Matthew 3:1-12 & That “Guy” On the Corner

The “guy” on the corner yelling “repent for the end is near,” and holding a “turn or burn” sign might think he is carrying on in the spirit of Elijah, the spirit of John the Baptist, but I think he is missing something.  I have nothing against his open air public preaching, I admire his boldness, I am thankful for his commitment to the doctrines of repentance, hell, and the return of King Jesus, but there are some problems.

His message markets Jesus simply as char prevention.  Repentance becomes just another adventure in self-seeking for  our narcissistic culture.  By all means preach the ugliness of sin and the reality of hell, but only to preach the glories of Christ.  You must preach the heinous nature of sin and its consequences for the good news of Jesus to be good news, but it is not until you preach the good news of the cross that sin is seen in its most ugly, true form.  If you preach repentance without redemption you are not longer preaching the gospel, but law.

Our calling is not to preach an isolated hell or repentance but the gospel.

When the guy says “repent for the end is near” he is not saying the same thing John does when he says “repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

What is the “kingdom of heaven” that Matthew will reference 32 times?  Let’s begin with what it is not.  It isn’t the people of God, nor the church.  Just try replacing them sometimes and you will see the absurdity.

Your [church] come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.   – Matthew 6:10

The [church] is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.  – Matthew 14:44

The time is fulfilled, and the [church] is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.  – Mark 1:15

So what is the kingdom?  Lets narrow in on a precise definition in three steps.

  1. The kingdom is here now but not yet, near yet far, present (Matthew 12:28, Luke 17:20-21) yet future (Matthew 6:10; Luke 22:18).
  2. The kingdom primarily is the dominion, rule, and reign of God.  Edmund Clowney said it well, “In the Scriptures, God’s kingdom is the shadow of His presence; not so much his domain as his dominion; not his realm but his rule.  God’s kingdom is the working of his power to accomplish his purposes of judgment and salvation.”
  3. Primarily the kingdom is the saving rule and reign of God that began radically to break in with Christ’s first advent and will be consummated upon His return.  It isn’t that God wasn’t working His plan of redemption prior to the coming of Jesus, but with Jesus’ advent our redemption was at hand.

The good news that we preach is the gospel of the kingdom (Matthew 4:23, 9:35, 24:14; Acts 8:12, 28:31).  The text says that the reason why John was doing what he was doing was to fulfill Isaiah 40:3.  He is the herald sent ahead of the king telling them to prepare for the coming of the King.  In Isaiah 40 the coming of the King is good news.  So the reason why the “kingdom is at hand” is because the king has come.  Now the question is why has he come?   Matthew has already answered that question in chapter one, “you shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins.”

So we plead with people to repent not simply because sin is vile and hell is hot, but most deeply because Christ is glorious!  Our primary motivation toward repentance is not negative but positive.  There is sorrow in repentance, but there is also joy; sorrow over sin and joy over Christ.  Repentance is not the begrudging sacrifice of great pleasures to avoid dire consequences.  Repentance is seeing by faith the glories of Christ, and then comparing His promises and pleasures with those of sin and shouting, “No contest – Jesus!”  True repentance not only hates sin, it loves Jesus.

Though [repentance] be a deep sorrow for sin that God requires as necessary to salvation, yet the very nature of it necessarily implies delight. Repentance of sin is a sorrow arising from the sight of God’s excellency and mercy, but the apprehension of excellency or mercy must necessarily and unavoidably beget pleasure in the mind of the beholder. ‘Tis impossible that anyone should see anything that appears to him excellent and not behold it with pleasure, and it’s impossible to be affected with the mercy and love of God, and his willingness to be merciful to us and love us, and not be affected with pleasure at the thoughts of [it]; but this is the very affection that begets true repentance. How much sovever of a paradox it may seem, it is true that repentance is a sweet sorrow, so that the more of this sorrow, the more pleasure.  – Jonathan Edwards

Hero: 2012

I don’t believe the Bible is a book of heroes. The Bible does have heroes in it, but that is not what it is about. It is a book about the Hero. Nonetheless, I do believe in having heroes, and I believe it is Biblical to have them.

