Christ Church

No Other Gods

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Introduction

The preface of the Ten Commandments is all about freedom, but it is easy to hear the words that we’ve heard so many times and not hear the gospel, the good news that we have only one God (Ex. 20:1-4). But it was and is radically good and wonderful news to hear that there is only one God, and He has revealed Himself in Jesus.

The Text

Paul is dealing with Judaizers and other syncretists who want to add other things to Jesus. But when Christ is received, He is always received as Lord and not merely an assistant, and that is how Christians walk (2:6). If we are rooted in Him, then we grow up in and through faith in Him (2:7). There are always philosophical fads and theological fashions being offered to trick the simple, but this is always to deny the fullness of the divinity of Jesus (2:8-9). For Paul, the Godness of Jesus means that we are complete, not lacking anything in Him (2:10). If Jesus is God and we have been given Jesus, then we have been given everything because He is the head of all principality and power. Paul insists that everything the Judaizers think Gentiles need, they already have in the cross of Christ (2:11-14). This is how and why the principalities and powers have been disarmed and triumphed over (2:15). While we may be tempted to think that Paul has a severe case of ADD, what follows is actually directly related to Paul’s point. When Paul speaks of the fullness of God in Christ, he is thinking about all of the mundane details of life, what we eat and drink and wear and watch and listen to and talk about. Every culture is full of principalities and powers: the influences, the gods and celebrities that lead the masses, politicians and judges, athletes and stars in their courses. These are the powers which either serve King Jesus or not. But we are not under them because they are under Christ, and we are seated with Him in the heavenly places (3:1-3, cf. Eph. 1:20-21, 2:5-6). And this is where we wrestle against them (Eph. 6:12). But this struggle does not primarily occur in another dimension; because we have the Spirit we bring the heavenly places with us wherever we go and this means that we must not allow others to judge us in food or drink or festivals or sabbaths (Col. 2:16). The best of those merely pointed to Christ and the worst are cheats (2:17-18). Submission to the regulations of the gods is always slavery to human regulations, ‘do not touch, do not taste, do not handle…’ (2:20-22) which may seem reasonable or even wise, but they do not really nourish us (2:19, 23). But we were raised with Christ, our lives are hidden with Christ in God, and therefore, we must learn to see our lives and this world, looking through heaven (3:1-3).

No Other Gods

This statement is not condemnation in the first instance; this is the proclamation of liberty. “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him.” This is good news. This is good news because the gods of health food fads are under Christ. This is good news because the gods of cool are under Christ. This is good news because the gods of politics and power are under Christ. And we do not live in fear of what any of the gods think. But living under fear is slavery to some pharaoh, whether they are friends or foes. But the servants of Pharaoh will always end up acting like Pharaoh (Ps. 115:4-8). If you live in fear of what others will think about your decisions, you are living in slavery, and sooner or later you will begin to enslave others. But the one true God calls you to freedom.

This means obeying where the Lord has spoken, seeking the Lord and godly counsel, and then living like the world is ours. This doesn’t guarantee a risk-free life, but we walk by faith. And we rejoice in the freedom of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We have no other gods.

Free to Love

In the cross, Paul says that Jesus “disarmed principalities and powers and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.” The “it” refers to the cross or Jesus on the cross, but the point is that the powers have no power and they were put to shame at the cross. This is true in at least two ways: First, in the cross the powers of this world did their very best and still failed. The political process, religious authority, violent coercion, popular opinion, even the grasp of money could not undo the cross; they merely played into the plan (1 Cor. 2:8). And second, in the crucifixion the powers were shown to be tyrants and killers, and our God was proven to be a faithful husband and friend, giving His life up for us (1 Jn. 4:10). One way to tell the story of the Exodus is the mission of God to teach Israel how to reveal Him. He comes to His own and to the Egyptians so that they may know that He is Yahweh (Ex. 5:2, 6:7, 7:5, 17, 8:22, etc.), and this revelation culminates in the Passover where blood is displayed and shed, disarming the power of Egypt. From there, God takes Israel into the wilderness to teach them how to live like Him, and at the center of that life is a bloody altar. But if Israel has learned the lesson of Passover, they know that the shed blood means freedom. And in Christ we have seen the revelation of God’s love and power in a far greater way, and this equips us to love like that.

