Past Present and Future Reality of God’s Promises

/ Cliff Walling / Leave a comment

Lamentations 3:13-27

13 He drove into my kidneys

the arrows of his quiver;

14 I have become the laughingstock of all peoples,

the object of their taunts all day long.

15 He has filled me with bitterness;

he has sated me with wormwood.

16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel,

and made me cower in ashes;

17 my soul is bereft of peace;

I have forgotten what happiness is;

18 so I say, “My endurance has perished;

so has my hope from the Lord.”

19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings,

the wormwood and the gall!

20 My soul continually remembers it

and is bowed down within me.

21 But this I call to mind,

and therefore I have hope:

22 The steadfast love of the

Lord never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;

23 they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

“therefore I will hope in him.”

25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him,

to the soul who seeks him.

26 It is good that one should wait quietly

for the salvation of the Lord.

27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth

The book of Lamentations is anonymous. The work does not name its author. But Lamentations has long been attributed to the prophet who also wrote Jeremiah, and there are several reasons for thinking that this tradition is right. In the Septuagint (Greek Translation of the Old Testament) the heading of lamentation states Jeremiah is the author. In 2 Chronicles 35:25 Jeremiah is listed as a writer of “laments”. So it is certain that Jeremiah is the composer.

The five chapters in Lamentations are poems actually funeral poems. The book consists of five separate laments for Jerusalem and its people.. Each lament was written in the form of an alphabetic acrostic. In other words, each chapter (except for chapter 3) is divided into twenty-two separate sections, one for every letter in the Hebrew alphabet.

This morning we are looking at his 3rd Lament. This Lament is different than the others as the others are communal regarding the entire Nation, what is interesting this morning is his 3rd lament where in verse 1 of Chapter 3 it begins with “I”, a personal lament for Jeremiah. Phillip Ryken says in his commentary:

Jeremiah’s personal lament is a reminder that suffering is always personal. When nations go through times of tragedy and tribulation, the greatest suffering always takes place at the individual level.

The prophet Jeremiah is witnessing first hand the power and devastation of the Lord God as the kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem slipped into the hands of the Babylonians. Imagine the prophet sitting crosslegged covered in ashes and dirt seeing the results that sin has brought to his people. As he sits, he writes, as he cries, he remembers the glory of the Lord God ruler of heaven and earth. What utter devastation, what terrible grief is covering this man of God? Can we compare it to anything we have ever felt? Anything we have ever experienced in our lives? Maybe, maybe there are people here today who have felt this tremendous pain and grief already, but the longer you live the more you will experience something akin to what the prophet is describing. Hope is all he has to rely on, not an ordinary hope, say like hoping for a good meal, or a raise in pay, but an eternal hope that can’t be denied and rests in the shore footed promises of our Lord God. These promises never fail. God’s covenantal promises always come to fruition, all through Scripture we have promises and suffering among God’s people. Psalm 102 reflects this:

A Prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord.

In the midst of our own suffering we make promises, sometimes they are not done, other times they remain something that we strive to complete. As failed humans we sometimes make promises we don’t fulfill. God’s promises always come to pass.

Jesus was faithful to fulfill a sinless obedient life to provide our salvation.

Christ is faithful in your past, present and future.

1-Past Reality of the Promises of God in Christ v-13-20

2-Present Reality of God’s Promises in Christ v 21-24

3-Future Reality of the Promise in Christ Jesus v-25-27

Lamentations 3:13-20

1-Past Reality of God’s Promises

v13-20

13 He drove into my kidneys

the arrows of his quiver;

V-13-“He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver” In his suffering Jeremiah sees the Lord as a hunter aiming His bow carefully targeting him and him alone. How much do we feel alone and abandoned when we are in the arena of suffering ? We tend to withdraw from others and try to work out our pain by ourselves forsaking our brothers and sisters and learning to live with our pain. Jeremiah’s suffering was in God’s providential work, God’s promise to Jeremiah took many different turns. The Lord knew all he was going through, but here we might see Jeremiah huddled in a corner recounting all the worst of his past. Whether our suffering occurs by our own sin or by others, or is physical or spiritual, it is all the same it’s a dark place where only Christ Jesus can bring His light. Sometimes the darkness of our past sufferings can overwhelm us, but in the midst of all of that Jesus brings peace, He has walked the walk, He has gone before us, the perfect obedient Christ is our hope. One thing we should realize in the midst of our past is that the promise of God does not diminish or fade, we recognize that we are

All sinners, sufferers and saints.

V-14-“I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long” The book of Job shows us how the world taunts us, and can bring us down.

Job 2:7-11

7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. 8 And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.

9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” 10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Shall we receive good from God and not receive evil? Interesting note here, Job did not deserve his sufferings, Jerusalem did.

Our own blessings from God are forgotten in our time of trial. Jeremiah repeats his message in:

Jere. 20-7

7 O Lord, you have deceived me,

and I was deceived;

you are stronger than I,

and you have prevailed.

I have become a laughingstock all the day;

everyone mocks me.

In Jeremiah’s suffering he sees God as something He is not, and this is a very common human reaction. Jeremiah is acting very human here, not as the great prophet of the Old Testament we see in other passages. He is expressing his pain and suffering to God. God is not a deceiver, his covenantal promises to his people come to pass, we need to be constantly reminded of this fact as we come out of suffering, in the middle of suffering or on the way to it. The world rejects Jesus, and it mocks our beliefs, but because Christ has given us new life we can rebuke the lies of the world and know that the promises of God in our past are still with us in Christ Jesus. Jesus has given us the promise of eternal life and peace.

V.15-He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.

Wormwood is a bitter plant found in the Middle East and Jeremiah uses two words to show how bitter he was. First he says he is Filled with bitterness, his whole being is complete with bitterness. In the next line he states he is Sated. The Hebrew here means “to drink abundantly” His bitterness rides on the way he has been afflicted. The words here show us completely his emotional human response to God.

Bitterness and un-forgiveness are common to all of us in suffering. Like a circle of emotions, we first feel abandoned by God, we feel alone and then bitter towards everyone. Jesus breaks the circle of despair here, He provides us with a way out of our own darkness. Jesus’ promises are throughout Scripture:

2 Cor 1:20-22

 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

Bitterness fades as we grow to see Christ who has given us grace and mercy through the forgiveness of sin the Cross and His resurrection.

v.16-19-

  16 He has made my teeth grind on gravel, 
  and made me cower in ashes;

The past of Jeremiah is referenced here, the way he describes the absolute filling of suffering he has gone through this should give us some idea of how the Lord has pressed down upon him. The word pictures are important, the picture of teeth grinding upon rocks are hurtful even to imagine! Have you ever eaten something and then your teeth chew on a stone? We know it right away! Imagine grinding your teeth on rocks!

17-

  17 my soul is bereft of peace; 
  I have forgotten what happiness is;

“my soul is bereft of peace” “I have forgotten what happiness is” The laments continue for Jeremiah, everything that has occurred in the past through the providence of God has been utterly painful, he can’t go on, he has come to his last.

18:-“so I say, “My endurance has perished, so has my hope from the Lord.”

Have you ever been in a situation so dire? So traumatic that you could see no way out? A darkness that never lifted, and peace that constantly eluded you? Even the great prophet seems to have lost hope in the Lord. Our hope never fades because we have hope not in ourselves but our hope lies with Christ Jesus, He is our living hope: Rom 5:3-4

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,

4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,

The hope that was promised in the Old Testament is revealed in the New. The past sufferings of Jeremiah which he endured is producing a great hope in the promises of God sending a deliverer, a great Redeemer. Even though he had lost hope in his suffering past, Jeremiah sees to the present and to the future, he sees the darkness lifting, slowly and surely. The key here is that despite everything -Jeremiah does not forget the Lord.

