Christ Church (Moscow, ID)

INTRODUCTIONI am fond of saying that grace has a backbone, but I think it is time to explain what I mean by that. The context of these remarks is the general and current ongoing discussion about the worrisome trajectories of all those incipient legalists and antinomians out there. The incipient legalists are the ones the incipient antinomians are worried about, and vice versa.THE TEXT“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of hisgood pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13).SUMMARY OF THE TEXTWe see that for the apostle Paul, obedience is not a bad word. It does not have negative connotations for him. The Philippians were beloved by him, and he commends them for their obedience (v. 12). This was not just when Paul was present, but also when he was not with them. In particular, he tells them (in his absence) to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling (v. 12). How would it be possible for them to do this? God is the one who is at work within them, willing and doing in accordance with His good pleasure (v. 13). This means that the Philippians were to work out what God was working in. The labors of both parties, added up, did not come to 100%. God did everything in them. They did everything that was the result of what God did in them. Salvation is all of grace—even the work.But what is the relationship of the grace of God to the (seemingly unrelated) world of hard moral effort? If the grace of God is in all and through all, and beneath us all, then why do we still have to sweat bullets? Are those who sweat bullets abandoning the grace of God? Are those who rejoice in free forgiveness forsaking the demands of discipleship? But not all conditions are meritorious.RECONCILED FRIENDSSpurgeon once said, when asked how he reconciled divine sovereignty with human responsibility, that he did not even try—he never sought to reconcile friends. If we think about it rightly, from the vantage of those jealous for moral probity, we will never try to reconcile grace with works—that would be like trying to reconcile an apple tree with its apples. And, if we think about it rightly, from the vantage of those jealous for the wildness of grace, we will never try to reconcile grace with merit, for the two are mortal enemies and cannot be reconciled.But those who insist that apple trees must always produce apples will make the friends of free grace nervous, not because they have anything against apples, but rather because they know the human propensity for manufacturing shiny plastic apples, with the little hooks that make it easy to hang them, like so many Christmas tree ornaments, on our doctrinal and liturgical bramble bushes. But on the other hand, those who insist that true grace always messes up the categories of the ecclesiastical fussers make the friends of true moral order nervous—because there are, after all, numerous warnings (from people like Jesus and Paul, who should have a place in these particular discussions, after all) about those who “live this way” not inheriting the kingdom. Kind of cold, according to some people, but the wedding banquet is the kind of event you can get thrown out of.RIGHTLY RELATEDSo what is the relationship of grace to hard, moral effort? Well, hard, moral effort is a grace. It is not every grace, but it is a true grace. It is a gift of God, lest any should boast. We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, and this is a description of someone being saved by grace through faith, and not by works (Eph. 2:8-10). This is the meaning of our text—“work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” We are called to work out what God works in, and absolutely nothing else. If we don't work out that salvation (as evidenced by the fruit of it), then that is clear evidence that God is not working anything in.If we work out some pressboard imitation (a salvation that has the look of real wood!), then that shows that God is not working anything in there either. Moralism is just a three-dollar flashlight to light the pathway to Hell with. And of course, if we are guilty of the opposite error, if our lives are manifesting a lineup of dirty deeds done dirt cheap, the only real sin we are avoiding is that of hypocrisy. Overt immorality is the fifty-dollar flashlight. ALL GRACE, ALL THE TIMEThis is why we need a little more of “in Him we live and move and have our being.” Actually, we need a lot more of it. The answer to the grace/works dilemma is high octane Calvinism, and by this, I don't mean the formulaic kind. If God is the one Paul preached—the one of whom it can be said “of him, and through him, and to him, are all things”—then where in the universe are you going to hide your pitiful merit? If He is Almighty God, and He starts to transform your tawdry little life into something resembling Jesus, who are you to tell Him that He is now wavering on the brink of dangerous legalisms?The bottom line is that we cannot balance our notions of grace with works or our notions of works with grace. We need to get off that particular teeter totter. We have to balance absolutely everything in our lives with God Himself, who is the font of everlasting grace—real grace. Real grace is the context of everything. If we preach the supremacy of God in Christ, and the absolute lordship of that bleeding Christ, and the efficacious work of the Spirit in us who raised Jesus from the dead, then a number of other things will resolve themselves in a multitude of wonderful ways.In Jesus, we are the new humanity. Is Jesus grace or works? Jesus lives in the garden of God's everlasting favor, and we are in Him. In Christ, there are no prohibited trees. Outside Him, they are all prohibited. That means there is only one real question to answer, and it does not involve any grace/works ratios. The question is more basic than that, and has to do with the new birth.

INTRODUCTIONOn this festal day, we remember, we commemorate, we celebrate the fact that Jesus Christ our Lord rose from the dead. Death no longer has dominion over Him, which means that He is entirely and utterly out of death’s reach. Not only so, but the same thing can be said of all who were—by faith—made partakers of His death. We have also be raised with Him.This is the import of Easter. This is the meaning of Resurrection Sunday. Not only is it the first day of the week, but it is also the first day of the new creation.THE TEXT“But for us also, to whom [righteousness] shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (Romans 4:23–25).SUMMARY OF THE TEXTHere is our context. The passage is talking about the faithful example of our father Abraham, who believe the Word that was spoken to him. He believed, and his faith was credited to him as righteousness. God had told him that he would be the father of many nations. God had told him that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Abraham heard that word, believed it, and his faith was the instrument that received the gift of imputed righteousness.But God has spoken to more people than just Abraham. He has also spoken to his innumerable descendants. And what does he say to those descendants? What is the word that is spoken to us? The word is that Christ was delivered over to the agony of the cross for our offenses, and that He was raised from the dead for our justification, for our righteousness. This word is spoken by whom? According to our text, it is spoken by the one who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. This means that He is the one whom we must believe, and what must we believe?We must believe the word that is spoken, which means that we must believe that Christ was delivered for our offenses. We must believe that Christ was raised for our justification.The gospel is a high gospel, but it is only a high gospel because it is our gospel. And who is it that can speak that glorious word “our”?RESURRECTION PREREQUISITESHow low can this word “our” reach? It can reach anywhere the noun it modifies can reach. Wherever offences occur, those offences can certainly be our offences. But what does that mean? It means that our justification can occur in those same places. Resurrection can happen anywhere death exists.Would it make any sense to say that resurrections cannot happen in cemeteries? Think for a moment. That is the only place where resurrections can happen. Graveyards are God’s workbench. Death is His material of choice.So can our gospel reach into dive bars? Strip clubs? Political rallies? Meth labs? Soup kitchens? Chess clubs? Civic associations? Anywhere death can go, life can erupt. Anything that death can drag down to the grave, everlasting life can reach down and pull back out again. Anything, and anyone. Our offenses. Our justification. Remember?PARTAKERS OF ALL OF THISChrist did not come to earth and do what He did so that we would be impressed with the singular marvel of His conquest of death. It was a marvel, but it was not a singular marvel. Christ’s resurrection is the creation of the instrument of our deliverance from death. He is an Adam, remember.What the first Adam did entailed all the rest of us. In a similar way, the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45) has done something that entails all who believe. The first Adam disobeyed at a tree, representing all of us. The last Adam obeyed on a tree, paying the penalty for all of us (2 Cor. 5:21).This becomes ours as we are partakers with Him, and we are partakers with Him by faith alone. This is the Word—look at it. This is the Word—do you accept it? Do you trust the one who speaks it?“Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).It is not possible to partake partially. If you are joined with Christ at the beginning, at the place of the cross, then you are with Him all the way to glory, which is the predetermined end of it.“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:11).Death and resurrection. Rebellion and restoration. Diseased decay and newness of life.ON THIS RESURRECTION SUNDAYOn this Resurrection Sunday, an entirely new thing appears in the world, a thing entirely unknown before. That new thing in the world is a righteous version of you. You did not know that it was even possible for there to be a righteous version of you. You think this because of your offenses.So flip this around. Is it appropriate for the preacher to look straight at your dirty heart, and utter the phrase your offenses? Yes, yes. It is entirely fitting. Now if that is appropriate, and it is, then take the phrase and put it in first person. Say it this way: our offenses. Make it even more personal than that. My offenses. How many of my offenses? All of them. Myoffenses.Do you have them all? Are they all gathered up? Do they all condemn you? Of course they all do. Just one of them would condemn you to Hell forever. Just one of them is sufficient fuel to burn everlastingly. So there you are, arms full of “my offenses.”Now, dirty armful and all, look to the cross. A man died there, and He died for what? He died for our offenses. Do you see that? Do you believe it? Do not dare to disbelieve it. He died for our offenses. Repeat that after me. He died for our offenses. Having gotten thus far, here comes the glorious culmination of all God’s purposes. He was raised for our justification. And you are not permitted to say our offenses without also saying our justification. You cannot say my offenses without also saying my righteousness.“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:1).No condemnation. And there is no condemnation because Jesus rose, and you are eternally, everlastingly, ultimately, finally, and completely righteous. Do you believe these things? Of course you do.

