Hope for the Troubled Heart

“Let not your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God; believe also in me.”  John 14:1

With these words Jesus begins his Upper Room Discourse.  Jesus commences speaking to his disciples in John 14:1 and continues to John 16:33.  In John 17:1 he begins his High Priestly Prayer.  The words of Jesus in the Upper Room Discourse encourage disciples who are troubled in heart.  We should turn to them to receive our Lord’s instruction (John 14-16) and to hear our Lord’s prayer in our behalf (John 17).  With these words Jesus prepares his apostles for his departure (the Ascension) and the promise of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost).  If we read them slowly and prayerfully, these words will lift our hearts today. 

Jesus begins his great discourse by saying, “Let not your hearts be troubled.”  Why were the disciples troubled?  Jesus had told his disciples three things that would have troubled their hearts.  First, he told them that he was going to die.  Second, he told them that one of them (Judas) was going to betray him.  Third, he told Peter that he would deny him three times before the cock crowed.  These were troubling words for the disciples to hear as they shook their confidence in themselves and in their Lord.  Would they really betray him?  Would they really deny him?  Would the life of the man they believed to be the Messiah end in death by crucifixion?  They were troubled indeed.

          But Jesus speaks words into their troubled hearts that are meant to bring peace.  Only the words of Jesus can bring true peace to troubled hearts.  When we behold the evil in ourselves and in the world that is opposed to Jesus, we too become troubled of heart.  Yet Jesus comes to us and says, “Let not your hearts be troubled.”  How can we be anything but troubled when we observe the evil of our own hearts (the betrayal and denial) and the evil against Jesus? 

          Jesus says, “Believe in God; believe also in me.”  The first line, “Believe in God,” is ambiguous in the original Greek.  Grammatically, it may be translated as an indicative, “You believe in God,” or an imperative, “Believe in God.”  The ESV chooses the imperative for the text and footnotes the indicative as a possibility.  The difference in meaning is only slight in this context.  Jesus may be saying that his disciples need to do two things: believe in God and believe in him.  Or Jesus may be assuming that the disciples believe in God and calling upon them to believe in him as they already believe in God.  Either way, Jesus is telling them to place their trust in God and in him.  Jesus makes himself an object of faith along with God.  No ordinary human being could say, “Believe in God.  Believe also in me.”  Jesus is more than a mere human being.  He is the fully divine Son of God and object of our faith. 

          What is the connection between not letting our hearts be troubled and believing in God and Jesus?  The connection is that the way that we find peace when our hearts are troubled is by believing in God and in Jesus.  The disciples did not yet fully understand how all this evil (the crucifixion of their leader, their betrayal, desertion, and denial of Jesus) was for their good.  Jesus simply says, “Trust God.  Trust me.”  Now we have a different vantage point than the disciples.  We know how this story ends.  We know that all these evils things had to happen because they were part of God’s plan to fulfill the Scriptures and to save us from sin.  God had a plan for the betrayal of Judas and the denial of Peter.  So, in one sense, we have greater reason to trust these words than the original disciples. 

But they apply to the evil that we face today.  Sometimes we look around us at the world and see much evil.  We see people opposing God everywhere we turn.  In our day and age we are able to see evil daily on the evening news.  It can be overwhelming and can trouble the heart deeply. 

It gets worse.  As we look at all this evil outside us in the world, we come to realize that much of that evil also resonates with evil inside us.  We see that we are evil.  Peter might have been inclined to judge the one who was to betray Christ until Christ looked him in the eyes and told him that he would deny him three times.  Peter might have been troubled that one of the disciples would have betrayed Christ and other evil men would kill him.  But I imagine that nothing troubled Peter more than the thought that the evil was in him.  That he would deny his Lord.  That he was capable of that.  Do you get discouraged by your own evil?  Is your heart troubled by the way that you betray, deny, and crucify Christ?  Is there is any hope?  Is there any peace?

