2020-03
2020-03
Sunday Mar 22, 2020
"The LORD our Help" (Psalm 121)
Sunday Mar 22, 2020
Sunday Mar 22, 2020
"The LORD our Help" (Psalm 121)Pastor Cameron JungelsEastside Baptist ChurchSunday, March 22, 2020
Psalm 121 (NIV)
A song of ascents.
1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
1. The LORD is our source of help; therefore, we should look to him (vv. 1-2).
2. The LORD is our vigilant help who never fails to watch over us (vv. 3-4).3. The Lord is our protector who ensures the safety of his people (vv. 5-6).4. The Lord is faithful and eternal, and he will never stop caring for us (vv. 7-8).Main Idea: In times of trouble and uncertainty, we may trust the LORD, who is our vigilant, faithful, protecting helper.
Wednesday Mar 11, 2020
Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "Sons of God" (Chapter 19, part 1)
Wednesday Mar 11, 2020
Wednesday Mar 11, 2020
Knowing God by J. I. Packer“Sons of God” (Chapter 19)
What is a Christian?
A Christian is one who has God as Father.
Everyone is a creature of God by creation, but not everyone is a child of God by redemption.
“Sonship to God is not, therefore, a universal status into which everyone enters by natural birth, but a supernatural gift which one receives through receiving Jesus.” - J. I. Packer
John 1:12–13 NIV12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
Sonship is a gift of grace. It is not a natural sonship, but an adoptive sonship.
Ephesians 1:5 NIV5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—
The revelation to the believer that God is his Father is in a sense the climax of the Bible.
In the OT, God revealed his covenant name as Yahweh, (the LORD). Holiness was the emphasis. The “fear of the LORD” was our proper response.
In the NT, God is still holy, but a new relationship has been emphasized. “Father” has become his covenant name and the name by which his people call him.
A New Relationship
Christians are his children, his own sons and daughters, his heirs.
“To those who are Christ’s, the holy God is a loving Father; they belong to his family; they may approach him without fear and always be sure of his fatherly concern and care. This is the heart of the New Testament message.” - J. I. Packer
Our comprehension of God as our Father need not be limited or distorted by our own experiences with our earthly fathers.
We all have an innate perception of what an ideal father would be, and the NT gives us clear testimony to the perfect fatherhood of God in relation to Jesus Christ.
God’s relationship as Father to us is meant to be a reflection and reproduction of God the Father’s own fellowship with Jesus, God the Son.
God’s fatherly relation to Jesus in John’s Gospel:
Fatherhood implied authority.
John 6:38 NIV38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
Fatherhood implied affection.
John 5:20 NIV20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.
Fatherhood implied fellowship.
John 8:29 NIV29 The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”
Fatherhood implied honor.
John 17:1 NIV1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
John 5:22–23 NIV22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.
Each of these dimensions of fatherhood apply to us as believers as well:
We are to obey our heavenly Father.
We have fellowship with our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ.
Our Father loves us as his adopted children.
We are honored by our heavenly Father through our union with Christ.
John 12:26 NIV26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
Adoption: The Highest Privilege
A Formal Definition:“All those that are justified, God vouchsafeth, in and for His only Son Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption: by which they are taken into the number, and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God; have His name put upon them, receive the Spirit of adoption; have access to the throne of grace with boldness; are enabled to cry, Abba, Father; are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by Him, as by a father; yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption, and inherit the promises, as heirs of everlasting salvation.” WCF 12
Adoption is the highest privilege that the gospel offers, higher even than justification.
Justification—God’s forgiveness of the past together with his acceptance for the future—is the primary and fundamental blessing of the gospel.It is primary, because it meets our primary spiritual need: forgiveness of sins, rescue from God’s wrath, and reconciliation.
It is fundamental, because everything else in our salvation assumes it and rests on it.
But it can be argued that adoption is the highest blessing. Justification deals with our relationship with God as our Judge - legal.
Adoption deals with our relationship with God as our Father - familial.
Justification, in and of itself, does not imply any intimate or deep relationship with God the judge.
