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Mount Hermon - Labor Day Weekend 2009 Bev & I had a wonderful Labor Day weekend at Mount Hermon. Garth & Jen & Kins & Keats drove up from Santa Barbara to join us. The speakers were great -- Allistair Begg of Parkside Church, Cleveland, OH and Rene Schlaepfer from Twin Lakes Church in Aptos CA. After the morning session with Allistair there was a number of elective sessions one could take, so we opted for the one taught by Roger Williams, the executive director of Mount Hermon, whom we had never heard. It turned out to be a huge blessing as we got as much from his teaching as we did from the main speakers. His subject was "a new look at Jesus' parable through the eyes of Middle Eastern culture and traditions. I will try to share a few of the main insights here: *The entire chapter of Luke 15 is one single parable told in 3 stories: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son -- the prodigal. The lost sheep was one of 100; the lost coin was one of 10; the lost son was one of 2. They all tell the same story from different angles -- that God is out searching for the lost. This is an incredible and (in Jesus' time) culturally flabbergasting revelation! * Jesus is telling this story to Pharisees who consider themselves pure in contrast to the tax collectors and sinners Jesus eats with. He is explaining that the righteous don't need saving (tongue in cheek, since the Pharisees think they are righteous). Jesus wants us to know what God is like; he wants us to understand the heart of the Father. The whole parable is told primarily for the benefit of those whose behavior parallels the older brother. *When we read the story of the prodigal son in our Western culture, we color it through the lens of our own experiences and traditions. If the prodigal son was in America, we would say he made an unfortunate choice and we would feel bad for the father and hope that the son eventually returns, but it is something that happens to many families and is not the end of the world. But in Mid-Eastern culture for a son to request his inheritance is unheard of, and he is saying in essence "I want my father dead." *The most likely outcome of a request like that would be public stoning of the son (see Deuteronomy 21:18-21), or at the very best, banishment from the family with no chance of return. And yet the father allows this without a word of complaint, demonstrating incredible love for his son who wants him dead. The Father personally suffers great pain and dramatically demonstrates the nature of God's love - it grants freedom - even the freedom to reject Him. *I had never noticed in vs.12 of Luke 15 that when the younger son said "give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living." It was the custom in that society that the oldest son received twice as much as younger sons, so the oldest son then inherited 2/3 of the family assets and at that point was considered the titular head of the family. He could have turned it down, but he didn't, so by accepting it he was saying the same thing as his younger brother -I want you dead, Dad. *When the son is in the far country, he obviously works for a gentile (whom the Pharisees despise) since he is feeding their pigs. That would be absolutely abhorrent to the Pharisees since that is forbidden to Jews, and would certainly ban him from ever coming back to a Jewish family. *When the father sees him coming down the road, he runs to him. To run would mean to hold up one's robe so his legs are partially exposed, which would be shameful. To run in such a situation in that culture would be unheard of and below the dignity of the head of a household and would be scorned by others in the community. He threw his arms around him and kisses him repeatedly. Culturally, the father should remain aloof and judicial, but Jesus knows a different father! By these actions, the father took upon himself all the shame of the son. Whatever punishment the town elders want to enact on the son must first be done to the father! *The picture of the father is completely counter-cultural and truly shocking to Jesus' audience. Everything the father does is unexpected and scandalous to the "law-focuses" perspective of his listeners. This picture parallels Jesus' actions with the sinners and tax-collectors. Jesus is showing the heart of God who risks his reputation by welcoming sinners and eating with them. In Jesus, God lifted his robes and ran toward lost sons and daughters. In Jesus - on the cross - God took all the shame of his errant and rebellious children. As children of God, we are clothed in the "righteous robes" of Jesus and invited to come boldly before Him -- privileged access to His Throne (Hebrews 4:16) *The heart of the Father toward the older brother is incredible too: He bypasses the disrespect, the bitterness, the arrogance, the insults, the distortion of facts, the scarcasm, and the pain of his son's rejection of a heart-connection. He then uses the most tender word for son - "teknon", which means "cherished, precious one." He assures the older brother of his status and rights - "all I have is yours." He assures him of his love and relationship - "you are always with me." He opens his heart in front of the entire village. "You belong to me not because of your performance, but because I love you, teknon!" *The message to sons who are lawbreakers is "Come home! It's safe because I love you and my grace and forgiveness is sufficient for all your sin." *The message to law-keepers is "Come close! Come into my heart and realize how much I love and treasure you...not what you do. I am a God who is "for you!" Will you let me be the loving, nurturing, equipping, affirming, blessing God I long to be?" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here is a quote by Spurgeon, updated by Allistair Begg in his daily newsletter: The LORD is a jealous and avenging God.-- Nahum 1:2 Believer, your Lord is very jealous of your love. Did He choose you? He cannot bear that you should choose another. Did He buy you with His own blood? He cannot endure that you should think you are your own or that you belong to this world. He loved you with such a love that He would not remain in heaven without you; He would sooner die than have you perish, and He cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart's love and Himself. He is very jealous of your trust. He will not permit you to trust in yourself. He cannot stand the thought of you hewing out broken cisterns and neglecting the overflowing fountain that is always free to you. When we lean upon Him, He is glad; but when we transfer our dependence to another, when we rely upon our own wisdom or the wisdom of a friend-worst of all, when we trust in any works of our own-He is displeased and will chasten us, that He may bring us to Himself. He is also very jealous of our company.
There should be no one with whom we converse so much as with Jesus. To
remain in Him alone, this is true love; but to commune with the world,
to find sufficient satisfaction in our earthly comforts, to even prefer
the company of our fellow Christians to secret fellowship with Him, this
grieves our jealous Lord. He longs to have us abide in Him and enjoy
constant fellowship with Himself; and many of the trials that He sends
us are for the purpose of weaning our hearts from created things and
fixing them more closely on Him who created everything. Let this
jealousy that would keep us near to Christ also be a comfort to us,
for if He loves us so much as to care about our love, we may be sure
that He will allow nothing to harm us and will protect us from all our
enemies. May we have grace today to keep our hearts in holy purity for
Christ alone, with sacred jealousy closing our eyes to all the
fascinations of the world! And another by Spurgeon/Begg He has blessed us in the beloved.What a state of privilege! It includes our justification before God, but the term "blessed" in the Greek means more than that. It signifies that we are the objects of divine satisfaction, even of divine delight. How marvelous that we-worms, mortals, sinners-should be made the objects of divine love! But it is only "in the Beloved." Some Christians seem to be accepted in their own experience-at least that is their apprehension. When their spirit is lively and their hopes bright, they think God accepts them, for they feel so high, so heavenly-minded, so drawn above the earth! But when their souls cleave to the dust, they are the victims of the fear that they are no longer accepted. If they could only see that all their high joys do not exalt them, and all their low despondencies do not really depress them in their Father's sight, but that they stand accepted in One who never alters. This One is always the beloved of God, always perfect, always without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. How much happier they would be, and how much more they would honor the Savior if they could grasp Him! Rejoice then, believer, in this: You are blessed "in the Beloved." You look within, and you say, "There is nothing acceptable here!" But look at Christ, and see if everything is not acceptable there. Your sins trouble you; but God has cast your sins behind His back, and you are accepted and blessed in the Righteous One. You have to fight with corruption and wrestle with temptation, but you are already accepted in Him who has overcome the powers of evil. The devil tempts you, but be of good cheer-he cannot destroy you, for you are accepted in Him who has broken Satan's head. Know by full assurance your glorious standing. Even glorified souls are not more accepted than you are. They are only blessed in heaven "in the Beloved," and you are even now blessed in Christ after the same manner. And another... Just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.-- Romans 3:26 Being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Conscience no longer accuses. Judgment now decides for the sinner instead of against him. Memory looks back upon past sins with deep sorrow for the sin, but yet without dreading any penalty to come; for Christ has paid the debt of His people to the last jot and tittle and received the divine receipt. Unless God can be so unjust as to demand double payment for one debt, no soul for whom Jesus died as a substitute can ever be cast into hell. It seems to be one of the principles of our enlightened nature to believe that God is just; we feel that it must be so, and this terrifies us at first. But is it not marvelous that this very same belief that God is just later becomes the pillar of our confidence and peace! If God is just, I, a sinner, alone and without a substitute, must be punished. But Jesus stands in my place and is punished for me; and now, if God is just, I, a sinner, standing in Christ, can never be punished. God must change His nature before one soul for whom Jesus was a substitute can ever by any possibility suffer the punishment of the law. Therefore, Jesus having taken the place of the believer-having rendered a full equivalent to divine wrath for all that His people ought to have suffered as the result of sin-the believer can shout with glorious triumph, "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?"1 Not God, for He has justified; not Christ, for He has died, yes, has risen again. My hope lives not because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, He is my righteousness. My faith rests not upon what I am or shall be or feel or know, but in what Christ is, in what He has done, and in what He is now doing for me. Hallelujah! 1Romans 8:33 And another... And if the leprous disease has covered all his body, he shall pronounce him clean of the disease.
This regulation appears to be very strange, but there was wisdom in it, for the throwing out of the disease proved that the constitution was sound. This morning it may be well for us to see the typical teaching of this singular principle. We, too, are lepers and may read the law of the leper as applicable to ourselves. When a man sees himself to be completely lost and ruined, covered all over with the defilement of sin, and with no part free from pollution, when he disclaims all righteousness of his own and pleads guilty before the Lord, then is he clean through the blood of Jesus and the grace of God. Hidden, unfelt, unconfessed iniquity is the true leprosy, but when sin is seen and felt it has received its death blow, and the Lord looks with eyes of mercy upon the soul afflicted with it. Nothing is more deadly than self-righteousness or more hopeful than contrition. We must confess that we are nothing else but sin, for no confession short of this will be the whole truth. And if the Holy Spirit is at work within us, convincing us of sin, there will be no difficulty in making such an acknowledgment-it will spring spontaneously from our lips. What comfort this text provides to those under a deep sense of sin! Sin mourned and confessed, however deep and foul, will never shut a man out from the Lord Jesus. "Whoever comes to me I will never cast out."1 Though dishonest as the thief, though immoral as the woman who was a sinner, though fierce as Saul of Tarsus, though cruel as Manasseh, though rebellious as the prodigal, the great heart of love will look upon the man who feels himself to have no health in him and will pronounce him clean when he trusts in Jesus crucified. Come to Him, then, poor heavy-laden sinner. Come needy, come guilty, come loathsome 1John 6:37 And still another... Infants in Christ.Are you mourning, believer, because your spiritual life is so weak, because your faith is so small, your love so feeble? Cheer up because you have reason to be grateful. Remember that in some things you are equal to the greatest and most mature Christian.
And still another:
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