The Valley Church of Christ

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM (2)

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

Are you ever plagued by doubts and questions about God and truth? About his church? or his laws and plan? Maybe you have been troubled by the state of the world over the past few years. Or you been concerned about the state of the Church. Have you wondered if you even know what is true any more? What is God up to? Is he really among us? Is Christ even coming back?

The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt, but God and Moses lead them through the Red Sea to himself at Mount Sinai. While Israel was at the foot of the mountain, God came down in fire and smoke and he spoke to the people. But they were afraid and told Moses to speak to God on the mountain for them. While Moses was on the mountain, God explained plans to build the tabernacle. Don’t miss how significant this is. The Hebrew writer tells us the tabernacle is a copy of the heavenly tabernacle. Adam and Eve had been exiled from God’s heavenly garden sanctuary in Eden thousands of years before, but now God was telling Moses how to build a copy of his heavenly throne in the middle of their camp so he could dwell with his people again.

But this took forty days and forty nights. So, while Moses was delayed because he was receiving these spectacular plans for God to dwell with them, the people grew impatient.

“When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” (Exodus 32:1 ESV)

From here Aaron asks the people for gold, forms a golden calf, the people declare the golden calf to be the elohim — the gods — who led them out of Israel, and then they party in honor of “Yahweh” who they may believe is represented by this golden calf.

Why did they do this? Exodus says that they (1) “saw that Moses delayed” and (2) did “not know what” had become of Moses. Do you see what’s funny about their logic? They say they don’t know, and yet they do something massive as if they knew. They filled in the gap.

On our best days we recognize a delay is a delay, a lack of knowledge is a lack of knowledge, and our sincere questions await answers from someone else. But Israel shows us precisely what this uncertainty can look like in the heat of the wilderness, in difficult years. Israel’s “Moses is delayed” quickly becomes “We aren’t waiting any longer.” Their, “We do not know what has become of him,” quickly becomes, “He’s not coming back.”

Haven’t we all been haunted by this uncertainty about God’s activity? It can lead to “certainty” that he is inactive. “He has not answered” and “How could he let this happen?” can become, “If there really were an all-loving all-power God out there, he would have showed up by now.” And like the Israelites, we won’t slow down to bring serious evidence or data to the table to engage wise people in a discussion. No: on our worst days we’ll follow what we feel in our guts is the grown-up conclusion, and move on from the unseen God.

We will all say at times, “Why?” or, “I don’t understand,” or, “I don’t know.” Brothers and sisters, may I urge us, next time we ask that question: slow down, and believe it: “I do not know.” In the age of quick Google searches to answer our every question, remember: we know very little, and that’s okay.

Here’s the concern. Doubt, delay, questions — everyone has them. Especially in our modern age with so many various pressures. Atheists are haunted by suspicion that maybe God really is out there. Believers are haunted by the suspicion that he’s not. But for believers, we can go one of two directions. We can ask, “God, are you really out there? What are you up to? What is real? What is true? Why have you forsaken me?” And we can humbly wait on him through the years of doubt, press into him, and let him answer in his own way in his own time. Or, we can act in our blindness — doing what is right in our own eyes.

I have heard that many in government see crises as the excuse they were waiting for to seize extra power. “You need us to take control so things don’t get out of hand.” Doesn’t Satan tempt us to be like governments? Crises are opportunities for us to step up, declare that we need some more concrete answers around here and now.

God pleads with us in the Scriptures to remember: The faithful keep going not knowing.

“By faith Abraham … went out, not knowing where he was going.” (Hebrews 11:8 ESV)

And once he arrived, the land was populated by other powerful nations, so he set up a tent because he didn’t know when he would have the land. One night Abraham asked in exasperation: “God, how can I know I will possess this land?” But at some point, it appears that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob came to see that they weren’t really looking for a city that would arise from man or from the earth, but for a city built by God that would come down from heaven. Let’s repeat that: his hope would come from God — the one who made everything from nothing — and from heaven — the enchanted realm of God. In our doubt, do we forget to account for those two factors? God and heaven?

Our loss of God and heaven is why Disney is so successful. The ancient faithful used to look up and see the heavens as God’s realm — full of spiritual life, mystery, wonder, and possibilities; but we’ve probed them with our drones and have supposedly found there is no heaven — just cold, dark space. But we miss believing in the enchanting magic of God’s presence and of heaven’s nearness. So we listen to magical stories of enchanted worlds and make believe that the cosmos is not so cold for just a moment. It feels childish to believe God and heaven are near, it feels grown up to move on; but Disney has enchanted us with their multiverse because we miss believing in heaven, God, and his heavenly hosts. But as the credits roll we feel like we need to grow up— rely on what we can rationally see, weigh, measure, prove, and move on from the unseen.

That was Israel’s “grown up” move. They constructed a god they could see and touch: a calf. But, do you know, Moses was delayed because God had been preparing a place for them. They gave up while Moses was receiving plans to build heaven in in the middle of their camp. So God responded to their idolatry by ending the heaven-tabernacle project and withdrawing from them. Thankfully, Moses pleaded for mercy and God relented and returned. But they nearly missed out on God and heaven because their doubt became a demand that God and Moses show up with concrete answers now.

As Moses ascended that mountain to prepare for God to dwell among them, Jesus has ascended Mount Zion into heaven to prepare a place for us in his Father’s house, in the new temple of the age to come. John sees in Revelation a new heavens and a new earth where the dwelling place of God is with man forever. He will wipe the tears from our eyes, death will be no more, neither mourning, nor pain. But, until that final day, we deal with delay and uncertainty. We don’t have all the answers and we don’t know how or when God will intervene. Moses delayed to come back down the mountain with the tabernacle plans, and it feels like Jesus is delayed in coming back down with the holy place and New Jerusalem he’s prepared for us.How Can We Deal with Delay and Uncertainty?

How can we mentally bear with this uncertainty about God, his plans, truth, reality until then?

1. See that we are the church in the wilderness. The writer of Hebrews motivates his readers by comparing them and us to Israel in the wilderness. Notice Hebrew 4:1-2. He reminds us: they left Egypt, they heard good news, but it did not benefit them: their unbelief led them to die in the wilderness. And he urges us throughout the text: don’t fall in the same way. You know what he’s saying by implication? You’re in the desert like they were.

Paul does this in 1 Corinthians 10 too. Israel’s experiences are a type of our experiences. As we are baptized into Christ, they were baptized in the Red Sea. Augustine makes an helpful observation about this. “Notice this point, brothers and sisters. After crossing the Red Sea the Israelites are not given their homeland immediately, nor are they allowed carefree triumph as though all their foes had disappeared. They still have to face the loneliness of the desert, and enemies still lurk along the way… So too after baptism Christian life must still confront temptations. In that wilderness the Israelites sighed after their homeland; and what else do Christians sigh for, once washed clean in baptism? … Let all the faithful listen and mark this; let them realize where they are. They are in the desert, sighing for their homeland.” (Cited by Smith, On the Road with Saint Augustine, p. 17)

Just this perspective can help us breath a sigh of relief. Baptism in the Red Sea or into Jesus is not supposed to feel like the end — its supposed to feel like the beginning of a long, difficult journey through the desert. And Scriptures urge us: keep boasting in your hope, don’t get tired of listening, don’t become sluggish, don’t cave to unbelief like Israel or else you will trade away God’s rest.

2. Recognize unbelief as an exchange for something worthless. 2nd Peter 3 warns that when people mock about God’s delay, they are really using this as an opportunity to follow their own sinful desires. We can be tempted to exchange our hope in God for earthly pleasures. Psalm 106 mourns: “They made a calf in Horeb [Sinai] and worshipped a metal image. They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt…” (Psalm 106:19-21) If we let the ever-mounting pressures of what we do not and cannot know crush us, we will always fill the gap with something foolish that seems brilliant in our frantic state. But we would be exchanging the living God for an image of an ox that eats grass.

What may we give up God for? Our marriage vows for independence? our marriage bed for someone forbidden? marriage to Christ for some hottie? Will we trade up the opportunity to wait on our knees in prayer and fasting and to know God more… for a pint of ice-cream and a pitcher of alcohol? Or will we exchange the adventure of following God not knowing where we’re going for a safe spot on the couch? sleep that comes from trusting God for more money, more problems? We could exchange worship… for work, school, or the game. Or we may exchange the peace the gospel can bring between nations for a quick press of the button to just nuke ‘em. It is tough. We don’t know how or when our marriage or prayer or the church or the kingdom of God will really pan out, so lesser things seem appealing. Many mirages in the desert can take us off course.

But it all boils down to the same question: will we choose God’s promised dwelling with us in the unseen, uncertain future… or whatever idol we are tempted by now? Esau traded his unseen birthright in the uncertain future for a bowl of lentil stew he could have now. We sell out for the lamest things! As C.S. Lewis wrote, we’re like children making mud pies in the slums not understanding the offer of a vacation at the beach. I think that’s the way some of us are: God is offering us everything and we’re like, “But there’s this girl, or this guy, or this money, or this opportunity.” I may be making a gourmet meal, but a particular daughter still wants a peanut butter sandwich now. Let’s take care that our cravings in this uncertainty don’t lead us to settle for too little. As Dee Bowman often said: “If you miss heaven, you just missed everything there is.”

3. Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension are a shelter of certainty in the wilderness of uncertainty (Rom. 8:31-39). We are tired, thirsty, hungry, and lost. But in Romans 8:32-35 Paul gives us three-fold shelter of shade and certainty in this desert: Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension.

• We might have nothing, no food, no home, no clothes, but if the cross happened — if God killed his Son for us, how will he not also with his Son give us everything?
• We might be facing all sorts of scary dangers, crime, sickness, health challenges, but if the tomb is empty — they mutilated his Son and God raised bodily to live forever, what sort of danger or disability or deadly peril is going to finally do us in and be the thing that God can’t overcome? There’s no enemy greater than death!
• We might be distressed over our sins, thinking God’s just going to condemn us, but Paul says if Christ died for you and is at the right hand of God interceding for you, who is left to condemn? What about the God who killed his Son for us? What about Christ who went to heaven to intercede for us? Or what about Satan and his forces who have been cast out of heaven?
• And, may I add — when Jesus comes, what question will he leave unanswered? What will stop him from healing all that has gone wrong?

