Ben Zornes, Author at Ben Zornes

The Whole Story on the Table

by Ben Zornes · Jul 10, 2025

The Gospel really is staggering, and the Gospel is what you feed upon here. This table is a feast of all the stories of Scripture. The stories of creation and flood, patriarchs and plagues, the prophetic warnings and the psalmists’ strains, the life, death, resurrection, and conquest of Christ, and the apostolic witness are all plated on this table.

We see this principle vividly in the plagues which we’ve recently been considering. God struck down His only-begotten Son, in order that you might be redeemed. God sent darkness upon Christ on the cross, in order that you might walk in the light. God mocked all the idols of Egypt in order to show to you their utter impotence. God showed how hard-hearted an unbelieving tyrant’s heart can be, in order to certify to you that saving faith in God is absolutely and entirely a gift of sheer and undeserved grace.

All the wonders done in Egypt were undertaken by Jehovah for one reason: God has freed you that you might worship Him rightly. This is why He made you, and this is why He redeemed you.

Every story of the Bible leads you to this very point: worship God alone. You cannot serve Him if you are a rebel. You can’t worship Him if you’re wearing the chains of another master. You cannot please Him if you harden your heart to His invitation to the feast. You cannot render praise to Him if you lift your hands to Dagon, or Baal, or Ra, or Zeus, or a Golden Calf.

The whole story of the Bible is here on this table. You were damned by your sin, but God has made a way for you to join Him at His banquet. And that way was made by the broken body and spilled blood of Christ. He is the story of the Bible.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

The Me & the We

by Ben Zornes · Jul 9, 2025

Cultures tend to overemphasize one of two things: the “me” or the “we”. You currently live in a highly individualistic culture that emphasizes the me. Everything revolves around you as an individual. But this hasn’t always been the case. Even other modern cultures heavily emphasize the “we”. Think of the regimentation of Chinese military parades. The individual is lost in a sea of people. Historically, this is what the royal “we” intended: the populace summed up in one monarch.

Democracies are heavy on the me, while communism insists absolutely that there must be no “mes” only we. Both suffer from a defective understanding of the me and the we.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but in Biblical church government we find both the me and we perfectly ordered. You aren’t an isolated individual, nor are you indistinguishable from the rest of the host of saints. Our heavenly Father promises us each a new name––there’s the me––but together we form an innumerable host of redeemed saints––there’s the we.

I want to apply this to church government as we continue this congregations formation as its own particularized church. Each family has a variety of members. Each family has a head. That head speaks on behalf of the various me’s of the family in things like elder and deacon elections. Further, within an elder board, each elder labors to represent those under his care as he joins the other elders in deliberations. He functions as a me, and then once the elders vote, the result is “we have decided.”

Presbyterian polity is not a dry academic topic. Rather, it’s how each “me” in the congregation finds their voice represented; it ensures the we does not swallow everything up. However, it also fends off rampant individualism as it allows us, as one body to say things like, “We confess, we believe, and we proclaim.” In this way we hear personal responsibility harmonized with corporate unity.

Birth & New Birth

by Ben Zornes · Jul 7, 2025

Consider how scripture compares & contrasts birth and new birth. You exist, not by your own will, but by a choice of your father. This applies also to your spiritual rebirth; as James puts it, “Of the Father’s own will begat he us with the word of truth (Jas 1:8).” Further, earthly birth is marked by labor’s blood and water. While the new birth is also marked by water representing Christ’s atoning blood, Jesus expounds that it is marked by water and the Spirit.

Put all this together. The new birth isn’t the work of your own will. It’s Your Father’s pleasure to beget you. Baptism is a mark of the Father’s will to beget. Nevertheless, the water must not be alone. The Spirit must blow. The Spirit blows in the preaching of the Word. He blows as parents discipline their child in true faith. He blows in our psalms sung in sincere hope. God blows as He pleases. Therefore, we trust that He is also pleased to blow here, at baptism’s waters.

