In our daily Bible reading schedule, we recently finished the book of Job, and though I have gained much from Job, it can at times be a feat of endurance to finish. Our English translations don’t help much, rendering the Hebrew poetry wordy. And after the beginning of the story from the supernatural realm to the devastating tragedy that is Job’s life, we can get lost in Job’s dialogue with his so-called friends. On and on, back and forth, one is struck by their lack of mercy but also Job’s candor. But what Job and his friends are both guilty of is what I call “karma Christianity,” or theologians call the “retribution principle,” “the idea that God blesses those who are righteous and punishes those who are wicked in this life. If a person is blessed, that is proof that he is righteous. If a person suffers hardship, that is proof of sin in his life.”[2] Such teaching was popularized in the last century in a movement called the “prosperity gospel,” but it was nothing new. What charismatics were selling on television is the same thing Job and his friends believed.
Category Archives: Sermons
Life Is Beautiful
Search as we may, work as we might, we will never find heaven on this earth. But through the enjoyment of God’s simple gifts, the “splendors of this world,” we’ll get a sense of what’s to come for all who are in Christ Jesus. And in this sense, life is truly beautiful.
The Humbling Wisdom of Life’s Limits
Enjoy the good things that God gives, knowing that this world obsessed with busyness, with its always-on, sleep-deprived, 24/7 compulsion to be God, will do what it can, when it can, to rob you of his joy. And when it tries, remember this: we trust in the only one who neither slumbers nor sleeps (Ps. 121:4). We trust in the one who created this world and upholds it by the word of his power (Heb. 1:3). We trust in the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 22:13).
A Heritage of Faith
And so, we look back to all the saints before and after the cross, saved sinners every one of them, encouraged to see the consistent faithfulness of God’s saving and sustaining grace, to our heritage of faith. But we do not let our eyes rest too long upon the recipients of God’s saving favor but to their Savior and ours, who having secured redemption for God’s elect is now seated in the place of heavenly honor “at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2): “to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen” (Jude 25).
When Everything Sad Comes Untrue
In his mercy and by his grace, God has dealt with our sin problem: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Positionally, by God’s grace through faith in Christ we are perfectly righteous. Practically, through his Spirit we are enabled to live in obedience to him. And while in this life under the sun, we battle our sinful flesh, Christ is preparing a place for us where the inequities of this life are not true, where the righteous don’t die, where there is no folly nor sadness because sin no longer is. This is the Christian hope, that in the final consummation, we will hear from heaven “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5), and on that day everything sad comes untrue.
Trust Him for His Grace
The crook in our lot is often not plain to our sight, because we live here, under the sun: “For now we see in a mirror dimly,” Paul explains, “but then face to face.” Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Cor. 13:12). This side of glory, we do not, we will not, we cannot see God’s sovereign purpose in what he has ordained. And if we interpret this through the folly of unbelief, we will wallow in vanity and dive deeper in despair. But if we trust the Lord, for our good and his glory, we will rest contented in his loving provision, even in adversity.
God knows what is to come because he has ordained it. God knows what is good for us because he ordained that too. Let us trust him for his grace.
Riches I Heed Not
If you think that people are basically good, then Solomon says to come look at this province where the poor are oppressed. If you think that people are basically good, come see what they can do in the absence of justice and righteousness. If you think that people are basically good, then Solomon says let me show you how corrupt government can be. Even in a country where the king cultivates the land to help feed the hungry, there will still be people who manipulate power for their own gain and the oppression of the vulnerable. If you think that people are basically good, then you are not only naïve but uninformed, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).
With Reverence and Awe
In his book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, Carl Trueman describes the age in which we live as “a world in which it is increasingly easy to imagine that reality is something we can manipulate according to our own wills and desires, and not something that we necessarily conform ourselves to or passively accept.”[2] We perceive it to be a world of our making, not God’s. This should not surprise us. Though it seems insignificant, the Disney movies that children grew up watching told them they could be anyone they wanted to be if only they followed their heart. Who knew they would take this mantra literally in interpreting human sexuality? But personal perceptions of self-creation and autonomy are prevalent not only in modern views of sexuality but a myriad of other matters, including Christian worship.
The Tie That Binds
It would appear that this fourth chapter is an assortment of unrelated topics. But upon closer inspection, we see a repetition of introductory phrases, “better than,” carried onward from the previous chapter. Solomon is clearly building his argument, which he will carry forward to its conclusion at the end of the book. But this chapter, short as it is, is not merely a building block, but a thematic treatise. It has an important message for us, especially in the church today, even this church today.
Dust to Dust
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven (3:1), Solomon says, all of which is upheld, directed, disposed, and governed by God’s “most wise and holy providence.”[2] This does not mean that the child of God knows or understands everything. Though God has “put eternity” into our hearts, we cannot “find out what God has done from the beginning to the end” (3:11). Such is our human limitation: how we see often lacks a providential perspective, and even what we see is jaded by “the remnants of sin abiding in every part” of our flesh.[3] We see, for example, injustice in the world and unrighteousness seems to run rampant, but does this imply that God is neither just nor righteous?
Planter, Pastor, Preacher 