A Prayer

Father,
 
You have given to us so many gifts. Your kindness has overflowed, and we are blessed.
 
We thank You, Father, for Your gift of joy. There isn't a moment in our lives when we can't rejoice. Oh, there will be plenty of times when we will be sad. Happiness will come and go. But to rejoice, we can always do that. And we can do that because of You.
 
You are the God who is always near. You are never so busy somewhere else that we are left all alone. Impossible! You are Immanuel, God with us, our loving Father. Always. And in that, all by itself, we can rejoice.
 
But there is more. We rejoice because Jesus is Lord. And He is in the process of making that claim good everywhere. He is right now conquering His enemies. And the day will come when every person - from Adam to whoever the last person will be - every person will bow to Him confessing that He is Lord. And we are a part of that. We are His means of conquering. And we will win this war. In that we always can rejoice. The joy in Jesus as conquering Lord is our strength.
 
The day will come when all the battles will be over. Jesus will return. And then we will experience life in a way that is impossible to imagine here. And the heart of that will be that we will be with You, face to face, enjoying the pleasures of Your presence in a new heavens and a new earth. We can't wait!
 
But we're not there yet. There is more fighting to be done. We still have to deal with the world, the flesh and the devil. And Father, there are times when it gets really hard. In those moments, remind us that we can still rejoice. We may have to do that through tears, but we can still rejoice. Jesus is Lord. And He will conquer. And all that we have had to deal with as His Church - all of it will be rewarded. We thank You that our joy leads to hope, the certainty that, at the right time, You will keep Your promises. This war will end. We will win. And that's one thing that keeps us going, as we pray this through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Sorrowful, Yet Always Rejoicing

In today’s text Paul explains some of what he has gone through as God’s servant. Part of his list includes some pairs that follow the pattern, ‘on the one hand this but then on the other hand that’. One of those pairs stood out to me recently. I found it a helpful point of view on living well, and I thought that it might be helpful for you also. There is still so much for us to learn about living well. It is my hope that today’s sermon will be used by the Spirit so that we all will make some more progress.

Our text is 2 Corinthians 6.3-10. Though I will be focusing on one small phrase, I think that it will be good to read the larger context. Please listen as I read.

A Forgiven Sinner: Part 2

Part 1

The other day I sinned (No surprise there!) and then thought about this whole ‘feeling remorse but you’re forgiven’ thing once again. I had confessed what I had done, and let me assure you that I felt remorse for it. But then, I told myself that I was forgiven. I really shouldn’t be. I should be in hell suffering God’s justice for what I had done. But I wasn’t and wouldn’t be. I was forgiven. Then, I told myself that what I should do is rejoice that Jesus has provided forgiveness for me. So, I did.

A Forgiven Sinner

I’ve been working on resolving a tension in my thinking about forgiveness. On the one hand, I know that I need to acknowledge my sin before the Father and to express the remorse that I feel about that sin. True repentance needs to have some sense of remorse. If I do not regret what I’ve done how can I be repenting of it? And yet, since there is forgiveness there is to be a limit to my expression of, my feeling of, remorse. When the Father forgives my sin, the matter has been dealt with, and it is to be forgotten. He forgets it, and He calls me to do the same. My problem is that there is a delicate balance between proper remorse and forgetful forgiveness – a balance that I don’t have down yet. I have to tell myself that since I’ve confessed my sin to the Father, it has been dealt with. I should no longer feel remorse. Actually, it’s more than that. Instead of remorse I should feel the joy of knowing my sins are forgiven. There is no room for remorse when there is joy. And yet, I am afraid of a cheapened idea of forgiveness where remorse is quickly passed through, almost ignored, on the way to forgiveness and its joy. But isn’t that tied to some silly idea that I will be forgiven only if I’m sorry enough? And isn’t that trying to save myself by something that I do? I’ve made some progress over the years, but there is further to go. I know, however, that because of the Spirit I will make some more progress before I see Jesus. And that will be very good.

