what a glorious kingdom that will be. That kingdom of light, inhabited by children of light (Eph. 5:8) . . . where did it start? That kingdom of light began in those pitch-black nights that enveloped Bethlehem, and the shepherds, and the sheep, and the wise men.

It was truly dark. But the star wasn’t.

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