“Heaven Was Opened” (Luke 3:21-4:13)

 “Now, when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, You are my beloved Son; in you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:21-22).

The Son is a unique Man, appointed by God and pleasing to Him.  He was set up from everlasting in the covenant to perfectly obey, so we can be saved. He is the Only One who honored God, and by His obedience, all that BELIEVE have life eternal (Heb 5:8-9).

He pleased God in every aspect of His humanity, even as He pleased the Father from eternity past.  There is no sin, no rebellion, and no fault in Him.  Christ is perfection embodied.

He is assumed to be what He is not by all, but by the Spirit, He illumines us to His beauty, so we can believe - “And Jesus Himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the Son of Heli” (vs23).  He is not Joseph’s son; He is God in the flesh who honored the Father. He is the cause of every blessing and the Surety of the covenant: He, by obedience, was responsible for the sheep, so that we’re saved ENTIRELY because He succeeded (Gen 44:32; Heb 7:22; Heb 13:20-21).  This Man is the Man in whom blessings flow!

Bless God!  He proved the Son faithful, and we can believe on a Hero who conquered sin.  The Son RESISTED Satan at every turn, and we fight off sin believing He earned the grace for us, that the Spirit is ours, not because we are good or have beaten sin before, but because Christ will never fail to save ANY who worship Him, acknowledging His success.

The Son was tempted to take matters into His hands, but He believed God (vs1-4). He was tempted to take the world instead of heaven, but He endured the cross faithfully (vs5-8).  He was tempted to sin, so that grace might abound, and He chose to honor God by the gospel rather than use it to sin (vs9-12).

vs1 Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, vs2  being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry. 3  And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." 4  But Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’" 5  Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6  And the devil said to Him, "All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7  "Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours." 8  And Jesus answered and said to him, "Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’" 9  Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. 10  "For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you,’ 11  "and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’" 12  And Jesus answered and said to him, "It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’"vs13  Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.

He conquered everything, and then had imperfect rest, because Satan would again tempt Him (vs13).  But now, having finished His work of obedience, He SITS in regal splendor, basking in success, and RESTING in His victory.  We who believe have the same end coming. 

Saints, Satan tempts us now, but he shall be destroyed. We shall enter the joy of the Lord and see Him gracious to people that please Him (Matt 25:21).  I please Him now, if I believe.

“Satan Hindered Us” (1 Thess 2:18)

 “Wherefore, we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us” (vs18).

The Lord can’t be hindered in His purpose, but His saints can be hindered by the devil, according to His will. Satan can stop nothing God plans to do, but he can ruin our plans, and we’re to fight against him by knowledge, knowing it was no “accident” but an evil being who hindered us from helping God’s people. 

Remember, therefore, when difficulties come, that we are NOT to quit, as if trouble wasn’t promised - “That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto. For truly, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and you know” (1 Thess 3:3-4).

So many think that Christianity is easy, but early joy gives way to trials, persecutions, and disappointments in doing God’s will (Hos 6:3-4).  I’ve seen many leave the gospel over a man or woman that they were attracted to.  Worshipping God offended the unbeliever, so the professed saint, chose peace in the home and pleasure over the Son.  It is quite foolish.

Don’t think this world is easy or that trouble stops because you’re saved, but PRESS ON to know the Lord and keep on believing Him when difficulties appear.  He who defeated Satan at Calvary, and who cast him out in regeneration, is He that defeats Satan in the day by day struggle (Luke 11:21-22). He cannot tempt or hinder us above what we can handle by God’s power, and there is grace sufficient.  Paul told Timothy, “Be not you therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be you partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God” (2 Tim 1:8). 

There is abundant power to overcome obstacles, so they don’t have to make us fear or quit. They don’t rule God, He accounts for them, and He shall save you from them all, “Who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us” (2 Cor 1:10). Trust God when attacked by Satan, but don’t join teams with him, submitting to his evil will and missing out on your hope.  Don’t leave the fountain of waters for broken cisterns that cannot satisfy or save - “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jer 2:13).  Don’t leave God for Satan, simply because the battle is hot.

Satan deceives you, and peace with him is no peace at all.  You must believe, that in spite of unbelief and sin, God is greater, on your side, and you have power against your foes (2 Kings 6:16).  You will not be defeated, and you will win.

