day no. 17,144: a Word to to the wise

James 3:13-18

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

God has never left us without His Word to guide us. Man has never been wordless. In the beginning, before man existed, God’s Word made heaven and earth. When He made man, He gave him his orders. Man was made by the Word of God, from the Word of God, for the Word of God. The nothing became something because God spoke. The something became a someone because God breathed life into it. The someone became a sinner because he ignored the words of God. 

Man was made by the Word of God to live in a world made by the Word of God. He was then commanded to live in that world by the Word of God. Our entire existence is saturated in the Word of God. It is everywhere. 

Blaise Paschal once noted that "Mankind has two problems: pride and lust. Pride repels us from heaven and lust binds us to the earth." These two problems aggravate each other. Our pride bounces us off the ceiling and our lust licks the floor. We resist the grace of God and we give into the gross of this world. Our pride pushes against the ceiling and lust pushes itself against the floor.

We have a default of resisting that which is above and being drawn to that which is below. We don’t like the sound of wisdom revealed from above and we love the tune of wisdom bubbling up from below. 

Pride makes the divine repulsive and lust makes the demonic alluring. 

That which comes from above, if received, is planted in us and draws up out of us faithful fruit that leads to righteousness. That which is from below, already at work in us, is rooting us down to the ground.
Pride throws shade at the light and lust throws a spotlight on the shady.

Lust is the sin of being magnetically drawn to baser things. Pride is the sin of being allergic to the things above. Salvation is a new heart which now longs for things above and rejects those things below. 

Sanctification is mortifying the flesh that's left and vivifying the spirit provided by God. We must die to our lusts and pride and live to God's joy and faith in resurrection.

Our theology comes out of our fingertips. What we think about anything is observed in everything we say or do. Ideas are catalysts. They urge things in a certain direction. They can be resisted, but it requires intention. Inattention to your thought life produces a life you never thought of.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (Proverbs 14:12, 16:25)

day no. 17,143: wisdom and dumber

James 3:13-18 

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

There is no such thing as worldview bifocals that allow you to see the world in different ways. Paradigms are like a single-vision pair of glasses, not progressive lenses. Worldviews are more like bumper cars where each way of seeing the world cannot occupy the same space. That is why they so often go bang. They do not play nicely. Revelation does not flatter speculation by saying, “you know, you do make some good points,” and speculation does not honor revelation by saying, “when we disagree, I must be wrong.” Jesus said that He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life and that no one could come to the Father on good terms except through Him. (John 14:6). Now, that is either true or it is a lie. If Jesus cannot keep us safe before His Father, He is lying. If anyone else can get us to God, He is lying. But if He can and if He is the only way, we are liars when we propose any other way. Speculation is the rejection of what God has revealed. It would rather trust in its own guesses than trust in the grace of God. It would rather trip in the dark over the predictions of men than walk in the light of the sure promises of God. 

The wisdom from above is like the sun that sheds its light upon everything else. It is not just something that we see, it is the way we are able to see everything else. As C.S. Lewis once put it, “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.” Wisdom is not just a light in the distance that you walk toward, it is a sun in the sky that lights up everywhere you go. B.B. Warfield said it this way, “Christianity is a revealed religion.” Think about it. The Christian faith is the Word of God about the reality of God from very the mouth of God. Christianity is, in other words, autobiographical. It is from God about God for us. God has revealed Himself in the person of Christ and through His Spirit. What we know about Him is what He has told us. What we know about our world is what He has shown us. The world is, after all, His Word. He made everything out of nothing, which is to say, that everything that was made is made out of and held together by the Word of God. That is why His Word helps us to understand ourselves, our world, and our Maker. J.C. Ryle once said, “Give me a candle and a Bible and shut me up in a dark dungeon, and I will tell you everything that the whole world is doing.” 

