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Brothers and Business Deals (Workbench of Practical Christianity)
Christ Church on September 3, 2023
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Honoring God in Personal Finances 
(Workbench of Practical Christianity)

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INTRODUCTION

Martin Luther once said that a man needs to be converted twice. The first conversion is that of his heart, and the second one is of his wallet. What we are going to be addressing here is the nature of that wallet conversion. How should we go about honoring God in our personal financial dealings?

THE TEXT

“And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south. And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold” (Genesis 13:1–2). 

“And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living” (Mark 12:42–44). 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Abraham was the friend of God (Jas. 2:23), and he is the father of all the faithful down through history (Gal. 3:29). He serves as our exemplar in faith (Heb. 11:8), and, as we see in our text, he was very, very rich (Gen. 13:1-2). Despite all of his wealth, he knew how to look for a deeper inheritance (Heb. 11:10), and he sets an example for us in this as well.

But we also have examples from the other end of the spectrum as well. The apostle Paul points out that the saints in Macedonia combined great affliction, deep poverty, and profound joy in order to achieve staggering generosity (2 Cor. 8:2). And in our text, the Lord Jesus sets before us the example of a nameless widow who, measured by the percentages, gave more than all the wealthy tithers. 

And so we see that money matters, and it matters a lot. But it is not a lot of money that matters, unless that is what you have on your mind. What matters is that God has a lot of your heart, as indicated by money. You are the one with the temperature. Money is just the thermometer. 

A NEW COVENANT TITHE

A common assumption that many Christians make is that the tithe was an Old Testament ceremonial thing, somehow fulfilled in Christ, and so our job is to give as “the Spirit moves,” meaning somewhere in the neighborhood of two percent. 

But there is a passage in the New Testament that opens up all the wonderful promises of the Old Testament for us. And here it is:

“Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:13–14). 

The passage in context is talking about how the ministry of the Christian church is to be funded. Paul brings up how the Old Testament Levites and priests were supported, which was by the tithe. He then says “even so, in the same way, likewise” the Lord has ordained the funding of New Testament ministry. The ministry in the Old Testament was funded by the tithe, and this is how the New Testament ministry should be funded—exactly the same way.

But this is not God running low on funds, and needing to put the squeeze on His people. 

“If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof” (Psalm 50:12).

No. Rather, this is an invitation from God to learn how He has determined to bless His people.  

“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10). 

THE MEANING OF TRIBUTE

Just as sabbath observance is a recognition that God is the Lord of time and history, so it is with the tithe. Observing one day out of seven is our recognition that all seven belong to Him. Giving a tithe your increase is a tangible way of acknowledging all your resources belong to Him, and that you are managing the remaining 90% as a responsible steward.

So you bring your tithes as the Lord’s financial training wheels for you, and this teaches you how to be responsible with your offerings (voluntary gifts) and with your management of the remaining resources that you retain. In all of this you should remember the exhortation of John Wesley: “Earn all you can. Save all you can. Give all you can.” 

WHAT THE PRIORITIES SHOULD LOOK LIKE

You honor God’s sovereign authority through the tithe. You demonstrate your love for Him through your offerings. You make sure that you fulfill your basic responsibilities by feeding your family (1 Tim. 5:8). You live out your love for others by lending a hand where needed (1 John 3:17). And all of this blends together in one harmonious picture that Paul describes for us.

“Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life” (1 Timothy 6:17–19). 

MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD

You have been redeemed from the slave market of sin. You have been forgiven for all your idolatries, and this includes the idolatry of wealth. Greed is idolatry (Col. 3:5). Covetousness is idolatry (Eph. 5:5). The pride of life is idolatry (1 John 2:16). This means that whatever precious things you may possess—whether in money, or heirlooms, or rare collectibles—you should first make sure that your faith is more precious to you than all of that. 

“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7).

