salvation

Gospel Wednesday | A look at Law and Gospel in Zephaniah

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GWI apologize for getting this post published a day late. Today we’ll be looking at one of the minor prophets, Zephaniah. Since the book is a short book, I thought it would be great for us to read through the whole book together. I’m going to assume that most of you have never read through Zephaniah, much less with your mind on birth of Jesus Christ. If your church follows a 3 year lectionary, you’ll probably be reading through the end of the book soon. Let’s work through this book of prophecy with Advent in mind. As with our look at Jeremiah last week, there is going to be an immediate context for this book of prophecy regarding the coming Babylonian exile and return to Jerusalem, which is itself a foreshadowing of the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that is the power of Salvation from our own sin and the Wrath of God.

Zephaniah 1-3 (ESV)

1 The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.

An interesting introduction to who the author of this book of prophecy was. Zephaniah traces his lineage to King Hezekiah who ruled over Judah during the attack of the Assyrians under Sennacherib (2 Kings 18-20). Hezekiah ruled while Isaiah was the Prophet of the LORD. We are now 4 generations after Hezekiah and Isaiah. Notice also the phrase in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, which we saw last week in Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 1:1-3 (ESV)

The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.

Now, Jeremiah spans several rulers into the captivity of Jerusalem, but Zephaniah’s prophecy coincides with the earlier prophecies of Jeremiah. We’ll see some similarity between Zephaniah’s prophecy and Jeremiah’s prophecy of coming judgement against Judah. The northern Kingdom of Israel has been scattered by Assyria and Judah’s exile is coming. Now that we have our historic context, let us continue reading through Zephaniah.

Zephaniah 1:2-6 (ESV) | The Coming Judgment on Judah

2 “I will utterly sweep away everything
    from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord.
3 “I will sweep away man and beast;
    I will sweep away the birds of the heavens
    and the fish of the sea,
and the rubble with the wicked.
    I will cut off mankind
    from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord.
4 “I will stretch out my hand against Judah
    and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal
    and the name of the idolatrous priests along with the priests,
5 those who bow down on the roofs
    to the host of the heavens,
those who bow down and swear to the Lord
    and yet swear by Milcom,
6 those who have turned back from following the Lord,
    who do not seek the Lord or inquire of him.”

The declaration of coming judgement is reminiscent of God’s anger with creation in the time of Noah. We know that God made a covenant with Noah that He will never again destroy the earth with a flood, but a full destruction is coming, the wicked will be judged. v2-3 points to the final judgement, while the details of 4-6 are a bit more specific to the sins of Judah (though as we see in Romans 1, these sins ARE the sin of all mankind).

Zephaniah 1:7-18 (ESV) | The Day of the Lord Is Near

7 Be silent before the Lord God!
    For the day of the Lord is near;
the Lord has prepared a sacrifice
    and consecrated his guests.
8 And on the day of the Lord‘s sacrifice—
“I will punish the officials and the king’s sons
    and all who array themselves in foreign attire.
9 On that day I will punish
    everyone who leaps over the threshold,
and those who fill their master’s house
    with violence and fraud.

10 “On that day,” declares the Lord,
    “a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate,
a wail from the Second Quarter,
    a loud crash from the hills.
11 Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar!
    For all the traders are no more;
    all who weigh out silver are cut off.
12 At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps,
    and I will punish the men
who are complacent,
    those who say in their hearts,
‘The Lord will not do good,
    nor will he do ill.’
13 Their goods shall be plundered,
    and their houses laid waste.
Though they build houses,
    they shall not inhabit them;
though they plant vineyards,
    they shall not drink wine from them.”

14 The great day of the Lord is near,
    near and hastening fast;
the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter;
    the mighty man cries aloud there.
15 A day of wrath is that day,
    a day of distress and anguish,
a day of ruin and devastation,
    a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness,
16     a day of trumpet blast and battle cry
against the fortified cities
    and against the lofty battlements.

17 I will bring distress on mankind,
    so that they shall walk like the blind,
    because they have sinned against the Lord;
their blood shall be poured out like dust,
    and their flesh like dung.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold
    shall be able to deliver them
    on the day of the wrath of the Lord.
In the fire of his jealousy,
    all the earth shall be consumed;
for a full and sudden end
    he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.

Again, the day of the LORD had an immediate fulfillment in the fall of Jerusalem, but it also points ahead to the return of the LORD Jesus Christ, the final day of Judgement on mankind. Notice what is in the hearts of the idolaters toward the end of v12, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will he do ill.’ They have no faith in the LORD God to do anything. In their worship of false gods and man-made idols, they’ve forgotten that the One True God is a Living God with a strong and mighty hand. We live in a time now that is aptly described as “post-modern”, but it is also rightly described as “post-Christian”. The world used to give mental ascent to the idea of Christian morality, but those days are past… we are predominantly a secular, humanist people willfully bowing to false gods while boasting in the LORD Gods apparent inaction. May God have Mercy on us. 

