Light that Ends in Everlasting Joy and Light that Ends in Utter Darkness (Family Worship lesson in Proverbs 13:9)

Pastor leads his family in a selection from “the Proverb of the day.” In this verse of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that what blessings the righteous have in this life bring joy because they participate in the everlasting and infinite blessedness that they have in Christ, but whatever blessing the wicked have is not even enjoyed well now, though it be the only glimmer they will ever have before going to unimaginable and unending torment.(click audio title within player for a page where you can download mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

The LORD Exalts His Power and Justness over Egypt and His Grace in Moses (Family Worship lesson in Exodus 7:14–25)

What is the LORD showing about Himself in the plague of turning water to blood? Pastor leads his family in today’s “Hopewell @Home” passage. Exodus 7:14–25 prepares us for the first serial reading in morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these twelve verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the LORD was exalting Himself over the idols of Egypt, judging Pharaoh with perfect justness, and displaying the effectiveness of His grace in Moses.(click audio title within player for a page where you can download mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2021.10.13 Hopewell @Home ▫ Exodus 7:14–25

Read Exodus 7:14–25

Questions from the Scripture text: What does Yahweh tell Moses in Exodus 7:14? To whom is Moses to go (Exodus 7:15)? When? Where? What should he take? Whom should he say sent him (Exodus 7:16)? What reason is he to give for letting the people go? Of what are they to accuse/charge him? In whose behalf is he supposed to speak again (Exodus 7:17)? What is He going to teach Pharaoh? How? What will happen to the fish (Exodus 7:18)? And the river? And the Egyptians? What does Yahweh tell Moses to do in Exodus 7:19? What is Aaron to do? Over what four things? What will happen to them? Where else will there be blood? How does Exodus 7:20 at first describe Moses’s and Aaron’s response? What detailed actions and what results? What happened to the fish (Exodus 7:21)? And to the river? And to the Egyptians? And to the land? Who else did similar (Exodus 7:22a)? With what results (verse 22b)? Why (verse 22c)? So how did Pharaoh ultimately respond (Exodus 7:23)? And what did the people have to do (Exodus 7:24)? For how long (Exodus 7:25)?

God is infinitely powerful and perfectly just. He displays that here by doing to Pharaoh and the Egyptians according to what Pharaoh had done in response to the initial demand to let them go to worship Yahweh. Pharaoh had refused to acknowledge Yahweh obediently (cf. Exodus 5:2), and had forced the Hebrews to make bricks without straw (cf. Exodus 5:6), which resulted in a mad scramble to gather stubble wherever they could (cf. Exodus 5:13). Now in our passage, Yahweh reverses this onto Pharaoh’s head, because Pharaoh has refused to hear the demand (Exodus 7:16). So Yahweh forces the Egyptians to make life without water (Exodus 7:19), which results in a mad scramble to gather up whatever however they can (Exodus 7:24). In fact, even the mechanism by which Pharaoh’s heart is hardened in Exodus 7:22 has a symmetry with chapter 5; there, Israelite taskmasters were forced to make things harder on the Israelites (cf. Exodus 5:15). And here, Egyptian magicians take from what little water Aaron hadn’t stretched his hand toward, and in order to confirm Pharaoh in his rebellion, proceed to foul up that good water themselves, denying it to the Egyptians (Exodus 7:22). The symmetry declares not only the power, but the justness of Yahweh’s sign.

God is making Himself known as the only true God. Various ancient texts even beyond the Bible attest that the Nile was viewed not only as the god Hapi, but as the one who gave birth to Egypt and nursed Egypt. By attacking the Nile, Yahweh is immediately humiliating Egypt at its (literal and metaphorical) core. Furthermore the “wood” and “stone” of Exodus 7:19 does not actually indicate buckets and pitchers as our English translation supplies; in Scripture (and in ancient Egypt), the combination of “wood and stone” is most often applied to idol images. According to one Jewish commentator, every morning the Egyptian priests washed the images of their gods; if so, the humiliation of Hapi had turned their ritual purification into humiliation and desecration (exactly the opposite, in this first plague, of when Jesus in His first miracle turns ritual purification into a covenantal substance of joy and blessing, cf. John 2:6–10). Pharaoh had refused to acknowledge Yahweh (Exodus 5:2); now Yahweh is making Himself to be known (Exodus 7:17a).

