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 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. –Matthew 6:19-21
It will help us to bear in mind that back in the Ancient Near East people weren’t depositing their precious belongings in the bank vault. They weren’t even locking them up in an inconspicuous corner of their houses. So these people felt keenly what Jesus referred to when He said that moths and rust would destroy their treasures.
His admonition to store your treasures in heaven is something of a two-pronged investment strategy. The first step is to not store up treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy. And even if there weren’t moths and rust, there are thieves. The message is: this world is not safe. Put no confidence in it. Don’t invest in things that will be gobbled up by moths, rust, and thieves. The second principle in Christ’s invest strategy is to invest in the imperishable. Our hearts always follow our money, He says, so store up treasures in heaven.
Many of us grew up hearing our pastor turn the majority of biblical texts into, “You need to tithe.” Despite the fact that the pastor might occasionally throw in the caveat, “God is rich and doesn’t need your money,” you got the distinct impression that the future of God’s kingdom depended on your weekly tithe. Have you ever stopped to consider what a puny kingdom it would be that depended on your tithe? Jesus isn’t telling you to invest in imperishable things because He needs your money. He is telling you to invest in the imperishable because your life depends on it. It’s not that the kingdom is needy; it’s that our hearts are needy. God doesn’t need your money, your heart needs God! Where your treasure is, that’s where your heart is.
C.S. Lewis wrote, “The problem is not that our desires are too strong , but too weak (…) like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the sand because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.” You see, Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven was like an astonishingly valuable pearl that a merchant sold everything in order to buy.
How quickly we settle with less, with knock-off imitation pearls, with toys, with gadgets, and with the plethora of perishable earthly treasures. We are the ignorant children who can’t conceive of the Pearl of Great Price, so we settle on glass beads. Oh that God would enlarge our hearts with the beauty and worth of Christ that we would invest in Him, sell it all to gain the One who can guard our heart. That’s the way to store treasure in heaven. That’s the treasure you don’t have to protect, but the treasure that protects you.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Lead On, O King Eternal
O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus!
My Hope is Built on Nothing Less
REDEEMER FALL PICNIC
It will be this Saturday, September 17 starting a 1:00. The Sooners and Cowboys both have away games and play in the evening at 6:00 and 7:30 respectively. We’ll have hot dogs, etc. Plan now!
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on 1 Peter) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” –Matthew 6:16-18
Think back to how Jesus began His public ministry. Remember that after His baptism, He journeyed into the desert and fasted for forty days. I think that one of the greatest understatements in Scripture is, “And He ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, He was hungry.” Oh really?
People often consider fasting a practice. I’d like to recommend that we make a distinction between fasting as practice and fasting as a practice. Fasting ought to be practice for self-denial. I know it’s often construed as a religious practice, but I think it would serve us well to realize that fasting is a way to train ourselves in self-denial for the sake of others. While often construed to be an individualistic endeavor, “This is about me and what I’m going through,” fasting should be about denying yourself so that you can serve others.
But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
It’d be easy misinterpret Jesus’ words as, “When they fast, they put on a gloomy face to be noticed, but when you fast put on a happy face even though you’re not.” That’s not what He’s saying because when Jesus references your head and your face, He’s not making recommendations for hair products and facials. Anointing and washing is language of celebration, festal language. The way that we ensure that our fasting is not hypocritical is by bearing in mind that we are setting ourselves apart for ministry with the goal of a divine reward.
It is abundantly fitting that Christ inaugurated His ministry of self-denial in a forty day fast. He lived a perfect life, never sinned, and yet when condemned to the cross, even then He continued to deny every right He had. He relinquished every claim of authority, every stake in justice, and denied Himself on behalf of you and me.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
Man of Sorrows! What a Name
Jesus Shall Reign
REDEEMER FALL PICNIC
It will be Saturday, September 17 starting a 1:00. The Sooners and Cowboys both have away games and play in the evening at 6:00 and 7:30 respectively. We’ll have hot dogs, etc. Plan now!