Heroes are not perfect, and thus they point us to Christ in three ways. Their faults (weaknesses and sins) point us to the Savior that they, and we, all need. With this foundation we learn two further truths concerning their strengths. First, they are a result of God’s gifting and working in them such that He gets all the glory. Second, their strengths also point us to Jesus by whom they are graded – Jesus is the ultimate curve breaker. All heroes are judged in relation to Him.

Every year I single out one hero to study in particular. This year I will study the life and works of B.B. Warfield. He was born the son of a farmer on November 5, 1851 near Lexington Kentucky.

Warfield was fighter. While attending Princeton College he got into a fight following an afternoon lecture in front of the chapel. The reason – Warfield had drawn a picture of another student that was passed around the class. The picture wasn’t flattering so they fought. The fight evidently didn’t amount to much because no action was taken by the school, but Warfield’s reputation as a fighter stuck.

Warfield was a champion for the authority and inerrancy of the Word of God and many precious doctrines taught therein. He primarily fought with his pen and by teaching students at Princeton Seminary where he taught for 34 years instructing more than 2,700 students. But he was a gentleman fighter. Primarily he attacked ideas, not persons. This isn’t to say that his arguments didn’t sting or were void of sarcasm, but he was fair.

And yet there was a tenderness in this man that allowed him to fight so tenaciously. At 25 he married Annie Peirce Kinkead and while on their honeymoon she was struck by lightning. She was a semi-invalid the rest of her life. Warfield rarely left her side for more than two hours. Because he was tied so closely to home by love, this freed him to fight with his pen for the glory of God and the edification of our souls.

Every week I will post some gleanings from Warfield. All such posts will be marked, “The Pugilist,” a nickname given to him in those early college years and an identity sanctified by God.

The Sweet Dropper: He is Our Portion

There is in him to supply all good and remove all ill, until the time come that we stand in need of no other good. It is our chief wisdom to know him, our holiness to love him, our happiness to enjoy him. There is in him to be had whatsoever can truly make us happy. We go to our treasure and our portion in all our wants; we live by it and value ourselves by it. God is such a portion, that the more we spend on him the more we may. ‘Our strength may fail, and our heart may fail, but God is our portion for ever,’ Ps. Ixxiii. 26. – Richard Sibbes in The Soul’s Conflict with Itself

Matthew 2 & Invictus!

While at a Robbie Seay concert I saw a guy with INVICTUS tattooed on the underside of his arm.  It was inked such that the letters began at his wrist and read down toward his elbow.  That way it would be shown off when he held a microphone.   It looked cool, but I think the message is foolish, especially for a Christian.  It seems safe to say he professes Christ since he works for a Christian radio station.

Invictus, Latin for unconquered, could be tolerated if one meant to communicate that because of Christ they are victors, not conquered by sin, Satan, or death.  If that is what the aforementioned person means, my apologies for referring to his tattoo as foolish.  But that is not the popular idea behind the word today.

The word’s current popularity is no doubt due to the film, which, by the way, I really enjoyed.  I do admire Nelson Mandela, and I love Clint Eastwood as a director / actor, but Invictus, well, it’s a lie.  The popular meaning is informed by the poem by William Earnest Henley.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

I think Herod would have loved this poem.  I bet he had an invictus tat too.

Outside of Christ we are not conquers but conquered – in bondage to sin and death.  Yes in Christ we have victory, but it is His victory, a victory that we enter into by grace.  Christus Victor!  – that is our battle cry, not Invictus!

So will you seek the King?  Will you bow? Will you submit?  Will you give your treasures?  Will you worship?

Don’t fail to recognize how you may be similar to Herod.  Do you look at the humility of Christ and see it as an opportunity to exploit Him?  Do you tolerate or excuse sin by presuming upon His grace?  Do you treat Jesus as a ticket to get to some other main attraction?  Do you think you can dissect Him and take Him only as Savior and reject Him as Lord?

Woe to those who think they can conquer the unconquerable King.  There is only one man who legitimately wears Invictus; it is written down His thigh, “King of kings and Lord of Lords.”

