Tag: Biblical Reflections

Your Mission Today

Word of Encouragement

 

Dear Beloved Congregation in Jesus,

 

Here is your mission for today, and as you prepare for worship tomorrow:

 

ESV Hebrews 10:23-25: 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.

 

  • Remember God’s promises and faithfulness to you and your family. Think of five specific ways you see the mercy of God in your past; now in your present (the fact that you breathe is one mercy if you’re having trouble, although I think you will not!).

 

  • In light of God’s promises and faithfulness, hold fast your confession of hope, and do not waver. Lift up your eyes and see your loving Savior who is calling you to find the mercy and grace that you need at the throne of grace (Heb. 4:16).

 

  • In light of God’s promises and faithfulness to you in Jesus, consider, that is think seriously about how to stir up one another to love and good works. Plot in your mind how you could be a blessing today to another in our congregation. Think, consider, plot, plan how you can stir another up to love and good works, because by nature, and through difficulties we are typically self-centered, and when tried by circumstances we grow weary and our the flame of our zeal for God is doused by the water of the wicked one. Stir up, like with a fire, stir up the flame through seeking to bless others, praying for the power of the Spirit.

 

  • And meet together for worship and service! Pray and prepare for worship tomorrow with high expectations of what God can do by His Spirit (Zech. 4:6), and encourage one another to persevere and be fruitful. Plan how you’re going to do this today and tomorrow.

 

  • The Day is approaching; time is very short. Much time has already been lost by worldliness, slothfulness and spiritual sleepiness. The world is passing away with all of the desires (1 John 2:17), let us do the will of God for we will endure and abide forever! Let us continue to seek Him, and ask Jesus never to let us again slumber and grow careless in light of His coming (Matt. 25). Let us encourage one another to serve Jesus with our whole hearts and beings, knowing that the time is short (Eph. 5:15; Romans 13:11-13).

 

  • We are easily discouraged, but let us endure because of Christ’s grace to us and His promises and faithfulness to be our God! Let us remember: Do not grow weary in doing good, for you will reap a harvest if you don’t give up! (Gal. 6:9).

 

In Christ’s love,

 

Pastor Charles

“Reformation Righteousness”- 494th Anniversary of the Reformation

REFORMATION DAY- 494th ANNIVERSARY


“Get over it!” “The Reformation was a historical event that took place years ago; it is irrelevant to me and to modern people.” “Just give me Jesus and I will be happy. What good could come from revisiting the teaching of the Reformation in today’s church?” “I’m interested in what Jesus is doing today.”

These are some of the initial comments one is likely to get from other well-meaning Christians unfamiliar, uninformed, and/or disinterested in the Reformation of the 16th century. Yet, what God did in His goodness during the Reformation was nothing less than the reestablishment of the gospel, the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ, that had been eclipsed by the supposed good works of men.

The Reformation was a time when God allowed light to shine in the darkness of the failed attempts of feeble and sinful men trying to earn righteousness from good works, and only ending in despair before a holy God. In the Reformation, God allowed his grace to come again into glorious sight, so that one could truly know how to be made right or at peace with the living God.

How IS a sinful person to be made right before a holy God?

The Holy Spirit through the light of the Scriptures illumined minds and hearts and reminded needy sinners about salvation, hope, and true life found only in Jesus Christ and his righteousness. The Reformation of the 16th century was a powerful work of the Holy Spirit, and a tremendous revival that awakened the church to the centrality of Christ and His Gospel.

What can the Reformation teach us today? Everything! If we are interested in knowing how we can stop “trying harder” and beating ourselves up when we fail, and learn to rest in the righteousness of Christ alone! What we can learn from the Reformation today is to stop saying “I’ll try harder” and begin saying “CHRIST for me, for me, for me”!

Luther’s Reformation
This week is the 494th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation. On October 31, 1517, a young pastor and Bible teacher in Wittenberg, Germany posted 95 Theses (or “things he wanted to discuss with other pastors and teachers in the church”) on the door of the Castle Church in his home town. Not intending anything other than a discussion with other pastors and teachers, Martin Luther was used by God to begin a reformation of the church by returning to the foundation of Scripture alone. Through the recent invention of the printing press, Martin Luther’s 95 Theses were published and literally spread throughout the world; as we would say today, Luther’s message “went viral”.

Luther had learned that the Bible taught that salvation was not sold by indulgences, or man’s contributed good works, but that grace was God’s alone to give. The Pope at the time of Luther was audaciously offering salvation, hope, and the chance for Uncle Buck to get out of purgatory if the people of the town would pay the right price. Luther’s ’95 Theses’ questioned the authority of the Pope to be able to offer salvation, hope, or redemption for money. These 95 things Luther wanted to discuss caused Luther to seek ultimate authority for the church in the Scriptures and not in the whims of popes and councils, because both had erred; Scripture alone was to be the Church’s ultimate authority and sole rule of faith.

What came from this study of Scripture alone, and asking what Scripture taught concerning man’s salvation, hope and life in Christ, was the realization and experiencing of true salvation, real hope, and the abundant life found only in Christ. The doctrines, or teachings of the Reformation established upon, and found in Scripture alone were: faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, to the glory of God alone (known today as the ‘Solas’ or the five watchwords of the Reformation: Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Solus Christus, Soli Deo Gloria based upon Sola Scriptura).

Righteousness Revealed from God
What Luther discovered when going to the Scriptures alone was that a righteousness had been revealed from God, not from within himself or from external works, but a righteousness that God provided for all who believe in Christ. God who demanded perfect righteousness of every single human being for salvation and communion with Him, also had provided this perfect righteousness in Jesus to be received by faith alone (Romans 1:17).

ESV Romans 1:16-17: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Salvation was found by going to Christ, not by going through the motions of external obedience. This righteousness of Christ was received by faith alone. Christ had a perfect righteousness that we could never obtain as sinners. This is why the Apostle Paul writes (Romans 4:4-5, 8:

“Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness… “Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin”.

The grace of God was not something man could cooperate with as in the Medieval Roman Catholic theology (as well as in some Evangelical circles today), it was all of grace (Eph. 2:5-10). Grace alone meant that man’s will was in bondage to the flesh, the world and the Devil and the only way that the will could freely choose Christ was for the heart to be regenerated, awakened from the dead, pass from death to life, and this all by grace so that no one could boast, as Paul teaches in Ephesians 2.

ESV Ephesians 2:4-10: But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,p not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Christ alone was the only Mediator (1 Tim. 2:5), our only Savior and Substitute for sin (Romans 5:10; 2 Corinthians 5:21). The truth of Christ alone was summarized in 1 Corinthians 1:30 and 2 Corinthians 5:21:

1 Corinthians 1:30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

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

In the Scriptures above from Paul’s Letters to the Romans, Ephesians, and Corinthians, notice the fullness of Christ’s saving work: God made us alive while still dead in sin (Eph. 2:4). Because we are dead and lack any kind of righteousness before God, Christ is our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30). Christ’s righteousness, not ours is our merit before a Holy and Just God. Christ alone is our holiness or sanctification and He is the One who has paid the ransom price by His precious blood to purchase us back and make us children of God.

Also notice the substitutionary quality of Christ alone: Jesus became sin (He who knew no sin). In other words, our sins were laid on his back and he was cursed for us (for us, for us, for us!!! Shout it loudly wherever you are!). His righteousness would cause us to become the righteousness of God through imputation. The perfect righteousness of Christ was imputed to us! This is what Christ alone meant! (2 Cor. 5:21)

And all of this salvation in Christ was for the glory of God alone!
As Romans 11:36 says: “From Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to God be the glory forever and ever!” Our salvation is all for the praise of HIS glorious grace, as Paul teaches in Ephesians 1!

Today’s Reformation
We have a great need for a Reformation today in Christ’s Church as well! We may not have neighbors selling indulgences and literally trying to buy their way out of hell (although you will find some who are sadly doing this).

What we do have today are well-meaning folks who call themselves Christians who are focusing more on what they do for Christ, than what Christ has done for them. Even though the intention is good, the bracelets some wear with the phrase “What Would Jesus Do” (WWJD) seem to focus too much on our doing and not what Christ has already done! Even if you don’t have this slogan on your wall, and don’t wear a bracelet on your arm, your hope and confidence before God is based on what you have done for God more than what Christ has done for you often times.


Be honest about this. Then look to Christ for hope. What a loving and beautiful Savior that calls us constantly to come to the Throne of Grace and find mercy and hope and grace in our time of need (Heb. 4:16)! Christ can give us relief from our selves; Christ can show us His precious and costly blood that has redeemed us; Christ prays for His people with nail-pierced hands that earned righteousness for us and in this we can hope and have great confidence!


I believe that the main focus for Christians every day should be the centrality of Christ and His work for us. In other words we might have a slogan like this (rather than ‘What Would Jesus Do?”): “What Has Jesus Already Done in His Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension for Me?”, but then it would be too long of a phrase for a bracelet or a nice bumper sticker; it would be:

“WHJADIHLDRAAFM?” rather than “WWJD?”

Probably not an easy sell or an easy fit on a nice porcelain figurine in a Christian book store. 🙂

Remember beloved of God: “It is well with my soul” because “It is finished!” not because “It is about me and my attempts at righteousness”. We need Reformation today! It is well with your soul because of Christ’s finished work of satisfying God’s wrath for you; it is finished because Jesus has offered Himself as the Lamb of God, the Final Sacrificial offering for sin and is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him (Heb. 7:25). It is well and it is finished because Jesus was your substitute and God made Jesus who knew no sin to become sin for you, so that you might be righteous in His sight (2 Cor. 5:21). God put Jesus forward as your propitiating sacrifice. Praise God!! Hallelujah!!

Now go and live for JESUS freely as you never have! Go and live and love JESUS AND OTHERS as you never thought you could. Because you couldn’t before because you thought it was your strength, and your works, and this is burdensome and will not lead to love of God and others, but only discouragement, condemnation and doubt!

Go live for Him and be thankful for a Savior- -not merely a helper for good people- -but a real Savior for sinners, who were once enemies of God before they were reconciled by Christ’s grace! (Romans 5:1-11).

It is true that there are some in our day- – these who call themselves Christians!- – who think that the reason they are saved ultimately is not because of grace alone, but because they have cooperated with grace held out to them. This was what the fight in the Reformation was all about! Medieval Roman Catholic theology is quite complex, but it is foundationally a system of earning salvation by cooperating with grace held out to men, who then respond with their faith, and then salvation is merited to them because of their faith, or because of their works, etc.

We focus on the gorgeous and fantastic Greek word “huper” but point it to Christ! What does this mean? “Huper” means “because of” or “on account of”. We are not saved “huper” or “because of” our faith or our works. But we are saved (“Super-Huper Saved!!) “HUPER” or “because of” Christ. Christ saves us through faith.

If Evangelical Christians in our day would stop and think about it, I think they would find their theology to be more Roman Catholic than they would like to admit! The term ‘Protestant’ used to mean that one was opposed to this Medieval theology of salvation by cooperation, but today’s Evangelical Protestant is not so much protesting this way of false salvation as much as they are protesting the Reformed way of thinking. At one time to be a Protestant meant you were protesting a false hope held out to you. Now it seems to mean in many circles that I am protesting against believing what the Reformation taught about grace alone.

We must be warned that this teaching that says you are saved by cooperating with the grace of God will never produce the humility a Christian must have to know and love God.  This kind of “cooperation salvation” makes people boast! It gives people in this world every reason to boast, which is what Paul is trying to prevent in Ephesians 2 where he is explaining grace alone.

If (and I do say “IF”) every person in the world had the same access to grace and the same ability to cooperate with that grace using their so-called ‘free-will’, it would give one person who chose Christ over someone who rejected him every reason to boast. This is the most popular understanding today in Evangelical circles of how someone is saved! Because there is a reason to boast, it therefore undermines the grace of God and promotes the good works, will, and decisions of men (cf. John 1:12-13; Romans 9:10-21). We need Reformation today!

Also, when Christians are brought up and “nurtured” on a diet of “Christ and you” rather than “Christ in you” (which is the hope of glory, Col. 1:28ff), then we are reminded that we have need of a Reformation. When many sermons every Lord’s Day are on examples from Scripture rather than being centered on the Christ of Scripture, men will “dare to be like Daniel’s” while failing to truly know what it means to trust Christ alone, the very Savior of Daniel! The Scriptures speak of Christ (John 3:30; 5:24ff; Luke 24:25ff), and so must we- – speak of Christ alone! We need Reformation today!

When our worship becomes just another opportunity for mindless entertainment rather than focused on God alone and his glory, we can forget that worship is about HIM and not about us. When we are thinking more about “what we are getting out of the sermon” and whether it is meeting our “felt needs”, we are not worshipping in spirit and truth!

Furthermore, when we reach out to the goats and design our worship to make them feel comfortable, we are failing to reach the sheep and failing to hear the true voice of our Shepherd (John 10). Jesus says as Shepherd that His sheep hear his voice in faithful preaching and they will follow him! We must be reminded about all things being done for the glory of God alone- – and not for us (including our salvation- – of course we benefit, but according to Ephesians 1 and Romans 9, salvation is ultimately for God’s glory!) We need Reformation today!

Revival and Reformation
So, in our day, we need to be reminded of the Reformation! If we want revival, we ought to first seek the Reformation of our congregations so that we might return to the foundational authority of Scripture alone and not add a lot of our own modern and “culturally relevant” teachings of men (which we tend to as idolaters, to place on the same level as Scripture just as the Pharisees, or the Medieval Church of Rome which Luther stood against).

We need to return to Scripture alone and rediscover daily the glorious teaching of faith alone- – our righteousness is not our own, but revealed by God to us so that we can have an ‘alien righteousness’ or the righteousness of Christ given to us.

In other words, the good news of Faith alone is that all that we have done in our sins against God, both committing sins positively against him as well as negatively omitting certain things we should have done, Christ has done all of these for us (for us, for us, for us! Shout it again!).

Salvation **is** by works- – but not ours (our works are never good enough) — our salvation is by the work of Christ for us and His earned and merited righteousness, because of the salvation he achieved by loving God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength, and his neighbor as himself. This is given to us by faith alone (and this makes us have really “good news” and hope for the world!).

The Reformation in Our Own Hearts
From this realization of Faith alone, we are reminded daily that it is all of grace alone because of Christ’s work alone, and this all for God’s glory! May we be delivered daily of the Medieval mindset of trying to earn our salvation, even in the sense of cooperating with God. May we be delivered from looking to our failures as well as our successes rather than looking away from both to Christ.

May we find that making lists and checking them twice is a Medieval way, as well as an Old Covenant way to failure, and the a fast and broad way that leads to destruction. Remember, those who make lists come to Christ and say: I prophesied, preached, witnessed, cast out demons and did might works in your name. Christ says to those trusting in their lists “Depart from me – -I never knew you!” (Matt. 7:23ff; 25:41ff).

Jesus says: On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

“Workers of lawlessness” are those who approach a holy God with their own works, rather than crying empty-handedly: “Lord, have mercy on me a sinner- – for Christ sake alone!”

The one who understands grace that is truly gracious is the one that stands before Christ and says: “Nothing in my hands to I bring, simply to your cross do I cling!”

In Philippians 3:4-12, the Apostle Paul gives his list for his confidence in the flesh, then proceeds to discard it. May you discard whatever list you have, whatever thing other than Christ you are trusting in and receive daily by faith the righteousness revealed in Jesus.

Philippians 3:4,7-9: though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more…But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord… That I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith…”

May we not make lists of our own, whether it be our successes leading to self-righteousness, or lists of failures leading to our condemnation, discouragement, and depression.

But may we be as Paul who, putting his lists behind him, who pressed forward to know Christ. Read Philippians 3 carefully again, and remember that this truth will set you free of list making and law keeping that has more in common with Medieval Catholic theology (that Luther fought) and Pharisaical theology (that the Apostle Paul considered “dung”).

Look to Christ and discover anew the Reformation of the 16th Century in your own heart of heart. Remember the vital importance of Scripture alone, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, to the glory of God alone!
Soli Deo Gloria!

Ephesians 3:20-21: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

 

In Christ’s love,

 

Pastor Charles R. Biggs

“What the Spirit Says…Diligence and Discipline”

Word of Encouragement- The Church of Pergamum- “Diligence and Discipline”

 

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”- Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22

 

“…We make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God…”- 2 Corinthians 5:9b-11a

 

Dear Beloved of the LORD at KCPC: I am writing short messages on the seven churches for our Word of Encouragement so that we might better assess where we are spiritually as a congregation, show us areas that need to be realigned with God’s Word, and how we might more effectively and sincerely make it our aim to please the Lord Jesus Christ!

 

If you would like to read the introduction to this short series, you may read here: Word of Encouragement

 

What are our strengths and weaknesses as a congregation? How can we ask God to better search and know us corporately? How are we doing at KCPC as a visible manifestation of Christ’s Kingdom on earth? Are we loving God and others as we did when we were first saved and gathered as Christ’s flock?

 

We will focus today on Jesus’ message to the Church at Pergamum (Revelation 2:12-17)

 

“And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. “‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’

 

As we learned in our introduction to this series, it is important to remind ourselves that these seven congregations of the Revelation were real historical churches at the time that John the Apostle wrote his Revelation of Jesus Christ.  However, we want to understand that they are also symbolic of the entire church age between Jesus’ first and second coming.

 

This means that what Jesus says to the churches, we need to consider soberly for ourselves.  Jesus is still speaking to us (Hebrews 12:25).  Jesus is particularly speaking to His people in these letters as a corporate body and congregation of confessional Christians, and not merely as individuals. This is why it is good to use these letters to be assessed by Christ as we seek to grow in him as a body.

 

We should understand that through the reading and preaching of the Word in public worship, we at KCPC are also recipients of this important letter.  Jesus is addressing us, too!

 

Dear Ketoctin Covenant Presbyterian Church…Dear Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, in Purcellville, Virginia:

 

“Dear Pergamum”: Jesus’ primary message to the congregation at Pergamum is:

 

A church must be diligent in following Jesus even to death, and must practice biblical disciple because there are ferocious wolves from without and wolves within (Acts 20:28ff).  A church must diligently endure persecution but also reject false teaching.  A Church must attend to the means of grace God has provided and practice Biblical discipline.

 

Final Prophet with Two-Edged Sword

The letter is addressed from the Lord Jesus Christ described particularly as “the Christ who has the sharp two-edged sword”—these are HIS words (v. 12; cf. v. 16; 1:16).  The sharp two-edged sword is symbolic for Christ’s Word to His people.  The two-edged sword is the sword of prophetic salvation and judgment.  As Isaiah said:

 

ESV Isaiah 49:2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away.

 

Christ is revealed as the Great and Final Eschatological Prophet of God at His right hand. Christ speaks like a two-edged sword that cuts two ways a two-edged message to His people: blessings for those who hear and believe, and curses for those who reject Him and His message.  The Apostle Paul describes Christ’s Word as the “sword of the Spirit” (Eph. 6:17).  The Word of Christ cuts deep; the Word of Christ speaks salvation to those who believe and condemnation and judgment to those who reject it.  Christ’s Word is living and active upon our sinful hearts, penetrating deep to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb. 4:12-13).

 

The Risen-Ascended Christ having the two-edged sword reminds us that the Book of Revelation is a book about the triumph of God’s Truth over Satanic lies and illusions and error and idolatry.  Christ’s words are truth and they condemn those who deny the truth.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life no one comes to the Father except through Him! (John 14:6).

 

Church Planting Near the Beast and Harlot’s Neighborhood

Jesus reminds us of His care for us: “I know where you dwell…” (v. 13a).  Isn’t it comforting that the LORD Jesus knows exactly where we live; what time period we are a part of, what our particular struggles are, etc.? The LORD knows those who are his and knows intimately where they live and move and have their being; God never leaves for forsakes his people.

 

This congregation at Pergamum dwells or has been planted or established “where Satan’s throne is” (v. 13a).

 

What does it mean that Pergamum is the location of “Satan’s throne”? The City of Pergamum was located about fifty miles north of Smyrna and the church had to contend against extremely strong pagan forces.  Pergamum was the location of the oldest temple devoted to idolatry that was first erected for the purpose of worshipping Caesar Augustus.  This very old temple in Asia Minor continued for the purpose of worshipping the Emperor of Rome.  Pergamum was the Roman capital of the Province of Asia; the city was like an ancient Washington D.C. in that it was the seat of Roman government for Asia Minor.

 

The congregation at Pergamum had to learn to fight the good fight in this world in the midst of both persecution and wickedness of all kinds.  As we learn in the larger Book of Revelation, the Church of Jesus must always be watchful and praying, learning to contend against “the Beast” which is a terrible image of government that exalts itself against God and persecutes believers in every age, as well as “the Harlot” who deceives folks through sexual immortality, wealth and the riches of this world (see chaps. 17-19).

 

Our congregation still faces today “the Beast” and “the Harlot”. The Beast is an image of Satan to cause Christians to compromise; the Beast is any threat of government opposition to the preaching of the Gospel; this may be more subtle in North America, but nevertheless, we do struggle against different types of persecution from the Beast. The Beast wants to cause Christians to compromise under its power. The Harlot is the sexual immorality, wealth and riches of the world that distract us daily and even on a moment by moment basis to give ups pursuing heaven and settle for the pitiful “pleasures of sin” for a season in this age that is passing away. Let us never forget that whether Satan attacks us with His power or with prostituting ourselves with the world, we are tempted to compromise; LET US STAND in the whole armor of God! (Eph. 6:10ff).

 

Government was instituted by God as his servant or “minister” (Romans 13) to wield the sword on behalf of God.  However, government can also be a tool or instrument used by Satan to hinder the Gospel and oppose Christ’s Church.  Pergamum was a great pagan city full of wickedness and idolatry and from the looks of things, from a limited perspective, Satan’s “throne” there seemed to have had much more power and authority than Christ’s Church.  The Church was to live by the Truth that proceeded out of Christ’s mouth rather than stumbling because of the way things seemed from their finite perspective.

 

The good news is that Christ is the Risen-Ascended-Enthroned King and although it may seem that like Satan’s throne is more powerful, the Gospel of Jesus will break through and possess the hearts of His Beloved people.  This is the hope for anyone called to preach the gospel in the midst of strong satanic paganism- -Christ’s throne is greater- -and He possesses as King of kings and Lord of lords all authority in heaven and on earth (Phil. 2:9-11; Matt. 28:18-20).

