Category: Theology

The Ascension Offering

For several months, I’ve been trying to get my mind around what is often called the burnt offering in the Old Covenant. The reason for this is that Jeff Myers mentioned in an article on Theopolis that he mistranslated the Hebrew word ʿōlâ, in his excellent book on worship Lord’s Day Service. Instead of translating ʿōlâ burnt offering, it should be translated as ascension offering. This small change helps us understand what is taking place in worship.

It’s not that burnt offering isn’t similar, but the word ʿōlâ, means “to ascend.”

It is James Jordan, who Myers credits in the article I cannot find, that helps us understand this simple change.

Jordan writes:

“Though the Ascension offering is indeed all burned up, the word in Hebrew (ʿōlâ) means ‘go up’ or ‘ascend.’ We need to link this offering with all the many times people go up on a mountain to meet God, up into an upper room, or up to a rooftop, or ‘up on the altar.’ Similarly, though the Tribute offering in Leviticus 2 consists of grain, the Hebrew word (minchah) means ‘gift or tribute,’ and ‘tribute’ is the better word to use when presenting a require gift to a king. Moreover, in Numbers the Tribute offering has wine added to it, so ‘Grain/Meal/Cereal offering’ is not a good term to use for this offering. The sequence of the two offerings mean that we ascend to God’s throne and present our gifts to Him, which He accepts. This fundamental meaning of the offerings is completely obscured by the common mistranslations of the two key terms.”

 

Here is an example of burnt offering in Scripture that should be translated ascension offering. Noah is ascending into the presence of God.

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar (Genesis 8:20).

The point is that we are truly ascending in worship into the presence of God. Not that we go up to meet Him, as so many try in other religions, but He carries us up by the power of the Spirit, up Mt. Zion (Hebrews 12), into His presence, to meet with Him, be cleansed by Him, be fed by Him, and then sent back out again, by Him.

You Have Heard It Said — Gospel of Matthew Sermon 27

Old Covenant Reading (read first):  Genesis 4:1-12

New Covenant Reading: Matthew 5:21-26

Sermon – You Have Heard It Said

Jesus says:

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’”

He finally begins to preach upon the Moral Law itself. This is the section of the Law that most people are vaguely familiar with (Yes, contradictory terms).

As Jesus teaches on the Moral Law, please notice what He doesn’t do. He doesn’t turn this into a morality lecture. He is indeed speaking on the Moral Law, but not in such a way that we come away with the reductionistic trope of “be good, do be angry.”

There are far more complexities to honoring this law than we like to think about. What Jesus says here, requires much more that a simple statement of moralism. He is requiring us to use wisdom in our lives, in order to keep the commandments.

Peter Leithart writes about this portion of Christ’s sermon:

“These instructions are not just membership qualifications. They are redemptive commandments, and Jesus is laying out the specifics of the redemptive righteousness that surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.”

 

The Law and the Prophets — The Gospel of Matthew Sermon 26

When Jesus begins to preach the Sermon on the Mount, He starts with the nature of those who make up the Kingdom. Then, He turns to the Law and Prophets, showing that He is the fulfillment of both. He is not removing the Law and Prophets, but making it more effective for us.

One way to understand this fulfillment is to consummate the Law. We think of the consummation of a marriage when we hear the word consummate. This is actually helpful.

When the consummation of a marriage takes place, it doesn’t make the marriage go away, or the requirements of the marriage disappear. In fact, it brings the requirements of faithfulness, which should have been present before the marriage, to an even more important level in the marriage. Faithfulness in marriage, begins before marriage, and when the fulness of the marriage comes about, it heightens the need for faithfulness.

The same is true for God’s Law. The fulfillment of the LAW didn’t make LAW go away, but made it more important because Christ fulfills the Law.

This is what it means for Christ of fulfill the Law and Prophets.

Work vs. Worship

There are times when I will be talking to believers about worship, and they will say something along the lines of, “well, I worship every day. All of life is worship. I’m worshipping now as I do my job.”

I know that they want to believe this, because it sanctifies their job. There is nothing wrong with the desire to see our callings as ordained by God. The work we do is a calling from God. When we take up a job, we are to do it for the glory of the LORD, taking dominion of the task before us, so that when it is done in faith, He is glorified. In doing our jobs, we are being obedient to the LORD. All Christians should have this view towards their jobs.

