Eric & Megan Eisinger are the proud parents of Fox Eisinger, born around 7 p.m. weighing in at 7 lbs. 4 oz.  

Both Megan and Fox are resting confortably this evening. 

Congratulations!

Announcements:

Profession of Faith Class:  Class will continue this Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the Clarion.  The class will last 6-8 weeks and will be working through the Reverend’s book. . . “With All My Heart”.

Fellowship Meal:  Next Lord’s Day Feasting will be at home, this is a great opportunity to show hospitality to others by inviting them to your home to break bread together.

Weekly Calendar:

Monday
          7:30 p.m.  Profession of faith class at Clarion
Friday
          6:00 a.m.  Men’s Prayer Breakfast at Rosie’s Restaurant.  Will end by 7:00 a.m.
Sunday
          9:30 a.m.  Bible Study
        10:00 a.m.  Prayer Time
        10:30 a.m.  Worship Service

Personal Bible Reading for this week:

     Sunday            August 23:  Psalms 119:105-176;  1 Corinthians 5
     Monday           August 24:  Psalms 120-123;  1 Corinthians 6
     Tuesday          August 25:  Psalms 124-127;  1 Corinthians 7:1-24
     Wednesday     August 26:  Psalms 128-131;  1 Corinthians 7:25-40
     Thursday         August 27:  Psalms 132-135;  1 Corinthians 8
     Friday             August 28:  Psalms 136-138;  1 Corinthians 9
     Saturday         August 29:  Psalms 139-141;  1 Corinthians 10:1-13
     Sunday           August 30:  Psalms 142-144;  1 Corinthians 10:14-33

Announcements:

Profession of Faith Class:  Class will continue this Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the Clarion.  The class will last 6-8 weeks and will be working through the Reverend’s book. . . “With All My Heart”.

Congratulations:  to Nathan and Rachel Van Dyken who were united in holy marriage this past weekend.  May the Lord preserve them in the unity of the faith and the power of the Spirit, glorifying him in good works and fruitfulness.

Wallowa Mountain Jam:  Joseph Oregon, August 8th.  This is a benefit music festival for those who suffered in the Dug Bar Road accident.  Information is available.

Third Annual Church of The King Family Camp:  Information is available.

Weekly Calendar:

     Monday

          7:30 p.m.  Profession of faith class at Clarion

     Sunday

          9:30 a.m.  Bible Study

        10:00 a.m.  Prayer Time

        10:30 a.m.  Worship Service

          1:00 p.m.  Fellowship Meal at Columbia Point Marina Park #4 – farthest from the Marina, closest t0

                           the I-82 bridge and more importantly car parking.

 

Personal Bible Reading for this week:

     Sunday           July 26th:  Psalms 47-49;  Acts 26

     Monday          July 27th:  Psalms 50-52;  Acts 27:1-25

     Tuesday         July 28th:  Psalms 53-55;  Acts 27:26-44

     Wednesday    July 29th:  Psalms 56-58;  Acts 28:1-15

     Thursday        July 30th:  Psalms 59-61;  Acts 28:16-31

     Friday             July 31st:  Psalms 62-64;  Romans 1

     Saturday         August 1:  Psalms 65-67;  Romans 2

     Sunday           August 2:  Psalms 68-69;  Romans 3

     Elijah Family Homes is hosting a fundraiser barbecue, this promises to be an enjoyable evening at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Sunday, July 26^th from 4-7PM.  We will have BBQ, a silent auction, bluegrass entertainment, and a quilt made by Bonnie Zipperer will be raffled off.  (Tickets for the raffle are $5 each, or 5/$20)

Please contact Liz Swanson (swanee4thebirds@clearwire.net; 967-1039) for tickets to this event or for the raffle. Cost is $25/person. There will also be a short presentation on the work of Elijah Family Homes.

Thanks for your consideration.

Sermon by Rev. Donald Van Dyken
Trinity Church of Tri-Cities
Faith: Tested, Proved, Refined & Rewarded
Lord’s Day Morning,  May 3, 2009

Scripture: James 1, 1 Peter 1:1-17
Text: 1 Peter 1:7

     Although there are times when the Holy Scriptures hold up the examples of apostasy and disobedience of the children of our fathers as warnings for us, there are also many times when God holds up His faithful children as examples for us in the endurance of persecution and trials.  Hebrews 11 closes with such a list, those who endured a great fight of afflictions.
     One of the points I want to make in this sermon is the encouraging examples of faithfulness and hope in suffering god has given us.  They are our mentors, our teachers, and the Lord has provided them in every age, and for us today too.
     So let me open with a little story from many years ago.  I’m not much given to telling stories in my sermons, but I found this one quite stirring:

     In the days of the Roman Emperor Nero, there lived and served him a band of soldiers known as the “Emperor’s Wrestlers.” Fine, stalwart men they were, picked from the best and the bravest of the land, recruited from the great athletes of the Roman amphitheater.
     In the great amphitheater they upheld the arms of the emperor against all challengers. Before each contest they stood before the emperor’s throne. Then through the courts of Rome rang the cry: “We, the wrestlers, wrestling for thee, O Emperor, to win for thee the victory and from thee, the victor’s crown.”
     When the great Roman army was sent to fight in far-away Gaul, no soldiers were braver or more loyal than this band of wrestlers led by their centurion Vespasian. But news reached Nero that many Roman soldiers had accepted the Christian faith. Therefore, this decree was dispatched to the centurion Vespasian: “If there be any among your soldiers who cling to the faith of the Christian, they must die!”
     The decree was received in the dead of winter. The soldiers were camped on the shore of a frozen inland lake. It was with sinking heart that Vespasian, the centurion, read the emperor’s message.
     Vespasian called the soldiers together and asked the question: “Are there any among you who cling to the faith of the Christian? If so, let him step forward!” Forty wrestlers instantly stepped forward two paces, respectfully saluted, and stood at attention. Vespasian paused. He had not expected so many, nor such select ones. “Until sundown I shall await your answer,” said Vespasian. Sundown came. Again the question was asked. Again the forty wrestlers stepped forward.
     Vespasian pleaded with them long and earnestly without prevailing upon a single man to deny his Lord. Finally he said, “The decree of the emperor must be obeyed, but I am not willing that your comrades should shed your blood. I am going to order that you march out upon the lake of ice, and I shall leave you there to the mercy of the elements.”
The forty wrestlers were stripped and then, falling into columns of four, marched toward the center of the lake of ice. As they marched they broke into the chant of the arena: “Forty wrestlers, wrestling for Thee, O Christ, to win for Thee the victory and from Thee, the victor’s crown!” Through the long hours of the night Vespasian stood by his campfire and watched. As he waited through the long night, there came to him fainter and fainter the wrestlers’ song.
     As morning drew near one figure, overcome by exposure, crept quietly toward the fire; in the extremity of his suffering he had renounced his Lord. Faintly but clearly from the darkness came the song: “Thirty-nine wrestlers, wrestling for Thee, O Christ, to win for Thee the victory and from Thee, the victor’s crown!”
     Vespasian looked at the figure drawing close to the fire. Perhaps he saw eternal light shining there toward the center of the lake. Who can say? But off came his helmet and clothing, and he sprang upon the ice, crying, “Forty wrestlers, wrestling for Thee, O Christ, to win for Thee the victory and from Thee, the victor’s crown!” 