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KJV 400

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Introduction

As you all no doubt have noticed, I preach from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV). This version is also sometimes referred to as the Authorized Version (AV), being authorized by King James I of England. This edition of the Bible came out in 1611, making the year 2011 its 400th birthday. I thought that this would be a suitable occasion for me to explain this particular pulpit oddity of mine. And if anyone does not pay attention to this explanation, what goeth on, he wots not.

The Texts

“What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God” (Rom. 3:1-2).

“But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15).

Summary of the Texts

In the Romans text, Paul mentions in passing that one of the privileges that the Jews had was that they had been entrusted with the oracles of God, very plainly referring to the Old Testament Scriptures. In the transition between the covenants, clearly the responsibility for the New Testament would not lie with unbelieving Israel, with the Israel that had rejected and crucified the Messiah. No, the covenant, and all attendant covenantal responsibilities, were transferred over to the Christian Church, the new Israel of God (Gal. 6:16). This church is the church of the living God, and is responsible to support the truth. This would naturally include the repository of all God’s revealed truth—the Scriptures.

Four Basic Issues

There are four basic issues when it comes to selection of a Bible translation, and we will consider each one of them in turn. The first is the one already alluded to—who is responsible for the task of guarding “the oracles of God”? Is the church, or some other entity? The second is which manuscripts are being translated. The third has to do with translation philosophy. And the fourth has to do with intelligibility for the modern reader.

Responsibility

As it currently stands, the decision to release a new translation of the Bible is a decision that is made between academics and businessmen. A corporation or business decides that the market will bear yet another translation, and they sign up experts in the original languages, usually men from the academy. The church is viewed as the target marketing demographic, and is not seen as an entity that has anything whatever to say about the translation or publication of a new Bible. The sure fire sign of this is the fact that new translations are all copyrighted. The KJV is in the public domain.

Manuscripts

The earliest complete manuscripts belong to a different manuscript “family” than do the thousands of later manuscripts which are spread around the ancient world much more broadly, and which were in common use down to the invention of the printing press. Let us call the two basic families the Alexandrian and the Byzantine (sometimes called the textus receptus). The KJV is based on the Byzantine and almost all modern translations are based on the Alexandrian. When we consider it carefully, nothing is more apparent than that this is actually the “battle of the paradigms.” In some respects, this is very much like the reconstruction of the evolutionary fossil tree, 98 percent of which is missing. The Byzantine text type is a very broad river which we can trace to about a century after the narrow river called the Alexandrian.

Two of complete Alexandrian manuscripts are held up as the closest exemplars of what the NT autographs supposedly contained. But they differ between themselves in the Gospels over 3,000 times, and they are about 300 years after the autographs. To applaud them therefore as the “most reliable” means that reliability is an elastic term. This means scholars are not really submitting to the authority of the Alexandrian texts, but rather are using them to overthrow any idea of a settled textual authority. This gives them room to speculate in a scholarly way.

Dynamic or Formal

Suppose we agree on which manuscript family we translate from. There is still quite a bit of diversity possible. Translations can range from very strict, and formal, trying to reproduce the original wording as much as possible, or they can be very breezy. This debate is between the school of dynamic equivalence and formal equivalence. There is a spectrum on this of course, but here is a drastic example:

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful” (Ps. 1:1, KJV).
“How well God must like you—you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon, you don’t slink along Dead-End Road, you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College” (Ps. 1:1, The Message)

Thees and Thous

This is the one place where the KJV lies at a disadvantage. There are many archaic words and expressions which are widely misunderstood. For example, we see many people, even today, who believe that thees and thous are pronouns for talking to God—as though they were spiritual talk. But thou is actually singular, while you is plural.

At the same time, for those who want to write ably and well, ignorance of the cadences of the KJV is no more reasonable than ignorance of Shakespeare.

Recommendations

So as you are choosing a Bible, I would recommend that you limit your choices to these. And I recommend you grade them accordingly.

Let’s look at four translations, and give each of them four grades, for responsibility, manuscript, translation, and readability respectively. The KJV would A, A, A, and C. The NKJV would get F, A, B, and A. The ESV would get F, C, B, and A. And the NASB would get F, C, B, and B.

At the same time, don’t fret about all this. Trust God in two respects. The first area is that if God providentially preserved His Word throughout all history, as the Westminster Confession puts it, He didn’t quit preserving it in our day. So don’t worry about the Bible. And secondly, trust God by actually reading your Bibles. This issue must not be an academic one for you—as in, what translation of the Bible is sitting untouched on your shelf?