In our time between the already (the Cross) and not yet(Jesus coming again) we are always involved in this world and the trials that try to overcome us. The example of Jeremiah recounting the suffering he endured, leads us to his crying out in the next set of verses. He has not forgotten God, His blessings and His mercy. The prophet is always looking back and remembering what sin has done to his nation, how it has damaged the very fabric of their existence as God’s people. He remembers the falling away of his people, the outright disobedience of sin that has brought his people to this place, and his very soul is hunched over almost broken. Imagine the grief of Jeremiah as he sees the result of sin.

When we go through our own sin and trials we can forget all about the Lord. Jesus is always with us He will not leave us or forsake us, no matter what we go through.

Is God being faithful here in Jeremiah’s past? In the midst of all this tragedy all that sin has brought forth, God’s faithfulness doesn’t waver, it doesn’t fail and that’s hard for Jeremiah to see here, there is a curtain of blackness that sin has caused. Looking at our own lives we should be able to see the wreckage of our own sin, granted it may not be as large as Israel’s but it is there, and God is faithful to use the consequences for His glory. He covers it with the blood of His Son Jesus Christ, fully forgiven, fully paid, and fully born anew. Hope comes to us through Christ and His faithful grace in our present condition. Faithfulness in our past rests upon the Cross of Christ, He has paid for our sins through His perfect active obedience to fulfill the law that we could not fulfill.

V-19- Jeremiah brings to his mind the afflictions of the past:

“Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall”

Present reality of God’s promises in Christ

V-20-24

In the fleeting reality of our present situations there is an overwhelming presence of Christ in our lives. Jesus reminds us of the past and gives us encouragement to go forth into the future knowing His promises are secure and firm. In verses 20-24 Jeremiah is awakening from a deep dark past and understanding that God has been with him all along the way.

V-20- My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me- In verse 19 Jeremiah remembers the pain and the bitterness but now here in verse 20 it is his soul, the very essence of him, that remembers God and His mercy.

JEREMIAH’S THEOLOGY HAS NOW BECOME HIS DOXOLOGY

It seems as if this moment is where Jeremiah’s entire being is bowing to the one and only Living God. Something inside of him stirs and his spirit awakens to something that has been covered in the midst of all his trouble. The Lord is calling him. His mind awakens.

V-21- “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.”

What is this hope? The Biblical hope is as we await our final glorification, this is our blessed hope a hope that is a promise a realized end to where we see God face to face. 1 Cor 13:12

12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

The prophet Jeremiah for almost 3 chapters here has been proclaiming the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem because of their sin, this has been built to a crescendo here in verses 20-24. It is like Jeremiah has been woken from a sleep of intense grief and pain, suddenly someone has slapped him to the realization of the truth! Hope has come, all is not lost!

v. 21-Jeremiah calls something to his mind-buried deep with the grief for Israel and that is the hope of the Lord God Almighty. This hope has been pushed deep into his soul but it has not been discarded, it remains an integral part of Jeremiah, now it is front and center, ready to reveal itself. Our hope like Jeremiah’s doesn’t rely on worldly things, it rests in Christ and Him Alone.

Chapter 32 of our Confession states:

“The souls of the righteous are then made perfect in holiness and received into the highest heavens, where they behold the face of God in light and glory…”

v.22-23-

  22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; 
  his mercies never come to an end;

The love of God is what Jeremiah knows intimately now, his promises have been there all along and now he realizes the full extant of God’s love and His grace. The love of Christ continues and never ends, never ceases, never gets brighter or dimmer than it is right now at this present moment, brilliant is the light of Christ Jesus. His mercies are new and they rise with the Sun . 

  23 they are new every morning; 
  great is your faithfulness.

His faithfulness surpasses the worry and the pain of present struggles and gives Jeremiah you and I cause to see through the darkness that comes from the sin of this world. Morning. Comes and the light chases away the darkness.

This is the faithfulness of God in Christ Jesus.

v.24-

  24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, 
  “therefore I will hope in him.”

Jeremiah sees not the darkness or the sin that has caused the destruction of Israel but he sees the LORD, God is his everything, his all in all, he is going to stake everything in the faithfulness, the truth of God and not rely on anything in this world. His hope comes from the promises of a Holy Loving God and that hope will never fail.

Can we see the faithfulness of the Lord ? What is He doing at this exact moment in your lives? Is the Lord Jesus deserting you? Is His promises fading? Is His love dying out? We should all know the answer to these questions, but we forget the faithfulness when we are surrounded by forgetfulness-In the midst of our pain, in the deep times of sorrow and grief we allow forgetfulness to creep into our lives. God’s faithfulness will remove our forgetfulness. And here the writer of Hebrews gives us a clear picture of faithful hope:

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:23

Charles Spurgeon helps us here:

C. H. Spurgeon uses this illustration: ‘At the south of Africa the sea was generally so stormy when the frail ships of the Portuguese went sailing south that they named it the Cape of Storms; but after that cape had been well rounded by bolder navigators, they named it the Cape of Good Hope. In your experience you had many a Cape of Storms, but you have weathered them all, and now let them be a Cape of Good Hope to you.’

Presently we are living and walking in the love of the Lord Jesus, every step, every breath is a reminder of His love. We are clothed in his mercy and we have been changed by his grace. Our present condition rest solely on the faithfulness of God, but what about the future? What does it hold for me? Will God continue to hold me fast?

3-Future Reality of the Promise in Christ Jesus vv.25-27

Thomas O Chisholm wrote the beautiful hymn, Great is thy Faithfulness, it wasn’t by a single occurrence that Chisholm knew God’s faithfulness, no, he knew God’s faithfulness because he had seen God act throughout his lifetime.

He writes:

“My income has never been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me on until now. But I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant keeping God and that He has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care which have filled me with astonishing gratefulness.”

Faithfulness of the Lord Jesus in our future is what we see Jeremiah looking at in vv.25-27

25-The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks him-

Jeremiah has begun to see that the devastation of Jerusalem is not the end of God’s great love for his people. Although His people here is alluding to all races and ethnic groups, not specifically intended for the Nation of Israel. There is a future reality, a future fulfillment of the promises of God through the Messiah Jesus Christ for all ethnic groups and peoples.

How are these promises given to us so that we can rest on them going forward?

The promise of truth is expressed in John 1

11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Romans 9:8

8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

2Cor 1:20

* 20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him.*

Eph 2:12-13

12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

The covenantal promises cover us but we must continue to see that these promises these covenants are also personal to each one of us because of Christ and His work for us.

26- It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord- Jeremiah knows that by waiting he will see the faithfulness of God and he is comforted by that even in the midst of all this destruction caused by sin. Salvation coming through the one Redeemer Jesus.

27-“It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth”

John Calvin writes:

We bear God’s yoke when we relinquish our own judgment and become wise through God’s Word; when our affections are surrendered and subdued, we hear God’s commands and obey them. As our dispositions when we are old are not easily changed, the prophet says it is good for us to bear the yoke while we are young.

Jeremiah feels the weight of the burden God has put upon him. We feel that same burden as we await the promises fulfilled by Christ. Our weight is lifted when we see the faithfulness of Jesus revealed in our own lives which gives us our unfailing hope for the future fulfillment of the promises of Christ.

There is a time of waiting, a time of knowing God’s faithfulness, knowing His grace and knowing that we are not in charge. This is knowing that Jesus is faithful in the future, knowing his love and seeing it come to fruition through his grace and mercy. Future faithfulness of God does not depend upon us, God is faithful without us, God is faithful despite our sin.

As we go through this life we are constantly reminded of three words:

Guilt, Grace and Gratitude

Guilt

Our own guilt of sin before a Holy God reminds us that we are unable to rid ourselves of this guilt. Some people stay in this condition neglecting the promises of God in Christ for them. Jeremiah sets the example of guilt in our first set of verses. Shame begins to play a part with guilt and the only way out is to know our second word this morning:

Grace

Grace in the love of Jesus for us, grace in the peace that we find in the promises of Jesus, grace that begins to shred apart our guilt and our shame. Jeremiah remembers God’s grace. Grace provides a healing balm for everyone who believes in Christ. This grace pushes us forward to an unbelievable position and that is our third word this morning :

Gratitude

Gratitude, overwhelming relief from the addiction to sin, freedom found in the healing of guilt, the acknowledgement of grace and now standing in the high peaks of gratitude for the sinless obedient work of Christ Jesus! Jeremiah’s gratitude in the midst of dark times is so evident here. This is the good news this morning of the gospel of Christ. What an understatement “goodnews” is, this is fantastic, awesome great news!

