Christ's Person - Alvin Davis - Session 7 - 10. "The Beauty of the Heart of Christ" 11. "The Emotional Life of Christ"

Lord, just thank you for the opportunity again to be here this morning. Thank you for another day of life and especially of life in Christ, the sweetest life of all. Father, I just pray that you would be with all of us during this time as we work our way through the these lessons and the truths that have been put before us about the beauty of the heart of Christ and the emotional life of Christ. Father, I pray for your control and I pray for your filling, for me, as I not only deliver this, Lord, but, try to apply these truths to my own life.

And I pray also Lord, for all of those that are here this morning and also gathered via live stream that you would open our hearts and our minds to the spirit and help us to be able to take in, perhaps some of us who have never really thought in these categories before or looked at Christ's heart from this vantage point before. to, to be able to, again, Lord, just take it in and consider how we most importantly can apply it to our lives. Father, I also pray for the other teaching, the other classes that are being taught today, both children through adults, be with the teachers and be with the students, Father, because our desire is to be, people who are doers of the word and not just hearers only.

And in order to be doers of the word, we need to be able to give it our full attention and also to be able to take it in and apply it.

So bless us now during this time, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. So as you can see on your hand out there, we've got some review of, of where we've been on this journey, through Dane Ortland's book, Gentle and Lowly, The Heart of, Christ for Sinners and Sufferers. it's just a reminder that we're studying Christ's person in this class and, our quipping school theme for all of the adult tracks is Christ in your weakness, and our theme verse there at the top is 2 Corinthians 12:9.

I won't go over all of the review. You have it there on your notes, and you could also, if you're, viewing via live stream, you could go back on our YouTube channel and look at each of those lessons, but I do wanna, talk about chapter 8, just a bullet point from chapters 8 and 9, Pastor Mike's lesson from last week. to the uttermost from Hebrews 7:25, he always lives to make intercession for them, and one of the things that I loved, just jumped out from that, chapter by Dane Ortland is, that quote there, the intercession of Christ is his heart connecting our heart to the Father's heart, and I really love the picture that is painted there with, with those words of what the role of an intercessor is.

Mike mentioned, last week, a situation that we had when we were playing, going to arbitration and how my agent Jim interceded for me, and he, he invited you to come up and ask how that went.

And, 111 sister, Julie came up and, and, and asked me, how it went, and, no, we did not prevail in that case, but I was careful to tell her, that the salary that we did earn that year, I looked back on. And we, we were very blessed by that. So it wasn't a, a winner take all type of situation. It was, where we just were a little far apart on our numbers.

So anyway, I was paid very handsomely, to play baseball that year and so don't look back on that with regret. But then, Pastor Mike transitioned into, us into, looking at our savior as our advocate and then again from 1 John 2:1, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and then there's another quote there, when we choose to sin, our savior does not forsake us. These are the very moments when his heart erupts on our behalf in renewed advocacy. And I just love that quote there, our savior advocates for us and one of the things that he, he unpacks in that chapter in in the difference between an intercessor and an advocate is as Hebrews says Christ is always interceding for us before the Father because even though we're saved, even though we have the spirit of God, we still sin and, and we need an intercessor whereas he mentions the role of an advocate is more as as necessary.

He advocates for us. So, as an, as an as an intercessor, he stands and connects our heart with God's heart. As an advocate, he comes alongside us before the Father and, pleads on our behalf. What a savior, right?

We're gonna continue that theme as we move into today's lesson. so speaking of which, the beauty of the heart of Christ is what we're gonna, take a look at first from chapter 10 of Ortland's book. And I have a very short introduction there because I really have to watch my time, in order to try to do justice to both of these chapters, but we're gonna shift gears a bit. Ortland does so in the book and, and look at, I see a typo there, two facets, that's supposed to be the number 2, facets of the heart of Christ.

