Two Journeys

It's not Easter Sunday. But we have celebrated the resurrection already in song and now we're going to celebrate the resurrection in the hearing of the word. What is the most significant moment in human history? New Zealand-based evangelist Ray Comfort puts it this way, I find found it very moving, “Unquestionably the greatest event was the faint sound of a heartbeat in a cold and lifeless body in a tomb 2,000 years ago. The sound of blood rushing through the heart of Jesus of Nazareth was a sound that will thunder throughout eternity, because of its incredible implications.” The resurrection of Jesus Christ is undoubtedly the most significant event in history, it changes everything. It changes everything for me.

And I know for all those of you that are my brothers and sisters in Christ, it's changed everything for you too. The reason why you live, the way you face trials, everything's different, because Jesus rose from the dead. And I would add a second truth that's like it and indispensable for us individually, and that is because I live you also will live. It's not enough just that Jesus has risen from the dead, but that we also will be raised from the dead through faith in Jesus Christ.

And so we come again to this significant question, it's right there for us in Job 14:14, and it's asked right there, “If a man dies will he live again?” It's a question that stands over every human heart, whether they admit it or not. Is this life all there is? And if you look all over the world there's a common thread in world societies and religions and that is some expectancy that this life is not all there is, that there is something beyond.

The pyramids of Egypt were a testimony to that, the Egyptians believed in the afterlife. Some time ago a vast Terracotta Army was found in China, made by the first emperor of China, hoping that that army would be there to help him rule his future land, after death. There was a coin placed in the mouth of all Greek-speaking people when they died back in the BC era, to help them pay the passage across the River Styx. Some plains Indians had the habit of burying a dead warrior with a pony and bow and arrows to help them hunt in the Happy Hunting Grounds. The Eskimos of Greenland, bury a guide dog to help the deceased make their way across the trackless waste into the future paradise.

So all over the world, it seems, people live out this truth that's found in Ecclesiastes 3:11, that God has “set eternity in the hearts of men.” And so that sense that somehow we should or will live forever in some state is there in the hearts of men. And yet for all of that, there are still people that question the afterlife, they question whether or not we really will exist after we have died. 

Recently I was reading a website called Hypography, I do not in any way recommend it but I was reading it. And a young person named Kizzi wrote in this question, “Will my death be the end of my existence? And is there nothing I can do about it?” Oh, I'd love to talk to Kizzi, wouldn't you? Talk about an easy witnessing opportunity, “Well Kizzi, let me tell you about Jesus.” But this is an unbelieving website, and this was the answer the learned scholar gave to poor Kizzi,

“Unfortunately,” said the scholar, “all signs,” scientific signs that is, “seem to point in that direction, Kizzi, that death will in fact be the end of your existence. And I tend to agree. All I can do is give you my opinion regarding matters metaphysical. And as far as this matter is concerned, I'm of the opinion that death can be described as the failure of a body to metabolize. Once you're dead, you're dead. We don't want to believe it, though, because we don't want to waste our lives to die without anything to look forward to. But self deception can be a wonderful thing and at the same time very dangerous. Asking what lies in store for us after death is about as meaningful as asking what you remember from before your birth, with pretty much the same answer, I imagine. Before your birth you didn't exist, and after eventually death, well you won't exist either. So in short, you won't be around to worry about it. But never fear Kizzi. If you make full use of your potential, what you are, or what you can become, or what you want to be, you'll enjoy the ride while you have it. But remember to stop and smell the roses along the way because you'll never get the chance, again.” 

That, dear friends, is the sound of being without hope and without God in the world. And we're here today utterly to repudiate that learned scholar's advice to Kizzi. Quentin Crisp, the English atheist and gay rights activist said, “The absolute nothingness of death is a blessing. It's something to look forward to.” Many have taught the same way.

Mark Twain, asked if he feared death, he said he did not, and due to the fact that he'd been dead for billions and billions of years before he was born and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. Well again, very clever but it is appointed to each one of us to die once and after that to face judgment - there is an after that dear friends. This world is not all there is.

So for centuries, there have been skeptics who have doubted the existence of the afterlife, and who live for this life alone. The Sadducees in our texts are not the only ones. So imagine this encounter, this epic encounter between some clever, witty, debaters who deny the existence of the afterlife, and someone who claimed to be the afterlife, who claimed to be the resurrection. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Wouldn't you like to sit in on that debate? Well this morning you get to.

You get to listen to Jesus take on the Sadducees who say there is no resurrection. So here they come, the Sadducees look at verse 23. “That same day the Sadducees who say there is no resurrection came to him with a question.” 

Well, what does it mean by “that same day”? Well this is all a part of the final week of Jesus's life we're studying in this section of Matthew's gospel. So last week of Jesus's life, Jesus's enemies are attacking him viciously trying to discredit him and eventually to murder him. His enemies opposed his triumphal entry. They opposed the children who were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David.” They demanded to see Jesus's credentials when he began teaching in the temple and when he cleansed the temple they wanted to see his credentials. And here in this chapter a series of challenges are gonna take him on one after the other.

We've already seen that first challenge last week with the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians who asked him that question about taxation. Here we have the Sadducees coming to him on the issue of the resurrection. And soon we're going to see an expert in the law questioning him about the greatest commandment in the law. And the goal I think is all the same and that is to best Jesus in a debate and so in some way to bring Him down, to discredit him, ultimately to kill Him.

So who were the Sadducees? Well, they were the smallest but by far the most influential of the Jewish sects of Jesus's time. You also had the Pharisees, the Essenes, and the Zealots. The Sadducees were aristocratic. They controlled the temple and its sacrificial system so all of the high priests and the chief priests were always Sadducees. They dominated the Sanhedrin. From that sacrificial system, they made their money and so they were fabulously wealthy, sinfully wealthy.

They were politically pro-Roman because it was only by the Roman permission that they maintained their position. And spiritually, they're an odd combination of extreme literalists, which we're gonna see in our text today. And what we would call modern-day liberals who denied basic clear doctrines taught in the Bible. Acts 23:8 says, “The Sadducees say there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits.” And so that's what the Sadducees were, they denied the existence of the invisible spiritual world, they seem to be materialists living for material prosperity, and for this life only.

And they bring to Jesus a test case, a fascinating test case, a ridiculous test case. Look at it in verses 24-28, “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him. Now, there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second and third brother right on down to the seventh. Finally, the woman died. Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven since all of them were married to her?”

So here again, we have some people who think they can trap Jesus, intellectually. They're gonna put Jesus in a box and they're going to best him in a debate. We covered that last week, it just can't be done. Jesus's thoughts are so infinitely high above ours, he cannot be bested. 

And they're coming using the scripture, the law of Moses, the so-called Levirate Marriage Law concerning the marriage of a woman to her deceased husband's brother, to carry on the family lineage. It's commanded in Deuteronomy 25 that this should happen, and they bring this test case. 

I mean, frankly just one brother is enough, because in their way of thinking, if there are two men claiming to be married to the same woman, that would be a problem. But they multiply it out. And so they've got instead seven brothers, imagine the mayhem in the afterlife. How in the world are they going to resolve this? It's ridiculous, it's so clearly ridiculous. I don't know if there actually were seven brothers among them, it could be like a little bit of a parable or something like that, a case study. It doesn't really matter. But they have this question, “Now then at the resurrection,” verse 28, “whose wife will she be of the seven since all of them were married to her?

They make two key assumptions. First of all, they assume that the next life will be very much like this life, almost perhaps exactly like this life, in most respects.

And secondly, they assume that it's really ridiculous or impossible for many men to be married to one woman. Polygamy is mentioned in the Bible but you're not going to see polyandry in the Bible, and so these two things just were their assumptions.

And their conclusion is then based on these two assumptions and this test case resurrection itself can't happen.

Have you ever talked, by the way, to a non-Christian that has just absolute proof that there's no God or some thing that Christianity isn't true, and it's just some simplistic thing, and they've got it worked out mathematically. Like, you know, I talked to one guy at MIT who said, you know, “God can't make a rock so big even he can't pick it up can he? And so he doesn't exist.” It's like if you want to cling to that the rest of your life and right on into judgment day when at last you meet him. And if you wanna ask him that question then go ahead, but it's amazing the simplicity of this way of thinking the Sadducees fall prey to. And so Jesus has to give them an answer concerning the resurrection.

But just as he did in the case of taxation, with the Pharisees and the Herodians he first wants to deal with them as people, just like he does with Nicodemus, Nicodemus comes talking about miracles Jesus goes right to, “You must be born again, Nicodemus. You want to go to heaven, you must be born again.” He goes right to the heart of the matter of the individual standing before him. Oh, how beautiful is that, and how much I want that heart in me. The individual I'm talking to is an eternal being. If you believe our texts today, they will exist forever, somewhere, heaven or hell, and so will you, each one of us will. And Jesus went to the heart of the matter here, their spiritual state.

Jesus is the judge of all the earth and he declares them in error. Look at verse 29, “You are in error,” he says. He has that right, he addresses here truth and error. And he always judges by the truth. And their error comes from two related forms of ignorance, there are two things they do not know.

He does more than just tell the Sadducees they're wrong, he tells them why they're wrong. What is the root of their error, “You're in error because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God. That's why you're in error.” The root cause is ignorance. It is sinful, willful ignorance, rejection of what they ought to have known. And he starts with this, you don't know the scriptures. “You do not know the scriptures,” he says. Which is really actually kind of remarkable because they are bringing a scriptural case, “Moses taught us that,” etc.

Is it not possible to be familiar with the scriptures and not to know the scriptures? We can be actually very familiar with the words of the Bible. But there's an infinite journey to be traveled from first acquaintance with the Bible to actually knowing it perfectly and completely as Jesus does. That's an infinite journey. And all of us are on it. 

And Jesus is about to refer to one of the most familiar passages in the whole Old Testament, to prove the resurrection. And actually his argument is so deep that I'm certain they never thought about resurrection from the burning bush account.

There is always more to learn about the Bible. Amen. There's always more to learn. You should have a heart on a quest in Scripture, yearning to be fed, yearning to know more. Never stop learning the Bible, never stop feeding yourself, never stop delighting in its truth. There is this veil that comes between us and Scripture, that familiarity breeds contempt feeling, it's like, “I know this passage. I've heard this before; what more can God say to me from this? I already know this.”

People become familiar with the Bible, and they stop learning. And they stop growing. Oh let that never happen to you. If Jesus is the vine and you're merely the branches, you must remain connected to the vine and you do it through the scripture, through taking the Word of God in, to nourish your souls through the Bible. And I believe all error in the church comes from this root.

Every controversy and division that ever rent a church comes from this root that we don't know the scriptures, or the power of God. Disagreement and controversies over predestination come because we don't know the scriptures or the power of God. Disagreements and controversies over a woman's role in the church or in the home comes because we don't know the scriptures, or the power of God. Disagreements and controversies over divorce and remarriage come because we don't know the scriptures, or the power of God. Disagreements over baptism, over church polity, over anything that rends Christians apart comes because they don't know the scriptures, or the power of God. This is where we need to focus our efforts. 

So, if we ever have a disagreement or a controversy in this church you know we ought to do? We ought to know the scriptures and the power of God, go there for it. The Bible is not lacking. He's given us everything we need for life and godliness, it is sufficient for this church. Amen. All we have to do is just go find the answers in there. And if we're looking and we just don't see it, we need to pray that God would take the veil from our eyes and enable us to do what he commands.

So he says, “You don't know the scriptures.” He also says to the Sadducees, “You don't know the power of God.” Now, power could mean the authority, the right to command we talked about that last time, God has the right to command, or it could refer to God's ability to do anything. That there's nothing that's impossible with God.

The Sadducees perhaps, probably, deny the resurrection because they couldn't visualize how it could be done. They didn't have any idea how God could actually pull it off. The body is destroyed completely by death, they might say, worms eat it, sea creatures consume it, fire burns it up, it's gone. It's entirely gone. How could God resurrect it then, it makes no sense.

The philosophers of Paul's day when he was there in Athens, they heard him discuss various things but there was one thing that really annoyed them, some of them anyway. And that's when he mentioned the resurrection of the dead. And it says in Acts 17:32, “When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered.” I hear that sneer in our culture today. The mocking that goes with this whole idea of resurrection. How can it be?

But they don't know the power of God. Amen. That God spoke into nothingness, when there was as yet nothing, and said, “Let there be a universe,” and there was. They don't understand the power of God that he took some clay and some dust of the earth and formed the first man out of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being. They don't know the power of God to do these things. God is not troubled concerning resurrection, he knows exactly what he's going to do. So let us not underestimate the power of God. 

So Jesus deals with them as a shepherd of souls, he deals with them concerning their state, and then he starts to answer their question. And he does it in two ways: He gives them a revelation, as a prophet would. And then he expounds scripture, like a pastor-teacher should.

And he gives them a revelation. He says, “Now at the resurrection, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.” Now this teaching is consistent with biblical themes and truths, but it's nowhere taught in the Old Testament. Jesus is giving them some insights about the future worlds.

Now, it makes sense, in this present world we were given bodies. We were created male and female, we were given reproductive organs, so that we could obey the command that God gave to male and female, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” That's this present world.

But in the next world, says Jesus, that will no longer be needed. Marriage as we understand it will not be needed in the next world. There'll be a set number of human souls, and that number will not increase, just as the number of angels has not increased from creation. And so the angels do not marry, further implications of that are beyond the scope of this sermon, you can speculate if you want. But Jesus just gives some insight here concerning angelic life and concerning future life in the new heavens and the new earth.

But then he gets to the scriptures, and he says, “But about the resurrection of the dead,” verses 31 and 32, “Have you not read what God said to you? ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’”

Now what fascinates me about how Jesus introduces this scripture, is this statement, “Have you not read what God said to you?” Dear friends. God said it to you. And Hebrews 3 says that the Holy Spirit is saying it to you now. God said it back then with you in mind. And he's speaking it to you now by the Holy Spirit, again, directly with you in mind. The Scripture is for you, dear friends, and it's for me. And so God is speaking what he said back then to you.

God spoke it to Moses originally at the burning bush. Remember what happened: Moses was shepherding his father-in-law's sheep. I've often wondered about that, at age 80, he's like going nowhere, it's a nowhere job at age 80, shepherding your father-in-law's sheep. It's not going well for you. But there he was and God had big plans for the last 40 years of Moses's life. So I'm not promising any of you octogenarians, you 80-year-olds, that exciting things are gonna happen for you in this world over the next 40 years, but it might be. Do not underestimate the power of God.

But Moses in his case was shepherding his father-in-law's sheep. And there he saw an astonishing sight, a burning bush. But what was amazing was that, though the flames were burning all around the bush and in the bush, the bush wasn't consumed. And so Moses went aside to see that sight. And God spoke to him from the flames of the burning bush, “Do not come any closer, for the ground in which you're standing is holy ground. I've indeed heard the suffering of my people and now I'm gonna send you to them,” and he said, “Who are you?” And he said, “I am the God of Abraham, and I am the God of Isaac and I am the God of Jacob.”

But what Jesus says here is that God said that to you. He's speaking it to you. He said it to the Sadducees, he says it to the human race because later Moses wrote it down. I really think that's when God made it clear that he was saying it to you, when Moses wrote it down. And so, as we read it, God is speaking it to us.

The root problem is the Sadducees did not believe that God was speaking this scripture to them. They underestimated the power of God to speak through Scripture. And I think they did not have that living relationship with God that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had. And so they were dead in their transgressions and sins, they could not understand.

And now we come to one of the most fascinating questions. How did Jesus actually prove the resurrection by this passage? This, dear friends, is a deep question, it is not easy to answer. I want to urge you, just put your finger here in Matthew 22, and go back to Genesis 13, and also find Hebrews 11. There are two key passages that I want to refer to, but not yet. But it's going to take you a while to get there, so I can preach while the pages are fluttering. All right.

How does Jesus prove the resurrection from grammar? Well the proof of the resurrection rests on a simple verb tense in the grammar, “I am,” he says. “I am the God of Abraham, and I am the God of Isaac, and I am the God of Jacob.” Right now, I'm in a relationship with those three men. Remember that in the account of the burning bush the word, I am, is a clear assertion that God makes of eternal existence. He is the living God. And he forever exists, he's forever I am, I am, I am. And that's his name. He's the I Am. And so he's saying, Jesus is saying, “God is right now in a relationship with Abraham.”

You know how Abraham is called the friend of God. Well, he's his friend now, right now. He's in a relationship right now with Abraham and with Isaac, and with Jacob. And then he applies it, saying he is not the God of the dead but of the living. God's not a god of dead people, he's a God of the living, he's the living God and he's the God of the living.

So that's part of it, but I just wasn't satisfied with that as the fullness of the answer, the present tense, I am Abraham's God, because what's going on with Abraham right now? Well, he is a disembodied spirit. He's a spirit of a righteous man made perfect, the book of Hebrews tells us. How does that prove the resurrection, Jesus? I have more questions. And as I thought about this, I was just like, How does Jesus ... He's satisfied that he's proved it, the Sadducees went away so at least that worked.

But I wanna know how does that statement prove bodily resurrection? Well, I think it has to do with what God intended by giving Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob bodies to begin with. And the fact that he will not be thwarted in his intention to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob bodies. And it goes to what he promised concerning the promised land. But now look at Hebrews 13. I'm gonna I'm just going to do something here that is not in my outline, sorry Herbert. How are you doing? He's translating up there for our Spanish-speaking friends.

It's in Genesis 13 and in Hebrews 11. This is off the text, but that's all right, it's exciting we go out off the text, amen? All right, so what happened in Genesis 13? Well you remember what happened, there was a controversy between Abraham and Lot, and there's not enough land for both of their flocks and they are getting into some difficulties, and so Abraham says to Lot, you know, “Go ahead and choose. You go right, I'll go left. You know, you go left, I'll go right.” And just so Lot chooses the well-watered area down by Sodom and Gomorrah, bad choice, that's another message for another time. But down he goes.

And then God speaks to Abraham. And look what he says, it's fascinating. Verse 14, Genesis 13:14 and following: “The Lord said to Abraham after Lot had parted from him, ‘lift up your eyes from where you are, and look north, and south, and east and west, all the land that you see I will give,’” now listen, this is the key statement here, “‘All of the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.’”

Not just to your offspring, now he said that in Genesis 12, “I'm gonna give it to you, Abraham, and I'm gonna give it to you forever.” Now, if you're reading through the ESV, through the Bible in a year thing you read this morning, I won't ask if you're on schedule, all right. But if you are on schedule you'd read about how Abraham had to bargain with some, some people in the promised land to get a cave to bury his wife. So go over to Hebrews, and in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 13, there it says, “All these people,” Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised.” Stop there. Now this morning, this very morning, I saw a young man, a sweet young man, I'm not gonna embarrass him by saying his name, it's not one of my kids, wearing a beautiful little button that said, “God keeps his promises.”

Let me ask you a question, did God keep the promise to Abraham that he would give him the land forever? My answer to that is not yet, not yet. Now I know Hebrews 11:13-16 says God had planned something better for them, that better thing is the new heaven and the new earth. There is the promise to Abraham. And so here's how it works. Abraham's body has to be resurrected, and so does Abraham's land. It also has to be resurrected. The both of them are going to be resurrected, read about the resurrection of the land in Second Peter, where everything's going to disappear and the Lord's gonna establish a new heaven and new earth. And so there has to be a continuity in my way of thinking.

Now you can argue with me if you would like, but in my way of thinking if God says, “Yeah, yeah, I know I promised you this land here but I've got something better for you now. I have something better.” There must be continuity for God to keep his promise. And that continuity, the key to that continuity is one word, resurrection.

So go back to Mathew 22. That's how Jesus proves the resurrection from the statement, “I am the God of Abraham. I am his God and I keep my promises, and Abraham is up there waiting for me to keep my promise. And I will keep my promise.” And there's no sense in him getting the land if he's a disembodied spirit, would you agree with that? So let's go ahead and have resurrection of his body as well, so he can fully walk through the length and breadth of that resurrected land that God's gonna give him. Amen.

Dear friends, you are going to die, most likely, if this isn't the final generation, you will die without having received all the things promised to you either. And the key thing that's promised to you that you will not have received, a resurrection body. You're gonna die of some disease, heart disease, cancer, something, liver disease. I don't know what's going to take you out, if you're not in that mysterious final generation, but you will die. I want you to die filled with faith, brothers and sisters. God keeps his promise. Even if you draw your last breath in the ICU over here at Duke or Durham Regional, he will keep his promise to you. Die triumphant, be a witness to those standing around you who don't know that kind of faith. He keeps his promises. So that's how he proved the resurrection of the dead.

I think there's even better proof. And that's when he rose from the dead, Jesus I mean. When he said to Thomas, “Look at my hands and my feet.” When he said, “A spirit has not flesh and bones as you see I have,” there's proof for the resurrection, but you know what? We don't have access to that either anymore than just by scripture. So we have access to this proof by scripture and by the Spirit of God testifying to you through the words written on the page.

Alright, what application can we take from this? Well, many. Let's start with a humble confession, along with the Sadducees that we don't know all the scriptures or the power of God, not like we should.

It says in James 4:6, “But he gives us more grace. And that's why the scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’” Can I just urge you to start here, and just say, “Lord, I don't know the scriptures, or the power of God like I should.” And when you humble yourself like that what's God going to give you, according to James? More grace.

And isn't it interesting how the Apostle Paul in the beginning of all of his epistles begins with the same words, “Grace to you.” And at the end of his epistles, “Grace be with you.” It's kinda like you're entering a room of grace, when you read an epistle, and as you walk out grace go with you, the grace of the scriptures. He gives us more grace dear friends, so start with this. Just say, “I know I'm in error. I don't know all my errors, but I just know I'm an error. I'm humble enough to acknowledge, I am an error, and my errors are doctrinal, my errors are in my lifestyle, I've got errors all over me. I'm in error because I don't know the scriptures or the power of God.”

Be willing to acknowledge personal sin in that, part of the reason you don't know the scripture is because you are foolish, and hard of heart, as Jesus said to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus when they didn't believe the resurrection. They didn't believe. “Jesus is dead, oh we're so sad, we had hoped he would be the one,” and all this kind of thing. He said, “Oh how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” And we have to acknowledge that's our case too. We are foolish and slow of heart to believe. That's why we're in an error.

And let's embark anew on a search of the Scriptures, with Jesus at the center. The Scriptures testify about Jesus. He is the scriptures. Let's go to Jesus in the scriptures, and let's know the scripture, shall we brothers and sisters? Let's start afresh. Read through the Bible in a year.

Flinn said last week it's not too late. I say this week it's not too late. I'll say in May, it's not too late. Okay, just start in May, that's my advice. If you want to try to catch up in five months you can do that. I will admire you like you would not believe. If you actually can start in May and finish by the end of the year that's phenomenal. I would just say wherever it is, the book of Judges, just pick up there and do full circle. That's what I advise, but just start, dear friends. There's more Bibles out there, $10 a Bible, but you're not gonna get a price like that at the family Christian store. I'm gonna get in trouble, maybe I have some friends here from the family Christian store. We probably can beat their price at least on the through the Bible in a year book. That's a subsidized price, go get a $10 Bible and read it, everyday. 

Study the Scriptures and keep a scripture notebook if it helps you to learn. Memorize, dear friends, memorize the scripture. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you take in the Word of God. In short, be a lifetime learner.

And let's also thirdly, learn the power of God, know the power of God. So start by humbling yourself and then study the Scriptures, and let's find out how powerful God is in 2010. What do you think? How do we do that, how do we discover? So we have a far deeper and greater sense of the power of God, a year from now than we do right now?

Well, have you ever meditated on omnipotence? Have you ever stood at the ocean of God's omnipotence and let the water of his knowledge just lap around your feet, and then begin to think, you know, by his wisdom he made the cosmos, chemistry, and physics and biology and all of the things, all of the systems that God, God made those things.

The immense power of God, meditate on it. Think about a scripture verse, one of my favorite on omnipotence is this, and that's in Ephesians 3:20, “Now to him who is able to immeasurably more than all you can ask or imagine.” Wow. Meditate on that. If I can imagine it then he can do immeasurably more than that. Stretch your mind on omnipotence. We are in an error because we underestimate omnipotence.

We sin, I think because we don't trust God enough, the omnipotent God. We ought to be more faithful in evangelism, we're in an error because we don't know the power of God and evangelism. If you could just learn how powerful God could be through you, as you stepped out in faith to be a witness to a coworker or a neighbor or a relative, some a total stranger, you will receive what when the Holy Spirit comes into you? Power, you need to know that power step out, step out into urban ministry, step out into the ministry of the poor and needy, step out into pro-life ministry, see God be powerful through you. You're in error because you don't know how powerful God is.

Meditate deeply and richly on what God has done. What has God done? Created the universe with a word. Destroyed the world that then was with a flood, killing everyone on the planet, but one family, eight souls, and then repopulated the whole earth through them. Re-established the human race through one family. Called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldeans, established a nation through him, a man whose body was as good as dead, his wife's womb was barren, and he established a nation as countless as the stars in the sky and the sand of the seashore. God can do anything. And he rescued that people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm with 10 miracles. 10 plagues. And with the mighty Red Sea crossing and it destroyed all of Pharaoh's army, but spared alive Israel, and he gave them the Ten Commandments and descended in power, and he made the earth shake, and he spoke to them in such a powerful voice that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken.

And he brought them in, after 40 years of wandering, into the promised land. And took it away from seven nations who were more powerful and more numerous than Israel and gave it to them instead, and he rescued them again and again from Gentile attacks, again and again, even killing 185,000 Assyrian troops in one night with the angel of the lord. That's the power of God.

And more than that, through a virgin, he brought his only begotten Son into the world, and protected him from all of Satan's temptations. He was sinless and pure. And he did great miracles. He fed 5,000 men plus women and children with five loaves and two fish. He walked on the water, and he spoke to the winds and the waves and they obeyed him. And he died. And in a single afternoon he took away the sin of the land, dear friends, of the world, the sins of the world were heaped on him. And so he died for all of God's people. In a single moment all of the wrath of God poured on him our propitiation.

But God didn't leave him dead. On the third day he raised him from the dead. And he sent the Holy Spirit to testify to the truths of these things, and the church has been growing now for 2,000 years, this is the God that we serve. 

Is there anything that's too difficult for God? That's what Gabriel said to Mary when she said, “How shall this be I'm just a virgin.”

And so therefore, dear friends, fourthly let's believe in the resurrection from the dead, amen? Let's believe in it. I wanna just address any unbelievers that are here today. I prayed that you would be here, and I pray that God would speak right now to you. You have heard the gospel. You have heard the gospel. Listen again to the basic facts: 1 Corinthians 15, Paul said this, “But what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried and on the third day was raised to life according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter and the twelve and after that to more than 500 of the brothers.

Those are basic gospel facts. It says in Romans 10:9-10, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your hearts that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” And so I appeal to you, someday, if we're not in this final generation someday you will die. And after that you will face judgment, oh go with Christ as your advocate, and you will live forever. You will be resurrected, you'll receive a resurrection body as glorious as his, trust in him.

But I also want to appeal to you as Christians, believe in the resurrection. I think sometimes we forget the doctrine of the resurrection, and we do it shamefully. Don't cling to youth, like our insane culture does. Just grow old. And, look, I don't think there's anything wrong with keeping in good shape as you grow old. Do whatever it takes, take the Advil, whatever it takes, do your exercises alright, let's prolong our years here as long as we can, but dear friends, we're going to age and we're going to die. And let's not forget it's a judgment on our race for sin. Okay, submit to it, humble yourself under it. Okay, let's not fight aging, the way so many people do. Plastic surgery and Botox and all of those things. I'm not saying it's sinful to get all of those things, but if your motive is I'm trying to fight aging and I don't want to get old, I don't wanna... That's wrong, that's not a Christian attitude.

And can I urge you, grieve for lost ones, grieve but don't sin while grieving. Don't grieve like the hopeless who have no hope in the resurrection. Trust in the resurrection. And when we go to pray for and visit sick Christians, those that are diagnosed with terminal cancer or those that have some... Let's remember that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. It is a good thing to be separated from these bodies of death, as God wills. And so, yes, pray for healing, we are commanded to pray for healing, okay, but let's also keep in mind that some Christians die when the time has come for them to leave this world. So let's keep that in front as we pray for this.

And let's study the doctrine of the resurrection, go to 1 Corinthians 15 to study it, “So will it be with the resurrection of the dead,” says Paul, “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable, it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown in natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. And if there is a natural body there will be a spiritual body.” Feed your faith in the resurrection. It will help you face perhaps a trial, you may have to face in the year 2010.

May 21, 2008, Steven Curtis Chapman's teenage son, Will, accidentally hit their adopted five-year-old daughter, Maria Sue with their SUV and killed her. He never saw her. I can't imagine what that would be like, to be the father of those two kids. I can't imagine what it would be like to stand there at that funeral, that little coffin. But then there's your 18-year-old, Will, and then just how do you minister to Wil?. How do you minister to him? This is how you minister to him, this, the doctrine of the resurrection. And Will, at 18, said this, in an interview he said, “I'm hanging in there. I have some really hard days, I have some really good days. I know I'm going to see my little sister again. It is really my faith that keeps me going.”

Steven Curtis Chapman, said he was quote “desperately hopeful.” The word hopeful is totally focused on this doctrine of the glorious resurrection, the future that we have in heaven, just months before the accident, he had written a song for his daughters called “Cinderella.” The love of a daddy and his princess. They would frequently dance together, right before bedtime and he would sing this song to them. After Maria Sue died, he thought, “I can never sing that song again.” And then God did a work in his heart. And he said, now he sings it in hope, he says, “Someday I'm gonna dance with Maria again, and we'll be with each other forever.” That, dear friends, is the power of the resurrection. I don't know what or how, I'm not a prophet. I'm just saying I have a strong sense from the Lord that some of you need to hear this message today to get ready for something.

So listen, listen, and feed your faith in the resurrection, study it, so that you can grieve not like the hopeless but those who have a strong hope. 

Fifthly, I urge you to develop your relationship with God now. “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Is he your god? Feed that friendship. That's the future that we have in heaven. I will be their God and they will be my people, how many times does He say that, that is our future. That's where we're heading in the book of Revelation. He will take away all of these evil things, he will take away sin and crying and death. He'll take them away. And we will see his face and we'll be in his presence and he will be our God and we will be his people, and he will be our God forever. I am the God of Abraham, now and forever. Is he your God?

Feed that relationship with him now. And look forward to the consummation of that relationship in eternity, set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Christ returns, not in this world. Set your hope fully on that so that when the rains come and the strings rise, and the winds blow, and beat against your house, it won't fall because it has its foundation on something eternal.

And then one final word about marriage. Cherish marriage now. Cherish it, make it great, but realize it's temporary, it's temporary. I have seen some phenomenal marriages since I've been here. I've seen some wonderful things. But I've also seen some people who did not handle the death of their spouse as well as they should have or could have.

I say that with great tenderness. I don't find fault, I just urge you to think biblically about your marriage. Marriage was designed as a picture of a future reality, a reality of Christ in union with his people. God has something better than the two of you pairing off in mind for both of you. And that is that all of us would be perfectly one as the Father and the Son are one, and united with Christ our bridegroom for all eternity. So what we should do then is have our Christian marriages, as much as possible picture that future reality. But then when the time comes to be separated by death, that we can rejoice that one of you is closer to that final reality and the other is coming soon. Close with me if you would in prayer.

Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Matthew chapter 22. We resume our series in the gospel of Matthew. As I was growing up, one of my favorite movies - I love adventure movies and war movies, if they're done in a certain way. And this old movie, Sergeant York, was probably one of my favorites, a black and white film with Gary Cooper. Perhaps some of you've seen it. Sergeant York, a true hero, a military hero in World War I, captured 132 Germans in one day, almost single-handedly, amazing achievement. And they made a movie about his life a number of years later and Gary Cooper starred in it. In that film, Cooper portrays Alvin York as kind of a hell-raising mountain man before he became a Christian, riding through town and firing off guns and causing trouble. But the Lord got hold of his life, he came to faith in Christ, and he renounced all forms of wickedness, and all aggression, and fighting, and all the things that he'd done, and he walked with Christ, and he was a Sunday school teacher and he was growing.

And then World War I came around for the United States in 1917, and the draft was enacted and he was drafted. And this threw him into a crisis of conscience. He didn't know whether he could go and fight, he might be a conscientious objector. He wasn't sure what to do, and so he went along in the process, and I think it was a sergeant that said, “You really just need to go and get it settled in your heart, whether you can even do this.” And so he took some time and he went off into the mountains there of Tennessee, and he wandered around with his Bible, and he sat down overlooking a beautiful valley, and he opened up to the passage of Scripture that we're going to study today.

Matthew 22:21, and there he read, “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.” And in this way, he resolved his own struggling conscience. He felt that he was able to serve in the military and rendered to Caesar those things that were Caesar's, and he could do it as an act of worship to God. Now, whether you accept his particular interpretation of that passage or not, this passage talks about a Christian's proper relationship to government. And if you know anything about church history, you know that Christians have struggled with that question and continue to struggle. And I predict we're going to continue to struggle and even more in this nation.

And therefore, we have to return to the Scriptures and find out what God expects from us in terms of our relationship with government. From the very beginning of the Christian church this has been a struggle, after all, it was Caesar's governor, Pontius Pilate, that put our Lord to death, unjustly at the human level. Who ordered the crucifixion of Christ, and it was Roman soldiers who nailed Jesus to the cross.

But on the other hand, it was a godly Roman centurion, Cornelius, who was the first Gentile convert to Christ. A man of faith. The greatest apostle of them all, the Apostle Paul was both a quintessential Jewish Christian and a Roman citizen, both. And Paul frequently claimed the benefits of Roman citizenship and used the transportation and commerce abilities of the Roman Empire to spread the gospel. And yet it was Caesar who ordered the Apostle Paul's execution, as well.

The New Testament constantly commands willing submission to the government. And yet, it was the government that viciously persecuted Christians on and off for the first three centuries of church history. The Emperor Constantine declared himself to be a Christian in the year 325 A.D., but that declaration brought a wedding of church and state, which was in some ways for a long time, ruinous to the Christian church. And required a massive reformation twelve centuries later to bring it out of some of the false understandings that happened at that time.

In many nations around the world, it is government that is viciously persecuting our brothers and sisters in Christ. Godless governments or governments dominated by other religions, world religions, that are persecuting our brothers and sisters, hunting down godly pastors, arresting them, persecuting them, torturing them and killing them.

And yet here in America, there has been for over 200 years, somewhat of a comfortable relationship between Christianity and the state government. Many godly Christians have had a massive influence on the governmental life of our nation. Christians have as much right to vote in this country and set policy as non-Christians do, to influence as any other group. Some have even gone so far, many times, there are many statements in history that America is a Christian nation because of the pervasive influence of Christians on the history of government in this country.

Barack Obama recently distanced himself from that statement, said America is not a Christian nation. And some have been debating that statement as well. And so, we see in recent history, the comfortable relationship between the Christian faith and the surrounding secular government, decaying a bit, fraying around the edges, even becoming more and more corrupt.

I think we all acknowledge that with the legalization of abortion over a quarter century ago, the Roe v. Wade decision, that the relationship between the Christian faith and the secular government turned for the worse, and in many ways corruption has entered this relationship and we stand in uncertain times. And we don't really know what the future holds in terms of our relationship with the government of our country.

And so, the question stands before us as it has before, every generation of Christians: “How should a faithful Christian deal well with the government of the land in which they live?” Now, Sergeant York found an answer in the text that we're gonna study today, I think we can find an answer, too. I don't know that we're gonna find the exact same applications that he did, but this is a text that we should turn to and attend to. And it begins with an attack on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that was plotted out and executed by his enemies.

