Category: From Your Pastor

From Your Pastor: What is Adoption? (A Study of the Westminster Shorter Catechism)

Question 34: What is adoption?

Answer: Adoption is an act of God’s free grace,(1) whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God.(2) (1)1 John 3:1 (2)John 1:12; Rom. 8:17
Scripture Memory: “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
(Rom. 8:15)

An Explanation: God legally declares believers righteous before Him in justification, but also (very importantly!) legally adopts us into His family, giving us His name, granting us privileges of being His children, and granting us a rich and eternal inheritance in Him, and with Him. We could imagine a judge that would pardon our crimes or sins against the law, but would not necessarily embrace us and receive us into his family. God has pardoned our sins, and received us as sons!!

At the Biggs’ home, we think of the distinction between the legal work that had to be accomplished to adopt our dear daughters from China and Ethiopia, and the actual “Gotcha Day” when we received them as our own daughters, and they officially and legally had a right to all the privileges of being in our family (humble as that may be!). While both justification and adoption are legal acts, justification emphasizes the work that had to be legally accomplished by Christ to achieve adoption; adoption emphasizes “Gotcha Day” with our Great God and Savior! At our home, we’re prone to say when reciting this catechism question: “Adoption is an act of God’s free “Gotcha” grace” (but you don’t have to say it this way!).

Our adoption is because of the Father’s love from before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4-6); it is because of the Son’s redemptive work in willingly coming as our big brother to redeem us and to obtain for us the Spirit of Sonship (Gal. 4:4-7), and it is the Spirit’s work to seal and further reveal this reality to our hearts (Rom. 8:15-16, 26; cf. Eph. 3:16-19). Our adoption changes our relationship to God so that He is no longer merely our Creator, and because of the fall, He is no longer our Judge, but He is now our Heavenly Father, and we cry out: “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15). In Christ, believers are now the very heirs of God, and like Jesus Christ, the Father’s dearly and beloved children. “What manner of love has God the Father bestowed upon us that we are called the children of God, and that is what we are!” (1 Jo. 3:1-2). We now have a big brother, the Lord Jesus, who gave Himself for our redemption so that we could take on a family resemblance (Heb. 2:11-18). What joy should characterize us as God’s children, because one day we will be like Him fully (1 Jo. 3:2-3; Rom. 8:23).

Note that in the Westminster Shorter Catechism adoption like justification is described as an “act of God’s free grace” impressing upon us that it is once and for all, whereas sanctification is a “work of God’s free grace” that continues throughout the Christian life. We should never separate justification and sanctification, though we should make the proper distinctions between the “act” and “work” of God’s free grace (act is final, work is continuing). The same is true with adoption. In light of our adoption, though we formerly walked as those who loved the world, with the desires of the flesh, the eyes, and the pride of life (1 Jo. 2:15-17), we no longer love the world in this way because the world is passing away and we desire to do the will of our Heavenly Father (1 Jo. 2:17). In fact, because of God’s once for all “act” and as a privilege of being children of God, we as heirs with Christ and now begin to take upon a family resemblance, knowing that one day we shall be fully like Him as part of God’s ongoing “work” of sanctification in believers (1 Jo. 3:2-3; Phil. 1:6; cf. Titus 2:11-14).

As adopted sons in Christ we know that we possess the encouraging word of our Heavenly Father through our labors: “Well down my good and faithful servant” (cf. Heb. 6:10-12). We know that we have in our union with Christ the Father’s blessed affirmation saying: “This is my Beloved…with whom I am well pleased.” This should change how we view ourselves, and make us as believers—and children of God—to want to live faithfully pleasing God as our kind king and father (2 Cor. 5:9). We are part of a new family in Christ and as the Lord Jesus taught, we are to love one another as Christ has loved us (John 15:9-16). In fact, as the Father has loved Christ, so Christ has loved His own in this same way and this is the motivation for doing His commandments with eager joy (John 15:12ff). Love will characterize the children of God as we love one another (1 Jo. 4:7-21). We love because He first loved us (1 Jo. 4:19). Let us rejoice, and live as God’s beloved children!

A Prayer: “Abba, Father” I am grateful to pray with my elder brother, the Lord Jesus, “Our Father in Heaven”. Thank you for your grace and rich mercies in adopting me as your own. You have received me in Christ, and this is my great joy and hope!

In Christ’s Love,
Pastor Biggs

From Your Pastor: Christ’s Voice in Preaching

Preaching is Christ’s voice speaking with power in the church and to the world in salvation or judgment.

As God’s people, we should understand that preaching is a continuation of Christ’s prophetic ministry to the Church. Christ still speaks. On the Day of Pentecost, the exalted, ascended Christ sent forth His Spirit to empower His beloved people to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8). Preaching was one important result of this Holy Spiritual outpouring. We see Peter in Acts 2 “lifted up his voice” (Acts 2:14; cf. Isa. 42:2) to authoritatively declare the truths of God in submission to His word. To lift up one’s voice as a preacher (or prophet as in the Old Testament, cf. Isaiah 40:8-11) is to authoritatively, yet submissively declare the mind of God in Christ by the Spirit. As we see in the sermons recorded for us in Acts chapters 2 and 7 and 13, all are focused on declaring authoritatively, yet submissively the mind of God in Christ by the Spirit, particularly God’s faithfulness in keeping His promises through the Gospel of Christ (see particularly Acts 2:32-36, 13:23, 25, 38-39). In faithful preaching, where the preacher is authoritatively, yet submissively declaring God’s truth through His, we hear God’s very voice. As our forefather, John Calvin, taught in his ‘Sermons on Deuteronomy’: “Where preaching is, there God’s voice rings in our ears.”

Preaching is Christ continuing to be with His Church by His Spirit, to guide the Church, to feed His sheep through the means of men as they declare His word faithfully (Christ says to His preachers: “I am with you always, even until the end of the age…” -Matt. 28:18-20). Christ is pleased not to speak directly from heaven to His people, but to use sinful, yet sanctified men as His means of making His truth known. Christ is pleased to use weak men to glorify His strength (1 Cor. 1:23-24, 2:1-5; 3:7; 4:7; 2 Cor. 2:16). Christ is pleased to use men who are insufficient yet qualified and called to the task (cf. Act 13:1-4; 1 Tim. 3:1ff). Preaching is incarnational, in that it continues Christ’s powerful ministry of the Word, and extends His kingdom through weak men, weak vessels, extending a hand of grace and comfort to His people through the preacher.

Although Christ is pleased to use weak, sinful, insufficient, yet sanctified and qualified men to preach, the authority and efficacy of preaching is with Christ alone. The men that Christ calls to preach and fills with His Spirit are those who are submissive to God’s Word and faithfully declare God’s Word to God’s people. In other words, preachers are Christ’s called, ordained, and sent ambassadors declaring faithfully the mind of Christ the King to the church and to the world as it is revealed in the Word of God (“Preach the Word!” 2 Tim. 4:1, not merely a preachers own ideas, or his pet theological topics, nor his own opinions). Faithful preaching through ambassadors is declaring the Gospel story of redemption to the church and to the world all for the glory of God, imploring sinful men to be reconciled to God in Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17-21)! In Acts 2 and 7 and 13 with the sermons of Peter, Stephen, and Paul, we see them as preachers wholly submitted to Holy Scripture as Christ’s ambassadors, faithfully telling God’s good story of redemption in Christ. Their preaching has Christ and His crucifixion as the central focus of their messages (cf. 1 Cor. 2:1-5). Let us rejoice that God has provided faithful ambassadors in preaching! As the people of God we can rejoice that God is not silent, but ever present to teach, guide, encourage, comfort, and edify His people through preaching (cf. Isa. 40:1ff; Eph. 4:11-16). Preaching reveals God as the God of all mercies and comfort because we are reminded of His gracious voice to us in Christ. Christ’s sheep hear His voice, and they learn to listen, learn, and follow as his sheep-like disciples (John 10:14-16, 27). Jesus says: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). What should God’s people remember to bring to the preaching event or sermon so that they can better hear and follow? Not only God’s Word to follow along with the preacher, but also a prepared heart, and an expectant faith that Christ will speak to them.