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Hard Work & the Sabbath (Workbench of Practical Christianity)

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INTRODUCTION

Our elders recently decided that at the beginning of this academic year, we were going to have a three-week series of messages on practical Christian living, with different messages preached at King’s Cross, CCD, and here. These nine messages will then be bundled together for broader circulation. And so it is that we are taking a brief break from our series through Philippians. 

The topic of our message this morning is going to be “hard work and the sabbath.” Because we are living in the time of the new covenant, we will begin with the Lord’s Day—in the old covenant, it was six days of labor followed by a day of rest. In the new covenant, the day of rest is foundational—it is on the first day, and the six days of labor follow after, and are built on the foundation of gospel rest.

THE TEXT

“And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.” (Mark 2:27–28). 

“The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: But the slothful shall be under tribute.” (Proverbs 12:24). 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The perennial sabbath snare is that as soon as we learn that the Fourth Commandment remains binding, we gravitate immediate to a list of things we are not permitted to do. This was the case with the old sabbath, and it has been a recurring temptations for sabbatarians under the new covenant. This is why Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, was routinely accused of sabbath breaking. How did He manage that? He knew that the day of rest was a gift to men, and that men were not to be sacrificed on the altar of sabbath strictness. The text from Mark 2 is from a context where the Lord’s disciples had been picking grain on the sabbath. But rest is grace. Rest is a gift.

What kind of work needs to be built on the foundation of gospel rest? This work needs to have two characteristics. It needs to be industrious and diligent (as in our text), and it needs to be skillful and competent (see Prov. 22:29).

A BRIEF SABBATH PRIMER

The fourth commandment is not the only commandment of the Ten that has somehow been retired, or put out to pasture. But the fact that it is among the moral commands of the Decalogue does not mean that it cannot be amended as redemptive history progresses. We see this when at the first giving of the Law, the ground of sabbath observance was the fact that God had created the world in six days and had rested on the seventh (Ex. 20:11). But in Deuteronomy, the text of the fourth commandment is altered, and the ground of observance was now given as the Exodus (Dt. 5:15). 

In the new covenant, the ground of sabbath observance is altered again. The fact is that Christ entered His rest after the work of redemption was complete, in an analogous way to how God rested at the end of the creation week. He did this on the first day of the week, which is why we still have a sabbath, and it is why our sabbath is on the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day.

“There remaineth therefore a rest [a sabbath] to the people of God. For he [Christ] that is entered into his rest [in His resurrection], he also hath ceased from his own works [of redemption], as God did from his [works of creation]” (Hebrews 4:9–10). 

The Lord pointed to this new reality in numerous ways. In the old covenant, God had said numerous times that the seventh-day sabbath would last as long as the old creation did, which it did (Ex 31:16-17). But when God ushered in a new creation, what then? The sabbath was fulfilled and transformed. The Lord rose on the first day of the week (Matt. 28:1; John 20:1). He appeared to the disciples one week later (John 20:26). The Holy Spirit was poured out on Pentecost, fifty days later, also on a Sunday (Acts 2:1). The early Christians began gathering on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2). We have been honoring the Lord’s Day in this way ever since (Rev. 1:10). 

A WEEKLY CYCLE

We need to take note of what this does. Every Lord’ Day when we gather together, we are pouring a foundation. We want our worship to be Christ-glorifying, which is another way of saying that we want the foundation walls to be straight. When the foundation walls are straight, you are in a good position to have the (hard) work you do line up with that foundation. And what will that mean for your work?

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE

What does work with “straight lines” look like? It should be diligent, industrious. We are not just commanded to rest for one, but also to work for six (Ex. 20:9). It should be competent, skillful, intelligent (Prov. 22:29). Your work should be honest, not conniving or devious (Prov. 20:10). Your work should be imitative. You should not be too conceited to learn from others (Prov. 13:20). Your work should be creative. You must not be afraid to try something new (Eph. 2:10). 

