6/29/19 

Luke 19:14

¹⁴ But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’

There are two facts in this statement that are clear indicators of mankind-in-general’s natural attitude toward God.  In this instance it is Christ, but it might well be any member of the Trinity or God as He is the creator and sovereign.

1.       We hate Him.  With some exception mankind has always claimed an affection for the god they recognize.  But this has never extended to the creator, lawgiver, and Sovereign God of Scripture.  Man as he appears in Scripture has always without exception, and stated plainly by the Jews in this text, hated God.

2.      We will not have this man to reign over us.

A.    They give the cause for their hatred.  In Psalm 2 God states His purpose to make the Son (the Messiah) the monarch over mankind, none excepted, all kings included.

B.     The most evident evil of universally-sinful man is his rejection of God’s government.  Simply stated, man is a rebel.  This is stated as well as it can be said in Exodus 5:2.

² But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”

Pharaoh’s confession is good for all.

6/27/19 

For a very long time I have not believed the Scriptures teach or require the Psalms to be the only hymns sung in worship.  I have taken this position for a number of reasons.  Let me give you a few of them.

1.       The people of God have always sung.  I say this without any attempt to prove it.  Go to the early chapters of Genesis and you will see the examples of songs there.  This being true there was singing before there was Psalms.

2.      We find different songs in Scripture which were given to be taught to the church such as the songs of Moses.  I do not find where the church is told to stop singing these songs when the Psalms were gathered.

3.      The Psalms did not come in a package of 150 but were written occasionally.  Israel was singing before, while, and after they were written.

4.      Habakkuk has a hymn that is noted as such and the instructions are that it is to be given to the choirmaster.

5.      Finally we have examples of what is sung in heaven and it is not Psalms.  We have a perfect worship hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy.  It is not inspired, but its theology is perfect.

In a Reformed worship service you can both pray and preach extemporaneous.  You can read from both orthodox and heretical authors.  You can read poems and hymns, the same hymns that are in the hymnals but you cannot sing those hymns.  Now I want you to explain to me how it is fine to read these hymns but it is not fine to sing them.  Tell me, or show me in the Scripture, the prescription for this.

Singing is an expression of beauty or joy in praising God.  Nothing more, nothing less is done in singing good hymns.  To think and to prohibit this is without valid reason and denies the church both joy and the beauty of art in worship.

Holy, Holy, Holy

1 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

2 Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,
who wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.

3 Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee,
though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see,
only thou art holy; there is none beside thee
perfect in pow'r, in love, and purity.

4 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea.
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!

Be aware there are no Psalms of Trinitarian worship, of the Resurrection, of the Holy Spirit, of Baptism, of Holy Communion, or of our Heavenly Hope.

6/26/19 

II Timothy 1:7

He gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and sobriety.

Paul was a wordsmith.  He was both conscious of this and very careful in doing it.

1.       He took ordinary words from everyday life and made them important technical terms.  One illustration is the word “redemption”, an important term in the doctrine of salvation.  But this was a very ordinary term of the marketplace.

2.      He would take words and practically change their meanings to fit them for the use he intended.

3.      He would use a word in different meanings according to the context  The two most important of these are “law” and “spirit”.  “Law most often means the ten commandments.  But it can mean any law, or law in general.  Or he uses it to mean the law of cause and effect, as in Romans 8:2.

In the verse for today is an illustration of one of the ways he used the word “spirit”.  Most often when Paul uses the word spirit he means the Holy Spirit.  But here it refers to the common rational spirit that we possess, quickened and educated by the Holy Spirit and the good word of God.  The spirit of knowledge which we have does not produce fear.  That has another origin.

6/25/19 

John 4:24

²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The first mistake that is made about these words is to think they mean “God is spiritual”.  Their meaning is very straight-forward.  In I Timothy 2:5, Paul states “there is one God and one Mediator”, which is the plain statement there is not a plurality in the Godhead.  We worship one God in three persons and He is spirit.

What we are to understand is God is pure spirit.  He is invisible.  He has never been seen, is not visible, and never will be visible.  “No one has seen God at any time”,  John 1:18.  This being so, how can we know Him?  This is one of the most important questions there is for man.  The only rational answer is that He must reveal Himself.  And this He has done in three ways.

First is in the creation as a whole.  Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare ..”  But this is only adequate to show the being and glory of God.

Secondly is the Word of God which declares His glory and His grace.  II Timothy 3:15 “which are able to make you wise unto salvation.”

Thirdly is the whole, the full, the final revealing of God in Jesus, John 1:18.  There is nothing left.

6/21/19 

Hebrews 1:12; 13:8

like a robe you will roll them up,
    like a garment they will be changed.
But you are the same,
    and your years will have no end.”

⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

The person of the Messiah has for many ages been the contemplation of those who expected Him, and those who had Him revealed.  In I Peter 1:11 it is said to be His “suffering and glory.”

In recounting the wonder of Messiah, both His person and His work, the writer of Hebrews places before us three great facts about the Savior.

First is His personal identity as God’s Son.  He gives Him this title based on the second Psalm.  In that Psalm God gives Him the relationship of Son and exalts Him to His kingly office.  That He was there, He is.

Second for His eternal position recognized in time as excelling all angels.  With their great and mighty power with its influence they were always servants in the house.  He is the Lord and Creator over the house.  There is really no comparison.

Third is His eternality.  He is in our Scripture above.  There are two truths worth noting here.

A.     Eternity has neither beginning nor ending.

B.     There has been and there will be, no change in Him.  Therein is our security.

6/20/19 

II Timothy 3:8

Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith.

The New Testament is replete with warning about deceitful men in the Christian ministry.  Peter, in II Peter, gives this as a sign of the truth.

The qualifications for a true ministry are just as plain in I Timothy 3 and Titus.  Tried with the sure test of Scripture the Church is still filled with deceivers.

There are at least three levels of false ministers.

1.       There are those who do not have either a call or the gifts of the ministry and are ignorant of it. Their failure usually identifies them and disqualifies them.

2.      There are those who have no call but have enough natural gifts to survive.  They use the ministry merely as a job.  They have no love for the elect or zeal for Christ.  They have a job and may even do it well.  Men such as this may live all their lives in the ministry and others wonder why there is so little life in their efforts.  No Spirit, no life.

3.      This 3^rd category are those who are evil, enemies of Christ and set on the destruction of God’s people.  Peter describes their three failings:  greed, lying, and sensual conduct.

Sounds familiar doesn’t it?