But you may ask, “How is preaching Christ’s voice speaking with power”? The Bible teaches us that although Christ is exalted at God’s right hand, ruling and reigning in a glorified body, He nevertheless is pleased to be with His chosen instruments by His Spirit as a means to speak to His Church. Although Christ is in heaven as Advocate, ever-interceding for His people (Rom. 8:34), he nevertheless is present, truly and really, yet spiritually in preaching to the faith of God’s people. Similar to the Lord’s Supper where Christ is truly and really, yet spiritually present (not corporally present for He is embodied in heaven as glorified King of kings), so he is present in this same way in preaching. As Calvin wrote in his ‘Commentary on Acts’: “The Lord gave the Holy Spirit [on Pentecost] once to His disciples in visible shape, that we may be assured that the Church will never lack His invisible and hidden grace [my emphasis].”

This is another important way of saying that Christ is pleased to use the means of men as preachers to be present with His Church and to make His very voice heard. In Romans 10:13-17, the Apostle Paul is speaking of the importance of faith in hearing God’s Word. He writes: “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). Before this verse, the apostle very clearly declares that Christ is present to the faith of all who hear faithful preachers and will save them: “For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom. 10:13). He says in Romans 10:14: “But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” In Romans 10:14b, the Apostle Paul is translated in many Bible translations as saying: “How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard” stressing merely Christ as the subject of preaching, and this is true to a certain extent; Christ is the subject of good and faithful preaching! But what Paul is more particularly saying here is captured more faithfully in the marginal reading of the ESV. In the original language, Paul is not merely speaking of Christ as the subject (“in him of whom”, but Christ as the actual speaker. The correct translation of this should be: “And how are they to believe Him whom they have never heard” (Rom. 10:14b). That is, in the preaching event or sermon, when the ambassador of God is submitted to Christ and His Word, the very voice of Jesus Christ is heard. We are to believe Him and hear Him!

Furthermore, Christ promises that the Gentiles will hear His voice through the ministry of the apostles in John 10:16ff, emphasizing that it is Christ’s voice that is heard truly and really, yet spiritually through preaching: “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice” (cf. Acts 13:47-48). Also, in the sermon to the Hebrews, the preacher says that Christ is speaking in and through preaching, he writes: “See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven” (Heb. 12:25). Christ literally speaks from heaven and warns from heaven through the preaching event or sermon, and this brings either salvation or judgment. John Calvin, in his “Commentary on Isaiah” wrote: “When the ministers faithfully declare the words of Christ, their mouth is His mouth and their lips are His lips [my emphasis].”

What makes these weak men who serve as preachers powerful in preaching? Are they not just weak men? What brings the power and effective or transformative change? Christ, by His Spirit. When the Word is preached, the Spirit is faithful to use these means of bringing about God’s purposes (cf. Isa. 55:10-11; Acts 13:48-49), whether these purposes are salvation or judgment. The Spirit and the Word, though they are distinct, must never be separated from one another. When the Word of God is faithfully preached in Christ’s name, God’s people can be confident that what they are hearing is Christ’s very powerful voice! While the men as preachers are instrumental means of grace, the effectual means of grace comes from the Spirit of God alone. This means that while Christ is pleased to use men as means, nevertheless, it is His Spirit alone that brings the powerful work of salvation or judgment when the word is rightfully and faithfully preached.

Like bread and wine that Christ is pleased to use as instruments or means of His holy presence to the faith of God’s people in the Lord’s Supper, so He is pleased to be with the lips of His preachers as instruments and means, and their words in the preaching event or sermon (like the bread and wine) should be received by faith. There is no automatic working in the Lord’s Supper nor the preaching ministry of the Word. Both require that we receive Christ’s appointed means by faith. The preaching event or sermon requires that we come by faith to receive from the very mouth of Christ with our minds and hearts. God’s people can be confident that what the preacher says, while it may not immediately appear to them to be applicable sometimes, or particularly relevant to them in their estimation at the moment, it is very applicable and relevant, because Christ has chosen to teach them this in His good timing, on this occasion and at this location by His good and kind providence. God’s people should never go forth from a sermon immediately judging the results according to their limited (and often wrong!) estimation, but rather, by God’s Spirit to humble themselves before God, and prayerfully ask: “What are you teaching me, kind king?!” “Help me to hear this, to believe it, to meditate upon it, to live it out!” Help me to apply this,” etc, should be our immediate prayers after the preaching event or sermon. We should be on our knees as we approach the sermon, praying during this honored and privileged time with Christ, and then on our knees as we leave the sermon!

Preaching is using a double-edged sword (Heb. 4:12), and that double edge reminds us of both God’s salvation and His judgment that comes through the faithful preaching event. Preaching by the power of the Spirit brings forth both salvation for those who receive the truth as from Christ’s own mouth, and judgment for those who would reject it, because they are rejecting Christ Himself (see Acts 7:51-54; 13:42-52 for both salvation for believers and judgment for those who reject it who are described as those who “judge themselves unworthy of eternal life”, 13:46). Preaching is a fulfillment of Christ’s promise in John 16 that when His Spirit comes He will guide the Church into all truth (John 16:13-14), and that He will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:7-8). Jesus is faithful through preaching to lead His people into all the truth, sanctifying them by that same truth (cf. John 17:17). He is also faithful to declare to the world by His Spirit through preaching the reality of their sins, the righteousness of God that is required of every creature to enter heaven (and how it is found in Christ alone!), and to prepare all flesh for the Judgment Day. As we learn in Acts 17:31:

“…[God] has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man [the Lord Jesus] whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

When the Bible is faithfully preached, Christ truly speaks from God’s right hand through the preacher, and brings either salvation or judgment. As Christ will one day formally separate the sheep from the goats as he teaches in Matthew 25:31-45, with every preaching event or sermon, there is a “sneak preview” of this last day separation that is being made, whether one receives Christ showing oneself to be one of his sheep (because they hear His voice!), or whether it is rejection showing oneself to be an unbelieving “goat” (at least at this point in their life). Whether Christ is pleased to bring salvation or judgment, we should understand that the preaching event is always successful in bringing about God’s purposes (even though the preachers are often weak in different ways, the results are always powerful!). God’s word says:

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (ESV Isaiah 55:10-11, my emphasis).
Understanding that preaching is Christ’s very voice speaking with power to the church and the world for salvation or judgment might change the way we pray for Christ’s preachers (1 Thess. 1:5; Eph. 6:18-20), and it might cause us to attend worship with more joyful willingness and a heightened expectation of God’s special presence in Christ, particularly in the preaching event! Let us pray earnestly that Christ would be pleased to both save and sanctify His church through preaching. Let us pray with great passion and ardor that Christ would be magnified and glorified in His enthronement as King through preaching (cf. Heb. 5:12).

Beloved in Christ at KCPC, let us pray that we would attend every preaching event or sermon with great confidence, NOT in Christ’s preacher, but in Christ Himself as He is pleased to speak through Him. Let our faith not rest on men’s wisdom in preaching, but in the power of God. Let us be reminded of what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5:

“…And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:4-5).

Where is your faith? In men, or in the power of God? Let us pray that each preaching event or sermon, we would hear Christ well, and that we would see a demonstration of the Spirit and of power!
Understanding this could make the Church more attentive in listening and seeking to “hear” God as Christ speaks through the Ministry of the Word each Lord’s Day! We should be reminded that hearing is not merely hearing audibly with the ears. Many folks can hear audibly the preaching, but not profit from it at all! Profitable, true, and spiritual hearing is learning to be a “doer of the word” by God’s grace and power (cf. James 1:22). In fact, we were “created in Christ Jesus to do good works” and show forth the likeness of Jesus in conformity to Him by the power of God’s transformative Spirit! (Eph. 2:10; cf. Eph. 1:4-5; Rom. 8:29; Titus 2:11-14). As Hebrews 2:1, 3a teaches us:

“Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it…How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”

As the Parable of the Sower reminds us (Mark 4), there are four types of soils, or hearts, or ways of receiving Christ’s voice. Although the actual growth and increase of the Word by the Spirit in men is a mystery (Mark 4:27), nevertheless, we are to come with prayerfully prepared and expectant hearts to receive from the very mouth of Christ! May we have a flourishing and fruitful increase of growth in holiness, humility, and honesty as a congregation of Christ because we hear and obey the very words of Christ that come forth from His preachers! Amen.

Preaching is Christ’s voice speaking with power in the church and to the world in salvation or judgment.

In Christ’s love,
Pastor Biggs

From Your Pastor: Richard Sibbes: “Preaching as the Wooing of the Spirit”

For Puritan divine Richard Sibbes (1577-1635, also known as the “Sweet Dropper” for His soul-ravishing Gospel preaching), the work of preaching was a very important and primary aspect of Christ’s ministry to his church. Preaching was a wooing of Christ the Bridegroom to His Bride through the preached word in the power of the Holy Spirit. God uses the word and Spirit together to reveal the beauty and glory of Christ. Although the word and the Spirit must be distinct from one another, they must never be separated. The Spirit works primarily through the word to convict, convert, and sanctify sinners. God has promised to always achieve what He purposes through the word by the Spirit, whether that is blessing or judgment (Isa. 55:7ff; cf. Heb. 4:12-13). The word is the Spirit’s instrument, but the power of the word is always because of the Spirit. Preaching is an event of the Spirit of Christ as He works through His Word.

Believers should “entertain the Spirit” as he works through the word in preaching. Entertaining the Spirit was to gladly welcome Him without hindrance, to hear and receive from Jesus Christ. Believers must come to the preaching event of the ministry of the word and the Spirit with a prayerfully prepared faith. Believers come prayerfully prepared to expectantly receive from God. Richard Sibbes taught that if believers will have the power and comfort of the Holy Spirit, then they must “attend upon the Word”. Godly preaching of the Word of God in the empowerment of the Holy Spirit was the primary means of the Spirit’s activity. Sibbes taught that ministers are Christ’s mouth. Christ speaks through the ministers, and “they use all kind of means that Christ may be entertained into their hearts.” The Spirit of God gives life, and is the “soul of the word” that Christ uses to knock at the doors of men’s hearts (cf. Rev. 3:20). Christ comes into the heart by the Spirit and “it is a special entertainment that he looks for” from his people so that their love and joy may grow, and the believer delight more deeply in Christ.

Sibbes encourages believers to “labor to hold Christ, to entertain him.” He encouraged believers to give the Spirit full reign over them. He wrote: “Let us desire that he would rule in our wills and affections”. Jesus comes to the hearts of believers to spread his treasures in preaching, to “enrich the heart with all grace and strength, to bear all afflictions, to encounter all dangers, to bring peace of consciences, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Sibbes likens the Word and the Spirit to veins and arteries in the body. The veins have arteries, that as the veins carry the blood, the arteries carry the spirits to quicken the blood. Sibbes wrote: “It is a blessed thing when the Spirit in the ordinances (word and sacrament) and the Spirit in our hearts meet together.”

In preaching, the hearts of sinners must be addressed by the power of the Spirit through the Word of God. In fact, faith was a response first of the affections to receive a gracious Savior, and then a motivation to move one’s will toward obedience. For Sibbes, one had to be smitten with Christ’s love for one to properly obey and will what is good (cf. 2 Cor. 5:14-15). For faith to be real in a sinner’s soul, the sinner had to be regenerated and resurrected by a powerful working of God’s Spirit through the Word. The will could not choose or follow Christ where the affections did not lead first. The heart of man had to be made new by God’s grace, and therefore the preacher was to practice wooing the sinner’s heart to God in Christ, showing His love and willingness to forgive sinners to come to Him. To put it in a different way, faith for Sibbes, was not a mere human act-of-the-will but a response to God’s divine wooing” by the Spirit to Christ.

Sibbes referred to faithful gospel preachers as “friends of the Bridegroom” and described their primary calling as a heavenly endeavor and vocation committed “to bringing Christ and his Spouse together”. Sibbes wrote that it is not sufficient to merely preach theological truths about the Person and Work of Jesus Christ, but that to truly preach is to “break open the box [of perfumed ointment] that the fragrance may be perceived by all,” and to make known these truths with an application of them to the use of God’s people, that they may see their interest or need of them in their daily lives. For Sibbes’ the primary goal of the preacher was to allure the sinner to the kindness of God in Christ. As he summarized it in his introduction to his devotional classic A Bruised Reed, “The main scope of [preaching], is, to allure us to the entertainment of Christ’s mild, safe, wise, victorious government (“rule”), and to leave men naked of all pretenses as to why they would not have Christ rule over them, when we see salvation not only strongly wrought, but sweetly dispensed in Him… (my emphasis).”

Sibbes encouraged believers in the covenant, privileged to be exposed to the ministry of the Word, to hear the ministerial voice as the very voice of Christ through his word. “Let us think that God speaks to us in the ministry, that Christ comes to woo us, and win us thereby.” Sibbes wrote that one of the main ends of the calling of the ministry is “to lay open and unfold the unsearchable riches of Christ; to dig up the mine, thereby to draw the affections of those that belong to God to Christ.” Sibbes taught that preachers should preach “as if Christ Himself were here a-preaching”. Sibbes taught that the Minister of the Word in the pulpit and the Spirit of God in the heart together bring the soul to faith in Christ and the pursuit of holiness.

Preaching was also designed by God to capture the imaginations of God’s people. The imagination must be awakened by the Spirit of God through the ministry of the preacher if the understanding is to be properly engaged. Sibbes described preaching colorfully as “The putting of lively colors upon common truths”. The preacher was to seek by the help of the Holy Spirit to bring alive to men’s imaginations the beauties of God’s grace and truth in Christ. Imaginations were to be captured and captivated by God to move the soul’s affections to love God and draw near to Him in Christ. Sibbes wrote: “Now, the reason why imagination works so upon the soul is, because it stirs up the affections answerable to the good or ill which it apprehends…” Sibbes taught that a preacher should through the working of the Spirit, grant hearers a “gospel imagination”: A sanctified “fancy” or imagination will make every created thing or person a ladder up to heaven to gaze at the grace and glory of God in Christ (2 Cor. 3:18).

Sibbes wrote: “…Our best way (to fill our imaginations with truth) is to propound true objects of the mind to work upon [or “to meditate upon”], as:
1. First and foremost to consider the greatness and goodness of Almighty God and his love to us in Christ.
2. To meditate upon the joys of heaven and the torments of hell.
3. To reflect upon the last and strict day of account when we shall stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ as stewards.
4. To see by God’s grace, the vanity of all earthly things.
5. To constantly remind ourselves of the uncertainty and brevity of our lives, etc.

From the meditation on these truths the soul will be prepared to have right conceits of things [proper priorities], and discourse upon true grounds of them, and think with itself that if these things be so indeed, then I must frame my life suitable to these principles. Hence will arise true affections in the soul, true fear of God, true love and desire after the best things, etc. The way to expel wind out of our bodies is to take some wholesome nourishment, and the way to expel windy fancies from the soul is to feed upon serious truths.”

Pray for your pastor of your local congregation that as Minister of the Word He will woo the Bride of Jesus to the Heavenly Bridegroom. Pray for yourself and your congregation that you will attend the preaching with great expectation, ready to entertain the Holy Spirit without hindrance in your hearing and obedience, and to receive the faithful ministry of the Word as the very mouth of your Beloved Jesus. Amen and amen.

