Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

Without ado, let's begin. John Knox, on March 1st of 1546, Archbishop of St. Andrews, Scotland, Cardinal David Beaton executed a gracious and spirit-filled young reformer named George Wishart. While there had been other Protestant martyrs before, to be sure, Wishart's execution was particularly significant because of what happened in its wake. But it's also particularly significant because in his sovereignty, God used the events leading up to and following wishers being burned at the stake to mobilize, a man who's considered by many to have been God's greatest gift to Scotland, although his motherland would just as soon forget him today.

He was a dark-haired, modest stature preacher who knew no fear of man, but who was desperately committed to the gospel of Christ and the glory of God alone. A man who rejected at every turn the idolatry of the mass and his teachings influenced quite literally changed a nation in his lifetime. And his name is John Knox. The story of the Reformation in Scotland cannot be told without its primary player. There were lots of other figures whose names we'll hear tonight. Some heroes, some villains. But I don't think there's any mistaking that the principal Scottish reformer was John Knox.

some of the historical context of Knox's life tonight, but I'd also like to pay particular attention to Knox's ordinary faithfulness in extraordinary, exceptional ways. What I mean by that is, Knox obeyed his conscience and it turns out that his decisions were never flashy and they were often stiffly resisted, but it seems that in the end Knox was a man who had very few regrets. When we consider the exceptional faithfulness of John Knox, It helps to consider his character and his track record, especially when contrasted with the prevailing mentality of the day. John Knox stands in stark relief to a backdrop in the 16th century of ambition.

Henry VIII was ambitious. So was Mary Tudor, Mary of Gies, Cardinal David Beaton, Mary, Queen of Scots. In this cesspool of ambition, Knox lived for others. He was not perfect. So don't misunderstand. I don't mean to deliver any hagiography tonight. He was a human. He made some mistakes. But there's a difference between making mistakes and having regrets. And he was, in many senses, completely ordinary. He was, to be sure, extremely gifted. He could do a lot of the same things you and I could, but with anointing, with a particular grace from God. And his faith was strong. We're going to hear about that tonight. But really he was just a regular guy who emerged from obscurity to a position of great responsibility and leadership because he said no to the right people at the right times.

So if we too would contrast faithfulness and ambition, well then there's very much that we can learn from John Knox. In talking about the setting, the context of 16th century Scotland, the days were marked by ignorance among the clergy, among bishops, friars, abbots, canons, ignorance was rampant. They were unqualified for their positions. Some even believe that the New Testament was just some book that Martin Luther wrote. Ian Murray said it well. He said that some priests, it appeared, could scarcely say the alphabet. Preaching from the Bible had long since disappeared, and anyone doing so was instantly suspected of being a Protestant.

It's funny and tragic at the same time. So if you just use Scripture, heretic. Marked by corruption. There were heavy taxes on the people dating back to another 700 years. The state and the church were married. That separation didn't happen for some time. Taxes could be levied by the church as the separation church and state was to come later on. More than half of Scotland's wealth was in the hands of the priests. More than half of Scotland's wealth was in the hands of the priests. Immerality, though professed to be chased, having concubines and mistresses was commonplace among the clergy. Cardinal David Beaton, a villain that we'll meet in a little while, was said to have as many as 20 illegitimate children.

And this was not uncommon behavior, sadly enough. Doctrinal error, not surprisingly, without scripture, then heresy is going to abound. False teachings abounded. Subjection of the pope was considered to be necessary for salvation. Forgiveness of sins on the part of the living and the dead could be obtained via the Mass. Indulgences could be bought, for instance, reduced time and purgatory. Illiteracy was also rampant. Most people couldn't read. Of those who could read, there was a small percentage that could actually read Latin. And of those who could, they were probably forbidden from doing so. So as we'll see later on, just the fact that the people who were being deceived by the corrupt Catholic Church at that time were able to compel Knox to get involved in the fray because they couldn't read.

So like I said, most couldn't read, even fewer could read Latin, and most of those who could were forbidden from doing so. Other than that, everything was pretty much ideal. The church was in effect keeping people ignorant of the teachings of Scripture in order to secure its own ability to continue in corruption. It was also marked by political turmoil. Scotland, neighboring England to the north, as it does today, it was not a united kingdom. But the relationship was tenuous due to an alliance between Scotland and France. So Henry VIII viewed Cardinal David Beaton as a chief obstacle to his greater influence in Scotland.

And so he was not sad to see Beaton die. So you can understand there was a lot going on. It was certainly a time of upheaval and unrest. And out of this arose John Knox. Why should we study John Knox? Well, there are a host of reasons. And I'll try and go through these quickly for sake of time. But fun reasons. His personality, he was dynamic. He was bombastic at times. Personally, he was actually very gracious and unassuming. But behind the pulpit, he was thunderous. His lifestyle, he didn't actually intend to live by the seat of his pants, although when you read his biographies, it sort of looks like that. Although he did end up dying in peace of natural causes in his home, it doesn't mean that there were not attempts on his life or that he was not in danger multiple times.

And plus, aside from Terry Hurd, how often do you get to see a beard like this one? That takes some serious commitment and investment. There are historical reasons. His role, obviously, in the history of the Church of Scotland is significant. He's credited with having fathered Presbyterianism. The role of the reformer simply can't be underestimated, looking at the history and the cultural, spiritual, political change that they helped to bring about. In essence, the end of the Middle Ages. His influence, he had great influence in clerical circles and ecclesiastical circles, in Scotland, in England, and in the continent.

And actually, a lot of his influence just increased by his reputation and some of his writings. His legacy, as I mentioned before, he is instrumental in the establishment of Presbyterianism. Obviously, there are a whole bunch of spiritual reasons. Sorry, that picture is terrible, but that's from a museum in St. Andrews. I think at just the basement around the St. Andrews Castle. But for one, the picture sort of scares me. And we should listen to him, because you don't have much of a choice, and I'm pretty sure he's shouting at that point. At that display they have dubbed in this recording of what he might have sounded like yelling in this thick brogue.

Yeah, it gives you goosebumps to people who don't talk like this anymore. Otherwise his passion, as a student of scripture, he could not be silent about the evils in his day of the Catholic Church. He was obviously committed to the truth, his preaching, it was clear and it was bold, and his clarity and his boldness were as rare then as they are now, but in a different way. He would be really, really, really unpopular as a preacher in America today, or Scotland for that matter. Additionally, his integrity. He was absolutely the same person in public and in private, probably to a fault. He was the same man before little children that he tutored as he was before the Queen of Scotland.

He did not adapt. He did not contextualize his message for audiences or sugarcoat his message. It's true that he feared no man. So I want to talk tonight then about the exceptional faithfulness of John Knox. And along the way we're going to see that he was a faithful, a loyal friend. Faithful and loyal. He was a bodyguard to George Wisher. He would wield the two-handed claymore. Because as you can imagine, itinerant preaching on the part of Protestants was not exactly a safe undertaking, so having a bodyguard like Knox was handy. To my knowledge, he never needed to use it. But certainly, it was there to use. And so there's that kind of faithfulness.

He was a modest tutor a couple of times before medium wish shirt, and then when he was in St. Andrews, whose fame spread because he did it so well. But he was a modest tutor with exceptional giftedness. He was a true shepherd who was thrust into pastoral ministry very hesitantly because he couldn't stand to sit by while people were being deceived. And I'm going to read about Knox's call to ministry here later on. He was a committed Protestant, to say the least, and he flatly refused to worship idols under pain of torture from his captives. We'll hear more about that later as well. He was a principled theologian.

A principled theologian. Though he was a dynamic leader, he never compromised theologically, and he didn't care about religious prestige or his own name. He passed on one Anglican Anglican bishopric and departed in another Anglican communion because he did not favor the church, the bishop led a church polity, but rather the Presbyterian model. We'll hear about that later too. He was a faithful preacher. He spoke with the same boldness to royals as he did to peasants, even when it was dangerous, and he was an unwavering servant of the church. He lived to serve the true church. So now I'm going to try and just take a quick survey of his life with a few stops along the way.

So we're going to start in 1505 when we think he was born. Although because Knox was born in such obscurity, all we have is about a decade window between 1505 and about 1514 as to narrow down just when he was born. For our purposes we'll say 1505. And to give you some context, 1517 was when Martin Luther nailed his 95th thesis to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. So Knox is what we would call a second generation reformer. Guys like Luther and Zwingli would have been first, but then to the north we had Knox generation later on. 1540, Knox is a private tutor near Haddington, Scotland, near his birthplace.

And then in 1545 is when he attaches himself to itinerant Protestant preacher and reformer George Wishart. Between 1545 and 1546, until Wisher ends up dying, he disciples Knox and Knox and he are friends and he is discipled by Wisher during that time. To show you roughly where our story is taking place, the slide on the left shows you the whole of the UK. To give you some orientation down south, I have circled there London and then blown up the part that's in the square. On the right, you see Edinburgh, and then up north and east of that, 52 miles of St. Andrews. So do you all, can you see that okay? I don't have Calvin's laser pointer, or else I would use that.

But that ought to give you some idea as to, and then of course just down, you can barely see it on the left, the left slide in the lower right hand corner is France, to give you a little bit of orientation as to where things happen. So in February of 1546, George Wisher gets a letter warning that his arrest is imminent because he had been illegally preaching against the Mass and preaching the Protestant faith. He tells Knox to depart from him. One is sufficient for a sacrifice, he says. And so a sad parting, but Knox leaves his friend. Just a few hours later, Wisher was arrested and then taken immediately to be imprisoned at Edinburgh Castle.

You see Edinburgh on the right. And then subsequently was transferred up to St. Andrews where he was quickly tried and what amounted to a show trial and then was found guilty of treason and condemned to death. Now, in Wisshert's case, he was absolutely guilty of preaching against the Catholic Church, but the Archbishop of St. Andrews at the time was a rascal named Cardinal David Beaton. And Beaton had had other Protestants executed for things like suspicion of eating goose on Fridays, which is a very uncatholic thing to do when you're only allowed to eat, say, fish, for instance. So if you did that, and that was an indicator that you were not of the true faith, and That was enough information that he needed to have you executed.

So he's on par with Bloody Mary in terms of his, I guess, dirtbag status, as you might call. And I got that from, not dirtbag, Knox calls him way worse things than dirtbag. He calls him the son of the devil. He calls him that servant of the devil himself. Well, we'll read later a filthy papist. I think he refers to another one later on. But these guys knew how to initiate an insult. You didn't exactly know where, I mean, there was no mistake in where noxious sympathies lie when you're reading his account of the Reformation. March 1, 1546. Beaton has wish-shirt hanged until almost dead, and then burned at the stake while he looks on with satisfaction from his chamber window, in the east tower of St. Andrew's Castle.

Let me help you out here for a second. So first, we'll go out here and look at Cardinal David Beaton, such a handsome guy. That's, oh, come on. So there's Beaton on the left, and that's Edinburgh Castle, where Wisher was taken immediately after his arrest. Then, this is where George Wisher was executed. So in the slide on the left, Right in front of that little smart car, on the left wheel, you see a pale patch in the concrete. Those are stamped pavers that are zoomed in in the upper right that says GW. That marks the spot where George Wishart was burned at the stake. And you can see from that picture, he was not very old.

He was about 24, we think, when Knox was ministering with him. And as I mentioned, Cardinal David Beaton looked on from that tower just opposite a sidewalk there, and I believe the second story window was marked the place where, his personal chambers, where he was watching with grim satisfaction the execution of George Wisher. There's another picture of the same facade. May 1546, so just two short months later, Protestants and Protestant sympathizers, some dirt bags among them, make no mistake. They should not have done this. St. Andrews Castle, they entered the chamber of Cardinal David Beaton and murdered him. And then they displayed his unclothed body out that same window that he had been perched in when looking with satisfaction on the execution of George Wissert. Not a way to ingratiate yourself to the Scottish government at the time. So 1546 to 1547, then the castle, St. Andrews Castle was occupied by Protestants and as I mentioned some some friends of Protestants or enemies of the church.

And that is to the great irritation of the Scottish government and the Catholic Church. During this time Knox is persuaded, hey this is not a very safe time for you John Knox, why don't you come and stay in the castle with us. It's a whole lot safer here because the castle was quite a fortress for what it looks like today. You wouldn't know that because in 1547 the French raised it to the ground. But it proved to be a pretty formidable structure in defense of the siege of the French later on. So anyway, it was safe. It was a pretty safe place for Knox to take up residence and to conduct some tutoring sessions of his own for two wealthy families.

So during this time, as I mentioned, he was the employee of two wealthy families and he He would conduct math and science lessons in the castle, but he would go downtown to the Holy Trinity Parish Church to conduct lessons in Bible. So the one on the right just simply represents part of the walk that he would have taken on a regular basis to conduct those tutoring sessions. Now other people started attending these Bible tutoring sessions at the church because he was soon discovered to be no ordinary tutor. And it was during this time that John Knox was called to pastoral ministry. And I am going to, although the call actually happened in St. Andrews, this is where a lot of the magic happened later on, Holy Trinity Parish Church.

So I'm going to read to you an extended passage. And the reason I'm going to read this much is because I think this is worth it. And you can also, well, I'll let it speak for itself and say a few words afterwards. But to give a little context, he's gaining a reputation as a good Bible teacher, but just by being a faithful tutor. And he entered very reluctantly into pastoral ministry, but was a true shepherd of God's flock, a slave to his conscience. So let me read you Knox's words about the situation himself. So upon a certain day, John Ruff, and he was a Scottish reformer as well, and a friend of Knox, one of the Castilians here, preached a sermon on the election of ministers.

What power the congregation had over any man in whom they aspired the gifts of God and how dangerous it was to refuse the voice as such as desire to be instructed. These and other heads having been declared, John Ruff, the preacher, so preached this message and then turns to a single congregant, directed his words to John Knox saying, brother, ye shall not be offended, albeit that I speak unto you, that which I have in charge, even from all these here present. In the name of God and of his Son, Jesus Christ, and in the name of these that presently call you by my mouth, I charge you that you refuse not this holy vocation.

But as ye tender the glory of God, the increase of Christ in his kingdom, the edification of your brethren, and the comfort of me, oppressed by the multitude of labors that you take upon you, the public office of preaching, even as ye look to avoid God's heavy displeasure, and desire that he shall multiply his graces upon you." In the end he said to those present, Was this not your charge to me? Do you not approve this vocation? They answered, It was. We approve it. Where at John Knox abashed, burst forth in the most abundant tears, and withdrew himself to his chamber. Yeah. I'm going to skip a little bit forward.

And we think that was just because he was absolutely overwhelmed with that calling. So this preacher calls another preacher to come lead the congregation because they sense that he was so gifted. The necessity then, so he's dragging his feet on this. His face has fallen, as it were, for the next couple of days. The necessity that caused him to enter into the public place besides the vocation foresaid was. Dean John Annan, principal of St. Leonard's College, a rotten papist, had long troubled John Ruff in his preaching. So they've been going back and forth. John Knox had fortified the doctrine of the preacher by his pen and had beaten Dean John from all his defenses and compelled him to flee to his last refuge, that is, the authority of the church.

So before I get to that, so there's this dispute. That's a theological one going on between the dean of the college and John Ruff. And Knox had, with his pen, supported Ruff and had basically destroyed all of the dean's arguments until he pulls out his ace card. That authority said he damned all Lutherans and heretics, the authority of the church. Therefore, we need no further disputation. John Knox answered. And as far as we know, this is a public setting, a conversation. Before we hold ourselves or you can prove us sufficiently convict, we must define the church. By the right notes given to us in God's Scriptures, we must discern the immaculate spouse of Jesus Christ from the mother of confusion.

Spiritual Babylon, lest that imprudently we embrace a harlot instead of the chaste spouse, yea to speak in plain words, lest we submit ourselves to Satan, thinking that we submit ourselves to Jesus Christ. As for your Roman Kirk, as it's now corrupted, and the authority thereof wherein stands the hope of your victory, I no more doubt that it is but the synagogue of Satan and the head thereof call the pope to be the man of sin, of whom the apostle speaketh, that I doubt that Jesus Christ suffered by the procurement of the visible church of Jerusalem. I offer myself, I offer myself, by word or writ, to prove the Roman church this day farther degenerate from the purity, which was in the days of the apostles, than was the church of the Jews from the ordinance given by Moses when they consented to the innocent death of Jesus Christ."

He's saying the Catholic Church today is more far astray from the truth than the Jews were when they executed Jesus. These words were spoken by John Knox, an open audience in the parish church of St. Andrews. There it is. That's the parish church of St. Andrews right there. And had refused to, sorry, after Dean John Anon had spoken what had pleased him and had refused to dispute. The people hearing the offer, so his offer to submit to offer by word of writ, cried with one consent, we can't read all of your writings, but we may all hear your preaching, therefore we require you in the name of God that you will let us hear the probation of that which ye have affirmed.

If it be true, we have been miserably deceived." How could he refuse that call? And his heart burst when the people are saying, if this is true, we've been deceived. Teach us. Just imagine that. You can write all you want. We can't read it. But we can listen. The next Sunday appointed to John... Now this is crazy. the next Sunday, appointed to John Knox to express his mind in the public preaching place. So right here at the parish church, following Sunday, which day approaching, just like you would have, he took the text written in Daniel, the 7th chapter, 24 and 25. Beginning thus, another king shall rise after them, and he shall be unlike unto the first, and he shall subdue three kings, and shall speak words against the most high, and shall consume the saints of the Most High, and think that he may change times and laws, and they shall be given into his hands until a time, at times, and dividing of times.

Then he began to decipher the lives of diverse popes, and the lives of all the shavlings, for their most part, their doctrines and laws he plainly proved to be repuned directly to the doctrine and laws of the God the Father, and of Christ Jesus his Son." So time out. Look, I don't know much. But I know Daniel chapter 7 verses 24 and 25 is about the Antichrist and about the Great Tribulation. He read that and then starts drawing parallels to the Pope. His first sermon, his first public sermon, he jumps off from Daniel chapter 7 and starts to talk about the Antichrist and draw a parallel with the Pope. So I'll skip forward a little bit.

In the end, he said, if any hearsay, and there were present for the university, Master John Major, Dean of the Faculty of Theology and the subprior John Winram, and many candidates and friars of both orders, so many from the Catholic University were there in the audience.

If any hearsay that I have alleged scripture, doctor, or history otherwise than it is written, then let him come to me with sufficient witnesses, and by conference I shall let them see not only the original wherein my testimonies are written, but I shall prove that the writers meant what I have spoken. Of this sermon, which was the first ever that John Knox made in the public, there were diverse brutes. Some said, others lop off, actually the Scottish word is sned, but in the parentheses they helped us out, lop off. Others lop off the branches of the papistry, but he striketh at the root also to destroy the whole. Others said, if the doctors in Magistri and Nastry defend not now the pope and his authority, which in their own presence is so manifestly impugned, the devil have my part in him and of his laws, both."

So in other words, if these guys in the back don't stand up and say something now, then I'm not with them. Others said, Master George Wissert never spoke so plainly and yet he was burnt. Even so will John Knox be. Well, that's good, isn't it? You should read it. What we can't miss about Knox was that he was faithful to speak and to write the truth when the cost was great. He could not stand by while people were deceived, and he was aware that the truth was of greater value than his life. And as I said before, Daniel 7, 24 to 25 is about the Antichrist and the Great Tribulation. Now, even if his eschatology was somewhat different from ours, and even if this is a forgivable misapplication of the scripture because it is a misapplication of the scripture.

I don't wanna mislead you. You have to give the guy credit for taking on a hard passage and a harder message and a still harder ecclesiastical climate than this one. I mean, on a hermeneutical scale of 1 to 10, it's about a 9.7 as he takes a message about the Antichrist and applies it to their current situation. We continue. 1547. Mary of Gies, Queen Region of Scotland, appeals to the French for help to remove these infernal Protestants from the castle. You know, by the way, I'll back up here. You know some of the people in this lower right picture. And so he did routinely preach and make that walk. During that window of time, he was allowed safe passage back and forth to the church.

So we're in St. Andrew's Castle now. And the Queen region of Scotland, who's the mother of Mary, Queen of Scots, who's just a baby, a small child in France right now, being raised until she's of age, and then she'll come and take over the throne. In the meantime, her mom is the steward of it, Mary of Gies. And she is incensed that these guys are being allowed to stay in there. She appeals to the French, and the Castilians appeal to the English. The English don't send help. The French do, so you can guess what happens. Soon, the castle is overthrown, and its inhabitants, including John Knox, surrender under two conditions, including that the Protestants would surrender to the French and to be guaranteed safety from the Scots.

And then the French would transport the Protestants to France and then free them at that point. The French accept the surrender, but they have no intention of keeping the agreement. The picture on the upper left shows St. Andrew's at low tide. But the French ships could have gotten right up close to the castle from their end, shot up with cannons. and then some other foot soldiers laid siege to it as well. It stood for quite a while under siege and proved to be pretty formidable. But in the end, the castle fell. And the occupants were either killed, many of them were killed, and others were imprisoned. So between 1547 and January of 1549, now John Knox was a slave on a French galley, a galley ship.

And that's a 16th century French galley. Whether that's how similar that is to the one that Knox was on, it's hard to say, because we don't know, but that is a 16th century French galley. So it probably looks something like that. And you can see there's a lot of oars down there. And so there were, it was not a very pleasant existence for maybe the most gifted, Scott's preacher of his day. And that's just a woodcut up above Knox at the oar. I'd like to read to you once again from Knox Penn, particular anecdote and his comments afterwards. It must be said too that although John Knox does not say that the player in this story is in fact himself, just about everybody thinks that it is.

Other biographers think that though he speaks about an unnamed figure in the third person, he's probably talking about John Knox. Let me read this to you. So this is life in the galleys, in the French galley. At certain times mass was said in the galleys or else heard upon the shore. And those that were in the galleys were threatened with torments if they would not give reverence to the mass. So most of the slaves in the galley were Catholic, and the French captors were Catholic as well. But they could never make the poorest of that company to give reverence to the idol. Yeah, upon the Saturday at night, they sang the Salvo Regina.

The whole Scottish men put on their caps, their hoods, or such things as they had to cover their heads. And when others were compelled to kiss a painted board, which they called Notre Dame. They were not pressed after once, for this was the chance. So here's the reason why. Soon after their arrival at Nantes, the great salve was sung, and a glorious painted lady, that's an image of Mary, was brought in to be kissed, and amongst others, was presented to one of the Scottish men and then chained, I think it was Knox. He gently said, trouble me not, such an idol is accursed, therefore I will not touch it. the patron, that is a skipper, and the argosan, which is the lieutenant, with two officers having the chief charge of all such matters said, thou shalt handle it, and they violently thrust it into his face and put it betwixt his hands. He, seeing the extremity, took the idol and advisedly looked about him and cast it into the river and said, let our lady now save herself. She's light enough. Let her learn to swim.

And after that, no Scotsman urged with that idolatry. Now, it's almost like Knox anticipates the fundamentalist objection. Why include frivolous stories like this? He says this, these things, these are things that appear to be of no great importance. Yet if we do rightly consider, they express the same obedience that God required of his people Israel when they were to be carried to Babylon. He gave charge to them that when they should see the Babylonians worship their gods of gold, silver, metal, wood, they should say, the gods that have not made the heaven and earth shall perish from the heaven and out of the earth.

Amen. Like I said, that's just a fun story, and you have to include those things because it's just good fun. But Knox continues to draw a parallel between the pagan, in this case the Babylonian, before it was Canaanite idolatry and the idolatry of the papists. Look, the Israelites, if you go back even further, were commanded not to worship any of the gods of the Canaanites. Like Dagon fell before the Ark of the Covenant. Remember that? When the pagan god was forced to bow and give homage to the true god. Those gods bow before the true god who rules overall. They were to flatly refuse to worship or to make sacrifices to any god by Jehovah.

In the first century Rome, Christians were not persecuted because they worshiped the true God. They were persecuted because they worshiped the true God exclusively. The Romans wouldn't have had any issue if they would have been willing to worship Christ and Caesar. So Christ and Nero, Christ and Minerva, Christ and Jupiter would have been fine, but solus Christus had no place in first century Rome. But we know that God will not share His glory with another, and that sort of syncretistic worship is not befitting or allowed by God among His people. And of course the implication is clear for us as well. Today our culture is demanding that Christians lay aside their divisive, closed-minded, exclusive worship for the sake of something more inclusive, more peaceful.

We're encouraged to coexist with others' faiths and religions. We even have the bumper stickers to ask us to do so. They set the great condition of that coexistence. called tolerance and tolerance will tolerate no opponents. If you were alive today I imagine the John Knox would be horrified at the sort of cow-towing that our Christian culture does to escape offending unbelievers which unbelievers tell us how Christians are supposed to act. We need the spirit of Knox to cast an idol overboard our proverbial galley ships when we are still chained to an or those men had tremendous power to hurt Knox, but he was righteously rebellious against the godless while being obedient to God.

So aboard the galley ship, let's say 1548, he made a couple of trips rowing, of course, back to Scotland. And on one occasion, he was violently ill and had a fever. And he was docked outside of St. Andrews. And his friend, James Balfour, suspecting that he had become delirious, popped him up so he could see out of a window and say, hey, do you know where you are? Do you recognize that place? He said, yes, yes, I know it well. For I see the steeple of that place where God first opened my mouth in public to His glory. And I know, no matter how weak I am now, that I shall not die until I shall glorify His godly name in that same place."

And as it turned out, he was right. I have to comment here about a different aspect of John Knox's faithfulness. His faithfulness just did not include a consistent obedience to his conscience or consistently doing the right thing. But he also had tremendous faith in God. He was faithful. And Knox faithfully made great outlandish requests to God, such requests that only God could possibly answer and then subsequently gain the glory. Knox also famously said, one man with God is always in the majority. One man with God is always in the majority. So sometimes seemingly alone in a French galley, or in exile on the continent, or before a Catholic audience with Mary.

There were times where he was all alone with Mary and her entourage. Knox felt numerous with God. In January of 1549, we don't exactly know how it happened. It may have been Edward VI who negotiated or something, but he was freed in some sort of prisoner exchange, we think. He went to England where he ministered in the Anglican Church as a sort of personal chaplain to King Edward. Edward didn't live very long and in 1553 when Edward VI died Knox fled to the continent. That was because Edward was succeeded by his infamous Catholic sister, Bloody Mary Tudor. Now I don't want for Rachel Rothenberger to get mad at me so I'll mention technically that the nine days queen was in there as well.

She was very faithful, a fascinating character, Jane Grey. But Knox didn't have any advocates in the end among any of the Scottish or English royals once Bloody Mary took the throne. In 1550, at the request of Archbishop Thomas Crammer, Knox was invited to preach against the Mass before a council in Newcastle. His bold, even inflammatory, refutation of the Mass with the use of Scripture only made him more popular among the people. year, 1551, he was appointed chaplain to Edward the sixth who had ascended the throne after the death of Henry VIII. In 1552, he helped to revise the Book of Common Prayer. He was offered, this is fascinating, the bishopric of Rochester, which would have been a very prestigious pastoral appointment, lucrative no doubt, but he declined it because he could not endorse the bishop-led hierarchy of the Anglican Church.

In 1553, Edward the sixth dies. He succeeded by his sister. I mentioned that already, Mary Tudor. She sought to restore Catholicism to England. And of course, we know that her nickname was Bloody Mary because she had on her hands the blood of almost 300 Protestants. 1554, Knox leaves England for the continent to escape persecution by Bloody Mary. And lest we think that that was cowardice, I would call it shrewd. There's a difference between cowardice and good stewardship. In the same year, he began to minister to a congregation of English refugees in Frankfurt. In 1555 to 1558, he goes to Geneva, Switzerland. He begins to minister alongside John Calvin.

It was during this time that he befriended and sat under the tutelage of Calvin. He was also able to pastor two congregations for a time in Frankfurt and Geneva, and not until 1558 did he even try to return to Scotland, but he was delayed in doing so. Now, we're flying through here, but in the Geneva congregation, he didn't pastor for very long because they too favored the Anglican church polity. And so he couldn't in good conscience stay there. So while while delayed from going to and he was delayed from going to Scotland because Bloody Mary wouldn't let him through. And so we don't have time to dive into all of this.

He had we will say this. So while he delayed, he took opportunity to to speak out in writing in this. this case, against the idolatrous behaviors of Mary of Gies and Mary Tudor. Those Catholic monarchs of Scotland and England respectively, and he wrote and published, you ready, the first blast of the trumpet against the monstrous regiment of women. Now before we throw knocks under the bus, there's some important things we have to remember. Namely, if you would have been a Christian under any of those Marys, you might have given a hearty amen to what he had to write. The problem was in part the timing of the delivery.

By the time it got to what we call the UK now, Bloody Mary had actually died and Elizabeth was on the throne. And Elizabeth was her cousin and a Protestant, but maybe she didn't even read it. The title enough would be probably sufficient to turn her off. She was none too pleased with Knox. Anyway, so he was prevented from being able to go to Scotland until the following year and that's when things really took off. 1559 Knox is appointed minister of St. Giles. That's St. Giles Church. Incidentally, some of these pictures I took off of, that's Knox, one of his disciples right there, yeah. Some of these pictures I actually took off of Google Maps because since I've been there, They've taken a lot more photos, and I did that so that you could be encouraged to just go look at these things.

You can take virtual tours. I think this photo, no, this is from the undiscovered Scotland website, I believe, but there are plenty. Here, look at this next one, St. Giles. It says Google, not the bottom. I kept putting it on there on purpose. So that's just a street view shot by somebody that's on the web. You can look at all of these things and it's there for you. So he was appointed minister at St. Giles in Edinburgh and that was where he ministered until his death. Incidentally, St. Giles churched on what's called the Royal Mile which connects the Palace of Holy Root House. So it's where the Queen stays when she's in Scotland.

So it's the palace, the Royal Palace in Scotland. And at the end of one mile is Edinburgh Castle. And along that stretch, High Street, we have St. Giles Church. We also have John Knox's house. So next time you're in Edinburgh, do a lot of hanging out there. So he's appointed minister of St. Giles, third time, Jonathan. Keep going. Where he ministered until his death. And he's buried around to the right of that picture right there. In July of 1560, Mary of Gies dies. So this is mother of Mary, queen of Scots. so Queen Regent of Scotland and an enemy to the Protestant faith and of ardent Catholic. It said that John Knox was a little bit giddy when she passed away, uncharacteristically so.

That happened in July, by August, next month. The Scottish Parliament declared Scotland to be Protestant. Mary Queen of Scots came to the throne and had the mass administered to her privately at her palace, though it was illegal, 1560 to 1572, four times, John Knox appears before Mary, Queen of Scots personally and all at her request. And though she was the queen, Knox always spoke the truth to her, however bluntly, which exasperated the queen. She could not make a margar of John Knox or the Protestant cause, I mean, think about this. If she had him killed, the whole thing just blows up in her face. The Protestant cause would have advanced at an even greater rate than it did already.

And neither could she manipulate or charm him, as was her custom with so many others, simply because he wasn't easily impressed and didn't fear men. It's said that Mary, Queen of Scots was not an incredibly reputable character. She also was attractive and very accustomed to being able to control men. She might've thought that would be the case with Knox and she was sorely mistaken. The result was that these private meetings between Mary Queen of Scots and John Knox, often ended with her crying, bitter, angry tears in him walking out of the palace with a clear conscience. She had been essentially reduced to impotence.

She was frustrated. The parliament had declared Scotland to be a Protestant nation, and she is a token queen. And Knox was free to carry on his ministry for the last 10 years of his life or so. although he retained no shortage of Catholic enemies along the way. Under Knox's influence and leadership, the Scots Confession was drafted by five Johns. They're all named John. Knox was only one of them. And that was in 1560, and it proved to be a helpful resource when the Westminster Confession was drafted some 86 years later. So if you think the Westminster Confession of Faith is like the magnum opus, if you think it's the great work of theological, I guess, a distilled orthodoxy.

This preceded it by 86 years, and it seems like it was written quickly too if you read it. And when that happened, the Scottish Presbyterian Church became the most reformed nation in the world at the time. There were lots of ancillary benefits, things that came along with the package when Scotland became reformed. We don't have time to go into those tonight, but one of them was literacy. It became what's maybe unofficially referred to as the first literate nation. And that was so that people could read the Bible. I want to shift and talk about, as we look at some lessons we can take away from John Knox and a study of him, he can teach us much if we would but sit still and listen.

And the following principles represent things that Knox was, in ways that he was like Christ, things that he had learned and is still teaching us. One of them is that fear of God is more important than the fear of man. Knox was courageous because he feared God more than he feared men. He was very aware of his own shortcomings and that fed his dependence on God. Well, the result was then a tremendous degree of courage amid adversity. Knox's power came from his dependence on God. He was so dependent on God that he gained tremendous power. He spoke with boldness because he feared God. He was courageous because he feared the consequence of disobedience to God.

He could not stand by and watch as people practice the idolatry and the injustices of the Catholic Church. Doug Bond does say this, Knox's life teaches that the most timid saint becomes a formidable giant when strengthened by the almighty power of God in Christ alone. Second, the truth spoken in love merits no apology. There are times when we speak the truth in hate, that's wrong, or we just do so as jerks, and then we excuse our angry behavior by saying, hey, I was just speaking the truth. Well, when that happens, we heap sin on top of sin, and we really ought to seek forgiveness, but we also live in a time when an apology is expected for every sort of offense, regardless of whether a person ought to be offended or not.

In other words, if you say something to me and I'm offended, you owe me an apology, period. And if I don't like the message that you deliver, whether or not it's true, I can always retreat to saying that I don't appreciate your tone. I mean, that's what it's come to in our culture. And it wasn't always like this. There was once a time when people had the fortitude to speak and to listen to the truth, even if it happened to be uncomfortable. That takes guts to say, I offer myself by word or by writ to engage in this conversation. You show me where I'm wrong. And he did that with scholars. Yeah. Your choices are to be familiar with history and biography, or take my word for it, because the notion is pretty foreign to our thinking today.

You can't just rely on your own experience to try and understand what I'm talking about. But there was a time when people were willing to actually have a conversation and thick skin enough to receive a rebuff. When I first read Rosalind Marshall's biography on Knox, that was one of the things that impressed me above all. People who are bold, even brazen in their communication with others, occasionally if not often stick their feet in their mouths. But Knox seemed to know the truth, speak the truth with love and boldness, and then prepare for and accept the consequences. Generally speaking, John Knox didn't apologize because he didn't need to. Generally speaking. You can make the case that the first blast of the trumpet was at least ill-timed. And maybe Maybe he would have been better off not sending that missive at all.

Maybe it did more harm than good in the end. It's impossible to say. If there would have been good will between Knox and Elizabeth I, maybe things would have moved along a little bit faster. It is difficult to say. But one thing, read it, you won't find him taking his words back. He offended many people but not needlessly. We've already mentioned Mary, Queen of Scots. We mentioned before, four times he appeared before her personally, before Queen of Scots at her behest and each time he kept his conscience clear and frustrated Mary, who was not used to being told off by her subjects. We've also mentioned Queen Elizabeth I. To review, he wrote the first blast and it was inspired by the idolatries of Mary of Gies and Bloody Mary.

But if it were written three years later, it would have been written no doubt to Mary, Queen of Scots as well. We'll throw that Mary on the pile too. Yeah, the point is that his delivery didn't change with his audience, maybe to a fault, like I said, but even when he was in communication with the very offended Queen of England, he would still not sheepishly take back his words, though he did clarify that he did not exactly have her in mind when he wrote the first blast. So he did say that, your grace, I didn't mean you, I meant your cousin. No, no, no, no, no, no, you stay there on the continent. This begets faithfulness is another lesson.

Third, again, a clarification is an order. Jesus is clear that greatness in the world's eyes differs dramatically from greatness in the kingdom of heaven. John Knox was faithful to scripture and to his conscience, and his international influence exploded as a result. We may enjoy many fruits of his labor today. Let me look at the church and we're going to look at Knox. Scotland's greatest reformer was perfectly content being a private tutor. He would have been happy to do that. As we learned earlier, he resisted the calling to vocational ministry, but I don't think it was from fear as much as it was from awareness of what it would cost.

He took to the pulpit because it had to be done. The people of Scotland needed to hear the truth, and souls were at stake while the idolatry of the mass was being propagated by the queens and the church officials. He led in the writing of the Scots Confession because it needed to happen. The Protestant Church in Scotland needed a reformed confession that appropriately and biblically articulated the faith of the people. We didn't talk about this, but he did take a stand, pun intended, against kneeling during the Lord's Supper, a practice that's instructed in Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer. And he was friends with Cranmer.

And the list goes on. Knox's greatness resulted from his faithfulness. So one more thing, and that is a consequence. What happens if we ignore John Knox? Well, for one, we ignore our heritage as Americans. The influence of the Scottish Reformation on the United States is grossly understated. Many of us have been taught that the English Puritans had the greatest impact on the American settlement, independence, and ultimately the establishment of our government. Well, the Reformation in Scotland had a much greater impact on the founding of our nation than the Reformation in England, and here's why. In England, the Puritans and the Reformers were concerned with the kings and the queens trampling on the rights of the English people as free men.

They believed in large measure that the church was under or ought to be under the state. Most of the Puritans were in the Church of England, the Anglican Church, and who was the head of the Anglican Church? Who was it? The King, right, the King. The colonists didn't come up with the idea of the separation of church and state because they were mad at the Jameses or the Georges. It was a point of emphasis of the Scottish Reformation 200 years before the drafting of our Declaration of Independence, particularly when the state was idolatrous. So here's the distinction. While the English Puritans and Reformers were concerned with the kings and queens trampling on the rights of the English people as free men, in Scotland the Protestant nobles and barons were concerned with the kings and queens overstepping their bounds and trampling on the crown rights of King Jesus.

And where did this come from? Well, in part it came from Knox's study of the Bible. study of the Old Testament and his Presbyterian leanings led him to conclude that it is the responsibility of political leaders to maintain the law of God and to lead spiritually among the people. And when they fail to do so, it is the responsibility of the people to, through the proper channels, resist that authority. Man, we don't have time to talk about this or show what those proper channels look like, but rest assured, he did not endorse this sort of willy-nilly rebellion. And what it actually looked like was more commonly referred to as the American Revolution.

It's an example. There are lots of other things that happen if we ignore John Knox and the lives of saints from past generations. For instance, we miss an example of boldness and courage that is brought on by the fear of God. We miss a great example of biblical obedience to conscience. We miss an opportunity to be encouraged, to be bold ourselves. We might fear, we might suppose that fear of men is not just normal, it's normative if we neglect this study or the study of Christian biography. We are doomed to repeat the mistakes of those who have gone before us. History does tend to repeat itself because we tend not to learn from the mistakes of those who have gone before us.

If we neglect these things, we abdicate our God-given responsibility to declare the works of God to the generations after us. But when it comes to Knox, we fail glorify God for His demonstrated faithfulness and kindness to us all by allowing Knox to live and continue living as he did. So one more fun one and then a serious one. A very rare photograph. This is in Holyrood Palace and a paparazzi slipped in there. and Knox B. rating in Jesus name, Queen of Scots.

Actually, that's a slightly anachronistic and not just because of the vest, but because that took place in Knox's. That's that's that picture is in Knox's house and John Knox house. So there's John Knox house up in the upper left. There's St. Giles Church. There's parking spot number 23. On Monday. Yes, it's not random. On Monday night, November 24, 1572, at about 11 p.m. About 11 p.m. with his faithful secretary beside him, John Knox breathed his last. Two days later was a funeral service at St. Giles' Church, Edinburgh, where he had ministered, and his body was laid to rest in the churchyard. In a fate that I think would be pleasing to Knox for such an unassuming man who wished to direct glory and attention to Christ, his grave was subsequently buried beneath a blanket of asphalt, namely parking stall number 23.

If you ever get a chance to visit. They actually do have a brass plate there, but I couldn't photograph it because there was a scion parked over it, I think, or some other vehicle. Knox famously prayed, Give me Scotland or I die. And he prayed it repeatedly. And that came not from presumption or from pride, but from profound humility. Knox was more than willing to give his life for his fatherland. And although he was not murdered or martyred, he did give his life for Scotland nonetheless. I close with a reminder of the words of the Earl of Morton And as he gave Knox's eulogy there in St. Giles Church, here lies a man who neither feared nor flattered any flesh or elsewhere rendered.

Here lies a man who in his life never feared the face of man. And may the life of John Knox and then other faithful men who have gone before us inspire us to do the same. Let's pray. Father, when we read about saints of the past, We are humbled, not just because you chose to use men as you did, but for a whole bunch of reasons. Because among other things, we are aware of our own ineffectiveness and even laziness from time to time, our own lack of courage. We have a lot to learn from these saints. And it's clear from scripture that you would have us to do just that. In Hebrews, chapters 11 and 12, it's clear that you would have for us to learn from the lives of saints who have gone before as they are cheering us on from the grandstands as it were. We thank you for the life and lessons and the tremendous, even exceptional, faithfulness of John Knox.

Help us to find contentment in doing what you have called us to do, and may we do it with with excellence and with faithfulness, and then leave the results to you. No doubt if we do that, we are going to be recognized by some, and we are going to be elevated to positions of esteem or authority or opportunity, but may that never be our aim any more than it was Knox's. Help us to go reluctantly into positions that require tremendous accountability, but to do so joyfully and in strict obedience to our consciences, which we pray that you would inform very, very well. We thank you for the opportunity we've had to learn from Him tonight and now keep us in your care as you go our separate ways. We ask in Christ's name, amen.

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

In December 1776, Thomas Paine wrote these famous words, These are the times that try men's souls. That's how he began his paper titled The Crisis. He was writing to bolster the courage of his fellow Americans in their war for independence from Great Britain. Paine's words seem appropriate to life in general if you think about it. Even Job observed that man is born to trouble as readily as sparks fly up from a fire. Trials are inevitable. That's the bad news. Thankfully though, there is good news for followers of Jesus. As Christians, we are never alone in the midst of trials. The Holy Spirit is ever present and He supplies the grace and the comfort.

Yea, even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will not fear, we will not lose hope, we will count it all joy because we know that our help is in the name of the Lord. May they have a hearing. O come, let us sing to the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise. For the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth. The heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it and his hands formed the dry land.

Oh, come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our God, our maker, for he is our God. And we are the people of this pasture and the sheep of his hands. And father, we do come into your presence this morning and we pray that you would meet us where we are at and bring us to a place of greater hope, greater joy, greater faith than before. We pray for you to do for us what Isaiah said you would do for those who mourn in Zion. We ask that you would give us a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting, so that we might be called oaks of righteousness.

Father, thank you that your will is for us that we should be full of joy in Christ. When Satan tempts us to despair, help us to think aright and to remember greater is he who is in us than he was in the world. These are not just Christian platitudes we placate ourselves with, but with their ironclad promises made by the Father, secured by the Son, and sealed by the Holy Spirit. As we enter now into our time of corporate worship, may you help us fix our minds and hearts upon you, and may our worship truly glorify and honor you, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Do you have enough faith? Where does your faith come from? What do you need faith for? Maybe times like these. Maybe this situation God has you in or has our little family in at the moment. It's always an exercise of our faith, the circumstance that we live under. In James 1, 1 through 8, James says, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes and the dispersion.

Greetings count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let status steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting. For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

That ends fairly cheerfully. If you find yourself being tossed around, seek the Lord. Ask for wisdom. Ask him to strengthen your faith. The second question I asked is, where does our faith come from? Sometimes we forget that. Again, the Bible tells us where it comes from. Ephesians 2, 8, and 10. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Your faith is a gift of God. If your faith is weak, it causes you sometimes to sin, which brings us to this part in our service and part of our liturgy that we corporately confess our sin together to God so that then we can move into the next parts of our liturgy.

So if this is brought to mind weakness in your faith or other sins that you may have committed, this is the time that we ask for forgiveness.

So we take a moment now and you can quietly examine and confess your sins, you who are able and are interested in or invited to kneel before the Lord. And after we have some silent confession, I will get up and close this with a prayer. So let's pray. Father, we confess our need for you. Help us to strengthen our weak faith. Forgive us our sins against each other and you. Help us through your spirit to repent and reconcile with each other when needed. Help us to be those people that you are growing. Help us to understand the supernatural work that you do in us each and every day those of us that believe how you're conforming us to the image of your son. Help us to recognize that and we pray in your son's name Jesus Christ. Amen. You may stand and And today, one thing you'll notice, that Jim's message is going to be from Philippians, and my encouragement that your sins are forgiven comes from there, and at the end of our service, my charge to you is going to come from the same passages

that Jim is going to preach on, Jonathan is going to read. So we want you to see that there's a neat little package here that all this comes together. Philippians 3, 8, and 9, Indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For His sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and counted them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. And you are who our believers have that, and so on we go in our service.

And as Dave mentioned, our scripture reading this morning is going to come from Philippians chapter 3. I will be reading verses 1 through 16 from the English Standard Version, Philippians 3, 1 through 16. Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same thing to you is no trouble for me and is safe for you. Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also, if anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more.

Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For His sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me His own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Let us pray. Our Father and our God, our temptation is to try to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and muddle through life unassisted.

And this is an evidence, actually, of Your kindness to us, that we have the resources and the ability, physically and otherwise, to be able to do any good thing is an evidence of Your kindness and is the sort of thing that we routinely abuse. These remove this habit from us, make us aware of who we are in light of, who you are, and what you are like. As we gather this morning to worship you, we pray that by your grace you would conform us to your Son's image and an accurate likeness of yourself as we worship you. When we do that, then our perspectives will be aligned, our vision will be clarified, and our humility will increase.

Because you have told us to do so, and because Christ has worked on our behalf, we, with confidence and obedience come before you this morning, making our requests made known to you. As Jim already mentioned this morning, we mourn with the Higgins family the passing of Brooke Higgins and we ask that you would please grant comfort and peace as well as the energy to now handle the logistics related to Brooke's passing. We pray that the memorial service would bring you great honor and as Morgan and the kids are now flying to Ohio and as Shawn is already there, we ask that you would equip them well to serve Sean's family and to be a blessing while also finding comfort themselves. May it be fruitful for all. Most importantly, we thank you for saving Brooke last year and that this passing is now a see you later rather than a permanent goodbye. We want to pray for Steve Snyder, that is the nephew of Mary Kay Durden and Okinawa.

He's having some nervous neurological problems affecting his feeling and his mobility, his ability to work and the rest. We pray for full and speedy recovery for him. We want to pray for Debbie Walden or continued cancer treatments. We know that she is going to be having a blood test this Tuesday and then a CAT scan on a week from Monday to determine whether to continue the current course of action. If this treatment is being successful and we ask that you would make it very clear and please grant direction to her doctors as they work on her behalf. And Father, we ask that you would allow her to, by your grace, have victory over this and to be healed completely as you are capable of doing.

We want to pray for other illnesses in our sphere of influence, including Audrey Barnes and her ear infection, Travis Upson, and as he is trying to figure out what to do with this severe rash in his arm that has puzzled the doctors so far, but has not puzzled you. Many are recovering now from recent surgeries. Judy Reeves, Ralph Durden, Carmen Nielsen, Taylor Rothenberger, Grady Bone, Elizabeth Ratzlaff, Carol Slice, Morgan Higgins, and no doubt others. Father, we long for the day when we will no longer be subject to illness or injury, and we will not be in broken bodies that are tainted by sin, but we will be in transformed, heavenly bodies that will be able to withstand your resplendent glory.

And that is something to look forward to. In the meantime, please use these reminders of the frailty of our bodies and the consequence of sin and even death to align our perspectives and to bring you honor. We thank you for the men in our congregation who get to serve both you and our country in the Navy, namely Jubal Marlat, Ben Hackbarth, Dan Wibbenmayer, as Jubal is at the twilight of his military career. We ask that you grant direction for the next season of life for them and grant him permanent employment that is going to be such that he would be really excited about the work that he does. That's hard to do for a guy who's so qualified as he is. Make your will clear there. We're excited about this army of small children that runs around our church. It shouts of your blessing on our families. It is exciting to think what a force they will be for your kingdom's sake one generation from now. Along the way, please grant grace and wisdom to the parents as they try to obey your command to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Along those lines, we do pray for uneventful pregnancies for Karen Walton, Alicia Kulishov, Cheryl Wivenmeyer. We are grateful for the return from Canada of Julie Ratzlaff and also for Anastasia Lomakin, getting back with her little one from Russia recently and others who are away for extended periods of time, but come back. The return is so much sweeter. We ask that you would please bless our ministry outreach opportunities as we are privileged to be able to partner with the Good Shepherd Children's Home in southern India. We ask that you would grant wisdom and direction to Sajji and Yancey Thomas as they shepherd those precious young ladies and may their influence and their faithfulness have echoes in southern India for generations to come.

We pray for the Children's Law Center of Washington and the good work of Andrew Schneider and others under his charge and leadership. As they are trying to place children and foster children of Washington State and forever homes, we know that that is something that is near and dear to your heart. As we at Evangel Classical School work hard to be faithful and to advance culture, we ask that you bring to the school just the right families and at the right pace as we make plans for next year. Help all of those decisions to be easy and clear while also being faithful to work hard. We are grateful that you call us every week to wield the battering ram of worship and take a swing against the gates of the citadels of unbelief as we do so this morning.