So welcome our brother to Jesus Christ…

Everyone is a Hypocrite

by Ben Zornes · Jul 2, 2025

Every human is a hypocrite. Say you were to stand outside a busy shopping mall in order to survey the broad population about their moral framework. Ask people what they believe to be right or wrong, what their primary moral guidelines are, and what they believe evil to be you would certainly get a great deal of variety. However, if you followed up that survey with a question about whether they have perfectly kept their own moral framework, every honest participant would need to admit that they broke their own moral code.

Culturally, we live in a world governed by rules and regulations. Some of these laws are better and more biblical than others, but we are surrounded by a dense forrest of litigiousness. But though we have our rules, we commonly break those rules while insisting we are keeping the spirit of those rules.

Yet if we really took a long and honest look at ourselves, we not only are breakers of the letter of the law, we are breakers of the spirit of the law. Our hypocrisy is deep and wide. It transcends lines of liberal and conservative, male and female, and national borders. It is the condition of man. He holds up standards for others that he himself does not attain to. You are, on your own, blackmailed by your own moral inconsistency.

This is why the new birth which is offered to us in Christ is of absolute necessity. The Christian is one who acknowledges their great sinfulness, but not to bemoan it or wallow in it, but to confess it, be rid of it through the forgiveness which the Father gives, and to overcome it by the Spirit’s power at work in us. Only by honest confession is the blackmail of your moral hypocrisy rendered powerless.

An Astonishing Meal

by Ben Zornes · Jun 30, 2025

This meal is both simple and astonishing. It is simple in that it is made up of simple and common things, a loaf of bread, a cup of wine set on a folding table covered by a nice white tablecloth. But we really should be astonished in considering this simple meal. Many traditions try to jazz up the simplicity in order to make the sign itself astonishing. But we must look at this simplicity by faith, and see that it is what the sign signifies which takes your breath away.

The astonishment is two-fold. First, God guarantees that in drawing to this table in true faith, we draw near to feast with Him. Here we dine with the Divine One. We are seated at the cosmic VIP table. We are made guests of honor in the heavenly banquet hall. We––who were once scandalous sinners, who were treacherous rebels, who defied the God who made us––are welcomed here by the Father, because of the Son’s redeeming blood, and by the new life which the Spirit has given us. This really is astonishing. You, a sinner, are brought here to dine with God.

But there is a second astonishment found here. The reason we can feast here with God as righteous and redeemed saints, is because Christ took upon Himself our damnation. The One who had known no fear or faltering, the only One who was never morally inconsistent, was broken like bread, and crushed like the fruit of the vine. He did this for you, and there is nothing left for you to do in order to obtain this great gift. He simply calls you to believe all this, and so receive all this. He comes to feast with sinners, and these sinners can come as righteous saints because Christ was made accursed for You and for me.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

You’re Not Worldly Enough

by Ben Zornes · Jun 27, 2025

Sermon begins at the 52 minute mark.

Introduction

You aren’t worldly enough. I realize I’m being a bit coy in saying that. But one of the besetting sins of modern Christians is that of embracing the doctrine of escapism. The attitude towards the things of this earth is that its enjoyments aren’t for us and its engagements are none of our concern. This has caused one witty skeptic of the faith to quip that Christians are “haunted by the fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” Make no mistake, you are obligated to “deny ungodliness and worldly lusts.” That duty is in force, however, precisely because the Risen Christ is Lord of this earth, and all of it is His.

The Text

The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
Psalm 24:1

Summary of the Text

This Psalm was likely composed by David for the bringing of the Ark of Covenant into Jerusalem (Cf. 2 Sam. 6). It is, in other words, an enthronement Psalm. This was easily incorporated by the early church as a Psalm for commemorating the Ascension of Christ to the Father’s right hand. Additionally, the language of verse two is reminiscent of the creation of the world. Hold those three moments together: the creation of the world, the bringing of the Ark into Jerusalem, and the Ascension of Christ.

