Submit to God as King [Family Worship lesson in Numbers 22:36–24:25]

How can God’s enemies survive? Numbers 22:36–24:25 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these sixty verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the only way to survive death and the last day is through faith in Christ.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2024.10.11 Hopewell @Home ▫ Numbers 22:36–24:25

Read Numbers 22:36–24:25

Questions from the Scripture text: How does Balak respond to the news that Balaam is coming (Numbers 22:36-37)? What does Balaam answer (Numbers 22:38)? How does Balak try to bring him over to Moab’s side (Numbers 22:39-40)? But what has YHWH instructed to be done there instead (Numbers 23:1–4)? What does YHWH put into Balaam’s mouth (Numbers 23:5-10)? What is the competition (Numbers 23:7-8)? But which is already, clearly winning (Numbers 23:9-10, cf. Genesis 13:36)? What does Balaam desire, upon seeing this (Numbers 23:10c–d)? How do Balak, and then Balaam, respond (Numbers 23:11-12)? What does Balak seem to think was the problem (Numbers 23:13)? How do they proceed this time (Numbers 23:14-17)? How has God responded to the idea that a new prophetic vantage point might change the message (Numbers 23:18-20)? Upon what basis is YHWH relating to Israel (Numbers 23:21a–c)? What is He to them (Numbers 23:21-22)? Whose God cannot be manipulated (Numbers 23:23)? What is the strength of their position (Numbers 23:24)? How do Balak, and then Balaam, respond (Numbers 23:25-26)? What does Balak seem to think will change God’s mind (Numbers 23:27-28)? How do they proceed this third time (Numbers 23:29-30)? But what does Balaam do differently his time (Numbers 24:1–2)? And what is changed in Balaam (Numbers 24:3-4)? What has YHWH created in Israel as their King (Numbers 24:5-7)? What has He done, and what will He do, to bring this about (Numbers 24:8-9b)? What hope is there for those who are not (yet) members of this kingdom (Numbers 24:9c–d, cf. Genesis 12:3, Psalm 2:12d)? How does Balak respond this time (Numbers 24:10)? What does he say Balaam has lost (Numbers 24:11)? How does Balaam respond to this (Numbers 24:12-13)? What does he now volunteer to prophesy (Numbers 24:14)? What does he repeat about himself (Numbers 24:15-16; cf. Numbers 24:3-4)? About Whom does he prophesy (Numbers 24:17)? Whom will this new King conquer and destroy (Numbers 24:18-24)? Who decides who lives (Numbers 24:23b)? What does Balaam do when he finishes this prophecy (Numbers 24:25)?

How can God’s enemies survive? Numbers 22:36–24:25 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these sixty verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the only way to survive death and the last day is through faith in Christ.

Desperate Ignorance. When Balak hears that Balaam is finally coming, he hurries to meet him at the border and confronts him about the delay (Numbers 22:36-37). Balaam responds that Balak still might not get what he wants (Numbers 22:38). Balak attempts to bring Balaam over to Moabite thinking with a sacrificial feast of his own (Numbers 22:39-41), as if the power is in the prophet himself. But Balaam has been instructed to offer a sevenfold sacrifice to YHWH (Numbers 23:1–4). 

When Balaam has left Balak to meet YHWH, and reported the sevenfold sacrifice, YHWH puts a prophecy in Balaam’s mouth and sends him back (Numbers 23:5-6). He reports the circumstances, but then asserts that Israel’s holiness to God (Numbers 23:9), and the fulfillment of God’s promise about them (Numbers 23:10a–b, cf. Genesis 13:16). Balaam, implying that we all must die, expresses his desire not to perish in his sins, but to die as one who is right with God like Israel (Numbers 23:10c–d).

Balak is offended (Numbers 23:11), Balaam reminds him that he must prophecy what YHWH says (Numbers 23:12), and Balak thinks that perhaps the problem was how many Israelites Balaam could see while he prophesied. So, Balak takes Balaam to a vantage point where he can see just a few Israelites (Numbers 23:13-17).

Now, the new prophecy is that God’s decree cannot be changed (Numbers 23:18-20); indeed there is no sorcery or divination permitted in Israel (Numbers 23:23, “in” better than NKJ’s “against”), because the true and living God cannot be manipulated. How many have treated religion as a way to manipulate God! God is treating Israel not according to their own sin, but according to His own personal kingship over and among them (Numbers 23:21). This is why they are indomitable (Numbers 23:22, Numbers 23:24). 