     A test of the genuineness of their faith, a test, not through fire, but through ice, they passed, and they too, on the great day of the revelation of Jesus Christ, will be found to praise, honor, and glory.
     I want to consider then, faith, my faith and yours, as Peter, through the Holy Spirit, explains the role of suffering and trial in our life of faith.  For all of you, through your baptism, are pronounced members of Christ, and if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.  We then, as children of Abraham, are encouraged to walk in that faith of our father Abraham.  Do we have that faith?  Is it real?  What quality is it?  It is testing, going through afflictions and sufferings, through pains and distresses, that the genuineness, and the quality of our faith is established, is revealed and made known both to us, to others, and to our God. 
     My first point then is that God through difficult providences, tests our faith.  Second, that through testing, through the fires of pain, disappointments, petty frustrations, and collapsing plans, God’s objective is to prove, to demonstrate the reality of our faith.  Third the Lord continues, since, as our text so clearly says, that faith is precious in the eyes of our God, he wants it to shine even more splendidly, and like every jewel, although it has great value when dug out of the earth as a lump of rock, its glory and preciousness is increased when it is cut and polished by the grinding wheel of afflictions.  Finally, the apostle indicates that the final purpose of all this is for our Lord Jesus to display our faith for praise, honor, and glory at his appearing, when he returns.
     This passage began, as we considered earlier, with three great truths on which we build our faith:  First, that our God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, has begotten us to a living hope.  We have been born of God.  Second, that as children of God, we are heirs of grace, we have an inheritance, and that inheritance is inviolate, it cannot be touched by man, it cannot be stolen, it is reserved, set aside particularly for us in heaven, where Christ Jesus guards it.  Third, our God promises that he will infallibly, unfailingly bring us and our inheritance together.  So he not only preserves our inheritance, but he preserves us by his power, the power that raised Christ Jesus our Lord from the dead.
     In the following verse, verse 6, Peter addresses what seems to be a contradiction, that is, that the Christian, filled with hope, filled with joy at the great and precious promises we have in Christ, should also endure heaviness, pain, sorrow and trouble.  It is an anomaly, a paradox, yet the Holy Spirit assures us that joy and grief are intertwined in the Christian walk.  At the same time let us always be assured, and always comfort ourselves with this, that although we sometimes bear the grievous consequences of some of our sins, we never bear the punishment for them.  What we receive from God we receive from a Father who loves us, and a Father who has totally exhausted his judgment against our sins through the d
eath of his own beloved Son on the cross.  He never punishes his children, and we and his children should banish any thought that Jesus left over any punishment for us to bear.
     Those blessed verses in John 15 tell us that our heavenly Father prunes us, and he prunes us because we are branches in the true vine, Jesus Christ.  Vines are pruned to produce more fruit.  When you see the grape vines pruned during the summer, you will never see those who prune wandering off into the sagebrush and pruning those bushes; because they produce nothing.
     So now in our text St. Peter leads us through God’s plan and purpose for our grief, our sufferings and trials, our tests and pains.  “That the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
     First then, our faith will be tested.  We are the pilgrims Peter talks about in the first verses of this chapter.  We are going somewhere.  Our life is one of progress.  And that progress is the progress of faith.  From faith to faith.  For the just shall live by faith.
     This is what growth is all about.  The entire life of a child, raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, is periodically subjected to testing.  Have they really learned their English, their history, their science and geography?  We give them tests.  These tests mark their progress.  They are growing up, and both their teachers, and they themselves need to know where they are and how they have grown, intellectually not only, but physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
     So let’s remember that God applies tests to us all.  God began with Adam, for what God said to Adam about eating in the garden and not eating from that one tree was a test of faith.  Would Adam and Eve believe God, would they have faith in what God said?  That first Adam failed, but praise be to the Lord, he wasn’t the last Adam.
     God tested Noah.  Would he believe that a flood was coming?  Would he obey God even though it meant hard labor and listening to the ribald and mocking comments of his neighbors?  By faith, Noah build an ark. . .God tested Abraham.  “To your descendents I will give this land,” said God.  But Abraham had no descendents, and both he and Sarah had to walk through the land for 25 years until their bodies were so dead descendents were out of the question.  But Abraham believed, and so brought forth Isaac.  So Abraham, after passing one test is given a harder one. . .but Abraham passed that test.  I think some of the most stirring words in the Bible are these: “and Abraham rose early in the morning.”  Abraham instantly set out to obey God.
     God tested Gideon, who went out with 32,000 men to fight over 135,000 Midianites.  God reduced his forces to 10,000.  Still too many.  Finally Gideon had only 300 men.  God tested his faith.
     And so we could trace the life of all the men and women God used with great effect, those whom he commissioned to achieve great purposes, and find that all of them were tested.  Look at Joseph, and David, and Daniel.  All of them had to go through times of testing.  Those tests were not easy.  For you see, there is always a false gospel ready at hand to convince you that trials and testing, pains and fears, sicknesses and disappointments should not really be part of the Christian life.  And then these false prophets have the audacity to suggest that you have these simply because you don’t have enough faith.  If you had enough faith, they say, you would be healthy, wealthy and wise.  But one word is sufficient to slay them.  Look to Jesus the first runner and first finisher of the course, the life of faith.  Look what he endured.
     For our identity with Christ, our union with him, is proven, is established beyond a doubt through trials and afflictions.  They hated me, said Christ, they will hate you.  They persecuted me, they will persecute you.  I endured hunger, sleeplessness, weariness, and so will you.  A disciple is not greater than his master.  And so when the apostles were beaten, were grimacing with pain as they returned home, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for his name’s sake.  Suffering, trials, testing were badges of identity, they proclaimed that they were members of Christ, and so we must see our sufferings, tests, and trials.
     I know. . .I know. . .there are times when we want to say to the Lord, “Dear Lord, give me a break.  You seem to pile one thing on top of another, and my hopes are smashed into fears for the next thing you seem to have lined up for me.”  We may feel like the children of Israel when first Moses proclaimed the hope of deliverance from slavery.  What happened?  Things got worse.  But we know the end of the Lord, how he is merciful, and looks with pity on the sufferings of his children, and has wonderful purposes in mind for us.
     For our faith is proven.  The word genuineness means that the result of the testing is to prove that we really are children of God, that God is faithful, who will never test us without providing a means of passing that test, or as the apostle Paul writes, will with the trial, also provide a means of escape.  For God means to show us, to make plain to us, that we really do have faith, and that that gift of faith, he too preserves through testing.
     It is through battles and challenges that the soldier is proven to be capable of great deeds.  It is through struggle and hardship, that our character is proven capable of overcoming.  St. Peter describes the genuineness of our faith as more precious than gold.  Peter is relating not just his own opinion, but the attitude of our heavenly Father towards our faith.  God himself sees our faith as precious.  And he wants us to know that it is precious as well.
     You remember when Abraham offered up Isaac, the Lord said to him, “Now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”  But didn’t God know already?  Of course he did, but how wonderful that he should talk that way, and he talks that way about you and me too.  That is why David would say so often, “Try me Lord, and know my thoughts, search me, and see if there is any evil way in me.  And lead me in the way everlasting.”
     David is saying. . .set me in front of your x-ray machine, Lord, and examine me thoroughly.  Give me a CAT scan, an MRI, look into my soul, search out every hidden thought and motive.  Test me.  Try me.  And so the Lord did try David, and what David did is what we perhaps do sometimes.  David failed a couple of times.  And so we too have to say sometimes, “But Lord, I didn’t pass that test.  What now?  What do I do now?  Am I disqualified now?  Is it over?”  No. . .it is not over.  What remains to be done?  Repentance and faith; that is the gospel.  The good news is. . .and the Lord said the David, “No, you shall not die.  But your son will die.”
     So he said to David.  But God didn’t just have the little baby that was born to Bathsheba in mind, God had a later Son of David in mind, our Lord Jesus Christ.  For his faith brought him to the cross, where he paid for the failures of David, and for your failures and mine.  And when we through
and in the midst of our failures, look to the cross as the ultimate foundation of our faith, our faith lives, and our faith is triumphant.
     This same apostle who wrote our text, is the one who thought his faith would never fail.  But Jesus warned him, and at the same time said, “Peter, I have prayed for you that your faith fail not.”  But it seemed that it did, for he denied Christ.  Yet. . .yet. . .he returning to Christ his faith was proved genuine, precious, and being refined in the fires of failure and faith, he was commissioned to strengthen others, and to feed the sheep and lambs of the flock of Christ.  For our Lord Jesus tests and tries us that we may be refined, polished.
     My dear younger brother at one time was a rock-hound.  He looked for agates.  When he found them, they were pretty, but they were dull and to most people they just looked like another stone.  But he would put them in a tumbler, a little barrel filled with water and abrasive compounds, and for days and days that little barrel would turn round and round, with the sharp sand rubbing against those agates.  Finally, when it was all over, the agates would come out all brilliant and beautiful, with all the hidden colors and beauties exposed.  And that is what God is doing for us.  He has placed virtues and beauties in our character that we would never know, nor would those strengths and beauties of character be ever a blessing and joy to others, were it not that the Lord brought them out, exposed them, revealed their depths through pains, heartaches, and suffering.
     The same is true for the refining process, isn’t it?  This land, it seems to me, is filled with rocks.  They are interesting, but there is really no reason to put them into a furnace and melt them, is there.  What would come out?  Melted rock.  So what?
     But, when you have reason to believe some rocks have gold in them, then you should set up a furnace, and put those rocks in that furnace.  Heat it up, and when the rock melts, all that is worthless can be skimmed off, leaving the gold.  In order for the gold to be pure, without any mixture of other materials, it is often put back again and again into the furnace.  The Bible speaks of gold being refined seven times.
     So let’s remember again, that just as when we talk about testing, God’s purpose is not our failure, but our success.  He gives us tests to pass them.  His desire is to say, “Now I know, and I want you to know too, that you have faith.”  “Be faithful to death and I will give you the crown of life.”
     Refining. . .the burning away, the blessed presence of our God who, as Hebrews tells us is a consuming fire, but a fire that does not consume us, but consumes our sins, our faults, our failures, and brings to the light the blessed fruits of the Spirit, joy, peace, longsuffering, courage, forgiveness, patience, and love.  But when is it enough?  When will the refining fires be over?  Malachi said that Jesus would come as a refining fire and sit as a refiner of the sons of Levi until they would be able to offer to God a sacrifice of righteousness.  What is righteousness?  Righteousness is defined by Jesus Christ himself, for he is our righteousness.  So how does this fit?  If I may continue that picture of refining gold a little farther, let me tell you that ancient refiners kept at the process with their gold.  Every so often they would look into that molten gold.  Perhaps they would still see streaks of impurities, or brown scum.  That they would still skim off.  Then they would heat up the furnace again.  Finally, if they could look at that pool of molten gold and see their own face reflected perfectly in that pure surface, they would be finished.
     That beloved, is what Jesus is looking for.  He is looking for the reflection of his own face, his own righteousness in you.  Do you remember that gospel song, “Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me, all his wonderful passion and purity, O thou Spirit divine, all my nature refine, till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.”
     For finally, the gold that is you, the reflection of Christ in you, will be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  What does that mean?  That God will have himself, will have his Son admired by all the world by the faith of his saints.  A faith that sometimes faltered, and even a faith that sometimes even seemed to fail, for we do not think of ourselves as great heroes of faith, but a faith that always came back to Jesus Christ, who instead of condemning us, says, “when you have come back to me, go and strengthen your brothers.”  For what an example, what an encouragement to us is the endurance of so many even in this congregation, who endure such pains and suffering, and yet through it, and because of it, give such wonderful testimony of the mercy and grace of our heavenly Father.
     Praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  To that you may look forward.  That is the joy that lies before you too.  For the final design of God in our distress, is the ultimate joy of sharing in the very glory, praise, and honor of God himself.  Praise suggests your relation to the Lord on that day.  He will praise you, “Well done, good and faithful servant.  Enter into the joy of your Lord.”  Honor suggests the esteem in which you will be held by your fellow citizens.  “Here,” says the Lord, “you have been faithful in a few things, I will place you over many things.”  Glory suggests that we will be transfigured into and share in the glory and splendor of the glorified body of Jesus Christ, when this mortal will put on immortality, and this corruptible will put on incorruption, and death will be swallowed up in victory.  Then, as Christ said in Matthew 13, the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
     Let’s wrap it up. . .you may have faith without present trial, but no man ever had faith and was all his life without trial.  Expect trial.  Children.  St. Paul says to you what he says to us all, “We must by much tribulation enter the kingdom of heaven.”  Trial is the very element of faith.  What a fish would be without water, and a bird without air, would be faith without trial.
     Adam the first failed, Adam the last triumphed, and his triumph is ours.  In all our testing, in the trials God sends to prove the genuineness of our faith, we hold dear to ourselves, we hug tightly, that Jesus Christ is in us, triumphant in all his trials, in all his sufferings, in all his obedience, for, as Scripture says, even he learned obedience through suffering.  And that faith of Christ, that triumphant, winning faith is your faith.  For where we are now, the point in our service of covenant renewal, is where Christ gives himself to you, his body, his blood, his all.  He finally is the genuineness of your faith, he is your praise, honor, and glory.  And so, beloved, through all the trials and tribulations, through all the grief and sorrow, the pain and disappointment, the weariness and suffering, you have him in you, and you may hug, not just the thought, but the reality, for by faith what you will receive is Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Sermon by Rev. Donald Van Dyken
Trinity Church of Tri-Cities
November 9, 2008

