day no. 17,327: that blessed arrangement

“Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly… both partners might have found more suitable mates. But the real soul-mate is the one you are actually married to.” — J.R.R. Tolkien, in a letter to his son

There is no such thing as the one. There are better matches than others, but at the end of the day, there is the one you chose and your commitment to your choice.

"First a man must choose his love, and then he must love his choice" — Henry Smith

If you choose a spouse, you also choose to stop looking for another. Once you have said, "I do," and she has said, "I do too," you have promised to stop considering other options. With respect to all other eligible prospects, you are saying, "I don't." Every "yes" is a "no." To say, "Yes," to this way is to say, "No," to that way. To say, "Yes," to this person is to say, "No," to that person.

"Many a man has been lucky in marrying the woman he loves. But he is luckiest in loving the woman he marries." — G.K. Chesterton

Your soul-mate is the one you are married to. No better match can come along after the fact. Once the fact of the marriage exists, there is no better option than the one you call your spouse.

day no. 17,326: stupid people

Jeremiah 10:14

Every person is stupid.

Stupid is as stupid does.

Proverbs 12:1

Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, 

But he who hates correction is stupid.

Stupid is rejecting correction. Stupid is knowing what to do and refusing to do it. Stupid is not being ignorant. Stupid is being arrogant.

So, stupid is as stupid does, but stupid also is what stupid doesn't, which is to say that not repenting is stupid.

day no. 17,325: night mares and day stallions

“The center of every man's existence is a dream. Death, disease, insanity, are merely material accidents, like a toothache or a twisted ankle. That these brutal forces always besiege and often capture the citadel does not prove that they are the citadel.” ― G.K. Chesterton

Pain and suffering are a part of life, but they are not life itself. They cannot be easily ignored, but they should not be readily indulged. Sin seems indomitable, but it only seems that way. Death seems inevitable, but it only seems that way. When you have a toothache, it is all you can think about, but life goes on. You may not sleep or eat as well as you once did, but your life is not a living toothache, even if it feels like it. When your ankle is sprained, it dominates your life for a time. It changes the way you walk, but it does not change the fact that you still have places you have to walk to. Nightmares seem inescapable until you wake up. Good dreams do not go away with the morning. They dominate the waking hours as much as they do the night.

day no. 17,324: women in the workplace

“Most of the Feminists would probably agree with me that womanhood is under shameful tyranny in the shops and mills. But I want to destroy the tyranny. They want to destroy womanhood. That is the only difference.” — G.K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong with the World

Womanhood in the workplace is tyrannical because women in the workplace is a tyranny. It is not a matter of women being allowed into the workforce as much as it is women being forced into the workforce by abdicating fathers and abandoning husbands. Women were marched into the workplace long before they marched to secure a place there. 

So, like Chesterton, I agree. Women in the workplace is less than ideal.

"Modern women defend their office with all the fierceness of domesticity. They fight for desk and typewriter as for hearth and home, and develop a sort of wolfish wifehood on behalf of the invisible head of the firm. That is why they do office work so well; and that is why they ought not to do it." — G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong With The World

Feminists want to turn women into men. They want the standards of men applied to women and the rewards of masculinity available to feminists. I, like Chesterton, want that tyranny toppled. No one should be held to someone else's standard. Each servant should answer to his or her master and not for his or her fellow servants.

Romans 14:4

Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

So, a woman should not be held to a man's standard in the workplace and a man should not be held to a woman's standard in the classroom. But both should answer to God and strive to live according to His standards for them respective to their posts.

“The woman does not work because the man tells her to work and she obeys. On the contrary, the woman works because she has told the man to work and he hasn’t obeyed.” — G.K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong with the World

When men fail to work, women must fill the void. When men are willing to let others starve, others either need to get to work or starve.

“What is called matriarchy is simply moral anarchy, in which the mother alone remains fixed because all the fathers are fugitive and irresponsible.” — G.K. Chesterton

Women in the workplace would be necessary if husbands went home to their wives and fathers went home to their children. Men must go to work, but they also must come home when they are done. When the men abandon their posts, it is only natural that the the women will unnaturally abandon theirs.

day no. 17,323: doctrine and desire

Psalm 37:4

Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

The pharisaical separate doctrine from desire. They put their hope in right living while indulging in wrong loving. They assume that the right answers excuse the wrong desires. They feel free to go on wanting wrong things because they continue to understand the right ones.

Mark 10:9

What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Doctrine and desire go hand in hand. You must love what is true, good, and beautiful and you must do that which is right, good, and helpful. You cannot excuse bad actions by good beliefs and good actions cannot grow on the tree of bad belief.

day no. 17,322: throwing shade at the shade

“The only liberation from accusation is to accuse the spirit of accusation. This is the only thing that can bedevil the devil.” — Douglas Wilson, All the Condemnation

If the condemner does not stand condemned, our condemnation is sure. 

Unless the accuser is accused, the accusations against us have no answer. 

If Christ does not become a curse for us, we are cursed.

The best way to rob the robber is to rob him of his crowbar. 

1 John 1:8-10

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

If we drag our sins out into the light, the accuser loses his power. Accusation grows only in the dark. If we try to pretend we are perfect, we fertilize the weeds of the wicked one, but when we pull them up by the roots in broad daylight, we are free.

Throw shade at the shade and live in the light.

day no. 17,321: when your wife has completed her forty years of testing

Happy 40th Birthday, Paige!!!

