3 of a Kind by Theodore Scott

Hello everyone. My name is Andrew and I was homeschooled.

It is true. For 10 years, through high school, I walked in those proud ranks.

And what a mighty force we were. Standing against the foes of cultural liberalism, the Democratic Party and the Public Educational System, we were a fell enemy to all things evil. Armed with our Latin, Logic and SAT scores we slew the ideas and perspectives we hated.

We measured ourselves against the ignorant horde of the Public Schooled and came out the Victors. It was we who were fair-minded. It was we who were free to think and reason. It was we who were preserved from State Controlled brain washing. It was we who had the best theology, the best philosophy and the best politics.

We bled republican red. We applied our proven grassroots ability and far-reaching networking to great success for our saviors in D.C. We fought to keep prayers public in the schools we shunned and we ached for our government to be run by Christians once again.

We spat upon the endless, mindless questioning of American-hating liberalism. We defended absolute Truth and repelled Mr. Darwin. We worked to keep our nation afloat in the seas of moral relativism. We were the sails and we were the rudder; predestined to put our Christian Country back on course.

We were the intellectual warriors, the fair-minded victors and the liberalism-squelching band of home-educated brothers. Ours was a proud tradition and we fought tooth and nail to defend it.

And yet.

I left the ranks of the Enlightened and upon entering the marketplace of ideas and results, I was humbled.

I found that I was not the conqueror and that there were scores of people educated differently than I who were far wiser and more intelligent than I.

I found that the Republican Party is just as nasty, spiteful and sin-filled than any political party anywhere in this sinning world.

I found that liberalism really does have some very searching questions, few of which I had developed any real solid answers for.

I found that my country is not really the greatest and that she will ultimately fall as all great countries have.

I found that I am just an ordinary guy relying on Jesus in a sinning, sorry world. I love myself too much. I love my mind too much. I love this world too much.

Home Education has much to offer. My parents did right by me in it. It took guts and gumption and they succeeded with flying colors. I know many more young men and women who have benefited from it as I have. My wife and I plan on homeschooling our own small children. Yet, it is still a human enterprise and as such, it is open to the same sin and vice as any activity engaged in by men.

In the end, it was all about lost sheep.

It was about Ben, the Island-bred murderous liar, for whom manipulation was second nature and coercion simply a means to the end of the moment.

It was about Sawyer, the smooth-talking con-man, rough around every edge, singularly bent on murderous revenge.

It was about Kate, the attractive girl-next-door killer, on the run from the authorities and her broken past.

It was about the Kims, husband and wife in name only, owners of a broken marriage and slaves to a dictatorial father/boss.

It was about John, the bitterly angry paraplegic orphan with sever daddy issues.

It was about Jack, the work absorbed, brilliant surgeon, who could fix everything except his own broken, screwed-up life.

It was about Sayid, the torturer.

It was about Charlie, the druggie.

It was about Claire, the young-mother-turned-crazie.

It was about Hurley, the large, superstitious lottery-winning schizophrenic.

It was about Desmond, the yellow-bellied time-traveller.

It was about a diverse group of fallen, flawed and ultimately lonely people.

They tried to fix things, they tried to do things their own way.  Every step was a stumble, every stumble a full-on face plant.

In the end, it is all about a Lamb.

A Lamb who was born a miraculous birth.

A Lamb who lived a completely human life.

A Lamb who is without spot or blemish.

A Lamb who sympathizes as a Kind and Dread Sovereign.

A Lamb who bled, died and rose again.

This Lamb redeemed David, the cowardly murderous adulterer.

This Lamb redeemed Jacob, the spineless mommas-boy cheat.

This Lamb redeemed Moses, the timidly fearful seeker of man’s honor.

This Lamb redeemed Peter, the loud-mouthed, impetuous, impatient fisherman.

This Lamb redeemed Saul, the hate-filled, Pharisaical butcher.

This Lamb redeemed the dying, bloody, pathetic thief on the Cross.

This Lamb redeemed me.

The Stories of men are powerful.  They’re riveting.  They’re didactic.  They’re inspiring.

Yet, all such stories of hope and grace and redemption pale in comparison to the glorious Light, our Lion and Lamb, in whom is no darkness.

The ultimate apologetic is to a dying man….

The are a lot of different kinds of Good News, but there is little good news in “My argument scored more points than you argument.” But the news that “Christ is risen!” really is Good News for one kind of person: The person who is dying.

If Christianity is not a dying word to dying men, it is not the message of the Bible that gives hope now.

What is your apologetic? Make it the full and complete announcement of the Life Giving news about Jesus.

