BLESSED IS THE MAN – TWICE

“How blessed is he . . .” and “How blessed is the man . . .” (v. 1,2)

David mentions twice the Lord’s blessing. We observe that both of these blessings relate to sin and its removal; transgression and its forgiveness. Here is the great theme of the entire Bible and the blaring trumpet of the gospel from the pen of David. The great theme of the Bible is that there is a way for a sinful man to be reconciled to a holy God without the necessity of the man himself being punished for his sin. The Bible declares that there is a way for man the sinner to be blessed by the Holy One. There is a way for transgression to be forgiven and for sin to be covered (v. 1). Blessed! Can it be? There is a way for man the sinner to be blessed. There is a means whereby the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, will not impute your iniquity to your account (v. 2), but instead will somehow remove it from you. The LORD has a means of conveying righteousness to the unrighteous. How is this possible? And if He does not impute my iniquity to my account, then to whose account does the LORD impute that iniquity? For all sin must be punished. There is no sin that will not be fully punished and will not receive a full recompense. God’s holiness requires the punishment of all sin and every sin. But if I am forgiven and my sin is not imputed to my account, where does my sin go and how is my sin punished when I don’t receive the punishment? Who bears my sin if I don’t and who receives the just recompense that my sin deserves?

As we ask these questions, it becomes obvious that the answer is concealed in the Old Testament but is revealed in the New when the Lord Jesus Christ appears on the scene. In His sinless life and His atoning death and His glorious resurrection, Jesus Christ reveals the completion and the fulfillment of all that was veiled in the Old Testament. Forgiveness was a reality in the Old Testament as sinner after sinner is spoken of as righteous, but how the holiness of God can allow forgiveness for the guilty is not made clear. But that the guilty can go free must be possible, for David committed adultery with Bathsheba and arranged the murder of Uriah, among his other sins, yet David goes free and is forgiven (2 Samuel 12:13-14)! In Jesus, the forgiveness that was scandalous and “illegal” in the Old Testament is made glorious and just because Jesus becomes the willing, substitutionary sacrifice for all sinners who will confess their sins and throw themselves on the mercy of God.

When anyone “keeps silent about their sin,” their body wastes away. This is an automatic consequence because sin has a destroying effect on all of life’s activities. Sin will crush you emotionally, as you feel the weight of your guilt and as you experience the shame of your disobedience. Ignoring your conscience and willfully rebelling against what you know to be right is exhausting business and it will take a toll on you. Because sin opposes the commands and the will of the Creator, sin will also wear you down physically. Sins such as drinking, drugs, excessive physical pleasure or indulging in anything that is excessive will put stress on your physical body and you will slowly break down under that load. It is a fact that sinners die younger, and this applies not just to criminals or to those who live risky lifestyles. When you keep silent about your sin; when you ignore and indulge your sin, your body will waste away and your vitality will be drained away. Youth can mask this slow decay for a while, but soon the tatters become evident and the threads begin to unravel.

Okay, so how do you break out of that downward spiral of decay? How do you stop wasting away? If God’s hand is heavy on me, how do I take it off? How do I lighten my burden? How do I stop sin from wasting me away? And is this miracle related to having my transgression forgiven and my iniquity covered (v. 1)? I feel the fever heat of summer and I want the cool waters of forgiveness and rest. Where is that to be found?

“I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide. I said I will confess my transgression to the LORD and You forgave the guilt of my sin.” Ah, this is how I can remove my guilt! This is how I can be forgiven! I acknowledge my sin to the LORD. I confess my disobedience and my rebellion and I cry out to the LORD for His forgiveness and His mercy and grace and kindness. I ask Him to be merciful to me, the sinner (Luke 18:9-14).

In that moment “. . . and You forgave the guilt of my sin (32:4).”

For those who will acknowledge their sin and who will cry out to the Lord for mercy and who will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is forgiveness. For them, even a flood of great waters will not reach them. In that moment, the LORD will be your hiding place and He will preserve you from trouble and will deliver you from the judgment.

SDG       rmb       6/21/2018

This was a brief quote that my wife read me from Rosaria Butterfield’s first book. Rosaria was reading a book by F B Meyer.

Quote from F B Meyer on the difference between faith and unbelief:

“Unbelief puts circumstances between itself and Christ, so as not to see Him . . . Faith puts Christ between itself and circumstances so that it cannot see them.”

This quote is so simple and yet the truth here contained is so profound. This truth really contains the essence of the key to the Christian life. When I was lost in unbelief, I was fascinated and obsessed with circumstances. It may even be said that I was a slave of circumstances, and all my attention was consumed with dealing with or exploiting what my senses presented to me. There was no reality beyond the circumstances and the scenes that my senses presented to me. I was a sensual man, trapped in a world defined by what was “under the sun” (Ecclesiastes), trapped by my circumstances. The glory and the power and the holiness and the beauty and the peace of Christ were hidden from me because my unbelief posed an impenetrable barrier to the Lord of glory. In my state of unbelief, I am the one who directly confronts my circumstances and I am the one who must conquer them.

