Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Some Changes
To those who occasionally visit this blog, note that we have recently updated our church website and my blog is now going to be hosted there. Consequently, there will be no more updates here. To reach the new blog, you can go to our website at trinitycda.org or directly to the blog page here. Blessings!
Sunday, November 5, 2017
Beware the Treasures of Wickedness
Proverbs
10:2–3 (NKJV)
2
Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, But righteousness delivers from death.
3 The LORD will not allow the righteous soul to famish, But He casts away the
desire of the wicked.
The proverbs of Solomon guide and teach us in order that
we might be full of wisdom; in order that we might govern our daily affairs in
a way that glorifies and honors our Creator and Redeemer, the Lord of hosts. In
Proverbs chapter 10, Solomon begins to identify practical ways that the law of
God teaches us wisdom. So today he urges us to place our confidence in the
Lord, not in riches.
Because God is our Father, He knows that we need food,
clothing, and shelter. He is not ignorant of our necessities and of the fears
we have of going without, nor of the desires that drive us to accumulate more.
Jesus responds to our fears and longings in the Sermon on the Mount:
““Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What
shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all
these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need
all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and
all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:31–33)
Jesus reminds us to put our trust in the Lord in the face
of our fears and longings, to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness,
knowing that He will care for us. Righteousness, Solomon reminds us, delivers
from death.
Unfortunately, rather than trusting in the Lord, we often
let our fears and longings drive us to sin. We become so consumed with the
longing for wealth that we ignore or violate God’s law in order to obtain more.
For example, we steal from God, withholding our tithe from Him and acting as
though what we possess is our own and not His gift. We also steal from others;
we take money from the cash register, steal credit card information, or lie on
our declarations of income in order to obtain a larger grant. We vote to tax the
hard won earnings of our neighbor or to confiscate his lawful inheritance. We
become miserly, refusing to share with others the wealth that God has shared
with us. In all these ways and more we endeavor to accumulate, in the words of
our text, “treasures of wickedness” imagining that they will profit us
or protect us. But they won’t. Why not? Because God is watching and He casts
away the desire of the wicked.
So reminded that we are to place our trust in the Lord,
to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and that we are not to
accumulate for ourselves treasures of wickedness, let us confess that we
often permit our fears and longings to drive us to sin. And as we confess, let
us kneel before the Lord as we are able. We will have a time of silent confession
followed by the corporate confession in your bulletin.
Sunday, October 29, 2017
Why pursue wisdom?
Proverbs
10:1 (NKJV)
1 The
proverbs of Solomon: A wise son makes a glad father, But a foolish son is the
grief of his mother.
The proverbs of Solomon guide and teach us in order that
we might be full of wisdom; in order that we might govern our daily affairs in
a way that glorifies and honors our Creator and Redeemer, the Lord of hosts. In
chapter 10 of Proverbs, Solomon begins to identify practical ways that the law
of God teaches us wisdom. And where does he begin? He begins with your motivation.
Why should you pursue wisdom? Because it is the wise son who brings joy to his
parents.
Every child is born with an innate desire to please his
parents. This desire is a gift from God, part of what it means to be made in
the image of God. God the Son has eternally delighted to do the will of His
heavenly Father, a delight on display in His Incarnation. “I delight to do
Your will, O God,” Psalm 40:8 declares, “Your law is within my heart.”
This delight of the Eternal Son in the Eternal Father has been hard-wired into
the world such that children long for the approval of their parents, oftentimes
even when those parents have been cruel or unkind.
So how can a son, young men, how can you, please your
parents? Solomon gives you the answer: strive for wisdom and avoid folly. Cultivate
the fear of God; meditate on the commandments of God; imbibe the promises of God;
flee greed; flee lust; flee covetousness. Why should you do these things?
Because it is the wise son who makes his father glad; because it is the foolish
son that brings grief to his mother. And which would you rather do, bring your
father joy or bring your mother grief? I pray to God that you would rather do
the former.
But perhaps you don’t care about pleasing your parents.
Perhaps you could care less what they think; perhaps you just want to cause
them pain because you are frustrated with their restrictions or upset by their
rules or hurt by their inattention. What should you do then? The first thing
you should do is stop making excuses for your sinful attitude, confess it to
God, and pray that He would change it. The fifth commandment is clear: Honor
your father and your mother, that it may go well with you and you may live long
on the earth. God’s desire for you is that you honor your parents. So if
you are failing to do so, if you have no desire to do so, then you are in sin
and you need to repent.
But what if you are the parent? What if your child
doesn’t care about pleasing you, what should you do? First, ask yourself whether
you care about pleasing your parents. Much more is caught than
taught. If you do not long to please your parents it may very well be that your
kids are simply taking a page from your book. If so, repent and confess your
sins to the Lord and to your kids. Second, are you embittering your children,
treating them tyrannically? A child’s innate desire to please his parents,
though strong and resilient, can be destroyed by such behavior.
Reminded this morning that the innate desire that God has
placed within us to receive the praise of our parents is often twisted,
distorted, or even annihilated by our sin, let us confess our sin to the Lord
and seek His forgiveness. And as we confess our sin, let us kneel as we are
able. We will have a time of silent confession followed by the corporate
confession found in your bulletin.
Sunday, October 22, 2017
What does it mean to abide in Jesus' love?
John
15:9–10 (NKJV)
9 “As
the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My
commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s
commandments and abide in His love.
It has been a persistent temptation throughout history to
separate the love of God from the law of God. In the passage before us today, however,
Jesus teaches us to unite them. First, Jesus instructs us to love God. “As
the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.” The Father
has loved the Son for all eternity, delighting in Him and in the honor that He
receives. Likewise, the Son delights in His people, loving and cherishing them.
So, Jesus commands, “abide in My love” – remain in the love with which I
have loved you.
It is at this point that much ancient and modern
mysticism wanders astray. One of my professors used to define mysticism as that
religious philosphy which begins in “myst”, centers in “I”, and ends in “schism.”
Mysticism makes abiding in Jesus consist in certain feelings of dependency, or
in a certain emotional state, or even in some sort of mystical enlightenment. Mysticism
often sounds very spiritual. It urges us to listen to the promptings of the
Spirit who, we are told, will guide and direct us through the course of our
lives as to whom to marry, where to go to school, what car to purchase, or
which job to take. It is important to experience God, to discern what His
intentions are in each and every situation and then to follow them. This is to
abide in Him.
But note that Jesus does not define abiding in Him in
this way. To abide in Him is not to have an ongoing mystical experience but to
devote yourself to His commandments. If you keep My commandments, you will
abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His
love. The one who abides in Jesus is the one who loves His commandments and
keeps them; it is the one who meditates on the law of God and finds his delight
in it; it is the one who hides God’s word in his heart that he might not sin
against God. Abiding in Jesus is not mysticism but obedience.
So note that obeying Him means giving attention to His
commandments, to His revealed will, to His written Word. We are not called to
tune our spiritual antennae to the secret voice of Jesus but to tune our ears
to the written word of God. So, for example, Jesus does not call upon us to
have a mystical enlightenment which tells us which apple to buy at the store. “Oh,
I think it’s that one there on the bottom of the bin.” No! He calls upon us
to use our God given discernment and common sense to choose a decent apple and
then to abide in Him by purchasing the apple rather than stealing it
from the store. The abiding happens not in choosing the apple but in
purchasing it. Why? Because God’s law has not commanded me which apple to
buy; but His law has commanded me, “You shall not steal.” I’m free to
choose any apple I want – green or red, ripe or rotten, small or large, fuji or
macintosh – so long as I pay for it.
The same principle applies in many other realms. Whom
shall I marry? Whomever you want, only in the Lord. Which home shall I
purchase? Whichever you want, provided you can afford it. Which job shall I
take? Whichever you prefer, provided that it is a lawful calling. Behold the
liberty of abiding in Christ’s love! Behold the liberty of living by the
commandments of God!
Reminded this morning that abiding in the love of Christ
means keeping the commandments of God, let us confess that we have often
disobeyed His commandments, that our sin has often separated us from our God.
And reminded of our sin, let us kneel and confess it in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We will have a time of private confession followed by the public
confession found in your bulletin.
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