Two Journeys

In Daniel chapter 4, God humbled King Nebuchadnezzar and taught him that he rules over all kings and kingdoms.

The post Daniel Episode 5: God Humbles Nebuchadnezzar… and Us – Part 2 appeared first on Two Journeys.

The Bible instructs us to number our days wisely, for the same God who knit us together in our mother’s wombs holds in his hand our lifespan as well.

The post A Wise Heart Numbers Its Days appeared first on Two Journeys.

The Bible instructs us to number our days wisely, for the same God who knit us together in our mother’s wombs holds in his hand our lifespan as well.

In Daniel Chapter 5, one of the most dramatic moments in redemptive history occurred with a wicked king named Belshazzar. Belshazzar was putting on a big feast, and he was stopped in his tracks suddenly by a disembodied hand that began writing in the wall above his corrupt throne. The hand that wrote the words was terrifying to everyone there, and the words could not be understood easily or read. The hand carved letters into the plaster in the wall, and I envisioned dust sprinkling down to the floor while the hand continued to write the mysterious words. I imagine at that time that the music and the lustful revelry in the entire hall from the 1,00 noble men partying with him instantly came to an end. If you'd been close enough to the throne, you would've seen the color drain from the king's face. You would've been able to hear his knees knocking together, but the focus of everyone in that formerly riotous hall would've been the writing on the wall. That moment moved into proverbial truth.

To see the writing on the wall in our culture means to see something inevitable, something that's coming and there's nothing that can stop it. It means to see clearly that your end is near. Of course, this story is recounted for us in Daniel Chapter 5, Belshazzar's feast, and the man who read the writing on the wall at that time was a prophet named Daniel. He first, as he read it, proclaimed the great wickedness of the king of Babylon. After recounting the famous story of Belshazzar's grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar, how God humbled him and changed his mind of that of an animal and then changed it back again seven years later, teaching him that God alone rules over the kingdoms of men and that all people are accountable to Him. After accounting that history, Daniel then leveled Belshazzar with this righteous accusation. He says in Daniel 5:22-24, "But you his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself though you knew all this. Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them.  You praise the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wooden stone which cannot see or hear, understand, but you did not honor the God who holds in His hand your life in all your ways. Therefore, He sent the hand that wrote this inscription." 

That phrase has arrested me for years. You did not honor the God who holds in His hand your life in all your ways. Daniel then read the writing on the wall clearly so everyone could hear him, the words were “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN”, and then Daniel interpreted them. "This is what the words mean. MENE; God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. TEKEL; You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. PERES; Your kingdom is divided, and given to the Meads and Persians." That very night Belshazzar was slain and the Babylonian empire came to an end and the Medo-Persian empire took over.

The words that very night remind me of Jesus's parable of the rich fool.  You remember that man who had a bumper crop and thought he had plenty of years to enjoy all of that wealth and he thought, “'What shall I do? I'll tear down my barns and build bigger barns, and I'll store up all of this harvest, and I'll eat and drink and be merry for years to come.’But God said to him, ‘You fool, this very night, your soul will be required of you.’" That's an important phrase, isn't it, “required of you”? It's not an option when that summons comes. When God who gives life takes it from us, there's nothing we can say. There will come a time that all of us, our souls will be required from us by the God who gave them. That's the point of my whole sermon. We do not know how much more time we have left here on Earth, and we should number our days wisely. 

Today is the last day of the year 2023. If God wills, tomorrow will come, and it will be a new year, 2024. We've been instructed by the Lord to say that, to say, "If the Lord wills.”  In James 4, it says, “'Today or tomorrow I'll go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. You don't even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life that it's 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 if the Lord wills, January 1, 2024 will come for any of us, most likely for most of us, if not all of us. Therefore, it seems wise for us to heed the timeless advice that you heard read for us in Psalm 90:12, "Teach us to number our days aright," or properly, "that we may gain a heart of wisdom." 

Let's look at Psalm 90 briefly. Let's try to understand Moses, the man of God, and what he said. We're also going to go over to another passage, Ephesians 5, and we're going to try to number our days rightly so we can make the most of the time that we have left.  Moses begins by asserting that God alone is our eternal dwelling place. Look at Verses 1 and 2, "Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the Earth in the world from everlasting to everlasting you are God." The doctrine there is the majestic eternality of God. He alone is from everlasting to everlasting. He is timeless. He is eternal. He is above time. He's not bound by time, unlike us. God knows the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end because He ordained every day that ever has been or ever will be. The statement “from everlasting to everlasting” means that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He never changes. He's always the same, and He is our dwelling place. God is where we will spend eternity. God is the New Jerusalem. God is the new heaven and new Earth. Not to say that there will not be beautiful created things at that point or a place for our resurrected bodies to be, not at all. There will be, but God is our home. God is our dwelling place from generation to generation. 

Then Moses goes on to speak of the temporariness and the frailty of all human beings. Look at Verse 3-6, "You turn men back to dust saying, ‘Return to dust, oh, sons of men for a thousand years in your sight or like a day that has just gone by or like a watch in the night.’ You sweep men away in the sleep of death. They are like new grass in the morning. Though, in the morning it springs up new, by evening, it is dry and withered." All of us, the Bible teaches, are ultimately fashioned from the dust of the earth. To dust, someday all of us will return as God said to Adam, condemning him to the death penalty that his sin deserves. When we die, our bodies go back into the native elements from which they're originally taken, back to dust, but God is eternal. "A thousand years in his sight is as a few hours or like a single day or like a watch in the night."

God's judgments stand over all human beings. They don't just die accidentally as though God has nothing to do with their deaths. Not at all. "God," it says, "sweeps men away in the sleep of death." It's because God takes away their breath that they die. It's not an accident. "People," it says in the text, "spring up quickly like fresh new blades of grass." They flourish, they look beautiful, they're radiant and strong, but in a short amount of time they wither, they sink back down just as quickly. "In the morning, they're new. In the evening, they're dry and withered." So our time here in our strength, especially in our youth, the prime of life is very brief. We should therefore make the most of our days when we have youth, when we have strength, when we have vigor and ability because soon one by one we will lose all of those capabilities. All you have to do is walk through a nursing home and look around into each room and see most likely your future.  You see the feeble, elderly people there, all of them stripped of strength, stripped of their possessions. They'll never go to their homes again. They'll never enjoy their material possessions again. They occasionally have visitors. If they have a family structure of people that visit them, then it's kind. Sometimes they don't even remember their closest family members. This is what the text is saying happens to some degree to all of us, and so therefore, it is essential for us to make the most of every moment that we have of every opportunity. Each day has unique opportunities. Soon we can do little because age and feebleness has overtaken us and we can't do much at all.

Behind all of this, according to Moses and according to the Bible more generally, is the sinfulness of man. It's because we are sinners the wages of sin is death. The troubles are caused originally by Adam's sin but then by our own sinful choices.  In Verses 7-11, Moses recounts this, the sinfulness of man and the wrath of God. He writes, "We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. All our days pass away under your wrath. We finish our years with a moan. The length of our years is seventy years or eighty. If we have the strength yet their span is but trouble and sorrow for they quickly pass and we fly away. Who knows the power of your anger for your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you?" 

Moses was very aware of the sinfulness of the Jewish nation. God had warned them according to Ezekiel Chapter 20, before He ever took them out of Egypt, before He ever took them out of bondage to Egypt, that they needed to give up their idolatry, which they had learned and their pagan ways. They weren't any different than the Egyptians that surrounded them. They were every bit as pagan and idolatrous as the Egyptians were.  He warned them and it says plainly in Ezekiel 20 to give up their idols, but He said, you would not do it. They were a pagan nation when they were brought out in the Exodus, this is what I think Moses referred to. We saw it very, very clearly in the golden calf at the bottom of Mount Sinai, how God said very plainly, "I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other God. You shall not make any idols or worship any idols." In a short amount of time, they broke all of those commandments immediately, and we see their paganism and their idolatry and their wickedness. Soon after that, after testing God in many ways and trying Him in many ways, they utterly rebelled when the twelve spies came back and brought a good report about the land. But they said that the Anakimes are there with cities walled up to the sky, and we look like grasshoppers in our own eyes and to them, and “we can't do it.”  Ten of the twelve spies gave that report, Joshua and Caleb alone spoke words of faith. God then condemned the nation to wander around in the desert until that generation of fighting men should die. In a short amount of time, destroying all actuarial charts and all that, that entire generation, 40 years, fell dead. 

