Psalm 37:30-40 - Salvation is from the LORD

The wisdom of this world always falls short because it does not begin with the fear of God nor does it look at life from the perspective of eternity. We are not merely some species whom Chance evolved into being, wandering without purpose through life, destined only for nothingness. We are created in the image of God, by God, for the purpose of bringing glory to God. The purpose of this life is not ourselves, but God. The fact that we fail to understand this, or reject it, is Exhibit A of our fallen nature.

Ours is not a pragmatic religion. We aren't in this for what we can get out of it. If we truly believe in Christ then our hope is tied to something far beyond this world. If you're looking for something to help you achieve what you want out of life, then Christ is not for you. Jesus did not come to give us what we want or what we think is best for us. Jesus came to call us away from such foolish thinking. He made it clear that those who follow him must expect to lose their life--for his sake and for the kingdom. The irony and the beauty of this calling is that it is a calling back from ruin to eternal joy. Following Christ and finding our purpose in him is part and parcel of being restored, being made again into what God intended us to be. No human being will ever be satisfied with anything less.

When Jesus calls us to lose our life for his sake and the kingdom, he is really not calling us to lose anything at all, for there is no life in the pursuit of self, no joy, no satisfaction--only ruin. Life, joy, completeness, these can only come from Christ. True life, the life that leads to eternal life, only comes through Jesus Christ.

Psalm 37 teaches wisdom from the perspective of our pursuit of God by faith, our trusting him, and our living in the light of eternity. In this sermon I finished up our series in Psalm 37, the conclusion of which is that salvation is from the Lord. I hope that you will take the time to listen and be blessed. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.


Click here: Psalm 37:30-40


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Philippians 4:20-23 - Final Words

Paul closes his letter to the Philippians in typical fashion. First, a doxology:  To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

The idea of God as "Father" originated with the Exodus out of Egypt. When God called Israel out of Egypt he called him as a son.

When Israel was a child, I loved him,

and out of Egypt I called my son.--Hosea 11:1

When Jesus gave his disciples the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6 there was nothing new or radical about referring to God as "Our Father." It is important to note, however, that the title denotes a covenant relationship. Only God's children by covenant are invited to call him "Father."

To our God and Father--he is God by nature and God over all, but he is Father by covenant to his children.

And just as the Christ hymn in chapter 2 describes the humiliation and the exaltation of Christ and the culmination of redemptive history when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. . . .

So Paul ascribes glory to our God and Father at the end of his letter.

But before Paul ends his letter he drops this little bombshell:  All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household.

As for why this is such a bombshell and its significance to us as 21st century Christians I invite you to listen to the audio recording linked below. There is a lot more to this concluding section of the book of Philippians than meets the eye. Take a listen and be blessed.

(This concludes the verse by verse exposition of Philippians. There were 29 of them and you will find them all linked here in this blog. Our next series on Wednesday nights will be a verse by verse exposition of Galatians.)

Click here:  Philippians 4:20-23



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Psalm 37:12-29 - The Righteous and the Wicked Contrasted

Psalm 37 is a wisdom psalm. In the Hebrew it is divided into 22 stanzas, each one pertaining to one of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet. For some reason this acrostic form was not carried over into our English translations, where we find the psalm divided into forty verses. Because of its length I divided the exposition of it into three sermons. I covered the first eleven verses in the first sermon. In this second sermon I covered verses 12-29--ten stanzas in the Hebrew.

The first part of this exposition deals with the hatred that the wicked have for the righteous.

(12) The wicked plots against the righteous

and gnashes his teeth at him,

Our theology, our truth claims as Christians, is offensive to the sinful world. The gospel itself is an offense. If we genuinely believe the gospel and seek to live the gospel we will be hated. Sound harsh?

Understand that I'm not talking about Christians behaving in purposely offensive and obnoxious ways. There are plenty who do that in the name of Christ. No, I'm talking about genuine Christian belief and practice. Ours is to love and to speak the truth--but to speak the truth in love. And to live the truth we profess to believe. If we do so there will always be opposition. This is the norm in the New Testament. If we have not experienced that in our short lives living in the western world it is because we are an anomaly.

The second theme this particular passage takes up is that of wealth.

(16) Better is the little that the righteous has

than the abundance of many wicked.

The Bible has much to say about wealth and to get a balanced view of it would take more time than I had to put into that sermon. But what will help us to understand this passage and passages like it is to know that David is addressing ill-gotten gains. He is speaking of wealth accumulated by oppression. He's not addressing wealth gained by virtues such as hard work and wise investment. Abraham was wealthy and godly. Job was wealthy and godly. Even David himself, the writer of these verses, was wealthy. Profit is the reward of virtue and that is a truth that has been neglected in our day.

