>Sabbath Meditation

>The Spirit Went Out of Her

Doug Wilson

The Queen of Sheba had heard about Solomon’s glory, and so she came to visit him in order to see if it was true. The fact that she came a great distance means that on one level, she certainly wanted the reports to be true. And yet she was resistant. It is very interesting to note what persuaded her.

And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel; his cupbearers also, and their apparel; and his ascent by which he went up into the house of the LORD; there was no more spirit in her (2 Chron. 9:4).

The way the Israelites ate, the way they sat, the way Solomon’s ministers performed their jobs, the way they dressed, the way the cupbearers behaved and dressed, and the way Solomon worshiped—all this did her in. There was “no more spirit in her,” it says.

One of the things we should be longing for is a reformation and revival, the kind that thoroughly demoralizes nonbelievers. Everything about us will be involved, down to the way we dress, but note here the centrality of worship. The list of things that affected the queen in this peculiar way culminated in the way Solomon ascended into the house of the Lord.

Take all of this. There is no Table like this one. The cupbearers who bring you the wine of the new covenant are discharging their responsibilities in a way that God can use to declare His wonders abroad. We have ascended into the house of the Lord, and we are in His presence now—not only worshiping Him, but also communing with Him, and partaking of Him. There is nothing like this, anywhere in the world. To see it, you have to taken up into the heavens, and you have to see with the eye of faith. Come, then, and welcome.

First posted in Blog and Mablog, 8th August, 2009

>A Sabbath Day Prayer

>

How Lovely is Your Dwelling Place

O Maker and Upholder of All Things,

Day and night are thine; they are also mine from thee-

the night to rid me of the cares of the day,

to refresh my weary body,

to renew my natural strength;

the day to summon me to new activities,

to give me opportunity to glorify thee,

to serve my generation,

to acquire knowledge, holiness, eternal life.

But one day above all days is made especially

for thy honour and my improvement;

The sabbath reminds me of thy rest from creation,

of the resurrection of my Saviour,

of his entering into repose.

Thy house is mine,

but I am unworthy to meet thee there,

and am unfit for spiritual service.

When I enter it I come before thee as a sinner,

condemned by conscience and thy Word,

For I am still in the body and in the wilderness,

ignorant, weak, in danger,

and in need of thine aid.

But encouraged by thy all-sufficient grace

let me go to thy house with a lively hope of meeting thee,

knowing that there thou wilt come to me and give me peace.

My soul is drawn out to thee in longing desires

for thy presence in the sanctuary, at the table,

where all are entertained on a feast of good things;

Let me before the broken elements, emblems of thy dying love,

cry to thee with broken heart for grace and forgiveness.

I long for that blissful communion of thy people

in thy eternal house in the perfect kingdom;

These are they that follow the Lamb;

May I be of their company!

From The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions.
Posted from Between Two Worlds (Sunday 2 August, 2009)

>Meditation on Text of the Week

>Blessed Rest

Six days you shall labour and do all your work . . .
Exodus 20:13

Most associate the Fourth Commandment with the Sabbath Day, the day of rest—and rightly so, for the commandment begins, “Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy.” But the joy and privilege of resting on the sabbath occurs within the context of a command to labour and work for the other six days. Completing all our work on the six days, therefore, is equally part of the Fourth Commandment.

We have noticed that those Christians who are not working hard often struggle to make the sabbath day holy (that is, separate and different from the other six days). We have also noticed that those believers who are working very hard usually look upon the Sabbath as one of the most blessed and wonderful of all of God’s gifts to His people.

Now, of course, the work that the Scriptures envision here is not just paid employment or work that is done for trade or remuneration. Whilst it includes that it is far more comprehensive. It also includes all the responsibilities given to us as God’s stewards in God’s world. It embraces our duties towards our children, extended family members, Christian brethren, our employees, the property and possessions over which the Lord has appointed us stewards, our civic responsibilities, and so forth. All of these duties and tasks and responsibilities are to be undertaken and met in the six days of weekly labour.

Therefore, to celebrate and enjoy the Sabbath properly requires planning, organisation and management. Most of that planning, management, and execution takes place in the remaining six days of the week. The more faithful we are in these endeavours, the more we are able to lay aside our ordinary cares, responsibilities and duties on the Sabbath.

Of course, work is never finished. Everyone comes to the end of each six days with a never-ending conviction that there is so much left unfinished, so much yet to do. But—and here is where the Sabbath becomes a great delight to the conscientious stewards of the Lord—it is the Lord Himself Who commands us to cease from our labours on that day. Therefore, not only does one have a duty to rest on the Sabbath, but a divine warrant to do so. Doing one’s work is no longer needful on that day. He gives to His loved ones rest. We can tell our over-active consciences to sit down!

As we were raising our children, the Sabbath Day became an intense family day. We were all able to spend extended time together; eat together in leisurely fashion over long (midday) meals; read the Scriptures together and pray without having to rush away to something else; and it was a day in which we could all go to worship together, joining with God’s beloved holy ones in glad array before Him. We could read. We could sleep. We could catch up with our loved ones.

Over time, routines became habits, which in turn became institutions. The Sabbath Day became holy—a day utterly unlike any of the remaining six days of the week. It also became increasingly a day of great delight, the high point of the week. Public worship became part of its central joy: we were truly glad when it came time to say, “Let us go up to the house of the Lord.” It was not a day of negation, but a day of cessation, rest, and celebration. It was a day to take a deep breath and rejoice in the goodness and lovingkindness of God. It was the day which transformed the other six days—the days of labour—into something meaningful, purposive, holy, and truly fruitful.

As time passed, it was sad to see Unbelieving colleagues at work who knew nothing of the Sabbath Day. For them, life had become one ceaseless grind, an endless succession of pressure, sweat, labour, cares, worries and, above all, a never-ending cycle of incompleteness. Their cares and worries could not be laid aside. They started the week stale, worn out, and exhausted. Their ambitions and idolatries had led them to a condition not unlike slavery.

