Discipleship

Trifling against sin or Striving against sin? (Hebrews 12:4)

“You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.” Hebrews 12:4

There is “trifling against sin” and there is “striving against sin.” It may be apparent, but these two expressions are vastly different from one another. “Trifling against sin” suggests a friendly tussle between equals. Either contestant may win, but it makes no real difference who eventually comes out on top. Win or lose, it’s just not worth a lot of excitement and energy. The world trifles against sin (of course, not using this expression) when some famous someone is exposed as having a particularly distasteful habit. “He is struggling (trifling) against his (fill in the blank).” For example, imagine that a famous athlete is “trifling against his ‘sexual addiction’.” He knows that it is not “good” for a famous athlete to have this unsavory habit of being found in bedrooms of women other than his wife, so he checks himself into a clinic where he can wrestle with this problem and develop some coping strategies so that the filthy habit is not so prevalent or obvious. This is his attempt to placate his fans and work on his “addiction,” but he is merely “trifling.” He does not want to get rid of the behavior; he just wants to manage and disguise the behavior. After all, if he never stops the distasteful habit, what real difference will it make? It doesn’t really matter who wins this contest.

Sadly, many professing Christians have also adopted this same worldly way of thinking. Many believers today have an attitude of “trifling against sin.” For example, when the Holy Spirit or a brave and faithful brother or sister points out sin in their life, they know that it is time to begin “struggling” against that sin. So, they will do something drastic, like check themselves into a support group that deals with these types of issues. Maybe it is Alcoholics Anonymous or maybe it is Celebrate Recovery or some other group where, together with the other members of the group, they can “struggle against their sin.” The reality is that many of these efforts amount to trifling against their sin. They know that it is not “good” for a professing Christian to have this blemish of sin on their record, so they go to a support group to learn some coping strategies and learn to manage and minimize the behavior. After all, the point is for others to see that you are fighting against this filthy sin. If he never stops the distasteful habit, what real difference will it make? It doesn’t really matter who wins this contest. Or does it?

            A number of years ago, I was sitting at the bar in a restaurant watching the TV screen behind the bar. On the screen was a nature broadcast about some large white birds similar to egrets who lived in South America. These birds made their nests directly above the river as a means of protecting their young from predators. No predator was willing to risk the dangers of the river to get to the birds’ nest above the river. The broadcast showed two of the young, gangly birds perched on the thin branches of the nest and the surrounding area. They seemed to be balanced carefully until one of the fledgling birds slipped off the branch. What ensued was a desperate struggle as the bird fought ferociously to regain its perch. Because the bird was awkward and gangly, the struggle appeared almost comical as the bird flapped and pulled and clawed to make its way back onto the branch. It seemed like “much ado about nothing.” “Relax, guy! You don’t have to try so hard!” Finally, after several minutes of all out war, the young bird was back on the branch sitting peacefully beside its sibling, and all was well.

            The next scene was a few days later, and once again, the two young birds were perched on their branch. Suddenly, one of the two birds slipped off the branch and did not catch itself but splashed into the water of the river. Within seconds, the first piranha arrived, and that fish was followed by dozens of others. The doomed bird tried to flap and jump, but the piranha attacked mercilessly until, in less than two minutes, all that remained of the young bird was a few feathers floating on the water.

            Then I realized that the first scene had been far from comical. The first scene showing the young bird trying to regain its perch was a life and death struggle where failure was not an option. If that bird did not get back on that perch by the nest, it was going to be food for the river’s piranhas. The bird’s life depended on getting back on that branch. The goal was clear, and the outcome mattered.

            One of the great dangers for disciples of the Lord Jesus is somehow to assume that our striving against sin is, like the first scene with the young bird, comical and largely unnecessary, and that the outcome of a “slip from the branch” doesn’t matter. If we make that assumption, we will always trifle with sin. We will assume that we do not need to vanquish the sin, but just put on a sincere show of “struggling.” We will try to manage and minimize our sin, but we will not put it to death. We will think that our trifling with sin is good enough and that, even if we “fall off the branch,” no harm will be done. But, what if instead we feared sin the way those young birds feared the piranha? What if we viewed holiness as a life and death struggle where failure was not an option? What if we realized that trifling with sin can lead to shipwreck (1 Timothy 1:19-20)? What if we strove against sin because we feared that “an evil, unbelieving heart” could really lead us to fall away from the living God (Hebrews 3:12)? What if we heeded the warning of the author of Hebrews who tells us that neglect of diligence in our faith and a failure to come all the way to true repentance can lead to falling away, a place from which it is impossible to be renewed again the repentance (Hebrews 6:6)?

            Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of faith, endured the cross to purify for Himself a people for His own possession (Titus 2:14), who are zealous for good deeds. Like our Lord, we are to strive against sin and “be holy, just as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16).”

SDG                 rmb                 8/25/2020

David’s Repentance (Psalm 51)

How is a disciple of the Lord Jesus to rid himself of besetting sin?

As a disciple grows in their walk with the Lord, it is certain that sin will emerge from the murky depths of the soul. The pure milk of the Word begins to soak into the recesses of the mind and into the closets of the past, and loathsome sins well up from the depths. Until we come to faith in the Lord Jesus and come face to face with His holiness, we have no concept of the ugliness of our sin. If Isaiah the prophet felt himself ruined when he saw the thrice holy Lord, lofty and exalted, and declared himself a man of unclean lips (Isaiah 6), how much more should we expect to need to dredge the black mold of sin out our lives!

But once the sin is uncovered and identified, how do we get rid of it?

