How to Move to Moscow | Douglas Wilson

the text this morning is from the first epistle of peter chapter 1 starting verse 21 these are the words of god who by him do believe in god that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in god seeing you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptable by the word of god which liveth and abideth forever our father and god we thank you for this word we thank you for the scriptures we thank you for your spirit and the freedom to assemble like this this morning we committed all to you asking you to work and we pray in jesus name amen so the message this morning is is titled how to move to moscow and that and you might think but i'm already here i already came well this applies in a broader sense than simply how to call up the moving vans uh or how to um do your google research before you decide to call up the moving vans moving to moscow is probably a two-year project after you get here and it's also a project that entails everyone who's already here it's a joint project this is a cooperative effort everybody has to know everybody has to learn how to move to moscow so you all know we've seen a steady stream of folk moving here coming here and as you might not know it shows no sign of letting up in other words we're right in the middle of it we're not at the end of it we're right in the middle of it up to this point everybody's been pretty flexible constantly dealing with a new situation this has been true of those of you who have moved certainly but it's also true of long-time residents here in moscow pretty much everyone is a member of a very different church than you were two years ago pretty much everyone is in a new situation and when confronted with any new situation like this our reflexive action should always be to turn to the scriptures for direction how does the bible give us direction in handling this new situation that i find myself in so the text i began the text began in mid-sentence who by him do believe in god so think of this going up above christ was manifested in these last times for you who by him do believe in god so to summarize the text i want to follow a typical pauline pattern with this petrine text what is the basic doctrinal foundation upon which we are to build in whatever we do and then after that what is it that we're supposed to do precisely first what are we to believe and trust and second how are we supposed to act on the basis of that faith and trust so this passage begins with a sincere trust in god you have believed in god who raised jesus from the dead and who gave him glory that's verse 21 god gave jesus glory in raising him from the dead and you have believed in god the god who raised him from the dead he did this so that your faith and hope might be in god not in circumstances not in yourself not in the wisdom of man but rather so that your faith and hope might be in god he says you've been born again not with perishable seed but rather with imperishable seed verse 23 this is an eternal seed the reason you live forever the reason you have eternal life is that you have been begotten with an eternal seed seeing that you've purified your souls in this way obeying the truth through the spirit what are you then to do what are you supposed to do after you've been born again after you have trusted in god after you have committed yourself to him what does the following tuesday look like let's say you got converted on sunday what does the following tuesday look like how does it change your life how does it shape your life because all of this is true because you've embraced the truth the thing you are to do peter says here the thing you are to do is to love one another with a pure heart love one another with a pure heart and make sure that the love is unfeigned again who by him do believe in god that raised him from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in god that's your trust seeing you have purified your souls and obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love and the brethren that's what you're saved to you are saved by god but what are you saved to you're saved to an unfeigned love of the brethren see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently so this love has to be unfeigned not faked a literal rendering of unfeigned would be non-hypocritical unhypocritical not it's basically the word for hypocrisy with a term a prefix of negation in front of it a literal rendering would be non-hypocritical love one another with a cleansed heart cathars we we still have a cathartic cleansing cathartic experience that our english word comes from this the cleansed heart love one another from a position of having been forgiven having been cleansed and the word fervently love one another fervently is quite a striking term the word for fervently means eagerly like you running towards something with outstretched arms like you stretching toward a goal you're you're loving one another fervently all in so because you've obeyed the truth and trusted god and have been blessed with the new birth your love for one another needs to be all in your love for one another needs to be all completely in but here's the thing we we've been trained falsely i think uh to think of love as this an emotional frame of mind an emotional state of being so love one another fervently we think means sitting in a sanctuary or a suitable spiritual place radiating love rays toward others it has nothing to do with radiating love race you can't radiate love rays it has to do with how you behave what you do of course love wants to do the right thing because the motives are right if you if you've been put right with god if you love god with all your heart soul mind and strength your motives have been straightened out the kinks have been straightened out so you want to do right to your neighbor you love god first and then you love your neighbor second so love wants to do the right thing because the motives are now right but because we are limited and finite we need to be taught by the law of god we need to be instructed by the law of god love needs data in other words love needs information love requires discipling love requires um instruction say that you say that you borrow your neighbor's lawnmower and it blows up while you're using it okay let's say you just got here three weeks ago and you borrow