Christ Church (Moscow, ID)

The writer of Proverbs says that out of many daughters, the virtuous wife excels them all. Something analogous also may also be said of pride, the devil’s oldest daughter. Many sins are indeed ugly, but you surpass them all.

INTRODUCTIONGod is holy, holy, holy, and while He is also love, He will not allow His worship to be trifled with. Those who treat His courts with flippancy or hypocrisy are asking for His judgments. The sons of Aaron remain a terrible warning to us, and yet also in Christ a sort of type or promise.THE TEXT“And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not…” (Lev. 10:1-20).SUMMARY OF THE TEXTShortly after being ordained to be priests, Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire to the Lord, and the Lord consumed them with His fire (10:1-7). Moses instructs Aaron that there is to be no drinking of wine or strong drink in the tabernacle, so that they pay careful attention to the requirements of the law and teach Israel to do the same (10:8-11). The offering of Nadab and Abihu being interrupted, Moses tells Aaron and his sons how to complete the offering (10:12-15). The chapter closes with Moses asking why the sin offering wasn’t completed, and Aaron explaining his reason (10:16-20).THE REGULATIVE PRINCIPLE OF WORSHIPThe text does not say explicitly what it was that made the offering of Nadab and Abihu “strange fire.” Since the warning about drinking in the tabernacle is immediately given (10:9), this is one likely thesis, or it may have been a combination of that and failure to follow some of the careful distinctions (10:11). Some commentators suggest that they may have been an attempt to go into the Holy Place or Most Holy Place. At any rate, the foundational problem was disobedience: “strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not” (10:1).This is one of the key texts for explaining what theologians call the “regulative principle of worship.” All biblical Christians must hold to some version of this, which essentially means that whatever we do in worship must be commanded by God. And the corollary is that whatever God has not commanded is prohibited. The central reason for this is that there is no other way to draw near to God except by faith in His Word. As soon as you begin substituting human traditions or your own bright ideas, you are not drawing near by faith.Some versions of the regulative principle of worship draw arbitrarily narrow lines, insisting on explicit permission for every detail (e.g. psalms only, no instruments), but for some reason they do not object to women taking the Lord’s Supper or the change from worship on Saturday to Sunday. However, we agree that all of worship must be authorized by Scripture by explicit command or by good and necessary consequence and therefore must be according to Scripture.And the stakes really are high. Ananias and Sapphira lied about their offering and were struck dead (Acts 5), and many in Corinth were sick or dead because of how they celebrated the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:29-30). New Covenant worship is no less sacred to God. “Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:28-29). In other words, the question is not whether we will be consumed, the question is whether we will survive. And so this is why we must only come in and through Jesus Christ, the new and living way (Heb. 10:20).DRINKING IN THE PRESENCE OF GODIt’s a striking change from the Old Covenant to the New, that God has explicitly commanded His people to share wine in His presence, in the Lord’s Supper. Yet, drunkenness is still clearly forbidden (Gal. 5:21, Eph. 5:18). And the same requirement holds outside of worship, since believers are to be vigilant and filled with the Spirit (Rom. 13:13, Eph. 5:18, 1 Thess. 5:7). While we insist that obedience requires wine in the Lord’s Supper, and that the One who turned water into wine gives freedom to enjoy the gift of wine, we of all people must be known for our carefulness, vigilance, and sobriety. Drunkenness is listed among those sins of debauchery that will not inherit the kingdom (1 Cor. 6:10). We are no less required to pay attention to our lives and our worship, as the priests of old (Lev. 10:10). The same warning applies to other mind-alter drugs. The joy of the Lord is our strength, but this joy is alert and clear-minded, not buzzing and clouded.FAMILY TIES & THE JUSTICE OF GODOur text closes with Aaron’s submission to the justice of God while we assume still feeling the human pain of loss (10:3, 19). This is a tension we often feel in this life, and we need to practice getting our hearts and heads around it in faith. The principles are these: God is perfectly just and in the end, when we see the complete populations of Heaven and Hell, we will be like the saints who witnessed the judgment of Babylon in Revelation, and we will shout Hallelujah! at all of His judgments (Rev. 19:1-3). It will not be pretty good; it will be perfect, glorious, absolutely wonderful. And together with this is the fact that God will destroy the wicked. He will give some over to the Hell that they demand. And some of those may be ones we have known and loved in this life. But Jesus told us this when called us to be His disciples (Lk. 14:26). There is a gleeful acceptance of this that does not know what spirit it is of, but there is sober, joyful acceptance of this in which there is great peace because He is worthy. How can we not trust the One who gave Himself for us for our sins? And finally, precisely because He is a God of great mercy, we plead with Him for the salvation of our loved ones and then rest in His infinite goodness.CONCLUSIONIn many of the Jewish traditions surrounding this story, Nadab and Abihu are presented as something like heroes or saints, representing all sinners. We need not go that far while still acknowledging that they are mentioned again when God explains the Day of Atonement, the one day each year when one priest could enter the Most Holy Place, without dying (Lev. 16:2).It’s easy to come to church and not really grasp the glorious reality of what God offers: “By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:20-22).

Forgiveness of sin is forgiveness of sin, not redefinition of sin (Rom. 13:8-10). “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven” contains a glorious truth. But, misapplied as it frequently is, it also represents a travesty of biblical living.

God has made the world such that wisdom and understanding (and therefore power and influence) are to increase over the course of generations under His blessing. But when cultures rebel, God gives them over to a kind of drunken stupor, and this is where dark ages come from.God’s blessing is on those who fear Him, and the center of all human rebellion is a refusal to fear the Lord. But we must be mindful of the fact that there is always a temptation among religious types to try to manufacture the fear of the Lord, which only prolongs the judgment. So our central task in parenting is to fear the Lord, and raise our children in the fear of the Lord so that God’s blessing may be upon them, and upon our children’s children.