The promises of God for Jeremiah have not failed, our own promises in Christ have not failed even though we have gone through difficult times of suffering, chewing on stones and being shot in the kidneys.

God’s faithfulness never fails despite who we are or what we have done. No matter the sin, no matter the pain we have caused, we can look to Jesus to be faithful, in our past, in our present and in our future. He was faithful 2000 years ago to fulfill the hope of Jeremiah as he looked upon Jerusalem being burned and his people taken away as slaves. Jesus was faithful to go to the level ground of the cross so that faithfulness would be forgiveness and forgiveness would be eternal life.

God is faithful, through our broken sinful past we have been brought to the saving grace of Christ Jesus. Jeremiah realizes the hope of God’s faithfulness, and he knows that God’s faithfulness will bring about a Savior, Christ Jesus. Jeremiah sees this faithfulness and is alert to all the hope that Christ will bring. This morning we are blessed with the Faithfulness of Christ Jesus.

Great is His Faithfulness!

We Are Not Condemned

/ Cliff Walling / Leave a comment

Faith Presbyterian Church

Lord’s Day November 2, 2025

Romans 7:14-8:1

“We are not Condemned”

14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Introduction:

Now, Paul is sending this letter around 57 AD from Corinth to the church in Rome, the church was most likely made up of a majority of Gentiles and a minority of Jews, but the message of Romans to the church at Rome is just as relevant 2000 years ago to the saints at Rome as it is to us today. Paul didn’t establish this church, he is writing to a church he hoped to visit. No one knows who founded the church, although later church tradition alleges that Peter founded the church, there is no evidence in Scripture for this, or anything from early church tradition. Paul most likely wrote this letter while spending the winter in Corinth . The letter to the church in Rome is an exposition on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and our justification before God.

We have the great privilege today of seeing the transparency of the Apostle Paul not just as one of the Apostles, but looking deep into the life of a man who recognized sin and knew the only way out was to trust in Jesus Christ. The Book of Romans teaches us so many theological truths, from who we are as people separated from God, to the glories of being in Christ. Sinclair Ferguson has a revealing look at the book and he sees it through the eyes of the writer Tertius. (Rom. 16:22) Ferguson sees Tertius writing down Paul’s words with all of the people around him, he visualizes that these people, Timothy among them, are also preachers of the Word and that they are hearing the same words we are hearing this morning, Paul’s explanation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But there is also a long explanation of the Law of God and how the Law and the Gospel are so helpful for the Church. Paul shows us how the entire Scriptures reflect God’s Law and the Gospel. Understanding this paradigm of Law and Gospel helps us see God’s requirements and how we are unable to do the Law without the righteousness of Christ Jesus. The law of God is not just the Old Testament verses but also the New Testament it goes throughout the whole of the Bible. Law equals loving God and loving neighbor, in our text this morning Paul is putting forth the problems and the process of this and the joy of living with this, through Jesus Christ.

Three distinct parts of the text today that will help us are:

I- v.14-20 (The Problem of Sanctification)

2- v.21-25 (The Process of Sanctification))

3- v. 8:1 (The Unbelievable Joy)

I-The Problem of Sanctification

14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.

The law here is referring to God’s Law, which has been divinely passed down to us by God and results in our own conviction of sin. The law is our mirror, we see what would should be, but are acutely aware we are not there. The mirror reflects our imperfections, my grey hair my wrinkles, my getting older.

Paul is aware that he cannot under his own power restrain sin. Deuteronomy 6:5

5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might

Luke 10:25-28

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

Do this, and live, we can’t do this and live. It’s perfect love, perfectly loving God and neighbor.

Paul knows he has come up short, he does not love the Lord as he should, because his own flesh goes against him. Flesh here is speaking of our sins against others, our emotions our thoughts and our sinful desires. “Sold under sin” literally means “sold to sin” our sin makes us incapable of doing good, it robs us of our relationship with Christ, Jesus restores our ability to reject sin not through ourselves but because of His power and grace.

How does Paul see sin in the previous chapter Romans 6?

6:2-3

2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Paul is putting forth the argument that many Christians thought about, “Why can’t I sin and rely on God’s grace?” Living in sin, and having defeats in sin from time to time are two completely different issues. Practicing sin means what it implies, doing more and more and not caring about the outcome. A blood bought born again believer will be convicted by the Holy Spirt to ultimately renounce the sin and come to repentance. We all experience the times when we sin as believers, but Jesus is faithful to forgive us and lead us back to Him. We who have died with Christ, live not as our own, but as people who now live in the glory of Jesus.

Gal. 2:20

20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Romans 7:15-18

15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

Have you ever gotten angry? We all have. But have you ever gotten so angry that after the outburst, you say to yourself, “Why was I so angry?” “Did I really need to yell that much?” Whether it’s in the car, at home, or wherever, we have all been there and there is this-“ not understanding” why we did what we did. Paul is describing his own battle with the flesh, he doesn’t understand his own actions, it’s as if a foreign person had controlled him for a moment. Paul desperately wants to NOT do what he is doing, but something else controls him, controls us. Pauls use of the word hate is so strong and we can see how Paul detests what he is doing. Paul is describing himself and us contrary to some scholars who say that this is the life of an unbeliever. First, the voice of Romans 7 is Paul’s, and he sounds like a man describing his present life. He says “I” repeatedly and uses the present tense. When he says, “I do … I want … I know,” it is sensible to take his lines at face value, as a portrait of his struggle with sin.

1 Timothy 1:15

15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

The holiness movement (nazarenes, pentecostals) and catholicism have used this passage to describe Christians awaiting a “second blessing’ to rid us of the sin that we have and this would be wrong in so many ways. Our justification is once and completed in the work of Jesus Christ, another “blessing” is an abomination of the words of Jesus on the cross, “It is finished”.

RC Sproul

So again, we are people of mixed desires. That’s why I said to you before that life doesn’t really

become complicated until you’re born again.

16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Paul gives us a great example of what the law does for us, the law is good, and there is no way we could ever follow it perfectly. The law becomes a way for us to see God’s perfection through the work of Jesus. Jesus obeyed the law perfectly, his obedience was twofold. First, he has active obedience, He obeyed the law in total, completely and without sin.

Matthew 3:13-15

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.

Jesus fulfilled all righteousness through his perfect active obedience. Jesus’ obedience is what we place our trust in, not our own. It is this wonderful gospel of Jesus that gives us peace through His perfect obedience to the Law, something we cannot do.

Second, Jesus passive obedience is seen in his suffering throughout His ministry. From His brith to His death his passive obedience is there for us to see. This is something that we as Christians who suffer in this life can rely on and place our suffering in to the hands of the One who willingly suffered for us so that we may have eternal life.

Sin is placed right before our eyes this morning in verse 17:

17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

R Kent Hughes helps us here:

Twice Paul says, “it is no longer I myself who do it.” He is not actually saying he does not do it, but that it is not what his deep inner self, renewed in Christ, wants to do. He is dominated by sin.

This is the struggle, the problem that so many Christians have trouble understanding, that we are filled with the Holy Spirit, but have sin that still overcomes us.

Chapter 13 of our confession:

  1.  They, who are once effectually called, and regenerated, having a new heart, and a new spirit created in them, are further sanctified, really and personally, through the virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection, by His Word and Spirit dwelling in them,

Am I still a Christian? Many times I have been asked this question by friends whom I speak to. They feel overwhelmed by the besetting sin that they struggle against. “Why can’t I stop?” This is the question I most want to hear, Why? Because this is the mark of a blood bought born again Christian going through the struggles we all go through, the sins that dog us, that constantly show up at times we don’t expect. The struggle is the mark of someone who has been called, justified and now being sanctified. The problem of sanctification is the road to perfection.

