Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Series: The History of Salvation

  • The Sign of Jonah and Peter’s Confession

    The Sign of Jonah and Peter’s Confession

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, November 4, 1990.

    About this sermon

    Jesus’ growing alienation from the crowds comes to a head in his use of the sign of Jonah, worked through carefully in Matthew 16:5-20. Peter’s confession right after marks one of the true hinge points in the whole history of salvation.

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    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we are reading from Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 16. And we are beginning with verse 1. Hear the word of God. And the Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing him, asked him to show them a sign from heaven. But he answered and said to them, When it is evening, you say, it will be fair weather, for the sky is red. And in the morning there will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening. Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky but cannot discern the signs of time? An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and a sign will not be given it except the sign of Jonah. as he left them and went away.

    And the disciples came to the other side and had forgotten to take bread. And Jesus said to them, Watch out and beware of the eleven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. And they began to discuss among themselves, saying, It is because we took no bread. But Jesus, aware of this, said, You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves because you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or remember the five thousands of the five lows of the five thousand and how many large baskets you took up. With the seven lows of the fall 4000 and how many baskets you took up.

    How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread but beware of the love of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

    Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he began asking his disciples, saying, who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am?

    Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the son of a living God. And Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonas, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you shall bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” Then he warned the disciples that they should tell no man that he was the Christ.

    Our Father, we rejoice in the foundation that is found in your Word. We rejoice, Lord, in the foundation that Christ’s Word is. May we be wise builders who construct our houses upon the rock of Jesus’ word, may we do those things that he has commanded. And Lord, we pray that it would please you to grant us understanding as well concerning the matter of the confessing Peter, that a foundation, in fact, was laid that day upon which then Jesus promised to build his church. Our God, may we who would be built then upon such a foundation as is in view here, be likewise filled with that faith that exclaims before our Savior that he is, in fact, the Christ, the Son of the living God. May we know for sure, our God, that there is no other foundation laid than that which is laid in Christ Jesus.

    We pray, Lord, that you will therefore enable your church to stand strong for that truth, for the confession that is made, and in the spirit of it. And Lord, where that concession is made in truth, may you cause your people to rely well upon you, that they may endure through every circumstance, receiving blessing and even difficult times from you, entrusting themselves to your sovereignty. And may it also please you, our God, to grant faithful stewards for the house that you are establishing in the powerful working of Christ, those to whom have been committed keys for the kingdom, for binding and loosing. And throughout the world, even at this time, Lord, we look to you for those who would be raised up so as to have that authority amongst your people to rule, and may they rule well for your people will thrive under good and proper leadership and will be to the church if she has not that good and fine leadership. To this end, we commit ourselves in prayer, asking you that you will in fact grant such to your church and to this church, even to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

    And as there are elders in heaven prepared to throw down their crowns before the throne of our God and of the Lamb, may the elders that we have in this world be likewise so disposed. These things now we ask, looking to you, that we might receive good things from the Word at this time. for the sake of Jesus our Savior. Amen.

    Now we have moved from those early days, the early days of Jesus’ ministry when he ministered in the regions of Judea. You recall the record of which is found in the opening chapters of John’s Gospel. So if you’re looking for those accounts for the early times of Jesus’ ministry, that’s where you will want to turn. But we have moved from those early days now, following that Judean ministry, into this period of the Galilean ministry. You remember the beginning days of that Galilean ministry when Jesus experiences great notoriety. The land is abuzz with the news about Jesus, and everyone is quite excited. We come from those early days in the experience of Jesus in Galilee to the middle phase of that Galilean ministry. And we have noted how Jesus’ popularity has begun to wane. It has begun to erode away. And Jesus has become increasingly a figure attended only by a coterie of close associates.

    His position has been carved out by him. Now, his position has been carved out by him. As the popularity begins to wane and erode away, as he is left with this solitary group of men, these close associates, the position he has carved out for himself is arrived at by a series of deliberate acts whereby it seems that he is at work to alienate himself from the crowd, from the Jewish leader, and from his family. The veiled nature of his mission, the ambiguities of his presentations, the deliberate affronts that he places in front of these various groups. These things seem to hide the meaning of his ministry and message. They seem to obscure the kingdom that he has come to bring.

    And as far as his own person is concerned, now those who have had an interest in him are forced to come to grips with those prophecies from the Old Testament that would have bearing on any Messiah, anyone making messianic claims. They are forced to come to grips with God’s ways of doing things, and with their own desires and expectations. The Pharisees and Sadducees now, as we move into the 16th chapter, Matthew, feed their own bitter hostility. Every time now they appear, they appear with a purpose in mind, that to entrap That’s to trip up Jesus in things that he says and holds to be true concerning himself. And what is their objective on this occasion?

    Show us a sign. And not just any sign. There have been plenty of signs. Show us a sign from heaven. They are taunting. The ridicule of him has in view no ordinary phenomenon. They want an apocalyptic sign, an end-time sign, a sign from heaven, one that would herald the end of the present world order and establish the great kingdom of Jewish supremacy and world dominance. That’s what they’re asking for.

    Show us a sign from heaven. Not just any ordinary wonder, not just another miracle, not just healing someone who’s crippled, or casting out a demon, or restoring sight to someone who’s blind. No, we want a sign from heaven. If you are the Messiah, they say, in effect, then do a messianic thing and we will believe.

    Sound familiar? At the end, you’ll recall, as Jesus is hanging on a cross, the Pharisees are gathered there, the leaders with them, and they taunt Jesus once more. Come down. Come down from the cross. And we will believe you. But in this instance, in the latter instance, Jesus not responding to them. In this instance, Jesus tried them. They forecast the weather. They forecast the weather. He said, but not the time. They cannot recognize that which is spiritually obvious, for they are spiritually blind.

    And now the only sign for them will be the sign of Jonah. Now what’s the sign of Jonah? The sign is to which Jesus has referred. He has spoken of it before in the twelfth chapter of Matthew. You may recall what he says there as he is speaking there against the Pharisees. Verse thirty-eight, there as later they are asking from him a sign Teacher, we want a sign from you,” Jesus tells them.

    Verse 39, an evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign, and yet no sign will be given it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. There you have the sign of Jonah laid out for you. But note also in that regard how that sign of Jonah does in fact come about, how it presents itself.

    It will be no sign which these men then will see. They will only hear about it. And when they hear about it, they will resolutely, with determination, refuse to believe what is told them. Remember, the news comes back from the tomb, Christ is raised. They refuse to believe it. In the end, the sign of Jonah will be communicated to them in a way in which in a way in which it can be appropriated only by faith, for everything they lack.

    But not only is Jesus now dogged by accusing leaders, an example of which here we find at the opening of the 16th chapter of Matthew. Not only is he fawned over by worshipful yet strickle multitude, We’ve heard plenty about them. Not only is he sought out by his non-comprehending family, we have also spoken about them.

    But it seems now as we progress in the 16th chapter, at least as far as the next story is concerned, you’re plagued by a group of disciples that at times proves to be so obtuse, so thick, so slow to understand. to believe. In fact, it is difficult to imagine a group being more thick-headed than the disciples prove themselves to be in verses 5 through 12 of the 16th chapter. Now, there may be some hidden meaning to this story that I’m too thick-headed to get.

    But it does appear to me that its inclusion in the canon is for the purpose that we ourselves might be encouraged. That is to say, if Jesus our Lord can be patient and loving towards this group of blockheads, And I mean this respectfully, please understand me. He can certainly be patient and loving towards us. This scene comes off as a compact comedy of errors.

    From Don comprehending the point of Jesus’ words And then sort of going into counsel, you see, going into a huddle and discussing the whole matter. Well, do you think he meant this? Do you think he meant that? And being so thoroughly wrong, missing the point altogether. And then Jesus appears in exasperation, saying, Oh, you men of little faith. Jesus has warned them against the teachings of the Pharisees. He’s done so in a comment about leaven.

    You know how leaven works? Leaven works itself out into the entire lump of dough. Well, if the disciples are a lump of dough, they’re certainly acting like lumps. If the disciples are a lump of dough, well then the teachings of the Pharisees will work themselves out into them fully and completely in unbelief will triumph.”

    Jesus is telling them, beware of the leaven in that respect. But because he’s mentioned the leaven, they think he’s talking about bread and conclude that he is upset because they forgot to bring any. And then you have Jesus’ response, even if I am talking about bread. Does it really matter? Didn’t we just feed 5,000? And most recently, haven’t we fed 4,000? What are you worried about bread for? Well, it’s an incident in which the disciples’ lack of faith is utterly transparent. But just as much, they’re ignorant. their ignorance.

    Now it’s not to say that the disciples are faithless and ignorant, and we are not. But Jesus, who has proved to be so kind and patient with these men, is proving himself patient with us too. But won’t you grasp hold of the lessons Jesus has here for his own. That your own struggles with faith would be resolved and you would no longer make excuses for your ignorance. Surely Jesus’ intention is not to leave the disciples in this position where they are called men of little faith, in this position where they are so manifestly ignorant, his intention is to bring them on so that they would be filled with faith, filled with certainty, and well-informed, no longer ignorant at all. understanding Him and what He’s about. Now, as we’ve said, the disciples’ lack of faith here is thoroughly transparent, as is their lack of understanding. And Jesus is intent upon resolving both their unbelief and their ignorance, and he is determined to do the same in all of his elect. Are you not among his elect? And is he not working on you to strengthen your faith and to resolve your ignorance?

    Now, it is especially fitting that the next story appear in this setting. The disciples are leveled to a man, are they not? They are leveled to a man. It is so appropriate that the following story appear in this setting. The stage is set for that marvelous event at Caesarea Philippi. The stage is set by the attack of Jewish leaders by the ignorance and unbelief of disciples. So now Jesus takes his disciples into Philip’s territory. Do you remember where Philip’s territory was? It lies to the northeast of the Sea of Galilee.

    It is a region especially associated with Gentile presence. One, now, the region particularly in view here, the region of Caesarea Philippi, it is one inscribed with the name of the Gentile Lord, Caesar. Caesarea, Caesar. And simultaneously, joined to that, the name of the Palestinian ruler, the half-Jew, the part Idiomenean, the part Edomite, Philip, his name too inscribed with Caesars, demarcating this place. In this remarkable setting, Against a background of hostility, ignorance and unbelief, Jesus asks his question.

    Who do men say the Son of Man is? Now at first glance, this question seems to be a general one about the Son of Man, a theoretical discussion. We’re going to have a theological discussion here. Gentlemen, about the Son of Man. That figure that appears in prophecy, out of the pages of the Old Testament, Daniel chapter 7, you remember? A name that Jesus has used with respect to himself through his ministry thus far, but at this point it doesn’t seem that he’s specifically applying it to himself. It’s a general question.

    Who do men say that the Son of Man is? Or, he asks the general question about the Son of Man, whoever he might be. And there are the responses, given by the disciples now. And from these responses, it may seem apparent that they’re not connecting the Son of Man with Jesus. John the Baptist. It’s obvious that Jesus isn’t John the Baptist. Elijah. and others. Jeremiah, one of the prophets. So come the speculative answers of the disciples. But then Jesus, in order to set things straight, is quite direct when he asks now, again, about the Son of Man, putting himself in the place of that title. Verse 15, but who do you say that I am? First, who do you say the Son of Man is? Now, who do you say I am? Thus identifying himself with the expected Son of Man.

    Is Simon Peter one of those obtuse? ignorant, unbelieving disciples who respond. You see the power of it now? Against the background of the disciples’ confusion, their ignorance and unbelief, now Peter, one of those ignorant, unbelieving, obtuse disciples responds, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. How do you get from the earlier part of that 16th chapter to this point? How do we move from this ignorant, stumbling disciple to a disciple now who has upon his lips, as if without a moment’s hesitation, a confession of this nature? You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

    What an amazing confession it is. And Jesus here is saying, in his response to Peter now, that this confession is not because of Peter’s impetuousness. It’s not because he’s given over to spontaneous outbursts, or it was a flashing, fleeting, momentary insight of genius. What Jesus is saying is, that confession is utterly impossible, given the man from whom it comes. It is a supernatural confession. It comes from God, it doesn’t come from the man.

    Flesh and blood haven’t revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. So amazing is this confession, so climactic, so conclusive that Jesus launches into an extended blessing And in that blessing he acknowledges the supernatural origins of Simon Peter’s words.

    But he continues in his blessing, he continues in Jehovah-like style to change officially Simon’s name to Peter. Do you remember those instances in the Old Testament where there’s a name change brought about by none other than the Lord himself? Think of an instance. from Abram to Abraham, from Jacob to Israel. Do you remember those Jehovah-like instances where there is a change of name and now Jesus as Jesus, in Jehovah-like style, changes Simon’s name to Peter, which means rock, and declares that on the foundation of the confessing Peter—that’s very important—upon the foundation of the confessing Peter, in a short while he will be the stumbling block Peter, the denying Peter, Upon the foundation of the confessing Peter, Jesus will build his unassailable church.

    Verse 8. He then tells this confessing Peter that he, Peter, is not only the foundation but the steward of the house Jesus shall build. We translate this in general terms to the confessing and appointed servant then. As we see, all confessing and appointed servants is committed the rule in Christ’s Church. The hell with me now. so that the force and the power of this scene, this remarkable scene, settle in upon you. The context of these words from Christ is utterly most remarkable.

    So let me ask you now, what chance is there for this enterprise to succeed? What chance, humanly, in earthly terms, is there for this enterprise laid out here by Jesus, this enterprise, to succeed? We’ve got a bunch of stumbling, ignorant, faltering, non-comprehending, blockhead disciples. What chance is there for this enterprise to succeed? Jesus has deliberately alienated himself from leadership. People in Palestine, he has distanced himself from the multitude, he’s cut himself off from Jewish institutions, even the Jewish institution of the family. What hope is there for this enterprise to succeed?

    But not only will Christ and his Church prevail over hatred from enemies, ignorance and unbelief from would-be disciples, it will triumph over all, over everything that opposes it. Even an alliance of the Gentile Lord and the Palestinian rulers. It will triumph over alliances of Rome and Jewry. and it will triumph over the very councils of hell. This unspectacular, this ordinary, this ridiculous group of people destined for glory. part and parcel of that which Christ himself establishes. And the promise goes out, the gates of hell shall not prevail against her.

    Jesus’ ministry therefore has reached an end point. It’s almost as if everything is concluded now. With that confession from Peter, it’s almost as if everything is concluded. It’s as if we can hear in Peter himself the confession of the entire Church of Jesus as Lord. No, even more, as if we are brought to the very end of all things. And in that confession we hear the resolution of all matters. every tongue acknowledging, every knee bowing, a picture of the coming glory that belongs to him on the very last day.

    Yet at this point, the picture is incomplete. The Messiah’s person and ministry remain vain. his kingdom obscure. And there remains for him yet that horrible, that ignominious goal of the cross, to which he even now reaches forward. And his mission is not finished until he arrives there. For the Son of Man has come not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. So having reached a concluding point, we press on. And thus we shall do in the weeks to come. Amen.

    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.

  • From Popularity to Rejection

    From Popularity to Rejection

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 28, 1990.

    About this sermon

    Opposition to Christ grows steadily through Matthew. He exposes the hearts of the faithful in Nazareth, alienates the crowds, antagonizes the leaders, and tells his own family that those who do his Father’s will are his mother and brothers. In John 6 he declares that whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood has eternal life, and many disciples turn away: “This is a hard saying.” His words are spirit and life, not a call to a literal sacrifice repeated in the Mass. From that point popularity gives way to rejection.

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    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we are reading from John’s Gospel, the sixth chapter, and we will start our reading with verse 51. Listen to the word of God. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever, and the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

    The Jews therefore began to argue with one another and say, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus therefore said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me, he also shall live because of me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven, not as the Father gave and died. He who eats this bread shall live forever.

    These things he said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. Many, therefore, of his disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a difficult statement. Who can listen to it? But Jesus, conscious that his disciples grumbled at this, said to them, Does this cause you to stumble? What then if you should behold the Son of Man ascending where he was before?

    It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and are life. But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who it was that would betray him.

    And he was saying, for this reason I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the Father. As a result of this, many of his disciples withdrew and were not walking with him anymore. Jesus said, therefore, to the twelve, You do not want to go away also, do you? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. Jesus answered them, Did I myself not choose you as well and yet one of you is a devil. Now he meant Judith the son of Simon of scaring for he one of the twelve was going to be trained.

    Our Father, what a blessing your church has proved to be to us. We know of your great love for your people, for the church, and how you have sent your Son to die that the church might be established and redeemed. And Father, we rejoice in the order that you have given to the Church, for the Church is your new creation. And as the first creation had order, so the second creation has order. And as the Spirit came and moved upon the face of the waters and led to that first creation, that order, that deliverance from chaos, so now the Spirit has come. That spirit has come as the spirit of order for the new creation. And we are blessed that in this order which has been conferred upon the new creation, the church, there is also that liberty for the children of God who have been called into the assembly which you yourself have established.

    We praise you, our God, and thank you. and ask that those who are called upon to rule well might do that, and that for the benefit of your children throughout the world. May it please you to grant good and strong elders to your people, and may they rule well toward those who have been called. May they be diligent in their service. May they be honest in their dealings with the people, just and forthright, and may we respect the office that encourages Lord so that we would respect the men who fill those offices. Where your church is weak are we not assured that the eldership is weak. We pray our Lord therefore that you would revive the eldership of your people and that they who are called to office may study your word that they may also give themselves to an understanding of the history of your people, so that they might know how to be disposed towards those things that arise in the circumstances present. O Lord, we ask these things now, giving you thanks, that you have given many good and strong men to the church of which we are a part, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. And may you, for the years to come, grant her great leaders.

    We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Now as Jesus’ ministry becomes more intense, we are walking through the Gospels, and we are looking tonight at John 6, but also at those passages in the Synoptic Gospels that will move us from the 10th chapter of Matthew through the 15th chapter of Matthew. So if you want to keep your finger in John 6, that’s where we’ll end up. You may want to look at Matthew 10-15 as we make our way through this message.

    Jesus’ ministry, indeed, becomes more intense. His impact is registering far and wide. The word about his messages, about his works, the word about them has been broadcast so that, yes, in Galilee, also in Judea, but in the regions beyond, there are many who hear.

