Ben Zornes

Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ

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Ben Zornes

The AI Echo Chamber

The AI Echo Chamber

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There is a great deal of excitement surrounding the technological advances of AI. As such, it’s incumbent upon Christians to not be swept off by the spirit of the age into the particular sins and follies that arise with any new technological development. Whenever a new innovation arrives, it takes five seconds before evil men use it to pursue carnal desires. New tools inevitably are put to use to kill one’s enemies, take liberties with your neighbor’s wife, pilfer the possessions of others, or blaspheme God.

AI is just the latest thing. It has great capacity for usefulness, productivity, and further innovations. But along with it comes dreadful and soul-destroying follies. AI avatars are already being put to use to function as therapists, digital harlots, and loyal companions. Embracing such digital fellowship is not harmless. It’s effectively locking yourself in an echo chamber. Everything in the servers is derived from human language and understanding. There’s no transcendence there. It isn’t a digital tower into heaven.

AI also offers a perverse illusion of easy shortcuts. It holds out a shortcut to sexual satisfaction by AI girlfriends. Or, it allures with the opportunity to skip the duty to think long and hard about a topic, offering a cheap answer spit out by the algorithm. All this appeals to our sloth and ungodly desires.

The Spirit of God which hovered over the waters, and by Whose light the first day was lightened, has been given to You. You are an image bearer of Almighty God, and this demands that You bear yourself in such a manner. You are a lord or a lady of the Kingdom of God; not a slave of 0s & 1s. Don’t be enticed into submitting to chains of subservience, when God has made you free by His Spirit.

Pentecost & You

Pentecost & You

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Introduction

Say a teenage boy is hired to do some landscaping work. He shows up promptly at 7am with his sunscreen on and water jug full, ready to make some money for his college fund. He is told by the owner of the property that he needs him to clear out a few overgrown acres. What he beholds is a veritable jungle of thistles and thorns. Some of the plants look extraterrestrial. Then, to make things worse, the owner informs him that the only tool he has is a pair of finger-nail clippers. Clearly, the job that needs doing and the tool to do the job are mismatched. However, when it comes to the task which Christ has assigned to the church and what is necessary to accomplish that task, there is no deficiency.

The Text 

Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him?
Isaiah 40:13

Summary of the Text

Sin has so darkened man’s thinking that he really acts as though he ought to tell God how to run the world. God should sit down, get out His pen and paper and take notes from us. We have a thing or two to bring Him up to speed on. But this really is the height of pride and folly. Ask yourself the question, really ask yourself, “Who gave the Spirit of God advice?” Think of all the smartest, most luminary thinkers you can and consider whether they could really give the Spirit of God advice on how to keep electrons and protons from wandering off from each other;  or how to make a global ecosystem; or what the right dance steps are for stars. Do you really have anything to say? Perhaps you should take your seat, cover your mouth, and learn the lesson.

But what is that lesson? The end for which this world was made is for the glorification of the God who made it (Ps. 19:1; Is. 43:7). All things were made for His glory (Rom. 11:36; Rev. 4:11). Although sin brought this world into a fallen state of evil (Rom. 5:12), Christ, by His resurrection, has confirmed that it will glorify its Maker (1 Cor. 15:20-22; Rom. 8:19-21). This is the way it is. This is the way it shall be. This is the end of all things: the glory of the Triune God. This is what Isaiah great song teaches us.

Agnostic Man

Although this is the case, it is also true that rebellious man has embraced the posture of the agnostic. The Apostle Peter describes man’s condition before redemption as being fashioned according to lusts in your ignorance (1 Pt. 1:14). The word there for ignorance is agnoia, where we get the word agnostic from. Man, in his rebellion, has adopted the position that it is possible to live as if the proposition of the existence of God is unknowable. This leads him to pursue his lusts.

Scripture is full of descriptions of this sort of agnostic insanity. God is not in the thoughts of the wicked man (Ps. 10:4). He says in his heart that God will forget, God is out of the picture, God won’t see what the wicked does (Ps. 10:11). God won’t judge me (Ps. 10:13)! The fool says, “There is no God (Ps. 14:1).” Pharaoh asked, “Who is the LORD (Ex. 5:2)?” Eliphaz asked, “How doth God know? can he judge through the dark cloud (Job 22:13)?” One Hebrew idiom captures this well when it depicts the rebellious as “throwing God behind your back” (Ez. 23:35, 1 Ki. 14:9, Ps. 50:17). As if you even could do that!

