"Destroy This Temple" Sermon: John 2:18-22

“Destroy This Temple”

[John 2:18-22]

September 8, 2011 Old First Presbyterian Church

The last time I was with you, we looked at Jesus’ driving the people selling animals and changing money out of the Temple in Jerusalem.  We saw that the reason Jesus drove them out of the Temple was they were cheating the people – selling sick animals and giving the wrong amount of money in exchange.  And we saw Jesus cast them out because He was upholding the holy worship of God – which they were corrupting – and because Jesus is Holy.

The Pharisees responded to Jesus’ action by asking, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?”  They wanted to know where Jesus got the authority to judge the animal sellers and the money changers, as well as the authority to cast them out of the Temple.  They wanted Jesus to do a miracle that would prove His Authority.

And Jesus wouldn’t do it – not the way they wanted – not the way they expected.  Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

And the Pharisees began to giggle:  “Are you nuts, Jesus?  This Temple is still not finished – the workmen have been building it for forty-six years – so far – longer than You have been alive!  Are You seriously suggesting that You could destroy this Temple and then rebuild it all in three days?  That’s insane, Jesus!”

And we wonder:  did the Pharisees walk away, shaking their heads, and go to clean up the Temple?  Did they challenge Jesus again, only to have Him walk away?  We’re not told.

“Give us a sign to justify what You have done!”

“Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days.”

The Pharisees didn’t understand what Jesus was talking about.  Notice, though – the disciples didn’t understand what Jesus was talking about either.  John tells us that it wasn’t until after the Resurrection that they understood what Jesus had said.  They had no more understanding of what Jesus was saying than the Pharisees.

John tells us it is only upon reflection after the Resurrection that they understood that what Jesus was saying to them.   After the Resurrection they remembered what He said – are you remembering what Jesus said?  “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26, ESV).

God the Holy Spirit helped them to remember what they heard Jesus say; He helped them to understand what His words meant.  The Holy Spirit does the same for us today – if we have heard or read His Word; the Holy Spirit will not help us remember and understand what we have never heard or read.  Do you read your Bible?

Why didn’t Jesus tell them clearly what He was going to do?  Why did He wait for the Holy Spirit to make what He said clear to them?  Why didn’t He just say to the Pharisees:  “My Authority will be proved to you after I am put to death and I raise Myself from the dead on the third day”?

Jesus said, “This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand” (Matthew 13:13, ESV).  Jesus spoke in parables – Jesus was purposefully unclear – so they would not understand – because it was not His intention that everyone should understand.  And even if He had spoken clearly, they would not have understood, because they were not meant to understand.

But we who have the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit are meant to understand, just as the disciples did after the Resurrection.

What was Jesus’ saying?

Jesus was prophesying that He was going to be put to death in His Incarnate Physical Body.  Why did Jesus have to die in His Body?  Paul wrote, “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a, ESV).  But Jesus didn’t sin.  Right, Jesus died for the sins of everyone who would ever believe in Him.  Jesus took the place of everyone who would ever believe in Him and suffered God’s Wrath for their sin – our sin – and died in His Flesh.

Jesus was prophesying that He was going to rise from the dead on the third day.  Why did Jesus have to rise?  It proved that He is sinless, and He has accomplished salvation for all those who believe in Him Alone.  He suffered God’s Wrath for our sin, but physically rose from the dead because He is Righteous – Holy – unable to be kept in the grave.

And Jesus was prophesying that, since He is God, He would raise Himself up – Jesus would raise up His Physical Body from the dead by His Own Power.  Why did Jesus say that He would raise Himself up from the grave?  To show us that He has the authority over life and death, heaven and hell, that He is indeed God Almighty.

What is the Gospel?

Paul wrote, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received:  that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and then he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.  Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.  Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.  Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.  For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not in vain.  On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I but the grace of God that is within me.  Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed” (I Corinthians 15:3-11, ESV).

What is the Gospel?

Jesus died for the sins of all those who would believe, as it is written in the Scriptures.  Jesus was buried and physically rose from the dead on the third day, as it is written in the Scriptures.  (And there were more than five hundred eye-witnesses.)

That’s it.

The proof of the authority that Jesus had to do the things He did is the Gospel:  Jesus died for the sins of all those who would believe, as it is written in the Scriptures.  And, Jesus was buried and physically rose from the dead on the third day, as it is written in the Scriptures.

That tells us at least three things in the context of toady’s Scripture:

First, Jesus is God.  In order to take the place of everyone who would believe in Him under the Wrath of God and survive – “destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” – Jesus had to be Divine – no mere human could have survived.  And Paul tells us, “For in [Jesus] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9, ESV).  God the Son incarnated into the Person of Jesus.  So, Jesus, in His Divinity, is the same One God as the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Second, the Resurrection was not merely a spiritual victory, but a physical victory; the salvation Jesus secured is salvation of the whole person, including the physical body.  And Peter wrote about God’s promise regarding Jesus, “For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption” (Acts 2:27, ESV).  Jesus’ Body did not deteriorate in the least, but was raised with Him, a whole human being, glorified by the Father.

Third, that means that in the promise of salvation that Jesus makes to all those who believe in Him, that promise is not merely of a spiritual existence, but of a physical existence, as well.  Paul argued with those who said the five hundred eye-witnesses were delusional, or saw a ghost, not Jesus raised from the dead:  “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?  But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.  We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.  For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.  Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.  If only in this life we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (I Corinthians 15:12-19, ESV).

“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

Jesus died for the sins of all those who would believe, as it is written in the Scriptures.

Jesus was buried and physically rose from the dead, as it is written in the Scriptures.

And our sure hope is that when Jesus returns, we who believe, will also rise in our bodies, perfected and holy, to live in His Kingdom in His Presence for all of eternity.

Let us pray:

            Almighty God, we thank You for the proof of Your Authority through the Death and Resurrection of Your Son.  Help us to hold fast to that Gospel that is found even in these words, “destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  Give us hope, not to merely look with our eyes, but with the Sure Hope that You give us in Your Word.  For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.

Reformed Wisdom

John Calvin on Zechariah 3:8 -- It is as though God said, "I shall come as a wild beast; as lions rage, lacerate, tear, and devour, so also will I now do with you; for I have hitherto too kindly and paternally spared you. We hence see that these things are not to be referred to the hope and patience of the godly; but that God on the contrary does here denounce final destruction on the wicked, as though he had said — I bid you adieu; begone, and mind your own concerns; for I will no longer contend with you; but I shall shortly come, and ye shall find me very different from what I have been to you hitherto."

Thursday. September 8

Join me tomorrow at 12 PM at Old First Presbyterian Church in Newark for worship.  D.V., I will be preaching on John 2:18-22, "Destroy This Temple."

Thoughts on Praying in Jesus' Name

            “Furnish thyself with arguments from the promises to enforce thy prayers, and make them prevalent with God. The promises are the ground of faith, and faith, when strengthened, will make thee fervent, and such fervency ever speeds and returns with victory out of the field of prayer.... The mightier any is in the Word, the more mighty he will be in prayer.”  -- William Gurnall

Jesus said, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:13-14, ESV).

What did Jesus mean?

Certainly, He did not mean that we could ask for anything whatsoever, and if we say “in Jesus’ Name,” He will do or give what we ask.  We know it can’t mean that because we have not received everything we have ever prayed for.  We also know it is not true, because we sometimes ask for things that are sin or for things which are just not good for us, and God would not honor a prayer for such things.

William Gurnall gets at the heart of the matter in the quote above:  if we pray for what Jesus wants, for what Jesus wills, for what is God-honoring and God-glorifying, God will grant than prayer.  Gurnall suggests that we pray the promises of God back to God, in Jesus’ Name.  If we pray for what God has promised, God will act on that prayer.

Of course, we often don’t know what God’s Will is:  Is it God’s Will to heal me?  Is it God’s Will for me to marry so and so, or for so and so to rise to an office in government?  That is why God cautions us to pray, “If the Lord wills” (cf. James 4:13).

But if God has promised something, God will bring it to pass, and we can pray with certainly, with sure hope, that those prayers will be answered.

For example, God promises, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9, ESV).  So, as we and others profess and confess faith in Jesus and His Gospel, let us pray that God will save, in Jesus’ Name – and He will!

Likewise, Jesus said, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26, ESV).  Since we, Christians, as well as the Apostles and disciples, receive the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, we can pray that God the Holy Spirit will help us to remember and understand the Scripture that we have read and read – and He will!  (Of course, He will not help us remember and understand what we have never read – we must read the Bible.)

One caution:  we must understand who the promise is made to.  If God does not make the promise to all Christians or all people, we cannot ask God to fulfill it in Jesus’ Name, having the sure hope that He will do so.  That is why Dave Wilkerson’s book, The Prayer of Jabez, is in error.  Yes, God answer a prayer that Jabez prayed, but there is nothing in the Bible that says if anyone else prays the same prayer, God will answer it in the same way.

So, let us read our Bibles, learn the promises God has made to His people, and pray those to Him, knowing that He will most certainly do those things that He has promised and willed – in Jesus’ Name.

"God Will Judge the Nations" Sermon: Zephaniah 2:1-15

“God Will Judge the Nations”

[Zephaniah 2:1-15]

 September 4, 2011 (August 28, 2011) Second Reformed Church

Two weeks ago we began our look at the book of Zephaniah.  Zephaniah was a contemporary of Jeremiah, preaching in Judah during the reign of the good king, Josiah. 

Two weeks ago we looked at the first chapter of Zephaniah, and we saw that Zephaniah preached judgment on the people of Judah because they thought they could worship idols and God; they thought they were being faithful to God even though they were worshipping idols alongside of God.  God told them through Zephaniah that they were fatally mistaken in their belief:  they were not faithful to God; they were committing adultery against Him.

We also saw that, just as God’s Message of Judgment was first against the nation of Judah – God’s people – so judgment begins with the Church.  Although the sins of the Church are paid for by Jesus – God the Savior, all those who believe in God and His Savior are called to repent of our sins – to turn way from them and turn back to God our Savior in sorrow and hope-filled trust.  We also saw that God is the Loving Father who leads all of His people into holiness through discipline.

This morning’s Scripture opens with a word of grace and mercy from God to the people of Judah – the adulterous bride – the Church – the prodigal child, whom the Loving Father must discipline:

“Gather together; yes, gather, O shameless nation, before the decree takes effect – before the day passes away like chaff – before there comes upon you the burning anger of the Lord, before there comes upon you the day of the anger of the Lord.  Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord.”