The thing that made the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus necessary was our sin, but because of the depths of the wisdom of God, and the work of the Spirit here with us now, we are enabled to see the gospel ironies that deal efficaciously with us and our sins. When Jesus, the life of the world, was brought bound before the Sanhedrin, that life was the aroma of death to them. And when we come, bound prisoners to the judgment seat of the crucifixion, that death is our everlasting life. We look at that twisted body on the cross, something marvelous happens. He was hanging there because our representatives in the Sanhedrin had cried out, “death to Him—death, death, death.” And we look, and the only thing we can think to say is “life from Him—life, life, life.”

Now the saints do pass through dragonish places. But the death of Christ, his descent into Hades, and his triumph over the principalities and powers has radically transformed things. We go through dragonish places after Christ, not before. Jesus took up the cross. And we must also. But Jesus said, "Take up your cross and follow me." He did not say, "Take up your cross and lead they way, I've got your back."

Humility isn’t timidity, shyness, or insecurity. Humility is thinking of yourself in accordance with what God says about you.

INTRODUCTIONOver the years, I have mentioned a number of times that there is no good biblical reason to use the hosannas! of Palm Sunday and the crucify him! of the Passion account as proof of the fickleness of crowds. We have no reason for assuming that the make-up of the crowds was in any way identical. But because we are living in a time driven by mass movements, it is past time for to develop a theology of crowds. Given that America is filling up with competing mobs now, one of the things that believing Christians ought to do is go back to the Scriptures to see what we can learn about mobs. There is a great deal there, actually, and if we pay the right kind of attention, we can profit more than a little bit.The Text“And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then believed ye him not? But and if we say, of men; all the people will stone us: for they be persuaded that John was a prophet” (Luke 20:5-6).Summary of the PointIn our text, Jesus asked His adversaries what they thought of John the Baptist, who was a real dividing line. Jesus had cornered them by asking a question that forced them to choose between their own actions, and the hostile reactions of a very hostile crowd. All the people will stone us. A few verses down from this, we see that the Jerusalem elites were plotting against Jesus, and they thought they needed to deal with Him secretly because why? Because they were afraid of the people. Jesus was really popular with a lot of people who did not really grasp the implications of what Christ had come to do. “And the chief priests and the scribes the same hour sought to lay hands on him; and they feared the people: for they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them” (Luke 20:19).The gospel writers tell us this over and over. Two chapters later, the same thing is repeated. “And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him; for they feared the people” (Luke 22:2). In the gospel of Mark, the same thing is mentioned and emphasized. “And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine . . . But if we shall say, Of men; they feared the people: for all men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed” (Mark 11:18, 32). And in the next chapter of Mark, we see the same thing repeated. “And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way” (Mark 12:12).And this same pattern does not disappear after the Lord ascended into Heaven. Not at all. When officials went to detain some apostles, they handled them quite gingerly. And why? Because they feared for their lives. “Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned” (Acts 5:26).A Room Full of FumesWhen the Messiah was born into first century Israel, He was born into a room full of fumes, ready to go off. It was politically volatile, and complicated, but it was also a complexity that could be reduced to two basic groups—those who had been baptized by John, and those who had refused it.But before we get to that reduction, we have to take a number of other factions into account. That way we know what we are reducing down to their version of red state and blue state. There were the Sadducees, well-connected to the aristocracy that controlled the Temple. They were theologically liberal but quite conservative when it came to their own vested interests. There were the Herodians, whose connections were to the political elite, and who had a deep investment in what Rome was seeking to maintain. The Pharisees were a lay renewal movement, highly respected among the people, at least until Jesus got done with them. There were about 6,000 Pharisees in Israel at this time. They were largely merchants who had made enough money to be able to retire to a life of personal devotion, their goal being to get the average Israelite to live up to the holiness standards that the Torah required of priests.I am (temporarily) excluding from this political roster the immediate followers of Christ—His twelve disciples, other extras, and the women in His entourage, but I am not excluding the crowds who loved Him, and who were not far from the kingdom. This was yet another group. Think of the massive crowds who welcomed Him during His Triumphal Entry.But there is another group, almost always overlooked, a bit more surly and anti-establishment, but still clearly in the pro-John-the-Baptist, pro-Jesus camp. This was a group of significant size that was hostile to the establishment that was hostile to Jesus. And by this I mean that they were seriously hostile, and at life-threatening levels. They were “on the Lord’s side,” but had not really internalized all that Sermon-on-the-Mount stuff. The Lord once rebuked a few of His disciples for not knowing what spirit they were of (Luke 9:55), but it should be pointed out that there was quite a large group out there who fit in the same category.Now can we all agree that these crowds, as warmly affectionate toward John the Baptist as they might have been, and as doggedly committed to the honor of the rabbi Jesus as they were, were people who had not taken on board the full import of what the Scriptures required of them? I mean, had you gone to one of their rallies, who knows what kind of flags might have been there. And did their presence in the mix in any way discredit what Jesus was up to? Not even a little bit.No. The Lord knew of this group’s cluelessness. He understood their cluelessness. He even used their cluelessness in His debates with that other form of cluelessness, the respectable kind—the kind that is always the last to know. But Henever apologized for their cluelessness. “And the Lord spake unto them, saying, ‘I have recently been informed that the chief priests have been receiving credible threats against their lives, and I wanted to hasten to apologize . . .'”So in this powder keg called Jerusalem, what did Jesus do? Did Jesus come in to pour soothing oil on troubled waters? No. He went into the Temple, for crying out loud, and started flipping over tables.Ownership of the Public SquareAnd this is why we need to follow Christ, Christ above all. There is only one kind of defiant joy in the world that can successfully stand up to this kind of godless pressure. There is only one path for defying the screechers—without becoming a screecher yourself. That path is Christ, the one who has risen from the dead. And He rose from the dead the same place they crucified Him, which is to say, in the public square. Remember: the reason Christians still own the public square is because Jesus rose from the dead in it. I know that the militant secularists despise this truth, but truth it is, and they should have thought of those objections before they crucified Him there.

The kingdom of God cannot grow and flourish without farewells. The Lord commanded us to preach the gospel to every creature, and this cannot happen unless some people are called to go away when we would prefer that they stay.

The enemies of the church have effectively wielded the weapon of irreverent mockery. Pop culture has relentlessly pilloried sacred things as objects of scorn for decades. Sit-coms make dads the butt of every joke. Late-night comedians guffaw over puritanical sexual ethics. These modern court jesters mocked sacred things, with no reverence shown whatsoever.But their irreverent jokes landed because the church made a mockery of these things first.

