Tuesday, February 27, 2018
We Live in a Dangerous World
Guns don’t kill people, sex doesn’t make people immoral, and wine doesn’t make drunkards. We live in a dangerous world, a world filled with dangerous things that we are to receive with thankfulness from God and with which we are to steward this world to the glory of His name. Yes, alcohol is dangerous. So is food. So is music. So is sex. So are electricity and knives and nuclear power. So is social media. So are cars and trains and spaceships. So is prosperity. So is the office of teaching. So is parenting. So what? In all of these gifts, we have to grow up to maturity; we have to learn how to use them and how to not let them become idols that control us. Therefore, the charge to the drunkard and the rule-nazi is this: grow up!
Dangerous Table Wine
How
dangerous is the bread and wine at this Table?
Another way to ask this is to say, “how potent is the bread and
wine?” Well, it is potent enough that if
it is taken in hypocrisy, particularly the hypocrisy of separating yourself
from other believers, it has been known to make some sick and even die.
And
so two things. First, if it has been
your habit or conviction to partake of the cup with grape juice – that is still
here in the tray and no one is looking over your particular shoulder. You may have been convinced and today you
should partake of wine. You may have
been challenged to think or rethink this and so you should do so and consider
changing later.
Secondly, consider the danger of the rite in this way. As we partake of the bread we are proclaiming that we are all of one loaf, one body. Though we are broken, we are joined together in Christ who was broken for us that we might be one body. Then, when we partake of the wine, we are declaring that we, like Christ, are willing to die, to have our blood shed, for that body – which is to say that you are declaring to the person you are passing the tray to – “Just as Jesus gave His life for me, so I am willing to give my life for you.”
Billy Graham RIP
With
the passing of the one who was called America’s pastor, Billy Graham, let us
remember the best of his ministry.
Graham preached the Gospel – and Graham called for a decision. He didn’t beat around the bush at all when it came to naming sin, sin – and he made clear that the only way of salvation was through faith in God’s Son, Jesus.
There
are many issues we might take with Billy Graham’s theology and with the methods
he employed. Fine. But that man knew how to bring people,
millions of people, face to face with eternity and the need to cry out to the Lord
for salvation.
Here
is the gospel: Jesus Christ is the Son of
God. We are all sinners, lost and under
God’s judgment. Jesus died to pay for
the sins of those lost in sin. What must
you do? Believe and confess – and today
is the day of salvation. Today is the
day of decision.
May
God grant us a reformation where we return to the Bible and the Bible alone for
our theology and philosophy of ministry.
But may God grant us a fervent love for the lost and an uncompromising
boldness to speak the truth, to preach the truth, in love – love for Jesus –
and love for people.
Monday, February 19, 2018
Because We Are Not Guilty
And
this is why God looks at you in Christ and sees perfection. Every day.
Outside of Christ, “If God were to
mark iniquities, who could stand?” (Psalm 130:3). But in Christ, there is no condemnation. This means that we must learn to confess our
sins as forgiven sinners. We don’t
confess our sins to get justified; we confess our sins because we are
justified. We follow and obey Jesus not
because we are guilty but because we are free.
We learn to refuse to walk in sin because we learn that we have died to
sin and are alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6). We can do this all because we call Jesus, “the Lord our Righteousness.”
Baptizing Them
We
are a reformed church – and a reforming church.
When this congregation began we were self-consciously a reformed Baptist
church. That is, we only performed
baptisms on those who had made a credible profession of faith. But from the beginning as well, we have
stressed to parents to raise their children believing the promises of God for
their children – that is for their salvation and the gift of the Holy Spirit –
according to the preaching of Peter at Pentecost in Acts 2.
Because
of this teaching, many of us began to re-examine our doctrine of baptism and
came to the conviction that the Scriptures teach that children of believing
parents should receive this rite of baptism and as soon as they are able to
partake at the Lord’s Table, they should come to the Table as well. We began to see that they were covenant
children, part of God’s family, and that they should be identified as such,
instructed as such, and fed as such.
Well,
what to do? Some of us came to this
conviction, but some of us did not. Some
came and joined our congregation with this conviction – and many have come and
joined us believing that Baptism was for those who had made a profession of
faith first. One thing that we
determined to do in all of this – is NOT to split the church over this issue. And so, we have developed a way of
ministering to families based on their conviction on baptism while continuing
to emphasize the promises of God for parents with regard to their
children. This is what we call our
baptismal cooperation agreement.
Sounds crazy? Yep – many think so. But we don’t. We believe it is a glorious manifestation of the church in the state of being matured, not having figured out everything, not being overly scrupulous with convictions, and working hard to grow together up into the unity of faith.
So
– this morning we have a wonderful example for you all to enjoy and rejoice
with us – but I want to explain it to you and its context now – because it
could raise some questions for you otherwise in just a few minutes. Larry and Julia Badillo have been attending
our church for some months and are going to become members soon. They have four wonderful children, Emma,
Mateo, Jude, and Siena. The Badillos
were Baptists and none of their children have yet been baptized. But as they came to understand the promises
of God for their children, they became convinced that all of their children
should be baptized.
Some
other families have done this at other times in the life of our church – and
when they have, we have still asked the children old enough to make a
profession of faith too – and so with the oldest three Badillo children we will
do the same. But in most cases, we have
then sprinkled all of the children as the mode of baptism – based on the
pictures of baptism we have and the outpouring or sprinkling of the Holy Spirit
upon the nations and upon individuals.
This pictures the washing and anointing of the Spirit.
