KCPC Blog

Why Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy is Glorious! (Part 1)

Dear Beloved, the next few weeks on the KCPC blog will be focused on showing why keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious! I hope this will encourage you in your faith. – Pastor Biggs

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“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8)

Why is keeping the Lord’s Day holy glorious?

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it is an opportunity to please and glorify God in obedience to His commandments.

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it is a privilege and blessing of the Covenant of Grace.

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it can remind us that the Lord Jesus created it, kept it, and fulfilled it, and gave it to believers as a way of imitating Him.

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it is an opportunity for growth and maturity in Christ.

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it can be a time well spent that helps us not to live overly busy and distracted lives.

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it is a way of joyfully, peacefully, and graciously witnessing publicly to whom it is you belong, and to whom it is you ultimately submit!

* Keeping the Lord’s Day holy is glorious because it is part of our confessional heritage as particularly Reformed Christians.

  1. Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy is glorious because it is an opportunity to please and glorify God in obedience to His commandments.

God has given His people commandments for His glory and our good. The law of God, as summarized in the Ten Commandments, is a clear revelation of God’s righteousness and holiness. The commandments are a clear expression of what it means when believers are admonished: “Be holy, as God is holy” (Lev. 20:26; 1 Pet. 1:15-16).[1] God commands His people in the fourth commandment to “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy”. This commandment teaches us that God wants us to set apart one day in seven for holy worship and rest. He desires that we make the Lord’s Day special.[2]

As Christians we should desire to fear God and keep all of His commandments. Indeed, the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 1:7; Ecc. 12:13). Fearing God and keeping His commandments is a constant teaching throughout Holy Scripture (Exo. 20:20; Deut. 10:12-14; Jer. 32:38-42; Psa. 130:4; 2 Cor. 7:1). As believers, we are taught to work out our salvation with “fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12-13; cf. Exo. 20:20; Isa. 66:2). Although there is absolutely no fear of God before the eyes of the wicked and foolish in this world (Psa. 36:1-2; Rom. 3:18), Christians have been granted the fear of the Lord as a blessing and gift of the Holy Spirit in Christ (Jer. 32:38-42; Heb. 12:28-29)! Do you understand fear of the Lord as a blessing and aspect of the work of the Spirit? God promises in Christ that by His Spirit He would cause His people to fear Him:

I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever…And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me (ESV Jeremiah 32:39-40b)

In Holy Scripture, the fear of the LORD is another manner of describing a desire to obey and please God and to keep His commandments (2 Cor. 5:9-11: “We make it our aim to please Him…Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others…”). In Christ, the commandments for Christians are not merely a duty or obligation (although they are that!). Rather, in Christ, the commandments for Christians are privileges of grace (Matt. 5:17-20; Rom. 6:17; 8:1-6). Christians have been set free to please God in this way before a dying and dark world infested and possessed by sin. Only a Christian can truly say with David, “O how I love your Law! It is my meditation all the day!” (Psa. 119:97); and with the Apostle Paul cry out, “The law is holy, and the commandment is righteous and good!” (Rom. 7:12).[3]

God is very clear that although the ceremonial and civil laws of Israel have been fulfilled in Christ (Col. 2:16-17; Mark 7:19; cf. Rom. 14:17), nevertheless, the moral law, summarized in the Ten Commandments is still a duty and privilege for God’s creatures to keep, particularly His own people. There is no other commandment where God so fully exegetes and unpacks the meaning as to why His creatures, particularly His set-apart people are to keep the Lord’s Day holy than the fourth commandment. Although many evangelical Christians emphasize (rightly!) Jesus’s fulfillment of the ceremonial and civil laws of Israel, and his fulfillment of the moral law (summarized in the Ten Commandments) as a Covenant of Works, they often fail to teach the importance of the ongoing requirements of the Law of God for believers. For instance, our Lord Jesus clearly said:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (ESV Matthew 5:17-20).

Jesus with a holy hatred despised the legalism of the Pharisees. Jesus was constantly pointing out that the Law as a way of righteousness or as a Covenant of Works was impossible for sinful man (Matt. 5:20), but He as Lord of the Sabbath, also upheld and honored the moral law revealed in the Ten Commandments. The Apostle Paul taught that faith in Christ’s righteousness was not to overthrow the moral law of God: “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law” (ESV Romans 3:31). God’s people in Christ should also seek to uphold the moral law in reliance upon His grace and Spirit.

As fallen and sinful human beings, let us be honest that we often desire to go about doing our own work in our own way, selfish and stingy of our time. We want to work as much as we possibly can to get ahead, and to live our lives as fallen people as separated from God as we possibly can! The natural, fallen man sees the Lord’s Day as a hindrance and something that prevents him from doing what he wants to do. And we don’t like to be out of control (in our estimation!) of our calendars and our schedules. This was one of the reasons why Israel often did not rejoice and delight in keeping the Sabbath, and this can be our reason, too!

Yet God in His mercy and covenant faithfulness counters the sinful heart that deceives us by alluring His people to a promise of “Riding on the heights of the earth” in our delight of His holy day! Who in their right minds would not want to enjoy this treasure of a promise given by a Holy and Faithful God and Father?! Have you ever ridden on the heights of the earth??!! God promises as loving Father and blessed Savior:

If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. (ESV Isaiah 58:13-14).

“THEN you shall take delight in the LORD…!” Don’t miss this promise. God in His merciful kindness and grace desires to set His people free from our selfishness and self-centered “will worship” of doing our own thing the way we want to do it (“…From doing your pleasure…going your own ways, seeking your own pleasure…”), so that we can experience the liberty of life in the Spirit and the peace that goes with that in Christ! (Gal. 5:1; Rom. 6:1, 14; 8:6: “…The mind of the Spirit is life and [glorious!] peace”). Our great God and Father wants us to understand that true Christian freedom is keeping the Lord’s day with delight! Do you call the Lord’s Day a delight? Do you take delight in the LORD? If your life is joyless, and you have asked God to search your heart for sin that may be hiding, that you’re not seeing (Psa. 139:23-34), perhaps this is something that you haven’t taken seriously enough?! In Christ, we are set free from selfish focus on ourselves, to live unto God, gratefully desiring to do His will. Let us pray more that we will not only do God’s will as we are commanded, but to will to do it from tender and loving hearts that have been thrilled by His grace and love! “…For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).

Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy is an opportunity to show the freedom we truly possess in Christ. As a Covenant of Works, the law summarized in the Ten Commandments, particularly the fourth commandment on keeping the Lord’s Day has been fulfilled in Christ. No fallen sinner could ever keep God’s law as a way of works, or as a covenant of works to earn or merit their salvation. Jesus Christ, the glorious God-Man has accomplished this perfect law-keeping for us in our stead, on our behalf (Gal. 2:16-21). This glorious God-Man has died in our place under the just wrath of God because we did not keep God’s commandments, and we did not take seriously his teaching to keep his Sabbath holy. The glorious Gospel is that when we believe in Christ alone by faith alone through grace alone, this perfect righteousness, or perfect law-keeping of Christ is imputed to believers as if we have never sinned and perfectly kept the commandments of God. “And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

Suggested Questions to Ponder and Ask Yourself to Help You to Keep the Lord’s Day Holy:

Is this activity on the Lord’s Day going to glorify God above all things? / Is this activity a work of necessity or mercy that I lovingly desire to do to love God and neighbor? / Is this activity going to hinder me (or others) from publicly worshipping God and attending to any calls to worship that God calls me to through his ordained servants? / Is this activity loving and the best use of my time for myself, my family, my guests, my neighbors, and those who look to me for leadership? / Is this activity going to be consistent with God’s Word, and particularly His clear teaching on how he desires the Lord’s Day to be remembered? / Is this activity work that I normally engage it on other days, and can it wait? / Is this activity a distraction from my taking time to grow up in God’s Word? / Is this activity something that will not be conducive to remembering what I learned in the morning worship sermon and meditating upon it and hiding in my heart so that I won’t sin against God? / Is this activity properly living a godly example before a broken and lost world? / Prayer: Dear Jesus, I want to keep the Lord’s Day holy, please help me. Grant me your wisdom and discernment. Amen

In Christ’s love,

Pastor Biggs

 

(To read the entire study on why keeping the Lord’s Day is glorious, click here: From Your Pastor.Why Keeping the Lords Day is Glorious.March 2016)

 

Notes

[1] Note that Old Covenant people were addressed by God’s commandment as those He had redeemed out of slavery: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery…”
(Exo. 20:2). So that we are to understand that all of the commandments are made in the context of God’s covenantal grace to His people who once were enslaved, but now freed by His grace (indicative). The commandments can only be kept by those who ultimately received God as their Savior, and believed in His promises of grace made to Abraham and his seed.

[2] The distinction between Sabbath and Lord’s Day is made later in study.

[3] The Westminster Larger Catechism, Question and Answer 97 is helpful here: What special use is there of the moral law to the regenerate? A. Although they that are regenerate, and believe in Christ, be delivered from the moral law as a covenant of works, so as thereby they are neither justified nor condemned; yet, besides the general uses thereof common to them with all men, it is of special use, to show them how much they are bound to Christ for his fulfilling it, and enduring the curse thereof in their stead, and for their good; and thereby to provoke them to more thankfulness, and to express the same in their greater care to conform themselves thereunto as the rule of their obedience.

Soul Idolatry, Or, “How Do I Discover and Destroy My Idols by Faith in Christ”

Soul Idolatry, Or, “How Do I Discover and Destroy My Idols by Faith in Christ”

By David Clarkson[1]

Edited by Pastor Charles R. Biggs

 

“For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.”

– ESV Ephesians 5:5

 

Do You Have Reigning or Ruling lusts?

Everything created that seeks to master your spirit and to bring your life into conformity unto it is potentially a reigning or ruling lust. Every love that is not subdued and submitted under the Lordship of Jesus Christ is a potential lust. Every desire that you have that seeks to rule you rather than to bring you delight in God is potentially a reigning or ruling lust. Every reigning or ruling lust is an idol, and every person in whom it reigns is an idolater. What are your reigning and ruling lusts?

Pleasures, and riches, and honors are the carnal man’s “trinity”, and these become gods that make men idolaters:

ESV 1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world- the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions- is not from the Father but is from the world.

In Satan’s kingdom, every one bowing himself to his lust worships it as an idol. When the mind is most taken up with an object, and the heart and the affections most set upon it, this is soul worship, and this is what is due only to God.

Secret and soul idolatry is when the mind and heart is set upon anything more than God; when anything is more valued, more trusted, more loved, etc.

According to Ephesians 5:5 (as well as Colossians 3:5 and Revelation 21:8) teaches us that soul idolatry will exclude men out of heaven as well as open idolatry. He that serves his lusts is as incapable of heaven as he that serves, worships idols of wood and stone. We must be careful as Christians, and learn to daily watch and pray. We must learn to live a life of daily repentance: Turning from the “over-desires” or inordinate loves and desires that we see seeking to master us, and influence us, and turn for grace and strength in Christ Jesus alone.

 

Can Christians Commit Idolatry??

Yes, but more subtly from the heart, or the soul (Prov. 4:23). The danger of soul idolatry is that we often do not notice it as easily because it is inward, from the heart, and so we fail to recognize the dangers of it as we do outward, more obvious idolatry. Many fine Christians would never bow the knee to wood and stone idols, but will bow down from their hearts or souls to other idols that are unseen, yet just as grossly idolatrous and displeasing to God (Deut. 4:19-21; James 4:1ff).

The following are the acts of soul worship so that you might prayerfully consider each one and if found an idolater in God’s sight, you might ask Him to forgive you and restore to you the joy and love of your salvation. God is always crying out to His people: “Return, O Israel…for you have stumbled because of your iniquity” (Hos. 14:1ff). Let us bring our confession to Him each day, knowing He is faithful to forgive us and restore us, and to give us new and wondrous grace to live for Him (Hos. 14:6-8; John 15:1ff; 1 Jo. 1:7; Heb. 4:14-16).

Are you an idolater? If so, remember God gives more grace in order that you might humble yourself through repentance and confess your sins to Him, knowing that He is faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness (James 4:6ff; 1 John 1:7ff):

  • Esteem: That which we most highly value we make our God. Estimation is an act of soul worship. What we most esteem we make our God such as high opinions of self, our accomplishments, what folks think of us, how we dress ourselves up before others, our possessions, etc. Whose opinions do you esteem the most? At the end of the day who has power over you to judge you “guilty” or “non-guilty”? God or other men? Who do you live your life before? Whose opinions do you “need” to make you someone important?
  • Mindfulness: That which we are most mindful we make our God. What do you think about the most often? When we should be thinking about God and we’re thinking about other things, we are revealing what we love the most. Are our thoughts seeking to follow after God’s thoughts? Do you set your minds on things above where Christ is? (Col. 3:1-4).
  • Intention: What is our greatest longing and goal in life? God and nothing else must be our chief end. If our chief end is to be great, safe, rich, powerful, famous, when it is our own pleasure, credit, profit, and advantage, this is soul idolatry. What do you get up each day with a mind of accomplishing and doing?
  • Love: That which we most love we worship as our God. Do we love riches, possessions, family, and/or friends more, or equal with God? Love, whenever it is inordinate, it is an idolatrous affection.
  • Trust: What do I trust in? Who do we trust, and/or depend upon the most? Where is our confidence? Trust God “with all of your heart” (Proverbs 3:5). Do you trust in your wisdom, strength, intellect, handgun, abilities, etc? Do you trust ultimately in riches, how much you have in your savings account and/or retirement; do you trust ultimately in your friends? Do you boast in yourself, and in your own wisdom or boast in the Lord (1 Cor. 1:29-31).
  • Fear: What we fear, we worship as our God. That is our god which is our fear and dread: ESV Luke 12:4-5: “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. 5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Those therefore who fear other things more than God; who are more afraid to offend other people than to displease God; who fear more to lose outward enjoyments than to lose the favor of God and His Spirit; who fear outward suffering more than God’s displeasure and wrath.
  • Hope: Ask yourself: What is my hope? Christ alone should be our hope as Christians; he is our hope and righteousness. What excites your hope each day helping you to get through the day?
  • Desire: That which we chiefly desire is the chief good in our lives, and what we account as our chief good is our god. To desire anything more, or so much as the enjoyment of God, is to idolize it, to prostrate the heart to it, and worship it as God only should be worshipped. What is your heart prostrated before in worship? Pray with the Psalmist that God alone would be your chief desire: Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Psalm 73:25-26). Pray for the Holy Spirit to grant you not merely to “do” for God, but that you might will and desire to do good (Phil. 2:13- “to will and to work for His good pleasure”).
  • Delight: Delight is an affection that in its height and elevation is called “glorying”. What do you “glory in”? To take more pleasure in any way of sin, uncleanness, temptation, intemperance, gluttony, drunkenness, earthly employments or enjoyments, than in the holy ways of God, than in those spiritual and heavenly services which we may enjoy God, is idolatry. Would you rather be “glorying” in other things (even lawful and good things) rather than worshipping God and fellowshipping with His people? How do you keep the Lord’s Day? How do you spend your money? Are you generous? The answers to these questions will reveal your idolatry or love for God alone.
  • Zeal: What are we zealous for? Are we zealous for ourselves, our plans, our vacations, our dreams, our agendas more than God? Are we fervent for ourselves and our own good and glory, and indifferent, lazy, and lukewarm in our zeal for God and His Kingdom? Are we more zealous for political parties, persons and/or teachers in the church or in our communities than we are in God and His Church? Do we spend more time thining about, and planning our vacation and retirement than we do in preparing ourselves for worship of the Living God and to appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ?
  • Gratitude: What are you most thankful for? Do we honor “diligence” or “luck” or “prudence” or “fortune” more than God’s goodness? In response to compliments, and/or other offering you respect do you give glory and thanksgiving to your “diligence” or your “luck” more than God?