 

Later in the Book of Revelation, the Apostle John shows to us the reality of Christ’s power and throne over Satan:

 

Revelation 11:15-18: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” 16 And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. 18 The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants,1 the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”

 

As we proceed through the Book of Revelation we will see the Triumph of the Lamb who sits upon the throne as He overthrows all of His and our enemies.  The Book of Revelation is how the Lamb who sits upon the throne as King of kings and Lord of lords destroys all competing thrones that set themselves up against God and His Anointed One (Psalm 2).

 

Because of Christ’s intimate knowledge of His people, they can be assured that come what may, he will never leave them nor forsake them as the King who sits upon God’s throne! We can be confident that Jesus is our King and rules and reigns over heaven and earth.

 

Hold Fast and Be Faithful to the End!

Commendation of the LORD Jesus: Although Pergamum is located where Satan’s throne is they “hold fast” to Christ’s Name and they have not denied their faith in Jesus; even when persecution was so bad that Antipas was martyred as a faithful witness as a sacrifice before Satan’s throne, they did not deny Jesus (v. 13b).

 

The congregation of saints were walking by faith and not by sight; they were holding to the promises of God in the midst of tribulation (cf. 1:9).  Although they had suffered from being in a central pagan location, they had nevertheless been faithful to preaching the Gospel of Christ.

 

In fact, even though they lost one of their members named Antipas, perhaps even the pastor of the congregation, they did not deny Jesus.  Although they Kingdom of Satan dealt them a harsh blow, they kept the faith and did not back down from making the truth known.

 

Antipas as martyr is identified with Jesus Christ as he is called the “Faithful Witness” or “Faithful Martyr”- -to be a witness for Christ and to receive persecution for Christ’s sake is to be identified with him and to be blessed:

 

ESV Revelation 1:5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood

 

Matthew 5:11-12: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

 

But there were some things out of order that Jesus addressed to them so that the congregation through repentance might align themselves with Christ’s Holy Word!

 

Humble, Biblical Discipline is Necessary!

Correct/Rebuke to congregation from the Lord Jesus Christ: “But I have a few things against you…” (v. 14a).

 

What should we learn from Christ’s correction and rebuke from Jesus Christ as a congregation?

 

Jesus says that the congregation should have practiced humble, biblical discipline: You have as part of your congregation some who hold to the teaching of Balaam who taught Balak the king of Moab to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel… (v. 14b). By not removing the sinful teaching and behavior, it was putting a stumbling block before others in the congregation, causing them to stumble in their doctrine and life.

 

What does Jesus mean by “teaching of Balaam”?  You wil remember back in Numbers 22, Balaam gave Balak advice that led Israel to worship false gods and practice sexual immorality; Balaam advised King Balak to lure the Israelites into apostasy (Numbers 25:1-4; 31:8, 16).

 

ESV Numbers 25:1-4: While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel. And the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people and hang  them in the sun before the LORD, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.”

 

ESV Numbers 31:16 Behold, these, on Balaam’s advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the LORD in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the LORD.

 

When Israel went astray in the Book of Numbers God told Moses to discipline the people and remove all of the sinful folks from the visible church through death.  Although this is not how discipline is practiced in the New Covenant era, the message is the same: remove the sinful leaven so that the loaf of the congregation will be holy unto the LORD.

 

The congregation at Pergamum did not practice discipline as they should have; they had allowed certain elements of unbelief and paganism to contaminate the congregation (this was a threat to the Gospel of Hope in that dark city).  If the sinful leaven is not removed, it will work through the whole batch and the light of the Gospel will be forgotten and lost.  Jesus’ rebuke is similar to the Apostle Paul’s words about discipline in the congregation at Corinth:

 

ESV 1 Corinthians 5:1-5: It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

 

These in the congregation are teaching some of the congregation that they can eat food sacrificed to idols and to practice sexual immorality (v. 14c).  Jesus is saying that within a congregation gross idolatry and fornication are not to be tolerated.  Behaviors like this are inconsistent with the profession of faith in the visible Church and must be removed.

 

Secondly, Jesus corrects and rebukes the congregation because they also tolerated some who held to the teaching of the Nicolaitans (v. 15).  Jesus ‘hates the works of the Nicolaitans’ which was a threat to the Church at Ephesus as well (Rev. 2:6).  The Ephesian Church was commended for hating the works of the Nicolaitans as Christ hates their works (2:6), but Pergamum was tolerating their teaching as well as the sexual immorality.

 

Jesus teaches to all congregations the importance of church discipline and why it must be humbly practiced in conjunction with the Word of God preached and applied to men’s souls.  Christ’s address to this congregation reveals that the Reformation teachers were correct when they made discipline in the visible church one of the key and foundational marks of the True Church along with right preaching of the Word and the proper administration of the Sacraments.

 

Many congregations then and now could be commended by Jesus for not denying the faith, and for faithfully preaching the gospel, but who would be rebuked by the Lord Jesus for not disciplining those who were idolaters, sexual offenders and false teachers within their pale. This is another reason why the Book of Revelation is so important for those who read it (Rev. 1:1-3). As churches between the first and second comings of Jesus, we can find out more particularly pleases Him, and what we will have to face at the Judgment Seat of Christ if we do not face it now.

 

We must remember that godly discipline in a congregation is to promote purity in life and doctrine for all the members. Discipline is to threaten in such a way that it will hold members accountable to Christ’s Word.  Discipline is a corrective and can restore sinful offenders back to fellowship with God.  When discipline is properly practiced, it can save souls from hell, and restore the repentant to full communion with the saints so that the person disciplined might grow in their assurance and joyfully await the return of Christ (rather than dreading it!).

 

Repentance and Forgiveness!

A call to repentance for the congregation: “Therefore repent!” (v. 16a).  God is not willing that any of his people should perish but for all His Beloved people to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).  There is always opportunity for true repentance so that we might experience the full and abundant life of being in joyful fellowship and communion with God! God is good to His people when they leave their sins and return to their Lord Jesus in order to follow His two-edged teaching with more sharpness and more carefully!

 

Consequences for not hearing what the Spirit says to the churches (v. 16-17): “I will come to you soon and war against the false teachers with the sword of my mouth” (cf. v. 12; 1:16).  This shows by way of inference that what elders here bind on earth in the visible church by correctly disciplining according to God’s Word, it is bound in heaven; what elders loose on earth according to God’s Word is loosed in heaven (Matthew 18).

 

If discipline at Pergamum is not faithfully carried out, then Christ himself will come from heaven and discipline the offenders.  The implication is that if the pastor-elders use the Word of God to discipline the Nicolaitans in the congregation, then he won’t have to come in judgment- -it will have already been accomplished.  How would this happen?

 

Jesus is not promising to come back and judge, meaning the end of time when he returns to save and judge in his Second Coming.  Rather, Jesus is speaking of a providential acting with circumstances that will bring judgment upon the Nicolaitans and the congregation in general (Acts 5).

 

Blessings for All Conquerors in Christ!

Promises for those who hear what the Spirit says to the churches (v. 17): “To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it” (cf. 19:12; also 3:12; 14:1; 22:4).

 

The hidden manna is Christ’s promise of the abundant life.  In contrast to the pagan meals that some were a part of the idolatry in Pergamum, the believers could partake in Christ’s meal: Christ’s life given to them by faith NOW; the life of Christ communicated to them by faith in the Lord’s Supper NOW; and one day the Wedding Supper of the Lamb with Christ Himself for eternity (Rev. 21-22).

 

While idolatry and sexual immorality create the illusion of satisfying sinful mankind, Christ will feed his people physically and spiritually with his LIFE and Spirit now and for eternity.  Manna was kept in the Holy of Holies or Most Holy Place in the tabernacle (Exodus 16:33-35; Heb. 9:4).  This symbolized Christ as the Bread of Life that feeds and nourishes His people.

 

ESV Exodus 16:33-35: And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the LORD to be kept throughout your generations.” As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept. The people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan.

 

ESV John 6:32-36: Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”  Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.

 

The promise of the white stone: We should remember that white is the Biblical color for purity and holiness (cf. 7:13).  The white stones were white marble that was very valuable in Pergamum in the ancient world.  Christ is promising to give something of great value, more valuable than all of the riches of Pergamum, that will reveal his intimate knowledge of His people: He knows his people by name.

 

ESV Isaiah 62:2 The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give.

 

Christ loves his people and the reason for this letter (as well as the letters to the other 6 congregations) was to teach Christ’s Church in the Inter-Adventual period to continue to persevere by His grace.

 

Christ’s Word is a means of grace, or a means by which Christ tells His people who he is, what he has done for them, and how they can persevere by faith.

 

Those who persevere to the end will realize that they are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:31-39), but by His grace they must realize this every day as they persevere to the end keeping their eyes on Jesus the Author and Perfector of their faith.

 

Let us at KCPC make every opportunity to seek Christ’s means of grace to persevere.  May we continue to hear and believe and trust Christ’s Word as He continues to lead us to the Promised Land.  Let us partake of the Sacraments, knowing that we are partaking by faith of Christ, the Bread of Life, the Manna from Heaven, and He will satisfy the longings of our hearts, and feed us with heavenly food.

 

Let us practice as a congregation biblical discipline so that we might remain pure as the people of God, and that sinful offenders in life and doctrine might repent and be restored to fellowship with God before it is too late.

 

May these devotional studies of assessment from Jesus using the letters to the seven churches of the Revelation cause us to better align ourselves with His truth, and encourage us all to make it our aim to please Jesus who died for us while we were yet sinners (Rom. 5:6-8).

 

May we live daily as a congregation before the face of Christ and so before the Judgment Seat of Christ. When we all arrive at our destination and we stand as the congregation KCPC before Christ’s Judgment, may these short devotions have better prepared us, so that we can stand confident and encouraged in the Lord Jesus’ presence.

 

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”- Jesus Christ

 

In Jesus’ love,

 

Pastor Charles

 

10/14/11

 

Communion with God

Word of Encouragement

The following is a digest of John Owen’s excellent work entitled ‘Communion with the Triune God’ for those who may not have the time to read it right now but would like to benefit from the rich teaching.

 

John Owen on ‘Communion with God’ (Excerpts from his book and a digest of the truths therein).

 

How do I have communion with God? To experience communion with God we must first be reconciled to Him through faith in Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ brings us into fellowship with the Triune God. Jesus reveals God to us and by His Spirit unites us to God. In God, we can have wonderful communion and fellowship with the Eternal God.

 

“…Our fellowship (communion) is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”- 1 John 1:3-4

 

Owen wrote: “To experience communion with God there needs to be fellowship and communication: shared affections, response, delight, and satisfaction. Communion is active communion of giving and receiving.”

 

We have the privilege in Christ to seek God and to find Him. And to find in God one we can share our thoughts, read and meditate upon His words to us and delight and be satisfied by this fellowship. Like the most intimate relationships we have on earth, true communion is to share oneself; it is to enjoy one another; it is to delight and be satisfied. Isn’t is an amazing truth that the God of the universe whom we by nature have offended with our sins, has sought us out in Christ to have intimate fellowship and relationship with us?!

 

We were created for fellowship with God. Only in God do we find what our hearts are ultimately desire; God alone satisfies our souls. God gives by His Spirit through His Word and we receive from Him the grace to live on Him and in Him.

 

The Spirit of God by His grace makes possible our communion with God. The Spirit of God is particularly the One who is sent as Sanctifier and Comforter of God’s people in Christ (John 14-16). The Spirit brings life from our deadened hearts, and unites us with Jesus Christ so that we might have fellowship and communion with God.

 

Owen wrote: “The Spirit as Sanctifier comes with power, to conquer an unbelieving heart; the Spirit as Comforter comes with sweetness to be received in a believing heart.”