Balak is frustrated again, but this time he thinks that if a change in vantage point hasn’t worked, maybe a change in geography will change YHWH’s mind (Numbers 23:25-30). Balak’s desperation is exceeded only by his ignorance. Like many foolish professing Christians today, he thinks that the power may be in the man (celebrity preacher?), in our own perspective, or in some ability to get God to do what we want. This is the opposite of true religion, in which God works to conform us to what He wants.

Newfound Understanding. Balaam, it seems, has been trying to manipulate God like Balak still hopes to, but Balaam has learned from the second prophecy, and alters his approach (Numbers 24:1). When the Spirit of God comes upon him (Numbers 24:2), the first thing that he says in each of these last two prophecies is that he has had an epiphany (Numbers 24:3-4, Numbers 24:15-16). In the third, he describes YHWH-indwelt Israel as a sort of Eden-camp (Numbers 24:5-7b) with YHWH as its resident King (Numbers 24:7c–d). All its enemies will be destroyed (Numbers 24:8-9b). If Balak was paying attention, he would see the one way to escape this fate: bless Israel, bow to her King, kiss the Son before His wrath is quickly kindled (Numbers 24:9c–d, cf. Genesis 12:3, Psalm 2:12d).

But Balak chooses death, rejecting the offer, and attacking both YHWH and His prophet (Numbers 24:10-11). Balaam then proceeds to prophesy not just about the present condition of Israel, but about how their blessedness comes to fulfillment. He prophesies about a King arising from Israel as a star (Numbers 24:17, cf. Revelation 22:16). In Numbers 24, this is a mystery. With God Himself as King, why would ultimate victory and blessedness be tied to the rise of another one? The prophecy of the scepter (cf. Genesis 49:10) provides some background, but this side of Pentecost, we know exactly Who this is and why. It is in Christ’s kingship that the kingdom of God ultimately destroys all enemies (Numbers 24:18-24). 

Dear reader, death is inevitable, as is the destruction those who resist being ruled by King Jesus. But, through faith in Him, you may die the death of the righteous. And blessed are those who bless Him. Kiss the Son; blessed are all who trust in Him!

How have you tried to manipulate God? How have you submitted to Christ’s kingship? What hope do you have?

Sample prayer:  Lord, forgive us for resisting Your authority and trying to manipulate You. Count us righteous through faith in Christ, and bring us into His own blessedness, with Him as our King, we ask in His Name, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP2 “Why Do Gentile Nations Rage?” or TPH2B “Why Do Heathen Nations Rage?”

Distorted, Deadly "Christianity" [Family Worship lesson in Jude v8–11]

What does dreamer-religion cause? Jude v8–11 looks forward to the second serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these four verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that religion that is not bounded by Scripture results in men running off into their own destruction. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2024.10.10 Hopewell @Home ▫ Jude 8–11

Read Jude 8–11

Questions from the Scripture text: What does Jude now (Jude 8) call the ungodly (Jude 4)? What three things doe they do? What illustration does he give of not blaspheming glory (Jude 9)? Of what do these dreamers speak evil (Jude 10)? And what do they do to the things they know naturally? In whose way have they gone (Jude 11)? In whose error have they run? In what manner? For what? In whose rebellion have they perished? 

What does dreamer-religion cause? Jude 8–11 looks forward to the second serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these four verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that religion that is not bounded by Scripture results in men running off into their own destruction.  

Dreamers. Even in New Testament times, dreams were not the ordinary way of Jesus’s teaching and leading His church. He sent apostles, prophets, and evangelists with the rest of His words for the church, and pastor-teachers each and teach what was being completed in the New Testament scriptures (cf. Ephesians 4:11–12, 1 Corinthians 13:8–10). But for some two thousand years, “certain men have crept in unnoticed” into the churches who are “dreamers” (Jude 8). Rather than yielding to Jesus as Master, Who teaches and leads us His own way (the Bible), they leave themselves open to external (demonic, etc.) and internal (their own flesh) influences that come in superstitious ways like dreams. Building on another foundation than the Scriptures is what leads to errors and ends like those in this passage.

Errors. Jude now gives us three dangerous errors into which such dreamers fall, three symptoms that will arise when man-made religion replaces biblical religion. The first is “defiling the flesh.” We have already seen this with the “lewdness” in Jude 4 and the warning examples in Jude 7. 

