Monday, September 29, 2025
Wednesday, September 24, 2025
HOW CAN I LOVE CHURCH MEMBERS WITH DIFFERENT POLITICS?
From a Biblical basis, the book's two authors engagingly challenge the reader in a series of brief easily digested chapters addressing some of today's political issues.
I'm sure all of us have been shocked whenever we bump into another Christian who does not hold to our political beliefs. I've actually seen some of them do physical melt-downs when they discovered that I didn't share their political views! That's why I bought this book. Lord, help me understand them...
Tuesday, September 23, 2025
THE PROMISE
THE PROMISE
O
foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth,
before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This
only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the
law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in
the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered
so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Therefore He
who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do
it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? – just as
Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Therefore
know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. And the
Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached
the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the
nations shall be blessed.” So then those who are of faith are
blessed with believing Abraham. Galatians 3:1-9.
Introduction
In the following, we’re going to look at the promise of the gospel. The promise of God is eternal life to all those who keep on believing in Jesus Christ. We’ll focus on a couple of things to do with this wonderful promise: How the promise is displayed and how the promise is conveyed.
The
Promised Displayed
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The
promise is displayed in and by the gospel message, which is to say that the
promise of forgiveness of sins and everlasting life is portrayed in the Gospel.
In the Gospel we see the righteousness of God revealed in Jesus Christ. The
righteousness of God is revealed at the cross. Christ’s cross is where justice and
mercy embrace each other.
Righteousness
has to do with justice. At the cross God dealt in a just manner with our sins. Sin
is the breaking of God’s Covenant commands, which is to break His Law. Our
disobedience shows us our rebelliousness towards God. But Jesus Christ perfectly
kept all the commands of God’s Law, as a, nay, as the Adamic Covenant of
Works, the pre-Fall covenant that Adam failed to keep, the covenant that
condemned Adam and Eve and all of us (Rom. 5:12, 17-21).
So,
we ask the question: Why did God punish Jesus Christ if He never broke the Law?
And the answer is: Jesus took the punishment you and I deserve! He did it
because you and I had no righteousness of our own. You and I were covenant
breakers. Which means that we are unrighteous, and in need of righteousness to
be right with God.
All
of mankind outside of Christ are covenant breakers. And God’s justice demands
they pay the price for breaking God’s law, that justice be done. But God not
only displays justice at the cross, but there He displays His mercy too – in,
whosoever believes in the Righteous One who hung on that cross pouring out His
blood shall never perish but have everlasting life. In this is the Promise
displayed that all who believe, i.e., believe in the One who was crucified,
will never be put to shame. They have been transferred from being under the
condemnation of the old covenant, and they have entered into a new covenant
relationship with God – in and through Jesus Christ.
They
now belong to the covenant community of God. They have a new relationship to
the Law of God. No longer is the law something which condemns them to death,
For them, the Law has taken on a new role, a spiritual role. Paul says
elsewhere, “For we know that the law is spiritual” (Rom. 7:14). Spiritually
dead people cannot discern spiritual things (1 Cor. 2:14). Therefore, the Law
only condemns them. But the Law of God is spiritual. The Word of God testifies
to this. Therefore, the Galatians are demonstrating a lack of discernment by
their faulty view of the Law.
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The
foolish Galatians ought to be seeing the Law as a signpost, pointing them to
Christ and His cross. However, instead of responding with thankful gratitude to
God for His grace in Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, by listening to the Judaizers
instead of Paul, the Galatians were placing themselves once more under the
bondage of the condemning Law. The were turning the spiritual covenant of grace
into the dead covenant of works, the law of condemnation. They were following
the Law that condemns instead of the Christ who forgives. Thus, they were
seeking God’s justice as opposed to seeking His mercy.
It
is at the cross we see the proper spirit in which the Law of God is to be kept.
Christ on the cross kept the Law out of a pure love for God and for His neighbour
– including you and me as believers. For this is how God the Maker of the Law
so loved the world. That whoever believes in His righteousness, His Law as
revealed in His Son, shall not perish but have everlasting life. In other
words, we are are to believe in the Gospel, “For in it the righteousness of God
is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by
faith’” (Rom. 1:17). So, we live by faith alone and not by works or
even faith plus works.
However,
the Lord expects to see the evidence of this belief displayed in those who are
in covenant with Him. This is displayed by keeping the spirit of the spiritual
law of God, which is obedience to God out of love for Him and your neighbour, and
not by trying to keep the Law as a Covenant of Works, i.e., to earn salvation.
