Christ Church

Holy War: A Post-Election Sermon (King’s Cross)

Lindsey Gardner on

INTRODUCTION

In the aftermath of this most recent election, we have much to be grateful for. Our God is surely merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness. He has not given us what we deserve. But the mercy of God is always a test: hard hearts get right back to sin and apathy, but soft hearts are driven to worship, repentance, and a renewed zeal for holiness.

While our holy war is not primarily or fundamentally fleshly or carnal, our weapons are mighty for pulling down strongholds, “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled” (2 Cor. 10:3-6). This does not mean no political action, but it means that obedience to Christ must drive everything we do.

 

HOLINESS AS POWER

Holiness is power. Holiness is that which is set apart, pure, and whole. God is holy, holy, holy, and this holiness drives His omnipotence and power: “Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” (Ex. 15:11) “And [Jesus was] declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom. 1:4).

Human beings were created to reflect and share in God’s holiness, and this is what is being restored in Christ (Eph. 4:24). Ephesians says that growing in this means coming to know the exceeding greatness of His power at work in us, which raised Jesus from the dead, far above all principality, power and might (Eph. 1:17-21). If American Christians seem remarkably impotent culturally and politically, it is because we do not understand or care about holiness. We are more concerned about pragmatic, short term gains than long term victory, but God disciplines us so that we might share in His holiness (Heb. 12:10). God cares more about holiness than political freedom because without holiness, there can be no freedom. So how do we pursue God’s holiness?

 

HOLY WORSHIP

“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus…” (Heb. 10:19ff). While all of life and nature proclaim God’s holiness (the whole earth is full of His glory), He designed the world and people such that we participate in God’s holiness by setting time and space apart to worship Him, by “drawing near.” This is why God set apart the Trees in the Garden, holy ground at the burning bush, and the holy places in the tabernacle and temple. He also set apart one day in seven and made it holy for rest and worship (Gen. 2:3, Ex. 20:8-11). In the New Covenant, after the curtain of the Most Holy Place was torn, any space can be set apart for worship, as can any day, but the Lord’s Day is the first day Sabbath and when God’s people gather together they are His holy priesthood and temple (1 Pet. 2).

The Bible calls this obedient, formal, public worship the “beauty of holiness” (Ps. 29:2) on the “mountain of holiness” (Ps. 48:1, cf. Heb. 12). God’s power of holiness is the source of our power (Ps. 110:3). “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a twoedged sword in their hand; to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron…” (Ps. 149:6-8). In Revelation, it is the worship of the saints that God uses to send air strikes on the earth.

This also happens as individuals and families are transformed by the renewing of our minds, through offering their bodies in worship (Rom. 12:1-2). Planting churches is the New Covenant equivalent to Abraham building altars in Canaan. Wherever the gospel establishes communities of biblical worship, we are acknowledging that Jesus purchased that land, that nation with His blood and insisting that it must and will bow to Him.

 

HOLY MARRIAGE & HOMES

“Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Heb. 13:4). Holiness is not prudish or sanctimonious. Holiness in the home is earthy, physical, material, and full of joy. The Holy Spirit created the heavens and the earth, and He filled the artisans with skill to build the tabernacle (Gen. 1:2, Ex. 35:31).

Holiness means husbands loving their wives like Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her and wives submitting to their husbands as the Church does to Christ: so that husbands might present their wives holy and without blemish (Eph. 5:22-27). But this is not merely spiritual, this includes loving and protecting your wife as your own body (Eph. 5:28-29) and raising joyful, obedient children (Eph. 6:1-4, 1 Tim. 3:4-5). This means dealing with sin quickly, forgiving one another, and covering sins in love. We cannot be a force for good in this land, if our homes are not models of order and peace.

 

HOLY WORK

Jesus said clearly that he who is faithful in little will be faithful in much, and this includes faithfulness in justice (Lk. 16:10-12). “And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?” Our vocational labors are the practice field for authority and fruitfulness in the world. Honesty, integrity, hard work, fixing mistakes, learning to communicate, and multiplying your talents is the path to influence and blessing (Mt. 25:14).

“Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men” (Eph. 6:6-7). We cannot establish justice in the land if we are not practicing justice in our daily labors.

 

CONCLUSION

Thank God for a clear Trump victory. Now the Church must gird up our loins to fight. We must fight sin and corruption at every level, beginning in our own hearts, families, businesses, churches, and cities. We cannot be a free or powerful America apart from obedience to Christ, apart from holiness.

So think of this time like Joseph’s seven years of plenty. We have 2-4 years to store up and build strong families, businesses, and churches. May God grant us longer and may He grant a true Reformation and Revival, but we must build houses on the rock that are ready for storms.

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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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Availing Prayer (CCTroy)

Lindsey Gardner on

The Text
16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit (James 5:16–18 NKJV).

What Kind of Prayer Avails Much?
I. Effective, fervent
II. Righteous

Why the Example of Elijah? (1 Kings 17–18)
I. He was a righteous man, “with a nature like ours”
II. He prayed earnestly

Concluding Applications
I. Be encouraged to pray, not discouraged. If you are seeking to live a godly life through the power of the Holy Spirit, then you have God’s attention.
II. Recognize where you pray already, and do so earnestly and with renewed faith.
III. Take practical steps to cultivate additional times of focused prayer—because God is faithful and kind.

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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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