Count It All Joy

[Originally preached 6 June, 2004]
James 1.2-4

We have before us a challenging portion of Scripture with its commands and expectations. But it is also an encouraging portion as it helps us gain a clearer perspective on Christian discipleship. We’ve just asked for God’s blessing on the sermon. So, let’s see what He has to say.

Let’s start with that opening phrase, ‘Count it all joy…’ James is telling us how to respond to those times when we encounter trials. He’s telling us to rejoice. Let me remind you what Christian joy is. Keep in mind that it is different from happiness. Joy is an optimistic spirit in response to the events of life. But let me be clear. It isn’t just a grim optimism. True Christian joy overflows to affect the emotions. To be sure, there will be times when we rejoice through tears. And yet, even then, joy will overcome the tears of sorrow so that the optimism is felt in the emotions. It may take a little while to get there, depending on the situation, but real Christian joy will eventually show in the emotions as well as in the attitude of the mind. This is the kind of joy that James is pointing us to.

Now, please notice that this is a command. James isn’t offering a suggestion that might be helpful. He isn’t giving pious advice to be accepted or rejected as we see fit. He is commanding us, with all the authority that he has from Christ, to rejoice when trials hit. Christian joy is not optional. It is required. You are to rejoice in the midst of trial. I hope that you see that very clearly. Joy is an obedience issue. A lack of true Christian joy in the midst of testing is not a matter of having a certain kind of personality that just doesn’t do that sort of thing. It has nothing to do with personality. A lack of joy is sin. But also notice that James doesn’t just lay down the law and then leave you on your own to figure out how to obey it. James goes further. He explains how you can obey. He does it in the next phrase. It’s the phrase that starts, ‘knowing’. ‘Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, knowing…’ We do not rejoice despite the facts. We rejoice because of the facts. We rejoice because of what we know.

Here, we bump up against an important aspect of faithful Christian living. You won’t be able to live faithfully unless you know certain things. A person can most certainly receive forgiveness of sins and be reconciled to God if he knows and believes a verse like, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.’ [Acts 16.31] But that verse won’t be much help when you encounter a great trial. If that’s the only verse that you know, it will be hard to rejoice in the midst of trial and very easy to become confused and discouraged. That’s why one of the emphases coming out of the Reformation is that the people of God need to know the Bible. One of the ‘radical’ things that Martin Luther did was to translate the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into the language of the people so that it could be read to them. This is why sermons are to be filled with the content of the Bible, explaining and applying it to life. This is why we have small group Bible studies. This is why it is important to have family Bible reading time as well as personal Bible reading time. You will not be able to live faithfully if you do not know your Bible. You will not be able to rejoice in the midst of trial if you do not know your Bible. True Christian joy is a fruit of knowledge. And the more that you know, the easier it will be to rejoice during the tough times.

But even here, there is danger of misunderstanding. So, let me be clear. There are many know the content of the Bibles well. They can quote long passages from memory and discuss the fine points of doctrine made by those texts. But so many of these still do not rejoice. They are, in fact, unable to rejoice. And why? The knowledge that James points to is more than information stored in the brain. Your soul needs to be involved as well. Your soul needs to be convinced that the things that you know are also true. You not only know your Bible. You believe it. You believe those great and precious promises of your God. You believe the warnings as well. You believe what you know. And because of this, because you really believe what you know, you are ready to entrust yourself to your Savior whenever He sends a trial your way. Knowledge, belief, trust. It is these things that produce real Christian joy.

