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Hidden in the Lord (Survey of Isaiah #36) (CC Troy)

Lindsey Gardner on

ISAIAH 26

1 In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.

2 Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.

3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

4 Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength:

5 For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.

6 The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.

7 The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just.

8 Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.

9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

10 Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.

11 Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.

12 Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.

13 O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.

14 They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.

15 Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth.

16 Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.

17 Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O Lord.

18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.

21 For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

 

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A Ziggurat of the Unborn (Politics in the Pulpit #2) (CC Downtown)

Lindsey Gardner on

INTRODUCTION

The conservative Christian cause emerged victorious on many levels this week. But one of the most important principles of warfare is to not get lost in the fog of victory and give way to gathering spoil before the enemy is entirely scattered. God has kindly given us a tailwind for advancing Biblical justice and truth in the civic sphere. The enemies of God have made it plain that they will not renounce or retreat from the need to heartlessly destroy the unborn. Victory is not permission to set down your weapons. Rather, it is the best opportunity to press our advantage.

 

THE TEXT

Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.
Isaiah 49:15

 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Isaiah foretold the various exiles that were approaching both Israel and Judah for their rebellion and idolatry. When the just calamities arrived, Zion would be tempted to ask whether God had forgotten them. To answer this, Isaiah, by the Spirit’s inspiration, gives one of the most tender statements of God’s mercy which is found in Scripture. God summons to mind the image of a nursing mother tenderly cherishing the son of her womb. God points at that and asks a question. Could a mother treat the child which was knit in her womb with disdainful indifference? Could a nursing mother forget to kiss those sweet cheeks, or to nurture the vulnerable life of her infant?

The picture of a woman nurturing her child is a true picture. It is feminine glory. To mar that image is to mar femininity itself. Nevertheless, there have always been horrific instances of women who neglect, abandon, or even slay their young child (Cf. Deu. 28:56-57). Such mothers may vandalize this painting, but the Painter of that image, which is the Truth behind that image, will not and cannot mar it. God declares to Zion that He will not forget her.

The consequences for our sin may cause us to think God has forsaken and forgotten us. But the wonder of the Gospel is found in this incomprehensible mercy of God. He will not forget. He has graven the name of His people upon the palms of His hand. The Gospel, as presented here in Isaiah, requires a true portrait of maternal and feminine glory. For that image is a shadow of the true mercy found in the heart of God the Father towards the Church.

 

THE HORROR WE DON’T ABHOR

Therefore, the horror of abortion which we have culturally tolerated is an affront to the very Gospel. It is not a long and involved argument to show from Scripture that human life begins at conception in the womb of the mother. Jeremiah was set apart by the Lord from the womb (Jer. 1:5). Moses’ Law applied lex talionis for the crime of striking a woman and causing her to miscarry (Ex. 21:22-25). In both the story of Jacob & Esau doing jiujitsu in Rebekah’s womb, along with the story of John the Baptist leaping at the voice of Mary, who was already pregnant with Jesus, we see undeniable evidence that life begins in the womb. Not only that but significant theological categories are established in these stories. Many Psalms praise the providential hand of God knitting us together within our mother’s womb, and being our covenant God from our conception. The incarnation of Christ in Mary’s womb requires us to affirm that the union of God with human flesh took place at the holy conception.

But our nation has insisted that the authoritative Word need not shape how we think about life in the womb. We have chosen instead to draw an arbitrary line the sand for when life is viable according to the expertise of the all-wise and never fallible physician. For instance, Arizona passed a constitutional amendment enshrining the right of every individual to abort their child before “fetal viability” which they define this way: “Fetal viability” means the point in pregnancy when, in the good faith judgment of a treating health care professional and based on the particular facts of the case, there is a significant likelihood of the fetus’s sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.

The white lab coats of the medical industry have become the robes of a priestly class. It is by their omens and priestcraft that it can be discerned when a child must be sacrificed to the gods. Our nation has refused the Word of God and has submitted to the word of health care professionals.

