Bible doctrine in Bible dress

This month’s Evangelicals Now contains pernicious scaremongering about the Federal Vision (although why this should be an issue in the United Kingdom is still beyond me; the Reformed world is very different in the United Kingdom compared to America). This article refers to what Douglas Wilson, described as ‘perhaps the best known advocate of the FV’, is supposed to have highlighted as the concerns of the Federal Vision. His response can be found HERE.

One of the points that emerges, and this is a fair comment on the Federal Vision, is the desire to use language more Biblically than it has been in Reformed dogmatics. In his Evangelical Eloquence, a series of lectures on preaching,  R. L. Dabney makes a noteworthy assessment of the three stages through which the church repeatedly cycles in his preaching, and what constitutes a ‘golden age’ and what constitutes decline.

“It is exceedingly instructive to note, that there are three stages through which preaching has repeatedly passed with the same results. The first is that in which scriptural truth is faithfully presented in scriptural garb – that is to say, not only are all the doctrines asserted which truly belong to the revealed system of redemption, but they are presented in that dress and connection in which the Holy Spirit has presented them, without seeking any other from human science. This state of the pulpit marks the golden age of the Church. The second is the transition stage. In this the doctrines taught are still those of the Scriptures, but their relations are moulded into conformity with the prevalent human dialectics. God’s truth is now shorn of a part of its power over the soul. The third stage is then near, in which not only are the methods and explanations conformed to the philosophy of the day, but the doctrines themselves contradict the truth of the Word. Again and again have the clergy traveled this descending scale, and always with the same disastrous result. The first grade is found in the primitive and the Reformation churches of the first and sixteenth centuries. The second grade may be seen in the scholasticism of Clement of Alexandria and his pupils, and in the symbolical discoures with which the continental pulpit echoed during the seventeenth century. The last is found in the Dark Ages and in Rationalism… Let us, my brethren, eschew the ill-starred abmition which seeks to make the body of God’s truth a “lay figure” on which to parade the drapery of human philosophy. May we ever be content to exhibit Bible doctrine in its own Bible dress!” – Evangelical Eloquence, pp. 27-29

Now Dabney here is talking about something slightly different but his words still have relevance. It could be argued that what those who are called proponents of the Federal Vision are doing is aiming to be the true heirs of the Reformation and restoring the power of Scripture in the church by presenting it on its own terms, preaching Biblical doctrines and using Biblical language in Biblical ways. Moreover, it is seeking to prevent the slide into apostasy which appears to inevitably result when we start taking the Bible’s teaching and fitting it into our own frameworks and imposing upon it a structure from outside. This is what is conducive to the long term survival and health of the church.

Which text? Dean Burgon and the Authorized Version

The Textus Receptus

The phrase ‘Textus Receptus’, meaning ‘Received Text’ was first employed in the 1633 Elzevir edition of the Greek New Testament, which was itself built upon the work of Erasmus, the Complutensian edition of Cardinal Ximenes, Robert Stephens and Theodore Beza. The Authorized Version of 1611 was based upon Beza’s 1598 text. Indeed, all these editions presented essentially the same Greek text underlying the New Testament, with little variation, and the manuscripts were chosen to represent the text of Scripture as received by the church everywhere.

While Burgon realised that there was need for revision of the Textus Receptus if it were to be absolutely identical with the Traditional Text, the text that prevailed in the majority of the church throughout the majority of its history, as borne witness to by copies of manuscripts, versions in different languages, the writings of the Church Fathers and lectionaries containing Scripture passages to be read through the church year, nevertheless, it was the Textus Receptus and not the Critical Text of Westcott and Hort (and, we might add, their successors) which essentially represented the Traditional Text, the text received as Scripture in the church by the providence of God, and could be generally relied upon. Indeed, although the manuscripts might be slightly younger, the text itself is at least as old as the text in the oldest known manuscripts. Alterations to the Textus Receptus should only be admitted in light of the fullest evidence that the Traditional Text differed at those points.

“Call this Text Erasmian or Complutensian,—the Text of Stephens, or of Beza, or of the Elzevirs,—call it the ‘ Received,’ or the Traditional Greek Text, or whatever other name you please; —the fact remains, that a Text has come down to us which is attested by a general consensus of ancient Copies, ancient Fathers, ancient Versions. This, at all events, is a point on which, (happily,) there exists entire conformity of opinion between Dr. Hort and ourselves. Our Readcrs cannot have yet forgotten his virtual admission that,—Beyond all question the Textus Receptus is the dominant Graeco-Syrian Text of A.d. 350 to A.D. 400.

Obtained from a variety of sources, this Text proves to be essentially the same in all. That it requires Revision in respect of many of its lesser details, is undeniable: but it is at least as certain that it is an excellent Text as it stands, and that the use of it will never lead critical students of Scripture seriously astray,—which is what no one will venture to predicate concerning any single Critical Edition of the N. T. which has been published since the days of Griesbach, by the disciples of Griesbach’s school…

The Text we speak of… is identical with the Text of every extant Lectionary of the Greek Church, and may therefore reasonably claim to be spoken of as the Traditional Text.” – The Revision Revised, p. 269

And in The Traditional Text:

“One and the same Traditional Text, except in comparatively few particulars, has prevailed in the Church from the beginning till now. Especially deserving of attention is the admission that the Text in question is of the fourth century, to which same century the two oldest of our Sacred Codexes (B and Aleph) belong. There is observed to exist in Church Lectionaries precisely the same phenomenon. They have prevailed in unintermitted agreement in other respects from very early times, probably from the days of St. Chrysostom, and have kept in the main without change the form of words in which they were originally cast in the unchangeable East.

And really the problem comes before us (God be praised!) in a singularly convenient, a singularly intelligible form. Since the sixteenth century—we owe this also to the good Providence of God—one and the same text of the New Testament Scriptures has been generally received. I am not defending the ‘Textus Receptus’; I am simply stating the fact of its existence. That it is without authority to bind, nay, that it calls for skilful revision in every part, is freely admitted. I do not believe it to be absolutely identical with the true Traditional Text. Its existence, nevertheless, is a fact from which there is no escaping. Happily, Western Christendom has been content to employ one and the same text for upwards of three hundred years. If the objection be made, as it probably will be, ‘Do you then mean to rest upon the five manuscripts used by Erasmus?’ I reply, that the copies employed were selected because they were known to represent with accuracy the Sacred Word ; that the descent of the text was evidently guarded with jealous care, just as the human genealogy of our Lord was preserved; that it rests mainly upon much the widest testimony; and that where any part of it conflicts with the fullest evidence attainable, there I believe that it calls for correction.

The question therefore which presents itself, and must needs be answered in the affirmative before a single syllable of the actual text is displaced, will always be one and the same, viz. this: Is it certain that the evidence in favour of the proposed new reading is sufficient to warrant the innovation? For I trust we shall all be agreed that in the absence of an affirmative answer to this question, the text may on no account be disturbed. Rightly or wrongly it has had the approval of Western Christendom for three centuries, and is at this hour in possession of the field.” – The Traditional Text, pp. 14-16

The Authorized “King James” Version

Of course, once the case for the Textus Receptus is established, the only Bible version available to us is the Authorized Version (A.V.). No other version is based on the Textus Receptus, not even the New King James (which was translated along the lines of the Westcott-Hort Method but used a different textual tradition to create their critical text). However, much can be said positively for the A.V., including its catholicity, being the text used by English-speaking Christians across the globe for several centuries (Burgon’s numerical estimates will only be greater more than 100 years on), its general faithfulness as a translation, and its literary quality. Catholicity in particular is imperilled by new versions. Burgon does see a place for a revision of the A.V., but as a work of reference and not as a replacement for the A.V. at the lectern, in the pulpit, or in the home. He writes:

“Whatever may be urged in favour of Biblical Revision, it is at least undeniable that the undertaking involves a tremendous risk. Our Authorized Version is the one religious link which at present binds together ninety millions of English-speaking men scattered over the earth’s surface. Is it reasonable that so unutterably precious, so sacred a bond should be endangered, for the sake of representing certain words more accurately,—here and there translating a tense with greater precision,—getting rid of a few archaisms ? It may be confidently assumed that no ‘Revision’ of our Authorized Version, however judiciously executed, will ever occupy the place in public esteem which is actually enjoyed by the work of the Translators of 1611,—the noblest literary work in the Anglo-Saxon language. We shall in fact never have another ‘ Authorized Version.’ And this single consideration may be thought absolutely fatal to the project, except in a greatly modified form. To be brief,—As a companion in the study and for private edification: as a book of reference for critical purposes, especially in respect of difficult and controverted passages :—we hold that a revised edition of the Authorized Version of our English Bible, (if executed with consummate ability and learning,) would at any time be a work of inestimable value. The method of such a performance, whether by marginal Notes or in some other way, we forbear to determine. But certainly only as a handmaid is it to be desired. As something intended to supersede our present English Bible, we are thoroughly convinced that the project of a rival Translation is not to be entertained for a moment. For ourselves, we deprecate it entirely.” – The Revision Revised, pp. 113-114

Burgon describes the A. V. as “a confessedly noble work, a truly unique specimen of genius, taste and learning”, The Revision Revised (p. 221) and writes of “its dignified simplicity and essential faithfulness, its manly grace and its delightful rhythm” and “the living freshness, and elastic freedom, and habitual fidelity of the grand old Version which we inherited from our Fathers, and which has sustained the spiritual life of the Church of England, and of all English-speaking Christians, for 350 years”, ibid. (p. 225)

Which text? Dean Burgon and the “Traditional Text”

Exposing the Fallacy

Dean Burgon identifies the fallacy underlying the Westcott-Hort method which takes the oldest manuscripts – aleph and B – and regards them as representing the closest text to the autographs (the original documents of Scripture), a method which modern textual criticism continues to follow, a method which is adopted even by evangelicals seeking to produce accurate Bible translations. Burgon himself is concerned with antiquity, but he denies that just because a document is older, it must be closer to the original than slightly younger documents. The question is not whether these documents are ancient but whether, as mere samples of antiquity, they are actually representative of antiquity. After all, Satan has sought to assail Scripture from its earliest times and these could just be early copies of deliberately corrupted texts. The age of a particular document doesn’t especially matter. What matters is what text was predominant in the early centuries of the church.

“Against this arbitrary method of theirs we solemnly, stiffly remonstrate. ‘Strange,’ we venture to exclaim, (addressing the living representatives of the school of Lachmann, and Tregelles, and Tischendorf):- ‘Strange, that you should not perceive that you are the dupes of a fallacy which is even transparent. You talk of “Antiquity.” But you must know very well that you actually mean something different. You fasten upon three, or perhaps, four, – on two, or perhaps three, – on one or perhaps two, – documents of the IVth or Vth century. But then, confessedly, these are one, two, three, or four specimens only of Antiquity, – not “Antiquity” itself. And what if they should even prove to be unfair samples of Antiquity? Thus, you are observed always to quote cod. B or at least cod. aleph. Pray, why may not the Truth reside instread with A, or, C, or D? – You quote the old Latin or the Coptic. Why may not the Peschito or the Sahidic be right rather? – You quote either Origen or else Eusebius, – but why not Didymus and Athanasius, Epiphanius and Basil, Chrysostom and Theodoret, the Gregories and the Cyrils?… It will appear therefore that we are every bit as strongly convinced as you can be of the paramount claims of ‘Antiquity:’ but that, eschewing prejudice and partiality, we differ from you only in this, viz. that we absolutely refuse to bow down before the particular specimens of Antiquity which you have arbitrarily selected as the objects of your superstition. You are illogical enough to propose to include within your list of “ancient Authorities,” codd. 1, 33 and 69 – which are severally MSS. of the Xth, Xith, and XIVth, centuries. And why? Only because the Text of those 3 copies is observed to bear a sinister resemblance to that of codex B. But then why, in the name of common sense, do you not show corresponding favour to the remaining 997 cursive copies of the N.T., – seeing that these are observed to bear the same general resemblance to codex A?… You are forever talking about “old Readings.” Have you not yet discovered that ALL “Readings” are “OLD”?’” – The Revision Revised, pp 244-5

And in The Traditional Text:

“Antiquity, in and by itself, will be found to avail nothing. A reading is to be adopted not because it is old, but because it is the best attested, and therefore the oldest.” – The Traditional Text, p. 29

Finding The True Text of Antiquity

We have seen hints of this already, but Dean Burgon proposes the following method to work out what is the true text of antiquity:

“The only trustworthy method, in fact, of ascertaining the Truth of Scripture, we hold to be the method which, – without prejudice or partiality, – simply ascertains WHICH FORM OF THE TEXT ENJOYS THE EARLIEST, THE FULLEST, THE WIDEST, THE MOST RESPECTABLE, AND – above all things – THE MOST VARIED ATTESTATION. That a Reading should be freely recognized alike by the earliest and by the latest available evidence, – we hold to be a prime circumstance in its favour. That Copies, Versions, and Fathers, should all three concur in sanctioning it, – we hold to be even more conclusive. If several Fathers, living in different parts of ancient Christendom, are all observed to recognize the words, or to quote them in the same way, – we have met with all the additional confirmation we ordinarily require.” – The Revision Revised, pp. 339-40

In The Traditional Text, Burgon gives seven ‘test of truth’:

“NOTES OF TRUTH.

1. Antiquity, or Primitiveness;
2. Consent of Witnesses, or Number;
3. Variety of Evidence, or Catholicity;
4. Respectability of Witnesses, or Weight;
5. Continuity, or Unbroken Tradition;
6. Evidence of the Entire Passage, or Context;
7. Internal Considerations, or Reasonableness.” – The Traditional Text, p. 29

Evidence in Favour of the Traditional Text

For Burgon, the witness of the copies (in Greek), Church Fathers, and ancient Versions (translations in different languages) serve as a threefold cord of evidence in favour of the Traditional Text against the Critical Text. In The Traditional Text, he goes through these very thoroughly, recording the relative frequencies with which quotations in the Fathers are from the Traditional Text or the Critical Text (the Traditional Text predominates) but here is the summary of his position:

“Happily, our MANUSCRIPTS are numerous: most of them are in the main trustworthy: all of them represent far older documents than themselves. Our VERSIONS (two of which are more ancient by a couple of centuries than any sacred codex extant) severally correct and check one another. Lastly, in the writings of a host of FATHERS, – the principal being Eusebius, Athanasius, Basil, the Gregories, Didymus, Epiphanius, Chrystostom, the Cyrils, Theodoret, – we are provided with contemporaneous evidence which, whenever it can be had, becomes an effectual safeguard against the unsupported decrees of our oldest codices, A, B, Aleph, C, D, as well as the occasional vagaries of the Versions. In the writings of Irenaeus, Clemen Alex. Origen, Dionysius Alex., Hippolytus, we meet with older evidence still. No more precarious foundation for a reading, in fact, can be named, than the unsupported advocacy of a single Manuscript, or Version, or Father; or even of two or three of these combined.

But indeed the principle involved in the foregoing remarks admits of being far more broadly stated. It even stands to reason that we may safely reject any reading which, out of the whole body of available authorities, – Manuscripts, Versions, Fathers, – finds support nowhere save in one and the same little handful of suspicious documents. For we resolutely maintain, that external Evidence must after all be our best, our only safe guide; and (to come to the point) we refuse to throw in our lot with those who disregarding the witness of every other known Codex – every other Version – every other available Ecclesiastical Writer, – insist on following the dictates of a little group of authorities, of which nothing whatever is known with so much certainty as that often, when they concur exclusively, it is to mislead. We speak of codices B or Aleph or D; the IXth-century codex L, and such cursives as 13 or 33; a few copies ofthe old Latin and one of the Egyptian versions: perhaps Origen…

We deem it even axiomatic, that, in every case of doubt or difficulty – supposed or real – our critical method must be the same: namely, after patiently collecting all the available evidence, then, without partiality or prejudice, to adjudicate between the conflicting authorities and loyally to accept that verdict for which there is clearly the preponderating evidence. The best supported Reading, in other words, must always be held to be the true Reading.” – The Revision Revised, pp. 19-20

Again, more succinctly:

“Are we asked for the ground of our opinion? We point without hesitation to the 998 COPIES which remain: the the many ancient VERSIONS: to the many venerable FATHERS, – any one of whom we hold to be a more trustworthy authority for the Text of Scripture, when he speaks out plainly, than either Codex B or Codex Aleph, – aye, or than both of them put together. Behold, (we say), the abundant provision which the All-wise One had made for the safety of the Deposit: the ‘threegold cord’ which ‘is not quickly broken’!” – The Revision Revised, p. 343

Problems with Codices B and Aleph

Burgon describes the few manuscripts on which the Westcott-Hort Greek Text is based and the problems with them – considerable variation from the remainder of the extant manuscripts and even amongst themselves:

“But here an important consideration claims special attention. We allude to the result of increased acquaintance with certain of the oldest extant codices of the N. T. Two of these, – viz. a copy in the Vatican technically indicated by the letter B, and the recently-discovered Sinaitic codex, styled after the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet Aleph, – are thought to belong to the IVth century. Two are assigned to the Vth, viz. the Alexandrian (A) in the British Museum, and the rescript codex preserved at Paris, designated C. One is probably of the VIth, viz. the codex Bezae (D) preserved at Cambridge. Singular to relate, the first, second, fourth, and fifth of these codices, (B, Aleph, C, D), but especially B and Aleph, have within the last twenty years established a tyrannical ascendency over the imagination of the Critics, which can only be fitly spoken of as a blind superstition. It matters nothing that all four are discovered on careful scrutiny to differ essentially, not only from ninety-nine out of a hundred of the whole body of extant MSS. besides, but even from one another. This last circumstance, obviously fatal to their corporate pretensions, is unaccountably overlooked. And yet it admits of only one satisfactory explanation: viz. that in different degrees they all five exhibit a fabricated text. Between the first two (B and Aleph) there subsists an amount of sinister resemblance, which proves that they must have been derived at no very remote period from the same corrupt original. Tischendorf insists that they were partially written by the same scribe. Yet do they stand asunder in every page; as well as differ widely from the commonly received Text, with which they have been carefully collated. On being referred to this standard, in the Gospels alone,  B is found to omit at least 2877 words: to add, 536: to substitute, 935: to transpose, 2098: to modify, 1132 (in all 7578): the corresponding figures for Aleph being severally 3455, 839, 1114, 2299, 1265 (in all 8972). And be it remembered that the omissions, additions, substitutions, transpositions, and modifications, are by no means the same in both. It is in fact easier to find two consecutive verses in which these two MSS. differ the one from the other, than two consecutive verses in which they entirely agree.

But by far the most depraved text is that exhibited by codex D…’No known manuscript contains so many bold and extensive interpolations. Its variations from the sacred Text are beyond all other example.’… Though a large portion of the Gospels is missing, what remains (tested by the same standard) we find 3704 words omitted: no less than 2213 added, and 2121 substituted. The words transposed amount to 3471: and 1772 have been modified: the deflections from the Received Text thus amounting in all to 13, 281. – Next to D, the most untrustworthy codex is Aleph, which bears on its front a memorable note fo the evil repute under which it has always laboured: viz. it is found that at least ten revisers between the IVth and XIIth centuries busied themselves with the task for correcting its many and extraordinary perversions of the truth of Scripture. – Next in impurity comes B:- then, the fragmentary codex C: our own A being, beyond all doubt, disfigured bty the fewest blemishes of any.

What precedes admits to some extent of further numerical illustration. It is discovered that in the 111 (our of 320) pages of an ordinary copy of the Greek Testament, in which alone these five manuscripts are collectively available for comaprison in the Gospels, – the serious deflections of A from the Textus receptus amount in all to only 842: whereas in C they amount to 1798: in B, to 2370: in Aleph, to 3392: in D, to 4697. The readings peculiar to A within the same limits are 133: those peculiar to C are 170. But those of B amount ot 197: while Aleph exhibits 443L and the readings peculiar to D (within the same limits), are no fewer than 1829…. We submit that these facts – which result from merely referring five manuscripts to one and the same common standard – are by no means calculated to inspire confidence in codices B Aleph C D :- codices, be it remembered, which come to us without a character, without a history, in fact without antecedents of any kind.” – The Revision Revised, pp. 11-14

Which text? Dean Burgon and his method

Introduction

John William Burgon (1813-1888) went up to Worcester College, Oxford in 1841 and subsequently became a Fellow of Oriel College in 1846. He was an ordained Anglican clergyman and was made Vicar of the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin in 1863 (one of the better ones) and in 1876 became Dean of Chichester Cathedral. He was a high churchman of the pre-Tractarian type and was an ardent defender of Biblical infallibility, the Mosaic authorship of Genesis and the Traditional Text (the text as it has been most widely received by the church) of the Greek New Testament in contrast to the text proposed by Westcott and Hort. Dean Burgon is also the only person after whom has been named the shape of an academic hood (biographical information from Wikipedia).

Burgon published a collection of articles in a book entitled The Revision Revised (available from Google Books here) and he was working towards a more comprehensive volume establishing the authority of the Traditional Text which was not completed before his death, but what had completed was published posthumously as The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels Vindicated and Established (available on Google Books here). Much of what he wrote was directed against the issues surrounding the production of the Revised Version of 1881, but his criticism of the method of Westcott and Hort and the few manuscripts on which they relied (especially codices aleph (Codex Sinaiticus) and B (Codex Vaticanus)) is still relevant: today’s Critical Text, which underlies our modern editions, even evangelical translations including our beloved ESV, owes much to the work and method of Westcott and Hort, and they still rely heavily on these few manuscripts (particularly aleph and B) which Burgon discussed a century ago. In contrast, Burgon contends that what he calls the Traditional Text is more catholic: it has far more profuse attestation across the geographic breadth of the church and down the ages. Moreover, while his treatment of the Revised Version specifically is of less relevance today, Burgon’s observations about the Authorised Version of the English Bible are worth hearing, when thinking about issues to do with Bible translation. And his lively, Victorian, polemical prose is a delight to read.

Burgon’s Expertise

Burgon knew what he was talking about. He devoted considerable time and energy to studying the manuscripts for himself, visiting libraries across Europe for the task. Consider this, from the Preface to The Traditional Text:

“In order to enlarge the general basis of Sacred Textual Criticism, and to treat of the principles of it scientifically and comprehensively, he examined manuscripts widely, making many discoveries at home and in foreign libraries; collated some himself and got many collated by other scholars; encouraged new and critical editions of some of the chief Versions; and above all, he devised and superintended a collection of quotations from the New Testament to be found in the works of the Fathers and in other ecclesiastical writings, going far beyond ordinary indexes, which may be found in sixteen thick volumes amongst the treasures of the British Museum.” - The Traditional Text, pp. v-vi

Or hear Burgon’s own testimony in The Revision Revised, in response to an hypothetical friendly critic:

“On first seriously applying ourselves to these studies, many years ago, we found it wondrous difficult to divest ourselves of prepossessions very like your own. Turn which way we would, we were encountered by the same confident terminology:- ‘the best documents,’ – ‘primary manuscripts,’ – ‘first-rate authorities,’ – ‘primitive evidence,’ – ancient readings,’ – and so forth… It was not until we had laboriously collated these documents (including aleph) for ourselves, that we became aware of their true character. Long before coming to the end of our task (and it occupied us, off and on, for eight years) we had become convinved that the supposed ‘best documents’ and ‘first-rate’ authorities’ are in reality among the worst: – that these Copies deserve to be called ‘primary,’ only because in any enumeration of manuscripts, they stand foremost; – and that their ‘Evidence,’ whether ‘primitive’ or not, is contradictory throughout. – All Readings, lastly, we discovered are ‘ancient.’

A diligent inspection of a vast number of later Copies scattered throughout the principal libraries of Europe, and the exact Collation of a few, further convinced us that the deference generally claimed for B, aleph, C, D is nothing else but a weak superstition and a vulgar error:- that the date of a MS. is not of its essence, but is a mere accident of the problem…” – The Revision Revised, p. 337

Underlying Assumptions

Burgon denies the assumption of textual critics that the Bible can be treated just like any other Ancient Near Eastern documents. The Holy Scriptures are divine in their origin and preservation throughout history. Burgon sees this as an implication of Christ’s promise to the apostles as representatives of the church in John 16.13, sending the Spirit of truth to guide them into all the truth. We often take this no further than saying that this means the Spirit guided the apostles into all the truth and so there is no further revelation to be expected from God but we can go further and say that part of the Spirit’s ministry in guiding the church into all truth is preserving that truth within the church once the canon of Scripture is complete. Near the front of Burgon’s mind is the Church of England’s confession that the Church has the office of ‘witness and keeper of holy Writ’ (Article XX, Of the Authority of the Church), just as the oracles of God had previously been entrusted to the Jews (and which they were scrupulously faithful in reproducing) (Romans 3.2). Moreover, the inspired text of Scripture which was preserved in the church is that text which is witnessed to by the vast majority of sources from where and whenever the church has been found in her history, and not in a couple of manuscripts that were only recently happened to be discovered (Codex Vaticanus – B – happened to be found lying on a shelf in the Vatican, and Codex Sinaiticus was discovered in a rubbish bin at a convent on Mount Sinai). Burgon writes, in The Revision Revised:

“Vanquished by THE WORD Incarnate, Satan next directed his subtle malice against the Word written. Hence, as I think, – hence the extraordinary fate which befel certain early transcripts of the Gospel. First, heretic assailants of Christianity, then, orthodox defenders of the Truth, – lastly and above all, self-constituted Critics, who (like Dr. Hort) imagined themselves at liberty to resort to ‘instinctive processes’ of Criticism; and who, at first as well as ‘at last,’ freely made their appeal to the individual mind:’ such were the corrupting influences which were actively at work throughout the first hundred and fifty years after the death of S. John the Divine. Profane literature has never known anything approaching to it, can show nothing at all like it. Satan’s arts were defeated indeed through the Church’s faithfulness, because, – (the good Providence of GOD had so willed it,) – the perpetual multiplication in every quarter of copies required for themselves unadulterated speciments of the inspired Text, – proved a sufficient safeguard against the grosser forms of corruption. But this was not all.

The Church, remember hath been from the beginning the ‘Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ.’ Did not her Divine Author pour out upon her, in largest measure, ‘the SPIRIT of Truth;’ and pledge Himself that it should that SPIRIT’s special function to ‘guide‘ her children ‘into all the truth’?… That by a perpetual miracle, Sacred Manuscripts would be protected all down the ages against depraving influences of whatever sort, – was not to have been expected; certainly, was never promised. But the Church, in her collective capacity, hath neverless – as a matter of fact – been perpetually purging herself of those shamefully depraved copies which once everywhere abounded within her pale.” The Revision Revised, pp. 334-335

He continues:

“For, let the ample and highly complex provision which Divine Wisdom hath made for the effectual conservation of that crowning master-piece of His own creative skill, – THE WRITTEN WORD, – be duly considered, and surely a recoil is inevitable from the strange perversity which in these last days would shut us up within the limits of a very few documents to the neglect of all the rest, – as though a revelation from Heaven had proclaimed that the Truth is to be found exclusively in them. The good Providence of the Author of Scripture is discovered to have furnished His household, the Church, with (speaking roughly) 1000 copies of the Gospels:- with twenty Versions – two of which go back to the beginning of Christianity: and with the writings of a host of ancient Fathers. Why out of those 1000 MSS. two should be singled out by Drs. Westcott and Hort for special favour,- to the practical disregard of all the rest: why Versions and Fathers should by them be similarly dealt with,- should be practictically set aside in fact in the lump, – we fail to discover.” – The Revision Revised, p. 338

And in The Traditional Text:

“That which distinguishes Sacred Science from every other Science which can be named is that it is Divine, and has to do with a Book which is inspired; that is, whose true Author is God. For we assume that the Bible is to be taken as inspired, and not regarded upon a level with the Books of the East, whcih are held by their votaries to be sacred. It is chiefly from inattention to this circumstance that misconception prevails in that department of Sacred Science known as ‘Textual Criticism.’ Aware that the New Testament is like no other book in its origin, its contents, its history, many critics of the present day nevertheless permit themselves to reason concerning its Text, as if they entertained no suspicion that the words and sentences of which it is composed were destined to experience an extraordinary fate also. They make know allowances for the fact that influences of an entirely different kind from any with which profane literature is acquainted have made themselves felt in this department, and therefore that even those principles of Textual Criticism which in the case of profane authors are regarded as fundamental are often out of place here.” – The Traditional Text, p. 9

He goes on:

“Before our Lord ascended up to Heaven, He told His disciples that He would send them the Holy Ghost, Who should supply His place and abide with His Church for ever. He added a primise that it should be the office of that inspiring Spirit not only ‘to bring to their remembrance all things whatsoever He had told them,’ but also to ‘guide’ His Church ‘into all the Truth,’ or ‘the whole Truth’. Accordingly, the earliest great achievement of those days was accomplished on giving to the Church the Scriptures of the New Testament, in which authorized teaching was enshrined in written form. And first, out of those many Gospels which incompetent persons had ‘taken in hand’ to write or to compile out of much floating matter of an oral or written nature, He guided them to discern that four were wholly unlike the rest – were the very Word of God.

There exists no reason for supposing that the Divine Agent, who in the first instance thus gave to mankind the Scriptures of Truth, straightway abdicated His office; took no further care of His work; abandoned those precious writings to their fate. That a perpetual miracle was wrought for their preservation – that copyists were protected against the risk of error, or evil men prevented from adulterating shamefully copies of the Deposit – no one, it is presumed, is so weak as to suppose. But it is quite a different thing to claim that down the ages the sacred writings must needs have been under God’s peculiar care; that the Church under him has watched over them with intelligence and skill; has recognized which copies exhibit a fabricated, which an honestly transcribed text; has generally sanctioned the one, and generally disallowed the other. I am utterly disinclined to believe – so grossly improbable does it seem – that at the end of 1800 years 995 out of every thousand, suppose, will prove untrustworthy; and that the one, two, three, four or five which remain, whose contents were till yesterday as good as unknown, will be found to have retained the secret of what the Holy Spirit originally inspired. I am utterly unable to believe, in short, that God’s promise has so entirely failed, that at the end of 1800 years much of the text of the Gospel had in point of fact to be picked by a German critic out of a waste-paper basket in the convent of St. Catherine: and that the entire text had to be remodelled after tha pattern set by a couple of copies which had remained in neglect during fifteen centuries, and had probably owed their survival to that neglect; whilst hundreds of others had been thumbed to pieces, and had bequeathed their witness to copies made from them.” - The Traditional Text, pp. 11-12

Sermon Outline: 2 Chronicles 17

Below is the outline for a sermon I will be preaching this Sunday at Trinity Reformation Church in Salem, Oregon.

Introduction

Each year, the beginning of a session of the Parliament of the United Kingdom is marked by the State Opening of Parliament, a lavish ceremony in which the Queen reads the Speech from the Throne, written by her Cabinet, the most senior government ministers, outlining he Government’s agenda for the coming year, what its priorities are for the nation. 2 Chronicles 17 describes the beginning of the reign of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, the Southern Kingdom after Israel divided three generations earlier in the reign of Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, and it outlines the programme of his reign. It does so in order to show us what the priorities must be for God’s people if they are to know God’s blessing and grow and flourish and become strong and secure, and not be overrun by the nations around them, but bring transformation, bring God’s blessing, to them. There is much to learn for us in our day as we week the preservation, growth and prosperity of the church, and through the church, the bringing of the nations under the rule of Christ.

1 and 2 Chronicles were books written for the people of Judah after their return from exile in the sixth century BC, which was God’s judgement on them for their persistent rebellion against him. It concludes with the proclamation of Cyrus, king of Persia, declaring that the Lord had given him all the kingdoms of the earth and had charged him with rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem which had been destroyed when they went into exile. 2 Chronicles 36.23:

“Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up.”

2 Chronicles is telling true stories from the history of Israel with a purpose. It is answering the question, “Now that the people are back in the land after exile, how is it that God will be with them?” God’s people are meant to be shaped by these stories, to learn from them. 1 and 2 Chronicles are great renewal and reformation books. They show episodes from Judah’s past that they may learn from them, follow their example when God blessed them and they prospered and enjoyed great success, and to avoid their mistakes when God judged them and they suffered defeat. To this end, this chapter introduces to us the reign of King Jehoshaphat and what was important for him to put into practice in the land of Judah. It gives two instructions and concludes with one motivation to obey.