The problem is that even though we are told to do all things for the glory of the LORD, we are not to assume that we are worshipping God in our daily callings. Work and worship are quite different. In fact, when we worship God, we are to cease from work. The two do not overlap. In both the Old and New Testament, we see the different words used for “work” and “worship,” showing that the two words are not the same. One can work, or worship, one cannot do both since the spheres are different callings from God.

We get this in our instructions of when we are to worship found in the Ten Commandments.

Deuteronomy 5:12-15

12 ‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

This is one of the foundational principles for worship, showing us that we are to cease from work on the Sabbath, or as we do under the New Covenant, the LORD’s Day. But more importantly, we see the worship and work are not the same. One might say: “well, the commandment doesn’t say to worship.” The rest of Deuteronomy details worship. But here in the commandment, we are given the principle of 1 day in 7. We work on 6 days, and 1 day we worship. Work is to cease on the LORD’s Day.

But to be more clear, we need to look at the Hebrew word for work. It is: mᵊlā’ḵâ. It means to labor. It points to our occupation, and we are commanded to work for six days. Strong’s put it this way:

מְלָאכָה mᵉlâʼkâh, mel-aw-kaw’; from the same as H4397; properly, deputyship, i.e. ministry; generally, employment (never servile) or work (abstractly or concretely); also property (as the result of labor):—business, cattle, industrious, occupation, ( -pied), officer, thing (made), use, (manner of) work((-man), -manship).

What about worship? What are we to do for worship? Fundamentally, when we worship, we are to make sacrifices to the LORD. Work is about producing. Worship is about sacrifice. We see this when Abraham took Isaac up on the mountain to sacrifice him, as YHWH had instructed Abraham to do.

Genesis 22:5

And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.”

The worship that Abraham is to do, is sacrifice. He thinks he will sacrifice his son, knowing that if he does, the LORD will raise him up again. But he ends up sacrificing a ram that the LORD provided. This is a key to our worship. It is about sacrifice. We go to worship for sacrifice. But the LORD provides the sacrifice. We just offer ourselves, and He cuts us up with His word, then works in us, and then feeds us, all through the ultimate sacrifice that Christ made on the cross.

Back to the word for worship in Hebrew. It is: šāḥâ. It has the idea of bowing down, prostrating oneself, humbling oneself before a superior. Strong’s puts it this way:

שָׁחָה shâchâh, shaw-khaw’; a primitive root; to depress, i.e. prostrate (especially reflexive, in homage to royalty or God):—bow (self) down, crouch, fall down (flat), humbly beseech, do (make) obeisance, do reverence, make to stoop, worship.

Hopefully you can see the two concepts are different. We work unto the glory of the LORD during the week, but it is not worship. We gather with the people of God on the LORD’s day, but it is not work. The two have different goals and function.

What about the New Testament?

The best passage for this is one of God’s stated purposes in sending Christ.

John 4:24

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

A lot of evangelicals miss the mark on this verse, because they don’t give it the value that it should have. They are so often focused on John 3:16 (thereby missing the fulness of the John 3), that they come to the conclusion that we are to focus merely on missions. But the Father’s purpose in missions is worship. Worship takes priority. The Father sends the Son, so that there will be true worship. (For more on this, you can listen to the sermon on this subject here).

Hopefully here we can lay this to rest, because the Greek word used for worship is: proskyneō. It means to prostrate oneself before another. As Strong’s puts it:

προσκυνέω proskynéō, pros-koo-neh’-o; from G4314 and a probable derivative of G2965 (meaning to kiss, like a dog licking his master’s hand); to fawn or crouch to, i.e. (literally or figuratively) prostrate oneself in homage (do reverence to, adore):—worship.

This is not the picture of work at all. In fact, let’s look at “work” in Greek as well. The Greek word for work is: ergon. Strong’s explains it this way:

ἔργον érgon, er’-gon; from a primary (but obsolete) ἔργω érgō (to work); toil (as an effort or occupation); by implication, an act:—deed, doing, labour, work.

We are to ergon during the week, and proskyneo on the LORD’s day. To say we worship during the week is to confuse the meaning of the two words.

Conclusion

To work is labor. It is a calling, and we should treat it as such. But work is not worship. These are two different functions for the Christian. We work during the week, and worship on the First Day of the week. Yes, we should see our work as a calling from God. But let us not mix up the two.

If you would like to learn more about Covenantal Worship, then go here for a series of sermons on the topic.

For Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven — The Gospel of Matthew Sermon 24

Preparation for Worship: Psalm 73:25-26

Call to worship: Hebrews 12:18-24 (Keep it, same as last week).

