The Word, the eternal Son of God, became flesh and dwelt among us. As you may know, the word translated “dwelt” means literally that He tented or tabernacled among us. Emmanuel – God with us. God the Son came down from heaven and lived with us here. God became one of us. He became a man, while not ceasing to be God.

The incarnation of the Son is a vital doctrine of Scripture. Without the incarnation – without the Son of God becoming flesh and tenting among us – there can be no salvation. One of the earliest heresies that emerged in the days of the apostles was the denial that Jesus had come in the flesh. In the Gnostic view of things, everything fleshly and material was evil. Only spirit was pure. The body was considered to be the “prison house” of the soul. Consequently, Christ could not truly have had a human body. When Satan syncretized Gnosticism with Christianity, the result was a twisted false Christ. An offshoot of Gnosticism was Docetism, which posited that Christ wasn’t truly a man. He only appeared to be a man.

1 John 4:1-3: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”

2 Jn. 1:7-11: “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.”

You see how serious a thing it is to deny that Jesus came in the flesh. To summarize John’s points…

1. Denying the incarnation of Christ proves you are a false and fake Christian or a false prophet

2. It proves you are possessed by the spirit of antichrist. Antichrist is a term that only comes up in the epistles of John. It does not refer to someone who arises at the end of time in a 7-year tribulation period to deceive the world and impose the mark of the Beast. It refers to the Satanic spirit at work already in the first century, which sought to deceive people by teaching that Christ did not come in the flesh.

3. The denial of the incarnation was such a damnable heresy that Christians should not even greet a person who espouses such beliefs and also should not welcome such a person into their house. If you were a Christian in the first century and a Gnostic “professing Christian” waved at you on the street, you were to refrain from waving back. If they extended their hand to you for a handshake, you would refuse. If they showed up at your door, you would not let them in and serve them anything.

Objection: But how would the early Christians have evangelized such people?

Answer: I suspect they didn’t, unless such shunning could be called a form of evangelism. But if someone was defined by apostolic authority as false, as not from God, and as aligned with the spirit of antichrist, then I suppose they deemed such people as reprobate and not savable.

Why is it essential that Jesus became truly man? Because without a human Jesus, no one can be saved. Why is that? Because the Savior of man must be born under the Law and fulfill the righteous requirements of the Law for man as a man. Man is obligated to render perfect Law obedience, but he has totally failed to do so. The only way men can be saved is to receive perfect Law righteousness through faith, accomplished by a perfect substitute man. That’s what Jesus was. He was the perfect Man, accomplishing perfect righteousness.

Secondly, Jesus had to bear the sins of men and be punished for them and die for them, and God cannot die. He had to become flesh in order to die in our place. He had to shed His precious blood for us, and God doesn’t have blood, because God is not flesh. But the God-man, Jesus Christ, became flesh – true flesh with true human blood – and His blood was shed on the cross for our redemption.

Thirdly, He had to become a sympathetic high priest for His people, and He became One by becoming one of us.

Heb. 2:14-18 says, “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.”

Similarly, Heb. 4:15-16 says: “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Westminster Larger catechism, question 39, asks:

Q. 39. Why was it requisite that the Mediator should be man?
A. It was requisite that the Mediator should be man, that he might advance our nature, perform obedience to the law, suffer and make intercession for us in our nature, have a fellow-feeling of our infirmities; that we might receive the adoption of sons, and have comfort and access with boldness unto the throne of grace.

The real humanity of Jesus is non-negotiable, just as His deity is.

A vitally important truth about mankind is given to us in the very first chapter of the Bible, Genesis 1:26-27: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

The plural pronoun “Us” (“Let Us make man …”) indicates the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The triune God created us. We did not evolve over millions of years through evolution. Man was created on day six, a 24-hour day. Our ancestors were not apes, and birds before that, and fish before that. We all came from one man and one woman – Adam and Eve. Humanity is not an accident. Humanity was deliberately and thoughtfully created by God for a purpose. His purpose! Each person in the world exists for a divine purpose and reason. Read the Bible to discover God’s purpose in creation. There is no such thing as a meaningless person. Because God made you, you are not meaningless.

God made us in His likeness or image. That means we are like God in various ways, although we are also significantly different from Him. The differences are obvious. He is God; we are not. We are created; He wasn’t. We had a beginning; God has no beginning. We are dependent and needy; God is independent and has no needs. We are weak; He is all-powerful. We are limited to time and space; He is infinite and has no limits. God is perfect; we are not. God is holy and without sin; we are sinners.

On the other hand, we are made to be like God in various ways. For instance, we have a mind, just as God has a mind. We think and we are self-conscious (aware of ourselves), just as God is. Just as God sees, hears and speaks, so do we. Just as God is relational, so are we.

Just as God loves and hates, so we love and hate. Just as God creates and designs things, so do we in an inferior way. Just as God rules and governs, so do we (over the animal world and over other people under our authority). Just as God is a moral being, so we have been made with a conscience which judges our actions as right or wrong. These comparisons merely scratch the surface of how we are similar to and dissimilar from God.

Another important truth about humanity that needs to be underscored in this day is the fact that God created mankind male and female. Those are the only two options. You are either male or female, according to how God created you. The sex you were “assigned” at birth is your sex, because God assigned it to you for a reason. You cannot change your gender, but you can pretend to.

https://www.sermonaudio.com/broadcasters/newhopeks/

III. How Christians are NOT born

A. Not born of blood

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, (13) who were born, not of blood…”

This qualification was a great stumbling block to the Jews. They were very much addicted to the idea that salvation came through the gene pool. Abraham was called by God, and promises were made to him and to his seed. And they concluded that spiritual blessing was guaranteed to them as a birthright. Because Gentiles were excluded outright (for the most part), it was logical to assume that there was something special about the Jewish blood line. Samaritans were likewise excluded, because they were not pure bloods, but mere half-breeds. And of course, there was something special about the Jewish blood line – it was through that bloodline that Christ would come, a Son of David, a descendant of Judah and of Abraham. That’s what was special.

He was the promised Seed in whom all the nations would be blessed, as Paul explains in Gal. 3:16:

“Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.” Paul also explains in Galatians that everyone in Christ by faith is a child of Abraham and a recipient of the promises made to Abraham. But the Jews could not accept this. “No, Gentiles shall have no part in the kingdom. We are the chosen race. We are the children of Abraham. We can trace our genealogy back to him.”

They could not accept the notion that there were two branches coming from Abraham: 1) Children of Abraham according to the flesh (ethnic Jews); and … 2) Children of Abraham according to promise (who might or might not have Jewish blood coursing through their veins).

They could not abide by this. To them, there were no such distinctions. Children of Abraham by flesh (or bloodline) are one and the same as children of promise. To be a child of promise is to be an ethnic Jew. To be an ethnic Jew is to be a child of promise. And they viewed circumcision as proof of their membership in the kingdom of God. The prophets constantly challenged their “eternal security” and condemned them for their trust in such externals, while they walked in disobedience. That’s why the prophets were continually abused and murdered by them.

John the Baptist continued in the tradition of true prophets, challenging the supposed safety of Jews who thought they were secure because they had the right family tree.

“So he began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Lk. 3:7-9)

Jesus likewise challenged them on the same point in John 8:31ff: “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. “I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.” They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus *said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham.” (Joh 8:31-39). Afterwards he told them they were children of the devil, which rendered their genealogical connection to Abraham meaningless.

Application: The application for us today should be obvious, but I will attempt to make it crystal clear. Saving grace does not travel through the gene pool. It is not inherited. It is not a birthright. You are not born of God because you have Christian parents … or Christian grandparents … or Christians somewhere upstream in your family tree. You are not a Christian and not born of God because your parents are Reformed and have good theology. You are not born of God because you are born in America, and because America once was a Christian nation. The idea of Christendom – a sacralist society where Christianity is wed with state powers and everyone born in that nation/state is a Christian by default -- is nonsense. The citizens of such a kingdom are not Christian and are not citizens of the kingdom of heaven just because they are born in that domain. To be born of God is something far greater than being born into a Christian family or to be born into a certain genealogical line. It is not of blood.”

Christians are born by the will of God.

https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermons/82261735281558

“There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. (7) He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. (8) He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. (9) There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.”

“I don’t know what it would have been like to hear John preach, but I would venture to guess that his sermons were quite powerful and unlike anything anyone had ever heard in his generation until Jesus started preaching. As a preacher of repentance, he put his finger right on the sensitive spot that everyone is so jealous to defend and protect. That’s what any preacher of repentance does. John’s preaching would have been searching and probing. They would have made everyone uncomfortable, bringing the elect to repentance while causing the reprobate to be offended and angry. This is a man who told the Pharisees they were a brood of vipers and not to congratulate themselves on being children of Abraham, because it was meaningless without regeneration. He told the tax collectors to collect no more than they had been authorized. He told soldiers to not take money from anyone by force, nor to accuse anyone falsely, and to be content with their wages. He told those who had two tunics to share with those who had none. And he did not hesitate to tell Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife”, which ultimately got him beheaded. This was a man who spared no one – neither rich nor poor, neither powerful nor weak -- because he feared no one but God.

