day no. 17,212: WSC 23-24: Christ the Prophet (sermon outline)

Christ Church Leavenworth

WSC 23-24: Christ the Prophet

December 7, 2025

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OT READING: Deuteronomy 18:15-22

NT READING: Acts 3:17-26

Christ the Prophet

READING OF THE TEXT

Our text this morning is Hebrews 1:1-3 these are the words of God:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

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. All of Your promises are Yes and Amen in Jesus Christ alone. Give us eyes to see Him as Your final Word. In His Name I pray, Amen.

INTRODUCTION

This morning we are continuing our Advent series based on WSC questions 22-26 which focus on the incarnation of the Son of God and His fulfillment of the three Biblical offices of prophet, priest, and king, respectively. Last week we looked at Q22 which focused on the miracle of the incarnation and the reminder that the sin is not in the stuff. The Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. Let the stuff rejoice. This week, we move on to Q23-24 which expand on Q22 by focusing on some of the work that Jesus, in the days of His flesh, accomplished. Jesus was not a tourist and He was not here on vacation; He was on a mission. His Father deployed Him with particular orders and some of those involved fulfilling the mediatorial offices of the OT.

Q23 of the WSC clarifies what these are. It asks, “What offices doth Christ execute as our Redeemer? The answer provided is, “Christ, as our Redeemer, executeth the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in His estate of humiliation and exaltation.” So, for the next three weeks at CCL, we will walk through questions 24-26 of the WSC which respectively address each of these offices beginning today with Q24 which asks, “How doth Christ execute the office of a prophet?” The answer to which is: “Christ executeth the office of a prophet, in revealing to us, by His Word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.”

With that in mind, let’s review our sermon text today from Hebrews 1:1-3

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

:1 “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,” A long time ago in a Galilee far, far away, a prophet grew in wisdom, stature, and favor in the house His mother, Mary, and her husband, Joseph. Before that time, many prophets over the course of many years had been sent into the world. Each of them came saying, “Thus saith the Lord,” and each of them was believed by some and rejected by others. All of them eventually passed away, but many of them were martyred. When God called the man, He bid him to come and die. Each of these, in his own way, pointed ahead to the prophet who would one day come from Nazareth. But because men are often impatient or insolent or both, they had a bad habit of rejecting the message by murdering its messengers. In His kindness, however, God always raised up another. That was the pattern.

:2 “but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world.” The people of God had come to expect a prophet here and there, but one day God broke the pattern. Instead of sending another prophet to point ahead, He sent the point of it all – not just A prophet, but THE prophet. This Prophet was not just a man of God, He was the Son of God. He did not just have the words of God in His mouth, He was the very Word of God. He did not just enlighten His audiences, He was the light of the entire world. He was not just a man trying to preserve the world and values of His fathers, He was the Son of God setting His eyes upon the world that He, in the beginning, had created and that He, in the end, was to inherit. This was not business as usual. This was not just another prophet like all the ones who came before Him. He was not just another character being written into the story, He was the Author of the story entering into the plot.

:3 “He is the radiance of the glory of God” Jesus was not a prophet like Moses whose face shone with a fading glory after He stood in the presence of God. No, He was “the light of the world” who possessed an unfading glory because He was Himself, God. He was not solar-powered like the other prophets, He was the sun. When He was transfigured before Peter, James, and John, “His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light,” according to Matthew 17:2. The other prophets were like the moon, reflecting the source of light, but Jesus is like the light of the sun. He is the source and He sheds light on everything else. 

As C.S. Lewis once noted, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” The sun is too bright to see and the glory of God too glorious to behold, but we can see the light that comes from the sun and we can see the Son of God who came from His Father. As John 1:18 puts it, “No one has ever seen God; but God the only Son, who is at the Father's side, He has made Him known.” The One who is currently seated at the right hand of God the Father is the same One who walked among us, was crucified, died, and was buried before being resurrected on the third day and ascending into Heaven forty days later. He has made the Father known. He has revealed the Father to us. As Jesus told Philip in John 14:9, “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father.’” In short, to see the Son is to see the Father.

