For Lord’s Day, April 10, 2022
Dear Saints,
After Rachel and I enjoyed a light breakfast at a cafe on the Southwestern College campus a few months ago, I walked her to class on a beautiful brisk morning looking out through a gorgeous courtyard framing Mount Miguel. Along the way, I noticed a banner on the outside of an office that read:
“Anything that is worth learning is worth learning well.”
I really appreciated that sentiment. At college, or anywhere else in life, we should give our best to learning as best we can what is available to us for our knowledge and growth in service. And that includes being good students and not thinking we know more than our professors (so we can benefit from their expert experience and training).
That got me thinking about how blessed we are at our little church to value in-depth learning guided by the time-tested Confession and catechisms and Puritan devotions. To be in an environment where we are encouraged to be like the Bereans open to learning and making an effort to learn and adjust with a teachable spirit, to study to show ourselves approved (2 Tim. 2:15), to fulfill the Great Commission of knowing and obeying everything Christ commanded. To have this heart:
Psalm 119:6 Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.
At the end of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, he gives a parable that encourages us to learn well all that He teaches us to live that our lives would receive His blessing.
Matthew 7:24-27: Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
Commenting on these verses, Dr. James Montgomery Boice writes: “Jesus says that a man builds life the way designers build cities. And His point is that the factor that determines what will remain and what will not remain is the foundation.”
Beloved, let us lay a good foundation for our lives and the lives of our families. Let us always endeavor to learn well. And to do that, we must be good listeners and learners of all that Jesus tells us to live out.
You might remember a little while ago I told you I decided not to preach on a text in Isaiah because it ended up being about something different than I thought, and I was scared to preach it. This morning the Lord has led me to preach it. And it addresses not being teachable, and so not enjoying reviving refreshment and reforming rest. Let us take heed to hear what the Spirit will say to our Church this Sabbath morning and evening (for tonight we’ll learn that repentance restores rejoicing — something the audience of Isaiah sadly often wouldn’t listen and correctly respond to and thus learned the hard way; so we will ask God to grant us Berean spirits that we don’t stunt our own growth).
Semper Reformanda,
Pastor Grant