Toby J. Sumpter's Blog, page 38

Better Than Google

The foundational government in this world is self-government. This is where all politics begin. Either you will have families, churches, and nations governed by people who govern themselves well and therefore those governments will be blessed, or else you will have those governments filled with traitors and fools and tyrants. 

“He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls” (Prov. 25:28). And governments filled with people who are the equivalent of a broken-down city tend to build just as they are. They are broken down cities, so they are city-destroyers.

Therefore, if Christians expect there to be wise and good leaders in the governments around them, they must be at the forefront of learning and teaching self-government. What is self-government? It is self-control, self-discipline. It is ruling over your words, thoughts, actions, emotions, bodies, and appetites with wisdom. 

Are you appalled at government overspending? Do you rule your bank account well? Are you appalled at the anarchy of lusts and appetites? Do you rule your emotions well? Do hate cancel culture and the nanny state? Are you ruling your time and energy well? Are you working hard like a king? Fools spout whatever comes to their mind, but the wise consider what they will say, what they will write. 

“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city” (Prov. 16:32). What do we need to make real progress in building the Kingdom? What do we need to have true and effective cultural influence? We need self-government, self-control. It’s better than all the votes in congress, better than winning the White House, and better than all the wealth and influence of Google and Apple and Amazon. “Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city” (Eccl. 7:29).

How does a man or a woman or child get this power? In order to rule yourself with wisdom, you must be ruled by Wisdom. And that means you must be a slave of Christ. Christ must be your Master, your Lord. His Word must command all of your time, all of your resources, all of your thoughts, words, and actions. So what will it be? Wisdom and power in submission to Christ? Or a broken-down city and more tyranny and chaos and confusion?

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The Leaven of Christ

Why do we use leavened bread in communion? It might seem odd to some since we use wine. Jesus used real wine at the Last Supper, and since it was a Passover Meal, he would have used unleavened bread at that first Communion. So it’s a reasonable question. 

First off, leaven does not only represent sin. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t. In 1 Cor. 5, Paul exhorts the Corinthians to get rid of the leaven of malice and wickedness. Likewise, Jesus says to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. But Jesus also says that the Kingdom is like leaven mixed into three measures of flour, until the whole thing is leavened. Likewise, while some of the sacrifices required unleavened bread, the Peace Offering included leavened bread with the sacrifices of thanksgiving (Lev. 7:10). And while Passover required Israel to get rid of leaven, the Feast of Pentecost required Israel to use leaven (Lev. 23:17). 

So putting all of this together, we should understand leaven as representing a principle growth and maturity. And the question is: what are you growing? What are you growing into? Any leaven from Egypt and the Pharisees always needs to be gotten rid of. The leaven of the world needs to be tossed constantly, but the leaven of the Kingdom, the leaven of Pentecost needs to be constantly kept and cultivated and preserved. 

It’s striking that at Pentecost after Jesus ascended to the Father, the Spirit was poured out, and thousands were baptized and converted, and it says that they continued daily in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, eating with gladness and singleness of heart. That phrase “breaking bread” almost certainly refers to celebrating the Lord’s Supper. But since these Jews were doing this from house to house after the Feast of Pentecost, they would have been using leavened bread. And this was perfectly fine since they were celebrating the new Peace Offering, the work of the Spirit, the leaven of the Kingdom filling the whole loaf, until it fills the world. 

So that is why we use leavened bread here. It is not a sin to use unleavened bread, but the question is where are we in the story? Are we primarily trying to get out of Egypt, or have we come to Pentecost, the Feast of the Harvest, the time of the Kingdom where our primary task is to see Christ fill the world with His life? So get rid all of your sinful leaven: your bitterness against your parents, your lust, your envy, and receive the leaven of Christ. Let Him leaven your whole life so that it grows and fills up with His grace. 

So come and welcome, to Jesus Christ. 

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When Violence is Called For

Sexual lust has been around since the Fall, and as Solomon put it thousands of years ago, it has taken down many strong men. And with the advent of the internet, pornography has become ubiquitous, with the added lie of apparent secrecy. But God sees all things; nothing is hidden from Him. 

