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Category Archives: Joy

Martyn Lloyd-Jones “What is the Church?”

16 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by memoirandremains in Acts, Ecclesiology, Joy, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Ministry, Preaching

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Acts 2, definition of the church, Ecclesiology, Gladness, joy, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Peter, Preaching

In his sermon, what is the church, Martyn Lloyd JonesBegins his definition with the rather obvious point,

The first thing we must say is That it is a gathering of people. Why do I make such an obvious point? I make it because as I read some of the journals and some of the books and booklets that deal with this question, I’ll most get the impression that some people seem to think of the church not in terms of people at all. You seem to think of the church is something that is written on paper, as a confession on paper. I’m not criticizing confessions. I believe in confessions. The church, after all, is not a confession of faith. (51)

But if these people gather and do not believe the confession, is it still a church?

The gathering of people is not something which begins with the people: it is something that begins with God. Lloyd-Jones looks back at the start of the church, Peter preaching:

 Here in Acts the people have become aware of the fact this message is speaking to them directly. These are not people who decided to join the church. They did not decide to take up religion. These are people of been called of God. (53)

What is the first thing they realize? They have been convicted of sin. “They are aware that God the Holy Spirit is dealing with them, and they have been brought face-to-face with themselves.” (53) This makes all the difference. Consider those first Christians:

 Now it is obvious That these people have undergone a profound change.They’re not the people they were when they left their homes and their lodgings that’s morning to go and listen to the strange man to whom this amazing thing happened. They have become different men and women. (54)

What did this change do? How did it show itself among these people?

How do these believers manifest this new life that they have received? And the answer is they do so by gathering together.

What does this mean? How should we understand this fact of gathering?

 Why did the first believers gather together like this? Why did they come together day by day? Why could you not keep them as it were apart from another? I do apologize and a sense for bringing in these negatives, but I’m beginning to think that they’re tremendously important.Let me point out that these first Christians should not come together to be entertained. Nothing to me is so pathetic about the state of the church today as the entertainment that has increasingly come into our services. There are churches that keep going by means of clubs and societies. I know Churches – so-called churches – they keep themselves going by game nights and dances and dramas and various other human activities. That is not church; that is a travesty of a church. That is the world. The world does such things, and it does them very well. But that is not what brought these people in the early church together. (55)

What is it that drove them together? The text tells us: Fellowship was driven by doctrine, by preaching & teaching:

The really significant point about the list in Acts 2:42 is the order in which the subjects are put before us. You notice at the first thing that is mentioned his doctrine, teaching– not fellowship. And I emphasize this because the whole ecumenical movement is based upon the basic argument that fellowship comes first. (55)

Now fellowship will follow, it must follow of necessity, “Because we are sharers of the same life. We belong together. We belong to the same family.” (61)

This sharing of common life shows itself in the Lord’s Table & prayers, in sharing, in joy and gladness. Unfortunately, too many Christians do not see this life as joy & gladness (that is elsewhere). Church as a duty, as an obligation – can that gathering actually be called church?

Lloyd-Jones states the real reason our message cannot be heard is that the professing Christian does not profess joy and gladness in Christ. We do not need an evangelistic campaign; we need the true operation of Spirit which will manifest in the joy and gladness among us:

 This has always been the characteristic of the true church. And when she becomes like this, she AskAs a magnet to those who are outside. When men and women CS with the spirit of joy and rejoicing, this spirit that is invincible, the spirit that knows God and is afraid of nothing, they will rush to listen to us. Joy and rejoicing! How much enjoys there to be seen among us? How formal we are! How organized we are! House set we are! Of the world’s not interested. But when it sees this joy of the Lord and us, it will come and listen to us and ask us for the secret of this amazing experience that we are enjoying. 65

And of course this Life of fellowship and prayer and joy will show itself in praising God.

He does not ask this in the sermon, that is something we must ask ourselves. If these things are not evident among us, we must ask what is the fault? First, the fault must lie in the lack of the Word of God. The fault must lie in our preaching and teaching if there is no fellowship and hope and joy and gladness. For it is the Word and the Spirit which makes the church. The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to create the people of God. Thus, where the Word of God is lacking can we expect the Spirit to be present, also?

Was it for crimes that I had done

14 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by memoirandremains in Atonement, Christology, Confession, Desire, Humility, Isaac Watts, Joy, Literature, Music

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Alas and Did my Savior Die, Hymn, Isaac Watts, poem, Poetry

Alas! and did my Savior bleed?
And did my Sovereign die?
Would he devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?

Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, thine,
And bathed in its own blood,
While all exposed to wrath divine
The glorious Suff’rer stood!

Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide,
And shut his glories in,
When God, the mighty Maker, died
For man, the creature’s sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face,
While his dear cross appears;
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.

But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe;
Here, Lord, I give myself away;
’Tis all that I can do.

16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
-2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Wheels to our obedience

08 Thursday May 2014

Posted by memoirandremains in Biblical Counseling, Joy, Matthew Henry, Obedience, Preaching

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joy, Matthew Henry, Obedience, Psalm 119, Psalm 119:32

Matthew Henry on Psalm 119:32:

God’s word should be our guide and plea in every prayer.—God by His Spirit enlarges the hearts of His people when He puts wisdom there, 1 Kings 4:29, and when He sheds abroad the love of God in the heart, and puts gladness there. The joy of our Lord should be wheels to our obedience

Thomas Manton on Psalm 119.1.a

28 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by memoirandremains in affliction, Biblical Counseling, Desire, Joy, Preaching, Psalms, Thomas Manton

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Biblical Counseling, Blessed, Blessedness, Creature, Happiness, happy, joy, Preaching, Psalm 119, Psalm 119:1, Thomas Manton, Vanity

Manton preached 176 sermons on the 119th Psalm. In the introduction to the published volume, Vincent Aslop comments on these sermons:

The matter of these sermons is spiritual, and speaks the author one intimately acquainted with the secrets of wisdom. He writes like one that knew the Psalmist’s heart, and felt in his own the sanctifying power of what he wrote. Their design is practice; beginning with the understanding, dealing with the affections, but still driving on the advancement of practical holiness. They come home and close to the conscience; first presenting us a glass, wherein we may view the spots of our souls, and then directing us to that fountain wherein we may wash them away. They are of an evangelical complexion, abasing proud corrupt nature, and advancing free and efficacious grace in the conversion of sinners. The exhortations are powerful, admirably suited to treat with reasonable creatures, yet still supposing them to be the vehicle of the Holy Spirit, through which he communicates life and power to obey them.

The movement between text and the human heart demonstrates a powerful mode of preaching which in our day we tend to separate between the functions of preaching and counseling. Manton, as did many of his contemporaries, used the exposited text as a means to exposit the human heart and reveal the corruption and point to hope. These sermons take seriously the observation of Hebrews 4:

12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

The first sermon is upon the text: “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.”

Psalm 119:1 begins with the word “blessed”, thus, Manton considers the nature of blessedness, of happiness.

He observes at the outset:

Good, good, is the cry of the world. It is intended in the very nature of desire; for everything that is desired is desired as good, sub ratione boni. As God implanted in us affections of aversation to avoid what is evil, so affections of choice and pursuit to follow after what is good. Well, then, out of a principle of self-love, all would be happy; they would have good, and they would have it for ever. Inanimate creatures are, by the guidance and direction of Providence, carried to the place of their perfection. The brute beasts seek the preservation and perfection of that life which they have; so do all men hunt about for contentment and satisfaction. To ask whether men would be happy or not, is to ask whether they love themselves, yea or nay; but whether holy, is another thing.

The Puritans were deeply concerned about happiness — contrary to their later detractors. Manton here considers the pursuit of happiness at some length.

He first notes the errors people make as they pursue happiness. Some will mistake the object which can provide happiness, “They desire good in common, not that which is indeed the true good; they seek happiness in riches, honours, pleasures; and so they fly from that which they seek, whilst they seek it.”

Second, others will mistake the means to obtain happiness. It is at this point that the apparent Puritan distain of happiness comes in. The Puritan by no means refused happiness, he merely saw it as obtaining by crossing this world — not as something permanently present within this world:

Men would be happy with that kind of happiness which is true happiness, but not in the way which God propoundeth, being prepossessed with carnal fancies. It is counted a foolish thing to wait upon God in the midst of straits, conflicts, and temptations

Thus, mistaken in the means to obtain true happiness, they become carvers:

Since they cannot have God’s happiness, they resolve to be their own carvers, and to make themselves as happy as they can in the enjoyment of present things.

They seek “to extract happiness from the creatures”. Yet, such efforts will fail us. First, every creature is wavering, vain, imperfect, “Nothing can give us solid peace, but what doth make us eternally happy. These flowers wither in our hands while we smell at them. Nothing but the favour of God is from everlasting to everlasting.”