First, the earth which was made by the Lord is His lawful possession, this includes all its inhabitants. Yet in David’s time, very few of earth’s inhabitants served the One True God, even the chosen people had their dodgy moments. In this Psalm, David insists that in the covenant worship of God, the Lord is not only acknowledged as the rightful King of His people, but He exercises His reign over us entirely. Right worship, then, cannot be confined to the public worship of God, for in our worship God makes a claim of Lordship over the fulness of the earth and its citizens.

This is where the Ascension of Christ comes in and ties together the creation imagery and the enthronement imagery. Christ ascended bodily to the Father’s right hand. In so doing, He asserts that His New Creation work has begun and He is the lawful King over every aspect of this New Creation. The right worship of the Living God cannot be separated from His works of creation and re-creation, nor can it be separated from His lawful governance over all things.

Paint Thinner Piety

The application of this verse is simultaneously plain as the day is long, and exhaustive. If the whole of the earth is the Lord’s (as its Maker and Only Redeemer), then its inhabitants owe Him obedience in all spheres of human existence. The application of this text runs in two directions, that I want to touch on. First, this reality changes how you as a redeemed saint ought to relate to “the things of earth.” You might call this “thick vs. thin piety.” Secondly, it ought to comfort you in regards to Christ’s relation to this earth. You might call this a “narrow or broad circumference” for Christ’s governance.

In the broad evangelical world there is a tendency to pour the paint thinner of piety into the enjoyment of this world. We are suspicious of the pleasures found in this world. And certainly, the modern world has many instances of unrestrained hedonism. But Christian’s have often responded to the carnal lusts of this world by attempting to float three inches above the ground. “No lips that touch liquor will touch mine,” and similar sentiments are downstream from a overwrought pietism overreacting to ungodliness. However, the solution to ungodliness is not to water down earthly blessings. As one playwright once quipped: “Mrs. Baker is a woman who has managed to find a little misery in the best of things. Sorrow and trouble are the only things that can make her happy.”

Rather, returning to our text, if the earth is the Lord’s, and if Christ is the redeemer of it, we should not confine our worship to a few tunes each Sunday. Your worship of the world’s redeemer is displayed in your lawful enjoyment of and subduing of this world. Christ is Lord of the world. You have trusted Him. He is making all things new. This means you are to receive it all with gladness. It is not more pious to pray long prayers than it is to build a useful app, plow a field, change a diaper, cook a glorious feast (Mk. 12:40, Col. 3:23-24). True piety is thick as those fluffy Sunday morning pancakes. Christ is Lord of heaven and earth, and therefore, in reverent service to Him worship Him gladly in true faith.

Have you trusted in Christ? All your sins are forgiven. Have you been baptized into Christ by faith? Then you have received the Holy Spirit as the earnest of your inheritance. Your inheritance is the redemption of your body and the remaking of this earth. The meek shall inherit…what? Euphoric feelings up in a disembodied fourth dimension? The meek shall inherit the new creation.

With all this in mind, what should be your posture to the gifts which God has given? Gifts like wealth, children, sunburns from long hikes in the Colorado Mountains, intimacy with your spouse, wine, double bacon cheeseburgers, Sunday afternoon naps, family movie nights, and above all the gift of Word & Sacraments each Lord’s Day. These gifts are to all be received with grateful faith. Without a twinge in your conscience. If you feel guilt about receiving these gifts it means you either are guilty of ungodly indulgence, which you should repent of, or you have fallen into the pietists trap of despising the good gifts of the Lord, which should also be repented of. The earth is the Lord’s, so subdue it (Mt. 28:20, Gen. 1:28) and enjoy it (1 Cor. 10:26).

The Circumference of Christ’s Lordship

While evangelicals have tended to thin out the blessings of God, they’ve also tended to narrow the scope of what we mean by saying, “Christ is Lord of all.” Often that statement is confined to some future event. For now, He is just Lord of the warm fuzzies you feel during a nice worship song, or a comforting passage of Scripture during your daily Bible reading. But when Scripture speaks of Christ’s Lordship, it speaks in universal terms.