Before we get too far along this article, I need to make clear that, in this article, I am not talking about the way for sin to be forgiven. No amount of confession or repentance will ever result in one sin being forgiven. Offering “thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of oil (Micah 6:7)” will give the Lord no delight and will leave you exactly where you were before the offering. There has always been only one way for any sin to ever be forgiven. “In Him (Jesus), we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses (Ephesians 1:7).” It is the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that is the only means of forgiveness of sins. Do you want to be forgiven of your sins? “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved (Acts 16:31).” If you have placed your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and are following Him in faith, all your sins are forgiven. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has the LORD removed our transgressions from us (Psalm 103:12).” “The blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).”

But for the disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ who has come to faith in Christ and has thus had his sins forgiven, there arises the matter of practical righteousness. Through faith, my sins are forgiven, but the ugly effects remain. As the Holy Spirit reveals sin in my life, and as I begin to recognize and identify and confess my sins before the Lord, the question becomes, “How do I remove the remaining sin?” This is what repentance is for. Repentance is the most powerful weapon in the disciple’s arsenal for removing the filthy remains of sin, but for repentance to be effective, it must be genuine. How do I know if my repentance is genuine? You know you have truly repented when the sin ceases. True repentance results in victory over sin. Colossians 3:5 tells me to “put to death whatever is in the earth of your members: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed.” How do you know if you have put sin to death? It is no longer active. It no longer moves. There are no signs of life. Repentance is the blade that puts sin to death. If the sin remains active, you have not yet truly raised the blade of repentance.

King David was a man after God’s own heart. His passion and zeal for the LORD explode from the psalms which he wrote. The LORD was with David and he rose in power and conquered all the neighboring kingdoms. There seemed to be nothing that David would not accomplish. But David was also very human, and he had some prominent areas of weakness. David was a man who seemed to have a weakness for the fair sex. When he was king in Hebron, he had six sons by six different wives. Then when he moved to Jerusalem, David added more wives and concubines. And finally, there was the disastrous one-night stand with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Through the prophet Nathan, the LORD confronted David and told him that there would be consequences for his sin and his rebellion against the LORD, but more than that, the LORD made clear that if David did not repent of his sin and once again draw near to the LORD, or the LORD would bring more disaster upon David until he was destroyed. David immediately confessed his sin (2 Samuel 12:13) and went into the temple to pray for sin’s consequences to be taken away. But most of all, David repented.

How do we know David repented? First, as a result of his sin, David wrote Psalm 51, his powerful psalm of repentance. In none of the 19 verses of Psalm 51 does David ask the LORD for forgiveness (because David is already forgiven – see above), but he does long to be purified with hyssop, to have the joy of salvation restored, to be washed whiter than snow, and to have the LORD blot out his transgressions and his sins. As a result of David’s sin with Bathsheba, we have this powerful psalm of repentance that can serve as a model for how we can repent of our sins. But second, we know David repented because, when he came back to Jerusalem after the defeat of Absalom, he refused to be intimate with his concubines. Remember that genuine repentance vanquishes sin. David had repented of his sexual sin and so he refused to indulge in any more sexual sin with his concubines. His repentance bore the fruit of repentance. The third piece of evidence of genuine repentance involved Abishag the Shunammite. She was a beautiful young virgin who served the king and kept him warm in his old age (1 Kings 1:1-4), but the Scripture makes explicitly clear that “the king did not know her.” David refuses to violate his repentance from sexual sin by “knowing” this beautiful young woman.

REFLECTIONS

  • Repentance is the most powerful weapon in the disciple’s arsenal to defeat active, remaining sin in their life.
  • True repentance results in the vanquishing of sin. If the sin is not vanquished, then the repentance is not genuine. You must hate the sin to put it to death. If you don’t yet hate the sin, then you will not hire the assassin of repentance.
  • Psalm 51 is an excellent Scripture to use for repentance.

SDG                rmb                8/18/2020

Are you a contender? (Ephesians 6:11, 13)

(To get the full effect of this article, it is recommended that you watch Marlon Brando in one of his most famous scenes in the movie “On the Waterfront” where “he coulda been a contender.” You may get nothing more from this article, but you will see a brilliant actor at the pinnacle of his craft.)

He coulda been a contender! I mean, this kid had fists like iron and threw a left hook that would take down the walls of a city. He could fell a tree with that hook! Yes, he coulda been a contender, if only the other guy didn’t punch. Well, that’s not really fair. In addition to being a powerful puncher, he could also take some punishment and still remain standing. And that was a good thing because he just could not keep his guard up. “He coulda been a contender,” if he had only been able to keep his guard up. But he couldn’t do it. And so, before he could launch that lethal left hook, he was usually lying on his back as the referee counted him out.

What’s the point of this story? Nobody can be a victorious disciple if they can’t keep their guard up. That is, you will never be a “contender” if you do not have your defenses up. In Ephesians 6:11, Paul says, “Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. (13) Therefore, take up the full armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.” The disciple who would be a “contender” must know the devil’s schemes and must have his armor on so he can resist the enemy’s attacks. Don’t let the devil put you on your back and have you counted out! Know your weaknesses and make sure they are fiercely defended.

SDG rmb 8/13/2020

Walking a Darker Path (Mark 10:32-33)

My walk with Christ easily lends itself to the analogy of a path. That path began in late 1990 when I came to Christ from a very non-Christian worldview and found myself suddenly following Christ.

Much of my walk with the Lord has been pleasant and many days have been spent strolling through meadows or climbing through forest glades on well-marked, smooth paths. As the Lord effortlessly strides ahead, I struggle to keep up, occasionally stumbling over a rock or a root. When I lag too far behind, He stops and looks back waiting for me, always smiling, always patient, always encouraging. Thus He and I have spent many idyllic days in sweet fellowship, and thus over time He has taught me about His ways and has taught me how to walk, and thus I have gradually gotten stronger and better able to follow Him. I have seen His power and His faithfulness, and my trust in Him has become more sure.

