Church, Kingdom, Culture
Josh Blount

The following is an edited transcript of the audio.

Thank you. It is a joy to be here with you. I count it an honor when in a seminary context or different places and people ask, where do you come from? I'm a Sovereign Grace pastor and wouldn't be in any other place speaking to any other group of people. I've been on this side with you all for 27 years of hearing sermons and being led in worship, hearing messages through the Sovereign Grace context and my life is frankly unimaginable apart from the impact that you all have made in me. So to all of you who are here, especially who've been here for many years, contributing to Sovereign Grace, thank you. It's a joy to be here and I do count it an honor to be a Sovereign Grace pastor and wouldn't be anywhere else.

The topic we have this morning, which Mark assigned me, is church, kingdom and culture. I want to think about together how does the church preach the kingdom and engage the culture? In a minute we'll get to the content of my message. I want to begin now and just give you the heart behind the message. I'm aware that in certain evangelical circles or at certain conferences, this would be seen as the topic of most importance or the thing that generates the most enthusiasm and excitement. Yes, let's go outward and renew the culture and do kingdom activity. And then a whole host of things are called kingdom activity. Let's get another conference about the kingdom and how it impacts arts, et cetera, et cetera. And the heart behind my message is to convince you that conferences about kingdom living and all those things are second fiddle to what takes place every Sunday in your church.

This is where the kingdom touches down on earth and where the kingdom advances in the ordinary life of the church. That's what I want to convince you of this morning. Now, as I was preparing this message, this article came across my desk from Christianity Today. It's an older book review with this headline. When you're on a topic like this, this headline leaps out at you. "Ignoring the ethics of food production is not an option for Christians." I'm sorry if you thought it was, it's not. So this article is a book review of a book about gardening in the kingdom. I didn't think those words would ever come out of my mouth in a sermon. And here is what this individual writes, he's reviewing a book by a man named Bahnson. In an especially helpful practical suggestion, Bahnson argues that the church needs to find ways to integrate the agrarian arts into its day-to-day routines.

What, he asked, if our homes and churches went from being primarily sites of consumption to places of production as the scholar and priest, Ivan Illich suggested. What if we planted church supported community gardens, permaculture parishes, and apistolic farms that fed entire neighborhoods? What if seminaries trained every future pastor in the agrarian arts, Ecological literacy and post carbon living? What if church lawn stopped being the dumping ground for pesticides and petro-fertilizers and started growing zucchini and heirloom tomatoes for the local homeless shelter? What if we created infrastructures of holiness where God's kingdom of Shalom could flourish on earth as it is in heaven? What if?

Now I am sorely tempted to mock, but let's be charitable. What's this man attempting to do? Do we indeed want to see the kingdom of Shalom, God's peace on earth? We do. We want to see the kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. And charitably if you kind of strip this down to its essentials, here's what I think is going on in many of these kinds of proposals. Someone begins with this assumption. God intends to renew all things, all parts of creation; everything touched by the curse, God intends to renew. X is broken in the creation, therefore the church should be about renewing X.

Do we want to see the kingdom expand at all corners of the globe? The glory of the Lord filling the earth like the waters fill the sea? Yes, but what proposals like this miss - the fatal flaw- is this: what's the mechanism by which God is going to bring his kingdom? Where does the church fit into that? Is it agrarian arts and post carbon living? We could frame our question okay, What ​must​ we do to bring the kingdom of Shalom? I'm going to introduce what I think is a different, more important biblical dimension in answering that same kind of question -- what ​must​ we do?

Many things we may do, through the freedom that God gave us in the providence of building churches in different contexts, but what must we do? We're going to look in Ephesians 3 beginning in verse eight. Paul writes these words, Ephesians 3:8, "To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring the light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Here's our focus, verse 10 - what must we do to display the manifold wisdom of God to the heavenly places? Here's what P.T. O'Brien writes about that one verse: "Paul has in mind neither evangelism, social action, nor any other additional activity by God's people. Instead “through the church” signifies that the very existence of this new multiracial community in which Jews and Gentiles have been brought together in unity in the one body, that church is the manifestation of God's richly diverse wisdom." And note the dimension that's added to this question of what's the church about? The church is displaying the manifold wisdom of God to the heavenly places, to the angelic beings, both angels and demons who are watching God accomplish his purpose through Christ Jesus on earth.

The stage is bigger than we thought. God is not out to display his manifold wisdom for the accolades of the New York Times or the Guardian. He's not trying to get the church trending on social media. He is displaying his wisdom to the heavenly places and they take notice of something that takes place on earth called the church. So the question then couldn't be any more important - What must the church do to not fumble this task? What must we do as we think about the culture around us? A broken and fractured culture. What must we do as we are outposts to the kingdom? Here's what I want to propose. I believe scripture would call us very simply to preach, practice, and wait. What do we do? Preach the word, practice the marks of the church, and wait for the King.

If we do these things, the manifold wisdom of God will be displayed to the heavenly places. If we fumble them, then we'll step off of the stage God has designed to display his wisdom for his glory alone and will be blown to and fro by winds of human doctrine. So let's pray, ask the Lord to meet us as we look at these three things, we must do.

"Lord right now we would pause and simply ask for your blessing. You promise that you work through your word, so keep your promise we would ask. Protect us Lord either from loveless inactivity that ignores the broken things and broken lives around us. Protect us from that and also keep us Lord we pray from distraction, from winds of human doctrine and schemes that would buffet us away from the gospel and from building churches that do display your manifold wisdom. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen."

What must we do? First thing, preach the word. You're well-taught on this, but let's just remind ourselves in the context of thinking about church, kingdom, culture. How do we engage all these voices calling for our attention and saying, you must do X, Y, and Z, including heirloom tomatoes. Focus, let's think what God would call us to do. Preach the word. You notice what Paul says even in our passage. What's his role? He proclaims the riches of Christ. He gets to chapter four, what's our role? We're pastors and teachers. When he gets to a particular pastor, Timothy says, what must you do? Preach the word Timothy. Why? Well, the word is powerful. It's not something new to you, but think about it in this context for God to say his word is powerful. He's telling us it's what you need.

It's not as though he's created a blueprint, a massive system, and then said, I don't know how it's all going to work, figure it out on your own. He's given us the power to actuate all that God intends to do through Christ, and it's the Word. If you think of all the testimonies we've heard about the gospel going forward in different places around the world, what's the engine that drives all those gears? All those plans around the globe, it's the word. The word is powerful. It is God's power.

It is what we need and it's sufficient, which means it's all we need. If it's powerful and it almost goes without saying, if God says this will accomplish my purpose, then we don't need to add anything else to it. It's not required that you be an expert at reading the culture, but you must be a specialist in reading your Bible.

The word is powerful, it's sufficient, it's what we need and it's all we need. It's powerful, it's sufficient, and you know this - it's redemptive. Now, what do I mean by that? This is important in this context. The word is given by God for the purposes of God. It is given to redeem the people of God for the glory of God. It is God's word for God's work, not our power for our purposes. To put Augustinian language in it, it builds the city of God and it won't be co-opted to build the city of man. Now, here's why I'd say that in this context. You know the world's broken, there are lots of schemes for what must be done to fix the world. Scripture will not tell you how to solve the Brexit crisis. It is not given to make America great again.

I'm not limiting scripture by saying that, I'm exalting it to a purpose that's not merely human. It will not be co-opted to achieve the plans of the nations as we will see in a moment. It is God's powerful, sufficient word to redeem his people and it can't be wielded like a magic eight ball for all that we would desire to do here. So that brings us to a crucial point to think through this powerful, sufficient redemptive word. How does it relate to the culture and how does it bring the kingdom? And I'm aware at this point, especially if you're familiar with some of the conversation in the evangelical world about this, you might have a question at this point, maybe even a red flag. Wait a minute, that sounds fundamentalist, pietistic, quietistic. Sounds like retreating from the culture. Isn't that what evangelicals did in a previous generation that we now need to get away from? Are you just talking about saving souls only and anything else is polishing the brass on the Titanic? Don't we need a robust Neo Calvinist, Kuyperian vision to reclaim culture? Well, yes and no.