Verses 18-20

18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Nothing good dwells within me, Paul is aware of the sin that still haunts us, we do have the desire to do what is right, but are incapable of carrying it out. Many times this is the result of refusing to forgive or being able to submit to the fact that we are wrong and have sinned. Addictions and emotional issues are key in this area and this is not an overnight healing. How long has the issue been going on? Sometimes the length of the issue will determine the length of healing.

DANIEL M. DORIANI

  • but the reversal of a sin pattern generally requires the same time frame as its development—months to months and years to years. When an adult converts to Christianity, cursing can evaporate overnight, but it is more likely to fade away slowly

We have responsibility, we can’t think that it’s ok to sin, we can not just say it is the sin that does it to me, we are responsible to see our sin, weep over it and repent over it. The modern psychological movement uses the same type of thinking in addiction and in behavioral counseling, they rely on giving the patient the way out without acknowledging the real issue. It is your behavior, or it is your disease, it’s not you. But it is us, we have sin dwelling within us, but we also have the Spirit living in us, and that is Biblical healing, healing that recognizes the sin, and repents before our Jesus who is faithful to forgive us.

This is the problem of sanctification, how we deal with the sin of our flesh and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, this brings glory to God through the grace and love of Jesus Christ, but there is a process here and Paul gives us a window into this glorified process.

2-The process of sanctification:

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

When we want to do right, evil lies close at hand. This is so evident in today’s culture, we are bombarded with a culture that brings evil right to us. The culture rewards and excels at bringing to the forefront evil. Murder of children in the womb is thought of as normal. Sexual depravity is granted a front row seat on our televisions. Everything that is evil is seen as “normal human behavior”.

Gen. 4:6-7

6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

In the first book of the Bible we have a command from God about how we are to confront evil and deny our sin. Anger from Cain has loosed the sin of murder.

We have an advocate in our battle against sin crouching at the door, and that advocate is Jesus Christ. Christ is the one we must turn to at those moments, and yes there are these moments where we reject our responsibility and choose to sin. Every time we choose Christ instead of sin we are building sanctification and God receives the glory. Here is the process of sanctification, we know we will never choose rightly all the time, but the process is there for us to turn to Christ and live. John Owen said, “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.”

22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Do we really delight in God’s law? How is that going for us? Paul describes the process here, knowing evil and how to recognize it through God’s Law a perfect mirror that we have an opportunity to see and apply to our emotions and our actions. There is a transparent recognition here by Paul of the clarity of who we really are. This “law of sin” seeks to enslave us, it seeks to destroy us and keep us far away from God. But it’s not just about us, it’s about all the people around us who suffer from our disregard for Jesus. We are not slaves to sin anymore if we have been changed, we now have a choice not to sin and God who is faithful to forgive us because of the work of Jesus Christ.

24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Oh now we are seeing the process of sanctification revealed so clearly through Paul’s inspired words. We are wretched and we cry out to Christ to deliver us from the sin that constantly appears. Knowing our condition as sinners helps us here in the process. Understanding that we are saints, sufferers and sinners is key here, it is Christ Jesus who has saved us from the death of sin.

Behavioral modification is the new thing in psychotherapy. Helping people change their behavior by way of seeing how their behavior affects themselves and others. The Bible tells us that there is nothing new under the sun, and again this is true for behavioral modification. Paul gives us Biblical behavioral modification in our text this morning, which relies fully on Jesus Christ and not ourselves. It is the Cross that gives us the ability to reject sin, it is because of the Cross of Christ that we have new life in Jesus. Jesus paid the price for our sin, sent by God to deliver us from a life of sin. We have to be like Paul and cry out to God that we serve God and not man. Commentary:

Romans 7 confesses that it’s hard to tame sin. When we address sin, first we acknowledge its gravity, then we repent and believe, and then we use the means of grace, so that we can shine brighter. The means of grace include prayer, Scripture, pastoral care, and faithful friends who stand by us when we are on the dark side of Romans 7. We need to share our burdens with people who love and understand us.

25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

It would be a mistake, to infer from the above that Paul is a tortured soul wrestling unsuccessfully with deep and dark sins. Rather, he is as coolly analytical as ever but chooses an ‘I’-based method of teaching, as he does on other occasions

Every victory that we have against sin should be understood as our victory for God’s glory. Jesus saved us from the slavery to sin and now we go forth in this process of sanctification praising Christ for releasing our chains and adopting us as his own. The mind, or Paul’s innermost being and the flesh, are the two ingredients of how we process our own sanctification. But we have some more helpful words here from Paul again in Galatians.

Gal 5:16-18

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

The process of sanctification requires that we walk by the Spirt and not by the flesh, and practically that means we must be praying people, worshipping people and those who love the body of Christ. The problem is something we all experience as Christians, the process is what we all go though and that leads us to the joy that we experience as people loved by a forgiving and grace-filled God.

3-The Joy of sanctification

8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

For as long as I have been a Christian this verse has been a guidepost for me. It serves for Paul as a exclamation point for Chapter seven. The argument that Paul describes in chapter seven is revealed with a glorious joy in this one verse. Everything that has gone on before it are brought into the joy of being “In Christ”.

Shame and guilt from past sins are swallowed up in the Cross. The first words in Greek are “nothing therefore now”, nothing is very important here, meaning no trace of. Therefore… gives us the reason for this, our own justification and union with Jesus Christ. Now… is telling us of the present time in which we live, a time of unbelievable redemption through the Cross of Christ.

There is therefore now…at this present moment there is a joy and a comfort knowing that we are a forgiven people. As we go through the problem and process of sanctification our minds and our spirits should be set on this great truth. The truth set forth here is undeniable, we are not people who purposely go on sinning, but do sin because we are being perfected. And that sin is redeemed through the blood of Christ, all our pain and suffering is seen through this lens.

No condemnation… As we go forth in this life we still may be haunted by our past and disappoint ourselves but God disciplines us. At times we may even condemn ourselves but because the Son of God, the Creator has redeemed the creature we are free from His condemnation. There is no condemnation because of the obedience of Jesus Christ, He fulfilled all the law that we could not.

In Christ…are we in Christ? Sometimes we can doubt whether or not we are actually saved, but these doubts are swept away by our own questions and the problem of sanctification shows us that we are. Being in Christ is our own union with him and practically this sets forth our priorities, and that is in all things Jesus first. In Christ is our desire, and our need, without being in Christ we are “tossed to and fro” not having any direction or purpose. Being in captivity means obeying in all things your captor or master…being in Christ is finally being set free from everything that held us in our own prison of sin and death. We see that in 8:2

2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

So I think it is vitally important to rest ourselves in verse 8:1, to understand the unbelievable grace of this gospel. The gospel that gives us eternal life because of the sacrifice of Jesus and His resurrection, nothing is more powerful than this fact.

Conclusion:

Are you feeling condemned this morning? Are some of the chronic problems of the past still haunting your spirit? Good, this is a mark of a Christian who is being slowly, yes sometimes painstakingly slowly sanctified. We all take a few steps forward and then a step or two backwards, but we are always facing forward into the glories of the Cross and there is nothing that will prevent us from seeing that day when sin is gone forever and the grace of God as He receives us into His arms. We are all works in progress but our salvation is assured.

Brothers and Sisters we are not condemned, rest in that truth this morning.

No Doubting King Jesus

/ Cliff Walling / Leave a comment

Faith Presbyterian Church

Lord’s Day February 15,2026

No Doubting King Jesus

Matthew 11:1-6

When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.

2 Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

Introduction:

In our text this morning we have Jesus continuing his preaching and teaching, previously he has sent out his 12 apostles with full authority to heal and cast out demons, he has sent them out as sheep in the midst of wolves and He has detailed all the issues that will come with this authority. In the previous chapter Jesus tells His disciples that they will find their enemies in their own households. Coming into Chapter 11 we will see another enemy that comes to us as believers.