your your uh your lawnmower still on the van uh coming out from wherever and you borrow your neighbor's lawnmower and he's also in the church and it blows up while you're using it you want to do the right thing by your neighbor love but what does that look like scripture tells us if you borrowed it then you should pay him for the lawnmower if your neighbor came over and was pushing it when he if he was mowing uh your lawn for you when it blew up let's say he was instructing you in a blew up you don't if you rented it you don't owe him a lawnmower that's what love looks like exodus 22 14-15 says this if and if a man borrows anything from his neighbor and it becomes injured or dies the owner of it not being with it he shall surely make it good if the owner was with it he shall not make it good if it was hired it came for its hire love is instructed love is instructed by the law teacher scripture teaches this principle plainly law is not what legalism looks like law is not what legalism looks like that's a distortion legalism is always a distortion of the law christ charged the pharisees not with keeping the law too scrupulously but by having all these uh complicated workarounds that get got them off the hook so uh jesus says basically to his disciples unless your righteousness exceeds that of the pharisees you're not going to enter the kingdom of heaven christ wants his disciples to be characterized by true righteousness so rightly understood is uh rightly understood the law is what love looks like law is not what legalism looks like the law is what love looks like paul says this expressly in romans 13 starting at verse eight he says owe no man anything but to love one another for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law if you love if you love your neighbor you're going to fulfill the law for him toward him for this thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet and here's the cash line and if there be any other commandment like borrowing your neighbor's mule if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself love worketh no ill to his neighbor therefore love is the fulfilling of the law law informs love and love fulfills the letter of the law and the spirit of the law so love requires much more than good vibes and warm and warm feelings love needs to be taught and instructed love needs data love needs to be a bible reader love needs to be in the word love needs to not not just for spiritual nourishment and encouragement although there is that but love needs to be in the word so that love can be directed straightened up pointed in the right direction so that love can be informed of what a loving action would be in this situation as cornelius van till once said this book is authoritative with regard to everything it addresses and he added and it addresses everything this book is authoritative in everything it addresses and it addresses everything so with all this in mind this is going to be my best attempt to imitate the very end of one of paul's letters when he was running out of papyrus so um you know how those letters go he he lays out all the doctrinal foundations then then he turns to ethical exhortation and then the scribe says you only have a page and a half and so he puts a bunch of things all together this is going to be my attempt to imitate that peter says let your love be unfeigned let your love be non-hypocritical what are some of the ways that we can love one another fervently love one another with outstretched arms stretching to love one another having our love be all in and having that love be unfeigned that love be non-hypocritical well first conduct all your business in the sight of god conduct all your business in the sight of god business when money's when money changes hands when you're rendering a service or purchasing a service this is where a lot of the difficulties arise as long as we have to come into the room and sing hymns together and that's all you do that's not a big problem depending on how he sings but um but usually we get we we rough along fine we can sing together fine we like singing but that's not where the problems come in the the pastoral problems come up when you contracted to get so many widgets delivered and then they weren't delivered on time or they weren't up to the quality that you ordered or uh he's not able to you're not able to pay and then there's a snarl and this is this is where big problems develop conduct all your business in the sight of god cut no corners cut no corners do not expect anyone to cut you slack because you are quote unquote a brother or a curker you know that bumper sticker christians aren't perfect just forgiven um well too many people apply that to their business dealings well i'm not not perfect just forgiven remember that regeneration does not make anyone's memory perfect so write your commitments down and then keep them psalm 15 4 even if it's to your own hurt keep your commitments do unto others as you would have them do unto you which is the golden rule in matthew 7 12 which is not the same thing as waiting for others to do unto you as they would have you do unto them that's not the golden rule all right that's not that's the lead rule so you you might say well if you're the kind of person who drives around looks looks around for that little telltale fish in somebody's business window because maybe the if they find out that i'm a brother they'll cut me a deal maybe they'll they'll take off 10 because they find find out that i go to the same church and but we very seldom drive around looking for little fish so that we could add 10 because he's a brother why do we want him to cut me a deal because of the fish but i don't want to add something because of the fish because what we're doing is we're taking the fish as a cloak the shared christian commitment as a cloak for selfishness and and selfish selfish behavior is just out it's excluded by what peter says here so you want to do what you do in the sight of god you want to do what you do openly and you want to realize and this is something i'm fond of saying and there are many occasions where i get to say it you can't keep money from doing what money always does you can't keep money from doing what money always does you can however prepare yourself so that you and your family are not swept up into it you can't just hit hit a button and make the world stop behaving or revolving around money but you can keep your heart from revolving around money you can't keep your business from revolving around money you want to serve god with your business you want to serve god with your livelihood you want to serve god with your vocation so if you move here or if you're doing business with people who have who have moved here one of your fundamental responsibilities is to do business in the sight of god god is watching everything and if you didn't write it down and you forgot all the terms and you didn't deliver because you you shook hands on it and you did something foolish like that god remembers all god remembers the conversation perfectly god understands it so do it quran dale in the sight of god second be warm and friendly toward everyone but do not make fast friends too quickly do not glom onto anybody if you know what i mean by glom onto do not glom onto anybody if you make friends too quickly and i'm i'm not talking about being curt or surly i'm not exhorting you to be surly be warm and friendly to everyone but don't make best friends forever in the this is something this is something i tell freshmen uh coming into nsa don't make any fast friends forever until thanksgiving wait till thanksgiving why because if you make friends in the first week you're gonna make friends based on personality instead of character you want to make friends but you want your friendships to be based on character godly character if you make friends too quickly you're going to tend to do it on the basis of personality instead of the basis of character scripture tells us that bad companions corrupt good morals first corinthians 15 33 and sometimes these bad companions are not necessarily bad people they're just bad for you right do you know the difference some people are not they're not wicked they're not evil they're not orcs but they don't bring out they don't bring out the best tendencies in you uh you find yourself slipping in way and then you drag them down they drag you down and it's both of you are okay swimmers but the two of you together are going to drown okay so you want to make sure that you're making you're making friends with people who will make you stand up straight you want friends who will make you stand up straighter than you were before navigating friendship is a big deal proverbs 18 24 taking your time with fast friendships is the way of wisdom it gives you time and this is important it gives you time to establish your character in a new community and it gives you time to evaluate the character of others who were already here when you just arrived when you just just got off the boat and you are here you need to establish before if others are hearing this exhortation they want to make friends with you based on character not on personality not on a an initial razzle dazzle show so what you want to do is you want to just assume that you're going to spend some time establishing your character establishing your business reputation establishing your willingness to contribute in a new community and you should also be using that same time to evaluate the people who have been here a long time being being here a long time does not automatically confer any kind of maturity or godliness it's application it's doing what the word says to do that establishes someone in maturity third get your bearings slowly get your bearings slowly there's an awful lot going on here and give your time give yourself time to acclimatize before making any life-changing decisions business partnerships volunteering for doing uh long-term work we assume we assume that you newcomers are going to be pitching in when the time is right but if you jump in too quickly you're going to greatly increase the chances of a misfire proverbs 18 13. as you get your bearings the chances are pretty good that the gaps and deficiencies that you see will be related in some way to your gifts but don't make the mistake of thinking that a critical spirit is a gift of the spirit because it isn't um a critical spirit to see something wrong with everything you know see something wrong with everything that's a critical spirit but if you visit a church or if you've just joined a new church community and you're watching over a period of months if you see a certain gap or deficiency you should take that not as a tell of what what are these losers doing leaving that gap in deficiency what you should do is take it as an indication of where your gifts lie if you visit a church and you think uh these people look like somebody's been kicking them around for ten years they they're this is one discouraged group of people well that might be an indication that you have the gift of encouragement you have the sensitivity to that issue if you've uh if if you uh visit a church or you've just joined a church community and you think man these people couldn't organize a two-car funeral that you know this is this is a i've never seen such disarray in my life and i've seen quite a lot of disarray you might have a gift in administration if you think that third point in the sermon was kind of a stinker you you might have the gift of teaching or if all of the above you might have a critical spirit next fourth and this is a this is a delicate one um for i hope for reasons that will become obvious be grateful for what the lord is doing here in moscow i am i certainly am i am astounded at the grace of god that's being poured out here in so many different areas be grateful for what the lord is doing here in moscow without in any way feeling superior about it uh without in any way taking any kind of credit or pride in it first corinthians 4 7 says this for who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou has not received it in other words paul says what do you have that wasn't a gift in the first place and if it was a gift why are you bragging about the gift that you got it's like it's like bragging about your eye color or bragging about how tall you are or bragging about the fact that you have 10 toes what do you have what what do you have that wasn't a gift and if it was a gift why are you feeling superior uh over it it's just silly all right so um do not take credit god's grace is god's grace it's unmerited favor we don't de there there are wonderful things happening here and we don't deserve any of them all right they're wonderful things happening here and we didn't earn them we didn't buy them we didn't purchase them we aren't we we did not scramble up this um this ladder to heavenly success everything is the gift of god now you might say but i see a lot of people working really hard yes but even that work is the gift of god even the people who are pouring themselves out for others that too is the gift of god by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves it is the gift of god lest any man should boast for we are god's workmanship created in christ jesus to do good works we're not saved by good works but we are saved to good works and those good works are part of the grace of god so becoming proud of what's happening is simply out and do everything and and this is the uh probably the important pinch point of this exhortation do everything you can to avoid disparaging the places you came from um do everything you can to avoid disparaging where you came from the same goes for your previous spiritual leaders even if they let you down and i would say especially if they let you down espec maybe you let them down too right we all have we all have trouble seeing the back of our own heads we all have trouble identifying all the pressures that are on other people particularly people in leadership positions i'm not saying that your leaders wherever it was didn't let you down or didn't fail you but they they've got their own master they're answering to their own master what you want to do is avoid the temptations that are coming at you you could resist their temptations all day long and it's not going to make you godlier what you want to do is resist your own temptations and and your own temptation is going to be to become uh spiritually proud that well back back home they were making us wear masks and back home they were making us do this and back home and and we can and do differ with all of that stuff we can do but you can differ with it without being feeling proud about what you understand or what you've been given spiritual pride is insidious and it would be easy to let gratitude morph into pride it's very easy to let gratitude morph into pride but also take but also take care that your battle against pride not lure you into ingratitude we are supposed to be grateful for what god has given us this is a marvelous work that god is doing here we need to be grateful grateful grateful for it and not an ounce of pride not a bit of pride in it this is the goodness of god that we did not earn this is given to us because of the righteousness of jesus christ it's not because we have our act together it's because christ has his act together and he's being kind to us here's another exhortation if you were to move to sri lanka you would expect things to be different you would expect things to be different and so you would be in some measure prepared for all the cult for the cultural clash but if you move to canada or to the uk you are constantly thrown by things being almost what you might expect but what was that road sign what did that mean i don't know what it meant maybe it's a railroad you're constantly thrown by things that that everything seems normal right everything seems except for that and this and it's a half a bubble off in a similar way in a similar way within the continental united states there are significant cultural differences from region to region there are significant cultural differences that are almost the same and not quite this you know if you move from alabama to the pacific northwest you're going to have this experience if you move from vermont to arizona you're going to have this experience and it's not just it's not just the weather so in a similar way within the united states there are significant cultural differences in how people behave not just road signs but how what people's expectations are how hospitality works how gratitude is expressed there are any number of differences like that and then on top of all that we have our own kirker culture layered on top of everything so we've got a distinctive culture that has developed in our church community over the decades and it can it can really throw you right oh i said that and i realized after the fact i shouldn't have said that or they said something and i took it a certain way and i shouldn't have taken it that way as moses knew it can be tough being a stranger being a stranger in a strange land exodus 2 22. it's not it is not don't don't when we're talking about cultural shadings and cultural differences don't think in terms of right and wrong don't think in terms of right and wrong people have different ways of doing things and they are all acceptable to god and if you move to a new place you're going to have to you're going to have to adjust to the way it is and if you say but i i refuse to adjust to the way well your kids are going to adjust to it your kids are going to grow up in a different culture because you've transplanted them into different soil different terrain different climate so don't don't be don't be thrown don't be distressed at this now returning to the passage from peter let your love be without hypocrisy let your love be without hypocrisy this means among many other things that you must be quick to forgive this means you must be quick to forgive love is the only oil that can make this machinery run smoothly all right how how it's possible for sinners with the kind of backgrounds that we all have the kinds of things that we've places we've all been the kinds of thoughts that we've all thought in the past the kind the kinds of animosities that we've had the kinds of insecurities that we all deal with how is it possible to take hundreds of these people put them all in the same community and then not just for an hour or two a week in worship but put them into a community where koinonia fellowship is ex where we're expecting koinonia fellowship to develop in the parish discipleship groups in the business dealings in the educational ventures the shared educational ventures your kids are in the same classroom together and somebody said something that was hurtful and then how do parents deal with it and and how do you deal with it with the teacher who didn't see it and how do you know you've got hundreds of the all these moving parts pg woodhouse once said somebody you