Christ Church

When Our World Falls Apart

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THE TEXT

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”

4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” 9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

“‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
10 Make the heart of this people dull,
    and their ears heavy,
    and blind their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
    and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
    and turn and be healed.”
11 Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”
And he said:
“Until cities lie waste
    without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
    and the land is a desolate waste,
12 and the Lord removes people far away,
    and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
13 And though a tenth remain in it,
    it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak,
    whose stump remains
    when it is felled.”
The holy seed is its stump (Isa. 6:1–13).

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The Power of Sabbath-Driven Work

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INTRODUCTION

In the beginning God created everything as sheer gift, and He made the man and the woman at the tail end of that project and gave them work to do. But the first full day that Adam and Eve enjoyed together was the seventh day, the day God rested from all of His labors (Gen. 2:1-3). While Adam and Eve had no sins to be justified for on that first Sabbath day, it still functions as a type of what God is like, what His grace is like, and where Christian work always comes from.

THE TEXT

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it (Isaiah 58:13–14).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The prophet rebukes the people for fasting and afflicting themselves in superstitious ways, trying to manipulate God (Is. 58:3-5). The fast that God actually loves is the one in which heavy burdens are lifted, prisoners are set free, the hungry are fed, and the naked are clothed (Is. 58:6-7). This is how light breaks forth in a land, and these are the people God loves to listen to (Is. 58:8-10). God will be with those who seek to meet real needs, and He will make their bones fat and they will be like watered gardens, like springs of water to their communities (Is. 58:11). This is where Reformation comes from, and they will be known for it (Is. 58:12). They call the Sabbath a delight and delight themselves in the Lord (Is. 58:13-14).

FROM THE RIVER TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH

In Ezekiel 47, Ezekiel sees water running out over the threshold of the temple eastward (Ez. 47:1). That water runs out past the city gates, and after about a thousand cubits, it was ankle deep (Ez. 47:3). After another thousand cubits, it came up to a man’s waist (Ez. 47:4). And after another thousand, a man would have to swim through it (Ez. 47:5). Ezekiel is then told that those waters flow out to the desert and into the sea for the healing and life of the whole world (Ez. 47:6-12). Where does the water come from? And what is that water? The first question is easier to answer because the text tells us: the water is coming from the altar (Ez. 47:1). But the answer to the second question is available from the context: What does the water do? It heals everything it touches and gives life and fruitfulness (Ez. 47:8-9). And Jesus seems to give us a conclusive answer: “He that believeth in me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive…” (Jn. 7:38-39). Jesus (and His death and resurrection) is the altar of the New Covenant, and the living water is the Holy Spirit filling and spilling out of believers, like watered gardens.

WORK THAT IS JUSTIFIED BY FAITH

How does the Holy Spirit spill out of believers and refresh the land? Through joyful obedience and good works. But there is a massive difference between ascetic-driven good works and Sabbath-driven good works. One is a putrid pond; the other a life-giving stream. All people, but especially religious people, have a bad habit of trying to impress God and other people with “fasting” that is actually an elaborate charade of self-service (Is. 58:3, Mt. 6:16-18). There is a do-gooding spirit that wearies the doer and everyone around them and makes a spectacle that God completely ignores (Is. 58:4-5). This doesn’t mean God doesn’t want His people loosing bands of wickedness, lifting heavy burdens, setting captives free, feeding the hungry, or clothing the naked. But God wants that good work driven by delighting in Him and His rest (Is. 58:13-14). In fact, there is no other kind of good work. God only notices the work that is driven by delight in Him. And do not turn that delight into some grim duty.