In Christ’s love,

Pastor Biggs

From Your Pastor: A Wedding Feast

What a glorious privilege we have as a congregation to take part in a wedding this weekend! Let us rejoice in our Heavenly Bridegroom, and let us serve with joy in this special time for Josiah and Jennifer. As we serve, let us have the proper focus on Christ, and let us meditate upon His glory and grace to us. As we do this together, we can be confident that the wedding service and all of the festivities will bring glory to HIM alone!

What a wonderful gift that God has given us in Scripture to have eyes to see our God even as we walk by faith in this present age. In the Book of Revelation we have an entire book inspired to lift up the eyes of our faith both forward to the full realization of all of God’s promises in Christ, and upward and heavenward to help us to mediate upon the things above (Col. 3:1-4). In Revelation 19, we are shown that God in His might and power has judged evil, and completely rid the world of sin and misery, to set the stage for the big wedding day of His Beloved Son.

We feel the earth shake and we see smoke rising up, and we join with the saints and angels in heaven, singing in response to this sure and inevitable judgment on sin:

“Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for His judgments are true and just…” (Rev. 19:1b-2a).

God is to be praised by His people for the salvation by grace in Christ that we have received even while dead in trespasses and sins, even while we were His enemies (Eph. 2:1-10; Rom. 5:6ff). God is to be praised because all glory and power belong to God. We want to live our lives in Christ aspiring and determined by His grace to give God all the glory, and to recognize that all power comes from God (Rom. 11:33-36). We can be sure that God will remove all sin and unrepentant sinners who contaminate his good creation, and avenge the blood of all of his servants (19:2c).

We see a worship service in heaven, and we are invited as God’s people to rejoice and worship God with all the perfected saints and angels:

“Praise our God, all you His servants, you who fear him, small and great” (19:5).

In Christ, believers are His servants, desiring to live for Him; believers are those who fear God rather than man, who have a great reverence and love for God no matter what position you may hold socially or politically in this present age. God is “our God”: our covenantal and faithful God who has redeemed our lives, and is renewing us into His image, so that we can live the joyful, God-centered lives we were created for!

Then we hear wedding bells amidst the roar of many waters and the sound of mighty peals of thunder (19:6)! Behold! Here is the greatest and most gracious demonstration of God’s glory and power in the exaltation of Jesus Christ, His Beloved Son. Look at the consummation of all of history: the Marriage of the Lamb!

“Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, for His Bride has made herself ready…” (19:7).

What is our final destiny as God’s people? Though often we are weary and perplexed as we travel the difficult pilgrimage in this present age, although there be temptations, frustrations, heartaches, disappointments, deaths, scoffings, beatings, even tortures, the blessed hope and eschatological relief is in sight as we walk by faith (Rom. 8:18-25). Though there seem to be painful deaths we all experience daily (1 Cor. 15:31; 2 Cor. 5:14-15), there is the glorious life fully realized in Christ that is our ultimate hope and destiny.

We should anticipate eagerly this glorious wedding day! Christ our Savior, and Bridegroom, has loved us and given Himself for us (Gal. 2:20). Christ has prepared us for this day by giving us His perfect righteousness. He has been condemned in our place for our sins (2 Cor. 5:21). He has also given us a portion of His Spirit as His Bride now to show forth the beauty of His holiness through our service to Him (19:8; cf. Eph. 2:10; Phil. 1:6). His work in us will soon be complete, and we will reflect the glory of our Bridegroom perfectly as His Beloved Bride! The Bible teaches us that when we see Jesus face to face we shall be like Him (1 John 3:1-3).

Let us mediate upon this glorious wedding day to come. Because He has given Himself for us, let us live for Him as His Betrothed, singularly devoted to Him alone. What hope we have to live in the presence of God for all eternity! Use this image graciously given to us in Revelation to focus our faith forward and to lift our eyes upward as we realize more and more today that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen (Heb. 11:1).

As a congregation, let us be thankful for the wedding weekend that our congregation is privileged to participate in! Let us pray that Christ will be glorified in the wedding service, as we serve our dearly Beloved, and let us pray that Josiah and Jennifer will be greatly blessed as they serve together as newlyweds!

 

In Christ’s love,

Pastor Biggs

 

From Your Pastor: Justification by Faith Alone (A Study of the Westminster Shorter Catechism)

Question 33: What is justification?

Answer: Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, (1) and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, (2) only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, (3) and received by faith alone. (4) (1)Rom. 3:24,25; Rom. 4:6-8 (2)2 Cor. 5:19,21 (3)Rom. 5:17-19 (4)Gal. 2:16; Phil. 3:9

 

Scripture Memory: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (ESV 2 Corinthians 5:21).

 

An Explanation: God is holy. Man is sinful. God’s perfect righteousness demands of mankind perpetual, personal, and perfect righteousness in order to be saved and dwell in His most glorious presence. How can there be any hope then? All sinners know how to say: “Nobody’s perfect!” How then can a sinful man or woman, who has continually offended God in word, thought and deed (Rom. 3:9-22), ever hope to dwell in God’s presence with joy?! (cf. Psa. 16:9-11). How can a sinful man or woman be made right before a holy and perfectly righteous God?!

The wonderful news of God’s justifying the sinner is that the holy and just God that requires and demands perpetual, personal, and perfect righteousness in order to be saved and to dwell in His presence is also the one who provides this perpetual, personal, and perfect righteousness for all who believe in the active and passive obedience of Christ Jesus. Christ has graciously obeyed perpetually, personally, and perfectly on our behalf (His active obedience that is imputed to us as our own righteousness, Matt. 5:17; Rom. 8:2-4; John 17:4) and Christ has laid down His life as a propitiation for our sins becoming a curse for us under the wrath of God (His passive obedience that satisfies the justice of God for our sins, Rom. 3:25-26; Gal. 3:13). God is perfectly just in upholding His perfect righteousness revealed in the holy and good requirements of His Law, but He is also the justifier of all who believe in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:24-25).

It should be understood that justification is the opposite of condemnation (cf. Rom. 8:1, 33-34). It is God “for us” in the most glorious way! (Rom. 8:31). To be justified by God through the perfect righteousness found in Christ is to no longer be condemned, but freed from the guilt of breaking God’s Law as sinners (Acts 13:38-39; cf. Gal. 2:4; 5:1, 13; 2 Cor. 3:17). In the act of justification, God legally declares believers as righteous in Christ, imputing our sins to Christ, and imputing Christ’s righteousness to believers by faith alone apart from works (Rom. 4:5, 8, 11-12, 16). Our faith that receives this gift of grace is also a gift from God (Eph. 2:6-9). Faith is never a work, only an instrument given by God that receives all the righteousness and perfection one needs in Christ.

Now there is no condemnation for us in Christ Jesus! (Rom. 8:1). We are declared righteous by Christ’s blood (Rom. 3:24-26). Our consciences no longer condemn us (1 Jo. 3:20). We are reconciled to God, and we have peace in our union with Jesus (Rom. 5:1). We have confidence for the day of judgement because of God’s love for us in Christ (1 Jo. 4:17-18).

What a benefit to know that God has legally declared you righteous in Christ—there is no condemnation, no judgment awaiting you! We will face the Judgment Seat of Christ clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ, and though our every word, thought and action has been tainted with sin, the Lamb without blemish has loved us and given Himself for us! (Gal. 2:20; 2 Cor. 5:14-15). We are spotless in Him! We can rejoice with the Psalmist: “…Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin” (Psalm 32:2).

Further, our justification by faith alone in Christ alone because of grace alone also begins God’s work of sanctification in believers whereby He renews us in His image (Eph. 4:19-24; Col. 3:10; also see Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q&A 35). Though our sanctification can never precede our once-and-for-all justification, our sanctification must follow if we are truly justified. Justification and sanctification, though they must be distinguished from one another (one is an act of God, one is a work of God, cf. WSC, Q&A 33, 35; WCF, chaps. 11, 13), they must never be separated from one another (see Romans 8:29-30). In Christ, we have all of our righteousness, sanctification and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30).

