Christ Church (Moscow, ID)

The Text: Hebrews 2

INTRODUCTIONChrist must be worshiped by us as the ultimate yes, but we must come to understand how this works rightly. God does not come down and make promises to us directly. Rather, He makes promises throughout all Scripture, promises that are given generally to His people, and also to individuals (like Abraham) who are covenant representatives of His people. These promises are bestowed on the people of God, and as we read these promises, or hear of them, we join together with those people, identifying with them by faith, and God joins us to them through the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, using that same God-given faith of ours as His instrument for doing so. What is our relationship to the promises then?THE TEXT“For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward. For we write none other things unto you, than what ye read or acknowledge; and I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end; As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus. And in this confidence I was minded to come unto you before, that ye might have a second benefit; And to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come again out of Macedonia unto you, and of you to be brought on my way toward Judaea . . . ” (2 Cor. 1:12–2:4).SUMMARY OF THE TEXTRemember the context. Paul’s severe letter has quelled the rebellion against him at Corinth, but there is still some clean-up to do. There is still some residue of resistance to him there, and so he begins to address specific charges. He starts the process by rejoicing in the fact that his conscience is clear (v. 12), both toward the outside world and toward the Corinthians. Authentic ministry is described as being not in accord with “fleshly wisdom,” and as characterized by simplicity and sincerity. Paul is writing them with what they should already know (v. 13). They have acknowledged that in the day of Christ, both Paul and they will be engaged in mutual rejoicing. But they have only come part way along, which is why this clean-up is necessary (v. 14). And then we get to the complaint he is answering. Paul’s previous intention had been to visit them on the way to Macedonia, and then again on the way back, going to Judea (vv. 15-16). He changed his mind and wrote the severe letter instead. But was he vacillating or temporizing in this? Not at all (vv. 17-18). He reminds them that the gospel of Christ that he preached to them, along with Timothy and Silvanus, was not a “yes and no” gospel (v. 19). For all the promises of God are “yes” and “amen,” to the glory of God, “by us” (v. 20). He reminds them that God was the one who joined them all together through His anointing (v. 21). The sealing work of the Spirit, and the earnest payment of the Spirit was God’s gift (v. 22). In this context, Paul then gives the reason he had not come to them—he did not want to be their disciplinarian in person (v. 23). His more appropriate role was to be “helpers of their joy,” and not wielding dominion over their faith—because it is by faith that we stand (v. 24).So Paul had decided against another personal visit if it was going to be a heavy one (2 Cor. 2:1). If he becomes a grief to the Corinthians, then who will be there to make him glad (v. 2)? And so he wrote to them instead, in order to preserve their relationship (v. 3), and his choice had clearly been wise. And he tells them here that his severe letter had been written in turmoil and anguish, and not in order to grieve them, but rather it was a testament to how much he loved them (v. 4).CARPING CRITICISMOnce a revolt against authority is under way, whatever that authority does will be seized upon and rolled into the argument. If Paul had gone left, he would have been assailed for not going right. If he had gone right, he would have been pilloried for not going left. Remember that apostolic ministry is personal, and Paul reminds them how unambiguous his declaration of the gospel had been.A temporizing traveler is going to be a temporizing man, and a temporizing man is going to sound like one in the pulpit. Paul’s argument here is not an argument of deflection. It is not as though he is charged with embezzling funds (as he probably actually was—1 Cor. 16:1-4; 2 Cor. 11: 7-10, 12:16-17), and he then tried to respond with “isn’t the gospel grand!?” No. It is possible for the gospel to be glorious, and for a particular preacher to be a skunk.What Paul is arguing here is that the charges against him are not plausible, and that the kind of sneakiness he was being charged with was not consistent with what the Corinthians knew about him. He is not defending himself with an abstract gospel in the sky, but rather with a potent gospel as preached on the ground. God had brought glory down through him(v. 20), and the Corinthians had been there when it happened.But Paul is not defending his own person or guarding his own fragile ego. If somebody wants to gather up some glory for himself, but leaves the truth alone, Paul doesn’t mind (Phil. 1:15-18). But he will fiercely defend himself if the target of the slander is the ministry and message itself—see both this letter and Galatians.A HARD AND SEVERE PERSON?When roused, Paul could be hard as nails. When the gospel was at stake, he could be immoveable (Gal. 1:8). He had been hard on the Corinthians in his severe letter (2 Cor. 2:2,4), but this had been much against his personal desire or inclination. There is a school of pastoral care that could be characterized as the “hang ‘em high” school of thought, with “why not now?” as the immediate afterthought. Paul did not belong to this school of thought.YES AND AMENThe apostle Paul here exults in the true nature of gospel light. Christ is the yes of God. Sin is the no of the devil. The devil is the accuser, the devil is the killjoy, the devil is the one telling you how awful you are—with no relief in sight. The Spirit convicts in order that He may comfort. The devil accuses in order that he may bite and tear.So Christ is therefore ultimate yes—the only yes that sinners can have.