Paul makes the same point in Titus, insisting that believers be ready for every good work, careful to maintain good works, learning to maintain good works that are needed to be fruitful in every way (Tit. 3:1, 8, 14). But right in the middle of those exhortations is the kindness and love of God our Savior Who, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, saved us, being justified by his grace, and made heirs of eternal life (Tit. 3:4-7). Justification by faith alone means that Christ’s obedience and death is received by God in our place as a free gift: our sins are imputed to Him and His righteous obedience is imputed to us, received by faith alone plus nothing (Gal. 3). Our job is to simply rest in it. But not only are we resting from our do-gooding to try to earn God’s favor or make up for our sins, we are actually resting in the fact that God has already accepted all of our works, our entire lives, for the sake of Christ alone (Eccl. 9:7, Tit. 3:5).

This means that all Christian work is done in joyful (restful) confidence since it is already accepted, already justified by His grace. This is why Christian work aims to loose burdens, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked. And while this certainly can and does include various forms of emergency aid and sacrifice, it ordinarily includes infrastructures of labor, business, savings accounts, budgets, and free markets. When God made the world and welcomed the first people into it, they had nothing, but what God prepared for them was a world full of good and profitable work. Just because it’s organized and planned and thoughtful toward the long term, doesn’t make it any less sacrificial or generous. Frequently it is more sacrificial and generous.

TOO GLAD

One of the slanders of the Puritans is that they were grumpy Sabbatarians and fussy prudes. But the reality is almost entirely the opposite. C.S. Lewis writes: “Whatever they [puritans] were they were not sour, gloomy, or severe; nor did their enemies bring any such charge against them… For More, a Protestant was one ‘drunk on the new must of lewd lightness of mind and vain gladness of heart’. Luther, he said, had made converts precisely because ‘he spiced all the poison’ with ‘liberty’. Protestantism was not too grim, but too glad to be true… Even when we pass on… to Calvin himself we shall find an explicit rejection of that ‘uncivil and froward philosophy’ which ‘alloweth us in no use of creatures save that which is needful, and going about (as it were in envy) to take from us the lawful enjoyment of God’s blessings… When God created food, ‘He intended not only the supplying of our necessities but delight and merriment’ (hilaritas)” (English Literature in the 16th Century, 34-35). If Christians are to be accused of anything in their work it should be that we are excellent at everything we do but far too happy.

CONCLUSION

The center of Sabbath keeping is the glad worship of the Triune God on the Lord’s Day: remembering the New Creation and the Greater Exodus accomplished by Jesus. But that joy really should overflow into our homes and lives in joyful celebration of all His good gifts. Understood rightly and under God’s providential blessing, there is an ever-increasing cycle of gladness set off by regeneration. In Christ, we are ushered into a new creation, and whereas the Old Creation ended in a day of rest, the New Creation begins with rest. So we work out of our rest in Christ. Under God’s blessing, you can truly do more in six days than in seven. While grim fear, threats, and envy may make people scramble, only glad grace drives good work.

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On Trampling the Courts of God

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Introduction

In a recent press conference, the president said that his desire was to have our country emerge from this crisis in a matter of weeks, not months, and that it was his desire for the churches of our country to be packed out on Easter.

This is a laudable desire on at least two levels, and we should support and applaud it, as I do. But there is something more that still needs to be said about it. Packed churches are better than empty churches, but in themselves are not nearly enough.

The Text

“‘The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider.’ Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward” (Isaiah 1:3–4, NKJV).

“Hear the word of the Lord, You rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the law of our God, You people of Gomorrah: ‘To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?’ says the Lord. ‘I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats. When you come to appear before Me, who has required this from your hand, to trample My courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them” (Isaiah 1:10–14, NKJV).

Summary of the Text

As Isaiah opens his magisterial book, he immediately confronts the great sinfulness of Israel. But even though they have been greatly compromised, it is a corrupt nation that has kept up the formalities. They have kept up appearances. So Isaiah begins by pulling back the curtain, stating clearly that they have badly strayed. They are a sinful nation. They are laden with iniquity. They are a brood of evil-doers, corrupters. They have forsaken the Lord, and made the Holy One of Israel angry. They have turned away backward (vv. 3-4).

So hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom on the Potomac (v. 10). Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah on the Hudson (v. 10). What is it to me if the churches are packed out on Easter (v. 11)? Who asked all you people to come in here to trample my courts (v. 12)? Your prayers, your offerings, your songs, your stupid songs are an abomination to me (v. 13). And why? Because God is holy and cannot endure iniquity combined with sacred assembly (v. 13). Our packed churches are a trouble to Him (v. 14), like so much smoke in the eyes.

Amos speaks in much the same way. Away with the noise of your songs (Amos 5:21–23, NKJV). Get them out of my hearing.

The Mystery of Lawlessness

There is such a thing as being hellbent. And when people are hellbent on their sin, God could write His judgments in the sky in big block letters, and they would stare stubbornly down at the ground rather than read such pure words. “And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tonguesfor pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds” (Rev. 16:10–11).

But how does this apply to our text, and to our situation? The 2 trillion stimulus relief bill—quite aside from whether that was a good idea—was held up in part because the secularists wanted it to include relief for Planned Parenthood. And California, which has all non-essential services in lock down, has seen fit to allow pot shops and abortion clinics to remain open as “essential.” You must stay at home unless your job is that essential one of dismembering babies. It is hard to comprehend what is more ghoulish—the fact that they do things like this, or the fact that they think it is not ghoulish.

You may believe that the danger we are confronting is that of the coronavirus. You may believe that the great danger we are confronting is the panicked official over-reaction to the virus. Or you may believe, as I do, that it is a combination of the two, with heavy emphasis on the latter. But if you are a Christian, whatever you believe the threat to be, you must also believe that it is a threat that was delivered to us by the hand of God. “If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it?” (Amos 3:6, NKJV).

Now, let us suppose that God lifts His hand from us in His great mercy, and by mid-May things have returned to normal. In mid-May we will be just days away from June, designated as Pride Month, a time of LGBTQ celebrations. Wouldn’t it be better to call it Dog Returning His Vomit Month?

Really? Seriously? Do such rebels really think that a respite would not be the mercy of God? They would much rather think of a much simpler explanation—like God running out of ammunition perhaps? This is like Pharaoh thinking, when the plague of frogs was removed, that Jehovah had somehow run out of frogs. “But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.” (Ex. 8:15). And though God did not repeat the frogs, it was not because He was out of them. It was because He intended to use the rest of His arsenal.

This is a Godquake

As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, keep your eyes on what He is doing, not on what our grand poohbahs think they are doing. And above all, do not look at what your own fearful heart is doing.

“And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:27–29

Asking God to Do What It Takes

Moral stubbornness is a great mystery. When the United States obliterated Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 with an atomic bomb, it is not often remarked that this one devasting bomb was not sufficient to get the Japanese to surrender. That had to wait for the obliteration of another city, Nagasaki, three days later. Taking this simply as an illustration, what should your prayer in this extraordinary time be? Your prayer should be that God would do what it takes to get us to surrender to Him. We don’t want God to just bomb just one city and then leave us to our corruptions.

“If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.” Ex. 15:26 (KJV)

Earlier in this chapter from Exodus, the people of Israel had just been celebrating their deliverance from Egypt in the great Red Sea miracle. Three days later they came to the waters of Marah, which were bitter and undrinkable. Moses made the waters sweet by throwing a particular tree into the water, and then he made a statute or ordinance for them, whereby (it says) he tested them. And then he gave them the words of our text, which begin with a series of conditionals. If they diligently hearkened to the voice of God, if they did what was right in His sight, if they paid close attention to His commandments, and obeyed His statutes, then what? Then the diseases of Egypt, which were commonplace enough there to be called by that name, would not be visited upon Israel. We see here that God’s governance of the world is personal. These things are entirely in His hand. The world is not governed by deaf, dumb and blind microbes (Ex. 15:26). Our problem in all this is that we have offended God.

“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty . . . There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.” Ps. 91: 1, 10 (KJV)

And in this text from Psalm 91, we see that the Almighty casts a shadow, and in that shadow is a secret place, a hiding place. The person who resorts there is one who must dwell there, he must abide there. And the shadow that is cast there is cast by the great Rock, who is Christ. In that resting place, the plague of self-sufficiency and pride will not come near you. Christ drives all of that away.