Just one of the motifs from the book is that, we're looking at the heart of Christ as it were, almost like a diamond and just, just, turning it in different ways to let the light reflect on it. and, and, and, and let us see, what Christ wants to see, wants us to see of his heart, through the word of God. And we're gonna do so this morning with the help of two honored American theologians, Jonathan Edwards and BB Warfield. And so without, any further discussion, let's just jump right into chapter 10, the beauty of the heart of Christ.

Now, I mentioned this was a little bit of a struggle for me to get to this point of the week where I'm actually teaching you the lesson and. And I think with both of our lessons this morning, one of the reasons is that these are not necessarily categories or ways that I've looked at the heart of Christ, the way the ways that I've looked at the gospel before and these are ways that that are just challenging for me. I think I have a grasp of it here, but I don't yet have a grasp of it there.

And if you're like me this morning, even having read the chapter or even by the time we get done with the lesson, I think that's OK.

I wanna say that that's OK because we're all being transformed, right? We're all on a, on a journey from glory, from brokenness to glory through the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so, what I really wanna try to connect this to, and I, I'll probably repeat myself, but I wanna connect this to our practice here, that we emphasize at Cornerstone of preaching the gospel to ourselves every day. So I, I think that's gonna help me make the best connection with it.

Another way to preach the gospel to myself is to focus on the beauty of the heart of Christ. So let's, let's dive a little bit into, what our brother Jonathan Edwards says to us., Dane Ortland sets the stage in both of these chapters in chapters 10 and 11 by introducing us to the ministries of Jonathan Edwards and BB Warfield, and then he, picks out, certain sections from sermons that they've preached, in the past to, connect to the theme of our book that Christ is gentle and lonely, lowly, and that, the beauty of Christ in this instance was the one of the main focuses of Jonathan Edwards' ministry.

And that alone for me is just really, thought provoking. Like I, I have to sit and think about that because I, I know when I share the gospel or.

Even when I'm ministering the gospel, so those two aspects of evangelism, right? Like Pastor Milton unpacked when we're talking about gospel conversion, gospel centrality is that we have the pleasure of being evangelists in our own life, in the lives of other people, and I don't automatically or include or think of the beauty of the heart of Christ when I'm evangelizing other people, but Jonathan Edwards did. And as Ortland tells us, that was one of the themes of his ministry.

Was to, to proclaim the beauty of Christ, the loveliness of Christ, and let that truth draw people to Christ.

And so again, that's a little bit challenging, but that's, that's what we, that's what we have here in our lesson to consider. So just looking at a couple of quotes there, I may not do both, but looking at the one at the top under setting the stage, Edwards wrote, there is no, there is no love so great. And so wonderful as that which is in the heart of Christ. He is one that delights in mercy.

He is ready to pity those that are in suffering and sorrowful circumstances, one that delights in the happiness of his creatures. The love and grace that Christ has manifested does as much exceed all that which is in the world as the sun is brighter than a candle. Parents are often full of kindness towards their children, but that is no kindness like Jesus Christ. We'll get into that about parents and children a little bit more towards the end of the lesson, but it just reminds me that.

That this particular quote is drawn from a sermon that Jonathan Edwards preached to the children of his church, which is how we're introduced to his particular ministry and how it attacks attaches to the gentle and lowly heart of Christ. And, so borrowing from that, we can see their next quote that the first thing out of Jonathan Edwards' mouth and exhorting the kids in his church to love Jesus more than anything else this world can offer is. The heart of Christ When Edwards talks about Christ's heart, he often emphasizes the beauty or loveliness of his gracious heart.

And so, we get a chance to unpack Jonathan Edwards's heart here a little bit more.

I thought that might be good for us to do. but let's, just take a, take a minute just to talk about beauty here and loveliness. I thought we could benefit from some definitions. I know I could.

I had to stop at this point and study and I was like, man, I, let me, let me get my mind wrapped around this because again, these are not categories that I'm used to thinking in. But there's a definition there of beauty. It's a combination of qualities such as shape, color, or form that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight. And loveliness is defined as the quality of being very beautiful or attractive.

