Exodus: A Great Salvation -- The Call of the Weak

For the past few weeks, I have been blogging a series of sermons and devotionals on the first twelve chapters of the book of Exodus that I preached and wrote over the summer. These chapters contain the actual story of the exodus, which is a great salvation that points us to God’s ultimate salvation that Jesus accomplished. We’ve seen God setting up that salvation in ch. 1 and the first part of ch. 2, and then we’ve also seen God preparing His savior and the people through suffering from the second half of ch. 2. In today's post, we’re going to see God’s official call of Moses.

The text for this sermon is a selected reading from Ex. 3-4, which recounts to us God's call of Moses and Moses' response. Moses' response is, shall we say, less than flattering for him, and if you know the story, you know what I am talking about. But, let's not be quick to judge Moses. Put yourself in Moses’ position here. He’s about 80 years old at this time. He has settled into the life of a shepherd and has been roaming the wilderness with his sheep for about 40 years. At this point, Egypt is probably a fading memory and any hope he had of being the one who delivers the Hebrew people has probably faded even more. Then, one day, which probably started out like a normal day, he brings his sheep to the base of a mountain. While there, he sees a burning bush, and probably does not think much of it at first, but then, after some amount of time, he notices that it’s burning but not actually burning up, so he goes to check it out. And, then, all of a sudden, the bush starts talking to him, and the bush knows his name. Then, immediately the bush introduces itself as God Himself and calls Moses to go back to Egypt and deliver the Hebrews from Pharaoh. Now, how do you think that would have hit you, if you had been Moses? Perhaps you fancied yourself a deliverer when you were young and well-to-do, but after 40 years of sheep herding, you’ve probably mellowed and maybe even given up on the idea of being a deliverer. Even when you tried to be a deliverer, you weren’t, shall we say, in your prime, and with each passing year in the wilderness, that dream fades, tracking somewhat with the deterioration of your body. So, you’ve become “set in your ways” and are content to live out your life as a shepherd. But, then, seemingly “out of the blue,” God calls to you from a burning bush and says, “Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” How do you think you’d feel? Probably not really up for it, I would think.

Well, I wonder if stuff like this does happen to us at times in our lives. Perhaps it’s not quite so dramatic, for to be sure we no longer hear God’s voice out of a burning bush, but maybe at some point we had grand ideas about what we can do for God whether it’s in our own personal holiness or in the world around us, until the circumstances of God’s providence blindsided us and we kind of settled down. Yet, then, somewhere in that more settled life, an opportunity comes before us: maybe God brings to mind a particular sin with which we’ve gotten comfortable and we can no longer ignore it, or maybe someone in the church asks us to do something that we’ve never really considered or been trained to do, or maybe a situation at work challenges us to stick out more as a Christian, or something else, and we’re worried that it might be God subtly saying, “Come, I have this for you…” because, like Moses, we’re not really up for it. Well, I think this passage can help because here we see God’s call of the weak, and if we’re honest with ourselves, we should probably be thinking, “Uh… yeah… that’s me.”

If you want to hear more, you can listen to the sermon here or read the transcript here. I pray that the Holy Spirit will use it to magnify Christ in your heart and mind to the glory of God.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Good News of Great Joy for All Peoples

So, I am little late on getting this sermon up. It is actually a Christmas sermon, of sorts, for it was preached on Dec. 21, 2014 and certainly has an advent theme. But, just a few hours after I preached it, my family and I left to drive to Atlanta for some time with our families there, and I have not had time to post it since. However, even though it is a "Christmas sermon," it the subject matter from God's Word applies to our lives at all times of the year, so hopefully it can still be helpful to you.

What is the center of your life? That is an important question because the answer tells you what your life revolves around and a little about your goal in life. We might also ask, "What is the center of history?" And, without going into the longer explanation that the sermon presents, the center of history is the advent of Christ. The calendars of the world revolve around the advent of Christ, and every person in the world dates their life, in their day-to-day existence, with reference to the birth of Christ. That tells us what history revolves around, and it tells us that goal of history as well: the second advent of Christ.

Well, Ps. 117, which is the text for the sermon, is the exact center of Scripture, which is entirely appropriate (maybe even providential) because in a nutshell, this psalm describes what the Scriptures revolve around—the firm foundation of Jesus Christ—and they describe God’s ultimate goal: all His people from all tribes and nations praising Him for His steadfast love and faithfulness.

So, if you want to find out more, you can listen to the sermon here or read the transcript here. I pray that it will be a blessing to your soul and increase your joy in Christ.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Solus Christus: Why Advent?

“The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity—hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory—because at the Father’s will Jesus Christ became poor and was born in a stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross.” ~ J. I. Packer, Knowing God

The Advent season starts tomorrow, and over the next few weeks, I will post a short Scripture reading and devotional each day. But, before that, we must ask ourselves, “Why do I want to observe Advent? What is its purpose?” Since it wasn’t commanded by Christ and taught to us by His apostles, we can’t insist that anyone observe the Advent season. If someone tries to convince you that you must observe Advent because you are a Christian, ask them where that is commanded in Scripture, and then humbly remind them that our Lord Himself taught us not to teach “as doctrines the commandments of men.” So, if Advent isn’t a commanded season of preparation, why would I spend time writing Advent devotionals—a tool to use in the observation of Advent? Well, we’ll get to that in a moment.

First, it would be helpful to talk briefly about the history of Advent. Why did it arise as a Church tradition in the first place? When the Church emerged from almost three centuries of persecution, a Church year—a cycle of regularly occurring annual Christian festivals—began to form. Now, a religious year wasn’t a new idea in the fourth century, for there was a religious year in Old Testament worship, and even several pagan religions observed a religious year. However, the distinctiveness of the Church year is that it centers on a particular person and His Work, i.e. Jesus Christ and His work of redemption. This focus on Christ and His work for annual Christian festivals naturally formed three primary festivals: Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. These festivals center our attention on the three major events of the Christian gospel: Christ’s incarnation, His death and resurrection, and His outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church. The great Church historian, Philip Schaff, states concerning this cycle, “The church year is, so to speak, a chronological confession of faith; a moving panorama of the great events of salvation; a dramatic exhibition of the gospel for the Christian people.”

Christmas and Advent were comparatively late additions to the Church calendar with Easter and Pentecost developing early in the second century, Christmas developing in the fourth, and Advent near the end of the sixth century. It was inevitable that Christmas be added to the Church year, for it celebrates the groundwork for all other festivals—the coming of Christ. John Chrysostom (bishop of Constantinople in the fourth century) defended the addition of Christmas to the Church calendar by reminding his congregation that “without the birth of Christ there were also no baptism, passion, resurrection, or ascension and no outpouring of the Holy Spirit….” That is, without a celebration of Christ’s birth there is no foundation for the celebration of Easter, Pentecost, or any other festival based on His work in this world. By the end of the sixth century, seasons of preparation for these key celebrations had been added, and thus Advent became a traditional part of the Church year. It was designed to anticipate and prepare the Church for the celebration of Christ’s birth by reminding us of the yearning for the Messiah in the long ages before His incarnation, of our hope of redemption in Him alone, of our continual need of Him, and of our future hope in His second coming. It is the anticipation and preparation for our celebration of the coming of the “hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory,” which came through Christ alone.