Jesus says that this lust in the heart is the sin of adultery in root form, and that radical repentance is often necessary to kill it. He says to cut off the hand and pluck out the eye that causes you to sin. Too many men do not treat this sin as the enemy it really is. They make excuses, they promise to do better next time, but they refuse to use their strength at the very point where it is necessary. Jesus says that you must be harsh with this sin; you must do the violence necessary to kill it. Get rid of your smart phone, cancel the internet, only use a public computer or tablet, delete the app, cancel Netflix, get accountability software – whatever it takes. Jesus says it is better to enter life maimed than to go to Hell with your hands and eyes intact. Better to face the shame of dealing with your sin than to go to Hell with everyone thinking you were doing just fine. 

If you have ongoing struggles in this area, you need to get help. Ask a pastor, an elder, your dad, or another older brother or father. The end of this road is pain, shame, loss, death, and Hell. If you cannot bring yourself to take the steps to kill this sin, get the kind of help that isn’t afraid to pull the trigger for you. 

Finally, remember that all repentance consists of putting off the old man and putting on the new man. And in many ways, you have to do both in order to do either. So what new obedience are you putting on? Don’t merely run from sin; run toward righteousness. Be regularly in the Word and prayer – pursue Christ; use your strength for good: work hard, work long, serve others. If you’re not married, take steps to prepare yourself for marriage, and if you are married, pursue your wife faithfully.

Do you want to see the Light drive back the darkness? Do you want to see the abortion carnage end? Do you want to see women honored in our land? Then kill this sin. To paraphrase John Owen: You are not getting stronger if you are not walking daily over the back of your lust. 

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This Means God Loves Us

It is our practice here at Christ Church to welcome baptized children to the Table here with us. We have a number of reasons for this, but one passage we would point to is 1 Corinthians 10 where Paul says that all of Israel was baptized in the cloud and the sea and all of Israel ate spiritual food and spiritual drink in the wilderness. That clearly included the children, and while Paul warns the Corinthians not to fall into idolatry like old Israel, Paul says nothing about children not being baptized or partaking of spiritual food. And Paul says that what they partook of in the manna and the water from the rock was Christ. 

One of the common objections to young children taking communion is the concern that Paul says all who partake must discern the Body of the Lord rightly – those who do not may eat and drink damnation on themselves. We take this warning very seriously, but in context, Paul says nothing about young children but identifies the culprits as adults who are causing divisions in the body. While part of discerning the body does mean understanding that this meal points to the death of Jesus for our sins, another very important part of discerning the body is honoring the body of Christ in those around you. And most one year-olds have a pretty good grasp of whether they are being welcomed or left out.

While we leave this decision up to the head of each household, the elders still take responsibility for who is here. This is the Table of the Lord, not anyone’s family sacrament. This is why we ask you to let one of the pastors or elders know when you would like to begin communing your child. And on the flip side, if you are having significant difficulties with one of your children and you’re wondering if they should be taking communion, bring the concern to a pastor or elder, please don’t perform household excommunications off on your own. 

Lastly, remember that the Word and Sacrament go together. Just as you begin talking in English to your children before they understand all the words, but you are still communicating love and care and teaching them to understand, so too, teach your children as they partake. Talk about it outside of worship, and feel free to quietly remind them as they are eating and drinking. Lean over tell them: This means God loves us. This means Jesus died for our sins. This means we are part of His family.  

 So come and welcome, to Jesus Christ. 

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The Militance of the Ents

Festina lente is an old Latin motto that means “make haste slowly.” The idea is that it is better to act with due diligence and attention to detail and avoid mistakes and finish a task more quickly overall. Doing a task correctly the first time is faster than trying to cut corners and having to go back and fix all your mistakes. This is a general principle that applies everywhere: excellence at work and school, and ongoing tasks like parenting, marriage, growing in Christ, and building Christian culture. 

While we should be persistent, militant, and ambitious for growth and holiness and success, Christians should also care about the process as much as the final product. You could drag your kids through family worship or a classical education and they could hate you at the end of it. It would have been better to do less with joy and win their hearts then lose their hearts on the altar of some check list you made up or saw on a web site one time. 

