Characteristics of a "Christian" (Psalm 15:1-5)

"Who shall dwell on your holy hill?" (Ps 15:1; ESV)

Who can come in the presence of God (Ps 15:1)? God's reply is not a list of rituals, but a searching of the conscience (Ps 15:2-5; 24:3-6; Isa 33:14-17). It reveals the pure in heart, a man after God's own heart, a "Christian" who loves and honors God.

God's "tent" (and holy mountain/hill) conjures 2 ideas: worship/sacrifice (Exo 29:42) and hospitality. Man comes to God to worship, but he also comes as an willing invited guest (Ps 27:4; 84:1-2). The encounter is both one of awe and friendship, transcendence and immanence, holy and personal. Notice the 12 ethical requirements (Ps 15:2-5), which focuses on life-and-lip qualities. The qualities described are those that God creates in a man, not those he finds in himself:

How David Expressed His Thanksgiving (2 Samuel 9:1-13)

"I will surely show you kindness" (2 Sam 9:7).

Being thankful is so darn hard. Why? It's so much easier to be angry and upset with others!

2 things that seem to deeply upset and anger us is when we think or feel that we were unappreciated or disrespected. We just can't get over feeling dissed or disregarded, regardless of whether or not others intended to do so. This bothers us so deeply and profoundly, because we so naturally default to self-centeredness and self-righteousness, which are common expressions of selfishness.

Being Thankful is a Response, not a Command (Luke 17:1-19)

Thursday, Nov 24, is Thanksgiving Day. But being thankful is so darn hard. One painful reason is that we expect rewards and commendation for our good works. So instead of being thankful, we expect reward for "good Christian behavior."

Truth be told, there is always SOMEONE we are upset with, or angry about, or hurt by, or disappointed with. What are the reasons? They disrespected me. They disregarded me. They gossiped about me. They slandered me. They lied about me. They did not support me. They cared only about themselves. They don't love me. They caricatured me. The reason could even be, "They are not thankful." It is almost comical to say or feel, "I am so unhappy and unthankful because that guy is so unthankful!"

According to the Bible, how can we be thankful?
Luke 17:1-19 seem to be isolated disconnected teachings of:

• Jesus teaching his disciples about sin (1-4), faith (5-6), and duty (7-10).
• Jesus' healing of 10 men with leprosy (11-19).
  

How are these seemingly separate teachings related? How do they connect together?

Thanksgiving Is Knowing That My Good Works Do Not Count (Luke 17:7-10)

"We are unworthy servants..." (Luke 17:10)


What is your posture before God? As Christians, do we have the posture of a trembling, undeserving, unworthy sinner before God, no matter how hard we have faithfully worked, served and sacrificed for our church and for others?



This is a very, very painful and bitter thought: God can never ever credit any of my good works to me.


Why is my good works not being credited to me so painful and bitter? Even if we mentally acknowledge that this is true (Eph 2:8-9), we often do not feel or act accordingly. We all get upset if we think that others do not appreciate our efforts or our faithfulness. Why is this biblical truth so hard to swallow? It is because all of life suggests otherwise: If we study hard we get good grades. If we do what our boss/leader expects, he is pleased. But it doesn't work like this with God. Why not?

How Can God Expect Me To Be Blameless? (Gen 17:1-27)

“I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless” (Gen 17:1).

Previous passages: How the Divine Deals with our Doubts (Gen 15:1-21); See The God Who Sees You (Gen 16:1-16)

What is Genesis about? Jesus says that Genesis is about Jesus, for Moses, who wrote Genesis, wrote about Jesus (Jn 5:46). We want to study Genesis and find how it points to Christ (Lk 24:27,44). Genesis tells the story of Creation, the Fall of Man resulting in God's judgment on man and the world, and God's plan to save man and restore the world. How would God do this? By calling 1 man Abraham, through whom God would send the Messiah to save us from our sins.

The Covenant: Gen 17:1-27 occurs 23 years after God called Abraham. God promised to make him into "a great nation" (Gen 12:2). In Gen 17:5, God promised to make him "a father of many nations." The key word in this passage is "covenant," which occurs 14 times (NIV, 2011). What is a covenant? A web definition is "an agreement between God and his people in which God makes certain promises and requires certain behavior from them in return." Gen 17:1-27 shows us that God's covenant with Abraham required him and his household to be circumcised. Let's study about the covenant in 4 parts:

1. What the covenant is: God's grace (Gen 15:1-16:16).
   
2. What the covenant requires: Walk blamelessly before God (Gen 17:1-8, 15-22).
   
3. What the covenant commands: Circumcision (Gen 17:9-14, 23-27).
   
4. What the covenant means: God will be our God, and we will be his people (Gen 17:7-8).
   

1. What it is
2. What it requires
3. What it commands
4. What it means

Questions:

1. Why does God reveal himself as "God Almighty" (Gen 17:1)? What does this suggest about how we should live (1 Chron 28:9)? Explain coram deo (Gen 3:8). How can we not be cut off when we are not able to walk blamelessly (Isa 53:8; Lk 2:21; Gal 3:13)? What do the new names of Abram and Sarai signify (Gen 17:3-6, 15-16)? Why was this hard for Abram (Gen 17:17-22)? What did he do (Gen 17:23-27)?
   