1. Walk in God’s ways (vv. 1-6)

At the end of chapter 16, King Asa dies and Jehoshaphat his son comes to the throne. The first thing we’re told about him is that he ’strengthened himself against Israel’ (v. 1) and we are given a description of a large-scale military reorganisation throughout the country. Troops move into all the fortified cities and garrisons are set up throughout Judah and in the cities of the Northern Kingdom which his father had captured. Why this is significant will become apparent. The crucial comment is in v. 3: “The LORD was with Jehoshaphat”. Why? ‘Because he walked in the ways of his father David’. What were whose ways? Not seeking the Baals, the false gods of the pagan nations around them, but seeking David’s God (v. 4), the God who made heaven and earth, the Lord, Yahweh, who rescued Israel out of slavery in Egypt and brought them into the Promised Land. ‘Seek’ means ’seek help from’, to depend upon, to put one’s trust in. We see this illustrated in 2 Chronicles 15.11. Seeking the Lord is a big theme of Chronicles. The message throughout Chronicles is this: “Look! See what happens when people seek the Lord, see how they find him Look! See what happens when people do not seek the Lord, when they forsake him and seek other gods, see how he forsakes them, how he leaves them. So make sure that you seek the Lord.” Here in 2 Chronicles 17, Jehoshaphat walked in David’s ways by seeking or trusting not in the false gods of the nations around, but in the Lord. A genuine seeking of the Lord, truly trusting in him, shows itself in changed behaviour. It makes a difference in how one lives. It is living, active, and obeys God’s commandments. The question here is not, “Will you live by faith or by works?” but, “Which God are you going to trust and obey?” The Lord, or the false God’s of the nations? Jehoshaphat models a genuine seeking of the Lord, a living faith (v. 4b). Israel is the Northern Kingdom. When the kingdom divided, Jeroboam and his sons led the inhabitants in wholesale disobedience to the Lord. He cast out the Levites from serving as priests, which God commanded, and he appointed his own high priests for the high places and for the goat idols and calves he had made, for the people to worship, which God had forbidden (2 Chronicles 11). So flagrant, so outrageous is the rebellion, they are replicating the sin which almost led to the destruction of the people of Israel in God’s right anger (Exodus 32). This is gross ingratitude and high rebellion. And this is the way that Jeroboam will not walk but instead seeks the Lord, trust in him and not in idols, and obeys his commandments. This is why the account of his reign begins with a description of how he strengthened himself against Israel and placed forces in the fortified cities and garrisons. He knows that seeking the Lord and obeying him is the right thing to do and he knows the practices of Israel are disobedient in the extreme. He goes to great lengths to protect himself and his people against them, that they might not attack and encroach into his territory and spread their disobedience and false worship. This is particularly emphasised to make the point that Jehoshaphat here is doing a good thing, in contrast with an episode later in his reign when he makes a marriage alliance with Ahab the king of Israel in chapter 18 and helps him in battle, for which he is later criticised. Jehoshaphat roots out disobedient worship and the worship of false gods from his people (v. 6). Jehoshaphat obeys the Lord with courage. He is obedient though it might cost him – it might provoke war with the Northern Kingdom if they perceive his deeds as an act of aggression, the removal of the high places and the Asherim might have provoked unpopularity with his people as he dismantles what may have become a deep part of their culture and way of life. This is why the Lord was with Jehoshaphat and he shows this by establishing the kingdom in his hand, making it firm and secure (v. 5). We also see the response of the people: they recognise Jehoshaphat’s attitude of faith in God and obedient behaviour to him as good and commendable, and so they honour him and bring tribute to him, great riches. As the people of Judah, back in the land after their exile, read this, they were meant to identify themselves with ‘all Judah’ in the story. Trust in God which shows itself in obedience to his commandments, even when it costs, and the removal of and protection against false worship, is something that they should universally commend and honour and pursue themselves. Moreover, the relationship between king and people is like that of an husband and wife (1 Chronicles 11.1): kings were meant to lead their people as husbands lead their wives and be an example to them of the way they should walk. So the writer of 2 Chronicles intended his readers to see Jehoshaphat and imitate him – to be united in seeking the Lord, walking in his commandments, being courageous in the ways of the Lord, strengthening themselves against disobedient and false worship and putting it out of their midst, standing out from their rebellious neighbours. If they did, God would be with them and they would be established.

As Christians, God’s faithful people, we too are to identify ourselves with ‘all Judah’ in the story. The unbelieving world around us worships a pantheon of idols, the work of their own hands – money, job, the government, personal success. They put their trust in them, depend on them for protection in the present and security for the future, and give all their time and effort and devotion to them. What we should be of one mind in esteeming and pursuing ourselves is seeking the Lord, trusting in him rather than those idols, a trust shown in obedience to him (James 2.14, 17). What we should honour and practise is taking seriously the sin, the wicked rebellion of the world around us and standing out from them even when it might cost in terms of popularity or promotion or reputation, getting rid of disobedient worship and strengthening our defences against the influence of the world so that it doesn’t creep into the church, into our lives, and overrun us. This requires wisdom and an understanding of the times in which we live and where the world is applying pressure to the church, where we need to concentrate our attention. We not only have to watch ourselves but our children: there is a war on for their hearts and minds. Two particular areas in which we have to be on our guard is what we are entertained by, the films we watch, the books we read, the music we listen to, even the jokes we tell. What message are they communicating, what lifestyle are they holding up and honouring and glorying in? Are they taking sin seriously. See Ephesians 5.3-4. Another area is our appearance, what we put on ourselves, whether temporary or permanent. Do our clothes and hairstyle reflect the fact that God made us male and female? Are we wearing respectable clothing? Are we being modest? Are we seeking to mark ourselves in some lasting way – piercings or tattoos? Why? What does that communicate? Our Lord Jesus Christ, like Jehoshaphat, was given the throne of his father David. He is the one who perfectly sought God and walked in his commandments and did not worship other gods. When he was tempted in the wilderness and Satan offered him the kingdoms of the world if he worshipped him, he said, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” He was truly courageous in the ways of the Lord. He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. The Lord was with him – at his baptism, the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove. He is the husband, we the church are his bride, members of his body, one with him as a husband and wife are one flesh (Ephesians 5). We are to imitate him and follow his example. God will be with his church and establish it, cause it to stand firm. But what will cause this to happen?

2. Be taught God’s word (vv. 7-9)

Jehoshaphat musters his officials (v. 7) and Levites and priests (v. 8 ) and sends them out to all the cities of Judah to teach the people. There is a massive revival of expository preaching: they teach from the Book of the Law of the Lord, which they have with them (v. 9). Jehoshaphat sees that this practice is of vital importance for God’s people and so encourages and promotes and provides for it. We get an idea of what might have happened in each city as these men taught the people, in Nehemiah 8, where a similar episode takes place when the people have returned to the land after their exile. Indeed, Nehemiah 8 might be looking back to the time before the exile, to Jehoshaphat’s reign even, to teach them what will lead to God’s abiding presence amongst his people to preserve and strengthen them and to bless them in the land. Remember: the books of Chronicles were written for the community that had returned from exile. This practice of teaching from the Book of the Law of the Lord which Jehoshaphat implemented is what would cause his people to seek the Lord, to trust in him and to obey him. The Book of the Law was most likely the book of Deuteronomy. At the end of the book, Moses writes down what he has said to the people and it is called ‘The Book of the Law’. The Book of the Law of the Lord is discovered in 2 Chronicles 34 in the reign of King Josiah and it contains commandments, and curses for forsaking the Lord and turning to other gods, which is the shape of the Book of Deuteronomy. But it doesn’t just contain rules to follow. It recounts what God has done to rescue the people and defeat their enemies which is the context for their obedience. Laws are given to them as a redeemed rescued people. The Ten Commandments begin, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” When they hear of what God has done for them to save them in the past as the book is read and preached, a response of faith, of faith, of trust in God is produce in them, and they are then taught how to live as God’s saved people. Psalm 78.4-7 describes this process. So, as these verses of 2 Chronicles 17 were read by God’s people after their return from exile, not only would the leaders have learned how important it was for there to be men who would teach the people from the Book of the Law of the Lord, the people themselves would have learned how important it was for them to have such teaching from the Book of the Law of the Lord, to hunger for it, and to come under the sound of it.

We need to grasp how important expository preaching is for all God’s people, preaching that simply takes the book whcih contains the word which God has spoken to us his people and opens it up, reads it, explains it where necessary, points out the implications of what it is saying for God’s people in their time and place, and that calls us to trust in God and obey him. For us as Christians, this book is the completed canon of Scripture, the whole Bible, the NT telling us the climax of the story that was begun in the Old. The New Testament is equally clear about the importance of this for the life of the church. Just as Jehoshaphat sent officials, Levites and priests to teach the people, so Christ, risen and ascended, reigning at the right hand of God the Father, has given pastor-teachers to his church (Ephesians 4.11). We see their duty in Paul’s commands to Timothy: 1 Timothy 3.13, 2 Timothy 4.2. That is what is important for the churches of which he is the pastor. When the Bible is read and preached, God’s voice is heard. The word that is to be preached is the word that produces faith (Romans 10.17). This is the word that directs our paths and teaches us how to live. This is the seeking of the Lord shown in walking in his commandments to which we are being called. We need to hunger for this kind of preaching in our churches. We need to be diligent in coming under the sound of it ourselves. We must pray for our pastors that it would be and remain their conviction that this should be our regular diet, week by week. When this is what we receive, we should be thankful for it and encourage our pastors in it. What is more, this is what we are to pray for the whole church. We need to ask God to raise up men who will expound the Scriptures in whichever village or town or city his church is found. Jehoshaphat’s band of preachers taught amongst the people in all the cities of Judah. Old-fashioned expository preaching at the heart of worship is what produces the fruit of faith and holiness among God’s people, not the “Seven Steps to a Better You” kind of preaching or high-technology gimmicks. We have had hints already about why it is such a good thing to walk in God’s ways that we should therefore be taught God’s word (vv. 3, 5), and we see fleshed out in the last section of this great chapter what should motivate us.

3. Enjoy God’s rest (vv. 10-19)

Repeatedly throughout the Old Testament, God’s gift to the people of Israel, what they were going to enter and take possession of, is rest. Rest is what they were going to enjoy in the land; it was a place of rest. God’s people would enjoy rest from their enemies – they would no longer be attacked by the pagan nations around them; they would be secure, safe, they would enjoy peace. Associated with that was the promise of fruitful fields and livestock and homes. This makes sense: the land is not being ravaged by war, the men are not away fighting battles. They can settle and cultivate the land and build their homes. God promised he would bless their labours. This promise of rest looks back to the creation of the world, when on the seventh day God finished his work and rested (Genesis 2.2). The entrance of the people into the Promised Land, into the peace and prosperity they would enjoy in the land, that is, into rest, is described by the Old Testament as entering into God’s rest (Psalm 95.11). The word ‘rest’ is not used here, but this is precisely what happens in 2 Chronicles 17. The kingdoms of the lands that were round Judah made no war against Jehoshaphat (v. 10); indeed they bring in great wealth and livestock (v. 11). This point is made more explicitly in 2 Chronicles 20.30. Why does this happen? Verse 10: the faith of the people of Judah and their courageous obedience, stirred up by this revival of preaching throughout the land causes the nations around them to fear the Lord, and so not to make war against his people but bring tribute to their king. It’s a powerful, attractive witness. This was God’s plan for Israel from the beginning (Deuteronomy 28.9-10). Not only do the nations bring in great wealth and livestock, the land is fruiful: Jehoshaphat had to build store cities (v. 10) and he had large supplies in the cities of Judah (v. 13). This is given the headline “And Jehoshaphat grew steadily greater” (v. 10). As another example of this, we’re told in vv. 13-19 that he had soldiers, mighty men of valour in Jerusalem, and then we’re given a breakdown of their commanders, the hundreds of thousands of men under them and how they were armed. We are meant to hear echoes of the description of David’s reign in 1 Chronicles 11, where we read about David’s building projects, just as we were told about Jehoshaphat’s building projects, we have the same description of how he became greater and greater, as Jehoshaphat did. We are told that David became greater and greater because the Lord of hosts was with him, as we are told he was with Jehoshaphat. Then we’re told about David’s mighty men, just as we were told about Jehoshaphat’s mighty men of valour. In addition to the description of the peace that Judah enjoyed under Jehoshaphat, and the fruitfulness of their land, this description of the building of fortresses, a large army of mighty men, and the greatness he enjoyed, are all meant to be seen as God’s gift to his people, a lavish demonstration that he is with them. Verses 10-19 describe the blessing from the Lord that Judah enjoys under Jehoshaphat as a result of their faith in God and obedience to him as they are taught by God’s word under Jehoshaphat’s leadership. Seeing this blessing would have motivated the people of Israel resing this when they were back in the land after their exile to seek the Lord and walk in his commandments as they are taught from God’s word.