To the contrary, we live in a society where class envy is abused for political advantage. Envy is as wicked as oppression and it is possible for the powerful to use envy and greed to their advantage and take advantage of the poor by inciting them to envy the wealthy. This is why the Bible teaches us contentment. As Christians we should not be motivated by envy or greed in any way, but rather the pursuit of righteousness and Christ's kingdom.

Whatever God gives us in terms of material wealth we are to be content with it and use it for the furtherance of the gospel. But never, if we should find ourselves in a position of not having much, should we be envious of unrighteousness wealth, nor should we ever succumb to the temptation to seek wealth in an unrighteous way. That is what is being addressed here.

There is more to this sermon than this, including allusions to Christ and the gospel. I hope you will take the time to listen to it and be blessed. The sermon is about 30 minutes in length and you can listen to it by clicking the link below. God bless.

Click here:  Psalm 37:12-29

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Philippians 4:14-19 - On Giving

At the end of Paul's letter to the Philippians he thanks them for the gift they sent for his relief in prison and has a few words to say about giving.

There is much bad teaching out there about giving and in this Bible study I tried to correct some of that. For example, you have probably heard it said that "the tithe belongs to the Lord," and you may have been taught to look at giving like a debt. This teaching is based upon a failure to understand what the tithe was and what it was for in the Old Testament. The tithe was the flat tax of the Old Covenant theocracy. We live under the New Covenant and we understand that it all belongs to God, everything we have and everything we are belongs to God. In the New Covenant we do not give by constraint, but willingly. Giving to gospel ministry is a part of living the gospel. Giving to gospel ministry is worship. Giving to the Lord's work is an investment in Christ's kingdom which pays dividends now (as the fruit of righteousness in our lives) and in the hereafter. We invest in the kingdom now because the kingdom is where our heart is.

Moreover, the Philippians gave generously at a time when they were blessed with the means to give. Later, when they were in poverty, they still gave generously. Look at Paul's words about them in 2 Corinthians 8:

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also.

Giving is grace. It is an act of grace and it is done in response to God's grace. We are willing to give what we have because he gave his all for us. When we give we are imitating Christ.

You will find the audio to this bible study linked below. I hope you will take the time to listen to it and grow in your understanding so that you might excel in this act of grace also, as Paul says above.

Click here: Philippians 4:14-19 - On Giving

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Psalm 37:1-11 - The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth

Psalm 37 is a mini book of Proverbs within the Psalms. It reads like the book of Proverbs, but it is less encompassing. It is wisdom centered around a particular theme--that of comparing and contrasting the righteous with the wicked.

All biblical wisdom starts with the fear of God. Being wise, according to the Bible, is coming to terms with God as he is revealed in the word and ordering one's life accordingly. We begin by acknowledging God and fearing him, then everything else builds on that.

Psalm 37 begins by reminding us that although the wicked often prosper in the short-term, it is the righteous who will prevail in the long run, for God is on their side. We look around us and we see that nice guys often finish last. We see that unscrupulous people often prosper. We see that ungodliness is often great gain in this world. And we are tempted to be frustrated by that. We are tempted to be envious of those who wantonly violate God's laws and unabashedly live wicked lives and seem, from our vantage point, to be enjoying themselves immensely, while we pine away on the straight and narrow. "So long, suckers!" they say as they pass us by on their way to some Bible-forbidden enjoyment. But, David says,

Fret not yourself because of evildoers;

be not envious of wrongdoers!

For they will soon fade like the grass

and wither like the green herb.

We need to keep eternity in our perspective. If this life were all there were, it would make sense to "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." But for the Christian this life is not all there is and the only life that makes any sense is the one lived with eternity and God'S promises in view. We don't have to fight for what is already promised us. We don't have to fret over people who are soon to be judged. We long for liberty and justice and rights and human welfare and a world without war and poverty and on and on and on. And none of these things can be brought about through the politics of Babylon. But all of these will be set in place by the King when he arrives. And he will be arriving soon. And that is when the meek, you and I, shall inherit the earth . . .

In just a little while, the wicked will be no more;

though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.

But the meek shall inherit the land

and delight themselves in abundant peace.

At the link below you will find an audio recording of the sermon I preached from these first eleven verses of Psalm 37. Just click and a new window will open in your browser taking you to the page where this and other sermons are stored. I hope you will listen and be blessed.

Click here:  Psalm 37:1-11 - The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth


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Philippians 4:10-14 - Contentment In Christ

Philippians 4:13 could possibly be one of the most misused verses in the Bible. Most people use this verse as if Paul is giving us a blanket promise that we can be or do anything we dream, and that Christ is there to help us achieve our dreams.

 He's not. As the old saying goes, "A text without a context is a pretext," and there is no greater proof of the truth of that statement than the blatant misuse and abuse this verse gets in our American evangelical culture.

Philippians 4:13 is not about Christ helping us achieve our dreams and goals. In context, it is about God giving us the strength to be content no matter what his providential hand brings into our lives. Here is the context:

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I
am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.--Philippians 4:11-13

The focus of this passage is the virtue of contentment and the secret to contentment is resting in Christ. Paul can be faithful to Christ and satisfied with Christ no matter what his outward circumstances look like. He possesses Christ and that possession of Christ is more valuable than anything in this ever-changing world. We would do well to learn this sort of contentment and we will learn it just as soon as the focus of our lives becomes not ourselves or the things of this world, but Christ.

Below you will find a link to the Bible study I taught on this passage. I hope you will take the time to listen to it and be blessed. Just click below.


Click here: Philippians 4:10-14


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Psalm 36 - God and Man Contrasted

Psalm 36 is instructional. It teaches us about ourselves, our human nature, and then contrasts our nature with God's nature. Then it concludes with a prayer. Thus David shows us that orthopraxy only comes from orthodoxy. Or, in other words, sound Christian conduct and practice--in this case prayer and worship--only comes from sound theology.

Our problem is a heart problem. It is a desire problem. We desire sin in our hearts. We desire our own way. We desire autonomy and independence from God. While truth may speak to our minds, as human beings our reaction is to push away the truth because in our hearts we desire transgression. We desire our own way. I'm speaking, of course, of human beings in our natural state.

There is no political solution to this problem. Law, for example, cannot change it. What law does is expose it and what the state or government does is help keep it in check. So laws are good, assuming those laws are just and right. But laws at best can only curb human behavior by threat of force. They cannot cure what is wrong with us. We human beings are wicked to the core and that wickedness is what is wrong with the world. We love transgression.

David phrases it this way:

Transgression speaks to the wicked

deep in his heart;

there is no fear of God

before his eyes.--Psalm 36:1

And so David goes on describing the character of man until we are left feeling helpless and hopeless. 

Then he begins the contrasting picture of the great character of God. In verses 6-9 he says:

Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;

your judgments are like the great deep;

man and beast you save, O LORD.

How precious is your steadfast love, O God!

The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

They feast on the abundance of your house,

and you give them drink from the river of your delights.

For with you is the fountain of life;

in your light do we see light.

And it is in this latter portion of the psalm where we begin to see the cross. At the cross God's providential hand is seen working in a way we would never have thought. Israel's promised messiah came and was rejected? How does that make sense? And through that rejection comes the deliverance of all God's people.

Think of the story. God becomes man. Creator becomes creation and creation kills him. Through death comes an end to death. Through cursing comes an end to the curse. Through pain and suffering come an end to all pain and suffering.

At the cross God's righteousness and salvation meet and become one. It is at the cross where God is shown to be both righteous and merciful at the same time. And here's the beautiful thing. God becomes a refuge for all who run to him.

Below you will find a link to the sermon I preached from this psalm. The link takes you to SoundCloud where you will find an MP3 recording of that sermon and many more. I hope you will take the time to listen and be blessed.

Click here:  Psalm 36 - God and Man Contrasted

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Philippians 4:8-9 - Think About These Things

In Paul's final words to the Philippians he does something that is unique in all of his epistles. He sends them to the well of culture to draw water.

He has previously reminded them on several occasions that while they are in the world, they are not of the world. In fact, it is abundantly clear that the world around them, the culture in which they live, is opposed to them. While Paul tells them not to be afraid of those who oppose them he also tells them to walk worthy of the gospel, or to be gospel citizens. He later reminds them that they are citizens of heaven--and that their Savior is not Caesar but Christ--and that Christ is Lord of all, not Caesar.

But now he tells them to look around them at that same culture and if there is anything virtuous to be found to "think about these things."

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.--Philippians 4:8-9

This list of virtues is so Roman that it looks like it could have been written by Cicero. And yet it is not Cicero, it is Paul. In this Bible study we look at this list and talk about its significance in the Philippians' lives and also our own. We also talk about such concepts as common grace and natural law. I hope you will take the time to click the link below and listen to the study. My prayer is that you will grow in grace and that God's word explained clearly will prove to be a blessing in your life. Just click below.

Click here: Philippians 4:8-9


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