God's Promise: Our Hope

Do we feel like we're in exile?

In the southeastern United States that's a strange question to ask. I live 5 minutes from Trinity, but it's the sixth church i see on my commute. But despite the proliferation of buildings Sidney Greidanus is right when he says the church in the states is undermined with materialism.

Even if we don't feel exiled culturally, we should feel exiled personally. Exiled from our home, not so much by individual sins, but by the constant coldness of our hearts towards our saviour. But the good news is that the Lord is a God who works in exile.

At the start of Genesis 29 we meet Jacob travelling to the people of the east. Just like Adam and Eve's sin drove them east of Eden, so Jacob's drives him east of the land God had promised. We're on the look out for a serpent crusher, on the look out for descendants who will fill the Earth, and even though God's promised from chapter 28 are ringing in Jacob's ears, we still have the right to be worried about the future as Jacob walks to Paddan-Aram.

First, we see God's providence. Abraham's servant was lead by angles and prayers, Jacob, grabbing the stone as he grabbed the heel is lead by providence. Both are lead by God. He sees Rachel, meets Laban, and falls in love. So much so that seven years seems like a few days to him. What a love story. To be sure soon he'll be on his way home with his wife, children shortly to follow.

But when he wakes up the morning after the wedding feast, behold, it's Leah! And here we see God working in deception. You can almost hear the irony in Laban's voice when he tells Jacob, in my house, we don't dishonour the firstborn. Jacob is hopelessly outmaneuvered, he wants Rachel, and he's promised to serve seven years for her, so he does.

But these seven years probably don't seem like a few days. Strife with his uncle, who to this point has acted much more like a master, and strife at home between the lovely loved Rachel, and her weak-eyed sister. It feels, again, like the Lord has forsaken Jacob doesn't it? The ladders and the vows on chapter 28 seem like a long time ago. And yet, we have four women who can give Jacob the offspring we so long to read about.

The first four children come from the unloved, unlovely one. Rachel was barren, but Leah gives birth to Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah.

Judah, the last born son of an unloved women, but the sceptre will never depart from between his feet.

Judah, the last born son of an unloved women, who goes up first to fight when Joshua is gone, and gives Israel her kings.

Judah, the last born son of an unloved women, from whom Christ comes.

And with Christ offspring who fill the world, as the water fills the oceans.

God's work goes deep into our seemingly hopeless situations, and keeps God's promised with a quiet, reliable power. Even in exile.

John 3:16 (2)

The following is the second part of a message i recently preaching on John 3:16. I was dependent for outline in inspiration on Ray Ortland Jr's book, The Gospel, which you should buy!

The next phrase tells us what He does, He sends His only Son! This is once and for all the proof of God’s love to us. It’s a spreading love, a concrete love, a giving love. God gave willingly, and Jesus came willingly. He is the only Son! There’s no one else like Him. He doesn’t have equals, He doesn’t have a competitor, He is the only Son of God. Everything in the Bible leads up to His remarkably unremarkable appearance. Every moment and movement of history is about Him and Him. He alone is our hope, our Saviour, our joy and our chance to have a relationship with God. Into our cold, dark, loveless world, stepped love, and light and hope Himself. Only Jesus is the proof that God loves us.

And what a love it is! Jesus didn’t come to start a new religion. He didn’t come to give us a how-to program, or twelve steps to a better weekend. He came to start humanity all over again. He didn’t come to give us things to do, He came to make us new. Jesus life was obedient to God. We don’t do that, we can’t obey God, we can’t live lives that line up fully with His Word. We can’t obey. Jesus death was sacrificial. That was the plan all along, and we can’t do that. We can’t die for someone else’s sins, and our death doesn’t rescue us from the punishment our sins deserve. Jesus resurrection was victorious. That’s what we need. We need victory over sin, we need rescue from death. But we can’t do it. We can’t do anything we need so Jesus did all of it. Jesus is everything we could never be!

Our culture, and every religion is based on the idea of people getting what they deserve. In the Gospel we learn that we deserve nothing, but that because He loves us, in Christ, God gives us everything.

And this love saves us from death, and gives us life. whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Those are the only two options on the table. Death or life. Death doesn’t mean to cease or to stop. It doesn’t mean oblivion. It means the everlasting torment of eternity away from the love of God. Away from the goodness of God, in the cold, dark, sin filled place called Hell. That’s one choice, and the other choice is life. Life is know Jesus Christ, life is the opposite of the horrors of Hell, it’s the joys of Heaven. But those are the only two choices. We don’t like to think about death, we don’t like words like perish, but we’re forced to by this verse.

So how can we escape perishing? How can we make sure we’re headed for life not death? How can we be sure that Christ’s death pays for our sins? Because of the phrase we skipped. Whoever believes in Him. Believes doesn’t mean what we often think it means. It doesn’t mean to agree with something or like something. like believing in recess or ice-cream. It means to become part of, to believe into. The one who believes has Christ as the centre of their life, and the centre of their plans. He’s not the side dish anymore, He’s not a weekend distraction, He’s the main course.