This trust and increased strength are important, because the Lord knows, and I know, that my path will not always meander through pleasant meadows. There have been times in the past, and there will be times in the future, when the character of the path changes. There are times when, for His perfect purposes and for my deeper discipleship, the Lord needs to lead me into a darker, dangerous place.

I sense that I am now entering such a time and following Him toward such a place, and I feel that there are many others in this decaying world who are feeling the same thing. For the past two or three years or so, the Lord has led me past alpine lakes and through hardwood and hemlock forests, but now, as I peer up ahead, the landscape seems much more barren. Towering thunderhead clouds loom, billowing up to obscure the sun and rumbling their foreboding tune. The path is beginning to drop steeply and to narrow, becoming harder to follow. Rocks, prominent and jagged, threaten the sides of the trail. A gloomy dusk has cloaked the scene, making it harder to see where to walk. There in front of me is the Lord, still leading, still smiling and still patient, but His looks back to me are now more frequent, wanting to make sure that I am staying close. Does He sense my reluctance to follow Him into the darkness? Does He know my fear? And now it has become clear that the Lord is, in fact, leading me into a season of a darker path as He beckons me down into the foggy chasm.

What, then, is the believer to do when the path becomes treacherous and when the Lord leads us toward the edge of a murky chasm? As I walk with the Lord, there are some basic things to do to make sure I stay on the path.

  • Consider Jesus’ example of fearless obedience to His Father’s plan. Jesus’ entire life was one of suffering. He was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3).” He knew what it was to walk a dark path. In Mark 10:32-33, the Bible says:
    • And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, He began to tell them what was to happen to Him, saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock Him and spit on Him and flog Him and kill Him. And after three days He will rise.”

When I consider that I am going to walk a dark and difficult path, I need to remember and keep my eyes on the Lord Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). In Mark 10, as they go up to Jerusalem, He is the only one who knows EXACTLY what awaits Him there. The Lord is beginning the walk to the cross. He knows with certainty that mocking and scourging and crucifixion await Him and yet He is walking ahead of the crowd. Since my Lord accepted this darkest of all possible paths and persevered, so I need to accept whatever path the Lord leads me down and persevere to the end.

  • As Jesus trusted and obeyed His heavenly Father and accomplished His work (John 17:4), so I need to trust and obey the Lord and accomplish the work He has given me to do (Ephesians 2:10).
  • Regardless of the darkness of the path, the Lord is with me. He has sworn that He will never leave me of forsake me (Hebrews 13:5; Joshua 1:5).
  • Regardless of the darkness of the path, the Lord is the one leading me. The path on which I am traveling may seem dark and difficult, and I may not know the short-term destination, but I know and trust the One leading me. The Lord is trustworthy, and He has sovereignly chosen this path for me, and He is leading me along it. Regardless of the nature of the path, because of the One who has chosen this path for me, I can trust that this is the perfect path.

SDG                 rmb                 7/24/2020

You Knew My Path (Psalm 142:3)

            There is a scene from the original “Star Wars” movie (1977) that sticks in my mind. All the living heroes of the movie (Luke, Leah, Han Solo, and Chewbacca) have temporarily escaped from the battle with the storm troopers by ducking into a convenient trash bin. Their relief from escaping the battle is short-lived, however, because the trash bin becomes a trash compactor and threatens to doom them to a nasty death by crushing.

            While this may not be a perfect analogy, there are times in life when we all feel like we are in this situation. Part of the human experience is the feeling that we are small and weak and that the threats against us are big and gnarly. We have exhausted all our cleverness in escaping our adversaries, only to end up in a sloppy, scummy trash bin just as the maintenance crew decides to activate the compactor. In that moment we realize that we have been outmatched by the challenges that life has presented to us. And the question is, “What do you do then?” To whom do you cry out when life has overwhelmed you and your carefully laid plans have collapsed, when your friends have failed you, and there seems to be no escape for you? Where can you find hope and confidence? In Psalm 142, David is in that place, and we will find, in this psalm, patterns and strategies for how to respond from the midst of the intergalactic trash compactor.

            This study of Psalm 142 will focus only on the first half of verse 3:

“When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, You knew my path.” (NAS Bible)

            Since we have dropped into the middle of the psalm, it would be good to get a little context. Although the nature of David’s trouble is not clear, it is obvious that the shepherd-king is in distress and may have been in distress for a while. Here in Psalm 142:3, David says that “his spirit is overwhelmed within him.” I read this as meaning both his soul and his body are exhausted. He has tried to maintain his courage, but the setbacks keep on coming. Like a surfer caught in the midst of a series of big waves, he is losing the fight to catch his breath. As soon as he fights his way to the surface, another wave of water crashes down. Fear and fatigue are towering over him, and he is overpowered. He is outmatched. “When my spirit was overwhelmed within me . . .” What is David’s source of hope?

            The last four words of Psalm 142:3a are “You knew my path.” These four words are critically important to the child of God who is feeling overwhelmed by the incessant challenges of life.

“You, O LORD, knew my path.”

            David expresses the confidence that every believer can have, that the LORD is personally aware of and concerned with our every trial and overwhelming circumstance. The LORD knows my path, and He knows your path. The NAS Bible renders the Hebrew verb in the past tense, “knew.” In this case, the past tense is much stronger than the present tense. The LORD KNEW my path in eternity past, before the creation of the world, and then He brought my “path” into existence according to His perfect plan. He personally ordained it to be. “You knew my path” means that the LORD has led me into this situation, the LORD is personally with me in the midst of it, and the LORD already knows every detail of the outcome. “You knew my path” means that the LORD has His personal fingerprints on every detail of every circumstance of my life, making sure that exactly this circumstance unfolds exactly this way so that all things work together for good (Romans 8:28) and so that I am conformed more into the image of Christ (8:29).