Because of his extraordinary authoritative preaching – not because of miracles he performed, since he performed none -- people wondered if He was the Christ. But John was quick to dispel that notion. No, I’m not Him. One is coming after me whose sandals I’m not worthy to untie. Though I have baptized you with water, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And when Jesus appeared, John pointed to Him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” And when John’s disciples, jealous for his honor, reported to him at one point that Jesus was baptizing and “all were coming to Him,” John humbly replied:

“A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.” (Jn. 3:27-31)

John the Baptist wanted everyone to know that he was not the Christ. And John the apostle wanted everyone to know it as well. V. 6: “There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. (7) He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. (8) He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.”

John was not the Light. John was a witness to the Light. What does a witness to the Light do? What John did. The witness to the Light doesn’t claim to be the Light when he’s not. He doesn’t pretend to be greater than he is. He doesn’t try to get glory for himself so everyone will come to him and bask in his glory. He points people to Christ, the true Light. It’s Him. He’s your man. That’s the Bridegroom you’re looking for, not me. I’m just the friend of the Bridegroom. That’s the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Worship Him, not me. Follow Him, not me. Trust in Him, not me.

If a prophet is a true prophet, if a man of God is a true man of God, if a pastor is a true pastor, he will be a witness to the Light, who is Jesus Christ. He will point people to Christ in the hopes that they will believe in Him and on Him, not encourage people to be part of his fan club. He is not trying to gather people around himself to strengthen his personal kingdom. He’s a witness to the Light, who is Christ, and is a servant of Christ’s kingdom.”

Let me ask you a few probing questions and then make a confession.

Questions: How often do you think about abortion and the fact that babies are being murdered in Kansas every day? How much does the carnage bother you? Do you ever become distracted from your daily duties because you’re lost in thought, agonizing over the constantly increasing body count? Do you ever lose sleep over it? Do you ever shed a tear over the dead children?

Confession: I must admit that I don’t think about it that much – not anywhere close to what would be expected, considering the gravity of the crisis. I confess that even though I am a member of AIMKS, which is devoted to abolishing abortion in Kansas, I can go days at a time without thinking about the ongoing practice of infanticide at all. I confess that I am rarely (if ever) distracted from my duties by the horror of abortion and that I have never lost sleep over it. I might have shed tears at one point in the past for the dead children of abortion, but if so, it apparently didn’t make such an impact on me that I remember it well. And yet I believe with all my heart that abortion is murder and must be abolished.

So what gives? How can I believe what I believe – that abortion is murder – and be so lukewarm and lackluster emotionally? Perhaps it is the same with you.

I think there are two main reasons:

1) We only partly believe that babies are murdered every day. We believe it, yet somehow we don’t. We have a hard time believing it because we don’t see it. It happens in “clinics” out of our sight. And we don’t really want to believe it’s happening. It’s too uncomfortable.

2) It is hard to have strong emotional feelings of compassion for people we don’t know and never see. As a comparison, think of the persecuted people in China. We know that China persecutes Christians , Muslims, Falun Gong and political dissidents. Many have reported the horrific torture they experienced in prison. We also know about the forced organ harvesting. And even though we think this is all shameful and despicable and heart-breaking, we don’t lose sleep over it. We perhaps never shed any tears over it. We can have a good time at social gatherings and attend athletic games and movies and eat popcorn and sip soda without thinking about the persecuted in China even once. And yet we don’t deny that people are being treated horribly there, as well as many other places around the world. We believe it – sort of – but it’s out of sight, out of mind. On the other hand, we can watch a movie where talented actors and actresses portray pain and suffering and grief, and we can experience a catharsis of empathetic emotions and leave the movie with a face wettened by tears. This can occur, even if the movie is completely fictional and not based on a true story.

What is the lesson? The lesson is that feelings and emotions can often be erratic and fickle. They are not always grounded in truth. Sometimes they are strong and powerful when nothing tragic has actually happened, and sometimes they are flatlined and weak when unimaginable cruelty and suffering is known to have occurred. Consequently, emotions should play little to no role in fulfilling our duty.

We may not feel like getting out of bed in the morning and going to work, but a sense of duty compels us to do what we don’t feel like doing. We may not feel like going on a diet, but we might need to whether we feel like it or not. We may not feel like paying off debts, but we need to do it anyway. A multitude of examples could be given. Feelings are largely irrelevant. Certain things need to be done regardless of whether strong emotions are present to energize us in a necessary task.

So it is with abortion. Abortion is murder. There is no denying it. There is no getting around it. It must be abolished. That is the right and God-honoring thing to do. And this is the case whether or not we have strong compassionate feelings for unborn children we can’t see, hear or touch. Abortion is murder and must be abolished even if we have stronger feelings of compassion for the single mother who doesn’t know how she can possibly manage to raise her baby and looks at abortion as a savior from her problems.

Emotions can be treacherous. We dare not trust them. We dare not consult them to guide our policy concerning the murder of infants. We must not wait for more compassionate vibes to come over us before we do what is right and rescue those who are perishing. If we do, abortion will never be abolished … and then, when we all stand before the Judgment seat of Christ on the last day and He asks us why we did not intervene for the innocent, we will have nothing to say except, “Well, I didn’t feel like it.”

Proverbs 24:11-12: “Deliver those who are being taken away to death and those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh hold them back. If you say, ‘See, we did not know this,’ Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts? And does He not know it who keeps your soul? And will He not render to man according to his work?”

For the sake of Christ,

Curtis Knapp

AIMKS

www.aimks.org

https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermons/72626165437350

John 1:1-5: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2) He was in the beginning with God. (3) All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. (4) In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. (5) The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

Application

To summarize, Christ was not created by the Father. He is the eternally begotten Son. Begotten, not made. He is the creator of heaven and earth. All things have been created by Him and for Him. Nothing has come into being apart from Him. He is the Life and the Light of men. The implications of this are enormous.

1. There is an implication for education. If the world and all things in it are created by Christ and for Christ, then all of world history concerns Him, is about Him and is for Him in some way or another. That being the case, how absurd is it to teach a world history course or a history course of any kind and leave Christ out of it altogether or give him but a brief mention in passing? Yet this is exactly what education systems do in our country and all around the world. They barely mention Him or ignore Him altogether. The same is true for biology and chemistry and physics and all scientific fields of study. How can you teach biology, chemistry and physics and not pay any attention to the One who made everything you’re studying and instead pretend no one made any of it? It is common in our day for people to argue and debate about the quality of education today. It is common for people to talk about good schools versus bad schools. Good education versus bad education. But I ask you: How can education be considered good at all (whether public school, private school or homeschool) if it systematically excludes the One by whom and for whom all things were made?

It would be like tearing apart a car engine, studying all the individual parts, knowing measurements, knowing dimensions, knowing how much each part weighs, memorizing part names, learning how to put all the parts back together in their proper place, but having no idea that it’s an engine or what an engine is even for and never running a car with it. That is something like the education you and I received and that most young people continue to receive today.

Consider another example. Take the case of an atheistic medical doctor. He got into an elite medical school (whatever that means in light of what I’m saying about education). He graduated suma cum laude. He has a really high IQ. He knows anatomy like the back of his hand. He has a phenomenal memory. He knows diseases. He knows symptoms. Let’s say he even has a decent bedside manner. There’s just one problem. He rejects God. He rejects Christ. He rejects scripture. Consequently, he rejects the One who made the human body, and He rejects the true purpose of life. He doesn’t believe man is made in the image of God. That man, I would argue, is not a good doctor. That is a man who will not hesitate to approve of abortion, of euthanasia, of organ harvesting from people who are alive, of eugenics, of bodyoids (clones created for available body parts), and all other kinds of evils in our “Brave New World”. Why? Because he rejects Christ the Creator and the purpose for which Christ created all things, including humanity. He adheres to the utilitarian ethic, wherein the highest purpose of medicine he can come up with is “maximizing overall well-being and happiness for the greatest number of people over the life of each patient as a divine image bearer”. The Creator’s right to dictate what constitutes good medicine never enters his mind.

2. If all things came into being through Christ … if all things were created by Him and for Him … then of course the Old Testament is primarily about Him. The Old Testament is not about the religion of Judaism … it is not merely a history of the Jewish people … it is God’s revelation of Christ in prophecies, types and shadows.

When the risen Christ appeared to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, they did not recognize Him. But, as it says in Luke 24:27, “… beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”

After he broke bread and handed it to them, their eyes were opened to recognize Him and then He vanished. And then the two disciples said to one another, (v. 32) “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?” I would like to have sat in on that hermeneutics class.

In John 5:39, Jesus said to the Jews, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me.” And in vv. 45-46 of that chapter, He said, “Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.”

If you are reading the Old Testament and you are not seeing how they are often speaking of Christ, alluding to Him, implying Him, and preparing the reader for His coming into the world, you are missing the meaning of the OT scriptures entirely. Don’t turn it into a book, laying out the rules of Judaism, or a mere book of morals.