Adoption is a family idea, conceived in terms of love, and viewing God as father. Closeness, affection and generosity are at the heart of the relationship.
According to the Scriptures, pardon, acceptance, and adoption, are distinct privileges, the one rising above the other in the order in which they have been stated . . . while the first two properly belong to (the sinner’s) justification, as being both founded on the same relation—that of a Ruler and Subject—the third is radically distinct from them, as being founded on a nearer, more tender, and more endearing relation—that between a Father and his Son. . . . There is a manifest difference between the position of a servant and a friend—and also between that of a servant and a son. . . . A closer and dearer intimacy than that of a master and servant is said to subsist between Christ and His people: “Henceforth I call you not servants: for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends” (John 15:15); and a still closer and dearer relation is said to exist in consequence of adoption; for “Thou art no more a servant, but a son, and an heir of God through Christ” (Galatians 4:7). The privilege of adoption presupposes pardon and acceptance, but is higher than either; for, “To as many as received Him, to them gave he power”—not inward strength, but authority, right, or privilege—“to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12). This is a higher privilege than of Justification, as being founded on a closer and more endearing relation—“Behold! what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God.” - James Buchanan, The Doctrine of Justification
Galatians 4:4–7 NIV4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
Adoption is an abiding blessing. In God’s family there is absolute stability and security; the parent is entirely wise and good, and the child’s position is permanently assured.
Adoption: The Basis for Our Life
The entire Christian life has to be understood in terms of adoption. “Sonship” must be the controlling thought.
Just as Jesus always thought of himself as Son of God in a unique sense, so he always thought of his followers as children of his heavenly Father, members of the same divine family as himself.
John 20:17–18 NIV17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Just as the knowledge of his unique Sonship controlled Jesus’ living of his own life on earth, so he insists that the knowledge of our adoptive sonship must control our lives too.
The Sermon on the Mount: The Christian’s “Royal Family Code”
Christian Conduct
Adoption is the basis of Christian conduct.
“...the sermon teaches Christian conduct not by giving a full scheme of rules and a detailed casuistry, to be followed with mechanical precision, but by indicating in a broad and general way the spirit, direction and objectives, the guiding principles and ideals, by which the Christian must steer his course…precisely the kind of moral instruction that parents are constantly trying to give their children.” - J. I. Packer
Three Principles of Christian Family Conduct:
Imitate the Father.
Matthew 5:44–45 NIV44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Matthew 5:48 NIV48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Glorify the Father.
Matthew 5:16 NIV16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Please the Father.
Matthew 6:1 NIV 1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
Matthew 6:4 NIV4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Christian Prayer
Adoption is the basis of Christian prayer.
Matthew 6:9 NIV9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
“Jesus could say to his Father, “You always hear me” (Jn 11:42), and he wants his disciples to know that, as God’s adopted children, the same is true of them. The Father is always accessible to his children and is never too preoccupied to listen to what they have to say. This is the basis of Christian prayer.” - J. I. Packer
Prayer must not be thought of in impersonal or mechanical terms, as a technique for putting pressure on someone who otherwise might disregard you.
Matthew 6:7–8 NIV7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Prayer may be free and bold.
Matthew 7:7–11 NIV7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
God lovingly hears our prayers, but often he gives us what we should have asked for, rather than what we actually asked for, because he is a wise, loving Father.
The Life of Faith
Adoption is the basis of the life of faith—the life of trusting God for our needs as we put his kingdom and righteousness first.
Faith is not foolhardiness or presumption — there is a difference.
Faith is tested when disciples live for Christ in a hostile world.
Following Jesus may mean that we forfeit some measure of worldly security or prosperity, but Jesus reminds us of what our status as adopted children of God promises.