There is a lot we do not know, there’s a lot outside our power. There’s sin that threatens to condemn us. There’s trials, persecution, economic distress, physical and mental health troubles, war, global powers, angels and demons, death, and all the dangers lurking in the unknown future. We don’t know what our marriage will look like in a year. We don’t know how things will turn out with our kids. If we hope to marry, we don’t know know if we will. We don’t know what our streets or schools will look like. We don’t know if governments will do justice. Healthcare systems may fail. We may stumble upon questions or truths that cause us to question everything we know. We may doubt that the church is what it should be. We may even be the early church because Jesus isn’t coming back for 20,000 more years. Or, as in Romans 8, we may suffer economic and social persecution for proclaiming Jesus is Lord.

But here’s the thing: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ is interceding, and Christ will come again. We may know nothing but that, but because of that, we can be sure that nothing “in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” There, as we sing, is a home within the wilderness a rest along the way that we can cling to in all our uncertainty.

To that affect, I want to conclude with words written by Andrew Peterson called “You’ll Find Your Way.” These are words written from a father to a son.

When I look at you, boy

I can see the road that lies ahead

I can see the love and the sorrow

Bright fields of joy

Dark nights awake in a stormy bed

I want to go with you, but I can't follow

So keep to the old roads

Keep to the old roads

And you'll find your way

Your first kiss, your first crush

The first time you know you're not enough

The first time there's no one there to hold you

The first time you pack it all up

And drive alone across America

Please remember the words that I told you

Keep to the old roads

Keep to the old roads

And you'll find your way

You'll find your way

If love is what you're looking for

The old roads lead to an open door

And you'll find your way

You'll find your way

Back home

And I know you'll be scared when you take up that cross

And I know it'll hurt, 'cause I know what it costs

And I love you so much and it's so hard to watch

But you're gonna grow up and you're gonna get lost

Just go back, go back

Go back, go back to the ancient paths

Lash your heart to the ancient mast

And hold on, boy, whatever you do

To the hope that's taken hold of you

And you'll find your way

You'll find your way

If love is what you're looking for

The old roads lead to an open door

And you'll find your way

You'll find your way

Back home, back home, back home

Conclusion

Jesus has gone up into heaven, and one day he’ll come back and to make everything new and make everything clear. But he hasn’t come back yet. So we are destined to wait and to not know a lot right now. And because of that, we might get off the path. But the Father killed the Son to show you how much he wants you back, he raised the Son from the dead so you won’t fear anything in this life, and he exalted him to heaven to intercede for you so you will have all the help you need in this age. If you get off the path, find yourself worshipping some bit of creation, hungry, thirsty, longing just to eat what a pig could eat, go back to the living God and his ancient paths. Christ patiently waits to intercede for you.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM (2)

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

I have lived on the West Coast, East Cost, and the South and have travelled to China and India. Many of you have been to and lived in far more places. People in different places eat and dress differently, go to bed at different times, practice wide-ranging traditions, and often think about the world and their place in it completely different ways; yet, they all practice marriage. Even when Europeans landed on the shores of the Americas, they found that even the natives here practiced marriage. Why? We all agree that we gradually evolved from apes, right? So, how did marriage come to be in all these different times and places?

Our society actively seeks to erase sacred history from our cultural memories and treat themr4 as superstitious myths, but we all practice marriage because we are sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. We are all the result of their holy matrimony. And their practice has endured to us today because marriage is God’s creation: two people with different interests, skills, goals, desires, ways of viewing the world, and even at times from different places and cultures — these two make permanent vows to become one flesh and form a new family with this very different person.

But many do try to topple down this ancient tradition, along with many others. Ray told some of this fable: some explorers were traveling through forests when they suddenly came upon a large ancient wall. They didn’t understand. The wall seemed so pointless. Frustrated, they decided to topple down the wall. And, of course, they came to discover that they just unleashed their worst nightmare. But, of course, it was too late — the wall originally took a thousand years to build.

This is the way traditions appear to many of us in the West — especially after the enlightenment. Some ancient weirdos made this silly tradition, I don’t understand how it benefits me, so I’m not participating. For me, it’s Easter Eggs. I don’t get it. Celebrate the resurrection with a bunny hiding colorful eggs? But we have these traditions. And sometimes we decide to begrudgingly keep on with the family and cultural tradition. But, on occasion, we uncover an ancient story — patriarch so-and-so created this ritual so we’d be reminded about this important thing. And suddenly, we may be glad we didn’t toss it aside. We may even derive deep satisfaction from participating in something larger than us. And, for what it’s worth, do research Easter Eggs.

Marriage is like this. And this tradition makes our lives really complicated… but we all keep marrying. Some to do it begrudgingly, some do it to escape loneliness and, today, most marry to find personal happiness. Despite the different flawed reasons people marry for, God actually devised matrimony for specific reasons. There is absolutely more we could discuss, but for today, consider two of those reasons with me.

First, God wants us to marry to multiply: raise up godly offspring to fill and rule the earth with his image.

Gen. 1:26, 28 ESV, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ … And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”

Mal. 2:15 ESV, “Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring.”

Marriage comes with an awesome responsibility. What an honor it is to given the power to be able to create life! And, even more, to be able to create life in God’s image. God has placed a tremendous responsibility in the hands of those of us who are married — to raise up godly offspring to fill the earth for his name. And, while I’m only 4 years into this, I see this is very hard work.

Yet, in the West, we marry for happiness. And we might be tempted mock those in the East or someone like Ruth who married for family and children. Yet God wants us to marry in part to fill the earth with those who bear God’s image. Is that why we married? Are our marriages serving this honorable purpose?

The technology of contraceptives has helped to fundamentally transform our culture’s imagination of marriage and sexuality. You may have heard the wise saying, “The medium is the message.” It’s true. The mediums — or the technologies — we use to get things done affect how we view what we just did. Take transportation as an example. I might simply think that how I get from A to B doesn’t have much significance and I should probably only think about time and cost. But, actually, walking, driving, boating, flying, or teleporting from one place to another all shift our imagination of what A and B are and of what lies between them.

Time-telling works the same way. It says something about time to determine when we are by looking at the sun. And it says something else if I look at a watch which counts seconds.  In fact, Paul’s command to make the best use of the time takes on a different connotation with a stopwatch on my wrist. Food. If I invite you to my house and I set before you a bag of McDonalds, you will get a different sense of what it means for us to share table together than if I were to set before you homemade dishes with a plate and fork, or a common bowl with no utensils.

If I read the Scriptures on a screen, or sown together in one book, as a collection of individual scrolls, it affects what we imagine the Scriptures to be. My point is not that any of these things is always inherently right or wrong — even contraceptives; it’s that they impact us more than we may know. We have been given technology without the wisdom to know when and if we should use it (cf. 1 Cor. 6:12ff; 10:23-24).

God designed sexuality in part as a way for us to take down all our walls to enact, celebrate, and enjoy oneness with our spouse. And, at the same time, sexuality is also how we multiply and fill the earth with God’s image. And, if the command to multiply weren’t enough, Malachi repeats that God expects godly offspring from marriage and sexuality. Paul later goes on to instruct younger widows to marry and bear children (1 Tim. 5:14). This may sound strange to us, but maybe we’re the strange ones. The widespread use of contraceptives in our culture has put a magnifying glass on the moment of intercourse so that sexuality is about pleasure not oneness, no strings attached not intimacy, children are optional, and, if it pleases me, I can pursue sexuality with the same sex.

— By the way, homosexual marriage, pornography, and contraceptives may not pick our pockets or break our legs, but, as a widespread phenomenon they have all separated sexuality from procreation and fundamentally transformed part of the end for which marriage and sexuality were made. —

But marriage and sexuality is no longer about intimate oneness, nor godly offspring. And then if and when we do have children according to our perfectly planned timing, have you ever wondered if maybe our motivations for having children get mixed up too? If I will only receive children in my time in my way, is it still selfless love?

— I remember one evening five years into marriage when Ashley and I were griping and pouting at each other about our different opinions about how we should spend our Friday night — and I suddenly came to and told Ashley: our decision to militantly prevent children has made us more individualistic and selfish.—

But my point isn’t simply about what may happen with one couple here or there. My point is to show how far our culture is from the biblical norm lest we think this is normal or okay. As a culture, we have separated something that ought not be separated — like separating works from faith, the assembly from the Lord’s Supper, Sunday from embodied assembly, or Jesus from the gospel. I am not saying contraceptives are 100% always wrong or unwise; I am saying I have been a fool to think our powerful technologies are simply indifferent tools; they change us.

Now, God may not always give us the ability to conceive — whether because we are single, elderly, or struggling with the pain of infertility. More should be said, and I don’t at all intend to heal your wounds lightly, but take heart. Jesus and Paul never had children; yet, they have many offspring. In Acts, Luke said the church multiplied. The Ethiopian Eunuch wouldn’t ever have children, yet he still went on his way rejoicing. He would soon go on in his Isaiah scroll to read: “Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, ‘The LORD will surely separate me from his people’; and let not the eunuch say, ‘Behold, I am a dry tree.’ For thus says the LORD: ‘To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.’” (Isaiah 56:3–5 ESV) We marry in part to raise up godly offspring, but God can give us a purpose, place, and name even without the biological ability to have children.

But, let’s also not miss the point: let’s orient our marriages to serve God’s ends and let’s teach our children to marry for God’s ends.

Second, we marry because God began history with a wedding and he will end all history with a wedding. Marriage is the metanarrative of history and reality. All things began with the uniting of Adam and Eve, and all things will end with the uniting of Christ and the church, heaven and earth.

After God formed Adam and breathed life into him, he put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. But God quickly announced “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” (Gen. 2:18) So, God put Adam into a deep sleep, took a portion of his side, formed it into a woman, and brought her to him. He awoke in the Garden of Eden to his beautiful bride, praised and named her. The Scriptures conclude the story like this: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh,” (Gen. 2:24).

But, later, Paul says this practice is a profound mystery that refers to Christ and the church (Eph. 5:32). The Son left the Father and gave his body to form the church. After he died they pierced his side; but God raised him up in a garden and where a woman, Mary Magdalene, met him — the firstfruits of his bride to be. And now as the church we are betrothed as a pure virgin to Christ our future husband (2 Cor. 11:2). And now we are readying ourselves for that great wedding and feast.

But that’s not all. when Paul talks about two becoming one in Ephesians 5 — husbands and wives, Christ and the church — this is at the end of a letter that has focused on two becoming one. Jews and Gentiles are hostile towards one another, but in the cross Christ breaks down the dividing wall of hostility “that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross,” (Eph. 2:15-16). And, even earlier, Paul says that God’s plan is to ultimately “unite all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth.”

Do we  see the honor God has given us in our marriages to participate in something much bigger than ourselves? Our Father taught us to marry so we might image and enact the end for which we were all made: oneness, unity — with God and each other.

But two becoming one is challenging, isn’t it? We have “irreconcilable differences,” so divorce seems inevitable. Large differences make unity seem impossible. A few years ago someone told me they thought it was a bad idea for people from different cultures to marry — they’re just making it harder on themselves. I rebuked them, but it left me disturbed — maybe deep down we may all feel this sense that unity can never result in the midst of diversity.

This is what can frustrate us so much about our spouse. They do things so differently. This is what can frustrate us so much about each other. This is actually what frustrates me about God — I usually realize God’s ways are higher, but sometimes I just wish he’d do things my way. On our worst days it seems impossible: Jews, Gentiles, and various cultures are too different to be united, heaven and earth could never come together, Christ and the messy church will never be one, and I will never be one with this spouse of mine.

How is any of this possible? 1 Cor. 13:4–8 ESV, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”

In Jesus — Son of God from heaven and Son of Man from earth — God will unite all seen and unseen creation to share in the eternal love of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The prophets saw a day when people would be at peace and one with each other, and God at peace and one with his people. It’s all possible by love. Because, love never ends. So, it’s high time to learn this love of Jesus that will unite all things.

Marrieds: don’t stop sacrificing for one another and pressing into one another. Only in this love will you display with the rest of the church the mystery of the ages: how two become one, how enemies lay down their swords, how God wins back his children, how Jesus draws the church to himself — love. Not the love of the world, but the love of God revealed in the cross of Jesus and embodied in us.

And while marriage is certainly unique, we are all to pursue this unity by loving each other — sharing gifts and services, time and affection, the word and prayer, work and rest, food and fasting — all together for the glory and dominion of God in Christ.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM (1)

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

Series: 2nd Peter (Not Carried Away)

Service: Sun AM (2)

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

Christians live with an orientation towards time, history, and life that is different from others.

With time we are (in theory) constantly aware that time as we know it could end at any moment. Everything seems stable, like everything could go on forever, but we know the Lord will appear from heaven to end it all in the blink of an eye.

Some see human history as having an upward trajectory: we are getting more advanced, educated, peaceable, and our cities will continue to improve. But Christians know that however much Babylon’s power and wealth increase, its idolatry, lawlessness, and injustice also rise. And the story of reality is not one where Babylon leads us into a golden age of tolerance, peace, and security, but to the triumph of God’s kingdom over all the earth.

And with our lives we strive to live each day in a manner that is loyal and pleasing to King Jesus who will judge on that final day whether have done good or evil.

And if we live with this fearful view towards the final day of the Lord, that will cause many to wonder about us. Some will ask why we have such a hope. May God help us to be ready for them. Others, Peter says here, will scoff. “So, where’s the promise of his coming? You are believing a naive myth. Nothing like that has ever happened in all history.” They may be from the outside. But how surprising has it been that it has come — as Peter predicted — more and more from the inside? “God won’t judge.” But Peter tells us that people say things like this ultimately because they are following sinful desires. They aren’t legitimately wrestling with the true meaning of some Bible text. They are looking for a good reason to do what they want. Lies offer us a shelter of reason for the sin we love.

While Babylon is building a seemingly glorious future on its false hopes and false versions of reality and when even Christians are questioning whether God will really judge in the final day, it can be hard to keep our wits about us. Peter offers us a few reminders to help us keep our sanity among the scoffers. As we study this text, keep in mind that Peter is not dealing with modern atheists, but people who come to believe God won’t ever judge or punish the world. So, listen up: when we are tempted to hold onto belief in God while denying that he will judge lawlessness, Peter addresses that right here.

1. This was all predicted by the prophets, the Lord, and the apostles (v. 1-2). Ancient prophecy means little to people in the modern age. But most people throughout history actually prefer old teachings and have been dubious of new claims that contradict what is old and trusted. Socrates was executed because his philosophy sounded new and strange.

The modern age is different. We live under a new form of government with new knowledge and new technology to shape our world how we want. What is new seems reliable. From young to old, the feel of our age is that we have overcome the past — whether sicknesses, war, misinformation, superstitions, ritualism, or small-minded arguments — and embraced what is newer, better, scientifically and rationally proven. So, ancient predictions about a final day might sound at first to our ears like the superstitions of cavemen.

But do try to appreciate these ancient predictions. When nations burn to the ground — and they do — people make it of utmost importance to have passed along by that point what is sacred and important — knowledge, skills, possessions. The Scriptures we hold in our hands range from 2,000-3,500 years old, and Genesis contains stories that are far older. Consider how many big, new, exciting things that have happened and that have been built over that time — and yet these words never disappeared in the distraction. Consider how many attempts have been made to actively destroy these pages, and yet by divine protection and great sacrifice, they remain. Millions of parents have recited, chanted, and sung these words to their children for thousands of years. They let their children die before they let these words be cast aside (cf. 2 Mac. 7).

Why? Because these prophets, poets, and preachers had special connections to the true God. And, they all testify in various ways that no matter how long time will seem to go on, God will intervene in a final day to bring his kingdom power and justice. Every human dead or alive, great or small will be judged. And though every generation of the faithful have died still waiting for this day, they still passed along this sacred knowledge because they knew it to be reliable beyond their lives. They were thinking about you and me needing to be warned. They knew their resurrected eyes would see the coming kingdom.

When scoffers come with cutting edge data and they cleverly rationalize sin and deny the coming judgment, remember that we are not running after the predictions of some hot-off-the-press cult-leader in rural Texas with spiked Kool-Aid, we are clinging to the ancient, reliable words of the prophets and of our Lord through his apostles. A hundred faithful generations have clung to these same words and passed them on to us.

2. The earth was formed by the word of God. Peter says that as people rationalize why they don’t believe God will intervene, they will say that, “Ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” Ironically, their argument undermines their very point because they maintain that there was an actual creation of the cosmos. And if God can and did intervene to create the heavens and earth, how inconceivable is it that he would one day intervene to cast fire upon it?

Now, some do not even believe God began all this. I don’t have enough faith to believe other modern explanations. Without attempting to wade into those waters, I would simply suggest that we acknowledge that something began all this and that there must be an equal and opposite power able to destroy it all. And I would recommend that we not look too hard to find that power before we humbly consider the One who is easily found and trusted by little children.

The fact that we even exist is a marvel. Different from other lifeless planets with unstable suns in unfavorable galaxies, we are alive in a on a beautiful and orderly planet, with a stable sun, in a galaxy that is quite favorable towards life. Appreciate the love, power, and design it requires for all this to be. The word and the power that made all this promises he will bring it to an end one day.

3. The world has perished before. Even in Peter’s day it was a pretty foolish thing to say that “all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation” because everyone knew there had been a flood. Though the stories differ in their details, it doesn’t matter if you were from India, China, or Mesopotamia, if you were an Aztec or a European, they all have a flood story. Now, of course, some would say that because the details differ, we can’t trust any of it. I would offer that this is not a careful conclusion. If suddenly all sorts of people showed up in your neighborhood talking about a grocery store burning down, but they differed on some details — how it started, why it started, how much of it burned down — it would be foolish to be “conservative” and conclude that nothing happened.

Here’s Peter’s point: the world was once formed out of and by water in the beginning, and that world perished in a watery deluge of epic proportions. It is only in the past couple hundred years that our world has forgotten that. If that world perished in water, the heavens and earth that now exist can perish by fire too. And they will. That day awaits a mere word from the Lord.

4. Delay? Time is different with the Lord (cf. Ps. 90). With scoffers speaking in our ears, a big question arises: “Okay, he says judgment’s coming. So where is it? Why the delay?” It’s not just scoffers though, we ask these questions in discouraging times. If God is really an all-powerful loving God, why hasn’t he come?

Read Psalm 90. Peter alludes to this Psalm of Moses here when he speaks of a thousand years as being but a day. Notice how Moses compares the passage of time for God and humans (vs. 1-13). Moses says God is the one who predates the mountains, he is the one who is everlastingly God. But people are dust, grass. We wither away in God’s anger in the heat of a moment before the next generation rises up and flies away in a moment. Because of this, we need to fear God, we need to number our days, we need to recognize how small we are.

We need this reverential awe for the everlastingness of God among scoffers and in difficult wilderness years. We want him to work so quickly — show up so we can be rescued, so these scoffers can see. But we need to hold off on demanding God give us an answer, work in our timeframe. If God is really all-powerful and all-knowing, what sort of answer could he give us about this that we could comprehend? He’s been around for awhile. Let us fear lest we have too high an estimation of our ability to debate the Almighty One about his plans.

5. Delay? The Lord is patient toward you, not slow. But Peter ultimately comforts us. The reason he hasn’t come yet is not due to any human-like slowness, it’s really out of patience. Think about it. Who wants the evil that has wrecked his creation to be burned up more: us or him? Who wants to be with us more: us or him? Hands down, it’s him. Then why is he waiting? Because he does indeed want to be with you. But you may not be ready for him.