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State of the Church 2011

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Introduction

One of the customs we have in this congregation is that of having a “state of the church” message around the first of the year. Sometimes the message focuses on the local state of the church, and sometimes on the state of the national church. And sometimes, like today, it focuses on both.

The Text

“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11).

Summary of the Text

The Jesus submitted Himself fully to the will of His Father in heaven. He did this even to the point of a humiliating death on the cross. God honors the story, and most of all in the central story that He writes. Because Jesus submitted Himself to death on a cross—for the sins of the world—God has therefore exalted Him highly (v. 9). He has given Him a name that is above every name (v. 9). This is not isolated off in some “spiritual zone.” The name of Jesus has been established such that every knee should bow—in heaven, on earth, and in the subterranean places (v. 10). Knees will bend everywhere. And every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (v. 11).

What Lordship Means

We do not confess that Jesus is the Silent Lord. When we confess His lordship, we then wait upon Him. The next thing that happens is that He tells us what to do, and how to live. He does not just tell us what to do or how to live in a very own personal lives. He tells all the knees that bowed, and all the tongues that confessed, what He wants them to do now. This is what He meant by “teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28: 20). We don’t just confess. He speaks also . . . authoritatively.

Inescapable Discipline

Before the final culmination of all things, in this fallen world, we always have to deal with competing words from competing lords. Because a man cannot serve two masters, these competing words will always be on a collision course. We have, in this past year, seen one such collision in principle. When the Congress repealed the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy for the military, they were not just lifting discipline, they were imposing it.

The public debate over this issue reveals that virtually no one understands what is going on. The absence of discipline is impossible in any society, still less in the military. This means that this question is a “not whether but which” question. It means that it is not whether we will discipline servicemen in terms of a sexual ethic, but rather which servicemen we will discipline in terms of a sexual ethic. In other words, it is not whether we will have a set of imposed sexual standards for the military, but rather which standards they will be. As Lenin once put it, with much more insight than our current rulers, “Who? Whom?”

The public discussion of all this, in its sophomoric talking points way, addressed whether straight servicemen are willing to “serve alongside” their openly homosexual peers. This question would obviously include evangelical Christians. But this is not the question at all. Anybody who has spent any time in the military knows that it is not a bastion of righteous behavior. If you join, you will serve alongside fornicators and drunks, and you will learn how to work together with them. Adding patriotic poofters to the mix is a non-issue, and barely worth discussing.

The issue is this. Homosexual behavior in the ranks is now being considered as a protected and honorable lifestyle choice. This means that if an evangelical Christian witnesses to his crewmates, and he says that Jesus died to liberate them from their sins, and somebody says, “Like what, fer instance,” he can still say “drunkenness, cocaine use, gambling away your family’s paycheck, sleeping with hookers, laziness, stealing, adultery, and so on.”

But if he now includes sodomy, then if someone complains about him (and someone most certainly will), the witnessing Christian will be subject to the discipline of the service. The fact that he was witnessing on his own time will be as irrelevant as the fact that the homosexuals used to cruise the bars on their own time.

What This Means

We have many in our congregation who have served in the military, and we have others who are currently serving. The evangelical contingent in the American military is large, and not insignificant. And so we must understand what has happened.

All militaries have to have oaths of allegiance. This too is inescapable. It matters to the Christian whether false gods are attached to that oath. The presence of false gods can be detected through the presence of false law. That is what we have here. Now the ancient Christians in Rome faced a greater obstacle to military service in the idolatrous oath of allegiance than in the question of fighting and killing. Look at the Old Testament—what was the bigger problem, idols or fighting? Right.

But in our case, the problem is not the oath itself, but what the handlers of the oath have now determined that it must mean. This means that what you think “defending the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic” means, and what they think it means, will be two entirely differently things. Bottom line, this means that Christians who decide to serve must be prepared to wreck their careers over this issue. This has always been true, but the odds were long. Now it will be present in every unit. Rather than put up with this, staying away from that Hobson’s choice is an honorable thing to do. But if you sign up with every intent of keeping your head down, with an “ain’t gonna witness to anybody” mentality, then you are timid little creature. And you shouldn’t join the military in order to become a moral coward.