Look at verses 15 through 17, “Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘We know that you're a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren't swayed by men, since you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’”

So this is, as we've mentioned in context, the final week of Jesus' life. What a tumultuous week. One conflict after another. His enemies are mobilized. They're moving out and they're plotting against him.

Look at verse 15 again, “The Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.” They took counsel together, as in Psalm 2. They assembled together and took counsel how they might trap him. And the idea here is to trap him by his speech. Ordinarily, people who speak a lot are vulnerable to making an occasional gaffe. “Where words are many, sin is inevitable,” the Bible says. I actually pray, as one whose ministry involves a lot of speaking, that I might avoid saying something that will bring shame to the Savior, say something that's doctrinally not true.

In our day and age of YouTube and electronic devices that can capture the moment immediately, you can say something you wish you hadn't said, and a million people can see it over the next week. And political campaigns have been scuttled by that kind of thing. An off-color remark, an off-hand remark, and there it goes up on YouTube and you're finished. Your dreams of being president are now over. Such an off-hand comment can torpedo a presidential campaign, but in Jesus' day, it could get you killed. And so they were looking for something by which they could trap him and - can we say it - right to the end, kill him. They want to kill him. That's their goal.

And so they're trying to get rid of Jesus. And there are two ways, I think, if you look at it logically that they could have gotten rid of Jesus, they can get rid of him by law or they can get rid of him by force. Either way, I think it was okay, they would have attempted either one, but they had problems on each side. Now, if they wanted to get rid of Jesus by law, legally they had to work with the Romans because they were in charge.

And according to Roman law at the time, the Jews could not have put Jesus to death. The Romans had no interest whatsoever in any religious controversy between Jesus and the Pharisees or Sadducees, would not have been interesting to them at all. The claim that Jesus was the Son of God was blasphemy to the Sanhedrin, but Pilate would not have been interested in such a thing. So Jesus had to somehow be made a criminal in the eyes of Rome. If Jesus was heard to be espousing rebellion against Rome, then the Romans would take an interest in that and they would take care of executing Jesus themselves. They have no problem putting the people to death. Hence, the question about taxation.

On the other hand, the Jewish leaders could simply rise up and attack Jesus. Just kill him by force, as they tried to do several times in his ministry. But the problem there, as it says again and again in Matthew's gospel, was the people. They were afraid of the people. They all loved Jesus and held that Jesus was a prophet of God. And so, if they had managed to rise up and kill Jesus, then the crowd in rage would have turned and killed them. And they were afraid of that, they were afraid of the people.

So in order to strip this protection away, Jesus had to be made repulsive in the eyes of the people. Hence, the question about taxation. If Jesus said that they didn't have to pay taxes to Caesar, then he would be made repulsive at least in the eyes of patriotic Jews who could then foment negative feelings about Jesus and it would be easier to put Him to death.

And so this whole issue brings together two strange bedfellows, if you can look at it that way: the Pharisees and the Herodians. Ordinarily, they wouldn't have agreed about much of anything. The Pharisees were orchestrating this whole thing. Verse 16, “The Pharisees sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians.”

Interesting, they didn't go themselves. They had no problems confronting Jesus but the approach here is one of subtlety, they're trying to trap Jesus. And so, I think they might have felt that Jesus would let his guard down, if these young disciples came along and asked this question that they'd been fed by their masters. And so they send the disciples but they're organizing this.

The Pharisees, you know, they were zealots for the law of Moses, sought to keep ritual purity at all costs. Their adamant desire to follow the laws of Moses and they absolutely despised the Romans, and the occupying forces, the Roman legions. Some Pharisees were even zealots who would have taken up arms against the Romans, and did at many times, would have favored armed rebellion against Rome. They would have absolutely repudiated paying any taxes to Caesar at all if they could.

On the other hand, the Herodians were disciples or followers of King Herod, who was a collaborator with Rome. He was really a puppet king. His whole power was based on Roman consent, and he personally benefited from the taxes paid to Caesar. The Herodians would have instantly reported Jesus to the Romans if Jesus had said, “You don't have to pay Roman taxes.”

So these are strange bedfellows. How in the world do they agree to get together? Well, there's an old adage, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” That's how it works. It happened in World War II. You remember how the Western countries like Great Britain and the United States worked together with a communist, totalitarian, dictator, genocidal maniac like Joseph Stalin, because they were all fighting against Hitler. And so these two groups that are ordinarily enemies, they got together, they represent opposite sides of the question on taxation. They didn't agree with each other in this question. But they did agree about one thing, they wanted Jesus dead.

And so they're willing to get together and come and ask him this question about taxation. And they come subtly. They come like a snake. They come with flattery. Look at verse 16, “‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘We know that you're a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren't swayed by men since you pay no attention to who they are.’” Well, that's just flattery, is all that is.

Flattery is insincere praise given for selfish reasons. It's an ancient technique. It's been around a long time. Dale Carnegie in his famous book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, said this about flattery, “Flattery is telling the other person exactly what he thinks about himself.” So in other words, the more prideful you are, the more susceptible you are to flattery. If you keep getting flattered and somebody uses flattery with you, could it be you have a pride problem?

In Aesop’s Fable, “The Fox and the Crow,” the wily fox sees an ugly crow sitting up high in a branch with a piece of cheese in his beak, remember this story. And he persuades the crow that it has the most beautiful voice of any bird. And how much he would love to hear the crow sing another song. The crow believes this, and opens his mouth and begins to squawk some hideous song, and the precious piece of cheese flutters down to the ground and the fox gobbles it up. Do not trust flatterers is the moral of that story.

Scripture has its own warning on flattery. Proverbs 29:5 says, “Whoever flatters his neighbor is spreading a net for his feet,” isn't that what these folks were doing with Jesus, spreading a net for his feet? If I can just pause and urge, never use flattery. If you're going to encourage somebody, be sure your motives are pure. You wanna build them up in their faith. You wanna see them glorify God more. Don't give compliments or encouragement to get something back from somebody.

And so they come with flattery. And the flattery, interesting that they use, actually is true. The things they said about Jesus are all true. The problem is they didn't believe they were true, and therefore, it's flattery. Jesus was in fact a man of integrity. NIV gives just “a man of truth,” he was true, literally. Honest through and through, perfectly free from any deception or corruption. Actually, Jesus was far more than that, he wasn't just merely a truthful man, he was the truth, himself. He was truth embodied. But they didn't believe this, the Pharisees actually believed he was a deceiver teaching false doctrines.

Secondly, He actually did teach the way of God truthfully. He perfectly spoke the words of his Heavenly Father. He said nothing except what the father had told him to say. And he accurately portrayed the way of God. This is all true. But again, he's far more than this, he didn't just merely proclaim the way, he was the way to God and still is. For Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” But again, they didn't believe this. They actually believed he was a deceiver leading the people astray.

And thirdly, Jesus was truly no respecter of persons. He didn't respect a man's face, he wasn't concerned with his appearance or his position, it meant nothing to him. Not swayed at all by public opinion. I believe never in human history has any man been so freed from concern about other people's opinions.

Have you not noticed how many times Jesus puts out the fire by pouring a bucket of kerosene on it? He is willing to say the truth. They come at him in John 5, because he's healing on a Sabbath. He said, “Well, you asked me about healing,” He said, “Actually, my Father is always at his work to this very day and I too am working.” So he went to the next level. “I'm not merely just doing things on the Sabbath, I'm following my Father. God is my Father.” Don't imagine for a moment, Jesus didn't know the effect that his words would have. He was just utterly fearless when it came to dealing with people. The fact of the matter is, every leader, every king, every ruler, every judge, every great man or great woman that has ever lived, will stand some day before Jesus and be judged by him. He's the judge of all the earth. He has no fear before people. None whatsoever. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Now, I actually think Jesus' enemies did believe that he was free in his speech, that he spoke his convictions and let the chips fall where they may. I think they believed that, they were actually counting on it. They wanted Jesus to speak forth his own destruction. And so they were counting on him to say what his opinion was.

Now, having laid the flattery on thickly, Jesus' predators then spring the trap, verse 17, “Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” The word “tax” here is “census” from which we get “census”. This was the tax that was set up, the poll tax set up by Caesar Augustus, and then renewed again and again by these Caesars. And it was the most offensive tax. It was basically a tax for having a head. If you had a head, you had to pay a tax. And so they would count your heads and then you would pay the tax.

And so Jesus has to answer this question, “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” They believe this, either way. Either way, he's stuck. If he had said, “No. It is not lawful or it is not right for us to pay taxes to Caesar. This is the promised land, promised to Abraham. These Romans are usurpers. They ought not to be here.” Then they've got him. Because the Romans are gonna come after a great powerful leader like that and Jesus was, with multitudes of people following him, they would have shut him down, they would have killed him, he would have been instantly arrested by Pilate and put to death as an insurrectionist. And their problem would be solved.

But if on the other hand, he said, “It is right to pay taxes to Caesar,” then he alienates the zealots and patriotic Jews, all of that harkening back to 2,000 years before that, when God had promised this land to Abraham and to his descendants forever. And they looked at these Romans as coming in and usurping their rightful place in the Promised Land.

It was a brilliant ploy. They're playing chess with Jesus, and they feel like they have Him trapped, and there's nothing he can do, no matter what he does, he loses. But they forgot one thing, they didn't understand one thing. They were playing chess with the God who created the universe. They were crossing intellectual swords with the mind who is presently sustaining our atoms and molecules, together. You can't get ahead of Jesus mentally or intellectually. All praise be to God, for the mental powers of Jesus. You can't get ahead of him, you don't catch him with his guard down, it never happens. The mind of Christ.

And so Jesus immediately goes to the heart of the matter and he doesn't immediately deal with the issue. He immediately deals with their hearts in bringing him the issue. Verse 18, he says “You hypocrites. Why are you trying to trap me?” The Scripture says “Jesus, knowing their evil intent.” He studied their hearts.

It is one thing, and we can do this, to sense flattery and hypocrisy. Jesus didn't sense anything, He knew it. He knew their hearts, he knew their hearts perfectly. He studies our hearts and our minds, as it says in the Book of Revelation. He knew their evil intent and he called them hypocrites. A hypocrite literally, it's an actor, it's somebody who puts on a mask to cover up his true intentions, his true person. And so, they were pretending to be fawning kind of fans of Jesus. But actually they wanted him dead.

And so Jesus exposes their hypocrisy, and then he evades their trap. Look at verses 19-22. Jesus' enemies underestimated his infinite mind. And so do you, and so do I. There's not a single person here that rightly esteems Jesus' thinking power. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways,” says the Lord “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my thoughts higher than your thoughts, and my ways higher than your ways."

So as they're trying to play chess with Jesus, they didn't know who they were dealing with. I love stories in which somebody incognito gets into a certain situation and people don't know who they're dealing with. I read some time ago, a story about Dr. Emanuel Lasker, who is one of the greatest chess players in history.

And he was Chess Champion, he was German and Chess Champion for 27 years, the longest chess reign in history. And he had a little hobby. He used to like to go around to coffee shops and little places in different towns, and just play chess with people. And he would gauge the ability, and just make it fun for himself. And he could dial his ability at whatever the level, and he just loved to do this.

One day, he came to a village where there was this old blind man, who was a chess expert, who had almost never lost. This man was an expert chess player. Though he was blind, he was able to play the whole game in his mind, didn't have to see the pieces. And so they were playing and as the game unfolded, Lasker played a certain move and the blind man just smiled. And he said, “Dr. Lasker, I presume?” And he could tell just from the move, and he said, “I'm undone, I'm uncovered.” The blind man could see, but no one else could see, this was the greatest chess player in the world.

I love those kind of stories because Jesus really was God incognito. In “Hark The Herald Angels Sing,” we say “Mild, he laid his glory by.” Why do they underestimate Jesus? Because Jesus wasn't fully on display in all of his glory there. He looked like just an ordinary Jew. And so, they underestimated his mind, they thought of him in a fleshly way, and so they thought they had trapped him.

But let me tell you something, Jesus cannot be trapped. And this is a fundamental principle concerning Jesus' death. “No man takes my life from me, but I lay it down freely of my own accord. I have the authority to lay it down and I have the authority to take it back up again.” John 10:18. You can't trap Jesus into dying, you can't surround him with a force too great for him to handle. If he doesn't wanna die, he is not going to die.

Then why did he die? Well, He died for you and me, because we're sinners, he died under the wrath of God, to take away the penalty for our sins. He chose to die, he wasn't trapped into death. He wasn't a victim, he died because sinners like you and me cannot stand before God and hope to avoid hell, except that Jesus saves us. I just have to appeal to you now and say, do you know him as a savior? Don't be amazed at his intellectual abilities, yes, be amazed, but that's not enough. Jesus laid down his life for you, if you'll only trust in him.

I ask you to simply repent. You don't need a bunch of religion, you don't need a bunch of insights you don't need all of this, you need to know that Jesus was God, became man, shed his blood on the cross for your sins and all of your sins will be forgiven, God will see you as righteous as Jesus if you simply believe in him. It's all you need to do. 

So Jesus couldn't be taken by accident, his guard isn't down, no one takes his life from him. And so he decides to become a teacher and he uses an object lesson, you know an object lesson? You use an object to teach something. He says, bring me the coin. “Show me the coin used for paying the poll tax.” Apparently, they had to go get one, none of the Jews had one of those hateful things.

So they managed to go get it. And he asked the question, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?” Well, on the coin would have been at that point, a portrait of Tiberius Caesar. But, and very offensive to the Jews, was an inscription which proclaimed the divinity of Tiberius Caesar, that he was a God. Now, it is an axiom of ancient governments and probably of governments today, whosoever face is on the money is ruling that country. And so, that was Caesar's country because his face was on the money.

So Jesus is focusing attention on the coin itself and on the ruler. And that offensive coin would have been brutally offensive to the Jews, because it had an image, a graven image on it, of someone who was claiming to be god, the son of the divine Augustus, literally the son of a god. And it would have been a violation, therefore, of the Ten Commandments against graven images. As a matter of fact, if you go to Israel today, you can meet some Jews, Orthodox Jews, who will not allow their photo to be taken, even in the 21st century, because they believe it's a violation of the Ten Commandments.

Secondly, on the other side, this coin would have shown Tiberius Caesar in priestly robe as though he was a high priest of God. It was a very offensive coin. 

And so Jesus' enemies are only happy to produce this coin and show it to him, because they imagine that Jesus is about to speak the words that will end his life. So go ahead, Jesus here it is. What do you wanna say? Is it lawful to pay tax to Caesar or not? And then Jesus says this: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.”

Now, it's amazing, Jesus changed the word. They ask. “Is it lawful to give the poll tax to Caesar?” He changes the word to, what we would have to say in English, “Render” or “give back.” Something like giving someone their due. He changes and intensifies the word. It is Caesar's by right, render it to him, it is right to give it to him. It is his. So give it to him.

And so, he asserts here, that it is in fact, lawful to support governments even wicked pagan idolatrous governments with tax money. It is their due, we must render it to them. And it is astonishing if you meditate on it, that Jesus is upholding the right of this pagan government that in a few days' time, will execute him, and he knows it. He's already predicted it, they're gonna hand him over to the Gentiles, to be mocked and flogged and crucified. And on the third day, he'll be raised to life. He's predicted it multiple times in Matthew's Gospel, he knows exactly what Pontius Pilate is going to do to him. And yet, for all of that, He says, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's.” But he doesn't stop there, he extends it beyond, infinitely beyond. “Render to God those things that are God's.”

Well, let's look at the first one. What is Caesar's? What should we render to Caesar? Well, let's start with taxes. The simple answer on taxes is, yes, you must pay them. So the federal government is not gonna come in and arrest me as an insurrectionist, I'm gonna say, “You need to pay taxes to the federal government.” I would urge that you not pay them a penny more than they deserve. That's a different matter. Okay, get a good tax attorney, or somebody, don't pay them a penny more. We're not looking to give charity to the federal government. I'm starting to show my political leanings here, but at any rate, we're not looking to give extra. Donating money to the federal government, I don't think we need to do that. I recently received my 10-40 in the mail. Boy, they're right on it, aren't they? And they get it out to you just in case you might wanna pay on January 4, just get it right in the mail. So at any rate. We must pay taxes. The answer is yes.

Now, what does it mean when we talk about authority? Jesus basically is saying the authorities that exist have been established by God, He will say that through His apostle Paul. What is authority? It is the right to command obedience. It is the right to command obedience. Therefore, in our family, we talk about God-ordained authorities. There are authorities that have been instituted by God, and they have the right to give commands, not merely suggestions. Friends give suggestions, authorities give commands.

And so, authority that exists has been established by God. It says again in Daniel 4:17, “The Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of men.” And so God sovereignly sets up kings.

Now, there were benefits of Caesar in Jesus' day, the Romans conquest of the Mediterranean had united that part of the world in a system and infrastructure that made the gospel able to travel very easily there. It meant that as long as a country accepted Roman rule, they could live under the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace, free of war, which is a great benefit.

And the Romans were generally enlightened leaders, they used local leaders like Herod and others to rule over their own people and made it worth everyone's while to be peaceful, under the Roman yoke. And so, they were excellent at long-term stability, they gave a basic modicum of Roman justice, they punished the evildoers, as best as they could, although it wasn't perfect, because both Jesus and Paul were executed wrongly, at the human level. But at the same time, it was a better system of justice than many that existed.

And as with any reasonable government, they protected the people from rampant crime, from anarchy, from armed mobs roaming the streets and brought stability and order to daily life. That's what you've got from the Roman government. 

Well, what are the benefits of government today? Well, in Romans 13:4, Paul says “The ruler is God's servant to do you good.” And again in Romans 13:6. “This also is why you pay taxes, because the authorities are God's servants who give their full time to governing.” Twice in that passage, it calls rulers God's servants who are doing you good.

And so God's servants do you good by promoting peace, and public order, establishing and upholding systems of justice, punishing evildoers, protecting people from external military threats, promoting health and prosperity by roads, infrastructures and other things, etcetera, etcetera. Now, the debates on the etcetera could go on forever on the proper role of government, but at least governments do this.

And if you wanna see the effect of no government, look at Somalia. And if you have any idea what's going on or has been going on in Somalia, from 1991 to 2006, there has been no permanent national government in Somalia. Armed bands of military thugs under different gangland warlords are trying to control the streets. It was might makes right, enforcing their wills on common people. No national laws governing commerce. And there were, in short, no taxes. So if you want a place where there are no taxes, go live in Somalia. That didn't mean you weren't going to be paying money out of pocket every time you stepped on the street, at some armed kid that came up with a gun. That was going on, but there were no taxes 'cause there was no government.

The level of daily violence in Somalia has been called catastrophic. In 2000, statistics stated that only 21% of the population had clean drinking water. 79% of the people in Somalia did not have water to drink. No such thing as safe travel in the country, at any moment armed gangs could hit you with highway robbery. 10% infant mortality rate. 25% of the babies that are born in that country die by age five. Adult literacy declined from 24% in 1989 to 17% in 2001. So that's what anarchy looks like.

Believe it or not, there's some people that kind of love Somalia and are studying it. They're in western universities that really love no government, they're watching to see if something good will come of that. Dear friends, good government is a blessing from God. Rulers are God's servants who do you good and why is that? Because sin is lawlessness, and if there is no restraining force, then there'll be lawlessness in the streets, and you know it. And so we ought to pay our taxes to Caesar, to government with grateful hearts for the benefits that we get.

But we owe more than taxes, dear friends. We also all honor, 1 Peter 2:17 says “Show proper respect to everyone, love the brotherhood of believers, fear God and honor the king.” Honor is a hard attitude of respect. We don't do it grudgingly, we do it with respect, a sense of respect and gratefulness for what they do.

We also owe obedience, we must submit ourselves for the Lord's sake, to every authority instituted among men, Romans 13. We must obey, 1 Peter 2:13-14.

And as we're able, we must participate wisely as stewards of gracious gifts given to us. We are part of a representative democracy here. A republic. And so we are able to participate, nine times in the book of Acts, it is recorded that the Apostle Paul was a citizen of Rome. If that were some corrupt thing or some evil thing, it wouldn't have been mentioned like that, but it was usually a benefit to Paul. And that kind of citizenship is a stewardship that's entrusted to us. And we must make the best of it. So that involves such things as voting wisely, jury duty, and other things like that. The key example of proper participation with a secular even godless government is Daniel in the book of Daniel. 

Daniel, in Daniel 6:3, “Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.” He was a great magistrate. Servant of the state. And he was able to use his position as a wise counselor to give frank advice to a tyrant like Nebuchadnezzar. In Daniel 4:27, he says, “Therefore, O king, be pleased to accept my advice: renounce your sins by doing what is right and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue.” Boy, that's some bold, frank advice-giving there.

And so, I think that Christians can get involved in government at many levels, as salt and light to prevent the spread of corruption by making those kinds of messages. If in fact we don't lose our saltiness

We also owe government prayer, we ought to pray. It says in 1 Timothy 2, “I urge, first of all, that requests and prayers and intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone - for kings, and for all of those in authority, so that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” That's the province of government, to enable us to live peaceful and quiet lives. 

But more than that, we have to pray for the salvation of government officials. Because Paul goes on to say “This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.” And so we ought to be praying for presidents and senators and representatives for their personal salvation, That they would come to faith in Christ. Because frankly, some day God is going to call them to give an account. For the way that they carried themselves when they're in positions of power. And they will give an account to Christ.

And so, therefore, dear friends, there are limits to our obedience to Caesar. There's only so much Caesar can command us to do. In Acts 4, Peter and John said, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God.” So whenever that comes, where the government is forcing something that causes us that compels us to disobey God, we must disobey government.

Daniel, again, our example of that, he was commanded to pray to no one but the king for 30 days. And so what does he do, he goes up to his room, and opens the window for everyone to see and prays toward Jerusalem three times a day just like he always had done. And they came and got him. Because there was no way that that secular government was going to compel him to stop praying.

By the way, what are you willing to suffer for your quiet time? What kind of suffering are you willing to go through so that you can carry on your personal prayer life? Well, that was Daniel, and he was thrown into that lions’ den. But notice that Daniel still had a respectful attitude toward King Darius. And when Darius came and got him, he who had consigned him unjustly into the lions' den. The next day, Daniel has God been able to keep you alive, He said, “O king, live forever.” There was a respectful attitude that he had. And also Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego toward Nebuchadnezzar. A respectful attitude. “I will obey you as much as I can. But if you command me to do something that I cannot do, then I will not do it.”

The ultimate end of that, dear friends comes when Antichrist rules the world. When the beast of Revelation 13 comes, and when he commands people all over the world to get a mark on their foreheads, or on their hands. And if they don't get that mark, they cannot buy or sell. No true Christian will receive that mark.

For in Revelation 14, it says, “If anyone receives the mark of the beast, they are consigned to hell and the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever.” And so, that's Christian civil disobedience to the final degree there, and many Christians will lose their lives for that form of civil disobedience.

So we have discussed what we must render to Caesar, what must we render to God? Everything. At the end of this chapter we will learn that the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. This is the first and greatest commandment. So you render to God the utmost devotion and love and effort you have in your life. He should be uppermost in your affections, above all things, give him love.

And render to God worship. Above all else. Jesus said to Satan, who said, “fall down and worship me, and I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world.” Jesus said, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” So can I say to you there are two things you must not give to government?

Do not give them your worship, I don't care what they print on their coins. Men are men and they're not gods, and so this is really a warning to Tiberius Caesar, give to God the things that are God's. You ought to repent, soon, if you think you're a God. In Acts chapter 12, Herod thought he was a God and God struck him dead on the spot and he was eaten by worms and died, because he would not give glory to God. And so this is a warning to tyrants all over the world. If you get arrogant and egotistical and think that you are gods and you're only men, be warned, beware.

But there are two things you must only give to God and certainly not to government: Worship and hope. Don't put your hope in the government, dear friends. It bothered me when Obama had a sticker that said hope in it. Don't hope in Obama. He might end up being some great president. I pray that he repents on his views on abortion. But don't put your hope in him even still, dear friends. Psalm 1:46 says, “Do not trust in princes, but put your trust in the Lord.” So do not give your hope to the federal government, it's not coming by ways of programs. The kingdom of heaven comes in by the power of the Spirit of God.

So don't give to government worship and hope, give it to God. Ascribe to the Lord, give to him what is his rightful due. Ascribe to the Lord. Psalm 92, “Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.”

And render means give back what is his. Well what is his actually then? Well, it says in Romans 11:36. “From him and through him, and to him are all things. To him be glory forever and ever!” So render to God everything, so that means rendering to Caesar is a subset of rendering to God. You render to God when you render to Caesar as a Christian, it's an act of worship to God.

So give him all things. As one statesman, and theologian put it, “There is not a square inch in all this universe that our Lord and Savior does not claim as his and say ‘mine!’” Everything is his. And so whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. So pay taxes and serve government as acts of worship to God, and submit to God thereby.

And recognize that God is sovereignly in charge of governments. God rules through governments. I know that there are difficult questions about that. Let's say one of those warlords in Somalia, just gets a little more powerful than every other warlord and then he becomes the dictator of the country, is he God-ordained authority? It's an interesting question.

But I know that in general, it's the business of Christians to submit when they can and go about the business of the kingdom, and not worry that much about the warlord and get involved in rebellion in that regard. We should therefore pay taxes as an act of worship to the God who gave us government.

We should serve jury duty as an act of worship to the God who gave us the right to participate in the judicial process. We should vote as an act of worship to God, who gives us representative government. Some of us may be called on to serve secular government in even higher ways. In the police, law enforcement, as federal judges, in the military. And if you're able to serve and that's your calling, and you serve with a clear conscience, then serve in that way, also as an act of worship to God.

And one final thing: Look forward to the future government. The coming government. We celebrated it already, at Christmas time. Isaiah 9:6, “For to us a child is born, and to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.” Amen? “And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will rule on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”

That's the coming government. Be sure you're in a right relationship with the coming king, and serve him and wait for his time, when he will establish not just a thousand years of his reign, but an eternal kingdom where we'll bow knee to him. Let's close in prayer.

Recently, I was reading an article in National Geographic on some of the new-fangled telescopes that they're making that are apparently going to be multiple times stronger than the Hubble Space Telescope, and yet here on Earth. They will be in Chile, in other places, and they are just huge. But I was really arrested by the opening paragraph as the author writes, he said this, “When you start stargazing with a telescope, two experiences typically ensue. First, you are astonished by the view—Saturn's golden rings, star clusters glittering like jewelry on black velvet, galaxies aglow with gentle ancient starlight. Second, you soon want a bigger telescope” Later in the article, he said this, "A telescope doesn't just show you what's out there, it impresses upon you how little you know," and that kind of awareness is sometimes called an epiphany, an awareness of just how little you know.

That word was on my mind as I was writing this sermon, epiphany, is a date on the church calendar, not our church, generally, we don't follow the liturgy in the church calendar, but genuinely, January 6 is Epiphany. I was raised Roman Catholic - don't be afraid, dear Baptist friends - I'm not bringing us back to Rome or back to the church calendar, but I was thinking about this word epiphany, the Feast of Epiphany follows the 12-day feast of Christmas, it's generally associated with the visit of the Magi. That is a Biblical focal event.

Now, what does the word means? It's really a transliteration of a Greek word, which means to manifest or to show or to display. In the Greek religion, in the Greek religious world, there would sometimes be a sudden unveiling or manifestation of a divine being, sometimes the Pantheon, the Gods would come down in human form, and suddenly you'd realize you're in Zeus' presence. The word is actually used in multiple ways in other fields, for example, there are books that have Epiphanies, authors that write them in, sudden awakening or perception about the true nature of something, an illuminating discovery, that kind of thing, realization or disclosure. Short story writer, O Henry, delighted in these kinds of things, and every Christmas we read The Gift of the Magi, I don't know if you've ever read that one, but it's a pleasant little story, a short story, and epiphany is right in the center of that one. It's a story about two young newlyweds who are living in a 19th century tenement, some poor dwelling. They have almost no money, but they want to give precious gifts to each other, and so, the young woman sells her hair, she cuts off her hair to a wig maker, so that she can buy a chain for her husband's precious inheritance, his pocket watch, which he sells to buy some combs for her hair. And so, they have an epiphany, really of not just what each had done, but of the love they have for each other. He called it The Gift of the Magi, because he centers it on the idea of that kind of a sacrificial gift, and the gift ultimately of Christ to us.

It happens in other fields too, not just literature, but science.  Perhaps you've heard the story of Archimedes who was hired by a local Greek tyrant to pursue a jeweler, who he thinks had cheated him. This King thought that the jeweler had made a crown that was supposed to be pure gold out of partly silver, partly gold, and he wanted Archimedes to find out whether it was so without destroying the crown. Hard to do. But he was there at the local bath, and as he got into the bath and saw the water spill out, he had an idea concerning what we know as specific gravity, how some things are -you know, displace more weight, and he said, “Eureka,” which means, I found it. He had an epiphany, he figured out how to do it. And so, science throughout time has had those kind of moments, Isaac Newton with the apple falling, and he thinks about gravity. Albert Einstein's father gave him when he was five years old a compass, and he kept trying to get the needle to end up somewhere other than true north, and he couldn't do it. And he started thinking about this mystical force, this magnetic force, and it got him thinking ultimately toward Physics.

So, these kind of moments of epiphany are around us all the time, but I want to focus on the true epiphany that there is in the world, and that is not anything that we discover about ourselves, some new insight about yourself, good or bad, I don't mean that. Anything we discover about the physical nature or scientific world around us, however valuable that might be. Or something you discover in history, or a surprise ending in literature, none of that. The true epiphany is Christ Himself. That Christ would manifest Himself to you. That's my desire this morning. If that happens, I will have succeeded today. That Christ would in some way reveal Himself to you, manifest Himself to you. Christ is an infinite being, the second person of the trinity, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, very God from very God begotten, not made. Being of one substance with the Father through whom all things were made. He is the ancient of days, living in eternal union with the Father, eternal relationship, good fellowship with the Father. Through Christ, God the Father created all things. Everything that was created was created through Christ, and there's not a person in this room here today that fully and perfectly and completely knows Christ. You all have more learning to do as do I, and it will take an eternity of epiphanies, of new moments of insight, of new flashes of inspiration. And I contend, I'm going to end up the sermon there, I'm just telling you where I'm going, that's what we're going to spend eternity doing. Having more and more manifestations of Jesus, more and more insights into the greatness of Christ. We're going to spend eternity that way. This is the central business of our lives that we might know God, the only true God, and that we might know Christ whom God the Father has sent. That is eternal life.

So let's focus on this first epiphany, the one that they do in the church calendar is this one to the Magi in Matthew Chapter 2. You can look there in your Bibles, if you like, at the account, Matthew 2:1-12. Keith read it for us, I'm going to go over it again, just to have the words in your mind. Matthew Chapter 2, "After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, 'Where is the one born King of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship Him.' When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. 'In Bethlehem, in Judea,' they replied. For this is what the prophet has written. But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler, who will be the shepherd of my people, Israel. Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, 'Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report back to me, so that I too may go and worship him.' After they had heard the king, they went on their way and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route."

Now, who were these Magi? There are lots of popular considerations of them, they have grasped the imagination of people reading these accounts for 2000 years. You've sung the hymn “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” Eric told me he bumped it from the worship service after reading my sermon manuscript, so it's alright to sing “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” We don't know for sure if there were three, and we don't know for sure that they were kings. Maybe, maybe not. So go ahead and sing it, but just know, maybe, maybe not, as you sing, “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” Marvin Vincent in Word Studies in the New Testament said this, "Many absurd traditions and guesses respecting these visitors to our Lord's cradle have found their way into popular belief and into Christian art. They were said to be kings and three in number, they were said to be representatives of the three families of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and therefore one of them is pictured as an Ethiopian. Their names are given as Gaspar, and Balthasar, and Melchior and their three skulls said to have been discovered in the 12th century by Bishop Rainald of Cologne are exhibited in a priceless casket in the great cathedral of that city. So during the Middle Ages and Medieval Roman Catholic times, when Pilgrims were going all over Europe to seek out relics and to worship based on those relics, they would go to Cologne and there would be these three skulls with three golden crowns, one on each skull. How weird is that? And there's this huge gold and silver box with Crystal, and you're looking through these skulls and you kneel down and worship something. I'm not sure what you're worshipping at that reliquary, but there they were, and they would look at these skulls. It’s hard to prove or disprove concerning the skulls, but that's the way it was with relics in the Middle Ages, but who were the Magi?

Well, in the Old Testament world, the Greek historian Herodotus said the Magi were a priestly caste from the Medes. The Medes live in the land we now know as Iran, modern Iran, Persia. They were very active throughout the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia, especially in Babylon during the Old Testament era. They were originally priests in the early form of that religion that came to be known as Zoroastrianism. They had an altar on which they claimed there was a perpetual flame that had come down from heaven. They kept it burning forever, and they offered on it blood sacrifices. Zoroastrianism had become the official religion of Persia by the 6th century BC. It's still practiced today in India by the Parsis who were refugees, who fled from the Muslims in the 7th century AD. So the Parsis still practice Zoroastrianism and are probably the descendants of the Magi. The Magi religion is monotheistic and bears some resemblance outwardly to Judaism, but it has deep roots in the occult. Magi used demonic practices such as sorcery and astrology and wizardry and divination of dreams and communication with the dead, and other occultic practices that are strictly forbidden in scripture. The words magic and magician come from the Magi. In the Babylonian kingdom, Magis were extremely influential in Nebuchadnezzar's court.

They figure prominently in the Book of Daniel. So they were counselors and advisors. They looked at the stars or they interpreted dreams, and in this way, they could give information to Kings. And thus the word magistrate also comes from the Magi. Magis had a special skill in interpreting dreams, but Nebuchadnezzar apparently didn't trust it as you remember in Daniel Chapter 2, he wanted the Magi to tell him what his dream was and then to interpret. They needed to clear their supernatural credentials with him first, and no one could do that, except that God revealed it to Daniel in a dream. "'And you remember the substance of that dream, and the substance of it was of a statue with a head of gold and chest and arms of silver and belly and thighs of bronze and legs of iron and feet, partly iron and partly clay that represented the flow of human history and how a rock was cut out, but not by human hands, and it struck that statue and turned it into chaff and a wind blew all the chaff away, but the rock that was cut out, that supernatural rock became a huge mountain that filled the whole earth."' And Daniel interpreted and said, 'In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all of those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.'" Now, you know what happened, Daniel became basically the chief of the Magi, at that point. He was promoted and was in charge of all the Magi. Do you think it's possible he might have more fully instructed the Magi in that kingdom, in the prophecies that Isaiah and Jeremiah and others had given concerning that coming king? I don't think it's a stretch to think that Daniel would have trained them, the Magi concerning this.

Well, if you fast forward ahead to the time of Christ, the Magi suddenly appear in the court of King Herod. Verse 1 and 2, "After Jesus was born in Bethlehem and Judea, during the time of King Herod, here come these Magi from the east. And where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw a star in the east and have come to worship Him." At this time, Magi would still have had tremendous influence in the Middle East. Of course, the power of the West was Rome, but they were centered around the Mediterranean Sea. All the other empires up to that point had been mostly eastward-type empires, heading toward India, going that direction. The Babylonian, the Medes, and the Persians, the Greeks, Alexander went right to the Indus River, going east, going east. Rome was West, and Rome basically face west and went up north toward France and Britain. And East and West kind of met in the Middle East, right around Palestine. There was at that time a mighty kingdom called the Parthian Empire. And the Romans and the Parthians had numbers of battles and a struggle for supremacy. The Magi were instrumental as pretty much king makers in the Parthian Empire, and so, they would identify who the coming kings were at the Parthian Empire.

So the Magi show up in the court of King Herod. Now, Herod is a Roman puppet, he's a puppet king in a buffer state between the Roman Empire and the Parthian Empire. So you can imagine why Herod would have been so disturbed by the Magi showing up. More than anything, I think Herod feared that some usurper, some king would come and take his place, he was utterly paranoid about that, so he would have been disturbed anyway by anyone coming to see a King born. But the Magi would have arrived with some pomp and circumstance, they would have shown up perhaps with a small army. John MacArthur says it's likely that they were wearing conical-shaped hats, like we associate with wizards. Probably not riding camels, but most likely riding Arabian steeds. And so, they would have been quite a forceful show. Meanwhile, Herod's army is out there helping with the census, so he would have felt threatened in every way by these Magi. King Herod heard the news about what the Magi were asking. "He was disturbed," it says, "and all Jerusalem with him." The word troubled, it means troubled, they're greatly agitated, shaken to the roots. Isn't it amazing how much earthly leaders seek selfishly to hold on to their power and they're willing to do anything to do it?

So Herod starts an investigation. He starts interestingly with a Biblical investigation. Calls in his Bible experts. All the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born? "'In Bethlehem, in Judea,' they replied, 'for this is what the prophet has written: 'But you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people, Israel,''" quoting Micah Chapter 5. So he does a little Biblical investigation. Secondly, he investigates with the Magi themselves. He calls them in secretly, and he finds out from the Magi the exact time that the star had appeared in the East. And then we see his false motives. "King Herod sent them to Bethlehem and said, 'Go and make a careful search for the child. And as soon as you find him, report back to me, so I too may go and worship him.'" So he's trying to find out now an actual literal location of where this baby is.

Now, Herod was one of the most murderous kings in that region's history. He was a thoroughly evil man. He was successful in politics, but he was bitterly unhappy in his private life. He married 10 wives, seeking to find happiness one after the other, including the beautiful Hasmonean Princess Mariamne who he loved passionately, but then had murdered. Later in 7 BC, he had her two sons killed as well. His favorite son, Antipater, he found conspiring against him and had him killed as well four days before his own death. And yet for all of that, he fanatically kept the Mosaic dietary regulations. He wouldn't eat any pork. And so therefore, Roman emperor Augustus said about Herod, "I would rather be Herod's pig than Herod's son." And so, it's not a stretch to imagine why he would, at the end of Matthew 2, slaughter all of the infants in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under. Clearly not worried about collateral damage, but he wanted to be sure that this infant was killed. So that was Herod. Herod's offer of worship was clearly false. Oh may it not be that way with us. "'These people honor me with their lips,' said the Lord, 'but their hearts are far from me.'" What is the nature of our worship toward Christ? Herod was a hypocrite, a liar. He didn't have any intention of worshipping Christ, but the Magi were different.

The Lord had done, I believe, a supernatural work in the Magi's heart. The worship of the Magi, I believe, was sincere. Look at Verses 9-11, "After they heard the king, they went on their way and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. And when they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh." So now we come to the epiphany, Christ disclosing himself, or God the Father, disclosing Christ to these Magi. Christ disclosed himself to the Magi in multiple ways. Let's start with Scripture. I believe that that's probably where they first heard about the King of the Jews, not from the star, but from the prophecies, maybe as early as the time of Daniel, but certainly through multiple interactions with the Jews who were scattered throughout that region, and so they are aware of the prophetic word, the Jews were conquered people. It did not seem like anything would come from the stump of Jesse, but God had planned that a shoot would come up from the stump of Jesse, he had said it through Isaiah the prophet. And like the thief on the cross who looked over to a dying Jesus and said, "Remember me Lord, when you come in your kingdom," so also these believers in the prophecies were able to look not at the present circumstances of Israel, but at the prophecies and the power of God behind them, that some day there would be a glorious king of the Jews who would rule over all the earth. And so the Magi were not in fact king makers in this case, they were just king recognizers; they recognized that Jesus was born King of the Jews. And so the epiphany came first through Scripture, through the prophecies.

Secondly, it came through the star, the supernatural star, never has there ever been a star like this star, and never will be again, I would imagine. It was a remarkable star, it was a star that led them on a journey, it moved. It was a moving star, movable star. I don't know what it is, and it's always humorous to go over to the UNC planetarium and they suppose what it was, or aligning up. Look, I'm telling you what, planets don't line up and move over a specific house in Bethlehem, amen, they don't do that. And so this was a moving star, so it was high up in the sky enough that it was seen to be a star, but it was moving. It was traveling. They had never seen anything like this, and it caused them to get their entourage together and move out. I don't know what it was. Some believers think it might have been somewhat like the Shekinah Glory of God, you know how God moved in a pillar of fire and led the Jews through the promised land in that way, and maybe he just kind of shortened it down to a star up in the sky, or maybe it was an angel. Sometimes angels are called stars. An angel who just shone with a certain radiance it looked like a star and moved, and when they saw the star stop in Bethlehem, right over the house where Jesus was, they're overjoyed. And I don't think it's a stretch to think that there was some kind of light that then shone down on the specific house. Bethlehem was a town, a village, maybe even a little city, and a specific place was identified by the light of the star, and so I don't think that the Christmas card artists are too far off when they show a star up in the sky and a light coming down right onto the house where Jesus was.

But now comes the true epiphany, and that is that this little baby should be worshipped, worshipped. "On coming to the house, they saw the child at last, with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him." The epiphany was not complete without seeing the face of the baby, and perhaps their motives would have been mixed maybe somewhat political, I don't know what all their motives were in moving out and making that journey, but their motives and falling on their face and worshipping the baby were simple. This baby was God. And I believe that God the Father had revealed his son to them. This was the epiphany. Jesus said this in John 6:44, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up at the last day." So the epiphany of Jesus was a direct revelation to their hearts of the true identity of this baby, not merely King of the Jews, but Son of God, that's why they worshipped.

Now, what was the significance of their visit? I think their visit itself was a sort of acted out prophecy of the future success of the kingdom of Christ. These Magi were Gentiles, and they were coming to open up their hearts and their treasuries and pour out blessing on the Christ. It's a picture, I think, of the success of the Gospel among the Gentiles worldwide. Certainly the gold and the incense and the myrrh, pre-figure certain aspects of Christ's ministry, gold, Kings, a treasure and incense somewhat the priestly aspect used in the Levitical priestly ministry, and then myrrh was used to wrap up dead bodies and used to wrap up Jesus' body as well, a prediction of the death of Christ as well.

But I think even more, there's a sense that these Gentiles, these significant Gentiles have traveled a distance to come and worship Jesus and give gifts of worship to Him. And so it says in Isaiah 60 and Verse 11, speaking of the New Jerusalem, where Jesus will sit on His throne and He will receive worship for all eternity. And it says in Isaiah 60 and Verse 11, speaking of the New Jerusalem, "Your gates will always stand open. They will never be shut day or night, so that men may bring you the wealth of the nations-- their kings led in triumphal procession." Picking up on the same idea of the Lord, moved, John in the Book of Revelation, to describe that Holy City, the new Jerusalem. In Revelation 21, "The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. And the nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and the honor of the nations will be brought into it. Glory in the honor of the nations will be brought into the New Jerusalem. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life". So this is the epiphany, the revelation of the identity of Christ to these wandering Magi, but the epiphanies, dear friends, were just beginning at that point.

Christ's physical life on earth was an epiphany, a revelation of God the Father. The Apostle John said this in John 1:14, "The word became flesh and made His dwelling among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of the only begotten, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." Jesus' life in the body was an epiphany of God's nature. Anyone who sees him has seen the Father. And so John also writes in 1 John 1:2, "The life appeared; we have seen it, and we testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared" - same Greek word, epiphany – "has appeared to us." So Jesus' life in the body was an epiphany of the nature of God.

So also at the moment of John the Baptist testimony concerning him, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, He's revealing His mission. But he did more than that. John the Baptist said this to huge numbers of people who were standing around, and a huge entourage, every day, people went out to be baptized by John, and John proclaimed this, "'I myself did not know Him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was so that he might be revealed'" -that's a word, epiphany – "'revealed to Israel.' Then John gave this testimony, 'I saw the spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on Him. I myself would not have known Him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me the man on whom you see the spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. I have seen and I testify that He is the Son of God.'" So even John wouldn't have known Him except that God revealed it to him.

The miracles of Jesus were each one of them epiphanies. Each one of them, a revelation of the nature of God and of the power of Christ, the identity of Christ. For example, the first one, after changing water into wine at the wedding at Cana in Galilee, John made the statement in John 2:11, "This the first of His miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed" –epiphany – "he thus revealed His glory and His disciples put their trust in him." So Jesus' miracles were displays of Christ, displays of his compassion, displays of his knowledge and of His power, and displays of His love and His nature. At the end of that gospel of John, John wrote this, "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And that by believing you may have life in His name."

Has that happened to you? Has God revealed - God the Father - revealed the Son to you in such a way that you have life in His name? Have you trusted in Him? Have you known His power to transform a sinful heart? I plead with you, come to Christ. I plead with you to believe in Jesus, you are hearing the gospel this morning that God became man, that He suffered and died on a cross, his blood was shed for the sins of the world. That if you simply trust in Him, your sins can be forgiven. My desire is that as I speak these words, the Holy Spirit will be revealing Christ in some heart today who's never seen him before like he or she should. That today would be for you, the day of salvation. Trust in Him, that's why the miracles were done originally, and that's why they were written in the book, so that we might know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Oh, may God reveal it to you.

Remember Peter's confession, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Do you remember what Jesus said? "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in Heaven." If the Father will reveal Christ to you you'll be saved. You will see the light of the glory of Christ and you will be saved.

It's an epiphany. And it happened when Christ was raised from the dead as well. It says in Romans 1:4, "who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead." A display of the glory of God and the resurrection of Christ. Now, that's why we're here today. When I was growing up, you always went to church on Christmas Day. And I was talking to my sister out about it. “You don't have a service on Christmas Day,” I said we do if it lands on Sunday. We celebrate the Lord's day because he rose from the dead. And there's an intimate connection between the birth of Christ and the resurrection of Christ from the dead. It's why he came to defeat death, took on a human body for that reason, and what an epiphany that was.

And so even now, dear friends, around the world, there are more epiphanies than we can count. Hundreds of thousands of them every day, just like the one that happened to Simon Peter, an epiphany of Jesus, when the gospel is preached, the gospel is the power of God for salvation. And while the gospel is being preached, the Holy Spirit then does something in the human heart, takes out that heart of stone and puts in that heart of flesh, opens eyes of the heart, that were blind to Jesus, and suddenly the light shines in, and it's an epiphany of Christ. As the gospel is proclaimed, very, very plainly, Christ is manifested and he appears. Christ is publicly portrayed in Galatians 3, as crucified.

We proclaim Christ, we portray Christ, and then the Holy Spirit reveals Christ in the heart and people are saved. Christ is manifested every moment also, moment by moment in the hearts of believers too. Are you done with epiphanies? You done with manifestations of Christ? Do you have enough Jesus? Thank you very much. Oh, no Christian would ever say that. The apostle Paul put it this way, in Philippians 3:10, "I want to know Christ." If you want to ask me what I want, "I want to know Christ, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing, the sufferings," I want more of Jesus. This is an apostle who had written the book of Romans, who had done all these magnificent things, he had been caught up to paradise, and all it did is make him want more of Jesus.

Do you have enough Jesus or Christian friend? Or would you like some more epiphany? Would you like some more revelation? Well, turn in your Bibles to John chapter 14, and verse 21. I want to give you the secret for a lifetime of epiphanies. Here's the secret right here in John's gospel. It's not much of a secret because I've told you probably 40 times before, but I'm going to show it to you again. John 14, and verse 21. You want to know more of Jesus? You're feeling distant from him? You're feeling cold toward Christ? Is your heart a little hardened? You don't feel His presence in your life? John 14:21 is the answer for you. "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me, and whoever loves me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and will…" What do you have? "…manifest," disclose, reveal "myself to him." Same Greek root, not epiphany, but related to it, He will show, he will display Himself to you continually, if you meet the criteria.

Look at it again. Whoever has my commandments. What does it mean? You have to know what they are. What are the commandments of Christ? Where are they found? They're found in the written Word of God. Saturate your mind with the commands of Christ, find out what he wants you to do. Know the Word of God, re-dedicate yourself in 2010 to taking in the Word of God. Let Him speak to you what His commands are for you, and every day those commandments stand over you and beckon you upward in terms of epiphany, beckon you upward to more and more revelation of Christ, those commands do. Suppose he commands you by the Spirit and by the Word to give some money away to missions, and if you obey, He will manifest himself to you in some new way, he will reveal Himself, His heart for the nations, he will soften your heart a little bit more toward the work of God. If you don't, he won't. It's a conditional promise here.

 If he commands you to share your faith with a co-worker at the workplace, and if you overcome your fear and your self-focus and all of those things, oh, how sweet it would be to be free from the fear of man. Amen? To just not even care what people think about you, to not even care, but just if you overcome that fear and you just witness faithfully and you share the gospel and show your heart, your love for souls, he will disclose Himself to you. He may not disclose it to the person you're witnessing to, but he'll disclose himself to you, and if you don't, he won't - not in that way. You'll have missed a blessing. If he commands you to seek his face in prayer, to give a little more time in prayer, perhaps even fasting - when was the last time you fasted? Maybe God will call on you to fast and pray just for a simple purpose, I want to see Christ more clearly. I want to focus a little more on Christ, than I have recently. I feel a deadness, a dullness in my heart, and if you obey that command and go seek his face in prayer and put everything aside and seek for Him with all of your heart, you will find Him and He will display or manifest himself to you, He'd be a new epiphany of Christ to you, and if you don't, he won't.

And so the reward standing over our daily moment-by-moment obedience is greater and greater revelation of Christ to you, you'll just get to know Jesus better, and if you choose not to, you won't. Jesus said in Matthew 11:29, "Take My yoke upon you and learn from me." The yoke represents submission to His kingly authority. Bow your neck, bow your knees to his kingly authority, do what He commands, and He will teach you. And what do you think the topic of his teaching will be? He says, learn from me. Or literally in the Greek, learn of me. How about just learn me. I'll teach you me, I'll teach you who I am, I'll teach you what my heart is, I'll teach you the way I obeyed my father, I'll teach you myself, if you just submit to me, and so I would urge that you re-dedicate yourself to the Word of God, to the hearing of the word of God, not just in this context. Hear sermons, hear good preaching, but preach to yourselves through the word of God, find out what He's commanding, if you have his commands and if you obey them, secondly, I would suggest that you go after some commands that you need to obey in your quiet time, seriously, every day, just go after the Word of God and say, "God, show me at least one thing I need to obey today, something I need to do, show me something in your word that I need to go and obey." And he will, he will. And in that way, it will be a lifetime of epiphanies of Christ.

Two more, dear friends, Christ is going to be revealed, the epiphany will come to the whole world, when he comes back in power and glory. He will be manifested by His appearing, the Greek word is epiphany, he is coming back some day, dear friends. Titus 2:13, "waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing, epiphany, of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ". And you will not need any faith for that moment. For it says in Revelation 1:7, "Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced him. And all tribes of the Earth will wail on account of him." So shall it be, Amen. Revelation 1:7, he's coming back dear friends. And the Apostle Paul said at the end of his life, "I have fought the good fight, I've finished the race, I've kept the faith, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day." Listen to this, "And not only to me, but all who have longed for his epiphany, longed for that day when Jesus comes back and shows Himself to the world." Do you long for that? Are you saying, "Maranatha, come Lord Jesus! I want to see you come back, I want to see you in the clouds, I want to see you up in glory. I long for that day." Well, then He'll reward you a crown of righteousness, says Paul.

And after that is that it? Are we done with epiphanies? No, it's just beginning. When we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as a sun, we've got another infinitude of epiphanies yet to go. Have you ever wondered what you're going to do for eternity? Oh, eternity, eternity. What shall I do for eternity? I just want to do my favorite things for eternity. Oh really? Is there any favorite thing that would really have such an infinite hold over your heart that you would want to spend eternity doing it? I can't imagine anything except this one thing, to learn Jesus, I want to know Christ, that's the only topic that can hold my attention for eternity. Is there enough of Christ for eternity? What do you think? Someone say, yes. Alright, thank you Hubert.

There is enough in Jesus for all eternity. And we're going to have eternity to study him. Isaiah 9:6, "Of the increase of His kingdom, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne forever and ever and his kingdom will never end. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this." So here's this burning zeal like the sun, it never burns out, and so it just pulses that we would know Jesus. The father wants us to know Jesus. And you say, "Why would the father want us to know Jesus?" Because it's in knowing Jesus that we know him. He is the perfect revelation, so it will be in Heaven, and so there you will be in the new heaven and new earth, learning Jesus every day.

This morning, I was in my bedroom and Jenny and I were marveling at a little rainbow up on the wall, and Jenny, I found where it came from. It's from the mirror on the side. Okay. She was trying to block it, couldn't find where it was, and then duties carried her away, it's coming from the beveled cut of the mirror, and I was looking at the beauty of it, it was really beautiful. You're wondering why I had time to do it, and she didn't well, that's another topic, but I was standing there, putting my hand there and there it was. There it was. This beautiful rainbow on the side, I think the new heaven and new earth is going to be like that. It's going to be just this magnificent display of glory and we're like, "Where did it come from?" It came from Jesus. Look at that, the greatness of Jesus, an epiphany for all eternity. Close with me in prayer.

Well, I'll never forget our experience, my wife and I, our two children, Christmas in Japan. What a time that was for us. We served as missionaries for two years, and we were warmly received by the Japanese people. They were very kind, respectful toward us. We taught English classes, Bible classes, we did all kinds of things and ministering there in Japan. The Japanese culture fascinated me. It bore an external similarity to America, especially urban America. There were Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald's restaurants. There were pizza restaurants. Pizza was expensive, $35 for a pizza; we splurged once a year and were surprised to find potato salad and niblet corn on the pizza, but it was good. Maybe not worth $35, but it was good. It's a busy, fast-paced technologically advanced electronic-saturated kind of culture. And in that way, we resonated, we're familiar with that. There were large shopping malls, similar to the ones we have here, and all kinds of things that reminded us of home. But at its core, Japan was unconverted. About 1%, maybe less than 1% evangelical, very cordial in hearing presentations of the Gospel, but very, very, very difficult to bring them to faith. It didn't take long to see through the outward veneer of the truth of a nation that desperately needed Christ. And one of the strangest parts of the year for us, at least for me, was Christmas. Because amazingly enough, there were many of the outward trappings of Christmas over there in Japan too. There would be Christmas decorations. There would be Christmas lights. There would be Christmas trees up in the public areas. There would be pictures of Santa Claus. There would even be Christmas music of the secular type, you know, like Silver Bells and Chestnuts Roasting and all those kind of songs we get saturated with, well, they were over there too. And it was a big time of buying and selling and giving of gifts, and putting those two together was just really striking for me. Here is this kind of outward kind of the trappings of Christmas, but at core, no belief at all.

And it got me to thinking about the same dichotomy here in our own country as well. It is so easy for us to be saturated with the outward trappings of Christmas and just miss the truth, the incarnation of Christ. And I hope I wasn't looking at the future of our country - you know, 1% evangelical with all the same trappings of faith. May it never be. But we're used to the kind of secular celebrations of Christmas, the Christmas programs, It's a Wonderful Life - just about got that movie memorized, and I've said before, I think that there's almost no situation in life that can't be covered with a line from that movie. But that's a theory I haven't tested yet, but it's there. Miracle on 34th Street, The Grinch Stole Christmas and all that kind of stuff.

Where is Christ in all of this? And our semi-Christian nation also tolerates some spiritual images of Christmas less and less publicly as time goes on, but they're there, the manager scenes, the crèches, that kind of thing. And some of the songs on the radio still do mention the birth of Jesus our Savior, and we can listen to that. And some of the popular movies still center on Christ, although, I don't know that we've seen The Little Drummer Boy recently, that Claymation thing, but they still do end up worshiping Christ. But America less and less delights in the central issue of Christmas, and that is the incarnation, the enfleshment. That's what the word means of Almighty God, the physical birth of the creator of the universe. At the core, Christmas is an infinite mystery beyond any of us to comprehend. Perhaps that's why so many of us struggle to accept it. People struggle over that central stumbling block of our Christian faith, and that is the baby in the manger actually is God the creator, God the judge. And this mystery just trips the electrical circuits of the brain.

I've done some wiring in my life, you know, in the old days, when you wired up, you wired up to a fuse box, and the purpose of the fuse was that if the wires carried too much current, the fuse would go before the wires would, saving your house from a fire. Nowadays, they use circuit breakers, they're just like switches and they just trip over. You've probably done it yourself. Recently, I was using a table saw and the thing just stopped and found out that my wife was using the hair dryer at the same time on the same circuit, so we just hadn't communicated with each other. One or the other, but not both, can't do both the table saw and the hair dryer on the same circuit, and so the circuit breaker went over. Thank God for circuit breakers and not fuses. But the fact of the matter is that's what the incarnation is like, too much concept, too much truth flowing through these feeble minds for us to accept, and it just goes over. And I wouldn't mind actually tripping some of your circuit breakers this morning. I would like to cut through the blasé, heard it all before, he said, alright, Luke 2:1-20. Well, it gets even better. Next week, I'm preaching on Matthew 2:1-12. So, we get these same passages. But I tell you, there is yet more truth to flow through these concepts into our minds. "The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." And I tell you that flesh and blood cannot naturally accept that truth. We cannot naturally understand it, we must have supernatural assistance from the Holy Spirit in order to gain it. Charles Spurgeon put it this way:

“As Jesus Christ is a child in his human nature, he is born, begotten of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary. He is as truly-born, as certainly a child, as any other man that ever lived upon the face of the earth. He is thus in his humanity a child born. But as Jesus Christ is God’s Son, he is not born; but given, begotten of his Father from before all worlds, begotten — not made, being of the same substance with the Father. The doctrine of the eternal affiliation of Christ is to be received as an undoubted truth of our holy religion. But as to any explanation of it, no man should venture thereon, for it remaineth among the deep things of God — one of those solemn mysteries indeed, into which the angels dare not look, nor do they desire to pry into it — a mystery which we must not attempt to fathom, for it is utterly beyond the grasp of any finite being. As well might a gnat seek to drink in the ocean, as a finite creature to comprehend the Eternal God. A God whom we could understand would be no God. If we could grasp him he could not be infinite: if we could understand him, then were he not divine.”

Why agree with what Spurgeon says? It's an infinite mystery, but yet for all of that, have we not been given the mind of Christ? And how are we to use the mind of Christ, why not on this? Meditate on the incarnation of Christ. Let's think more deeply about it than we have before. Let's probe this mystery.

This is, I believe, the foundational miracle of Christianity, the incarnation. The Apostle Paul puts it this way in 1 Timothy 3:16, "Beyond all question, the mystery of Godliness is great: He appeared in a body." The Apostle Paul, I tell you, is not given to exaggerations. He was given to receiving and transmitting incredibly deep things which he had gotten from the Lord.  He had an extraordinary mind and could reason things through with astonishing clarity and profoundity. Festus thought, his great learning had driven him insane, but it hadn't, he just had great learning. He was a genius, a doctrinal genius. And the Apostle Peter spoke of the complexity of Paul's thoughts and his Epistles in 2 Peter, he said his, Paul's "letters contain some things that are difficult to understand." Very, very deep thinker. God showed Paul surpassingly great revelations of the future life, of paradise, things that man is not permitted to talk about. He showed him incredible things, and yet for all of this, Paul seemed to think the greatest mystery of all, this mystery of Godliness was he appeared in a body. It's just too difficult for us to comprehend, beyond all question, the mystery of Godliness is great. He appeared in a body.

J.I. Packer in his classic Knowing God said, "This is the foundational miracle of Christianity." As he's discussing the challenge that the Christian faith poses to what he calls thoughtful people around the world, thinking people, he talks about the various difficulties that people have to overcome to be Christians. He says, Christianity presents unbelievers with the challenge of accepting the atonement, the atoning work of Christ. The fact that the death of Jesus of Nazareth on a Roman cross 2000 years ago actually forgive sins today. That's a challenge for people. It's difficult to accept. Or take the resurrection; how could a man be dead, how could Jesus be dead, and on the third day be physically raised from the dead? There's never been anything like it. You can't prove it in a scientific laboratory. It's difficult to accept. Or what about all of the Gospel miracles? The feeding of the 5000 from five loaves and two fish? There is such a thing as the conservation of matter; things just don't pop up out of nowhere. Well, they do, if you're God, of course; God creates out of nothing, but these are difficult miracles to accept. How Jesus could spit in the ground and make some mud with his saliva and smear it on a blind man's eyes and he could see? It just doesn't make any sense at all. Or the raising of a man that was dead after four days of being in the tomb? Very difficult to accept these things.

 But J.I. Packer says, "None of these compare with the real difficulty, the supreme mystery of all with which the Gospel confronts us, and that is the mystery of the incarnation." Packer says this, "It lies not in the Good Friday message of atonement or the Easter message of resurrection, but in the Christmas message of the incarnation. The really staggering Christian claim is that Jesus of Nazareth was God-made man-… so that Jesus of Nazareth was as truly and fully divine as he was human." "Here are," says Packer, "Two mysteries for the price of one. The plurality of persons within the unity of God," we call that the Trinity, "Plus the union of Godhead and manhood in," one person, "the person, Jesus Christ. It is here in the thing that happened at the first Christmas that the profoundest, the most unfathomable depths of Christian revelation lie." "God became man, the divine son became a Jew, the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. And there was no illusion or deception in this, the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets."

So let's stagger our minds today, shall we? Let's go ahead and be staggered with it, let's ponder the imponderable, and consider the inconsiderable, plumb the depths of infinite mystery, even though we know we're going to run out of string before we get to the bottom. Let's just think and let's think some more and think even more after that.

And in this, I want to follow the example of Mary, the mother of Jesus. She was a great thinker. She was a ponderer. Look at Verse 19 of Luke 2, "Mary treasured up all these things and she pondered them in her heart." So we're going to follow her example. And before we go on, I just want to say a word about Mary. I was raised Roman Catholic, I was in the Catholic Church until I was converted. I was an altar boy, and I tell you, that the Catholic Church has done us a disservice concerning Mary. First of all, they teach four significant errors concerning Mary. The four significant things they assert about Mary, which I deny, because they're not found in the Bible, they're in contrary to Christian theology. First of all, they teach and have taught since the middle of 19th century, the immaculate conception of Mary. By the way, all you Protestants who see the words immaculate conception, that's not talking about Jesus, it's talking about Mary and that she was amazingly conceived free from original sin. And the Pope told us that, because we had no other way of knowing it. Immaculate conception of Mary led on secondly to the general sinlessness of Mary, she never committed any sin in her life. There was no sin in her life. She was a sinless woman. Thirdly, the bodily assumption of Mary, that at the end of her life, she was physically raised up into heaven and went into heaven with her body intact. The bodily assumption of Mary, they waited until the 20th century to tell us that one, about 100 years after the immaculate conception teaching. And then fourthly, that Mary is in some sense the Mediatrix, the Queen of Heaven. Somewhat interceding for us in a way, very similar to Jesus. Four things I think that sadly have put distance between most Protestant Christians, Evangelicals and Mary as a Godly woman, a role model, somebody that we should imitate in many respects. And that's what I want to follow today, we can easily overreact, just like Protestants have overreacted on the Lord's Supper; just because we don't believe in the doctrine of the immediate presence of Christ, doesn't mean that we should minimize the Lord's supper. I don't. I trust that God is going by his Spirit make an incredible time of worship. It's not a mere Memorial, and neither was Mary a mere woman, she's a role model, and we ought to follow her, and in this way. I'm going to. So, we should follow the way she treasured up things and pondered them in her heart.

Now, let's go over the facts of the incarnation, you heard them before, but they're foundational. Ours is a historical faith. And let's tell the story again, you've already heard it read, but I'm going to go back actually starting at Luke 1, "When the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and greeted her, 'Hail O favored one, The Lord is with you.'" And you remember how Mary reacts at that time, she's troubled by the greeting. I would have been troubled by the angelic presence. She was, I think probably, but troubled by the greeting, especially, in what sense am I favored? In what sense is the Lord with me? That kind of thing. She was such a thinker, pondering it. And then the angel said these incredible things, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of his father, David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end." Then the pondering, the thoughtful one, Mary says, "How will this be? I'm a virgin." She's wondering, how it's possible? The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And so, the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God." Certainly plenty for Mary to ponder at that point. Holy Spirit, Son of God, sit on David's throne forever. That kind of thing.

Well, then she takes a trip to visit her cousin Elizabeth and Elizabeth greets Mary in a loud voice, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear. But why am I so favorite," said Elizabeth, "that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished." What a phrase, the mother of my Lord. Why am I so favored? Mary responds with that great statement, the Magnificat, "My soul glorifies in the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for He has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on, all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me - holy is His name."

Well, that just sets the table, but the time has come in Luke 2 for the actual birth of Jesus. And you know very well the events surrounding that, in Verse 1-3 Luke 2, "In those days, it says, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was Governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register." We've noted before the sovereignty of God over kings, the hearts of kings. In the Book of Proverbs, we saw that the king's heart is like a water course, in the hands of the Lord, He directs it whichever way he pleases. Caesar Augustus doesn't have any intention of fulfilling the prophecy in Micah that the Messiah be born in Bethlehem; he's just after troop allocations and profit, that's what he's looking for, I think. But whatever his motives were, God was overruling him and orchestrated this.

And I think it's obvious that Joseph and Mary wouldn't have presumed, I think, to make the trip to Bethlehem unless they were directed to go. And God could have commanded them to go by an angel, but instead God worked providentially, so that they had to go. And so they went to Bethlehem, so that the Messiah would be born in fulfillment of prophecy. "Joseph went up," it says in Verse 4-5, "from the town of Nazareth and Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house in line of David. And he went there to register with Mary who was pledged to be married to him when he was expecting a child." Either way it would have been effective with Joseph, he's an obedient man, and if God had sent an angel as he would later to tell him to go to Egypt, he would have gone. But instead God chose to work providentially, it worked just as effectively. God knows what he's doing and what means to use, and so they went.

And you know very well, very famously that "there was no room at the inn." I'm certainly hoping the inn keepers in heaven, we get to talk to him about all that. John Piper sometime ago did a poem in which he surmised that the innkeeper might have had a baby son that was slaughtered by Herod's troops after that. We have no way of knowing anything like that. But we know this, that Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to a stable to where animals are kept so that the son of God would be born in abject poverty. While they were there, Verse 6-7, "the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger."

And then there were these shepherds, the shepherds that were out in their fields, living in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night and suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared to them. And the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified. You can imagine what that would have been like. We are so used to bright lights at night because of electricity and all that, but I've been to rural countries. I've been to Pakistan, and I've been to Kenya and other places out in the country where there is no electricity, and so once the sun goes down, people go to bed. It's dark. And so suddenly, the glory of the Lord just cuts through that dark night, and the angel appears and the shepherds are terrified. And the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord. And this will be assigned to you, you will find a baby wrapped in clothes, lying in a manger." And suddenly, this heavenly host appeared, Heaven was open.

I wonder what would be like for us to have the vision that Elisha and his servant had and heaven would just stand open, or that Stephen had right before he died. "Look, I see heaven open and the Son of God, standing at the right hand of the Mighty One." But that night, the shepherds had a vision like that, and this army of angels comes down, praising God, giving glory to God, saying, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace to men on whom His favor rests." Well, the shepherds, of course, took the message to heart, they went to see Jesus, the angels left them and went back to heaven. And "the shepherds said to one another, 'Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.' And so they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in the manger." Now, reading between the lines, I really do believe that they told Mary everything that the angel had said to them. I think that this whole account was coming from Mary to Luke as he wrote it down, as he was investigating carefully from the beginning, everything that happened and in the life of Jesus. And I think Mary was definitely one of his sources. I'm not saying it was impossible for Luke to have talked to one of the shepherds himself. Maybe so. But I think it's well within reason, that the shepherds related to Joseph and Mary, what the angels had said and what the angel had told them concerning this baby. And when they had seen the baby, the shepherds spread the word concerning what have been told to them about this child. I would say beginning with Mary and all who heard it, were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. And they "returned, glorifying God and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told." So those are the facts of the case.

You've heard it before, but now I want to zero in on the pondering heart of Mary. One thing I've noticed as I trace across the early chapters of Luke and just the whole nativity stories, is how many messengers God sends to Mary to instruct her concerning what's happening to her and who Christ is. Of course, Gabriel was the first, but almost certainly, we'd imagine Joseph would have related what the angel said to him, and these Shepherds coming, and some information today in the city of David, "A savior has been born, who is Christ the Lord," and, "Glory to God and peace on earth, to men on whom His favor rests," relating to that. And of course, there was Simeon who said some specific things to Mary. And there was Anna as well. All of these messengers coming, all of this flow of truth, flowing into the heart of Mary. And what is she going to do?

Well, we look again at Verse 19, "Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." And again, much later in this the same chapter, in Luke 2:51, it says, "But his mother treasured all of these things in her heart." Spurgeon said this about the pondering of Mary, "She wondered, she did more, she pondered. You will observe that there was an exercise on the part of this blessed woman, of the three great parts of her being. Her memory, she kept all of these things. Her affections, she kept them in her heart. Her intellect, she pondered them, considering them, weighing them, turning them over, so that memory, affection and understanding were all exercised about these things. We delight to see this in Mary, but we are not at all surprised. When we recollect that she was, in some sense the most concerned of all on earth, or it was of her that Jesus Christ had been born. Those who come nearest to Jesus and enter the most closely into fellowship with him, will be sure to be the most engrossed with him. Certain persons are best esteemed at a distance, but not the savior. When you shall have known Him to the very full, then you shall love Him with the love that passeth knowledge. You shall comprehend the heights and depths and lengths and breadths of His love. And when you do so, then your own love shall swell beyond all length and breadth, all height and depth. This birth most concerned Mary, and therefore she was the most impressed with it." Basically, what Spurgeon is saying there is, the closer you get to Jesus, the more you're going to think about him and be consumed with him. And so if your heart is cold toward him, dear friends, let's get closer to him. It's a journey of the mind and of the heart of the memory, just like it was for Mary by faith.

So first, it says that Mary treasured. Actually, twice it says that Mary treasured these things in her heart. To treasure means to take something up as though it's precious because it is. And to some degree, I think it means to protect it. This is a destructive world we live in. Jesus said, "moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal." So precious things have to be protected, and so Mary treasured these things. She protected them. The events surrounding Jesus's birth, the significance of that birth, the words that were spoken to her, all of those things. Now, even a natural birth is treasured by a mother. Amen?

Many of you have had the privilege of being mothers and you have given birth. And I guarantee you, you remember more about those details than your husband does. It's been proven, it's true. I still am amazed at the things that my wife remembers about the birth of each of our five children. They're just details that women hold on to. The smell of the newborn skin, the feel of their hair, the sounds that they make when they're nursing for the first time, what it was like, the first time you heard your baby cry, swaddled your baby, first time you wrapped that little baby up, first little outfit you dressed the baby in. All of these are just normal matters, there's nothing supernatural here. I know, I know, everybody says, "Every birth is a miracle." Well, as a theologian, I'm a little more precise on miracles, okay? And a miracle that happens four times every second, 133 million times a year? I don't call that a miracle. It is the goodness of God; without God's activity, it wouldn't happen. Yes, but it's not a miracle. Jesus's birth was a miracle. And yet, for all of that, the point I'm making is that mothers just naturally remember those things. They treasure them up. But Mary had far more to treasure than an average or a normal mother because the birth was so significant and so supernatural.

I just imagine what it was like for her as she lay laid there, pain subsiding, Jesus over there, perhaps sleeping in the manger. Joseph probably asleep, I don't know. But she's awake and she's treasuring, she's pondering these things, thinking about everything. All of the things I've covered with you. Luke 1 and 2. What the angel Gabriel said, "The son of God, the son of David." How can that be? "He will reign on David's throne forever and ever. Of His kingdom, there will be no end." What does that mean? Just the thoughts. "The Holy Spirit will overshadow you, and the power of the Most High will come upon you." And so it has happened now. She knew no man, even at that point. Never been with a man. And yet she had this baby. She knew the truth. "Today, in the town of David, a savior has been born for you." A savior. She knew that God had saved her. She said it in her own Magnificat. She give thanks to "God, my savior." She knew she was a sinner. And today a savior has been born for you in the town of Bethlehem, and the holy angel, the glory, the angelic army going up into heaven, all of that, pondering these things, treasuring them.

I think as she lay there, she must have looked over at whatever available light there was, and maybe the magi are coming soon. I don't know, we'll talk about that next week. But maybe there was a supernatural starlight that was there, I don't know. But perhaps she looked over at the face of Jesus, saw him. She protected those things, she protected them, she treasured them, she protected those memories. Protected them from corruption. Sin corrupts, and so perhaps already, Satan tempting her toward a certain kind of pride, which would have been sinful. She's not going to give into that, she's just a humble handmaid of the Lord. The Lord could have picked any woman. She knows that, and so she's going to protect those thoughts and protect her memories from trivializing conclusions, from thinking that she could figure out all of these things. She knew is unsearchable mystery.

And in years to come, Mary would have to protect those treasured thoughts from all manner of Satanic attack. Her virtue would be questioned openly. Aren't we right, they said to Jesus, in saying that you're a Samaritan? You have a Samaritan father. Your mother was an immoral woman. Illegitimate birth and all of that, hanging over her. Her role would be attacked in question, Satan would whisper evil insinuations into her mind, Simeon had told her that a sword would pierce her own soul. And she would have to protect all of these memories. And faith comes from hearing. And she would go over the words and her faith would be buttressed by what she had heard from the angel and all of these other sources. And she would go back to them again and again.

So she treasured these things. She also pondered them. The Greek word literally means to throw together. Kind of like, I'm sure a lot of you folks have done some Christmas cooking and some Christmas baking, you've got all the ingredients out and you have to mix them together. You don't serve them separately. I've never eaten baking soda separately. I don't think I ever will. I guess you could do it as a medicine, maybe I've done that, but not as a Christmas confection. We need these things mixed together. And so what she does, is she takes these different things and mixes them together. She throws them together in her mind. Ponders them. This little baby is fully human; she can see it's little chest rising and falling. Maybe she did what I always do with newborns, is put your finger inside their little fingers, and then just feel that little way they squeeze. Maybe that comes later in development, maybe Jesus was a special baby and he squeezed that very night, who knows? I'm thinking how feeble is the hand of God here? This is the hand that scattered the stars. And just to feel that he's clearly fully human and yet, Son of God.

"Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one." How does that work? Son of God. God the Son. "You shall worship no other gods before me." Was Mary to worship? The shepherds did. The magi would. Is Mary going to worship her own son? She put these things together, pondering them, thinking them through, and I think it probably just went on from there, got even more perplexing and amazing and astonishing as time went on. Later in Luke 2, Jesus, 12-year-old boy, gets away from Joseph and Mary. Bad moment in parenting, right there. Bad moment. Here, I entrust the Son of God to you and look what you do, don't even know where he is. I find that story encouraging, by the way, don't you? Just that they didn't know where Jesus was for multiple days. Comforting to me. And then they go back and there he is sitting at the feet of these learned men of the scriptures, and he is asking them questions that they can't answer. And his questions show a depth of understanding, and I think we have later reflected in the gospel, some of the kinds of questions Jesus asked and no one had an answer. How could David be his son, if he calls him Lord? That kind of thing. Maybe at age 12, he's already asking those kinds of questions. And they're astonished. You remember how it was. "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men." And Mary had been watching all of this, and there's this 12-year-old boy now, just stumping the experts with these questions. And "When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, 'Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.' 'Why were you searching for me?' He asked, 'Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?' But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them, but his mother treasured all these things in her heart." So Mary's whole life was given to protecting and pondering the events.

And what did Simeon mean when he said, "A sword will pierce your own soul too"? Well, Mary would have to wonder about that all the time that Jesus was growing older. And then when he began his ministry and the hatred started to rise, perhaps she started to know where it was heading and maybe she listened to what he said, that he would be betrayed into the hands of men, and that he would be killed by the Gentiles and on the third day, he'd be raised to life. That those little hands had come to be nailed to a cross, that the blood that flowed through his veins, human through her humanity, would be shed for the sins of the world. And a sword will pierce your own soul too. I don't think it's just a stretch to say that happened when she watched her own son die. Standing there at the foot of the cross, watching him die. But that was in the end of the story. Amen? She was an eye witness of the resurrection. She was there in Acts Chapter 1 in the upper room, waiting for the Holy Spirit to come. Just a disciple. Just a disciple. In the past, we knew Jesus in a fleshly way. In the future, we know him that way. No longer, yes. She is worshipping her own son right now. That matter has been resolved. Yes, you will worship your own son. But she was there to see it all.

In Acts Chapter 1, it's interesting; they were looking for a replacement for Judas, and the requirement was they were looking for someone who had been with them the whole time. The Lord Jesus went in and out among them, beginning with John's baptism and on until the resurrection, for one of them must be a witness with them of the resurrection. Mary had better credentials than that concerning watching Jesus's life. She had seen him from the very beginning, right on through. She was an eyewitness of everything. She had seen all of that. And she studied his life. And she was treasuring and pondering those things until the day she was taken up from her earthly life by death and received the glorification of her soul promised in the Gospel. And no, she's not the queen of heaven. She's not. She's a redeemed sinner, and she's up there in the presence of God. So what application can we take from this? How do we follow Mary's example?

Well, there are four holy works in this birth story. First, ponder and treasure Christ in your own hearts. Let's start there. There's more to learn. I'm going to talk much more about that next week when we talk about the idea of epiphany. There's more to learn about Jesus. So protect what you already know from attacks. Treasure and protect from materialism, from busyness, from secularism, from sin. Protect the thoughts of Jesus in your own mind. And ponder the Christian message, the Christmas message. Son of man and son of God, "Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men." Go ahead and try to figure out how someone can be omniscient and not know something. Go ahead and ponder that, I don't know how that happens. It's inconceivable, but Jesus was God and learned things and grew.

Secondly, we need to pursue Christ, as the shepherds did, as Mary did all her life, pursue him. We can't do it physically, but in our hearts, pursue him. Go after Christ at Christmas time, go after Jesus. And I want to speak a tender word to those of you that are here that are unconverted. I already prayed for you, but I want to urge you. Pursue Christ. If you seek me, you will find me. If you seek with all of your heart. Seek for Jesus in the midst of all of this. Danger of preaching a sermon on Mary is you think too much of Mary. Don't think too much of Mary. I'm just urging you to ponder like she did. What was she pondering? She wasn't pondering herself. She was pondering Jesus, seek Him. Jesus died on the cross, his blood was shed so that your sins could be forgiven. Trust in Him. It's not hard, you don't have to do great works, you do have to go on great pilgrimages. Just trust in Jesus and He will forgive all of your sins. Ask Him to do it. Pursue Christ. And if you're a Christian, I say, pursue Him some more. Pursue Him more and more. Could it be that if there's a deadness and an apathy in your heart, it's because you stopped pursuing Jesus. Seek Him while He may be found, seek Him now.

Thirdly, worship Him. Yes, we know we need to worship Mary's son. We need to worship, not because he's Mary's son but because he's the a son of God. Let's get down on our knees and worship. Let's think and let thinking go on into worship and say, "You are great, Jesus. Your love is great. Your person is great, I magnify you, I exalt you." Let's just worship Him.

And fourth, like Mary did with Luke and others I'm sure, and like the shepherds did, they spread the story, the word concerning what had been told to them. Let's spread the story abroad. It's really easy to do this time of the year. I'd like you to think a year from now, it's easy to do any time of the year. Let's pray for that. Shall we? It's easy to talk about Jesus any time of the year, but the Lord hands you some freebies at this time of year, if you have a hard time getting into spiritual conversations, that is settled. Just talk about Christmas. What do you think about Christmas? What are some of your Christmas traditions and holidays? And it's not a long step from there to Jesus. Let's proclaim him as the shepherds did and as Mary did. Close with me, if you would in prayer.

Well, it's not every day that a story from current events just hands you a tailor-made sermon illustration. But that's what happened on Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, November 24th, when a couple sought to crash a state party at the White House. Perhaps you've heard that story. I find it remarkable, the moxie of that couple. You know the story, I think, or some details of it. President Obama was hosting his first state dinner at the White House for the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh and his wife. Three hundred high-ranking state officials and dignitaries were invited to that event, but this one couple was not invited. But yet they came anyway.

A strikingly attired couple. She was wearing a red and gold sari, appropriate attire for the occasion. And he was wearing a black tux. And they just swept confidently past the photographers and other people that were there at the red carpet watching the dignitaries who were coming in. They just walked right by, by the Secret Service. We'll get to that in a moment, but right on by everybody and into the event. And I think, undoubtedly, it was the clothing that they wore, and the confidence that they had, that enabled them to get through. If they'd been dressed like tourists, saying, “Is this where we should…”  You know. They would have been dealt with very, very quickly. “No, time for tours is over. Tomorrow resume.” But they went right in with the proper clothing, and with that confidence.

And they had the, just, the gall to stand and get their photos taken with various folks and then post them later on the web. And so I think there's going to be some trouble for them. I haven't followed the story recently, but I heard that perhaps there were gonna be some charges pressed against them. I don't know what it would be, but I'm sure there's something. And the Secret Service is asking a simple question, “How in the world did it happen?” And I don't relish those who, probably heads are gonna roll or maybe already have, for something like that. They said procedures weren't followed. They were not invited, but they were still attending.

Now, there are a lot of similarities to the message that I'm gonna preach in the parable, but there's some significant differences too. In the parable of the wedding banquet, the one there was invited, but he wasn't chosen. And he didn't have the proper attire, he didn't have the proper clothing. And he wasn't just facing criminal charges, he was sent to hell. And so, as we come to, for the second week, the parable of the wedding banquet. Last week we looked at some details and just the big picture of the parable. We looked at what it taught us about God and man and various things, but there were some weighty doctrinal issues that come from this parable that we reserved for this week and I wanna look at them with you, together.

I wanna talk about the imputation or the crediting or the giving of Christ's righteousness, I believe, represented by the wedding clothes. I wanna talk about the joys of heaven, the horrors of hell, and the sovereignty of God and salvation. These are the weighty doctrines that await us this morning.

Let's just go over the parable again. You already heard it read this morning, but just look at it again. Christ spoke to them again in parables. He was teaching them in parables. “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. And he sent some servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ But they paid no attention and went off - one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot and throw him outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

That's the parable. Let's look at the first lesson, and that is the gift of Christ's righteousness is essential to heaven. We must receive the gift of Christ's righteousness or we will not be permitted to enter Heaven. Look again at verses 11 through 13. The king comes in, he sees the guests, he noticed a man there who's not wearing the wedding clothes. “How did you get in here without wedding clothes?” The man's speechless, there's nothing he can say. And then the king throws him outside.

Now, what are these wedding clothes? And why such a shocking, really, a harsh response? Well, William Hendriksen, commenting on this passage, said this, “There can be only one explanation. It is by the command of the king and from his bountiful supplies, at the very entrance of the wedding hall a wedding robe had been offered to each guest. All except this person had accepted that free robe. This one man however, had looked at his own robe, perhaps slightly brushed it off with his hand, and then had told the attendants, ‘My own robe is good enough. I don't need the one you're offering me.’ Then, in an attitude of self-satisfaction and defiance, he had marched on into the wedding hall.”

Well, I think obviously that goes beyond, I think it uses some imagination, but I think it's probably true within the context of the parable. Seems like everybody else was properly attired, but this man was not. John McArthur said this, “The proper wedding garment of a true believer is God imputed righteousness, without which no one can enter or live in that kingdom.”

Now we're going to talk about that word, imputed. It wouldn't surprise me if many of you don't know what it means. I hope that by the time we get done, you do know what it means. Even if you don't know the word, you need to know the concept. The imputed righteousness of Christ is essential to heaven.

Now, the foundation of this whole point is that a positive righteousness is required for heaven. You must be righteous in order to go to heaven. And so it says in Matthew 5:20. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, said this, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” So there is a level of righteousness you must have to go to heaven, to enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus actually intensifies it later in that same chapter, at the end of the very same chapter. Matthew 5:48, he says, “You must be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” You must have a perfect righteousness, like unto that of God himself, to go to heaven.

So to whom, then, will God open the gates of the New Jerusalem? What nation will enter in and stream into those gates? Isaiah 26:2 says, “Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, The nation that keeps faith.” It has to be a righteous nation that enters the gates of the New Jerusalem. In 2 Peter 3:13, the Apostle Peter calls the new heaven and the new earth “the home of righteousness.” You must be righteous to live there. There is no unrighteousness in that place.

Well, of course, we all have a problem, don't we? Significant problem. No one of us is righteous. Romans 3:10 teaches that very plainly. “There is no one righteous, not even one.” Note that in the parable the man is speechless. There is nothing he can say. And so it will be, dear friends, on Judgment Day, when the unrighteous are confronted with the perfect righteousness necessary for Heaven. There will be nothing they can say. There will not be one answer possible in a thousand accusations, not one. We will be speechless. If we don't have a gift of righteousness we will be lost.

But praise be to God. Praise be to God. We celebrate this time of year, and every time of year, a gospel that solves our problem. Isn't that marvelous? Oh, how sweet is the gospel of the gift of righteousness that comes in Jesus Christ.

And the glowing center of that, declared very plainly in Romans 3:21-24, “But now, a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the law and the prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” That is talking of the gift of a righteousness from God, simply by faith. Not by works, of the law, not by our good works, but just simply as a gift, a gift of Christ's righteousness. 

This is where we get to this doctrine of the imputation or the crediting or the reckoning of Christ's righteousness to our account. Now, what do we mean by imputation? What are we talking about there? I guess the image I always get is of a numbered Swiss bank account. Like you have in those spy movies, you know. And there's this numbered account, and it's your account and suddenly there's a billion dollars in your account. Where did it come from? You probably wouldn't care, just as long as it's there, right? But there it is, suddenly a billion dollars credited to your account. And so it is with the righteousness of Christ, it's just credited to you as though it's yours. The imputation or the thinking or the reckoning. God thinks of you as righteous in Jesus.

That's how it works, a reckoning. There are actually two aspects of this imputation. Positively, Christ's righteousness is credited to us as though it were our own. God just sees us as righteous as Jesus. I mean, it's incredible when you think about it, he sees us as obedient as Jesus. He sees us as having kept just as many of the laws of Moses as Jesus did, as having spoken nothing but perfect words, as Jesus did. Incredible. I mean, you just keep unfolding and it's just, it boggles the mind, but God just credits Jesus's obedience, his righteousness, to you as though it was yours.

And negatively, our sins are credited to Jesus and not to us. So God does not reckon or consider our sins ours anymore. He considers them as having transferred over to Jesus. Whereupon he struck Jesus with the wrath of God in our place. Jesus drank hell for us on the cross, because he was bearing our sins. So, there's a double imputation or crediting. Christ's righteousness to us and our sins to Jesus.

Now, let's talk about this positive imputation or crediting of Christ's righteousness. Christ lived a perfect life, a sinless life. You could have thought, “Why didn't Jesus just be born or just made a man 33 years old, and just die that day. Blood shed on the cross, done, right? Why not? Could God do that?” Of course he could do it. Would it be Christ's blood shed on the cross? Yes. Could it have saved us? Debatable. I don't know if I wanna get into that. I just, God chose not to do that.

Instead, what God wanted was a life lived. In many respects a normal life lived, a human life lived. Walking on the dusty roads, eating food, drinking liquids, resting, getting fatigued, all of that stuff, a normal physical life, yet without sin. And so Jesus lived his whole life under the law of Moses. He was obedient to his parents at age 12. He was born under the law, he lived under the law. Obeyed the law, fulfilled it perfectly. Active righteousness of Jesus just obeying everything God commanded Him to do. Perfect righteousness of Jesus. And that active righteousness has been credited to you by faith if you're a Christian today. Isn't that incredible? God just sees you as though you are as obedient as Jesus. Because of your union with Jesus through faith, that's how He sees you. How remarkable is that? How much should you praise God for that? 

And that imputation of Christ's righteousness to us is essential to our acceptance on Judgment Day. Remember in the parable the man's thrown out, he's evicted because he doesn't have those wedding clothes. He's speechless, there's nothing he can say. And this is the reception that anyone will get who gets to Judgment Day trusting in their own righteousness. I stand here today as a messenger from God to tell you, you will go to hell if you do that. You will be cast out eternally if you stand and trust in your own righteousness and do not receive the gift of Christ's righteousness by faith. You are not good enough. Your righteousness isn't sufficient. I am not singling you out, I'm not either. There's no one righteous enough.

So how can we be as righteous as Jesus? Well, I've already told you, but I'll say it again: Simply by faith. By trusting in Christ. By simple faith. Not by any movement of the muscles, not by any deeds or actions or activities. You can do it while sitting and listening, just as you sit and listen you can just hear and believe.

It says in Romans 4:3, “What does the scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.’” That's it, just credited to him. Perfect righteousness credited to Abraham's account simply by faith. I Corinthians 1:30, “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God - that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.”

And again, Philippians 3:8-9, Paul says, “that I may gain Christ,” that's what he's yearning for, “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 is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.” And again, probably most famously, especially on the double imputation I was mentioning, 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” There's your double imputation.

Now, John Bunyan who wrote the classic Pilgrim's Progress in the late 17th century. He was converted remarkably and told his conversion story in his testimonial book, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. And as he was struggling with the gospel and with his own wickedness and his own efforts at saving himself and all that, wrestling with it, trying to come to some kind of assurance that he would, when he died, that he would go to heaven and not hell. Very concerned about his soul. This is what he wrote:

“One day as I was passing into the field and that too, with some dashes on my conscience, fearing lest yet all was not right with my soul, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, ‘Thy righteousness is in heaven.’ And I thought I saw with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ at God's right hand; there, I say, was my righteousness;” right there, “so that wherever I was or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, ‘He lacks my righteousness’, for that was just before him. I saw moreover that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor was it my bad frame of heart that made my righteousness worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ, himself, the same yesterday, and today and forever. Thy righteousness is in heaven.”

Now, later it troubled Bunyan as he searched in the Bible, that he couldn't find the phrase anywhere, “Thy righteousness is in heaven.” It bothered him. And it actually isn't found anywhere. But, the doctrine certainly is, and he lighted on the passage I just read to you, 1 Corinthians 1:30. “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us righteousness.” It's the same thing. Christ is in fact our righteousness. 

And so he wrote about this in Pilgrim's Progress and as Christian, the pilgrim who's leaving the City of Destruction and going to heaven, the Celestial City, trying to find some way to get out from under his guilt, he's got this heavy burden on his back. He comes at last to the cross, and when he looks at the cross, his burden is loosed from his back, and rolls down into the empty tomb, and there he saw it no more. And then he is given some gifts and one of the gifts that's given is this robe, this new set of clothing that covers him.

Just a short time later in the story, as he's traveling along, the journey isn't done yet, at that point. We have a long way to go in our pilgrimage to heaven. And so, he's traveling along, but he's in this beautiful robe. He notices two men tumbling in over the wall to get into the way to the Celestial City, Formalist and Hypocrisy are their names. And they're coming in and they notice, and they start to have a discussion. He's like, “The thief comes in this way. You ought to come in by the narrow gate, like I did.” And they're saying, “Well I don't see any difference between... We don't see any difference between us and you except that clothing you're wearing, which some friend probably gave you to cover your nakedness.”

And this is what Christian says, “As for the coat that's on my back, it was in fact given me by the Lord of the place whither I go, and as you say, it is to cover my nakedness with. And I take it as a token of his kindness to me for I had nothing but rags before. And besides this, I comfort myself as I go: surely, I think, when I come to the gate of the city, the Lord thereof, will know me for good since I have his coat on my back. A coat he gave me freely in the day that he stripped me of my rags.” Friends, go that way for Judgment Day. Clothed in the righteousness of Jesus.

Charles Wesley put it this way in the hymn, “And Can It Be”: “No condemnation now I dread. Jesus and all in him is mine. Alive in him, my living head and clothed in righteousness divine. Bold I approach the eternal throne, and claim the crown through Christ my own.” So lesson number one, the gift or the imputation of Christ's righteousness is essential to your going to heaven. 

Lesson number two: Heaven is a joyful place. I don't need to say much about this because I covered it a lot last week. But I don't think you'll mind if I talk more about the joys of heaven. Would you? Spend another week? Have you been constantly basking in heavenly joy, this week? Has it been a heavenly joy week for you? Well, it hasn't been for me, I mean it's been a week. It's been a busy week, some moments in and out, but I need a strong hope. I need to renew my faith today. And so I want a sense of just what it's gonna be like to sit at table at the wedding banquet with God and enjoy that.

And so, “the Kingdom of Heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his Son”. That's what it's gonna be like, a wedding banquet. We're gonna sit at table with God, and we're gonna drink from the fountain of joy and we're gonna be happy forever. Forever and ever, and there'll be nothing in that place to take away our joy. The thief that came to steal and kill and destroy, he'll be screaming in agony in hell, he'll be away from us forever. Nothing will steal that joy from us, it'll be ours, forever and ever.

And foundational to that joy of heaven, as I mentioned last week, is relationship. It's all about love. That's what's gonna be the foundation of our joy. God loves me. But before we even get there, you have to start foundationally. God loves his Son, he loves Jesus. “This is my Son, my only Son, whom I love.” And we are seen to be in him so he loves us like he loves Jesus. And how sweet is that relationship?

And so it's all about love. As I mentioned last week, the love of the Father for the Son, he wants to put on this wedding banquet for his Son. Sparing no expense, what would God the Father spare in expense for his Son? Nothing. But so also secondarily a story of a love relationship between God the Son, and his bride, the church. We are his bride. We are part of that bride of Christ that's gonna be coming down from heaven, the New Jerusalem prepared for the husband.

And we are going to be in some mysterious way, married to Christ. Every earthly marriage is a picture of this. You've been to lots of weddings. They're happy times, at least they should be. I've been to some interesting weddings, ask me about those, some other time. You've probably seen some on YouTube that didn't end so happily, alright, those things happen. But this one is gonna be happy, it's gonna be perfectly happy, it's gonna be joyful, a celebration. And every earthly marriage, it just pictures in some mysterious way. Ephesians 5-31-32, the union of Christ and the church, that will be consummated, mysteriously consummated, there at the wedding banquet.

And so it's all about love, it's all about joy. We're gonna be sitting at table eating, drinking, feasting in some mysterious way. I keep using that word mysterious. I don't know what eating is like in heaven in the resurrection body. I know that Jesus ate broiled fish in a resurrection body. So, I'm hoping for better, hoping for something else, but who knows, maybe I'll be healed from my dislike of fish of any sort at that point. But the Lord knows what to do and it's going to be a happy, joyful, celebration time. And you'll have people at your right and at your left and you're gonna talk to them and you're gonna be totally satisfied with your position there at the table. And you're going to enjoy yourself, forever.

And there is no joy on earth that compares with it. The only thing that comes close is the deposit given us by the Holy Spirit, those little foretastes that we get. Like maybe you're having one right now like I am, and you're just yearning for it and longing for it. That's the closest it comes. No earthly gift can ever come close.

So, I would urge that you actually stoke up the fires of that desire in your heart. Make yourself yearn for it more than you ever did before. Feed your heart with things above and things to come, and what it's gonna be like, Feed your heart and your mind so that you can yearn for it more than ever before. And oh, how I wish I didn't have to turn from such a delightful and happy topic to one, so dreadful and horrible as this.

The horrors of hell, depicted very plainly in Verse 13. And Jesus warned us, more in detail and more specifically about hell than any other biblical figure. And you know I wonder sometimes about that. Not just that we needed the warning, but because he was going to experience hell himself on the cross, and he was gonna drink that cup from his Father and so hell was very personal for him and that he would absorb it in our place.

But look at it. Look at Verse 13, “Then the king told the attendants, tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

There are many descriptions of hell in other places. Revelation 14 speaks of those who receive the mark of the beast and “if anyone receives the mark of the beast, he too,” it says, “will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. And He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. There is no rest day or night.” It says.

And the sheep and the goats, the story of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25:41, “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’” Five verses later in verse 46, it says, “Then they will go away into eternal punishment.” Mark 9:48 says, “Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” Revelation 20:14-15, it says, “The lake of fire is the second death, and if anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

So those are just different verses. But I want to zero in just on verse 13, and pick it apart a bit. First, it says “Tie him hand and foot.” The king commands the man who's not wearing wedding clothes to be tied up, hand and foot. The image is one of forceful restriction, the man cannot get away. Hell is the place of ultimate restriction. From hell there can be no escape.

Now, every prison on earth harbors within it some prisoners who harbor hope of escape. Even Alcatraz, that rock in the middle of the San Francisco Bay that was thought to be escape proof. There is a story in June of 1962, of three men that escaped. Now the FBI tells us they didn't make it. They may not have. No bodies were ever found, but they were able to get out and they made a rudimentary raft, and they got away.

But Dante, in writing Inferno, there was a sign over the gate, entering into the infernal region. It said, “Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here.” There's no escape. And why no escape, because God knows how to keep his prisoners. You have the omnipotence and the omniscience and the omnipresence of God working together to be certain you don't escape from hell.

Omniscience, speaking of earthly judgments, in Jeremiah 23:24, “‘Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the Lord.” And then omnipresence, “‘Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ declares the Lord.”

Amos 9:1-3, “Not one will get away, none will escape. Though they dig down to the depths of the grave, from there my hand will take them. Though they climb up to the heavens, from there I will bring them down. Though they hide themselves on the top of Mount Carmel, there I will hunt them down and seize them. Though they hide from me at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the sea serpent to bite them.” Now that's just earthly. How much more impossible is it to escape from hell?

The prisoners escaping from Alcatraz were hidden from the guards. They made dummies with real human hair, so that as the guards walked by the guards were fooled, thinking that the prisoners were still in their beds during the bed checks, during the night. Can't do that to God. God's omniscience, God's omnipotence, God's omnipresence ensures that no one will ever escape from hell. There's no getting out.

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus, father Abraham says to the rich man, “Between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can any one cross over from there to us.” Jude 6 says that God held mighty angels in the pit before Judgment Day. It says, “The angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home - these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great day.” There can be no escape.

And notice also that they are thrown outside. “Tie him hand and foot and throw him outside.” It says. Some make foolish statements and it's just amazing the things you hear as people are trying, foolishly, to protect God's reputation as though hell is the dirty little secret of the future life. No, no, no, hell is God's righteous punishment on sin. God knows all about hell, and we don't need to protect God's reputation. But they seek to do this and you know what they say? They say, “God doesn't send anyone to hell. People send themselves there by their choices.” 

Can I say to you quite plainly on Judgment Day, no one will choose to send themselves to hell. No one will say, “You know, I really don't wanna be with you, I don't wanna be with God. I'm going to walk and jump into the lake of fire over there.” No one will wanna go there. You won't need any faith to see it like you need faith now, to believe what I'm saying is true, it will be right there. And maybe some others have already been cast in there by the angels. They will have to be thrown outside. Thrown there. Against their will.

And note the word outside. What does the word outside mean? Well, outside of that wonderful place I just was talking about. The New Jerusalem, the place of feasting, the place of happiness, the place of bounty and celebration and joy. I said before, even if there were no hell, it would be hell to not be in heaven. But these folks are gonna be outside. Thrown outside. It says in the book of Revelation, “outside are the sinners,” there's this sense of outside and we're in here. Excluded, cast out, rejected, not permitted to enter and enjoy the presence of God.

It says, “Throw them outside into the darkness.” What is darkness? Well darkness is a place where there is nothing good. 1 John 1:5, it says, “This is the message we have heard from the beginning and declare to you: God is light; and in Him there is no darkness at all.” Well, hell is a place of perfect and complete darkness, it implies that there is no blessing from God there. God and his ability to bless is completely removed from hell. It's a place of darkness.

And don't let anyone tell you, “I wanna go to hell because all my friends will be there.” Sadly, it may be true. That all their friends will be there, but they will have no fellowship. Because it's a place of darkness, complete darkness, you'll see nothing, there'll be no light.

The New Jerusalem, the New Heaven and the New Earth will be illuminated with the glory of God and Christ will be the lamp and the righteous will shine with that light, the glory of God will radiate through that beautiful place. But it will not be there in hell because it's a darkness, a place of utter darkness.

It says, “Throw them outside in the darkness where there will be weeping.” Do you know what weeping signifies? It signifies psychological, mental, emotional trauma and pain.

It's a place of regret, a place of sadness, a place where you wish you had another chance, one more chance. A place where you remember the good things you had while you were alive and also that you never gave God thanks for them. And probably most acutely of all is there are some sighs and groans going up from hell. People will remember the chances that they had to hear the gospel which is the only power which would have gotten them out of there. And they will regret what they did at that time.

I actually prayed this morning that there would be some lost people here today. That you will fear regretting not having acted properly with this sermon. That you heard everything you needed. You've heard, you've heard the gospel this morning, you've heard the gospel of the gift of Christ's righteousness, of the shed blood of Jesus, of Christ drinking hell. You have all the ingredients, the power of God is here for you, you don't need to go to hell. Jesus drank hell for all that will repent and believe. So repent and believe.

You don't need to go there, Christ has already stood in your place to take it from you, he's here to warn you of it. But if you choose not to heed that warning you will regret this day, you'll look back on this day and you'll regret it, and say, “You know, you told me the truth, that day, and I didn't listen.” A place of psychological misery, of weeping and weeping and weeping, for eternity because you're not in heaven and you are in this dreadful place.

Weeping and gnashing of teeth. I don't know what that is, other than I think of physical torment there. It's not just mental, emotional, psychological. I believe in the resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. And I believe that the worm will not die and the fire will not be quenched. It's gonna be a place of active torment, under the wrath of God. People will gnaw their tongues in agony.

And so I beg you as though God himself were making his appeal I plead with you, flee the wrath to come. Because it's coming and just accept the gift of Christ's righteousness. Accept a place at the wedding banquet free of charge. Here's your place, sit down and eat forever, and enjoy forever, just accept it, receive it. There is no earthly situation, as horrible as hell. I don't use the word hell unless I'm speaking of it doctrinally, never. I don't say, “I felt like hell.” Or, “You look like hell.” I don't use the word because there's just nothing on earth that directly compares with it.

Can you imagine giving someone in hell a chance to be out of hell and in an AIDS clinic in Uganda, suffering from pneumonia, the final throes of AIDS, would they take it? I tell you, they would take it if only for 24 hours to get out of hell. They would go out of there and go to Auschwitz or Bergen-Belsen or any one of a number of horrible places on earth rather than be in hell.

So, flee the wrath to come. It says in 2 Corinthian 6:2 “‘In the time of my favor, I heard you, and in the day of salvation, I helped you.’ I tell you now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.” Flee to Christ now. You don't need to go anywhere. You don't need to get up and come forward. You probably ought not to. You probably ought to just sit and believe and trust. And then after that, if it's a genuine faith, a whole lifetime of good works will come. Just believe and receive.

Lesson number four. God is sovereign in salvation. Now, there are two really shocking aspects of this parable. One is what happened to the man who wasn't wearing wedding clothes. Throw him outside in the darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth. Just went through that carefully. But verse 14 is pretty shocking too. It's like, “Where did that come from?” It's kind of like out of left field it seems. Well, nothing's out of left field from the mind of Christ. If it seems out of left field to you, you just don't understand the mind of Christ at that point, that's all.

And so what does he mean when he says, “Many are invited, but few are chosen”? Most translations actually give us this, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” Where did the issue of choosing even come in? Well, remember Jesus is telling this parable to the Jews who are rejecting it.

And in effect, like Paul in Romans 9-11, is answering the question of, “Why are the Jews rejecting?” It's so unbelievable that you would actually reject an invitation to a banquet with the king. Why are you doing it? And Jesus's answer is, there are lots of people invited, but only some, few, are chosen and the chosen ones will stay at the wedding banquet and if you're not chosen, you won't say at the wedding banquet. That's what Jesus is saying. It's the doctrine of election of choosing by God.

So we have to deal first with “many are called.” What do we mean by called or invited? Well, the invitation, the call comes from God. First of all, you can't go to the wedding banquet in and of yourself just like any more than we could have gone to that state dinner that that couple from Virginia, they tried, and I think it will probably never happen again, I'm thinking.

Alright, you can't just up and say, “I'm going to that state dinner.” You have to be invited. And if you're not invited, you can't go. And how much more then, heaven. But here's the beauty of it. God is inviting you. He's inviting you, it's an incredible thing. The initiative was on God's part, and he is opening it up. He's sending out messengers and the messengers are going, saying, “Come on everybody, come. Whosoever wills let him come.” That's what it's saying, God must call us.

Now, I believe there are two different kinds of calling and they're related. There is an external call that you hear with your ears, you're hearing it right now. Causes your eardrums to vibrate. It may not cause your heart to move, but it does cause the eardrums to vibrate, causes the mind to think some certain thoughts. 

It's an external call. It's the words of the gospel which Paul says, “Is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes,” it's the gospel of Jesus Christ. The general call goes out, the external call you just hear it, you could read it, you could hear it on Trans World Radio, you could hear it on a DVD, you could see it on YouTube. There's lots of different ways to get that call, but it's external, and it's just an invitation from God to believe in Jesus. Messengers are sent out.

It's Lottie Moon time and so we say, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how then can they call on the one they've not believed? And how can they believe in the one of whom they've not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”

So that's the external call. It's the call of the evangelist, of the missionary. So you go and visit a new neighbor. And you bring them one of those little white bags with the little gifts in there. Invite them to our concert. Alright. Bring a freshly baked little loaf of bread or something. It's Christmas time, it's time to be neighborly. You go out there and you invite them to church, that's not the call. But then you get in the conversation and as you go in, you start talking about Christ and him crucified, Jesus shed his blood if you repent and believe. Now that's the call. You're starting to get into gear explaining the gospel and they listen, you are giving the external call.

Or an urban evangelist sets up a tent. For seven straight days he's in some tough area of some city in the U.S., and they have a crusade, and they preach the gospel. They preach Christ and him crucified. Every day and every night. That's the call, the external call, the invitation.

A missionary in China conducts an English language class. And uses the Bible as a text. And there's a specific student who wants to know more, comes privately after hours. They have a conversation. The missionary shares the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. That is the external call. It's the message of the gospel.

A physician witnesses to a patient who has just received a diagnosis of terminal cancer, sitting there in the room, they're witnessing very plainly of repentance and faith in Christ. Dear friends, that's the external call.

Now as Christians, it is our job to do that. We are called on to spread that as widely as we can. We are called out to go into the hedge rows, and the street corners and place of employment and your neighbor and everywhere to the ends of the earth, missionaries like the Gillams and others going out to the ends of the earth with the external call, spreading the gospel.

So verse 10, “The servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.” Jesus himself did this, “On the last and greatest day of the feast he stood and called out in a loud voice. ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.’” There's your external call.

But there is another call. And it works together with the external call and at the same time as the external call, there's the internal call of God. The internal call of Almighty God. It's an effective call, an effectual call. It creates what it calls. God says, “Let there be light,” and there's light. God creates and there is.