Moses, the man of God, wrote this psalm during those years. When he was writing also the Pentateuch, he's writing the rest of the Scripture, he's watching that generation of sinners wither and die;  they're dying before his eyes. He has this in mind, "You've taken our secret sins, our idolatries and our wickedness and our paganism and you've put it in the light of your holy presence and because of that we are dying." He says, "In a very short amount of time, we fly away and we are no more." Then he makes the central request, which is the reason why I chose Psalm 90 for this New Year's Eve sermon.

Look at verse 12, "Teach us to number our days of right that we may gain a heart of wisdom." This is a prayer. The entire Psalm is a prayer of the man of God, Moses. This is the central prayer. Looking up to God, the man of God is saying, "God, would you please teach us something that we don't know? Would you please give us a heart of wisdom specifically in the right understanding of time. God teach us to number our days properly that we may gain a heart of wisdom." We need to understand this. We need to see why it is essential for us to number our days properly. We need to number our days because God has already numbered them so that we can be wise about salvation, so that we can make the most of the days that we have left here on Earth. 

Let's walk through it. First, number your days so that you may be wise about death.  Teach us to number our days properly or rightly that we may gain a heart of wisdom. First of all, the Bible tells us that your days are already numbered. Your days are finite. You're not going to continue in this present state, in this present world, in this present body forever. We are all of us mortal. It says in Psalm 13:16, "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." God has set a boundary to our lives. There is our birth day and there will be our death day, and nothing will change that. That's what Psalm 139 means, all the days that God has laid out for us, that all the days He has ordained were written in God's sovereign book, the book of his decrees before even one of them came to be, and that's what Moses asked for. 

Secondly, we don't know the number of those days. That number is hidden from us. God has hidden from each person the day of his or her death.  In a very real sense, therefore, we can never number our days. We just don't know. It's a bit of an ironic prayer because it's the very thing that we cannot do. We are not ever going to be able properly to number our days. Instead, it seems the wisdom that Moses is seeking here is an acute mindfulness of the limits of the days, an acute mindfulness of the fact that we will die someday, an awareness of that that should dominate the way we live our lives. This will not go on forever. As the psalmist said in Psalm 39:4-5, "Show me, oh Lord, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreath, the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath." I think that's a partner to Psalm 90:12, "Show me how brief my life is. Show me how a breath it is. Show me how quick it is. Help me to know that." That's all we can do. We cannot actually know the numbers.

As he says here in Psalm 90 in Verse 10, "The length of our days is seventy years or eighty. If we have the strength, yet their span is but trouble and sorrow for they quickly pass and we fly away." We need to understand, as I've already said, God's direct activity in sustaining us and then in His own good time taking us out of this world. Look at Verse 3, "You turn men back to dust saying return to dust, O sons of men." None of us dies accidentally. We use that kind of language just in the human, the horizontal way. Talk about people dying from a car accident or something like that, we use the word “accident”, but there are no accidents when it comes to God. God is absolutely sovereign. He rules over all things. You could have prevented that so-called accident. People do not accidentally die when it comes to God. What Moses is saying here is He takes away the breath and they perish.

Again, in Verse 5 and 6, "You, [meaning God] "sweep men away in the sleep of death. They're like new grass in the morning. Though, in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered." As Daniel said to Belshazzar, this really convicting and haunting verse, Daniel 5:23, "You did not honor the God who holds in His hand your life and all your ways." If I could get one thing out of this sermon for all of you that are listening to me, intensely feel that God holds in His hand your life and all your ways. That's the point of the whole sermon. Feel that. Understand you're not your own. Understand your days are not your own to do whatever you want with. Recently, I was doing men's Bible study on Thursdays when we went to the Book of Titus. The thing about that Bible study is we take forever to go through Books of the Bible. Anybody who's gone to it knows. It's like, "Well, when are we going to be done with Gospel of Matthew? Who knows? How long will it take you to go through Titus?” This is what happens, Titus 1:1, "Paul, a slave of God." All right, stop right there. How long are we going to take on that phrase? Maybe the whole time. What does it mean to be a slave of God? Are we? We actually are, or we're slaves of sin. Roman 6 says you're a slave of one of the other. Suppose you say, "I don't want to be a slave of anyone?" Well then, you're being lied to by Satan, you’re being deceived. You are a slave either of God or of sin/Satan/death. You are a slave. We were born to be a slave. 

The beauty of salvation is we come to realize that the master that we're serving, God and Christ are good masters and the yoke is easy and the burden is light. We're not deceived, but we still live like we are our own entities. Like we get to do whatever we want with our time, energy, money. It's ours, isn't it? Isn't our time ours to spend as we see fit? No, it's not.  If you had a faithful slave back in those days in the first century and you saw him in the morning in the marketplace and he's a good slave and you asked him, "So what are your plans today?" What do you think he would say? "Whatever my master wants. Whatever my master wants." Let me ask you a question. Do you think that's the right way for a Christian to think? It is absolutely the right way for a Christian to think, for none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. That's what ownership language sounds like. Jesus died to buy you as He says openly in 1 Corinthians 6, "You're not your own, you're bought at a price." But we still think like free agents, don't we? We still think we get to do whatever we want with our time and our energy and our money, but we don't.

That's why we spent all that time on, "Paul, a slave of God," because I realized much to my shame, I don't think like that, not enough. I still think too much like a free agent, and I need to think, in the year 2024 if God lets me live, more like a slave than I've ever thought in my life. I would commend that to you. So the prayer, "Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom," means to be aware that the same God who knit us together in our mother's wombs and holds in His hand our lifespan as well, in Him, we live and move and have our being. We need to be prepared for death so we can live a wise life honoring the God who holds in His hand our life and all our ways. 

Secondly, remember your days to be wise for salvation. Moses ultimately yearns for a heart of wisdom. Given the brevity of life, the wisest thing we can do is to find salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.  There is nothing wiser that you could do, conversely, there's nothing more foolish that you could ever do than to live 70 or 80 years in this life and go to hell. It'd be the most foolish thing you could ever have done with your 70 or 80 years. The wisest thing you can do is to find salvation. The scriptures are given for that exact purpose, to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Since death is certain and its timing is uncertain, the wisest thing we can do is to say, "Today is the day of salvation for me," and flee to Christ because you don't know if you'll have tomorrow. 2 Corinthians 6:2 says, "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." So that's what we have, we have today.  It's all we ever have. God set aside a certain day calling it “today”. That's what we have [Hebrews 3:4].  Today is about salvation and not just justification, not just crossing over from death to life, but growing in grace in the knowledge of Christ. You're left alive here on Earth for salvation,  so the wisest thing you can do is to immerse yourself in Scripture for your own salvation and that of others. 

I would charge you in the year 2024, give yourself like never before to the Word of God. Start there. 2 Timothy 3:15-17 speaks of the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. "All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work," says it all. The Scripture is given first to save your soul from hell and secondly, to make you maximally fruitful through every good work. That's what Scripture is given to do. That's its purpose.

The scripture has power to show you your sin, has power to convict you of your sin. Scripture has the power to show you Christ and to move you to trust Him for salvation. Scripture has the power to continue to instruct you, rebuke you, correct you, and train you in righteousness and to thoroughly equipped you for every good work. There is no better way for you to use the limited days that we have left than to immerse yourself first in Scripture. A new year is a great time to renew your commitment to daily Bible intake and to prayer, a daily quiet time. 