“How long is the Advent season?” might be a question on your mind. Well, the Advent season begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, which means it’s a season that varies in length depending on day on which Christmas falls. It can be as short as 22 days (if Christmas falls on a Monday) or as long as 28 days (if Christmas falls on a Sunday).

But, we need to get back to the original question, "Why observe Advent?" Why anticipate and prepare for a celebration, even one as important as Christmas? Well, I can’t tell you why you should observe Advent because it’s not a God-given command, and therefore neither I nor anyone else can demand you observe Advent as if it were a command. Rather, I’m going to tell you why I observe Advent, and then leave your reasons between you and the Lord.

Now, let’s be honest, most believers get caught up in the consumerism and materialism of the Christmas season just like the rest of our culture. I’m no exception to that statement. During this season I find myself getting frustrated by our culture’s views on Christmas, mostly because I find those views affecting me just as much as others, and I don’t like that. At times I’ve been called a “Christmas scrooge” because I’m pretty cynical about Christmas traditions and generally don’t have much “Christmas spirit.” Therefore, I need to have my cynical, wayward heart drawn away from the consumerism and materialism of cultural Christmas and back towards Jesus and the glorious truth of His incarnation in this world. That’s why I need to observe Advent and perhaps why it might be helpful for you as well.

Observing Advent doesn’t have some special spiritual power, and the Advent Sundays are no more holy than any other Lord’s Day in the rest of the year. What it does do is give me a daily pause and reminder of what this time of year means to the Christian faith and why we celebrate the birth of Christ in the first place. It provides me with a much-needed corrective for everything else I hear and see from the world during the Christmas season. In this sense, it helps me reset myself from anticipating presents, stockings, decorations, or Christmas traditions, and it focuses me back on celebrating the incarnation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Observing Advent gets my mind back on the fact that our Lord has come, that He has accomplished complete redemption for His people, and that He is coming again one day to usher in the new heavens and new earth. That’s why I like observing Advent and why I think it might be helpful for you as well. If you find that reason compelling or perhaps it brings to your mind another good reason for you to observe Advent, then come back each day and keep reading.

A few words need to be said about the title of this post (and the subsequent posts). From where did I get “Solus Christus”? “Sola” is the Latin word for “alone” or “only,” and during the Reformation, five Latin sola-statements (commonly called the “Five Solas”) emerged. These were intended to summarize the Reformers’ basic theological principles and distinctions from Roman Catholic theology. The Five Solas are sola fide (“by faith alone”), sola scriptura (“by Scripture alone”), sola gratia (“by grace alone”), soli deo gloria (“glory to God alone”), and, finally, solus Christus (“through Christ alone”). Since Advent focuses our hearts and minds on the coming of Christ and the hope of redemption through Him alone, I thought it a fitting title for a set of Advent meditations.

In the following days leading up to Christmas, you will find a daily Scripture reading and some reflection (from a Reformed perspective) on what it tells us about the incarnation of Jesus and His glorious work of redemption. My prayer is that they will magnify the glory of Christ in your daily devotional time and that they will reset your focus away from cultural Christmas norms and back on “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich.”

Advent starts tomorrow, so check back here for the first devotional.

By His Grace,
Taylor

The Gospel According to Joseph: Teaching Christ from the Old Testament

Back at the beginning of the summer, when I started this preaching series on The Gospel According to Joseph, one of the things I also set out to do was to teach how we can see Jesus in the Old Testament (OT), i.e. how to see what the Holy Spirit was showing the original audience and is showing us about God's redeeming nature and work in Christ. Jesus Himself told us in passages like Lk. 24:27, 44 and Jn. 5:46 that the OT is about Him, but seeing exactly how it teaches us about Him is not quite so easy. My senior pastor, Chris Hutchinson, has written a couple of great articles on preaching/teaching Christ from the OT that can be found here and here, and there are several of good books written on this subject like David Murray's Jesus on Every Page. But, in the interest of ease and practical use, I have attempted to boil it down to some basic questions that we can ask of any OT passage to help us to see how Jesus may be in that passage. Throughout the series, I presented four questions that we can ask of any OT to help us to do just that, and here I want to recap those questions.

Now, all these questions do not always apply to every OT passage, but we can ask these of any passage and one or more of them will help us to see Jesus on that page of Scripture:

1. What does this passage reveal about the sinful nature of man who needs redemption? When we see an aspect of man's sinful nature and need of redemption in an OT passage, we can see Jesus there, for He is the ultimate solution to man's need.
2. What does this passage reveal about the redeeming nature of God? When we see an aspect of God's redeeming nature in an OT passage, we can see Jesus there, for He brings together all those aspects in His person (i.e. who He is) and in His work of redemption.
3. How does this passage reflect upon or prepare us for the person or work of Christ—i.e. who He is to us (His person) and what He does for us (His work)? For example: An OT story might point us to the lordship that God exercises over His people, in which we can see Jesus' person, for He is the lord of the Church. An OT story might present a hero as a representative of the people, in which we can see Jesus' person, for He is our representative before God. Or, an OT passage may describe a sacrifice or priestly duty under the ceremonial law, in which we can see Jesus' work for us as our ultimate sacrifice and priest, satisfying God's wrath and interceding for us. An OT passage may describe a king ruling and defending his people well, in which we can see Jesus' work for us as our ultimate king, ruling and defending His Church. An OT passage may describe God teaching His people about Himself, His salvation, or this world, in which we can see Jesus work for us our ultimate prophet, revealing to us, by His Word and Spirit, the will and mind of God. 
4. How is the text calling us to respond to the grace of God and follow after Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit? This is the part of preaching and teaching from OT stories where it's appropriate to see some instances as examples to be followed, but these examples are still Christ-centered. They are OT illustrations of what Paul says in 1 Co. 11:1 "Be imitators of me [i.e. follow my example], as I am of Christ."

Certainly much more can be said about seeing Jesus in the OT, but I believe these four questions boil it down for us in a holistic, practical way. What do you think? Am I missing anything? 

B. B. Warfield once said that the OT is a room "fully furnished but dimly lit," and when we use Christ as the interpretive tool, the lights come on and we see everything clearly. I pray that these questions will help turn on the lights for you as you read through inspired Word of the OT. 

By His Grace,

Taylor

The Gospel According to Joseph: Hope, Even in Death

This Sunday's sermon will be the final sermon in our series: The Gospel According to Joseph. As we said in the beginning and have reiterated many times throughout this series, there is too much in this story to cover it all in nine sermons (or even nine sermons plus nine devotionals). In every passage, there is some Christ-centered content that we just do not have time to cover. So, in this short devotional, we are going to talk briefly about the hope that the final chapters of Genesis give us, which we will not have time to cover in a sermon.

Both Ge. 49 and Ge. 50 end with death--the deaths of Israel and Joseph. Death may seem like a bad way to end such a great story, but when we look at the faith of these two men, we can see that in their deaths we're given hope--the hope of the gospel. Back in Ge. 47-48 (cf. The Gospel and Finishing Faithfully), we saw in Israel preparing for his death that his true hope was not in the physical land of the promise but in the God of the promise who was preparing a "better city, that is a heavenly one" for him and his descendants. In Ge. 50:24-25, we see Joseph express the same hope (a hope that we saw he had back in Ge. 41 as well, cf. The Gospel and Perspective) as he tells his brothers and descendants to take his bones with them to the promised land when they return. This is the hope that the author of Hebrews highlights in He. 11:13, "These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth." And, this is the hope that we have as well--a hope beyond the sin, pain, and death of this world.

We too will die as "strangers and exiles on the earth," for this world is not our home. Our home--our true inheritance as sons and daughters of God--is life without sin, sadness, or death in the new heavens and new earth with God Himself. John describes it for us briefly in Re. 21:1-4 (one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture):

¹ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ² And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. ⁴ He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Emphasis added)

That is our hope, brothers and sisters in Christ, and even in death it is an anchor that will not fail.

Death is not the way it's supposed to be. We were created for so much more, but sin has brought the pain of death into our lives, which is in fact is something that I have seen tragically and clearly in my own congregation recently. Yet, Christ has defeated death for us (cf. 1 Co. 15:55) and given us hope even in the midst of it. This is why Paul says in 1 Th. 4:13 that we do not grieve as those who have no hope. Now, that doesn't mean we don't grieve. We do, for death is not the way it's supposed to be and someone we love has had to endure it, and now we have to continue as "strangers and exiles" in this world without their comfort and companionship. Yet, we grieve as those who have the hope of the gospel, for we know that believers are redeemed in Christ (Ro. 3:24), live in Christ (Ga. 2:20), and even die in Christ (1 Th.4:13-14), and we know that we will see them again when we too go to our true home. We have the hope of knowing that even in death our Savior is with us and will bring us into a world so much better than our life as "strangers and exiles" here on earth--our true inheritance with Him in the new heavens and new earth for all eternity. We know that the death of a believer (even untimely, early ones) means they're finally home, receiving their true inheritance from Christ, which gives us hope. Death, as the Heidelberg Catechism says in the answer to question 42, puts an end to our disease of sin and begins our eternal life--our true inheritance. Christians have hope, even in death.

So, even though this great story ends in death, it's good ending. It's an ending that reminds us that this world isn't our home, that we have a glorious inheritance awaiting us in Christ, and that even in the midst of the pain of death in this life, the loved ones of believers can grieve with hope instead of grieving with fear and despondency. Rest in that hope that the story of Joseph, Jacob, and Judah gives to us here at the end.

By His Grace,

Taylor

The Gospel According to Joseph: Jesus, the Greater Judah

As has been the case in almost every sermon passage so far in this series, there is so much in Ge. 48:1-20; 49:1, 8-12 that we cannot possibly cover it all in this Sunday's sermon post. In fact, the sermon will only highlight one major aspect of this passage. So, in this devotional, we will talk briefly about Judah's blessing, which is really a prophecy of Jesus Himself.

In Ge. 49:8-12, Israel blesses Judah with nothing less than a prediction that the Messiah Himself will come from Judah's line, which is an amazing grace to Judah (the grace aspect of this blessing will be brought out in Sunday's sermon post). Take a look at Israel's words to Judah:

8 "Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
    your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
    your father's sons shall bow down before you.
9 Judah is a lion's cub;
    from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down; he crouched as a lion
    and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
    and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
11 Binding his foal to the vine
    and his donkey's colt to the choice vine,
he has washed his garments in wine
    and his vesture in the blood of grapes.
12 His eyes are darker than wine,
    and his teeth whiter than milk."

There are four aspects of the coming Messiah--Jesus Christ Himself--that are brought out in this blessing and prophecy given to Judah: His praise, His preeminence, His power, and His prosperity. Let's take a brief look at each of those.

First, praise: Israel says, "Judah, your brothers shall praise you..." From a language standpoint, this is a literary play on Judah's name which means "to praise" in Hebrew, yet its meaning goes much deeper. This prophecy may have had a minor fulfillment in Judah's personal relationship with his brothers, and it did have a proximate fulfillment in the kings of Judah, of whom king David was the greatest. Yet, it finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Himself. When Christ was raised from the dead, He was given the name that is above every name (Php. 2:9), so that at His name every knee will bow and every tongue confess His lordship (Php. 2:10-11). Presently, this prophecy is fulfilled in the true children of Abraham (i.e. Christians, cf. Ga. 3:7) giving praise to the Greater Judah who comes from the line of Judah. It also will be fulfilled in an ultimate sense when every knee bows to Jesus at the final judgment, whether they want to or not (Php. 2:10-11, explained in more detail in this sermon here).

Second, preeminence: Israel tells Judah that he will be greater than all his enemies, that his brothers will bow to him, and that the scepter will not leave his house. Now, while this may have had some minor fulfillment in Judah's lifetime, this too is ultimately about what would come from his line. Israel does nothing less than predict that the right kingship of God's people will come from Judah's line, and in v. 10, Israel makes it clear that the kingship of Judah's line will have no end. This kingship began to be true with king David but has its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Himself. Out of the line of Judah has emerged the Messiah who is king (e.g. Ps. 2; 89; Is. 11:1-16; Je. 33:15; Am. 9:1-14), and this messiah is Jesus (Lk. 1:32-33; Ro. 1:3; Re. 22:16). He is the King of kings and Lord of lords (Re. 17:14; 19:16), who rules over everything (Col. 1:15-17). Presently, His rule may not be recognized by all, but one day, it will be (Php. 2:10-11, cf. Re. 20:11ff).

Third, power: Israel likens Judah to a lion in this prophecy, and, of course, the lion is a picture of power and might. The lion is the most enduring image of Judah in the themes of redemptive history. This theme is carried through to the time of the judges, then to the reign of king David, and ultimately is fulfilled in the victorious reign of the Lion of the tribe of Judah: Jesus Christ Himself (cf. Re. 5:5, 9-10). This enduring image of the Lion of Judah is often set with the image of the Lamb of God to serve as the quintessential image of Christ (i.e. power and sacrifice). Here, though, there is no hint of the lamb; there is only the power of the lion. Jesus is the powerful lion who protects, defends, and fights for His people, both now and forever more.

Fourth, prosperity: Finally, Israel tells Judah vv. 11-12 that his prosperity will be unimaginable. Now, the language of these images may seem a little odd to our culture today, but to Judah they were a picture of great prosperity. The binding of the foal and the donkey to the choice vine shows this because a foal and a donkey would eat the vine to which they were tied, which means Judah has such a successful vine harvest that it doesn't matter whether a choice vine is eaten, for there are so many more. In modern terms, it might be like us saying that someone can park their Lamborghini in the worst part of town with the keys in the ignition because they have so much wealth that one car, as expensive as it is, doesn't really matter. The washing of his garments and vesture (i.e. cloak/robe) in wine is a similar picture: so much that it does not matter how you use it. Wine is an expensive liquid (imagine your water bill calculated at the price wine is sold), so to use it to wash clothes like one would use water shows that the wine harvest is as abundant as water to them. Finally, the color of his eyes and teeth are along a similar line: Judah has so much wine that his eyes are becoming colored like the wine and his teeth are white when seen against the foreground of his red, wine-stained lips. All these images show the immense prosperity of Judah. And, like with the previous predictions, such a prosperity may have had some fulfillment in Judah and the later kings from his line (e.g. king Solomon's prosperity), but it is ultimately fulfilled in Christ and what He has secured in the new heavens and the new earth. The description of the new Jerusalem in Re. 21:9ff shows us this kind of lavish wealth in different terms but the end result is the same: unimaginable prosperity. And that, Christian, is the inheritance that those adopted into the family of God through Christ will have one day. That is our hope in Christ, not anything in this world.

Judah's blessing is really a prophecy about Jesus Himself. So, when you look at Judah's blessing, remember that he is just a picture of who Christ is as the exalted King of kings, Lord of lords, and head of the Church. And, He is your Savior.

By His Grace,
Taylor

The Gospel According to Joseph: The Gospel and Finishing Faithfully

As we continue our way through the story of Joseph, Jacob, and Judah, we come to the part of the story where the Israel gets the majority of the attention. We have seen a lot about Joseph so far, some about Judah, and only a small amount about Israel, but in chapters 47-49, the story shifts is character focus mainly to Israel and the end of his life. In the sermon for today's post (from a selected reading in Ge. 47-48), we see Israel, who was stumbling greatly at the beginning of this narrative, finish his life faithfully and pass on his renewed faith in God to the succeeding generations. If you want to learn more, you can listen to the sermon here or read the transcript here.

Now, as we have talked about in the other posts in this series, we're not only studying the story but learning how to see Christ properly in these Old Testament (OT) narratives. To accomplish that, we've been talking about questions that we can ask of any OT text to help us to see how Jesus may be on that page of Scripture. For today's sermon, we added a new question: "How is the text calling us to respond to the grace of God and follow after Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit?" This is the part of preaching and teaching from OT stories where it's appropriate to see some instances as examples to be followed, but even these examples are still Christ-centered. If you want to learn more, you can listen to the sermon here or read the transcript here.

I pray that this sermon will show you Jesus clearly and Him only and that it will be a blessing to your soul.

By His Grace,
Taylor

The Gospel According to Joseph: Humility

As we continue through the story of Joseph, Jacob, and Judah, there are so many great aspects of this story that we won't be able to cover from the pulpit. The passage at which we will be looking this week, Ge. 41, is one of the high points of this whole narrative. In it we see the climax of God's providential work in and through Joseph, and in it we also get a great look at Joseph's character.

Remember, one of the things we noted in the very beginning of this series is that we can often see the gospel in the development of characters in OT stories, i.e. gospel-change working in their lives. In the previous chapters of this narrative, we have seen Joseph become a man who endures and serves God faithfully wherever God has put him. However, in Ge. 41 we get the clearest picture of Joseph's developing character so far, and one of the things that stands out is the humility that God has developed in Joseph.

Humility is a tricky virtue to nail down. It's the one fruit of the Spirit that when we look at it or gaze upon it in ourselves, it immediately becomes something else. That's because true, gospel-driven, Christ-centered humility isn't what we might normally think of as "humble." I think we often think that the opposite of pride is self-abasing, but that's not true humility. True humility isn't talking or thinking about how bad we are and constantly bemoaning our flaws or sin in our own minds or before others. Constantly thinking about or pointing out how lowly we are is just another way of putting ourselves at the center when it is Christ that should be at the center. Furthermore, when do debase ourselves in our minds or before others, what creeps into minds after that is how great it is that we're so humble, and we become proud of being humble! Listen to what Jonathan Edwards has to say about this aspect of humility:

If on the proposal of the question [Are you humble?], you answer, "No, it seems to me, none are so bad as I." Don't let the matter pass off so; but examine again, whether or no you don't think yourself better than others on this very account, because you imagine you think so meanly of yourself. Haven't you a high opinion of this humility? And if you answer again, "No; I have not a high opinion of my humility; it seems to me I am as proud as the devil"; yet examine again, whether self-conceit don't rise up under this cover; whether on this very account, that you think yourself as proud as the devil, you don't think yourself to be very humble.

C. S. Lewis called this cycle of fighting self-admiration and then admiring yourself for defeating your self-admiration "like fighting the hydra... There seems to be no end to it. Depth under depths of self-love and self-admiration."

That's because humility is the one fruit of the Spirit that flourishes when our thoughts and our gaze are on Christ and others and not at ourselves at all! Humility isn't thinking less of ourselves, it's thinking about ourselves less. It is "blessed self-forgetfulness," as Tim Keller calls it. Lewis has a great statement about this in Mere Christianity:

Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call 'humble' nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a bit envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all. [Emphasis added]

And, in Ge. 41, we see this kind of humility in Joseph when he stands before Pharaoh. In that moment, he has the chance to put himself in the spotlight. He has the chance to show Pharaoh how useful he could be to him or how he's been treated so unjustly, but he doesn't take it. In fact, it is remarkable how Joseph points the spotlight away from himself towards God. He doesn't give any hint of trying to impress Pharaoh with his abilities, self-abasement, or anything else. He simply serves God faithfully and let's God handle the rest. Before Pharaoh, Joseph isn't thinking about himself at all. He's self-forgetful, and that's because he finds his true, core identity in his relationship with God and nowhere else. And, that will be one of the things we talk about this Sunday from Ge. 41: true identity in Christ.

In the mean time, when you read through Ge. 41, make note of Joseph's humility and how it is in his self-forgetfulness, not self-abasing.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Solus Christus: Why Advent?

“The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity—hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory—because at the Father’s will Jesus Christ became poor and was born in a stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross.” ~ J. I. Packer, Knowing God

The Advent season starts tomorrow, and over the next few weeks, I will post a short Scripture reading and devotional each day. But, before that, we must ask ourselves, “Why do I want to observe Advent? What is its purpose?” Since it wasn’t commanded by Christ and taught to us by His apostles, we can’t insist that anyone observe the Advent season. If someone tries to convince you that you must observe Advent because you are a Christian, ask them where that is commanded in Scripture, and then humbly remind them that our Lord Himself taught us not to teach “as doctrines the commandments of men.” So, if Advent isn’t a commanded season of preparation, why would I spend time writing Advent devotionals—a tool to use in the observation of Advent? Well, we’ll get to that in a moment.

First, it would be helpful to talk briefly about the history of Advent. Why did it arise as a Church tradition in the first place? When the Church emerged from almost three centuries of persecution, a Church year—a cycle of regularly occurring annual Christian festivals—began to form. Now, a religious year wasn’t a new idea in the fourth century, for there was a religious year in Old Testament worship, and even several pagan religions observed a religious year. However, the distinctiveness of the Church year is that it centers on a particular person and His Work, i.e. Jesus Christ and His work of redemption. This focus on Christ and His work for annual Christian festivals naturally formed three primary festivals: Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. These festivals center our attention on the three major events of the Christian gospel: Christ’s incarnation, His death and resurrection, and His outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church. The great Church historian, Philip Schaff, states concerning this cycle, “The church year is, so to speak, a chronological confession of faith; a moving panorama of the great events of salvation; a dramatic exhibition of the gospel for the Christian people.”

Christmas and Advent were comparatively late additions to the Church calendar with Easter and Pentecost developing early in the second century, Christmas developing in the fourth, and Advent near the end of the sixth century. It was inevitable that Christmas be added to the Church year, for it celebrates the groundwork for all other festivals—the coming of Christ. John Chrysostom (bishop of Constantinople in the fourth century) defended the addition of Christmas to the Church calendar by reminding his congregation that “without the birth of Christ there were also no baptism, passion, resurrection, or ascension and no outpouring of the Holy Spirit….” That is, without a celebration of Christ’s birth there is no foundation for the celebration of Easter, Pentecost, or any other festival based on His work in this world. By the end of the sixth century, seasons of preparation for these key celebrations had been added, and thus Advent became a traditional part of the Church year. It was designed to anticipate and prepare the Church for the celebration of Christ’s birth by reminding us of the yearning for the Messiah in the long ages before His incarnation, of our hope of redemption in Him alone, of our continual need of Him, and of our future hope in His second coming. It is the anticipation and preparation for our celebration of the coming of the “hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory,” which came through Christ alone.

“How long is the Advent season?” might be a question on your mind. Well, the Advent season begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, which means it’s a season that varies in length depending on day on which Christmas falls. It can be as short as 22 days (if Christmas falls on a Monday) or as long as 28 days (if Christmas falls on a Sunday).

But, we need to get back to the original question, "Why observe Advent?" Why anticipate and prepare for a celebration, even one as important as Christmas? Well, I can’t tell you why you should observe Advent because it’s not a God-given command, and therefore neither I nor anyone else can demand you observe Advent as if it were a command. Rather, I’m going to tell you why I observe Advent, and then leave your reasons between you and the Lord.

Now, let’s be honest, most believers get caught up in the consumerism and materialism of the Christmas season just like the rest of our culture. I’m no exception to that statement. During this season I find myself getting frustrated by our culture’s views on Christmas, mostly because I find those views affecting me just as much as others, and I don’t like that. At times I’ve been called a “Christmas scrooge” because I’m pretty cynical about Christmas traditions and generally don’t have much “Christmas spirit.” Therefore, I need to have my cynical, wayward heart drawn away from the consumerism and materialism of cultural Christmas and back towards Jesus and the glorious truth of His incarnation in this world. That’s why I need to observe Advent and perhaps why it might be helpful for you as well.

Observing Advent doesn’t have some special spiritual power, and the Advent Sundays are no more holy than any other Lord’s Day in the rest of the year. What it does do is give me a daily pause and reminder of what this time of year means to the Christian faith and why we celebrate the birth of Christ in the first place. It provides me with a much-needed corrective for everything else I hear and see from the world during the Christmas season. In this sense, it helps me reset myself from anticipating presents, stockings, decorations, or Christmas traditions, and it focuses me back on celebrating the incarnation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Observing Advent gets my mind back on the fact that our Lord has come, that He has accomplished complete redemption for His people, and that He is coming again one day to usher in the new heavens and new earth. That’s why I like observing Advent and why I think it might be helpful for you as well. If you find that reason compelling or perhaps it brings to your mind another good reason for you to observe Advent, then come back each day and keep reading.

A few words need to be said about the title of this post (and the subsequent posts). From where did I get “Solus Christus”? “Sola” is the Latin word for “alone” or “only,” and during the Reformation, five Latin sola-statements (commonly called the “Five Solas”) emerged. These were intended to summarize the Reformers’ basic theological principles and distinctions from Roman Catholic theology. The Five Solas are sola fide (“by faith alone”), sola scriptura (“by Scripture alone”), sola gratia (“by grace alone”), soli deo gloria (“glory to God alone”), and, finally, solus Christus (“through Christ alone”). Since Advent focuses our hearts and minds on the coming of Christ and the hope of redemption through Him alone, I thought it a fitting title for a set of Advent meditations.

In the following days leading up to Christmas, you will find a daily Scripture reading and some reflection (from a Reformed perspective) on what it tells us about the incarnation of Jesus and His glorious work of redemption. My prayer is that they will magnify the glory of Christ in your daily devotional time and that they will reset your focus away from cultural Christmas norms and back on “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich.”

Advent starts tomorrow, so check back here for the first devotional.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Happiness

O LORD,
Help me never to expect any happiness
  from the world, but only in Thee.
Let me not think that I shall be more happy
    by living to myself,
  for I can only be happy if employed for Thee,
  and if I desire to live in this world
  only to do and suffer what Thou dost allot me.
Teach me
  that if I do not live a life that satisfies Thee,
    I shall not live a life that will satisfy myself.
Help me to desire the spirit and temper of angels
  who willingly come down to this lower world
    to perform Thy will,
  though their desires are heavenly,
  and not set in the least upon earthly things;
    then I shall be of that temper I ought to have.
Help me not to think of living to Thee
    in my own strength,
  but always to look to and rely on Thee
    for assistance.
Teach me that there is no greater truth than this,
  that I can do nothing of myself.
Lord, this is the life that no unconverted man
    can live,
  yet it is an end that every godly soul
    presses after;
Let it be then my concern to devote myself
  and all to Thee.
Make me more fruitful and more spiritual,
  for barrenness is my daily affliction and load.
How precious is time, and how painful to see it fly
  with little done to good purpose!
I need Thy help:
O may my soul sensibly depend upon Thee
    for all sanctification,
  and every accomplishment of Thy purposes
    for me, for the world,
    and for Thy Kingdom.
~ "Happiness" from The Valley of Vision

If you have never read or used The Valley of Vision in your personal devotions, you are missing out on a great resource. It is a collection of Puritan prayers from Christ-exalting saints like Richard Baxter, John Bunyan, Charles Spurgeon, and many others, and it will bless your soul.

This particular prayer was one that I read this morning, and so many different lines caught my attention. (If you follow me on Twitter, you will find that my customary #MorningPrayers for next week will all come from this one prayer.)