And then I have a couple of questions there for you. Think of the most beautiful person, inside or outside. What is it about them that caused them to come to mind? Did the heart of Jesus come to mind?

And those are questions that I had to ask myself. I actually, being honest with you, I actually started off with a place. Where, where's the most beautiful place? What's the most beautiful place that comes to mind?

And I think Kim and I share this a little bit. I don't know if this is her most beautiful place, but, I thought of Sugar Beach in Maui, specifically in a little, I guess it would be an Airbnb now, that a rental that you can get. And, because they're 4 hours behind us, it's really easy to get up in the morning before dawn when you're there, Hawaii for especially the first couple of days. And one of the things that, that I enjoy in that place is a nice cup, cup of coffee on the Lanai watching the sun rise.

Molokini is out in the distance. Haleakala is up above, and it's just one of those places where you, for me, I just feel the beauty of God's creation in a special way. So when I thought of that question. That's where my mind went.

What's the most beautiful place? What is, who is the most beautiful person? That you can think of. And I think the big idea for me of this whole lesson, not necessarily the chapter, but of this whole lesson, is that when you think of beauty, you think of Christ.

You think of the heart of Christ. How much he loves you. What he's done on your behalf. And again, we're going to try to unpack that as we go through the lesson.

So Edwards goes on and says they're the middle of that of that page under the heart of Jonathan Edwards. Everything that is lovely in God is in Christ. And everything that is or can be lovely in any man is in him. For he is man as well as God.

And he is the holiest, meekest, most humble, in every way the most excellent man that ever was. Again, I, I, when I was making these, the handout for you, one of the reasons I struggled with it is because basically, I could have just printed out this whole chapter and included it. And I was like, OK, I, I can't do that. Like, but, but what, what, what can I do?

And I said, what? This is what I'm gonna do. I'm just gonna include as many quotes as I possibly can, and I'm just gonna assume that people haven't really read the chapter. So they've got everything with them in their handout that they need that I think captures what Dane Orrtland is trying to help us to understand as far as the beauty of the heart of Christ.

And so then skipping a quote there, but we're drawn to God by the beauty of the heart of Jesus. When sinners, sinners and sufferers like us come to Christ, the person they find is exceeding, excellent and lovely. Of excellent majesty and of perfect purity and brightness conjoined with the sweetest grace, one that clothes himself with mildness and meekness and love. Perhaps that and ideas like that, such beauty painted with words is something that we could commit to memory.

I, that's something that I need a lot, is, is things in my mind, in my heart to meditate on, with repetition so I would commend that to you. And then he goes on to really, I think, encourage us to be drawn near to God by the loveliness of the heart of Christ, that next section there. He says, let Jesus draw you in through the loveliness of his heart. A heart that embraces the penitent with more openness that we are able to feel.

A heart that walks us into the bright meadow of the felt love of God. A heart that drew the despised and forsaken to his feet in self-abandoning hope. A heart of perfect balance and proportion, never overreacting, never excusing, never lashing out. Sorry for the typo there.

A heart that throbs with desire for the destitute, a heart that floods the suffering with the deep solace of shared solidarity in that suffering. It is a heart that is gentle and lowly and stealing from our pastor at the bottom, bottom of the page. What, what is not to love about a savior like that? What is not, what, what, what would prevent us from drawing near to a person like that?

If, if that person were a member of our church, all of us would be drawn to that person. And I think that's the point. That is Christ's heart, his beautiful heart, and he wants us to draw near to God through him. Now, I, I have to say, as I've said, the other two lessons that I've taught, this is, this is family language, if I can put it that way.

This is language, these are promises, this is beauty that is given to those who have drawn near to God. One of the previous lessons, we talked about those that come to Christ. Come to Christ. These are the types of promises.

This is the type of beauty that we have the Honor to be able to see in Christ and know that these things are true towards us. Even when we're in sin. As Hebrews tells us, he disciplines us for our own good because of he because he loves us, right? And, Hebrews 12, which Pat, Carlos is gonna be preaching later here in our sermon, but, he disciplines us because we're his children and that he loves us.

