Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Book: Matthew

  • Jacob’s Joseph, Mary’s Joseph

    Jacob’s Joseph, Mary’s Joseph

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Christmas” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 20, 1987.

    About this sermon

    God speaks through angels, visions, and dreams across the Bible, and Matthew’s Joseph receives his instructions the same way. Jacob’s son Joseph stands behind him. The two Josephs, one in the Old Testament and one in the New, both serve God’s purpose to bring Christ into the world.

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    Sermon transcript

    We are reading from Matthew chapter one, and we are beginning with verse sixteen. And Jacob begat Joseph. the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who was called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.

    Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this lawn. When, as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just, a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privately. But while he thought on these things, Behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin.” Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophets, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him. and took unto him his wife, and knew her not till she brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus.”

    Father, before the mystery of your son’s incarnation and before the mystery of your word appearing in the world, may we with all seriousness and all reverence, take stock of ourselves. Lord, we would be your children. We would be those given new life by root of that gift which you have given to us. Lord, may we be those children of your calling, even if it is a matter of us becoming such, in this service, this morning, for Jesus’ sake. Amen. angels, visions, and dreams. Angels, visions, and dreams.

    They go together in the Bible. In the Old Testament, there are two times in particular that seem to be chock-full of angels, visions, and dreams. One of those times is that of the exile, the exile of the children of Israel into Babylon, that period in which God then would reveal himself and his intention to save his people through angels’ visions and dreams. You can think about Ezekiel and his many visions.

    You can also think of the dramatic story of Daniel And what is recorded for us in his prophecy? Again, the appearance of angels, the use by God of visions and dreams. That wonderful story, that wonderful story of the fiery furnace and the three friends of Daniel. put into it, yet when the king looked, there was a fourth, the angel, the angel of the Lord. You can think of the dreams of Daniel himself, and the intention of those dreams with regard to the final resolution of all matters concerning this world. You can think of the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, the great king, and the exposition of that dream that comes through the prophecy of Daniel. Well, in that time, an empire to end all empires, an empire that epitomizes the strength of the kingdoms of this world.

    It collapses before angels, before the visions and dreams, but the pavilion of God, the pavilion of the Lord, it triumphs. Salvation is assured to those to whom it is promised through that one who is described by Daniel as one like unto the Son of Man. through that one who is spoken of by Daniel in his dreams, in his visions, as the coming prince of princes.

    That’s one time in which the angels’ visions and dreams are so important. But there’s another time, another period, a period many years earlier, a time of beginnings, the time of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. It, too, a time filled with angels, visions and dreams. And in that time, two figures stand out in relationship to the angels, the visions, the dreams.

    Jacob and his son, Joseph. Jacob dreamed of angels ascending and descending a ladder, a ladder stretching from the earth to heaven, a ladder stretching from Bethel to the throne of God in glory. And in the night visions, Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord, and was said to have And then there was Joseph, his son, the son of his love, the son of his beloved Rachel.

    He was a child of dreams, he was called the dreamer by his brothers, and as a young man he became an interpreter of dreams while living in Egypt. When still a boy, he dreamed dreams, and saw in his dreams the sheaves of his brothers in the fields, bowing down to Ishi. He saw the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowing down to him, to which his brothers said, Do you imagine that your father and your mother and we as well will bow down to you? insignificant curve. But ironically, the rage and the plots and the schemes of his brothers serve to fulfill those very dreams sold into slavery by his brothers.

    Joseph, in time, rises to power and eventually his father and his brothers pay him homage. from the depths of his humiliation, but yet in keeping with those revelatory dreams, Joseph rises as a savior and as a ruler for the sake of his father’s ancient household.

    But though a savior, Joseph is not the Savior. And though a ruler, Joseph is not the ruler. And thus the patriarchal period, the book of Genesis, is incomplete. That period punctuated by angels, visions, and dreams. It is incomplete without the concluding prophecy which Father Jacob speaks to his sons before his departure. For the ultimate blessing according to Father Jacob does not rest on Joseph, nor even upon his sons Ephraim and Manasseh, but upon someone else altogether. upon another son, Judah, and it is to Judah that Jacob says, your brothers shall praise you, your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies, your father’s sons shall bow down to you as if a parody of the very dreams that had been given to Joseph. For Joseph must give way to Judah. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet.” Jacob to Joseph in this era of angels’ visions and dreams. Jacob to Joseph giving way to Judah in the end.

    But interestingly, and as you know full well, there is still one more epoch of angels’ visions and dreams. It is the era of the Son of God. The epoch of the New Testament. And right at the beginning, at the outset of that epoch, as if matching, paralleling, as if fulfilling, in a sense, the patriarchal premonition, we find here, in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, a Jacob who bears a son, Joseph.

    But now, here, both Jacob and Joseph are of the tribe for whom prophecies have been made formally. This Jacob and Joseph are of themselves from the tribe of Judah. and therefore in the line of the promised ruler, that ruler promised from the days of the patriarchs. In this setting, the angels, the visions and dreams are active again, but they focus their attention upon the full and perfect salvation of God. a salvation which was only hinted at, pointed to, by the restoration of Israel from exile in Babylon, only hinted at and pointed to by that deliverance that was effected through Joseph, when the world was ravaged by famine and life could be found nowhere else but in the courts. of Egypt. So then, in this final epoch of angels’ visions and dreams, the angel now speaks to a New Testament Joseph.

    He speaks to him about his betrothed, that one to whom he is engaged, and the child she miraculously carries. In this setting, you see, at issue is that child, that in keeping with the dream and the angel who appears in that dream. At issue is the child.

    Salvation for God’s people is vested in Him alone. And as the Old Testament Joseph was constrained to give way to Judah, now the New Testament Joseph, who is of the tribe of Judah, must give way to this child, must give way to Jesus. For there will be no boast in the end, even for Judah. Even Judah’s boast is manicured, is chained by the virginally conceived Son of Mary. If the Old Testament Joseph is humbled by his father’s prophecy, the New Testament Joseph is humbled by the fulfillment of that prophecy. Or is he? Or is he humbled? Or was he in need of humbling? Or was he already well prepared. The enigmatic figure of the New Testament, Joseph. He is one who is portrayed for us as having been already humbled and prepared. The dream overtakes him.

    The angel speaks, and we hear nothing from him that suggests to us strains of arrogance or self-importance. We hear nothing from him that suggests any form of argumentation or remonstration before the Lord. In fact, the impression given us here by the text is that there is no hesitancy in the man at all. You see, Joseph is presented to us as the perfectly godly, unobtrusive personality.

    That is the one who will not and does not call attention to himself. He is not vain. He is not insisting on better things for himself. Nor is he wounded, as if short-changed in the whole affair, not getting his due. After all, is he not the descendant of David? Here is a man devoid of sinful ambition, incapable, if you will, by the grace of God, of a calculating boast.

    A marvel in the world, and truly an exception. The man does not know pride. Joseph is a man satisfied in and with God. He is a man content in the will of the Lord. In this regard, he stands completely opposite his ancestry. He even stands opposite his Old Testament namesake.

    In the Old Testament, you will recall that Joseph there had a father who was little better than a flim-flammer. A devilish, if not demonic, huckster. A man always continually seeking the advantage. And the Old Testament Joseph had a mother who would stop at little, it seems, in order to get the advantage.

    So much was she possessed with the spirit of competitiveness. And you know that that spirit eventually meant her death. Not satisfied with one child, she names her first one Joseph, which means addition, increase, and says, May the Lord give me another son. Why? So that I can better compete. with Leah, my sister, and show her up.

    And what of the Old Testament Joseph himself? Do you read those stories of Joseph? Do you like him? as much as it seems his father did, doesn’t he appear to you to be a little, if not a lot, obnoxious? I had a dream, brothers, and in my dream you all bowed down and worshipped me.

    Now for his brothers to do what they did to him means that there was much more to it than just the rehearsing of a couple of dreams. We’re dealing here with a way of life. So that Joseph continually flaunted himself in front of his brothers, aggravated. the sore that was there. Gloating over his privilege. Gloating in his dreams. But here is a Joseph who is none of these things.

    The opposite of his ancestry. Matthew calls him, in the 19th verse, a righteous man, a just man. And how great that righteousness! So great is it that Joseph, who disappears, it seems, from the pages of the New Testament after the accounts of the birth of Jesus, so great is that righteousness that that disappearance by Joseph from the pages of the New Testament must be understood as an expression of that righteousness itself.

    Now, I know what we ordinarily say. We have guessed that Joseph’s absence in the later narratives of the New Testament is because he must have passed away. He must have died before the years of Jesus’ maturity in ministry, before Jesus himself died, before Jesus was raised from the dead. Whether that is true or not, we cannot know for certain. But we do know, we do know, that Joseph is portrayed as that one who will not intrude upon Jesus.

    He disappears from the scene. There will be no competition. This is a deliberate device. The diminution of the man, the receiving of the figure of Joseph before Jesus, so that Jesus may appear to be everything. And by contrast, Joseph has nothing except as he has a special role to play in relationship to that one who is all in all.

    You remember the testimony of John the Baptist coming to us out of John’s Gospel, the third chapter. John is speaking to his disciples. He says of Jesus, he must increase, but I must decrease. Well, before John says it, Joseph is living it. He must increase. In effect, that is what Joseph means.

    But I, I, even my tribe, even the tribe of Judah, the tribe that has the largest, the most significant boast in all Israel, my clan, my nation, must decrease in comparison. Now in this, you see, even though Joseph lives before Christ’s ministry, even before Christ’s accomplishment of his mission, Joseph is portrayed for us as the prototype of the New Testament Christian disciple. What we all should and must be in relationship to this child spoken of by angels and revealed in visions and dreams. We think too little of Joseph, generally placing him in the company of simple-minded peasantry, unimportant, uncomplicated, a man who didn’t think too much, probably wasn’t capable of it.

    Oh no, this man was royalty. This man was royalty. No one in Israel had greater claim to acclaim. And that magnified now because it was to him that the angel came in the dream. And he has the distinction of supervising Jesus in his young years. But no one was better suited than Joseph to preach the loss of identity, even the loss of life for the sake of Christ.

    Now, there’s something else here in the text that adds weight to this understanding of the figure of Joseph. And with this, we will conclude. You see, we are approaching Joseph now as if he were, before the time, a prototype of the disciple, the true disciple of Jesus Christ.

    In this regard, note, if you will, what is said about him and his righteousness. He is called a righteous man in that 19th verse. But take stock, take into account the description of that specific outworking of righteousness. We are told he wished to spare Mary public disgrace so that, so he was looking, he was looking for a way to put her away privately. Now think about that for a minute. He was wishing to spare her public disgrace And because of that, he was looking for a way to put her away privately. Now try to understand that in the light of what you know about the Old Testament.

    Does that sound like the action of a righteous man according to Old Testament standards? Not at all! Joseph is swept into a New Testament environment, and he appears as a New Testament man. For you see, if he judges his righteousness, and his righteousness is judged by Old Testament standards, then you see, in his eyes, in accordance with the law, Mary is a candidate for execution. By Old Testament standards, she was to be stoned.

    But breaking in to this setting and in upon this man is the glorious light of the gospel of mercy found only in Christ. So it’s as if Joseph himself has been translated for us in this account. And he becomes full well a New Testament figure. One who is expressing in himself the grandeur and the magnificence of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For in keeping with that gospel, Mary now is made a candidate for special care and beneficence. Already, the gospel of Jesus for giving grace is traced out in the man who precedes Him. For the man who precedes Him actually follows Him. And is righteous but in the light of the righteousness that is dawning in the gospel of His Son.

    You do well to consider this son of Jacob, this son of Judah, to whom the angel came in a dream, to learn by root of him satisfaction, contentment, to learn through him that checking of ambition, to learn from him the fact that your importance is only relative to that of Jesus Christ. Period. And to be as accepting of that as was chosen. So that it becomes your glory and not your burden. and to learn from him that you are an ambassador of mercy in keeping with the law of Christ in this day of fullness, in this day of grace.

    Even before the time, Joseph comes, O God, as one prepared by you. He stands at the outset of an era, not simply as one to live, looking forward to the Savior and the accomplishment of his mission, but as one who lives in full light of the revelation that shines forth from this child yet to be born. O Lord, now may we take up the mantle of Joseph, that we then with all humility, that we filled with mercy. may live out our days to the glory of our Savior, our lives meaningful only as they are relative to Him, the One who is all in all, Christ the Lord.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Cross as Our Pattern

    The Cross as Our Pattern

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 11, 1987.

    About this sermon

    Union with Christ and his cross stands at the center of Paul’s letters, and Colossians 3 makes that center explicit in terms that echo Matthew 5. The cross gives the actual pattern for service in the world as well as its motive. Philippians 2 reminds us that carrying a cross, whatever form it takes, truly hurts.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning our scripture reading is from Colossians chapter three. We will be reading the first seventeen verses, and then we will be reading from Matthew chapter five. This is Colossians chapter three, opening verses. Reading from the New American Standards.

    If then you have been raised up with Christ, Keep seeking those things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ above. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

    Consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come. And in them you also once walked when you were living in them. But now you also put them all aside. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abuse of speech from your mouth.

    Do not lie to one another, since you have laid aside the old self with its practices and have put on the new man who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him. A renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free man, but Christ is all and in all. as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other. Whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. And beyond all these things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

    And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.” beginning with verse forty-three, reading through verse forty-eight. You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good, and sends his reign on the righteous and the unrighteous.

    For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax gatherers the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what do you more than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore, you are to be perfect, even as your Heavenly Father is perfect.

    Pray with me briefly. What strength we look for from you, our God, will you not nourish us with your word? Truly, we come to be filled, and won’t you fill us? We then truly filled with your word, but filled with your spirit as well. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. We are at the end of our messages on Jesus, the Kingdom and the Law.

    We have made our way through the fifth chapter of Matthew now. Next week we will begin a new series on the five points of Calvinism. And this is going to be an adventure for me and for you. I’ve never preached on the five points before. But at any rate, this morning, our concluding message on Massey 5. I’ve done something here that may need some explanation for you.

    I have read extensively from one of Paul’s letters, Colossians, the third chapter. And in hearing that read this morning, you as you thought through the passage and then you heard the reading from Matthew five. Your thought may well have been, well, what is the connection between the two? What is the connection between Colossians three and Matthew five? I would say at the outset that in this third chapter we are not dealing with something that is peripheral.

    We are dealing with something that stands at the center, at the heart of Paul’s gospel. His gospel here is being expressed. It is being expressed in terms of a concentration upon things that are above. Set your mind, he says, on things that are above. And his concentration point here, expressing his gospel in this passage, is nothing less than what we can call union with Christ. This is a doctrine that has not been given its due, but one that stands nevertheless at the center of Paul’s gospel, his message. Notice what he says.

    Paul says that we have been raised up with Christ in verse one. And down in verse three, he tells us that we have gone, we have died already with him. He speaks further about our life being hidden with Christ in God, and here, coming to mind is nothing less than the ascension of Christ, so that as Christ has ascended into the heavens, we are to see ourselves as united to Him and ascended as well. But even more glorious than that, in the fourth verse we are told that when our life is revealed, Rather, when Christ is revealed, our life in him shall be revealed as well. We shall be revealed in him in glory. It’s as if when Christ comes again, we shall be united with him and appear with him in those clouds.