Reading of the Law: Proverbs 10:30-32 (Dichotomy continues: righteous and wicked)

AOPG: Isaiah 1:18; Hebrews 12:24

Old Covenant Reading (read first):  Ezekiel 47:1-5

New Covenant Reading: Matthew 5:1-10

(This is the inspired and holy word of God.)

Sermon – For Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven

Introduction –

Our text reads: “He sat on a mountain…” I’ve tried to show that more is going on than meets the eye. If we remain in an elementary understanding of Scripture, we will never see the true richness of what Jesus is doing. This is why I spent much of last Sunday’s sermon showing the significance of Jesus sitting on a mountain, teaching the people of God.

This means something. It shows us the greater spiritual reality of what takes place when we gather for worship, on the mountain, with the people of God, sitting at the feet of our Savior.

He is the Temple of God. We are the building blocks of that Temple. When we gather, true worship takes place. When we gather, He feeds us, and gives us drink.

The Apostle John also hits upon this theme as well, but not directly.

John gives us another picture of this reality.

Revelation 21:2-6

2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (Part of the already/not yet reality)

5 Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” (Including us) And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

6 And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.”

As Jesus sits on the mountain to teach, He is laying the foundations for this new city, this Tabernacle. He is setting up the fountain of the water of life, which we know from Ezekiel that it becomes a flowing river.

When Jesus started preaching, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,” the trickling of the river of life began. It then continued to grow into a stream. As Jesus teaches on the side of the mountain, that stream becomes a river flowing to all the people who hear. As His ministry continued, and He ascended into heaven, then the river flowed to the point that no one could cross it. It was too deep, too wide.

In other words, as we sit here this morning, the waters of life are a river that …(we) could not cross… for the waters of life flow around the world… the waters of life seek to sustain those who are citizens of the kingdom.

And it is the citizens of the kingdom that Jesus is speaking to.

He Went Up a Mountain — The Gospel of Matthew Sermon 23

Just a quick note: this is one of those sermons when I was able to focus in upon the importance of mountains in Scripture. Everything has meaning, and we need to see the symbolism in Scripture. In this sermon, I explain why mountains are so vital. For a hint of it, read the Call to Worship and it will help you see what I mean.

Preparation for Worship: Matthew 21:21-22

Call to worship: Hebrews 12:18-24

18 For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, 19 and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard itbegged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. 20 (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.” 21 And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)

22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

Reading of the Law: Proverbs 10:27-29 (Note: Simple dichotomy)

AOPG: Isaiah 1:18-19

Old Covenant Reading (read first):  Isaiah 14:12-15

New Covenant Reading: Matthew 5:1-2

(This is the inspired and holy word of God.)

Sermon – He Went Up on a Mountain

Introduction –

I don’t know if you have notice this or not, but my sermon titles about Jesus have been about Christ’s movements.  Some of the titles are as follows: He Departed to Galilee,Jesus was led up by the Spirit, Walking by the Sea, and last week, Jesus went about… Today’s sermon is: He Went Up on a Mountain.

I’ve done this for two reasons. The first is that when I title a sermon, I want to use something from Scripture so that I can avoid the temptation to come up with some cheesy catch phrase. Cheesy titles are a bane to the pulpit because the one preaching is always having to come up with something clever, at least in his own mind. In one sense, that cheapens the word of God, and exalts the pastor for how witty he is.

I don’t want to do this.

But more importantly, by using a phrase directly from the text, I can bring Scripture to bear on the sermon, before I’ve uttered a word. Just by titling the sermon, He went up on a mountain, your minds are already thinking of the movements of Jesus. He is not stagnant in His ministry, but is moving about from place to place, preaching and teaching as many people as He can.

But secondly, the movement of Christ reminds us… that He was indeed, led by the Spirit, departed Galilee, walked by the sea, and went about…

All of these movements were purposely recorded by Matthew so that we would realize how much He moved around. These details help us see the truthfulness of Christ’s ministry.

And none does that more than what we are looking at this morning. Our text reads:

And seeing the multitude, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him, then He opened His mouth and taught them…

 

 

 

 

Jesus Went About — The Gospel of Matthew Sermon 22

Preparation for Worship: Luke 4:36

Call to worship: Isaiah 61:1-3

Reading of the Law: Proverbs 10:26 (Note to me: we have been called by our LORD to work… where we find ourselves being lazy, we need to repent).

AOPG: Romans 4:7-8

Old Covenant Reading (read first): Isaiah 61

New Covenant Reading: Matthew 4:23-25

(This is the inspired and holy word of God.)

