Thursday Night Study

We finished our study of the book of Colossians last night, and D.V., we will have a one night study of the book of Philemon.  Join us next week -- Thursday, at 7 PM.  (#MarkJohnson)

"Create in Me a Clean Heart" Sermon: Psalm 51:1-19

“Create in Me a Clean Heart”

[Psalm 51:1-19]

February 10, 2016 Second Reformed Church

            If someone were to ask you about King David, what would come to mind?

            David and Goliath?  Shepherd?  A man after God’s own heart?  The author of many of the Psalms?

            There came a point in David’s reign when he became so prideful that when he saw Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, he determined to have her sexually.  And they committed adultery, and she became pregnant.  So David tried to fool Uriah into believing it was his child, and when he could not, he had Uriah killed.

            The prophet Nathan came to David and told him about a rich man who had stolen the only lamb of a poor man, and David flew into a rage, until Nathan told David that he was the rich man – and Bathsheba was the lamb.

            In response to his being cut to the heart by the guilt for his sin, David wrote Psalm 51 – it is one of a small number of Psalms that specifically tell us the occasion of their writing.

            Today – tonight – we celebrate Ash Wednesday – the beginning of the Lenten Season.  The Lenten Season is forty days, not including Sundays, during which we are encouraged to look at ourselves and our need for a savior.  It is a time of putting off and putting on – most effectively, putting off sinful habits and putting on good habits.

            The Lenten Season is not magic.  It was not commanded in the Scripture.  It was developed in the early Church as a means of reflection before we celebrate Easter.  It was meant to heighten our awareness of the depths of our need of Jesus – in His life, death, and physical resurrection.

            As we begin the season, may we quickly consider this Psalm and what it tells us about all humanity and the need for a savior:

            First, we see that all sin is against God.

            “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.”

            David committed adultery and had the husband of the woman put to death.

            And David turned to God for forgiveness – calling on God’s Mercy and Steadfast Love – that his sins would not be accounted to him, that God would cleanse him from his sin, his guilt, and his debt.  He acknowledged all of his sin – sin that God was well aware of – and he said that he sinned against God alone – and that God was justified in whatever judgment He brought to pass.

            Now, some people have complained about David’s understanding of the events that he had brought about – David, as king, called this woman – a married woman – to have sexual relations with him, she got pregnant, so David ended up having her husband killed.  Why was his sin only against God?

            Nathan accused David of sinning against Bathsheba and Uriah, and David did acknowledge his sin against Bathsheba and Uriah, and David made what reparations he could.  He was not saying that there was no sin in what he did to them – of course there was.  What David is telling us is that – ultimately, and most seriously – all of our sin is against God.

            God is the Thrice Holy God and all sin that God’s creatures – we – commit – is against God our Creator.  So, ultimate forgiveness – salvific forgiveness – can only be found in God’s Mercy and Loving-Kindness – through the Salvation that He would provide.  As the Holy Judge, God rightly would sentence sin against the greatest Being – Himself – to the greatest possible punishment.  And we would be hopelessly condemned unless a savior stood in our place.

            So, when we sin, let of quickly confess to God and ask His Forgiveness and Mercy for the sake of Jesus Christ.  And then let us do what we can to make things right with any human we have sinned against.

            Second, we are born sinners.

            “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.  Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.  Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.”

            David tells us that he – and every human since Adam and Eve – was born a sinner.  This is what we call “Original Sin” – it is the idea that since Adam and Eve sinned as our representatives, all we humans are now born inclined towards sin, desiring to do sin, not able to do anything of our own but sin.  That’s why David said that his mother conceived him in sin – not that his mother sinned in conceiving him, but – in the act of conception – in which a human being is created – that human being is created sinful – that is – inclined towards sin.

            Paul explained it this way:

            “And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated’” (Romans 9:10-13, ESV).

            Rebekah became pregnant with twins by Isaac.  Neither of the twins committed sin in the womb – yet, they were sinners because they inherited the inclination towards sin from Adam, so God chose for His own reasons, and not based on anything the boys would do – or had done – to save Jacob and the let Esau follow his natural inclination in sin.

            David understood that only God could make him righteous – so he prayed that God would “purge him with hyssop.”  Hyssop is a plant that was used in the worship of God.  Hyssop was dipped in animal blood and flung on the repentant as a sign of repentance and God’s covering of sin – because blood is necessary for forgiveness.  But here, David understood that the priest’s spattering him with blood would not be enough – He needed God to purge him with hyssop.  And so this happened as Jesus shed His blood for all those who would ever believe.

            For believers, we understand what the author of Hebrews wrote, “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 12:11, ESV).

