Category: Devotional Grist

Text — II Kings 2
Subject — The Character of God
Theme — The character of God as seen in the mauling bear’s incident of II Kings 2
Proposition — …. should remind us of the Holy God we serve

Today is “Sanctity of Life” Sunday. The one day that is set aside yearly to specifically confess this great sin of which we all are partakers and to pray that God might grant us repentance from our wickedness. Of course Abortion, in our time, has served as one of the great markers of the culture wars that is raging in the West.

We should not think however that culture wars are unique to us. Whenever you have people belonging to the same nation who have given their allegiances to different gods there you will find culture wars.

We see some of that in Israel during the times of the post-Davidic Kings. We all remember a high expression of those Culture wars as they raged on Mt. Carmel in I Kings 18 where the solitary Man of God does battle with the 850 representatives of Baal and Asherah. That passage comes to us far more squarely as a Worldview conflict with life and death implications.

However this passage that we are looking at today, I believe continues to give us insights into the worldview conflicts / culture wars during those times in Ancient Israel. I believe an examination of this passage, concentrating especially on the mauling of the youths, will reveal to us that this is not the case of a capricious God who has anger management issues but rather it is a case of a Holy God doing the very same thing He did on Mt. Carmel when He upheld the character of His name for all to see.

We must remember that the character of the times which we are looking at are revealed to us in II Chronicles 36

15 The LORD, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy

So in order to set the table here we must keep in mind that all of this is happens among God’s covenant people. Israel has been set apart, by God, to be a witness and priest to the nations. In the immediate time frame Israel has miserably disobeyed God and has been dishonored among His people and so among the Nations as well. Israel had been promised great blessings if she would be obedient but similarly great curses if she were disobedient to her calling (Cmp. Dt. 28, Lv. 26:21-22.).

Israel should have already learned that they were uniquely accountable to God as His people. When God’s people rebel, their sin is high-handed because they have more to rebel against. And what we find in this passage is God’s people rebelling.

Secondly, after the showdown between Ahab and Jezebel’s Baalism, and Elijah, (I Ki. 18) Ahab still did not repent. Elijah became a new Moses. He did not run away as many suppose, but walked straight to the same mountain, the same cave, where Moses saw the glory of God. Elijah became the Moses of a new interim covenant with a remnant of believers. That is why, in the passage in question, there are two ‘water crossings’. Elijah as the new Moses has a water crossing that symbolizes Exodus out of Egypt and into the Wilderness. Elisha is with Elijah representing the remnant who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Later, Elisha as the new Joshua, after seeing Elijah ascend as kind of a first-fruits of all that will follow, has a water crossing symbolizing entry into the new covenant land that is to be conquered.

Like Moses whose grave could not be found, Elijah can not be found after his ascension and so Elisha is established as the Elijah’s Joshua who is given a pentecostal type double blessing upon all his work. To change the metaphor slightly Elijah is the Christ who goes ahead and Elisha is the Church who remains behind to do the King’s work and who is doubly blessed to do the work that must be done.

Elisha is working in terms of a covenant already established. This covenant promises blessings for obedience. And Elisha, as God’s conquering representative, is used to bless a place (Jericho — vs. 18) that had formerly known only curse.

Joshua 6:26

“At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: “Cursed before the LORD is the one who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho”

Elisha requests a new bowl possibly because a new bowl would not be unclean and he asks for salt. Salt is often associated with the OT sacrifices and so is associated with the cleansing that comes by way of sacrifice. And that is what we find here that the salt provides — A cleansing of the waters and so the land. This becomes a sort of Atonement for the land.

As we noted earlier though, the Covenant promises not only blessings but cursing as well. And it is interesting that we find God’s representative as the one who brings both blessing and cursing.

Here we see Elisha as a Christ figure. Either we will petition him for atonement for the springs out of which our life proceeds or we will be cursed for our mocking behavior. The passage before us reminds us that there is no “third way” with God. Either we will be atoned for or we will be suffer the curse of the covenant.