To be appointed a steward of God is a great honour—and such we all have been. Without exception. As we fulfill our responsibilities, above all with faithfulness, during the six days of the week, the Sabbath Day will become our great delight, one of our chief joys—we who have been made after the image of God.

>Sabbath Meditation

>Seeing Not as the World Sees

Only Jerusalem can Replicate the Balance and Harmony of God

Ever since the Enlightenment, there has been a constant emphasis upon the individual. This arose from the Enlightenment’s elevation of human reason to a position of the semi-divine. The rationalist mind, the thinking man, became the highest locus of authority and truth. Descartes’, “I think, therefore I am” is an apt encapsulation of this individualising of meaning, truth, and being.

Out of this came various political theories emphasizing individual human rights. Thus, classic Western liberalism was born. Also, and ironically, the same idolatry produced opposite political theories: Rousseau and others trumpeted the collective expression of individual autonomous reason. The collective Will of the People, as determined and mediated through the citizen deputies of the Assembly, came to be the justification for extreme tyranny and bloodshed.

The Church of the Lord has been infected by this relentless torrent of individualising mankind. Personal salvation, personal conversion, personal devotional life, personal divine guidance, and personal “revelations” have increasingly dominated western Christendom. Sadly, as is often the case, these emphases arise more out of the prevailing paganism of Athens than the Scriptures.

If you were to toss the influence of the “Enlightenment” into the garbage heap and cease looking at the Scripture through Enlightenment glasses, one of the things that would be immediately obvious is that in the biblical world-view, the individual is neither higher nor lower than the corporate, and the corporate is neither higher nor lower than the individual. Each has its place, authority, sphere, responsibilities and function. Each needs the other to be truly authentic. As God’s people, both individually and collectively, obey His commands and instructions, a wonderful harmony between the One and the Many emerges.

The pattern for this is the Triune nature of God Himself. In the Godhead, we have three Persons in One God. The Oneness of God is not more important or fundamental than His Many-ness. In God, the One and the Many (which just happens to be a fundamental philosophical problem) are equally ultimate.

Likewise, in the creation, the Lord has called into being corporate entities and individual entities: both alike are equally ultimate.

A clear example is the institution of marriage. For the cause of marriage, we are told, a man (individual) shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his (individual) wife, and they shall be one. In the marriage, which is more important: the individuals entering the marriage, or the marriage itself? Neither. Both alike are equally important. Marriage has an aspect of diversity and an aspect of unity. In a wonderful divine scheme, it turns out that those marriages which work best and have the highest manifestations of unity, harmony, and oneness are precisely those which reflect enhanced individuality of the spouses. The popular adage “opposites attract” provides an albeit superficial hint of this reality.

The equal ultimacy of the one and the many within Jerusalem can also be seen under the terms of the Older Covenant. Israel was bound together as the one covenant people of God. Over and over the Lord indicated to Israel that He had set His love upon one people, one collective, one nation, one family and its descendants. He had not set His love upon all peoples, all nations (that would come later).

Nevertheless this emphasis upon the corporate entities of faith did not overshadow individual faith or the personal believing heart. In fact it enhanced it. For example, the Psalms represent the deepest trials, struggles, doubts, joys, and faith of the individual heart found anywhere, in any time, in any literature, throughout in all human history.

But a brief skimming of the Psalms also tells us that the longing of the individual believer was for corporate Israel, God’s people, and public worship. The individual longing of the soul was also a longing to be one with the Lord and His people. It was a longing for the Lord of hosts.

O Lord of hosts, how lovely, Thy tabernacles are,
For them my heart is yearning in banishment afar.
My soul is longing, fainting Thy sacred courts to see;
My heart and flesh are crying, O living God for thee.
Psalm 84.

It is Greek and pagan rationalism which has distorted the understanding of the Newer Covenant into one which emphasizes the individual at the expense of the corporate, the many at the expense of the one. It is the animus of Unbelief which wants to pull apart what God has put together. If you read the Newer Covenant documents without Enlightenment glasses you will see immediately the continuation of the one and the many, the equal importance and weight of the individual and the corporate from the Older Covenant to the New Covenant. The weight and emphasis upon Kingdom and Church in the New Covenant is equal with that of the emphasis upon the need for personal repentance and faith and sanctification.

In the Middle Ages, again under the influence of Greek rationalism, the One became to be regarded as far more important than the Many; the corporate was more fundamental than the individual. Thus, the church (or the state) was more fundamental and important than the individual believer. It was the church which set itself up between (and above) man and God. The Reformation attacked this falsity at its root, with its stress upon individual repentance, faith and sanctification. But the Reformation also stressed the importance of the corporate, the church, the community, and the state as equally legitimate and divinely appointed institutions within the Kingdom of God.

But if paganism could not make the one ultimate, it would swing to the other extreme and make the many ultimate. So, the Enlightenment was born as a reaction of the many against the one, and the pendulum swung to the other extreme.

Jerusalem takes its mark and cue from the Lord, not from Athens. As part of sweeping its streets and carrying out its garbage, it needs to rid itself of the Enlightenment. Jerusalem knows that eventually the Enlightenment, which last century produced the bloodiest one hundred years in all human history, will eventually come to be seen as the beginning of a terrible Dark Age. Jerusalem needs to recover that wonderful harmony and balance between the one and the many, the individual and the corporate, that is so beautifully “archetyped” in God Himself. This is part of what it means to be the City set upon a great hill, the wonder of the whole earth.

As Athens progressively whipsaws itself into pieces, racked first with making the Many absolute, then flicking back to the extreme of making the One ultimate, the City of God will, by contrast, be seen as a bright and beautiful light in an otherwise benighted world.

>Sabbath Meditation

>The Grace of A God Bound and Obligated

We have noted in earlier posts that the Reformers developed the concept of the Means of Grace. This understanding of how Jerusalem or the Church was to work has largely been lost today. It needs to be recovered.