But what about us? Philip may have seen Jesus in person, but we haven’t. Thomas may have felt the texture of His scars, but we haven’t. So, what about us? Well, let’s begin with what Jesus said to him. Remember Thomas said he would not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead unless he got to see the marks of the nails in His hands. Eight days later he did and he believed. And what did Jesus say to him? John 20:29 “Have you believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Peter was there as well and what does he say to those who weren’t? 1 Peter 1:8-9 “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

So, no one has ever seen God the Father, but a few saw the Son of God so that they could testify to what they had seen and heard. John was one of those witnesses. Listen to what he said in 1 John 1:1-3 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” So, even though we were not there, we are one with those who were. We are invited into fellowship with them so that we all might have fellowship with the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ. The apostles did not sit on their privilege or hoard it up for themselves. No, they sought to share it with others and to invite as many into it as would believe their message. And so, we believe the testimony of the eye witnesses God handpicked to take the stand on His behalf. They are our fathers in the faith and they our brothers in Christ. 

The man they knew and loved was God in the flesh and no one comes to the Father except through Him. He was, as :3 goes on to say, “the exact imprint of God’s nature.” Jesus is not a knock-off. We all know what happens to copies – they get worse and worse and less like the original the more you copy them. Christ is not a copy. He is not a screen shot of God, He is the exact imprint of the nature of His Father. The word translated “nature” is the Greek word, “hupostasis” which means “substance.” The Son of God, then, is the exact same substance as His Father. “Hupostasis” is also the word from which we get the term “hypostatic union.” This is used to describe the union of the nature of man and the nature of God in Christ which we will later confess together in the Definition of Chalcedon.

And so, Jesus was a prophet, but He was also much more than any of the prophets who had come before Him. The prophets of old were often given signs. These ranged anywhere from striking the ground with arrows to being in the belly of a big fish. Prophets were a lot like a box of chocolates, you never knew what you were going to get. The prophet’s job was to interpret the sign for the people. He would tell them what it meant. In that sense, the prophets of old were like translators. They helped one party understand what the other party was saying. As we are often reminded, however, some things are often lost in translation. That is where Christ the Prophet was different. In Him, the Word of God was translated into our language without losing anything in translation. The Word became flesh. He was the medium, the message, and the messenger without confusion, compromise, or miscommunication. He was the very Word of God, not a facsimile; and He was a real man, not a hologram.

Unlike the prophets before Him, :3 goes on to say that, “He upholds the universe by the word of His power.” The prophets of old held the words of God in their hearts and opened their mouths to declare them to others. Christ the Prophet holds the world in its place by the power of His Word. Everything that exists is sustained by His say-so. The only thing necessary for the world to fall apart is for Him to stop speaking. The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. His Word holds it all together. And just as He once made everything out of nothing, He now makes disciples out of no ones. 

Consider 2 Corinthians 4:6, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Understand what Paul is saying here. The same way that God said, “Let there be light” in the very beginning, He now says, “Let there be light” in us. Out of nothing He made everything and out of nobodies He makes saints. The same way that light shone into the darkness in Genesis 1, the light of the knowledge of God now shines into the darkness of our hearts. The Word of God created the world in the first place and the way for it to be redeemed in the end.

As :3 ends by noting, “After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. How did Jesus make purification for sins? By taking our sins onto Himself as He hung on a tree. For our sake, He who knew no sin, became sin, so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God. The Word of God was punched in the mouth and then shut up in a grave. But three days later, the Word of God got the last word. The Father raised His voice and the Word of God rose again before He rose into Heaven where He now sits at the right hand of God. Unlike the prophets that came before Him, He could not be silenced. They tried to bury the lead, but God made it the headline. The grave could not contain the Word of God and no gag order could keep Him from speaking.

Christ the prophet did not merely proclaim salvation, He was salvation. He did not simply publish peace, He was peace. He did not merely point to a future deliverance, He was the Deliverer. Jesus did not just proclaim Good News, He is the Good News and the fulfillment of all the prophecies of old. He was and is the “Yes” and “Amen” of every promise of God. (2 Cor 1:20) He did not just give us another sign, He was the fulfillment of all the foreshadowing.

NOT JUST ANOTHER PROPHET

Remember that according to A:24 of WSC a prophet is a man who reveals the will of God by speaking the words of God through the Spirit of God for the sake of saving those who hear and believe his message. And so the prophet begins and ends his speeches by saying, “thus saith the Lord.” But he is limited to what God tells him to say. He cannot generate the Word of the Lord whenever he feels like it. He is not a prophecy factory. He is not deputized by God to say whatever he wants with the authority of Heaven behind it. So, when people have follow up questions, as they often do, the prophet can only address those, like the rest of us, by appealing to what God has already said in the past and the words of the prophets who came before him. The prophet is not a walking Word of God. He is not infallible in his speech. He could write out a to-do list or a grocery list without it becoming part of our Biblical canon. He wasn’t always writing Scripture whenever he wrote or speaking on God’s behalf whenever he spoke.

Jesus, on the other hand, was always a prophet. He was never off duty. He never said anything that was not the Word of God. He never did anything that was against the Word of God. He never failed to do everything the Word of God commands. He had no sins of commission or omission. Everything He said or did was authorized by God because there never was a single moment where He was not acting perfectly in line with the will of His Father.

In addition to being limited in knowledge, the prophets of old were also limited in their terms of service. Prophets, like all men, must die. So, they cannot go on speaking on God’s behalf forever. Jesus, on the other hand, lives forever to intercede on our behalf. He is always acting as a perfect mediator between us and the Father. If a stranger walks through my front door uninvited, he will be met with strong words, inhospitality, and the familiar click click of my shotgun. If that same stranger, however, walks through my door with my son and is introduced to me as his friend, that man is met with a handshake, a warm welcome, and a “come on in”. It is the same with Jesus. If you try to break into Heaven on your own, you will be met with violence, but if you walk into Heaven with Jesus, you will be met with a warm welcome and treated like family.

The prophets of old were not replaceable. When the priest died, you could put his vestments on his son’s shoulders, anoint him, and have a new priest. When the king died, you could put his crown on his son’s head, have a coronation, and have a new king. But when the prophet died, you were left in the lurch. A prophet is not a guarantee. There is no way to pass along or produce a new one. Seminaries cannot do it, especially when they are run by Pharisees or Sadducees. You cannot get a degree in prophecy. But Jesus does not need to be replaced. Since He lives forever, He can serve as our prophet both now and forever, world without end, and amen.

Sometimes you desired a prophet and could not find the one you had. They had a habit, after all, of being whisked away at a moment’s notice. So even when you had one around in your time, you didn’t always know where he was. Jesus is at the right hand of the Father and He will remain there until the end when He stands up to return to judge the quick and the dead.

Sometimes you had to wait a long time for someone to declare the word of God. In fact, between the final prophecies of the OT and the first prophecies of the NT, roughly four hundred years went by. During that time, no doubt many were tempted to wonder if the age of the prophets was over and if words from the Lord were now a thing of the past. But then, God broke the silence by calling John the Baptist to serve as the great forerunner of the final Prophet. He led the final parade that finished with the float that the people of God had been waiting for.

Recall what John 1:19-23 says about John the Baptist. “And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, ‘I am not the Christ.’ And they asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the Prophet?’ And he answered, ‘No.’ So they said to him, ‘Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ He said, ‘I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord,” as the prophet Isaiah said.’” When people saw John making noise in the street, they wondered if he might be the end of the parade, but he said, “No, I’m the grand marshall.” He confirmed that he was an answer to A prophecy, but not THE answer to THE prophecy. But notice what his questioners assumed? They were waiting both for the Christ promised by Isaiah and for the Prophet promised by Moses. So, they wondered if John might be one or the other.  So, they asked him. “Are you the Christ? Are you the Prophet?” We are familiar, thanks to Christmas, with the prophecies concerning the Christ, but less so, thanks to Biblical illiteracy, with those concerning the prophet. This is where our OT and NT readings help us out.

THE PROPHET

In our OT reading, Moses foretold of a prophet, even greater than himself, whom God would send to His people. Hear the Word of the Lord recorded by Moses from Deuteronomy 18:18 “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And whoever will not listen to My words that He shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.’” The Lord, through Moses, often regarded as the greatest of all the prophets, promised an even greater prophet. So, those who honor Moses can only do so by acknowledging that someone greater than Moses was coming… someone to whom even Moses would defer.

Our NT reading confirms that this someone is the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear the word of the Lord from Acts 3:18-26 “What God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, He thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets long ago. Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to Him in whatever He tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that Prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’ And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your Offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ God, having raised up His servant, sent Him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”

Through all of this, I trust that you are now, if you weren’t already before, fully convinced that Jesus Christ is THE prophet of God. Like a prophet, He came proclaiming the Word of the Lord. Like a prophet, He was believed by some and rejected by others. Like a prophet, His words were attended by signs and wonders that confirmed His message. And like a prophet, He was killed by those He came to save. But acknowledging Him as a prophet is not enough. Many in our day recognize Jesus as a good teacher or a great prophet, but they do not worship Him as their God or submit themselves to Him as their King. The same was true back in His day as well. In Luke 9:18-20 Jesus asked His disciples this question: “‘Who do the crowds say that I am?’ And they answered, ‘John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.’ Then He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ And Peter answered, ‘The Christ of God.’” 

Jesus is not just another prophet. He is the Prophet of all prophets. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. As we have seen, He is like the prophets of old in many ways, but it is not enough to honor Him as just another one of them. As He Himself once pointed out, “No one is good but God alone.” (Mk 10:18) So either call Him God and start worshiping Him or stop calling Him good. We honor the prophets by preserving their tombs, but do not honor Jesus that way. His tomb is empty. We honor Him by celebrating His resurrection and by proclaiming salvation in His Name. So, while many have different takes on Jesus, the question remains: who do you say that He is? Is He just another prophet? Or is He your God? “Repent and turn to Him, that your sins may be blotted out, and that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”

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

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, You sent Your one and only Son to be the Prophet of all prophets so that whoever would believe in Him might not perish, but have eternal life. Give us ears to hear Him as the final Word from above and the first Word concerning the world down here below. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and honor Him by offering up the words of the prayer He taught us to pray singing…

day no. 16,178: all Christs are not created equal

2 Corinthians 11:3-4

But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

All Christs are not created equal; in fact, one wasn’t. The created ones are, granted, all equally unequal to the title. Only inferior christs can be created, for the superior One is the one that wasn't. The actual Christ is begotten, not made. 

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,

the only-begotten Son of God,

begotten of the Father before all worlds,

God of God,

Light of Light,

very God of very God,

begotten, not made,

being of one substance with the Father;

by whom all things were made.

- Nicene Creed, 325 AD

The one, true Christ is the Creator of every other thing, even of those who go and create counterfeit christs. These created "christs," however, cannot hold a candle to the One who created their creators.

John 1:1-3

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Jesus made men in the image of God and they, in turn, made images of their imaginations. Sometimes they even named these images "Christ," in similar fashion as to when Aaron called the golden calf  he created,"Yahweh." The issue is not calling on the name of Christ per se, but on what you call "Christ." You cannot sanctify rebellion by calling it "righteousness." You cannot eat the poison and have health too. In short, you cannot split the difference by calling evil "good," darkness "light," or your idols "Christ." I mean, you can do that, and some in Corinth clearly had, but it doesn't fly. God is not obligated to receive whatever you call, "Christ."

Isaiah 5:20-21

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

All this to say, be careful about what is presented to you as "Christ." Consider the claims. Some use this name as a way of baptizing their own fancies. But there is one way to the Father and it isn't an incantation, it is a Person. There is one truth and it isn't simply a monosyllable, but a Savior. There is one life and it isn't in knowing the right words to say, but in knowing the Father through the Son.

John 14:6, 17:3

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me... And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."

day no. 15,942: no fear of flame

"Gilt is afraid of fire, but gold is not.” — C.H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Fire reveals what is gold and what is not, what is only a thin layer of gold on the surface and that which is golden all the way through. That which is merely painted gold will be burnt up. That which is  gold, but impure within is burned off. Fire refines and purifies. It destroys that which merely appeared to be gold. Posers are cremated and impurities are separated out. 

Malachi 3:2-3
But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.
 
Gold has no reason to fear fire. Fire does not threaten it. It only reveals it. It removes anything not gold by sifting it out or by sorting it out. Fakers and foreign fragments both end in flames until all that is left is fire and pure gold.

1 Corinthians 3:12-13
Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw- each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

Faith has no fear of flame. Faith cannot be extinguished by fire. It is purified by it. And all false professions become ashes. Fire does not burn up faith, it fuels it.

2 Timothy 1:6 (HCSB)

Therefore, I remind you to keep ablaze the gift of God that is in you.

day no. 15,818: carrying two days at once

Matthew 6:24-34
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Worry is worship. It is faith - an unshakable belief in an unfortunate future. It is a disciple of a dire future and orients everything today around it.

Worry is a false prophet. It claims knowledge it cannot know, yet still demands obedience. It Insists you accept its predictions despite a track record of miscalculation, exaggeration and deception.


When you worry, you suffer twice. You ruin today and tomorrow still comes. You spend your day building up tomorrow’s hurdles. You wake up worn out and facing a taller wall.

“Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength- carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.” ― Corrie Ten Boom

day no. 15,790: an acquired taste

Jeremiah 5:30-31

An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?

A prophet is meant to speak on behalf of another so when the prophet speaks falsely, he not only lies, but he defames the one for whom he claims to speak. A priest is meant to mediate on behalf of another so when a priest does what he wants, he not only misleads, but he fails to connect the supplicant to anyone other than his own wishes. 

This is tragic in its own right, but the appalling and horrible thing is that people prefer it this way. They would rather be lied to and misled than know the truth and have to face God. As bad as false prophets and lame priests are, even worse are the parishioners who would not have it any other way.

Lies and misleading are acquired tastes. And some, in fact, have such a taste for them as to despise a banquet table truth. When sat at a feast of verity, fidelity, and authority, they no longer have any hunger or thirst for either.

day no. 15,728: the most pathetic people in the world

While reading Douglas Wilson's Not as the Scribes: A Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, I came across this,

“The formal Christian is a man who knows enough about Christianity to spoil the world for him . . . . He has enough ‘Christianity’ to spoil everything else, but not enough to give him real happiness, peace and joy and abundance of life. I think such people are the most pathetic people in the world. Our Lord certainly says they are the most useless people in the world. They do not function as worldings or as Christians. They are nothing, neither salt nor light, neither one thing nor the other.” -- Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Christianity a la carte is just enough to ruin your appetite, but not enough to satisfy your hunger. It is useless. It does not save you from the allure of the world or the wrath of God. It does not possess potency enough to quicken, only dispassion enough to kill. A la carte Christianity is an inoculation. It gives you just enough of something to keep you from getting all of it. It introduces a synthetic, controlled version for the sake of preventing the invasion of the pure, dangerous version.

Titus 1:15-16

To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

day no. 15,401: anxiety is a false prophet

"Anxiety, after all, is simply living out the future before gets here." -- Kevin DeYoung, Just Do Something

Anxiety is a false prophet. It presumes to be so certain about the future that it acts in perfect accordance with its dire predictions now in the present. It lives out the doom and gloom of its prophecies before they occur, because anxiety has perfect faith in its predictions. 

But we don't know the future and should not live like we do.

James 4:13-15
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

That isn't to say that your predictions about tomorrow are never on point. But even if they are, what do you gain by being anxious about them now? 

When you worry, you suffer twice. 

Anxiety ruins today and offers no respite from tomorrow. It makes nothing better and yet makes everything worse and still, knowing this, we turn to it faithfully, reliably, hopefully time and time again. Anxiety has let us down and beaten us down a thousand times and yet we cling to its every word as though it has infallibly benefited us. 

We need to repent of our anxieties. Instead of explaining them away or therapeutically muting them, we need to confess them for what they are, unbelief, and repent of them. We then need to believe God and His Word and place our faith in Him and in it. 

Only then will we be free to enjoy today and fret not about tomorrow.

day no. 14,228: you are

Jeremiah 23:33

When one of this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, "What is the burden of the Lord?" you shall say to them, "You are."

This is one of the greatest comebacks of all time. So much so that we still use it. And to make matters even better, this is God instructing Jeremiah on how to respond to his critics. "You are!" was God's idea.

day no. 13,433: rejecting sinfulness and sliminess‏

2 Corinthians 4:2

We reject all shameful deeds and underhanded methods. We don’t try to trick anyone or distort the word of God. We tell the truth before God, and all who are honest know this.

I love this.

Paul points out a couple things about the kind of evangelism true Christians engage in.

First, it does not compromise morality for the sake of growing numbers.

God hates sin and all sinful behavior is rejected by His followers.

Second, it does not compromise integrity for the sake of growing numbers.

God has spoken and it is not our job to add to or take away from His words in order to win people to thinking favorably about Him.

So we don't trick sinners by pretending sin isn't a big deal and we don't deceive them telling them only part of the story or leaving parts of the story out or adding parts to the story that make God seem more likable and Christ more tolerable to the unsaved as though it were our job to protect Him from their judgment.

BACKWARDS!!!

day no. 13,405: the grace of God in not getting what you wanted

Jeremiah 2:33-35

33 “How well you direct your course
to seek love! 
So that even to wicked women
you have taught your ways.
34 Also on your skirts is found
the lifeblood of the guiltless poor;
you did not find them breaking in.
Yet in spite of all these things
35 you say, ‘I am innocent;
surely his anger has turned from me.’
Behold, I will bring you to judgment
for saying, ‘I have not sinned.’

The majority of people respond to the question, "If you died tonight would you go to Heaven or Hell?" by saying, "Heaven."

Again, the majority of people when asked why they should get to go to Heaven respond by saying, "I've tried to do the right thing, I've been a pretty good person, I'm not perfect, but I gave it my best."

Just to be clear: no, you're not and no, you haven't.

The majority of people who think that they are good people are in fact bad people, guilty of sin and under the judgment of God for things they fully anticipate Him to reward them.

day no. 13,378: two ways to serve only your self

"Then I saw that there was a way to hell, even from the gates of heaven."

 ~ John Bunyan from The Pilgrim's Progress

I just finished reading "The Pilgrim's Progress" again recently.

This is how the book ends reflecting upon the fate of Ignorance.

Bunyan points out two paths that lead to Hell:

1. making your home in the City of Destruction

2. making your pilgrimage to paradise on the merits of anyone other than the perfection purchased by Jesus' life, death and resurrection

Ignorance made it all the way to the gate.

From an earthly perspective, it seemed like he had his heart set on Heaven.

But Ignorance wanted paradise without the Prince, forever joy without temporal submission.

Both residing in the City of Destruction and striving for Heaven without Christ end the same sad way in Hell.

Rebellion or Religion: two ways that pave the way to Hell.

day no. 13.321: cheap Law and fake grace‏

Matthew 5:48

But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

The grace of God is NOT a lessening of His commands.

Grace isn't, "Nice try. Not quite, but I'll accept it."

FALSE.

Grace doesn't diminish the Law.

God STILL requires perfection.

It is a necessity.

Which is why Jesus lived a perfect life.

Jesus did what God required.

And He offers us His perfect resume' so that we can fulfill God's requirements without Him lessening His commands to do so.

God will NOT compromise His holy standards.

BUT, He does provide a holy substitute in Whom we can meet His standards in the person and work of Jesus Christ on our behalf.

Grace is Not merely Cheap Law.

The Law is still very expensive and God does NOT lower the bar so that sinners can leap over it.

He allows us to inherit Jesus' success after He jumped over the bar.

day no. 13,318: graceless, godless moralism‏

Job 42:7-9

7 After the Lord had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken accurately about me, as my servant Job has. 8 So take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer on your behalf. I will not treat you as you deserve, for you have not spoken accurately about me, as my servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite did as the Lord commanded them, and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.

Moralism makes God angry!

Job's friends offered many solutions to Job's situation and ALL of them involved Job DOING something to save himself from his circumstances.

That is Gospel-less moralism.

And God HATES it.

It elbows Him out of the picture and suggests that we can force the hand of God by our goodness.

In the end, Job's sufferings qualify him to offer a sacrifice on behalf of his graceless friends.

The very sufferings that those same friends assumed were a scar of disgrace on Job's life, were in fact the very badge of grace of God's continued presence and fellowship with Job.

Jesus suffered perfectly so that He could not only offer something in our place, but that He could offer His very Self in our place.

He is the perfect Mediator.

He goes between to incur the wrath and provide the perfection required for graceless people like you and me to be in God's presence.

day no. 13,290: sound doctrine and false profit‏

Mark 13:22

For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones.

In the book of Acts, we will see the apostles preaching the Word of God and the accomplishments of the Son in living, dying and rising from the dead.  This message will be accompanied by signs and wonders.

Signs and wonders are not in themselves indication of authenticity as we see here.

So listen to what the miracle workers say. To whom does the miracle worker seek to bring glory? Does the wonder accompany an impassioned plea to repent and believe in the Good News of Jesus Christ?

Do not merely be stupefied by the wonders, but ponder what message accompanies the wonders. This will be a safeguard against accepting or believing false messiahs and prophets.

i wholly hate false doctrine which is only half right‏

Revelation 2:6

Yet you do have this: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

I am better at hating false doctrine than I am at believing and behaving in love based on true doctrine.

It is right to fight against bad teaching.

It is wrong to ignore good teaching.

We can dwell on what is wrong so much that we dwell on nothing else.

We can dwell on our hate of evil to the exclusion of everything else.

Revelation 2:4

But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first.

It is good to hate evil.

It is better to love God.

If you love God, you will also hate evil.

If you just hate evil, you can live without love for anything or anyone, even God.

spot the lie: katy perry's "firework" edition

Introducing a *NEW* segment to once|for|all|delivered called "spot the lie" where i review tv commercials, music, movies, magazines, etc... from pop culture.

While Team Van Voorst was travelling back from South Carolina, we heard Katy Perry's "Firework" on the radio and because of our affinity for dancing to it a la keenan cahill, we camped on it.

Do you ever feel already buried deep six feet under?
Scream but no one seems to hear a thing
Do you know that there's still a chance for you
'Cause there's a spark in you?

Did you spot the lie?

Katy proposes:

You are awesome.
They just don't know it yet.
There is hope.
How does she know?
Because you've got a spark.

To sum u:
Look within when the outside world gets you down.
The problem is not with you, it's with them.

-----
The Bible proposes:

You are not awesome.
God alone is awesome.
Do not look within to find salvation and brilliance.
Look outside yourself to God.

You do have a problem.
It's solution cannot be found by looking within.

The world rejects the Gospel either through formal upright religion or informal pagan irreligion.

Irreligion looks inward to discover the ultimate barometer of truth and meaning.
Religion looks inward to achieve/appease the truth and meaning discovered by looking upward.

Both ultimately point inward.
Both are WRONG!

It is outward to Jesus alone we look to find BOTH truth/meaning AND access to it.