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Goshen Baptist Church
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Goshen Baptist Church is all about building Christ's Kingdom through evangelism, discipleship, and devotion. We pray these sermons serve as an extension of this mission. Find out more at goshenbaptist.church (334) 937-0155 goshenbaptist1895@gmail.com
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Grief to Glory Matt. 16:24-17:13
Jan 2100:47:21Tap to summarizeI I’ve been reading a nonfiction book by a pastor whose daughter decided to reject the faith at age 18 not too long after making a profession of faith at age 16. She left her parents in the dust when she went to college. Left college to marry a man. She wasn’t satisfied and decided […]
Transcribe →Bedrock to Stumbling Block Matt. 16:13-23
Jan 700:46:32Tap to summarizeSomeone at work showed me a video clip of a prosperity preacher that went viral recently. This preacher was telling his congregation that if they gave him money, that God would answer their prayers. This is the typical prosperity nonsense. This one woman went forward with her young son and, in front of the whole […]
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New Moses, New People Matt. 15:29-39
Jan 400:44:09Tap to summarizeNo Manuscript Available
Transcribe →The Beast Within Matt 15:10-28
Dec 700:45:44Tap to summarizeNo description available
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The Curse-free Nature Pt. 2
Feb 25, 202500:40:38Tap to summarizeI started this sermon before saying this was the peak of all ethical consideration, and indeed, it is. I want to help us think about and shape our ethics for a moment. What is right and wrong, or rather good and evil? Who determines morality and where does it come from? How can the church be the arbiter for morality when there are so many pastors around the nation who are suffering complete moral failure? Before diving into those questions, I want to travel back to paradise before mankind was so consumed with knowing right and wrong or good and evil. Before I mentioned that the ancients were wanting to “know thyself” in light of reality and conform themselves to reality around them. Before the fall, life was different. Adam and Eve were not consumed with knowing self but with knowing God and living life in unity with God. Life before the Fall, life in paradise was God-dependent. God was the sole determiner of good and evil, beauty and disaster, welfare and destruction, value and worthlessness. Listen to Adam and Eve sing from Milton’s Paradise Lost, “”These are thy glorious works, Parent of good, Almighty! thine this universal frame, Thus wondrous fair; thyself how wondrous then! Unspeakable, who sittest above these heavens, To us invisible, or dimly seen In these thy lowest works; yet these declare Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine.” You see in Genesis 1, a number of times, God is the determiner of what is good and what is not good. Mankind lives in paradise with God as the determiner of good and evil. They don’t live to know themselves but to know God. But this paradise is lost when mankind tries to determine goodness for themselves apart from God. Although mankind attempted to knock God off his judgment seat, he’s still on his throne. And there are still shimmers of his judgments in reality: in nature, in philosophy, in our conscience. And yet, Western culture has now drifted further than ever from reality. We have built our Towers of Babel to remove ourselves further and further from God’s domain to enter into a kingdom of our own making So now, man functions for himself as the determiner of good, for good or ill. The passing down of the knowledge of good and evil in the past was relegated almost exclusively to the family. Where did the next generation’s value system come from? Their parents. And even that resulted disastrously in the flood. But when families came together to form societies, society at large also became a force to determine the good. The enter the philosopher, and the education system, and entertainment (classically, we would say, the poet). The two trees in the garden are long gone yet ever sought. Everyone wants to determine the good and live forever. And everyone wants what the good to be what they want it to be. And this is how we live in a society today where parents are fighting against school systems to prevent them from changing the gender of their very own child. Who knows best? Does child know best? Does father know best? Do the “experts” know best? This is indicative to our nature. We’ve partaken of the fruit and now want to determine what is best. The who knows best battle continues to wage, yet we know the answer. It is not the culture, not the church, not the pastor, but God who knows best. We are not the determiner of what is good. Only God can truly determine that. And that is what we desperately need: for God to proclaim over our life: good. Or perhaps, “Well done, good and faithful servant” The only way to get that proclamation, we know, is not by our actions, not by our determination of the good and conformity to it, but rather gaining a new nature; becoming good by reconciliation, reuniting with the true determiner of the good. We don’t need new habits or behaviors we need a new nature. We need a new nature that is free from the curse, free from the idolatry of the knowledge of good and evil. What Christ gives us in the beatitudes is this curse-free nature. Look now at Matthew 5:8 Matthew 5:8 ESV “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. During the time that Jesus was alive, among the Jews, the Pharisees were the symbol of absolute purity. They were masters of the knowledge of good and evil. They had the “good” parsed down to the littlest part. They stood in the street and prayed aloud with their hands raised. They tithed everything, every crop, even down to the small herbs like mint and dill. They would travel over the sea to share their righteousness with other people. They used the knowledge of good and evil and a bludgeoning tool to build up themselves and cut down all others beneath them. They were pure in the eyes of the people but well did Jesus say of them, Matthew 23:25 