If you do such a thing, you're probably coming near the end of your Bible reading plan for this year. Bible reading plans are great, until they make you proud or discouraged, when you throw them away and read Galatians.
It's helpful to think about the end of time at the end of the year. What happens at the end of time? We are glorified and satisfied. We see Jesus face, which is eternal life, and our joy receptors have to be re-routed before they blow up. What happens at the end of the year tho? We wake up, and it's January, back to the beginning, back to Genesis, back to school, back to church. It's not Christmas songs anymore, but the slightly dull realisation that summer is still months away, and the only think to look forward to before then is your writer's birthday, (February 21st).
2013, for various reasons already documented on these pages, will not be a year i'll remember fondly. I hope it does let the door hit it on the way out. But how did we love Jesus in 2013? Did we continue? Is that what we'll look back on fondly as we voyage off into 2014? Our great acts of faith and service? Did we love Jesus well in 2013?
Probably not, and that's ok.
Will we love Jesus well in 2014?
Probably not, and that's ok.
Not ok because we're all antinomians and it doesn't matter how we live. We must kick that idea in the teeth. It's ok because Jesus is our champion, Jesus goes out and fights Goliath while we cower behind Him, Jesus loves the Father perfectly and is not afraid to call us brother as He represents us. Jesus loved, and served, and delighted the Father perfectly in 2013, and He will in 2014, and you know what, because He did, you did.
At the end of time, like at the end of the Bible, we'll see Jesus' face, we'll have eternal life. Why? Because we worked hard and paid our tithes? No! Because Jesus did, because He was perfect, because He paid what was needed. That was our lode star this year, and it must be next year. In triumph and tragedy, there is nothing else.
Monday, 30 December 2013
Friday, 20 December 2013
On Home
Rachel and I have come back to the UK for Christmas. I've been thinking a lot about the word 'home' over the last couple of weeks, perhaps inevitably. I've come to love the desolate beauty of the coastal plains as much as the gently rolling green of the Chiltern Hills, so what does that mean for the word home? That i have two? Or none?
I don't suppose it really matters. When i go through customs in the States, the man at the desk says 'welcome home,' (well, he does now i've got a Green Card anyway!) when i crossed the border last night, the man at the desk told me what a bad picture i took. So there's that.
I guess home is where my life is, where my wife is, where my parents are. But those are two different places. Have i come home for Christmas? Or have i left home for Christmas? Yes. I look the wrong way when i cross the street and i'm shocked at home expensive things are, (Rachel! That's twice as much in dollars!) But my family's here, i grew up here, tomorrow, i'll go to watch the famous Wycombe Wanderers play with my dad, and howl at eleven men i've never met before. And that will feel like home too.
So what of all this rambling narcissism? Well, i've come to embrace living in two places, because it reminds me to look for a city to come, it reminds me that until Christ returns to reclaim what is His, no one who belongs to Him has a home here. No one. I remember that it's healthy to feel unsettled, it's an object lesson.
So i might be the only one in south Bucks who believes that gun control means using two hands (well, apart from Rachel anyway) and the only one in eastern North Carolina who knows what a chairboy is, and that's fine. That's good. It's wonderful to have two homes, because it reminds me that i only have one, and He was born in a manger.
I don't suppose it really matters. When i go through customs in the States, the man at the desk says 'welcome home,' (well, he does now i've got a Green Card anyway!) when i crossed the border last night, the man at the desk told me what a bad picture i took. So there's that.
I guess home is where my life is, where my wife is, where my parents are. But those are two different places. Have i come home for Christmas? Or have i left home for Christmas? Yes. I look the wrong way when i cross the street and i'm shocked at home expensive things are, (Rachel! That's twice as much in dollars!) But my family's here, i grew up here, tomorrow, i'll go to watch the famous Wycombe Wanderers play with my dad, and howl at eleven men i've never met before. And that will feel like home too.
So what of all this rambling narcissism? Well, i've come to embrace living in two places, because it reminds me to look for a city to come, it reminds me that until Christ returns to reclaim what is His, no one who belongs to Him has a home here. No one. I remember that it's healthy to feel unsettled, it's an object lesson.