Now a word or two concerning vs. 23-25

First, remember that all of this is happening in the context of idolatrous Israel. Israel is whoring after other gods. That this is so is seen in the previous chapter where the King of Israel desires advice from the Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron whether he will live or not from a fall he had. God is none to pleased with this and inserts himself to give counsel to this King that he is going to die.

The land is rife with idolatry. This must be kept in mind to understand this passage.

Second, note that Elisha is headed towards Bethel (23). Keep in mind that Bethel is the hub of this idolatry. Remember your OT History. King Jeroboam, years prior to this, had instituted his own system of worship by setting up two idolatrous shrines with golden calf images when he broke from Judah (See 1 Kings 12.). One shrine was established at Dan, in the far north of the kingdom, and the other was strategically located at Bethel, on the border with the southern kingdom of Judah. Jeroboam also made up his own priesthood from among his own people. All of this Baal paganism in the Northern Kingdom can be traced back to Bethel. Elisha was headed into enemy territory when he was headed for Bethel.

Now between these two facts,

1.) The land is rife w/ idolatry

2.) Bethel is the hub of that idolatry

And between the reality that Elisha is God’s Joshua re-conquering the land visiting covenatal blessings and cursing upon God’s covenant people I don’t think it is a stretch at all to premise that what Elisha runs into is a pack of pagan Seminarians who are mocking God’s covenantal spokesman. What we have here, I would contend, is not a bunch of three year olds teasing a Prophet about his baldness, but rather what we have is a bunch of young adults testing the living God.

The word “youth” in the passage is used to designate people elsewhere in the OT of the ages of anywhere from twelve to thirty years old. These youths … these priests of Baal in training are mocking God’s prophet. To mock God’s spokesman is to mock God. Their mocks come to us as “baldness,” but such a mocking may have had to do with

1) natural loss of hair;
2) a shaved head denoting his separation to the prophetic office; or more likely,
3) an epithet of scorn and contempt accusing Elisha of being a Leper since Lepers had to shave their heads

Suffice it to say that insult ‘baldhead’ was one of “contempt in the East, applied to a person even with a bushy head of hair.”

Their cat-cries to “go up” doubtless refers to their desire to for Elisha to go away the same way that Elijah had “gone up to heaven.” They wanted to be rid of God’s spokesman.

So here we have the ideological kin of the 850 that Elijah executed at Mt. Carmel. You would have thought that they had learned their lesson.

We should note that the bears mauled 42 of the youths which indicates that Elisha was likely facing many more detractors then the 42 who were cursed.

We should also note that being mauled by wild beasts was a sign of covenant curse.

Lev 26:21 “Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins. 22And I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that your roads shall be deserted.

So, being torn in two by scavenging birds and wild beasts was a curse of the Covenant that is often repeated throughout the Bible. We see it beginning with the raven sent out by Noah, that fed on the floating bodies until the waters went down. If you remember, Jezebel was eaten by dogs, Saul’s sons were hung high but one of their mothers chased the birds away. Abraham chased the birds away from the divided animals that purified the Land, etc. There are many more examples.

These youths were violating the covenant by mocking God and God, who is patient and long-suffering gave them what He promised. Like those who Elijah dismissed after Carmel, these are dismissed by God. Jezebel’s children shall not stand in the company of the righteous.

Now, today what we get are people running to this passage complaining about a capricious God with anger management problems. But the thing we need to keep in mind is not that the action of God here is surprising but rather that this doesn’t happen all the time is what is surprising. Each of us deserves our own personalized female bear.

But God is gracious and has provided for people a covering in Jesus Christ who took our mauling for us. Christ bore the covenant curses that we might know the covenant blessings and that we might walk in the ways of the covenant in order to glorify Him.

You can be sure of this that God will cut off the wicked completely and finally. They will not stand w/ the righteous. The fact that we still have our own culture wars is indicative of God’s patience and the day of grace that we live in. However, you can be sure that if we will not repent of our wickedness a day is coming when the judgment of God will come upon fall upon the wickedness of our land just as it fell upon the wickedness of the land of Israel.

