The Truth Will Set You Free

October 29, 2024.

31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.[b]”

-John 1:31-38 (NIV)

You probably heard it said, “The world is the Devil’s playground” and indeed that’s true.  John 12:31 says the devil is the prince of this world, but that he will be driven out!  And since the world under the Devil’s rule is full of lies, it’s hard to distinguish what’s true and not true.  Actually I can safely say that any source can be a potential lie except scripture!  Christians, if we cannot automatically and safely say all scripture as God’s Word cover to cover (the Bible) is inspired, inerrant and infallible, then this message dies on the spot.  If that is your position, then I’m saddened to say there are bigger things in life you’re wrestling with and God’s judgment comes for all of us.  However and if your basic and foundational position is that indeed all of scripture is inspired, inerrant and infallible, then we can continue this journey. 

And in case anyone hasn’t been paying attention yet, our church has a monumental vote happening this coming November 3rd, 2024.  We need EVERYONE to vote (member or adherent regardless of time spent in the church).

Our humble congregation is voting on whether to depart from the Presbyterian Church in Canada (PCC) or stay.  We have one chance and one shot to vote only, with no proxy votes!  Surprisingly, some people are confused as to why the majority of us are desiring to depart from the PCC.  To make it 100% clear, we are departing to uphold God’s Word as inspired, infallible and inerrant and we believe the PCC is not holding these values.  As a result of not holding these values, the PCC has now changed their definition of marriage.

The Presbyterian Church in Canada holds two parallel definitions of marriage and recognizes that faithful, Holy Spirit-filled, Christ-centered, God honouring people can understand marriage as a covenant relationship between a man and a woman or as a covenant relationship between two adults.[i]

The definition of marriage has never changed in 2000+ years of God’s Word and the Church.  God doesn’t make mistakes and because this is God’s holy and authoritative word (2 Tim. 3:16-17) as Christians we know his Word still stands with marriage and human sexuality.  Moreover this is one of the moral laws (different from civic and ceremonial laws) – I can talk more about the differences later, but typically moral laws were designed for human flourishing ongoing whereas civic and ceremonial laws delineated the ancient Israelite people from the rest of the pagan world, and they ended in Old Testament times.  Furthermore I know Jesus Christ and his disciples were not wrong and especially since Jesus is God in human flesh (1 John 4:1-3), and neither was anyone else in scripture wrong because scripture was ultimately written by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21).  From the more liberal persuaded people of the marriage and human sexuality topic, I’ve heard all kinds of theological gymnastics about this topic and every time it’s referenced in scripture, comments such as the following can be heard:

“When it’s mentioned here, it’s talking about conquest and/or pederasty.”

“When it’s mentioned here, it’s talking about temple prostitution rituals.”

“When it’s mentioned here, it’s talking about the pagan culture around them and not an instruction and command for God’s people.”

“When it’s mentioned here, it’s referring to that and other Israelite commands that don’t apply to us today.”

“When it’s mentioned here, it’s a part of a patron/benefactor relationship.”

“When it’s mentioned here, it’s referring to a conquest ritual situation.”

“When it’s mentioned here, it’s referring to a lack of hospitality.”

And finally I even heard, “Jesus never talked about the LGBT topic.”

They’re all untrue statements but the latter two might be the most insidious because they tell partial truths and a half truth is a full lie!

The lack of hospitality usually refers to the Sodom and Gomorrah story in Genesis 19, from the viewpoint of Eze. 16:49, but completely ignoring Jude 1:7 and the rest of scripture.  Furthermore, Jesus also didn’t specifically mention the LGBT group of people, because he even raised the bar higher and included the LGBT people, those that indulge in bestiality, those that practice polygamy, and every other type of union in Matt. 19:5/Mark 10:8 with one man and one woman being described.  Elsewhere in scripture there are many descriptions of the bride being the true Church with his true and faithful followers and the bridegroom in Jesus Christ (Eph. 5:24, Eph. 5:25-27, 2 Cor. 11:2, Rev. 19:7-9, Rev. 21:1-2).  The analogy doesn’t work when we compare two men in a union, two women in a union or other non-traditional forms of marriage because that would then mean two true Churches or two true Jesus Christs if you catch my drift.  There is only one true Church and one true Saviour that complement each other in a God blessed union and the highest form of human flourishing can only be addressed in a traditional form of marriage.

Let’s also make another thing clear because over and over again I keep hearing confusion about this: I am not demonizing anyone supporting or involved in a non-traditional relationship or marriage.  Timothy Keller once said, “Everyone says they want community and friendship. But mention accountability or commitment to people, and they run the other way.”  We are accountable to God, his Word found in scripture and each other, and we are a part of God’s body living in the community of his faithful followers in the Church.  Morever and to paraphrase another one of his sayings with regards to church, “Everyone is welcome to come as they are, but everyone is not welcome to stay as they are.”  We all have sins that the Bible clearly defines as a sin and this is God’s standards, not man  that we have to abide by.  That being said, I love and welcome everyone, but I must uphold all of God’s Word for human flourishing and for God’s glorification.

Our passage in John 1:31-38 talks about holding the teachings of Jesus and from this truth, knowing the truth will set us free!  Listen to that carefully again.  Jesus is not saying “a truth” as if there are other truths out there.  Jesus is saying “the truth” as in the only, and one source of ultimate truth found in him and his teachings (John 14:6).  The people he confronted about the truth were the Pharisees, teachers of the law and others around him.  They tried to argue being born of Abraham’s lineage (a physically inherited property) was worthy of merit.  Jesus sets the record straight with Nicodemus later on in John 3:3 telling Nicodemus that he must be born again (or born from above/heaven).  In both instances, Jesus nulls any sort of a physically inherited property, merit, orientation or challenge.  Moreover it doesn’t matter what we’re born with or not born with and that we all must be born again spiritually!  Don’t let us be fooled.  We all have to lay down our sins and lay down our lives for Jesus and the saving gospel power and message he brings.  The Holy Spirit enables us to do so (1 Cor. 6:9-11).  The truth (the word of God) described as a sword may hurt at first but healing comes after (Heb. 4:12) – that sword pierces, it cuts and it cuts-out any decaying matter/sinful behaviour so that healing can happen, lest sin overtakes us like a plague with a 100% mortality rate.

As Christians we must not bow down to the ways and trends of the world (Rom. 12:1-2) and we will uphold all of scripture.  This is why we are departing the PCC!  The truth will set you free!  We need your attendance and we need your vote on Sunday, November 3, 2024! 

[i] Marriages and weddings. The Presbyterian Church in Canada. (2024, October 28). https://presbyterian.ca/gao/marriages-and-weddings/#:~:text=The%20Presbyterian%20Church%20in%20Canada%20holds%20two%20parallel%20definitions%20of,covenant%20relationship%20between%20two%20adults.

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The Golden Age

October 22, 2024.

28 I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”

29 Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. 30 Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

31 “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. 32 “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

-John 16:28-33 (NIV)

I’ve been told the ‘golden age’ of church life in North America happened in the 50s.  USC today reported that “the period from 1955-58, almost half of All Americans were attending church – the highest percentage in U.S. history.  During the 1950s, nationwide church membership grew at a faster rate than the population, from 57% of the U.S. population in 1950 to 63.3 percent in 1960.”[1]  Some people in our church are still alive since that time and still remember those days.  While this is a statistic from American pew research, I’ve been told that Canadian church attendance had similar statistics during the same time period.  Growing church attendance by more than 50% in a decade is a pretty shocking rate – wait a minute!  Our beloved St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Moncton has grown by at least 200% in about 3 years time or less!  Let that number sink in with you!  And I’ll be honest, numbers don’t mean anything unless there is serious spiritual maturity with the numeric growth!  I think one of Jon Dykeman’s favourite sayings is, “God is doing a good work here at St. Andrew’s” and I would concur.  Still, there are some people that long for the “good ol’ days” and want to be back in times when women wore fascinators in their hair, or large brimmed hats and when men would dress in three-piece suits and polished dress shoes, and when we would all sing with the chimes of a grand organ.  I admit, there’s a lot of greatness about that era, but it was far from perfect.  Much like today, there might’ve been a lot more “cultural Christians” that went to church out of habit rather than majestic and God sovereign calling in communal worship.

Why is this important to us?  I believe as Christians in the west, we’ve had it far too easy for too long.  When Christianity became institutionalized in Christendom, we’ve forgotten the price that our spiritual ancestors paid.  We’ve forgotten the dire need to evangelize.  We’ve forgotten that to our spiritual ancestors, the gospel was the number one priority in life, such that so many of God’s followers were compelled to leave home and give-up everything in pursuit of our triune God (Old and New Testament).  We’ve forgotten that no matter the cost, the pursuit of Jesus Christ is greater, and we’ve forgotten that indeed there is trouble in the world!  The global Church has always been troubled, had hardships and been persecuted.  Men and women have died for their faith and gave up all they had for God and his people.  Even within our church history, we’ve had two fires that burned down two church buildings and we’re still alive and well. 

People have sold properties, delayed mortgage and car payments on account of the gospel.  People have donated clothes, food, time and prayers on account of the gospel.  And yet others sit idle.  For the givers, donors and tithers, I hear your frustrations on dealing with the departing terms of the PCC.  For the ones that are praying constantly, I hear your stress about unfairness and injustice.  For the ones that have helped pay for someone’s rent, food purchases, and clothes to keep our community people healthy and stable, I hear your concerns as well.  For the ones that are tired and near burned-out thinking church is under hardship and nothing like it was in the “golden age” - do I have your attention now?  All of this matters in God’s eyes, and we all need to remember that Jesus has overcome the world!  He will enable us to continue and he will enable and equip us to not just survive, but thrive!  We do not worship a God that is dead.  We do not worship a failed king – but we worship the Lord, God almighty!  My plea to you is, keep it up because you have what it takes, but trust in God to do so!  We are not in the golden age, because there was never a such a thing while on this earth, because this world is full of troubles!  We must remain the church and build up Gods kingdom on this earth.  Jesus has always equipped us to do so in the past, so why should now be any different?        

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[1] Tucker, C. (2023, October 5). The 1950s - powerful years for religion. USC Today. https://today.usc.edu/the-1950s-powerful-years-for-religion/#:~:text=Churches%20and%20schools%20were%20being,highest%20percentage%20in%20U.S.%20history.

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Held to Account

October 15, 2024.

10 He also says, “In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.  11 They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. 12 You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed.  But you remain the same, and your years will never end.”  13 To which of the angels did God ever say, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?  14 Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?
-Hebrews 1:10-14 (NIV)

Here's a thought to keep us up at night.  At least It keeps me up at times.  Did you know you’re being watched 24/7?  Yes, God watches your every move and knows your every thought, but in addition to that, God sends angels to serve you for his glory sake and that also implies they’re watching you as well.  Think about this: one day we’ll all have to give an account for our time on God’s earth.  You’re all held accountable!  Furthermore, and when we become a Christian, God sends certain angels to minister and serve his faithful people (Heb. 10:14).  I don’t know about you, but that thought not only deters any sinful behaviour I may want to dive into, but it also drives me further into remorse and repentance after any sins I’ve committed.  Not only will you have to give an account of your thoughts, words and actions, but angels will also do the same and they too will tell of your life story to our God.  Angels are trying to help you to become more Jesus Christ-like, and every time we fall into temptation, we are grieving the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30) and we’re actively working against God’s plan for salvation and sanctification.  These angels (with God) are witnesses so that we may carry out all of God’s instructions (1 Tim. 5:21), even though God already knows all, and are actually presently giving an account of his young children (physical and spiritual) to God (Matt. 18:10).  Also and in some cases, if we are not obedient to God, God will allow Satan to have a stronger presence (removing protection from angels), to torment and punish (sometimes till death) until that person is saved in the end (1 Cor. 5:4-5).

….but some of you may be wondering, “Pastor David, Christianity is not about good deeds and we cannot earn salvation.  Isn’t that right?”  That is true!  It’s also true that obedience and allegiance is not the gospel and does not produce salvation.  Obedience and allegiance is not the gospel, but it’s a product of the gospel!  If you’re really a born again Christian, you will continue to be obedient and you will continue to be allegiant to Jesus Christ and to Christ alone!  I get it, there are varying degrees of obedience and even Paul himself admitted he struggles with sin and doing the right thing (Rom. 7:15-20), but at the end of the day take a sobering look at your life and examine the account of your life.  Are you becoming more Jesus Christ-like each and every day?  Are you deepening in a relationship with Jesus Christ and are you enjoying your deepening relationship with Jesus?  Are you agreeing more with the teachings of Christ or are you disagreeing more?  The things that scripture says are good, do you agree that they’re good and the things scripture says to avoid and hate, are you avoiding and hating them? (Rom. 12:9).  I don’t know about you, but I got a whole laundry list of absolutely dirty and filthy things I’ve done when I look at my past.  I just thank God for saving me, finding me, and seeing me for who I am today - and thank God I am a new creation today (2 Cor. 5:17) and thank God that I am no longer a sinner, but I’m now a saint that sins! – and this is a world of a difference, and that can only be proclaimed through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross and his resurrection!  My account is not spotless, but Jesus’ account for me is!  My sins are washed away completely and thank God for that! – just don’t take it for granted!  You are saved to live righteously, not unrighteously!

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A Healthy Fear

October 8, 2024.

David again brought together all the able young men of Israel—thirty thousand. 2 He and all his men went to Baalah in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the ark. 3 They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart 4 with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it. 5 David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with castanets, harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals.  6 When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. 7 The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God.

-2 Samuel 6:1-7 (NIV)

Arguably one of the greatest problems facing modern Christianity today is a lack of reverence, awe and fear of God.  Prov. 9:10 tells us, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”  I’m convinced the more we understand the fear of the Lord, the more we clearly see God through Jesus Christ!....and here’s a hint: We need each other to help each other see Jesus more clearly, with the help of God.  Prov. 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

That being said and for the most part, many Christians have either partially or fully lost their healthy fear of the Lord, and it’s indeed healthy to fear the Lord!  Now before we dive into the 2 Samuel 16:1-7 passage, may I also remind you that 1 Samuel 2:2, 2 Samuel 22:32 and Psalm 18:31 all describes our Lord as unique and above all creation, in addition to being the Rock!  There are some that have difficulty reconciling the behaviour of God in the Old Testament to the New Testament.  Some people see the God of the Old Testament as vengeful, brutal and perhaps even blood thirsty versus God in the New Testament as kind, gentle, patient and caring, and especially as displayed through Jesus Christ.  Let me tell you that because God is described as the Rock, this means he does not change and the God of the  universe is the same in the Old Testament, New Testament and beyond for all eternity.

I hope by now you’re starting to see the relevancy to our 2 Samuel 6:1-7 passage.  The type of behaviour from God in this passage is very similar to God acting in the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11.  In both cases there was a lack of reverence, awe and fear of God and shockingly, God didn’t spare lives in his judgment.  It’s shocking because we’re not typically used to God’s righteous wrath revealed.  In 2 Samuel 4, we know that the Philistines fought against the Israelites and stole the ark of the covenant.  With God’s blessing, David managed to fight back and retrieve the ark.  Can you imagine the excitement and joy after defeating the Philistines and retrieving this holy container that housed God’s holy commands (the Ten Commandments tablets)?  Not only did it contain the holy Ten Commandments tablets written by the very finger of God, it also contained manna and Aaron’s staff symbolizing God’s blessing (Hebrews 9:4).  Furthermore it represented a physical space where God would meet and communicate with the Israelites.  This container (the arc of the covenant) with its contents was so important and was so supremely consecrated as holy, God only appointed the Levites to touch it, and appointed the Kohathites to carry it on poles (but not touch it) when the Israelites were ready to move.

By the time we get to 2 Samuel 6:1-7, on the surface it appeared Uzzah had good intentions by picking up the ark of the covenant since the oxen stumbled and he wanted to help their journey back to Jerusalem.  There was just one massive problem – none of them were supposed to touch the ark of the covenant or even bring it back.  They were not Kohathites and Levites.  As a result, God took Uzzah’s life on the spot with his righteous wrath!  This scene is jarring and jaw dropping.

How does this story apply to us?  When’s the last time you approached God in worship with the level of reverence, awe and fear that God truly deserves?  Thank goodness we can approach God directly  through Jesus Christ and thank goodness since the coming of the Holy Spirit and beyond, the bodies of believers are living temples (1  Cor. 6:19) and not relating to artifacts associated with a tabernacle or temple worship.  Still, many of us lost that healthy fear!  Too often we come to church on a Sunday and we expect to be entertained, walk away with a false and shallow feeling of happiness or comfort or just keep focusing on what I get out of church and communal worship.  When’s the last time we came to church and thought, “What does God get out of my worship?” This question focuses on what pleases God and not what pleases us.  That’s true worship and that’s true Christianity!  When did we get this mixed-up? I have no idea, but too many people stop coming to church for all kinds of reasons and I wish that were not so.  Furthermore, I know too many people actually come to church for all kinds of reasons too, and not necessarily to worship God through Jesus Christ.  Both are extreme danger zones if you ask me.

May you approach God and, “…continue to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” (Phil. 2:12-13).

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A Letter to the Church

October 1, 2024.

“To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.  4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
-Revelation 3:1-6 (NIV)

There are so many great things happening in the life of St. Andrew’s today!  The other day I had a great meeting with various ministry leaders in our congregation and for over an hour, we’re talking about successes and challenges of our congregation and surrounding communities.  I realized that what we were all talking about is actually growth!  Is our church perfect? No!  Is it a place full of fully sanctified people?  You’ll never find such a place on God’s green earth – and naturally with growth comes growing pains!  However, we should really take a few moments to celebrate in the ways we’re growing.

At the same time though, let’s be honest with ourselves.  Are we all actually growing spiritually and becoming more Jesus Christ-like?  I can safely say the answer is a resounding ‘yes’ for many people, but for everyone I’m hesitant to blurt out that answer.  Moreover, even though it seems that we’re growing as a whole (in number and spiritual maturity), if Jesus Christ wrote a letter to us as St. Andrew’s Church what would the letter say?  Are we so sure this letter would only mention positive things?

Are we building a mere outside appearance of genuine growth or is there actually decay inside the four walls of our church and within our individual lives?  What would a letter from Jesus say about us?  The messenger of Jesus gave a surprising letter to the church of Sardis.  Verse 1 mentions they had a reputation of being alive, but were actually quite dead!  Straight and to the point, the immediate next phrase said, “Wake up!”  Immediately I see a parallel to that of the Pharisees.  In Matthew 23:27, Jesus calls the teachers of the law in those times and Pharisees, “whitewashed tombs” in that they were beautiful and clean on the outside, but very dead on the inside.  On the outside they looked like they were doing all the right things to live-out their spiritual lives, but in reality they wanted no part of Jesus Christ.  This is a great danger and warning for anyone! – Wake up!

To give you more context about Sardis and the church in Sardis, in biblical times Sardis was the capital of the Lydian empire and one of the greatest cities of the ancient world.  It was known for garment manufacturing, which included harvesting and dying wool.  By this we know the city to be quite prosperous, but the church was not, even though it had the reputation of being that way.  Sure, there were some signs of life (verse 2), but as a whole, the church was dead!  And I don’t want our church to be that way!  In fact, I don’t want anyone to be that way.  I don’t want any of us to have an outward appearance of sainthood and inwardly we’re rotting away.  Being authentic in our faith journeys is key. 

Much like the church of Sardis, we do have unfinished work.  Jesus urges this church (and us) to have the heart of repentance.  We cannot expect real and sustained growth if we are not in the continual process of repenting.  I mentioned it’s a process right?  Acknowledging the sins in our lives with sober vision is not repentance.  Confessing our sins to God (and each other) is not repentance either.  Changing our mind and lifestyle to submit to all of Jesus Christ’s reign and teachings is – and actually it includes all of the above as well – and that is a tremendous and lifelong process.  My hope and prayer is that we will continually live as saints authentically, and not being soiled in our reputation or actual character.  And let’s be mature about this.  Let’s help each other to live our lives in repentance with grace and dignity.  None of us is perfect and let’s not treat each other as if though any of us has leprosy (untouchable/don’t be around that person).  At the end of the day and if Jesus Christ ever wrote a letter to our church, I want that letter to say, “Well done good and faithful servants” just as I want Jesus to say that about us as individuals as well.

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