INTRODUCTIONThe central message of the Bible is God’s victory over death through resurrection. As the ministers of God in the Old Testament, the priests of Israel were required to picture God’s coming victory over death in a number of ways. While some of the particulars have changed in the New Covenant, the principles really have not. What the Old Testament pictured, Christ has accomplished as our High Priest, and He has made us a holy priesthood for God.THE TEXT“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel…” (Lev. 21-22).SUMMARY OF THE TEXTThese instructions are given to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and they begin by forbidding touching dead bodies and being defiled and imitating the mourning practices of the pagans (21:1-6, 10-12). Their marriages were to be pictures of purity, and their children were to be faithful (21:7-9, 13-15). Priests who served in the sanctuary were to be physically whole (21:16-24). The priests were to honor the ceremonial cleanliness laws and follow the purification instructions just like the rest of Israel (22:1-9). The privileges of the priesthood belonged to the priest and his household, not visitors or daughters who married out of the priestly tribe (22:10-13). Accidental profaning of holy things required restitution with 20 percent added to it (22:14-16). All offerings were to be males without obvious reminders of the curse of death – no blemish, bruise, spot, or deformity (22:17-25). God required His people to practice a measure of compassion and reverence for new life and motherhood even with animals, permitting newborn animals to be offered only after a week old, and a mother and baby could not be offered on the same day (22:26-28). Sacrifices of thanksgiving were to be offered and eaten on the same day because God is holy and He brought Israel out of Egypt (22:29-33).DO NOT SORROW LIKE THOSE WITHOUT HOPEWhat the priests were required to practice in the Old Testament with regard to death really is wonderfully fulfilled in Jesus and the principles that continue to apply to us are glorious. The central application of these laws to the New Testament Christian priesthood (all Christians) is that we may not sorrow over death like pagans, like those who have no hope: “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him” (1 Thess. 4:13-14). The death and resurrection of Jesus has radically altered the world and death itself.This language of “sleeping” is also related. After Jesus conquered death, those who die in Him are not said to really die anymore, only sleep (e.g. 1 Cor. 15:6). Jesus said “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (Jn. 11:26-27, Jn. 6:40-58). When Jesus came to the house of the little girl who had died, He said, why are you making such a commotion with all your weeping, she is not dead but only sleeping (Mk. 5:39). Then putting everyone out of the house except her parents, he took the little girl by the hand and told her to arise (Mk. 5:40-41). Did Jesus, our Great High priest touch a dead body? No, because in the presence of Him who is the Resurrection and the Life, His touch is life. To Him, and to all who are in Him, death is merely sleep. So neither do we defile ourselves when we are in the presence of those who die, and we do not mourn as those without hope. We may certainly weep as Jesus did at the grave of Lazarus, but it is not a grief of hopeless despair. And our memorial services do and should reflect that. Because Jesus had not yet come, the priests were required to keep themselves from dead bodies (Lev. 21:1-5, 10-11), and all that resembled the curse of death – those with diseases and deformities could not serve in the tabernacle (Lev. 21:17-23). But now in Christ, those born with disease or deformities are reckoned whole in Him and therefore most welcome in worship and in the worshiping community.ONE BAPTISM & ONE SACRIFICE & ONE PRIESTHOODIn the Old Covenant, there were many baptisms (Heb. 9:10). In fact, that was how you became ceremonially clean, you had to be baptized repeatedly, every time you became unclean before coming to the sanctuary for worship (Lev. 22:6). This is part of the glory of “one baptism” (Eph. 4:5). And Hebrews says that it wasn’t just the washing that purified but it was also the offering (Heb. 9:13). This is why the offerings of the Old Covenant had to be without blemish (Lev. 22:19-25), but if God accepted the blood of bulls and goats without blemish as faint shadows for purification, “how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. 9:13-14). Jesus is the priest, and Jesus is the sacrifice.CONCLUSIONSAnd notice what you need to be cleansed from: dead works. Dead people do dead works. Outside of Christ, people are dead in their sins (Eph. 2:1-5). Outside of Christ people are not sick, not merely confused, not merely on life support. Outside of Christ, people are dry bones scattered on the ground (Ez. 37). But people do not think this is what they are since they can still go to church, sing in the choir, vote conservative, and lead small groups. But what they are offering is their own dead works full of blemishes, spots, bruised, crushed, broken, and cut (Lev. 22:24) because they are dead themselves. And therefore, your works will not be accepted by God. This is why you often need to be forgiven for what you think of as being your virtues. Even your righteousness is like filthy rags, full of death (Is. 64:6). You must be raised from the dead and cleansed from your dead works.Many people have pointed out that Jesus never did funerals. Jesus attended or showed up in the midst of funerals, but they never stayed that way. Whenever Jesus shows up in the gospels where someone has died, death never has the last word.In the New Covenant, all Christians are priests, and we all offer our bodies as living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1-2). And what you do all week long is what you are bringing to offer, and that will either be the perfection and purity and resurrection life of Christ or else dead works. What do you have? What is in your hands? What is in your heart? If you call on the Lord, you will be saved.