But this is pure madness. The unregenerate man lives in a world made by God and then tries to live as if there is no God, or if there is one He doesn’t care what you do, or if He does care He can’t do nothing about it. But this is what Isaiah’s wonderful line refutes. Do you really think you can give the Spirit of God advice? The Spirit of the Lord is on a warpath to fulfill all the divine counsels of Jehovah, and He says, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure (Is. 46:10).” Isaiah also tells us what the Lord’s pleasure is: “I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory (Is. 46:13).” 

Power, but for What?

Now, what does all this have to do with Pentecost, and further, what does pentecost have to do with you? The Spirit of the Lord, which hovered over the waters at creation causing all things to come into being, and the Spirit which raised up Jesus from the dead ushering in a new creation (Rom. 8:11), is the same Spirit which was poured out on the disciples at Pentecost. But this pouring out was not limited to just those present in Jerusalem on that day. Rather, this pouring out of the Spirit is promised to all those who believe and are baptized. This is an immense gift.

Furthermore, the gift of the Spirit is a gift of power. To which another question immediately comes to the mind, power for what? Often we assume that the power was for the miraculous sign gifts that were present in the early church. Those were signs of the power which had been given, but that was not what the power was given for. In Acts 1 we are told that the disciples were instructed by Christ at His ascension to not immediately go off and tell everyone.  Rather, they were to wait in Jerusalem until they received power. But that power was for what end? It was for the power to bear witness unto Christ and all He had done. His life of righteousness obedience in your stead. His death for Your sin. His resurrection to secure for you everlasting life. His ascent to His Father and God, in order that His Father and God is yours. 

Isaiah also foretold that with the coming of the anointed Servant, God would make his people witnesses in all the world that God is God. “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour (Isa 43:10-11).” There you have the task: bear witness unto the risen and ascended Christ and the new creation He has ushered into the world. But in order to do this, you need power. This is what the Spirit brings to you.

Witnesses

You have received the Spirit in order that you might bear witness unto Christ. The scope of this witness is not narrow, either. You are empowered to be a witness of the certain dominion of Christ over all things. You do this in concentric circles. First, by the Spirit you are both convicted of sin and strengthened to then confess and overcome your sin. Second, by the Spirit you are enabled in your various vocations to shape this twisted world into alignment with the Word of Christ, making crooked ways straight. Third, by the Spirit you are equipped to boldly herald the crown rights of King Jesus to all the earth. You are endued with power, by the Spirit, to make this world, every last inch of it, subject unto Christ. 

This starts in your own inner life. However, it does not and will not stay there. At Pentecost, the Spirit came as tongues of flame and with a mighty rushing wind. The Spirit is a firestorm of perfect holiness which will one day engulf and transform this whole world into the glory for which it was made. The world will one day live gladly in perfect submission to the counsels of God. That is what the Spirit is working towards. That’s what He is working to bring about in you. The task is to bear witness unto all creatures and in all spheres of the rule and reign of Christ. The power for that task is supplied by the Spirit of Christ which dwells in you.

CHARGE & BENEDICTION 

Christ has commissioned His disciples to spread the testimony of His triumph over death and hell throughout every square inch of this world. That being such a great task, He has not left you powerless. He has given you His Spirit to enable you to do what He’s called you to do. So the charge is this: get to work! As the old hymn says, “All I have needed, thy hand hath provided.”

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. Jude 1:24-25

Pentecost Again

Pentecost Again

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The effects of that first Pentecost are like the waves generated from an undersea earthquake. Tsunami after tsunami continue to wash over this world as the Spirit accomplishes the task of subduing the whole world to Christ. 

During times of cultural deadness and indifference, one might wonder if the Spirit has clocked out. In short, certainly not. History stands as a witness that in times of particular darkness the Spirit is mysteriously at work. He rouses God’s people to devote themselves to a few seemingly small things which then precipitate large scale renewal.

This renewal isn’t found in spreadsheets, by-laws, or protests. The secret sauce is found in God’s people devoting themselves to waiting upon God. And here’s how. By His power, faithfully obey His Word. Stack up the kindling of sincere obedience. Dry out the timber by devoting yourself to public and private prayer. Douse the altar in the lighter fluid of pure worship, repenting of all hypocrisy and double-living. And if the people of God will live in this way, we shall have Pentecost again. According to His good pleasure, and in His perfect timing, the Spirit of God always lights such fuel. It won’t need committees to manage it, or motions to pass it. The Spirit of God will leave no question that He is indeed in our midst.

