Hunting Sin
Whenever the catechism speaks of a saving grace it means that the subject under consideration is a fully orbed gift from above. The Lord in His love for you has not only given the means for sanctification, our being renewed in the image of Jesus, but He has granted to you the ammunition to keep killing sin like Rambo in a southeastern Asian triple-canopy jungle.
This week in our catechism time we only have one question to look at, and this will be true for our next lesson as well. In this part of the SC we are in the midst of talking about what it means to believe in Jesus, and how we are to follow Him as His disciples. Not only that, but specifically how that hope goes about affecting every area of our lives. The writing out of the Ten Commandments and all the implications they touch on is meant to encourage us to consider the way we are living and walking in light on the glorious work of our Trinitarian salvation won unto us by the decree of the Father, the work of the Son, and the application of it all by the Holy Spirit. Jesus speaks more about the fruit born of redemption than just about any other topic.
Believers ought to have no problem understanding that when we confess Christ as our Lord and Savior that this is not a one-time event. At least, they shouldn’t. However, many cultural Christians have this idea that as long as they get baptized, sign a card, say the magic words “I believe in Jesus” that whatever they do after that is immaterial. They said it publicly, or at least intimated it by attendance at a church building for a while. Maybe even their name is still on the register as a member somewhere, that ought to be enough to get into Heaven. Right? Well, no. Our Redeemer is pretty clear that if there is no fruit which follows faith than there is no there, there. As the old saying goes you are no more a Christian by taking up space in a pew than you are a car by sitting in a garage. If there is anything that drives unbelievers away from considering the truth claims of the Christian religion its false confessors who deny its power. Why should they want to be a Believer if it apparently makes no change in the lives of the people they meet?
We need to understand that if you have truly placed your trust in the Son of the Living God than you’ve entered into a citizenship in a new kingdom which has with it new responsibilities, well not so much new as in never before seen, but in the sense of a fresh relationship to the person and work of God, especially in His commandments. No longer do they have the ability to kill you dead, and no longer do you desire to be saved by them. To expand on that a little we see this language of new meaning new to you in the Psalms for example when the Psalmist in Psalm 96 uses the term new song.
-
Every. Single. Word.
Who is like our God who speaks with perfect clarity? Who speaks with such wisdom and truth and faithfulness. Who can thunder with a voice like His in total authority? Only our God has words like this. And every single word of God is true.
As I was listening to the radio the other day about current events, I found myself asking, “I wonder how much of this is true?” It’s an unfortunate fact that you can’t believe everything someone tells you. Not only are there obvious biases in every conversation and purposeful misdirections, but also sometimes people just have their facts wrong. Even the most careful and well spoken individuals sometimes fall into innocent miscommunications and unintentional misrepresentations. What blew me away as I was thinking about this report on the radio was that I never have to ask that question when I read God’s word. Really let this sink in: Every word of God is true.
When God speaks, it is absolutely perfect. Perfect in its delivery, perfect in its content, perfect in its timing. He always speaks with proper soberness and weightiness. He’s never too harsh or too soft. His words are not only true, they are truth (Psalm 119:116). Which means that when I hear from God on any subject, I can take it to the bank. There is not one chance that He has said the wrong thing. Sure, I can misunderstand, but it’s not because the content is faulty. “Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him” (Prov 30:5). Every. Single. Word. Amazing.
Read More
Related Posts: -
Let’s Study the Beatitudes! Part 8, Blessed Peacemakers
Real, Christian peace only comes through Jesus (Col. 1:20; Eph. 2:14-15). True peace-making declares repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ in how we handle our other relations (Rom 10:15). For the fruit of the Spirit is peace (Gal. 5:22) which grows with the mind of God for making more (2 Cor. 13:11) and an endeavor for its unified bonding (Eph. 4:3).
In Matthew 5:9, Jesus preached, Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God, proclaiming that God’s children are shown to be His by extending their Father’s peace to others as something they enjoy, often by exertion.
Peacemaking is not keeping the peace at all costs, which really just leads to war.
When England and France signed the Munich Agreement to appease Hitler’s deceptive, insatiable aggression, it inevitably led to the Second World War.
Sometimes, the only way to make peace is war, as Paul recognizes in Rom. 16:20 that peace on earth only comes by putting down the Deceiver. Thomas Watson warns, “One bad member in a parish endangers the whole … There are many [who] would have peace with the destroying of truth … This is a peace of the devil’s making.”[1]
The Greek for “peacemakers” means not “peace-keepers” but “peace-doers.” A.W. Pink qualifies, it is “not a peace at any price … that is a false peace, unworthy to be called peace at all,”[2] of which Jer. 6:14, 8:11 and Ezek. 13:10, 16 bemoan.[3]
Jesus later explained, Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. (Matt. 10:34) We may not sheathe Christ’s Word (Heb. 4:12). Peacekeepers do not avoid conflict but confront and resolve it.
Peacemaking actively reconciles at great risk and personal cost, which alone creates real peace.
Mike Wallace reported this remarkable peace seeking in the Middle East:
On November 9, 1977 … the president of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, dropped a diplomatic bombshell. In a speech before the Egyptian parliament, he said that his desire for a permanent peace in the Middle East was so strong that he “would go even to the home of the Israelis, to the Kneset, to discuss peace with them.”Read More
Related Posts: -
Book Review: The Christian Manifesto
This book, and the great sermon that lies behind it, provide a powerful manifesto for living well, living courageously, and living in a way that honors God in uncertain times. I would encourage you to read the sermon, to read the book, and to apply them both deliberately and prayerfully.
Has anyone ever lived in times that were normal? Probably not, I suppose. Every time and every context has its peculiarities, I’m sure. Regardless, there’s no doubt that we are currently living in unusual times—in what seems like a transitionary phase during which old traditions, old morals, and old ways of understanding the world are giving way to new. There are new questions, new concerns, and new challenges to those who want to live well in a world like this one.
Where do we go to learn to live well in new times? There is no better place to turn than to old wisdom—to the very same book that guided our forebears as they lived through the challenges that defined their own eras. The Word of God is, after all, living, active, and powerful, able to teach and to guide us no matter our times and no matter our circumstances.
In The Christian Manifesto, Alistair Begg takes an extended look at Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain (which, though it bears certain similarities, should not be confused with his longer Sermon on the Mount). “This sermon,” he says, is “Jesus’ invitation to you to experience life at its very best. It is his description of what life in his kingdom—a kingdom where all that is wrong is being put right—looks like as we live in this world.”
In this book, we’re going to look at what can be helpfully seen as a “Christian manifesto.” A manifesto is a public declaration or proclamation issued by a monarch or head of state, or by a representative of a company or organization. Here is a manifesto for the Christian life, straight from the lips of Jesus…
Read More
Related Posts:
