Off with the Robe of Shame

You are ashamed, and perhaps you have turned your back on God for you assumed He has turned His back on you.  In rebellion you may have now committed additional shameful sins, only making your problem worse.  You have accepted your shame as your unchangeable identity and you live as an outcast, shut down emotionally, isolating yourself so you never have to be hurt again.  You numb your pain with drugs, sex, power, success, abuse of others, whatever enables you to stop feeling the shame.  But it keeps coming back like a recurring nightmare.

Jesus went to the cross and, bearing your sin and shame, He cried out “It is finished!”  The infinite expanse of God’s mercy and grace is bigger than you are, bigger than anything and anyone that might come against Him.  He can take all of your guilt and justify you.  He can take all of your shame and grant you the riches of His glory (Eph 1:18).  And now, like Jesus, run the race, despise the shame for the joy set before you.  Count it as nothing.  Put on His glory.

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!

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.”

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.”

Distractions

Many people think they have lost their joy for reasons that are simply not in accord with Scripture.  They think they have lost their joy because of trials and temptations.  But the Scripture tells us to “count it all joy when you fall into various trials” (James 1:2).  Some say that they cannot walk in joy because of how others have treated them.  But Jesus tells us to “rejoice and be exceedingly glad” when we are reviled or persecuted (Matt 5:10-12).  Some say that circumstance, such as the loss of a loved one, has stolen their joy.  But the Scripture says, “Do not sorrow as others who have no hope” (1 Thess 4:13).  And so these are all distractions from the real reason that one has lost his joy.

Why Pray?

“For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matt 6:8) – At first glance, this appears to throw cold water on any motivation to pray.  But it makes perfect sense to Christ as he instructs us.  Prayer is God’s appointed means, not to get information from us, but to bring blessing to us, honor and glory to Himself, and to cause us to constantly acknowledge our complete dependence upon Him for everything.  Jesus is our example.  He knew and He knew the Father knew, and yet He prayed.  How much more should we?  Prayer is one of God’s appointed means to administer His generosity to His children.  God has ordained the ends and the means to His ends.  Lives full of prayer and growing more and more in prayer reveal that we believe in God’s exhaustive sovereignty and inexhaustible goodness.

Prayer is a Gift – The Father loves to give.  He delights in mercy (Mic 7:18).  He is not stingy (Psalm 81:10, Rom 8:31).  Prayer is one of God’s appointed means to administer His generosity to His children.  Prayer, in the end, is not for the purpose of receiving things from God, but of communing and communicating with God Himself, just as Jesus did with His Father.

Isaiah 29 and Joy Inexpressible

Have you humbled yourself before God?  Are you self-identified as one who is “poor in Spirit?”  If you have done this in Jesus by faith, what are you promised?  “The humble also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.”  This is the “joy inexpressible” which Peter promised those who put their trust in God (1 Pet 1:8).  Joy in His sovereign hand of Creation and Redemption; joy in the participation  in that work here and now; joy in the promises of where this is all going; joy in being included in the “marvelous work” of Jesus.  Maybe you should ask yourself:  Is a new beginning possible in me?

Vulnerable Wisdom

And so we are to work with all our might, seeking and applying wisdom.  And applying wisdom takes wisdom because we live in the mist.  Even Jesus, Who is Wisdom Incarnate, came into this world of folly knowing that He must entrust Himself fully into the purposes and will of His good Father.  These words should come from our lips as well – “not my will, but Yours be done,” not in despairing submission, but rather with a fierce hope in God and not in this world “under the sun.”

Looking Like a Leper - Luke 17:11-19

The other lepers never return to Jesus.  The Samaritan comes to the true Temple of God and the true Priest of God and finds everlasting life for his soul.  He was already healed and yet Jesus said, “your faith has made you well.”  The text never says anything about the leper believing or trusting Jesus, but instead shows what faith looks like and how a man with faith acts.  Faith brings forth repentance, turning around and back to Jesus.  Faith results in glorifying God with a loud voice.  Faith falls prostrate before Jesus in humility and thanks.