Once God has shown Judah that she was not being faithful – that she was, in fact, being unfaithful – God told her – His people – the Church – to turn before God’s Wrath came down upon them.  God tells them to turn back to Him before the time ran out.

God does not sweep their sin under the rug – He calls them a “shameless nation.”  In the book of Hosea, God told Hosea to marry a prostitute to portray the relationship that God and Israel had.  God told Hosea to name his son, “Lo-ammi,” which means, “You are not my people,” as a witness against Israel.  God sent Hosea to the northern kingdom of Israel and told them to turn back before it was too late.  God used Hosea’s very family as an object lesson against Israel.  Yet, Israel did not turn.

Years before, God sent Isaiah to Judah:  “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken:  ‘Children I have reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me.  The ox knows his owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know me, my people do not understand.’

“Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly!  They have forsaken the Lord, the have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.

“Why will you still be struck down?  Why will you continue to rebel?  The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.  From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil.

“Your country lies desolate; your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence foreigners devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.  And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.

“If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah” (Isaiah 1:2-9, ESV).

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:  though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.  If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (Isaiah 1:18-20, ESV).

So God came to Judah through the prophet Zephaniah using similar imagery, telling Judah to repent – to turn back – to return to her Husband, God.  “Come back, I know you have committed adultery with other gods, but come back to Me.  Come back before the time is past and My Anger comes down upon you like a fire on the chaff.”

God was saying to Judah and He says to each one with ears to hear, “Have I any pleasure in the death of wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” (Ezekiel 18:13, ESV).  God is not a sadist, waiting and hoping that people will sin and reject Him so He can inflict judgment.  No, Jesus said, “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7, ESV).

The good news for all those who hear God’s call is that there is the Hope of Salvation through Jesus Christ Alone.  God is speaking to His people amidst the wicked.  God is speaking to His elect in the Church.  Seek the Lord.  Seek to do His Commands.  Seek righteousness.  Seek humility.

Peter wrote, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxiety upon him, because he cares for you.  Be sober minded; be watchful.  Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of sufferings are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.  And when you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.  To him be the dominion forever and ever.  Amen” (I Peter 5:6-11, ESV).

God told Israel and then Judah, and all people throughout time and history.  Turn.  Repent.  Come back to Me.  Believe in the Savior I have sent, and you will be saved from My Wrath.  And to those who have believed and yet sin, God also tells us to turn back, to come with humility, and to pursue righteousness.

And we may wonder:  there are plenty of evil people in the world, why doesn’t God send His Wrath against them?  Why must we talk about wrath against those who claim to be Christians and punishment of the sins of Christians?  And the answer is that God will bring His Wrath down in His Time.  We may never see some universally regarded evil person suffer, but the day will come when all people will have to appear before Jesus and pay the debt for their sins, unless they have already believed on Him.  Either Jesus pays the debt for our sins, or we suffer the Wrath of God for all of eternity.  There are no other options.

Zephaniah told the faithful remnant that they will return to the land, and, ultimately, they will be saved and brought into the Kingdom.  The day will come when God will judge the nations.  God has not turned a blind eye to the sins of those opposing His Will and His People.  But all things happen in God’s Time.  Still to reassure the remnant – to give a consolation to the elect – who would survive the Babylonian conquest and the exile which was to come, God told Judah about the judgment of the nations:

  “For Gaza shall be deserted, and Ashkelon shall become a desolation; Ashdod’s people shall be driven out at noon, and Ekron shall be uprooted.  Woe to you inhabitants of the seacoast, you nation of the Cherethites!  The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines; and I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left.  And you, O seacoast, shall be pastures, with meadows for shepherds and folds for flocks.  The seacoast shall become the possession of the remnant of the house of Judah, on which they shall graze, and in the houses of Ashkelon they shall lie down in the evening.  For the Lord their God will be mindful of them and restore their fortunes. “

We will remember from reading through the history of the Old Testament that the Philistines were a seafaring people who regularly attacked Israel from the very beginning.  They lived in an area on the seacoast which we now call the Gaza strip.  And God told Israel that by the time the remnant returns from Babylon, God will have destroyed the Philistines – God will have driven them out of the land.  So the coastland will become part of the nation of Judah and the very homes that the Philistines lived in would become homes for the nation of Judah.

“I have heard the taunts of Moab and the revilings of the Ammonites, how they taunted my people and made boasts against their territory.  Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Moab shall become like Sodom, and the Ammonites like Gomorrah, a land possessed by nettles and pits, and a waste forever.  The remnant of my people shall plunder them, and the survivors of my nations shall possess them.  This shall be their lot in return for their pride, because they taunted and boasted against the people of the Lord of hosts.  The Lord will be awesome against them; for he will famish all the gods of the earth, and to him they shall bow down, each in its place, all the lands of the nations.”

Moab was a nation that existed in the southwest corner of Judah – today, this is the nation of Jordan; they were the descents of Lot, the nephew of Abraham.   Yet, they were not the chosen people, and because they were estranged from God, they took out their anger and frustration and their worship of other gods by attacking Israel and Judah over and over.

Since Moab was prideful, God promised Judah that God would rain fire on them, as He did on Sodom and Gomorrah, and kill the Moabites.   God would leave treasure for Judah to plunder when they returned, and Moab would also be given to Judah when the remnant returned.