This morning we are beginning in Chapter 11 as Jesus prepares us for the human emotion of doubt.

Doubt is something that we all have experienced, whether it was momentary or lasting, we have gone through it. Doubt comes when we are challenged by the world or our circumstances. POW’s in the Vietnam War relate some of their experiences with doubt, many tell the story that their faith had taken a hit when they were captured by the North Vietnamese and tortured, they wondered whether God was really there, whether or not God really cared for them. In almost all of the accounts of POW’s in the Vietnam War there is a doubting, but then there is a clearer picture of who God is, how He is there in really bad situations. Captain Carlyle “Smitty” Harris tells the story of this same situation, of doubt and despair, upon being dumped into a North Vietnamese prison. He felt there was no hope until he remembered a code that was taught to him years before, a simple code he could teach to the other POW’s. Harris knew when men were taken to the painful interrogations and they became unendurable, when they returned to their cell he would tap out “God Bless You” understanding that hope was there, God was there and their doubts about their own survival would be eased.

Section 1

Two distinct principles are here for us this morning, first our battles with doubt and second, how we reject doubt through trusting the Word of God and the love of Jesus for us.

We are all susceptible to doubt, in His ministry Jesus is proclaiming the truth of God through the preaching and teaching of God’s Word.

Looking at our text this morning and verse one we can see the truth set forth through Christ, He is teaching and preaching, removing doubts and announcing the Kingdom of God.

1When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities. It’s important to note that the teaching that Jesus does is instrumental in relieving the doubts about Himself and the gospel of salvation that He preaches. Previously Jesus instructed his disciples and others through announcing that the Kingdom of God was at hand and now as we go on to verse two, John the Baptist plays a pivotal role here in our two key thoughts for this message today. Doubt is our human condition, but rejecting doubt lies with knowing Jesus.

2 Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

These verses have been looked at by many in our reformed circles in different ways, Calvin, Augustine and others see it this way:

that John wanted his disciples to have their own doubts dismissed through Jesus.

I have to disagree with these men, I know it may be shocking to disagree with them, but looking at Scripture and knowing the doubts we all have John is just like all of us. Without Jesus we can be lost in our doubts. John “heard about the deeds of the Christ” and it was his questioning “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” that sent his disciples to ask of Jesus, to dispel his own doubts.

God had put Adam and Eve into a beautiful garden but doubt crept into that place,

Gen. 3 (Adam and Eve)

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?

1 Kings 19:9-10 (Elijah)

9 There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”

Elijah had just killed the prophets of Baal and fought against every evil in Israel, but yet he is holed up in a cave bemoaning the circumstances he is in. He is in doubt, a great prophet of the Lord reduced to hiding in a cave. Anyone can have doubts. Doubters are in good company.

So we have many people in Scripture who doubted, Abraham, Moses, David and others, so why should John the Baptist be different?

There are three major reasons for understanding why John doubted. Physical reasons and Spiritual reasons.

1: He was in prison.

2: He was left emotionally drained

3: John had expectations for Jesus that were not being filled

Let’s look at number 1, being in prison. The place where John was, wasn’t anything like the prisons we know today. Many of these places were just holes in a floor where the prisoner was thrown into, or a barren room with no water or food.

According to Josephus, who writes about John in his Antiquities, Herod had imprisoned John in the fortress of Machaerus (modern Khirbet Mukawer), about five miles east of the Dead Sea, a particularly hot and desolate environment

When we see someone such as John, we see a man who prized his freedom, being separated from his disciples and people, this had to be particularly depressing for him. When we are separated from others and placed in a foreign environment our own doubts grow bigger and bigger in our thinking.

Doubt and despair are our company when we distant ourselves from others and neglect who we are in Christ. We make our own prisons and we become our own judges when we find ourselves in hard situations, we can pull away from the antidote for doubt, which is Jesus, and get deeper into our own doubt and despair. Sometimes our words can echo John’s, “Are you really the God who saves? Or should I look for another?” Charles Spurgeon comments on this text:

Dark thoughts may come to the bravest when pent up in a narrow cell. It was well that John’s question was put, that it might receive a distinct reply; re-assuring for himself, and instructive for us.

Dark thoughts strain our emotional health and emotions become front and center when they are raw and exposed.

Number two reason: John was emotionally drained

John had been calling out the Pharisees, the elders and King Herod. Every day was filled with accusations against the way that they had been living.

Daniel Doriani:

John languished in jail for months. Humans are more than thinking machines. We are physical, emotional, and spiritual beings. Prison wounds both the body and the emotions. It is human nature to have doubts when we suffer intensely.

When we are dealing with the pain of this world, whether it be family, relationships health or circumstances, there is a breaking point, a point in our lives that we are just exhausted from dealing with all of it. The exhaustion can drive us to doubt, but it is just a temporary situation where we are overwhelmed with it. Have you ever been in that place where all seems dark with no escape? I think we all have and we all have experienced the Baptist’s emotional despair.

It is in these times that we are looking for what we thought would happen, and are discouraged because what we wanted to occur has not come about.

3: John’s had expectations for Jesus that were not being filled:

Judgement plays a big role in how first century jews viewed the coming of the Messiah. There would be a “Ministry of Judgement” as James Montgomery Boice tells us in his commentary on Matthew. John’s own words reflect this in Matthew 3:12 as he speaks about Jesus baptizing with the Holy Spirit and fire:

12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

John is sitting in prison because he rightly told Herod that he was going against God’s law. The entire culture had been taken over by godlessness with their abominations and sacrifices. Why has all the injustice not be cleansed?

D.A. Carson helps us here:

It was all right to heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, still storms, preach righteousness, and announce the kingdom; but where was the judgment? Had the corruptions and cruelties of Caesar been abruptly shut down? Had the hypocritical temple leaders been banished? Had the disgusting corruptions of Herod Antipas been confronted? Why was he, John the Baptist, languishing in the stifling heat of the prison at Machaerus fortress for challenging the morals of Herod, while Jesus the alleged Messiah did nothing about this injustice?

2 D. A. Carson, God with Us: Themes from Matthew (Ventura, Calif.: Regal Books, 1985), 62.

So far in His ministry Jesus has only brought truth and grace, He has promised to free the captives as He reads the scroll of Isaiah: Luke 4:18-19

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Imagine John rotting in this prison seeing all the things Jesus is doing, but still not understanding the situation and most likely feeling as if he is forgotten. The Psalmist feels this way in Psalm 42:9-10

9 I say to God, my rock:

“Why have you forgotten me?

Why do I go mourning

because of the oppression of the enemy?”

10 As with a deadly wound in my bones,

my adversaries taunt me,

while they say to me all the day long,

“Where is your God?”

All is not lost for the Baptist, doubt is temporary (2x)but in the temporary we can forget the permanent, the eternal son of God Jesus Christ. How many times have we’ve seen what John is seeing? We see the world falling apart, loved ones experiencing pain from illness, relationships destroyed and generally we can be in despair.

We wonder where is God is all of this? Doubt is not an overriding aspect of the Christian life, it is temporary, fleeting and most of all it is healed by the words of Jesus that we will explore in the next set of verses.

Our healing of doubt in Christ.

Section 2(Our antidote to doubt)

4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

I have to state this now for all of you, the Bible is an awesome supernatural Word. All through Scripture God puts the “problem” first for us to examine, then He gives us the “solution”. It’s no different here in Matthew’s gospel. “Go and tell John what you hear and see…” Jesus states that John needs to hear and see, use the physical abilities that God has given him to evaluate the situation that he is in. It’s not about John, it’s all about Jesus and what He is doing. The Kingdom of God is being proclaimed and the good news of the gospel is being preached. The good news of the gospel is what Jesus wants John to hear and see, that because of Christ there is new life, that because of Christ there is salvation for sinners, and because of Christ eternal life awaits us. Doubt is eliminated through the work and grace of Jesus, not because of what we do, its because of His obedience to willingly go to the Cross and fulfill the work of a Holy God. Jesus’ answer to John doesn’t just involve him hearing and seeing, it goes beyond that to John examining everything that Jesus has done and will do, specifically here in verses five and six.