A RITUAL OF REST

Christians ought to be the hardest working people around, but the work we do must not be tormented, or driven, or under the lash. Work is a true privilege, work is a grace. Work was granted to Adam before the Fall (Gen. 2:15), and was not the result of the Fall. Work became more onerous after the Fall (Gen 3:16-19), but that is quite different. The work itself is a grace. Christ came as the second Adam to begin the process of restoring Eden. That is the image we are given with Ezekiel’s Temple, and the New Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven. The work we now do we have been liberated and recreated to do.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8–10).

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The Duty of Ordered Love & the Sins of Identity Politics (State of the Church 2023)

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INTRODUCTION

As the Christian foundations of our society continue to crumble, animosity is the inevitable result, because in this New World that Christ rules, there is no other integration point, no other peace, no other fellowship. It is literally Christ or nothing. But this doesn’t stop rebellious men in their pride from forging false integration points, politically, culturally, or racially, but since they are all idolatrous rivals to Christ, they will only succeed in deforming men, inciting malice and envy (Ps. 115:8). Our presbytery recently adopted the following statements in order to address our current situation, proposing them to the full CREC to be adopted as memorials:

ON ETHNIC BALANCE

We believe the human tendency to congregate around shared affections is natural and can be good—it creates the blessing of cultures and subcultures, for example. But as with all natural goods in a fallen world, there is a temptation to exalt it to a position of unbiblical importance, thus making it an idol. While an ethnic heritage is something to be grateful for, and which may be preserved in any way consistent with the law of God, it is important to reject every form of identity politics, including kinism—whether malicious, vainglorious, or ideologically separatist/segregationist.

ON ANTI-SEMITISM

We believe the conversion of the Jews is key to the success of Christ’s Great Commission, and it is incumbent upon us to pray and labor toward that end. While, apart from Christ, the Jews are as all others––alienated from God—they have remained an object of God’s care because the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. God’s plan for converting them is for them to see Gentile nations under the blessings of Christ’s lordship, thus leading them to long for the same. Hence, the cancerous sin of anti-Semitism has no place in God’s plan.

THE TEXT

“And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mk. 12:29-31).

RIGHTLY ORDERED LOVES

Biblical love is treating others lawfully from the heart. And Augustine’s definition of virtue as “rightly ordered love” is inherent in being created, finite creatures. We cannot love everything and everyone infinitely; we must choose and calibrate our loves. Sin is disordered love: loving evil or else loving something good too much or too little. Our loves are ranked in the greatest commands: we must love God first, above all else, heart, mind, soul, and strength, and then we must love our neighbors as ourselves (Mk. 12:30-31, cf. Lev. 19:17-18, 33-34). Jesus is teaching this same ordering of loves when He insists that loyalty to Him and His people must rank over our own families and will sometimes even appear as a hatred of them or even your own life (Lk. 14:26, Mt. 12:48-50, Lk. 12:53).

But Jesus also affirmed the fifth commandment over certain church fundraising programs (Mk. 7:10-12), promised to abundantly restore families and lands to those loyal to Him (Mk. 10:29-30), and honored His own mother greatly (Jn. 19:26-27). Jesus was closer to some disciples than others: the 70 were closer than many, the 12 were closer still, but Peter, James, and John were His closest friends, while John was His best friend. A certain sentimentalism resents this as “not fair” or even “hateful,” but this is the way God made the world. This applies to friends (Prov. 27:6, 17), marriage (Mk. 10:9), and children (Is. 49:15, Mt. 23:37). Bitter and envious sentimentalism resents this and will eventually defend every form of treachery.

LEARNING TO LOVE RIGHTLY

Christ is the only true integration point of all things (Col. 1:20). But this reconciliation is not an obliteration of differences, loyalties, or loves. The fact that that there is neither male nor female in Christ Jesus does not abolish a husband’s duty to his wife; nor does his godly favoritism mean that he hates all other women. In fact, the Bible insists that we learn love from the lesser to the greater, from the closer to the further away, from the more concrete to the more abstract. The right kind of love of self teaches us to love our neighbors, beginning with those closest to us (Eph. 5:28), and ultimately teaches us to consider others better than ourselves (Phil. 2:3). David says that he learned to trust in God from his mother’s breast (Ps. 22:10). This covenant loyalty charges families to provide for their own before others, and so learn godliness and generosity there first (1 Tim. 5:4, 8), which, when done rightly, prepares justice, mercy, and hospitality for strangers and emergencies (cf. Lk. 10:25, Lev. 19:33-34). But it is not true love to give what you don’t have (2 Cor. 8:12), and where ordered covenant loves are despised, all talk of “love” is empty, aimless, selfish, and destructive. Just as you cannot really love God (whom you have not seen) if you do not love your neighbor (whom you have seen), neither can you love your neighbor whom you barely know if you do not love the neighbor who lives with you (1 Jn. 4:20).

PROVOKED TO JEALOUSY

The Bible teaches that envy is the satanic lust at the heart of much animosity (Js. 4:1-5), and vain glory and pride often feed and provoke this bitter envy (Js. 3:14-16, Gal. 5:26). But the more faithful God’s people are, the more provoked to envy their enemies will be (e.g. Gen. 26:14). However, there is also a godliness that provokes love and good works (Heb. 10:24, 2 Cor. 9:2). The Bible says that this is what God is doing with the Jews in particular, saving the Gentile nations first “to provoke them to jealousy” and “emulation” (Rom. 11:11, 14) “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (Rom. 11:25). As it relates to the gospel, the Jews are no different than any other nation, but as it relates to covenant history, the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable (Rom. 11:29). Paul says, “For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh… As concerning the gospel, they areenemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes” (Rom. 9:3, 11:28). Paul’s example teaches us to hate what God hates (all vain glory, malice, lies, theft, unbelief, etc.) and to order our covenant loves faithfully (family, church, nation, etc.).

CONCLUSION

The vision in Revelation is of a great multitude that no one can number from every nation, tribe, people, language, standing before the throne worshipping the Lamb (Rev. 7:9-10) and the kings of the nations bringing the glory and honor of the nations into the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:24-26). This vision is of a glory that is both one and many, with unity and diversity.

No scheme of man can ever conjure this, and so we reject all identity politics: socialism, social engineering, racial vain glory, and all ethnic animosity. The gospel restores families and nations without putting them in a humanistic blender or coercing a false unity through superficial diversity (guilt manipulation, quotas, etc.). True virtue is a rightly ordered love, beginning with your own people, gathered around shared loves, with worship of the Lamb at the center.

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Man, Woman, and Sexuality

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INTRODUCTION

So we have reached a point in our society where people can no longer deny that religion influences our culture, customs, institutions and the like. People’s eyes are starting to open given the wild changes we’re experiencing. The 2015 Supreme Court Decision Obergefell v. Hodges claimed that a man has the constitutional right to marry another man. Transgenderism is being normalized to the degree that Boston Children’s Hospital now has a Gender Multispecialty Service that provides affirmative care to gender diverse and transgender individu- als. And these services are provided for children as young as 3 years old.
Our culture is increasingly confused about fundamental principles: What is a man? What is a woman? What is marriage? And this confusion is the result of God handing us over to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. God’s Word sheds light on these matters. And through his Word, God graciously restores man so that he can know both himself and his Creator.

THE TEXT

“And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, ‘Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?’ tempting him. And he answered and said unto them, ‘What did Moses command you?’ And they said, ‘Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. And Jesus answered and said unto them, ‘For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female . . . ‘” (Mark 10:2-9)

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The Pharisees attempt to trap Jesus with a question about divorce (v. 2). Notice this is a temptation of Christ, not a genuine question about particular grounds for divorce. That being the case, biblical grounds for divorce (and there are such grounds) don’t come up in this exchange. Jesus replies to the Pharisees by asking them about the law of Moses (v. 3). They read Moses to say that a man can put his wife away through divorce papers (v. 4). But Jesus explains that Moses took that measure because of their hard hearts (v. 5). From the beginning of creation, God made male and female (v. 6). And this is the very reason a man leaves his parents and holds fast to his wife (v. 7). This cleaving is such that the two are no longer two, but one flesh (v. 8). And man must not tear this one for God is the one who joined the two into one (v. 9).