The things of this world will defile when they are desired as means of happiness. Moreover, having placed our happiness in some creature, we are desperate to keep that thing — because being lost we lose that happiness.

“Blessedness is a riddle which can only be found out by faith”.

Since these things are apparent and even admitted by Christians, why then do Christians fail to live most consistently with such knowledge?

Many times we are doctrinally right in point of blessedness, but not practically; we content ourselves with the mere notion, but are not brought under the power of these truths; that is the work of the Spirit.

Hark! the Herald Angels Sing

23 Monday Dec 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in Charles Wesley, Joy, Music, Praise

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Charles Wesley, Christmas, Hark the Herald Angels, joy, Lost Verses, Music, poem, Poetry, Praise

BY CHARLES WESLEY
Hark! the herald Angels sing,
Glory to the new-born King,
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinner reconcil’d.
Hark! the herald Angels sing,
Glory to the new-born King.

Joyful all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies,
With the angelic host proclaim,
Christ is born in Bethlehem.
Hark! the herald Angels sing,
Glory to the new-born King.

Christ by highest Heaven ador’d,
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold him come,
Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Hark! the herald Angels sing,
Glory to the new-born King.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail, the incarnate Deity,
Pleased as Man with man to dwell,
Jesus our Immanuel!
Hark! the herald Angels sing,
Glory to the new-born King.

Hail the Heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
Risen with healing in his wings.
Hark! the herald Angels sing,
Glory to the new-born King.

Mild he lays his glory by,
Born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.
Hark! the herald Angels sing,
Glory to the new-born King.

Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Now display Thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to Thine.

Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.
Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the Life, the inner man:
O, to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Life Together, Christian Brotherhood

02 Monday Dec 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in Assemblying, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Fellowship, Joy, Love

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Brotherhood, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Fellowship, Life Together

My brother is rather that other person who has been redeemed by Christ, delivered from his sin, and called to faith and eternal life. Not what a man is in himself as a Christian, his spirituality and piety, constitutes the basis of our community. What determines our brotherhood is what man is by reason of Christ. Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us. This is not true merely at the beginning, as though in the course of time something else were to be added to our community; it remains so for all the future and to all eternity. I community with others and I shall continue to have it only through Jesus Christ. The more genuine and the deeper our community becomes, the more will everything else between us recede, the more clearly and purely will Jesus Christ, but through Christ we do not have one another, wholly, and for all eternity.

That dismisses once and for all every clamorous desire for something more. One who wants more than Christ has established does not want Christian brotherhood. He is looking for some extraordinary social experience which has not found elsewhere; he is bringing muddled and impure desires into Christian brotherhood. 25-26

……

Because God has already laid the only foundation of our fellowship, because God has bound us together in one body with other Christians in Jesus Christ, long before we entered into common life with them, we enter into that common life not as demanders but as thankful recipients. We thank God for what He has done for us. We thank God for giving us brethren who live his call, by His forgiveness, by His promise. We do not complain of what God does not give us; we rather thank God for what He does give us daily. And is not what he has given us enough: brothers, who will go on living with us through sin and need under the blessing of His grace? Is the divine gift of Christian fellowship anything less than this, any day, even the most difficult and distressing day? 29

Edward Taylor: Raptures of Love.1

29 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in 2 Corinthians, Ascension, Christology, Edward Taylor, Jonathan Edwards, Joy, Literature, Love, Meditation

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2 Corinthians 5:14–15, ascension, Christ as High Priest, Edward Taylor, High Priest, Holy Spirit, Jonathan Edwards, joy, Literature, Meditation, poem, Poetry, Puritan Poetry, Raptures of Love, Union with Christ

Raptures of love, surprising loveliness,
That burst through heavens all, in rapid flashes,
Glances guilt o’re with smiling comeliness!
Wonders do palefac’d stand smit by such dashes.
Glory itself heartsick of love doth lie
Bleeding out love o’re loveless me and die.

Line 1:
Rather than begin with the expected iamb, the poem begins with an accented syllable: Raptures. (One might have expected something like “Now raptures”.) Taylor intends to convey the sensation of being startled.

Rapture is an interesting word because it means to grab something and transport it elsewhere. The love which Taylor sees does not merely stand before him like picture: it grabs hold of him. He does not merely see the “flashes” (line 2), he is being transported.

The Scripture makes plain that God’s love does stand idly outside of the human being, but rather the love of God in Jesus Christ must transform us:

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Taylor puns on the word “love” by using it as a noun and as an adjective. The effect is to make “loveliness” mean more than mere delight — it is something which is attractive because it contains and conveys love.

