Heidelberg Catechism: Lord's Day #45

Intro…

Welcome to the Cornerstone Baptist church podcast. My name is Justin Wheeler, I am the preaching pastor for Cornerstone and today we are in week 45 of our journey through the Heidelberg Catechism. Today, I will be talking to you about question 116-119.

This week’s questions are aimed at the Christian’s prayer life.

Question 116: Why do Christians need to pray?

Answer: Because prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness God requires of us. and also because God gives His grace and Holy Spirit only to those who pray continually and groan inwardly, asking God for the these gifts and thanking Him for them.

We are still in the gratitude section of the Catechism and we need to remind ourselves that we have arrived at this point only because we have travelled through the guilt and grace sections. We started out the year 2019 by opening the first pages of the Heidelberg and learning that the greatest problem facing humanity is not a political one, it is not a financial one, nor a social one; it is a spiritual problem.

We live in a natural state of sin and misery. God has graciously revealed to us that the root of all that has gone wrong in the world is the separation that exists between the Creator and His creatures. We have sinned and our sin sets us at odds with our Holy God. But God’s mercy is greater than our sin.

In Christ, God has poured out grace to cover our sin. On the cross, Jesus paid our debt and has ransomed us from our guilt and into relationship with God. Once we were far off but now by the blood of Christ we have been brought near to God. By faith in Christ we now have a relationship with God and prayer is a key component in that relationship.

Transition

In prayer we express our gratitude for God’s love and grace. In prayer we ask God for forgiveness, wisdom, strength, and help. In prayer we seek the comfort and guidance of the Holy Spirit. In prayer we talk to our heavenly Father. Most of us know this, but at the same time, most of us still struggle with prayer.

In his book, A Praying Life, Paul Miller asks us to imagine a trip to a prayer therapist who is going to help us with our prayer struggles. The therapist begins the session by asking us to describe what it means to be a child of God.

You reply that it means you have complete access to your heavenly Father through Jesus. You have true intimacy, based not on how good you are but on the goodness of Jesus. Not only that, but Jesus is your brother. You are a fellow heir with him.

The therapist smiles and says, “That is right. You’ve done a wonderful job of describing the doctrine of Sonship. Now tell me what it is like for you to be with your Father? What is it like to talk with him?”

You cautiously tell the therapist how difficult it is to be in your Father’s presence, even for a couple of minutes. Your mind wanders. You aren’t sure what to say. You wonder, does prayer make any difference? Is God even there? Then you feel guilty for your doubts and just give up.

Your therapist tells you what you already suspect. “Your relationship with your heavenly Father is dysfunctional. You talk as if you have an intimate relationship, but you don’t. Theoretically, it is close. Practically, it is distant. You need help.”[1]

I think we all need some help in the area of prayer. So, let’s see what Heidelberg has to say that might help us.

Lord’s Day Focus...

Question 117: How does God want us to pray so that He will listen to us?

Answer: First, we must pray from the heart to no other than the one true God, who has revealed Himself in His Word, asking for everything He has commanded us to ask for. Second, we must acknowledge our need and misery, hiding nothing, and humble ourselves in His majestic presence. Third, we must rest on this unshakable foundation: even though we do not deserve it, God will surely listen to our prayer because of Christ our Lord. This is what He promised us in His Word.  

This is a very thorough answer and every line of it has something to teach us. Let me encourage you to take your time and go through this line by line, meditating on the instruction found here. We could spend the rest of our time in this devotion, teasing out all the points mentioned here but for the purpose of this devotion I will offer a summary of this answer.

Our prayers should be directed by Scripture. The first part of this answer assumes that the person praying has a thorough grasp of Biblical truth. God isn’t interested in vain, repetitious or arrogant prayer. He is God and the way we approach Him needs to be informed by what the Bible teaches us about Him.

Our prayers should be from a heart that remembers our guilt and God’s grace. We are the ones facing sin and misery, not God. God is not obligated to do anything for us, not obligated to give anything to us, not even obligated to listen to our plea for help. But He does because He is majestic and gracious.

Our prayers should be motivated by the confidence that we have through Christ. We do not come to God in prayer on our own, we come through the blood and mediation of Jesus. It is because of Him that we have a relationship to God and this knowledge should guide and motivate us to prayer.

So our prayers should take all of this and more into consideration.

Question 118: What did God command us to pray for?

Answer: Everything we need, spiritually and physically, as embraced in the prayer Christ our Lord Himself taught us.

I’ve never really gotten over the fact that Jesus told His disciples that the reason they don’t have certain things is because they have failed to ask for those things. “You have not because you have asked not.” He also said that we don’t have things because we ask with wrong motives, meaning we simply ask for things that satisfy some fleshly appetite not a spiritual one.

All of this, and the catechism is aimed to help us realize that we are helpless children and our God is a wise, loving and generous Father. We come to Him with every need that we can think of and when we run out of things, we look to Him and His Word to help us grasp what our true needs are, and we ask for those as well.

Too many of us take prayer for granted and therefore we don’t pray. Too many of us treat prayer like an unimportant thing and therefore we don’t pray the way God tells us to. Too many of us pray selfishly and get frustrated when we don’t get what we want.

But now that we have a relationship with God through Jesus, our prayers should be shaped by the Father-child relationship. We should pray with a sense of our Father’s gracious presence. We should pray with the knowledge of His Fatherly generosity. We should pray with our mind on His Kingdom and how He wants us to live while still in this world.

That is how I would summarize the way Jesus teaches us to pray.

Question 119: What is the Prayer?

Answer: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgives us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

In this model prayer, Jesus wants us to pray sincerely, humbly and confidently. He wants us to pray with His saving grace as fuel, in fact we can’t come to God unless we come through Jesus, through the fountain of flowing grace. But by faith in Christ we come and pray.

He wants us to pray from the heart and from our head. He doesn’t want vain repetitive babbling. He doesn’t want pseudo-spiritual and hypocritical speeches. He wants honest prayer to flow from the hearts of His children to their One True Father in Heaven.

The essence of Christian prayer is relational communion with our heavenly Father. When Jesus teaches us to pray, He tells us to approach God with love, as a son or daughter would approach their father. He teaches us to begin our prayer with, “Our Father…” How does a child talk with their father? Loudly, boldly, unashamedly, desperately, with no regard for decorum. They will interrupt you in a second if they have a need, or a want, or even an idea. Big words never enter that conversation, but feeling, and emotion almost always do.

Paul Miller,

Being a child in prayer means to just come. Children are not tied up in all the details when they come to their parents. They just come.

Jesus invites those who are weary and heavy laden to come to him. He doesn’t call the organized and fixed up but the broken. Why do we forget that when it comes to prayer? The dirty, imperfect and broken you is the real you. Don’t try to put on the spiritual façade in prayer. You can talk to God about whatever is on your heart, so just come as you are. Be weak and open in prayer before God. In this way you are remembering and applying the gospel to your prayer life. We need to learn helplessness. That is what a child reflects.[2]

Don’t come to your God pretending to be something or someone you are not, He can see straight through that. But come as you are, open your heart to His saving grace in Christ. Repent and receive Jesus as savior and Lord, and when you bow before Him in prayer you will find all the love you will ever need. Come broken and find His compassion. Come needy and find His supply. Come confused and find His Wisdom.