Zephaniah 2 (ESV) | Judgment on Judah’s Enemies

2 Gather together, yes, gather,
    O shameless nation,
2 before the decree takes effect
    —before the day passes away like chaff—
before there comes upon you
    the burning anger of the Lord,
before there comes upon you
    the day of the anger of the Lord.
3 Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land,
    who do his just commands;
seek righteousness; seek humility;
    perhaps you may be hidden
    on the day of the anger of the Lord.
4 For Gaza shall be deserted,
    and Ashkelon shall become a desolation;
Ashdod’s people shall be driven out at noon,
    and Ekron shall be uprooted.

5 Woe to you inhabitants of the seacoast,
    you nation of the Cherethites!
The word of the Lord is against you,
    O Canaan, land of the Philistines;
    and I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left.
6 And you, O seacoast, shall be pastures,
    with meadows for shepherds
    and folds for flocks.
7 The seacoast shall become the possession
    of the remnant of the house of Judah,
    on which they shall graze,
and in the houses of Ashkelon
    they shall lie down at evening.
For the Lord their God will be mindful of them
    and restore their fortunes.

8 “I have heard the taunts of Moab
    and the revilings of the Ammonites,
how they have taunted my people
    and made boasts against their territory.
9 Therefore, as I live,” declares the Lord of hosts,
    the God of Israel,
“Moab shall become like Sodom,
    and the Ammonites like Gomorrah,
a land possessed by nettles and salt pits,
    and a waste forever.
The remnant of my people shall plunder them,
    and the survivors of my nation shall possess them.”
10 This shall be their lot in return for their pride,
    because they taunted and boasted
    against the people of the Lord of hosts.
11 The Lord will be awesome against them;
    for he will famish all the gods of the earth,
and to him shall bow down,
    each in its place,
    all the lands of the nations.

12 You also, O Cushites,
    shall be slain by my sword.

13 And he will stretch out his hand against the north
    and destroy Assyria,
and he will make Nineveh a desolation,
    a dry waste like the desert.
14 Herds shall lie down in her midst,
    all kinds of beasts;
even the owl and the hedgehog
    shall lodge in her capitals;
a voice shall hoot in the window;
    devastation will be on the threshold;
    for her cedar work will be laid bare.
15 This is the exultant city
    that lived securely,
that said in her heart,
    “I am, and there is no one else.”
What a desolation she has become,
    a lair for wild beasts!
Everyone who passes by her
    hisses and shakes his fist.

Notice that God isn’t just proclaiming judgement on His rebellious people. He will judge the unbelieving nations as well, even the agents of destruction used by God to punish Judah… they, too, will be judged. God is Sovereign over His creation. But this is not connected with any kind of comfort to Judah. There is a promise of a remnant of Israel being preserved… but this is not glad tidings at this point. Notice the list of Woe to the nations, and we get a Woe to the rebellious and defiled here at the start of the next chapter. Remember when Jesus proclaimed His list of woes in Matthew 11 and again in Matthew 23?

Zephaniah 3:1-8 (ESV) | Judgment on Jerusalem and the Nations

3 Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled,
    the oppressing city!
2 She listens to no voice;
    she accepts no correction.
She does not trust in the Lord;
    she does not draw near to her God.

3 Her officials within her
    are roaring lions;
her judges are evening wolves
    that leave nothing till the morning.
4 Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men;
her priests profane what is holy;
    they do violence to the law.
5 The Lord within her is righteous;
    he does no injustice;
every morning he shows forth his justice;
    each dawn he does not fail;
    but the unjust knows no shame.

6 “I have cut off nations;
    their battlements are in ruins;
I have laid waste their streets
    so that no one walks in them;
their cities have been made desolate,
    without a man, without an inhabitant.
7 I said, ‘Surely you will fear me;
    you will accept correction.
Then your dwelling would not be cut off
    according to all that I have appointed against you.’
But all the more they were eager
    to make all their deeds corrupt.

8 “Therefore wait for me,” declares the Lord,
    “for the day when I rise up to seize the prey.
For my decision is to gather nations,
    to assemble kingdoms,
to pour out upon them my indignation,
    all my burning anger;
for in the fire of my jealousy
    all the earth shall be consumed.

Note the charges against Jerusalem. Are they not the charges Jesus levied against the chief priests and elders of Jerusalem? That they do violence to the Law in preaching the commandments of men, the traditions of the elders? Notice that it is Jerusalem who will not listen, who will not submit, and will not accept correction. She is faithless and unbelieving.

Zephaniah 3:9-13 (ESV) | The Conversion of the Nations

9 “For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples
    to a pure speech,
that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord
    and serve him with one accord.
10 From beyond the rivers of Cush
    my worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed ones,
    shall bring my offering.