In coming to the Lord’s table, we must come with that simple loyalty. Here is the body of the Lord, given to make you holy, to make you a witness of His new life, to make you a glory to His name. This earth will be covered in the glory of the Lord Jesus, and it will be brought about by faithful submission to the clear Word of God. Take and eat, and overthrow evil empires. Take and drink, and see righteousness billow like thunderclouds.

So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…

The Ascension and You

The Ascension and You

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Introduction

Think of how you might feel if you were suddenly notified that you had been made a guest of honor at Buckingham Palace. In order to make it in time you were to immediately hop on the private jet that was waiting for you. However, through some cruel twist, you would not be allowed to change your clothes, freshen up, or brush up on which fork to use for the salad and which one for the main course. You might arrive and find yourself absolutely overwhelmed with the sense that you had two left feet, your hands were all thumbs, your mouth was full of teeth, and your mind full of cobwebs. The doctrine of Christ’s ascension, unlike the sense of being “out of place”, is meant to lead us by faith to understand that we are made acceptable before God.

The Text 

Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
John 20:17

Summary of the Text

Mary Magdalene had been conversing with who she though was the caretaker of the garden. Her request was that he give her the body of Jesus. However, after speaking her name she sees that He is in fact Jesus, risen from the dead. We know from Matthew’s account that she clasped His feet (Mt. 28:9). Here, however, she is instructed to refrain from touching Him. During His earthly ministry, His disciples ate with Him, infants and children were brought to Him for Him to touch and bless them, nor had He forbidden His feet to be washed. But now, after His resurrection the disciples must not think that He has simply gone back to factory settings.

Evidently, Jesus cautions Mary to not hold on to the old way of being near to Christ. Rather, as He will soon explain, a more potent way of enjoying His fellowship was soon to come upon all His disciples. His body was the same body. He could still be touched. He could still eat. He could start a fire on the beach to cook fish. But His body was also somehow––marvelously––different. He could walk through walls. He could disappear at will. He was apparently unrecognizable. Though the body was the same body, He was on His way to the ultimate glorification that a human body had ever attained. Thus, Mary must not cling to it.

Why? Jesus explains that He has not yet ascended to His Father. The implication here is that by ascending to the Father there is not a decrease in the fellowship which His disciples enjoyed with Him; rather, the glory and joy of their fellowship with Him is going to be increased.  It will be augmented, not diminished. She is tasked with going to deliver a message to the rest of the disciples. That message regards His coming ascent. This message she is tasked to communicate to the rest of the disciples is profound for being at once simple and unfathomably deep. Christ is going to ascend to His Father. But by His ascent you should be assured that His Father is also Your Father. He is going to be brought unto His God, and this means that His God is also your God.

According to His divinity He is the eternally begotten Son of God. He is the Son of the Heavenly Father. Thus, in your union with Christ you are made a partaker of His divine nature (Cf. 2 Pt. 1:4). According to His humanity, He is the only one who perfectly served, worshipped, and obeyed the One True God; there was no instance in Christ of idolatry, falsehood, or uncleanness (Cf. Ps. 24). Thus, in your union with Christ, you are also made a partaker of His perfect humanity, and thus His service to & worship of God is now yours. Through Christ, God is your Father, for He has now adopted you into the joy of His household. Through Christ, the Father is your God, and your service to Him is acceptable. All of this because Christ arose from the grave and then proceeded to ascend to His place of ultimate exaltation and glory. As Matthew Henry put it: “The greatest joy of his resurrection was that it was a step towards his ascension.”

Your Father & Your God 

It is unfortunate that Christ’s ascension is of so little cultural importance. When it comes right down to it, the Ascension really is the climax of Redemption’s story. After indisputably winning back His kingdom, the King receives His lawful crown. This is the happy ending of the story, even while some of the story lines still need to be resolved. By Christ ascending bodily to heaven, at least two things come to be true for those who have trusted in Christ and been baptized into Him. Notice the two things in our text: new Paternity and true Worship.

First, consider that the wrath of God was upon us precisely because of our first father. Paternity is inescapable. Adam passed on to all his children a sinful nature, because he willingly handed over the kingdom to a dragon. Jesus described Satan as being the father of those who make and believe lies. At the core of what it means to be an unredeemed person is that you have bought the lie that you are God. You believe that your sensibilities for what is good or evil are the best. And clearly, everyone should abide by your version of morality. Nevertheless, lies make fellowship impossible (Pro 18:8). Lies make family life impossible. Lies make justice impossible (Pro. 11:11). The result of a culture of lies is absolute carnage at every relational level: civil, religious, economic, familial. Christ ascending to His Father, should comfort you in this way. You now enjoy membership in a family whose Father is the source of all truth. 