REFLECTION

            In the book of “Job,” we read that “man is born for trouble as the sparks fly upward (5:7).” Our Lord Jesus Himself said that “each day has enough trouble of its own (Matt. 6:34)” and “in this world you will have tribulation (John 16:33).” The Bible speaks truth about life on earth after sin enters the world, and it is a life of effort and setback and difficulty. Of course, it is not ALL trial and difficulty, but we must have a sober expectation that overwhelming times will come so that we are not defeated when we meet the first opposing waves.

            In light, then, of the inevitability of trials, what can we, as followers of Jesus, do that will make a difference in our lives? First, when we are feeling overwhelmed by the trials of life, we can have confidence that the Lord who guided us into the trial is with us in the storm and will guide us out to our safe haven (Psalm 107:30). Remember, “the LORD knew my path.” Each trial thus becomes an opportunity to increase our trust in the Lord and to anticipate His faithfulness.

            Second, it is in trials that the Lord proves His power to deliver us. God has already accomplished the most powerful act of deliverance imaginable when He delivered us from our sin and condemnation and raised us up in salvation through our faith in the Lord Jesus and His completed work on the cross. Having already demonstrated His power in giving us eternal deliverance, He is more than able to come to our help for temporal deliverance. What I mean is this: The Lord will deliver those who cry out to Him. Nothing is too difficult for Him (Jeremiah 32:17). Your trial may be overwhelming to you, but to the One who called the universe into existence ex nihilo and who raised Jesus from the dead (Ephesians 1:19-20), the trial is completely under His feet. In fact, if my thinking is correct on this, the Lord brings trials into our lives SO THAT He can rescue us when we cry to Him. “The LORD knew my path,” so He knew how He was going to deliver me.

Soli Deo gloria                 rmb                  7/3/2020

To live is Christ, and to die is gain (Phil. 1:21ff)

            This blog will be a study of the remarkable passage in Philippians 1:21-26 in which Paul makes his astonishing statement of his commitment to Christ. Read these verses as preparation for this study.

INTRODUCTION

            It is one thing to make a claim of commitment to an ideal or an objective, but it is another thing to evidence that commitment in word and deed, especially as time goes on and as the initial excitement that sparked the commitment fades and tarnishes. Sadly, many marriages that began with a vow of lifelong commitment languish or even die when the initial excitement gradually morphs into monotonous work and those vows of commitment prove hollow.

REFLECTIONS

            In light of this human tendency, what do we see in Paul regarding his commitment to Jesus Christ? For as he writes the epistle to the Philippians, Paul is now twenty or twenty-five years older than he was as a fire-breathing Pharisee suddenly struck down in the dust of the Damascus road. What has become of his initial zeal for Christ and his powerful boldness? Have the years quenched the fire? Has the effort required dulled the edge of the commitment? It is evident that more than two decades after meeting the risen Lord Jesus Christ, Paul’s commitment to his Savior has only intensified and his focus on the goal has radically sharpened. In the years since the scales fell from his eyes and he professed his faith by baptism, Paul has gradually pared away the excess baggage and the hindrances to service (Hebrews 12:1) to the point where he can state his case: “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

            Paul, however, does not merely voice these astonishing words, but he manifests the reality of his declaration in his every action and word and deed. Having been forgiven of his sins and having been guaranteed an eternity with the Lord Jesus, he can give himself with focused abandon to his service to Christ. Until the Lord releases him from this life, Paul will pour himself out in fruitful labor (1:22). So then, for the Apostle, existence was fairly simple: Spend all of your earthly energies and resources in joyful proclamation of the gospel and in service to Christ’s church, awaiting the moment when joyful service ends and glorious eternity with Christ begins.

            This is the ideal for all disciples of Christ: a life of faithful obedience and fruitful labor poured out in service of Christ, and then an eternity in heaven with our King.

            And the next verses of this passage (Philippians 1:22-26) confirm the reality of Paul’s manifesto. The significance of his continued physical life is that physical life gives him more time for “fruitful labor (1:22).” While many people want more time “in the flesh” to indulge in their earthly pleasures, and others long to live because they are terrified to die, Paul equates more heartbeats with more fruitful labor. As long as the Lord gives him breath, he will labor for the Kingdom. In other words, “to live is Christ.”

            Verses 1:22b-1:23a allude to a choice that Paul needs to make, but it is not clear from the passage what that specific choice is. What is clear is that one option could result in his death and the other option would result in his ongoing life, and Paul is “hard pressed” by the difficulty of this choice. Why is Paul hard pressed? The choice is difficult because personally, Paul would prefer to die and thus to be with Christ, rather than to continue living and laboring and striving against sin and suffering persecution. Paul prefers his reward (2 Timothy 4:8) to the demands of his assigned mission (2 Cor. 11:23-29). He desires to be home with Christ. (“. . . to die is gain.”) Despite his personal desire, Paul is convinced that he will remain and continue with (the Philippians) for their progress and joy in the faith (1:25).” We see, then, that Paul makes life decisions based on which choice has the greatest impact for the gospel, and not based on his personal preference or benefit. Or, again, “to live is Christ.”

APPLICATIONS

            There are several applications of this powerful text. First, there is the need for the disciple of Jesus Christ to clearly and irrevocably make a commitment to Him as unrivaled Lord. The Scriptures are crystal clear that anything less than an absolute bowing of the knee to the Lord is useless. The Third Commandment states, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain (Deut. 5:11).” Make sure that your surrender to the Lord is complete.