 

The Spirit not only enables us to have communion with the Triune God, but He makes us desire communion as we seek after Him. The Spirit makes our communion sweet.  Whatever rules over our affections, rules our emotions and thoughts and will. What we love the most; what is most sweet to us is what will rule the entire person.

 

But as Christians in this world, we still struggle against our sins, and so we must by faith seek the Spirit’s help in our communion with God. Our flesh will fight against us (“war against us” Gal. 5:16), and prevent us from doing what we desire in seeking God (Gal. 5:16-26; Romans 7:13ff).  As we realize this inward conflict, we must seek Christ all the more for help by His Spirit. For those who recognize their emptiness and need, the Spirit takes us to Christ.

 

Owen wrote: “Assure yourself then, there is nothing more acceptable unto the Father, than for us to keep up our hearts unto Him as the Eternal Fountain of all that rich grace which flows out to sinners in the blood of Jesus.”

 

We have a constant, daily need for the grace of Christ. We are dependent upon Him for all things, and we submit humbly to Jesus for a greater and deeper communion with God. Our flesh will try to seek satisfaction from worldly things, even lawful worldly things, but we must never forget that God alone is the one who can satisfy the deepest longings of our soul.  We must keep our hearts unto Him by His gracious Spirit, as we reflect on the death of Christ and the mercy God has shown to us in Him.

 

By nature, God is far from us, therefore we must always think of God’s divine attributes, or the truths about God, through the lens of Christ. We can be confident that in Christ as our Mediator, we will always receive mercy and grace in our time of need (Hebrews 4:14-16). Christ gives us confidence before God, and in Christ we can know that God is for us.

 

As sinful people, we learn in creation that God is above us (Rom. 1:19ff); in the Law we learn that God is against us (Rom. 8:3-4); in Christ Jesus we learn by God’s Spirit that God is for us and if God is for us, who can be against us?! (Romans 8:31).  How are we to be confident and sure that God is for us in Christ? We have confidence by the fact that Jesus who died for sinners is also raised for us and seated at God’s right hand. God has received a down-payment of our flesh in heaven, and so has sent a down-payment of heaven to us by His Spirit.

 

Owen wrote: “For as God has given us the earnest (down payment) of His Spirit, so Has He received from us the earnest of the flesh, and has carried it with Him into heaven as a pledge of that completed entirety which is one day to be restored.”

 

This means that the Spirit takes from Christ and gives to us in our humanity all that we need for life and godliness. Christ satisfies our souls. The Spirit enables us to live for Christ and strengthens us against sin by taking from the glorified humanity of Jesus in heaven. The Spirit is a down-payment now of the full and eternal communion that awaits us for all eternity. We can have a part of eternity now as God has poured out His Spirit into our hearts and grants us His loving presence (Romans 5:5; 2 Cor. 1:21-22).

 

How does God draw us into close communion with Him by His Spirit? By teaching us of His loving thoughts toward us. God reveals His love to us so that we can delight in Him. Everything that Jesus did in His life, death, resurrection, and is doing in His ascended Heavenly ministry at God’s right, is for us, for His beloved.

 

Owen wrote: “From eternity He had thoughts of what He would do for us, and delighted Himself therein. And when Jesus was in the world, in all He went about, He had still this thought: ‘This is for them, and this is for them- -my beloved’.”

 

Let us think on the promises of God in Christ. All of God’s promises are “yes” and “amen” in Christ Jesus! We can draw from God’s promises to us in Christ so that we might draw nearer to Him and benefit from communion with Him.

 

Owen wrote: “The life and soul of all our comforts lie treasured up in the promises of Christ. God’s promises in Christ are the breasts of all our consolation.”

 

Our communion with God will encourage us to be more intentional in our obedience to God. We will know and experience more of the liberating power from the Spirit, and we will live more freely from our sins. Our communion with God will become more of a delight and liberty rather than a mere duty. Prayer will be more frequent and necessary for our souls to be filled up with Christ.

 

Owen wrote: “God’s Spirit brings spiritual freedom, love, and rest. This freedom is a freedom for obedience, not a freedom from it. Slaves take liberty from duty; children have liberty in duty….The soul is never more raised with the love of God than when by the Spirit it is taken into intimate communion with God in prayer.”

 

Let us rejoice in our communion with God and let us seek that heavenly communion with God now as we live here, hoping and awaiting heaven when all of our desires will be fully realized and satisfied.

 

ESV Colossians 3:1-4: If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

 

Ponder the love of God for you.

 

IN Christ’s love,

 

Pastor Biggs

Words without Christ- “Why Sin and Suffering?”

Word of Encouragement

 

Almighty God asks: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?!”– Job 38

 

Dear Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ at KCPC,

 

Recently, I had an excellent question asked to me about suffering and our sins.

 

The question was concerning someone from another congregation in our community who has been suffering great sickness for some time and was told by another well-meaning Christian (not from our congregation!!) that they were suffering because of some specific sin, and that they needed to find out what sin they had committed and repent.  The “friend” of this sufferer told the dear sick person that she must obviously be in some grievous sin, to be so sick for so long.  She told her that all sickness and disease is a direct result of our sin.

 

We should understand that this kind of thinking is very unbiblical, fraught with dangerous consequences for those who hold to this aberrant theology, and promotes self-righteousness in those who believe it (not to mention the despair in dear sufferers it is administered unto). We should avoid thinking this way, and offer other answers for our friends and family members who suffer, answers that are rooted in Biblical truth.

 

Here was my answer to the question.

 

First of all, I am so sorry that your friend was carelessly told this unbiblical view from another person. I’m afraid that I have heard that kind of false teaching “on the street” in this area, and I can only say that our Lord Jesus and the larger teaching of Scripture denies this to be the truth. This kind of teaching that sickness is a direct result of a particular sin is similar to the so-called “friends” of Job who thought that Job was experiencing the calamity and sickness of his life because of some particular sin he had committed.

 

Clearly, in the Book of Job, God rebukes Job’s “friends” for this false theology.

 

The Book of Job opens up with a “behind-the-scenes” look at our loving, merciful and Sovereign God who brings calamity because He is going to use it to train his child and make him more godly and ultimately Christ-like (see the closing chapters of Job in how God teaches Job about the fact that everything he went through was for God’s glory and Job’s good, chapters 38-42, particularly the closing chapters of Job 42).

 

Rarely does someone suffer in this life as Job did, and yet the purpose of the Book of Job is to reveal God as great and good, and to teach that God allows suffering to grow his people in godliness. But the suffering, illness, and/or affliction is not in direct result of a person’s sin, because the Book of Job says Job was righteous in God’s sight, and although a sinner saved by grace, he “never did sin against God” in questioning God, etc.

 

For teaching like your friend heard about her sickness being a direct result of a sin she had committed, God would respond, and has responded (Job 38:1) with these words:

 

“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” ; and read this at the end of Job:

 

ESV Job 42:1-7: Then Job answered the LORD and said: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.

 

Job was able to know God better through his illness and suffering–but he went through his affliction not because of some particular sin he had committed. The purpose of the Book of Job is to teach that sickness, suffering and/or affliction is NOT directly caused by specific sins, but so that God’s children might know Him better through suffering; so that they can understand a bit better things too “wonderful for them”, and to be able to see and know God’s goodness with eyes that only a sufferer in Christ has (see the false teaching of those who would teach otherwise in Job 8:4; 24:19; 33:27; 35:3, 6– God rebukes this thinking as in Job chapters 38-42 mentioned above)!

 

You could say that those who counsel with words without knowledge are those who ultimately counsel others with words without Christ!

 

We must understand that God’s Spirit always leads His people to God for help, outside of oneself to find hope.  God’s Spirit leads suffering people out of themselves so that they would behold a glorious Christ (Job: “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you…”).

 

If a Spirit-filled person is ministering to you as you suffer, you will know that the person is from God and is being biblical in their advice to you because they will point you away from your sin, your suffering, and from what you deserve by nature outwardly toward God so that you find His mercy in Jesus. Only our sinful flesh and the accusing devil himself would lead a suffering child of God back into themselves for answers (see the work of the Spirit of God in John 14-16).

 

For those who point a person away from God to oneself, there is this message from God: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?!”.

 

Notice also more clarity on this kind of thinking about sin and suffering from John 9:1-5 where our Lord and Savior heals a man born blind.

 

Notice how the misunderstanding in the time of the disciples (like Job’s “friends”) was to think that if one was suffering then that must mean that they have done something particularly sinful. We should remember that the default mode of sinful human nature is works-righteousness, so you would expect the thinking at this self-righteous level to be: “If I do bad, I suffer; If I do good, I enjoy my life, etc.” But this is unbiblical as our Lord points out to his generation and ours today:

 

John 9:1-5: As [Jesus] passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

 

In John 9:1-5, when the disciples get a glimpse of the blind beggar and see him for the first time they ask Jesus the age-old faulty theological question of whether this man or his parent’s sinning was the cause of his blindness.  Jesus answers (as God answers Job’s “friends” in Job 38-42) that his blindness was so that the works of God might be manifest in his life and God would be glorified (John 9:1-5).

 

In other words, Jesus says that the reason why the man is blind is so that others might see God’s glory in his being made to see.  Concerning the theology question asked by the apostles, it is assumed by them that a particular sin is the ultimate reason for any physical sicknesses, but we cannot say that just because someone suffers a physical ailment it must be due to a particular sin.  Jesus says that it is so that God may be glorified. 

 

We should understand that there is always a general connection or relationship between the fall of man and our physical and spiritual ailments and/or sicknesses, but only God knows the specific connection between a particular sin and sin’s effects in our lives. It is true that had we not sinned in Adam, had there been no fall of man, then there would be no sin and sickness at all in the world (and that is the hope of the New Creation, Revelation 21:3-7).

 

However, we should never try to understand a cause and effect kind of relationship to our particular sins and sicknesses. We are all far more sinful that we can imagine anyway. None of us get what we truly deserve. In Christ, we get grace and mercy, even though we suffer. Suffering is a result in a general way because of our sin- -the fall of mankind. But why God allows some to suffer in certain ways and other in other ways is beyond us.

 

All we can say for sure is that God uses it to make His children humble and holy like Jesus; God calls us to it so that He will be glorified and we will grow in Christ-likeness.

 

We should be careful of trying to figure out God’s reasons in allowing certain manifestations of physical illnesses in the life of men and women.  We simply do not know.  We know that God is Sovereign and that God is good and he allows these physical manifestations in certain lives for his own good purposes (Deut. 29:29).

 

When someone tries to say that a person’s sickness is a direct result of a particular sin, they reveal that they have a low or impartial view of sin and human nature; they are deceived.  Often these kind of folks think that they have made more progress in their walk with God than they truly have. Those who are blinded by self-righteousness think that if they do good for God, then He will do good to them and they will not suffer, but this is Pharisaical thinking. They think if they are sick it is specifically because they have sinned or been unrighteous before God. Again, this reveals a works-righteousness mentality.

 

We should understand that we do good for God as believers in Christ because we are commanded to do it, and in Christ we are privileged to do it, but this does not mean that we will not suffer. Often those who are making the most progress in the Christian life are the folks whom God chooses to suffer greatly for Him! (See the cross and the Son of God!).

 

Again the words of God to the so-called “friends” of Job are appropriate here: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?!” And those who counsel with words without knowledge are those who ultimately counsel others with words without Christ!