3. There is a profound implication for the universal penchant of men to exchange Christ for idols. Because Christ created this world and all things in it, and it was created by Him and for Him, then He must be a phenomenal person, worthy of our undying devotion and adoration. What is not to like about Him? What is there not to admire? You admire power? He has infinite power. He is inexorable. You admire smarts? He is a genius whose intellect is vastly superior to any person you’ve ever met or read about. You want goodness? He is pure goodness. He has never put forth His hand to do evil. He has never even had an evil thought pass through His mind? He never uses His infinite power to rob others, to abuse others, to oppress others. Whenever He punishes He does so from a regard to pure justice. You want a hero? I know you do. Nothing else could explain the ubiquitous longing for a hero to worship, witnessed in all people in all cultures in all generations. Think of it. Hollywood would have but a fraction of its money if it hadn’t learn how to make movies about superheroes. These are enormously popular and rake in billions of dollars every year because people are hungry for a hero -- a larger than life Savior who will defeat villains and bring about justice.

Well Christ is that superhero … and yet no one wants Him. He is rejected by the vast majority of men. Why? Not because they don’t long for a hero. Not because there is something lacking in Him that makes Him unworthy of worship and adoration. No. It’s personal. It’s enmity and hostility. Men hate Christ. And they hate Him because He is not the hero made in their image, one who exists to make their lives here happy and easy, while leaving them to sin however much they wish. He is a hero of God’s order, who hates sin and will not make peace with it. He will either save you from sin, or not at all. But He will not save you from hell while leaving you in sin.

Luke 19:12-14: “So He said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself, and then return. “And he called ten of his slaves, and gave them ten minas and said to them, ‘Do business with this until I come back.’ “But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’”

4. There is a profound implication for the way we interpret the meaning, circumstances and direction of our own lives. We come into this world born in sin with a darkened mind, and in the darkness of our minds, we really do think the world revolves around us. We don’t say it. We know better than to say it. But deep down, it’s the way we think. Which means, we kind of think we’re God. We think we should have our way. We think our will should be done. We think our desires and our interests should reign supreme. That’s why we get mad at God when He doesn’t answer our prayers. There’s just one problem. It’s an absurd lie. The world doesn’t revolve around us at all. And not only do we live in a world where all the sinners around us disagree that we are the center of the universe (they think they are; and this causes a considerable degree of conflict with other people), but God also doesn’t think the world revolves around us. He thinks it revolves around Christ … because it does. He made it to be that way.

Living in a fallen and cursed world brings suffering into our lives. This is not heaven. This is not the new earth. This is a world under a curse. But the worst thing about it all is not the trials themselves. It’s the delusion that it shouldn’t be this way, because “we don’t want it this way and we think the world revolves around us.” Trials are difficult enough, but when you think they’re an outrage … when you think they’re a great injustice to you … when you think you have a right to demand an explanation from God … when you think He’s an incompetent idiot who ought to turn the steering wheel over to you … or you think He’s evil and cruel … that’s where trials become torture. Why is this happening to me? Why do these things keep happening to me? Is God so obtuse that He doesn’t know what I want? Is He deaf? Was I unclear in my prayers? Doesn’t He know my will and what I desire? Why is He not carrying out my instructions?

If this is the way you think, you must be confusing planet Earth with some other planet out there … a planet that revolves around you. This planet doesn’t. This planet was created by Christ and for Christ. The only way to be happy here is to submit to that, to line up behind a Christ-centered purpose for this world, to join ranks with those who reckon Him to be God and who live for Him and worship and adore Him. May God help you and may He help me to find joy in submitting to that purpose.

Jesus says in John 4:23-24, “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

There are many things we can afford to be wrong about in this life, but the identity of God is not one of them. One central aspect of salvation is knowing God. In John 17:3, Jesus said, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

In 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8, Paul speaks of the day of judgment when “…the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”

To put it bluntly, what this means is that if we don’t care to know God and His Son, Jesus Christ … if we find God boring … if we’d rather have a root canal than read the Bible to know God … then we do not currently possess eternal life and we are not currently on the narrow road that leads to eternal life.

This presupposes that God is knowable. Writ large across every page of the Bible is the implicit and often explicit message that there is one true God, He is identifiable amongst the throng of false gods, and sinners will be found guilty for choosing false gods over Him. God has revealed to us who He is in scripture, and if we ignore scripture, we do so at our own peril.

This obviously clashes with modern sentiments that religious truth is relative and at best a matter of opinion. According to the wisdom of our day, if two people, both claiming to be Christians, have a serious disagreement over biblical subject matter—the nature or character of God, what is right and wrong, how God is to be rightly worshipped, or what it means that sinners are saved by grace through faith, etc.—it must mean that such questions are unknowable and not worth investigating. What it actually means is that there are right answers and wrong answers to such questions.

In Acts 17, after the apostle Paul was run out of the city of Thessalonica by sinners who hated his claim that Jesus was the promised Messiah, he then traveled to a city called Berea and preached there. In Acts 17:11, a compliment is paid to the Bereans: “Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.”

The Bereans didn’t hear about the uproar in Thessalonica and conclude that since Paul’s message was “controversial”, his truth claims must be unknowable or unprovable. Instead, they searched the scriptures to see whether Paul was preaching things consistent with the Old Testament prophecies. If the scriptures confirmed Paul’s claims, then the men of Thessalonica were wrong, and they were tragically wrong about something they could not afford to be wrong about.

In our modern day, if a particular truth claim is “controversial”, it is considered suspect, as if truth is something that always secures consensus and widespread acceptance. The absurdity of such an assumption should be obvious. Considering that just about everything Jesus said was “controversial”, we would have to conclude that nothing He said was true. When biblical truths are “controversial”, the fault for the controversy lies squarely at the feet of those who quarrel with it.

https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermons/71926172386207

“Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” (2 Tim. 2:3-4)

Paul tells the retreating Timothy, “Don’t run away from the battle lines. Don’t hide. Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

What does it mean to be a good soldier of Christ? It means that when Christian duty involves hardship, you accept it and you embrace it; you don’t shrink from it. You suit up and go out on the battlefield; you don’t slink away into the shadows.

Are we surprised by suffering and surprised by persecution? Why should anyone in a war be surprised by suffering, hardship and persecution? Isn’t that the very nature of war. Who goes to war and expects it to be a walk in the park? Who goes to the front lines and thinks he won’t get shot at? What soldier in the midst of battle puzzles over the hostile conduct of his enemy? Why are they so mean to me? Who asks that question in war? This is real war, not a video game. Have you been shot? Are you wounded and bleeding? It’s tough. The church sympathizes and will do what she can to help bandage your wounds. But what did you expect? This is war. The devil is a raging lion. He doesn’t show up to play a mean game of checkers. He’s looking to devour you.

Oftentimes, we find ourselves surprised by suffering and hardship. Why is this happening? Many times the answer can be reduced to one word: war. Why do I have so many hardships? War. Why is life so difficult? War. It’s not as if our Captain wasn’t straight with us. No, he was very clear.

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves (that’s really pretty clear); so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.” (Mt. 10:16-18)

“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. You will be hated by all because of My name (that’s pretty clear), but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved. But whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes. A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. “It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household!” (Mt. 10:21-25)

“If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.” (Jn. 15:19-21)

Do we think that these things only apply to the disciples? Do we think that it is fine for them to be hated by all, but we must be loved and admired by all? Do we think they are called the “scum of the earth” (see 1 Cor. 4:13) and that’s fine, and admire them for pressing on with duty in spite of the hatred, but that’s not for us? No, we must be the kind of Christians that our community loves and admires, and our church must be a popular place everyone is busting down the doors to get into, or else we must be doing something wrong!

Sometimes, I wonder if our sense of unbelief has something to do with living in America, where we still enjoy a relatively good measure of religious liberty. I’m thankful for the liberty, I’m thankful for the Constitution and thankful for the first amendment right to worship freely, but I think there can be a downside. Does our freedom make it harder for us to accept that we are in a spiritual battle constantly raging and to believe that the persecution of Christians is to be expected? Do we believe that we are in a state of war to the same degree that our Chinese brothers and sisters believe it? Or Christians in North Korea or Myanmar or Iran and other Muslim countries? I’m not sure it’s possible to be a true church, preaching the truth faithfully in those countries and not be harassed or arrested or punished severely by government authority. But thus far, it’s possible here in America. Does that make us soft? Do we get so accustomed to religious liberty that we think it’s the default setting? Do we then become surprised by the hardships of war as though we’re not at war?

That doesn’t mean that Christians are never persecuted in America. What it means is certain kinds of Christians are persecuted in America. What kind is that? Those who participate in the war by standing firm in the truth and taking part in the destruction of the ideological fortresses of Satan. Those who are doers of the Word, not hearers only. If you join the war, if you seek to live godly in Christ Jesus, you will suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:12). If you retreat and hide, however, you may be able to escape notice for awhile.

We see this contrast between Paul (suffering in prison) and Timothy (out of jail and free to be invisible and anonymous). This is the case at least during the period of time in which Paul was writing to him. Timothy had suffered for Christ in the past. He had been fully engaged in the war. But he had become skittish and maybe weary of warfare. Paul was beat up everywhere he went because he wouldn’t shut up and he wouldn’t leave the kingdom of Satan alone. He proclaimed the truth about righteousness in Jesus alone and so the Jews attacked him in every city. He also proclaimed the truth about the folly of idols and so the Gentiles persecuted him as well. He didn’t leave sensitive subjects alone. He meddled in all the things that provoked the fury of committed sinners.