Let’s move on. We know from Scripture that when we encounter a trial God is up to something. He is at work. And who can fail to rejoice once he is convinced that God is at work in the situation? James knows this but he wants to be even more specific. So, he focuses our attention on one particular thing that God is doing by sending trials our way. He writes, ‘knowing that the testing of your faith produces _____.’ Here, I need to interrupt myself to deal with a translation issue. If you have the ESV the next word is ‘steadfastness’. If you use the KJV or the NKJV the next word is ‘patience’. If you use the NASV the next word is ‘endurance’. Which is it? There are times when one English word isn’t quite enough to translate one Greek word. This is one of those situations. So, we’ll use two words, ‘patient endurance’. James writes, ‘knowing that the testing of your faith produces patient endurance.’ When trials hit, God is at work. He is producing patient endurance. Now, I am not a runner. I’ve never run even a simple race, let alone something like the Boston Marathon. But someone who would run a marathon would need patient endurance. When you run those 26 plus miles you need to keep at it for a long time even though it is difficult. That is a very apt description of Christian living. Keeping at it for a long time even though it is difficult. Now, it is patient endurance because you keep at it without a grumbling spirit, without being agitated at each step. Yes, it’s hard, but you are not overwhelmed by that. You are pursuing the goal patiently and persistently, assured that you will achieve the goal, which is to finish the race. That is patient endurance. So, James is telling us that we can rejoice because we know what God is up to. He is producing patient endurance by those trials.

There are many things that James could have pointed to as a basis for joy. But he chose this. Why? The reason is clear. This is what James’ listeners needed to hear. As we’ll see in working through this letter, life for these saints was hard. There were many trials, some big, others small. And the temptation to give up was very real. They could hear the evil one whispering in their ears, ‘This is too hard. Why keep at it? Life would be so much easier if you just quit.’ James’ listeners needed to be reminded that those trials were doing good. They were worth enduring. In fact, they were producing the very endurance that they needed to finish the race. James pointed to this aspect of God’s work because of something that both he and his listeners knew. Being a faithful Christian is hard. It isn’t just some walk in the park. It’s a marathon. And getting to the end of the race is difficult. We know that it is difficult because many who start the race don’t finish it. The message that is sometimes preached these days is, ‘Come to Jesus and life will be wonderful.’ Now, that’s true. But it’s incomplete. And because it’s incomplete, it can be misleading. We need to tell people that life will be wonderful for them if they come to Jesus. But we also need to tell them that it will be hard. That’s what Jesus said.

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. Mark 8:34-35

Jesus, here, promises life in its fullness. But He also promises a cross. You need to lose your life for His sake first. James understood that. His listeners understood that. We need to understand that. Being a faithful disciple is both wonderful and difficult, glorious and painful. We pursue it in the hope that one day being a faithful disciple will be even more glorious and not painful at all. And what is needed for us to arrive at that day? Patient endurance, continuing to put one foot in front of the other as we run the marathon, eagerly looking for the end of the race. And while we are slogging away, the world, the flesh and the devil are doing their best to trip us up. They will try to discourage us. ‘It’s too far and too hard. Just give up.’ They will try to foster unbelief. ‘You’ve been abandoned. No one cares. You’ve been left alone. Not even God thinks about you. Whatever is at the end of the race certainly isn’t worth this.’ They will try to confuse you. ‘Are you sure that you’re doing this right? Is it really supposed to hurt like this?’ And then they will tempt you with the pleasures of this life.

Faithful Christian discipleship is hard. But here is James, our fellow runner. And he is shouting encouragement to us. He is telling us that the trials that we find so difficult are actually for our benefit. They are producing the endurance that we need if we are going to run the race to the very end. He is telling us that these trials are part of God’s way of getting us to the finish line. And so, when they hit, when you encounter a trial, rejoice! Rejoice because of what you know. God is at work. He is blessing you with what you need. He is using the trial to bless you with more endurance. Thank Him for what He is doing. Be optimistic. Good will come out of these trials. And so, as you submit to God in your trials, rejoicing because of what you know, you’ll find yourself getting stronger and stronger. You'll be better equipped to plod on until you come to the finish line that you have so eagerly desired.

