Tag: Providence Reformed Church

A Picture of Worship

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In my study for Ruth 2, I ran across an interesting scene that has something to teach us about what the word worship means. I probably will not have time to put this into the sermon, so I’ll write it here.

In this scene, Boaz has just shown great kindness and godly character in protecting and providing for ruth. Watch how she responds.

Ruth 2:10 – Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?”

Ruth is humble and amazed. She prostrates herself before Boaz as a sign of respect and gratitude. And that is the focus of what we are to see in her action. But the language that is used will teach us a truth about worship.

The Hebrew word for bowed there actually is often translated worship. Ruth is not worshipping Boaz as we think of religious worship. ?She is giving him honor as a response to his character and actions.

The reason I point out that the word for worship is used here is that this is precisely what we do when we worship. When we see the character of God revealed in Scripture, we perform actions to honor God. We show that God is great and that we are submitted to him. We bow before God and demonstrate that he is our Lord. That is worship. We perform acts to honor God, to show that we surrender to God. We sing, pray, give, respond to sermons, participate in Lord’s Supper, and all the rest in order to show that God is our King and we are grateful to be under his rule.

Why We Sing

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Psalm 89:1-4

1 I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever;
with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.
2 For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever;
in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”
3 You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have sworn to David my servant:
4 ‘I will establish your offspring forever,
and build your throne for all generations.’ ” Selah

Why do Christians sing? There are really two good answers. Of course we sing to worship our Lord. WE honor him in an act of religious obedience. He commanded it, it pleases him, and we do it.

But there is another reason that we often miss.

Colossians 3:16 – 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.

We sing to teach. We teach one another truth as we sing songs full of truth.

In Psalm 89:1-4, the psalmist says that he will sing of God’s steadfast love and his faithfulness. The psalmist is going to sing lyrics that teach of the chesed, the covenant-making, promise-keeping, never-ending love of God.

Why put this at the beginning? If we do not remember that God’s promising love lasts forever, if we forget that God is always faithful, always true to his promises, we will not be able to handle what comes later in the psalm. We will give up and lose hope when it looks like his promises are too far away to come to pass.

In verse 2, we see that God has established his faithfulness in the heavens. The angels know that God is faithful. The sun, moon, and stars are testimonies to God’s power and consistency. The heavens declare his glory, and part of that declaration is their constant reminder that God is in control and does all he says he will do.

And then in verses 3-4, the psalmist tells us of one promise of God’s. The Lord made a covenant with David. And if God is faithful to his word, he will, he must, keep that promise too.

2 Samuel 7:16 – And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”

God promised David that a son of his would build the temple. Solomon did. But God also promised that someone from David’s line, his house, will be established as king forever. A never-ending kingdom will come from David’s line. A king will come who will be king over all. That, of course, is the promise that Messiah, the Christ, will come from David’s family line.

Christians, sing and learn of God’s glory and God’s faithfulness. Sing truth. Sing of the fact that God is always true to his word. Sing and make the Lord known to others. Sing of the kingdom of God and the grace of a God who saves sinners like us. Sing that God fulfilled his promise when he sent his Son. Sing that his promises are still true today.

Forgive and Forget

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I’m sure we have all heard the phrase “forgive and forget” used. And we often hear it used by believers. But I wonder how many of us think of forgetting in this context from a biblical perspective.

Here is the question: Are we biblically required to forget what others have done? How in the world are we to do this?

Some people get the idea of forgetting the sins of others from some of the language that the Bible uses when it speaks of how God forgives us.

Isaiah 43:25

“I, I am he
who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
and I will not remember your sins.

If God remembers our sins no more, that must mean that he forgets them, right? Yes and no. Take a look at this verse in Psalm 79, and perhaps it will help.

Psalm 79:8

Do not remember against us our former iniquities;
let your compassion come speedily to meet us,
for we are brought very low.

The psalmist here prays that God would not remember the people’s sins against them. That is different than forgetting that the sins took place. The request is not asking God to blot a thing out of his memory, but to not remember the sins so as to use that memory against the people.

If a man sins by driving recklessly, crashes his car, and injures himself, he can certainly be forgiven. God will not remember his sin against him so as to punish him for it once it is forgiven. But I would not suggest that God then wonders to himself how that man got hurt. The driving and the crash are not data deleted from God’s memory banks. But God actively chooses not to remember that sin against the man so as to hurt him with the memory.