If you abide in my word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

A.) Set Free From Sin’s Dominion

The promise here by Jesus is that if they will abide in His word they will be set free. Christians have been set free from sin’s dominion. They are no longer a slave to sin (8:34). Upon being set free they are now alive to what they were once dead to and are dieing to what they were once alive to. Because of this their desire is to live for God and not unto self. Because they are no longer under Sin’s dominion — which manifested itself in the disregard for God’s Character and moral law — and are now under Christ’s dominion they have a desire to search out and walk in terms of a Spirit animated exaltation in God’s Law-Word

“But with the gospel and in Christ, united to him by faith, the law is no longer my enemy but my friend. Why? Because now God is no longer my enemy but my friend, and the law, his will, the law in its moral core, as reflective of his character and of concerns eternally inherent in his own person and so of what pleases him, is now my friendly guide for life in fellowship with God” ~ Dr. Richard Gaffin

B.) Set Free From Humanist Notions of Freedom

Liberation theology emphasizes the need to free the oppressed, the minority, and the victim from the social structures that are used by the majority ideological and moneyed interests that are advantaged by oppression. Liberation theology is animated and defined by the idea of class and culture struggle having as its goal the achievement of a social justice that would flatten all biblical hierarchical relational structures and would result in the equalizing of all men and women.

Liberation theology offers a liberation from oppressive institutional structures and as such when you read the Liberation Theologians you get the sense that they believe that the Gospel goes forward not by means of individuals being set free by Christ but rather you get the sense that individuals are set free only as political or social environments are set free.

Because of this you hear quite a bit of language from Liberation Theologians about institutional oppression, or corporate cultural wide structural sins, or oppressive cultural attitudes. You see it is whole cultures that are indicted and not individuals that make up the culture. The goal then is to change the culture from the top down by long marches through the cultural institutions where such oppression, structural sins, and victimizing attitudes supposedly come from.

Now in order for this to work the Liberation Theologians have to create a large class of people who feel victimized, and so to that end grievance, real and imagined, are drug up and used to convince people they are oppressed. Wives are putatively oppressed by their husbands and children and must be liberated from this bondage. Minorities are putatively oppressed by Majorities and the culture must be liberated from this bondage. Children are putatively oppressed by their parents and so the culture must be liberated from this bondage. Sexual deviants are putatively oppressed by Christian understandings of marriage and family and so culture must be liberated from this bondage. The poor are putatively oppressed by the Rich and so cultures must be liberated from this bondage. The West is oppressed by apparitions of a vengeful deity, with his bloody Son, who has a law word that must be esteemed and so the West must be liberated from this bondage.

And the Liberation that the Liberation Theologian offers up is a Top Down Liberation that is achieved by revolution and results in bondage that is, on the whole, more severe than any real bondage that existed prior to the successful Liberation.

The Liberation that Jesus promises in his promise to set people free is not social-institutional until it is first individual and personal. Jesus Liberates a person not primarily from their social oppressions — as real as those may very well be. Jesus Liberates a person from their own spiritual slavery to the Devil. Jesus Liberates not primarily from the sin of corporate structural sins but primarily from the sin of loving self above God. The promise of Jesus for Liberation is the liberation from the work of making the world revolve around me. Jesus will free the sin saturated heart not by calls for Revolution by the reality of regeneration.

Do you see the difference here between what the Liberation Theologian as Humanist offers and the Liberation that Jesus promises? The Liberation Theologians believes that people can only be set free as cultural institutions are changed and as the environment is redeemed in the direction of Marxist – Feminist definitions of social justice. The Christian believes that people can only be set free as individuals are regenerated. The Liberation Theologian teaches people that cultural conflict is the only way to be set free. Jesus teaches people that only an abiding in His word can set people Free. In the
end what the Liberation Theologian gives to people is only more bondage. What our Lord Christ gives is genuine freedom.

It is true that injustices abound in this world but the answer to curing the injustices of the world is not by pursuing a Liberation that is forcefully seized. The answer to injustices of the world is by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit upon individuals who build unjust cultures. When the Spirit moves to set people free … and when those people abide in the Word … then those freed people will build just cultures.

In short the primary problem is never political, social, or cultural. The primary problem is that people are dead in their sins and trespasses — he Liberation Theologian as much as anybody. It is not to much to say, I think, that people who advocate for various stripes of Liberation Theology Freedom, from socialism, to feminism, to the cultural Marxist, to environmentalism to code Pink do not know what it means to be free indeed.

Text — James 3:13-18
Subject — Wisdom
Theme — The Character of Wisdom

Proposition — The Character of Wisdom as taught by James 3 should give us insights into the type of Wisdom we practice

Purpose — Therefore having seen the Character of Wisdom in James 3 let us thank God that Jesus is our Wisdom and then pray God for a repentant heart that puts off earthly wisdom and put on heavenly wisdom

Introduction

Context

vs. 13 should be read in context with vs. 1. There the warning was of the dangers that come with being a teacher. Vs. 13, with the picking up of the theme of “wise and understanding” seems then to be a reference back to who should and shouldn’t be a teacher. The idea would be that a teacher is wise and understanding, and this section then goes into what that wise and understanding looks like.

I.) Wise & Understanding Looks Like Good Conduct

vs. 13 — In James requirement that Wisdom would be reflected by its fruits James is being consistent in his whole root and fruit theology. Remember James is the Apostle that is teaches that faith as a root produces good works as a fruit. James uses that same kind of reasoning in 3:13. Wisdom as a root produces good conduct.

In saying this James makes Wisdom to be a quality or virtue that is known by its children or offspring. If one is Wise, then that is revealed in good conduct. We notice how concrete James is here. Wisdom has hands and feet.

At this point we must realize that there must be an objective standard that is being used in order to measure the idea of “good conduct.” “Good conduct” is not conduct that is measured by good intentions, or by subjective opinions about what would be “good,” but by the clear description of what is good as set forth by the word of God. This is necessary to keep emphasizing because of our American predisposition to believe that “good” is situational relative.

At this point James turns to characterize the good conduct called for and says that Wise and understanding man will do works that are done in the meekness of Wisdom. Here we find a definitional component of Wisdom. James characterizes Wisdom as have a certain meekness about it.

“Meekness of Wisdom” — James is calling for a wisdom that does not put itself on display, is not arrogant, boastful, is not concerned about public exhibition to gain notice.

So when works are done in the “Meekness of Wisdom” there is the sense that there is not a great deal of grandstanding that is going on in order to put those works on display. The works of Wisdom are not concerned with being advertised of glorified by men.

These words then are reminiscent of Jesus’ own words

1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Prayer
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

II.) Wise & Understanding does not look like

Vs. 14 is a conditional sentence that in the Greek communicates the presence of those vices that are in the conditional sentence. So, what is being said here is,

“If you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts [and I know you do] stop boasting about it and stop denying the truth.”

“Bitter envy” & “self seeking” seems to be what is contrasted with the the “the Meekness of Wisdom.”

Envy is resentful and even hateful dislike of the good fortune or blessing or position of another. That fact that James calls it “bitter” accentuates the character of envy or what envy naturally does to a person.

This idea of “bitter envy” is part of the old nature. It is the means by which old Slew-foot appealed to Eve. Satan birthed Envy in Eve with the temptation,

5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

See the resentment that Satan is creating in Eve? See how Satan is creating a hateful dislike in Eve of the position of God?

“God is keeping something from you Eve. Be ‘wise.’ Be God yourself. Make your own decisions.”

So this “Bitter Envying,” and “Selfish ambition,” is characteristic of the Old Man. However these are traits that are also accentuated by our own culture where we are largely taught that “Bitter Envying” and “Selfish ambition” are positive traits.

We are taught to envy the possession of others in the class warfare that is always being brought before our eyes. In the word “Schadenfreud” we have adopted a word that speaks of our delight at the misfortune of somebody else. We see the people fail who we are trying to replace or who we are in competition with and we have a certain Schadenfreud about their demise.