          Jesus says, “Believe in God; believe also in me.”  We are meant to look away from others and from ourselves.  We will only find disappointment and discouragement by looking there.  We must look to God and to his Son Jesus.  In Jesus we find peace and hope.  In Jesus our hearts can be delivered from trouble.  Peace does not come from within.  It comes from without.  It comes from Jesus.  “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts” (Colossians 3:15).

The Harvest

“And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."  Matthew 9:35-38

The Love of Jesus for Lost Souls

Jesus has a deep love for unsaved souls.  In another place, Mark tells us that when Jesus looked at the rich man who sought salvation by his good works, Jesus loved him (Mark 10:21).  Jesus loved him in spite of his greed, misunderstandings about salvation, and lost condition!  In this passage we see the compassion that Jesus has for the unsaved crowds that gathered around him during his earthly ministry.  He looked upon them with pity as they were “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (v. 36).  Lost sinners need a shepherd, and Jesus is the only Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep (John 10:11) and calls them by name (John 10:3).  A key part of following Jesus as our Shepherd means that we begin to love what he loves.  This means that we learn to love unsaved men and women as he loves them.  We begin to see them as those who are harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.  We look at them in their dead (Ephesians 2:1), lost (Luke 19:10), blind (2 Corinthians 4:4), and bound (John 8:34) condition of sin and misery and long for them to be delivered by the grace of Jesus.  We remember when we were lost in sin.  Do we have a love for lost sinners?  Do we see them and have compassion on them as Jesus does?  Let us pray for the Holy Spirit to give us a love for the unsaved!

The Harvest

The metaphor shifts from sheep in v. 36 to a harvest in v. 37.  Jesus speaks of lost souls in need of salvation as a great harvest.  He tells his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful.”  Jesus wants us to know that there are many people who are ripe for the gospel.  In another place, Jesus says, “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’?  Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest” (John 4:35).  One of the reasons that we do not speak to unsaved souls about Jesus is because we do not believe what Jesus tells us about the world.  We do not really believe that “the harvest is plentiful” and that “the fields are white for harvest.”  We falsely assume that the harvest is scarce and that the fields are bare.  We do not share the good news of Jesus with others because we assume that they will respond negatively.  Nevertheless, Christians who share the gospel with others often discover that unsaved friends and family do not respond in the way that we expected.  We expected them to get angry, but, instead, they are interested.  We expected them to make fun, but they ask questions.  Of course, this is not always the case, but we find it to be the case more often than not.  Jesus tells us that people are ready for the gospel.  The fields are ripe.  Do you believe him? 

The Laborers are Few

Jesus also reminds us that “the laborers are few” (v. 37).  Unfortunately, there are few people who love souls so much that they are willing to labor for them in the harvest.  Labor implies effort and hard work.  True evangelism is not an easy task.  It requires persistence and prayer.  Rarely do we lead another sinner to Christ after one conversation.  It normally takes years and years of faithful explanation, love, care, and prayer.  Harvesting souls is not for the faint of heart or the lazy.  We must be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might (Ephesians 6:10) and remember that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13).

Pray!

Jesus tells us to pray for more laborers (v. 38).  Obviously, this means that we must first be laboring in the harvest ourselves lest we become hypocrites.  How can we pray for God to send laborers into the harvest if we are not willing to lift a finger in the service of our Master?  So we must be active in the harvest of souls.  Jesus tells us to pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest.  We cannot be lifeless and dead in this endeavor.  This must be a frequent and fervent prayer on the lips of God’s people.  And we are to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out more laborers.  God is sovereign here.  He sends the laborers.  “And how are they to preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:15).  God sent the apostles.  God sends missionaries, evangelists, and preachers today.  And God sends us to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).  Are we loving souls and laboring in the harvest?  Are we praying for God to send other laborers to help us?  Let us unite our hearts in passionate prayer for unsaved family, friends, and neighbors!  “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!  He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psalm 126:5-6).    

Every Need Supplied

“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 4:19

Paul’s letter to the Philippians is a thank you note for their financial gift in support of his ministry.  He opens the letter by thanking them for their “partnership in the gospel” (1:5) and closes by thanking them for their “full payment, and more” (4:18).  He commends their gifts, which he describes as “a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God” (4:18).  In order to remind them that God blesses such generosity, he assures them that God will provide for all their needs out of his abundant riches in Christ Jesus (4:19).  Our God is willing and able to provide everything that we need in order to serve Jesus. 