The Incarnation of Christ and the Mortification of Sin

That even those very sins that Satan paints, and puts new names and colours upon, cost the best blood, the noblest blood, the life-blood, the heart-blood of the Lord Jesus. That Christ should come from the eternal bosom of his Father to a region of sorrow and death; that God should be manifested in the flesh, the Creator made a creature; that he that was clothed with glory should be wrapped with rags of flesh; he that filled heaven and earth with his glory should be cradled in a manger; that the power of God should fly from weak man, the God of Israel into Egypt; that the God of the law should be subject to the law, the God of the circumcision circumcised, the God that made the heavens working at Joseph’s homely trade; that he that binds the devils in chains should be tempted; that he, whose is the world, and the fullness thereof, should hunger and thirst; that the God of strength should be weary, the Judge of all flesh condemned, the God of life put to death; that he that is one with his Father should cry out of misery, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ Mat. xxvii. 46; that he that had the keys of hell and death at his girdle should lie imprisoned in the sepulchre of another, having in his lifetime nowhere to lay his head, nor after death to lay his body; that that head, before which the angels do cast down their crowns, should be crowned with thorns, and those eyes, purer than the sun, put out by the darkness of death; those ears, which hear nothing but hallelujahs of saints and angels, to hear the blasphemies of the multitude; that face, that was fairer than the sons of men, to be spit on by those beastly wretched Jews; that mouth and tongue, that spake as neverman spake, accused for blasphemy; those hands, that freely swayed the sceptre of heaven, nailed to the cross; those feet, ‘like unto fine brass,’ nailed to the cross for man’s sins; each sense annoyed: his feeling or touching, with a spear and nails; his smell, with stinking flavour, being crucified about Golgotha, the place of skulls; his taste, with vinegar and gall; his hearing, with reproaches, and sight of his mother and disciples bemoaning him; his soul, comfortless and forsaken; and all this for those very sins that Satan paints and puts fine colours upon! Oh! how should the consideration of this stir up the soul against it, and work the soul to fly from it, and to use all holy means whereby sin may be subdued and destroyed!

After Julius Caesar was murdered, Antonius brought forth his coat, all bloody and cut, and laid it before the people, saying, ‘Look, here you have the emperor’s coat thus bloody and torn:’ whereupon the people were presently in an uproar, and cried out to slay those murderers; and they took their tables and stools that were in the place, and set them on fire, and run to the houses of them that had slain Cassar, and burnt them. So that when we consider that sin hath slain our Lord Jesus, ah, how should it provoke our hearts to be revenged on sin, that hath murdered the Lord of glory, and hath done that mischief that all the devils in hell could never have done?

It was good counsel one gave, ‘Never let go out of your minds the thoughts of a crucified Christ.’ Let these be meat and drink unto you; let them be your sweetness and consolation, your honey and your desire, your reading and your meditation, your life, death, and resurrection.  – Thomas Brooks in Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices

The Sweet Dropper: More Sure to Rise from the Grave than the Bed

But the greatest trial of trust is in our last encounter with death, wherein we shall find not only a deprivation of all comforts in this life, but a confluence of all ill at once; but we must know, God will be the God of his unto death, and not only unto death, but in death. We may trust God the Father with our bodies and souls which he hath created; and God the Son with the bodies and souls which he hath redeemed; and the Holy Spirit with those bodies and souls that he hath sanctified. We are not disquieted when we put off our clothes and go to bed, because we trust God’s ordinary providence to raise us up again. And why should we be disquieted when we put off our bodies and sleep our last sleep, considering we are more sure to rise out of our graves than out of our beds? Nay, we are raised up already in Christ our Head, ‘who is the resurrection and the life,’ John xi. 25, in whom we may triumph over death, that triumpheth over the greatest monarchs, as a disarmed and conquered enemy. Death is the death of itself, and not of us.  – Richard Sibbes in The Soul’s Conflict with Itself

Matthew 1:18-25 & The Necessity of the Incarnation for Salvation

In order for Jesus to be Jesus (meaning “Yahweh is salvation”) He has to be Immanuel (meaning “God with us”).