This envying tends to make comparisons between what others have and what we don’t have or it compares the attributes of others as against our own attributes. This kind of envying resents the existence of other people and is delighted when they are pulled down even if it means that the ones doing the resenting are not themselves rising. This kind of envying then values its own welfare less than it does the debasement or harm of others.

Much of what goes on in Liberation Theology and thus passes for Christianity is really just envy and selfish ambition dressed up in evening clothes.

(Cmp. Gal. 6 — “Selfish ambition — part of “Lust of the Flesh)

James then calls for a cease in boasting in this. (Out of the abundance of the heart them mouth speaks.)

James calls this “Wisdom”

Note something here. When God’s standard is ignored the result is an upside down, inside out world where good becomes bad and “Bitter envy and selfish ambition” becomes Wisdom. James calls it “Wisdom” but it is only “Wisdom” in the context of a God hating World and life view.

Earthly … unspiritual … Demonic

James offers that where this Demonic Wisdom exists there you have confusion (chaos) and every evil thing.

The reason that this is so is obvious. With Envy you have everybody trying to pull everybody else down. Nothing in human relationships or social orders can be built when you have the war of all against all. Selfish ambition likewise is a situation where everyone is trying to be God. Only confusion (chaos) can result in a world where every person is trying to be God to everyone else.

III.) Wise & Understanding Looks Like

A.) Right Oriented attitudes

Peace-loving, considerate, submissive

B.) Right Oriented action

Full of mercy and good fruit

C.) Right Oriented judgments

Impartial and w/o Hypocrisy (sincere)

Now we must close with the Gospel.

Who alone has the ability to attain the status of Wise?

Why it is only those who are clothed in Jesus Christ and who have taken Him for their Wisdom. The pagan and Christ hater will never be wise. Because they are dead in their sins and trespasses their minds are darkened and their whole existence is characterized by a futility in their thinking.

It is only Christians who have looked to Christ alone and trust him for their acceptance with God who have any hope of being sanctified unto Wisdom. It is only Christians who put no hope in their own Wisdom to find favor with God who can hope to be wise. It is only Christians who have, despite their foolishness and wickedness, who can aspire unto Wisdom.

Charlotte Christian Reformed Church Christmas Liturgy 2010
*–Congregation Stands

Prelude – Miss Rachel Bacon

*Call to Worship Psalm 98
1Oh sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done marvelous things!
His right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
2The LORD has made known his salvation;
he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
3He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
4 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth;
break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
5Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre,
with the lyre and the sound of melody!
6With trumpets and the sound of the horn
make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD!
7 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
the world and those who dwell in it!
8Let the rivers clap their hands;
let the hills sing for joy together
9before the LORD, for he comes
to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with equity.

Invocation

Benevolent Father we gather to offer up praise for sending forth, out of your great compassion for your name, the Redeemer and Savior of humanity, who, as your only begotten Word, was conceived by thy Spirit and born of a virgin. We exalt you O Sovereign God for providing Jesus as your reconciliation. We confess that we did not deserve your tender mercies and so we humbly exalt you that in the sending forth of Christ you are forever just and justifier unto those who have faith in Jesus – who you named “Jehovah is Salvation.” We thank you now that you have gathered with us to honor the incarnation of the Second person of the Trinity. Remind us, that even now, we are in your presence. Grant us thy Spirit to honor your name in our worship. — In Christ’s name we pray … Amen.

Special Music — Christian Timmis & Gary Douma – Cantique Noel

Creedal Affirmation – Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day XIV (pg. 28 Psalter)

Christmas Worship

Brothers and Sisters our Psalter’s Church Order informs us that “Worship services shall be held in observance of Christmas” as well as other high days on the Church calendar. The conducting and attendance of such worship provide one objective marker for us as well as those outside of the faith that we are a Christian people. By the conducting and attendance of such services we testify to all who have eyes to see that our understanding and celebrating of Christmas is distinct from the modern pagan who is reduced, at best, to singing Christ-less Winter Carols and to celebrating seasonal rituals that have no eternal meaning because they are not anchored to anything eternal. Mirth, Merriment, Large gathering of family accompanied with food, fun and festivity on 25 December makes little sense apart from the birth of God’s reconciliation with man.

