A good day for us today, with a full Sunday school. Two families who are somewhat sporadic both came today, which expanded our ranks. We work and pray for spiritual stability and consistency here!
Here are the summaries:
The Righteousness of God (Rm 1.17a)
Our subject turns now to the reason the gospel is the power of God unto salvation: because in it (in the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed – not God’s righteousness as such, but the righteousness that is from God through Christ. God’s righteousness is a massive mountain of truth, an impossible barrier for sinful man, but that barrier melts away when righteousness from God comes to us by faith.
Christian Fellowship (1)
We begin a brief interruption of our Basic Theology series to look at the topic of Christian fellowship as taught in the Bible. This topic is largely misunderstood today, reduced to a bare notion of social interaction (coffee, lunch, potluck dinners). While the social interaction is a great blessing of church life, it flows from our fellowship, it doesn’t define it.
Note: this message was prompted by a discussion at a friend’s blog, EX vilis CATHEDRA “Together for What?” by Champ Thornton.
The Compensation Offering (Lev 5.14-6.7)
We continue our series in Leviticus for our Communion service. Our passage covers the fifth and last type of sacrifice prescribed in Leviticus. This is what the KJV calls a ‘trespass offering’. There are several unique features to this offering, but the main idea is that the sinner has defrauded God (or man AND God) and must not only be atoned for but also make restitution. The NT Christian has had his debt of sin paid, but his relationship with God still demands reparation, restitution, or compensation be made to restore the losses our sins have caused to our human relationships. Thank God that in Christ we are enabled to put such things right.
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I trust that your Lord’s Day was a spiritual blessing to you as well, hearing faithful preaching of the rich word of God.
Wow, Don, we’ve hit a harmonic convergence. I was preparing on a Wed. night study on the Trespass offering to complement my Sun. AM series on Hebrews, when Voila! I saw your outline on “The Compensation Offering.”
Don’t worry, I didn’t preach it verbatim:).
Seriously, it was helpful in my prep. –thanks for making it available.
Hi Joe
Glad you found it helpful. For what it’s worth, I once asked Minnick for permission to reproduce one of his messages for our people and he graciously gave his consent, then added “better yet, just preach it yourself!” I don’t think I have ever done that, but I appreciate the generosity of spirit!
BTW, you might have noticed that I use Wenham quite extensively in my preparation for Leviticus. I have also found Lange to be good, although he is a little harder to read.
Leviticus is a precious book for our understanding of salvation. I used to say “It constructed physical pictures of spiritual truth.” I have found it really beneficial, and have been using it for our communion services for a while. This is my second time through, hopefully better than the first time.
Regards,
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
“Physical pictures of spiritual truth,” eh? I like that.
Interesting to see your message on Lev 5 at this point… I just this week have begun reading Leviticus again myself. This time through I’m reading it in the ESV. I do almost all of my devotional reading in the KJV (and am in no hurry to change that), but it occurred to me that the modern style of the ESV might actually help me stay engaged as I read Leviticus. So far I have not been disappointed.
Hi buddy
I do think modern language translations are helpful, especially in the OT where we are less familiar with the content. I used the ESV for a while, and there are things to like about it. But I have a file somewhere that I was keeping called “ESV Issues”. It is a list of translations I came across that made me go “Wha???” as in “What in the world??” I have since gone back decidedly to the NAS. While not quite as readable in some places, it is decidedly superior in translation. But not perfect, unfortunately.
I ran across one of those ESV issues recently, but I can’t remember what it was. It must have been from one of Sunday’s messages, but the passage and the issue escapes me. I know one thing that bugs me about the ESV is “rules” where the KJV has “judgements” (so does the NAS as well). Try reading Ps 119 in the ESV – don’t you find “rules” quite jarring? I can’t imagine using that word to translate mishpat. That and other glaring issues have soured me on the ESV, though I still have it displayed in BW.
One more thing on Leviticus, remember that the very visual OT religion was given to people who only had at most the first 5 books of the Bible plus maybe Job. The visual drama of OT worship was a constant revelation of truth to those who were looking with eyes of faith. Most individuals had no written copy of their own, just what they had memorized and what they saw enacted before them in the ritual.
But now things have changed because we have the full revelation in Christ and the complete Word, no more need for ritualistic mumbo jumbo… in fact, the ritual in some bodies now obscures the revelation.
FWIW
Dad