Sermon – Jesus Went About

Introduction –

It’s not often that you can read a book of fiction and find true biblical insight. That is what happened when I was reading the Lord of the Rings to Heidi recently. I had finished reading about the Ride of Rohirrim, and in the chapter called The Houses of Healing, I had the “aha moment.”

The old wife, Ioreth, was tending to the wounded Faramir, afraid for his life. She then said, “Would that there were kings in Gondor as there were once upon a time, they say! For it is said in the old lore: The hands of the king are the hands of the healer. And so the rightful king could ever be known.”

It was at that moment, that I realized where it was that Tolkien came upon this idea, of the king being a healer.

He got the idea from the gospels, that show that our King truly is a healer.

And, this is what we should expect to find when it comes to the Messiah. Remember what was promised about the Messiah in the Garden of Eden: And I will put enmity between you (Satan) and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.

We are also told:

Isaiah 53:5

But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.

Jesus has come to reverse the curse. He is not only coming to defeat Satan, but also the work of Satan. Jesus is our sacrifice. He is the One who redeems us. He is the One who heals us.

All this is necessary for us to be citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. We are beneficiaries to all of these things in Christ and without the regeneration that is necessary, we cannot be citizens of His Kingdom.

In this, we begin to see that Christ’s Kingdom is a different kind of Kingdom, with a different kind of King. The world offers us messiahs that can only lead by applying different levels of coercion.

But not Christ. He leads us by regenerating our hearts so that we believe. He leads us by working faith in us to believe. He leads us by bringing freedom from sin. He leads us and works in us by giving us the Spirit of God Himself. He leads by dealing with all that plague us. He leads us by dealing with His and our enemies. He is a different kind of King. He is a healing King.

Walking By the Sea — The Gospel of Matthew Sermon 21

Preparation for Worship: 1 Corinthians 1:26-29

Call to worship: Psalm 135:1-7

Reading of the Law: Proverbs 10:23-25

AOPG: Psalm 34:17-22

Old Covenant Reading (read first):  Jeremiah 16:14-21

New Covenant Reading: Matthew 4:11-17

(This is the inspired and holy word of God.)

Sermon – Walking By the Sea

Introduction –

Shortly after Jesus begins His public ministry, preaching “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” He is walking about and comes across a couple of fishermen.

The two men, were not the wise of the world. The world would consider them foolish, and weak, and base. Why? Because they were fishermen. They were not powerful. They didn’t have a lot of knowledge. You would not find these four men in the halls of Herod, making great speeches for this cause or that.

They got up every day, went down to the sea, and fished for a living. On the Sabbath day, they went to the synagogue for worship. They were married, had families, … they were quite normal.

Yet, as Jesus is walking, He approaches them and gives them the irresistible call to follow Him.

And in calling these men, Jesus then begins to fulfill the prophecy made by John the Baptist before Jesus was baptized. What did he say about Jesus?

“His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Notice how John informs His audience. He makes it clear that Jesus is the One who will be doing the work of the Kingdom. He will have a winnowing fan in His hand. For us, that may not mean much. But the winnowing fan was used to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Here, John is using it as an illustration showing that Jesus will separate His righteous ones from the wicked of the world. Jesus will divide His followers out from the chaff. Jesus will bring those who belong to Him, into His barn. Jesus will take the chaff and burn it up in the unquenchable fire.

 

 

He Departed Galilee — The Gospel of Matthew Sermon 20

Waco Reformed Church

Sermon Text: Matthew 4:11-17

Old Covenant Text: Isaiah 9:1-7

This sermon focuses on Jesus leaving His home and going to Galilee fulfilling the prophecy spoken of in Isaiah 9.

Preached February 2, 2025.

 

You Shall Worship — The Gospel of Matthew Sermon 19

LORD’S DAY WORSHIP – JANUARY 26, 2025

Preparation for Worship: John 4:23

Call to worship: Psalm 92:1-4

Reading of the Law: Proverbs 10:12-18 (Solomon’s tidbits…).

AOPG: 1 John 1:8-2:2

Old Covenant Reading (read first): Exodus 32:1-9

New Covenant Reading: Matthew 4:1-11

(This is the inspired and holy word of God.)

Sermon – You Shall Worship 

Introduction – 

Back some 10 or 15 years ago, when I used to listen to talk radio, there were two shows that I really loved. One was the Herd, with Colin Cowherd. He covered sport and regularly would offer insight that other sportscasters missed.