    We, bound together with our Lord. This at the center of Paul’s gospel, the core of his gospel. We are united with our Savior. We are joined to him. And as he is above now, so we are to set our minds on those things that are above. Now, the problem with this gospel, as many have charged, is that it tends to be, according to them, mystical, ethereal.

    It’s something you can’t sink your teeth into. It’s prone to lead us off in the directions of world flight or world forgetfulness, as if we could then be utterly irresponsible in the world. We are told that this gospel of Paul, in many ways, is impractical. It is impractical for everyday life. It is hopelessly irrelevant, if not irresponsible.

    But won’t you notice just how practical, how relevant, and how responsible it is before God for having spoken about union with Christ and the fact that we are bound with him who is above? Paul goes on to say, in verse 5 and following, that we are to consider our earthly members in this world as dead. Dead to what? Dead to sin, dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed, which amounts to idolatry.

    So you see, Paul’s gospel is not a gospel that is given over to world flight. It is not given over to a world forgetfulness or an irresponsibility at all. Instead, it is absolutely responsible, it is absolutely relevant, it is absolutely practical in every sense of that word. I think rather that those who have made the accusation that Paul’s gospel is mystical and ethereal prone to lead us off in the direction of world flight, have really not been willing to submit to the responsibility of that gospel, its relevance, just how practical it is, as Paul goes on in his description. It is there, you see, that things become so utterly difficult. For there, you see, In what follows in Paul’s writings, we, the people, his people, are faced with ourselves. We meet ourselves. But I remind you, this is Paul’s gospel. This is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We may wish for another gospel, but this is the only gospel that there is. This is the gospel that has been proclaimed.

    It’s important to realize that along with this message concerning things that are above. Along with this message of union with Christ. There is at the center of the whole affair. The cross of our Savior. If you were to expound Colossians 3 properly, it would have to be an exposition, of course, that takes into consideration those things above of which we’ve spoken, that union with Christ which we have described. But it cannot ignore the centrality of the cross, the cross of Christ. For Paul’s gospel truly centers in that cross. Christ has been crucified.

    We understand that message. We understand it as we gather together this morning to commemorate it. We understand its necessity. Christ had to die in order that we might live. Christ had to sacrifice himself that we might be cleansed. that we might be set free at liberty from our sins and the terror of death and judgment. Yes, truly, that cross stands at the center.

    How else can there be any kind of transcendence of this world? How else can there be any kind of proper view into glory unless we see that by way of that We have died in order that with Christ who arose, we might live. The cross, then, Christ’s cross, at the center of the gospel, even of those things of which he speaks here, the cross at the center of Paul’s gospel, at the center of those things he speaks of in terms of what is above, of union with Christ.

    But, you see, it’s not enough And this is the real point, it’s not enough simply to speak about the death of Jesus. It’s not enough simply to speak about Christ’s crucifixion. For we must go on, and this is precisely how the Apostle understands it. For having understood the cross of Christ with regard to Christ’s own sacrificial death on our behalf, the Apostle goes on to speak of another crucifixion. Yes, we are joined with Christ in death upon the cross, but now we have to speak of ourselves in terms of a crucifixion as well. For Christ has been crucified, and he has been crucified for us, but now we too are crucified, and we are crucified for the sake of the gospel which is proclaimed in him, his death and our own, that through these deaths there might be life and life in its absolute quality, both in the one who supplies it and those who are supplied. Now, as we talk about our own cross, we realize that it is very easy for us to focus completely upon how that cross signals our salvation, and we can glory in that cross. We can rejoice in it. We can delight in that cross.

    Christ died for sinners. I am a sinner. Christ died for me. He took my sins upon him when he hung upon the tree. But you see, that crucifixion as it speaks to us about our salvation is speaking to us about a salvation from those things that have infected us, those things that have been a part of us, those things that have destroyed our lives, poisoned our minds, affected our attitudes, That cross then becomes the focal point of a renovation, a renewal, precisely what Paul is speaking of here in Colossians 3. Yes, the cross of Christ, how glorious it is, and how our salvation is made plain in that cross, and how our salvation is procured. how that cross focuses our own renewal, how it focuses the new life that we are to live. Read through Colossians 3 again. It is the cross that stands behind the words of Paul in verse 5 when he says, therefore consider your members, the members of your earthly body as dead.

    Dead to what? Immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed. Later in verse 8, anger, wrath, malice, slander, abuse of speech. Verse 9, lying, and evil practices of the old man. But we can’t even end there, and neither does Paul. He moves on in verses 12 through 17, and he now expounds for us the significance of the But not so much in terms of what we have been saved from, delivered from, but what we have been saved for. And the focus of these verses is servanthood.

    We are to put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another, forgiving each other, Whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. And beyond all these things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. The peace of Christ ruling in harness, being thankful, the word of Christ dwelling richly within us, as we worship together and enjoy one another. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God through him.

    You see, the force and the power of the cross is that not only does it provide us with entrance into heaven, but it provides us the pattern of our service in the world. This, you see, is what is at work in Matthew chapter 5. Here is the tie between the two passages. So what Paul is explaining in his gospel in Colossians 3, Christ has assumed as he preaches to his disciples. in Matthew five.

    He too speaks of things that are above and the charge can be leveled at All of this language and all of these words about heaven that takes us out of the world and into a realm of utter irresponsibility, as if the message of the gospel has no earthly value. It never touches down. It’s up there somewhere, but it doesn’t have anything to do with life. But you see, when Christ wants to speak about the significance of living for Him in the world, He expounds, no less than Paul, the message of the cross.

    And that is what is being told us. by Christ, at the end of Matthew five. What is it, even before the fact of his death, that Jesus is explaining here? He’s explained to us the significance of his own death, that testimony of service on behalf of the Father towards all who are to be reconciled.

    Yes, even those who are the enemy. You have heard it said by those of old, love your neighbor, hate your enemy, I say unto of the cross that is now being unveiled before your eyes, you don’t have an excuse. You have no excuse whatsoever before that cross. You are constrained by that cross, you are constrained. Now, you can walk from it. You can turn your back on it, but please understand, if you do, you are not simply turning your back upon an interesting sideline to Pauline theology. You are turning your back on Jesus. Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.

    Why, it’s the Son who speaks. It is the Son who speaks from the cross. Father, forgive them. For they don’t know what they’re doing. In this way, He proved to be the children of your Father, like unto the Son himself. He offering up himself in service as a testimony to the love that flows forth in heaven. And we know less.

    Do you want to know about perfection? the perfection of the Father in Heaven. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Heavenly Father is perfect. It is the cross. In the cross you see it, you understand it. Well, the cross is a painting. Don’t we all know that? Crosses are painful. They hurt. How well Paul expresses it in another passage He says in Philippians 2, have this mind in you which was also on Christ Jesus.

    Although he existed in the form of God, he did not regard it a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking upon himself the form of a servant. And being found in likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. And therefore also God highly exalted him and bestowed on him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, things in heaven, things on earth, things under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

    So then, my beloved, Just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but also in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and tremor. For it is God who is at work in you of the will and to do of the flesh. The working out of that salvation is the coming to expression in your life of the cross of Christ. Yes, Christ died for you, but now you who are joined to him in death, live as servants for the sake of that cross in the world. Even though it means loving your enemies.

    And if it is that way with our enemies, how should it be? with our friends. Oh Lord, we pray that we would be gripped fresh by the gospel of Paul We ask, Lord, that this gospel would mean more and more to us life itself. We pray that we might put far from us that evil for which Christ has sacrificed himself in order to rid us of it. And we pray, Lord, that we who have been joined to him in death might now live in service for you. A service, Lord, that is marked by the cross. We pray this in Jesus’ name.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Reading the Law on Two Levels

    Reading the Law on Two Levels

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 27, 1987.

    About this sermon

    The law has to be read on two levels at once, Mount Sinai’s original setting and the kingdom of heaven Christ now proclaims, or its original intent gets lost. Christ’s own obedience, in Matthew 9’s healing of the paralytic, stands in for those who could never obey on their own. The cross, rather than raw willpower, is what actually directs a right reading of the law.

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    Sermon transcript

    We will read the first 13 verses of Matthew 9. And Jesus entered into a ship and passed over and came into his own city. And behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on the bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the man sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. And behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether it is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Arise and walk, but that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins.

    Then saith he to the sick of the palsy, Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house. But when the multitude saw it, they marveled, and glorified God, who had given such power unto men. And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw man. named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom. He saith unto him, Follow me, and he arose, and followed him. It came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came, and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your master with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that behold need not a physician, but they that are sick. Go ye and learn what that meaneth.

    I will have mercy, and not sacrifice. For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners. You have heard that it has been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him plain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, Turn not thou away.

    Go with me briefly. Father, servants raised up by you to preach your word, can they do it for themselves in order to enhance their names? Can they do it, Lord, so as to gather about themselves a group they can call their own? O Lord, may it not be. Rather today, May your servants be refreshed as their hearts are wed to your own, desiring those things which you desire. And may your name be exalted, your kingdom seen all the more clearly.

    We pray it in Christ’s name. Amen. teaching. Teaching and the scripture. A broad topic. But certain things worthy of our attention, especially if they come down to the matter of Jesus teaching and specifically his teaching about the kingdom and the law.

    I think that you are well aware of the habit of Scripture. You may not warm up to it as much as you should, but you are certainly aware of the biblical method. You may think at times that it smacks of drudgery, because you see what is being done in Scripture is nearly a recounting of the facts and an application of those facts to the lives of the people of God.

    It’s the repetition that bogs us down, isn’t it? Again and again. While we’re studying the book of Deuteronomy on Wednesday nights and in plowing your way through the book of Deuteronomy, you might be wondering when, oh when, is Moses going to end this sermon? keep saying the same thing over and over again.

    Truly, as I suggested to you before, there is method in the prophet’s madness. There is method in this biblical madness, in this biblical method itself. That method is to continually repeat for us, for our benefit, those things which God has done, what we might know about him because of what he has done. Placing those things before us so that we would be reminded of them, we prone to forget. Failing to keep these things in front of us. The New Testament, like the old, has a similar methodology. You might recall the letters of Paul. Oftentimes in those letters he says, it’s no trouble to me to tell you again what I told you before. And I’m going to tell you what I told you before. I’m going to tell you one more time what I said to you. Think of the letter to the Philippians, the first verse of the third chapter.

    Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord to write the same thing again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you. He’s very concerned about Timothy, Timothy’s ministry in Ephesus. You may recall what he says to Timothy in the second chapter of the second epistle, a marvelous verse. Well, taking into consideration, he says to Timothy, Remember, Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the son of David, according to my gospel, remember Jesus Christ, you have in the Old Testament the repetition of all of those commandments, all of those laws, rehearsing of those commandments and laws built upon what God has done in the New Testament. Though much more compact, you have the same thing, an emphasis upon repetition. Here, the apostle in Philippians, not worn out by this demand placed upon him, and that he, after all, remind the people of those things that they know to be true, that they might keep those things before their eyes. But then, as if He were condensing all of those commands, and all of those injunctions, and all of those laws and statutes from the Old Testament, as if he were condensing them into one.

    He says to Timothy, remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended of David, according to my gospel. Keep in front of your eyes at all times The Lord Jesus. Raised from the dead, don’t you know that there’s help in that? If we were to go back to Philippians three and read on from that in the Philippians four, you would see how central Jesus Christ raised from the dead is to all that Paul has to say. to those Philippians concerning their spiritual well-being. Well, teaching, the biblical method, we say it again and again and again. Tell me again, the wonderful story of Jesus. I love to hear it. It never grows old.

    Now, I know that you may well feel that we have bogged down in Matthew 5 and that there is an inordinate amount of repetition going on here. in our treatment of this passage. If I can aspire to the heights of the Apostle, if in this office I can stand with him, I would do nothing else than to repeat the message of Christ and the significance of the kingdom of heaven, especially now as it has to do with this whole matter of the law, so that you would not forget.

    One more time, Jesus teaching and the law. You see, there are actually two levels at which you must read all of these excursions of Christ into the law. We’ve been dealing with it since verse 17 of the sixth chapter. We have made our way through a number of the contrasts which Jesus places before his disciples. You have heard that it was said. But I say only. And now we come to this 38th verse. And truly, we’re face to face with that passage which has given the church, has given exegetes, interpreters, preachers, lay people, trouble, problems, extreme problems. whole denominations, whole movements within the church have been originated out of these verses. Now, as we venture into them, it is well for us to keep in mind Jesus methodology.

    His approach to the law as a whole. And as I said, you see, you have to read You have to read the law at two levels. First of all, you must read it and you must keep in mind the law as it is read in light of Sinai. That great, marvelous unveiling of God. Now, don’t simply think of the law. How we shortchange God when we do that. If you’re taken to Sinai, as the psalmist did this morning, I hope you were thinking about it as we read through Psalm 68.

    As you’re taken to Sinai, you see the mountains shake, and the earth move, for God has appeared. Not just the commands then, but the appearance of God. God has done something, and the commands, the instruction, the teaching, comes on the heels of what He has done.

    So yes, as you read through this section, you must keep the original intent. We spoke about that last week. The original intent of the law in mind. You cannot gainsay Sinai. You can’t make of it less than it should be. And how Jesus affirms the law and its place. I didn’t come to destroy the law, he says in verse seventeen of that fifth chapter. Woe be to that one who does away with even a part of the law, he says. Verses eighteen and nineteen.

    So yes, from that Old Testament perspective then, from The vantage point of Sinai, you see, the law coming to bear upon all of life. But that’s the first level, and you can’t stop there. Because there is a second level. If we are but left with Sinai, we die. God knows that, even though you might be a little confused about it. And that’s why the sun comes. Well, as it was at Sinai, you see, there was this marvelous unveiling of God.

    So now in the latter day, the sun comes and God is unveiled even more gloriously. and in light of this most recent act by God in his son, we begin to perceive and understand the ultimate intent, not the original intent, but the ultimate intent of the law. The ultimate intent is unto God, the ultimate intent is unto glory, the ultimate intent is unto the kingdom of heaven, not the kingdom that is upon this earth. And now you must read the law in light of the dawning of the kingdom of heaven, and that, too, is laid within the words of our Savior.

    For while he is saying, I did not come to abolish the law, he goes on to say, I came to fulfill. And those words about fulfillment are laden with the message of glory and the kingdom of heaven. So it is in that 18th verse when he ends it by saying, until all is accomplished, the statement there by Jesus is comprehensive. Nothing is left undone.

    And he is able to speak in this way because breaking in upon the circumstances of the people of God is the glory of the kingdom of heaven, and everything now, including the law, must be seen in a new light. And it is specifically this dimension that is focused with Jesus’ words in the 20th verse. For there he speaks about a righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and pharisees. Now I know that it’s ordinarily thought that all Jesus is doing here is exposing the hypocrisy of those who were the supposed leaders of Israel, there is a propriety to that interpretation, but there is also much more.

    You see, there is a righteousness mediated by the kingdom of heaven that surpasses anything that the law could give. Even if it was obeyed absolutely. a righteousness for you which surpasses the righteousness of the law. Why? Because in the administration of the kingdom of heaven, what is conferred upon you is the righteousness of God.