Thank you for joining me today to discuss Christian prayer. Next week, we will dig a little deeper into the Lord’s prayer and I hope you will join me for that discussion as we look at Lord’s Day 46 and questions 120-121.

Conclusion…

If you want to learn more about Cornerstone Baptist church, you can find us online at Cornerstonewylie.org. You can follow us on Twitter or Instagram @cbcwylie. You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/cornerstonewylie. You can also subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or google play to stay up to date on all the new content.

Thanks for listening.


[1] Miller, Paul E.. A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World (p. 5). NavPress. Kindle Edition.

[2] https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/helping-your-people-discover-the-praying-life

Heidelberg Catechism: Lord's Day #44

Intro…

Welcome to the Cornerstone Baptist church podcast. My name is Justin Wheeler, I am the preaching pastor for Cornerstone and today we are in week 44 of our journey through the Heidelberg Catechism. Today, I will be talking to you about question 113-115.

This week our question deals with the tenth commandment, which reads:

Deuteronomy 5:21 ‘And you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.’

“It is lawful to use the world and to desire as much of it as may keep us from poverty…but all the danger is when the world gets into the heart.” Thomas Watson[1]

There are two Greek words used in the NT to help us understand the nature of covetousness. The first is pleonexia and it means the state of always desiring to have more. It is greediness that has no end. It is a desire for more that is insatiable. No matter how rich this person becomes he always wants more. No matter how much food, land or pleasure this person has he always wants more.

The other term is philarguria which signifies an inordinate love of the world and especially money. It is the ravenous pursuit to be satisfied by the things of this world while never believing that what you have is enough. Like a sailor adrift at sea who begins to drink salt water to quench his thirst, the covetous person will continue to drink even though his thirst is never quenched and eventually his drinking will lead to death.

When these two words come together they teach us that covetousness is not simply a desire for more of what the world offers but also a love of the world itself. Like Watson said, the real danger is when the world gets into your heart.

Transition

God’s prohibition against covetousness is about the idolatry of stuff. It is about loving and desiring what you don’t have and it causes us to overlook and be thankless for what we do have. Our questions this week are going to help us come to terms with the fact that whether we want to admit it or not, coveting is a problem for all of us and we need some help if we hope to live with the contentment in heart and life that God calls us to.

Lord’s Day Focus...

Question 113: What is God’s will for you in the tenth commandment?

Answer: That not even the slightest thought or desire contrary to any one of God’s commandments should ever arise in my heart. Rather, with all my heart I should always hate sin and take pleasure in whatever is right.

Heidelberg answers the question by pointing out that covetousness is first and foremost, contrary to the commands of God. It is to desire what God forbids and therefore the prohibition against coveting is truly aimed at our being content with what God has revealed to us and how God has blessed us. If covetousness is the problem, contentment in Christ is the goal.

I think Jesus is trying to help us understand the connection between these two things in Luke 12: 15 where he said, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”  Be on guard against all covetousness. Be on guard…it’s almost as if these things are going to sneak up on us and that is exactly what will happen.

 

We don’t naturally recognize that we have a problem we just desire things left and right. We know that covetousness and materialism are problems, but we never assume that they are a problem for us. When was the last time you confessed to coveting?

 

But then Jesus went on to say, “One’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” This is materialism plain and simple. Materialism is the tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values. Materialism is an inordinate desire or dependence upon money and material things.

Jesus is referring to both covetousness and materialism here and when you put these two things together, you have a type of idolatry that is very powerful and I would argue that this has in many ways become the heartbeat of our culture.

Some time ago, I came across an article on Huffington post about how materialism is redefining the American Dream.

The American dream is becoming more and more materialistic. I guess it was always a bit materialistic, but when I look at America today, I see a nation obsessed with shopping and buying unnecessary products. Previously, people aspired to have a nice house in the suburbs with a couple of cars. Now, there is no end to the products that people want: the latest IPhone, expensive cars, designer bags--the list is endless. The American dream revolves around luxury goods for most people. As Ellen Goodman put it, "Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for, in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it."

Shopping is not a problem on its own; It's the obsessive accumulation of unnecessary products, along with the hope that buying a Chanel bag will somehow make you happier that is problematic. The things that we own often end up owning us, and that's what I see around me.[2]

I would add that this has not simply become a way of life, but it has become the meaning of life for most Americans. The type of covetousness and materialism, which Jesus is warning us against, is the heartbeat of the culture that we live in.

When was the last time you thought about the covetousness in your heart? When was the last time you stopped to think about how easy it is to covet? The truth is we don’t often think about it, we just do it.

When driving down the road we see someone’s shiny new vehicle and the longing in our heart leaps into action and we think, “I wish I had a truck like that.” We go to have dinner at a friend’s house, and we see their new larger TV and we think, “I want a TV like that.” We begin to scroll through our Facebook feed, and we notice that an old friend is on a family vacation to Disney World and we think, “Why can’t I afford a vacation like them?” We catch a glimpse of our neighbors’ beautiful wife and think, “Why couldn’t I have married someone like her?”

Covetousness is a type of sin that blinds us to its own reality, and we convince ourselves that it is not a problem for us. That’s why Jesus tells us to be on guard against it.

Question 114: Can those converted to God obey these commandments perfectly?

Answer: No. In this life even the holiest have only a small beginning of this obedience. Nevertheless, with all seriousness of purpose, they do begin to live according to all, not only some, of God’s commandments.

Now that we’ve come to the final commandment, we need to do some hard thinking about what role these ten commands play in our lives as followers of Christ. We know that salvation is not the result of our works, it is not earned through moral conformity or personal merit. Salvation is a gift of God’s grace. God doesn’t love and accept us because we have made ourselves lovely and acceptable, He loves us and accepts us on the basis of what Jesus did for us on the cross.

We receive salvation by faith, by trusting in and believing the good news of Christ’s identity as the Son of God who lived a sinless life and died in the place of sinners as our substitute. He kept the law perfectly where we did not, indeed even now we cannot. But that doesn’t keep us from striving to live according to our Father’s commands.

We don’t obey the commandments in order to earn God’s forgiveness, but now that we have received the forgiveness of sins by faith, we strive to obey His commands out of gratitude.

Question 115: Why then does God so strictly enjoin upon us the Ten Commandments, since in this life no one can keep them?

Answer: First, so that the longer we live the more we may come to know our sinfulness and the more eagerly look to Christ for forgiveness of sins and righteousness. Second, so that, while praying to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit, we may never stop striving to be renewed more and more after God’s image, until after this life we reach our goal: perfection.

As we grow in our relationship with God through Christ two things happen, we will come to know and see and repent of our sin more and more, and we will strive to become more and more conformed to the image of Christ. This is the goal of our redemption. To live everyday, growing in the freedom that Christ has purchased for us and to become more and more like Jesus.

That is why these commandments still matter. They guide us to see that our greatest enemy in this life is our own sinful heart and they guide us to appreciate that the greatest gift we have is Jesus and what He accomplished for us on the cross. They guide us to see that God’s way is best and by the Spirit’s work in us, we learn to walk in this world on that narrow path that leads to life.

Thank you for joining me today to learn about the ninth commandment. Next week, our focus will shift to prayer and we will discuss what it is, how to do it and why we should. I hope you will join me for that discussion as we look at Lord’s Day 45 and question 116-119.

Conclusion…

If you want to learn more about Cornerstone Baptist church, you can find us online at Cornerstonewylie.org. You can follow us on Twitter or Instagram @cbcwylie. You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/cornerstonewylie. You can also subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or google play to stay up to date on all the new content.

Thanks for listening.


[1] Thomas Watson The Ten Commandments (Pg. 174)

[2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shanzeh-khurram/is-the-american-dream-bec_b_2702164.html

Heidelberg Catechism: Lord's Day #43

Intro…

Welcome to the Cornerstone Baptist church podcast. My name is Justin Wheeler, I am the preaching pastor for Cornerstone and today we are in week 43 of our journey through the Heidelberg Catechism. Today, I will be talking to you about question 112.

This week our question deals with the ninth commandment, which reads:

Deuteronomy 5:20 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

The most basic definition of bearing false witness is when a person lies. It is to offer a false testimony to another person or about another person even if that person doesn’t live next door. The phrase against your neighbor is intended to be a generic understanding of other people and it not limited to only those people who live nearby.

So, if you have ever lied to your neighbor or lied about your neighbor then you have broken the ninth commandment. If you have ever shared a story that was untrue, embellished a story to make yourself look better or to make another person look worse then you are guilty of breaking the ninth commandment. If you have ever misrepresented facts in a dispute with your neighbor (another person) then you are guilty of breaking this command.

It doesn’t take much imagination to see how this command is aimed at establishing truth, honesty and integrity within social relationships. It doesn’t take much imagination for us to see why this would be a valuable addition to society. If everyone told the truth, then everyone could be trusted. Truth telling promotes mutual respect for others and personal accountability for self.

This all seems so simple and we should all just jump on board the honesty train. Well, yes, we should all be people who tell the truth but really not all that simple. Lying is one of the oldest sins in the world and also one of the most destructive.

Transition

The first lie occurred in the Garden in Genesis 3 and from that point forward lying is a sin at the very heart of our fallen human nature. Jesus called Satan the “Father of lies” in John 8:44 and Psalm 116:11 tells us that, “All men are liars.” Our God is a covenant keeper who never lies, but we are covenant breakers who lie naturally and treat it like it is no big deal.

But it is a big deal and the Heidelberg is going to help us see just how big it is.

Lord’s Day Focus...

Question 112: What is God’s will for you in the ninth commandment?

Answer: God’s will is that I never give false testimony against anyone, twist no one’s words, not gossip or slander, nor join in condemning anyone without a hearing or without a just cause. Rather, in court and everywhere else, I should avoid lying and deceit of every kind; these are the devices the devil himself uses, and they would call down on me God’s intense anger. I should love the truth, speak it candidly, and openly acknowledge it. And I should do what I can to guard and advance my neighbor’s good name.

There is much packed into this answer, so let’s break it down and look at each sentence.

First, we read that it is God’s will that we never give false testimony. God wants His people to be people of integrity, to be people that others can trust. He wants us to be truth-tellers who say what we mean and mean what we say. In other words, God wants us to be like Him and He never lies (Titus 1:2).

From the Garden on throughout all of Biblical history we see that God always speaks the truth and that Satan is the father of lies. One of the key distinctions between the people of God and the unbelieving world is whether or not we believe the truth and speak the truth.

But it is also God’s will that we never twist another person’s words. Have you ever told a story and stressed something that was said in such a way that you came off looking like the good guy and the other person came off looking bad? This happens so frequently in daily life that we have even adopted the habit of saying, “Is that exactly what she said?” the implication is that we know people are prone to twist another’s words, because we are prone to do so.

Then there’s the fact that we are not to gossip or slander, nor join in condemning anyone without a hearing or without a just cause. To gossip means to pass on information that isn’t true or to pass on what is true without permission or necessity. We gossip when we talk about other people as we share a prayer request for them. We gossip when we reveal information that shouldn’t be shared, or we spread information beyond the boundaries of what is necessary.

Slander means to spread false reports and it includes when we cause others to believe false reports. So, I could start a rumor chain, or I could fail to correct a rumor chain, both are a form of slander

To join in condemning someone without a hearing or without a just cause goes hand in hand with slander. This happens because or when we think the worst of a person before actually hearing the facts. This is the root of prejudice and we are all guilty of this at some level. Sometimes we simply look at a person and assume they are wrong; they are guilty or that they are not to be trusted.

The ninth commandment instructs us to withhold judgment until the truth can be heard. It calls on us to show love and respect to everyone in such a way that we hold them to be innocent until the facts prove them to be guilty. May the person in question did something wrong, but maybe they didn’t and the only way we can know with any certainty is to withhold judgment until the facts have been presented.

The second sentence tells us that in court and everywhere else, I should avoid lying and deceit of every kind; these are the devices the devil himself uses, and they would call down on me God’s intense anger. The ninth commandment applies in every walk of life, not just in the courtroom. It tells us that we should avoid lying and deceit of every kind.

We should speak the truth in every circumstance. So, when we file our taxes there shouldn’t be any exaggeration. When we talk about how busy we are we should be clear and honest. When we talk about how much we pray, read the Bible, love our neighbors, we should be absolutely honest and not try to cause others to think more highly of us then they should.

You may not want to admit it, but this is a problem for all of us and it reveals something about our hearts that God wants us to see. It reveals that the impulses in our hearts are devilish and worthy of God’s just anger. Lying and deceit are sinful. They are wicked. They are deserving of judgment.

Prov 22 Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord,

In Proverbs 6:16-19 we are told that there are 6 things that the Lord hates and 7 things that are an abomination to Him. Here’s the list, “haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies and one who sows discord among brothers.”

Did you catch that lying is in there twice? This is a serious sin in the eyes of God because it is a sin that comes straight from the playbook of our enemy. It is a serious sin because it stands in absolute contradiction to the character of God

The final sentence tells us that we should do whatever we can to guard and advance our neighbors good name.  This is the goal of our social interaction. This is the aim of God’s people when it comes to personal relationships. This is also what loving your neighbor looks like in action when you are committed to speaking the truth to them and about them.

I don’t want to share something that is going to paint them in a negative light. I don’t want to assume something that is untrue of them. I don’t want to represent them in such a way that their good name would be diminished in the eyes of others. I want to guard and advance the good name of everyone.

This ninth command is key to having the kind of community that honors and reflects the goodness of God.

Eph 4:15  Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

The Bible is filled with warnings for how our tongues can cause destruction and it is filled with instruction about how our words can give life.

Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue,

Jesus wants us to be people whose tongues give life. He wants us to be a church whose speech is trustworthy.

The truth is that we will fail in our speech, but what should we do when we fail? What happens when we make a promise that we simply cannot keep? What happens when we fail to speak the truth? The first thing we must do is to confess our sin to God. Then we must confess our sin to the person we lied to and finally we must seek to make things right with genuine repentance.

We need to grow to be people who know the dangers of lying and who seek by God’s daily grace to be those who speak and uphold the truth.

Thank you for joining me today to learn about the ninth commandment. Next week, we will continue to study by looking at the tenth commandment, which addresses covetousness. I hope you will join me for that discussion as we look at Lord’s Day 44 and question 113-115.

Conclusion…

If you want to learn more about Cornerstone Baptist church, you can find us online at Cornerstonewylie.org. You can follow us on Twitter or Instagram @cbcwylie. You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/cornerstonewylie. You can also subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or google play to stay up to date on all the new content.

Thanks for listening.