ESV “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Jesus says the one who is blessed is not the one who is pure in the eye of the people or meticulous in law keeping, but the pure in heart. The phrase “pure in heart” and promise to see God is linked to Psalm 24.Psalm 24:3–6 ESV Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah Purity of heart is more than just a morally upright person who like the Pharisees can follow every letter of the law. Following legal codes is no indicator of godliness. People can jump through any hoop you give them for any motivation. Purity of heart refers to that inward motivation—our inner self. The word heart in the Bible has to do with our mind—what we believe, our feelings—what we want, and our will—what we do. Purity of heart is what can be seen in Psalm 24:4: who does not lift up his soul to what is false. This is not the Pharisaical pursuit of the knowledge of good and evil, this is the pursuit of God: “Who seek the face of the God of Jacob!” Purity of heart means the outward acts of righteousness matches the inward yearning of God. “But let me briefly make my purpose plain; I preach for nothing but for greed of gain And use the same old text, as bold as brass, Radix malorum est cupiditas. 5 And thus I preach against the very vice I make my living out of—avarice. And yet however guilty of that sin Myself, with others I have power to win Them from it, I can bring them to repent; 10 But that is not my principal intent. Covetousness is both the root and stuff Of all I preach. That ought to be enough. “Well, then I give examples thick and fast From bygone times, old stories from the past. 15 A yokel mind loves stories from of old, Being the kind it can repeat and hold. What! Do you think, as long as I can preach And get their silver for the things I teach, That I will live in poverty, from choice? 20 That’s not the counsel of my inner voice! No! Let me preach and beg from kirk to kirk And never do an honest job of work, No, nor make baskets, like St. Paul, to gain A livelihood. I do not preach in vain. 25 There’s no apostle I would counterfeit; I mean to have money, wool and cheese and wheat Though it were given me by the poorest lad Or poorest village widow, though she had A string of starving children, all agape. 30 No, let me drink the liquor of the grape And keep a jolly wench in every town! “But listen, gentlemen; to bring things down To a conclusion, would you like a tale? Now as I’ve drunk a draft of corn-ripe ale, The Pardoner of Canterbury Tales is an example of someone who is the opposite of the pure in heart. A person who peddles religion to get what he selfishly wants. This is the impure heart, one that does not truly seek the face of God, but has some other motive. We have modern people who adapt Christ’s name to get to something other than God: maybe it’s notoriety, fame, money, success, popularity. But there is a subtler mixture and impurity that can reside in the heart. The higher rank demon advises his lesser in how to tempt his “patient” in Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters , “Your patient has become humble; have you drawn his attention to the fact? All virtues are less formidable to us once the man is aware that he has them, but this is specially true of humility.” You know our hearts can pursue virtue more than Christ and become impure in the process? We live in therapeutic age where the greatest goal for most people is high quality of life, to be encouraged, uplifted. You know there’s a great many people who come to Christ to feel better about their lost life. We’re talking about a pure heart which yearns for God, unmixed by any other ultimate desire. God is not a stepping stone in this person’s life. What will this person get? What else but the very thing his heart desires: “They shall see God.” This is the mark of a new nature. You know it is like if you can feel your hearts burning within you as I’m saying these things: a heart with unmixed devotion to God.Matthew 5:9 ESV “Blessed are the peacema...
Transcribe →The Curse-Free Nature Pt. 1
Feb 24, 202500:49:17Tap to summarizeIntroduction Everyone has a worldview, a way they interpret the world around them. A thousand things go into how we interpret the world that we don’t even think about, some of these things are conscious, some unconscious. Have you ever had one of those “Aha!” moments? A moment that changed everything you though about a particular subject, or maybe even your own life? My wife and I sometimes watch this videos put out by Youth Group Chronicles that tell stories about ridiculous things that happen in youth groups. This one youth group did a scavenger hunt in their city where various groups would drive around in attempt to find the clues. In order to make the clues visible from the roadways, they put them in large boxes with the name of the youth group on them. They had them spread out throughout the city in from of a restaurant, in the park, near the courthouse. The only problem was their youth group name was “Ignite.” By the time the first group reached the first clue, there was already a bomb squad there to defuse the bomb. Archimedes is best known for his “Aha” moment. Archimedes is credited for deriving the formula for the volume of a sphere and finding a more accurate value for pi. He was given a task by a king to prove how this goldsmith had swindled him by crafting with silver. When Archimedes slipped into his bath, the water spilled over the edge of the tub and he figured it out and cried, “Eureka!” and ran in the streets naked so excited that he found the solution to the king’s problem. Sometimes those Eureka moments are worldview forming. You see someone work hard and achieve and so you decide to be the tortoise rather than the hare. Your parent disciplines you and what you value is shaped either in acceptance or rejection of your parent’s values. And although our parents attempt to work on us consciously to shape our worldview, through especially our values, sometimes what works on us subconsciously has a more powerful effect. Think about this: If you went back into colonial times, in the majority of cases, the number one influence in a youth’s life was his parent. Now you come to today and the