(We’ll be covering the fruit of the Spirit separately a little further on.)
When
we compare our feeble efforts at keeping God’s Law to the great Law keeper
Jesus Christ, we clearly see that we are sinners in need of salvation. The
teaching of the Gospel has always been that it’s salvation by grace alone
through faith alone in Christ alone according to Scripture alone
to the glory of God alone. And the promise of salvation always has been
integral to the Gospel. Indeed, the heart of the good news is that promise. And
now that Christ has lived, died, resurrected, and ascended, the promise is made
more sure.
The
Galatians are on the verge of departing from the clear teaching of the Gospel. They
are in the process of turning their backs on the Word of God, Scripture. So,
Paul displays the promise again as he goes through the Gospel point by point
with the Galatians. We can take it for granted that they had a good working
knowledge of the whole Bible, if not, how would you justify Paul referring to
them as “foolish” Galatians? By his choice of words Paul demonstrates that they
know the Biblical doctrine of the Gospel.
Paul
had taught them the Gospel as it is contained in the entire Bible. He didn’t
teach them a gospel contained in a nutshell. He called them foolish because
they were turning their backs on the clear teaching whole Bible, (i.e., as per
the whole Old Testament and whatever New Testament books were available to them
at that time). Paul expected them to recognize heretical teaching from a
hundred paces away. Hence, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you
should not obey the truth?” “I gave you the truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth when I gave you the Gospel! You know that the sacrifices of God
are not sacrifices of burnt offerings, but the sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit, a broken and contrite heart.”
A
broken spirit and the broken and contrite heart have always been the required
condition in those with whom God has covenanted. The Gospel, then, is designed
to break the hardest of hearts. It is designed to show you up as a hard-hearted
sinner against God. It is designed to reveal the love and grace of God to hell-deserving
sinners. The Gospel is the hammer that smashes the cold hearts of stone to
pieces. It is the arm of comfort around the broken-hearted. But the Galatians
were beginning a process of hardening their hearts toward God. Therefore, Paul
brings out the hammer to smash their hearts to pieces. But the Galatians know
that Paul isn’t doing this out of hatred toward them but out of love. They know
that Paul is doing this with a broken heart, with tears. But he is obligated
out of love for God and the Galatians to remind them of their covenant
obligations lest they be cut off.
I
put it to you that Paul is using Covenant language here in Galatians 3 and
following. It happens throughout Scripture where the Lord reminds His people of
His covenant. Paul is reminding the Galatians of the covenant God made between
Himself and them (with Christ as there Representative). See Amazon for a copy
The
standard form is that the Lord reminds His people who He is and what He has
done for them. Then He invites them to state their case as to why they are being
disobedient to Him. I’ll give a couple of examples: The Lord through Isaiah in
Isaiah 43:25-26 says, “I, even I am He who blots out your transgressions for
My own sake; and I will not remember your sins. Put Me in remembrance; let us
contend together; state your case, that you may be acquitted.” Or Micah 6:3-4,
“O My people, what have I done to you? And how have I wearied you? Testify
against Me. For I brought you up from the land of Egypt. I redeemed you from
the house of bondage; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.” “O
foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth,
before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?”
(Gal. 3:1).
The
Lord is saying here through His Apostle, “I am the God who loves you. I
redeemed you from bondage by sending My Son, My only begotten Son, to die on a
cross for you. Therefore, why are you being disobedient to Me? I have loved you.
I have made a covenant with you. The crucified Christ displayed before you in
the gospel is My covenant with you! Therefore, look to Him for life and not to your
own works. For in the crucified Christ, I promise everlasting life to all who
repent of their sins and believe in Him.”
The Gospel, then, is the good news promising God’s grace to fallen man. Therefore, the Gospel is the token or reminder, or sign of that promise. The Gospel, then, is the covenant, the covenant of grace. The covenant of grace began to be revealed early in Scripture, right after the fall and is recorded in Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”. However, the covenant of grace wasn’t fully revealed until Christ was crucified, dead, buried and resurrected, yes, and ascended, and the canon of Scripture was closed.
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Those
who are in Christ are under the new covenant, i.e., the covenant of grace, as
were the post-Fall Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the Old Testament
saints. They then, and we now, are no longer under the old covenant, the covenant
of works, as were and now are all unbelievers whether Jew or Gentile.