But when faith comes, then the order of things is radically rearranged. Now Christ has moved near to me and I have moved near to Christ and He has been placed between me and my circumstances. My gaze is now fixed on Him and on His word. Jesus Christ dominates my thoughts and my senses, and He has captured my mind and my imagination. He dominates the landscape from sky to sky, and my circumstances have been moved behind the Lord. Faith sees Jesus Christ as the One who controls and rules, and faith perceives my circumstances through the veil of the Lord’s power and peace and love and sovereignty. The paradigm has utterly changed, and with the change in paradigm comes peace and trust.

If you have placed your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and have moved from unbelief to faith, then realize that your circumstances are now seen through the Lord’s power and through the Lord’s love for you.

SDG       rmb       6/10/2018

The Old Testament is full of narrative stories that are carefully crafted to foreshadow the gospel and the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ, but these stories are written in such a way that they present fascinating dramas in their own right. One of my favorite stories in the entire Old Testament is the story of Mephibosheth and David told in 2 Samuel 9.

As the scene opens, David the anointed king is at the zenith of his powers and is living in Jerusalem in splendor. But Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, is in very different circumstances. Let us consider where Mephibosheth is at this time and consider in detail the circumstances of his life.

The first thing that we discover about Mephibosheth is that he is crippled in both feet (9:3; later in 9:13). That means he is physically damaged and defective. He is useless for any sort of meaningful work. He has nothing to offer David the king. Damaged, defective, rejected.

Also, we see that Mephibosheth views himself as an enemy to King David. He is a descendant of Saul and is the son of Saul’s son Jonathan, and as such, he is doomed. In those days, when a king conquered a people, he usually killed all the male descendants of the previous king to make sure there were no heirs who could threaten the new king’s reign. By rights then, Mephibosheth should be hunted and killed by David.

Mephibosheth is living in Lo-Debar. Perhaps this is to hide from David or perhaps this is just where he has ended up, but Lo-Debar means “no pasture,” so this is a dry and desert place where there is no pasture that is far away from the place of God in Jerusalem. He is far from God in a dry and desert place where there is no pasture.

And so what is the hope of Mephibosheth? His only hope is that his miserable life in Lo-debar will not be cut short and that the anointed king will not find him and bring him into judgment. He has no hope of an inheritance, for his forefather Saul lost everything through his disobedience and his sin and now his descendant only inherits his failure and his shame. Mephibosheth has no hope of a land, for all his lands have been lost.

Indeed, Mephibosheth cannot even improve his lot in life, for he is in a desert, a place of “no pasture,” and he is physically crippled in both feet. His situation is literally hope-less. His life will be spent in hiding in Lo-debar far from the king and far from the palace. Mephibosheth will limp along, making the most of his miserable situation, but he has no hope because he is an enemy of the king with no way to be reconciled to the king. Fear and shame will mark his days and finally he will go down to the grave.

This story is beautiful because what happens next is so unexpected. While Mephibosheth is hiding in Lo-Debar, David is seeking him out, but not to kill him, but to show him the kindness of God. In an explosion of kindness and grace lavished on Mephibosheth because of a covenant between David and Jonathan, we see calling, response, repentance, confession and adoption, all important gospel themes.

• Mephibosheth is called from the far country into the palace of the king;
• Once in the king’s presence, he falls down and worships the anointed king;
• He confesses his unworthiness (9:8);
• Mephibosheth is allowed to eat at David’s table as one of the king’s sons (9:10-11); This means that he was adopted as a child of the king.

The anointed king calls the miserable cripple from the far country, from the place of no pasture and brings him to the city of David, the city of Zion, the place where God will choose to place His glory. The king then gives him back all the land that Saul, his ancestor, lost by his disobedience, and insists that Mephibosheth eat at the king’s table as one of the king’s sons.

 

APPLICATIONS:

• We are Mephibosheth. By faith in the Lord Jesus, we are those people who have been called out of the far country, the place of “no pasture,” to the table of the King to eat at His table as His adopted sons and daughters.
• In this story, David pictures for us the Lord, who overlooks our sin and our shame and our defects because there is a covenant of grace in place. The Lord seeks us in the far country and then raises us up with Christ and seats us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2).
• Even though Mephibosheth is still crippled in both feet, he no longer sees himself as crippled, no longer defines himself by his “first birth.” He defines himself by his adoption and identifies himself with the king who adopted him. He is now treated not as a cripple, but as an adopted son of the King and enjoys all the privileges of sonship. In the same way, we who have placed our faith in Jesus Christ enjoy all the privileges of sonship. The sin and shame that used to define us and that gave us our self-image has been washed away by the blood of Christ.
• The Hebrew name Mephibosheth means “dispeller of shame,” but it is clear that the man Mephibosheth is not himself the dispeller of shame. In fact, Mephibosheth cannot dispel any shame. Instead, he is the one who needs to have shame removed from him. But notice that his shame is dispelled by King David when he brings him up to the palace in Jerusalem and adopts him as his son. Now this elaborate screenplay is presented to us to show what happens to us as followers of Jesus. We need to have our shame dispelled, the shame of our sin and our failures and our rejection and evil and filth, but we have no ability to dispel any filth. We are trapped in our shame. But when we come to faith in the Lord Jesus, He dispels our shame and removes our guilt and wraps us with a robe of righteousness and washes us from all our iniquities so that our sin and shame are removed. Jesus Christ is the great and final dispeller of shame, and He has removed and dispelled all the shame of all those who have placed their faith in Him.

SDG       rmb       5/31/2018

 

Death brings a great sadness to life. Life seems so full of hurry and worry and work and busy and then along comes death and All the fuss and effort is nullified by a stark, cold stillness. There lies the person, unmoving and voiceless, and some words are uttered and some memories are recalled and the grave is covered and the curtain is closed.

“When the wind has passed over it, it is no more and its place acknowledges it no longer.” Psalm 103:16

Now this is reality, but it is not the truth. For while death will one day take away my physical life, my physical life now has immense purpose and my eternal destiny is unshakably secure.

SIGNIFICANCE / APPLICATION

1. My physical life has been given to me by the great God who created this entire universe so that my life will be spent “telling of His glory among the nations and His wonderful deeds among all the peoples.” Psalm 96:4. My life’s primary purpose is to proclaim God’s excellencies (1 Peter 2:9). One day my physical life will end and my opportunities to tell the entire world of YHWH’s glory and might and power and righteousness will cease, but until that day I have a mission and a purpose that is independent of geography or circumstance. Praise the Lord that He has given me a mission that I can pursue until my last breath, a mission and a purpose that is empowered by God the Holy Spirit and that fills me with joy and power. “O, grave, where is your victory?” “For to me, to live is Christ . . .” Philippians 1:21
2. When my course is finished and my race is run and my mission is accomplished, I will immediately be with the Lord and will be with Him forever. The Lord has written down in His unchanging and infallible Word many promises of my eternity with Him. If there was only one promise of my eternal reward, that would be enough, for no promise of God can possibly fail; but God has etched with a diamond stylus myriad promises of His eternal plans for me. I am going to heaven and physical death is the portal. John 10:27-30. “O death, where is your sting?” “For to me . . . to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21

SDG       rmb       5/24/2018

One of the things that has struck me as I have tried to share my faith in Christ with those who do not know Jesus as Lord and Savior is that there is virtually a complete ignorance of the wrath of God and a cluelessness about the certainly of final judgment. Faith in Jesus is a faith that saves, yet most people who I talk to have no concept of what it is that the believer in Christ is saved from. I think at least part of the responsibility for this problem must fall on the Christian church and its modern reluctance to talk at all about the wrath of God and about the reality of hell. We are reluctant to scare people into heaven and so we never warn people about the realities of an eternal place of punishment called hell. But the Bible is not afraid to tell people that the LORD is angry at sin and that He will certainly punish all sin. The LORD warns people that they must repent and turn from their evil ways or they will experience the terrifying wrath of the Almighty. Should we not do the same? Shouldn’t at least some of our proclamation involve telling people about their peril before a holy God?

Among my future writing projects is a book that would focus on the Bible passages which tell of hell and warn of the coming judgment. Since that project will be a long time in coming, I wanted to share just a few thoughts that occurred to me about this topic.

First, all sin must be punished. This is because of God’s settled wrath at all sin and disobedience. God is holy, and God cannot, will not, allow any sin to go unpunished. All sin must be punished, and there are two ways that sin can be punished. My sins will either be punished once for all by Christ’s atoning, vicarious death on the cross on my behalf or my sins will be punished forever by me personally in the lake of fire.

Second, Christ’s death on the cross fully propitiates the wrath of God against any and every sin of every believer, but the unbeliever’s endless punishment in the lake of fire will never propitiate even one single sin. This is because the death of the sinless Son of God has unlimited atoning power, but the death of the sinner has no atoning or cleansing power.