- Michael Spencer (the Internet Monk)

See you in Heaven, Michael.

Michael Spencer (1956 – 2010)

Sermon Poetry, 24 January 2010
Sermon Title – “Christian Unity and the Pastoral Ministry – #3”
Sermon Text – Ephesians 4:12-16
Preacher – Pastor Larry Vincent

The Church of Jesus Christ is held and kept by Grace and Love
She’s made alive through Jesus’ death and washed by Jesus’ blood
She’s called to live her life in Christ and die as Jesus died
The Word of God Creation works and gives the Church her life

The Word proclaimed, the Word as known, enlivens her to grow
She studies what her King has said, Berean Christans all
Submitting to her Holy King, her one and holy Head
She worships Christ, her Risen Lord, believing what He said

As pastors preach and tell the Word, to preaching Christ they’re held
They dare not go beyond the scope provided by the Word
Proclaimers are provided by our Lord for Christian’s good
Yet they are held, submitting to, our Savior and our Lord

I often wonder why I want to preach the Word of God
Such danger is within the role, a journey rough to trod
Yet I’m compelled to stay the course until His will is known
Lord give me strength to know Your Truth to someday preach Your Son

I changed my sermon late Thursday night. I lived in New Orleans for Katrina and heard the comments from Christians about God Judging the city and all and it pissed me off. When I heard Pat’s comments last week and then heard a local pastor repeat them at an association meeting I took a break from the book of James to preach on Luke 13. What did Jesus say when we are confronted by a tragedy. He said repent or you will likewise perish. It baffles me that Christian leaders so miss God’s grace and stand in judgment when they should be on their knees thanking God that they were spared and have the chance to repent [emphasis added].

- Aaron Arledge, from The Boar’s Head Tavern

Sermon Poetry, 17 January 2010
Sermon Text – John 10:40-42
Preacher – Pastor Tom Lyon

By Grace God uses preaching of
His Word proclaimed and heard
The Power of the Word of God
Is Grace of God our Lord

The preaching of the Word of God
Is power strong and sweet
‘Tis greater than amazing works
The place where Jesus meets

The Spirit of our Holy Lord
Gives preaching power great
Without His work, the Lost won’t live
He loves the ones who hate

Amazing words and stunning dress
Are empty without Truth
Just useless words and wasted breath
Is preaching lacking Truth

True preaching sanctioned by the Lord
Tells Truth of Jesus Christ
Christ crucified must be our theme
The Lamb of greatest price

The Word proclaimed will till the ground
Of hardened sinners hearts
The Words of God are mighty seeds
That flourish, Grace imparts

The Word believed will action take
The Spirit quickens souls
It’s by His Grace that men believe
Increasing Heaven’s rolls

Sermon Poetry, 10 January 2010
Sermon Title – “Christian Unity and the Pastoral Ministry, #2”
Sermon Text – Ephesians 4:7-16
Preacher – Pastor Larry Vincent

Lord give me great humility
As now I learn Your Word to speak
Preparing for the Ministry
A slave of Jesus Christ

The task is great and humbling
Proclaiming Truth while worshipping
Equipping Saints Your praise to sing
Lord Jesus, grant me strength

The preacher’s called to teach the Word
Equipping saints to use the Sword
We stand by grace of God our Lord
His glory is our goal

To Christ our lives and words submit
With growth in grace, engaging sin
In battle fierce, our prayer to win
Lord Jesus, keep my soul!

I’m called to hold the Word of God
And trust its truths, in word and deed
Its words to trust, its truths to heed
Submitting to the King

Lord God I sin and disobey
Forgive my sins, I weekly pray
And keep me through the coming Day
When I will then be home

I just finished reading Brennan Manning‘s book “The Ragamuffin Gospel” (which I hope to review in coming weeks) and also heard this song by Lecrae recently and it struck me that “Take Me As I Am” is in many ways Manning’s book rapped out.

But, you can judge for yourselves.