Back to Burdends & Forgiveness Before Sanctification (R. Ortlund)

These two items came from the blog by Ray Ortlund:

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/rayortlund/

“Get back to your burdens”

“Get back to your burdens” (Exodus 5:4).  That’s what the Pharaoh said to God’s people as they groaned under slavery.  It is the devil’s command.  It is the whip he uses to keep his slaves on the plantation.  It is the kingdom of oppression he is working overtime to build.  It is what we used to accept.  Now we fight.

Christian: “Jesus told me, ‘It is finished.’”  Devil: “You believe that because you’re lazy.  Get back to your burdens.”

Christian: “Jesus told me, it was for freedom that he set me free.”  Devil: “That ‘freedom’ is morally unserious.  Get back to your burdens.”

Christian: “Jesus told me he sympathizes with my weaknesses.”  Devil: “True Christians are always victorious.  Get back to your burdens.”

Christian: “Devil, you don’t sound to me like Jesus.  I’m going to free my mind of every burden you impose, to the glory of my Savior.  Get back to your kennel, devil.”

Forgiveness must go before sanctification

“A sense of having our sins forgiven is the mainspring and life-blood of love to Christ. . . . Would the Pharisee know why this woman showed so much love?  It was because she felt much forgiven.  Would he know why he himself had shown his guest so little love?  It was because he felt under no obligation, had no consciousness of having obtained forgiveness, had no sense of debt to Christ. . . . The only way to make men holy is to teach and preach free and full forgiveness through Jesus Christ.  The secret of being holy ourselves is to know and feel that Christ has pardoned our sins.  Peace with God is the only root that will bear the fruit of holiness.  Forgiveness must go before sanctification.”

J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, on Luke 7:36-50.

John Knox the Preacher

This is an extract from a new book by Iain Murray, A Scottish Christian Heritage (416 pp., clothbound, ISBN 085151930X, available from Banner of Truth at www.banneroftruth.org)

If it were to be asked what is the recurring theme in Knox's words and writings the answer is perhaps a surprising one. Sometimes he could be severe, and sometimes extreme. Given the days and the harshness of the persecution he witnessed, it would be understandable if these elements had preponderated in his ministry. But his keynote was of another kind altogether. From the first years that we have anything from his pen, we find him engaged in a ministry of encouragement. It forms the substance of his many letters to his mother-in-law. He handles the doctrines of election and justification as causes for bright joy in believers, 'Your imperfection shall have no power to damn you,' he writes to Mrs Bowes, 'for Christ's perfection is reputed to be yours by faith, which you have in his blood.' 'God has received already at the hands of his only Son all that is due for our sins, and so cannot his justice require or crave any more of us, other satisfaction or recompence for our sins.' He writes to the believers facing suffering and possible death in the reign of Mary Tudor and likens their situation to that of the disciples in the tempest on the lake of Galilee and says, 'Be not moved from the sure foundation of your faith. For albeit Christ Jesus be absent from you (as he was from his disciples in that great storm) by his bodily presence, yet he is present by his mighty power and grace - and yet he is full of pity and compassion.' Or again he writes: 'Stand with Christ Jesus in this day of his battle, which shall be short and the victory everlasting! For the Lord himself shall come in our defence with his mighty power; He shall give us the victory when the battle is most strong; and He shall turn our tears into everlasting joy.'

One thing stands out above all else in the life of John Knox. At many different points in his life we have the comment of individuals who saw him, and the testimony most frequently repeated has to do with one point, namely, the power of his preaching.

One of the first times we hear of Knox's ministry is in a letter of Utenhovius, writing from London to Bullinger in Zurich, on October 12, 1552. He reported how a stranger in London has suddenly caught the public attention: 'Some disputes have arisen within these few days among the bishops, in consequence of a sermon of a pious preacher, chaplain to the duke of Northumberland, preached by him before the King and Council, in which he inveighed with great freedom against kneeling at the Lord's Supper, which is still retained here by the English. This good man, however, a Scotsman by nation, has so wrought upon the minds of many persons, that we may hope some good to the Church will at length arise from it.'

One other account of such preaching is too memorable to be omitted. As already noted, in July 1571 the Queen's party had such power in Edinburgh that Knox was forced to stay in St Andrews for thirteen months. A student there at the time was fifteen-year-old James Melville, and he would see Knox walking to church from the old priory, a staff in one hand and held under his other armpit by a friend, with furs wrapped round his neck. It was the year before his death and his strength was gone. Melville wrote in his Autobiography:

'Of all the benefits I had that year [1571] was the coming of that most notable prophet and apostle of our nation, Mr John Knox, to St Andrews . . . I heard him teach there the prophecy of Daniel that summer and winter following. I had my pen and my little book, and took away such things as I could comprehend. In the opening up of his text he was moderate the space of an half hour; but when he entered to application, he made me so grew [shudder] and tremble, that I could not hold a pen to write.'