A
person must believe in Jesus Christ and His works to be freed from the slavery and
bondage of the old covenant of works. He must believe in Christ alone and His
works alone to come under the covenant of grace. This is not to say that
there’re none under the covenant of grace who act as if they are still under
the covenant of works.
The
covenant revealed Mount Sinai with the giving of the moral, ceremonial and
judicial law, was still also the covenant of grace. However, the Pharisees in
particular, took the Mosaic covenant and made it into a covenant of works. And
the confusion among Christians today is that many believe God gave to Moses His
Law as a covenant of works on Mount Sinai, rather than an administration of His
grace, His covenant of grace. This causes some to pit law against the grace of
the gospel as if somehow, they were opposites. But this is only true when the
law is misapplied and misused as a covenant of works. We’ll go into this in
greater detail as we move through the Epistle to the Galatians. However, for the
moment, let us just say that the Old Covenant was the Covenant of Works God
made with Adam before the Fall, and the New Covenant was the Covenant of
Grace made with those who are in Christ, and began to be revealed as such right
after Adam fell.
Down
through the ages the Lord has always provided reminders of His grace to fallen
man. Perhaps the one that is most taken for granted is the sign of the rainbow.
“And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and
you, and every living creature that is with you for perpetual generations; I
set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant
between Me and the earth’” (Gen. 9:13).
To
this day, the rainbow remains as a sign of God’s covenant of grace. But there
were also more particular signs for God’s people: Circumcision and Passover. These
of course were superseded by the New Testament pictures of Baptism and Communion.
Please do not disconnect Circumcision from Baptism or Passover from the Lord’s
Super. As were the former bloody ordinances, so now are the latter unbloody ordinances:
They are portrayals or displays of the promised Christ and Him crucified, i.e.,
the Gospel. Christ’s bruised heel crushed the serpent Satan’s head,
The elaborate Old Testament sacrificial system, the Ark of the Covenant, the Temple etc., was simply an ultra-visual display of God’s Covenant of Grace to His people. They were to trust in the One whom the pictures displayed, because it was all a picture of the Christ to come. But now that Christ the reality has come, the old pictures of God’s covenant of Grace are no longer needed. Now that the Lamb of God has shed His blood, the pictures of God’s covenant with us are fewer and simpler. i.e., Baptism and Communion. These are simply visual signs of the verbal proclamation of the Gospel. The sign of the Covenant of Grace today then is the preaching of the Gospel. That’s why the Lord through His Apostle is reminding the Galatians who He is. And He is reminding them of His goodness towards them. He is displaying the promise of everlasting life to them in the Gospel. The heart of which is Christ and Him crucified.
The
Promise Conveyed
The
promise is conveyed by the Spirit working with His Word in the hrearts of men,
women, and children. The Spirit conveys God’s grace to the individual individually!
Paul asks, “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by faith?” (Gal.
3:2). The Galatians know about the Holy Spirit because they had received Him.
What
does it mean to receive the Spirit? To keep it simple, for now let’s just say
that to receive the Spirit is to receive Christ. To receive the Spirit is to
receive the promise displayed in the Gospel. Therefore, whether you speak of
receiving the promise or whether you talk about receiving Christ or whether you
talk about receiving the Spirit, you are talking about the same thing.
You
cannot receive the promise without receiving the Spirit, because the Spirit is
the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19). And yet at the same time the Spirit is
the third Person in the Godhead. However, His role in the Covenant of Grace is
to apply the promise displayed in the Gospel to all of God’s children, i.e.,
His elect. But to receive the promise as an individual is to have the Spirit
come and dwell with(in) you. And if the Spirit lives in you, then Christ is indwelling
you by His Spirit. In simple terms it means that you are a personal recipient
of God’s gospel promise.
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During
WWI in particular, because they didn’t always have reliable equipment to relay
messages, they used carrier, or messenger pigeons. They would tie the message
to the bird’s leg or strap it to its back and send him home to roost. Well, without any disrespect
intended, the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Celestial Dove, has been
sent home by God the Father to roost in your heart. The message in your heart
is the same Gospel which has broken your heart. For in the gospel the
righteousness of God is displayed (Rom. 1:17). Therefore, wherever Paul
preached the Gospel the power of God was released. This power is the power of
Christ’s covenant keeping righteousness. The Spirit would fly then, as it were,
and land upon those whom God had chosen before the foundation of the world to
be in Christ (Eph. 1:4).
