There are two kinds of people in the world, those who divide the world into two kinds of people, and those who do not. I’m both. There is one kind of people, two kinds of people, three kinds of people and more kinds of people. The one is people. All people are people, bearing God’s image. The two are believers and unbelievers. The three could be Africans, Asians and Europeans. The more could be both citizens of many nations, plus every combination of the above.
God, in His mercy, has laid out His law on the relations of several of these divided peoples. We are commanded to love both our enemies and our neighbor, acknowledging our shared nature as image bearers. We are commanded to provide for our families. We are forbidden, as believers, to marry unbelievers. What the Bible says not the first word about is how we are to relate to people from other parts of the world, or with a differing set of genetic distinctives. Which is saying a lot.
Comes now modern Pharisees who, quoting long dead fathers, add to God’s law and seek to bind consciences where God has left us at liberty. They do so by taking one category of people and trying to stretch it into another. They take the truth that most of us are all closer kin to one ethnic or genetic subgroup and determine that such are our kin. To fail to prefer Caucasians over Asians, as a Caucasian, is to fail to abide by God’s command that we love our “family.”
We are in the midst of yet another donnybrook over these issues. Not the first time nor the last. See here.
God, however, while He did establish nations and boundaries, never established such a law. Which is why, ironically, virtually every kinist on the planet is, by kinism’s own understanding, a mutt, a mixed breed. Not only does skin color in the mind of the kinist equate to family, but it, ironically obliterates national boundaries. You won’t find kinists objecting to the Irish and the Spanish intermarrying. Though they would, on the other hand, object to say, a Hebrew marrying a Nubian. The law of family love flies right past national borders, only to land on skin color.
They could just as well move in the other direction. That is, love of kin can be defined as close kin, and run headlong into God’s laws against consanguinity. You can only marry someone who shares the same genetic connection to your grandfather, or worse, your father. That is, either your cousin or your sibling.
These folks line outside the colors in real life, while their ideology thrives on gratuitous self-made distinctions. The truth is that their loyalty is not to their national background, their continent of origin, their skin tone, but to their ideology. A white kinist has more in common with a black kinist than he does with a white Christian who rejects kinist ideology. I ought to know. I was reviled by the kinists before such was cool. I, despite being their kin, was mocked and targeted by them.
My hope is that they will find their way home, to the city whose builder and maker is God, following in the footsteps of who I hope is their father, Father Abraham, who had many sons; many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them. Praise the Lord..
Tonight we continue our study on I Thessalonians. All are welcome to our home at 7 est, or you may join us for dinner at 6:15. We will also stream the study at Facebook Live, RC-Lisa Sproul. We hope you’ll join us.
While one could argue that Thanksgiving began with the church, in that it was celebrated by our spiritual fathers who came to these shores, it has become more of a family holiday. Families always have much for which to give thanks. So too does the church. It would be wise of the church to take the good habit of a day devoted to giving thanks and apply it to the gifts He has given the church.
What gifts? Paul writes,
“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,” (Ephesians 4: 11, 12).
It is a good sign that we are not grateful as we ought to be that when we read this text we are prone to jumping right to cessationist vs. continuationist debates. Not here, not today. While everyone agrees we do not have apostles in the exact same sense as the early church had, and nearly everyone would agree we do not have prophets in exactly the same way either, we still have much to give thanks. We are failing if we rush by the text to get to the debate.
First, we give thanks for the apostles and prophets in the Bible. They still speak to us today. We have, because of God’s working through them, God’s Word. That is surely something worthy of our gratitude, as it reveals not just the gifts but the Giver, the Redeemer of our souls.
Second, we give thanks for evangelists. This could certainly include those who are simply faithful to share the gospel, those whose ministry is principally evangelistic, anyone that God uses to bring the Word which gives life. Every Father’s son of us was once outside the kingdom. Faith comes by hearing, and someone spoke the words of life into our lives. If you haven’t, and you know who that person was in your life, maybe take the occasion this week to thank him or her. All of us, however, can thank the One who put that person in our lives.
Third, we can give thanks for our pastors and teachers. Pastor Appreciation Month was October, and it might have escaped your radar. But gratitude is always in style, and every pastor and teacher can benefit from words of encouragement. They (we) want to know that we have been a blessing in people’s lives. Giving thanks lifts spirits, fuels fidelity and blesses the one blessing you.
Fourth, give thanks not only for these gifts but for the work of the ministry that is the fruit of these gifts. The gifts of the Lord redound to more gifts. Those who have served you in time of need, who have blessed you with an encouraging word, give them thanks.
Which reminds me, I am grateful for all who invest the time to visit this site, to read my pieces, to tune in to our Bible study, who worship with us, who listen to the podcast. Simply listening is a gift. Feedback is the icing on the cake. Thank you, and may God bless you this holiday season.
This is the twenty-second installment of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more. Remember also that we at Sovereign Grace Fellowship meet this Sunday December 1 at 10:30 AM at our new location, at our beautiful farm at 112811 Garman Road, Spencerville, IN. Please come join us.
You want to know what your problem is? You don’t love Jesus enough. I know this not because I know you, but because I know me. I’ve got the same problem. My wife has the same problem, as do my kids. The sheep in my flock suffer from the same problem. The folks I meet all around the world have the same problem too. Wherever there is a sin-problem, underneath it all, is this problem.
Husbands don’t love their wives as Jesus loves the church, because husbands don’t love Jesus enough. Children disobey their parents, because they don’t love Jesus enough. Pastors soft-pedal the Bible because they don’t love Jesus enough. And people hop from one church to another because they don’t love Jesus enough. Politicians grow power hungry because they don’t love Jesus enough. Rich, middle class and poor people suffer from greed because they don’t love Jesus enough.
Find a sin and you will find there a heart that doesn’t love Jesus enough. Find Jesus, and you will find the solution to our problem. Which is just what Jesus has promised will happen. It is a good thing that evangelical Christians have wakened from their pietistic slumbers. It is good and proper that we should be about the business of making manifest the reign of Christ over all things.
That He is Lord has effects that stray far from our hearts. We fight culture wars because they manifest the war between the seeds of the woman and of the serpent. But the serpent is most crafty. He took the biblical wisdom that we’re to tend to our souls, and turned it into world-denying piety. Now he takes the biblical wisdom that we push for crown rights Jesus, and turns it into worldliness. We deny the call to piety. Jesus, on the other hand, calls us to seek first two things, the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
How can we seek two different things first? We do so when we realize that the weapons of our warfare, that the very engine of changing the world, is changing ourselves. The reign of Christ will be manifest in the political, social, artistic, cultural realms only insofar and only through the manifestation of the reign of Christ within His people. We will only make known the great Gospel truth that this is our Father’s world, as we live as pilgrims, recognizing that this world isn’t our home, that we are just passing through.
It is because we are worldly that we embrace the culture’s engines of change. We think that we will change ourselves and the world only as we read more books, make more movies, elect more politicians, produce more widgets, and add more programs to our churches. We think sanctification is a doctrine to be studied, rather than a calling to be pursued. In truth, it is neither. We do not pursue a calling, but a person.
Sanctification isn’t merely the means by which we become more holy, but is the means by which we become more like Jesus. Just as He, the Son of God, is the express image of the glory of the Father, so we, the bride of Christ, are the image of our eternal Husband. We glorify Him by becoming more like Him.
This is God’s promise, the end of our sanctification, our glorification: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). We don’t know what we shall be, but we do know we will be like Him.
How will we be like Him? What means brings this to pass? We shall see Him as He is. This is the glory of our King, not that He labors faithfully to change us, not that He changes us by the Word of His power, but that He changes us by the power of His glory. Seeing Him makes us like Him.
Which brings us back to our troubles. Our sanctification is long and laborious simply because we do not seek His face. We do not long for His presence. We do not hunger to behold His glory, because we are insufficiently impressed. It is the pomp and the power, the dazzle and the sizzle, the bright lights and the baubles of the world around us that have captured our hearts.
We don’t find His glory glorious enough, and so we are not yet like Him. We do indeed see through a glass darkly, a glass darkened by our love affair with the world. If we loved Him, we would seek Him. If we sought Him, we would find Him. If we found Him, we would see Him. And if we saw Him, we would be like Him. And believing this, John tells us, will purify us, “and everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure” (v. 3). So may it be said of us.
Not long ago, in our study of First Thessalonians (see here) we came across Paul’s injunction that we aspire to a quiet life, and work with our own hands (4:11). We talked briefly about two errors we are prone to make in understanding our work. Some people look down on manual labor on the one hand, and some who down on more mental labor. And some in both camps make both mistakes.
