Rooted & Unwithered

Dead Men Preaching is a monthly series aimed at bringing sermons from the past into the ears of the present. This month's sermon is by Charles Spurgeon on Hebrews 4:12: "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

How can three be one and one be three? There is the profundity and the grand mystery that must be received by faith. Of course, if God really is infinite, then we should not expect to be able to fully explain every aspect of His divinity. Rather, we ought to bow our heads in humble gratitude that He would reveal such a marvelous truth to us at all.

While each individual Christian certainly still has the freedom to shop at Target, would it not be best to abstain? What witness might your abstinence display personally, and what witness might Christians display collectively? After all, denouncement by refusal to participate can be a powerful cultural witness, just ask Daniel and his friends.

That day is swiftly coming. Indeed, even if Christ does not return for another millennia, each of us will surely see His face, in either grace or judgment, within the next century.

To belong to God’s people in this life is a visible testament that we will stand in the day of judgment numbered among those whom God has redeemed and made righteous.

Again, the wicked are not so. They do not yield fruit in season for the benefit of others; instead, they only hinder the good of others until they are at last driven away.

The prosperity described within this psalm runs far deeper than our bank accounts or physical possessions can ever go. Indeed, this prosperity is guaranteed in Christ to even the poorest of believers.

Since our church will soon begin to go through the New City Catechism as a part of Lord’s Day worship, I hope to increase my own use of the instructional resource by writing out meditations upon each question. I also hope that those meditations will be worth sharing here to stimulate your own meditation upon each doctrine. May the Holy Spirit, who “convicts us of our sin, comforts us, guides us, gives us spiritual gifts and the desire to obey God” (Q37), do so in our hearts as we set our gaze upon knowing God’s Word through the New City Catechism.

These are certainly not exhaustive and will undoubtedly be tweaked as our daughter continues to grow and we gain two more little ones. Therefore, I do not offer these up as an aged guru whose journey is complete but as a fellow traveler pointing out whatever provisions or snares that I see along the way.

Are these things true of you? Does your life bring forth the fruits of the Spirit or the fruits of the flesh (see Galatians 5:19-21)? Are you also bearing your fruit in its season? Are you keeping in step with where the Spirit has you, or are you like a horse or mule that “must be curbed with bit and bridle” to stay near (Psalm 32:9)?

Dead Men Preaching is a monthly series aimed at bringing sermons from the past into the ears of the present. This month's sermon is by G. Campbell Morgan on Mark 11:27 through the end of chapter 12.

Perhaps we are looking at the whole thing from the wrong angle. Instead of being afraid of how intelligent AI is becoming, maybe we should take warning of how artificial we are becoming.

Blessed are those whose delight in God’s law is evidenced by their constant chewing and tasting of its eternal truths.

It is our responsibility as parents to instruct our children how to guard against the wiles of the world while also preserving their innocence. We do our children no favor by presenting a fantasy of the world as harmless to our children.

Blessed are those who delight in God’s law, for by it they behold the Blessed One.

That is the question that every preacher must ask, and he must answer that question for himself in accordance with the wisdom of the Spirit. I know plenty of faithful fellow preachers on both sides of the question. Even so, here is my experience attempting to answer the question.

Blessed are those who turn away from the seat of scoffers, choosing to prize rather than ridicule the wisdom of God.

Wise men and women somberly, but boldly, look death in the face, praying for God’s grace to keep them from wasting their limited time here on earth.

God’s execution of judgment upon the gods of Egypt was not simply upon an abstraction but upon the actual demons that reveled in such worship. The LORD judged them by exposing them as the frauds, the vanities, that they are. They called themselves divine, masquerading as being sovereign over particular domains of creation, yet Yahweh displayed with each sign that He “is the blessed and only Sovereign” (1 Timothy 6:15).

Proverbs 1-9 and Song of Songs certainly can be seen as giving a similar message with emphasis toward boys and girls respectively. Yet rather than seeing Proverbs 31 as a boy-centered conclusion to Proverbs, I believe it provides a significant meeting of those two themes.

These six principles that governed how Henry commented upon Scripture should, likewise, govern how we read Scripture.

Preached January 26, 2020

Preached January 19, 2020

Preached January 12, 2020

A common assumption seems to be that forgiveness of a debt means simply wiping it out of existence altogether as if it never happened at all. Unfortunately, that is not how debt works.

Preached on January 5, 2020 

Grumbling, like all other sins, brings judgment and destruction. Yet the danger with grumbling is that, again, it comes naturally to us all as well as being so easy to excuse and even justify. For example, have you ever began to complain by saying something like "I just need to vent for a minute"? Or maybe you end by saying facetiously, "Sorry for the rant!" What is really being said is, "Grant me moral immunity to grumble for a moment."

While the culture war continues to rage, I would like to very briefly ask my brothers and sisters in Christ to poke our heads above the fray of headlines and to consider the years ahead and how they might impact our actions today.

After last reading of the pilgrims’ assault and triumph over Giant Despair and of their coming to the Delectable Mountains and what the Shepherds there revealed to them, we come now to the end of their journey and to the end of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. In these final pages, the company meets two more worthy pilgrims, Mr. Valiant-for-truth and Mr. Steadfast. They also pass through the Enchanted Ground into Beulah Land, where Christiana and many others are summoned to cross the River Death into the Celestial City.

In our previous reading, Christiana and her ever-increasing company of pilgrims added Feeble-mind and Ready-to-Halt as well as Gaius' daughter, Phoebe, as James' wife. They then came to the town of Vanity and stayed in the house of Mnason, finding the town much less hostile to pilgrims that it was during Christian’s time. While staying there, Great-heart and several other worthy men fought back a great monster that had periodically plagued the town. In our present reading, the pilgrims continue on their journey, where they fight against Giant Despair and come after to the Shepherds upon the Delectable Mountains.

When we last left Christiana and her companions, they added another pilgrim to their party, an older man named Honest, and then came upon the house of Gaius, where they were able to stay for over a month. We pick up the story once more with the pilgrims still resting in Gaius' house. Here we will read of how Gaius employed Great-heart's service in ridding the land of a fearsome giant named Slay-good, how they met another pilgrim named Feeble-mind, and how, after leaving Gaius, they came to the town of Vanity and of what they found there.

Having previously ventured through the Valleys of Humiliation and the Shadow of Death and defeated the giant Maul in combat, we continue onward with the pilgrims' journey. Over the course of this stage, they meet a fellow pilgrim named Honest, who recounts for them the pilgrimages of Mr. Fearing and Mr. Self-will. Lastly, they are greeted warmly into the home of Gaius.

In our previous reading, the pilgrims left the Arbour and passed by the dread of the giant Grim to come to the Porter's Lodge called Beautiful. There they resided for more than a month. In this week's pages, we read of the pilgrims' next stage of their journey, wherein they must pass through the valleys of humiliation and the shadow of death.

In our previous reading, Christiana and the other pilgrims came to Interpreter's House, where they were given a warm and joyful welcome since Interpreter had already received word that Christian's family had finally become pilgrims themselves. Having shown the travelers a number of lessons, they were ready again to set out. In these pages, the pilgrims come to the place of deliverance and discuss the imputation of righteousness, come upon men hanged as a warning, and start up the hill of difficulty.

In our previous reading, Christiana, her four sons, and Mercy set forth upon their journey and entered through the Wicket-Gate. Though Mercy was fearful of being rejected for not having a received a letter from the King as Christiana had, the Keeper assured her of her acceptance. In our present section, the pilgrims continue along the path and, after escaping an assault, come the house of Interpreter, where they are shown many illustrations that will serve to instruct them for the remainder of their travels.

Last week, we began our journey reading through the second part of the Pilgrim's Progress. There we met Christiana, Christian's wife, as she wrestled with the guilt of having mocked Christian's desire to become a pilgrim. After some visions in the night and a visit from Secret, Christiana resolved to set forth for the Celestial City herself taking her four sons with her. Our previous reading then closed with Christiana's dialogue with her neighbor Mrs. Timorous, who tried to persuade her not to become a pilgrim.

In our present passage, Christiana sets out on her journey with her four children and her young neighbor Mercy, who fears that she will not be permitted to pass through the Wicket-gate because she received no invitation from the King.

As we begin reading Part II, we are greeted again by Bunyan who transmits this story to us as the sharing of his dream, and from the very first paragraph, we discover the subject of this tale: Christian's wife and children that he left behind in the City of Destruction.

A few weeks ago, I dreamed a disturbing dream.

As with many dreams, I cannot recall the context nor the setting in great detail, yet Tiff and I were eating a meal with others. We were eating meat, which I came to realize was not beef or pork but human. Everyone at the table ate without hesitation, viewing it no different than any other form of meat. I too ate but with some reservation. Deeply embedded within me, I sensed that something was wrong, that something was erroneous. As I debated, still eating, whether I should ask Tiff later if she felt the same, I awoke.

Having only been blown off course of our initial projected reading schedule by two weeks, we come now to the conclusion of the first part of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. Here Christian and Hopeful conclude their pilgrimage and finally arrive at their eternal home in the Celestial City. Of course, while this is the conclusion of Christian's journey, Bunyan wrote a sequel about Christian's wife, Christiana, and after a hiatus for the remainder of July and August, we will begin our study of her pilgrimage in September.

As we last noted, the content of the ninth stage of Christian's journey was too large for me to adequately capture in one week. Thus, we previously discussed the first half of the stage, particularly Little-faith, Flatterer, and Atheist. Moving on the second half, we shall discuss the Enchanted Ground, Hopeful's testimony, and Ignorance.

The previous stage took Christian and Hopeful into both the heights and depths of life, which very often do occur back-to-back as Bunyan has described. Now, as has been the pattern since the Valley of Humiliation, Bunyan follows a stage of much action with a stage of much conversation. In the ninth stage, which is bookended by their encounters with Ignorance, the two pilgrims tell the story of Little-Faith, are led into a snare by Flatterer, and enter into the Enchanted Ground. This is the largest reading that we have covered yet, and I soon realized that there was far too much to discuss over the course of one week. Thus, we will break our discussion of this stage into two parts.

There will be no post on The Pilgrim's Progress this week.

The 8th Stage lies still before us with its classic description of Christian and Hopeful being caught in the grip of Giant Despair. Given the ever-growing depression and anxiety rates today, our society as a whole seems to be similarly locked in Doubting Castle.

With such a heavy and needed discussion paired with my preparation to preach Mark 10:13-16 (a passage equally heavy and needed), I have found that my mind has had the mental space to only focus on one of the two. And sermons always get the right of way.

Use this week, therefore, as an opportunity to catch up with the readings if needed or to read ahead if that suits you best.

After witnessing the death of his fellow companion, Faithful, under a faux trial at Vanity Fair, our last reading ended with Christian escaping from his cell and setting back on his journey, singing in honor of his victorious brother. Along this stage of Christian's pilgrimage, he is joined by a new companion named Hopeful, and the pilgrims navigate their encounters with By-ends and Demas.

After Talkative's departure, Christian and Faithful continue on to the next stage of their journey. In this week's reading, the two pilgrims meet with Evangelist who prepares them for the suffering and even death that awaits them in the town called Vanity. Once in Vanity Fair, the pilgrims are mocked, arrested, tried, and Faithful is martyred for the faith.

Having passed through the Valleys of Humiliation and the Shadow of Death, Christian's journey marches onward. On this leg of his travels, we have two distinct parts. First, Christian begins to walk with Faithful and hears of his pilgrimage thus far. Second, Faithful has a dialogue with another traveler named Talkative.

Our reading picks up with Christian setting out from his stay at the House Beautiful. Discretion, Prudence, Piety, and Charity accompany him down to the foot of the hill, the beginning of the Valley of Humiliation. Here Christian discovered a different kind of difficulty. Scaling the Hill of Difficulty left Christian ascending slowly upon his hands and knees, but descending can be just as perilous as the ascent. Indeed, despite Prudence's warning and Christian's wariness, "he caught a slip or two" (59). We should take heed that it is often after a time of rest, peace, and joy that the Tempter strikes hardest, hoping to catch us unprepared. This, of course, is exactly what befell Christian, as Apollyon came to meet him.

We ended our first week's reading with Christian being sent back to the narrow path toward the wicket-gate by Evangelist. In our present reading, Christian enters the gate, has a brief conversation with Goodwill, and then is given much to meditate upon by Interpreter.

Entertainment producers like Disney, after all, have a tremendous financial incentive for lodging their characters into the imagination of children. Of course, the more fully they are able to catechize children into their narratives the more merchandise they are then able to sell. Yet on an even deeper level, if their tales can become core components of the child’s childhood, then he or she is likely to actively look forward to sharing whichever film or show with his or her own children. In other words, Disney and similar companies are in the multigenerational discipleship game.

I think it was a great choice to set the Amazon's series, The Rings of Power, during the Second Age, depicting the downfall of Númenor. Tolkien wrote the least about the Second Age, so that gives creators a bit more room to go their own route. But I most love the potential that the story of Númenor has to reflect upon our own secular age.

Yet, while I will be overjoyed if I am proven wrong, it does not appear that the producers of Amazon’s series understand the heart beneath the story of the fall of the Númenóreans.

While the Kyle Rittenhouse shootings were captured by three different videos, the trial and its verdict are still incredibly divisive. 

How can everyone look at the same evidence and come away with such opposite opinions?

The problem isn't what we see but how we see. 

Is livestreaming into a church service the same as attending physically? What about metaverse services? And what do either have to do with digital gnosticism and transhumanism? 

There is nothing innately noble about being your authentic self, especially whenever our authentic selves are very often wicked.