11 “On that day you shall not be put to shame
    because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me;
for then I will remove from your midst
    your proudly exultant ones,
and you shall no longer be haughty
    in my holy mountain.
12 But I will leave in your midst
    a people humble and lowly.
They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord,
13     those who are left in Israel;
they shall do no injustice
    and speak no lies,
nor shall there be found in their mouth
    a deceitful tongue.
For they shall graze and lie down,
    and none shall make them afraid.”

And now the Gospel: God will save, He will grant mercy, He will give His remnant saving faith… even from among the nations. The Gentiles will be saved. This is wonderful news for us. This next portion might be included in your Advent readings/lectionary.

Zephaniah 3:14-20 (ESV) | Israel’s Joy and Restoration

14 Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;
    shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
    O daughter of Jerusalem!
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
    he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
    you shall never again fear evil.
16 On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
“Fear not, O Zion;
    let not your hands grow weak.
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
    a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
    he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
18 I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival,
    so that you will no longer suffer reproach.
19 Behold, at that time I will deal
    with all your oppressors.
And I will save the lame
    and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise
    and renown in all the earth.
20 At that time I will bring you in,
    at the time when I gather you together;
for I will make you renowned and praised
    among all the peoples of the earth,
when I restore your fortunes
    before your eyes,” says the Lord.

Amen. As surely as Israel was restored from their Babylonian Exile, so will those who are of the Household of Faith in the LORD Jesus Christ be restored in the New Heaven and the New Earth after Jesus Christ has returned to judge the nations, indeed all of creation.

The LORD Our God is in our midst, by Faith in His Promise.

Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV)

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Amen.
In Christ Jesus,
Jorge

Gospel Wednesday | Jeremiah 33

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GWLast week, we looked at the story of Joseph and his life foreshadows the first advent of Jesus Christ. We shared an hour-long audio teaching from Pr Chris Rosebrough via Fighting for the Faith, so if you haven’t yet listened to that I encourage you to set aside some time to listen (Link). The week prior, we looked at how the story of Noah also points forward to our salvation in Jesus Christ. This week, we find ourselves within the Advent season, 4 weeks to when the Church celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. The local CCM radio channel is already playing a full set of Christmas music. We’ll discuss some concerns with that in tomorrow’s post. In this season of Advent, I think it is important that we not simply jump straight to the virgin birth and the gold, frankincense and myrrh without first understanding our need for a Savior. Throughout the year, we review a lot of music and internet memes that confuse Law and Gospel, or simply skip over the Law to present a different gospel than what is found in God’s Word.

 The Prophet Jeremiah

Jeremiah was a great Prophet of the LORD who lived through a truly dark time in the history of Israel. Let’s look at the introduction to his book:

Jeremiah 1:1-12 (ESV)

1 The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, 2 to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.

The Call of Jeremiah

4 Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

6 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” 7 But the Lord said to me,

“Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’;
for to all to whom I send you, you shall go,
and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
8 Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
declares the Lord.”

9 Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me,

“Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
10 See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.”

11 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see an almond branch.” 12 Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.”

Wow. This is quite the calling. It is no wonder that today’s false-prophets and false anointed ones (false christs) make reading themselves into Jeremiah such a common practice. We’re not going to do that here. God is speaking to His Prophet, whom He formed, consecrated, and appointed before he was born. Notice that Jeremiah is appointed Prophet to the Nations, not just to Israel. This is important to hold onto, because as he prophesies of the coming Messiah, the prophetic word is not just for Israel, but for the Nations.

A Blessing to the Nations

We see this in the Promise given to Abraham.

Genesis 17:1-8 (ESV) | Abraham and the Covenant of Circumcision

17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.”3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

Abraham and the nation of Israel would then serve as God’s chosen people, or primary agent of the Promise of God, but the Promise would be to the nations (plural). Shortly after this covenant, we see a conversation within the Godhead regarding this Promise to Abraham just before He tells Abraham of the judgement that is coming to Sodom and Gomorrah.

Genesis 18:17-19 (ESV)

17 The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18 seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”

God’s Wrath and Grace

Through all of Israel’s unbelief and transgressions, God preserved her, rescued her, time and time again. Fast-forward to Jeremiah’s time, the northern kingdom of Israel had been scattered by the Assyrians. God sends Jeremiah to prophecy against the remaining kingdom of Judah for her sins and transgressions, but she does not repent. God then uses the king of Babylon to punish Judah, destroying the city of Jerusalem and taking most of its inhabitants (except the very poor) into Babylonian exile for 70 years. Jeremiah isn’t taken to Babylon, but Daniel and Ezekiel were. Jeremiah is imprisoned by the king of Judah for prophesying of the coming judgement against Judah at the hands of Babylon. That’s a high-altitude flyover of Jeremiah, but let us look at the word of the LORD to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 32 that will set up our main text.

