Toby J. Sumpter's Blog

Introduction
Well, the internets are ablaze with the yapping howls of feminists and their male lapdogs. Their holy sacrament of voting has been questioned by thoughtful Christians, and they are breathing heavily into brown paper sacks. Even the Secretary of Defense has given us a friendly cheer, “All of Christ for All of Life,” and so panic has set in, along with the usual accusations of handmaid tale atrocity, racism, and whatever other old vegetables they can find in the back of their fridge. Part of the panic in certain sectors is simply the fact that we don’t care. A CNN story about Christians who really believe the Bible used to get a bunch of important people slightly nervous or embarrassed, but this time hardly anyone has flinched.

Everyone knows that in God’s providence Doug Wilson is the catnip of liberals everywhere. I suspect it’s the way he chuckles when he is really amused; it really is offensive to angry people for someone to be that happy. But of course they insist that it’s all kinds of other things like hatred of women, racial bigotry, and machinations of world domination. But when those slanders hit everyone who actually knows the man as utterly ludicrous, they fall flat, because it sounds like you’re accusing Santa Claus of something nefarious. And then right on schedule, you have all the rhetorical effectiveness of Jadis the White Witch of Narnia.

My 16 Seconds
But this time around, I got 16 seconds to speak into the microphone, and even though I wouldn’t claim it was my favorite 16 seconds of an hour or so interview, I certainly stand by every word I said, and I’m grateful to say it again here. When asked about women voting, I said that in my ideal society we would vote by household and, being that the head of the household is ordinarily a man, I would be the one that would usually cast our vote. When Pamala Brown asked me what would happen if my wife and I disagree about who to vote for, I said that would make for a good discussion. She also asked my colleague Jared Longshore specifically about repealing the 19th Amendment, and Jared cheerily announced that he would support that. And the high-pitched screeching commenced on the interwebs.

Now there is much that could and should be said about this entire discussion, and we don’t have time or space for it all here. And I should also note that the 19th Amendment is hardly something that any of us spends much time thinking about or worrying about here in Moscow. I honestly can’t remember the last time anyone mentioned it. I’m a lot more concerned about my garden. But for anyone who is honestly interested, perhaps even some moderns who view such an idea as an archaic curiosity, here are a few thoughts on the subject. 

Our First 150 Years
First, let us recall that our country functioned for almost hundred and fifty years before the 19th Amendment. And while there were no doubt sins and evils needing correction during that time, the reputation of America, particularly with regard to how it viewed and treated women, was incredibly high. For example, Alexis de Tocqueville writing in 1835, said: 

“As for me, I shall not hesitate to say it: although in the United States the woman scarcely leaves the domestic circle and is in certain respects very dependent within it, nowhere does her position seem higher to me; and now that I approach the end of this book where I have shown so many considerable things done by Americans, if one asked me to what do I think one must principally attribute the singular prosperity and growing force of this people, I would answer that it is to the superiority of its women.” 

Nearly a hundred years before women’s suffrage, the reputation of America was that it’s singular prosperity and growing force was due to the superiority of its women, who by and large concentrated their efforts on the “domestic circle,” in which she served in a position of high honor and authority – and all without having the so-called “right to vote.” Try to let that sink in for a minute between sobs. 

Real Representation & Limited Government
Now part of what moderns cannot get their head around is that I do not actually believe in disenfranchising women (and neither do my colleagues). We actually believe, like Tocqueville noticed, that women have the highest position in society when they rule their houses well. Not only that, but when households voted, the women were better represented. In other words, I believe women had more of a vote and more influence on society before the 19th Amendment. 

Even Richard Weaver once wrote: “The reestablishment of women as the cohesive force of the family, the end of the ‘long-haired men and short-haired women,’ should bring a renewal of well-being to the whole of society… George Fitzhugh’s brutal remark that if women put on trousers, men would use them for plowing has been borne out, and I think that women would have more influence actually if they did not vote, but, according to the advice of Augusta Evans Wilson, made their firesides seats of Delphic wisdom” (The Southern Tradition at Bay, 325).

The point is not to have less godly feminine influence on society. The point is actually to have more.

Even as it stands today, if we were to take the current screeching logic, I would like to point out that women do not vote on any of the bills that appear before Congress. Female citizens are denied the right to vote on every single one of them, all day long, even on Tuesdays. And you call this a civilized society?! Of course, male citizens are denied the right to vote on bills before Congress also. We all vote for “representatives” and “senators” and those folks vote on our behalf (sometimes well, sometimes poorly). So I might ask Mrs. Brown what she does when she disagrees with her senator, and I suspect that she would say something like, ‘if it’s really important she would have a conversation with them, write them a letter, send an email, call their office, etc.’ Ah… but do you feel that your dignity as a woman has been threatened by being represented? (I assume not.) Of course, some progressives would swallow the reductio and insist that we will not have true freedom until we have pure democracy, every citizen voting for every bill, every law, everywhere. But that sort of blinkered folly is a joke for another day.

So it was that for a hundred and fifty years, these United States recognized the government of the family, that a family is a unit, and while it is a unit that can disfunction, it is a natural and created good part of a healthy, functioning society. The demand for a woman’s right to vote was the demand for the federal government (and thereby the states) to assume the disfunction of the family. The implicit assumption was that the head of the household was not representing his wife well or in some way was utterly incapable of representing her, which was an implicit attack on the goodness and cohesion of the family unit. While families have always still had the option of ignoring the attack, and working to preserve unity and like-mindedness, the legal pressure has continued to build. There is a logic that flows from the assumption of disunity and disagreement. It was sort of an electoral prenup — based on the likelihood of disagreement and dissolution.    

Edmund Burke called the various associations and governments outside civil government (e.g. businesses, schools, families, churches) “little platoons,” and in a free and virtuous society, they function as checks on totalitarian governments. If the only point of integration and unity is the central government, then that government will inevitably have all the power. But classical Christian political thought has insisted that the centralizing of political power inevitably leads to corruption and tyranny (aka Babel). The notion of “limited government” is a thoroughly biblical concept, and it goes hand in hand with the idea of “separation of powers,” the idea that power should be spread out as much as possible.

Despite all the claims that “Christian theocracy” would be a totalitarian hellhole, you should remember that during the forty years surrounding the founding of our country, the single most quoted text in all the writings of the founding fathers was the book of Deuteronomy. It was cited twice as often as John Locke. And so we have three branches of our federal government, but originally, we also had states that checked federal power, and counties that checked state power, but there were also these “little platoons” throughout society, and the principle one was the family.

Conclusion
Now, you may have any number of remaining questions or concerns about exactly how voting ought to operate, but at the very least, any reasonable person ought to be able to explain why for a hundred and fifty years, the worldwide reputation of our nation was that our women were in some of the highest positions as they ran homes and supported their husbands. I mean, now that we have scaled the great civilizational heights of OnlyFans and the possibility of gay dudes renting your womb, or super gay dudes dressing up like women in order to share your restrooms, I mean, you can at least understand why some of us think we took a wrong turn at Albuquerque.

One final question, and I realize that this is no slam-dunk argument, but it’s an interesting thought experiment. Maybe you’re a center-right or maybe even a center-left type who laments the destruction of the family. Maybe you aren’t sure biblical ethics are entirely applicable to modern nations, but you look around and see the hellhole progressivism has created and you think to yourself, “it sure seems like things were better when there was more marriage, less divorce, and kids grew up in intact families.” So here’s the question: Would you be willing to trade the 19th Amendment for that? 

Yes, I understand that there are reasonable questions regarding whether the trade would actually work. Fine. But I think a reasonable person ought to consider the question. The old Christian notion is that God made the world in a such a way that it flourishes when we run along those grooves. One of those grooves is the goodness and blessing of family, and when that family is flourishing, it is a great blessing when a man can say, “As for me and my house…”  

Psalm 5

Prayer: Father, we confess that one of our great modern sins is a failure to hate like You hate. We have accepted the world’s warnings that hate is always evil, when the Bible clearly teaches that You hate evil, and that we must also. At the same time, we know that our hearts are slippery, so guard us on every side and rule us by this word, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction
We live in a warzone. The world, the flesh, and the devil are enemies prowling to take us out. This is why we must be continually armed and on guard. And every day when you wake up you are either acknowledging this war and preparing for battle, or else you are constantly unprepared and regularly caught off guard. And central to this war is learning to hate like God hates.

One popular slogan is, “Hate has no place here,” but when we ask what they mean, they will say something like, “we are against bigotry, fascism, racism, etc.” And we might ask, do you hate those things? But if you don’t hate evil, you are evil.

“The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate” (Prov. 8:13).

The Text: “To the chief musician upon nehiloth, a psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry…” (Ps. 5:1-12).

Summary of the Text
This psalm of David (like a number of others) was part of a collection for the choir director and was played (probably) on wind instruments (“nehiloth”). The psalm begins with a three-fold plea for God to hear his words, and he prays because God is his King and his God (Ps. 5:1-2). This is a prayer offered “in the morning,” at the beginning of the day, and the center of David’s meditation is that no evil can dwell with God, folly cannot stand before Him, and He hates all workers of iniquity (Ps. 5:3-5). God destroys liars because He hates their violent ways (Ps. 5:6). When David wakes up, his first thought is God’s war with evil. 