When the angel commands Joseph to name the child “Jesus”, he also gives him the reason why, “for He will save His people from their sins.”  This is an allusion to Psalm 130:8.  In this Psalm the “He” who redeems Israel from his iniquities is Yahweh.  Only God can forgive sins ultimately. It is His prerogative; He is the most offended party (Psalm 51:4).  You do not have the right to forgive a debt against someone else.  The scribes theology was sound when they questioned, “Who can forgive sins but God?” (Mark 2:1-11).

In the 11th century Anslem of Canterbury wrote an important book titled, Cur Deus Homo, loosely translated, Why the God-Man?  Why did Jesus have to be Immanuel to deal with sins?  Why must the second person of the Trinity take on human flesh?  His answer, in short, is that in sin we incur a debt that only man ought to pay and only God can pay. Thus, in order to pay this debt, a God-Man is needed.

In creation, the law, and our conscience we know God above us and against us.  Only in the gospel do we know God for us and with us—God incarnate, born of a virgin, truly man, truly God—with us.

Christ, by highest Heav’n adored;
Christ the everlasting Lord;
Late in time, behold Him come,
Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th’incarnate Deity,
Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.
– Hark! the Herald Angels Sing by Charles Wesley

Tolle Lege: How People Change

Readability: 1

Length: 223 pp

Author: Timothy Lane and Paul David Tripp

Can people really change? Can you? Do you desire to change? Are you tired of self-help books that fell like a hamster wheel? Here you will find no superficial solutions to your behavior. Lane and Tripp go to the heart of the problem – the problem of the human heart. They realize that for real change to occur a miracle must happen – the new birth. Behavior springs from the heart. If behavior is to be changed, the heart must be changed. How People Change is an excellent resource for pastors, counselors, leaders, and for those desiring to change.

But is Jesus my therapist or my Redeemer?  If he is my therapist, then he meets my needs as I define them.  If he is my Redeemer, he defines my true needs and addresses them in ways far more glorious than I could have anticipated.

It is always tempting to find fullness in something other than Christ. Often I opt for peace and comfort rather than Jesus. When I do, I can move in two opposite but equally sinful directions. If I am irritated with you because you get in the way of the things that comfort me, I may lash out at you and keep you from taking what I think I need. But I can also fake “godly” behavior to get the same result. I may choose to “be nice” in order to extract some kindness from you.

On several occasions I have had arguments with my wife, knowing that a good baseball game was about to air on TV. Watching a game is a time of peace and comfort for me. Because I want that experience, I may apologize to my wife and even ask her to forgive me for the way I sinned against her. From the outside, this may look godly, but on the inside, I was simply faking godliness to get what I wanted. If I consciously live in light of the fact that I am full in Christ, I will ask for forgiveness whether or not I get to watch the game. The most obvious way to determine if my actions were sincere is to look at my behavior when the game comes on and I am interrupted again. If I become agitated, my confession and request for forgiveness were most likely a subtle way of manipulating my wife to get what I wanted.

Paul says that we have been given fullness in Christ. If I act on this truth, nothing can empty me of what is already mine. Baseball game or no baseball game, I can live peaceably with my wife and family. This simple illustration may not be all too impressive, but if the blessings of Christ do not change us in little moments like these, the chances that they will change us in more difficult moments are slim. It is in the everyday details that the grace of Christ must be applied.

WTS Books: $12.23              Amazon:$12.23

The Sweet Dropper: Your Corruption Least When You Feel It Most

Many out of a misconceit think that corruption is greatest when they feel it most, whereas indeed, the less we see it and lament it, the more it is. Sighs and groans of the soul are like the pores of the body, out of which in diseased persons sick humours break forth and so become less. The more we see and grieve for pride, which is an immediate issue of our corrupted nature, the less it is, because we see it by a contrary grace; the more sight the more hatred, the more hatred of sin, the more love of grace, and the more love the more life, which the more lively it is, the more it is sensible of the contrary. Upon every discovery and conflict corruption loses some ground, and grace gains upon it.  – Richard Sibbes in The Soul’s Conflict with Itself