Make the Fire Burn Hotter

"Evangelical experience is born from the Word, and the Word will cause that experience to seek out the constraints placed upon it by the Word.  This need not be a quenching of the Spirit - in the early rounds, it is the Spirit quenching us.  A proper bounding of the fire is done in such a way as to enable the fire to burn hotter." - Wilson, AC, p78

And so we give ourselves with faith to the worship of the Covenant Renewal service.  Not faith in the service, mind you, but faith in God Who has promised to work in that service.  And not faith in God as one might have in a genie in a bottle; there is no controlling this God and His actions, His timing, His manners and devices.  He is Lord and God of all.

But we want the fire to burn hotter.  And with holy impatience, we want it now.

The New Solomon's Table

Solomon was the son of David and David had been promised that his son would sit on an everlasting throne over all nations.  Solomon, for all his wisdom, acted foolishly and married wives from many nations, wives who led him into idolatry with the gods of those nations.  His table was a table of nations but a table full of unclean demons from the wicked nations of men.

But another Son of David came.  Rather than marry many wives and fall to their gods, this Son of David came and took one bride, but she was from many nations, a bride who brings the nations away from their false gods and to the living God, the One true God of Israel.  The table of this Son of David is table of nations as well, but a table of nations subdued, cleansed and renewed in loyalty to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Look up and see – look out and see – the nations are being gathered into this Table and to the one true Bridegroom.  This is a taste of the great Wedding Feast to come.

The Public Worship of Jesus

Believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Lord of the earth is not a matter of private personal opinion.  It is impossible to simply believe in Jesus down in my heart.  To believe in Jesus only down in my heart is to disbelieve in the Jesus of the Scriptures.

Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is a matter of public obedience to divine revelation.  If Jesus Christ is not Lord of all then He is not Lord at all.  And so, while it is true that you must believe in Jesus Christ down in your heart, that is, sincerely and without reservation, that believing must be a matter of public testimony that Jesus is King.

That is why the first thing we do to declare our loyalty to the promises of God is to receive baptism and to do so publicly.  That is why the first thing we do every first day of each new week is to gather publicly before all nations and their rulers, and declare the crown rights of Jesus Christ.  We do so openly.  We do so inviting all to come and receive the forgiveness we have been given.  We do so declaring the Prince of Peace and the only way for all reconciliation to actually occur between men and nations.  But we do so uncompromisingly, unapologetically, forcefully, triumphantly, and thankfully.

This is what you have been summoned to do now – by the grace of God and in the power, the saving power for the whole world, of the Holy Spirit.  Come and worship our God.

When Did Your Conversion Take Place?

This can be a very scary question for children growing up in covenant homes.  They cannot remember a time that they didn't consider themselves a Christian, a follower of Christ.  If their parents have been consistent in their covenant upbringing, they have never known a time that their parents refused to bring them to the Table as covenant members of Christ.  They were small saplings and there may not have been fruit, but only because the branches were too small to hold any.  But that is no reason not to feed the sapling and believe that it will grow up and bear fruit - and as covenant parents to do all you can to make that as easy and natural (or supernatural) as possible.

We do not have to have Damascus road type conversions in order to know that we are saved.  Timothy was taught the Scriptures from his earliest recollection, raised as a covenant member from the beginning.  Douglas Wilson is fond of saying you don't have to know what time the sun rose to know that it is up (Wilson, AC, p71).

Tares in the Wheat Field and Branches on the Vine

It turns out that there are two ways (at least) to consider the kingdom of God.  One is to understand that there are tares in the wheat field that are really tares and really not wheat.  They will be pulled up at the harvest, set aside and burned.  They seem to have no ontological wheatness in them.

But then there are the branches in the vine that do not bear fruit, are cut out and burned.  They really were branches, really united to the vine, and really partook of ontological branchness.

Sometimes those who are sons of Abraham are really sons of Abraham in one way and really sons of the devil in another way.  Sometimes one's uncircumcision is circumcision to God and one's circumcision is uncircumcision.  You have to watch and listen closely.  But not because God wants to make this harder to understand.  He wants to make a point about hearts and the absolute necessity of the new birth.

"God is perfect, but He is no perfectionist.  He likes to mess with our heads.  I suggest we let Him" - Wilson, AC, p70

Rotten Eggs

Wilson says it well - 
"It is not possible to make a good omelet with rotten eggs.  The new birth deals with the eggs.  The church, whenever she is not animated by the regenerating Spirit of God, tries to fix the problematic omelet by means of kitchen upgrades, better recipes, graduate studies for the cooks, and more." - Wilson, AC, p68.

And so the issue is the regenerating Spirit of God; He is what makes the difference.  Eggs which are rotten need to be made new, and no amount of whisking is going to change anything.  

And so what is that church above to do?  She cannot fix the problem and she cannot whistle up the Holy Spirit.  All that is left is to cry out to God.  And of course, when that occurs from hearts that have been made contrite it turns out the Spirit has already come.

Sabbath-Victory Meal

I have mentioned before that worship is work, hard work, and that you should feel tired at the end of the worship service.  You should feel as though you had to engage your mind, will and emotions, along with your body and lips, in the work of offering yourself, as a member of this body, to God the Father in the name of Jesus and through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And all of that is true.  And the work part of the service is over.  Now you are called to come and sit and rest and partake.  As it says in Isaiah 14, “For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land.”  He says that it will come to pass that He will give you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear and the hard bondage in which you were made to serve.  And He has.  And it is here at this Table that you partake in a memorial feast.  It is a feast of victory over just what Isaiah prophesied and the Lord promised to you.

And this should make you want to sing – to sing of the Lord’s victory and of His covenant love and loyalty to us.  And so we will sing as we share the elements.  Come and welcome to Jesus the Victor, Jesus the Christ.