Sermon Title – “Christian Unity and the Pastoral Ministry #1”
Sermon Text – Ephesians 4:7-16
Preacher – Pastor Larry Vincent

In Jesus Christ we have our Head
Our slain and living King
He bled and died, the Church to save
Our feeble praise we bring
As Head our Lord has gifted us
By Grace the Church is made
We’ve gifts to build and edify
The Bride who Jesus saved

Our King has conquered sin and death
And ground our stony hearts
He fights against our enemies
His grace to us imparts
Our bruised and broken Potentate
Our Groom of love and grace
Has won our hearts, securing life
Our hope in Christ is placed

The gifts we have, the lives we live
Are from and for our Lord
So we can glorify our King
Our Kind, Eternal Word
Through blood we’re cleansed, by death we live
We’re ragamuffins all
Yet Jesus gifts the Church, His Bride
We Stand, men of the Fall

In Christ we strive to honor God
Because we’re saved by Grace
To follow Him in Word and Deed
In Christ we run our race
We run as one, the Bride of Christ
In Jesus unified
We’re called to run and love and live
The Body justified

In Christ we’ve men who preach the Word
Equipping saints to serve
By heralds’ voice the Word is told
The Words of Christ are heard
The gifts of Christ are ours to use
With liberality
The Body lives, the Body serves
In Christ the Bride is free

In unity we all obey
Our Christ, our living Head
And to each other we submit
In praise to He who bled
We’ve gifts to build the Bride of Christ
To glorify our King
We live and love, rejoicing Christ
As One, His praise we sing

Sermon Poetry, 20 December 2009
Sermon Title – “Christ’s Incarnation and God’s Eternal Purpose”
Sermon Text – Ephesians 3:11
Preacher – Pastor Larry Vincent

Through blood and through water our Savior was born
A baby both naked and cold
‘Twas beautiful screaming the first sounds he made
From Mary he suckled and fed

He came as an infant, a babe born to die
The Suffering Servant and King
He came in humanity, Savior in deity
His praises His people e’er sing

Christ came for a reason, to rescue His Bride
For sinners from every tongue
The Babe in the Manger, the Man on the Tree
Salvation by Jesus is won

The Father is faithful, His promises kept
In Jesus the Scriptures fulfilled
The Man of all Sorrows, the Prince of all Peace
For us Christ our Savior was killed

The Savior was born into poverty strong
Despised and rejected by men
In Christ’s incarnation poor sinners are saved
In Christ we are made into sons

Praise Jesus our Savior, our Shepherd, our King
Praise Him all you sinners and saints
Praise Jesus for coming, a babe born to die
Come all, lift your voices and praise

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Part 1

The Pharisee, according to his own perception of righteousness, had every reason to expect that he was right before God.  He followed all of the rules, He kept away from all of the sins, and he was absolutely more righteous than sinners like the tax collector.  Everyone knew how moral the Pharisee was and how utterly wicked and depraved the Tax Collector was.  This reality was not to be questioned.

Yet, the tax collector went home justified and the Pharisee did not.  The Tax Collector understood something vital: that he was indeed a sinner!  The Pharisee was right!  There was nothing in the tax collector to commend him to God.  There was nothing in his soul or in his heart that would make him in any way desirable or attractive to the Holy Lord.  He was utterly without help and hope apart from God’s sovereign mercy.  The Pharisee missed this key point: that he too was without hope apart from God’s Grace!  No matter how righteous he was, no matter how holy he was, no matter how lovely his prayers were or how much he fasted or how much he prayed, all of those works were filthy menstrual rags in comparison to the holiness of God, the holiness that is required for salvation.

This was the hope that the Tax Collector had.  That someway, somehow, God would overlook the blatantly obvious sin and still have mercy.  The Pharisee did not need this mercy.  God had already given it to him by making him so moral and upstanding that it inspired awe in those around him.  He exalted himself above the Tax Collector and above the people around him and above even God himself and Christ states that he did not go away justified.  Those who exalt themselves will be brought low.  Without Christ’s mercy, the Pharisee was damned.

And why was the Tax Collector justified?  Was it because of his righteous and holy repentance?  Certainly not!  He went home righteous because God heard his cry for mercy and loved and saved him.  The Tax Collector knew that he was lost apart from God’s mercy.  The Pharisee knew he was saved.  Christ did not come to save the righteous, but He did come to save sinners.  The Pharisee did not understand this reality.

How easy it would be to hate the Pharisee like the Pharisee hated the tax-collecting sinner!  “Lord, thank you that I’m not like other religious men!  I humbly pray three times a week, I give to the poor twice per year, I mourn over my sins every chance I get.  I thank you that I’m not like self-righteous men who try to earn their own salvation or even like this Pharisee.”  God forgive us for praying such prayers!  May he grant the mercy to repent like the Tax Collector, praying simply “Lord have mercy on me, a sinner!”

Simply being a sinner is not enough to be saved.  A man can know he’s a sinner and that he is completely unrighteous, but if he is not humbled enough to cry for mercy like the Tax Collector, he will not find salvation.  There is really only one difference between the Pharisee and the Sinner.  The Sinner knows he is lost, whereas the Pharisee thinks he is saved.  Yet both are still lost.  It is not until a man cries for mercy and believes that that man finds the salvation he so desperately seeks and needs.