Paul sums up the treatment he generally received in 2 Cor. 11:23-27: “Are they servants of Christ?—I speak as if insane—I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.”

If you asked Paul why he suffered so much, he might give that one-word answer: war. Soldiers at war suffer. But Timothy was shrinking back and growing uneasy with suffering. That’s why Paul exhorted him, “join with me in suffering” in 2 Timothy 1:7-8: “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God.” And again in our text: “Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”

Unless there is a concerted attempt by government authorities or fanatical idolaters to hunt down Christians and arrest or kill them, you can evade many hardships by just being sinfully quiet. I know. I have experience in that, unfortunately. But when you start to open your mouth and speak out against the lies of the evil one, then you begin to be a target. Then, at a minimum, the ungodly will criticize you, slander you, shun you, reject you, and they’ll do worse if they feel they can get away with it.

If you are pastor of a church, you can avoid many hardships by preaching to the head and not the heart … or by preaching doctrines to know without any expectation that people do and obey them … or by skipping over difficult doctrines … or by refusing to confront problems in the church ... and refusing to practice church discipline. If you do things that way, you can have a nice quiet pastorate, with a good salary, and nice perks, and perhaps see significant numerical growth. But if you want to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ, you won’t choose the easy path. You’ll join the fight for truth and suffer hardship as a result. You might get fired, or you might see an exodus of people leave the church. But when it happens, don’t scratch your head in perplexity. Remember, this is war. Hardships are routine in war.

https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermons/7526175492271

Have you ever noticed that what is precious in the sight of God is hated by the world and what is precious in the sight of the world is hated by God? Luke 16:15: Jesus said to the Pharisees, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.”

Sinners love the approval they get from each other. The esteem. The accolades. The admiration. But God hates it. Sinners love money. God hates it as a competing master. Sinners love fleshly pleasures. God hates them. Sinners love “strength” in humanity. God hates it. Sinners love their made-up religion that makes them feel good about themselves and their own righteousness. God hates their false religion.

1 Peter 2:4: “And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God.” Christ is the living stone rejected by men.

1 Peter 2:7-8: “This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, “THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE VERY CORNER stone,” (8) and, “A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE”; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.”

Christ is the stone the builders (the Jews) rejected. Christ is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

The Jews were offended by many things in Christ. They wanted and expected a Messiah to be a political figure who would come and deliver them from the yoke of the Romans but found to their disappointment that He had no such plans. The Pharisees wanted a Christ who would come and be one of them and validate their party interest, and affirm their righteousness – their rules and regs, their traditions of washing cups and pitchers and hands and various other things, their unbiblical and toxic Sabbath beliefs. They wanted a Messiah who would love what they loved and hate what they hated. They wanted one who would come and pat them on the back and say, “Good job. Well done.” Instead, they got a Messiah who came and rebuked them severely and condemned their worthless righteousness and their twisted interpretation of the scriptures. The same goes for the Sadducees and their particular twisted brand.

Romans 9:30-10:4 sums up in a nutshell why the builders, the Jews, rejected Christ and stumbled over Him as a rock of offense.

“What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED. For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

They were so addicted to works righteousness that they could not and would not submit to a gospel scheme that robbed them of their supposed glory and gave it to Christ. But even though that section of Romans draws a contrast between Jews and Gentiles, the point is not that Gentiles never do the same thing. The point was that in the plan of God, the kingdom would be taken away from the Jews (who were working hard to establish their own righteousness) and given to Gentiles, who by comparison were not. But we should not conclude that Gentiles by and large love the gospel, love grace, love giving Christ all the credit and glory for salvation and are never prone to establishing their own righteousness. That’s not true.

This is a human problem. All human beings do this. It is one of the disastrous effects of the fall. That Adam and Eve would defy the Living God, make a total mess of everything and then try to fix it themselves via fig leaves. We not only screw everything up, but we then refuse to humble ourselves to come before God to cry for help?

This is the core issue behind Cain’s anger toward God and toward his brother Abel. His brother’s deeds were righteous and his weren’t. God accepted Abel’s sacrifice and not Cain’s. The NT tells us that Abel offered his sacrifice in faith, and because Cain was of the evil one, we know he didn’t offer it in faith. What that means is that Abel came, offering a sacrifice to God, believing that the sacrifice represented his need of Christ, not Christ’s need of his dead animals. Cain offered his sacrifice thinking he was doing a good work that would benefit God, add to God’s net worth, and secure for Cain a ticket out of hell. In Cain’s mind it was a trade. I bring my goods to you and you bring your goods to me. I’ll give you something you need and then you give me something I need. Do we have a deal? And God was not pleased with Cain because he had no faith in Christ. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith receives righteousness from Christ; it does not contribute righteousness to Christ. Christ doesn’t need any righteousness! He’s full to the brim and overflowing with it already.

Sinners are so proud, so lost, so fallen, so stupid, so embittered against God and His Anointed that we refuse to cry for help and insist that we can obtain a righteous standing all on our own, thank you very much! Sinners stumble over Christ. He is a rock of offense. What do you mean I need Christ for righteousness? I’ve got some righteousness. What do you mean my righteousness is as filthy rags? What do you mean that being a Jew won’t get me into heaven? What do you mean circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing? What do you mean participating in sacraments is not a way to earn righteousness? What do you mean that repentance and faith are not my contributions to salvation, that accepting Christ is not my contribution, that praying a sinner’s prayer doesn’t secure salvation? What do you mean?

Today’s Pharisees are fine giving Christ some credit, even much credit, for salvation, as long as we are given credit for closing the deal. Christ can go to the cross and die there and rise again, and we can pay Him some compliments for that, but after that, all He can do is offer it to us. We have to ratify it. We have to seal the deal. In the end, salvation has to depend on us, not Christ. Then we can still boast.

This is why a passage like Romans 9:10-16 makes most professing Christians gnash their teeth: “And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, “THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER.” Just as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.” What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”

So the world, which includes unbelieving Jews and Gentiles, and which also includes the false churches so abundant in the world, all stumble over Christ as a rock of offense. Even those who claim an interest in Christ do not accept Him as He is, as He offers Himself to us: as the lone Savior who saves all by Himself, who contributes all the righteousness, including the gifts of repentance and faith, who has mercy on whom He has mercy, and who will not divide the credit and share the glory with sinners one little bit. That Christ is a rock of offense to proud sinners in their proud religions.

He regained consciousness and was discharged a month later. Zach said he was conscious during the ordeal but unable to speak or open his eyes, while he listened to the doctors and nurses calmly discuss the removal of his organs. He wanted to scream but was unable to do anything.

We might like to think that Mr. Dunlap’s story is an outlier, but the truth is that there are many similar situations that have been chronicled over the years, ever since the artificial construct of “brain death” was invented by a committee at Harvard in 1968.

To note just one more example, in 2021, Anthony Hoover was taken to a hospital in Richmond, KY, due to a drug overdose and cardiac arrest. The doctors performed tests on him and concluded he was “brain dead”. In the midst of organ removal surgery, Hoover woke up screaming and thrashing. A later investigation into the organ procurement organization found that in 28 of 351 reviewed cases, patients may have been alive when their organs were harvested.

As it turns out, most patients (if not all) are alive when their organs are removed. They must be alive for the organs to be usable. Organs rapidly deteriorate as soon as a person dies. The notion of “brain death” is a legal fiction that legalizes organ harvesting from patients who are brain injured and in a coma. As Dr. Alan Shewmon put it, “Brain death as death began as a utilitarian legislative decree and has remained a conclusion in search of a justification ever since: a conclusion clung to at all costs for the sake of the transplantation enterprise that quickly came to depend on it.”

For thousands of years, human beings knew how to tell when someone died. The heart quit beating, the lungs quit operating, the flesh grew cold and stiff, and skin color became grey. But in 1968, a group of self-assured medical experts invented added a third, middle-ground category called “brain death”, where a person is not physically dead, but is declared “dead enough” to proceed with organ removal.

How many “brain dead” people would recover out of their comas, like Zach Dunlap, if given enough time to heal? No one knows, and under the current system of laws, no one will ever know. Brain injured people are often not given the time and chance to heal, because organ teams are urgently waiting or because others are impatient to pull the plug and deliver the person from a presumed comatose existence.

This is another way we devalue life in our culture. Just as we selfishly and arbitrarily declare some unborn children to be unworthy of life due to the suffering we gloomily prophesy for them, so we have declared some lives unworthy of preserving by the same pathetic justification. God says, “You shall not commit murder.” It’s time we obeyed Him.

I know this is difficult. We lost a good friend to the brain death hypothesis. A good place to go for the many questions this raises is respectforhumanlife.com.

https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermons/628261654385795

How should we think about our relationship with the Lord? As marriage to Him. Marriage via covenant. From the old covenant to the new, all of redemptive history is to be understood through the lens of covenant marriage between God and His people. Since we’re already in the NT, let’s look at the marriage theme in the NT first, and then go back to the OT.