Line 2:
“Heavens all”: Since the word “heaven” refers to the atmosphere, “outer space” and the place of God beyond the physical creation [heaven is not simply “far away”], the biblical writers will use the word “heavens” to refer to all three.

Jesus Christ at this time sits at the right hand of majesty on high (Hebrews 1:3). He is communicated to us by operation of the Holy Spirit.

Line 3
“Guilt o’re” covered in gold. The accented first syllable forces the movement forward in rapid fashion, thus the structure mirrors the content.

Line 4:
“Wonders” are looking on at the beauty of Christ the High Priest and feel shame and wonder.

Line 5:
Glory personified looks at the glory of Christ and falls lovesick. The image seems to be suggested by Canticles 5:8, “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love.”

Line 6:
Taylor expresses the conflict of the saint who knows more than he feels. He knows that he should be as enraptured with the beauty of Christ as Wonder and Glory, but also sees that his affections are cold–thus, he is “loveless”.

It is strange and unfair that Puritans are thought to be dour, passionless people. While they openly condemned sin it was because sin is the cheat of joy and passion. Taylor, in full accord with Puritan teaching, hopes for greater passion and more love. The desire for passion and joy lay at the heart of Puritan teaching. Go to edwards.yale.edu and search for the words “beauty” (2480 entries) “joy” (3379).

Taylor will look upon his loveless in the 7th stanza (What strange congealed heart have I).

The last verb “die” is a bit ambiguous because the form is first person singular (die) not third person (dies). However, it seems best to understand Glory which is bleeding with love to be the subject who dies. The “wrong” form was dictated by the rhyme.

Preaching Christ from Psalm 69:29

03 Sunday Nov 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in 1 Peter, 2 Corinthians, Acts, David Dickson, Hope, Humility, Joy, Philippians, Preaching, Psalms, Worship

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1 Peter 5, 2 Corinthians 12, Acts 2, David Dickson, Faith, Hope, humility, Philippians 3, Preaching Christ, Psalm 69, Psalm 69:29

(Some rough notes for a sermon):

In Psalm 69, David cries out to the Lord for deliverance from his enemies. He compares himself to a man sunk in the mire while the waters rush in. He screams out to God for salvation as the water rises to his neck. He has called out for so long, that his throat has become hoarse; his eyes have become dim with waiting for rescue.

The major pivot in the Psalm comes in verse 29: “But I am afflicted and in pain; let your salvation, O God, set me on high!” After this petition, David moves to the expression of hope and joy, “I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.”

What takes place in this petition that David can now rejoice? David Dickson explains,

but I am poor and sorrowful, let thy salvation, O God, set me up. 3. The conscience of humiliation under God’s hand, is a great evidence of delivery out of whatsoever trouble; if a man in a righteous cause be emptied of self-conceit and carnal confidence, and brought down to poverty of spirit, and affected with the sense of sin and misery following upon it, and withal go to God in this condition, he may be sure to be helped; the poor in spirit are freed from the curse: but I am poor and sorrowfull, saith the psalmist here, let thy salvation set me up on high. 4. The man afflicted and persecuted for righteousness, humbled in himself, and drawn to God for relief, shall not only be delivered, but also shall be as much exalted after his delivery, as ever he was cast down: let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high. 5. The kindly sufferer of righteousness, will have no deliverance, but such as God will allow him, as God shall bring unto him; and as he looketh not for delivery another way, so he looketh for a glorious delivery this way; let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high.

David has shown from experience, what Paul learned from Christ:

7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10.

It is also what Peter exhorts:

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 5:7-10.

In our afflictions, we seek to free ourselves from trouble by our own efforts. Now we may permissibly seek relief. Paul slipped out of Damascus in a basket. We may call upon God for relief, as did David and Paul. But we may find that our relief comes in death — for David’s Psalm describes in part what Christ experienced in full. Christ was the one for whom the waters of death overwhelmed. They gave him gall upon the cross. God waited so long that it seems God had failed. Yet in the moment of absolute weakness, in death itself, God vindicated Christ:

23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.25 For David says concerning him, “‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; 26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. 27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’ Acts 2:23-28

The loss of humility when brought to God in absolute dependence results in joy, for humility is an inlet for faith, and faith is an inlet for Christ, and in Christ are all hopes and joys found.

8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith-10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Philippians 3:8-15

I am afflicted, sore sorrowful

31 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in affliction, Confession, Desire, Faith, Hebrew, Humility, Joy, Praise, Prayer, Psalms, Singing, Submission, Thankfulness

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Affliction, Hebrew Translation, Hope, Praise, Prayer, Psalm 69, sorrow, waiting

(This is a translation of Psalm 69 from the Hebrew text. The translation notes are over 20 pages long, so I decided not to post them also. )

Save me, God!

The water has come to my throat.

Down I sink, down in the miry deep.

–There is nowhere to stand.

I slip into the deep

The waters rush over me.

I grow weak from shouting

Hoarse with screams

My eyes fail

–Waiting, hoping for you my God.

I have more enemies than hairs on my head.

Without cause, mighty ones crush me;

Enemies of a lie:

What I did not steal, that I must return.

You God know my foolishness

My guilt hides not from you.

May those who wait on my Lord YHWH of Hosts

Be not disgraced for me;

May those who seek you suffer no shame

Because of me, God of Israel.

Reproach falls on me, because of you;

Shame covers my face.

A stranger I have become to my brothers,

I am unknown to my mother’s sons.

Yet zeal for your house consumes me,

The reproach of your reproach falls upon me.

Even my soul wept and fasted

Still it was reproach to me.

When I dress in sackcloth

I will be their song.

They speak of me, sitting in the gate

And sing of me sitting with their beer.

But me, my prayer is to you

            YHWH at an acceptable time

            God in the fullness of your mercy

                        Answer me in the truth of your salvation.

Rescue me from the mire

Do not let me sink;

Save me from enemies

Even from the depths of waters.

Do not let me sink beneath the flood of waters

Do not let me drown in the deep

Do not let the pit close its mouth over me.

Answer me YHWH, for your steadfast love is good

For the sake of your great mercy, turn to me.

Do not hide your face from your servant

Oh I am in distress

–Make haste to answer me.

Come near to my life, redeem;

Because of my enemies, ransom me.

You, you know my reproach

My shame, my humiliation is before you

–Even all my enemies.

Reproach has broken my heart

I am sick

I waited for pity, but there was none;

And for comforters I did not find.

They gave me poison for food;

For my thirst they gave me sour wine.

Turn their table to a trap

Let their safety be a snare.

Let darkness be their sight when seeing,

Cause their legs to always shudder

Pour your curse over them

Send to them your furious wrath

Let their camp be devastated

In their tents let no one dwell.

For him you struck

            They chased

And the sorrow of him you wound

            They wrote it down.

Lay guilt on their guilt

Keep them from your righteousness.

Erase them from the rolls of living

With the righteous, do not write them down.

But me, I am afflicted, sore sorrowful

–Yet your salvation, O God, will raise me to a save place.

I will praise the name of God in song

Making great my God in thankful song.

For it will please YHWH more than an ox

Or bull with horns and hoofs.

The afflicted will see; they will rejoice

You seeking God – let your hearts live.

For God hears the destitute

And his captives he does not despise.

Praise him heaven and earth

Waters and all that swarm in them.

For God saves Zion

And will build the cities of Judah

And they will settle there and possess it

The children of his servants will inherit

 

And those who love his name will dwell there.

Because Christ Suffered for You

26 Saturday Oct 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in 1 Peter, affliction, Atonement, Christology, Faith, Glory, Hope, John Piper, Joy, Praise, Preaching

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1 Corinthians 15:56–58, 1 Peter 1:18–20, 1 Peter 1:23, 1 Peter 1:3–7, 1 Peter 2:12, 1 Peter 2:9, 1Peter 2:21, Acts 2:23, Affliction, And Can it Be, Atonement, Brothers We are not Professionals, Charles Wesley, Colossians 2:14, Ecclesiastes 2:11, Ecclesiastes 9:3, Galatians 3:13, Galatians 4:4–7, glory, Glory of God, Gospel, Hebrews 2:14, joy, Luke 22:61–62, Luke 24, Mark 15:16–20, Mark 15:33–34, Peter, Psalm 115:1, Romans 3:20, Solomon, Suffering

(draft notes for a sermon 1 Peter 2:21)

Because Christ Suffered for You. 1 Peter 2:21

Suffering hurts in two ways. First, there is the actual pain of suffering. Illness hurts; poverty hurts; broken relationships hurt. But the actual pain is perhaps not the worst part. I remember hearing an interview with a woman who was being tortured by the secret police in her country. She was tied to a table and the men where torturing her. She said she could take it as long as thought of them as monsters. But during the torture, one man took a phone call and spoke with his wife. He talked about finishing up at work and coming home. That real human beings were torturing her tore her soul.