            If God sees fit to break our bones – as David writes – that we would learn to turn from sin and be righteous, then let us rejoice that God has broken our bones and pray that we would be forgiven and cleansed and made holy.  Because only God can make us righteous.

            Third, we continue to sin.

            “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.  Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. “

            David, as a believer, now expressed the fact that we are at the same time righteous and sinners – we have been forgiven and made right with God through Jesus the Savior, but we continue to sin.  That fact should, in one sense, trouble us tremendously, and cause us to call out to God again and again to have our hearts made clean.  We should call out to God that He would make our spirit right – again and again.

            And David asked God not to take the Holy Spirit away from him and not to cast him away from the presence of God – something God would be right to do to us rebellious creatures, but God does not – based on His Will and His promises to bring us into His Kingdom and to transform us into the Image of His Son, Jesus.

            And still, we don’t always feel filled with joy – even as we understand our salvation – we may become spiritually depressed about our struggle in this life.

            Paul put it this way – and notice how he ends this passage:

            “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

            “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin” (Romans 7:15-25, ESV).

            Paul explained that there is a war going on in believers – that part of us that joyfully wants to follow after God, and that part of us – that sin nature which is not yet removed from us – that wants us to turn away from God again and sin again – such that Paul momentarily despairs of his state as a sinner, but then rejoices because he and all we who believe have been eternally saved and are being made holy by the Holy Spirit and through the work of Christ Jesus.

            And so we can only conclude that salvation is God’s work:  we are conceived desiring to sin.  We are saved and forgiven and made righteous through Jesus Christ, and we continue to sin.  So our only hope is that salvation is all of God – and it is!

            Fourth, we are to respond to our salvation by spreading the Gospel and being thankful to God.

“Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.  Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.  O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.  For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

David responded to salvation given to him by God and God alone by vowing to proclaim the Gospel – by proclaiming the Glory and the Righteousness and the Holiness of God and the Way of Salvation.  And he vowed to praise God as God was willing to open his lips.

This was David’s response, as he explained, because God doesn’t need animal sacrifices – they are not enough to make a person right we God – we have looked at that before – the very best the Sacrificial System of the Old Testament could do was make a person partially right with God for the very moment of the sacrifice – and then it was gone.

God gave the sacrificial system so Israel would understand the seriousness of sin and so they would turn to God for salvation.  And we understand now that Jesus has fulfilled the Sacrificial System – as we saw when we looked at the book of Hebrews.  Jesus has fulfilled all of the Law perfectly, and God calls us now to have a broken heart for sin – to repent of our sin and vow not to do it again – and we claim this by the work and the merits of Jesus alone.  And so we go on, in thankfulness to God and by telling other people Who God is and what He has done in coming to earth to save a people for Himself.

            And fifth, we are to do good works.

            “Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.”

            David called upon God to carrying our His Will among believers – among the Church – building her up for His Name’s Sake.  And David explained that when God does grow His Church in holiness – what is called the process of sanctification – the process of becoming holy, then God will delight in receiving the sacrifices of the Sacrificial System.

            And we rightly say, “Wait a minute – didn’t we just say that the Sacrificial System was unable to save anyone?  Didn’t we just say that God doesn’t delight in the Sacrificial System?  Didn’t we just say that Jesus fulfilled the Sacrificial System?  How can David now say that God delights in the Sacrifices of the Sacrificial System?”

            David was not saying that salvation is by works – he has already denied that.

            David was not saying that God needs sacrifices.

            What we need to remember is that David was alive before the Temple sacrifices were abolished.  The Temple sacrifices were God’s Law for the people of Israel.  So it was right for them to make the sacrifices that God required – not for salvation – but in obedience to God.

            We live in the time after the Temple sacrifices have been abolished.

            So, we need to read this text, understanding that God delights in our faithfulness and obedience to Him.  Being faithful and obedient to God does not save us, but being faithful and obedient to God gives us joy and delights God.

            And don’t we want joy?  Don’t we want to delight God, our Father, Who has saved us?

            This Lenten Season, let us remember:

            All sin is against God.

            We are born sinners.

            We continue to sin as Christians.

            We rightly respond to God’s salvation of us through spreading the Gospel and being thankful.

            And we do the good works God has called us to for our joy and God’s delight.

            Let us pray:

            Almighty God and Father, we come before You confident that You will hear us – confident that You will forgive us when we repent of our sin for Jesus’ Sake.  We ask that You would open our mouths and lead us to desire joy in You and having You be delighted in us.  For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.

"I Am True" Sermon: John 8:12-20

“I Am True”

[John 8:12-20]

February 7, 2016 Second Reformed Church

            After Jesus foiled the plot of the scribes and Pharisees to condemn Him by His answer about what to do with the woman caught in adultery, He went back to teaching in the Temple. 