Sometime though, he would offer real gems about life. He would often point out that people will project what the feel toward you without saying it, especially when it came to relationships. He made the case that when a woman leaves a man in marriage, that usually the only one surprised is the man. She had been giving the signs all along. All the friends and family saw it coming, but the man remained in the dark. He didn’t want to know.

The other show that I would listen to was the Rush Limbaugh show. He made a similar statement about liberals and Democrats. His statement was that if you watched them long enough, they would tell you exactly who they were, and what they wanted to do. They couldn’t hide who they were.

I bring this up, because in this last temptation of Christ , we will see that the devil is telling us who he is, and what he wants.

In telling Jesus: “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”

We see who the devil is: he is a counterfeit god. He wants to usurp God in every way imaginable, and his most cunning trick of all is to get men to worship him. This is why he saves this temptation for last, and why he uses it against Christ. He wants Jesus to worship him.

He wants us to worship him.

He wants every man, woman and child on the planet to worship him.

 

You Shall Not Tempt — The Gospel of Matthew Sermon 18

LORD’S DAY WORSHIP – JANUARY 19, 2025

Preparation for Worship: Hebrews 3:12-13

Call to worship: Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Reading of the Law: Proverbs 10:8-11 (Solomon’s tidbits…).

AOPG: Psalm 85:1-3

Old Covenant Reading (read first): Deuteronomy 6:10-20

New Covenant Reading: Matthew 4:1-7

(This is the inspired and holy word of God.)

Sermon – You Shall Not Tempt 

Introduction – 

Last week we began working our way through the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. In that temptation, Jesus recapitulated Adam in the Garden of Eden.

(Recapitulation is to repeat something in concise form. For the purposes of Christ, He is repeating what Adam went through, without falling into sin. He is doing what Adam failed to do, but under far more severe circumstances).

For Adam had everything he needed to live in the Garden. There was only one thing withheld from Adam in the Garden. It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam did not need the fruit of that tree to live. The tree was meant to be a blessing, once Adam proved his obedience.

Instead of living in obedience to YHWH, Adam stretched out his hand, and ate of the one thing God did not give him. He took what was forbidden to him.

At that moment of sin, Adam obtained for the first time in his short life, the knowledge of evil. His heart had become evil. He didn’t believe the LORD, and believed the serpent instead. In that moment, he fell from God’s grace.

Hopefully you see the contrast with Jesus, who is the Last Adam. He was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, where He fasted for 40 days. Then at the end of that fast, the devil came and tempted Him in two areas: the first on his Hunger, the second on His Deity.

This wilderness setting also shows us that this is a recapitulation of Israel’s time in the wilderness, when they were without water, and they tested God, instead of trusting Him.

Jesus is not only walking the steps of Adam, but the steps of Israel. The reason for this is because Israel was considered to be God’s son. By this, we mean the entire nation was to be a son to God, and He was to be their Father. Therefore, the true Israel does what is necessary to please the Father. He goes to wilderness, goes through a fast which included water, and please the Father.

Led By the Spirit: The Gospel of Matthew Sermon 17

Sermon – Led by the Spirit 

Introduction – 

One of the hardest lessons we all have to learn as Christians, is that there are times in our lives where we are tested by God. In other words, He removes things from us, or keep things from us, or allows Satan to offer things to us, to see what is in our hearts. This often falls under the category of “affliction.”

Thomas Boston wrote:

“Affliction does not rise out of the dust or come to men by chance; but it is the LORD that sends it, and we should own and reverence His hand in it.”

What Boston is telling us is that God is truly sovereign over all things, therefore when we fall into affliction, we know that it is by God’s hand. The question for is should never be: has God brought affliction, trials, or testing in our lives? He has and does.

The question for us is: how shall we respond to it?

God has used affliction in the lives of His people throughout human history. He does so to test them. He does so to refine them. He does so in order for them to see the wickedness in their hearts that still remains.

If we are wise, we will embrace that affliction from His hand and trust Him throughout the process.

This all started in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. Adam was given everything in the Garden; he had all the food he needed. He had the most beautiful woman in the world. He was completely blessed. There was nothing that he did not have, save one thing: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The Father told Adam, that this tree was off limits. He could look at the tree, but Adam could not eat of the tree.

Now please note this: The Father wasn’t being unloving to Adam at all. He had blessed Adam with everything. Adam was not in want of anything. This is important to understand. In a lot of the affliction we see in God’s people, they are in true want of something when He tests them.