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Defining History

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Introduction

We have all enjoyed the anticipation of another Christmas, and we are still in a celebratory moment—a Lord’s Day celebration the day after Christmas. But we don’t ever want this celebration to drift off point—this is not the armistice day of a long-forgotten war. This war is on-going, and we celebrate this decisive point in the war as a means of continuing the faithful battle.

The Text

“And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him. And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:25-35).

Summary of the Text

After the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary brought Jesus up to the Temple to do for Him what the law required (v. 27). There was a just and devout man there named Simeon, and the Holy Spirit was upon him (v. 25). He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and it had been revealed to him that he would not die before he had seen this consolation, the Messiah himself (vv. 25-26). The Spirit brought him into the Temple, and he came up to Joseph and Mary, took the baby in his arms, and blessed God (v. 28). His first word considered what God had promised to him (vv. 29-32), which is that he would see God’s salvation, a light for the Gentiles and the glory of Israel (v. 32). Joseph and Mary were both amazed (v. 33). And his second word was a word of blessing for Joseph and Mary, and he turned and said something to Mary in particular (v. 34). Remember this is all in the context of a blessing. The child is set for the fall and rise of many in Israel, a sign that will be spoken against (v. 34), a sword will pierce through Mary’s soul (v. 35), and the thoughts of many will be revealed (v. 35). The definition of history, which we will consider today, is all wrapped up in this blessing for Mary.

Four Elements

There are four elements to this blessing, which we will consider in turn:

    • The fall and rise of many in Israel;
    • A sign that will be spoken against;
    • A soul piercing grief for Mary;
    • And the thoughts of many revealed.

Falling and Rising

History is a story. It unfolds and develops, and this means that the characters involved are going somewhere. The last chapter will differ from the first. Because this is a long story, this happens in cycles. Because of what Scripture teaches us throughout, there are only two ways for this to go. They are fall and rise, or rise and fall. It is either death, resurrection, and glory, or it is glory, pride, and death.

And at each stage of this development, we have the setting for the alternative. If history were frozen, we could have static good guys and bad guys. But those who fall and rise might need to fall again. These things were written for us as an example, on whom the ends of the ages have come (1 Cor. 10:11). “Don’t be that guy” in the story is a reminder that is constantly necessary. Pope Alexander VI should have been more interested in Caiaphas than he was. Yesterday’s poor, now delivered, are tomorrow’s wealthy, who therefore need to hear the warnings.

A Sign to be Resisted

Jesus is to be a “sign” that is spoken against. Signs carry meaning, and when someone speaks against such a sign they are saying, “No, that’s not what it means.” But when God gives a sign, He gives it with a meaning that is plain. The culmination of this sign was the resurrection of Jesus, by which He was declared to be the Son of God (Rom. 1:4). This divine Sonship means that Jesus will judge the world at the culmination of human history (Acts 17: 31), and that He is the prophet, priest and king over all things now (Ps. 2:8).

Grief is Real

We have every reason to believe that Mary is among the witnesses of the resurrection (Acts 1:14). But she knew, long before this, that the supernatural had invaded our world. George Herbert has a poem where he plays on the letters in the words Mary and Army, and says that this was fitting, for there it was that God pitched his tent (John 1:14). Mary knew she was a virgin, Mary knew what Simeon told them here in our text, she knew what the angel had said, and more. So she knew that the cross was not the end of the story—but it was true grief in the story nonetheless. Knowing we are in a story does not prevent real story grip from happening. A sword went straight through Mary’s soul—and she knew that it was coming years in advance.

Thoughts Revealed

We want to keep the thoughts of our hearts bottled up. As long as they are there, deep inside, we may pretend that we are the lord of them. No one else knows our spites, our petty adulteries, our bitterness. We keep them under our tongue, like a sweet morsel. The doctrine of God’s omniscience refutes this, but we have learned how to keep our doctrines up in the heavens. But Jesus . . . He has come down. He lived among us. His presence reveals, like nothing else can reveal, the thoughts and intents of our hearts. Not by projecting them onto a screen, but rather by showing the world whether we are drawn to Him, or repulsed by Him. From the moment Simeon spoke those fateful words, the winnowing has been in effect. It is come to Jesus, or go away. In Him is light, and away from Him is only darkness.