number one influence in a youth’s life is his peers. Why is that? Well, we live in a culture that glorifies youth. Why? Because after the sexual revolution our culture decided physical appearance was more important than wisdom and life experience. And why did this occur? Because psychologists like Freud argued that we are primarily sexual creatures. And why did he do that? Because Darwin argued we were simply another animal. And why did he do that? Because someone before him believed a rejection of the Bible would allow a more critical understanding of the physical world. Now isn’t that interesting that your teenager is more likely to listen to peers than you ultimately because of a rejection of God, but we excuse it as a “phase” and a teenager just thinks he’s being “cool.” (Both of which are lies from the devil). Our worldviews are shaped by so many things outside of us that we don’t think about. (Language example?) I say all this because today we are going to talk about what it means to be good. 70 years ago, I probably would not have to labor to make such a foundation. But the problem is that modern people don’t want to be good, they want to feel good. And the main reason for that is that modern people have fundamentally given up the idea that there is such thing as “good.” Western society has gone from doing everything it can to seek the good, the true, and the beautiful, to grasping it in their hands then abusing it, then believing what is good is simply like a mythical creature. We live in a society where now more than ever, the good is something that must be pursued. We live in a society that murders countless babies every day Where people doom scroll social media then spend thousands on cosmetic surgery Where the government in insurmountable debt yet still preys on its poorest citizens by legalizing drugs and lotteries. Where people are angry and shout for justice but are unable to define it and kill anyone who claims they can. Where more families are broken than ever before; and, now, breaking up families and manufacturing fake families is legalized by the government Where more and more people are afraid of free speech. Why? Because free speech may cause us to wake up and shout, “Eureka! This gold our culture is trying to sell us is no gold at all!” The greatest good is no longer to to discover what is truly good, but what makes me feel good. Here is my question for America: Is it better to be good or to feel good? Our culture is like a man who needs heart surgery. His heart is worn out and failing, but he is unsure of what’s going on. So, he goes to the doctor. The doctor does not know what’s wrong either but reassures him, “Don’t worry, everything is fine.” Then he prescribes him some sugar pills. After a while the patient still deals with worsening symptoms and the pills don’t seem to be working so he goes to another doctor. This doctor sees a problem, but is still uncertain how to cure it. So he puts the patient to sleep but enacts no cure, no replacement. The patient wakes up and is reassured that everything will be fine now. Everyone’s going around looking for a cure of how to be happy, when what we really need is: a new nature. Last week we began our discussion of the beatitudes. These pronouncements of blessing describe the new nature that is ours in Christ. Again, these are not behaviors that we can assume so that God will bless us; but rather, because of our new nature in Christ, these are the things that will describe us. Ancient man used to go on a quest to discover what is good. Much time and effort were put in to distinguish between vice and virtue. The beatitudes are the peak of any understanding of virtue The beatitudes are impossible without first trusting in Christ I want to give an application of the beatitudes before we continue to enumerate them: The true result of beatitudes: (Lloyd-Jones) The greatest revival this world has ever seen. Perception of righteousness vs. the inward reality of righteousness. The call that the culture is going down is not a call to retreat from people The only way that the world’s perception of our righteousness will match our inward righteousness is by us being the salt and light we are supposed to be.Matthew 5:4 ESV “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. The first several beatitudes all allude to Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61:1–3 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; . . .; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.” Mourning is an expression of grief from those suffering the consequences of sin and constitutes the attitude of repentance. This has the implication that repentance is a Eureka like moment. But after we repent, our continual response towards our sin and its effects is this deep sorrow. Psalm 40:12 ESV For evils have encompassed me beyond number; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me.Psalm 119:136 ESV My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law. So we see from last week, “poor in spirit” means we know we can offer know spiritual good when we approach God. And in line with that, “True repentance makes no excuses and offers no rationalizations. It grieves for sin from a broken heart.” Charles L. Quarles, Sermon on the Mount: Restoring Christ’s Message to the Modern Church (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2011), 54. This is not just a sorrow over getting caught. This is a deep inner sorrow. A sorrow you feel inside against actions you have taken against a holy God. When is the last time you cried over your sins? Have you ever cried over your sins? Notice what this sorrow leads to: comfort. Revelation 7:17 ESV For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”Matthew 5:5 ESV “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Meek is a word that is often misunderstood. Some believe that it means to offer no resistance to anyone; to be, essentially, a door mat for everyone to walk on. This word is used 16 times to translate the Hebrew word for “poor” in the Old Testament. A lot of commentators argue that this poverty conveys both dependence and submission. And while, the “poor” of v. 3 depicts the dependence upon God; the “meek” of v. 5 depicts the submission to God...