Think of this principle as the militance of the Ents. Remember in the Two Towers (not the movie version mind you), the Ents are ancient tree creatures full of the wisdom of the ages and very thoughtful and careful. But once they have made up their minds to go to war, their voices rise in a great war song, and their drums beat, and their anger is aroused with great power.

One of the great lies the Church has believed in our day is that sentiment is supreme, feelings are most powerful. But the Bible teaches that: As a man thinks, so is he (Prov. 23:7). Sentiment is fast, feelings can surge quickly and easily. But wisdom is slower and more careful, and in the end far more powerful. Knowing Christ, coming to understand His truth and goodness and beauty – those foundational convictions, or presuppositions, are like tectonic plates, roots that go down deep, that move you and the world around you. 

Growing in Christ and in His wisdom is the powerful working of the Spirit, but the Bible teaches that it ordinarily comes through knowledge and understanding. So the godly must be slow to anger, slow to speak, learners, students, people of the Word and words, lovers of poetry, and as we marinate in the truth, in the good things of God, in the beauty of holiness, God is forming us into a great Entish army: builders, inventors, creators, writers, fathers, mothers, and worshipers who are pulling down every stronghold. 

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The Sword of His Mouth

One of the lessons that we need to learn as we rebuild Western Civilization is the difference between teaching authority and civil authority. Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore go make disciples of all the nations…” (Mt. 28:18-19). Here, Jesus plainly says that all authority answers to Him – parental authority, civil authority, ecclesial authority – but He then commissions the apostles with the particular task of the Church: making disciples, which is to be done by baptizing and teaching to the end of the world. 

The authority that Jesus delegates to the Church is the authority of the Word and the Sacraments. The Church is to teach the nations to believe in Christ and obey Him in everything. Like Martin Luther’s famous analogy of the drunk man falling off his horse on one side only to fall off the other way to try to keep things even, human societies tend to veer into different ditches, just like that drunk man. We do this in many ways and there are many layers, but just for today, consider the task of the Church with regard to politics.

We have heard for decades now that the Church must not become political. And because there is some truth to the plea, it has become a useful bludgeon by friends and foes alike who want the Church to consist of nice of boys and girls who tuck their shirts in and comb their hair. But Elijah wasn’t like that. John the Baptist wasn’t like that. Most of the prophets weren’t like that. And many of the civil leaders the prophets addressed didn’t like it when they showed up to court. The prophets of God hardly ever had nice things to say. As Roger Kimball once put it, “they rarely return from the mountain reporting that the management has concluded that everything down below is just fine.” But Jesus sent the Church to disciple the nations, to teach all of the nations to obey Him. 

It is true that the Church must not become political, in the sense that it must not take up the calling of the State. This is why biblical Christians can and should be robust supporters of the First Amendment. But Statists worship only one kind of power, the power of the State which is ultimately coercive and violent, so that when we speak of the true authority of the Church or the fact that we want Biblical standards informing every aspect of society, their only category for implementation of those standards is violent. So they try to cancel us, silence us, and censor us.

But we teach that the Church must stay in its lane and fulfill its commission, and that commission really is a Great Commission, it is the authority and command to teach the nations. It is true that at various points, sometimes the church proper or ministers of the church have blurred or confused this distinction by taking up arms, by commanding armies to go into battle, by carrying out executions, by collecting taxes, by conducting political business as a routine, and so on, and the church ought not be routinely involved in those things. Although, I hasten to add that there will no doubt always be exceptional anomalies – like that time Pastor Leo of Rome contracted a peace treaty with Attila the Hun. 

Jesus has given the power of the sword to the civil magistrate, and He has given the power of the pulpit to the ecclesial magistrates. Is the Church political? If you mean does she take up swords and guns and jostle about in foreign affairs and economics like it were just another nation on earth? No, absolutely not. But does she have a duty to politics? Does she have a mission to the nations of the world that fundamentally transforms how they think of power and justice and goodness and truth? Absolutely. When the Church proclaims that Jesus is Lord, we proclaim that He is Lord over the nations of the earth. They all must answer to Him for their foreign policies and immigration policies and economic policies.

And what does the Bible have to say about all of those things? The Church has been commanded by Jesus to teach them. But put the microphone in the mouth far too many of our ministers and all you will get is a regurgitated version of what they heard on Fox News or CNN or else all they have are empty platitudes and stammering. Our weapons are most certainly not carnal, but this teaching authority is mighty for pulling down strongholds and taking every thought captive (2 Cor. 10:4-5). But that authority comes from teaching all of Scripture, the Old and New Testament, as it was actually written and applying to all of life, not turning the text into sentimental confetti based on the preferences of the teacher or felt needs of the audience.

This true authority is a sword — it is actually sharper than any two-edged blade, but it is an entirely different kind of sword than the one wielded by the nations of men. It is the sword that goes out of the mouth of Christ (Rev. 19:18), the sword of the Spirit, and there is no armor in the universe that can withstand it. It divides between soul and spirit, between bone and marrow, and it cannot be canceled or censored. They tried that 2000 years ago, but He’s alive and we’re still here going strong, until the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. 

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All the Wisdom You Need

Every week, you hear these words: the same night in which Jesus was betrayed, He took bread and gave thanks. At the very moment when Jesus was about to be betrayed, He gave thanks. When Jesus was about to go to His death, He gave thanks. When He was about to be falsely accused, slandered, mocked, abandoned by His closest friends, He gave thanks. When He was about to suffer for the sins of His people, He gave thanks. 

Hebrews says that it was for the joy set before Him, that Jesus endured the cross, despising its shame (Heb. 11:2). Why did Jesus give thanks? Because of the joy that was coming. What was that joy? The resurrection, the salvation of the world, sins forgiven, all things made right, all things made new, every knee bowed, every tongue confessing Christ to the glory of the Father.

But Jesus also gave this meal to us. Every week you face challenges and difficulties and troubles, but here you are on the first day of the week, looking out at all of them. Some of them you know are coming – old familiar trials, troubles, temptations, difficulties, and some of them you don’t know yet. And Jesus calls you to follow Him and imitate Him with them all by giving thanks now. But how can you give thanks for this coming week’s trouble?

This bread is the body of Jesus broken for you, but never underestimate those two wonderful word: for you. That doesn’t mean that Jesus died vaguely for a bunch of sins. He didn’t give His life vaguely for you. You weren’t just a name on a list. He gave His life intentionally for you. He gave His life with all of your sins and all of your troubles in mind. 

This is what it means to be a Christian. It means that Christ has claimed you and took responsibility for you and all of your sin and failures and troubles and challenges. When Jesus gave thanks on the night He was betrayed, He was giving thanks for the victory He was about to accomplish over all our trouble. 

So the exhortation here is not to be really tough this week because Jesus sets a good example of being tough. No, the exhortation here is to receive Christ’s victory over all your trouble. His death made a way through it all. His blood threads a perfect path through it all. He is the Way through it all: He is the way through sickness and suffering, the way through confession and forgiveness, the way through financial crisis, the way through every trouble. And here at this table, He gives you tokens of His victory: His life for yours, His life ransomed for yours, not just for the beginning of your Christian life, but for the whole thing: all the obedience, all the holiness, all the wisdom you will ever need, and glory forever. So come and give thanks.

And come and welcome, to Jesus Christ. 

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Holy Swagger

“The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool” (Ps. 110:1). 

Where is Jesus right now? We confess the answer every single week: He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. And what is Jesus doing at the right hand of God the Father? He is reigning until all of His enemies have been put beneath His feet. The Psalmist says the Lord has sent His rod of strength out of Zion to conquer all of His enemies. 

And Paul says that the last enemy that will be destroyed is death (1 Cor. 15:25-26). That enemy will be destroyed at the resurrection of the dead. On that last day, every man, woman, and child marked with the blood of Jesus will rise with incorruptible bodies to live forever. 

This is not some kind of vague hope – that we hope someday everything work out somehow. No, these facts were established beyond doubt by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, nearly 2,000 years ago. We serve the King who knows all things, including the way out of the grave. We serve the King who now holds the keys of death and Hades, so that even death and Hades serve Him. He opens and shuts, He kills and makes alive, so that every life serves Him perfectly. 

The Psalm says that the Lord has sworn and He will not relent. Jesus is our High Priest forever. He goes before us. He intercedes for us. He fights for us. No one escapes the Sword of His mouth. All are pierced through, but we are the ones who have died and come back from the dead already. We were blind but now we see. We were lost but now are found. We know the battle plan. Death and resurrection. 