Never, ever get over the mercy of God.  Never cease being completely dependent on the mercy of God.  The salvation you have is mercy.  The blessings you have received, every one of them, are mercy.  The trials God gives are all to display His mercy.  You are surrounded in mercy.  And the smallest mustard see of faith brings forth the tree-moving power of God’s mercy.

How Does Isaiah 13-27 Speak to Us Today?

Isaiah is a book of promise surrounded by heavy oracles of judgment.  We begin the second section of Isaiah (13-27) with a series of judgments upon what might appear to be a random set of nations (Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Syria, Ethiopia, Egypt – chapters 13-20).  One thing they all had in common was that they were all threatened by Assyria at one time or other and were actual or potential partners with Judah in anti-Assyrian alliances (or in the case of Assyria, an alliance formed to hold off Syria/Israel).  These nations most likely never heard these oracles; but in actuality they were not for their ears; they were for Judah.  But another way to look at this is that these messages were for the nations as they saw their fulfillment with the fall of Babylon – the one in 70AD.  And that is how we come to understand that these messages are for us, the new Jacob, the new Israel, as well.

First Be Right With God Yourself

It’s not enough to simply be in the right.  It’s not enough to be a member of the ‘Moral Majority.”  It’s not enough to be against homosexuality or abortion or feminism or evolution.  It’s not enough to be right about education or government tyranny or biblical liturgy or the doctrines of grace.  We must first be right with God ourselves.  Jesus warns us of such hypocrisy (Luke 6:39-42).  The one who brings discipline must not only have the right doctrine.  He or she must also have the right heart (Gal 6:1).  These principles apply to the family, to the church, and to the state, for each one falls under the jurisdiction of God’s Word.  Judgment will always begin in the household of God.

The Blessings of Technology

Think of it as taking dominion of the world in which God has placed us, something we are commanded to do (Gen 1:28).  Consider what happened because of the Guttenberg Press in the 15^th century, laying the foundation of getting the Word of God (and in common languages) into the hands of the people of God.  Consider the difference in travel and communication abilities for Hudson Taylor heading to China versus today.  Consider the blessing of technological advances in science, medicine, and under the influence of Christian ethics, the development of hospitals, orphanages, and care for the poor and dying – technological advances for the purpose of serving others.  Universities (rightly understood) have a Christian heritage, all studies in submission to the Queen of Sciences, theology.  

When the Fullness of Time Came

When the Fullness of Time Came (Gal 4:4) – God, by means of His Word given through prophets, gave many timelines as to what He would oversee happening before the Messiah would come.  He told Abraham his heirs would spend four hundred years in affliction (Gen 15:13) and they did after Joseph’s time in the land of Egypt before the Exodus (Ex 12:40f).  Isaiah, along with many other prophets, preached warning of another great exile on the northern and then upon the southern kingdoms.  Isaiah named the future Persian king who would release the Jews to go and rebuild the temple (Isaiah 44:28f).  While in exile, Daniel, interpreting the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar, foretold of four kingdoms who would rise up before the kingdom of God would be set up (Dan 2:31-45); a similar vision was given to Belshazzar in his first year of reign, the last king of Babylon before their fall to the Medes (Dan 7).  Following these and other prophecies of Daniel, with the establishment of the Roman Empire and the Caesars who claimed to be the manifestation of a divine kingdom, the time had come (Luke 2:1).

Following Christ to the Grave

The man who can look death in the face and say “you are conquered” is the man who is now free to live.  But to do so, that man must follow Christ to the grave.  He must die to himself and his trite little idols of works and self-justifying salvation plans.  He must die to placing God in the dock and on trial for being unfair or unjust.  He must die to his own self-exalting or self-loathing for he must simply die to self.  But the man who has died like that rises up and lives as though he will never die – for he never will (John 11:25-26).