God forgets our sin by actively making a choice not to bring that sin up against us. When we forgive and forget, we can only forgive in a similar way. You cannot, to my knowledge, force a memory from your brain. But you can make a commitment not to bring a thing up against another person in order to do them harm. That is biblical forgetting when it comes to forgiveness.

Another Evidence of the Deity of Jesus

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Jesus is God. This is powerfully clear with a faithful study of the new Testament. And this is an essential belief for genuine Christians. Those who deny the deity of Jesus, those who claim Jesus to be a god but not the God, are making a dramatic theological error, denying the true identity of the Savior.

Of course there are many passages that show us the deity of Jesus with clear claims (e.g. John 1:1). And religious cults which deny that Jesus is God mistranslate that passage to avoid the claim. But there are other passages that beautifully tie the working of the Lord, of Yahweh, from the Old Testament to the actions and attributes of Jesus in the New. They show by simple logic that Jesus is Yahweh, the God of the Bible. This is not to say that Jesus is the Father. The name Yahweh applies to the trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit—3 persons, 1 God.

At the Shepherds’ Conference for 2020, Nathan Busenitz gave us four places where the name of the LORD in the New Testament is clearly used for Jesus, but where the Old Testament reference is to Yahweh, the name of God.

That presentation showed us:

  • The Coming Messiah is Yahweh. (Mat. 3:1-3; Isa 40:3)
  • The Conquering Savior is Yahweh. (Rom. 10:9-13; Joel 2:32)
  • The Cosmic King is Yahweh. (Phil. 2:9-11; Isa. 45:18-25)
  • Our Commander in Chief is Yahweh. (1 Pet. 3:13-15; Isa. 8:12-13 (LXX))

While studying for a message on Romans 8, I came across an interesting phrase that I needed to be sure I understood. And the study of that phrase showed me yet another place where the Bible applies a name to Jesus in the New Testament which is used for Yahweh in the Old.

Romans 8:27 – And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

In my study, I wanted to be sure that I understood to whom the Bible was referring as “He who searches hearts and minds.” Is this a reference to Jesus or to the Father? As I looked at that phrase, I saw both that it is a reference to Jesus in the New Testament, and a clear reference to the covenant name of God in the Old.

How do I know that this is Jesus? Contextually, in Romans 8, Paul is talking about the Holy Spirit interceding with the Father on our behalf. Later in the chapter, Paul talks of Jesus interceding for us as well. So the context is communication from within the Holy Trinity.

In Revelation 2, we see that Jesus takes the name as the searcher of hearts and minds to himself in one of the letters to the 7 churches.

Revelation 2:23b – … And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.

Now, take a look at how that phrase is used in the Old Testament.

1 Chronicles 28:9 – “And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.”

Jeremiah 17:10

“I the Lord search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”

If Jesus claims to be the one who searches the minds and hearts of men, he is claiming to be the same person that the LORD claims to be, that Yahweh claims to be, in the Old Testament. Remember, in our modern translations, the writing of the word LORD in all caps in the Old Testament is the publisher of the Bible signaling to you that the Hebrew word Yahweh, the name of God, is being used. Jesus takes to himself a title that, in the Old Testament, applies to Yahweh. Thus, the Bible is showing us here, once again, that Jesus is God, the God of the Bible, the God who created, the one true God.

Folly or Power

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I heard a news story recently about a Christian group that had set up an emergency hospital in New York’s Central Park. To some people, this is a kind and loving gesture. But the news article bemoaned the fact that the group that set up the hospital holds to traditional Christian values. And so, the article’s authors, and many in public leadership, instead of being grateful for the loving act of the believers, expressed sadness that the city would need to accept charity from such “bigots.”

The word of God has two dramatically different effects on people. Some see it as glorious and loving. Others find it stupid and hateful. And there is one basic difference that will describe how you will see it.

1 Corinthians 1:18 – For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

The word of the cross can be something you see as the glorious power of God. It can be a thing you receive as folly. What is the difference? The difference lies in whether or not you are among those being saved.

Friends, understand that the Bible is clear that those who oppose the Lord have minds darkened by sin. The Bible declares these folks to be dead in sins and trespasses. The word says they are incapable of pleasing God. And here, we see that these are going to see the word of God, not as what it is, but as folly.