The second dangerous error is rejecting authority. Without the Lord Jesus as our Master, the top of every chain of command is removed, leading to children disobeying parents, egalitarianism in marriage (denying/resisting the authority of the husband), congregationalism (authority being vested equally in the members rather than exercised by the elders and deacons), and rebellion against civil authority even its commands are not unlawful. We must watch against such errors, especially as they may be symptoms of “denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The third dangerous error is “blaspheming glories” (NKJ paraphrases it, “speak evil of dignitaries”). Without the Lordship of Jesus, ungodly dreamers have swelling spiritual notions and dabble in things above them. Jude 9 takes an illustration from outside Scripture, just as other passages do (cf. Acts 17:28, Titus 1:12), leading some to make the error of denying that Jude is Holy Scripture and others to make the error of treating Jewish fantastical books like Testament of Moses or 1Enoch as if they were Holy Scripture. But it is precisely because Jude and his readers know that these aren’t Scripture that the example is so powerful: even the Jewish fantastical literature didn’t presume to include men, or even archangels, rebuking the devil! Scripture never tells us to do so; it tells us to resist the devil (cf. James 4:7), but only the Lord Himself rebukes the devil (cf. Zechariah 3:2; Mark 1:25, Mark 9:25). When men are unmoored from Scripture, they lose the simple trusting in Jesus as Lord and obeying Jesus as Master, and foolishly and wickedly dabble with glories they do not understand.

Similarly, they speak evil of the glories of true Christianity. They speak evil of whatever they do not know (Jude 10a): Scriptural doctrine over-against their dreams, godliness and holiness over-against their defiling of their flesh, authority in marriage/home/church/state over-against their autonomy… dreamers speak evil against all of these. And whatever knowledge is ingrained in them (which even beasts have), they corrupt against themselves (which even the beasts do not do with their instincts!). 

Dangers. Who would see Cain (cf. the judgment in Genesis 4:11–12), Balaam (cf. the judgment in Joshua 13:22), or Korah (cf. Numbers 16:24–34), and think that is the way to go? But Cain is representative of all who expect God to be pleased with what pleases them, and yet how much this is done in theology, worship, or moral values! And Balaam is representative of those who participate in spiritual things, not to serve the Lord and obtain Him, but to get for themselves some profit. And Korah is representative of those who resist authority. Being a dreamer brings one into no small danger. We should flee from dreamer-religion, self-indulgence, and autonomy, crying, “lest the earth swallow us up also!” (cf. Numbers 16:34).

Who in your life might be one of those who has “crept in unnoticed” according to the description in this letter? Where do you get your theology/worship/morality? Whom are you usually trying to please? How are you submitting to authority in the home/church/society? 

Sample prayer:  Lord, forgive us for when have been more impressed with things like dreams than with Your Word. Forgive us for when we have defiled our flesh by indulging it. Forgive us for when we have rejected authority and operated as if we are autonomous. Forgive us for when we have dabbled in spiritual things that we don’t understand. Forgive us for when, like Cain, we have expected You to be pleased with what pleases us. Forgive us for when, like Balaam, we participate in religious things as a way of obtaining earthly profit. Forgive us for when, like Korah, we have treated Your church as a democracy. Forgive us and deliver us from such wicked error and danger, we ask through Christ, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP106C “They Envied Moses” or TPH131B “Not Haughty Is My Heart” 

2024.10.09 Midweek Meeting Livestream

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October 9 Prayer Meeting Folder

Proverbs 4:1–9 sermon outline

We urge you to assemble physically, if possible, with a true congregation of Christ's church. For those of our own congregation who may be providentially hindered, we are grateful to be able to provide this service.

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Nations' Wrath-Deserving Sin Against God [Family Worship lesson in Amos 1:3–2:16]

What nations are accountable to God for what they do with His law? Amos 1:3–2:16 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these twenty-nine verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that all nations are accountable to God for what they do with His law. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2024.10.09 Hopewell @Home ▫ Amos 1:3–2:16