THE LONG WAR AGAINST GOD

Scripture: Psalm 2
Text: Psalm 2:1-3

     In 1963 the Rt. Rev. John A.T. Robinson, Anglican Bishop of Woolrich, England, wrote a book called, “Honest to God,” and in it called for an outlawing of the word God “for at least a generation.”  He went on to say that in the space age “men can no longer credit the existence of God as a supernatural person.”
     That theology in the 60’s was called the “death-of-God theology,” and in some degree followed that German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche.  You perhaps recall the joke that went around in those days.  On the walls of a New York subway someone scrawled the words, “God is dead.”  Signed, Nietzsche.  The next day another sentence was added, “Nietzsche is dead.”  Signed God.  The recent elections may give some reason to think that the animosity against the church and true religion will ramp up.  And we need to see that ultimately all opposition against morality and against the church is conflict with the Almighty.
     In Psalm 2 the Holy Spirit shares several perspectives on this for your peace of mind, for He is the great Comforter.  He has arranged this Psalm in four parts, and today and in the weeks to come, I want to open up to you the view outlined in those four parts.
     Part one is verses 1-3, and those verses are the heavenly analysis of what is happening here on earth.  This is the anatomy of a revolution, a revolt against Jehovah and against His Anointed, His chosen one and ones.
     Part two, verses 4-6, take us to heaven to see and hear how the Almighty responds to all this commotion.  We will see that He responds in four ways: first, He responds emotionally, for He laughs at them.  Second, He responds vocally, He speaks to them.  Third, He answers in action, “He will distress them in His sore displeasure.”  The RSV says, “terrify them.”  Fourth, He enters the scene, setting His King on His holy hill of Zion.
     Part three, verses 7-9, take us back to earth, where the King whom the Almighty placed on Mount Zion makes His terrifying decree, the revelation of the promised cosmic conquest of the Son of the almighty.
     Part four, verses 10-12, continue on earth, this time with the church proclaiming the great gospel of the Kingdom of Christ, and urging men everywhere to come to terms with this King.
     Today I want to preach the first three verses under the theme: The Long War Against God.  Why do the heathen rage and the peoples plot a vain thing.  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed saying, “Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.”
     Let’s work backwards a minute and first ask the question, what does the Holy Spirit mean by “break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us?”  There are several ways we can see this.  First, if we look at the word “bonds” we see it can be closely related to “covenant,” or relationship.  Man finds himself in relation to God his Creator, and God his judge and lawgiver.  Instead of owning his allegiance, his loyalty and obedience to the one true God, he makes idols for himself, idols that are images of himself, for man will finally be his own God.  And to do that he must satisfy himself that he has broken the bonds of the creature/Creator relationship.
     Man finds himself in relation to other, bound to others, because God made him in covenant with others.  He will murder his brother, for he refuses to see that he is his brother’s keeper, for God has created him in relation to others.  He continues to break the laws of God, to cast away the cords that restrain his nature.  So the heathen rage, venting their rage against God by the violence described in the pre-flood world, a violence, a violating of the image of God, man.
     Two things then become clear: The nations rage and plot, the kings and rulers sit around in their throne rooms and by their campfires making elaborate plans to cut off their relation to the Almighty, and to take the cords of the law of God and scatter the broken pieces to the four winds.  Through idolatry and violence then, they take the ten words of the covenant, smash them and spit on them.  God’s four commands in the first table outline what should be their relation to Him, and the six commands in the second table, how they should treat the image of God, their neighbor.  But they continually devise more ways to shatter these bonds and cords.  Any conspiracy against the laws of God is a conspiracy against God Himself.  Any violation of the image of God in man is a violation of God Himself.
     One final and very important fact we should not in these verses, is that this revolution of peoples and kings is, as I just said, against God, but not only against God, but against His anointed.  Verse two says that this revolt is against “the Lord and against His anointed.”  The Lord’s anointed.  From our knowledge of David, who probably wrote this Psalm, we understand that this word “anointed” refers to the king God appointed to represent Himself in rule and leadership.
     The word “anointed” in our English use of the original Hebrew word is “Messiah.”  So we may read verse 2 like this, “The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Messiah.”  That immediately takes us to Jesus, doesn’t it?  For He is the true Messiah, the anointed of God.  Jesus, who is called the Christ.  For Christ is the way we pronounce the Greek word for Anointed.  “The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Christ.”
     Let’s go one step farther, and say that this word “anointed” refers to Christ, but in Christ, refers to all of God’s people.  Those, who war against the people of God war against God Himself.  For God has taken His people into covenant with Himself in Jesus Christ, and since God and His people then are one, those who revile the Israel of God have to contend, are contending with God Himself.  We will see that shortly.
     I want to divide the next things I say into two time areas, pre-ascension and post-ascension, that is, some examples of those who raged and plotted against the Lord and His anointed before the ascension of Jesus Christ to the great throne of David, and some of those who raged and plotted against Him after His ascension.
     If we think of David as the human author of this Psalm there was certainly enough in his experience to cause him to write these words.  From his earliest years, of course, he was the anointed of God.  The record will show that everyone knew that God had appointed David as king, even when Saul still held the throne.  Yet for so much of his life, both before he was crowned by Israel, and after, David had to contend with those who fought against him.  Saul was his deadly adversary so many years.  When he came into the kingship, the old enemies of Israel, the Philistines, gathered twice to fight against David.  The Moabites and the Edomites fought against him.  The Syrians and the Ammoni
tes conspired against him.
     The contest that brought everything into sharp focus though, came early in David’s life, and that was his battle with Goliath.  On a bright spring morning three thousand years ago, the sun was rising over the Valley of Elah in southern Judea.  The armies of the Philistines stood rank on the western hills overlooking the valley, and the troops of Israel on the eastern hills.  Into the camp of Israel came a young man looking for his brothers.  And while he was walking about, down into the valley there strode this tremendous giant, bawling out defiance to the armies of Israel.  The young man said, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy armies of the living God.  Let me fight with him.” 
     So as David approached Goliath, David said, “I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, who you have defied.”  Notice here, carefully, for David recognized that God identified Himself with a people, even though this people were a cowardly assembly.  Israel was the chosen and anointed people of God, and those who defied Israel defied the God of Israel.
     David remembered history, the history of God’s identification with Israel.  God had identified Himself with this nation 500 years earlier when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt.  God came to Pharaoh and said, “Israel is my son, my first-born.  Let my son go that he may serve me.”  But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord that I should listen to Him.  I do not know Him.”  “Oh,” said the Lord, “you will know me alright.  Now, if you do not listen to me, I will destroy you and your country with great plagues.”
     So, by the hand of His anointed, by the hand of Moses, God ten times commanded Pharaoh to let his people go.  Ten times he brought great punishments, and yet ten times Pharaoh battled against God, refusing to submit, refusing to allow God’s word to bind him, and insanely battering himself against the Lord and against His anointed.
     Fast forward 800 years.  Remember Sennacherib the Assyrian king.  Assyria had destroyed the ten tribes of Israel, carried all their people into captivity, and now Sennacherib led the Assyria armies against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.  God-fearing Hezekiah was king.  Sennacherib sent his general Rabshakeh and laid siege to Jerusalem with a great army.  The general called out to the men on the wall saying, “Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “The Lord will deliver us.”  Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria?”
     So Hezekiah sent to Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Pray for us.  It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, who his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God.”  The war against Israel was a war against the living God.
     Forward 150 years, Nebuchadnezzar, the great king of Babylon, is described by Isaiah: “You said in your heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.”  This is the man who boasted in his god Marduk, who by his power had destroyed the kingdom of the God of Israel in Judah and Jerusalem, burning the temple of the Lord with fire, and cutting off the manhood of the sons of David, the anointed of God.
     “The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed. . .”
     Another empire that clashed with God’s people – the Persian, and you will remember this from the book of Esther.  “Let a decree be written that they [that is the Jews] may be destroyed,” said Haman.  In his envy and fury against Mordecai and against all the Jews, he gave orders to annihilate the entire nation of Israel throughout the entire empire of Persia and to hang Mordecai on gallows 75 feet tall he had made in his own back yard.
     You have probably noticed that I have not told how each of these stories ended; that will come next week.  Now my purpose is to show the continual war against the Most High, and that this war against God was always a war against His anointed person and His anointed people.
     The long war against God came to a climax in the trial and death of Jesus Christ, for after the resurrection and ascension, the apostles prayed in this fashion, “So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, “who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: ‘Why did the nations rage, and the people plot vain things?  The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the LORD and against His Christ.’ “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together “to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.” (Acts 4:24-28 NKJV)
     After the apostles were again arrested, and the rulers were plotting against them, Gamaliel arose and cautioned them, that they could be fighting against God here.  And of course, so they were.  Again, those who fight against the people of God are fighting against Christ, the anointed one, and against Almighty God Himself.
     The same is true about Saul of Tarsus, who in his misplaced zeal, was found to be fighting against Jesus Christ Himself, as it was blindingly shown to him on the road to Damascus.  And as the book of Acts continues, it becomes all too clear that Satan used the Jews throughout the Roman empire to obstruct, to oppose the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Just as the Jews incited Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, to crucify Jesus Christ, so as the apostles preached the gospel in all the cities of the Roman empire, the Jews incited the Romans to view this kingdom of Jesus Christ as a threat to their imperial majesty.
     The Romans arrested Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, a direct pupil of the Apostle John, in his 86th year and brought him before the Roman magistrate.  He had refused to give worship to Caesar.  The magistrate was a kind man really, and as he saw this gentle church father in danger of his life, he pleaded with him.  “Just say, ‘Caesar is Lord’.  You don’t have to mean it, just say the words.  Then you can worship Christ all you want.”  Polycarp refused and they burned him alive.  There must be no threat to the supremacy of the state; the state is god.
     You need to understand that ever since Octavian became emperor just before the birth of Christ, all emperors took to themselves the title “augustus”, and that meant revered.  So the cult of emperor worship began, and throughout the empire all religions were tolerated, provided that everyone, no matter what his religious belief, would show homage to Augustus Caesar every year, offering a sacrifice and saying, “Caesar is Lord.”  But Christians would not do that or say that, for Jesus Christ was their only sacrifice and their only Lord.
     As Chris Schlect informed us at the History Conference, the Roman Empire’s last, largest, and bloodiest persecution of Christians, of the church, of the body of Jesus Christ Himself, took place under the emperor Diocletian.  From 303 to 311 Diocletian fueled the rage against the Lord and against His
anointed, against His Christ, against Christians.  It all started in 302 in Antioch where Diocletian ordered the Deacon Romanus of Caesarea to have his tongue removed for interrupting the official emperor sacrifices.  On the saints’ calendar in my study Romanus is listed as martyred on November 18, AD304.
     The Roman empire was starting to fall apart and Diocletian needed to take remedial measures.  He argued that forbidding Christians from the bureaucracy and the military would appease the gods.  His son-in-law Galarius pressed for the extermination of the Christians.  They applied for advice from the oracle of Apollo, and the answer of the oracle was that, quote, “the just on earth hindered Apollo’s ability to provide advice.”  Members of Diocletian’s court said that the “just on earth” could only refer to Christians, and that  began the universal persecution of the church. 
     In Spain, two monumental pillars were raised, on which were written: “Diocletian Jovian Maximian Herculeus Caesares Augusti, for having extended the Roman Empire in the east and the west, and for having extinguished the name of Christians, who brought the Republic to ruin.”  And on the second monument: “Diocletian Jovian Maximian Herculeus Caesares Augusti, for having adopted Galerius in the east, for having everywhere abolished the superstition of Christ, for having extended the worship of the gods.”
     “Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing?  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.’” (Ps.2:1-3 NKJV)
     Let me explain one last attempt of imperial Rome to snuff out the light of the gospel, to extinguish the church, to remove Christ from His throne. 
     Flavius Claudius Julianus was born in AD331 of Christian parents.  His later writings show that he had a detailed knowledge of the Scriptures.  In AD 360 he became emperor, and took various measures to restore the lost strength of the Roman state.  He established Hellenic paganism as the state religion.  He recognized that since the physical persecution of Christians had actually strengthened them, he took actions designed to harass them.  He made laws that targeted wealthy and educated Christians to drive them from ruling positions.  He restored pagan temples.  In 362 he proclaimed an edict to guarantee freedom of religion, having as its purpose to restore paganism at the expense of Christendom.
     In an attempt to remove some of the power of the many Christian schools throughout the empire, he decreed that all teachers had to be approved by the emperor.  He tried to bring Christian charities under his control, because said he, “These impious Galileans not only feed their own poor, but ours also; welcoming them. . .they attract them. . .”  Julian the Apostate, as he is known in history, died in battle in AD 363, and said with his dying breath. . .oh, that’s for the next week.
     The long war against the Lord and against His anointed continued.  See the rage of Philip II of Spain, declaring in secret correspondence in the 16th century that he would wipe out the Reformed faith from the Low Countries, the Netherlands and Belgium even if it meant that every man, woman, and child would be put to death.  And sending the cruel Duke of Alva with his mercenaries, he went a long way toward achieving his goal.  In his campaign to exterminate the faith there, Phillip, killed by burning, drowning, hanging and burying alive an estimated 50,000 Christians.
     The long war against the Lord and against His Christ.  Fast forward to the 18th century and the French revolution.  1792 was counted as year one of the Republic.  Some historians list that period as the de-Christianization of France.  It involved deportation of clergy and condemnation of many to death, closing, desecration and pillaging of churches.  Removal of word “saint” from street names.  Destruction of crosses, bells. . .large-scale destruction of religious monuments.  Outlawing of public and private worship and religious education. 
     A law passed on October 21, 1792 made all suspected priests and all persons who harbored them liable to death on sight.  There was a celebration of the goddess Reason in Notre Dame Cathedral on November 10, 1793, and since the Lord was so untidy, so unscientific, the French changed the calendar.  Henceforth the week was to have ten days, not seven, and the day to have 10 hours, not twelve.
     The long war against the Lord and against His Christ.  Why is it that these atheistic regimes, the French republic under Maximilien Robespierre, the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin, shed rivers of blood, killed thousands and millions of their own people.  Why?  Because in their rage against the Lord and against His Christ, they need to destroy the image of God.
     And that brings us to this year of our Lord, 2008, and this public gathering of the Church of Jesus Christ, reaffirming our allegiance to one God and Father, and one Lord, Jesus Christ.  We affirm this over against what seems to be the allegiance of this country.
     The message of the majority of the electorate in this country is loud and clear: We will not have this Christ to rule over us.  We will continue to insist that our children are taught that there is no such thing as a Creator who made all things, and made all men in His image.  We will continue to squash the unborn image of God in any womb we want.  We will continue to believe that the salvation of this country will come out of Washington DC, whether a Democrat or Republican is president, and whether the House and Senate is controlled by either party.
     Where is the answer to all the problems that vex us; who will save us?  2000 years ago the answer rode through the streets of Jerusalem on a donkey, and the people cried out, “Hosanna,” to Jesus Christ.  Do you know what the word “hosanna” means?  It means, “Save now.”  Yet this was the same cry the Romans made to their emperor; the cry Rome ordered them to make.  That cry was, “Hail, Caesar.”  “Save now, Caesar.”  Hail Caesar.  And in 1935 that cry again surfaced, this time in Germany with the cry, “Heil Hitler.”  Save now!
     Under the guise of all the religious talk during the recent political campaigns, the underlying premise is the promise to satisfy the cry to the supremacy of the state, “Hail, save now.”  But we are gathered here this morning to declare that the Lord and His Christ have said that salvation comes out of Zion, not out of Washington or our of the UN.  We are here to declare that abortion, euthanasia, evolution, and any requirement for supreme allegiance to the state just continues the long war against the Lord and against His Christ.
     We are here to declare another King, one Jesus.  We are here to declare that every battle in the long war against the Lord and against His Christ has always ended with the Lord’s anointed standing on top of the fallen body of Goliath, holding up his bloody severed head as a trophy of victory.
     We are here before this blessed table, waiting for the Lord and His Anointed, Jesus Christ, to again identify us as anointed ones, Christians, declaring that this Christ against whom all the battles are raged and waged, has died and risen, that we
as Christians, partaking of Him have also died and risen.
     So the Lord will send you forth from here to declare to the world, to the heathen, to kings and rulers, that in all their plots and counsels, in all their rage and schemes to break their accountability to the Lord, to trample on His laws and commandments, is a war against the Lord and against His Christ.
     The Lord will send you forth to bring this great and good message: Kiss the Son, worship Him, honor Him, from whom alone salvation comes.  Honor His great and good laws.  For we solemnly testify the blessedness, the happiness, of all those who put their trust in Him.
Amen