    Well, there you have the overview of Jesus’ treatment of the law. Original intent and Sinai. Ultimate intent and heaven. And then you have his explication of all of this in what he has to say about the specific commandments that he lists here for you. Specifically now, you have heard it said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

    The original intent of that prescription, it’s lifted Out of the Torah, out of the Pentateuch, it comes from the law, it is repeated again and again. You have it spoken at Sinai, Exodus 21, verse 24. It appears again in Leviticus, chapter 24, verse 20. It appears in Deuteronomy, in the repetition of the law, chapter 19, verse 21. Expressed here is the principle of justice. As you have dealt out, so it shall be dealt. As you have delivered, so it shall be delivered to you.

    Justice. Bedrock? The bedrock of our system of law? Now it’s not as if, you see, the original intent forbade mercy, or failed to encourage that mercy, or set bounds around the people so that they would not transgress into the realm of revenge, because you can see how this statement of the law could easily lead to that. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

    Justice, that’s what I want. That’s what the law demands, and that’s what I’m going to have. But in Leviticus 19 verse 18, there the Lord speaks, setting a boundary to the spirit and hearts of his people by telling them that they are not to pursue revenge, rather they are to love their neighbors as themselves.

    So the original intent. the principle of justice, the prescription against revenge. But we also know how Judaism, how in fact the Pharisees and the scribes, how the rabbis perverted this prescription in the law. And that’s why we read this morning from Matthew, chapter nine, especially that quote by Jesus from Hosea, six, six, where he says in quoting the prophet, I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

    Well, applying that now to the circumstance here, you see the perversion that arose within Israel was a justice. truth for truth. Truly an eye for an eye. Without any regard for mercy. Whatsoever and back to the advantage who was reaping the benefit. Of the prosecution at law. But one wonders how this could arise in Israel, how could this take place with regard to the law? Didn’t God give the law? Wasn’t it perfect? Well, yes and no. You see, we’re back to the two levels. For even as we look at Sinai, we realize that it is incomplete. It lacks strength. There is a flaw. There is a difficulty. apparent even there.

    Enter then the ultimate intent of the kingdom of heaven as it is proclaimed by Jesus, for he proclaims a realm above which is not subject to perversion, He projects a realm in which there can be no cloak for deceit or mercilessness. He speaks about a realm which is the gift of God’s grace to his people, the kingdom of heaven, that cannot come, nor does it come, on the basis of the law. And in proclaiming to us the kingdom of heaven that’s before our eyes, the ultimate objective of God’s program for his people, that objective was not the law. It was life with him forever in heaven. So then, the kingdom of heaven makes its appearance, it asserts itself in the person of Christ. And oh, oh how it asserts itself.

    For now, unlike any time formerly, the father himself is revealed in the son of his love who is it then who gives to him who asks even when the person who asks isn’t deserving Who is it that lends, does not turn away the one who comes to him even when that one who comes to him in need is disreputable and utterly offensive? Who is it who not only gives up his coat but his coat as well, who is stripped bare and nailed to a cross. Who is it who doesn’t go but the mile, an earthly mile, that on its way outside a city to a hill positioned there as the site of execution, But he goes all the way, he descends into hell for the sake of those who hate him, who despise him, for the sake of those who have rejected him. Who is it? that though he has been stricken on the right cheek, he offers the other also.

    You see, here the mercy of the Father is being perfected before your eyes. the extension of mercy to those who are evil, giving to those who don’t deserve, and that made plain in the person and work of Jesus Christ, the expression of the Father’s love, these verses then being an exposition of Him. But you see, for all who would be disciples, that is precisely the cross that is laid upon you. Here you see the cost of your discipleship. What humility is engendered by all of this?

    For while we’re considering the fact that this person who is treating us in this way is not worthy, not worthy of our kindness, we are brought up against the fact that we’re not worthy of the kindness of God. We being numbered with those who are evil, we being evil ourselves, considering that God has been good to us, now what humility in our position, even before those who wish us ill, and to take every advantage of us. Every advantage of us. Now if we are compelled to treat those who set themselves against us in this way, who treat us evilly, how should we treat those of the household of faith who don’t? What kind of service should be engendered in us before the right before those called of Christ, before those who are not our enemies. If this kind of behavior is expected of us with regard to our enemies, what kind of behavior is there to be with regard to those who are our friends in Christ? I think of the selfless service of many in this church the tireless effort the attention to duty and responsibility in the church and the zeal with which that service is pursued It’s merely with abandon.

    When I start thinking about this, I know how embarrassed she would be. But I can’t help but thinking of Alvira Billingsley. And even when there’s just a little smudge on a letter she’s typing for me, without the slightest bit of hesitation, she looks me in the eye. There would be no question.

    Oh, I’ll type it again. Well, there’s a bit here of world forgetfulness. But you see, what Jesus is saying is in light of the kingdom of heaven, and you can prosecute that Old Testament law in such a way that it ensures your place in this world. But Jesus’ eyes are elsewhere. So don’t worry about your reputation or your dignity. Take the flag on the other cheek. Don’t worry about the indignity of losing both your coat and your clothes. It’s only clothing.

    You find out later on that God is able to give you what you need. In chapter 6, why worry about the burden of having to go that extra distance? The Lord is able to restore to his people the years which the locusts have eaten, and he can certainly restore to you the time that has been taken by showing kindness and demonstrating mercy. All of this in light, I don’t mean to trivialize any of this, all of this in light of what Jesus Christ has done for you. There you are.

    You see, the explication of simply Sinai will never do. You must explicate the Kingdom of Heaven. And what has now become apparent in Jesus Christ and the revelation of the heart of the Father. He stands behind all that is said here by Jesus. And at the center of all that he has said is his cross. That must drive, motivate, animate, direct you in everything that you do. Let’s pray. is that you would be plainly portrayed for us in the fullness of that revelation, which is come in Christ. May we not in any sense gain a fine line or the law given through Moses that may we exalt in Jesus Christ. That full and complete revelation and in the glory of the kingdom of heaven, which he has brought with him. Encourage us more in our living. in keeping with what we find here.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Delivered Past the Law to Perfection

    Delivered Past the Law to Perfection

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 20, 1987.

    About this sermon

    Every earthly court is fallible, and Christ delivers his people from relying on any of them for final justice. He carries them past Moses’ law toward a perfection the law alone could never produce. Even so, the law still deserves the respect Christ himself gave it.

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    Sermon transcript

    Neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne, nor by the earth, for it is His footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black, but let your communication be yea, yea, and nay, nay.

    For whatsoever is more than these cometh of evils.” He has heard that it has been said, and I for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

    And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him plain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. He hath heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.

    But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. For he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so?

    Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven.” is perfect. Then from Philippians chapter three, beginning with verse eight. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but done, that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” that I may know him, the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”

    Father, how many servants have you raised up to carry your word? How has your church prayed that there may be those servants raised up equipped? Truly our own church, our own denomination, is in great need with regard to those servants, blessed of you, who have drunk deeply of your word. So, Lord, give us many fine proclaimers of the word, that our pulpits may be filled with sounds of glory, with those preaching Christ who because of their love for Him have counted all things lost in view of His excellence. Hear us, Lord, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

    Well, what do you think of Robert Bork? You see, I can be relevant. You’ve probably caught bits and snatches of the goings-on in Washington concerning Judge Bork’s confirmation. And I suppose that you have grasped hold of the fact that Judge Bork represents a particular view on the law. But it seems that not everybody shares that view. In the proceedings, however, he may extract from you your sympathy as you witness what he has to go through. It may well be that he also engenders within you a bit of admiration.

    We are arguing, it seems, about what is called original intent. I think that we all know what that is by now. It has to do with the original intent of the Constitution and Mr. Bork’s position with regard to that original intent. Now I say that he might have extracted from us our admiration because we are traditional people. We are, after all, orthodox Presbyterians. We sort of venerate and revere things that are old, right?

    So we can understand judge works interest devotion to interest in and devotion to the Constitution along the lines of. Original intent what did the writers of the Constitution originally. So yes we. May well be able to resonate. To judge work as he goes through this confirmation and identify with his basic philosophy, we having similar convictions along a religious line.

    We also, however, may be driven in our admiration for him because of his position generally with regard to the judicial branch of government. We all remember our ninth grade civics class and our instruction in the basics of government and checks and balances. Various branches of our government intended to check and balance one another. But Judge Bork may well gain our admiration because of his resistance to the notion that the judicial branch is above checks and balances. He does not believe that the Constitution supports such a position as an unchecked judicial branch.

    But even further than that, you see. Judge Bork is standing against. That interpretation of the court. Whereby that court no longer sees itself as an interpretive. Entity and institution, but rather an originating or creating institution that is to say. that it is the court’s business to create law. Not simply to interpret it but to create it. And therefore you see.

    There are many in opposition to Judge Bork who wish. Us to go beyond what he has called the Constitution’s original intent. In order to Establish create invent. Law. You can see how dangerous that is according to Judge Bork. If in fact the checks and balances have been destroyed. Many have been yelling shouting over the last 10 or 15 years. That’s. The court has been out of control Everyone else has a check. But it seems that the court is not. Well there are those philosophical reasons for admiring judge for.

    We also may admire him for his tenacity under pressure before cross examination. If you’ve watched him on television, you realize that he is oftentimes struggling to keep himself under control. And you can imagine why, because you see, it’s not enough for one senator to ask him a question. Every senator has to ask him the same question. So he has to go through it one more time, one more time. It reminds me of that good old General Assembly adage. Everything has been said, but not everybody has said it. All right.

    You might be thinking we’re in dangerous waters here because he started out with our admiration and he’s certain to go on with something else. All right, we start out with our admiration, and it may be that because of our own commitments, our admiration is even a bit grudging. But as we move through the process and we observe this whole proceedings, we might also be struck with a bit of skepticism. Admiration, yes, but skepticism also. Skepticism that is pushed upon us because of our own inherent integrity, and our resistance to political manipulation, and our desire to get beyond rhetoric. We have observed, for instance, Judge Bork at those times where there have been embarrassing silences, as if he himself were struggling, struggling with his own philosophy and how to respond specifically to questions that have been raised.

    For there have been those charges hurled at him, usually politely. in which Senators have contended that the original intent, idea, and philosophy actually becomes a shield, a protective device, very useful in serving particular interests. We cannot at all be blind to that. And we cannot ignore it. We must be honest with regard to it. And I think that Judge Bork’s hesitancy, his pauses, the struggle that maybe is going on inside of him has to do with that specific point.

    But you see, there’s another side to the whole question. It’s not just the man who’s being questioned. It is those who are supplying the questions. For if there are special interests or certain interests that seem to be shielded, protected by the philosophy of original intent. There are also certain interests, special interests, that are protected by the philosophy of law that is embraced by those who are interrogating the man. So, while the senators are working very hard in questioning the judge, it may well be that you have noticed this as well, there seems to be a great degree of smugness that has settled over Capitol Hill. This guy Bortwell, we know about him. But he’s in the chair and we’re not. He’s the one who’s being interrogated.

    There’s a certain amount of smugness as if those who were questioning were somehow immune from the philosophical liabilities of their own position. As if they weren’t culpable as well. If there are weaknesses in Ford’s position, what about reversing What about the weaknesses on the other side? Smugness? I don’t usually dabble in politics from this pulpit. But I think there was a certain Republican senator from Pennsylvania that was especially smug.

    Where does that leave us? Well, if Bork isn’t without his faults, but neither is the opposition, what do we do? What alternative is there for us? Where do we look? How do we respond to a situation where, on the right, a view of law seems, in some ways, crippled? On the left, it seems crippled as well. What do we do?

    There was a great French writer earlier in the century. I say great, not because he is great in Christian circles, but he certainly had a way with him and an ability to get at the heart of an issue. Now, I don’t know whether you have read any Albert Camus lately, that’s C-A-M-U-S. I don’t expect that he is ordinarily picked up by Orthodox Presbyterians and read. Maybe you know that he was a renegade French existentialist.

    That certainly raises red flags before your eyes. Nevertheless, nevertheless, Camus saw the problem. He saw the problem, and he tried to deal with it. He tried to deal with smugness, smugness in the law, smugness by the law, self-righteousness, as it is attached to the law and to the institution, of course. in his nation and international. He tries to deal with that problem in his novel, The Fall, which probably is the greatest twentieth-century novel.

    It’s short. You can get through it. The Fall is written in two parts. It is written from the perspective of a judge. And in the first part of that novel, the judge reflects the smugness of which we have been speaking, the self-righteousness before the law, and his own self-confidence, and how life has treated him so well. But then comes the transition mid-novel, and the second part of the novel, it’s as if you have descended from the exterior. and its charade into the interior of the heart of the man, there to catch a glimpse of the hell that exists inside. The veneer is taken away, the external is removed, and you see then a broken, thus the title, the fall, man coming to grips with himself and his condition.

    And of course, you see, the conclusion of the novel is, well, then, if this reputable, this fine European specimen cannot judge, if he cannot be trusted on the bench, who then can you trust? If he can’t judge, who can judge? Nobody can judge. So, you see, if you have viewed the proceedings in Washington and recoiled from them a bit and said, well, I’m distressed by the smugness, but yet I’m distressed by the fact that there are weaknesses on both sides. It can lead, you see, as it did in Camus, to a position of cynicism. You don’t trust anyone. You don’t do anything. The law and the courts are utterly useless. You have no confidence in them. Everybody is tragically flawed. So where do we turn? Where do we turn? As always, we turn to Jesus. always return to Jesus. Your response is, that’s no answer at all!

    Let me tell you. Jesus is your salvation from smugness, and he is also your salvation from cynicism. He is your deliverance from self-righteousness, and he is your deliverance from the attitude, well, what the heck, who cares? What difference does it make in the end, anyway? You can’t trust the courts, judges, you can’t trust the law. Because it’s always useful for special interests. Jesus Christ, then, and the law. Now, I want you to understand something right away here as you move through Matthew five.

    We’re not dealing with any law here. We’re not even dealing with the great law of the Roman Empire. We’re not even dealing here with the Constitution of the United States. We’re dealing here with the law of God and the things that Jesus says about it. So we’re dealing with the best.

    As Jesus speaks concerning this law, what he has to say, because he is dealing with the greater, takes into consideration all law that is of a lesser kind, and in that I do, in fact, include the Constitution of the United States. It is not, after all, the sixty-seventh book of the Bible. presses original intent. Jesus presses original intent.

    You can’t get away from it, as you read through Matthew 5. The scribes and the Pharisees have come up with their interpretation, modern retranslations of the law of God, and Jesus comes along and he cuts through all of it and he gets to the heart of the law of Moses, the law of God. And therefore, Jesus comes as one whose intent is not to destroy the law, but to fulfill You read through the seventeenth verse to the twentieth verse, and the comments made by Jesus, they are clear. He’s here upholding the law and its intention. You read through verses twenty-one through forty-eight, and the various cases that Jesus puts before his disciples.

    Again, it is the same. The original intent of the law of Moses is there put in front of you. It’s not enough simply to keep yourself from raising your hand murderously against your fellow man. The intent of the law of God is the prohibition not just against the outward act, but also the inward intent. Anger itself. being outlawed here, and that in keeping with what the law has said.