Read Amos 1:3–2:16

Questions from the Scripture text: Who is speaking in Amos 1:3a? Whose sin is He addressing (verse 3b)? How many? What won’t YHWH turn away (verse 3c)? Why—what have they done to whom (verse 3d)? What will YHWH do to whom in response (Amos 1:4-5)? Who is speaking in Amos 1:6a? Whose sin is He addressing (verse 6b)? How many? What won’t YHWH turn away (verse 6c)? Why—what have they done to whom (verse 6d–e)? What will YHWH do in response (Amos 1:7-8)? Who is speaking in Amos 1:9a? Whose sin is He addressing (Amos 1:11b)? How many? What won’t He turn away (verse 11c)? Why—what have they done to whom (verse 11d–g)? What will YHWH do in response (Amos 1:12)? Who is speaking in Amos 1:13a? Whose sin is He addressing (verse 13b)? How many? What won’t He turn away (verse 13c)? Why—what have they done to whom (verse 13d)? To what end (verse 13e)? What will YHWH do in response (Amos 1:14-15)? Who is speaking in Amos 2:1a? Whose sin is He addressing (verse 1b)? How many? What won’t He do (verse 1c)? Why—what have they done to whom (verse 1d)? What will YHWH do in response (Amos 2:2-3)? Who is speaking in Amos 2:4a? Whose sin is He addressing (verse 4b)? How many? What won’t He turn away (verse 4c)? Why—what have they done to Whom (verse 4d–e)? And what have they done to themselves (verse 4f–g)? And what will YHWH do in response (Amos 2:5)? Who is speaking in Amos 2:6a? Whose sin is He addressing (verse 6b)? How many? What won’t He turn away (verse 6c)? What have they done to whom in verse 6d? And what to whom in verse 6e? And what to whom in Amos 2:7a? And what to whom in verse 7b? And what to whom in verse 7c? And what to Whom in verse 7d? What are two examples of how they combine false worship and oppression (Amos 2:8)? What had YHWH done for them (Amos 2:9, cf. Numbers 21:21–32; Deuteronomy 2:26–3:11)? What else has He done for them (Amos 2:10)? And what else (Amos 2:11)? But what have Israel done (Amos 2:12, cf. Numbers 6:1–21)? What does the Lord say about them and their sins (Amos 2:13)? What is He going to prevent in response (Amos 2:14-15)? And what will happen to whom in Israel (Amos 2:16)? 

What nations are accountable to God for what they do with His law? Amos 1:3–2:16 looks forward to the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these twenty-nine verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that all nations are accountable to God for what they do with His law.  

Amos might have been a popular preacher for a minute. It was common among ancient near eastern peoples to have “prophets” denounce other nations and predict their downfall, especially when their own nation was about to go to war with them. Amos’s prophecy isn’t connected to any planned military campaign of Jeroboam II that we know of, but he certainly was hitting all of the surrounding rivals with zingers. And when he hit Judah (the southern kingdom) with prophetic denunciation number seven, this surely tickled his northern listeners. As we are reminded by the “for three and for four” repetition throughout (Amos 1:3, Amos 1:6, Amos 1:9, Amos 1:11, Amos 1:13; Amos 2:1, Amos 2:4, Amos 2:6), seven is a number of completion, and they were likely to think that this was the climax. But he was setting them up, and the denunciation of Israel would be as long as any three of the others taken together.

These prophecies of judgment are absolutely certain. They are each bookended with “thus says YHWH” (Amos 1:3, Amos 1:6, Amos 1:9, Amos 1:11, Amos 1:13; Amos 2:1, Amos 2:4, Amos 2:6) and “says YHWH” (Amos 1:5, Amos 1:8, Amos 1:15; Amos 2:3, Amos 2:11, Amos 2:16), and include the divine declaration of finality “I will not turn away its punishment” (Amos 1:3, Amos 1:6, Amos 1:9, Amos 1:11, Amos 1:13; Amos 2:1, Amos 2:4, Amos 2:6). The first six address “secular” nations. Of course, the idea of “secular” is exposed as a great fallacy in this passage. Nations are under obligation to the living God. He has always been King over all the nations, and now does so all the more, exercising that reign through the mediatorial kingship of His Christ, the God-Man Who sits upon the throne. If Syria, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab were nationally accountable to God and His law then, how much more is this true of nations now, under the reign of Christ!

We see this emphasized even by the inclusion of “fire” in each of the first seven judgments (Amos 1:4, Amos 1:7, Amos 1:10, Amos 1:12, Amos 1:14; Amos 2:2, Amos 2:5). Whatever the other details of how He would bring them down, it would be an expression of the fire of God’s wrath. Nations don’t fall as coincidences or natural consequences of various power dynamics. They fall because God is furious with them and sends His fire against them. He has established a certain amount of sin that He will tolerate from them in history, and as they approach the end, they are filling up the full measure of their sin (cf. Genesis 15:16, Matthew 23:32). 