It says, in Romans 4:17, speaks of “the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.” So God calls to the heart, to the unregenerate heart, and the unregenerate heart, hearing the words, the external call of the Gospel, repents and believes. Why? Because God has worked it sovereignly in their heart.

So it says in 2 Corinthians 4:6, “For God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” So you've got that external general call and you've got the sovereign call of God in regeneration. 

Now, not everyone gets these calls. First of all, it's “Many are called,” not “everyone is called.” So there are some people that live their whole lives and never hear about Jesus, they never get the invitation that way. If you asked me about that and the justice of it and all that, that's another sermon, already preached it, probably several times. Come and ask me, and we'll talk about it. But it does say, “Many are called.” So many many many people hear the external call of the gospel, many.

But only few are chosen to sit at the banquet with God, chosen by God for that purpose, this is God's sovereignty in salvation. Ephesians 1 says, “He chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.”

According to Jesus, then, God sovereignly chooses whom he will call with that internal call, who he will clothe with the righteousness of Christ, and whom he will seat at the banquet table with him. I don't know what other interpretation, you could give to Jesus' summation of this parable. “Many are called but few are chosen.” It's the chosen ones that get to sit at the table and aren't cast outside into the darkness.

Well, what application can we take from this? Well, I've already given you one, repent and come to Christ.

Secondly, be involved in the external call, be involved in the call of the mission. You have the chance to do that financially. Next week you're gonna hear a Lottie Moon speaker. Listen to that message, see how God may be calling you to be involved in missions. I believe that people like the Gillams and others, missionaries that are in our church, they are a stewardship from God to this local church. Let's cherish their call and let's do what we can to feed that call and encourage them. And as you spend more time, you may actually hear a call from God, to go on mission work yourself.

And then finally, if I could just urge you, feed your hearts with the joys of heaven and study the terrors of hell. I really believe that an hour in each place would do us good whether we were Christians or non-Christians. But you can get it through the Word of God. Feed on it. Close with me now if you would in prayer.

So, we resume our series in Matthew. Going back to Matthew now and resuming our look at the life of Christ from that marvelous gospel. And we come to the parable of the wedding feast. We're gonna deal with it in two weeks. This morning we're gonna just look at the general overview and details of this parable and next week we're gonna draw out three of the weighty doctrinal issues that come from this. Just too much to cover in one week and so we can look forward to that next week.

But I will never forget as long as I live, the morning of July, 29th 1981. I was a non-Christian. I was driving to work at a job I hated. And I was listening to the radio, reports describing the most lavish wedding of our time, the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer at Saint Paul's Cathedral. And I was green with envy. I will never forget that. Lady Diana's wedding train was 25 feet long, we were told. She arrived in a glass coach. Took 3.5 minutes for her to walk the red velvet aisle up to the altar. 750 million people watched that wedding from 58 countries by TV and a privileged 3,500 viewed it in person.

I remember feeling incredibly jealous and not that I cared that much about the royal couple, but I didn't like my life at that point and thought, “Boy, wouldn't it be great? Wouldn't it be great to have the life of luxury and ease they were gonna have?” They were going on a Mediterranean cruise for their honeymoon. Eleven day cruise. A gift of the Queen of England. And I was pulling into the parking lot right at that moment as that all was being described, toiling my way through a life that seemed far less appealing. I remember wishing that I could at least have been one of the privileged few that could have attended that wedding. Little did I know what the future held for that couple or, for that matter, what the future held for me. That couple, as you know, had a tragic future in-store. A life of conflict and hostility, of adultery, broken relationships, of misery and, of course, the untimely death of Diana pursued by the paparazzi in Paris, bizarre car chase. You know the story.

Whereas I, for my part, would be invited and chosen for a far more lavish wedding banquet 15 months later when I became a Christian. And now I look on my own attitude at the time as foolishness, worldly foolishness. I can't wait to sit at the wedding banquet with Jesus. Amen? I can't wait to go to that wedding and sit at table with Jesus and partake in a mystical sort of way, a way I cannot understand, but as part of the bride of Christ, as we just sang, how beautiful is the bride of Christ. To be part of that and to enjoy just being in the presence of God. And part of the anticipation and the joy I have looking forward to Heaven comes from this parable and from the image, the picture of God that it gives us as the ultimate generous joy giver. That God is himself a happy being and he delights to make others happy out of his bounty and his lavishness. I'm just looking forward to being in the presence of such a being. Looking forward to being in the presence of God.

There are so many faulty views of God out there, aren't there? The “cosmic killjoy.” The one leaning over the ramparts of heaven to see if any of you are having a good time. And telling you to cut it out, squelching any joy you might have. I believe these images are clearly a Satanic lie. Clearly a satanic lie. From the Garden of Eden Satan has been lying to us, telling us that God is holding out on us, holding out joy and happiness. If we could just follow him, we would be really happy. The truth of the matter is quite different. The book of Revelation says of Satan that he is filled with rage, because he knows his time is short. How can a being like that give anybody happiness?

Jesus spoke of him saying he's a murderer from the beginning, the thief who comes to steal and kill and destroy. Jesus is the one who has come to give us life, and give it abundantly. Paul puts it this way, speaking of God, in 1 Timothy 1:11 speaks of “the glorious gospel of the blessed God.” And like many of you, perhaps, you just read over those words and it's like those religious words: Glorious, gospel, blessed, God, those kind of things.

It wasn't until John Piper kind of re-translated or actually got a little more careful in the translation than we're used to. “The glorious good news of the happy God.” It is glorious good news that God is happy and that he invites you into his happiness with him, that he wants you to be as happy as he is. That is a biblical picture of God and that's a picture we get of God in this parable today. In the parable, Jesus portrays God the Father as a joy-filled host of a wedding banquet. He portrays heaven as a lavish, joy-filled feast in which the fattened oxen and the cattle have been butchered and everything's made ready, and we're invited to sit at table and enjoy. And amazingly in this parable, this invitation is rejected. Rejected and rejected and rejected, again and again.

So, my earnest desire today is to explain the joy of God in this parable in such an appealing way that you'll sit at table with Christ even now, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And I do mean at the Lord's Supper, later on, but I also just mean day-to-day that you would just sit at table with Jesus, through that deposit, that guarantee of the Holy Spirit, and have foretaste of that heavenly banquet, knowing that it's not the full consummation, but just sit at table with Jesus.

And even more, mindful of the fact that there are almost certainly people here today who are in an unregenerate state. And you are lost. The Bible says you're under the wrath of God. If you were to die today, you would go to hell, you would spend eternity away from God. You can be freed from that today, just by hearing the gospel, which is the power of God for salvation. Just by hearing words of Christ crucified, his blood shed for sinners, of his bodily resurrection from the dead. And that hearing that, that faith will spring up in your heart and you'll be justified, forgiven of all your sins, and you will someday sit at table with God. That's my hope today. Can all of that happen? Yes, it can. That's the power of the Word of God. And so, that's what I'm praying for today.

But let's begin by just setting this parable in its context. A happy king throws a party, that's what it's about. And so Jesus is there in the last week of his life, we've already traced that out. He has made his triumphal entry to “hosannas” from the little children. “Hallelujahs.” “Blessed is the one who comes in the Name of the Lord,” and they're just chanting and celebrating. But it wasn't long after that joyful entry that Jesus began to cross swords with his enemies, the Jewish leaders who wanted to kill him, who were conspiring to put him to death.

They are the ones that rebuked the children for praising Jesus. They're the ones that were there when Jesus cleansed the temple, and they asked him, “By what power or authority do you do this?” They were there when Jesus was teaching in the temple area. They questioned him about that. They confronted him on his authority to do any of the things he was doing. He told them parables to try to explain their situation before God, Jewish history, and who he was. Parable of the two sons. The first son, the father says, “Go and work in the vineyard,” and the first son says he won't go, but he changes his mind and goes. And the other son, he says he'll go, but he doesn't go. And which of the two did the will of his father? And Jesus applies that parable, talking about the ministry of John the Baptist, he said, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw that, you didn't repent and believe.”

And then he told them the parable of the wicked tenants in the vineyard, picking up on that theme of God as the owner of a vineyard. An absentee owner. And how a vineyard was planted and rented to some tenant farmers, and when he sent servants to collect the fruit, they just beat them up and killed them, and then finally he sends his son and they kill him too. And then Jesus applies the parable this way, “I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but the one on whom it falls will be crushed.” Well, the Jewish leaders definitely got the message at the end of Matthew 21. It says, “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them, they looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because all the people held that he was a prophet.” That's how it ends, chapter 21.

And we go right from that into this parable. Jesus answers them again and tells them another parable, the parable of the wedding banquet. Now, why did Jesus use parables? This was something that Jesus chose to do. A parable is a story with elements taken from everyday life, something we understand, something that's familiar, but it teaches a spiritual principle. And if you get the key, if you understand it, then it's a marvelous teaching tool. Very memorable and teaches elements of truth that really just can't be gotten across so powerfully any other way. But if you don't have that key, it's gibberish and it makes the one who speaks them look like he's insane. They actually thought he was demon-possessed after telling parables. So it's a very wise thing. Jesus actually divides people by the parables that he tells. But in this way, I think he's explaining something about the rejection of the Messiah by the Jewish nation. 

So what's in this parable? You heard Bert read it. I'll just go over it briefly, just for details. “The kingdom of Heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.” So God is portrayed as a king and preparing a wedding banquet for the Son. “And he sent servants,” verse 3, “to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come.” So there's some group of people that had already known that this banquet was coming, and he's basically saying the time has come. It's time for the wedding banquet. 

However, verse 3, “they refused to come.” It's rather shocking, if you think about it, but they refused to come to the wedding banquet that's been prepared. Well, the king tries again. He sends more messengers.

Verse 4, “He sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited, that I prepared my dinner.’” Maybe you didn't understand the earlier message, maybe you didn't know. Well, I'm trying to make it clear. Dinner is ready. Dinner is served. In my family, you don't have to ask twice. They know. Thursday, you know when it was ready, it was long sought after. I'm gonna get into trouble. It was wonderfully made and the ladies worked hard and it was marvelous. But I'm just telling you, when the time came, we were there. We were eager. 

But the king sends more messengers, “Tell them the banquet is ready. The time has come. My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.” But those invited actually attack the messengers at this point. Verse 5 and 6, “They paid no attention and went off, one to his field, another to his business.” Verse 6, “The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.” But now we have the rage of the king. The king's enraged. “He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” And then he sends out a general invitation to everyone.

“He said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.” So here you've got this grand wedding hall and it's filled with good and bad people. But then the king comes in and as he comes in, he looks at the wedding guests and he notices there a man who's not wearing wedding clothes. And he approaches him, he initiates with him. He said, “Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?” And the man is speechless, it says. He doesn't have an answer. And then, perhaps some people think maybe the, most shocking part of the whole parable, then the king told the attendants, “Tie him hand and foot and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 

And then Jesus gives this, almost as shocking or maybe even more, in some cases, application or summation of this parable, “For many are called but few are chosen.” That's it. That's the parable. Those are the 14 verses we're gonna look at over these two weeks. Alright?

These striking words at the end, “Many are called but few are chosen,” are striking because it seems that choosing isn't even in view. What choosing or what election or what kind of choice is involved here? He's contrasting the invitation to the wedding banquet and the actual attendance of those that end up being there. And not everyone who gets invited actually ends up sitting at table. And this fits the context, actually, because he's addressing the fact, I believe, that Israel, that the Jews, are rejecting their Messiah and not everyone who gets invited actually sits at table. “Many are called but few are chosen.” It brings it squarely in view of the sovereignty of God in human salvation. 

Alright, well, let's look at some general lessons from this parable. Some general lessons. First of all, I always ask when I come to a text, two questions: What does it teach me about God and what does it teach me about man? And I would recommend that to you as a general principle of Bible study. Whenever you read a passage just say, “What do I learn about God here and what can I learn about man?” And so, let's start with the first and most important question. What does this parable teach us about God? And we see first and foremost, the lavish character of the king. This parable teaches us about God. God is a king. Clearly, I think, the king in the parable is God the Father, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he's presented as a king, a sovereign, a ruler.

And we see also this wedding analogy. I'll talk more about that in a moment, but it pictures a relationship between the Son of God and the church. A relationship between the Son of God and his people. Well, what are the attributes of the king? What does the parable teach us about the attributes of God?

Well, we see first and clearly, the love of God here. The love of God. The whole wedding banquet language is about love. It's a love relationship between the Father and the Son. The Father loves the Son and wants to put on the banquet. And just because it's a wedding banquet, not just a celebratory feast or a harvest feast or something like that, there's a love relationship between the Son and his bride. The marriage between Christ and the church. So we see love.

John the Baptist calls Jesus the bridegroom. You know, when his disciples come and they're jealous, because Jesus is doing better. Jesus' church is growing faster. And John understands exactly what's happening. It's exactly like it needs to be. And he says in John 3:29, “The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice.” So he uses bridegroom language to speak of Jesus.

Jesus uses that language to speak of himself when questioned about fasting, He said, “How can the friends of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away. At that point they will fast.” So, that's Matthew 9:15.

The apostle Paul likened marital relations between a husband and wife, in a mysterious way, to the relationship between Christ and the church. And so there is this idea of a wedding between Christ and the church. The final consummation of this is depicted in the book of Revelation. As the new Jerusalem comes down like a bride, beautifully dressed, prepared for her husband, ready for her wedding day. And so the whole context of this parable is the love of the Father for the Son and of the Son for His bride.

We see also, as I've already mentioned, the happiness of God. The happiness of God. A wedding is a happy time, it's a celebration. All over the world, A time of happiness. It's a time of eating and drinking and being happy, of laughter and music. And our God is a God of overwhelming joy. He is a happy God. You know, it just takes a while to wrap your mind around that. All of the misery in your life and mine has come from departing from this happy God. And all of the happiness and joy we'll experience comes from returning to him, reconciliation with him, right relationship with him. He's a happy God. How ridiculous is it then that some people portray him as a miserable being? I'm about to teach a class this upcoming semester on the Puritans at Southeastern. And H.L. Mencken said that Puritanism is “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”

Well, listen, that's really very clever and very bitter and all that, but the real issue isn't so much what does Mencken think of the Puritans, it's what does an unbeliever think about God? Same kind of thing, the haunting fear God has that someone, somewhere, is happy and they need to cut it out. But you know, the Scripture says, I think it's Psalm 115, “Our God is in heaven, he does whatever pleases him.” How foolish to be omnipotent and omniscient and be unhappy. [chuckle] I mean, if you're gonna be omnipotent, be happy, because everything's the way you want. And he is. He does whatever pleases him. In heaven, earth and under the earth, he's sovereign, he rules, and he is happy. He's a happy being.

Our God is a God of infinite happiness and pleasure. Psalms 16:11, this is your future if you're a Christian, it says: “You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” Eternal pleasures at the right hand of God. And so the wedding banquet of Jesus Christ is ample evidence that our God is a happy God and He wants you to be happy too. He wants you to experience pleasure and joy.

Thirdly, we see the generosity of the king. He is a generous being in this. He spares nothing for this lavish banquet. He wants to share his generosity with as many people as possible. Psalm 50, he says that, “Our God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.” Well, here he wants to share that bounty lavishly with the guests. So he is lavish and generous. “Tell those I've invited that I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered and everything is ready. Come to the feast.” He's generous.

Now, some people are stingy. Proverbs 23:6-8 says, “Do not eat the food of a stingy man, do not crave his delicacies; for he's the kind of man who's always thinking about the cost. ‘Eat and drink,’ he says to you, but his heart is not with you. You will vomit up the little you have eaten and you will have wasted your compliments.” Well God isn't stingy and he's not thinking about the cost. He is putting on this wedding banquet and he is being generous, lavishly generous. How generous? Well, in order to get you there, he didn't spare his own Son, but gave him up for you. How generous then, is God? How generous? What would you spare? What's precious to you? He didn't spare anything. The most precious to him, he gave. Poured him out at the cross.

See then the lavish generosity of God and see also the patience of God. Oh, he doesn't just try once, He tries multiple times to get these people to come to the wedding banquet. It says in Romans 9, concerning the reprobates, concerning the wicked, that “God bears with great patience the objects of wrath.” Oh, He puts up with an awful lot. And here, he just sends messenger after messenger. “Tell them to come. Tell them to come.” He's very patient.

We see also the wrath of God here in this parable. You might think, how does that fit with the earlier picture of the happy God? But it does. And we see the wrath of God. Once the people become violent and abusive to his messengers, the king shows his wrath, his righteously passionate emotional anger to what they have done to his messengers. How else could a loving King, a just king, respond? His servants have gone in his name to invite people to a long-prepared wedding banquet and they are refusing to come and actually murdering the messengers.

So I crafted an illustration to try to give you a sense of this. And it was so powerful as I went over it, it brought tears to my eyes because I have children. But imagine, just bear with this illustration. Imagine in one community, there's a group of parents that wants to put on a party for the village.

And they get everything ready for the party and they send out their children. And the children are dressed, the boys are dressed up in these little white suits, girls are dressed up in party dresses with flowers in their hair, and they go skipping and dancing and singing into the village. And the villagers murder them. Now, what would you feel as a father of those children? What I feel right now. Only make it perfect, make it holy, make it just.

So it is with God and the messengers of his gospel who have been beaten and killed, persecuted in every generation of church history. They have traveled over land and sea, they've gone over mountains, they have suffered privations, they've left the comforts of their home and they've gone over there and they have been persecuted and in some cases, martyred. And God loves those messengers, His children, more than any of you parents love your children.

And the connection between Christ and his messengers is intense and powerful, so much so that he confronts Saul of Tarsus, breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples, confronts him saying, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting,” he says. So this is how God treats the persecutors of his messengers if he doesn't convert them. Praise God for the grace of God, He converted Saul of Tarsus. “You deserve to die, but I'm gonna actually convert you instead. I'm gonna transform you and you'd be one of my children too. And you'll be one of my messengers and guess what's gonna happen to you? Everywhere you go you're gonna get beat up.” “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name,” but in the midst of it all, there'll be the joy of a reconciled relationship.

How do you see wrath in this parable? Well, it's right there in two ways. Two, actually, stunning ways. First, the burning of the town. Verse 7, “The King was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” In redemptive history, this undoubtedly refers to the destruction of Jerusalem. They rejected Christ, 70 A.D. the Romans came and destroyed that city and burned it to the ground.

But it's just a foretaste of the final judgment of God. It says in the book of Revelation that he sends out angels with bowls. And the angels pour out bowls on the earth. And the third angel pours out his bowl and the fresh water, the rivers and springs and streams are all turned to blood. And the angel celebrates the justice of God. “You are righteous, oh God, holy and true for doing this, for this is what you have judged. For they shed the blood of your saints and your prophets and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.” The final fulfillment of this will be the second coming of Christ when Jesus comes on that horse in front of the armies of heaven. Read about it in Revelation 19:7-11. He's riding a horse and the sword of God is coming out of his mouth, two-edged sword. Fire in his eyes. Faithful and true written on his thigh. Brings wrath, brings punishment for all those who have persecuted his people. So we see then, the judgment of God and the wrath of God.

We see it also in the banishment of the man from the hall, who is cast outside into darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, because he's not wearing the right clothes. We'll get to that next week. I told you there wasn't enough time in one time to deal with this parable. But there's a reason for it, and we'll talk about it next week, but we see, I think, a picture of hell there. And therefore we see the judgment of God, the keen assessment of the wedding hall and its guests, the perfect judgment of God. Nothing escapes his notice. He comes in there to see the guests. He looks at them, He notices a man there who's not wearing wedding clothes. He's just dealing with his eyes. He sees and knows.

And so it says in Proverbs 20:8, “When a king sits on his throne to judge, he winnows out all evil with his eyes.” Well, I don't know if Solomon could do that, but I know God can do that. And he winnows out all evil, separating the wheat from the chaff, separating the good fish from the bad fish, separating the sheep from the goats with his eyes. So that's what, some of what, I think the parable teaches about God.

What does it teach us about man? Well, how about let's start with the stubborn sinfulness of man. How stubborn are we in our sin, how much we resist the gospel message. The Jewish rejection of the Messiah, that's the context here. Through the prophets the Lord had been spreading a banquet feast and inviting them to come, getting ready for the Messiah. And they were the ones who had already been invited, but they're just being told now the banquets here.

These are the Jews. And through the prophets they've been prepared for this. Isaiah 55:1-2, “Come, all you are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.” Well, that's the invitation. They've been told that the banquet's coming. And now Jesus is coming saying, “The banquet's here.” Verse 3, “He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.” Jesus said it, he is very plain. John 7, “On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and called out in a loud voice. ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within you.’”

Did they come? No, they did not, they rejected him. And in the future they would reject the messengers of the Messiah and of the gospel. Matthew 23:34, “I'm sending you prophets and wise men and teachers, and some of them you will kill and crucify and others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.” Now, note the reasons for this stubborn, sinful refusal. First, it's just a flat, “No.” They just refused to come. Just said no.

Can you imagine a friend receiving an invitation to the inaugural ball in Washington, D.C., for the President, President of the United States? Just set the politics aside or whatever you think about presidents. But just think about the magnitude of the occasion. And you say to your friend, “When are you leaving?” He said, “I don't know. I don't think I'm gonna go.” “Why not? Are you not well?” “No, I'm fine. I decided the work's been piling up in the office. I think I'm probably just gonna work late that night.” “What are you, nuts? Are you crazy? This is an invitation to come, this is a once-in-a-lifetime invitation. How can you reject it to get a little extra work done at the office?”

But that's about what they say. “They paid no attention and went off,” Verse 5, “one to his field, another to his business.” So the craving for money, for material possessions, for power, for the stuff of this world, drives out any allure that the invitation has. They don't wanna come, they're too busy. Even the possessions. Luke's version of this, Luke 14:18-20, it says, “They all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I've just bought a field and I want to go look at it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I just bought five yoke of oxen and I wanna try them.’” So like, “I just bought a new SUV, I just don't have time for the Lord, I wanna try it out.” Bought a new boat, something. Something exciting, something interesting, something worldly. And the allure of the invitation starts to fade. Just not that appealing. So they refused to come. Another said, “I just got married. I can't come.” Just making excuses. And note the escalating wickedness. It starts with simple refusal, then they start to make excuses, and then they get violent and start to abuse them, as we've already talked about. This parable then, gives us a remarkable tour of the human heart, of human wickedness in rejecting the gospel. 

Notice also, if you would, the free offer of the gospel worldwide. Just tell everyone to come. The invitation, worldwide. I believe in the free offer of the gospel. I believe in telling anyone and everyone to come. It says in Luke 14, “The master told the servant, ‘Go out into the roads and the country lanes, and make them come in so my house will be full.’” Paul and Barnabas in Pisidian Antioch, after being rejected by the Jews, they said, “We are now turning to the Gentiles and they will listen.” So just go out, free, offer to everyone, any nation, tribe and people and language all over the world, “Come to the wedding banquet.

Notice also the mixed nature of the church. Verse 10, “The servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests, good and bad.” So, also, around the world, the church is filled with good and bad. The church is filled with what the Puritans called gospel hypocrites. People who look good on the outside, but inside their hearts are far from Christ. How dangerous a state. I believe the hardest category of people to reach with the gospel, they're not Muslims, not communists, not atheists, they are gospel hypocrites. Hardest category of people to reach. What can you tell them? Mixed nature.

And only on judgment day will they be winnowed out. As I already said, the sheep separated from the goats. The good fish separated from the bad. The wheat separated from the tares. And so it will be. Thus also, I think, the mixed nature of judgment day when Jesus comes and separates all of that out. And so it will be.

Now, next week, we're gonna talk about three significant doctrines that this parable discusses that I didn't discuss today. One of them is the sovereignty of God in salvation. That final statement, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” What did Jesus mean? We'll talk about that, God willing, next time.

And I think we should talk about the imputation of Christ's righteousness. What were the wedding clothes that that man lacked? What are we supposed to be wearing on Judgment Day? Because apparently, if you're not wearing it you get thrown outside into the darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. So it would behoove us to know what kind of attire God expects on Judgment Day. I say it's the imputed righteousness of Christ. We're gonna talk about that next week.

And I wanna talk about the joys of Heaven and the terrors of hell. The kingdom of Heaven is like a wedding banquet. “Throw that man outside into the darkness, tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside in the darkness where there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” There's so many things in each phrase. Tie him hand and foot. Throw him. Outside. Darkness. Weeping. Gnashing of teeth. Each one of those teaches us something about hell. 

And so we're gonna look at it next week, God willing. Now, what application can we take for this parable today? Well, first of all come to Christ. I am one of the messengers that the king has sent out. I'm not speaking highly of myself. “We are all ambassadors of Christ,” it says, “as though God himself were making his appeal through us. … Be reconciled to God.” In the language of the parable, God himself is making his appeal through me: “Come to the wedding banquet.” I know exactly when it is.

This is the Sunday after Thanksgiving. There are probably relatives here listening to me today. You were invited to come to church, maybe you don't usually go to church, I don't know. Maybe you go to a church in another place. That's really not so important right now. The question is, “Are you clothed in the righteousness of Christ? Have you trusted in Jesus?” Earlier, I gave you everything you needed to know. Jesus, the Son of God, shed his blood on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for sins. If you trust in him, all of your sins will be forgiven, past, present, and future. Trust in Jesus. Come to the banquet.

And if I can speak now to Christians, can I say, come to the banquet? He is a happy God. How are you? Are you happy? Are you joyful? Are you, through that indwelling Spirit, having foretaste of the future heavenly banquet? Or is the master coming out and saying, “I didn't say you could get up from the table, sit down and eat some more. Be joyful in me.” Didn't Paul say it this way, “Rejoice in the Lord always”? We wander from the banqueting table through sin. Jesus is inviting you right now to come back and sit down and feast some more in Christ. Don't wander after worldly things. Don't wander after sin. Understand the greatness of the joy waiting for you in Heaven.

Now, we're gonna unfold some of those weighty doctrines next time and talk some more about applications at this point. The final application for me right now is, I just want you to prepare your hearts for the Lord's Supper. We're going to celebrate the Lord's Supper. And how beautiful and how synergistic and providential that we're having the Lord's Supper today because I believe that this Lord's Supper pre-figures the wedding banquet of the Lamb. Don't you? Sitting at table. God and man at table are sat down. I love that song. And just think about what it's gonna be like to feast with Jesus. And again, if you're not a Christian, please don't come. Don't partake. Instead spend your time repenting of sin and trusting in Jesus.

But if you have trusted in Christ and have testified to that publicly, through baptism, water baptism, I'd like to ask you to partake. You may feel sinful. During the time, as we're getting our hearts ready, confess that sin. Resolve to make it right. It's for sinners. It's not for perfect people, it's for sinners. So, come and partake.

Well, as you just heard, this is our last sermon in this series in Proverbs. It's been a delight, and we're gonna focus this morning on friendship. One of my favorite movies of all time is A Man for All Seasons. It's a movie that was made in 1966 based on the Robert Bolt play of the life of Sir Thomas More. And Thomas More lived during the time of King Henry VIII, during the time of the reformation. And I don't agree with his theology, but in the movie, he's portrayed as a very courageous and winsome figure. And there are many attributes that he shows in that movie that are very engaging and very appealing. Thomas More was executed by Henry, Henry VIII for opposing Henry's divorce from his wife and his marriage to Anne Boleyn, and his break with the Roman Catholic Church and his taking of the, basically taking of the Pope's place, setting up his own really Catholic church there in London. And Thomas More opposed it. And the film covers that whole story.

Now, the film gets its title from Catholic scholar Erasmus's comments or statement about Thomas More. In a letter in 1521, he said this about Thomas More, "It would be hard to find anyone who is more truly a man for all seasons and for all men." And so what he was saying is he handled prosperity and adversity with equal dignity, carried himself well, in any and every situation. Now, Erasmus and Thomas More were very good friends. And actually, it was another statement by Erasmus about Thomas More that arrested my attention recently. Erasmus knew leaders from around the world, and he marveled at More's comfortable way with people, his affable and self-effacing manner, and More was, Erasmus wrote, "A man born for friendship." A person who delighted in conversation with others and who could deal with every type of person at any level. Born for friendship, what a phrase. I really believe that's true of every single human being that walks in the face of the earth. I think we are born for friendship, we are born for relationship. We were not born to be alone in this world, to be isolated, to be an island unto ourselves. We were born for relationship, and I go beyond that, not merely relationship, we were born for friendships.

Now, you can have a relationship with a hairdresser, you can have a relationship with a postal worker, you can have a relationship with a check out clerk at Kroger's. But none of these are friendships. You can have acquaintances at church or at work who ask about your weekend, and notice your new sweater after Christmas, and who inquire after your health. But even they are not necessarily friendships. Friendships go much deeper than any of that. At core, it's a matter of love. It's a matter of a shared love.

Now, CS Lewis wrote a book called "The Four Loves," and he identified four Greek words for love. Storge, which is affection.  Philia, which is friendship, and eros, which is sexual attraction, and agape, which we translate generally unconditional love. He isolated the fourth, charity, the Greek word agape, as the highest and the most perfect form of Christian love. Because it most perfectly represents God's unconditional love for sinners like us. Now, it's been rightly pointed out by New Testament scholars that New Testament writers tend to use philia and agape interchangeably, and so I agree with that. I'm not gonna get into the linguistics of it.

But the difference between unconditional love and friendship is simply this: Unconditional love originates in the character of the one who does the loving, and it really to some degree, has almost nothing to do with the object of the affection. That's what unconditional love means. We're not looking for something in the individual, we're just loving because of who we are.

Friendship, however, is drawn from us by attributes we see in the other person. We see something worthy, or worthwhile in that individual, and we're attracted to it, we're drawn to it. And it's appealing. Now, we can love a homeless beggar who is reeking of alcohol unconditionally as God loved us when we were still sinners. That is the God-like spirit of unconditional love, but we wouldn't necessarily be friends with that individual. Friendship is based on something we see in the person, something attractive, something that draws out our admiration, something that pulls out our affection. That bases our friendship on that issue. I think that in heaven, dear friends, we will see friendship perfected. We will see very desirable attributes in others, and we will see them forever. And therefore, actually, I think unconditional love is temporary. I'll say more about that. You're going to be shocked. You're gonna go back and say, "Oh my goodness, what did he say? Unconditional love is... " Well, just in the way I've been talking about it this morning, that's what I mean.

I think we're going to see horizontally attributes in the brothers and sisters in Christ in heaven that will be perfected, and we will see those things forever and they will be worthy of our admiration. And they will draw from us great affection and we will love them for it. And therefore it will be very similar to what the Father said to the Son at the time of the Son's baptism, in which He spoke from heaven and said, "This is My Son, My only Son, whom I love, with Him I am well pleased."

Now, every love in the universe is but a dim reflection of the love that the father has for the son and that the son has for the Father. The Father from eternity passed, delighted in the Son, in His perfections, in His attributes, in His nature, His heart, and so what will be in heaven. We will truly delight in other Christians for what they are, not unconditionally. We will not love people in heaven, let's put it this way, in spite of what they are any longer. The days for that will be over. But rather because of who they are in Christ. And we will love them eternally, for what they will be in heaven, what they will be forever. A perfectly glorious display of the Son of God. We will be perfectly conformed to Jesus Christ, and in that sense then worthy of that kind of friendship that I'm celebrating today.

Today, I wanna meditate with you on the delights of friendship. A recent survey showed that people who have invested in deep friendships over a long period of time are likely to be the happiest people on earth. Friendship then is of the essence of happiness. Without friendships, life itself is lonely and isolated, and empty. As we meditate on friendships, I wanna do it in two distinct parts. I want to begin as I already have in this introduction, from an eternal kind of lofty God-centered way, looking at the eternal destiny of friendships and their role even now in our lives. And then in a very practical down-to-earth rubber meets the roadway from the Book of Proverbs. Frankly, that's been my consistent pattern in preaching on Proverbs anyway, and we're gonna do that again today.

So let's begin by looking at the ultimate friendship. We were, dear friends, created for friendship with God. We were created for friendship with Almighty God. Thomas More was born and framed for friendship, and so were we, but of the highest kind, I speak of friendship with God. We were created to delight in God and be delighted by God. Would you characterize the love you have for God as unconditional love? Do we ever love God in spite of what He's done? Well, we may be tempted to do it, but, you know, we soon come to ourselves and realize God never does anything but perfection toward us. And we love God because of who He is. We love God because of the greatness of His person, the perfection that's revealed in Scripture, and we were born for that. We were born to celebrate it.

Now, Abraham was called God's friend. What an amazing statement when you think about that. For a human being to be God's friend. It's incredible. Isaiah 41:8, "But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend." James restates this concept in James 2:21-23, "Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,' and he was called God's friend." Now, Abraham's friendship with God consisted very much in his willingness to trust God no matter what, and to sacrifice whatever God asked of him. And I think that James' passage is just really drawing up the attributes that were in Abraham that were the basis of that friendship. Not the ultimate basis, I think the ultimate basis of that is the grace of God in Christ. But James is focusing on the human side of the effects of faith. And because he was willing to sacrifice his son, his only son, Isaac, he was called God's friend. I think that's what James is talking about here.

Also, God revealed himself to Abraham. He opened Himself up, He revealed His plans to Abraham. You remember when God appeared with two other, I believe, angels at Abraham and Sarah's place. Invited Himself over for dinner, I guess. Actually, he didn't really, but what could Abraham do? And it was just the nature of hospitality in those days that he was going to set a meal before these three individuals. I think this may be in part what the author to Hebrews is talking about, "Some have entertained angels unawares." I don't think they really knew who these figures were at first, but as it went on, it became clear to Abraham. But God was there for a reason, to reveal to Abraham and Sarah what their own future would hold, but also to investigate Sodom and Gomorrah, and to see what should be done with those wicked cities. And God deliberates concerning this, concerning Abraham, and it's interesting how Scripture brings us right into the mind of God, for the deliberations that He has over this issue. Genesis 18:16 and 17, "When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. Then the Lord said, 'Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?'" In other words, "Abraham is my friend, I have a relationship with him. Abraham is gonna become a great father of many nations, and he's gonna command his children to walk in the ways of God. Shall I hide from this man, what I'm about to do?"

And in effect, God answered, "No, I'm not going to hide it. I'm gonna show him what I'm about to do." And then the intercession happens over Sodom and Gomorrah. Friendship with God is implied in many other cases, not just in this one, especially this phrase that, "So and so walks with God." Isn't that a delightful phrase, that so and so walked with God? Genesis 5:24, "Enoch walked with God, and then he was no more, because God took him away." And then in Genesis 6:9, "This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. I would love to walk with God today, wouldn't you? I'm gonna wanna just love to walk with Jesus today. How delightful would it be to walk with God? And that's what Enoch and Noah did. Abraham was commanded to walk with God, and he did. Genesis 17:1, "When Abraham was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, 'I am God Almighty, walk before Me and be blameless.'" And so also God's general command to us in Micah 6:8, "He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you, but to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

So we were created for friendship with God, just as Abraham was. Now, in the New Testament, Jesus comes to make us His friends. That's what He came to do. Now, it's a beautiful thing in John chapter 1, one of the least celebrated parts of that glorious Gospel of John is the way that the Church began. This tiny little beginning, just the seed, like a mustard seed of how the church, the grand and glorious church of Jesus Christ began. It's in John 1:35-39. It says there, "The next day John, John the Baptist, was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God.' When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, 'What do you want?' And they said, 'Rabbi,' which means teacher, 'Where are you staying? 'Come,' He replied, 'And you will see.' So they went and saw where He was staying, and spent that day with Him. It was about the tenth hour." You might think, I mean, "Why in the world would John include that?" I mean, John actually cuts out a lot of other things that appear in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, important things. John says, even the whole world couldn't carry all the books that would be written, and he's only chosen a few select things. Why would he choose this? This quiet little thing.

This quiet little incident, I believe is the origin of the Church of Jesus Christ on Earth. I'm not speaking of a discontinuity between the Old Covenant, New Covenant, any of that. I'm just saying, that's where the church of Jesus Christ as such, Jesus of Nazareth had its start. Right there. With some time hanging out, Jesus and a couple of guys. I mean, think about it, come and stay, and they went and ate with Him and they had some conversation, they talked, they just spend time with Jesus. And you might think, "Well, what's so important about that?" That's the heart of it all. That's what He wants. He wants to eat with us, sit at table with us, He wants a relationship with us, He wants a friendship with us, and that's how it all started. One scholar said, it's probably where John met Jesus, and so he includes it there 'cause it was special to him. He was the disciple whom Jesus loved, and that's when he first spent time with Jesus, they became friends, thus began the church, the union of friends with Jesus Christ. And so later in John's Gospel, we see the privilege of being Jesus's friend, "John 15:13-15, "Greater love has no one than this, that He lay down his life for his friends, and you are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father, I have made known to you."

Again, that issue of self-revelation. Jesus opens His heart to us, He lets us know what He thinks. We have the mind of Christ, it says, He lets us know what He feels. We know what His purposes are. And after the resurrection, in John 21, it's amazing how John 1 has this quiet little kind of occasion with Jesus, and they kind of hang out with Him and spend time where He's staying. And the final chapter, after the glorious chapter 20, the resurrection chapter, and He reveals Himself to Thomas, "My Lord and my God." There's one more chapter and again, people have wondered, "What a kind of a strange end to John's gospel. Breakfast by the sea with Jesus." And Jesus is walking by the sea and He calls out and He says, "Friends, haven't you any fish?" "No," they answered. And then Jesus then guides them, though they don't know it's Him, to a supernatural catch of fish, and He makes fish for them for breakfast. A marvelous picture of friendship with Jesus. I think we may underestimate this. I think we may underestimate this whole issue of sitting at table with Jesus and just spending time with Him, because it seems to be the point. Now, what does it mean then to be friends with God? I mean, friends with, friends with God. I wish I could say ‘God’ like Thabiti does. Thabiti Anyabwile. I mean what a man, ‘God' you know, like that. 

But friends with the infinite Almighty Creator of the Universe. It obviously is a different kind of relationship than we would have with any other friend. Of the essence of friendship with God is daily, humble obedience to Him. "You are my friends, if you do what I command." God is God and always will be infinitely high above us. And therefore, we need to obey Jesus's commands if we wanna be His friends. Micah says we have to walk humbly with our God. Abraham obeyed the bitter command to sacrifice his son, his only son Isaac, and was called God's friend. Abraham himself, in that exchange I talked about when interceding with Sodom and Gomorrah, he said, "I'm only dust and ashes. He was aware of his standing as a human being before God. And I think that's completely appropriate. I don't think it's going to end in heaven. I think we will always have that sense of the infinite greatness of God above us. The holy Seraphim cover their faces before God. They're not sinful, but they just recognize an infinite gap. And yet for all of that, God sits at table with us, walks with us, and talk with us in His resurrection body. In the new heavens and the new earth, we will dwell with God and see his face. And be with Him forever.

And the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ concerning this vertical relationship with God is that it transforms enemies to friends. The most amazing part of this world is that we, even we sinners, could somehow become God's friends. And why would God even want us as friends? If you really know yourself that's amazing, that's amazing. I think that's where the unconditional part comes, it's not that God sees something in you. Not at all, there's something in God, but He's not gonna leave you that way, and He's going to work in you what is pleasing to Him. And so there's that beautiful consummation of that through sanctification and glorification. But the fact of the matter is, the power to transform enemies to friends of God is in the blood of Jesus. It's in the blood of Jesus Christ and no other place.

Colossians 1: 21 and 22, "Once you were alienated from God and you were enemies in your minds, because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation." Can I just ask you if you're here today, does that characterize you?  Without blemish, free from accusation, are you still living like an enemy of God, violating His commands, lusting in your hearts, sexual lust, covetousness and greed? Does this characterize the way you're living your life? Are you afraid to die? Well, you ought to be. Are you afraid of judgment day? You ought to be. You're not afraid enough. But you've come here today, and you know what there is here today? The gospel, which is the power of God for salvation, and it says here of the Colossian Christians, once they were like that. They were enemies of God, characterized by their evil behavior, but they were rescued, they were transferred from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of the beloved son. And so can you be.

All you have to do is look to Jesus. I'm gonna say something shocking, you don't have to walk the aisle. You don't. You do have to obey Jesus. You do have to obey Jesus. And if while you're sitting there, something is sparked in your heart, Jesus is God in the flesh and died for me. He shed his blood for me and I can be forgiven, and I want that, and there's this yearning for that and looking to Jesus and a hatred of sin, you're already justified, friend, before you even speak a word. Faith has arisen in your heart, God has saved you, and then there's gonna be all kinds of good works that'll flow after that, and you will be called God's friend like Abraham was. The Gospel has that kind of power, to transform enemies and make them friends.

And the friendship we have is eternal with God, it's not temporary, it's something we will have forever and ever. John 17:3, "Now this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." Eternal friendship. Eternal knowledge, eternal relationship. 1 Corinthians 13:12, "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." I'm gonna be in this incredible face-to-face relationship with God who loved me in Jesus. How sweet is that? Revelation 22: 3 and 4, "No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him and they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads." So with the unshakable foundation of a reconciled vertical friendship with God. We are then lead horizontally into friendships with others.

The Gospel makes friendships. We have the power through the Gospel to be completely reconciled with other believers in Jesus Christ. We are brought into a marvelous fellowship, aren't we? A fellowship that extends the world around with friends we haven't even met yet. People who love Jesus like us, and we're gonna be in those relationship from here to eternity. So the common word for brothers in Christ is friends. Acts 4:23, when Peter and John were released from the Sanhedrin, they went to their friends and reported everything that the chief priests and elders had said to them. They went to their friends. It was the church. It was their friends. 3 John 15 says peace be to you, that friends greet you. Now greet the friends, every one of them. And many New Testament passages use the word beloved to address brothers and sisters in Christ, this is the word for friendship, these are friends. Dear friends is a way to put it. We are the beloved in Christ. And that's the way horizontally we speak to each other, beloved.

I love listening to John MacArthur use that term in his sermons, and so beloved, he says, that kinda thing. It's wonderful, it's friendship, the friendship that we have for one another and that God has for us. We're commanded to love one another. 1 John 4:7, "Dear friends, let us love one another for love comes from God and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God." 1 Peter 3:8, "Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another, be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble." Love as brothers. Be compassionate and humble.

We are also partners in worship, aren't we? Come together here every week to worship the living God. Psalm 95: 6 and 7, "Come, let us bow down and worship. Let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker, for He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care." Have you ever noticed how many commands, horizontal the commands there are concerning worship? Worship the Lord with me, magnify the Lord with me, together, let us exalt His name. There's a lot of horizontal stuff, even the seraphim do that. They were calling to one another, Isaiah 6, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord almighty. It's going out horizontally, saying let's worship together.

And in the ages to come, there's gonna be a multitude from every tribe and language and people and nation, standing before the throne in front of the Lamb and they're all wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. And they're crying out in a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God." That's really a horizontal statement. Really, isn't it? Salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb who sits on the throne. And so we are worship partners together, we're also co-laborers in the Gospel. Romans 16:21, Timothy, my fellow worker sends his greetings to you. 2 Corinthians 8:23, as for Titus, he is my partner, says Paul, and my fellow worker among you. Paul says this in Philippians 4, "I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, loyal yoke fellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are written in the book of life."

In other words, Paul didn't walk alone down that road of apostleship and church planning and all that, he always had a group of friends around him, that horizontal co-laborer relationship he had with so many. And so it is with us. Here we are in this church, can I say honestly, there's nowhere else I'd rather be? There's no other group of people on the face of the earth that I'd rather fulfill the great commission with than you. My affection for you grows and grows with every passing year. And I'm grateful to you, and I'm grateful to God for you, and I enjoy doing the great commission with you, it's a wonderful thing to share, and I don't care who leads so and so to Christ, you or me, it doesn't matter, I'll celebrate either way. It's a joyful thing, isn't it? To be partners in the gospel together.

And we also get to be partners in each other's discipleship and growth, in each other's sanctification, we get to disciple one another. Many times, we've talked about that Paul relationship and that Barnabas relationship and that Timothy relationship, those are all flourishing in healthy churches. You have relationship with a mentor. A man for a man, a woman for a woman who's older in the faith, somebody who can help you along, who's been there and is experienced and can help you. A Paul in your life, a Barnabas, who's a peer and who holds you accountable, who loves you, or walks with you, who journeys with you, or travels with you, going through the same things as you, and then there's a Timothy, somebody who maybe you even led to Christ and you can build them up in their faith, and all of these are based on friendship, all of them. Friendships in the gospel. And it's the beauty of the church. The unity of the church is the beauty of the church.

Jesus said in John 17, verse 22 and 23, "I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one, I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity, so that the world may know that you sent me." John 13:35, "By this will all men know that you are my disciples if you love one another." Can I just say that unbelievers, outsiders who come in here, they're gonna quickly judge Christ and the Gospel and this church by the level of friendships that they experience here. They didn't even have to be involved, they just can observe them. 'Cause they might not be involved, they're strangers, nobody knows them, somebody should reach out quickly and draw them in, but they'll be able to observe even before that happens, whether we love one another or not, and whether we are each other's friends. And in this way, we adorn the gospel and make the gospel attractive 'cause people yearn for it, they really do. It's what they want.

Now, perfect horizontal friendship won't happen here on earth. It's only for heaven. Unconditional love is needed now. Oh, do we need it? Oh, does my wife need it. We need it. I mean, we are sinners and we need to cover each other's sins. And God brings interesting people into His family, people you might not have chosen to bring into the family, they stretch you a bit. The church is filled with interesting people. I'm an interesting person in that way that I mean right now, and we all have warts and blemishes and edges and personality flaws and troubles, and we are not easy to befriend. And so if this is going to be a pattern here on earth, we've got to have that unconditional love for each other. We've got to accept each other in Christ Jesus, and bear with each other as the Lord has commanded us and forgive one another.

Unconditional love in this sense, I think really just means secure love, it's secure. We're secure here. You're not gonna send your way out of my heart, I'm gonna love you. We're brothers and sisters in Christ, we're gonna be together. You're not gonna be kicked out of the family. You're secure, you're safe here, it is a permanent relationship. And we are called frequently to call to love one another in spite of such and such, right? That's what bear with one another means. Praise God you're not gonna be “bearing” with anything in heaven, alright? But we do bear here on earth and people are bearing with you. I know we all tend to think of it as a one-way street, how much I'm bearing in this relationship, but you know it's not. I mean, moments, little flashes of humility come across to you from time to time, and you'll say, "You know, they may need to bear with me too."

And so we've got to have that love, that horizontal, unconditional love with one another, but I'm telling you it's temporary. Praise God, it's temporary. We won't need it in heaven. There won't be anything to bear with in heaven, we'll be celebrating the brother or the sister, and what God has done. Jesus said it this way, then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. And we'll love what we're seeing from them and we'll be attracted to it because it's gonna be Jesus' glory shining in them. Oh, how beautiful is that. The Father doesn't love the son in spite of anything, he loves the son because of things. And so it will be with us horizontally, we're going to love one another because of what God has done in each other's lives, and I can't wait for that. I just can't wait. It's a beautiful thing now when we see it, but it's gonna be perfected up there in heaven.

Now you're saying to yourself, I thought this was a sermon on Proverbs. Well, we have a few more minutes. Alright, so yes, it is in fact a sermon on Proverbs. How does Proverbs help us now horizontally, live this out? I mean, we've been up in the heavenlies, we've been talking about heavenly relationship, friendship with God. Well, what about now? I mean, it's hard to have friendships, relationships are challenging. What does Proverbs have to say? How can I be helped by the book of Proverbs? Well, Proverbs begins in its advice on friendships by warning us about friendship, actually. Right from the start, in Proverbs, it warns us about being friends with criminals, I'm gonna come back to that in a minute, but right from the start, it gives us a cautionary tale about friendships. And so, in Proverbs, it talks about friendships that are based on false motives. Like, the friends that rich people have that others don't. You know what I'm talking about.

It says in Proverbs 14:20, the poor are shunned even by their neighbors, but the rich have many friends. Okay, that's not what I'm talking about here when I'm talking about friendship. That's not it. Or Proverbs 19:4, “wealth brings many friends, but a poor man's friends desert him.” Lavish gifts makes friendships, right? Proverbs 19:6, "Many curry favor with a ruler, and everyone is the friend of a man who gives gifts." It's just a true statement, he's not advocating, "Hey, if you want lots of friends, give gifts to people, then you'll have lots of friends." The prodigal son tried that, how well did that work for him? When the money ran out, the friends ran out. It's just a warning. That's all. When trouble comes such false friends abandon.

Proverbs 19:7, "A poor man is shunned by all his relatives, how much more do his friends 'avoid him.' Though he pursues them with pleading, they are nowhere to be found." That is not what we're talking about here, one to another. And as I said, Proverbs warns us not to befriend bad people, criminals. Proverbs 1: 10 through 16, the father says to the son, don't fall in with highway robbers, basically, with those who entice you and say, "Hey, let's lay and wait and let's kill somebody and take... We'll share a common purse. Let's get together and do this and we'll be friends together." That is wickedness. That's not friendship. Or don't befriend an angry man, be careful to befriend somebody who is corrupt in their character in this regard. Proverbs 22: 24 and 25, do not make friends with a hot-tempered man. Do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared. So be careful in friendship, be discerning.

Proverbs teaches the basic lesson, in 1 Corinthians 15:33, which says do not be misled, bad company corrupts good character. So I wanna urge you, young people, college students, be careful who your friends are. I wanna urge you in the workplace, you who are out in the workplace, be careful who you are becoming intimate with. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers isn't just about marriage. Don't get into close friendships with people that can corrupt you. I don't know what to say about friendship evangelism, I think we ought to befriend people and show them the love of Christ. But I'm talking about something different, a deeper level of, almost covenant relationship, we can't do it with unbelievers.

Alright. Well then, what are the attributes of a true friend according to Proverbs? Well, let's start then with selectivity. Selectivity, Proverbs 12:26, a righteous man is cautious in friendship, but the way of the wicked leads them astray. This proverb is notoriously difficult to translate, but the Hebrew implies that a righteous man carefully investigates his friends. Now I'm not talking about background checks, there's a website in North Carolina where you can find out if a perspective friend had committed a crime, something like that. That's not what I'm talking about. It just means we're discerning, we're discerning in friendship. Proverbs 18:24 says a man of too many friends comes to ruin, but there's a friend that sits closer than a brother. So we're not looking for a multitude of shallow relationships, there are people that have friendships like that. A mile wide and just an inch deep, nobody really knows that person. Nobody really knows them. And that's not good enough. We need bands of friendship that go deep and tie us together.

So selectivity. Secondly, sacrifice. I tell you, it's impossible to be in a love relationship of any kind without sacrifice, and frankly the love, the love is measured by willingness to sacrifice. Greater love is no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. That's what love is all about. Walter Winchell put it this way, "A true friend is someone who walks in when everyone else is walking out." And you've had times in your life when it seemed like everybody's walking out, that's when the true friend walks in. Lou Wein put it this way, "A friend is someone who is there for you when he'd rather be anywhere else." Oh, there are times like that, a true friend is there saying, the circumstances are horrible, but I'm here for you. So it has to do with sacrifice.

And so Proverbs 17:17 says, a friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. That's what we're talking about and it's what Jesus says for us, all times, judgment day and beyond Jesus will be there for us. What a friend we have in Jesus. But in the same way, we should be that way for each other, loving in times of adversity.

Thirdly, loyalty. A man of many companions may come to ruin, we've heard, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. That's got to do with loyalty. Proverbs 27:10, "Do not forsake your friend and the friend of your father, and do not go to your brother's house when disaster strikes you, better a neighbor nearby than a brother far away." What he's saying there is a true friend is loyal, he sticks by you, he upholds your cause. Jesus' friends all deserted Him when He was arrested, he said it would happen. But they weren't perfected in friendship. But Jesus has made us this promise, Hebrews 13, "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you."

And so also a true friend who makes a similar promise to his friend, perhaps the friend is sick, perhaps the friend is unpopular after saying something stupid in a public setting, perhaps even there's some gross sin involved. We don't throw people out, we don't fire friends, we stick with them, we remain loyal. A true friend then is someone who knows the deepest parts of you and likes you anyway, this is the place I think of unconditional love here on earth.

Fourthly, forgiveness. In this world where we still battle the sin nature, every single human relationship is based on the willingness to give and receive forgiveness, and if we don't do it, we won't have friendships, we just can't. We won't have a marriage, we can't have a good marriage. Without forgiveness, you can't have friendship.

And so it says in Proverbs 10:12, "Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs." That's what Jesus did. He covered our sins in his blood. The Old Testament word for atonement, Kippur is covering, it's a covering over of sin. And so we do that for each other. Love covers a multitude of sins, Peter tells us. Gotta have that in a friendship. Just overlook it. Proverbs 17:9, he who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter, separates close friends. That's such a temptation, isn't it? To bring it up again. Remember that time when you... Yeah, we know, we know what happened. But it says in 1 Corinthians 13, love keeps no record of wrongs. To have a friendship, you make a determination to forget something. Just as God has made a determination to forget your sins, and so He has. It doesn't mean he doesn't know about your sin, he's omniscient. But he has chosen in the relationship in relational language to forget that sin as though it never happened. And so it must be for us.

Trustworthiness. A perverse man stirs up dissension and a gossip separates close friends. Alright, a gossip, at least some kinds of gossip happens when a friend entrusts something precious and dear to another friend, entrusts them with that. And then that friend betrays the trust and spreads it around. And it separates that close friendship. It's not the same after that. That friend did not prove reliable, they were not faithful to the intimacy of the friendship. If you entrust something to a true friend, he's gonna keep that trust faithfully till the day he dies.

Sixthly, we see honesty. Proverbs 27:6 “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.” This verse refers to the willingness that true friends have to tell you the truth about yourself. Now, it's easy for us Christians to deceive ourselves about how it's going in our sanctification. Sin is a great deceiver. Romans 7:11, sin deceived me and put me to death. Hebrews 3:13 says we ought to encourage one another daily so that no one's hardened by sin's deceitfulness, so we need to help each other with this, with those blind spots. Blind spots.

It's funny how we Christians will assent readily to the general presence of sin in our lives. I, like all seven billion other people, am a sinner. I mean, there's nothing to that, it's when you get real specific, the thing that the pride starts to kick up, if you noticed. Yes, we know you're a general sinner, well, I knew that, but what I didn't know this about you, was that you do such and such, and this is a problem in your life. I'm not saying you ought to do it that way, we'll get to that in a moment. But I'm just saying, it's when it gets specific and really connects with you in ways that aren't universally common to everyone, that's where it gets painful. And I think that's where friendships in the Lord can mean so much.

C. J. Mahaney in his book "Humility" talks about how he has cultivated these kinds of relationships, he has a memorable passage which I quoted before here about a well-dressed man with a blob of cream cheese on his face, I won't go through the details again, but he sees this man, and wonders should he get up and say something. He's not a friend, he's not even an acquaintance, and he's still wondering that just out of common courtesy. But how would a friend that walks with him, as that man goes into the important meeting and never says anything. Well, he's an enemy, really, who's multiplying kisses. "Oh, you look fantastic. I love your well-groomed moustache." I mean, if we get real specific, I won't say you have a big blob of cream cheese on it, I'm not gonna a word. Well, that's a kiss that's multiplied by somebody who really doesn't love you. We have got to cultivate relationships in which there's this kind of honesty, but can I give you a warning about that, please, from personal experience? Can it please be done biblically, and that means gently and with humility.

Galatians 6:1, if someone is in sin, you who are spiritual, restore him gently looking to yourself, lest you also may become tempted. These are the two qualities that you must have if you're gonna go horizontally to somebody and point out the cream cheese in their lives. Go gently and go with humility. An enemy multiplies kisses, but the wounds of a friend can be trusted. I had an experience, I will never forget some years ago, with someone who came to my office and he said, "It is my purpose to wound you tonight." And then read a five-page letter of flaws in my person in my ministry. There happened to be another Christian brother in the room at the time, and I understand the verse that was the basis of that statement, but I don't think he met the qualifications. If you're gonna do something like that, do it gently, please? I felt like I'd been in a car wreck. There is a way to do it.

So I don't wanna go too far one way or the other. Too many of us don't ever do it at all, and so sin is never getting addressed, and there's no intimacy in that regard, but there's a way to do it and there's a way not to do it. And then finally, Proverbs says wise counsel is of the essence of friendship. Proverbs 27:9, perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of one's friend speaks from his earnest counsel. How sweet it is to have friends who really, really care about you and give you wise advice from the heart, the Hebrew implies it's from the soul. Earnest counsel 'cause they love you. So Proverbs has all of these things to say about our horizontal relationships. Selectivity, being cautious in friendship, sacrifice, being willing to love at all times, even in adversity, loyalty, forgiveness, trustworthiness, honesty and wise counsel.

So applications. Are you first and foremost friends with God? I made a direct appeal to unbelievers some time ago, "Well, you've had some time to think about it now. How's it going? Is the Gospel making progress now in your life? Have you come to faith in Christ?" I beg you not to leave this place an enemy of God, but rather a friend. But I would say to you who are already justified, develop your friendship with God. There are some things that hurt that relationship, they block that friendship. The idolatries in our lives diminish our experience of friendship with God here on earth. Let's walk with God.

And then horizontally, let's develop close relationships. Men especially, we're just not great at it. Look, I don't think there's anything wrong with talking about sports and the weather and all that sort of stuff, but let's get real with each other, men, shall we? Let's develop some friendships, some accountability relationships. And women, make sure that your friendships that you do have are based on the gospel, make them spiritual, make them discipleship, make them purposeful, make them blessed, eternally blessed. And make it a goal to develop more and more friendships here at FBC and reaching out. Let's not be the kind of fellowship that's a superficial surface-y entertainment fun and food church, which keeps people at arm's length. Let's not be that way. Let's be a real loving church that develops deep-seated spiritual relationships with accountability and humility.

And finally make it a matter of prayer, to be that kind of a friend. Say, Lord, maybe I'm not a great friend right now, I'm not the kind of person I need to be to be a friend, change me. Make me willing to reveal myself, make me willing to have someone reveal themselves to me, make me willing to love deeper than I've ever loved before. Change me, O Lord, and get me ready for heaven. I pray in Jesus' name. Let's close together in prayer.

Father, we thank you for the fact that we can take even our own hearts and characters right to you in prayer, we can ask that you would change us. And Father, I do pray that for myself right now. Fit me for friendship, O Lord. I pray that you would be working also in the people of this church, fit us all for this kind of intimacy and just real gospel-based friendships. But ultimately, Lord, my heart is one of thankfulness today that you have called me and all of us friends through Jesus Christ. Father, I pray that we would have deep, rich thankfulness in our hearts with you as a result of that. I look forward to the day when all friendships will be perfected and consummated in heaven. And to give you thanks, not just on Thursday at Thanksgiving, but throughout our lives for what you've done for us in Christ, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

This morning, as we were driving into church, I looked up in the sky and I saw all these clouds and these wispy white things up in the sky, and four or five of them were going more or less in a straight line, right across the sky. Some of them were bigger and puffer, but they were tracing out a straight line. And then there were others that were like mares' tails or just kind of amorphous, just clouds. And I said, "Look at those clouds up there, those are amazing. They go in a straight line." And one of my kids said, "That's not a cloud. That's a contrail from an airplane." [laughter] I said, "Well, how do you know?" He said, "It's in a straight line." I said, "Exactly."

God doesn't do straight lines. Can you find straight lines in nature? Alright, I've looked at lots of trees in my life, I've never seen any straight lines. We love straight lines. Look all around this sanctuary, you'll see them everywhere, everywhere. Look at the handrail right there, look at all those straight lines up and down. We like them. And if they're not straight, something's wrong, poor workmanship.

We live in a wonderful and wild world that we can't figure out. It's filled with what seems to us to be chaos, and we're not comfortable with that. We like straight lines, we like everything figured out, but there's a wildness and a vast unpredictability to the world that God has made, that has baffled human hearts from the beginning of history. You sit there, it's fall now, and you just watch a leaf be released from a topmost branch and it flutters down to the ground. Have you ever watched the entire journey? Sometimes I looked on it like a metaphor for life, birth and death, and all that kind of thing, but I won't go in there today. I'm just talking about just how it flutters, and how strange and unpredictable is the path, and who knows where it's going to end up with all the other neighbor leaves that have fallen before.

Who knows? God knows exactly where that leaf is gonna end up, but there's not a man on Earth that can tell you where it's going to end up. It's completely unpredictable. Clouds, as I've already mentioned, strange to us, I guess, random shapes, and some people like to find shapes in the clouds, and you do that, but they generally defy, really, that it looks kind of like such and such, but it's... And then these mysterious winds just blow them across the continent, and no one can really predict where they're going to go.

Even Jesus said the wind blows where it wishes, and you can't tell where it comes from or where it is going. You know, a waterfall goes over and there are twigs and leaves that have fallen in, and they just swirl, and there's this foam and it lands, and then there's this eddies and currents, and it goes off in some backwater and accumulates there for a while and then breaks free and flows down to the sea. And you just stand there and watch it for a while, and it just defies orderliness and organization and thinking. We can't figure it out, the turbulence, the swirly patterns.

Have you ever blown out a candle and then watched the smoke that just goes up from the candle, and it goes up in a straight line, but it doesn't stay in a straight line. It starts to do all of this dancing stuff, these swirling turbulent patterns. Physicists call it chaos. Actually, recent physicists have worked on theories of chaos, chaos theory, and they're trying to organize chaos for us. And one of these quantum theorists, Werner Heisenberg, as he lay on his deathbed, he said there were two things he wanted to talk to God about, ask him questions about. One was relativity, and the other was turbulence. And he thought God might be able to explain relativity, but not turbulence.

Now, I don't think he knows the God of the Bible. God can explain both. But turbulence, those forces on liquids and gases that make them do unpredictable things, chaos. Mathematicians call it probability, and they come up with rules of probability, whether the next coin flip is gonna come up heads or tails, or the next dice, but they can't tell you really what's gonna happen, just what's likely to happen. I'm not sure how to fit probability together with theology. I don't think they do fit.

Probability is really a human looking at the future, based on the past. Gamblers set odds, and they'll tell you the odds that something will happen, this team will beat that team, and all that. Nobody really knows. Probably most of sports talk radio is predictions about the immediate future. It's worthless, friends. No one knows what's going to happen in the big game. They can come up with their stone pipe lead cold locks, or whatever, and then nothing happens, like they said. They don't predict accurately 'cause no one really knows. Hindus speak of karma. Everyday language we use... We speak of luck. We wish people good luck.

Talk about that. One of the most common parting statements in daily life, "Good luck." Somebody's about to go for a job interview and we say, "Good luck." Hopefully, none of us says it, I'll get there in a moment, but good luck. Or somebody who's playing in a championship basketball game or giving a senior recital on an instrument, or going in for a big operation, good luck. Well, that's based, I think, on a concept that's foreign to the biblical worldview that I'm going to preach today.

What is luck? What is it? What is fortune? What is chance? This impersonal force flowing through the universe that affects outcomes in life. Good luck causes things to go well for you, as far as you're concerned. Bad luck is the opposite, causes things to go badly for you, as far as you're concerned. So, someone taking a college entrance exam, an SAT, doesn't know the answer and guesses. Gets it right. It's good luck. A lucky guess. A non-athlete picks up a basketball and just kinda throws it at the halfway from the length of the court, halfway into the other basket and it just goes swish, and we say, "That was a lucky shot."

People speak of leaving something to chance, that means just letting it happen. Your car breaks down in some highly-unusual way, you miss a flight or something happens as a result. It's just bad luck. We extend it to what we call chance encounters, like when you meet some old friend by chance in a crowded airport, or someone happens to leave the exact right amount of money to pay a bill when you didn't have your wallet, and that was just good luck that it worked out that way. Couple has been married for years, recounts how they, by chance, met one another at a college function. Some people go so far as to believe in lucky charms, good luck charms, like a four-leaf clover, or something like that. We all just survived Friday the 13th. Glad to see you made it through. [laughter] Were you worried? No? I wasn't either, barely noticed. It was just another day, another date, but others are troubled by these kinds of things, they're superstitious about this. Christians actually, knowing that they're not gonna go so far as to say, "Good luck," still use words like fortunate or misfortune. You know, it was my fortune to be standing on the curb when the cab went by on a rainy day and I got a shower on my new pants, and so it was just my misfortune.

This view of the universe that I've been describing is incredibly pervasive, it surrounds us all the time, and it is completely false. Friends, bottom line, there's either luck or there's God, the God of the Bible, one or the other, and you can't have both. Now, you may be in the habit of saying, "Good luck," to people, and all that. Change it, okay? Change the habit. Let's refer everything to God and to the goodness of God and the power of God and the plans of God, and not to some random force in the universe that swirls and moves, and no one has any idea. There's either luck or the sovereign plan of an infinite God whose purposes may be... I would say, are inscrutable to us, for no one can trace out the path of God. Who knows the mind of the Lord? Who has been his counselor? His ways are beyond tracing out, Romans 11 tells us, but still, there's a plan.

And his purposes are intelligent and wise and good and powerful. This is what the Bible teaches. Now, last time I preached on the Book of Proverbs, several weeks ago, we began to look at various verses and proverbs that teach God's absolute sovereignty. It's striking to me that some of the clearest verses on the sovereignty of God in everyday life are in the Book of Proverbs, but so they are. And so we started last time by looking at God's sovereignty over mysteries, over his mysteries.

Proverbs 25:2, "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but to search out a matter is the glory of kings." God is able to hide things, and we are to search them out, and God sovereignly chooses these things. And so it's a good thing for us. It's a comforting doctrine. I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future. That idea is very comforting to us. But we are troubled by it, as I mentioned in the last sermon, that people... Yes, that is comforting, but it's also troubling too, because we know very well that lots of bad things happen in this world. Does God ordain them? Does God sovereignly choose those things? Why do so many evil things happen?

And if God is so sovereign over human decisions, then why does he or how can he hold us accountable for any decision we ever make? And if God's sovereign over human hearts and he chooses people by his sovereign will, then why doesn't he save everybody? Why does he send anyone to hell?

So these are troubling questions, and they bother us, but it doesn't mean that God's absolute sovereignty isn't taught in the Bible, it is. And so it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but to search out a matter is the glory of kings. And so we, as children of the king, sons and daughters of the living God, it's to us to search out what God has revealed. But we need to know the whole time there's many things he has not revealed, and it's his sovereign will to hold those things back. We also saw last time that God is sovereign over human wills and actions.

Proverbs 16:1, which you heard Tom just read, "To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue." It is a good thing. It is in the image of God for human beings to make plans. We ought to make plans, but all of our plans are subject to the will of the sovereign God of the universe, even the reply on your tongue, even the reply on your tongue. In Proverbs 16:9, "In his heart, a man plans his course, but it's the Lord who determines his steps."

So what you speak and where you walk, those things are sovereignly ordained by God in a mysterious way. Proverbs 19:21, "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it's the Lord's purpose that prevails." We spoke of big, grand, life-shaping plans, like going to college or your career, who you marry, children, all of those big things. You make plans, many of those plans, but it's the Lord's purpose that prevails.

And even down to the smallest detail level, what you're gonna do with your time on a random Tuesday afternoon? Those small details, should you go to Walmart first and then to Kroger? Vice versa? The Lord rules over all of those things for his own purposes.

We saw, thirdly, God's sovereignty over the hearts of kings. Very comforting doctrine, Proverbs 21:1, “the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. He directs it like a watercourse, whichever way he pleases.”

God is able to influence the minds of kings directly and effectively, to chart the course of human history. He is the mover and the shaker behind the movers and shakers in this world. He rules over them all, and we saw this in a number of biblical examples, Pharaoh, whom God hardened his heart so that he would chase the Israelites even into the Red Sea. Now, God hardened his heart to do that.

We saw the dramatic example of Nebuchadnezzar, who God changed his mind like that into the mind of an animal, and for seven years, he had the mind of an animal, and he ate grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven. And just like that, God changed his mind back and he was the sharpest, clearest-thinking, most powerful leader on the face of the Earth. God has that kind of power even over a human mind.

Clearly, the most significant and important example of all was concerning the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and how there were important movers and shakers. There were human leaders that made decisions about Jesus. The church assembled together after those same leaders began to persecute the church, and the church was genuinely threatened, even with death, by these same leaders. They assembled together for one of the great corporate prayer meetings ever, in Acts Chapter 4, and they gathered together and they started to quote scripture. And they were quoting scripture about God's sovereign control over human leaders. And this is what they said in their prayer, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant, Jesus. They did what your power and will had determined beforehand should happen. So God directed their hearts like a water course to kill Jesus.

You might say, "Why would God the Father do that?" Because it says in Isaiah 53:10, "It was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, so that he would be a guilt offering for us, that his blood would be shed for the forgiveness of our sins." And so he ordained the death of Jesus. He orchestrated the death of Jesus in the hearts of Annas and Caiaphas and Pontius Pilate. Pilate did everything he could to set him free, wanted to set him free, but there were certain factors at work in Pilate's heart and in the situation, and Jesus was condemned.

We've seen it. We see it in secular history not so that we can say definitely this or that or the other, it's just too complex for that. I think sometimes what they call providential history can be a bit dangerous and a little simplistic, but I know this, that God sovereignly overrules the flow, the course of history, even after the end of the Book of Acts. Amen? And he's been ruling over that ever since, and I think it's just like the Book of Esther, where God never even appears, the name Lord or God doesn't even appear, but he is so clearly orchestrating the events of that book. There's no doubt about it.

The king just chanced to happen to read such and such a book about how Mordecai had saved his life, and it just... Look, I mean, we know that that was orchestrated by God, but he's never mentioned. And I think that's our stance toward history, we know that God is controlling it, but we don't know exactly how.

And so that's how it works. Alright. So I want to extend that today to talk about a few other areas, and I wanna go to this verse that supported the way that I began this message today, God's sovereign control over seemingly random events. Look at Proverbs 16:33. It's printed on the cover of your bulletin or you can look in your Bible, but there, it says, "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord."

Well, what does this mean? Well, the lot was the ancient way of rolling dice. It's a random event, a casual tossing of the lot into the lap was a way that whoever tossed it cut themselves free from direct influence over the outcome so that you can make a decision in a matter. So they throw it and just let the lot decide, that kind of thing, 'cause they couldn't control it, the human being can't control it. But this proverb says it may be that a human being isn't controlling it, but there is control over it. Every dice comes up the number God ordains.

It represents, I think, as all proverbs do, they go beyond just their language to go teach a principle about life, that there are no random events in life, that God's sovereignty, his plan, his purpose overrules all of it. There are no seeming... There are no chance events. They are seemingly chance to us, but God rules over everything.

We see it at work in the Book of Jonah, how Jonah is running away from God, and he's asleep under the deck, and God, in judgment on Jonah, brings a storm on that ship of pagans that are sailing to Tarshish. And so they, believing that some God is behind the storm, which it's true, some God is, the only true and living God has brought that storm, but they cast lots to find out whose fault it is that the storm and the lot just happened to come up on Jonah. So that is this proverb at work, right in the Bible. It identified Jonah, rightly so.

So there is no such thing as luck. Luck doesn't exist. There's no chance. There's no fortune. Las Vegas is a whole city devised and built on so-called games of chance. I have never been there. I hope to never go there, alright? But if the Lord wills and if the SBC is there some year, or something, who knows? I might end up in Vegas. [laughter] What will I do in Vegas? No idea. But the roulette wheel, I guess, rolling, the ball clatters around, and it ends up 19 red, and money exchanges hands. Somebody's happy, everybody else is sad, and that's kind of how it works, games of chance. According to this proverb, though, the ball just ends up in the right slot and color that God wills. And you might say, "Why would God care?"

Some have criticized Christian football coaches for their involvement in prayer as God... God bless our endeavor, and like... God really cares, like the Almighty really cares about the outcome of a football game. Stop right there, dear friends, he does, but not like you and I care.

God's not a fan. It's not like he's got your team's banners up on the wall. It doesn't work like that. If it worked like that, sports would be ruined, that team would win every game by the infinite perfect score. But God uses these things all the time. He uses a college football game or the Super Bowl to bring about changes. The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, he's using that in people's lives. He's even using it in people's lives who are... Who don't even care about the outcome of the game, but the outcome of the game did affect their lives in certain ways that they couldn't have known about.

And you're telling me God doesn't care about the outcome of a football game? He cares whether a sparrow falls to the ground. If he cares whether a sparrow falls to the ground, then he cares about the outcome of every football game, frankly, of every game. How many games do you play depend on the roll of a dice? Many of them. I don't say all, but many of them. Some have other randomizing things that... Like have you ever played Candy Land? I bet I may be the only person. I don't know if there's other weird people, but I actually Googled on Candy Land strategy. [laughter] It's true. And there actually was a website that gave the following answer, "There is no strategy for Candy Land." [laughter] The next card comes up red and you go to the red square. The only thing you can do is cheat, friends [laughter] That's the only thing you can do. And maybe some of you parents have cheated to accelerate the game, but we won't tell our kids about that. I'm not saying I've done that, not saying whether I did or not, but the fact is, the next card comes up and you go to that square.

But what I'm saying is the next card comes up the color God ordained, and you might think again, why does God care about the order of a stack of Candy Land cards? Well, he does, I think, 'cause he cares about atoms that make up the universe, alright? But he cares about everything and he's ruling over everything, and so, therefore, stop getting frustrated when you lose a game. When the dice rolls up and it comes up, God ordained that for his own purposes. Be happy, as happy as if it'd come up for you. It's the truth. It's just a whole different way of looking at the world. There's an intentionality and a personality behind it, a good purpose, a loving purpose.

Now, that doesn't mean that we should cast lots to make decisions, as the early church did to replace Judas Iscariot, they cast lots and lot fell on Matthias. I think the Lord... I'm not saying whether they should or should not have done that, but I think the Lord has given us better ways of making decisions, searching his face in prayer, studying scripture, getting godly counsel. We can make wise decisions. You don't need to cast the lot.

Kevin DeYoung wrote a book on determining God's will called 'Just Do Something'. And I love the subtitle, 'How to Make Decisions Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Impressions, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, Etc.' So, basically, we, I think, should seek the will of the Lord through more intelligent means than that, but still the proverb is true, that the Lord controls even seemingly random events.

We also see, in the Book of Proverbs, God's sovereign control over battles. Military conquests are controlled by the Lord, and I don't just mean the ones like Joshua conquering the Promised Land. God rules over all military battles for his own purposes, and therefore, he rules over history, to a large degree. Large degree, history is made up of military conflicts that define lines on the map, and who's gonna rule over what land. And so it says in Proverbs 21:31, "The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the Lord."

Well, what does this mean? Well, it is for men to prepare, it is for God to decide. The commander gets his mightiest weapons ready. The horse was the mightiest military weapon on the battlefield, really, for most of human history, really, up until the end of the 19th century, when mechanized and machine guns and other things started coming in, then the horse became obsolete, militarily, but it was a terrifying thing to see a bunch of horses stampeding towards you, very, very, very scary, very powerful.

So the horse symbolizes the best a man can do to get ready for battle, the most advanced technology. A general can get his army as ready as he wants, with the most overpowering technology available, but the victory does not depend on his weapons or his battle plan or his reserves or, ultimately, on anything but the will of the Lord. Now, that doesn't mean that our friends at West Point shouldn't study old battles and learn how commanders did this and that. They should, actually, but ultimately, it's the Lord that decides.

A parallel verse teaches Psalm 33 very clearly. Psalm 33:13 and following says, "From Heaven, the Lord looks down and sees all mankind. From his dwelling place, he watches all who live on the Earth. He who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do. No king is saved by the size of his army. No warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance. Despite all of its great strength, it cannot save. But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait and hope for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. In him, our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name." It all has to do with reliance and confidence.

God warned Israel not to trust in their military prowess. He said if they turned away from him, he would turn away from them on the battlefield, and he predicted this through Moses, the song of Moses, Deuteronomy 32, "How can one man chase a thousand? How can two men put ten thousand to flight unless their rock had sold them, unless their Lord had given them up?"

So what are the implications? Well, it doesn't mean that the army shouldn't train or prepare. Psalm 144:1 says, "Praise to the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war." David wrote that there was a training process. He even spoke about that when he was about to kill Goliath. He said, "I learned how to use the sling when I was a shepherd."

So there's a value to that. Even Jesus talked about it. He said, "Suppose the king is about to go to war against another king," Luke 14:31, "Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able, with 10,000 men, to oppose the one coming against him with 20,000 men?" And if he is not able, he will send a delegation to the other while the other is still far off and ask for terms of peace. But what this proverb does teach is that the final outcome of every battle in history that there has ever been depends on the plan and the will of God. That's what it means.

God controls the battlefield, and through it, God controls human history. The boundary lines for the world have been forged in battle, and Acts 17 shows the sovereign power of God over the battlefield. He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live, Acts 17:26. Therefore, America should not rely on the overwhelming technological superiority of our weapon systems, our advanced tactical fighters, nuclear subs, cruise missiles, smart bombs, aircraft carriers, M1A1 Abrams tanks with reactive armor and laser-guided missiles, because none of those things, which are the modern version of the horse, will avail at all if God turns away from the nation.

God can easily defeat all of that if he so chooses. Rather, a people's security, any people's security has always been this, we trust in the Lord, and in his name we go. 

And then, finally, God's sovereignty over his enemies. Listen to these two proverbs. Proverbs 21:30, "There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord." Wow. Let me read that again, "There is no wisdom, there is no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord."

Another one, Proverbs 16:4, "The Lord works out everything for his own ends, even the wicked for a day of disaster." So what do these proverbs mean? Well, it means that God is omnipotent. God rules over all. All power is really his, including Satan's power. Why? For, in him, we live and move and have our being. Romans 11:36, "For from him and through him and to him are all things."

If Satan and all of his demons and all of his people on Earth assembled in one place at one time to fight against the Lord, they would lose. You know what? I actually think that is gonna happen. It's called Armageddon. I think that's the final battle, that's exactly what he tries to do, the second coming of Christ. And Psalm 2 depicts this, why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain, the kings of the Earth take their stand, the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his anointed one. Let us break their chains, they say, and throw off their fetters. The one enthroned in heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them, then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath.

I've often marveled at what Satan was thinking in taking on God. I mean, I've wondered about that. There is no plan, there's no purpose, there's no intentionality that can succeed against the Lord. I don't think he believes that, clearly, but I think the test case was always, Satan, what are you gonna do with the incarnate Christ? It's a test case on this very proverb.

What are you gonna do with Jesus? Now, through Peter, he spoke, at one point, concerning Jesus' crucifixion, "Never, Lord," he said, "This shall never happen to you." And Jesus said, "Get behind me, Satan, you're a stumbling block to me." There, Satan was tempting Jesus not to go to the cross, to not die. And yet, later, Judas Iscariot takes a certain piece of bread from Jesus, accepting his role as the betrayer, and Satan entered into Judas and he went out and betrayed Jesus to death.

What is going on with Satan? Satan doesn't know what to do with Jesus. He doesn't know whether to kill him or not to kill him. Do I kill him? Do I not kill him? What should I do? There is no plan. There's no purpose. There's no will or intentionality that can succeed against the Lord. You know what Satan does? He does what we always do. He reverted to his nature, and Jesus told us Satan's nature, he was a murderer from the beginning. And so what did he do to Jesus? He did his own nature, he murdered Jesus, and in so doing, he destroyed himself. Amen. There is no plan that can succeed against the Lord.

And so God sovereignly ordains the defeat and death of his own enemies. The Lord works out everything for his own ends, even the wicked for the day of disaster. This is kind of the mirror image verse of Romans 8:28, where it says “God causes all things to work together for good, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.”

Proverbs 16:4 and Romans 8:28 are just two sides of the same sovereign coin. God works out everything for good for his elect, and he works out sovereignly the day of disaster for his enemies. It's what God does. And so, therefore, what are the implications?

Do not fear the awesome power of the wicked. Fear God. And do not be one of Christ's enemies. Do not be against him. And here's the beauty of the Gospel, dear friends. This is the incredible beauty of the Gospel. The Gospel has the power to change enemies, Christ's enemies, into his friends. Saul of Tarsus can wake up in the morning, breathing out murderous threats against the Lord Jesus, and that evening, go to bed, go to sleep, praising Jesus for his own salvation. He can do that in a human heart.

A thief can be nailed to the cross and be hurling insults at Jesus at the beginning of the crucifixion, but by the end, he's saying, "Remember me, Lord, when you come in your kingdom," and hearing, "Today, you'll be with me in paradise." God is sovereign and he can change enemies into friends.

It says in Colossians 1:21-22, "Once you were alienated from God and you were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior, but now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation." You were once enemies, and now look at you, you're friends, friends of the living God. But I think not all of you, I think not all of you. I trust that actually God brought some of his enemies here today to hear this message of grace, that God is standing and holding out his arms to you and urging you to be reconciled to God, to come to faith in Jesus Christ and lay down your weapons of revolt against his sovereign power, and come, and take Jesus' kingly yoke upon you, and follow him because he's gentle and humble in heart.

And so I beseech you stop rebelling against Christ, stop fighting against him, stop kicking against him, stop sinning against him, and come to Jesus and just know his forgiveness and his mercy.

Friends, in two sermons, we've seen God's sovereignty over his mysteries, what he chooses to reveal and what he chooses to conceal, his sovereignty over the words and actions of human beings, his sovereignty over kings' hearts, directing them like a water course whatever way he chooses, his sovereignty over seemingly random events, even the roll of a dice, his sovereignty over the battlefield and even his sovereign power over his enemies. So what’s the application?

 First, rest confidently in God's power. Do not fret because it seems like the world is chaotic or out of control. It isn't. It isn't. It may seem like there's a madman in charge of Iran and another madman in charge of North Korea, and some may worry what if those madmen get nuclear weapons? Do not fret. Do not be anxious. Do not worry about those things, because God rules over all things. Yes, there are jihadists, terrorist cells plotting your demise right now, and mine. Al-Qaeda's still at work. There's still evil in the world. Do not fret or be anxious, for God rules over these things.

Secondly, pray for the sovereign power of God to be unleashed in the direction that the Bible says is its natural direction, the building of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. That's where the sovereignty of God heads or trends. "All authority in heaven and Earth has been given to me," said Jesus, "Go and build my kingdom." So pray, and that's the beauty of this doctrine of sovereignty, is it just unleashes your prayer life. You just pray to the sovereign God for the advance of the kingdom. Say, "Lord, I pray for this or that leader to open up that country, to open up North Korea, to open up Iran."

I actually had the joy and privilege this week of meeting an Iranian Christian who has been persecuted by the secret police. He and his wife, threatened with death, were out of the country. As he sat in my office, we prayed together. There are hundreds, if not thousands of Iranian Christians right now.

The church is growing and getting stronger in our end. Praise God, there's sovereignty at work for you, there's sovereignty at work, but just pray that God's power be unleashed and people's hearts would be open to accept this good news. God has power over human hearts. And when you pray, don't imagine that God would ever say to you, "I don't get involved in that kind of thing." That's below my pay grade, I don't do that kind of thing. No, God does everything. God is in charge of all things.

So go ahead and pray right before you roll the dice in the next chance game you play, "Lord, I pray. I need a seven right now, okay?" You can go ahead and pray, but let God be sovereign. Let him decide what he will do. And when it rolls up seven or it rolls up three, or whatever, the bottom line is, God was sovereign over that, whether you threw it or someone else did.

And when adverse things happen to you, bring them back to God in prayer. I've really been delighting in that song, 'What a Friend We Have in Jesus', and what it says there is it says take it to the Lord in prayer. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Bring it to Jesus. We should never be discouraged, take it to the Lord in prayer. Were you discouraged this week? Is there something discouraging you now? Take it to the sovereign God in prayer, and he will welcome you, and he will draw you into his power, into his plan, and he will answer your prayers.

Take it to the Lord in prayer, and when you are in trials and adverse circumstances, don't forget to ask, "Lord, is this coming to me because I've sinned in some way? Are you disciplining me, Lord?"

The Book of Job teaches that not every adverse circumstance comes directly as a result of the sins of the people that come on it. We know that, but the opposite isn't sure, that it never happens that way. Sometimes it does. It could be that you're sick or going through something because there's sin in your life. Bring it to God and say, "Lord, have I sinned?" James 5 says that, "If he has sinned, he'll be forgiven." Confess your sins to one another and pray for each other.

That's what it says. So go and say, "Lord, this thing is happening to me. Have I sinned?" And when blessings come, thank God for them. They're not random, accidental events. They're not. So we should be having a super-phenomenal Thanksgiving in a few weeks, should have one later today, have one right now. Thank God for the blessings of your life. You guys should be happy. I really think you should be happier than you are, so should I. We should be happy people.

People should see our happiness and our joy because we are abundantly blessed, and we have so much to thank God for, and they're not random, chance things. They have been given to us by an intelligent force that wanted us to have these things. And do not make too much nor too little of human decisions and human will.

Andy Winn came out to me right before I preached and said, "Are you gonna talk about just the whole complexity of free will decisions and all that? You know, like the Wool E. Bull thing." I said, "What do you mean the Wool E. Bull thing?" You say, "Well, you know how you go to the game?" Have you ever seen Wool E. Bull, and he races a little kid every game. And Wool E. Bull both starts out one direction, the little kid starts out the other direction, and they run, and Wool E. Bull always loses, always.

And many have thought, gee, wouldn't it be fun if he would just kinda, "I'm sick of this job. I'm gonna beat this kid"? [laughter] You know, I'm tired of this. I'm gonna beat this kid just once. I know it would be my last race as Wool E. Bull, but I'm gonna beat this kid, alright? Imagine the kid just sitting there, sitting down and crying, and momma coming and getting him. That Wool E. Bull is finished, we're getting a new Wool E. Bull.

But what Andy is asking is is there real freedom in life? Are we making real decisions or is it all just foreordained? Well, I believe it is foreordained, and I believe we make real decisions, and I believe I cannot figure that out. I can't. I could think about that the rest of my life, and I'll not be able to figure that out, but I'm not gonna shrink back from what God's revealed. He said these things and I believe them. And I think we have real freedom to make real choices and we're really, really, really accountable for those choices, and he will hold them to account... Hold every person accountable.

I think the beauty is that God... I think God teaches that we choose according to our nature, according to our heart, but God has the power to change evil hearts and make them sweet and good and loving. So pray for that.

Don't make too much of human free will. Don't make too little of human decisions. Don't be like the open theist, who say that God cannot even know what human beings choose in advance. He can't even know so he's just kind of flying by the seat of his pants. That's not the God of the Bible, he has willed and ordains things.

And then, finally, when you play board games, when next you play Candy Land, rejoice, no matter who wins [laughter] Even if you're right about to win and you get Mr. Plumpy, and you get sent back to the beginning, praise God for that. Close with me in prayer.

Apostle John was exiled to the island of Patmos, and he had a vision of a door standing open in heaven. And the voice of Christ beckoned him to come up. "Come up here," it said. And at once he was in the spirit, and a good thing too, because you can't make that journey without some divine help through the Holy Spirit, and he went through the doorway and there in heaven, he saw a throne and someone seated on it. Dear friends, that heavenly throne is the central reality of the universe. It's the central reality of your life, it's the central reality of this church, the central reality of every nation on earth, whether they acknowledge him or not, that throne is the throne of God, and the God who sits on that throne is absolutely sovereign, rules over everything all the time.

And we need to know that because we live in uncertain times now, we're going through various trials and difficulties and people may wonder, "Is human history spiraling out of control? Are we facing trials that we cannot overcome? Is history unfolding according to plan? What is going on?"

So at the big scale level, there's economic uncertainty, people look at what's happened over the last year and a half with the New York Stock Exchange and with the gold and silver prices going up, and with all kinds of things, and they look at that and they say, "What's going to happen to the American economy over the next 30 years? Will the stock exchange experience another crash? What will happen in the future? What will happen to Social Security? Will it still be around when we reach retirement age?" So there's economic uncertainty.

What about political uncertainty? Who's gonna control the future of our country? What direction are we going? Are we going to a bigger and bigger federal government? Are we going to lose freedoms that we've cherished as American citizens? Will those with an unbiblical agenda push through wicked laws that force us in painful directions? What's gonna happen with that? How will this nation address massive issues like care and concern for the poor and needy or healthcare or other things? Political uncertainty. How about international uncertainty? What will become of radical Islam? We know that there are cells, terrorist cells around the world that are plotting the demise of the West, will they succeed? Will the terrorists be able to obtain or threaten to use a thermonuclear device?

What will happen if communist China becomes the most powerful nation on earth, militarily and economically in the 21st century? What will that be like for us as Americans in the West? So those are the big questions people wanna know about that. More personally and individually people ask questions as well.

If you're in college, you may be wondering if you're gonna be able to get a job in your field or a job at all. Maybe your time of graduation is nearing and you're thinking about that. If you're single, in your 20s, wondering if God will provide a spouse for you, wondering who he or she will be and how the circumstances could even work, is there someone out there for you? If you're elderly, you may wonder about your health, or your relationship with your grown kids or your grandkids. All of these things, these pondering and things like they go through your mind, don't they?

And all of them have the temptation toward anxiety, that you can start to be afraid of the future, be anxious about it, and that is precisely where the doctrine, a firm grasp on the doctrine of the absolute sovereignty of God is so vital for us. There are two great displays of God's sovereignty in the Bible, doctrinally. That doctrine of predestination by which God displays his absolute sovereignty over human salvation, and then there's the doctrine of providence, by which God displays His absolute sovereignty over daily life events in the ebbs and flows of history here on earth. Predestination and providence, these are two great doctrines, two great mysteries, two great displays of that throne of God that I began this sermon with in Revelation 4.

Now, the book of Proverbs, I believe, has some of the most memorable verses in the whole Bible on one of those two, and that's the doctrine of providence, how God rules over everyday life absolutely for His own glory, and you know that really makes perfect sense as we've learned studying the book of Proverbs, it's a nitty-gritty, rubber meets the road kind of book that looks at practical everyday life and describes those kinds of issues. And so we're gonna look this morning at the doctrine of the absolute sovereignty of God over daily life as seen in the book of Proverbs.

Now, this was gonna be one sermon, it cannot be. It's a mathematical impossibility. And as I looked at it, I was like, "Alright, we've got to go two weeks on this just because the verses are outstanding and what's the rush anyway." And you guys don't wanna be here till quarter to one now do you? Come on, be honest. So given where we're at as sermon listeners right now in America, maybe in the future, it'll be different, but right now we can handle only so much, so I'm thinking, we'll do this in two weeks, okay? Is that good with you? 'Cause it's what's gonna happen. So at any rate, we'll do that. So we'll just continue.

But I want to look at just how sovereign God is over everyday life, and I was talking to... Actually talking to Herbert, right before he came up, I said to Herbert, I said, "How sovereign is God?" He said, "Absolutely sovereign." And God is... And I said, "Do you think he's more sovereign than we think?" He said, "Absolutely, he is more severe than we think."

So my desire is to use this sermon and the next time I preach on this to ratchet up your sense of just how active God is in everyday life, so that you will lose your fear, that you will not be anxious, you'll be put on display by God, you'll go through trials and you'll go through it with absolute certainty that God is in it and his purposes are good, and people will be led to ask you, "What is the nature of this hope that you have?"

Jesus taught this absolute sovereignty very, very plainly in many places, perhaps the most memorably in Matthew 10:29-30, he said, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny and yet not one of them falls to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." Absolute sovereignty over the death of a sparrow, fluttering to the ground.

The apostle Paul taught the same thing, Romans 8:28, a very familiar verse. “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.” Or again, in Ephesians 1:11, he speaks of “the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.” Not some things, everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.

And so King Solomon gives us some of the most memorable statements in the Bible in this great doctrine of providence and how God actively rules over seemingly tiny events or even over great ones to achieve his eternal mysterious purposes.

So we're gonna see the sovereignty of God pertaining to a variety of things. First in how God chooses to retain some secrets to himself and reveal some other things. How God has sovereignty over human actions, like the words of our mouths and the paths of our feet, how we may make many plans, but it's God's purpose that overrules all of that, and that's going to free us up I hope from that man-centered view of the universe that makes human free will and human decisions the hub of every wheel, and everything's revolving around our choices, which is just not biblical, and it's not helpful.

We're gonna also see God's sovereignty over the decision of kings, how God rules over the decisions of kings, an incredibly comforting and incredibly challenging and deep doctrine. The next time I think we're gonna talk about God's sovereignty over seemingly random events like the roll of a dice. We're gonna talk about God's sovereignty over the outcome of major events in history, like the outcome of a battle, and God's sovereignty even over his enemies, no matter how powerful they may seem, so that's for next time. Taken together, these six categories give us just a sampling of God's providential control over human history. My desire is to strengthen you, to give you a sense of confidence as you face everyday life based on these verses.

Let's start with this first one. And that is God's sovereignty over his mysteries. I want you to go over to Proverbs 25:2, I'll start there. And in this doctrine, I have in mind the fact that God decides what he's gonna tell us and holds back from us what he won't tell us. He reveals some things and he conceals other things, and it's to His glory to do so. And those things that are revealed, we should study and search out, and those things that he has concealed, we may not know no matter how much we study. And so Proverbs 25:2 says, "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter. To search out a matter is the glory of kings." So this is a good place to start. God's sovereignty over earthly life is both a comforting and a distressing or disturbing doctrine to most of us, it's comforting because it means that we can look forward to the future with confidence.

As someone once said, "I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future." You've heard that kind of thing. What does it mean that he holds the future though? It certainly means more than he just knows the future. I think it means that he actually decrees and controls what that future will be, and that it's going to be a good future for you in Christ. That's very confidence-producing. It gives us strength. God has ordained it and he is sovereignly working it out. But the flip side is the doctrine is distressing to many. It brings up distressing questions that we have a hard time working through. If God is sovereign over all things, then why does such evil happen in the world? That's one question that comes up. Is God sovereignly responsible for a drive-by shooting of an innocent little girl who just happened to get caught in the crossfire? Is he sovereign over that? Could God have prevented that?

I was watching a movie about a wonderful African-American neurosurgeon named Dr. Ben Carson and his story is really very inspirational about how he came up from poverty and from very challenging circumstances to become a neurosurgeon. Amazing man. But at a key juncture in his life when he was a young teenager, he had a very bad temper and he pulled out, just in a moment, a flash of rage, pulled out a Swiss army knife and stabbed his friend in the stomach with it, just thrust it right into the man's... In the young man's stomach. And the man bent over, the young man bent over, and there were multiple people standing around watching, "What did you do?" But then this young man stood up unharmed and there at their feet was the knife blade broken in half, it had hit the man's belt buckle.

God had decreed other things than prison for Ben Carson. And he intervened there, though he clearly intended murder at that moment, he intervened and saved both that man's life, the young man's life, and Dr. Carson's life from going to prison. Now, okay, that's wonderful. In that case, what about when the knife blade doesn't break? What about when the bullet goes ahead and kills the little girl, what then? What do we say? It's troubling to some people, and they struggle with it. Some people go so far as to say God has nothing to do with those kinds of things. He either can't or won't intervene and just lets it happen. And so what really matters is the human choice in the matter, and that was just a lucky break for Dr. Carson. But that's not biblical, that's not what the Bible teaches.

The Shack takes that approach, okay? God didn't do that, when your young daughter was abducted by that pervert and tortured and killed, God didn't do that, and frankly couldn't really have intervened, it's not his way to intervene, etcetera, well, look, that may be quickly kind of, in a superficial way, comforting, but in the end, it's poison, dear friends, it's poison because then there's this random thing in the universe and even God can't do anything about it or won't do anything about it, and he just tries to pick up the pieces. That's not the God that I know in the Bible. So it is a distressing doctrine to many.

Other questions people ask, "If God's sovereign over all human decisions, then how does he hold sinners accountable for what they decide?" If they have no choice in the matter, if we're just robots, which the Bible doesn't teach at all, that kind of thing, I would have to say though I don't understand the statement, how you can reconcile that not only is God far more sovereign than we can possibly imagine, we are far more accountable than we can possibly imagine too. And in some sense, some mysterious ways, far freer than we can... We have the total freedom at any moment to act according to our heart nature, that shouldn't be comforting to you if you know anything about your heart, but we have the freedom to do what our heart dictates. We do have that freedom.

So why doesn't God intervene? He does intervene, all of us willing to go to hell, not directly, but indirectly, and God intervenes. Why doesn't he do that with everybody? Why doesn't he save everyone? If he can do this with anyone, why doesn't he save everyone? These are questions that come up in people's minds. Alright, what does the proverb mean, Proverb 25:2 says, "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter. To search out a matter is the glory of kings." God retains to himself many significant secrets. For example, we talked about predestination a moment ago, he retains to himself who is predestined and who isn't. We don't know who they are, we have no idea. His sovereign plan for human beings, predestination and reprobation, applied to this or that person, we cannot know.

We also cannot know exactly how God uses human wickedness and sin for His own purposes, how he crafts that together for his own good, we don't know. We don't know how God can hold Judas accountable for the very thing that it was decreed he should do, even down to the 30 pieces of silver. We don't know how God can hold that. God alone knows and can explain that. We also don't know the question we wanna ask more than any other question. When we think about Job, Job went through terrible suffering, lost all of his children in one instant, lost all of his possessions, lost pretty much all of his health, terrible wave upon wave of trial.

And if there's just one thing that Job wanted to know, it was why. Why? Why did this happen to me? It's the one thing God does not tell him. At the end of the book, he just gives him himself in all of his greatness and His power and His glory and His Majesty as a powerful creator, and he doesn't answer why. And isn't it amazing that Job doesn't seem to need to know why at the end, he doesn't need an explanation, certainly doesn't feel that God owes him an explanation. So God holds these things to himself, he doesn't tell us why. He doesn't need to tell us why. He never will tell us why. I think we'll just have God and we'll know that God's wisdom ordains certain things.

Also we don't know the exact timetable, and many of the circumstances of Christ's return, the glory of God conceal that. Acts 1, Jesus in his resurrection body, instructing his apostles, getting them ready for a world-changing mission. And they say, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" And Jesus said, "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." So this is not for you, this is for you, that's what he says. He has the right to do that.

Deuteronomy 29:29 says it best, I think. “The secret things belong to the Lord, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever.” So we have these two categories: The things concealed, the things revealed to the glory of God. Now, in the proverb, it's to the glory of God to conceal the matter, but the second half it's the glory of kings to search it out. So we can play to some degree the role of kings and queens, we can search out what God has revealed. Let's search it out. Let's try to find out. We must seek to go, dear friends, as far as God has revealed and not farther.

I fear that many Christians in this area of predestination and providence fall far short of what God has said about himself, they fear controversy, they fear that they're gonna get in a fight, probably even more, they fear that they will lose the fight, so they don't wanna get involved. And so they stay away from it. It's controversial. We don't wanna talk about it. Well, look, who made it controversial, God didn't, it was Satan that made it controversial and divisive and all that, these things are... This is our treasure, this is our inheritance. We get it all, all 66 books, all of it, and we get to treasure it, and we should search out what God has revealed, but not go beyond it.

Philipp Melanchthon, who was a good friend of John Calvin's, he was Martin Luther's right-hand man and a successor in the German Reformation, as far as we know, believed everything Calvin did about predestination, but Philipp Melanchthon said, wrote in a letter to Calvin saying it's best never to mention it or talk about it. It just causes division. Calvin disagreed. Now, Calvin, if you know anything about him, absolutely hated any kind of theological speculation, but he wanted to go as far as God had in fact revealed. And I think we ought to do the same. We ought to study ourselves, study scripture, we ought to study what God has revealed and go as far as he has ordained. Secondly, let's look at God's sovereignty over human wills and actions. Look at 16:1, go back to Proverbs 16:1. You heard Herbert read it for us in two languages. So you get it twice. Now, you get it a third time.

Proverb 16:1 says, "To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue." So what does this proverb actually say? Well, it's talking about the capability that human beings have to make plans. We make many plans. This is, I think of the essence of our status as created in the image of God. We have the ability to plan ahead. A plan is an intended course of action, you peer ahead into the future anticipates what's coming, and you make... Take certain steps, set certain precautions or whatever, it's a plan. And frankly, planning ahead is a good thing in the book of Proverbs; it's something we ought to do. Proverbs 22:3 says, "A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it."

The ultimate example of that, dear friends, has to do with the Gospel itself. If you're a Christian, you saw danger coming and you took refuge in Christ, amen? You saw it coming, you saw judgment day coming, you knew you weren't ready, you knew that you were a sinner and you could not face such a holy judge, and so you fled to Christ, in Jesus' blood shed on the cross as your refuge, and it is a sure and certain refuge.

Maybe you have never done that, maybe you're here today and you have never fled to Christ, you've never come to Him for forgiveness, I'm telling you, danger is coming, I'm urging you to flee the wrath to come, and you ought to plan ahead 'cause it's coming. And the best plan of all is flee to Jesus, run to Jesus. Let Jesus save you. Call on the name of the Lord and you will be saved. So I'm just saying, "Look, planning ahead is a good thing. However, all of our plans are subject to the final review of the sovereign king of the universe, and he'll decide yes or no." That's all.

You can go ahead and make your plans. You ought to, but he gets to decide finally, what will happen. It even comes down to your words, you plan a response and you end up saying this, many of the plans are of a man's heart, but the reply actually comes from the Lord. Wow, this actually goes beyond what Psalm 139:4 teaches, that says, "Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, O Lord."

Well, that's just the omniscience of God, his fore-knowledge, God knows what you're gonna say before you say it. This says God actually ordains in some mysterious way what you're gonna say. From the Lord is the reply of the tongue. You may plan to say this or that to a person, but the words you actually end up saying have been ordained by God, that's what the proverb is teaching.

There are supporting proverbs like Proverbs 16:9, just look a few verses down, 16:9. "In his heart, a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." Same kind of teaching, you make your plan, but the steps, the walking in the way represents all of life in the book of Proverbs. The way you live, your steps, and so you may make a plan, but God decides how you actually end up living. Look ahead to Proverbs 19:21, this kind of sums this whole thing up. Proverbs 19:21 says, "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."

We may make many plans large and small to orchestrate the events and paths of our lives, but God decides in the end what's going to happen.

It's true of major life plans, when I plan to go to college, plan to get married, plan to have children, plan to have a certain career, plan to visit certain countries, plan to go on mission trips, plan to retire at the age of 55, you can make those plans, but all of those plans are subject to the overriding, overruling sovereign power of God, it's true on a daily level as well.

Daily life plans, you may plan to go to Walmart and buy a new set of towels for the guest bathroom, and actually sometimes it even happens that way. Has that ever happened to you? You actually planned and it actually worked out that way. But so many times it doesn't.

I may plan to go to The Streets at Southpoint to meet a friend for lunch. It may happen, it may not. I may plan to get to church early, have been doing that, planning for weeks, still waiting for that to happen, okay? That's a hard one. Doesn't seem to be the Lord's will for us to get here early. We'll talk about that another time, it's all very mysterious.

But all of those plans are subject to the overriding will of God. I think James really sums up our disposition, our proper attitude in all of this, James 4:13-16. “Now listen, you who say today or tomorrow, I'll go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."”

So first, you won't even be alive tomorrow if God doesn't will it. So when you wake up and it's another day, thank him for life, he gave it to you. But go beyond it. If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. Make your plans and say, "Lord, is it your will? Is this your will?" I will rest in this and you seek and you go and you live, alright? But it's ultimately up to God what you do. Okay?

Thirdly, we see God's sovereignty over the hearts of kings. Look over at Proverbs 21:1, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases."

Now, what does this mean? Well, this is just the last proverb or doctrine applied to kings and rulers, that's all, the same thing, only it's applied, very helpful, I think, and significantly to the hearts of rulers. Now, the image here is of an irrigation system, let's say coming from the Nile river with channels like troughs of water and sluice gates that control the flow of it. That's the image I get, at least. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord like a watercourse, he directs it whichever way he pleases.

So God Is like the gatekeeper and pulls up gates, puts other gates down, it's the best way that I can harmonize God's sovereignty over wicked things that he doesn't, in some way, decree to happen verbally. Like God gives us 10 commandments and then things happen contrary to his commands, how does that all work? Wicked things. How does God overrule that?

I think what it is, is that the heart of the king is to do evil, he just wants to do evil, God lifts up sluice gates to have a certain specific kind of evil flow down that accomplishes his purpose. That's the best I could come up with. But the evil is the king's and he's responsible for it, God just controls the direction of it. Very difficult to understand that, but God is able to shape the thought patterns of the king. He's able to put thoughts in the heart and the mind of the king so that he behaves a certain way.

Now, this is displayed all over the place in biblical history. Think about the time when David was fleeing for his life from his son, Absalom. Absalom had come to usurp the throne, to take the throne from David, David is running for his life, Absalom is succeeding in that revolt, he has taken over Jerusalem, David is running.

And all it would take is just a sharp blow on David, and he'll fall over like a rotten fence post. It's very fragile, David's throne, at that point. Now, at that time, the shrewdest counselor in Israel was a man named Ahithophel. It says in 2 Samuel 16:23, "Now in those days, the advice Ahithophel gave was like that of one who inquires of God. And that was how both David and Absalom regarded all of Ahithophel's advice." Now, as David flees for his life, he prays this prayer, "Oh Lord, turn Ahithophel's counsel into foolishness." Praise that prayer. It's recorded right there in 2 Samuel 15:31. Now, what did that mean? Either make Ahithophel give bad advice, or make Ahithophel's good advice seem like foolishness to Absalom, either way, to accomplish God's purpose, David hoped, of restoring David to the throne. Either way, frankly, it would be a display of our proverb.

As it turned out, just within the context of the success of Absalom's rebellion, Ahithophel gave excellent advice. He said, "David is exhausted, he is weary, he is worn out, pursue him tonight. Find him and kill just him, and there'll be no one left for Israel to turn to except you, it's done. Don't wait." But at that particular moment, at that key moment, suddenly for some reason, Ahithophel's advice didn't seem the best. Why? I'm talking to Absalom. Suddenly, it just didn't seem like great advice, so he asked for a second opinion. Remember at that time Ahithophel's advice was like that of God, they said. Just as like listening right to the mouth of God, except at this moment, at this key moment.

So he asked for a second opinion, and along comes this man, Hushai the Archite who's a plant from David. So Hushai is there and he gives this advice. He said, "Now David, he's a cagey, wild fighter, he's probably already dug in, he's waiting for you to come. He's won lots of battles. I think you ought to wait. Bide your time, get stronger and stronger, you'll get stronger and stronger, he'll get weaker and weaker, and eventually you'll win."

What happened? 2 Samuel 17:14, “Absalom and all the men of Israel said the advice of Hushai the Archite is better than that of Ahithophel. For the Lord had determined to frustrate the good advice of Ahithophel in order to bring destruction on Absalom.” Wow, he controlled Absalom's reaction to the two pieces of advice, which one seemed wise to him. The king's heart is like a watercourse in the hands of the Lord. He directs it whichever way he pleases. Oh, there's lots of examples.

