Today we look forward to Holy Week. In fact we also look back — to previous posts on TalkofJESUS.com in Holy Week and extended months of previous years, as well as centuries Before Christ in Prophesy …
We have looked at ASH WEDNESDAY which began 40 days of Lent.
.. and as Christians we look ahead in anticipation of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
FEATURED HOLY WEEK Series:
EACH SERIES contains brief posts with a NEXT POST link at the bottom.
SCENE: Jesus approaching Jerusalem from Bethany prior to Palm Sunday
The puzzling picture of Jesus from the Gospel requires some Old Testament understanding to realize the reality of the Messiah’s words.
13 And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.”
Perhaps you know this first QUESTION (What is the chief end of man?) of the Westminster Divines, actually a shortened version of the original.
What is the chief and highest end of man?
I could ask the first question of the Westminster Catechism (teaching) a different way.
What is the Highest Goal of Mankind?
Mankind, of course, includes womankind, just as Scripture frequently includes women while referring to or instructing men.
What is YOUR big GOAL?
OR may I ask the chief question of every man or woman:
WHY am I here?
(You do have a purpose to your mortal life, don’t you?)
If you don't know the ANSWER or have never considered the #1 Question of life, NOW might be the best time to carefully create your own answer to man's compelling question of purpose.
Who do you live your life for?
IF our chief end in life relates to a person, then we must ask:
WHO is this VIP for whom WE live our lives, the one who truly deserves to be the principle person receiving the chief end of our goals of this brief mortal life?
Our Husband or Wife?
Our Father or Mother?
A Son or a Daughter (perhaps all of our Children)?
A beloved Friend or possibly a Mentor and Teacher worthy of our highest regard?
Someone from the past or an idol of these present times?
WHO is the MOST important Person worthy of the chief end of your time?
Answer to question #1
Before I reveal the answer (if you don’t already know it) let me ask you this:
Are YOU the ONLY important person in your life OR is someone else the MOST important person in your life?
Didn’t God create you to relate to someone other than yourself?
So then shouldn’t your goals in life — especially your ‘chief end’ — relate to the PERSON of highest importance to the most important outcome or final end of your mortal life?
Consider one additional Person, an overlooked highest One most deserving to become the chief end of our earthly attention, love, praise — and yes, even worship.
It is written from the Gospel:
Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.
Does GOD deserve to be #1 on your VIP list?
Whoever else you named as #1 on your personal VIP list, this most beloved person you view as your chief end of a purposeful life – they are NOT worthy of your worship.
HOWEVER:
IF you recognize the Eternal Person of God the Father —
IF you recognize the Eternal Person of God the Son —
IF you recognize the Eternal mysterious third Person of the TRINITY, God the Holy Spirit —
THEN you have chosen the right PERSONS of GOD to glorify.
Congratulations! You have won ETERNAL LIFE.
Recognize that the Lord God is a PERSONAL God to those He has chosen.
IF we will choose to place Him at the TOP of our VIP list, we secure His loving RELATIONSHIP for an ETERNAL LIFETIME!
God is not a man like us, yet the Lord God IS One God of THREE PERSONS, a true teaching of the Bible called Trinity.
I cannot address the deeper doctrine of the Trinity as part of this #1 answer to the teaching of a Biblical Christian Church, however you may read more about it here:
.. only one God exists; there are three distinct Persons in the New Testament – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; each of these three distinct Persons is called God. Therefore the three distinct Persons must be the one God.
This may be a time to rethink the #1 priorities and goals of your daily and mortal life.
Maybe God has NOT chosen you for eternal life
and regrettably you accept the END of your mortal life
— you are dust and to dust you will return — .. AND then the judgment!
This is all supported by God’s written word of the Bible; but in addition to Scripture you could RETHINK your chief end through further study in the link provided earlier or by reading more about the DOCTRINES of God.
SELF is ALWAYS the wrong answer (as frequently WE see in others)
THINGS (like money or work or entertainment or vacations or clothes or cars or houses or politics or social clubs or sports or.. ANY other IDOL) will eventually prove to be WRONG ANSWERS.
Your mom or your dad (present in your life, but not far distant or long passed from this mortal life), MAY be your #1 living person worthy of #1 on your human list; BUT not in the place of God.
Most of us know the Biblical Commandment of God concerning the HONOR of Parents, yet honor of our father or mother is less than our chief end of giving glory to the God who created us all.
Your husband is not worthy of glory above God, though wives are commanded to RESPECT your husband.
And husbands, your wife is not worthy of glory above God since He commands you to LOVE her as Christ loves the Church.
These are God-ordained personal relationships between one man and one woman like no other, which God glorifies uniquely as ‘two become one,’ not unrelated to the Oneness of God and Christ with the Church.
Should ANY child, infant to adult, become the chief end of purpose in the life of a parent (especially a mom)?
ALL biological fathers and biological mothers ought to cherish the special bond of the conception and birth of their child which God has given into your care, nurture and instruction, but NO CHILD should receive your #1 glory above God. (There are no ‘single moms,’ or at least their wouldn’t be if in the lives of both lovers God we chief end of their relationship.)
Adopted children with parents having chosen them by a new relationship are also equal to our biological children in our love. Like the children of our birth parents, chosen children inherit God’s love through parents who have chosen them but not in the place of glorifying God first.