 

THE TENDER MERCIES OF THE WICKED

The abomination that is abortion demonstrates that truth of Proverbs 12:10 that the tendermercies of the wicked are cruel. When God made an image of Himself He made man with righteousness, knowledge, spiritual life, and authority. Genesis teaches that image is displayed in both male and female, not male alone. This is because in the union of husband and wife there is the possibility of the conception of more image bearers. The womb of the woman is where those image bearers are seemingly brought out of nothingness into being.

The wicked feign compassion for women’s rights. Yet their mercy is as a tender as a bludgeon. Their compassion is as soft as a brick to the back of the head. They have persuaded an entire generation of women to despise the glory of bearing in their wombs a being which will exist forever. A being whose purpose is to hymn God’s praise for everlasting days, dwelling in the joy of God’s joyful life and light. The progressives and squishy conservatives have deluded themselves into thinking that women can determine to snuff out such a life without any eternal consequence or guilt. Mothers are told they can crush that skull, dismember that body, poison it with saline, turn it away through a blockade of pills and not bear any guilt or shame.

We might stand astonished at the tales of gruesome horror from ages and cultures in the past like Nineveh or the Aztecs. But we daily erect a ziggurat of unborn babies throughout our nation. And we have the deluded pride to proclaim that it is health care for women. That’s like a little boy throwing a baseball through his parent’s living room window and then claiming to be a home renovator. The health of a woman is found in honoring God with her feminine glory, and in that alone. This is worship. Offering up our bodies as living sacrifices. This is faith. For the Christian, bearing godly seed (Mal. 2:15) is an act of faith that this world will be remade and will be filled with a countless multitude of redeemed men and women.

 

A WORD TO OUR NATION

So, to God’s people, do not despise the feminine glory of a mother nurturing her child from conception. For this is to cherish the greater glory of God’s everlasting mercy to His people.

To the State and Federal Government, the Word of Christ demands that you end this atrocity speedily. Christ, by His Word, commands that you unsheathe the sword of justice against this grievous injustice.

Nationally, we have sinned grievously. The various calamities which have visited us are the result of our stubbornness. Yet God points to a picture of a nurturing mother and says His tender-mercy is like that, only greater and higher and further.

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Consider Your Ways (Haggai 1) (King’s Cross)

Lindsey Gardner on

1 In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, 2 “Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, saying: ‘This people says, “The time has not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.”’”

3 Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, 4 “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?” 5 Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways!

6 “You have sown much, and bring in little;

You eat, but do not have enough;

You drink, but you are not filled with drink;

You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm;

And he who earns wages,

Earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”

7 Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways! 8 Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,” says the Lord. 9 “You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says the Lord of hosts. “Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house. 10 Therefore the heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. 11 For I called for a drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”

12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him; and the people feared the presence of the Lord. 13 Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, spoke the Lord’s message to the people, saying, “I am with you, says the Lord.” 14 So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.

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Voting in the Unraveling (Politics in the Pulpit #1) (CC Downtown)

Lindsey Gardner on

INTRODUCTION

We are on the cusp of another election. It is incumbent upon God’s people to understand what we are and aren’t doing when we vote. The message of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ is Lord of Heaven and Earth, and therefore all matters fall under the purview of His authority. Politics isn’t some dirty thing that Jesus is too holy to have anything to do with. Rather, the civic realm is to submit itself to the scepter of Christ’s righteousness, cleaning its stained robes in the blood of Christ the Redeemer of the World.

 

THE TEXT

Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: Be thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God: And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do. Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: And let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee. If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace. So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said. And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.

Exodus 18:19-26

 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Here we have the foundation and precedent for representative governance. As the nation of Israel was being formed in the Sinai wilderness, Jethro offered counsel to Moses regarding the resolution of various sociological episodes. Moses ought to spend his time teaching the people God’s Law. His task was instruct the people as to how to walk before the Lord (vv19-20). But the great prophet of Israel need not conduct the exam or grade the papers. Thus, Jethro counsels the appointment of God-fearing men into a tiered form of judgement (vv21-22 ). If Moses would heed this counsel, Jethro insightfully foresaw that the people could go about in peace (v23). Moses took on board this good counsel and implemented it right away (vv24-26).