Jeremiah 32:26-35 (ESV)

26 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 27 “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me? 28 Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall capture it.29 The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city shall come and set this city on fire and burn it,with the houses on whose roofs offerings have been made to Baal and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods, to provoke me to anger. 30 For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth. The children of Israel have done nothing but provoke me to anger by the work of their hands, declares the Lord. 31 This city has aroused my anger and wrath, from the day it was built to this day, so that I will remove it from my sight 32 because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah that they did to provoke me to anger—their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 33 They have turned to me their back and not their face. And though I have taught them persistently, they have not listened to receive instruction. 34 They set up their abominations in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. 35 They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

Notice the language here of total sin, total depravity, from their youth, from the day the city was built. They have done nothing but evil. God isn’t only speaking of Judah, but of all of mankind. Romans 1 and 2 follow after this pattern of declaring everyone unrighteous for having forsaken the Creator, and refusing to worship Him as God. Worse, they’ve taken to worshiping false gods and doing what is evil. Similarly, we are born dead in our sins and trespasses, and God’s grace delays the judgement so that we might listen and receive instruction and turn our faces toward Him…. but we don’t… and we can’t on our own. Judgement is coming, but we serve a God who Saves. But God doesn’t save by making the Law go away or by refusing to judge; rather, He carries His remnant through the judgment, as God carried Noah and his family through the global flood in the Ark, and how God placed Joseph in a position to save all of Israel… a position that began with being sold into slavery and wrongful imprisonment.

Jeremiah 32:36-44 (ESV) | They Shall Be My People; I Will Be Their God

36 “Now therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, ‘It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence’: 37 Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety.38 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.39 I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them.40 I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. 41 I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.

42 “For thus says the Lord: Just as I have brought all this great disaster upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good that I promise them. 43 Fields shall be bought in this land of which you are saying, ‘It is a desolation, without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’ 44 Fields shall be bought for money, and deeds shall be signed and sealed and witnessed, in the land of Benjamin, in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the Shephelah, and in the cities of the Negeb; for I will restore their fortunes, declares the Lord.”

Amen. Judgment is coming, for it is due. His wrath must be satisfied, for He is a Just and Holy God. But He will also preserve His people, for He is Gracious and Merciful. He will gather them, He will give them one Way, and will make an Everlasting Covenant. God isn’t just talking about the end of the Babylonian exile… He’s talking about the New Covenant of the Blood of Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God.

Jeremiah 33:1-16 (ESV) | The Lord Promises Peace

33 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the guard: 2 “Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it—the Lord is his name: 3 Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. 4 For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and the houses of the kings of Judah that were torn down to make a defense against the siege mounds and against the sword: 5 They are coming into fight against the Chaldeans and to fill them with the dead bodies of men whom I shall strike down in my anger and my wrath, for I have hidden my face from this city because of all their evil. 6 Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security. 7 I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel, and rebuild them as they were at first.8 I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me.9 And this city shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth who shall hear of all the good that I do for them. They shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the prosperity I provide for it.

10 “Thus says the Lord: In this place of which you say, ‘It is a waste without man or beast,’ in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man or inhabitant or beast, there shall be heard again 11 the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord:

“‘Give thanks to the Lord of hosts,
    for the Lord is good,
    for his steadfast love endures forever!’

For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first, says the Lord.

12 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: In this place that is waste, without man or beast, and in all of its cities, there shall again be habitations of shepherds resting their flocks. 13 In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the Shephelah, and in the cities of the Negeb, in the land of Benjamin, the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, flocks shall again pass under the hands of the one who counts them, says the Lord.

The Lord‘s Eternal Covenant with David

14 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

Again, while the promise of the LORD here to Israel and Judah had an immediate (well, after the exile) fulfillment, God’s Wording is goes beyond the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem and the Temple… God is pointing to His Son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Branch of David. The Way the Truth and the Life who will take away the sin of the world. The chief priests and elders of Jesus’ day were looking for a temporal fulfillment of this prophecy. Their messiah was going to turn Israel into a once great nation where none, not Rome or any other nation would dare come against them. But that is not the Promise we’ve received… for we are looking for the consolation of all of Creation, that which has been subjected to futility as a direct result of the sin of Adam. When God talks about healing the land, we should see healing in a salvific sense… a redemption of the good creation that was in the beginning, before sin entered creation. The New Heaven, the New Earth, with a New Jerusalem.

Revelation 21:22-23 (ESV)

And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.

Until Next Week

As Christmas approaches, please resist the urge to skip over the Truth of our desperate need for a savior, and our complicity in tempting the Wrath of God. We deserve judgement, we have since the fall. We are born into it, and we perpetuate it in sinful flesh. But Praise be to our God and Father for sending us His Only Begotten Son, Jesus. Repent and be forgiven in Jesus’ Name.

Philippians 2:1-11 (ESV) | Christ’s Example of Humility

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Amen.
In Christ Jesus,
Jorge

Gospel Wednesday | Noah, a Preacher of Righteousness

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GWWe wrapped up our tour of the Gospel According to Matthew last week. With the Advent season coming up quickly, I’m reluctant to dive straight into the Gospel According to Mark just yet. So, for the next several weeks, we are going to be looking at the Gospel displayed throughout the Bible. I think a great place to start this week’s lesson is with Noah. We discussed the wickedness in the earth in the time of Noah in our CTT post this past Monday, so let’s do some review and round out some of the Gospel edges here today.