Without
the work of the Spirit the gospel falls on deaf ears. The Spirit then, is the
One who brings the message home. He conveys it to the individual, and He brings
him/her into a new covenant relationship with God.
What
did Jesus say He was sending the Spirit to do? “And when He has come, He will
convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment...” (John 16:8).
But He also says, “He [the Spirit] will testify of Me” (John 15:26b). So then,
when Paul proclaimed the gospel to the Galatians the Spirit was present. And
what was the Spirit doing? He was working in the hearts of the Galatians. He
was testifying to the truth of the Gospel message.
An
integral part of the Gospel is the revelation of the true spiritual nature of
the Law. For how else could the Spirit convict them of sin, righteousness, and
judgment? In brief, the Spirit was bearing testimony to the truth of the
everlasting gospel.
The
Judaizers who were misleading the Galatians were seeking to detach the Gospel
from the Law. If you detach the Gospel from the Law you end up with Legalism. If
you detach the Law from the Gospel you end up with Antinomianism. But either
way you end up with a false gospel – which is no Gospel at all. And Paul says
if anyone preaches any other gospel but his, “Let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:6-9).
And they are accursed because they are still under the condemnation of the Covenant
of Works and not under the Covenant of Grace.
Adam
was spiritually alive when he was under the Covenant of Works before the Fall.
Before he fell, Adam loved God with all his heart, soul and strength. And Adam
loved his neighbour (Eve) as he loved himself. Therefore, he could see the
spiritual nature of the Law because he was spiritual. He had not become
spiritually dead as happened when He broke God’s Law. But when he became a
covenant breaker, he could see only condemnatory judgment in the Law. Therefore
the Law of God became something he hated. He hated it because it was judging
him instead of excusing him (Rom. 2:15). But when he caught a glimpse of the
righteousness of Christ in the Gospel as God revealed it to him after the fall,
he clung to the promise. He clung to the promise of eternal life that he had
forfeited in the Garden. Christ alone is that promise.
What the Gospel displays to the ear and the eye externally, the Spirit conveys to the heart internally. The Spirit testifies in the believer’s heart that these things are true (Rom. 8:16). The promise then is displayed by the gospel and it is conveyed by the Spirit.
Conclusion
I
would like to encourage you to take a covenantal approach to the Gospel. How
else can the Gospel be understood if not in terms of God’s Covenant? The Church
Reformers understood the Gospel covenantally. The Westminster Confession of Faith
was written from the Biblically covenantal perspective because the whole Bible is
written from a covenantal perspective. Yet very few churches today hold a
covenantal theology. There’s a certain amount of lip service here and there,
but that’s all. But that’s because they are not Reformed.See Amazon for a copy
Reformed
Theology is Covenant Theology, which is the theology of the Bible, which cover
to cover is the Book of the Covenant. Therefore, if you want to see true
revival and true reformation in the churches, then pray for a return to
Covenant Theology! Or, to put the same thing another way, pray for a return to
the clear teaching of the Gospel.
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
THE MAGA DOCTRINE (Review)
Charlie Kirk’s, The MAGA Doctrine: The Only Ideas That Will Win the Future is well written and refreshingly optimistic. The future is always bright when you know where you’re going, where you are, and where you’ve come from. According to Kirk, this is how Donald Trump is guiding the US as its President.
The parameters in which the President operates, as he seeks to make America great again, is best summed up in the following quote from the book, “The Bill of Rights is still the law of the land. The Constitution is our guide, and it enshrines principles that remain true no matter how far modern lawmakers might like to stray from them. The Constitution was not written for its times but written to stand the test of time.”
The MAGA Doctrine and the Magna Carta have much in common, so much so, that without too much hyperbole, it could be called The MAGA Carta.
Monday, September 15, 2025
CONFLICTING WORLDVIEWS
Conflicting Worldviews
(Exerpt from The Kingdom: Every Square Inch, pgs 292-3)
We have followed
the unfolding of opposing worldviews. One seeks to influence the other to the
glory of God; the other seeks to destroy the glory of God.