God is showing us our need of His grace. The language used of Pharaoh’s heart in Exodus 7:14 also attacks Egypt at is core. In Exodus 7:13, “hard” means “tough,” the way we usually think of hardness. The word in Exodus 7:14 literally means “heavy”—probably an allusion to the Egyptian idea that when they died, their heart would be weighed against a mythological feather of truth and righteousness to see if they would go to the Egyptian afterlife or else be condemned and consumed by a devouring monster. This wicked superstition corresponds to a kernel of truth: it is appointed to man to die once and then after that the judgment (cf. Hebrews 9:27). But Pharaoh has no hope before the justice of God; his heart was already full of sin, and now God is giving him over to it and making it even heavier. This statement in Exodus 7:14 is not merely a description but a judgment. Let sinners know that left to themselves, their hearts will only become heavier with sin. If they are to find safety at the judgement, they must have atoning, regenerating, redeeming grace!

Exodus 7:20 is a reminder that Moses and Aaron are receiving that grace. They deserved to be given over to their sin, but instead they “did so, just as Yahweh had commanded.” We continue to hear this refrain, in direct contrast to how Moses had begun in unbelief and resistance. God’s grace had delivered them from the wrath they well deserved, and now God’s power is bent not on destroying them but delivering them from their enemies. Such is true with all whom God saves by undeserved (anti-deserved) grace. Revelation 16:3–4 describes the general wrath of God in images borrowed from this first plague. For all who are brought by grace into belonging to Yahweh and submitting to Him are delivered from His wrath and find that He exercises it not against us but on our behalf.

What oppression do you see that God will surely repay with complete and perfect justice? How does it help you respond rightly to remember that He will respond that way? Who will be made to acknowledge that Yahweh is God, and that Jesus is Yahweh? What will happen to all other “gods”? In what growing obedience in your own life can you see displayed the conquering power of God’s grace?

Sample prayer:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, You are the one, true, and living God. We adore Your infinite power, and the wisdom in which You choose when and how to display it. Truly, Your justice is perfect, and every evil will be exactly answered. Forgive us for when we are hard-hearted toward You, or when we feel that evil is too powerful or allowed to go unanswered. Grant, by Your grace, that we would do just as You have told us, with confidence that You will make Your glory known, which we ask in Jesus’s Name, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP2 “Why Do Gentile Nations Rage?” or TPH385 “The Lord Will Come and Not Be Slow”

Groaning for, Hoping for, Sure of, and Enjoying Glorious Love in the Midst of Suffering (2021.10.12 Family Worship in Romans 8:18–39)

What do cross and trial do for believers? Pastor leads his family in today’s “Hopewell @Home” passage. Romans 8:18–39 prepares us for the beginning part of morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these twenty-two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that present sufferings keep us groaning toward that glory for which God has predestined us in love, and which He is accomplishing in that very love through even the troubles and trials.(click audio title within player for a page where you can download mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2021.10.12 Hopewell @Home ▫ Romans 8:28–39

Read Romans 8:28–39

Questions from the Scripture text: Which things do we know work together for good (Romans 8:28)? To whom do they work together for good? What did God also do to those whom He foreknew (Romans 8:29a)? To what did He predestine them (verse 29b)? For what reason (verse 29c)? What did He do for those whom He predestined (Romans 8:30a)? What did He do for those whom He called (verse 30b)? What did he do for those whom He justified (verse 30c)? Who is for us (Romans 8:31)? Who can (successfully) be against us? What (Whom!) did God not spare (Romans 8:32a)? What did God do with His Son for us? What will God give to us together with Him? What does God do instead of bringing a charge against His elect (Romans 8:33)? What does Jesus do, instead of condemning us (Romans 8:34)? What are some of the things that are not able to separate us from the love of Christ (Romans 8:35, Romans 8:38-39)? What is one of the reasons that such things happen (Romans 8:36)? So, what is going on in the midst of these things (Romans 8:37)?