Thirdly, number your days so that you can be wise about redeeming the time. Ephesians 5:15-16 says, "Be very careful then how you live not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil." I want to say something about almost every modern translation of that verse.  They almost all say something like making the most of every opportunity, which is fine, but it's not technically what the Greek is. The Greek is “exagorazo”, which means “agora.” In the marketplace it’s a buying kind of marketplace word. “Ex” meaning "out of”, a prefix. So to buy out of, that's what redemption is. The idea of redeeming is of the payment of a price to get an individual out of trouble like slavery or a kidnapped victim or a hostage, something like that. They are redeemed by the payment of some silver or gold and the individual is brought out. You can imagine David and his men when they found out that their families have been kidnapped by the Amalekites after weeping and whatever, they went after their families to rescue them out of danger. That's the idea. Only the KJV and I think NKJV still retained “redeeming the time” language. The idea is that time, the day, is in danger. It's lost. It starts lost. You have to get up and go redeem it, or it will end lost as well.  It's just like “carpe diem”, “seize the day.” If you don't get up and exert energy and faith and love toward the day, it will be wasted. You and I have both had plenty of those days. That's what Paul says, be very careful how you live, not as foolish, but as wise. It's the same idea. Teach us to number our days so that you gain- What? -a heart of wisdom and not be foolish. Paul's using the same foolishness, wisdom type language. Be very careful then how you live, not as foolish, but as wise. That's what he's saying. 

Years ago I came across a sermon that helped me understand this text. It was preached by Jonathan Edwards when he was 31 years old, and it was called “On the Preciousness of Time.” It's one of the most convicting sermons I've ever read. I read it again last night and again this morning and I was thoroughly convicted. I realized this isn't going to be some happy New Year's Eve sermon for you all, but that's okay.  The fact is we're not supposed to come to the Scriptures and say, "I thank you God that I'm doing so well." That's not what primarily I desire to do. What I want to do is say, "Lord, show us where we need to repent. It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. How can I repent? What is there in my life that is sinful and is wasting time? I need to understand that." Edward's sermon helped me understand that, the preciousness of time. His doctrine was clear. Time is a thing that is exceedingly precious. He then gave reasons. Reason number one time is precious is because eternity, your eternity and mine, depends on improving the time. It depends on making the most of the time you have while you're alive. You're born and then you live. At some point in time, you have to repent and believe in Jesus. Time is precious because your eternity depends on the improvement of it.

Edward says this, "According as we either improve or lose time, so shall we be happy or miserable for all eternity. Without the improvement of time, our eternity will be miserable, and with a good improvement of time, our eternity will be happy. As we use our time wisely with the gospel of Jesus Christ, as we walk wisely in this present age storing up treasure for eternity, in that proportion we shall be happy for all eternity. As people squander the gospel through unbelief and waste their days in sin, they guarantee their own eternal misery." Time must be very valuable indeed simply because so much depends on using it wisely. 

Second, time is precious because it is very short. It's a commodity that is in short supply. The more scarce a precious commodity is, the more valuable it is. This is basic economics, the law of supply and demand.  We've already established that time is precious, but it's even more so because the time we're told in the Bible is short. The time is short. When there's a famine in the city, even the smallest crust of bread will sell for much silver or gold. The bread at that point is far more valuable than the silver or gold. So if time is already short and we squander even a small proportion of it, how dreadful would that be? A number of years ago I listened, I do a lot of listening to books on tape while I ride my bike, and there was this book about Louis Zamperini called Unbroken. It was later made into a movie. Louis Zamperini was a World War II airman, and his plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean. He and two other men survived the crash, and they're floating in two rafts tied together in the midst of the vast Pacific Ocean with only a very slim hopeless survival. Their raft had meager supplies of food and drinking water.  They had a few precious chocolate bars, the calories of which could sustain them for a few vital days, and they divided the bars up into small squares and stored them. But unfortunately, one of the men panicked and while the other two were sleeping, ate all of the chocolate in one night. Their food supply up to that point was already critically low and limited. But now it was even in a worse situation because this one man had squandered it. This is a picture of us in life with a very limited supply of the precious thing known as time. Our life depends on it. It depends on the use of it, and it's limited. It's in a limited supply. 

Furthermore, thirdly, Edward says, "Time is precious because we don't know how much of it we have." They're able to do an inventory and they knew how much food they have. We are not able to actually number our days as I already said. We have a sense that they're limited.  We have a sense that there's just a few of them, but we just don't know how many. So time is precious because time is uncertain. Our lives could end tonight or they could continue for many years. We actually have no idea, so we have to make the most of what God has given us. Edward said this, "If a man has food and supplies laid up for his journey and he doesn't actually know how much food is left or how much he will need, and if he knows that his stores are going to run out, if his stores run out, he will die. His life depends on it that he'll be exceedingly careful about how he uses each morsel of food." How much more than that would people prize their time if they knew they had about a few months left or even a few days left in this world? So it is with multitudes in this world who assume that they have plenty of time left. I think about around the world, how many people who it is ordained for them to die tomorrow are thinking right now they have plenty of time left.  We who read the Bible should not be so deceived. We should be aware that we don't actually know how much time we have left. How many will be surprised by the coming of their death and think to themselves, "I always assumed that I would have more time." 

Fourth, time is precious because once it is spent, it can never be recovered again. You could imagine someone having a precious heirloom like a piece of jewelry or something like that and losing it through theft maybe or losing it or going to a pawn shop because they needed some money. You could imagine through extreme effort they might be able to reclaim that precious item again somehow. It might be difficult, but they could get it back. But that's not the way it is with any Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday. Once that Monday is gone, it'll never come back again. It was a unique gift. "This is the day the Lord has made." God crafted it, and how you spent it is done.  It's in the past, you can never get it again. Therefore time is unspeakably precious because once it's spent, it can never be reclaimed. Edwards says this, "Every moment of time is served up to you as if it were a meal. If we turn up our noses at it, the divine table waiter will take it away and you'll never see that dish again." You can imagine every day it's like God is a chef and you're sitting at a table with a nice tablecloth and heavy silverware and He sets before you a dish that He's crafted. This is the day the Lord has made and you get to eat that dish as He has ordained. But if you waste it, that particular dish is taken away and will never be served to you again. That's how precious time is. Ephesians 2:10 says, "We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them."

So that's what I mean by “this day.” God has crafted unique opportunities for the day, and we are to make the most of them, and we'll never have that chance again. If we have lived up to this point 50 or 60 or 70 years and we haven't improved those years, it can't be helped. There's nothing that can be done for them now, it is eternally gone from us. All we can do is to improve the time we have left. If we waste our money, we might be able to get money back, but if we waste our time, our days, they are gone forever. I remember when I was going through this, when I was preaching through Ephesians 5, it's very easy to become overwhelmed with discouragement at this topic. We are meant to be convicted, but we're not meant to be crushed. It doesn't make actually any sense for us to be overwhelmed and say, "What's the use?" I was thinking about that, that feeling of discouragement or whatever, it's like, "I've wasted so much time in my life. Well, what's the use?”  I don't know, I picture a wheat farm out West and the family's all asleep. There's a fire burning in the fields and also burning a corner of the house and part of the barn. Imagine a neighbor sees the fire and comes and rouses the family and starts yelling and say, "Get up. Your fields are on fire. Your house is on fire. Get up. You need to put the fire out. You need to save what's left." It would make no sense for those people to come to their senses, realize what the situation is and say, "Well, we've already lost so much. What's the point?" and just sink back down into the bed. That would be literally deadly for them. Therefore, the point of this sermon and the point of these kinds of reflections is there's nothing you can do about the past except learn from it. The question is what are you going to do with the time you have left? What are you going to do with that year if God does give you 2024? That's the point.  So what has been spent has been spent how you chose to spend it. 

Fourth, number your days properly to be wise about heaven. In one sense, I want to say it's actually good news that our time here on earth is brief. This is a world characterized by death, mourning, crying and pain. In heaven, there will be no more death, mourning, crying and pain. We'll be free from those forever. As Revelation 21:4 says, "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There'll be no more death, mourning, crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away." It's good news that we're not going to be here forever. That is a good thing. If you come to faith in Christ, you've trusted in Him for the forgiveness of your sins, you're going to spend eternity in a place completely free from pain. Also, time we are told brings us closer and closer to our final salvation. As it says in Romans 13:11, "And do this understanding the present time, the hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed."