Religion is a very dangerous thing.  Having the understanding of salvation, or claiming to, can be an extremely powerful bargaining chip in the hands of wicked men.  People engage in all sorts of insanity to find salvation.  This is the beauty of Christ’s teachings, that only when one stops trying to be saved will he be in a position to attain it.  Christ did not come to save the righteous.  He came to save sinners.  He came to save men like the Tax Collector, who had nothing with which to commend himself to God.

Yet pharisaical men are not without hope.  The church’s greatest missionary, the Apostle Paul, described himself in his letter to the Philippians as being a man who had every reason to have confidence in and boast in his flesh by stating that he was “…circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” (Philippians 3:5-6)  Paul put the Pharisee in Jesus’ story to absolute shame.  If that man was a good Pharisee, Paul was better.  According to the righteous under the law, Paul was blameless.  What was the difference then between Paul and this Pharisee?  The difference is found in verse 7 and 8, as Paul states: “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,  that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:7-8).  Paul understood the lesson of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.  He knew that his righteousness was not enough.  If anyone had come close enough, it was Paul.  Paul’s heart beat with that of the penitent Tax Collector, not the Pharisee.  The self-proclaimed Chief of Sinners knew the wickedness of his heart and the hopelessness of trying to satisfy God’s righteousness apart from Jesus.  And that same humbled chief of sinners also knew something of the riches of the exaltation of being a son of God in Christ.

Perhaps one of the most poignant examples of Christ’s mercy to a man like the Tax Collector is the life of John Newton.  The author of the hymn “Amazing Grace” was a man who spent a great deal of time and exerted a great deal of effort to, like Jonah, run away from God.  After many years of fighting, this man was used of God in great and mighty ways (and through his hymns and his story, is still being used).  The inscription on his tombstone reads: “John Newton, Clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy.”  This is the mercy that God has for sinners.  This grace is initially unlooked for, subsequently begged for and finally granted to the sinner; unearned, unexpected and above and beyond all hope.  Amazing grace, indeed!

Religiosity devoid of Christ-enlivened spirituality always and without fail leads to damnation.  This is a sobering lesson of the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.  Jesus made no secret of His detestation of the teachings and theology of the Pharisees.  When He was not teaching doctrines that ran contrary to the Pharisees (enraging them) or dining with sinners (deeply offending them) or teaching parables against them (confounding them), He was pronouncing woes upon them and calling them vipers and whitened sepulchers.  He even saw fit to use them as an object lesson in this parable in Luke 18:9-14.

The parable in question involves two characters: a Pharisee and a Tax Collector.  Pharisees were the religious leaders of their day.  They were renowned for their apparent righteousness and law-keeping.  They loved the honor of men and loved the sweet smell of money (Luke 16:14).  They were self-righteous and devious.  Jesus did not think very highly of the Pharisees.  In return, they hated Him.  The Gospels are filled with battles that Jesus had with these leading rulers and many of his teachings were teachings in direct opposition to the Pharisees.  In Matthew 21:33-40 Jesus likened them to tenants who beat and murdered the servants of the owner of a vineyard, even going so far to murder the owner’s son.  When asked what should be done to men such as those, the Pharisees ironic answer was “He will put to those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons” (Matthew 21:41).  Jesus’ telling response was that they (the Pharisees) had rejected God’s chief cornerstone and that “…the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.” (Matthew 21:43).  Furthermore, Jesus pronounced seven woes against them in Matthew 23:13-36, using perhaps his harshest language recorded in the Gospels.  In this chilling passage Jesus referred to the Pharisees as hypocrites, children of hell, blind guides, blind fools, blind men, whitewashed tombs, serpents, and a brood of vipers.  He pronounces woes on them for trying to keep people out of God’s kingdom, attempting to make proselytes into children of hell, making foolish oaths, neglecting the “…weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness” (Matthew 23:23), being men concerned only with their outer appearance, concerning themselves with external righteousness while being internally dead men of lawlessness and hypocrisy, and hypocritically distancing themselves from the murder of God’s prophets.  Again, Jesus did not think highly of the Pharisees.  Their doctrines were hateful to Him.  Their supposed worship was a stink to His nostrils.  He hated their wickedness and their hypocrisy.  Yet, the Pharisees were the “big leaguers” of the Jewish religious climate.  They were the professionals.  If they said to jump, everybody asked how high.  They were the Righteous.  They were the ones close to God.  They were the ones who were in and doing God’s will.

