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| … thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. … If He used Peter, why not you? |
Today
was a Red Letter Day, that of the remembrance of Saint Peter, that is 29
June, which falls on the Second Sunday after Trinity. Thus, we use those propers, plus the Collect for the Second
Sunday after Trinity, next week – On with the Endless Green Season.
On
Point
Someone asked, where do the quotes come
from? The answer is from the
people who uttered them. But, how
did you find them? Oh, that. Some from Bishop Jerry, many from Rev
Bryan Dabney, a few from other places, some from Rev Geordie Menzies-Grierson,
but overall mostly from Bryan. He
always has some great ones to share.
On to the On Point quotes –
Christ and ritualism are opposed to each
other, as light is to darkness. The cross and crucifix cannot agree. Either
ritualism will banish Christ or Christ will banish ritualism.
Horatius
Bonar
The passion for ruling is the mother of
heresy.
John
Chrysostom
On
self-suffiency
They [Adam and Eve] wanted, as we say, to
“call their souls their own.” But that means to live a lie, for our souls are
not, in fact, our own. They wanted some corner in the universe of which they
could say to God, “This is our business, not yours.” But there is no such corner.
They wanted to be nouns, but they were, and eternally must be, mere adjectives.
Jack
Lewis
The Problem of Pain
Screwtape
offers more techniques for confusing the Patient:
I have been writing hitherto on the
assumption that the people in the next pew afford no rational ground for
disappointment. Of course if they do—if the patient knows that the woman with
the absurd hat is a fanatical bridge-player or the man with squeaky boots a
miser and an extortioner—then your task is so much the easier. All you then
have to do is to keep out of his mind the question ‘If I, being what I am, can
consider that I am in some sense a Christian, why should the different vices of
those people in the next pew prove that their religion is mere hypocrisy and
convention?’ You may ask whether it is possible to keep such an obvious thought
from occurring even to a human mind. It is, Wormwood, it is! Handle him
properly and it simply won’t come into his head. He has not been anything like
long enough with the Enemy to have any real humility yet. What he says, even on
his knees, about his own sinfulness is all parrot talk. At bottom, he still
believes he has run up a very favourable credit-balance in the Enemy’s ledger
by allowing himself to be converted, and thinks that he is showing great
humility and condescension in going to church with these ‘smug’, commonplace
neighbours at all. Keep him in that state of mind as long as you can.
Jack
Lewis
The Screwtape Letters
The light of the righteous
rejoiceth; but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.
Proverbs 13:9
And why
call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
St. Luke 6:46
... I am
the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but
shall have the light of life.
St. John 8:12
For none of us liveth to himself,
and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and
whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are
the Lord’s.
Romans 14:7-8
This know also, that in the last
days perilous times shall come.
II St. Timothy 3:1
If we ever forget that we're one
nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.
Ronald Wilson Reagan
20th century
American president
Sometimes violence, even murder,
isn’t the worst thing you can do to a fellow human being. Stealing his soul,
taking over the management of his conscience and his mind— those are worse...
Once the State consolidates its power to order what you think, it will know no
restraint. If someone else can decide what you believe, you aren’t human
anymore; you aren’t even you. You are at best a child, with no power, no
dignity, no autonomy. It isn’t even being done with legislation anymore. Who
needs law, when anything a bureaucrat says, or a pressure group, has all the
force of law?... Let Congress debate endlessly, to no purpose, while executive
orders, bureaucratic fiats, and threats by special interest groups
fundamentally transform America... The State’s satanic lust for power will
never be slaked until the human race isn’t human anymore— just a herd of two-
legged cattle to be driven wherever the rulers and the experts please.
Lee Duigon
20th and 21st
century American novelist
When The State Owns
Your Soul, 6-19-14
See if the law takes from some
persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not
belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing
what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish
this law without delay. If such a law is not abolished immediately it will
spread, multiply and develop into a system.