God's word is given to achieve God's purposes, not our purposes. Let me think through this with you, especially as we're talking about engaging the culture. If you're translating a document, let's say from French and English, you have to understand the document in French. You have to know the definitions, the grammar, the syntax, but when you move to translating, you have to put it in a new language. There are new rules that govern whatever that target language you're translating in English. It's got to be English when you're done. If you read the original French, as I would do, with a Southern twang it's still French.

You're not moving to another system of meaning, you're not governed by different laws and rules. In this context much of the buzz about talking about cultural renewal, social justice, I fear is speaking the language of the city of man with a biblical twang. It is importing the rules and value systems of a world that is convinced it doesn't need God and speaking them with a few biblical words thrown in, a little bit of an accent. Brothers that will not do. It is not sufficient merely to put a scriptural gloss on what is fundamentally a secular project. So as we're preaching the word, it is governing all that we do. Now, if you're thinking, okay, but yeah, aren't there things we should do to engage the culture? Let me just pause here for just a moment. Maybe you're also picturing your church that you're about to go back to and thinking, I have got a church full of millennials and younger who are passionate about the kinds of causes that come up here and what am I supposed to do with them? Just tell them to become a preacher, and nothing else is important?

No, here's what you can do. Pastor, called to be one who handles God's word, here's how you can go back to that kind of church or think about all the buzz. Here's why the word is sufficient. I’ll put it to you in two propositions. Proposition one - if you preach the word, you will get a people who are zealous for good works. The Bible has a language for speaking about what Christians do to engage the world around us. And that language is good works. Surprisingly as I was preparing this message, I discovered every New Testament author, except Jude, uses the language of works to describe what Christians do. It's pervasive throughout the New Testament. You recognize that phrase of people zealous for his own possession. That's Titus 2:14, that's what the gospel does. Jesus saves a people who are zealous for good works and throughout the New Testament we are told this is our spiritual DNA. This is who we are. We are people who do good works.

But here's the thing, if your good works come from preaching the word, then those good works are as diverse as the full wisdom of God. It's not up to you to come up with a list of the things that must be done. Preach the word and you'll have people who do good works because it's powerful, sufficient, redemptive. It will accomplish God's plan. As I was preparing this, I got Dave Taylor's Emerging Nations newsletter. If don't get that, you should. It will do good to your soul. Reading through that, here's what I noticed - One of the things he was highlighting from his recent trip to Nepal, there was just a line in there that described how people from our Sovereign Grace Churches had gone to Nepal and one of the things they were doing is teaching local believers how to make American meals to serve tourists meals that they're familiar with.

Who would have thought that's a good work that impacts the church in Nepal? I was a little offended that I wasn't asked for my opinion on PB and J sandwiches because I make a mean PB and J. Cooking American meals that comes to good works. Who would have thought it but you preach the word and the word will create people who do good works and they'll be diverse. Our sovereign Grace Church in Richmond has to think through how do we help Hispanic immigrants with visa and immigration issues because those are the people they're called to love. Mike Seaver in Charleston helping their city in the wake of racial violence, those are good works. For years the church that I'm now a part of has taken meals the day before Thanksgiving to people who can't get out and get meals. Cooking traditional Thanksgiving meals, and take them to shut-ins and people who aren't able to afford it. Those are good works.

But I selected an intentionally random list for this reason - In God's sight, none of those are more valuable than the others for bringing the kingdom of Shalom. You remember Jesus' standard, whoever gives you a cup of cold water in my name will never lose his reward. And that leads me to the second proposition. So first you preach the word, you get people who are zealous for good works. If you do that, the works you get will be governed by the word. Preach the word and our good works will be governed by the word, not by the standards of the world.

