"If You Faithfully Obey" -- Deuteronomy 28:1-20

An Introduction to the Minor Prophets (2)

God’s prophets have a very difficult task–they bring God’s words to a disobedient people who do not want to hear them.  Those prophets whom we identify as “Minor Prophets” function as God’s process-servers, warning Israel of YHWH’s impending lawsuit against them.  These prophets have the unpopular task of declaring that the covenant curses threatened to Israel are soon to be meted out because the people of God have repeatedly broken YHWH’s covenant.  To fully understand the nature of their mission, we need to know something about Israel’s covenant with YHWH, as well as the nature of the covenant curses threatened to come upon God’s chosen people.  What are the legal charges YHWH is bringing against his people through the mouths of his prophets?

We continue to establish some background for our series on the Minor Prophets.  We move from considering the role which God’s prophets play in redemptive history (our topic last time), to the specific terms of the covenant God established with his people at Mount Sinai (Exodus 20), which is then renewed with them before the people entered the promised land as recounted in the final chapters of the Book of Deuteronomy (28-34)–a portion of which we will survey.

Recall that the people of Israel wandered through the wilderness of the Sinai desert for forty long years after leaving their bondage in Egypt.  Led by the cloud by day and pillar of fire by night, miraculously they passed through the Red Sea on dry ground as those same waters destroyed the armies of Pharaoh.  Israel was established as a nation when God gave them his law at Mount Sinai, making a national covenant between himself and his people–a covenant grounded in promised blessings upon their obedience, with covenant curses threatened should God’s people disobey him.  Because of their disobedience many Israelites died in the wilderness without ever seeing the land which the Lord promised to give them.  By the time we get to the closing chapters of Deuteronomy, the entire nation has passed through the wilderness and is now assembled on the plains of Moab, to the east of the Jordan River, just outside Canaan.  Soon the people will cross the river and enter the “promised land.”
        
Before the people of Israel can enter Canaan under YHWH’s command to drive the Canaanites from his land, their covenant with their LORD must be renewed.  Moses, their covenant mediator and the preeminent prophet in Old Testament, will read the terms of YHWH’s covenant to the assembled people, who, as Moses tells them in Deuteronomy 30:19, now stand before the Lord facing a fundamental choice between loving YHWH and obeying his commandments, or disobeying him and coming under his curse.  The choice the Israelites faced that day was simple–life or death.  Moses wrote down everything he said to Israel from the law of God as a binding record of God’s covenant and its requirements–that record of YHWH’s renewed covenant is the Book of Deuteronomy.

The scene in the closing chapters of Deuteronomy is dramatic and poignant.  After forty years in the wilderness, God’s people are finally about to enter the promised land and receive the inheritance YHWH promised to them.  This scene also has a certain poignancy about it, because Moses was prevented from entering the land because of his sin against YHWH.  This is the last day of his life.  Moses is 120 years old, and preparing YHWH’s covenant people for his death.  Israel is about to enter the land of promise, but Moses will not be joining them.  A successor must be appointed (Joshua) and the people must be reminded of the terms of their covenant with YHWH.  They must know what they must do to possess the land they are about to enter, and they must know what to do to remain in possession of it.  The terms of the covenant were given them first at Mount Sinai when the people assembled at the foot of the mountain while Moses, Aaron, and the elders were given the two tables of God’s law, and then renewed on this day at Moab, including hearing again the promise of blessing and threat of curse.

To read the rest of this sermon:  Click Here

This Week at Christ Reformed Church (February 25-March 3)

Sunday Morning, March 3:  We take up the last of the Minor Prophets -- the Book of Malachi.  We will introduce the book and ask and answer the questions, “Who?” “When?” “Why?” and “What?”  Our worship service begins at 10:30 a.m.

Sunday Afternoon:  We are tackling the first question and answer of the Heidelberg Catechism.  This week, we'll be discussing how and why the Catechism can affirm "all things must work together for my good."  Our afternoon service begins at 1:15 p.m.

Wednesday Night Bible Study: (February 27 @ 7:30 p.m.).  We continue to "make the case for Christianity."  This week we'll continue our discussion of the apologetic methodology of B. B. Warfield. 

Author's Forum: Join us on Friday, March 1 at 7:30 p.m. for our guest author, Simonetta Carr.  Simonetta will be discussing her book, Broken Pieces and the God Who Mends Them: Schizophrenia through a Mother's Eyes. This is a free lecture and open to all who wish to attend.

“When a son, sister, or grandchild begins to behave in unexpected and disturbing ways, family members hope it is simply a phase. For some, it is instead a lifetime illness—schizophrenia. 

The diagnosis of schizophrenia can bring shock, fear, and worry to everyone involved. But in the midst of the numerous challenges, hope doesn’t have to die. 

Simonetta chronicles her experience of caring for a son with schizophrenia, along with all the struggles, questions, and fervent prayer that went with it. But this isn’t one person’s story. She has provided information and wisdom from psychiatrists, pastors, parents, and people who successfully live with schizophrenia, uncovering the gospel in each situation and sharing hard-won insights on how to care and advocate for those we love.”

Simonetta Carr was born in Italy and has lived and worked in different cultures. She worked first as an elementary school teacher and then as a home-schooling mother for many years. The author of a number of books, including the award-winning series Christian Biographies for Young Readers, she writes a regular column, "Cloud of Witnesses," for the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, has contributed to newspapers and magazines around the world, and has translated the works of several authors from English into Italian and vice versa. She lives in San Diego with her family, where she is a member and Sunday school teacher at Christ United Reformed Church.

For more information on Christ Reformed Church you can always find us here Christ Reformed Church, or Christ Reformed on Facebook.

"Then the Lord My God Will Come" -- Zechariah 14:1-21

Here's the audio from this morning's sermon on Zechariah 14 from our series on the Minor Prophets:  Click Here

Apologetics in a Post Christian Age (Audio) -- Making the Case for Christianity (B. B. Warfield, Part Two)

Here's the audio from the Wednesday night Bible Study:  Making the Case for Christianity -- The Apologetic Method of B. B. Warfield -- Part Two

"A Prophet Like Me" -- Deuteronomy 18:9-22

An Introduction to the Minor Prophets (Part One)

When I announce that we are about to begin a series on the “Minor Prophets,” what is your first thought?  Ugh . . .  They have something to do with the Old Testament?  Right?  Short biblical books with weird names?  Books of the Bible I’ve never read, and are not quite sure why I should?  

As we begin a new series on the “Minor Prophets,” we need to know who these prophets were and why they are important to us.  The last twelve books found in the Old Testament, the Jews know the Minor Prophets simply as “The Twelve.”  Preachers shy away from these books because without spending time to establish a proper context and background, the Minor Prophets are just twelve difficult and obscure books who’s authors speak of events long since past, and of peoples and kings long since dead and gone.  Some of these prophets are familiar to us–Jonah, Hosea, Joel, and Zechariah, come to mind.  But others are much more obscure: Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, and Malachi.  

Why cover them?  Nine of the Minor Prophets are directly quoted in the New Testament, with hundreds of echoes from all twelve of these prophets found throughout.  The Twelve are usually cited in reference to the coming of Jesus and a final judgment at the end of the age.  Their message tends to be overtly negative–a call to repentance and a warning of judgment.  But the minor prophets have much more to say than that to us even today, and as we will see, they are well worth our time and consideration.  

These prophets came on the scene at a time after the reigns of David and Solomon–from about 780 BC-450 BC–when the people God were divided into two kingdoms;  Israel–the northern kingdom, and Judah–the southern kingdom.  These prophets appear before Israel’s destruction by Assyria in 722 B.C. and Judah’s exile in Babylon 586 B.C.  The mission of these prophets; warn the divided people of God what was about to befall them, tell them unless God’s people repent of their sins against YHWH, especially their sin of idolatry, and return to YHWH seeking forgiveness, judgment is sure to come.

But the Minor Prophets speak to other matters as well–matters of national pride, tolerance and then embrace of evil-doing, and social injustice.  It is in the latter context they are occasionally quoted or alluded to by politicians–the most common of which comes to mind is the phrase from Amos 5:24, “let justice roll down like a river.”  Sadly perhaps, an interest in social justice–not redemptive history–is the only reason why people today are even remotely familiar with these writers and their prophecies.  Their importance to us is found in the fact that the Minor Prophets have several common themes warning God’s people of his impending judgment, especially in connection to the grave dangers associated with living among pagans and finding ourselves increasingly drawn to pagan ways, beliefs, and practices.

These twelve prophets are sent by God at a time when the people of Israel (the northern kingdom) and Judah (the southern kingdom) want to be more like their pagan neighbors than YHWH’s covenant with allows of them.  God’s people wish to be rid of his law–because keeping it is difficult.  They want worship the gods of their neighbors–because their worship is more mysterious and exciting.  They want to intermarry with the Canaanites–because they don’t like being isolated and mocked by other nations.

To read the rest of this sermon:  "A Prophet Like Me" -- Introduction to the Minor Prophets, Part One

This Week at Christ Reformed Church (February 18-24)

Sunday Morning, February 24:  We will wrap up our time in the Book of Zechariah.  We will consider chapter 14 and Zechariah's prophecy of the return of Jesus Christ.  Our worship service begins at 10:30 a.m.

Sunday Afternoon:  We are still working our way through the first question and answer of the Heidelberg Catechism.  Our afternoon service begins at 1:15 p.m.

Wednesday Night Bible Study: (February 20 @ 7:30 p.m.).  We continue to "make the case for Christianity."  This week we'll continue our discussion of the apologetic methodology of B. B. Warfield. 

Friday Night Academy: (Friday, February 22).  We will be discussing Michael Horton's theology text, The Christian Faith.  We left off last time on page 362 and Chapter Eleven (on the doctrine of Providence).

For more information on Christ Reformed Church you can always find us here Christ Reformed Church, or Christ Reformed on Facebook.