Frederic Bastiat
19th century
French economist and author
Regardless of the particular
problem facing Americans today, too often the first question asked is, “When is
the government going to save us?” At the most fundamental level, this question
is a socialist response to private concerns. Free men in a free society do not
look to government for solutions to private matters. Why? Because government is
not God; it cannot “give” to one unless it first takes away from another. The
“taking” mechanism of big government is that characteristic which tramples upon
the liberty of its citizens. We do not live in a free society when the
government can take our property in the form of taxes and give it to others.
Al Benson, Jr. and Walter Donald Kennedy
20th and 21st
century American political commentators and authors
Lincoln’s Marxists,
p. 48
The great lesson from [the
Republican Primary Runoff in] Mississippi is that Republican means, more or
less, that if elected the party will reward its major donors, who are just
different than the Democrats’ major donors. Policy differences are about
different donors, not an actual agenda to shift the country in a different
direction... [the] staffers and lobbyists [who] are so invested in keeping
their gravy train going... will, while claiming to be Republicans, flood a
Republican primary with [Democrat] voters to ensure their gravy train
continues... But this becomes a longer term problem for the [GOP]. Its core
activists hate its leadership... But its [leaders] are dependent more and more
on large check writers to keep their power... [and these] are further and
further removed from the interests of both the base of the party and Main
Street... It is a system that cannot perpetuate itself... A [tea party
conservative] win would have disrupted the flow of money and redirected a crony
capitalist agenda through which many make millions. The establishment had far
more to lose than conservatives had to gain and it showed... Unfortunately...
as grassroots activists feel further and further removed and alienated from the
party, it will become harder and harder [for the GOP] to win... I’m just not
sure what the Republican Party really stands for any more other than telling
Obama no and telling our own corporate interests yes. That’s not much of a
platform.
Erick Erickson
21st century
editor of Redstate.com
The Marionettes
Remain Uncut, 6-25-14
Propers
As the
observance of the Red Letter Day of the remembrance of Saint Peter, that is 29
June, falls on the Second Sunday after Trinity, we use those propers, plus the
Collect for the Second Sunday after Trinity, Saint Peter’s propers are found on
Page 244-245, with the Collect first:
Saint Peter the Apostle. [June 29.]
The Collect.
O
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ALMIGHTY God, who by thy Son Jesus Christ didst give to thy Apostle Saint
Peter many excellent gifts, and commandedst him earnestly to feed thy flock;
Make, we beseech thee, all Bishops and Pastors diligently to preach thy holy
Word, and the people obediently to follow the same, that they may receive the
crown of everlasting glory; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The
Collect for today the Second Sunday after Trinity is found on Page 191:
Second Sunday after Trinity.
The Collect.
O
|
LORD, who never failest to help and
govern those whom thou dost bring up in thy stedfast fear and love; Keep us, we
beseech thee, under the protection of thy good providence, and make us to have
a perpetual fear and love of thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle for this morning comes from the Twelfth
Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, beginning at the First Verse:
A
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BOUT that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of
the church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because
he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were
the days of unleavened bread.) And when he had apprehended him, he put him in
prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him;
intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. Peter therefore was
kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for
him. And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was
sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before
the door kept the prison. And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and
a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him
up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands. And the
angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And
he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. And he went out,
and followed him; and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel;
but thought he saw a vision. When they were past the first and the second ward,
they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them
of his own ac- cord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and
forthwith the angel departed from him. And when Peter was come to himself, he
said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath
delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the
people of the Jews.
The Holy Gospel for this
morning comes from the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, the Sixteenth
Chapter, beginning at the Thirteenth Verse:
W
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HEN Jesus came into the coasts of Cæsarea Philippi, he asked his
disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said,
Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias or
one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon
Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And
Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh
and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And
I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give
unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on
earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall
be loosed in heaven.
Bishop
Ogles’ Sermon
We
are oft fortunate to get copies of Bishop Jerry’s sermon notes. Today is one of those Sundays. Today’s sermon starts off with the collect,
and like always, it will give you a lot to consider in your heart.
Second
Sunday after Trinity
29
June 2014 Anno Domini
St Andrews Anglican Orthodox Church
Second
Sunday after Trinity.
The
Collect.
O
|
LORD, who never failest to help and govern those whom thou dost bring
up in thy stedfast fear and love; Keep us, we beseech thee, under the
protection of thy good providence, and make us to have a perpetual fear and
love of thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
15 And when one of
them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is
he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. 16 Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: 17 And sent his servant at supper time to say to them
that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. 18 And they all with one consent began to make excuse.
The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go
and see it: I pray thee have me excused. 19 And
another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray
thee have me excused. 20 And another
said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. 21 So that servant came, and shewed his lord these
things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out
quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor,
and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. 22 And
the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is
room. 23 And the lord said unto the
servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that
my house may be filled. 24 For I say
unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.
(Luke 14:15-24)
This parable of today’s
text was given at the home of one of the chief Pharisees who had invited Christ
to supper. It is doubtless that the invitation was made out of a cordial
courtesy, but out of a contemptuous curiosity to learn more of how they might
entrap the Son of God.
The comment that precedes
the parable is noteworthy of the casual piety with which many regard the means
of salvation. Blessed is he that shall eat bread
in the kingdom of God. The one posing the comment doubtlessly
considered himself to be one of those blessed ones who would eat of that Bread
in Heaven. Many of us simply assume that we shall be among the number and
smugly look around at those whose destiny we may consider in doubt. The comment
of Balaam seems to best describe this lot: Who can count the dust of Jacob,
and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the
righteous, and let my last end be like his! (Num 23:10)
The statement, of course, is a profound truth, but the way in which
it is viewed from the personal perspective may be profoundly in error. Instead
of concerning ourselves about our PRESENT righteousness, we are too
focused on the end of the play – how we shall DIE! We must not occupy our time
with undue emphasis on End of Time matters, but rather with those issues of
life itself as it exist in the here and now. In order to walk from Jerusalem to
Damascus, we must take EVERY step in between. Every step is as important as the
last for, if one be missing, we shall not reach Damascus.
16 Then said he unto him, A certain
man made a great supper, and bade many: God
is the ‘certain man’. The Great Supper is Heaven itself. Those ‘many’ invited
are the fullness of the Will of God for those to fill His Heaven at last. We do
not know the number, but God certainly has a fixed knowledge of it. God has
invited a great many to that Supper. Though an invitation may be received, it
will benefit the recipient nothing at all if he fails to respond to the
invitation. (“many are called but few are chosen” (Matt 20:16)
Certainly, if you hear
these words and have read the Gospel, the invitation has been extended to you.
But what will you do in response to the invitation? Are you presently too busy
to come? Have you properties to look after that forbids your coming? Are the
trifling concerns of the world preventing you? Compared to the salvation of
your soul, every other consideration is trifling.
17 And sent his servant at supper time to say to
them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. Jesus
is speaking to the Jewish guests who have early been invited to the Great
Supper. They have not yet, at this point in His ministry, rejected Him
officially. Those hereditary descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – not
because of bloodline and DNA, but because of geographic affinity – have been
invited first to the Great Supper. “All things are made ready” in the great I
AM – the Gift has been presented in the coming of Christ, the life of love and
labor has been completed, the sacrifice of the Great Passover has been killed,
and the first fruits of God in the Resurrection fulfilled. All is ready at
great expense of the “Certain Man” who has extended the invitation. He is
speaking, first, to those who have already received the invitation.
18 And they all with one
consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of
ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.
Not a few, but ALL began to make excuse with one consent. It brings the fearful
image to mind of all the Jews gathered on the paddock outside the balcony
of Pontiius Pilate screaming Crucify Him! Crucify Him! “His blood be upon us
and our children.” (Matt 27:25) …and so it has been, and is today. Of what
worth is a piece of ground which belongs to a dying world whose coming fiery
death is a stark reality of prophecy? The surgeon has scheduled you for an
appointment for surgery to remove a cancer that will certainly kill you soon if
not removed. Afterwards, he is leaving for Africa for many months. What happens
if you miss the appointment? Will an acre of ground loom more importantly to
you than the life-saving surgery?
19 And another said, I have
bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. 20 And another said, I have married a wife, and
therefore I cannot come. Certainly, oxen may be more important to
the depraved of faith than coming to the Great Supper in Heaven. How can one
night of nuptial bliss surpass the eternal joys of heaven. Did not God give the
oxen, the land, the wife? Yet, we have no time for HIM! What is it truly that
prevents inquiring men and women from coming all the way to Christ? It is the
deceitfulness of riches: He also that received
seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world,
and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.
(Matt 13:22)
Remember the ship is like the Church. It is made for the sea just as the church
is made to be in the world. But when the sea begins to get into the ship, and
the world into the church, the resulting shipwreck will be tragic. Those who
simply do not desire to serve will always have SOME excuse to delay. The longer
the delay, the greater the thorns that choke away the remaining life until…it
is too late!
Bear in mind we do not discuss any ordinary invitation – it is
issued by the King of all Kings. Is it wise to refuse? 21 So that servant came, and shewed his lord these
things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out
quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor,
and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. The purpose of God in bringing the full number of
His Elect into the Kingdom will not be abrogated
by the small wills and weaknesses of men. He will fill His Supper with those
who respond in earnest to His invitation. – even if He must enlarge the list of
those invited. So here, in accordance with His foreknowledge and providence
from the beginning, He sends for those who will genuinely respond, outside
those first invited: the poor, the crippled, the suffering, and the blind. We
all may easily fit into this last category. Before we knew Christ, we were
absolutely blind. Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on
him? (John 7:48)
22 And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou
hast commanded, and yet there is room. The angels have expanded
the list, yet still there remains room for others. Thank God that there does
remain room for others, for those others are those who read, and the one who
writes, these sermon notes. The maimed, the poor, the halt, and the blind have
responded to the invitation ahead of those prominent ones who were privileged
to come and have rejected the invitation. There is STILL room – even today!
23 And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into
the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be
filled. God sends His
ministers into the four quarters of the earth seeking those who will respond to
His gracious invitation. God will have His House filled with those who desire
Heaven more than the riches of this world….not half-full, but wholly full with
His predetermined number. The net is cast in the darkest depths of the sea
where hope was forlorn and depravity beyond measure. The Gospel will go out to
the heathen and the Gentiles. In fact, all of the Household of Israel – those
who are Children of the Promise in Abraham. These does not require a blood
heritage except the blood of Christ. It is doubtless that the Pharisees
gathered around Christ understood fully His parable and were enraged by it. How
could those vulgar Gentiles be placed ahead of them in gaining the privilege of
Heaven? How, indeed? By faith!
24 For I say unto you, That none of those men which
were bidden shall taste of my supper. Heaven will not be a
home-delivery proposition. IN order to taste of its delicacies, we must come to
it by way of the Householders Son. He has bought and paid for your invitation
with His own Blood. He is the “ Way, the Truth,
and the Life” and none comes to the Father but by Him. How shall you
trample His Blood underfoot by refusing the gracious invitation to come?
Jesus has sealed your
invitation with these words: Come unto me,
all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke
upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find
rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matt 11:28-30)
How have you responded?
Sermon – Reverend Jack Arnold - Time and
Action
Church of the Faithful Centurion - Descanso, California
The weekly service for the Church
of the Faithful Centurion was actually held on Saturday evening due to the
presence of the Thomas Family (plus Scott) from Okinawa and the propers used
were those for the Second Sunday after Trinity.
Today’s sermon brought the
Collect, Epistle and Gospel together and is partly contained in the forewords
above.
Consider these words from the
Collect:
… who
never failest to help and govern those whom thou dost bring up in thy stedfast
fear and love; Keep us, we beseech thee, under the protection of thy good
providence, and make us to have a perpetual fear and love of thy holy Name…
We must acknowledge God will help
and lead us if we will look to him for that help and leadership. We need His Help, in the form of the
Holy Ghost, to direct our hearts, minds and souls to look to Him for that Help
in our time of need.
Speaking of time of need; when do
we need God? Only when we are
falling short of perfection. That
would be all the time, 24/7/365, all 52 weeks of the
year. We always need God's help, sometimes we recognize the fact, and sometimes
we do not. We pray to God that we will always recognize the fact and act upon
it.
The Epistle is a great
illustration of why we need guidance from the Holy Ghost all the time. If we want God’s love, we have to love
those around us. That is pretty
easy. It is easy to love
people. The problem is that we
actually have to act on that claim of love, not just say we love them. That is
slightly harder, but still very doable, with God's help. We have to give
of our time and effort to help those around us who have problems. We have to give our 110% in our time and effort to help
those around us. John tell us “And this is his commandment, That we
should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he
gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and
he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he
hath given us.”
So how far do we have to go to
fulfill our obligation to love our fellow beings? We have a leader, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is not only the Propitiation for our sins[1],
but who set the standard for our performance. As John reminds us, “He laid down his life for us.” So, too much work or I don’t
have time are probably not valid excuses. We
should not go straightaway to offer excuses, but put our minds and souls and
bodies to work into actually loving our fellow beings.
Speaking of time, many times
people put off church for other “more important” things, do you? Like the certain man who made a great
supper, the Lord sets aside a time every week for us to worship with Him. Actually His time is pretty
flexible. The Lord’s worship can
be done at times other than 1000 on Sunday morning if you really do have to
work, you have weekend duty, you are on alert or something you really cannot
get out of. But, where are your
priorities? Is a football game, a
fishing trip or just plain sleeping in the “reason” for your failing to show
for the great supper? When you
fail to plan ahead, you plan to fail.
Always plan ahead, planning ahead is a plan to
success.
The Gospel is about more than
just going to church, it is about priorities. We need to put the things that are really important in the
list of things to do above the things that are not really important. We need to think about what is important
to us and to God. Sometimes they
are different. Then, we need the
Holy Ghost to get our priorities in order.
People do what is important to
them. When they feel guilty they
come up with excuses, but in reality, they please themselves. We should seek to please God and not ourselves.
So, what we need to do is ask the
Holy Ghost for help to make God’s agenda ours; thus when we please God, we
please ourselves. A win – win
situation.
If we do not make time for God,
how do we expect Him to make time for us?
If we will not diligently study the lessons He has left for us, how can
we expect to know what He wants us to do?
Do you recall the words of GK
Chesterton:
“Christianity has
not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.”
We need to come to church and
read the Bible so we can find out what God wants. But, the idea is not to find out what He wants so we can
work around it or live with it, but rather live in it. That is a
rather difficult concept for a lot of people. Think about the 613 Mosaic
laws and the Pharisees who made a good living telling people how to comply with
them to the letter and still do just what they wanted to do.
If we find out what God wants and
decide to actually do it instead of avoid it, we are still faced with an often
huge problem of where do we get the strength to accomplish this task. The answer is circular, from God, the
Holy Ghost. He never asks us to do
anything we cannot do good enough for Him if we rely on Him. Never.
Heaven is at the end of an uphill
trail. The easy downhill trail
does not lead to the summit.
The time is now, not
tomorrow. The time has come,
indeed. How will you ACT?
It is by our actions we are
known.
Be of God - Live of God - Act of God
Bishop
Dennis Campbell’s Sermon
Bishop Dennis is a brilliant
speaker. He is able to take
biblical precepts and make them perfectly understandable, even to me. Oft he provides the text of his sermons
and I take the utmost pleasure in passing them on:
Healing for Souls
Psalm 23, Acts 15:11
Feast of Saint Peter
June 29, 2014
There is sickness in our souls. Every one of us is afflicted
with this sickness. Its symptoms and effects are everywhere. We see
them in the daily crime and war reports we call “news.” We see them in
the way people talk, in the way they drive their cars, and in the way they treat
one another. Few people will dispute the idea that the world would be
infinitely better if people simply lived according to the commandments and
principles found in the Bible. Yet it seems fewer still have any
intention of even a half-hearted attempt to live by them. Such people are
not always overtly evil, according to the standards of the world. They
may even appear to be good. Yet a serious look into their psyches will
reveal that they live for themselves rather than God. From the beginning
they break the very first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods.”