Instead of making peace with evil, David goes into the Lord’s house by God’s mercy, and he worships in reverent fear (Ps. 5:7). He does this in prayer. He asks God to lead him in righteousness because of his enemies because their mouths and throats are foul open graves (Ps. 5:8-9). Finally, David asks God to destroy the wicked by letting them destroy themselves with their sin, but he asks that God would fill those who trust in Him with great joy, surrounding them like a great shield with piercing spikes on it (Ps. 5:10-12). 

When You Get Up in the Morning
David says “in the morning” twice in a row (Ps. 5:3), underlining the fact that before he does anything else, He looks up to His King and His God (Ps. 5:2-3). In many ways, whatever you “look up to” first thing in the morning is what you are reckoning your King and your God. Your King and your God is what orients your life, your mission, your day. Is it your work? Your house? Friends? Social media? This need not be overly complicated: “Lord, please help me today.”

We’re not told the exact circumstances of this psalm, but David particularly asks God to hear his “groaning” – which is apparently related to the evil and enemies around him (Ps. 5:1). Sometimes our days are filled with groaning because we have not brought our groaning to the One who can handle all of it. “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Pet. 5:6-7). Beginning your day with prayer is an act of humility: He is God. He is King. 

One of the reasons you need to talk to God in the morning is because you are in a war zone. In 1 Pet. 5:8, the very next verse after the command to cast all your cares on God, it says to be vigilant because the devil prowls seeking whom he may devour. This is one of the reasons we need to pray and sing the psalms regularly: we have enemies and the psalms remind us of this fact. We are at war, and many of our enemies are aiming at our souls. Read Scripture in the morning, the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. 

God Hates Workers of Evil
Sometimes Christians says things like “hate the sin not the sinner,” but this is a platitude that doesn’t quite capture what the Bible teaches. Part of the problem is that we have been catechized by the world (our enemies) to believe that love and hate are mutually exclusive. But that is simply not true. God clearly hates all workers of iniquity (sinners) and has loved all of them to some extent, granting them life, causing the sun to shine on them and the rain to fall on their crops. Likewise, we are to learn to do this as well. We ought to hate evildoers, and we are to love our enemies (Mt. 5:43-45). So God hates and loves sinners in different ways, and so should we. 

The only place where God has determined to distinguish between sinners and their sin is in the cross of Jesus Christ. God does not merely send lies to Hell; He sends liars to Hell. He does not merely send lust to Hell; He sends adulterers to Hell. And the hatred of God is often to give people over to their evil demands: “let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions” (Ps. 5:10). 

We see this elsewhere also: “The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein” (Prov. 22:14). “When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened… Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves” (Rom. 1:21-24). Godly hatred stands against evil, and then at some point lets the evil go unchecked. 

No Pleasure in Evildoing
Part of the insidiousness of sin is that it flatters us (Ps. 5:9). Flattery is a destructive lie that masquerades as goodness, justice, or pleasure. It says, even though my parents don’t approve, it’s really fun and God approves of fun. It says, I have to do this because it’s not fair and God cares about justice. Or it is entertained by filth and says, I just really like the acting, the story, the soundtrack, etc. 

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (Prov. 27:6). This is the primary weapon of our enemies and all evil: the kisses of enemies – flattering lies. It flatters you by promising you entertainment, wisdom, beauty, or friends. But evil is foolish because it doesn’t actually work in God’s world, but more than that it is violent and bloody (Ps. 5:5-6). It comes packaged as being cool, being smart, being sexy, being relevant, but it’s an open grave of reeking rot. Their throats are open graves. Paul quotes this verse in Romans 3 to describe the universal rot of sin. There is no benign sin. It consumes and destroys. God takes no pleasure in it, and therefore neither may we. He will destroy all of it, and we must not long for it like Lot’s wife or we may be destroyed with it. Drop it and run. A little lust, a little drunkenness, little lies, is like a little cyanide, a little cancer. 

Conclusion
God hates wicked people in the world, but God also hates wicked people in His church. Jesus says that there will be some who ate and drank with him, who listened to His teaching, and He will say to them: “I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth…” (Lk. 13:27). 

God’s wrath is against all sin, all workers of iniquity, and therefore, the only safe place is in Christ, where God’s wrath has already been satisfied. Everyone is born a worker of iniquity; everyone is born with a throat that is an open grave. Everyone is born under the wrath of God: “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)… For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:3-9). We have been brought near to God by His mercy. 

Repentance means turning around, going the other way. This means learning to hate, to completely reject the wrong way. This is why, in another place, Jesus says that if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off, if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out – it would be better for you to go to heaven with one hand or one eye than to be cast into everlasting fire with both your hands and eyes (Mt. 18:8-9). This kind of repentance requires you to hate your sin. Cut it off. Do whatever it takes to stop. Get rid of your computer, your smart phone, your credit card, Netflix; delete the app, delete the playlist, quit your job, move, stop hanging out with those friends. Legend says that when the Spanish landed in Mexico to conquer the Aztecs, Cortez burned their ships so they couldn’t retreat Spain. What evil has God assigned you to fight? Land your troops today and burn the ships. Treat your sin like Samuel treated Agag the King of the Amalekites and hack it to pieces. You have been saved by grace, do not let sin have dominion over you. You have been baptized into His deatha resurrection, do not let sin reign in you more. Christ is risen from the dead, go and sin no more. 

Prayer: Father, please do whatever it takes to show us our sin, show us the evil that You have called us to hate, and show us Your great mercy and love, so that we might hate like You hate and walk in the light as You are in the light. And we ask for this in Christ’ name, who taught us to pray…

Psalm 4

Prayer: Father, we are constantly tempted to forget Your grace. We are tempted to think that we are good religious people, and that we have done something good to make You like us. Please remind us today of Your great grace, so that we might walk in the confidence of Your goodness, and nothing else. We ask in Jesus’ name, Amen. 

Introduction
In a world of sin and tragedy, evil men and corrupt leaders, it is easy for God’s people to be tempted to panic, to give in to anxiety or anger, to lash out in desperation. But Christians are to be marked by faith that knows God is righteous, and therefore God is for us – God is on our side, and therefore He always hears us. But how is it that a righteous God can be on the side of sinners? Why would God be for us, much less listen to us? We are filthy beggars. Why doesn’t God just ignore us?

The Text: “To the chief musician on Neginoth, a psalm of David: Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness…” (Ps. 4:1-8)

Summary of the Text
This psalm is part of a collection for the “chief musician,” and this one is to be played on stringed instruments (“Neginoth”) and is a psalm of David. Psalm 4 has a number of similarities to the previous psalm and may come from the same time period (fleeing from Absalom) or may be from another time like when he was on the run from Saul. 

David asks God to hear him, and he addresses God as “the God of my righteousness,” which is explained by the fact that God has often answered David’s prayers to deliver him into a wide open place from the narrowest troubles (Ps. 4:1, cf. 3:1). God is righteous, and God has proven it in the past. And David knows that this is pure mercy/grace (Ps. 4:1). 

David addresses his enemies directly in this prayer, asking how long they will slander him with lies, and the psalm pauses to meditate on how empty it all is (Ps. 4:2). Worship is not a private religious gathering; it is in the presence of our enemies (Ps. 23:5). Worship is warfare, and one way we fight is by correcting and rebuking our enemies in worship. David insists that God has chosen him and will therefore answer him (Ps. 4:3). David’s confidence that God will hear him is grounded in the fact that God chose him. He says his enemies should stop their lying babble for a minute, tremble before God, stop their sinning, and meditate for a moment in silence (Ps. 4:4). If they did that honestly, it would drive them to repent and be cleansed by sacrifice and put their trust in God (Ps. 4:5). Notice that he calls the sacrifices, “the sacrifices of righteousness,” – this is our righteousness: blood and death. 

Finally, David contrasts two different kinds of joy (which are really two different kinds of righteousness): many are carnal and worldly and look for happiness/righteousness entirely in material goods (wealth, houses, cars, wine) – these people determine whether they are doing well based on bank accounts and parties, but David says he has more joy in the smile of God than all of that (Ps. 4:6-7). David’s righteousness and goodness is found in the pleasure of God, the benediction of God. And like Psalm 3, David says this gives him a kind of peace that allows him to lay down and enjoy deep and restful sleep (Ps. 4:8).

God of My Righteousness
So David begins with this plea for help and addresses God as the God of His righteousness. What does this mean? The doctrine of justification by faith alone means that God is our righteousness, our justice, and our vindication for the sake of Christ by faith alone. But this really is remarkable, and we need to underline this point. Some of you looked at porn this week. Some of you lost your temper with your kids. Some of you said something ugly or biting or cruel to your husband, your wife, a co-worker. Some of you disobeyed your parents. Some of you curses someone in your heart, hated them, and murdered them in your heart. Some of you posted things on social media that you know were immodest, and you meant to get all the wrong sorts of attention. Some of you lied. Some of you refused to forgive someone. We are a room full of sinners; we are a room full of lepers. There has been adultery, homosexuality, molestation, and abortions. This is not a room full of decent religious people. This is a room full of sinners. If you were looking for the decent religious church, try the Mormons. 