Sometimes we have trouble distinguishing between what we want and what we need.  Living in our prosperous society, we have the bad habit of speaking about our wants as if they were needs.  We speak of needing cars, cell phones, televisions, and many other things that are not needs in the truest sense of the term.  Sometimes we may use Matthew 6:33 as proof text for our confusion.  Jesus promised us that he will provide for “all these things” as we seek first his kingdom and righteousness (Matthew 6:33), but we must remember that in context “all these things” refers to food and clothing (Matthew 6:25), not anything and everything we want.  The Apostle Paul would later write, “But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content” (1 Timothy 6:8).  Of course, we all hunger for far more than the bare necessities; yet we should remember how God in his Word defines a true need: something that is necessary for a life of service to Jesus. 

God does not promise to provide for all our wants, but he does promise to provide for our needs in Christ Jesus.  One of the things that we learn form this is that Jesus Christ is really all that we need.  This may seem like some super-spiritual platitude, but it really is the gospel truth.  Our sufficiency is found in Christ alone, not earthly privileges and possessions.  We have been “filled in him” (Colossians 2:10) and need nothing besides him.  God reminds us in Psalm 84:11, “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor.  No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.”  This is an important verse.  Unbelief begins with human experience and reads it into the Bible’s promises.  Unbelief says, “My experience teaches me that it is a good thing for me to have this blessing.  Therefore, God has promised this blessing to me.”  However, this is not the way of faith.  Faith does not begin with human experience and read it into the Bible’s promises; faith begins with the Bible’s promises and reads human experiences in light of them.  Faith says, “My Bible promises me that God will not withhold any good thing from the one who walks uprightly.  If I do not receive the blessing of what I think is good, then it must not be good.”  Faith says, “If I do not have it, then I do not need it.” 

Here’s the lesson.  God defines our needs.  God defines what is good for us.  We must learn to trust him for what he thinks we need and for what he thinks is best for us.  His timing may not be our timing.  His provision may not be according to our liking.  Yet he is wise, powerful, and good, and we can never go astray as long as we trust him.  Is there something in your life that you think that you need?  Is there something in your life that you think would be good for you?  Let me encourage you to do two things.  First, trust God to supply your need.  Second, let God define your need.  If you need it, then he will supply it.  If you do not receive it, then you never needed it.  Get busy serving Jesus and trust God to give you what you need to honor him!