look at it over a big expanse of people and some of them are always up to something and he said the rest of them are up to something else all this all the stuff now how can we expect uh the machinery of koinonia fellowship to be moving as rapidly and as completely as it is and not have the engine burn up well love has got to be the oil that that can make this machinery run smoothly check that oil regularly are you loving god and are you loving your neighbor are you loving god and you're loving are you loving your neighbor and this is basic it's this is not advanced christianity this is not graduate school christianity this is what you do when this is the information you hand to someone who's just coming back from their baptism still wet this is what we do this is what we do we love each other that means we don't yell at each other that means that we don't grab from one another that's that means we don't demand our own way with other people for for the sake of demanding your own way now you might say well does that mean i've got to be a doormat i've got to be a pushover no but it does mean that when you stand up to someone it's got to be for their sake when you stand up to someone it's not because the flesh arose within you i if if it's anything that resembles road rage if someone cuts you off in traffic and a feeling wells up within you if it resembles that in any way it's it's from the pit it's from the devil god hates it it's going to disrupt everything it's going to wreck friendships it's going to make living with one another impossible so check the oil regularly cultivate your relationship with god the father through christ with god the father through christ in the power of the holy spirit because our fulfillment of the second greatest commandment is going to be the direct result of our zeal to fulfill the first so if you love god then you're going to love your neighbor if you don't love your neighbor then you don't love god first john chapter 4 verses 20 and 21 says this if a man say i love god and hateth his brother he is a liar let me go over that again because it probably says something different in the greek no it doesn't if if a man say i love god and hateth his brother he is a liar for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love god whom he hath not seen and this commandment have we from him that he who loveth god love his brother also now when john asks this question for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love god whom he have not seen we think that we think that john's argument against our hypocrisy is actually an argument for our hypocrisy here's here's how it works the reason i don't love my brother whom i have seen is because i can see him doing stuff right i can see him doing the thing that i've asked him not to do six times i can see him leaving something where i asked him you know roommate problems my roommate i can yeah i can see my brother i can see my brother irritating me i can see my brother being annoying i can see my brother sinning i can see my brother misbehaving in various ways that don't comport with my way of doing things that's why and god is up in heaven out of sight being perfect right the reason i love god is because he's a figment of my imagination the reason i love god is because he's out of sight out of mind if you have a if you have a strong view of god's sovereignty his exhaustive sovereignty god is personally involved in everything that's happening to you including what your roommate is doing including what your neighbor is doing including what the kid in your kid's class said to your kid right and you heard all about it you didn't hear what your kid said that set it all off in the first place you find that out after a very painful discussion right so what what happens is you see all this going on and you say well of course i have trouble loving my brother whom i have seen because i see him sinning or i see him falling short or i see him doing things that are that are not above criticism and god is in heaven in the heavenly realms being perfect because his behavior doesn't affect history or my life or my day at all but god is the one who dictated everything that happened to you that day including the irritations including the things that you have to forgive in including the things you have to pick up after including the things that you have to work through god is the one who did all of that and john's argument is that god wants us to use as a measuring stick how much we love him by how much we love our brother let's go over this again if a man say i love god if a man say i love god and hateth his brother he is a liar for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love god whom he has not seen for john this is self-evident are you you use your love for this you use your conformity to the second greatest commandment as your measuring rod for your obedience or conformity to the first greatest commandment and this commandment have we from him that he who loveth god love his brother also the grace that's being bestowed on us here in moscow is going to continue only so long as love for one another continues that's as long as it's going to go you might say this is a remarkable thing i wish it was more intense i wish it would spread faster i wish it would get deeper and so do i that's we're praying for reformation revival we pray for reformation and revival all the time i believe that reformation and revival is happening but it's only three inches deep and i would like it to be three miles deep we want to pray for more but it's only going to stay where it is or get deeper to the extent that we love god and love our brother if we love god and love our brother and if if that love is unfeigned like peter requires if that love is all in and fervent like peter requires if that love is without fakery without doing stuff for show if that love is honest and true then reformation and revival is going to continue and it's only going to continue so long as we're doing that as long as we are committed to living that way and of course we can't be committed that to living that way on our own esteem we can't love one another we are god we've got to be god's workmanship creating christ jesus to do good works the thing when we are resolved to love one another the way the word requires we have to recognize that we are receiving