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on the nation of Israel in scripture) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 Give us this day our daily bread,
forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. –Matthew 6:11-13
Instead of focusing on God and His glory like the first three petitions, the last three petitions center on our needs. This proposes a model to us that we should aim for: that the glory of God’s name, His Kingdom, and His will be foremost in our prayers. By nature, we tend to pray big things for ourselves (make my stock gain, give me well-behaved children, bring my business fame, keep all diseases and physical suffering far from me) and small things for God. This is backwards; we ought to pray big things for God and small things for us.
Although secondary, this next set of petitions should shape how we view our needs from God’s perspective. Notice that all three of them demonstrate our weakness. The fourth petition addresses how the Father meets our weakness in physical needs. The fifth shows us that in our insurmountable debt, God pays. In the sixth, our weakness in trials and temptations give God an opportunity to deliver us. The pattern is clear: we bring the weakness and the need, God brings the fullness and deliverance.
When we pray could there be anything more important for us to remember about who we are and who God is? We don’t go into the storehouse of God’s gospel promises with our hands full of goods to stock the shelves. We come empty, depleted, and 100% needy. Oh, is that too harsh for you? Would you prefer to think that you bring something to this relationship? Fine. Okay, you’re right. Come with your sinfulness. Come with your baggage of broken relationships. Come with your ravenous appetites and those unhealing wounds. There. Now you’re ready. Pray. Pray that His name will be hallowed, that His Kingdom will come, that His will will be done on earth as it in heaven. Then, turn to these next petitions and think of your basic needs and God’s provision. Consider the brokenness that sin has brought to your relationships and God’s forgiveness of your debts. And remember the line of Robert Robinson’s hymn, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,” and entreat Him to keep you from temptation.
Brothers and sisters, believe it or not these are the ways in which His name is hallowed, His kingdom comes, and His is will done inch by inch and life by life.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Our God, Our Help in Ages Past
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
REDEEMER FALL PICNIC
It will be Saturday, September 17 starting a 1:00. The Sooners and Cowboys both have away games and play in the evening at 6:00 and 7:30 respectively. We’ll have hot dogs, etc. Plan now!
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on the nation of Israel in scripture) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. –Matthew 6:9-12
As we look at the first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, we note that Christ admonishes us to pray that God’s name be hallowed, His kingdom would come, and His will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. What’s remarkable here is that all three of these rests on certain assumptions. For example, when we ask God to hallow His name, we acknowledge that His name is not always being properly hallowed. When we petition him to bring His kingdom, we point our finger at the areas where His kingdom has yet to be brought to bear. And when we ask that He would make His will be done on earth as it is heaven, we’re admitting that His will is not being done here as it is there.
We must beware of the hypocrisy of praying these petitions without making them our goal, aim, and passion. Do you long to hallow the name of God wherever you are? Do you make it your priority relentlessly to preach the Kingdom? Do you love to do His will every minute of every day? People outside the church should remark about our family resemblance; not that we do these things perfectly, but that we are impassioned to do to them.
Obviously, the targets of the world are much easier to hit than these goals that our Father set before us. On our own, we fail miserably in this mighty endeavor. But we’re not alone. He us has given us the Spirit that we may pray and live out these goals before our Father and perhaps be heroes in this great drama of the redemption of the world.
For this Christ died. For this Christ rose again. And, Brothers and Sisters, His life proves that the day will dawn when all will hallow the name the name of God the Father. Christ’s life is the security that we will one day stand in a world that is only always His Kingdom, where feet run with joy to do His will.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above
Jesus Paid it All
Amazing Grace
REDEEMER FALL PICNIC
It will be Saturday, September 17 starting a 1:00. The Sooners and Cowboys both have away games and play in the evening at 6:00 and 7:30 respectively. We’ll have hot dogs, etc. Plan now!
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on the nation of Israel in scripture) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. –Matthew 6:5-8
It shouldn’t surprise us to see that this passage again deals with those who boast a shiny, glittery religion but whose hearts are dark and cold toward God. He’s talking about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees not of the people who repent of their hypocrisy (and we all have plenty of repenting to do in this area). It’s very possible for sin to conform us to its image to such a degree that our own hypocrisy ends up deceiving us. We begin to think that we aren’t the hypocrites. “You see those people over there? They’re the hypocrites!” So, look at Jesus’ words here and ask yourself, “Do I think I’m a hypocrite?”
The cultural context of the word “hypocrite” that Jesus used requires a little explanation. The Greek stage consisted of a chorus who acted as the narrators. They also had a person known as the hypocrite who answered the chorus. Get it? The hypocrite only concerned himself with the chorus.
In an uncanny coincidence, the word Pharisee means “separated one.” They stood in public places and prayed weighty prayers. When Christ uses the word hypocrite to describe the prayers of these separated ones, He’s actually jabbing them with the reality that they are praying to the chorus. Their highfalutin showy performances of spirituality are not meant for the Father who sees in secret.
Contrast these prayers with the genuine article in Hebrews 5:7, “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.” Jesus wasn’t praying to the chorus, Folks. He was praying to His Father. And He’s still at it: “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:25).
In the course of your life you have probably had a friend or family member say to you, “I’m praying for you.” If you’re like me, this statement only comforts you if you really know the person. Of course, I can’t always be reassured when someone says, “I’m praying for you” because I know that I have said that to people before and then forgotten to actually pray. So many times our “I’ll pray for you” has devolved into little more than a wishing them well not to far shy of, “I hope your life gets better soon.”
But let’s try to assume a best case scenario. Let’s conjure up a situation when I do remember. Then let’s imagine that I concocted a prayer with the best words arranged in the perfect order. And just for kicks, let’s add in that I had (mysteriously) mustered the most righteous intentions. Then, I sat down, and I prayed. You know what would happen, don’t you? No sooner would I address God the Father than other thoughts would start weaseling their way into my mind, “Wow, you sure are being righteous. That friend sure is lucky to have a friend like you. A praying friend. Come to think of it, God’s lucky to have you, too.” And it would all be a tainted mess of hypocrisy.
Brothers and sisters, hear this good news: Christ prays for you. His intercession for you is never contaminated. He never forgets. He never prays the wrong thing with the wrong motive. Christ the Perfect stands before His Father and pleads for you, His brothers and sisters, knowing exactly who you are and what you need at this very moment, tomorrow, and always.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Immortal, Invisible God Only Wise
Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed
To God be the Glory
REDEEMER FALL PICNIC
It will be Saturday, September 17 starting a 1:00. The Sooners and Cowboys both have away games and play in the evening at 6:00 and 7:30 respectively. We’ll have hot dogs, etc. Plan now!
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on the nation of Israel in scripture) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. –Matthew 6:3-4
At first glance, it might appear that Jesus is teaching us a little magic trick, a slight of hand to get what’s in your right hand swindled over to the left. No, no. He’s not trying to give you advice on becoming a great illusionist. He’s actually talking about business. Perhaps a little lesson in Ancient Near Eastern culture is in order. In Israel it was (and still is) common practice to use your right hand to give and your left hand to receive. Ah! That sheds light on these verses, doesn’t it?
Christ is teaching against a kind of giving that waits until it has received. He says that our giving should be unrelated to our receiving. Independent operators, not business partners. In other words, put your greedy receiving paw behind your back, and keep your giving hand out! Jesus says that if we only give when there is a return, you’ve already received your reward. You break even, if you play a get-and-give game, but if you give regardless of whether you have gotten, you reap rewards from Jesus. In Chapter 5 Jesus admonished us that our love for our neighbor should not be based on what the person can do or give to us. We are to relate to others as God relates to us: with a perfect love that does not require the loved one’s participation or meeting of the standard. In the same way, we should give without requiring a return.
It makes me try to come up with a time that I have done anything out of pure motivation. I draw a blank. I hate that, but I think that if we are honest with ourselves, we have to confess that our best works are a mixed bag: one or two worthy intentions, a handful of seeking glory, many strands of pride, and selfishness a plenty. We do good things as a means to an end. But Jesus says that the end is giving to the poor. That’s good enough; the delight of righteousness.
How we ought to be afflicted and aggrieved with our impure motives! May it drive us to pant for the righteousness of Jesus who endured the cross, scorning its shame for the joy set before Him. Consider His motive: us. He took nothing with Him, His empty hands were nailed to the cross where He gave us all. And His Father who saw what He gave, rewarded Him with satisfaction for Him and for you. For now God the just is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me.
Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to the cross I cling;
Naked, come to thee for dress;
Helpless, look to thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Come, Christians, Join to Sing
The Church’s One Foundation
And Can It Be That I Should Gain
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on the nation of Israel in scripture) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. –Matthew 5:43-48
Perfect? We have to be perfect? Hold on, I thought that whole being perfect thing was something exclusive to the Old Testament? What is Jesus doing dragging that into the New Testament? Is He trying to make us feel hopeless?
Let’s look at it closely. Does being perfect “as our heavenly Father is perfect” mean that we’re to be morally flawless? Is that what He is getting at?
Look at the context. It’s love; loving our neighbors, to be precise. Jesus broaches the idea of perfection because He’s talking about how God the Father is perfect in His love. The Greek word for perfect (teleios) means complete. What does it mean to say that God’s love is complete?
It means that God’s love needs nothing. His love for a person does not grow out of that person’s merit, goodness, or worthiness. This complete love does not require us to shore it up in any way.
It follows then that Christ is exhorting us to love others with a complete love, one that does not dangle “if you would only’s…” just beyond our neighbor’s reach. In other words, we will love perfectly when we don’t require others to meet our standards in order to get our love.
And, Friends, how dreadfully we fail. We presume upon the kindness of God’s perfect love all the while demanding that others perform marvelous deeds to earn our imperfect love. The transforming power of the Gospel promises is our only hope. Only the incarnate reality of the Christ’s love for us has the power to transform us from ones who return evil for evil into ones who love our enemies.
Consider that when Christ hung on the cross and forgave His enemies and those who betrayed Him, the minions of the kingdom of darkness whooped and hollered and cheered what they thought was victory. Little did they know that it was this very perfect love that would turn the world upside down and usher in the kingdom that shall have no end.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
O Worship the King
Like a River Glorious
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
MEN’S PRAYER BREAKFAST
Men’s Prayer Breakfast will not meet this Saturday, August 6 at 8:30. The fall dates are October 1, November 5, and December 3.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on the nation of Israel in scripture) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. –Matthew 5:38-42
If someone walks up to you, takes aim, and punches out your tooth, Jesus forbids retaliation. Does that go against your idea of “right”? Would you be more likely to knock out as many of their teeth as you could? How are you to resist the urge to retaliate?
First, you have to understand that God decreed this particular law with the intent to restrain personal vengeance. He wants us to know that when we are attacked or wronged, it is not our personal job to right the wrong. That’s the domain of the judge. So, secondly, you have to trust the reliability of the judge. If you believe that the judge will do right by you, then you will trust your case to him instead of seeking some form of vigilante justice of your own. A judge precludes the possibility of retribution, vengeance, or favoritism (which would be what we would tend to if we were deciding for ourselves because let’s face it, when Joe has just knocked out your tooth, a little bit of our objectivity flies out with it!)
Peter addresses this principle when he wrote to those suffering for the name of Christ.
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. –1 Peter 2:21-25
To the non-Christian hearing Christ’s words: “…I say don’t resist the evil person. Turn the other cheek,” will sound ludicrous and impossible. And when you think about it, how could they not find it utterly preposterous? They don’t believe in the existence of a Good, All Wise, All Powerful Judge who will arbitrate. They don’t understand the supreme wisdom of submitting to the all-knowing Judge of the Universe.
For the baptized believer, God, the Almighty Judge, comforts us by ensuring us justice. It is good for us that He forbids revenge. We should treasure this command because of how bad revenge is for us. Expecting revenge to work is like our drinking poison in the hope that it will kill our enemy. It doesn’t work that way. If we drink the poison, we die. We practice revenge, we reap the damage to our own peril.
So it is in His beneficent kindness that God has promised to be proactively pursuing our good. Let it go. You don’t have to be in charge. You can surrender your cause to God the Father. He will defeat all of His and our enemies. He is faithful.
May my accusers be put to shame and consumed;
With scorn and disgrace may they be covered
Who seek my hurt.
But I will hope continually
And will praise you yet more and more.