The worst part of suffering is the shame, the pointlessness, the loneliness.  When we come to die, there is regret. It doesn’t how much we acquire or how much we have done. Solomon coming to the end of his life, having done all that any man could do:

“And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure … “Ecclesiastes 2:10.  And yet, that could not keep him from regret, “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and striving after the wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:11).

If drinking in all the money and power and sex and pleasure and wine which the world can give will leave one with regret, what of a normal life? When we suffer, we can think, What’s the point? What’s the point of my disease? When we can’t pay our bills, or a marriage fails; or our life just seems a waste, a getting up and paying bills for what?

We think, What’s the point of my suffering. Then, some well-meaning Christian tells us, “It’s to strengthen your faith!” Or, much worse, “God’s teaching you something.”  It sounds as if the point of suffering is some sort quiz; as if there were some test and we need to get a 90% or higher to pass. Those answers are correct – but only in part. It’s like saying that Hamlet is important because it’s about ghosts, or the World Series is about hot dog sales.

Suffering does grow our faith – but faith is only the means to the end. In suffering we feel pain – and we are tempted to feel that our pain is pointless. We feel shame in our suffering and think that it serves no good. When we hear “It will strengthen our faith” – we think, I would settle for just not hurting today.

But what if suffering were an inlet for glory and joy – and not just joy in the future, but joy today? Look at 1 Peter 2:21. Peter writes:

For to this you have been called

Because Christ suffered for you

Leaving an example that you might follow in his steps.

 

1 Peter 2:21.  Consider carefully those words and follow the logic: You have been called – that means that God has called you to patiently enduring suffering, even unjust, undeserved suffering. Peter then gives the reason: Because Christ suffered for you. Then, that you may not miss the point, Peter restates our duty and status in other words, that we might follow in Christ’s steps of suffering.

This does not sound hopeful. But, as you consider the matter, it becomes worse. We are not merely called to suffer, but we are called suffer as Christ suffered. 

How does the logic work? You must suffer unjustly. If your boss abuses you, if your husband does not love you, if your wife will not respect you, you must so suffer. If someone pays you evil, you give them good. When someone curses you, you must bless them. Why? Because Christ has suffered for you.

Even more, such suffering will be measured by Christ’s suffering: His suffering is the pattern which you must follow; his suffering is like so many steps in the snow and you must follow behind, for it is the only way to cross.

Peter writes of Jesus being reviled and threatened.  Those words do not merely mean a couple of crass shouts by an enemy:

16 And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. 17 And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. 18 And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 19 And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. 20 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him. Mark 15:16–20 (ESV)

There he stood alone, beaten, shamed, blood running down his face as they struck him and danced about in their madness, mocking the Lord of glory who had come to rescue the children of Adam from sin and death.

Peter saw some, but not all of these things. You know the story of how Peter, frightened by a girl, denied the Lord. Luke records how that scene ended:

61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” 62 And he went out and wept bitterly. Luke 22:61–62 (ESV)

Peter’s own cowardice makes the command to suffer with Christ laughable – who is Peter to command me to follow the Lord, when Peter himself ran away and wept? How can this coward think to command our courage when he could not even stand still?  How can Peter tell us to follow in the steps of Christ:

And they led him out to be crucified.

Peter’s words that we should follow in the steps of Christ, that we should follow Christ in suffering do not make sense. First, it does not make sense that we should suffer patiently through a bad marriage just because Jesus bore sin. Second, it makes no sense that Peter, of all people, should be the one who could draw such a conclusion. Peter looked at Jesus suffer. He saw that Jesus was going to the cross and Peter responded by lying to a little girl. If seeing Jesus suffer did not give Peter courage, how does Peter think reading about Jesus suffering will help me?

Let us consider the matter more carefully. What was the event?  The Lord of glory, God incarnate, was murdered, “crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” Acts 2:23.  Peter contends that murder must affect our life here and now.

For to this you were called

Because Christ suffered for you

Leaving you an example that you might follow in his steps.

 

To suffer because we have done wrong is no great trouble. Only the most morally twisted could conclude that wrong does not deserve a response: “For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it you endure?” 1 Peter 2:20a.

But God does something strange. He commands a thing seemingly makes no sense:

“But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this a gracious thing in the sight of God” 1 Peter 2:20b.

Somehow a line runs between Christ’s suffering for our sins and our suffering even when we have not sinned.