Heidelberg Catechism: Lord's Day #42

Intro…

Welcome to the Cornerstone Baptist church podcast. My name is Justin Wheeler, I am the preaching pastor for Cornerstone and today we are in week 42 of our journey through the Heidelberg Catechism. Today, I will be talking to you about questions 110 & 111.

This week our question deals with the eighth commandment, which reads:

Deuteronomy 5:19 You shall not steal.

The most basic definition of stealing is when a person takes something that doesn’t belong to them. It is to take another person’s property without permission or right without the intention of returning it. Stealing is dishonest. It takes advantage of another person’s hard work. It disregards the rights to personal property, and it undermines trust.

If you have ever had something stolen from you then you know how important this command truly is, at least as far as it pertains to you and your experience. But as we look to the Scriptures, we get the impression that God’s prohibition against stealing has a much broader scope than we might think at first.

Transition

It is stealing/theft to break into someone’s home, car or property to take something from them. It is stealing to put a piece of candy in your pocket at the grocery store cash register without paying for it. It is stealing to take someone’s pen at work, to take someone’s lunch from the breakroom fridge, and it is stealing when you take the robes from the fancy hotel room without paying for it.

But stealing also includes being dishonest when you sell things to your neighbor. It is stealing when you claim a full workday even though you left at 2. It is stealing when you take advantage of people by swindling them out of money and it is stealing when you know the cashier gave you $20 back as change when she only owed you $5. You see, there’s more to this commandment than we think at first and the catechism is trying to help us see that.

Lord’s Day Focus...

Question 110: What is God’s will for you in the eighth commandment?

Answer: He forbids not only outright theft and robbery, punishable by law. But in God’s sight theft also includes cheating and swindling our neighbor by schemes made to appear legitimate, such as: inaccurate measurements of weight, size, volume; fraudulent merchandising; counterfeit money; excessive interest; or any other means forbidden by God. In addition, He forbids all greed and pointless squandering of His gifts.

Outright theft or robbery is where our minds go at first and it needs to be pointed out that it is sin and should be punishable by law. But in God’s sight stealing also includes cheating and swindling our neighbors.

The Bible has a lot to say about using accurate weights and measures in the marketplace. This idea is about dishonest practices. It is talking about a person who puts a ten-pound weight on the scale when it actually weighs 5 pounds so that they can get more money by cheating.

Prov 11:1 A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight.

So stealing is not just about taking what doesn’t belong to you, it is also about cheating others out of what is right and fair. It is about dishonesty.

It is also about taking advantage of people in need. If a neighbor needs help and I sell them a tool that will help them get a job to make money, but I make them finance the tool at a rate that will keep them in my debt far beyond what the tool is actually worth, then I have taken advantage of them. It is a form of stealing.

Instead, of being dishonest and trying to profit from that dishonesty, the Lord calls His people to work hard, to earn an honest wage and to be generous with it.

Eph 4:28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

This brings us to the second question…

Question 111: What does God require of you in this commandment?

Answer: That I do whatever I can for my neighbors good, that I treat others as I would like them to treat me, and that I work faithfully so that I may share with those in need.   

When we don’t love our neighbors the way we should we are prone to cheat them, steal from them and take advantage of them. But when we learn to love our neighbors according to God’s command, we grow to the point that we want to be a blessing to them. We want to care for them, be honest with them, help them and be generous with what we have.

Greed leads to stealing, but love leads to generosity and that is what this command is leading our hearts to embrace. In fact, this is what the gospel is leading us to embrace.

Have you ever taken stock of the times Jesus encountered someone that was wealthy? It happens quite a bit. In the gospel of Luke there seems to be specific attention given to the distinction between the poor and rich. When Jesus comes into the world He is born in the poorest of conditions, to a poor mother and father, and His birth is attended by shepherds, not exactly high society folks.

During his ministry he runs into several wealthy people and tells stories about the wealthy. He met the rich young ruler and told the parable about a rich fool. He met Zachheus and he told the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. He taught about the prodigal son who clearly had problems with money and sin but he also pointed out the woman who gave away her last two pennies at the temple.

What does all of this mean? I’m not entirely sure, but it seems that Jesus wants us to understand that there is a connection between our faith in Him and how much of a hold our money has on our heart.

Matt 6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

We cannot serve God and money, but we can serve God with our money. Money makes a terrible god. It can’t satisfy us, it can’t save us, it can only make us comfortable for a couple of years before it runs out or we die and pass it on to someone else. We don’t serve money because God tells us that it is the root of all evil and it turns a gift into a false god. We don’t worship stuff because it makes an idol out of something that moth and rust destroy.

Instead, we serve God with our whole being, our heart, soul, mind and strength, and we use his gifts to make much of Hm. So be generous, be a faithful steward of all that God has given you, use his gifts in such a way that it shows Christ to be God rather than the things of the world.

As Christians, all of life is a stewardship and every gift is an opportunity to enjoy God and share his love with others.

Thank you for joining me today to learn about the eighth commandment. Next week, we will continue to study by looking at the ninth commandment, which addresses bearing false witness against your neighbor. I hope you will join me for that discussion as we look at Lord’s Day 43 and question 112.

Conclusion…

If you want to learn more about Cornerstone Baptist church, you can find us online at Cornerstonewylie.org. You can follow us on Twitter or Instagram @cbcwylie. You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/cornerstonewylie. You can also subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or google play to stay up to date on all the new content.

Thanks for listening.

Heidelberg Catechism: Lord's Day #41

Intro…

Welcome to the Cornerstone Baptist church podcast. My name is Justin Wheeler, I am the preaching pastor for Cornerstone and today we are in week 41 of our journey through the Heidelberg Catechism. Today, I will be talking to you about question 108 -109.

This week our question deals with the seventh commandment, which reads:

Deuteronomy 5:18 You shall not commit adultery.

Adultery is a term that we are all familiar with because it refers to a sexual act that is far too common. In fact, adultery, voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and a person who is not their spouse, is not really seen as a big deal at all by many in our culture. Sure, there are and will always be people, I suppose, that would prefer their spouse not have sex with another person; but the fact that adultery has become so common has made it seem fairly tame compared to some of the other sexual practices taking place in 21st century America.

We live in a culture where our entire lives are inundated with sexuality. It’s on our TV, in our movies, and on the catalogues and ads that are delivered to our door. It’s on billboards as we drive into downtown. It’s plastered across the magazine racks in high-gloss photos as we approach the checkout counter at the grocery store. And of course, it’s almost as if the internet was made for the specific purpose of pushing sexuality into our lives in every imaginable way.

This has had a huge impact on our lives and our culture. Adultery is so common that it is simply accepted as a normal part of adult life, especially for our political leaders. In fact, if a political leader takes measures to remain faithful to their spouse they are mocked as being sexually repressive. Sex before marriage is just normal and it has been this way for generations. Homosexuality has been declared a basic human right by our Supreme Court. Transgenderism and transsexualism are just this cultural moment’s examples of sexual deviance being made to look normal and God’s standards being made to look obscene.

Transition

But what does all of this have to do with the command of God forbidding adultery? Well, actually it has everything to do with it because Jesus teaches us in the NT that there is an underlying issue of the heart behind this command.

Matt 5:27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Lust is adultery of the heart. It is the strong sexual desire for something or someone that is forbidden. It is the sexual desire for someone or something that doesn’t belong to you, and therefore this seventh command, along with Jesus’ expansion of it makes any sexual act outside of marriage between a man and woman sinful.