In John 3:29, John the Baptist replies to some of his disciples who thought he might be distressed that Jesus was baptizing more disciples than he was. John said to them: “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full.” So Christ is a bridegroom, and the bride consists of those who believe in Him and follow Him.

In Matthew 22, Jesus told the parable of the wedding feast, saying in v. 1, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.” We are to think of the kingdom of heaven as a king giving a wedding feast for his son. In Mt. 22:11, toward the close of the parable, we read: “But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes.”

The church is the bride of Christ, and there is a wedding feast coming, and there is a proper dress code for that wedding feast. The wedding clothes is nothing other than the righteousness of Christ in which we are clothed by faith. That is what distinguishes the invited guests from those not invited, or the true bride from the false bride.

In Matthew 25:1-10, Jesus told another parable of the kingdom of heaven and again compared it to preparation for a wedding feast. “Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. (2) “Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent …” Skip to verse 6: “But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ (7) “Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. (8) “The foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ (9) “But the prudent answered, ‘No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ (10) “And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut.”

In 2 Cor. 11:2, Paul says, “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.” There is the idea of betrothal again. It’s not an obscure notion, pulled out of extrabiblical material and Jewish tradition. It’s not an exception to the rule. It’s the rule. It’s actually the marriage paradigm in scripture. Betrothal followed by consummation. However much our customs in the modern day or in the West might differ from Jewish custom, God’s paradigm is a betrothal period, culminating in the consummation of marriage on wedding day with a great feast. Because vows were made at the beginning of the betrothal period, those who made the vows were called husband and wife, just as Joseph and Mary were, even though their marriage was not yet consummated and they were not yet one flesh. But the church has been and still is in the betrothal period. We are waiting for the consummation. We are waiting for the glorious wedding day.

In the closing chapters of Revelation, we are given glorious glimpses of wedding day.

Rev. 19:6-9: “Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he *said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” And he *said to me, “These are true words of God.”

Rev. 21:2: “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.”

On the final day, the day of the wedding feast, the bride will finally be ready – ready to be presented to Christ. Fully sanctified, having been cleansed by the washing of water with the word. There will the church be in all her glory, holy and blameless, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

Rev. 21:9-11: “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” (10) And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, (11) having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper.”

The bride is decked out in the glory of God, signified by costly stones, brilliant in appearance. The world despises the church and sees no beauty in her. Even many Christians, because we have this bad habit of lumping false churches in with true and not being careful to distinguish the one from the other, often have low thoughts of “the church”. But the true church has been washed by Christ, is being sanctified and will be perfect and glorious by the time wedding day comes around.How should we think about our relationship with the Lord? As marriage to Him. Marriage via covenant. From the old covenant to the new, all of redemptive history is to be understood through the lens of covenant marriage between God and His people. Since we’re already in the NT, let’s look at the marriage theme in the NT first, and then go back to the OT.

In John 3:29, John the Baptist replies to some of his disciples who thought he might be distressed that Jesus was baptizing more disciples than he was. John said to them: “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full.” So Christ is a bridegroom, and the bride consists of those who believe in Him and follow Him.

In Matthew 22, Jesus told the parable of the wedding feast, saying in v. 1, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.” We are to think of the kingdom of heaven as a king giving a wedding feast for his son. In Mt. 22:11, toward the close of the parable, we read: “But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes.”

The church is the bride of Christ, and there is a wedding feast coming, and there is a proper dress code for that wedding feast. The wedding clothes is nothing other than the righteousness of Christ in which we are clothed by faith. That is what distinguishes the invited guests from those not invited, or the true bride from the false bride.

In Matthew 25:1-10, Jesus told another parable of the kingdom of heaven and again compared it to preparation for a wedding feast. “Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. (2) “Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent …” Skip to verse 6: “But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ (7) “Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. (8) “The foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ (9) “But the prudent answered, ‘No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ (10) “And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut.”

In 2 Cor. 11:2, Paul says, “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.” There is the idea of betrothal again. It’s not an obscure notion, pulled out of extrabiblical material and Jewish tradition. It’s not an exception to the rule. It’s the rule. It’s actually the marriage paradigm in scripture. Betrothal followed by consummation. However much our customs in the modern day or in the West might differ from Jewish custom, God’s paradigm is a betrothal period, culminating in the consummation of marriage on wedding day with a great feast. Because vows were made at the beginning of the betrothal period, those who made the vows were called husband and wife, just as Joseph and Mary were, even though their marriage was not yet consummated and they were not yet one flesh. But the church has been and still is in the betrothal period. We are waiting for the consummation. We are waiting for the glorious wedding day.

In the closing chapters of Revelation, we are given glorious glimpses of wedding day.

Rev. 19:6-9: “Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he *said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” And he *said to me, “These are true words of God.”

Rev. 21:2: “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.”

On the final day, the day of the wedding feast, the bride will finally be ready – ready to be presented to Christ. Fully sanctified, having been cleansed by the washing of water with the word. There will the church be in all her glory, holy and blameless, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

Rev. 21:9-11: “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” (10) And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, (11) having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper.”

The bride is decked out in the glory of God, signified by costly stones, brilliant in appearance. The world despises the church and sees no beauty in her. Even many Christians, because we have this bad habit of lumping false churches in with true and not being careful to distinguish the one from the other, often have low thoughts of “the church”. But the true church has been washed by Christ, is being sanctified and will be perfect and glorious by the time wedding day comes around.

https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermons/621261718367335

I. The significance of being Christ’s body

We know that the church is the “body of Christ”. The New Testament uses that expression and we often use it as well, but do we really grasp the significance of what that means? There is always a danger of an oft-used expression becoming meaningless to us through repetition. It’s like background noise that you don’t notice, or pictures you hang on the wall but then soon don’t even pay any attention to. The body of Christ is one of those expressions that is often used it can cause our eyes to glaze over. So we have to fight that tendency and force ourselves to think it through.

The text says that the church is “His body”, referring to Christ. That indicates possession. The church belongs to Christ. It’s His. He owns the title. Our attention was drawn to this when we looked at 1 Peter 2:9 a few weeks ago. “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION …”

But the expression “body of Christ” is more specific than “a people for God’s own possession”. It is one thing to say, “You belong to Christ”, but it is something deeper and more intimate to say, “You are Christ’s body.” It’s not that you are a body that belongs to Christ. No, you are His body. He is the head; the church is His body. There are deep implications to this.

A. Because you are Christ’s body, Christ has a perfect knowledge of you

Think of your own body and how you know it. You know its strengths and weaknesses. You know what your body can do and what it can’t do. If you’re fast or slow, you know it. If you can get by with 6 hours of sleep a night, or you can’t, you know it. If you have a lot of energy and endurance, or not much at all, you know it. Whatever flaws or imperfections you have … if you’re overweight or underweight … if you are sick or weak or arthritic or have joint pain … you know it. No one knows your body like you do, because it’s yours. And so Christ knows His own body quite well. He knows it with a perfect knowledge. There is nothing He doesn’t know about His body, His people, His church.

What David spoke concerning himself is also true of all members of the body of Christ: “O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.” (Ps. 139:1-6)

And Jesus said in Mt. 6:7-8: “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

And in Lk. 12:6-7: “Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. “Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.”

That speaks of intimate and exhaustive knowledge. Because you are His body, He knows you well. He knows you completely. Therefore, nothing He commands you and nothing He promises you and nothing He appoints for you is based on ignorance of you.

B. Because you are His body, He has a loving care and concern for you

Think of how you love and take care of your own body. Because you have a body that you love and care for, you know what it is to take care of your body. We might not always take good care of our bodies. We might even sometimes sinfully abuse them, or be careless and take unnecessary risks. But overall, there are many things we do that indicate a loving care of our bodies. We groom ourselves, we clothe ourselves, we feed ourselves, and when we are sick or having a serious medical problem, we seek medical help, and we avoid things that are foolishly dangerous and hazardous to our health, unless we are duty bound to risk our health or life for the sake of Christ.

And so Christ has a loving care and concern for His body, the church. His love for His body greatly exceeds our love for our own bodies. He never abuses His body. Paul speaks of this in Ephesians 5:28-30: “So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body.”

Christ nourishes and cherishes the church because we are members of His body.

C. Because you are Christ’s body, what is good for Christ is good for you and vice versa

There can never be a conflict between what is good for Christ and what is good for His body because there is an unbreakable union between the two. Just as you can’t do something that is good for your head, but not good for your hands and feet (or vice versa) so neither can Christ. What is good for the Head is good for the other members of His body. What is good for the members of the body is also good for the Head. Christ will never do anything that is good for Himself in a private way which is not also good for His body. There is not and cannot be anything selfish in anything that Christ does. The Head and body are united together. They are one and inseparable.

Listen to the words of Christ as He speaks of the unity between the triune God and His people in John 17:20-24: “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”

Christ’s prayer for oneness for His church has not been frustrated because true Christians aren’t ecumenical enough to team up with false Christians and false churches. Neither has His prayer been frustrated because true Christians disagree on certain things and are not an assembly of clones. That’s not what Christ is talking about in this passage. All the Lord’s people are one, because they are all in Christ and Christ is in them, and the Father and Son are one, and the Holy Spirit is the one given to make such a oneness possible.