            Second, we as disciples need to get a vise grip on the truth that “to die is gain.” It has been well-said that a person is only able to fully live when they are ready to die. The gospel gives us the promise that we are guaranteed heaven because of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and through our faith in Him. Christ has risen victorious and death has lost its sting. Therefore, the believer can live without fear of the grave (1 Corinthians 15:55). No one can snatch us out of His hand (John 10:27-30).

            Third, we should strive to live such that our commitment to Jesus Christ is evident. For the apostle Paul, “to live is Christ,” and his entire existence was submitted to his passion for the Lord. As we grow in sanctification and in maturity in Christ, our passion for Jesus should steadily grow as well, and that passion should more and more manifest itself in our lives. John the Baptist said about Jesus, “He must increase, and I must decrease (John 3:30).” This should also be true of us.

SDG                 rmb                 5/26/2020

A Disciple Looks at Divorce

REPOSTING: This blog on the disaster of divorce was originally posted January 4, 2020. It is reposted here without modification. The plea is for Christian men to be faithful to their vows no matter what. RMB

Divorce. It is a word that should strike terror and revulsion into the heart of any married disciple of Jesus Christ. It is a word of pain and failure and regret, and, tragically, it is a word that is spoken by those who claim to follow the Lord Jesus and who profess to read and obey His Word. Yes, divorce brings immense damage to people’s lives, but that is true for believer or unbeliever. For the disciple of Jesus, there is a more important aspect to divorce than the wreckage that divorce brings to the lives of all those who are affected. Divorce is willful disobedience and willful sin.

When I consider the subject of marriage and divorce, the words that first come to my mind are “obedience” and “commitment.” What most clearly marks the believer is their obedience to the commands of the Lord. Jesus said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves Me (John 14:21; also 14:23).” So, the disciple of Jesus is marked by a hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:6), and that is manifested in obedience. Now, when the subject of divorce comes up, the student of the Bible will know that divorce and obedience do not live in the same place. Therefore, the disciple of Jesus must be very careful when they spend long periods of time contemplating things that dwell far from obedience.

The other quality that marks the believer is commitment and the fulfilling of their vows. In life, there are a very few times when a person makes a public commitment to do something. The marriage vows represent one of those times, when a public commitment is made to stay with someone “till death do you part.” Jesus said, “What, therefore, God has joined together, let no man separate (Matthew 19:6; read verses 3-6 of this chapter for Jesus’ view of divorce and marriage).” In the wedding, the two people have committed to one another “before God and these witnesses.” There is no other way to look at the exchange of wedding vows, except to see this event as making a lifetime commitment. To break a vow made before the Lord, the Holy One of Israel is a serious thing, indeed. In Psalm 15, the psalmist asks the question, “Who may abide in Your tent and who may dwell on Your holy hill?” Then David lists qualities that mark the one who can live with God. “He swears to his own hurt and does not change (15:4).” So, obedience and commitment are the twin qualities of the righteous man.

In 1 Corinthians 7:10-11 Paul makes clear that believers are not to divorce. Period. The implication is that the follower of Jesus WILL NOT DIVORCE. Another way of saying this is that disciples are not permitted to divorce. For believers, divorce is not to be considered as an option. Since God is amazingly gracious, however, Paul says that women can divorce, but that they can never marry another, but must either remain single or be reconciled to their husband.

Our Lord Jesus endured the horrors of the cross (Hebrews 12:2) and bore the full wrath of God against all the sins of those who would ever believe in Him. Our Lord committed to the task and was perfectly faithful in accomplishing the work His Father had given Him to do (John 17:4). Can we not be faithful to the wife the Lord has graciously given us (Proverbs 18:22)? God has given us one woman to love “as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her (Ephesians 5:25, 28).” Can we not fulfill this one assignment? Can we not faithfully love ONE woman? Or will we be faithless to our wife? Read Malachi 2:13-16. Will we “deal treacherously” (NASB 2:14) with the woman who is our wife by covenant? “For I hate divorce,” says the LORD. Surely reading this passage should slow down any contemplation of divorce.

Other ideas that occur to me:

  • Don’t make a shipwreck of your life (1 Timothy 1:18-19).
  • Leave a legacy of faithfulness for your children (especially for your sons), not a legacy of failure and surrender.
  • Drive all thoughts of divorce from your mind and do not let them return. Instead of these thoughts, fill your mind with thoughts of obedience and faithfulness and purity. (Philippians 4:8)
  • The Bible warns against divorce. (Verses already given, but there are others.)
  • There is no blessing associated with divorce, only warnings and threats. On the other hand, there is blessing associated with all faithfulness, perseverance, sacrifice, love and forgiveness.
  • Divorce is selfish.
  • Divorce is failure, and you may never recover.
  • Divorce is willful disobedience.
  • Divorce causes major damage to others (your wife, your children, your church family, your Christian testimony before a watching world).
  • Divorce gives Satan a major victory in your life.
  • Divorce destroys your family.
  • Divorce ruins your Christian testimony.
  • Marriage pictures Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:28-33), but divorce pictures separation and loneliness and judgment.