    Then in that 10th chapter, you have Jesus sending out his disciples with the message about the kingdom. You’ll note in that 10th chapter that they were sent forth with the same message with which he himself came. Notice the 7th verse. They are commissioned to preach this message, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That sounds familiar, doesn’t it? All right, well, now the disciples are sent out, And they are set out with this message about the kingdom of God, and the influence of Jesus is extended far and wide, even through their ministering.

    At the same time, you will note that the imprisonment of John the Baptist is dragging on. As you move from that tenth chapter to the eleventh, you find John in prison, having been placed there by Herod, who has authority over the regions of Galilee. So all these things are taking place, and simultaneously, opposition to Jesus is increasing. So you have these collateral movements that are going on. the intensity of Christ’s ministry, the fact that his words and message, his works are registering on more and more, the effect is broadcast, the influence of his disciples is extending, John’s imprisonment drags on, and opposition to Jesus is increased.

    You see, through this, the continuing theme of Jesus’ great popularity. There are those who are intensely interested in Jesus. He is a genuine personality. He is attractive in many ways. He is magnetic. He is charismatic. He has drawing power. He is definitely a religious interest, a religious personality, a celebrity.

    So, the nation is astir with words, reports, rumors about Jesus. But note, note, note, what we have already said. Even though this is true, Opposition to Jesus will also intensify. Jesus will himself ferret out that hesitation and condemn that which lies beneath the surface within those who are apparently devoted, seemingly committed. followers. You recall what Jesus does. We described it last week in our evening message.

    You recall what Jesus does in the case of Nazareth, his hometown, the record of which we have in Luke’s gospel, the fourth chapter. How there in his hometown he exposed the condition of the hearts of those people in that community. and calls them into account.

    They’re all above. He has them in the palm of his hand. But then he goes after them and exposes the true condition of their heart. They were regular church attendants. They were there morning and evening. They wouldn’t miss a servant. But Jesus goes after even these apparently devoted folks, these that seem to be devoted to Him. They’re amazed by Him.

    And He exposes them. He knows the heart. But then it seems that Jesus doesn’t know enough to leave well enough alone. He leaves his hometown of Nazareth, he goes down to the lake region, and he ministers there four times. But he follows the same pattern.

    He comes delivering a message about the appearance of the kingdom of God, his wonderful sermons, his teaching, his grace, he’s performing many signs and wonders, But then he proceeds to castigate these people who live in the cities of that region. Note chapter 11, the close of it in Matthew’s Gospel, beginning with verse 20. For all their interest, for all their apparent devotion, for all the commotion that Jesus has caused and the interest that he has stirred, The fact that these people may even seemingly appear to be devoted to him, he tells them they won’t repent. And they are given virtually the same treatment as those who live in Nazareth. It’s scathing what he says. Scan those last verses of the eleventh chapter of Matthew. Woe to you, Corazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida. Woe to you, Capernaum.” That’s the town he’s living in now. He’s set up shop in Capernaum.

    “‘Woe to you,’ he said, “‘it will be more tolerant for Tyre and Sidon in the Day of Judgment than it will be for you. It will be more tolerant for the city of Nineveh. It will be more tolerant for Sodom and Gomorrah than it will be for you. For have the work that had been performed in you, been performed in them, they would have repented long ago.

    But you refuse to repent. Now, not only is Jesus seemingly merciless now in regards to the folks of these towns going after them, the battle with the Pharisees is also in joy, in earnest. There have been those encounters, those exchanges with the Pharisees already. Jesus has made his bold claim back in chapter 9 in Matthew. That bold claim is that he has the authority to forgive sins. You remember the response of the Pharisees in that passage? Who but God has the authority to forgive sins?

    Jesus now launches into a direct frontal assault. We move into the twelfth chapter of Matthew. There is that confrontation in the grain field. You remember the sermon we had on that story some time ago as we reviewed the section out of Mark’s gospel, the parallel passage. So now Jesus launches his direct frontal assault in a grain field over the turf of the Sabbath.

    Sabbath belongs to us,” says the Pharisee. Jesus says, no, it belongs to me. I am the Lord of the Sabbath. Not only does he forgive sins, this one’s claiming that the Sabbath is his own personal property. His disciples are presumed to pluck a little grain, and they are rebuked by the Pharisees. Jesus now comes to their rescue as the Lord of the Sabbath.

    Then later on, as that twelfth chapter continues, Jesus appears as the champion for the doing of good on the Sabbath day. The law itself is not at odds with the command for mercy and love. Jesus, then, is the champion for the doing of good on the Sabbath as he heals the man with the withered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. And as you move through that 12th chapter, another instance.

    He exhibits his power, he demonstrates his kindness to one demon-possessed. But this brings on the counterattack now. The counterattack from the Pharisee. An attack that is born of rage and envy, and a zeal to defend their tradition, to defend the law, if you will, as that which is personally theirs. They charge, Jesus, this man, they say, casts out demons only by deals above the ruler of demons. Why, they blast him. And through this charge now, Jesus counters with his awesome, powerful statement, if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, and the kingdom of God has come upon you.

    Verse 28 of that 12th chapter. You have Jesus’ interactions with the multitudes, with the various cities, the crowds that gather and come. You have his confrontations with the leaders. Have we left anybody out? Are you ready for this shocker? What about his family? We know what has happened in our time. To the extent that we will worship our families, our families will fail. That’s what’s happening.

    Parents who worship their children, who actually see their children at the goal and end of life, who will sacrifice anything for the sake of their child, even their faith, and their faithfulness to God. The kid doesn’t want to go to church, so you don’t go. The kid doesn’t want to go to Christian school, so you don’t send him. The child that ends up being God. And the parents tremble because they worship family. The God of family was strong in Israel. Do you know any Jews? Do you know any Jewish family today? Have you seen it? It’s still alive and well in Jewry presently. It’s not just Eastern culture that worships family.

    There is the matter of family, and as you come to the end of the twelfth chapter of Matthew, there it is for you. You see, his own family is bewildered by him. In fact, in one text we are told that not even his brothers believed in him. That’s in John 7, verse 5. But here, in Matthew 12, his brothers, together with his mother, Seek him out, and what happens? They are rebuffed. What’s wrong with this man? What is wrong with him? He has multitudes eating out of the palm of his hand, he turns on them, he makes himself seemingly obnoxious to the religious rulers of his day, and now, when his family comes to seek him out, he rebuffs them.

    You know how the story concludes at the end of that twelfth chapter. He points to his disciples, and he says, Behold my mother and my brother. Those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven, they are my mother and my brother. There are new ties. relationships that are being established.

    That’s why, you see, family cannot be ultimate. It cannot be worshipped by us. It cannot be placed at a level that is so far above all other considerations, since Jesus himself will come and tell you that you have to forsake your family to follow him. Jesus then alienates the crowd, he antagonizes leaders.

    He boldly and shamelessly declares a new day. As far as the law is concerned, the Sabbath belongs to me, I will interpret it, he says. And he distances himself from those four family connections, those traditional Jewish family connections. that control the life and the mentality of Israel, if not other cultures and civilizations throughout the world.

    His disciples, then, as we see, are those who do the will of his Father in heaven. And these are those to whom the mysteries of the kingdom are being revealed. These are the elect. These are the chosen. You are not elect merely because you have a certain heritage. That is not what makes you elect. The mysteries of the kingdom then revealed to these, the chosen, the elect, who are called out while brothers and sisters stay behind, while sons and daughters hesitate and linger. There are those who are called out, and to them is revealed the mystery of the kingdom of heaven.”

    Matthew 13. The listing of the parables. How does it go in Matthew 13? That’s where you have all of those parables collected for you. On the one hand, Jesus tells his disciples, I will give everything to those who stand on the outside. I will give everything to them in dark sayings and in parables, in mystery statements. Actually, the parables serve many purposes for God.

    That Jesus gives these parables now indicates the arrival of a new day of revelation, a new day of discrimination by virtue of that revelation given. There is the quoting of Psalm 78, verse 2, in that 13th chapter. of Matthew, the thirty-fifth verse. And in quoting that seventy-eighth psalm, Matthew tells us that the time envisioned in that time, in that psalm, has now arrived, a time in which the ancient mystery, the parabolic nature of God’s dealings with his people in the world, is expounded. So the parables come. as an indication of the arrival of the day of unprecedented revelation.

    But secondly, the parables are a sign of judgment. Jesus himself applies the horrifying sentences of Isaiah 6 to his parabolic teachings. You remember those statements? They’re listed for you there in the thirteenth chapter, as you look at verses fourteen and fifteen.

    We are told there, in that prophecy, in those statements given to Isaiah by God himself, that God will deliberately obscure the kingdom to those who are perishing. He will hide it from them. The parables will in fact explain the kingdom to those who have ears. But Israel continues not to hear. Jesus then discriminates. How unfair it is. How sectarian. How narrow! Jesus discriminates. And he says in the eleventh verse of that thirteenth chapter, to you, my disciples, it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to them, the multitude, it has not been granted.

    So then the seven parables in line. And you rattle them off, the sower, the wheat and the pears, the mustard seed, the leaven, the treasure in the field, the priceless pearl, the dragnet, and other stuff. The seven parables collected by Matthew there in that chapter lend symmetry. symmetry to the message of perfection concerning the exposition of the mystery of the kingdom. Jesus, scrutinizing all, He comes in contact with. Jesus, seeing through them, having figured them out, He knows us through and through. We reach then a transition point as we reach the 14th chapter of Matthew.

    That is the account of the death of John the Baptist. And this then will bring things to a head as Jesus then will begin to withdraw. Previously he was moving amongst The city’s in villages, he’s in contact directly with the people, seeking them out, if you will. But now, he will deliberately withdraw. John the Baptist is executed at the sign of the coming judgment upon Israel as a whole, and Jesus is beginning to withdraw.

    Still, the crowd follows. They’re interested. Jesus is gracious, is he not? The crowds gather, they follow Him. There’s 5,000 men assembled at one time. He feeds them as He shall feed His own who come to Him out of the world. You can see that in the miracle of the loaves and fishes, the feeding of the 5,000. But now His heart is turning. It’s turning toward the fullness of His mission and His destiny in Jerusalem.

    It is John that will give us the fuller account of what transpired between Jesus and the multitudes at this time, and that’s why we have read this evening from John’s Gospel, the sixth chapter. John tells us that the multitudes found Jesus the next day after the miraculous feeding. after the multiplication of the loaves and fish. He tells us that they found him the next day, but no Jesus reaction.

    True to form? He obviously knows something that is not obvious to us. True to form, in keeping with the description we have seen in the other Gospels. Jesus chides these worshipful folk because he knows they are seeking earthly bread, not spiritual. They had their bellies filled. Their appetites were satisfied. what they want in their religion as well as in their life. Jesus in this context then goes on, as we have seen and heard this evening, he goes on to tell the crowd that he is the true bread that comes down from heaven, the bread of life, If they are to have life, they are to feed upon Him.

    And so difficult is this statement, and Jesus’ exposition of it, that He says that none can come to Him except the Father draw them. It will only be those to whom it has been granted by the Father. It will only be those who understand the significance of what Jesus is saying at this point, the true significance. There will be those who completely misunderstand. There will also be those who muddle it, who are confused by it, who don’t get it straight, who think, yes, this is something along the lines of the ancient mystery religion.

    We will have to eat the body of the God and drink His blood in order to have life. And that is a literal thing. So in that magic moment, In the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, the Mass, when the words of the priest are uttered, that wafer will become the body of Christ literally, and that wine will be transformed into the blood of Jesus. There will be a new sacrifice, and that’s why in the Roman Church it’s an altar, not a people. So do not understand That is why it’s such a serious matter, the difference between the Roman Church and the Protestant Church. That is why this time of year is important to you, for God was pleased to revive His Church through the Reformation, and to tell you, by root of that Reformation, it does make a difference what you believe happens in the Lord’s Supper.

    The one form is gross idolatry. You worship a piece of bread and liquid in a cup. That’s what happens. That is literally what happens. In the other, you understand that the bread and the liquid The why are signs and feelings which Christ in His Spirit is pleased to bless to the faith of those who receive those elements. For Christ in His Body has ascended.

    What shall you say then if you see the son of man ascending to where he was before? That’s exactly what he tells you in John 6. If he’s not here in his body and blood, how will you believe that you are feasting upon his body and blood? is this saying that Jesus says that none, none will accept it except it is granted to them by his Father. He goes on to tell us in his exposition of the feasting upon the body and the blood, that such must be their intimacy with him, that they are seen to be drawn into such communion with him through the means of feasting upon his flesh and drinking his blood.

    He means by this a spiritual way, not a corporal or carnal. And so offended were many, even of his disciples, that they withdrew, and they walked with him no more. Verse sixty-six of that sixth chapter. When Jesus asked the twelve if they too would leave him, Peter answered, To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. before the things that confound you? Are you still clinging to Christ because He has the words of eternal life? Here then is the turning point in Jesus’ ministry. It is a point to which He deliberately works, to which He deliberately comes. And will you not note the obvious difference now between him and those ever-too-predictable religious personalities, celebrities?

    No clever, no churchwise, streetwise preacher. deliberately challenges his constituency. It is not politically wise. It isn’t smart. You don’t tell the people off who are paying the bills. You don’t dare. You ain’t smart business. Jesus isn’t worried. He tells the truth. No smart religious leader challenges his constituency. Because smart religious leaders are basically politicians. And they don’t do it either. You know how they vote. No smart religious leader calls his audience’s bluff. No smart religious leader exposes his audience’s shallowness or corruption. No smart religious leader provokes his audience, antagonizes them. After all, we all know that the smart religious leader has been called to a career. And in careers you don’t move from popularity to obscurity. from acceptance to rejection.

    You’re a professional. You’re on your way up. You’re not on your way down. Only a fool chooses to go down, not up. Only a fool chooses against popularity and acceptance. No, you move the other direction. You move towards wider acceptance, greater popularity. Yet Jesus moves in precisely the opposite direction. And it’s not a matter of faith with him, it’s a matter of choice. He chooses it. He moves some popularity to ignore me. from great acceptance to rejection.

    And do you know why? Small is the gate, narrow is the way that leads to life. The few who will enter in by that gate will follow in the wake of the one who has gone before, Jesus himself. He entered into life through that gate, along that way. And now you who are the servants of this master, you who know the mysteries of the kingdom, you who have accepted him, you who are not offended by his rejection, you who love him, will come in by that gate, by that very same way. And it will be proved that the Father has drawn you as he draws all those who truly believe.

    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.

  • Jesus’ Year of Popularity

    Jesus’ Year of Popularity

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 21, 1990.

    About this sermon

    Jesus enjoys a ‘year of popularity,’ and the modern church’s cult of popularity looks pointedly different. Against the earthly eschatology of Pharisees and Sadducees alike, Jesus keeps preaching the narrow gate over the easy crowd.

    More sermons from Luke · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    We are reading this evening once more from Luke’s Gospel chapter 4. We will be also reading a little bit from the 5th chapter of Luke. But we are starting with verse 14 of the 4th chapter of Luke this evening. Hear the word of God. And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.

    And news about him spread through all the surrounding districts. And he began teaching in their synagogues and was prayed by all. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him, and he opened the book and found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon you, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captive, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.

    And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. And all were speaking well of him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from his lips. And they were saying, is this not Joseph’s son? And he said to them, no doubt you will quote this proverb to me, physician heal yourself.

    Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, due here in your hometown as well. And he said, truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. But I say to you in truth, that there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, yet when the great famine came over all the land, And yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many letters in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, but only Nahum the Syrian. And all in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things.

    And they rose up and cast him out of the city and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built. In order to throw him down the cliff, for passing through their midst, he went his way. And he came down to Capernaum, the city of Galilee, and he was teaching them on Sabbath days. And they were continually amazed at his teaching, for his message was with authority.

    And there was a man in the synagogue possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, What do we have to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” And Jesus rebuked him, saying, be quiet and come out of him.

    And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he went out of him without doing him any harm. An amazement came upon all, and they began discussing with one another and saying, what is this message? But with authority and power, he commands the unclean spirits and they come out. And the report about him was getting out into every locality in the surrounding district.

    And then moving down to Luke chapter 5, beginning with verse 1, the first three verses of this chapter. Now it came about that while the multitude were pressing around him and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. And he saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake. The fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. And he got into one of the boats, which was silent, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And he sat down and began teaching the multitude from the boat.

    Oh Lord, would you raise within us that great zeal for your word. May we find afresh that hunger for the things of the scriptures, for true and abiding doctrines We ask you, Lord, that our passions might be excited with respect to the things of our God, and that we might be zealous for your house, for the assembly of your people. Do we not hear from Jesus himself that the zeal for thy house has consumed him. And may it be, Lord, not just here, but throughout the lengths and depths of your church, that your people are thrilled with the expectation of worship and devotion performed before you. and in the presence of that company which you have called. Lord, build our love, our love for you, our love for one another, and build within us that sense of the seriousness of the matters with which we are concerned. O Lord, we ask that we might be reminded again and again that we have been called for sanctification, for holiness, that we might be set apart from the world, distinguished from the world. And Lord, may our paths be straight, may our eye be clear, may our hearts be pure, as we pursue the things of your kingdom.

    May we learn well about Your Son. May we store up in our souls and in our minds these wonderful things laid out for us in the Scriptures. And may we draw close to You. And may we be found in Him because of the powerful working of Your Word in our lives. This we ask now, remembering that we are sinners Remembering, too, that we are made of dust, that we come to you with all humility, through Jesus. Amen. We are addressing ourselves tonight to that period of Jesus’ ministry known as the period of popularity.

    To ask the question is to answer. Is popularity a snare? Can it be a tragic stumbling block? These were that spirit of adolescence that persists into adulthood with which men and women in every age must battle. That desire to be liked, to be accepted, to be important, to be noticed.

    Jesus deals with the most basic level of human psychology. He deals with those matters that concern us all. Those matters with which we have all been faced at one time or other in our lives. Matters that we must straighten out if we are going to be straight with God.

    As Jesus was himself. The period, then, of Jesus’ popularity. You are aware that the immediate response to Jesus seems to be one of uniform popularity. That immediate response was uniformly positive. At first, even at Nazareth, the events of which we have read here this evening, at first even there in his hometown, after he had returned from Judea, after the opening days of his ministry in the territory of Judea, the record of which is recorded for us in the first four chapters of John, we find the people speaking well of him. All of the people are speaking well of him.