This is because nations’ sins are against God. That which Syria and Ammon did to Gilead was done to the covenant God of Gilead. That which Philistia, Tyre, and Edom collaborated in doing to Edom’s brother (Israel) was done to the covenant God of Edom’s brother. But Moab is judged especially for what was done to Edom. Now, Edom was a son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, but the great sin in treating Edom as if he was under Moab’s divine wrath was their self-deification and despising God’s image in his neighbor.

But the more “Christian” a nation is, the more the guilt of its sin against God is aggravated. Judah is judged for what they did to God’s law (Amos 2:4). And Israel’s great guilt is especially over-against their covenant with God. 

God raised up righteous among them, and gave them poor as an opportunity to display the righteousness of the nation in how it cared for them, but these they abused (Amos 2:6). Their sexual perversions (Amos 2:7c) were especially offensive to the holy Name that was upon them (verse 2:7d, cf. 1 Corinthians 5:1–2).  Their abuse of the poor and condemned was mixed with immorality and drunkenness in worship (Amos 2:8, cf. 1 Kings 21:8–16). 

And this was all in the face of great deliverance (Amos 2:9-10) and even greater grace (Amos 2:11). The holy God had taken from among sinners prophets to put His words in their mouth? He had worked graciously in the hearts of their young people to stir them up to take vows of devotion to Him to spend a season of life concentrated in fellowship with Him in the means of His grace?! Marvelous! And yet, these prophets they had attempted to silence, and these young people they had tried to overturn their zeal for the Lord (Amos 2:12). 

Readers/users of this devotional are likely among the greatest debtors to God’s grace that this world has seen. Whatever the Lord has done for us demands from us love and obedience, consecration and justice. And the guiltiness of our sins against Him is greatly aggravated by all of this grace. And this is corporately true for families and congregations that have been spiritually blessed and nations that have had among them the knowledge of God. Let those who have been shown such mercies take heed!

In the midst of the swelling economic and political/military success of Jeroboam II, Israel must have thought themselves great, like an abundant harvest of sheaves of grain, and the Lord uses this metaphor in Amos 2:13 to describe them as great—a great burden! 

None of their greatness or their great ones would be able to deliver them from the judgment that was coming. The swift, strong, mighty, armed, mounted, and courageous would be stripped of their hope and made to flee in the day of Israel’s destruction (Amos 2:14-16).

What nations or churches do you know of that are filling up the full measure of their sin against God? How does His wrath express itself against them in time/history? Of what greater wrath is this a reminder/indicator? What are some nations that have known and received more grace than others? Some churches? Some families? What grace have you been shown, and how does this make your sin against God worse than others’?

Sample prayer:  Lord, forgive us for how careless we are about sin and guilt. We have not considered that there is a measure of sin that we might fill up and bring upon our house, our church, or our nation inescapable judgments in time. And while we have looked at those around us and agreed with Your justice and wrath against them, we have forgotten that the greatness of Your grace toward us makes our sins all the more guilty before You. Your justice is sure; it will not be turned back. And Your justice is great; it burns like fire. But like Israel in the time of Amos, we have been lulled to sleep by the comfort of our wealth and power, as if it were safe for us to provoke You to wrath continually. 

Thank You for arresting us by Your Word before You, rather than by the breaking into our lives of a display of Your wrath. Forgive us, and make us tender of conscience, so that as those who have been shown so much grace, we would not willfully sin against that grace. And give us more grace until You bring us at last to be sinless altogether like Your Son, Who is already our righteousness before You, and in Whose Name we ask all of this, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP29 “You Sons of the Gods” or TPH141 “O LORD, to You I Call”

Wisdom's Loud, Clear Call [Family Worship lesson in Proverbs 8:1–3]

Pastor teaches his family a selection from “the Proverb of the day.” In these three verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that wisdom’s loud, clear call means that we should be thankful to God for it, and humbled that we don’t heed it more.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

Lord of the Mouth, Eyes, and Heart [2024.10.06 Evening Sermon in Numbers 22:13–35]

Our most basic faculties depend upon the Lord, Who sees and judges our hearts in all that we do.

(click here to DOWNLOAD video/mp3/pdf files of this sermon)

Jesus the LORD of Rest [2024.10.06 Morning Sermon in Matthew 12:1–8]

The Sabbath has always been about finding rest with Jesus and in Jesus, because Jesus is YHWH, Who draws us near to Himself and conforms us to Himself.

(click here to DOWNLOAD video/mp3/pdf files of this sermon)