And as we fix our eyes on you, as we fix our minds on your word, and even slides with truthful lyrics to the words we would sing, we ask you to transform us. Into the likeness of Christ by your grace may we worship in spirit and in truth, And may you glorify yourself among us, we pray. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. Father, we have just sung about your tremendous faithfulness. We a needy people crying out to you, Father, confessing our faults, our weaknesses, and you a gracious God who gladly comes and rescues us and provides for us and delivers us. Father, impress upon our hearts, again, just how awesome you are.

As we open up your word this morning, as we talk about the topic of joy, Father, help us to deeply appreciate and understand this attribute, to understand that it is yours and the Son's will, that our joy may be made complete, that it may be full, even though we live in these mortal coils that are failing, that are temporary, that'll dry up like the flower dries in the sun and blows away. that we have not put confidence in our flesh, but put our confidence totally and completely in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We just ask these things now in your Son Jesus' name, amen. This morning I'm going to attempt to re-preach a message that I first preached in June 2011.

When the elders got the call Thursday night that Sean had to make an emergency trip back east, the three remaining elders, we put our heads together and we were discussing What are we going to do today? How are we going to cover it? There wasn't really enough time to put together a fresh sermon for today from scratch. So I suggested that I re-preach this sermon on joy. And given how many trials our church members have been going through these past few years, and if you think about it, it's been quite a few years of trials, I thought it might be a good reminder for ourselves of the hope and the joy that the Lord brings during times of difficulty.

So with your permission, I'm going to go ahead. Even though I guess I don't have your permission, going to repreach this message and hopefully you'll be encouraged by it. Don't you like when they ask those questions when there really is no answer for it? Several years ago, Sean taught a series based on the book, Religious Effections by Jonathan Edwards. A key principle Edwards taught was that we always do what we most want to do. We always do what we most want to do. That is, we can have multiple affections, and sometimes those affections pull us in opposite directions. For example, I have a very strong affection for cheddar cheese and Oreo cookies, but I also have an affection for a healthy heart and less than 18% body fat.

Those affections are not pulling in the same direction. that are the strongest will largely determine what choices we make. Not only do our affections drive the choices we make, but they also lead to our joy or lack thereof. Soul-satisfying, hope-producing, witness-intriguing joy can only happen when our strongest affection is for God. Now, the good news is that our affections are something that we can cultivate and change over time and in so doing increase our joy immensely. So if you're sitting there this morning thinking, well, my grace of affection is not for God, you're not doomed to that position. That is something that can change with time and effort.

Joy is vitally important. Hebrews 12 too, speaking of Jesus says, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame. of all that Jesus was facing as he approached the death on the cross, all that he was enduring, all that was going on. I mean, just from a human standpoint, it was atrocious. But think about the God of the universe going through that. And yet for the joy set before him, he endured that. I love this example because it shows us that joy is independent of circumstances and that it has the power to help us to endure all manner of hardship. So what does joy look like? I mean, how does it manifest itself?

We do a lot of talking around here about waving our joy flags. What does that mean? What does a joy flag waver look like? We know that joy is not the same as being happy about something, although joy and being happy often go hand in hand. You've probably had lots of Bible study discussions about happiness versus joy. And back and forth, the debate goes. Some have described joy as an inner peace in the face of external trials. It's often said that joy is something internal while mere happiness is an external thing. But I wonder if we have downgraded joy to something less than it is in order to make excuses for why our joy is not always obvious.

If we are a joy-filled people, shouldn't that joy express itself? We give each other pep talks about being joyful in quote spirit even while our outward countenance communicates anything but joy. Shouldn't a joyful spirit manifest itself in our countenance? Charles Spurgeon seemed to think so. He wrote, when the heart is full of joy, it always allows its joy to escape. It's like the fountain in the marketplace. Whenever it is full, it runs away in streams. And as soon as it ceases to overflow, You may be quite sure that it is ceased to be full. The only full heart is the overflowing heart. I like that. Joy always finds a way to escape, to be expressed.

Being joyful does not mean we are impervious to the many painful things that come with being mortal. But it does mean that joy will always emerge out of whatever chaos is going on in our lives. Joy can't be suppressed. It always rises to the top. Our joy or lack thereof tells us where our deepest affections lie. Consider that we are commanded to rejoice in the Lord. How would you compare the Lord to some of the following things? Let's just do a comparison thing. The joy of the Lord on one side versus the joy you might find in these. A huge pay raise, a wedding engagement, a new baby being born, being healed of cancer, being debt free, winning a once in a lifetime vacation.

What would your response be to those events in your life? Clearly Jesus far and away outstrips the values of those things. Those things are as rubbish compared to Him, but how do those things affect your countenance, your conversation? The joy of the Lord is the gauge on our spiritual dashboard telling us if our heart is full of affection for God or not. Joy should impact every aspect of our being and it shouldn't be hard for anyone to detect it in our life. In the time remaining then, I'd like to show from Philippians 3 verse 17 through 4-8, five ways that joy is developed and displayed in a maturing Christian, and that'll be the passage we'll be focusing on. So there's five observations I want to make talking about how joy is developed and displayed in the believer's life. Those five points, if you want to have points to follow, you can follow these five. I'll repeat them as I go on so you don't have to scribble them all now. The first point, joy mimics godly examples. Secondly, joy

delights in holy transformation. Joy loves the unity of the brethren. Joy produces real peace and joy causes pure thinking. So I had Jonathan read Philippians 1 through 16 to kind of give us some of the backdrop for this passage that we're going to take a look at. Again, we're in Philippians 3, 17 through 4-8. Our passage comes out of the larger context. It starts in Philippians 3-1 and it goes all the way to 4-8. Paul begins 3-1 with the command to rejoice in the Lord. And then in 4-4 he says again to rejoice in the Lord. In the case we're not getting the point, he says in 4-4 rejoice in the Lord a second time. Joy seems to me to serve as the bookends to this section of the Scriptures. And so what I want to do then is take a look at that, given these bookends of joy on both sides of that, I want to take a look at what's in between there and see what we can glean about what joy-filled people look like how people get that joy-filled life.

So we'll just make these five observations in our time remaining. So firstly, joy mimics godly examples. One of the best ways to foster and maintain joy in life is to mimic other joyful Christians.

17 brethren join in following my example and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us Paul instructs the Philippians to follow his example as well as any others who exhibit the same pattern of godly living that he did now the world system that we live in today tends to value free spirited independence conformity is viewed as equivalent to mind control and going against the flow and going to going against the flow becomes a virtue onto itself we just live in that kind of a culture where do your own thing in his book for a glory and a covering Doug Wilson speaks to the issue of imitation and he writes in scripture learning is profoundly incarnational but we have been taught in countless ways that true knowledge is abstract and disembodied when people begin to self-consciously imitate their parents and their elders, it is not long before the charge of mind control and cult begin to fly.

Part of the godly fruit of incarnational imitation is like-mindedness, which the Bible praises in a number of places, in which our modern world condemns. It is not even hard to find Christians who are wary of like-mindedness. Instead, they say, you have to be an individual. You have to think for yourself. Be your own dog. You must not imitate others, period. The result of this vain exercise, like throwing rocks at the moon, does not eliminate imitation. It only guarantees the imitation of fools. There is no way to escape imitation in life. We all do it. Biblical discipleship stands in stark contrast to this mindset.

Discipleship says, come, follow me, and do as I do. In the same way, the coals in a fireplace keep each other glowing, so do joyful Christians help each other keep on rejoicing in the Lord. Finding other godly persons and following their example will benefit us in several ways. It will tend to help us avoid joy-robbing sin, especially if there is mutual accountability in a relationship. Sadly, many Christians go through life without ever really having any kind of true accountability where people are asking the hard questions, how they're doing in their life. And it's easy for us to get into that independent mindedness.

We're doing our own thing, and pretty soon we're off in the weeds in some area of sin. It will also help ward off discouragement by nipping negative thoughts and attitudes in the bud before they blossom into a critical spirit. Again, when we're left to our own thoughts, we can tend to spiral into negative thinking, critical thinking, and pretty soon it's coming out through our mouths. And we're just being very negative, Joy is being taken away as we allow that negative thought to carry us away. Joy in the Lord is the fuel that keeps us pressing on towards our upward calling Christ. When we don't have joy, then life will feel like pushing a car uphill in a hundred degree weather.

Walking with and observing those who exhibit true joy are some of the surest ways to maintain a healthy spiritual demeanor. Ecclesiastes four nine through 12 illustrates the principle this way. Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor, for if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion, but woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together, they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart. Now, there are good examples to follow that will help bolster our faith, But there's also bad examples to avoid that will be a drain on our joy.

And Paul identifies them starting in verse 18. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose goddess are appetite, and whose glory is their shame, who set their mind on earthly things. What is so bad about these people that it causes Paul to weep? Paul is a tender hearted guy, but he's no sissy, so his concern should concern us as well. He cites two things specifically, and the context implies a third. The two specific things he mentions are, one, there are many of these individuals, and two, they are enemies of Christ.

It should be no surprise that there are many, since the path to heaven is narrow, but the road to destruction is wide. Not only are there many, but they are enemies of the cross. What makes them an enemy of the cross? Given what Paul has said thus far, we can conclude that these enemies are those who are either rejecting the gospel of Jesus Christ outright, or they are those who are perverting the gospel by adding man-made strictures to it. And then the third reason for Paul's weeping implied from the text is that these individuals represent a real threat to those who are of the true circumcision. Those who have been saved must be ever vigilant against those who seek to modify the gospel by adding requirements to it. It is easy to see how the major cults seek to do this today. It's more subtle when those within the true church start to add standards of practice and conduct they call biblical, when in fact it's preference.

Now before we leave this section, let's look at Paul's description of these enemies of the gospel. I believe Paul is showing a progression here in reverse order. So starting at the end of verse 19 and working backwards, here's what we learn about these enemies of the cross. First, they set their minds on earthly things. This mindset is sin and inevitably leads them deeper and deeper into sin. So step one is they set their minds on earthly things. We can see this pattern today in our own society where increasingly that which is evil is declared good. We have many examples of that in our culture today. Secondly, once that sin has become entrenched, it leads to a reprobate mind where their glory is their shame.

We see this everywhere today. Behaviors that even the unsaved once were embarrassed by are now flouted in full public view. Not only are they not ashamed, they do in fact glory in their debauchery. Most recently, does anyone recall what the costume of choice was in the recent women's march? What was shameful, they call empowering. Sin is gross. The third step in this progression is that these enemies of the cross become so blinded in their sin that their appetite for wickedness becomes their God. Instead of worshiping the true God, They worship the God of self-indulgence and are never satiated and thus continue their downward spiral, which leads to the fourth and final step in the progression, which is their destruction.

Look again at where this progression started. Their minds were set on earthly things. This should serve as a warning to us who are of the true circumcision. We must make sure we have the correct mindset. And once again, we see how our strongest affections dictate our path. The only possible hope for lasting joy is to fix our gaze or our mindset on what lays ahead future glory and not upon what lies behind the things of the world. I always warn those who are sporadic in attending corporate worship or small groups. Christianity is not based on the concept of individualism. I have never seen anyone. I've been in the faith for 45 years.

I have never seen anyone who chose to neglect these basic spiritual disciplines, who has not succumbed to worldliness and joylessness. Joy mimics godly examples. Second point, joy delights in holy transformation. Earlier in chapter 3, Paul tells us of the security we have as believers because we have been laid hold of by Christ himself. Verse 12, not that I've already obtained it, the resurrection of the dead, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. The second half of this verse was illustrated for me one day when I was helping my then 10 month old granddaughter, Noel, learned to walk around my house.

And as I'm sure you've done this, um, I put my fingers out like this and then She took her little fists and wrapped around my fingers and then popped up on her feet. And then as I would guide her, she was walking through the house quite proud of where she was going. But it reminded me was that in fact, while she thought she was laying hold of me, which she was, in fact, I was laying hold of her. And I was the one that was really in control of where she was going and what she was doing. Paul affirms his truth again, starting in verse 20. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly await for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

Again, we see the security that comes from knowing that Jesus is at work transforming us into His image. One of the marks of a joyful Christian is his eager anticipation of the fulfillment of his salvation. Of course, I'm referring then to what we call glorification. Salvation, as you know, has three aspects, justification, sanctification, glorification. For those who've been saved and are still here on earth, we have already been justified. That's done. Now we're in the process of being sanctified, and that's going to continue until we're raptured or until we go to heaven.

And then Paul reminds us that we are aliens in this world for now by telling us that our citizenship is in heaven. Heaven is home to us and that is where Jesus resides, now sitting at the right hand of the Father. This means that our highest affection should include longing to go home to be with Jesus. If we find a hesitancy in our heart that says not yet, it indicates that our joy is not completely in Christ. All of us should have that longing to go home, to be with Christ. Paul describes the joy-filled Christian as one who eagerly awaits for our Savior to come from heaven and complete the transformation process. When Jesus comes, He will change us from the body of our humble estate to the body of His glory. Every morning when I look in the mirror, I'm reminded of my humble estate, and I'm looking forward to a heavenly makeover.

Notice again the recurring theme that it is all of God. He will come and complete this transformation by the exercise of his power and his authority. How secure and certain is that? Genuine joy in Christ is evidenced by a deep longing to be delivered from this body of death and to enter his presence forever and ever. Does that describe what preoccupies your mind? Or have you set your mind on things of earth? And so that's just a distant thought. Third, joy loves the unity of the brethren. One of the truest measures of joy in a person is their affection for other believers. This only makes sense. If we are rejoicing in Christ, then it stands to reason that whatever's near and dear to his heart will be near to ours as well.

And this was certainly true of Paul. Look at 4.1. Therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see, my joy and crown, so stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. Can you see Paul's tenderness towards the Philippians? Twice in just one verse, he refers to them as my beloved. He also calls them my joy and crown. Now calling them this, his crown shows how proud he was of them. He wanted to show them off as a testimony of what God was doing in their lives. Now Paul isn't commending them because of their own accomplishments. That would contradict his repudiation of putting confidence in the flesh. What caused him to feel such love and joy and to want to show them off was their faithfulness to what God through Paul had taught them. Their joy in the Lord was on display and it helped make Paul's own joy complete. That's how joy works practically. One person ministers joyfully to another, which increases that person's joy, which in turn increases the joy of the first person. God designed it to be that way.

We've we encourage each other in our joy abounds and grows as we mutually encourage one another Unfortunately, it doesn't always work that way when sometimes sin or immaturity Which is another word for sin causes disunity in the body Disunity is a joy killer and something that we need to strive hard to eliminate Apparently some kind of discord was happening in the church in Philippi. Look at verse 2 I urge Yodia and I urge Syntheke to live in harmony in the Lord. Indeed, true comrade, I ask you to help these women who have shared my struggles in the cause of the gospel together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the Book of Life. Now we don't know what the source of the conflict was between these two sisters in the Lord. Apparently they had been faithfully ministering in the church because Paul describes them as women who had shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel.

Paul's concern was that these two women who once labored hard for the sake of the gospel now risked being a hindrance to the gospel because they had allowed some dispute to overtake them. Paul exhorts his women to live in harmony in the Lord. The Greek word used here for harmony literally means to have understanding. Disputes are almost inevitable given our humanness. We're just different people. We're going to have disputes. When they do occur, however, we must make it a high priority to resolve them and to seek to have understanding. Often sin, in the form of stubbornness or pride, causes one or both parties to become so entrenched in their own point of view that they are unable or unwilling to understand what the other person is coming, where the other person is coming from.

I mean, it really reminds you of our political realities today. I don't know about you, but it drives me crazy watching the talking heads, and they're always talking past each other.

never responding to what the other person said. We have national debates, which are never debates. They're just sound bites and arguments. But we never have that desire to truly seek to understand what the other person's thinking and what's going on. A wise person is the one who will take the time to listen and understand where another person's coming from rather than just reacting with anger or hurt. Proverbs 20, verse 5 provides a wise word on this point, and I love this verse and I've always remembered it, a plan in the heart of a man is like deep water, but a man of understanding draws it out. A man of understanding is another way of saying a wise man. Too often disputes get inflamed because no one is wise enough to figure out what the other person is saying. We react to those initial hot-button words or maybe the tone or whatever it is and we off we go, we're reacting to that, or we're making assumptions rather than asking clarifying questions. We're not taking the time to probe and dive deep

and try to understand where that person is coming from. And then on the other hand, sometimes the best course of action might be to simply let it go and exhibit a forbearing spirit. Proverbs 17-14 gives us the balancing view. The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so abandon the coral before it breaks out. Sometimes you need wisdom, sometimes, okay this is one I just got a smile, a and bear it and just let it go because if I prick that thing, the water is going to come gushing out. So sometimes walking away is the right thing. Whichever course of action you take in dealing with a dispute, humility is the key.

Joy and pride cannot exist together. That makes sense since God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. If you find your joy flagging, check your heart to see if you have allowed some pride to take root in there. our relationships with other believers and striving to live in harmony is an essential part of rejoicing in the Lord. We cannot have the joy of the Lord if we are walking around with unresolved conflicts that have disputes that are going on amongst ourselves. The next point. Joy produces real peace. Earlier in Philippians we saw Paul weeping as he talked about the enemies of the cross. Then we saw his burden for two sisters in the Lord who were at odds with each other.

You might think that Paul is starting to get a little melancholy at this point, but then like steam and a pressure cooker that just can't be contained, he blurts out in verse 4, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice. Real joy is like that. It can't be contained. It must express itself. Like the character Uncle Albert and Mary Poppins who can't keep himself from laughing, So is Paul, who can't control his outburst of joy. Paul is so filled with joy that he repeats himself three times in verse 25 he tells us to rejoice in the Lord. And then starting in verse 5, Paul shows us then three more ways joy manifests itself and the peace that results from it.

So in verse 5, let your forbearing spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. The three ways joy manifests itself are straightforward. Be forbearing. Do not be anxious. Be prayerful. First, a joyful person demonstrates a forbearing spirit before all men. The word used here for forbearing means seemingly, fitting, equitable, fair, moderate, insisting on the letter of the law. It expresses the idea of looking humanely and reasonably at the facts of the case. Its opposite would be contentiousness. Joy is not easily provoked.

It's not looking for a fight. It thinks the best. It has tolerance for others. Poor choice of words. True joy will always seek to be at peace with other men. It is a command found Romans 12 18 if possible so far as it depends on you be at peace with all men it's not always easy now to be at peace and it's tempting to just walk away from a dispute rather than go through the often messy and frustrating process of trying to make peace brothers and sisters in Christ give up too quickly on unity and settle for a pseudo peace by agreeing to disagree I have seen this so many times occur in churches where they claim they're maintaining this spirit of peace but what it is is I don't agree with you, you don't agree with me, we're never going to resolve this difference so let's just agree to disagree and then we go off in our corners and fume and tell other people do you know what the other guy thinks or believes and that is not real peace agreeing to disagree. More often than not this leads to a fracture in the

overall unity of the body. If Christ died on the cross so that we can be at peace with him, we shouldn't be willing to, we should, um, let me start over again. If Christ died on the cross so that we can be at peace with him, shouldn't we be willing to put more effort into being in unity with one another when disputes arise. And then a second way that joy manifests itself in this section is it does not worry, it's not anxious. Paul rather curdly gives the command, do not be anxious. He just says, don't be anxious.

Now to someone who struggles with anxious thoughts and I've known you know several people who have dealt with real serious problems with anxiety To those people that might sound a little bit like Bob Newhart telling someone in the counselor's office just stop it You know if you haven't seen that skit before just go google Bob Newhart and counseling Where the person's in there were presented all their problems and he's just listening carefully then he just says stop it And that that's his solution to the problem. I I don't believe Paul is being purposefully callous here with the anxious person. He wants this person to understand that rejoicing in the Lord is incompatible with anxious thinking.

You can't say, I'm rejoicing in the Lord, but I'm still anxious about something. Rejoicing in the Lord produces peace. It produces security. It removes fear. Being anxious originates in our thinking. The only way to combat it is to change our thinking. To the anxious person, Paul says, stop it. Instead, rejoice in the Lord. Now you may have noticed that I missed a little phrase in that section there. It's a short but critical statement Paul makes. He says, the Lord is near. It's interesting that he slips that right between the command to be forebearing and the command to not be anxious. It certainly applies to both commands.

we are struggling to be at peace with someone or we're struggling to stop wrong thinking, knowing that the Lord is near will or should motivate us and encourage us to obey these commands this week. A little exercise. Try meditating on that one phrase. The Lord is near just throughout the week. Just meditate on the Lord is near. The Lord is near. The Lord is near. How would a full understanding of that truth shape your work and your relationships? In the third trait of a joyful person that Paul gives here is the antidote to ancient thinking. He says, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

To those who think that God is not a personal God, this verse blows away that idea. What are we supposed to bring to God's attention? Everything. If God didn't want to be bothered, he would not have inspired Paul to tell us to bring everything to him. speaks of God's intimate and personal care for each of us individually. It also demonstrates his expectations of our reliance on him. When we only pray from the foxholes of life, we're demonstrating an arrogance that says we can do life on our own until some crisis overwhelms us. We must bring everything to God in prayer in good times and tough times. This shows our proper understanding of of ourselves and of God.

Lots of people, even pagans pray, you know, I know who they're praying to, but they pray to something when they're in trouble. But Christians should be praying all the times, good times, hard times. Paul says to bring everything by prayer and supplication. He uses a word for general prayer, followed by a more specific word translated supplication or need. Our prayer life should include times of worship and adoration to God, as well as a time for presenting our needs. Only bringing our supplications to God in prayers reduces Him to then some kind of a cosmic sugar daddy who we turn to whenever we feel we have a need.

By spending time worshipping and adoring Him, we show that we have a proper understanding of who He is. He's the Holy One, the majestic One, the giver and the taker of all things. Praying this way also helps us increase enjoying the Lord because it helps us to see the rubbish we still cling to for what it is and to forsake it. It grows our affection in the right areas and decreases them in the wrong ones. That discipline of constantly focusing on the Lord and meditating on His goodness and how He supplies all of our needs. In my prayer life I love going through the Psalms and Lord You are my rock and my shield and my shelter and my defender and my hope of glory and on and on. I think there's 40 or 50 of those. Lord You are my's. You can fill in the blank.

And You're training your heart to believe and to reject all of the rubbish of the life and to turn your heart and clean to God. Notice the attitude that is to pervade our thinking as we pray with thanksgiving. Paul doesn't indicate that we are to pray sometimes with thanksgiving. Every time we pray we are to do so with thanksgiving. This includes when we are praying for someone with cancer or someone who has lost a job or a loved one. Obviously issues we're dealing with right now. How can a person honestly pray with thanksgiving for these kinds of things. It goes back to rejoicing in the Lord. When we can say with Paul, for me to live is Christ, and I consider all things rubbish for the sake of knowing Christ, we can sacrifice our hopes and expectations at the altar of God's sovereignty over all things.

This is how Job could say about his overwhelming trials, though he slay me, I will hope in him. Praying for thanksgiving requires that we throw ourselves upon the wisdom and the mercy of God and not question his plan. Whatever life throws at us fits in the category of God is good. And we have to train our hearts to understand that and to believe that. Think of it this way. If I said you can have the entire universe but no God, or you can have God but nothing else, which would you choose? The question is a no-brainer for the person rejoicing in the Lord. The person who is rejoicing in the Lord can pray always with thanksgiving because their deepest desire is found in him.

It doesn't mean these other areas aren't unimportant and trivial, but it means their deepest desire is found in him, hence they can trust themselves through a loving God. I love the conclusion of this section. Paul says, And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Once again we see God at work in us. He lays hold of us, making it possible to lay hold of Him. He will transform us into the image of His glory by the exercise of His power.

In addition, we see that the peace He gives us will guard our hearts and minds. Notice it is a peace that passes all understanding. That is all human understanding. How else can you explain the calmness that comes over a true believer in the face of sometimes horrible afflictions. How precious it is to see someone who by worldly standards should be an emotional wreck but instead is standing strong in the Lord. It defies human reason, it defies logic. To the undiscerning it may appear that they are in denial but in reality they are wrapped securely in the blanket of peace that God gives to those who rejoice in Him. And then lastly, joy causes pure thinking.

In verse 8, finally brethren whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute. If there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things. Rejoicing the Lord can't help but change a person's thinking. Note the operative word, dwell, in the verse. Paul is not saying, don't ever let a negative thought cross your mind. That would be impossible to do. What we must do is take our thoughts captive and choose not to meditate on or dwell on the things that feed the flesh. That is something we can do with it. It's a discipline we can develop. Our minds are going to naturally go into the negative. We can capture those thoughts and bring them into submission in Christ Jesus.

Think of what's right, what is pure, what is lovely, what is good report. This can be difficult to do, especially when we are inundated with many unpleasant things. Again, back to earlier point, one more reason why we need to be around the fellowship of the saints so they can encourage us when they hear us starting to go into the negative, party thinking they can guide our thinking back to the Lord rejoicing the Lord can give us victory in this area because it is hard if not impossible to be rejoicing in the Lord and thinking negative thoughts at the same time in our mind have you guys ever met anybody who was really joyful while they were griping about life yeah I've never seen such a person when you look at all of the words Paul uses to describe what we're to dwell on I like to think of of it is making a very tight filter.

It's a grid like this and then another grid like this and another grid and by the time you layer all these grids, there's nothing going through. It's a pretty good filter. I can think of things that are true, for example. So thinking of things that are true but I'm not thinking of things that are honorable. Well, but the next layer of the grid says, well, only think of things that are honorable. Oops, okay, caught that item. I can think of things that are right but I'm not thinking of things that are worthy of praise. So, as I just apply all of those descriptions in that verse, pretty soon I've built this multi-layered grid that captures all of the wrong, the negative thinking.

I think if you take these traits of right thinking together, it will pretty much shut down a lot of the thinking that we tend to do when we're idle. A practical way we can get victory in this area of right thinking is to fill our minds with worthwhile stuff. Makes sense. You know, you've always heard the old adage, garbage in, garbage out. need to be filling our minds with the right things. Obviously Bible reading and memorization, good books that bolster our faith and knowledge of God, recorded sermons, just plain talking with other believers about the Lord are all good ways to seed our mind with proper thinking. I would be in a world of hurt if I did not have a team of elders that I meet with on a regular basis and we're reading all kinds of books and challenging our thinking and I'm human.

I'm my thinking. I'm real good at going negative in my thinking and I need other guys and brothers to remind me to be thinking right and what's good. We need the fellowship of the saints. We need the Word of God in our hearts. And again, when we don't avail ourselves of that, we are really putting ourselves into serious trouble. If you study the lives of great men of God that we all like to quote today, you'll find that they were serious thinkers who spent long hours in prayer and meditation. Sadly, many Christians have not cultivated these spiritual disciplines with the result that there seems to be a collective dumbing down that's going on. I don't know if you sense it or not but just where are the Spurgeons? You know where are the Jonathan Edwards? Where are the men like this of old men and or women you know who really shaped our Christian thinking today? We're dumbing down to it. Jesus loves me. This is this is all I need and know. This is all I care to know and it's a it's a sad travesty. It's happening to the church. In Romans 12 1 Paul said,

be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Too many Christians today are instead being conformed to this world by the neglecting of their mind. May it not be so with us. And then in summary, so then we are to rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Beware those dogs, those evildoers, those who long belong to the fake circumcision who try and take away your joy by making you adhere to manmade rules and restrictions. Congregate with other believers who are exhibiting the joy of the Lord so that you can benefit from the mutual encouragement that brings. Identify and throw out the rubbish that is keeping you from pressing on towards your upward calling Christ. Pursue Christ with all your heart and let him take control of all aspects of your life. Abandon your hopes and expectations for this life. Trusting that his plan for you is far greater. And humbly submit to God's sovereign will for your life and strive to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.

When you're done with all that and above all else, rejoice in the Lord always. Let's pray. Well, Father, that was probably drinking from a fire hose of a lot of information crammed in those few verses. But I trust that you will have taken nuggets of truth from that and applied it to each of our hearts sovereignly in ways that are appropriate for each one of us. Father bottom line is we do need to be people who rejoice in the Lord always All right it we must confess that we probably fail in that area far more than we should may you help us to Consider our own life does our life exhibit joy is it that fountain Spurgeon talked about that is filling up the fountain and flowing Out and pouring streams down the street and if not why not what do we need to do differently father?

perhaps we've been forsaking the fellowship of the saints, perhaps even allowing life circumstances to overwhelm our hearts, whatever it may be, help us to identify it, repent of it, to correct it, and that we would then, Father, come to you with all gladness and all joy, and that you would be glorified and honored as we live out our lives before you. We just pray this now in your Son, Jesus' name. Amen. You invite us to stand, and again, invite the worship team back up. This is the time in the service and we also bring forward our offering. One more way that we can express our joy to the Lord, our thankfulness to the Lord, is by giving of our monetary fruits to him.

And so as we participate in Psalm and continue on the worship service, may we just do that with all joy. We're now coming to the time in our service when we all commune together to remember what Christ has done for us. As we come to our time of communion, we need to remember what Christ has done for us and celebrate the most important event in human history, what God did to redeem us. It really is amazing when you think about it that the creator of the universe had to become like us and die for us because of our screw-up. Really stunning. Which brings to mind the things we've been studying. Solus Christus, Sola Fide, only Christ and only by faith.

We come to this table celebrating what Christ has done for us together. And in that time together, we, I think it's one of the most moving things we do weekly to watch the families, watch the kids, the generations come up and participate.

really a fulfilling thing and I think there's a lot of supernatural growth that goes on as we do it and different observations in our own mind and our own spirit I hope. As it is written in 2nd Peter 1 5 through 10, for this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. You will never fall. Practice these things. Our communion is an open one, and And as for those who have been baptized into the body by faith, as those who have

repented from their sin and put their faith in Christ, we are able to partake of his body in blood. As we do, we get up and come down through the center aisle, getting a piece of bread and the cup, and then go back to your seats and we'll participate with this all together. As you notice, we have wine and and the trays that have the W, and then juice is that one there, the one inside. We offer both. So now let's come together and get the elements, and then when you get back to your seats, we'll all participate for this together. Now comes the time for the charge. I personally want to encourage you as a congregation as a whole and individually to continue in the good works that were prepared beforehand for you by our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

You as a congregation, I think, really do this well as a group, and I just want to encourage you in that. And for the benediction today, I'm going to read Philippians 3, 20 through 4, 1, that Jim just gave us the message on. But be encouraged and go and practice this. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself. Therefore my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown stand firm thus in the Lord my beloved.

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

Okay, Solas Christus. Sounds good, right? Only Christ alone. So, before we begin, I think we should just think about what we're called. And it's interesting, I think sometimes when people ask you, are you a Christian, how some people will answer that. So, if you say you're a Christian, what does that mean? You believe in Jesus, but what do you believe about Jesus and what has he done for you? And we identify that way. Some people, when you ask them, are you a Christian, they'll say, well, I'm a Roman Catholic. Or I'm an Episcopalian. I'm a Baptist. I like those answers. And I say, well, no, I asked you if you're a Christian.

Well, yeah, but I'm that. And I said, so the idea is, where did we ever get this Christian thing? And sure enough, it's in the Bible. Acts 11, 25, and 26 says that so Bartimas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for a whole year, they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians, followers of Christ. So always, who is Jesus? Whenever the cults come to your door, don't get sidetracked on verses about baptizing from the dead or any of that nonsense. Always reduce it back to who is Jesus Christ. If you get that answer right and believe what he's done for you, you're a Christian, and you're going to go to heaven, regardless of all the other errors you got in your head.

And remember, we all have some theological error, but this is an important one to know who Christ is and what he's done for us. We're going to go through quite a few verses, but you need to keep in mind the definition here. So Solas Christus is Christ alone from the Latin Solas Christus, is one of the five Solas of the Reformation. And remember these Solas were preached and taught about in books and writings from the reformers, but it was all brought together in the early part of this century into the five. But the scripture alone and Christ alone are like solid foundation things, right? So as one of the five Solas of the Reformation, It emphasizes that a salvation is made possible for man only, only by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Nothing more, nothing less. Jesus' death, we stand on that. The other thing to remember is sola scriptura, Christ's life, death, and resurrection is chronicled perfectly in the holy scriptures. Only from scripture is it possible to derive any knowledge of his saving work. You can derive what God's creative work is, Christ's creative work. Remember, he made all things. We'll learn that through some verses. You can see through natural revelation those things. But salvifically, you need to learn it through what the Bible says or somebody preaching you the gospel, and you be quickened by his spirit to believe that. And you need to always reduce it down, because people will say, oh yeah, I believe in Jesus.

He's a great philosopher, and I believe in God, and yes, there are many a great wisdom, and all of that kind of stuff. As soon as he does that, you always ask back, well, do you believe Jesus Christ is God? That's the showstopper, because people, they'll lead right up to that, but then they realize, ooh, if I say Jesus is God, now I have this Trinitarian problem. I got God the Father, God the Holy Spirit. I got Jesus. I got all this stuff going on and people are going to grant me as, Oh, you're just one of those Jesus people. So they get nervous when they do that. You know, well, I believe he's the son of God. Well, that doesn't cut it.

That's true, but that isn't big enough. Okay. So you always reduce it back to who is Christ. And if he's not God, we're in trouble. All right. because how can a man, a person, die for your sin or everybody's sin? Can't happen.

And that's the unique perspective that we have in our religion. That in our religion God set it up that he is the only one that can die and make it right for us. Which is like you can't find that anywhere else. Everywhere else God is the big muckety-muck and he's making all these commandments and we have to work our way and we have to try to become like him and all of that. No, Christ does it all. He promises that if we believe in him, he will conform us to the image of his son and conform us to his image. That is part of the Christian life, is day by day he conforms you to his image, which is, that's crazy. But it's true. And those of us that have been around and long enough in the faith and seeing body life, that's what it does. It causes us to act like little Jesus's, which is really good. So we'll start out with these verses kind of in order from Old Testament to New. Then I'm going to end with some quotes from some people that we know, guys like Calvin and Luther and that kind of thing. And then I'm

going to close it by reading a chapter of the New Testament. Sean read it a little bit with our charge this morning, but Ephesians 1, I want to read that whole chapter, because as you think about it, and we glide over these verses all the time, but just each and every phrase is so rich in what's going on that you go, wow, I never thought of it that way maybe, which is part of the thing here.

Like so for the first verse I want to read tonight is Isaiah 9 6, interesting, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be on his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Prince of Peace. Interesting title. What is he making peace with? He's making peace with a rebellious world that didn't want what he had to offer. He came and we through our sin killed him. But he came as the Prince of Peace. The New Testament starts off right away, John 14.6. Jesus said to him, I am, this is one of the ego emies, the great I am statements in the Bible, I, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. Pretty clear, Jesus himself is looking and saying, I, I am, which is a statement that he is God. Remember that goes back to Exodus 3 in the burning bush. No one comes to the Father except through me. There's no other route. You can't work your way, you can't buy your way, you can't get there on

somebody else's ticket only through Christ. In Acts 4, 8, and through 12, Peter preaches in Jerusalem, then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers and people and the elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled By what means this man has been healed? Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him, this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders which has become the cornerstone, And there is no, there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved.

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved. This gets repeated all throughout the New Testament and the more you learn about your Bible The more you see it pictured in the prophecies in the Old Testament. It goes on and on The reformers like to say Looking at the Bible from cover to cover. It's about Jesus. I like that I see that the big story is telling his story history all throughout the Bible even in all these Old Testament things I mean sometimes we have this narrative of Joseph and you can picture him as a Christ saving the Israelites through the Saving of the harvests and all that kind of stuff so you can see these pictures of them But the real story is winding down through those generations Until Christ comes upon the earth and brings all this about so you can see it that way But you can carry that too far also you can see Christ everywhere and it you can see types but you can carry that analogy, I think, too far.

Acts 20, 27 through 29, when Paul was talking to the Ephesian elders, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the Church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. Not our blood, not somebody else's. God's blood bought the church. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. So even though he knew that the church was bought with his own blood and they were true believers, he's warning the leaders of that church to guard against the wolves and the false teachers that come along.

And it's fascinating, one of the statements I'm going to read later, as we go after we go through these verses is in 1996 how the church, the bigger church out there, many denominations got together trying to correct some errors and I think it's an attempt but it's no way strong enough. So after 2,000 years the fight is still going on as we well know. 1 Corinthians 2.1 says, And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come, proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling.

And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Christ and him crucified. Lots of people want to talk about, oh it's Jesus's philosophy to be kind to the poor and feed the poor and do all these good works and everything else, but if he didn't die we would still be dead in our sin. He had to die for our sin, which is like crazy. And the The understanding of that takes care of so many things that have gone askew in church history. If the reformers would have really stayed away from the issue that the Jews were the Christ killers, and we've talked about that in the other thing, how they would realize that their sin put him on the cross, even though in that time the Jews turned him over to the Romans and everything.

It's our sin that put him up there. And keep in mind all the time, that kind of thing.

Corinthians 3 5 through 6. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything is coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant. Not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. How many times have you presented the gospel to people and they just don't get it? How many times have you read a passage of scripture over and over trying to understand it but when you pray that God would reveal himself to you he answers that if you are one of his chosen people so it's wonderful how God works through the three persons of the Trinity to uncover those things for you. In Colossians 1 13 through Paul again goes off. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. We have been redeemed from the slave market. We have that through what Christ has done for us. He is the image of the invisible God, the

the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven, on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile him to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

If indeed you continue in the faith stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. He has now reconciled in his body a flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless above reproach before him. Sometimes we in our Bible study thing and our doctrinal things and our, uh, Calvinistic thinking about all kinds of thing, government and all of that, we lose sight of the simplicity of the gospel and the amazing thing that God has done for us. And we shouldn't do that because without that, we can't even begin to understand all this.

So it's always good to come back to the foundation of solace Christus. All right. In 1 Timothy 2, 5 through 7, For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. In order to fulfill this role of mediator, Jesus had to be fully man as well as fully God. Really is amazing that God has to die for us, And yet he needs to be both 100% man and 100% God for the sacrifice to be any good, which is just mind shifting. And without the Holy Spirit, you can't understand that. That's the way he created it, though.

This verse, if you have any problems about solas Christus or whatever, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, it's pretty clear. People can talk about all kinds of other things, Mary, good works and all of that, but it doesn't work. Hebrews 2, 16 through 18. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, hmm, human, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. He had to be that to make that propatiation for us, that payment.

Hebrews 4, 14 through 16. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who is in every respect has been tempted as we are, and yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that me may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need." When you get in that time of need, you can define need a lot of ways. Sometimes you define it, I just want to get better. I want to get healthy. I need a better job, all of those things.

But when you really reduce it down, what is your greatest need to be reconciled to God because of our sin. And because of that, Christ has paid all of that. The rest of this stuff is just benefits. I mean, we live in a great time where Christianity has formed a world and that we have penicillins and all kinds of things. Most of us would have been dead long ago. My mother's, my mother should, well, she was very fortunate. I was born in 1946. She almost bled to death. And 10 years later, that became a fairly simple procedure in giving birth to get away from things that I had as a kid would have killed me if I would have been born 100 years earlier.

And it's just smallpox inoculations, things like that. We forget that sometimes. And yet, because we think we have all these things figured out, we forget our basic problem is what do we do with our sin problem. And that's what God has done through us, through his Son. Hebrews 7, 25 through 26. Consequently, he is able to save to the othermost those who draw near to God through him. Since he always lives, he always lives to make intercession for them. For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. Just on and on the praise goes.

First John 2, 1 through 2, my little children, I'm writing to you these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins. And not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

We've been through that. The whole world means all different parts of the world. Don't get sidetracked down there. But he is the propitiation for our sin. In second Peter, ones 16 through 21, for we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Peter, an eyewitness to Christ, doing all kinds of interesting things, trying to build tabernacles and all that kind of things. I will never forsake you, yet he did, but is telling the people we did not follow cleverly devised myths. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.

We ourselves heard this very voice from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain, And we have something more sure, the prophetic word to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing that this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of men, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. We are admonished in this to look to Christ alone, for He is the mediator of the new covenant of grace. He is God's final word to man.

There is no other means where men might propitiate the wrath of God. Jesus alone satisfies the requirements of God Almighty, because Jesus alone is the true expression of God's love. God dying for you. That's just amazing to think all that through and to think about how what a just blessing that is that God looks upon us that way. The London Baptist Confession says this, this office of mediator between God and man is properly only to Christ, who is the prophet, priest, and king of the church of God, and not be either in whole or in any part thereof transferred from him to any other. Okay? This office of mediator between God and man is proper only to Christ who is the prophet, priest, and king of the Church of God and may not be either in whole or in any part thereof transferred from him to any other. We We bring the message, you might be a leader in the church, you might be a great pastor, whatever, you're just a messenger boy.

And we, living our lives, life upon life and discipling other people, we can bring that message, but we're just messengers. He's done it all. Always remember that. You can get sidetracked. 1996, this is the Cambridge Declaration, the evangelical faith realized that it was drifting. There was all kinds of seeker-friendly movements going on. They were talking about merging with the Catholics, all that kind of thing. So they tried to come up with a statement to get back to Jesus. Okay, this is what they wrote. As the evangelical faith becomes secularized and its interests have been blurred with those of culture. The result is a loss of absolute values, permissive individualism, and a substitution of the wholeness for holiness, a substitution of wholeness for holiness.

That's really good, I think. I just need to be a complete person, so I have to take this class how I can be a good servant and all that kind of thing. A substitution of wholeness for holiness. Recovery for repentance. I just need to recover from my sins and all these things that have caused me to have these problems. No, you don't. You need to repent. So we need no recovery. We need repentance. We need intuition for truth. No, no, no. Truth. Not what you feel. What does it say? Feeling for belief. No.

Chance for providence and the immediate gratification for enduring hope. A lot of times the way God teaches you the lesson, and those of us that have been around for a while, sometimes we're learning the same lesson over and over, just packaged a different way. Oh, I'm sorry, please forgive me. Oh, I'm sorry, please forgive me.

Then you graduate to the next level and you realize, oh, now that I've got that all figured out, now I have to deal with this. You know, the thing I always love to tell people that in discipleship, the more holy you become, the more evil you know you are. Because as you strip away those things and become more like Christ, you realize, oh my goodness, how screwed up everything really is. So they ended by saying Christ and his cross have been moved from the center of our vision. That's good. It's good that they recognize that. But they needed to come back and say, And if we don't put him back in the center, we're totally lost or something like that I am NOT the wordsmith as you guys all know but something needed to be way More solid than that But it's always tough when you get a bunch of people that are have recovery and intuition And feeling and all this stuff going on get them together to make a statement So anyway the sentence Christ in his cross have been moved from the center of our vision if he has been moved from the center

your vision, repent and get rid of that. You don't need some Cambridge Declaration to get you straightened out, get him back on the throne. Martin Luther said this, he was right in the middle of it, remember, I must listen to the gospel. It tells me not what I must do, but what Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has done, past tense, has done for me. I must listen to the gospel, it tells me not what I must do, but what Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has done for me. It's been done. You just need to appropriate it by belief.

John Calvin, another of our favorites, in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2.16.2, Christ stepped in, took the punishment upon himself, and bore the judgment due to bore the judgment due to sinners. With his own blood he expiated the sins, which made them enemies of God, and thereby satisfied him. We look to Christ alone for divine favor and fatherly love. Hence, Christ is called King of Peace, Isaiah 9.6, and our peace, Ephesians 2 14 because he quiets all agitations of conscious. If we ask the means we must come to sacrifice by which God has been a piece for anyone unconvinced that God is a piece by that one atonement in which Christ endured his wrath will never cease to tremble.

In short, we must seek peace for ourselves solely in the anguish of Christ, our Redeemer. A lot of flowery words there, but again reiterating over and over, it's Christ alone that can do that for you. And anybody that makes a statement and adds to that, no, no, no, major heresy and really dangerous heresy when you do that because you're really flirting with your eternal soul at that point. Philip Graham Reichen, Pastor and author, a guy that we know he was, 10th Avenue Presbyterian, now I think he's president of Wheaton or one of those places. He, in a book that he wrote on this, said, start with sola scriptura, scripture alone.

When the reformers said scripture alone, they meant that the Bible is the only foundation for faith and practice. No person, no institution, stands in judgment over God's word. Our only ultimate authority is the Holy Spirit speaking in Scripture. Once you accept the Bible's authority and start to study it, one of the first things you notice is that it is all about Jesus Christ. That is true not only of the Gospels, which give biographical information about Jesus, and of the Epistles, which a pride theological interpretation of Jesus, but also in the entire Old Testament, which holds the messianic expectation of Jesus.

After his resurrection, Jesus walked to Emmaus with two of his disciples, and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what was said in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. 2427. Salvation in Jesus Christ is the message of the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation. When we accept Scripture alone, the Scripture itself points us to Christ alone. So that's basically it. Jesus is the end all to be all. That's it. Once you recognize that and you accept what he's done for you, you are a Christian. You don't need to be a Baptist. You don't need to be a dispensationalist.

You don't need to be this, that. You are a Christian, okay? And as we've talked in other lectures, some of the people that are being martyred for Christ, I am sure do not have all the theology that we have and that we teach here, and yet they know they're willing to have their throat slit, their head cut off for Christ and not to deny him but for that. That's a powerful testimony and I can't believe what that must do to the people that martyr those people, how that must feel to them. You know you've seen in the movies the Roman soldiers at the cross and all those kind of things but when you see somebody that's willing to die for their faith that's a whole different story okay. So think about that.

Okay, I'm going to read Ephesians 1, 1 through 23, the whole chapter. And just think of all the things that Paul's talking about, who Jesus is in this and what He has done for us and how it's all taken care of by what He has given us. Okay? Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and Mary'sville, and all and our faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us and him before the foundation of the world and that we should be holy and blameless before him in love.

He predestined us for the adoption through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ. As a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven, things on earth, and in him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all and all and fills us and fills our church body. So we as Christians, we want to praise God for what he's done through his son. We want to thank him for that. And you want to remember, I think, that in 1 John 2 or 3, where it says that he is conforming you who believe into the image of his son, step by step, day by day, hour by hour. So recognize that. That's a lot of incredibly powerful spiritual power. A lot of things are happening to you that are beyond comprehension, really, I think until we get to see him face to face when he calls us home.

So with that, let's pray and go on forever. Father, we thank you for what you've done through your son, Jesus Christ. Help us to always remember that it's him and him alone that paid for our sin. And through your incredible plan, which you decided before you ever even started, the universe, you knew that it would come to this. And you put us each in our own place to have that moment to recognize that through the way that you've chosen us and revealed your work to us. We thank you for that. We thank you for the great gift that that gives us and help us to understand how to pass that on to the people we come in contact with that a life-on-life discipleship and and to be able to bring people along in that understanding.

And as we do that, we learn more and more about you and the power that you hold. We just thank you for all of that. And of course, we thank you for Jesus Christ, for without him, we couldn't even pray to you as Father. So we thank you for all those things and help us go and be more and more what you would have us be. Amen.

If we didn’t know the end of this story or know one critical piece of the context we would have a hard time believing that Joseph was going to be alright. So far in Genesis, every step forward he’s taken has been followed by five steps back; his trajectory is mostly down and to the wrong. After dreaming about his brothers bowing before him they sold him as a slave. After bringing abundance to the house of Potiphar the wife of Potiphar falsely accused him of attempted rape and he was thrown in prison. In chapter 40, while showing remarkable kindness and giftedness, he is no better off by the end, at least so it seems. He cared for two officials of the Pharaoh, he told the future to these officials, and he was still forgotten.

Joseph was 17 at the start of chapter 37, he is 30 when he starts working for Pharaoh at the end of chapter 41. At this point it’s probably been over ten years, and “seemed to himself to be buried in perpetual oblivion” (Calvin).

The decisive piece of context is found in chapter 39, namely, that the LORD was with him. The LORD’s presence with Joseph punctuates long sentences of faithful work and troubles, but the punctuation changes the tone of how we read the sentences. Even in prison “the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison” (Genesis 39:21). It got to the point that “the keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the LORD was with him” (39:23). So when a unique window opens, Joseph was in position.

In chapter 40 we’ll see Duties Performed (verses 1-4), Dreams Interpreted (verses 5-19), and Deeds Forgotten (verses 20-23).

We already learned that “whatever [Joseph] did the LORD made it succeed” (39:23). Joseph had worked himself up to doing the warden’s work even though he was one of the wards; it’s like the fresh donut on top of a napkin on top of the garbage pile of his situation: the best in a bad situation. Then one day wheels jumped the rut of routine.

Some time after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them. They continued for some time in custody. (Genesis 40:1–4)

The chief cupbearer and chief baker were much more than kitchen help, they were similar to senior cabinet members. Their arrival was hot news in the prison and all throughout Pharaoh’s household; they were household names. The cupbearer had responsibility to secure wine for Pharaoh and to keep the wine secure, meaning that he put his own life on the line by testing the drink for poison. He tested by drinking it, not by using a pH balance kit. This role put him close to the king and cupbearers often became confidants and counselors to the crown, as later seen between Nehemiah and Artaxerxes.

The baker may not have had such an intimate connection, but his responsibilities also brought him into frequent contact with the king.

Both of them committed an offense against their lord. Was it the same offense? Were they separate offenses but committed at the same time? What was the offense? Moses doesn’t say, mainly because that doesn’t matter for the point of the story and probably also because it lets us imagine a more serious conspiracy against the king. Pharaoh was angry.

It just so happened that Pharaoh put them in the prison where Joseph was confined, and it just so happened that the captain of the guard, the title given to Potiphar in the previous chapter, appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them. The cupbearer and baker received celebrity accommodations. As Joseph had served Potiphar, now Potiphar assigns this special duty to take care of these prominent prisoners.

They continued for some time in custody. They didn’t have calendars to cross of the days of their sentence. They hadn’t had a trial to know what their sentence was. Neither did Joseph, but they had been there for days so the haze of hopelessness was likely to be heavy.

The central and longest part of the chapter includes the dreams and interpretation of the dreams by Joseph.

The initial wave of hubbub leveled out until one night they both dreamed—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison—each his own dream, and each dream with its own interpretation. Either they shared a cell or they were close enough to talk to each other. It was ominous. Dreams signaled something, and double-dreams on the same night were unmistakable.

When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. So he asked Pharaoh’s officers who were with him in custody in his master’s house, “Why are your faces downcast today?” I don’t remember who it was, but some Sunday School teacher or preacher of my youth observed that Joseph, a prisoner himself with probably more reasons for self-pity and depression than them, took time to notice their countenances and care for them and ask why they were troubled, seeming out of sorts, looking ill. I’ve never forgotten that. It’s highly unlikely that they treated him well, at least not at first. They were important people, he was a Hebrew slave-prisoner. Here is undeserved kindness in an unexpected place, a seed of humanity that (eventually) leads to the saving of humanity.

The dreamers are upset because, while they know their dreams are significant, they don’t have anyone who can tell them the significance. There is no one to interpret them. If they’d not been in the joint, they would’ve had access to the wise men.

And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.” Two observations about this. First, his instinctive reflex is to bring God into the discussion. Maybe that makes sense because it is about dreams, but he did the same thing about work before Potiphar. Joseph’s interpretive grid for life started with God and he was always ready to say so. Second, the only way his request fits with his rhetorical question is if they already had some idea about Joseph’s relationship to God. If interpretations belong to God, why tell Joseph? It’s only if Joseph and God are close.

This is remarkable nerve on Joseph’s part, not just before these Egyptians, but before God. Joseph had had dreams before, two in fact, but he wasn’t a itinerant interpreter that we know of, nor had his own dreams come true, not yet. Something motivates Joseph to think he can—by God’s help—tell them what their dreams mean without even knowing what their dreams are.

The cupbearer has been mentioned first every time in the chapter and he tells his dream first.

So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.” (Genesis 40:9–11)

This is all the cupbearer says; the rest of the paragraph is Joseph’s response in which he interprets the dream and makes a request.

Then Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer. (Genesis 40:12–13)

Joseph doesn’t hesitate or vacillate, he doesn’t even need to pray about it. He knows the meaning and asserts it with conviction. How did he know that the three branches meant three days instead of three months, or three years? He knew because interpretations belong to God. He also forecast a good outlook: the cupbearer would be restored. Pharaoh will lift up your head, which means that the downcast will be raised, he will be released from prison and reinstated to his position.

Then without taking a breath Joseph makes an appeal to the cupbearer.

Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.” (Genesis 40:14–15)

Joseph sees that this could be his own get out of jail card. He has no doubt that the dream will come true and maybe this could get me out of this house. He bases his case on the unjust nature of his imprisonment not on the miraculous nature of his interpretation. Unlike the cupbearer and the baker, he was not guilty. He had been kidnapped against his will and accused of a crime he didn’t commit. He claimed, ”I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit,” undoubtedly a reference to the pit (same word as Genesis 37:20) his brothers threw him into. He didn’t deserve that hole or this dungeon.

The response of the cupbearer isn’t recorded, but why wouldn’t he agree? What did he have to lose? He didn’t even know if the interpretation would come true.

Both men couldn’t talk at the same time, so it isn’t really too problematic that the baker spoke second as much as the fact that he only spoke when…he saw that the interpretation was favorable. Who can’t use some good news? Favorable futures aren’t pieces of a positivity pie; a bigger slice of positive for one doesn’t require a smaller slice of positive for the other. “Positive pie for everyone!”

When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, “I also had a dream: there were three cake baskets on my head, and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.” (Genesis 40:16–17)

The dream of the baker has some similarities with that of the cupbearer, and that has to be one of the reasons why they were disturbed. The number three filters through both dreams, and the fact that each dream related to their jobs. The baker dreamed of all sorts of baked food. “The Egyptian dictionary ‘lists 38 kinds of cake and 57 varieties of bread’ (Vergot, Joseph en Egypte, quoted in Wenham) which “give an idea of the professional standards of this department” (Kidner).

Yet the dreams had different interpretations; it was not like Joseph or Pharaoh’s dreams with double-meaning making it certain.

And Joseph answered and said, “This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head—from you!—and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat the flesh from you.” (Genesis 40:18–19)

The three branches and the three baskets represented three days each. So far so good. The baker must have thought, “We’re both finally going to get out of this place.” And even the next phrases doesn’t sink in until the end. Pharaoh will lift up your head—from you!—and hang you on a tree. Note how the ESV separates—“from you!”—a prepositional phrase with it’s own exclamation mark, yet no verb. This is an impressive—and terrifying!—phrase. The NIV contrasts, “lift up your head” with “lift off your head.” It’s not the sort of play on words that brings a chuckle.

He may or may not mean decapitation, but the birds will eat the flesh from you means public exposure of the body as an example for others. The baker’s response is not provided. Was it, “Oh no!” or “Yeah, right”?

Somehow Moses restrained himself from saying, “This is amazing!” probably because, from Joseph’s point of view, this is an anticlimax.

On the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand. But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. (Genesis 40:20–22)

The third day from the interpretation was Pharaoh’s birthday, party time. But there is always business for politicians, so the king mixed work with fun. He showed clemency to the cupbearer; he got to keep his head and Pharaoh restored him to his previous position. He showed severity to the baker; he lost his head by execution. All of it happened as Joseph had interpreted to them.

Now was the moment. When would a window such as this open again? The cupbearer must have been marveling at the interpretation. Certainly it had occupied his mind for all the previous three days. Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. The repetition is brutal; this is just the worst. How long did it take before all the air leaked out of Joseph’s hope balloon? Did every sound of steps coming down the hall or jingling of keys suggest his deliverance? Why couldn’t Potiphar’s wife have forgotten him rather than the cupbearer? The dreams he interpreted came true, but what about his own dreams?

This matter of interpretation brings us to the matter of application. When we work through these stories I purposely emphasize how God arranges the details and I emphasize the encouragement to faith that such understanding of God’s providence should supply.

It did take two more years (41:1) before the cupbearer fulfilled his thanks to Joseph, but Joseph’s kindness and giftedness, shown to strangers in prison, were not in vain. The dungeon wasn’t the place where Joseph’s dreams came true, but prison was the place that Joseph’s dreams came through. He could have been released from prison any old way. He would be raised to second-in-command this unlikely-to-us way, this only-God-works-this-way way.

Most of us need the narrative shot of faith in the sovereign Author. Whatever your pit looks like, you are there on purpose for a purpose. Trust that God is with you and do your work well.

It is possible, though, that some need a warning. The cupbearer saw a divine sign, received royal restoration, and lost his soul through forgetfulness, through willful neglect. As far as we know the cupbearer didn’t find Joseph so that he could worship and serve the God of interpretations. Sunnier days may or not make wiser souls.

The baker received bad news and did not live another 72 hours. His offense was punished and then punished by death. He had time to prepare if he’d taken the prophecy seriously, a mercy most men don’t get. But he didn’t seek further counsel from Joseph, so he likely lost his soul, just another way.

If you hear God’s Word, don’t harden your heart. Only one way leads to life, the way of faith in God, even if it seems like you are forgotten for a while.

Genesis 39 may be the most well known and most often referenced story in Genesis, certainly in the last half of the book. It has made-for-television type drama. The protagonist is far away from home, alone and in unfavorable circumstances until he works his way up into recognition and esteem. Also, it doesn’t hurt ratings that he is a hunk. The antagonist is also a stock character, the bored woman with a busy husband. She is one of the real housewives of Egypt. The conflict comes from her repeated attempts to seduce him and his resolute resistance. But heaven help the target of a scorned woman. Soon the honest hero suffers genuine consequences of false accusations and falls to a position worse than where he started.

While this narrative would indeed draw millions of soap opera viewers, and while it has produced perhaps millions of Sunday School lessons about resisting temptation, I’ve not yet mentioned the main point of the chapter, nor would that point probably be portrayed in a performance. The point of this story is not so much Joseph’s successes or his righteousness but rather the LORD’s providence. The point is less about Joseph’s plight and more about the LORD’s purpose. From the human perspective we appreciate Joseph’s industry and integrity and tenacity, as well as his doubts and discouragement; he must have wondered, “Is this how my sheaf is supposed to stand so tall?” From the divine perspective, which Joseph doesn’t get to see until afterward, we marvel at the LORD’s presence and blessing and plot to save all Israel’s family.

There are three scenes in chapter 39, blessing and promotion in a difficult situation (verses 1-6), temptation and accusation in a tricky situation (verses 7-20), and imprisonment and success in an unlikely situation (verses 21-23).

The account of Judah and Tamar interrupted the report about Joseph. The events in Genesis 38 took place over twenty-plus years, years that overlap with Joseph’s exile in Egypt. We knew that Joseph’s brothers sold him to Midianite traders who then sold Joseph in Egypt (Genesis 37:36), and Genesis 39 takes us back in time to pick up the story.

Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. Joseph became the property of a man in charge of soldiers and slaves. This was a man Pharaoh trusted to get things done, and probably not due to his charm.

The most important part of the chapter is in verse 2, and it is repeated in the final scene of the chapter as well in verse 21. The LORD was with Joseph. The LORD promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He would be with them, but Joseph had not received such a direct word. It is uncertain how and when Joseph perceived the LORD’s presence. In fact, it is likely that Joseph didn’t “feel” like it was true, at least not in every moment. The reason Moses points it out is because first, being sold into slavery was not a sign that God had abandoned Joseph and second, the successes of Joseph were owed to the LORD. When the situation isn’t good we think He’s gone, when the situation is good we think we did it. Both are wrongheaded.

The LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. Potiphar was a “man of Egypt,” Joseph is a “man of success.” It’s unlikely that Joseph started in the house but rather in the fields. Moses doesn’t say in what ways Joseph was successful, but his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. Joseph must have talked about his God, which is sort of surprising since it would not earn him sympathy with the Egyptians who had many gods. As things went well Joseph gave credit to the LORD. This is evangelism by thanking God for good work product.

Joseph kept moving up. So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. This took years, which may be an inconvenient encouragement for those who desire their suffering temporary and their success immediate. It also would be difficult to fit in an hour-long show. “Boss, I worked forty-two hours my first week on the job, where’s my promotion?” However long it took Joseph to become Potiphar’s personal assistant, the results were outstanding.

From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; the blessing of the LORD was on all that he had, in house and field. So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate. (Genesis 39:5–6)

Everything that Joseph touched turned to good. The secondary cause was Joseph’s wise and skillful administration, but the primary cause was the blessing of the LORD. Potiphar saw the value that Joseph’s work brought to the house and turned all that he had over to him, indoors and out; the thorough nature of his successes and responsibilities is mentioned in verse 3, 4, twice in 5, and again in 6. The only thing Potiphar spent mental effort on was the food that he ate. I imagine that Potiphar was like Lord Emsworth in Leave It to Psmith but instead of gardening at Blandings Castle, Potiphar got into gourmandizing; he needed a chef like Aunt Dahlia’s Anatole.

The last phrase of verse 6 shows that Joseph had it all. He was handsome in form and appearance. His figure and face are attractive, just as it was said about his mother (Genesis 29:17). The only problem is that he was still a slave, but it didn’t feel like it day to day. Actually, there was one problem that came about because he was so good looking. Beauty is a blessing, and sometimes it’s a blessing to be ugly.

Things were going as well as possible for a foreign slave. Everyone noticed Joseph’s addition to the house, including the mistress of the house. And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” Her advances show that she wanted a little less conversation and a little more action. This is not an offer for a nap.

She doesn’t love him, nor is she thinking about what is good for him. Yet Joseph is a young, single, handsome man, doing well in his career. He’s far from home; who would know? Or care? And he has needs, right?

What becomes obvious is that Joseph’s greatest need was to honor God. He made no excuses or rationalizations. His response is as fearless as it is fluid. Usually men are the less chatty sex but his answer is lengthy.

But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:8–9)

Joseph asserts stewardship, marriage, and theology. He’s been entrusted; Potiphar trusts him. How can he betray that? And Potiphar is in covenant with his wife; that ought not be broken. And also, God knows what happens, even the things we think are secret, and He has standards. Before God it would be a great wickedness, a sin. Betraying the trust of his master is one thing, betraying the law of his LORD is far worse.

He probably made this speech more than once since she spoke to Joseph day after day She wouldn’t give up. But he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her. He showed integrity and loyalty and constancy, and he did so because the Lord was with him.

But it was just a matter of time, not before Joseph compromised but before Potiphar’s wife called a full-court press. “Hell hath no fury like a scorned woman” may be an exaggeration, but a scorned woman can still cause a fury of hell on earth.

But one day when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house… foreshadows no good. Joseph wasn’t trying to get near temptation, he was going about his duties as usual, but trouble found him nonetheless.

She caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me,” Seducing verse, same as the first. He doesn’t even try to reason with her this time. But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house. Sexual immorality is not a sin to fight but one to flee (1 Corinthians 6:18). Get away. Don’t go near the fire (Proverbs 6:27). She used force by grabbing his garment, we might think of a t-shirt. He’s pulling away and she’s pulling off his clothes. He doesn’t try to wrestle her for it. He had to know that he was in trouble.

She crossed the Rubicon of seduction; it was too late to keep it secret. So if she can’t have him, she’ll have him punished. She called to the men of her household, gathering the other servants who could easily be turned against their fellow servant who had been put over them. She tells them a story to create group empathy and a group of pseudo-witnesses, though they saw nothing. She gets them on her side, mocking her husband in front of them. She gets them, she is with them, she is a victim like they are. She’s also an Egyptian like them, not like that Hebrew her husband brought in. We can hear some of the servants saying, “You know, now that you mention it, I never did like that guy.”

Note that she says, he left his garment beside me. She makes it appear that he was the aggressor, that he took off his clothes, and when she yelled he must have been confused and forgot to pick up his clothes.

Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home making sure she had the evidence in her possession. Her approach put Potiphar in a position where he would feel guilty. ”The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to laugh at me.” It’s as if she said, “You are responsible for this. Your decision put me in this vulnerable position.” ”But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, in other words, “when I screamed my head off” (Hamilton), he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house.” Joseph was weak, easily frightened, and dumb enough to leave his shirt behind.

The testimony and one piece of circumstantial evidence didn’t look good for Joseph.

As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him…his anger was kindled. He believes enough of her word and doesn’t investigate further. Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. Yes, he was in prison. This is worse that being a household slave. It is far worse than his position in charge of the house.

That said, it isn’t as bad as death. This is at least a little curious that Potiphar didn’t have Joseph executed. A foreign slave attempting to rape one’s wife was a capital offense in Egypt. Maybe this suggests that Potiphar knew the kind of wife he had. Maybe he was angry because it was going to require him to start working again whether or not the accusations were true. Maybe Joseph made a reasonable defense. Regardless, Joseph seems anything but successful, and he has no legal rights.

Even in prison, though, the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. Only God makes men look great in the slammer. Like in Potiphar’s house,

the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the LORD was with him. And whatever he did, the LORD made it succeed. (Genesis 39:22-23)

The warden turned everything over to Joseph.

Genesis 39 does illustrate Joseph’s purity in contrast to Judah’s promiscuity; Joseph was faithful and Judah was fleshly. Joseph is a great illustration of fleeing sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 6:18-20, 2 Timothy 2:22).

Would you remain steadfast if you knew that you would eventually be put second in charge?

Would you remain steadfast if getting to second in charge meant years of slavery and a collar of iron (Psalm 105:18-19) first?

The LORD wanted Joseph skilled and successful. The LORD also wanted Joseph sold, tempted, alone in the house, falsely accused, and imprisoned. Did he wonder how this could be the LORD’s reward for his integrity? It may have felt like a roller coaster to Joseph, not fun with ups and downs, but the unexpected route was of course on course because God was in control.

This is what we should want as well. This is the only way our successes will be any good and a platform for testimony. Prison, this prison, is precisely where God predestined to save Israel and continue the covenant promises to Abraham (Psalm 105:7ff). It was an unlikely place for success, but part of the LORD’s gracious favor on Joseph.

You are also in the place God wants you to be. It is true even if you don’t feel like it’s true in the moment.

Genesis 38 is filled with interruptions and seems itself to be one big interruption. The “generations of Jacob” (Genesis 37:2) immediately focused on Joseph, a spoiled dreamer, hated by his older brothers. Joseph’s brothers had conspired to kill him, though his oldest brother, Reuben, tried to keep him alive in order to restore Joseph to their dad. Before Reuben could do that, though, Judah proposed to sell him as a slave to traveling traders on their way to Egypt.

Chapter 38 is all about Judah; there is no mention of Joseph. Chapter 39:1 will start, “Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt.” What is this unsavory story about Judah and his sons and Tamar doing in between chapter 37 and 39? Why did we need to know about this at all? It’s an important question, perhaps even more relevant in light of the unseemly details, but I’m going to save an answer for the end.

There are two main divisions in the chapter, visible in verse 1, “It happened at that time,” and in verse 12, “In the course of time.” The first eleven verses take place over a period of twenty years, and the final nineteen verses occur in less than a year. We’ll see Judah’s Canaanite offspring and his covenant offspring. The Interruption of Judah’s Heritage (verses 1-11) and the Interruption of Judah’s Hubris (verses 12-30).

To have a heritage Judah would need to start a family in the first place. Here we see two stages of development.

It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. What happens here overlaps with Joseph’s time in Egypt, which is part of the reason for its placement after chapter 37. Judah went down from Hebron to a place near Adullam, about a mile away, later famous for the cave where David’s disorderly band of discontents gathered. The area was thick with Canaanites, including a man named Hirah who became a friend, or at least a local contact for Judah.

There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite woman whose name was Shuah. Maybe Hirah introduced them. The daughter of Shua is never named, but Judah took her and went into her and she conceived. Saw, took, went in, conceived…these are more physical than romantic. It probably means that he married her, but there isn’t much of a relationship to report. This was not an exciting time for Israel, and he probably wasn’t invited to the wedding. The union went against the desires of Abraham for his son, Isaac for his son, and we assume Jacob for his sons.

She conceived and bore a song and he called his name Er. She conceived again and bore a son and called his name Onan. Yet again she bore a son and she called his name Shelah. Judah was in Chezib when she bore him Three sons are spawned in rapid succession. Judah named the firstborn (at least in most manuscripts), but perhaps wasn’t even there for the birth of the third.

The sons were growing up when Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn and her name was Tamar. She was presumably a Canaanite as well, though we aren’t given any details about her background.

We are told that something dramatic happened. But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD put him to death. Moses knew the cause of death, Judah didn’t, or he didn’t want to know it. It’s the first time in Genesis that God is said to put an individual to death, though all deaths are according to His sovereign plan and power. What did Er do? What was so wicked? We don’t know.

Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.” This was not yet Jewish law, but it was common practice “found in many traditional societies among Israel’s neighbors, the Assyrians and the Hittites” (Wenham). The heritage of a father went through his firstborn, and if the firstborn married but had no children, the next brother was responsible to keep the heritage from being interrupted. It is called the levirate law since levir is the Latin word for “brother-in-law.” The problem, of course, which Onan knew, was that the offspring would not be his. He wanted offspring and heritage for himself.

That selfishness came out. So whenever he went in to his brother’s wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. The word “whenever” along with the tense of the verb means that he did this more than once if not frequently. “Instead of impregnating her,… “he spoiled [it] groundward” (Hamilton). The waste did not come by masturbation but by coitus interruptus. This was selfish and not secret from God. What he did was wicked in the sight of the LORD and he (the LORD) put him to death also. This is quite a heritage, of evil, again in the line of Israel.

Judah figured (wrongly) that the deaths were due to Tamar’s bad luck, like later in the apocryphal Tobit story when Sarah was reproached by one of her father’s maids since her first seven husbands all died on the wedding night due to a wicked demon named Asmodeus. It’s not a demon in Genesis 38, nor is it Tamar who is the cause of death, but Judah doesn’t see it. Then Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father’s house, till Shelah my son grows up”—for he feared that he would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went and remained in her father’s house.

Judah deceives Tamar; he’s not planning to give Shelah to her, ever. Judah obligates Tamar; she’s effectively betrothed to Shelah, so she’s not free. And Judah neglects Tamar; he sends her to her father for him to take care of her for the indefinite future.

Judah has not done right and Tamar sees it and takes action.

In the course of time the wife of Judah, Shua’s daughter, died. When Judah was comforted, he went up to Timnah to his sheep shearers, he and his fried Hirah the Adullamite. Sheepshearing time was usually connected to festivity, with more feasting and drinking and partying than usual. Judah was done mourning, so he and his friend go to the party.

And when Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,” she took off her widow’s garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage. It’s been a while, and there’s been no word about a marriage to Shelah. We’re not told who told Tamar about Judah’s movement, but she acts quickly. The veil wold be important for covering her identity, but also a sign of her availability. Wrapping herself may mean that she put on perfume. She cut Judah off at a fork in the road and struck a pose.

When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. Only certain women were veiled, and because of her attire and location Judah assumed she was for hire.

He turned to her at the roadside and said, “Come, let me come into you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. It wasn’t incest by his intent, it was just fornication by intent, which is some distinction. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come into me?” This, apparently, is why she came the way she did, not to confront him anonymously. She does not name the price, she lets Judah do so.

He said, in so many words, “I don’t have any cash on me.” It was an impulse buy. ”I will send you a young goat from the flock.” Perhaps that was a generous offer to a prostitute (compared to a “loaf of bread” in Proverbs 6:26), but money isn’t what Tamar wanted most. The opportunity is better than she could have planned. ”If you give me a pledge, until you send it—Your signet and your cord and your staff that is in your hand.” The signet was a piece of metal or stone of identification, sometimes rolled in a wax seal. This signet was not a ring, but a neckless, on the cord. The staff was a walking stick, usually carved or marked at the top to identify the owner.

Judah thought it a fair deal, completed the transaction, and didn’t have any clue that she conceived by him. Then she arose and went away, and taking off her veil she put on the garments of her widowhood. She hadn’t changed occupations, she targeted Judah to get a son.

Judah showed more integrity in paying the prostitute than in handling his daughter-in-law. He sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite to take back the pledge to the woman’s hand. Judah didn’t go himself; that would be dishonorable. People might get the wrong idea. But Hirah did not find her. He even started asking around, but the people said, ”No cult prostitute has been here.” When Hirah told Judah, Judah replied, ”Let her keep the things as her own, or we shall be laughed at.” It’s not really “we.” But the cost to fulfill the promise would be worse because everyone would know about it. Loss of his staff was better than loss of his status. But Judah tries to make himself feel better. ”You see, I sent this young goat, and you did not find her.” As if he said, “What else could we do? Obviously nothing. We’re in the clear.”

Of course we know he’s anything but in the clear. Here is where his hubris is interrupted.

About three months later Judah was told, “Tamar your daughter-in-law has been immoral. Moreover, she is pregnant by immorality.” Tamar was engaged to Shelah though they had not been married. Fooling around is bad but hard to prove unless caught in the act. This provided all the necessary evidence: a growing baby bump.

Judah has no need for further investigation; this is exactly what he’s been looking for: a reason to get rid of her. ”Bring her out, and let her be burned.” No more evidence is necessary, no need for further trial. Everything is obvious, clear cut, and she should receive no mercy. Burning was an extreme form of capital punishment compared to stoning.

Tamar had one more play. She doesn’t seem to be disturbed at all and puts her cards on the table. She sent word to her father-in-law, “By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant,” And she said, “Please identify whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff.” Anyone who saw them would have known immediately, just as Israel knew Joseph’s mangled coat immediately (Genesis 37:32-33). Now Judah wasn’t just a laughingstock, he was a hypocrite. He was immoral in more ways than Tamar. If she deserved to die, he deserved death no less. She had all the evidence on her side.

Then Judah identified them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her my son Shelah. He admitted the first wrong; he deceived her. Her deceit of Judah was at least to perpetuate the name of the family, Judah’s family and heritage, offspring of Abraham, and she was more committed to it than Judah himself.

That he did not know her again means that he did not knowingly commit incest.

Tamar brought the baby to full term and there were twins in her womb. The midwife knew there were two kids because she had a scarlet thread to identify the one coming out first. One put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand saying, “This one came out first.” But as he drew back his hand, behold, his brother came out. She said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” Therefore his name was called Perez. Afterward his brother came out with the scarlet thread on his hand and his name was called Zerah. Two sons replace Er and Onan.

So we come back to the question, Why is the story here? It’s here because Judah’s marriage and the marriages of his sons occur while Joseph is in Egypt, and yet the marriages of the other brothers aren’t recorded. Judah did have the idea to sell Joseph, so this corroborates that his self-serving interest wasn’t a one time thing. It also provides a clear contrast between Judah’s fornicating and Joseph’s fleeing from Potiphar’s wife in the next chapter. It demonstrates that Israel’s sons were assimilating into Canaanite ways. It also serves to intensify suspense; what is happening to Joseph? But all these are not enough.

The reason for including this part of Jacob’s generations is because Judah is the covenant son and through Judah comes Perez comes King David and eventually comes King Jesus. Tamar is the first of four women named in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:3). This does not mean that everything she did was righteous, but that God came into the world through a heritage of unrighteous men, and women, in order to save them by His grace. For that matter, Tamar seemed to care more about offspring of Abraham than Judah did, at least at first.

From Genesis 38 on Judah begins to mature. He seems to be humbled to repentance and is eventually chosen by Israel for the blessing (Genesis 48:8-12). The Lion of the Tribe of Judah lives today. We live by the Lion, and God turned an ugly start into our salvation.

Even as we pray for our Father to hallow His name, this is the promise of grace for Jacob’s sinful offspring.

Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:

It’s been said that God works in mysterious ways. God Himself said that as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways, and His thoughts higher than our thoughts. While He is always at work, sometimes He reveals what He is going to do beforehand because there’s no way we would have seen it coming like that.

In Genesis 37 Moses turns our attention to the elect line through Jacob. The generations of Jacob is the tenth and final division by toledot that ends only when Genesis ends. Jacob makes it most of the way through these 14 chapters, though most of the focus goes to Joseph and Judah. These generations are less a genealogy and more a family history.

It’s also been said that blood is thicker than water, usually understood to mean that family bonds are strongest. The first chapter of Jacob’s story proves that hate is thicker than blood. It’s surprising to see that evil dominates the introduction to the family with the covenant blessing. Esau’s line, detailed in chapter 36, is where we’d expect to hear about evil. Yet it is the sons of Israel who hated (verse 4, 5, 8), who were jealous (verse 11), who conspired to kill (verse 18), who sold their blood brother into slavery (verse 28), and who lied to their father and played at comforting him (verse 35). The divine commentary in the last chapter is that these men meant it for evil (Genesis 50:20).

There are two sections in chapter 37, the family setting in verses 2-11 and then the family selling in verses 12-36. We see escalating resentment and then enacted rage.

Joseph’s brothers “hated him” (verses 4, 5, and 8). Three things breed the bitterness between brothers at ten-to-one odds.

Immediately after the new heading, These are the generations of Jacob, the attention turns to one of Jacob’s sons. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph’s mother, Rachel, had died (Genesis 35:19), and he was closest in age to the sons of the servant-wives (Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher).

Joseph was working with some of the brothers and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father. We’re not told what happened, or if Joseph slanted some of what happened, as in an badmouthing rumor, a typical feature of this Hebrew word. But who likes a tattle-tale? No one, and at the next mention of watching sheep Joseph isn’t with his brothers. They didn’t appreciate his scuttlebutt.

How many times has a child declared that he will never do some awful thing that his parents did when he has his own family, only to grow up and to just that? Jacob had personal experience with the problems with paternal favoritism, being the one outside of favor with his father Isaac. Yet Jacob chooses one son to love more, just as he had chosen to love one wife more.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. Actually, Benjamin was born when Israel was older, but at 17 Josep was becoming a man and was more a vision of Israel’s future than a dependent. And he made him a robe of many colors. I don’t have any reason to argue with this translation. The Hebrew adjective is not used many other places and it’s not clear that it relates to colors. It could have been a longer or long-sleeved or ornamented robe. But we’d have to throw away all our flannel-graphs if we changed it now. The LXX translates it as χιτῶνα ποικίλον: a multi-colored tunic, so then the Vulgate and even later the KJV followed suit. It was special in some obvious and exclusive way; the other sons weren’t spoiled like this. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. Civil discourse was out of the question. It may be that they couldn’t even say the equivalent of “Hi.”

It’s mostly Israel’s fault, though Joseph doesn’t seem to take the edge off his dad’s attention. He actually seems to revel in it and rub it in.

Even though the LORD doesn’t appear or speak to Joseph, Joseph has two dreams that seem to be from the LORD, dreams that we know do come true. As he shares the dreams, though, he drives a wedge deeper between himself and his brothers, and even ruffles his father’s feathers.

Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. (Genesis 37:5–8)

Hate is all over this paragraph as black covers a racetrack, from start to finish. Joseph could have kept the dream to himself. Instead, he sounds the verbal trumpet; Hear this dream that I have dreamed or, “Listen to this!” As it turns out, telling them the dream and angering them by the dream was part of God’s plan to fulfill the dream.

The brothers don’t have any problem interpreting the dream. They understood the nub that Joseph would reign and rule over them. It wasn’t right for this blabbermouth, pet-son number eleven to govern over the first ten.

Joseph was either incredibly dimwitted or incredibly insufferable; either he had a head like wood or he was like wood hitting others in the head. He has a second dream and throws it in their face as well.

Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind. (Genesis 37:9–11)

The imagery changes from earth to the heavens, and the imagery includes his parents this time, but it was the same gist, doubled for force. Jacob got it, and rebuked Joseph for his brass. Mother may refer to Leah as the preferred woman in the house now, or it may just be a response to the statement about the sun, the moon. Jacob did not appreciate it, though Moses does say that Jacob kept the saying in mind. The brothers, though, are full up on disgruntlement.

Evil can’t hold still in the heart any more than leaven can hold still in the lump (see 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 where malice and evil are like leaven). These are wicked stepbrothers.

Joseph isn’t the only one not paying attention. The oldest ten went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. This was around 50 miles away. Why so far? And why would they go back near Shechem, the city where Levi and Simeon massacred all the men about two years previous to now? Isn’t this asking for trouble?

Joseph wasn’t with them, yet Israel proposes that Joseph go, by himself, and check on them. Joseph replied, Here I am,”, or, “I’m ready to go.” So he sent him from the Valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem, probably a two to three day journey.

But his brother’s weren’t there. A man found him wandering in the fields. Some guy just happened to see Joseph, and that guy just happened to have overheard Joseph’s brothers. They have gone away, for I heard them say, “Let us go to Dothan.” Without this mystery man, Joseph surely would have gone back home and none of the next events would have been next. Instead he went another 15 miles further from home.

The brother’s couldn’t have planned it better if they had tried. They are far away from home, away from anyone’s view, when they saw Joseph alone from afar, probably recognized by his robe.

And before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” (Genesis 37:18–20)

To be able to arrive at and agree on a plan so quickly indicates that the hate was already boiling in the pot just waiting for the lid to come off. The brothers have their scheme to deal with Joseph, to deal with his body, to deal with their alibi. They don’t call him by name, they refer to him as the “master of dreams” (NET) and they sneer at the fulfillment of his dreams.

But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” He continued, ”Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him.” This suggests a less violent way of getting rid of the pest, starvation rather than slaughter. Reuben’s hidden intention was to come back and rescue Joseph and restore him to Israel. Perhaps Reuben was trying to make up for sleeping with his dad’s wife. Perhaps he had an older brother’s conscience. Whatever his full intentions, it did work, though only in part.

When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. And they took him and threw him into a pit The pit was empty; there was no water in it. They dumped him in a cistern, but one he wouldn’t drown in, nor would he be able to drink from.

Then they sat down to eat. This is callous. They might even be eating some of a care package carried by Joseph himself (per Wenham). They’ve worked up quite an appetite being so angry and conspiring to kill him.

While enjoying their meal, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead…on their way to carry it down to Egypt. This company of traveling spice and gum salesmen just happened to be going by this spot at this time. And Judah has an idea. He proposes a sale. ”What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” “This way they can be rid of their hated brother, enrich themselves, and disprove his boastful dreams all in one fell swoop” (Wenham). It’s a trifecta.

With brothers so gracious, so generous, who needs the IRS? Hate is thicker than blood. They didn’t kill him, but this sort of human trafficking was later judged by capital punishment (see Exodus 21:16 and Deuteronomy 24:7).

When the Midianite—probably a more specific tribe of Ishmaelites—traders passed by the brothers lifted Joseph straight from the pit and sold him…for twenty shekels of silver, the going rate for 17 year-old boys. The brothers were driven by evil intent, though they didn’t realize that they were in the very act positioning Joseph for the fulfillment of his dreams.

Apparently Reuben had gone off on an errand. When he came back and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes, and returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go?” If he really wanted an answer, someone might have said, “You could go after the traders and buy Joseph back.” Instead he participates in the cover story.

They took Joseph’s robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the rope in the blood. And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father. The tool of deceit was a goat, just as Jacob used to deceive his father.

Whether the sons brought it directly or sent it ahead, they eventually came and found their father making just the assumption they hoped for. He believed the lie that they didn’t have to suggest, and they were happy to let him think it.

Jacob began to mourn, and it went on for many days until it became awkward. All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him. This was painstaking hypocrisy from the sons. They could have given Jacob some comfort if they had confessed the truth. But they don’t, and Israel proclaims that he plans to be inconsolable until he himself dies.

Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard. We’ll pick up in Egypt in chapter 39, but everything is going exactly according to plan, to God’s predestined plan.

Evil intentions can sometimes be mitigated. Joseph did not help himself, even though his brothers probably had done dumb things, even though he wasn’t responsible for his father’s affections, and he did actually dream the dreams. Yet whistle-blowers don’t make many friends, and maybe he didn’t always have to wear the coat, and a private conversation with his dad about the dreams might have done better.

But the hate of the brothers came from their own evil intentions. And God used their evil intentions to save them by His design. There is a lot more of this story, but God told Abraham that his seed would be out of the land for centuries and now the seed of deliverance is planted in Egypt. We wouldn’t believe it except that it’s exactly what God revealed at the beginning of the story.

Imagination of faith is vital, not to escape but to endure, and to endure in order to bless the world. We may not be like Joseph, but God’s sovereignty in Joseph’s life should strengthen our confidence in the fulfillment of all God’s promises.

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

We only have 1,500 years of history to get through in the next 45 minutes or so. I started off a couple days ago with 135 pages of notes, and I've got it trimmed down to 29, 26, which is from 35,000 words down to 9,000 words. Obviously, I'm not going to use all those words because 3,000 of them gets us 45 minutes. So anyway, it's an interesting subject. And the thing that really got me as I started thinking about it is, what would I be? I tried to transform myself back to 280, 380, 800 AD. You're the common Joe, and somebody gives you the gospel. And how much of the gospel is needed for you to be a believer? That's really an important topic, I think, to think about church history, because we're so blessed with so much information and so much teaching.

And to those of us that much has been given, much is required. So, initial faith comes from the Gospel, and discipleship are the key elements to the Christian's ultimate survival. So Jesus left the disciples with Matthew 28, 18 through 20. And Jesus said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. That's it. Told them to go out and teach them everything. And that really, in my experience, as I've said many times, that's what happened with me.

A guy came to me with the gospel and discipled me along, and I've tried to follow that in that respect. And I think that that is the way the gospel is passed on. And in Acts 11, 25 through 26, so Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. And when he had found them, he brought him to Antioch for a whole year. they met with the church and taught a great many people. In Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians. So that's Acts 11. So what the apostles taught in practice became the basis for all later teachings and practice and the standard that they would be judged by. So the idea is that Christianity was a life-on-life transfer and that that's the way it happens.

And Christianity has been able to adjust into the changing historical and cultural situations without altering the essentials of its message. And when the essentials get altered, you no longer have Christianity. For the Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox comedians, the test of genuine Christianity became the apostolic church, especially the standard of Catholicity, which is the broad church. What are the ingredients of the true priesthood? And what and where is the church? How does the universal church convey salvation to mankind? What is the source and nature of authority of the true, holy Catholic church?

Church history, then, is the interpretation of the record of the origin and progress and impact of Christianity upon human society, based on organized data gathered by scientific method from archaeological documentary or living sources. It is interpreted and organized story of the redemption of man and the earth. And that's by a guy named E. E. Carnes that wrote one of the books that I really like. It's a very simple history. It's got great pictures in it, woodcuts of Luther and cartoons of the guys during the Reformation. So the idea here is I'm trying to convey what is happening between when Christ is crucified around 33 ad and then all the way to 15 17 when the whole thing blows up again, and how Are you a true believer and how do you get that information if you're born in?

900 in some village in England. How are you going to know what the gospel is? So we need to keep in mind there's Christendom, there's Christianity, there's church. Okay, so Christendom, the part of the world where the fact of Christ predominates, this would be related to culture, especially in the Western world. There is a sense in which everyone in the Western world has been affected by Christianity, but they are far from Christians. Christendom began in the first Advent and will continue until the second Advent of Christ. Christ. And that's what we like to call, as we've studied things, that Christianity is moving from the East to the West, coming up through Europe, and now it's come to America, and then it goes to the East, that kind of thing through missionaries, that sort of thing. So Christianity, the part of the world in which mass numbers make a profession of belief in Christ and are inside the visible organized church. This began at the first Advent and will continue until the second Advent.

The church, the true invisible church is composed of all God's redeemed people. Beginning at the Day of Pentecost, not all scholars agree that the church began on the Day of Pentecost, but most see the Day of Pentecost as the beginning of the full development of the church. All biblical Christians distinguish between the true, invisible church as an organism and the professing visible church as an organization. We are part of an organism, not an organization. Just because you're a member of this church does not make you a Christian, okay? Your Christendom is what you believe, right?

In missions, church history is primarily a record of how Christ's disciples through the last 2,000 years have taken the gospel to nations and obedience to the Great Commission to make disciples and instruct them in the Lord's commands. Church history is also a record of how individual groups and movements have failed in their faithfulness to the Great Commission. So a lot of the discussion is a failure of what we've done. And I think it's kind of interesting when I looked over the big history and our short history as a church, how we wanna correct what we see as failures that have happened even in our little small timeframe in this 2000 years.

So we wanna learn from our mistakes. Doctrine. Church history enables Christians to see the development of doctrine throughout the years within Christianity. This would enable the student to determine more accurately those doctrinal systems that are more closely related to the Bible and gain personal convictions on the mainstream of Christian doctrine. Thus a study of church councils theological thinking of various men becomes important. But church history will also give one a tolerance of others who do not agree with him doctrinally. Now this gets tricky. How far outside the loop can you be and still be a Christian?

Okay, and that's why it's important to know the fundamentals and what makes you a Christian. That you believe Christ died for your sins and that he rose again and that you can do that when you believe in what he's done for you, for your sin. That's the basic gospel. Now the study of heresy. While this is closely related to doctrine, it should be kept distinct, for there has been a development of heresy throughout the history of the church. Many of the heresies that confront the church today are merely repetitions of earlier heresies, met and exposed by the early church. There continues to be a a great need today for men to be able to distinguish truth from error.

It's interesting that in that verse that Christians were in Antioch, they were looked upon as a heretical sect of Judaism. Heresis, the Greek word for heresy was used of early Christians because they were a sect of Judaism that believed Jesus was the Messiah. So just because you say the word heresis doesn't mean it's necessarily is a bad heresy. It's a sect that believed that he was the true Messiah. The church organization. This shows how the church, which has a few in number, developed into a mighty organization. Church history exposed the Roman Catholic system as a later development in church organization.

This study reveals how the Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Congregation, Presbyterian forms of government developed. No student can become well-grounded in his beliefs without church authority, without a study of church history. It also helps one understand the history of the denominationalism, especially in America where there are great multitudes of different groups of professing Christians. So the conclusion is we need to study history in order to learn from the church's past successes and failures. Those who do not study history are condemned to repeat it. We must keep on reforming. I think that's one of my favorite things about what our church says, we're reformed and still reforming.

And that goes about all the time when we discuss things and how we should react to different things and as we study how we should relate to our community and everything. We need to not be locked in some denominational structure that forbids us to reach out and do what good Christians should do in their community. Galatians 4, 4 says, but when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son. From this time on, the world would never be the same. For Christ and Christianity were destined to make their mark upon mankind and alter the course of history. And of course, all hear his story history. The Apostolic's age comes to a close with the death of the Apostle John, which is probably around AD 96. So at that time, after the writing of the book of Revelation, which was written by John during his banishment on Patmos, that was the end of the Apostolic age because he was the last apostle to stay alive. So now we have early church government was very simple but effective. The New Testament is quite clear

on the form of government exercised by the early church. It is essential to know what the Bible teaches about church government in order to adequately refute the Roman Catholic claims to government by the pope and a hierarchy. The Apostles, the original 12 Apostles, are said to be the foundation of the church with Christ as his chief's cornerstone. Ephesians 2, The apostles were responsible for establishing local churches and appointing elders to rule. All ruling offices in the New Testament were by appointment, not by election. After passing the Apostle John, the Apostolic Office was apparently closed.

There is not one shred of evidence in the Bible for the passing of the authority from the first century apostles apostles to a ruling hierarchy as the Roman Catholicism claims. In other words, Peter's not the first pope. Elders, presbyters, or bishops. This office was an appointed office, Titus 1 through 5, 1-5, and requires clear-cut qualification of ones who holds it. 1st Timothy 3-1 through 7, Titus 1-6 through 9. There was always a plurality of elders in one local church, Hebrews 13, seven and 17, Titus one, five, Acts 20, 17. The duties of the elders were to rule, oversee and teach the local flock of believers.

The New Testament makes no distinction between elders and bishop. This division came later in church, in the church history. Deacons, the office of Deacon was that of a server, Acts 6, who took up the menial tasks of ministry so the apostles and elders could get on with the work of leadership in the ministry and ministering to those in need, the qualifications for the Deacon are found in 1 Timothy 3. Independent local churches. The churches that were started by the apostles were local, autonomous groups with Christ ruling through the elders and the people. Each church was self-susaining and self-supporting and self-propagating.

They were indigenous churches. There were no hierarchies or denominations as we know them today. The simplicity of government in the early church was soon corrupted by man, and this has led to a great deal of confusion in God's people. To the Eastern Church, which broke from Rome and the Western Church in 80-10-54, that's a thousand years after the church started, never really went along with the idea of the papacy or Rome's claim to be the one only true church. So the conclusion in this kind of thinking, before we get into the history of it, is that the Roman church builds its papal system, not on the New Testament or facts of history, but only on unfounded tradition.

Before AD 313, the Edict of Milan, the seeds of heretic hierarchy were already planted, and this laid the basis for the Roman Catholic Church, which gained complete control around AD 590. Now, the Edict of Milan was when Constantine declared that they could no longer persecute Christians, and then by 590, Popes had taken over and pushed that envelope. But it's interesting, and we'll see as we look into this, that Constantine, he just said you couldn't persecute the church, and it was 395 before it was forbidden, and Christians were actually recognized as part of the Roman Empire. So what kept these people, what made them Christians?

And what seemed to have happened is, as they started these churches, there was no Bibles, remember, there was only apostolic letters and different things that were circulating around and people had copies of this and that, but they developed a creed that if you could sign on to the creed, you would become a Christian and part of that congregation. And the modern day Apostles Creed has a few more sentences than the old one, the old Roman symbol, that was read early in the fourth century. The Apostles Creed says this, we at the school have learned it, and I believe in God the Father Almighty, make him a heaven and earth, And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried.

He descended into hell the third day, he rose from the dead, he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence he shall come to judge, the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of the saints, the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting, Amen. Now, we should be able to agree with that. That's a pretty short, but covers a lot of stuff, right? The resurrection, all that kind of stuff, believe that he died for our sins.

Now, immediately people started arguing about what's going on and had different interpretations. So now, whose interpretation do we believe of what is the true gospel. The heretic Marcion's canon may have impelled the true church to formalize a list of those books that considered be God inspired, books of the New Testament. So as remember, you got other letters floating around and you've got the Apostles Creed and other people are starting to add to it or detract from Christ's godliness and that kind of thing. So all these things are starting to be debated. And it goes on and on. I mean, just talking about the different heretical sex at this time could go on for a couple teaching sessions.

But during this time, it was forcing people to say, no, this belongs in the New Testament. Remember, they had an Old Testament canon, but now the New Testament canon is starting to develop. And so people were saying, no, that's not good because that contradicts itself and that kind of thing. happening as the church is developing. So they needed to formalize a list of books that were considered to be God-inspired books in the New Testament. Also the apologists of the second century constantly quoted Scripture to prove the heretics wrong, providing additional incentive to codify a list of books belonging to the canon. Now if you study the church fathers writings and We at ECS, we've read some of them and that kind of thing, but if you just get a compilation of the books of the church fathers, you get about 96% of the New Testament repeated by the church fathers.

So they keep saying the same things over and over, which then lend credence to the books that they include in the canon. Further and late in the second century, there were terrible persecutions against Christians and the state of Rome said that Christians would die for possessing any of the apostles letters. If Christians were going to die, they wanted to die for the inspired word, not some false letter. I think one of the greatest proofs about what true Christianity is, if you're willing to die for it. And I think it's really interesting that today in the Middle East, I just heard a thing It was actually on CNN that one Christian is martyred every six minutes right now in the world today.

Now most of the people being martyred I don't think have near the theology that we have. They're simple people that believe that Jesus died for their sins and they're willing to have their head cut off or be burned in a cage or whatever. However, they're being martyred today for a very simple but a powerful faith. And they believe it enough to die for it, which is a whole different thing than just sitting up and talking about, well, I think this book should be in the canon or I believe this. A whole other thing to die for your faith. So as heresy threatened the church, there was an ever increasing need to determine who were the true Christians, part of the universal truth.

True Christians identified themselves with a visible outward organization of the church. Many Roman Catholics and some Protestants believe that if a person is within the confines of the organized church, then he is saved. We don't believe that, okay? Just because you're a member doesn't get you in. This leads to a doctrine of salvation by church membership or affiliation. Evangelical Christians also believe that there is no salvation outside of the church, not the local, visible organized church, but the true, universal, invisible church, which is the body of Christ. And that's why we don't have a problem praying for churches here in Marysville or in Georgia or wherever we're praying for them, that those are true believers of Christ, and that's the universal church.

And we need to remember that, that we're not the church. You know, we're trying to be as correct as we can, But we recognize we're not the only place that's preaching the gospel and part of God's kingdom. Early in the second century, the church began to distinguish between elders and bishops. The other elders gradually became subordinate to the presbyter, who was their bishop, and the bishops who came to rule in the church were called monarchical bishops. So they started to segregate into geographic areas, and some dude would be over the other one. This is the point, this is the second century now, so we're 200 already, church politics is starting to take over.

So I'm running your area of the country, you've got to do what I'm telling you. That's trouble isn't it? Because if you're passing the faith on, the one true faith, you're able to judge what we should be doing. But it starts to go south. Churches in some cities had a bishop before the city of Rome did. Around 8110, Ignatius was the bishop of Antioch. Polycarp was the bishop of Smyrna. The bishops were supposed to be the successors, successors of the apostles, and had great authority in the church. Every bishop was equal in authority at first, but the bishops of the bigger and politically more powerful cities became the more prominent bishops.

This is nothing more than church politics. These bishops of big churches in large cities became known as metropolitan bishops. In other words, the city of the...they're in charge of the city of that church. And that's a heresy that you have today. You've got cults that say, we're the one-trooped church of Boston, that kind of thing. By the middle of the third century, there were five bishops competing to be the controlling bishop of the metropolitan bishops. The Bishop was Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople in Rome, all claimed primacy among bishops. The bishops of the churches in these large cities became known as patriarchs.