God Finishes What He Starts

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”  Philippians 1:6

God assures us that he will complete the work he begins in us.  Unlike us God always finishes what he starts.  We have the bad habit of beginning a project but not seeing it through to completion.  How many of us have a list of partially-read books, household chores, school projects, and work assignments?  And how many of us will never finish the work we once started?  God never does that.  He always finishes the work he begins.  He never grows weary or fainthearted like we do.  His inspiration and motivation never dissipate.  He is perpetually committed.  The real reason that this is good news for us is that it gives us assurance of the security of our salvation.  We can be sure that God will carry the work of salvation to completion in us.  Believer, has he begun a good work in you?  Then he shall finish it!  You can be sure of it!  God’s elect cannot fail to persevere in the faith and obtain final salvation any more than God can fail.  Salvation is his work from start to finish.  This is why Paul says that he can be sure of the security and preservation of the Philippians.  He can be sure because their salvation is not in their own power.  If it were in their power, there would be no assurance or security.  Man may begin well but rarely finishes what he begins.  Yet God is fully committed and completely able to complete what he begins.  Salvation begins in the experience of the Christian when God effectively calls him to himself and grants him new life.  This is his work.  Our effectual calling and regeneration (new birth) are not the result of our cooperation with God’s grace.  They are completely the result of God’s love and mercy.  He has made us alive together with Christ.  Effectual calling and regeneration are just the beginning of our salvation.  We also know about justification, adoption, and sanctification.  These, too, are the result of God’s saving grace.  They are God’s way of continuing the work he began in us.  Shall God declare our sins to be forgiven now and not at the last day?  Shall God adopt us as his children now and then reject us as illegitimate at the judgment seat of Christ?  Shall God cause holiness to flourish in our hearts and lives only to frown upon it in the life to come?  By no means!  If God has begun a work in you, believer, then you can rest assured that he will complete it.  He always finishes what he starts.  But when will God complete the work he began in us?  The text tells us that it will be complete “at the day of Jesus Christ.”  God’s saving work in us will not be complete until Jesus returns for us.  We call this “glorification.”  It is the day on which we shall be perfected into the likeness of Jesus.  We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is.  We shall be sinless and glorious.  Perfection is not attainable in this life.  We all sin in word, thought, and deed on a daily basis.  We will never achieve entire sanctification in our earthly pilgrimage, but our sanctification will reach completion at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is a sure thing.  We can be assured that we shall be like Jesus.  It is written in the decree of our omnipotent God.  Yes, it is hard to believe that we shall ever be the glorious beings that God designed us to be, but we are told that we shall be like him.  Now this could never be if it depended on our will or work.  It depends entirely on God alone.  The only reason we can be sure that we will be kept for final salvation is because we are kept by God’s power through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time.  Do you ever struggle with assurance?  Do you ever feel like your faith will not last?  Do you ever worry that you will not make it to heaven after all?  Then look away from yourself to this divine promise:  God will finish the work he began in you.  The security of our salvation rests entirely in the hands of the God who finishes what he starts.  Blessed assurance!  Jesus is mine!    

The Seed Promise

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and your shall bruise his heel.” 

Genesis 3:15

These words were spoken by God to the serpent shortly after Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden fruit.  God speaks of both judgment and salvation.  On the one hand, God pronounces judgment on the serpent, but, on the other hand, he announces salvation to the human race.  Christian theologians have recognized from the beginning of the Church that this is the first promise of the gospel in the Bible.  In Latin they called it the Protoevangelium (first gospel).  It is the seed promise that contains all the other gospel promises in the Old Testament.  Here God promises an offspring (older versions translated this as ‘seed’) who shall bruise the head of the serpent.  Although Genesis never identifies the serpent as Satan, context makes it clear that he is the Evil One who first seduced Eve.  And if we doubt that the serpent is Satan, John later tells us in Revelation 12:9 that he is indeed “that ancient serpent.”  Unfortunately, many Christians simply skip over this seed promise not realizing that it is the promise that God seeks to clarify throughout his redemptive story beginning in Genesis and climaxing in Revelation.  In the verse God teaches us that there will be a continual conflict between the offspring of the woman and the offspring of the serpent.  The Hebrew word ‘offspring’ always appears in singular grammatical form (never ‘offsprings’ when the plural is intended), and the context determines whether the meaning is collective (offsprings) or individual (offspring).  So the struggle between the woman’s offspring and the serpent’s offspring may simply mean that there will be a struggle between two races: the offspring of the woman (the children of God) and the offspring of the serpent (the children of the devil).  The verse divides humanity into two spiritual classifications and promises that these two groups will engage in spiritual war.  This fits well with the context because the next chapter reveals an example of this spiritual struggle.  Cain, the offspring of the serpent, kills Abel, the offspring of the woman.  God then appoints Seth as a replacement for Abel.  Keep in mind that this is a spiritual conflict.  From a biological point of view both Cain and Abel were the offspring of the woman.  But the point is that by seducing the woman the serpent has secured an offspring from the race of men.  Humanity is now fallen and in rebellion against God.  And yet the only hope for humanity is for a righteous offspring to bruise Satan’s head as Adam should have done in the first place.  Now even though there is a collective idea in the battle between the two offsprings, we can see that there is an individual referent in the singular offspring who actually bruises the serpent’s head.  We can see this on account of the use of the personal pronoun ‘he.’  In Hebrew there are singular and plural pronoun forms; so this is the way that Moses shows us that he intends a singular offspring.  And this means that Genesis 3:15 envisions a singular offspring who shall come to bruise the head of the serpent.  And how shall he do this?  He shall do this by bruising his own heal.  In other words, he shall wound the serpent by being wounded.  Crushing the head of Satan will require his own suffering.  So God is promising hope of deliverance.  On the one hand, God pronounces judgment on the serpent who is the incarnation of Satan, but, on the other hand, God promises salvation for the offspring of the woman in a singular offspring who shall defeat the devil.  We should think about this verse during the Christmas season because it means that the ultimate triumph over the devil comes through a human being, the offspring of the woman.  This should be understood in light of the Incarnation.  Adam failed in the Garden.  He failed to crush the serpent’s head.  He was silent and sinned.  But the last Adam, Jesus Christ, must prevail where the first Adam failed.  He must do what Adam should have done.  And when he does, there will be redemption.  This, of course, is why Genesis (and a great deal of the Bible) is concerned with genealogies (tracing offspring from one generation to another).  In chapter 5 we have the genealogy from Seth (the righteous offspring as Abel’s replacement) to Noah.  In chapters 10 and 11 we can follow Noah’s genealogy through Shem to Terah.  And Terah fathered Abram.  So by the time we come to the call of Abram in Genesis 12 we should be thinking in light of God’s original seed promise.  For God shall also make a promise about Abraham’s offspring that further clarifies what the offspring of the woman shall accomplish.  In Abraham’s offspring all nations of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3; 22:18; Galatians 3:8, 11).    