Wherever Christ goes, He takes His body with Him. Whatever He does, He never fails to remember that He has a body, which is the church.

https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermons/61426165496862

The true church disciplines because it cares about souls and purity

In vv. 5-8, we see two motivations for church discipline: 1) Concern for the soul of the person committing sin; 2) Concern for the purity of the church. The true church cares about both of these things.

Verse 5 says: “I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

True Christians care about the souls of people inside the church, and outside the church, though we are only required to judge those inside. We desire to see people saved from the bondage of sin and from the damnation of hell. Love your neighbor as yourself is ingrained in our new nature. One of the reasons Paul delivered the incestuous man over to Satan was for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. There are two meanings for “flesh” in the NT: the flesh of the human body (skin and blood and bones), and the sin-loving principle within us that is aggravating and troublesome in the believer but enslaving and all-consuming in the unbeliever. I believe is the latter meaning Paul has in mind. The man has a sin-loving problem that must be dealt with for his spirit to be saved. Ending his life while he was in a state of unrepentant sin would not save his spirit. But the destruction of his sin-loving nature through salvation would save his spirit.

This doesn’t mean that church discipline always saves those who are subjected to it. But if they are to be saved, it will come about this way. It will not come about by the church looking the other way and tolerating it. That will only cause the sin to grow and become more hardened. If the church in Corinth had continued to look the other way, the incestuous man would have never been brought to repentance. If the man must be delivered from his sexual immorality, the church must confront it and make it clear to him that his immorality was incompatible with true salvation. If he doesn’t learn that from his church, where is he supposed to learn it? Sin must be confronted and rebuked if there is to be any God-given repentance. Leave people alone in their sins and they will remain in their sins. But if the church at Corinth had looked the other way, continued to welcome him into fellowship, and simply kept teaching him correct theology, then they would have turned him into an even greater monster than he already was. Then he wouldn’t have just been a pervert, but a theologically correct, doctrinally precise pervert who could talk the talk quite well and possibly wow the ignorant with all the sublime things he knew.

The second reason for church discipline – purity – is addressed in vv. 6-8: “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? (7) Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. (8) Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

A little leaven – which refers to the leaven of sin – leavens the whole lump of dough. It’s an analogy from the world of baking, but it fits the spiritual realm as well. Just as leaven spreads through dough until it has no more dough to leaven … it keeps advancing, keeps going, keeps traveling until the whole lump is leavened through and through – so it is with sin and a church that tolerates sin. It will not stop with the man committing the sin of incest. It will spread to others until the entire church is leavened.

What does that look like? It doesn’t mean that in due time everyone is practicing incest or even another kind of sexual immorality, though other instances of immorality will certainly emerge in due time. But the leaven has more immediate effects. It means that everyone will have made a deal with the devil not to be bothered about sin. You have to make that deal if you’re not going to pursue church discipline. You have no choice. You either confront sin or you tolerate it. That’s the only two options. And if you choose to tolerate it, you cannot help but become desensitized to it. If an immoral man is accepted by the church, and you are a conscientious person in the church who is troubled by this man’s behavior, but no one else seems troubled by it, what are you going to do? Will you be able to remain firm in your opposition to this man’s sin, or will you eventually wear down? Will you alone stand firm in your resistance and remain aloof from him, while the leadership and everyone else laughs with him and eats with him and fellowships with him? No, you won’t. You’ll cave. You’ll eventually wear down and accept it because you can’t carry out church discipline alone and if you try to disassociate from this man, you will simply look like a mean person in the midst of a church of “loving and accepting” people. You will become desensitized in due time. There is no way to prevent it except by leaving that church.

Bad company corrupts good morals. Good company does not improve bad morals through osmosis. No, bad company corrupts good morals. The Corinthians were already being leavened. They were already being corrupted. They were boasting about their permissiveness. That’s the leaven at work. When Solomon married foreign wives, he didn’t influence them positively, though he was the wisest man on earth. They influenced him negatively and he compromised. The same with the Israelites. They were to wipe out every one of the Canaanites in the land. When they failed to do so, what was prophesied in Joshua 23:12-13 came to pass: “For if you ever go back and cling to the rest of these nations, these which remain among you, and intermarry with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, know with certainty that the LORD your God will not continue to drive these nations out from before you; but they will be a snare and a trap to you, and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which the LORD your God has given you.”

Proverbs 22:24-25: “Do not associate with a man given to anger; Or go with a hot-tempered man, or you will learn his ways and find a snare for yourself.”

We are warned of this over and over again. Bad company corrupts good morals. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Clean out the leaven or you will be leavened. The church was chosen to be holy and blameless. Eph. 5:25-27 says: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.”

In 2 Cor. 11:2, Paul says, “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.”

Of course it is the Lord’s purpose to have for Himself a pure church, a pure bride -- not one that winks at sin and coddles it. And what that means is that there is no question that church discipline is a mark of a true church, and that a church which has developed a settled pattern of not practicing church discipline is no church at all – regardless of how many people attend there and regardless of how much religious activity there is and regardless of how much doctrinally precise head knowledge their acquiring.

Thankfully, things were corrected in Corinth, but a church doesn’t have years to work this out. Leaven doesn’t take that long to work through the dough. And once that happens, it is practically unheard of that a church will start practicing church discipline when it hasn’t been doing it for quite some time. Where do you start? Where does it stop? You now have a “church” full of people who have been desensitized to sin and are fully acclimated to it. They’ve made their deal with the devil. All those who cannot tolerate this laissez-faire attitude about sin have already left that church. You try to start practicing church discipline now and you’ll have a firestorm on your hands usually. If a new pastor of a different breed somehow mistakenly gets hired there and tries to implement discipline, he won’t last long. No unless God does a miraculous thing. If there are elders, you can be sure they aren’t qualified to be elders. And they won’t support it. They’ll be mad if you go down that road. And it’s called church discipline, not elder discipline, for a reason. Elders should lead in it, but the congregation must be part of it. The whole church is to put the unrepentant offender out and collectively disassociate from him. But a congregation that has never practiced church discipline (and usually never heard of it) will fiercely oppose such an action because they are not offended by sin, and they will also worry that they might be next.

A “church” that hasn’t practiced church discipline in years (for many, it would be never) is a thoroughly leavened church. It cannot be otherwise. And if it is fully leavened, then it is a gathering of religious people who aren’t offended by sin and don’t care about souls being in bondage to it and don’t care about purity. Now I ask you? Is that a church? Is that what the Bible means by the word? Is that a group of believers who have been regenerated, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who love God and love others, and live for His glory? I don’t think so.

Jesus ended the parable with this startling conclusion: “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:13-14).

What does it mean to be justified? It means to be declared righteous. Justification is a court room term. When you stand before a judge to hear his verdict on you, you have only two options: justification or condemnation. This contrast is seen in Romans 8:33-34: “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns?

When a judge justifies you, he does not make you righteous, he declares you to be righteous. If he condemns you, he does not make you wicked, he declares you to be wicked.

As we go back to the tax collector, we have to wonder then how he could be justified. The verdict came while he was at the temple, doing nothing but mourning over his own sins and confessing himself to be “the sinner”. Jesus didn’t say he was justified after turning his life around and spending years faithfully carrying out the duties of religion. No, Jesus said he went to his house justified that very day. Somehow, he was justified (declared righteous by God) without having done any good works.

How could God justify such a man? If God justifies men who do more good than bad, the tax collector would be in trouble, for he had done far more bad than good. If God graded on a curve, comparing the tax collector’s righteousness to the rest of humanity and rewarding the upper percentile for their superior morality, the tax collector would have been condemned. He wasn’t a cut above the rest. He was a low-life scum.

The tax collector was justified in the only way any sinner can be. By faith in Jesus Christ.

Galatians 2:16 says, “Nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.”

The tax collector believed in Christ, not in himself. He believed he was a bad man, but Christ was a good man. He believed there was mercy in Christ for him and he pleaded for it and received it. He came as a beggar of Christ, not as a benefactor or donor. That is, he came to receive righteousness from Christ, not accomplish righteousness for Christ.

He believed that Christ’s blood shed on the cross was sufficient to wash away all his sins and there was nothing he could add to Christ’s blood to make it more effective. He believed that Christ lived a perfect life of obedience to God and that if he trusted in Christ, that perfect record of obedience would be given to him as a gift. Do you believe in Christ in this same humble way? Have you received the spotless righteousness of Christ?