That implies there's some aspect of our salvation that hasn't come yet, and that's the final salvation that we'll get on Judgment Day. That salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. Every day brings us closer to that good destination. Therefore, we should number our days properly, gain a heart of wisdom and think like aliens and strangers in this world. As it says in Hebrews 11, the heroes of the faith admitted that they were aliens and strangers on Earth. “People who say such things show that they're looking for a country their own. If they'd been thinking of the country they had left, they would've had opportunity to return, but they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”[Hebrews 11: 14-16] 

What applications can we take from this topic? Today is the last day of 2023. If God wills, we'll venture ahead into 2024 tomorrow.  It's a good opportunity for us to look both ways. Look back at 2023 and honestly, by the power of the Spirit, evaluate yourself on this topic. Did I use my time well and wisely in the twelve months that were given me? God gave me a whole year. How did I use my time? Did I grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ in the year 2023? Am I closer to Christ's likeness than I was on December 31, 2022? Was it a year of growing for me? It may have been, it may not have been. Maybe you're further away from Christ than you were a year ago, but maybe you've grown. Just evaluate. 

Secondly, did I help others to grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ? Was I useful? Did I use my spiritual gifts? Did I use the Gospel? Did I use biblical exhortations? Did I help brothers and sisters in Christ? Did I help lost co-workers and neighbors and family members to come to faith in Christ? Did I use my time well? Did I serve God in this world?  Did I serve God's purposes or did I serve myself? Did I live selfishly? Did I waste time? What are my habits? What do I generally do with a day? What do I generally do with free time? 

Just evaluate. Say, "Lord, show me what I'm like. Show me what I do. Help me to understand myself." Like Edwards would say, "Let time seem unspeakably precious to you." Think of it as a valuable thing for me to spend my time well and wisely. This afternoon, I don't know what your plans are. What are your plans, you bond slaves of God? What you should do is you should say, "God, what do you want me to do with my afternoon?" I would commend if you have some time to be reflective based on the themes of this sermon and say, "Lord, what changes do you want to see in me in 2024 if you let me live? What new habits do you want me to develop?"

Start with the Bible. "Am I regular in my Bible intake? Am I memorizing scripture? Am I giving myself fully to scripture?" Let's start there. That primes the pump for everything in the Christian life. What's my prayer life like? God, how can I grow in that? Search me, oh, God, and know my heart. 

What bad habits do you want me to slay as was said earlier?" What are some sin habits that have crept up that are stronger in you now than they were a year ago, that you need to kill by death by starvation? What can you put to death? What lusts and habits can you put to death in the year 2024 if God gives you time to live? How can you serve this present generation? There are some things we can do here on Earth now that we will not be able to do in the new heaven new Earth. One of them is to suffer well.  If you're going through suffering, the ability to suffer well is something you'll get to do now you cannot do in heaven because there'll be no suffering in heaven. 

Secondly, you can also help alleviate other people's suffering now. You can't do that in heaven because no one of all the redeemed will be suffering at all, but we are able to alleviate suffering in this world. Maybe you didn't do that in 2023 the way you wanted to, but you say, "Lord, would you make me an instrument of your grace? Would you make me an instrument to alleviate the suffering of people around?" 

Obviously, the most important thing that any of you could do if you're lost is to come to faith in Christ. There's no point in you doing any of these other things if you're lost listening to me now, if you're not yet a Christian. I would beg you, while there's time, crossover from death to life. Understand that God sent His Son. That's what we celebrate at Christmastime. The incarnate Son of God came, took on a body and blood so that He could give that body and that blood to bring us to Christ, bring us to salvation. Trust in Him. That is the purpose of time. Once that's happened, then say, "Lord, help me to redeem the time, make the most of the time that I have here on Earth." 

Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for the opportunity we've had to look at this sobering text. God, we know that if we're Christians and we look back at 2023, we have to be honest and say it was mixed.  There was some wood, hay and straw mixed in with the gold, silver and precious stones. We know that if we're Christians, we did some good works. It's impossible for us to be alive in Christ and not bear some fruit. We also know that we wasted a lot of time. So Lord, I pray that you would help all of us who are Christians to look ahead to 2024 with resolution by faith relying on you to waste far less time in 2024 than we did in 2023, that more of our days would be gold and silver and costly stones than wood, hay and straw. God, help us to be faithful in sharing the gospel. We're surrounded by lostness. We're surrounded by people who don't understand what life is about. They're like Belshazzar. They're eating and drinking in idolatrous ways, and they don't know that time is short. Help us to be willing to tell them the truth for the sake of their eternal souls. In Jesus' name, Amen.

In Daniel chapter 4, God humbled King Nebuchadnezzar and taught him that God rules over all kings and kingdoms.

The post Daniel Episode 5: God Humbles Nebuchadnezzar… and Us – Part 1 appeared first on Two Journeys.

Jesus Christ left heaven to enter this sin-cursed world as a human being to open the doorway back into the presence of God.

This fall I was visiting my family, the part of my family that lives up in Boston and my daughter Carolyn, and I went to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. In one of the galleries there we saw a painting that just arrested me and seized my imagination and caused me to ponder for a long time.  The painting was entitled, Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and it was painted by Thomas Cole. It's a dramatic scene, of course, depicting the most tragic event in human history. Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden leading to God's curse on them and on the world and the judicial sentence of death descending on them. God then righteously expelled them from the Garden of Eden and put a guardian cherub with a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way into the Garden lest any of them or their descendants should eat from the Tree of lLife.

Thomas Cole, who painted that painting was an ardent evangelical Christian who lived in the first third of the 19th century, and he painted this masterpiece in the year 1828. Cole was a founder of the Hudson River School of Landscape Painting. He dearly loved the pristine beauty of nature all over the world, but especially in his home area of the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. Cole's painting of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden is basically divided in half. The right half of the painting is the beautiful Garden of Eden with clear blue skies, fair weather, clouds, stunningly beautiful snow cap, mountains in the distance and alluring lake in the valley between the mountains, lush greenery, abundant with colorful flowers in the foreground, paradise lost. The left half of the painting is bleak with dark colors of volcano erupting lava in the distance, flashes of lightning coming from the ominous storm clouds, a straggly apparently dead tree dominating the foreground with apparently dead animals at the foot of that tree.

Adam and Eve themselves are tiny, barely noticeable as they hurry from the Garden of Eden into the dark dying world that their sin destroyed. They hurry into that cursed world across a stone bridge that spans a deep chasm shrouded in darkness. The waters of a flood seem to be hurdling down the chasm toward them. Between the brilliantly light right side of the painting and the dark left side is a passageway, like a doorway made of stone, like the entrance it seems to a cave. In the center of that doorway, brilliant light emanates with overpowering rays. Those rays perhaps represent the glory of God chasing the two sinners from paradise, or perhaps the flaming sword in the hands of the guardian cherub ready to kill them if they should try to double back. It is of the expulsion from the presence of God and of this brilliantly lit passageway back into the presence of God that I want to speak tonight. It was in order to open this doorway back into the presence of God that Jesus Christ left heaven and entered this sin curse world as a human being.

My texts tonight are Ephesians 2:13 and Hebrews 10:19-22. Hear them again, Ephesians 2:13 says, "But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ." And again, Hebrews 10:19-22, "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most Holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain that is his body. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our heart sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”

First expelled from Eden, Adam and Eve were created perfect by God in the image of God and placed in that perfect world in which everything had been declared very good by God. Adam was formed first from the dust of the earth and put in the Garden of Eden to serve and protect it. Adam was clearly commanded by God, you are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil for when you eat of it, you'll surely die. This freedom to eat from any tree in Eden was evidence of the lavish generosity and love of God. The fruit was varied, it was delicious, it was nourishing. The prohibition to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was evidence of the holiness of God and his absolute sovereignty, his right to put limits and boundaries to our freedoms. It is also more evidence of his love because He knew perfectly well what unleashing evil into the history of the world would do. Tragically, we all have an increasing sense of what happened.