Yet, here, Adam was not in want of anything… except the knowledge of evil. That was the only thing he did not have. He wasn’t hungry. He had plenty of water to drink. He had all the love and affection a wife could bring. He had it all… except the knowledge of evil.

For Adam knew both goodness in theory and experientially. All that the Father had done with him, and for him, was God’s goodness on display.

We know the story. Adam quickly fell into sin by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

By eating that tree, Adam knew true evil for the first time. In fact, he didn’t just know evil as some idea, he knew evil experientially. He had known nothing but goodness before he ate of the tree, but now, evil was a reality in his heart. He had become… evil in his rebellion. Adam became the adopted son of the father of that evil. In listening to the serpent, he worshipped the serpent, and became like his new father the devil.

The relationship between Adam and God was broken. Just the fact that Adam tried to hide, and then blame his own sin on the woman that God gave to him, should show us just how far Adam had fallen.

We see only two things from that point forward in regards to God’s provision for Adam. The first is that God makes tunics for Adam, sacrificing sheep in order offer atonement and point to the coming of the Seed of the Woman.

Secondly, Adam is driven from the Garden, and into the wilderness. This was to protect Adam from eating of the tree of life, and thereby living forever in his fallen state.

All of this affliction came from that one event. While God tested Adam, he was not afflicted. Yet, the afflictions that follow are now because of the entrance of sin into the world.

The Father had allowed Adam to be tempted by the devil, and Adam failed miserably.

The Voice of One Crying in the Desert: Gospel of Matthew Sermon No. 13

We have come to the portion of Matthew’s gospel where we are introduced to John the Baptist. If you recall from last week, we saw that he was the last Old Covenant prophet, whom God raised up in the wilderness, in order to prepare the people of God for their coming King.

John’s ministry was marked, not only by baptism, but by preaching the Kingdom, which required the need for repentance. Repentance, as we saw, is an outward action that comes about from an inward reality. In other words, the Spirit moves in us to help see that we need to turn away from our sinful lives, and turn toward Christ.

This repentance may be visible in our lives, as it was for the soldiers, who were to no longer to intimidate or accuse falsely; tax collectors, who were to collect no more than was fair, and everyday people, who were to give when they could to those in need. We also saw the outward evidence of repentance in Matthew’s own life. Jesus came to him and said, “Follow me,” which Matthew immediately did.

Listen to the full sermon below…

The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand: The Gospel of Matthew Sermon 12

Introduction – 

One of the modern themes that is being drawn out in Reformed circles over the past 25 years or so, is the idea that much of the New Testament, especially the gospels and Revelation, are actually legal documents written as lawsuits against Israel. I agree. This is a helpful way of looking at the texts.

Peter Leithart writes:

In every one of the gospels, the beginning of Jesus’ ministry is John’s ministry. John is the forerunner, the first witness in God’s final prosecution of His lawsuit against Israel” (Leithart, The Gospel of Matthew, Vol. 1, p. 80).

I believe this is one way to think of the gospels. The gospels are lawsuits against those who should have accepted the One born King of the Jews, but rejected Him instead. God will raise up witness after witness, give sign after sign, and proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind… yet the leadership will absolutely reject the Messiah.

Even with this understanding, we must not lose sight that the gospels serve a greater purpose that an indictment against the leadership. They serve as affirmation to those who didn’t reject the Messiah who was born King of the Jews. Matthew is giving those believers in the first century an account of Christ, showing how it is, that He is the long-expected Messiah.

Already, Matthew has shown that Jesus is the Messiah through a detailed genealogy, that Jesus was both tied to Abraham and King David. Matthew also took us through the birth narratives, showing us the worldly forces opposed to His coming, and opening our eyes to how God used a faithful man, Joseph, to help deliver THE Deliverer from the hands of Satan.

In our text before us this morning, we are seeing one of the first major witnesses of Christ: John the Baptist. Matthew will show us that John the Baptist was the fulfillment of prophecy, showing that God does indeed save His people.

When Herod was Dead: The Gospel of Matthew Sermon No. 11

The simple phrase “when Herod was dead,” ties the events of Christ’s birth to history, reminding us, that the world Jesus was born into was fallen and sinful. This helps keep our view of the nativity rooted in reality, removing our views of a Hallmark birth, which is more fantasy than reality.

About the photo in the header: it was taken down in Galveston and is simply a sand castle that we discovered walking on the beach on Christmas Eve. We loved it, and kept coming back to it through the day. It survived the next high tide, and you cans see it in the sunset picture on the post about Sexual Immorality if you look hard enough.