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Earthy & Holy (Advent 2022)
Christ Church on December 11, 2022
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A Guilt-Free Feast

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INTRODUCTION

Earthly joys are like an elevator. They can only go so high. They are intended to leave us longing for the eternal joys found in the presence of the Most High, and the pleasures at His right hand. Sinful man keeps trying to make the trip to the top floor last just a bit longer, but he’s always disappointed when he must return to the lobby. Instead of being content with the fleetingness of the shadow-glories, he tries to live in the elevator. As a result, he has filled it full of his stench and filth.

THE TEXT

But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin (Romans 4:5–8).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

This text is full-proof Gospel. It is high-octane Gospel. It is 24-karat Gospel. Paul, using Abraham as the archetype of all the righteous, argues that faith is the means whereby the saints in all ages are reckoned as righteous. It is not the works of righteousness that justifies you (v5a), rather, by believing on Christ who justifies the ungodly you receive righteousness not your own (v5b).

Paul isn’t innovating some new-fangled doctrine. This doctrine is evident in the Old Testament in both Abraham’s example and in David’s Psalms. Paul summarizes the 32nd Psalm: David is describing the blessing of receiving imputed righteousness through no works of our own (v6). Paul quotes Psalm 32:1-2, which extols the blessedness of our sins being forgiven, our guilt being covered, and our ledger being purged by the graciousness of the Lord (vv7-8).

It is worth noting what else is contained in Psalm 32. When we try to hide our sin, the hand of the Lord is heavy upon us (Ps. 32:3-4). But when we confess our sin, and flee to Jehovah we find Him to be a shelter from the flood, and a symphony of redeeming love (Ps. 32:5-7). While the wicked are encompassed by sorrow (Ps. 32:10), those who trust in the Lord are marked by hearty rejoicing (Ps. 32:11). In other words, God clears the guilty by offering them the righteousness of Christ. Those who receive this righteousness by faith enjoy true blessedness.

THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S

Mankind has two ways in which he treats earthly joys. The first is by devouring them feverishly, as if eternal life is found in them. The other is the ascetic who tries to float two inches off the ground, lest he be soiled by the ickiness of matter. A mark of the moralist is trying to locate moral righteousness in our relation to the stuff of creation instead of in our relation to the Creator. Put differently, sinful man has discovered many clever ways to play a shell game with his guilt.
One of the primary places this tendency shows up is in regards to food. It’s not uncommon to speak of food in moralistic terms: good for you; junk food; guilty pleasure; clean eating; natural (as opposed to what? Unnatural?); those brownies are just sinful. It might be concluded that if you can have guilt-free Whipped-Cream, maybe you don’t need to confess that simmering malice towards your co-worker.
All of this is the nervous tic of a culture with a guilty conscience. The soul plagued by the guilt of unconfessed sin, and without the assurance of imputed righteousness, will endeavor to find righteousness somewhere. Our culture has refused to come to Christ, and are now endeavoring to find moral righteousness anywhere other than in Christ. Shampoo bottles labeled “no guilt”; clothing made of ethically sourced materials; the mob cajoling everyone to get on “the right side of history.”

All this sort of thing is an attempt to hide our sin from God and concoct a homemade brew of righteousness. If you eat the right sort of food, in the right amount, wearing the right clothing, from the right places, having washed with the right soaps, all while thinking all the right thoughts and embracing all the Correct Sentiments you imagine that your guilt is cleansed & righteousness is obtained.

But Scripture teaches us that it isn’t what goes into you that defiles you. Sin isn’t in the stuff. Sin isn’t a disease that needs to be eradicated. Sin is lawlessness (1 Jn. 3:4). Likewise, righteousness isn’t found in the right clothing, the right sentiments, the right voting record. Righteousness is found in Christ alone.

Understanding that the only ground to stand before God is to be given Another’s righteousness then enables you to say with the Psalmist, “The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein (Psa 24:1).” You no longer fret about what you eat or drink or wear or where you will go or for how long (Cf. Mt. 6:31-34), not because you’ve turned into an apathetic hippy. Rather, you walk in the knowledge that all these earthly joys are the sampler platter for the eternal joys, which those who are justified by faith in Christ will enjoy in eternity.

WITHOUT MALICE & BITTERNESS

We must reject both the asceticism & gluttony of the guilt-riddled world. God’s favor isn’t found by turning up a pietistic nose at the world’s pleasure. Nor is God’s wrath avoided by slurping up every last pleasure without a shred of gratitude. When we come to God, through Christ, we are assured that our sins are covered and the earth is ours.

Paul exhorts us to keep the feast, the Lord’s Supper, without malice or bitterness (1Co 5:8). This spiritual feast should imitated in our earthly feasting. At the Lord’s table, there isn’t a VIP section that gets special treatment. Your sins are forgiven. But this means that your spouse’s sins against you are forgiven too. The sister who you feel gets all the attention, the friend who is more popular, the family whose Christmas card arrives on December 1st with bright-white smiles staring back at you, if they are Christ’s, their sins are forgiven too.

Much of the time, when things go sideways at family gatherings, it’s due to all manner of rivalries, gripes, unconfessed sins, grievances, and contentions that are tangled up worse than the strands of Christmas lights. This isn’t how Christians should feast. Because of what we celebrate on this table, we can feast at our own tables in peace. Christ has covered your sin. God does not impute your sin to you. So stop bringing up that slight from 14 years ago, cover it.

THE BLESSING OF BEING GUILTLESS

While the world insists that blessedness is found in indulging all our carnal lusts, or in presenting the soiled garments of self-righteousness to God, you must rest in the knowledge that Scripture teaches that blessedness is found in being guiltless. This means, you need to stop looking at yourself. Stop licking your lips, craving only your self-gratification. Stop smugly relishing that sense of moral superiority because your cupboards have no trace of seed-oils.

A blessed life is a guilt-free life. How can you be held guiltless? By faith alone, in Christ alone. Not by self-indulgence or self-abnegation. Christ, the only guiltless-one, became guilty in your stead so that you could be righteous. Not only that, but because you are counted righteous and your guilt is forgiven, you can enjoy that extra slab of pecan pie without a moral crisis; you can retell the Pilgrim story without being plunged into a struggle session over white privilege.

All your guilt, both real & imagined is dealt with by the cross of the Lord Jesus. This doctrine doesn’t water down our enjoyment of earth’s joys. It thickens them up. The joys are fleeting. But your sins are forgiven. So pass around the gravy, sing a few loud psalms, toss the football, take a nap, and do it all to the glory of God.

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Completely Coated in Red Forgiveness (Easter A.D. 2022)

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INTRODUCTION

On this festal day, we remember, we commemorate, we celebrate the fact that Jesus Christ our Lord rose from the dead. Death no longer has dominion over Him, which means that He is entirely and utterly out of death’s reach. Not only so, but the same thing can be said of all who were—by faith—made partakers of His death. We have also be raised with Him.

This is the import of Easter. This is the meaning of Resurrection Sunday. Not only is it the first day of the week, but it is also the first day of the new creation.

THE TEXT

“But for us also, to whom [righteousness] shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (Romans 4:23–25).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Here is our context. The passage is talking about the faithful example of our father Abraham, who believe the Word that was spoken to him. He believed, and his faith was credited to him as righteousness. God had told him that he would be the father of many nations. God had told him that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Abraham heard that word, believed it, and his faith was the instrument that received the gift of imputed righteousness.

But God has spoken to more people than just Abraham. He has also spoken to his innumerable descendants. And what does he say to those descendants? What is the word that is spoken to us? The word is that Christ was delivered over to the agony of the cross for our offenses, and that He was raised from the dead for our justification, for our righteousness. This word is spoken by whom? According to our text, it is spoken by the one who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. This means that He is the one whom we must believe, and what must we believe?

We must believe the word that is spoken, which means that we must believe that Christ was delivered for our offenses. We must believe that Christ was raised for our justification.

The gospel is a high gospel, but it is only a high gospel because it is our gospel. And who is it that can speak that glorious word “our”?

RESURRECTION PREREQUISITES

How low can this word “our” reach? It can reach anywhere the noun it modifies can reach. Wherever offences occur, those offences can certainly be our offences. But what does that mean? It means that our justification can occur in those same places. Resurrection can happen anywhere death exists.

Would it make any sense to say that resurrections cannot happen in cemeteries? Think for a moment. That is the only place where resurrections can happen. Graveyards are God’s workbench. Death is His material of choice.

So can our gospel reach into dive bars? Strip clubs? Political rallies? Meth labs? Soup kitchens? Chess clubs? Civic associations? Anywhere death can go, life can erupt. Anything that death can drag down to the grave, everlasting life can reach down and pull back out again. Anything, and anyone. Our offenses. Our justification. Remember?

PARTAKERS OF ALL OF THIS

Christ did not come to earth and do what He did so that we would be impressed with the singular marvel of His conquest of death. It was a marvel, but it was not a singular marvel. Christ’s resurrection is the creation of the instrument of our deliverance from death. He is an Adam, remember.

What the first Adam did entailed all the rest of us. In a similar way, the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45) has done something that entails all who believe. The first Adam disobeyed at a tree, representing all of us. The last Adam obeyed on a tree, paying the penalty for all of us (2 Cor. 5:21).

This becomes ours as we are partakers with Him, and we are partakers with Him by faith alone. This is the Word—look at it. This is the Word—do you accept it? Do you trust the one who speaks it?

“Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).

It is not possible to partake partially. If you are joined with Christ at the beginning, at the place of the cross, then you are with Him all the way to glory, which is the predetermined end of it.

“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:11).

Death and resurrection. Rebellion and restoration. Diseased decay and newness of life.

ON THIS RESURRECTION SUNDAY

On this Resurrection Sunday, an entirely new thing appears in the world, a thing entirely unknown before. That new thing in the world is a righteous version of you. You did not know that it was even possible for there to be a righteous version of you. You think this because of your offenses.

So flip this around. Is it appropriate for the preacher to look straight at your dirty heart, and utter the phrase your offenses? Yes, yes. It is entirely fitting. Now if that is appropriate, and it is, then take the phrase and put it in first person. Say it this way: our offenses. Make it even more personal than that. My offenses. How many of my offenses? All of them. Myoffenses.

Do you have them all? Are they all gathered up? Do they all condemn you? Of course they all do. Just one of them would condemn you to Hell forever. Just one of them is sufficient fuel to burn everlastingly. So there you are, arms full of “my offenses.”

Now, dirty armful and all, look to the cross. A man died there, and He died for what? He died for our offenses. Do you see that? Do you believe it? Do not dare to disbelieve it. He died for our offenses. Repeat that after me. He died for our offenses. Having gotten thus far, here comes the glorious culmination of all God’s purposes. He was raised for our justification. And you are not permitted to say our offenses without also saying our justification. You cannot say my offenses without also saying my righteousness.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:1).

No condemnation. And there is no condemnation because Jesus rose, and you are eternally, everlastingly, ultimately, finally, and completely righteous. Do you believe these things? Of course you do.

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Divinely Justified Conquerors

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INTRODUCTION

The aim of this sermon is to remind you all that there is absolutely no one who can condemn you. And that message of “no condemnnation” has a purpose. The purpose is not merely to leave you feeling happy, though happy it should leave you. The purpose is to increase your joy and confidence so that you would be bolstered in your conquering.

THE TEXT

“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:31–39).

NO ONE TO CONDEMN

The passage tells us that there is no one to condemn us. But that does not mean that there is any shortage of those who will try to condemn us. And these attempts come in various forms and from many directions.

DO MORE THAN CONQUER

Being justified, we are then more than conquerors. We not only conquer. We do more than conquer. The conquering is extensive, which means that the things which need to be conquered are extensive.

IT IS CHRIST

Colossians 1:17 says that by Christ all things consist. Christ holds all things together. And your justification is one of those things that Christ holds together.

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Truly God & Truly Man (A Chalcedon Christmas #2)

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INTRODUCTION

As we reflect on the mystery of the Incarnation, we have to recognize that we are dealing with a staggering miracle. And the miraculous aspect of it has to do with what Chalcedon confesses of the one person, Jesus of Nazareth. He is one person, with two natures, and these natures are conjoined, but not jumbled or confused.

THE TEXT

“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:1–4).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

In this introduction to the epistle to the Romans, the apostle Paul mentions three things that are right at the heart of what we are going to be addressing today. The first is that he refers to one person, God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (v. 3). The second thing is that “according to the flesh,” He was a Davidson—descended from that great king of Israel (v. 3). And the third thing is that He was declared to be the Son of God through His resurrection (v. 4). This is when He was declared to be the Son of God, not when He became the Son of God.

CAREFUL DEFINITION

So here is the heart of the matter.

We “teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood.”

Here it is in a nutshell. What can be predicated of one nature can be predicated of the person. What can be predicated of the other nature can be predicated of the person. This is because those two natures are conjoined (this is the miracle) in what is called the hypostatic union. The word hypostasis simply means “person.” But what is predicated of one nature cannot be predicated of the other nature. We may not reason thus: “Jesus was six feet tall. Jesus is God. Deity is therefore six feet tall.” You might be tempted to think something like “of course not,” but neglect of this has gotten numerous people in trouble. Jesus is God. Mary is the mother of Jesus, and so Mary is the mother of God. No, she is the mother, according to the flesh, of the one who is God.

BUT WHY?

Whatever would possess us to paint ourselves into this glorious corner? Why do we talk this way? We do it because of our faith in Scripture. Scripture tells us things that we—if we believe the Scriptures—we must harmonize.

And the most obvious thing that strikes the reader of the four gospels is the fact that Jesus of Nazareth was a singular personality. In everything He does, we see a glorious consistency and unity. Whether we read the scriptural accounts as believers or unbelievers, the person of Christ strikes us as a unitary force to be reckoned with. We are dealing with Jesus of Nazareth, not Jekyll and Hyde, or someone with a schizophrenic multiple personality disorder. That would Legion, living in the tombs, and not the Lord, who was the most fully integrated person who ever lived. That was an aspect of His perfection.

But what happens when we look closely?

FULLY MAN

When we read carefully, we see the scriptural testimony that Christ participated in all the limitations of human nature. He experienced them. He knew what it was to be thirsty (John 19:28). He was tired enough to be able to sleep in a tempest (Matt. 8:24). He walked to get places (Mark 10:32). He needed to ask for information (Mark 5:31). He was no ghost—He could be heard, seen and touched (1 John 1:1). In short, He was manifestly a man. “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). The only part of our humanity that Jesus did not participate in was our sinning, and even that He took on Himself at the cross (2 Cor. 5:21).

FULLY GOD

Thomas addressed Him correctly. “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). Who was the Word that became flesh (John 1:14)? It was Jesus. And what is said of Him. He was with God in the beginning, and He was God in the beginning (John 1:1-2). He is the Creator (John 1:3), and God is the absolute Creator (Gen. 1:1). He is the one who made all the worlds (Heb. 1:2), and who sustains all things by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3). If it is created, then the Word created it (Col. 1:16-17).

The fundamental Christian confession is this—Jesus is Lord (Rom. 10:9). We must confess that He is Lord. But what kind of Lord are we talking about? Paul supports his claim by citing Joel 2:32, “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13). This is written in Greek, so the word for Lord is kurios. That could simply refer to a man. But the Hebrew passage he cites says that whoever calls on the name of Yahweh will be saved. The basic Christian confession is that Jesus is Jehovah.

THE PERSON AND WORK

The person and work of the Lord Jesus cannot be separated. We are not cleansed and forgiven because we admit that somebody died. No. We must look at this straight on. God took on human flesh in order to be able to die. He did this so that such a death would be followed by a resurrection, in which resurrection the identity of Christ would be proclaimed by God to the world (Rom. 1:4). And this is the meaning of Christmas. When Mary held the desire of nations in her arms, she was holding the body that would be broken and sacrificed for the life of the world (John 6:51). The Incarnation was the gift that made the great gift a possibility. And what will we do with this? How shall we respond?

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