 

Jesus is wise in his response in John 9 to his disciples’ faulty theology: Rather than allowing the disciples to pursue the mysteries of God’s dealings with man and his sin, he graciously explains to them that in this particular case, with this particular man, his blindness was for the glory of God to be revealed in the Person and Work of Jesus.

 

This was to shed light for those who have eyes to see, so that they might reach out in their spiritual blindness for salvation in Christ and be healed!  The question should not have been a “why” question as much as a “who” question.

 

When we suffer, and when we suffer with brothers and sisters who are suffering, we do not want to go down the path of asking and/or seeking to answer the “WHYs” (that is, the ‘WHY questions’) so much as to minister and point to the WHO in our words of counsel.

 

We ask these questions: WHO has suffered for you-  – before you? WHO has died for you? WHO will never leave you nor forsake you? WHO will uphold you by His righteous right hand?

 

JESUS. Jesus is the WHO. The WHY is not wise counsel, and is often very crippling and cruel to others when they are suffering. Why? Because you have just taken their eyes off their only hope (WHO) and placed their eyes on themselves (WHY).

 

When we suffer, all of us can find enough sinful junk within our hearts to damn our souls to hell and plenty of good reasons why we should be suffering- -but this is not the way of Scripture and the Holy Spirit.

 

The Spirit of God leads us out of ourselves especially during suffering to find comfort and grace in our Savior (WHO).

 

Let the Spirit of God lead you as you suffer and help those who suffer to Christ, not to focus them on their particular sins. Let us all daily repent of our sins, and live our lives faithfully before God, but let us never seek to find a particular cause and effect relationship in our sins and the sins of others.

 

In John 9 (and in the Book of Job), we should be reminded that the real questions in life for the Christian are **NOT** the WHY QUESTIONS such as “Why is this person blind?” Or, “Why does God allow this calamity and physical illness to befall this person?” Or, “Why does God allow me to suffer?”

 

But rather (if we’re going to ask a WHY question), “Why are we not all born physically blind and handicapped with physical illnesses because of sin?” (cf. Luke 13).  But again, the answer to our suffering is in the glorious and comforting WHO question: “Who is my only hope and comfort in both life and death, but the Lord Jesus Christ?!”

 

The important point made by the Lord Jesus in this passage in John 9 is that although we are not all born physically blind (the Pharisees in the passage who are angry at Jesus could see clearly God’s world around them), we are all born spiritually blind and with an inherent inability to see the things of God in the world or in Christ apart from the power and light of the Holy Spirit reaching deep into our dark hearts and saying with authority as God did in the creation:

 

“Let there be light…and their was light” (Romans 1:18-25; 2 Corinthians 4:1-6).

 

Without the work of the Holy Spirit illuminating God’s Word and leading us to Jesus Christ we cannot see anything in our lives as we should.  The Spirit takes us to Christ in our suffering so that God would be glorified in us!

 

Anyone who has the audacity to tell another poor soul who is suffering that God wants them to repent of a particular sin and they will be made better, is a person who thinks too highly of themselves. This is someone who is more afflicted and suffering before God in their blindness than they realize. They are dangerously leading the sufferer away from their only comfort in Jesus Christ, and thus they become the “blind leading the blind”!

 

I will pray that God would make this clear to your friend and comfort her in her time of suffering. I would encourage her to know God’s hand is good and powerful and this is her privilege to suffer with and in Christ Jesus, as the Apostle Paul says:

 

ESV Philippians 1:29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake…

 

All of God’s greatest servants suffered in order to be made like Christ Jesus in His death and resurrection, and through suffering and death to self, they became more like Christ (Hebrews 11).  Suffering with Christ is God’s wise and mysterious way of making us privileged to be His dear and beloved children (Hebrews 12:5ff), and causes us to grow in holiness or Christ-likeness. According to Hebrews 12:5-12, the ones who actually should be concerned about their sins against God, **are those who DO NOT SUFFER** they may very well be illegitimate children as Hebrews 12 teaches. But that is for God to decide.

 

Let us love and serve Him no matter what our Master calls us to do for Him. Let us serve Him and worship Him by His grace!

 

And let us bring godly counsel that is full of the Holy Spirit and full of JESUS CHRIST to our suffering brothers and sisters, so that they might find God’s mercy, grace and comfort in both life and death.

 

In Christ’s love,

 

Pastor Charles

09/28/11

“Has God Forgotten Me?”- Psalm 77

Word of Encouragement

 

ESV Psalm 77:19-20: Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

 

Dear Congregation of KCPC,

 

Have you ever asked these questions: “Has God’s steadfast love toward me ceased?” or “Has God forgotten to be gracious to me?” (Psalm 77:8-9).

 

Honestly, have you ever wondered if God has forgotten you?

 

Do you have times when you think because of the difficulty you are going through that God must not love you?  Are you tempted to despair and discouragement because you are so overwhelmed?

 

Perhaps you confess that God is great and good, and you confess that God is Sovereign, but in reality, in the actual way you are living from day to day, it seems that your situation looks so hopeless that you are often living functionally as if there was no God? Perhaps you’re being tempted right now to believe that God could not love you and you feel so overwhelmed by your circumstances, and you’re even tempted to question the way God has led you.

 

This was the concern the Psalmist had as well (Psalm 77). As a believer, you’re not alone and Psalm 77 has been God-breathed out by the Holy Spirit to encourage you today.

 

In Psalm 77, the Psalmist wondered if God had forgotten him. He wondered if God had forgotten His graciousness, and had shut up His compassion toward him in anger (Psalm 77:9). The Psalmist wondered if God had forgotten His steadfast love toward him. He pondered in prayer if God had come to the end of keeping His promises (Psalm 77:7-8).

 

Sometimes God’s people can be so troubled by present circumstances that we can forget that the LORD’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8). We must remind ourselves that the way the LORD leads us is “through the sea” (Psalm 77:19).  God shows His power and love and faithfulness to His people by leading them His way “through the sea”. When the Psalmist speaks of “the sea” in this Psalm, he is referring to God’s people when led through the Red Sea from slavery to the place where they would experience God’s greater presence and learn to worship and serve Him. God taught His people by bringing them “through the sea” that His ways are better ways, although they seem extremely difficult at times.

 

God brings us “through the sea” not to discourage us, but to encourage us to greater trust in His Word and Works on our behalf. He calls us to go “through the sea” not to discourage us but to humble us, so that we might learn to better depend upon Him, and so that we can experience His greater presence and learn to worship and serve Him more wholeheartedly. God’s purposes are for His glory and our good (Romans 8:28). We can rejoice because although the situations God leads us through can seem overwhelmingly difficult, we can walk through them as we know that He leads us and shepherds us as our kind and loving Lord.

 

Our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, was led “through the sea”. The LORD Jesus Christ on our behalf was led by God the Father and with the power of the Spirit’s presence through the pain of suffering the torment of crucifixion, being crushed by the wrath of Almighty God, so that we could be forgiven by the shed blood of Jesus for our sins. Christ was led the way of the cross “through the sea” for us so that we could be reconciled to God and to trust and walk with God all the days of our lives and for all eternity.

 

Israel in the Old Covenant was led through the sea, from slavery and death to sonship and life. The New Covenant reality this pointed to was for God’s people to be led through the cross from death to life in union with our Savior, the precious Lord Jesus, who delivered us from slavery and made us sons in Him (Colossians 1:13-14).

 

The imagery that the Psalmist uses in Psalm 77:20 is important for our encouragement today. We are told that the Lord “led your people like a flock”. The important truth is that although God’s paths, God’s ways are higher than our ways, and not the way we would take, these ways are ordained for our deliverance and salvation. We have yet to be fully conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, we have yet to fully make it to the Promised Land, and so God’s way is “through the sea” (Psalm 77:19). It is “through the sea”, now in Christ through carrying our cross that the Lord Jesus accomplishes, perfects, and prepares us for the place He is already preparing for us for all eternity (John 14:6).

 

Although we feel forsaken, we are actually be shepherded by the Lord Jesus Christ through sanctification. We are His flock the sheep of His pasture (Psalm 100).

 

So when you look around you today and you are led into circumstances that may frighten you, or test your faith, or cause you to wonder if God has forgotten His graciousness toward you, remember the God who works wonders, and who delights in revealing His power and might through our weakness. Listen to the hope of the Psalmist that is ours in Christ Jesus:

 

ESV Psalm 77:11-14: I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples.

 

Remember God’s love for you revealed in Jesus; remember the perfect deeds of Jesus Christ who earned the righteousness for you that you could never attain and freely gives His perfect righteousness to you by faith. Remember God’s “wonders of old” (Psalm 77:11) throughout redemptive history, but especially as you focus on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and ponder this work, meditate on God’s mighty deeds. Remember that God’s way is holy; it is perfect.

 

Then worship and praise Him in the midst of your circumstances knowing that God is faithful to you and will never forget His people!

 

If you are being pursued by evil one himself, being persecuted for your faith and all that you can see before you is a great sea that you must cross, ponder God’s ways, remember that He is leading you this way, and that He will shepherd you as your sweet Lord; confess this: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not ever need anything but Him” (Psalm 23 paraphrased).

 

If you are being led to carry the cross of Jesus Christ, and you are being crucified and have cried aloud to God, and your soul refuses to be comforted, and even your thoughts of God are causing you to moan because of your trouble (Psalm 77:1-4), ponder the death and resurrection of your Savior who has gone before you, who has died and been raised for you.

 

Ponder the love of God in Christ Jesus and how he calls us to follow Him carrying our cross because He is the Great Shepherd who has sought us and bought us and redeemed us by His precious blood!

 

When you ask the questions: “Has God’s steadfast love toward me ceased?” or “Has God forgotten to be gracious to me?” Look to Christ on the cross for you and behold His love for you! See on the cross of Jesus Christ that God’s steadfast love can NEVER CEASE; God can NEVER FORGET to be gracious to you. You have His word; you have His works shown to you in Jesus.

 

And if you are still wondering how you might live praising Him in the midst of your particular way “through the sea” look to how God did not forget His Son.  Christ came to live and die for His dearly beloved people. Christ laid down His life for us, and after being crushed by God’s wrath for our sins, in our place, Jesus was placed in a tomb. The way of the tomb is not hopeful; Jesus remained under the power of death for our sins for three days! In this situation, the way looks hopeless and impossible. Unless God Almighty, our Great God and Savior is the Shepherd. Then even the way through the tomb cannot stop God from shepherding us to victory!

 

God remembered Christ and on the third day He rose gloriously from the dead. Through the sea, Christ received the victory of resurrection and glorification. We too who believe, although our paths are fraught with difficult times and circumstances, will also see the glory of the Lord in the Land of the Living and be resurrected and glorified.

 

Let us hope in God.

 

Build your faith today, beloved congregation of Jesus, by pondering the words and works of God in Christ for us.

 

His way is through the sea. You haven’t lost your way for He is shepherding you. He says to you: “Follow me” and “Trust me”.

 

You may not feel His presence right now, and you may not see His footprints, but you can be confident in Jesus Christ that He is carrying you every step of the way.

 

ESV Psalm 77:19-20: Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

 

Ponder the love of God for you.

 

IN Christ’s love,

 

Pastor Biggs

 

PS I will have more later this week on our WOE study from how we can be Assessed, Aligned and Aim through studying the seven churches of Revelation.

“Deep Waters in Christ”

Dear Congregation of KCPC,

 

When you read the story of Noah, what do you see in the flood waters?