Just as your parents delight in you when you obey, so too our Father in heaven delights in your obedience. You need to have the eyes of faith to see His delight though.

The Christian life is a holy life, a life set apart from the world. God says, “Go out from them and be seperate.” Our goal is not to be unnecessarily abnormal. And neither is it to seperate from sinners in every sense. Paul says that to leave off all dealings with sinners would require one to go out of the world. Rather God would have us live in the world in a distinct way. Everything we do, we do in holiness. We live from him, through him, and to him. And the unbelieving world is living from self, through self, and to self. These two approaches to life are like oil and water, they simply do not mix. There they are, both in the bucket. But everyone can see that they are separate.

If engineers could find a way to record your inner dialogue, would they discover a thrilling symphony of praise, or would they be confronted with the crackling buzz and warble of grumbling? Grumbling, left unchecked, drowns out all other inner noise. Soon enough you don’t even notice it. Instead of hearing it as an alarm, warning you of a discontented heart, it simply becomes white-noise.

Confess your sin, knowing temptation will confront you before this service is even over. Confess it as the black and vile evil that it is. Confess it to be the very sins for which God sent His Son into the world to save you from. Confess it not to make the fight against sin easier, but because confessing your sin is how you fight against and conquer sin through Christ.

THE TEXTThese are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the Lord God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth. Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods . . . ” (Deuteronomy 12:1-8)INTRODUCTIONMany saints don’t know what to do on earth. They view life on earth as something like a train station at which they’re waiting. They have a ticket to ride to heaven upon death. But in the interim, there is not much to do here at the train station, at least there’s not much to do that has any relationship to the final destination. They need to be holy in this train station, they understand that much. And they need to read their Bibles and pray to the God who awaits them at their final destination. But they don’t have a strategy for life at the train station. And they have no sense that the glory of the heaven to which they indeed are going is coming upon the train station. The good news is that the glory of that heaven is indeed coming upon the train station. That is why we pray in faith, “Your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”Once you realize that the kingdom of God is coming upon earth, coming upon this train station, then the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 12 can make sense. Moses delivered marching orders to Israel who was soon to cross the Jordan River to conquer and possess the Promised Land. And the marching orders that he delivered to them are the same marching orders we have today. Some things have changed. But the marching orders have not changed.SURVEY OF THE TEXTMoses tells Israel that they must observe and do the statues he was giving them when they entered the land. And it was the LORD God who was giving them the land to possess. The statues Israel received were to be done “on earth” (v. 1).Israel was to utterly destroy all the places where the adherents of Canaan served their gods: the high mountain places, the hills, and under every green tree (v. 2).Not only the places, but the altars also had to be destroyed. Their pillars had to be broken, their groves torched with fire, their graven images cut down. The destruction of these idols resulted in the “names” of these false gods being destroyed and erased from “that place” (v. 3).Moses ordered the opposite concerning the LORD God. His “name” was to be put in a special place of his choosing. This place would be his habitation, where he would dwell in the midst of Israel. And Israel would routinely come to this central place (v. 5).When they came, Moses instructed Israel to bring a variety of sacrifices and offerings: routine burnt offerings and sacrifices, tithes, and heave offerings (which were a certain portion set aside for the priests), vows and freewill offerings (which were offerings freely given over and above the required ones), and the firstlings of their herds. Moses had already instructed Israel back in Exodus 13 regarding these first born offerings. When Israelite children asked why the firstborn of the herds and flocks were sacrificed, parents were to tell their children about God striking down Pharaoh and the firstborn of Egypt.Israel was to eat before the LORD, which is a pattern we see many times in Scripture when Israel gathered for covenant renewal. Israel was to rejoice in their work with their households, whatever it is was they laid their hand to do (v. 7). As they lived in the Promised Land, they were not to live as they had before, every man doing what was right in his own eyes (v. 8).THE SAME MARCHING ORDERSThe marching orders from Moses to Israel were clear. So many years later when the Israelites heard that Dagon, god of the Philistines, had fallen down before the ark of the Lord, and his head and hands were cut off, they knew that the LORD had cut down an idol. We must read our times in the same way. In the New Covenant, some things change: The Old Testament saints ate Passover, we eat the Lord’s Supper. They circumcised their children, we baptize them. But the substance of things stays the same. God cut down idols back then, and charged his people to do the same. And none of that has changed.So the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade was an idol that God cut down. Planned Parenthood clinics are the altars where the sacrifices are offered. The