Matthew 6:25–26 NIV25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Matthew 6:31–33 NIV31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Wednesday Mar 04, 2020
Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "The Heart of the Gospel" (Chapter 18 part 2)
Wednesday Mar 04, 2020
Wednesday Mar 04, 2020
Knowing God by J. I. Packer“If God Be for Us...” (Part 3)“The Heart of the Gospel” (Chapter 18, part 2)
Review of Chapter 18, part 1
The Death of Christ
“The basic description of the saving death of Christ in the Bible is as a propitiation, that is, as that which quenched God’s wrath against us by obliterating our sins from his sight.” - J. I. Packer
“...the sins of all that will ever be pardoned were judged and punished in the person of God the Son, and it is on this basis that pardon is now offered to us offenders. Redeeming love and retributive justice joined hands, so to speak, at Calvary, for there God showed himself to be ‘just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus.’” - J. I. Packer
The Gospel is not fundamentally about a solution to our human problems.
The Gospel is fundamentally about a reconciliation of sinners to their Creator.
Other human problems only have a true remedy through this reconciliation with God in Christ.
Descriptions of the Death of Christ in the Bible:
Reconciliation
Redemption
Sacrifice
Self-giving
Sin-bearing
Blood-shedding
All connected with the idea of propitiation
“All these thoughts have to do with the putting away of sin and the restoring of unclouded fellowship between man and God, as a glance at the texts mentioned will show; and all of them have as their background the threat of divine judgment which Jesus’ death averted.” - J. I. Packer
Propitiation - the heart of the Gospel and the vantage point from which to see the heart of many other biblical teachings as well.
The Driving Force in Jesus’ Life
Four Impressions of the Life of Jesus from Mark’s Gospel:
A man of action
A man who knew himself to be a divine person (Son of God) fulfilling a messianic role (Son of Man)
A man whose messianic mission centered on his being put to death
A man for whom this experience of death was the most fearful ordeal
How can we account for Jesus’ belief in the necessity of his death and also his dread of it?
Only the biblical doctrine of propitiation through atonement can make sense of these.
“The driving force in Jesus’ life was his resolve to be “obedient to death—even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8), and the unique dreadfulness of his death lies in the fact that he tasted on Calvary the wrath of God which was our due, so making propitiation for our sins.” - J. I. Packer
Isaiah 53:4–5 NIV4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
What of Those Who Reject God?
The Scriptures do not teach universalism - that all will eventually be saved.
Those who in this life reject God will forever be rejected by God.
To think of what the lost bring on themselves through their rejection, consider the cross.
Bearing the retributive justice of God
Withdrawal and deprivation of all good
Loneliness, pain, and a horror of great spiritual darkness
“Calvary shows that under the final judgment of God nothing that one has valued, or could value, nothing that one can call good, remains to one. It is a terrible thought, but the reality, we may be sure, is more terrible yet. ‘It would be better for him if he had not been born.’” - J. I. Packer
What Is Peace?
Not fundamentally a feeling of inner tranquility
The basic ingredient of God’s peace is pardon and acceptance into covenant—adoption into God’s family.
“The peace of God is first and foremost peace with God; it is the state of affairs in which God, instead of being against us, is for us.” - J. I. Packer
“The peace of God, then, primarily and fundamentally, is a new relationship of forgiveness and acceptance—and the source from which it flows is propitiation.” - J. I. Packer
Colossians 1:20 NIV20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
The Dimensions of God’s Love
Ephesians 3:18–19 NIV18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
How can we know an unknowable love?
Some comprehension of it may be gained by considering God’s plan of grace
The atoning sacrifice of Christ which propitiates the wrath of God and reconciles us to him is the centerpiece of this plan.
Christ’s Love:
Free - not elicited by any good in us
Eternal - those given to him from before the creation of the world
Unreserved - gave himself to the depths of humiliation and the wrath of God on Calvary
Sovereign - it achieved its object—the final glory of the redeemed
“Dwell on these things, Paul urges, if you would catch a sight, however dim, of the greatness and the glory of divine love.” - J. I. Packer
The Glory of God
John 13:31 NIV31 When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him.
The glory of God in his wisdom, power, righteousness, truth, and love was supremely disclosed at Calvary, in the making of propitiation for our sins.
It is Christ’s redemption, his shedding of blood, for our salvation that makes him worthy of all glory and honor.
Revelation 5:9–10 NIV9 And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. 10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”
Revelation 5:12 NIV12 In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”