So we are not merely here to survive, because our King is not merely surviving. Psalm 110 ends with a holy swagger. Our King drinks from brooks along the way of His campaign and lifts up His head in victory. And so you must do the same. Fix your eyes on Your King. His head is lifted up. Have you lifted up your hearts? Good. Now lift up your heads. The King of Glory is here with us. We are in His company. We have been marked in the waters of baptism. We belong to Him, and therefore, we are more than conquerors.

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Don’t Despise Him

The 10th Commandment prohibits coveting anything that belongs to our neighbor. This is not merely a negative command; it also implies a positive duty. It means that we are required by God to rejoice in what God has given to our neighbors. Refusal to do so is a form of hatred. 

When you see your neighbor’s success, her house, his truck, her body, his wife, their family, their joy, their vacations – do you rejoice? Or is there a subtle – or not so subtle pit in your stomach? And you might say, well, I don’t mind them having those things, but why can’t I?

But this actually reveals why covetousness is such a hideous evil. It can sometimes be directed at the people who have what you want, but it is always directed at the God who has given. The hatred can be on the human level (and often is), but the hatred is always directed at the God who gives, the God who distributes His gifts as He pleases. 

So this is part of why God invites you here week after week. You need to be reminded to give thanks. Gratitude is the great antidote to envy. So first: thank God for what He has given to you, not vaguely, not while rolling your eyes. Make a list and start reviewing it regularly. What has God given to you? Life? Lungs that work without you telling them to? A heart that beats every second? Hands? Two legs? Do you have taste buds? What about eyes? You are a walking testament to God’s lavish generosity. And on top of all that, you’ve been forgiven all your sins and clothed in the righteousness of Jesus – that’s what this meal means. It means that God has given Himself for you and to you, in Christ.

And that leads to the second thing: all of God’s gifts are fundamentally ways in which God is giving Himself to us. But this means that God knows exactly how to give Himself to us. Some of it is the same and some of it is different. Some have greater trials, and some have greater triumphs. But it is the same Christ, the same God, the same salvation given to all who believe. So look down your aisle, look behind you, look in front of you. What has God given? He has given us Himself. He has given us all that we need. And God is good all the time. 

So come and welcome, to Jesus Christ. 

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Simple Obedience

There is so much freedom in obedience. But sinners complicate everything, and by our own hard hearts, we make obedience hard. 

You have sometimes seen this in little kids. All they have to do is say thank you. They’ve said those two simple syllables hundreds of times. They know how to say them. It’s so easy to say them. But now for some mysterious, cosmic reason that darling little lady you brought into the world has puffed out her sweet cheeks and she just won’t. And sometimes adults can do the same thing.

Sometimes obedience is hard, sometimes it takes great courage to stand up to a King, to your boss, to confess Christ and know that there will be blow back and repercussions. But most obedience is not like that. Most obedience is simple. Love your wife. Be kind to her. Respect your husband. Submit to him. Teach your children, nourish them with food and clothing and Christian discipleship. Obey your parents, honor them. Tell the truth. Do not steal or cheat. Do not grumble or complain. And if you sin, confess it right away, and go make it right. 

Children, sometimes it feels hard to obey, but can you remember a time when you obeyed cheerfully, when you took out the trash, or helped with the dishes, or cleaned your room – and when you did it cheerfully? When you did it gladly, was it really some kind of struggle? Did it take great courage to make your bed? Of course not. And when you obeyed cheerfully, did you have deep philosophical conversations with yourself about it all? What is the meaning of life? What is my purpose on this planet? Nobody really understands me… Of course not. If you thought about anything at all, other than the task at hand, it was probably something along the lines of: I want please to my mom or my dad. 

And there is so much freedom in that. There is so much freedom in doing your duty and pleasing your Father. Yes, sometimes there will be great trials, but most of the time, obedience is actually quite simple. Have you been made a child of God by His great grace? Then obey Him cheerfully – it pleases your Father. We are here to obey our Father right now. He calls us here in His kindness to worship, and He takes joy in the obedient praises of His people.

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