Psalm 33 will help us here. Here's what Psalm 33 says, "the plans of the nations, the Lord frustrates. He brings their counsels to nothing. The plans of the Lord stand forever, his counsel to all generations." Here's why that will help you in this context. God looks at all the worldly schemes to fix the world and says, "I will frustrate them. I will stop them, they will not accomplish that." And the danger in this kind of context is that the plans of the nations become the priorities of the church through the vehicle of engaging the culture.

God does not give his word to aid us in Babel building or golden calf carving. His word will accomplish his purposes, but it won't be drawn in to our schemes. Let me read you a list that came out of a book on seeking the kingdom under a chapter entitled Pursuing Justice. Here's the list that were bullet points in the opening page of this chapter. These things are cited as justice concerns - sex trafficking, slavery, poverty, racism, educational inequality, sexism, domestic abuse, abortion, police brutality, mass incarceration, and on and on. And on and on is part of their list, not my addition. Here's what concerns me about a list like that. There are real injustices there, but it reads like a grab bag of the plans of the nations.

The world around us, not submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, unaided by a spirit and with no desire to bring glory to God, thinks those are within their grasp and things they must pursue. If we simply join them in that, the danger is that we will assume we are building the city of God and in fact we'll be laboring on the city of man. That cannot be. Now on that list, there are many things that were real injustices. They should not be ignored. Don't hear me saying these are minor concerns. This is important. The facts of a verdict on something like this, the fact of a moral verdict - ​that's​ wrong - and the reason we arrive at that verdict are equally important. Let me give you examples, just to pull them off that list. Sexism, which I take to mean the denigrating and demeaning of women. Fact - that is a wrong, it is a sin for which God will bring into judgment any who have practiced it. But why is that wrong?

Is it wrong because it's a violation of God's plans for flourishing complementarian marriages? Because it's a violation of the image of God given to male and female equally? Or is it wrong because it's a relic of a patriarchal system of oppression that will not be totally wiped from the earth until sexual activity is completely divorced from childbearing and all traces of traditional marriage are purged from society? That's not hypothetical. There's a significant strand of ideologies that says, that's what we're about. We oppose sexism because it's a relic of this system and until it's all gone, we haven't achieved our goal. Those are mutually exclusive options. About racism. Fact - racism of any form in any country's history is wrong, but is it wrong because for instance, white supremacy is a heresy and a direct contradiction to God's beautiful plan to bring people from every tribe, tongue and nation to worship him as we saw portrayed last night through Psalm 17?

Is it wrong because it opposes that? Or is it wrong because God is always and inevitably on the side of the oppressed whenever and wherever you find them and however they are defined. That's the logic of James Cone, founder of Black Liberation Theology, and here's where that trajectory ended. At the end of his life he was adamant, that logic should have led him to feminist theologies, queer theologies, gay theologies, Marxists theologies, all under the same dynamic of God on the side of the oppressed who need to be released from that oppression. Those are two mutually exclusive reasons for opposing the same thing. And if we speak the language of that city of man with a biblical twang, it will not be the gospel. To change the illustration, even if those two trains are side by side in the station for a moment, they end in very different destinations. And so brothers, preach the word because you will get people who are zealous for good works, but those good works will be governed by the word.

They will be the good works that God says are valuable. The ones that he says, that is worthy of reward. That's what's most important. That's the audience we're playing for, that God would say, this is important. So here's my suggestion before we move on to the second point, and this one has taken the most time, so where we are camping out for the longest. If you're thinking about this topic, social justice, engaging the culture, all those things, here's what I'd simply suggest. Study the New Testament theme of good works. Study what the New Testament values and why it values it. Here's at least one thing you'll find, and I'm deeply affected by this every time I see it. God seems to care inordinately about particular people.

There are names scattered throughout the New Testament. Have you thought about the significance of that? The God before whom nations are a drop in the bucket, before whom rulers are like grass of the field, that God doesn't notice who's ruling in Philippi or Rome or any other places. He doesn't even engage them. But he stops to tell two quarreling women in Philippi - Euodia and Syntyche, agree in the Lord. You fellow laborers, tell Archippus, fulfill his ministry. Honor Epaphroditus, he's worthy of honor. God notices names. His attention is drawn not by the things that the world thinks are large and grand, but by the people he has saved. So study the theme of good works, what scripture values and why.

Because the world will little note nor long remember most of the things that God finds eternally significant, you'll miss what God is up to if you expect it to look like the shining glitter of the city of man. Study this thing and then have this in your mind as a general principle - The bigger the claim, the more cautious you should be. If it sounded like a utopia, it probably is. I thought of this book I hadn't read in five or six years as I was thinking about this topic. It was called "The Art of Neighboring." The premise of the entire book was that loving your neighbor, with little schematics for how you could reach the neighbors actually around you, loving your neighbor would change the world.

There was one line in this book that went something like this - Jesus is literally a genius because if we would just follow the plan he gave us to love your neighbor as yourself, we would change the entire world. And then it took a swan dive off of that little teeny precipice of scripture and gave a whole host of plans how you could love your neighbor and change the world. If it sounds really big like a utopia, it probably is. There are a couple of things that might intervene like cosmic powers over this present darkness, resident sin, a world that hates us. In the words of Jesus "all who follow me will be hated and persecuted. "

The bigger the claim, the more skeptical you should be. Conversely, the more you're just loving and caring for the people right in front of you, it's pretty safe to say the more you're in the place where God would have you to be. So preach the word brothers. Minister the word in every context you're in. It is powerful, sufficient, redemptive. It will do what God intends. It will make a people zealous for good works, and the good works that they do will be self-consciously under the authority of the word.

Preach the word. Here's the second thing, practice the marks. Now, for all our gratitude to nine marks, I'm not here talking about nine marks. I'm talking about what, since the Reformation has been identified, this is what makes a true church, usually at least two marks - word and sacrament - often with church discipline added to make explicit what's included in the word, and those are the three I'm going to use. But why would we talk about that here? Because fundamentally the church is not subject to its own scrutiny or authority. It's not our church. God determines when a church is faithful or not, and by giving ourselves to what scripture identifies as the things the church must do, we're submitting our very corporate existence to the God who has called us into being.

This is not a sermon where I'm going to unpack sacraments in depth. I just want us to think of it in this context. What must you do? Preach the word, now practice the marks. Baptize, practice baptism. Think about the significance of what you're doing. Riley described this, Joel described, Barnabas described this in Nepal - baptizing people. You are saying, this one belongs to the kingdom. This man, this 100 year old saint, this awkward teenager in love with Jesus, they have access to God. They are part of the joints and ligaments that God has woven together to build up his church. They belong, they're one of his. They must be nourished and cherished. It's vital when we think about engaging the culture, that we not blur the line between those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

Let me make clear, it is not because we're not evangelistically minded and that we're simply inward focused, but evangelism and missions dies if you are not clear on who belongs to the people of God, and who is still part of the world. Those who dwell on the earth as Revelation describes it. There is a difference. In baptism is when we publicly acknowledge this one has been saved, they are marked out, they are drawn by God and they're now part of his plan. The church that understands what's happening when you baptize, that church will have its priorities straight.

Think about this, what happens when you have a church with a glittering arts ministry, but whose senior saints sit alone six and a half days of the week. That church has lost its way, woe to that church. 90 year olds won't get you a Twitter following and they won't change the culture, but they're a blink of an eye away from being co-heirs of the universe. Woe to the church that forgets its saints, these are the ones that belong to the kingdom. This is the place where we are called to give our first and best attention. Wherever the culture goes, don't neglect these precious few. Baptism will get your priorities straight. Baptism will tell you the place where a just and lasting peace will be achieved. These ones marked out by God, belong to him. So baptize, and recognize and teach your church what's happening.

Second, practice the Lord's Supper. It's very simple, isn't it? To think about what we're saying in the context of all the brokenness of the world every time we take the Lord's supper together. What is it that made the world so broken and requiring a renewal? It was taking and eating. It was taking and eating what should not be taken and eaten that expelled us from the presence of God and wrecked the world. Adam and Eve could not have known at that moment what they had unleashed by disobeying the good and right God. All the heartache, all the broken lives, all the injustice, that would mark the entire course of human history. They could not know, but God knew.

God knew, paraphrasing Derek Kidner here - God knew in that moment when he promised one who would come and crush the head of the serpent. God himself would taste death before take and eat become verbs of salvation. What happens when you gather at the Lord's Supper? The gathered people of God eat in the presence of God, the privilege we lost by our sin. How do you know the world will be put back together? Look, week by week, God is fixing what man has broken. Black and white, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, gather and they enter the presence of God. The world doesn't note what happens on Sundays. That's not the day in which the plans of the nations go forward. But in the eyes of God, we are closer to eating than any moment when we gather week by week and enter the presence of the Lord, and here, take and eat.

Whether you take the Lord's Supper weekly, monthly, that's not my point. You're creating a rhythm, a rhythm that's different than the rhythms of the world. I think about what we say virtually every time we take the Lord's supper, "for as often as you eat of it, you proclaim the Lord's death until he returns." Every culture has its rhythms. If you trace them, they trace them the arc of our expectations. They show you what we're waiting for. Every time you gather and taste the Lord's Supper, you are proclaiming, we're still waiting. We are still waiting for a King who will make all this right. Now, it's just a cup and bread, it's not a feast yet, but the day is coming on that mount where the Lord swallows up death forever when he will spread a feast for his people, and all that is broken will be made right. And when you gather week by week, you are anticipating that moment.

You are experiencing the renewal of all things touching down on earth in your Sunday gathering. So teach your church as you take the Lord's Supper together, you're coming back into the presence of God. The privileges we lost through Christ have been restored. Baptize, teach your people what's happening as you take the Lord's Supper and practice church discipline. We must do these things. Why in this context would we talk about church discipline? I'm not going to go through a methodology or the texts. You're well versed on how this works. But why, given that we've just talked about the Lord's Supper would you carry church discipline all the way through to excommunication barring from the presence of the Lord?

It is because with tears in our eyes, with trembling lest we fall into sin, there are times when we must say that conduct is unbecoming of the kingdom of God. It is an act of justice saying "that cannot coexist with the rule of Christ." Lord, keep us from going there. Lord, restore this brother, but that conduct can't take place among those who confess the name of Jesus. Have you noticed this about people who are eager to see the culture changed and throw themselves in what we might call utopian schemes? On the backside of that, what usually comes is cynicism. There's always an angle, everything's too good to be true. When the church with tears in its eyes, practices the Lord's discipline as the Lord has commanded us, we are saying yes everywhere, but the kingdom of God, is too good to be true. There will be no dark underbelly in the kingdom. There will be no seedy side. There'll be no malcontents who don't enjoy the good, holy, righteous rule of God. That won't take place in the kingdom of God.

And so in a broken world that longs for justice, you are witnessing to the justice of the kingdom when you uphold with fear and trembling the holiness of God's new people. You cannot break your covenant with your spouse and come to this table. There is forgiveness and restoration. A church is a hospital for the broken, but not the rebellious. And so as you practice these marks, you are an embassy of the kingdom on earth. Marking off the boundaries of the conduct that belongs to the kingdom and that which does not. Partaking of the privileges of the kingdom as you enter into the presence of God and as you preach the gospel and baptize saying this one now belongs. Their future extends beyond the grave into a new heavens and a new earth. What must we do to display the manifold wisdom of God? We must preach the word and we must practice the marks God has given us.

And lastly, we must wait for the King. It would not do to talk much of the kingdom and little of the King. Why is it a glorious kingdom? Because it has a glorious King. But you know what? When the scripture uses kingship language, there's always an arc to that language. There's a trajectory and for now it is always a trajectory that includes waiting. In the first place, the language of "the Lord is King" emerges, and the entire Bible is Exodus 15. The song that Israel sings after seeing God defeat their enemies in the Red Sea, they sing in worship and here's how they end. Exodus 15:17-18 "You God will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain. The place O Lord, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established. The Lord will reign forever and ever."