So i might be the only one in south Bucks who believes that gun control means using two hands (well, apart from Rachel anyway) and the only one in eastern North Carolina who knows what a chairboy is, and that's fine. That's good. It's wonderful to have two homes, because it reminds me that i only have one, and He was born in a manger.
Friday, 13 December 2013
Christmas in Dark Places (A video by Glenn Scrivener)
It used to be summer when Christmas came round,
Neath tall southern skies, over sun-scorched ground,
With the backyard cricket, the barbies, the beach,
And munching on mangoes to watch the Queen's Speech.
The slatherings of sunscreen, the glorious glare
And toasting the glow in the warm evening air.
It used to be summer... when I was young.
A golden age in a land far flung.
But there came a point, I crossed a divide,
Went up in the world and summer had died.
December is dark now, the nights close in,
So we huddle together as kith and as kin.
It's winter now when Christmas rolls round,
We celebrate still though with different surrounds.
We mull the wine and strike the matches,
Light the fires, batten the hatches,
Gather around the warming beam
Of family love or a TV screen.
So safe inside, no place to go,
We toast marshmallows and let it snow.
Our summer's gone, if you've been around,
you've felt the fall: life's run aground.
We've gone up in the world, seen summer die.
So what's our hope? The dark defy?
Stoke the hearth? Retreat indoors?
Rug up warm with you and yours?
The shadow reaches even here,
But THIS is the place for Christmas cheer.
It's dark, in the bible, when Christmas is spoken.
Always a bolt from the blue for the broken.
It's the valley of shadow, the land of the dead,
It's, "No place in the inn," so He stoops to the shed.
He's born to the shameful, bends to the weak,
becomes the lowly: the God who can't speak!
And yet, what a Word, this Saviour who comes,
Our dismal, abysmal depths He plumbs.
Through crib and then cross, to compass our life.
To carry and conquer. Our Brother in strife.
He became what we are: our failures He shouldered,
To bring us to His life: forever enfolded.
He took on our frailty, He took on all-comers,
To turn all our winters to glorious summers.
It's Christmas now... whatever the weather,
Some soak in the sun, some huddle together.
But fair days or foul, our plight He embraces.
Real Christmas can shine in the darkest of places.
Thursday, 12 December 2013
Cover Me
A few weeks ago, some rogue motorist swerved down my street, and collected our mailbox on his way. He knocked the door off, and the handy yellow flag that told us if we had any mail that day. Eventually, i've got to go and buy a new mail box to replace the old one. It has to be a mailbox, i can't put a microwave there, or a bowl of soup. Mailbox for mailbox.
Likewise, if the lady driving the car who hit our mailbox showed up at my door to replace it, she'd need to give me a new one, or at least, a decent replacement. A picture of a mailbox won't do, neither will a new sweater or a pair of scissors. Mailbox for mail box.
We see this idea all the way though the Bible. God told Adam and Eve that a life would be taken if they ate the fruit of the tree, and so it was, although we like to think that God was making a coat to keep them warm, He was shedding blood to pay for sin. The Old Testament sacrificial system depended on and illustrated this idea every day. There had been sin, there must be death. On the Day of Atonement some estimate that over three hundred thousand animals died. The Brook Kidron ran red, the Priests were covered and the mercy seat stained with the blood that paid for sins.
Hebrews 9:22 puts it bluntly, 'without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.' Life for life, death for sin. It's always been this way, and we understand why. Mailbox for mailbox, life for life. But come on, we now that a goat can't pay for the sins of a man. So a man came, the lamb of God, the final lamb, making a satisfying sacrifice, finally giving God and man justice for sins, finally paying the price, finally cleaning our consciences.
We ask this man for mercy, we ask Him to cover us. That's what's going on at the end of Luke 18. The tax collector stands far off beating his chest, and says 'Lord, cover me, a sinner.' Cover me, have mercy on me. Cover me with the blood of a substitute. Just like Moses did in Exodus 24:5-6. An animal was killed, half it's blood poured in the basin, the other half sprinkled on the people. They were covered with the blood of the substitute. Sin brings death, life for life.