And but, but again, evangelistic appeal, if, if you don't know Christ, if you have not come to him. And looked to him for salvation. You're on the outside looking in. And my encouragement this morning is that you would come to Christ, that you would be drawn to Christ by the beauty of his heart for sinners and sufferers.

And that also reminds me, that some of us in our church are, are, are suffering right now. some are, are grieving deeply the loss of loved ones or health, are going through different challenges. And as I mentioned before, I know for me sometimes when I'm in pain., it's like, man, Lord. I, I, I don't feel that nearness, right?

The, the pain just gets in the way and it buffers and, and it, and it, and it filters and sometimes can even put up a wall. But my hope is that truths like this as we uncover the beauty of Christ will help with certainty that Christ is with you. He's not against you. Now, we know from scripture, from Romans 8, I've said this before, that one of God's purposes for us as His children is that we be transformed into the image of his son.

And so we know that God allows things to happen in our life. They're part of his sovereign purposes for us. But as Romans tells us, nothing can separate us from the love of God. And that we have come to a God who is able to make all things work together for good for those who love God and those who are called according to His purpose.

So if you're, if you're suffering or if you're grieving this morning, my appeal to you is just hang on. Hang on to Christ. Draw near to Christ. Draw near to the heart of Christ.

Know that you have a savior who is beautiful and as Ortland reminds us, who feels solidarity with us. He's with you. He's not standing off at a distance wondering why you're feeling the way you feel. He's a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and he's there for you.

Go to Jesus and let him comfort you with the comfort that only he can give to you. So, Orle ends this chapter with, what about the children, right? We've got to give some thought to the children coming full circle, with Jonathan Edwards' sermon, because it, it, he, the basis of it is a sermon that was preached to his children. And so he gives us some insight here in how we can even include the loveliness and the beauty of the heart of Christ in our evangelism or our discipleship of our children or the children here at Cornerstone.

So he, he asked a question on page 100, what, what is it that the children whom we greet in the hallways of our church most need? And I skip, skip through the quote there. but then he says, might it be that the truest need, the things that will sustain and oxygenate them when all these other vital needs go unmet, is a sense of the attractiveness of who Jesus is for them. And then he goes on and says, what, what's our job?

And I, and I love this, our, our kids are adults now, but we have grandkids. And it's good for me to be reminded as a grandfather that this is an important part of my job in the lives of my grandchildren. We have a ton of fun. A ton of fun.

And, all of the grandparent quips that you've heard of, they're somewhat true. they, they come over, you have a great time with them, you spoil them, as much as you see fit, and then you send them home, right? But, but I have a bigger job and we as parents and, and grandparents or, or older adults in this church have a bigger job and that is to, to help our kids discover the beauty of Christ. And so Orland says, our job is to show our kids that even our best love is a shadow of a greater love.

And I really love how he, he says that because he doesn't pit 11 love against the other. It's not our love or Christ's love. It's both, but Christ's love is clearly greater. to put a sharper edge on it, he says.

To make the tender heart of Christ irresistible and unforgettable. Our goal is that our kids would leave the house, and he picked an age there. I don't know that that age really fits 18, but, but that our kids would leave the house and be unable to live the rest of their lives believing that their sins and sufferings repel Christ. Isn't that beautiful?

Isn't that a great goal? And again, that could only be done as we not only proclaim the truth, included in in scripture, but we also teach and show our kids how beautiful Christ is. And how drawn in we are and they can be to a savior like this. one of the things that came to mind as I was, preparing and going through was, these, these lyrics, just more, more of a challenge than anything because we've, we've sung this song a lot over the years.

it's from Hillsong Worship here, here I am to worship light of the world, you step down into darkness, open my eyes, let me see beauty that made this heart adore you, hope of a life spent with you. Here I am to worship, here I am to bow down, here I am to say that you're my God you're all together lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me. And I hope that As I said, I'm in baby class on this, right? I'm, I'm, I'm in preschool, but I'm, but I'm hoping that.

