I have been enjoying preaching through Matthew’s gospel for several months this year. The Sermon on the Mount beginning in chapter 5 has been especially enjoyable.

If you are interested in the elements of grace in what is often known as more of a law-kind of text, here are some things I have experienced.

First, because of my recent Ph.D. dissertation on Psalm 119, I had a hyper-awareness to the similarity between the “blessed” in the Psalm and the Beatitudes. It is important that Jesus’s sermon begins with the announcement of blessing. No requirements or rules. Not yet.

Second, Jesus’s first recorded sermon contains the command to “repent” (4:17). So, as Jesus continues to preach about the necessary righteousness, each element of righteousness is a form of repentance, which we know is granted as a gift (cf. Acts 11:18).

Third, and probably the most subtle, is found after the Sermon ends. Matthew 8 begins with two characters displaying tremendous faith in Jesus to heal, first the leper and then the centurion. Matthew positions these narratives in such a way to help readers realize that success in reaching the ultra-righteousness called for in the Sermon is found only through faith in Jesus.

Watch your parishioners while your preaching the Sermon. The bar is raised so high, over and over again. Watch the smiles emerge as you remind them that Jesus commands what He creates. There is no longer the thought of, “I can’t do that!” He has done it and now provides a new desire and capacity for the ultra-righteousness He demands.

Those smiles, sourced in God’s grace, will continue to contribute to His glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal

Reading Jonathan Edwards’s earliest sermons yields some quotes that may serve you well as you prepare to preach and teach this week.

In his sermon, Glorious Grace, based on Zechariah 4:7 (“…Grace, grace to it!”), Edwards urges his congregants:

“When you praise him in prayer, let it not be with coldness and indifferency; when you praise him in your closet, let your whole soul be active therein; when you praise him in singing, don’t barely make a noise, without any stirring of affection in the heart, without any internal melody [sic].” (p. 399)

What a tragic thought: someone in church singing without any internal melody!

I often half joke to our faith-family that we’re Bible Church people so we know a great deal about God but don’t feel much. Edwards would say to me,

“Consider that great part of your happiness in heaven, to all eternity, will consist in this: in praising of God, for his free and glorious grace in redeeming you; and if you would spend more time about it on earth, you would find this world would be much more of a heaven to you than it is.” (p. 399).

One of the things Edwards helps me do is try to find ways to help my congregants celebrate the grace of God with their whole being.

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as you urge the same, maybe with a little help from JE.

Randal

In Edwards’s sermon, Glorious Grace, he treats “the mercy of God” and “the wonders of divine grace” as near synonyms.

There’s plenty of helpful analysis in the sermon, but what struck me was Edwards’s description of our plight or lowly position:

“…it was determined, by the strangely free and boundless grace of God, that this his own Son, should die that the offending worms might be freed…” (emphasis added).

I grew up singing, At The Cross, with the line: “…for such a worm as I.” Somewhere along the line it shifted to, “for sinners such as I.”

Still bad, mind you, but “worm” sounds worse.

I am currently reading Carl Trueman’s, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. He borrows a term from Canadian philosopher, Charles Taylor: “expressive individualism…[where] each of us finds our meaning by giving expression to our own feelings and desires.” (p. 46)

That is not the soil in which worms are found!

Reading Edwards, however, I’m reminded of how bad off I was without Christ. That alone magnifies the intensity of my praise for God’s grace and mercy on my life.

As Edward closes out his sermon, five times he repeats, “‘Tis you that…” or “’tis for you that…” No wonder he concludes with:

“When you praise him in prayer, let it not be with coldness and indifferency [you gotta love that word!]…when you praise him in singing, don’t barely make a noise, without any stirring of affection in the heart, without any internal melody. Surely, you have reason to shout, cry, ‘Grace, grace…!”

Like Edwards, our job is to preach the grace and mercy of God. His job is to create humans who know they’re worms in desperate need for His grace and who receive that grace so He receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal

The picture of God’s people in the book of Judges is not pretty. For instance, in Judges 8:1, 4-6, and 8 there are three examples of insubordination. One commentator, Block, says “Even in victory Israel remains her own worst enemy.”

And often, even Israel’s best leaders, like Gideon, paint an ugly picture of our spiritual condition. Friction abounds in these stories and Gideon often flies of the handle, as they say (whoever “they” are?).

So, if and when you preach on Judges, be prepared to show your flock how difficult it is for God’s people to experience peace among themselves. Both leaders and laity have to work hard at being Spirit-controlled so the work of God can flourish among them.

In the case of the latter part of chapter 7 and into chapter 8 self-centeredness and rage are on display. It’s not a pretty sight. And just when you think it can’t get any worse, Gideon pulls the stunt recorded in 8:27 “And Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city….And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare…”

Well, you’d think God would fiercely judge them all for this. But instead, we read of His grace in 8:28 “…And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.”

I don’t understand this, but I’m sure glad God is patient with us. I am so thankful He gives us victories in the midst of our spiritual ineptness.

Anyway, be prepared to get some pretty nasty-looking looks of our condition in the Judges, but also of God’s grace. And preach it all so He receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

In the second recorded sermon of Jonathan Edwards in Kimnach’s volume, Value of Salvation, Edwards urges his listeners:

“We must in these things strive with all our might….The Christian life, for that reason, because of the diligence and labor that is required in it, is called a race and a warfare, because in running and fighting generally the utmost of the powers are laid out. [emphasis added]” (p. 332)

One thing I’ve gained from Edwards’s earliest sermons is his homiletical habit of preaching both grace and effort.

My experience in 29 years of being in a Bible Church environment has taught me that that combination makes some uncomfortable. Many hear effort as “works” or earning salvation, which of course according to Paul, cancels grace.

What that means, then, is that those listeners have the tendency to dilute the strength of the effort required in certain texts.

Typical Edwards, he reasons with his listeners from what they all know to be true in the world: “nothing that is great and excellent is attained unto without difficulty…” (p. 332).

But be prepared: to the degree your listeners hold tightly to the doctrine of eternal security, they will be able to hear such language such as, “Kill sin or it will kill you!” [Hear I’m thinking of someone like Owens who wrote, Of the Mortification of Sin] Usually, the firmer the belief in eternal security, the softer they will believe in effort.

So, for me in my setting Edwards reminds me to make sure I announce God’s gracious invitation and grueling exhortation all at the same time.

Every time I do it’s worth it and I hope seeing Edwards’s emphasis at the end of this sermon helps solidify your resolve so God receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal