Doctrinal Care

Doctrinal Care

Romans 3:9-18

Anthropology - the study of man. This is more of studying the doctrine of man which then implements itself into the character of man. Fallen man is utterly sinful, and by this we mean that only things done comparatively good are still filthy rags in God's eyes. Even saved man daily sins, even the holiest of man on earth has the smallest understanding of God's Law. 

We have been dipped, rolled, and saturated in the idea of man being good in this day and age with the culture we have. The culture we have is convinced that man is ultimately good. It is our environment that corrupts us, but we are good deep down inside. We are brainwashed to believe that we are not utterly sinful. Even the church has taught it and where else could we hope to find real Truth than in the church. If man was really good then why would we ever go to church at all? Why else than to meet other nice people, listen to some upbeat feel-good music, have a nice coffee bar and other cliche church activities. They might still say in abstract than man sins, but the concrete idea that is communicated is that we are basically good. 

It's not that we are sinners because we sin, but rather we sin because we are sinners. We were born that way. It is not our environment that makes us sin, but rather what is within us, our sin nature. We needs to take responsibility for our own sin and faults. The Bible speaks of us falling prey to sin because we give in to temptation. Change and renewal happens from the inner man to display the outward actions of any man. This is only done by the propitiation of the blood of Christ. 

The problem is not our environment but us apart from Christ. No man can convert the sinful heart of man. It must be Christ alone. The state pushes the idea of educating man and culture to their own ideas and this will cure any bad environment and therefore any sin. They make themselves as the god of the culture. We come to church and we need to be reminded of our sin. From there we can move on to asking for repentance and being granted forgiveness. Our church and state these days do whatever they can to convince us of our natural goodness to draw us to their agenda and away from the truth of our sin nature as taught in Scripture. 

The future idea of a general goodness of man may lead to an idea of mans' perfection. While we may laugh at that, it is the only next step to mans' goodness and if they are consistent then it really will make sense to everyone. Man does have a sin nature. It is his nature to sin continually apart from Christ. The only option for anything but sin is to look for Christ alone and to turn from all media and news and anything that wants to push the idea of man having a nature that is good. Only in Christ can we have any hope of goodness. 

"When Paul was forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel in the province of Asia, and was given the vision of a man in Europe calling across the waters, 'Come over into Macedonia, and help us,' one section of the world was sovereignly excluded from, and another section was sovereignly given, the privileges of the Gospel. Had the divinely directed call been rather from the shores of India, Europe, and America might today have been less civilized than the natives of Tibet. It was the sovereign choice of God which brought the Gospel to the people of Europe and later to America, while the people of the east, and north, and south were left in darkness. We can assign no reason, for instance, why it should have been Abraham's seed, and not the Egyptians or the Assyrians, who were chosen; or why Great Britain and America, which at the time of Christ's appearance on earth were in a state of such complete ignorance, should today possess so largely for themselves, and be disseminating so widely to others, these most important spiritual privileges. The diversities in regard to religious privileges in the different nations is to be ascribes to nothing less than the good pleasure of God."

 -Loraine Boettner

"The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination."

Living by Faith

Live by Faith. 

Hebrews 11:20-22

Dying Well.

They chose the ends of these men's lives to describe them, their deaths. Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph who all died in faith. 

Isaac in verse 20 was the longest to live out of all three of them but has the least written about him. He had two chapters while the other two had about twelve. This verse 20 refers back to Genesis 27 when he blesses him. When they say his eyes were dim it is also meant spiritual eyes as well as physical eyesight. He called the wrong son to him, Esau instead of Jacob. We also know that Isaac preferred Esau. So why include him as a man of God in Hebrews? Well Isaac believed in the promise of God to make him and his descendants a great people. He did believe and have eyes that saw the promise of God and followed through with faith. This was all based on faith. Also, once he realizes he blessed the wrong son, he immediately yields and submits to God's will. And then continued on to bless Jacob again for a second time on purpose based on the promise of God. We need to have firm faith based on nothing than the promise of God and also the promise of God through His son. Also another thought is that parents must speak these words into their children's lives. 

Jacob is also listed as a man of faith. Every time he goes to do something he probably shouldn't have done he does it right. He is a sneaky man through the gaining of his birthright and the winning of his wives. He deceives and lies but gains blessing and great promises of God. He desired the right thing and sometimes muddled it up by adding too much of himself. We do this so often, Jacob is a good picture of ourselves as Christian sinners. You see the end of Jacob's life in Genesis 47 and 48. The latter speaks of the blessing of the firstborn and the blessing of Joseph's two sons. He dies solely reliant on God. His scheming and errors fall away and see him as he always should have been. Joseph works vey hard to get his sons blessed properly, but Jacob followed God's word and promise and crossed his hands to reverse the blessings. It was all contrary to even what Joseph wanted, but Jacob was living in faith. 

Joseph was another man to live and die by faith. He had an entire life of consistent faith. Despite the fact that he lived 93 years in Egypt and had all his family and wives and houses and everything there, he desired his future that laid with the promises of God and desired his bones lay in the land that he grew up in for 17 years. Joseph says that they will someday be freed from that land and when that happens he wants to be there, free. He wants his physical bones to be in the land of God's freed people. Through all of his life he displays such strength and faith in God and God's promise to him and all of his descendants. 

Thoughts on Sunday School

Matthew 19:27, 20:1-16  - "Peter answered him, "We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?" Peter takes a commercialism view here. He thinks, 'I have given it everything so I ought to get a good deal back from you'. He believes if he gives he deserves to receive. Jesus says it is worthless, God gives as He gives, none of it is earned by us. No matter what Paul did, he cannot demand something in return. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. God owes man nothing. We stomp our foot saying it's not fair that He saves whom He saves. We stomp when He is too generous (like in this parable in chapter 20) or when He is not fair enough. But the truth is, He owes us nothing, who am I to debate Him having mercy on whom He has mercy with? Jesus reminds them, they will receive blessing, but so will others. Regardless of whether they give all or not, they are chosen and will not receive some special treatment. Peter would be one of the early workers, saying he had worked all day and received the same as those who came later. Can we be content with the grace we have been given and not play the comparison game? Why be jealous of the others around us and not be grateful and focused on the grace that HAS been gifted to us. We cannot do good things with the reward in mind. We cannot be godly with the end mindset of getting rewarded for it. That makes the gospel about us. We must keep the focus on the proper place. We are not the center of attention, we are here to bring glory to God. The blessings and rewards are supposed to be a side benefit. Let us just be thankful for whenever God does choose to bless us and reward us in His own timing. God measures rewards with His scales, not ours. "How dare you be so generous! I want more generosity!" is what this passage screams. And yet, even a good deal of the passage isn't "You're not generous enough to me", but rather "You're too generous to them". That is how selfish we can be. Envy is sadness at the joy of others and joy of the sadness of others. 

Thoughts on a Sermon

Christ's reputation was going before them. He was already a bit famous. Christ chooses words carefully, using words like "The Lord has need of them". It is in question whether Christ was not aware of being the Christ, but we must realize He fully knew who He was. But He also pointed to the Father a good deal and shows deference to Him repeatedly. Christ is the peacemaker, coming to ride on a colt. The only way to find true peace in this chaotic world is to how the knee to the Peacemaker. He is the King of Peace. "Hosanna" is translated as "save"...they were looking for a saving from Rome, but the true saving is from sin. Christ's role is as prophet, priest, and King...this is His role as King and the first thing He does is to go to the temple, matching His kingly role with his priestly role. He used the language to name the temple "His house". And if so, it made Him the owner and as such He had full right to do as He did. To cleanse it. He entered as a King and he did a kingly work, clean out a place of corruption. There is a relation between Church and State and Christ shows it here. Not only that, but this passage shows His healing side as well. It is a kingly trait to demonstrate a healing power. The blind and lame came to Him in the temple to be healed. He cleanses out the evil and brings in a healing ministry. He then uses children to proclaim His praises, children were known to announce the King and bring about his praises, but in these days our young children are denied entrance in God's covenant by baptism or such. The fig tree stands as a picture of the Church, there is no fruit or health in the life of the Church. The owner comes to see the fruit by is disappointed when it is bare and unfruitful. This is how Christ came to see His Church. "Let no fruit be on you again" and then the fig tree withered away. The fig tree stood for Israel and if Christ came and cursed it and it withered away...Christ said it will never bear fruit again, it ought to mean something in our vision of Israel. We have been sold the idea these days that Israel can do no wrong and is still God's beloved people. They are no longer God's people. The Church is now His faithful people, His beloved. The elders then went to damage and harm Him in the eyes of the people. He answered their questions with questions to trap them directly back and they realized they had lost. Judgement and salvation to hand in hand. Those who turn and embrace Him wholeheartedly will receive merciful salvation, but those who refuse will receive a judgement. In Christ, our judgement has already been released. We see only salvation now because of His death and taking our judgement to the cross with Him. 

Resurrection Sunday

Isaiah 26:19, Job 19:25-26

Resurrection: The Marrow of Christianity

Christ's resurrection is our resurrection. The woman went to help with the embalming process. The more spices and embalming spices, the more respected and lifted up the person. A previous elder was said to have 40 pounds of the spices and yet, Nicodemus was said to have given 100 pounds himself alone. His death was not a pretty one. The blood and humanity of his death is essential to see the glorious resurrection. Now we have women going to give more spices. They will be the first witnesses. Women back then were not seen as reliable witnesses. At the birth of Christ, God uses shepherds to witness...shepherds were not seen as reliable witnesses. And now He uses women as witnesses. This is a large deal why the women were not believed. It was a garden where God first brought about life and now God uses a garden to bring about a new life. Death came by the first garden but life is brought by the second Adam in this second garden. In the resurrection man has peace finally with God. It is only because if the resurrection that we can look around and see the good, the true, and the beautiful left in this world.

(At this point I got so engrossed in the sermon that I stopped taking notes. I apologize!)

"Make no mistake: if He rose at all it was as His body;

If the cells' dissolution did not reverse, the molecules

Reknit, the amino acids rekindle, the Church will fall. 

It was not as the flowers, each soft Spring recurrent;

It was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled

Eyes of the eleven apostles; it was as His Flesh: ours. 

The same hinged thumbs and toes, the same valves heart

That -- pierced -- died, withered, paused, and then

Regathered out of enduring Might new strength to enclose. 

Let us not mock God with metaphor, analogy, sidestepping

Transcendence; making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the

Faded credulity of earlier ages; let us walk through the door. 

....and I lost the rest of the poem, I'm sorry!

Desiring the Word

1 Peter 2:1-10

Desiring the Word

Doctrine in an inescapable category. You cannot avoid it or be neutral about it. If not a Christian doctrine you will be teaching a non-Christian doctrine. Ministry is used to build up and strengthen new believers and refocus the older believers. Every Sunday between Resurrection and Pentecost is to focus on doctrine and ministry. Doctrine and ministry go hand in hand with one another and cannot be separated. 

What is the basis for doctrine and ministry? The answer is the Word of God. We are to be a people who crave the Word, the Truth. We are supposed to be a Word-oriented people. We are to have a love and desire for that spiritual milk. Not a fleeting desire, but a whole life deeply rooted into the Word the entire time. Not just the New Testament, but the Old as well...when Paul talks about the desire for the Word, the Old Testament was all they had at the time. The Christian life is to be one of constant growth and constant maturity. The only way to be able to truly do this is to delve into the Word and make it a regular habit to influence your life. We rid ourselves of all evil things (verse 1) and then come to Him (verse 4). This is what forgiveness is to look like. The putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man. The Stone is living because it signifies the life found in Christ. Once united in Christ we take on the name of a living stone to carry on what it is to be as an image of Christ to others. We (spiritual stones) are being built into a living House (the body of the Church). Whenever we come into the church to gather and provide worship for Him we are coming together to build a spiritual house inhabited by Christ. Not only that, but a holy priesthood. Not as individuals, but as a community. He is our High Priest and we are His little priests. We represent the people to God when we lift up others in our prayer life. We ought to be honored to be priests to Him and holding up others to Him in prayer. We are to bring Him our spiritual sacrifices. The reason for this is that Christ was the last physical sacrifice and so we offer up our souls and characters to Christ as spiritual sacrifices. If we did not offer them up we would be as filthy rags. Do we acknowledge and accept that we are part of a spiritual and living House? We belong not only to God, but also to one another. Our sacrifices are only acceptable as offered up with Christ, our Redeemer and Mediator. Malice is to intentionally hurt someone else; deceit is to hide truth to make others believe something else; hypocrisy is to pretend to be good when not; envy is to bring others down or to wish them ill for something they have that you do not. A chosen generation, His special and holy people. We are to look different, we are set apart to bring forth the praises of Him who has brought you out of darkness. You must realize they will hate you for being a walking sign of His Word. You must realize it is always worth it. The place to always start is the Word. 

"Unlike the modernists of old, our liberals are quite happy to let us believe in the Virgin Birth or the Bodily Resurrection, or for that matter praying in tongues, presumably on the assumption that it keeps us occupied and out of their way. They only object when we dare to argue for moral limitations and ideals they have long ago abandoned. They will tolerate the most extravagant supernaturalism, as long as it is not assumed that the supernatural makes binding statements about human sexual behavior." -David Mills

"The situation is desperate. It might discourage us. But not if we are truly Christians. Not if we are living in vital communion with the risen Lord. If we are really convinced of the truth of our message, then we can proclaim it before a world of enemies, then the very difficulty of our task, the very scarcity of our allies becomes an inspiration, then we can even rejoice that God did not place us in an easy age, but in a time of doubt and perplexity and battle. Then, too, we shall not be afraid to call forth other soldiers into the conflict." -J. Gresham Machen "American Reformed Theologian Circa 1930"

Lent - Week 5

Lent V - Giving Up Modernity for Lent 

Matthew 6:24 / II Kings 17:41

You cannot serve two masters. When you replace God, you exchange your god for something else and it shapes your thought process. God does match up to man's approval so man thinks he can just swap Him out for another god. Man is seen as innocent and helpless when he chose to sin in Genesis. We are reading God's word in light of our own thinking apart from God's intended purpose. We come up with our own theology after rolling God off the throne. Our Christianity today is very different from the Christianity of our great grandparents and even earlier. You have to wonder if this could still be considered Christianity. The values of this country are long overturned. The values for freedom and liberty for people apart from a tyrannical government have long been forgotten. We came here in a revolution to the revolution there against the people. The French Revolution was what gave way to Modernity. That was the revolution we were revolting against. Modernity has been in place for so long that we naturally assumed that the god of Modernity is the only option left. The Church is now supporting it because it doesn't know any better. Modernity is in everything around us and is the only true influence on us anymore. The success of Modernity (the French Revolution) was not just the fall of the Bastille. It was also in the fall of Christianity. The liberty, equality, and fraternity of the French Revolution do not match up to the liberty, equality, and fraternity of God's law and definition. It was seen as a liberty to escape from God's law rather than to remain comfortable and at ease in His law, safe from fiat law. We are not to just coexist. That is a slogan asking for Modernity to flourish. Modernity had to attack nature  to bring down God's given society for a unified saneness. This is a macro issue of what is wrong with the world and we cannot become aware of or fix the micro issues until we at least realize the macro issues. We cannot serve two masters. We have been serving the god of Modernity for too long and we need to put off the gods of the past and follow God's desire for us. It comes at great cost because Modernity does not allow for any other god to share it's throne. 

Thoughts

1) Sovereignty is totalistic. All or nothing. God cannot be sovereign in one area but not another. God is an immanent God, He is nearby.  

2) Sovereignty is made of planning and predestination of some kind. Total planning and execution. His planning shows us yet again that He is immanent still. 

*If you take away sovereignty from an area (planning or anything else) you must give that sovereignty to someone else but the planning or whatever else will still get done.*

3) Sovereignty is omniscience. It is all-knowing. Omniscience will not just go away, either God will have it or you will try to give it away to something else. You cannot have total planning by God if he does not totally know everything (including the future). 

4) Sovereignty is characterized by ownership. Everything is the Lord's, He owns it all and we are but stewards. We are not our own but we were bought with a price. Ownership never goes away, it can only be transferred to someone else. 

5) Sovereignty is characterized by Law. The law will reflect  the law-giver. The taxes/tithe are also a good thing to look at. Is it 10%? Or more like 40-50%? 

Quote

"As Pastors we need to keep in mind and teach God's people of the distinction between the love of God's benevolence or mercy, and his love of complacency of delight. 

Why is this distinction unfamiliar to us? Is it because we think of God's mercy, and the life of faith, of sanctification, as solely motivated by gratitude for what that mercy has procured? But there is more to it than this. God delights in his people (Psalm 147:11, 149:4). How so? When there is evidence of their Christ-like renewal. So Christians are to 'walk worthy of The Lord, fully pleasing to him,' following Christ who pleased His Father (2 Peter 1:17, Colossians 1:10, 3:20, 1 Thessalonians 2:4, 2 Thessalonians 1:11). God does not delight in his people 'just as they are' but insofar as they come, fitfully and imperfect, to take on a Christian character. Are there conditions required to quality people in coming to the Cross? Certainly not. The Lord receives us just as we are. Are there conditions for divine delight in his people? Most certainly. Is the pleasing of God the ambition of Christians today?"

Paul Helm

Epiphany Part 7

Epiphany Part 7 - The Manifestation of Christ's Desire

Matthew 28:16-20

"The Great Commission" - 3 Ways We Misread It

1) We think it should be read individually as opposed to covenantally. A lot of it has to do with grammar and Greek that I may not be able to fully explain here. The word disciple here is used as a verb where it previously was used as a noun. Some versions use "teach" instead of "make" when referring to the disciples. "Make the nations disciples of Christ" was the original purpose. We are to conquer the nations as nations. We are not to save a few people out of the nations and bring them to Christ, we are to be full conquerors and take the whole nation to Christ. We tend to be pious and individualistic. Nations are to be whole covenants. Whole people groups brought all over to the gospel of Christ. Nations will be conquered as nations come to Christ. This can only be done by following the true Biblical doctrine of Christianity without relenting or submitting ground in order to seem more tolerant or inclusive of any and all radical beliefs. We cannot reduce the content of the gospel in order to bring in with the nations. We have lost the fervor of the Gospel. We have lost the passion of covenantalism. 

2) We don't like the idea of nations. Everywhere God assumes the idea of nations throughout the Scripture. Genesis 10:32, Genesis 12:2, Genesis 22:18, Genesis 35:11, Isaiah 60:3, Micah 4:2, Psalm 2:8, Zachariah 9:10, Isaiah 2:2, Matthew 28:19, Revelation 7:9, Revelation 21:24, Revelation 22:2. Christ constantly calls the nations to Himself. They belong to Him and He will not give them up and neither should we. Christianity is not selfish, we are to share it with the world, whole nations and people groups. We are all to come to Christ as we are. We cannot think covenantally because we refuse to come to Christ as a covenant, but rather as individuals. 

Thoughts

Harmony of believers. Reformation must happen within cultures for the atonement to have any meaning. Without it, you have tyrannical government and leaders. People can be easily manipulated by their guilt. They have guilt because they have no atonement. A people who have no forgiveness is controlled by their guilt. You see this displayed by Stalin. It is the war of all against all. There are legal ramifications for the atonement. When the law is violated, the law must be repaired. That is what the atonement teaches. Man broke the law and it must be made up or fixed somehow. We cannot do this repair. Christ is our substitution and restitution. We must have a high view of Christ's repair. Our theology gets into everything and creates our every thought and action and reaction. The Church becomes the thermometer of the culture to determine how well it is doing. We cannot substitute harmony for theology or true atonement.