Again, I've sung these lyrics before, numerous times, but I hope that like me, these will take on a new meaning for you. Based on what we've observed here about the loveliness and the beauty of the heart of Christ for us, so I wanna press on here, I gotta keep track of the time. We could have spent the whole time on this one lesson, but, these two lessons definitely connect together because we transition into the emotional life of Christ and. Just to set the stage there, Dane Ortland picks up, some truths to include in this idea of Christ being a gentle and lowly savior for sinners and sufferers through the ministry of BB Warfield, another one of our honored theologians here in the United in the US, and so, I'm looking at some quotes there, I might skip some of these, but, Warfield, oh no, Ortland says the Son of God clothed Himself with humanity and will never unclothe Himself.

He became a man and always will be. This is the significance of the doctrine of Christ's ascension. I had to read this sentence probably 4 or 5 times, because I, in my mind, I, I would have written it differently, but this is the significance of the doctrine of Christ's ascension. He went into heaven with the very body reflecting his full humanity that was raised out of the tomb.

He is and always has been divine as well, of course, but this humanity once taken on will never end. And and how Ortland is setting the stage for us is he will transition into the emotional life of Christ. And, and then make the case for us that, one of the things that draws us to the savior. Is his compassion.

And then he unpacks for us a little bit later, this balance or this, this idea of, we see Christ on the pages of scripture, exhibiting wrath. And how, how do we balance those two emotions? And so let's try to dive in here a little bit. Again, we discovered the heart of, BB Warfield, and then I included a quote there just talks about, what, BB Warfield was shooting for in the essay.

you can actually find that online if you'd like to read through it at length, but, when he talked about the word emotional, he, he's not talking about us as humans. So that's one of the things that he wanted to make sure that we understand. Christ's emotions are not like our emotions because our emotions are impacted by the fall. We're fallen human beings.

And so one of the reasons if you're like me that you've learned and know to not trust your emotions is because of that very truth. But I think here's the main thing, we can't import our idea of emotion onto Christ. Because he was perfect. He was the most perfect human and therefore had the most perfect emotions that ever could be and and still are.

And that's one of the main points that Orlin is going to lead us to. And so he focuses on two aspects of Christ's emotion that we find in scripture. The one is the compassion of Christ. you can see there in that quote there, he's trying to help us see that Jesus did not simply operate in deeds of compassion, but actually felt the inner turmoils and roiling emotions of pity toward the unfortunate.

And again, I, I know that, that, that hits me, maybe because of my background, because of my training, just who I am as a person, as I mentioned, my, my relationship with my emotions is tamped down if you will. and, maybe you're like, you, you, you are like me, your, your emotions might be a little bit tamped down as well. And so again, it was, and I had to choke up and go to my two strike stand working through this chapter because of that. I don't normally think in in terms of these categories and how the compassion that Christ has for me, not only draws me to him, but By application, I want to become more like him.

And and be more moved more deeply by suffering, by grief, by sin, by injustice as Christ would be. the bottom of that page there, Warfield is particularly insightful, however, on the implication of this compassion for how we understand who Jesus was and what his inner emotional life was actually like. What he helps us see is that Christ's emotions outstrip our own in depth of feeling. Let me read that again.

What he helps us see is that Christ's emotions outstrip our own in depth of feeling. Because he was truly human as opposed to a divine human blend. And because he was a perfect human. And I just love that idea.

I thank the Lord for people, men like, BB Warfield to help open up that idea because it's not something that I would naturally have thought about. Christ and his humanity. And then the top of the next page there, Ortland goes on and summarizes rhetorically there, in that part of his chapter on Christ's compassionate response, he writes that that is what Jesus felt perfect unfiltered compassion. And, and what if that human were still a, a human?

That's a rhetorical question. Though now in heaven And looking at each of us spiritual lepers with unfiltered compassion. An outflowing affection not limited by the sinful self-absorption, self-absorption that restricts our own compassion. one of the things I really loved about this chapter, and I wanna take a few minutes to, to, to delve in on that a little bit, is, Ortland given the illustration of being in India and, encountering a, an, a, a leper.