This had two effects over time in the life of Israel. First, it placed an expectation amongst men that they were to be raised up to some degree of leadership before God and unto the people. Responsibility was laid on the shoulders of parents to raise sons who could eventually judge rightly and in accordance with the Wisdom of the Law of the Lord. Second, this also led, eventually, to the establishment of the synagogue system wherein the community would (in various ways) elect their elders. This then was incorporated into the life of the early church, where elders and deacons were put forward by the people (Cf. Acts 1:20-26 & ch.6). Moses once longed for all of God’s people to be prophets, full of His Spirit of Wisdom (Num. 11:29). At Pentecost, God filled His people with His Spirit, in order that they might all serve Him in their various offices and callings, with Christ as their head.

 

WHAT IS VOTING?

Voting is not a sacred duty. Your sacred duty is here on the Lord’s table. But we can rightly speak of voting as a civic duty. It is a duty of reminding our three branches of government that their power rests on the consent of those governed. By not voting you are arguably consenting to be governed by whomever everyone else picks.

Of course, our nation has more than a few corridors which even the most meatheaded building inspector would condemn for demolition. This includes the silly commitment of progressives to expand voting to more and more people, hunting for an infallible word under the banner of democracy. The 19th amendment effectively just doubled the number of votes for married couples that vote the same and cancelled out the votes of those who vote against each other. Still others advocate for lowering the voting age to 16 or lower. But this is misunderstanding the mechanics and meaning of voting.

A vote is the citizen’s participation in selecting which person should be given the particular job description which the constitution gives to them. Power is corrupting, and this is why our government was chopped into three segments. Your vote is an exercise in dominion over these branches. The term “citizen magistrates” is an appropriate way to describe it. This was a glorious development which our founding fathers brought into history.

In voting you are exercising a certain amount of God-given authority over the constitutional government we have consented to be governed by. It is through wise and prudential casting of votes that we remind politicians that government is not God, but answers to God through the conscience of “we the people” and the lesser magistrates we elect. The potency of our vote is thus greatly weakened by faithlessness and unfaithfulness. If Christ is not the acknowledged head of a nation, it will lead inevitably to godless men attempting to take dominion of the world for the glory of man instead of the glory of God.

De Tocqueville offered a worthwhile perspective in his evaluation of early American life and government: “The nation participates in the making of its laws by the choice of its legislators, and in the execution of them by the choice of the agents of the executive government.” In voting for the executive you are selecting the man best suited to executing the laws of our nation. In electing senators & representatives you are selecting the man best suited to drafting laws. This principle also should be born in mind when selecting sheriffs, mayors, and city council members.

 

HOW SHOULD YOU VOTE?

Our constitution is structured in such a way as to reward the victor of an election and leave the loser with absolutely nothing to show for their labors except for a pile of cheesy campaign ads. In a parliamentary system, losers often still get a slice of the pie. But American elections are winner-take-all. This helps to answer the question how should I vote? Who do you want to give constitutional authority to? Who do you think will best stay within the confines of that constitution and honor the biblical precepts which the founders envisioned? Who will secure the blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Conversely, it often helps to ask yourself, who do I want to make sure is never given power over me and my children and my liberty and my earthly possessions?

This is all another way of say that your civic duty to vote must be done in unwavering faith in the fact that Christ sits upon the right hand of the Father. He is ruling over the nations with the rod of His Word.

“Thy Kingdom come” is a plea for Christ’s majesty to illuminate all the earth; not only the mountains of religious life in the ecclesiastical sphere, but in the plains of economy, in the hills of civics, along the lush river valleys of family life. But the light of Christ must not be restricted to only that, the light of Christ must and will shine in the dens of sin and in the crevices of wickedness. There must be no corner of this planet which is not bright with the warm and piercing light of this Gospel. Our job is to apply that Gospel wherever we go, including the voting booth.

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The Feast of the Lord (Survey of Isaiah #35) (CC Troy)

Lindsey Gardner on

1 O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.

2 For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.

3 Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.

4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.

5 Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.

6 And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.

7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.

8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.

9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

10 For in this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill.

11 And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands.

12 And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.

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