Improving Our Baptism

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”  Romans 6:3

You should think about your baptism every day of your life.  Does that surprise you?  It shouldn’t.  When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman Church, he wanted to teach them that salvation by grace didn’t give them a license to sin.  So he reminded them about the meaning of their baptism.  In doing so, he assumed that they should have known what baptism meant for their everyday Christian lives.  He says, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”  (Romans 6:3).  Baptism means union with Christ in his death and resurrection.  Since this is what baptism means, we cannot conclude that grace excuses sin.  If we think that we may “continue in sin so that grace may abound,” we are living contrary to the meaning of our baptism.  The Apostle Paul’s reminder to the Roman Church is what the Westminster divines called “improving” one’s baptism.  Larger Catechism 167 explains how we may improve our baptism:

“The needful but much neglected duty of improving our baptism, is to be performed by us all our life long, especially in the time of temptation, and when we are present at the administration of it to others; by serious and thankful consideration of the nature of it, and of the ends for which Christ instituted it, the privileges and benefits conferred and sealed thereby, and our solemn vow made therein; by being humbled for our sinful defilement, our falling short of, and walking contrary to, the grace of baptism, and our engagements; by growing up to assurance of pardon of sin, and of all other blessings sealed to us in that sacrament; by drawing strength from the death and resurrection of Christ, into whom we are baptized, for the mortifying of sin, and quickening of grace, and by endeavoring to live by faith, to have our conversation in holiness and righteousness, as those that have therein given up their names to Christ; and to walk in brotherly love, as being baptized by the same Spirit into one body.”