In fact, when we consider how much he wants evil to be eradicated and righteousness to triumph, his patience is astonishing. His love is astonishing. His patience is toward you. He wishes that none would perish, not even the scoffers, but that all should reach repentance. Do you need to repent?

Even unbelieving scientists and philosophers recognize that our history will have an end. But that plain truth gets obscured by sinful desires. Greed, lust, anger, selfishness — they capture our hearts and make fools out of us. They make us act like there will be no reckoning for what we do — as if me wanting something will suspend the reality that God’s holy will and kingdom is going to prevail in the end. Our girls do this. They think that because their wanting something else will change our concrete plans. We have solid plans or habits, basic stuff like going to bed or eating certain food, but every day our daughters blow our minds with a revelation they think will change everything: but I don’t want to do that, I want to do something else. Yes, wow, now we will change the entire foundation of reality for this. But seriously, when we let our fleshly desires obscure the plain reality that this is precisely why judgment is coming, when we want God to let us hold onto eternal life and lawlessness, we’re like foolish kids that don’t understand that our wants don’t change a thing.

It’s time to learn new wants. Let God give us a new heart and train us to have new cravings.

There is a day around the corner that is the Lord’s, and self-deception that the Lord won’t mind us doing what is right in our own eyes will vanish. In Isaiah’s words, the agreement we think we have with death — that we’ll somehow escape death and judgment — it will be annulled. He will come like a thief in the night. But the Lord has delayed until this moment so you can repent. Turn back to our God before it is everlastingly too late.

Series: 2nd Peter (Not Carried Away)

Service: Sun AM (1)

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

Sixteen hundred years ago, Christian pastor and author Augustine wrote in his Confessions that he sinned as a young man because he was enticed by sinful desires. Closer to our own day, philosopher Jean Jacque Rousseau tells a different story in his Confessions: he stole something as a boy because of poor influences around him. It wasn’t his fault — society corrupted him. Do you hear the difference? Rousseau is emphasizing that he imagines himself and the woes of our world in a very different way from Christian Augustine. And Rousseau’s story has won in our day -- I'm not a sinner at fault, I'm simply a victim.

People in past centuries credited many personal problems to a demonic presence that needed to be purged, sinful desires that need to be transformed. We need the supernatural presence and grace of God. But our world now feels that this was superstitious religious thinking that led to things like the Salem witch trials. We are not messed up because of sinful desires, but because of our experiences — our parents, our culture is to blame. We don’t need God’s presence or grace, we just need to sit down with a good shrink.

In reality, both approaches have their place. We are sinners enticed by Satan in need of the Holy Spirit to change us; at the same time, Satan can hurt us through society and trauma, and righteous counselors can help us a lot.  I have benefitted from counseling. These stories don’t have to eliminate each other. But what defines our age is the triumph of the self-help narrative over and against the spiritual narrative. Even we can wonder what is really behind bad behavior — is it really sinful lawbreaking that requires King Jesus to set things right? Or is it an unfortunate psychological condition that requires a therapist? Maybe we see someone not behaving properly, but we think — “Well, they are just troubled people because of this or that.” “Or, they are young and sowing some wild oats.” While this can be the case, this response can become our default way of rationalizing sin.

Read. Peter’s words are an ice cold bath: regardless of whatever circumstances or influences lead to this being the case, false teachers and wicked people will arise among the churches. He offers no psychological rationales and no apologies for the plain way he describes wicked people in the church. Because in the end, if he doesn’t, we won’t recognize these destructive behaviors for what they are and we’ll be led astray into slavery ourselves. Let’s consider four broad themes from Peter’s words about what this sort of wickedness looks like in the Church.

1. They are bold — do not tremble over sin (2:10, 12, 13, 18). In first John, John says God’s children do not make sin their practice, but they will sin from time to time and when they do, they will humbly confess it and turn from it. But the unrighteous Peter describes are loud, boastful, bold, and fearless.

• If there are things we have little understanding of, the righteous will be more cautious. We speak about spiritual beings with a sort of reverential fear and timidness. But, verse 10: “Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones…” Verse 12: They blaspheme “about matters of which they are ignorant…” And verse 18 describes them as “Speaking loud boasts of folly…” By the way, maybe that should cause us to reconsider boldly telling Satan to sit on a tack. Jude says that not even the archangel Michael pronounced a blasphemous judgment on Satan, but rather said, “The Lord rebuke you.”

• The righteous do things they are ashamed of. And it is not right for us to cover up our sin. But consider: when Adam and Eve hid from God, it showed that they actually knew how to be ashamed of sin. But, verse 13: The wicked “revel in the day time… reveling… while they feast with you.” They are not afraid to bring even their bold, party like behavior to church meals. I don’t need fig leaves. I will not apologize for who I am. I’m authentically myself.

Let’s not listen to the world here: shame is a righteous response to sin. We ought not cover up our sin, but the impulse to do that at least shows that we still know how to be embarrassed by wrongdoing. But, young people,  here’s what happens: if we continue to cover up sin and sinful desires and not bring it to the Lord and to one another, that’s when shame grows and enslaves us. And then, many people do become sick of shame and ready to boast. We need to bring our shame to the Lord for him to clothe us in clean, righteous garments.

*May I offer a word of grace to our young people? There is a possibility that at some point growing up you might feel different in someway. You may not. But it’s possible that you might feel sexual desire burning inside you and you don’t know how to stop it. It’s possible that you’ll feel desires that don’t feel normal. I want you to know that we aren’t afraid of that, and we aren’t afraid of you. We all struggle with sin in various ways. The temptation is not the sin. And we do not look down on one another when our temptation is different from someone else’s. Talk to a trusted man or woman here. This is a place where we can bring our shame to one another and to the Lord — even in just private, confidential ways — and experience God’s grace and healing.

2. They appear to be free, but are slaves (2:10, 14, 19). With this boldness and refusal to be afraid or ashamed you would think that these are the kind of people who are free. Verse 10 speaks of how they indulge in lust and despise authority. They are liberated — doing what they want when they want, right?

But notice verse 14. “They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin.” They may indulge in lust, but their eyes are full of adultery because they are not satiated, satisfied. They want more. And notice verse 19. “They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.” We all want freedom. And we think that freedom from is the answer: freedom from law, expectations, God, morality. But in holding out freedom, Satan is enticing us to give ourselves over to something else. And in the process we become slaves. Ultimately, freedom from some higher good expectation becomes slavery to our impulses and desires, whatever we think, feel, or want in a moment. And those fleshly impulses are from Satan.

We may think we will just just dabble in a little sin. A little anger, a little lie, a little more liquor, a little more money, a little bit of sensuality, a little crude joking. But sin is not some neutral thing. We have stepped onto enemy territory. And Satan’s snares are hidden in the ground and he intends to trap us with the taste, and keep us as his slaves forever. And the ironic thing Peter points out next is that Christians who give into practicing sin end up worse than before. Notice verses 20-22.

3. They become worse than before — like animals (2:12, 16, 20-22). Peter is alluding to what Jesus taught in Luke. When an unclean spirit departs, its inhabitant may finally rejoice in freedom — “Finally we have no one in this house but me and what I want!” And when the spirit returns to find the house empty and swept clean, he brings seven other spirits worse than himself and the last state of the person is worse than the first.

Whether we are talking about demon possession or sin, the result is the same. It would have been better for that first spirit to have never been sent away. It would have been better to have never come to know the way of righteousness than to — after knowing it — turn away from it. Consider Israel, they became worse than the nations that did not know God! Ezekiel says that even the Philistines were ashamed of Israel’s behavior.

If we return to Satan, we go worse, deeper, bolder because we are no longer ignorant. We know what we are doing. And the result? Verse 12: they become like irrational animals, creatures of instinct. Verse 22: they become like dogs that vomit up that vile thing that was making them sick — and then they go eat it again! They become like swine that, having bathed, go back to roll in the mud.

In fact, it could be said that we become worse than animals. Note verse 15-16. Balaam was so blinded by the possibility of financial gain that he could not see what his donkey saw, he could not see the Lord was against him, his own donkey had to restrain him in his madness. Brothers and sisters, we must know if that we return to make a practice of sin, we will behave in ways that even the world recognizes as deplorable, and it will have been better for us to have never even known our Lord Jesus at all.

4. They entice others (2:14, 18-19). If we sin secretly we still have a leavening influence on the congregation. Our lack of passion for the Lord, our diminished godly character, our diminished service in the church impacts more than we recognize. However, Peter is warning here about those who are so unashamed that they seek to bring others with them. No one wants to live in complete isolation — and neither do sinners, they want company on the way to rebellion. This, young men and women, is what is far worse than not having other Christian friends your age: it’s having friends your age that go to church with you but do not live out their faith, and instead draw you away.

Do not follow them. Verse 17: “For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.” Do we want to burn alone in dark gloom forever? That is the fate of those who have the audacity to rebel against our Father.

Finally, this text also ought to help us see when we are not dealing with someone like this. Not everyone who sins lets it become their master. Not everyone who teaches something false is a wolf. Not every slave entices others. We want to be on guard, but not trigger happy. Let’s be wise as serpents, harmless as doves.

Series: 2nd Peter (Not Carried Away)

Service: Sun AM (2)

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

Have you ever imagined what it would have been like to be Lot living in Sodom and Gomorrah before it fell? Peter tells us in 2 Peter 2:7-8. He was greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked. Day after day he tormented his righteous soul over their lawless deeds.

Initially, Lot’s response might strike us as odd. Of course we’d all be disturbed by the violent crowds that surrounded Lot’s house, but the sensual conduct that was ongoing before that? Maybe we think, “So… they liked to sleep around. Or they are greedy, or they lie, or are wrathful. What does that have to do with with Lot? He should focus on his own problems and not be so judgmental.”

If our distress turns into a disgust at everyone else while rarely reflecting on our own weaknesses, then yes, that’s a problem. We should tend to the logs in our own eye first. But if we aren’t distressed by wickedness — we just see it as the personal choices of others that don’t affect us — that’s another problem. Should we not see that any sin — ours and theirs — degrades the sinner, traps them in desires that don’t pay off, makes them less loving in their relationships, hurts others, and affects God’s good world and everyone in it? Do we not pray for God’s kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth as in heaven?

Consider Jesus. We could say he was so tormented by the world’s wickedness — and ours — that he left heaven and died a sinner’s death to end it. And he is angry enough about sin that he is coming to save those who turn from sin, and to destroy those who refuse.

The point is this: Lot’s distress over Sodom’s wickedness is a sign that he was a righteous man in need of salvation from the wicked. Lot and his family were deeply flawed — as we are and have been too. But Lot’s grief over their lifestyles was right. Remember chapter 1: all the corruption, strife, sickness, sadness, disability, and death are in the world because of sin. We should be tormented by our own sin and the sin in the world.

When Lot urged the people of Sodom and Gomorrah to not behave so wickedly — they became angry. “The outsider is trying to become our judge! You’ll pay for that.” And people inside and outside the church may respond to us like that too — “You’re being judgmental.” We certainly should not be harsh. We should come with truth in love to protect the unprotected and to save the world. But being misunderstood is a certainty.

How do we live in a sinful world where Sodom and Gomorrah are built up around us? How can we endure when wickedness infiltrates the church? Here, Peter gives us two solid pillars to hold onto, summed up in verse 9: The Lord knows how to rescue the godly and how to punish the unrighteous.

Peter has cautioned that false teachers will secretly bring in destructive heresies and lead people into sensuality. But he declares in verse 3: Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. His point is that we don’t have to worry, their fate was sealed long ago and God is actually in the process of bringing their destruction about.

Peter wants us to be confident about this so we are not afraid or led astray when this wickedness comes into the church, so he gives three examples of how God is in the process of restraining and destroying wickedness.

Peter reminds his readers that God did not even spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell. There is some disagreement here, but I’ll share my interpretation with you. Genesis 6 and other Jewish writings speak of the “sons of God” sleeping with the “daughters of men.” And the result was giants — or Nephilim — walking the earth. Consider how scary it would be to see days where dark spiritual powers are plainly invading the earth and animating wickedness, sensuality, and violence in such epic proportions. And yet, God did not stand by quietly — he cast them into Tartarus — the underworld — and has confined them in darkness until the day of judgment. Note the two-fold judgment: God punishes and restrains wickedness in our own day in advance of the final day when wickedness is judged. Please remember this when we see great wickedness in our own day: it could be far worse, it could be total darkness and hell, but God is restraining wickedness, there is still light.

Peter tells us that God did not spare the ancient world either, but that he did preserve Noah with seven others. He refers to Noah as a “herald of righteousness.” Consider the world Noah preached to and lived in. Genesis 6 says that people’s thoughts were on evil continually. Sensuality, corruption, and violence surrounded them. Only Noah and his family walked righteously.

And we have talked about Lot. Day by day sensuality filled the streets and homes of Sodom. And as we see in Genesis, violence and injustice was commonplace on the streets — foreigners were brutalized. And Ezekiel tells us that though the city was very wealthy, the poor went hungry, and none shared their bread with them. And Lot tried to do what he could do — when he saw the two men — angels unbeknownst to him — he brought them into his home. He was the kind of man who shared his home and food with those in need. But there was only so much he could do. And when he simply tried to protect the two men and urged others to stop, they turned against Lot. Imagine being a child, woman, widow, foreigner, or slave in that city. Imagine determining with Lot to fear God and protect such people.

And in our world we too see that sensuality without restraint is on the rise. People sleep with whomever they want. People transform their bodies however they want. People watch videos of whomever they want. Trafficking is rampant. And we try to raise our children to not be stained by this world. It is scary to raise boys in a world with such availability to pornography — how many homes are crippled right now by it? It is scary to raise girls in a world where boys are trained to see and treat women like that — and where pornography has infiltrated us as the church as heavily as it has. Violence is getting worse. And what is particularly unique about our world in comparison to the ancient world is that many actually glorify these things as not only permissible but in some cases as virtuous.

It can be quite scary to consider what people might do against us when we determine to honor God in this world and in churches that get infiltrated by this. Remember Isaiah 59:15, “Whoever departs from evil makes himself a prey.” Fear aside, it’s just downright tormenting to watch Sodom and Gomorrah enter into the church. Notice how he describes it in verse 10: those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Mark that: Peter isn’t talking about the world, remember, this all started by talking about false teachers entering the church. He’s saying that some of the very people we are sitting and singing with and teaching in our classrooms may one day not only willfully indulge in lust and despise the authority of our Lord, but also teach others to do so too. Scary. Tormenting.

And yet, the Lord preserved Noah when he brought a flood on the earth. He rescued righteous Lot in his distress too. And if he did that, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from all the trials they may encounter. He knows how to rescue you and me.

But note that the Lord does not deliver us from ever encountering trials. Noah and Lot both suffered in the wicked worlds they lived in — as did Job, Abraham, Elijah, and our Lord Jesus — and we will too. God has never promised it will be easy. He has promised it will be hard, but that he will deliver us. At times, as with Noah and Lot, he delivers us in our lifetime. But, if not, we can be certain that on the day of judgment, the resurrection, and in coming kingdom, God will deliver all the righteous from their trials — even if have died. He will not prevent us from encountering trials, but he will rescue us from our trials.

And, Peter says, the Lord knows how to punish the unrighteous both now and in the day of judgment too. He did not spare angels, he did not spare the ancient world, and he turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes. And note verse 6: these are each intended to be examples of what is going to happen to the ungodly.

Will we live in these times with that confident hope in mind — that God knows how to rescue the righteous and punish the wicked? Until our final rescue, fear of what may happen can get the better of us. Yes — flee wickedness! Young people, do not befriend fools and rebels! And yet, while we stay far away from wickedness, we do not fear it but God. Fear God, but fear of wickedness can become overpowering to the point that it takes over our identity: maybe we become paralyzed by anxiety over what is happening in the world, we can’t turn off the news, we accumulate earthly treasures in fear of the future, we hide out in our homes. Brothers and sisters, these are perishable anchors in stormy times that will not hold. Our anchor must go into the most holy place: that’s where we go in our time of need, to the high priest who has endured the wicked mobs, the unjust “church” of Israel. The righteous have been surrounded by the wicked before, and God dealt with them. Let us not be naive about the ways the world comes into the church. But let us also not have a spirit of fear over it, but of power and love and self-control — praying without ceasing, pleading for him to do justice, to protect his church. God answers prayers in this age! And no matter what, he will intervene in our time-space reality to rescue the righteous in the final day.

And will we live in these times with a certain fearfulness over the destruction of the wicked? God turned Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes as an example — this fortifies our hope and cautions us with fear. Sensuality can seem harmless and tempting and innocent. And the world paints it that way — but it is actually a plain rejection of our King who made us and who has the authority to govern our bodies for our good, the good of the world, and the glory of his name. But if we despise what God has made and the glory of his name and his right to govern us — brothers and sisters, young men and women: he has given an example of what he will do.

When Peter wrote this, it was still widely recognized what God had done to Sodom. Josephus wrote: “In fact, vestiges of the divine fire and faint traces of five cities are still visible. Still, too, may one see ashes reproduced in the fruits, which from their outward appearance would be thought edible, but on being plucked with the hand dissolve into smoke and ashes. So far are the legends about the land of Sodom born out by ocular evidence.” (J.W. 4.484-85) The ancient “legend” about Sodom and Gomorrah is true, and so are the prophecies about how it will be repeated on a global scale: Jesus is the rightful king over this world, and one day he will appear from heaven to rescue those who have been loyal to him and also to reign down fiery destruction upon the rest of mankind and their works. On that day it will not matter if we have justified ourselves before each other: God alone will judge. Let us fearfully turn back to our Lord! And let us not fear but loyally wait in hope for our salvation.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM (2)

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM (2)

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

It was January 5th and the preacher  asked the audience "Who is hoping that this year will be better than last year?" Many raised their hands. People were really hoping for an improvement on what had been a tough year for a lot of us. Unfortunately and ironically, it was January 5th, 2020 — just a week or two before we started hearing about this virus in China that was destined to make both 2020 and the following years some of the most difficult years many of us have endured in a long time. And in some ways we are still wrestling with the aftermath of that year.

Do you ever get a bit disillusioned with the whole idea of a new year and all the resolutions that come with it?  Notice Ecclesiastes 1:1-15 with me.

All Is Vanity (Ecclesiastes 1:1-15, etc.)

“All is vanity.” The preacher uses this word “hebel” 37 times and it is translated as “vain,” “vanity,” “futility.” It normally refers to a “mist,” “vapor,” or “breath,” but in Ecclesiastes it is used metaphorically to refer to something that is fleeting, elusive, quickly passing, and impossible to grasp just like wind. All things, the preacher tells us, no matter how solid they seem, are like vapor, mist, breath — fleeting, futile, empty— here one moment and gone the next, never amounting to anything. Consider…

• The world, history, and mankind never advance (1:2-8). Generations come and go. The sun never gets anywhere — it rises, sets, and returns panting to the place where it will rise again. Winds blow around and around. Water keeps flowing into the seas, but the seas are never filled up. We hear and see all manner of wonders, but our eyes and ears are never full, satisfied. World history is one big cycle full of little cycles that are headed towards nothing but yet another futile cycle that goes nowhere.
• Nothing is really new (1:9-10). Someone might come along — as politicians, revolutionists, and technology companies often do today — and say, “No, something new is happening, history is moving to a better day,” but actually, it won’t amount to anything truly different. What we buy today will be replaced. The children we bring into the world will die and be forgotten under the dust. It looks new, but it’s not.
• We make this mistake because, he says, we fail to see that Everything will be forgotten (1:11). Ninety-nine point nine percent of everyone and everything has been and will be forgotten: us, our grandparents, our children.
• All this leads to the sad conclusion in verse 15 that What is crooked cannot be made straight. What is broken appears to never be fixed. And this is the approach the preacher takes at various points throughout the book. He grasps continually to find meaning, happiness, and stability in this broken world.
  • Maybe wisdom will be the game changer? Wisdom is good he says — at least we have eyes in our head — but more knowledge means more sadness — and the wise die like fools anyway.
  • Is there hope in riches? No — the pleasures that riches afford are fleeting, temporary, they run away — and we may leave our hard-earned wealth to a foolish child when we die anyway.
  • Is there hope in the justice system? No; justice is often perverted by the powerful. Even when justice is dispensed it’s always delayed and those who are hurt are never really comforted in the end.
  • Maybe there’s hope if we do good work? There can be pleasure in work for some, but what is ultimately gained from our work? All the work we do will one day crumble.
  • But at least there is hope in our deaths, right? “The spirit of a righteous man ascends to God.” But the preacher even shrugs about that — “who knows?” he says. Though the end of Ecclesiastes assures us there will be a final judgment, for now he wonders if maybe we are just like the beasts who return to dust (3:18-22).

Our lives and labor will all be in vain. Everything is futile and full of weariness. It’s a new year, but is it really? Is anything really new? Do we or does anything really ever change? Is there even any point in making resolutions? It appears as though our bodies, marriages, families, churches, neighborhoods, and history are really going nowhere and they will amount to nothing — we will all waste away in sin, decay, and death forever.

All Things New

Ecclesiastes offers an important perspective that we truly need to incorporate into our thinking and living. Ecclesiastes keeps us sane while the world is drunk on its visions of what it is accomplishing. But, we must remember that Ecclesiastes is also written from a particular perspective before Jesus’ first coming. In fact, I believe the sober wisdom of Ecclesiastes to point out that everything and everyone has been headed for death is what makes the Gospel such good news. Because the NT demonstrates that in Jesus a new thing has happened right here, in our own world, under the sun. The Divine God took on corruptible flesh, carried our sorrows, sicknesses, sins, and he let Satan and the world kill him. He took on death — that black hole that sucks all meaning and hope from anything that could be good, the thing which we can all hardly imagine experiencing without Jesus because it is so chilling and horrible and hopeless. But with tears and sweat Jesus went to the cross, was carried to a tomb, and three days later he was raised into a garden and symbolically into a world that had suddenly begun to be a new place by his being raised in it. And the body that was killed was somehow raised incorruptible so that when he comes again he says he will still come as the now glorified divine human — as the Son of Man in the clouds. After 2,000 years this Son of Man once dead is strong and he will come with his glory as the eternal Son of God restored, but in the form of the divine human. Everything appears hopelessly old and beyond regeneration or restoration, but this Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrection — and the first fruits of what Paul calls the “new creation.” He is the first of the resurrection, the restoration, the regeneration, the newness that God is bringing about in all things.

And so, the writer of Ecclesiastes asks, “Is there a thing of which it is said, ‘See, this is new?’” And today because Jesus is raised, we say, “Yes.”

How Newness Comes About

In light of this new thing Christ has done, I want to reflect with you in our remaining time on two aspects of how newness happens from the Bible’s perspective. This is where on book, chapter, or verse is simply not sufficient, so we will read a couple passages, but really just hover above it to consider this broader theme. Credit to my brother-in-law, Travis Wise, for inspiring the second half of this sermon. Turn to 2 Corinthians 5:17.

1. New comes out of the old. Those in Christ are a new creation, the old has passed away, the new has come. But what is wild is that this newness, this transformation has all come out of someone who was once part of the old age and old way. We die, pass away, and the new comes. But it is not that Christ has literally killed one person and replaced them with another — the new has come out of the old. It’s a rebirth. A refurbishing, a renewal if you will. That is what happened with Christ — he went into the tomb perishable, he came out imperishable. That’s the way Paul speaks of our resurrection — our body now is not our future body, but our future body will come out of our bodies now just as a plant comes from a seed.

This is also the way Paul speaks of what will happen with the Creation itself in Romans 8:18-23. We know that the heavens and earth are awaiting a day of fire and judgment. And yet we also know from this text that creation itself groans, not with the groans of hopeless, imminent doom, but with the groans of childbirth, longing with us to be free from corruption to obtain freedom. So, on one hand, fire is coming upon everything, and yet on the other hand even creation is waiting to share in the glory of the children of God in some way. And that’s a reminder about what God says in Revelation: God doesn’t say he’s making all new things, he says he’s making all things new — if you will, restoring and renewing all things.

We have a hard time even imagining this can be so. Think about a Christian you really respect and admire for their maturity, love, wisdom, and works. It is so hard to imagine, but they were not always like this. We can tend to look at mature people and think they must have been born this way. But they weren’t. New creation is so wondrous because comes out of what was old.

We all believe God can make new things out of nothing, but it can be so easy to lose this childlike hope that the “magical power” of God’s Spirit has actually come not to make new things, but to make all things new. Maybe we are pessimistic. Maybe we just want God to blow everything up and whisk us away. We want to be done with life and history. Maybe there’s no point in even making resolutions for our own good, the good of our family, this church, God’s kingdom. But that’s why, when God showed Isaiah and Ezekiel what his Spirit would accomplish, he showed them water poured out from on high and flowing from God’s temple, making both the desert and the lifeless Dead Sea like a fruitful garden life. As surely as Christ is still risen, the prophets are telling us that not even the Dead Sea or the desert will always be full of death — and we need those imaginative eyes of childlike faith and hope. God’s Spirit makes old things new.

2. New comes in the midst of the old. It’s strange: Paul exclaims, “New creation! The old has passed away; … the new has come,” but all throughout 2 Corinthians he goes on suffering terribly and “dying” like Christ so that others might be reconciled to God and raised from death to life. Furthermore, though Paul says new creation has come, Peter still speaks of a day when the heavens and earth pass will away before the new heavens and earth come. So, Paul says the new creation is now, and Peter says the new creation is still to come. The new has come, but for now, it has come in the midst of a world that, while it is being made new, is still quite old. This is one thing most Jews were simply not expecting. Most Jews expected God would do his great work to resurrect Israel and restore all things in one big coming of the Messiah. But instead of simply raising everyone and everything to life at the end of time, Jesus came in the midst of time and — through his death and resurrection and the giving of his Spirit — he started new creation in the midst of the old creation. It’s the strange picture of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection: in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden, and in that garden was a tomb, and from that tomb and into that garden Jesus was raised. New life comes in the midst of old death.

And, in many senses, we do live in a world that has been made a bit new. The world has gone bonkers and it will take Jesus coming in glory for all to be set right. But the world really is different in a number of ways 2,000 years later, even for those who do not believe in Jesus. Before Jesus, might makes right, if you are the one in power, you say what is true and good. Though non-Christians are very inconsistent, hardly anyone would confidently say might makes right today. Before Jesus, slaves were bought and sold like cattle and viewed as objectively less than human. And, though it took some time, it was Christians who eventually rose up and insisted that chattel slavery end. We still have massive slavery problems today, but many things have changed, and it was Christians who changed it. Jesus has come and will come not to simply change some little bits of spiritual reality — forgive our sins so we feel better — but, again, he comes to make all things new.

So, the new creation has come right here in the midst of the old. And that is wondrous, but it is also discouraging at times, isn’t it? It’s hard to be new around old, free around slaves, pure in the midst of corruption. But, take heart and have faith: this new year has come, but when you in prayer and faith make resolutions, you are not saying that this will be the year when all things will be made new — though we hope it will be and we say, “Maranatha — Lord come quickly!” We are simply committing to work for newness in the midst of the old, for light in darkness. And don’t fear what darkness can do, for, as my brother-in-law, Travis put it, “darkness is nothing at all — just the absence light.” It simply cannot extinguish light. New light is coming and old darkness cannot stop it.

In the Lord Your Labor Is Not In Vain (1 Cor. 15:58)

The preacher says, “All is vanity, what does man gain from his toil? There is nothing new.” But God has done a new thing in Jesus. In Adam all have died, but in Christ all are made alive. And because of his resurrection, this new thing means that all does not have to be vanity. 1 Cor. 15:58 ESV, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” Outside of the Lord, outside of the walls of his kingdom, probably, everything under the sun is vanity. But the kingdom of heaven has invaded this world under the sun. It is a new year, and soon God will bring the new day to end all night. For now, if we are in the Lord and we do our labor as for the Lord for the glory and dominion of the Lord — our labor is not at all in vain. God sees, and God is doing something with it. So, brothers and sisters: please, may we hope in God’s promises and look around at the walls of our lives, our marriages, our families, this church, and of God’s kingdom and see where repair, strengthening, and growth needs to happen. Resolve in one or two clear ways to labor for the Lord and his kingdom. It is not in vain.

Series: N/A

Service: Sun AM (2)

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

From God’s perspective in Isaiah, a portion of what is wrong in the world is a top down problem. Judges make unjust judgments. Rulers create unfair laws (10:1-2). Priests and prophets are drunk on wine, unable to give good instruction (28:7-8). Because of this, Isaiah promises top down solutions. God would come in judgment. He would send a new king who would be full of wisdom. He would reign in righteousness. The people and their land had been wrecked by war and injustice, but light would come. The wicked would be trampled down. Listen to the hope that prophets like Isaiah and Micah gave to God’s tired, exploited people.

“The enemy is laying siege to Jerusalem. They will strike Israel’s leader in the face with a rod. But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf. The people of Israel will be abandoned to their enemies until the woman in labor gives birth. Then at last his fellow countrymen will return from exile to their own land. And he will stand to lead his flock with the LORD’s strength, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. Then his people will live there undisturbed, for he will be highly honored around the world. And he will be the source of peace.” (Mic. 5:1–5 NLT)

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.” (Is. 9:6–7 ESV)

People anticipated the healing, rule, judgment, and salvation God’s king would bring for millennia. And Luke tells us that Gabriel finally brought good news to Zechariah: after all the waiting and prayer, his wife Elizabeth would bear a son — John — who would prepare the way for God’s coming. And then Gabriel went to Mary and promised her a son who would take the throne of his father David and rule forever. After this, Luke records account after account of people praising God in awe and wonder at what he was doing in their day — Mary, Elizabeth, Zechariah, the angels, the Shepherds, righteous Simeon, and the prophetess Anna. Consider Zechariah’s response in Luke 1:67-79. Notice how Zechariah’s expectations make none of the harsh distinctions we tend to make between physical and spiritual promises. In the same breath Zechariah, through the Holy Spirit, expects both forgiveness of sins and salvation “from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us” so that we can “serve [God] without fear.” Many rejoiced that Jesus would both spiritually and physically heal them and the weary world of all sin, sickness, decay, and death. He comes to make his blessings flow as far as the curse is found — from sins and sorrows to the thorns that infest the ground.