This blessing is what we need to see for ourselves if we are to be stirred up to a courageous, living, active, obedient, persevering faith in response to the preaching of Scripture. The early church knew this (Acts 2.42-43, v. 47). When the preaching of the Bible is at the centre of the worship of God’s people and when the church responds with faith working through love, the church will grow. Its enemies, its detractors, its persecutors, will at the end of the day be convicted of their sin, their rebellion against God and his Christ, they will throw up their hands in surrender, say “God is really among you,” and give their allegiance to Christ, bow the knee before him and seek forgiveness from him in faith. They will bring the tribute of their lives to him in his service. What is more, we are not just talking about a few, isolated individuals. We are talking about kingdoms, nations. The fear of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round Judah. The Philistines and Arabians brought Jehoshaphat, God’s anointed king, whose ancestor was king David, presents and silver and livestock in tribute. We are to expect nations as nations and those who rule over them to become Christian and to bring all their resources and wealth for the service of King Jesus, great David’s greater Son. At the end of the Bible there is a glorious vision of the church. In the vision, the church, the bride of Christ, is seen as a city, the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21.23-26). God will be with his church and establish it, strengthen it, cause it to grow and become greater and greater. We tend to think of salvation as something we can’t see, the forgiveness of our sins now when we turn from them and put our trust in Christ, and going to heaven when we die. That is certainly part of it, but it is much broader than that. It is God’s people entering their inheritance, which is the whole earth (Matthew 5.5) and seeing the nations becoming increasingly less hostile to Christ and more and more coming under his rule, being transformed by him and bringing their tribute to him. This is part of what it means for the church now to enter into rest. What the writer of 2 Chronicles wants us to see is that this results from God’s people simply trusting in God and obeying him, which comes about through being taught his word, nothing more spectacular or impressive than that.

Conclusion

Martin Luther said of his rôle in the Reformation in Europe:

“I simply taught, preached, wrote God’s Word: otherwise I did nothing. And then, while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my Philip of Amsdorf the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a prince or emperor did such damage to it. I did nothing: the Word did it all.”

Walk in God’s ways. Be taught God’s word. Enjoy God’s rest.

Congregational Charge: Ephesians 4 and 5

What marked out King Jehoshaphat was how he walked: he walked in the earlier ways of his father David, he walked in God’s commandments and not according to the practices of Israel and there is a similar antithesis or contrast in the New Testament:

“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.” – Ephesians 4.17

“Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” – Ephesians 5.2

“At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” – Ephesians 5.8

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise.” – Ephesians 5.15

Part of what that looks like is this: “But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but let there be thanksgiving.” But it also means many other things. So, put away falsehood and speak the truth. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. Let the thief no longer steal but rather let him labour, doing honest work so that he may share with anyone in need. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness but instead expose them. For in Christ you were taught to put off the old self, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Eucharistic Meditation: Psalm 34

“O taste, and see, how gracious the Lord is:
blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
O fear the Lord, ye that are his saints:
for they that fear him lack nothing.
The lions do lack, and suffer hunger:
but they who seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good.” – Psalm 34.8-10

This Psalm sings of the blessings that fall on those that seek the Lord, who trust in him: deliverance from fear, trouble, broken-heartedness, being crushed in spirit, affliction and being hated. What we learn from these verses is that God’s grace to his saints is experienced in very physical ways: it can be tasted and it can be seen. In particular, the good things the Lord gives to those who seek him are contrasted with what the lions do not have, namely food. At the Lord’s Supper, God spreads before us a table of bread and wine where we can see, take hold of, and eat and taste his grace, his blessing, his goodness. The apostle Paul describes this cup as the cup of blessing. But here, God’s grace, blessing and goodness are not merely displayed in his gift of wine to gladden our hearts and bread to strengthen us, in the words of another Psalm. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? As we approach to this table and eat the bread and drink the wine, we feed on Christ in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving. So come, come to grace, come to blessing, come to Christ. O taste, and see, how gracious the Lord is!

Sermon Outline: Deuteronomy 29

These are the notes for the sermon I will be preaching, Lord willing, on Sunday 13th September, at Christ Church, Missoula, in Montana. (The preceding exhortation is for them, too).

Introduction

I have a great sermon for you. It’s an old sermon from one of the greatest of preachers. I hope you don’t mind; it’s much better than I could come up with. Deuteronomy 29 is part of the third sermon Moses preaches to the people of Israel as they prepare to enter Canaan. As we’ll see, Hebrews 12 takes this chapter and applies it directly to the church. It deals with a problem which, if left unchecked, will keep us out of heaven and the new creation, and many others too. What is more, in 50 years’ time, this church will not be growing or maturing or having an impact in its community. Our children will ask, “What has happened?”. We ignore Moses’ sermon at our peril. How can we avoid that sorry future? How can we as God’s people survive and grow and flourish and be fruitful generations from now?

1. Look back at God’s mercies (vv. 2-9)

Moses recounts all that God has done for the people. The Lord rescued the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt and drowned the armies of Pharaoh in the Red Sea (vv. 2-3). The first generation grumbled and fell, so he’s addressing the next generation. Some of them would have been under 20 at the time and would have been part of the Exodus, but many wouldn’t, yet he says that they have seen what the Lord did. Time is telescoped together. This is part of their story. The Exodus set them free. As the New Israel, Christians have an exodus to look back on. Jesus accomplished an exodus (Luke 9.31) when he suffered and died on the cross as he rescued a people, all those who repent of their sins, who turn away from their rebellion against God, and put their trust in him for forgiveness. He rescued a people from slavery to sin and the death and the just, eternal punishment that sin brings. Time was telescoped together. What happened at the cross benefited those who lived before and after it and will benefit generations to come. What he did then rescues us 2 000 years later. It’s as if we were there: on the cross he was dying in our place.

Moses reminds the Israelites of what they have seen, but there’s seeing and there’s seeing (v. 4). All of humanity is born with a heart disorder and we need God to give us a heart transplant, a new heart that will understand; we’re blind and deaf and need God to give us eyes that see and ears that hear. We need him to bring about that change in us so that we trust in him, love him, hold fast to him and obey him. God hasn’t given that to Israel, which is why they rebelled, why the people of Judah didn’t repent (Isaiah 6.9-10), why the Jews rejected their Messiah and did not repent at the preaching of Paul (Acts 28). They needed the circumcision of the heart promised in Deuteronomy 30. Another way the Bible describes this is the ‘new birth’. We need God to give us hearts to understand, eyes to see and ears to hear so that we believe and obey.

Moses reminds the people how God preserved them in the wilderness (vv. 5-6). He demonstrates his commitment to them, his love and care, and that he is their God. We as Christians see this in his preservation of the church for the last 2 000 years despite heresy in the NT, despite persecution, despite more heresies: God kept his people and they grew in number until Europe and other parts of the world had a Christian culture and society, until there was a Christendom. Despite the rise of materialism, that the world of matter is all there is, despite aggressive atheism, the church has survived and grown. Each generation has passed the faith on. We are here because the good news of Christ was told to us. Our clothes have not worn out on us and our sandals have not worn off our feet.

God’s people are reminded that God has already given them victory over some of their enemies and taken part of their inheritance (vv. 7-8). In the New Testament, our inheritance is the whole earth (Matthew 5.5). We can already see churches throughout the world, seeking to see their homes, cities, towns and villages come under Christ’s rule as they proclaim the gospel and call people to repentance and faith. There is much still to be done, indeed, it seems that in the West there is something of a regression. But God has given us much so far. It is as we see how God has delivered us, preserved us and started to give us the land that in response we trust in God and demonstrate that trust in our obedience and so enjoy God’s favour and as a people we prosper (v. 9).

2. Remember God’s promise (vv. 10-15)

God makes a covenant with the greatest to the least of the people, the leaders to the workers, men, women and children. The young age of the infants, the fact that they might not fully know or understand the content of the covenant is no barrier to God counting them as part of his people. Their parents answer on their behalf and they too are under an obligation to respond in faith to God’s promises as they grow up. The covenant embraces non-Israelites: God’s plan is to bless the world. God’s promise is to establish the people as his people and he promises to be their God. There is genuine relationship being formed. It’s like a marriage ceremony. To be part of the people whom God takes in this way and to whom he gives himself is a great privilege (Romans 3.1-2, 9.4). God calls these people his children, he speaks to them through the law and the prophets, he lives in their midst in the tabernacle. This is all of grace. They don’t deserve it. He blesses them because he promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and he can be trusted to keep his promise. God is making this promise to these people and to future generations. The people are entering into covenant in the name of their descendants. The New Covenant is not more restrictive. The church, the covenant community consists of all kinds of people – husbands, wives, old men, young men, old women, young women, masters, slaves, rich, poor. And our little ones (Matthew 19.14, Acts 2.39). We bear witness to this when we bring our children to baptism and profess faith, enter into covenant with God in their name and give them the sign and seal of the covenant. We testify to that by keeping them with us in worship and bringing them to the Lord’s Table. As we stand together to renew covenant with God, they stand with us, as they did on the border of the Promised Land. Gentiles are also included in their abundance. As God’s new covenant people we enjoy much greater privileges. As we gather in Christ’s name he is with us by his Spirit. We taste of the goodness of the word of God as the Scriptures are read and expounded to us by pastor-teachers, part of the risen and ascended Christ’s gift to his church. To be part of the church is to be part of the people whom Christ calls his bride. In the New Testament, the visible church, as it is in history, the face that it presents to the world, is addressed as God’s sons, his children. He spreads a table in our midst and by means of bread and wine, we feed on Christ and drink from him. In our baptism God put his name on us, he said you’re mine, you belong to me. All these show the real, objective, covenant relationship that we enjoy with God whatever our age, background, station in life, nationality, income. How should we respond to God’s covenant?

3. Beware of God’s judgement (vv. 16-29)

The wrong response to God’s covenant is presumption, relying on one’s covenant status for security whilst turning away from God and worshipping idols. Moses warns that is a mistake to think that is enough and will keep us safe, and that the state of our heart doesn’t matter (vv. 16-19). Moses warns against allowing this to take place on the level of an individual or of a family. The people as a whole have a responsibility to make sure it doesn’t happen in their midst. Those who commit the sin are ‘a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit’. They effect of their sin is harmful, unpleasant and brings death to themselves and others. They are judged and will not obtain God’s forgiveness – he is a good husband who truly loves his bride and so is jealous and moved to a right anger when they are unfaithful (vv. 20-21). But this sin of covenant presumption is like a cancer: it starts in one part of the body and if left untreated will spread throughout the body and bring about its death. Many others will be led astray and come under God’s judgement. The result is that the whole land isn’t the beautiful garden it is meant to be, fruitful, a place of rest, but is sick, dead, and barren. God’s purpose for his people is that they are on display to the pagan nations around: they are to see God’s people in covenant relationship with him, remaining faithful to him, enjoying his blessing and it is meant to attract them (Deuteronomy 4.5-8). If they are unfaithful and idolatrous, the next generation and the pagan nations who are meant to be blessed will just look on and ask what has happened (vv. 22-28). God’s new covenant people, the church, are exactly the same as God’s old covenant people, Israel at this point (Hebrews 12). Being baptised, being in the covenant community, coming to worship isn’t enough. We can’t rely on it, we mustn’t think it will keep us safe when our heart isn’t right, when it is stubborn, when we have given it to another, to the things the unbelieving world worships. We mustn’t presume that we will be all right, safe, because we have been baptised, we have a Christian family, we are a covenant member and go to church. Formalism or nominalism will lead us to hell, and will lead others to hell too. The church will not enjoy and prosper in its inheritance in the land, it will not grow and mature and bear fruit and bring transformation to the community in which it is situated. It will not attract people and draw them into relationship with God through Christ; lives will not be changed. In what the church says and does, it may be correct and beautiful but it will be all show and no subtance and God will judge it. Our children and community will look back and say, “What happened? It started so well and now it’s nothing.” We have to watch ourselves and one another. We can’t see into hearts but we can hear people’s words and see how they live (Mark 7.20-22). If people’s lives aren’t consistent with hearts that are faithful to the Lord and there’s no evidence of repentance, there is a place for taking it up with them and having a word with them in gentleness and love (James 5.19-20).

This raises a question. God makes a covenant with people to be their God to establish them as his people and yet some of those people, who hear the words of the covenant, to whom the covenant is addressed, fall away; their hearts turn away and they face God’s judgement. How do I know whether I’m going to be one of those or whether I will be all right? As Reformed Christians we believe in predestination (Romans 8.30). How do I know that I am one of those God has chosen from eternity past for salvation in Christ? There’s much that God hasn’t told us, that’s his business and we are not to worry about it. This includes his counsel secret to us by which he has decreed to save those whom he has chosen. We don’t have access to the book in which were written the days that were formed for us when as yet there were none of them. God has told us what we need to know and this is what we have to deal with. He has revealed his covenant. Our concern, what ought to matter to us, should be that we respond to it rightly, and we should leave the rest with God (v. 29). The response the Israelites and we and our children are to make to God’s covenant is to embrace it in faith – trust the promise God makes to be our God, turn our hearts to him, hold fast to him, trust in him. The kind of faith we are urged to have is a faith that works through life, that loves the Lord and serves him by obeying the commandment he has made known to us. The choice is not between faith and works, but which God you are going to trust and obey, the Lord or the idols of the nations. This is for us and our children because we and our little ones enter into the covenant of the Lord. Parents and future parents: we have an obligation to bring up children in the faith, to trust in the Lord and obey him. Churches that baptise infants and include them in the church are vulnerable to the problem of presumption, or formalism, or nominalism, as a generation grows up that is part of the covenant community, whose parents are Christians. They bear the name of Christ yet take it for granted and are without genuine faith, without converted hearts, hearts turned to the Lord. This is not a reason against baptising them or regarding them as part of the church – it’s a problem with all churches. It does mean that in faith we are to bring up our children to know and trust the Lord and obey him. We need to remind them that God is their God, they are baptised, he has put his name on them, he has claimed them for his own, they are is. In his love he sent his Son to die on a cross that their sins might be forgiven. They need to trust him, love him and walk in his ways. Deuteronomy 6 tells us the way in which we’re to talk to our children about these things: at home, on the road, in the evening, in the mornings. It should saturate our home lives. It shouldn’t be possible to get away from it. We’re to live our God’s commandments before them and when our children ask us about them, we’re to say that God rescued us and and gave us these commandments as an expression of our trust in God and love for him, for our God. Our obedience and our children’s obedience is to be total (applied in a way that is appropriate to the coming of Christ, of course).

Exhortation: Hebrews 12.6-7

Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? – Hebrews 12.6-7

The ‘Order for the Visitation of the Sick’  in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer contains an exhortation which comforts us by reminding us that, whenever they come upon us, sickness and adversity are demonstrations that God is treating us like sons whom he loves, and that through bearing with them patiently, we are becoming conformed ever more to Christ’s likeness as we die with him in the hope of resurrection and glory. We are to receive them with thankfulness from God’s hand as a demonstration of his fatherly goodness for our good with:

These words, good brothers, are written in holy Scripture for our comfort and instruction; that we should patiently, and with thanksgiving, bear our heavenly Father’s correction, whensoever by any manner of adversity it shall please his gracious goodness to visit us. And there should be no greater comfort to Christian persons, than to be made like unto Christ, by suffering patiently adversities, troubles and sicknesses. For he himself went not up to joy, but first he suffered pain; he entered not into his glory before he was crucified. So truly our way to eternal joy is to suffer here with Christ; and our door to enter into eternal life is gladly to die with Christ, that we may rise again with him in everlasting life.

God is sovereign over adversity and sickness and uses them to achieve his purposes as our loving Father, whether that be the cultivation of endurance and the demonstration of the genuineness of our faith, or as a rebuke for sin. Whatever the cause of our afflictions, we are to take them as a further opportunity, in addition to confessing our sins weekly, as we are about to do, for examining how we have behaved towards God and our fellow human beings, for repenting of our sins and trusting in him that we may receive mercy through Christ:

Dearly beloved, know this, that Almighty God is the Lord of life and death, and of all things to  them pertaining, as youth, strength, health, age, weakness and sickness. Wherefore, whatsoever your sickness is, know you certainly that it is God’s visitation. And for what cause soever this sickness is sent to you; whether it be to try your patience for the example of others, and that your faith may be found in the day of the Lord laudable, glorious and honourable, to the increase of glory and endless felicity; or else it be sent unto you to correct and amend you in whatsoever doth offend the eyes of your heavenly Father; know you certainly, that if you truly repent you of your sins, and bear your sickness patiently, trusting in God’s mercy, for his dear Son Jesus Christ’s sake, and render unto him humble thanks for his fatherly visitation, submitting yourself wholly unto his will, it shall turn to your profit, and help you forward in the right way that leadeth unto everlasting life.

Doing Science as Christians

This is not about apologetics. This is about doing science as Christians, about how being Christian affects how we do science, about thinking Christianly about science. There are times when the implications of this are more obvious, for example carbon and radiometric dating, how the world uses these to make claims about the age of the world, the assumptions that are made and how all this matches up to what the Bible teaches. There are, however, times when the implications of thinking Christianly about science are less obvious. Nevertheless, the science we do as Christians will always be different from the science that people do who aren’t Christians, even if they use the same equations. That difference lies in the place we see science occupying, our motivation for doing science, and the reason we know why doing science is even possible at all. There are a number of things worth remembering.

Our study of science should be doxological. It should lead us to give God the glory for it, to praise him and to give him thanks. What we do in church on Sunday should affect how we do science on a Monday, but the science we do on Monday should also make a difference to us on Sunday: we should be moved to sing God’s praises.

“Praise the LORD!
I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart,
in the company of the upright,
in the congregation.
Great are the works of the LORD,
studied by all who delight in them” – Psalm 111.1-2

As we do science, we are looking at the Lord’s works, what he has made, how he has put the world together and we are describing it. We do science in the hope that we will see how great these works are and that as we study them, we will come to delight in them. Because God’s works are great, we delight in them, and because we delight in them, we study them that we may delight in them more, which really means delighting in the God who made them that way.

We need to remember that God made the world and he is its true king:

“The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty
the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt.
Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.” – Psalm 93.1

Because God made the world and rules over it, it is ordered, and it behaves in ways that are regular. Patterns repeat themselves and the world behaves in a way that we can predict and that don’t alter. There are laws that are followed. These laws don’t disprove the existence of God and the occurrence of miracles in history. They are a description of how the world God has made and over which he rules generally works. But because he rules over it, he is free to do things that don’t normally happen in the world. If you hit a snooker ball on a snooker table, the ball will move at a speed and in a direction in a way that can be predicted from the force with and angle at which it was hit with the cue, and it will move around the table in a way that can be predicted from the angle at which it hits the sides. The laws that describe those movements, however, cannot take into account me reaching over and picking up the ball. They do not exclude the possibility of that happening; they do not disprove my existence.

Finally, we have to remember that the God whose works we are studying is the Christian God, the God of the Bible, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” – Hebrews 1.1-3

The world we study is the world that the Father created through the Son in the power of the Spirit. It was spoken into being; it was created by God’s word. More than that, the reason the world keeps on going, the reason the world continues to obey certain rules and does the same thing over and over again and does not degenerate into chaos and disorder, is because God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, continues to maintain it by his word, which is how he exerts his power.

‘Your little ones’: Calvin on Deuteronomy 29.11

From Calvin’s Harmony of the Law (Volume 3), which may read online HERE:

Nevertheless, the question here arises, how the little children could have passed into covenant, when they were not yet of a proper age to learn its contents; the reply is easy, that, although they did not receive by faith the promised salvation, nor, on the other hand, renounce the flesh so as to dedicate themselves to God, still they were bound to God by the same obligations under which their parents laid themselves; for, since the grace was common to all, it was fitting that their consent to testify their gratitude should also be universal; so that when the children had come to age, they should more cheerfully endeavor after holiness, when they remembered that they had been already dedicated to God. For circumcision was a sign of their adoption from their mother’s womb; and therefore, although they were not yet possessed of faith or understanding, God had a paternal power over them, because He had conferred upon them so great an honor. Thus, now-a-days, infants are initiated into the service of God, whom they do not yet know, by baptism; because He marks them out as His own peculiar people, and claims them as His children when He ingrafts them into the body of Christ. Moses goes further, stating that their descendants were bound by the same covenant, as if already enthralled to God; and surely, since slavery passes on by inheritance, it ought not to appear absurd that the same right should be assigned to God which mortal men claim for themselves. What he says, then, is tantamount to reminding the Israelites that they covenanted with God in the name of their offspring, so as to devote both themselves and those belonging to them to His service.

Sermon Notes: Psalm xcvi

Below are the notes for the sermon on Psalm 96 I am due to preach at Evensong in Moscow on Sunday 6th September.

Make us to know your ways O Lord; teach us your paths. Lead us in your truth and teach us, for you are the God of our salvation, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Introduction

We long to be governed well and how we are governed affects how we respond to those in authority over us. This is often seen in what happens when we are not governed well, by people who do not command our respect and who are not upright. To give a recent example, you may be aware of the recent exposure of the way British politicians have been exploiting the system of parliamentary allowances to subsidise their lifestyles and multiple homes. Expenses claims included moat cleaning  – those things that go around castles (we have those in England) – and a duck island. As a result of the outrage that this scandal has caused, many members of parliament have resigned or have been made to stand down. One politician said, “The outpouring of fury we’ve witnessed has been like a spring revolution”. We long to be governed well and how we are governed affects who we respond to those in authority over us. As we learn to sing Psalm xcvi, we are teaching one another about the God who governs this world, the Lord, Yahweh, whom we as Christians confess as one God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and what effect that should have on how we respond to him. This Psalm has two parts, in each of which we are called to respond to God in the same two ways, and we are then shown a particular characteristic of God as a reason for those responses.

1. Praise and speak of God our king, for he is the creator (vv. 1-6)

The Psalm begins by inviting us to ’sing to the Lord’ (v. 1), to gather together to worship God in song. This invitation is not limited to those within these four walls. As this Psalm is sung, it is meant to be heard by the whole world; they too are invited to join in with the singing (v. 1b). What is to be sung? ‘A new song’. Throughout Scripture ‘a new song’ refers to the content of the praise of God’s people when God acts to save them. God’s people are afflicted/under his judgement/in danger but then God acts to deliver them, to bring them security. There is a new era for God’s people, a fresh start, and so they are to sing a new song. One illustration of this is the experience of David: Psalm xl.1-2. We come to this Psalm as Christians, living after the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is in what those events achieved that we see this pattern of rescue from affliction, judgement and danger to a place of security at its grandest, at its most magnificent. Because of our sin, our rebellion against God, we faced God’s wrath, his right, settled anger. But Christ died in the place of his people, taking the punishment we deserve, and rose again from the dead. Therefore, when we repent of our sin – when we turn from it – and put our trust in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven, the Holy Spirit changes us and renews us to think and feel and live as we should, and we have the sure and certain hope of our souls going to be with Christ in heaven when we die and of our bodies being raised from the dead when Christ returns. It is above all this new state of affairs that means we have a new song to sing and we must sing it. And this is what is on offer to the whole world, so all the earth is invited to join in. Isaiah foretold it: Isaiah xlii.6-10. When we and the whole world gather together to worship the Lord in song, to sing a new song to him, we are joining in with the worship of heaven itself: Revelation v.9-10

The Psalm moves on; the verbs change and where the action is directed changes. Singing to God must lead to speaking to people; praise must turn into proclamation: v. 2b, 3a. That is what each and every one of us is called to; the command to tell and declare is given to the same people as the command to sing – ‘all the earth’. The word for ‘tell’ is the word that means ‘to bring good news, to bear glad tidings’. We might say, ‘Proclaim the gospel,’ or for those who prefer words with Greek roots, ‘Evangelise.’ Notice what we are told to declare: ‘his salvation’, ‘his glory’, ‘his marvellous works’. It is when God acts to save that his glory – his honour, his high renown – is displayed. The salvation which is the reason we sing is the salvation we must then speak about. It is good news indeed. Again, for us, coming to this Psalm as Christians, that is the salvation that we see supremely in Jesus Christ. Do you see when we are to tell of God’s salvation? ‘From day to day’.

Please don’t mishear me. I am not saying that everyone, every day has to get out on the streets to preach and hand out tracts or go from door to door telling people about Christ. I Corinthians xii tells us that ‘there are varieties of gifts… there are varieties of service… and there are varieties of activities’. Part of God’s gift is the situation and stage of life you are now in, and telling of God’s salvation will look different for a young, single gentleman in college and a mother with five young children, a home to look after, and a husband to help. Nor am I saying that if we don’t explain the gospel to at least one person each day, we have sinned and should feel guilty about it; that is not the tone of the Psalm at all. The point in these verses is that God’s salvation should so thrill us that not only do we sing about it on Sunday, but throughout the rest of the week, we long for others to hear it, we wake up each morning thinking, “Today is a good day to tell someone about Jesus Christ,” and so we make sure that we are able to speak of what Christ has done and what a difference that has made in our lives when the opportunity arises, and we look out for those opportunities to bring it up appropriately. You’ll be surprised just how often they come up when you’re looking for them.

The question then arises, “To whom shall we speak?” The nations, all peoples. The Psalmist is calling for God’s salvation to be made known to those outside the covenant people, those out there. All the earth is summoned to gather together to worship God in song and then announce the good news of what that God has done to the rest of the nations and peoples who have not yet joined in the song. This is not to take anything away from the long view that thinks generationally and sees the church growing as Christians bring up their children to know and believe the gospel, who in turn have children and bring them up in the faith; by no means must we neglect that. We have to first be faithful with what God has put right in front of us; if you have children, they are the mission field God has given you first of all: Psalm lxxviii.4-7. But there are two ways to fill the ark: the families on board can have children who stay on the ark and who grow up and have more children. Or you can reach over the side and pull people up out of the water on to the ark. It’s this second way that Psalm xcvi calls us to pursue, without forgetting the first: ‘declare his glory among all nations, his marvellous works among all peoples’. This starts with the nation on our doorstep and the people we know there – the friend you have who isn’t a Christian, the family that lives next door, the colleague at work.

The question that remains to be asked is, “Why?” Why is God’s salvation something that should make us and whole earth sing? Why is this something that rest of world needs to be told? This may seem to have an obvious answer, but reason the Psalm gives is, I think surprising. It doesn’t talk about the plight the world is in and its need of God’s salvation, although that plight is serious and that need is there. Instead the Psalmist lifts our eyes to focus on who God is, and at the heart of this is the fact that God is the king who made the world. Verse 4, the Lord is great and greatly to be praised and to be feared above all gods, because, v. 5, all the gods of the peoples – all those things that the rest of the world worships – are worthless idols; they are things made by human hands that are good for nothing. But in contrast, the Lord made the heavens. The Psalmist lifts up our heads. Look at the sky, how vast it is from one end to the other; by day there’s the sun, so powerful and bright you can’t even look at it; by night there are the stars, so many that you can’t even count them, and the universe is so big that the stars, thousands upon thousands of times larger than the earth are so far away that they appear just as tiny points of light. The Lord made all that: the gods of the peoples can’t make anything – they have to be made themselves. This Creator God is the one who rules the world: v. 6. God’s sanctuary is where he symbolically had his throne in the temple. It was indeed a place of splendour and majesty:  in the temple, the wall panels were covered in gold and adorned with precious stones and cherubim were carved into them. The veil in the temple was made of blue, purple and crimson fabrics – royal, imperial colours – and had cherubim woven into  it. The decoration and furnishings of the temple shout out that God is king. So as we with the whole earth sing to God because of his salvation, we are giving him the praise he so greatly deserves as the king and creator, and as we speak of God’s salvation among the nations, they turn to him from their worthless idols and join in giving him the praise, reverence and honour that is his by right.

So the student living across the road, who as it were worships the god Hedone, Pleasure, who is indulging in a hedonistic lifestyle, who spends his night drinking too much at parties, moving from one casual relationship to the next, needs to hear the good news of God’s salvation in Christ. His god is an idol, something he produces himself, and that idol is receiving all the devotion and time and effort that deserves to be given to God. The respectable, hard-working man who lives down the road, who worships the god Mammon, money, who pins his hope on it for his future well-being and security, needs to hear the good news of God’s salvation in Christ. His god is an idol, something he makes with the labour of his own hands, and he is treating that idol with the reverence, honour and trust that God deserves. The retired lady next door who tunes in the television eagerly each day to find out what the Government is going to do to make the economy prosper again, to protect the environment and bring peace to warring nations, needs to hear the good news of God’s salvation in Christ. Her god is an idol, an institution made up of fallible human beings, and she is giving it the love, respect and trust that she should be giving to God. There is a pantheon of idols in the world around us. This Psalm calls us to tell the nations of the world what God has done to save us in order that they might stop worshipping those idols and join with us in giving him the worship that he so richly deserves as the one who made the universe in all its vastness, and who rules over it

In the second half of the Psalm, it is as if the music goes back to the beginning and the tune repeats. The Psalm calls us again to make those same two responses in the same order as before. If didn’t get it the first time, he wants us to get it this time. This time he shows us a different, great truth about God which should produce those responses:

2. Praise and speak of God our king, for he will bring true justice (vv. 7-13)

Again, there is first an invitation to gather together to worship the Lord. It is described in terms of coming to the courts of the temple with something to offer up to God. As Christians, we enter the holy place in heaven by the blood of Jesus and draw near to God through him when we meet together (Hebrews x.19-25). The offering we bring is a sacrifice of praise (Hebrews xiii.15). Notice to whom this call is given. Not content with the broad address to ‘the nations’, ‘all the peoples’, ‘all the earth’, the Psalmist gets more specific. This has the effect of making the Psalm far more all-encompassing; it doesn’t allow anyone to escape. Each family within the nations and peoples of the earth is invited to sing God’s praise as part of his people. This is the Same as the hope spelt out in Psalm xxii.27 in response to the suffering of God’s anointed and his rescue, his vindication, which we see fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus. This reflects the nature of the covenant God makes with his people and how he saves. He promises ‘to be God to us and to our offspring after us’ (Genesis xvii.7). It is on this basis that infants were circumcised in the Old Covenant and are baptised in the New. They are marked out as belonging to a family that worships the Lord. It is on this basis that children should be present throughout the worship service and are welcome at the Lord’s Table with their parents. It is as families that we appear before God to worship him and enjoy all the privileges which come with that.

The families of the peoples are called to enter God’s courts to worship him. What does that consist of? Three times we are commanded to ascribe something to God and we are told to ascribe the glory and strength which is due to his name. The families of the earth are to gather together and in their corporate worship declare that God is glorious, God is strong, God is powerful. This time we are told in what manner we and the whole earth are to worship God: there are two aspects in view here:

(i) We have heard how splendour and majesty are before God. What splendour is fitting for people as they gather in his presence to sing his praise? The splendour of holiness (v. 9a). What happens in worship must not be divorced from what happens in the rest of life. Worship that is beautiful to God is worship that is offered by those whose lives are distinct, set apart from those who do not worship him, whose lives reflect what he is like.

(ii) We are also to tremble before him (v. 9b). When we draw near to God in worship, who he is should humble us, should bring us to our knees and cause us to fear him in the sense of revering him and standing in awe of him

Again, the Psalm doesn’t stay there, but moves from praise directed to God to speech directed to people (v. 10a). Again, it is those who are to worship the Lord who are to tell it out that the Lord reigns, namely, all the earth, and that includes us. Nor will the Psalmist let us forget those to whom we are to speak; he repeats it so that it will be hammered into us – the nations of the world, all who are not part of God’s people. How does God show his glory and strength that means we and the whole world must gather to praise him? What is it about the Lord’s reign that means we with all the earth must tell it to the rest of the world? The first reason the Psalmist gave focused on the past – God’s creation of the world; this looks to the future (v. 10b). One day he will come to this world and judge it, and he will judge rightly and fairly: v. 13. The injustices that characterise our world now will be completely gone from the face of the earth, whether that is the oppression and degradation of women who are co-bearers of God’s image under Sharia law in Islamic states or the more insidious way in which politicians feather their nests at the expense of those whom they are supposed to be serving. All the everyday injustices that grieve and frustrate us will be gone, those times when those who work hard, who put in the hours, aren’t recognised, while others rise to the top who get away with doing as little as possible. The moral decay that we see in our society will come to an end, wherever it is to be found under the sun, whether that is the murder of the weakest and most vulnerable for the sake of convenience and freedom from responsibility, or the promotion and celebration of ways of life that are contrary to God’s standards. As Christians we can be sure of this because this God is the one who came to the world in the person of his Son and was born as a man, Jesus Christ, who was put to death after an unfair trial by human rulers, but who was then raised from the dead, ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father, vindicated, with justice upheld. He is the one who will come to judge the earth: Acts xvii.31. This is such good news that the whole created order is called to be joyful and glad, and it will be joyful and glad (vv. 11-13). The coming of God the Son to judge the world will not only mean freedom from oppression, injustice and lawlessness, it will mean the created order itself will have removed from it the turmoil, the destruction, the disasters that we so often see in it in the present. ‘The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay’ (Romans viii.21). ‘“Death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”’(Revelation xxi.4-5). In this God clearly shows himself to be glorious and worthy. In bringing this about God is seen to be strong and powerful. This is reason indeed for us and all the nations of the world to enter his courts to praise him, to stand in awe of him, to live lives of holiness before him. This future hope is good news for the whole earth, so what can we do but tell the whole earth about the God who is reigning now and who will bring it about, so that they might acknowledge his reign and bow before him,  join in praising him, and stand alongside us in awe of him, and share in that future hope?

Conclusion

We long to be governed well and how we are governed affects how we respond to those in authority over us. The God of whom Psalm xcvi sings is the God who truly meets that longing. This Psalm reveals two great truths which show us how good a ruler, how upright, how worthy of our respect God is. It summons us to make the response to him that is fitting.

Worship the LORD in the splendour of holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth!
Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns!” – Psalm xcvi.9-10

To bring pleasure to God

Below are the notes for a talk I will, DV, be giving at the University of Idaho in Moscow later this week, which is part of a series aimed at unbelievers. I intend to have the Bible passages on a handout.

Introducing the World

Introduction

You may be familiar with ‘The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’, either the original radio series, or the novel, or the films. In the story, a group of hyper-intelligent, pan-dimensional beings, whose three dimensional protrusions into our universe are ordinary white mice, wanted to discover the Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. They design a super-computer the size of a small city called Deep Thought, which takes 7 ½ million years to work it out. When Deep Thought announces he has the answer, you might remember the conversation he has:

Deep Thought: You’re really not going to like it.
Mouse: Tell us.
Deep Thought: The answer to the Great Question…
Mouse: Yes?
Deep Thought: …of life, the universe, and everything…
Mouse: Yes?
Deep Thought: …is…
Mouse: Yes?
Deep Thought: …is…
Mouse: Yes?
Mouse: Yes?
Deep Thought: Forty-two.

Deep Thought then predicts that another computer, more powerful than itself, would be designed by it to calculate the question. This computer, often mistaken for a planet because of its size and biological components, is the Earth, which is destroyed by an alien race called the Vogons, to make way for a hyperspatial express route, five minutes before the conclusion of its 10 million-year programme.

Another answer to the question was given by the Monty Python team in their film ‘The Meaning of Life’. In their opening song, they ask?

Why are we here? What’s life all about?
Is God really real, or is their some doubt?
Well tonight we’re going to sort it all out,
For tonight it’s the meaning of life…

Is life just a game where we make up the rules?
While we’re searching for something to say
Or are we just simply spiralling coils
Of self-replicating DNA?

The film concludes with Michael Palin reading out the meaning of life:

“It’s nothing very special. Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”

All this is by way of introduction to what I’d like us to think about this evening. What is the purpose of our lives, of the universe, of this planet, of everything. What is it all for?

As Christians, it is our conviction that the cosmos is not simply the product of a hot, dense point rapidly expanding and then cooling to form clouds of gas which gave birth to the stars and galaxies and planets. Nor is life on earth simply the result of some early chemicals somehow acquiring the ability to copy themselves, with all the variation in the natural world we see today simply the effect of time, chance and environmental pressure. We are not simply vehicles for our genes to be reproduced. Life does have a meaning; there is an answer to the question of life, the universe and everything. What is more, not particularly hard to find out. We couldn’t work it out ourselves just by sitting around and thinking about it for long enough. Nor do we have to: God has told us. The answer to life, the universe and everything, the meaning of life, the point of everything is to bring pleasure to God who made it. That’s it. Psalm 135.6: God does what pleases him, God ‘did’ the creation of universe, therefore God made it for his own pleasure. I imagine that may well have raised a whole host of questions: “What do you mean, ‘God’?” “What do you mean, ‘God told us’?” “What do you mean, ‘God made it’?” “What do you mean ‘pleasure’? Isn’t that a bit self-centred?” I admit that what I have said is also very broad. By the end of this talk, may or may not have answered your questions, but I’d like to unpack what I’ve just said by talking about, first, the God who made the world, and secondly, about the world that God made, in particular, its purpose and its people. As I’ve said, this isn’t something that we can just work out, nor do we need to because God has told us, and so I’ll be referring to the Bible. By the end you may well think I am living in Cloud-Land: what I’m describing doesn’t bear much resemblance to reality on terra firma, on the ground. So I will conclude by speaking briefly about what has gone wrong and what the solution is.

1. The God who made the world

It is important that we take time to talk about this. It is not as if when I mention God, we will all naturally have the same of idea of God in our heads. We need to make sure we are talking about the same God and that the God we’re talking about is the right God, the true God. Last week, we were given some idea of the scale of the problem of talking about what God is like. It is like one ant trying to tell another ant about the Milky Way galaxy; you wouldn’t believe it. We also heard how God has made himself known to us, by coming into the world as one of us. Imagine this room had no windows, you couldn’t see out the door, and the door could only be opened from the outside. You hear a noise outside. One person says, “There must be other life out there. I think they must be purple pygmies.” Another person says, “No. No. From the sound they’re making, they must be green giants.” How are we going to tell whether the people outside are purple pygmies or green giants? What if someone from out there opened the door and walked in. We could see from what he or she was like what the people out there were like. He or she could tell us what the people out there are like because he or she has lived there, has experienced it. We’d learn that the people out there are just like us. This is precisely what has happened with God. Two thousand years ago, God came into this world as a man, Jesus of Nazareth. He has opened the door as it were. As we see what Jesus is like, we see what God is like. Jesus himself is able to tell us what God is like (John 3.11, 13). What we learn about God from Jesus is that God is one: there is one God (Mark 12.29). However, God is more complex than that. We also learn from Jesus that this one God exists in three persons, who are equal, but who can be distinguished: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus, who called himself the Son, said, ‘I and the Father are one’ (John 10.30). He later teaches his disciples that there is another like him, the Holy Spirit. Just as the Son came to earth from the Father, so the Father will send the Holy Spirit (John 14.16-17). There’s mystery here; this is far beyond what we can fully explain or understand, it is outside our realm of experience. Of course it is! We’re human beings trying to talk about God. In many ways its easier to say what God isn’t than it is to say what God is. What we can be clear about is that there are not three gods; there is one God. That one God is a community of three persons.

It is important that we have spent time looking at that. We need to make sure we’re talking about the same God, the true God. This really does have bearing on what we’re talking about – our purpose, and the purpose of the world. This God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is the God who made the world (Genesis 1.1-2, John 1.1-3). The Word is the Son, notice again how the Word is identified with God but also distinguished from him. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit – were all at work in making the world.

2. The world that God made

(a) Its purpose

I have already said at the beginning that the world and everything in it exists to bring God pleasure. We can be more specific. The Father and the Son are both those who made the world and those for whom the world was made. The Father made the world and it exists for him, for his pleasure (Romans 11.36). The Son made the world and it exists for him, for his pleasure (Colossians 1.16). Last year, I spent a lot of time with my wife’s cousin’s family. In that family, each child had a late night. Each week for the late night of the oldest son, he and his father would work together on making a rocket – putting it together, painting it &c. The father worked on it with his son so that then his son would have his own rocket and take great delight in launching it. His son worked on it with his father so that he could then spend time sharing the fun of launching it with his father. This is a very small, partial, imperfect picture of how it is with God and the universe he made. The Father and the Son together made the cosmos for the Son so that the Son would be master of it and take delight in it, and the Son wants to share that pleasure and delight with his Father. The pleasure is centred on the other. This is why it is not selfish at all for the universe to exist to please God. The Father seeks the Son’s pleasure; the Son seeks the Father’s pleasure. This is what the world that God made is for; this is it’s purpose

(b) Its people

How are we meant to bring God pleasure? When God made human beings, he made us in his image. We were made to be like him in some ways, to reflect something of him, to be a picture of him in the world he made. From Genesis 1.27-28, we see that we bear God’s image in two ways:

(i) Just as God is three persons who are fully and equally God but can nevertheless be distinguished, so the one human race exists as men and women who are designed to come together in the union of marriage. Just as the persons of the Trinity are equally God, yet there is proper distinction and order – the Father is the Father and not the Son, the Son is the Son and not the Father, so it is with the relationship between men and women in the union of marriage: they are equal but not the same; there is an order – 1 Corinthians 11.3. It is because we are created in the image of God who is three persons that we are personal beings. It is because we are created in the image of God who is three persons in relationship that we are relational beings – made for community, for friendship, for family; God said that it is not good that man should be alone.

(ii) Just as God took the world which was formless and void and then gave it form, gave it shape, and then filled it – light and dark, night and day, sky and earth and sea on days 1 to 3, and then plants and trees, sun, moon and stars,  birds, land animals, fish and human beings on days 4 to 6, just as God formed and filled the formless and empty world, so we are to take charge of, cultivate,  develop and bring to maturity this world and spread out and fill it. This is the basis of architecture, agriculture, mathematics, biology, physics, chemistry, art, music… We are meant to establish a civilisation which rules over the world under God, who is its true ruler because he made it and it belongs to him. That is our purpose, what we are for. We bring pleasure to God by reflecting what he is like in the world that we made. God made us for friendship with him, and for life without end.

Conclusion

A moment’s thought about the world around should make you wonder how God could possibly take pleasure in it. A moment’s thought about the behaviour of human beings, even about our own behaviour, should make us wonder how God could possibly take pleasure in us. This is a world characterised by disaster, disease, death, decay, I read just the other day in the news about the fires in Los Angeles in which a number have been killed. Our lives are characterised by selfishness, envy, hatred, lies, violence. We will think more about this in a later session, but briefly the reason is rebellion. The first human beings rejected God’s rule over them, they disobeyed him, and we’ve carried on the rebellion. Rather than acknowledge God as the one who made the world and gives us every good thing we enjoy, the food we eat, the friendships we enjoy, the breath we take, the roof over our heads, rather than thank him for it and honour him for it, we take all his good gifts and ignore him, we push him out of our lives. This rightly angers God and we face his judgement. Part of that judgement is the physical death that comes to each of us, part of it is the eternal punishment that awaits all those who persist in their rebellion. The hostility that exists between us and the world, the pain it causes us, is another aspect of it. Just as we have wanted to reject God, he hands us over to what we want. That is the root cause of the disorder, the moral decay we see in society. We see that in the realm of sexuality – sexual intercourse is no longer kept within marriage between one man and one woman. We see that in other interactions between people, the breakdown of families, murder, corruption in the worlds of business and politics. Like taking a coin with the head of a President stamped on it and scratching it out, we defaced God’s image in us. But God in his great love hasn’t left us in that mess. The Father sent the Son to rescue the world, to remake it, to remake us. The Son did not just come into the world in the person of Jesus Christ to make God known to us, came into the world to save us. He did so when he bore the punishment that people like you and me deserve when he suffered and died on the cross and then rose again from the dead. We’re called to believe in him, to trust in him, to put our hope in him as the one who can save us (John 3.16-17). Why does God do that? What’s the point? What’s the point of everything? To bring pleasure to God (Ezekiel 18.23, Psalm 147.11).