When the time came and God showed his vengeance against the gods of the nations and all those who followed them, God would terrify the people and some in every nation would turn and bow down and worship the True God.  See, there is even hope for the nations – for anyone who turns and believes that Jesus Alone is God the Savior.  There would even be a believing remnant from Moab, God told them.

  “You also, O Cushites, shall be slain by the sword.”

One short sentence of condemnation against the nation of Cush – modern day Ethiopia – just south of Egypt.  Cush also attacked Israel and Judah again and again, and God promised them death for raising their swords against God’s people; God would raise His Sword against them.

One wonders if this prophecy cut Zephaniah to the heart in a way that the others did not.  Remember, there is reason to believe that Zephaniah was from Cush – that he was a prophet from Africa.

“And he will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria, and he will make Nineveh desolation, a dry waste like the desert.  Herds shall lie down in her midst, all kinds of beasts; even the owl and the hedgehog shall lodge in her capitals; a voice shall hoot in the window; devastation shall be on the threshold; for her cedar work will be laid bare.  This is the exultant city that lived securely that said in her heart, ‘I am, there is no one else.’  What a desolation she has become, a lair for wild beasts!  Everyone who passes her hisses and shakes his head.”

And it won’t just be the smaller nations that suffer God’s Judgment, but the very nation of Assyria, which God sent against Israel to punish her, God promised that He would destroy the nation of the Assyrians and lay their kingdom to waste.

You see, a single act can be both morally good and morally evil:  God chose to punish Israel for her sins by sending the nation of Assyria against her, and God allowed the Assyrians to destroy Israel and take her people into captivity.  God was good in doing that.  He punished the sin of Israel, which was His right and necessary, since He is Holy. 

However, the Assyrians did evil in attacking Israel.  Even though God chose to use them, God did not force them to sin, God simply allowed them to do the evil they wanted to do:  God did not stop the Assyrians from attacking, and God did not protect Israel from falling into captivity.  God promised that the day would come when He would wipe out the Assyrians for the sin of attacking God’s people.  And those in morning Bible study will remember that God did destroy the Assyrians and their empire – which covered – by today’s names – Egypt, Jordan, Judah, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Eastern Turkey, Iraq, and Iran.  The capital city of Nineveh was in what we now call Iraq.

The good news was that God did allow the Babylonians to conquer the Assyrians before Judah was captured.  The bad news was that God intended Judah to be taken into captivity by the Babylonians, which they were.  But the good news was that God promised that a remnant would return, and all those who believe in the Savior would be saved.

What do we see?

First, we see that God is merciful and gracious.  We never have to sin, God always make a way of escape so we do not have to sin.  And God was never obligated to forgive sin.  But God chose, for His Own Reasons, to make the Way through Jesus the Savior that we may be right with God, despite the fact that we have sinned against the Holy God.

Second, we see that there will be a remnant from the nations of Israel and Judah, and from all the nations.  God has called and elected people who will believe savingly in Him from every nation in the world.  And all those God has chosen to be His will come to faith and repentance.  God came to earth in the Person of Jesus to live and die and rise and ascend to secure salvation for each one who will believe.

Third, God will judge the nations.  All the enemies of God will find their final judgment on the last day.  Jesus said, “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’ … And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:41, 46, ESV).

How ought we to respond?

Let us turn quickly from our sin and follow after God in humility and righteousness, being faithful to our God and bridegroom.

Let us trust that God knows exactly what is happening among the nations, and God is working all things together for the good of those who love Him and to His Glory (cf. Romans 8:28).

And let us pray for the nations and the peoples of the nations that they would hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ – that they would believe and repent and follow after the Only Savior.

Let us pray:

            Almighty God, Sovereign over the nations, we thank You that we can trust You for our salvation and our future.  Help us to follow You in humility and righteousness.  As You promised, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33, ESV).   And may You bring to pass what You have promised – that a remnant from every nation shall believe.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

A Gift from God

Before I left the church last night, I got a call from a dear lay pastor from North Carolina -- from Shiloh PCUSA.  He was calling to thank me for putting print versions of my sermons on line and to ask my permission to use material from one of my sermons for his sermon this Sunday.  It was a joy to talk with him and to know that God is using some of what I write here; it was a gift from God and something I needed to hear yesterday.  God bless you my friend, may He use you to glorify Himself and give you and the congregation joy!

The Earthquake and the Hurricane

On Friday, I was mowing the church lawn as I learned in Seminary, and one of our neighbors walked across the street to me.  He said, "You're the pastor, right?"  And I told him I was.  He proceeded to tell me that he is from the Dominican Republic, and he lived through three hurricanes there, and what we received was nothing -- that God had moved it aside and gave us a warning, rather than destroying us.  The warning, he explained, was that New Jersey had better not endorse homosexual weddings, as New York has done, or God will wipe us out.

What Am I Doing?

After looking at the damage done to the church basement:
Elder:  "Well, we'll get this fixed up and we'll have to close the church."
Deacon:  "And you'll have to get a job.  Wow!  Can you imagine yourself having to work an eight hour day?  I don't think you could do it anymore!"
(Picture me gritting my teeth and walking away.)