The best fathers are still imperfect fathers. A good father gives his children what they ask for, without refusing their requests. He provides for their every need. He guards them from all that would destroy them. In Christ, you can now ask the Father who made all things, from galaxies down to ants, for whatsoever you need. By this you know that the Father really does have your good in mind. While this is true all the time, it is a particularly great comfort in both our temptations and afflictions. Your Father picked this out for you. This circumstance is for your good. Your heavenly Father hears and answers your prayers, because Christ ascended.

Secondly, consider that due to the falsehood which our first father believed, we were brought to practice what Scripture elsewhere calls will-worship. The OT is full of instances of man crafting idols to embody what their overactive imagination wanted God to be like and do. Even worse than that, man sought to claim to be worshipping the true God, but with false means. So then, Christ, as the perfect man, offers perfect worship and service to God continually. 

Instead of trying to appease the gods through guesswork, you can be assured that when you offer up your worship and service to God in Christ, it is received by Your God with gladness. Your worship, in this life, is still imperfect, but Christ offers perfect worship unto God on your behalf. Your labors for God’s kingdom, though they be inadequate and immature, are not in vain. Your labors aren’t the ground of your welcome or standing before your God. However, sinceYou stand in Christ, He offers all your good works to His God, and they are reckoned as acceptable. You are not justified before God by your good works, but because Christ has ascended to His God, your life of worship and labor for God’s glory are received by Your God.

In His Presence

The central glory of all this is that Christ’s ascension is not the diminishment of fellowship with our Lord and Savior. He is present with the Father, that the Father, Son, and Spirit might be ever present with you. Christ’s exaltation makes it possible for you to know and believe two things: you are adopted into the warmth of God’s household and your service in His household is acceptable. In other words, I am there in heaven with Him, and He is here on earth with me.

Are you in Christ? Well then, you are welcomed by our Father into His everlasting fellowship. The Ascension leads us to understand that we shall one day ourselves stand before the face of God, beholding His glory, and not need to look away in shame or fear. Christ’s humiliation delivered you from your sin, and in His exaltation you are to understand the full extent of that deliverance. You are clothed in His righteousness. You are brought to rejoice with true joy. You are not out of place. You are most welcome.

Charge & Benediction

In the OT there are a few passages that foreshadow the ascension, and the prevailing response which accompanies those passages is that of rejoicing. This doctrine is one that should leave you glad. The Lord Jesus is ascended, and this is a cause for continual rejoicing.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord; and the blessings of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be upon, and remain with you always. Amen.

Keeping Radioactive Waste in Your Backpack

Keeping Radioactive Waste in Your Backpack

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Last week some lurid details came to light about a certain right-leaning journalist, Glenn Greenwald. Videos were leaked (although he reshared them initially himself) of him participating in the sort of kink that gay men are fond of participating in. There were fishnets, there was degradation, there was all the creep that is common in that degenerate world. But as the video came to light, Glenn sought to soothe the conservative conscience by telling us that the acts in the video were between consenting adults and the real scandal is that these videos came out because he spoke out against Israel. But conservative influencers, from Candace Owen to Charlie Kirk, came to his defense. “He’s done incredible work, and though I don’t agree with what he did in private, it shouldn’t be leaked.” Some even continued the trope…this was blackmail from the joooos!

As an aside from the main point I’d like to make, imagine filming consensual kink, and then when it gets leaked to social media complaining that you’re being blackmailed. Either it is blackmail or it was consensual and nothing to be ashamed of. Which is it?

But this brings us to see that we live in a moment where our attempt to keep “the political” safely away from “the spiritual” is reaching its inevitable impossibility. You can’t carry around radioactive waste in your backpack and then wonder why everyone around you starts growing tumors, and the babies start having extra limbs. Sin cannot be siloed off. Sin really does seep into everything.

I’d been planning to comment on this, and then, as if to help me underscore my point, NT Wright records this interview where he comes out in support of the sad necessity to kill unborn babies in certain cases. Wright thinks that everyone should feel a bit ashamed at having to abort a baby conceived from rape, but it is for the best. See for yourself how he argues his position.

This after a barrage of other scandals in conservative evangelicalism involving sexual failure (Lawson, Brown), ethical failure (Webbon, Buice, Chappell). What all this should cause us to remember is that one sin doesn’t sit politely in its naughty little corner, minding its own business. Sin, ungodliness, and error affect the whole man.