Now think about that. They're not on the mountain yet. They are proclaiming by faith this God whose power we have seen, he will reign and he will finish his purposes, but now we still have to go through the wilderness. God reigns and we're waiting to see his reign realized. From the very beginning, there's waiting built into the language of kingship. The Psalms are preeminently the book of the King. Psalm 2 - "Why do the nations rage and the kings plot together?" Because they're trying to cast off the bonds of the Lord and his anointed. And what does he say? "I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill." There is a King to whom the nations must bow. But when we meet this King in Psalm 3, what is he doing? He's fleeing from Absalom and pleading "God save me."

He is the King who goes out mighty in battle, rejoicing in the Lord's strength. Psalm 21, Psalm 22. And then right after that he is the King who cries " My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" By the time you get to Psalm 89 this King who we're waiting, who will this be? Israel sings "God you have broken your covenant with the King. He is mocked by his neighbors all around him. Where are you O Lord?" They're still waiting for the King. So in Psalm 90 you turn to the everlasting God who has been our refuge from before the mountains were brought forth. And then Israel sings - Psalm 96 and Psalm 98, "the Lord is King he will reign forever." But by the time we get to Psalm 149 singing, "We rejoice. Let Israel rejoice in God their King." There are still the praises of God on our lips and swords in our hands to defeat the kings that are still raging.

There is only one Psalm that is nothing but praise - Psalm 150. There is always waiting, built into scripture's language about the King. The New Testament book that more than any other exalts the kingship of Jesus - The book of Revelation describes a King with eyes that blaze like fire and whose voice is like mighty waters. In that book, Jesus reigns in heaven and Satan rages on earth. However you interpret the book of Revelation, we are now still waiting. We are waiting for a King who will make all things right. But here's what that means. As we think about preaching the kingdom and engaging the culture, our ability to do that, our control over that engagement and transformation of the culture is not really control at all.

Our corporate witness, our corporate fulfilling of the kingdom of God is not primarily linear, always onwards and upwards, it's seasonal. In other words, whether you change your community is above your pay grade. You may attract artists and entrepreneurs and businessmen who start fabulous ministries and impact and draw the attention of the neighborhood. Or you may attract protesters who egg your house and picket your buildings. That's not in your control. You may create a thriving place in which the entire neighborhood is affected, and you may be kicked out of your building and wander like a vagabond month by month from rental to rental with no control over where you even meet on Sundays. That's not in your control because the church of God is still waiting for the King who will make all things right. But if you're that kind of church, then you're the kind of church that Jesus addresses in those letters, in the book of Revelation.

Don't you get the impression if you read through those letters, chapters two and three, that the churches that would draw the most attention in broader evangelicalism are the churches Jesus says "I have this against you." And the churches that the growth experts would say that church needs help, are the churches that Jesus says "Be faithful. I know your labors. I know you're small. You've been faithful, I see it, I will reward you." We are still waiting for our King. While the world around us is scheming and planning and plotting how to fix the broken world and either saying, why is it so messed up and accusing God, or proclaiming let us make a great name for ourselves and fix this....the church is the community that cries "How long O Lord?"

"How long" is a far more profound cry than "why" or "let us build a great name" because it tells the world around us that we know who can fix this. We know who has power to make all things right and we're still waiting for him. But right now you can become one of the citizens of this King. This is what the world needs. It doesn't need the church of God to build the city of man. It needs the church of God to be the church of God. A church that is built on the preaching of the word. The church that knows its identity and practices what God has marked out as the genuine marks of a true church. And a church that knows deep down in its soul that we're still waiting, but our King rules and one day the kingdoms of this word shall become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. Come Lord Jesus.

Sovereign Grace Churches: Pastors Conference 2019