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How to be Happy
Jan 23, 202500:47:05Tap to summarizeIntroduction Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, The Raven, opens with a grieving man attempting to forget his grief. Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December; And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore— When he tries to forget the pain of his loss and numb it with books and with reason, a raven invades his life with the constant refrain “nevermore.” “Nevermore” is the constant reminder of grief. The way things were will never be that way again. The same thing could be said of happiness in general. Happiness, according to our culture, involves our response to our world. That what goes on matches what we want. Happiness is woven in to the fabric of our society. The Declaration of Independence says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Ever since the first major sorrow in my childhood, I gave my life to the pursuit of happiness. Everything in my adolescent life revolved around the fact that I wanted to be happy. I pursued it first by trying to achieve the impossible. But the raven rapped and tapped at my door, saying, “Nevermore.” Then In turned to the pursuit of a life well lived. You see the ancient philosophers defined happiness in such terms: a life well lived. That is, they attempted to discern what reality was—what was really good—and conform their souls to it. This of course has its merit for it determines the difference between virtue and vice and earnestly seeks to conform the soul to virtue. This is what the soul wants, they would argue, and achieving that goal brings happiness. From the world’s perspective, happiness is making what goes on match what we want. And I wanted to be perfect in my character, in my ability, and in my religion. But there’s always that one who is better. And there’s always that vice gnawing away at hopes and dreams. And there came the raven again sitting on my bust of Plato and Aristotle with its shriek, “Nevermore.” And so I turned to fantasy. If I could not make my reality make me happy, at least my make-believe world could. I would grow engrossed in TV shows and video games. I had exhilaration in being able to do things beyond reality, but there it came again, that all happiness I felt was just as fake as the fantasy from which it comes. And so that raven flew out of my chest back into reality with its familiar cry, “Nevermore.” And at this point in my life there is a pause because I let the raven pick and peck, and scratch with is claws. I grabbed a knife to end it all, but God intervened before my fall. I turned my pursuit of happiness into uplifting a lost cause. And that cause for me was the religion of Christianity. I had been in a boring and bleak church all my life and I knew the one solution: to bring people on God’s side again I’d just have to offer a slight substitution. “Christianity’s cool!” was my message a large, I went around telling all sorts of people this charge. But soon and very quick I was met with failure and severe regret. No one in their lost mind would think Christianity is cool, and for me to convince them, I was a fool. Then I looked upon the steeple and a raven sat high above the people. It’s cry was the same, as it always had came, “Nevermore” The pursuit of happiness is the largest golden calf America has built. I have spent the majority of my life worshipping at this false altar. In fact, so much of who I am, what I do, how I interact, what I believe, is shaped by the pursuit of happiness. Without even realizing it, I had let this idol reshape my very core. And this idol has shaped so much of Christian preaching and teaching, especially here in the states. “If you add Jesus to your already happy life, it will make you even happier.” Consider this for a moment. If we define happiness as making what goes on match what we want; and then we use God to achieve happiness; then God ceases to be God and instead becomes a supernatural way to achieve our selfish goals. So, who then is God if we treat God this way? The pursuit of happiness. We live in a society where more things now than ever before are designed to make us happy. And yet we have more depressed people today than ever before! You see this is how the idol of the pursuit of happiness works! He dangles one carrot in front of you and once you grab a hold of it, it ends up being no carrot at all and so you move on to the next one, and the next one. Depression in the United States… Affects over 18 million adults (one in ten) in any given year. ItIs the leading cause of disability for ages 15-44. It is the primary reason why someone dies of suicide about every 12 minutes. – over 41,000 people a year. What’s crazy is that how fast our society is moving, the carrots aren’t even working anymore! You know the entertainment industry is dying a slow death, because people now would rather be “distracted” than “entertained.” Why is this? Perhaps because the raven has pecked away at every sensibility that people realize they can no longer attain the happiness they pursue and instead are resolved to distract themselves from the incessant reminder that this life is under a curse. Media platforms are designed to give us dopamine hits to keep us involved in their platforms and keep us distracted. Think about how “YouTube shorts” is a thing now. People can sit and watch these short videos for hours, getting dopamine hit after hit and be distracted from the raven’s cry. But if you will not hear the raven, let me speak in his stead, “Nevermore!” The evils that beset our path Who can prevent or cure? We stand upon the brink of death When most we seem secure. If we today sweet peace possess, It soon may be withdrawn; Some change may plunge us in distress, Before tomorrow’s dawn. Disease and pain invade our health And find an easy prey; And oft, when least expected, wealth Takes wings and flies away. A fever or a blow can shake Our wisdom’s boasted rule; And of the brightest genius make A madman or a fool. The gourds, from which we look for fruit, Produce us only pain; A worm unseen attacks the root, And all our hopes are vain. I pity those who seek no more Than such a world can give; Wretched they are, and blind, and poor, And dying while they live. Since sin has filled the earth with woe, And creatures fade and die; Lord wean our hearts from things below, And fix our hopes on high.