A GRENADE AMONG THE UGLY ISMS

This passage is truly a death blow to many of the vain ideologies that beset us. If we take the sword of the Spirit seriously in these nine verses, then transgenderism, nihilism, paganism, and secular humanism are slain. We see the rise of these empty philosophies around us in the dissolution of marriage and the defaming of the image of God. And the text at hand speaks directly to that image and the divine institution of marriage.

GOD MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE

Verse 6 states plainly that God made them male and female. We hear this same truth in Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 5:2. It is clear that God likes to create in binaries. He made sun and moon, heaven and earth, sea and land, peanut butter and jelly. We are not surprised to see him make male and female. And we are not surprised that they go together so well. This is his craftsmanship and it is glorious.

Genesis tells us that God made man and woman in his image. Here is the fundamental answer to the question. What is man? The image of God. What is woman? The image of God. But Scripture tells us more. 1 Corin- thians 11:7 says that man is the glory of God and woman is the glory of man. There are those who would look down upon this verse, believing it to in some way degrade the female. But what is degrading about being the glory of the glory of God? Who thinks being the crown of the crown is a slight?

THEY TWAIN NO MORE TWAIN

God made them different so that they might pair so well. And here is why androgyny is not only boring but the pits. It attempts to erase the two rather than join the two. Marriage is glorious for its leave and cleave. There is action there. There is something captivating. There is a miracle, a work of God. If you get rid of the distinction, then you get rid of the unity. And if you get rid of the distinction and the unity, then you get rid of the fruit.

This one flesh union in marriage and its fruit obliterates nihilism with its meaninglessness and despair. The first woman came from man. And man has been coming from woman ever since. Along these lines, Paul says, “For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God” (1 Corinthians 11:12). In other words, all of this leaving, cleaving, and procreating is a big neon sign pointing you to your Creator. How could you despair in ear shot of the babies cooing? The kiddos giggling? And in the case of our covenant children, God stills the enemy and the avenger with the noises coming out of the mouths of those babes (Psalm 8:2).

WHAT GOD HATH JOINED TOGETHER

And this leads to another point. Jesus does not only say that the two become one, but God joins the two to- gether (v. 9). It follows that there is no room for paganism. That is, there is no room for thinking that creature alone did this. Creature did not make them male and female in the beginning. And creature did not keep mak- ing them male and female down through the centuries.

Look at a man. Look at a woman. God’s fingerprints are all over them. Then, look upon man and woman joined in marriage. And remember as you do that this is the very picture Obergefell attempted to defame. Neverthe- less, look at that marriage. And here again, you see God’s handiwork.

LET NOT MAN SEPARATE

Jesus provides an imperative that you might think should already be clear. That imperative is, “Let not man separate what God has joined together.” And we can hear the rage of the kings in the background, “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us” (Psalm 2:3). The kings of the earth from Psalm 2 do not like the bonds that have come down upon them from the Creator. Those given to homosexual lust and acts are in the same situation. They do not like God’s order and design. They do not like two becoming one. In this sense those given to transgender confusion are the same. They too reject the design of the Creator. And according to our Lord’s words, those who would divorce without cause, while not stumbling to the same degree, are stumbling in the same direction, tearing apart what God himself has fashioned.

The good news is, amid all of our futile attempts to stamp out the image of God, amid our attempts to tear apart what he has fashioned, the Father sent his Son, a Son of Man, a Second Adam. Through his blood, man is reconciled to his Creator and the image of God in man is restored.

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