    You’ll notice that fourth chapter, the twenty-second verse. When Jesus moved down to Capernaum, he is literally besieged. Not by those who are hostile to him, he is besieged by those who are taken by him. They are interested in him, positive toward him, drawn toward him. On one occasion, as we have read this evening from Luke chapter 5. We find him standing on the shore of the Lake of Gennesaret, or the Sea of Galilee, as it is called elsewhere. We note the cross.

    It must have been a huge multitude drawn to him, pressing hard against him, that so severely that he gets into one of the boats, pushes out a bit from the shore, and preachers from the boat. And another occasion. The crowd numbered so high that those trying to bring to him their paralytic friend on his bed could not even get near him. They couldn’t even get into the house. Of course, you know the rest of that story, how these ingenious friends took him up on the roof and let him down through the roof after having removed some tiles.

    That story is also recorded for you in Luke 5. You find it in Mark 2 and also in Matthew 9. We find on other occasions Jesus withdrawing that seemingly deliberately from the crowd, from public life, if you will. We find him withdrawing and the crowd pursue him. Jesus is moved with compassion for them and ministers unto them. For instance, you recall the feeding of the 5,000. On Wednesday evenings, we’re dealing with John chapter 6, and that’s the story of the feeding of the 5,000. And you read in a couple of verses there in John 6 of how the multitudes pursued him. They were drawn to him. Jesus, very popular. And these people are drawn by two things. They are drawn by his miracles, and they are drawn by his teachings.

    We are told on a number of occasions how extensive both of these activities were, how extensive and intensive. The classic text is found in Matthew’s gospel. You may want to look at that again, the fourth chapter. At the end of that chapter, verses 23 through 25.

    Summing up Jesus’ activity and the popularity that he has now as he moves out into the territory Jesus was going about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogue, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. And the news about him went out into all Syria, and they brought to him all who were ill, taken with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics, and he healed them. And great multitudes followed him from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea. and from beyond the Jordan.

    Wow. You could get caught up in that stream, couldn’t you? Everybody’s in a rush. You couldn’t wait to see this phenomenon, this remarkable phenomenon. Well, Jesus draws the multitude, and in those early days, extremely unprecedentedly popular. His miracles, his teachings attract. You remember his mighty deeds, the record of them, you have an account here in Luke chapter 4, his healing of the man demon possessed. The kinds of responses that come forth from the multitudes as a result of the mighty deeds, these remarkable acts that he performs.

    The people are astonished, literally astonished, dumbstruck. We are told again and again of how the multitudes are filled with awe, how they glorify God. That one instance where the sins of the man are forgiven and he is demanded to take up his bed and walk. There we are told that the multitude marveled that such authority had been given to men.” And here in Luke 4 again, verse 7, is echoed once more. Peter, one who then gives us a picture of individual response.

    You remember how it went for him, even here in this fifth chapter of Luke, after Jesus has tossed the multitude, they push out into the sea, and there is that great catch of fish, the miraculous catch of fish, after which Peter falls down before Jesus and exclaims, O Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinful man. recognition of something, the magnitude of who this one is, these responses to Jesus. But as it was with the miracle, these wonderful acts performed by Jesus, so also the multitudes are drawn by Jesus’ words.

    Has that ever happened to you? Someone who knows how to form his word wonderfully, powerfully, compellingly. A new spokesman on the horizon. Everybody buzzing about him. Word going out about him throughout the church. You won’t want to miss this speaker.

    So Jesus amazes folks. with his teaching. Matthew tells us the reason for the amazement. He tells us at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7, 28 and 29, that Jesus was one who taught as having authority and not as one of their scribes. These sentiments echoed again in the passage that we read tonight from Luke chapter 4. Not an ordinary spokesman, not just another speaker, not just another religious personality, but here was one who speaks with authority, not as the scribes, and surely there were great speakers among the scribes of that day. So the multitudes gather for the express purpose of hearing Jesus. His miracles and his words.

    Jesus enjoys at the outset this wonderful period of popularity. You might note that as things began and so they concluded, as if the entirety of the ministry of Jesus is compressed into that final week of his ministry. But we note that even the popularity for Jesus extends to that final week, not just at the beginning, but at the final week too. How do things begin with people All of us with the news that Jesus is coming into Jerusalem.

    There is the triumphal entry. Everybody speaking well of him. The multitude is teeming and swarming about him. We hear of their acclamation. Then we hear about their gathering. how they come together in the temple to be healed by him there, how they gather in the temple to hear him teach daily. Mark tells us in his twelfth chapter, the thirty-seventh verse, that the common folk heard him gladly. They listened to him and enjoyed what he said.

    So even then, there is that note of acceptance and popularity. But that comment made by Mark in that context, the twelfth chapter, the thirty-seventh verse, is of great interest to us, because in that statement that Mark makes, we hear the echo of another statement that he has made earlier.

    That earlier statement is in his sixth chapter, the twentieth verse, and there we are told not about Jesus, but of John the Baptist. And it’s not the multitude that are glad to hear Jesus, as it is in Mark twelve, but it’s Herod who enjoyed listening to John the Baptist. And we all know what Herod did to John the Baptist. And Jesus will fare no better. By the end of the week, the multitudes will turn on him, as Herod did had in fact turned on John and delivered him up for execution.

    Those who look at Jesus as a personality, those who see in Jesus a religious celebrity, who approach life and religion at that level who look at Jesus as a curiosity, as someone who interests them, who tantalizes them, one who is magnetic, one who is charismatic, a popular spokesman, a popular leader, a wonder worker.

    People who look at him along these lines prove to be fickle, unstable, and worse than fair-weathered friends. Will his popularity be the barometer for him? Will he rush after that popularity, the god of popularity, as the people have rushed after him for the sake of the popularity that is attached to him? Will they just want to be near him because everybody wants to be near him? Will they rush out and be a part of the herd, the mass, because everyone else is a part of the herd and the mass? This is what people talk about at parties these days, what Jesus is doing in Galilee.

    We have now succumbed to the cult of popularity. We have bought into it in a most debilitating fashion, and our youth are being raised in an era in which the cult of personality and popularity abounds in an unprecedented way. But glory is glory. The goal is the headline. The goal is notoriety, acceptance. The goal is to be liked. The goal is to be someone. The goal is to be a star. From the cover of Weedy’s boxes, to ads for automobiles, to every magazine virtually that you pick up out of a newsstand. The cult of popularity is placed before you in living color.

    Has Jesus deceived Has Jesus come simply because He needs to be wanted? He wants to be liked? What a tragic day has overtaken us, and we have not seen the end of it yet. most likely we will see the devastating effects in our children when they are old. Was it possible for us to stand back, to stand aside, to stand alone, to be different, to even choose to be unpopular? for the cause of righteousness and truth and God and Jesus himself?

    There are those churches that curry to the cult of popularity. May this church never be such. In the end, you know that these fickle, unstable folk, these devotees of the cult of popularity in their own time, wind up behind those who are opposed to Jesus, and have been opposed to him from the very beginning.

    They line up, for instance, behind some of the folk from Jesus’ own hometown in Nazareth. I want you to notice that exchange between Jesus and those folks from his hometown. It is quite interesting in many regards. You will note in the 22nd verse of that fourth chapter, as we’ve already pointed out, that Jesus seems to have the townspeople eating out of his hands. But then you move to verse 23, and it’s almost as if Jesus does something deliberate here. He provokes them. Can you imagine the scene? Hometown boy makes good, comes home, he’s a hero. We’re all going to celebrate. We give the boy the microphone and he begins to insult everyone.

    Jesus, then in that 23rd verse, deliberately provokes these people, and they become typical of what he will face in the end from all of Israel. Now you may think that Jesus is a little foolish, that he hadn’t quite figured out matters relating to PR, public relations at this time. You see, Jesus is interested in exposing what lies hidden in the heart, that hidden contempt, that wellspring of jealousy, that as yet suppressed rage within the human soul and spirit.

    For these people, in the end, will take offense at him and at the kingdom of God. In the end they will show their true talents, no friends at all. They will join the company that pounds nails into the Savior’s hands and feet. And in many respects, these people at Nazareth forecast not just then the reaction finally of old Israel, but the bitter reaction of Jewish leadership.

    They, from the beginning, are suspicious. Less than cool, even hostile. Do you know about these officials? Who they were? description of them. The official leaders, the official teachers in Israel during the time of Jesus, were the scribes who, for the most part, belonged to a particular sect, the sect of the Pharisees. There was another party alongside the Pharisees. You know who they were. They were the Sadducees.

    We have two men. basically two parties representing two religious mindsets that arise out of the Jewish impulse. And these two, in the end, will prove to be shaking one another’s hands across a table with respect to the person of Jesus. As much as they are disagreed, they are agreed on this. Jesus must go. Jesus is not naive with regard to the Jewish populace. He is not naive with regard to Jewish leadership. And so when there are these popular strains and choruses, when there are these swells, he understands well what’s taking place. He sees to the heart of the matter. What about these Pharisees? How are we to understand them?

    They are the religiously orthodox party of Israel in the first century. Originally they had aligned themselves with the freedom movement out of the second century B.C. They stood with Judas Maccabeus. They supported that revolution against the Greeks. They were freedom fighters. They enlisted others to support their position of Jewish autonomy and freedom, political freedom. They emphasized Jewish separateness and ritual purity. They applied rigorously the Mosaic law and supported the practice of drawing out principles, which they called their traditions, built upon the law that then were applied to the daily life of the people, controlling every minute detail of daily life.

    Even if their original intentions were good, you may have a quarrel about that, even if their original intentions were good, they had over the years become terribly corrupt, self-righteous. Jesus is right about that. more interested, hear me now, more interested in the psychology of command than in the commandments of God. How do you control? Not how do you obey. That’s the Pharisees. On the other hand, We have the Sadducees. Who were they? A worldly aristocracy. Wealthy. Very powerful. Powerful because of their money. They were in position of the highest offices religiously in the land, interestingly.

    Sadducees, as you know, didn’t believe in the supernatural. They didn’t believe in the spirits. They didn’t believe in spirit angels. They didn’t believe in the resurrection. And yet these were the most highly placed religious officers of their time. They favored Rome. They were established in and satisfied with the existing political order. They didn’t want things to change. If they change, they wouldn’t be empowered. As we’ve already suggested, the Sadducees were naturalistic in their orientation, in their worldview, and they thought in terms of the maintenance of their position in the world.

    They opposed Jesus because he was a threat to their position, to their worldview, and to their world order. His claims for himself were in their view, not only blasphemous, who is this one who claims to be God, but impossible. Since the supernatural is in fact ruled out on the plane of this world, how is it possible for God to become flesh, to walk on the earth, on the plane, the surface of the world? The Pharisees, once more, were thoroughly supernaturalistic. They believed in the Spirit. They believed in spirits and angels, in the resurrection of the body.

    Yet they joined ranks with these Sadducees against Jesus. Their opposition revolved around the meaning and the place of the law. You remember the arguments that take place over the nature of the Sabbath and its authority. How did they see the law? They saw the law as the way to and guarantee of the kingdom. The kingdom comes by obedience to the law, and we are the officials that determine the significance of the law and its application. that they saw at the same time, despite their differences with the Sadducees, they saw at the same time the kingdom much along the lines that the Sadducees saw it. The Sadducees were, in fact, cosmopolitan and ecumenical. The Pharisees were provincial and sectarian, but both had the same point of reference, an earthly future in this world, a kingdom here.

    Do you understand now why Jesus is not enlisted by the acclamations of the crowd? Why Jesus cannot be a figure, a demigod, in the cult of personality and popularity? Because that’s part and parcel of kingdoms that arise out of this world and belong to it. Does not this remain the stumbling block with regard to the person and work of Jesus Christ to this very day?

    Isn’t it this matter of earthly kingdom, earthly gain, earthly permanence, earthly stability, earthly no variety, the satisfaction of earthly desires, worldliness, for which too many make too great a place in their hearts. Even the multitudes, the masses, the crowds, stumble at this point.

    And for this reason, despite the fact that they are drawn initially to Jesus, they’re thrilled by Him, despite the fact that they are attracted by His miracles and even His words, despite Jesus’ magnetic personality, His charismatic disposition, they fail to penetrate either His mighty works or His message with saving. And to the point, or rather to the extent, that they do grasp what he’s really saying, to the extent that they see that he’s preaching another kingdom, that he’s presenting to them something completely different from what they want, they reject him. They crucify him. They want nothing to do with it. So then, that early period of popularity, intense, powerful, the activity we see in it engaging, magnetic in itself, but it passes. And when it passes, there will be left that small gate and that narrow way, and few there be that find it.

    You’re not secretly a therapist, are you? or a Sadducee. You’re not secretly a Jew after the flesh, interested in worldly kingdoms and earthly inheritances. You’re drawn to Jesus with Satan faith. You believe in him, you trust in him for things not seen, don’t you? You are a part of that company along the narrow road, entering in by the narrow gate. To the praise of God’s grace and His glory. Amen.

    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 Word Made Flesh: Christ’s Coming and Childhood

    The Word Made Flesh: Christ’s Coming and Childhood

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 23, 1990.

    About this sermon

    John’s ‘the Word,’ Matthew, and Luke each describe Christ’s coming in their own way, and Luke goes on to his childhood. Luke’s focus on the temple in chapter 2 already shows where this child’s life is headed.

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    Sermon transcript

    Tonight our scripture reading begins in John’s Gospel, the first chapter, beginning with verse one. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

    And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God whose name was John. He came for a witness, that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light that came that he might bear witness of the light. There was the true light, which coming into the world enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him.

    But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in his name. who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

    And then turning over to Matthew’s Gospel, the first chapter, Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, desired to put her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who will save his people from their sins.” Now, all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which translated means God with us. And Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took her as his wife, and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King, behold, Magi from the East arrived in Jerusalem.

    I’m then turning over to Luke’s gospel, second chapter, beginning at verse 41. This is Luke 2, beginning at verse 41. And his parents used to go to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he became twelve, they went up there according to the custom of the Feast.

    And as they were returning, after spending the full number of days, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem and his parents were unaware of it. But supposed him to be in the caravan and win a day’s journey. And they began looking for him among their relatives and acquaintances. And when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem looking for him. And it came about that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when they saw him, they were astonished.

    And his mother said to him, Son, why have you treated us this way? Behold, your father and I have been anxiously looking for you. And he said to them, Why is it that you were looking for me? Did you not know that I had to be in my father’s house? And they did not understand the statement which he had made to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth. And he continued in subjection to them. And his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.

    Let’s pray again. Father, we glory in the ministry of your word to souls that are anxious and receptive. We pray, Lord, that you might bless us with your word. And also, may we see the service of your word multiply. We thank you, our God, for those called amongst your people who have a particular calling for service.

    We therefore pray for the deacons of the Church of Jesus Christ and may they serve with distinction. May they give themselves selflessly for the sake of others and may the very patterns of Christ’s gift of himself be found in them. And may it please you Lord to grant them many blessings and to reward them, Lord, with kindness. And may the treasures which they lay up in heaven be those that are well regarded by you and by the hosts assembled there.

    We pray for your church throughout the world that the living stones may be tended and cared for well. by these ministers, these servants that you have raised up for that very purpose. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen. Well, we have a lot of ground to cover tonight, but it is familiar ground for us.

    When the Son of God came to earth for our salvation, the world was ready. The world had been prepared, not just because of that unity that existed due to the extensiveness of the Roman Empire. nor because of the pervasive influence of Greek culture that acted as a unifying influence throughout the entirety of that empire, nor because of the Jewish dispersion throughout much of the known world at that time. The world was ready, yes, because of those things, but because of other things as well. The world was ready in that Roman might, power, Greek sophistication and wisdom, and Jewish religious arrogance had reached that point concurrently where they provided the perfect background for the unveiling of God’s perfect, wonderful salvation.

    God’s Son. would confound the power of Rome through weakness. God’s Son would confound Greek wisdom through so-called foolishness, the foolishness of God. God’s Son would confound the Jews through the religion, the perfection, of the religion of the Spirit, or the Holy Spirit. And at each of these points, the Son’s triumph is one and the same, manifest, exhibited principally in his crucifixion and then in his resurrection.

    How extraordinary a figure. And the world had hardly guessed how extraordinary a figure. For in this figure we have no mere religious genius, no towering spiritual champion, not just another figure like one of those Old Testament heroes of the faith. In actual fact, as you know, he who comes is himself God. God in the flesh. John’s prologue. And here’s John 1, verses 1-18, gives us ample testimony to this fact. Here, John, the inspired writer, tells us that the Word itself has eternity.

    In the beginning was the Word. The Word has eternity. that the Word accompanies God, has fellowship with God, and is capable of standing alongside of Him. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. But this Word Even though it can be spoken of as that which accompanies God capable of standing alongside of Him, this Word is itself God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

    John’s image here of the Word, calls attention to the fact that God, think of it now, think of it now, that God is eternally self-expressive. Even within himself there is communication. God is eternally self-expressive. And that expression, while originating from God, is capable of going forth from Him and standing beside Him, as it were. That expression is capable of being with Him. And that expression that comes forth from God, even though it comes forth from Him, it goes forth from Him, is nonetheless God.

    The Word was in the beginning, it was with God, it was God. Indeed, then, the Word, God’s self-expression, or if you will, as he is described for you there in verse 14 of chapter 1, the only begotten of the Father. This Word became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ and tabernacled, that is, dwelt among us. And in this form, then, as he comes to us in Jesus Christ, the Son veils God’s inner being, which no man can see at any time, but he, the Son, in the veil of his own flesh, coming forth as he does from the very heart of God, the bosom of God, declares God and now makes God known. if you wish to run down to verse 18 of that first chapter in John. Powerful stuff. Incomparably so. Not just another spiritual hero, like what we find in the pages of the Old Testament. Jesus Christ, therefore, is very God of very God. Do you worship Him as such? Do you not sing praises to Him as God? Do you not address Him as God? Do you not ascribe to him the power of God. Is not this one who has come for your salvation God himself in the flesh? Yes, very God of very God. But at the same time, Fully man. Utterly distinct. Do we need convinced of that? Utterly distinct, yet sharing in our common life. Very God of very God, yet fully man.

    And don’t the stories of his birth make this fact plain. a testimony of Matthew and Luke. There is no record of his birth in the Gospel of Mark. I think that you knew that. So it’s Matthew and Luke that we’re concerned with now as we consider the story of Christ’s birth. The joint testimony of these two inspired writers is this. The one who comes forth is virgin born. Think of it, virgin born.