Rome was the only major city in the West. So the Bishop of Rome went unchallenged in the Western section of the church. Now we're only talking 300 at this point. And so Rome, just because the Roman Empire and that's the capital city, starts taking over. The bishops of Alexandria and Constantinople and Antioch and their disputings would sometimes appeal to the bishop of Rome, a neutral bishop to help solve their differences. In almost every controversy, theological or practical, the bishop of Rome became the arbitrator. Around AD 185, Irenaeus wrote against heresies in which he stated that every church must agree with the church at Rome on doctrinal and practical matters. Crazy.

Now, they're desperately trying to get some coordination to what they believe. So that's to be admired. I mean, you need to have a standard. But when you start barking that you are the source and you don't have any heresy yourself, look out, right? Because all of us, we don't know everything. There was a strenuous opposition sometimes to the claims of the Bishop of Rome, especially in the East. But in the end, the churches in the West acknowledged his supremacy. With this acknowledgement, the papacy had come into existence. The Bishop of Rome became to be called Pope, a title derived from the Latin word papa, meaning father, and the church over which the Pope ruled as supreme head came to be known as the Roman Catholic Church.

By 8313, the foundation for the papacy was clearly set, and by 8590, the Roman Catholic hierarchy was fully entrenched. Okay, so During this time how was I supposed to just be a main believer and where did the guy that's Disciples me get his information even though officially they have these structures you start reading the church fathers and You realize that the church fathers are depending on the scriptures to come up with their stuff So you start thinking or I would be thinking if I was a guy in those times Well, where am I going to get my information? How am I going to know what's true? So, multiplied, thousands of Christians gave their lives for the Christian faith. During this time, they were being persecuted and killed. When Christian had to choose between Caesar and Christ, he chose Christ. This often meant he would lose his life.

From after 8068, after the death of Nero, to 90, there was a little bit of breathing room. There was a time when no persecution happened from 68 to 90. But after that, after 90, from 90 to 313, there was continual persecution of Christians. So if I'm a believer, I better really know what I'm doing. So I go to my, you know, church father, my leader or whatever, the leaders of these groups, like Irenaeus of Leon, he died in 202. He quoted in a book that he wrote against heresies, We have learned from none others the plan of our salvation, and from those whom the gospel has come down to us, which they did at one time proclaim in public, and in a later period by the will of God handed down to us in the scriptures, to be ground and the pillar of our faith.

Now this is the same guy that said the Catholic Church was the prime thing, but what did he say they went to to get their information, the scriptures? So right away you start seeing these guys are saying the ultimate source is the scripture, and that's where we get sola scriptura and we talked about that in another talk. Tertullian, he's difficult to classify as they say. He was both an apologist and a polemicist. He's regarded as the founder of Latin theology.

He is a real character and a fiery personality, to say the least. He attacked anyone who did not agree with him. Son of called Tertilian the Martin Luther of the early church. He hated philosophy with a passion and often spoke of miserable Aristotle. He had however grave faults that could be unfair and fanatical and vindictive. So his enthusiasm got in his way. But again, he wanted people to get back to the Bible. Origin was another interesting problem. He wanted to get back to the Bible, but he then went down the trail of faulty view of how to interpret the Bible. They believed the Bible to be inspired, but accepted an allegorical method of interpretation which goes behind the literal meaning for a deeper, more spiritual meaning.

And Origin is considered the father of that kind of interpretation. So that gets down to what we talked about in solo scriptura. Not only do you believe that the Bible's the only thing, but how do you interpret it becomes problematic. If I can tell you, oh no, that word doesn't really mean that, it means this, and then I take you down some crazy trail. Augustine is another one that constantly taught them to go back to the Scriptures, and sometimes he stays there, other times he goes off the rails with that kind of interpretation. So you got to be careful when you're reading all these guys. And we've read a lot of that and seen where it goes.

It's interesting. Clearly the doctrine of Sola Scriptura was championed by Christian leaders long before the Reformation. And that gets back to where I made my main point when we talked about Sola Scriptura, is it's not only do you believe the scriptures, but how do you interpret it? Until 8313, the church as a whole was not really interested in deep doctrine. It was much more interested in practical Christian living in the spreading of the gospel. However, heresies forced the true church to search the scriptures and set forth systematic theologies. We can't be too hard on these early churchmen, for they were pioneers in theology.

Many of these men were just out of paganism. Only portions of the New Testament were available and very few copies of the Old Testament. Only a handful of people were able interpreters of the Bible. And this is another whole problem. Think about you believe the apostles creed And then some guy says, well, I got this letter over here and you should read it. And so he reads you that and you go, whoa, that's like crazy. Is that true? You know, what do I do? So it's difficult. And I just have to look upon it. God is building his church in his own way. And we live in a time where we've been blessed with a whole bunch of information.

So I think we're going to be held more responsible to sift through this than these people. But we do worship a merciful God and that if these people knew they needed a savior from their sins and they believe Christ was it, in my economy, I think that was enough to get them through, regardless of how bad the teacher is that they had, okay? Now that teacher is going to be held responsible in a whole different way than that common parishion, which should bring all of us to, you know, take it seriously. So, an understanding of Christian doctrine in its development is very important. Where little doctrine is taught, there's great ignorance of the Christian faith.

The theory that doctrine is unimportant is only shallow and foolish. It is also crafty. It's one of the devil's best tricks. You don't need to know about that. Don't study that. That's for us pastors, you know. Don't ask me those questions. Just believe what I'm telling you. telling you. No, you can't defend it. Don't teach it. The interesting thing is that like views on the millennium and stuff, the millennium as far as we can tell from history, the early fathers in the first and second centuries were millennialists who believed that Christ would return to establish His kingdom on earth.

Thus they were pre-millennialists believing Christ's return would precede His millennial reign. It wasn't until late in the third century that pre-millennialism that was challenge on a large scale because many pre-millennials held such a carnal view of Christ's literal kingdom that the heretical Montanus were pre-millennial and because of the vivid description given by them of a millennial epic of sensuous enjoyment, the doctrine of Christ's second coming with which this was identified was de-emphasized by the church as a whole. So the Montanus, and they were tongue talkers, they were an interesting bunch that lived in a bunch of caves in southern Israel. They decided that when Christ would come back it would be pretty much like the Islamic, you know, 70 virgins, one big party. And the church fathers said, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's not what the millennium's about, but they didn't do it so they said, forget it, we'll just shut that down. So that's, they moved on that. Modes of baptism started off right away. For at all converts out of

of heathenism, it's fairly obvious that immersion was the most prominent mode of baptism. For the first three centuries, in order to combat the Aryan heresy, triune immersion became very popular. Tertilian, again we talked about him, when we are going to enter the water, but for a little before, in the presence of the congregation and under the hand of the president, we solemnly profess that we disown the devil and his pomp and his angels. Hereupon we are thriced immersed in the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit." That's a call out to the brethren out there. They still do that. They baptize Dribble. It will be our duty, however, to adduce your proofs out of the Scriptures as plainly as we do when we prove that He made His Word as Son to Himself. All the Scriptures attest to the clear existence of and the distinction in the persons of the Trinity and indeed furnish us with our rule of faith.

And that was against practices that were heretical. That was a book that he wrote. Then we get to the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. And that's in eighty thirteen when Constantine conquered the empire and he saw the cross up in the sun and everything. And he declared that he was a Christian. This edict permitted freedom of religion in the Roman Empire. It did not do away with paganism, but it made Christianity equal with all other religions. It did, however, put a stop to official persecution against Christians from the state, restoring the church all places of worship which had been confiscated and making good all losses.

Now the problem was that after that happened, the conflict between the church and state had granted the church a position and protection and aid. He turned, in turn he demanded the church to allow him to have a good deal to say about its affairs. So now all of a sudden Constantine weds the state and the church together. That's a problem because the guy that has the gun runs the show, right? So you have to be very clever when the state's running your church. Then the world invades the church. After 8313 it became acceptable to become a Christian for all persecution of the church had ceased. There were many material advantage to being a Christian.

So the Christian name became a passport to political, military, and social promotion. So all of a sudden, it was invoked to become a Christian. So whoosh, everybody becomes a Christian because of the empire's Christian. The first major council was in the first century, the Jerusalem Council. There were four major councils in church history, which are of great significance. The Council of Nicaea, the Council of Constantinople, Council of Levisis, and the Council of Chalcedon. All of these were progressions to try to get the church back to its proper teaching. And they all fought over all kinds of different things and brought it back to basic Bible beliefs, those councils.

The school of Antioch during this time, they're spraying up in Antioch, a most amazing school to train men in the Bible. Now this is the Eastern Church, this school, and it's called the Anti-Cean School, was in direct opposition to the Alexandrian School. Alegorical interpretation was in the Alexandrian School, and these guys wanted the grammatical, historical study of the Scriptures in order to discover the meaning that they had, that the sacred writer had for those to whom he was writing. The school eventually passed out of existence because the spirit of the age was against literal interpretation. And why was it against that?

The political power was again in the Roman Empire, and the Roman Empire got to run things. And so these guys went by the wayside. But they wrote a lot of stuff that corresponds with the way that we in this church like to see the reading of the scriptures. Then Eusebius, he was the first real Christian historian, and his most famous work, Ecclesiastical History, was written around this period, like 330. And we've read that in school, and you notice there, it's kind of like reading Bead. You get all this crazy stuff, you know, somebody has a splinter of the cross and mixes it with mud and people get saved and all of that.

But Eusebius is actually, in his history, is arguing for the Trinity and more important things. So there's a thread that comes through all these things. The fall of Rome was another big one, 476 AD. Rome, the Goss and the Visigoss and everything, overrun Rome, and now it spreads out. But there are still monasteries and monks and all these people that are still spreading Christianity throughout the empire. And monasticism grew strongly during this period. And these guys kind of, they had the libraries, they had the books and they were passing the information along.

And God still used for his glory all of these things during this time. And during this time, the monasteries were out there and Rome was fighting to get back its glory and everything and Mohammedism starts. In 711, the Islam religion had conquered Persia, penetrated into India, China, overrun Asia miners, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and North Africa and had conquered Spain, was threatening to move into all of Europe. Okay? Europe is a shambles, it's a bunch of thetums there and Islam is moving.

And this meant, if this was to be as successful, this meant the end of Christian culture in the West. The Muslims were never able to take the Byzantine Empire, but they certainly took much of the territory of this and fair. Constantinople, while attacked and under siege a number of times by the Muslims, did not fall until 1453 when it was conquered by the Turks. So Constantinople stood on its own and they owned all the territory around it. The Muslims had to be stopped for the future of Europe and the church where it stakes. The Franks, under the leadership of Charles Martel, came forward to stop the onrushing invaders from Mecca. Charles's army was called a Christian Army for most of the Franks gave a scent to Christian teaching.

The battle for Europe and the Christian church in the West was to be settled on the planes of Tours in 732. The battle of Tours took place and it was a bloody battle indeed until this time the Muslims had not lost one battle for over 100 years. So when they met Charles the Hammer they had Calvary and Charles had all his men stand very tightly around and the cavalry kept charging and they kept picking them off. And they stood in a bunch and they did it for the whole day and all these bodies piled up and they went out the next day to do it and the Mohammeds had turned and gone back to Spain. So he stopped them at that point.

A lot of people say that was a miraculous thing, got interviewed and just stopped them and had them go back. So Western history from 800 to 1073 now became the Dark Ages. And at that point, pretty much everything shriveled up into monasteries and some books being read like Bede and those kind of things. And the church in state from 800 to 1073 was the Holy Roman Empire, the feudal system, and the church divides in 1054. We don't hear that talked about a lot, but the division of the church in 1054 is in many ways more serious than the break that came from the Reformation because they really challenged Rome's authority at that point.

Rome then became the Roman Catholic Church in 1054. The height of the papacy came around from 1073 to 1303. The crusades, the Inquisition. The Inquisition became a necessity because the rapidly increasing groups in Europe that were crying for reform within the Roman Church. So Rome made the Inquisition to try to purify itself. But most of the people that were targets of the Inquisition were people that were going, wait a minute, why are we doing this? We would rather do this, it seems to say, in the Bible. But they went after them to keep them under their thumb with the Inquisition. In the Inquisition, the secular rulers, influenced by church leaders, at this point the church could kind of make the governments do what they wanted.

Remember the Pope had an army and all kinds of things. He actually administered the trials and torture and killing of the unrepentant person. So the Roman church didn't kill them. government killed them, but they were doing it under the orders of the Roman Church. So the Roman Church therefore has not been willing to take blame for the excesses in which the history records. However, the Roman Catholic Church must take blame for they originated the Inquisition. The Inquisition was a big deterrent to all who had rise up against the papacy. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that the Reformation did not come sooner. Well, think about it.

Burn it to steak or you know, what are you gonna do? Monasticism was popular during this time scholasticism. We're studying that now and in Our reading because the scholastics the Greek manuscripts were coming back up people like Anselm Abilard Peter of Lombard Those people were bringing up these Greek things and writing about it and causing it to think about their theology Sometimes it was good, sometimes it was bad. You got to be very perceptive when you're reading about these guys. But they started to attack the papacy and the whole Roman system at this point from the inside. The decline of the papacy starts in 1305 to 1517.

Pope Boniface VIII from 1294 to 1303. Boniface insisted that upon ridiculous claims over all temporal rulers and said, and said, we declare state and define and pronounce that for every human creature to be subject to the Roman Pope is altogether necessary for salvation. So we now have opposition to the Inquisition, the wealth of the Roman Catholic Church, people are going, they got all the money and they keep taking it from us. The immorality of the clergy, everybody in town knew that the clergy was not celibate and just all kinds of incredible stuffs going on during this time. And then the Crusades are going on, so the Church is taking people and trying to go and take back the Holy Land, which ends up to be a big nightmare because lots of people are getting killed.

And as they go across Europe, well, if we can't kill the Muslims, kill some of the Jews on the way over for the Crusade. The Renaissance happens, which then starts people thinking in a humanistic way, which is not good. But thinking back to original sources and wanting to read the original language is a good part of that. The Babylonian captivity happened during this time, 1305 to 1377. There were 70 years when the pope ruled from Avion in southern France, and they were fighting about who was the real pope. And then the papal schism happened in 1378 through 1417. The death of Pope Gregory in 1379, Urban VI was an Italian was elected, the French Cardinals selected a fellow countryman, Clement VII, who returned to Avian, some nations of Pope of the Avian, some ones in Rome.

They fought over this all over Europe for a couple hundred years. They're trying to decide who was the real Pope. So the conclusion of that period is that declining years of the hierarchy was time for the religious and political corruption and chaos. There's a great need to reform within the Roman Catholic Church, But how and where would this be accomplished? God was preparing the world for the Reformation. The Reformation, which began in 1517, did not start like a thunderbolt out of the blue. There are many religious and economic and political factors that have been brewing for centuries. The Roman Church were corrupt and sterile.

And to challenge the authority of the Roman Church in the medieval period was a serious thing. But there were challenging groups. There were the Abaginses, a group that began in Bulgaria. They turned into the Cathari. They ended up with some heretical views, but they knew the church wasn't true, so they were fighting. But then there were the Waldensons, and they were a group that followed Peter Waldo who believed that the Bible was the ultimate authority for the Christians, and they were very orthodox in doctrine and committed much of the New Testament to memory. They believed in lay preachers and would not take an oath to shed human blood.

They opposed the concepts of purgatory and prayer for the dead. They grew greatly in number in northern Italy in southern France during the 1200 and 1300s. So there were people out there that were preaching the true gospel and fighting this. And then you have the reforming men that some of the biographies have already been given and will be given like John Wycliffe, John Huss, and then Gil Rolomo Savana-Roller, who was a Catholic priest in Florence. And he is the guy that the bonfire of the vanities, He took all these possessions and burned them in the square in Florence. And as he was being burned at the stake by the Roman church, he said, this is 1498. So we're getting close now. He said, I warn you, Oh, Italy, I warn you, Oh, Rome. The only thing that can save you is Jesus Christ.

So reforming groups within the church, the Roman church, there were councils that tried to turn the church. The great schisms that happened that we talked about the council of constants, accomplished nothing in the way of reform, but it was responsible for having John Hus put to death. This council did declare, however, that the council received its authority from Christ and that the authority of the pope was not their authority, even though they put Hus to death. So all these things are in turmoil during this time. And then a guy named John of Westville taught Justificathem by faith alone. He died in 1489. Erasmus was a great scholar, and his pins smoked against the corruption of the Roman Church.

But that was as far as it went. He never joined Luther in the Great Reformation. It was said that Erasmus laid the egg of the Reformation and Luther hatched him. So in conclusion, the last part of the Middle Ages due to the increased emphasis of the Remesants, men begin to look back at the history of the early Church by stunning the Church Fathers. They notice these fathers knew nothing about many teachings that were taught by the Roman Church. So these people, because the literature started to happen and they discovered these manuscripts, they started reading the Bible and the original Greek, that kind of thing started to happen.

So that's it, I did pretty darn good considering. The one thing that I have at the end of this is it's out of a book by Lorraine Betner on the heresies of the Roman Catholic Church and when they began. And it's fascinating, this list. It goes, it has, on the list there are 45 things.

The last one in this book, there might be more that have been proclaimed. These have all been spoken as cathedra. The 45th is Mary proclaimed the mother of the church by Pope Paul VI in 1965. Then back to 1864, the infallibility of the Pope and faith morals and procain by the Vatican Council. 1864, the infallibility of the pope. 1854, the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary proclaimed by Pius IX, that's 1854. But before that, you go from 1854 back to 1560, the Council of Trent, which was caused by the Reformation. So those heresies are modern ones, And it took them another 200 years, well, 300 years to get going on some more heresy.

But in the 39th one, as the Creta Popias supposed to the official creed in 1560, and then the apocryphal books added to the Bible by the Council of Trent in 1546 so that they could have biblical proof for the purgatory. And all of these things before that, There's 37 things that happened during this period from when the church started to the Reformation. And like 8,300 prayers for the dead started to happen. Venerations of angels and dead saints, 375. Priestly began to dress differently from laymen, 500. Extreme Unction, 526.

Doctrine of Purgatory established by Gregory the first 593 so it took him a long time to make these things official prayers dedicated Marian Dean said Saints and angels 600 title of Pope or universal Bishop given the Boniface 607 kissing in the Pope's foot 709 temporal power of the Pope's convert by peppin you guys know weapon is king of the Frank's 750 worship of the cross and images and relics 786 holy water mitts with a pinch of salt blessed by the priest 850 worship of st. Joseph 890 College of Cardinals established 927 So all these things it it starts rolling on itself and then there's a whole group that just get crazier and crazier transubstantiation proclaimed by the Pope 1215 so as those things started to ramp up The people that are thinking are going wait a minute. How are we getting there?

What are we doing and of course they get burned at the stake for it and all the rest of it, but Then the Reformation comes Luther comes by faith alone, but he wasn't the original guy remember all kinds of people saw that So that's a lot of information. I'll quit. I had a lot more I had 135 pages and 35,000 words when I started but it's fascinating Fascinating and I would recommend anybody to delve into this stuff because as you read it you you realize all the people that have believed in the Gospel and died for it that have brought it us to where we are today And it's it's exciting to be in that line. So and I I again want to, I really think we have it right with reformed and still reforming because none of us are without heresy and we need to constantly keep examining ourselves and being more Christlike.

So with that, let's pray and we can be gone. Father, thank you for the men that have studied this history and for all the things that have gone on and how complex it is and how hard it is to know from the limited resources we have about a lot of this stuff, but some of it we've got, you know, printed out. So we thank you for that, but most of all we thank you for your word, for that's the basis of all of this, that's how you've communicated to us. And through your son and his spirit allowed us to understand that. So help us never to forget that and to be forever thankful for that. We thank you for all that you do for us and of course we thank you most of all for your son and what he has done for us with his death on the cross. Amen.

I do not believe in torture. I am also not, as I’ve said before, what might be called a “genealogy guy.” So you may wonder why I would ask Jim to read all of one of the longest chapters in Genesis plus one verse, and then attempt to preach all of it in one sermon, knowing that this section is mainly a long list of fathers and sons. And it’s not even the elect line. God’s people don’t look to find their heritage here.

I will say that this is a challenging chapter. Most of the men in this chapter are obscure even to vocational Bible historians and, of course, all of the men in this chapter are dead. It is likely that all of the men in this chapter are in hell. The primary verb, at least that is understood, is “fathered,” which is more like setting the stage than driving the drama. There’s not much other action. The people and places are presented like a chronological phone book, except that no one wants to call any of these deceased. So I get that it is challenging.

But I also believe that each one of these verses is profitable. Paul told Timothy that “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable.” In context, “Scripture” refers to the Old Testament, and “all Scripture” certainly includes Genesis 36. Moses was no less moved by the Holy Spirit when he wrote this chapter than he was for chapter 1, or 3, or 12, or 22, or any other. So it will return a good investment of our reading and attempt to understand it.

And Moses intended for us to give it our attention. As I already said, it is one of the longest chapters in this first book of the Law. We might have returned the first draft of Genesis and asked Moses to write more in chapter 6 about the identity of the mighty men and less in chapter 36 about the identify of the Horites.

In addition to attention by proportion, there is also repetition in Genesis 36 unlike anywhere else in Genesis. Moses goes through the “generations of Esau” twice (see verses 1 and 9). The toledot divides Genesis into 10 smaller books, but every other “generations” just gets one go-round.

It would be very easy, probably preferable to modern readers with a penchant for book blurbs more than books, to cut out verses 9-43. Verses 1-8 start with the generations and end with “Esau settled in Seir.” We could pick up very nicely in 37:1 with the contrast: “Jacob lived in the land of Canaan.” Yet for some reason Esau’s generations are repeated and greatly expanded.

I want to observe what’s on both tables and then see if we can walk away with some profit in our spiritual pockets.

“Isaac breathed his last” and “his sons Esau and Jacob buried him” (Genesis 35:29). It is time to move on in the story. As with every other change of generations, the non-elect son is treated first. This was true with Cain before Seth, Japheth and Ham before Seth, Ishmael before Isaac, and now Esau before Jacob. The story of Jacob’s descendants (mainly Joseph) begins in 37:2 and runs through the end of Genesis.

These are the generations of Esau (that is, Edom). Edom means “red,” the color of Esau’s skin and the color of the stew for which Esau sold his birthright. The new name becomes even more significant in the next section.

Esau took his wife from the Canaanites, to the embitterment of his parents and the disapproval of the LORD. The three women named here are not the same names as listed before in Genesis 26:34 and 28:9 (Judith, Basemath, and Mahalath). Here his wives are named as Adah, Oholibamah, and Basemath. I lean toward the explanation that the same woman might take a different name (like Sarai to Sarah) rather than that Moses didn’t know what he was doing, or that he got it wrong, or that Esau had that many more wives. There is still a problem since the father’s names are different.

All three wives bore Esau children. Five sons are named (Eliphaz, Reuel, Jeush, Jalam, and Korah) and they were born to him in the land of Canaan. Jacob left Canaan after stealing the blessing from Isaac, Esau stayed in the land of blessing though he didn’t have it, at least until Jacob returned.

Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the members of his household, his livestock, all his beasts, and all his property that he had acquired in the land of Canaan. He went into a land away from his brother Jacob. For their possessions were too great for them to dwell together. The land of their sojournings could not support them because of their livestock. So Esau settled in the hill country of Seir. (Esau is Edom.) (Genesis 36:6–8)

Didn’t Esau come out to meet Jacob from Seir (Genesis 32 and 33)? Why then does this chapter say that he moved after Jacob came back? Esau had interests in both places, but now he takes all of this family and his things and establishes himself as a neighbor a land away. Like Lot and Abraham separated, Esau separates from Jacob since the land could not support them because of their livestock.

This is the kind of genealogy we expect, with a focus on sons and a brief explanation of where they lived. This makes a sufficient contrast with Jacob (37:1) who settles in the promised land. Esau, who is Edom, settles with his family a land away.

As noted, verse 9 repeats These are the generations of Esau. But while the same sons will be named again, the emphasis is on the Edomites. Through the rest of this extended section there is a concern for “chiefs” and “clans” and “kings.” Here are Esau’s descendants considered as a political force, including their takeover of the original inhabitants of the land.

We’ve already met the five sons, now we meet the son’s sons as well. While Oholibamah gave Esau three sons, no grandsons are listed. Five grandsons came through Adah’s one son, Eliphaz: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz, and three grandsons came through Basemath’s one son, Reuel: Namath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. If we also count a grandson through a concubine of Eliphaz (Amalek), there are a total of three sons of Esau and ten grandsons, a little but growing force, comparable to Jacob’s twelve sons. As for Esau, these are not only his family, they are the Edomites in the hill country of Seir.

