Category: Devotional Grist

Kingdom

When we pray “Thine is the Kingdom” forever we are acknowledging that God is God over all. There are no lesser gods that God competes with. All belongs to Him.

St. Paul captures something of this idea when he writes in Romans 11:33

“36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”

Of course when we pray this we are acknowledging that God has absolute dominion over His creation. When we pray “Thine is the Kingdom forever,” we are confessing before God and remind ourselves that God does not have any competition. We need to be reminded of this when living in a time when earthly potentates cavort and strut upon the world stage as if they owned some kind of dominion that is original to themselves. We also need to be reminded of this when all to often we meet Christians who somehow think that the devil somehow is ruling now while God is a spectator. To such people we offer that God’s is the Kingdom forever.

The song “This is my Father’s World captures something of the truth of “Thine is the Kingdom forever.”

This is my Father’s world.
O let me ne’er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let the earth be glad!

A piece of poetry that has always charmed me communicates much the same message,

Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne,
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow,
keeping watch above his own

God alone has the sole authority and the exclusive prerogative to rule. All belong to Him and all is His Kingdom.

And so here we are praying and when we pray “Thine is the Kingdom forever,” we are recognizing God’s right of ownership and dominion. When we pray such we then arise and live and move in terms of that exhaustive dominion. As Christians we are not beggars and paupers. We are children of the great King who holds dominion forever and we offer no apology to anyone for God’s Dominion authority.

There is also another slight implication here. Because God’s is the Kingdom forever we do not recognize the Kingdoms of other lesser gods. The Sons of Allah and the Sons of the Talmud and the Sons of all lesser God’s are obliged to bow before Him whose Kingdom encompasses all and whose present Kingdom is forever. The God of the Bible is not a God who does time sharing arrangements with other Gods. He does not parcel out His Kingdom dominion here and there so that competing gods each can have their share of the earthly terrain. God’s Kingdom dominion extends everywhere and all lesser gods will bow and all the knees of the adherents of the lesser gods will bow to God’s Kingdom dominion.

Power

The word power here is dunamis. It is the word from which we derive our words “dynamite” and “dynamic.” When we pray that “Thine is the power forever,” we are recognizing God’s eternal and infinite omnipotence.

When we recognize God’s power we recognize His ability to act or produce an effect; and His possession of authority over others. God revealed His power by miraculously delivering Israel from Egyptian slavery (Exodus 4:21 ; Exodus 9:16 ; Exodus 15:6 ; Exodus 32:11 ) and in the conquest of Canaan (Psalm 111:6 ). God’s acts are foundational for His claim on Israel. God’s power includes not only the power to judge but also the power to forgive sin (Numbers 14:15-19 ; Jeremiah 32:17-18 ).

When we think of the Power of God though we must not miss the everyday power of God that we so often rush right by. We are ourselves sustained by the power of God. Our every breath is only drawn because of God’s sustaining and governing power. The rising and the setting of the sun. The coming and going of the seasons. The growing of our crops and the maintenance of our families is only because of God’s power.

Yes, God uses secondary sources to sustain His universe. But to often we get caught up so much in the secondary sources that we forget God has the primary authority. Gravity keeps us from falling off the planet but who has the power over gravity? We rejoice in the company of our family but they do not have the power of life and death in themselves … Only God has that power.

And what of our right standing with God? Only God has the power to establish that and to keep us until the final day. It was God’s power from eternity that enter into covenant to Himself to all the saving of a people who could not save themselves. It is His power that has delivered us from the cankers of guilty, pride, and envy that would have otherwise eaten us alive. It is because of His power we are delivered from the self destruction that all men pursue who are not under the hegemony of His power. It is because of His power that we are gathered here today to be built up in the faith and to be reminded with what a great salvation with which we’ve been won.

What more shall we speak of this glorious power? Shall we speak of the power working in the resurrection? The power that brought us from death to life? The power that keeps us hungering and thirsting for righteousness?

Praise God for His glorious power.

Glory

When we pray that “thine is the Glory,” we are recognizing God’s position as the Great King and ruler over all. The word here literally means to “give weight to, to honor.” It is to stand in awe of and to grant respect. It is to recognize the inequality between the character and nature of God and ourselves. God is glorious and we are sinful. It is thus to ascribe praise and adoration to God because He is other than we are.

We have a hard time with the idea of the glory of God because we are a people who are prone to integration downward into the void. Which is to say we are constantly requiring those temporal realities that have glory — those temporal realities that are superior to us — to find the lowest common denominator with those things that shouldn’t be given weight or honor to because they are not superior.

So for example we work assiduously to veil the glory of those who have temporal superiority so that we are not required to give them weight or honor. When we embrace programs where those who are not exceptional are given points so that they might be as exceptional as those who do not need points we are refusing to give glory (weight, honor) to those who are glorious.

Kurt Vonnegut told this tale in his short story “Harrison Bergeron.” Written in 1968 this is a which satire raises serious question concerning desirability of social equality and the extent to which society is prepared to go to achieve it. It is the year 2081. Because of Amendments to the Constitution, every American is fully equal, meaning that no one is smarter, better-looking, stronger, or faster than anyone else. We might say, in the context of the sermon this morning, that no one has more intrinsic temporal glory than another person.

The Handicapper General and a team of agents ensure that the laws of equality are enforced and that no one is recognized as more glorious than anyone else. The government forces citizens to wear “handicaps” (a mask if they are too handsome or beautiful, earphones with deafening radio signals to make intelligent people unable to concentrate and form thoughts, and heavy weights to slow down those who are too strong or fast).

The whole idea here is that the temporal glory must be suppressed.

Now a people saturated in this idea in the Temporal realm — the realm of everyday living — is going to find it very difficult to think of God as being glorious. In their existence glory is bad. No one should have glory. And so the idea of God being glorious is a character trait that they either cannot identify with or they cannot recognize.

There was a time when we would still automatically give glory to people in our community. There was a time when the aged would automatically be given deference and respect and so some of what we are calling glory. There was a time when a visiting dignitary might be given deference and respect but, while exceptions exist in our culture, this automatic extending of glory (deference, respect) is hardly to be found.

And so because it is not in our everyday living we find it difficult to understand what it means to pray, “For thine is the glory forever.”

God is Glorious and when we pray we recognize God’s glory. The Glory of God is stamped everywhere across the pages of the Scripture. From the miracle of Creation, to the miracle of his long-suffering with sin from the fall forward, to the deliverance of His people from captivity, to His shekinah glory as seen in the Temple, God is everywhere Glorious in Scripture.

And our Lord Christ, being very God of God, shares in that Glory. (Revelation 1)

12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.

Oh for the ability to come to grips with the glorious character of the Triune God. That God is a God all together worthy of being ascribed with all honor and respect. Oh for the ability not only to say it or pray it or preach it but I would give anything to have just a beginning of the right estimation of God’s glory for I struggle as much as the next person stuck in the mire of a culture that is altogether unfamiliar with the idea of glory — both temporal and divine.

Of course none of us can take in all of God’s glory, as Moses was told on the Mt. Sinai. But to have just an inkling of God’s superiority, God’s otherness, God’s excellence, God’s Grace, God’s Love, God’s justice, God’s Mercy. To have just an inkling of that would satisfy all the doubts and questions we have. To have just an inkling of that would change us so that we would never be the same again.

This is of course a matter of adoration. When we say “thine is the glory” we are attributing to God something that is not true about ourselves. God alone is glorious as the absolute standard by which we measure all other lesser glories.

And so in the doxology we are reminded that part of our prayer life should be this matter of adoration. Prayer is not only a matter of confession and supplication. Prayer is also a matter of adoration. God is the maker and we are the clay and so it is fitting and proper to offer up adoration unto God.

You do understand of course that when we speak of giving God glory we are not bestowing something on God that He could not have unless we bestowed it. No, when we pray “thine is the Glory, Forever,” we are merely recognizing a state that already exists as true. God is glorious whether we recognize it or not. The world is suffused with the glory of God.

Conclusion

It is interesting that we pray all that we have prayed because the Kingdom, the power, and the glory belongs to God. This makes all the requests of the Lord’s Prayer vertical. We are praying the matters that we have looked at not because of our interests but because of God’s interests. We pray for or daily bread for God’s is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. We pray for our sins to be forgiven for God’s is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. We pray for God’s will be done for God’s is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

This reminds us how God centered this prayer is. And though we all fall short it reminds us that all our living ought to be for God’s Kingdom and power and glory forever.

It is interesting that our Lord Christ ends this prayer by centering us again upon God and His character. This life is not about us but it is about God and as such the last thought in this prayer finds us thinking of God’s character.

The Church in the West will ever be trapped in her chains of lethargy until she can once again become God centered in her living and praying.

Lead us not into Temptation

Where do we normally think of our Temptations arising from?

The Devil

Occasionally we see the Devil show up personally unto temptation. In the Garden. In the book of Job. In the fall of Judas and the sifting of Peter but we must understand that the Devil is not omnipresent and most often the Temptations to evil, at their root, though inspired by the Devil, are not directly delivered by the Devil.

Still Scripture teaches that

I Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

And so we remember we wrestle not against flesh and blood but principalities and powers and we all the while pray, “Lead us not into Temptation.”

The World

St. James says that Friendship with the World is enmity towards God.

St. John can say

15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

Of course “World” in the way we are using it means to join in league with the Sons of Adam against the truth and principles laid down by Christ. We are Tempted by the World most normally when our desire to “fit in” rises above our desire to to walk in terms of God’s authority.

The idea of the “World” as a Temptress I think is better translated “this present age,” so that the idea is that Temptation is being driven by a desire that isn’t entirely abnormal to go along to get along. So, when it comes to Temptation, “The World” is not so much things like Alcohol, Smokes, or Theater, but rather it is what we surrender in terms of our identity in order to fit in with a zeitgeist that is opposed to God’s authority.

The Scripture gives us an example of that In Demas. Early on Demas was a valued companion of Paul.

Col. 4:14 Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.
Philemon 24 Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellowlabourers.

But later Paul can write of Demas,

II Timothy 4:10 — For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world,

Apparently, Demas considered the relief of no longer identifying with Paul and his work and message to be more important than what could be gained from that identity.

Concrete example,

The issue of sexuality in the public square. There are many in the Church who are surrendering this teaching inch by inch in order to be able to accommodate this present age,

Horton Quote,

“Although a contractual relationship denies God’s will for human dignity, I could affirm domestic partnerships as a way of protecting people’s legal and economic security. However, the “marriage card” is the demand for something that simply cannot consist in a same-sex relationship….”

“The challenge there is that two Christians who hold the same beliefs about marriage as Christians may appeal to neighbor-love to support or to oppose legalization of same-sex marriage.”

Or another Concrete example of being Tempted by the World

“Instantaneous creation of Adam and Eve is not explicitly required by the text or its subsequent interpretation, but the historicity of a first human couple with whom God entered into covenant is indispensable to theology at significant points in almost every locus.”

Nobody in the Church made these kinds of concessions until this present age insisted that Christianity couldn’t be relevant until it made these kinds of concessions. And so large segments of the Church have become Demas like in their abandonment of the Christian faith in order to avoid being seen as “narrow” as God’s enemies count “narrow.”

So love of the world, in terms of Temptation, can tempt us to abandon our associations with Christians as Demas did or it can cause us to give up doctrinal positions in order to maintain our relevance. And because the Temptations of the World can be so intense at every turn we are taught to pray, regardless of our place or status in life to “Lead us not into Temptation.”

The Self

Temptation often comes through the self as that self still remains besotted with the lineaments of our old Adamic nature. As regenerated we still deal with lusts, envy, self-centeredness, pride, unbelief and a host of other plug uglies that raise their heads all too frequently.

Our Canon’s of Dordt can speak to this issue by noting,

“Those people whom God according to his purpose calls into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord and regenerates by the Holy Spirit, God also sets free from the dominion and slavery of sin, though not entirely from the flesh and from the body of sin as long as they are in this life.

Article 2: The Believer’s Reaction to Sins of Weakness

Hence daily sins of weakness arise, and blemishes cling to even the best works of saints, giving them continual cause to humble themselves before God, to flee for refuge to Christ crucified, to put the flesh to death more and more by the Spirit of supplication and by holy exercises of godliness, and to strain toward the goal of perfection, until they are freed from this body of death and reign with the Lamb of God in heaven.”

True it is a Christian people who are praying this prayer and we pray to God to lead us not into Temptation because as a Christian people we know all too well our weakness and dispositions. The praying then of “lead us not into Temptation but Deliver us from evil” is the prayer of a people who distrust themselves while trusting God.

This 6th petition reminds us thus again that the only place we can go is to the prayer closet and to our Father to secure help as against ourselves.

When we talk about Temptations we would do well to remind ourselves that sometimes the most effective Temptation is the most subtle,

Screw Tape Letters,

“You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one-the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

― C.S. Lewis

What may we say of this connection between our Temptations and God?

First if we look back at Mt. Ch. 4:1 we see God ordaining the Temptation of our Lord Christ,

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

Clearly we see here that God is sovereign even as it pertains to our Temptations. And while James teaches that God himself tempts no one, clearly He is sovereign over the coming and goings of Temptations. And even when Temptation does come into our lives as believers we can be confident that

God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. (I Cor. 10:13).

And so it is fitting and proper to pray that we might not be led into Temptation. Who else can calm our sinful appetites so that we are not Tempted except our Father in Heaven?

Now we turn to the prayer for deliverance.

It is likely that the Scripture here should be translated, “Evil one” as opposed to just “Evil,” though it is not wrong to translate it either way.

Mt. 5:37 / Mt. 13:19, 38, / John 17:15 / I John 2:13

I prefer “Evil One” as opposed to just “Evil” because it reminds us that Evil is not just an abstract philosophical concept but Evil is personal.

When we pray to be delivered from this Evil one we are praying not only to be delivered from his agenda but also the agenda of all those who are in league with him and so all those who advocate his agenda. In this prayer we are reminded that those issues that we stand against that are contrary to Christ and His Gospel can not be abstracted from the Evil one. So when we pray to be delivered from the Evil one we at the same time pray that we would be delivered from all that opposes Christ. We pray for deliverance from unjust wars, we pray for deliverance from assaults on the family, we pray for deliverance from being enslaved by unjust rulers because these are all the machinations of the Evil One whom we are praying to be delivered from.

Of course this prayer reminds us also that because of Christ’s finished work on the Cross we have already been delivered from the Evil one. Because of Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension, the Devil no longer has any hold on us. Paul can say in Colossians that God has delivered us from the Dominion of Darkness and translated us to the Kingdom of God’s dear son.

So, we can pray “Deliver us from the Evil One,” precisely because we have been delivered from the Evil One. There is a now, not yet to this prayer.

“O Father, I thank you that you have delivered me from the Devil’s authority and power in the death of Christ. I thank you that sin as a lifestyle and way of life no longer has dominion over me. I thank you that I am more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus. Now, I ask that despite my weakness and frailty you would continue to deliver me from the Evil one.”

So, as Jesus puts this prayer on the lips of His people we see how realistic it is. We are are a forgiven people who are in need of forgiveness, we are a delivered people who have need to ask for deliverance from the Evil one. We are a people who find our beginning with our Father in Heaven and our ending in desiring His Kingdom, Power, and Glory to be seen forever.

Deliver us from Evil

As part of the Church militant our cry is always for relief from the designs of the enemy. And so until we are made secure in the Church triumphant — the church at rest — we constantly cry out for deliverance.

To cry out for deliverance in our Prayer life reminds us that our victory is not in ourselves. We can not deliver ourselves. This petition reminds us then how beholden we are to God for our final deliverance, just as we are beholden to Him for our current deliverance.

And so here we are praying this prayer that has been on the lips of God’s people for millennial. And the more we pray it with earnestness the more we see how dependent we are upon God to traverse all the dangers that we find in the Devil, in the World, and in ourselves. In praying this prayer we communicate to God and to ourselves how much we long to be done with those character flaws, those habits, those crooked desires that are inconsistent with the Christian life. Prayed in earnest and with understanding, this 6th petition throws us off ourselves and on to the mercy of God.

And yet at the same time praying this prayer reminds us that we are praying this as a already delivered people. God has secured us in Christ so that we the delivered ones keep praying for deliverance. And so the prayer, rightly understood, is also a prayer of gratitude.

Let us stand and together pray the Lord’s Prayer

Lead us not into temptation — negative side of the petition (Protection)

Deliver us from evil — positive side of the petition (Triumph)

With these two corresponding petitions the saint is asking for, on the one hand protection and preservation from sin, Satan, and self while at the same time asking not only for protection and preservation but also for much more than that – for outright victory.

The Christian does not merely desire to be kept in this battle against evil and the evil one, the Christian desires to be delivered from it. We see this demonstrated in Romans 7 where the Apostle Paul can say, “O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death.” Paul sees his sin and he desires deliverance from it.

We should say here then that in this prayer for protection and triumph we see the characteristic Christian in prayer and it causes us to ask if our prayer lives are so characterized. Do we long for, not only protection, but do we long for deliverance from evil and the evil one?

This is a prayer that reflect that we have a right estimation of ourselves and of God.

A right estimation of ourselves because we know our own weakness towards Temptation and a right estimation of God as the only one who can deliver us from our enemies. It is a prayer that once again confesses our own lack of sufficiency. We pin our hopes not upon ourselves for overcoming in this battle that rages about us, but we pin our hopes upon God for his protecting and delivering ability.

Of course, as such, this prayer on our lips, bespeaks that character of God that we Reformed Christian, with Scripture, return to over and over again and that is God’s sovereignty. In this prayer we are entrusting ourselves to the one who directs our steps and to the only one who has the power and authority to deliver us from our own weaknesses, and from the onslaughts of the evil one.

We must be careful here though to not make this prayer only personal and individual, though it is that. We remember that the teaching of the prayer begins with the Pronoun “Our,” (Our Father who art in Heaven) and that even here the pronouns are plural. We are praying, “lead US not into temptation, deliver US from the evil one.” So while it is fitting and proper to ask for this individually we would also do well to remember that this is a prayer that God’s people together are to be praying. This is a covenantal prayer. Not only is this “lead me not into temptation and deliver me from evil” as appropriate as that is, but it is also lead us not into temptation and deliver us from the evil one. All of us together are praying that we, as the glorious body of Christ, might not be led into Temptation but be delivered from the evil one.

In this covenantal aspect of the prayer we are reminded again that in a healthy Christianity there is not a Lone Ranger kind of Christian existence. Together we are asking to not be led into temptation and together we are asking to be delivered from the evil one.

Just a brief word here on this score. We live in a time and an environment that so desperately wants to peel away from us every and all of our covenant identity markers. Our current culture wants to produce atomized individuals peeled away from Christian covenantal loyalties of Christian family, Christian church, Christian guild, or Christian school so as to remake people to be conformed to something other than Christ. If our Christian covenantal identity markers are successfully stripped away from us then we are left naked before the various non Christian ideologies which would seek to reorganize our identity — our self understanding — as set against the back drop of a rival theology that serves purposes that are alien to Christ’s purposes.

Christian covenantal categories are monumentally important and in the Lord’s Prayer we find the covenant aspect of the Christian life being subtly set forth again. We pray, “Lead US not into temptation, but deliver US from the evil one.”

As we continue to consider this two sided request of preservation and deliverance that our Lord Christ puts upon the lips of His people, we are mindful of the flow of the Lord’s Prayer. In the previous petition we are crying out for forgiveness of sins, while here we are crying out for deliverance from sin. There is a proper symmetry here. When we are united to Christ the Christian cries out at one and the same time both for forgiveness and for deliverance from the grip and filth of sin.

Logically, we cry out first for forgiveness because there can be no deliverance from the grip and the power of sin until we have first been forgiven for our sin. The cry of forgiveness is the cry for the reckoning of Christ’s righteousness to our account. The cry for preservation and deliverance is the cry that we might increasingly become what we have been freely already declared to be.

All Christians upon being united to Christ long both for forgiveness and release. There is thus an inseparability of justification (forgiveness) and sanctification (deliverance) for the Christian. And we find that here in the Lord’s Prayer. True, the proper ordering is the cry for forgiveness and then the petition for deliverance but never one without the other for they imply one another.

The close relationship between forgiveness and ongoing deliverance from the grip of Sin is seen in a myriad of places in Scripture. Consider Romans 6

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 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.”

Calvin can say on this point,

In Romans 6 he (Paul) turns to discuss the sanctification which we obtain in Christ. As soon as the flesh has had a little taste of this grace, it is liable to gratify its vices and desires w/o disturbance, as though grace were now ended. Against this Paul maintains here that we cannot receive righteousness in Christ without at the same time laying hold of sanctification…. It follows therefore, that no one can put on the righteousness of Christ without regeneration.”

Also Romans 8 has this close relationship,

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.[a] 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you[b] free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,[c] he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

You see it here again. No condemnation for those who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

So there is this intimate insoluble relationship between the petition of forgiveness and the petition for perseverance and deliverance. You have the petition for forgiveness and you have the petition for preservation and deliverance. Never one without the other and each presupposing the other.

This insolubility between the two is so true that Calvin can comment elsewhere,

“All those who have been grafted into Christ our Lord by His Spirit are beyond danger or likelihood of condemnation, however burdened they may still be by their sins. In the Second place, if those who remain in the flesh lack the sanctification of the Spirit, none of them has any share in that great blessing.”

So we see here the insolubility between the petition for forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer and the petition for deliverance. We have this union with Christ and so we pray for both ongoing forgiveness that is never anything but final and we pray for ongoing deliverance.

Here we should say a word about “Temptation.” We are praying that we would not be led into Temptation. Obviously the reference is to a Temptation to sin. Well, how can we know what the sin is that we are praying that we might not be led into except for a close and proper understanding of God’s Character as championed in His law-Word?

You see even this prayer for perseverance and deliverance presupposes God’s law. We are praying that we would be delivered from lawlessness. Lead us not into temptation in those aspects of our lives that are considered more individual and private and lead us not into temptation in those aspects of our lives that are considered as belonging more to the public square.

The Temptation that we are praying that we might not be led into might best be understood as that which our first parents went through. They were tempted in the Garden. And what was that Temptation? The Temptation was to ignore God’s authoritative interpretive Word over all reality in favor of their own autonomous authoritative and interpretive word over all reality. All Temptation unto sin is the Temptation to de-God God and en-God one’s self. Temptation is characterized by setting aside God and his legislative Word in favor of our own fiat self word.

But once again at this point we run smack into God’s law. This Temptation that we are praying that we might not be led into is a prayer that is saying “lead us not into our law word over your law word, grant us thy Spirit that we might understand your Character as revealed in your law word that we might delight in it and walk in it routinely.” Deliver us from the evil one who is the Tempter and grant us triumph over him in this life.

Let us end with some concrete examples of the Temptations we might pray that we would not be led into and the corresponding hope to be delivered from the evil one.

1.) Popularity with the wrong group of people — Friendship with the world is enmity towards God
— Bad company corrupts good character

2.) Staying dumbed down — We take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ
Scripture talks about the necessity of the renewing of the mind

All of us live in and among a people who have been purposefully dumbed down. Because this is true it has affected all of us. There is the Temptation thus to want to stay in the dumbed down comfort zone with the rest of the dumbed down oi polloi. There is safety in numbers.

Now some might contend there is a certain arrogance in this but it is not intended that way for I find myself fighting the same Temptation. This Temptation would have us be satisfied with dumbed down versions of Christianity and dumbed down understandings of grace. This Temptation would not allow us to see the in-congruence of being adherents of this pop culture while trying to be adherents of Christ.

3.) Antinomianism and legalism

There are those in the Reformed Church today who would lead us into public square antinomianism where we no longer apply God’s law to our public square interactions. God’s word has nothing explicit to say about public morality. God’s Word has nothing explicit to say about any kulturkampf (cultural struggle) that we may be involved in. To give into this would be to delivered over to the evil one.

On the other hand there are those in the Reformed Church today who forget that Justification is bases solely on Christ’s work for us and who subtly — very subtly — want to introduce our works (our performance) into the foundation of our Justifications.

Whether it is antinomianism which hates God’s law or Legalism which would use God’s law unlawfully we must pray that we would be delivered from the evil one.

Conclusion

And so here we are … weak creatures totally dependent upon God’s grace. If left to ourselves we will get it wrong every time all the time. And so our Lord Christ rightfully puts upon our lips a prayer for preservation and deliverance.

We remember that Ecclesiastes belongs to what is called “The Wisdom Literature” and so we are not surprised to find these pithy proverbial sayings. The use and work of proverbs was to structure life and to give life boundaries and borders. Proverbs was intended to be generational wisdom that was true for all times and places. There is a remarkably covenantal aspect to proverbs in as much as the minding or taking serious of Proverbs is a way in which we honor our Fathers and Mothers. In the Proverbs we have stored wisdom that was to be used by every generation and we see that it was God’s intent that the covenant generations have a continuity in the fact that all the covenant generations would be guided and structured by heeding the proverbs.

Remember the reason that the Teacher has gone into this comparing and contrasting of the fool and the wise, of folly and wisdom is that he is giving an account of why it is the case that the world is topsy turvy. One reason it is topsy turvy is that the fool and his folly has been embraced.

As we come to Ecclesiastes 10:8-10 I take it to be a description of the way the fool operates. I do so because all of what we find here is a description of failure but it ends in vs. 10 with a contrast of “wisdom brings success.” The fool operates in an unprepared fashion that exemplifies a lack of caution.

Alternately, the Teacher could be emphasizing again as he did in 9:11-12 that God is sovereign over the affairs of men and matters don’t always turn out as we thought they might.

If, what we have in vs. 8-10 is description of the way the fool operates as contrasted with the wise who have success, with the point perhaps being that the wise take proper preparation so as to avoid the fool’s the disasters that arise from a fool’s lack of caution.

— He digs a pit and falls into it
— He breaks through a wall and is bitten by a serpent
— He is hurt by the stones he quarries

then in vs. 11-15 the point is to contrast not only the work of the fool and the wise but their words also. The conclusion of all this is that the fool is good for nothing because they can not accomplish the most mundane of all tasks (they do not even know how to go to the city).

So with that in mind we look at 11-14

If the serpent bites before it is charmed,
there is no advantage to the charmer.

In vs. 11 Maurer translates, “There is no gain to the enchanter” (Margin, “master of the tongue”) from his enchantments, because the serpent bites before he can use them; hence the need of continual caution. Again, in vs. 11, like 8-10 the fool is not someone who takes caution in acting — he is not prepared.

In Ec 10:11 and following verses, the emphasis then switches to caution in speaking and to the issue of finding advantage.

In vs. 12 we are explicitly told that the words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious. We find similar words in Proverbs 10:31-32

The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom,
but the perverse tongue will be cut off.
32 The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable,
but the mouth of the wicked, what is perverse.

The wise man speaks in a way that is favorable; kind; benevolent; merciful.

But of course we offer her that these favorable and kind words that the wise man speaks are not words that are intended to be manipulative or full of compromise. They are rather words that need to be spoken at the right time in the right way. Such gracious words, we learn elsewhere from Scripture are like are like apples of gold in a setting of silver.

So the gracious speaking of the wise is a speaking that is able to discern the proper time and place for the proper words, and it is as easy to lack graciousness in words by saying to little as by saying to much.

It is as easy to lack graciousness in words by being to soft as by being to hard.

As such I suppose nothing is more difficult for the wise than to speak graciously. There is always the danger to say to much or to little. There is always the danger of using the wrong tone or choosing the wrong word. There is always the reality that one doesn’t understand the mood of the audience and what they can or cannot hear at any given time. There is always the temptation to be intimidated by man and so swallow the gracious words that might be better spoken. There is always the temptation to be so puffed up that words are spoken that don’t need to be heard.

Very few of the Sons of Adam have the ability to speak words that are gracious and so show themselves wise.

Because of this we have to keep in prayer that God would give us wisdom … to know how to speak.

These words of graciousness from the Wise seeks to eliminate all needless offense and all unwarranted irritation. I say “needless” and “unwarranted” because there will be times when offense and irritation will result from the gracious words of the wise.

Tiny seemingly insignificant realities of words are monumentally important. With gracious words Abigail turned David’s hand away from bloodshed (I Sam. 25:23-33). With gracious words Moses interceded successfully with God in order to turn God’s wrath from the Hebrew children. With gracious words Jesus tongue lashed the enemies of God, and with gracious words St. Paul had startling counsel for those who would empty the Gospel.

The fool, unlike the wise is a flowing fountain of inane speech. It’s doubtful he ever considers what he says or the impact that his words will have.

The first impact the fool’s words is upon himself. He swallows himself up. The idea of “swallow up” here means “to destroy.” A fool is his own worse enemy and his words the weapons by which he lays himself low.

We have our own proverbs down this line. When someone says something unfitting we will say,

“He just shot himself in the foot.”

Our words, as everyone here knows, can bring be our undoing.

The Teacher informs us that when it comes to the fool his words are from beginning to end are idiotic. Vs. 13 may be giving us the idea of how the fool’s speech goes from bad to worse. He starts with words of foolishness and ends with raving madness.

We should interject here that the fact that we are a culture characterized by raving madness is seen in theories of literature that teach that there is no such thing as authorial intent in literature or that authorial intent if it does exist is inaccessible. This is the raving madness of fools because it cuts off the gracious words of the wise of generations gone by from this generation of fools. This is raving madness because it disallows any stable meaning in any of our literature and disallows fixity in law and ethics. This is raving madness because the fool seldom desire to apply the same standard of unreachable authorial intent to what he writes when he writes that we cannot reach authorial intent.

Of course all of this is ultimately contrasted with God’s own Word … our Lord Christ. Our Lord Christ is God’s wisdom to us. By God’s word the heavens were formed and the earth made. By God’s word all things consist. Because God’s Word … our Lord Christ is Wisdom … St. Paul can say all wisdom and treasure of knowledge is hid in that Word who is Christ.

So, as we consider all this … the words of the wise vs. the words of fools, we needs be reminded again that the only hope we have for gracious words is anchored in the reality that we are anchored in the Lord Christ who is wisdom from God. We have no hope of ever being enabled to use the gracious words of wisdom unless we find ourselves buried and risen with Christ. We have no hope of being sanctified in Wisdom so that our words become increasingly gracious as the years go by unless we are seated in the heavenlies with the Lord Christ. Would we avoid being fools with all their rash words and raving madness we would be a people who find ourselves nestled in Him who is God’s eternal Word of Wisdom.

In vs. 14 the Teacher presses on with the fool and his words

14 A fool multiplies words,
though no man knows what is to be,
and who can tell him what will be after him?

We have a proverb that parallels this idea somewhat in our own culture that says

“It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”

Another one we have that parallels this somewhat is,

“Silent waters run deep.”

According to the Teacher the fool is someone who always has something to say.

Now, this is not a admonition against people who are wordy. One can be wordy without being a fool. However it is a admonition against banal wordiness. Wordiness that has no meaning and intends to go nowhere.

When 14b is read in conjunction with 14a the idea seems to be that the fool is one who has an opinion on everything including those things that cannot be known. No man can know what is to be but a fool will tell you what is to be. No man can tell you what will happen in the long future and yet the fool, with his multitude of words, will tell you.

Charles Bridge offers an interesting insight into the fools words here,

“But to judge the waters flowing from a fools fountain; listen to Baal’s worshipers on Mt. Carmel as they cry out to their god incessantly, listen to Rabshakeh’s proud boasting about how Assyria was going to crush Israel during the time of Hezekiah or listen to the fretting murmurings of the people of God when they complained against God leading them out of Egypt.”

The Fool has the ability to always say just the wrong thing at just the right time.

Another matter we might speak of here is the fact that because the fool is so prolix he often immerses himself in contradiction. The fool has a mind that is as crooked as his words are and so he is full of contradiction. James hints at the idea that the fool is double-minded and so his words are full of contradictions that belie his double-mindedness. So, if you want to locate a fool, listen for contradiction in his plethora of words.

application — out of the abundance of the heart a man speaks

For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

In vs. 16-20 the Teacher ends with what I believe to be are words of application.

He has given us wise and fool in work and words. Now he locates the fool.

The people have a fool for King who is a child.

This is suggested by another Proverb from the book by that name,

Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child (Prov. 22:15).

And the fact that foolishness is being spoken of here is confirmed in vs. 16b by describing a ruling class that is partying when it should be governing.

Foolishness of the governing elite is also seen in these verses when they speak of laziness, idleness, and the idea that money is a solution apart from Wisdom.

Governments run by such men cause everyone to suffer from their injustices, for they will use their powers to
extract from people what they would not otherwise be willing to give. Taxes can become an intolerable burden when
sinners are in command and lead a nation as fools that think money answers everything. Certainly from this description we can see that we are a people governed by fools. Our entitlement programs are maxed out while a President spends 100 million dollars to go to Africa.

vs. 17 gives us the contrast to fools who govern.

The King belongs where he is and the princes of the realm have discernment.

We end this morning where the Teacher gives counsel. Despite the fact that people may be ruled by fools they would be wise to avoid cursing the King or the Rich who despite being fools could make their lives hell.

Ascension Day is the 40th day after the celebration of Easter. Through History, on this day, the Church recalls the ascension of Christ into Heaven and celebrates His triumphant rule over all Creation as the Victorious Priest King who has been invested with all authority on heaven and earth.

Interestingly the Ascension was celebrated for centuries in the early Church with Pentecost as one festival. During the end of the 4th century the Church eventually recognized them as dates to celebrate two festivals. One honoring the Ascension. One honoring Pentecost.

Of course we remember that the Ascension of the Lord Christ is a necessary aspect of the narrative of the Gospel. We confess the Ascension of the Lord Christ when we confess the Apostles Creed.

he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,

Too often we so focus on the Cross of Christ that we forget the subsequent Redemptive acts following the Cross — the Resurrection, the Ascension, the co-Regency of the Lord Christ (Session) and the Kingly distribution of the Divine gift of the Holy Spirit upon His people (Pentecost). So, in no way diminishing the luster of the Cross work of the Lord Christ we spend some time on Ascension Sunday speaking to the importance of the Ascension of the Lord Christ, while at the same time seeing the relationship between Cross and Crown.

We first note that the Ascension of the Lord Christ was a enthronement reality. In the enthronement ceremony of the Ancient world what was being affirmed was the Sovereign and rightful rule of the King. We find included in that rightful rule of the King also the theme of judgment because the king was enthroned to judge over his people.

Psalm 96:10, 97:2, 8, 98:9, 99:4

So, when we celebrate Ascension Sunday we are celebrating that Christ is a sovereign King who rules over the affairs of the nations. Indeed, in the Gospel narrative the Ascension of the Lord Christ is the explanation of how God’s reign is incarnated on earth among men.

Luke’s Gospel, for example, very quickly brings us to the Baptism of Jesus, which Jesus describes as a royal anointing (Luke 4:18). In point of fact when, upon Baptism, the Lord Christ hears the Father’s words, “You are my Beloved Son,” there is a echo of the enthronement Psalm of Psalm 2 coming through.

“You are my Son, today I have begotten you …”

So, at the beginning of Christ’s ministry Jesus, as David’s greater Son, is recognized as King, but His enthronement does not come until after his Crucifixion and Resurrection in His Ascension. That there is such a delay between his anointing and His enthronement should not surprise us since there is precedent for that in the OT. David is chosen by God and anointed by Samuel years before he is finally enthroned as King.

Luke describes the Resurrection and Ascension as Jesus’ divine royal enthronement. In his sermon at Pentecost Peter uses the Psalms to show how the Resurrection and Ascension represent the fulfillment of the God’s Promise to David that His seed would forever rule.

Luke cites Psalm 16:8-11 and explains that the Lord has fulfilled David’s prayer for preservation from death not in himself, for he died, but in Jesus who is raised from the dead (Acts 2:24-31).

He then draws on Psalm 110:1 to show how the Lord establishes Jesus as King at his right hand in his Ascension (Acts 2:32-36); through the Ascension Jesus is enthroned at the right hand of God. Though Jesus was “anointed” as king in his baptism, it was only in his Resurrection and Ascension that he was elevated and installed as king.

This exaltation and enthronement becomes a theme again a few chapters later in the book of Acts when Peter says,

(Acts 5:29-32 NKJV) But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men. {30} “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. {31} “Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. {32} “And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.”

So, the Ascension of the Lord Christ — His enthronement — was to the end that the Nations would move in terms of His Sovereign rule and authority, and Peter speaks as one who is under the authority of a King who compels him to disobey lesser authorities who rule contrary to the Ascended King’s Law Word.

That the soon Enthroned and Ascended King intends to bring God’s rule to bear on earth is seen in Jesus last recorded words in Matthew 28,

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Jesus, as the Ascended one, who has been given a name above every other name, now sits at the right Hand of the Father to the end of the fulfillment of all that the Gospel intended to accomplish which is the ongoing extension of His now established rule. In His Ascension God has set His steward King as regent over the nations until His enemy nations are made His footstool.

Now none of this truth denigrates the message of the Cross. In order to come underneath the rule of the King one must understand their rebellion against and alienation from the Ascended King. Only the atoning death of Christ can answer that rebellion and alienation. However, once that rebellion is forgiven because of the finished work of Christ and the alienation set aside so that we are now adopted as co-heirs with Christ we now are part of the Kingdom of God and walk in terms of His law Word — a law word that will hold sway over everything once His enemies are made His footstool.

We should say a few words here to elaborate.

There are those in the Church who want to talk about Christ’s Kingship as if the Kingdom of God is going to be reflected absent the proclamation of the Cross of Christ. It is as if they believe that the current Kingdom of God will be participated in by men who never understood God’s just wrath against sin yet were brought into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross. This will never do. The Cross is the center of our proclamation because it constantly reminds us of our only solution for sin and our only standing before God. We can not participate in God’s building up of His Kingdom apart from the Cross.

However, on the other hand, there are those who never want to move beyond the Cross to the resurrection and the ascension. Christ is King NOW and just as His humiliation was seen in space and time History, so His exaltation will be embodied in space and time History as He triumphs by His Gospel over the nations until His enemies are made His footstool. There are those who warn against the dangers of a over-realized eschatology and in doing so they are warning against a theology of glory where the humility of the Cross is ignored. This is a profitable warning.

But we might also warn against a eschatology that is under-realized and one that diminishes the Ascension of Christ. We might warn against a theology that requires defeat and insists that the victories gained by the ascended Christ are only “spiritual” in nature. We might warn against forgetting the enthronement and Ascension of our Lord Christ and His intent on making his very real enemies into very real footstools. We might warn against a theology that closes the door to God’s reign on earth being made manifest so that all the Nations flow into the Mountain of the Lord’s house (Isaiah 2).

What might we say next of this Ascension we affirm and celebrate?

The Ascension belies an objective state of affairs.

Listen to this morning’s text again,

Acts 2:29 “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne,[e] 31 he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. 33 Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.

34 “For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself:

‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
35 Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”’[f]

36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

What we seen here is that the Ascension gives ontological objectivity to our Preaching and our message

We’ve tried to teach from this pulpit, many times, the the Christian faith is capital T transcendent TRUTH. This flies in the face of the post-modern age which deceptively tries to suggest that truth is person or community variable. In other words, we live in times that desires to suggest that if truth exists it only exists consistent with the narrative or story that any individual or group determines to spin.

Peter’s Sermon, in appealing to the Ascension of Christ puts an end to that nonsense.

Peter insists (and the book of Acts everywhere breathes) that this is an objective state of affairs that obtains and that objective state of affairs (Christ ascended and enthroned at the Right hand of the Father) requires all men everywhere to repent (Acts 2:38).

This objective state of affairs is a Universal reality. Christ ascended and so ruling is the way things are. When proclaiming the Gospel we are not primarily speaking of people entering into a personal relationship with Jesus the way that one might decide to go steady with a boyfriend or girlfriend. When we proclaim the Gospel we are primarily speaking of the Ascended one who rules over the affairs of the Universe to the end of restoring all things so that His enemies are made His footstool. Listen to the way St. Paul characterizes that Dominion in Ephesians 1. St. Paul can speak of

the exceeding greatness of God’s power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

So when we herald Christ we are heralding a objective ontological Cosmic reality. In the death of Christ, Christ defeated all enemies and implemented the Reign of God by brining in a new creational age wherein He intends to set all things aright so as to establish God’s New World Order — God’s Kingdom. This is what the Ascension of Christ bespeaks. Because of Christ’s ascension the age to come has invaded this present wicked age under the instrumentation of the obedient Church, which has been filled with the Spirit of Christ, as gifted by the Ascended King, so that the Church is eager to do good works, unto to the end of being the aroma of Christ unto a world that will be converted by the presently established reign of the ascended Christ.

In the language of the Theologians this is part and parcel of the Christus Victor motif (Col. 2:15). Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension is God’s testimony that He has triumphed over all enemies — foreign and domestic. When you combine this Christus Victor motif with the current reign of Christ over all nations and spheres you get the Gospel. Because of the active obedience of Christ in resisting the Devil and because of the passive obedience of Christ in the work of the Cross, the pretender to the throne of this world (the Devil) has been defeated — the Strong man has been bound — and because of the 2nd Adam’s work, Adam’s seed has had paradise restored — in principle.

You see then that the Ascension compels us to speak of a Gospel that has global implications. In St. John’s language (12:30f) Christ has been lifted up (a double entendre referring both to the crucifixion and the Ascension) and the consequence is that the ruler of this world is cast out. All men everywhere are now commanded to repent for Christ’s new creational age to come has come. This is the Gospel.

One last word on this Ascension Sunday.

Consistent w/ Federal Theology what is predicated of the Covenant head is predicated of His people.

Christ has ascended and so Federally and Covenantally speaking we have as well.

Compare Ephesians 1:20 w/ 2:6

20 which the Father worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

2:6 — Speaking of believers

6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

The good news for Christians is that we died with him, were resurrected with him (Romans 6:4f, Col. 2:13) and have ascended with him (Eph. 2:6) so we are Kings and Priests unto Sovereign God under Christ (I Pt. 2:4f).

On this Ascension Sunday we are thus to be reminded to increasingly become what we have been freely declared to be because of our identity with Christ. We are a people who are now part of the new Creational Kingdom and as denizens of that new Creational Kingdom we are to become what we have been freely declared to be — Preists and Kings unto the Nations.

Conclusion

After this rousing of a Ascension Sermon we have need to be reminded that there is a “not yet” that must be spoken in the context of all this “now.” We are not what we once were but we also are not yet what we shall be. But even here there is great hope. Yes we continue to struggle against sin, and with the remnants of the Adamic nature that clings to all of us, but because Christ has Ascended and sent forth His Spirit we have great hope that we might mortify the old man while vivifying the new man so that we walking increasingly consistent with God’s royal Law Word.

But beyond all of our personal need to grow in the Grace and Knowledge of the Lord Christ the Ascension of our Lord Christ reminds us also of a King whose rule is Cosmic (Romans 8:21). The Ascension of our Lord Christ reminds us of His intent to subjugate His enemies via the Gospel proclamation that includes both their opportunity to appeal for peace and reconciliation based on the finished work of Christ AND the fact that the finished work of Christ is good news of a Victory that covers the world and so will convert the nations.