"A Noble Task" -- 1 Timothy 3:1-13

Here's the audio from this morning's sermon on the occasion of the ordination and installation of elders and deacons

A Noble Task

Apologetics in a Post Christian Age (Audio) -- Making the Case for Christianity (B. B. Warfield)

Here's the audio from the Wednesday night Bible Study:  Making the Case for Christianity -- the Apologetic Method of B. B. Warfield

"Saved Through the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ" -- Acts 15:6-29 (A Postscript to Our Sermons on Galatians)

A Postscript to Sermons on the Book of Galatians

What happened after Paul sent his letter to the churches in Galatia?  We don’t know what happened in the specific congregations receiving Paul’s Galatian letter, but we do know how the church at large reacted to Paul’s rebuke of the heretical movement we know as the “Judaizers.”  In Acts 15, Luke recounts what has come to be known as the “Jerusalem Council” when Paul, and the apostles Peter, and James, along with the elders of the church addressed the Judaizing heresy.  This is one the most important turning points in the Book of Acts and goes a long way to help us see how the early church governed itself and dealt with heresy.  The Jerusalem Council reached complete agreement about the gospel Paul preached to the Gentiles–all people (Jew or Gentile) are saved the same way, by grace alone through faith alone, on account of Christ alone.

We know from Paul’s Galatian letter, as well as the account we will discuss in this sermon, the Judaizers were dividing the church by misrepresenting the teaching of the Apostle James (in his epistle), and then pitting James against the preaching of Paul.  The Judaizers claimed that James and Paul disagreed about how sinners are “justified” (or given a right standing before God), and that James was right, and Paul was wrong.  What transpires during the Jerusalem Council goes along way toward reconciling James’ prior statement in James 2:14-17: “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?  Can that faith save him?  If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?   So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead,” and Paul’s seemingly conflicting comments in Galatians 2:16: “yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”

The Jerusalem Council was called by the apostolic church because Paul’s first missionary journey throughout Asia Minor (Eastern Turkey) had been a huge success.  Through the proclamation of the gospel, as well as through the demonstration of his miraculous power, God confirmed the still largely Jewish church’s mission to the Gentiles.  The result was a harvest of Gentile converts to Jesus Christ.  But it was not long after that the Judaizers and “the party of the circumcision” took issue with Paul, insisting that Gentile converts live as Jews–they submit to circumcision, keep the Jewish dietary laws, and observe Jewish feasts.  Gentiles must believe in Jesus but obey Moses, if they are to be justified.

The statements by James, the teaching of Paul, and the attack upon Paul’s gospel by the Judaziers must be addressed if Jew and Gentile were to coexist in Christ’s church.  If there was to be clarity about the gospel, this fundamental question must be settled; “what place does obedience to the law of Moses and ritual circumcision play in relationship to the gospel of free grace and justification?”  Are Gentiles to obey the law of Moses and submit to circumcision in order to be saved?  If not, how are Gentile Christians to relate to Jewish believers within in the New Israel, the new society, the mystical body of Jesus Christ, which is the church, created by God himself, through the proclamation of Christ crucified?

Most historians date the Jerusalem conference in the year A.D. 49, shortly after Paul had written Galatians.  But the tensions which led to the council had been present for some time.  By the time the Council of Jerusalem meets, the first missionary journey was completed with Paul and Barnabas staying on in Antioch (a city in southeastern Turkey).  The sheer number of converts proved God was calling Gentiles to faith in Jesus.  It also become clear that Israel’s own prophets foretold in the last days (still hundreds of years distant when they wrote) the Gentiles would share in the promises which God made to Israel.  In Genesis 22:18, God promised to bless all the nations of the earth through Abraham.  The prophet Isaiah (49:6) saw a coming age in which the Servant of the Lord–who is none other than Jesus of Nazareth–will be a light to the Gentiles and will bring salvation to the ends of the earth.  The prophet Zephaniah (3:9-10) revealed that in the messianic age, the Messiah himself would purify the lips of the assembled nations, and all of those gathered would call upon the name of the Lord.  Zechariah (8:22) spoke of an age when the nations would assemble at Jerusalem seeking the Lord almighty.  “Yes,” Israel’s God will bless the Gentile nations.  But he will bless those nations through Israel.  The question now being answered is how.

To read the rest of this sermon:  Click Here

This Week at Christ Reformed Church (February 11-17)

Sunday Morning, February 17:  We are taking a one week break from our series on the Minor Prophets to ordain and install officers.  Our text is 1 Timothy 3:1-13, as we discuss the noble task undertaken by those who serve Christ's church in the offices of elder and deacon.  Our worship service begins at 10:30 a.m.

Sunday Afternoon:  Our pastoral intern, Mr. Yi Wang will be preaching.  Our afternoon service begins at 1:15 p.m.

Wednesday Night Bible Study: (February 13 @ 7:30 p.m.).  We continue to "make the case for Christianity."  This week we'll discuss the apologetic method of B. B. Warfield. 

Friday Night Academy: (Friday, February 15).  We return to our study of Michael Horton's theology text, The Christian Faith.  We will pick up where we left off last time (on page 355 in Chapter Eleven on Providence).

For more information on Christ Reformed Church you can always find us here Christ Reformed Church, or Christ Reformed on Facebook.