Father, Forgive Them

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34) 

The readiness to forgive is a mark of faithfully dying well.  Jesus knows who has perpetrated this injustice and He knows He can entrust all vindication to His Father.  This justice is fully paid in the death of the One Whose blood is being shed.  Forgiving is dying, but it is not dying in a vacuum for the one who trusts the Father.  And so Jesus is saying those words about all who will come to Him.  In Him we are already brought through future judgment and enter a world where God’s mercy is the rule; we die well when we are assured of God’s readiness, willingness, desire and full provision to forgive.  In this new humanity, grace abounds more (Rom 5:20).  This lays the foundation of being a forgiving people, as Stephen testifies to at his martyrdom (Acts 7:60), as Peter learned from Jesus (Matt 18:21-22), and as Paul instructed us to live (Col 3:13).  Jesus looks ridiculous in how far He goes, impaled on a tree and forgiving those who put the nails in His hands and feet.  We should be so ridiculous.

To the Praise of His Gracious Glory

Ephesians 1:6 - "to the praise of the glory of His grace..."

While normally translated, “to the praise of His glorious grace” or “to the praise of the glory of His grace,” I think it is worth emphasizing “His glory which is gracious, or His gracious glory.”  When we behold God, we behold His glory.  That glory is not sterile white fluorescent light.  It is a rainbow of love and mercy, with favor and acceptance; it is dripping with grace.  This helps explain why God predestined what He predestined.

This is the nature of God's glory.  It is gracious.

The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

Ephesians 3:8 (NKJV) To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,

Revealing the Unsearchable Riches (v8) – Here is a wonderful summary of what it means to preach the gospel.  It is for a finite and fallible man to imperfectly declare and describe that which is unsearchable and incomprehensible to other finite and fallible people.  But when God blesses it, we hear Christ (Rom 10:14-15) which is why we come to this service of worship by faith expecting to hear Christ by His Holy Spirit through His Word proclaimed.

It also describes the breadth of the gospel.  The riches are not just about what Christ has given us; the riches are Christ, “…who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD”” (1 Cor 1:30-31).

Christ is My Wisdom – Jesus, by His Spirit, teaches me about God, about myself, about my sinfulness, about my need for redemption, about what it means to die to self, about what it means to live in the new Humanity, and on and on.

Christ is My Righteousness – Righteousness is less of a thing than it is a Person and a relationship.  In Christ, I have righteousness – I am righteous, for His name is “the LORD, my righteousness.”

Christ is My Sanctification – In Christ I stand faultless and blameless before God; it’s already done.  And then, in Him, He works into me by His Spirit that sanctification which then I work out in my life, led by Him all the way along.

Christ is My Redemption – Among other things, this means that I will be raised from the dead and all suffering, all shortcomings, all tears, all the imperfections that are me – will be gone.  There will be nothing lacking in body, mind or spirit.  Jesus said, “I have come that they might have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10) – Whoot!  Whoot!

Again, summarizing the gospel, John wrote, “And from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:16, ESV).  We are thimbles placed under a Niagara Falls of riches – but no worries – we have an eternity to explore and grow into the fullness.

Imitating the Redeemer of this Age

"...redeeming the time, because the days are evil." - Eph 5:16

The world was full of sin, rebellion, darkness, and foolish ignorance.  What did God do towards this stiff-necked rebellion?  “…while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).  Jesus Christ seized the day.  Paul says, in the wisdom of Christ which is yours, go and do likewise.

  

Every moment of every day has a redemption possibility in it.  Seize it.

Christian Kissing and Customs

 Greet one another with a kiss of love. - 1 Peter 5:14

The cultural custom of greeting was a kiss of love, or a ‘holy kiss’.  Jesus considered it bad manners not to have received one (Luke 7:45), and there is something important to learn here.  The cultural application does not have to be exactly replicated, but the principle of physical affection must, for we are physical creatures.  We consider this unimportant, because we think it is OK to come to church and never touch, never greet, never express affection to anyone else.  We must think again.

Theology Through Gospel Pictures

God teaches theology, not so much through systematic theologies, but through stories.  His stories teach us that we are to preach His gospel, allow no area of unbelief to rule in the culture, bringing every king and every thought captive to Christ.  And we are taught that victory has nothing to do with the size of the enemy, but rather with our faith in His promises.