5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

“The blind receive their sight…” Jesus had given the blind their ability to see again and these verbs in the original greek suggest ongoing present miracles that are occurring. What is really astounding is that we don’t see the blind receiving their sight in the Old Testament, but it has been foretold by Isaiah 29:18 and other passages.

18 In that day the deaf shall hear

the words of a book,

and out of their gloom and darkness

the eyes of the blind shall see

Only King Jesus can do all these miracles, the prophetic Messiah who has come to the world to bring peace and justice and judgement.

Daniel Doriani explains:

Further, each of these passages (in the OT)also mentions the judgment of God. By this, Jesus slips John the essential hint: he has not forgotten judgment; he has delayed it.

Physically people have been given their sight back, but more importantly spiritual blindness is being lifted. Just as the feeding of the five thousand relieved people of their hunger in a temporary way, the feeding of the gospel quenches hunger and doubt eternally.

When were your eyes opened for the first time? Can you remember when everything seemed very different before God justified your heart? When our eyes are opened we see Jesus very differently than we did before, He becomes our King and our Savior, and when we see that, all our doubts are anilated

(2X)Doubting becomes something of our past not our future.

Jesus not only opens our eyes but gives us the ability to walk in the light of Christ and respond to the gospel. We preach the good news to all because we have been resurrected because of Christ. Once dead, now alive.

“and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.

Jesus is informing John of the physical aspects of the redeeming gospel, but also we cannot leave out the spiritual aspects Jesus is proclaiming the miracles He has done fulfilling prophecy. The lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear.

B. B. Warfield

WHEN our Lord came down to earth He drew heaven with Him. The signs which accompanied His ministry were but the trailing clouds of glory which He brought from heaven, which is His home. The number of the miracles which He wrought may easily be underrated. It has been said that in effect He banished disease and death from Palestine for the three years of His ministry. If this is exaggeration it is pardonable exaggeration. Wherever He went, He brought a blessing:

Warfield brings the miracles of Jesus that He relates to John into a clear picture of who Jesus is. It is enlightening that Warfield rights this in his opposition to modern day faith healers.

Proof of Jesus is set down in these miracles, but more importantly there is the spiritual side. How do we “walk” now that we have been released from the bondage of sin? Like a person released from prison after a long stretch behind bars, that person walks differently because there is a freedom they haven’t known for a long time, they are exuberant because a weight has been lifted off of their back. If you have ever read Pilgrims Progress then you would know the character “Christian”. In the third stage. Christian comes upon the cross and the tomb of Christ and he is carrying a heavy load on his back. The Cross relieves him of his burden and in response to this we read:

Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said with a merry heart, “He hath given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death.” Then he stood still a while, to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden.

Has the burden of doubt been lifted off your back? Doubt is cancelled by the work of Christ and now we walk with a different step, no longer lame, but joyful. The voices that we heard when we were in doubt are now silenced as the burden is lifted from us. We are walking differently and hearing differently.

and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.

Doubt comes when we are not close to God, John lying in prison didn’t feel very close to God for the reason we have stated before, he needed a “refresher course” in who Jesus is. The deaf are now experiencing sound for the first time. Recently medical science has restored hearing to people who for their whole lives never could hear anything. I’m sure you have heard of the mother who was given these ear implants hearing their child speak for the first time, and then crying tears of joy in experiencing this wonderful sound. It s the same with Christians as we go through the joys of Scripture, seeing the grace of God revealed for the first time in this Word. Our ears are opened as we hear the words of John’s Gospel. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”(John 1:1) Doubt has no chance when we begin to mine this one verse. Besides hearing being set right, another miracle is proclaimed, the raising of the dead fulfilling prophecy once again.

We were dead, and here Jesus proclaims the physical resurrection of the dead and the spiritual resurrection of the dead. Dead to sin and alive to Christ. All of these texts are Messianic texts especially the news given to the poor.

Isaiah 29:19

19 The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord,

and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.

and the poor have good news preached to them.

This good news given to the poor is central to the ministry of Jesus, the poor matter to Jesus, they hold a special place in his preaching. These are the people whose hope has been lost and who really doubt that anyone should care about them. This is a reversal of the accepted norm and Jesus wants John to especially hear this. In all the gospels the poor are featured prominently against the background of the rich. Jesus informs the rich man in Luke 16 about all the things he did to the poor beggar Lazarus. In Mark 10 we hear how difficult it is for a rich man to come to the Kingdom of God. But we have to see the spiritual component here, this news is not solely given to those who are without money, but to those whose spirit is bankrupt apart from Christ, where doubt and hope don’t exist. Jesus proclaims a blessing for these people in the sermon on the mount, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven”. Does doubting cause us to be poor in spirit? I think it does, and the only way to climb out is to acknowledge that we have been given the entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven. Practically, when doubts arise a big part of the healing of doubt includes hearing the good news preached to us. The Word preached has the power of God to correct our thinking and put us back to where we must be.

2 Tim 3:16-17

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Our fleeting doubts are removed as we see, hear and trust in the work of Christ alone. Trust is the final medicine we need to inject here in our message on doubt today. Trusting in Jesus, resting in Jesus and finally knowing Jesus brings us to our Lord’s benediction here in verse six.

6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

Blessings come from the joy that that is in us as we recognize that we are in Christ and He is in us. Our trust in Christ results in our doubts being gone.

The verb translation here in verse 6 of “offended” is better said to mean being “tripped up” or stumble because of me.

Leon Morris in his commentary on Matthew helps us here:

And that joy will come on the person who sees Jesus for what he is and not as “a stumbling-block” (NEB). The verb translated tripped up is a difficult one.12 It is a passive with a meaning like “is not stumbled, is not tripped up on account of me”;13 Jesus is thus speaking about the person who trusts him (has “no doubts about me,” GNB) and does not take offense at who he is and what he does.

12 σχανδαλίζω, a frequent verb in Matthew (see on 5:29). It is connected with the bait stick of a trap and comes to have the meaning of triggering off trouble in any one of a variety of ways.

All of the situations we find ourselves in can cause us to doubt, doubt that can leave us as if we are in solitary confinement, doubts that make us question God’s love for us, doubts that can make us think thoughts that the love of God has disappeared from our lives. Charles Spurgeon perfectly puts us right:

That man is blessed who so believes, that his faith cannot be stumbled. A hint for John. John had not fallen, but very possibly he had stumbled. He had been a little put to it, through a sense of non-deliverance in time of need, and therefore he had asked the question. Blessed is he who can be left in prison, can be silenced in his testimony, can seem to be deserted of his Lord, and yet can shut out every doubt. John speedily regained this blessedness, and fully recovered his serenity.

Lord, grant me to be firmly settled in my convictions, that I may enjoy the blessedness which flows from un-staggering faith. May nothing about thee ever cause me to stumble at thee!

Conclusion:

In just these six verses today, God has revealed to us our own human doubt. The Lord has described not just one man, the Baptist, but many others in Scripture who have had doubts. Fear plays a big role in doubt, our own fears about the future and our fears about our current situations. Fear not, is a repeated phrase in Scripture from Angels and from God, He tells us to trust Him and to believe His Word which never fails. Today, beloved, realize that we are sinners changed by the obedient work of Jesus, acknowledge your fears, and look at the definition for the word acknowledge. Acknowledge is a verb, an action word and the dictionary tells us that it means to

“Verbally recognize authority”. Your authority is in Christ all others are submissive to Jesus. Doubt is temporary and going through it increases our faith and strengthens us. Look at doubt as a temporary aspect of how we are pressed down and in despair. Look at doubt as a time of renewal, making our faith stronger and being able to withstand the arrows of Satan. See your past doubts as grace filled times that brought you closer to Christ. Place your eyes on the King. Look to King Jesus and live.