You know, Pharaoh, God hardening Pharaoh's heart. That's a clear example. God didn't just want one or two plagues, he wanted all 10, including the 10th plague, the plague on the firstborn. And so the Passover, the blood of the lamb, the Angel of Death passes over, all of it, a picture of the sovereign power of God, God hardened Pharaoh's heart to bring it about.

But even that wasn't enough. God wanted the Red Sea crossing, so he hardens Pharaoh's heart again even after all the 10 plagues and out he goes so that God can show his might in the Red Sea crossing. But the king's heart is in the hand of God and he's directing it whichever way he pleases.

Then there's Nebuchadnezzar, plain example, a mighty potentate, one of the great, great emperors of the world, a brilliant man, capable man, an architect, scholar, military conqueror, brilliant man, a tyrant. God gives him a warning, and when he doesn't take that warning, a year later, God turns his mind into that of an animal.

So for seven years, he thought he was a cow eating grass, like that. And why did he do it? Well, it says in Daniel 4:15-17, "Let him the king be drenched with the dew of heaven. Let him live with the animals among the plants of the earth, let his mind be changed from that of a man, and let the mind of an animal be given to him till seven times pass by for him. The decision is announced by messengers, the holy ones declare the verdict, so that the living may know that the most high is sovereign over the kingdoms of men, and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of men." The lesson is, God is sovereign over the minds of kings, he can do anything he wants with their minds.

2 Chronicles 36, God sovereignly moved King Cyrus to allow Jews to go back and rebuild Jerusalem. And probably the key example in all history is this one, the Jewish leaders, high priests, Annas, Caiaphas, all of them, Sanhedrin plus Pontius Pilate together agreed to kill Jesus. Acts 4:27 and 28, "Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and all the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had determined beforehand should happen."

It was God's will to crush Jesus and cause him to suffer. Isaiah 53:10,  Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and ... the LORD makes his life a guilt offering”

Pilate did everything he could to let Jesus go.  Did you notice? He wanted to let him go, but in the end, pressures came on him, his wife's dream, all kinds of things, the Jewish leaders, and in the end, he made that decision, he's accountable.

And he is accountable too. This is part of the mystery, dear friends. You may say, "How can this be? If God's sovereign, how can he be accountable?" He is. Listen to what happened. You remember how Pilate, after scourging Jesus, scourging an innocent man, Jesus is standing there bleeding now, stands before Pilate, and Pilate asks him a question, Jesus will not answer. He said, "Do you refuse to speak to me? Don't you realize I have the power to crucify you and the power to set you free?"

And Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given you from above. Therefore, the one who handed me over to you is guilty of the greater sin." That's accountability, friends. Greater than what? Greater than Pilate's sin. Pilate sinned, scourging at that point, but soon, scourging an innocent man, that's a sin, Annas and Caiaphas sinned more said Jesus, greater sin.

Well, there are so many examples of this, examples in secular history, like when Hitler left a third of a million British troops alive on the beaches of Dunkirk rather than wiping them out, so they're all rescued by all these ships that came across the English channel, what did he do that for? Why did he invade Russia? That was absolutely foolish. He had continental Europe by the throat, and some kind of a truce, a peace with the Russians. Why invade Russia? And if you're gonna invade, why go down and punish the Balkans first for a little uprising and then invade like in mid-June so that winter sets in before you reach your objectives, and most of those guys, those German soldiers died.

Why didn't he declare war on the United States the day after the Pearl Harbor attack? I'm talking about Nazi Germany now. That was stupid. Probably the US would have focused on Japan and done nothing with Germany, I don't know, but it's quite possible. That was a stupid move. Why did he make all of these stupid decisions?

Well, I don't know, I can't say ultimately, based on some scriptural statements, it was the Lord's will to frustrate him and cause him to fail, that's why. I know that none of those things were accidents, I just don't get the interpretation. God hasn't sent an angel down to say, "This is why Hitler did this or that." He didn't tell us, he just tells us in the Bible, God's sovereign over king's hearts, he turns them whichever way he chooses.

I think the key concept for this in me is the book of Esther, this whole book never once mentions God, never once mentions the Lord, you never see him, he just doesn't even appear. You might say, "Why would it make it into the Bible? I thought the Bible was a book about God. I mean, why would there be a book that never even mentions him?" You know why? The lesson of Esther is I am here whether I'm named or not, and I rule whether you see me doing it or not, and so just, the king chances to read a certain book and something happens to happen a certain way, and then everything changes as a result. There's no accidents, dear friend, God is sovereign over the hearts of kings.

So how can we apply this? Well, first of all, just be comforted. It's a scary thing to think it all depends on you. Isn't that scary? Sometimes I hold my kids and they got their little arms around my neck, I shouldn't even tell this story, this is a bad story, but anyway, at least I'm the one that looks bad, but anyway, and I just let them go and they hold on to my neck, but then they start to slip and they hold on tighter and they're filled with, yeah, their little heart's beating, it's all very exciting. [laughter]

God holds us firmly. It's not up to us to hold on to him, he's holding on to us and he's holding on to the world, he knows what he's doing. Be comforted. Be encouraged. It's not up to you and your grip. I'm not saying you shouldn't grip Jesus, grab hold of him, yes, you should. But be encouraged, God is ruling. Secondly, I would urge you to pray for kings and rulers, those in charge, because God is able to influence their decisions, even if they don't come to Christ, and he can make them come to Christ. Even if they don't, God can influence their decisions for the advance of the Gospel, pray for them that they would make decisions that would be helpful for the advance of the Gospel.

And finally, if I can just urge you as you face the trials of your life, trust in God, trust in what he's doing, don't be afraid, suffer well in front of the non-Christian world that doesn't have your kind of confidence and suffer well based on this doctrine of the absolute providence of God over daily life. Close with me in prayer.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Proverbs 5-7 and urges us to seek the wisdom of living a sexually pure lifestyle in an impure world.

So 11 years ago, actually a little before 11 years ago, as I was beginning my ministry here, I had a friend in Louisville, Kentucky, named Sean, a good friend of mine. It's good to have brothers that will ask you questions and pray for you and encourage you. And as I was going off, he said, "What are you most afraid of as you go off to minister at First Baptist Church in Durham?" And I knew that I was taking on the responsibility of being a senior pastor in a church much larger than I had been a pastor of before, and there I had only been a pastor for 15 months, a really short time, and it was just a small congregation up there in Massachusetts, and then we went on the mission field and the church was even smaller. Our growing family made up a third of the assembly on Sunday mornings. That's when the two little ones we're sitting with us. When they were going off into the other room, then the number went down. And then I just got my degree at Southern, but I didn't feel ready to take on this responsibility, so there were a lot of contestants for that throne of what..

What would cause me the most fear as I came here. But there was one that came immediately to my mind. And I said, "Sean, I guess it's said in some number of years from now... I don't know the number, I don't really care. I'll have to tell you that I committed some kind of sexual sin and I had to resign my ministry. That's probably my number one fear, Sean. So would you pray for me that I would be pure and holy?" And like I said, it doesn't matter to me... Wouldn't matter to me if it were 11 weeks, 11 months, 11 years or 11 decades. That's just a scene I don't wanna play. I don't wanna stand up here and have to confess that kind of sin and resign, and I don't want to ever have to explain to anybody that I committed adultery, I just don't wanna do that. And so I live in a kind of a helpful fear of that. I think it's helpful. I don't think it's incompatible with the grace of God shown me in Christ to be afraid of sexual sin. And so because I believe that, I think that's probably my goal for you today, that you would be more afraid of sexual sin at the end of this sermon than you are now.

And that that would be a holy fear, and it would keep you from harm and damage. So it's not a sermon that I'm necessarily excited to preach, it's a warning sermon, it's a sermon that brings us into uncomfortable territory, a sermon which... There are different ways to hear it wrongly and take... At times when I'm being gracious for those that need the grace of Christ, to work backwards and cover over shame and guilt, that some having not committed certain sins will hear that and apply it so that they can go off free of charge and commit those same sins. And then conversely, when I'm warning people not to do that very thing and they are already crushed and burdened and wonder if Jesus could ever forgive them, that they hear that and think, "There's no forgiveness, no possibility. I'm lost forever." And that's just the cross kind of purposes that can't happen, you just have to hear me clearly as I preach, because the grace of God does both of that; the grace of God covers and restores and renews and assures and comforts, and the grace of God also warns us and teaches us to say no to ungodliness and wickedness and lead upright and self-controlled lives, grace does all of that, friends. And both of those, we are hopefully gonna go on in this message today.

So my prayer as I preach on Proverbs 5, 6 and 7 on embracing sexual purity in an impure world is that you will take what you need from this. God alone knows what that is, I don't know your struggles. I know that no temptation has seized us, except what is common to man. And so we're all facing the same kinds of things our brothers in Christ are facing, undergoing the same kinds of trials all over the world. And so we all need this kind of thing. Some time ago, I read an account of probably the most exciting account I've ever read in military history of a defense of the Island of Malta in the 16th century. In 1565, a small island of Malta was besieged by Islamic forces, Turkish forces commanded or sent by Suleiman the Magnificent. And the defenders of the fortress were outnumbered eight to one, and they were valiant. And it was just an amazing account because there just kept being just pulses and waves and waves of assaults on the walls, and it was just a terrifying time.

And at one key moment during that whole assault, the attackers opened a breach in the wall. Just an opening in the wall. Some stones had fallen away and they were pouring toward that breach. And the commander of the knights that were defending the island jumped down into the breach and stood there with a sword and just defended it until more knights came and defended, and they plugged it with their bodies in effect, to keep the enemy from flowing in. About 100 years after that, John Bunyan wrote an allegory of the Christians' fight against sin. He entitled it 'The Holy War', and he likened the human being to a walled fortress. He called it Mansoul. And I picture that as I preach today, that we're like fortresses and there's this breach in the walls, and that breach proven throughout church history throughout time is the issue of sex, of sexual purity. It's just a breach in the wall, it's a weak area for all of us. And my desire is that we would shore it up. I picture almost at this point Jesus jumping down with his sword, the sword of the Word, and standing in the breach and helping you to fight so that you would be holy as he is holy. That's the picture I have for this sermon today.

Now, this breach is clearly established right from the very beginning. In Genesis 2:25, it says the man and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame. Frankly, if you'd asked them, "Do you feel any shame?", they would not have known what the word was. What is shame? That word was written by Moses after he knew what was shame, because it wasn't long after that, it says in Genesis 3:7, after they ate the fruit, then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. And shortly after that, Adam, terrified, hid from God in the garden. When God is calling out, "Adam, where are you?" He said, "I was afraid because I heard you in the garden. I was naked, so I hid." "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from that tree I commanded you not to eat from?" Clearly, sin immediately did something to the minds of the people, of Adam and Eve, immediately did something to their minds, so that they wanted to cover their naked bodies.

Sexuality, then, I think, is like a breach in the wall of Mansoul. And without incredible courage, and without wisdom from the Word of God, without the valor of our captain and commander, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit, we will fail, the enemy will flood in like a river, and we will go down. Now, one commentator on the Ten Commandments said this, this could never be proven mathematically, but I just found it helpful, and I think it's true. About half of all human misery in this world is caused by the violation of the seventh commandment: Thou shalt not commit adultery. How can you know? But I just sense that it's probably true, especially when Jesus extended it to the issue of lust. So many have already fallen, there are bodies all around us. If you live long enough, you'll hear tales and perhaps even experience first-hand, I hope and pray not, but experience first-hand the immense tragedy of sexual immorality. I was personally first hit by this when my first protestant pastor, he was a pastor of Grace Chapel in Lexington, a godly man, wrote books on marriage and all that.

Christy and I, we knew each other at that point, and he had to confess to the world that he had committed sexual immorality, adultery, and I was stunned. And the two of us talked on the phone, I remembered about that conversation, I said, "You know, I don't know what to do about the future. I mean, I don't think I'm likely to commit adultery today, but how do I know I'm not gonna commit it in 20 years?" And the only thing that I could do as Jesus said, each day has enough trouble of its own, is, be faithful today. Right now, fully faithful in the Lord. Immerse myself in the Word, learn how to obey him, costly obedience today, it's all I can do. I can't get to the future, all I can do is build up good habits today.

So it's not just this one pastor, friends, it's lots of pastors, lots of leaders in the so-called evangelical world that have fallen into sexual sin. You know their names, I won't recite them here. And it's not just in the evangelical world, so many in the general population have fallen, too. I mean, it's like how many weeks in between you hear the stories of a politician, candidate for a high office, a famous coach, an entertainer, a movie star, or somebody has to confess to adultery, and all of the damage that comes. And they're in some way humiliated and they lose as a result of it. Add to this the incredible increase of sexual temptation through the availability of internet pornography and other things that just assault the human soul, and it's just incredibly tough time for us.

And the issue at root is lust. That's really what we're talking about here. Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." James said, "Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. And then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death." How can we survive? How can we endure? This raging animal inside us. Paul says, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, and what I hate, I do." And then later he says, "So I find this law at work, when I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For my inner being, I delight in God's law, but I see another law at work in the members of my body waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Thanks be to God. But we're left with a fight, dear friends. The Word of God and the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, and the indwelling Spirit are sufficient for us to win. They're enough. And frankly, in Christ, they will win. It's not a doubtful thing, the outcome is not doubtful. We, who are in Christ, we will win. We will live to see lust dead at our feet. So while I preach a convicting sermon of warning, don't forget that, because frankly, I think that gives you strength to fight, to know you're gonna win some day. Someday you'll be 100% free of lust. Oh, that gives you power to fight, doesn't it? So meditate on that. But we need help. And so the Book of Proverbs gives us three extended treatments on sexual purity, and we're not going to be able to go through all of them in any careful way.

Basically, what I'm gonna do is touch lightly on Proverbs 5 and urge you to read it, I'm gonna touch lightly on Proverbs 6 and urge you to read it, and I'm going to give an extended treatment of Proverbs 7, and urge you to read it. Okay. That's my strategy for preaching today. And though we don't find Christ crucified in Proverbs 5, 6 and 7, I find Christ crucified in the Bible. So I'm going to be referring to Christ crucified, and the power of the Word of God, and the indwelling Spirit as the answer to this struggle. Now, all three of these chapters are couched in terms of a father's advice to his almost fully grown son. He's giving advice to his son, or sons, to get his son ready for battle as a man.

And so he gives extended treatment of the danger of sexual immorality. Though the language is, in terms of gender, one-sided, a warning of a son against the wiles of an adulterous woman, yet the lessons are applicable for both men and women. It's not a stretch in the mind to try to find out how. For men, it's clear. Guard your hearts against lusting after women. That's very plain and clear. Start there. And for your part, I don't think it's wrong to turn around and say, "Don't be a seducer yourself. Don't seduce other women, don't be an adulterer yourself." Though that theme isn't really developed here, it's true. Mirror image.

And for women, guard your hearts against such a predator, guard your hearts against that kind of an assault, who seeks to woo you and win you and entice you from sincere and pure devotion to Christ, but who in the end will destroy you. And for yourself, please do not allure a man into lust and into sexual immorality. And so there's the balanced treatment across the genders. So let's begin with Proverbs 5. And again, I'm just gonna lightly touch on it. You heard Richard read it, and basically, if I could sum up Proverbs 5, the whole chapter, verses 1-23, it's a twin message. The folly, the danger of adultery, and the wisdom and joy and blessing of marriage. That's really what we have here. The basic concepts are, the father is giving loving advice, and that is, keep away from the adulteress and embrace your wife instead. The adulteress is described here as a deceptive enemy. Initially, sweet as honey, smooth as oil, but in the end, bitter as gall and sharp like a double-edged sword.

In the end, he says, she leads to death. The remedy is to understand that, know where that road leads. Think about it often. Imagine it often and say, "I just don't wanna go there, and thanks be to God, I haven't yet." So just imagine where that road leads, and don't go down that road, keep to a path far from her, he says. Instead, embrace your wife fully as a gift from God. She's not dangerous, she's not seeking your very life, she's not a predator, she's not gonna ruin your world. She loves you, she's a gift of God for you. God joined you together, so embrace her and love her. Verse 15, drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. Verses 18-20 get very specific. It's talking about sex. May your fountain be blessed. May you rejoice in the wife of your youth, a loving doe, a graceful deer. May her breasts satisfy you always.

May you ever be captivated by her love. Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another man's wife? So it just gives you each other, that's what you have, a gift of each other. And it ends by saying, don't forget, and we'll talk much more about this in Proverbs 7, but don't forget that a man's full... His life is in full view of the Lord. All of his ways are open constantly before God. I just think that that would become vivid and intense and real for you as part of my job as a pastor and a preacher of the Word. That just by faith, you just know you're living in the presence of God all the time. So there's no secret part to your life. That's chapter 5.

Chapter 6 speaks about, I think, the severe, inevitable and unending penalty of adultery. And it gets you to focus on the penalty, what it's gonna feel like if you actually commit this sin. What will your life be like? Again, starts with that idea of the father giving wisdom to the son. Take heed to my warning, dear son, about the immoral woman and the wayward wife. Verse 24, her weapons are her smooth tongue, verse 24, her physical beauty, verse 25, and her alluring eyes.

The smooth tongue refers to her speech, which usually panders to the male ego. That's not hard to do, I can assure you as a male. But it just panders to that male ego. We'll talk more about that in Proverbs 7 in a moment. But it also involves a sultry tone of voice, an alluring tone of voice, just the use of the voice. And then there's the physical beauty, including hair and make-up and figure, skilfully, alluringly packaged with clothing that shows just the right amount of skin, all of that. Alluring eyes, captivating him with a little glance, doesn't mention it, but a smile, something like that, a look. These are the weapons that she uses to reduce the man to a pile of rubble. And they've been effective for millennia, and they're still effective today. So the father says, be aware of the danger of lust. Look at verse 25, do not lust in your heart after her beauty. Don't let her captivate you with her eyes. And realize what she's doing.

The prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life. Frankly, all sexual immorality is a reduction of the people involved, just like drunkenness is dissipation or debauchery. So this is reduction at least, it's many more things than that, but it reduces you. Pornography reduces a person to a bunch of body parts, there's no relationship at all, there's no personality, nothing, no conversation. Just body parts. This prostitute reduces a man to a meal, a loaf of bread, that's all you are to her. The adulteress is even worse. She seeks your very life, she wants to be part of your life, a long-term relationship, to destroy you.

Now, the point of the whole chapter here, I think, is that punishment is inevitable, it is severe, and it is unending, and that, dear friends, is only talking about the horizontal earthly punishments. You have to read the fuller account in the Bible to find out the rest, because there is eternity in hell to look after as well and to fear. But just at the horizontal level, punishment is inevitable. Verses 27 to 29, Proverbs 6:27-29, "Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? So is he who sleeps with another man's wife. No one who touches her will go unpunished." It is Satan who says, "Yes, except you in this case." That's what Satan says, "Except you in this case. You will not surely die." Punishment is inevitable.

Secondly, punishment is severe. 30-33, "Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he's starving. Yet if he's caught, he must pay seven-fold, though it cost him all the wealth of his house. But a man who commits adultery lacks judgment. Whoever does so destroys himself. Blows and disgrace are his lot and his shame will never be wiped away." Again, that's at that horizontal level in life, life under the sun, in the Book of Ecclesiastes. It's severe. And he compares the thief with the adulterer. He says, we understand the thief. He's starving and he steals. I get it. I understand. I might do the same thing if I were in the situation. Doesn't make it right though, it doesn't make it right, and he still needs to pay seven-fold, there's still a penalty. But this man, the adulterer, there's no understanding for him. There's no understanding.

And so in verses 33-35, it says, "His shame will never be wiped away, for jealousy arouses a husband's fury and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge. He will not accept any compensation. He will refuse the bribe, however great it is." Now, friends, those are just the earthly consequences. How much more are the eternal consequences beyond this world? You know, I was thinking about the earthly consequences, which are bad enough. When we were serving overseas in Japan, we got news that was very surprising to us, one of the elders in our church had suddenly resigned his ministry, so he wasn't gonna continue as an elder. I thought that was so strange. My wife kinda knew right away what had happened. It took me longer to figure it out. That's the way it is with men, just kind of dense. But he had been involved in a counseling relationship with another woman in our church, and they just got too close. And looking back, I could see it. I remember seeing the two of them in the front seat of a car, she was crying, he was talking to her, counseling her and all that. And I just...

Nowadays, I would have gone right up to the car, knocked on the window and said, "Hey, how are you doing? Can I pray with you guys? Can I help you out? Is there something?" No way I would walk by that car. To my shame, I did. It was an Easter sunrise service and trouble came down the road. But anyway, I was sitting with this man, a friend of mine, and he was obviously... He was crying. He was... This is a good way after now. This is about 15 months later, but I'd just come back from the mission field. We were face-to-face. He said, "You know what it's like? It's like a big rock got thrown in the middle of a lake, and the ripples just move across the lake, and they just hit the shore line at different times. So now they're hitting the shore with you now. My kids are still too young to understand what I've done, and so in the future, I'll have to sit down with them and explain it all over again. It never ends, it never ends.

Read what happened to the life of David. What kind of man he was before Bathsheba and after Bathsheba. Just two different men. He was strong, he was a leader, he was courageous, he was virtuous, he suffered well, he went through all of these things, he was a man of prayer. Afterwards, he just seems like a shell of his former self. Now, again, this is one of those moments where I can preach too hard so that then you forget the other balancing side. There is grace and mercy and forgiveness at the cross, please know that. That's our Gospel. The shame does get taken away, Jesus takes all of our shame. And if you know that you've committed sexual immorality, adultery, and you just don't know what to do, then flee to Christ. He is the only way you can be saved from that shame. And you will be blameless and unashamed on Judgment Day, which frankly, in the end, is the only day that really matters.

But still, this Proverbs 6 is talking about some great, great sufferings that happens in this world, and Jesus himself linked lust to hell. "You've heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, then gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, then cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to burn in hell." So Jesus links lust with hell. It's not bad exegesis, it's not like he didn't understand justification by faith. Oh, he did, he bought it with his blood, but he's still giving us a warning. That kind of life leads to hell. 

Alright, Proverbs 5 and Proverbs 6 we've looked at briefly. Now let's look at Proverbs 7. And here we see a seduction observed and analyzed. First in verse 1-5, it gives a warning to heed the words of wisdom. "My son, keep my words and store up my commands within you. Keep my commands and you will live. Guard my teachings as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablets of your heart. Say to wisdom, you are my sister and call understanding your kinsman, and they will keep you from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words." So it's a warning to heed the wisdom of the father. I think we should just hear that, not as Solomon to Rehoboam, yes, that's true, but as God, our Father, to us as his heavenly, or as his adopted sons and daughters. Let's take the advice from God as though he's speaking right to our hearts, because I think he is.

And then what happens? It's so interesting. Look at Verse 6, Proverbs 7:6. "At the window of my house, I looked out through the lattice." Again, picture Solomon, he's sitting up there in the palace, he has a good view of the streets down below, his house way up above, and he's looking down there. This is a seduction observed, but silently and secretly. The two people, the man and the woman, don't know they're being watched. The funny thing is, they always assume they're not, that no one can see what they do. But like I said, as a pastor, it's my job to make the fact that you're being watched really intensely real for you. There is someone looking down, not through a lattice, but perfectly, and seeing everything that's going on. There's no doubt about it. And so I think Solomon plays a somewhat divine role here as he looks down in the streets of Jerusalem to watch this whole thing. It also, at a lesser level, symbolizes just other human witnesses. I mean, eventually you're gonna have to tell somebody and a lot of somebodies. That's the very thing I told Sean, "I don't wanna tell you that."

So it's a seduction observed. I'll say more about that toward the end. So what does he see? Well, he sees a young man. Verse 7-9, "I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men, a youth who lacked judgment." He's naive. He's not worldly wise, he doesn't know the ways of the world. He's going down the street near her corner. Walking along in the direction of her house at twilight as the day was fading, the dark of night setting in. So he's lacking judgment and he's just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He ought not to be there. Dangerous. So here she comes, the seductress. And her description of her whole approach, her whole strategy is what the focus is for the next... From verse 10-21. She's described, her approach is described.

First, it speaks about her weapons, her dress. It says that she's dressed like a prostitute. Dear friends, this is a crucial issue. The phrase "like a prostitute" means that her clothes communicate a desire for sex. And it must be that way because she can't ply her trade otherwise. She must dress in a certain way with certain symbols so that people know what she's about. And those symbols are gonna be different all over the world. I don't know what it meant in Solomon's day that she's dressed like a prostitute. Back in the Book of Genesis, when Judah saw his daughter-in-law, she had a veil around her in a certain way that let him know that she was a shrine or a temple prostitute. They just know. It's just got to do with how the dress goes.

But here is a wife who's dressed like a prostitute with crafty intent. The clothing might be alluring, they might show off some of her figure, it might be of a certain color. It's different in every culture, but it communicated her intention very clearly. Now, nowadays our popular culture is driving women's styles in that direction. I'm gonna say more about that at the end of the message. Pray for me as I do, because I don't have any desire to be offensive, I just wanna be a help, both to the brothers and the sisters. But that's the force I see, goes in that direction. But this particular woman has made it clear what she wants by how she dresses. And she has crafty intent. She's planned this whole thing out. He hasn't at all, his mind is empty of all this. She has baited the trap, the whole thing is set in this seduction. And so he's just walking and she comes out like a predator. She has the food ready, meat sacrifice to God, she wants to serve as part of the adulterous trap. So it's part of the whole thing. Meat, you get to eat some meat.

For us in the refrigeration age, that's no big deal, but back then, it only happened when there was a sacrifice offered. So it says, "I have fellowship offerings at home. Today I fulfilled my vows." She's got the bed ready with spices and soft fabrics and sensory allurements. She says in verse 16 and 17, "I've covered my bed with colored linens from Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh and aloes and cinnamon." She's thought the whole thing through. She, at core, is a rebel. She's got a rebellious attitude, she's wild at heart. Look at verse 11 and 12, "She's loud and defiant, her feet never stay at home. Now in the streets, now in the squares, at every corner she lurks." So in that spirit, she comes out and she's brazen and bold. And look what she does in verse 13, she took hold of him and kissed him and spoke to him with a brazen face. She's just taking the initiative here.

And we see the religious hypocrisy. I've been to the temple, I offered my sacrifices, and now I've got some meat. See, she's religious. Beware, Christian friends, beware Christian brother and Christian sister of the person who comes to you with their spirituality. They're part of the church, part of the youth group, part of the college fellowship, whatever, if they start to make this intention clear, you know what they are. They are predators. Male or female, it doesn't matter, but that's what... I mean, it doesn't matter that they're part of the fellowship. Run. But here's this woman and she comes out saying, "I was at the temple." And then she says this, she begins this flattery.

Look at verse 15, "I came out to meet you. I looked for you and now I've found you." He doesn't even know where he is. He's wandering in a bad place in town, and she's like, "I was looking for you." And this begins her real weapon. It's a stream of verbal assault similar to a siege cannon, pounding away at the walls of reserve, of resolve, just pounding away, pounding away. I found a website that just summarized all this. It says in verse 21, "With persuasive words she led him astray. She seduced him with her smooth talk." Well, there was this website that basically summarized it and bulleted. I couldn't do better, so I just wanna read it to you. This is about what she says to him, "I'm a really good girl, I'm no whore. Sleeping with me will not be sin." Verse 14, "I've made many preparations and I have lots of things for a great time." Verse 14, "My motives are very noble in wanting to share my good time with you." Verse 15, "I have waited a long time and dreamed often of finding a man like you." Verse 15, "I'm so glad I've found you because I don't wanna be with anyone else." Verse 15, "It's so wonderful to be alone with you and feel the passion between us." Verse 15, "I've wanted to meet you for a long time, and I've made preparations."

Verse 16, "I've arranged things for the ultimate perfect love-making between us." Verse 16, "I know special things that you will love that other boring women overlook." Verse 17, "I care about you more than any other woman. I go to greater efforts." Verse 17, "We surely have a love between us that no one else has ever had before." Verse 18, "Let us fully experience the depths of this unique and special love that we have." Verse 18, "No other woman has ever felt as strongly about any man as I feel for you." Verse 18, "Our love-making will exceed all the love-making there has ever been in the world's history." Verse 18, "The comfort and pleasure we find in each other will be wonderful." Verse 18, "Our love and our pleasure will last the whole night and all of our lives forever." Verse 18, "Don't worry about any risk, my husband's on a long business trip." Verse 19, "He loves business more than he loves me. I need your love and your body so much." Verse 19, "There's no risk of us getting caught, I've figured everything out for us."

Verse 20, "He has money, which he loves, but we have love, which his money cannot buy." Verse 20. And then like a hammer blow after this pounding, pounding, pounding, she says in verse 18, "Come, let's drink deep of love till morning. Let's enjoy ourselves with love." She doesn't mean love. You wanna read about love? Read about the cross of Christ. Read about 1 Corinthians 13. You wanna know about love? God demonstrates his love for us while we're still sinners, Christ died for us. That's love. This is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and gave himself as a sacrifice for us. That's love. No, this is sex. This is lust. That is what it is. Well, what's he gonna do? Hanging in the balance. What's he gonna do? Verse 22 and 23, "All at once, all at once, he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into the noose till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life."

My whole desire this morning is to remove that statement in reference to you who hear me right now. You cannot say it. You cannot say, "Little knowing it will cost me my life." You can't say that anymore. I don't think you probably could have said it before you got here, you've heard these kinds of things before. Know it, know it. It will cost you your life. And so the father applies it lovingly. Verses 24 and following, "Now then, my sons, listen to me. Pay attention to what I say. Do not let your heart turn to her ways or stray into her paths. Many are the victims she's brought down; her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death." It's a highway to hell, as I've already shown you. The father speaks of a mighty throng that the adulteress has brought down. She's mightier than Samson. He killed a thousand men with a jawbone of a donkey, but he was brought down by the beauty of a woman. She's mightier than he is.

Alright, so what are some themes and applications we can draw out of this? First and foremost, there is a Savior from all of this. Dear friends, there is a Savior. Jesus wants to jump down into your life with his sword in hand and chase the lust away. Jesus wants to save you. And so the Word of God is your Savior, and the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross is your Savior, and the indwelling Holy Spirit is your Savior. Cling to these weapons. They are 100% effective. Because if you live by the Spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. So start there. And if you're feeling guilty right now, you're feeling ashamed, then just go to Jesus, confess your sins to him, trust in him, let him work forgiveness in your heart. This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst."

Secondly, without heart preparation in the Word, you will lose. You'll lose. So listen to your father as he gives you advice, as he sits down with you, your Heavenly Father, and as he reasons with you and says, "Take these commands and hang them on your heart. Saturate your mind in the Word of God, be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and you won't do this." Protect yourself. Don't just "let go and let God". That doesn't work. That leads to sin. You have to fight. Romans 8 describes the fight. I don't even know where "Let Go and Let God" came from in terms of sanctification. That's not biblical truth. It's like letting go and letting God in a rushing river that's going to a waterfall. You go over. That's what happens. You've got to stand firm. Thirdly, understand the techniques of seduction and flee them, either when you confront them in another person or tempted to do them yourself.

So here I come to the issue of dress. And again, I've asked people to pray for me that I speak gently. I'm not judging your hearts, I'm asking you to judge your own hearts. Just go to your heart and say, "What is my purpose in wearing this? As I put this on, what am I trying for? What do I want?" Allow the Lord to search your hearts. There's nothing wrong with wearing beautiful clothes. Actually, there's everything right about it. I can find many scriptures that talk about that. But there is something wrong with dressing to be noticed, so that you wear clothes so that people will notice your body and notice your figure. And how much worse then is it to dress seeking to allure sexually. Carolyn Mahaney has done the Church a good service by putting together a checklist. You can get it on the internet. We downloaded it and printed off 20 or 30 of them, they're in the north tower. And I would just urge that you... She gets specific in ways that I can't do. There's just some things that older women need to do for the younger women, talking about hemlines and blouses and buttons and all kinds of stuff. And look, go read it. Alright? I'm going to move on. 

But at any rate. 1 Timothy 2 says, "I want women to dress modestly and decently, as is reasonable for godly women whose good works are gonna commend them to God." That's what you... Dress yourself with good works and with holiness. And if you're single, what kind of man will that attract? A godly man. Go for that. Dress yourself beautifully that way, so please look at that. And friends, just be careful with members of the opposite sex, just be careful of how close you get. It says in Titus 2 that young men should treat their sisters in Christ like sisters, with absolute purity. Have conversations, encourage one another, pray for each other, but be careful. No flirting. I've seen stuff in the workplace, it's just abominable. The close relationships, the business trips and all that, and it's just amazing to me. So be careful. And also consider the costs of where we're going. Cost. Set standards for yourself on what you'll look at with your eyes. Perhaps you would not spend the night with a prostitute, but would you watch one in a movie or on cable program, on the internet? And set before yourselves the incredible danger of playing with fire. Can you scoop live coals in your lap and not be burned? Can you be the one person who could do that? No.

I was reading recently, talk about the cost, about a man, he was a businessman, he was an executive, fast track, moving up, had a beautiful family, a wife nine months pregnant, and two sons. Some time before this story, he had hired a beautiful young woman as his secretary, and she began enticing him by her clothes and her conversation and her innuendo and laughter and flattery. She sat next to him in the cafeteria and attracted him with her attention and flirting. Well, the Christmas party came and he drank a little too much and the two of them went off to a hotel room and he ruined his world, just ruined his world for just a couple of moments of pleasure. When he got home that night, he noticed that his wife and his two sons had done some special Christmas decorations for him, for daddy and all that. And they were asleep in bed and it just crashed in on him what he had done. "What have I done?" But he couldn't undo it. When he saw the secretary the next work day, she was all over him, interested, open, taking privileges. And sadly, he actually liked that kind of attention, and they were with each other sexually a few more times.

She started texting him, emailing him, pursuing him, he tried to delete all of the electronic evidence, but the non-verbals at the office were obvious to anyone with eyes, and it became a scandal in the office. The wife finally found a very explicit email that she had sent and he hadn't been able to delete it, I guess, and she divorced him. She left him, took the two sons. He was forced to resign from his job because of the scandal. The access that he had to his sons was greatly curtailed. He lost his house to pay for the lawyer's fees, and he ended up homeless.

Now, I was thinking about that, and that's a ridiculous story, but it's utterly plausible. It's a true story. I don't wanna play that scene in my life. Do you? And friends, again, this is just the horizontal side. What about the vertical side? God sees everything we do. Does he not see my ways and count my every step? Joseph said to Potiphar's wife, "How could I do this and sin against God?" He was aware of God watching him. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed. Luke 12. There's nothing hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what was whispered in your ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.

So what is the remedy? Well, delight in your wife. Take her out to eat, bring her some flowers. Build that relationship. If it's not where it needs be in terms of marital relations, sexual relations, then fix it, heal it. Forgive one another. And wives, delight in the role you have as your husband's safe harbor and safe refuge. Delight in that role. That's a good role that God's given you. But what is the highest remedy of all?

Well, I have found that most of the persuasions that I've even been talking about here, Proverbs 5-7, are negative. Don't commit the sin or all these bad things will happen to you. You wanna know the greatest power to fight all this? It's love. And I mean, ultimately, love for God. Jesus gave it to us in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:8, he said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."

The biggest problem with lust, you can't see God. It blocks our vision of God. God is distant. Our hearts get hardened. We drift away. Can't you say in Psalm 63, "Oh God, you are my God. Earnestly, I desire you. I long for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Because your love is better than life, I'll pursue you and love you." Let that love drive out lust and be safe. Close with me in prayer.