I have now known you over half of your life. I've had a front row seat to the last twenty years of your life. In many ways, you are still the same person I met in the Cornerstone Church parking lot over 20  years ago and in many others ways you are a different person. All the things I liked best about you back then are still alive and kicking and a whole bunch of new things I now like about you have come to life since that day. It is crazy to think that I was introduced to you as a teenager, married you in your twenties, raised children with you in your thirties, and are now getting ready to begin launching children out into the world with you in your forties. I've seen you in four separate decades of your life. You are my favorite show. I love all the old episodes and I look forward to the new ones that come out each day. I like being subscribed to you. 

I am proud of you. You get so much done on a daily basis. A normal day for you includes meal prep, laundry, and cleaning up after twelve people. Most days you are also teaching kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school, and college. I like knowing that my children are being raised and taught by you. You are so smart and so good at asking good questions and counseling people through things. You are a teacher, a counselor, a friend, a mentor, and a coach to our kids. One of my favorite things is hearing you teach our kids through the walls as I work from our bedroom. I love knowing that they have access to you and that when they have questions and concerns that you are the one they ask. It is like having a living, breathing, God-fearing search engine in my living room that my kids get to use. What a blessing.

I like that my friends know that you are my wife. You truly are a crown and you bring me honor in the way you conduct yourself. You are beautiful and smart and funny. You ask good questions and provide good answers. You make me look good by how good you look in wisdom, stature, and favor with others. Thank you!

You are a good wife and a good mom. You take care of our home and you take care of us. You always have the things we need in stock and you always have something ready to make for us when we need it. You make our home beautiful and functional. We get things done and we get to enjoy the view as we do them. You wash our laundry and fold it. You clean our walls and sanitize our surfaces. You treat our wounds and care for our aches and pains. We have what we need and more because you take care to stock them up for us. You look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of eleven other people.

I will say it again, I am proud of you. You are doing a really good job. I am honored to be your husband and grateful that you are my kids mom. I love you and I like you and I always will.

Happy Birthday, Paige!

To mom!

day no. 17,320: american milk and honey

“Jesus is either the Messiah promised in the Old Testament, or He is not. There is no real way to split the difference on such a question. If the claim is false, then Christians are guilty of perpetuating the most preposterous fraud ever. If the claim is true, then pious Jews studying the Old Testament are like Shakespeare scholars who have devoted their lives to the study of Hamlet, but who have failed to recognize the prince of Denmark. As just mentioned, it is not possible to have Jesus be the Messiah ‘for the Christians' and not the Messiah ‘for the Jews.’ That might seem like a mild form of relativism, but relativism always metastasizes.” — Douglas Wilson, American Milk and Honey

Either Christians understand the Old Testament better than the Jews or they don't. If Jesus is the Christ, then they understand the prophets better than the Jews. But if Jesus is not the Christ, then the Christians have utterly confused and possibly even corrupted the teachings of the Old Testament.

“After the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, all they had left were their erroneous traditions. This is why modern Judaism is best considered a heresy of the Old Testament faith, and not a representation of it. To be a Christian is to maintain that the fulfillment of the Old Testament is in the Christ of the New Testament, and not in rabbinic Judaism.” — Douglas Wilson, American Milk and Honey

Modern Judaism is a Christian heresy. Since Jesus is the Christ, the entire Bible is Christian, thus making modern Jews heretics and apostates.

“The traditions that Jesus so violently rejected were the traditions of the first half of the Talmudic stream. Indeed, the Talmudic traditions of the elders were the reason why Jerusalem was judged so severely.” — Douglas Wilson, American Milk and Honey

Jesus rejected Talmudic Judaism. He confronted it and was killed by it. He rose from the dead to overcome it and came back in 70 AD to put an end to it. Jesus judged Jerusalem for its sins, the primary one being its rejection of Him and secondarily being its rejection of the prophesies concerning Him.

“So according to Christ, the rabbis had been supplanting the teaching of the Word of God for the sake of their traditions, and they had been doing this for centuries [Mark 7:6-13]. To be clear, what Jesus is talking about here is a gradually forming Talmud.” — Douglas Wilson, American Milk and Honey

The perverting of God's Word had been ongoing for sometime, but it did not fill up the measure of its sins until it met Jesus and rejected Him. Not only that, but it plotted against him and jury rigged a case against Him in order to snuff Him out. It did not merely reject Him for their own purposes, but it tried to ensure His wholesale rejection by having Him killed.

“Many Christians, particularly some in the dispensational tradition, regard our differences with the Jews as extreme denominational differences, but still somehow within the pale. But modern Judaism is not the religion of the Old Testament. It is something else entirely. It is not the biblical faith with Jesus left out.” — Douglas Wilson, American Milk and Honey

Judaism is not just the Old Testament faith marching past Christ until our present day. The Old Testament faith culminated in the coming of Christ. Adam was a Christian. Abraham was a Christian. Moses was a Christian. David was a Christian. They looked forward to His day.  There was no way to hold the Old Testament faith that did not involve looking ahead to the Messiah. You cannot reject the Messiah and say that you are still in the Old Testament faith. To reject Jesus is to admit that you were never part of the Old Testament faith. Whatever you believed and continue to believe at that point, based on your rejection of Him, is apostate, heretical, and antichrist in its inception. Any form of Old Testament religion that continued after the ascension of Christ was antichrist by nature. It was based on a rejection of Him. That was the foundation of the faith. The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD removed any attempt to pretend differently. The old system came to an end. The only way to perpetuate something beyond that was to hold to a heretical version of it you already had for such a time as this.

“The New Testament warning, delivered to the Gentiles, is [to] not become like your persecutors. Do not turn into your adversary. If you turn into what you hate, it indicates you only thought you hated their sleek arrogance of power. You didn’t hate it—you envied it.” — Douglas Wilson, American Milk and Honey

Christianity hates Judaism the way it hates Islam. Both are Christian heresies and both should be met with fierce opposition. But we do not hate the Jews the way the Jews hated Jesus. We do not hate the Muslims the way they hate us. We hate Allah because we hate evil. We hate Judaism because we hate evil. But we love our enemies. We love them well by opposing them well. And it goes without saying that supporting their efforts is not opposing them well because it is not opposing them at all.

day no. 17,319: apostasy and liberty

"Religious liberty was a development that grew up out of the Protestant West. It is our baby. We invented it. So people shouldn’t talk as though a decided Protestant culture is the enemy of such liberty . . . it is the historic foundation for it. So a Protestant approach to religious liberty will preserve the maximum amount of religious liberty, including for Catholics, while an absolutist and blind embrace of the idol 'religious liberty' will destroy religious liberty. We must have fences; we must have form and freedom together. Christ can provide that, while the Void provides nothing." — Douglas Wilson, Virgin Mary Parades in a Free Republic

We live in a time where people utilize their freedom of speech to deride the thing that gave them that freedom. That is permissible, but it is foolish. They should be allowed to be stupid, but their stupidity should not go unchallenged. You can make an idol out of the second commandment just as you can make one out of the first amendment. There is a way to use a regulation to cause irregularities. There is a way to use freedom to restrict freedom. 

Freedom of conscience and freedom of speech are not secular values. Time and chance acting on matter do not produce "diversity is our strength." Only apostasy can create such a thing. The secular West is merely the apostate West. It is like the prodigal son spending all its inheritance on worthless things. It has money in the bank because of where and when it was born, but it can only waste its inheritance on loose living. It cannot build any capital that way. It will have nothing to pass along, even the freedom of speech and conscience that it has enjoyed will be taken from its children if it does not come to it senses in the midst of the pig slop.

Unless the West returns to Christ, it will starve to death.

John 6:35

And Jesus said unto them, "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”

day no. 17,318: wickedness and weakness

"A civilization is not destroyed by wicked men; it is destroyed by weak men who cannot defend what is good.” — G. K. Chesterton

Civilizations undefended lead to barbarism unintended. 

Weakness is worse than wickedness. Good men who are not good at being men are no better than wicked men. Wickedness, for all its faults, never skips leg day. It is always raring to go and it keeps its eye on the prize. Goodness, for all it virtues, sometimes gets soft. It prefers peace to war and so it sometimes forgets that it is in war. Wickedness never forgets.

“Every high civilization decays by forgetting obvious things.” — G.K. Chesterton

Society's are smashed from without because they have gone soft from within. They end up with rosters rounded out by round men who cannot rise up to defend their people. Civilization, if it is not in shape, will be overcome by barbarism.

“If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.” — Thomas Sowell

If civilization cannot or will not use force, it will be conquered by that which will. Barbarism is brutalitarian. It believes that might makes right and if the right have no might to debate with, the battle will soon be over. The good, the true, and the beautiful can make a better case for their way of life being better, but if they cannot meet the force of the bad, the false, and the ugly, their force will overrun civiilization.

In short, a civilization can only be defeated by the inferiority of chaos by forfeiting its strengths. If it adopts a "diversity is our strength" mentality, they deserve the whooping they're about to get.

day no. 17,317: a charitable esteem of our neighbors (exhortation outline)

Christ Church Leavenworth

WLC 144: A Charitable Esteem of Our Neighbors

March 22, 2026

A Charitable Esteem of Our Neighbors

INTRODUCTION

This morning we are continuing our study of Q144 of the WLC which asks, “What are the duties required in the ninth commandment?” The ninth commandment, as you recall, is “You shall not bear false witness” and the duties associated with it, according to the answer provided by the Westminster divines, are as follows: “the preserving and promoting of truth between man and man, and the good name of our neighbour, as well as our own; appearing and standing for the truth; and from the heart, sincerely, freely, clearly, and fully, speaking the truth, and only the truth, in matters of judgment and justice, and in all other things whatsoever; a charitable esteem of our neighbours; loving, desiring, and rejoicing in their good name; sorrowing for, and covering of their infirmities; freely acknowledging of their gifts and graces, defending their innocency; a ready receiving of a good report, and unwillingness to admit of an evil report, concerning them; discouraging tale-bearers, flatterers, and slanderers; love and care of our own good name, and defending it when need requireth; keeping of lawful promises; and studying and practicing of whatsoever things are true, honest, lovely, and of good report.”

The phrase on which we will be focusing this morning is, “a charitable esteem of our neighbours” and the text we will be using to frame our discussion is Ephesians 4:29, these are the words of God: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”

There are two ways to love our neighbor with our words. One is to not say hurtful things about them or to them. The other is to say encouraging things about them or to them. One of the most discouraging things you can do to your neighbor is to speak ill of them to others in their presence. Conversely, one of the most uplifting things you can do is to praise them to others in their presence.

So, fathers, make sure you are regularly praising your children. Look for things to reward with kind words. Do not allow yourself to become the stereotype the Freudians say that you are. God the Father is not cold or distant, and you should not be either. This is, however, a besetting sin of fathers, as the Bible points out. In Ephesians 6:4, it says this: "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord,” and in Colossians 3:21 it says this: “Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.” In both cases, you end up with an angry, discouraged child. Father hunger is the result of too many critical words and not enough encouragement. So, look for ways to charitably esteem your kids. Do not raise them in doubt. Believe the best about them. Raise them in faith by showing them how to have some. Do not camp on the most difficult parts of their character. If you are tempted to think of your children in terms of their cost, do better PR work for them in your own soul. Do not let your heart run a smear campaign on them. Block those messages.