            The scribes and Pharisees had not gone far away – they were in the Temple, as well, as they were want to be.

            And Jesus began to speak by saying, “I am.”

            We remember that God identified Himself as “I am” when Moses asked Him for a name to give to the people of Israel when he called them out of slavery in Egypt: 

            “Then Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And he said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you”’” (Exodus 3:13-14, ESV).

            In the Gospel of John, we see Jesus announce Himself as “I am this and that” numerous times.  We need to remember as He does this, He is self-consciously and not subtly, poking the Scriptural memory of those who heard Him – as He said, “I am,” they would instinctively hear the Name of God – that most holy and personal Name of God given by God to Moses – and hear Jesus say that He is the God of Moses.  In these texts, as we hear Jesus said, “I am this and that,” we also rightly hear Jesus say, “I am God, the – this and that.”  And that would have been supremely offensive to those who did not believe in Jesus savingly – it is one of the reasons that Jesus was condemned for blasphemy before His crucifixion – He claimed to be God.

            There are those who say that Jesus never said He was God – that Jesus being divinity was a later invention of Christianity.  The truth is that Jesus never directly used the words, “I am God,” in the Scripture, but in many and various ways, what He said can only be understood as Him saying that He is God.

            So, as we hear Jesus make these proclamations, let us hear them with the ears of the first century Jews.  Let us come to attention when He says words which can only be rightly interpreted as Jesus saying that He is God, the One God of Israel.

            Here, we see Jesus says that He is God, the Light of the world.

            First, Jesus is the Light of the world.

            “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’”

            Here, it is not merely the use of the “I am” name that would have drawn the attention of His listeners, but His saying that He is the Light of the world, because the Word of God says that God is the Light of the world:

            “For it is you who light my lamp; the LORD my God lightens my darkness” (Psalm 18:28, ESV).

“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The LORD is the stronghold of my life;             of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1, ESV).

            “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105, ESV).

            And we remember from the beginning of our look at the Gospel of John:

            “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:1-5, ESV).

            God is the Light.

            Jesus is the Light.

            The Light overcomes the darkness.

            God and Jesus are the same God Who overcomes the darkness.

            If we turn on a light, the darkness flees.

            If we turn on a light, the words on a page can be read.

            Jesus, God the Son, illumines our spiritual lives and shows us the Way to be made right with God.  In fact, the Light causes our blind eyes to see the Light, because He is God, our Creator.

            What else does Jesus tell us in these opening words?

            If Jesus is the Light of the world, then the world is in darkness without Him.  The world is sin-bound and blind to its need without Jesus, which is why no one seeks salvation in Jesus on his own – without being enlightened and illumined by God.  If you are blind and in darkness and that is all you have ever known, and it seems right, and that is how everyone else is – as far as you know, then you would have no reason to think that there is a light or that it would be possible to see.

            And so Jesus told them that it is only by following Him with a true heart belief in Him being God the Savior that they will leave the darkness of the world, be illumined and able to see – and this is not a temporary thing or something that can be lost.  If anyone has believed savingly in Jesus, that person sees and will always see – having the Light within Him forever.

            Jesus began with the testimony that He is God the Light.  All the world without Him is blind and in darkness.  All those who savingly follow Him have their sight restored and can see and have the Light dwelling in them forever, since it is a work of God and not a work of man.

            Jesus is the Light of the world.

            Second, Jesus and the Father testify to His being the Light.

“So the Pharisees said to him, ‘You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.’ Jesus answered, ‘Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.’”

            The Pharisees challenged what Jesus was saying – arguing from the Law that they were under no obligation to believe the testimony of one person.  If there is only one person testifying, the assumption was that it was a lie and not the truth.

            We remember we have seen in the Law: “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established” (Deuteronomy 19:15, ESV).

            Technically, the Pharisees were right.  But they were not interested in the truth, they were interested in stopping Jesus by any means necessary, so they dismissed what He was saying out of hand based on the Law which said that the truth of a matter is established by two or three witnesses – not one.

            Then Jesus gave them three reasons why, even though the Law is true, they were wrong:

            First, Jesus told them that they were wrong not to believe Him because He knew where He came from and where He is going, but they did not know where He came from or where He was going.

            What did Jesus mean?

            Jesus meant that, being God, He knew that He had existed from all of eternity past – beyond the existence of time – that He had always been in perfect communion with the Father and the Holy Spirit – that before anything existed, God chose to create and to save a people for Himself out of His creation by the Son taking on a real human person, living a perfect life under God’s Law, dying for the sins of all those who would ever believe, physically rising from the dead, and ascending back to His throne at the Right Hand of the Father where He reigns, sovereignly bringing all of history to the end of judgment and restoration, just as He had always planned.

