The holidays are rife with a temptation to let down your guard. Drinking to drunkenness. Lowering entertainment standards. Snapping in irritation at family members. Wandering down an internet rabbit hole of folly, envy, or lust. Being slothful and calling it rest.

As Christians, our celebrations are to be glorious. But the glory of our celebrations doesn’t come from reckless self-indulgence. Rather, the glory only comes from being a forgiven people. And, forgiven people ought to be marked as loving people. The equation which Christ gave us is that those who are forgiven much love much. But love isn’t the mushy slop of subjective feelings. The definition for love is found in the deep ocean of God’s attributes. 

The love of God which we are to imitate cannot be divorced from the holiness of God which we receive through Christ by the Spirit who dwells in us. Being forgiven is like getting rid the furniture of sin (the musty couch of envy, the chair of arrogance with a missing leg, the creaky bed-frame of lust, and so on). But a barren house, void of the comfort of lovely furniture and the beauty of attractive decor is not a pleasant place for celebration. Pursuing holiness is how the Spirit works in us to bring into our lives the pleasant furnishings of God’s love.

Holiness is loving what God loves and hating what God hates. This maxim holds true at all times, including our celebrations and holidays. The glory of our jollification comes from being forgiven and being holy by the Spirit’s power in us.

So be vigilant during your celebrations. Don’t put down the sword. Don’t fold your hands in sloth when it comes to vigilantly watching for sin. Don’t leave a chink in your armor. For godly celebration is a lethal weapon in overthrowing the darkness of our age.

Our times of leisure are a blessing from God’s hand, a gift of His grace, and a foretaste of the everlasting peace purchased for us through Christ’s blood. As such, we must not neglect to put on Christ in our times of celebration. We must not forsake our duties of righteousness which God has commanded for us. And we certainly must not toy with our temptations instead of slitting their throats. May God give you vigilance in your merry-making, that you may be a clear and vivid testimony of the glory of His forgiveness and the potency of His holiness in us.

Finally, true rejoicing and celebration only from flows from the knowledge that God is merciful to sinners. This mercy was made manifest in the cross of our Lord Jesus, through whom the world was crucified to you and you to the world. So let all your rejoicing this month be grounded upon this everlasting glory, that your sins, which are scarlet, He has washed whiter than snow.

Ben Zornes – November 26, 2023

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One of the reasons we don’t do greater things for the Lord is because we are too afraid of dirt. You can’t get much of anything done in the world without making a mess. Anyone who has cooked a meal knows this. Anyone who has played a football game knows it, too. There will be pots to clean and counters to wipe in the first instance. In the second, there will be shoulders to pop back into sockets. This is simply how the world works. Proverbs 14:4 says, “Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: But much increase is by the strength of the ox.”

We are to produce fruit. So don’t be disabled by the mud, the grime, or the trouble that comes while you’re farming. Sure, I can tell you how you can do less laundry. Don’t let your kids do anything. No sweating, no running, no eating of any kind; we can’t afford stains. But abundant crops come by the strength of those little oxen. 

There are bumps to doing business: The deal gone bad, the troubled relationship, the stripped-out screw that you’re now going to have to rip out of the drywall, these are all production costs. See them for what they are and laugh at them. The man who can only see the dirty oxen trough is worse than near-sighted; he is blind. He’s doomed to servile fear and despair. But God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and sound mind.

One of the dirtiest jobs you’ll ever face up to is straightforward, unqualified confession of sin. Why in the world would you go looking for your own muck and then, when you find it, hold it up to the Lord with an apology? You do it because you see beyond this particular ox trough. Get it clean so you can stand up on the other side and produce greater fruit for the Lord.

Jared Longshore – November 26, 2023

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Thanksgiving is just on the horizon, so we are counting our many blessings and marking a variety of things to be thankful for. As you number those blessings, I want to remind you of one particular kindness from the Lord for which you should be grateful. That is God’s kindness of having people say all sorts of evil things about you falsely. Ah, you have been slandered. And the bigger the slander, the bigger your Thanksgiving turkey should be.

Jesus tells us that we should be exceedingly glad when this kind of thing happens for our reward is great in heaven, and we are following in the footsteps of the faithful prophets who went before us (Matthew 5:12). 

This is a lesson that peace-loving, kind, and faithful Christians like yourselves must take to heart. In the first place, it is one thing to remember this truth when the sun is shining and no one is calling you a misogynistic rape apologist. And it is another thing to remember it when those slander-bullets are actually flying. So store up this truth in your heart so it will be there in the day of battle. 