Those are some thoughts that I have on the subject. On this subject of divorce, it is obvious that I land heavily on calling the man to be a man and to fulfill his vows and be obedient, no matter the personal cost to him. Men are made to die for what they believe in and to defend their hill until they are killed or the enemy surrenders. (See 2 Samuel 23:11-12.) That’s what a man does. That’s why God called men into His kingdom. Men are to protect and to provide and to press into enemy territory, not to shrink back and take it easy and play video games. A man may be taken down by superior firepower, but he should not implode because things aren’t like he expected them to be. Notice that the apostle Paul never complained about the food or the accommodations in his Roman prisons, but he did say he was going to press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:13-14). May every man who claims to follow Christ do the same. Don’t quit! Don’t cave! Don’t surrender! Never give up! Always keep the cross in view and resolve to take up and carry whatever cross you are given and to follow Jesus faithfully.

SDG          rmb          1/4/2020 (12/3/2021)

Lessons from David’s Mistakes (1 Chronicles 13)

King David is one of the most dynamic and compelling figures in the Old Testament. He is a man of action and a man of passion. He is brave and bold, as a youth, defying giants and as a man, displaying valor and grace and compassion to his friends and even to his foes. David is a man after God’s own heart, a man who fiercely loves Yahweh and seeks to know his God with all his soul. Yet, David is also a man with weaknesses and flaws that almost destroy him. A careful study of his life and exploits provides us with many lessons of what to do and what not to do as we, too, pursue the Lord.

In 1 Chronicles 13, David is contemplating a significant decision: “What to do with the ark of God?” The king then consults with the leaders of Israel (13:1) and decides to bring up the ark of God to Jerusalem. This seems like a good idea because “the thing was right in the eyes of all the people (13:4).” But there is something wrong here, because while David consulted with men, there is not even a hint that he consulted with the LORD. David did not seek the LORD (Psalm 63:1) and David did not wait for the LORD (Psalm 27:14; 40:1), but instead he sought the counsel of those who would agree with him, which is a dangerous path (See Rehoboam’s decision in 1 Kings 12:13-14).

As a result of the unwise, godless counsel, David and all Israel come up with a bad plan. They decided to carry the ark of God on a new cart being pulled by oxen. Now, this should sound familiar, because this is exactly what the pagan Philistines had done when the ark of God was with them and the LORD was killing them and tormenting them (1 Samuel 6:7-8). The Philistines, who were completely ignorant of the Law of Moses, had placed the ark on a new cart, but now the anointed king of Israel, along with the priests and the Levites (13:2) and all the people, the very ones who have received the Law of the LORD and who have been entrusted with the oracles of God (Romans 3:2), do what the pagans did! Instead of carrying the ark as prescribed by the revealed word of God, the people throw it on the back of an ox cart (13:7) and begin celebrating before God with all their might (13:8).

While David’s heart and the hearts of the people may have been in the right place, the LORD’s anger is burning. The best of intentions does not change the fact that David is in flagrant sin. He has disobeyed the clear instruction of the word of God and has treated the ark of God without reverence or holiness. All the passionate celebrating is meaningless if the actions are disobedient and are contrary to the LORD’s revealed will. As a result of David’s disobedience, Uzzah is directly in harm’s way, and when he reaches out to touch the ark (13:9), the anger of the LORD breaks out against Uzzah and strikes him dead. Because of his disobedience and because of the outburst of the Lord’s anger, “David was afraid of God that day (13:12).” So, the ark is placed in the house of Obed-edom as David goes back to Jerusalem.

This chapter is packed with lessons and principles. What can we learn from this incident in the life of King David?

First, we can learn lessons about making decisions. We see that David is faced with a significant decision. For all of us, life is full of decisions, and some of them are significant. So, the first thing that we need to do is recognize when a decision is significant. There needs to be a voice inside our head that bellows, “This is a biggie! You want to get this one right! Don’t mess it up!” Notice that David did not treat the moving of the ark as a significant decision and so he did not work very hard to see if it was the wise thing to do. Don’t make David’s mistake! Slow down and be careful with big decisions.

Once you recognize a significant decision, you need to seek counsel and find wisdom. You must turn to the Lord and to His Word. This is the reason it is so critical to know the Word of God very well, to know how to pray for wisdom, and to surround yourself with godly people who can advise you from the mind of God. So then, you will seek the Lord directly in prayer, seek Him by careful and alert Bible study, and seek His will by listening carefully to godly counsel, even from people who may not agree with you. Again, we see that David did not seek the LORD’s will but decided that he and the priests and leaders of Israel were the ones to make this decision. “No big deal! We got this one.” As a result, David creates a bad plan that disobeys God’s Word and leads to disaster.

Next, while we seek the Lord’s direction and seek to know His will regarding a decision, we must also actively wait for the Lord’s guidance. Instead of waiting for the LORD to give His answer, David creates his plan and then rushes that plan into action. A wiser course of action would have been to create a plan and then, in a sense, offer it to the LORD for His stamp of approval. If we seek the LORD, then He will answer His people (Psalm 91:15), but if we simply plunge ahead, the LORD will often allow us to experience the consequences of our hasty decisions.

Also, we see that David and his counselors seem to listen to worldly wisdom. Notice that David’s advisers tell him to put the ark of God on a new cart. There is almost certainly a connection between what the Philistines did with the ark in 1 Samuel 6 and what David is advised to do with the ark in this chapter. The fact that in both places in Scripture the ark is placed on a new cart must be more than a coincidence. Most likely David’s advisers had heard about what the Philistines did with the ark and decided that was a good plan for David, as well. The point here is that the disciple of Jesus must be very cautious about the world’s wisdom. The world has a very different standard of honesty and the world has different goals for what the world does. The world is greedy for money and lusts after sex and fame and power, and the world is controlled by the god of this age (2 Corinthians 4:4), by the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:3). Thus, the world uses different means than believers and has different objectives than believers. Because this is the case, the disciple of Jesus must be cautious with worldly advice.