The secret things may belong to God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children that we may do them (Dt. 29:29). You do not need to understand everything in order to do what God requires. God has not revealed everything to us, but He has revealed everything necessary. The Christian then, seeing the world by revelation, is comfortable with a sense of wonder. We do not need to know everything in order to appreciate anything. That said, speculation is not comfortable with the unknown. It has to understand everything in order to be content with anything. Which is why it always aspires to, makes claims of, and falls short of omniscience.

day no. 17,142: war of the wordviews

James 3:13-18 

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

James is not making a mountain out of a molehill here, he is pointing out that we all too often make this mountain into a molehill so that we could walk on over it without any special training or equipment. But this is not an obscure detail of the story, it is the paper the entire story is written on and it goes all the way back to the Garden. We see it first in Genesis 3:15, when God says to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Satan had contradicted God and preached a false Gospel of worldly wisdom to the woman. His wisdom consisted of the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life. He pointed out that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was good for food, a delight to the eyes, and would make one wise. Eve believed his sermon and took his counsel. She was not just a hearer of his words, she was a doer. As a result, God cursed the serpent and put enmity between the wisdom from above and the wisdom from below. The contrast was clear: Heaven hates the logic of Hell and Hell loves the logic of hate. This reality, often referred to as the doctrine of the antithesis, is the soundtrack of our existence. It is always playing in the background and it sets the stage of every scene. 

We see it with Moses in Deuteronomy 30:19 when he says, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live.” We see it with Joshua in Joshua 24:15 when he says, “Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” We see it with Elijah in 1 Kings 18:21 when he says, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” Jumping ahead, we see it with Jesus in Matthew 6:24 when He says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” And the last one I will mention this morning is Paul in Colossians 2:8 when he says, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” I could go on. 

The examples are everywhere because the reality is everywhere. It is inescapable. So, it should come as no surprise to us then, that James takes a few precious verses out of this relatively short epistle to reiterate this reality. It bears repeating. Precisely because it is everywhere, it is easy to miss, like the frame of a famous painting. I’m sure they are there, but I’m not sure I remember what any of them look like. This is why Hebrews 2:1 warns us by saying, “Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” Drift is our default and it is always away from the things of God, never toward them. No one has ever become a Christian by accident because they couldn’t help it. You cannot slip into salvation the way you can into sin. It is easy to forget the story you are in and it is hard to be a good character.

day no. 17,141: there is no third way

James 3:13-18

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

There are only two ways of seeing the world and the contrast between them is sharp. In our text this morning, James draws us a picture of this reality in high relief. Listen to his description: one is from above, the other is from below; one is true, the other is false; one is meek, the other is proud; one is Heavenly, the other is earthly; one is Spirit-filled, the other is unspiritual; one is angelic, the other is demonic; one is pure, the other is corrupt; one is sincere, the other is selfish; one is virtuous, the other is vile, one makes peace, the other creates chaos. In other words, the division between these two worldviews is beyond reconciliation. There is no middle ground on which they could meet. There is no neutral space they could both inhabit. God has fixed a great chasm between them that no man can cross. Worldly wisdom cannot reach Heaven, even on its tippy toes and the wisdom of God cannot be reduced to a TED Talk. Even when the wisdom of the world rises to its full height, it is still too short to ride the rollercoaster of God’s blessing. Even when the wisdom of God bends its knees, it still refuses to lick the floor.

day no. 17,140: wisdominion (men may be strong, but God is stronger)

“A return to sanity will be a return to an unapologetic acceptance of the fact that men are of necessity going to be dominant. The only choice we have as a society is between whether the dominance is going to be constructive or destructive. Because the poobahs in charge have spent the last generation or so outlawing every form of constructive male dominance they can identify, we are now discovering that—far from empowering women—they have actually empowered destructive male dominance. Put another way, when constructive male dominance is outlawed, only outlaws will have male dominance.” — Douglas Wilson, Virgins and Volcanoes 

Men were made to dominate. They were put on this planet to rule and subdue the world. This will either be done with wisdom from above (wisdominion) or it will be informed by wisdom from below (wisdumb).

Proverbs 20:29

The glory of young men is their strength:

and the beauty of old men is the grey head. 

Men will either be strong and productive or they will be strong and destructive. They will either conquer evil or they will conquer the innocent. They will either plant and prune or they will rape and pillage. Either way, men will rule. The question is not if men will rule, how will they rule.

“And if you think tough men are dangerous, wait until you see what weak men are capable of.” — Jordan B. Peterson

We cultivate what we celebrate. Men were made to conquer and called to cultivate. When we thank God for the gift of men, we cultivate good men who are good at being men. When we force men to apologize for what God did (in making them masculine), we cultivate weak men who are only good at being better at masculinity than women are. This is why we see men competing in women's sports and not women competing in men's sports. This is why feminism is for weak men. Women are not as good at being men as women are so feminism makes masculinity the standard so that it can win. It cannot compete with men, so it goes to war with women, just like the serpent in the garden.