INTRODUCTIONOne of the central things we are called to do is praise the works of the Lord. But the glorious thing is that we are also called to remember that we are ourselves the work of God. God’s wisdom is so intricate and ingenious that He can create works that are capable of praising His works. And that is what we are.THE TEXT“A Psalm of David. I will praise thee with my whole heart: Before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul. All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord, when they hear the words of thy mouth. Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord: For great is the glory of the Lord. Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: But the proud he knoweth afar off. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: Thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever: Forsake not the works of thine own hands” (Psalm 138).SUMMARY OF THE TEXTThe reference in this psalm to the temple should not be sufficient to make us set aside the ascription to David. The psalmist will praise God with a dedicated heart (v. 1), and he will do it in the presence of all the false gods. He will worship toward the temple, praising God’s name for His hesed and truth, because God magnifies His Word above all that His name represents (v. 2). In the day that he cried out, God reinforced the strength of his soul (v. 3). A prediction is then made—all the kings of the earth will praise the King of all the earth (v. 4), and they will sing about the ways of the Lord (v. 5). God is higher than all height, but still has respect for the lowly. The proud He knows also, but is only willing to touch them with a long stick (v. 6). God is one who delivers us from the very midst of trouble (v. 7). God will certainly finish His own work; He knows how to complete it (v. 8). God’s hesed is forever, and the psalmist consequently pleads with Him not to forsake the work of His own hands (v. 8).THE SINGING OF KINGSAs we are going to see in a moment, God has great regard for the lowly. But He regards the conceited from afar. But in His great kindness and grace, one of the things he does is that He condescends to invite even kings into His kingdom. And one of the great wonders of grace is that they come. This psalm is one of the great promises. God is going to make a great choir out of humbled kings. In vv. 4-5, we see that all the kings of earth are going to sing His praises.The kings of the earth are told to kiss the Son, lest He be angry (Ps. 2: 10-12). The kings of the earth are going to bring their glory and honor into the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:24). All the kings will see God’s glory (Is. 62:2). Paul teaches us that God wants all kinds of men to be saved, even kings (1 Tim. 2:1-4). The kings of earth will fear the glory of the Lord (Ps. 102:15).THE MOST HIGH AND THE LOWLYEven though God is the Most High God, He nevertheless has concern for the lowly. A lowly and humble creature is not too low for Him to touch. What troubles us is a concern of His. He does not consider us worms. But if we puff ourselves up in our conceits, then we do indeed become worms, very haughty worms.The issue is not the size of our hands, or the size of our minds. The Lord created us this way, and He declared in the day of creation that our size was, along with all other things, “very good.” What He does not care for is the swollenness of our pride. Sin is not finitude; sin is inflated with massive amounts of spiritual helium.“For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isaiah 57:15, NKJV).THE WORK OF HIS OWN HANDSWe are indeed the work of God’s hands. The psalmist here prays a prayer that is manifestly within the will of God. We know that it is because of what God promises us.“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you . . . being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:3–6, NKJV).Not only has He begun a good work in you, He has begun a good work that is you.“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10, NKJV)The word rendered workmanship is poiema, and can be rendered as creation, artifact, art-work, or accomplishment. You, my friend, are laid out on God’s workbench.BROUGHT TO COMPLETIONWhat man does by himself always comes up empty. As Spurgeon put it, we are talking about “Cain’s sacrifice, Pharaoh’s promise, Rabshakeh’s threats, a Pharisee’s prayer.” But what about Christ’s sacrifice? Christ’s promise? Christ’s threat? Christ’s prayers? What are you trusting? Who are you trusting?You might be tempted to trust in your own sensations—your afflictions make you feel like you are being crushed beneath the weight of numerous troubles. But take heart. You think you are being crushed like grapes. And so you are, but God is making His specialty wine. What is your vintage?

So our position on church membership is that at the very least there ought to be two lists of names: a list of elders and a list of members. And the people on the two lists need to know one another well enough and there needs to be enough interaction between them that members can consider the way of life of their leaders and imitate their faith as it says, and the leaders need to know their people well enough to actually watch over their souls and give an account to God for them.