Another lesson that we can learn from this passage stems from the experience Israel has with worship. Observe that, despite that fact that David and all Israel are celebrating before God as the ark is being moved to Jerusalem (good), the anger of the LORD is nevertheless burning, because they are disobeying the LORD’s clear instruction about how to transport the ark of God (BAD). The lesson is that, if the actions are sinful and opposed to the commandments of the LORD, no amount of good intention or “good” behavior will remove the LORD’s judgment. Until the sinful or disobedient behavior or belief is removed, the LORD’s displeasure remains. (Psalm 66:18) In other words, there is no amount of good that will outweigh even a small amount of “bad.” The disciple of Jesus must repent of all known sin, not try to offset the sin with some sort of “good works.” Attempts to please God through good works are filthy rags before the LORD (Isaiah 64:6).

These are some of the lessons from David’s mistakes in 1 Chronicles 13. But the next chapter shows that David learns from his mistakes and corrects his errors. I will take a look at those events in a future blog.

SDG                 rmb                 9/16/2019

Psalm 145:18-20 – Who Are the LORD’s People?

Here in Psalm 145 in three consecutive verses, the psalmist David gives us three prominent characteristics of those who are truly the people of the LORD. As I review these characteristics, I want to examine my life and be sure these are prominent in my own relationship with the LORD.

145:18 “The LORD is near to all who call upon Him . . . in truth.”

What does it mean to call upon the LORD? There are so many examples in Scripture of this that it is almost overwhelming. It is obvious that our great God wants us to know what it means to call on His name. For example, in Psalm 107, God’s people “cried out to the LORD in their trouble,” and He delivers them out of all their distresses. In Psalm 116, because the LORD has inclined His ear toward him, the psalmist vows to call upon the name of the LORD as long as he lives. Psalm 142 shows us that calling out to the LORD means crying aloud with our voice to Him. And the classic text in Romans 10:13 tells us that “Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” But I think that there are two broad categories of calling on the LORD.

  1. There is the INITIAL CALL upon the LORD that resulted in my salvation and inaugurated my eternal life. For the true child of God there must have been an event in my life in which I called out to the LORD for His rescue, an event that marked my repentance and faith in the LORD and that ushered in my new birth and my new life in Christ.
  2. But there must also be the ongoing, daily and hourly calls to the LORD that give tangible proof that there was an initial call and give evidence that the results of that initial call continue until this day. For if I do not call upon the LORD every day, then it probably means there was no genuine initial call at all. A human infant makes an initial cry at the start of life and then continues to breathe moment by moment as their life goes on. Just so, the child of God cries out to the LORD initially and then continues to cry out to Him as their new life in Christ goes on.

145:19 “He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him.”

It is also true that the one who is known by the LORD and who truly knows the LORD is one who fears the LORD. Now some have asked if it is right for the believer to fear the LORD, but Jesus Christ Himself removes all doubt about this issue, for our Lord commands His followers to fear God in Matthew 10:28: “Fear Him who is able to destroy soul and body in hell.” The Old Testament, the Bible that Jesus knew in the days of His flesh, is filled with verses about fearing the LORD. In Psalm 34, the saints are commanded to fear the LORD (“O fear the LORD, you His saints”), and the psalmist teaches what it means to fear the LORD (“Come you children, listen to me, and I will teach you the fear of the LORD”). In Proverbs, “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom (1:7; 9:10).” All the Old Testament believers feared the LORD and trembled before Him (Isaiah 6:1-8; 66:2). The nations are to fear the LORD: “He is to be feared above all gods (Psalm 96:4).” But this is not restricted to Old Testament saints. Paul knew the fear of the Lord, and so he persuaded men (2 Cor. 5:11) to come to faith in Jesus Christ. The believer is to work out his salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12). Peter instructs his disciples to “conduct yourselves in fear” during the time of your stay on earth (1 Peter 1:17). The emotion of fear is natural when we understand that “our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29).” Finally, the book of Revelation asks, “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy (15:4).”

But having looked at the biblical evidence for fear of the Lord, we also know that this fear is wrapped in God’s immense mercy displayed supremely in Calvary’s cross. Because of the cross, we no longer feel the terror of standing before a wrathful judge awaiting our final condemnation. Rather, we now feel the embrace of an infinitely powerful and holy Father whose glory and presence and purity and power overwhelm all of our senses.

Our understanding of fear is distorted by our sin and by the Fall. Now all human beings can only come to the Lord out of the place of condemnation where God is the righteous Judge and, because of this, all mention of “fear of the LORD” recalls those years before our redemption when we hid from the Lord and from His holiness. Thus all believers must unlearn the terror of the LORD which marked the days of our unbelief, and must learn the fear of the LORD which the Bible commands. This fear is that orientation toward God’s holiness and wrath that trembles before sin and disobedience and judgment while being confident that, because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross, the condemnation and punishment our sins deserve have been forever propitiated by our Redeemer (1 Peter 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Thus it is that God’s people cherish the fear of the LORD.

145:20 – “The LORD keeps all who love Him . . .”

The third characteristic is the most obvious one. Those who truly know the LORD love the LORD. As God has demonstrated His love toward His people innumerable times and has demonstrated it supremely in His giving His Son on the cross to atone for our sins, so our love for God must be demonstrated and displayed if it is real.

Indeed, it may rightly be said that a Christian is a person who loves the Lord and who is loved by the Lord. In Deuteronomy and Joshua, at least ten times the people are commanded to love the LORD their God. Having been loved by the Lord (for the Lord is the initiator), the child of God spontaneously loves the Lord in return. “We love, because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).”

When asked what the greatest commandment was, our Lord Jesus Christ said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength (Mark 12:30); this is the first and greatest commandment.” Implied in these words is a love for the Lord that consumes us and that dominates every facet of our being. This is the love of the Lord of which the Bible speaks.