By the marking of such days as Christmas for worship the ebb and flow of our whole lives, year in and year out, are Christ formed and Christ shaped by a calendar itself formed by Christ. Finally, our gathering gives us one more opportunity to publicly placard Christ as the only hope for the weary, the heavy laden, the alienated and the Christian.
On this Christmas Eve then, we gather together once more as Christians have done for centuries, and as the ever swelling numbers of newly converted will continue to do until our Lord Christ shall return. We do so to mark the birth of our Lord Christ and to together offer up praise that he made Himself of no reputation in order to glorify the Father, save His people from their sins, and to lead them from triumph unto triumph until the Kingdoms of this world increasingly become the Kingdoms our Lord. In keeping with the purpose of our gathering let us confess our undoubted Catholic Christian faith

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
He descended into hell.
The third day He arose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting.

Amen.

Prayer

Benevolent and Sovereign Father, we thank thee for thy eternal covenant that predestined the coming of your Messiah for the redemption of the world. We thank thee that thou promised the Messiah upon mankind’s rebellion to reverse the effects of our treason. We exalt thee that thou deigned to gain your victory by crushing the serpent’s head and by overturning his Kingdom. We are humbled Father by how you ordered redemptive history so that coming of Christ was articulated by the patriarchs and prophets who spoke of the coming of your Messiah. We thank thee for all in Holy Scripture that limned the coming of Christ and we thank you that after ordering history for the coming of thy eternal Son in the fullness of time our Lord Christ came as one born under the law.

Father, we come humbly before to thank you for your faithful Church – that ark of Christ – which was guided by your Holy Spirit to embrace the full divinity and humanity of Christ while affirming his singular person. We thank you for your faithful Church that continues to speak Christ to us today and we ask of you Father that you would continue to build up your faithful Church so that future generations will have the nativity of Christ set before them in all its saving splendor that thy name may be honored among men. In the name of Jesus Christ our Savior, who taught us to pray, saying,

Our Father, who art in heaven: Hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

*Hark The Herald Angels Sing Brown Hymnal 184

Old Testament Reading – Isaiah 52:7-10

Special Music — Of The Father’s Love Begotten – Christian Timmis

New Testament Reading – John 1:1-18

*Come Thou Long Expected Jesus Brown Hymnal 168

Epistle Reading – Hebrews 1:1-6

Greensleeves – Brown 180

Offering General Fund

Offertory — Bacon Strings – Linda, Rachel & Sarah Bacon

Offertory Thanksgiving Adapted from the Book of Common Worship, 1906

O most merciful and gracious God, from whose open hand we all have received much: We ask you to accept this offering of your people. Remember in your love those who have brought it. Remember also those persons and purposes for which it is given. So follow this sacrifice with your blessing that it may promote peace and good will, and advance the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen!

Special Music – Anna McAtee, Rachel Bacon – Joy To The World

Homily

*Silent Night (Candle Light) 195 Brown Hymnal 316

*Benediction 2 Corinthians 13:14

Text — Matthew 1:18-25
Subject — Messiah’s coming
Theme — The purpose of Messiah’s coming
Proposition — The purpose of Messiah’s Coming is seen in the name of the Messiah

Introduction

“Give me the songs of a nation and it matters not who writes its laws.” ~ Plato

Music is reflective of what a people believe and at the same time formative unto what they will believe.

One way of understanding a people group is by examining their anthems and those songs. A people sing who they are.

This is true of our Christian hymns and the Christmas Carols we sing during the advent season. They (hopefully) reflect what we believe. Music takes the complex theology and puts it on the bottom shelf where people can reach it. (Unfortunately the bottom shelf keeps getting lower and lower.)

This morning we want to look at the purpose of the Messiah’s coming and see how the Christmas Carols have underscored and reinforced that purpose.

I.) The Virgin Birth and Salvation

II.) The Name of the Child and Salvation

III.) Saved From What

A.) Sins (Matthew 1:21)& Guilt

If we are to be saved from our sins then it is incumbent upon us to understand what sin is.

WSC — “Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.

Notice the Vertical nature of this definition of sin.

God has a standard. Our lack of conforming to that standard or the breaking of that standard is sin. Sin is primarily vertical — an offense and rebellion against God — before it is horizontal and it is only as we see Sin as being primarily against God that will allow us to see the true gravity of our sins against others.

The purpose of Jesus coming was to save us from our sins. The idea communicated there is that our sins stood between us and the ability to have an intimate family relationship with our Creator. The idea communicated in Jesus saving us from our sins is that nothing else in our creaturely lives can be set aright until we are aright with God and only the Christian faith gives us a Messiah who can set us right with God.

This simple idea needs to be recaptured again today by the contemporary Church in the West for the Church in the West has reduced sin to personal unhappiness or a lack of personal fulfillment and thus Jesus is sold as the means by which personal happiness and personal fulfillment can be gained. In the words of mega popular Joel Osteen Jesus came to give us our Best Life Now. But on a surface level, we can have personal happiness and personal fulfillment and still not be right with God.

This idea of being saved from our sins is implicit in quite a bit of our traditional Christmas Carol but in Charles Wesley’s “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus” we find that idea being explicitly laid out.

Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art;
dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.

———————————
And again in “Lo how a rose e’er blooming”

This Flower, whose fragrance tender with sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor the darkness everywhere;
True man, yet very God, from sin and death He saves us,
And lightens every load

B.) Self (Old Man)

When we say that Jesus saves us from our selves we are seeking to get at that Jesus delivers us from who we are in Adam. That old self (or Old Man as the Scripture frequently puts it) needs to be saved from its propensity to make self God. To be saved from self then is to be saved from the notion that I am God and that all the world orbits around me.

The fact that we’ve been saved from self is captured in Romans 6

6We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7For one who has died has been set free from sin.

I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How jesus the saviour had come for to die
For poor orn’ry creatures like you and like i
I wonder as I wander, out under the sky.

C.) The Disposition of God Against Sin

Question 10. Will God suffer such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished?

Answer: By no means; but is terribly angry with our original as well as actual sins; and will punish them in his just judgment temporally and eternally, as he has declared, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things, which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”

Being saved from the wrath to come is a truth that has fallen on hard times in the contemporary Church. The last way we want to speak of God is as if He has any contrariety towards men at all. No longer are men sinners in the hands of an angry God but rather it is God who is in the hands of angry sinners.

This whole idea of needing to be saved by God from God teaches the idea that fallen man is alienated from God and needs to be reconciled. Apart from being reconciled to God, fallen man remains alienated from God and so only knows God’s condemnation.

But Jesus in saving men from their sin, thus reconciles man to God and saves man from the wrath to come.

Hark the herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled”
Joyful, all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim:
“Christ is born in Bethlehem”
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!”

D.) The Devil’s Tyranny

So seriously did the early Church take this idea that we had been saved from the Devil’s Tyranny that it devolved an understanding of the Atonement that found the ransom in the Atonement being paid to Satan.

Essentially, this theory claimed that Adam and Eve sold humanity over to the Devil at the time of the Fall; hence, justice required that grace pay the Devil a ransom to free us from the Devil’s clutches. God, however, tricked the Devil into accepting Christ’s death as a ransom, for the Devil did not realize that Christ could not be held in the bonds of death. Once the Devil accepted Christ’s death as a ransom, this theory concluded, justice was satisfied and God was able to free us from Satan’s grip

13He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o’er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel

———————-

God rest ye merry, gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember, Christ, our Saviour
Was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan’s power
When we were gone astray
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

“Fear not then,” said the Angel,
“Let nothing you affright,
This day is born a Saviour
Of a pure Virgin bright,
To free all those who trust in Him
From Satan’s power and might.”
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

E.) Death

51Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

56The sting of death is sin, and(BT) the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Death came into the world through Adam but in Jesus Christ we are saved from that living and eternal death by being united to Christ and His resurrection life. No longer

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o’er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

————–

Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris’n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!”