 

A Prayer: Holy and Just and Gracious Father full of steadfast love and mercy for sinners in Christ, thank you for declaring me righteous because of the beautiful and glorious righteousness of Jesus Christ! Thank you that in Him I find all the righteousness that I need to live before you, to dwell in your presence, and to thrive in joy in this life and in the life to come. How eager I am to dwell with you in glory because of the grace that I have received in Christ here and now in my union with Christ! Amen and amen.

 

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Biggs

 

From Your Pastor: Our Identity at KCPC in the Christ of Hebrews

Identity. How do we define ourselves (to others, or in our own minds)?  How do we think of ourselves before God and other men?  Our identity is most important to us all.  And we define our identity in different ways.

 

We are fans of certain ball teams (this can be our identity, e.g. Redskins, Phillies, Falcons, Red Sox, Yankees, Terps, and Jets).  We are from certain places on this great terrestrial ball, or are part of a specific heritage of people (Asian, African, Anglo, American, etc- -this can be our identity).  We make a certain amount of money (“My salary is above $25,000 or above $75,000 or above half a million dollars, etc- -this can be our identity).

 

We hold certain positions (plumbers, bankers, treasurers, professional athletes, pastors, home school moms, students, president of a certain company- -this can be our identity).  We have a certain name and family (this can be our identity).

 

We are also defined by our confessional and denominational distinctions (you are an Orthodox Presbyterian and confessional congregation in Christ’s Church).  These are all ways we define ourselves- -these are ways we can think of our identity.

 

But what should be our most important identity or way of understanding ourselves as a congregation in Christ’s Church?  We should be reminded of our ultimate identity as a covenantal corporate people in Christ.

 

What should our identity be ultimately? We are those who are united to Jesus Christ by faith. We are those who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus. We are those who have been loved by God from before the foundation of the world. But you will be tempted to find your individual as well as corporate identity in something or someone other than Christ.

 

Thus the reason for this reminder: to teach us by God’s grace who we are by using someone else’s sermon.  Now you might complain that I am borrowing from someone else’s sermon.  Don’t be concerned- -I didn’t download this one from online; I am using an inspired sermon, or word of exhortation, or the letter to the Hebrews to encourage you tonight. I’m using the inspired sermon found in the Book of Hebrews.

 

The Christians that the sermon to the Hebrews addresses were also seeking to know their identity as they were a congregation in transition. These Christians were seeking to understand and to realize who they were in Christ especially in light of the accomplished and perfect work of Jesus Christ for them.

 

One reason the author of the Hebrews writes to the saints in his letter is to teach them how with the coming of Jesus Christ, everything changes- -especially one’s identity.  Especially during times of trouble and suffering you will especially need to remember your corporate identity as those in Christ Jesus.

 

Although we as members of Christ’s Church are distinct and diverse on the outside (an observation by someone looking in), we are all one in union with Jesus Christ and this primary identity should serve to unify us.  As the congregation of the Hebrews, we too will experience suffering, persecution and pain as a congregation and we must learn to stand firm, knowing our identity in Jesus as His Church.

 

What should be KCPC’s focus and self-aware identity as a congregation of Christ?

 

There is so much to say from the Book of Hebrews, but let’s focus on 10 short points (that sounds like a good number- -now some might get mad at me and say there are literally 1000s of points that could be made- -and you are right, but we will focus on 10).

 

  • You are those redeemed and ruled by Jesus who sits at God’s right hand. You are those who have been redeemed by Jesus Christ (with his own precious blood).  Jesus Christ is the one who has spoken in finality to His Church and given us the Holy Scriptures.

 

Jesus Christ is the Son of God who created the world and upholds the world by the word of His power and is the exact imprint of God’s nature.  Jesus is the same in essence with the Father, equal in power and glory.  And you Ketoctin Covenant have been redeemed by the blood of this one who died, rose again by the power of God, and sat down at God’s right hand.  That is who you are- -that is your identity.

 

ESV Hebrews 1:1-4: Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

 

  • You are those who are called as a people to watch and listen. You are those who must pay attention to the final Word of the Son found in the Holy Scriptures.  As your pastor and elders make known the Word of Christ to you, in reliance upon God’s grace, you are to believe and obey this word.  Do not neglect the power of this Word and how by God’s grace you will continue to be conformed to the likeness of Jesus.

 

ESV Hebrews 2:1-3a: Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

 

We are all daily tempted to believe a lie- -to drift- -to be deceived- -but because Christ has spoken finally to His Church in His Word, we are to pay close attention and believe what we hear- -you are never to neglect such a great salvation revealed in Jesus! That is who you are- -that is your identity.

 

  • You are those who have had the power of death and the devil destroyed for you by Jesus Christ. You are those whom Jesus Christ has come to deliver, who was like you in every way as a human, but also unlike you in that he was God in the flesh.  Because of this, you are more than overcomers! You can live a life in Christ that is pleasing to God- -you can produce fruit that will last for the Kingdom.

 

You are those who have a faithful high priest who serves at God’s right hand to ever intercede for you and who has made once for all propitiation for the sins of those who believe.  You can have a sure knowledge that when you are tempted to sin, Christ Jesus is faithful to help you.

 

ESV Hebrews 2:14-18: Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

 

That is who you are- -that is your identity.

 

  • You are God’s House. KCPC, you are part of God’s redemptive-historical construction project.  You are a holy temple where God’s Spirit dwells and the Son rules over as you are more and more built up by the Lord Jesus Christ who died for you.

 

The Almighty God dwells in you and therefore you, in reliance upon God’s grace, must strive for holiness and for purity as a congregation in obedience to God’s Word, because you are a holy place where the living God has made his home.

 

ESV Hebrews 3:5-6: Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

 

Because you are God’s house, part of His New Temple construction project, you are not complete yet, but you can be confident that God who began a good work in your will complete it, fully conforming you to Jesus Christ.  Do not lose this corporate identity as a church in a time of great individualism- -do not seek merely your individual good, but seek the good of Christ’s Church and help build his Kingdom here together by being faithful together to the gospel.

 

That is who you are- -that is your identity.

 

  • You are those who must encourage each other. You are called to exhort one another daily, knowing that you all will face temptations to unbelief even leading some to fall away from the living God (revealing that they never had their trust and faith and hope in Jesus Christ).  Those who are united to Jesus Christ by faith must seek to be faithful by God’s grace and to avoid being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

 

ESV Hebrews 3:12-14: Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

 

Be on your guard against an evil, unbelieving heart; be on your guard of being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.  Rather, as a family, as God’s own house, seek to exhort each other according to the word each and every day.

 

God uses our instructions, our encouragements to one another, our urgings, our admonitions as means by which he helps us to hold to our confidence in Christ firm to the end.  Be an encourager- -grateful for God’s grace, confident in God’s mercy- -avoid being self-centered and focused only on yourself.

 

That is who you are- -that is your identity.

 

  • You are those who have yet to enter into God’s rest. Although you are in Christ and in him you experience peace and rest partially from your labors even now, you have yet to enter the glorious Promised Land of the New Heavens and the New Earth.  You must understand the “already-not yet-ness” of your identity here.  You have been united to Jesus Christ but you must suffer as in the wilderness until you reach your final destination.  This present age of wilderness-like living can be full of persecution for your faith, temptation, and suffering of various kinds.

 

This ultimate destination must be reached by God’s grace as you corporately as a congregation, seek to enter the rest when Jesus returns.  Seek to take part in the means of grace, these are also the primary means by which God will get you there safely: Word, Sacrament and Prayer.  What you experience each Lord’s Day when you are called together to worship is a foretaste of the glorious future of which you are already a part because of Jesus Christ’s love for you.