    One who does not descend by ordinary generation. One who is thoroughly, completely, utterly distinct. Not even those of the Old Testament, those extraordinarily born like Isaac and Samson and Samuel, can claim to have such a birth as this. So in this birth, Jesus is set apart as utterly unique. Yes, one who comes, God himself in the flesh. But at the same time, what else is proclaimed by these birth stories? Jesus’ birth is common with all other births. Distinct, yet common. Divine, yet human. God, yet man.

    What do you judge of Mary’s pregnancy? Like any other pregnancy? Of course. Did she experience the common discomforts? Did she experience the pain as do other women? Of course. A birth common with other births. For this one who is born, is fully human.

    And what of Jesus, the babe? I know the habit. Out of some traditions, and out of the romanticized Protestantism of the last century, Jesus, according to these perspectives, never whimpered, never cried. never expressed any discomfort of his own. Well, that’s a completely unrealistic picture of Jesus the babe. While he is God, yet he is man, and he is a babe like all other babes. Does Jesus the babe cry?

    Why, sure. Does Jesus the babe become hungry and thus? Of course, by all means, for he is fully human. The testimony then, whether we are in John’s gospel or in Matthew or Luke, is one. The one who comes forth for us and for our salvation is divine deity, God himself, and yet man.

    How we stand upon this foundation against the multiple threats that had been risen, that had been raised against it. The cults invariably deny it. That’s why John Gershner, a number of years ago, declared that liberalism was a cult. Because liberalism, in fact, denied the eternal deity of the sun. and the essential deity of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh.

    Well, as to the revelation with respect to the birth of Jesus now, Luke is the one who introduces us to the first wave of that revelation from a chronological point of view. He tells us of the advent, the coming of the Messiah’s forerunner. He’s the one that offers us this information. It’s in the Gospel of Luke that we find out about the birth of John the Baptist. Chapter 1, verses 5 through 25, and then again, verses 57 through 80. It’s a very long chapter, isn’t it? You know some of the features.

    John was born of a Levite home. He was the son of a priest, Zacharias his father of the tribe of Levi, Elizabeth his mother. These two had had no children. Then comes this wonderful birth of John. You remember the events surrounding John’s birth, the appearance of the angel Gabriel, the curse that falls upon Zachariah as he’s ministering in the temple because of his unbelief. Then there’s Elizabeth’s pregnancy, a marvelous thing in itself, for she in her womb was as good as dead. Then there’s the naming of the child, and finally, the restoration of Zachariah and his magnificent song. Those features, with respect to John the Baptist coming to us, so beautifully told in Luke’s Gospel. But before John was born, there was the fulfillment of that promise of the one who is greater than John, that one who would then come after him. We have that in Luke chapter 1, verses 26 through 56.

    Here, once more, the angel is in view. Gabriel, the same angel, visits Nazareth in Galilee and announces to a humble maid by the name of Mary that God’s Son will be born to her. And she, unlike Zechariah, proves the embodiment of faithfulness in Israel, accepting the Lord’s will for her. She then travels to the field country of Judea, visits her cousin Elizabeth, and there breaks forth in song of praise to God for what is accomplished by him through her.

    Now we turn to Matthew. We’ve heard much about Mary in Luke’s Gospel, and in Matthew we hear much about Joseph. So the emphasis falls upon Joseph in the one Gospel, and upon Mary in the other. But here in Matthew’s Gospel, then, we read about Joseph in the passage we’ve read this evening, chapter 1, verses 18 through 25. And there we hear about his attitude, for if Mary has proved to be faithful, the embodiment of faithfulness of Israel likewise chosen.

    Obviously distraught over Mary’s condition, he fears for her future and her well-being. But his fears are quieted. by an angel’s visit who gives explicit instruction to him concerning Mary, and also concerning the child whom he is to name. And you remember the name. He shall call his name Jesus, for he it is who shall save his people from their sins.

    Is there any verse like that verse? Matthew 1, 21. And to this verse, this consideration from the angel. Now, Matthew adds, as he continues, his own note concerning that prophecy from Isaiah 7, verse 14, that one concerning the virgin that would conceive and bring forth a child.

    The name given to that child being Immanuel, which is now literally fulfilled. in the person of the Messiah, who is God with us. No little child running around the streets of Jerusalem during the days that He has. No, the literal fulfillment of the manual. God with us. Now Matthew doesn’t give us many details of the birth, We are told that Jesus is born in Bethlehem there at the opening up of the second chapter of Matthew. Actually, we have to turn again to Luke for the details of Jesus’ birth. You remember the trip by Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem?

    That because of the edict of Augustus? Was he really ruling the world? Is the true ruler Augustus, or is it God? Is he directing affairs from on high? Well, they make their way to Bethlehem, as you know. There is the birth there in the stable. The child is placed in a manger. You know what a manger is, don’t we? A trough for feeding cattle.

    Humble beginnings for the one who is God, but also man. The humility of this birth is accented by what follows, the arrival of shepherds, humble shepherds from the hillside to worship Him. Thus the poor inauspicious beginnings of our Savior in this world forecast what lies ahead for Him. Humiliation. Poverty. The son of man has nowhere to lay his head. His identification with God’s righteous poor. He makes himself poor so that we might become rich. Well, if there is this concentration in Luke upon poverty and humility, in turning to Matthew once again, we find a concentration upon glory.

    Magi. Kings from the east arrived in Jerusalem, seeking out the child for the purpose of worshipping him, for they had seen his star in the heavens.” Matthew 2, verses 1-12. Their service, the service of these Gentiles, the service of these Gentile rulers, who now have come from the ends of the earth, as if they had come from the ends of the earth.

    Their service contrasts Herod’s scheming and his butchery, recorded for you in the latter part of that second chapter in Matthew. Jesus is whisked away to Egypt, Joseph having been warned in a dream, And then there follows the slaughter in Bethlehem, the slaughtering of the males in Bethlehem, and the whisking away of Jesus to Egypt signal a new exodus out of Egypt, I have called my son. And in this new exodus, Judea itself will prove to be just as much Egypt as Egypt herself. But before that departure into Egypt, enter Luke once more with material of his own. Luke chapter 2, verses 21 through 38.

    Here we see Jesus’ parents and Jesus himself Submissive to the law, Jesus on the eighth day, circumcised, then brought to the temple according to the purification rites of Israel. While he is there, he becomes the center of attention to two figures that are also frequenting the temple precincts.

    One Simeon, the other Anna, who recognize him now as the Lord’s Christ, Let now my servant depart in peace, for I have seen the salvation of the Lord.” Sunnian, also being a prophet, proclaims what lies ahead for Jesus, but also for his mother. Sufferings are in the future. But through him, through this one, many in Israel will fall, but also rise.

    Jesus was a wonderful child, we are told by Luke. Moving on then from that 38th verse, verses 39 and 40 in Luke 2, but one who in the temple when he was 12 acknowledges his true calling, verses 41 through 52, which we’ve read this evening. He is a devoted son to Mary and Joseph. He will fulfill and honor the commandments But true devotion is to his Father above, and he will serve his Father for the sake of the true temple, the house of God, into which we, God’s people, are brought.

    Along with that theme, then, of poverty and humility that we see repeatedly in the story of Jesus’ birth in Luke’s gospel, there will be an emphasis upon the temple, an emphasis that we don’t find, for instance, in Matthew’s gospel. As a matter of fact, Luke’s gospel begins with a scene in the temple, Zacharias, and ends with a scene in the temple, with the disciples themselves in the temple, praying and worshiping there. All of this to the end that the temple itself will be transformed. The true temple appear, nothing else than the house of God into which we are brought.

    And that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, this one who is born, is Lamb of God. He is final offering and sacrifice, not for the sake of shedding his blood upon an altar in the temple in Jerusalem, but for the sake of bringing his blood into the heavenly temple and the sanctifying of things there. so that we might have access to the ultimate temple of God, the house that is eternal, not made with hands. That, through Christ’s death, but also His resurrection. We, united to Him, are being built up into a holy temple through the Spirit of our God. And we are performing service, service like unto the service He performs, for we are in Him. Amen.

    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 World’s Hostility and the Foolishness of the Cross

    The World’s Hostility and the Foolishness of the Cross

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 16, 1990.

    About this sermon

    The world’s condition at the moment Christ comes testifies to God’s own sovereignty over history, not to any human readiness for the gospel. That same world’s hostility persists in the ‘foolishness’ of the cross that Paul insists on preaching anyway.

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    Sermon transcript

    Can I do a reading from 1 Corinthians 1, verses 18-31? Listen to the word of God, beginning with verse 18. For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside. Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

    For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believed. For indeed, Jews ask for a sign. and Greeks. Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To Jews, a stumbling block, and to Gentiles, foolishness. But to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

    Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your call, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.” and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen the things that are not, that he might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God. For by his doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that just as it is written, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. Let’s pray together now.

    Our Father, the ordering of your church by your word is certainly no small matter, but it has been made to be a small matter even by your church, which in many respects has despised your word and set it aside. We ask, Father, that where you have been pleased to maintain testimony for yourself in truth, that there would be zeal for the ordering of your assemblies throughout the world. And to that end, Lord, we do pray for gifted men, not only those who may labor well in doctrine, and in preaching and teaching. But those, Lord, who may rule well in the midst of your people, give good and strong elders to your saints throughout the length and breadth of your church. And may their office be revered and may their personages be conformed to the image of Christ in his rule. Lord, we ask that with such as these, you would be pleased to govern and direct your people who are on the face of the earth now. For those that you have given this congregation, we give you thanks. and be with them especially as they must give account for their souls with respect to the disposition of the people who are under their charge. And may they be mindful of their responsibility with respect to the word, not only to govern by the word, but to make sure that your word is honored in its preaching, in its proclamation. Hear us now, Father, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

    We are now venturing into the area and era of New Testament times. We have finished our messages on Old Testament times, and we begin our messages now on New Testament times, and this evening we are speaking about the preparation. so that this is not a lecture or a religious talk. Let it be set out at the outset, God is about to send his Son into the world. An event. An unprecedented event. God is about to send his Son into the world.

    His Son, then, the Christ, the promised Redeemer, poised and ready to enter the world in human flesh with a body like yours and mine. to enter into the world of space and time, the world that you know, that you live in. This world, now, the Son, will come to share in the most intimate fashion. And with the coming of the Son of God, God in the flesh, New Testament times commence. New things come.

    We may ask ourselves, what kind of a world is it into which the Son of God, God in the flesh comes? In what kind of world will he perform his ministry? Preach, teach, heal, serve, suffer, die, rise again. In what kind of world will his unique community take shape? the community of his disciples, the fellowship of those known by his name, called by his name, his church.

    This is not a question without religious importance, for we know, do we not, amongst all Christians that populate the earth, our God is sovereign. And our God, being sovereign, directs all the affairs of men and nations. Thus the form of things as the sun makes his entrance testifies to God’s superintending of circumstance and history in all of its outworkings. So we take stock of the world into which the Son of God makes entrance, and even there we are face to face with the awesome sovereignty of God. A world prepared, the scene set, the stage of time and history prepared. When we concluded our survey of the Old Testament, we left Israel under Persian domination.

    This was around the year 400 B.C., 400 years before the birth of Christ. during the time of the ministry of that culminating prophet, Malachi. Now you will recall that part and parcel of that era that included Malachi, part and parcel of that era was the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, servants of God who had been sent to Judea by Persian kings earlier in the 5th century B.C. All in all, Persian supremacy lasted about 200 years.

    Babylon fell to the Medo-Persians in the year 539, and the Persian Empire did not itself succumb until the year 331 B.C. So, 539 to 331. Truly we can say, one of the world’s great empires. but yet it crumbled and fell.” We’ve already suggested or located the year 331 as that date for the demise of the Persian Empire. To whom did the Persians fall?

    Well, there was this upstart barbarian from Macedonia, son of a fellow named Philip. The territory north of Greece, his name was Alexander. He was the one who brought Persia to its knees. He died, however, about eight years later. He died in Babylon in the year 323 B.C., his vast empire stretching as far eastward as India. When he died, his empire fragmented into smaller kingdoms. which in some cases were controlled by Greeks, but in all cases were influenced to their very core by Greeks.

    In fact, through Greek influence, the world into which the Son of God enters was remarkably unified. The world at that time spoke one language, and it wasn’t Latin. The unifying language of that world was Greek. The world was also somewhat unified culturally, because Greek influences had permeated the civilized world at that time, even affected Judea.

    But with respect to Judea and the Greek-controlled or dominated or influenced kingdoms, she soon became the object of contention between two of these Greek-dominated domains. You had to the south of Judea, the Ptolemaic empire. The famous Ptolemaic queen, you may recall, was none other than Cleopatra. To the north were the Seleucids in the territory of Syria. And these two kingdoms fought over the territory of Judea. In the end, the Seleucids, or the Syrian kingdom, won out. Now, this is important because of one of the figures now that arises out of that Syrian kingdom. Have you heard of Antiochus before? otherwise known as Antiochus Epiphanes, ruling from 175 to 164 over that northern Syrian kingdom and exercising power and authority over Judea as well.

    You may recall how this man distinguished himself in Judea, certainly making himself quite popular with the Jews. since he set up an idol in the temple’s Holy of Holies. And it has been reported that he actually slaughtered swine on the temple’s altar. How to make friends with Jews? Is it any wonder that the Jews identified this man with the abomination of desolation from the earlier prophets? His actions brought about a Jewish revolt under the famoying of the Maccabees. And this revolt was successful, gaining for Judea independence.

    If you want to read about the Maccabean revolt, pick up your Apocrypha. I know you all have one at home. Pick up your Apocrypha and read the first book of the Maccabees. Great story. Even J. Gresham Machen was thrilled by the first book of the Maccabees. and the story that was told in it.

    A marvelous account of a quest for political and religious independence. Judea’s independence lasts for a hundred years. The Jews then were free of foreign dominance. It’s interesting, isn’t it? that the period they were under foreign domination, beginning with the Babylonian captivity, is almost exactly the same amount of time they were in Egypt. Very interesting. Jews would make a great deal out of that.

    And because of this liberation, its force, its power, and the freedom that they experience, they have made a great deal out of their so-called Festival of Lights, or Hanukkah, which commemorates the liberation effected through Judas Maccabeus. A political freedom for them.

    But all was not peace and light during the period of Maccabean rule, which lasted for about a hundred years. Eventually, even these folk who had begun well became worldly and corrupt, and distanced themselves from the devout and the pious poor. The liberator becomes oppressor.

    There was therefore little internal strength left when the next world empire came on the scene, striding across the earth. Who might this be, this colossus? From a small city-state in Italy, there comes the Roman Empire. In the year 63 B.C., Pompey, a name familiar to you, famous Roman general, entered Jerusalem. Interestingly, Now that you might consider the depths of corruption in Judea, interestingly for the next 26 years the Romans ruled Judea through a line of accommodating high priests of all things. Then in 37 B.C. one of the shrewdest men, shrewdest politicians, certainly one of the shrewdest that Judea had ever seen, came to power. An Idumean, that is, an Edomite, dressed up like a Jew, becomes king of Judea and all Palestine.

    His name? Herod. And he is not misnamed the Great, because this man truly was something. Something indeed. This man was so astute a politician that he knew how not to offend the Jew or the Roman. He knew how to play the game so well that he could keep people as religiously minded as the Jews happy and people as secularly minded as the Romans happy at the same time. It was a genius, a true man of the world. He was the consummate politician. He had the ability to hide his ruthlessness and his butchery, he was able to keep the messy details and ugly features of his reign out of the headlines.

    Do you remember the most heinous of crimes of which he was guilty? toward the end of his reign, sending some of his soldiers to the little city of Bethlehem, there to slaughter boy babies. A fiend. comes to power in 37 B.C., and he reigns until the year 4 B.C. Four years before Christ, he was actually sending out his soldiers to destroy the Christ who had been born in Bethlehem? Well, the fact that he has died in 4 B.C. makes obvious, does it not, that the reckoning of the Christian era, which was actually proposed many centuries after Christ, is at least four years too low. So we judge now that though our reckoning is mistaken, Jesus did in fact come into the world a little earlier than 4 B.C. Now, when he comes into the world, moving our eye a bit away from Judea to the Roman Luke’s Gospel tells us that Augustus was emperor of Rome. When Jerusalem had succumbed to Rome and Pompey had entered the city in 63 B.C., Rome at that time was still a republic.

    But soon, as many of you are well aware, The Empire was born and came under the sway of one Julius Caesar. I don’t have to recount for you the details of his assassination in 44 B.C. I expect all of you somewhere along the line in high school English had to read Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar. You know the facts. You might be aware also, having read that play, that after the assassination, civil war broke out and eventually Augustus emerged triumphant. His was an especially distinguished reign, running from 27 B.C. to A.D. 14. nothing short of glorious, magnificent reign by this man.

    But of course, the world and Judea are not really under Augustus’ or Herod’s or Rome’s The world is under God’s control, who prepares it and its details for the advent of his Son and the ministry of the Church of Jesus Christ. When the Son of God comes into the world and when the Church takes shape and begins her mission The world is unitary, and that providentially so under Roman rule, that to the advantage not of civilization, but to the advantage of Christ’s church and God’s purpose. This Roman rule and order then provide a fitting background for the spread of the gospel. Roman law prevails, Roman peace prevails, and both are useful to God and the cause of the gospel.

    The world is prepared by one greater than Augustine. And that kingdom that prides itself in its power and prominence is bet upon in the hand of God. We’ve already mentioned the Greek language, which was in fact the world’s language at that time. Language barriers then did not exist as the word of God was spread from one end of the empire to the other. A world prepared.

    Is God’s hand here discernible or not? And what about this other feature? the unfortunate history of the Jewish people, the fact that they, these Jews, have been dispersed throughout the entirety of the Roman Empire. And wherever you go, regardless of what city or town you may find yourself, there is some vestige, it seems, some evidence of Jewish presence in many of those circumstances, synagogues established, built, organized, standing, sat, and at least at the beginning, open, as the gospel goes forth. These then providing bases from which the apostles moved, going from one to another as they brought the message of the fulfillment of the covenant to bear upon these people first of all, but from that base to the Gentiles also. A world controlled by caprice? Happenstance? Just happen to be that way? My, things worked out fortunately for the Church, didn’t they? All by God’s design.

    But we must take pause, mustn’t we? As we look at all of these unifying features, these pluses out of the ancient world that provide the context in which Christ performs his ministry and into which then his church goes, carrying the message of the gospel. We must back off a bit, lest we make too much of all of these pluses and fail to see the deeper dimension that is here.

    Rome is not indifferent to the gospel. Rome is hostile. Greek culture and civilization is not neutral with regard to the gospel. Greek culture and civilization is hostile to the gospel. Jews in Judea and in synagogues pinpointed around the Roman world are not neutral to the gospel, they are hostile to the gospel.

    And therefore, when historians take up this matter of the first century and consider all of these features that they say point in the direction of the Church’s success, its automatic success, we draw back and say it was impossible for the Church to succeed in such a circumstance and situation as that.

    And it is no more possible for you to succeed in this world. and age in which you live. We can go around and survey all of the sociological, all of the civilization factors that we can. We can make a science out of it and predict our success and the accommodation of the world to us as we move from one end of the globe to the other. The point is, of course, that Rome was a monolith, a colossus, an insurmountable and formidable foe.

    It was impossible for these Christians to triumph, to succeed. Greek civilization and culture glorifies the mind, ideas. And Greek culture and civilization are not neutral, accommodating friends. quickly able to be synthesized into some sort of Christian vision and worldview. The Greeks seek wisdom. And as such, they find the cross of Christ to be utter foolishness. The synagogue. There he is. Jew, Greek, Roman. there is no chance, none.

    But God will manifest his power in the weakness of this which he has caused to come into being. And through the lives of you, he will confound the rumors of the to his glory.” Well, a cross, a dead leader raised, showing himself only to his select band? a company armed with the Word, a company that merely preaches the coming of the Son of God into the world, his death, his resurrection, and vindication through him. Why, it’s foolishness. the epitome of weakness. But for God, it is wisdom.

    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 Messiah Portrayed in the Old Testament

    The Messiah Portrayed in the Old Testament

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 2, 1990.

    About this sermon

    Isaiah, Micah, Daniel, Malachi, Genesis, and the Psalms all portray the Messiah, and the Old Testament anticipates him consistently. His appearance in the New Testament clears away the Old Testament’s mystery.

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    Sermon transcript

    We begin reading at verse 22, and read through verse 30. Chapter 32, verse 22. Now Jacob arose that same night, and took his two wives, and his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. And he took them, and sent them across the stream, and he sent across whatever he had. Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. And when he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh, so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him.

    Then he said, Let me go, for the dawn is breaking. But he said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. So he said to him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with me and have prevailed. Then Jacob asked him and said, Please tell me your name. But he said, Why is it that you ask my name? and he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place to Nile, for he said, I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved. Then turning over to the Psalms, Psalm 45, Reading the first nine verses, Psalm 45, my heart overflows with a good theme. I address my verses to the King. My tongue is a pen, is the pen of a ready writer.

    Thou art fairer than the sons of men. Grace is poured upon thy lips. Therefore God has blessed thee forever. gird thy sword on thy thigh, O mighty one, in thy splendor and thy majesty, and in thy majesty ride on victoriously. For the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness, let thy right hand teach thee awesome things. Thy arrows are sharp, the peoples fall under thee, thy arrows are in the heart of the king’s Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated wickedness, therefore God, by God, has anointed thee with the oil of joy above thine fellows. All thy garments are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made thee glad. Kings’ daughters are among thy noble ladies. at thy right hand stands the Queen in gold from Ophir.” And then over in Isaiah chapter 9, a familiar passage to you, verses 6 and 7. This is Isaiah chapter 9, verses 6 and 7.

    For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David or over his kingdom. to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.”

    Let’s pray together now. Our Father, you have given your word to your church, and your church is to be ruled by Christ through the word. We rejoice that you have raised up for your church servants who will proclaim the word And we thank you, our God, that you have given to your people those who might make judgment with respect to cases brought before them. We thank you, Lord, for wisdom granted to these officers of the Church. We thank you for these governors of your people, for these elders. And we thank you, Lord, for the elders that you have given to this Church. May they prove to be judges of right, and may they also, Lord, prove to be those who stand guardian of your word to ensure that it is proclaimed properly. We ask that not only for our congregation, but for those congregations known by your name, where the truth of your gospel is honored and pursued. We ask these things through the Head and King of the Church, Jesus Christ. Amen.

    Tonight we come to the last of our messages on Old Testament times. Tonight we are considering the theme, the coming Messiah. And I hope to place before you the pattern of Old Testament revelation with respect to the matter of the Messiah, that you might understand better the nature of that revelation, the particular features of that revelation as it is given to us from the Old Testament. Now, I wish to begin our consideration this evening, our consideration of the Old Testament’s presentation of the Messiah, by looking at the latter books, by looking at the prophets first of all.

    The prophets announce the coming of a deliverer. Repeatedly, that fact is placed before the people of God. The prophets are uniformly expectant. They announce the coming of a Deliverer, and this Deliverer is portrayed by the prophets as one who is fully human. Fully human.

    You may recall a passage that we have become accustomed to applying to the Messiah, although it wasn’t all that clear to the people of Isaiah’s day, namely Isaiah 7, verse 14. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. It says in that text, Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, Or as some have translated that, a young maiden will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel. You understand the translation of that name, being God with us.

    Well, at least what we can say, if the Deliverer is in view in this text, if the Messiah is in view in this text, He is portrayed here clearly as one who is fully human, born of a woman. We turn over to the ninth chapter of Isaiah from the passage that we read this evening. There again in the sixth verse of that ninth chapter, a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us. Once more, it is difficult to miss the fact that this individual is fully human. This individual is also portrayed for us as arising out of the tribe of Judah and from the shoot of Jesse. Turn a few pages to Isaiah 11, the opening of that, then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse and a branch from his root will bear fruit. So again, fully human, a child coming forth from Jesse’s lineage.

    And to this one we are told in other passages in Isaiah, to this one belongs the nations. His inheritance is the nations. He being then their light. This bringing before us the fact that this one born into the world is a ruler, a ruler without precedent, and this one who is ruler, being a source of glory, his reign being glorious itself. The prophets then announced for us the advent, the coming of a fully human deliverer. who will be glorious in his person and in his reign.

    But at the same time, the Prophet’s message is overlaid with great ambiguity, so that this deliverer, this figure, this Messiah, if you will, remains a figure clothed in mystery, covered seemingly by a clown or a vain. That is why you see even amongst the most devout, the most pious of Israel, texts that seem transparent to us were not transparent to them. They didn’t see in those texts what we see in them. It was only later, as God made full disclosure of His purpose in the person of Jesus Christ, that the veil would be lifted, the cloud would be lifted, and they would see things clearly. So then, the prophet’s message is also an ambiguous message, so that this messianic figure remains one clothed in mystery. Yes, fully human. Yes, destined for glory. Yet, at the same time, seemingly, one who suffers and suffers greatly. Unprecedented glory, but unparalleled pain. How is he described for us?

    Do we look later to the servant passages in Isaiah’s prophecy? You can run through those servant passages in the chapters 40 through 49. You can look at the servant passage par excellence, chapter 53. There you have for you a description of this one. despised, forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face, despised to be sure, bearing our grief, carrying our sorrows, stricken, smitten of God, afflicted, pierced through for our transgressions, crushed for our sins, the chastening of our well-being falling upon Him, His scourging being the source of our health.

    We, like sheep gone astray, turned each one to his own way, but the Lord is causing the iniquity of us all to fall upon Him. oppressed, afflicted, opening not his mouth, a lamb led to slaughter, a sheep that is silent before its shearers, yet he opens not his mouth.”

    And so it goes. The picture of the One who is coming. Now, it’s true. that even the most devout in Israel had a very difficult time reconciling that expectation of the glorious deliverance with the suffering servant. And only in time, when God would make plain his mystery, would this become clear so that we are benefited through the gospel. The testimony is consistent.

    You read in other prophets like Zechariah. He was pierced, writes Zechariah. Chapter 12, verse 10. Depicted as a shepherd stricken. And when he is stricken, the sheep scatter. Chapter 13, verse 7. Yes, the Messiah is a glorious king. But at the same time, the Lamb of God. The Lamb led to slaughter. But even beyond this ambiguity, glory and suffering, we learn further when the veil is lifted, when the cloud rises, If we dare to think of it, and it seems almost as if none in Israel were prepared to think of it, that this Messiah, this coming Deliverer, had the most unique relationship with God.

    Isaiah 7.14, we’ve already looked at that passage, does leave us somewhat in murky water.

    Who is this Immanuel? Was there a little Immanuel running around the streets of Jerusalem in the days of Ahaz the king? But the name presses itself even further upon us, upon our consciousness, upon our religious response. Immanuel, not just a name for a little boy in Ahaz’s day.

    Immanuel, God with us, the name that describes that one who is coming, born not just of a young maiden, but of a virgin, miraculously born. God himself, if you can imagine it, in the flesh. Isaiah 9.6, again, we’re there at that passage once more, helps us and places us on firm ground with regard to our understanding of that 7.14 passage. Yes, there is coming this child born to us, gift to us, that we learn from what Isaiah says, the government will rest upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Though few, if any, in Israel are prepared to accept this message, yet what is being declared by the prophets is this, A child born, fully human, destined for glory, yet the Lamb of God, a man, yet God, coming in human flesh.

    Startle. for presenting this Deliverer as a figure so uniquely related to God as to be indistinguishable from Him, so close, so proximate, so intimate the bond, that He is indistinguishable from God and welcome to all the titles that God Himself You may think of that Micah prophecy, the one that talks about the place of birth for the coming Deliverer being Bethlehem, Micah 5.2. In this passage we are told that this one who is born in that lowly, obscure town, his comings forth are from of old, from everlasting language that is applicable only to God himself.

    The figure is further described for us by Daniel, the 7th chapter, verses 13 and 14. Here the description takes a different twist. From Isaiah and others we may learn about a God-like man, but in Daniel he is portrayed as a man like God, who comes up before the Ancient of Days to receive the kingdom which belongs to God alone, this kingdom now given to him.

    That which is God’s is his. There is Malachi, the final prophet of the Old Testament. You know the passage, the third chapter, the very first verse. It’s a famous text. Behold, I am going to send my messenger. and he will clear the way before me.” We all know who that is. We recognize the figure of John the Baptist in that one.

    But then Malachi goes further, and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says, the Lord of Hosts. Malachi in this passage sees the divinity of the Messiah and calls, calls the Messiah, Lord. But he also sees the humanity and goes on to call this deliverer the messenger of the covenant simultaneously. This text is so striking because it describes the one who comes under two separate categories.

    The Lord, on the one hand, and the messenger of the covenant on the other. But you see, the advent of this special messenger is actually the advent of the Lord himself. The coming of the messenger is the coming of God. And that finally is the bottom line with respect to the prophet’s message.

    When God works his deliverance, when this special figure arises, when he comes, when he’s born, when he takes to himself human flesh, this one who comes will be God come to us in the flesh. yet in unprecedented fashion, glorious. Human, yet seemingly inexplicably afflicted. Human, glorious, afflicted, yet God himself come to his sanctuary. The coming of God in the coming of the promised one. see the one, and when the cloud is dispersed, you see the coming of the other.

    The prophets are unanimous and utterly consistent. We stand against their testimony at our jeopardy. That is why the standing of the liberal gospel is so precarious. It woe be to those who feign orthodoxy, who speak about a divine Messiah, who are clear in their own minds about the divinity of this one. Yet, in their hearts, are far from Him.

    So, is it just the Prophet’s message that confronts us with this picture of the Messiah? Is it merely a Prophet’s vision from which arises this portrait? And that’s from the later times in Old Testament history. If we turn to the book of Genesis, the very first book of the Old Testament, what do we find there? Little by little, bit by bit, piece by piece, the same thing.

    Genesis 3.15. The coming deliverer promised is of the seed of the woman, fully human. We are told also in this text that this coming one will suffer, his heel shall be bruised, yet he will triumph in crushing the serpent’s head. There it is. There it is for you, in seminal form.

    We also see the image of the Messiah, do we not, in the figure of that mysterious priest, King Melchizedek, in Genesis 14, to whom Abram gives a tie of the spoils from his triumph over the king from the east. We see the messianic form in that cloudy figure of the angel of the Lord, who appears repeatedly in Genesis.

    As we read the scene, we see the form of the Messiah, the coming one, in that man, that’s what he’s called in Genesis 32, in that man who wrestles with Jacob. You hear What Jacob says after he has wrestled with this man all night, I have seen God face to face. Thus the name of the place, Peniel, which means the face of the Lord, face of God. When these examples, God and man, are brought into such proximity, In this figure that repeatedly asserts itself throughout the pages of Genesis, we see God and man in such proximity that they become indistinguishable.

    The Messiah also passes before our eyes. In many figures in that book that typify him, we think of Isaac. a sacrifice let up on the mountain, a picture of the coming one, we think also, maybe especially, of Joseph, the one who knows humiliation, but then is exalted by God’s dealings to greatness. The Messiah being set before us even in these. So not just the prophets at the end, but Genesis at the beginning.

    And the picture is consistent, is it not? Human yet divine, glorious yet suffering. There it is, the mystery that will be solved when Jesus Christ comes. And you are the beneficiaries of that revelation. We have the end, then, the prophets. We have the beginning, Genesis. What about the middle? The Psalms. Is it any different when we turn to the Psalms? What picture is given us in the Psalms of Christ? Psalm 2.

    He is a king. by divine action. Human, yes, but exalted. Exalted over all other rulers. One who inherits the nation as the one who is designated God’s son. Psalm 2, rehearse it for yourself. You know the psalm. The things that I say with respect to the psalm are accurate.

    Here is a king, exalted by God’s action over all other rulers, and one by that divine action who inherits the nation, designated God’s son. The categories applied to him, to this figure who appears throughout the psalm, exceed those applied to any of Israel’s kings. including David and Solomon, so that even David and Solomon looked for one greater, one who exceeded them in glory and honor. We are told in Psalm 110 by David that this one who is coming is no less than David’s Lord. whose eternal kingship is matched by his eternal priesthood, a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” There’s the figure of Melchizedek once more.

    That if we are not startled enough by these texts from the Psalms, these Psalms which were sung by Israel, We are startled even more by what we find in Psalm 45, verse 6. It’s a text about which there has been a great deal of debate, a tremendous amount of argument. But the New Testament’s use of this passage, for instance, in Hebrews, leaves no doubt as to the correct interpretation. In verse 6, when we are told about, by Throne, Oh, God is forever and ever.

    A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of thy kingdom. In view there is what belongs particularly to the messianic figure, the deliverer. And in this text we come to see one no less than our Savior, Jesus Christ, described here and addressed as God. O God, or thy throne, O Christ, is forever and ever. A scepter of thy rightness is the scepter of thy kingdom.”

    Added to these texts are those marvelous texts that talk to us about the coming of God. You cannot simply read those Psalms that speak about the coming of God and not be moved by them in light of what we know concerning the appearance of the Lord’s Christ. We sing with zeal and gusto Psalm 98. But do you remember the last verse of that psalm, which speaks about the Lord’s coming? All of creation erupting before Him, before the Lord, for He is coming to judge the earth, He will judge the world with uprightness and the peoples with equity. We cannot exclude from that description of the coming of God the appearance of this special one, the Lord’s Messiah. The coming of God is seen in keeping of a peace with the messianic visitation. I don’t have to rehearse for you The fact that the psalms simultaneously speak of the Messiah’s suffering. We know of some of those psalms, Psalm 22, 35, 41, 55, 69, 109. All of them speaking of the Messiah’s suffering. So what do we have?

    At the end, a picture given to us, fully human, yet divine, glorious, yet suffering. The one expected who comes, whose coming means the coming of God. The same in Genesis. Preparation is made for God’s continuous revelation for the people of Israel. And then in the Psalms, The story is the same, the one fully human, yet divine, glorious, yet suffering. In his coming is the coming of God.

    It was a cloudy, veiled, mysterious picture for those Israelites. They could hardly put the pieces together, but now we know how well they fit and form a portrait of Jesus Christ, our Savior. So as we leave the Old Testament now and move into the New, the cloud lifts, the mystery is solved, and how brightly God’s Deliverer shines forth for us and for our salvation. Amen.

    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.

  • Seeing God: Our Covenantal Goal

    Seeing God: Our Covenantal Goal

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, August 26, 1990.

    About this sermon

    Seeing God, drawn from the seventy elders who eat and drink in his presence in Exodus 24:9-11, is our covenantal goal from the very beginning. That meal connects directly to the Lord’s Supper, our own dwelling and seeing in God’s heavenly temple even now.

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    Sermon transcript

    seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship ye afar off. And Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they shall not come nigh, neither shall the people go up with him. And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments.

    And the people answered with one voice and said, All the words which the Lord has said will we do. And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord and rose up early in the morning and built an altar under the hill and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he set young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the book of the covenant and read it in the audience of the people, and they said, All that the Lord has said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.

    Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under his feet, as it were, a paved work of sapphire stone, and as it were, the body of heaven in its clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand. Also they saw God and did eat and drink.”

    And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there. And I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written, that thou mayest teach them. And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua. And Moses went up into the mount of God, and he said to the elders, Carry ye here with us until we come again unto you. And behold, Aaron and Ur are with you. If any man have any matter to do, let him come unto them.

    And Moses went up into the mount, and the cloud covered the mount. And the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud, and the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount. And Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.”

    What a remarkable and marvelous scene is described for us here in Exodus 24, especially verses 9 through 11. What a remarkable and marvelous scene. utterly startling. Its glory, its magnificence, is comprehended as you reflect upon what it means for these men to have seen God, and then to have eaten and drunk in his presence. It’s a marvelous thing indeed.

    But did you know that as things are mapped out here for us in this chapter in Exodus, to this point in this biblical book, you have, with these verses, arrived at the conclusion, if not the goal, of God’s covenantal dealings with His people. Here is the objective in view. Here is the goal that is set out before the people of God, those who are called by His name.

    In the Old Testament, were not the children of Israel called by His name? Are not you the children of God? Are you not the church of Jesus Christ? Do you not belong to him? There will be then those parallels that exist between what takes place for these covenant people and what takes place for you. Since you are known by the name of God, you are his people.

    But arriving at these verses now, it’s as if you have come to a conclusion point to the goal itself of God’s covenantal dealings with his people. You understand what I mean when I speak of the covenant and God’s covenantal dealings? His bond, that bond of fellowship between him and his own, solemnized, sealed by his various administrations and ordinances, his laws and commandments. but at heart, a bond that exists between God and his own. What we have reached, a conclusion that we have reached, a goal is made evident from what we read in the beginning part of this chapter, especially verses 3 through 8.

    Here is a ceremony that settled the matter of the covenant between God and his people. Moses brings down the commandments from God, and then the people respond. They say, all that God has commanded we will do, and then, as if to finalize the contract, if you will, Moses writes down the law in a book. And then this ceremony takes place in which there are sacrifices and the pouring out of blood that to speak of reconciliation and peace between God and the people, but also. To solemnize their own covenantal vows, they promised to do all that God has commanded. And when the blood is sprinkled upon them, they receive that blood is a sign.

    Saying, in effect, If we fail to keep our end of the bargain, if we fail to keep our part of the covenant, then may it be done unto us as has been done unto this animal. That’s how serious the whole matter is. Very serious indeed. So, God’s covenantal dealings now are finalized. The people are at the place where they are ready to receive all of these words from God, and they commit themselves to live by these commandments. They are in the bond with God, truly, truly.

    But it’s not enough merely to have the commandments and the sacrifices, the shedding of blood, the sprinkling of the same. It’s not enough merely to have the vow, because as you go on to verses 9 through 11, you see then what God ultimately, finally has in store for his people. confused a bit, you may be thinking, how in the world can we apply these verses to us when it seems that the only ones in view here were the leaders?

    Moses and his brother Aaron, and then two of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, plus the seventy elders of the people. But do you understand that these people mentioned in verse nine are representative, that they do not ascend the mountain irrespective of their relationship to the people whom they serve, that the people in effect are ascending with them, all of the people, Moses, the mediator of the old covenant, taking up with him three other officials, those who are marked out for priesthood, those who will become prophets, if you will, those who will expound and teach the law. In the New Testament, there is another mediator, the final mediator, Jesus Christ.

    You might recall, instead of taking all of the prophets, all of the teachers of the law, up into the mountain with him, he takes but three, Peter, James, and John. You can read about that in Matthew 17, the story of the Mount of Transfiguration. So not all of the disciples go with Jesus into the mount, but does that mean not all the disciples are benefited by that experience? Not at all. and what those three experience, all will experience in time. It will come to them as well. And what do we do with the 70 elders? Just the leaders of the people? Just a privileged class? The 70, the number itself is significant.

    If you turn back to Genesis forty six verse twenty seven, you will find out there were seventy people who came down into Egypt. And that was all there was of the household of Jacob at that time. That’s all there was of the house of Israel. Originally there were seventy and now on the Mount there appears seventy more. The seventy. You see, in Exodus 24, verse 9, answer to the seventy in Genesis 46, verse 27. The seventy elders, then, are representative of all the people, of all of Israel, and what they behold.

    In time, all Israel, those who are truly gods, the Israel of God, will behold. that these men experience will be experienced by all who are known by the name of God. Why, it’s a glorious, glorious thing. Think of it. To see God, to eat and drink in his presence. That’s precisely what has been promised, isn’t it? Do you remember Jesus’ beatitude? Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Not just the elders, not just the prophets and the preachers, But all who are pure of heart, they shall see God.”

    Do you remember the compositive passages that you have at the end of the book of Revelation? Is there anything as wonderful as those concluding chapters to the book of Revelation? Do you remember the description of the new heavens and the new earth in verse in chapter twenty one of Revelation. I think especially a versus three and four.

    And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, God’s presence, and he shall dwell among them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be among them. John repeats that in order to emphasize it. And he, as one who is literally present with them, shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no longer any death. There shall no longer be any mourning or crying or pain, for the first things have passed away.

    Do you match that with what you find in chapter 22? We read there, verses 3 and 4, “…and there shall no longer be any curse, and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his bondservants shall serve him, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be upon their forehead.”

    What is the objective? What is the goal? The goal isn’t that you might live happily ever after here upon earth. It’s not that your life here may be perpetuated indefinitely. The goal isn’t that in the covenant, well, I’ll obey God’s commandments and then all the blessings of this creation will be mine. Every bit of prosperity that this world offers will be mine. No, you see, the goal, the objective of the covenant is that you might see God. The children of Israel didn’t much want to see God. But should you? Do you not? When you sit down and think about it, isn’t that truly the thing that is most important to you?

    That the day will come when you will see God face to face. And it’s not just seeing God because the text tells us that we will also eat and drink in his presence. It’s a beautiful image, isn’t it? It’s a wonderful picture. There’s been the promise of the prophets with respect to this. You turn to Isaiah chapter 25, you can read about it there, verses 6 and following, how God is preparing a lavish banquet upon his exalted mountain. We know that that mountain is Zion, glorious in the heavens, eternal. The nations themselves are being brought up into that mountain, and God’s people shall be exalted there. A marvelously lavish banquet prepared by God. so that his people may have the full benefit of fellowship with him, literally eating and drinking in his presence. It’s a picture of joy and radiant tranquility, peace.

    How sad it is when the dinner table becomes a war zone, Maybe you’ve experienced that at some time in your life. The dinner table becomes a war zone, but ideally that’s not the way it should be, and ordinarily that’s not the way it is. Mealtime, the dinner table, it’s a place of peace, fellowship, tranquility, relaxation, joy, great joy.

    So it is in the economy of God. He’s preparing a banquet table for us. Jesus tells us there are those who will come from the East and West and sit down at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. A marvelous thing. You remember some of his parables. He speaks of a great feast, a great banquet to which many are being invited, called.

    And those who receive invitations, sadly, some of them reject. We hear Christ’s judgment upon them. We also know about his parable of the wise and foolish virgins with respect to the great wedding feast that is being prepared, and those who weren’t equipped missed out. Those who were, through the blessings of the Holy Spirit, entered in and shared them in the full benefit of that feast.

    And can we forget the book of Revelation? Chapter 19, we’re told there of the great wedding feast for the Lamb, the Lamb of God, and his church, his bride, is being prepared for him so that this magnificent, culminating wedding and subsequent feast may take place. Why, the kingdom of heaven is a feast, it is a banquet. prepared by God for those who, through Jesus Christ, come unto Him. Here, here is the conclusion and the goal of God’s covenantal dealings. And so wonderfully, in the book of Exodus, you have this picture of the ultimate eternal the attitude of God’s own.

    Well, having that meal in mind, having that table indelibly impressed upon your consciousness now, you can never look at any table setting the same again. Won’t even the daily setting of your table remind you of the feast coming? Could any Israelite, if his heart were right, view any of the feasts that were celebrated year in, year out in any other light than in the light of that eternal feast and banquet that was coming.

    And as it was for them, so with us. There’s a table here. There’s a table set here before you today. Now, on the one hand, we’re sobered by this table, are we not? In a certain sense, this is a sad occasion, because in this occasion we remember Christ’s sufferings and death.

    We are reminded of Him and what He underwent for us. And we are sobered by that, we are straightened We take stock of ourselves. Our own condition was necessary for Him to die because of my sin. Not someone else’s, but my sin. And at the same time, we think of this table in a sobering light.

    There is that note of joy and celebration, because Christ’s sacrifice has been accepted in glory. And Jesus did not remain dead, but rose again, that he might make ready in glory the feast for those who keep covenant with him now upon earth.” Well, tasting the wine and the bread this morning, You have a foretaste, even in this, of that which carries you beyond mourning and suffering, sighing and dying, carries you virtually into the presence of God and to the point where you see a table set and all of the celebrants present from the four corners of the earth and you glorying before the Lord. In that day, when Jesus comes again, you will see God, and you will eat and drink in his presence. And in that setting, you will know nothing but perfect peace. Amen.

    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 Uniqueness of Biblical Religion

    The Uniqueness of Biblical Religion

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, August 26, 1990.

    About this sermon

    Naturalistic and humanistic accounts treat Israel’s religion as one more ancient Near Eastern cult, and Van Til’s view of revelation shows why it is unique. God’s sheer grace toward Israel in Deuteronomy 7:6-8 is the two-sided key to understanding it.

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    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we are reading from the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 4. Deuteronomy chapter 4. The first 24 verses. And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform. In order that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you, you shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.

    Your eyes have seen what the Lord has done in the case of Baal-peor. For all the men who followed they appear or the Lord your God has destroyed them from among you. But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive today. Every one of you. See I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the Lord my God commanded me that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it. So keep and do them.

    For that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as is the Lord our God whenever we call on him? For what great nation is there that has statutes and commandments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today. Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. But make them known to your sons and to your grandsons.

    Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb. When the Lord said to me, Assemble the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.

    And he came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire to the very heart of the heavens, darkness, cloud, and thick gloom. Then the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire, You heard the sound of words, but you saw no form, only a voice. So he declared to you his covenant which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might perform them in the land where you’re going over to possess it.”

    So watch yourselves carefully. Since you did not see any form on the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb from the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth. And beware, lest you lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars and all the hosts of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace from Egypt to be a people for his own possession as today.

    Now the Lord was angry with me on your account. and swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. For I shall die in this land, I shall not cross the Jordan, but you shall cross and take possession of this good land. So watch yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which he made with you, and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which the Lord your God has commanded you, for the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”

    We ask, Father, that we would be encouraged by your word in the certainty that your word gives life. Surely your word has the power to transform lives, our lives. And you have made that plain to us. And Lord, we would ask that the word that goes forth from this place would powerfully confront others with the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And may it be that there would be those who would come and understand better, or even for the first time, the glorious things of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Bless the message tonight and bless the messengers throughout your church who bring your word to the world.

    We ask this in Christ’s name. Amen. We have come to the next to the last message in this series on Old Testament times. Next week we will be considering the theme of the Messiah, or Israel’s hope. That to which she looked, that for which she longed. But as we build up to our consideration of Israel’s hope, and the figure of the Messiah next week, we take up this evening the general features of Israel’s religion.

    Now it has been said that the Greeks gave to the world arts and letters. that being their contribution to world civilization. It has been said that Rome gave to the world law and order, that being their contribution to world civilization. And for those who are interested in world civilization, It has been said that Israel’s contribution is in the area of religion and ethics. So, in good humanistic style, in fine humanistic perspective, all you need do is to combine the contributions of these great civilizations for what we have now as the underpinnings for our civilization in our time.

    If we are interested in the arts, we look to the Greeks. If we are interested in law, if we are interested in government, we look to the Romans. If we are interested in religion, we look to Israel. We throw all of these elements into a big pot, we stir it up, and out comes the perfect mix for a proper civilization, a good and proper society.

    Well, if you were attending college at the turn of the century. When professors were still of the habit of trying to find a place for Israel and Israel’s contribution religiously to the world order, you would be likely to hear a presentation like this from some world cultures teacher, from someone who may be teaching you about world civilization. It may well be that that professor does not have himself a biblical faith. It may well be that he is only tangentially related to either Jewish or Christian orthodoxy. His real interest is civilization, culture. And therefore, as he presents his material, it’s in the interests of seeing that culture, that civilization promoted and enhanced. Well, it wasn’t very long into this century when there were fewer and fewer professors and teachers in colleges and in universities who were actually saying good things about the religion of Israel at least in any orthodox sense of the word. You see, these individuals, as were their institutions, were committed to a naturalistic and humanistic approach to the problems of culture and civilization.

    When they surveyed world history, they were looking for genius, And genius promoted itself. So what was the genius of the Greeks? What was the genius of the Romans? What was the genius of the Hebrews? Why, the Hebrew people had a special propensity for religion and religious understanding.

    Did they? Not necessarily from my reading of the Old Testament. Wasn’t it sort of forced on them? It wasn’t because they had some sort of special natural propensity for religious things. that they have this deposit which has been given to them that is now seemingly exploited by naturalistic humanists in this century, in the interests of better society and grander civilization. The Jews, then, were not naturally religious. in the sense that the Greeks were naturally artistic, and the Romans were naturally interested in government, law and order in society.

    Well, there are dangers, then, when we start investigating this whole area of religion. Because there is, out there in the world, a whole and entire network, the educational establishment, that sees religion along naturalistic lines. Religion is something that arises from within yourself. It’s developed It’s fine-tuned, it’s cultivated, but it is something that basically arises from within yourself. You conceive it. Your society, your tribe, or your nation develops that religion, and then that religion, if things go well for it, and you, has an impact directly upon the world and world culture.

    When we come to the Bible, though, The Bible is presenting to us a religious phenomenon that is extraordinary in the extreme. It is presenting to us a religious phenomenon that is completely and utterly unique. This is not something that arises from within man. This isn’t the product of someone who has a bright new religious idea, as if Moses were some sort of religious innovator, as if he was about the business of creating a new world religion, and then finding a people that might be willing to accept it. Now we might say that about Muhammad, because that is definitely what happened in his case. The man actually did hatch a religion in his brain. The man went around collecting detached Arabs, congregating them around his ideas and religious philosophy, and voila!

    A world religion. And there are a number of other instances of that. What do you make of Joseph Smith? Utterly fantastic! Bizarre! Mormonism, a religion that truly is the product of a nut. Charles Taze Russell is buried on the north side. He was the founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Again, a man who took some religious stuff with his own manipulation created a religion all his own. But a million light years removed from the biblical religion. The religions of the world. Buddha. Confucius. The same thing observed there. Truly, men of genius. I’m not denying the fact that Joseph Smith was a genius. A crazy genius, but a genius.

    When we come to the Bible, we are confronted with something that is truly exceptional, unique. The religion that stands apart, not so much to make you proud, not so much to cause you to boast about your position, your standing, your relationship to this book or to the faith that it espouses. For you see, the presupposition of this religion is the ruination of the world, the inability of man according to his own lights, to come to a knowledge of the truth, left to myself, I never arrived. The great professor that I had in seminary was named Cornelius Van Til.

    He used to say to us, there is natural revelation, but all natural theology is apostate. Do you understand what he meant? God reveals Himself in nature, but anybody who goes to work on nature in order to conceive the knowledge of the true God ends up in apostasy. Look at nature and you end up in the wrong place. Why? Because you need a supernatural revelation.

    And the basis of Israel’s religion is a supernatural intervention by God Himself, the only God. So how do we know the truth? How do we know God? How do we come to embrace the right religion with the right religious spirit only by way of a revelation, a self-revelation of and from God?

    You understand, God is outside the created order. He is above the heavens. He is transcendent. In order to save, in order to reveal, savingly, He intervenes. He interjects Himself into the space-time world that you know. And in that, He makes Himself known to His people. Because they’re so deserving? Because they’re so worthy? Because they’re so eminent? Because they have a natural religious genius? Because they’re likely to accept it when no one else will? You know better. You know better.

    So, the supernatural work of God God intervening, God graciously coming and revealing himself and presenting himself as the center of this religious movement that now grabs hold of Israel. And Israel then becoming by grace, not because she is worthy, by grace, God’s unmerited love and favor, the custodian in the world of this revelation that has come from God. Deposited with Israel is the record of God’s saving works. Deposited with Israel is God’s righteous law. So if you want to think of the substance, then, of that religion that belongs to Israel, not because of her own genius, but because of the Lord’s gift, here it is. The substance of it is, truly, this record given to her of God’s saving words and his righteous law, as he himself personally has communicated that to these people. Now to that we are bound. Interestingly, that’s what the word religion means. It means to bind. We are bound by that at root. That’s why I read for you Deuteronomy 4 tonight.

    You have the presentation there of the exceptional deposit that belongs now to Israel as the recipients of this revelatory communication from heaven on high, from God himself. And the verse 6, Surely this great nation is wise and an understanding people. That’s what the peoples of the world now are saying. For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as is the Lord our God whenever He calls on Him? We call on Him. Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?

    Verses six through eight of that fourth chapter in Deuteronomy. And if there is any remain lingering questions in your mind about the gracious character of God’s approach to these people. I want you just to turn a few pages of Deuteronomy and look at chapter 7. Here is a classic text, and one that may be well to memorize, imprint upon your consciousness in some way. so as to remind you of the gracious character of God’s dealings with Israel. Here’s what is said. Deuteronomy 7 now, verses 6 through 8.

    For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. There it is, God’s graciousness. But also, you see, God’s choice is sovereign election.

    The Lord did not set his love on you, nor chose you, because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which he swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery and from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.” He goes on, Therefore, know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant, et cetera.” Well, I’m not telling you anything new. You, in your heart of hearts, know these things.

    But it is well, is it not, for us to rehearse them, to remind ourselves of these truths. No natural phenomenon, a supernatural phenomenon. Not something that we deserve, a gift. Not something whereby we commend ourselves, but something whereby God is commended. Even before there is even any commendation of us.

    We’re talking then about the heart and soul of what has been called Hebrew religion. Utterly unique. And how preparatory it is for that which is yet to come. For all the patterns are laid there, are they not? As God has dealt with Israel, so he will deal with his church which he assembles from all the nations and from the four corners of the earth so all the tribes all the nations all the tongues all the races will be assembled finally not just Jews not just Middle Easterners but from all over the world congregated by this great God, who so reveals himself. So, it’s relevant materialism. It’s relevant. Meaningful.

    Now there are some features, some characteristics that are worth considering as we think a little bit further about Israel’s religion. There is, for instance, in Israel’s religion an internal side and also an external side. Now, you may be able to find counterparts in all of the religions of the world with regard to these matters. And in this there is a commonality between Israel and other world nations that have produced religions. Truly there is an internal side and an external side. As to the internal, We’ve talked a lot about God’s revealing activity.

    We’ve talked about things that touch upon history and upon an interpretation of the origins of Israel as a nation, etc. But now we’re turning our attention to the whole matter of the heart. In Israel’s religion, things of which we have spoken have their impact, first of all, ideally, upon the heart. Israel’s religion is to the end that the heart may be one. Oh, to have a heart for God, to love God with your whole Is the religion that you embrace an emotionless religion? A religion without passion, without zeal?

    How is that possible? Is not your heart stirred by the things you hear concerning God’s gracious activity? Is not the Spirit alive within you to quicken your heart, that your heart might be attached to these things in a vital way? Your heart set upon God’s love, inexplicable love for people, God’s gracious dealings with them. Oh, how I love that God! my heart set upon him.” A heart that in its affection is set upon him, but a heart also that trusts the one who is loved. Isn’t this the secret of love?

    Have you watched love disintegrate? Have you watched it evaporate? Oh, there are emotions that continue. There are affections that seemingly survive. But if that trust, if that faith is crippled or destroyed, attacked, impaired, damaged, the Oedipus collapses. There certainly may well be some attractiveness that remains, some attraction that persists. But once that matter of faith and trust is gone, the edifice collapses.