• "Help me never to expect any happiness from the world..." Right out of the gate, the author reminds us that true happiness is found only in God. Certainly, He gives us gifts in this world that add to our happiness, but if we try to find our happiness in the gift without looking past the gift to the Giver, we will ultimately be disappointed. We will turn the gift into an idol, and those who worship idols become like them: empty. (cf. Ps. 115:4-8)
• "Let me not think that I shall be more happy by living to myself..." Again, the author reminds us of where our true happiness is. In our time and culture, we tend to think that we will find happiness if we live for ourselves or for some "noble cause" (which is just another form of living for ourselves). But, we were created to glorify God (Is. 43:7; 48:11; 1 Co. 10:31), and that is where we get the most joy (cf. Php. 4:4). The first question of the WSC shows us that these (i.e. God's glory and our happiness) are two aspects of our one end, which cannot be separated: What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. See how it is the "chief end" (singular) with two aspects? Jonathan Edwards did a great job of arguing this truth in The End for which God Created the World. This is a Christian classic that is well-worth reading.
• "Teach me that if I do not live a life that satisfies Thee, I shall not live a life that will satisfy myself." This basically carries the previous statement, on which I commented above, forward. John Piper has argued well in Desiring God that our greatest satisfaction is derived from pursuing our joy in God's satisfaction in Himself. While I think Piper is sometimes too cut-and-dry in many statements in this book, it is another Christian class that is well-worth reading.
• "Help me not to think of living for Thee in my own strength, but always to look to and rely on Thee for assistance." The Christian life cannot be living in our own strength. We just cannot do it. Fortunately, Jesus has told us, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Co. 12:9)
• "Lord, this is the life that no unconverted man can live..." Since we were created to glorify God and our greatest joy comes in that end, the unconverted man cannot truly live this life to its fullest joy and happiness. Paul tells us that the unconverted cannot submit to God and are indeed hostile to Him (Ro. 8:7). They will always pursue their happiness in something else that will eventually disappoint them. Life in meaningless if it is not live for God. Even atheists like Albert Camus have argued for this. As Camus argues, without God the only important life-question is whether or not to commit suicide, and his solution was simply to live with dogged hatred of the situation in which we are. There is no joy in that, but there is true joy in Christ. The world needs to see that in our lives. Christians are the only people who have anything worth laughing about, and the world needs to hear the laughter of the redeemed.

Let me end with a couple of quotes from Edwards and Augustine. One of my favorite things Edwards wrote is in The End for Which God Created the World:

God in seeking His glory seeks the good of His creatures because the emanation of His glory... implies the... happiness of His creatures. And in communicating His fullness for them, He does it for Himself, because their good, which He seeks, is so much in union and communion with Himself. God is their good. Their excellency and happiness is nothing but the emanation and expression of God's glory. God, in seeking their glory and happiness, seeks Himself, and in seeking Himself... He seeks their glory and happiness.

The other quote on this subject, which I have previously written about here, comes from Augustine's Confessions:

Forbid it, O Lord, put it far from the heart of Thy servant, who confesses to Thee--far be it from me to think I am happy because of any and all the joy I have. For there is a joy not granted to the wicked but only to those who worship Thee thankfully--and this joy Thou Thyself art. The happy life is this--to rejoice to Thee, in Thee, and for Thee. This it is and there is no other.

May we always remember that any other joy or happiness we might experience is not true, but fleeting, and that we can only have true joy and happiness in God. Even all those things that God has blessed us with were given to us so that we could have joy in Him through happiness in His gifts. If we ever start to look to the gifts for joy, instead of Him, they will cease to satisfy, but if, while enjoying the gift, we look past it to the Giver, we will find true happiness in Him.

By His Grace,
Taylor

How Should We Worship?

"[It is the] tension between the need to remain faithful to the gospel and the Christian tradition while at the same time faithfully communicating that Evangel [good news] in a changing and complex cultural milieu that presents mammoth challenges to the continued witness of the Christian church." ~ J. Matthew Pinson, Perspectives on Christian Worship: Five Views

How we should worship God, especially in public worship, is an important question for the Church. It is one of the more important questions because worship is one of the main ways we glorify God before an unbelieving world, and it is what we will be doing for all eternity in the new heavens and new earth. I would like to pose a list of fifteen things that I think are essential for public worship. Now, this list is a work-in-progress and I am in no way claiming that it is exhaustive. I welcome any comments on how to biblically refine these points.

Here we go: public worship should...

1. ...be God-exalting, Christ-centered, and Spirit-filled: The second commandment, the Psalter (e.g. Ps. 134), and the rest of the Scriptures declare of the glory of the Triune God and that He is to be worshiped and only Him. Other Scriptures (cf. Jn. 4:21-23; 5:23; Php. 2:9) tell us that worship in spirit and in truth is Christ-centered worship for He is the glory of the Father and the one whom God has exalted to the highest place. Finally, passages like 1 Co. 12:3 tell us that no one can worship God unless indwelt by the Spirit, for a renewed heart is essential to the right worship of God. 
2. ...put the amazing back into grace. The grace of God to us in Christ Jesus is more than we can fathom and we can never the exhaust the depths of this grace. Every worship service must amaze us and shock us by the grace of God, for we are a people prone to wander and we need constantly to be reminded of the magnitude of what He has done for us. 
3. ...be founded on the fact that we are created to worship God and enjoy Him. The first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (WSC) asks, "What is the chief end of man?" It then biblically answers, "Man's chief end is to glorify God (cf. Ps. 86; Is. 43:7; 60:21; Ro. 11:36; Re. 4:11), and to enjoy Him forever (cf. Ps. 16:5-11; 144:15; Is. 12:2; Php. 4:4; Re. 21:3-4)." It is important to note that this is one end with two aspects—when we truly glorify God, we also enjoy Him. This means that public worship (and private too) should always be an overflow from our very purpose of existence. It should also be enjoyable because glorifying God and enjoying Him are inseparable. 
4. ...be on the Lord's Day. The Sabbath was not just part of the 10 Commandments (though that is no trivial thing) but was part of the creation ordinance. Even before man fell, he was to rest and worship one day in seven. In the OT, the Lord's Day was the seventh day of the week. Now that Christ has come, He is making a people for Himself, and grace abounds, the first day of the week is the Lord's Day (Re. 1:10; cf. Mt. 28:1; Lk. 24:1; Jn. 20:1, 19-23; Ac. 20:7; 1 Co. 16:2) for it mirrors grace—we rest in grace and then we work—and it is the day in which our Lord was raised from the dead. Though not foundational, it is also practical, for God's people need a Lord's Day to have a common day to gather for worship (cf. He. 10:25). 
5. ...be corporate. On the Lord's Day (see above), God's people gather for corporate worship. While private worship is absolutely essential, one can and should distinguish between corporate and private worship. There are few explicit commands in the NT that tell us to gather together to worship (He. 10:25 being one) but that is not because the NT does not expect there to be corporate worship. That is because the teaching of the NT apostles rests firmly on the OT view of public worship and the assumption that the NT saints gather together in a public, definable worship service. Indeed, many of the NT commands about worship are unintelligible if there is not a distinct, corporate worship service for God's people (cf. Mt. 18:20; Ro. 14; Ac. 20:17-38; 1 Co. 7-11; 14; 16:2; 1 Ti. 2; 4:6-13; 2 Ti. 4; Tt; 2; He. 4:9; Re. 1:10). 
6. ...be governed by the Regulative Principle (RP) of worship. This principle is thrown around a lot these days and sometimes quite incorrectly, so let me attempt to define it for you. The Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) 21.1 states it well, "But the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture (Dt. 12:32; Mt. 15:9; Ac. 17:35)." Why does it say this? It's justification is stated in WCF 20.2, "God alone is Lord of the conscience (Js. 4:12; Ro. 14:4), and has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are, in anything, contrary to His Word; or beside it, in matters of faith or worship (Mt. 15:9; 23:8-10; Ac. 4:19; 5:29; 1 Co. 7:23; 2 Co. 1:24)." In short, the RP tells us that pastors, sessions, worship leaders, or anyone else directing worship can only prescribe in public worship that which God Himself has prescribed. Because God alone is Lord of the conscience, man has no right to insist another man do anything in matters of faith and worship unless God Himself has commanded it. No man has a right to make another man feel guilty about anything unless it comes from God's command in Scripture (cf. Mt. 15:1-9; Ro. 14; 1 Co. 8-10). This frees man's conscience from the tyranny of man and places it under the only Sovereign who can rule the conscience without damaging it—God. It is helpful, when discussing the RP, to distinguish between elements (those things prescribed as essential to gathered, public worship), forms (the way the element is expressed in public worship), and circumstances (those considerations regarding how, when, where, and in what manner or amount the elements are to be performed, i.e. bulletins, length of prayers, number of songs, times of services, etc.). The RP tells us the elements of public worship but leaves the forms and circumstances open. The forms and circumstances are those things that are, as WCF 1.6 states, "common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature, and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word." (In the case of forms, they are open but only to things which do not detract from the element itself, and some forms can detract from the element, which is why the WCF says, "ordered by... Christian prudence." E.g. reading Scripture in Latin to a people who do not understand Latin, as the Roman Catholic church did and still does at times, is a form which detracts from the element and therefore unacceptable.)
7. ...contain the following elements: reading the Bible (1 Ti. 4:13), preaching the Bible (Ro. 10:14, 17; 1 Ti. 4:6-13; 2 Ti. 4:2), praying the Bible (Ac. 2:42; 1 Ti. 2:1-4), singing the Bible (Eph. 5:18-19; Col. 3:16), and "seeing" the Bible, i.e. the sacraments (Mt. 28:19; Lk. 22:14-20; Ac. 2:38-39; 1 Co. 11:23-26; Col. 2:11-12). Why is it that we read, preach, etc. the Bible? Because God’s Word is central to our knowledge of Him, His works, His will, and our salvation. With its content and its content alone can we be assured that we are worshiping Him properly. Therefore, as the elements of worship are derived from Scripture, so should those elements be saturated with Scripture. 
8. ...be following the one, true worship leader—Jesus Christ Himself. Everyone else who directs a worship service is merely a minister, Jesus is the one who leads us into worship (Mt. 18:20; Jn. 4:21-23; He. 2:5ff). Jesus gathers us together in Him and brings us before God as our great High Priest. If we really remembered that Jesus is our worship leader (not the man or woman with a piano or guitar), would we not worship differently? 
9. ...be the whole thing—every activity between the call to worship and the benediction. Worship is not just singing. Worship is reading God's Word, praying, preaching, singing, and participating in the sacraments. Every act between from the beginning to the end is part of public worship. When we hear God's Word read or listen to a sermon, we should be cognizant that the hearing, actively listening, and contemplating of it are acts of worship and should lift our affections toward Him. 
10. ...have music that aids in the worship of God but never gets in the way of the worship of God. I do not think it is biblical to quibble over style of music in general, yet there are things that need to be considered when we choose our style. Music is a great way to involve our affections in worship, but it can also manipulate those affections and lead us away from worship, when not used properly. Being moved emotionally is not the same thing as being spiritually changed. Music should engage the affections but always in a way that is spiritually edifying, not just emotionally charged. 
11. ...be orderly. This is a simple but very important aspect of public worship that Paul pounds into the Corinthian people in 1 Co. 14. Paul builds an argument for order in worship and then closes it by saying, "But all things should be done decently and in order." How else is it going to edify God’s people and be a witness to the lost? 
12. ...be edifying. Like the previous point, in 1 Co. 13-14, Paul tells the Corinthian people that gifts and actions in worship are to be done "so that the church may be built up." What good does it do to speak in a tongue, prophesy, or have all knowledge if it is not used in love for the edification of the body? Paul answers in 1 Co. 13:3 we "gain nothing."
13. ...be covenantal. WCF 7.1 states, "The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto Him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of Him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which He has been pleased to express by way of covenant." God's people should come before God to praise Him for what He has done, hear His Word preached, understand the new covenant in Christ, learn about His commitment to them, learn about their commitment to Him, give Him thanks for His covenant, and receive the sign and seal the covenant and be nourished by Christ in the Lord's Supper. All these are aspects of a covenant renewal ceremony, which is at the heart of public worship.
14. ...engage the affections. Jonathan Edwards, in his excellent work Religious Affections, states, "True religion consists so much in the affections, that there can no true religion without them." One can have sound doctrine and not be a Christian, but one cannot be a true Christian and not have true affections. Now, it is important to note that affections are not just emotions, they are the response of the whole person. Affections are not emotions as distinct from the other faculties but the whole lot of emotions, will, and mind. They involve the will, the intellect, and the full range of emotions (not just the happy emotions). It is only through the engagement of the affections for God that we can glorify and enjoy Him. 
15. ...be simple, transferable, and flexible. Worship should not require any elaborate ritual or prescribed book of liturgy/prayer. Since it is based on the principles of God's Word, it is simple, not complicated. Worship, if guided by the RP, is also transferable. The elements are defined (and uncomplicated) but the forms and circumstances can be adapted to every culture (when guided by Christian prudence and the light of nature, according to the general rules of the Word). Finally, worship should be flexible. Like its transferability, it is flexible because biblical worship does not and cannot produce a "cookie-cutter" pattern that everyone church must fit into. The flexibility of worship guided by the RP encourages diversity and cultural expressions. 

As I stated above, this list is not exhaustive and I welcome any comments that may help me biblically refine what is said above.

By His Grace,
Taylor

The Charge of Inconsistency

"Simply stated, the 'homosexuality and shellfish' argument falls apart when read as the Scriptures are meant to be read—with a redemptive-historical approach in view." ~ Matthew Everhard

You often hear stated today, "Christians love to quote the Bible and pick and choose whatever rules they want us to obey and what rules they want to ignore. I can quote the Bible too, and Lv. 11:9-11 says that you should not eat shellfish. You eat shrimp, so why should we believe what you say about homosexuality?" This is the "shrimp argument" and it sounds like a good one on the surface, but it actually comes from a complete lack of understanding of Scripture and Christianity as a whole. It is leveled by those who want to charge Christians with inconsistency if they do not agree with homosexuality. Yet, as we will see, citing a random verse from Scripture does not prove Christians inconsistent at all. It in fact opens up the door to show how Christ has changed everything.

First of all, let's be clear about what the Bible says. People who use the shrimp argument generally quote from Lv. 18:22 or Lv. 20:13 as if they are the only thing the Bible has to say about homosexuality. That is simply not the case. The New Testament (NT) is not silent on the issue but is quite clear (cf. Ro. 1:26-27; 1 Co. 6:9; 1 Ti. 1:8-11). So, if we are going to throw around the charge of "picking and choosing," let's not pick and choose what prohibitions we mention or what Testament we go to for those prohibitions. (It is often argued that Jesus did not say anything about homosexuality. Stand to Reason has a good article answering that charge.)

So, is it inconsistent for Christians say homosexuality is sinful but eat shrimp? No, because with His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus changed the Biblical landscape and now proper interpretation of the Old Testament (OT) law must take Christ's work into account (the redemptive-historical view mentioned in the quote by Everhard).

The OT, especially Leviticus, commits a large amount of space to what is called the "ceremonial law." This law told Israel how it could approach and worship God. Because Christ had not yet come, man could not just approach God in his any state. For God's people to be in right relationship to a holy God and to rightly worship that God, there had to be sacrifices to deal with sin and rules to deal with the purity of the Israelite people. You could not approach God if you had eaten certain foods that were declared unclean (like shrimp), if you had touched an unclean object, or if you did not wear the right clothing. Through the ceremonial law, God made it clear that He is holy and people are not, therefore they cannot just approach Him and worship Him in whatever fashion they pleased. They had to be pure. When Jesus came on the scene, however, He fulfilled the ceremonial law. The book of Hebrews argues this point at length, showing that with Christ's death and resurrection approaching God has changed and people cannot go back to the ceremonial law. Christ's is one-for-all sacrifice (He. 10:12), His righteousness is now our purity before God (Ro. 5:12-18; He. 10:19-23), and now all foods are clean (Mk. 7:19). When Jesus died on the cross the veil of the Temple was ripped and replaced with Jesus Himself (He. 10:20), which shows that the ceremonial law, with its sacrifices and cleanliness laws, has been fulfilled and can no longer be observed by Christians. Jesus makes us clean now, not what we eat, wear, touch, or what sacrifices we make.

That, however, is not the only type of law in the OT. Another type is the "judicial law" that governed the nation of Israel. In it there are a lot of laws that seem odd to us and there are some that seem extreme, like the stoning of blasphemers (cf. Lv. 24:16). What about those laws? How do those work? Blaspheming is obviously still a sin but should we stone those who do it? No, because with the coming of Christ, God's people are not longer a physical nation but a spiritual one. In the OT, God's people were a physical nation so sins had civil punishments. However, now that Christ has come, God's people are a spiritual people living in governments throughout the world. The Church is not the civil government, so the Church no longer deals with sin through civil punishments but through exhortation, censoring, and, as a last resort, exclusion from fellowship (cf. Mt. 18:15-20; 1 Co. 5; 1 Ti. 1:19-20).

But, the third type of law--the moral law, which, for example, tells us about sexuality--is still in place. Why? Because it is not a consequence of how we can approach/worship God (ceremonial law) or the political organization of God's people (judicial law) but an extension of God's very character and created order, which can never change or be done away with. Even the coming of Christ does not change the requirements of the moral law (but He does secure forgiveness and eternal life for those who put their faith in Him). What the OT has to say about generosity, loving our neighbor, families, relationships, and even sex continues into the NT (cf. e.g. Mt. 5:27-30; 1 Co. 6:9-20).

So, how we look at the OT and its regulations depends not on "picking and choosing" but on Jesus Christ Himself. Now, one might reject the Christian premise that Jesus is God and that His death and resurrection changed the biblical landscape. But, even if one does reject that premise, one cannot fairly say that Christians are inconsistent if they accept the moral statements of the OT and do not practice the ceremonial or judicial aspects. From the premises of Christianity this is completely consistent. One can say they disagree, one can reject the conclusion, one can say Christianity is wrong, and one can even say it is "hateful" (those are different arguments), but the charge of inconsistency fails when looked at the data seriously from a biblical, Christian standpoint.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Book Review: "Preaching Christ from the Old Testament"

"[W]e can define 'preaching Christ' as preaching sermons which authentically integrate the message of the text with the climax of God's revelation in the person, work, and/or teaching of Jesus Christ as revealed in the New Testament." ~ Sidney Greidanus, Preaching Christ from the Old Testament

 In 2 Ti. 4:2, Paul tells Timothy to preach the Word, in season and out. Of course, right before this verse in 3:16-17, almost in the same breath, Paul has told Timothy, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” So, we know that the Word Timothy is to preach is Scripture. Many years earlier, recorded in Lk. 24:27, we see Christ Himself showing His disciples how “all the Scriptures” witness to Him. What conclusion are we to draw? That we must preach the Word and to preach the Word, whether Old or New Testament, means to preach Christ. The question is, then, how do we preach Christ from Scripture? This question is much more acute when it comes to preaching Christ from the Old Testament (OT), where Christ is not mentioned by name. Some have simply rejected the idea of preaching Christ from the OT, but that cannot be valid since Jesus Himself showed that the OT is about Him. How do we properly, faithfully preach Christ from the OT? That is the question that Sidney Greidanus has set out to answer in his book, Preaching Christ from the Old Testament. In it, Greidanus examines the necessity of preaching Christ, the history of preaching Christ, and the method for preaching Christ from the OT.

I have written a review of this work. I highly recommend this book for pastors or seminary students, so hopefully the review will inspire you to read the book.

By His Grace,
Taylor

The Supremacy of Christ

"We preach Christ and Him crucified because it is He and He alone who is our hope. All that we have is from His hands… what good things do we have that we did not receive from Christ? As this distinctive regards salvation, consider, what makes someone differ from another? Does Christ ALONE make you to differ from your neighbor, or is it Christ plus something else, such as your "good will" that generates a right thought?... Humility is not something that springs from our unregenerate human nature. Only Christ can change that. It is only by grace alone in Christ alone that we have life, this is THE central difference between biblical Calvinism and all other synergistic forms of Christianity." ~ John Hendryx

I like this summary of the core difference between Reformed theology and other theological traditions. Some think that the core of Reformed theology is predestination or God's absolute sovereignty. Those are certainly large points in Reformed theology, but as Hendryx says they are "central but not THE center." The supremacy of Christ is the center to its dogma and that sets Reformed theology apart from other theological traditions. Other traditions may place Christ at the center, but I would argue that they often place something else, like man, their with Him.

May Christ always be in the center alone for "at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." ~ Philippians 2:10-11

By His Grace,
Taylor