And that is what the Heidelberg Catechism helps us to understand.

Lord’s Day Focus...

Question 108: What is God’s will for you in the seventh commandment?

Answer: God condemns all unchastity. We should therefore thoroughly detest it and, married or single, live decent and chaste lives.

Adultery is a word we all know but unchastity may need a definition simply because we don’t use that word very often. Chastity refers to the practice of refraining from any sex outside of marriage. In some cases, people will take a vow of chastity for religious reasons and that means that they intend to refrain from all sexual intercourse by not getting married.

So, when the Heidelberg says that God’s condemns all unchastity, it is saying, and rightly so, that any sexual act outside of the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman is sin. Our understanding of all sexual immorality is rooted in the fact that any form of sexual identity, sexual temptation, or sexual satisfaction that is contrary to what God declares to be good is sin.

What I mean is that when we look to Scripture to develop a Biblical theology of sex, we must start with the type of sex that God declares to be good and pleasing in His sight, and anything other than that is determined to be sinful. Anything outside of God’s design for human sexual expression is wrong.

Question 109: Does God, in this commandment, forbid only such scandalous sins as adultery?

Answer: We are temples of the Holy Spirit, body and soul, and God wants both to be kept clean and holy. That is why He forbids everything which incites unchastity, whether it be actions, looks, talk, thoughts, or desires. 

The proper starting point for a discussion on the biblical theology of sex must start in the Garden of Eden. Because in the Garden, God gave us His plan for human sexuality.

Gen 2:18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

This is the foundation for what the Bible teaches on sex. Human sexuality was created by God as a pleasurable gift to be enjoyed only by a man and his wife. Sex was a means to build families, and as a way to strengthen intimacy/unity between a husband and wife. Any type of sexual act that falls short of this standard is a disordered sexuality. Any deviation from this norm, is wrong.

Any type of sexual gratification, any type of sexual activity that falls outside the scope of God’s revealed plan is sin. God condemns all unchastity. We should therefore thoroughly detest it and, married or single, live decent and chaste lives.

Now, I am very aware of the fact that this view, this teaching isn’t popular, especially in our culture today. But I don’t think it has ever been popular. C. S. Lewis, wrote,  

Chastity is the most unpopular of the Christian virtues. There is no getting away from it; the Christian rule is, either marriage, with complete faithfulness to your spouse, or else total abstinence. Now this is so difficult and so contrary to our instincts, that obviously either Christianity is wrong or our sexual instinct, as it now is, has gone wrong. One or the other. Of course, being a Christian, I think it is the instinct which has gone wrong.[1]

Lewis wrote this in 1952 in the culture of Great Britain and I have no way of knowing if it was true at that time, but I take his word for it. I also, agree with his conclusion about where the problem lies. It is not Christianity that is the problem it is our sinful sexual instinct that is the issue.

God’s commands about sexuality and His commands against our sexual immorality will always seem out of place to us so long as our sexual instincts are driven by our sinful brokenness. So, what can we do to counteract our sinful sexual brokenness? What can we do to honor God and seek to obey His commands?

One step in our approach to battling sin and temptation is, “If our right eye causes us to sin…don’t look.” Behave as if you had actually plucked out your eyes. Jesus actually commands us to take real and drastic measures to battle against sin and temptation.

For some of us that means you need to put filters on your computers and home network. For others, this means that you need to stop reading the books you’re reading. For others, this means you need to delete your social media accounts or stop watching the movies or HBO and Netflix shows you enjoy so much.

Yes, I’m sure that your friends will say, “What are you talking about? You’re not going to know how this end. If you’re not going to watch this new show or read this new book…you won’t be as culturally educated as you could be.” That may be true, but it is better to be culturally maimed and preserve your purity. The question is whether you are willing to go to this extreme to battle sin and temptation.

Jesus says that it is better to live life culturally maimed, to avoid certain experiences in this life, than to risk final destruction in the life to come.

Now, in many ways, this approach to change is good But this approach is not enough because this approach cannot change your heart. This approach is simply not complete because it focuses on the outward behaviors only and the root of the problem of sexual sin is a heart problem. Behavior modification alone will not solve this problem of our hearts. Only Jesus can solve this problem.

One of my deepest Christian convictions is that the gospel is so much more than simply the minimal doctrine that one must affirm in order to go to Heaven. The gospel is the power of God that saves us from sin’s guilt and sin’s control and turns the entire world upside down.

The gospel is so powerful that it can turn an enemy of God into a worshipper of God. It is so powerful that it can change your eternity as well as your life here and now. The gospel changes us at the very core of who we are. It reorients our heart around the weight of God’s glory and when the gospel takes root in us it begins a process of reorienting all of life around our growing love for God over our love for sin.

As believers in Christ our identity as gospel people is going to propel us into battle against sexual sin. Jesus doesn’t command us to embrace a Biblical sexual ethic in order that we can be saved, but instead as the born-again people of God he calls us to embrace a God-honoring view of sex. Obedience to God flows out of a renewed relationship to God.

I think that our battle against sexual sin begins not with what we need to do but with something we need to believe…

Our identity is in Christ, not our sexuality. The culture says, “You are your sexuality.” The culture says that to deny our sexual urges is to deny our humanity. The culture wants us to believe that If we reject its views of sexuality and the practice of those views then we are rejecting what it means to be human.

But the Bible teaches us something else about sex?

a. The Bible teaches us the context in which sex is a gift. Within the context of monogamous, heterosexual marriage sex is an amazing gift of God that is to be enjoyed for pleasure, for procreation and for the joy of intimacy. Outside of monogamous heterosexual marriage sex in all its forms is sin.

b. The Bible teaches us that sex and romantic fulfillment are not the keys to life. They are gifts but they are not the ultimate point of life. Jesus was celibate and lived the fullest and most God-glorifying life ever lived. Therefore, Jesus teaches us that the key to a full life is not intimacy with another person but rather intimacy with God.

In American culture, we have completely distorted this. Our culture promotes the pursuit of sexual pleasure first and foremost and then in the context of our sexual enjoyment we are to then find religious teaching that affirms and supports our sexuality.

But Jesus wants us to pursue our relationship with God first and foremost and then in the context of that relationship we are to enjoy God’s gift of sex in a way that glorifies Him.

Trusting Christ with our sexuality is hard because it goes against the grain of what culture says and in many ways, it goes against the grain of what we feel. Our natural predisposition is to sin. It is to go against God’s glory, Gods rule, and Gods word.  We are dead in sin, we are enemies of God, we are blinded to God’s glory and through the gospel Jesus calls us out of this and into a life with God that is going to be hard.

But I want us to remember something about Jesus as we seek to navigate through this issue. In His life, Jesus dealt with a lot of sinful people, even those caught up in sexual sin. But something you will notice is that He never seems to want to push people away. No matter the issue, Jesus invites people in close so that He can talk to them and offer them grace. Even when He encountered people who were involved with deep sexual sins we see that Jesus draws near to them and offers them grace, He is honest with them about their sin, but then He looks them in the eye and He says, “Now, come and follow me.”

Thank you for joining me today to learn about the seventh commandment. Next week, we will continue to study by looking at the eighth commandment, which addresses stealing and taking what doesn’t belong to us. I hope you will join me for that discussion as we look at Lord’s Day 42 and questions 110 - 111.