    Thus it is in our relationship with God. The heart that is affectionately set upon God then entrusts itself to the one love embraced. You see why your love for God must go on and express itself in faith and in trust. There are many people who confess some affection for God, they hardly know of what they’re speaking. For in that affection, that love of which they speak, there is nothing of an informed faith and trust by which they are willing to commit themselves wholeheartedly to this one they say they love. How often in Scripture then you hear the admonition coming again and again. You heard it in Psalm 37 that we sang at the opening of our service tonight, verse 3.

    Trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. If you love Him, trust Him. Trust Him. If you don’t trust Him, the edifice of affection will become meaningless. all the vocabulary of love for God will crumble. He takes you down hard paths. He tries you, and you feel desperate in the midst of that trial. If you So it is with the religion that is coming to expression within Israel, and that not naturally.

    Why do you think it’s necessary for the prophets, Moses himself, the psalmists, to continually encourage the people to trust in the Lord? Because it doesn’t come naturally. Why should I trust someone I can’t see? How can I commit myself to the invisible God? He asked me to live by faith. I can’t! That’s the truth. You can’t! In your own power, you can’t do it.

    It is a supernatural work within you. You are utterly dependent upon the Spirit. Give yourself to Him and let Him perfect your faith. He said there’s an external side. That’s also in view in that 37th Psalm, the third verse. You know how it goes. It says, trust in the Lord and do good. Part and parcel of Hebrew religion is not then merely having right affections for God and cultivating a faith towards Him. It’s acting upon it. in such a way that pleases the one who has revealed himself graciously to you. Trust the Lord and do good. So there are concrete acts of obedience. Do we need to reread Deuteronomy 4? There it is. How do we have it in the good old gospel song? and obey. There is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

    It’s great distress in the Christian Reformed Church right now. I heard a remarkable sermon when I was in California from a distraught Christian Reformed pastor who was reviewing the recent acts of Synod. You know what some of those acts were. What disturbed him most were the reports in the Banner, the Christian Reformed magazine, that told the readership that the decision of the Synod had been bathed in prayer.

    That was the language they used. It had been bathed in prayer. So how could anyone doubt the outcome? We bathed it in prayer. Our piousness in this regard has sanctified our actions. You talk about an irate minister. This guy was chewing the cord on his microphone. He was practically leaping over the pulpit trying to get at the congregation, pleading with them. He says, if I have to put it in the extreme, don’t pray, obey. And when God’s word is clear, you don’t justify an act of disobedience by silly, pious language and activity.

    There is an external side that we can’t avoid, we can’t get away from. Of course, there are liabilities to that external side, are there not? For part of the external side of the religion of Israel will be focused in a tabernacle, in a temple, in religious rites and festivals. Part of the external side of that religion of Israel will seemingly be focused in, well, if you obey, then you will prosper. And we all want to prosper, don’t we? So let’s get on with prosperity.

    The external side can always be a trap. Even outward obedience conformity, compliance, can be a trap, a shield, something behind which people hide. So in the latter prophets you have language like, not sacrifice, you haven’t desired it, You have language coming from Malachi, shut up the temple, close the doors, bolt them, don’t let anybody in. I’m tired of all of this feigned religiosity, all this feigned piety. So the intern seemingly manages the extern. the heart affectionately bound to the God who has revealed himself, a faith that is alive and vibrant, trusting, then able to see those externals and judge them rightly, appropriately, in terms of what God has said and done. Retaking no delight in hiding behind things, camouflaging our case, acting as if we’re righteous when we’re not, playing the hypocrite? No. The religion of Israel then pushes, prods, pokes, goes, so that you will not be content with near externality. Rather, you will be content only with perfect conformity to God himself. I am holy, says the Lord. Therefore, be ye holy.

    Well, there are other dimensions, of course, to Israel’s religion that we could look at this evening. We’ve run out of time. It’s a big subject. But I think I’ve laid before you this evening some chief features. Ending on a note that brings before you now the matter, the subject, of hope. The hope of these people, what they long for, what yet may be realized in their case, the perfection of that religion which has been given to them, and that perfection then becoming the true light that shines in the world for the salvation of God’s elect to the ends of the earth. And you’re part of the company. You’re part of the assembly that has been brought together. Amen.

    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.

  • Hezekiah and the Suffering Servant

    Hezekiah and the Suffering Servant

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, May 27, 1990.

    About this sermon

    The southern kingdom’s wicked kings run remarkably parallel to the north’s, and Hezekiah’s reign pictures the suffering servant to come. Both kingdoms share spiritual wickedness as well as political failure.

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    Sermon transcript

    Now the scripture reading this evening begins in 2 Chronicles chapter 24. 2 Chronicles chapter 24. And I read this passage as representative of the kind of thing that we find in this section of God’s Word. Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned 40 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah from Beersheba. And Joash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest. And Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he became the father of sons and daughters. Now it came about after this that Joash decided to restore the house of the Lord.

    And he gathered the priests and Levites and said to them, go out to the cities of Judah and collect money from all Israel to repair the house of your God annually. And you shall do the matter quickly. But the Levites did not act quickly. So the king summoned Jehoiada, the chief priest, and said to him, Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and from Jerusalem the levy fixed by Moses, the servant of the Lord on the congregation of Israel, for the tent of the testimony?

    For the sons of the wicked, Deathilion, had broken into the house of God and even used the holy things of the house of the Lord for the bales. So the king commanded, And they made a chest and set it outside by the gate of the house of the Lord. And they made a proclamation in Judah and Jerusalem to bring to the Lord the levy fixed by Moses, the servant of God, on Israel in the wilderness. And all the officers and all the people rejoiced and brought in their levies and dropped it into the chest until they had finished. And it came about whenever the chest was brought into the king’s officer by the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, then the king’s scribe and the chief priest’s officer would come, empty the chest, take it, and return it to its place. Thus they did daily and collected much money.

    And the king in Jehoiada gave it to those who did the work of the service of the house of the Lord, and they hired masons and carpenters to restore the house of the Lord, and also workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of the Lord. So the workmen labored, and the repair work progressed in their hands, and they restored the house of God according to its specifications and strengthened it. And when they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, and it was made into utensils for the house of the Lord, utensils for the service and the burnt offering. and pans and utensils of gold and silver, and they offered burnt offerings in the house of the Lord continually all the days of Jehoiada.

    Now when Jehoiada reached a ripe old age, he died. He was 130 years old at his death. And he buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done well in Israel and to God and his house. But after the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and bowed down to the king, and the king listened to them. And they abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Assyrian and the Islamites. So wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem, for this their guilt.

    Yet he sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord, Though they testified against them, they would not listen. Then the Spirit of God came on Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, the priest, and he stood above the people and said to them, Thus God has said, Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord and do not prosper?

    Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has also forsaken you. So they conspired against him, and at the command of the king, they stoned him. They stoned him to death in the court of the house of the Lord. Thus Joash, the king, did not remember the kindness which his father Jehoiada had shown him, but he murdered his son. And as he died, he said, May the Lord see and avenge.” Then turning over to Micah, chapter 3, beginning with verse 5. This is Micah chapter 3, verse 5. Now if you haven’t turned to Micah recently, it’s after Jonah. Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray.

    When they have something to bite with their teeth, they cry peace, but against him who puts nothing in their mouths, they declare holy war. Therefore it will be night for you without vision and darkness for you without divination. The sun will go down on the prophets and the day will become dark over them. The seers will be ashamed and the diviners will be embarrassed. Indeed, they will all cover their mouths because there is no answer from God.

    On the other hand, I am filled with power with the Spirit of the Lord and with justice and courage to make known to Jacob his rebellious act, even to Israel his sin. Now hear this, heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and twist everything that is straight, who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with violent injustice. Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe, her priests instruct for a price, and the prophets divine for money, yet they lean on the Lord, saying, Is not the Lord in our midst? calamity will not come upon us. Therefore, on account of you, Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the temple will become high places of a forest.”

    Let’s pray together. In this day, our God, may your people be warned well by your word. And as that word goes out to your people throughout the world, may your people take stock of themselves. And may the warning that rises out of Israel Be a warning heard well and clearly by your people today. For surely, we are taught, judgment begins at the house of God, and if we of your house are spared by a little, what will become of those who stand outside of your house? But Lord, as for us, may we give ourselves attentively to you, and may we not turn away, but rather may we turn toward you and hear those things that you speak. Embrace them, believe them, and live by them, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

    This is, again, one of those formidable tasks covering an expanse of scripture. Something that might be helpful for you is to have your Bibles opened to the passages that I have listed for you there, 2 Chronicles 10 through 28, and maybe you can follow along with the headings at the top of the page, if you have one of those Bibles that provide you with those nice, convenient headings. This will serve as a review for you of this time in the history of the people of God, bringing before you again names that might be familiar to you and other names that might not be. It will also put before you some rather intriguing and complex situations, and that for the purpose of challenging you, the people of God, at this time. One thing that’s very hard to keep straight as you move through these Old Testament passages is this fact.

    God’s Word is intended covenantally, and as That word is applicable in our own day. It finds its focus and its point of application in the people of God presently, in the Church of Jesus Christ. It’s a very easy thing for us, given our habit of mind, to move from Old Testament political situations into New Testament political situations. missing altogether the application that is here for the Church of Jesus Christ. So I ask you to keep that in mind as you move through these sections in Scripture, that the primary concern is the people of God, and the people of God of our time is the Church of Jesus Christ, constituted under Him the King, the Priest, the Prophet.

    Well, we have covered, in parallel passages from Kings and Chronicles previously, the history and the demise of the ten northern tribes. We have watched the succession of kings in the north and found that there are no exceptions. As we look northward, there are no exceptions to the rule that was established well at the outset of the Northern Kingdom by Jeroboam, for all of the kings in succession are wicked. There isn’t a righteous one among them.

    But now we turn to that ambiguous picture of the state of affairs to the south. We turn our attention to those tribes to the south that remain, Judah and Benjamin, and we will cover the same period of time that we covered last week, only looking to them. I say ambiguous because there are indeed wicked kings, kings as wicked as those to the north, but there are exceptions. There are those kings that please God and rule well. The tribes to the south, you know which ones they are. There is Judah, the larger, and there is Benjamin, the smaller. And the first king of the divided kingdom, the first king in the south was being Jeroboam’s counterpart, easy to remember, is it not?

    Rehoboam. Rehoboam is whose son? Solomon’s, the son of Solomon. And by his foolishness, he having a wicked and perverse heart, in effect, starting out where his father had left off, We know his father had begun wisely and ended foolishly. This man foolishly causes the split of the kingdom. And now he is the head over the two southern tribes, ruling from Jerusalem, the capital city, David’s capital city, the city where God had finally caused his name to dwell, where Solomon, Rehoboam’s father, had built the great, the impressive temple.

    There was a glory, therefore, that was attached to Rehoboam’s throne, a glory that is not attached to the throne that is established in the north. A glory attached to Rehoboam’s throne, to the kingdom, that is taking shape under his rule, but a glory of which he proved in no sense worthy. Now, we have placed his reign from about the year 975 B.C., and in his 17 years of rule, Nothing encouraging interrupts the very dismal mood with which his reign had begun. In fact, after watching the greater portion of his kingdom depart, secede, He suffered further humiliation, from which he learned absolutely nothing.

    Through an invasion from the south, Egypt has set her gaze upon other territories. She has dreamed of previous glory, and now she invades Judah under Shishak, her king. How tragic it is, as Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, watches the Egyptians march off with the treasures that had been amassed in Jerusalem, accumulated in the temple by his father. The glory that had been attached to Jerusalem The glory that had been attached to the temple is carried off by these Egyptians. Abijan follows upon the heels of his father, Rehoboam.

    His reign is a short one, it lasted but three years, but nevertheless impressive, an impressive interlude. He attacked to the north. He attacked Israel, and he brought about a great defeat to Jeroboam and his army. But after his short and impressive reign of three years, he is followed by Asa. a great king indeed. He and his son Jehoshaphat ruled for a total of 66 years. They are righteous men. Their reigns are prosperous. Under Asa, in fact, Judah scored a victory against Zerah, the Ethiopian who had become ruler in Egypt. And the tragedy that Judah had experienced under Rehoboam was, in part at least, reversed. So Asa, Asa does well.

    Jehoshaphat does well also. But there is this complication as far as Jehoshaphat is concerned. For he attempts to patch things up with Israel. You remember, as we have already mentioned, that Abijan had attacked to the north and scored an impressive victory against Jeroboam and his army. But now Jehoshaphat, maybe an ecumenist before his time, turns his gaze northward set his eye upon apostate. It’s important to underscore that. Apostate Israel.

    For Israel has departed in unbelief, rejecting the claims of the throne of David. Israel has apostatized the ten northern tribes. It’s not just a political problem. It is, at its most rudimentary level, a religious problem. And Jeroboam had then established those sanctuaries at Dan and at Bethel in order to keep people from the temple of God in Jerusalem. It is religious apostasy that is at work here.

    But Jehoshaphat, as fine a king as he is, turns his gaze northward, thinking about reunification. Thinking about bringing the nation back together, possibly, he makes his attempt at catching things up, and he seals a bargain with apostasy. He enters into an alliance with the king of Israel. Now, it’s no ordinary king.

    I mean, there are levels of degeneracy, are there not? There are levels of wickedness. I mean, Jehoshaphat maybe should have waited for another day when there wasn’t a king in Israel who had descended so far down the ladder of degeneracy. But no! He had to enter into an alliance with Ahab. One as wicked as Ahab.

    And as if these leaders in the ancient world learned nothing, as if nothing had been gained from watching the demise of one so great as Solomon, Jehoshaphat has now bound up in this alliance when his son Joram is married off to Athelot, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel.

    Need I say more? This woman Athaliah brought with her to Jerusalem the fierce spirit and heathen habits of her Tyrian mother. Jezebel was from Tyre, and Athaliah, her brings with her to Jerusalem the fierce spirit and even habits of her Tyrian mother. She was as ambitious as her mother, and that becomes apparent from the things that then transpire.

    She had lost her son as Because in the alliance with Israel, he had joined himself to his uncle, and they both had died in Jehu’s purge. And what is Athaliah’s response in Jerusalem to the news that her son has been killed by Jehu? She responds by securing for herself the throne in Jerusalem. And how does she do that? By murdering all of her grandchildren. Now, all of her grandsons are executed, with the exception of Joash. He was saved by an ant.

    And six years later, Jehoiada, the high priest, engineers the ascendancy of Joash, Epheliah is slain, and a new era begins. And that’s what we’ve read about this evening from 2 Chronicles. The temple had fallen into disrepair, and now it is refurbished. And for nearly 30 years of Joash’s 40-year reign, things progress very nicely. But finally Jehoiada, the high priest, dies. And when that happens, it’s as if Joash falls apart. Baal, the god of his grandmother, makes a comeback. And in the end, Joash commands the execution of Zechariah, the son of Jehoiach.

    Politically, he is weak. In the end, he has to buy off the Syrians. And what a ugly end he comes to. He is assassinated by his own servants, those who were greatly devoted to the house of Jehoiachin. Now Amaziah follows his father. It’s a matter here as well of one who began well but ends terribly. And he, like his father, is a victim of assassins. And following the reign of Amaziah, we come to the extraordinary reign of Uzziah. It lasted for an unprecedented 52 years. And in his reign, Uzziah brings Judah to great heights of glory. It’s as if those former days of Solomon have returned.

    But then, in this case as well, we witness Uzziah’s tragic fall. We are told about his pride, and how on one occasion he enters into the sanctuary for the purpose of personally making an offering to God himself, but his way is blocked by the priests who object. He becomes indignant, but the Lord at that point strikes him with leprosy. Because of his leprosy, he then had to live apart from the people in isolation for the rest of his life.

    Nevertheless, the kingdom flourished as Uzziah ruled through his son Jotham. Jotham’s 16-year reign was followed by Ahaz’s 16-year reign. And that brings us to the wonderful reign of Hezekiah in the year 726 B.C. So we’ve covered about 250 years here with the succession of kings. Hezekiah’s reign is remarkable and most instructive. It’s as if, at this point, the Lord has something unique to present before His people, something very distinctive to say. As remarkable as Hezekiah’s reign is, it is not one without severe problems.

    His predecessors had turned to Assyria and Tiglath-Pileser for aid against Pekah, king of Israel, and Rezum, king of Syria. And what a mistake that had been! For once Assyria had finished with Pekah and Rezum, it turned its attention to Judah and Jerusalem.

    Judah’s kings in succession had been warned by God’s prophets. Those prophets are the prophets Micah and Isaiah. It’s hard to forget, for instance, Isaiah’s encounter with Ahaz in Isaiah’s prophecy, the seventh chapter, and how that king provoked the Lord. The kings refused to be humbled, but these kings refusing to be humbled may be contrasted by Hezekiah.

    Hezekiah learns from the devastations that come. He learns from what is transpiring in the north and the deportation that takes place. He learns from the assaults from Assyria, the assaults from which the Lord then delivers him and his nation when he prays.

    And in this king, particularly, God’s people are given a picture of that royal figure, the anointed of the Lord, who suffers in humility for his people. Hezekiah becomes a fine picture of the coming Christ. It is no mistake then that during this period, the portrait of the suffering servant takes shape. It takes shape as much in Micah’s prophecy as it does in Isaiah’s.

    Both of these prophets speak out against not just the apostasy that has taken place in the north, but the apostasy that is taking place in the south, in Judah. And both of these prophets, Micah and Isaiah, are hard upon believers who, because of the hardness of their hearts and their commitment to the invincibility of Jerusalem, are completely unprepared to lead the people through suffering to glory. They are disqualified. Over against these leaders who are disqualified stand Micah and Isaiah. And they will suffer. They will suffer for their stand in the name of the Lord.

    But matching these prophets is Hezekiah. And each of these figures will become the medium through which we see the form of the coming Christ, the coming Savior. God’s justice has visited Israel to the north and that nation is no longer His grace visits Judah and There in these ones who portray for us the suffering servant Salvation is also portrayed Of course there is a future day. Of course, there are greater enemies than Assyrians. And in that day, the one to whom these ones have pointed, the Lord Jesus Christ, He, the true suffering servant, will provide the means of salvation. for all who look to him in faith.

    As I said at the outset of this message, it’s very easy for us, when we’re moving through these portions of scripture, to translate everything into political terms, to move from these accounts concerning nations and the Old Testament into a New Testament context, and to suggest that nothing whatsoever has changed.