When our care and industry (hard work) is more for other things than for God, we are idolaters. No man can serve two masters!

 

How Many Masters Do You Have?

When you are more careful and industrious (hard working) to please men, or yourselves, or your children and posterity, than to be serviceable, useful and faithful to God; if it is more important to you to provide for yourselves and your family more than to serve God; if you are more careful what you shall eat, drink, and wear more than how you may honor and glorify God you have a hateful and burdensome master who is not God: ESV Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other….ESV Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

To live like this is to idolize the world, yourselves, your lusts, your relations, while the God of Heaven is neglected.

We must remember that the Bible defines true conversion to Christ as “turning from idols”: ESV

1 Thessalonians 1:9-10: For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Does this characterize your life? You have “turned to God from idols to serve…to wait for His Son…”?

Have you experienced true conversion? How do you know if your affections of your heart and your actions seek something more than God; if you’re an idolater- -how can you be assured of your knowledge and relationship to Christ?

 

Who then shall be saved??!!

Where is the heart in which some idol is not secretly advanced? Where it that soul that does not bow down to some lust or vanity? Where it that person that does not give that soul-worship to the creature which is due unto the Creator alone?

On the one hand, we find in Scripture that the people of God can be guilty of terrible sins such as stumbling into unforgiveness, anger, lying, drunkenness, murder, adultery, denial of Christ, and blatant idolatry itself (Abraham and the patriarchs, Noah, David, Solomon, Peter, etc). On the other hand, how can this be consistent with the state of grace when this is blatant spiritual idolatry that is offensive to God??!!

Answer: There is an aptness and still a propensity in every saint of God to be idolaters, just as much there is a propensity and aptness toward other sins. In fact, idolatry as a sin is a root and foundational sin to all the others in the heart. The corruption of our natures in Adam consists of proneness to all abominations, including idolatry.

Grace is imperfect in this life and only corrects this corruption in part. Grace weakens the disposition and desire to idolatry,but it does not completely abolish it. That is why we must be aware of it, and constantly be fighting to kill it in its first motions, and thoughts to sin. We must watch and pray that we do not fall into temptation.

It is true that those folks, those natures that are most sanctified on earth are still a seminary (seed bed) of sin; there is in them the roots, the seeds of atheism, blasphemy, murder, adultery, apostasy, and idolatry.

This disposition to idolatry remains more or less in the best, while the body of death remains. Remember the Apostle Paul’s struggle and great frustrations for his own sins (Romans 7:20-25):

Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

 

Is Paul’s Struggle Familiar to You?

Is the Apostle Paul’s struggle in Romans 7 familiar to you? Do you have a fight, a conflict within your soul against sinfulness? Is your alliance with the Spirit of God warring against your flesh? Are you hopeful of being delivered by Jesus from the body of death?

Love in the regenerate still may be inordinate, therefore the other affections, desires, delights, desires, fears, zeals, etc. can give way to actual sins of idolatry in their actions.

With that said, however, we must still understand the power of Jesus Christ, and the fact that true believers have been united to Christ and take part in not only the removal of our penalty for sin, but we are empowered by God’s Spirit to live as more than overcomers (Romans 8)!

 

Are You Habitually Idolatrous?

The regenerate will still have a disposition toward idolatry, but they will not be guilty of habitual idolatry. The unregenerate and unbelieving are guilty of constant and habitual idolatry, but the regenerate will not be (1 Jo. 2:1-3). True Christians are not habitual idolaters; idolatry does not characterize their lives.

Believers will not yield to these idolatrous notions knowingly, willingly, constantly as unbelievers do; these idolatrous desires are not tolerated or allowed, but rather fought against because they have the Spirit that wages Holy War against the flesh (Gal. 5:16-26).

Believers resist idolatry by living watchfully, prayerfully, carefully, and fully and constantly dependent upon God’s strength and grace in Christ. True believers in Christ will resist, lament and pray against idolatry; they are neither arrogant or ignorant of their remaining sinfulness, but they know that sin shall not reign over them as their master:

ESV Romans 6:11-14: So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Are you a habitual idolater? Has arrogance made you neglectful and apathetic (see Rev. 3:14-22)? Has ignorance caused you to overlook it? Is your life privately characterized by idolatry?

Are you still a slave to sin? Does sin have dominion over you? Has it mastered you?

Begin with your private life. Begin with your heart. Ask God to search you and know you. Is your private life characterized by idolatry as sketched above? Are your hearts and minds filled with idolatry?

If you are characterized by habitual idolatry, you cannot claim the assurance of the knowledge of salvation in Jesus nor can you have assurance that you are empowered by His Spirit.

How can you be assured of your faith in Christ that it is truly a saving faith?

True believers fly to the blood of Christ for pardon; they run desperately and violently as possible to Christ and His power to overcome sin and idolatry! When believers see sin, they run to Christ to confess it.

Believers are diligent to mortify or kill their idolatry when they find it in their hearts and minds so that they can please Christ in their daily duties.

The idolatry that the saints united to Jesus are prone to is not the same as reigning, habitual idolatry of the unregenerate and the unrepentant. None are more ready to disclaim this idolatry than those who are most guilty! Those who are most guilty of idolatry reject any need from God or others.

Our proneness to idolatry is the reason why we must all be neither arrogant nor ignorant toward the remaining sin that is within us. We must seek the LORD and ask Him through watching and praying that He would deliver us more and more, and grant us a deeper repentance and trust in Jesus Christ.

The more we understand what we have been delivered from, and from what we are being delivered, and just how much it has eaten us up inside like a cancer, the more diligent we will be in exalting the grace of God found in Christ Jesus, and running to Jesus for His cleansing blood to purify and empower us over our sins.

Do you live a life of repentance, asking God to search your hearts and minds to cleanse of all of your idols?

Are you an idolater?

 

What is your hope?

If you realize how deeply your idolatry goes, wouldn’t it behoove you to use your time more wisely in seeking Christ, and seeking Him to make you pure as He is pure? The root to all of the believer’s fruitfulness is found in union with Jesus and we grow as behold the gracious face of God each day in our prayers and in our walk:

ESV 2 Corinthians 3:18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Our only hope is in our Savior Jesus Christ! So be strengthened by the grace that is in Jesus (2 Tim. 2:1); watch and pray that you fall not into temptation (Matt. 26:41); be strong in the LORD and in the power of His might (Eph. 6:10); resist the devil, draw near to God (James 4:6ff). Remember the words of James; if we need grace, God will grant it as we ask for it:

“…[God] gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

Let us pray together for a closer, more committed walk with the Living God by His Spirit!

 

Prayer

Dear Lord and Father, help me to watch and pray against idolatry in my heart. Keep my heart pure and clean, and my focus fixed on Christ! Grant me grace to be self-aware of my sin, leading me to daily repentance; make me Christ-aware as I keep my the focus of my affections, feelings, emotions, will and mind on Jesus and not on my base and sinful lusts. In Jesus’s Name. Amen.

 

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Biggs

 

 

[1] The sermon is by David Clarkson (1622-86), entitled ‘Soul Idolatry Excludes Men from Heaven’ (from Works of David Clarkson, Vol. 2, Banner of Truth Trust). Clarkson was a ministerial colleague of John Owen, and the minister who preached and ministered to Owen’s flock after John Owen’s death (yes, Pastor Clarkson was in the shadows of a greater man—but both were great men!).

Westminster Shorter Catechism: Q30 (Part 2)

Question: WSC 30, Part 2: How does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?

Answer: The Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.

 

More on Union with Christ

Scripture Memory: ESV Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

 

An Explanation:* “Uniting us to Christ…” Union with Christ is the fount from which all blessings of eternity and time flow forth by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:3-14). Christ is the Reservoir of all blessing from the Father through the Spirit (1 Cor. 1:9). Believers have union and communion with Christ in grace and glory (WLC, 65-66). What are the practical implications of our union?

  1. The church has union with Christ in the Father’s eternal election. This is a union that precedes our birth and conversion, back into the eternal electing mercies of God. Union with Christ includes union in eternity, in history in the fullness of the times, and the Spirit’s union in the application of our salvation. This covenant theology recognizes that union with Christ is not merely a present experience, but an eternal reality in the plan of God. A covenant of grace was made with Christ as the Second Adam, and all the elect in Him as His seed (Heb. 13:20-21).
  2. The church has union with Christ in the Son’s incarnation. No higher honor was given to humanity than when God the Son took our nature into permanent union with God. The purpose of Christ’s incarnation is particularly His priestly office and work to make propitiation for His people, and intercede for them (Heb. 1:1-2; 2:17; 7:25). The incarnation forms a necessary link with Christ, so that we might have His righteousness to us. Christ joins with us in our nature and this incarnational union makes possible all of the righteousness that He earned and will give to us as we receive it by faith. Only those who are sanctified in Christ can all ourselves “brethren” of God’s Son (Heb. 2:11). This is important as part of God’s promise of being “with us”; the incarnational union impresses upon us that He is not merely God for us, but God with us.
  3. The church has union with Christ in His death, resurrection, and ascension. This is particularly Paul’s theme in his writings (Rom. 6-8). We died with Christ on the cross, were buried with Him, rose from the dead with Him, seated with Him in Heavenly Places, etc (Col. 3:1-4; Gal. 2:20). All of the believer’s experiences of saving faith flow from his union with Christ in these great, redemptive-historical events. Whatever Christ did and received, belong to us as God’s children. As believers, we should count all of these blessings as our own possessions. This union with Christ is an abiding reality that believers must live out of by faith. In 2 Corinthians 5:14-15: “One died for all, then all died, therefore we should live not for ourselves, but for Him who died and has risen from the dead.” Christians died with Christ 2000 years ago with Christ on the cross, but we experientially live this out being transformed in time by God’s Spirit.
  4. The church has union with Christ in the Spirit’s works of personal salvation. The Spirit establishes a vital union with Christ through effectual calling and regeneration. We are in space and time united to Jesus Christ. In Romans 8:30, Paul wrote: Romans 8:30 “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” Freedom from condemnation belongs to those who are “in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8). The Spirit of Life liberates us from sin to live for Christ.
  5. Communion with God in love flows out of union. Spirit, faith, and love are the three “chains of union” (William Ames). The Spirit from God to unites us; faith from us to unite us; love to give ourselves wholly to Christ as His Beloved. All that Christ has or has done is ours by faith in Christ Jesus. The Christian is a fruitful branch, an eating and drinking guest at the banquet, a beloved bride, clothed in His righteousness and glory. All these will be realized at the Consummation of all things, and we will live blessedly (Rev. 19:7ff; 21:1ff)! We shall have total, unhindered, intimacy with Christ in heaven for all eternity! We shall realize fully the Lord’s love for His bride!

* Compiled from Dr. J. R. Beeke’s lectures on soteriology.

 

A Prayer: Thank you, dear Jesus, that you loved me and gave yourself for me. I am grateful to confess: “I am crucified with Christ…and the life I live now, I live by faith in the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20).

 

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Biggs

 

Be Filled with the Spirit

Pentecost was a once-for-all, unique, redemptive-historical, unrepeatable act of the Risen-Ascended Christ in sending forth His Spirit (John 7:37-39; Acts 1:5; 2:33-36). Pentecost was the coming of Christ to His Church as the life-giving Spirit at a new stage of redemptive-history (Acts 2:33-36; cf. 1 Cor. 15:45). Pentecost can be no more repeated than the death and resurrection of Christ can be a repeatable event. Pentecost and the first few stages or phases of the event that are recorded in Acts is not a paradigm for all believers to experience individually, but a pattern to note how the Spirit was poured out upon the Body of Christ in redemptive-history by the Risen-Ascended Christ and spread from Israel to the nations.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8).

Dr. Luke’s important stress throughout the Book of Acts is on how the apostolic gospel spreads from Mt. Zion in Jerusalem to Israel on the Day of Pentecost to the nations, or “to the ends of the earth” as the Old Testament prophets foretold (Psa. 2:8; 22:27; 72:8; Isa. 2:2-5; 5:26; 45:22; 52:10; cf. Acts 28:28:31). The events recorded in Acts 8, 10-11, and 19 are “extensions,” “expansions,” or “stages” of the once-for-all Day of Pentecost through the foundational ministry of the apostles: “…Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets…the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord” (Eph. 2:18-22).

The Apostles, the newly reformed, reconstituted Israel received the promised gift of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, then they were used as Christ’s instruments of blessings to give the life-giving blessings of the Spirit to the believing remnant in Jerusalem, then to Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (even Old Covenant believers who had not heard of the full work of Jesus and the Spirit heard the complete news of redemption, and received the Spirit (see Ephesians 18:24-19:5). The Book of Acts emphasizes that because of Pentecost, the Church is the Body of Christ made up of Jews, Gentiles, slave, free, male, female, and all are one in Christ (cf. Gal. 3:26-29). The blessings made to Abraham have now gone to the nations; Abraham has become more fully the “Father of many nations” (cf. Gen. 12:1-3; Gal. 3:14, 16, 29).

Now believers who receive Christ, receive the fullness of His Spirit, and are baptized in the Spirit upon conversion or regeneration.

For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body- Jews or Greeks, slaves or free- and all were made to drink of one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13).

We must make clear that the baptism of the Spirit takes place for each member at the time of being incorporated into the one body of Christ, at the time of saving inclusion within the covenant community in regeneration, and not at some time subsequent to that saving incorporation. Christ baptizes all believers with the fullness of His Spirit through faith. All believers are sealed unto the day of redemption by Christ’s Spirit (Eph. 1:13-14). All believers are the “dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:22) and the temple of God in which the Spirit and Glory of God dwells (1 Cor. 3:16). Dr. Sinclair Ferguson writes that “…Pentecost (or the Acts as a whole) provides us not with a two-stage paradigm for personal experience of the Spirit, but rather that at the point of faith we participate individually in the effect of the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost.”

There are importance applications and implications for believers today.[1] Dr. Richard Gaffin makes an important distinction between understanding the eschatological dimension of Pentecost that was once-and-for-all (historia salutis, an event in the history of salvation) and the individual-experiential dimension (ordo salutis, the order we receive the blessings of redemption) that we continue to enjoy as Christians united to Jesus Christ. To think more about the individual-experiential, ongoing dimension of Pentecost in the believers’ lives, let us think particularly about the signs on the Day of Pentecost and what they symbolize for Christians as the work of the Spirit in us because of what Christ has accomplished.

Although the signs and wonders of Pentecost have passed away, the meaning of the signs have not. On the Day of Pentecost there was wind, or the very “breathing” of the life of God into His body (cf. Ezek. 37:5-9), there was the light of fire that rested above the disciples’ heads (Mal. 3:2-3; Exo. 3:2; Heb. 12:28-29), and there were the languages that they spoke to God and one another (Acts 2:1-4). What are the meanings behind the signs that we should understand as Christians today?

Life (Wind/Breath): God gives believers His life in the Spirit in our union with Christ. This is the full and abundant New Covenant life that was not possible until Jesus Christ had fully completed His work of sinners in His life, death, resurrection, and ascension. In Christ, by the Spirit, the Father makes us alive (Eph. 2:1-10). He breathes into us His life to live for Him, and to live abundantly and joyfully in the Spirit (cf. John 20:21-23). “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom. 8:11; also Rom. 8:2, 6, 10). This life is given to believers to live for Christ in union with Christ. This is abundant life that is nourished by the reservoir of grace found in Christ; apart from Christ we can do nothing, produce nothing living and good to the glory of God (John 1:16-18; 15:1ff; Rom. 8:5-11).

Light (Fire): God gives us light to purify us, to consume our dross, but to also enlighten our minds to the truths of Scripture (Eph. 1:18; Heb. 6:4; 10:32). God gives light to warm our hearts to know more deeply His love for us in Christ and be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:16-19). The Apostle Paul prays for believers to have illumination by the Spirit to know who they are in Christ, to experience the deep love of God the Father found in Christ Jesus through the Spirit in our inner being (Eph. 1:15-23; 3:14-21).

Language (Tongues): While the languages of Pentecost as signs and wonders to testify to a new epoch of redemptive-history were necessary in the transitional time between the Old and New Covenants, they are no longer necessary now as the complete, inspired Scriptures have been written and given to God’s people. But what these languages pointed to are still important to us. The two important aspects of these Spirit-given languages were for worship and witness. The worship of God in Spirit and truth through transformed hearts (John 4:24; Jer. 31:31-34; cf. 1 Cor. 14:1-5), and the witness within the community in building one another up in the truths of Scripture, and the witness to the world in the good news of salvation.

We see the glorious use of these Spirit-given “love” languages particularly in the Apostle Paul’s writings. Paul often stresses to speak to one another to encourage and especially to speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15, 25-32, 1 Cor. 12:7; 14:5; cf. Acts 9:31). Isn’t encouraging, humble, holy, honest speech a wonderful and glorious working of God’s Spirit?! The Apostle Paul refers to the ongoing work of the Spirit and the implications of Pentecost in the believers’ life not as a second blessing, but as a continual need to seek to be filled with the Spirit of God. The Apostle Paul teaches the churches to be “filled with the Spirit”, which can also be said as being filled with God’s Word. The Spirit works so closely in and through the Word of God that it is important to note this.

“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Eph. 5:18-20). “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col. 3:16-17).

In both of these important passages, we see the “love” languages given by the Spirit for true worship of God (“…Giving thanks always and for everything…” “…With thankfulness in your hearts to God…”) and to witness (“…Addressing one another in [Scripture]…singing and making melody…” “…Teaching and admonishing one another…”).

So let us as a family at KCPC, united to Jesus Christ by faith, seek to be filled with the Spirit of God because we have received the baptism and full immersion in the Spirit in our union with Jesus Christ by faith!

We should remember that the Spirit of God’s presence is not known first and foremost through a feeling (although feelings should and do accompany). The Spirit of God’s presence is known first and foremost from His blessed fruit and His holy effects on one’s life (Gal. 5:16-25; cf. John 3:8: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit”). What are the blessed fruits and holy effects of the Spirit in your life? In the life of your family? In our congregation at KCPC? These fruits and effects of Christ’s Spirit will reveal Christ’s life in us to others, causing us to hate the sin that remains in us, and to desire more holiness (Christ-likeness) (Rom. 7:11-25); to desire humility in our worship to God and service to one another, and to cultivate honesty before God and others. These fruits and effects of Christ’s Spirit will be seen in our learning to walk as Jesus walked (imperfectly, yet sincerely by His Spirit):

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit- just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call…

Let us pray to be filled with the Spirit, and learn some helpful hints as to how from Dr. John Harvey.

 

Helpful Hints on how to be filled with the Spirit of God (by John Harvey)[2]

  1. Make certain that your heart is wholly (sincerely) devoted to God (Deut. 6:5; 11:11-13; 30:6; Psa. 31:23; 111:1; 116:1; 119:2, 10, 34, 69, 145; Jer. 24:7; Matt. 22:37; Luke 10:27; 2 Cor. 6:16; 1 Jo. 5:21).
  2. Determine not to compromise your walk with God (Psa. 119:1-8; Phil. 1:21; 2 Cor. 5:-10, 14-15).
  3. Be sensitive to and repentant over sin (Psa. 130; 139: 23-24; 1 Jo. 1:8-2:2; 2 Cor. 7:10-11).
  4. Be faithful in the little things (Matt. 25:14-23).
  5. Remember who gets the glory! (Rom. 11:33-36; Psa. 115:1).
  6. Devote yourselves to prayer (Rom. 12:12; Eph. 6:18-20).
  7. Keep your eyes on Jesus (Heb. 12:1-2).