God intends for our baptisms to strengthen us throughout the entire Christian life.  But what are the practical ways that we may improve our baptism?  The Larger Catechism explains many ways, but let’s see if we are able to explain this in simpler terms.  When the Westminster divines spoke about “improving” baptism, they meant “making a good use of.”  There are two main ways that Christians may make a good use of their baptism on a daily basis.  The first of these ways is by believing God’s promises made to us in baptism.  One of my favorite definitions of a Sacrament is that it is a sign and seal of God’s promise.  The language of sign and seal comes from Paul’s description of circumcision in Romans 4:11.  The connection between circumcision and baptism is made in Colossians 2:11-12.  In a Sacrament, God makes a promise to his people, and he signifies and seals that promise to their hearts by attaching a sign to his Word.  In this case, the sign is water, and God attaches water to his Word so that we might believe that Christ’s blood washes away sin from our souls as water washes away dirt from our bodies.  “And now why do you wait?  Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name” (Acts 22:16).  “And such were some of you.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).  As Christians we are those whose “bodies” have been “washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22).  This doesn’t mean that the water itself washes away our sins as Peter tells us that baptism “now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience” (1 Peter 3:21).  Nevertheless, the water of baptism is not merely water, but it is “the washing of water with the word” (Ephesians 5:26).  The power is not in the water but in the Word of God.  The power is also in the Holy Spirit who uses the Word of God to create faith in our hearts (Romans 10:17).  So we must make use of our baptisms by believing the promise made to us.  Without faith in God’s promise the waters of baptism are useless.  The waters are added to strengthen and confirm our faith in God’s promise.  Heidelberg Catechism 69 explains this well.  “How does baptism remind you and assure you that Christ’s one sacrifice on the cross is for you personally?  In this way: Christ instituted this outward washing and with it gave the promise that, as surely as water washes away the dirt from the body, so certainly his blood and his Spirit wash away my soul’s impurity, in other words, all my sins.”  Now if we remembered this, then this would be a great help to us in sin and temptation.  We may be tempted to doubt that our sins are forgiven.  So where do we turn?  We turn to God’s promise to forgive us our sin for Christ’s sake.  Where does God make this promise to us personally?  In his Word and in our baptism.  Now the wonderful thing about this is that baptism is an objective reference point.  We may question whether we have had a genuine conversion experience or whether we have the requisite fruit in our lives.  But we may not question whether we have been baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  God made an objective promise to us at that moment.  Certainly the promise must be subjectively realized in our lives, and this happens every time we believe the promise.  So the the efficacy of baptism is not tied to the moment of administration.  So we are always drawing on the promise of God to forgive us our sins for Christ’s sake.  This promise is made to us in baptism.  I should point out here that looking to God’s promises made to us in our baptism is very different than the common problem of presumption.  Evangelicals tend to be uncomfortable with this idea of “improving our baptism” because they fear the way that many presume to be saved on account of their baptisms.  Some people have a view of baptism that teaches that sinners are saved automatically by the ritual itself.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Presumption says, “I have been baptized.  Therefore, I am saved.  I can continue to live my life how I want.”  How much this differs from God’s Word in Romans 6!  The point of Romans 6 is that if we really believed the meaning of our baptisms, then we would recognize that it is impossible for us to continue in sin.  We have died to sin.  We have risen to walk in newness of life.  We are new creatures.  Looking to God’s promises in our baptism, then, is not presumption; it’s faith.  We simply believe that what God said in his Word and sealed with his water, is true.  Luther once said that his flesh and the devil often tempted him to doubt his salvation.  In response to the devil’s accusations, Luther said that Christians should proclaim, “Behold, I am baptized, and I believe in Christ crucified.”  Now that’s improving one’s baptism!  Secondly, we may also improve our baptism by remembering the promises we made to God in our baptism.  Baptism is not merely a sign and seal of the Christian’s profession of faith.  It is first and foremost a sign and seal of God’s promise.  But in response to God’s promise to forgive us and cleanse us for Christ’s sake, we profess our faith in him.  At every Christian baptism promises are made.  When an adult is baptized, he makes promises to Christ and to the Church.  When an infant is baptized in keeping with God’s covenant promises (Acts 2:38-39), the parents make promises to raise the child for Christ, and the church makes promises to help the parents in the Christian nurture of that child.  The point is that we need to recall our baptismal vows often.  Larger Catechism 167 speaks about our need to remember “our solemn vow made therein.”  This includes confessing our sin (1 John 1:9), putting our sin to death (Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5), and offering our lives as instruments of righteousness (Romans 6:13).  The main point of Romans 6 is that the baptism of the past implies sanctification in the present.  It calls for daily death to sin and daily resurrection to righteousness.  Baptism is not irrelevant for the Christian life.  It keeps our Christian life centered on Christ.  Baptism is Christ-centered.  His blood and his Spirit cleanse us from all sin.  His death and his resurrection justify us.  We are right with God through faith in him alone.  Whenever speaking about baptism, I always try to remind Christians that baptism is not something that we do.  It is not our work; it is God’s work.  When we study baptism in the New Testament, we notice that it almost always appears in the passive form: be baptized.  We do not baptize ourselves.  We are baptized by another.  This shows us that we cannot cleanse ourselves of our own sin.  We need the blood of Jesus to wash away our sin.  We are passive recipients of God’s promise to wash us.  We simply receive his promised cleansing by faith alone.  We see something similar in the Lord’s Supper.  Bread and wine are given to us.  We receive them with an open mouth.  We do not earn them or work for them.  The washing, the food, and the drink are God’s free gifts.  This is the dramatization of the gospel for us.  Jesus cleanses you from all your sin.  Jesus feeds you with his body and quenches your thirst with his blood.  He nourishes and strengthens you.  It’s true that we neglect this needful duty of improving our baptisms, but when we think about baptism in this way, do we not see how great a resource it is for us in times of doubt, trial, and temptation?  Should we not remind ourselves that we are baptized and that we believe the Christian faith?  Do we not know that we have been united with Christ in his death and resurrection?  We are new creatures in Jesus, and we ought to use all the means of grace (Word, Sacraments, and Prayer) to remind us of this grand reality.  We sing, “Jesus loves me.  This I know.  For the Bible tells me so.”  Let us also sing, “Jesus loves me.  This I know.  For my Baptism tells me so.” 