Conclusion…

If you want to learn more about Cornerstone Baptist church, you can find us online at Cornerstonewylie.org. You can follow us on Twitter or Instagram @cbcwylie. You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/cornerstonewylie. You can also subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or google play to stay up to date on all the new content.

Thanks for listening.


[1] C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity: Sexual Morality (pg. 95)

Heidelberg Catechism: Lord's Day #40

Intro…

Welcome to the Cornerstone Baptist church podcast. My name is Justin Wheeler, I am the preaching pastor for Cornerstone and today we are in week 40 of our journey through the Heidelberg Catechism. Today, I will be talking to you about question 105-107.

Transition

This week our question deals with the sixth commandment,

Deut 5:17 You shall not murder.

This is perhaps the most recognized and culturally accepted commandments in all of the decalogue (the ten). Even among the unbelieving, non-Christian people around us, this command is seen as right and just.

Nearly every civilization known to us, has had some laws prohibiting the taking of human life and promising punishment to those who did. But that hasn’t kept our world from being filled with murder, nor has it kept murder out of our imaginations. Right here in Dallas, records indicate that the murder rate is on a dramatic rise.

In 2018 Dallas, TX recorded 196 homicides. By May of 2019, the city had already recorded 90 homicides[1], which means that before the summer began we were on pace to break a terrible record.

But murder is not just a reality in our culture it is also big business in the box office. Horror movies depicting homicidal violence have never been more popular. The highest grossing horror film in 2018 was The Quiet Place taking in $188 million. The entire horror industry took in $901 million in 2018. Almost $1 billion was spent in 2018 by people who wanted to be entertained by violent murder being depicted on screen.[2] This doesn’t take into account the millions made on action, adventure and sci-fi depicting similar violence.

What does this mean? For starters, It reveals that we don’t take this command of God very seriously. But it also reveals that at some level deep down, murder is a problem that all of us struggle with.

Lord’s Day Focus...

Murder has been an issue for humanity since the very beginning. In Genesis 4 we read about the very first sin committed outside the Garden of Eden. Cain and his brother Abel prepared their offerings to the Lord. The Lord received Abel’s offering but not Cain’s and,

“So Cain was very angry, and his face fell…Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

Just a few verses later in the same chapter (Gen 4), we read the story of a man named Lamech who boasted about his two wives and that he had killed a young man. After the flood, God commissions Noah and his family to being rebuilding human civilization. But this time God gives him a law prohibiting murder from Genesis 9:6, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.”

Don’t miss the fact that we are 9 chapters into the Bible, and we have already seen murder become so prevalent on the earth that God gave Moses this divine law in order to forbid it. Murder is a serious crime in the eyes of God and it demands a serious punishment.

Murder is an assault upon the image of God in man. Human life is not cheap, it is precious to God and when it is taken, God demands justice. Murder is the intentional taking of innocent human life. It is not the same thing as the accidental taking of life, nor is it the same as self-defense, nor does this prohibit just war.

The act of murder is a grievous sin and its effects can be seen throughout the Bible and throughout the history of humanity. Murder is a terrible crime, a terrible transgression of God’s law, which demands swift and balancing justice, but murder has a root that goes deeper than the act itself.

When Jesus addressed this sin and the commandment prohibiting it, He didn’t deal so much with the act itself but with the heart attitude behind it.

Matt 5:21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

Murder is a terrible sin, but anger is the real root of the problem and the root is what the Heidelberg wants to address.

Question 105: What is God’s will for you in the sixth commandment?

Answer: I am not to belittle, insult, hate, or kill my neighbor – not by my thoughts, my words, my look or gesture, and certainly not by actual deeds – and I am not to be party to this in others; rather, I am to put away all desire for revenge. I am not to harm or recklessly endanger myself either. Prevention of murder is also why government is armed with the sword.  

How many of us have read the 10 commandments and thought, “Well at least I haven’t committed murder?” Jesus’ audience did the same thing. They looked at the pursuit of righteousness simply in terms of what they had and had not done, but Jesus taught that our behavior is only part of the equation. The key to understanding the deeper purpose of God’s law is to understand what it reveals about our hearts and in our hearts, we commit murder all the time.

It is easy to see that anger is what leads to the act of murder, especially if we look at the story of Cain and Abel. But Jesus wants us to know that the anger in our hearts is just as dangerous and deserving of condemnation as the act itself. God cares when we commit sinful acts, but He also cares about the sinful condition of our hearts.

So God’s will for us in this commandment is not that we would do everything in our power to avoid the sin of murder, but that we would strive to rid our hearts of the attitudes and emotions that give rise to murder. Heidelberg even talks about the act of harming oneself as murder.

Suicide is a terrible thing and often comes about because a person is hurting or has been hurt in a way that is completely overwhelming. But it is still sin. We should grieve when suicide takes place and we should try to comfort those whose loved one has taken their life, but we need to have a category in our mind for what has taken place and suicide is still sin.

Question 106: Does this commandment refer only to killing?

Answer: By forbidding murder God teaches us that He hates the root of murder: envy, anger, vindictiveness. In God’s sight all such are murder.

God hates the root of murder. The heart is desperately wicked and we cannot tame it, but God can. In His mercy and grace, God can and does give new hearts to His people, but He also renews our hearts by His Spirit and His Word.

As He works in our hearts, He calls us to turn away from the root of murder and wicked fruit and to embrace the root of love.

It is well known that love is at the heart of the message and vision of Christianity. There is perhaps no more popular New Testament verse in the world than John 3:16, where we come to understand that God loves the world and in His love He gave His Son to us so that all who believe in Him will not perish but will have eternal life. The Father’s love for unlovely sinners, like us, is at the very heart of the Christian message.

But that is not the end of Christianity’s vision of love. Jesus told his friends that there is no greater love in this world than the love that would cause a man to give his own life in order to save his friends and that is exactly what Jesus did. He died in our place. He took our place and shielded us from the judgment of God and He did this because of His love.

But still, this is not the end of Christianity’s vision of love. In the NT gospels, we see Jesus teaching all of His disciples that we are to be people of love. We are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are even commanded to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us.

Jesus tells us that the world will know that we belong to Him by the way we love one another. The Christian vision of love is incredible and it gives us the idea that God wants love to fill the earth and fuel all of our emotions and actions.

Question 107: Is it enough then that we do not kill our neighbor in any such way?

Answer: No. By condemning envy, hatred, and anger God tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves, to be patient, peace-loving, gentle, merciful, and friendly to them, to protect them from harm as much as we can, and to do good even to our enemies.

To do good to our enemies is uncommon love. This is radical love fueled by a profound understanding of gospel realities. The gospel teaches that despite God’s goodness toward mankind, all of us have rejected Him in our hearts. We suppress the truth about Him and we seek to live as though we belong in God’s place. But, He loved us. Before the foundation of the world, He chose to love us and even while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We don’t deserve His love and when this truth takes hold of our hearts, it will begin to change the way we view everyone, even our enemies. At the end of the day Jesus is calling us to imitate the love of the Father in how we interact with everyone, from family and friends, to fellow believers, and even to strangers and enemies. He calls us to love, to do good, to lend with no strings attached. God is the standard of how we are to love others, and God’s love is perfect.

As followers of Jesus we are called to love not to hate. We are called to love God in a way that resets our heart and enables us to love others in an extraordinary, unnatural and radical way. This sixth commandment is not just a prohibition against a terrible type of sin, it is also a summons to an otherworldly type of love.