Thus, whether it be a journalist who at times has been a co-belligerent for conservatives causes, or whether it be a well-respected theologian, you can’t treat significant degeneracy (in the case of Greenwald) or serious moral blindness (in the case of Wright) as if it was a matter of indifference. Should we plant tulips or peonies in the flower bed? No, this really is more like asking should we have raw sewage run down Main St. or should we rather invest in a sewage treatment plant? So-called private sin has a pernicious quality of becoming public. What’s done in the dark will be brought to the light. That’s Bible truth. But in addition to this it should also be remembered that, in this sickly age of unyielding commitment to tolerance, degenerate sin in private weighs the individual down with a load of guilt, shame, and fear of the coming wrath of God.

This is why Solomon often cautions his sons and students in this way:

A violent man enticeth his neighbour, and leadeth him into the way that is not good.
Proverbs 16:29 KJV

Evildoers feel guilt for their sins and crimes. But there is a funny quirk found in the sinful mind. It believes that if it can convince and entice others to go along with their error, the guilt will be diffused. This is why criminals run in gangs. This is also why criminals hang out in the halls of Congress. We justify ourselves in our own sin if we can convince others to either join us in our sin or gloss over our sin. But neither “everyone does it” or “everyone was cool with it” is not a blockade which will stop the righteous judgement of God. As the Psalmist says, “The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands (Psa 9:16).”

All of this to say, those who call upon the name of the Lord ought to not treat their own sin lightly. Don’t tolerate it. It blinds you. It entices you to entice others to join you in your sin. It clouds your moral clarity. It causes you to live in fear, and this means you are easily manipulated and easily duped. Kill your sin.

God Loves to Cover Up Sin

God Loves to Cover Up Sin

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When you compare the two accounts of David’s sin with Bathsheba, there’s a draught of deep comfort to be drawn. The first account in 2 Samuel 11-12 is details the whole saga. Whereas, to an untrained eye, the episode is simply glossed over by the author of 1 Chronicles:

And it came to pass, that after the year was expired, at the time that kings go out to battle, Joab led forth the power of the army, […] But David tarried at Jerusalem (1Ch 20:1).

This has led some to scoff and say that the later author of 1 Chronicles (likely the godly priest Ezra) was some sort of state propagandist covering up scandals in order to help do damage control for the Davidic dynasty. But we don’t take the Scriptures in isolation. Instead, taken together they enlighten our understanding of what God is up to in the scriptural revelation. From one side, call it the prophetic side, David’s dirty laundry is hung out for all the world to see. But from the other side, call it the priestly side, a short line about David staying in Jerusalem while Joab went to war suffices. The prophetic voice denounces the sin with bold exactness and compelling imagery. The priestly voice covers over the sin. 

You are about to confess your sins to the God who saw everything you said, did, and thought this week. You can’t hide anything from Him. His prophetic Word leaves no gray areas for you to dispute over whether your actions were sinful. But when you come to Him, in true faith & repentance, the Great High Priest covers over your sin. Your sin really was dreadfully sinful. Yet God is happy to cover it all with Christ’s blood. In short, God loves to cover up sin.

Prayer of Confession

Father God,
The depth of Your mercy is breathtaking. You, who really could number our every sin and crime against You and Your Word, have determined to cover over our sins as we confess them and repent of them. This really is utterly scandalous. Here we kneel, as sinners in need of forgiveness, and there You are abundant in mercy, long-suffering, and more than willing to pardon us entirely of every last blot. Forgive us for trying to hide our sins, instead of confessing them to You and having them truly covered. Grant us humility now, to confess our sins in truth, with no evasions, excuses, or exaggerations. And grant us joy as we hear the Word of Your pardoning grace.
In Jesus Name,
Amen

Make no mistake, you cannot hide your sin. But you can confess them in truth and God will cover it. The forgiveness of sins really is the great scandal of grace, but it only comes through faith in Christ and humble repentance.

Another Stone in the Temple

Another Stone in the Temple

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Scripture is the time lapse of a construction project. That project was the construction of a house for God. The Law was like the Scaffolding, the Prophets were like the general contractors, the Patriarchs provided the building materials. The NT reveals that this temple was really a person, God’s own Son.

Each baptism reminds us that this temple is still under construction, and will be until, in eternity, it is a perfect city foursquare (Rev. 21:16). Baptism is God taking the hammer and chisel of His covenant, and hewing a new stone out of the old granite of Adam. That new stone is made alive, because it’s laid on the cornerstone of Life Himself, Jesus Christ. Baptism is thus an encouragement and assurance to us that God desires to dwell with us. As the water is sprinkled, by faith, hear the thud of another brick being laid in house of the Lord.

So welcome our brother to Jesus Christ…

Ben Zornes