Why do people do this? It is because of the sickness of the
soul we call sin. We are terminally ill with sin. And this illness
causes us to do evil as surely as the flue causes us to run a fever. Sin
is the disease; sins are the symptoms, death is the prognosis. “Death” as used
here means separation from God. It means to be separated from Him now in
this life, and to be separated from Him forever in eternity.
Separation from Him here is often recognized by a general feeling of
dread, meaninglessness, and a deep, deep sense of discontentment in the
soul. It is also expressed in the self-destructive ideas, and habits that
harden into a life-style which increases our discontent and dread. The
philosophers called this “existential angst.” The Bible calls it being
without God in the world. It calls it “darkenss” and it calls those in
that.darkness, “lost.” This is what I mean by the sickness of sin.
Separation from God in eternity is called, “hell.” It is a
place of suffering, where the fire never stops and the worm never dies.
Terrible as that is, it is as nothing compared to the knowledge that, “I could
have had Heaven. I could have had God. I could have gone to that
place of eternal joy instead of this place of eternal sorrow. All I had
to do was trust Jesus.” According to the Bible, those in Hell are
eternally “lost.” So, today, at the very start of this emphasis on
healing, I want to strongly emphasise the very single most important and
absolutely necessary foundation of all healing. That foundation is the
atoning life and death of the Lord, Jesus Christ.
There are millions of people who are willing to trust Jesus for this
life but unwilling to trust Him with eternity. By that I mean they trust
God to provide for their physical needs, but think they are going to get into
Heaven by the merit of their own goodness. This is folly. Imagine
yourself standing in front of God trying to convince Him to let you into Heaven
by telling Him how good you were in life. Take your time. Time is
meaningless there. You can take a decade or a century, though I doubt you
will need it. Do your best to show yourself in the best light
possible. After you are finished, imagine an angel coming before God with
a Bible in his hand. Imagine him opening that Bible to Exodus 20 and
reading the Ten Commandments. Now imagine another angel coming to stand
before God. This angel opens another book and begins to read a list of all the
times and all the ways you have neglected to keep, or flagrantly broken each
one of these commandments. These angels are like witnesses in a
courtroom, and every time the second angel speaks, the fantasy of your own
goodness is crushed by the reality of your sins. When he is finished,
there can only be one conclusion; you will never enter Heaven on the merit of
your own goodness.
The only way to enter Heaven is to let Jesus get you in. Jesus
said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” He is the way to
Heaven because He gave Himself for your sins. You have heard much about
how Jesus took your sins on Himself and suffered your sentence on the
cross. But that’s only half of the Gospel. The other half is that
He put His righteousness on you. So God spiritually speaking, no longer
“sees” you sins. When He looks at you He sees only the righteousness of
Christ, and you are welcomed into Heaven just as you would be if you had never
sinned at all.
So the first part of spiritual healing is the healing of your soul
from the penalty of your sins. You receive this healing by trusting what
Jesus did on the cross to get you into Heaven. It is simply a matter of
believing He is God in the flesh; that He died in your place for your sins, and
you are forgiven and regarded by God as completely righteous and holy. We
call this “faith,” and I have just described the Biblical doctrine of
justification by faith alone. It means we can’t earn it by our good
works. We simply trust God to give it to us through Christ. The
Apostle Paul described it better than I. He wrote, “not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.”
Those who trust Christ to heal them of the disease of sin have a
different prognosis. We are going to live. There is still much
therapy to endure. There is still medication and surgery to be done on
our souls. But we are on the way to wellness. We are healed in our
souls. It is that medication and therapy and surgery that I want to talk
about next Sunday, for these are the means by which God works healing in your
soul.
I hope you have let Jesus heal the disease of your sin. I hope
you have asked Him to take your sins, and to give His righteousness to
you. I hope you have consciously decided to stop trusting your own works,
and to let His sacrifice on the cross make you acceptable to God. There
will never be any further healing of your soul until you trust Jesus for
eternity. You may drug away some of the pain of life. You may mask it
through drugs like material wealth, worldly pleasures, self-indulgence, and
other things that make you temporarily forget you are sick. But those
things merely hide the symptoms. They don’t cure the disease. In
the end, you die in your soul, that eternal death I spoke of a few minutes
ago. But there is no reason to allow this to happen to you. Trust
Jesus. He will heal your soul.
