Category Archives: Sanctification

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September 7, 2016

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Liturgy, Pastoral, Sanctification, Worship

The Dangers of Liturgical Hypocrisy

jeremiah

The Prophet Jeremiah

I love our liturgy and worship service. We sing the Psalms. We kneel to confess our sins. We read several portions of Scripture. We eat at the Lord’s table every week. We bring our tithes and offerings to the front while we sing. We sit under God’s Word. Perhaps nothing has changed more in the last ten years of my life than my approach to worship.

But men and women love to hide in a liturgy They love to have rituals that say, “I am holy” without actually striving for holiness. It works like this. We go the Lord’s house every week. We hear his word preached. We sing and pray with his people. We eat at his table. We fellowship with his people. But our lives do not change.We do not amend our ways. Sin is not put to death. Righteousness is not growing in homes and hearts. The liturgy becomes a way of pretending, a way of hiding from God, instead of a way of drawing near to Him and becoming more like Christ.  Worship, not matter how high, beautiful, or Biblical, becomes a sham. The prophet Jeremiah spoke to this problem in Jeremiah 7:1-11

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’ “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever. “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD.

Israel thought that the temple, the sacrifices, the priesthood, and her worship were enough. She thought that she could come to the feasts, worship at the temple, and still live in sin. She praised God. She sang the Psalms. She talked about the priesthood. But she did not “amend her ways.” So it was in Jeremiah’s day so it is in our day. Continue reading →

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September 6, 2016

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Reformed Theology, Sanctification

17 Ways to Glorify God

Body of Divinity

These are all taken from Thomas Watson’s Body of Divinity, which is an exposition of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Under #1 he has 3 sub-points, which I have listed as A, B, and C.

[1] It is glorifying God when we aim purely at his glory. It is one thing to advance God’s glory, another thing to aim at it. God must be the ultimate end of all actions…We do this,

A:When we prefer God’s glory above all things.
B: We aim at God’s glory, when we are content that God’s will should take place, though it may cross ours.
C:  We aim at God’s glory when we are content to be outshined by others in gifts and esteem—so that his glory may be increased.

[2] We glorify God by a sincere confession of sin…A humble confession exalts God. How is God’s free grace magnified, in crowning those who deserve to be condemned! The excusing and mincing of sin casts a reproach upon God.

[3] We glorify God by believing…Unbelief affronts God, it gives him the lie; “he who believes not, makes God a liar.” But faith brings glory to God; it sets its seal, that God is true. He who believes flies to God’s mercy and truth, as to an altar of refuge; he engarrisons himself in the promises, and trusts all he has with God. Continue reading →

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September 2, 2016

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Gossip & Slander, Pastoral, Sanctification

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Stopping Gossip

Hand Stop

I think this is the is the final post on gossip, but I can’t promise. First, I discussed Wolfgang Musculus’ exposition of Psalm 15:3. Then I posted on the tactics and aims of a gossip. In this post I want to give direction on how to keep yourself from being a gossip and how to deal with gossips. But first, here is a review.

Review
A gossip is someone who wants to influence people’s opinions of other people, but does so through manipulation and insinuation, not clear communication. A gossip is intent on hurting someone by turning people against them in some way. A gossip can speak the truth about someone, but the goal is not the good of the person or those around them, but rather the goal is to harm the one being spoken of. Now of course, a gossip would never say this. That is why wisdom is necessary.

Dealing with Our Own Gossip
Defeating gossip begins with our own hearts. There is a tendency to want to control other people, dig for dirt, hurt others, and turn people to your side against other people. Before asking how we can handle gossips we must first ask, “Am I a gossip?”  Do we find ourselves talking about others for no good reason? Do we find ourselves shading the truth to make ourselves look better or others look bad? And perhaps most importantly is there bitterness and pride in our hearts? Bitterness and pride are the seeds from which gossip grows. We think ourselves better than other people. We know better than other people. Or we become bitter at someone. They did not do what we thought they should. Maybe they said something that irritated us. Maybe their personality just grates us. Bitterness, that hidden malice that seeks to harm others, and pride, that hidden inflated opinion of one’s self, is the root of gossip. Before we can honestly and kindly deal with a  gossip we must rid our own hearts of gossip. Speak the truth with humility and kindness towards those around you. Continue reading →

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September 1, 2016

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Gossip & Slander, Pastoral, Sanctification

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Spotting a Gossip

Slander 2

Earlier this week I posted some of Wolfgang Musculus’ thoughts on slander from his commentary on Psalm 15. I wanted to elaborate a bit gossip and slander.