We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. And whose sins do we know better than our own? Yet we still love ourselves and that is because love covers a multitude of sins. Let us then do for others what we’re already doing for ourselves. We should think as well of our neighbors as we can. Granted, some of them make this harder for us than others, but we aren’t talking about their duty to be as lovable and respectable as they can this morning, we are talking about your duty to give them as much love and respect as you can.

We should do our best to make a case for our neighbor because building a case against them in our hearts is a sin. In fact, it is satanic. Satan is “the accuser of the brothers” according to Revelation 12:10. He does not carry water for anyone. He spends his time looking for things to be upset about, and as a result, he is always upset. And if we are not careful, we can fall into those same satanic trap. When we envy others, we are slow to see their merits. Why did they get that? They don’t deserve it. When we are bitter towards others, we are eager to entertain accusations about them. Ugh, that sounds like something he would do. We often convict our neighbors of wrongdoing in the courtrooms of our hearts without giving them a fair trial. We accept speculation as testimony, we allow hearsay to be submitted into evidence, and we don’t allow them to defend themselves. We don’t make a case for them. But that is not how God deals with us. 

Psalm 103:13-14: “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” Remember your neighbor’s frame. He gets scared, just like you. He gets stressed out, just like you. He fails to plan sometimes, just like you. He says things he shouldn’t, just like you. He forgets to say things he should, just like you. He even forgets to use his blinker sometimes, just like you have. If you need any help being charitable with your neighbor, look no further than the charitable esteem you give to the neighbor you know the best: the one that looks back at you in the mirror each morning. And then remember how much charity our Father in Heaven extends to that guy. Who are we that God is mindful of us? How have we captured His attention and even gained His affection? He extends a charitable esteem to us. That’s how. He loves the unlovely. He is kind to the unkind. He remembers that we are dust, but He doesn’t treat us like dirt. He knows that we are beneath Him, and so He bends down to be with us. And that is how we must treat our neighbors. Remember their frame and then frame them in the best light possible.

CALL TO CONFESSION

Well, since we are better at looking to our own interests than we are at looking to the interests of others and since we are better at giving ourselves the benefit of the doubt than we are at giving that benefit to others, we are reminded of our need to regularly confess our sins, whether they be related to this duty or to others. So, if you are able, please kneel with me and confess your sins, first privately, and then corporately using the prayer found in your bulletin.

CORPORATE CONFESSION

Almighty and merciful Father, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We justly deserve Your present and eternal punishment. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us. Renew us and lead us by Your Holy Spirit so that we may delight in Your will and walk in Your ways to the glory of Your holy name. Amen.

DECLARATION OF PARDON

Arise and hear the Good News! The assurance of pardon today comes from Galatians 2:16 “We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.” We are not loved because we were lovely, we are becoming more and more lovely because God has loved us. He has not treated us as our sins have deserved. He has been charitable in His esteem for us. While we were yet sinners, He died for us and while we were still His enemies, He looked for ways to be friendly. O, what a friend we have in Jesus, for in Him our sins are forgiven… THANKS BE TO GOD!

Now let us ascend to the presence of God in all worship and praise.

day no. 17,316: realignment

“The spirit in us veers toward envy, like the front end of a car that needs to be aligned.” — Douglas Wilson, All the Condemnation

We are bent. 

We, by default, lean into sin and away from God. We are like a car with misaligned tires. We can drive straight when our steering wheels are being held firmly, but the second Jesus lets go of the wheel, we are right back to swerving. We are prone to wander. 

The grace of God is Him grabbing the wheel. Grace upon grace is Him driving us to His Word to be realigned. His Word does the alignment and His Son pays the bill. His Spirit takes the wheel and gets us back onto the road. 

We cannot drive straight without Him at the wheel and we cannot keep our wheels aligned without His ongoing maintenance. The world is full of pot holes and curb checks, but God keeps us on the straight and narrow.

day no. 17,315: to accept warriorettes is to accept defeat

"Battles are ugly when women fight.” — C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia, book 1: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe

Battles are never pretty, but they are never uglier as when they involve women on the battle front. Women were made to help men by holding down the fort, not by having their six. 

In short, women in warfare are ugly.

"When a woman puts up her fists to a man she is putting herself in the only posture in which he is not afraid of her. He can be afraid of her speech and still more of her silence; but force reminds him of a rusted but very real weapon of which he has grown ashamed." — G.K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men

There are few things more embarrassing than beating a girl. If you win, you lose and if you lose, you lose.

“Any nation that defends herself with women in combat is not worth defending.” — Douglas Wilson, A Christian View of War

Any nation that sends its women off to war has already lost the war. Even if they win, they lose. Their behavior is indefensible even if their borders still are.

“A nation that sends its women to fight its wars is not worth defending.” — Pat Buchanan

Allowing women to fight in your place is embarrassing enough, but forcing them to fight is worse. Conscripting anyone is a sin, but conscripting women is a double sin. No woman should be fighting on the front lines and no woman should want to. And no man should force a woman to fight who doesn't want to. The man that would do that should be ashamed. He is worse than an unbeliever.You should not defend the indefensible. It is unconscionable to send women and children to die in order to save the men.

Jeremiah 51:30

The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken.

If you win the men, you win the war.  But if you send your women our into harm's way, your homes are already forfeit. If you've lost the men, you've lost the war and someone else's men are soon to be your masters. If your men are content to send men to war, you don't have men anymore. Your men have become women. 