In the second place, you must store up this truth in your heart because you are a kind lot of Christians who, of course, don’t want to be brawlers. That is good. You want to pray for those who have done you the wrong, and that is good, too. But, in case you may be tempted to say, “I just can’t rejoice and be glad given these horrible things that have been said about me or my people,” let me remind you that God is so pleased about people saying nasty false things about you that He has seen fit to increase your heavenly bank account. If God is happy, you should be, too. 

Do ensure that this kind of thing doesn’t turn into rejoicing when your enemy falls. You want to give thanks in such a way that God’s favor will continue to rest upon you. But give thanks you must. And that thanksgiving should be exceedingly glad.  

Jared Longshore – November 19, 2023

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The culture which rejects Almighty God must resort to listening to the voice of man. But the voice of man vacillates and wavers, whereas God’s Word is certain, true, and unchanging. Election Day is mankind’s pretense of letting the god known as “the will of the populace” speak. In a godless democracy, casting your vote becomes a sacred act.

As Christians, we reject any such notion. Instead, we should treat it like an important chore, like taking out the garbage. Christians should neither elevate voting to a revered act of religious piety, nor should we consider it pointless.

This Tuesday is Election Day, with a number of local/state matters on the ballot. As Christian citizens, it’s our task to defend our liberties not just in this civic activity, but by being a people whose consciences are free. 

Only those whose minds have been renewed by the grace of the Spirit will be able to think clearly at the ballot box. The mind corrupted by lust, greed, envy, racial enmity, or vanity won’t vote with clarity. Sin clouds the mind. Sin is self-delusion. Sin in the heart leads to sin in our legislation.

True civic duty isn’t confined to Election Day. Our culture is woefully in need of a people zealous for righteousness. Righteousness in public & private. Righteousness before all men & when no one’s watching. Righteousness in the town square & in the living room. Despising government overreach while regularly losing your temper with your family is a sure fire way to get more government overreach.

Your freedom isn’t secured by a constitution. It is founded on your standing before God. Are you washed clean by Christ? Have you come to Him with all your sin? Are you free because the Son has set you free? If so, go and vote with a clear conscience. If not, repent.

Contrary to the message we hear from the media, it is only a people whose God is the Lord which can be a truly free people. For in Christ alone is the remission of sins, the power for good works, and the clear standard for justice, peace, and truth. We must go to God for forgiveness for our individual and national sins. We have encoded sodomy, usury, abortion, and many instances of unjust weights and measures. We know that all these national sins have arisen from sin which the church tolerated first. May God grant us eyes to see where we have deluded ourselves with our own sin. Then we must trust Him to wash us clean as we confess our sins to Him and those we’ve wronged. We would strive to have our families, cities, and nation truly honor and glorify God, so may we implore our Father to grant us a true heart of contrition & repentance.

The Scriptures tell the story of God delivering His people from their sins, so that they might be at liberty to serve Him rightly. This deliverance always is preceded by God humbling His people. So humble yourselves before Him, and then hear His words of deliverance: Your sins are forgiven through Christ.

Ben Zornes – November 5, 2023

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Last week in my exhortation I extolled the efficacy of the Word of God and its centrality in the work of the Reformation. This was a reminder to all of us of our need to keep the Word at the center of our lives. Today I want to apply this high view of God’s Word to our Lord’s Day worship service, specifically the Word preached in the sermon.

When you gather on the Lord’s Day, you are not coming here as mere spectators, looking for free entertainment. The sermon isn’t a classroom lecture or some kind of talk you can find on YouTube.

Rather, you are coming to hear from the living God. For in His wisdom, God has called feeble and weak men, to be His very own mouthpieces, speaking His words to His people. We see this in Scripture when the Apostle Paul wrote that he and his co-laborers were “ambassadors for Christ” with God making His appeal to men through them (2 Cor. 5:20).

And so consider the sermon like this: When an ambassador relays accurately the word of a king, it is no less the word of the king even though it comes through the mouth of a messenger. And though the word of the king is mediated through a much inferior man, it still carries the authority of the king.

The message proclaimed each week to you by a minister of God is one of life for the dead. It is a message that reconciles the world to Christ. For it is an authoritative message from the very Word of God.

And so the Westminster Larger Catechism lists a number of duties for the listeners of the preached Word, which include receiving it as “the truth with faith, love, meekness, and readiness of mind, as the Word of God.”

Now I recognize that you won’t hear all the sermon, let alone understand or remember it. You are human. God made you that way and He knows your frame. And He has given many of you tiny distractions with mouths and legs.

But know that each week, the Lord is adding to the soil of your heart exactly what you need from His Word. And trust that out of that fertile soil, the Spirit of God will cause the fruit of righteousness to grow.

Shawn Paterson – November 5, 2023

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