The concept of the means of grace is important because it tells us how God works in our lives, conforming us as individuals, and the Church as a whole, more and more into the image of Christ. Once we are clear on how God works in our lives, we can willingly co-operate, thus making the means of grace even more powerful and blessed. Our responsibility is to take up these means of grace, use them, and believe that the Lord will use them to bless us with His presence and transforming power.

The means of grace are not magic talismans. They do not manipulate the Lord in any way. They are not a kind of incantation. They are rather institutions put forth and established by God Himself as the means by which He comes to His people and blesses them, accomplishing His salvation within them, their families, and their communities.

We have said that the greatest means of grace is the Sabbath day—greatest because the first. On that holy day, as we observe and celebrate the Sabbath all the other means of grace are available to us as well, and on the Sabbath all the other means of grace are especially effective and powerful. It has pleased the Lord that it should be so.

A second means of grace is the Word of God. God’s Word not only constitutes reality out of nothing, it also shapes, governs and conditions that reality once created. Once again, the Word of God is not a magical talisman. Rather, it is God’s revelation of Himself, His plan and accomplishment of redemption, and His promises.

The Word of God, and in particular the promises that God has made in His Word, are the foundation and ground of all faith. We can believe because what is said in His Word is absolutely certain; it is absolutely certain because God has said it. The Word of God is more real, more solid, more dependable than anything else in the universe. Heaven and earth may pass away, but His Word will never pass away. His people are thus to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

God binds Himself to His Word—He cannot be or do otherwise, since He is the God of truth and truthfulness. Once spoken, never forgotten. Because of His Word, God allows Himself to be bound to us. His Word creates a binding obligation upon God to do as He has promised, to be what He has declared, to accomplish what He has foretold. As the Word of God is opened to us, as we believe it and take it seriously with all reverence, so God becomes obligated to be and do as He has spoken to us.

So, for example, as our Lord has promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” and we believe that, so it proves true indeed: He never does leave nor forsake us. Our whole lives are transformed in principle by that one promise (and it is just one amongst many, many promises). As we take up that promise and build our lives upon it and in terms of it, so we are transformed more and more into the image of Christ Himself. We progressively become the people that we are meant to be.

God’s Word comes to us in ways that are particularly powerful on the Sabbath day, in public worship. Here His Word is opened and proclaimed to us. Here we are exhorted to believe and obey. The binding and transforming nature of the Scripture is vividly evident in the lives of the community, of those with whom we join in worship. The Spirit of God moves over the congregation, opening ears and understanding, increasing faith, hope and love in each heart.

It is particularly true that on the Sabbath day, in the midst of the congregation of the Lord, the Word of God, in the hands of the Spirit, becomes living, effective, and sharper than a two edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, judging the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4: 12).

It is significant, is it not, that this utterance, the word concerning the Word, is given to us in the very passage that speaks of the Sabbath rest of God’s people.

On this holy day, may the Word of God, by His Spirit, live amongst us in great power and blessing. As the Emmaus disciples professed: “were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?”

>Sabbath Meditation

>Confirming the Work of Our Hands

Psalm 90 contains a wonderful “sabbath” prayer. We read at the end of the Psalm: “And let the favour of the Lord be upon us; and do confirm for us the work of our hands. Yes, confirm the work of our hands.”

This Psalm is a prayer of Moses and it is a lament over the frailty of life, its shortness, and tenuousness. It is also a lament over having lived under the disciplining judgments of God. He says, “For we have been consumed by Thine anger, and by Thy wrath we have been dismayed. Thou hast placed our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy presence. For all our days have declined in Thy fury; we have finished our years like a sigh.” (Psalm 90: 7—9)

We recall that Moses spent the last third of his life with a generation of Israel which had been condemned by God to die in the wilderness, having been refused the privilege of entering into the Land of Promise. His duty was to lead the people during this phase of redemptive history. He was leading a people whose iniquities had been placed before God. They were doomed not to enter the land of rest. It was a time where the heart would have quailed; there would have been a deep sense of the worthlessness, uselessness, and vanity of life.

Nevertheless, towards the end of the Psalm, Moses asks the Lord to feel sorrow for His servants, and return again to them with the morning of His lovingkindness. He concludes by asking the Lord to confirm for them the work of their hands.

There are times and generations within the history of God’s people when they lie under the anger and wrath of God. God seems far away. There is evil and unbelief on every side. Faith is weak. Compromise is the order of the day. We live in such times in the second world, as the Christian faith weakens and flickers in the West.

It is critical in such days that we not lose heart. Our eye must ever be toward the Lord, and our hands ever stretched out to Him. For His lovingkindness will return. He cannot deny Himself or His Son, and He has taken solemn oaths concerning us. The prayer of faith in such days is that the Lord might confirm for us the work of our hands.

When we pray this prayer we are asking that, however weak or limited, frail or compromised our labours have been, the Lord might make them stand and confirmed. If Moses could pray that the labours of that generation would be confirmed by the Lord, how much more we? We are thereby admonished to ask in faith that our labours would be acknowledged by God and in due time they would bear their fruit in His kingdom. Our generation may not see their fruit, but the Lord will make subsequent generations to see and be blessed by them.

As we enter the Lord’s presence on the Sabbath in holy worship, we come bearing the works of our hands of the preceding week; we also are conscious that we will labour in the forthcoming week. We bring this labour as a sacrifice before Him and ask Him to confirm the labour of our hands. May very straight blows be struck by the Lord with our crooked sticks—this is what we must pray.

There is no better place nor time to pray such a prayer than on the Sabbath day, as He greets us with joy and welcomes us to His Throne of Grace.

>Sabbath Meditation

>The Power and The Privilege

If God has appointed means (methods, institutions, practices) by which His grace comes to us and He transforms us, this gives us both a great power and an enormous privilege.

The implications are significant. Firstly, it means that we can take meaningful responsibility for our spiritual lives and the spiritual lives of those who are dependant upon us. The ordination of means, or to use a theological term, God’s establishment of second causes, empowers man to achieve, and accomplish. Because God has instituted the means by which a seed germinates (warmth and moisture) and these means are constant and unchanging, when we discover or apprehend these second causes, we can “cause” seeds to germinate, by applying the God ordained means. God’s steadfastness, constancy and faithfulness in maintaining the means ensure that the means will be effective.

As we have argued in a previous Sabbath Meditation, God has likewise established means for spiritual life and growth. Theologians have called these the means of grace. By applying these means, in faith—looking to God and depending upon Him—we can expect that God will work in our lives, transforming us, enabling us to mature as His children and servants. The means of grace empower us to work at, achieve, and accomplish spiritual growth. Our destiny is in our hands.

Secondly, we have reason to expect and experience God’s powerful working in our lives. The Scriptures make abundantly clear that the saving work of God in our lives is solely at the pleasure and prerogative of God alone. He said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and compassion upon whom I have compassion.” Paul takes up this revelation and applies it to everyman: “So then He has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom He desires.” (Romans 9: 15,16)

Consequently, the Lord, when instructing Nicodemus on the new birth first makes it abundantly clear that one cannot enter the Kingdom of God unless one is born again. But this new birth comes to a person from the Spirit of God, and no-one can command or direct the Spirit. “The wind (in Greek, the same word is used for Spirit as wind, so our Lord is making a clever play upon words) blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3: 8) Like the wind, we can tell of the presence of the Spirit by the fruit that is borne; but we cannot tell whence the Spirit has come, nor where He will go next.

Nevertheless, because God has appointed means by which, in which, and through which the Spirit of God works in our lives, we have reason to expect that as we use the means of grace and take hold of them and wield them, the Spirit of God will work amongst us.

Now at this point, we need to make some careful distinctions, for ever our hearts are ready to swerve off into idolatry of one kind or other. The essence of idolatry is to believe that one has control over one’s god. We first make the image before we bow down to it. The idolater controls and shapes the god before he worships it. That is why, at heart, idolatry is really self-worship.

If we fall into the trap of thinking that the established means of grace give us control over God, that the means of grace function as some sort of automatic magical, incantation by which God is manipulated, then we have fallen over into the slough of idolatry. We do not manipulate or command God by the means of grace; on the contrary, He manipulates and commands us. Therefore, we take hold of the means of grace in reverent faith, looking to God, not to the means themselves. Without God’s good pleasure and gracious mercy they are empty clanging symbols.

But as we look to God, believe in Him, and believe that because He has appointed the means by which His grace comes, and as we take up these means and enter into their use, we can expect that God will indeed pour out His Spirit upon us.

Thirdly, this indicates that the means of grace are holy. They are special. They are associated with the presence and power of God. By these means, as we lift up our hearts to God, He Himself draws close to us and ministers to us.

Imagine if God wrote you a letter to the effect that He wanted to meet with you, and that He would be at a certain place at a certain time, and asked you to be there that He might enjoy your company and bless you with His grace and favour. That letter, that appointment would become an institution or means of grace. But it would be the most holy (different, sanctified, set apart for God) of times and places for you—and God. It does not take much imagination to get a strong sense of how we would long for the day to come; how we would hasten to the appointment. Nothing on earth would keep us or distract us.

So, the means of grace are the sacred things of life; all other things are the profane. This does not mean that the rest of life is not to be holy and sanctified to the Lord. On the contrary. But the means of grace are different insofar as these are the special means by which God blesses us face to face, as it were. These are the appointed means by which the Lord joins Himself with us, rejoices in our presence, and blesses us with life and favour.

The first means of grace—greatest because first—is the Sabbath Day. On that day, the Lord releases us from all our other duties and responsibilities as His servants on the earth so that we might enter a holy convocation with Him, and celebrate because He is amongst us. At the very beginning, we read that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. He made it holy.

As we enter into the Sabbath regarding it as a means of grace, so we will look to the Lord particularly to minister to us and bless us on that day. And so we will be blessed with every spiritual (Holy Spirit wrought) blessing which He is particularly pleased to bestow on that holy day. Sabbath celebration is one of our greatest responsibilities, but also an incalculable privilege.

By it, we are transformed from one degree of glory to another because at that time God presences Himself amongst us as face to face.

>Sabbath Meditation

>The Means of Grace

A Christian doctrine that has largely “passed from the sight of mortal men” is the doctrine of the means of grace. It was at the heart of much Reformational theology and teaching. Today it is scarcely heard, even amongst those who identify with the teachings and traditions of the Reformation.

Regardless of modern forgetfulness or distortions, Jerusalem must recapture and restore this great Christian doctrine. It is a vital foundation stone to building and extending God’s City. To the extent that it has been lost, Jerusalem is the weaker and poorer for it.

Actually, the phrase “means of grace” appears an oxymoron, at first glance. For grace is God’s unmerited favour to man. Man is not owed God’s goodness or favour; he has no right to it. Nevertheless, when God does bestow His favour, despite the fact we deserve it not, we call it grace. Because God’s favour is not on account of any merit we might have, we call it free—as in, God’s free grace. The idea that there could be means by which God’s grace comes to us at first glance might appear to undermine the idea that God’s mercy is free and without debt.

The divine mercy that fell upon Abraham and his descendants provides the eternal pattern. The Lord explicitly says that there was nothing particularly significant about Abraham. He was an idol worshiper along with everyone else, despite the fact that much later, subsequent rabbinic tradition almost deified Abraham. They forgot that every male Israelite was required to confess formally that Abraham his father was a “wandering Aramaean”—that is, a pagan Syrian. The Hebrew word translated wandering means “perishing, lost, in great danger”. (Deuteronomy 26: 5)

Abraham was taken from a family of idolaters, as the Lord declares through Joshua: “from ancient times, your fathers lived beyond the River, Terah the father of Abraham and the father of Nabor and they served other gods. Then I took your father from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan.” (Joshua 24: 2,3). From that point on, every descendant, every Israelite through birth and those brought in through profession of faith knew that they were recipients of God’s grace through no merit of their own. They simply happened to be descended from Abraham, and therefore God’s love had fallen upon them.