“Conscience takes part with the soul against the flesh. It cannot patiently endure that a vile body should be only minded and a precious soul totally neglected. How often does conscience upbraid us with this? If our bodies lack food, we are extremely solicitous to provide for them and prevent their starving. But our souls may want spiritual food for days, months, years together, and yet we are not concerned. If our bodies want clothing, we are ashamed to be seen and are not contented till we have gotten raiment to cover their nakedness. But our souls may be naked, wretched, and miserable, and this nakedness is perceived by the holy eye of God, yet we do not blush or apply ourselves to Christ for the white robe of his righteousness to cover them. Finally, if our bodies are distempered we send for a physician and are eager to be cured. But our souls may labor under many spiritual plagues such as hardness, pride, covetousness, and concupiscence (lust), which if not healed will prove mortal in the worst sense, and yet Christ the physician of souls is not valued, neither do we cry to be healed, but seem rather to be fond of our maladies. Thus conscience reproaches to make us ashamed of our folly and grow wiser withal, telling us that if our souls miscarry our bodies hereafter must be tormented, which now we are so tender of.”

https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermons/67261724392542

1 Timothy 3:15: “But in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.”

Notice what isn’t the pillar and support of the truth. It is not the rabbis of Paul’s day … nor the sages from the East. It is not the philosophers, or the reputed wise men of the world – Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, etc. As much as men may flock to these philosophers to find truth, they are not the pillar and support of the truth. As Paul says in 1 Cor. 1:20: “Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” It is not the great political powers or the great nations of the world that hold up and support the truth. Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, the Romans – none of them were the pillars and support of the truth. It is not the British empire or the American empire or the Russians or the Chinese or any other nation or collection of nations. These empires are not the pillar and support of the truth.

It is not educational institutions, the great universities and centers of learning, renowned for their knowledge. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge and others. They are not the pillars and support of the truth. If you go there to find the truth, you will not find it. The news media is not the pillar and support of the truth. I suppose that’s obvious. You will not find it in the vast majority of the daily talk shows and podcasts. You will not find it in the great classic books. So take heed, Classical education enthusiasts. As far as an educational model, there may be much to commend there, but the classics are not the pillar and support of the truth.

None of these people, none of these institutions, none of these places are the pillar and support of the truth. Each of them will invariably say some true things, but saying some true things is a very different thing than being the pillar and support of the truth. That belongs to the church and the church alone. The church is the pillar and support of the truth. That is where you will find the truth.

Do you believe that? Most people don’t. Do you think of the church this way – as the entity that holds up the truth in the world? If not, I wonder if perhaps you have slipped into that way of thinking, wherein “the church” is a conglomeration of all the individual assemblies all over the world that have “church” written on their buildings. If that is how you conceive of the church, then of course you would be incredulous. The church is the pillar and support of the truth?

Is the Roman Catholic Church the pillar and support of the truth? What about the United Methodist Church? What about the ELCA Lutherans? Presbyterian Church USA? American Baptists? The Episcopalians? The Anglicans? The Eastern Orthodox? The Church of Christ? The United Church of Christ? The charismatics and Pentecostals? The Church of God? The Seventh Day Adventists? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints? I could mention many more orgs that borrow the word “church”. Are these all the pillar and support of the truth? Hardly.

But those kinds of organizations are not the church Paul is talking about. Paul is talking about the church that hears the voice of the Son of God and lives. He is talking about the church that consists of true Christians; the church that is a chosen race, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to God, a people called out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

What a noble calling. To be the pillar and support of the truth. God’s eternal truth. But can this really be true? Is a congregation with a handful of people in Peru, or Uganda, or Seneca, KS, really the pillar and support of the truth? Yes. Congregations small and large that hold up the truth faithfully in this world are the pillar and support of the truth in the locations where they worship. No single congregation is the sole pillar of the truth, but collectively, the true church of Jesus Christ scattered all over this world is the pillar of the truth. Remove those churches from the world, with their steadfast devotion to the scriptures, and there would be no pillar and support of the truth in this world anymore.

What an amazing thing that a people despised in this world for their weakness and perceived foolishness would be the chosen instrument to uphold the truth. The church consists of people who often don’t have much money and no political power. How can such weak people be the pillar and support of the truth? Because the church is built upon the rock of Jesus Christ, and that rock is a solid rock. To borrow another scriptural metaphor, the church consists of living stones, but Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, is the cornerstone. The church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord and that is what makes the weak church strong to support the truth in this world.

What is the truth by the way – this truth that the church supports? It is the Word of God. That’s where the truth is and that is what the church holds up. In John 17:17, Jesus prayed to the Father and said, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” The truth is the Word of God. That’s why all the entities and institutions I mentioned earlier cannot be the support of the truth. They don’t care one bit about the Word of God. The media doesn’t care about the Word of God. Neither do the universities. If they talk about the Bible at all, it’s only to pick it apart. The media? If they mention it at all, it is to mock it. The false churches do not revered the Word of God. They only twist it.

But if the true church is the pillar and support of the truth, then this must mean that the true church is that church that has more than a casual and passing interest in the Word of God. It is that church that looks to the Bible as the supreme authority by which all controversies and disputes must be settled. It is that church that wants the Bible preached on Sunday mornings (thoroughly), not as merely one element in a mosaic of stories, illustrations, and jokes. It is that church that wants to hear the public reading of the Word, but is not satisfied with a mere reading. It wants to hear it preached, and not just to the head but to the heart. It is that church that looks at the scripture as something to be obeyed, not merely heard. The true church will not be satisfied if the Bible is merely a prop in the worship service. It must be the main course. In the true church, the preaching of the Word will not be dwarfed by the music, but will be the dominant focus of the worship service. There will be no bait and switch, like you see in the seeker sensitive gatherings. The bait is the production, the entertainment, the music, the children’s program, the youth program, the singles’ group, and the Word is slipped in amidst it all as a garnish. No, in the true church, the Word is what is lifted up as the “bait”, take it or leave it. The true church is not trying to lure lost people into its worship services by carnal things they like in the hopes they’ll eventually like the Word of God that barely gets any attention. The true church is concerned about glorifying God by lifting up the truth, and they trust that the elect, in due time, will be drawn to the Word and to nothing else.

The bottom line is this: if a church with a lot of programs just stopped all its programs and increased the amount of time devoted to preaching and teaching the Word, the elect people who attend that church would be unphased. They would not quit coming. They would be happy that more time was devoted to the Word. All the false Christians, however, would probably be quite unhappy and pitch a fit or they might stop coming altogether, because they’re not coming for the Word in the first place.

One of the ways to tell the difference between a true and false church is by the “radio frequency” the people are dialed into. In other words, what kind of preaching do they like to listen to. This is an indicator of what’s going on in the heart. If you think about it, it’s fairly obvious that it should be so. If someone gets in their car and routinely turns their radio to a country music station, then it’s obvious they like country music. If they tune it to pop rock, it’s obvious they like pop rock. If it’s a classical music station, then they obviously like that, and so on. Who and what we choose to listen to is not a fluke. It’s the result of deliberate choices that reflect our desires and tastes. And so it is with preaching. What do you have a taste for? Who do you listen to? That says a lot about where you are spiritually? Wisdom is vindicated by all her children, Jesus said. A teacher is known by his disciples.

True Christians, from the moment of their rebirth, listen to the voice of Christ. That’s the first voice they hear when they are reborn. It’s like a baby responding to the voice of its mother or father. The newborn child of God hears the voice of Christ and recognizes it. And when Christ is speaking through a preacher, the true Christian hears the voice of Christ through that preacher. But if Christ is not speaking through a preacher (because that preacher doesn’t speak for Christ), the true Christian will notice that something is wrong. Where is the voice of Christ? Why am I not hearing the voice of my Beloved?

True believers and false believers do not have the same tastes. True believers want to hear the voice of Christ. False believers don’t want to hear the voice of Christ. And so they will self-segregate into different kinds of churches. True believers will be drawn to a congregation where they hear the voice of Christ. False believers will be drawn to a congregation where they hear the voice of the false teacher who speaks “from the world” as 1 John 4:5 says.

1 John 4:1-6: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

The true church listens to the voice of Christ, as heard through His messengers the apostles and prophets and pastors who are truly called by Him. That’s what they want to hear, and they are drawn to churches where the voice of Christ is heard. But the world does not like the voice of Christ. They hate Christ. And so they are drawn to churches where they don’t have to hear the voice of Christ. These are churches that mention the name Jesus, to be sure, but they speak “from the world”.

The true church proves it is listening to Christ by obeying Him. True believers are doers of the Word, not hearers only.

“My sheep hear my voice and they follow Me.” Where does Christ lead them? To disobedience of His commandments? No. To an attitude that Christ’s commandments are irrelevant because we’re not saved by such things? No. To the notion that obedience to His commandments is only so much legalism, and we don’t need to pay attention to that stuff, because we’re free? No. Christ does not speak like that. If you hear that kind of talk coming from a pulpit, be sure that you are not hearing the voice of Christ.

A church is a people who have been called out of darkness into light. The summons by Christ – Follow Me – is a summons to come out of the darkness and into the Light.

So if Christ is speaking through the mouth of a preacher, the sheep will hear this: “If you love me, you will obey me.” There is an aspect of the Great Commission that is often forgotten. When we think of the Great Commission, we think, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel,” and then we stop there. Or we summarize it as, “Go into all the world and make disciples,” without specifying what it really means to be a disciple. But there is more.

Matthew 28:19-20 actually says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

To carry out the Great Commission is not to merely preach the gospel and be done, or to preach the gospel and baptize converts. No, fulfilling the Great Commission involves teaching disciples to obey Christ’s commandments. If you don’t do that, you’re not fulfilling the Great Commission. If a pastor doesn’t have that as his core mission, or if a group of elders at a church doesn’t have that as their core mission, then they are not being led by Christ, but by something else or someone else.