For starters, let us address the common error of treating the Old Testament as a history book and the New Testament as the Christian book. The Early Church was established on the Gospel of Jesus Christ but the text that was preached was the Old Testament. We see this in the Acts of the Apostles.

Acts 17:1-3 (ESV) | Paul and Silas in Thessalonica

17 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”

Therefore, we must rightly consider the whole of the Bible (both Old and New Testaments) the Christian Scriptures. The hermeneutic we employ, is to seek to identify Law (which identifies our sin) and Gospel (Jesus Christ)  in the Scriptures. As a layman, I rely heavily on my pastor’s teaching and on the New Testament’s revelation of what is found in the Old Testament. We are going to look into the Noah account, but first let us begin in the New Testament for some insight.

Noah, a herald of righteousness

We’ll begin our study in 2 Peter 2.

2 Peter 2:1-11 (ESV) | False Prophets and Teachers

2 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones,11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord.

Here, we begin with the Law. We see in this passage a strong rebuke against false prophets and teachers who blaspheme the Way of Truth. Their condemnation and destruction is imminent. The wages of sin is death. The follow up to declaring the judgement due the false teachers is pointing the readers to the fall of creation, first the angels, and then the rest of the earth, save Noah. Noah is highlighted here as a herald of righteousness. The Greek word being translated herald here is κῆρυξ (Strong’s Number G2783). This same word is also translated “preacher” in the following text:

2 Timothy 1:8-12 (ESV) 8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, 9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, 10 and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, 11 for which I was appointed a [κῆρυξ] preacher and apostle and teacher, 12 which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.

A preacher is a herald of Law and Gospel… if he’s doing his job. I love that the counter to false teachers/preachers is Noah, a preacher who by modern-day standards was ineffective since only his family “got saved”. A solid reason to reject our modern-day standards for “effective ministry”, don’t you think?

So, let us turn now to Genesis 6 for our main text.

Genesis 6 (ESV)

Genesis 6:1-8 (ESV) | Increasing Corruption on Earth

6 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

The language of verse 2 is very similar to that of Genesis 3:6, when Eve saw the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that it was good for food and a delight to her eye. The temptation was external, but the sin is internal… the desire for that which looks good but is indeed forbidden.

There are those who teach that the Nephilim were half-human and half-angel beings. There are some major problems with that understanding, first is that angels and humans are completely different kinds of created beings (thus they cannot produce offspring) and Jesus made it clear that angels are not married nor are they given in marriage (Matthew 22:29-31). Jesus is the Only Begotten Son of God, and nowhere in the Bible do we see angels granted sonship. When we consider the Bible to be first and foremost a revelation of Jesus Christ, we can look for a better understanding of what is being explained in this passage regarding the Nephilim, the sons of God and the daughters of man. As Christians, we understand that by Faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, we are adopted as sons and daughters of the Most High God. As I pointed out earlier, too often we treat the Old Testament as mere history, almost as if what takes place before Christ was pre-faith. That’s an error. When God created man and placed him in the Garden, God also gave a command that required faith to obey:

Genesis 2:15-17 (ESV) The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Adam had no concept of evil or death; therefore, faith was required to obey this command. After being tempted, they doubted and lacked faith, and fell into sin, thus death entered creation through man’s sin. Now, as soon as man sinned God then pronounced His judgement against the serpent and mankind, He also included in that judgement a Promise of redemption by the seed of woman, that salvation would indeed come, the Messiah, the Christ, that is Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of God. They had no idea when, but those who were of faith in the Promise of God were credited with righteousness (Hebrews 11). When we see mankind bearing children, we first see Cain and Abel. Cain was older than Abel, but Abel had faith while Cain did not, and Cain killed Abel. Cain is exiled, a son of man, but not of God for he lacked faith. The descendants of Cain were the sons of men, for they lacked faith. God grants Adam and Eve another son, Seth, a son of the Promise. The descendants of Seth were of faith and thus were the sons of God by faith. This is what we see played out in the Genealogies found in Genesis 5, leading up to Noah, a son of God by faith, for we know that he was a preacher of righteousness.

However, at this time we see that many of the sons of God had taken as wives the daughters of men… Sethites were marrying unbelieving Cainites… and their children were described as Nephilim. The Hebrew word here is a plural word that is sometimes translated as “giants”. They could have been giants (these men had centuries-long lifespans), but that’s not the only possible understanding of the word. Another possibility is looking at the verb naphal used by God to describe Cain’s fallen countenance (Gen 4:6) upon seeing that Abel’s offering was accepted where his was not. Nephilim could also be “fallen ones”, a worthy description of the fruit of believers being unequally yoked with unbelievers. Still conjecture on my part, but I think it holds better to the picture of unbelief versus faith, sin versus grace, Law versus Gospel. Let us continue in our text.

Genesis 6:9-22 (ESV) | Noah and the Flood

9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. 16 Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. 21 Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” 22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

And so God destroyed the earth and all that was on it. God saved Noah and 7 with him, along with enough of the clean and unclean animals for repopulating what remained of the corrupted earth. Judgement came to the earth, but Grace prevailed for He had promised a Son. The ark points to our Savior, Jesus Christ, as we saw in 1 Peter 3.

1 Peter 3:18-22 (ESV) 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah,while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

The ark bore the brunt of the destructive waters, keeping and preserving those inside safely through to their Salvation. We who are in Christ Jesus by faith are also being kept and preserved through the waters of baptism, death to sin, and will be with Him in the Resurrection.

God made His covenant to Noah, whom He saved by His Grace. God Promised not to destroy the whole earth again by water, and placed His bow in the clouds as a reminder of His promise to us… the descendants of Noah. Noah is now the keeper of the Promise of the Messiah who was to come. In all of its awesomeness, this is but a foreshadowing of the coming Messiah, who came, lived, was crucified and died for our sins, and was Resurrected as the first fruits of the Kingdom, Creation that is to come. We still walk in the corrupted flesh of the cursed Earth… but by faith, we’ve been sealed with the Promise of Eternal Life in the Kingdom of Heaven, the New Heaven and the New Earth, in New Bodies borne of the Spirit by the Grace of God in Christ Jesus.

Next Week…

Next week is a very busy week for our household, so I may be sharing a F4F episode of Rosebrough’s Ramblings through Genesis rather than put together a full write-up of my own. We’ll see, but I think we will be skipping ahead for a look at the life of Joseph and how he points us ahead to Jesus Christ. Until then, be blessed and spend time in God’s Word with your family and friends.

1 Thessalonians 5:12-24 (ESV) | Final Instructions and Benediction

12 We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 14 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. 15 See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies,21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil. 23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

Amen.
In Christ Jesus,
Jorge

CTT | Gospel Tract Needs More Gospel

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CTTWe don’t see a lot of Gospel Tracts these days while we are out and about. Two weeks ago while shopping at a local Home Improvement store, my son announced his need to use the restroom. While waiting for him to finish his business, I noticed what looked like a gospel tract lying on the toilet paper dispenser. I thought, “hmmm… don’t see that very often these days”. I picked it up quickly and read the cover, “You Say You’re Saved But…” Huh? Okay, then… wasn’t going to leave this behind. Today we’ll work through this tract and the need to distinguish Law and Gospel.

Audience for the Tract

So the front of this tract says this:

You
Say
You’re
Saved

But…

Who is the target audience of this tract? This is a common question we ask here during our Discernment in Music (DiM) posts, so there is clearly a force of habit at play, but seriously, who is the target audience of this tract? Someone who says they are “saved”. That is a particularly Christian turn of phrase. It’s a churchism. So this is a tract that was left in the bathroom stall of a Home Improvement store targeting professing Christians? I agree that there is a lot of bad teaching out there and that the problem of false converts is real, but this is an odd approach to addressing that problem. Without opening the tract, I’m already wondering, “why isn’t this at a Christian bookstore or Megachurch?” I’m concerned about the “but…” in bold letters. What is this tract going to use to counter the reader’s profession of faith?

Does your life magnify Jesus Christ?

Ouch. So, okay… the test for “am I saved” is “Does my life magnify Jesus Christ”? The tract then says

Colossians 3:17a, 1:18c, “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus…that in all things he might have the preeminence.”
SO, LET ME ASK YOU. ARE YOU SAVED?

It was at this point that I almost lost it in that store. We’ll get to the proof-texting at play in just a minute, but taken at face value, is there ANYONE alive who can rightly claimed to be saved if this is the first test? No. Only Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, Son of the Living God passed this test. And because He did and then gave His Life as a substitutionary atonement for our sin, by the Grace of God and through Faith in Christ Jesus our unrighteousness is exchanged for His righteousness.

Now, let’s deal with the proof-texting. They didn’t even bother to let the Scripture speak for itself. The took a phrase from a verse in Chapter 3 and closed its thought with a phrase pulled from Chapter 1. Does the Bible not plainly teach on salvation anywhere in scripture, such that we are left to matrix the most fundamental of doctrines? In truth, Chapter 3 does contain the Gospel… but since this tract is trying to beat up the reader with Law right out of the chute, the author has taken a Gospel passage and turned into a commandment. The book of Colossians isn’t a dictionary or a lexicon where we strip mine ideas and phrases to construct new thoughts, laws, or principles. It was a letter, written by the Apostle Paul to the Christians in Colossae. This is the only reference to Colossians made in this tract, and they literally flipped the message backwards in their only proof-text. Paul begins with the Preeminence of Christ and builds up the reader into good works as the outflow of the work of the Gospel, yet this proof-text takes good works as that which gives the Lord Jesus preeminence in our lives, proving our salvation. Let’s look at the text in order.