The tax collectors, on the other hand, were a despised lot.  After Levi the Tax Collector was called by Jesus to be a disciple he invited Jesus and his fellow Tax Collectors (and other sinners) over to his house.  The scribes of the Pharisees took offense to this and asked why Jesus would do such a thing, to eat with such a dirty group of people.  Jesus’ beautiful answer is telling: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17)  Tax Collectors were a sinful lot and they knew it.  They were in the employ of the Roman Empire but were Jews.  They were cheats, snitches and were despised by everybody.  They and everybody else knew that righteousness was impossible for them.  They were not well.  That Jesus would eat with them was a scandal of the highest order.  Such men were worse than the Romans.  Yet Jesus, because of His gracious love, came to save such men.  The Pharisees knew that they were righteous.  The Tax Collectors knew that they were not.    

The parables of Jesus were more than quaint stories.  They always had a purpose and always had a particular message and audience in mind.  Quite handily, Luke very kindly interpreted this parable by mentioning the audience and purpose of this passage.  In Luke 18:9 he states: “[Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt”.  This parable was (and is) intended for men like the Pharisees, who thought themselves righteous and better than everybody around them.

In particular, the Pharisee of Jesus’ parable was a stellar example of perceived righteousness.  By his own loud, self-seeking, prayerful admission, he proclaimed his righteousness by thanking God for giving it to him.  “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all I get.”  (Luke 18:11).  This was a man convinced of his standing before God and of his own inherent righteousness.  He was fair with his money (even though he loved it too much), he was just (even if it was by his own depraved standard of righteousness), he was faithful to his wife (even if he was able to find a myriad of reasons to justly divorce her) and he was nowhere near as wicked as the nearby Tax Collector.  Furthermore, this man did not just fast once a year or once a month or even once a week, he fasted two times during a week and he was sure to let everybody see how much his devotion cost him.  Even more impressively, he gave tithes of all he that he got, even if it meant that he did not have enough to respectively give to his parents in their need.  This Pharisee in Jesus’ parable was the standard of holiness and God-likeness.

The Tax Collector, on the other hand, agreed with the Pharisees assessment of him.  He knew that he did not have the righteousness of the Pharisee.  He knew that he was an extortioner, that he was unjust and that he was adulterous.  He was a tax collector after all.  This man knew that he was sick and in dire need of a physician.  It was all he could do to fall on his face and cry to God for the simple grace of underserved, unearned, unjust and completely necessary mercy.  This man was at his end.  He knew that there was nothing that he could do and nothing that he could offer to God to make God love him.  He quite simply had nothing to give and was ready to take anything and everything that God might give to him.  This man, Jesus says, went home justified, rather than the Pharisee.  This man repented of the sins that the Pharisee would never admit he had committed.  This man, completely unacceptable to God was accepted and went home justified and the Pharisee who by God’s grace kept all the law was found wanting and went home condemned.  In exalting himself the Pharisee was humbled to the point of condemnation.  In humbling himself and simply asking for mercy, the sinful Tax Collector was exalted and justified before God.

Sermon Poetry, 13 December 2009
Sermon Title – “Keeping the Unity of the Holy Spirit”
Sermon Text – Ephesians 4:1-7

In Christ we’ve life that comes from God
As men once blind we see
We’re called to love our Sovereign King
The One by whom we’re free
The sin within is raging fierce
The Spirit holding strong
Lord, give us strength to keep Your Word
Your worship be our song

In Christ we’re one, we’re unified
Once sinners all, we’re free
How do we love the ones of God?
How do we love our King?
We hate and lie, we cheat and steal
Despising Jesus’ own
Once enemies, now brothers all
We praise our Lord enthroned

We’re children of our Lord and King
Of every race and tongue
But now, in Christ, we all are His
In Christ the Church is one
We all were sinners foul and rank
Depravity was ours
But now in Christ we’re saved and cleansed
His mercy on us poured

We’re called to join with Jesus’ own
Submitting one to all
Forgiving fellows’ heinous sins
And asking love for ours
We’re bound to do the dirty work
Of loving fellow men
We’re called to build relationships
With those redeemed from sin

Lord please forgive us when we lose
The point of Jesus’ love
When pride and arrogance is strong
O’er others placed above
Lord humble us, Your mercy heal
In spirit make us poor
Relying on Your loving grace
To others place before

Your grace convict me to repent
And turn from all my sin
In self-control to love Your own
My family and my kin
You saved my soul, You made me live
You’ve loved me as Your son
In Christ my heart is born again
Redemption You have won