However, those who are being saved by Jesus, they see the word and the standards of God as something glorious and powerful. They see the cross, not as a folly or a failure, but as a beautiful ransoming rescue.

If you see the word of God as glorious, thank God. This is not your natural bent. The only way that you can receive the word of the cross as the power of God is if God has enlightened your eyes and raised to life your dead heart. Thank god. Give him glory. And do not be surprised when the world around you thinks you have gone off the deep end.

A Picture of the Gospel in a Hidden Room

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I love when we see glimpses of the gospel in the Old Testament. It is everywhere. After all, Jesus instructed the disciples after his resurrection, showing them how all the Old Testament pointed to him. And in my daily Bible reading, one caught my eye.

IN Joshua 2, the men who when to spy out the land were hidden and protected by Rahab. This woman knew that the Lord had given her city over to destruction and that the people of Israel would conquer. And she pled for her life and the lives of her family.

Joshua 2:17-21 – 17 The men said to her, “We will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear. 18 Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household. 19 Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be guiltless. But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head. 20 But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you have made us swear.” 21 And she said, “According to your words, so be it.” Then she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

The men promised Rahab protection. But their promise was conditional. Those who would be protected did not have to perform a ritual. Neither did they have to behave in a certain way so as to earn the favor of others. They merely had to hide in her house. They had to get out of the streets and shelter in a room with a window bearing a scarlet cord. But all who refused to take shelter in that room would be subject to the fury of the conquering army.

Does the red cord remind us of the saving blood of Jesus? Perhaps. But the picture as a whole reminds us of Jesus even more. The Savior has told all of humanity that there is a place of shelter. There is a room in which to be hidden from the wrath of God we all have earned. Coming to the cross and sheltering in Christ is how to be saved. And refusing to enter leaves you exposed to the judgment of God.

We cannot fight God and survive. All we can do is shelter in the only place provided for our souls’ salvation. We trust in Jesus. We believe in his perfect life, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection. We turn from sin and ask God for mercy. And the Lord says that all who come to him in that faith are sheltered from his judgment and welcomed into his family.

Loving Omnipresence

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Have you ever heard someone say that they love the Lord, but they are not really into studying things like doctrine? I certainly have. I recall a horrific song lyric from popular Christian music in my early college years in which a singer proudly proclaimed, “I don’t need theology to know that God’s good to me.”

But, the truth is, we do need theology to know that God is good to us. Theology is the study of God, the knowledge of God. Without theology, without doctrine, we do not know God.

Now, I’m not here saying that you must have a fully, categorically developed systematic theology to love the Lord. You certainly do not need a seminary education to read the Bible and follow your Savior. But, knowing God and the doctrine of God is truly helpful.

Let me point us to a doctrine that I think matters a great deal for our current moment. It is the doctrine of God’s omnipresence. This doctrine means that there is no confining God by any sort of spatial limitation. God is present in all places, equally, at once. God is everywhere, and there is nowhere that God is not.

Jeremiah 23:23–24 – 23 “Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? 24 Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.

God fills heaven and earth. God is not contained within heaven and earth. God is not a part of heaven or earth. But God is present throughout all space. After all, God created space, and all space belongs to him.

Psalm 139:5–10

5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.

Here we see that David knows that he cannot go anywhere without being where God is. David cannot go east or west, to heaven or to hell, and be away from the Lord.

It is important that we grasp that, while God is present everywhere at all times, his action in those places might be quite different. God is not present in hell to bless but to judge. When the Bible uses language of God being far from us, it is saying that God is turned less favorably toward us, not that he is in any way removed by physical distance. When the Bible speaks of God as near to us, it is saying that he is pleased with us or is blessing us, not that his presence has somehow arrived in a place where he was not before.

The doctrine of God’s omnipresence is one that is important. We teach it unhesitatingly to our children. And, if you will let yourself think about it, you will see that this doctrine speaks a great deal to us in our present social moment.

God is where you are. Even when you are separated from society, the Lord is not gone. You may not be able to go and be at a baseball game or even sit in a church auditorium with your dear friends. But you have not been separated from the presence of the Lord. God, as David said, hems you in behind and before. You cannot flee from his presence.