A recovery of a thoroughgoing doctrine of Original Sin is, indeed, of utmost necessity in this hour.From this doctrine God reveals to us that we aren’t rising out of the pond scum and into perfection. Rather, we have fallen from the glorious heights of the good way in which God first made us. Only by Christ, the Perfect Man, can we rise and be restored to goodness. Always remember that the Good News of the gospel is prefaced with the bad news of our fallen condition. Any other starting point is trying to imprison you forever in hell.

INTRODUCTIONThis message on Inescapable Fear could just as easily been entitled as Freedom from Fear. And, without any contradiction, it could also be entitled The Christian Grace of Fear. But all this will take some unpacking.THE TEXT “And I say unto you my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12: 4-7; cf. Matt. 10:28-31).SUMMARY OF THE TEXTNotice how Jesus addresses His disciples here—He calls them His friends (v. 4). His next words are instructions to them to not be afraid of those whose maximum power is that of physical death (v. 4). He then turns to the subject of the one that they should fear—the one who has complete, full, and final authority over hell. Christ emphasizes that they should fear Him—He says it three times in one verse. Fear Him (v. 5). God remembers even the sparrows, sold so cheaply in the market (v. 6). This means that the hairs of your head are all numbered (v. 7). Do not fear, therefore, because you are worth more than many sparrows (v. 7).FEAR NOT, FEAR, FEAR NOTHere is the pattern. We are not to fear men. All they can do is kill us. We are to fear God—He is the one who can throw people into hell. But God loves us and cherishes us, and He cares deeply for us. We should therefore not fear the providences of God concerning us. Still less should we fear the pains of hell. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4: 18). We do not fear hell; we defy it. We do not fear hell because we fear the one who can put us there. Because we fear Him, we know that He does not want to do this to us—we are worth more than many sparrows. When He sends His angels, they almost always say, “Fear not.”Now this is why we have spoken about inescapable fear. If we fear man, we do not fear God. If we fear God, we will not fear man. But we will fear someone. The question, therefore, is not whether we will fear, but rather whom we will fear. This is just another form of “not whether, but which.” HEALTHY FEAR One of the central reasons why modern Christians are so timid is because we have not cultivated a healthy fear of God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Prov. 1:7). This is foundational. And notice how fear of God is described in the New Testament as a glorious and wonderful thing. Forgive me as I belabor the point.“And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word” (Matt 28:8).“And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation” (Luke 1:50).“And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to day” (Luke 5:26; 7:16).“Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied” (Acts 9:31).“Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1).“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 his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13).“Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God” (Eph 5:21).“Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:28-29).There are many other passages like this—this is a point that could be multiplied many times over.BRING THIS TOGETHER In our fear of God, we begin to know; fear and great joy mingle in knowledge of the resurrection; fear receives mercy; fear renders awe and glory; walking in fear means walking in comfort; fear advances personal holiness; fear works out salvation; fear enables us in cultivating the spirit of mutual submission and humility; fear animates appropriate worship. Fear of God is therefore a Christian’s glory.PROFOUND AND ALL-PERVASIVE FEARBecause of this profound and all-pervasive fear, we do not fear anything. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Tim 1:7). “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption” (Rom. 8:15). “And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:15).TO PRESS THE POINT This means that if you are troubled with anxieties and fears, then you need to name the problem accurately. The problem is that you do not fear as you ought, and the vacuum has been filled by phantoms. Now I am not talking about normal physiological reactions—shaking when you just escaped from a car wreck, or you have a close call with a grizzly bear.I am talking about the ongoing fears that cripple your Christian life and your relationships with others. What do I mean? I am referring to fear of slippery roads, loss of reputation, the cancer you might get twenty years out, dying young, marital unhappiness in the future, or any other kind of “what about? or “what if?” followed by some unpleasantness that you cooked up. The fear of God liberates. The fear of the creature paralyzes—because to guard effectively against whatever it is, you have to be omnipotent. And you are not.WE MAY BOLDLY SAY…The fear of God is the foundation of all true contentment. All things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28). And when we are content, free from grasping and covetousness, what may we then say? God will never ditch us. We are His people.“Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me” (Heb. 13:5-6).

Text: 1 Samuel 27:1-12

Text: Mark 16:13–20.

In a moment when I declare to you that your sins are forgiven through Christ, you must not only receive it for any of your individual sins, but you must also receive it for the forgiveness of your husband’s sins, your wife’s sins, your father’s sins, your mother’s sins, your brother, your sister, your grandparents, your employers, your roommate, especially if they have asked for it. And if they haven’t asked for it yet, you are to have that forgiveness in your heart for them, all ready for when they ask. How can you withhold from them what God gives you so feely?

On December 8th, the Canadian government passed Bill C-4 by royal assent, which means that with a little bit of bureaucratic shenanigans, it passed with unanimous consent. Bill C-4 effectively criminalizes Christian preaching, teaching, and counseling that upholds Biblical morality for all sexuality. It specifically prohibits “conversion therapy” and defines that therapy as any practice, treatment, or service that seeks to call individuals to embrace the body God created them with and heterosexuality, with a penalty of up to five years in prison. It also condemned historic, biblical teaching as “myths.” Having gone into effect last week, a number of faithful men have called for the pastors of Canada to preach messages today in defiance of that law, and many American pastors are also joining them to stand in solidarity with them but also to exhort and warn our own American leaders from going down this same path.