1 Peter 3:7

Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

Women are weaker than men. Men must remember this without taking advantage of this. Men were made strong in order to protect the weakness of women, not to force its strength upon them. When men forget their place and use their strength to abuse women rather than protect them, God uses His strength to stop them. Men may be strong, but God is stronger. If a man uses his God-given strength for evil, he should not be surprised to discover that God uses His strength to restrain him and take his borrowed strength back.

day no. 17,139: emasculinity

“Women really do need to be protected and guarded from men. They need this because there really is a thing called toxic masculinity. But the only ones who are capable of protecting women from men are the men. The only thing capable of protecting women from toxic masculinity is masculinity.” — Douglas Wilson, Virgins and Volcanoes

Feminism cannot protect women even if it wanted to, which it doesn't. Feminism is the brain child of weak men who needed even weaker women in order to remain top dog in the gender wars. The only thing capable of delivering women from wicked weaklings is good strongmen. Evil men can sway good women because men are stronger than women, but good men can defeat evil men because they are better men. As such, they are capable of resisting the strength of weak men in order to save even weaker women and children.

Proverbs 20:29

The glory of young men is their strength: 

and the beauty of old men is the grey head.

The world does not need less masculinity, it needs redeemed masculinity (and much more of it). Men were made to be strong and if they are not good, they will be evil and strong or in the case of feminism, evil and weak, but stronger than women.

Masculinity is only toxic in deficiency, not in excess. Only men can protect women from other men. Only masculinity can guard femininity from emasculinity. 

Emasculinity seeks to make second rate women into fifth rate men so that third rate men can rule over them.

day no. 17,138: God made everything out of nothing; atheism makes nothing out of everything

“We are endowed with our rights by a Creator. If no Creator, then no rights. Put another way, Darwin hates you.” — Douglas Wilson, Mere Christendom

If there is no God, there is no standard of appeal beyond that which is currently over us for whatever it is they are currently doing to us. Might makes right (or at least it makes the weak do what it wants and call it right).

If we are all just the product of time and chance acting on matter, then nothing ultimately matters. We came from nowhere, have nothing to do, and are going nowhere. The image of God does not exist, so we can do to ourselves or each other whatever we can get away with, if we so choose, but we cannot be constrained to refrain for any other reason. That is the world that progress seeks to make in its own image.

“In the classical liberal order, there was an arbitrary desire to hang the rights of man on a great big invisible sky hook. But whenever you bolt this sky hook into the azure blue, it does not much matter how many extra Kantian bolts you use—the thing will simply not stay up there.” — Douglas Wilson, Mere Christendom

God made everything out of nothing. 

Darwin makes nothing out of everything. 

If God is real, everything has meaning. 

If God is not, nothing means anything.

Don't forget that Darwin hates you (and your little dog too).

day no. 17,137: stupidity is the offspring of arrogance and ignorance

“A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.” — Carlo Cipolla, The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

Stupidity is the offspring of arrogance and ignorance. When those two get together, they make an ugly baby.

“Sometimes I wonder if the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.” — Mark Twain

Bad ideas are not merely the brain children of regular folk, they are the policies of people who imagine themselves set apart for the purpose of governing regular folk.

“I won't insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said.” — William F. Buckley Jr.

You cannot take some of these people too seriously. Your rage should match the respect they deserve, which is little to none. Too many go full send on some outrageous thing AOC, bless her heart, supposedly said and thus give her more credibility. Who cares what she thinks? I don't. And once we stop acting like she matters, she won't, because she doesn't. Many in power are like the boogeyman. They go away when you turn your back on them. Conversely, they grow stronger the more you pretend they are real.

day no. 17,136: babies are still the best revenge

In order to save a couple of buck a bunch of kids are kept from being born and it happens everyday.

Psalm 127:3

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,

the fruit of the womb a reward.

Many Christians who say, “Children are a blessing,” would still choose a thousand dollars over a thousand descendants: They already know what they would do with a thousand dollars and have no clue what to do with the idea of a thousand descendants:

“Babies are the best revenge.” — Lily Ebert

Fertility is shots fired. The meek shall inherit the earth by surviving the schemes of the sterile. The fruitless will set their nets and the fruitful will escape them and take their revenge by populating the world that the fruitless longed to take by force. The fruitless want the world to themselves, but they will neither get the world they want nor take it from those to whom God wants to give it.

Matthew 5:5

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

The meek do not fight sterility with sterility, but with fecundity and virility. The best antidote for barrenness is fullness and when grumbling lobs its bombs, it is best to fire back with gratitude.

Romans 12:21

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

What could be better than a baby? We don’t overcome the evil of eugenics by foregoing our fruitfulness in order to fight them. Fruitfulness is how we fight them. Our cheerful reproduction demolishes their strongholds and takes every one of their impotent doctrines captive for Christ. Our happy homemaking and culture building begins with making babies. But it doesn’t end there. And they know it. They know a woman’s womb is a weapon and that the future cannot be kept from those who happily hope in it enough to fight by faith and fertility for it this day.

Genesis 24:60

And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, “Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.”

Amen! May our wives be the mothers of millions and our daughters of thousands of millions. Let them flood the earth with faithful dominion and prevail against the gates of Hell.

day no. 17,135: the coexist cult and high priestcraft

“While secularism claims not to be ‘a’ religion, they do claim to be the arbiter of all religions—the faith of faiths, the religion of religions, the king of ki . . . better not go that far yet. Let’s give it a few more months.” — Douglas Wilson, Mere Christendom

When the Coexist Cult claims to be above religion, they mean it, literally. They are not too good for religion, but all religion is, in their opinion, beneath them. They are the high priests of religion. By insisting that every major world religion has more in common that they do in distinction, it assumes jurisdiction over each one of them. It patronizes people by saying that they are limited in scope because of their subscription to a particular religion. It states that it alone can see every religion clearly because it is not caught up in the fog of any one in particular.

day no. 17,134: whitewash and wiped out

"Politicians whitewash that which they do not destroy.” — G.K. Chesterton

The State etiolates what it does not annihilate. It sucks the marrow out of anything it allows to remain. If it cannot kill it, it corrupts it. The state sees anything of substance as intolerable so it either eliminates it or it robs it of its substance. You can have the truth as long as it has no teeth. You can have a religion as long as it remains a private one.

day no. 17,133: the grammar hammer

When asked about the rules of English grammar and the insistence that a sentence must not be ended with a preposition, Winston Churchill had this to say,

"This is the kind of nonsense up with which I will not put!"

They say you should not end a sentence with a preposition, but they don't know about what they are talking.

day no. 17,132: conserving what?

"It may be inferred again that the present movement for women’s rights will certainly prevail from the history of its only opponent, Northern conservatism. This [Northern conservatism] is a party which never conserves anything. Its history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation. What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is today one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will tomorrow be forced upon its timidity and will be succeeded by some third revolution; to be denounced and then adopted in its turn. American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition. It remains behind it, but never retards it, and always advances near its leader. This pretended salt hath utterly lost its savor: wherewith shall it be salted? Its impotency is not hard, indeed, to explain. It is worthless because it is the conservatism of expediency only, and not of sturdy principle. It intends to risk nothing serious for the sake of the truth, and has no idea of being guilty of the folly of martyrdom. It always when about to enter a protest very blandly informs the wild beast whose path it essays to stop, that its 'bark is worse than its bite,' and that it only means to save its manners by enacting its decent role of resistance: The only practical purpose which it now subserves in American politics is to give enough exercise to Radicalism to keep it 'in wind.' and to prevent its becoming pursy and lazy, from having nothing to whip." — R.L. Dabney

American conservatism could never be convicted of conviction. There would not be enough evidence to indict. It would never submit itself to martyrdom. It sees compromised survival as superior to principled sacrifice. Living to fight another day is more important than losing a battle. But in the wisdom of God, a principle that dies is more potent than a compromise that lives.

“The politics of envy is the politics of this commandment: “Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.” It is the politics of two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.” — Gary North

American conservatism is willing to see its allies on the menu as long as it gets a seat at the table. But sitting across from wolves simply means that you're not on the menu yet. You can bring them all the second helpings they like, but eventually the pantry is empty and you're the main course. American conservatism, at its best, strives to be eaten last and at its worst, to see others eaten. It is a sheep trying to convert the wolves to a better diet.

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." — Winston Churchill

American conservatism assumes that it is in the right for wanting to use less accelerator as we all head for the cliff. It counters liberalism's motion to move at 60 mph with one condemning that as reckless behavior all before it then comes back and moves that we drive off the cliff at 30 mph.

"Socialism is simply Communism for people without the testosterone to man the barricades.” — Gary North

Communism wants to red line the engine on its way off the cliff, but socialism doesn't have the stomach for that. It would go faster if it dared or if it thought it could get away with it, but it doesn't, so it can't.  American conservatism, in its efforts to subdue communism has settled for sucking up to socialism as long as it promises not to become full blown Marxism.

day no. 17,131: hate speech and higher learning

“If you want the fruit called religious liberty, you have to want the tree that this kind of fruit grows on. This means that if we want maximum liberty for people who don’t believe in Jesus, then we will have to . . . believe in Jesus.” — Douglas Wilson,  Mere Christendom

People who hate Jesus will be less free under governments that also hate Jesus than they would be under a government that loves Him. Liberty is a Christian concept. It is only a value in places where Christ is valued. Anyone who hates the Lord should give thanks to the void for those that do for they make it possible for haters to have a better life.

2 Peter 2:19

While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

College campuses promote free speech, but they create a world where opinions are cancelled. Hate speech is the brainchild of higher places of learning.

Galatians 5:13

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

Those who use their freedom for the sake of their flesh will end up enslaved to their passions. There is no liberty outside of the Lord.

day no. 17,130: Christian Nationalism is religion and politics in perfect harmony

“I have hazarded the guess that you are not even close to being tired of dealing with the subject of Christian nationalism . . . well, neither am I. The two traditional topics that will get you shushed big time at large family gatherings at Thanksgiving—religion and politics—are very conveniently combined in this discussion, and bundled into just one topic. A model of efficiency.” — Douglas Wilson, Larry Arnn and the Hillsdale Half Step 

Would you like to live in a Christian nation or a nation that produces the kind of people who applaud the assassination of a Christian speaker in broad daylight? I would like to live in a nation where that question is obviously rhetorical. That is not the nation we live in, however. Some people not only need to be asked, but some people actually answer the inquiry by selecting the second option. They are, after all, the ones thanking the void that Charlie Kirk has left the chat. The only way to have a nation where people don't parade their perversions in public is for that nation to return to Christ. The same can be said for a family. The only way to be able to talk about these kinds of things without wanting to kill each other is to be part of a family where Christ is acknowledged as slain for our sins and raised from the dead.

“I never discuss anything else except politics and religion. There is nothing else to discuss.” ― G.K. Chesterton

Christian nationalism is the combination of religion and politics. Discussing either one can make most people uncomfortable so it is not surprising that talking about something that necessarily combines the two makes everyone uncomfortable. That is why many left-leaning, Gospel Coalition friendly Christians do not like Christian Nationalism. It is too political. That is why right-leaning, Fox News friendly conservatives do not like Christian Nationalism. It is too religious. 

day no. 17,129: rendering to everyone his due (exhortation outline)

Christ Church Leavenworth

WLC 141: Rendering to Everyone His Due

August 24, 2025

Rendering to Everyone His Due

INTRODUCTION

This morning we are continuing our study of Q141 of the WLC which asks, “What are the duties required in the Eighth Commandment?” The eighth commandment, as you recall, is “Thou shall not steal” and the duty associated with it that we will be focusing on this morning is “rendering to everyone his due.”

The text provided by the Westminster divines regarding this duty is Romans 13:7 which says, “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.”

PAYING OUR DUES

We owe everyone something, but we do not owe everyone the same things. We owe certain things to certain people and we owe certain amounts of certain things to some that we do not owe to others. King Alfred the Great summarized it well this way, “Give not little to whom you should give much, nor much to whom little, nor nothing to whom something, nor something to whom nothing.” 

If we do not render a man what or how much he is due, we are stealing from him. Theft is not just taking what isn’t ours, it is withholding what ought to be given. In fact, our word “ought” comes to us from an Old English word “agan” (ah-gahn) which means “to owe,” the past tense of which is “ahte” (A-H-T-E). Thus, whenever you ought to do something, it is because you “owe it.” Moral obligation is a duty.

And we are, by God’s design, an indebted people. We are born with bills with pay. We owe our parents for bringing us into the world and we owe our God for life, breath, and everything else. And all of that before we even take our first steps.

So, if we are to “render to everyone his due,” we must consider the various duties and debts that God has placed in our accounts. Any one of these could warrant its own exhortation, but in the interest of time and in an effort to render unto you what you are owed, that is, an exhortation and NOT a second sermon, I will only briefly review but a few of our many dues and duties.