Bearing Fruit in Old Age

“The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.  They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God.  They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.”  Psalm 92:12-15

When God examines the limbs of our lives, he searches for fruit.  Jesus said, “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:8).  John the Baptist once preached, “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance” (Luke 3:8).  Fruit bearing is the result of our union and communion with Christ (John 15:5).  It proves the reality of our discipleship and brings glory to God.  And Christians may bear fruit in every stage of life from infancy to old age.  Timothy was taught the Scriptures from infancy (2 Timothy 3:15).  David trusted in the Lord from his earliest days.  “Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.  On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God” (Psalm 22:9-10).  This is why God tells us to remember our Creator in the days of our youth (Ecclesiastes 12:1).  “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth” (Lamentations 3:27).  So fruit bearing can begin in infancy, and it can continue to old age.  Our text says, “They still bear fruit in old age.”  May this be said of us in the final years of our lives!  The righteous continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ in the last chapter of their lives (2 Peter 3:18).  They do not live as if they have already arrived in heaven.  In their old age the righteous continue to meditate on God’s Word, pray in the power of his Spirit, and daily repent of their sin.  The Spirit continues to empower them to bear his fruit when they are old and physically weak (Galatians 5:22-23).  They are firmly rooted in God’s truth and continue to grow spiritually until their dying day.  Old saints are like fruitful trees.  “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalm 1:3).  Old believers treasure the Sabbath day and the public worship of God.  This Psalm is entitled “A Song for the Sabbath.”  In addition, we see that these old trees are planted and grow “in the house of the LORD” and “in the courts of our God.”  How old saints rejoice to assemble with God’s people for corporate worship!  “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD!’” (Psalm 122:1).  They lack no resources to sing his praise to the glory of his name because they are “ever full of sap and green.”  And the reason these old saints are able to continue to bear fruit in old age is because of the greatness of their God.  His way is upright.  He is their rock and “there is no unrighteousness in him.”  If we want to bear fruit throughout our lives on earth, and if we want to bear fruit in our old age, we must depend upon our mighty God.  He says to us, “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to grey hairs I will carry you.  I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (Isaiah 46:3-4).  Whether we are young or old Christians let us strive to bear fruit now so that we might be like those in Psalm 92:14 who “still bear fruit in old age.”  The end of life is no time for coasting, drifting, wandering, and backsliding.  We may retire from our earthly employments, but this is no time to retire from the labors of our sanctification.  Consider that this is the last chapter of our lives before we stand before our King and Judge.  Shall we slip into eternity with our eyes closed?  Let us be sober in our serious pursuit of holiness and love!  Let us abide in the Lord Jesus who is our only Vine!  He supplies the life, resources, and power to bear the fruit of love.  Let us join ourselves to him alone!