Pure Hearts at Communion

Some of what has been said today is disconcerting. God requires that we be pure and chaste and yet we find in ourselves defilement and the wanton pangs of remaining sin. What are we to do? How can we be as pure as God desires us to be? The answer, of course, is Jesus. He takes us in our mess and cleanses us from all unrighteousness.  He presents us to His Father as those who have been purified by His forgiveness.

         He then gives us His Holy Spirit so that we are enabled to die to those things that unlawfully attract us and to live towards those things that are true and lovely in God’s eyes.

         All of us have sinned and sinful thoughts still assail us, some, no doubt, more than others. But God has cleansed us. God has called us to life. God has given us His Holy Spirit. God has called us friends. God has called us sons and daughters, children in whom He is well pleased.

         At this place, let us believe God. Through Jesus He has made us pure and we come to Him with pure hearts full of thanksgiving.

Holy Daughters

One of the defining attributes of a godly daughter is her purity. God desires daughters to be unstained by the world. This requires that they have hearts that are pure so that what flows from their hearts; their words, glances, the clothes they wear, their hairstyle, the respect they give, all reveal a deep inner purity.

As we think about our daughters, it is easy for us to grasp the truth that God requires chastity. We can all understand that God desires our daughters to be virgins and to have carnal knowledge of only one man, their own husband. We fathers particularly understand this as we seek to protect the honor and purity of our daughters, saving them for that one man.

But we need to understand that this is not only true of our daughters. God requires our sons, our wives and ourselves to possess this deep inner purity and beauty. He desires that we have chaste hearts and minds and therefore live faithful chaste lives.

We got a restart when we came to saving faith in Jesus Christ. God forgave us, making us pure and blameless. Like the woman at the well who had five husbands or the woman caught in adultery, Jesus forgave us and told us to go and sin no more. 

We should grasp these two things. One, Jesus forgives us so that we can be pure in heart and body once again. And two, we must put aside those sins which so easily entangle us, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes.

Whose Your Daddy?

Today, at the Table, I want you to think about who your daddy is. For some of you, that is a good thought or memory. For others, not so much, especially at this Table. Because of your family resemblance to your father, you may feel unworthy to be here at God’s Table. The reality is that all of us by nature, are, sons of Adam the First. He was a failure and got us kicked out of our homeland in disgrace. But by grace, we are all now sons of Adam the Second, Jesus Christ the Savior, who has brought us back from exile and established us in the garden of God, having cleansed us from our former sins, even our former bad name in Adam the First.

         This is a great truth. You were bad sons in Adam. But you are sons brought home in Jesus. He is your Father as well as Jesus’s Father. Thus, this is your Table as well as the Table of God, the Father. Jesus calls him Father and He encourages us to see the family resemblance so that we have the courage to also call God, Father, Abba, Daddy. Be at peace at this Table. You are home.

Derecho-Breath of God

The power of God is revealed to us in many ways. We recently saw what He can do with a simple breath. He conjured a super Derecho and it knocked down thousands of trees and revealed our weakness in the presence of God’s great power. Our seeming strength is an illusion and if we are not careful we get caught up in the illusion thinking we are safe and protected from calamity. We may think this because we have fine homes, good jobs, a decent bank account or a good retirement fund. But the fact of the matter is that we are dependent upon God at every little turn of our lives. Were He to remove His blessing and protection for even a moment, we would find ourselves utterly helpless.

         I, for one, am thankful that He has graciously revealed this to us and that He has protected us Providence saints in the midst of this storm. Let us confess our tendency for self-reliance and once again cast ourselves into the caring hands of God, our Savior.

Communion with a pleased Father

Sons and daughters are known for striving to please their parents. There are many middle-aged men and women still struggling to please their parents. Sometimes the parents are dead and gone and the opportunity to please them has completely vanished and yet the living child is still unsatisfied, a gnawing lack of assurance that they were pleasing to their father.

         This is an all too common and sad state of affairs in families at every level. Some of the blame goes on the fathers, no doubt, who simply refuse to be pleased with their children.  Men, we need to learn to take pleasure in those God has put in our charge. The first step to getting there is for you to rest, knowing that your Father is pleased with you.

         If you are here at this Table, invited by and seated with Jesus, then rest assured, the Father is pleased. 

But my sin, but my failures, but my own earthly father’s displeasure! 

Stop all that. Now is rest, now is assurance, now is peace, now we are God’s children, in whom He is well pleased. Can you rest in this? Can your receive it? Can you be at peace? God, our Father is pleased with Jesus and His choice of friends. Don’t argue with Him. Thus, you are friends of God and have even become His children through Jesus. You are His beloved sons and daughters in whom He is well pleased.

Exhortation- True Sons

Jesus is the Son of God. The Father is pleased with Him. The Father is particularly pleased because Jesus laid down His life for those the Father loved and desired to draw to Himself. Thus, Jesus did exactly what the Father would have Him do, that is, deny Himself and reveal the Father’s will on the Earth among men.

         In that little paragraph is a lot of room for our own condemnation. We know that we have not always been faithful sons and daughters. We have sought to establish our own wills and ways, sometimes even in opposition to our own earthly fathers, or even in opposition to our Heavenly Father. We are not surprised that God is pleased with Jesus and the comparison of ourselves to Jesus only makes our guilt and shame increase. What are we to do?

         First, be honest. It is true that you are not the perfect son, like Jesus. But God has looked upon you in your condition, taken pity upon you and brought you to Himself through Jesus, adopted you and called you son. You were by nature the very object of wrath that causes you to shrink from His presence. But God, the Father, by grace, has picked you out, named you Christian, a friend and brother of Jesus, and written you into His own divine will.

         Second, forsake those things that make you an odious son. And Third, come up out of the slop and your squandered inheritance. Return home to your Father and be received back into the family as a full joint heir of all the promises of God. All such sons will put on the royal robe and feast on the fatted calf.

Communion Meditation- Quiet Souls

Are you quiet? Are you meek? That is, are you subdued to God, the Father, His will, His ways, His Savior, His Providence? And having humbled yourself to Him, has this produced a quietness of soul in you? This quietness of soul is what we call the peace that passes understanding. Why does it pass understanding? Because on the outside, there remains no reason for peace. There is trouble in the world, trouble in your own life, trouble in the lives of the ones you love. Like Peter on the water, we look at the waves and are tossed about with all manner of doubt. But Jesus bids us come, look at Him, walk, even in the waves of the storm, without fear.

         We can only do this, with peace, with a quietness of spirit, if we have our eyes on Jesus.  This meal is all about that. We focus on Jesus, what He did on the cross, how He rose from the dead, the fact He sent His Spirit to dwell with us forever and that He calls us to this table to dine with Him in perfect peace. Jesus said, These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 

Meek and Quiet

Our sermon today is on living with a meek and quiet spirit. That sounds easy, especially if the husbands are asking their wives to do this while they themselves thrash around like a bull moose, neither meek nor quiet. But the great Moses, the man who stood up to Pharoah, is described as the meekest man on the Earth.

         At the core, I believe a meek and quiet spirit is learning to submit to God in all things and relinquish control to God’s will and providence of those things that you really cannot control anyway. This amounts to a host of things, your husband’s behavior, your children’s affection, your wife’s respect or lack thereof, the hard providences of God in our lives, the government leaders that you live under, your boss and his demands, your teachers and their peculiar ways.

         God gives us many opportunities to display a meek and quiet spirit. When we do so, it reveals to ourselves and others that we truly believe that God is ultimately in control of all things. Phil. 4:6 Be careful (full of care, worry, anxiety) for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

         So, to the extent that you are unwilling for God to be in control, you need to, as the old saying goes, let go and let God. This letting go is confession and repentance, the letting God, is to be meek and quiet, concerned for nothing, resting in the Lord.

Happy Anniversary

Today is my 25th Anniversary. I guess you might think that is a long time. Perhaps, but the years have rolled by, troubles and all, filled with God's grace and great joy.

My dear bride is still the love of my life. We have now been married for 25 wonderful years but we got started as sweethearts long before that. I put a green sucker in her desk in Mrs. Hellewell's class in fifth grade. Seems she went for the sweet bribe. That was about 35 years ago and she has held my heart ever since.

We look forward to another 25 years!

I love you, my sweet Kate. Happy Anniversary!

Communion- Humble Compliance

Our sermon today talked about submission but it was not an admonition to submit with our arms crossed in a huff and our faced creased with steely resolve. That really is not submission at all. The place where we learn godly submission is right here at this Table.

First of all, Jesus submitted to the will of the Father. He did so with blood-sweat and tears. But He also did it for the joy that was set before Him.  Herein is that joy realized. He did it to bring us to the Table of Fellowship.

At this place, you must take your guard down. Uncross your arms, remove the creased brow, lay down your burdens, come in humble compliance to Jesus, and for this joy, this realized joy of fellowship, come and eat with Jesus. You see, the fruit of honorable submission is what we are doing now, peaceful fellowship.

Exhortation- Tap Out

Today, we look at a couple of passages of Scripture that speak of the relationship of wives to their own husbands. Keep in mind that this is also the relationship of the Church to Christ. And, as such, is the relationship of all under authority to all those in authority. This means that these passages speak to everyone of us and not simply to our women or to our wives.

         This mean that we all have to learn to respond properly to authority. It also means that we are going to see that we have all failed in our responses to authority and in doing so have caused harm both to ourselves and to the authorities that we have resisted.

         The purpose of saying this is not to beat you up. This is not done simply to make you feel bad. But to some extent the beating is necessary.  An honorable fight always gives room for the weaker opponent to submit. He can call uncle, tap out, admit he is beat, that is, he can submit. Or, he can resist, unimpressed by the beating and thus declare that he is willing to take more.

         When the opponent is the Word and Spirit of God, there is no chance of victory, so the only thing that remains to be seen is how strong is your resistance and thus, how much of a beating is necessary in order to get you to tap out? I would exhort you to always tap out early as soon as you realize that you are fighting the Word of God.

The Lord Understands Us

We have continued our bible study of how husbands are to love their wives, as Christ loves the church, and live with them in an understanding way. When a husband lives this way, his wife feels loved. 

         Here at the Table of the Lord, we see this in action. The Lord understands us, His Church. He gave Himself for us and we remember what He has done. He gives us tokens of His commitment to us, bread and wine, symbols of His perfect sacrifice and undying devotion to us.

         He knows our frame, that we grow weak and unsure, even insecure about His love.  So, He gathers us weekly to review what He has done and renew His love towards us.  In short, the Lord lives with us in an understanding way. We should have no doubt about His love for us.

Understand

I believe it was St. Augustine who first said the goal of godliness is not to seek to be understood but to seek to understand. That is a helpful admonition for today’s sermon. As husband and wife, we often get stuck trying to get our spouse to understand us.  But if we turn this around and first seek to understand them as our primary focus, then whether they understand us or not fades into the background.

         The reality is that seeking to understand is simply love. For some of us, this kind of love is more difficult. We may not be good at asking questions. We may not be as naturally curious. We may not have a strong desire to know. But as the Lord brings people into your life, it is important for you to get to know them, to seek to understand who they are and what makes them tick. You cannot do this without keen skills of observation and you cannot do this without asking some personal questions.

         We can all do a better job at this, that is sanctification. But there may be a need for repentance as well if your main goal has always been to get others to understand you. If you have been self-absorbed and self-centered in this way, repentance is in order as we ask God to change you and enable you to seek to understand others and so become a humble learner.

New outtakes from the Wilson/Hitchens movie, Collision.

Repenting Husbands, Wives and Children

As we look again today at our roles as husbands, we find that we will not fully measure up to Jesus as he husbands the church. And when our eyes are opened in this way, we find the need to repent of our sins and shortcomings and look to Jesus so that we can be more like Him.

         This is true of husbands but it is also true of wives as they look at the Church and how they should completely honor and respect their husbands.

         And you children, as you think about how you are to be the sort of children who absolutely honor your parents, no doubt, if you are honest you find fault with yourselves.

         So, all of us have a need to repent; husbands, wives, and children, but the end of this process of repentance is not grievous but joyful. We suffer for a little, as we realize how we have fallen short but the Lord calls us to confess and turn away from following our way and turn to Christ and follow His. He forgives us and grants us His Spirit to do that which He has called us to do. And in this we find both joy and peace as husbands, as wives and as children.

A Virgin at Table

The ultimate goal of these sermons on Father, Mother, Husband and Wife is unity. As we learn to be like Christ and His Church, then the Lord grants us peace and unity.

         As we partake of Communion, we are learning that Christ has given Himself up fully for the sake of the Bride. Because of this, the bride is washed in the Word, cleansed and presented to Jesus as a chaste virgin. She is restored to her former glory and receives the most glorious husband she could even have hoped for. In fact, in her defilement, she would never have even conceived that she could receive such a husband.

         But because Jesus loved her and gave himself for her, she has been made new, a fitting wife for such a husband, in Him, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

         Let us rejoice in this precious gift to us, we have received Christ our bridegroom and He has received us a chaste virgin, a fitting bride for such a glorious husband.

Communion- Risen in Jesus!

Christ is Risen and thus, we are risen with Him. The life that the Father gave to Jesus, He also gives to us in Jesus. We are crucified with Christ and our sins nailed to the cross. We entered into the grave with Him and were raised to life with Jesus. We have not yet received the Resurrection of the body. That is still a future promise for us but we have entered into eternal life and the Father has given us the Holy Spirit as the promise that He will raise our mortal bodies to immortality.

         So, we eat and drink the body and blood of the crucified Lord Jesus Christ, who was delivered up for our transgressions.  But we also eat and drink the body and blood of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, who was raised for our justification. For you who believe in Jesus the Christ, there is no condemnation. You are freely and fully justified by the Resurrection from the dead and are therefore recipients of God’s promise to be raised from the dead, never to die again.

         He is risen! He is risen, indeed!

Easter Exhortation

Today is Easter. It is a glorious day, the day we remember the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus, Who was delivered up to the cross for our offences, and was raised again from the dead for our justification.

         There is no better time to confess your sins and receive the Resurrection Life of Jesus Christ and be justified in the sight of God. You cannot please God without faith in Christ and you cannot have faith in Christ without confessing your need for Him to be your substitution on the cross.  It is true, that Jesus died for sinners. St. Paul was willing to say that he was the chief of sinners. Having confessed this and taking up His faith in Jesus for forgiveness, God reckoned his faith as righteousness, just as He did with the patriarch Abraham.

         So, where are you? The chief of sinners, without claim upon God except upon His grace by faith?  Or, still clinging to your sins in the hope that they and you do not have to die.  We sometimes speak of the cross as if Jesus had to die so that we do not have to die. But Paul said, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. So, too, must you and your sins die on the cross with Christ.

         Dear saints, you cannot give yourself for Jesus but you most certainly can give yourself to Jesus. You do this when you confess your sins, lay down your will, trust in God for forgiveness through Jesus and then rise up justified to walk in newness of life empowered by the Holy Spirit. Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Today is the day of Salvation.

Exhortation-Savior Lord

Is Jesus Lord? The answer is of course, yes, Jesus is Lord of both Heaven and Earth. His rule is over all. This much is an established fact. But what does that mean to us? It means that He is our ruler and not like those who are only earthly rulers. Their authority over us is limited. But the authority that Jesus has over us is completely unlimited. He rules all of our affairs as well as rules in our hearts and minds. We are to render our allegiance to Him not only in our deeds but also in our words and even our very thoughts.

         When we see the Lordship of Christ in this light, our failure to absolutely submit our wills to Him becomes obvious. We have not been perfectly faithful in our deeds or our words or our thoughts.

         But thanks be to God that Jesus is our Savior Lord. He requires absolute submission but also provides forgiveness for us who struggle against the flesh in this earthly body. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

         So, let us confess our weakness and sin and look to Christ for His grace and mercy.

Communion-Identify with Christ

One of the great truths of Communion is identity with Jesus Christ. He is ours and we are His. We should hear these comfortable words each week as we eat and drink, remembering all that Jesus did and does for us.

         On this day of the Triumphal Entry, we remember that Jesus is the ruling King of Heaven and Earth. This should give us a great deal of peace. We need to remember this because we often look out into a world still plagued by chaos, sin, rebellion and trouble. In fact, we still see some of these things in our own lives. But Jesus is reigning and He is bringing all things into submission. And we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. He is a good King that rules in such a way as to accomplish what He intends.  This includes our peaceful place in His kingdom.

         This peace does not come without suffering. We do and will suffer but this suffering should not quench our peace or even our joy. Just as Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him, so we enter into the sufferings of Christ for the joy of victory that is set before us.

         This meal is God’s peace and joy to you.