VARIOUS DUTIES AND DUES

Fathers, you owe your children provision. (2 Cor 12:14) If you do not provide for them, you are stealing from them and you are worse than an unbeliever. (1 Tim 5:8) You also owe them discipline, instruction, and a Christian education. (Eph 6:4) If you do not take the time to train them in the way they should go, you are a thief. If you do not give your children encouragement, you are robbing them. (Col 3:21) You owe them good language. Your sons need to know you’re proud of him. Your daughters need to know you think they are beautiful. They only have one dad. Do not deprive them of a father.

Mothers, you owe your children a well managed home. (1 Tim 5:14) If you are too busy with outside engagements to keep up with your domestic duties, you are robbing your people. (Titus 2:5) If you are short with your people because you are worn out from being kind to strangers, you are a domestic terrorist. (Pr 14:1) You cannot be everything to everyone, but you are everything to your littlest ones. You owe them the best of your good works. (Pr. 31:27-28) They only have one mom. Do not be the one who steals her from them.

Parents, you owe your children marital unity. (Eph 6:1) When a child hears, “Honor your father and mother,” he should not have to ask, “Which one?” You owe your children a united front. They deserve a stable home where mom and dad are on the same team. So, do what it takes to get on the same page and then stay on it. Do not let your selfishness steal your children’s sense of security. 

Children, you owe honor to your parents, (Eph 6:1) If you do not honor your parents, you are stealing from them. God picked them out for you. (Acts 17:26) When you honor your earthly father and mother, you honor your Father in Heaven. (Eph 3:14) If you withhold honor from them, you are stealing from them and you are robbing God. (Dt 27:16)

Husbands, you owe your wife love and attention. (Eph 5:33) If you do not take the time to love your wife, you are stealing from her. You owe her your affection. There is a kind of attention she can only lawfully get from you. Do not rob her of it. If you are giving that kind of affection or attention to other women, you are robbing your wife. You owe her love that takes the initiative, pursues, and lavishes. You owe her that kind of care and concern. (Eph 5:25) Just as you seek to meet your own needs, you must seek to meet hers (Eph 5:28) You must understand your wife. You owe her your ears. Hear her out or God will stop listening to you. (1 Peter 3:7)

Wives, you owe your husband respect. (Eph 5:33) If you do not honor him as your head, you are stealing from him. You owe him your loyalty. (Eph 5:22) There is a kind of help he can only get from you. Do not rob him of it. If you are too busy helping others to have time to ask him what he needs, you are robbing him. You owe him your allegiance. (1 Peter 3:1, 5) You owe him submission and obedience (Eph 5:24, Col 3:18) You owe him your affection. Do not withhold from him the comfort only you can provide. (Pr 5:19) You owe him a good reputation. (Pr 31:23) 

Promote him before others and God will promote you. (Pr 31:31)

Spouses, you owe each other your bodies. (1 Cor 7:3, Heb 13:4) Husbands, you owe your wife access to your muscles. If she is a godly woman, you are the only man whose strength she can look to. Wives, you owe your husband access to your body. If he is a godly man, you are the only woman for whom he has eyes. If he doesn’t get to see or hold you, he won’t get to see or hold anybody. Do not rob each other. Be generous. You owe each other regular intimacy. (1 Cor 7:5)

Young men, you owe everyone self-control. (1 Tim 5:1, Titus 2:6, 1 Peter 5:5) If you are spending your strength on self-interest, you are stealing from the rest of us. You are the strongest people in the world. Put it to use for the glory of God and the good of your neighbors. Be strong, but be under control. Be as strong on the inside as you are on the outside. You owe us that. You must not spend your strength on strange women or foolish pursuits. (Pr 7:26, Pr 31:3, 2 Tim 2:22) You owe older men humility, older women charity, younger women security, and younger men fraternity. (1 Tim 5:1)

Young ladies, you owe everyone modesty (1 Tim 2:9-10, Titus 2:5) If you are flaunting your beauty or using it for self-interest, you are robbing the rest of us. You are the most beautiful people in the world. Put it to use for the glory of God and the good of your neighbors. Be beautiful, but adorn it with good works. Be as beautiful on the inside as you are on the outside. (1 Peter 3:3-4) You owe us that. Stay pure and do not stir up or awaken love until it pleases. (Song of Solomon 2:7, 3:5, 8:4) Be as terrible as an army with banners, hard to catch, a wall, and not a door. Do not rob your parents of peace. (Song of Solomon 6:10, 8:10)

And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of the duties of sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, in-laws, elders, deacons, members, employers, employees, citizens, soldiers, governors, judges, juries, teachers, students, rich, poor, strong, weak, sick, healthy, loud, quiet, fast, slow, etc…

The point is this: regardless of who you are, you owe someone something and God calls you to pay your debts and leave no outstanding balances. Rom 13:8-9, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

So, pay what you owe. You likely owe someone something. You have been stealing and now you feel the weight of it. Do not let it end with a vague sense of guilt. Make a plan to pay what you owe.  Do not withhold anything to whom you owe it. (Pr 3:27) Begin by confessing to God this morning and then make haste to make it right with the one you have been robbing. (Matt 5:25)

Perhaps you were reminded of something this morning that someone owes you. You’ve been neglected, underpaid, cheated, or undervalued. If that is the case, they may owe you, but you owe them something – forgiveness, and perhaps a direct conversation (Matt 18:15, 22) If someone has withheld what they owe from you, you will not balance the accounts by withholding forgiveness from them. So, if that is you this morning, confess your bitterness and be forgiven by God of your debts and then go out and extend that forgiveness to your debtors.

CALL TO CONFESSION

Since we so often withhold what we owe or pay less than we should, we are reminded of our need to regularly confess our sins, whether they be these duties or 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

Gracious Father, if You were to mark iniquities, who could stand? But with You is forgiveness, that You may be feared. Called by You to the throne of grace, and confident in our great High Priest, we bow before You and confess that we have sinned against You and been unfaithful to Your holy covenant. Our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately sick, so that we often do what we hate, and neglect what we love. Out of our mouths we both praise You and curse our fellow men. You promised mercy to our fathers through the seed of the woman. Turn our hearts again, Father, to consider Jesus, who crushed the serpent’s head, and saved His people from their sins. Forgive, cleanse, and restore us for His sake. Amen.

DECLARATION OF PARDON

Arise and hear the Good News! The assurance of pardon today comes from Php 3, which says, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.”

The only thing we bring to our salvation is the sin that makes it necessary. We bring our baggage and Christ gives us His blessing. We bring Him our unpaid dues and fines and He says, “It is finished!” Those were the last words He said on the Cross before He died. In Greek it is just one word, tetelestai and it means, “paid in full.” In other words, Christian, all of your debts have been satisfied in Christ and in Him, God is satisfied with you. In Jesus Christ, your sins are forever, fully, and completely forgiven… THANKS BE TO GOD!

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

day no. 17,128: smooth men and smooth sailing

“When the seas are smooth and the waves are placid, even girly men will sail.” — Joe Rigney, Leadership and Emotional Sabotage

It takes no masculinity to sail on smooth waters. Anyone can do that. Smooth men can take to the smooth seas. When good men provide good times, soft men can skate, but if and when the hard times come, the smooth men slip and fall. They do not have sea legs or any muscle memory of surviving choppy waters to fall back on. They are untested so when the test comes, they fail.

"The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.” — Norman Schwarzkopf

In a good environment, men will need to create artificial adversities in order to stay trim for the real adversities that will inevitably come. If a man does not make some things harder on purpose, he will find out that hard things are much harder by accident. 

Proverbs 24:10

If you faint in the day of adversity, 

your strength is small.

So, lift weights, read books, compose essays, etc... Make things harder sometimes in order to keep your courage from atrophying into something that resembles the structural integrity of a bag of soup.

day no. 17,127: envy is no longer a bad word, it is the password

“Envy was once considered to be one of the seven deadly sins before it became one of the most admired virtues under its new name, 'social justice'.” — Thomas Sowell, The Quest for Cosmic Justice

Envy has gone from being something one is ashamed of to something one boasts in. In other words, envy is no longer concealed and carried, it is brandished on the hip in broad daylight.

"Think what a totally different morality would mean. Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might just as well try to imagine a country where two and two made five." — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

We now live in the land of two and two make five. We have men in women's locker rooms and women in fighter jets. We have empathy for perverts and animosity for parents. We lionize the effeminate while we chastise the masculine. We are ass backwards and full of beans, which is not a pleasant combo. 

We live in a world where envy is not only no longer a bad word, it is now actually the password.