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Joy to the World

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Introduction

In this world, joy is a bedrock sort of thing—and not the froth at the top of a wave. Joy is deep satisfaction in the will of God, and this must be coupled with a recognition of the reality that God’s will is everywhere and in everything. There is no place where we may go and be allowed to murmur or despair in that place because God’s will is somehow “not there.” In the carol we sing about joy to the world, we are dealing with the reality of sins and sorrows that grow, of thorns that infest the ground, and nations that need to have the glories of His righteousness proved. That proof will be found in our faith.

The Text

“Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet. 1:6-9).

Summary of the Text

The apostle Peter is exhorting believers who are facing significant trials. We still live in a world filled with trouble, and so what he says to them will apply to us also. When confronted with the weight of manifold temptations, our response should be that of “greatly” rejoicing (v. 6). When we are tried, our faith is tried (v. 7). Our faith is tried because God is a goldsmith. When the goldsmith plunges gold into the fire, it is not because he hates the gold, but because he loves the gold enough to want to purify it of its dross (v. 7). When the goldsmith beats the gold, it is not because he has contempt for the gold. He has a crown in mind. This analogy applies more to your faith than to gold (which ultimately perishes), and the goal is to have a faith that praises, honors, and glories at the coming of Jesus Christ (v. 7). You have not seen Him, Peter says, but you love Him (v. 8). You have not seen Him, but you nonetheless believe, and you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory (v. 8). You are striving to obtain the end of your faith (which is constantly being purified by troubles), and that final purpose is the salvation of your souls (v. 9).

The Problem

Christmas should not be treated by us as the “denial season.” One of the reasons why so many families have so many tangles and scenes during the “holidays” is that everybody expects sentimentalism to fix everything magically. But Christmas is not a “trouble-free” season. We want the scrooges and grinches in our lives to be transformed by gentle snowfall, silver bells, beautifully arranged evergreens, hot cider, and carols being sung in the middle distance. But what happens when you gather together with a bunch of other sinners, and all of them have artificially inflated expectations? What could go wrong? When confronted with the message of sentimentalism, we really do need somebody who will say, “Bah, humbug.”

Joy Unspeakable

Peter is not referring to someone living in the back of a cave, having mystic fits. That is not what is meant by “joy unspeakable.” It is not “cloud of unknowing,” or an orgy of pseudo-enlightenment in the back of your eyeballs. These words are written to believers in the midst of persecution and trial. Pain concentrates the mind. Pain tethers you to this world, and the rope is a stout one. But at the same time, the grace of God enables you to look along the pain, to look down the entire length of the trial, and to see the purpose and point of it all. For the unbelieving observer off to the side, watching you, there is no explanation that can make sense of it.

This is how God works. It is His way. “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7). The peace of God is an invisible shield, one which others cannot see. This is why it passes their understanding. They see that your hearts and minds are protected, but they cannot see how.

Note that your hearts and minds are not the shield, and they are not set up to protect the peace of God. The peace of God is no frail thing, needing your help to keep it from being smashed. The peace of God is an impenetrable helmet, and your contentment is your head. It protects you, not the other way around.

Faith like Refined Gold

Faith can do this, even though it may do it imperfectly. Gold is gold, even with dross in it. The first round purifies the faith, so that you can see and understand the process. That faith thus purified is prepared for the next round— even if the fire is more intense, or the difficulties more severe. The point is not to avoid the process.

Joy to the World

So the message of Christmas is not a delusional message. We are not pretending that we live in a world that is not struggling under a curse. The doctor who applies medicine to a wound is not pretending the wound is non-existent. The craftsman who repairs a smashed piece of expensive furniture is not denying the damage. His presence presupposes the damage. The refiner’s fire does not exclude the reality of dross—it is excluding the dross in another way. The Incarnation is God’s opening salvo in His war on our sins. The presence of sin should no more be astonishing than the presence of Nazis fighting back at Normandy.

View the world with the eye of a Christian realism. The turning of seasons makes no one better. The gentle fall of snow removes no sin. The hanging of decorations only makes a living room full of sin sadder. As Jesus once put it, “Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? (Matt. 23:17). Which is more important, the hat or the cattle? The foam or the beer? The gift or the altar? The gold paper stamp on the Christmas card or the gold coin of your faith?

If our hearts are decorated with the refined gold of a true faith, we may therefore decorate everything else. If they are not, then what’s the point? Joy is fundamentally realistic—which is why unbelief thinks of it as insane.

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