Christ Church

Standing on the Promises

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INTRODUCTION

What I want to present here tonight is an introduction or a primer on trusting the Lord for the salvation of your kids. We do not have a bag of tricks or techniques which, if you use, your kids will magically “turn out.” There arecertain parental principles which contain a lot of wisdom, but there is no power at all in parental principles. The trust comes first, and then as an outflow of that trust, the principles can be applied and are efficacious. But unless the Lord is building the house, they labor in vain who build it (Ps. 127:1).

SALVATION BY GRACE

So let me lay the foundation first, reminding you of how you first became a Christian.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:8–10).

“Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Gal. 3:3)

“Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily” (Col. 1:28-29).

God promises us salvation through Christ, we look to Christ faith (plus nothing else), and we are saved. Not only so, we are taught that we are supposed to walk in Christ the same way we received Him—by grace through faith.

“For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17).

SPECIFIC PROMISES WITHIN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

This is not a talk on prayer, but I would like to use prayer as an illustration. There are two basic kinds of faithful prayer in Scripture. One of the prayer of submissive resignation, the kind of prayer that Jesus offered up in Gethsemane (Luke 22:42).

The other kind of prayer is implied in the stupendous promise that Jesus gives in Mark.

“Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:24).

Now we all know that this promise does not mean absolutely everything, but let us agree that it does mean something. And whatever that something is, not all Christians receive it. And the condition there is found in that word believe.

And what this means is that there are Christians who have believed to the salvation of their souls who have not believed to the answering of whatever request it was. This is a promise in microcosm, but it functions the same way that the universal promise of salvation functions. Faith is the catalyst that activates the promise.

THE OLD TESTAMENT PROBLEM

Many of these promises are found in the Old Testament, but we need to take care with this. Whatever lessons you take away from the Old Testament, the sterling example of multiple generations of faithfulness building on ever-increasing faithfulness is likely not one of them. And so we tend to assume that God over-promised and under-delivered in the OT, but this is radically false. God did not abandon His promises when we came to the New Testament. God began fulfilling them when we came to the New Testament.

For example:

“But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children; To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them” (Psalm 103:17–18).

This is a most glorious promise, and notice how our Lord’s mother refers to it in her wonderful Magnificat.

“For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: For, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; And holy is his name. And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation” (Luke 1:48–50).

The new covenant is not the era where God abrogates His promises concerning our children. It is the time when the sun comes up—it is when He begins to fulfill them all.

A CLUSTER OF PROMISES & PREDICTIONS

What I have now is a cluster of promises and predictions that I would like to just blow through, commenting here and there, and then coming back to point some things out if we have time.

“The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee” (Psalm 102:28).

“Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments” (Deuteronomy 5:9–10).

“Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations” (Deuteronomy 7:9).

“And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations” (Genesis 17:9).

“For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith” (Romans 4:13).

“And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore” (Ezekiel 37:24–26).

“They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; For they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them” (Isaiah 65:23)

“As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever” (Isaiah 59:21)

“And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4)

“For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:39).

GRACE IS ATTRACTIVE

Hard legalism is never attractive. Panicked insecurity is not attractive either. What you need to do is have a seat on the couch, and have your kids line up in front of you. And then you would say something like this: “Children, as you know, your mother and I are going to Heaven. What I wanted to do here is let you know that you are coming too.”

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Confession of Sin (Covenant Life Together #2)

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INTRODUCTION

Confession of sin is a basic activity that all Christians need to understand and practice. It is the most fundamental form of spiritual housekeeping. There is no way for us to maintain covenant life together without this sort of understanding being woven into the fabric of our community.

THE TEXT

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:8-10)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

If we decide to lie to ourselves, then obviously the truth is not in us (v. 8). One of the lies we like to tell ourselves is the lie that our current condition is “normal,” and that we have no sin. Or at least we have no sin to speak of. John tells us that this is self-deception, period. And if we lie in this way, we are making God into a liar (because He says we have sinned), and His word is obviously not in us—a lie is (v. 10). The meat of this sandwich is in verse 9, but these two pieces of bread make it a sandwich. Don’t kid yourself, John is saying—we all need to hear this. In the ninth verse, John gives us a conditional statement. If we confess our sins, God will do something. The word for confess is homologeo, and literally means “to speak the same thing.” If we say the same thing about our sin that God says about it (i.e. that it is sin), then God will do what He promises. What is that? God will be faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

TWO HOUSES

Imagine two mothers with a robust family—six kids each, let’s say. One home is bombed all the time and the other is spotless. The difference between the two homes is not that in the second home nothing is ever spilled, or knocked over, or left on the coffee table. The difference between the home that is trashed and the home that isn’t is the difference between leaving things there “for the present,” and picking them up right away.