What matters then is not how good or how bad we are, but whether or not we believe in Christ. Whether or not we’re ‘in Him.’ God, in His love, has proved His love by giving us His Son. We must walk out of the darkness into the light and accept Him, or face everlasting death. God has made things simple, do you believe in Jesus? Are you 'in' Him?

Look at the Book (John Piper)

I'm really excited about this:

John 3:16 (1)

The following comes from a recent message i preached on John 3:16. I was dependent for outline and inspiration on Ray Ortland Jr's excellent book, The Gospel, which you should go and buy.

I was reading the other day that more than 75% of car wrecks take place less than 10 minutes from where the people involved in the wrecks live. Most of the wrecks you get into will be within walking distance fo your own front door, or the front door of the other person in the wreck. This was because when we get close to home, and on familiar roads, we pay less attention that in a place that we don’t know very well. I think we have the same danger with tonight’s Bible verse. We are so familiar with John 3:16 we could probably quote it in our sleep. But this is the most famous verse in the Bible for a reason, and it’s a reason worth paying attention to.

It’s the most succinct, meaning short and accurate, presentation of the Gospel. John 3:16 is about the Gospel and you, so let’s walk thru it one phrase at a time and see what truth we can unpack from it. And as we do, let’s be praying that the Lord would speak to our hearts, and help us understand the truth of the Gospel in this verse.

For God so loved the world. What we think about when we think about God is the most important thing about us. If we think God is a cat, or an ice cream, that’s going to impact the way we live. If we don’t think there is any God at all, that’s going to impact the way we live. A lot of people think God is just a friendly old man in the sky. He wishes we’d do better, love more and sin less, but he loves us anyway. He’s a bit lonely, a bit boring, and just loves it when we come and visit with him. That’s the view that a lot of people, even in the church, have of God.

But that’s not who God is at all. In Genesis 17:1 God says, ‘I am God almighty.’ He is almighty! There’s no one that compares with Him, there’s no one who can approach Him in power and control and might. He needs to tell us that He is almighty because we so often forget. We need to remember, when we’re hopeless, when all the odd seem against us, when we seem to have no future, that God is almighty! We don’t have to dream or expect small things from God, we can do dream big and attempt great things fo us. This is who God is! Almighty!

And, we’re told, God loves the world. This is a surprise, or at least it should be. The world is not lovely. You and I are not lovely, our culture is not lovely. We are not lovable. But God is. God is lovely, and His love overflows onto and into you and me! God is light, but you and I love darkness. We’d rather have things our own way all the time in the darkness of sin that step out into the love of God. This is how we’re born. In John 3:19 we’re told that ‘light came into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.’ We reject God, the light, and so does our culture, because our deeds are evil. Remember when Jesus was fishing with the disciples, and because of Him they pulled in so many fish that their nets broke? Peter told Jesus to get away from Him because he was a sinful man. Our sin can not bear to be near the holiness of God. Isaiah cried out ‘woe is me,’ when he saw the light of God in Isaiah 6.

There’s a great movement in our culture at the moment that the most important thing is self esteem. The most important thing is that we feel good about ourselves. The great sin of 2014 is making someone feel bad about themselves. The Bible tells us that our problem is we don’t feel bad enough about ourselves. We don’t realize how deadly our sin is, we don’t realize how evil our rebellion against God is. When we do realize that, we realize all the more how extraordinary God’s love for us is. God would be perfectly just if He cast us off into the hopeless, cold, dark world we’ve created for ourselves. But He doesn’t...

So Take and Read

In a world of created changeable things, Christ and his Word alone remain unshaken.

O to forsake all creatures, to rest as a stone on him the foundation, to abide in him, be borne up by him!

For all my mercies come through Christ, who has designed, purchased, promised, effected them.

How sweet it is to be near him, the Lamb, filed with holy affections!

When I sin against thee I cross thy will, love, life, and have no comforter, no creature, to go to.

My sin is not so much this or that particular evil, but my continual separation, disunion, distance from thee, and having a loose spirit towards thee.

But thou hast given me a present, Jesus thy Son, as Mediator between thyself and my soul, as middle-man who in a pit holds both him below and him above, for only he can span the chasm breached by sin, and satisfy divine justice.

May I always lay hold upon this Mediator, as a realized object of faith, and alone worthy by his love to bridge the gulf.

Let me know that he is dear to me by his Word; I am one with him by the Word on his part, and by faith on mine;

If I oppose the Word I oppose my Lord when he is most near;

If I receive the Word I recieve my Lord wherein he is nigh.

O thou who hast the herats of all men in thine hand, form my heart according to the Word, according to the image of thy Son,

So shall Christ the Word, and his Word be my strength and comfort.”

Christ The Word, from Valley of Vision, Pp30-31