 

For Further Reading and Study

Intermediate: A Theology of the Holy Spirit – Frederick Dale Bruner / Beginner: Anointed with the Spirit and Power: The Holy Spirit’s Empowering Presence (Explorations in Biblical Theology) – John Harvey / Intermediate: Perspectives on Pentecost – Richard Gaffin, Jr. / Intermediate: The Holy Spirit – John Owen / Advanced: The Holy Spirit (Contours of Christian Theology) – Sinclair B. Ferguson

[1] As Dr. Ferguson writes: “…While Pentecost is also once for all time in character, implications of the baptism of the Spirit which took place on that occasion overflow the banks of that Day and flow on, down through the centuries. Just as the blood of Christ cleanses men and women from every tribe, tongue, people and nation (Rev. 5:9), so the Spirit flows from the riven side of Christ on Pentecost into Jerusalem, and from there spreads throughout Judea, gathering momentum on to Samaria and indeed to the uttermost parts of the earth (Acts 1:8).”

[2] Remember that while these are helpful hints, and they are biblical, we must nevertheless always remember the sovereignty of God in His Spirit’s working (cf. John 3:3-8). Though there are ways we can prepare, and seek God, we must always be willing to wait upon the LORD. But seek Him we must because of both the command and the privilege! Amen.

‘BELOVED’: What is in a name?

“But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith;
pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God,
waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life” (ESV Jude 20-21).

“Beloved”. I was stirred to joy this morning by the meditation on the meaning of this word from Jude 20-21. A definition of this word “Beloved” that I found was “a much loved person”. Synonyms for “Beloved” are darling, dear, precious, adored, cherished, highly regarded, and valued. But let us think more about this from the Holy Scriptures. Let us stir up our affections for Christ as we think about how He reveals His affections for us in His calling us “Beloved”. This is one way to build ourselves up in our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, and keeping ourselves in the love of God.

As you meditate more on this beautiful name “Beloved”, be encouraged by the fact that it is used by the living and true God to address believers. Think about this for a moment: the living, triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, adores, cherishes, highly regards and values you! What wonderful grace! God set His affection upon us before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:3-6; 2 Tim. 1:9) and decided that he adored and cherished us in Christ. What a thrill it is to say with the betrothed bride in Song of Songs:

“My beloved is mine, and I am his…”

Let me encourage you to think about who you are as God’s Beloved this day. Meditate on how He addresses you so sweetly and tenderly in Christ. Is there anything good that God would not do for His Beloved? Let this precious name build you up in your faith, and by His Spirit increase your joy! Think about this in two distinct ways that are never to be separated, and are both given in our union with Jesus Christ: (1) “Beloved” is who you are because of Christ Jesus; (2) “Beloved” is who you are becoming in union with Christ Jesus.

“Beloved” is who you are because of Jesus Christ. In Christ, you as a believer are the Bride of Christ, the betrothed of the Most Lovely One. Christ is your gracious and kind Bridegroom (John 3:29), the glorious Shepherd and King who gave His life for you. As Christ’s Bride, you are addressed as God’s Beloved “in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ” (Jude 1). Note this “kept for Jesus Christ”. This is the language of betrothal. You are Christ’s now by the betrothal of the Father through the Spirit, but you await the full consummation of this relationship, and the wedding that will be revealed when Christ returns (Rev. 19:7; cf. Matt. 22:1-14). The Father has set you apart for Christ alone. You are His, and He is yours.

God the Father calls His own dear Son His “Beloved with whom He is well pleased” (Isa. 5:1; Matt. 3:17; 17:5). Jesus Christ is God’s chosen servant, His Beloved who has secured the redemption and salvation of His people (Isa. 42:1-2; Matt. 12:18; Col. 1:13; cf. Luke 20:13). In our union with Christ, believers are also God’s Beloved! Because of this reconciled relationship we have with the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit, we are called the “Beloved”. What God the Father says to His Son, He also says to us: “You are my Beloved with whom I am well pleased”. We are taught in Romans 9:25 (as Hosea said): “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved’.” What a joy! Let us revel in this one name that Christ reserves for His own.

What are some blessings that you possess as God’s Beloved? God’s Beloved dwells in safety (Deut. 33:12). God’s Beloved are those who are delivered from sin and evil (Psa. 60:5; 108:6). God’s Beloved have peaceful consciences that can sleep without being troubled by anxiety and guilt and worry (Psa. 127:2; 1 Jo. 3:21). God’s Beloved can depend upon His protection and judgment (Rom. 12:19). God’s Beloved is to know that you have been adopted by God and blessed with all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 1:3-6; 5:1; 1 Jo. 3:2).

“Beloved” is who we are becoming in Jesus Christ. God’s Beloved are we who should build ourselves up in our most holy faith, and praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping ourselves in the love of God, and waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ (Jude 20-21). As God’s Beloved, we have been chosen through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth (2 Thess. 2:13). God’s Beloved is loved by Christ and therefore must flee from idolatry (1 Cor. 10:14; 1 Jo. 4:7). God’s Beloved is to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord, knowing that our labor is never in vain (1 Cor. 15:58). God’s Beloved is to live a pure and holy life, cleansed by the blood of Christ, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of the God (2 Cor. 7:1). God’s Beloved is to be characterized as holy, compassionate, kind, humble, meek, patient and forgiving (Col. 3:12). God’s Beloved are sojourners and exiles who abstain from the passions of the flesh, awaiting the return of their Heavenly Bridegroom and Lover (1 Pet. 2:11). God’s Beloved is privileged to suffer with Christ in this present age (1 Pet. 4:12). God’s Beloved loves one another (1 Jo. 4:7, 11). 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” (ESV Ephesians 1:3-6).

Love in Christ,
Pastor Biggs

Westminster Shorter Catechism: Q30 (Part 1)

Question: WSC 30: How does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?

Answer: The Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.

Scripture Memory: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).

An Explanation: “…Uniting us to Christ…”: Union with Christ is the fount from which all blessings of eternity and time flow forth to believers through the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:3-14). Christ is the Reservoir of all blessing from the Father through the Spirit (1 Cor. 1:9). Believers have union and communion with Christ in grace and glory (WLC, 65-66). Our union with Christ is like marriage (He is Bridegroom, we are His bride, Eph. 5:22-33), it is a living union (He is Vine, we are branches, John 15:1-5), a representative union (He is Federal-Covenantal Head and Second Adam, Rom. 5:18-21; 6:3-6), and a mystical union (Christ is Head, we are His body, Eph. 4:11-16; 1 Cor. 12:12-13). All of the blessings of justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification are found in, and flow out of our union with Christ in His death and resurrection. “He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).

“…By working faith in us…”: These blessings in Christ purchased for believers are received by faith alone. The objective bond in our union from God’s side is the Holy Spirit; the subjective bond in our union from our side is faith. Both are granted by the Holy Spirit in our effectual calling. Faith is a gift from God; faith is a Spirit-wrought gift. Fallen man is dead in trespasses and sins unable to respond to the Gospel of God. God the Father grants the faith that we need to receive Him. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship…” (Eph. 2:8-10a). The Lord Jesus says: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out… No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:37, 44).

“…In our effectual calling…”: The calling of God to His own is effectual because it powerfully regenerates (makes alive!) and works faith and repentance, and cannot be resisted. Universal, and external calls of the Gospel can and will be resisted by sinners (Acts 7:51) but the specific, special call of God through the Gospel to His elect will always be effectual or effective (Acts 2:37-41; 16:14). The effectual call is the outworking of the grace of God in calling sinners into fellowship with Christ: “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9). God illumines our minds to see the glorious Person of Christ, He frees up our wills to freely choose Him by faith as our own, and He warms our hearts (affections) to love and desire Him. This is an irresistible call offered by grace through the power of the Spirit. “For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1 Thess. 1:4-5). “…In [Christ] you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit…” (Eph. 1:13).

A Prayer: Dear Jesus, you are the true Gift of the Spirit, the Promise of the Father, in that we are united to you in grace and glory for salvation and rich communion. The Father has made you everything for us as believers, let us glory in you and say: “To live is Christ, to die is gain!” (Phil. 1:21).

In Christ’s Love,
Pastor Biggs

Westminster Shorter Catechism: Q29

Question: WSC 29: How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ?

Answer: We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us by his Holy Spirit.

Scripture Memory: “…He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior…” (Titus 3:5-6)

An Explanation: The work of Jesus Christ in redemption must be applied to believers by the Holy Spirit for it to be effectual. As John Calvin wrote helpfully “…We must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from Him, all that He has suffered and done for salvation…remains useless and of no value to us” (Institutes, 3.1.1). In other words, people can affirm that there is a Jesus Christ, and that He has lived perfectly and exemplary as a mighty man of God’s Spirit (cf. Acts 2:22), but if we are not bonded to Him by faith through the effectual application of the Spirit, then Christ and His work are of no value to us.

The Spirit is pleased to work faith in the needy and helpless elect sinner in real time that persuades and enables us to take hold of all of the salvation that Christ has accomplished for us (see WSC, 30-31). The Spirit uses the means of the word of God, particularly the preaching of the Gospel to apply the redemption purchased by Christ. “…We know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1 Th. 1:4-5; also, 1 Cor. 3:5; Acts 16:14b, 31-33). The Spirit is the bond objectively from God who unites us to all of the blessings and benefits of Christ’s redemption. Faith is the bond subjectively from our side that unites us to Christ, and both of these are given by God, though faith is an action that we perform in response to His powerful effectual calling and regenerating work: “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…” (John 1:12). Calvin wrote: “This…is the true knowledge of Christ, if we receive Him, as He is offered by the Father: namely, clothed with His Gospel” (3.2.6).

Because of God’s mercy planned before the ages for our good and His glory, and not on account of our works, God was in Christ redeeming His people (2 Tim. 1:9). As 2 Corinthians 5:19-21 teaches: “…In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them…We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The Spirit applies this righteous standing in Christ to us when we are effectually called by the Word through the Spirit, granting us faith to receive Christ, thus becoming by imputation, the righteousness of God in our union with Him (1 Cor. 1:30-31).

Note that Christ has “purchased” our redemption in the words of WSC, 29. It was a payment Christ made for us. It was costly; it cost Christ His own precious blood (Heb. 9:12). It was a loving sacrifice. Let us offer up ourselves to Him as those now possessed by Him through His Spirit. Let us be thankful as we remember that we were wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked (Rev. 3:18) before the application of this redemption made possible by Christ, through the Holy Spirit, because of the Father’s love.

A Prayer: You have redeemed me, kind king, to love and serve you. To realize the glorious purpose for my life, and the joy of serving the triune God who has saved me. Give me strength to live joyfully in Christ today. Amen.

In Christ’s Love,
Pastor Biggs

Westminster Shorter Catechism: Q28

Question: WSC 28: Wherein consists Christ’s exaltation?

Answer: Christ’s exaltation consists in his rising again from the dead on the third day, in ascending up into heaven, in sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the last day.

Scripture Memory: “…This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven…..Being…exalted at the right hand of God… (Acts 1:11; 2:33a).

An Explanation: Jesus Christ humbled Himself for us in obedience unto death, but God the Father raised Him from the dead (Acts 2:24; Eph. 1:20). Jesus’ resurrection was the beginning of His exaltation. The Father was pleased with His Son in His Person (3:17b), but also was He pleased in His work on behalf of His people (Rom.1:3-4). After appearing to many folks over a period of forty days after His resurrection (Acts 1:1-4), Jesus ascended to heaven, was formally crowned king at God’s right hand as He sat down to rule and reign over heaven and earth, and to receive the Name that is above every name: . The author of Hebrews summarizes:

“…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. 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…” (Heb. 1:2-3).

Jesus’ exaltation teaches us as His people that God has received Jesus’ perfect sacrifice of atonement in our place. God has vindicated Jesus Christ in His resurrection-ascension-exaltation (1 Tim. 3:16). God has rewarded Christ with the fullness of His Spirit, and glorified the God-Man for His perfect righteousness and faithfulness to God His Father (Acts 2:32-36). The Apostle Paul wrote:“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11).

Jesus’ powerful transition from death to life, from humility to exaltation, is also the hope of God’s people! As the Apostle Paul says, “If we have died with Him, we shall also reign with Him” (cf. Rom. 6:5, 8; 2 Tim. 2:11-12). Though now we suffer in our estate of humiliation, there is great hope that we will fully realize our adoption as Sons in our glorification (Rom. 8:15-25). Let us rejoice that in our union with Jesus, we are justified now and are therefore vindicated by God through grace, and pronounced “not guilty” (Rom. 8:1). We are adopted now in Christ, and can have assurance of His love for us as His children (Rom. 5:5). We are sanctified, and being sanctified in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30; 6:11; Heb. 2:11), and becoming more Christ-like each day (Rom. 8:29-30). When Christ returns, we shall be vindicated/justified before the whole world (Luke 22:29-30). We shall receive our full adoption/inheritance in glorified bodies (Rom. 8:23). We shall be fully complete and perfect in Him, and we shall live eternally in glory all because of His humiliation and exaltation. Our citizenship is in heaven, and we await for our Savior who is transform our lowly body to a glorious, incorruptible one (Phil. 3:20-21; 1 Cor. 15:42). Our Last Adam shall come to raise His blood-bought Bride and raise her to glory! Hallelujah!!

A Prayer: Dear Jesus, though now we are humiliated and suffer, our lives are hidden in you, and we know that when you appear on the Last Day, we shall be like you, because we shall see you as you are. This is our hope! (1 John 3:1-3).