- John Newton You see Jesus teaches on happiness, and what he teaches turns happiness upside down. Happiness is not our attitude towards life, but rather, it is God’s attitude towards us. Jesus teaches us that happiness as the world defines it, is not a goal worth pursuing. You see “That what goes on matches what we want” fails to see we are under a curse. Happiness in the Christian life Jesus calls “Blessed” And this blessing is a state of being given what Christ has done for us. This does not mean we give up on emotions and become stoic. But this does mean that our center of happiness is no longer tied to our circumstances, but it is now tied to our state of being blessed. Our circumstances change like the tides of the seas, ever waxing and waning, but we stand on the rock who is Christ. The storm comes and we weather it because our house is on the rock. Happiness is not something we pursue, it is what Christ has pursued for us! It is what he lived his righteous life for. It was in the pursuit of our happiness—our blessed state no longer under the curse—that Christ endured the cross. Hebrews 12:2 “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” You see, it is the raven that reminds of our curse. But in Christ’s resurrection, he trampled that raven. And with Christ we can tread the ravens and proclaim, “Nevermore” Nevermore will there be sorrow and death. Nevermore are we under a curse. Nevermore! And I know this is a lengthy introduction, and we will not have time to go through all the test in detail, but I say all this to introduce and define the word we find so often in the beatitudes, and that is the word “blessed.” Look at Matthew chapter 5 and verse 1Matthew 5:1–2 ESV Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: Matthew has already made a comparison of Moses and Jesus. We know when God gave Moses the law, he ascended to the top of Mt. Sinai. Here we see Jesus ascending to the top of a nondescript mountain superior to Sinai. God promised to ...
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The Call to Follow Christ
Jan 21, 202500:41:33Tap to summarizeIntroduction It was Twitter, now it’s called “X,” which is a popular social media site that thrives on short text posts for people to read. If you like what someone has to say you can choose to “follow” them and what they have to say will show up in your personalized feed. What was once a quaint tool to interact with your friends quickly became a means to influence the world. See, when you have thousands and thousands of followers, a whole lot of people are paying attention to what you have to say. And so the goal becomes to get more followers so more you have more influence. If you have more influence you have more power. So X has quickly become a power-grab. People try to get more followers to get more power. And now there are all sorts of websites out there that will give you tips on how to get more followers, because more followers also means more money. Churches can sometimes fall into the same category. We want more members because we want to feel like we’re making a difference. Some churches want more members to have more power. Some are quite blunt to admit that churches want more members to get more money. Today we are looking at the story where Jesus calls people to follow him. And we might think that he does this for similar reasons. I mean, he is a king establishing his kingdom. . .who will he choose? The most powerful and wealthy? The most influential? We can see Jesus does not practice gimmicks or manipulative tactics to convince people to join his cause. Nor does he choose the richest. Rather he forthrightly goes to a group average fishermen. True hope is found in the good news of the kingdom Matt. 4:12-17 Matthew 4:12–17 ESV Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.” From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” In this first story we see God’s orchestration of events as well as fulfillment of prophecy. I want you to think about the first two major events in v. 12: “arrest” and “withdrawal.” These are not positive events. But it is certainly God who can take something seemingly bad and work something positive out of it. In Israel’s story we know they were rescued from slavery and went through the waters to the wilderness. After the wilderness they conquered the promised land. . .partly. Then after their paganization and constant sin, they were captured by a foreign nation and deported into foreign lands. God’s orchestration of these deep, dark events brings us to the brink of one of the greatest chasms of theological speculation in history. How can God be in control of seemingly harmful or terrible events? When it comes to human evil the answer is quite straightforward: God has given mankind a will to act of his own accord. When I think of the free will, I don’t think it’s best to think of it floating in space not attached to anything, because certainly it is. Our wills aren’t just random or arbitrary, rather our wills are attached to what we know and what we want. John’s arrest is not positive, it’s not good. However, God permits this to take place—you could say he even ordains it—in order that what he has planned might take place. And what is this plan? The spreading of the gospel to the nations. This tension is seen again in Isaiah 10:5-7Isaiah 10:5–7 ESV Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury! Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few; Notice in Isaiah that Assyria is God’s rod— his instrument of divine wrath. And yet, he is now going to punish the tool he uses? This seems quite ridiculous does it not? Does a painter punish his paint brush? Does a writer punish his pen? Does a golfer punish his golf club? Well. . .Maybe that’s not the best example. Nevertheless, God’s chosen instrument has a will of its own that acts against God’s moral will. This is why, for example, when Israel is give laws around holy war they are not supposed to profit in any way from it. And this is because they are acting as God’s instruments of judgment. God uses the Assyrians to act as an instrument against Israel, but the Assyrians desire and intention is not God’s desire and intention (Is. 10:7) So, God is sovereign and in control and at the same time man is free to act according to his own desire. God’s sovereignty never limits man’s responsibility or culpability. So while Matthew 4:12 opens with these negative events of arrest and withdrawal, God’s hands are all over it working it for good. You could say, “There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.” Notice to where Jesus withdrew in v. 13, “Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali.” Matthew is mentioning these places specifically to lead into his quotation of Isaiah 9. Furthermore, the language he uses at the beginning of v. 13 tells us that Jesus is taking up residence in this region. Capernaum was a largely Jewish city on the sea of Galilee that had a population upwards of 10,000 at this time. It was not as centrally located to Antipas’s rule like Nazareth was, so Jesus’s risk of arrest for being associated with the baptizer was greatly diminished. This event is a new stage in Christ’s ministry. The prophecy that Matthew cites is from Isaiah 9:1-2 where again, these specific geographical locations are announced. In the original context of Isaiah, the light represents hope after exile. Here in Matthew, that hope, that light is Christ. And not just Christ, but also his proclamation. Notice what Jesus proclaims in v. 17, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” —this is the same message that John the Baptist was preaching earlier, so we can see continuity between their ministries. Jesus’s message of good news— that there is no judgment upon repentance —is only made possible through Jesus’s perfect life, substitutionary sacrifice, and resurrection. Because of what Christ has done for us, we can be a part of the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is wherever God’s rule is made evident. Matthew says “of heaven” as most people believe this is a way to avoid uttering the divine name. But it also makes the phrase inclusive of both God and Christ. True hope is found in the good news of the kingdom. Where do you place your hope? Is it placed in this world or in the kingdom that is at hand? The way we budget out time and our money shows us where are hope is truly placed, right? Do we make a point to spend time with the King daily, or do we find ourselves too busy with the things of this world? Hope has a way to motivate us. From Parade magazine comes the story of self-made millionaire Eugene Lang, who greatly changed the lives of a sixth-grade class in East Harlem. Mr. Lang had been asked to speak to a class of 59 sixth-graders. What could he say to inspire these students, most of whom would drop out of school? He wondered how he could get these predominantly black and Puerto Rican children even to look at him. Scrapping his notes, he decided to speak to them from his heart. “Stay in school,” he admonished, “and I’ll help pay the college tuition for every one of you.” At that moment the lives of these students changed. For the first time they had hope. Said one student, “I had something to look forward to, something waiting for me. It was a golden feeling.” Nearly 90 percent of that class went on to graduate from high school. Here’s something for you to look forward to: your kingdom is not of this world, it is a kingdom that cannot be shaken. The down payment has already be made for you in Christ’s sacrifice to be a citizen in this kingdom. Think about how much hope can influence you: When you face temptation: what do you hope in? When you face discouragement: what grounds your hope? Hope is the light that shines out in the darkness. But not just an empty, vacuous hope; a specific hope in Christ’s kingdom. But what is a kingdom without royal agents? The irony here is that these are not the royal agents are your average fishermen. The Call to follow Christ is a Call to but Christ first Matt. 4:18-22 <p...
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Deep Pockets Without Profit
Jan 12, 202500:41:05Tap to summarizeIntroduction Do you want to be successful? Success is easily defined in almost every category. Business success is staying in the black. Success in football is having the higher score. Success in career is getting the promotion. Success in school is getting good grades. Success in reading is comprehension. Success in science is discovery. Success in farming is an increased yield. Business, football, career, school, reading, science, farming—are all these things means or and end? Of course, these are all means to get something else: the good life. But what is the good life? The American dream is that every person has the freedom and opportunity to succeed. But success is defined by the individual. What do you define as success? Is it material wealth? Money is often the end to what we spend the most of our time. We work a full-time job to earn money. Many of us work more than one. But for most of us, money is not an end in and of itself. Money is a means to attain other things. Money is used to attain our basic needs: food, shelter, and clothing. But many of us get money beyond our basic needs. For what purpose? Jesus challenges this very thing. Treasure Matthew 6:19–21ESV “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Jesus teaches : Where our treasure is stored shows what’s at our core. First of all the command, “do not lay up,” or “do not store” is in the