Moses explicitly tells the people, “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers.” (Deuteronomy 7:8). Thus, every Israelite who could say, “I am loved by God”, when asked, “Why does God love you,” was bound to say, “Because the Lord loved my fathers and made an oath to them.” It was freely done by God. I had no part in it.

Later, as idolatry insinuated itself back into Israel’s heart, the free nature of God’s grace was obscured, if not entirely obliterated. Being a child of Abraham was distorted into a badge of merit. “Because I am descended from Abraham, therefore God owes me His favour and salvation.” In contrast were the Gentiles whom God was understood not to love. This reached its apotheosis in the time of our Lord, when Israel was rapidly filling up the cup of its transgression.

When John the Baptist was preaching the message of repentance to prepare the way for Messiah, he warned them against what was their habitual mode of thought: “do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham!’” John was calling them to repent. In heart the multitudes were saying, “No, it’s OK—we are descended from Abraham and this is sufficient to merit God’s love to us.” John rudely confronts such an idolatrous notion, declaring that being descended from Abraham is of no merit whatsoever, for God is able to raise up children of Abraham from stones.

“The very fact that you are a descendant of Abraham should have confirmed to you that the salvation of God was brought to you through no merit of your own. You did not engineer your forebears. Since you have turned it into a basis of merit, let me leave you in no doubt that it is nothing, for God can throw you out, and replace you with stones.”

And so it came to pass. Israel of old would not hear, but clung to their idolatry—clung to their belief that they merited God’s favour, that He owed them His mercy, and that He needed them. So they were cast off. But God replaced them, making former stones into sons of Israel—and in this instance, the stones were the Gentiles who were adopted into God’s family and made descendants of Abraham, heirs of his promises.

So we read Paul’s letter to the Gentiles who were now in the Ephesian congregation: “Therefore remember that formerly, you, the Gentiles in the flesh . . . . that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But . . . you who were afar off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:11—13)

Thus, God’s grace is indeed free. He chooses to bestow it on whom He chooses. Nevertheless, God has appointed means (methods, ways, circumstances, and institutions) by which His grace comes to people. If we are to receive God’s grace, we are directed to look to the rock from which we were hewn. We are directed to look to the means which God has established. Grace is found where God has appointed it to be.

God’s grace is sovereign and free. God also sovereignly has appointed the means by which His grace flows to men. Faith responds by submitting to His appointment, taking up the means of grace that God has appointed, looking to God, and expecting His grace to flow in and through the means, even as He has promised.

This means that the means of grace which He has appointed are holy and sacred—because through these means God comes to us, and we are drawn into His very presence.

>Sabbath Meditation

>The Eyes of Faith

The eyes of faith see what the blind do not. The eyes of faith see the angels of the Lord who encamp around those who fear Him. The eyes of faith make us conscious that we walk in the presence of heavenly and earthly realms. The believer knows that the heavenly realms are more real, more true, more significant—more dense and thick with meaning, if you will—than the aspects of the world mediated to us through the perception of the senses.

This does not make the material aspects of the world unimportant, or even less important, than the unseen heavenly powers. The believer’s view, however, is more true and complete in that it embraces all reality, both seen and unseen, physical and immaterial, it embraces both the Creator and the creature. The believer is not only someone whose eyes have been opened, but he is one who lives life in terms of “reality as it really is.” Therefore, the believer is blessed exceedingly. Therefore, the believer has life and has it abundantly—or, “in spades” to use the vernacular.

As we go to worship on this holy day the material and the sensual aspects will be only part of the reality. Also present, also gathering with us will be the Holy One of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will be present in the person of His Spirit. His angels, His ministering spirits, will also be present. As we worship and bow down before Him, the angels will join with us, as part of the holy congregation, in worship. Together, with the angels, we will greet our Lord with praise and honour.

If it is true that where two or three are gathered together in the Name of the Lord, He is present amongst them, how much more when the congregation of the Lord gathers together on the holy day.

When we enter the halls of the congregation there is always to be found a great diversity of responses and thoughts. There is anticipation and excitement. There is reverential fear. We know that we will be standing on holy ground. There is also the joy of greeting the saints, and being greeted by them.

As they greet us and we greet them we are acting as the Lord’s servants. In our greeting, He is greeting. In our extending the right hand of fellowship, God is extending His hand to us. For the only ground upon which we greet fellow believers in peace is the Person and work of the Lord Jesus. He has brought to us a work—a state—in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian and Scythian, slave and freeman—but Christ is all in all. (Colossians 3:11) As we greet one another in the holy convocation for worship we live out and experience this great work of salvation. We cannot accept a greeting without accepting also the cause and ground which brought it about—the saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is why when Christians greet each other in the presence of the Lord, He is greeting us in their actions.

In the singing of the congregation, we are singing to the Lord, Who is present with us. In the proclamation of the scriptures God is speaking to us and with us. We are indeed on holy ground.

In the particular congregation in which I am privileged to worship there are people from so many ethnic and racial origins. In a world racked with division, enmity, hatreds, and jealousies our congregational gatherings are a manifestation of the glory of Christ’s salvation. Rich and poor, male and female, young and old, firm and infirm, white and black and every skin colour in between—all gather in joyful unity before the Lord—glad to be in each other’s presence, glad to be worshiping our Lord together. The world longs for this joyous reality but can never engineer or create it.

When David was an outcast and not able to attend public worship and join with the congregation of the Lord he spoke of the yearning of his heart and his longing to be in the courts of God. He sang a dirge, a lamentation:

As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So my soul pants for Thee, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;
When shall I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my food day and night,
While they say to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’
These things I remember, and I pour out my soul within me.
For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God,
With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.

Psalm 42: 1—4

This holy day we are able to come and appear before God. There is nothing—nothing—in heaven or upon earth to compare with the joy, the privilege and the blessing of what we do this day.

>Sabbath Meditations #4

>The Resurrected Cosmos

The Sabbath Day under the Old Covenant was celebrated weekly on the seventh day. The symbolism is significant and links back to the creation of the universe. For six days God engaged in the work of creation. On the seventh He rested.

Under the Old Covenant the duty of God’s people was to go forth and subdue the creation, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. On the seventh day they rested, and celebrated. They brought all their work before the Lord for His blessing. They enjoyed the wonderful experience of deep communion with the Lord. He walked among them. In corporate gatherings they celebrated the warmth of human community together before God.

The more productive and blessed their labours in the six days previous, the more blessed their sabbath celebration. If, however, they had experienced six days of wearying struggle without much apparent progress, their sabbath was a blessed respite in which they would find solace, nurture, and new strength.

All of these realities and experiences continue to be true for believers under the New Covenant. The basic six days of labour, one day of rest pattern continues. However, there is one very significant change: the day of celebration was changed from the seventh to the first day of the week. The Gospels are all explicit: Jesus rose on the first day of the week; it was the day named subsequently by the apostles as “the Lord’s Day”, and it became the day of holy, blessed, and joyful convocation where God’s people gathered to commune with their risen Lord.

Just like the seventh day sabbath, the symbolism is very significant. In tying the sabbath institution to the first day, it was ever after to be understood as a rest which involves resurrection. This is the sabbath rest which was remains for the people of God. (Hebrews 4:9) We may put it this way. Up until the time of the sacrifice of our Lord and His being raised from the dead, the cosmos was under the realm of creation. From the time of Christ and the accomplishment of His work upon earth, followed by His entering into His perpetual work in heaven, the cosmos has been under the realm of re-creation.

Resurrection—life from the dead. Re-creating all things around the lordship of Christ. In the New Covenant, we re-create before we work. We celebrate resurrection life with Christ, before we go out to bring that life to the world. Our six days of labour are now a work of re-creation of all things into newness of life. The sabbath is a commencement, not a conclusion.

All of these things were implicit amongst the people of God under the Old Covenant, since the Old Covenant was grounded in God’s saving grace, which would be made effective and applicable in the work of Christ. But under the New Covenant these things are explicit—not just because we can far more clearly understand, see, and comprehend the salvation wrought by God in His Son—but also because the whole cosmos has now come under the reign of that grace. Now is the day of salvation unto the whole world.

The entire creation is awaiting its full resurrection into the glory God prepared beforehand. That glory will see all things being summed up in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. (Ephesians 1:10) That glory is progressively coming to pass as the Lord Jesus brings and replicates His resurrection life upon the earth. Life will be brought out of death, as far as the curse is found. The Son of God appeared—incarnate, crucified, resurrected, ascended, coronated, and enthroned—that He might destroy the works of the Devil. (I John 3:8)

The symbolism of Scripture is never empty or vain. By using and deploying the symbols of the Bible, we enter into the reality symbolised, by faith. Every Lord’s Day, when the covenant people of God cease from work and gather for celebration and worship, they not only symbolise resurrected life, they actually enter into it.

They commence the week before the Throne of God, entering into the new life, the life of God’s Spirit, Who will shape and fructify all their subsequent six days of labour. By our lives, by our work on the subsequent six days we will be bringing life out of death, recreation out of deformation, resurrection out of the grave. We who were dead in our tresspasses and sins have been made alive together with Christ. We go forth to bring that new life, and all its universal implications, to all that God has entrusted to us.

>Sabbath Meditation #3

>Theatre of Operations

In a war, the phrase “theatre of operations” refers to the locations of battle or where battle is being planned. It raises an interesting question: Since the Church is engaged in a battle, where exactly is the theatre of operations? Where is the battle being fought?

The answer given in Scripture is quite clear: earth, the world, is the theatre of operations. When Jesus ascended to be invested as Lord of the heavens and the earth He was not retreating or escaping from the battle. Rather, having won the decisive battle, which was the crucial engagement, on the Cross—a victory manifest through His resurrection from the dead—He also won the right to continue to lead the war. Complete victory was now assured and certain. But the size and scale of that victory is beyond human comprehension and imagination. Through the leaven of the Gospel the entire earth is being and will be renewed, all enemies have been and will be vanquished and abolished, heaven and heaven’s throne will be established on the earth.

Our Lord’s ascension and session at the right hand of God was not an escape or deliverance from the earth or from the war being waged here. Rather, His ascension was in order to engage the enemy more effectively, powerfully, and comprehensively than ever before. Whereas once God’s focus was on the preservation of a small nation, then just a tiny remnant of that nation, then, finally, upon one single Man of that nation, now, with the decisive victory won, and with the investiture of the Messiah as Lord of heaven and earth, with His Spirit poured out upon His people, the Church of the Living God, the universal transformation of the creation has commenced. It is the great battle of our time.

Sadly many Christians seem to miss this point. They think that the whole focus of the Christian’s life should be to escape or depart this world to be with Jesus. They tend to gloss the significance and point of Jesus’ victory over death to be an escape from this world and going to heaven. Becoming one of His people, becoming a Christian means, in this view, that one’s hope also should focus upon dying and going to be with the Lord. They see themselves, in nurturing this hope, as following in the footsteps of Jesus, who likewise died and went to be with God.

What a sad misconception of the truth. Probably when these saints depart and go to be with the Lord they will be in for a real shock. Yes, they will find that the whole focus of the heavenly realm is upon the Lamb, seated on the throne. But, the Lord’s focus will not be on those around Him so much, as upon the earth, upon the theatre of operations which He is now conducting. Likewise, all the glorified saints in heaven and the angels be focused upon what the Lord is concentrated upon.

Pity the poor saint who enters heaven thinking that at last he has left the world behind, only to find that everyone there is actually focused upon the world which he thought he had left—for therein is the theatre of redemptive operations; therein is the glory of the Lord being manifest before the angels, the principalities, and the entire creation. No doubt there will be those who will regret that in their time of enlistment here they did not have more focus upon the theatre of operations.

Paul is a wonderful exemplar of this ethic. In prison for the faith—coming to the sunset of his life—he writes to the Philippians that he knows that if he were to die, it would be to his great personal gain. He had a genuine desire to depart and be with Christ, for that would be, in a personal sense, much to his advantage. But if he were to stay in the theatre of operations he would be able to continue to make a contribution to the war effort. Convinced of this—that he still had work to do, that he could still be useful to the Philippian congregation—he knew that the Lord would have him stay and continue the battle. (Philippians 1:20—26)

Paul knew that the focus of his and our Lord was upon the achievement of the restoration of heaven upon earth, which ultimately will manifest to all creation the glory of God in full measure. He knew that to accomplish this holy task required great labour and warfare. Like, Paul we each have limited time to engage in the great battle of our time. Our lives upon earth in the theatre of operations are very short. Our demobilisation will come soon enough.

In the meantime, let make every moment count. Let us make every Sabbath count. Let us be focused indeed on the entire theatre of His operations. Let each saint play his part in the battle array of the Lord. This Sabbath let us review the theatre of His operations with Him while the Captain of the Lord’s host walks amongst us. Let us honour and worship Him as our Lord and King. Let us consult with Him, seek and secure His direction and aid in all the current battles, and with Him make plans to open new fronts of engagement.

>Sabbath Meditation #2

>Avoiding the Love of Provinces

One of the great failings of our covenant fathers of old was to distort and pervert the faith of God into nationalistic and racialistic shapes. The true faith was seen as being inextricably tied to Israel and to Jews. It was seen as inextricably tied to the Temple and its worship ceremonies. This grave error, which in the end became an idolatry in its own right, was one of the reasons for the rejection of Israel as the people of God, so that the Gentiles might be called. The old wineskin could not contain the new wine.

As we cease from our six days of the privileged labour and gather together to turn our faces upward to God in holy worship we must contend against falling into the same failing as our older covenant fathers. Public sabbath worship always has an intense local element to it. Our most holy and blessed activity occurs at a certain time and place, with a certain pattern or liturgy, in the company of certain beloved brothers and sisters. At this place the Lord meets with His people. At this time and place the means of grace are powerful and saving.

Given such an intensity of favour and blessing it is inevitable that our local congregational gatherings will be regarded as our most significant and holy events. The place and the occasion come to be sacred in our eyes—and rightly so. Would to the Lord that this were ever the case, and increasingly so, amongst us all.

But we must never fall into the mistake of provincialising worship. As Stephen reminded the Sanhedrin in one of the most powerful and fateful recorded sermons of all time, the prophets said of the Temple: “Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me?” says the Lord; “or what place is there for My repose? Was it not My hand which made all these things.” (Acts 7: 49,50)

The Lord comes to meet with us as we worship. That is why it is such a holy and blessed and special event. He is in our midst. Yet because it is the Lord Almighty who is amongst us, our hearts must ever be drawn to take up the needs, the concerns, and the glories of His universal Kingdom. He is above all the earth; therefore, all the earth belongs to Him. As He taught us to pray: “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Our worship will inevitably be intensely local, but must never be allowed to become provincial. The concerns of our Father’s business must ever lift our hearts to heaven, and from heaven to the whole earth, that His will might be done everywhere, in every place.

>Sabbath Meditation #1

>One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church

Public worship on the Lord’s Day is the holiest activity of our day to day existence. It occurs on the one day in seven which the Lord God has commanded us to set apart (that is, institute as holy) from the other six days of the week. This command and institution has stood from the initial existence of time itself.
But ever since the resurrection of our Lord it has adopted a new significance that it did not represent before. The Sabbath—the day of rest and worship—of recreation and communion of the Lord’s people, together with the Lord—took on a universal significance. Our Lord was resurrected, and was therefore appointed the universal Lord over the heavens and the earth. He declared that all power in heaven and on earth, consequent of His resurrection, had been given to Him (Matthew 28:18). In being raised to the right hand of God all enemies were and are going to be placed under His feet (Hebrews 2:8).
As the Son of Man, He is Lord over the Sabbath. In rising, and being made the universal Lord, He necessarily made the Sabbath universal—an institution for all people, in all places. So today, on this holy Sabbath, we join with the saints before God universally. Our gathering is not just of one local congregation, small or large, a handful or thousands, as it may be. Our gathering is universal. We gather and commune as members of “One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church” as the Nicene Creed puts it.
We are gathered from every place on earth. We are gathered out of every social class, every race, every tongue, every clan, male and female, child and adult. We are gathered in one voice and one tongue—that of the Overword—the Word of the Living God. On this day, our resurrected Lord gathers us to the heavenly Jerusalem. In this one great congregation today will be gathered into the City of God not just our local fellowship or our immediate Christian brethren, but also myriads of angels, and the spirits of all righteous men made perfect, enrolled in heaven. Above all, we are gathered into the presence of God. Our Risen Lord summons us on this holy day, to the great universal heavenly convocation before the face of the Living God. (Hebrews 12: 22,23)
For twenty-four hours, as the earth rotates majestically, the songs of praise will be heard gradually spreading around the globe like one great antiphonal choir, each answering to each in song. “Glory be to God the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit” they will sing—and they will be answered as other congregations join, adding their amen.
But, not only do the voices raise to God and His Christ, God Himself actively greets His people. His Spirit this day will pour forth upon the earth, to comfort, to bind, to heal; to bring courage, faith and hope. Tears will be wiped away today. Burdens will be lifted. Hearts will be made light. Thousand this day will be converted out of darkness into light. The myriads of angels will be rejoicing over many lost sheep that will be found today. Just as the great antiphonal earthly choir answers praise with fresh and new praise around the world, so the Living God also answers His people, ministering to them in His grace and mercy.
As we gather for worship on this day, let us do so conscious that we are part of the universal congregation of the Lord, the general assembly and church of the first-born. This, too, is part of the fruit of His resurrection. Because He rose the church has become truly universal. Let us therefore be conscious as we worship of our joining with the universal congregation of the Lord, and let our prayers and thoughts be for our brethren everywhere that God might bless them and keep them, that He might make His face to shine upon them and be gracious unto them; that He might lift up the light of His countenance upon them, and give them peace.
New Zealand has a unique “position” with respect to the Sabbath Day. By providential arrangement of global time conventions New Zealand happens to commence the Sabbath activities first, ahead of all other nations. We, in this far flung outpost of the Kingdom of God, have been granted the privilege of commencing the worship and convocation of the universal church this holy day. Let us, then, truly lead our brethren and sisters in worship of the risen Lord. Let us know that for the next twenty-four hours antiphonal voices will be raised in echo and response. Above all, let us know that our Lord Himself will rise to greet us and be amongst us.

>ChnMind 1.16 The Sabbath and the Heavenly City

>

The Sabbath Grows in Power and Glory

The institution of the sabbath has expanded and developed through redemptive history. As with all redemptive history, the greatest change and development occurred with the resurrection and ascension of Messiah Jesus to the right hand of the Father. He, as the head of the new creation and the new human race redeems and re-institutes the sabbath. The classic (but often frightfully misunderstood) text in this regard is Hebrew chapters 3&4.

Here are the key propositions:

1. There has been through all human history one House of God, and Jesus Christ alone is the builder of the House.

2. For many centuries, the Old Covenant manifestation of the House of God was the nation of Israel in the land of Canaan.

3. To be in Israel was to have entered into the rest (sabbath) of God.

4. Some who came out of Egypt did not enter into God’s sabbath, because of unbelief.

5. In order to enter into House of God now, and consequently into God’s sabbath, we must believe in the Gospel preached to us.

6. The sabbath rest instituted in the land of Israel was anticipatory only: it was not the real sabbath rest which was yet to come, when Jesus Christ completed building the House of God.

7. That House is now established forever, and we are to enter into the rest of that House.

The great mistake many in Jerusalem today make is to take the reference of this text out of history cast its fulfilment up into the enternal realms to come. But the Sabbath rest that Hebrews speaks of is none other than the reconstituted sabbath as it was prior to the Fall, and would have become as the descendants of Adam and Eve carried out the command of God to subdue all the earth. Grace restores Nature to its glorious perfections; Grace does not obliterate Nature. Grace restores the terrestrial constitution of the Creation.

Hebrews makes it very clear that the realm of which the text speaks is the here and now—it is Jerusalem upon earth, now—the city that is being created by Christ out of heaven upon the earth in our time. This is what is meant by the heavenly city—not the city that is in heaven alone (that is, away from the earth), but the city that is both in heaven and upon the earth. That is the city which the patriarchs longed to see and participate in (although they died without seeing it, and saw it in faith only, from afar—Hebrews 11:8—16). If the city which the patriarchs were looking for, the city whose architect and builder is God, was outside of human history and in heaven alone, the text would have said that they entered the city when they died (that is, when they departed human history upon the earth and went to be with the Lord). But, it explicitly says that they died in faith without receiving the promises (Hebrews 11:13)—rather,their whole lives they had been strangers and exiles on the earth. They had not been able to participate in the city of God, the House of God, while upon earth—they had remained as strangers and exiles from it—because the House of God had not yet been established upon the earth.

This experience of being strangers and exiles, of not seeing and participating in the city of God, was common to all believers under the Old Covenant. Thus, at the end of Hebrews 11 which is the great roll of faith of the Old Covenant, we read the explicit statement: “All these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.” He does not say, something “better for us and them in the future”, but something better which we now experience, which is the fulfillment of the promise—the city whose maker and builder is God. And what then is the “something better”: it is Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despised the shame, and has now sat down at the right hand of the throne of God—thereby establishing the true city of God upon the earth. (Hebrews 12: 2)

This city is the heavenly Jerusalem and it is a city that spans both heaven and earth. When we enter into sabbath worship now, we come to “Mount Zion and to the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.. (Hebrews 12: 22—24) This city shakes everything upon the earth so that all which is not truly of God upon the earth and can be shaken, will be removed.

There is a real irony here. The pagan notion of the dichotomy between matter and spirit has so infected the Church that many Christians have come to believe their great hope lies in escaping from the earth, in death. In other words, many Christians believe that their great hope is metaphysical in nature and lies in an escape from the material realms. This of course is perverse. It is one of the many lies of Athens. The real hope for the Christian lies in Christ and the complete consummation of all His work—in the heavens and upon earth. Thus, our hope lies not in escaping from the created material realm, but in Christ’s shaking of all of heaven and earth, and removing that which does not belong upon earth. That which is removed is that which is evil and not of God. Thus, our great hope is not in being removed from the earth, but in the removal of all evil, all which can be shaken, all which does not truly belong upon the earth. That is the true heavenly city. (Hebrews 12:25—29)

Thus within Jerusalem we are now able to enjoy the great sabbath rest as we engage in our six days of labour, then cease work to rest and come into the presence of God. This is what the patriarchs of old longed to participate in, but could not. The true House and City of God has now been established in Christ, the Head of the new human race, the One who is creating all things new.

If the sabbath was blessed under the Old Covenant, it is many times more blessed now, through the office of Christ Jesus the Lord, who is working to ensure that His will is being done more and more upon the earth as it is in heaven.

There are two cities in the world. One is of the earth, is earthy. It is from the dust, and to dust it shall return. It will be shaken out and removed. Athens is its name, and death is its spirit. The other is of heaven. It is from God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and its course in the world is life. It cannot be shaken. It is bringing, and will bring, cleansing, refreshing, and healing to all the nations. Upon its throne sits the Lamb, the King of all kings. All enemies are being placed under His feet. The creation, which groans under the dead weight of Athens and all it represents, it now being released from its slavery, and is being restored in Christ, to the freedom and glory that it had when God said, so long ago, “It is very good!”