And, he talks about, just having been finished preaching a sermon and seeing this leper and, feeling compassion, but I appreciate the honesty. he said, he said a very tepid compassion. And, he, he, he, he said, he said a little anyway, a little compassion, but it was tepid compassion. The fall has ruined me, all of me, including my emotions.

Fallen emotions not only sinfully overact, overreact, they also sinfully underreact. Let me read that again. Fallen emotions not only sinful sinfully overreact, they also sinfully underreact. Why was my heart so cool toward this miserable gentleman?

Because I'm a sinner. I just wanna say a little bit, one of the days that I was studying, I was coming out of the lib the library, a gentleman came up to me as I was getting into my car and he asked for some money for bus fare. And. I, I, I appreciated the request and everything, but I, I, went to my default setting.

And my default setting is I don't give cash to people. I, I stopped giving cash to people. And part of that is we live in a fallen world, right? And, and, and I was just telling the story not too long ago, when we were located over on Linden Street, we had, and I say we, I happened to be at the office a couple of times when, where we had people who were recipients of our ministry of mercy, come to us and say, tell us, confess to us how they had misused that mercy.

And, one of, one of the things, one of the gentlemen told, told me one day is, he said, hey, drug dealers have to eat too. We used to give out gift cards to Ster Brothers. And you couldn't buy alcohol with them, but you could buy groceries. And basically, what he was telling us was, is that there's this underground economy that we could use what you give, gave us to, to get what we really wanted, which was drugs.

And, so things like that in our world affect us, right? And they make us, they at least give us pause. It's, it's not that we don't feel any compassion for that person, but they give us they give us pause in how we, how we react. And I'll just be honest with you, I, I was in a hurry.

I, I needed to go. I was on my way somewhere. That's why I was leaving the library. And, just to take the time to unpack everything.

And, I, I shared with, the gentleman that about the path of life ministry real quickly, but I'm doing this calculation in my mind, like, man, if I get my phone out and I find the address for them and tell them how to get there and because it's not that far away, right? And then, I just don't have the time for that. And I say all of that to, to lead us into what Ortland says here. And that is, Jesus is never in a hurry.

he doesn't have. The sin of the world impacting his response. To sin and suffering and grief. He's the perfect human.

Still is today. Our advocate Our intercessor Relating to us from a heart of compassion. And my hope is again that that heart of compassion will draw us to him. It will be one of the things that helps us come to him when we're preaching the gospel to ourselves, when we're ministering the word of God, or, or, or just being the arms and the hands of feet and feet of Christ to someone who is suffering, someone who's going through a hard time, someone who is grieving, that, that we feel that and that, that, that produces in us a response.

that we're willing to take the time. And be like Christ in those situations. Now, I don't sell all that to lay a guilt trip on any of us. But just to say, wherever we are to the degree we are, know that we received this from Christ.

Know that that's the type of compassion that we receive from Christ and let that compassion flow through us, have its way in us, and then flow out of us to other people. Well, now, Orlin takes on a big question here. How does Christ's anger fit in? How does his anger fit in?

Because we, we see on, in scripture, instances where Christ was angry. I have listed three examples there that Ortland includes in the chapter. How do you balance his compassion with anger? And again, because we're finite, because we're fallen, it's really hard for us to keep two truths like this that seem to be incompatible intention.

But one of the things that Orland points out how Warfield helps us is he helps us to see that these things, rise and fall, together. That's that middle quote there, pages 1108 and 109. Per Perhaps we feel that to the degree we emphasize Christ's compassion, we neglect his anger. And to the degree we emphasize his anger, we neglect his compassion.

But what we must see. In that, the two rise and fall together. And then looking at those examples there. example number 1, the sustained pronouncement of judgment upon the scribes and Pharisees throughout Matthew 23.