Rev Bryan Dabney
of Saint John’s Sunday Sermon
We are fortunate to
have Bryan’s Sunday Sermon. If you
want people to come to The Truth, you have to speak the truth, expouse the
truth and live the truth. This is really a good piece and I
commend it to your careful reading.
Second Sunday after Trinity
The gospel was the parable of the great supper (St. Luke 14:16-24). The Rev. Matthew Henry noted that this
parable illustrated our Lord’s presentation of the gospel message to the Jews
of his generation. He bade them come to his supper that they might enjoy the
benefits of the gospel and become what God had intended for them to be: the
sons and daughters of God and co-heirs with Christ in glory.
We also learned from this parable that most would not accept, so our
Lord then sent his servants to call those who were poor, the maimed, and the
halt and the blind. Now these characteristics were not meant to be understood
only in their literal sense, though our Lord does extend his calling to persons
who are so afflicted.
Those whom he referred to as being poor match the description of those
identified as such in the Beatitudes: Blessed are the poor in spirit: for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven (St. Matthew 5:3). To be made fit for the
kingdom of heaven, we must rid ourselves of those earthly desires and passions
that conflict with the Christian life. Our Lord said, No man can serve two
masters... (6:24a) which clarifies the point being made. Before we can truly
know the love of God, we must first establish a relationship with him in Christ
Jesus. To be poor with regard to the spiritual aspects of this world opens the
way for us to be filled with the Holy Ghost. How many people who bear the name
of our Lord are so poor in their spiritual life precisely because they are
filled with the spirit of this world?
A maimed person is one who has been rendered unable to walk and must
crawl to get around, or else have others assist him. The maimed are those who
realize that their lives have been crippled by sin and are seeking to be
relieved of their handicap by the Great Physician and Healer of men’s souls.
Jesus Christ offers us spiritual healing which we cannot get anywhere else. He
also can heal us of our physical ailments as well, if it is within his
purposeful will so to do. How many so-to-speak Christians are crawling through
this life because they will not heed the Master’s call and thus finding rest
and healing for their souls?
The halt, or limping, are those who, though technically crippled, are
able to get around. While having some capacity, they nevertheless see the need
for a Saviour to assist them. How many Christians-in-name-only are so crippled
in their faith that they simply hobble along through this life as they refuse
to accept our Lord’s calling to follow his path and keep his commandments and
be healed?
The blind are those who have not the ability to see their way to
spiritual happiness but desire to have a guide to God. They will come to our
Lord’s supper only if the true servants of God will lead them. How many who
claim to know Christ are blind to him because they have placed their trust in
false teachers and ministers: who have convinced them that God’s word is
flawed, or some how too vague for them to understand?
Those initially called might well be classed as spiritually poor,
maimed, halt and blind much as the members of the current Laodicean church are,
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked (Revelation 3:14-19) .
One’s spiritual condition is therefore determined by whether or not one truly
has a heart for God and desires to do his will as expressed in his word
written. Is the Lord inside your heart, or is he outside knocking to come in?
Now let us consider the excuses of those who did not come the great
supper. The first person called responded with, I have bought a piece of
ground, and I must needs go and see it. As the Rev. Matthew Henry noted
concerning this man, “His heart was so much on enlarging of his estate. Those
that have their hearts full of the world and [are] fond of laying house to
house and field to field, have their ears deaf to the gospel invitation.” St.
Paul once admonished, For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise
men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called, but God hath
chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath
chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty, and the base things
of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory
in his presence (I
Corinthians 1:26-29). While
there is nothing unbiblical in a person acquiring property; the real message
here is: if you are putting the acquisition of earthly things ahead of
communing with God, then you have no heart for him.
Many souls who bear the name of Christ know who he was, but not who he
is. They go through this life bowing before the gods which hold their interest
and their hearts. They have so compartmentalized their lives with everything
they have to do to advance themselves during the week on one side, and a
smidgen of time on Sunday (and maybe on Wednesday evenings) which is reserved
for God on the other. God is not considered apart from the appointed time on
their schedule and they rarely apply godly principles in their commercial
interests much less their private moments. They do not understand that all of
life is subject to God. What a rude awakening they will have on Judgment Day
when they hear the words of our Lord, I never knew you, depart from me ye that
work iniquity (St.
Matthew 7:23b).
But before you take the position that such a view is too harsh,
consider Article XIII of our Articles of Religion which states in part that,
“Works done before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of his Spirit, are
not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ... “
Just because one did a good work in the name of Jesus Christ does not mean that
such a person is in fact a born-again believer in Jesus Christ. The
unregenerated person’s works possess no salvific qualities for no man can be
saved by the works of the flesh apart from a lively faith in Jesus Christ, and
a heart to do his will. Our Lord said, If ye love me, keep my commandments (St. John 14:15).
The second excuse given was that of a man who had purchased a yoke of
oxen and had not tried them out. What could be more important for our spiritual
health and well-being than our fellowship with the Lord? When other things are
more important than spending time with the very person who suffered in our
place— who made it possible for us to have eternal life— one would have to
question that person’s relationship with the Godhead. We should follow the
example of David who said, I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into
the house of the LORD (Psalm 122:1). What
greater joy is there? Who better than the King of kings and Lord of lords
should we desire to break bread with? How can anyone who claims to love God,
refuse such a wonderful offer? And yet, many who bear the name of Christ do so
every day by rejecting God’s word written because they want to live life on
their terms and not on God’s. They will miss heaven because they refused the
calling of God’s Son to come and feast with him.
At every administration of the Holy Communion, we obey the Lord’s
commandment to break the bread and drink from the cup of his table until he
comes. We do so in remembrance of his sacrifice for us. And we rejoice in his
offering of grace to us, for it is by means of his grace that have that blessed
hope of eternal life in his kingdom. But in order to gain admission to his
place of rest and reward, we must respond in the affirmative to his calling
because his all sufficient grace is made available to whosoever will not
“whosoever won’t.”
The third excuse was made by one who had just taken a wife. The Law
said that such would serve as an excuse for a man going to war (see Deuteronomy 20:7). But the issue at hand in our parable is
incongruent with this excuse as one is being called to attend a feast and the
Law did not excuse a man from his religious duties if he had recently taken a
wife. As the Rev. Matthew Henry noted, “[The man] pretends that he cannot
[come] when the truth is, he will not.” Our Lord said, If any man come to me,
and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and
sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple (St. Luke 14:26).
What he meant is clear: he that would not love the Lord more than all else is
not worthy to be called his disciple. We have to put the Lord first in all
things.
When our Lord communicated this parable, he revealed the true spiritual
states of those who were listening. Not many were willing to accept him as the
Messiah much less follow his teachings because they had other plans in mind.
The Devil loves to insinuate in our minds “other plans” that we would forget
our true purpose which is to have fellowship with our Saviour. For it is only
through such that we are freed from the tyranny of Satan’s grasp. We are thus
enabled to join the feast and fellowship with the very person who came into the
world to save us because he first loved us, and laid down his life for us—
taking the punishment that we rightly deserve— so that we could have a place in
his kingdom forever.
We Christians have been redeemed from sin, death, Hell and the grave by
the blood of Jesus Christ. So when he bids us come, we ought to, out of pure
gratitude, drop what we are doing and come to him with praise and thanksgiving
in our hearts for that is what a true child of God will do. May God touch your
heart today to do his will and walk in his paths always.
Let us pray:
H
|
oly Father, you have given to us the gift of
eternal life by means of the shed blood of thine only begotten Son, Jesus
Christ ; may it please thee to inspire us to grow daily into his likeness; that
being so transformed, we might be made more effective witnesses for thee in
this sin-darkened world; and this we ask in his most precious name. Amen.
Have a blessed week, Bryan+