            They, on the other hand, could not explain Jesus and where He came from, nor did they know His mission and where it would lead Him.

            Jesus has the Mind of God; they were sin-blinded humans.

            Second, Jesus told them that they were wrong not to believe in Him because He did not come to judge, but they judge, and they judged according to the flesh – which is fallible.

            As we saw earlier in the book of John: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17, ESV).

Jesus did not come in His First Advent to judge the world for its sin, but to make the Way for salvation for all those who would believe savingly in Him.  (When Jesus returns, then He will judge the world, as He has promised.)

            The judgement of the Pharisees, even when it was based on the Law, was wrong at times; they made mistakes and sinned against the Law themselves.

            Also, if Jesus did judge during His First Advent, His judgement would be true, because His judgement is not His judgement alone, but the judgment of God the Father, as well.

            As we saw earlier in John:

            Jesus said, “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 5:30, ESV).

            “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38, ESV).

            Although Jesus did not come to judge in His First Advent, if He did judge, His judgement would be true because it would be the judgment of God the Father.

            And third, Jesus said they were wrong not to believe Him because God the Father testified to Him.

            We saw this at Jesus’ baptism: 

            “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:16-17, ESV).

            And even more explicitly, every word of Scripture – every word of the Word of God points to Jesus, as we are told Jesus explained:

           

            “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27, ESV).

            The very Word of God that the Pharisees we expert handlers of speaks to Jesus truly being God the Son and Savior, and God, Himself, verbally declared that Jesus is His Son.

            Finally, we see that no one can know the Father until and unless he knows the Son.

            “They said to him therefore, ‘Where is your Father?’ Jesus answered, ‘You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.’ These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.”

            The Pharisees knew that Jesus’ earthly father was Joseph of Nazareth, the carpenter, and they asked Him, in response to what He said, “Oh, your father testifies for you.  Yeah, that will hold up in court.  Where is your father?  Let’s see what he has to say about you.”

            They didn’t get it because they were still blind in their sin.  They had not been illumined by God.  They did not recognize Jesus as the Light.  They did not believe that He is God the Son and Savior.

            And Jesus put it to them plainly: “If you don’t know Me, you can’t know my Father.  If you knew Me, you would know my Father.”

            Jesus said, “And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:37-40, ESV).

            “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6, ESV).

            “Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:9, ESV).

            Jesus and the Father are the same One God.  If you don’t believe that Jesus is God, you do not know God at all – what you call “god” is not the real God.

            This very truth is being debated across Christian academic lines right now:  a professor at Wheaton College – a “Christian” college – stated in class that Muslims and Christians worship the same God.  This caused an uproar that has spread throughout academia and into popular Christian debate:  do Muslims and Christians worship the same God?  For that matter, do Jews and Christians worship the same God?

            Jews and Christians both claim to believe the Old Testament.  Muslims and Christians both claim to believe the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Christianity “grew out” of Judaism, and Islam “grew out” of Christianity and Judaism – at least in some sense.  Do we not all worship the same God?

            Judaism denies that Jesus is God the Son. 

Islam denies that Jesus is God the Son.

If a Jew, a Christian, and a Muslim get together, it is not possible for them to pray together to the same God, because they don’t believe in the same God, because Jesus is God, and Jesus said if you don’t believe that He is God, you don’t believe in God the Father, either.

There a “good” Jews and “good” Christians and “good” Muslims, and we can work together in many ways for the good of each other and our world, but do not be deceived – we do not worship the same God.

Only Christians who truly, savingly believe in Jesus as God the Son and Savior believe in the One, True, Almighty, and Living God.  Everyone else is blinded by sin, they haven’t seen the Light, they are still in need of hearing the Gospel proclaimed to them clearly, and they are still worshipping a false god.

Our hearts should break and ache for all those who engage in worship and do not understand that they are worshipping an idol – a false god.  We ought to love those people and do all we can to tell them about Jesus and Who He is and what He did to make the Way of salvation for all those who will believe.  We ought to be praying for those people – that God would have mercy upon them – and that when they hear the Gospel preached, their blind eyes would open, and they would see the Light, and they would come to believe in Jesus as God the Son and Savior.

Will you and I pray for Jews and Muslims?

Will we tell our Jewish and Muslim friends the Gospel?

Do we believe that Jesus is the Light of the world who opens the eyes of the blind?

Let us pray:

Almighty God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank You for sending Him for us and our salvation.  We thank You that You are both the same One God, as is God the Holy Spirit, Who lives in each one of us who believes.  Give us confidence and boldness in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and in Your Power to bring people to salvation.  Use us and what we say to be the means that many will come to faith in Your Son and the salvation He has accomplished.  And may those who think they are one with us who are not come to understand the Truth about God and Who You are, for it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.