unborn children are the sacrifices. The whole operation is simply modern day Molech worship.After God struck down Dagon, the Philistines picked him up off the ground and set him up again to be worshipped. And, in the same way, many will attempt to keep up abortion. But the fact that they will offer their blood sacrifices in California and across the border in Washington State does not negate what God has done in our midst. The battle rages on, yes. And that is the point. You must heed God’s commands for life and battle in the land that God, the God of your fathers, has given you.THE LAND WHICH GOD GIVESIn Moses’ day, God gave Israel the land of Canaan. And many make the mistake of thinking that God has only given us heavenly real estate. They think the train station in which they find themselves belongs to the devil. But as Jesus was headed to the cross he said, “Now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (John 12:31). Moreover, Christ has told us to baptize the nations, teaching them to obey all that he has commanded. He speaks as if the nations belong to him, and that is because they do.Our new covenant terrain has not been diminished or unrealized. Rather it has been expanded. Israel of old stood on the banks of the Jordan and Moses told them how they were to live in Canaan. And you stand in the world that has been promised to Christ. Indeed, it has not only been promised to him. It has become his possession. The Apostle Paul shows just how this point shakes out for the saints when he says, “All things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s. (1 Corinthians 3:21-23).DESTROYING IDOLSHow then should you live in the world that is yours in Christ? You should destroy idols like Israel of old. There is nothing wicked or fleshly about doing so. Paul says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).When idols pop up, that is not a time to be afraid. That is a time to do your job. All of the idols will be gone one day. And then Christ will return, having made all of his enemies his footstool. In the meantime, you’re not allowed to sit back and think that the world is going to hell in a hand-basket. You’re to put hell in a hand-basket. Cut down the idols, and deliver them over to Christ. That operation can only be done by the Word of God.Now where do you start cutting down these idols? You look around and say, “Boy they’re all over.” Yes, they are. So start right at home. Start with your idols. John says, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). And then intercede for your children. And then your church. And then the Moscow Christian community. And then the whole kingdom of God. And then the idols manifest outside of the kingdom of God like Roe v. Wade, and Obergefell, and all of the other pillars that state legislators are toiling away at right now in the wake of Roe’s fall. WORSHIPPING GODAnother duty you have, here in the land God has given you, is to attend the LORDs house to worship him. Moses told Israel there was to be one place, a central place. And we hear the same language when the LORD spoke to Solomon after he completed the temple in 2 Chronicles 7. The LORD told Solomon that he had chosen this house and his name would remain there forever.But like with the increase of land, so with the increase of our place of worship. Paul says in Ephesians 2 that the Church of God is now this holy temple. And we are being “built together for a habitation of God by the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22). Every baptism is the addition of another brick in this temple. And God’s “name” is upon us.You assemble here to offer sacrifices to God. And the sacrifices that you offer are yourselves. You present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice (Romans 12:1). If you feel “stretched out,” that is because you are. If you feel cut by his Word, that is because you are. If you feel “poured out,” then praise the Lord, you are right there alongside the Apostle Paul.As you have heard before, worship is the central engine that drives cultural reformation. People struggle to see this because they have either become pragmatists or pietists. The pragmatists can’t understand the point because he wants to rig up and run the reformation according to humans blue prints and ingenuity. The pietists can’t understand it because he wants to worship God in a sky theatre with no earthly manifestation of God’s name.But the Christian way is to worship, knowing that while Baal cannot send the rain or the fire, Yahweh can. And Yahweh does. He really is building up his kingdom on earth. And you baptized, covenant people, are his kingdom. If the kingdom grows, and it will grow, then pagan temples fall.What this means is that the worship of the Triune God was the central driver to the fall of Roe. And there are many other idols that need to have their “name” destroyed. So keep up the public worship of our Triune God. REJOICING IN WORKMoses said that Israel was to rejoice in all that they put their hand to do. And they were to do rejoice in their work as households. I do not have to tell you that such joyful work is going on around here. The saints in Moscow are known far and wide for covenant households and joyful labor. So this is a reminder to keep it up and grow not weary in doing good.What kind of works ought you to lay your hand to? The answer is: any kind, all kinds. Laundry and writing and teaching. Cleaning teeth and learning and building. Legislating and marketing and painting. Coaching and kid-transporting and a thousand other things: “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof,” remember.Some think that work is too big. And others think the promise of Christ’s worldwide conquest is too good to be true. But the Apostle Paul has already addressed this and we should take it to heart: “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things” (Romans 8:32)?