the grace of god that enables us to do this and it doesn't it doesn't make the temptations go away it doesn't so what happens is if you if you move to moscow expecting sort of the uh a pristine first century church um and you and you discover to your dismay that people sin here and they and they don't walk on water here and they and they don't conduct business perfectly here and you discovered all these dismaying things one of your problems may be the fact that you were expecting a first century church and then you got one read through the epistles again what sort of what sorts of problems did first century churches have man living with a stepmother people getting drunk at the lord's supper uh people accepting the false doctrine of the judaizers in galatians people who were being tempted to worship angels first century churches had boatloads of challenges and yet god used that first century church to transform the world that was the starter kit that's the way it started and we are we are in a position to receive the same kind of grace but don't have false expectations and don't ever let go of your responsibility to love god and love your brother love god and love one another and when you love your brother you're going to have to deal with the fact that you're loving them over resistance you know every everybody's not going to be perfectly lovable to make it easy for you to obey the the lord when when you uh i'll finish with this final thought i said i said just a moment ago that we have to that forgiveness of sins is a big uh big part of this this means among many other things you must be quick to forgive forgiveness presupposes actual sin forgiveness when you forgive someone for something they did to you the world a carnal a carnal apology is please forgive me for anything i might have said that may have been out of line or that you possibly took wrong please forgive me because and then an excuse is made when you make an excuse that's not asking for forgiveness if someone came up to you and said look i said some things that were hurtful and i was trying to hurt you i was angry and upset i shouldn't have been i the lord convicted me i really wronged you i tried to hurt you and i see that i did would you please forgive me you might have trouble forgiving them because you said they didn't ask me to accept any excuse they didn't come to me and say that was the alcohol talking or i or that was me it happened so fast i said some things that didn't mean we can excuse oh yeah well you said some things you didn't mean but how do i what am i supposed to do with someone who says yeah i meant every word and i was wrong i meant every word of it i wanted to hurt you how can you do well that's what forgiveness is forgiveness only addresses the thing that is actually a true sin and that's why we must love each other in truth we must love each other from the heart in truth not with any kind of fakery not with any kind of whitewash not with any kind of papering over our father and god we thank you for your kindness to us we thank you that you have given us your word i thank you that you have given us to one another i thank you for everyone that you've brought here who's moved here uprooted from their previous locations i pray that you would be kind to them as they settled in i pray that you would help us to receive with gladness everyone who comes i pray that everyone who does come would come with gladness and that you would continue to enable us to love one another our father we ask that you would receive the words now that jesus taught us to pray saying one of the repeated themes in these lord's supper meditations is that we are to come to this meal in faith perhaps most often we think this means that we are to have faith to see that christ is truly present here with us as we partake and that is certainly one element of it but there's much more to it than that consider for a moment the story of abram and melchizedek if you can recall the narrative in genes in genesis abram had just defeated four enemy kings after his victory he's greeted by melchizedek the king of salem and a priest of god most high melchizedek then blesses abram with a victory feast of bread and wine saying blessed be abram by god most high possessor of heaven and earth and blessed be god most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand it's important to point out that abram had in fact won a great victory over his enemies but the land that the lord had promised him was still full of other enemies it wouldn't be until centuries later that abram's descendants would actually inherit that land so was this victory meal premature not at all it was a conqueror's meal in a land that was not yet fully conquered in other words abram needed to eat this meal in faith trusting that this small victory was a harbinger of his inheritance to come which brings us to this meal as melchizedek blessed abram and fed him a victory meal of bread and wine so now christ our greater melchizedek feeds us the children of abraham every lord's day this meal is a sign that through christ's death and resurrection god has delivered our enemies into our hands and that he will deliver our enemies into our hands it is a meal for those who are more than conquerors in a world that is not yet fully conquered as the children of abraham we look to inherit the world and we must therefore eat in faith trusting that god who possesses heaven and earth will one day grant our inheritance in full so come in faith and welcome to jesus christ well in a church with as many sinners as this there's bound to be lots of bumps and bruises and so the charge is this love one another confess your sins to one another forgive one another in all brotherly affection and ask god to bless all of it now receive with believing hearts the blessing of your god now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us to him be glory in the church by christ jesus to all generations forever and ever and amen you

Channel: Christ Kirk

Views: 5,471

Rating: 4.8969073 out of 5

Keywords: Christ Church, ChristKirk, Doug Wilson, Douglas Wilson, Canon Press, CrossPolitic, Toby Sumpter, Moscow Idaho, Moscow, Psalm Singing, Reformed, Calvinist, Reformed theology, CREC, Blog and Mablog

Id: fLe-JDIr7y0

Length: 43min 18sec (2598 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 07 2021