Colossians 1:1-23 (ESV)

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

Thanksgiving and Prayer

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf 8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit. 9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He 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.

The Preeminence of Christ

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

There are so many places to look for the Law of God which convicts us of sin… why do violence to the text, twisting the Gospel into a Law that cannot be fulfilled by our flesh (proof-text portion was underlined above)? Paul goes on in Chapter 2 to warn against being led away or shifting from the hope of the Gospel that was preached to them, particularly for those who would seek to enslave them once again under the elementary principles of law-keeping as a means of proving their salvation (like this tract seems to want to do).

Colossians 2 (ESV)

2 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. 5 For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

Alive in Christ

6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Let No One Disqualify You

16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. 20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

Colossians 3:1-17 (ESV) | Put On the New Self

3 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity,passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. 12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

This is a Gospel Epistle… not a test of proving your salvation. Salvation isn’t something you prove by how well you’ve maintained the preeminence of Jesus Christ in your works. What does Paul point his readers to, their good works? Absolutely not! He points them to the preeminence of Christ, His finished work on the Cross for our sake, the Gospel of Hope that was preached to them, the forgiveness of sin by faith in Jesus Christ, for God took our debts of sin and transgressions and left them nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ. Paul transitions, painting a picture of our having joined in the death of Christ in water baptism, and Paul urges us to walk in newness of life by faith. You see, good works flows as the result of our regeneration in Christ, but Paul isn’t making them the proof of salvation here. We will continue to fall short and we will continually need to forgive one another, as we ask for forgiveness in our daily prayers.

This tract continues to take the Gospel passages and twists them into Law, accusing the professing Christian reader of not truly being saved since they cannot live up to standard of Jesus Christ. We’ll continue with the tract for a bit longer.

Does it show in your Lifestyle?

Now, we need to be careful here. We agree that a life of faith should look differently from a life of unbelief, we know this from the Epistle of James. If there is no visible difference in our lives, then can such a faith that produces no good work truly be saving faith? That’s a fair question and that should be where this question is pointing. Sadly, the tract goes back into the burden of law while skipping Gospel passages.

2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.”
The “old things” here are the desires one had prior to salvation in Christ Jesus. When someone gets truly born again they are brand new. All the sins they once enjoyed are no longer a part of the will or the life of the new believer, and have been replaced…

See what they did there? If sin is still tempting to you, you aren’t truly born again. Because when you are born again, those desires go away and are replaced with Godly desires. Is that what the Bible teaches? That our flesh becomes perfect once we are born again? Not in this life. Will we be able to measure our salvation by our earthly perfection? Nope. Am I exaggerating the points being made by this tract? Let’s look at the remaining headings:

  • Does it show in your love? Do you love Jesus more than ANYTHING? The only way that is possible is if you are saved….John 14:15, “if ye love me, keep my commandments.”
  • Does it show that he is your LORD? Luke 6:46, “and why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?”…if you profess Jesus Christ as Lord, but have never given Him full control of your life, you say you are saved, but it seems just to be a mere profession without salvation.

So, when the tract finally gets around to the Gospel, we get a list of commands:

YOU MUST:

  1. Accept that you are a sinner Romans 3:23, For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
  2. Agree with God, and repent of your ins 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
    Acts 17:30, “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent:”
  3. Call on Jesus and ask Him to save you Romans 10:9-10,13, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, though shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Okay, so the reader goes through this list… and within an hour (I’m being generous), the believer will still fail every single one of the tests of salvation presented in the tract. The closing paragraph just before the contact information for the local church that purchased the tract breaks my heart.

God tells us to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith. Let the Lord search your heart. Will you listen to what He has to say to you? If you are not saved, are you willing to call upon the Lord Jesus and ask Him to forgive your sins and save you? Will you give Him your HEART and LIFE? REMEMBER, HE WANT TO SAVE YOU!

If only the Gospel had been clearly presented in the tract… without being crumpled into law. The professing Christian who still struggles with sin, with making Jesus Christ preeminent in his works (words and deeds) isn’t saved? This Gospel tract is an example of confusing Law and Gospel, and it provides no rest for the reader, no hope for the believer, nothing but works-based assurance.