The same names are given again in this paragraph. The difference is that the sons are all called chiefs—a word used 42 times in the chapter—they are heads of clans. The grandsons through Epiphaz and Reuel, along with the sons of Oholibamah, become leaders of tribes. More than fathers, they wield a kind of public office. This is important for sake of interacting with and, in some cases, dispossessing the people of Seir.

Esau settled in the hill country of Seir, but it’s not as if Seir was unoccupied territory; the name of the place came from one of the first men who dwelt in the place. There were quite a number of inhabitants of the land who traced their origin from Seir the Horite. We first met the Horites in Genesis 14 as one of the groups defeated by the four Eastern tyrants. Seir, the man, had sons who were recognized as chiefs: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These chiefs had some kind of agreement between each other because the entire group could be called the Horites, similar to the Israelites in their tribes. The list of seven chiefs descended from Seir is in verses 20-30.

From Israel’s perspective there are also kings a land away, and verses 31-39 list eight of the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites. Once the Israelites returned from Egypt to possess the promised land, they didn’t have a king at all for many years until Saul. But the people just a land away transitioned through a number of kings. The central organization of society was moving from families to tribes to kingdoms.

These kings in Edom were not a family dynasty. In fact, not one of the transitions is from a father to a son. Also, each new king who took over when the previous king died comes from a different place. This appears to be an election system, not familial or by hostile takeover.

One more time Moses lists the chiefs of Esau, according to their clans and their dwelling places. Some of the names are new, and a total of eleven chiefs had distinct places of possession and rule, withdwelling places being the unique factor in this paragraph, just a land away from the promised land. For however long Esau’s descendants and Seir’s descendants lived together, there were more from Esau (Seir: 7 vs Esau: 11), the name Edom replaced the name of Seir as the Edomites dominated the region. Two nations were indeed in Rebekah’s womb (per the word of the LORD in Genesis 25:23), the Israelites and the Edomites.

The toledot of Esau finishes with the transition and contrast of Jacob who lived in the land of his father’s sojourning, in the land of Canaan (37:1).

So what? What is profitable from all of this? Moses’ original readers were likely to be at least a little more familiar. Kids in Israeli elementary schools would want to know something about the history of their neighbors. It’s important to know who lives in Mirkwood, or the land next to Narnia. But is there anything for us?

Yes. There is profit for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, just as God said there is through Paul’s pen. I am not sure that we can find all the pieces of treasure in this hoard of 43/44 verses, but here are some of the more sparkly pieces sitting on top of the pile.

Genesis 36 teaches us about God’s character, that He is faithful to all He’s said. He fulfills every promise, even when we might think He shouldn’t. The LORD said Esau would become a nation, and Isaac “blessed” Esau (Genesis 27:38-40). Esau didn’t deserve what he got (though Jacob didn’t do much better either).

Genesis 36 reproves our pride in thinking that we’re the only ones God cares about. God blesses the non-elect with life, with families, with places to live. Paul told the men at Lystra that God “did not leave himself without witness (among the nations), for he did good by giving…rains from heaven and fruitful seasons” (Acts 14). He gives good to those who are undeserving.

Genesis 36 corrects our fear of thinking that neighboring enemies are too big to fight. God has His ways of giving His people what He wants them to have, and oftentimes He makes their enemies more glorious so that His deliverance will be more glorious. The Edomites were a hard people, a growing and great people of chiefs and kings. The Edomites are some of the most bitter enemies of Israel in the Old Testament. Yet David defeated them and set up garrisons in their territory (2 Samuel 8:13-14). As the LORD told Rebekah, the older would serve the younger, and this was true for generations.

Genesis 36 trains us in righteousness for sake of waiting on and trusting in God to get us where He wants us to be. Even Esau’s decision to move to Seir permanently because the land “could not support them because of their livestock” was part of Jacob possessing Canaan.

Of course some of this profit requires that we know more of the history of the Old Testament, and all of these truths can be shown in other parts of Scripture. But Genesis 36 establishes realities that other parts of the timeline depend on, and illustrates the more straightforward statements. We have much to be thankful for from this chapter.

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

I'd like to start this evening by reading Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9, and I'd invite you to join me in this letter of Paul to the Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 2, just two verses, but we'll be turning back to this chapter soon enough, so you may want to just keep a finger here when we're finished. Ephesians 2 verse 8, Paul says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. In our Sunday evenings this year, this ministry year that started last fall, we've examined together two of the five solas of the Reformation.

Specifically, we've looked at sola fide, that's faith alone, sola scriptura, that is scripture alone. And then tonight we're going to add to our list grace alone, or sola gratia. still to come are Solus Christus and Soli Deo Gloria. And in the 16th century, these doctrines challenge the teaching and the traditions of the Catholic Church, and have been proclaimed by Protestants and Reformation sympathists or Reformational Reformed types ever since. But because we rehearse these and we return to them so often, there's a danger to us, namely that our familiarity with these doctrines sometimes breeds apathy, which is crazy.

And so tonight, I hope that we can sort of get out of that and provide an antidote. But we can forget that Christians have, in fact, even as I prayed moments ago, died for this doctrine and others like it, defending these truths that we take for granted. We act as though these counterintuitive doctrines are common knowledge and so we fail to marvel. I call them counterintuitive because this is not the way the natural man thinks. The gospel is not the construct of a human mind. It's from God's mind. So these are truths, these are doctrines that are true that are counterintuitive to the natural man. And so they are not then common knowledge.

It is not a human given or common knowledge that the only way to be happy after this life is to now throw yourself completely at the mercy of our creator, abandoning then all hope of saving yourself. Natural man doesn't think that way. It is not common knowledge that the definitive source of authority on spiritual things is the written word of God. It is not common knowledge that the flesh profits nothing in our salvation. It's not common knowledge that the Lord of all creation is the second person of the Trinity. And it is not common knowledge that everything points finally and ultimately to the glory of the God of the Bible.

Yet those are applications of sola fide, sola scriptura, sola gratia, sola scristus, and soli deo gloria. Though these doctrines are absolutely true, they are not common knowledge. They are not commonly accepted even today, though they do reflect the five solas. So this evening, I want to encourage you to do your best, though familiar with this doctrine of sola gratia, grace alone, to try to hear it again for the first time. And as we do so, we're just going to try and work through a very simple outline. I'm going to talk about sola gratia defined, sola gratia supported, and in that I'll reference a bunch of scriptures, sola gratia opposed, and touch on the teaching of the Catholic Church against this doctrine, and then sola gratia applied, some simple takeaways, and some attitudes that ought to mark us when we have applied this doctrine.

So first, let's jump right into it and define our terms, sola gratia. The doctrine of grace alone teaches that man's work plays absolutely no role whatsoever in his salvation. Rather, his salvation is 100% by God's grace alone. That's contrasted with the Catholic Church's teaching that a man's works do actually play a role in his justification and as such is salvation. The medieval Catholic church taught that God's grace was absolutely necessary for salvation. So it's not as simple as many Protestants would like to think. The Catholic church teaches the salvation by works. The Protestants teach the salvation is by faith alone, by grace alone.

And no, that's actually doing injury and that's not a fair treatment of the Catholic teaching. to teach that grace is absolutely necessary, but that man's works must cooperate with the grace that God gives. In other words, to put it more crassly, grace is necessary, it's just not enough. So, as I said, the medieval Catholic church taught that grace was absolutely necessary for salvation, but it was not sufficient. So rather, it was a combination of that necessary grace and additionally man's good works that made him just before God. And if salvation is by God's grace alone, then that means to steal away from the last point in application, that literally nothing that man does can bring it about.

Literally nothing that man does can bring about his salvation. Of course, that's something that we, Protestant Reformed types tend to take for granted, but doing so is a great mistake. Where does a doctrine come from? So let me move on quickly to Sola Gratia supported. So the doctrine of Sola Gratia is closely tied to Sola Fide, not too surprising. Faith alone and grace alone are tied together. And then of course it's also a cousin to Total Depravity. You cannot rightly understand why grace is marvelous or amazing if you think that man can save himself. But the doctrine of Total Depravity of course teaches that man is completely unable to avail himself of God to do any righteousness.

But we have to understand these things together if we're going to understand grace alone. So what does the Bible say then about man's ability to save himself? So some of these passages I'm going to talk about drive home the doctrine of total depravity, which is if that's true, then grace alone is a big deal. And also for sake of our discussion, we have to take it as a given that there exist redeemed people. So this is an assumption that we'll make, that there exists such a thing as people who get to go to heaven. Okay, I mean, that's actually pretty easy to defend from scripture, but we're gonna take it as a given tonight.

We're gonna save that defense for another time. There are Christians. So the question is, if there are people who find themselves in God's favor, how do they get there? That's what we're going after. Not if people are saved, but how. So I'd like to take some time now to examine a handful of scripture passages as we build our case for sola gratia. Now the passage that we just read moments ago is a great starting point. It's one where this doctrine shines through pretty clearly and it is a favorite of lovers of sola gratia. Let's look at Ephesians two and this time I'm going to look at verses one through 10 and make a few observations as we go along.

So first verses one through three say, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Now, of course, Paul is talking to the Christians at Ephesus, and Ephesus was a city that comprised principally Gentiles.

So it was what we call a Gentile city. So these are Gentiles that he's writing to, and the things that he is writing to them apply to us by extension. So when he says that you Christians, you Ephesian Christians were dead in your trespasses and sins, the same thing is true of modern Gentile Christians. Before we're Christians, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. So you used to be spiritually dead. Now this is simple language and it's not hard to understand, but dead people are incapable of responding to or cooperating with anyone or anything, at least by themselves. Dead people don't respond cooperatively to any sort of call, any sort of pleading on the part of God or anyone else by themselves.

From birth, man's condition is one of spiritual death. That's thanks to original sin. And unless he has given new life, what Jesus calls in John chapter three, being born again, he cannot honor God, let alone be saved. So to be still clearer, though spiritually dead and in our sins, we were very much alive and able to walk in unrighteousness. So these dead people were walking around and dead in sin, alive to righteousness, alive to unrighteousness. And we did, so we did. As spiritually dead people, we did lots of sin and we did it with enthusiasm. We follow the devil, that is who he's speaking of, the prince of the power of the air, and it's said by Augustine that he likens, I told some of the students this, man is like a horse whose rider is either the devil or the Holy Spirit.

So a horse will go where he is directed, it's a matter of who the rider is. It's a fitting picture. Look at verse four. "'But God, being rich in mercy "'because of the great love with which he loved us, "'even when we were dead in our trespasses, "'made us alive together with Christ.'" by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. So this is a glorious intervention on God's part. So now, spiritually dead people are given life.

They are by themselves unable to respond until they are made alive. When we were dead, God made us alive together with Christ. And don't miss that he, so he brought life to the spiritually dead, but why did he do it? He did it to showcase the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. He did it for his own sake, and that's glorious. We get to be a part of that. We are born again because of the work of Christ. We are given spiritual life and new love and life and appetite and desires for him. Look at verse eight.

Which you've already read. For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. Now this is the climax of the passage and it provides a definitive answer for us to our question. Works do not contribute to our salvation. Not even a little bit. It is all of grace. For by grace you have been saved through faith. So that's the affirmative. That's the clear grace alone teaching. And then he emphasizes to clarify, it is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Because of a word of us, even a little bit, then we would share glory with God.

We would have opportunity to rob him of some of the credit. When two people write a song on a piece of sheet music, they're both of their names at the top of it, right? So if our salvation were a masterpiece, and it is, there's only one name at the top. What does this look like? So what does this look like, however? So what role do we play in this masterpiece that is our salvation? Doesn't a Christian have to respond to the call of salvation? Well, yes, he certainly does. But he is only capable of responding rightly if in fact God makes him born again. If God gives him spiritual life and he is born again, and if he is born again, then God grants us a new heart and a love for God and for spiritual things.

So here it's worth mentioning, because some people say, what if I love God but God doesn't give me new life? Well those things don't actually happen. You don't love God unless God has first given you that spiritual life. What if I really earnestly want to go to heaven but I'm not numbered among the elect, people might ask. That also does not happen because people don't want to go to heaven unless they're numbered among the elect and vice versa. Nobody is dragged kicking and screaming, who's somebody who hated God but was one of the chosen so he had to go. That also does not work. So our problem is though with our wants, Jonathan Edwards wrote in his book, The Freedom of the Will, that man does and must do.

He is bound by his will, constrained to do according to his strongest inclination at the moment. He has to do what he wants. The problem is with the want part. So men do what they want all the time, but their wants are only wicked apart from God's grace. If we were to do some commendable or some cooperative work with God, then it'd be like having our names up there alongside of His on the sheet music of our salvation. But of course, as we know, God will not share His glory with us. And then look at verse 10, for we are is workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So now the path is paid for our behavior to become more and more righteous. God has prepared good works for us ahead of time and it's our job to walk in them. Okay? So as we continue our look at the support of this doctrine, let's look at another passage. John chapter 3, we'll look at the first three, first six verses.

So John chapter 3 verses 1 through 6. You can turn there but I'm going to read it regardless. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher, come from God, for no one can do these signs unless you do, unless God is with him. Jesus answered him, truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Well, Jesus answered, truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of the water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. And he goes on, but we'll stop there. So again, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, says Jesus. Spiritual life is not a matter of reforming our old and busted selves. It involves a new life altogether. That's the new hotness, right? It involves new life altogether a second birth But what does this tell us about grace alone? Well, actually it tells us a lot because babies don't decide when to enter the world now Some moms are saying oh, yeah, I didn't have a whole lot of choice in a matter of the time. Well But you do know what I mean that generally speaking a baby doesn't decide to enter your family It is it is a it is a gift is decided by someone else namely but by God ultimately Two chapters earlier, John referred to this concept.

He said in John chapter 1, verses 12 and 13, But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Our being born was not our decision or work, but God's alone, because we were dead and could not cooperate. So it was his alone. He acted, acted and we helped him about as much as Lazarus helped Jesus in John chapter 11. So if we are to be born again, it can only possibly be by the grace of God, but we keep going here more men cannot choose God even. And, and even if they couldn't could, we never would.

So even if we could of ourselves choose God, if we actually had that capability to, to please God, we would not choose to do so according to scripture. John chapter 3 verse 20, same chapter, look ahead. I'll read verses 20 and 21. Everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God. Natural men hate the light and we don't come to it, rather we avoid it. John 663 reads as follows. John 663 is over a couple of chapters. It is the spirit who gives life, the flesh is of no avail.

He goes on. But there's a funny story where Luther was debating on this topic, I think the authorized version says the flesh availeth nothing. And Luther said, and that nothing is not just a little something. It's nothing. In the middle of a host of very offensive things, Jesus puts forth this stumbling block for the proud. The flesh makes no contribution to our salvation. our salvation.

Afterwards, of course, we are soul and body. We are in flesh creatures. It's not like what we do in the flesh doesn't matter, as the Gnostics would suggest, but in terms of how we are saved, our flesh has nothing to do with it. Flip over to Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight. And some of you are excited cause I'm getting into Romans. And some of you are terrified cause I'm getting into Romans. That's fair. Look at Romans chapter eight. in the history of verses 7 and 8. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

This is an indictment against natural man. If salvation were to be obtained by works, or by any combination, if it were necessary for there to be a combination of grace and man's good works, works, that is really, really bad news. Because, evidently, natural man cannot please God. Does not submit to God's law and deed it cannot. Natural men or unbelievers are the ones that Paul is talking about who are in the flesh. Well, the Catholic doctrine distorts man's ability and misrepresents it. It assumes too much. It thinks too highly of man. Suppose and that he is capable of good that he simply cannot do. If you flip back to chapter six, or just bear with me, let's come and skip around a little bit in chapter six, I'll read verses six, 16, 17, 19, and 20.

For we know that our old self was crucified with him and ordered that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. Do not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, Your slaves of that one whom you obey, skip ahead, but thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin had become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So free slaves are incapable of freeing themselves from their bondage. Of course there exists some exceptions and the illustration breaks down at some point. But Paul's point is pretty clear. He is definitely assuming that some voluntary action on the part of the believer. Don't mistake there. He is assuming some voluntary action on the part of the believer. But this is after the believer has been born again. Once he has been given spiritual life, the believers thinking and behavior should look different from how they were before. Look over at Titus, we're not done in Romans, we'll go over to Titus chapter 3.

Titus chapter 3, verses 3 through 7. Titus finally men in Hebrews, James. Titus in a little book, just two pages in my version. I'm going to read verses 3 through 7, just a few passages, a few verses. Titus 3, 3 says, for we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. That is some really dark language. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

So not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy. So Paul writing again here emphatically that it is not your own works, it's God's. It is by grace all his work, not yours, or would be given to pride. is very familiar with our human tendencies, our nature. And if there is an opportunity for man to take credit for his salvation, you can bet he will do so. And history is full of examples along those lines, which is why. We love the idea of being in control. We love the idea of being able to save ourselves. And there are even lots of well-intentioned Christians who are terrified of impugning God. So we want to protect God and say, He's done his part, now you must do yours.

Well, scripture doesn't speak like that. Makes no apology there. So enough for now, that's by no means exhaustive, but we're gonna move on to some of the opposition that has been offered to this doctrine, or even the principles related to this doctrine. So our third point for this evening is sola gratia opposed. As I mentioned, we've now examined a number of scriptural passages that show the salvation is by grace alone. But now I'd like to consider some objections to the doctrine of sola gratia. And while there are logical objections that are sometimes offered, so people will say, that just doesn't make sense, it doesn't square with my own human experience, it feels like I'm doing a lot, how can God be doing all of it?

I don't wanna necessarily take time to go through that tonight, but I do want to look at some of the religious or doctrinal objections that are offered by the Catholic Church. Now, we can tend to think that this debate has been settled and done because of the sort of cultural water that we are always waiting in. So this debate wages on. It goes on today. So because we have grown up eating and drinking and breathing, this these doctrines, these rich truths, does not mean that they are even still common knowledge to the world, which is why I'm trying to get us to hear it again for the first time. To be sure, the Solas represented a battleground on which the religious ideologies in the Reformation were being challenged and orthodoxies were being established.

But this is not an outdated discussion. This discussion is far from over. So in my study for this message, I did some research of Catholic apologetic resources. And even as recently as this morning, in an article on Catholic.com entitled We Can Work It Out, which is pretty telling right there, The site dismisses the doctrine of justification by faith alone, that is sola fide, which we've agreed, or I don't know if you agreed or not, I said it. It's related to sola gratia. But just dismisses justification by faith alone out of hand as a clear contradiction of a couple of key passages. Well, I'd like to look at them together and see if they are in fact different from what, well, let's look at them and see.

They point first to James 2.24. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. I'd like to look actually at the context there. So Titus finally men in Hebrews, James, right? Let's get over there to James chapter two and let's look at 18 to 26. It's a little bit longer, but it's worth our time. But someone will say you have faith and I have works. I'm in James chapter two, verse 18, show me your faith apart from your works. And I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe in shudder. But you want to be shown you do you want to be shown you foolish person that apart from works, apart from sorry, that faith apart from works is useless.

Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works and the scripture was fulfilled. It says Abraham believed God and was counted to him as righteousness And he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead." Well, James says here that of man's works justify him. What does he mean?

Well, when he says that, he does not suggest that man is capable of doing these works apart from the grace of God. And so this is where I think Catholics try to walk a very fine line. They would say, ah, we don't either. We say the grace of God is necessary, but it's not sufficient. James would say emphatically that the grace of God is sufficient and the works will inevitably follow. When men do works that justify them, to borrow James' term, they give evidence of they're having been born again. Conversely, if they don't have works corresponding with their faith, then their faith is in fact not real. It's not genuine. It is dead. R.C. Sproul put it this way. What James is saying is this.

If a person says he has faith but he gives no outward evidence of that faith through righteous works, his faith will not justify him. Martin Luther, John Calvin, or John Knox would absolutely agree with James. We are not saved by a profession of faith or a claim to faith. That faith has to be genuine before the merit of Christ will be imputed to anybody. You can't just say that you have faith. True faith will absolutely and necessarily yield the fruits of obedience and the works of righteousness. So we love James, we love that passage, but scripture can't contradict itself and he can't be contradicting the teaching of Paul, who of course says that justification by faith alone.

The second passage offered, which I think harmonizes quite nicely, but in a sort of a different way, is, yeah, this one's offered as a sort of silver bullet to the doctrine of justification by faith and total depravity. And it's Romans 2, verses 6 through 8. Romans 2, 6 to 8. I told you, I'm not done in Romans. I'm not going to sing the song backwards. Verses 6 through 8 say, he will render to each one according to his works. To those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek. I'm reading on, I'm going to finish paragraph. But glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. God shows no partiality. So drilling in on six through eight, I read six through 11 there. He'll render to each one according to his work to those who, and I want you to zoom on this, by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. Well, I believe that this passage is describing believers. The first half of it, verse 7, yeah, that's right, verse 7, those who by patience and well-doing does not describe natural man. And you have to read, well, you can read the rest of Romans to get that sense.

Paul makes that case very strongly. Natural men don't have patience and well-doing. They cannot please God. They cannot obey the law of God. No matter what they're seeking, only the alive in Christ can seek for glory and honor and immortality in God-honoring ways. Men seek for glory and honor and immortality. Natural men do that, but they don't do it by patience and well-doing. So to To them, God gives what's promised to the wicked, destruction, and to the godly, the born again, eternal life. So we can say happily, it's fantastic news that God would render to believers according to their works because their works demonstrate their saving faith.

So the works of Christians are the fruit of their faith. we give evidence by our works to whom we belong to. The Catholic teaching here has a presupposition that I think is wrong. I think scripture would agree that it is wrong. And that is that man is capable of acting independently of God. Then he will work good works and gain God's favor. He will work good works and be justified. We have no problem saying that man is justified to a degree by his works because those works testified to whose child he is. We have no problem saying that the one who, by patience and well-doing, seeks for glory and honor and immortality because that describes us, we want that.

And so to those, God is going to give eternal life. Those are hardly a silver bullet shooting down the Zeppelin of faith alone. Let me continue with then how we ought to respond to this. What is an appropriate response if all of these things are true? Well, if you've heard this for the first time, great. If you've heard it again for the first time, that's also great. Because this ought to affect in us great humility. If we get that justification is by faith, and if we get that salvation is by grace alone, then that means that it's not by anything that we contributed to the equation. And why are you saved and your unbelieving neighbor is not?

God has been particularly gracious to his people with a saving grace. When our pride is then killed, when our pride is dead, we're aware of what we actually deserve. How our salvation and the good things that we enjoy are gifts from God. This produces humility and humble people are not easily offended. Sola gratia applied also ought to result in thankfulness. Realizing what we have compared with what we deserve ought to make us truly grateful. And of course, grateful people are the most fun to serve and to bless. It ought to result in our grace extended toward others. A fitting response for people who have been blessed is to bless others.

Jesus expected as much. You have the parable of the king who settled accounts with his slaves. He forgave one a great debt. He expected that that one who had been forgiven much would respond in turn to his fellow slave who owed him a hundred denarii. So if we receive much grace, then we ought to be happy to extend grace to others. If you've been a recipient of grace, conversely, how can you not extend that grace in turn to others? Also mercy toward others. If we have received much mercy, we ought to be quick to extend mercy to others. A man who is profoundly and humbled because he's been mercifully pardoned should be easy to spot because he'll be the most merciful guy around.

But here's the thing, all of us deserve destruction. But we have instead been given a promise of a glorious inheritance in Christ instead. Sola gratia applied ought to result in our joy. Of course there's no room for the contagious grumpiness of Christians because that is not fitting, that is not wearing the right clothes for whose child we are. But it ought to result in a thankfulness and a joy because glory to God, the work is done. We do not need to labor to impress God or save ourselves. Jesus has already done that completely and sufficiently and it's done. It's over. Similarly, it ought to result in our comfort and our increasing comfort.

As we grow in our understanding of God, we grow in our confidence of His promises, and if He has done all of this for us, and He has, it cannot be undone, and there are none who can take us from our Father's hand. The perseverance of the saints is not one of the five solas, but it is something that we cling to with gratefulness. Father, we don't deserve Your grace, or else it wouldn't be grace. It is by its nature undeserved. It is favor from you to us because of Christ. And we pray that as we do, hear that maybe even tonight again for the first time that we would preach that message to ourselves routinely. May that reflect again in us humility, thankfulness, comfort, mercy and grace toward one another and joy.

Thank you for the work of Christ. May we never tire of singing about it and thanking you. And we pray that you'd help us to find new application for even this principle again this week. Keep us in your care as we go our separate ways now, and we ask this in Christ's name. Amen.