present tense and very likely is rendered, “Stop storing up for yourselves treasures on earth.” And so the command is a call to reorient away from one type of acquisition and change to another type of acquisition. Jesus mentions “storing up treasure on earth.” This could be anything in the first century from jewelry to rich fabrics to even books. (Books in first century were much more expensive being hand-copied on handmade paper.) The treasure on earth is subject to decay. It is not eternal. And even if it does last a long time, we won’t be around to enjoy it. Jesus mentions the moth, a small and weak creature that a child could crush under his finger is able to destroy a great accumulation of wealth: cloth, books, land deeds. And notice this treasure is stored up. This is not money used to attain the basic necessities of life. Jesus says the wise person considers the cost before building a house ( Luke 14:28 ). And of course, one would have to “store up” in order to build such a thing. Nor is Jesus arguing that we should not plan or be prepared for emergencies. Rather the “treasures on earth” are the nonessential accumulation wealth that becomes the sole focus. This accumulation may be motivated by any number of things: peace, security, greed, power, glory, pride, or some mixture. Because of course, where our treasure is stored shows what’s at our core. But none of these reasons are worthy of being the greatest good. And accumulation of treasure cannot truly bring peace. Scrooge had tons of money but was not at peace. Solomon had more money than anyone else ever, but brought civil war to his country. Jesus himself mentions why treasure accumulation cannot bring security. All our wealth can disappear in an instant. Just one large increase in inflation. Just one stock market crash. Just one bank falling apart. Just one nation conquering another. All our resources can be devoured. Matthew 6:20ESV but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. Notice that Jesus is not commanding us to do away with ambition. Rather the call is to reorient that ambition. Instead of accumulating treasure on earth, we are to accumulate heavenly treasure. Because, where are treasure is stored show what is at our core. This “treasure in heaven” has a clear continuity of thought betwen the secret, heavenly reward for purely motivated acts of righteousness. And of course it has eternal benefit. What can “Treasure on earth” gain for you? Peace? No. Security? No. Power? Perhaps, but to what end? It can gain you vice. It can gain you pride, selfishness and greed. And yet, people spend their entire lives accumulating treasure. People are willing to sacrifice their families, sometimes literally abort babies, to gain treasure. People are willing to sacrifice relationships, friendships to acquire this earthly treasure. People devote their entire lives to gain earthly treasure and what is there to show for it? A nice sports car? High-end brands? A country club membership? Ecclesiastes 5:10 “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.” And yet even people who call themselves pastors spout the idea that our greatest good is to accumulate earthly treasure. “Well, you need to hear about money, because you ain’t gonna have no love and joy and peace until you get some money!” ~ Creflo A. Dollar “God wants us to prosper financially, to have plenty of money, to fulfill the destiny He has laid out for us.” – Joel Osteen “God will begin to prosper you, for money always follows righteousness.” ~ Benny Hinn “Most employers at least have enough common decency about them that they don’t ask somebody to work for them for free…. If a man has enough nicety about him to do that, can’t you at least believe that the Father God is not asking you to serve Him for free either?” – Fred Price I’m sorry, but if your last name is “dollar” or “price” and you’re a prosperity gospel preacher—certainly God has a sense of humor. Certainly God is not about you getting more and more money. Earthly treasure is the very thing Jesus said to stop working for. Instead, we work for the heavenly treasure. There seems to be no better example of this than the martyrs of the faith. Those willing to give up all earthly things for the sake of the heavenly. One such story is that of Perpetua. She lived in the Roman Empire before Christianity was made legal. She was born to a wealthy family. She had a little baby out of wedlock and the father was not around. But then, by the influence of her servants, became a Christian. Eventually her small gathering of Christians were discovered by the empire and forced to recant or die. Perpetua refused to recant. She remained in prison for a time. She struggled between having the wealth of her family, the cherished love of her son, the acceptance and honor of her society; or instead to have Christ. Her and her companions were thrown into an arena to be devoured by wild beasts. The sent out lions, boars, tigers, oh my. On and on, until the crowd grew tired of the spectacle. So, the governor ordered them to be killed by the sword. Just before the guards approached with the sword, Perpetua yelled loud for all to hear, “Stop!” The governor supposed she was ready to recant rather than faced death. But them what she said shocked everyone. “I will not go to my Lord as if I am grieving!” And then she fixes up her hair and clothing that were disheveled while being thrown by wild beasts. Then she is slain by the edge of the sword. John 12:25 “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Now imagine one of these so-called preachers going up to Perpetua and saying, “Money always follows righteousness.” It’s laughable. And yet where are treasure is stored shows what is at our core. Matthew 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Where do you store your treasure? What motivates your acquiring? Are you searching for peace? Security? Love? Fame? One theologian says: <a href="https://ref.ly/logosres/LLS:EBC08;pos=Article$3DMATT.2.2.2.5.1...
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Proving the Son of God
Jan 10, 202500:42:25Tap to summarizeIntroduction Back when I was a Junior in high school I took the SAT standardized test and made a 1540. Now, when I told my students this today they were completely shocked because I learned the top score was a 1600. Sadly, I took a 3 part exam, not a 2-part. So, my score was like 50th percentile instead of 99th. I was dead-center, average. You know we spend our entire educational career before college it seems to prepare for this one big standardized test. The SAT came out in the 1920’s but these standardized tests weren’t as popular or “almost” mandatory until the “No Child Left Behind” act in 2003. Now, it seems like anyone who wants to be able to get into college is going to take this test. It’s a test that nearly every student has to face. What is the test for? Well, now you know how much you know (or at least how well you can show that knowledge on a test), and now you can prove to a college if you are a worthy candidate. The more prestigious a college the more their degree can be worth. The more prestigious a college, the harder it is to get in, and the higher that score needs to be. Cheating, of course, is always a scandal in such testing environments because now the test results are skewed and the whole point of taking such a test is rendered useless. It was not students cheating in recent years that caught a lot of attention, but their parents. A Wall Street Journal headline from 2019 reads, “Federal Prosecutors charged dozens of wealthy parents, including prominent law and business figures, and two Hollywood actresses with using bribes, bogus entrance exam scores, and faked academic achievements to get their children admitted to elite colleges.” Dr. Albert Mohler said about this, “We’re looking here at parents who paid somewhere between $50,000 and $1.2 million to get their privileged children into the most elite colleges and universities in the country. We’re talking about huge prestige. We’re talking about universities like Yale and Stanford, and the University of Southern California. We are talking about an indictment that includes prominent athletic coaches, university administrators, and more than anything else, parents; parents who are at the very center of the story, parents who sought to cheat, to bribe, to pay money, knowing that it would be used to game the system in order to gain admission to a prestigious university for their offspring.” Now, as a parents, do we want our children to face adversity? There was a parenting technique known as “helicopter” parenting, in which a parent is constantly hovering over their child watching every move. The above example can be known as “snowplow” parenting in which the parent seeks to remove every obstacle out of their child’s way. Most of us our familiar with the sensational idea that if you help a butterfly out of its chrysalis it will end up dying because it is the struggle it has to endure that strengthens it. This does not mean of course that we should try to cause our children to suffer in every waking moment. But there is wisdom in allowing them to struggle. And there is folly in plowing every problem out of their life. You may have seen that little cartoon of two pannels side by side of parent being upset about their child’s grades. In the 1960’s the parents are yelling at their child wondering why his grades are so bad. In modern day, the parent are yelling at the teacher wondering why his grades are so bad. Obviously, these parents who have bribed and connived to get their precious an excellent score on the SAT have done a disservice to society, the educational system, and to their very own child. Think about what that teaches that young person: every time you face a major test in life, mommy and daddy will do everything—even something immoral—to make sure it goes away. So when this student gets in to this prestigious college and has to face tests to say become a lawyer or medical doctor, what will this student be inclined to do on these tests (Or maybe even the parents)? And then when this student is operating on you in the medical field, do you trust those hands? When that person prescribes medicine to you, do you take it? No, and if you knew that this person never passed any tests you would never walk into his office! Why? Because the test proves he is who he says he is. This is the same thing we will see in today’s story in Matthew 4 . John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit, God the Father all testified that Jesus is the Son of God. In fact, the Father said, “You are my Son.” Immediately, in Matt. Mark, and Luke, after the baptism Jesus is driven to the wilderness. Jesus is going to take a test that someone else had to take. You see, after Israel went through the waters of the Nile river they went out into the wilderness. God gave his expectations and in Ex. 24 , the people of Israel promised to do everything God had commanded. But they failed the test, time and time again. They never kept their word or God’s law. They failed as a son of God. Yet where Israel failed, Jesus prevailed. Look at verse 1 Temptation 1 Matt. 4:1-4 Matthew 4:1–4ESV Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” Jesus is led by the Spirit: he is working in obedience to the Father. The purpose is given in v.1 to be “tempted by the devil.” The word in Greek for “tempt” is the same word used for “test,” and I along with most commentators would argue that both are implied in v. 1. The difference between “tempt” and “test” is the goal of outcome. A goal for temptation is stumbling. A goal for test is proving and maturing. And so we are going to see that though the devil wants Jesus to stumble, he will come away proven to be who he says he is. V.2 I love because it’s easy to read and think, “well, duh.” It states something so obvious. But this obvious fact sheds light into who Jesus is: Jesus is fully human. Jesus experiences the same things we experience. His hunger points back to the Israelites who also hungered in the wilderness. In fact that’s why “forty days” is specifically mentioned: not just to record history, but remind us of Israel’s forty years in the wilderness. Think back to the Exodus story for a moment. God had done the unthinkable to rescue his people from Egyptian slavery and led them into the wilderness. When they faced hunger the question was “will they trust in God or disobey?” The verse that Jesus quotes sheds more light on why God allowed them to get hungry. Deuteronomy 8:3 “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” “Obedience to God takes priority over self-gratification —even over essential provision of food.” And this is exactly where the devil tempts Jesus. in v. 3 he says, “If you are the Son of God. . .” notice, this title is not doubted, but it is twisted to make a taunt. But I want to take some time to explain what it means to be the “Son of God.” When we think of the title “son” our modern secular minds usually only think of biological processes. Psalm 82 references the divine beings—God’s divine council—as “sons of God.” And although this sonship does relate to generation, it is more than that. Their sonship is an exalted status above other beings. God generated all beings, but the angelic beings had the unique status as sons. Therefore, again, the primary purpose of the term sonship is not to merely communicate generation in time, but a special relationship to God. Psalm 2:7 “I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.” Psalm 2 talks about the Lord and his anointed king. This king he calls his son. This, of course, is a Messianic Psalm referring to Jesus. Sonship is a figure of speech used frequently in the Bible which communicates a unique family rela...
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