To accept warriorettes is to accept defeat.

day no. 17,314: majority rule and mob rule

“You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.” – G.K. Chesterton, The Wind and the Trees from Tremendous Trifles

You cannot have mob rule without majority rule. You cannot have a revolution without mass rebellion. The voice of the people is not the voice of God. There is nothing inherently binding about the majority opinion. The minority may suffer at the hands of the majority for not being on board with the popular opinion, but that is merely might making right. That does not make might good or true or beautiful. In order to have that, there must be a standard that reigns over the majority and the minority. There can be more or less popular ways to try to achieve an agreed upon standard, but without a standard that rules over them both, you will have have mob where you have a majority.

“I am a [proponent of democracy] because I believe in the Fall of Man. I think most people are democrats for the opposite reason. A great deal of democratic enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good that every one deserved a share in the government. The danger of defending democracy on those grounds is that they’re not true… I find that they’re not true without looking further than myself. I don’t deserve a share in governing a hen-roost. Much less a nation. . . . The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows.” — C.S. Lewis, Present Concerns

Democracy does not keep the mob in check, but it does keep one maniac from being without checks and balances. The doctrine of total depravity serves as a standard to govern those in the majority and those in the minority. It governs those who have the votes and those who don't. Democracy, while still less than ideal, when governed by that understanding, can make a go of it as it has in the United States for the last 250 years.

day no. 17,313: the rotten core of Christianity

“A recovery of the old sense of sin is essential to Christianity. Christ takes it for granted that men are bad.” — C.S. Lewis, The Problem if Pain

Original sin is not an optional doctrine. Christianity presupposes sin and sinners. Christ came to save sinners. He knew who He was dealing with before He came to the world and He knew for whom He was dying while He hung on the cross.

John 2:24-25

But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.

More than anyone else, Jesus knew what was in a man. While Jesus never knew what it was like to have sin inside Him, He knew what was on the inside of everyone else. Men may know their sins, but they know them only in part. They do not see the depths of their own depravity. The presence of some kinds of sins keep you from seeing others at all or from seeing some as badly as they are.  But Christ did not have any sin of His own, so He could see our imperfections perfectly. He saw His fellow man the same way the Holy Spirit did.

Romans 3:10-12

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; 

there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

A good man knows that he is bad. A bad man thinks that he is good. A good man understands the depth of his badness in trying and failing to be good. The bad man misunderstands what he imagines to be his goodness because it goes untested. It is good enough for him, which is why is wicked before God.

Jesus did not come to die for people who were good enough. He did not come to be killed for people who just needed a pep talk. He took on flesh in order to be put to death for people who deserve to die. He knew what was in a man and yet He treated men better than anyone else. He presupposed their evil and healed their diseases. He knew their depravity and sunk down to Hades for them.

This is a core belief of Christianity. It is a rotten core, but it is essential. Remove it and you have a different religion entirely. 

day no. 17,312: God is perfect, not a perfectionist

“The devil is a moralist. The devil is self-righteous. The devil is an angel of light. The name Lucifer means light-bearer. Who could be against that? The devil is censorious. The devil disapproves of us and likes it when we disapprove of one another. The devil is a Pharisee. The devil is the accuser of the brethren, accusing them day and night before the throne (Rev. 12:10). And this means we should be far more concerned than we usually are about the danger of becoming like the devil. It is easier than it looks because it is far nobler than it sounds.” — Douglas Wilson, All the Condemnation

God is perfect, not a perfectionist. Perfectionism is a sin. It is satanic. It strains the gnat while swallowing the camel. It is always looking for something to criticize. Perfection, on the other hand, is content. God has more dirt on you than the devil, but he is the one Who provided a sacrifice for your sins. The devil does know the half of it and he have you strung out this minute for any of it.

day no. 17,311: the miracle of Jesus' mood

“Remember the perfections of Jesus, and marvel at this crowning perfection—the fact that He was not totally exasperated all the time, in every conversation He ever had.” — Douglas Wilson, All the Condemnation

Many of us walk around like a storm cloud because of what we assume others are thinking. Jesus knew exactly what other were thinking and yet walked around like a ray of sunshine. He knew better than anyone how bad his neighbors were and yet He treated His neighbors better than most of us who imagine the worst about our neighbors, but fall short of how bad it really is.

John 2:24-25

Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.

Herein lies the miracle of Jesus' mood. He is a master class in self-control. He knew enough to justify hostility, yet He was kind, but He also knew enough about men to resist their flattery. So, in Jesus, we see the marriage of perfect knowledge and perfect conduct. He knew better than anyone what men really deserved and He more than anyone gave them more than they deserved.

John 1:16

Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.

Knowing that men would kill Him, He lived for them. 

Knowing that men would live in Him, He died for them.

day no. 17,310: a man with God is always in the majority (sermon outline)

Christ Church Leavenworth

Psalm 9

March 15, 2026

…

OT READING: 2 Kings 6:8-19

NT READING: 1 John 4:1-6

A Man with God is Always in the Majority

Our text this morning is Psalm 9, these are the words of God: To the choirmaster: according to Muth-labben. A Psalm of David. I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before your presence. For you have maintained my just cause; you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment. You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish; you have blotted out their name forever and ever. The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins; their cities you rooted out; the very memory of them has perished. But the Lord sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness. The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. Sing praises to the Lord, who sits enthroned in Zion! Tell among the peoples his deeds! For he who avenges blood is mindful of them; he does not forget the cry of the afflicted. Be gracious to me, O Lord! See my affliction from those who hate me, O you who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation. The nations have sunk in the pit that they made; in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught. The Lord has made himself known; he has executed judgment; the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion. Selah The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations that forget God. For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever. Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail; let the nations be judged before you! Put them in fear, O Lord! Let the nations know that they are but men! Selah

The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of our God stands forever.

PRAYER

Our Father and our God, we come before You this morning through Jesus Christ, our Lord, and in the Holy Spirit. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear Your Word this morning and let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight through Jesus Christ, in whose Name we pray, Amen.

INTRODUCTION

Our study of the first decade of psalms has brought us to track #9. And here David does something a little different. There are two ways to approach a subject. The typical way is to build your case by slowly working your way up to a conclusion. People can disagree with where you end up, but they at least can see how you go there. The risk you run in this approach, however, is fatigue. Your audience might give up on you before you get to where you’re wanting to take them. Think of all those “tl;dr” posts you’ve had shared with you. As Spurgeon once said, “If a man cannot say what he has to say in 45 minutes, when will he say it?” 

This is where the other approach can be helpful. In this approach, the conclusion is stated right up front before circling back to show your work. The benefit of this approach is that everyone knows exactly where you’re headed before you get going. The risk you run with this approach, however, is that you lose some people right out of the gate. If they disagree too strongly with your opening statement, they might skip the rest of your lecture. 

In today’s text, David employs this second, less conventional method: he begins with the application. He wants everyone to know, up front, where this is headed. Too many get bogged down in the details and never get around to applying what they know. Not David. He does not want to delay his resolve, so he leads with it and then he encourages us to do the same by making his case. One of the additional points made by presenting it in this manner, is that doing God’s Word must not be put off or made to be optional. It is essential and time sensitive. In other words, we must obey today. Right now. We must know Who we are dealing with, for sure, but then we must surely go on to deal with Him.

It is one thing to know that God is merciful and another thing to ask God for mercy. It is one thing to believe that He can forgive sin and another thing to kneel before Him and ask Him to forgive yours. It is one thing to know that He is in control and another thing to hand over control of your life to Him. Do not miss the forest for the trees. Which is more important? Knowing the standard or keeping it? But keeping it is so much harder… and that is why David asks God for more grace. More grace? Don’t be greedy; be content with the grace you got, right? Wrong! We need to be greedy for grace. It is not a lack of faith to ask for more grace. It is, however, if you stop asking for it. We never outgrow our need for grace. We cannot mature beyond our need for more. So, with that said, let’s turn to our text:

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

:1-2 “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.” Four times in two verses David declares, “I will.” He will give thanks to God, he will remember His grace, he will be glad, and he will worship God. He is committed to these things and he is saying it out loud for all to hear. “I will do these things.” He is inviting accountability. When you stand before others and say that you are going to do something, you are asking them to follow up with you if you don’t. If you say, “I do” in front of all your friends and family, you are inviting them to hunt you down and demand an explanation if you suddenly start saying, “I don’t,” or “I’m not so sure anymore.” And that is because “I will” is a promise.

The difficulty, however, is that in the moment, you really do feel like you will, but later on there comes a point where you really don’t. The question at that moment is whether your previous “I will” will determine what comes next or whether your current “I want” will. How much sway do yesterday’s “I will’s” have on today?  A good reputation is the reward for those who convert their “I will’s” into “I did’s.” Anyone can say that they’re going to do something, but only those with integrity actually do it. Consider Proverbs 20:6-7, “Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?” More men sign up for the test than pass it. Steadfastness is easier to promise than it is to deliver. A faithful man does not just do the easy work of making the promise, he does the hard work of keeping it. He takes responsibility for his words and looks not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of those who are depending on him to keep his word.

Chesterton said it this way, “The man who makes a vow makes an appointment with himself at some distant time or place. The danger of it is that himself should not keep the appointment.” Nothing is easier to make than a promise and few things are harder to keep. Consider Ecclesiastes 5:5 “It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.” A vow sounds good in anyone’s mouth. But it is better not to cut a covenant than it is to be cut up for breaking one. So, why not avoid them altogether? Promises are like keys, they unlock doors. We take vows in marriage and gain access to a spouse. We sign contracts and gain more business. We take an oath of office and gain its responsibilities. Liars want the perks of a promise without the work of keeping it. As a Christian, you must resist this temptation. Making vows may make others think better of you at first, but breaking them will make them think less of you in the end.

Psalm 15:4 reminds us that the one who walks with God, “swears to his own hurt and does not change.” So, does your “I will” have the power to hold you in place when your “I feel” is trying to pull you away? In order to be a faithful man, you have to be able to obey even when you don’t feel like it. Listen to this insight from Oswald Chambers, "If we only did what we felt inclined to do, some of us would do nothing for ever and ever. The proof that we are rightly related to God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.” Anyone can obey when they feel like it. But what about when you don’t? Can you make yourself do things when you don’t feel like because you said that you would? We must “be ready in season and out of season.” (2 Tim 4:2) – that is, when we feel like it… and when we don’t.

And that is why David brings up the idea of a whole-hearted effort. You cannot follow God with half of your heart. It is not a duplex. It cannot serve two masters. It will either love the one and hate the other, or it will hate the one and love the other. Your heart doesn’t do fractions. Hear this admonition from Jeremiah 48:10 “Cursed is he who does the work of the LORD with slackness.” Note that the curse is on the slackness. You would think that doing the work of the Lord would be blessed, but not necessarily so. A lame effort in the right direction is still a sin. Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord.” God commands us to do things with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all of our might. He has to tell us to do this because we were going to try to do them with as little of our heart, soul, and might as we could get away with. As C.S. Lewis once observed, “We are half-hearted creatures.”