 

Noah passed through the waters of judgment and found salvation in the promises of God. God’s covenant promises to Noah were ultimately fulfilled in Christ and were for Noah and his household; Biblical faith is family faith. The Apostle Peter tells us that the flood waters typified (or symbolized, or corresponded) to water baptism; not salvation through a mere external ceremony or outward cleansing (cf. Romans 2:28-29), but water as a means of the Spirit’s working salvation in Christ that transforms us from within:

 

ESV 1 Peter 3:20-22: “…Because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds (anti-type) to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

 

When you see the flood waters, think of baptism (1 Peter 3:20-22). The baptism waters symbolize the judgment of Jesus Christ our Covenant Head and representative who was baptized into God’s judgment and wrath so that we might be His Holy children. Jesus as our Covenant Head (greater than Noah!) underwent the wrath of God on the cross which was a fulfillment of what the flood waters symbolized. As our Lord went to the cross, he cried:

 

ESV Luke 12:50 I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!

 

Here are the truths you can be confident in today because of Jesus Christ:

 

1)      Like Noah, you’ve been saved from God’s wrath and judgment by believing the promises of God in Christ.

2)      As Noah was separated apart from the wicked and condemned world by the flood, so have you been set apart because of God’s covenant promises in Christ. You have been separated apart to be holy and to shine like the firmament in a corrupt and perverse generation (Phil. 2:15).

3)      As Noah, you and your household are privileged to God’s covenant promises in Christ. These covenant promises and blessings imply covenant responsibilities to believe, and obey and walk with God by faith.

4)      Christ’s judgment and condemnation is yours by faith; Christ’s justification-vindication-resurrection is yours by faith (Col. 2:9-12).

5)      Like Noah who trusted in Christ (Heb. 11:7), you have been washed, cleansed, and purified by the Spirit of God who “hovers” over the face of the baptismal waters (cf. Gen. 1:2-3; 2 Cor. 4:6; Titus 3:5-7).

6)      Now live obediently in light of God’s covenant promises in Christ; covenant privileges imply covenant responsibilities, especially if you are a head of your household like Noah was- -make the Gospel known!. Live in this world and conduct yourself like one saved from the judgment waters, the very wrath and condemnation of God. Be merciful, grateful, and daily offer yourself up to God as one who has passed from death to life (John 5:24). As the Apostle Paul teaches us:

 

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. –  ESV Romans 6:13

 

Like Noah, has God revealed Himself to you as the Alpha and Omega of your salvation? Has God initiated grace with you through covenant promises in Christ, and has he “shut you in” as he did Noah and his family by closing/sealing the door of the ark during His judgment (Gen. 7:16b- “And the LORD shut him in”)?

 

If you are in Christ, you have been sealed by the Spirit of God unto the day of redemption (Eph. 1:13-14). All of God’s promises are “yes” and “amen” to you and your family. As Noah before you, live obediently in light of the grace you have been shown and make this grace known to your family.

 

Has God “shut you in”? Are you united to Christ by faith, and sealed unto the day of redemption? Then nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ because in Christ, you were baptized into death, and raised to new life. God has given us deep waters as a means of grace to sign and seal his promises to us in Jesus!

 

Rejoice!!

 

ESV Romans 6:3-4: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

 

Now “improve your baptism” this day and until Jesus returns:

 

Westminster Larger Catechism Q. 167  How is our baptism to be improved by us? A. The needful but much neglected duty of improving our baptism, is to be performed by us all our life long, especially in the time of temptation, and when we are present at the administration of it to others;(1) by serious and thankful consideration of the nature of it, and of the ends for which Christ instituted it, the privileges and benefits conferred and sealed thereby, and our solemn vow made therein;(2) by being humbled for our sinful defilement, our falling short of, and walking contrary to, the grace of baptism, and our engagements;(3) by growing up to assurance of pardon of sin, and of all other blessings sealed to us in that sacrament;(4) by drawing strength from the death and resurrection of Christ, into whom we are baptized, for the mortifying of sin, and quickening of grace;(5) and by endeavoring to live by faith,(6) to have our conversation in holiness and righteousness,(7) as those that have therein given up their names to Christ;(8) and to walk in brotherly love, as being baptized by the same Spirit into one body.(9)

 

Scripture References: (1)Col. 2:11,12; Rom. 6:4,6,11 (2)Rom. 6:3-5 (3)1 Cor. 1:11-13; Rom. 6:2,3 (4)Rom. 4:11,12; 1 Pet. 3:21 (5)Rom. 6:3-5 (6)Gal. 3:26,27 (7)Rom. 6:22 (8)Acts 2:38 (9)1 Cor. 12:13,25,26,27

 

IN Christ’s love,

 

Pastor Biggs

 

PS I will have more later this week on our WOE study from how we can be Assessed, Aligned and Aim through studying the seven churches of Revelation.

“At Your Right Hand”- Psalm 16:11

Word of Encouragement

 

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

 

What hope we have as the people of God! We who were by nature wanderers from the fold of God, wanderers from the presence of God, wanderers from the delights and joy that only God can give. But now, because of God’s grace to us in Jesus Christ, He has made known to us the path of life! “You make known to me the path of life,” the Psalmist prays. We haven’t found the path of life on our own, we were not even looking for it (Eph. 2:1-4), but God who is rich in mercy made it known to us in Jesus Christ.  Jesus, our Beloved Lord says to us: “I am the way, the truth, and the life…”

 

In Jesus we find this path that is characterized by life in God, and that takes us to God Himself. In God’s mercy, Jesus, who seeks and saves the lost, sought us out and found us and now we walk on the path that leads to Heaven. Your hope, Beloved, is a celestial city, a heavenly city, the New Jerusalem that will never be shaken (Heb. 11:13-16; 12:27-29)- -the Eternal City of God!

 

Jesus descended into this world to show you the path of life; Jesus ascended back to heaven to show you the fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore at God’s right hand.

 

By God’s grace to us in Jesus Christ, we are now made pilgrims who walk by faith expectantly look for a heavenly city and a heavenly inheritance. The path we are on does not lead to destruction, but to more life, life as complete in God. In this celestial city we await, that we journey toward on this path of life, we find the full communion with God that we were all created to enjoy.

 

As you travel this path, although times can be difficult and you may at times grow weary, do not give up, do not give in, do not be distracted, nor seek to be satisfied in this world. You were made for Jesus, only in Him can you find ultimately all that you’re are longing for from the depths of your hearts and souls.  Although the journey along the path of life can be difficult, Jesus walks with you and will never leave you nor forsake you. “I am with you always, even unto the end of the age…” (Matthew 28:20).

 

Knowing that Jesus walks with us, makes the journey satisfying and joyful. In fact, the Psalmist says that in the presence of God is “fullness of joy”! The Spirit of God has united us to Jesus Christ so that as we journey as pilgrims we can enjoy Jesus’ presence and be filled with joy along the way as He promised His disciples (John 14-16; Romans 15:13).

 

As we seek God along our journey on the path of life, so we find our Beloved Savior-Husband-Lord and King of kings and Lord of lords enthroned and exalted at God’s right hand (Hebrews 7:24; Romans 8:34). What is He doing there? Ruling and reigning over heaven and earth, as well as praying for us that though all of hell would break loose upon us, we could find at God’s right hand where Jesus is enthroned, His strength, His power, His mercy, as well as the forgiveness, the help we need by His grace, and all of God’s “pleasures forevermore”!

 

At God’s right hand in Jesus Christ we find strength in our weariness; grace in our weakness; hope in our struggles; pleasures forevermore in our emptiness here. At God’s right hand we find in Jesus all things we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3-4). All that we long for here, we find at God’s right hand; truly there are “pleasures forevermore” there in Jesus!

 

What are God’s “pleasures forevermore” in Jesus? Are you hungry? Jesus will fill you; He is the Bread of Life. Are you thirsty? Jesus will quench your thirsts; He is the Fountain of Life. Are you in need of a deeper intimacy and communion with God? Jesus will be your comfort and joy; He is our Heavenly Bridegroom. Are you tired and weary? Jesus will be your rest; He is our rest from our burden of sins, our pains and anxieties, and everything that would distract and/or hinder us along our pilgrimage in this present world.

 

This is the foretaste of Life Eternal and Heavenly Hope that you can have now by God’s Spirit in Jesus. This foretaste will be complete when we see Him face to face, when we behold the king in His beauty and see Him face to face, and we shall be like Him! As we walk with Him may a sense of His fullness of joy and an increase of the pleasures forevermore be ours because we trust in Him as the Psalmist.

 

Let us take refuge in God our Savior (Psalm 16:1). Let us realize that because Jesus is our Lord there is no good apart from him (Psalm 16:2; John 15:5). Let us rejoice that we have a beautiful inheritance in Christ (Psalm 16:6). Let us bless the Lord and let our hearts be glad because Jesus has taken our flesh, and can sympathize with us in our time of need (Hebrews. 4:14-16), because He has tasted the challenges of this path, the sicknesses, the difficulties, the weariness, the loneliness, the abandonment, the cold-hearted hatred; Jesus has taken our sins upon Himself, and tasted the pangs of death and what it means to lose the comfort and power of the presence of God as one forsaken because of sin. And this was for you.

 

God raised Jesus from the dead after He took upon Himself our sins, after He was crushed for our iniquities, and propitiated God’s wrath in our place. God did not allow Jesus to see corruption in hell, but raised Him in exaltation glory to God’s right hand to experience the fullness of joy and the Father’s love at God’s right hand as King of kings and Lord of lords (Psalm 16:10). And to live for us at God’s right hand so that we would have joy now.

 

Jesus descended into this world to show you the path of life; Jesus ascended back to heaven to show you the fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore at God’s right hand.

 

Jesus is a trustworthy Savior, and friend, and Lord, and King, and Shepherd, and Husband. Let us go to him to find in Him the fullness of joy, and the pleasures forevermore this day!

 

Don’t wait another minute seeking in this world or in yourself what only Jesus can give to you. The blessings of God are not found in this world, nor within yourselves, but at God’s right hand!

 

Seek Jesus there.

 

In Christ’s love,

 

Pastor Biggs

08/31/11

Communion with God in Christ

 Word of Encouragement

We as Christians walk with God now in union and communion with Jesus Christ by faith. The Bible teaches us that even though we still live here in this world, we are really already translated, raised, taken and resurrected to live with God.

 

Notice this truth in Colossians 3:1-4:

 

ESV Colossians 3:1-4: If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

 

This teaches us people of God that no matter how short your life may be, no matter how insignificant you think you and your life may be, you are united to Jesus Christ by faith and already you have died with Christ and been raised up with him! Your life is greatly significant and you can be one who is defined in Christ as one who walks with God and enjoy sweet communion with this great God!

 

Colossians 3:1-4 teaches that believers “have been raised with Christ” now (v. 1a), and that because of this we are to live in communion with God “seeking the things that are above” (v. 1b).

 

So secure is our present existence in union with Jesus that our lives are “hidden with Christ in God” and that Christ is our life (vv. 3-4a). Although we remain here, our union with Christ is so very **INTIMATE** that we live in Him and move in Him and have our very being in Him- -we are His holy temple, the special people in which He dwells by His Spirit.

 

Can it be said of you that you “walk with God”?

 

Do you realize more of your union with God through communion with God? We should understand the distinction in our relationship to God between our union with Him and our communion with Him. Do you make this important distinction?