If you are one of Christ’s sheep, then you are hearing His voice and you are hearing Him say, “Obey My commandments.” So, if you’re not hearing that from me as your pastor, then I’m not a messenger of Christ, but a messenger of Satan. But if I wasn’t emphasizing obedience to Christ, you as His true sheep, would already be noticing that something is wrong. You would be listening for the voice of Christ and not hearing it. And you would do one or two things. You would come up and initiate a conversation with me about what you’re not hearing, but should be hearing. And if you were not satisfied by my answers or by my response – if there was no appropriate change in my preaching – then you would want to be heading for the exit.

Because then you’d be in John 10:5 territory: “A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Christ’s sheep will not listen to the voice of strangers. They hear His voice and they follow Him, but when a stranger speaks, the sheep do not recognize that voice as being the voice of Christ.

https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermons/524261739325991

The church is a people who belong to God. They are His possession. Christ purchased the church with His own blood. He paid the redemption price and upon paying that price, the church became His. If you bought your house, it’s yours. If you bought your car, it’s yours. The reason you have a title for it and the reason you’re paying property tax on it is because it’s your possession. It belongs to you.

In the same way, the church belongs to Christ because He bought her. He paid the expensive price for her by shedding His blood for her on the cross. Period. There is no room here for free will bargaining. There is no such thing as a person who is bought by Christ but who makes a free will decisions that he doesn’t want to be owned. Hogwash! You are a slave of Jesus Christ. You belong to Him. You were never in a position to grant or deny permission. And if you are truly saved, you’re totally fine with that. You delight in being Christ’s possession. You love being His slave. It’s only fake Christians who make objections on this point.

Listen to Acts 20:28: “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”

Listen to 1 Cor. 6:18-20: “Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” Your body is no longer yours. It’s Christ’s. You can’t do with your body whatever you want. You are duty bound to glorify God with it.

1 Pet. 1:17-19: “If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”

Rev 5:9-10: “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”

What does it mean to belong to God and Christ, because we are purchased by His blood? It means that an awful lot of what we were doing before we’re not doing anymore, because there’s a new landlord. It means that whatever our previous plans were, they’ve been flushed. It means, in one sense, we don’t have any plans now. Plans? Slaves don’t make plans. They do what they’re told. We’re not the planners. Christ is. Christ has a plan for our life. He has a will for us and instructions for us to carry out. Our salvation is not unlike Paul’s, though perhaps slightly less dramatic.

Acts 9:1-6: “Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.”

It will be told you what you must do? That doesn’t sound like someone making an offer to set off the dickering process. It sounds like a boss. It doesn’t sound like Christ was asking for Saul’s permission or input. No, Christ had purchased Saul with his own blood, and he was telling him what his life was going to be from now on, as if He owned him and had the right to so command him.

When Ananias raised concerns about going to pay this raging zealot a visit, Christ said to Him in Acts 9:15-16: “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.”

I’ve chosen him to be my instrument. I have things for him to do, and he’s going to do them, and he’s going to suffer a lot. That’s the new plan. What about Saul’s plans? They were cancelled.

So it is with you and me. If you have been converted, you are under new ownership and management. You have been bought by Christ. He’s in charge now, and He has plans for you. The old manager was fired. Crucified actually.

Margaret Sanger is a household name. In one sense she needs no introduction. As you may know, she is considered the mother (or patron saint) of modern-day birth control, she was the founder of the organization that became Planned Parenthood (then called The American Birth Control League), she was a vocal advocate for eugenics, and she was a precocious feminist who was ahead of her time.

Here are some things you may not know. She was an eloquent intellectual with intelligence well above average. She had a thoroughly worked out secular worldview, which she logically and forcefully articulated in her signature work of 1922, “The Pivot of Civilization.”

Like other eugenicists of her day, she paved her road to hell with good intentions and noble sounding justifications for sterilizing “morons” and “imbeciles” for “the good of society”. She believed that the great problems of society – poverty, hunger, constant warfare over scarcity of resources, lack of hygiene and the plagues that came from it – could be genuinely and benevolently solved via Birth Control (she always capitalized “Birth Control”, as if to show respect for a deity with such transformative power). Indeed, for Sanger birth control was the “Pivot of Civilization”. That is, it would be the great means by which civilization would finally leap forward, unshackled by the ball and chain of excess humanity.

Overpopulation, Sanger argued, was the problem that gave rise to all the other problems. We wouldn’t have hunger problems if we didn’t have so many mouths to feed. We wouldn’t have so much illness and plague if we didn’t have such poor hygiene, which was often the result of overcrowded homes and cities. Children often died young because mothers were unable to properly care for so many children at once. Nations fought wars and killed each other, often over a scarcity of resources, which were scarce primarily because people thoughtlessly begat progeny without regard to the limitation of resources. Sanger’s logic was cold, but cogent.

Overpopulation was the problem hidden in plain sight, Sanger believed. It was the elephant in the living room that no one wanted to talk about or address, due to blind and irrational obedience to the creation mandate, “Be fruitful and multiply.” To be blunt – and Sanger was very blunt – people were having too many children and thereby engaging in “reckless breeding”.

To make matters worse, the unfit elements of society were out-breeding the fit elements. In reading Sanger’s book, one is never sure who the “unfit” are, but one thing is sure: Sanger believes she knows who they are. She refers to them throughout as morons, imbeciles, feeble-minded, idiots, etc. Sanger would undoubtedly include in her list those who are mentally retarded, those with Down’s Syndrome, those with cerebral palsy, and those today on the ever-expanding category of Autism spectrum.

But are these “unfit” elements really out-breeding the “fit”? That would seem hard to believe, unless the category of “unfit” was much wider than we might suppose.

Here is Sanger in her own words: “I have touched upon these various aspects of the complex problem of the feeble minded, and the menace of the moron to human society, not merely for the purpose of reiterating that it is one of the greatest and most difficult social problems of modern times, demanding an immediate, stern and definite policy, but because it illustrates the actual harvest of reliance upon traditional morality, upon the biblical injunction to increase and multiply, a policy still taught by politician, priest and militarist. Motherhood has been held universally sacred; Yet, as Bouchacourt pointed out, “Today, the dregs of the human species, the blind, the deaf-mute, the degenerate, the nervous, the vicious, the idiotic, the imbecile, the cretins and the epileptics -- are better protected than pregnant women.” The syphilitic, the irresponsible, the feeble minded are encouraged to breed unhindered, while all the powerful forces of tradition, of custom, or prejudice, have bolstered up the desperate effort to block the inevitable influence of true civilization in spreading the principles of independence, self-reliance, discrimination and foresight upon which the great practice of intelligent parenthood is based.”

Sanger catches on a modicum of truth. There are people – the mentally retarded, for instance – who need to be shepherded by their family throughout their lives. They are generally unable to handle the challenge of being a husband and father or wife and mother. For them, marriage is unwise and fornication is immoral. But such matters are properly handled by family caretakers, not by intellectuals trying to figure out why we haven’t yet achieved Utopia in a fallen world.

Self-important elites determining who is fit to breed? What could go wrong!

“And Jesus also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt: Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Let’s consider these two men. The Pharisee was a member of the conservative wing of the religious establishment. Pharisees were strict about keeping the Law of God, or so they thought. He was religious. He went to the temple and prayed, avoided certain scandalous sins, fasted twice a week, and scrupulously paid tithes.

And yet for all these apparent virtues, he was arrogant. Because of his high opinion of himself, he looked down on others. He thought he was righteous and he prayed to himself, not God. Though he formally thanked God, what he really meant was, “I thank myself for living my life so respectably.” Because he trusted in himself for righteousness, he was not fit for heaven, but rather for hell. He left the temple that day condemned, not justified. To be justified is to be counted righteous before God. “God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5).

Now consider the tax collector. Tax collectors were despised for three main reasons: 1) They collected taxes, which everyone hates; 2) They worked for the Romans, who were occupiers in the land of Israel, and thus were considered traitors; 3) They were notorious for adding to the Roman tax bill, pocketing the surplus and getting rich by it.

The tax collector also came to the temple, but he did not trust in his own righteousness. He did not pray to himself and extol his own virtues. He came empty of moral goodness. He knew he was bad because God had done a work in his heart, showing him what a terrible person he was. Since the conviction ran deep, the man was concerned about his own depravity, not the depravity of others or the self-righteousness of the nearby Pharisee. He could not even lift up his eyes but could only look downward in shame. He beat his breast, not as performance art, but in genuine loathing for his own sin. All he could say was, “God be merciful to me, the sinner.” As far as he was concerned, he was the worst person in the world.

Here is the shocking part: the tax collector went away justified – counted righteous before God and fit for heaven. And he did so without doing a single good work. How? Because he had faith in Christ, and faith is the only means by which sinners may be counted righteous in God’s sight (Gal. 2:16). The Pharisee trusted in his own works; the tax collector trusted in the works of Christ. Is your faith in Christ or in yourself?