:3-4 “When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before your presence. For you have maintained my just cause; you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.” Our enemies do not run away because they’re scared of us, they run away because they see our Father looming behind us. Consider James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” When you resist the devil, he doesn’t flee because you stood your ground, he flees because we called for our Dad. Calling upon the Father is how you resist the devil. Submitting to Him is how you conquer the world, the flesh, and the devil. When you call upon the Lord, the demons do not stick around for Him to show up. Sin cannot stand in the presence of God. It struts around and talks a big game, but the second you call upon Christ, it falls on its face before it cowers away.

Listen to the word of the Lord from Leviticus 26 “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword…But if you will not listen to me, I will send faintness into your hearts. The sound of a driven leaf shall put you to flight, and you shall flee as one flees from the sword, and you shall fall when none pursues. You shall stumble over one another, and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies.”

Our enemies are not scared of us, but they are scared of what’s behind us. If we get arrogant and imagine ourselves as vigilante enforcers of the good, the true, and the beautiful, we will be beaten back by the bad, the false, and the ugly. We are not Batman. We are just kids in Batman costumes. The reason our enemies flee before us is because when we put on Christ, they see the signal in the air and they know who’s coming to help. As John Knox once observed, “A man with God is always in the majority.” The only reason any one of us can take out twenty of them is because of the One who has our back.

In our OT reading, Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, was scared. He looked up and saw an army, and then he looked around and saw only Elisha. But when he saw Elisha, he could see that he was not scared. Elisha looked back at him and said, “‘Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Whoever has God on their side has their enemy surrounded. The number of boots on the ground does not always win wars, but God always does.

Our NT reading from 1 John 4 reinforces this point: “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” When the world surrounds you, look to Christ within. The One who lives within you holds the entire world in His hands. Even if He is all you have, you still have superior firepower. One of His Words outguns all the chatter in the world. As Luther once noted, “Though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God has willed His truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him; his rage we can endure, for lo! his doom is sure; one little word shall fell him.” The armor of God is bulletproof, but the gates of Hell cannot even stop a rock tossed by a kid. Just ask David.

:5-6 “You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish; you have blotted out their name forever and ever. The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins; their cities you rooted out; the very memory of them has perished.” God is greater than the evil in this world. He will rebuke the nations and make the wicked perish. He will blot out their names forever and ever. Their greatness will fare no better than the legacy of Ozymandias. Who’s Ozymandias you might ask? Exactly. That’s the point. And if you do know who Ozymandias is, my point still stands, for what is Ozymandies famous for? Being forgotten. 

Note that our text says that God is going to root them out of their cities. Evil can find some pretty dark corners to hide, but God is going to dig them out. He isn’t going to overlook anything. Heaven will not have a little corner of Hell in it. The gates of Hell will not hold out against the advance of the Kingdom of Christ and all Hell will be tossed out. The darkness will be flooded with light and the world will be flooded with the knowledge of the holiness of God. (Habakkuk 2:14)

Fear not, little flock, it is God’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom and a time is coming when we will all be so caught up in the glory and goodness of God that we won’t even remember the wicked anymore. To that party we will wear our battle scars like medals of honor. The pains of the past won’t be able to reach us there and our old hurts will be healed and hard to remember. Sin does not win. “Ye fearful saints fresh courage take, the clouds ye so much dread, are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head.” Once God is done using the wicked to bless us, He will dispose of them forever.

At this point someone might feel tempted to feel sorry for the wicked. Admittedly, that hypothetical someone probably isn’t here, but they do exist and they are out there. So, just in case they are listening, keep this in mind. This rough treatment of the wicked is not the result of God going too far or losing His temper. He is not like you. He doesn’t sometimes explode with rage and then have to walk it back later with an apology. His justice is measured and precise. It is administered with proportion. He is not overdoing it or getting carried away. He has not been patient all these years only to lose His patience in the end. Again, He is not like you. He doesn’t hold it down until it erupts. He is under control the entire time. So, if you want to feel bad for the wicked, do it now, while you still can, because you won’t later. The justice of God will be accompanied by the cheers of the righteous and the increase of His kingdom will have no end.

:7-8 “But the Lord sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness.” Where is Jesus right now? He is not in a grave rotting away somewhere. He is sitting at the right hand of the Father… on a throne. That is where He is. And what is He doing there? Destroying all His enemies. Many of them He is destroying by making them His friends and the rest He is destroying by exposing them for the frauds that they are. They looked powerful, but they were weaklings. They appeared to be fixed and certain, but they were flashes in the pan. And the worst of it is, they should have known better. 

Hear the Word of the Lord from Acts 17:30-31 “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, (who’s call to repent? ALL people, EVERY where) because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” All people. Everywhere. We live in a world where a man has risen from the dead. Everyone who denies this fact is at war with reality and that is a battle they will certainly lose. These verses from the book of Acts reinforce what Psalm 9 says: Jesus is the Judge. And who is He going to judge? The whole world. And how is He going to judge it? With righteousness. Our text then doubles back and repeats this fact for all those people in the back. Who is He going to judge? The peoples. And how is He going to judge them? With uprightness. Make no mistake about it, judgment day will contain no mistakes. No one will be misjudged. No one will be misjudged. None of the guilty will go free and none of the forgiven will be condemned. That is the end of the world. The rule of Christ established and enforced everywhere without exception: all people, everywhere.