Have mercy on me, cover me with the blood of a substitute, pass over me.
The longer i'm a Christian, and the more i see the dark recesses of my own heart, the more precious this becomes. The world needs a God angered by sin, but the world also needs God. Jesus has dealt with that huge problem, He has died, a life for a life, and His blood covers us. If you try to live with Christ primarily as your example, not your substitute, it's like living in a house with no foundations, you're just not safe. Come to Christ instead, and be covered with His blood.
Likewise, if the lady driving the car who hit our mailbox showed up at my door to replace it, she'd need to give me a new one, or at least, a decent replacement. A picture of a mailbox won't do, neither will a new sweater or a pair of scissors. Mailbox for mail box.
We see this idea all the way though the Bible. God told Adam and Eve that a life would be taken if they ate the fruit of the tree, and so it was, although we like to think that God was making a coat to keep them warm, He was shedding blood to pay for sin. The Old Testament sacrificial system depended on and illustrated this idea every day. There had been sin, there must be death. On the Day of Atonement some estimate that over three hundred thousand animals died. The Brook Kidron ran red, the Priests were covered and the mercy seat stained with the blood that paid for sins.
Hebrews 9:22 puts it bluntly, 'without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.' Life for life, death for sin. It's always been this way, and we understand why. Mailbox for mailbox, life for life. But come on, we now that a goat can't pay for the sins of a man. So a man came, the lamb of God, the final lamb, making a satisfying sacrifice, finally giving God and man justice for sins, finally paying the price, finally cleaning our consciences.
We ask this man for mercy, we ask Him to cover us. That's what's going on at the end of Luke 18. The tax collector stands far off beating his chest, and says 'Lord, cover me, a sinner.' Cover me, have mercy on me. Cover me with the blood of a substitute. Just like Moses did in Exodus 24:5-6. An animal was killed, half it's blood poured in the basin, the other half sprinkled on the people. They were covered with the blood of the substitute. Sin brings death, life for life.
Have mercy on me, cover me with the blood of a substitute, pass over me.
The longer i'm a Christian, and the more i see the dark recesses of my own heart, the more precious this becomes. The world needs a God angered by sin, but the world also needs God. Jesus has dealt with that huge problem, He has died, a life for a life, and His blood covers us. If you try to live with Christ primarily as your example, not your substitute, it's like living in a house with no foundations, you're just not safe. Come to Christ instead, and be covered with His blood.
Tuesday, 10 December 2013
The Son Of Righteousness
In the middle of winter, being woken up by the sun feels like a distant dream. At the moment i watch the day slowly dawn as i read the Bible in the morning, and, on very bad days, while i'm driving my wife to school sometime later that morning. But there's something wonderful about sunrise, something hope filled, something refreshing about seeing the sunrise, something significant.
And because the Gospel is true, we should expect everything in the natural world to be filled with significance. This was clearly Malachi's point of view, when he described the coming of Christ like the rising of the sun. And there's lots of ways that's true. The sun brings hope, healing, help, security and joy, just like Christ's coming does.
But i think there's something else that Christ being like the sun does as well. It wakes us up. Malachi ministered in such a depressing time in the history of Israel. Not as bad as the times of the Judges perhaps, and in some senses better than the exile itself, but not by much. The people had returned the the promised land, free from captivity. As good students of Moses, they'd have known what to expect next. A glorious temple and a glorious kingdom, and they got neither. The temple was ok, but nothing in comparison to the old one, and as for the kingdom, they'd gone from being a world power to a provincial backwater.
And worse, they were asleep spiritually. The people offered the blind and sick animals in sacrifice, and the priests let them. Few took God's Word seriously. Worship had become wearisome to the people. There were few who were faithful, few who heeded Malachi's call. They were asleep, and they needed the sun. And the sun is the prescription for all our ills. We need to stop chasing the darkness away and open the windows.
If we're asleep, our prescription is the same. If tithing seems like madness to us, we need to be woken up. We need to remember that we have no earthly city, we have to remember that what we earn belongs to God anyway, we have to remember that our faith is seen as we serve God not money. As the sun rises, we hold money cheaper.