Reformed Wisdom

"The Lord's Supper is the world in miniature; it has cosmic significance.  Within it we find clues to the meaning of all creation and all history, to the nature of God and the nature of man, to the mystery of the world, which is Christ.  It is not confined to the first day, for its power fills seven.  Though the table stands at the center, its effects stretch out to the four corners of the earth." -- Peter J. Leithart, Blessed Are the Hungry, p. 11.

Daisy Butler

My mother's cat, Daisy, died yesterday.  Please keep my mother and three youngest siblings in your prayers as they mourn her death.

September Sermons

D. V., this month I will preach:

9/4/11 Communion
  Zephaniah 2:1-15 “God Will Judge the Nations”

9/11/11
 Zephaniah 3:1-8 “God Will Judge Leaders”

9/18/11

 Zephaniah 3:9-20  “God Will Restore Joy”
                                                  

9/25/11

 Pulpit exchange: Eric Farrar preaching -- student pastor, Hope Reformed Church, Clifton, NJ

Prayer Meeting

Prayer Meeting, Saturdays at 3 PM, resumed last week.  Join with us and lift your prayers to our Almighty God and Savior.

Review: "Every Single Man's Battle"

             I have mixed feelings about Every Single Man’s Battle by Stephen Arterburn and Fred Stoeker with Mike Yorkey.  I initially looked at the titled and thought to myself, a single male, “Shockingly, yes, single men do have sexual thoughts.”  As I began to read the book, I found some problems and much good, but then, on page fifty-one, it changed into “a companion guide” for the single male, to the author’s book Every Man’s Battle.  In other words, to get the full benefit of three-quarters of this book, you have to buy another book.  That disappointed me.

The book begins with the authors’ stories, and reference is made to how, after one of the author’s divorces, God had to go to plan “B” for his life (9).  I believe in the Sovereign God Who doesn’t make mistakes and doesn’t need to turn to a plan “B”!

The authors talk about pornography as being the primary problem of single men, and I question if that is accurate.  Perhaps I am not the average single man, but I raise the question about their assumption.

The authors, to my reading, write only about single men who intend/desire marriage.  They do no address those persons who have/believe they have the gift of celibacy.  Just because one has the gift of celibacy does not mean that one will never have a lustful thought.  They need to also address those who are “eunuchs for the Kingdom” – either here or in another volume.  Those single men have their own unique set of issues and temptations.

Still, the authors make three points about single men and sexuality which I agree are extremely important:  Singles must have others to whom they are accountable – not just to God, but to other human beings who will help them and pray with them and be a human reminder of their desire for purity.

Spiritual revival is of utmost necessity.  Everyone needs to be in the Scripture every day, and singles will find help in pursuing after God in pursuing after God – not giving themselves the time and the opportunity to stray.

And, all sex before marriage is sin.  We often try to excuse this act or that act, so long it is not a genital act, but God condemns all sexual acts prior to marriage.  That is a message we need to hear over and over – it is a message which society finds scandalous, but it is true.

However, the straw that breaks the camel’s back, which makes me not recommend this book, is the theology throughout the “companion guide” that as Christians, victory is available to us, but we have to appropriate it for ourselves.  They give examples of people who received victory and then gave it away, etc.  This is a misunderstanding of the Scripture.

We are victorious in Christ.  Period.  The battle has been one.  We have been justified.

“’Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?’  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 15:54b-56, ESV).

“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.  And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.  Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (I John 5:4-5, ESV).

We were born dead in our sin, slavers to the world, the flesh, and the devil.   But Christ had given us victory over sin and death through His Meritorious Work on the cross, which satisfies for we who believe.

Martin Luther said that we are simultaneously justified and sinners.  Christ has done the work, our debt has been paid, His Righteousness has been applied to our accounts, so the elect of God are Christ’s forever – yet we sin.

What does that mean?  That we have not rightly or fully appropriated the victory?  Has Jesus promised us sinless perfection in this life?  No!  We are righteous in God’s Sight through Jesus.  The Holy Spirit now indwells us and leads us to grow in holiness.  We continue to sin in this life – though, hopefully, less and less – and when we do, we turn to our faithful Savior and confess our sin to Him and receive the forgiveness He already merited for us on the cross.

I am victorious in Jesus because Jesus is victorious and has made me His own.  Now, I struggle and run and fight my way towards the finish line, confessing my sin and relying on Jesus – not on my application of the victory.

[This review appears on Amazon.com and on my blog.  I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.] 

Today

The Consistory thought it prudent that we not have worships services today due to the ensuing hurricane.  Be safe.  Help your neighbors.  And thank God for His Mercy.

Ripley's?

Our Mayor has said he is a Christian and a member of a local church.  In a recent issue of the town paper, he explained that he is a Muslim as well, and he explained the meaning and practices of Ramadan.

Sunday's Sermon

In talking with one of our deacons this week I was told, "I've got to be honest with you; I didn't get anything out of Sunday's sermon."

"God Will Judge the Church" Sermon: Zephaniah 1:1-18

“God Will Judge the Church”

[Zephaniah 1:1-18]

August 21, 2011 Second Reformed Church

            Let’s pretend for a moment that we are all married persons – each of us has a spouse.  We have gone through the marriage right and pledged to be faithful to our spouse “until death do us part.”  Now, suppose that your spouse began to have an affair – your spouse began having sexual relations with someone other than you.  This goes on for some time.  Finally, you realize something is wrong and you confront your spouse, and he or she responds, “Yes. I have been having an affair, but I have always come home to you; I have always been faithful to you.”  How would you respond?  Would you say, “You’re right:  you come home to me and satisfy all my needs and wants, so, even though you are having an affair, you have been faithful to me”?  How would you respond?

            I suspect that none of us would say to such a spouse, “Oh, you’re right, you have been faithful to me.”  The fact that our spouse came home and went through the motions with us would not change the fact that our spouse had been unfaithful – our spouse had broken the marriage covenant – and this was not going to be swept under the rug!

            This is what we see happening in the book of Zephaniah, but it was the nation of Israel that had committed adultery with other gods.    Zephaniah addressed the southern Kingdom of Judah – Israel had already fallen to the Assyrians and been taken into captivity.

            We have in the opening to the book of Zephaniah, four previous generations listed for us:  Zephaniah was the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah.  Unfortunately, that no longer helps us very much.  In his day, it would have served to distinguish him from all the other Zephaniahs.  The only things we may be able to say is that since his father’s name was Cushi, he may have been from Cush – modern day Ethiopia, which would make Zephaniah an African Jew, and Zephaniah was a contemporary of the prophet, Jeremiah.

            Zephaniah preached during the reign of King Josiah – one of the few good kings of Judah.  The author of Kings tells us, “Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.  His mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.  And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in the ways of David his father, and did not turn to the right or to the left” (II Kings 22:1-2, ESV).

            God raised up Josiah as king after years of bad kings who thought they could worship God and idols.  The kings before Josiah set up idols on the hills and in their homes and even in the Temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, and somehow, they thought that as long as they worshipped God along with all of the false gods, they were still being faithful, and everything was alright.

            When Josiah was eighteen years old, he instructed the carpenters to repair the Temple of the Lord.  He told them to take all the money out of the property fund and use it to restore the Temple.  While the workmen did their work, Hilkiah, the high priest, found the book of the Law.  This would have at least been the book of Deuteronomy, and might have been Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.  You see, they had lost God’s Word!  In their prostituting themselves to other gods, they had so neglected the God they professed to worship, that they had misplaced His Word.  But now, it had been found, and Shaphan, the king’s secretary, read the Law, and then ran to the king with it.

            Shaphan read the book of the Law to King Josiah, and Josiah tore his robes and repented of his sin and the sin of Judah – the people of Israel.  Then Josiah asked Hilkiah, the high priest, to inquire to the Lord because His Wrath was great against them for their sin.  And God said, “Thus says the Lord, behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read.  Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched” (II Kings 22:16-17, ESV).

            “Then the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem and the priests and the prophets, all the people small and great.  And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord.  And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statues with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book.  And all the people joined in the covenant.

            “And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for the host of heaven.  He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.  And he deposed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem, also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and the moon and to the constellations and all the hosts of the heavens.  And he brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves of the common people.  And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for Asherah.  And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests made offerings, from Geeba to Beerasheba.  And he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the gate of the city” (II Kings 23:1-18, ESV).

            And so forth:  when King Josiah heard the Law of God and realized the sin that they had been engaged in – particularly in the sin of thinking it was fine to worship God with all the other gods of the land – Josiah repented and went on a whirl-wind revolutionary tour, destroying all of the idols in the land and deposing the priests and the prostitutes of all the false gods.

            This revolution is the scene onto which Zephaniah came.  We call this a revolution and not a reformation, because, although Josiah truly repented and served God, the people of Judah did not.  We read in II Kings that the people were putting on a show for the king, and they did not really repent of their sin – they did not stop worshipping God and idols.  They continued to say they were being faithful, while “cheating” on God.

            And God spoke through Zephaniah, “I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord.  “I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, and the rubble with the wicked.  I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord.

            For the sin of worshipping other gods and claiming yet to be faithful to God, God said He was going to sweep away humanity and all the animals.  We can understand God’s Wrath against the humans, but why did God say He would sweep away the animals?  What did the animals do wrong?  The animals didn’t do anything wrong, but just as the whole Creation was punished for the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden, so to hurt humanity by taking the animals away from them – the animals that they used in work and for food and sacrifice – God’s anger raged against the animals as well.

            “I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all of the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal and the name of the idolatrous priests, along with the priests,”

            Notice, God gets very specific about the people He is angry with – the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.  Judah had prided itself on not being taken into captivity when Israel fell to the Assyrians some years before.  They thought they had been spared because they were the true people of God and because they had the Temple of God in their midst.  Surely, God wouldn’t do anything to hurt His Temple!

            Jeremiah addressed this when he said, “Do not trust in these deceptive words, ‘The temple of the Lord.  The temple of the Lord.  The temple of the Lord’” (Jeremiah 7:4, ESV).  The people had convinced themselves that God would never do anything against His Temple, so they were safe no matter what they did – no matter what sin they committed.  It’s like people today who say, “Oh, I’m alright with God, I was baptized in the Church.”  “Do not trust in these deceptive words, ‘The baptism of the Church.  The baptism of the Church.  The baptism of the Church.’”  Baptism is a good and right thing to receive, but if you do not believe, it won’t save you.  Belonging to the Temple in Jerusalem would not save the people of Judah.

            “those who bow down on the roofs to the host of the heavens, those who bow down and swear to the Lord and yet swear by Milcom, those who turn back from following the Lord, who do not seek the Lord or inquire of him.”