Eve was deceived by the serpent and was lured to eat from the forbidden fruit. She gave some to her silent and passive husband who was with her and who utterly failed to protect his wife, his unborn children, and the Garden of Eden, indeed the entire world from the devastating effects of the serpents lies. They both ate. Their eyes were open to their nakedness, they were stripped of the glory that they had been given by God and they began to hide from each other and from God. God confronted Adam and condemned him for his sin. They both came under instant spiritual death and would live the rest of their lives under a temporarily deferred but absolutely certain death penalty.

As Thomas Cole depicted, the whole world fell into the dark curse of decay and death because of Adam's sin. Adam and Eve were expelled from the presence of God as Genesis 3, tells us. The Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After He drove the man out, He placed on the east side of the garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the Tree of Life. 

The infinite loss that day was to be driven not only from the beautiful Garden of Eden, but from the glorious presence of a loving and Holy God, distant from God. The Bible reveals that all of us are naturally distant from God because of our sin. Psalm 138:6 says, "Though the Lord is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar." From afar. Also, Proverbs 15:29 says, “The Lord is far from the wicked.” This is relational language because we know the Bible teaches that God is omnipresent."

It says in Acts 17, He is not far from each one of us, "For in him we live and move and have our being." But the Holy God is infinitely far from wickedness and evil corruption and sin from darkness itself. Habakkuk 1:13 says, "Your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrong." Our text in Ephesians speaks of the immeasurable distance between us as unconverted people and this Holy God. Ephesians 2 says, "Remember that at that time you separate from Christ excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise without hope and without God in the world." And it says in the next verse, "You who were once far away." A picture of this distance between a Holy God and a sinful people was established in the Tabernacle and then later the Temple of the Old Covenant.

The lessons of the Old Covenant may be summed up in the first command that God gave to Moses at the burning bush. In Exodus 3:5 God said to him, "Do not come any closer. Do not come any closer." Then he said, "Take off your sandals for the place where you're standing is Holy ground." Again and again, the Holy God has been saying to sinful humanity, “do not come any closer.” Before He descended in fire on Mount Sinai, the Lord commanded Moses to erect a barrier, a fence line around the base of the Holy mountain so that no one could ascend that mountain because God would have to kill them. The Tabernacle represented God's desire to dwell in the midst of a sinful people, but it was made of curtains that represented barriers between a Holy God and a sinful people. We are not welcome, “this far you may come and no farther.”  So as sinners, we were distant from God. 

Third, Christ has drawn near to us. Christ has drawn near to us. In the incarnation of Jesus Christ, this Holy God has drawn near to us.  “Emanuel,” which we sang about this morning and again tonight means “God with us.” God gave his only-begotten Son a body with blood so that a doorway could be open into his presence by means of that body and that blood. The incarnation means “the Word became flesh” with a literal human body. But why? What was the reason? The reason was to bring sinners near to a Holy God by the blood and by the body of Jesus. Listen again to Ephesians 2:13, "But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ." Again, Hebrews 10, "Therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most Holy place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way open for us through the curtain that is his body. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our heart sprinkled to cleanse us from the guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water."

The incarnation means that God, the Son, took on a body with blood so that the death penalty we deserve for our sins could be paid in full. By the baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in the manger, we are brought near to a Holy God. 

Christ, fourthly, has brought us near, so therefore, let us draw near. By faith in Christ we who were on the outside excluded, exiled, banished, cast out, evicted from the paradise of God's glorious presence by faith in the blood of Christ shed on the cross, we have been brought near. That is exactly what Ephesians 2:13 tells us. If you have trusted in Christ, you have been brought near positionally and for all eternity to God, one with Christ by faith in Christ, by faith. Speaking of nearness to God, Ephesians 2:13 tells us we have been brought near once for all into the presence of God, into the Holy of Holies, into the throne room of God, into a reconciled relationship with God.

But Hebrews 10, exhorts “Let us draw near to God.” So the one is positional and can never change. The other is experiential, relational by faith in Christ, drawing near to God in relational closeness, in a sense of intimacy with a loving God. So draw near brothers and sisters, let us draw near by faith. Let us have our bodies washed with the pure water of the Word. Let us have our hearts sprinkled from a guilty conscience. Sense that you are dearly loved. Draw near, draw near to a Holy God, draw near by Jesus's work, draw near by immersing your mind in Scripture as it testifies to Jesus. Draw near by prayer, confessing your sins with confidence of a perfect cleansing. Draw near by repentance and by the power of a changed life through the Holy Spirit. Draw near, the author to Hebrews tells us in full assurance of faith that God dearly loves you. He cannot love you more and will never love you less.

Draw near now through the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, recognizing by faith, the body and the blood of Christ in these elements, symbolically, yes, but by faith recognizing that the incarnation came so that we who are far away might draw near.

 Close with me, this time of meditation in the Word with prayer, and then we'll turn to the Lord's Supper. 

Father, we thank you for the amazing truths of the Word of God. We can never plumb their deaths. We can never fully understand these themes. We can never fully understand what it meant to be expelled, to be exiled, to be aliens, to be distant from you and to fully understand in this world what it means now in Christ to be brought in here. Help us to understand these things by faith in your Word. And now as we have the opportunity to partake in the Lord's Supper, bless this time. In Jesus' name, Amen.

We're going to partake in the Lord's Supper. We have an unusual way on Christmas Eve of celebrating it. These tables just set up and whereas ordinarily at the Lord's Supper, we send deacons out with the elements and pass them through the pews and you stay where you are. On Christmas Eve we invite you to draw near and to stand around the tables. And so what we do is we just have people come and stand and as the table is reasonably full, then we serve those people and then those folks go and sit down and the next group comes up. We would ask that only people who have testified, who have come to personal faith in Christ and testified to that by baptism, partake. If not, we ask that you refrain. But this is a time for us to enjoy the Lord's Supper.

And so I'm going to read the words of institution and then we will celebrate in groups around the tables. Hear now what the Lord said, "For I receive from the Lord what I also passed on to you." The Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you, do this in remembrance of me." In the same way after supper, he took the cup saying, "This is the cup. This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."

Now, let us pray. Father, we thank you now for the opportunity that we have to draw near through the body and blood of Christ and to partake by faith in this symbolism of your life, of your death, and also of your resurrection. We pray that you'd bless it now and add the blessing by the power of the Spirit through faith in the Word. In Jesus' name, Amen. 

Jesus Christ left heaven to enter this sin-cursed world as a human being to open the doorway back into the presence of God.

The post Brought Near by Christmas appeared first on Two Journeys.

Trace the angelic worship of Christ through the whole of Scripture, both the Old and New Testaments pointing to the glory of incarnation.

The post Hark! The Herald Angels Sing! appeared first on Two Journeys.

Pastor Andy Davis traces the angelic worship of Christ throughout the whole of scripture.

On May 21st, 1738, Charles Wesley lay seriously ill in bed fearing for his life. But as he lay there fearing for his life, he feared more for his eternal soul because at that point he had no assurance of salvation. He and his brother John, had been pursuing a religion of Christianized good works and morality. They were part of a group called the Oxford Holy Club, and they sought to earn their salvation by good works, by mission trips, by other things, but they had no assurance of salvation. They only had ever-increasing anxiety about eternal hell and destruction. For almost two years they sought this assurance.

John and Charles Wesley had been on a mission trip to the New World and on the way back, they were in a serious storm with a group of Moravian believers. They saw the supernatural joy and peace and confidence even in the midst of that storm that those Moravians had. They had absolutely no fear of death, but that could not characterize the Wesleys at that point, so they began to study the religion of the Moravians who often spoke of the testimony of the Holy Spirit to the soul of a genuinely converted person.

The Wesleys had seen that supernatural peace during that storm, and they longed to know it, a total freedom from death. The Moravians linked that sense of assurance to the promise in Romans 8:16, the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children, but they had not experienced that testimony, that assurance at all. If anything, things just seemed to get worse and worse for them until that day, May 21st, 1738 for Charles Wesley, ironically, Pentecost Sunday, Pentecost Sunday commemorating the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the church.

Charles Wesley had been fighting for his life against his illness, but also pleading with God for assurance of salvation. As he lay alone in his bed between visits by his brother John and doctors and well-meaning friends, Charles had a personal encounter with God through the out-poured Holy Spirit that changed his life forever. Assurance flooded into his soul. He felt strange palpitations in his heart, and he cried aloud, "I believe, I believe." He wrote in his journal that day, "I have now found myself at peace with God and rejoiced in the hope of loving Christ."