Melville says further that Knox had to be lifted up into the pulpit 'where it behoved him to lean at his first entry; but before he had done with his sermon he was so active and vigorous, that he was like to ding that pulpit in blads and fly out of it!'

What made Knox this kind of preacher? He had natural gifts, of course, but not more than some others who never made such an impression. 'I am not a good orator in my own cause,' he once wrote to his mother-in-law. When it came to preaching it was not his own cause. 'It hath pleased God of his superabundant grace to make me, most wretched of many thousands, a witness, minister and preacher.' His authority came from the conviction that preaching is God's work, the message is His word, and he was sure the Holy Spirit would honour it. This was the certainty which possessed him. I do not say there were not moments of doubt, but at the great crises the Holy Spirit so filled him that nothing could deter him and the result was the transformations that occurred even in the most unpromising and hostile circumstances. In the summer of 1559 when he first returned to St Andrews, warning was sent to him by the bishop that if he dared to preach the next Sunday there would be a dozen hand guns discharged in his face. His friends advised delay, but he went ahead and took for his text Christ driving the buyers and sellers out of the temple. The famous painting of the scene by Sir David Wilkie captured something of that day, June 11, 1559, and the effect of it at the time can be seen in the number of priests of the Roman Church who confessed the faith.

It was due to a similar crisis that we have the only sermon Knox ever prepared for publication. The text was Isaiah 26:13-21 and it was preached on August 19, 1565, in St Giles. The previous month Lord Darnley had married Queen Mary and was declared King. Darnley has been described as a man who could be either Catholic or Protestant as it suited him, sometimes he went 'to mass with the Queen and sometimes attended the reformed sermons'. On this particular Sunday he sat listening on a throne in St Giles and, while he was not directly mentioned in the sermon, it so infuriated him that Knox was instantly summoned before the Privy Council and forbidden to preach while the King and Queen were in town. Part of Knox's response was to write down the sermon as fully as he could remember it. It is the only Knox sermon that has survived, and in its conclusion he has these memorable sentences:

'Let us now humble ourselves in the presence of our God, and, from the bottom of our hearts, let us desire him to assist us with the power of his Holy Spirit . . . that albeit we see his Church so diminished, that it shall appear to be brought, as it were, to utter extermination, that yet we may be assured that in our God there is power and will to increase the number of his chosen, even while they be enlarged to the uttermost coasts of the earth.'

Then, at the end of the sermon Knox added this postscript which was also printed: 'Lord, in thy hands I commend my spirit; for the terrible roaring of guns, and the noise of armour, do so pierce my heart, that my soul thirsts to depart. The last of August 1565, at four at afternoon, written indigestly, but yet truly so far as memory would serve.'

The only true explanation of Knox's preaching is in words he applied to others of his fellow countrymen, 'God gave his Holy Spirit to simple men in great abundance.' To read Knox is to be convicted of the smallness of our faith in the power of the Word of God. Unbelief has had too much influence upon us. The modern church needs to relearn the words of 2 Corinthians 4:13; 'We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak.'

The history of the church at the time of the Reformation is a singular reminder to us of how God is in history. Christ is in the church and on the throne - directing and governing all persons and all events. Standing where we do in time, we see Knox's faith in this fact verified, but it was another thing for him to see it in the midst of poverty, when good men were being put to death, and when he endured his twelve years of exile. Yet the truth is that it was the storm of persecution which scattered Christians that was the very means God used to advance his purposes. If Knox had never been a refugee in England he would never have formed the friendships which became so significant in drawing the two long-hostile nations together.

When Knox came back to Scotland in 1559, with his English wife and the English tongue, the world for him was a much bigger place. And it was the exile of Knox and others in Calvin's city which gave Britain the Geneva Bible, the version that was to be the most used through much of the next hundred years. So by persecution the gospel advanced and it was the means by which God forged an international vision and co-operation among his people. Samuel Rutherford surely stated history accurately when he wrote:

'Christ hath a great design of free grace to these lands; but his wheels must move over mountains and rocks. He never yet wooed a bride on earth, but in blood, in fire, and in the wilderness.'

Posted by John Samson on November 13, 2006 06:25 PM