Exhortation- Believe

The only way to fail to receive God’s blessings here and now in the world to come is through unbelief.  This is the great and ultimate sin. For those who believe God and continue to believe God all the promises of God in Christ are yea and amen!

          But for those who fail to enter into God’s promises through unbelief, shall in the end be cut off from God.  They shall be assigned a place with unbelievers, that utterly outside of God’s covenant, God’s promises.

          So, what is belief? What is faith? Shall we always be questioning whether we are in, or not? Shall we wonder if we believe enough?

          No, don’t start down that path, for even belief as small as a hard to see grain of mustard seed is enough faith to move mountains.

          The issue is not how much faith you have but how faithful God is. Do you believe that? Do you believe that He is able to save you from your sins? Do you believe that He is able to save your children? And theirs?

          Not only this but do you believe that He is willing to do so? And not based upon any merit that you have to bring to Him. It is not based upon your goodness but upon the goodness of God in Jesus Christ.  Do you believe that?

          If you do, then you are a child of promise, having entered in through faith, like Abraham. Rest assured.

          But if you are unsure, weak of faith, wavering in faith, or in need of God’s assurance, as we all are, I can only speak to you of God’s promise. We are all in the same bout, driven and tossed by the sea. Cast your cares, hopes, sins, dreams, doubts, lives and children upon Jesus Christ, and you will not be disappointed. God’s promises are for you and for your children. Do not doubt, but believe.

Communion Meditation- Believe

This meal is for all who believe. Each of us comes to God in faith believing what God has done for us through Jesus Christ; His death, burial, resurrection and reign.  Thus, we know that God is faithful and we can stand before Him through our faithful High Priest, Jesus. 

But we do not come here only as individuals. This meal is a public meal. It is a wedding feast for the Prince of Peace. He has called a bride to Himself and we all partake of the meal, the bread and wine, the body and blood of Jesus, as the people of God. So, we come not only as individuals but as the collected body of believers.  

Furthermore, the body is collected together not merely of individuals.  God’s people come from families and the promises of God are spoken to families. Each member of the family partakes in the blessings of God by grace through faith. But God’s promises also flow downhill. God makes promises to us and to our children and all who are far off who are now brought near by the blood of Jesus, and to their children, forever. This is all according to God’s promise to all them that believe. 

We are exhorted to look at these elements, the bread and wine, to remember what God has done in Jesus and to believe that God will keep His promises to us and to our children. Amen!

Communion- God Remembers and Not

Today in the sermon, you have been called to both remember and forget. God remembers His covenant and He chooses to not remember our sins against us.  These promises are held out to you here at the Lord’s Table.  God looks at the bread and wine as a memorial, like the rainbow, only better.  In it, He sees the fulfillment of all of His covenant promises. He has provided the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world. God looks upon the sacrifice, remembering His promise and then choosing to not remember your sins against you, since they have been cast upon Jesus. 

           

Do likewise with your neighbor, your spouse, your children, your parents, your friends, your boss, your employees.  Look upon the bread and the wine and remember what Jesus has done for you, how He chooses not to remember what evil you have done towards Him. Then, do that same thing with those who have sinned against you. Remember that Jesus has forgiven you and that you have promised to forgive others and then choose to not remember their sins against you.

          

 In this way, we are all drawn closer to God and closer to one another, reflecting the Triune nature of God in our midst, many persons but one mind and one body.

Exhortation- God is a Father with a Son and a Spirit

EXHORTATION

This month, we have been confessing the sin of serving the god of Americanism. I should give some explanation of that. We are not confessing a sin of being Americans.  We have every right to be proud to be Americans.  We live in a truly great country abounding with blessings far beyond the wild imaginations of the rest of the world.  We are not ashamed of that, at all. On the contrary, these blessings are a testimony to the greatness of our God, who has granted them to us.  But our nation is due a warning from the Scriptures and it is time that God’s people woke up and realized that we are in the process of forsaking the very God who has blessed us, the Triune God of the Bible.

The God of the United States is not Allah, not Buddha, not some Hindu idol.  Our God is none other than Yahweh, from the burning bush, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and the Holy Spirit who lit the Apostles on the day of Pentecost.  It is He and NO OTHER.  There is but one God only, the living and true God. All other gods are dead and false gods.

Americanism is a false religion, one that professes belief in god but not the God of the Bible. We Christians reject all such claims as false and deserving the chastisement of the one true and living God.

           

Hear the Scriptures. 

Deut 8:10-19 10 When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. 11 Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: 12 Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; 

13 And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; 14 Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; 15 Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint;16 Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; 

17 And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.

 18 But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.

19 And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.

Courtship

I am pleased to announce that my eldest daughter, Rebecca, is engaged to be married. The lucky gent is Simon Esmond.  The title of this post is 'courtship'.  I don't really have a lot to say about that here but want to make a couple of observations.

First, the basic idea of courtship is that the parents of the bride are involved in the process of her choosing a mate.   That's the main principle. The methods in different homes and churches will be various.  The parents actually have veto power over her decision in the area of choosing a husband. That may strike some as arcane in our day of ultimate personal freedom.  But it is also an accurate and clear biblical principle.

Second, in order for the father of the bride to cash the check of close and even controlling involvement in his daughter's courtship leading up to marriage, he has to have a big savings account.  If he does not have enough put away in that account, when it comes time to cash the check on some difficult decisions, say, turning down a suitor, he may find that he has to quickly and radically alter his view of 'where we go from here.'

Third, the outcome is wholly reliant upon the good grace and mercy of our Lord.  It is true that both the daughter and the father have free will and at the point of decision or conflict, they will do whatever seems best to them at that point. However, God gives us promises with our children, not just children. If we raise them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, we should have every confidence that at the point of decision, they will choose to follow God and do what is right, even to the point of trusting their father who has, Lord willing, a large of enough checking account to be trusted.

I am pleased to say that the Lord has brought together two such young people, Simon and Rebecca, who were raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and have proved that in the way that they have loved God and their parents and have submitted to and honored both.

I trust the Lord will give them many wonderful and fruitful years together.

Communion Meditation- A Good Name

The most significant thing that occurred at our Council meeting last week is that the name of the CREC was changed to the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches.  The impetus behind this change was that our brothers in the Southern churches were dealing with some misconceptions about the name Confederation, some folks wondering if we had views holding to the old Southern Confederacy.

This was making things difficult for our churches in the South who are doing urban ministries.  In addition to this, many felt that the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches is a better fit for who we are as a confederation. We are not 'merely' a group of sovereign churches gathered together under one Covenant. We are one portion of the gathered church, a particular Communion of the broader Communion of the Saints.

No doubt, we will still have some confusion about our new name. For instance, what does it have to do with the Eucharist?  Well, not a lot and a whole lot at the same time. In our name, when we say Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches we are not referring to the Lord’s Supper. However, we are referring to the fact that we are a gathered and unified people, the communion of the saints which we say in the Apostle’s Creed, which is part of what the Lord’s Supper represents.  The name change is good because it enables us to explain our name in the context of Church history and practice as opposed to trying to explain the name in the context of a form of civil government. 

So, here we are at Communion, the Lord’s Supper, as the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, gathered with all of our brothers in the CREC around the world and with all of God’s people around the world, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.

Exhortation-Listen

At our Presbytery and Council meetings there were various disagreements at various levels of importance. For the most part the issues at stake were wisdom issues and not issues of right and wrong, correct or incorrect theology. Some things were easily worked through and compromises agreed upon. In other areas, differences ran deep and strong and compromises were not reached so easily. This took more patience, more listening.  When seeking wisdom, it is good for us to listen to one another and make adjustments in our own ways of doing things.

I am pleased to report to you that our CREC men did this very well. They are good men committed to listening to one another and honoring one another. And then after the compromises, not smugly thinking or acting as if their view won, or in the cases where they lost the argument, not feeling bitter or envious towards others. 

Let us also think this way. And where we have failed to listen to our brothers, or if we have grown bitter or envious of our brothers, let us confess our sins and seek to be in a right relationship with God and with our brothers.

Communion- God remembers

God is gracious to us.  He is a covenant making and covenant keeping God. He does not forget His promises to us. We can take great comfort in this truth.  When it rains, we see God’s great commitment to us in the cloud. We should encourage ourselves that God, Himself, is looking at His token in the sky, the glorious rainbow, and He is remembering to keep His promises to His people.  He extends grace and He reminds Himself to extend grace.  He knows we need it.

           

This meal is another, if not the main token of God’s graciousness towards us.  We show these tokens, the body and blood of Jesus. We show them to one another so we remember what God has done for us. We also show them to the Father, so that He remembers what Jesus has done for us and that He is our God and that we are His people. Thus, we can know that God remembers and keeps His promises to save us through the body and blood of Jesus.

Exhortation- Confessing Sins

     It is our duty to confess our sins. We do this formally every week here in our worship service. That is good and we should use this time as another gracious opportunity from our Lord to come before Him and be honest with Him expecting Him to be the gracious Father that He is. When we do this, honestly, we are never disappointed.

          However, this time of confession and forgiveness can be merely an external form of worship that is participated in without honesty and faith, if we are not paying attention. We should be practiced at asking forgiveness of God and others so that when we come to this time in the worship service, it is easier for us to humble ourselves before the Lord.

          When was the last time you honestly and sincerely confessed particular sins to God? I hope the answer is not more than a few days. When was the last time you asked your wife, husband, children, parents or a friend to forgive you for a real particular sin that you committed against them.  I hope you have recently been so humble.

          So, let us come to Jesus and be honest that we need His forgiveness for real sins, some we have committed this very week, last night, or even this morning.

The Tragedy of American Compassion****

The Tragedy of American Compassion by Marvin Olasky is a must read book by everyone that seeks to do any sort of mercy ministry. This book chronicles the early growth of American mercy ministry as New York and other major U.S. cities were rapidly growing at the end of the 19th Century. Mercy ministries were also rapidly growing in order to address the degradation and want that was expanding in those same cities. However, they had a vastly different approach than the modern entitlement mentality.

A universal principle of mercy ministry was 'that if a man shall not work, neither shall he eat." So strong was this principle that most ministries had work tests. They required men and women to work for any aid that they were given. This was seen as necessary in order to preserve the dignity of the recipient and prevent him from devolving into pauperism. In cases, where the recipient really was not able to work, these same ministries offered direct care of the truly poor through placing orphans for adoption, taking pregnant mothers into homes, or creating places of asylum (safety) for the mentally disturbed and in helping able bodied men and women find work. How far we have fallen!

Another universal principle was that of refusing to give money to those who were on the street because of alcohol or drug use. There were ministries that reached out to such men but they required the men to change and stop abusing alcohol and drugs or they through them out on the street. Today, we find such a willingness to allow men to receive the consequences of their sin, wholly without compassion. But true compassion of the biblical sort has accountability and accountability requires consequences.

Contrast this with our modern welfare system that has virtually no accountability structure. The able bodied poor have been sold a bill of goods. They have been taught to believe that they are worthy recipients of aid, various forms of welfare, and thus have become enslaved by the very system that purports to help them. This so-called 'help' is not help at all. It has harmed multiple generations of Americans that now see their only hope in the help of a government that only manages to keep them at subsistence levels. There is no hope of advancement or escape from these clutches. Quite the reverse, the hope is to be more thoroughly enslaved.

Having said this, let me also say that we are not in need of 'reform' of the welfare system.We need pastors, laymen and politicians who are bold enough to call to completely 'dismantle' the system. And the reason is not the typical conservative reason that it simply costs too much. It is true that America can no longer afford the entitlements. But the real reason they should end is that they are immoral. They completely demoralize the very people they purport to help. It is not a help to a man to give him a dollar to go by another pint of cheap wine. It is not a help to give families benefits with no real accountability to and from their own immediate and extended family, to their church or to their local community. All such help distances individuals from the real help they need, work, moral exhortation and freedom from entitlement and dependency.

We have hurt the poor. We have also absolved the family of taking on their true responsibility for their loved ones. We have absolved the church from fulfilling its very personal role in meeting the needs of the poor while holding them to Biblical standards of work and character. It is time we fully ended the governmental entitlement systems and got back to living like families, churches and communities.

Communion Meditation-One Mind

As God remakes the world through Jesus Christ, one of the results that we should be aware of is the unification of His people. It seems that we have only got along a short distance on this great requirement.

But we should not despair. In Christ and in Christ’s Church, we see the unification of every tribe and tongue and language.

The world continues to vainly attempt to bring together various peoples from multiple cultures. Their vain attempts always blow up in their faces. Without Christ it is impossible to unify divided man.

But in Christ, mankind is made one body. We are brought together as one. We ARE unified in Jesus. Now, it is true that it does not always look like that. There are factions, members of Christ causing discord and disunity. But Jesus does not leave us alone. He continues to wash us in His Word, teach us His ways and lead us to the place where we lay down our way and take up His. And once we have all taken up the way of Christ, doing, saying and living as Jesus requires of us, then the reality of our unity in Him will be manifest to the world.

This meal is part of what makes us one. Believe Jesus. Learn His ways. Eat and drink of Him and thus be of one mind.

Disunity

At the very center of the result of the fall of mankind is discord, distrust and disunity, all of which flow directly from the actions of Adam and Eve, heeding the serpents treacherous words, to become like gods.

Discord results when one seeks to be in the middle of the attention or perhaps even muscling out whomever is currently in the center of attention because there really is nobody more important than you.

Distrust always casts a sidelong glance wondering if the actions and motives of others are honest and heartfelt or if they are simply that other person’s means of getting ahead of me.

Disunity is always friends of discord and distrust. The only way to unity is to defy discord, seeking peace in the midst of chaos, even if it means that you go unnoticed in the process.

Unity gives a deaf ear to distrust, seeking rather to believe the best about others, even if it means making a costly mistake now and again. Because love suffers all things.

Do you cause disunity through discord or distrust? Stop now. Confess your sins. Repent and be forgiven.

Communion Meditation- Tree of Life

This morning we have looked into the Fall of mankind. Man, who was in communion with God, fell out of favor with Him and were driven out of His paradise. But God did not leave man in a state of misery. Even in the beginning, God was gracious and merciful. He received the sacrifice of Abel but his brother’s deeds were evil.

And so God gives us promises, even in the midst of miseries, lost hopes, lost kinship, lost close fellowship. He holds out hope to us that He will hear us, receive us, bless us and dwell with us forever.

Of course, we realize all of this in the person of Jesus Christ. God came down to us and restored mankind to His favor forever. All those who cling to Jesus have returned to God’s garden and are encouraged to close communion and now to eat of the tree of life and live forever.

Our tree of life is Jesus, Himself, and His Spirit that dwells with us always.

By faith, take and eat and drink of Him and live.

Exhortation- Put Aside Strife

In the Fall of man, both man and earth became subject to futility. The Earth began to produce thorns and thistles, man was divided against man and murder entered into the heart of Cain. While the glory of God on the Earth remains, the first glory of true unity in the midst of God’s vast creation, was shattered. And so we live in a divided world where there is trouble from every side. We have trouble with the environment, trouble with our neighbors, trouble within our families and trouble in our own hearts. But Christ came to save us from all of this and to save us in the midst of all of this.

That peace must first begin in your own heart and flow out from there. If God has called you His own, and He has, then He has called you to peace and to a ministry of peace. Where there is strife and division, there you will find the devil. But we who belong to Christ do not have to obey the devil, the world or the flesh. We are Christ’s workmanship created for good works in Christ.

So, where is your strife? Is it with spouse? Boss? Neighbor? Friend? Foe? But where does this strife come from? Does it not come from your own heart that is not at peace with God and with what God is doing in the world and in your own life?

Put aside the strife. Confess your sins. Repent of your divisions. Be reconciled to God and man. And receive the peace of Christ.

Communion- Table Fellowship and Love

As we eat the Lord’s Supper together each week, we should be mindful of what is going on. We remember the Lord’s death and we show the power of His death in gathering us as the people of God. We are a gathered body of forgiven sinners.

But this meal does even more than that. For some, what I just said would be controversial, that the meal actually ‘does’ anything. But it does. We are not merely remembering or showing, we are also becoming. Eating together is a formative action. When families eat together, they grow up together, knowing one another, loving and serving one another, partaking of one another.

Those same things are going on here as we eat the Lord’s Supper. The breaking of the bread and the sharing of the wine gathers us together, unifies us, strengthens us and binds us together.

Close table fellowship is at the center of what it means to love one another.