THE TEXTGod, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.5 For to which of the angels did He ever say:“You are My Son,Today I have begotten You”?And again:“I will be to Him a Father,And He shall be to Me a Son”?6 But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says:“Let all the angels of God worship Him.”7 And of the angels He says:“Who makes His angels spiritsAnd His ministers a flame of fire.”8 But to the Son He says:“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;Therefore God, Your God, has anointed YouWith the oil of gladness more than Your companions.”10 And:“You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth,And the heavens are the work of Your hands.11 They will perish, but You remain;And they will all grow old like a garment;12 Like a cloak You will fold them up,And they will be changed.But You are the same,And Your years will not fail.”13 But to which of the angels has He ever said:“Sit at My right hand,Till I make Your enemies Your footstool”?14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?

Consider Nehemiah’s concluding phrase: the joy of the Lord is our strength. Which raises the question, strength for what? Strength is given for repentance & reform. The abundant joy which God fills His people with enables them to face down their own sin & gladly turn from it. It imbues them with strength to continue the work of rebuilding the ruins. The Lord’s joy brings strength to confront tyranny & traitors; and boldness for the conflicts which are certain to arise. Joy brings courage to speak a clear Gospel to fearful women. Receive the Joy of the Lord, and be strengthened for the inward repentance & outward reform.