But here is the remarkable thing: you are righteous in the sight of God. God looks on this congregation and smiles. God looks on this congregation and is pleased. But how is this possible? How is that righteous? How is it righteous for a perfectly holy God, who knows all things, to look down on this congregation, knowing all our filth, all our crap – how is it possible for a righteous God to say that we are righteous, when we are not? You are not righteous, and as hard as you try you can’t stop sinning. So God the only Righteous One offers His righteousness to sinners. This is what it means for God to be your righteousness. God saves sinners by declaring them righteous for the sake of Jesus. Jesus is the only righteous man, and He came for sinners. He came to live the perfectly life that we cannot live, He died the death we deserve for our sins, and God raised Him from the dead, so that all who trust in Him may be united to Him and share His righteousness. This is what it means for God to be your righteousness. By faith, you are united to Christ, and His obedience becomes your obedience. His perfection becomes your perfection. His righteousness is your righteousness. 

But that means you must be a sinner to qualify. Christ did not come for the righteous but for sinners. He did not come for the healthy but the sick. The righteous do not need God’s righteousness. Do you need God’s righteousness? 

But when you have God’s righteousness, it is full and complete. God’s righteousness is solid, confident, and unshakeable: “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies” (Rom. 8:33). God declares sinners righteous for the sake of Christ, and there is no charge, no accusation that can be brought against them. There may be true accusations, but they have been fully paid for. And while it is painful to be falsely accused, it is not fatal for Christians because we stand before God and the world in the righteousness of Christ (Rom. 3:22, Phil. 3:9). He is our judge, our witness, and our jury, and Christ is stood in our place. 

But if the attacks and opinions of men constantly shake you, are you justified before God? If a stranger insults you, it might annoying, but it doesn’t usually hurt, but the closer someone is to you, the more the accusation or slander can hurt. But to be a Christian is to consider God’s opinion the one that trumps all others. To be justified is to be assured that nothing can separate you from God because you have the righteousness of God (Rom. 8:33-39). If God has given you His own righteousness, He will not turn away from you. He cannot turn away from you. “If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:31-32). Faith is the gift that rests in that strong tower.

Set Apart
David is once again appealing to God’s promise to him and his house, that his throne will be established forever (cf. 2 Sam. 7). This was a particular promise to David, fulfilled in Jesus Christ, but if you are in Christ, if you are united to Christ by faith, it therefore has a specific application to you, to all those who are in Christ: “According as He hath chosen us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will” (Eph. 1:4-5). Not only does God offer His righteousness to filthy sinners by faith alone, the Bible teaches that He chose you before the foundation of the world. He chose filthy sinners to be adopted as his children, to become holy and blameless before Him because of His great love. This is the doctrine of election. And if God chose you, knowing all your filth, and if God has declared you righteous in His own Son, then He will always hear you when you pray. 

The doctrine of election means all Christians can pray Psalm 4 with the same confidence: “The Lord hath set [me] apart for Himself: the Lord will hear when I call.” Charles Spurgeon said, “Since He chose to love us he cannot but choose to hear us.” Faith knows that God hears. 

Better Than Wine
We can consider the next couple of sections together: When the godly tremble before God and quiet their hearts on their beds, they have great peace and joy in the pleasure of God – more than all earthly comforts (Ps. 4:4, 6-7). God has not only chose you and offered you His righteousness, He rejoices in His chosen people. He beams over them. They are in His Son. He is well-pleased with them. When God’s people stop and meditate on these things, they can see their sin and they repent through the final sacrifice of Christ, and the joy and peace of salvation flood their hearts (Ps. 4:5, 7). God receives you gladly. God forgives freely. So God’s smile is better than anything.  

But those who do not know God cannot stand silence. They refuse to tremble before God and stop their sinning. They cannot sleep unless they have done some mischief, unless they have caused someone to fall (Prov. 4:16). Their only happiness is the temporary buzz of paychecks and wine (Ps. 4:7). But the light of God’s countenance on His chosen people (in spite of our sin) – His favor, His love, His smile – lightens every moment. Thomas Watson says, “There is as much difference between heavenly comforts and earthly, as between a banquet that is eaten, and one that is painted on the wall.”

Conclusion: The Christian’s Goodnight
God justifies the ungodly. God justifies sinners. God is our righteousness. God is perfectly righteous, and by the sacrifice of Christ, the ungodly are made righteous. When you tremble before God and are silent before Him, you know your sin and your failures, but God is the One who hears those who cry out for His righteousness. And His righteousness becomes ourrighteousness. 

There are only two kinds of people in this world: those who trust in their own righteousness and those who trust in the righteousness of Christ. Those who trust in their own righteousness are trying to justify themselves. They must constantly try to protect themselves, defend themselves, and prove themselves, and so they’re constantly exhausted and miserable and they have no peace or quiet. But faith in Christ knows that God if our righteoueness, and therefore God always hears and so it sleeps soundly in the face of every accusation, in the face of every trouble. 

Prayer: Father, please give everyone in this room this kind of peace. And wherever there is religious pride and arrogance, wherever anyone is clinging to their own righteousness, please strip it away. Do whatever it takes to give us Your peace. And we ask for it Jesus’ name, who taught us to pray… 

Psalm 3

Prayer: Father, we come to You now surrounded by various enemies. They are the enemies of sickness and disease, the enemies of fear and anxiety, the enemies of guilt and shame, and the enemies of the devil and many who hate You and Your people. And we ask You to teach us to cast our cares upon You like Christians, so that we might have Your peace. And we ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction
Psalm 2 contrasts the conspiracies of the nations with God’s sure word, but Psalm 3 brings this home. What about when the conspiracy is in part a judgment for sin? What about when you have brought some of the calamity upon yourself? What about when the raging is in your own home/family?

This psalm proclaims that even for horrific, grotesque sinners, there is a way to have a peace that passes all understanding. There is a way to sleep in the midst of the storm.  

The Text: “A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son. LORD, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me…” (Ps. 3:1-8).

Summary of the Text
This psalm has an inscription or superscript which tells us that David wrote this prayer when he fled from his son Absalom’s attempted coup, and David cried out in desperation about the many who had betrayed him and conspired against him (Ps. 3:1). The particular taunt that pierces his soul is that there is no way out of this trouble, perhaps in part because of sheer numbers and perhaps in part because it is judgment for David’s sin (Ps. 3:2). After meditating on this pain, David turns to the Lord in faith and declares that God is his shield, his glory, and the lifter of his head (Ps. 3:3). David declares that he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord heard his cries (Ps. 3:4). The king pauses here once more before singing that when had done this, he was able to lay down and sleep, and he awoke more assured of God’s protection, even from thousands surrounding him (Ps. 3:5-6). The psalm ends with a plea for God to arise and save him, and David concludes that his enemies are as good as struck down because God saves and blesses His people (Ps. 3:7-8).  

Superscripts & Selahs
This is the first psalm we have come across that has two stylistic elements that are almost entirely unique to the Book of Psalms: superscripts and selahs. The superscript is the title or inscription that is listed above this psalm and 82 others. Sometimes these titles are dedications or ascriptions of authorship (“of/for David”), sometimes they include musical instructions (“for the choir director”), and sometimes (as here) they include an historical setting or details. These titles come with the oldest manuscripts we have, and therefore, we have every reason to accept them as an inspired part of Scripture. 

“Selah” shows up three times in this psalm and is also part of the Scripture text, but its exact meaning is somewhat unclear. The word seems to be related the Hebrew word for “lift up” or “hang up,” and may be a poetic or musical term meant to indicate emphasis. That emphasis may have been made with a moment of silence or a musical interlude to meditate on the preceding material. This is why we have incorporated this word into our liturgy in the prayer of confession, where the minister pauses for the congregation to confess any particular individual sins.

When Absalom Conspired
The context of this psalm is one of the most intense moments of David’s reign: the conspiracy of Absalom found in 2 Samuel 15. Absalom may have been somewhat motivated by the rape of his sister, Tamar, as well as his father’s treatment following that, but the whole thing was foretold in the aftermath of David’s adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband, Uriah, in 2 Samuel 12. “I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun” (2 Sam. 12:11-12). When Absalom entered Jerusalem, this is what he did (2 Sam. 16:20-21).

The conspiracy included most of the tribes of Israel, key military leaders, as well as Ahithophel, David’s chief counselor, and David was forced to flee Jerusalem to escape with his life. And all the people who accompanied David wept as they left the city and crossed the Brook Kidron (2 Sam. 15:23). This was a massive political calamity and embarrassment, but it struck much deeper than that: it was David’s own son leading the treachery. It’s bad enough to face a terrible tragedy; it hits even harder when it’s your own family involved. And after the great battle in the woods, when Absalom was killed and his army routed, David’s grief was profound (2 Sam. 18:33) – this is what cut to David’s soul (Ps. 3:2).

God’s people are not immune to these kinds of heartbreak, and we are commanded to cast our cares upon God in the same way as David, crying out to Him in our time of need (1 Pet. 5:7). And notice that David is crying out for help and deliverance even though his own sin brought this calamity upon him. 

David’s Peace
Having poured his heart out to God, David turns to God. In the midst of our grief and heartache, it is important that we do this too. This is not a vague, sentimental turning. David acknowledges that God is his shield, his glory, and the lifter of his head. These three things are not just poetry; they are actually essential theology. God is our shield in that He is absolutely sovereign: nothing can touch us without His permission. But His sovereignty is also perfectly loving: He will not allow anything to touch us that is not for our ultimate good. And finally, even though He is free to use the consequences of our sin as His fatherly discipline, His discipline is just and He shields us from those who might take advantage of our weakened position. 

Secondly, David acknowledges that God is his glory. In this context, this is not likely a generic reference, but a specific reference to his kingly glory and majesty. David has been humiliated, but he confesses that God’s majesty is sufficient for him. The glory of God sustains David. In another psalm it says, “I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than dwell in tents of wickedness” (Ps. 84:10). The glory of God far outweighs our shame. And while we have fallen short of God’s glory, salvation in Christ is the free offer of that glory-covering. Just as God clothed Adam and Eve, He clothes us in Christ. 

Finally, “lifter of my head” surely refers to the restoration of David to the throne. David knows that if God has promised him an enduring dynasty (and He has) then God must have a plan for restoring him to that throne. “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up” (Js. 4:10). “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jer. 29:11).

Conclusion
Having acknowledged God to be his shield, his glory, and the lifter of his head, David knows that God has heard him, and he goes to bed. But given the circumstances, this is remarkable. What David is experiencing is a peace that defies all human explanation – the kind of peace that guards our hearts and minds from even the threats of thousands of enemies (Phil. 4:7). The peace of God which passes all understanding is not something that we cling to like some kind of desperate life raft. The peace of God is God Himself holding us, defending us, and watching over us.

The center of this peace is knowing David’s greater Son, Jesus Christ, who was willingly betrayed by one of His own disciple-sons, and when He had gone out of Jerusalem and crossed the Brook Kidron in great sorrow (Jn. 18:1), He was shamefully arrested, beaten, and crucified to bear our sins. The only perfect King endured the humiliation for our treason, in order to be our shield, our glory, and the lifter of our heads.  Prayer: Father, you have promised everyone who trusts in You this peace. So we ask for the very thing you have promised. And as the pastor of this particular congregation, and I ask for You to give this peace to my people. You know exactly where our enemies of sin, death, and the devil accuse and harass us, and so I ask that You would set your peace in those places so that we may lay down and sleep in Your perfect care. And I ask for this in the name of Your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Psalm 2

Prayer: Father, we live in a world in high rebellion to You and to Your Son Jesus Christ. We know that you are not worried, and Your plan is still that all of the nations will honor Christ. Help us to hear Your Word now, believe it, and obey it, and we pray that You would be please to bring Your Kingdom a little more today in our land and throughout the world, in Jesus name, Amen. 

Introduction
Psalm 2 is often taken as part of the introduction to the whole psalter along with Psalm 1, or perhaps the introduction to Book 1 of the psalter (Ps. 1-41). It reinforces the fundamental antithesis of Psalm 1 by contrasting the happy rule of God and His Son with the kings and nations that rage and plot against Him. 

One important element of rightly interpreting this psalm is understanding it both as talking about David’s own dynasty as well as a prophecy of Jesus Christ’s reign. Reading Psalm 2 in light of David’s circumstances helps us rightly apply this psalm to our circumstances in Christ. 

The Text: “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed…” (Ps. 2:1-12).

Summary of the Text
The psalm begins by asking why the nations rage and plot in vain against the Lord and His anointed (“Messiah”) king (Ps. 2:1-3). The King of Heaven sits in Heaven unbothered, unworried, and He laughs at their pitiful attempts to break His Word and the way He has made and governed the world – God’s Word and ways are like shackles to the rebellious heart (Ps. 2:4-5). God insists that His Word is firm and sure: the king is His son, and He will reign over all the earth, destroying those who rebel (Ps. 2:6-9). The psalm closes by warning the rulers of the earth to serve the Lord and kiss His son or suffer His wrath (Ps. 2:10-12). And like Psalm 1, happy is everyone who trusts in the Son (Ps. 2:12). 

David’s Faith
At first glance, this psalm seems audacious, perhaps even arrogant. David is God’s anointed king (after Saul), and David says that all the plotting and raging of the nations is against God and him (Ps. 2:1-2). Who does David think he is? It may be tempting to run immediately to Christ. But in 2 Samuel 7, God sent a message to David and promised to make David’s son His own son and establish his throne forever (2 Sam. 7:14-16). This is the background of Psalm 2 (cf. Heb. 1:5). David therefore knows that all the plotting against him and his dynasty will fail because God has promised to establish his throne forever. Who does David think he is? Well, nobody, except for what God has said. And this is our position as well. What gives us the right to say that every knee must bow to Jesus Christ? The Word of God. What gives us the right to say that the United States, Russia, China, and all the nations of the earth must submit all of their laws to Jesus Christ? The Word of God. What gives us the right to say that marriage is one man and one woman in covenant under God? The Word of God. Why do they rage and plot against us? Because we have God’s Word.

Plots & Conspiracies
The Bible is clear that those who reject God and His Christ hate God and His ways, and they therefore plot to overthrow His ways. Christians (of all people) must not be surprised by this. This goes back to the Garden of Eden, and the enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15). Of course they rarely admit that their war is with God. Instead, they array themselves against many proxy-enemies: capitalists, conservatives, white people, black people, men, the patriarchy, the Jews, China, etc. The wicked really are hateful and full of hate and will hate almost anything (Tit. 1:3), but it must always be remembered that their true enemy is God and His people. The wicked really do conspire but there is a real temptation to absolutize their conspiracies, and Scripture says not to call a conspiracy everything they call a conspiracy (Is. 8:12). We are not to fear what they fear, which (having denied God) is fundamentally the power of man; we are to fear the Lord.

This same psalm is cited by the apostles to explain the conspiracy to murder Jesus, but even that was utterly worthless since it was only “whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done” (Acts 4:24-31). How much more all their lesser attempts to foil God’s Kingdom?

Holy Laughter 
This psalm along with several others says that God laughs at the foolish plots of the wicked (Ps. 2:4). The Lord laughs at the wicked because He sees their judgment coming (Ps. 37:13, 59:8). Wisdom, a personification of God’s eternal counsel, laughs at the calamity of the wicked when they have refused to listen (Prov. 1:26). And the Bible also teaches that the righteous are to imitate this holy laughter: When God destroys the wicked, “the righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him” (Ps. 52:6). There is a kind of unbelieving scorn and bitter sarcasm that is not at all fitting for believers, but there is a faithful, joyful laughter in the sovereign salvation of God and in the weakness and folly of man.  

Calvin says that this psalm teaches that when God does not act immediately to destroy the wicked it’s because he is letting their rage be exposed for everyone to laugh at and that we ought to be assured that now is “his time of laughter.” Christians should be marked by this confident merriment. 

Conclusion: Kiss the Son
The New Testament repeatedly appeals to this Psalm and says that Christ was “begotten” at the resurrection (Acts 13:33, Heb. 5:5). “Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead” (Rom. 1:3). 

The implication is clear: if Jesus Christ is the Son of David whom God has enthroned as King, then Christ has inherited all of the nations as His rightful possession (Ps. 2:8). At the resurrection and ascension, all power and authority really was truly transferred to Christ (Mt. 28:18), who was raised, “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named” (Eph. 1:21, cf. Phil. 2:10-11). He rules the nations with a rod of iron (Rev. 2:27, 12:5, 19:15).

All nations are already Christian in principle, in so far as they have become Christ’s inheritance, Who purchased them with His blood (cf. Rev. 5:9). All nations and their rulers therefore owe Christ their public allegiance and obedience or else He will destroy them (Ps. 2:9-11). Secularism is a refusal to kiss the Son, and of course so is Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and all the others. It’s Christ or chaos: happiness or raging (Ps. 2:1,12). Happy is that nation whose God is the Lord (Ps. 33:12).

Prayer: Father, teach us the joy of Your Kingdom. Make us happy in our obedience to You, and we pray that those who do not know You would repent of their raging against You and come and bow before Jesus with us so that they might be happy with us. We ask for this in Jesus’ name who taught us to pray…

Psalm 1

Prayer: Father, You promise happiness for all those who seek You in Your Word, and that is why we are here today. So please open this Word to us so that we may truly drink this living water. Do not let anyone in this room come and not drink. Make us like fruitful trees today. Because we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Introduction
This psalm introduces the entire psalter and establishes one of the central themes: those who seek God are happy but those who reject Him will fade away. And in particular, we have that happiness by seeking God constantly in His law, but those who do seek God’s law are blown about by the whims of men and their circumstances – which is miserable.

As the old hymn puts it: “Fading is the worldling’s pleasure// All his boasted pomp and show// Solid joys and lasting treasure// None by Zion’s children know.”

The Text: “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful…” (Ps. 1:1-6)

Summary of the Text
The word here for “blessed” means “happy,” and the Psalmist says that the man is happy who does not walk, stand, or sit with those who do not seek God (Ps. 1:1). If you are seeking God, you are going in the direction of happiness. Those are not seeking God are going a different way. Instead, that happy man’s deepest pleasure is in the whole Word of God – which is an explanation of God’s law – God’s way, and so it’s in his mouth day and night (all the time), which makes him like a fruitful and prosperous tree in every season (Ps. 1:2-3). 

The wicked are like chaff driven by the wind – they are unstable, rootless, and therefore, they cannot stand anywhere for long – much less the final judgment or even sit with the congregation of the righteous (Ps. 1:4-5). They are restless in church. They are uncomfortable anywhere long. They have no peace. This is their misery. Of course it does not always look like the righteous are happy and the wicked are miserable, but regardless of all appearances, God knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will be destroyed (Ps. 1:6). 

The Antithesis
From the beginning of the world, following the Fall, God has established an antithesis between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). This great war began when sin entered the world, and it will continue until the end of the world. It is a battle line that runs through every human heart, but it is also a battle line that runs through history between those who seek the Lord and those who reject Him. We call this the antithesis. This is the difference between light and darkness, good and evil, life and death, joy and misery. 