Now his more famous brother John Wesley would soon have his own conversion experience at a prayer meeting on Aldersgate Street there in London. Though John Wesley would become the leader and driving force of the movement known as Methodism, Charles Wesley would become the movement's poet and hymn writer. He wrote over 6,000 hymns seeking to put the theology of Christianity in lyrics that illiterate people could understand easily.

Seven months after his conversion, Charles Wesley was walking through the streets of London on Christmas day. The bells were ringing, celebrating the birth of Christ. He hurried home and wrote the poem that would become arguably the most celebrated Christmas song of all time, now known as Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.

The original poem that Charles wrote was, "Hark! How all the welkin rings. Glory to the King of Kings." Welkin means “heavens.” A number of years later in 1753, the greatest Methodist preacher of them all, George Whitfield changed the lyrics to what we know today, "Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king. Peace on earth and mercy mile God and sinners reconciled.”  That improvement is well appreciated. It's already a challenge to have one obscure word, hark meaning “listen,” and even more obscure archaic word, “welkin,” would probably have sunk him for good.

 The heavens were indeed ringing with the praise of angelic army the night that Jesus was born. We can obey the word “hark" to listen to their celebration only by faith. Faith in the word of God. There is a listening of the soul with the ears of faith that we must do to be able to listen to them celebrating. There's a seeing to see the incarnate Christ laying there. There's a seeing we can only do by faith, faith in the word of God.

The call to listen to the angelic praise is a doorway into my Christmas meditation with you today. I want to trace out over all of redemptive history, even before history began, angelic worship of Christ. Angelic worship of Christ. My purpose is not that we will merely hark to angelic worship of Christ, but join with them in understanding the greatness in the majesty of Jesus Christ and that God's will may be done on earth as it is in heaven through that worship. Hebrews 1 makes it plain. When God brought his son into the world, He wanted the angels to worship him. Hebrews 1:6 says, "When God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, ‘Let all God's angels worship him.’"

This is an amazing statement if you think about it. It's an open claim to God of God concerning the deity of his son. The scripture makes it plain that God commands all worshiping beings, angels and humans to worship him and serve him only. Worship is reserved for God, and yet here's God calling on the angels to worship his son when He brings him into the world. That is proof that the Son of God, the birth of Jesus is a matter for worship. This is deity coming into the world, and the angels complied.

I want to trace out more fully the history of angelic worship of the second person of the Trinity and follow it in historical order in nine steps. First, angels worship the pre-incarnate Christ. Second, angels announced the coming Christ. Third, angels celebrated the birth of Christ. Fourth, angels protected the newborn Christ. Fifth, angels strengthened Christ in his weakness. Sixth, angels announced the resurrected Christ. Seventh, angels celebrated the heavenly ascension of Christ. Eighth, angels assisted in the spread of the gospel of Christ's kingdom. And then ninth, angels will celebrate Christ's glory for all eternity.

First, angels worship the pre-incarnate Christ. Christ alone of all human beings that's ever lived, made a voluntary choice, a willing choice to enter the world as a human being. He's the only one that that is true of. He made this assertion to Pontius Pilate when He was on trial before Pilate in John 18, “Jesus said to Pilate, ‘You are right in saying that I'm a king. In fact, for this reason I was born and for this, I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’"

In other words, "I chose to enter the world and I chose to enter the world to build a kingdom based on truth and to invite people into that kingdom of truth." That was a choice that Jesus made. He's the only human being that ever was pre-existent before He took on a human body and chose to enter the world, and that is to build a kingdom of truth. So also this statement in John 6, Jesus said, "I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but to do the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me that I shall lose none of all that He has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life and I will raise Him up at the last day."

It is the same thing. "I chose to enter the world not to do my will, but to do the will of the Father. And this is the Father's will that I save all the elect that He has given me." Philippians 2 makes it plain that Jesus shared eternal glory with God on a heavenly throne of glory before He entered the world. He had equality with God, a radiant glory with Him. That's what Charles Wesley meant when he said, "Mild he lays his glory down, born that man no more may die."

Before Jesus was born, the angels saw that glory and they worshiped him in his glory. Two key passages show this in the Old Testament, Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1. First, Isaiah 6:1-3 says, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs. Seraphs each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another. 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory.'"

The Lord the seraphim worshiped was Jesus. John 12:41 makes it plain that Isaiah saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him. The seraphs are angels, an order of angels, the spirit beings of the word. The Hebrew word literally means “burning ones.” They're like on fire. They're brilliant, they're bright. This lines up with the statement made of them in Hebrews 1:7 in speaking of his angels, he says, "He makes his angels winds as servants, flames of fire." The seraphim are burning ones, they're on fire, a holy fire. 

This fiery terminology also lines up with the vision in Ezekiel 1 of cherubim, fiery beings that could almost defy description and who move mysteriously below a throne of glory.  Ezekiel 1 says this, "I looked and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north, an immense cloud with flashing lightning surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, and in that fire was what looked like four living creatures." Picture a cloud that is radiant and bright and in the center of it, it's on fire, a fiery cloud. In the center of that are these four living creatures called cherubim. These cherubim have four faces and two sets of wings, and there are these high mighty, awesome glorious wheels under them. Wheels sparkling like diamonds and the cherubim move like lightning with fire flashing back and forth among them. Ezekiel 1:13-14, “The appearance of the living creatures were like burning coals of"fire or like torches. Fire moved back and forth among the creatures. It was bright and lightning flashed out of it." The creatures sped back and forth like flashes of lightning. It's energetic, crackling with energy, crackling with light and fire, and that the cherub had moved north, south, east, and west with lightning speed and whatever direction the spirit moves them.

High above those cherubim sat the enthroned pre-incarnate Christ. Ezekiel 1:22 and following, "Spread out above the heads of the living creatures was what looked like an expanse, sparkling like ice and awesome like a barrier, like a ceiling. And under the expanse, their wings were stretched out, one toward the other and each had two wings covering its body. And when the creatures moved, I heard the sound of their wings, like the roar of rushing waters, like the voice of the Almighty, like the tumult of an army. When they stood still, they lowered their wings. Then there came a voice from above the expanse over their heads as they stood with lowered wings." This is awesome. They stood quiet under the voice of the one seated on the throne. There's a reverence that they have and a quietness. They lower their wings and they wait to hear him speak. They're ready to do His will. They're motionless, they're reverent. They're waiting on the voice of the pre-incarnate Christ.

This is the description of that glorious throne, Ezekiel 1:26-28, "Above the expanse over their heads was what looked like a throne of sapphire and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up, he looked like glowing metal as if full of fire. And that from there down he looked like fire. And brilliant lights surrounded him like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day so was the radiance around him." This was the appearance of the likeness, of the glory of the Lord. ‘And when I saw it,’ says Ezekiel, ‘I fell face down.'"

You have this angelic activity moving wheels within wheels that just defies description, and brightness and loud noise and power and then a barrier and then high above that a throne and one seated on it. That barrier represents the infinite gap between creator and creature. It's an infinite gap between God and the highest archangel and all creatures below. That gap represents that difference, the holiness of God, God, the creator over all creation. They recognize it, and they're quiet under it.

Ezekiel the prophet was granted this vision of the pre-incarnate Christ on the throne of heavenly glory. This is the glory that Jesus laid aside when He entered the world and was born of the virgin and was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. This is the glory laid by, this is the glory you wanted back at the end of his ministry. When He said in John 17:5, "And now Father glorify me with the glory I had with you before the creation of the world,” it's a glory He deserves. A radiant display of his greatness, which He laid by.  Before Christ was even born, the angels in various orders of various types worshiped and served him. 

Secondly, the angels announced the coming Christ. The word “angel “is just a transliteration of a Greek word, which means “messenger.” Those that are dispatched with a message from God to earth. God regularly in the Old Testament dispatched angels to bring messages from God. At the time of Christ being conceived, the angel Gabriel was dispatched. The angel Gabriel told in his encounter with John the Baptist’s  father, Zechariah, he said  "I'm Gabriel and I stand in the presence of God." He has the honor of proximity, of closeness to the throne of God. That's Gabriel.