Mohler warns,
Christians must
realise that the more enduring contest is not between rival candidates but
between rival worldviews. A clash of worldviews reveals all the fault lines of
a society, from education and economics, to arts and entertainment. Eventually,
everything is at stake. Over time, every culture conforms in general terms to
one worldview, not to more than one.[1]
This conflict started after Adam’s
fall in paradise. Abel brought an acceptable offering to the Lord; Cain’s
offering was not acceptable. In fury, Cain murdered his brother. Cain’s
descendants set up a kingdom to oppose God’s promise to Adam to provide someone
who will crush the head of the serpent. The influence of Cain’s people led to utter
corruption and the destruction of the world in God’s judgment through the
flood.
God made a
covenant with Noah, rescued him and his family and renewed the covenant promise
He had made with Adam. Noah was a righteous man who walked with God. Through
his family the world became populated again, and from his loins the Christ
would come as the Victor over all adversity.
Some hundreds of
years later, God made a covenant with Abraham. In his Seed the world was
blessed because He “disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public
spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Col. 2:15). His victory over
all powers was comprehensive and all-inclusive.
God’s covenant
with Adam ran through Noah to Abraham and his descendants and determined that
they live as God’s own people in His kingdom which they share with the godless
and unrighteous.
The shared
cultural activities between Christians (the ‘Church’) and non-Chris tians (the
‘world’) are not always amiable. Culture-sharing has limits. As we have noted
earlier in this book, Lamech’s cultural achievements became a lure for the
descendants of Seth, and the sons of the ‘gods’ married the daughters of Seth’s
line’. In the end, every inclination of man’s heart became evil (Gen. 6:1-5;
see also Continued Regression in Chapter Three above). From the very beginning
the prince of this world intruded into God’s redemptive kingdom with the
purpose of usurping His glory. Pgs. 292-3.
Go to online Amazon (in whichever country you live) for your copy: https://amzn.asia/d/1RL6Pu5
[1] R. Albert
Mohler Jr., The Gathering Storm, Secularism, Culture, and the Church (Nelson
Books, Nashville, Tennessee, 2020 190.
Thursday, September 11, 2025
VALE CHARLIE KIRK
Vale Charlie Kirk (1993-2025)
“The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death” Isaiah 57:1-2.
Charlie used the spiritual sword of the Spirit, but the enemies of Christ use physical weapons. Charlie sought to bring them life but they sought his death.
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”
2 Corinthians 10:4-5.
I’m
sure, like me, you are often left wondering why God so often and so seemingly
prematurely retires our champions from the battlefield. Lord, we need him! Why?
Charlie has a wife and little children that need him. Why? Charlie is one of our great champions! We have to trust our
God.
Charlie Kirk was a bold and brave Christian warrior who really knew how to deftly use the sword of the Spirit with love and boldness. He would smile as he engaged with the enemy, using God’s Word and the teaching of the Bible as he joisted and even joked with them. Who knows how many of them went away licking their wounds, i.e., the wounds of a friend, and then went on to repent of their sins and believe in the One by whose wounds we are healed? (Isa. 53:5)
“For
the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than
any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and
of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked
and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account” Hebrews
4:12-13.
We Christians tend to park the sinfulness of sin in the theoretical until times such as these, and then the theory is understood in practice, i.e., when those who are on the side of demons raise their ugly heads above the crowd. Brothers and sisters, we must quickly learn to be more diligent in our understanding of evil and its forces. “Wise as serpents, gentle as doves” Matthew 10:16.
Thank you, brother Charlie, for being such a great example to other Christians. May the Lord Jesus be pleased to quickly fill the great breach you have left behind with many more Kingdom warriors.
“Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven” Matthew 6:10.
Monday, September 8, 2025
SECRETS & REVELATIONS
Secrets & Revelations
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The last book in the Bible is called the Book of
Revelation or the Book of the Apocalypse or The Apocalypse of John. Apocalypse
means disclosure or revelation, not catastrophe. Some erroneously call the Book Revelations.
Of the 66 Books of that make up the Bible, it is perhaps
the most misunderstood and misused. Does its rich and abundant use of symbolism
withhold secrets or disclose revelations? Take the number 666. ‘Here is wisdom.
Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the
number of a man: His number is 666’ (Rev. 13:18).
Some think 666 refers to Nero, the great persecutor of
early Christians. At the time of the Reformation of the Church, it was synonymous
with the papacy, as in false christs and prophets or antichrists (Matt. 24:24;
1 John 2:18), claiming to be head of Christ’s Church of which Christ alone is its
head (Col. 1:18; Eph. 1:22). More fanciful, and closer to our own day, some
linked it to Ronald Wilson Reagan, (count six letters in each name), and, because
a birthmark on his head, others attributed the ‘mark of the beast’ to Mikhail Gorbachev.