Next week’s Call to Worship, Prayer for Help, Song of Adoration, and Prayer of Confession all come from Romans 8:28–39, so that we will see that we are singing God’s thoughts after Him with Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me? 

All things must work together for our good. Nothing can separate us from God’s love. These are truths that make hearts swell up with joy and praise.

And we see here what marvelously sure truths they are.

God’s love is sure, because it goes back before time. God “foreknowing” His elect is not some form of divine cheating by sneaking a peek at the end. It’s talking about knowing in terms of a relationship: He loved us before the world began (cf. Ephesians 1:3-6). It was this love, that He simply decided to set upon us, that led to our being predestined. A love that is from eternity cannot be undone by anything that occurs in time.

God’s love is sure, because it is in Christ and for His sake. God loves the glory of His Son, and He has determined that for the Son’s great glory, He would be displayed as the firstborn of many brothers and sisters who have been shaped to look like Him. We’re predestined to bring Christ glory!

God’s love is sure, because His law now demands that it continue. We have been justified with Christ’s righteousness. The One who makes the charges at the judgment is the One who has justified us (Romans 8:33). The One who condemns at the judgment is the One who has taken our condemnation and is continually pleading our case (Romans 8:34).

God’s love is sure, because its most infinite gift has already been given, and it is irrational to think that anything else could possibly be held back (Romans 8:32).

There are many things that come into our lives that threaten to shake our joy in God’s love. But, when we consider them in the light of the teaching in these verses, that threat quickly dissolves.

We realize, instead, that even if we are like sheep being slaughtered, it is for His sake. It is because we are joined to Him in that love from which we can never be separated. It is most certain that this love will prevail with us, and that we will prevail in the trial. Even before the trial ends, we can know already that we are more than conquerors!

Election and predestination are not dry, dusty doctrines for theological fuddy-duddies. They are the foundation of sure, victorious love!

In what current circumstance do you most need to cling to the cross and electing love?

Sample prayer: Our electing, glorious, righteous, and generous God, we praise You for investing the glory of Your Name, and the glory of Your Son, in our salvation. Forgive us for undercutting our own assurance by making our salvation about ourselves. Thank You for so identifying us with Yourself that we may know that even if we are slaughtered, it is for your sake. And grant unto us to see always that inseperable love with which You have loved us in Christ, through Whom we ask it, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP130 “Lord, from the Depths” or TPH509 “Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me?”

God Glorified as Christ's (and Our) Avenger and Deliverer (2021.10.10 Evening Sermon in 2Samuel 22:47–51)

Enmity is an occasion for God to be glorified in avenging us, and trouble is an occasion for God to be glorified in delivering us. When we love His glory and are sure of it as the outcome, we are freed to trust Him, love our enemies, and rejoice in the midst of suffering.(click audio title within player for a page where you can download mp3/pdf files of this sermon)

God, in Christ, Demonstrating His Love for His Enemies (2021.10.10 Morning Sermon in Luke 23:26–34)

Luke's account of the crucifixion focuses uniquely on the astonishing love of Jesus for His enemies—general, sympathetic love in goodness to all His enemies, and especially specific and saving love to those enemies whom He had elected in everlasting love, and for whom He was being crucified. Amazing love!(click audio title within player for a page where you can download mp3/pdf files of this sermon)

“Of Good Works” part 4, WCF 16.2.1, What Good Works Are (2021.10.10 Sabbath School in James 2:8–24)

In this Sabbath School class, we began the second paragraph of WCF 16, here examining James 2 in order to understand that good works are according to God's commandments and function as the fruit and evidence of living faith.(click audio title within player for a page where you can download mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2021.10.11 Hopewell @Home ▫ Luke 23:26–34

Read Luke 23:26–34

Questions from the Scripture text: What were they doing to Jesus (Luke 23:26a)? Of whom did they lay hold? From where was he coming? What did they do to him? So that he might do what? Who was following Jesus (Luke 23:27a)? Who also, and what were they doing (verse 27b)? To whom does Jesus turn (Luke 23:28)? What does He call them? What does He tell them not to do? What does He tell them to do instead and for whom? What does He say are coming (Luke 23:29)? What will they say in those days? What will people begin saying to what (Luke 23:30)?  What comparison does He make in Luke 23:31? Who else was being led with Him (Luke 23:32)? For what purpose? To where did they come (Luke 23:33)? What did they do there? In what order were they arranged? To Whom did Jesus speak (Luke 23:34a)? What did He ask Him to do? Why? And what were they doing (verse 34b)? 

In Luke’s account of Jesus’s trial, the Holy Spirit sandwiches Pilate’s threefold acquittal of Christ (Luke 23:13-25) in between the Lord Jesus’s perfect entrusting of Himself to God in Luke 23:1-12 and now the perfect love toward others that Christ displays here in Luke 23:26-34.

Jesus selflessly loves His followers. Though the multitude in Luke 23:27a surely includes those who were crying out for Him to be crucified, the evangelist especially highlights for us Simon the Cyrenian (Luke 23:26) and weeping women (Luke 23:27b). Because young Mark is acquainted with his children Alexander and Rufus (cf. Mark 15:21), it seems likely that this Simon was a friend of Christ, following close enough to be abused for his Master’s sake (unlike the other Simon, who needs to repent into his “rock” name by the gracious prayers of his Redeemer). 

It seems that in God’s providence, this substitution was (in part) in order to free Jesus for His interaction with the weeping women. Behold the selfless love of our Lord! Here, He has already been thoroughly abused and is being led to the scene of His murder, and His thoughts are for the women and the children (Luke 23:28-29). Even as He suffers that which must occur for our atonement, He is thinking about the judgment that must fall for what is being done to Him. We have seen this before (cf. Luke 13:34–35; Luke 19:41–44; Luke 21:20–24) .

How marvelous is the love of Christ, even toward His enemies! The peak example of this occurs, of course, in Luke 23:34. Criminals on His right and left (Luke 23:33). Criminals beneath His feet, stealing his garments (Luke 23:34b). Criminals all ‘round, murdering Him. And He prays, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

Yes, there is something here of the general love of God for grace and redemption (cf. Ezekiel 18:23, Ezekiel 18:31–32, 1 Timothy 2:3–4). But, there is something even more wonderful here. For, the Lord Jesus is laying down His life for His sheep, and all of His sheep were once enemies. God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (cf. Romans 5:8). Christ died for His enemies (cf. Romans 5:10) because He had chosen them to be His sheep (cf. John 10:11, John 10:15). 

Here is the great love of Christ. In this passage is a mirror of what we are apart from Him, but also a window into His enemy-loving heart, from which He took as His sheep and laid His life down for us whom He would bring to Himself through faith! And if that’s what He was like toward us, when we were His enemies, what is His heart toward us like now (cf. Romans 5:9–11)? Still, when we sin, He pleads His own atoning blood as He prays, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do”!

What were you like apart from God’s grace? If you’re a believer, why did Christ die for you? If He loved you that much then, what is He doing now for you when you sin?

Sample prayer:  Lord, how amazing is Your love toward Your enemies! Thank you for laying down Your life for us, that we might be both forgiven and made like You. Grant that we would love You Who first loved us, and that like You we would be enabled from the heart to forgive and love our own enemies, which we ask through Your Name, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP32AB “What Blessedness” or TPH431 “And Can It Be That I Should Gain”

2021.10.09 Hopewell @Home ▫ Luke 23:26–34

Read Luke 23:26–34

Questions from the Scripture text: What were they doing to Jesus (Luke 23:26a)? Of whom did they lay hold? From where was he coming? What did they do to him? So that he might do what? Who was following Jesus (Luke 23:27a)? Who also, and what were they doing (verse 27b)? To whom does Jesus turn (Luke 23:28)? What does He call them? What does He tell them not to do? What does He tell them to do instead and for whom? What does He say are coming (Luke 23:29)? What will they say in those days? What will people begin saying to what (Luke 23:30)?  What comparison does He make in Luke 23:31? Who else was being led with Him (Luke 23:32)? For what purpose? To where did they come (Luke 23:33)? What did they do there? In what order were they arranged? To Whom did Jesus speak (Luke 23:34a)? What did He ask Him to do? Why? And what were they doing (verse 34b)?

In Luke’s account of Jesus’s trial, the Holy Spirit sandwiches Pilate’s threefold acquittal of Christ (Luke 23:13–25) in between the Lord Jesus’s perfect entrusting of Himself to God in Luke 23:1–12 and now the perfect love toward others that Christ displays here in Luke 23:26–34.

Jesus selflessly loves His followers. Though the multitude in Luke 23:27a surely includes those who were crying out for Him to be crucified, the evangelist especially highlights for us Simon the Cyrenian (Luke 23:26) and weeping women (Luke 23:27b). Because young Mark is acquainted with his children Alexander and Rufus (cf. Mark 15:21), it seems likely that this Simon was a friend of Christ, following close enough to be abused for his Master’s sake (unlike the other Simon, who needs to repent into his “rock” name by the gracious prayers of his Redeemer). 

It seems that in God’s providence, this substitution was (in part) in order to free Jesus for His interaction with the weeping women. Behold the selfless love of our Lord! Here, He has already been thoroughly abused and is being led to the scene of His murder, and His thoughts are for the women and the children (Luke 23:28-29). Even as He suffers that which must occur for our atonement, He is thinking about the judgment that must fall for what is being done to Him. We have seen this before (cf. Luke 13:34–35; Luke 19:41–44; Luke 21:20–24) .

How marvelous is the love of Christ, even toward His enemies! The peak example of this occurs, of course, in Luke 23:34. Criminals on His right and left (Luke 23:33). Criminals beneath His feet, stealing his garments (Luke 23:34b). Criminals all ‘round, murdering Him. And He prays, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

Yes, there is something here of the general love of God for grace and redemption (cf. Ezekiel 18:23, Ezekiel 18:31–32, 1 Timothy 2:3–4). But, there is something even more wonderful here. For, the Lord Jesus is laying down His life for His sheep, and all of His sheep were once enemies. God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (cf. Romans 5:8). Christ died for His enemies (cf. Romans 5:10) because He had chosen them to be His sheep (cf. John 10:11, John 10:15). 

Here is the great love of Christ. In this passage is a mirror of what we are apart from Him, but also a window into His enemy-loving heart, from which He took as His sheep and laid His life down for us whom He would bring to Himself through faith! And if that’s what He was like toward us, when we were His enemies, what is His heart toward us like now (cf. Romans 5:9–11)? Still, when we sin, He pleads His own atoning blood as He prays, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do”!

What were you like apart from God’s grace? If you’re a believer, why did Christ die for you? If He loved you that much then, what is He doing now for you when you sin?

Sample prayer:  Lord, how amazing is Your love toward Your enemies! Thank you for laying down Your life for us, that we might be both forgiven and made like You. Grant that we would love You Who first loved us, and that like You we would be enabled from the heart to forgive and love our own enemies, which we ask through Your Name, AMEN!

Suggested songs: ARP32AB “What Blessedness” or TPH431 “And Can It Be”