Given God’s promise above, we need to recognize what this means. The promise is good on Monday mornings, and Thursday afternoons. The promise is good in May, and good in October. That means there is never a legitimate reason for refusing to deal with it now. The vacuum cleaner is never broken, never at the shop, never too far away, never too hard to operate. The word is near you, in your heart and in your mouth. “God, what I just said . . . that was sin.” That is confession. And God’s promise is fulfilled at that moment.

TANGLEFOOT

The writer to the Hebrews describes what sin does when you leave it unattended. It starts to trip you up—it starts to really get in the way. “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us . . .” (Heb. 12:1). Sin clutters, sin gets in the way, sin weighs you down, sin gets tangled around your feet. Set it aside we are told, and then run the race. You can’t run the race with a two-hundred-pound backpack on. You cannot run the race with snarls of rope tangled around your feet. Stop trying to be good with unconfessed sin in your life. It just makes you more irritable than you already are. John tells us how to get untangled. Don’t try to do that and run at the same time. Get completely untangled, take off the backpack, and then run.

CLUTTER AND BACKLOG

Let’s change the image. Suppose you haven’t cleaned the garage for twenty years, and you are overwhelmed at the very thought of trying to straighten it out. Every time you go open the door, you just stare helplessly for about five minutes, and then go back inside. All you can think of to do is pray for a fire. Now suppose that is what your pile of unconfessed sin looks like. You are tempted to think that you have to remember everything that is in there first, and then set about cleaning it up.

But you don’t have to remember the sins you don’t remember—just confess the ones you do remember. The ones you stuffed just inside the garage door just last week. Don’t try to remember what is at the bottom of the pile; just look at what is on the top of the pile. If you deal with the sin you know about honestly, then God will cleanse you from all unrighteousness. The confessing is your job; the cleansing is His.

HONESTY

The central virtue here that of honesty. No blowing smoke at God. No spin control. No attempts to make yourself the flawed hero in this tragic affair. We saw that homologeo means to speak the same. If God calls it adultery, don’t you call it an affair or indiscretion. If God calls it grumbling and complaining, don’t you call it realism. If God calls it theft, don’t you call it shrewd business practice. As the Puritans might have put it, had they only thought of it, bs and honest confession accord not well together.

A FEW PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS

This is not meant to sound flippant. Sin is a ravening wolf, and has destroyed many things. If you have held back from confessing your sins because you know that to do so could threaten your marriage, or cost you your job, or get you expelled from college, you really do have a significant practical problem. I am not saying you should charge off and start confessing your sin like a loose cannon on deck. But you should decide today to deal with it honestly, and depending on how tangled up it is, get counsel and help today in putting things right. Commit yourself now. Busting yourself is the best thing you can do to rebuild trust with those you may have wronged.

And last, allow me to consider your feelings. You may feel like a hesitant cliff-diver, toes curled over the edge, and here I am poking you in the back with a stick. There are any number of things you might want to do—anything but jump. You might rationalize. “What I did wasn’t really wrong.” You might excuse. “What I did was not started by me.” You might postpone. “In my honest opinion, the best day for jumping will be sometime tomorrow afternoon.” You might blame somebody else, anybody else. “I think they should be here jumping, not me.” You might use vague terms to try jumping sideways along the cliff edge. “I think that, generally speaking, I have certainly sinned in some ways.”

It is easy to dismiss this kind of emphasis as morbid introspectionism, but actually it is the opposite. If you confess your sins, and lay aside the weight of that backpack, you never have to think about it again. Now, with it unconfessed, you think about it frequently.

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Flaming Judgment (2 Thess. #2)

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INTRODUCTION

The letter of Second Thessalonians was written shortly after the first letter. The purpose of the letter was to correct certain misunderstandings that the Thessalonians had about eschatology, and some might argue, to create some new misunderstandings for us. There are some challenges here.

THE TEXT

“Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 1:5–12).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The steadfastness of the Thessalonians while facing persecution was evidence given by God that He was going to judge the wickedness of the persecutors (v. 5). Their courage was a manifest token that we were going to be counted worthy of the kingdom, on behalf of which they were suffering. It was obvious that it would be righteous for God to punish those who were troubling the saints with real tribulation (v. 6). They will enter rest, along with Paul and company, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels (v. 7). They will bring the vengeance of flaming fire on those who do not know God, and who do not obey the gospel of Christ (v. 8). These people will be punished two ways—everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power (v. 9). When He comes, it will be so that He might be glorified in His saints (like the Thessalonians), and so that all who believed in response to Paul’s message might be amazed at Him (v. 10). That was the reason why Paul continued to pray that God would count them worthy of their calling, and that they might fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness, along with His work of faith with power (v. 11). The result will be a mutual glorification, Christ in them, and they in Christ (v. 12). This would all be in accord with the grace of God and Christ.

THE MAN OF LAWLESSNESS AWAITS

In the next chapter of this book, we are going to be dealing with one of the most complicated eschatological passages in all of Scripture. We are probably dealing with twenty percent more interpretations than we have interpreters, and the whole thing is very sad. We have a few intimations of these difficulties in this chapter, and so some words about it now are in order.

As I understand it, our fixed anchor point should be that all passages that address the general resurrection of the dead should be located at the end of history, when the Lord Jesus comes back to judge the living and the dead. That would include 1 Thess. 4:16-17, and it would also include 2 Thess. 1:7-10 and 2 Thess. 2:8. The challenge comes when we try to fit some of the surrounding statements on a timeline that appears to extend from the first century to the end of the world.

“(1) All the preliminary signs and the day of the Lord have already occurred; (2) All of the preliminary signs have occurred, so there is now nothing preventing the coming of the day of the Lord, but the day of the Lord has not yet come. (3) Some of the preliminary signs have either occurred or begun to occur, but since all of them have not yet occurred, the day of the Lord cannot come yet, and (4) None of the preliminary signs has yet occurred, so the day of the Lord still cannot come” (Mathison, From Age to Age, p. 521).

Like Mathison, my preference would be for the third option. The day of the Lord has not yet come, and yet Paul appears to be making clear reference at places to the sort of events that happened in the course of his lifetime. Remember that Caligula had attempted to have a statue of himself erected in the Temple at Jerusalem in 40 A.D. and only his murder prevented it.

TAKE CARE NOT TO MISS THE CENTRAL POINT

It would be a great mistake to get caught up in the study of when the flaming judgment was going to come, and neglect the fact of a flaming judgment that was going to come.

In this passage, we see who will be judged, and who will be vindicated. The Lord will appear in flaming fire, he says, and He will exact a strict vengeance when He does. This will fall on those who do not know God, and it will fall on those who did not obey the gospel (v. 8). What will be the nature of that damnation? The punishment is described here as an exclusion. They will be shut out from the presence of the Lord, and they will be shut out from the glory of His power (v. 9).

What is the gospel that commanded their obedience, and which they refused to render? That gospel is the message that Christ died, was buried, rose again, and ascended into Heaven. From that place, He summons all men to believe in Him. The work we must do is the work of hearing and following Him on the basis of His death and resurrection.

When we contrast those who are shut out with those believers who admire Him (v. 10), we can see the very nature of damnation and salvation. These are the states where we arrive at what we have been becoming. And this means that the very fact of Christ is a great invitation.

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The Power: The False Gospel of the Nanny State and the True Gospel of Mother Kirk

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Mercy is given to all of us by God, and we are to demonstrate that we grasp what we have been given by extending it to others. This mercy is to be relational, economic, personal, and more. Watch all six sessions on the ChristKirk app: bit.ly/christkirkapp.

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Covenant Life Together #1

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INTRODUCTION

One of the things that happens when you move into Reformed or Presbyterian settings is that you start hearing the word covenant a lot. I had a friend who once accused us of talking about covenant peanut butter and covenant jelly. He wasn’t wrong, but then again, neither were we.

THE TEXT

“The meek will he guide in judgment: And the meek will he teach his way. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies . . . The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; And he will shew them his covenant” (Psalm 25:9-10, 14).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The Scriptures are covenantal from front to back. The Old Testament is actually the Old Covenant, and the New Testament is the New Covenant. God made a covenant with Adam in the Garden, but Adam transgressed that covenant of life (Hos. 6:7). God made a covenant with mankind, promising not to inundate the world again (Gen. 9:8). God made a covenant with Abraham (Gen. 17:9), and we are gathered here this morning because the covenant-keeping God continues with His faithfulness (Rom. 4:13). And marriage is described as a covenant (Mal. 2:14; Prov. 2:17), not a mere contract. In short, our lives together in this community are a tight weave of covenantal bonds.

It is our responsibility to understand what this means. But if we must learn to judge rightly, it must begin with meekness (Ps. 25:9). If we are meek—teachable, humble, receptive—then God will teach us His way (v. 9). For those who learn what He is teaching, and who keep His covenant and testimonies, all His ways are mercy and truth (v. 10). This shows us that what we learn dictates the way it goes with us in the way as we walk there. We learn mercy and truth, and the Lord shows us mercy and truth as we walk in that way. A few verses later, we are told that the secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, which adds another component (v. 14). We are to fear God, walk before Him in meekness, and He will surround us with mercy and truth. And He will show us His covenant.

COVENANT BONDS

A covenant is bigger than the sum of its parts. A covenant is stronger than the mere agreement that caused the parties at the first to enter into it. The covenant over-arches everything, and exists in its own right. Your families are held together by covenant. This congregation is a covenant community. We are in covenant with all the saints all over the world, and every week we partake of the cup of the new covenant.

I said earlier that a covenant is not a “mere contract.” The signatories to a contract could together decide that neither of them wanted to be under contract anymore, and this means they could shake hands and be done with it. Smith didn’t have to deliver the widgets any more, and Jones didn’t have to pay for them. This is because the parties to a contract (mutually) have authority over it. But this is not true of a covenant. A landlord and a renter could mutually agree to tear up a lease, and nobody did anything wrong. However a man and woman could not decide that neither of them wanted to be married any more, and just walk away. A covenant has objective existence outside the current wishes of the parties.

The covenant of grace is like the peace of God—it passes understanding (Phil. 4:7). Also like the peace of God, it serves as a shield. Certain evil darts simply cannot get near you.

MULTITUDE OF SINS

Now one of the things we have commented on frequently is the fact our church community is enjoying extraordinary growth. We are grateful to God for it, and yet one of the first things we should reflect on and anticipate is the likelihood of increased friction and difficulty. Why would the devil want to leave us alone? “Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution” (Acts 6:1, NKJV).

A multitude of people means a multitude of sins. And why is God bringing us a multitude of sins? So that our love might have something to cover.

“Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins” (James 5:20).

“And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).

“Hatred stirreth up strifes: But love covereth all sins” (Prov. 10:12).

Love “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7).

FERVENT CHARITY AMONG YOURSELVES

This is Peter’s express instruction to us. Forbearance is characteristic of koinonia fellowship, and it grows out of fervent love, it flourishes because of fervent charity.

When a new member comes into fellowship with us, he is looking out over a sizeable lake of sins and foibles. Not only so, but he is bringing some new ones in. The next new member to come in after him will be looking out over a sizeable lake of sins and foibles, but one that is a little bigger now.

This is not an arrangement where we all come together once a week, with the implicit agreement that we will all pretend that nobody has ever struggled with anything. Not at all. That is not what church is supposed to be. The covenant community is not a place where nobody sins. Neither is it a place where everybody has acquiesced in their sin, surrendering to it.

THE CHRIST OF THE COVENANT

I said earlier that a covenant has objective reality outside the will of the parties to it. It would be more accurate to say that this objective reality is one of the parties to it—Christ is Lord of the covenant. He is the Head of the church, the new covenant community, but He is also involved in all our lesser covenants, such as marriage.

The reason we are able to love one another fervently, covering a multitude of sins, is because Christ is here.

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