And when Jesus preached in Luke 6, he proclaimed that the poor, hungry, weeping, and persecuted would one day laugh and be satisfied. He said that the rich, full, laughing, and popular would one day be hungry and weeping. He healed the sick and even raised a widow’s only son from the dead. People were being freed from Satan’s oppression in all sorts of ways. The report about Jesus spread throughout the whole area.

And the report reached John the Baptist who was locked up in prison for criticizing Herod for breaking God’s marriage laws. Do you see the irony? Jesus is was the one who would bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, open the prison for those who were bound, and bring joy and justice to the oppressed. And yet, where’s John? He’s poor, hungry, weeping, persecuted, and bound in prison. John’s experiencing none of the blessings of Jesus’ coming. Luke 7:18-23 helps us grapple with John’s challenge, and the challenge we all have of living between Jesus’ first and second comings. Read the text with me.

Shall We Look for Another? (Luke 7:18-23)

John hears about all these things in prison and he wants to know, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Do you understand John’s challenge? If Jesus is really the one who will take away sins, crush the wicked, end oppression, and reign eternally in righteousness, what is John — the first follower Jesus ever had — doing in prison for proclaiming Jesus?

And yet Jesus replies by telling him what he already knew: blind are seeing, lame are walking, lepers are cleansed, dead are raised up, and the poor have the good news preached to them. These were all signs from Isaiah that God had drawn near to his people.

So why is John in prison? Simply put, the healing and news of God’s kingdom had started to come, but not all its healing, justice, and restoration. Signs Jesus had the power to restore God’s kingdom were all there, but not the full salvation and restoration itself because that was not the intention of his first coming. Think about it, what does full and final salvation and justice require? It requires that God say, “times up, I’m putting all enemies under Jesus’ feet”— and at one point, that would have included you and me. Notice the distinction the Hebrew writer draws between the purpose of Jesus’ first and second appearings, advents in Hebrews 9:26–28.

“But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”

The prophets spoke of a day when God would come, deal with sin, rescue the righteous, and crush the enemies. The challenge is that God didn’t reveal a prophetic timetable for how all that would play out. We know now that there’s a first coming and a second coming. We know now he came the first time to die humbly for sins and the second time he will come in glory to rescue us. We know now that in the first coming Jesus would only offer signs of his ability to reverse the curse and heal the world in the ways he will accomplish at his second coming. We know now that there are at least 2,000 years between his first and second comings. But in the prophets, none of this is apparent — language about Jesus’ first and second comings is all mixed together. And that was pretty confusing for John and many others.

So, I have done it before and I repent, but if we criticize the apostles for “looking for a physical kingdom,” I think we are actually the ones who don’t understand God’s kingdom. Jesus’ followers — and even John here — did not misunderstand the content of the promises about God’s kingdom. They misunderstood the timing: thinking all the promises would be completely fulfilled now, suddenly. They misunderstood the means: thinking the kingdom would come by the sword. That’s why Peter was swinging his sword around in the garden. But they were not wrong to expect God’s kingdom to change their physical circumstances and to materially make all things new. It took time before Peter realized in Acts 3:21 that the kingdom restoration the prophets promised won’t all be fulfilled until Jesus comes from heaven.

John’s challenge was that he didn’t understand that the fulfillment of all the prophets would require Jesus coming twice: once, to deal with our sins; again, in glory to conquer. John was understandably hoping that Jesus’ first coming would be his only coming, and that Jesus would do everything we now know he’ll do at his second coming.

Luke 11 offers a clear picture of what Jesus was doing in all these signs. Some people slandered Jesus saying he was using the power of Satan to cast out Satan’s demons. Jesus says that’s ludicrous. Why would Satan fight against his own kingdom? Jesus is using God’s power. He explains the  significance of what that means in Luke 11:20-22.

Here, Satan is the strong man being overpowered by Jesus who is the someone stronger. Jesus has taken away Satan’s armor and is running off with his belongings. The world lies under the power of the evil one. But if it is by the finger of God that Jesus is casting out demons and reversing the curses of sin and the work of Satan — then that means God’s kingdom had come upon them. Jesus’ miracles were not arbitrary magic tricks to prove his divinity; they were signs that God’s kingdom has invaded Satan’s territory to take back the world for God; they were signs of Jesus’ power to some day reverse the curse that has devoured the earth. His signs are a foretaste of the day when all things are made new, when God’s kingdom comes and his will is done on earth as in heaven.

Living Between Jesus’ Comings

So, until that day, how should we think and live between the advents, between first and second comings of Jesus?

1. We will suffer and mourn because Satan and the kingdoms of this world have been put on notice: kiss the king or perish. And Satan  and the kingdoms of this world won’t go quietly. In Psalm 2, David sees the nations plotting their rebellion. In Revelation 12:12, as the apostle John sees Satan cast down to the earth, he warns: “Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” We will urge people to kneel before the true king, but the world isn’t done having its day. If they killed Jesus, what will they do to us? From his mother’s womb John the Baptist was the first to rejoice over Jesus’ coming, but he was also the first to die for proclaiming it. It’s time to sober up. “We must suffer many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22 NLT). But, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who weep now, for you shall laugh.”

Bradley and Becky are organizing a group to read the Psalms together during the first half of 2024 and they said we may gather at some point to sing and memorize Psalms. I thank God for this effort and I really hope this sort of stuff finds its way into our assemblies, because our wonderful songs need to be supplemented by Israel’s inspired song book. Our songbooks rarely lead us to weep before God’s throne. But the Psalms are rich with variety and they don’t tell those who are feeling so blue to just sing and be happy, they weep with those who weep. In Psalm 6 we would sing, “I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping.” In Psalm 126 we would sing, “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy.”

2. We should rejoice because the invasion of God’s kingdom upon the territory of Satan has begun. Hebrews 10:12-13 puts it really well when it describes where we are at in the story of redemption. Hebrews 10:12–13 NLT, “But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. There he waits until his enemies are humbled and made a footstool under his feet.” Jesus reigns at God’s right hand waiting for all enemies to be put under his feet, and in our life we will see evidence of his reign. The good news of his kingdom is sounding out. People’s lives are being changed. Some enemies are converted, some are crushed. The kingdoms of earth pass away one by one, but two thousand years later the kingdom of God is strong. In our soberness, we should be people of confident rejoicing because the manger, the transfiguration, the empty tomb are all solid signs that all God’s enemies will be crushed and that we will be glorified to enjoy a world unmarred by injustice or corruption. God is putting all things under our feet! And, not only that, Paul says we can also rejoice in our sufferings, because God is doing good work in us, forming us to be his sort of people.

3. We must endure, not offended by Jesus. Luke 7:23 (ESV). Jesus told John, “And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” I don’t take it that John was offended by Jesus, but Jesus is encouraging him. Preacher Tim Keller points out that John is not like the criminal next to Jesus on the cross. The criminal demanded that if Jesus really was the Christ he would save them and himself. But John asks a question, “Are you the one to come?” He doesn’t demand, “If you really are the one to come, spring me from prison now.” Consider how arrogant it would be for John or for us to make the demand of the criminal in our suffering. “Jesus, if you really are the great one, I, little John, demand that you prove it to me by giving me what I want right now.” Do we really want to worship a God that is so pathetic that he has to — like a genie — obey the every whim of every human who rubs his lamp? Do we want to entrust the fate of heaven and earth to a god that is so weak that he must work on our timetable? That’s a god made in our image, fashioned after our likeness.

John had to learn to accept that in this age, sometimes we are doomed to suffer even while we pray for it to end. Sometimes we pray and Peter is rescued from prison by an angel while John the Baptist and James are beheaded and we are told by God, “Not yet.” Sometimes we need to realize that what we are really praying for is the last day, kingdom come, Jesus in the clouds now (cred: Jeff Wilson)! But we must wait, endure — not offended when Jesus doesn’t end all history to break us out of my personal situation. The time will come for those prayers to be answered, all the promises of God will find their “yes” in Jesus, just not yet. We need to be like the persistent widow, nagging the judge for justice. But when the Son of Man comes, will there still be faith left on earth? May we be the remnant!

Series: 2nd Peter (Not Carried Away)

Service: Sun AM (2)

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Scott Kercheville

On September 11th, 2001, terrorists hijacked four airplanes and used them as weapons —crashing them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a rural Pennsylvania field — killing nearly 3,000 people. After that event, airport security changed dramatically. Before, it was very quick. You could walk through security with ease. Family and friends could walk with you to the gate. Now? We take off our shoes, belts, and jackets while every inch of our belongings and bodies are carefully scanned for dangers. Do your wife and baby want to walk you to the gate before you leave? Forget about it. Why? It is because we have learned two important lessons: (1) Not everyone is who they appear to be; (2) Some of the most destructive things are not easily spotted.

Peter has just fortified our confidence in the Old Testament prophets. Christ has confirmed what they spoke, so we ought to pay careful attention to them. But that doesn’t mean that everyone who says “Thus says the Lord…” is being carried along by the Holy Spirit. Peter says in verse 1: False prophets arose among the people back then, just as there will be — notice the shift he makes — false teachers among you. This morning we will consider four things Peter says about false teachers — or, if you will, exploitative expositors. Let’s read both 2 Peter 2:1-3 and 3:15-17.