In Christ’s Love,
Pastor Biggs

Costly Joy

Rejoicing in the LORD is wonderful. What a glory to be able to stand together as God’s people and praise the LORD from renewed and thankful hearts! Remember how the Israelites joyously sang the “Song of Moses”: “The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him!” (Exo. 15:2). But this rejoicing was costly. Israel did not initially rejoice in the LORD’s goodness. Before Israel rejoiced in the LORD, Israel first had to learn to trust God in tribulation.

Israel was God’s son (Exo. 4:23), redeemed from slavery only to find more trouble awaiting him in the wilderness. Even before Israel could get safely to the wilderness and enjoy the presence of God, the enemies of God vigorously and maliciously pursued him. Pharaoh hardened his heart and decided to seek to bring his former slave back into dreadful captivity (Exo. 14:5-9). God had promised through Moses he would save his dear Israel. But when Israel found himself stuck between the enemies of God and the Red Sea, there was a tremendous temptation to fear rather than rejoicing.

The Red Sea didn’t seem like the best route to take to slip out of slavery, but it was the only one at the time. In fact, the Red Sea was the best way, because Israel was led by God to this place of trouble, but he could not see it at the time (cf. Psa. 77:19). Israel’s fears gripped him and essentially said: “God doesn’t love you; you are here only to die in misery and insignificance; this is what you deserve.” “You shouldn’t have believed; it was too good to be true”; “Is God really good?” Israel specifically responded in this place: “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us…?” Interesting how sarcasm and cynicism can be indicators of fear and unbelief?!

In Israel’s trouble, God spoke through His chosen mediator. What a kind God to speak to us when we need Him the most! Israel’s mediator spoke to him words of faith: “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will work for you…The LORD will fight for you…” (Exo. 14:13-14; cf. Eph. 6:10-18). He did: “…HE WILL WORK FOR YOU…HE WILL FIGHT FOR YOU…” (Emphasis: all of grace!! Emphasis: What would God not do for His people??!!). God fought and delivered Israel from all of his fears! Israel’s tribulation eventually brought deep joy and rejoicing in the LORD! This was God’s way to bring his people through tribulation and fears to the freedom of great exultation and rejoicing!

Many years later, one true and faithful Israelite, God’s own Beloved Son, would be in an extremely difficult place. On one side would be God’s enemies, on the other side, the just wrath of God the Father poured out on a Roman crucifix. It didn’t seem like the best route, but it was the only one. This was God’s perfect way, and this Israelite knew it and had lovingly come for this reason (John 10:17). And God’s Son had real and deep temptations to fear (Let this comfort you in your fears that he sympathizes with you!). Yet He conquered in faith by saying: “Not my will, but yours be done.” It was the joy that was set before Him that helped Him to endure (Heb. 12:2b). Joy can do that!

As God had brought salvation and life to His people through the Red Sea, so now God would bring the ultimate salvation and deliverance from all sin and evil through crucifixion. As Israel went down into the sea in a kind of baptism into death, and rose to a newness of life in God’s presence on the other side. So, the LORD Jesus would cut a permanent path of peace and eternal joy through His own death on the cross, and rise to newness and life and eternal glory for all of his own (cf. Rom. 6:4-5).

In Christ, let us mediate upon His love for us. Let this perfect love cast out all of your fears (1 Jo. 4:18). Christ came to speak sweet and comforting words as our Mediator: “Fear not, I am with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Like Israel before us, our fears say: “God is not with you”; “God is not good”; “God will not help you, you are only getting what you know you deserve.” Yet let us hear our great mediator enthroned in exalted glory in heaven say to us, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today…the LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent” (Exo. 14:13-14). Let us hear our gentle Jesus say: “’Thy will be done’ will lead to great rejoicing for you. Trust me as you keep your eyes on me.”

Recently, I saw some arrogance in myself (that I’m sure you saw first!), and I asked God to make me more humble, and to be able to rejoice in the LORD in all times. It was costly. I was humbled. My fears said: “God is not with you”; “You are getting what you deserve”; “You are a loser!” (I know, sad, but that’s what I hear!); “Does God really care about you?!” My faith said: “This is good for me”; “Christ is in this to answer my prayers, and to give me lasting joy that is my strength in learning to trust in Him alone”. I was humbled unto joy at that point. Sure, the humbling was still painful, but I could rejoice knowing the LORD is good, and was committed to answering my prayers! God was bringing further salvation joy as He has promised he would (Exo. 14:13; cf. Phil. 1:6).

Let this bring you to rejoice in the LORD, too! This is the joy of the LORD that is our strength! (Neh. 8:10). It is a costly joy, because it cost the LORD Jesus Christ his own precious blood to bring us into the safe and comforting communion and union with Him through faith, so that we could indeed rejoice in the LORD always! It is a costly joy, because we must learn to trust Him in tribulation, and that can be hard, but it is the only way, the right way. We will struggle against fears and flesh, but let us have faith in the LORD Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of all things good in us, and the glorious hope of our lives. Remember: Through times of tribulation, joy will eventually come (Lam. 3:21-28)! Let us rejoice by faith in this Biblical truth!

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.”

– ESV Philippians 4:4

Prayers for KCPC from the Book of Acts

Memory Verse for 2016

“So the church…had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied” (Acts 9:31)

Gratitude that Jesus is our Exalted King and Mediator (1:2-4; 2:25-36; 3:13,26; 10:38-42): Lord Jesus, thank you that you were “taken up” for your people (1:2), exalted as king (2:33-34), to serve as Mediator, and to empower us by your Holy Spirit. Fill us with your Spirit (4:8,31b; 5:32; 7:55).

Empowered by His Spirit for Obedience: Lord Jesus, we recognize our great need of your Spirit’s empowerment in order to live as your servants in this world. Fill us with your Spirit, and let us be faithful (1:4-5,8; 5:5b,11; 11:23-24).

Power in the Preaching of Word: Lord Jesus, grant power to your Minister of the Word, and to our teachers, and bring transformation and growth in us and in our world (2:42-43; 4:4,20,31b; 5:42; 6:4,7,10; 8:4,25,35; 9:27; 10:44; 11:20-21; 12:24).

Faithful in Prayer: Lord Jesus, let us be faithful to pray daily with great expectancy (2:42; 4:24-31; 10:4,31; 12:12).

Joy: Lord Jesus, fill us with your Spiritual joy! (Luke 24:52-53; 8:8,39; 11:18).

Expectancy of Jesus’s Return: Lord Jesus, help us to be looking for your return (1:11).

Confidence, Boldness and Strong Faith in Tribulation: Lord Jesus, though we suffer, let us be confident, bold and full of faith in the face of tribulations (4:8,13,19-20; 5:29; 6:8a; 7:55).

Unity and Warm Fellowship: Lord Jesus, grant us a deeper understanding of our unity and union with you by your Spirit, and to enjoy warm and close fellowship as your servants (2:42-47; 4:32-33; 11:1,23-24).

Generosity: Lord Jesus, make us generous and recognize our unity as the Body of Christ (2:44-47; 4:32-35; 10:4,31; 11:29).

Growth: Lord Jesus, grant us spiritual and numerical growth this year as a congregation and denomination (2:41,47; 5:14,42; 6:7b; 9:31; 11:1,20-21; 12:24).

Guidance: Lord Jesus, guide us by your perfect will this year (1:24).