My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
Of your deeds of salvation all the day,
For their number is past my knowledge.
With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come;
I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone. –Psalm 71:13-16
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing
O Sacred Head, Now Wounded
Take My Life and Let It Be
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on the nation of Israel in scripture) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil. –Matthew 5:33-37
“I cannot tell a lie,” that’s the urban legend that’s been passed on about George Washington, and I can’t help but wishing that it were true (of him or of me). “Cannot tell a lie?” More like: “I cannot make it through a day without telling a lie.” We do it all the time. Why? What is it that makes us liars?
Travel back to Eden with me and witness the first lie falling from the first lips (wait, do snakes have lips?), and you’ll realize that we lie because we think that the story we’re weaving is better than the one that God has made. Eve was afraid that God wasn’t going to give her and Adam all things like He had promised, so she created another storyline.
We do the same. We have all the promises that God has given us. We know that Romans 8:32 says in very plain black and white, “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave him up for us all- how will He not also with Him, graciously give us all things?” There it is. Christ was the “hard part”. When you read that, your heart should be encouraged to believe that since God has done the hard part in sending His perfect Son to die in our place, He will easily keep all the “lesser” promises. Nevertheless, we lie. We trust in our own devices more than we trust in God’s promises.
In this passage in Matthew 5, Jesus teaches that making a vow is taking the Lord’s name in vain. He is again talking about the essence of the law and how it is not the exterior behaviors that the Pharisees and scribes have lectured on. He even clarifies by stating that the vow you make is performed “to the Lord.” You might, for example, see a situation as a vow to sell your land to the person who gives you the money; an interaction between you and another person. Jesus is pulling us (kicking and screaming though we may be) to the reality that we live before the face of God and our actions are performed to the Lord. When we don’t let our yes equal yes, we are lying to God.
Now let this despair in your inability to be truthful well up in you until your very soul resounds with the words of Isaiah: “Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips!” May you hunger and thirst for a righteousness not your own; for there is only one man of whom it can be said, “He cannot tell a lie,” and his name is Jesus who promised and, unlike us, always keeps his promises, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
A Mighty Fortress is Our God
Though Troubles Assail Us
Lift High the Cross
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on the nation of Israel in scripture) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. –Matthew 5:31-32
Shall we skip over this? I wouldn’t mind. We’d both be a lot more comfortable if I did. It’s one of those things we’re sorry about, that we know causes a great deal of pain, but do we have to talk about it?
The moral issue doesn’t cause us that much of a problem. We get that Jesus says it causes a sort of compulsory adultery, but we’re just kind of like, “You know that’s Him. He has to call it that because of who He is, but for us living here in the fallen “real” world, things are different, you know? It happens.” Really? Does the fact that we’re calloused by the reality we live with give us the right to glaze over Christ’s teaching?
In the famous Ephesians 5 passage, Paul exhorts husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the Church. We read that and our mind translates that phrase “as Christ loved the Church” to “Christ loved the church a lot.” Sorry. While it’s true that Christ loves the Church, it’s a grave reduction of the Apostle’s meaning. As a matter of fact, Paul tacks on the clarification “and gave Himself up for Her”. He made her acceptable in spite of her sin. His sacrifice made her beautiful. His work as the suffering servant bought her freedom.
The sacrificial life He lived for His Bride earns Him the right to speak such winnowing statements against divorce. For Him the covenantal love that exists in the Trinity and is extended to the people of God grows out of promise, not behavior. In fact, if God were to judge us, our love for Him, and our commitment to our relationship with Him by our behavior, what would He determine? Our behavior asks for a divorce many times a day! So, why doesn’t He put us away? Why doesn’t He walk out on us? Here He is the one who has the most lawful grounds for divorce, and He stays. Not only does He stay, but when she is whoring after other lovers and is caught in adultery, He offers Himself as the judicial sacrifice to take her punishment. Why? Why would He endure such humiliation, cost, and sacrifice for a wanton bride? Because He is far more committed to us than we are to Him.
He has truly said, “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
May the Mind of Christ My Savior
How Firm a Foundation
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on the nation of Israel in scripture) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
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