 

Our union with God in Jesus Christ by faith can never be broken. Our union will never fluctuate; no one, nothing can snatch us out of Jesus’ grip, and nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (John 10:28ff; Romans 8:31-39). If God is for us, who can be against us?

 

But our communion with Christ because of our union must be developed; we grow into our communion just like getting to know a friend better or a parent if we are adopted into a family. In our communion with God, He is always near and promises that if we draw near to Him, he will draw near to us to commune with us (James 4:4ff).

 

We should understand that it is not that God withdraws from us who are in union with Jesus, but that we have a tendency to withdraw from him and not walk with him as we are called to do in Jesus Christ. God doesn’t move away from us, but we do and we often wander away from God from our hearts, although we are in union with him.

 

In other words, while living already translated in Jesus Christ, we can live as if we are still part of this world and not seek communion with Him as we should.

 

As we realize what Christ has done for us and how he has pleased God on our behalf, and we know how we are saved from our sinful condition, so we learn to develop our communion with the Triune God.

 

Let us remember these things as part of developing our communion with God.

 

Meditate on these things this week (especially in light of today’s sermon), and by God’s grace and Spirit, you will find that you will please God more in your obedience (not in order to be saved, but as a manifestation of your gratitude for salvation), and you will find more joy in your journey here (see John 15:11):

 

ESV John 15:11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

 

 

***Developing our Communion with God:  Remind yourself daily…***

 

(1)   Remind yourself of the distinction between union with Christ that is unbreakable and will not fluctuate, and the communion with God that must be sought and developed.

 

(2)   Remind yourself daily that you were not seeking God, but this glorious and self-existent and wonderful God who you had lived sinning against, sought you out and initiated a relationship with you in Jesus Christ for the sake that you might know Him better.

 

(3)   Remind yourself of the interaction that should be happening in your life as you grow in the knowledge of the Triune God. Our communion with God is interactive: God works in us by His Spirit, we respond with joyful obedience; God speaks to us through His Word, we respond with thankful gratitude and walking according to His commandments; God tell us how much He loves us, we love him back by living for him and seeking to please Him.

 

(4)   Remind yourself that because God is your Father, you are a child of the living God and heir to all that Christ is heir to, and that God will lead and guide you and even chastise you because you are a dear child whom he loves and he knows better than any earthly parent what you most need.

 

(5)   Remind yourself that because Jesus is your Savior, you have a Shepherd who will never leave you nor forsake you but guard and guide you to the promised land of eternity. Because Jesus is your Savior, you have a loving Husband-Bridegroom, who has given his life for you, and has betrothed himself to you, so be faithful to you Heavenly Husband. Because Jesus is your Savior, you have a great and mighty King who is with you and will strengthen, help and uphold you in your day to day struggles. Because Jesus is your Savior, you have a dear friend who has laid down his life for you and lives to make you joyful (see John 15:11-15). Jesus calls us friends, will you not seek him, this Heavenly friend who only longs to rejoice over you and to be with you. Won’t you just be with Jesus sometimes, leaning confidently on his bosom, letting him know that you love him?!

 

(6)   Remind yourself that because the Spirit of God is with you, you may have as much of Christ as you seek in Him! The Spirit loves to talk about Jesus, minister Jesus and lead us into all the truths of Scripture about Jesus! We have the Spirit to war against our sinful flesh; we have the Spirit to comfort and console us, and to help us to pray. Won’t you seek His power to enable you to die more and more to sin, to realize the union you have with Christ and the communion with him you need to develop. Won’t you seek Him for the power to desire Him more?

 

(7)   Remind yourself to delight yourself in the LORD daily (Psa. 37:4)! The Bible says “Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Is the LORD **THE** desire of your heart?! You can have more of Him the Bible says- -you can walk closer in communion with him. Can you say with the Psalmist: “Who have I in heaven but you, and what on earth do I desire but you?” (Psalm 73:23ff). You can have this kind of response to your union with Jesus and grow in your communion. Remember that what enlists a person’s affections, rules the person. This means that if God is what gets you excited, then God will rule over you. If someone or something else is loved or delighted more in and gets you excited than God, this/these things will rule you. There is no way to live for God if your affections are not given over to him and this is the urgent practical need of communion with him!

 

(8)   Remind yourself to please God in Jesus Christ in response to the Gospel message that you have died and already been seated with Christ in the Heavenlies. You no longer need the things of this world. Seek the things of Christ that are above, and beware of prosperity that tempts you to have a weak relationship with such a glorious God!

 

(9)   Remind yourself daily that God is a consuming fire and worthy to be reverenced, feared and worshipped according to His Word. Although He has been gracious in Christ, may we never presume upon His grace and the blood of Jesus, thinking that if we do, we will not be judged with great and painful consequences! Remind yourself that although God has stooped to be gracious in Christ, He is still the living God and you are to approach Him in Christ with fear and trembling (Heb. 12:25-29). May we seek never to grieve our God because of our sins- -may we never live as those who are trusting in Christ’s precious blood and living blatantly sinfully thinking that Christ’s blood can be excuses for sin and freedom to live as we please!

 

(10)                       Remind yourself daily to develop your prayer life as never before now that you know that you have already been raised, translated, and resurrected with Christ. Because your life has been hidden with Christ in God, develop your relationship with God by talking to Him all the time. Talk to God through prayer in the precious Name of Jesus in formal prayer times in your closet, on the way to work, during difficult circumstances and times during your day, and as often as you possibly can. Pray for yourself, pray for others, delight yourself in talking to the Triune God who has saved you in Jesus!

 

We all can walk with God in union and communion with Jesus Christ by faith. All who are listed in Hebrews 11 are simple sinners like you and me who had both good and bad times in their lives. What set them apart from the rest of the world was their faith in God and His promises. They believed that God existed and that God rewards those who seek him.

 

Do you believe in God? Do you believe God? Do you believe God rewards those who seek Him?

 

Look to Jesus Christ and see your life!

 

Then go and live a life worth living—one that is pleasing to God as you more effectively and accurately walk with God as His child.

 

In Christ’s love,

 

Pastor Biggs

08/07/11

“Walking with God”- Do You Walk with God in Union with Christ?

Word of Encouragement

 

ESV Genesis 5:22-24: Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. ESV Hebrews 11:5-6: By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. 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.

 

Beloved, are you characterized by “walking with God”? Is your life an example to others of what it means to walk with God? Are you satisfied with your walk before God in Christ today? Is your life lived well?

 

Today I want to talk with you about union and communion with God. I want us to better and more effectively to know how to walk with God in Christ in a way that perhaps you have never dreamed possible! God can do immeasurably above all that we ask or imagine- -and so let us trust God to teach us to better realize our union with Him in Jesus, and to seek to develop our communion with Him.

 

In Genesis 5, we are told of a unique man named Enoch. He is described a one who “walked with God” (Gen. 5:22, 24). Very rarely in the Bible is this used of men in their relationship to God. Noah is described as one who walked with God, and the priests who walked before God’s special presence in the Holy of Holies are described as men who walk with God (Gen. 6:9; Mal. 2:6). Enoch’s relationship was special, and Hebrews 11:5-6 tells us more specifically of what it means that Enoch walked with God.

 

Enoch was commended as one who walked with God because he lived as one who “pleased God” (Heb. 11:5). In Genesis 5, Enoch is unique in that his life does not end in death, but God takes him, or translates him to God’s special presence without undergoing the curse of death that he deserved. Genesis 5:24 teaches: “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.”

 

Enoch’s being taken by God without seeing death reminds us of two important truths: (1) Although death is a curse upon mankind for sin (Gen. 2:17; 3:19- “You shall surely die”), God has the power over death and so there is hope in God for all who believe His promises that death is not the final word; and (2) Enoch may have lived a brief life (in comparison to the other people who lived during his time very long lives), nevertheless, his life was lived well, pleasing God and then continuing in communion in his life with God forever. Enoch lived well in communion with God.

 

We should understand right away that Enoch ultimately points us to his greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Adam, the Son of Seth, the Son of Enoch…and the Son of God (Luke 3:23, 37-38). Enoch’s short life (of ‘only’ 365 years!) was characterized by walking with God, pleasing God, and eternal life without seeing death, yet this life could only be possibly by faith in Jesus Christ.

 

Although Enoch did not know as much as we know today about the Lord Jesus because we live in the fullness of God’s revelation of Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:1-2; Gal. 4:4ff), nevertheless, he trusted God’s promises to him that were given at that particular time in redemptive history, and he lived by faith in knowing God was faithful to his promises that he had made to Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:15). Enoch believed the gospel good news as he knew it at his time in history, and walked by faith before the living God pleasing God with his faith.

 

God blessed Enoch and he did not see death. God favored Enoch and so he was privileged to be taken, or translated to live in eternal communion with God without seeing death.  But death was a reality for all other men in Adam (notice the phrase “…And he died” in Genesis 5 that describes the effects of the curse and heightens the contrast with Enoch’s life).

 

Although Enoch would not see death, he could not have solved the problem of death as a curse upon man. Enoch could not take away the problem of the curse of death upon mankind. Even Enoch was born into Adam’s image (Gen. 5:1-3), which means that he was conceived in sin with a sinful nature, and so he could not have died for himself or for others in order to take away the death curse that hung over mankind because of Adam’s transgression against God (Rom. 5:12, 14). As a sinner, Enoch’s life was lived by God’s grace alone; Enoch’s translation into eternal communion with God was by grace alone.

 

Even though Enoch did not see death, death was still a problem for mankind, especially in the realization of God’s gospel promises to undo the curse of sin caused by the serpent, and destroy the serpent and what he had done to Adam and His seed in his diabolical death-works (Gen. 3:15). How would death be abolished and the serpent’s work destroyed?

 

Enoch’s sinfulness in Adam, and inability to abolish death himself points to another, to the Lord Jesus Christ, Enoch’s greater son, because death could only be abolished by one who was perfect, untainted by sin and the curse of Adam, and could die under God’s condemning wrath as a sacrifice for all who believe.

 

Jesus Christ came in the fullness of time, born of a woman, born under the condemnation of the law that threatened death, in order to abolish death. Jesus who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we might be the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus entered into Adam’s genealogy (Luke 3:23-38) without the taint of sin (because he was conceived by the Holy Spirit of the substance of Mary), to do away with the curse of death by taking the curse upon Himself!

 

Jesus died, and was raised from the dead! Death could not hold him; Jesus abolished death; Jesus’s death was the death of death! We can rejoice that death that threatens all mankind in Adam has been abolished, and the sting and threat of death has been removed from the viper’s poison.

 

ESV Hebrews 2:14-15: 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, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

 

Jesus in his death for sinners, as the son greater than Enoch “destroyed the one who had the power of death”!

 

The Apostle Paul exults in the Gospel good news that death has been abolished not by our works, but by Christ’s work on our behalf that is received by grace alone through faith:

 

ESV 2 Timothy 1:9-10: …[God] saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel…

 

Jesus abolished death in his death so that life and immortality might be brought to all who believe. This is the great promise of life that Enoch’s translation and being taken to be with God was pointing forward to! Enoch could be taken by God and not see death, but Enoch could not take away the curse of death.

 

Praise God that we live not in a time of types and shadows as Enoch before the flood and the incarnation, but in the fullness of the time and the bright light of God’s realities in Jesus Christ! Let us rejoice in Christ’s victory over death. Although we may see death, and walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we shall fear no evil, for our death is now as merely going to sleep to awake to eternal life and communion with God for all eternity (Psalm 23:4-6; 1 Thess. 4:13-19). Some Christians will not see death when the Lord returns, but will be immediately translated as their brother Enoch before them!

 

God indeed has the power over death and this is what Enoch’s life and translation points toward in Jesus Christ. But Enoch’s life also points us to a life that is pleasing to God and one that has of communion with God not only in this present life but also in the life to come.

 

Enoch’s life points us to eternal life with God, but an eternal life with God that begins right now as we believe! Enoch’s life point us not merely to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but more fully and exhaustively and extensively to the believers’ union with Jesus Christ!

 

Now you may say to me: “Pastor, Enoch was a great man, I am an average man or woman, etc.” But I would remind you that we live on the other side of the death and resurrection and ascension of Christ Jesus! No matter how “average” a man or woman you are, you are extraordinary in God’s sight compared to Enoch and the time in which He lived.

 

Enoch lived a life in union and communion with God, but Enoch could have never dreamed (unless revealed to him outside of Scripture) of the close union and communion with God that we have because of our Lord Jesus Christ!

 

Enoch pleased God by walking with him by faith and believing God’s promises only imperfectly in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Jesus Christ, one greater than Enoch, and Enoch’s greater Son, walked with God perfectly and he came under the curse of death and was raised from the dead in resurrection power, not only for himself, but for all who believe both in the Old and the New Covenants!

 

Jesus Christ is a life greater than Enoch’s that gives us more than an example of what it means to walk with God, but one who walked with God and pleased God on our behalf.

 

Jesus walked with God and pleased him for us. Jesus secured our salvation and our union and communion with him. Enoch’s life points forward not merely to Christ’s resurrection, but union with Jesus Christ and all the benefits of that union! In Jesus Christ, we have one who has pleased God perfectly on our behalf. Jesus’ perfect righteousness before God that he earned in walking with God is imputed to us by faith as we receive it. God’s work in Jesus Christ is received by grace alone and we are reckoned or considered perfectly righteous in God’s sight because of Christ’s perfect life (Romans 4).

 

Christ lived perfectly walking with God and therefore in Christ we have walked perfectly with God and pleased Him in a way we could never have done as sinners. Enoch was a sinner and God imputed the righteousness of Christ to him through types and shadows that God gave to His believing people at that time in redemptive-history. We live in the fullness of the times as Christians and we can live gratefully knowing that Christ has pleased God by walking with God perfectly on our behalf.

 

Jesus has overcome and abolished death, and he has been translated, he has been raised, he has been taken, he has been resurrected to live with God in eternal communion for all eternity with the living God. In fact, Jesus is ruling and reigning at God’s right hand as King of kings and Lord of lords, and the last enemy to be conquered by him is death (1 Cor. 15:23ff- although it is already a present reality, it has yet to be fully manifested).

 

We as Christians walk with God now in union and communion with Jesus Christ by faith. The Bible teaches us that even though we still live here in this world, we are really already translated, raised, taken and resurrected to live with God.

 

Notice this truth in Colossians 3:1-4:

 

ESV Colossians 3:1-4: If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

 

The Bible teaches us that as Christians we live in union and communion with God, walking with God now, and even having been translated to be with God now, in a way that Enoch would have never imagined in his “short” life! This teaches us people of God that no matter how short your life may be, no matter how insignificant you think you and your life may be, you are united to Jesus Christ by faith and already you have died with Christ and been raised up with him! Your life is greatly significant and you can be one who is defined in Christ as one who walks with God and enjoy sweet communion with this great God!

 

Colossians 3:1-4 teaches that believers like Enoch before (but much better) “have been raised with Christ” now (v. 1a), and that because of this we are to live in communion with God “seeking the things that are above” (v. 1b). Although we live in this world now, we are to live as if already translated like Enoch, because we have been translated and raised with Christ.

 

So secure is our present existence in union with Jesus that our lives are “hidden with Christ in God” and that Christ is our life (vv. 3-4a). Although we remain here, our union with Christ is so very **INTIMATE** that we live in Him and move in Him and have our very being in Him- -we are His holy temple, the special people in which He dwells by His Spirit.

 

Although we await the full realization of the abolition and destruction of death, and the full manifestation of the everlasting glory that Enoch was able to experience. Nevertheless, we are already partakers of it now in our union with Jesus.

 

As Christians, we must understand that we now live by faith in all of God’s promises in Jesus, knowing that as we live by faith in our union with Jesus, we will always please God. We are reminded in Hebrews 11:6:

 

“Without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

 

Let us live by faith in Christ Jesus, and live in light of God’s promises in Scripture, let us live as if God exists and rewards those who seek Him as He has promised!

 

Like Enoch, but so much better, we can live pleasing God, and knowing that already we have been taken to be with God in a very special and unique way!

 

It can be said of believer who seeks God and lives by faith in God’s promises fully revealed in Jesus that they are “not” or “no more” “for God has taken them”. We can especially no longer be friends of this world, the world that is enmity with God (James 4:4ff), because we live in the Heavenly Places in Jesus (see also Ephesians 2:5-10).  Like Enoch, but in a way that Enoch never fully could have imagined at his time in history, we are dead in Christ and raised with Christ in our union with him, and we already live and move in the Heavenly Places by God’s Spirit here and now.

 

Can it be said of you that you “walk with God”?

 

Do you realize more of your union with God through communion with God? We should understand the distinction in our relationship to God between our union with Him and our communion with Him. Do you make this important distinction?

 

Our union with God in Jesus Christ by faith can never be broken. Our union will never fluctuate; no one, nothing can snatch us out of Jesus’ grip, and nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (John 10:28ff; Romans 8:31-39). If God is for us, who can be against us?

 

But our communion with Christ because of our union must be developed; we grow into our communion just like getting to know a friend better or a parent if we are adopted into a family. In our communion with God, He is always near and promises that if we draw near to Him, he will draw near to us to commune with us (James 4:4ff).

 

We should understand that it is not that God withdraws from us who are in union with Jesus, but that we have a tendency to withdraw from him and not walk with him as we are called to do in Jesus Christ. God doesn’t move away from us, but we do and we often wander away from God from our hearts, although we are in union with him.

 

In other words, while living already translated in Jesus Christ, we can live as if we are still part of this world and not seek communion with Him as we should.

 

As we realize what Christ has done for us and how he has pleased God on our behalf, and we know how we are saved from our sinful condition, so we learn to develop our communion with the Triune God.

 

Let us remember these things as part of developing our communion with God. Meditate on these things this week, and by God’s grace and Spirit, you will find that you will please God more in your obedience (not in order to be saved, but as a manifestation of your gratitude for salvation), and you will find more joy in your journey here, just because you are already translated and are “not” because you have “been taken, like Enoch, but so much better.

 

Developing our Communion with God:  Remind yourself daily…

 

(1)   Remind yourself of the distinction between union with Christ that is unbreakable and will not fluctuate, and the communion with God that must be sought and developed.

 

(2)   Remind yourself daily that you were not seeking God, but this glorious and self-existent and wonderful God who you had lived sinning against, sought you out and initiated a relationship with you in Jesus Christ for the sake that you might know Him better.

 

(3)   Remind yourself of the interaction that should be happening in your life as you grow in the knowledge of the Triune God. Our communion with God is interactive: God works in us by His Spirit, we respond with joyful obedience; God speaks to us through His Word, we respond with thankful gratitude and walking according to His commandments; God tell us how much He loves us, we love him back by living for him and seeking to please Him.

 

(4)   Remind yourself that because God is your Father, you are a child of the living God and heir to all that Christ is heir to, and that God will lead and guide you and even chastise you because you are a dear child whom he loves and he knows better than any earthly parent what you most need.

 

(5)   Remind yourself that because Jesus is your Savior, you have a Shepherd who will never leave you nor forsake you but guard and guide you to the promised land of eternity. Because Jesus is your Savior, you have a loving Husband-Bridegroom, who has given his life for you, and has betrothed himself to you, so be faithful to you Heavenly Husband. Because Jesus is your Savior, you have a great and mighty King who is with you and will strengthen, help and uphold you in your day to day struggles. Because Jesus is your Savior, you have a dear friend who has laid down his life for you and lives to make you joyful (see John 15:11-15). Jesus calls us friends, will you not seek him, this Heavenly friend who only longs to rejoice over you and to be with you. Won’t you just be with Jesus sometimes, leaning confidently on his bosom, letting him know that you love him?!

 

(6)   Remind yourself that because the Spirit of God is with you, you may have as much of Christ as you seek in Him! The Spirit loves to talk about Jesus, minister Jesus and lead us into all the truths of Scripture about Jesus! We have the Spirit to war against our sinful flesh; we have the Spirit to comfort and console us, and to help us to pray. Won’t you seek His power to enable you to die more and more to sin, to realize the union you have with Christ and the communion with him you need to develop. Won’t you seek Him for the power to desire Him more?

 

(7)   Remind yourself to delight yourself in the LORD daily (Psa. 37:4)! The Bible says “Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Is the LORD **THE** desire of your heart?! You can have more of Him the Bible says- -you can walk closer in communion with him. Can you say with the Psalmist: “Who have I in heaven but you, and what on earth do I desire but you?” (Psalm 73:23ff). You can have this kind of response to your union with Jesus and grow in your communion. Remember that what enlists a person’s affections, rules the person. This means that if God is what gets you excited, then God will rule over you. If someone or something else is loved or delighted more in and gets you excited than God, this/these things will rule you. There is no way to live for God if your affections are not given over to him and this is the urgent practical need of communion with him!

 

(8)   Remind yourself to please God in Jesus Christ in response to the Gospel message that you have died and already been seated with Christ in the Heavenlies. You no longer need the things of this world. Seek the things of Christ that are above, and beware of prosperity that tempts you to have a weak relationship with such a glorious God!

 

(9)   Remind yourself daily that God is a consuming fire and worthy to be reverenced, feared and worshipped according to His Word. Although He has been gracious in Christ, may we never presume upon His grace and the blood of Jesus, thinking that if we do, we will not be judged with great and painful consequences! Remind yourself that although God has stooped to be gracious in Christ, He is still the living God and you are to approach Him in Christ with fear and trembling (Heb. 12:25-29). May we seek never to grieve our God because of our sins- -may we never live as those who are trusting in Christ’s precious blood and living blatantly sinfully thinking that Christ’s blood can be excuses for sin and freedom to live as we please!

 

(10)                       Remind yourself daily to develop your prayer life as never before now that you know that you have already been raised, translated, and resurrected with Christ. Because your life has been hidden with Christ in God, develop your relationship with God by talking to Him all the time. Talk to God through prayer in the precious Name of Jesus in formal prayer times in your closet, on the way to work, during difficult circumstances and times during your day, and as often as you possibly can. Pray for yourself, pray for others, delight yourself in talking to the Triune God who has saved you in Jesus!

 

IN Christ, we realize that Enoch’s life of pleasing God as he “walked with God” teaches Christians today that we can all be Enochs!

 

We all can walk with God in union and communion with Jesus Christ by faith. All who are listed in Hebrews 11 are simple sinners like you and me who had both good and bad times in their lives. What set them apart from the rest of the world was their faith in God and His promises. They believed that God existed and that God rewards those who seek him.

 

Do you believe in God? Do you believe God? Do you believe God rewards those who seek Him?

 

Look to Jesus Christ and see your life!

 

Then go and live a life worth living—one that is pleasing to God as you more effectively and accurately walk with God as His child.

 

In Christ’s love,

 

Pastor Biggs

08/02/11