How about a FRIEND?
Do you value one friend above another? Are both of you not dependent on the God who knitted together the strong cord of all of your heart-held friendships? Glorify God with your friends and thank Him for each.
As for relationships of our past: have some become idols weighing our heart down to the darkness of the dust? You know God’s Commandment about idols, not all which are chiseled from wood or stone.
Perhaps YOU CHOSE more than one of the PERSONS you glorify for the top of your list. (None deserve #1)
ERASE your former WRONG answer[s] & REPENT.
Glorify God
Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy Him forever.
Go ahead — repent and erase your former wrong answer.
Glorify the Lord God – the only One who deserves our highest worship.
The chief end of YOUR mortal life is to finish God’s work for His Glory.
The chief end for those who love God, mere morals made in God’s image — men, women and children who’s chief relationship is the with Jesus Christ, Son of God — by His grace is eternal life.
By the mercy of God the Father, foreordaining His Only Son to die for our sins — the end of a mortal Son of man,Jesus sacrificed for our sin on the Cross ERASES our mortal end.
Christ’s resurrection of the body to eternal life assures us of God’s mercy, grace and love of those who love Him — those of us for whom He died.
YOU and I have a #1 chief end:
In heart and in deed WE must Glorify the One Person who has saved us to eternal life;
consequently through Christ, our highest end will be with GOD to enjoy Him forever.
Glorify the Lord God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, both His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
Scripture tells us how false teachers leaven the Church and the faithful must discern the dangers of false preaching.
Church DE-NOMINATIONS seem to be doubling-down lately into divisions over SOCIAL issues.
AND this phenomenon of churches redefining themselves is not limited to any particular denomination.
What does it mean to be a church?
RE-fitting YOUR church vision to accommodate changing cultural mores doesn’t really seem to have anything to do with divinity or sound doctrine rooted in Scripture and proclaiming the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As you have seen in my previous Saturday Posts, although gaining downhill momentum toward the pit of destruction, this trend is nothing new.
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. .. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words..
These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been kept. For speaking out arrogant words of vanity, they entice by sensual lusts of the flesh, those who barely escape from the ones who conducted themselves in error..
In the beginnings of the first century Church the Apostle Peter mentions an earlier fall of Israel as an example of the ever-present danger of false teaching.
Can we be a ‘church‘ without doctrine?
Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach..
“My teaching is not Mine, but from Him who sent Me. “If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is of God..
If YOU think the preacher of the church YOU ‘attend‘ doesn’t have some ‘NON-NEGOTIABLES’ of Doctrine, it’s time for you to listen closer (and think for yourself).
What DOESN’T he/she say — EVER?
What Truth will the man or womanwith the mike REFUSE to PREACH from the pulpit or have you hear in the good-feeling lyrics of the amplified sounds of worship?
Which Bible verses have to be bent just a little to connect to OUR audience?
DARE WE EVER preach REPENTANCE before grace?
Let’s bring Christ down from heaven just a bit, so he feels closer to OUR audience just for an hour (and only on Sunday).
Have BIBLE verses evaporated from the wall of worship behind the stage of OUR worship service?
Does OUR pastor hesitate to mention Christ Jesus?
Is a pressing social issue important to the growth of our church?
Can OUR church be BOTH christian AND other?
Although I am a lay theologian; that is, I study God and I study Scripture and I study Jesus Christ, I must once again point you toward the teaching of a most respected Christian theologian.
Although I will add my comments here, seek your own answers about the church you belong to locally. (And once your read this and think through the doctrine YOU hear, why not ADD your COMMENTS to this post?)- RH
Divinity, Doctrine and the Christian Life
“The great divorce of doctrine and life will destroy the Christian life.
Doctrine and life are fuel and fire, not oil and water.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
THINK DOCTRINE, EMBRACE TRUTH, ACT ACCORDINGLY
doctrine comes to mind
truth captures the heart
which then moves the will to act
The Bible starts with God the Father always, everywhere and we must do the same — because that is the order of the blessed Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
“I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
“I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.
“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
“Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.
Gospel of John 17 – from the High Priestly prayer of Jesus Christ to the Father
..theology must first concede that the finite cannot fully know the infinite. Therefore, theology is sometimes an exercise in negation.
Lloyd-Jones pictures theology as the act of building a fence around the incomprehensible mystery of God.
Jason Meyer
Does the world HATE you because of any witness of Jesus Christ you claim by faith?
WE are in the world, so do we recognize the evil one?
Have you even heard your pastorcaution his/her church about the evil one?
Jesus did.
Do others worshiping the Lord alongside you recognize that Christ has set YOU, me and members of His Body the Church apartfor salvation?
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us take hold of our confession. – Hebrews 4:14 LSB
EMBRACE this TRUTH:
Sinful man CANNOT intercede with the HOLY GOD (who WE are NOT) without accepting our High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ as the Perfect Sacrifice for our sins – the sacrificial Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
Our partial knowledge of God is real knowledge, but it falls far short of comprehensive knowledge.. God alone is
“HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME.”
NEXT, God-willing, we will continue with Jason Meyer's overview of the doctor of doctrine Martyn Lloyd-Jones and his prescription for this brief moment of our our Christian lives.