Conclusion

Don’t share tracts like these. Get rid of them. Learn the proper distinction between Law and Gospel. It isn’t your place to measure the good works of one of Christ’s servants, merely to preach law and gospel and let the Holy Spirit work in His people. The Law is holy, and profitable for exposing sin and putting it to death in our flesh. We will all die. Our flesh is cursed, it is rotten and decayed due to sin. Please read through 1 Corinthians 15… Paul repeats the Gospel and then goes on to explain the Resurrection that is to come. We are indeed made new creatures by faith in Christ Jesus, but as long as the old flesh remains, it is being brought to death (by the Law of God as punishment for sin) so that when that which is our flesh finally passes away, that which is Spiritual will rise again in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 (ESV)

23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

In Christ Jesus,
Jorge

CTT | Adopted as Sons and Daughters…

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CTTWith the latest under cover video by the Center for Medical Progress, it remains clear that the world is desperately wicked beyond comprehension. That the world defies God and His creation and callously destroys the innocent to satisfy their own lusts. The world stands condemned under the Law… doomed… judged. When Christ returns, He will come in Power, in Might, and in Judgement. While the methods and means of depravity are new, the wickedness of man and the bondage of creation under sin and darkness is not new. While we urge our politicians and doctors to stop the murderous holocaust of unborn babies in this country, and pray for the Grace of God to put leaders in place to remove the government protection of this practice, we know that the only answer to sin, death, wickedness, judgement and eternal punishment is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Preaching the Gospel to the Lost

We are called to preach the Gospel to the lost. There are groups who preach to the homeless, to the migrants, and outside Abortion clinics. I’d like to see more groups doing it. Sadly, we see a growing sense of militancy in some of these programs that lost sight of the Gospel of Grace and Forgiveness. I’d like to see fewer of these. In our American culture, we’ve lost sight of the individual charge to preach the Gospel. We’ve allowed it to become the sole purpose of the weekly service in Church, where (again, as a culture) we’ve jettisoned the real purpose of the gathering of the Saints for “churching the unchurched” or “making unbelievers feel welcome” or “entertaining goats”. The visible church is in need of a reformation once more… away from post-modern nonsense of this current age, away from the CEO model of church leadership, away from treating the Gospel as a product to be sold in bookstores or memberships in the social club labeled the church. The weekly gathering of the saints is for the building up of the believers, equipping them for every good work, including the work of evangelism.

While street-preaching in general has been stigmatized by the anti-christs of Westboro Baptist, and counter-abortion demonstrations have been conducted under the banner of “social activism”, there is another area of ministry that bears an ugly stigma that doesn’t get as much attention these days, so I wanted to spend some time addressing it… the ministry of Adoption Services. There are a few adoption services out there, and the one that my wife and I support and volunteer for locally reaches out to birth mothers with the primary goal of preaching the Gospel to them. Yes, we want to save the baby they are unwilling or believe they are unable to keep, but we also know that lasting change for that woman can only come through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Adoption is a Gospel Theme

Evangelism isn’t about getting people to agree with you about God or to join your club or even to avoid going into certain buildings on a certain day. Evangelism is about preaching Law and Gospel so that the Holy Spirit can do the work of regeneration on dead hearts, bringing them out of darkness so that they might become adopted sons and daughters of the Living God, through faith in Jesus Christ. We are adopted into Heaven, by the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Let’s begin reading in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians.

Ephesians 1 (ESV)

Greeting

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Spiritual Blessings in Christ

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Thanksgiving and Prayer

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

I struggled to understand the negative stigma associated with adoption, until I realized the biggest appeal of abortion was that it was being presented as a false gospel, a way of erasing sin so that ‘life could go on free from consequences’. Such a demonic false gospel. The truth is that the mankind, including the unborn, bear the image of God. We also bear the sin of Adam in our flesh. Because of Adam’s sin, we are all born spiritually dead… out-of-wedlock, so to speak, without hope, destined for destruction. A point Paul makes very clearly at the start of the next chapter.

Ephesians 2 (ESV)

By Grace Through Faith

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

One in Christ

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Amen. The message of the Gospel is that by the Blood of Jesus Christ, we have been adopted into the household of God, as sons and daughters of the Most High God in Christ Jesus. When it comes to countering the murderous sin of abortion, let us not quickly forget, that Christ died so that these birth mothers might be born-again and adopted into the Kingdom of Heaven, along with their unborn baby.

Our hearts break when a birthmother gives up on her baby and is led astray by the false-gospel of abortion. But we rejoice when a child is saved from destruction, and delivered into the world. Sometimes birth-mothers just need the loving support through the tough road of a pregnancy that was unplanned and even unwanted to see God’s redemption at work in it. Some of these birth mothers keep their babies, determined to love them and care for them. Some give their babies up for adoption into Christian families… and still some find themselves being adopted into the household of Faith, along with their babies. Such is the Church, the Body of Christ. We who are of the household of faith are brothers and sisters, heirs and joint heirs with Christ into the Promise of Heaven and into the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The body of Christ doesn’t grow by the will of man; rather, it grows by the Grace of God. Evangelism is an adoption ministry. The enemy knows this, and this is why he works so hard to stigmatize adoption in the natural. In closing, I’d like to share a few testimonial videos from the local adoption agency we support.

Covenant Care Adoption Services

A Conversation with Birthmothers

 

Adoption Testimonies: Lauren, Matt & Jamie

For more information on this ministry, visit: http://www.covenantcareadoptions.com/

Ephesians 3:14-21 (ESV) | Prayer for Spiritual Strength

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Amen, indeed.
In Christ Jesus,
Jorge