The ladies of the church are invited to a

 

Shower-Brunch

celebrating the birth of

 

Gentry Nadine VanDyken

 

Saturday, January 3, 2009

10:30 a.m.

At the Craig Swanson residence

Please RSVP 509-967-1039 or swanee4thebirds@clearwire.net

Sermon by Rev. Donald Van Dyken

Trinity Church of Tri-Cities

October 19, 2008

OVERCOMING BY THE LAMB

Scripture: Revelation 12

An early saying in the Latin church of our fathers was this, In hoc signo vinces, “in this sign conquer.” That sign was the sign of the cross, and a more unlikely symbol of conquest could never be imagined. The cross was an emblem of shame and degradation, for it was reserved for the hanging of the lowest of criminals. That sign of the cross came into a world where the reigning military and political power was Rome, where the reigning intellectual power was Greece, where the reigning moral power was of the Jews.

Over against that, Paul proclaimed to the Romans that the gospel of the cross was the power of God for salvation to all who believed. He proclaimed to the Corinthian Greeks that although the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the preaching of the cross to save those who believe. He proclaimed to the Jews that the righteousness of God was demonstrated in the death of Christ. Today, 2000 years later, it is still the gospel of the cross of Christ, the blood of the Lamb slain, that is the conquering power of God for salvation for us and for our children. In the power of that blood salvation, he calls us to be conquerors, to be overcomers.

Here are the words of our text this morning: “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” This text speaks about our brethren, mentioned in verse 10, those who had been accused by the great accuser, that great dragon, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan. This text then comforts us, that we may know that our conquest of that old enemy of our souls, will be by the blood of the Lamb as well, by the word of our testimony, and by the sacrifice of our lives on the alter of service to our King.

My theme is Overcoming by the Lamb.

Following our text we first see that our overcoming is:. . .

First: by His blood.

Second: by our testimony.

Third: by confirming our testimony with our lives.First then, our overcoming is by the blood of the Lamb. It is a fact often overlooked that you will never begin to understand this last book of the Bible if you don’t understand the first book of the Bible. For who is this great serpent who is our great adversary, the one who makes war with the offspring of the woman, see verse 17, but that great old serpent of Genesis 3, who began war against our mother Eve in the Garden of Eden. . .seduced her and plunged her and all her children into captivity. Who is that great serpent, but the one to whom God said in Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you will bruise his heel.”

The great battle that engages you and your children is the great battle God established between the Seed of the woman and the serpent. This book of Revelation is about that great battle. But that great battle began at the dawn of our fallen history, or more correctly, our redemptive history, as we have seen in the first book of the Bible, and it continued throughout the pages of the Old Testament.

That great battle continued, as Egypt, that old serpent of the Nile, that loathsome crocodile enslaved our fathers. That great battle continued in earnest, as the Lord brought the Mediator of the Old Covenant, Moses, into the fight. That great battle convulsed the land of the Serpent, when God brought those ten great plagues against Pharaoh and Egypt.