But the serpent and his seed have always wanted to blur the lines of the conflict, appearing as an “angel of light” and false teachers (2 Cor. 11:13-14), wolves in sheep’s clothing (Mt. 7:15). In the Old Covenant, there were constant temptations to be like the nations: to marry them, to worship their gods, to have kings like them, and it always resulted in their harm and slavery and misery. And the same principle is taught in the New Covenant: what fellowship does righteousness have with unrighteousness (2 Cor. 6:14ff)? Christians must be determined not to fit in with worldliness (music, movies, fashion, politics). We have been called out and rescued from the world. We are going in a fundamentally different direction. 

The Psalm outlines a progression of compromise: walking, standing, sitting with the ungodly world, which runs roughly parallel to secret faults, presumptuous sins, and great transgressions (Ps. 19:12-13). People do not decide to ruin their lives out of nowhere. Big weeds grow from little ones. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God (Js. 4:4)? Obedience is a daily decision to seek God, to walk in His paths, to meditate on His word, to seek His happiness. 

The cloying reply comes back: What about Jesus the friend of tax collectors and prostitutes? Aren’t we supposed to be friends with unbelievers? Aren’t we supposed to be ministering to them? Yes, a true friend is seeking to rescue those who are drowning in their sin, but the kind of “friendship” many are demanding is to let them drown (and if you’re really their friend, you’ll let them pull you down with them). But it is not true friendship to become like them. Christ did not become like them. He confronted their sin, offered forgiveness and told them to “go and sin no more.” We are on a path to God, and we cannot stop. We constantly invite them to come with us, but if they will not come, we must not stop. If they will not come, Christ does not want us to stop. And we love Christ more. The gospel says that following Christ will sometimes be interpreted as “hate” (Lk. 14:26). 

We are not “friends” with the world and its cheap baubles and petty influencers because as Calvin says, the happy man of this Psalm is the one who not only studies the Word of God but finds it delicious. 

Who Is Really Having Fun?   
The problem is that many Christians secretly (or not so secretly) think that unbelievers are having more fun. This was the original temptation of the Devil in the Garden – are you sure God is not withholding some good thing from you? Are you sure there isn’t some other experience, some other knowledge that will make you happy? And this is where the fundamental question divides: is happiness found in the Triune God or is He not necessary? 

Many unbelievers appear to be happy. They say they are happy without God. They are doing whatever they want. They are partying, sleeping around, doing whatever feels good to them. But this Psalm says they are not really happy, and here it describes their misery as rootlessness, uncertainty, insecurity – yes, they do whatever feels good or seems good to them but that is miserable because they are never sure of what they are doing. They don’t know if it’s good. They don’t know where they are going. They don’t know what it’s for. So Scripture teaches that they are miserable. 

They are also miserable because they have sinned against God and their fellow man and cannot get rid of the awful weight of guilt and shame (Ps. 32). They are miserable because they are living lies: denying that they know there is a God when He is obviously right in front of them every day in His creation (Rom. 1). They are also miserable because they are trying to live in God’s world according to their own wisdom, but the way of transgressors is hard (Prov. 13:15). You keep doing it your own way, but how’s that working out for you? How’s your marriage? How’s your relationship with your parents, your kids, your friends? 

But Scripture says that in God’s presence there is fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasures forever more (Ps. 16:11). And Who is at God’s right hand? The Lord Jesus. He died, rose again, and ascended to God’s right hand. Jesus is the fullness of God’s joy and pleasures. And Jesus promises a joy to those who follow Him that no one can take away (Jn. 16:22). The center of this joy is the forgiveness of our sins, and the complete confidence we have to stand before God in the righteousness of Jesus Christ – all of this is based on the unchanging Word of God. His law is fixed. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He is always the fullness of goodness, righteousness, and joy. And He remained this goodness when He came in Jesus Christ to save us. And on top of His forgiveness and righteousness, He gives us all His gifts: creation, food, family, dancing, music, beauty, etc.  

But What About Evil?
This Psalm says that those who turn away from the paths of evil men and seek the Lord will be happy and fruitful, but it does not always seem that way. Job was struck by the Lord. Jacob and David were persecuted. The apostles were rejected and hated. And many Christians have suffered from the effects of the Fall: disease, pain, loneliness, and many hardships – many of which we have in our congregation. And on the flip side, many of the wicked do seem to be prospering, healthy, and wealthy. What do we make of this?

Some Christians ignore the problem of evil and simply insist that you need more faith and then you will be more prosperous. We call this lie the “prosperity gospel.” The fundamental problem with this lie is that Jesus had perfect faith, and He was rejected and killed. Others shy away from the plain meaning of this Psalm: that the godly will tend to prosper in this world – and they spiritualize the whole thing. We can only expect spiritual prosperity and Heaven in the end. 

But we need to hold the entire Bible together and embrace the whole message. We insist that the history of the world will vindicate the righteous. In general, those who seek God will prosper more than those who don’t. In general, if you follow God’s ways, you will have fewer STDs. God’s ways cut with the grain of the world He made: if you don’t spend more than you make, you won’t generally be in financial ruin. Wisdom will be justified by her children. 

At the same time, God is not merely interested in our physical prosperity. He disciplines us so that we might share in His holiness (Heb. 12:5-11). In many places, Scripture teaches that God has determined to do this through hardships: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (Js. 1:2-4 ESV). God is determined to work in His people so that they will be perfect, compete, and lacking nothing. The Bible calls this holiness. Holiness is a deeper happiness and more fruitful than mere material circumstances. 

What if you could run and not get tired? If you’re not ready for a marathon, and you are invited to run one, that sounds terrible and painful. But what if you could? Imagine a colony of cripples, a civilization that had forgotten how to walk. Maybe there had been many injuries, and so they had all decided it just wasn’t safe and muscles atrophied, and now no one walked. And you came along and told them that their legs were actually meant for walking — they were meant for running. That is what living in sin is like. It weighs you down, slows you down, but we were made to run. God disciplines us so that we might run with Him, so that we might be happy like Him.

Conclusion
Nietzsche mocked Christianity for what he called “slave morality,” accusing Christians of apathy, submitting to hardships and calling it “good.” But Nietzsche finished his days in an insane asylum, and according to legend, with his sister selling tickets to see him, and so are many of his cultural descendants in our day, destroying themselves with their “strong” delusions.

But we confess that Christ is the Happiest Man to ever live. He delighted in the Word of God day and night, and He was (and is) fruitful in every way. For this, they called Him insane and demon possessed, but after they killed Him, He came back from the dead and He has the fullness of life forever. And everyone who loves Him is given His happiness. Who is really having the most fun? The Lord Jesus Christ and those who follow Him. And it’s not even close. 

Prayer: Father, we know that Your happiness and joy far exceeds the false joy of sin. But we are so easily distracted. So please give us a vision for your happiness, give us a hunger and thirst for your righteousness, for your Word, for Jesus Christ, and so make us a forest of faithful and fruitful trees. And we ask for this now in the name of the Son of Your Pleasure, and we pray, as He taught us to pray…

Introduction
Ever since the Garden of Eden, mankind has wanted someone or something to blame for the evil of the world. Adam blamed “the woman,” and the woman blamed the serpent, and they would have blamed the Jews if there had been any. But God in His mercy told the truth: “because you have done this.” I call this the dignity of guilt. Blame-shifting is not merely a lie; it is not merely an abdication of responsibility; it is also a fundamental denial of personal moral agency and therefore, a form of self-loathing. Regardless of what others have done, you always have a choice – a powerful choice before God, will you obey or disobey? The dignity of guilt insists that your choices matter, and in so doing, insists that you matter. But abdication, excuses, and blame-shifting are all ironically paths of self-loathing. Wallowing in victimhood is an attempt to wallow in a self-destroying meaninglessness.   

Aaron did this: “thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief” (Ex. 32:22). Saul also blamed the people: “the people took of the spoil” (1 Sam. 15:21). And Adam really could point to “the woman.” They could all “notice” the actions of others, but the fundamental problem was that they had disobeyed the word of the Lord. If some other person or group of people can be successfully identified as uniquely malevolent, the antithesis can shifted – even if only slightly. The focus might be a little less excruciatingly on me but spread out to include others. But the irony is that this move necessarily means that you matter less: it’s an attempt to recede into the background that turns out to be the outer darkness. And the real antithesis bleeds through with the bitterness: behind the supposed unique malevolence of that other person or collection of people stands God Himself who allowed it: “the woman whom thou gavest to be with me” (Gen. 3:12). All blame-shifting is a self-destroying attempt to blame God.

David, by contrast, re-centers the antithesis after his sin with Bathsheba and the arranged murder of Uriah: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight” (Ps. 51:4). While it was true that a number of other people had also been sinned against, and there were other factors and contributors to David’s sin (e.g. Joab’s bloody compliance), David confessed that the real antithesis was between him and God. The central evil in the world is the rebellion of individual men against their Maker. God is good all the time, and we are not. God is not the author of evil. We are. This is the cause of genocides, sexual infidelity, every virulent strain of cultural destruction. The nations rage and plot vain things against the Lord and against His Christ, but all the hatreds and enmities of men are only the echo of their curses flung at Heaven — which curses always boomerang back at those who fling them. To defy God is to defy the very source of your life. To curse God is to curse yourself. To blame God or the way He has allowed history or even just your story to unfold is to commit a kind of moral and metaphysical suicide.

Ethnic Sin & Antisemitism
But because men only rarely want to acknowledge that their beef is with God, they frequently fixate on others, and in the course of human history, this routinely results in various ethnic animosities. The first and by far most prevalent human enmity is sexual, between men and women, using and abusing one another, but right after that comes ethnic sin. As Douglas Wilson has noted, ethnic sin is always a matter of vainglory, malice, or a separatism based on vainglory or malice (or both). Vainglory is sinful pride in one’s ethnicity, and malice is sinful hatred of others for their ethnicity. Sinful separatism is simply the fig leaf of “prudence” or “tradition” or “natural law” attempting to cover the shameful nakedness of that vainglory or malice. 

Historically, this ethnic malice has often also settled on the Jews. Douglas Wilson’s definition of antisemitism captures the point: “Antisemitism is the notion that Jews are uniquely malevolent and destructive in their cultural, economic, and political influence in the world.” You could replace the first word with “sinful hatred” and “Jews” with any number of other identifiers: “women” or “men” or “blacks” or “whites” or “Muslims” or “communists” or “nazis,” and you’d have a quick list of other sinful enmities.  

It is certainly true that some sins and crimes are worse than others: “some sins in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others” (Westminster Larger Catechism, 150). But it is a point of basic biblical orthodoxy that no sinner is himself more heinous in the sight of God than others, and thus, there is no group of people that are more heinous in themselves. Certain groups of people may for a time conspire together to commit more heinous sins and crimes, which are “by reason of several aggravations” “more heinous in the sight of God than others,” but there is nothing unique in their DNA as far as sinfulness goes. It is all the same sinful, Adamic nature. 

Yes, it is also true that groups of people at different times and across generations are allowed by God’s providence to grow in the heinousness of their iniquities (like the Amorites of Canaan), but that is not a unique power on their part; it is a unique providence on God’s part, who ordinarily restrains our evil hearts by His common grace. As 16thcentury English Reformer and martyr, John Bradford said, “But for the grace of God, there go I.” And this sentiment is actually the foundation of all moral agency and civilizational greatness. To the extent that western civilization has been great, it has been great because of the widespread conviction of that statement. It has been great because of the doctrine of Original Sin.

America and the Christian West have been magnificent beacons of liberty and justice and opportunity precisely because most folks have known that there is nothing in our material circumstances that prevents our breaking out in the most heinous of evils. And all the most heinous evils occur in their seed forms in the chest of every human being. Rape, adultery, murder, genocide? Jesus said those seeds are in your heart if you’ve lusted, if you’ve cursed your brother. There is nothing in white genes or black genes or male or female genes or Jew or Gentile genes that restrains our fallen impulses. There is no difference. It is only the grace of God. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). As young Americans learned their alphabet for centuries, “In Adam’s fall; we sinned all.” This is what made America great. What made us great was the confession that all deserve God’s eternal wrath. All deserve Hell. This includes Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, agnostics, and every stripe of unbeliever, even the kind that have been baptized and take communion, who have the audacity to draw near to the Lord with their lips but whose hearts are far from Him. 

All of this is to underline the point that when it comes to interpreting evil in the world, the first and most fundamental truth is that each human being stands before God as a responsible moral agent, whatever material contributing factors may be in play. This is the fundamental antithesis. And this is because whatever the material factors, God is behind them all. And every subtle shift off this point is a shift toward self-loathing and self-destruction. 

Defining Hatred & Love  
I want to close by bringing something up that may seem like I’m changing the subject, but I assure you that I am not. Proverbs says that failure to spank your children is a form of hatred: “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes” (Prov. 13:24). And those who fail to discipline their children are destroying themselves: “The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame” (Prov. 29:15). My point in bringing this up is that love and hatred are some of the most weaponized terms in culture wars. But as Christians, love and hatred must always be defined by God in His Word. This is not merely a matter of telling the truth. It is a matter of life and death. As Wisdom says, “he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death” (Prov. 8:36). Those who hate God’s wisdom hate themselves.

In our day this is done when the progressive left call sodomy and trans-surgeries “love,” but it is actually a seething hatred. It is also being done by some on the right who say they are just “noticing” that Jews perpetrate many evils in the world and object to us calling that “hate.” They say they do not hate Jews; they’re just noticing patterns. But then they should also notice the patterns of all the Jews not plotting the overthrow of western Christendom. They should simultaneously take into account the many ordinary Jews just living ordinary lives of unbelief. They should notice all the Jews winning Nobel prizes in the sciences and all the Jews doing good to their neighbors, even their Christian neighbors, even some Jews happily defending and applauding the historic goodness of Christendom and western values, not to mention all the Jews that have turned to Christ. It is sinful hatred to only notice the evils, and it is a failure to love your neighbor to refuse to notice the good. And failure to practice this kind of wisdom is a form of self-destroying loathing.

Conclusion
As Will Spencer recently pointed out, there is a real gnostic move in a lot of these conspiracy theories. It’s a dark rabbit hole that goes deeper and deeper, sucking time, energy, and resources, feeding resentments, lusts, and envies, allowing the most obsessed to feel a buzzing sensation that they mistake for wisdom. The key is that this so-called knowledge must be secret and esoteric. But it’s a false red pill. It’s a misplaced antithesis. Yes, you’ve been lied to. Yes, many hate Christ and His ways. Many want to destroy western Christendom and your way of life. But so have you. If the crucial issue is actually the Jews or blacks or whites or Nazis or the gynocracy then even for a few minutes you can pretend that the issue is not you and God. 

But the point is this: to the extent that you shift the antithesis, shift the focus of the conversation, you are actually at some level joining in the conspiracy you claim to be identifying. You’re joining them in sinful hate and enmity, but you’re also even joining their hatred of you. The failure to take responsibility for your evil is a self-destroying, self-loathing move. For all the talk about the self-loathing of modern White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, one of the most self-defeating moves you can make is obsess over the evil other people. This is not some kind of cringe “judge not” banality. This is the simple point that you must take the log out of your own eye before you will be able to see clearly to take the speck from your brother’s eye. But when you do that, you must honestly admit that you have been part of the problem. And that is the beginning of wisdom and human greatness. Because only those who truly humble themselves under the mighty hand of God will be exalted, but everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.

A day will come and is soon coming when you will stand before the living God, and you will be stripped naked of all your excuses, all your blame shifting, all your grand historical narratives, and you will stand there with nothing. The only thing that will matter in that moment will be whether you are in Christ or not. If you are not in Christ, nothing will set you apart from a Jew, a Muslim, a Hindu, male, female, white, or black – just a naked, shriveled soul to be cast into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. But the glory is that if you admit that now — that at bottom the same sinful nature seethes in every one of us and that but for the grace of God, sin bursts out in soul and societal destroying ways, then you accept the dignity of guilt, the glory of moral and metaphysical meaning. If you lose your life, and deny yourself, you can find your life, and when families, communities, and nations have done that, they have found themselves in remarkable places of greatness.

Introduction
Sometimes in the grind of life, otherwise happy marriages can get into ruts of arguments, spats, bumps, and if one or the other spouse loses their temper, has an angry outburst or two, and the hurt feelings, mistrust, and pain begin to build, this can create vicious cycles. You apologize, you try to forgive, but three days later, something comes up and the argument starts up again, sharp words are exchanged, and you find yourself back in that rut again. 

Fear can begin to build: what does this mean? Will it always be like this? Maybe you begin to think things like: I can’t keep doing this. I can’t take this anymore. Maybe it begins effecting your health, maybe you’re starting to feel depressed, anxious, losing sleep, and then you start noticing the kids acting out. And the thought begins to occur to you that maybe this isn’t going to work. Maybe it would be better to be apart. Maybe things even get so bad that one of you sleeps in another room. Or maybe you’re sent to a hotel for the night. 

Now, I’m going to address this kind of situation assuming a few things, but I want to state those assumptions at the outset. I’m going to assume that neither spouse is in ongoing serious sin: no ongoing, unconfessed porn habit, not secret adulterous relationships (emotional, physical, virtual), and no ongoing substance abuse issues (drugs, pain meds, or alcohol) or any other skeletons in the closet like that. What I mean is that I’m assuming that the marriage is otherwise OK, but you’ve hit a strange rough patch, a bumpy rut that you can’t seem to get out of. 

Well-Differentiated Individuals
It is of course true that in the marriage covenant, two individuals become one flesh, but when that one flesh union is experiencing conflict and repeated disagreements and trouble, it is not anti-covenantal to examine the parts. The head and body really are connected, and what God has joined together let no man put asunder. But this doesn’t mean that you cease to exist as individuals. 

Another way to make this point is to say that in marriage, we are co-heirs of the grace of life (1 Pet. 3:7), but we are not co-dependents. Sometimes, what has happened, when a couple cannot seem to break out of this rut of arguments and friction, is the only thing they can see is them. When things get gnarly, sometimes the only thing you can see is how gnarly things have gotten. All you think about, all you talk about is the problem. And this very quickly turns into the blame game. Everyone, even when they are trying to be good, tends to give themselves the most grace and understanding, and we are most judgmental and critical of others. We explain why we snapped or felt snubbed or offended (tired, hungry, really hurt, PMS), but cannot understand why he/she said or did what they did. It just seems purely malicious and awful.  

But as Edwin Friedman has pointed out, healthy families and organizations function best when all the members are “well-differentiated individuals.” This is just another way of describing what theologians call finding your identity in Christ. Your identity, your meaning, your happiness, your joy and peace are not found in your circumstances, your bank account, your health, or even how your spouse is doing. To find your identity in Christ is to know that you have been crucified with Christ: you no longer live, but Christ lives in you (Gal. 2:20). It is to know that no matter what, even if everything was taken away from you, you would still be safe and secure in the love of Christ, who died and gave Himself for you. Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ: not job loss, not cancer, not raging hormones, not a bad economy, not an angry spouse (Rom. 8).

The point here isn’t that there is nothing to be done; the point is perspective — an obedient perspective. Yes, you have work to do; there is obedience to be done. You have duties before God. But your duties come as a result of following Christ. Your duties flow from your identity in Christ. Your job is take up your cross and follow Christ, even if no one else in the whole world is. This is what it means to be a well-differentiated individual or we might say a, well-differentiated Christian. It means you know who you are in Christ, and you are completely satisfied in Him. He is your mission, your vision, your purpose, your meaning, your peace. Even if your family forsakes you, He will never leave you or forsake you (Ps. 27:10). 

This is why I like to remind couples in premarital counseling that they will only love one another rightly, if they love one another second best. But you can drift into co-dependency, where you begin finding your meaning and peace and happiness in how you think your spouse is doing today, this week, this year, or what they think of you. But there is a sense in which Jesus says to you, “Who cares? You follow me.” 

Christ Our Unity
The thing is, our unity is in Christ. This means that the only way to get closer, to have better fellowship with your spouse is to get closer to Christ. But to the extent that you are trying to have fellowship with your spouse, without intentionally pursuing Christ, you are actually making things worse. It’s like pressing the wrong ends of a magnet together. You can’t make it go together. But Christ is our peace. Christ is our fellowship. Christ is our unity. 

So of course Christ cares about your marriage and how your spouse is doing, but you can’t help by trying to force this together. But you can help by pursuing Christ. You actually are drawing closer to your spouse, when you draw closer to Christ. When you love Christ more, when you find more satisfaction, more peace and joy in following Christ, doing your duties in glad service of Christ, you are actually helping and drawing closer to your spouse (whether or not they respond well, whether or not they even notice). And don’t try to follow Christ half-heartedly, while keeping a sidelong glance on your spouse to see if they are noticing you following Christ. Ha. That isn’t following Christ. That’s trying to use Christ. But Christ will not be used. He is not your prop. He is not your weapon. He is Your Lord and Savior. 

There is a sense in which you must follow Christ heedless of anyone or anything. You must take up your cross. That means you must lose your live for His sake. You must trust Him entirely. If you try to save your life, save your marriage, save your image, you will lose it all. But if you lose it all to follow Christ, He will give it all back with interest (Mt. 19:29). 

Conclusion
So, if your marriage is acting like our computers sometimes do, glitching, freezing up, and crashing, maybe you need a simple reboot. And by reboot, I mean, maybe you need to go back to the beginning, to the foundation of who you are and what gives you meaning and purpose and joy. If it is anything other than Christ Himself, you will be continually disappointed. The Bible calls any created thing that we place our hope in instead of God an idol. Nothing in this world is sufficient for the longing of your soul. Idols disappoint; idols destroy. And yes, that includes the idol of your ideal family, your ideal marriage, your ideal husband or wife or kids. Those “ideals” can be “graven images” just as much as a statue. But that hunger, that ache, that longing that you feel for peace, for joy, for fulfillment, for satisfaction – that longing is for God Himself. Nothing in this world can fill that. As Augustine said, “our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.” 

When you remember who you are in Christ, one of the first things you see is His grace and mercy for all your sin. When you really see Christ, you begin to see what a mess you are, and how gracious He is. And this in turn gives you a lot more grace and mercy and patience for your spouse (and others around you). C.S. Lewis says somewhere that we think it’s a great challenge to put up with other people, but God is the only One who has to put up with all of us. It is so easy to become very myopic, and all we can see are the faults of our husband or wife or kids or neighbors. But there’s something almost always incredibly distorted about that picture. How much have you been forgiven? How difficult a person are you? How hard are you to please? How critical or impatient are you? And I’m not even talking about what your spouse has to put up with. I’m talking about what your Savior graciously puts up with all day long. He knows your every thought, and He still loves you.  

How much have you been forgiven? You can’t count that high. Don’t be that unforgiving servant, forgiven millions, who then went out and demanded his fellow servant repay those thousands. “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32). The standard is God’s kindness to you in Christ. The standard is tenderhearted.

So maybe take some time and write out your testimony. Remember how God saved you, whether when you were very young and you don’t exactly remember when, but you can see God’s hand drawing you closer and closer through the ministry of parents, pastors, teachers, churches, schools, or whether you remember the exact moment when the gospel hit you between the eyes like a two-by-four and you’ve never been the same.

Remember the Cross, remember Calvary, remember the empty tomb, remember the glory of Heaven. The challenges we face in this life will be light, momentary afflictions compared to the glory stored up for us in Christ. 

Photo by Sylvain Mauroux on Unsplash

Practical Christianity 10
Luke 4:1-4 

Prayer: Father, we live in dark days when so many call evil good and good evil, and so many professing Christians just go along with it. But we know that you have called all of us to this moment, to this battle, so please equip us now for the fight. Do not let us grow weary. Strengthen our arms; strengthen our hearts with Your mighty word and Spirit, in Christ name, Amen. 

Introduction
We live in a culture careening toward disaster and destruction. We have been struck by madness that murders the unborn and castrates little boys and girls. The root cause of all of this has been our nation turning away from Christ. We bought the lie that secularism was possible, that our public square could be religiously neutral or agnostic. And having swept the house clean, seven demons have returned and filled our land. We are living in the ruins of that impossibility. Our once fruitful nation is become a barren wasteland full of demons. So as we face this reality, it must be said that our nation needs Christ, and those who know Christ must grow in Him. Growing in Christ is not an attempt to escape reality. Growing in Christ is the only way to actually live in reality. Christ is ultimate reality. Growing in Christ means fighting the devils in our land. 

When anyone confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord and they believe that God raised Him from the dead, they are saved (Rom. 10:9). This offer is made to all freely and to their children: call on the name of the Lord and you will be saved (Acts 2:39, 16:31). And this is why all who believe and their households are offered baptism (Acts 16:33). This is what God calls becoming a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) and the new birth (1 Pet. 1:23). This is all pure grace, received by faith, not by works, lest any man should boast, but it is the kind of work that God does in us that causes us to begin working and growing (Eph. 2:8-10). We are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works. We are saved in order to grow up as trees that bear good fruit (Lk. 6:43). And the kind of good fruit we are talking about are flourishing families, businesses, cities, nations, economies, sciences, and arts. We are talking about fruitfulness in every area of human life because it all belongs to Christ. But this kind of fruitfulness comes into conflict with all unbelief.   

Therefore, after becoming a Christian, the task before us is growing up into Christ, growing into maturity, becoming fruitful in every way, and doing battle with the Devil. So this message is about that: growing in Christ and fighting the Devil and all His works. 

Summary of the Text
We might be tempted to think that being full of the Holy Spirit might mean everything going easy in our lives, but here we see that it was just when Jesus was most full of the Holy Spirit, right after His baptism in the Jordan River, that the Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Lk. 4:1). Being full of the Holy Spirit and having the blessing of God upon you means you are ready for battle. The same thing happened to Adam in the Garden: right after all that blessing, God allowed a dragon in the Garden. Having God’s blessing means you are ready to grow, but growing usually requires a struggle. Not only was Jesus being tempted by the devil, He ate nothing and was incredibly hungry (Lk. 4:2). This was a physical as well as a spiritual test and struggle. Now God had just proclaimed that Jesus was His beloved Son at His baptism (Lk. 3:22), but forty days in a desert and severe hunger can make anyone doubt or forget and the devil started there, tempting Jesus to doubt God’s Word and maybe just double check “if you’re really the son of God…”, suggesting Jesus turn a stone into bread (Lk. 4:3). But Jesus knew to doubt His Father would be sin, and He refused, quoting from Deuteronomy, that His life was upheld and strengthened, not merely by bread, but by the Word of God (Lk. 4:4, cf. Dt. 8:3). So we face the temptations of the devil in our finances, in our families, in politics, in our thoughts, in our friendships, on social media, and the only way to face these fights is by trusting our Father, trusting His word, and growing in Christ. Man does not live by bread alone.

And let me just add here: many of you are coming in for landing on the school year and looking forward to summer. And summertime can be a great blessing, different routines, vacations, etc., but let this message be a bit of a warning: don’t let your guard down. Don’t coast. Think of the summertime as an opportunity to be fruitful in somewhat different ways. More time as a family, more time for other activities, yay sunshine, but don’t be seduced by the devil into thinking that this is “me-time.” No, this time belongs to Christ. Your summer belongs to Christ. How will you redeem this time and turn a profit on this time for Christ? How will you do battle with the Devil this summer?

Six Steps for Growing in Christ
Growing in Christ is a lot like growing up. So how do you grow up? Eat well, get enough sleep, exercise, go to school, learn from your mistakes, work hard, etc. Then it just happens. Plants and trees grow this way also: sunshine, water, good soil, fertilizer, pruning, etc. So here are six steps for growing in Christ. This is not a mechanical check list; these are crucial ways you trust God and live by His Word. This is how you grow strong in Christ and fight the Devil. 