    But you see, while Jesus is pressing the original intent, he’s by no means satisfied with that, and this is precisely why every legal system in the world fails. Every institution of law fails. It is what was observed by Camus as being fundamentally wrong with law, the legal institution, with its practice. You see, Jesus is aware of the law’s fundamental underlying, fundamental weakness.

    And even when you press it, an inherent deception within the law, because the law has the ability to shield one within it who is not complying. Do you understand? The law has the ability to shield one within it who is not complying. the law then becomes a defense. And one by merely keeping the externals of the law can satisfy himself that he has kept the law where he can use the law in the interests of his own particular concerns. The law says don’t steal. And he can use that law to protect himself in a way.

    That prescribes against charity that exalts property, makes it sound as if property is life, its preservation is what is meaningful. So it is then we move down through these six case studies by Jesus twenty one through forty eight if you. Have noted them before note them again. Each one of the cases is put before you by formula you have heard it that was said of those of old times such and such but I say and he is six times that formula is repeated and here you have six case studies in Jesus treatment of the law. Within these case studies, it becomes clear to us, abundantly clear, that Jesus here is not someone who is simply introducing original intent.

    We see his perspective is carrying us beyond, far beyond that administration of Moses, that administration of God from Sinai, he is carrying us into the heavens he is carrying us into that circumstance and into that reality that pertains above, and that is what he has in mind when he speaks about the righteousness of the Thrives and Pharisees, a righteousness which, in fact, his disciples must have in excess.

    A righteousness that far exceeds the scribes and Pharisees. What righteousness might that be? That righteousness is the veritable righteousness of God, which is given to faith. And it is beyond the limits of an earthly administration of law, beyond the limits of any institution of law. It carries you into the regions of the righteousness of God by faith, in distinction from any righteousness that can be conferred by law.

    With law in the world, in its institutions, maybe it is that we are doing the best that we can, but we cannot turn the law into a god, nor its institutions into a shrine. And if we do, there is no answer. For in our integrity, we will end up precisely where Camus ended up. The unfortunate thing is that most people in the United States are not as honest as Albert Camus. These statements that Jesus gives you here then. The first three. The first one dealing with anger, the second with lust, and then the third with infidelity.

    Jesus here speaks of crimes that no earthly court can try. How are you going to prosecute anger? How are you going to prosecute lust? And the way in which Jesus deals with divorce, how is any case like that ever going to stand up in a court of law? It won’t. And it doesn’t. Jesus speaks out here against crimes against no earthly judge or earthly court, but the heavenly judge and the heavenly court. The crimes that he has in mind our crimes, no earthly court can try.

    And beyond that, in verses thirty three to forty eight, you have him here presenting to you in the cases that he reviews for you absolute integrity. My yes is yes, my no is no. Absolute mercy before the court I’ve been struck, and I turn the other cheek now. Before the court, I’ve lost my coat, but now I give my coat as well. And lastly, as it pertains to loving our enemies, absolute love. virtues that no earthly law or institution can cultivate or instill. Now, if Jesus is saying these things about the Mosaic laws, how much more for the legal administrations of the world? Christians do not need laws. Christians do not need love. Except for sin.

    What you see already breaking in upon you is the perfection of which Jesus speaks in the very last verse. Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father in heaven is. That’s what’s breaking him apart. The righteousness then that far exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is already at work in you. It is a righteousness out of heaven. The righteousness of which Paul speaks in Philippians 3, that righteousness of God which is by faith, that is already your possession. It is at work in you. Now hear me out.

    The very interesting thing about Jesus’ statements here is that he does not become smug. He doesn’t say anything about the uselessness of courts and the law. But rather, his statements are calculated to respect both, even as he is respected most Therefore, Jesus is not a revolutionary. He is not a revolutionary. But neither is Jesus a cynic. Though we may step back with Camus for a moment and delight with him for a bit, we have to move past him. Because we, like our Savior, are not cynics either.

    As Jesus revered and respected Moses and the institutions of that law, so now we are called upon to respect law and its institutions in our world. To understand that you as the people of God have been given a righteousness that far exceeds the righteousness prescribed by laws, extolled by the institutions of law in our world. It is the very righteousness of God by faith. Our Father, we would humble ourselves before you, for surely we understand the dilemma that faces mankind, especially before the law. And we ask, our Father, that we, your people, would delight in the provision that is given us in Christ. And Father, as we have delighted in it and in that righteousness that is by faith, we plead with you Lord that we also may be respectful, that we might honor law and its institutions in the world. and not allow ourselves to slip into a smug self-righteousness or a cynicism that is so utterly destructive and contrary to your will. Guard our spirits and souls, we pray. Do encourage us, Lord, as we would rehearse again the marvelous, magnificent blessings that Christ has given to us not the least of which is a righteousness that far exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, a righteousness that far exceeds even that of the law.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • A Person, Not a Force

    A Person, Not a Force

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 13, 1987.

    About this sermon

    Getting God’s Fatherhood right matters more than it might seem, because God the Father is a person and no impersonal force behind the universe. Believers follow after Christ’s own Sonship, a specific inheritance. To be children of God is to stand in a specific, personal relationship with him.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning we begin our scripture reading from Matthew 5, reading two passages. First of all, reading verse 9, then from verse 43 to the end of the chapter, and then we’ll be turning over to Matthew 11 once more to look at some verses there. This is Matthew 5, verse 9. are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.”

    Then verse 43, “…he hath heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven. For he maketh the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them that love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so?

    Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.” Then chapter 11 in Matthew, verse 25, at the end of the chapter. At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in my sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whosoever the Son will reveal him.

    Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Pray briefly with me now.

    Our Father, wherever your word is proclaimed today, may it be proclaimed with that sense that already the mission is accomplished. Well up within the hearts of those servants of yours that sense that realization that you have accomplished all things and that truly your word has even proceeded from you to precede the servants whom you have called. Therefore Lord as your servants speak May there be no boasting at all, not in their accomplishments nor in their dreams or goals, but may there be singularly a boast in you and in Jesus Christ and his cross. May it please you by your spirit to refresh hearts of servants proclaiming your word in the knowledge that they proclaim Christ. and Christ alone. We pray it in his name. Amen.

    This morning we come to the fourth and final message in this present series on Jesus preaching. The theme of Jesus preaching. We have looked at the theme, the kingdom of heaven, and seen how central that theme is to the proclamation of our Lord. We have looked at the theme, righteousness, and again we have seen how central that message is to the preaching of Jesus. And now we have been considering the theme, the Father in Heaven, and once more, the centrality of that theme for the proclamation of our Christ. Throughout these messages, it would appear that there is a similarity of development and thought by Jesus as he presents these themes. And it is this development, his approach to these things, that interests us in conclusion.

    But as we work toward that conclusion, I wish once more to move through the material that we considered last week, in order that we might have that firmly fixed in our minds, and also consider the seriousness of the situation that faces the Church regarding the proclamation of Jesus. Is the Church faithful to that proclamation? Or does she find herself struggling to recapture that proclamation, to stand in its light? Or is she ignoring it, pushing it aside, forgetting it, even altogether? Last week, we noted that there has been what we might call, if we were to think about it a bit, a surprising loss of the Father to our faith and for our proclamation.

    This fact has been recognized recently by some who have written on the subject. I mentioned to you an English theologian by the name of Thomas Schmale, who wrote a book entitled The Forgotten Father. You may recall what I said about Mr. Schmale. He makes the observation that we’ve had a charismatic movement, one that emphasizes the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and we’ve had a Jesus movement. Some of us lived through that. Some of us even lived in it.

    But Mr. Schmehl says, what we need now is a father movement, as if a movement for the father would right the wrongs and correct the imbalance. Well, there may be a tendency in us not to take to take the comments of Mr. Schmale too seriously, thinking that surely Father, our Father, the Father in Heaven, does not need a movement in order to assert his claims for his rightful place.

    But we did take note of the fact that it seems, however oddly, that the father is sort of placed in a position that is a position of confinement, or he is relegated to some particular province and there forgotten, and in our approaches to him put in places where we don’t ordinarily or even often think of him.

    We consider what has become true of Bible study, for instance, as it pertains to the Father. And we saw that when we think of the Father, our habit has become to relegate Him to the Old Testament and to connect Him with the doctrines of creation and providence. As if when we pass into the New Testament, The Father then was forgotten, and taking center stage was the Son. The Son then specifically identified with the Gospels, and if we were to go further into the Acts and the Epistles, we would there claim that the One who has the greatest importance is neither the Father nor the Son, but the Holy Spirit. So we move through our Bible as if the Father is united or connected with the Old Testament, the Son of the Gospels, and the Spirit with the Acts and the Epistles.

    We move through it in something of a chronological fashion, in terms of our doctrinal understanding from creation, that’s the work of the Father, to redemption, that’s the work of the Son, to sanctification, that’s the work of the Spirit, and we’re satisfied with that. Now, if that isn’t bad enough, we have also taken a look at the situation as it pertains to the development of the Church, Church history and the development of doctrine in the Church.

    And here again, we observe a similar phenomenon. I would say that for the last 300 years, at least as historians have been explaining things to us, we have been in an age of the spirit, so to speak. And the Father has been truly forgotten, by and large.

    We have entered the era of enthusiasm and unbridled mysticism. We have entered the era of an irresponsible irrationality, as it pertains to the faith, where all kinds of excesses are recognized as being normal for the Christian Church. Not only normal, but desired. Not only desired, but essential. And if that enthusiasm and these irrational excesses are not present, so we are told we are not in the faith, and we lack the spirit.

    Well, that’s the last 300 years, and before that, for about a thousand years or better, It seemed as if the Church concentrated exclusively on the Son. First of all, back in the time of the Nicene Creed, back in the time when the Apostles’ Creed was being formed, the question of who the Son is took center stage. And then you moved into the Middle Ages and the latter Middle Ages, and the questions about what did He do? Well, you had the development of the doctrine of the Atonement, and then there came the Reformation and the marvelous realization on the part of the Reformers that Christ’s death 1,500 years ago, from where they were standing, had significance for the forgiveness of sins presently. Again, though, as we’ve seen, the Son there taking center stage and, as it were, the Father forgotten. Before those Before those years in which the Son took center stage, the Father was considered, but He was considered narrowly.

    He was considered specifically in relationship to the doctrine of creation. And therefore you have the opening of the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, that speak about, I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. The Father is connected with the work of creation, that says it all, and having said it all, we’re done with it.

    We don’t consider it anymore. even beyond the superficiality of Mr. Schmale’s analysis. Theologically, we are in a fatherless situation. The father not being appropriated properly. We may not have sat down to figure all this out, Intellectually, you may not have gone through all of the things that I have just described, and even as you sit here this morning, the relevance of it all may not be immediately apparent to you, but consider it if you will. If, in fact, the doctrine of the Father in Heaven is central to Jesus’ preaching, how can we neglect that and be faithful to Him? But even if you were to move things onto a psychological line, or onto a psychological level, the impact is overwhelming. You see, if the father is not properly grasped, appropriated, neither is your sonship. Neither is the fact that you are the children of God.

    Now I put it to you, psychologically, spiritually, what is the impact of that fact? The impact of that fact, whether you have analyzed it or not, whether you’ve gone through the intellectual exercise or not, whether you’ve grasped it that way at all, the impact of living in a fatherless situation spiritually is that you begin to sense that you’re an orphan. You begin to feel like an orphan. You begin to feel Disoriented? Desperate? Frantic? Out of control? Nervous? Anxious? Distressed? Lacking confidence?

    Biblically conceived, there’s plenty of confidence as far as the world is concerned, it’s available to you. Lacking confidence, however, biblically conceived and understood. Now, you see the prediction. I mean, do you understand that the great deal of your personal distress, psychologically, may simply be because you don’t take the Father seriously. You simply don’t take Him seriously. Now I understand all the problems in our modern era. We read a lot about child abuse and how rotten fathers can be. And I don’t mean to minimize that.

    And how it is that the church and the people in the world can no longer identify with this doctrine of the father because most people have rotten fathers. And when I think of father, they think of, ah. The doctrine of the father simply doesn’t register culturally. You see, the answer to that difficulty is not forsaking the Father or forgetting about the Father, but realizing as bad as the Father that you had may have been, there is one who is perfect in heaven.

    And he more than compensates. He more than compensates. Now I want you to seriously think about this matter, because it’s just simply not true that only non-Christians are nervous and anxious and distressed about the world. But recovering a sense of our equilibrium and gaining a bit of serenity will invariably include grasping afresh the Father in heaven. And Jesus knows that. Read Matthew 6. Read Matthew 6. Why are you concerned about what you’re going to eat or what you’re going to wear? Don’t you know that your father in heaven knows that you need these things and he will give them to you? Alright.

    The loss of the father. But then there have been attempts to recover the father. And we can’t ignore those attempts. And as strange as it may seem, those leading the charge in recovering the Father were not Orthodox Christians, not conservative evangelicals. They were liberals, blank liberals. See, in God’s providence, even the liberals have a purpose. They drive us to remember things we forgot, or have ignored, or lost our perspective on.

    So the attempt was made at the end of the last century, the beginning of this, amongst the liberals, to recover the lost father, or to deal with this fact that central to Jesus’ preaching is the father who is in heaven. They recognized that, and they recognized that that was a unique feature of his preaching. He being unlike other preachers who were wandering around in the first century world, even unlike all those who had preceded him among the prophets of Israel, for none of them had that message. Jesus came on the scene with a unique and revolutionary message, and that message was our father who is in heaven. So, the liberals went to work on the doctrine of the father. They saw the father as proclaimed centrally by Jesus. But that father for them, this is important understanding, exactly where the liberals were coming from and where they were going. That father was the indiscriminate, benevolent, divine force.

    Think of Star Wars. Divine force. More force than person. The indiscriminate, benevolent, divine force which hovers over and dwells within all men. All men. That’s why I said indiscriminate. You see, he hovers over and he dwells within all men, thus making all men into a universal brotherhood in which there are to be no distinctions whatsoever. None.

    Gone, therefore, is the doctrine of the elect and the reprobate, the saved and the damned, the covenant and those who are in and out of the covenant. Gone is the doctrine of the supernatural redemption. accomplished by Christ, a supernatural Savior. After all, mankind, said the liberal, under this proclamation of the fatherhood of God, has no need of a Savior. All that he needs is a Father kindly disposed.

    And the Father is kindly disposed, Jesus has told us, to all men, indiscriminately. So there is no difference between you and the pagan horde assembling itself today at Three Rivers State. None. We all have the same father. And if there is any place to go, be there in heaven, who knows, we will all be there.

    That was the liberal proclamation of Jesus’ proclamation of God the Father. Now, thank God there has been a reaction to that. on the part of Bible-believing Christians, who would have none of it. Now, a lot of their reaction has been inadequate, for many of them simply reasserted the doctrine of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and said, that’s enough. It’s enough for us simply to reassert that doctrine of the Trinity. And having done so, we have proclaimed the Father in the same sense in which Jesus proclaimed Him, and that should satisfy the Church.

    But you see, even the Bible-believing Christians had missed the point, a point which the liberals had seen, namely, that the message of the fatherhood of God, our Father in Heaven, was a radical, a radically different and unique proclamation by Jesus, something distinctive of His preaching. And therefore, many missed the significance. None missed the significance.