Let me close with these two thoughts. I’ve told you some hard things this morning. I’ve reminded you of the difficulty of being a faithful Christian in this fallen world. I’ve told you about the command of God to rejoice. But I’ve also pointed you to James’ encouragement. There are good reasons to rejoice and to continue the hard work of faithful Christian living. But none of this will do you any good unless you believe it. If you don’t believe that faithful Christian living is a difficult race then there is no need for patient endurance. If there is no need for patient endurance then trials are only an annoyance instead of a blessing. And if you view trials in this way there will be no joy. All that I’ve said is of no value unless you believe it. And that takes the grace of God. And so, I would urge you to pray. Pray that God would enable you to believe what you’ve heard, to believe it deeply. As you do that you will see your joy grow.

Secondly, I would encourage you to think about the finish line. Often. We are in the midst of a long race. But in this race everyone who finishes wins. There is no coming in second. Everyone who finishes the race comes in first. Everybody wins. So, think about what it will mean to win. Think about being with Jesus in a perfected place with perfected people as a perfected person. Think about never again dealing with sin and death. Think about a place where there is no race to run, no painful plodding along, no tests of faith. Nothing in this life is worth the pain of the race. But after you cross the finish line it will all be worth it. Pray that the Spirit will make heaven so very real to you and to your brothers and sisters so that we all will run with endurance all the way to the end.

Darkness to Light

Psalm 90

In many ways this Psalm is like so many of the others. It begins with some praise of God. In this case it's how He has been and will be a dwelling place for His people. It ends with some requests for blessings from God, things like wisdom, compassion, and rejoicing. So, the first and last parts of our Psalm sound very familiar. It's the middle of the Psalm that doesn't fit so well. Talk of sin and anger and death can be a little jarring. The Psalm would be so much more pleasant if we could just skip over the middle. But who reads the first chapter of a murder mystery and then skips to the last few pages to found out who did it? Working from the beginning of the novel through the middle helps to make more sense of the end. Likewise, here. We can't just skip over this middle section. We need to deal with what it says also to really appreciate the blessings at the end. And that's what we're going to do.

So, let's start at the beginning, at the very beginning of the Psalm. Let's start with the heading. The heading of the Psalm is important. I don't mean the title that the translators added, but the heading. In the Hebrew Bible the heading of the Psalm is considered the first verse of the Psalm. So, what does the heading of the Psalm say? 'A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.' That actually helps a lot. For one thing it gives us a context for the Psalm. Moses wrote it. And that helps us to see that it is about his experience in the wilderness leading Israel, the people of God. So, he writes, 'Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.' I recently finished reading through Numbers. Toward the end is a list of the different places where Israel camped during their forty years in the desert. There were something like forty places. So, picture yourself packing up your stuff, throwing it into a U-Haul and moving it all to some new place, on average, once every year. And when one of your new neighbors would ask you, 'Where are you from?', what would you say? Where's 'Home' in a situation like that? 'Lord, YOU have been our dwelling place in all generations. Our sense of home is found in You.' Moses is writing out of his experience of being in the desert.

Moses next takes a look at the past that leads up to where he is. This helps to set the stage. Listen. 'You return man to dust and say, "Return, O children of man!" For a thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.' In the phrase, 'children of man' the Hebrew word for 'man' is 'Adam'. Here, Moses reflects on Adam and those who followed him. They lived. And then, they died. They returned to the dust just as God had said. The comment about one thousand years fits. Bible trivia: Who is the oldest man in the Bible and how old was he when he died? Methuselah died at 969 years or, if you round it off, one thousand years. Moses points to the longest-living person that he knew. To us, a thousand years seems like a long time, but Moses writes that to God it's like a midnight shift. Moses is talking about how life is so short. All these lived for a time and then they were swept away, returned to dust and were gone. 'The busy tribes of flesh and blood, with all their lives and cares, are carried downward by Your flood and lost in following years.' This is the state of all people everywhere who live such brief lives – and then die. This is the heritage that Adam has bestowed on all his children. This is the result of sin.