Thank you for joining me today to learn about the sixth commandment. Next week, we will continue to study by looking at the seventh commandment, which prohibits adultery and helps us understand what Biblical sexual ethics are all about. I hope you will join me for that discussion as we look at Lord’s Day 41 and questions 108 -109.

Conclusion…

If you want to learn more about Cornerstone Baptist church, you can find us online at Cornerstonewylie.org. You can follow us on Twitter or Instagram @cbcwylie. You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/cornerstonewylie. You can also subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or google play to stay up to date on all the new content.

Thanks for listening.


[1] https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2019/06/05/rising-dallas-homicide-rate-comparison-other-cities/

[2] https://www.the-numbers.com/market/2018/genre/Horror

Heidelberg Catechism: Lord's Day #39

Intro…

Welcome to the Cornerstone Baptist church podcast. My name is Justin Wheeler, I am the preaching pastor for Cornerstone and today we are in week 39 of our journey through the Heidelberg Catechism. Today, I will be talking to you about question 104. Only one question again this week but it too is a significant one so let’s get started.

Transition

This week our question deals with the fifth commandment,

Deut 5:16 Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

It’s no surprise to most of us that God wants us to take the parent-child relationship seriously.  Like many of you, I grew up with this commandment in mind and I have always generally accepted that it was right for children to honor their parents, even when I didn’t want to.  But for God to make it one of the ten commandments shows us just how important this command and the relationship it affects truly are.

This command is also restated in the New Testament and expanded a little bit.

Eph 6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Paul tells us here that obedience to parents is right, that it comes with a promise, but he also points out that how parents relate to their children is important as well. All of that to say, there is plenty for us to consider in this fifth commandment and Heidelberg is going to help us to do just that.

Lord’s Day Focus...

Question 104: What is God’s will for you in the fifth commandment?

Answer: That I honor, love and be loyal to my father and mother and all those in authority over me; that I obey and submit to them, as is proper, when they correct and punish me; and also that I be patient with their failings – for through them God chooses to rule us.

First, notice that this answer extends the responsibility of submission to authority beyond the parent-child relationship. Honor, love and loyalty to parents is just the start but in general, submission to all those in authority is included. The church has understood and taught that the fifth commandment should be applied in this way.

“All the catechisms and confessions of the Reformation, for example, treated the command to honor father and mother as applicable to other ‘authority-subordinate’ relationships.”[1] When you read in the NT epistles and you come to the household codes as they are described, we see a series of relationships where there is an authority-subordinate structure and in each of these, the fifth commandment is contained.

What this means is that God has commanded that humanity ordered society in such a way that it reflects a proper respect for authority and for those in submission. Citizens should submit to governmental authorities (Rom 13:1), the church should submit to its leaders (Heb 13:17), wives should submit to their own husbands (Eph 5:22), servants should submit to their masters (Eph 6:5) and of course children should obey their parents.

It is important to point out there are clearly exceptions to these commands and there is even Biblical precedent for it. Authority can be abused. Parents can be abusive or make demands that violate God’s will. Leaders often command something that God forbids and in such cases our response should be to, “obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).” But on the whole, it is God’s design that parents lead, guide and exercise authority while children obey their authority in a way that pleases God.

God calls children to obey their parents, to follow their parent’s instruction in everything and this type of relationship is right in the eyes of God. This obedience is something that pleases the Lord. But if we are honest, we don’t see this playing out in our culture in abundance. In fact, in my opinion we see the opposite.

Why don’t we see more of this? Part of it is that the mindset of our culture is so confused about all of these roles, but specially the role of children. We have overstressed the “rights” of the child and overemphasized the individuality of the child to such a degree that we see kids who trample on their parents and anyone else in their way.

It is more common in our culture to see children disrespect and dishonor their parents. We consider it the normal course of things for children to rebel against their parent’s authority and it has resulted in many parents simply giving up. When I was younger, teenage rebellion was celebrated. It was viewed as the throwing off of patriarchal oppression and this language has only become more commonplace over the last few decades.

Never before has our cultural ethos done more to allow for and encourage youthful immaturity. Kids are coddled and their preferences catered to, in the home and in the society at large. Contrary to the fears of some, most households are less patriarchy and more kindergarchy.[2]

But God’s Word holds out the standard and says that it is not right for children to break the fifth commandment. Nor is it right for parents to provoke their children to anger in such a way that it will naturally lead to rebellion.

Eph 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

God wants us to know that the responsibilities within the parent-child relationship go both ways. Children are to obey their parents and parents are to lovingly encourage their children. The term “fathers” can refer to both parents, because after all, children aren’t commanded to obey their father’s only. But, it may be that fathers are being singled out for their role in overseeing the upbringing of their children as part of God’s design on the family.

Don’t provoke your children. Don’t lead them to discouragement. The phrase suggests that there is a way that we as parents can engage our children to the point that they take our leadership as a challenge to them. Instead of bringing them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Eph 6:4) what is happening here is that parents are nagging, irritating, demanding, and provoking their children in such a way that they just want to give up trying to obey and please their parents.

Sometimes this means that children feel like complete failures who are unable to please their parents. Nothing is ever good enough. No accomplishment will ever make mom and dad happy. And sometimes this means that children feel provoked/angry with mom and dad like they are being prodded into a fight or a competition. There are ways that we can interact with our children that have a tendency to crush their spirit and there is a way that we can interact with them that makes them want to fight back…and we need to seek to avoid both.

The goal is to teach them and instruct them in the truth through a growing relationship that reflects the love that God has shown us.

The fifth commandment also applies to those of us who are older and even parents ourselves. We still have a responsibility to honor our aging parents in a way that gives glory to God. We should work to maintain our relationship to them, help them, listen to their advice and seek to be a blessing to them even though our relational dynamics have changed since we’ve moved out of their home.

There are numerous ways that this fifth commandment still applies to us today. The focus is obviously the relationship between parents and their children, which is the first and most important relationship within society. But as we zoom out, we see that this principle of respect for authority extends throughout human civilization. No culture will flourish where there is no order, trust and mutual respect.

Oh, and by the way, God has commanded the ordering of society upon the foundation of truth and mutual respect in such a way that we get a glimpse of what it means to be in right relationship to Him, our Creator, God and King.

Thank you for joining me today to learn about the fifth commandment. Next week, we will continue to study by looking at the sixth commandment, which prohibits the taking of human life but also has some implications for how we are to treat our neighbors. I hope you will join me for that discussion as we look at Lord’s Day 40 and questions 105-107.

Conclusion…

If you want to learn more about Cornerstone Baptist church, you can find us online at Cornerstonewylie.org. You can follow us on Twitter or Instagram @cbcwylie. You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/cornerstonewylie. You can also subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or google play to stay up to date on all the new content.

Thanks for listening.


[1] Kevin DeYoung The Good News We Almost Forgot (Pg. 187)

[2] Ibid, pg. 186

Heidelberg Catechism: Lord's Day #38

Intro…

Welcome to the Cornerstone Baptist church podcast. My name is Justin Wheeler, I am the preaching pastor for Cornerstone and today we are in week 38 of our journey through the Heidelberg Catechism. Today, I will be talking to you about question 103. Only one question this week but it is a significant one so let’s get started.

Transition

This week our question deals with the fourth commandment and the fourth commandment is all about the Sabbath.

Deut 5:12 “ ‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

Now, there is much for us to consider as we think on this particular command. We need to understand where it comes from, how it applied to OT Israel, what Jesus taught us about it and how it changes, if at all, for Christians today. Thankfully, the Heidelberg helps us tremendously so lets go ahead and look at Question 103 and its answer.

Lord’s Day Focus...

Question 103: What is God’s will for you in the fourth commandment?

Answer: First, that the gospel ministry and education for it be maintained, and that, especially on the festive day of rest, I regularly attend the assembly of God’s people to learn what God’s Word teaches, to participate in the sacraments, to pray to God publicly, and to bring Christian offerings for the poor. Second, that every day of my life I rest from my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through His Spirit, and so begin already in this life the eternal Sabbath.

I really appreciate this answer because it avoids some of the more common debates surrounding the role of the sabbath in the Christian life. It may be the case that you have avoided that debate, but I’m guessing that most of you have engaged it at some level. Over the years, I’ve found that many people have very strong opinions about the sabbath, and I’ve found that others tend to be a bit confused about it.

I don’t expect that I will solve all the problems related to it on this podcast, but I do hope to give some background and tell you why I think the Heidelberg gets it right. So, let’s start with some history.

The Sabbath principle shows up in Genesis 2,

And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

At the very start of everything, God decided to include this principle of rest into creation. One day out of seven is set aside for the purpose of rest and I think it is important to point out that God didn’t do this because He was too exhausted to go back to work. I call this the Sabbath principle because rest wasn’t something that God needed to do; He chose to include it for a different reason.

Fast forward to the time when Israel was a nation of God’s people and we discover that the Sabbath was a very important part of their identity. Even before they made it into the Promised Land, God established the Sabbath principle as a way to teach His people to trust in Yahweh to take care of them and provide for them.

Now, at this point the command to rest on Saturday was part of the covenant agreement that God made with Israel. This wasn’t a command that extended to all the other nations on earth. It was part of their covenant identity and through this law God proved His trustworthiness, which seems to be one of the key points to this whole Sabbath idea.

God wanted His people to rest and enjoy His provision for them as well as to gather together in an assembly of worship (Lev 23:3). On this special day, the work stopped but the bread did not. On this day the labor ceased but the worship continued. On this special day Israel was seen to be the most blessed people on earth and Yahweh was shown to be the most glorious God. He cared for them while they rested and praised Him for it.

However, as time went on, God kept His promise, but Israel did not. They began to chase after other gods. They began to treat worship as an empty ritual that placed God into their debt. They abandoned loyalty to Yahweh and brought upon themselves the curse of exile. But, God wasn’t done with His covenant people.

He drew them back into the land. He reestablished their national sovereignty and when the people looked back at the failures from their past, they vowed to do better. What started out as good intentions, to be more faithful to God, became a source of even greater corruption. The leaders of the people began to double-down on their law keeping, assuming that in some way their obedience was the key to their relationship to God.

Then little-by-little their focus shifted from obedience to God as a result of His gracious provision, to obedience to God as the source of His gracious provision. This might seem subtle, but it made all the difference. Traditions and customs began to take the place of love-fueled loyalty to Yahweh and the command to rest went from being a sign of God’s blessing to a man-centered way to put God into our debt.

Then Jesus came along and he obeyed the Sabbath command, but rejected the man-made traditions. He taught the true heart of the law, which wasn’t about blind obedience but mercy and truth. Jesus taught that the sabbath was about freedom (Luke 13:10-17), it was about healing (Luke 14:1-6), and it was about doing good to others (Mark 3:1-6).

Then Jesus died on the cross. He was buried and rose again on the third day. He gave His life as an offering for our sin and by His gospel we are forgiven, healed, and brought back into relationship with God; not on the basis of our works but on the basis of His loving sacrifice.

Now, what? What has the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus done to the Sabbath command?

Col 2:16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

Imagine that you are standing in the middle of the desert in the heat of the day and you have to shield your eyes from the intensity of the sun. Even with your hand up to shield your eyes you find it difficult to focus on anything. You can only get small momentary glimpses of your surroundings as you blink due to the intensity of the sun.

But finally you spot an image on the ground nearby. It is indistinct but it is clearly a shadow. You begin to move toward it and the closer you get the more distinct the outline becomes. You can’t dare look up at the at the solid object casting the shadow because the sun is simply too powerful, but as you move close and blink your eyes the object begins to take shape in your mind.

Then finally the object steps into the sun’s path and shields the intensity from your eyes. You look up and your eyes begin to adjust and what you see standing before you is a man.

This is what life has been like for the Jews. Their entire religious existence has been occupied by getting glimpses of the shadow but now Jesus Christ has come, and He is the one who has been casting that shadow all along.

In other words, Jesus is the point and the fulfillment of all the Old Covenant law and our standing with God is not determined by our adherence to that law but by our faith in Christ. Don’t put your hope in the shadow to save you, put your hope in the man Himself. Let your heart and mind rest secure in the fact that Jesus alone saves you and reconciles you to God.

By my understanding, Jesus has fulfilled the ceremonial aspects of the Old Covenant Law and the strict rules of the Sabbath have been abolished. It has been abolished because it was fulfilled and is fulfilled in Christ. The Sabbath principle that reaches back to the dawn of creation was teaching us that the day was coming when we could rest from our work and trust in God to provide for all of our needs.

The Sabbath principle was about the coming day when we would gather to worship and praise the One who gave us rest by providing for all of our needs. Now that Jesus has come and provided for our greatest need we can rest from our works and join together in worship of the One who has given us true rest.

So, the Sabbath has been fulfilled and strict Sabbath observance has been eliminated. Oh yes, we should still rest but not because our rest earns us anything with God. Our rest is a gift that shows we are blessed and by resting from our labor we are able to actively remember the grace of God and worship Him for it.

Let’s go back and look at the answer to question 103…

 First, that the gospel ministry and education for it be maintained, and that, especially on the festive day of rest, I regularly attend the assembly of God’s people to learn what God’s Word teaches, to participate in the sacraments, to pray to God publicly, and to bring Christian offerings for the poor.

God’s will for us in our gospel understanding of the fourth commandment is that we should set aside at least one day of the week for gospel ministry, for Christian education, for assembling together with God’s people, to worship Christ our Savior, Lord and King. Heidelberg calls this a festive day of rest but the early church simply called it the Lord’s Day.

Second, that every day of my life I rest from my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through His Spirit, and so begin already in this life the eternal Sabbath.

The second way that we observe the fourth commandment on account of Christ is that we recognize every day that we are resting from our works and resting in the finished work of Christ on the cross. We have entered into the promised Sabbath rest for all of God’s people which will one day soon be fully realized and will never end.

So, should we still observe the Sabbath? Yes, but in a very different way than we might think.

Thank you for joining me today to learn about the Sabbath. Next week, we will continue to study these 10 commandments by looking at the fifth commandment, which focuses on honoring parents. I hope you will join me for that discussion as we look at Lord’s Day 39 and question 104.

Conclusion…

If you want to learn more about Cornerstone Baptist church, you can find us online at Cornerstonewylie.org. You can follow us on Twitter or Instagram @cbcwylie. You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/cornerstonewylie. You can also subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or google play to stay up to date on all the new content.

Thanks for listening.