You’ll often hear folks claim to be Christ-centered or Gospel-centered. Ironically, this is often used as a way to wriggle out of applying the Gospel in all directions. No creed but Christ is a common cliché, but that is, itself, a creed. Ask yourself, what is the right circumference for the extent of Christ’s dominion? Does it stop at the end of your morning coffee and Bible reading? Is it confined within the walls of the church? Is it not allowed in the halls of Congress? Do Swiss banks get to stand outside the jurisdiction of Christ’s Lordship? What about research labs in Wuhan, do they have to comply with the laws of justice which the Word of God lay down for us?

Christ’s ascension to the Father’s right hand assures us that all authority has been given to Him, and He has bequeathed to us the duty of discipling the nations to obey everything our King has commanded. Church, State, and Family government are all to arrange themselves and salute when the King draws near. In both our public and private worship, we celebrate the enthronement of Christ over all things. This being the case, we are not only compelled, but also empowered by His indwelling Spirit to order all things in submission to the covenant word of our Lord. No exceptions. No loopholes. No carve-outs. For this earth and its citizens are the Lord’s, every square inch of it.

The Trinity & You

by Ben Zornes · Jun 20, 2025

Introduction

The Trinity is the central doctrine of the Christian faith because it is the doctrine of God Himself. Getting it wrong renders all other theological pursuits nonsensical. It’s sorta like attempting to learn scuba-diving in the middle of the Great Sand Dunes. It might feel like a complicated doctrine, but we ought not to be intimidated by this doctrine. It’s not as if you won’t be let into heaven if you once were teaching a Sunday School class and used eggs as a metaphor for the Trinity. Just don’t do it again. This is one doctrine where charity should be shown in the articulation of it; severe strictness should be shown to someone who is in error and then doubles down on his error after being shown his error. St. Augustine once hedged his entire book on the Trinity with this, “If herein I am foolish, let him who knows better correct me.” To which I reply, “Ditto.”

The Text

Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
1 John 4:11-16 KJV

Summary of the Text

While our systematic theology ought to begin with this doctrine of the trinity and unity of God (what we generally would refer to as the ontology of the Trinity), it is striking that the clearest Biblical teaching on the Trinity is in the context of our salvation (what we commonly refer to as the economy of the Trinity). We see that here in this passage. The duty to love one another is rooted in God’s love toward us (v11). God’s love, as we will see shortly, is triune. John explains that the invisible God is not the same thing as the unknowable God (v12). If believers love one another, this is only possible because God dwells in them, perfecting His love in them and through them (v12). How do we know that this love towards each other is the fruit of the triune God’s love toward us? Because God gave us His Spirit (v13), which is what our baptism is a promise and seal of (1 Jn. 2:20).

Though we cannot see God, the Apostles had seen the Son. This Son had been sent by the Father. The Son was sent by the Father in order to be the Savior of the World (v14). In confessing that Jesus of Nazareth is the eternal Son of God, you are assured that God dwells in you (by His Spirit), and you dwell in God (v15). John places our knowledge and belief in God in the context of this love which God showed to us. That love is the united love of the Father, Son, and Spirit. The Father set His love upon His elect, the Son was sent to save the elect, and the Spirit seals the elect with that love. To dwell in God is to dwell in love (v16). To experience the love of God is to experience the triune love of God. Apart from the Trinity you not only do not, but cannot, encounter God’s love.

Comprehending the Incomprehensible

As we consider the Trinity, we are not simply considering a doctrine. We are considering God Himself. He is holy, holy, holy; meaning, He is utterly unlike anything else you can consider. Furthermore, you can’t consider Him without also considering your relationship and duties to this God. This is the pinnacle of applied theology. Who is God? What is your duty to Him? To do otherwise would be like studying oxygen molecules while trying to hold your breath indefinitely. To be a human is to live in relation to Your Creator. You are either in fellowship with Him through Christ’s saving work, or you are cut off from Him due to your sin and rebellion.