We are all familiar with that passage. But Orlin writes it is his concern for those being misled and mistreated by these revered religious PhDs. That brings Christ's anger and these pronouncements that come with it. To light.

Driving out the money changers, we're all familiar with that, right? And just John, John describes that in, in a lot of detail and I know if you're like me, it's sometimes that's hard to, I don't, I don't see Christ that way, like angry. I know it's true because it's in the word of God, but it's just hard for me to wrap wrap my mind around it. But I think lessons like this can now help me to see, as, as written here.

But why did he do this? Why did Jesus drive out the money changers? Because they had perverted the use of the temple. OK, I, I could see that.

The money changers were the ones doing the real overturning. I love that overturning the temple from a place to know and see God to a place to make money. And then of course, the tie in is this tied into the love and compassion that Christ had for worshippers. Which overflowed into anger.

And him driving them out of the temple. And I thought about this, I, I, I, I have a business major background. I, I won't say I was a business major because that was a long time ago, but I have a business major's background and one of the thoughts I had was, I, I guess based on this, if this setup had been in the marketplace, Christ wouldn't have had a problem with it. But because it was in the temple.

And specifically in the court of the Gentiles, his compassion for those coming to seek and worship God is what animated him to do something about it. This is not right. It's not the right place. It never was the right place.

And this needs to go. And then I think, one of the most thought provoking, if that wasn't thought provoking enough, is the death of Lazarus in in John 11. And again, I, I still need to chew on what Warfield has brought to the surface here. but he, he says Jesus approached the grave of Lazarus in a state not of uncontrollable grief, but of irrepressible anger.

And if I understand the essay, that's in the Greek. It's there. The emotion which tore his breast and clamored for utterance was just rage. And then Warfield goes on to point out that the object of Christ's rage were death and Satan.

I love that. I know for me, it's, when I read that, it's like, well, maybe he wasn't happy with the mourners or maybe he wasn't happy with Mary and Martha, but no, his anger was directed at death. He had lost his friend to death. And he set about undoing that by bringing Lazarus from the raising Lazarus from the dead.

And, it has applications for us today as as Warfield goes on and points out, Implications and applications for us today that that that raising of Lazarus was a foreshadowing or a taste of what Christ would do through his own death, burial, and resurrection. He would defeat Satan. He would defeat death and he would make a way for you and I. To defeat Satan and to defeat defeat death.

That's what compassion does. The the compassion of a perfect human being. Well, as we, move forward here, just looking at the time, we also see in this chapter a comfort for the grieving and counsel for those sinned against us. One of your elders again, it just something that I wanted to make sure that we drew out of this lesson.

And just a reminder there from Ortland, in your grief, he is grieved. In your distress, he is distressed. Draw near to Christ. In your grief, in your distress.

Again, if you're like me, sometimes grief, distress, leave you with more questions than answers. Sometimes grief and and distress leave you pointed in the right dire the wrong direction away from Christ, rather than toward Christ. But I love this reminder here that we have a savior alive right now in human form. Still has the emotions that he had when he was here.

And his compassion allows us To act upon the invitation to draw near to him. To receive the comfort from him that we need. Well, counsel to those that are sinned against. Perhaps you've been sinned against, and the only appropriate response is anger.

Be comforted by by this. Jesus is angry alongside you. He joined you in your anger. Indeed, he is angrier than you could ever be about the wrong done to you.

And moving on as you consider those who have wronged you. Let Jesus be angry on your behalf. His anger can be trusted. And I'll just say that again.

His anger can be trusted. I, I, I cannot trust my anger, folks. I'll just be honest with you as one of your elders. It is untrustworthy.

I have failed in anger countless times. It is one of my besetting sins, the sin that easily entangles me. And as I've tried to think about anger, I've, my thought is, what, I just need to keep myself as far away from it as I possibly can. I need to allow the grace of God to work into my heart to where I don't even get close to getting angry.

my, my temper is volcanic. I, I'm more like the Incredible Hulk when I'm angry than I am Bruce Banner. whether I lash out or whether I wall up. That's how my anger manifests itself, and I'm so prone to it.