:9-12 “The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. Sing praises to the Lord, who sits enthroned in Zion! Tell among the peoples his deeds! For he who avenges blood is mindful of them; he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.” The Lord is the immovable object and the unstoppable force. No one can move Him and He can move anyone He wants. All who trust in Him will be saved. All who don’t will be destroyed. Hear this Word of God from 1 Corinthians 15:24-26 “Then comes the end, when he (that is Jesus) delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” So, for the time being, Christ sits enthroned ruling and reigning and winning. He will not stand again until the only enemy left to defeat is death. And then death itself will die at the hands of Jesus.

:13-14 “Be gracious to me, O Lord! See my affliction from those who hate me, O you who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation.” Note the juxtaposition: the gates of death and the gates of Zion. These two gates are opposed to each other. There are those who hate God and love sin and there are those who love God and hate sin. Hear the Word of the Lord from Proverbs 8:36

“All who hate me love death.” And then consider this Word from Psalm 97:10,” O you who love the LORD, hate evil!” The gates of Hell are defended by those who defend their sins. But the gates of Zion are defended by those who are defended by God. Hear the Words of Jesus Christ Himself from Matthew 16:18, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” That is why David put his confidence in Christ. And that is why you should too. 

Back to our text, :15-16 The nations have sunk in the pit that they made; in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught. The Lord has made himself known; he has executed judgment; the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion. Selah Stop and dwell on that: God has caught the crafty in their own craftiness. He has outmaneuvered the cunning. He has seen through all their secret cabals. If it had not been for Him, we would have gotten got, but because of Him, we have not. Their trip wires haven’t worked and when they went to double check their traps, they blew up in their faces. If God is for us, who can be against us? Their hidden nets are not hidden from Him. He is the one playing 4D chess, not them. Thanks be to God. God sees what they plot in secret and puts a plot twist in their narrative. The very things in which they trust will turn out to be the things that trip them up. Consider this from Isaiah 36:6 “Behold, you are trusting in a broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it.” It is bad enough that the wicked put their hope in a broken reed, but then they go and lean on it with all their might. If they had not leaned on it, it would not have stabbed them. It did not hurt them until they leaned on it. In other words, trusting in evil will get you killed. So, hear this truth: wickedness cannot pierce your soul if you do not put your trust in it. But all those who do will be impaled by it band the worst part of it will be realizing that they did it to themselves. 

:17-18 “The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations that forget God. For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.” Note the contrast. The wicked, as we observed previously, are going to perish forever. They are going to be forgotten. But not the needy and poor in spirit. Recall the words of Jesus who said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:3) The poor in spirit will not perish forever, even if they do for the moment. The martyrs did not lose their lives, they gained them. 

And remember, the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom is not like a rocket launch. It is not a straight line up with no interruption. No, the kingdom is more like a mountain climb. Sometimes you are sliding down steep cliffs and sometimes you are ascending long slopes, but you are always going up the mountain. The summit is always before you and each step brings you closer to it and further from where you began. Christendom is always going, always growing, always destroying its enemies, and always prevailing over and against the gates of Hell. The hope of the saints will not perish. The goodness of God does not grow mold. The Gospel will not go stale and God will not disappoint. Nations may forget God and suffer for it, but God will not forget them and He will redeem out of them those who have put their hope in Him.

:19-20 “Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail; let the nations be judged before you! Put them in fear, O Lord! Let the nations know that they are but men! Selah” Men will not somehow prevail against God. The wicked will not grow so strong and so secure that even God Himself cannot overcome them. Mankind will not make such a mess of things that even He cannot clean it up. We cannot put ourselves beyond the reach of grace. David prayed that God might put the fear of Him into the nations. He prayed that the nations would be reminded of their mortality and be humbled. The only hope for us as individuals or for our nation, is remembering that we will die. As long as individuals or nations believe that they are special in themselves, they are at odds with God and in danger of losing everything they hold dear. But any man or nation that thanks God for what they have and humbly seeks to serve Him with it, will retain their distinct flavor and offer it as a living sacrifice to their God and King. All the best things of all the nations will be refined by fire and retained in the kingdom of God. Hear this Word from Haggai 2:7 “‘I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts.” Some nations may force God to hold them upside down by their ankles to shake them until all their pockets are empty, but rest assured, all the good stuff will be kept for the saints and will dwell with us forever in the house of God.

In the end, all men, including us, need to be reminded that they are but men. It is easy to imagine that you are omniscient if you have the internet, or omnipotent if you have a weapon, or omnipresent if you have a camera at every intersection or a drone in the air, but even then, you are still just a man. And as Psalm 82:6-7 reminds us, “You are sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die.” And so, the nations need to know that they are but men. That is an extraordinarily simple, yet a profoundly supernatural prayer. People coming to their senses and returning to common sense seems easy enough… until you look around. Common sense is not as common as it used to be and it cannot simply be assumed as a given. In order for men to admit that they have been wrong, they need the grace of God to see that being wrong is even an option. The pride of man boasts in its armor, but the weapons of Heaven have soul-piercing bullets. The prayer of David is that God would do whatever it takes to bring all people everywhere to repentance. Let us be an answer to that prayer by reminding the world that they are but men, and living like we are men of God.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, we confess that we are but men. Without You, we would be so tangled up in our own sins that we would not be able to walk with You. But because of Your great mercy in sending Your Son to save us, we are set free from the cords that bound us. Give us grace today to walk in the works You have prepared beforehand for us to do and by so doing, may the world see our good works and give glory to You, Our Father who art in heaven. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and we offer up the words of the prayer He taught us to pray singing...