Let’s consider two things from this doctrine for us today. First, God is with you and sees you. Just because you are socially distanced from others does not mean you are hidden. What you do, even while alone, is fully visible to the Lord. Think about that as you consider how to spend your time and your energy. Think about that as you consider what to look up online or what to post on social media.

And, let us also be comforted by the omnipresence of the Lord. As a believer, I hate the idea of having to try to function as the church on-line. I do not like preaching to an iPhone. I do not like singing without others around me. But, and this is vital, God is here. Wherever you are, God is here and there and everywhere. While we do not want to be the church scattered, we can be comforted in knowing that, no matter how many miles separate us, no distance at all separates us from our God. And, in a symbolic sense at least, as we are all in Christ, we are not truly apart. Yes, we want to be together. But, we are with our Lord. Our Lord is with us. And Our Lord is here to keep us, to preserve us, to bless us, to comfort us, and to give us the joy of giving him glory, even in a time of social separation.

Friends, it is true that some doctrinal study can get quite complicated and confusing. It is true that some folks become so enamored with the scholarly that they appear to lose their hearts. But, do not put down doctrine. Without doctrine we do not think well about the omnipresence of the Lord. And without that thought, we miss out on a great comfort for all believers in the middle of a very strange time.

Zeal for Your House Has Consumed Me

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What are the social ramifications of faithfulness to the Lord? OF course it will depend in general on the faithfulness of your society to the Lord and his word. But, in general, historically, the more we are faithful to the Lord, the less our society is willing to tolerate us.

Psalm 69 is the prayer of one who is suffering. HE has enemies. HE is threatened. And the threats and hardships he faces are the result of his passion for the worship of God and his mourning over the sin of the nation he lives in. And, if you will watch, you will see a line that the New Testament applies to Jesus.

Psalm 69:7-13

7 For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach,
that dishonor has covered my face.
8 I have become a stranger to my brothers,
an alien to my mother’s sons.
9 For zeal for your house has consumed me,
and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.
10 When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting,
it became my reproach.
11 When I made sackcloth my clothing,
I became a byword to them.
12 I am the talk of those who sit in the gate,
and the drunkards make songs about me.
13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord.
At an acceptable time, O God,
in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.

The psalmist prays for God to protect him. Why? People around him have turned away from him. Why? The psalmist is passionate for the glory of God. The psalmist weeps over the sin of the land. HE mourns as is proper when he sees the nation in rebellion against the Lord. But his mourning causes his friends and family to mock him, to gossip about him, and even to threaten him.

When Jesus turned over the tables of the money-changers in the temple, we see that verse 9 applies to him: “For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.” Jesus, passionate for God’s glory, passionate for God’s worship, passionate for God’s law, wrecked the place where Annas and his cronies had made the things of God into a bazaar.

When Jesus showed his passion for the worship of God and the word of God, it drew the ire of the religious leaders of his day who were profiting off of the system. When the psalmist had a passion for God’s worship and grieved over the sin of the nation, it drew the ire of those around him. We must understand, Christians, that standing strong on the word of God and clinging tightly to biblical worship will also not be popular. Some folks, religious folks, will look down on us for not buying into their system of how things should be done to be popular and effective. The world around us will not embrace us simply because we stand for the ways of the God they hate.

What should we do? Let us pray as the psalmist prayed. When he saw that the world was against him for his passion for God, he prayed, “But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord” (verse 13). He knew that obeying the word of God and rightly worshipping the Lord is worth far more than the approval of men. May we know the same thing. May we pray the same thing. May we be faithful. And may we honor our God above all.

A Motivation of Separation

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IN the book of Deuteronomy, we see the Lord, through Moses, giving commands to his people as to how they are to deal with the inhabitants of the promised land. Remember that the Lord told the people of Israel to go into the land and to wipe out all who dwelt there. Israel was to be the tool of God’s judgment on peoples who practiced great evil including idolatry, sexual depravity, and child sacrifice.

As God gives these instructions, there is an interesting motivation that he has for Israel to utterly destroy the people of Canaan that is instructive for us today. No, we are not called to do violence or to take any land by military force. But there is a thing to learn for sure.

Deuteronomy 20:16-18 – 16 But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, 17 but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord your God has commanded, 18 that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God.

In verse 18, the Lord gives the people of Israel a reason why they need to observe his command to completely destroy the evil nations in the land. The word “that” at the beginning of the verse tells us that God is giving a reason why behind his command. HE does not have to do this, but his why is helpful to us.

In verse 18, the lord gives this as a reason for Israel to destroy the peoples of Canaan: “that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God.” Notice that a motivating reason for what Israel was called to do is so that they would not be persuaded by the nations who lived in the land to adopt their evil practices. The Canaanites were killing their children as offerings to false gods. The Canaanites were incorporating sexual perversion into their religious ceremonies. The Canaanites were violent and cruel, without justice or righteousness in their governing. And God says to the people of Israel that he does not want them to go into these people’s land, learn from them, and then begin to adopt their perversion. God was protecting Israel from sinning against him and earning for themselves the very destruction that they were to bring upon the Canaanites.

I’m glad that we are not in an era when the people of God are called to take lands by military force. But, perhaps we can learn a thing or two from what God said here. God told Israel that, when they entered their new homeland, they were not to adopt anything of the cultures they conquered. They were not to dress like the Canaanites, eat like the Canaanites, worship like the Canaanites, or adopt the morals of the Canaanites. When it came to religion and morality, the Israelites were to completely and utterly do away with Canaanite practices and follow only the word of the Almighty.

I wonder what it would look like if believers in the 21st century were to take that angle, the motivational angle, of this passage seriously. What would it be like if we determined that we would not, in any way, adopt the culture of the lost around us? Examine yourself. Where do you already adopt the culture’s values, religion, or morality? Is your worship fully circumscribed by what God has commanded in his word? Is your view of gender and sexuality fully consistent with what God has commanded? Is your entertainment fitting with what God calls righteous?

Christians, we are not to take the world by military force. But neither are we to allow the world, in its persuasions, to press us into its mold. We are to turn from ungodly practices and thinking. We are to worship and live in accord with Scripture in all things. This principle was important enough to God to be the motivation for what God commanded Israel to do in the land of Canaan. It is certainly important enough for us to look at our own lives and go through our thinking and morality and worship with the same absolute fervor.

False Accusations are Evil

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Most people know the basics of the Ten Commandments. Often, we assume them to include a command not to tell lies. And, in a sense, this is true. But the command not to lie has more to do with justice. The command actually says, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16).

One way to bear false witness against your neighbor is to make a false accusation against him or her. The idea is that of a person who, out of malice, decides to accuse a person of doing wrong in order to have them punished in some way. It is to tell a lie against a person so that you benefit from their punishment either through financial gain or some sort of personal satisfaction.

The commandment is clear that such an action is forbidden. Later in God’s word, we get to see just how strongly God feels about this evil. God is clear that bearing false witness, making false accusations, is a really big deal.

Deuteronomy 19:16-21 – 16 If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, 17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. 18 The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 20 And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. 21 Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

In this passage in Deuteronomy, as God prepares the people to live in the land under his law, he makes sure they know how to deal with a false witness. When an accusation is made, judges are to seek to get to the bottom of the matter. Notice, by the way, that the judges here are interested in truth. Judges here are not employed to create new laws or to reshape society to their design. They are here to find the facts out in a situation through diligent questioning and research.

If the judges determine that a person is intentionally bringing a false accusation, attempting to do another person harm by their false accusation, there is a clear and just plan for what to do. God commands that the false accuser receive whatever penalty he or she intended that the one falsely accused was facing. So, if the false accusation would have cost the accused money, the accuser paid that money to the one falsely accused. If the false accusation would have cost the accused his life, then the life of the false accuser was forfeit.

As you think to yourself that this sounds pretty strong, notice that God says you are right. God is clear that the people are not allowed to show pity here. And here we get one of the passages that brings us the principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Whatever the false, scheming accusation would have done to the innocent is to be the punishment for the one making the accusation. There are no exceptions.

Our society is full of people throwing around many false accusations. Social media has made this easier than ever. Let us learn from God’s word that these accusations matter. God takes bearing false witness very seriously. Under God’s justice, the right penalty for making a false accusation is that the false accuser face the very hardship he or she intended to cause

Christians, take two points away here. First, see that God’s law is good. God’s system of justice here is far better than what is present in our society. Second, see that your accusations are a big deal. God does care that you speak the truth, especially when you say that someone else has done something wrong.