If worship is a weariness, we need the sun to warm us up. We need to remember our riches in Christ, our salvation from sin, our union with the Son of God. We need the sun to warm us up until we sing. And worship isn't just singing. We need to be woken up so that we live our whole lives as if the Gospel is true. So that what we read in the Bible stays with us, and changes us. we ned to bathe in the sun until we sing.
If we struggle to take the Bible seriously, we need to open our eyes and be dazzled by the sun. We need to ask for help every morning to see what's really there. And just like an eye doctor is glorified when we ask for help to see the sun, so God the Father is glorified when we ask for help to see the Son. And those are the prayers He loves to answer.
This is the healing we need. To give, to sing, to see. We need to be weaned off the dark, cold air, which we're told to desire, which we're told is safe, and come out into the light. We need to leap like calfs, because the Son of God has come, and He shines on us in all His glory.
And because the Gospel is true, we should expect everything in the natural world to be filled with significance. This was clearly Malachi's point of view, when he described the coming of Christ like the rising of the sun. And there's lots of ways that's true. The sun brings hope, healing, help, security and joy, just like Christ's coming does.
But i think there's something else that Christ being like the sun does as well. It wakes us up. Malachi ministered in such a depressing time in the history of Israel. Not as bad as the times of the Judges perhaps, and in some senses better than the exile itself, but not by much. The people had returned the the promised land, free from captivity. As good students of Moses, they'd have known what to expect next. A glorious temple and a glorious kingdom, and they got neither. The temple was ok, but nothing in comparison to the old one, and as for the kingdom, they'd gone from being a world power to a provincial backwater.
And worse, they were asleep spiritually. The people offered the blind and sick animals in sacrifice, and the priests let them. Few took God's Word seriously. Worship had become wearisome to the people. There were few who were faithful, few who heeded Malachi's call. They were asleep, and they needed the sun. And the sun is the prescription for all our ills. We need to stop chasing the darkness away and open the windows.
If we're asleep, our prescription is the same. If tithing seems like madness to us, we need to be woken up. We need to remember that we have no earthly city, we have to remember that what we earn belongs to God anyway, we have to remember that our faith is seen as we serve God not money. As the sun rises, we hold money cheaper.
If worship is a weariness, we need the sun to warm us up. We need to remember our riches in Christ, our salvation from sin, our union with the Son of God. We need the sun to warm us up until we sing. And worship isn't just singing. We need to be woken up so that we live our whole lives as if the Gospel is true. So that what we read in the Bible stays with us, and changes us. we ned to bathe in the sun until we sing.
If we struggle to take the Bible seriously, we need to open our eyes and be dazzled by the sun. We need to ask for help every morning to see what's really there. And just like an eye doctor is glorified when we ask for help to see the sun, so God the Father is glorified when we ask for help to see the Son. And those are the prayers He loves to answer.
This is the healing we need. To give, to sing, to see. We need to be weaned off the dark, cold air, which we're told to desire, which we're told is safe, and come out into the light. We need to leap like calfs, because the Son of God has come, and He shines on us in all His glory.
Friday, 6 December 2013
Live on Nothing but Mercy (Jeremiah Burroughs)
The following is an excerpt from 'Of Lovers and Whores,' a selection of Jeremiah Burroughs' sermons on Hosea, compiled and published by my friend Dave Bish. He has two other books of heart warming Puritan sermons published, which i highly recommend to you. Find them here.
Let us learn to wonder at these riches of mercy in Christ and exercise much faith about them. Certainly we would thrive in godliness much more if we exercised our faith in the bowels [heart] of God in Christ.
Fruit like apricots and May cherries that grow up by a wall and enjoy the warm beams of the sun are sooner ripe and have more sweetness than those which grow in shady places.Grass shaded by the trees in orchards are sour. So the fruit which Christians bring forth under discouragements and despairing thoughts is very sour. Some things they do because conscience compels them to duty, but it is sour fruit. Though it is better to do what conscience requires than not, yet merely to follow conscience is sour grass.