That terrible war came to a climax as the angel of death swooped down bringing terror upon all the land, entering into houses and palaces, into barns and kennels, and killing all the first born of the land. That great battle entered into the nation of our fathers, for in all the houses of our fathers there was blood and death. But instead of the death of the first born, a lamb was slaughtered for every home. The fathers of our fathers took the blood of the lamb and painted the doorposts and lintels of their homes. Through the blood of the lamb, through the death of the lamb there was victory over death and the dragon. A more startling development could not be imagined. Israel conquered Egypt, conquered death itself, bested the great dragon in the battle, not by might, nor by power, but by the blood of the lamb. The lamb against the dragon, the weak against the strong, innocent against the vile. Yet, victory, overcoming. So our fathers marched out of the land of the dragon with their armies under the blood-red-banner they danced and sang the song of triumph on the farther shore of the Red Sea, looking on the corpse of that old dragon Egypt, cast up on the shore.

Listen: “Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and spoke, saying: ‘I will sing to the LORD, For He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea! The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will exalt Him. The LORD is a man of war; The LORD is His name. Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea; His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them; they sank to the bottom like a stone.” (Ex. 15:1-5)

So the nation of Israel was born under the blood of the Lamb. So the nation of our fathers came into their birthright, the Israel of God. So God gave victorious content to that name, Israel, for this name itself means “overcomers.” Through the blood of the Lamb they had become what they were, overcomers, those who triumphed over the dragon.

All this was, of course, real, and at the same time, a rehearsal of what was to come. For that great dragon continued to assault our fathers, kept on his mighty accusations, and entangled our fathers in the coils of his deception over and over again. When would deliverance come? Who would fight this great battle against this old Serpent? Where was the great Seed of the woman who would crush this old dragon? When Jesus came into the world, John the Baptist announced his coming with these words, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” “For this purpose,” said the apostle John in 1 John 3:8, “the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” What are the works of the devil?

The works of the devil are the sins he works in us and through us. The work of the devil is to bring accusation against us before the throne of God. The work of the devil is to make us doubt the power and promises of God when we are sick or unemployed. The works of the devil is the captivity in which he holds the human race. The work of the devil is to take every beautiful creation of God and make it vile; to turn marriage into a snot-barrel of homosexual perversion, to take the loveliness of an unborn child and tear it into bleeding shreds. The work of the devil is to convince man that he is god, a god who rules the economy and even the weather. So, when the weather breaks into uncontrollable hurricanes and storms, the roar of the wind and waves is the sound of your God laughing at the seed of the serpent. When control of the world economy slips from the hands of man, the Lamb on the throne chuckles, for the Seed of the woman reigns.

This is the Lamb of God, whose conquest against Satan was to take the sins of His people upon Himself, and offer Himself as a Lamb, without blemish, before the throne of God. This is the Lamb of God, whose blood freed all the children of God from the slavery of that old dragon, from the Egypt of this world, from death itself.

This is the blood of the Lamb, the blood-red banner, the ensign under which the apostles went into the world, bringing liberation and life into the homes of Gentile and Jew. This is the blood-red banner of the cross, carried by the rider on the white horse, going forth conquering and to conquer. This is the Lamb of God, the blood of the Lamb, by which all those countless men, women, and children of the past 2000 years, have overcome the dragon.

To you too, today is given this Lamb of God, this blood of the Lamb. To you, fathers, this blood is given to paint upon the doorposts of your houses, for you and for your children. To you is given the victory that overcomes the world. You are the Israel of God, born of God through the victory of the blood of the Lamb. This is what the apostle John said in 1 John 4:4, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome, HAVE OVERCOME, them, because greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world.” “And this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” (1 John 5:4,5) This is where we begin, Israel overcomers. This is our birth as a people, through the victory of the blood of the Lamb. This is what we must believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the Lamb, slain before the foundation of the world, whose blood gives us the victory. Just as God said of Israel as they stood on the shores of the Red Sea under the blood-red banner of the Lamb, “And they believed the Lord and His servant Moses.” From here we continue with our testimony. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.Second, by the word of our testimony. We need to return for a minute to our fathers coming out of the land of Egypt. They were the Israel of God. Through the blood of the Lamb they had overcome that scaly dragon Egypt, and were victorious. Now God called them to continue on in that victory. He had given them birth as a nation through the victory of the blood of the Lamb, now He called them to continue in that victory, to continue to live out the name He had given them, Israel, overcomers. They were to roll on under the blood into the land of Canaan and conquer.

It was to be their testimony of God’s great victory through the Lamb that was to strike fear into the hearts of all their enemies. It was to be their testimony, their confession, their faith in the great work of God that gave them birth that was to paralyze their enemies. And it did.

Listen to Rahab, one of the Canaanites living in that great fortress of Jericho: She “said to the men (two spies Joshua had sent): “I know that the LORD has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. “For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sithon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath.” Joshua 2:9-11)

But it was their failure to keep the faith that caused them to become faint hearted in the wilderness, refusing to enter into combat with Canaan, refusing to live out their name of overcomers. Yet, under Joshua, when their children did believe, there was not a foe who could stand against them. They were the Israel of God, overcomers in name, overcomers in deed.

To this battle God calls you and me today. To this future the overcoming Christ, the new and eternal Joshua, leads us today. Under this blood-red banner of the cross, under the blood of the Lamb, God calls us to conquest. We are overcomers in Christ, we are to be overcomers in Christ. But only by believing, only by trusting, only by faith in that victory already accomplished, in that dragon already crushed, in that serpent whose fangs have already been pulled from his mouth, can we continue as overcomers.

The apostle John, who wrote this book of Revelation, also wrote three epistles. In the first, as I have already quoted, he speaks even to little children and young men as those who HAVE overcome. “I have written to you young men because you have overcome the wicked one.” (1 John 2:13) “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them.” And at the same time, in Revelation 2 and 3, this same John records the words of Christ saying seven times, “To him who overcomes. . .”

We are then, as Israel of old, those who have overcome, and those who must yet overcome. But out present overcoming will only come because of the past overcoming. And our present overcoming will only be accomplished through the word of our testimony. What is the word of our testimony? The word of our testimony, of our confession, of our profession, is our faith. Our faith must be an expressed faith, a faith in the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all our sins and leaves not a single accusation in the mouth of the old serpent.

Our faith must be our testimony, our expressed confidence that through the blood of the Lamb alone we win our victories. “I can do all things,” said Paul, “through Christ who strengthens me.” Our conquest is through our testimony of the blood of the Lamb that alone brings victory and conquest against all the forces of the serpent, against sin, against death, against unbelief and hardness of heart, against wickedness in high places and low places.

Our conquest is through our testimony. When we face sin in our children, in ourselves, in the church, in the world, what is our testimony? What do we say? How do we fight? What words do we use? What alone is the power to conquer sin? What is our testimony? Does the testimony of the blood of the Lamb enter at all into the words we speak when we deal with our children’s sins, when we struggle against our own sins, when we face the difficult challenges in the church and in the world?

Are the words of Paul who said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” To me first, and also to my children, to my brothers, to my neighbors, to the governor of this state.

Is the story of David and Goliath merely a stirring narrative of entertainment to us, or do we remember that through David’s testimony he stood on the neck of that giant? We have overcome by the blood of the Lamb. We are to overcome by the word of our testimony. We are to overcome through a faith that remains constant that through the foolishness of the word of the cross alone, under the blood-red banner of the Lamb slain, we will live out the reality of our name, Israel, overcomers. “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”

Finally, and this is my last point, they did not love their lives to the death. In this great battle, above all things, we remember that him, who as Hebrews says, has the power of death, that is the devil, has been conquered by the death of the Lamb of God. The blood-red sea of this Lamb’s blood has drowned this Pharaoh dragon, and his sting is gone forever.

“Be faithful unto death,” says the Lamb of God, our Savior, “and I will give you the crown of life.” In this battle Christ calls us to follow Him, taking the cross upon our shoulders, not merely wearing a cross hanging from a necklace around our neck, but laying down our lives in service to Christ and to this army of Christ. In this battle, in this call to overcome, Christ calls us to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service. In this battle Christ tells us that those who would save their lives will lose them, but those who lose their lives for His sake and for the gospel’s sake will find them. That seems so contradictory, that life comes through death, that we gain by losing. But that is the meaning of the cross, isn’t it? There are some well-meaning, and I can say beloved, fellow Christians who somehow have been convinced, I think by the lie of the devil, that Jesus really somehow failed in His mission to save Israel. That somehow His death on the cross was evidence that He failed to redeem Israel. And therefore He is going to return someday to set up His kingdom in present day Israel to take up His mission again, this time with success.

Well, if that is one’s view of Christ’s death on the cross, then of course, then all our own tragedies, all the catastrophes that fall upon us are simply failures. If we are poor, we are second-rate Christians. If we struggle with ill health, we are not overcomers but losers. If we die before old age, we must have lost our grip on Christian living. But that’s not the gospel.

Here is the testimony of a faithful servant of the cross, St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 12: “most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor. 12:9-10)

Here is the gospel shout of victory: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: For Your sake we are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Romans 8:35-37)

In this battle Christ calls us to live out our testimony, that we are not our own, but we have been bought with a price, we belong, in life or in death, to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who with His precious blood has delivered us from all the power of the devil, and preserves us in the life He has bought with His blood. We live because of Him who died. We die because of Him who lives. Although we hate to die, although the idea of giving up our lives is terrible to us, we know that the greatest victory in all the world came through the One who gave His life, who offered Himself up to death. The cardinal principle then of our life of conquest is that conquest is through the offering up of our lives, because our life came from the death of Christ.

We conquer under the sign of death, the death of the cross. We will overcome, and the cause of Christ has overcome and will overcome through Christians, followers of the cross, the armies marching under the blood-red banner of the Lamb, who know that through their death they obtain victory.

What then becomes of our petty selfishness, our complaints of sacrifice and discomfort in service to Christ our King? What then becomes of all the little things that we let stand in the way of our giving of ourselves for the cause of Christ and His church? How close do we come to this: “And they did not love their lives to the death?”

We return in this sacrament of Holy Communion to the blood of the Lamb. We celebrate again the great victory that defeated the dragon, that cast him out of heaven, that broke his grip on our souls, that delivered us from death itself. We celebrate the death of Christ, the blood of the Lamb. We return to the only word of testimony that carries us on to overcoming, to victory, and that is the blood of the Lamb. We take once again the blood of the Lamb, paint it on our doorposts and carry it in our hearts. We once again unite ourselves in love and devotion to the body that offered itself for our sakes on the cross.

We lift up the wine, the blood of Christ, the sign of victory. We drink that wine, that the blood of Him who overcame by His blood, may be the blood that courses through our arteries, may be the strength that powers us on to valor and victory. In this victory celebration we publicly announce once again the power of the cross.

In this celebration we look with great hope and anticipation to another celebration. This celebration is recorded for us in Revelation as well. For Revelation is the great book of the victory of the Lamb and those who follow this Lamb. Revelation 15:2 “And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God. They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.” Will you be there? May the Father of the Lamb grant that there will not be a single one of you missing on that beautiful day. Amen.

Sermon by Rev. Donald Van Dyken

Trinity Church of Tri-Cities

September 21, 2008

TRIALS AND TESTING

Scripture: James 1

 

Perhaps we, along with most industrious Americans, have gotten comfortable riding on the wave of prosperity. It doesn’t take an economic genius to realize that there is a real possibility that we will experience hard times in the years to come. The dark clouds of unsecured mortgage debt, credit card debt, the balance of payments figure each month ending in the negative, added to our astronomical federal debt, warn of financial hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes to come.

We live in the time between the times. The between the first coming and the return of Jesus Christ. That time began with the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. That time began a new age, the age of grace and life, the beginning of the eternal reign of our victorious King Christ Jesus. . .and as He devotes His unlimited authority in heaven and on earth to the care, preservation, and expansion of His church, we may be confident that He will lead us always to triumph if we but follow His commands. His commands about testing will be the focus of our attention this morning. My text is James 1, inspired by the Spirit of Christ. My theme is TRIALS AND TESTING.

 

1. Have the right mind about them.

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1:2-4) Here Christ encourages us to face life, to face trials and testing with the right frame of mind, with the right attitude. We can have the attitude of defeat, saying, as our children do sometimes, “I know I can’t do it,” which in turn becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Or we can have the attitude of a Paul who said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Have the right mind about trials and testing.

Most Christians are quite familiar with this verse, and actually try to make sorry jokes about it. They say, “I never ask God for patience, for then He’ll test me, send me a hard time.” But this is not to be the attitude of the Christian. (By the way, we should be very careful that we don’t use the material inspired by the Holy Spirit to make jokes.)

Christ tells us that we are to count it all joy when we fall into various trials. Such a command should not face us as a surprise coming from our Savior, for truly He told us before that those who follow Him may expect tribulation, hard experiences, difficult times, when He said, “Whoever will follow me must deny himself, and take up his cross.” Truly a crown awaits all those who love His appearing, but before the crown is the cross. We are not above our master.

So first, let us be convinced that our Lord Christ is sovereign, He is King, all authority is His, and every trial and test we face comes from His hand. That’s the first thing to get firmly embedded in your mind. That should choke off your initial reaction of complaint.

Second, remember that testing and trials come from the hand of Him who loves you. Do you believe this? “Greater love has no man than that he give his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you.” Christ Jesus laid down His life for you, and His command is this, “Count it all joy when you fall into various trials.” Mark it on your calendar, make it a red-letter day, a special event day, a day to remember. Of course, that’s only a joyous time to reflect upon if you’ve won.

Third, we must cultivate a winner’s attitude. It is so easy for us to have the wrong attitude about tests and trials. Our heart can tell us we are almost sure to lose, to fail. We are pessimistic. We can almost think that God likes to see us fail, and just has some kind of delight in proving that we are sinners and always fail in trials.

One of the Psalms says that the sun comes up every morning and rejoices as a strong man to run a race. Why do strong men enter races, for a race is a test of speed and endurance, for a race is a contest? Is it true that, as they say, it’s not important whether you win or lost? That’s rubbish! You enter a race to win. Your coach enters you into the race to win it. Your coach makes you practice hard, increasing your distance, and calling you to shorten your time each practice. Does he hate you? Is that why he makes you exert yourself so hard? Why do the Marines and the Army put their men through such tough tests? To cultivate failure? To cultivate endurance. . .for that is what the word “patience” in our text means. Perseverance, sticking to the race, to the task, until it is finished, until you win. The objective, our Lord’s objective, is to make winners of us, of course.

Fourth, in order to have a winner’s attitude, you must be a winner. How can anyone start out with a winner’s attitude if they’ve never won yet? The answer is in covenant. What Paul says in Romans 8 is true of every Christian, everyone baptized into Christ, “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” How is this so? When God ordered our fathers to enter into Canaan to conquer they were already winners. How so? They had defeated the greatest world power of the day, Egypt. How had they done this? Their God had done it for them. They hadn’t lifted a war finger, and yet the cream of Egypt’s army, horses and chariots, Pharaoh himself, were vulture bait on the shores of the Red Sea.

Hebrews says that Christ, in our flesh, for us, was tried in every same point that we are tested, and yet without sin, without failure. He conquered all. When you see the triumphs of Christ you see a list of wins that He credits to all those who believe in Him. They are yours. . .they are the record you begin with. You win as you start and then start to win. You are identified with Christ, you are Israel. . .overcomers in Christ.

Consider Christ’s father David. He was a young lad of sixteen or seventeen. He saw a contest that no one wanted to enter, single combat against Goliath. Just see him there, itching to get into the contest. You won’t find any evidence at all of anything accept utter confidence. . .he would win. How could he think that way? We know what the odds looked like. He had a winner’s attitude because he saw what the contest, the test was all about. Goliath had challenged the armies of the living God. Goliath was a loser before he began. David came to him in the name of the Lord, the God of armies. David came because the God of heaven was his God, and so David’s cause was the Lord’s cause.

Cultivate a winning attitude towards tests and trials. Christ our King is sovereign, He brings them. He loved us on the cross and loves us still. Cultivate a winner’s attitude. Understand what it means that you have been baptized into Christ, you are in covenant with Him who rose from the dead. Believe, for in Christ you have won before you begin.

2. Get help for them.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” (James 1:5) Wisdom is the ability to apply our resources successfully. Your trial may be a flat tire. You may have a jack, a lug wrench, and a spare tire, and yet you may be completely ignorant how to use them. You need wisdom, You need help.

Wisdom is the ability to apply our resources successfully. Your teacher has given you a research project. You have all your books before you, a pad of paper, and a pen. You sit there, paper blank, mind blank, not knowing what to do. You need wisdom. You need help.

Your mother comes by and says, “Why aren’t you doing anything? You can’t just sit there. Start writing.” You say, “I can’t. I’ll never get this done. I don’t know what to do.” “Well,” says your mother, “ask your sister. She’s really good at it.” You reply, “No, I don’t want any help.” Why is this? Why are we so reluctant to ask for help? Is it pride? Are we so reluctant to admit we don’t have the ability to do something by ourselves? In big trials and in small trials, so often what we call a sense of independence prevents us from asking for help. But let’s not dignify it by calling it an independent spirit and call it what it is, sinful pride.

We face problems at work, in our families, in the church, in our communities. We are tried, tested when our children are stubborn, when the battery is dead on Monday morning because the children left the dome light on all night, we are wrongly accused of loosing dad’s tools; we have sicknesses that won’t go away, we lose our job; we face unfaithfulness in others. What do we do? We fret about them, worry about them, complain about them, but seldom ask advice, or ask for help. We have eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and by nature really think we are as wise as God.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” We are His children, and He delights to come to our help. But do we ask? Do we pray? I want you to remember the career of David. From the age of about 20 until he died at 70, he constantly faced trials and tests. Yet, as you follow his career, his trials with Saul, with the many enemies that surrounded Israel, trials in his own house, betrayal by his friends, you will find David a winner. In fifty years of combat David never retreated, never lost.

What was the secret of his success? Go back to your Bible and read the Psalms of David. In almost every Psalm you find David praying for wisdom, asking for deliverance, for help from the Lord. At every turn David cried to the Lord his God.

“What about Bathsheba and Uriah?” you say. “What about the time that he numbered Israel? Weren’t those failures, were those not losses? Didn’t David go down in defeat before those challenges?” Yes and no. Yes, because he did fail. He did yield to the temptation to lounge in Jerusalem when all Israel was fighting the Ammonites at Rabbah. He did yield to his lust to possess another man’s wife. He did yield to the follow-up temptation to cover his sin. He went the final mile down that path by ordering the death of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah. And in the final census of Israel, yes indeed, David gave up the contest against pride and insisted, against the advise of Joab, that Israel be numbered.

And yet. . .and yet? Could still be said of David what Paul says of New Testament Christians, that we are more than conquerors through Him what loved us? Why yes, for the one who loved David sent Nathan the prophet and Gad the seer to convict David of his sins. For this is another trial, a real trial in the court of the Lord. And when we plead guilty, the mercy of the Lord presents us with Jesus Christ, and we can hear the verdict as David did, “The Lord has also taken away your sin, you shall not die.” Did David win in that trial? Why yes, for David yielded to the Lord, and whenever we yield to the Lord we are overcomers.

Consider our Savior, “who,” says Hebrews 5:7 , “in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save him from death, and was heard because of his godly fear, though he was a Son, yet he learned obedience by the things he suffered.” Are you a disciple. . .a follower of Christ? Are you greater than your master? He has passed all the trials and tests, and now is a High Priest for us, who sympathizes with our weaknesses, if we have the grace to admit them. He calls us to come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb. 4:16)

3. Look forward to the prize.

“Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” (James 1:12) In the tests, the contests of life that Christ gives us, He rewards winners, both now and when He returns. When Christ entered the trials and testing of His earthly suffering and death, the Father held before Him a glorious incentive, and Christ reminds us that He gives incentives to us as well.