How is this love manifested? For we can see that love for God is different than love of people and so is manifested differently. Love for God is most clearly manifested in obedience to the Lord’s commandments. John 14:21 says, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, He it is who loves Me.”

Finally, the love of Christ controls us (2 Cor. 5:14) and this love issues forth in our being ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20) and so urging men and women to receive the reconciliation to God which is offered in the gospel. Thus our love for the Lord is a love that labors to see God glorified and sinners saved.

Call upon the Lord. Fear the Lord. Love the Lord.

SDG      rmb      7/16/2017

1 Peter 5:7 Casting All Your Anxiety on Him – Part 4

In this brief verse, Peter gives profound instruction to the disciple of Jesus Christ for dealing with anxiety in their life. This is the fourth in a series of blogs exploring anxiety and then applying Peter’s instruction to every believer’s everyday life.

“casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”

We have seen that anxiety is “the ongoing fear and emotional distress and unease felt in response to some perceived threat, whether real or imaginary.” In our last study, we began looking at four broad practical strategies that will help lead to victory over anxiety, and we had examined the first one, the strategy of disciplining our thoughts. In this study, we will address the second of our four strategies, namely:

PRAYER AND CONFESSION OF FEAR

Key verses: Philippians 4:6-7; “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Key concept: When the disciple feels even the beginnings of anxiety, he/she must bring that concern before the Lord with prayer and supplication, so that the Lord’s peace will replace the anxiety. Develop the reflex that worry is a stimulus to immediate confession of fear and earnest prayer.

Prayer is such a powerful weapon for the disciple of Jesus Christ and part of “casting our anxiety on the Lord” is having the readiness to pray about those things that are causing anxiety. Notice here in these two verses (Phil. 4:6-7) that there are two commands followed by a promise. First Paul commands that the disciple “be anxious for nothing.” Yes, that is a command from an apostle. Then Paul commands the disciple to make his/her requests known to God through prayer and supplication. If that is done, the disciple is promised that the peace of God will come upon them. So how are these ideas turned into a strategy?
It seems to me that the first step is for me to become aware of my anxiety. Life is going along smoothly and then some threat rears its ugly head and I suddenly notice my anxiety rising. That threat could be a “real” threat (job loss, physical danger, scary diagnosis, major negative change in my world, a potential major expense) or it could be something that I perceive to be a threat to my peace and tranquility, something that I cannot control and that could turn out badly, but whatever the case, my anxiety level rises. So first I sense that loathsome feeling and I recognize and admit to myself that I am experiencing worry. “My anxiety is rising.” I acknowledge, I confess (a good biblical word) my fear and anxiety to myself and to the Lord. Next it is helpful to identify what is causing the anxiety. Specifically, what is it? What is the exact threat that is causing my anxiety to rise? These two steps are necessary because they place me in the best position to attack the anxiety with prayer. I have admitted to myself that I am anxious about something and am therefore in need of a power greater than my own, and I have identified the offending threat so that my prayers can be focused on demolishing the anxiety by bringing that threat before the Lord.

This is a good place to remind the disciple of Jesus of the need to always and often be diligent and persistent in prayer so that heaven is familiar with your voice. The time to learn prayer and to begin to cry out to the Lord is not when disaster is bearing down on your life or when the cruise ship of your life has struck an iceberg. It is wise to be skilled in prayer so that this tool in the spiritual armor is readily pulled from the sheath. Your knees should not be unfamiliar with the floor and your voice should be often heard before the throne of grace. In this way, when the time comes to bring your anxiety and your fear before the King, there will be no reluctance, no stuttering, no hesitation.

Once we have confessed our fear and identified what it is that is causing the anxiety, now the warfare of prayer begins in earnest. Our goal is that, by following the apostolic instructions given in Philippians 4:6, we arrive at the peace of God promised in Phil. 4:7. In our prayer, we are employing the means of destroying our anxiety by bringing our mind to accept and believe and dwell in the truth that, “If God is for us, who (or what) can be against us (Romans 8:31)?” This prayer will be war, since the enemy who brought the fearful thought into your mind at the first will continue to remind of that thought as you seek to reject it, but our weapons are stronger (2 Cor. 10:3f; 1 John 4:4)) and our dread Champion (Jeremiah 20:11) is always victorious. Begin this time of prayer, then, by praising the Lord for His might, for His goodness, for His promises, and for His love for you (Isaiah 12:2). Fear does not cohabit well with praise and with rejoicing. Praise the Lord until you are convinced that He is with you and that He is for you. Now bring the specific fear out into the light and present it before the Lord. “Here, Lord, is what is causing me fear and anxiety.” (Consider Hezekiah in Isaiah 37:14ff in a situation that was genuinely threatening.) At this point you might be comparing the threat that is causing your fear with the power of your Lord and Savior, the One who spoke the universe into existence and who sovereignly controls its every action and feel that maybe your threat is not so scary after all, but this exercise of prayer should continue until the anxiety is fully vanquished. Bring the threat into the light and then cast it onto the Lord, as Peter says you should (1 Peter 5:7). The Lord will receive your anxiety and will carry it away. He will accept your fear from you, if you will give Him your trust. Pray in this manner until your anxiety has been replaced with the “peace that passes all comprehension.” Know that the Lord may or may not take away whatever real threats confront you, but He will remove your anxiety if you will trust Him and if you cry out to Him for His aid. (Psalm 34:4 – The Lord will deliver you from all your fears.)

The next blog will continue our process of casting our anxiety on Him with some more strategies for gaining peace.

SDG            rmb             3/25/2017