There are, no doubt, many others, past, present, and future, who have received or
will receive the appellation of the Antichrist.
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When it comes to speculation about verses such as the
666 passage, Paul, in 1 Corinthians 4:6 gives this warning, ‘Do not go beyond what
is written.’ And Moses wrote, ‘The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but
these things which are revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we
may do all the words of this law’ (Deut. 29:29). So, when it comes to secrets
and revelations within Scripture, the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647)
keeps the main thing the main thing where it says in chapter one paragraph six,
‘All
things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto
all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed,
for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture
or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the
ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.’
There is always a
tension between plumbing the depths of Scripture to garner
information and wild speculation. For example, the formation of the doctrine of
the Trinity is easily seen when the Bible is viewed systematically. Using the rule
of interpretation regained during the Reformation, that Scripture was not open
to any private interpretation, but that Scripture alone is to be used to
interpret Scripture, then God is seen as Father and Son and Holy Spirit, i.e.,
Triune. It takes a great deal of private interpretation and wild speculation to
deny this. However, many aberrational and downright heretical Christian sects
and cults have been formed through a misunderstanding the Biblical doctrine of
God. Again, the Westminster Confession keeps us on track where it says in
chapter one paragraph ten, ‘The Supreme Judge, by which all controversies of
religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient
writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in
whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in
the Scripture.’
It is no secret that it is not by boards or councils but only by the Spirit working
with the Word that Christians (each individually) see the divine nature of
Jesus who says, ‘If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father’ (John 14:9).
FATHER'S DAY (Australia)
It says in Psalm 103:13, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.”
Now, in the Bible, you see mostly what God is like rather than what He is. We know God by way of analogy, what He is like. In Psalm 103 He is being likened to a father who has compassion on his children.
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Fathers are supposed to be like, for instance, the father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. His son was returning to him after wasting his inheritance on the debauchery of Vanity Fair. He ended up in the pits feeding pigs and even dining with them. But, by the grace of God, he came to his senses. So, he returned to his father.
As a student for the
ministry, I had to dismantle the Prodigal Son parable and rebuild it into a presentable
sermon. The idea was to preach on whatever the essence of the parable is. So, I
titled my sermon “The Compassionate Father.”
This father sees his lost
son on the horizon, coming towards him. He didn’t just sit there on porch in
his rocking chair nursing his wrath. No! He gathers up his robes and he runs
out to meet his boy and embraces him, slobbering all over him. “This is my
boy!”
Then the prodigal asks
for his father’s forgiveness.
The word compassion is
made up from two words, com means with, and passion is suffering.
Com-passion is suffering with. Therefore, even the word compassion is
like two people embracing, hugging, suffering together.
“As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.” This is what God is like.
The very next verse says,
“For He knows how we are formed, He remembers we are dust.” We are fallen in
our great, great, great…. grandfather Adam, who, in Luke 3:38, is called “the
son of God”, the man that God our heavenly Father formed from the dust.
God remembers who we are. Little pieces of dirt that He formed in His own image – to be like Him! Therefore, whenever we repent and believe in the Gospel, it is like our Heavenly Father embracing His prodigal son, Adam.
One dad had thoroughly
catechized his son on the Heidelberg Catechism and the Westminster Shorter
Catechism. His son left home and moved to Sydney, Kings Cross to be precise, where
he squandered his life in revelry. Pubs, clubs, and hot tubs!
But, in time at Kings Cross, he remembered what he’d been taught as a youngster. He remembered that other cross, the cross of THE King, the Son of THE compassionate Father.
In time he contacted his father. “Dad. I want to come home. I’m sick of this lifestyle and I’m just, well, I’m sick.” His father had compassion and welcomed his son back into his home with embracing arms. “This is my boy!” He knew that we’re all sinners made of dust! So, he loved and cared for his son who, not long after, died from AIDS.
But here’s the good news. His son had repented of his sins, and he believed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. He went to be with the LORD. How so? “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.”
One last thing. As dads
(as with all children of God) we can seek forgiveness when we stumble. Whenever
we turn our back on our sin and return to Him, God runs out to meet us as it
were and embraces us. “This is My child!”
So, Happy Father’s Day to
all you fathers, grandfathers, and great grandfathers.
To watch a recorded version, scroll to about 25:30 in the following link to the Sunday service at Oasis Church:
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