When a Christian can by faith set himself before the sunshine of these mercies of God in Christ and continually live in the midst continually in the beams of that grace he grows ripe sooner and the fruit is sweeter.
You can easily know whether the Sun of righteousness shines on you. Does your fruit grow ripe? Is it sweet fruit? Those who talk of mercy and of Christ and have His name in their mouths but bring forth sour and crabbed fruit are not in the Sun; they are blind and cannot discern it, and are but a light of their own fancy in a heart of their own making.
In Ephesians 3:18-19 the apostle prays that the Ephesians 'may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth ' of the riches of God in Christ. The philosophers tell us of only three dimensions, but there are four.
What fruit is this, 'to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.' Here is the effect of it, when we know the breadth and length and depth and height of God's love, and have that knowledge by the Spirit of God, that surpasses mental knowledge, then we are filled with the fullness of God.
Here now is a glorious Christian, a Christian filled with the fullness of God. Do you want this to be so of you? Learn to exercise faith much about the infinite riches of mercy of God in Christ. f. This will fill you with the fullness of God. You complain of barrenness and emptiness in your hearts and lives, it is because you give little heed to this.
God betroths Himself to the church in mercies, in bowels. let us learn when we are in any trouble to plead with God for bowels of mercy. Isaiah 63:15, 'look down from Heaven, and behold from the habitiation of your holiness and you glory, where is your zeal and your strength, the sound of your bowels, and your mercy towards me? Are they restrained?' Lord, have you not said you will betroth your church to yourself in bowels? Where is the sounding of your heart? Lord, let us have your heart, from which you have betrothed us through Christ.
Oh what confusion there will be one day for those who have missed these mercies of God, in which the Lord has betrothed Himself to the Church. Will you content yourself with crumbs, with the fruits of His general bounty and patience, when you hear of the glorious mercies in Jesus Christ? These things should raise our hearts, so that we protest as Luther did; 'I protest that God shall not put me off with the things of the world, with my portion here. Oh no the Lord has shown me greater riches, and though i am unworthy of any, yet, as i know His mercy is free, why should i not have my portion in these glorious things?
Come in then, come in, oh sinful soul. Be in love with Jesus Christ and the ways of godliness. Know that all these mercies are tendered to your soul this day, to break your heart, even that hard heart of yours.And they are free for you as any. There is nothing more pleasing to God than for you to be taken with the glory of His riches in mercy. You cannot perform any duty acceptable to God as this, to have your heart broken on the consideration of his heart, to have your heart yearn again and come in and join with this infinite ocean of mercy. Breathe the element of mercy, live by nothing but mercy.
Let us learn to wonder at these riches of mercy in Christ and exercise much faith about them. Certainly we would thrive in godliness much more if we exercised our faith in the bowels [heart] of God in Christ.
Fruit like apricots and May cherries that grow up by a wall and enjoy the warm beams of the sun are sooner ripe and have more sweetness than those which grow in shady places.Grass shaded by the trees in orchards are sour. So the fruit which Christians bring forth under discouragements and despairing thoughts is very sour. Some things they do because conscience compels them to duty, but it is sour fruit. Though it is better to do what conscience requires than not, yet merely to follow conscience is sour grass.
When a Christian can by faith set himself before the sunshine of these mercies of God in Christ and continually live in the midst continually in the beams of that grace he grows ripe sooner and the fruit is sweeter.
You can easily know whether the Sun of righteousness shines on you. Does your fruit grow ripe? Is it sweet fruit? Those who talk of mercy and of Christ and have His name in their mouths but bring forth sour and crabbed fruit are not in the Sun; they are blind and cannot discern it, and are but a light of their own fancy in a heart of their own making.
In Ephesians 3:18-19 the apostle prays that the Ephesians 'may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth ' of the riches of God in Christ. The philosophers tell us of only three dimensions, but there are four.
What fruit is this, 'to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.' Here is the effect of it, when we know the breadth and length and depth and height of God's love, and have that knowledge by the Spirit of God, that surpasses mental knowledge, then we are filled with the fullness of God.