            They were engaging in astrology, mapping out their futures, fortunetelling, reading their horoscopes, and God told them that this was an abomination – they were trusting in someone other than Him.  This was spiritual adultery.

            They thought it was alright to swear by Milcom, so long as they swore by the Lord.  They thought they could cover all their bases, and as long as one of the gods was the True God, God would be happy.  Not so.  (Milcom is probably a contraction of the word “king” with the name of a god, Moloch, who required his worshippers to burn their infants to death in sacrifice to him.)

            God told them that if they are going to worship and seek wisdom from idols and try to worship Him and seek His Wisdom, they will find that they have not worshipped God at all.  Back to our example of the adulterous spouse, if your spouse is having an affair with someone, yet comes back to you every night, that spouse is not being faithful at all.  We would not say that that spouse was being partially faithful, would we?  Faithfulness is destroyed when the covenant vow is ruptured.  When we commit adultery and think there is nothing wrong with it, there is no faithfulness to our spouse or our God.

            Now, let’s ask ourselves a question:  in Zephaniah’s prophecy – in his book – who is God angry with first?  Judah – the people of God – the Church.  Why?  Weren’t there pagan people doing much worse things all over the earth, now and then?  Yes, but those who claim to believe savingly in God and His Savior – that is, the Church, we are the Bride of Christ (Isaiah 61:10; Revelation 21:9), and God will not tolerate His Bride cheating on Him.  That is why judgment begins with the Church.  As Peter wrote, “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the Gospel of God?” (I Peter 4:17, ESV).

            Brothers and sisters, as the Bride of Christ, we must be pursuing holiness in all things.  We must turn aside from the other gods in our lives – from all those things we think we can get away with and still faithfully worship God.  If you check your horoscope to find out what the day or week will be like – stop and repent!  If you are involved in physical or spiritual or mental relations with someone who is not your legal spouse – stop and repent!  (That’s not overreacting – one of the biggest problems the early Church had was sexual sin, and America – and the American church – is obsessed with sex is a way that may rival Caligula and the sin of the early Church.)  If you’re trusting in your bank account and God, or your abilities and God, or anything else and God, repent and throw yourself before our God and Bridegroom Who has made the way for us all by Himself.

            The author of Hebrews wrote, “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, since we have a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold fast to our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:19-23, ESV).

            Jesus is faithful, so let us turn to Him.  Jesus is faithful, so let us rely on Him.  Jesus is all that we will ever need to be right with God, so let us turn to Him and put aside all those things we have been holding onto to add to Jesus’ Work.  Let us put aside all those things we know Jesus says we ought not to do as His people and His bride – which we thought we could get away with.  Why don’t we believe Jesus is enough?  Why do we think it doesn’t matter if we cheat on Him with other gods?  Would you stand for that from your spouse? 

            We are the Bride of Christ – His Church – and God will not tolerate our cheating on Him.  Just as He did not stand Judah’s cheating on Him.  Judgment came on Judah; judgment begins with the Church.

            And then God spoke through Zephaniah about the judgment:  “Be silent before the day of the Lord!  For the day of the Lord is near; the Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests.  And on the day of the Lord’s sacrifice – I will punish the king’s sons and all those who array themselves in foreign attire.  On that day, I will punish everyone who leaps over the threshold, and those who fill their master’s house with violence and fraud.  On that day, declares the Lord, a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate, a wail from the Second Quarter, a loud crash from the hills.  Wail, O inhabitants of Mortar!  For the traders are no more; all those who weigh out silver are cut off.”

            Do you understand the picture here?  God tells Judah that He is going to prepare a banquet – God is going to offer up a sacrifice and serve it to the guests that He consecrates – to the guests that He makes holy and able to receive the sacrifice He is offering up.  That sounds like good news, doesn’t it?  If you think, like Judah did, that God is on their side, no matter what they did, it sounds like God is going to prepare a banquet for them.  We might relate it to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb that we read about in the New Testament.  But that cannot be what this image is – because God says who He will slaughter for this banquet:  the sons of the king, those who are traitors to the nation, servants, masters, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the hills surrounding Jerusalem, and those who buy and sell.

            The sacrifice is of the people of Judah – and Jerusalem in particular.  God’s people are going to be the meal.  For whom?  It can only be those whom God sent as fulfillment of this prophecy:  the Babylonians.

            What a reversal!  God was so angry with the sin – the adultery – the idolatry – of Judah, that God said He would slaughter the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem and serve them up like a seven-course meal to the Babylonians – His guests.

            God tells them, “You don’t get it!  My Presence will be known as I send the Babylonians to slaughter you and take Jerusalem because of your sin.”  God values His Holiness and His Worship so highly, He was willing to slaughter His own people as a meal for His enemies.

            There are times today, when God punishes us – disciplines us – as a good Father – a good parent – disciplines his or her child.  The author of Hebrews wrote, “It is for discipline that you have to endure.  God is treating you as sons.  For what son is there who his father does not discipline?  If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.  Besides this, we have earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them.  Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?  For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for good, that we may share in his holiness.  For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:7-11, ESV).

             Since we remain sinners in this life, we receive punishment from our Loving Father, to guide us in holiness that we might be like Him and enter into the fullness of His Kingdom.  If God hated us – if God was unfaithful to we who believe – he would leave us for the slaughter.