 

ESV Hebrews 4:9-12: So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 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.

 

That is who you are- -that is your identity.

 

  • You are those who have a High Priest to represent you before the throne of God. Jesus, the Son of God is a High Priest similar to Aaron and the Levites, but much different (these were mere men, who were sinful and although they were called to be representatives for a season in God’s Household, they were limited in that they were sinners, and they died).

 

Jesus the High Priest is called by God to be an Eternal High Priest, who was tempted in every way as we are, but without sin.  KCPC, Jesus is the one who lives to represent you before God.  Jesus Christ is the one who can help you when you are tempted. He lives to pray for you!

 

KCPC, Jesus Christ is eternal and cannot die.  There will never be a time when you do not have a faithful representative and High Priest before God’s throne (you will never witness a “changing of the guards” as at Windsor Palace), for a permanent and eternal High Priest has taken the position.  It is there with Jesus that you will find and receive mercy and grace to help you.

 

ESV Hebrews 4:14-16: Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

 

Jesus as your High Priest implies a lot of things, but you should be reminded that there is always mercy (hesed, or covenant faithfulness) with God to be found in Christ.  This means that you are all sinners.  As sinners, you will sin against God and one another. But what will make the difference is for you to always remember mercy and grace- -particularly the mercy and grace that has been shown to you in Jesus.  Show this same mercy and grace to each other that your High Priest shows to you!

 

That is who you are- -that is your identity.

 

  • You are those who are privileged to be part of a better covenant (better than the old covenant saints were under). You are recipients of the New Covenant revelation of Jesus’ cross, resurrection and ascension-enthronement to God’s right hand- -and so you should inform your identity daily with this great reality.

 

All of the gallons and gallons of blood that was shed and spilled under the Old Covenant administration (in the sacrifices before God), these could never permanently take away your sins.

 

Only the blood of Jesus could take away your sins.  Jesus’ blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel, because his blood is a final shedding of blood that is substitutionary and can truly cleanse and purify your consciences.  Jesus offered himself once and for all for sinners—Jesus offered himself for those who believe at KCPC!

 

Hebrews 9:26b-28: But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

 

ESV Hebrews 10:4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

 

ESV Hebrews 10:14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

 

ESV Hebrews 10:19 Therefore, brothers,1 since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

 

Have confidence to come boldly into God’s presence with your worship and thanksgiving- -continue to hold fast your confession knowing that you have received forgiveness and cleansing by Jesus’ precious blood.  Stir one another up to love and good works as you bask in the grace that Jesus has shown to you- -encourage one another this way- -and seek to be present as much as possible at every worship and fellowship.

 

Don’t slip into thinking that you are not a vital and needed part of the congregation just because you do not preach or teach God’s Word- -the Bible teaches that we can’t get there without you- -avoid individualism in your identity!

 

That is who you are- -that is your identity.

 

  • You are those who are to live by faith until the full revelation of God’s Kingdom when Jesus Christ the glorious Son returns. As part of the Household of God, and as a member of God’s special redemptive household, you are to live by faith in God’s promises that has been given in Christ Jesus.

 

You are to keep your eyes on Jesus, the one who has already finished the course ahead of you, and has promised that he would also help you to persevere and overcome till the end.  No matter how difficult circumstances may seem in your life- -no matter how dire the times seem to be- -God is sovereign and you can have faith in God, an assurance of his goodness, a conviction of things not seen!

 

ESV Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

 

ESV Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

 

Like Abraham and the other Old Covenant saints, you are looking for an eternal city, an inheritance not found in this world of sin and misery that is passing away, but you are looking for a New Heavens and New Earth.

 

ESV Hebrews 11:13-16: These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

 

ESV Hebrews 12:1-4: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

 

That is who you are- -that is your identity.

 

  • You are to live and worship as those who will receive a Kingdom that cannot be shaken. When you worship, let your corporate and covenantal identity be that you, Ketoctin Covenant, are worshipping a God who still speaks to you through His Word, and calls you not to Mt. Sinai, but to the Heavenly Jerusalem.

 

Remember that when you are called to worship by your pastors and elders not to forsake the gathering together as you are called to hear Jesus Christ speak to you and who serves as your Mediator in worship.  Remember that when you come to worship, you are not a passive spectator, but an active participant in a foretaste of heavenly worship.

 

ESV Hebrews 12:18-29: For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. 20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly1 of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. 25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken- that is, things that have been made- in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

 

Ketoctin Covenant Presbyterian Church (KCPC): Your identity is in Jesus Christ and you are to mediate upon this daily as God’s people.  Finally, you are to remember to show brotherly love and hospitality to one another, and seek to help the poor, the oppressed, and the imprisoned (Heb. 13:1-3).

 

Remember your leaders and consider the outcome of their life and imitate their faith (13:7).  Obey your leaders that God has given to you and submit to them humbly as they teach the Word of God to you.  Remember that they are watching over your souls as those who must give an account (13:17).

 

You might not like this at times, but your identity is not individualistic, but part of a corporate body of believers who are shepherded by those God has called to teach you, to exhort you, to rebuke and admonish you with love.

 

Remember that obeying your leaders joyfully will bring great advantages to you as a Christian (13:17b).  Remember that as citizen of heaven, the very Eternal Kingdom of God that cannot be shaken, you seek a city that is to come!

 

ESV Hebrews 13:14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.

 

Finally, remember that you are those who are heirs to the covenant promises of God found in and realized in Jesus Christ.  In reliance upon God’s grace, this is your ultimately identity in Christ- -you will be tempted to replace it, forget it, exchange it, supplement it, etc- –but do not!  Your hope and identity is found in Jesus Christ!

 

That is who you are- -that is your identity.

 

So, I leave you with this great benediction:

 

ESV Hebrews 13:20-21: Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us1 that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

 

In Christ’s love,

 

Pastor Charles

From Your Pastor: Our Adoption in Christ

 

What wondrous grace that the Father has lavished on believers that we should be called the children of God and that is what we are! (1 Jo. 3:1). The Apostle John makes clear that it is an “out of this world” truth that sinners are not only righteous by God through a legal declaration of righteousness before God’s throne, but we are also legally adopted into the family as God’s children. Our adoption changes our relationship to God so that He is no longer merely our Creator, and because of the fall, He is no longer our Judge, but He is now our Heavenly Father, and we cry out: “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15).

The Father has wondrously elected believers to be in union with Christ and to receive His adoption as sons, as heirs of His many and unfathomable blessings in the Heavenly Places (Eph. 1:3-4; cf. Gal. 4:6). In the fullness of the times, Christ came to redeem us under the condemnation of the law so that we might receive the adoption as sons (Gal. 4:6; Rom. 8:15). Christ, our elder brother was sanctified, and sanctifies us so that we can be sons of God who take upon ourselves a family resemblance (Heb. 2:9-11). God is now our Father, and now we are no longer citizens merely of this world, but we await the full realization of the Heavenly world to come (Rom. 8:17-25; cf. Phil 3:20-21).

In light of our adoption, though we formerly walked as those who loved the world, with the desires of the flesh, the eyes, and the pride of life (1 Jo. 2:15-17), we no longer love the world in this way because the world is passing away and we desire to do the will of our Heavenly Father (1 Jo. 2:17). In fact, because we are heirs with Christ and take upon ourselves a family resemblance, knowing that one day we shall like Him, we also purify ourselves as He is pure from worldly and sinful influences in our lives (1 Jo. 3:2-3; cf. Titus 2:11-14). We know as adopted children that the Spirit has sealed us unto the Day of Redemption (Eph. 1:13; 4:30; 2 Cor. 1:22), and we also have the Holy Spirit who testifies and witnesses with our spirits that we are sons of God (Rom. 8:15, 25-26). This is the glorious Spirit who even intercedes for us to help us in our prayers and our relationship with God! Though we have these glorious blessings now, we suffer in Christ, and we await the full realization and revelation of our adoption as sons that is the resurrection and glorification of our bodies (Rom. 8:17-25). This is the hope we do not see, but we wait for it patiently, and so our future is glorious and brings great joy and peace to us now.