(a) Scriptural: False teachers secretly bring in destructive heresies by using Scripture wrongly (2:1;  3:15-17). Some of the most destructive things are not easily spotted. And one way false teachers go undetected is they teach the same Scriptures. False prophets say “thus says the Lord” when the Lord has not spoken to them. But all teachers — both false and true — say, “This is what Paul means when he says this; this is the significance of Jesus doing that.” Some are bringing true interpretations. Some are ignorant, twisting the Scriptures. As one author remarked, the most difficult heresies to overcome throughout church history came from people who knew the Scriptures well (Matthew Barrett, Simply Trinity). I quote book-chapter-verse, Jesus does, Satan does, and so do false teachers.

We are very blessed to have access to the Scriptures. But we aren’t immune to reading it wrongly or being swayed by false teaching. What makes this especially dangerous is that our generation can tend to avoid weighty doctrine to ask questions that feel more relevant: “What does this Scripture mean for me and my life?” I am convinced that I could regularly use the Scriptures to preach self-focused, self-help lessons across Churches of Christ today and most wouldn’t know the difference. Our insistence that teaching be relevant is definitely right. But the Scriptures can be wrongly used to teach a lot of relevant things. Our lives must changed by the Truth. And yet, how can our lives change without the rich, deep, beautiful Truth? We need right doctrine and right practice — orthodoxy and orthopraxy. There’s no simple answer for this, but allow me to offer two suggestions from Scripture and history.

First, Paul told Timothy that the church is a buttress of the truth and he told him to entrust what he heard from Paul to faithful men and women who will teach others (1 Tim. 3:15; 2 Tim. 2:2). If we believe that Timothy and others passed on what they heard from the apostles and that the church has at least in part historically supported the Truth? Then, if we find in ourselves a belief or practice foreign to the church over the past 2,000 years — or even beliefs and practices only found in those removed from the church — we should have the humility to consider that we may likely be the ones who are in the wrong.

Alexander Campbell claimed, “I have endeavored to read the Scriptures as though no one had read them before me.” Campbell was understandably frustrated by the division and false teaching he saw all around him. And yet, is it not a bit arrogant to think we can simply declare that we are free from all bias? Many in our tradition are concerned at how his approach has fostered an individualistic, divisive, and sectarian culture in our tradition that gives not one ounce of weight to what the church has historically taught and practiced. Now, Paul is not telling Timothy that the church is somehow infallible. But I think if we follow Campbell’s endeavor to read the Scriptures in complete isolation without any bias, that actually opens us up to the most dangerous biases of all: the deceptive human heart. Maybe the answer is to apply Paul’s words today as a proverb that is often true, but not as a law — “the church is a buttress of the truth” Paul says in Timothy; “but not perfectly” Paul shows us in his other letters. Regardless, we must recognize that beliefs that are novel to the past two thousand years of church history will deviate us from the ancient path.

Second, heresies have historically come about when people “declutter” ancient beliefs. As one writer cautions, some doctrines may not appear pragmatic, or practical, so we may think it best to declutter our beliefs like Marie Kondo declutters houses. If doctrines don’t seem practical — if they don’t “spark joy” — toss it out (Samuel James, Does It Matter What I Believe?). Consider one example: the Corinthian church struggled to comprehend how the resurrection worked — “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” (floating around as disembodied spirits in the sky likely sounded more palatable to them)— so many set it aside as incomprehensible and unintentionally undermined the Christian hope in the process (1 Cor. 15). Or consider how the Jews in Jerusalem and Galatia did the same with justification by faith: it upended their entire culture to receive baptized believers into their community without circumcision, so they tried to require circumcision and unknowingly nullified the gift of God.

People often ask, “What practical difference does doctrine make?” The challenge is that we cannot often see why it matters. It may take years and decades. That’s why C.S. Lewis urges us to have a different mindset: if something is true, every honest man will want to believe it even if it gives him no help at all (“Man or Rabbit,” in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics). Truth matters whether it seems immediately relevant or not. It may feel cluttered to  require the church to confess that Jesus is not part God and part man but both truly God and truly man, or that in the future Jesus will come from heaven, or that the Holy Spirit is worshipped and glorified together with the Father and the Son, or that baptism cleanses us of sin. It may seem narrow-minded to hold that marriage is exclusively between a man and a woman, or that we don’t sleep together before we are married, or to not permit divorce and remarriage except for the cause of adultery, or to ignore someone’s new argument from Scripture about these things. But it is because the most influential heretics always come with Scripture. Holding to the ancient doctrines — not decluttering them — will make a difference in the long run by keeping us on the ancient paths.

(b) Sensual: They are denying their Master and leading many to sensuality (2:2). False teachers open the doors on sensuality. And that doesn’t lead just a few people to follow, it leads the masses. Prepping for this sermon, I heard something from a 1982 sermon that shocked me: “It seems almost impossible that such a thing as arrogant sexual immorality could actually be taught in the church.” It doesn’t seem impossible anymore, does it? Our world has changed a lot in 40 years — but really, this problem is as old as Christianity. Peter and the generations after him dealt with this. And you’d think that the Scriptures warned enough about this that none of these false teachers would ever be followed, but many follow. I am even finding authors on my shelves caving to accept what is plainly sexual immorality. Peter says they are denying the Master who bought them — whether explicitly or implicitly. Hear that: They come from within our churches. At one time the Lord Jesus snatched from the fire. But they don’t want him as an authoritative Master. They want Jesus the Lamb, not the Lion.

So, don’t be too surprised when someone you love wanders off. Try to snatch them out of the fire! But we ourselves must take care that we aren’t burned, swayed to compromise in the process. Don’t follow the masses. They will repeatedly say that the banner over them is the love of Jesus and the grace of our God, but sensuality is their rallying point plain and simple.

(c) Scandalous: Because of them the Way of Truth will be blasphemed (2). We look back at the crusades, at the mistreatment of Native Americans, and the African slave trade and we wonder how Christians could have participated in those things. More recently, some of us even have grandparents and great grandparents who would not worship with blacks, and we hang our heads in disappointment. But we are not the only ones shaking our heads. Back then, those “Christians” were just going along with culture. They were in the main. But now? The larger culture wonders at their small-mindedness and blasphemes the Way because of them.

Right now Christians are mocked for not going along with the message of sexual liberation. But do you know in the ancient world that Christians eventually came to be seen as the ones making society better? One of the many reasons Christianity started turning heads was because of the counter-cultural sexual ethics of churches: they demanded that  husbands in their churches respect their wives and restrain their sexual energies to the marriage bed.

Do you think one day people will find that their “theology” of sexual liberation isn’t so progressive and fulfilling as they once thought it was? That it was actually destructive and narrow minded to encourage people to change their bodies to match their minds? Or to divorce when something better comes along? Or to indulge in sexuality without marital vows? Or to pursue an unnatural same-sex marriage that ultimately leaves them unhappy and childless? In that day, they’ll once again look to Christians who caved and shake their heads. Let us beware to not follow false teachers, because in the future it will always become plain that their way was not good, and the Way of Truth will be blasphemed because of them.

(d) Self-Seeking: In their greed they will exploit you (3). False teachers avoid ancient doctrines to make Christianity feel more relevant to us. They seem to offer a more love and grace filled Christianity. They seem like they care about us. They agree with us. They get angry at Christians who said hurtful things to us in the past. They are offering a church where you can belong. Earlier this year I saw a mailer advertising a sermon series on Genesis 37-50. The tagline? “Dream Again.” Joseph’s dreams came true, so don’t give up on your dreams. Another ad was for a Numbers series: “My beautifully flawed journey.” Numbers is about God’s faithfulness to Israel through a rebellion that led to millions of people dying and being eternally condemned to hell — it’s a beautifully flawed journey? Why do false teachers always sound like they have something so immediately relevant to me? Peter says that they are motivated by greed. They want money, praise, acceptance, and popularity.

Let’s have enough self-respect to ask who our teachers love most. If it comes across like they love us more than God, there’s a red flag. We ought to love each other because we have learned love from God. But if they seem like they want to serve people more than bring God’s kingdom, there’s no solid truth under their feet, and their love is not genuine. They love themselves. Would they honor God and love us enough to tell us something we don’t want to hear? Do they care anything for the martyrs who died for the doctrines they are decluttering?

We are all looking for light in this darkness. The Old Testament prophets are a lamp… but not everyone advertising help in darkness is carrying the Light.

Now, we do not want to become divisive and call everyone we disagree with a false teacher. In changing airport security measures, we have fortunately also learned that if we treat children and the elderly in the same way as everyone else, we introduce other risks — like not treating the most vulnerable among us with compassion. Allen’s lesson last week was spot on. This lesson has focused on the importance of being wise as serpents, but that does not at all negate the importance of also being harmless as doves — otherwise, we risk becoming the very snakes for which we are on the watch!

And yet, false prophets served as part of Israel’s downfall, and false teachers are the downfall of many today. We live in a time where everyone with a smartphone and some marketing genius can create a pulpit and following for themselves. But avoiding all teachers to simply pick up our Bibles to find truth by ourselves opens us up to danger too. The church gets infiltrated by false teachers, but we need the larger church across time and space as a buttress of the truth. There’s a balance. What can we do? Truly, this is a time for prayer.

“Father in heaven, everything hidden is being revealed in Jesus. Will you help us to listen carefully to you, your Son, and your Spirit that we might know the Truth and be set free from the lies of Satan? And even to be set free from our own wrong-headed ways of seeing things? So many winds and waves of teaching are pressuring us — guide us safely to the Truth and the Light. Help us to love Truth whether we think it will help us or not, for you are the Truth. Keep false teachers away from us, and help us to see them when they come. Help us to carefully explain the truth to those who are in error, and to boldly correct and drive away those who refuse to repent of error. Help us to grow in knowledge ourselves, and to turn away from the false things we used to believe and practice. We long to attain greater unity in this church so we can magnify your name in the world, give us wisdom and courage to do this with the truth and love in an age of obscurity and hate. Come quickly, end the night, bring the day, shine in the world and in our hearts. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit forevermore, Amen.”