However, with the Badillos, out of respect for their past convictions as well as in honor of Julia’s parents who are here to celebrate with us, we are going to immerse Emma, Mateo, and Jude for their baptisms - this pictures the planting and the death and resurrection pictures of baptism mentioned in Romans 6 for instance.
In
Ephesians 4 we are instructed that there is only one Lord, one faith, one
baptism. We agree, and as far as these
baptisms, the different administrations and the different modes, we declare
that we are still declaring that there is one baptism and one alone. This baptism is the declaration by God
through His church that He has purchased these ones with the blood of His Son
and they are His. This is the mark of
their identity, their new identity, in Jesus Christ. As you witness these baptisms, you are
charged to remember your own baptism, to be grabbed by that baptism again and
to hear God speak to you in that baptism – “you are mine and I am yours – you
come and follow me.”
Partaking of Freedom
As
you come to this Table as a baptized member of the body of Christ, you come to
the Table to partake of freedom. This Table
declares freedom – freedom from sin, freedom from guilt, freedom to love like
Christ, freedom to forgive like Jesus, freedom to give yourself away for others
like Christ – only to find Your life more fully in Christ.
You have died with Christ to be raised with Christ to now live in Christ as you continue to feed on Christ and enjoy Him more and more today and forever. Come and welcome to Jesus Christ.
Monday, February 5, 2018
Forgiveness Like God Does
Christ - grants
forgiveness immediately, and so we should do the same. Jesus came to seek the sick, not the
healthy. He came to forgive sinners for
their inexcusable sins. He was looking
to extend forgiveness, not looking to see if He could find it in His heart to
forgive. “even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.”
Christ forgives our sins
fully and completely, no matter how wicked the sin was. Trespasses against us are always much smaller
in ratio than our trespasses against the infinite, perfect, holy God of
heaven. “even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.”
Christ does not put us in
a state of probation or purgatory.
Christ does not put us in a period of testing to see if we really mean
it. He restores us each time we confess
our sins to full fellowship with Him. “even as Christ forgave you, so you also must
do.”
Christ
does
not stop forgiving us, even when we sin again and again. How many times have you been forgiven for the
same sin? “even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.”
Baptism Exhortation Feb 4, 2018
Psalm
128 says, “Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the very heart of your
house, Your children like olive plants all around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who
fears the Lord.” (vv3-4).
The
children of Christian, covenant-keeping homes, are likened to olive
plants. Olive plants were the holiest of
all the vegetation in the old covenant symbolic system – the oil flowing from
them was a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
And so this teaches us much.
God
considers your covenant children as holy and this rite of baptism is that
declaration – a declaration made by God through the church. Because we view our covenant children as
olive plants, we are not waiting for their conversion experience; rather,
committed to training them up in the fear and admonition of the Lord, we
disciple them from the get go as disciples, followers of Christ. We look for fruit, not for evidence of
conversion, but as ongoing confirmation that what God is working in them is
working itself out.
The
Holy Spirit is at work already in the lives of your children – God has promised
this. You are to stand on those promises
and parent Natalie and her sisters according to those promises, calling upon
the One Who also was born, but was born to take away their sin by His death on the
Cross.
A Table of Mercy
To
come to this Table, which all who are baptized are summoned to do “as often as
you do this,” is to come to the Table of Mercy and Delight. This is a memorial for God, where He delights
in the mercy He has given us through His Son and He delights over those to whom
He has given this mercy.
It displays the great cost of that mercy, for that mercy was purchased, fully and completely, through the death of God’s Son on the Cross. His body was broken, His blood was shed. And God remembers that here at the Table with us.
It
also displays the great efficaciousness of that mercy. We have become that one loaf, that one body,
knit together – and so we partake together of that one loaf. And the blood of the new covenant has become
a cup of delight – of fellowship and rejoicing – in the wine of mercy refined -
intoxicating mercy. And God remembers that here at the Table as
well.
And so come in the name of Jesus, to the Table of Jesus and partake of Jesus by faith – in the company of the Father and in the mercy of the Holy Spirit.
Dirty Lips
You
are about to enter into the courts of the Lord.
You are at the entrance even this moment. Are you clean? You are about to use your lips and tongue to
praise the living and most holy God.
What have they been saying up to this point?
James
warns us that you can’t spew hatred, vile words, complaining and whining at
God, blasphemies, lewd porn-language, or any other vain thing – you can’t spew
those things out of your mouth in one moment and then praise and thanksgiving
to God in another – and think He will not notice. Not only will He notice, not only will He not
receive it, He will hate it and bring His discipline down upon it.
This
is true for us as individuals, it is true for us in our homes, and it is true
for our nation. Our national leaders
cannot speak blasphemies about or to God, or speak of the world in such a way
as to deny His existence or sovereign lordship on the one hand, and then turn
and say such things as “God bless America” on the other hand. God’s hand of discipline is hard upon our
land and growing harder. He will not have
such idolatry. He will not have such
hypocrisy.
And
so what to do? This is why we come to
worship this God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who transforms
us from the inside out so that there is no longer vileness, nastiness, malice,
envy, pride, self-pity, whining or complaining.
Having saved us from our bondage to such things, we may notice them in
us still striving to rule, but we have the authority in Christ to put them off
now – and we have the strength to do so in Christ by His Spirit – and to put on
Christ – and to now dwell on and speak of things true, good and beautiful – of things
strong and powerful for the kingdom, of things that tear down the strongholds
of fear, abuse, and scorn. The Gospel
has saved you from such things and from the author of those things, even the
devil himself. Amen.
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