As adopted sons in Christ we know that we possess the encouraging word of our Heavenly Father through our labors: “Well down my good and faithful servant” (cf. Heb. 6:10-12). We know that we have in our union with Christ the Father’s blessed affirmation saying: “This is my Beloved…with whom I am well pleased.” This should change how we view ourselves, and make us as believers—and children of God—to want to live faithfully pleasing God as our kind king and father (2 Cor. 5:9). We are part of a new family in Christ and as the Lord Jesus taught, we are to love one another as Christ has loved us (John 15:9-16). In fact, as the Father has loved Christ, so Christ has loved His own in this same way and this is the motivation for doing His commandments with eager joy (John 15:12ff). The Apostle John writes in 1 John 3-4 that one cannot hate his brother and be a true Christian. In fact, we cannot say we love God whom we haven’t seen if we don’t love our brother who we do see (1 Jo. 3:11-18). And so, in our new family, adopted as children of God, we are to “not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 Jo. 3:18). Love will characterize the children of God as we love one another (1 Jo. 4:7-21). We love because He first loved us (1 Jo. 4:19). Let us rejoice, and live as God’s beloved children!

 

In Christ’s love,

Pastor Biggs

 

From Your Pastor: Sons of Encouragement

Dear Beloved of Jesus at KCPC,

The Apostle Paul teaches the church: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1), and “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us” (Phil. 3:17; cf. Heb. 12:2).

Our gracious God gives us those in the church to imitate; to aspire by the work of the Spirit to their level of Christ -likeness. Barnabas was one of these examples as we learned through the ministry of the word last Lord’s Day. Some sermons spiritually “stay” with me more than others. Last Lord’s Day’s sermon was one that the Spirit continues to apply in my life and has “staying power” with me. God is good!

Barnabas was a sinner being conformed by Christ’s Spirit who had made some progress in holiness. He was an encourager, a good man, full of faith, Spirit-filled preacher and teacher, and a devoted servant of Jesus in His church.

The church knew him as a great encouragement  (“son of encouragement”, Acts 4:36). How do folks in congregation recognize you? What is your reputation in larger church and community? This has been my meditation before God’s face the last two days.

In Barnabas, the people of God recognized his wise mediation, his deep desire to see sinners and brethren reconciled to God and each other, and his faithful commitment to being a peacemaker. The church recognized his generosity, his trustworthiness, his skill at diplomacy, his bold courage in the face of dangers, and he was beloved by many (Acts 4:36-37; 9:26-30; 12:24-13:5; 14:22-23; 15:2-3, 25-26).

In Acts, Barnabas is described by his actions not his words, inviting us to look to Him as one to imitate. Luke focuses on Barnabas’ character shaped by grace more than on his gifts (1 Cor. 13:1-3; Matt. 7:21-22; cf. Acts 10:38ff).

Jesus, our dear Savior, is our “son of encouragement” who promises us, too, that as we abide in Him, doing His commandments, loving one another, we can also bear much fruit and be like Barnabas–like Christ! (John 15:1-14).

Let us pray for one another this week that we all would be described like Barnabas as a “good man full of the Holy Spirit and faith” (Acts 11:22-24). Let us repent of our sluggishness and slothfulness at times in seeking sanctification (cf. Heb. 12:14; 6:11-12; Rom. 12:11-12; Phil. 3:12-15), and turn to Christ, to reflect more of His grace, truth and love (2 Cor. 3:18). He is FULL of grace! (John 1:14-18).

Pray for your pastor that I would be the best example I can be to Christ’s flock, especially as I learn this week at seminary in Grand Rapids. Pray that my life would be worthy of imitation as husband, father, preacher, pastor, son, and friend. I want this very much. Also, pray for your elders who are called to be living examples of Christ to the flock (1 Peter 5:3). Forgive me when I fail. Christ is enough for all of us! 🙂

Let’s pray for one another in this way! (1 Thess. 5:11).

“And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb. 6:11-12).

In Christ’s love,

Pastor Biggs  (in training to be a Barnabas)

From Your Pastor: To Live Is Christ

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” –ESV Philippians 1:21

As Christians we must learn not merely to live for Christ, but to realize that Christ is our life.

If we have Christ, we have everything we need and we can lose nothing. Even death will be our gain, not a loss. Having the mindset “Christ is my life” will help us to make progress in our faith and grow in our joy.

 “TO LIVE IS CHRIST…” (v. 21a) – Means simply living seeking Jesus with all your heart because Jesus has sought and saved you! Christ has given Hife in exchange for yours. You are no longer your own. You are His.

Don’t merely live for Christ, but realize that Christ is your life.

In this passage, the Apostle Paul is imprisoned, in chains for Christ and His Kingdom. Yet He can also rejoice because for him “to live—Christ” (v. 21).

For Paul, to live is Christ.

Paul has nothing to lose- -HE HAS EVERYTHING IN JESUS. Not even death can move him. In fact, to die is gain!

Whatever place the Apostle Paul found himself, wherever he is, it is for Jesus; it is with Jesus; it is in Jesus!

Nothing to lose and everything to gain! (v. 21) – -REJOICE!!

Paul lives his life in a moment-by-moment “win-win” situation; there are not good times and bad times- -every moment is a good moment where Christ can enter in by virtue of Paul’s real and Holy-Spiritual union with Him and be transformed- -made more like him- -and to become more and more fruitful as he progresses in his faith.

For the Apostle Paul, “to live is Christ” is THEOLOGICAL and very PRACTICAL.

THEOLOGICALLY Paul is in union with Jesus Christ.

Union with Christ:

Paul is: “Buried with Christ” (Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:12); “United with Christ” (Rom. 6:5); “Crucified with Christ” (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20); Alive with Christ” (Rom. 6:7); “Heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17); “Suffers with Christ” (Rom. 8:17); “Glorified with Christ” (Rom. 8:17); “Have the same form as Christ- -be like him” (Rom. 8:29; Phil. 3:21); “Be conformed with Christ” in every way: life, death, and resurrection (Phil. 3:10ff).

Because of God’s grace and mercy toward sinners in Jesus Christ, we have been united to Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection; Jesus is our life! (Col. 3:1-4). So, because He is our life, we are to seek the things that are above in Him because our lives have been hid with God in Jesus!

“The central soteriological reality is union with the exalted Christ by Spirit-created faith. That is the nub, the essence, of the way or order of salvation for Paul.” -Richard B. Gaffin, By Faith, Not By Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation

PRACTICALLY (theology lived out), Paul knows that Christ is the most important person, thing, possession and reality in his life. Period. All of Paul’s “meaning of life” or what it means to live for Paul is about Christ.

Paul cannot fathom a life that is truly a life being without Jesus Christ.

 

CHRIST IS HIS LIFE.

Paul’s mind, affections, and will are filled and directed by Christ; Jesus defines Paul.

 

How about you? What or who defines you?

What brings you the greatest joy? Honestly.

What is your heart’s greatest longing?

What’s most important to you? Right now.

What is your most important goal?

What could you never live without?

What fills your daydreams and captures your imagination?

What possesses you? (We often says what “possesses that person to do that?!”)

What is your most valuable asset? What is most precious and “worthy” to you?

Does Jesus bring you the greatest joy? When you say the name JESUS does your heart beat harder within you? Do you sense his presence and think of His goodness towards you?

Can you say with the Psalmist:

ESV Psalm 16:2 I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”

ESV Psalm 73:25-26: Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Do you believe this?