    And that for proper application in our own time, we must deal with political situations. But does not the New Testament teach us differently? We read this evening, as our call to worship, a section from Ephesians, chapter 6, that talks about the true nature of the conflict. We don’t wrestle with flesh and blood. the principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness enthroned in high places.

    The armament that we put on for the sake of that battle is a battle in which the Church of Jesus Christ is presently enjoined and you are called as those enlisted in this fight. Let us pray. Our God, we thank you for that one, the suffering servant, who has come as the fulfillment of all that we have seen in those who have gone before. And we rejoice our God in the testimony born to this one, even in the days of Hezekiah the king. We pray, our Father, that we might be strengthened by your spirit as we consider him our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that in having strength, our God, we might fight well against principalities, powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places. May we be outfitted for that battle, and may we do well in that fight through Christ our King. We pray these things in His name. Amen.

    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 Kings of the Northern Tribes

    The Kings of the Northern Tribes

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, May 20, 1990.

    About this sermon

    The northern kingdom rose to glory and then fell into civil war, Ahab’s wicked reign, and Jeroboam II’s brief golden age. The speaking and writing prophets rise to bring God’s judgment on that long decline.

    More sermons from 1 Kings · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Tonight our scripture reading is first of all from 1 Kings chapter 12. 1 Kings chapter 12 beginning with verse 21. 1 Kings 12 verse 21. See now what God says. Now, when Rehoboam had come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 chosen men who were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. But the word of God came to Shemaiah, the man of God, saying, Speak to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, saying, Thus says the Lord, You must not go up and fight against your relatives, the sons of Israel.

    Return every man to his house, for this thing has come from me.” So they listened to the word of the Lord and returned and went their way according to the word of the Lord. Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And he went out from there and built Penuel.

    Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom will return to the house of David if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will return to their Lord, even to Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam, king of Judah.” So the king consulted and made two golden calves, and he said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold your God, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.” And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.

    Now this thing became a sin for the people who went to worship before one as far as Dan. And he made houses on high places, and made priests from among all the people who were not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam instituted a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast which is in Judah. And he went up to the altar. Thus he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves which he had made. And he stationed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. Then he went up to the altar, which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised in his own heart, and he instituted a feast for the sons of Israel, and went up to the altar to burn incense.” And then turning over to 2 Kings chapter 17, this is 2 Kings Chapter seventeen, verse seven.

    Now, this came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the Lord, their God. And had brought them up who had brought them up from the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nation. whom the Lord had driven out before the sons of Israel, and in the customs of the kings of Israel, which they had introduced. And the sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right against the Lord their God.

    Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city, and they set for themselves sacred pillars and asherim on every hill and under every green tree. And there they burned incense on all the high places of the nations did which the Lord had carried away to exile before them, and they did evil things, provoking the Lord. And they served idols concerning which the Lord had said to them, You shall do. You shall not do this thing.

    Yet the Lord were warned Israel and Judah through all his profits and every fear saying turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments my statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you through my servants the problem. However they did not listen but stiffened their neck like their fathers who did not believe in the Lord their God. and they rejected his statutes and his covenant which he had made with their fathers and his warnings which which he had warned them and they followed vanity and became vain and went after the nations which surrounded them concerning which the Lord had commanded them not to do like them and they forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves molten images even two calves and made an asherah and worship all the hosts of heaven and serve bail Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire and practice divination and enchantments and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him. So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from his sight. None was left except the tribe of Judah. Pray with me now.

    What work, Lord, would your word do in our hearts? O Lord, by your word you created the world. By your word you did mighty things before the face of all the nations and for the sake of your people. By Your Word, You have saved Your elect. By Your Word, You give us new hearts that we might love You. You take away our stony hearts and You give us hearts of flesh that we truly might seek after You with all of our heart. May it be true, Lord, that we do just that so prompt us our God to follow you with these new hearts which you have given to us by grace through Christ our Savior. Amen.

    But on the surface of things, it seems like the same old story. On the surface of things, it seems no different from what happens world round to all the nations, each of them in turn. As the course of nations go as the affairs of state work themselves out. Is this not the case? We have nation rising after nation, each in turn, and particular nations rising through the strength of newfound harmony, a newfound unity internally.

    Things seem to come together, they meld, they mesh. And that’s usually under the eye of exceptional leadership, remarkable men, remarkable figures who orchestrate now the affairs of state. There is also a sense of destiny that invariably grips hold of a people under such leadership. And they, in a remarkable way, seem to be focused, intent, concentrated, and objective in view. pursuing a course.

    Is it the glory. Of the God Pharaoh. Is it the power of succeeding kingdoms. Syria. Syria. Is it the naturalist glory of Babylon. The incredible culture of Greece. the wonderful unifying legal system of Rome. So, nations rise. They flourish, it seems, for a time. For a couple of generations, they are exceedingly strong.

    But then, things begin to unravel. Things begin to fall apart, to disintegrate. Where there was once wisdom, even as it be the pragmatic wisdom of the sons of this world, it is replaced by foolishness. There had previously been that focus for the people. They set upon a singular objective, a sense of destiny possessed them. Now there are competing visions, a fragmentation, a breaking apart.

    The nation breaks apart and decline sets in. And eventually the state, with its culture, part and parcel of this civilization, crumbled. What we observe in one nation, we seemingly observe in all. We see the cycle repeated again and again and again. so regular, so predictable is the past pattern, that earlier in our century, an unknown schoolteacher in Germany by the name of Oswald Spangler shocked the world by publishing a book entitled The Decline of the West.

    And in that book, he claimed that there were scientific factors to be considered as you reviewed the rise and the fall of nations, the rise and the fall of civilizations. In fact, you could actually predict these rises and these falls. He said that you could chart nations from birth through development to death. And he held that nations and civilizations were like human beings.

    That they were conceived and born, they grew and flourished, and then like humans, they declined and finally died. So on the surface of things, given the eye of the naturalist, Given the eye of the historian, it’s just a case of the same old thing. The wheel goes round one more time. The cycle continues. Israel is but a nation of the world. But notice her rhymes. It has begun under an ambiguous figure, the figure of Saul.

    He reigned for 40 years, and despite his bad end, he had brought Israel to unprecedented heights as a nation. Then there were the subsequent reigns of David. He followed Saul, And David’s son Solomon followed him. Their combined reigns spanned 80 years, and bring before us the golden age of Israel’s national history. Eighty years of glory. Eighty years of unprecedented prosperity. remarkable progress for nation and for culture, expansion, conquest, economic boom, internal harmony by and large, despite that rebellion of David’s own son, Absalom. So, with the reigns of David and Solomon, Israel’s culture reaches its height. But then, you see, the premonitions of decline begin to appear. You know of Solomon. There’s a very interesting interpretation of the Song of Solomon. That interpretation goes along these lines.

    The girl who is a chief figure in the Song of Solomon is not a happy bride. Oh, she was happy once. She was happy when she was in the hill country with her intended. Her betrothed. But Solomon had an eye for a beautiful woman. And as if he hadn’t enough yet. He cites this beautiful country girl.

    And he takes her to Jerusalem to become part of his harem, thus breaking the bond between her and her shepherd lover. Solomon begins to act like the kings of the earth. One who takes what he wants, who grabs it selfishly, who possesses things in order to then raise a testimony to a monument for his glory, his greatness. So it is with Solomon that we have these premonitions of decline. Solomon wandering off after a number of pagan women. He actually joins their churches, an associated member. He worships their gods.

    And he who has so much to say about wisdom and the training of children leaves the country in the hands of a son who is neither wise nor well trained. Who is that son? We’ve read about him tonight. His name is Rehoboam. Rehoboam is a disaster. He’s a tragedy.

    The wise men tell him the route to follow in holding the nation together, rather than following the wise men He accepts the advice of his friends, those his own age, and they recommend increasing the burden laid upon the backs of the people, so that the splendor of Jerusalem may continue to shine brightly. So under Rehoboam, the nation is ripped apart in civil war.

    He ends up king over Judah, southern tribe, and over Benjamin. Two tribes out of the twelve are his, the territory to the south. The kingdom is given the name Judah, and Jerusalem is the capital. But then to the north. In the north, the figure of Jeroboam, takes center stage. He was a man of great promise. He was a man over whom prophets of the Lord prophesied. He’s a man who should have known better. He’s a man who should have believed.

    And as great a tragedy as Rehoboam is, Jeroboam is a greater tragedy, a greater disaster. He establishes himself then over the territory to the north, the other ten tribes. This kingdom is given the name Israel. The majority of the tribes are there. Its capital eventually will be the city of Samaria. We know something about that city.

    Now this all takes place around the year 975 B.C. If you are interested in dates, I’m trying to keep things chronologically straight. Around the year 975 B.C., and over the next 254 years, eyes directed to the north and to Jeroboam’s realm. will watch the rise and fall, will survey the rise and fall of seven separate dynasties. And finally, the tragic collapse of the nation as a whole in the year… Can anyone help me?

    721. So the Northern Kingdom will last from 975 B.C. to 721. It will finally be destroyed at the hands of the brutal Assyrians. The Assyrians, their empire, take shape to the north at the western end of the Tigris Euphrates Valley, the capital of which is Nineveh. Nineveh will be responsible for the destruction of Israel, the ten northern tribes, and Samaria in 721.

    During these years, 254 years, the northern nation of Israel experiences two periods of extraordinary strength. They come in back-to-back dynasties. Of course, we have the initial strength under the reign of Jeroboam I. But then comes another period of great strength in the third dynasty, under that infamous figure, Ahab, the son of Amri, King Ahab.

    Now, here’s a politically astute young man. Here’s a fellow who’s figured it out. He looks to his west. He looks to his east. To his east are the Syrians, not the Assyrians, but the Syrians. Get the difference between the two. The Assyrians are later. They’re in the north. Their capital is Nineveh. The Syrians are to the east. Their capital is Damascus. And presently, they’re a problem.

    Ahab realizes he can’t fight wars on two fronts. He can’t be running off to the east and looking over his shoulder, wondering what’s going to happen if the Sidonians, for instance, Those fellows from Tyre and Sidon decide to move against him, the descendants of the ancient Phoenicians. So what does he do? He’s learned lessons from King Solomon. He marries the king’s daughter. He strikes up a bargain. Now this girl’s a real prize. Her name happens to be Jezebel. And she is devoted to the most hideous of all the ancient gods. She’s devoted to Baal. And she introduces Baal worship into Israel, and that under the eye of her husband. Marriage secures the Western Front.

    It also multiplies income, because you know, Tyre and Sidon are coastal cities, they’re seaports, and now Ahab has access to the entire Mediterranean world. It’s a stroke of genius! His problem, however, continues to be from the East. from the Syrians, and he spends his entire reign trying to overcome them and the threat that they pose. And finally, because of the judgment of God, you know how wicked a man he was. He perishes in a battle with the Syrians. So that’s Ahab. You know about him. There’s one other notable figure.

    This one comes from the fourth dynasty, from the dynasty of Jihu, which was the most impressive dynasty in the history, the 254-year history of the Northern tribe. This dynasty of Jihu lasted 115 years. That’s how impressive it was. And its most formidable figure was a fellow by the name of Jeroboam II. and Jeroboam II.

    He reigned for 41 years, from 825 B.C. to 784 B.C. Now this fellow was even more remarkable than Ahab. Just as wicked, but more accomplished and more successful. For not only does he secure the western front, He actually defeats the Syrians, and along with them the Moabites and the Ammonites. Taboo!

    This fellow is riding on the crest of a wave, and under him the golden age of the northern kingdom comes. Now Jeroboam II’s reign is followed by rapid decline. Two dynasties, the fifth and the sixth, come and go quickly. The seventh lasts only as long as the reign of Israel’s last king, Hosea. Hosea had turned to the Egyptians. The problems now are not east-west as they were in the days of Ahab and Jeroboam. They’re north-south.

    You’ve got Egypt to the south, and you’ve got rulers in Egypt that think that they’re like the pharaohs of old and the glories of Egypt are going to return. But there’s this upstart empire to the north, the Assyrians. And they have some rather remarkable leaders themselves. You know of one of those remarkable leaders, a fellow by the name of Sennacherib.

    But the guy who’s now taking the throne is a fellow by the name of Sargon. And if there was an ancient Hitler, this man was him. No mercy. Extermination. So he comes down on the northern kingdom with all of his might. He ravages the land. He destroys the capital city of Samaria. And as if that weren’t enough, he then takes all the people in chains deports them and they are lost.

    Do you know where the ten northern tribes are? Does anyone? I mean with the exception of Herbert W. Armstrong and the Mormons. Now they know where they are. Well, the Northern Kingdom is gone. Gone. But has this just been another case of a nation having run its course, the same old thing? Object lessons for historians and scientists as they view the courses of civilization? Well, not quite.

    For these are the people of God. Therefore, when we read about them, we sit up and take note in a way that we might not in reading the histories of others. These people are playing a role in the history of salvation. A role which other people are not. God will speak to us, even, through his dealings with them.

    How tragically, two of the kings that we’ve spoken of ascended the throne to divine prophecy. We’ve already mentioned Jeroboam I. He had a prophet speak over him with respect to what could possibly have been his, and he deliberately chooses a different course. There was another, Jehu. Do you know that Jehu was anointed by Elisha? Remarkable fact. He was anointed by Elisha, the great prophet of God. But both of these figures, both of these kings, prove failures. We will see nothing of the Lord’s anointed in them. We will see nothing of God’s Christ in them. Now, this failure is especially clear to us in Jeroboam’s case, and that’s why I read the passage that I did this evening from First Kings.

    You see what he has done. He’s a man who Solomon feared at one time. Did you know that? And in order to be saved from Solomon’s wrath, he had fled to Egypt of all places. He had sought sanctuary there, and when Solomon was dead, then he returned. He ran right into Rehoboam.

    But what does he bring with him when he comes back? He brings the gods of Egypt. And he sets up altars and sanctuaries for them at Dan to the north, the northern border, and then at Bethel, the southern border. He’s hemming the people in, north and south, with his altars and his false gods.

    Keep them at home. Don’t let them wander. And whatever you do, don’t let them go up to Jerusalem. Don’t let them in any way show deference to the throne of David, God’s truly anointed King. So he sets up his golden calves in Dan and Bethel He doesn’t want the people going up to worship at Jerusalem.

    The act of Jeroboam, given the prophecies, given the actions themselves, it’s a case of pure apostasy. The man has deserted the truth and that wholesale. And in so doing, he is rejecting then the claims of David’s dynasty over him and his people. God would have used him. But he rejects David’s dynasty and the claim of that dynasty.

    And God is absolutely committed to David. and David’s lineage, from which ultimately comes the Lord Jesus Christ. So, this apostasy then with which the Northern Kingdom began with Jeroboam was never corrected throughout the 254 year history. Not one of its leaders corrected the apostasy of Jeroboam the first.

    How deep, just how deep this apostasy ran is evident from Ahab’s reign. We now arrive at that point where the state attempts to eradicate the voice of God. You remember what Ahab did after being goaded by Jezebel? He set about to execute all of the prophets of God, to eradicate any testimony concerning God, the true God.

    This was the period, you know, for Elijah’s ministry. Rain stops three years. None of it. The people are congregated to Carmel, Mount Carmel, where there’s this confrontation between the prophets of Baal and Elijah. If Baal is God, follow him. If the Lord be God, follow him. The people halted, you see. They said nothing, until it was evident who had won the contest.

    This is the period of Elijah’s ministry, and Elijah then is followed by Elisha. And together, these prophets brought upon Israel a testimony to God’s greatness and a testimony to his ultimate purposes. But God’s final assault upon Israel, these tribes to the north, will come through writing prophets, not Elijah and Elisha are speaking prophets, but there are writing prophets that then arise in the course of Israel’s history. And particularly during the reign of Jeroboam II, when Israel was experiencing its greatest height, the zenith of its civilization, The first one that we hear about is Jonah.

    We have a book from him. He’s a prophet to the northern kingdom during the days of Jeroboam II, whose mission is to speak of God’s judgment upon Israel and his grace to the Gentiles. You remember, he sent to Nineveh to preach repentance. He doesn’t want to go. Why? Because he also knows, as a prophet of God, that ultimately, none of us is going to be responsible for destroying Israel. But he also speaks cryptically about the means by which this great transition will be accomplished, this transition from God’s purpose is focused upon Israel exclusively to a time in which his purposes will be directed towards the Gentiles. You remember the prophet fleeing God cast into the sea when the waves of the sea revolt?

    God prepares the fish to swallow him up. In his sin, in effect, Jonah dies three days. He’s in the belly of that fish, in the depths of the sea, but then he is raised up by the power of God for a preaching mission to the Gentiles. Likewise, Jesus Christ himself will come and take upon himself our sins. He will die. He will go down into the depths. But three days later, he will be raised up as a sign to Israel but also as the means for the proclamation of the gospel of salvation to the nations, to the ends of the earth.

    There are two other writing prophets during the time of Jeroboam II. One is Amos, one who is sent from the southern kingdom to the north to proclaim the will of God. The other is Hosea. Amos will declare how far Israel has departed from the Lord’s covenant, and Hosea will declare how often.

    And now, God’s patience is exhausted. He has sent his speaking prophets, he has sent his writing prophets. And his patience is exhausted. So you come to 2 Kings 17, and that indictment that is read out there, that powerful indictment. And God brings upon these people an irremediable judgment. And in that you see a portent of hell. It’s a portent of hell. Irremedial judging. And when God begins to judge, He starts with the house of God.

    Now, we might think that the lesson from all of this is to be played out along the lines of the history of nations as they run their course in the history of the world. We might think that the lesson in all this has some special application to us as a nation. Israel was a nation. We are a nation. We match up nation to nation, right? If we as a nation can avoid Israel’s problems and sins, we will be spared, our lives will be serene, and we will live permanently and peacefully within the land forever. This type of reasoning suffers from two mistakes. The first one is this.

    God’s message is addressed to his people. His people are his church, not this nation. The replication of Old Testament history with respect to the nation of Israel is not matching up Israel with the United States of America. The application is matching up Israel with the Church. In the Old Testament, the people of God happen to be a nation. In the New Testament, they are made a unique nation, a nation under the leadership of Jesus Christ, a nation made up of all tribes, tongues, races, We are of the commonwealth of heaven.

    We transcend the nation. As much as we love our country, and we do, as precious as the United States of America is to us, there is no special promise in the word of God with respect to her. Now that may be hard for some of us to accept, but it’s true. As much as we love our nation, as much as we are determined to serve her and honor her and take…

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