So it's so easy for me to look at this and go, wow. Wow. I have a beautiful savior. Who gets angry at sin and wrong.

But he perfectly responds to it. And this side of glory, I'll never be able to say that. I hope to be transformed in this area of my life, but I will never be like Jesus on this side of glory. I say all that to say, I probably am not the only one, right?

Probably not the only one that deals with sinful anger. Probably not, even though I'm not in this situation now, some of you may be in the situation where you're very angry with someone. And you are fighting the temptation, I hope, I hope, fighting the temptation to take matters into your own hands. And all I can say is, thinking about this reminded me of Romans 12:19.

Leave room for the wrath of God. For vengeance is mine, and I will repay, says the Lord. That's not the only place he says that as well. So my encouragement is.

As we finished our quote there. In that knowledge that Christ's anger can be trusted. That he's with you Release your debtor and breathe again. That's Matthew 18, right?

Let's let Christ's heart for you not only wash you in his compassion, but also assure you of his solidarity and rage against all that distresses you, most centrally, death and hell. If you've lost a loved one recently, you're mad at death. You're mad about death. It's just wrong.

It shouldn't be this way. And you're right. But take comfort from the fact that Christ has defeated death. He's defeated hell.

And draw near to him to receive that comfort. From one who knows our sorrows and our grief. Let me close with a quote from Spurgeon. Pastor Mike, I got you in mind on this one, brother.

I found a, found a Spurgeon quote. This is actually from Randy Alcorn's book, called It's All About Jesus. Spurgeon writes, if you make doctrine the main thing, you're very likely to grow narrow-minded. If you make your own experience the main thing, you'll become gloomy and critical of others.

If you make ordinances the main thing, you will be apt to grow merely formal. But you can never make too much of the living Christ Jesus. Doctrines and ordinances are the planets. But Christ is the sun.

Get to love him best of all. Amen. All right. Well, we have some questions for meditation.

I, I skipped over those from the first chapter, but I would just commend those to you to help draw this, or, or drive this a little deeper, into our hearts and, inches forward in these areas of, of the. beauty of the heart of Christ and also the emotional life of Christ. You can also see the reading for next week there, as you get ready, as we continue the study and we'll look at a tender friend and, the, the question there, why the spirit? And then there's some suggested study questions to prepare yourselves for that.

And so, our brother Chris Kidder will be leading us, right, Chris? Oh, we got, we got a lineup change next week. So anyway, I'm gonna just stop on that because I don't know the lineup change and I don't wanna make a fool out of myself and take away from this great lesson. So, let's just close our time with prayer.

Lord, we thank you again, for the saints that have gone before us who have, Dived deeply into your word and and brought out precious truths. and thoughts for us to consider, especially when it comes to our Lord Jesus Christ, and how he has revealed Himself on the pages of scripture. And I said at the beginning, Lord, I know for me, these are new categories, these are new ways. but Father, just help me to not.

Dismiss them. but to, to journey further in them. In my thoughts towards Christ and in my thoughts towards you. Lord, I'm reminded and have been reminded that even in our men's ministry, when we began through Pastor Milton to talk about the pillars of our men's ministry being weakness and ignorance and failure.

And a humble willingness to confess the above. A great savior, prayer and hope. Those Lord, those 1st 3, those 1st, even the 4th 1 were categories that I was not used to thinking in. But they are true.

And to the degree that me and myself and other men here at our church and men in the body of Christ have embraced them. It has, it has helped us in our transformation to become like Christ. Lord Jesus, thank you for revealing yourself to us, for coming and showing us compassion. But most of all, Lord, demonstrating your compassion towards us, spiritual lepers.

I pray that you would be with us, Lord, as we continue our, our Lord's day, our, our worship, our family gathering here at Cornerstone. Be with our worship team. Be with Pastor Carlos as he breaks open the word for us today. And again, Father, we just are so thankful to be, to be able to ask all of these things of you in Jesus' name.

Amen.