A slanderer or gossip has three key characteristics. First, they want to influence the way people think about other people. They want people to think badly of Jill because she got angry with her two year old at church. They want so and so to think less of the pastor because he spent money on a conference.  Their goal is not change or communication, but rather destruction of people they do not like.  Continue reading →

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August 31, 2016

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Bible, Pastoral, Psalm 119, Sanctification

Psalm 119:51~Mocked on the Stage

Stage Light

The proud have me in great derision, yet I do not turn aside from your law…the proud have forged a lie against me, but I will keep your precepts with my whole heart. Psalm 119:51, 69

The American landscape is littered with men and women (and whole denominations!) who once professed faith in Christ.  Men and women who read God’s Word, sat under preaching, were baptized, and ate at the Lord’s table. Yet at some point these people decided that following Christ was no longer worth it. An outsider who knows nothing of America may assume that some great persecution arose and has caused these people to leave the faith. But those of us living here and watching the events of the last 50 years know that is not the case.  What has caused such a large number of professing Christians to either leave the faith or opt for a  Christian walk that looks nothing like the Bible?

One answer is found here in Psalm 119.  Christians in America do not fear physical persecution. It is a non-existent threat. We do not worry about our church services being broken in to, our women being raped, or being beheaded for our faith. But we do worry about our reputation. There are two main reasons people leave the faith: they either wanted to indulge a sin the Scriptures condemn or they wanted to be thought of as cool. It is this last category that the Psalmist is addressing in these two verses.

He is being derided by the proud. The word here is used throughout Proverbs and is often translated scoffer. It is also used in Psalm 1:1 where the righteous man does not “sit in the seat of scorners.”  The picture here is not of ISIS militants killing him, but of someone making fun of the Psalmist. They are laughing at him. He is the butt of the jokes at the water cooler. His family thinks he is too uptight. He used to have friends, but they don’t want to hang out with him any more. Maybe a blog or two has been dedicated to mocking his views. He is laughed at.

The second verse talks about the proud lying about the Psalmist. The word translated “forged” actually means “to smear” and can be used of glue. The enemies of the Psalmist have smeared him with lies and they have stuck to some degree. Again no physical persecution, but rather the proud attempt to ruin the reputation of the Psalmist. His life has been plastered over by the lies of his enemies. They talk about him behind his back to other employees. The family gets together without her and spreads little rumors about her home life. They lie about what is preached or taught at his church. And these lies stick and dog the Psalmist wherever he goes.

In our culture one of the biggest threats to our walk with Christ is the fear of being left out, rejected, of losing our reputation and status. We want the world to like us and approve of us. We want to be part of the in-crowd. We don’t want to be the geek who still believes the God made the world in six days, that sex is for marriage, children are a blessing, self-fulfillment is not the ultimate goal, the lost need to repent, the Bible is God’s Word, greed is sin, and women should not be pastors. So we bend. We compromise, slowly but surely moving away from the Bible.The Psalmist goes the opposite direction. When his reputation is threatened he moves towards the Bible.  He refuses to turn aside from God’s Word no matter what the cost is to him.

In Hebrews 10:33 the author says the congregation there was willing to become a “spectacle” or be “publicly exposed.” The word is “theatrizo” which means to be brought up on the stage to be mocked. Paul uses a similar word in I Corinthians 4:9 when he says, “For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men.” In the coming years, we will not hold fast to Christ unless we are willing to be mocked and scorned.  Unless we can stand on the stage and let the world laugh at us our faith will fail. Our biggest danger will not be death, but rejection. If we long to be part of the cool kids and refuse to be rejected then we have already lost the battle.  We must not fear their derision, scorn, scoffing, and lies. Our reputation is not more important than Christ. Let us cling to His Word and be willing to suffer shame before the world. Are we ready to be a spectacle before our friends, neighbors, family members, and community?