What was the incentive the Father held before Christ? We read in Hebrews 12 that Christ, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, and despised the shame. What was that joy? That joy was that the Father set Him at His right hand, gave Him all authority in heaven and on earth, all principalities and powers made subject to Him. That joy Christ knew of from Psalm 110, when the Lord declared the decree, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” That joy Christ knew from Psalm 2, that He would ascend to rule the nations with a rod of iron. That joy Christ knew when God gave Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. That joy God gave to Christ, a bride, a people from every tribe and nation. That joy Christ had and will have when all those whom He purchased by His blood are unfailingly gathered in.

What is the joy. . .what are the incentives the Lord gives us so that we may endure these trials? “He that overcomes,” said Christ in Revelation, “I will cause to sit with me on my throne, and he shall rule the nations.” To each of the seven churches Christ says, “To him who overcomes I will give…” Paul gives us an incentive in 1 Corinthians when he says to those struggling in the church, “Do you not know that the saints shall judge the angels?” That incentive Christ gives to us when He says, “Fear not little flock, it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

What are the incentives, what are the prizes Christ holds out before us? Here is one we perhaps overlook. Once upon a time God said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is non like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” Satan said, “Well of course, you’ve made him rich, and he lives on easy street.” God gave Satan permission to take everything away. When it was all gone, the Bible says, “In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.” So the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is non like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you have incited me against him to destroy him without cause.”

The Lord Himself triumphs over the successes of His people. Christ boasts of our conquests. The holy God Himself is proud of our victories. What an incentive to perseverance this should be for each one of us. Man may not praise us, no one may know of our painful endurance, but God marks our faithfulness in trial, and will vindicate us before men and angels.

The last incentive is one that, alas, we so often forget. When we suffer for righteousness, when, instead of being praised we are reviled, Christ told us to rejoice. Suffering in trials is also God’s way of making our identity with Christ closer. When the apostles were threatened and beaten they returned rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ. In our perverse way, we think that identity with Christ, being a Christian assures us that we will be free from all sicknesses, all financial worries, and our life, if we have enough faith, so people say, will be nothing but wine and roses. The great apostle Paul said that if he was going to boast, he would boast of his infirmities, of the trials and tests he endured. Paul considered these sufferings as a mark of identity with his beloved Savior. And so we ought to do the same.

“Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” “To those who love Him.” Do you love Him? Or do you blame God for your failures?

4. Enter them with caution.

“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, not does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and entices.” (James 1:13-14) Here Christ warns us not to fall into the snare of the devil, who delights in nothing more than that you should blame God when you fail a test and fall into sin.

If your mother and father had to be away from home for a day and when they left they told you, “Look, you can play anywhere you want in the house, but do not open the door to this closet. Absolutely, positively, never touch that door.” So as the day goes on, you ask yourself, ‘why did mom say that? Doesn’t she know that what she said makes me want to see what’s inside?’ And so finally, you can’t stand it anymore, and you open that door. Whose fault is it that you disobeyed, that you failed that test? When mother comes home and says, “Why did you open that door?” what will you say? Will you say that your mother wanted you to sin?

God put our father and mother Adam and Eve in the garden, filled with wonderful trees. They could eat of every one except one tree in the center of the garden. Was there something wrong with that tree? Of course not, for everything God made was very good. God was testing them. Shall we say that God wanted Adam and Eve to fail? We may not say that, may we? He wanted them to pass the test. He wants us to pass our tests too.

But when we fail, as we do at times, we have another test to face, and that test is whether we will blame God or confess that we failed, and beg for mercy. We need to recognize that in our stubborn way when we complain that we are crabby because we are tired, when we complain that we called our brother an idiot because he stuck his big fat shoes under our chair, we are blaming God for testing us. Our fathers did the same, they argued with God so often. No one ever won an argument with God. But, by humbleness and confession, they won the mercy of God.

Life is full of tests, endurance tests, knowledge tests, in the army, in business, in school. If you fail with those test masters, you seldom have opportunity to take another. But in the life tests our Savior gives us, we have, not a cruel, unfeeling master, but one who sympathizes with us. When we stumble and fall, He is there to pick us up, to bind our wounds, and gently heal us. He does not hurl our failures in our faces, but brings His successes for us to our minds. When we fail, He doesn’t give us up, and discard us as useless for His purposes, but restores us, strengthens us, and sets us on our feet again, leading us onward.

So let me summarize. This is the precious Lord Jesus you have. He encourages you to face life, to face trials and testing, to face contests and challenges, with the right frame of mind, with the right attitude. Have the attitude of a Paul who said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Have the right mind about trials and testing. You are Israel, overcomers through Christ, through Him you have conquered the wrath of God, and the demon of death. Christ brings all tests, all contests into your life for you to win.

To overcome you need wisdom. Bury your pride, confess your weakness, and beg, pray for help. Our Father’s joy is to help His children. Success attends those who petition the throne of grace. Remember and believe that Christ holds out rewards for you, for winning, for passing each test. He gives you closer identity with Him. The angels applaud your conquests, the Father boasts of your successes, the Son makes room for you on His throne, and the Spirit witnesses with your spirit that you are children of God because you suffer with Christ.

Beloved, let us reject the complaining spirit of our fathers in the wilderness, for our Father does not lure us into sin, but when we fail, tenderly removes all our accusers from us, and says, “Neither do I condemn you.. Go and sin no more.” This is the Savior who leads us through all our trials, who never turns His back on a failing saint, but asks us, as He asked the failed Peter, “Do you love me?” that we may say, “Lord, you know that I love you.” Christ: “Peter, I promote you, go and feed my lambs.” Amen.

Sermon by Rev. Donald Van Dyken

Trinity Church of Tri-Cities

 

September 14, 2008

Scripture: 1 Peter 4:7-10; Romans 12:13

 

Hospitality II – Pursue Hospitality!

 

The passage I read from 1 Peter infers that hospitality is a gift, and since it is, there will always be some for whom it comes more naturally. So it is with many gifts God gives. Some are of God’s people are great intercessors, but we are all commanded to pray for one another. Some are great evangelists, but we are all called to give an answer to everyone who asks.

So hospitality is also something God instructs all of us to practice; hospitality is something the Lord Jesus tells us to pursue. Pursue hospitality, says our text from Romans. Make it a goal, set it down on your “to-do” list, look for occasions to practice it, improve your skills.

That then is my theme this morning, “Pursue Hospitality.” Let me first do a short review of what we covered last week. Then go on to see how God taught Israel to treat strangers, who then were to be seen as guests in the land. After that I would make a few, what I hope will be practical observations on hospitality. I want to conclude by returning to the basics of hospitality as our Lord Jesus Christ has taught us.

Last week we saw that the two phrases in Hebrews 13:1,2 were placed alongside of one another: philadelphia, brotherly love, and philoxenia, love of strangers. We saw that the Lord our God commanded us to practice philoxenia both in the Old and in the New Testaments. We saw Abraham as he entertained the angels as an example of godly hospitality. We looked at the horrible treatment Sodom and Gibeah gave to strangers and how the Lord took terrible vengeance for their crimes. Finally we considered the reasons the Lord provides us for practicing hospitality: the fact that we were strangers to the family of God, and the Lord had mercy on us and took us in, loved us, and has received us into His house as sons and daughters, eating and drinking at His table.

How did God teach Israel to treat strangers? Well, first, I think we can say that they were not so much to be viewed as strangers in the land, but as guests, guests to whom our fathers owned courtesy and care, love and protection. God wanted more from Israel than just a general feeling of warmth towards strangers, more than just doing them no harm.

There were four specific areas where Israel’s love for strangers, for their guests, was to be applied: the area of law and justice, of charity, of Sabbath rest, and of feasting. God gave laws to Israel for their protection, to guide them in the way of prosperity and blessing. Those laws were to be administered equally to the native born, to the Israelite and to the stranger. “One law and one custom shall be for you and for the stranger who dwells with you.” (Num. 15:16 NKJV)

In the administration of justice, again, justice was due the stranger as well as your brother. “Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the stranger who is with him.’ “ (Deu. 1:16 NKJV) “You shall not pervert justice due the stranger or the fatherless, nor take a widow’s garment as a pledge.” (Deu. 24:17 NKJV)

And finally, in the area of law and justice, the cities of refuge were to be open to the stranger as well as to the Israelite. “These were the cities appointed for all the children of Israel and for the stranger who dwelt among them, that whoever killed a person accidentally might flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood until he stood before the congregation.” (Jos. 20:9 NKJV) Love the stranger, show hospitality to the stranger, treat him as a guest with equal rights under law as the native born.

Second, show him the same charity you would your brother; give him opportunity to glean from your fields: “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the LORD your God.” (Lev. 23:22 NKJV)

During the seventh year, the Sabbath year for the land, they were to do no formal planting or reaping. “And the Sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you: for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you,” (Lev. 25:6 NKJV)

Lending: “If one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you.” (Lev. 25:35 NKJV) “Like a stranger. . .” The Lord God put strangers and brothers in the same class for Israel, both to be objects of care if they came into hard times and needed to borrow money. These are ways charity was to be shown to the stranger in Israel. The law of Sabbath rest also was provided the stranger.

“but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.” (Deu. 5:14 NKJV)

This is the goodness of the Lord, this day of rest, that the Lord said should be provided for the stranger, and for the foreigner who happened to be your servant as well. Again, when Israel saw the law of God as an expression of His love and care for them, they could keep it in a positive joyful sense. It was not a law to keep them from enjoying life, but to give them joy in life. Not first of all by forbidding them to work on the Sabbath, but first of all by giving them rest on the Sabbath. That rest, that privilege to be relieved of daily work, Israel was to extend to the stranger and the servant as well as to themselves. That leads to some interesting applications today, doesn’t it? Who are our servants today? Well, if you travel by air on the Sabbath, the whole array of pilots, attendants, baggage handlers, ticket agents, and others serve you. If you stay in a hotel on the Sabbath, another platoon of people serve you, are your servants. If you eat in a restaurant, another group of people serve you, are your servants. And you give to none of these rest.