    How is Jesus able to come on the scene and proclaim God the Father? And God never having been proclaimed as such before? Because, because Jesus is the Son. Because Jesus is the Son. The revelation of God as the Father and the proclamation of Him as such cannot, cannot precede the revelation of God the Son. So when the Son comes, The Father is distinguished, and He is seen clearly, as if for the first time, we didn’t see Him clearly before.

    And what shames us, what shames us, is the fact that those who lived prior to that revelation were able to live with such confidence, and we who live after it, seem to live with such ramidness, as if it hadn’t happened at all. Something new has taken place. The revelation of the Father has been delineated because the Son has come. And now, whatever confidence and boldness there may have been for saints of old, we have much more. But invariably we live as if we were still in the Old Testament without the Father and the revelation of Him. As if we were still living in a time before Jesus had come, the Son had come, to reveal to us our Father in Heaven.

    There is something else here as well. The reality, the reality of our sonship, that we are children of God. This point missed, you see, by the liberals. The fact that we are sons of God, children of God, cannot precede the fact, the reality, the revelation that Jesus is the Son of God.

    Our Sonship is predicated upon His. You may recall, in trying to explain this to you last week, I called your attention to all those passages in the Sermon on the Mount that speak about God as our Father. Our Father. Our Father who is in Heaven. But that’s Matthew 5-7. Before we have arrived there, we’ve already traversed Matthew 1-4. And what is Matthew 1-4 all about? It’s about God the Son, Jesus Christ.

    So that what Matthew is doing is building all our considerations about our Sonship upon the fact that Jesus is the Son, and it is by virtue of His Sonship that we are made sons, are called sons, are called the children of God. That being the case, only those who have received Jesus Christ are the children of God. Only those who have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are the children of God. Finally in this regard, the eventual blessing, let me say, the eventual blessing as well as all present blessings, for us as the children of God, cannot precede the blessings that Christ now possesses. All future blessings, all present blessings, which we are to enjoy and do now enjoy, cannot precede the blessing that has been given to Christ. because of what he has done. We can’t end our story of Jesus the Son by just reading Matthew 1 through 4. We have to read the whole Gospel. And when we arrive at the end of the Gospel, we realize that what is in view in terms of his Sonship is his death and resurrection, and by virtue of his resurrection, an entrance into the security of heaven above.

    That security now mediated unto you in your present life, as it shall certainly be yours in life eternal. So how is it that you are to endure in this life? How is it that you are to walk? How is it that you are to behave? How is it that you are to are to keep control of your feelings and your spirit and keep down the trauma that rises within you that seeks to destroy you and eat you up like a cancer.

    Is it not by a grasping hold of that fact that the blessings that are yours as sons of God and the confidence that comes to you because of that are due to the fact that Christ died and rose again. And the blessings that we find surrounding him in heaven, not the least of which is this magnificent relationship with his father, that those blessings are mediated unto us in our present night. Isn’t it interesting that we read Psalm 57 today together?

    My heart is fixed. My heart is fixed. That’s an Old Testament saint saying. Well, he could say it. How much more can you say it? Your heart is fixed. and with what confidence do you approach this father who is in heaven though unseen he delights in giving you things that are seen and like as he is unseen he shall surely give you the unseen blessings in glory for you you are the children of God. Now, O Lord, the harvest is coming forth as the laborers have gone forth and what a harvest, a harvest for you in righteousness and peace and joy. Oh Lord, we, your children, look to you and receive from you blessings presently and surely those blessings that are promised to us eternally. through Jesus Christ the Son, the glorious Son, who has taught us about yourself, the Father.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The True Fatherhood of God

    The True Fatherhood of God

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 6, 1987.

    About this sermon

    Liberal and orthodox theology give genuinely different answers to what God’s ‘Fatherhood’ actually means, and Christ’s own coming as Son is what finally reveals which answer is true. Old Testament trust in the Father is real but incomplete compared to what the New Testament now makes possible. Sonship, rather than mere paternal metaphor, is where the real content of Fatherhood actually lies.

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    Sermon transcript

    morning begins with a portion of the third chapter of Matthew. Then we will be reading from Matthew five and finally from Matthew eleven. So Matthew three beginning with verse thirteen. Then Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John. He baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus, answering, said unto him, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo! The heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him, and lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

    Then from the fifth chapter of Matthew, beginning with verse 43, You have heard that it has been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven.” For he maketh his son to rise on the evil and the good, he sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect. Even as your father, who is in heaven, is perfect.

    And finally from Matthew 11, reading from verse 25. At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, Because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto them, even so, father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my father, and no man knoweth the son but the father, neither knoweth any man the father save the son, and he to whomsoever. the sun will reveal him. Come unto me, O ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

    Are there not those, then, Lord, that you have raised up to preach? And do not they this day preach the glad tidings? And do they not teach and preach in light of the coming of that awesome day, that day delayed because of your mercy, because of your longsuffering? Surely, Lord, you have in fact, in response to the prayers of your people, raised up laborers for the harvest.

    And may they preach with all of their might and energy the matchless riches found in Christ. And may the lost be found, and may the stumbling be held up May the wayward sheep be brought home, and may your children, your saints, destined for glory, be comforted. Amen. This morning we come to our third message on the theme of Jesus preaching. I will say our third message because it seems that there is yet one more to be delivered four rather than the originally envisioned three.

    We have thus far considered the theme of the kingdom of heaven. We have as well looked into the theme of righteousness. This morning we come to the last theme. A theme that we will have to treat in two segments. The theme, the father in heaven. Our message this morning will consider the loss of that theme, the loss of the father to the church, to the faithful. The attempt to recover that theme or to recover the father to our faith. And finally, in a very cursory way, Jesus’ proclamation of the father. First of all, then, the loss of the theme. of the theme of the father. An English theologian in this decade, Thomas Snail, by name, has written a book entitled The Forgotten Father.

    It is his contention that in the Church’s recent history we have had movements that have centered on the latter two persons of the Trinity, but none that have centered on the first. We have had a Jesus movement. We have had the charismatic movement and its concentration upon the Holy Spirit, but there has been no father movement, and he is pleading for a writing of that which is wrong, a correcting of the offense. Now, as you read through Mr. Smale’s book, you might be put off a bit and decide on your own that none of the persons of the Trinity need any movement whatsoever, be it a Jesus movement or a spirit movement or a father movement.

    In that respect, you may well judge, and I believe rightly, Mr. Smale’s book as being tragically short-sighted and less than profound. If not parochial and provincial, there have been over against Mr. Smale Those who have looked into Bible studies or the study of church history. They they’re making similar observations, these with much more cogency, with much more power. Ripping off much more than the arguments made by Mr. Schmale. So our habit has been in our Bible study. and even in sophisticated biblical studies to relate the father.

    The first person of the tragedy, so we confess exclusively to the works of creation and provenance. And we do so in a sort of Christ less and spirit less way. For instance, When taking up the matter of the fatherhood of God, we turn to the Old Testament, and there we concentrate on the figure of God as he appears there in somewhat of a Christless and spiritless fashion. Now, of course, we know that the God who reveals himself in the Old Testament is not Christless and he is not spiritless. But the impact of biblical studies and Bible study has been to relegate the father to the Old Testament. So then the father there can find. We identify Christ with the Gospels and spirit with Acts and Epistles, and there you have Now this is strange, to be sure, because if you have worked a bit with the Old Testament, you might know that really, in a direct fashion, God does not appear as Father at all in the pages of that test.

    Now there are allusions There is a great deal of metaphorical language, political description of God’s relationship to his people, but a direct affirmation that God is father is absent. Now, you might take as an example of this the song that we just sang, Psalm 103. Now, I think a number of you know that song by heart. and you can rattle off those verses, wherein God is compared to a father pitying his children, taking care of them. We see it a political description.

    And the psalmist there isn’t directly calling God father. Rather, he is using a political device to refer to God in that manner. So it’s not in the Old Testament we find God identified as the father. Instead, It is exclusively in the New Testament, we find him identified as such.

    So our usual approaches to Bible study and biblical studies is off base. It’s incorrect. What about our our habit with regard to church history? In thinking about the father, as far as the development of doctrine is concerned, as far as the development of the church is concerned, Once more, our habit has been to concern ourselves only with the father when we’re speaking about creation and problems. I am large. You think of the classic creed. Well, we’ve been memorizing.

    And the opening statement of the Apostles created and I seem created there quite similar. Once more, attaches the fatherhood of God to creation, and we would then, of course, infer from that the works of Providence. And so it is in the development of the history of the Church, at least as some have surveyed it. Interestingly enough, the fatherhood of God was the topic of discussion from the years 100 to 300. and it was forced upon the Church, not because of the consideration of redemption per se, but because it was believed by some who were wandering around in the Church in those days that a holy God could have no contact with a sinful Earth. So it behooved the Church to affirm the fact that God, after all, was the Creator. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. That’s the background of that statement. We believe in creation. We believe that our God has created.

    But having resolved that matter to the church’s satisfaction and those ancient Gnostics, the enemy they were confronted, being shelved or pushed aside or defeated, more or less, the church moved on to the doctrine of the sun. so that from three hundred A.D. to A.D. eighteen hundred, we can say roughly the sun takes center stage in his person. First of all, who is he? How is he related to the divine and the human and also his work? In the late Middle Ages, you have the appearance of St. Anselm and his exposition of the doctrine of the Atonement, focusing upon the work of Christ on the cross.

    And then comes the Reformation, and we know all about that, how it’s focused on Christ’s satisfaction for us once for all, the recovery of the historical dimension of Christ’s sacrifice for sinners. So that it wasn’t a matter of you running off to the cathedral every morning for morning It was a matter of you passing yourself upon the sufficiency of God’s offering for you in Christ. A sacrifice in his son and your faith in that your reliance upon it. You’re resting in it was for you. the blessing of confidence, trust, and serenity.

    Well, doctrine of the Father, doctrine of the Son, then from the 1800s to the present, it seems as if, with the rise of the enthusiasts, you might think the charismatic movement a modern phenomenon. It’s not modern at all. It just gained a great deal of currency in our own day. But the roots of the modern charismatic movement go back to the eighteenth to the eighteen hundred million before the seventeen hundred. We can say. And the spirit is there in this movement and preeminence and captured the attention of the church.

    Well there is that habit then in studying church history to relegate the father. to the early days of the church and pretty much be unconcerned with him in the latter development of the doctrines that are so important to us. It leaves us, you might say, as orphans in a fatherless situation. That being the circumstance that confronts the church. Well, even if we don’t give a lot of credence to Mr. Schmiel analysis, we are forced to think again when we take stock of the direction that Bible study has taken and the study of church history, our appropriation of and the fatherlessness of our situation. Well. That brings us to the second point, namely the attempts at recovery It can’t be attempted recovery of the last of the lost rather lost father. Now, what is provoked is what I have already mentioned for you.

    It is the fact that when we read our Bible, we can’t help but be impressed that for Jesus, the fatherhood of God was a central theme to his preaching. And therefore, you see, if we are to understand Jesus of right, we certainly have to deal with that thing. That thing for Jesus is central. But it is also unique. As we have surveyed the Old Testament We find that God is not directly called father in its pages, but then we come to the gospels and suddenly there is this barrage. There is this avalanche. And we find God referred to as father directly addressed as such by Jesus and then Jesus instructing those who would follow him, those who would be disciples to him to do the same.

    And his message is unique for it is not found in the rabbi. It’s not found in the synagogue. It’s not found in the Jewish authorities of his day. There is no message like this. So Jesus comes on the scene with this utterly unique message about the father. Setting the theme of the fatherhood of God. At the very center of what he has said. Now it wasn’t the Conservatives and the Orthodox that recognize this fact. Oddly enough, at least in our most recent history. Instead, it was the liberals who realize this, and they set about to offer a correction.

    But the correction that they offered to the church with the law was along the lines of a Jesus who simply came upon the scene as a prophet, one profoundly spiritual, who then presented to the world his message as if he were presenting to that world a previously undiscovered truth. Jesus, then, was a prophet with a bright new idea. And the great new idea was the fatherhood of God. This, then, as his message, truly a radically new message, said the liberals, led them then to conclude that his message along these lines was of the universal brotherhood of man under the indiscriminate fatherhood of God. that then the message and the religion of Jesus, from which is excluded a religion about Jesus and any redemptive note, any note of sin, any note of atonement, any note of sacrifice, any note of miraculous resurrection excluded. the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man indiscriminately and simply.

    The response of orthodoxy has not been very satisfying, for in response to the liberal who took the field in the early days of this century, Orthodox theologians and Orthodox churches thought it was enough simply to reassert the doctrine of the Trinity. To speak once more about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To answer the liberal notion that Jesus’ message about the Father was a bright idea, they simply came along and said, no, it’s not a bright idea, it’s only an old idea that Jesus is reasserting here. reaffirming.

    But you see, that approach by orthodoxy misses the point. It misses the point because it cannot take into consideration, it does not deal with the force of Jesus’ preaching, and the fact that Jesus appears on the scene with a radically new message. A message about the fatherhood of God.

    Now, there have been those within orthodoxy who are much closer to the mark. I have in mind Herman Ritter was the Dutch New Testament scholar who is said in his book, The Coming of the Kingdom, that the fatherhood of God cannot be disassociated from the doctrine of the kingdom. And as the title of his book suggests, there is a coming of the kingdom. There is also then the coming of the revelation of God as father, and they go together and they cannot be separate.

    There has been the observation of Sinclair Ferguson, who is now convinced that the doctrine of sonship has been shortchanged by orthodox and reformed theologians and by the reformed church. For while the chapters on creation and Providence get nine paragraphs in the Westminster Confession of Faith. The doctrine of adoption gets what one. So then, Dr. Ferguson sets about to write this long and correct this error by setting at the center of the theological task, the affirmation and exposition of the doctrine of adoption that we are.

    I cannot forget. One of the finest sermons I ever heard preached. It was preached in nineteen seventy one. It wasn’t a very impressive crowd that heard it. But it was a message that was impressive. And of course, the text was impressive. It came from Philippians chapter four. And the great joy that is spoken of there by the apostle. And the tremendous confidence that is there. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” You know the verse.

    But it was a sermon, oddly enough, on God the Father. And yes, even on God’s works of providence and how God cares for us. But the interesting thing about it was that it was built not on a consideration of an Old Testament text, but on a New Testament text, and it was based upon a consideration of the death and the resurrection of Jesus. There have been attempts then within orthodoxy to come to grips with the father of the situation that we have encountered in the church, a situation that has not been helped generally by voices within.

    Jesus proclamation that. Of the father. In half. Just briefly, and by way of introduction to what we will say. Next week. The proclamation. Of the fatherhood of God. Could not take place. Apart from the revelation. That is why. In the Old Testament. There is no direct reference. To God. That could not take place. Apart from the revelation. Of the thought. That appeared to you from what we have read in Matthew in the eleventh chapter, that twenty-seventh verse.

    All things have been handed over to me by my father, Jesus, and no one knows the son except the father, nor does anyone know the father except the son and anyone to whom the son will to reveal. You see, the proclamation of the father by Jesus is an exponent of the person of Jesus and dependent upon the manifestation of the son. It is when the son is clearly delineated that the father then is clearly delineated. The father then is not revealed until the son himself is revealed as he is in the Gospels. what other thing to keep in mind is that this is that this word about the fatherhood of God has implications, of course, for us.

    For you know That is, Jesus makes his addresses throughout the gospel. He is repeatedly referring to God, not only as his Father, but as our Father, or your Father. But this word about our Sonship in relationship to our Father in Heaven is actually built upon the reality of Jesus’ Sonship. We have read from Matthew five, we could read the entirety of the sermon on the mountain. We could count up all the times in that sermon that God is called father in relationship to what making reference to our son.

    But do you not realize that the do you not realize that before you get to Matthew five through seven, you already have first Matthew one through four. You’ve already read about the genealogy of the sun. You’ve already read about the birth of the sun. You’ve already read about the oppression that the sun experience and the flight of the sun into Egypt and the rescue of the sun from Egypt and his reinstatement within the land of promise. You have already read about the sun at the waters of baptism and you’ve already read about the father saying about the fun. This is my beloved son in whom I will please and you will read about the trial. on when they make a point of temptation to hear you with the word.

    You are the son of God. You already read all of that material. So that by the time you get to Matthew five to seven, you’re not talking simply about a friendship, generally conceived as if we have in mind the universal brotherhood of man. You are talking about a friendship that is built on nothing less than the friendship of Jesus Christ. What do you think is happening in the baptism in the baptism? You’re seeing a preview of the crucifixion. What is happening when Jesus comes up out of the waters of baptism? You see, you preview of the resurrection.

    And that affirmation of the sonship of Jesus Christ becomes the foundation of your claim to sonship. And Jesus addressed to you that you can, after all, because of what Jesus Christ has done for you. call God your Father in the very same way that Jesus was.

    It’s the same word, and it’s on your list. Well. The final point for you. If the Old Testament thing. Confidence. Without the explicit and direct doctrine and proclamation of the father. if he was able to cross. In the circumstances that he how much more you. Who have the incomparable privilege in the latter. Of calling. Your phone. Through Jesus Christ. Certainly. What I have just said. Can be placed as an exclamation point. To the marvelous lessons that we have had morning instruction from Jonathan Stark on the book of the back. Back.

    So praise God with the confidence that he exhibits in that last. He without the express. Direct message that God is Father, how much more? You, and what confidence that you have before God. In the end, our Father we begin to grasp something of that incomparable privilege of speaking of you as Abba, as Father.

    Your spirit at work in us, confirming us in the reality that we are. by virtue of the work of Jesus Christ, the sons of God. May we have, then, that magnificent confidence and trust that should, in fact, be ours as those who have been made sons through Christ’s death and resurrection.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Entering Christ’s Righteousness

    Entering Christ’s Righteousness

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, August 30, 1987.

    About this sermon

    “The just shall live by faith.” Righteousness dominates Jesus’ teaching in Matthew, from his baptism “to fulfil all righteousness” to the beatitude on those who hunger and thirst for it. Isaiah 51 shows that God’s righteousness is more than his character: it is his saving action, which goes forth like salvation and endures forever. In Christ God’s righteous reign has appeared. Believers become righteous not by their own efforts but by entering, through faith, into Christ’s own righteousness.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning, our scripture reading is taken from Isaiah chapter 51, and then we will turn to the Sermon on the Mount for a couple of passages. But first of all, we are looking at Isaiah 51, verses 4 through 8. This is what the prophet writes. Hearken unto me, my people, and give ear unto me, O my nation.

    For a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light to the people. My righteousness is near. My salvation is gone forth, and mine arm shall judge the people. the isle shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath, for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment.

    And they that dwell therein shall die in like manner, but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilements. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool. But my righteousness shall be forever. and my salvation from generation to generation. Turning to Matthew 5 and reading verse 20.

    For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Father, it is your word and you send it out to the ends of the earth and today in all the nations there are those who have gathered to hear it. O Father, glorify yourself by your word and may your servants who have been chosen to Proclaim that word admirably, in keeping with your commandment, in keeping with Christ Jesus, the one whom they declare.

    We pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen. Our subject is the themes of Jesus preaching. The themes of Jesus preaching. This is a three-part series, and this is our second message. Our first dealt with that primary thing, the kingdom of heaven. Our second deals with righteousness. Our third next week will deal with the Father, the Father in heaven. So this morning, This morning we are concerned with this theme, righteousness. I dare say that we cannot overemphasize its importance. You can think, you can think of what it has meant to us as confessing Christians that whole matter of righteousness. We, for instance, who have taken a stand with the Protestant Reformation.

    You have heard of the trembling monk who, as he was about to serve, administer His first Mass became overwhelmed because, because he, troubled in soul, was not confident at all with regard to his own righteousness before the righteousness of the awesome God. That monk plagued With that question, how then can a man be righteous before God? That’s setting the tone for our lives. We, as confessing Protestant Christians, how might a man be righteous How might a man be righteous before a holy God?

    You remember the resolution as it came to Martin Luther, him perusing the Psalms, him perusing the book of Galatians and the book of Romans. And finally, understanding that in the gospel, that is, in the word of grace, in the good news about Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God has been revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. That is our heritage. But though the question about the righteousness of man may well have been forgotten during the dark ages, it was certainly evident in the life of Jesus, and it was prominent upon his lips.

    If you just take stock of the Gospel of Matthew to this point, through the sixth chapter, you may think back to chapter three and the story of Jesus’ baptism. It is here that we have the first recorded words of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel, and upon what do they center? They center upon the theme of righteousness. You remember how John the Baptist protested? Oh, no, I rather should be baptized than you. But Jesus said, Permit it at this time, for in this way it is fitting that all righteousness might be fulfilled. The message, the importance of righteousness to Jesus.

    And can we forget the fourth Beatitude? Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they shall be filled. Can we avoid that last blessed given by Jesus in verse ten of chapter five, concerning the life of those who identify themselves with you. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness sake. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. We have the message concerning righteousness given us in verse twenty. We read that this morning. For those identifying themselves with Jesus, indeed, their righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. If it doesn’t, they can’t enter the kingdom of heaven. So he said.

    He expounds upon the theme of righteousness, beginning with the opening verse of chapter six. Beware of practicing your righteousness before men, to be noticed by them, he says. And then you have that incomparable test, the thirty-third verse of the sixth chapter.

    But seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, We cannot then deny the importance of the theme of righteousness. Practically speaking, for us as confessing Protestant Christians, but also because we see that that theme of righteousness is prominent for Jesus.

    But what did Jesus mean by righteousness? What did he mean when he spoke about righteousness? Well, you will note that he speaks about it in two ways. First of all, he speaks about your life. Specifically, in verse twenty of chapter five, verse one of chapter six, your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. He will practice in your righteous In this vein, Jesus is calling our attention to the fact that righteousness refers to the qualities that demonstrate that we are right and just before God.

    That which is commended by God because God has demanded it In view, specifically, is our behavior. In view, specifically, is our conduct. In view, specifically, is how we act. The theme of righteousness, therefore, is supercharged with ethics. The whole matter of our behavior.

    But Jesus also speaks about righteousness in another way. Not only does he talk about your righteousness, our righteousness, he also speaks about his righteousness, that is, the righteousness of the Father. Seeking first the kingdom of God and His Righteousness. But when Jesus speaks about righteousness in relationship to the Father, the righteousness of God, does he simply mean to bring before us the ethical qualities of the Father above, of God in heaven? Does he mean simply to bring before us those qualities of our God which prove him right and just? as if he were taking apart the character of God by this message of righteousness. The righteousness of God does Jesus simply put before us the character of God.

    That is why I read for you this morning from Isaiah 51. And if you look at Isaiah 51 and those verses 8, 4 through 8, you will be faced there with a different concept of righteousness, one that we’re not familiar with, one that doesn’t come naturally to us. For you see, when Jesus speaks about the righteousness of the Father, the righteousness of God, He is speaking of more than just the Father’s character.

    He is speaking about the Father’s activity and His actions, those things by which He makes Himself known. Informing Jesus in his vocabulary is the hope of Israel that God will reveal his righteousness and by his righteousness prove faithful to his promise, delivering his people. So yes, my righteousness is near, says Isaiah. My salvation is coming, writes the prophet. There is an event yet to take place that will make known the righteousness of God, that brings in view His activity as much as His character. And you see, it is that then that is informing Jesus as He speaks, as He does, about the righteousness of God.

    Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. What does Jesus want you to desire when He says that to you? He wants you to desire the coming of God. That God would appear and set everything right. And that is to be your chief desire. What do you think Jesus is speaking about when he says, blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness? Does he have in mind just simply cozying up to the character of God? Not that that is anything to be laughed at, anything that is to be diminished in our estimation, but yet he has something much more in view. When you are hungering and thirsting for righteousness, you are hungering and thirsting for God’s righteous reign.

    When everything is put right, and He is vindicated as glorious, and you are exalted and filled Well, having said that, we say more. For you see, we ordinarily think of the righteous reign of God as something that is holy future. Oh, someday it’ll come. When the world ends, God will reveal himself and everything will be made right.

    And surely we anxiously await that day when God will come triumphantly, finally. and reveal his righteousness and there will be left no opposition to him but you see when Jesus preaches he tells you that the righteous reign of God is not just something future he tells you It’s here. And where might it be found? It might be found in that one who says to John the Baptist that in him all righteousness is fulfilled. Where might it be found? It is found in him.

    And that one who, when he goes on from the tenth verse of the fifth chapter, speaking about that righteousness for whose sake we are persecuted, then adds that in being persecuted for righteousness’ sake, you’re being persecuted for my sake, identifying himself with righteousness.

    For in Christ’s coming, God has come, and the righteous reign of God has appeared, and you, by your faith have now entered into that righteousness. The righteousness that you may hope for, a present reality, yes, present in Christ, who is after all, as the apostle describes him, our righteousness. It is trust in Him, then. It is holding fast to Him, our righteousness that sets us right at the time when God, in the end, finally reveals the fullness of the righteous brain that belongs to Him.

    It is not a small thing, it is not a small thing to contemplate righteousness, the righteousness of the kingdom, the righteousness of God. And surely it is no small thing that you be counted righteous because you have trusted that one in whom all righteousness is fulfilled. Need you fear? Need you be terrified now in light of the coming day of the Lord? Not at all. You are secure in the righteousness of God.

    Let us pray. O Lord, if righteousness means to have that quality whereby we are right and just, where might we look but to Jesus Christ, the one in whom righteousness has been fulfilled? We ask our Father that we, your children, may be well clothed in the righteousness that has given us and we have received by faith. And as we walk in your presence, may we be sure to give all glory to you, the one to whom it belongs. We pray these things through Christ our righteousness.

    Amen. As we come to the table of the Lord, I would ask that we sing together hymn 362. 362. Let’s stand and sing together hymn 362. Left thy words in mercy pure, Left thy sweetest body for man, He will be your gracious Lord, For thy foundless Fatherland. Now I give myself to Thee. Thou this Lord that art mine true, blessed Lord, thou cam’st to save me. O that Lord of God would give me love for Thee, in sorrow may be. Thou didst give thyself for me, now I need thyself.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Heavenly Kingdom’s Centrality

    The Heavenly Kingdom’s Centrality

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, August 23, 1987.

    About this sermon

    Three themes run through Christ’s preaching on the mount, and the heavenly kingdom sits at the center of all three. That kingdom is already present, with Christ here in the Spirit, while its fullness is not yet. The already and not yet shapes the whole Sermon on the Mount.

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    Sermon transcript

    Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.

    But let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh to evil. Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him plain. Get to him that asketh thee, and from him that would follow thee turn not thou away.

    Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. For he maketh his Son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth his reign on the just and on the unjust.

    For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same. But if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans the same. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.”

    Your word in the world, O Lord, it is life, and servants for its declaration, for its extension, are called. They are called of you. For your sake they arise. for your sake they speak. So now in the world you are proclaiming the honor of your name, the glory of the gospel, the excellency of redemption found in the cross of Christ and nowhere else. Bless your servants in all of the continents of the world those who labor in truth, who seek to see you exalted among the nations. Hear us, Lord, for Jesus’ sake. Amen. We have been laboring with the Sermon on the Mount for some time now.

    Now you don’t all have to shake your heads. It has been an arduous journey and we haven’t progressed that far. We have taken a few side trips and I’m planning a few more. In fact, this morning’s message is one of those side trips. To give you an idea of where we will be going, my hope is, after this brief side trip, to complete Chapter 5 and then take a somewhat extended breather before we progress with Chapter 6.

    And what I would like to do in that extended breather is consider with you the five points of Calvinism. And to draw out from those points new things and old as an encouragement to you in your own confession of the reformed faith. But for now, the little side trip, a series of three messages These messages dealing, I hope simply and directly, with the themes of Jesus’ preaching and teaching. I said there were three messages, so I’m concentrating on three themes.

    The first, you probably can guess, it is the Kingdom of Heaven. The second is simply righteousness. Righteousness, a theme that you hear repeated throughout the Sermon on the Mount and certainly elsewhere in Jesus’ messages. And the final one, where I really want to get to, is what appears here in the forty-eighth verse of this chapter, that theme of the Father in heaven. So in our next three messages, these subjects, themes of Jesus’ preaching, the kingdom of heaven, and the Father who is in Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven.

    I think by now you realize how central that is to my own preaching and how much I have concentrated on it with you. But this morning I want to think about it a little bit more in depth, and try to organize our thoughts concerning it. We have some texts that have appeared now in what has been written previously by Matthew that speak to us about the kingdom, and in Matthew’s gospel, specifically identified as the kingdom of heaven. And that has significance, and we’ll speak of that significance. Let’s take note of these tests. Some you know well, some are obvious, some appear in the body of the Sermon on the Mount, those portions which we have covered already.

    But you remember how Jesus began his ministry. Turn back to the fourth chapter of Matthew, you note the seventeenth verse there, Jesus comes into Galilee with a single sentence message. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is near. Now that this kingdom is central to his teaching and preaching is borne out by what you read after that. But your eyes flow down the page to verse 23 of that fourth chapter. Jesus is going about all Galilee, and he’s teaching in the synagogues, and he is preaching the gospel of the kingdom, the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. That is what he is proclaiming.

    Whatever you might think Jesus is saying, in the end, you must relate it to what he is saying about the kingdom of heaven, because that is central to his message. And how tragic it is that many who have ventured into the pulpit, who have ventured before the people of God to expound the message of Jesus, have left the kingdom of heaven out. Jesus is good for all kinds of things.

    A better job, a better golf score, better mental health, a better way of life. But you see, central, central to the message of our Savior. is the kingdom of heaven. Well, we get into the body of the Sermon on the Mount, and right away we are confronted with this theme, the first beatitude.

    Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, and that refrain is repeated in verse ten of chapter five. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Once more, that message appears, and you might well say that that message about the kingdom of heaven acts as bookends around the Beatitudes that start out the Sermon on the Mount. Then, if you look at verse twenty of chapter five, you have Jesus saying this, for I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. All right, we have established the fact that the kingdom of heaven is important to Jesus. More than that, the kingdom of heaven is central to his preaching and teaching That is what he is all about.