2. How is the covenant of Gen 17:1-16 similar/different from the covenant in Gen 15:9-19? Why is it significant that God's oath came first before Abram's oath (Rom 4:9-11)? How is the gospel different from religion (Ex 12:13, 20:2-17)?
3. How is circumcision the sign of being God's covenant people (Gen 17:9-11; Dt 10:16, 30:6; Jer 4:4)? Why is community crucial (Gen 17:12-13,23,27; Heb 10:24; Gal 3:28)? How does Jesus' cross shed light on circumcision (Col 2:11-12; Rom 2:29)?

I. What the Covenant is: Grace

God's covenant is a covenant of grace (Gen 15:1-17:17). What is grace? Grace comes to us when we don't deserve it, when we are not seeking it, when we resist it again and again, and even after we have received it we do not appreciate it. In Gen 15:1-21, God "walked between the pieces" and promised to unilaterally bless Abraham at great cost to himself. In Gen 16:1-16, after receiving abundant grace, Abraham acted like a non-believer by conceiving an illegitimate child through a concubine. Abraham failed completely...for 13 years. But God comes to him again...in grace.

II. What the Covenant Requires: Be Blameless

There is a serious misunderstanding of grace. Some Christians think that because they are saved by grace, then what they do or fail to do is not so important. Though God's covenant with Abraham is based on grace, yet God said to him, "Be blameless." The Hebrew word translated "blameless" does not mean "sinless" but "whole." It signifies complete, unqualified surrender. Abram is to be wholly devoted to God. God's covenant of grace will benefit only those who walk before God and are blameless. Grace never makes obedience optional (Jn 14:15). When God removes good works as a condition for his acceptance, he does not remove righteousness as a requirement for life. We cannot undermine legitimate standards of the Bible without grave consequences. God does not love us because we obey him, but we cannot know the blessings of his love without obedience. Resting on God's grace does not relieve us of our holy obligations. Our holy obligation requires that we live coram deo: live before the gazing eyes of God. "Walk before God" is a call to 3 things:

1. Know God personally.
2. Obey God.
3. Grow continually.

When we live blamelessly and wholeheartedly before God in his grace, we will:

1. be fruitful (Gen 17:2,4,6; 1:18). We bear inner fruit (Gal 5:22-23) and outer fruit.
   
2. change (Gen 17:5,15-16). God changes us from selfish/self-centered to God/other centered.
   
3. experience everlasting and temporal blessings (Gen 17:7-8): Kingdom of God and peace on earth.
   

III. What the Covenant Commands: Circumcision

Circumcision brought God's people into a:

1. relationship with God. It is our personal, individual surrendering of our heart to God.
   
2. relationship with others. It is our communal commitment to community.
   

No Christian ever grows to maturity without giving his heart to God and to others in community. Abraham needed to "cut" his heart's attachment to Ishmael (Gen 17:18), and yield it to God. Abraham needed to believe God's almighty power to give him and his barren wife a son in their old age (Gen 17:19,21), through whom the Messiah would come.

IV. What the Covenant Means: God will be our God

The ultimate purpose of the covenant (of the Bible) is "to be your God and the God of your descendants" (Gen 17:7). God simply says, "I will be their God" (Gen 17:8). Why does God want to be our God? It is not because God needs us to complete himself (Acts 17:25). But God does love us. God wants to be our God not for any personal ego reasons, but because God knows that God being our God is the only way that we can ever be truly happy. When we live as though we are god who knows what is best for ourselves, we loose our peace and joy sooner or later.

No one is able to walk before God blamelessly, save One. Only Jesus ever did all that the Father wanted (Jn 8:29). Jesus is the only One who deserves all the covenant blessings. But instead, Jesus was "cut off" and cursed for living blamelessly (Isa 53:8; Gal 3:13). Why? So that we who fail to walk before God blamelessly and should be cut off, can be blessed. This is grace. This is how God kept his covenant.

Pray that because of the grace of Jesus, God may enable us to be children of obedience, and people of community.

The Lord Came Down To See (Genesis 11:1-9)

"But the LORD came down to see..." (Genesis 11:5).

From this week we resume our study of Genesis. I had given 8 sermons from Gen 3:1-24 (The Fall of Man) to Gen 28:10-22 (The Stairway to Heaven) before I left for the Philippines for 2 months in July 2011. However, we did not study every passage from Genesis chap. 3 to 28. My plan now is to fill in the gaps and continue to the end of Genesis by early 2012.

Why do we study Genesis? What is the point of Genesis? More fundamentally, what is the Bible about? Briefly, the Bible is NOT a book of morals or instructions (even though it has both). It is a STORY. The story of the whole Bible can be summarized in 4 words: