190128FW Genesis 4:1-5 - The Difference between a Cain and an Abel

Family Worship teaching time, following up upon the Lord's Day morning sermon from Genesis 4:1-5. Children of parents who express faith in Christ have so much promise--and so much promised concerning them. But since some do turn out to be of the evil one, what is it that makes the difference? It is faith in Christ, which also produces fruit in the life.

190125FW John 8:12-20 - Jesus Is the Only Light by Which We May Know God

Family Worship teaching time, following up upon the Lord's Day morning gospel reading from John 8:12-20. Having identified Himself as the manna from heaven, and the rock to which we can come for living water, Jesus now takes it a step further: He Himself is the One who appeared as a glory cloud and a pillar of fire. Now, He declares Himself to be not only the light of the Hebrews, but the light of the entire world. If we are to know God truly at all, then we must know Him as God who has revealed Himself in Christ!

190124FW 2Cor 1:8-14 - God WILL Give You More Than You Can Handle

Family Worship teaching time, following up upon the Lord's Day morning epistle reading from 2Corinthians 1:8-14. God gives us troubles that are above our strength, so that we will not trust in ourselves. He gives us troubles that make us despair of life, so that we will trust in Him who alone can deliver from death. Since what we all need is what only the miraculous power of God can accomplish, He makes it utter foolishness to try to accomplish it by worldly wisdom. Instead, He gives us the privilege of praying and obeying--so that when HE has accomplished His good will, we will have enjoyed the privilege of being used, but HE will get ALL the praise!

190116FW Josh 13:1-6 - Our Fleeting Labor Established and Employed by Our Faithful Lord

Family Worship teaching time, following up upon the Old Testament reading from Joshua 13:1-6 in corporate worship, this past Lord's Day morning. Already we have come from the beginning of Joshua's administration to its winding down. Lord, teach us to number our days! Just as in Moses's life, so now in Joshua's, the Lord has faithfully accomplished all that He set out to do. The land is conquered and ready for marking out each tribe's inheritance. Yes, there is more driving out/possessing to do, but the Lord will be faithful in future generations as well. Whatever part He has assigned to our lives, He will surely be faithful to keep all of His promises in bringing about the effects of Christ's finished work and victory. So,let us trust in Him, and do whatever is our part with zeal, confidence, and joy.

190111FW John 7:37-53 - Humble Thirst for the Rock that Is Christ

Family Worship teaching time, following up upon the gospel reading from John 7:37-53 in corporate worship, this past Lord's Day morning. At the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus identifies Himself as the true and eternal Rock from whom our hearts can be filled with streams of living water, by His Holy Spirit. He calls to the thirsty to come to Him and drink. But, as with the Pharisees, if we think that we are made righteous by knowing the law or that we are better than others, we will not be thirsty. Such pride will keep us from coming to Jesus and send us to unquenchable fire!

190110FW Prov 10:1-3 - Christ Defeats the Curse, Death, and Fallenness in Our Lives

Family Worship teaching time in Proverbs 10:1-3, the "Proverb of the day." The curse was that children would bring agony, but children who trust in Christ and belong to Him can be a joy to their parents by His grace and His Spirit. Death laid claim to us spiritually and physically, but when Christ is our righteousness, sin is no longer our master, and death cannot hold us forever. As the Spirit makes those who belong to Jesus more and more like Him, they grow in right desires and find themselves content in the Lord.

190110FW 1Cor 16:13-24 - Battling That Loves and Loving That Battles

Family Worship teaching time, following up upon the epistle reading from 1Corinthians 16:13-24 in corporate worship, this past Lord's Day morning. Christian theology and practice is a battle in which both strength and love are essential. Christ's grace alone empowers this battle, and one of His appointed means for that power is the ministry of the particular elders whom He has given us in our particular congregation.
 

190107FW Gen 3:16-19 - Thy Kingdom Come: the Curses that Christ Reverses

Family Worship teaching time, following up upon the sermon from Genesis 3:16-19 in corporate worship, this past Lord's Day morning. Parenting. Marriage. Work. Central place in the fall. Central place in display of Christ's victorious redemption of His people. We deserve to be a display of death and the devil; but Jesus, who is HIMSELF the image of God, remakes us into His own image!

190104FW John 7:14-36 - God's Truth, Righteousness, and Power for Us in Jesus

Family Worship teaching time, following up upon the Gospel reading from John 7:14-36 in corporate worship, this past Lord's Day morning. Jesus's teaching at the feast is so obviously true that the people are astonished. He explains that He does Bible study and theology different than everyone else, because He came from God. Therefore all His teaching is inherently true, and He is completely righteous. When the argument with the Pharisees and priests heats up, He notifies them that they cannot succeed against Him, because His power is heavenly, and He is returning there. In Jesus Christ, God has provided us with His own truth, His own righteousness, and His own power!

190103FW 1Cor 16:1-12 - Ways that Jesus Ministers to Our Bodies and Souls

Family Worship teaching time, following up upon the Epistle reading from 1Corinthians 6:1-12 in corporate worship, this past Lord's Day morning. Jesus ministers to His people's material needs through all of His people through giving on the Lord's Day and through hospitality. And Jesus's plan for ministering to our souls is elders who, literally, "do the Lord's work." Scripture teaches us to submit to and encourage our elders so that they will shepherd us both with joy (Heb 13:17) and without fear (v10).

190102FW Josh 11:16-23 - Our Infinitely Faithful, Just, Merciful, and Generous Covenant God

Family Worship teaching time, following up upon the Old Testament reading from Joshua 11:16-23 in corporate worship, Lord's Day morning. God gave His people victory over ALL whom He said He would. He satisfied ALL His justice. And showed great mercy even to those who weren't His, and ALL mercy to His own. And He brought them into ALL their inheritance!

181231FW Gen 3:12-15 - Gospel of Serpent-Crushing Grace

Family Worship teaching time, following up upon the sermon from Genesis 3:12-15 in corporate worship, Lord's Day morning. Before God says a single word of penalty to the woman or man, He announces His grace that will work in sinners whom He is saving, His grace that will keep the church separate from the world, and His grace that will send His Son as the Seed of the woman to crush the serpent's head. Praise the God of gospel grace!

181229FW Prov 29:6-9 - Fruitful Faith, Wisdom's Foundation

From the Proverb of the day (29), we saw how confidence in God's goodness to us in Christ is the foundation of wise living. If we are confident that God seeks our pleasure, we will not be snared by trying to find pleasure in disobedience (v6). If we are confident that God attends to all our needs, we will not be closed-fisted but rejoice to imitate His generosity (v7). If we are confident that God defends our interests, we will be freed from contentiousness to pursue peace (v8). And, if we are confident both that we are still sinful and that everything that we encounter is designed by God to fit us for heaven, then we will be poised to take correction seriously and benefit from it (v9).

181229FW Gen 3:12-15 - Good, Serpent-Crushing, News

Family Worship teaching time, anticipating the sermon from Genesis 3:12-15 in corporate worship, tomorrow morning. God elicits a horrifying response from Adam, a disappointing response from the woman, but no response at all from the serpent. Why? Because He asks the serpent no question--simply declares a curse! He promises His own sovereign work in regeneration, and that He will maintain a covenant line of those who belong to Him, over-against those who belong to the serpent. Ultimately, the only way that this can be effective is because He Himself will come, born of a woman, to destroy the devil and his works! ... And God promises all of this before He has even declared the consequences of Adam and his wife's sin! The first time that the bad news of the curse was announced, it was already in the context of the good news of the gospel!!

181228FW Prov 28:10-12 - In Relationships, Reliance, and Rule, We Reap What We Sow

Family Worship teaching lesson from Proverbs 28:10-12. In relationships, we reap what we sow. If we cause others to stumble, we fall. If we build others up, we enjoy good from God's hand. In reliance, we reap what we sow. If we are self-reliant, then we will end up in that utter folly of being wise in our own eyes. If we fear the Lord and rely upon Him, we will be in a position to instruct even those who seem great. In rule, we reap what we sow. When those who rule are godly, there is joy; when they are wicked, there is fear.

181228FW John 7:1-13 - Jesus, Bringer of Sword and Division

Family Worship teaching time, following up upon John 7:1-13 from the Old Testament reading in corporate worship, Lord's Day morning. Jesus highlights for his brothers that they are still of the world--hateful and murderous toward Him. Marvelously, He does so in the midst of reminding us that He has come to suffer and die as a sacrifice for those whose deeds are evil! All mankind is divided by Christ into those who hate Him, and those who trust in and love and follow and obey Him--and who are therefore hated with Him. There is no middle ground.

Incomplete Reformation

The year is winding down, which brings me once again toward the end of 2Chronicles. The evil of Manasseh is never surprising. The repentance of Manasseh always is. Something else caught my eye today, however.

He took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem; and he cast them out of the city. He also repaired the altar of the LORD, sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel. Nevertheless the people still sacrificed on the high places, but only to the LORD their God. (2 Chr 33:15–17)

It's that last verse there. "Nevertheless the people still sacrificed on the high places, but only to Yahweh their God" (emphasis mine). The way that the Holy Spirit notes this is instructive for believers such as we are, who are always in an a state of incomplete reformation.

Recently someone dear to me, who is just now at a very late point in life coming 'round to delighting in the Lord's Day and rejecting man-made holy days, expressed grief over someone else whom he loves. That individual had been talking about praying to this and that saint, and visiting this and that holy site, as a way to enhance the effectiveness of his own intercession before God.

I pointed out to my dear one that, so long as we are coming by genuine faith in Christ, we are coming in union with Christ. I say 'genuine', rather than 'only', because if we tell the truth, then the fact is that we never have perfect faith in Christ. Even if we intend to believe in Christ alone as the God-man, our Mediator, all of our faith is imperfect. Of course, willfully trusting in others as well is not genuine faith in Christ, but every one of our hearts is a tangled web of excuses by which we explain away all of our false trustings.

Well, if we are coming in union with Christ, then the Lord is receiving us according to Christ's righteousness. And, if we are coming in union with Christ, then His blood puts away all of the guilt of all of the sin and error in how we come.

Does that mean that we should be satisfied with imperfect reformation? No, not at all. As we read through Chronicles (or Kings), we find that the Lord cares very much about every detail of reformation, and does "grade" varying degrees of reformation differently. Here, in 2Chr 33:17, there is obvious divine dissatisfaction with the people's sacrificing on the high places.

However, we also learn here not to treat a smaller degree of reformation as if it is worthless for being smaller. The Lord mentions the sincerity of their flawed (idolatrous!) worship: but only to Yahweh their God. Does this take away the guild of the idolatrous portion? Of course not. The Lord was still about to destroy Israel for their man-invented way of holding a feast to Yahweh in Exodus 32:5. Only the Mediator (Christ!!--though, in that section of Exodus, Moses is a type/foreshadowing of Christ) can take away the guilt that belongs to the flaws in our worship.

That is what frees us to celebrate the removal of some flaws--even if there are others that we can still see. Imperfect reformation is not the same as no reformation at all. In fact, covered in Christ's blood and made sincere by His Spirit, every well-intended reformation is something to be celebrated, even if fraught with glaring blindspots of imperfection!

181227FW 1Cor 15:50-58 - Victory in Jesus

Family Worship teaching time, following up upon 1Corinthians 15:50-58 from the Old Testament reading in corporate worship, Lord's Day morning. We need glorified bodies to inherit the kingdom. The kingdom is not something that Christians bring in or build. It is something that we pray to come, because we inherit it when it comes. We receive it as a gift, to which we have a right through our relationship to God as His children.

At the resurrection, when death and the grave are exposed not as victorious opponents but as defeated servants, death is swallowed up in victory!

But, as we learn from Romans 6-7, we enjoy already the resurrection victory of Jesus as we walk in newness of life. Death and sin lost their claim upon us when we died in Jesus Christ. The one that belonged to them died in Christ; the one that we are now is a slave of Christ.

This is why we must be steadfast in the work of the Lord Jesus--we are His slaves, so let us stick with His work! This is why we must be immovable in the work of the Lord Jesus--we are His slaves, so let us not depart from His work! This is why we must be abundant in the work of the Lord Jesus--we are His slaves, so let us be overflowing with His work!

Jesus frees us--not to be slaves to ourselves and our desires, but to be slaves to Him. Every time we say no to sin, no to self, and yes to Jesus, we are already now enjoying resurrection victory!

181226FW Josh 11:1-15 - Shocking Grace

Family Worship teaching time, following up upon Joshua 11:1-15 from the Old Testament reading in corporate worship, Lord's Day morning. Readers and hearers are often shocked at how complete and hard the destruction of the Canaanite tribes/cities/kings is. However, this passage emphasizes over and again that this is the Lord's work, and that the manner in which Joshua and Israel carried it out was according to the Lord's Word. This leaves us to face the fact that we are not shocked enough by sin. If we were, then what we would find truly shocking in this passage is God's grace to Israel!
 

181221FW Prov 21:9-11 - Contentiousness, Conduct, Correction, and the Heart

Proverb of the day (21), vv9-11. Avoiding becoming (or marrying) a contentious woman; keeping the heart, and receiving correction.