    That is what he wishes to communicate. A message about the kingdom of heaven. But what is the kingdom of heaven? Heaven does give it away. The emphasis, you see, is on heaven. As Matthew in his gospel with discipline, our eyes and our thinking, you know that he distinct among the gospel writer speaks pointedly about the kingdom of heaven upon the lips of Jesus. It is the kingdom of heaven that we hear about. Where in the other gospels we hear about the kingdom of God, but here you see it is the kingdom of heaven.

    And by speaking about heaven, Jesus, in his message, is pointing to that realm of God’s unopposed glory. Think of it. Think of it in relationship to yourselves and your opposition to God. the world and its opposition to God. When Jesus preaches about the kingdom of heaven, he is directing our gaze to the realm of God’s unopposed glory.

    He is. directing our attention above, to an unseen world, a world that stands beyond this world, a world of eternal realities. And he is telling those who hear him There is nothing more important than those realities and that world. Do you believe it? Now, I will tell you this. If you don’t, you don’t belong to Jesus. I’m not going to mince words with you. I’m not going to leave you any place to hide.

    If you think Jesus is your friend, and the kingdom of heaven is not central to you, think again. Think again. Will it be the world that is perceived only with eyes given by God, or will it be that world which you see and want so desperately now? the kingdom of heaven, the realm of God’s unopposed glory, an unseen world of eternal realities. Life in this world runs down and runs out. We will all die, but then what? Then what? Jesus by preaching the kingdom of heaven is telling you put last things first and above all. Put eternal things first and above all.

    Well not only is the kingdom of heaven the realm of God’s unopposed rule and glory. It is the goal of his redemptive intention for his world and specifically his people. And as it is that for him, so it is to be for all those who claim him. Even when he had created Adam and Eve in the garden, the goal for them was not some sort of perpetual garden in this world. Their objective was to even then be translated through probation into a realm that would never know diminishment at all, or loss. a realm in which death would be impossible. So that from the very beginning, the objective has been heaven, not this world.

    And when Jesus appears and proclaims its proximity, he declares to you that it is near. He is saying to you, that the goal and the intent of God’s redemptive program is at hand. So should it be, then, the object of our desire and the goal of our life, truly, to live ourselves unopposingly in the realm of God’s unopposed glory. But not only is the kingdom of heaven the realm of God’s unopposed glory and the goal of his redemptive intent for his world.

    We also realize that the kingdom of heaven, in one sense, is future. That is, we have thought about it this way, ordinarily, usually, which commences when this world and its order ends. So it stands out there as yet future. Its futurity is in view in that twentieth verse of the fifth chapter, when Jesus talks about the prospect of our entering into it. For we shall yet enter into it, you see.

    When we are confirmed in a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees, But its futurity is also in view in Jesus’ first message, that one that appears in Matthew 4.17. Repent, for the future kingdom of heaven is near.

    It is at hand. Do you see what Jesus is saying? Are you gripped by it? All time seems to be relativized by his message. It doesn’t matter where you stand chronologically, removed from that proclamation that Jesus gave in Galilee. It’s all relative now.

    The kingdom of heaven is always imminent, and it’s liable to break in upon you because you do not know when this world will end. Jesus says, Repent! Why? Because if you don’t, your end will be the same as the world’s. But if you do, your end will not be the same as the world’s. You will live with God. forever. So then, we think of the kingdom of heaven as something that commences when this world ends.

    It is, in one sense, future. But there’s something else here. We still have Chapter 4, verse 23. We still have chapter 5, verse 3, and verse 10. And in these verses, it’s not so much the futurity of the kingdom that Jesus is speaking about. Rather, he is speaking about its presence now. How else could it be a gospel? Verse 23. How else could it be good news?

    For Jesus comes not speaking simply a message about repentance in preparation for the coming Kingdom of Heaven. He preaches good news about the blessings that are now being conferred, because the Kingdom has, in effect, descended upon those who come to Him. even now, before the time, are experiencing the eternal realities of the kingdom of heaven. And in their souls they are being trained so as not to oppose the glory of God. They know for sure that their end shall be in the presence of that One whose glory will not be opposed. and they will live with him forever there. Yes, the future, kingdom, demanding repentance, demanding preparation that you might enter it, but now blessing, and that might seem far removed from your mind.

    Where then are the blessings you ask? I seem to live a life in this world like anyone else. I have troubles just like everyone else. The substance of the blessing. But his present now operative for the kingdom of heaven within you. Is the presence. Of your Lord. with you, for I’m not preaching simply some spatial idea, as if I were talking merely about a realm.

    I’m talking about a person, and when Jesus comes, he’s able to say, as no one has ever been able to say before, the kingdom is at hand, and he is able to say, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Why? Because I am here. Do you think Jesus left when he ascended? Do you think the only place that feels the presence of Christ is heaven? Jesus’ presence is right here in this room.

    And His presence is right within your heart. And because that’s true, the Kingdom of Heaven has come upon you. Now that benefit has come to you at awful price to him. He died on the cross that you might have it. But he has been raised from the dead that he might give it. And for you to believe in his death and in his resurrection means now also that you must believe that he is here and that he is in you.

    You have to believe it. And it’s not a matter of you making it up. It’s not a matter of your faith making it true as if it weren’t, and only your believing makes it so. It is a fact, it is a reality, and now faith is such that it rests upon that reality and you recline on it to the health of your soul and your eternal well-being.

    Now that’s what the preaching of Jesus is all about and we need to hear it again and again and again because the kingdom of this world and the power of the kingdom of this world is so strong Jesus comes preaching. The kingdom of heaven. Let’s pray. Our eye, O Lord, may well be frail and dimmed, but O Lord that we would see as surely as you have given us by your spirit eyes to see the realm of your unopposed glory mediated unto us through Jesus Christ your Son. Hearing him and being born afresh, may we delight in the blessing that his presence is to us. And may we apply ourselves in light of the coming of the kingdom in all of its fullness for the day of its appearance and the appearance of the glorious Son of Man in the clouds with all of his holy angels with him. Father, your mercy is everlasting and by it we would be strengthened presently to perceive the kingdom of heaven and to acknowledge and feel the presence of your son

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Double Language, Clear Vision

    Double Language, Clear Vision

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, August 16, 1987.

    About this sermon

    John’s Gospel is simple and complex at once, and its double language works on more than one level, as do Acts 21:30 and Matthew 5:1. That kind of layered writing offers vision to gain. Real clarity comes only from looking to the Word of God itself.

    More sermons from Matthew · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    This morning we are reading from Matthew chapter 5 and we begin with verse 33 and read to the end of that chapter Jesus is speaking here Again ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths.

    But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.” Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.

    But let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him plain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away.

    He hath heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. For he maketh his Son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? But if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so.

    Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect.” Pray with me briefly. Father, may our concerns not be simply provincial, but may our concern be for the width and breadth of your kingdom and its expression here in this world.

    May our desire be for the fullness of the body of Christ and the honor of Him who is the head, Christ Himself. And Lord, we ask that Your grace may abound in servants that You have moved, moved by Your Spirit that they, with a fire burning within them, might then speak, and speak boldly your word. Prosper them, our Father, in the proclamation of that word, as also, Lord, they feast upon it and are nourished, and by strength derived are encouraged to preach all the more. This day your word is heard, throughout the entirety of this world which is yours. By it strengthen your elect and call those yet not gathered that they might abide with us and under the shadow of your wing forever. Amen.

    It is undoubtedly recognized by you that John writes an extraordinary gospel, that John’s gospel seems different from the other gospels that appear in the New Testament. It seems obvious in that gospel that we are confronted with a complexity. On the one hand, that gospel is simply written.

    Let your mind go back over some of the highlights of that gospel, highlights that stand out for you, and think of how simply John writes, how straightforwardly he writes. In fact, he is so straightforward, he is so simple, that at one level there doesn’t seem to be any mystery whatsoever as to what he’s speaking of. But then comes the complexity. John truly is that extraordinary gospel and that one that is written with simplicity. Yet, there is a difficulty about him, something quite sublime, something that taxes us as we read him, for we are convinced as we move through his gospel that things aren’t as simple as they appear. The language may be direct and uncomplicated, but the thoughts are profound.

    It is as if John moves at different levels simultaneously. It is as if John is moving on the level of the mundane at the level of the uncomplicated, but then, at the same time, he is placing before us something that transcends all that. So John becomes explicitly, then, the two-tiered gospel. The one tier being the ordinary level of things of this earth, the second tier, obviously, the level of those things which are above.

    You might think of that discussion that Jesus had with Nicodemus, where he tells Nicodemus, you must be born again. Well, you can read that on a simple, naturalistic level, and that’s exactly what Nicodemus does, you recall. He says, how can a man, when he is old, enter into his mother’s womb and be born a second time? Well, you see, if we understand Jesus’ words aright, what he is really saying, though saying you must be born again, is this, you must be born from above.

    So the words, you see, operate at two levels. Another illustration of this, is what we find in the fourth chapter of John, and I might say throughout the gospel of John in its entirety. But that fourth gospel, just as an illustration, you remember the story.

    Jesus is traveling through Samaria. He comes to a town, he sits by the well, he sends his disciples into the town to get provision. He is left there alone, except now, in the middle of the day, at a time uncommon for women to come and get water, there comes one woman, and as the story unfolds, we understand why. She is an embarrassment to the community, and she comes at noon in order to avoid the and the gossip of everyone in the town.

    Well, she comes, and Jesus is there. She is surprised at him, because he is a Jew, first of all, and secondly, he is a man. And he speaks to her, and he says to her, give me some water. Well, there’s the first level. Jesus is speaking about water, and we understand what he’s talking about. Then she, surprised, of course, how do you, being a Jew, ask of me, a Samaritan, for water? And his response to her takes us to the second tier, that other level. If you knew who it was who was speaking to you, you would ask of him, and he would give you water The kind of water, if you drink of it, you’ll never thirst again. There you have it, the two tiers.

    The ordinary way of perception you see is merely to speak of things as you see them. We talk of water as we know it. We know how valuable it is and how refreshing it is, how essential to life it is, how essential it is for life here in this world. Right now, the water that I can see out the back windows in the Ohio looks very refreshing. Water of this earth! But you see, Jesus then speaks of a different kind of water. A water that belongs to the realm above, water that flows forth from the throne of God, water that has the power to confer upon those who drink it eternal life. Life above. Two tiers. Life in this world, life above.

    It is as if when you are reading the Gospel of John, you need a new pair of eyes. You have to see things differently. It’s as if you need a new set of glasses. formally blind, even in your sight, formally blind, even though you say you see. But now, because of Christ, awakened, your vision clear, seeing things as you have never seen them before.

    Well, there you have John’s gospel for you. A good introduction to that gospel. You’re saying to yourself, what does that have to do with Matthew? Well, the conclusion of many has been nothing, nothing, whatever. John is the gospel that belongs off in a corner. You read him in isolation from all the other gospels that appear in the New Testament. He’s the gospel that’s different. And therefore, you read him in a way that you simply don’t read. Matthew, Mark, and Luke. For John, as we have said, is presenting to us this sort of two-tiered notion of reality, and we simply don’t find that in the other Gospels.

    They operate on a rather straightforward historical line. Things as they are Things are as they are, as they appear to be, a straight historical line. The story is as it is told here. There’s no mystery about it. There’s no second level. There’s no second tier being presented to us in these other Gospels. So John stands by himself and the other Gospels, they stand by themselves. John tells distinctive stories that the others don’t tell. He has a language and vocabulary that seems to be his alone, and thus he is in effect isolated.

    But do you really believe that that is the intent of God in his providential dealings in giving us the New Testament? Do you really believe in your heart that God intends for you to take John, in effect, cut him out of the Bible and set him over here as a Bible all by himself? Or is the case quite different?

    Is John the last gospel because the Lord in his providence wishes by John to make explicit what has been implicit in all the other gospels up to this point. So that you cannot leave the reading of the gospels in the New Testament without being confronted with this fact. and having come to the conclusion of John, you’re forced to go back and read Matthew, Mark, and Luke with the nuance that John has told you are indispensable for understanding Jesus. As a matter of fact, no other reading of Matthew, Mark, and Luke will do. while the critics and the scholars and the exegetes and the theologians may imagine that they understand that if they do not have that vision of which John speaks that vision which Jesus is able to give they understand nothing nothing an eloquent and moving message for the simple in faith where does a child begin usually in his reading of the New Testament. Is it not with the simple stories of John’s Gospel? The simplest among us. Yet, that child, with eyes opened by the Holy Spirit, understands more than the ancients and more than the most intelligent and profound of our age. in the sight of God.

    And that’s the truth of it. Well, you want me to prove it, don’t you? Well, in order to help us understand I will take a passage written by a gospel writer, but not appearing in a gospel. I will take a passage written by Luke, because it’s so obvious, it’s so plain, we won’t miss it. My hope is that you will be convinced that what I’ve been saying is true, that no less than John, all the other gospel writers are also operating on this two-tiered approach to truth and reality. See the world? But the world is transparent to those who have eyes given them by God. You see through it and beyond it, through eternal things, those things that last forever. All right.

    Let’s look at that other book by Luke, Acts, and see what he does. In the twenty-first chapter of that book, there appears a marvelous, marvelous statement that is filled with all kinds of significance for the Book of Acts as a whole, but also as it relates to what we have been speaking of here. This verse is verse 30. We’re at Acts 21, verse 30. Now, you read that passage and you might slip past it. You might glide right over it. You might miss the significance altogether. But you see, Luke is doing something here with you in order for you to see more than just what the words say.

    Verse 30, And all the city was aroused. You know, Paul is there in Jerusalem. All the city was aroused, and the people rushed together, the Jews, and they took hold of Paul, and they dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut. No poet could have done it better. Shakespeare couldn’t have done it better himself, and immediately the doors were shut.

    Do you see it? Do you see it? Oh, you might think, on the historical planes, it was just another day in Jerusalem. And there was a commotion in the courtyard of the temple, and as was always done in those circumstances, the guards rushed in and they immediately shut the doors in order to preserve the sanctity of the temple. Now, you can read it on that level. But do you understand what Luke is saying? Up to this point, you see, the Temple has played such an important role, even for the Church, even for the Christians. Paul is anxious to get back from his third missionary journey so he can go to the Temple, so that he can fulfill a vow that he has made. But now that he is dragged out, you see, now that the emissary of the King of Heaven is dragged out, The doors of the temple are shut, and they are shut permanently against the truth. Against the truth. Against the gospel. Against Jesus Christ. Now, the spiritual and heavenly significance of that is awful. and that is precisely what Luke wishes to convey. But what about Matthew? What about Matthew? Oh, here we are, Matthew four and five, the tail end of four and the sermon on the mount.

    And the crowds are gathering, there’s a new celebrity in Galilee. He’s a marvelous person. What a grand and open and magnanimous personality he is. These magnetic, these charismatic people are just being drawn to him like a magnet. And oh, the crowds, the crowds, they come.

    But Jesus looks at the crowds, and what does he see? Just a mass of people congregating to see one more interesting figure that has appeared on the plane of history. Even just another prophet Jesus looks at those multitudes and he looks at them as they come, as they are gathered, as they are assembled. And with those eyes, those eyes that literally are from above, he understands those multitudes in ways they don’t understand themselves.