1. Read your Bible: Many folks in our community do the Bible Reading Challenge, and it’s a bit like cross-fit for Bible reading. If you want to get in Spiritual shape, it really is a great blessing, and I commend it to you. But if you’re not in great shape, and you don’t have regular Bible reading habits, just start reading a chapter a day. If you’ve never read the Bible before, read the New Testament first and then start over in Genesis and read the whole thing. The key thing is regularity not quantity, but as you grow, you’ll want more. “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Pet. 2:2). 

2. Pray: God is real. He created the Heavens and the Earth, and He made us in His image for communion with Him. Pray the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father…” Pray the Psalms – they are 150 inspired prayers that God loves to hear and answer. To be a Christian is to receive the Holy Spirit of adoption that means you have been granted the same sonship as Jesus Christ, and you are invited to cry out to God as your Abba Father (Rom. 8:15). What do you tell your father? What do you ask from your dad? God is your perfect Father. 

3. Read the Bible, pray, and sing as a family: Men, you are called to be the spiritual leaders of your home. Husbands, wash your wife in the water of the word (Eph. 5:26). This is how you love your wife like Christ loves the church (Eph. 5:25). Fathers, you are specifically required to raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). Dedicate a regular time to this and lead your family before the Lord. This can be very simple: read a little bit of Scripture, pray, and sing a song. When the kids are little, this can take less than 5 minutes; when the kids are older, it can grow. 

4. Repent of your sins: This is the invitation of the gospel that Jesus Himself preached: “the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mk. 1:15). To “repent” means to turn around, to stop going one way and go the other way. The Bible describes this as putting off the old man and putting on the new man (Eph. 5:22-24). Stop lying and tell the truth (Eph. 5:25, cf. 5:28). Stop looking at porn and lusting, pursuing a wife and be faithful to one woman and the children she bears you (Prov. 5). Do not be drunk with wine/pot/drugs, but be filled with the Spirit, singing Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to the Lord (Eph. 5:18-19). Stop cursing and using filthy language, but let your mouth be full of thanksgiving, praise to God, and edification (Eph. 4:29, 5:3-4). Be anxious for nothing, but with thanksgiving, let your requests be made to God (Phil. 4:6).

5. Forgive those who have sinned against you: this is perhaps one of the central acts of repentance. The old, natural man is full of hatred, bitterness, and resentment (Tit. 3:3). And this part of the old man dies hard. This is why Jesus taught us to pray that God would “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” The warning of Christ is clear: “But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses” (Mk. 11:26). Bitterness is a root that will cause much trouble, and it defiles many families, churches, and communities (Heb. 12:15). Bitterness is a hurt that isn’t healing, isn’t fading. We forgive for the sake of Christ (Eph. 4:32). Forgiveness is paid with the “currency” of the blood of Christ. 

6. Go to church, keep Sabbath, and tithe: “Going to church” means worshiping the Lord, and “worship” means complete surrender. When you become a Christian, you surrender in principle. This is what it means to confess that “Jesus Christ is Lord.” This means beginning to obey Him in everything. But two particular ways you demonstrate that complete surrender is by keeping Sabbath and tithing. From the beginning, God’s people have imitated God’s own rest, when He finished His work of Creation. Christians rest on the first day of the week because that is when Jesus finished His work of New Creation (Heb. 4:9). Sabbath includes fellowship, hospitality, and community. We do not live by bread alone, nor do we live in Christ all alone. We have been baptized into community, the body of Christ. So make a point to fellowship after church, and get together with folks. And lastly, we embody our full surrender with our tithes: we tithe, giving God ten percent of our first fruits, confessing that all that we have is from His hand, all that we have belongs to Him (Gen. 14:20, 28:22, Mal. 3:10). And if you haven’t been tithing and aren’t sure you can, start by simply dedicating a fixed percent: 3% or 5% and then see how God blesses you and work your way up to 10%. 

Conclusion
As we face a chaotic and confused world full of devils and devilish forces and temptations, we must live by the Word of God. We must fight in the strength of God. And this means growing in Christ: read the Word, pray to Your Father, worship together as families, repent of your sins, forgive one another, fully surrender and dedicate your time and resources to God. 

We do these things not as slaves but as sons who have been redeemed. We are not slaves; we have been set free to serve our king. By His grace, we are His armies. We have been baptized and given His Spirit, and you know what comes after that. When God is pleased with His sons, He sends them into battle. And these are your weapons. This is your armor. We do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We live in Christ, and therefore, we must grow in Christ and fight the devil. 

Prayer: Father, please apply this message exactly where it needs to be applied. Encourage those who are already doing these things, and give them your peace and joy in the midst of the battle. Give strength and courage to those who know they need to address some of these things. Do not let us be fools who smile and nod and then walk out of here and do not change. And we ask for this in Jesus’ name…

“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-4). 

This gospel is essential for Christian marriage. It’s of course true that non-Christians can and do get married. Marriage is a natural institution, established by God at creation, and so atheists and Hindus can be married. But because of sin, marriage is naturally harder and more difficult. When Adam and Eve first sinned, God promised that there would now be enmity in the world, and to the woman He said, “thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” What was intended by God to be a harmonious relationship between husband and wife, because of sin, became significantly more challenging, not to mention the greater difficulties in work, sickness, pain, and ultimately death itself. 

So while non-Christians can be married, there are certain inherent difficulties that they will face. And I want to underline one of them here, and that is the difficulty of forgiveness. I know that many non-Christians try to forgive and they would even say they believe in forgiveness, but apart from faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, they cannot really forgive. I know that’s a pretty extreme claim. So let me explain. 

Sin is not just a mistake. Sin is not just accidentally bumping into someone. The Bible teaches that sin is brazen disobedience. Sin is inexcusable. Sin is doing evil to someone else. And if you think about it, you can’t really ever undo sin. You can’t really put it back. How do you calculate the hurt of lies? How do you calculate the pain of adultery? How do you calculate the damage done by certain biting and malicious words? Everyone has sinned. Everyone has said and done evil things to others. When you ask for forgiveness, what are you asking for? The best non-Christian answer is something like not holding it against them, letting it go. But on what basis? Maybe because you know you’ve done bad things too? You would want them to do the same thing for you? 

But the pain and damage of sin builds up, and eventually it will be too much to bear. The Bible says that sin is the kind of damage that requires death. The wages of sin is death. When His disciples asked Him how many times we should forgive, Jesus said seventy times seven, and His disciples about fell over. How is that possible? The answer is the gospel. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Christian forgiveness is not merely letting sin go. When a Christian asks for forgiveness, he is saying please forgive me for the sake of Christ. Christian forgiveness is not us absolving one another of sin. No, sin is inexcusable. None of us can make up for sin. The harm and damage is done.

So this is why Christ died. Christ died in our place so that we could be forgiven before God and so that we could forgive others. In a marriage or family, sin will happen, just like messes happen. I know it’s hard to imagine, but there will be dirty dishes, dirty laundry, and trash to take out in the Oland house. So the only question is whether you will deal with it or not, and the only way to deal with sin is by the blood of Christ. 

In 1 Jn. 1:7 it says, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” How do we have fellowship with one another? By walking in the light. The problem is that none us walk in the light naturally. Sin is darkness, and every one of us has a darkness problem. The next verse says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” If you say you’re full of light and you have not darkness, you’re a liar. 

So how can sinners walk in the light? The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. So how do we get that blood on our hearts and hands. How can we get clean and walk in the light? The next verse tells us: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:9). None of us can cleanse ourselves or cleanse anyone else, but Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He died and paid the infinite cost for the infinite damage of our sins. What we could never pay for; Christ paid in full. 

So what we do is confess our sins: we acknowledge them to God and anyone we have sinned against, and God forgives us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness for the sake of Christ. So this is the basis of Christian fellowship: we walk in the light as we confess our sins and receive God’s forgiveness and ask one another to agree that Christ has paid for it. This is the basis of our asking forgiveness, and this the basis of our extending forgiveness. We forgive those who have sinned against us because Christ has paid the cost. So this is why I say apart from faith in Jesus Christ, you cannot really forgive. On what basis can you honestly say that the someone is cleansed of their sins? “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”  

So Trent, the charge to you is to lead your new household in this gospel of forgiveness. You must do this first of all by confessing all your sins to God regularly, so that you are walking in the light and have fellowship with God. Then you will be in a position to lead your wife in the same light and the same fellowship. You are required by God to love your wife like Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. Cleansing your wife with the water of the word means teaching, encouraging, and correcting your wife according to God’s word. But Jesus says, how can you remove the speck from your wife’s eye while there is a log in your own eye. This doesn’t mean you have a free pass. This means you must get the logs out of your own eyes regularly, so that you can see clearly to assist your wife. 

Nora, the charge to you is to submit to your own husband in the grace of this gospel of forgiveness. We live in a world that has coddled women for far too long, and really done a great disservice to women by not addressing their particular sins. So the charge is for you to walk in this light, by confessing your own sins to God and maintaining a clean heart before Him so that you will remain in fellowship with God and be in a position to bless your husband greatly as he leads you in this fellowship. The Scriptures say that you are to submit to your own husband as the Church submits to Christ. And of course the irony is that your husband is not perfect like Christ, and so the great temptation will be to point that out from time to time. But Scripture says your best bet is to simply adorn the gospel with your way of life. How can you do that when you are being asked to submit to a fallible man? By being tender-hearted and forgiving him just as God in Christ has forgiven you. 

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen. 

Photo by micheile henderson on Unsplash