It is Not for You to Know

The above video is the livestream of the Eastland services for July 7th, 2020, but the video should start at the beginning of the sermon. Our normal camera got knocked out during a storm, and so the video is from a backup webcam.

God the Father has determined the times and seasons for every nation and has fixed their boundaries. And Jesus tells us, in Acts 1:7, that these things that God has decreed and determined, are not for us to know.

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Ruth and the “Hesed” of God

The book of Judges is an action-packed, gruesome book. It is God working on a grand scale, working through men and women to conquer armies and kingdoms, all so He can bring about salvation for His chosen people, a people who don’t deserve that salvation. Over and over again.

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Fatherhood Before the Foundation of the World

A Father’s Day sermon. Cross-posted from Eastland Church of Christ.

Passage: Malachi 4:5-6

This centrality of fatherhood should not really surprise, because the relationship between the Father and the Son is the central relationship of the gospel itself. God the Father sends his only Son, and the Son obeys the Father. The Father gives the Son honor and recognition, while the Son is the perfect image of the Father, imitates the Father, and points others to His Father.

And make no mistake. When I say that the relationship between God the Father, and Jesus the Son is the cornerstone of the gospel, I don’t mean it’s the cornerstone of what we practice here in this building…though it is that. I don’t mean that it is the cornerstone of our personal ethics…though it is that. I also don’t mean that it is the cornerstone of our personal salvation…even though it certainly is that.

When I say that the relationship between God the Father and God the Son is the cornerstone of the gospel, I’m saying that it is the cornerstone of creation itself. Of the cosmos. Of the very fabric of reality. The pew you are sitting on holds together because the Father loved the Son. It all goes back to that fact.

The world was created, God spoke us into existence, so that He could send His only Son to be slain. The world was created, God spoke us into existence, so that his Son would be glorified. Reality itself is founded on the desire of the Father to enthrone His Son with all authority in heaven and on earth.

And this Father, who is source of all life, who is the source of all love, gives us, His creatures the same name that He has given Himself. The name that we are taught to call Him in His infinite glory – Father – is the name he requires us men to bear. Just dwell on that for a second.

This is a great privilege. But it also represents a heavy responsibility.

When God Became Dust

Text: Hebrews 2:5-8

The Triune God is eternal, the alpha and omega, the great I AM, He who always has been, and always will be, everlasting and never changing, the very source of the fabric of reality as we know it. A God who spoke the worlds into existence, laid the foundations of the earth, placed the barriers of the sea. A God who knows the number of hairs on your head, and everyone’s head, who knows when every sparrow falls from the sky, when every blade of grass withers, who sustains us through every breath and with every heartbeat…A God who holds together every atom that makes up your body, your skin, your blood, your mind, with nothing but his Words.

This God, who stepped down into history, into time, and became dust. This God who is the rock and anchor of all time and reality became a vapor. This unchanging God was born of a woman, and began to grow older. This God outside of time, to whom one day is a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day, was born on earth and felt every…crawling…second. This everlasting God was born into a body that was pierced and torn. This eternal God who…died.

How…do you come up with an analogy for that? How do you truly fathom the weight of the significance?

And just as he was fully God, he was also fully man. When he was a baby, he soiled his diaper. God in the flesh, his backside being wiped by his mother, because he couldn’t control his bowels. Just like all babies that age. And when he was born, do you know he made his mother unclean, according to the Law of Moses? God made someone unclean.

Obadiah – The Faithful Servant of an Evil King

The books of 1 and 2 Kings, in the Hebrew Bible, are part of a section referred to as the Former Prophets. And its not that difficult to see why. As we hop quickly from the reign of one king to another, the narrative slows down whenever a man of God comes on the scene.

Between the tales of the prophets, we just get straightforward recitation. Dry statements of fact. This king lived and reigned this many years. And then he died. And then this king lived and reigned this many years. And then he died. And on and on.

Most of the details are glossed over, even though there are certainly some great tales of intrigue and succession to pull from. But they get almost no time to shine.

Instead, over and over, it is the rote retelling of death. In Romans 5:14, Pauls tells us that ever since Adam, death has reigned, and that point is hammered home in the accounts of the kings of Israel. It can seem dull. It can seem tedious. And such is life without the living, breathing word of God, represented here by the prophets who speak for Him.

And there is no greater example of this than the stories surrounding the prophet Elijah. Elijah is the prototypical prophet, the one all others will be compared to after him. A bold man of God, mighty in both deed and speech. He appears out of nowhere, with almost no introduction, and announces a famine and then takes off as soon as he lays down the judgement. On his journeys, he raises the dead, he defeats 450 prophets of Baal in a grand, dramatic demonstration of God’s power, he brings the rains back, he outruns a chariot, and at the end of his life is himself taken up to heaven in a whirlwind air and fire. A bit dramatic.

And, perhaps the most impressive of all, he actually gets evil king Ahab to finally repent with sackcloth and fasting. The most wicked king Israel had seen to that point, and he finally humbles himself after Elijah confronts him for what will turn out to be the last time.

As soon as Elijah steps onto the scene, everyone is forced to react to him and his declarations from the Lord. No one can ignore him.

One such person who cannot ignore him is a man named Obadiah. He too is caught in the blast radius of Elijah’s footsteps. That’s where we will be focusing our attention.

Text: 1 Kings 18:1-6

Here we are first introduced to Obadiah, and we are immediately told two very important facts about him.

The first: he is head over the household of Ahab. He is an important official in the Ahab administration. To have this job means he is trusted with many things, including the king’s very life. This is someone very close to the king and his family, possibly even the king’s close confidant and friend. He is most likely wealthy, and he commands many resources on his own, as we will see.

And yet, immediately after we learn about his employment, we learn of another fact. The text tells us that Obadiah feared the LORD greatly.