Let’s consider the death of Jesus. If you were to stand on the street in Jerusalem on that Friday morning, you would have seen just another criminal, beaten, filthy, bloody, brutalized; a rough wooden beam upon his shoulders.  You would have seen the tatters of meat which had been his back. You have seen him stumble and fall before the soldiers.  Perhaps if you had known more, you have seen just another failed messiah; another dreamer and liar who had run into the teeth of Rome. You would have seen betrayal and shame and sorrow.

Even the dearest disciples and friends of Jesus had lost hope as he pushed along the streets to be murdered outside the gate. The women who found the empty tomb, had come to honor a corpse. Cleopas and the unnamed disciple were hopeless and saddened when they spoke to the Lord, not realizing he had risen from the dead:

Our chief priests and rulers had delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Luke 24:20-21a.

No one knew the “hidden wisdom of God” in all this. “For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” 1 Corinthians 2:7-8.

Now there was no secret in the death of Jesus – Rome killed in as a public a manner as they could find. What then was not seen:

24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24 (ESV)

Thus, something must have happened in this death for our sin which transform everything we think we know about the world.

That is the great connection between Christ’s death and our suffering in this world. When Christ died for sins, the world changed.

We are born in a slaughterhouse. In a slaughterhouse, the cattle stand in long lines, head to tail, waiting their turn to walk through the door and die.  The only hope for the cow is the hope of a feedlot and then the line outside the door of the slaughterhouse. This world is little more than a feedlot, than a prison. You are locked in by death. Death stands at the doors of this world and no one escapes.

Sin spreads through the camp and has infected us all, like a plague which eats the mind and poisons the soul:

3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. Ecclesiastes 9:3 (ESV)

Look carefully into this world. The Law has come to town. In every street, the law sends out his soldiers to drag us each and every-one before his court.  The young comes with the old; the baby is dragged from the mother; the rich stands with the poor. The tribunal stands in the middle of street; nothing is private.  The bailiff reads out your crimes; nothing is hidden. Your boldest wrong and the darkest intention of your heart, so dim you scarcely knew it if was true all are read aloud. The Law knows all.

You fall condemned. No mercy; no defense; no hope. And thus you find yourself in this prison, this slaughterhouse, this feedlot for death.  You are food for worms, and nothing more.

Sin and death reign supreme in this prison. All the insanity which spreads around flows from the utter terror of death at the door.  As the Holy Spirit explains in Hebrews 2:14, the devil holds the world in life long slavery through fear of death.

Some people deny that death stands at the door. Others think they can bribe the guard when it comes the day to account. Others claim to have brought paradise to the prison and seek a torrent of pleasure to dull their eyes until they die.

No one within this prison deserves the least reprieve.  The Law’s judgment was just and true.  Nothing less than death awaits. And after death, vast fields of hopelessness and sorrow, despair and death without end.  The bars of death cannot be beat. Like a blackhole whose gravity can swallow even light and time, death will not be beat. Justice will not lose one dram of vindication.

Yet, into this world the Son of God came. He takes up the charge laid against you. The Law reads out crimes, one by one, each more vicious and foul to have stained the air with their sound. The charge in full being stated, the Son of God, the King himself says to the Law, I will bear it all. Let death and hell come, I will bear it all.

And so the king, reviled, mocked, beaten, murdered upon a tree, bore the weight of sin and shame. Even more dreadful, the King received the wrath of God which caused the earth to shake and the sun to hide for shame:

33 And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark 15:33–34 (ESV)

Somehow, upon that cross,

For our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21.

Somehow

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— Galatians 3:13 (ESV)

A mystery lies here, that Christ could bear our sin in his body on the tree. And yet, it is true:

4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Galatians 4:4–7 (ESV)

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,

Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—

I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;

My chains fell off, my heart was free,

I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

My chains fell off, my heart was free,

I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

 

That is why Peter writes that God has brought us to hope:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:3–7 (ESV)

Look into this hope – as deep as the sorrow of sin once laid upon us, so much greater is the joy and glory of hope now brought by resurrection of Jesus Christ.  See further that all this hope is of God, and God alone.

It was God who sent the Law to condemn us each and everyone:

20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. Romans 3:20 (ESV)

It was God himself who wrote the “record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands” (Colossians 2:14). It was God who kept close track of our sin, of our deeds and intentions. And it was God who sent the Son into the world. Do you not know

that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you …. 1 Peter 1:18–20 (ESV)

And in that ransom, death itself was aside forever. In his death and resurrection, “you were born again, not of perishable seed but imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).  The one who lives without Christ cannot be said rightly to live at all. Before him lies only death; his life a life of a feedlot for worms. And after death? Death for eternity, endless fields of sorrow and despair.