He was sent also to the Virgin Mary with the most amazing message that any angel has ever carried to any human being. In Luke 1, he said to Mary, “'Do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. You'll 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 the 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.’  ‘How will this be’, Mary asked the angel, ‘since I'm a virgin?’ The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high wall overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.’"

This is a message that Gabriel spoke to Mary, the deepest theology ever communicated in the pages of scripture. “Mary, you'll have a baby and the baby will have no human Father. He'll be conceived miraculously by the power of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit will overshadow your body and that's where this baby is going to come from. This baby will be the Son of David. He'll have a genealogy through you and also through Joseph, and he will be rightly called the Son of David. He'll be human because he is your baby and also descendant of David of the house and lineage of David. But he will also be divine because he's called the Son of God.”

This is the mystery of the incarnation, the mystery of the virgin birth. It's central to our faith. Jesus Christ was born in the normal way, looked like any other human baby that was born, but He was conceived by the supernatural power of God on a virgin's body. And so this doctrine of the incarnation of Jesus as being fully God, fully man is central to the Christian faith, was initially announced by an angel, announced by an angel to Mary.

The angel was also dispatched in a dream to Joseph, the guardian of that Holy Family to give him a different version of the same message. Matthew 1, “Joseph, Son of David, ‘Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She'll give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’  All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet. The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us.”

The angelic message to Joseph concerning this baby's mission is a little bit different, but easily harmonizeable to Mary.’s  The child born is going to reign on a throne forever. To Joseph, He's going to save His people from their sins and we know that that's by His death, His bloody death on the cross, but the theology of the essential nature of who this baby is is the same. I mean fully God, fully man is wrapped up in the word Emmanuel, “God with us”, conceived in a human mother by the power of the Holy Spirit. The angels were dispatched to carry this message and the theology of Jesus Christ to Mary into Joseph.

Third, angels celebrated when this baby was born, they were there to celebrate the birth of Christ. This is the most famous angelic involvement. Angels were sent to Bethlehem the night that Jesus was born, and they were sent to worship Him. This is the direct and obvious fulfillment of God's command in Hebrews 1:6, when God brings his firstborn into the world, He says, "Let all God's angels worship Him." They came to do that in  direct obedience to the command of God.

First an angel, a single angel, is dispatched to the shepherds on the hills outside Bethlehem, as we’ve already heard. “There were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks. At night, an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of 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 as sign to you. You'll find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Again, angels are given a role of dispensing theology to human beings. But this time it's simple working-class shepherds who are just out there at night watching over their flocks in the hills surrounding Bethlehem. Suddenly an angel comes with heavenly glory, a radiant display. This is one of the key texts for me. Understand that glory involves sometimes physical light, a radiant display. And so it is. This angel came with the glory of the Lord that shone around there at night, and it caused instant terror. The angel gives the message that Christ the Lord is born in Bethlehem. He is Christ, He is Lord, He's Savior.

These terms are initially understandable. They immediately take root in the heart of any believer, but they will take all eternity to unpack in their fullness. The shepherds understood these words. The simple proof of the angel's words was the oddity of seeing a baby wrapped and laid in a feeding trough for animals. That's highly unusual. So when you go down and you see this baby wrapped up in swaddling clothes, that will be a sign that our words are true. “Then suddenly a huge multitude of the heavenly host appears. A great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace to men on whom his favor rests."

This must have been what Charles Wesley and George Whitfield had in mind when they wrote, “Hark, the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King." God told them to do it. It says, "Let all God's angels worship Him,” and they did it with gladness and with powerful voices.

I want you to understand a word that is easy to misunderstand and that is the word “host.” I asked some people earlier this week, "What is a heavenly host?" And they said, "Well, when you host somebody, you're opening up your home, you're welcoming them." Friends, that is not what host means here. It's not like the angels are saying, "Hey, you all come." I know I'll never say it like you guys do, "Y'all come," saying, "I want you to come and enjoy." That's not what's going on. It's not what the Greek word means. The Greek word is “stratia”, which is a military term. This is an army, a huge army.

Imagine how that would've looked to us rebels against heaven to have a heavenly army arrayed in military weaponry surrounding us. It really would be terrifying. It's not a choir of angels, it's an army of angels. If you want to see the kind of damage they can wreak on planet Earth, read the Book of Revelation. The kind of damage that they wreak gladly when God tells them to do it, pouring out wrath on the ecology and on the people of Earth before the Second Coming of Christ. It's an heavenly invasion.

But not that night, though they could have done that kind of damage because we all deserved it. We're all rebels against the throne of God. They were there to celebrate the birth, effectively, of our and God's champion who came to fight on our behalf. They're there to celebrate as He went forth, as David did in the day when he defeated Goliath. He is the representative of heaven and of us, the people of God to fight our battle for us.  They're there to celebrate, and there's lots of them. It's not a little, it's a huge army. They're not there to invade rebellious Earth and destroy it like we all deserve, but they're there to proclaim, "Glory to God and peace from God to those on whom his grace or his favor rests." That's the message. This is the same army of angels that will be dispatched in waves in Revelation to destroy all sinners at the end of the world. But at this point they're there to celebrate the birth of the Savior forth. 

God also dispatched an angel to warn Joseph in a dream to flee the murderous King Herod and his killing soldiers. Matthew 2, “After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the Land of Israel for those who are trying to take the child's life are dead.’ So he got up and took the child's mother and went to the Land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judean places, his father Herod, he was afraid to go there having been warned in a dream. He withdrew to the district of Galilee and went and lived in a town called Nazareth.”

An angel was dispatched to Joseph in a dream to say, "Get up and take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you." They escaped just in time before the soldiers came and killed all the boy babies two years old and under. Then later, once Herod was dead and the danger had passed, the angel came and told Joseph to bring the child back. Certainly angels protected Joseph and Mary and baby Jesus at that point, but I'm certain that angels protected Jesus throughout the 30 years that He was growing up. The demons knew who He was. Satan knew who He was, and yet He lived a normal upbringing.

He grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God. When He grew up, He was a carpenter. When the time came, He was revealed out of obscurity by John the Baptist. But in all of that, there must have been a wall, an angelic wall of protection, around Jesus as He was growing up. Revelation 12 depicts the devil as a dragon ready to devour the male child who will rule over all the world the moment it was born, but he couldn't do it.

 Fifthly, during Jesus' life on earth, He was subjected to all the same weakness that we are— pain, weariness, hunger, thirst. At two key moments in Jesus' weakness, his physical bodily weakness, angels were dispatched to strengthen the King of angels. First, after his temptation by the devil in the desert. In Mark 1:13 it says, "He was in the desert forty days being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals and angels attended him." It's an amazing thing how Jesus, the infinite King of glory, was so weakened by his fasting that God had to send angels to keep him alive and to feed him out in the desert.

Second, in his agony in Gethsemane, in Luke 22 it says, "An angel from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him and being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." We cannot fully understand what was happening in Gethsemane as Jesus was fully aware that He was about to drink the cup of God's wrath in our place on the cross and to shed His blood in our place. God, I believe, mysteriously revealed to Jesus' human mind what it would be like to be under the wrath of God and it just about killed Him, dropping Him to the ground, and He was growing faint. An angel was dispatched in some mysterious way to strengthen Him to survive that moment in Gethsemane as great drops of blood were pouring from His face. It is a marvelous and an amazing thing that this infinite King of glory needed help, physical help from angels at those two times.

After Jesus' death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, angels were sent from heaven to tell his followers that Christ had risen just as He had predicted. In Matthew, an angel came down and rolled back the stone and sat on it. I've always loved that picture. He's very comfortable in the presence of Roman soldiers. He's not afraid of them at all. They're terrified of him and he just easily rolls a massive boulder and sits on it. It's just a beautiful picture. But he's there announcing the resurrection.

The same thing in John's Gospel. You have two men dressed in white sitting in the empty tomb where Jesus' body had been. One at the head, the other at the feet. In Luke's gospel, the same thing as women went to finish the burial rituals that had been hurried because the Passover was coming. It says in Luke 24, "Suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground. But the men said to them, 'Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here. He has risen just as he said.'"

Angels are not usually dispatched to proclaim the facts of the gospel of Christ's death and his burial and his resurrection, though they would do an amazing job, ordinarily not. But here at the very beginning of the spread of the Gospel, after the resurrection of Christ from the dead, angels are dispatched to tell his immediate inner circle of followers what had happened.

 Seventhly, angels celebrated the heavenly ascension of Christ. After Christ rose from the dead, He spent forty days with His disciples, giving them many convincing proofs that He was alive.He was training them and teaching them and getting them ready for the spread of the Gospel worldwide to the ends of the Earth. After that, after He had given all of that proof, at the end of that time, forth days, He ascended from the surface of the Earth up through the sky, through the clouds, and ultimately into the heavenly realms.

The Book of Hebrews tells us that He passed through the heavens, plural, through circles of heavens, so higher and higher. First, the atmosphere, and then beyond all the physical realms of heaven, what we call sky and outer space and beyond that into the circles of heaven, the heavenly spheres of existence in the spiritual realm. He passed through all that. The author of Hebrews gives us the language of passing through, and the scripture reveals that as He did, the angels celebrated his passing as a triumphant conqueror. In Psalm 47, it says, "God has ascended amid shouts of joy and the Lord amid the sounding of trumpets, sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises to our King, sing praises."

It's a marvelous picture we get of the angels celebrating the accomplishment of the life, the death, and the resurrection of Christ. I also think it's interesting the angels were dispatched to tell the disciples to move along now and get on with their lives as they're standing there outside Jerusalem with their heads craning up, looking and waiting for the Second Coming of Christ 2000 years ago. God sent two angels to say, "Time to move along." “They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going when suddenly, two men dressed in white stood beside them. Men of Galilee, they said, ‘Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you've seen Him go into heaven.’”

Eighth, as I just said, Scripture does not assign to angels the work of evangelism and missions. The ministry of reconciliation has been entrusted to us, the followers of Christ. That's our job. It is our work to go to the ends of the earth and to proclaim the gospel. As the scripture says, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news?" But it's not angels that do it. However, angels have consistently assisted that spread as they were dispatched from heaven to do. For example, in Acts 8, an angel working along with the Holy Spirit told Philip the Evangelist where to go so he could proclaim the Gospel to an Ethiopian eunuch. We can see angels dispatched to guide evangelism and missions in Acts 8.  So also God dispatched an angel to rescue Peter and the Apostles from prison in Acts 5, and also Peter from prison in Acts 12, causing chains to fall off and making the twelve soldiers guarding him to fall into a deep sleep. Also an angel is dispatched to Cornelius the centurion, to tell him to send men to Joppa to find a man named Peter who would bring a message by which he and all his household would be saved. The angel was not dispatched to give the message. He could easily have done it, but instead to send messengers to get Peter to come and do it. So it was angels that did that.

In heaven, we're going to find out throughout thousands of years of redemptive history, how active the angels have been in the spread of the Gospel from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. As the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 1:14, "Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?" They have helped the spread of the gospel for 2000 years.

Ninth and finally, angels will celebrate Christ's glory for all eternity. As I said before Christ was born, angels worshiped and celebrated all along. As redemptive history has unfolded, we are told that angels were learning. "They long to look into these things," Peter tells us. 1 Peter 1:12, “Even angels long to look into these things.” They weren't omniscient. They didn't know where all this was heading. They were learning as events were unfolding. As we see for example in Daniel 12, one angel asks another angel about timing and timetable. They don't know when the timing is going to be for all of these things. They're eager to learn, and they are learning as events unfold on planet Earth.

As those events unfold, they celebrate them, like the birth of Christ. They're celebrating. It's not like they didn't know it was coming, but now it's broken into history and they are celebrating.  They're tracking events unfolding, and they're learning and they're celebrating with pure hearts. I believe that they're going to celebrate when all is said and done for all eternity. They're going to celebrate what was done to rescue a multitude of sinners from every tribe and language and people and nation. They're going to celebrate what God has done through the second and the third person of the Trinity. By the working of Jesus' bloodshed on the cross, by His resurrection and by the outpouring Holy Spirit on the people of God, the spread of the Gospel, the angels are going to celebrate every detail of what happened for all eternity.

In Revelation 5:11-12, it says, "Then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels numbering thousands upon thousands and 10,000 times 10,000, 100 million angels. They encircle the throne and the living creatures and the elders. And in a loud voice they sang, ‘Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise.’" So there's 100 million angels celebrating the Slain Lamb, who by his blood rescued people for God. Just as it said earlier, "You are worthy because you were slain and with your blood, you purchase people for God from every tribe, language, people and nation." You're going to celebrate that, that radiant glory for all eternity they're going to celebrate.

We wouldn't even know about it except that God had dispatched an angel to John to write the Book of Revelation. As it says in Revelation 1, "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John." An angel was entrusted with the Book of Revelation to bring down to John and the island of Patmos.  Then He says, at the end of Revelation 22:16, “I, Jesus have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and I'm the bright and morning star." Angels will be worshiping and celebrating Christ's victory at the cross for all eternity. Revelation 7 says, "After this, I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people and language standing before the throne and in front of the lamb. They're wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands and they cried out in a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne to the lamb.'"

The next verse, "All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, they fell down on their faces before the throne. And they worship God saying, 'Amen. Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen.'" The angels are celebrating a redemption they didn't need. It wasn't for them that Christ became incarnate. Surely it is not angel He helped but the sons of Abraham, us, flesh and blood, and yet the angels are celebrating with every bit as much joy as if it had been them. They're going to celebrate it for all eternity.

So what about you friends? What about you? We here at First Baptist Church do not believe in a secular Christmas. We believe in Christ at the center of it. We want to join in that angelic worship and celebration. We want to see who this child is, this incarnate son of God, and we want to join the angels in celebrating. What about you? What about you? I understand at Christmas time it's a time for people to go to church maybe with family and friends. My desire is that there'd be no person listening to my words today, who would be in a lost, dying state.

All you have to do is hear all of this truth that you've been listening to of who Jesus is, of why He came. Of what He did at the cross and of how God raised him from the dead, and understand it is by simple faith in that story that you will be forgiven of your sins. There is no reason for anyone in this room to end up perishing eternally. To be terrified when that army does invade and punishes the rebels who never would yield to God and to Christ. There's no reason for that.

All you need to do is cross over from death to life is simply listen and hear like, "Hark, the herald angels sing." What are they singing? "Glory to the newborn King." See this incarnate deity laying there. See in that, your own salvation. If you are already a Christian, I want to wish you all a wonderful merry Christmas. You're going to enjoy time with your family tomorrow, but as you do so, let's bring Christ right into the center of that time. I don't know what your traditions are, what your habits are, but in our family, we love to read scripture as part of our celebration, to talk about the actual facts of the birth of Christ, of the gospel. Choose some Scripture and read it together with the people that you're with. Make Christ the center of your celebration. 

Close with me now in prayer.

Father, we thank you for this time of year in which we get to focus on a vital detail of our Christian faith, and that is the incarnation of Christ, the giving of the God man, the birth of Jesus as the savior of the world. We needed Christ. It was a rescue mission. As the angel said to Joseph, "You'll give him the name Jesus, because he will save His people from their sins." Lord, we need that. We thank you. I pray, oh Lord, that you would be working deeply in the hearts of people who hear this message that they would believe and trust and follow you. And for all of us who years ago did, Lord pray that you'd renew our faith and help us to celebrate as the angels did In Jesus' name, Amen.

Paul delegated Titus to appoint the elders of the churches in Crete, detailing the qualifications overseers should have to serve the local church.

The post Class in Titus: Qualifications for Elders appeared first on Two Journeys.

Daniel chapter 3 records one of the most courageous stands of faith and spectacular miracles. Three men refused to worship any other god even under threat of death.

The post Daniel Podcast Episode 4: Faith Vindicated in a Trial by Fire appeared first on Two Journeys.