The Sum of the Matter

So if this Easter simply sees our churches packed with Americans, that by itself would be the greatest disaster out of this long series of disasters. But we should long to see the churches packed out with repentant Americans. When we look at the corruption centers called our state capitals, not to mention our national capital, the problem is not that these people represent us. Our problem, to be pondered deeply, is that they represent us well.

And so if the Lord lifts His hand from us, then our behavior after that point, unlike Pharaoh, must be different. But it will only be different if we have seen Christ in the interim.

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What It Means to be Forgiven

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Introduction

When we are forgiven for our sins, there are two aspects to it. First we are delivered, definitively, all at once, from the penalty of sin. You need to think of this as though the angel of the Lord Himself was appointed as the foreman of your jury, and he entered the heavenly courtroom and read out the verdict. Pointing to the altar where Jesus sprinkled His own blood, he says, in a bright clear voice that the whole cosmos hears, “not guilty.” This is forgiveness proper.

But we are also delivered from the power of sin. There is a stark break with what might be called reigning sin (Gal. 5:24), which is followed by a progressive and unrelenting campaign against all remaining sin (Col. 3:5; Rom. 8:13).

The Text

Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lordhath spoken it (Is. 1:10-20).

Summary of the Text

The message I have entrusted to deliver to you is a message of free grace, radical grace, nothing but grace. The message of the cross of Jesus, and the resurrection of the Christ, is a message of everlasting and undeserved kindness. That being the case, and because our thought processes are so corrupted by sin, we have a hard time getting our minds around what God is offering us.

Either we say that God is the only lifeguard, and so He must be saving us from drowning by leaving us on the bottom of the pool, or we acknowledge that we must be saved from drowning by getting out of the pool, and concluding that we must by our own efforts help the lifeguard to save us. Being saved by grace means being saved by grace from sin (Rom. 6:14). Being under law means being under condemnation for those sins that have you in bondage. Being under grace means you are liberated from that.

Consider how the prophet Isaiah presents this glorious reality. First, he addresses the Jews under the figure of Sodom and Gomorrah (v. 10). He asks the first what their intentions were in bringing Him sacrifices (v. 11). He asks them (sarcastically) who required you to show up here in my courts (v. 12). He tells them to pack up all their liturgical gear, and get out (v. 13). Solemn meetings and iniquity do not go together. God hates their religiosity (v. 14). When they spread out their hands in a pious gesture, God turns away. Their hands are covered with blood (v. 15). Repent, turn away, learn a different way (vv. 16-17). And then comes the glorious promise—a promise that only God could fulfill (v. 18). God makes them a most reasonable offer. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though their sins be like crimson, they shall be like wool. The sins are blood red; the salvation is blood red; the forgiveness is pure white.

If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land (v. 19). If you are stubborn and kick, then you will be destroyed (v. 20).

Forgiven Means Forgiving

A sheep bleats because it is a sheep. But you don’t become a sheep bybleating. An apple tree produces apples because it is an apple tree. But a bramble bush can’t become an apple tree bygrowing apples. A person rescued from the bottom of the pool will be dried off, but we don’t hand him a towel on the bottom of the pool.

And forgiven people forgive. That is just what happens.

“Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven” (Luke 6:37).

“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even asGod for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32).

This is how absolute forgiveness is simultaneously absolute grace, free grace, and at the same time is morally rigorous. This is because God does not just give us cleansing from the defilement of sin, but also from the power of sin to defile. He gives us more, not less.

What It Is Like

“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord” (Is. 54:17).

“I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressionsfor mine own sake, and will not rememberthy sins. Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: Declare thou, that thou mayest be justified” (Is. 43:25–26).

“Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, And passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, Because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; And thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:18–19).

“As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressionsfrom us” (Ps. 103:12).

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