In the next section of the Psalm Moses turns his gaze. Now, he focuses on one particular group that has received this heritage of Adam. He no longer writes about 'they' and 'them'. Now, it's 'we' and 'our'. Now, he writes about the situation that he and the rest of Israel find themselves in while they roam the desert. Listen. 'For we are brought to an end by Your anger; by Your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence. For all our days pass away under Your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.' What do you remember about those forty years that Moses endured trying to lead Israel through the desert? One thing that stands out is that there was lots of sin. Another thing that stands out is that there was lots of anger, God's anger at Israel's sin. And that led to lots of death. There was Korah's rebellion. He's the fellow who basically said to Moses, 'So, who died and left you in charge?' Then, there were those complaints from the people about God's gift of food, the manna. 'We wouldn't feed this stuff to our dogs.' Then, there was the crowing event when Israel refused to enter the Promised Land though God commanded it. 'Are you crazy? We could never beat those guys!' These things led to anger, lots of anger. God had the earth open up and swallow Korah and all those who were with him. He sent poisonous snakes among those who complained about the manna and many of them died. And the refusal to conquer the land resulted in forty years of wandering in the desert until a whole generation died. Lots of sin. Lots of anger. Lots of death.

To bring this home I need to make sure that you understand who these folks were. The people that Moses was leading and writing about had different labels applied to them. They were Israel, the people of God, the children of Jacob. But they were also the Church, the saved, the saints of God. You might even call them the Christians of their day. And that changes things, doesn't it? Moses isn't writing about some odd, distant group, 'them' over there. He's writing about 'us'. God was angry with His Church, with 'us'. Lots of people today have a hard time with this notion of God's anger. And it is especially hard for some Christians when they hear about God's anger being directed at the Church, at Christians. The assumption is that God just doesn't get angry at the Church. And that produces all kinds of odd ways of understanding the Bible. But we have a whole Old Testament filled with places where God gets angry at His people. And how else can we understand those forty years? Remember that Moses himself felt the heat of God's anger. Everything was going okay at the burning bush until Moses told God, 'No, send someone else.' And God got angry. Of course, at this point the common reply goes something like this. 'But that was the Old Testament. Once we get to the New Testament, God doesn't get angry anymore, at least not at Christians, not at the Church.' Well, I wonder what Ananias and Sapphira would say to that? Or likewise the Christians in Corinth whose sin at the Lord's Supper resulted in many of that Church becoming weak and ill and some even dying. God's anger at sin isn't limited to one section of the Bible. So, you see, Moses was writing about the Church of his day, and what he wrote still speaks to the Church of our day.

Now, many look at this middle section of our Psalm and say, 'But that is so dark, so grim, so bleak. How can a Christian be joyful if this is what God is like, if God gets angry?' Now, that's the right question. Let's pursue it and see what we find. Listen again. 'For we are brought to an end by Your anger; by Your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence. For all our days pass away under Your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.' Is that dark? I'd say so. But is it hype or is it reality? Isn't it what Moses saw? You could say that the forty years in the desert was a time when the Church learned many important lessons, lessons about holiness and sin. And that would be right. But it was also forty years of watching a lot of people die. So, here is Moses seeing this and reflecting on it. He has witnessed God's anger. He has heard God say in no uncertain terms that no one of that first generation would enter the Promised Land. And so, the years would pass. This is dark. But it reflects what is real. It is, after all, in the Bible.

Now we're ready for the end of the Psalm. And now, this part of the Psalm will make much more sense. Moses sees the darkness, and he responds to it. But note that he responds to it as a Godly pastor. His response is prayer. He prays for himself and for his congregation. 'Who considers the power of Your anger, and Your wrath according to the fear of You? So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.' Let me translate that a bit. 'Lord, a mature piety would understand that our sin is so wrong that Your holiness has to confront it. But we don't understand that – not nearly as well as we need to. So, teach us, Lord. Teach us, so that we'll get it. Teach us so that we'll become wise, so that we'll know You, the Holy One of Israel.' Moses humbly admits to his need and his Church's need, and he appeals to his God to meet that need.

Then he moves on. 'Relent, O Lord! How long will it be? Have compassion on Your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with Your unfailing love,that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble.' How bold! Having freely admitted how right God has been to be angry at their sin, he goes on to ask the Father for blessings. He asks for compassion. He ask that they might experience God's covenant love to the full so that they might sing for joy and be glad. He even asks to be blessed with happiness to the same extent that they were cursed with trouble. Do you see what these things are? These are the blessings of the Gospel. Moses expresses a bold faith here. Understand what he has done in this Psalm. He's spent some time meditating on sin and its consequences, on his sin and Israel's. He agrees with God that such sin needs to be exposed and needs to be confronted by the holy anger of God. He and Israel had to experience the troubles of the desert. It was sad, and it was dark, and it was necessary. But Moses doesn't remain in the darkness. Having learned lessons in the darkness he turns to the Father in faith. He appeals to Him as the God of unfailing covenant love. He cries out to Him as the Savior of the Church. And he prays wisely. The lessons are being learned. And because they are, it is good and right to pray to be able to move on to rejoicing and more. It's good and right to pray that they – and we – might take the next step in enjoying what it means that we have a Savior. Here, we have an example of something that David wrote in another Psalm. 'For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.' This is something worth meditating on. Moses did, and he saw his God and himself more clearly as a result.

Then Moses ends his prayer with this. 'Let Your work be shown to Your servants, and Your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!' This is an apt ending to the Psalm because it is what Moses has been aiming at from the beginning. The work that he desires the people to be shown is God's work of redemption. Moses asks that the Church be able to see God do more of His work of changing hearts, of making His people holy. This is the glorious power of the Gospel: confronting sin, bringing change and then moving us on to rejoicing. And as that happens the result will be a people who respond with their own work of serving their God who has loved them so.

I've placed a lot before you. Some of what I've said might sound unfamiliar. You might want to get a copy of the sermon and read it over. Let me pick just one thing to emphasize. The boldness of Moses' requests at the end stands out all the more because we didn't skip the middle of the Psalm. We didn't avoid the dark part. Pondering our sin in the context of God's holiness makes turning to Jesus in repentance and faith that much more powerful and beautiful. Tasting the bitterness God's holy reaction against sin makes the blessings of the Gospel that much sweeter.

A Song of Joy

I've been teaching the adult Sunday School class on how to meditate. We've done that by looking at a Psalm and taking it apart together. Sunday we were looking at Psalm 100 and the idea of joyful singing, when someone asked a question that went something like, 'How do you sing joyfully when life is hard and you don't feel up?' In response I opened a nearby hymnal and read the first verse of this hymn:

Whate'er my God ordains is right:
Holy his will abideth;
I will be still whate'er he doth;
And follow where he guideth:
He is my God: though dark my road,
He holds me that I shall not fall:
Wherefore to him I leave it all.

Whate'er my God ordains is right:
He never will deceive me;
He leads me by the proper path;
I know he will not leave me:
I take, content, what he hath sent;
His hand can turn my griefs away,
And patiently I wait his day.

Whate'er my God ordains is right:
Though now this cup, in drinking,
May bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it, all unshrinking:
My God is true; each morn anew
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart,
And pain and sorrow shall depart.

Whate'er my God ordains is right:
Here shall my stand be taken;
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet am I not forsaken;
My Father's care is round me there;
He holds me that I shall not fall:
And so to him I leave it all.

This is a song of joy. We sometimes sing it with tears because of the bitterness of the cup Jesus has placed in our hands. But we sing it and that because it is true, because it is our hope, because Jesus is made to look good as we do sing it. We need to learn more songs like this so that we can sing them, with joy, when life is hard and that to the glory of Christ and for the protection of our souls.