            The good news is that God values His Covenant with us and will not break it or forsake those He has chosen.  So God made a way for us to be right with Him again – it is the Only Way that we may be made right with Him day by day and moment by moment as we continue to grow in the faith and yet turn and sin.  The great frustration for every true Christian is that we continue to sin against our God and King and Bridegroom and Savior.  But God has made the Way, as Isaiah wrote, “It pleased YHWH to crush him” or “It delighted YHWH to crush him” (my translation, Isaiah 53:10a).  And Peter preached, “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:23, ESV).  It would not have been possible for Jesus, God the Son, to be taken and offered up as a sacrifice by the enemies of God, if it was not God’s Good Pleasure to offer Jesus up for the sake of the elect – God’s people – the Church.

            Our sin is forgiven through Jesus being offered up as a sacrifice.  Yet, Jesus is not eaten by the enemies of God, Jesus is eaten by His people:  “the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body which is broken for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.’  In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood.  Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me’” (I Corinthians 11:23b-25, ESV).  Our salvation from slaughter comes through the sacrifice of Jesus, God the Son.  He took the place as meal for all those who truly – savingly – believe.

            God continued, “At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will he do ill.’  Their goods shall be plundered, and their houses laid waste.  Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit them; thought they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them.’  The great day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there.  A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against fortified cities and against loftily battlements.  I will bring distress on mankind, so that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the Lord; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.  Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to save them on the day of the wrath of the Lord.  In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.”

            If it’s not clear yet, God is a jealous God and will not tolerate people who commit idolatry and adultery against Him – not even God’s people – not even us.  God will seek out sin and punish it.  God will seek out and punish those people who say that God is not intimately involved in human history.  God will deny the satisfaction of the sinner.  And Judah, who has put more trust and faith in the nation and in the Temple than in God, would see all of it taken away and destroyed – we have a horrific description of the fall of Jerusalem – which took two years – in the book of Lamentations.

            And God is not satisfied except with blood (Hebrews 9:22).  The best that they had to offer – the best we could offer – would be like dust and dung, and if that is all we have, we will be slaughtered in the end.  If our hope is in our works and in our institutions and in our possessions, all is lost.

            God did come through the Babylonians, and they horrifically destroyed Judah and Jerusalem.  And our sin must be paid for, as well – either by us, or by Another.  God will judge the Church – all those who claim to be part of the Church.  And those who remain in adultery and idolatry – hypocrites who never really trusted in Jesus Alone for salvation, will be slaughtered.  But for those who truly believe, God tells us that Jesus “has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; … But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4a, 5, ESV).

            Let us pray:

            Almighty God, we have sinned against You and turned to other gods.  We have even made ourselves gods, believing that we are fine without You.  Rather than turning to You in every trial, we have turned to ourselves and each other and even the things You have forbidden.  We thank You that You came to earth in the Person of Jesus and know our weakness.  We thank You that we can be forgiven and saved through the Sacrifice of Jesus.  We thank You that You are ready to receive everyone who believes in their heart that You raised Jesus from the dead and confesses with their mouth that He is, indeed, Lord, the God of Moses (Romans 10:9).  For You have promised that You will bring all we who repent and believe through the Judgment and into the fullness of the Kingdom.  Help us to follow after You in ever increasing holiness and to bear with Your Fatherly discipline.  Meet with us and give us Your Grace as we receive the elements of the Lord’s Supper.  For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.

My 1,000th Post!

NINE MONTHS TIL BANNER OF TRUTH!!!
http://www.banneroftruth.org/pages/events/events.php

Review: "Till Death"

According to the Roman Catholic Church (at least in 1999, when Till Death by William X. Kienzel was written), if a priest "takes a leave of absence," is allowed to become laity, and marries, he can never become a priest again.   However, if a priest "takes a leave of absence," does not go through the process to become laity again, and marries, he may be reinstated to the priesthood.

This novel centers around two couples, made up of two laitized nuns, one laitized priest, and one priest who has "taken a leave of absence," but does not wish to become laity again.  Both priests are sexually active with their ex-nun girlfriends.  However, the priest gets drunk one night and is driven home by his ex-priest friend's girlfriend.  They have sex, and she gets pregnant, so they get married.  The ex-priest and the other ex-nun do the only logical thing and start living with each other.  The active priest married "till death."  But one wonders, if death is not caused by an act of commission, but by an act of omission, is it murder?

Review: "No Greater Love"

I love William X. Kienzle's Father Koesler novels:  I've almost read them all now.  This one, No Greater Love looks at the long struggle to become a Roman Catholic Priest.  The journey can become even more complicated when you are a seminarian being pressured by a father who dropped out of seminary.  It can be even worse if you are unsure of your call.  And it can be even worse when you decide to drop out of seminary, and your father blames the bishop and decides to kill him.  Is it possible to save the Bishop?  Might it only be through living out Christ's words about "no greater love"?

Today's Mail

Received my first Christmas catalog of the season!

August Sermons

D.V., I will preach:

8/7/11
 Guest preacher:  Rev. Dr. Solomon Tivade

8/14/11
 Guest preacher:  Rev. Dr. Solomon Tivade

8/21/11  Communion
 Zephaniah 1:1-18  "God Will Judge the Church"

8/28/11
 Zephaniah 2:1-15  "God Will Judge the Nations"