But it is not so for you who know him. You have been called to joy which words cannot contain, because you have come to hope in the revelation of Jesus Christ:

8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:8–9 (ESV)

But this still may not answer the question we asked at the beginning: How does Christ dying me lead to me suffering in this world? Wouldn’t it be the case that I should come into immediate and full possession of all this joy?

That is where we stumble. You see, we falsely think that there is a joy to be had which is other than the joy of the visible presence of the King. When we joke about mansions in heaven, we laugh at the idolatry of our hearts that even when we think of the King we somehow think of a joy which should centered upon us.

But all so hope is false.  We were created for something far greater than ourselves – we were created for God. Nothing less than our king will do for such a heart. No mere trifle, even the most glorious throne to ever arise over the face of the world will be enough. The greatest room in a prison is still a cell.

To dream that we should be happy with something here and now is dastardly – it is lie. The only happiness and contentment we have now is a draught of the Creator being bestowed through the creature. Imagine being thirsty and coming to a faucet. You turn the handle and water comes out. It is not the faucet which drowns your thirst but the water. When you have contentment which flows through the creature it is only gift of the Creator seen in the creature. We must not love anything or anyone for themselves, but rather for the sake of Christ. Even our dearest relations must be loved for Christ’s sake.

Only our foolishness ever permits us to seek contentment in the creature.

When Christ died for us, our entire world changed. Rather than being desperate to find some happiness in this world – which is like trying to find water in the Sarah – we were granted true hope.   I can remember the day that one of my daughters first ate chocolate. After that taste, nothing else would be the same. How much more is such a thing true when we come to Christ!

We now know a thirst that can only be slaked by living water.

Our hope is God. Our good is God. Our joy is God. Our inheritance is God.

Thus, our greatest joy and hope is that our King be glorified.

You see, when Christ died and carried away our sin we were brought to a greater a hope and joy: the all sufficient most glorious God. We have come to see that our God possesses such power and beauty that it would be a crime for God to not glory in himself. When the Father looks upon the work of his Son, destroying the reign of sin and death, the Father delights in the Son. And it is the joy of the Father to glorify his Son. It is the joy of the Son to bring glory to his Father. It is the joy of the Spirit to convict us sin that we may come to see the glory of the Father in the Son.

When we were rescued from sin, we were rescued into this kingdom of joy.  “Not to us, O LORD, not us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and faithfulness!” Psalm 115:1.

That is where our suffering comes in.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9 (ESV)

You were saved so that you too could join in the eternal delight of God by proclaiming the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You and I are not the point of the universe.  You can understand nothing of true importance in this life, if you do not understand this.  You will never understand, faith, obedience, suffering; you will never know blessedness, nor know joy, worship or hope until you grasp this point: “God loves His glory more than He loves us and that this is the foundation of His love for us” (Piper, Brothers, We are not Professionals, 7).

The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And that is the chief end of God. You exist to share in the eternal delight of glorifying God. Look down at 1 Peter 2:12:

12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. 1 Peter 2:12 (ESV)

You proclaim the excellencies of God by keeping your conduct honorable among the Gentiles. And how do you do that? By patiently enduring suffering – even unjust suffering. To endure unjust suffering because you have hope of God’s rescue testifies of God’s goodness and glory.  Now, perhaps, the others may think you a fool and may think your suffering shame – but the day will come when you will be revealed to be a child of God and a joint heir with Christ. The time will come that Christ will come and then they will see your good deeds where done in the hope of God. Therefore, you may rejoice today knowing that you are bringing glory to God. Indeed, bringing glory to God is the only true means of joy in all of creation. Where you to search all heaven, all earth; where you to travel to edge of the universe, you could find no other true joy, no greater joy than the joy of glorifying God.

When the Lord had been arrested, Peter did not understand what was happening. It was only later that he finally realized the glory of God. Too often, we live like Peter before the resurrection. We deny Jesus, because the shame and pain of this world become too great.  We know it to be wrong, and so we run out and weep. Peter is writing to you and me to spare us the sorrow of hearing the cock crow.

Thus, now that Christ has risen and death has been defeated, we can look upon our sorrows and pangs, sad marriages or painful work, as moments to glorify God – and what could be a greater joy? Christ’s death did not merely transform death for us, it also transformed life:

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:56–58 (ESV)

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