Foundations for Counseling the Believing Addicted

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Foundations of Counseling the Believing Addicted

In my counseling the addicted believers, it has been very important to first discover honestly how the hearts of these people were changed. Counseling non-believers requires a different approach of preaching God’s mercy and love through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Focusing on the reality of their situation and providing hope through the gospel provides a non-believer the only road through which they can finally see the end to their addiction and the way to lasting peace. The non-believer first must have a new heart, a heart that knows the desperate situation that God has brought them to, “the supposed bottom” of their lives where nothing seems good and all hope has been lost for reconciliation. In this aspect there is a first step to take with non-believers before bringing the steps they must climb out of their addiction, a change from despair to a life that is redeemed through Christ.

The believer presents some different issues. The heart is changed and these people now live in a state of “why”. The why is the question that needs to be answered through a Theologically based counseling. Knowing who God is and His attributes, becomes important in a first step approach. Is God all powerful? If He is why is this happening to me? These are some of the questions that have to be answered and taught when we counsel believers with addiction. The “why” is answered in Scripture from Genesis 45:4-8:

“I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent you to preserve life. Fo the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be no plowing or harvest, And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God.”

Heath Lambert writes about this in his book, “A Theology of Biblical Counseling” Lambert says,“This is a fascinating text that affirms the work of God and men in the same action.” Lambert writes about the absolute need for a right understanding of God and His desires for man, and that all the trials and all the pain that are put upon us leads to God’s ultimate purpose for our lives, not for our own good, but for God’s purposes. It is this understanding that takes time for the believer to understand to focus and to absorb. I like to say that it is God’s plan A, no plan B or C, but only what He wants no matter the results of our own sin. Treating someone who is dealing with the wreckage of their life from the sin of addiction and reaffirming this is a hard concept for most. People want God to wipe away the consequences of sin and start without any resulting consequences. But in the story of Joseph the pain of selling their brother to slavers must have resonated with the brothers even though Joseph had explained about God’s purposes. The brothers had to deal with all thoughts of how sinful they were and how God used this sin to bring about a saving of their people. These are the conversations that need to be spoken in the counseling room. The all encompassing power of God over people’s lives is the key to beginning to come out of the grip of addiction. If we start counseling with this it lays the foundation for hope and reconciliation.

Theology is worshipping God, knowing who God is how ever present He is and how powerful He is. In speaking with people trapped in addiction the ever present voice in the room is God’s not mine. Understanding and thinking through these doctrines brings the addicted to a new place, a place where they can finally see the hope that Christ brings, a hope that tears away the false impressions they have of who God is and a proper way to guide them in the future.

We can learn much from those who have gone before us, those who dealt with the same issues we face today. One of these is John Owen an English Puritan (1616-1683) he dealt with the doctrine of sin in believers in his book “Indwelling Sin in Believers” because his original work is difficult to read I will quote his work from the abridged version from the Banner of Truth Trust. Owen begins his book with Romans 7:24-25, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Owen begins with Paul’s letter to the Romans describing the way we all struggle with our sin daily and the need to see Jesus in the midst of our own sin. Owen writes about the law of sin,

“It always remains in the soul. It is never absent. The apostle twice says, ‘It dwells in me.’ If it (sin) was only an occasional visitor, it might be kept out and dealt with. But the soul is its home. Whatever you are doing , the law of sin is always there. Men rarely consider what a dangerous companion is always at home with them.”

Serious words here from John Owen and we should be always on guard to acknowledge this. Those who are addicted have lost the reality of this. Sin has taken hold of them, and they believe the subtle lies that are whispering to them.

In the next writing I will expose the sinful nature of addiction the way it constantly torments the addicted leading them to surrender to the lies that have chained them to a miserable existence.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Biblically Counseling the Addicted

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For the past three years I have been Biblically counseling addicted men at a Christian rehabilitation center in Vermont. I see about ten men a week and have seen the ravages of addiction first hand. Addiction, and here I mean the addiction of all things, has taken hold of men in a powerfully evil way. Families have been torn apart, relationships destroyed, and men have sunk to lower levels of pain and hopelessness that brings them back to their addiction. The only hope has been Jesus Christ and the Gospel of Redemption.

Every man I have seen in the past three years have the same bad root running through them, they are unable to deal with the mental and physical pain that they have experienced through abuse, addicted parents and a childhood without God. It has been through Christ that they have new hearts and a hope for the future.

New hearts bring a new desire to serve Christ, but old emotions and the lingering shame and guilt always stands in the way of a new life. Consequences from the past holds them prisoner. My desire has been to point to Jesus, to Biblically guide them to the rejection of shame and guilt through Christ working in me.

My point in writing down these experiences is to help those who counsel the addicted, to begin to understand the journey that involves setbacks, tears and pain. When I started this I realized that I needed to be more intent on discovering the inward factors that brought about the addiction in the first place. The past is painful, it must be visited but ultimately left in the past.

22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. 1 Cor. 9:22-23

This world is constantly groaning under the weight of sin (Rom. 8:22) we are people who have been sinned against and have sinned against others. Parents divorce, fathers leave their families, generations of addiction provide a fertile ground for children to begin the see addiction as the way out. There have been hundreds of different stories as to the cause of people’s addictions, but there is one thread that every man has said to me, a thread of emotional pain, helplessness and an ungodly way to deal with that. It has only been through God’s grace that these men have been able to see the hope that He brings, the hope that unlocks the chains that still try to hold them back.

These snippets of my experiences I’ll try to publish in the coming months. I have been helped greatly by many counselors including Ed Welch and others. Ed’s book “A Banquet in the Grave” has been very helpful. My prayer for others who counsel the addicted is that these posts will give some assistance.

Looking forward to sharing more as I can.

Soli Deo Gloria

 

 

 

God can make Twisted Lives Straight

The last time I saw Fred was just about a year ago, I can remember how his eyes never met mine, how he constantly brought up excuse after excuse on why his wife should take him back.  We spoke for a long time about the love of Jesus, and how no matter what you have done that there is forgiveness in that love (Romans 8:1).

We tempered that conversation with the other side of the coin about which Fred was well aware, God forgives through Christ, but the world does not. Fred had done several turns within the penal system, all of them because of what he had done to his wife and his family.  Fred’s last stretch had been for 6 months because he violated his probation, specifically drinking and using drugs.

The first time I met him he was doing a year for kicking his pregnant wife and causing a miscarriage. Fred had asked for his megachurch to visit him while he was in jail, and I spoke with someone at his church, but they never came. As the Chaplain, I decided to visit with him to check on him, this was the beginning of our relationship in Christ.

God love for Fred involved Fred changing his heart.  Fred wanted this change and the tears flowed as we met every week for six months. I constantly challenged him to see if he was really in Christ, to really know that his old life was over and he was a new creature in Christ (2Cor. 5:17).  Fred always acknowledged his heart was changed and that he was looking forward to continuing his growth in Christ when he was released.

Many times I have heard this from inmates in jail, the hope that they will continue to learn, pray and grow in Christ as they transition from prison to the world, but the world is much more dangerous than prison. The world will provide more temptations and more theft of your time and desires, in prison there is a regulation of time, and sometimes Jesus becomes just a way to alleviate the boredom and to focus on something positive. Fred fell into the same trap that Satan sets for all of us, the world and its temptations provided things that were more beautiful and more rewarding than Jesus, a false gospel that only leads to death and destruction.

I saw Fred and his wife for a few times after he was released at my church. There were hopeful signs but always crushing disappointment, anger and addiction returned with a vengeance, Satan was stoking the flames of sin inside of Fred, flames that brought him to a very dark place.

A few weeks ago early in the morning I picked up the phone to hear the voice of his ex-wife, “Fred killed himself yesterday, he threw himself into traffic and was run over.” What do you say?  I can’t say that I was surprised, but I was overcome with sadness for his ex-wife and children, and frankly sad for Fred that he had been given every week the truth of Christ, the truth of the gospel, the saving grace that Jesus has done for us on the Cross, but the world had a greater pull, sin has come to it’s fullest producing death,

“Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death” (James 1:15 NAS)

For every Fred, there are 3 people I know that have avoided the Satanic trap that causes death and destruction, it wasn’t easy for these folks no, it was incredibly difficult, filled with days of doubt, days of repentance and hours and hours of prayer.

It is the love of God that will keep us going as we see friends sink into dark places, the Lord gives us the power to love these folks in the midst of their pain and despair. We push forward bringing the truth of the gospel and making disciples because we can do no other. The love of Jesus has given me new life how can I not give it to others?

I’ll be going to the funeral of my friend Fred and bringing the gospel with me the power of the love of Christ never ends.

Funeral for a Friend

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Passive and Active Evangelism?

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About 5 years ago my wife bought a lawn sign from a Christian bookstore that was going out of business. The sign was for Easter and it reads, “Christ is Risen”. Well, Easter that year was over and I was about to take down the lawn sign in front of our home, and I stopped and thought, “Why should I take it down? What is the reason that makes me take it down? Isn’t Christ risen?  Our Lord is alive and suddenly the need to take down the lawn sign faded and we left it up for these past five years.

The lawn sign has gone through intense rainy downpours, flooding, snowdrifts and high summer heat here in New Jersey. Last week I went out to move the sign and noticed it was starting to crumble, to disintegrate, I knew we had to up our game and went to look for lawn signs that were more direct about Jesus, about salvation and about the eternal life that awaits those whose hearts are changed by Christ alone.

Passively we had conducted evangelism, we didn’t actively go out to the street and preach (although we have done that and continue to do it) we just placed a lawn sign of the postage stamp size of a lawn that we have. The sign reads just :

Christ has Risen! 

In our “passive” evangelism we were able to have discussions with many folks, some people walking by the house would read the sign stop and examine the sign wondering why the sign was here in the middle of July. Other people knocked on our door wondering about the sign and leading us to have gospel conversations. Our Jewish neighbor came over about a year after the sign was left up and asked this question, “Has Jesus risen, or did He come back from the dead?” Even though this question might seem no sensical, but to our Jewish friend, it was important to understand exactly what the sign meant.

We have ordered two new lawn signs and they have the gospel message on both of them, we know that the Lord has used this now falling apart lawn sign, maybe to passers-by, maybe to drivers who come down our street, maybe through the gospel conversations both my wife and I have had.  Passively we were bringing the gospel to everyone who came by our home, actively we were using the lawn sign to bring the gospel and then to make disciples.

Whether you bring the gospel actively or passively you are helping others see the grace and mercy of a Holy God who has given us His Son to take our sin and give us eternal life, not just good news, but Fantastic News!

Seeing, Believing and Finally Awoke!

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One of the biggest social movements in our culture lately has been the movement that seeks to “awaken” people about different offenses that have been going unnoticed, or agreed to by our society. Some of these wrongdoings have been the constant mistreatment of women by men, the culture of violence that pervades many inner cities, the deaths of African-American men by the hand of Law-Enforcement. These are but a few of the different issues that this social movement has attempted to change, the call to people in America today by these different groups is for America to become “awoke”, to wake up to the things that have been going on and address them. For Christians, folks who have been radically changed in heart and spirit, becoming “awoke” was how their eyes were finally open; not just to these issues, but to the wider broader issue of sin in the world. The world became “awoke” on a Sunday morning over 2000 years ago, the Sun rose over Palestine on that day and a woman, walked to the tomb of her friend and Rabbi wanting to anoint him with spices. She found the tomb empty, she found Jesus alive and awake! Later hearing about this, two of Jesus’ disciples run to the tomb in disbelief, they were “awoke” by a woman to go there. Each ran to the tomb, but John arrives first, the young John outran older Peter. John looks inside, the linen is folded neatly, it is as if Jesus went through the burial cloths to become alive! Simon Peter sees the same, and he is “awoke” he believes! John sees the empty tomb and believes, he is Awakened!

The time before the resurrection had been depressing for the disciples, they had lost their leader in the ultimate shame, death on a Roman cross. Hiding from the authorities was the only answer, they were sleeping, unaware or not thinking about what Jesus had told them, that He would return. Becoming awake on Sunday morning, everything seemed to change. The world would never be the same, it had been awakened, the tombs in Jerusalem opened and people recently resurrected walked the streets (Matt. 27:52-53). The awakening had begun, and the world was “awoke”. Today the world is sleeping still, dead men and women walk the earth raising their hands in defiance against society, but the answers they seek can’t be  found. The answer was given a long time ago, in a brand-new tomb that had been given to a penniless leader of a small band of men and women. The answer startled the world, it jolted the world, so much so that a hardened Roman Centurion declared for all the world to hear, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39) The world became “awoke” when Jesus Christ defied the world’s culture and societies, when Jesus refused to accept the way things were, and when Jesus willingly accepted the Cross. His death was payment for my sin, your sin, he took it willingly without hesitation. Three days later the world awakes to the most wonderful, unbelievable awakening it had ever witnessed. Jesus is Alive! You are awoken, lift your dead eyes to Christ and see for the first time. All the issues that we face in society today must be changed, but the first thing that must be done is a change in our own hearts and souls; that can only come through the mercy and grace of the Savior who shook the world awake on a Sunday morning. Awaken and believe, look into the Tomb and open your eyes for the first time and see the life that God has for you!

May you all be blessed with the grace and peace of the one who brought us out of death to life, Happy Easter! Jesus is Alive!!

Focusing on Jesus and Loving the Wrath of God

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Focusing on Jesus and Loving the Wrath of God

Habakkuk 2:6-20

Habakkuk is a book that has given many people down through the years different thoughts on God. Last week we went through just 3 verses from Habakkuk (2-5) and we spoke about living out the faith that God has given to us in Jesus Christ; this week we are hearing God speak to Habakkuk and answer some of his complaints, but as we find out, God’s answer to the prophet is terrifying and awesome at the same time. God answers the prophet specifically in his complaint about the Chaldeans, those warriors who have no conscious, and go about stealing, murdering and building cities on the blood of those whom they have slaughtered. In our text for today, the LORD outlines five specific mocking taunts against not only these Chaldeans (Babylonians) but also any of the prophet’s people in Israel, no one is exempt from the LORD’s judgement, as we have read before, his judgement will come, just wait for it.

Judgement by the LORD against these people are set in five different ways of evildoers:

1-Extortion-Punishing people if they didn’t pay

2-Theft-Stealing what wasn’t theirs and using it for themselves

3-Slavery-Using bloodshed and slaves to build their cities

4-Drunkiness- Making people intoxicated causing great shame

5-Idolatry-Putting God out of the world and replacing him with idols

All this evil is put on display by the LORD, and he takes each evil act and promises his wrath, his judgement against every worker of evil. Habakkuk is hearing the judgement of the LORD and I’m sure he is stunned by his righteousness and complete command of everything upon this earth. Judgement is finally completed as the whole world sits in silence their mouths shut as the LORD sits in his Holy Temple (v.20).

The world tends to confuse Judgement with Justice today; God’s judgement is perfect and is perfect justice; our judgement leads to imperfect justice. When we see injustice in this world we must right it using God’s Word and the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. Always, we must see the judgement that we were under and look to the one who provided a way out. Listen to the LORD today, see the hope that we have in Christ Jesus, if it were not for the love of the LORD, we too would be under the terrible wrath of the LORD. Jesus took that wrath, he absorbed the tremendous punishment so that you could be judged righteous and enter into his glory. It is because of Jesus’ command to us (Matt. 28:19) and his wonderful love, that we must bring this GOOD NEWS to the entire world under God’s wrath and judgement (Rom. 1:18-20). Focus on the one who gave you life and let God be God.