Is this obvious in your life that you believe this? How about to your family? Can your friends and neighbors see that what brings you the greatest joy is to live- -CHRIST!? As the great Robert Murray M’Cheyne encouraged Christians to live unto Jesus:

“Let your soul be filled with a heart-ravishing sense of the sweetness and excellency of Christ and all that is in Him. Let the Holy Spirit fill every chamber of your heart; and so there will be no room for folly, or the world, or Satan, or the flesh.” – Robert Murray M’Cheyne.

 

Christ Jesus is the chief end of our lives. We are to glorify and enjoy God forever. We can only do this when we live by faith with Christ Jesus as the chief end, aim, and/or hope of our lives.

Whatever your confession, what you live for is what  you most “glory in” or “value” as being best– -what is most worthy of your time, money, and investment of energy.

What you value most is what you long for- -you hope for- -what your affections are set on and what you dream about.

Some live for self. “To live is Me”

Some live for pleasure. “To live is joy, happiness, peace and escape.”

Some live for money. “To live is possessing more so that I am secure.”

Some live for family. “To live is my family.”

Some live for career. “To live my career; what I do most defines me.”

Some live for ministry or for religion. “To live is my performance for God, my reputations of what I am doing in my service.”

What do you ultimately prize?

Could what is most important to you ever be taken away?

Where is your hope?

What do you spend most of your time pursuing?

What do you spend your quite moments daydreaming about?

What do you long for?

Where do you “put” your money?

What you value most will be what you glory in, ‘LIVE FOR’, and from that (or those things) you will derive your joy, hope, peace, happiness, etc.

But if what you live for is not Christ, it will never fully satisfy, and you will constantly be threatened that you will lose it.

How do you know if you are functionally living for something or someone other than Christ?

You lose your joy when it is threatened, or you lose it momentarily or permanently.

 

For Paul, and for all believers, if Christ our life, our all, then we have nothing EVER to worry about losing! That which is most worthy, glorious and valuable to us is JESUS and we cannot lose Him.

And whatever loss we are going through, whatever affliction, whatever the trying circumstance, with Jesus, in union with Jesus, we can rejoice even more knowing this truth- -HE IS WITH US- -AND WHILE OTHERS LOSE EVERYTHING, WE CAN ONLY GAIN MORE OF HIM ‘IN IT’!!

No true joy is possible UNLESS JESUS CHRIST is everything (as the hymn we sing reminds us):

“When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride…

…Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God: all the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood…

…Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”

Jesus Christ must be our life! Jesus must be dearer to us than our richest gain; Jesus Christ must be more dear to us than our jobs, our careers, our families, friends, reputations, finances, homes…

If we have this, we can lose NO thing- -nothing.

If we have Jesus as our life, we can lose nothing; if we have not Jesus as our life we will lose everything.

This will bring us true joy. But we must understand that joy is not happiness, it is a much richer and deeper soul-satisfying gladness that comes from our union with Jesus Christ!

Joy is a God-given grace in response to our need for communion and fellowship with him; it is NOT mere happiness that changes with circumstances.

Joy cannot be bought; it can never be taken away.

Joy is found in the Person of Jesus Christ; Joy in many ways is a Person.

Joy is found in seeking Christ—knowing Christ. My prayer for our congregation here at KCPC is often from Ephesians 3:19:

“…And to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

 

“TO LIVE IS CHRIST”

This is to say: CHRIST IS THE CHIEF END OF OUR LIVES.

 

To say this is to say:

“Christ is my hope.”

Christ is my greatest treasure and pleasure.”

Christ is my greatest friend.”

Christ is my end, my goal.

Christ Jesus is the one thing, the one person I can never lose; Christ is my richest gain- -and I can never lose him. He is with me always…I will never leave you nor forsake you!

 

This is what is meant by TO LIVE IS CHRIST.

 Let CHRIST be THE CHIEF END OF YOUR LIFE.

If you’re a believer, the Lord is your portion; he is your possession; he is all you need and will ever need and you have him now.

Let us rejoice! There is JOY in Christ!

“Can you be sad when you have all possible treasures in Christ laid up in heavenly places for ever and ever? O vain man! Show me your faith by your joy. If you say you have faith and live a life of sadness, I will not believe you. Use your faith and increase your joy.” – Samuel Ward

Here is the believers’ hope- -let us all confess this to one another as often as we have the opportunity!

ESV Psalm 16:11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

In God’s presence there is fullness of joy!

At God’s right hand is the Glorified, Enthroned Savior and Lord of All! There in Him, we will find all the pleasures we have ever desired or wanted- -or knew we could want!

Christ has given His life for us and shed His blood for our salvation, how could we not give ourselves wholly unto Him?

How could we as believers NOT see Jesus as the very life-power of our day to day pursuits?

How could we as believers NOT have what is most important to God most important to us!

How could we as believers NOT make Christ’s goals our goals; Christ life our life; Christ’s beauty our beauty?

Let us as a congregation at KCPC to learn to pray for one another for the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ to fill us and that we might be overflowing with God’s joy and hope in Him!  Let us pray to know Christ better- -his love, his work for us, his priestly intercession, his sufferings for and with us- -and to know Christ more intimately, closely, adoringly, affectionately. Let us at KCPC come to Christ more and by your grace, O Father, let us leave with more of Christ. Grant that we might be a congregation characterized by “TO LIVE IS CHRIST.” For Christ’s sake and His glory alone! Amen.

 

In Christ’s love,

Pastor Biggs

From Your Pastor: John Flavel on Six Ways to Keep Your Heart before God

John Flavel: Six Ways to Keep Your Heart before God [1]

 

“Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this…” (1 Tim. 4:16a); And… “Is it I, Lord?” (Mark 14:19)

1. Converse with your heart. Listen to what it is saying, both evil and good. Where is it disputing with God? Where is it joyful? What is making it joyful? Where is it angry, vengeful, bitter, lusting? What is it resisting, fearing, loving too much?

  • “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” – Proverbs 4:23
  • “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” – Psalm 139:23-24

2. Let the evils of your hearts grieve and humble you. God allows us to see the evil that still remains in our hearts to humble us, and to make us more dependent upon Him. Where can self-righteousness and pride spread out in your heart, when you see the evil that still remains, and your desperate need of God’s grace in Christ?!

  • “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” – 1 Peter 5:6-7
  • “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?!” – Romans 7:24
  • “He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.” – John 21:17

3. Pray for grace. This is what we need, isn’t it—more grace??! There’s a place for guilt when we see the evils of our sin, so that we will not be tempted to think that we are without sin, or have no real conflict on our hands, and we can confess our sins, knowing He is faithful and just to forgive us and restore us.

  • “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret…” – 2 Corinthians 7:10
  • “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” – 1 John 1:8-9

4. Resolve to walk more carefully God. We are here on this earth ultimately for God’s glory and the enjoyment of Him. When we see the deeper needs we have for Him, let us seek to repent of our indifference, apathy, and ingratitude, and seek to live soberly, and to watch and pray.

  • “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you…” – Job 42:5
  • “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” – Mark 14:38
  • “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.” – Luke 21:34

5. Be jealous (zealous!) for holiness and afraid of sin. Pursue holiness, stretching forth yourself agonizingly, reaching to the goal of taking hold of Christ Jesus more completely in your life, because He has taken hold of you! Remember that each sin has enough danger in each drop of sin to ignite all of hell on fire, to provoke God to manifest His just and eternal wrath, and to destroy lives and people.

  • “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” – Hebrews 12:14
  • “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. 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, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:12-14

6. Be aware of God’s omniscience. Be the same person publicly that you are privately, because the same God sees all things. Let Him be pleased by your life in Christ. You are a His child in Christ, and He wants to say: “This is my Beloved Son,” not only with regard to your justification, but also in the fruits of your sanctification.

  • “The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man…” – Psalm 33:13
  • “For his eyes are on the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps.” – Job 34:21

 

In Christ’s love,

Pastor Biggs

 

[1] I have added commentary and relevant scripture passages to meditate upon. – Pastor Biggs