Considering the Trinity is considering a mystery. However, that’s not the same thing as saying that He cannot be apprehended by faith. The whole of Scripture leaves us with two realities regarding God. First, there’s only one God, while three distinct persons are all referred to as God. Each divine person is equal in essence, power, and glory; yet still somehow distinct from the other two. God in His fullness is incomprehensible to us (Ps. 139:6). Yet, God has given His fullness to us in Christ (Jn. 1:16). The work of redemption revealed in the NT gives us a trinitarian order: the Father sent the Son to be our Savior, and the Spirit gives you eyes to see this.

The Error of Subordination

All errors in thinking about God lead to errors in morality. You cannot be fully human without faith in this God who is one God in three persons. This is simplifying tomes of orthodoxy into a simple statement, but all trinitarian errors are really some form of importing subordination into the God-head. Ancient heresies often subordinated the Son and Spirit to the Father. Modern Pentecostals tend to fall into the error of modalism, which subordinates the Father and Son to the Spirit. Throughout history people have exalted various virtues so high that they come to believe God must be subordinated to that virtue. For instance, the mushy progressive wants love (or their sappy and spineless version of love) to govern what God is like. Likewise, Islamists want justice (or their definition of it) to handcuff God. But in both of these instances, God is made subordinate to a particular one of His attributes.

However, there is either unity in the Godhead, or there is warfare. It is a ridiculous thing to try to conceive of such conflict within God. It isn’t as if the Father wants to save Mr. Jones, but the Son and Spirit are a bit skeptical that they can pull that off. Rather, we should see that in the economy of salvation we have God’s love to sinful man displayed in brilliant trinitarian glory.

To contemplate the Trinity is to contemplate the Gospel. God the Father determined to save you, before the foundation of the world, despite all your transgressions which He foresaw you would commit against Him. He did so not because you deserved it, but because He is love, and delights to show mercy. He showed this love by sending His Son to take on human flesh, and then die and rise again in your stead. The Father and the Son have sent the Spirit to dwell in you, so that you can enjoy the love of the Father towards the Son and the Son towards the Father.

In Augustine’s triumphant masterpiece on the Trinity, he gives wise counsel when it comes to approaching this doctrine: “And if this is understood with difficulty, the mind must be purged by faith, by more and more abstaining from sins, and by doing good works, and by praying with the groaning of holy desires; that by profiting through the divine help, it may both understand and love (Augustine, On the Trinity, Book IV, Chap. 21, Sec. 31).” In other words, if you’re having trouble understanding this, then trust God, stop sinning, go serve others, and pray some more. Very sensible counsel.

Coming Unto God

The whole reason you were made is the contemplation and enjoyment of God. To put it another way, you exist in order that you might come unto God. Heaven will be the perfect enjoyment of God, unobstructed by sin and corruptible bodies. God made you, but He did not then go off and hide.

Rather, your very being is itself a witness to your reason of two things: that God is and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. The highest good for your body is to serve God. The highest good for your soul is to believe in God. The highest good for your mind is to think upon God. Since He is three-in-one this means this is how you must serve Him, what you must believe about Him, and how you must think about Him. You were made to come unto God. But come unto Him as He is––trinity in unity––not as you imagine Him to be.

You were made to know, believe, and love the Living God. Everything you do is to be done before the face of this God who is one in power and glory and majesty, and who is also Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. So then, contemplate the Father’s generosity towards you giving you life in the first place, and then giving you new life through His Son. Consider that Christ took on flesh, in order to share in your humanity in order to take it down into death and raise it up into immortal life. Cherish the glory that you have received the Spirit of God to confirm you in this fellowship with the Triune God.

Charge & Benediction

Remember what the application is that John supplies for us in our text. In considering the work of salvation––the Father sending the Son to save us, and the Spirit applying that salvation to us––we are then led to love one another. Look at the Father’s love for His Son, and the Son’s love for His Father, and see in that love the Spirit Himself; and so then, love one another as God the Father, Son, and Spirit has loved you.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
2 Corinthians 13:14

Pentecost & You

The Ascension and You