I could argue that I “work with me hands” since my fingers dance over my keyboard. The truth is, however, it’s not what my fingers are doing that matters so much, but what my mind is doing. I’m not adept at building things. I’m not very handy.
That said, I learned a great lesson from a friend a few decades ago. He was a parishioner at the church I served. He worked for an organization that built homes for those in poverty in Kentucky. I visited his home and he showed me the outstanding work he had done converting an attic into a bedroom for his young, adopted daughters. As we descended the stairs I said to him, “Man, what I wouldn’t give to be able to build something like this.” Without a moment’s hesitation he replied, “What I wouldn’t give to be able to prepare and deliver a sermon.”
Talk about a two by four to the head. All I could reply was, “I think you just did.” All honest work is honorable work when done for the glory of the King. Whether one is sawing lumber to build a pulpit, playing the music with which God’s people praise Him, or delivering His Word, it’s all good. That said, the same is true when our work takes a longer walk to get to worship.
When the plumber comes to my house to fix a leak, he is doing kingdom work. Both the machinist who honed the tool that fixed my leak, and the marketing guy who got it to the plumber, they are all doing kingdom work. The people in the c-suites are not better, more successful than the people on the floor. Nor is it the other way around.
The Bible commands of us all that we do our work as unto the Lord (Col. 3:23). This isn’t a call to pretend, to trick ourselves into believing our work matters. It is instead designed to escape the lie that our work doesn’t matter. Including the work I am doing in putting together this brief piece. I won’t, of course, be able to measure its impact. Such is measured in a realm I cannot see.
I can, however, write by faith. I can write knowing that His Word will not, indeed cannot, return void. Insofar as I am true to His Word, my work matters. I, like everyone who does any kind of work, rejoice to receive positive feedback. I am, in my better moments, likewise grateful for constructive criticism. Either way, I am blessed when I remember that when I write, I feel the Lord’s pleasure.
You can, however, listen to any or all of the many previous ones. It’s not like the expire or anything.
Jesus’ public ministry, because Jesus changes everything, changed everything. It’s hard to believe such a short time, three years of public ministry, could render such potent change. It was not long after He ascended to the right hand of the Father that His disciples were called, “They who have upset the world.” (Acts 17:6)
Eight years ago today my precious wife walked down the aisle of Saint Andrews Chapel and changed everything. My father led us through the marriage ceremony and then we walked that same aisle together. I wish I could look back over the last eight years and see an impact coming from me like that that Jesus had in just three. Instead I look back over the past eight years and am reminded not how much I have done for Jesus, but how much He has done for me.
Over the course of the past eight years almost all that He has done for me He has done through my wife, His daughter, Lisa. When I have failed, she has responded in love. When I have been attacked, she has come to my defense. When I have been discouraged, she has lifted my countenance. When I have felt alone, she has walked beside me. When I have clung to old habits she has set me free. When I have lost hope she has set my eyes on Jesus. She has been my counselor, my partner, my friend, my lover, my comfort and my joy.
And that is just me. She has mothered our children, loved and risked and sacrificed for them. She serves them, teaches them, trains them, hugs them, blesses them. She has led them out of the broken-down home I had had them in and given them health and life and direction.
The grace that He pours through her extends beyond me and our children. For eight years I’ve been blessed to watch her encourage young mothers, meet the needs of those in need, open her home and heart to strangers, perhaps even angels unaware. I’ve watched her respond with grace to gracelessness from others, returning good for evil. I’ve watched her continue to live a life of faith in the One who sustains us both.
Just a few weeks after our wedding I, in my sin, brought my own platform crashing down around me. No longer did I have a public venue from which to introduce her, to encourage her, to praise her. She, however, doesn’t live to be known for her faithful service. She lives for faithful service itself. She never lost a step, never walked away, never beat me with the big stick of my big sin.
For eight years instead she has loved and been loved. For eight years she has walked beside me as we have sought to follow the Teacher. Not once has she lost faith that He is leading us, and leading us to an eternity that is beyond our ken. When we reach those shores we will remember these eight years with thanksgiving as we look forward with hope in the eternity He won for us. And the sower leads us…
Tonight we continue our study on I Thessalonians. All are welcome to our home at 7 est, or you may join us for dinner at 6:15. We will also stream the study at Facebook Live, RC-Lisa Sproul. We hope you’ll join us.