Here now is a glorious Christian, a Christian filled with the fullness of God. Do you want this to be so of you? Learn to exercise faith much about the infinite riches of mercy of God in Christ. f. This will fill you with the fullness of God. You complain of barrenness and emptiness in your hearts and lives, it is because you give little heed to this.
God betroths Himself to the church in mercies, in bowels. let us learn when we are in any trouble to plead with God for bowels of mercy. Isaiah 63:15, 'look down from Heaven, and behold from the habitiation of your holiness and you glory, where is your zeal and your strength, the sound of your bowels, and your mercy towards me? Are they restrained?' Lord, have you not said you will betroth your church to yourself in bowels? Where is the sounding of your heart? Lord, let us have your heart, from which you have betrothed us through Christ.
Oh what confusion there will be one day for those who have missed these mercies of God, in which the Lord has betrothed Himself to the Church. Will you content yourself with crumbs, with the fruits of His general bounty and patience, when you hear of the glorious mercies in Jesus Christ? These things should raise our hearts, so that we protest as Luther did; 'I protest that God shall not put me off with the things of the world, with my portion here. Oh no the Lord has shown me greater riches, and though i am unworthy of any, yet, as i know His mercy is free, why should i not have my portion in these glorious things?
Come in then, come in, oh sinful soul. Be in love with Jesus Christ and the ways of godliness. Know that all these mercies are tendered to your soul this day, to break your heart, even that hard heart of yours.And they are free for you as any. There is nothing more pleasing to God than for you to be taken with the glory of His riches in mercy. You cannot perform any duty acceptable to God as this, to have your heart broken on the consideration of his heart, to have your heart yearn again and come in and join with this infinite ocean of mercy. Breathe the element of mercy, live by nothing but mercy.
Wednesday, 4 December 2013
What did the Lamb Do?
The next day he saw Jesus coming towards him and said, 'behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.'
John 1:29
Isn't it good news that Jesus takes away our sin? That he covers it, atones for it and ransoms us from it's penalty and power. It's the shed blood of Jesus, and His substitution death and resurrection that makes the good news good.
When John the Baptist sees Jesus and calls Him the lamb of God he is speaking fluent Old Testament . What was the purpose of the lamb? To die, to shed blood, to cover the sins of God's people. Once a year on the day of atonement, the priest would enter the most holy place, sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat, and when he came out into the daylight again Israel breathed a sigh of relief knowing that another's blood had been accepted as a sacrifice for their sin. Their sin demanded death, and death had occurred.
Those lambs didn't die as an example. They didn't die to show people how to obey, or how much it costs to follow God. They died to cover sin. And Jesus is the ultimate one who died to cover sin. The death of a lamb can not pay for the sin of a man. If i write off your car, you're not satisfied when i draw you a picture of a car and give that to you. Justice has not been served, and God is just.
It's good news that Jesus didn't come to set us an example. It's good news that we're not supposed to have faith in God like Jesus had faith in God. Good, good news.How monumentally depressing it would be to sit in the side room off my kitchen, cradling my coffee, trying to warm my heart up with the news that Jesus was my example. That's awful news, bad news, heart cooling news. Imagine saying, every morning, today, you must be holy like Jesus, you must be pure like Jesus, you must love God like Jesus, you must love man like Jesus, and if you don't, you've no hope. I just wouldn't get out of bed.
Instead, much better news the Gospel brings. Jesus purity paid for my impurity. His white hot devotion covers my mumbled inattentiveness, His obedience covers my disobedience and His love my selfishness. What extraordinary news! What liberating news! I'm not supposed to have faith in God like Jesus had faith in God, i'm supposed to have faith in Jesus.
In His life lived for me, His body broken for me, His blood shed for me, His resurrection won for me. In His wounds i find comfort, because they don't say 'do better,' they say 'job done.' The risen Christ doesn't say 'go thou and do likewise,' He says 'come and have breakfast.'
Then, and only then, if my service worth a rip. When i remember the 'dones' of the Gospel, my 'dos' are the overflow of love, of joy at the death Christ died for me. To take the substitution of Christ out of the call to obey is to gut the Gospel of it's goodness and power. Christ has come to take away your sin, rejoice, and have faith in Him.
Monday, 2 December 2013
Like Refiners Fire
Malachi was written during the most depressing time of Israel's history. Not the darkest, that honour goes to Judges or Lamentations, but definitely the most depressing. The Hebrews had returned from exile, been blessed with Godly leaders and rebuilt a temple, but still the people sinned, still they offered blind animals in the temple, still they married the daughters of a foreign God.
There's a depressing familiarity about all that isn't there? Your author has been blessed with loving parents, world class training, a faithful wife, and types this from an office on a million dollar campus, but he still sins, he still shows unfaithfulness, ingratitude and laziness whenever he feels like he can get away with it. And the same is true (to a greater or lesser extent) of you too.
So what's to be done? Malachi tells us. And the answer is not found in religious activity, nor moral relativism, nor a government programme, the answer is a person. This person will suddenly come to His temple, He'll turn up one day and throw out the money changers. This person is the messenger of the covenant, He has made promises to the Sons of Jacob that He will keep. And He's like refining fire.
Fire. Bad news. Fire is a terror, as Smoky the Bear reminds us every summer. Fire will burn up the alloy, and since we're all alloy, we need some good news. The good news? That sweet word, refiners. Yes we're alloy, but there's silver to be made, when we are refined.
So Christ comes to refine us. He comes to end our false worship, our spiritual adultery, our lazy sins. He comes to burn up the things in life that displease Him. He comes to help us live by the Spirit, He comes to help us choose the narrow way. He comes to save, and to sanctify. He has saved us from the penalty of sin, and He is saving us from the power of sin. Slowly but surely those joy killing weeds in our hearts are being burned up. Slowly but surely sin looks less and less attractive, and Jesus more and more.
This is the hope that Malachi held out to the faithful remnant. There won't always be blind and sick animals being sacrificed. There won't always be priests who lead their people astray, Judah won't always be a forgotten backwater, God will keep His promises. The Christ will come, committed to His people, and save them from sin.
And it's that same hope that the whole Bible holds out for us this morning. We won't always sin. One day, we'll be with the Lord, and sin will be, well, not even a memory. But before then, be encouraged, that the Lord is so committed to your happy holiness, to your refinement that He not only lived to make it happen, but He died to make it happen.
There's a depressing familiarity about all that isn't there? Your author has been blessed with loving parents, world class training, a faithful wife, and types this from an office on a million dollar campus, but he still sins, he still shows unfaithfulness, ingratitude and laziness whenever he feels like he can get away with it. And the same is true (to a greater or lesser extent) of you too.
So what's to be done? Malachi tells us. And the answer is not found in religious activity, nor moral relativism, nor a government programme, the answer is a person. This person will suddenly come to His temple, He'll turn up one day and throw out the money changers. This person is the messenger of the covenant, He has made promises to the Sons of Jacob that He will keep. And He's like refining fire.
Fire. Bad news. Fire is a terror, as Smoky the Bear reminds us every summer. Fire will burn up the alloy, and since we're all alloy, we need some good news. The good news? That sweet word, refiners. Yes we're alloy, but there's silver to be made, when we are refined.
So Christ comes to refine us. He comes to end our false worship, our spiritual adultery, our lazy sins. He comes to burn up the things in life that displease Him. He comes to help us live by the Spirit, He comes to help us choose the narrow way. He comes to save, and to sanctify. He has saved us from the penalty of sin, and He is saving us from the power of sin. Slowly but surely those joy killing weeds in our hearts are being burned up. Slowly but surely sin looks less and less attractive, and Jesus more and more.
This is the hope that Malachi held out to the faithful remnant. There won't always be blind and sick animals being sacrificed. There won't always be priests who lead their people astray, Judah won't always be a forgotten backwater, God will keep His promises. The Christ will come, committed to His people, and save them from sin.
And it's that same hope that the whole Bible holds out for us this morning. We won't always sin. One day, we'll be with the Lord, and sin will be, well, not even a memory. But before then, be encouraged, that the Lord is so committed to your happy holiness, to your refinement that He not only lived to make it happen, but He died to make it happen.
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