But that’s our modern economy, you say. It can’t be avoided. Perhaps there is something wrong with our modern economy. If you were traveling, let’s say, through Shrewsbury, England in the year 1152, it was Saturday evening, and you needed food and shelter, what would you do? You wouldn’t find a Motel 6 or a Best western. There were no Denny’s or McDonalds. You would do what everyone did. You would perhaps approach a private home where they would put up your horses, give you a room to sleep in, and provide you with meals. Would you pay for this? Of course not. This was a ministry of the church, it was the charity, the love owed to strangers; it was philoxenia. Well, we’ve come a long way, baby, and I’m not sure it’s in the right direction.

Israel’s great and good God, the God who gave them a home flowing with milk and honey, a home structured for life, love and happiness by His wonderful laws, gave Israel the privilege of inviting guests, strangers, to share in that grace. Equal law and justice, charity, Sabbath rest, and also they were to include the stranger as a guest in their feasting.

For the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost, first fruits of harvest: “You shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide.” (Deu. 16:11 NKJV)

For the Feast of Tabernacles: “And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates.” (Deu. 16:14 NKJV)

I think this raises some interesting questions for our treatment of immigrants today, whether those immigrants are legal or illegal. I realize that the laws of Israel were given in a time when the civil and ecclesiastical realms were closely related, when the church and the state were intertwined. However, the question, perhaps still remains: Are we as a society obligated to administer these duties of equal law and justice, of charity, and Sabbath rest today? I realize the issue of illegal immigrants is a complex problem, but I would also tend to think that the whole cloud of suspicion, hostility, fear, xenophobia then, somehow runs counter to a biblical posture.

Whatever responsibility the state and society in general has in these issues, there is little doubt of our responsibilities as a church. We can and must practice these principles of fairness and equity, of making strangers objects of love and charity, of making hospitality towards strangers include the concept of Sabbath rest, of physical, emotional, and spiritual comfort, and of bringing them into our feasting, rejoicing in the goodness and plenty the Lord our God has given us.

I go to the third point, the practice of hospitality, first looking at our homes, then at the duties of hosts, the duties of guests, and the problems we may face in the pursuit of hospitality. I want us to look at our homes first, for before you bring others into your homes, perhaps we’d better look at the condition of love in your home. I want us to look at our homes firs, for it is at home where we may practice the basic skills of hospitality, for at the root of hospitality is selfless love, a giving of one’s self for another.

Do we practice courtesies at home, giving deference to one another; brothers showing all kindness and politeness to sisters, husbands to wives? Have there been people who are quite lovely to strangers, but in the privacy of their homes are rude to one another? Yes, and that is the grossest form of hypocrisy. Remember what Paul said to Timothy: “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Timothy 5:8 NKJV) And I rather prefer the Old King James translation which says, “worse than an infidel.”

As we pursue an atmosphere of love, consideration, thoughtfulness, interest in others, of striving to make others as comfortable as possible in our presence, we are training our home to be a place of warm hospitality. For remember, it is not the quality of your dinner china, nor the exotic array of your foods, nor the expense of your wines that make fine hospitality, but it is the quality of your love.

I believe there are many husbands here who every day, look forward to returning to their homes at night. They look forward to a feast for their eyes, ears, nose and palate. They look forward to a home of beauty and harmony, a place of quiet rest, where the aromas of their evening feast fill them with excitement. God bless our lovely wives and mothers.

The practice of hospitality. First question: Hospitable to whom? We learned that philoxenia means love of strangers. But we also see that Peter uses that word in 1 Peter 4:9 as our duty to one another. So we owe hospitality to family members, to friends, that is to brothers and sisters in the Lord, and to strangers.

Well, we practice the first two, but do we practice the second, hospitality to strangers, and how can we do it? First, I want you to redefine stranger somewhat. I want you to think about all the people sitting here this morning, and see if any of them are really strangers to you, people you don’t really know that well at all. I believe that the Lord wants you to do what Abraham did, and that is to go to meet them, and invite them into your home.

What are some of the duties of a host. Should I say hostess, since it would seem that wives are more involved in hospitality than husbands? The first duty is that of host, for it is the head of the house who should welcome guests, make them feel that they are really honoring his house by their presence. It is the duty of the host to make them comfortable, to make them feel, as we say, at home, that your home is their home. So, don’t just leave them standing there, show them in, give them a place to sit. Make them feel special, treat them royally, and in all your activities make them first. Show an interest in them and in their families. Instruct your children to show special honor to guests. Introduce your guests to your children if they are unknown, but whether known or unknown, each of your children should come up to your guests and greet them.

There are, of course, many practical things to be done if your guests are overnight guests, and I won’t go into them, for you wives know them much better than I do. All these preparations though are to be guided by the one great principle of love, love that thinks of all needs of another, and bends every effort to ensure complete comfort. A couple of examples of making guests comfortable: If they are to eat with you, don’t have them just wander around wondering where they should sit – sit anywhere, you say, but rather, have a seating plan. That’s much more comfortable for a guest. Another example, if you have guests visiting for the first time, and you have been blessed with an outstandingly beautiful home, be sensitive not to intimidate them with your luxury. How do you do that? Focus your attention on them, not on your house.

Husbands, perhaps you feel that you don’t play a very big role in all this. May I suggest one important role you can play? Be extravagant in the praise of your wife. She needs the assurance, the confidence that you are honored by the skill, love, and care she put into all this. Children, join the praise chorus. “Her children rise up and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praises her: “Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all.” Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates.” (Prov 31:28-31 NKJV)

Finally, in the duties of hospitality let us remember the man we call the good Samaritan. Read about him in Luke 10. He found a stranger injured, ignored by those whom God had charged to care for hurt strangers, and ministered to him, making sure that proper treatment for his complete healing would be given him. Our hospitality should include the concept of hospital, sensitive to the hurts and pains of others, until our homes become a place where our guests leave feeling better than when they came, because they found sympathetic ears and hearts, and burdens shared become burdens lightened.

Guests have duties as well. Accept or decline invitations graciously and on time. How many wedding hostesses have to wonder and wonder if some people are coming because they just won’t answer the RSVP request. Be on time. Be happy and thankful. Eat what you are given. Give praise and thanks. Train your children in the courtesies of guests. It is not their home, and they do not have free run of all the rooms. Teach your children to give warm and happy thanks when they leave.

Now for a few problems connected with the pursuit of hospitality: Lack of money: We can’t afford to entertain guests with all those fancy foods and wines. A couple of things. First, don’t be envious and bitter towards those who are rich. Be content with what the Lord has given you, and use it. It is the Lord who tells you to pursue hospitality, and He doesn’t expect you to use what you don’t have. Remember, your aim is to please Him. Remember what Jesus said about the widow who put two mites into the temple treasury. What she gave, although others would say was pitifully small, was more than the many gold coins of the wealthy. Remember the essence of good hospitality is the love, kindness, consideration, thoughtfulness, that you give, not exotic foods and rare wines. “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a fatted calf with hatred.” (Prov. 15:17 NKJV) Hospitality is an atmosphere of love, light, rest, comfort. . .you create it, and you can do it in a tent, sitting cross legged on the ground, eating rice out of wooden dishes, and drinking water from tin cups.

Another problem: you simply don’t have the gift. Others are really good at it, but you simply don’t have it. Of course, to some the prospect of having to entertain guests fills them with terror. If the house in not right, if everything is not perfect, they are filled with fear. But what are you doing? Showing off your housekeeping or making them comfortable? Loosen up. It’s you, not your home. Our text tells us to pursue hospitality. So strive for it. Ask others who have the gift to show you some ways. This is the communion of the saints. This is sharing our gifts. Try. If we need to improve the only way to do it is to practice. So everything’s not perfect the first time. So what. We are among brothers and sisters.

Now, before we close, let’s get back to the basics. Let us learn from God’s goodness to all men. He causes the sun to shine on the just and the unjust, He brings rain and good things to the righteous and the unrighteous, He love the stranger. And even though the stranger, even though the unbelieving stranger resists the grace of God, denies even the existence of God, lives in rebellion against His laws, that stranger enjoys sunshine, watermelons, million dollar homes, freeways, cool water, and martinis. Wow, does God ever treat these people well! One of the reasons He does it, of course, as Paul says in Romans 2, is to lead them to repentance.

Well, do we want the unbelieving strangers to come to repentance? Then we could scarcely do better than to imitate God. Learn from God’s goodness to all men. The basic and foundational understanding we need to practice hospitality. After all, the Lord God created the world as a home for man, and in spite of everything we see today, what a fabulous home it is.

Love all men. Listen a little bit to Cynthia Clampit: What can you do? Think of little actions you can weave into your day that will make people feel that you care. To whom can you show hospitality? Be on the lookout for people who seem overwhelmed, or left out. List some places you might run into people like this. Think of some times you have been hospitable. Thank God for opportunities He’s given you in the past to be hospitable, and maybe recognize an area of gifting that you didn’t realize was yours. Think of some new ways you can show hospitality. Remember that small things are sometimes the most welcome, and the most unexpected, especially in this day and age, when everyone is so self-absorbed. Pray that God will show you ways you can help. Ask for help in seeing ways you can show kindness.

Hospitality. It’s making strangers into guests, making people feel they matter. It is as ancient as civilization and as contemporary as a lonely heart. It is a gift, a responsibility, and a joy. Hospitality. . .the gracious art of learning to lose ourselves in the joys of others.

Finally, as we look to Christ to give us a tangible, touchable evidence that through Him, through His indwelling in you, you will be and are empowered to pursue hospitality, let me return to one of the words we studied last week. That word is one of the words related to the English “hospitality” and that is the word “host.”

The dictionary will tell you that there are three general meanings to the word “host.” It means a great number of people moving at the same time…a host. It means someone who entertains guests. And the third meaning is this, a host is consecrated bread. Specifically, the host is the consecrated bread of Holy Communion, the body of Jesus Christ. For that use of the word “host” comes from the Latin word hostia, a word that means “sacrifice.”

So what a wonderful experience of hospitality awaits you today and each Lord’s Day, with Jesus Christ Himself our Host at the table, a table prepared by His sacrifice, His hostia, and a table where He performs the most blessed duty of the host, that of giving Himself in love to His guests.

The host is Christ, and in this meal He sets the pattern for our hospitality throughout the week. The host is Christ and He gives Himself to you in love that you may give yourself in love to others.Amen.