    For they come from the length and breadth and height of the territory. that was promised to Israel by God, was promised to the fathers by the Lord. They come from Syria, they come from Galilee, they come from Judea and Jerusalem and from the regions beyond the Jordan, the full range of that territory. Why? It’s as if all of Israel is being congregated.

    And those latter-day prophets about the scattered people being restored, they are being fulfilled in the eyes of the one who sees things from the perspective of the kingdom of heaven. Not just a mass of humanity, not just another crowd. Jesus sees more. For as they come from Galilee, Galilee has already been identified by Matthew as Galilee of the Gentiles. Syria is in Gentile lands and hands. The regions beyond the Jordan are Gentile territories. Not only the gathering of all Israel, but the gathering of the nations. Jesus sees it all. He understands the multitudes in ways they don’t understand themselves. He sees them from the perspective of the kingdom of heaven. are operative in Matthew. Jesus goes up into a mountain And how did Jesus understand the mountain?

    No name given to the mountain. Oh, we can think of those mountains geographically identified in the land of Galilee, but here no identification is given. It is called D Mountain. That’s the only identification given. It is a tip-off that we are to understand in this mountain more than anything simply geographically. something merely read along the level of that first tier.

    Instead we are to read here something more magnificent. For superimposed upon this mountain of the earth is the mountain of glory and heaven. The ultimate abode of the Christ is being foretold in the ascension of Jesus of that mountain. Two tears, a crowd, you say, no more than that. A sign that the fullness of God’s age of promise is coming. A mountain, you say, no more than that.

    You look at that mountain with new eyes, different vision altogether. And what about the message? The message, three chapters long, and oh, how it has confounded many. How it has confounded a great number because they simply have forgotten their glasses. They want to read things along a single level, on that first tier. Oh yes, we have the promises of the fathers. Oh yes, we have the laws and the commandments given to Israel. They want to read it along that level.

    So they spend all their time trying to vindicate the law in the face of Christ, who has come with something far greater than the law. They wish this Christ to be a second Moses, and he is not, he is greater than Moses. So while it is perfectly conceivable that you could run through the Sermon on the Mount and read it as if it was more Old Testament literature, more of the same, There is that testimony that if you do so, you have left your glasses at home or you never had them to begin with. Now, how am I able to say that? simply on the authority of Jesus Christ, where Christ takes up the statements of the Old Testament law, and he takes on all those who want to live at that level, and he suggests to them, but I say unto you, calling their attention to the fact that there has intruded into their existence a reality that transcends Sinai, that transcends the old administration, that comes right down out of heaven with him.

    And that is why it is not adequate to simply repeat the sixth commandment, thou shalt not kill. It isn’t adequate to simply repeat the seventh commandment, thou shalt not commit adultery. That is why the Old Testament administration and legal code with regard to divorce simply will not hold water. And that is why the Old Testament administration with regard to oaths and vows will not either. or a statement with regard to an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and its understanding of loving your neighbor and also hating your enemy. It will not hold, because something greater has come.

    So, two tiers. not reserved simply for John and his marvelous gospel, that many have placed in isolation and made to stand in the corner. No, John, the conclusion of the whole gospel testimony of the New Testament, all of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, they too speaking at that two-tiered level. You read them along the line of history as it is, things as they appear, but that isn’t adequate. What you need are the eyes that have been given by God so that you can see the eternal verities of the Kingdom of Heaven. reality itself becoming transparent to you so that you see through it and beyond it to those things that matter eternally now you might feel a little confused this morning You may be saying to yourself, now I recognize that what you’re saying is true, but I’m having such a hard time with life. In fact, I’m having such a hard time with life that sometimes I don’t think that the things of which you are speaking about, those things in the second tier, those things about heaven, are really mine.

    Now, I don’t want to give you comfort if you don’t deserve it. I mean, if you don’t have the eyes, and you don’t have the glasses, and you are sitting and living In a state of condemnation, I don’t want to give you comfort that that’s where you want to stay. I want to encourage you to flee to God and find in Him the vision that He alone is able to give. You are born and you must see if you are to live.

    Now, having said that, though, it may well be, you see, that you’re struggling and you can’t keep in focus those things of which we’ve spoken this morning. It’s very difficult. And the battle is so severe that you now have doubts about your own salvation.

    Let me say that the problem may not be that you aren’t saying, it’s simply that you aren’t utilizing that vision as God intended you to. You have it, but in all of those temptations thrown at you by Satan, you have convinced yourself that you don’t, or at least you’re acting as if you don’t. The encouragement of God is, you have it, use it. Therefore, it’s not a matter of you getting something you don’t have, it’s a matter of you using something that you already have. Now, it just might be the case that you’re lazy.

    And I won’t give you any excuses either. You can’t train your vision and have it continually polluted by evil. Now I say this to the adults and I say this to the children. You cannot train and discipline your vision and have that vision continually cluttered with evil. I am beginning to think that television is an idol. And I know what Israel was to do with idols.

    I’m good for at least one extreme statement of sermon. you cannot train and discipline your vision if you will not look into the word you cannot discipline and train your vision if you will not communicate with him who is above the object of your vision And you cannot discipline and train your vision if you cut yourself off from the means of grace which God has established in his church and with the communion of the saints. You cannot do it. It is impossible. So, I am assuming that you have the eyes and that you have the appropriate set of glasses to see things eternally.

    The admonition of scripture, the responsibility of any minister worth his salt is to encourage you to use what you have for the glory of God and the good of your soul. how wonderful that this vision is given us but what a price for you see in the end the price of the new eyes given to God’s people was that of the Son of God who died that we the blind might see let’s pray Now, Father, encourage your own. May your elect be soothed and strengthened. May your mercies be real and present. And may they delight in the grace and peace extended to them by you. We ask it in Jesus’ name.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • God’s Scrutiny Undoes Us

    God’s Scrutiny Undoes Us

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, May 24, 1987.

    About this sermon

    Liberation theology’s misuse of Matthew 5:27-30 gets a direct critique here, alongside an insistence that proper preaching stays concerned with eternal rather than merely worldly matters. Paul’s own self-discipline in 1 Corinthians 9:27 is read against that backdrop. God’s scrutiny, applied honestly to this passage, undoes every hearer alike, which is exactly why salvation can only ever be by grace.

    More sermons from Matthew · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” He hath heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.”

    Our God, we pray for peace for kings and governors and princes, for presidents and parliaments. We pray on behalf of authorities in the world that truly peace may prevail, that your word may progress unheeded. that your word may progress, Lord, unhindered. And we ask, Lord, that your unhindered word might even remind those who are in power that there is a power above to which they are subject. O God, a world above to which you are bringing your own, your elect, your people. Father may your word therefore with power go forth for the peoples of the earth that they may hear it and even those in authority that they may bow to me. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

    Now it is a text like this one this morning, and that is the golden opportunity for preaching in times like these. Texts like this, preachers ordinarily do not allow to slip by. without taking advantage of the text in a way in which that their preaching emphasizes the importance, the centrality in their preaching of the whole matter of relevance. Modern preaching does not allow texts like this to slip by without improving upon the text itself.

    Haven’t you all been waiting for a message on Jim and Tammy? Haven’t you all been waiting for a message on Gary and Lee? Haven’t you all been waiting for a message on the moral degeneracy of our society and the moral condition of the Church, how it too is falling prey? Haven’t you been waiting for that blockbuster of a message on the homosexual scourge and the plague of AIDS? the modern preacher proves his relevance by taking advantage of texts like these. He believes that by this route He has placed himself at the center of what God is presently doing in the world. How God is at work.

    And therefore it is not uncommon to hear ministers submerge themselves in a review of all of the particular practices that have now arisen and have gained a degree of popularity in our culture. It is not uncommon to hear ministers spout to you an avalanche of statistics with regard to how far we have slipped and to what end we are coming. Ministers seem to be alarmists, and they proclaim to you the ruination of your world, your culture, your civilization, because of the moral decay that has set in. But preaching like this, you see, has its own liability.

    For preaching that begins with the world invariably ends with the world. Have you noticed the appeal of the J.W.’ ‘s when they come to your door? They want to tell you in a honest fashion about all the tragedies that have overtaken civilization. And doesn’t this cause you to worry? Aren’t you on the edge of your seat? Aren’t you holding your breath, fearful of what might happen next?

    But as you talk with them further, you find out that in answer to these worldly problems, they are presenting to you a worldly solution, and their hope is holy in the world. I tell you that many a fundamentalist, many an evangelical, many a conservative, Bible-believing preacher of the gospel is doing nothing less than that. In fact, it’s far worse. In fact, it’s far worse.

    Presently there is a movement abroad which is called liberation theology. It is the product of neo-orthodoxy. It is also the product of what is called process theology. That theology contends that God is to be identified with the processes of liberation in the world.

    He has no other identity. There is no other being for God than that being that is manifest in the processes of liberation that are presently taking place amongst the oppressed of the world. Society triumphs. This world gains the upper hand. The message is about the world processes.

    But you see, As radical as that theology is, and as far removed as you may judge that theology to be from the intent of scripture, so much of what is heard now from pulpits in this land is not a hair’s breadth removed from it. Be that preaching. Be the preaching that comes forth from those pulpits, even conservatively. For the objective, you see, is to secure one’s place in the world.

    It is a message about the world, the horrors that are all around us, that are taking over, that are spoiling our culture and our civilization, these things that cause us distress, and in the end, what remedy is offered? Organize. March. Vote. Change free leadership. Restructure society. Make the world a better place. You start with the world, you end the world.

    Now as alarmed as you may be about moral decay and sexual infidelity and corruption. As much as you may be alarmed by the plague of AIDS and these things, to make these things the text of your preaching is to miss the purpose and the intent of preaching. Proper preaching is not so much concerned with current events, current affairs, the modern predicament, as it is with eternity and eternal matters. Get a hold of the force and power of Jesus’ message here, you see.

    Because you see, he’s running right into the very attitude that we have been speaking against here today. The short-sightedness of the generation of his own time, or the short-sightedness of all generations. The short-sightedness of preachers then, and the short-sightedness of preachers now. Isn’t the judgment that is being meted out by the world that which is foremost in the mind of preachers and preaching, be it in the day of Jesus or in our own?

    In Jesus’ day, the objective was to bring the offender to trial, to make him pay for his The crime was obvious, and the crime was to be punished. Therefore, thou shalt not commit adultery. And whoever commits adultery, if you were to paraphrase this twenty-seventh verse in light of what you find in verse twenty-one, for instance, whoever commits adultery, he shall be liable to the court. And the viewpoint here is one of human judgment with regard to the sin in view.

    But Jesus goes deeper. He is not satisfied with society righting itself, or keeping its nose clean. He is concerned with that which doesn’t appear, which is not apparent to the society itself, at least externally. He is concerned with that which is internal and eternal. He is concerned with the heart. And therefore, that one, that one who lusts for a woman, has already committed adultery in his heart.

    You see, the problem with ancient preaching and modern preaching is that it simply doesn’t take the predicament seriously enough, as seriously as that preaching may in vain against moral depravity. It has hardly considered the circumstance adequately, for our eyes are not to be focused upon society righting itself, or even bettering itself. The vantage point is much different.

    The vantage point is in terms of eternity, for it’s not the human course that you need to fear, as Jesus goes on to make plain in verses twenty-nine and thirty. The judgment that is in view here is not just some human court meeting to decide your case. And the judgment that is exacted by that court is not some sort of judgment that merely ends your life within society so that society itself might be purged. You see, the judgment in view has to do with your heart, and the judgment executed has to do with the eventual destination. of your soul.

    Heaven and hell. Heaven and hell. If you’re right, I, the cause of you stumbling, Pluck it out, throw it away. The things that a human court would be unconcerned with, the judgments that a human court couldn’t even make, begin to make, those are the things that concern God.

    And that’s the scrutiny that here asserts itself in the ministry and preaching of Jesus. The perception then that comes through Christ is so utterly different than what the world offers and sadly what much of the church offers. The perception that we are to have is the perception that comes to us because the light of heaven has shined. We are being scrutinized by a divine light, not a human light. And it is before that divine light that we are presented.

    What court of the world is capable of prosecuting a case of lust? None. But it is the court of heaven that prosecutes such cases. It is the coming of the kingdom of heaven that is asserting itself in Christ’s words. Now you may be thinking that, that being the case, what in the world can we do about our condition before the scrutinizing of heaven, we are undone and undone thoroughly for what man can stand before this indictment, this sentence by Christ. But as much now as we preach the fact that we must begin with heaven, so also we preach that we end with heaven. All those who preach from the earth end with the earth. Those who begin with heaven end there.

    And the message that is given to us by root of this kind of preaching is one of utter and thorough grace. By what act did you constrain God to come in the first place? By none. It was utterly and thoroughly by grace that the kingdom of heaven broke forth upon us in Jesus Christ. And it is utterly and thoroughly by grace that we, before the scrutinizing of the bar of heaven, are brought into that heavenly kingdom and secured within it.

    Adultery has to do with fidelity and faithfulness. And as much now as Jesus is preaching about these so-called moral matters, he is speaking as well about loyalty and integrity of soul. And he’s not doing this, nor do I make these comments, to make the demand any less upon you. I’m simply saying to you that the power with which you now are to live is found in this one who has gone before you.

    Who is the one who is put aside every distraction? Who is the one who is pushed aside every hindrance, everything that would get in his way, everything that would deter him from fulfilling completely and thoroughly the will of God, the Lord Jesus Christ?

    Who is the one who plucks out his eye if necessary? Who is the one that cuts off his hand if necessary? In order that the purpose and will of God would be fulfilled, is it not the Lord Jesus? Does not the Lord Jesus keep faith? He does. He is the utterly faithful one. So that the vantage point of heaven not only grants you by grace the kingdom and lays upon you the demand, but it also provides you the power to live as one who lives from heaven and from the one who has preceded you, namely the Lord Jesus Christ.

    What struggles are there for you now? Is it a battle for you day in, day out with your own lust? Is it a struggle for you? Have you given up? Did you give up long ago and say, well, that’s life. Who can endure? Who can face these temptations? Who can triumph in the midst of them? I can tell you.

    The Lord Jesus Christ. And you. You buy him. Buy an earthly power. by some sort of act of self-will? No, not at all. You remember that by virtue of the coming of the kingdom of heaven, by virtue of the grace of God, you have now been repositioned Out of this world, a citizen of a kingdom above, and in that kingdom above, is there adultery? Is there lust? No. No. And so there is to be none in us. That’s the vantage point. That’s the perception. Herein is the power.

    If you start with the earth, you will end with the earth. The power that you muster will be only the earth’s power. You start with heaven, you will end with heaven. And I dare say, you will end in heaven with the one who has preceded you, the Lord Jesus Christ.

    Let us pray. Father, your church is in need of great and good and proper preaching. Preaching that does not forget the coming of the kingdom. Preaching that directs the eyes of the people of God, first of all, to heaven. Preaching that makes plain that because of your grace we have been positioned in heaven. Preaching that makes plain that the power by which we are to live is not a power that comes from us, it comes from you.

    And it is the very power of your Son and the power of the kingdom of heaven above. O Lord, may we understand that we can in fact live as you have called us to live through him, the one who was faithful, who pushed aside every distraction in order to fulfill the purpose, the mandate given him by you. Do forgive us, Lord, wherein we are weak. And Lord, all the more may we cling to Christ, who is our only hope.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.