Thirdly, there is confusion as to the purpose of the lake of fire, also known as hell. Because of poor biblical preaching in America’s pulpits, few people in the general population know of the reality of the lake of fire and therefore most believe that any warning to everyday people that they are going to hell is met with derision and ridicule. In a sense, those in the burning building are laughing at the fire alarm. But it must be realized that, contrary to popular perception, the purpose of the horrors of the lake of fire is not restitution or reconciliation or atonement. The purpose of hell is to inflict God’s full wrath on sinners as a punishment for sin. The warnings are severe because the LORD wants “all to be saved and come to repentance.”

SDG       rmb        May 16, 2018

One of the outstanding features of the book of 1 John is the prominence of the word, “KNOW.” In the world of faith and religions, KNOW is a uniquely Christian word. It is a word that conveys certainty, and where there is certainty, doubt must flee.

KNOW is directly tied to TRUTH, to FAITH and to HOPE.

TRUTH: When the Bible declares something, then we KNOW a TRUTH. The doctrines of what we believe are based on the TRUTH that we KNOW from the Word. Our TRUTH is not based on one man’s opinions or on dreams or myths or rituals or traditions. Rather, our TRUTH is based on the written Word of the living God. We trust in and have confidence in our TRUTH because that is what the Bible declares. We KNOW what the Bible reveals.

FAITH: When the Bible declares something that we KNOW, even though we cannot see that something, we believe that by FAITH. We KNOW because we have FAITH. We can claim what the Bible declares by FAITH.

HOPE: What the Bible declares to be TRUE becomes for us a HOPE. I KNOW that one day I will be resurrected with a glorious body and that is my HOPE. What I KNOW becomes a source of joy and purpose and perseverance and passion and power because of HOPE, which is the conviction that what I KNOW about the future will certainly come to pass.

When we know that something is true, then we are convinced (2 Timothy 1:12; 3:14-15). We know what the Bible declares to be true. The Lord has spoken; we must obey.

This verse (3:19) seems to be pointing back to what John said in 3:14-18 about how we visibly display our love for the brethren. To paraphrase: “If we love our fellow believers in deed and truth, then our hearts will be assured before the Lord.”

Thus our assurance is not something that is given to us through the insistence of another, but is something that comes from within as a manifestation of an inward new reality. The disciple of Jesus will not be assured because someone tells them they should be assured. Rather, the disciple will be assured when the Holy Spirit gives them the assurance of their salvation, which is the true fruit of salvation and is manifested in obedience.

USE 1: This can reveal an error in our evangelism. There is a tendency in some evangelism (particularly in “revivalist evangelism” which emphasizes the sinner’s “decision” and then assures the sinner based on that decision) to give assurance to those who have no biblical basis for assurance. INSIGHT: This giving of false assurance stems from religious influences. Religion says, “Do something religious or spiritual and then insist that, because you did the religious thing really sincerely, then it was certainly effective.” An example is, “Pray this prayer and pray it sincerely (perform the religious ritual), and you are certainly saved and need never doubt again. Since you did the religious thing, you certainly receive the promised result.” This is pure ‘religion.’ Religion demands the performance of religious duties or rituals that are not in the Bible and then insists that the performance of the ritual obligates God to give the desired and expected result. “Pray this prayer (a ritual that is nowhere in the Bible) and you can be assured that you are saved.” This is man-made religion and will give zero genuine assurance.

A Holy Spirit-given assurance cannot be taken away by any man or demon, but an imposed or insisted “assurance” will be received skeptically and will be dispelled easily and quickly. The truth is that my heart is assured when I do the things that the Bible says a follower of Jesus does. I will know that I am truly saved when I do and experience the things that give assurance. Assurance is a direct result of obedience.

Assurance is not MANUFACTURED but is MANIFESTED.

USE 2: Thus the moment of salvation is unimportant, but the manifestation of salvation is critically important. Having a ‘moment’ with no manifestation will not only give no assurance but will produce nightmares of doubt within the person and almost certainly reveals that there is no re-birth. The nightmares come because the person has done what they were told to do; they “prayed the prayer,” and thus fulfilled their religious duty, and they now believe that they need do no more to be saved and fully expect to feel complete assurance because they did their religious duty. In Catholicism, this is ‘ex opere operato,’ which means “by the duty/work performed.” This is the belief or doctrine that the performance of the religious duty certainly conveys and earns the promised blessing. A consideration of the evangelistic practice of getting someone to “pray the prayer” will reveal distinct similarities with this Catholic idea.

Another error of revivalist evangelism is the focus on and the insistence on identifying a moment of decision (salvation) and then assuring the one who made a “decision” that their decision has saving power.

But John says we are assured when we love the brethren in deed and in truth (3:19 as pointing to 3:14-18) and when we keep His commandments (3:22).

Finally, our heart can lead us to doubt, but our deeds will reveal our true state and will give us assurance. (Not like Cain’s deeds, which were evil, 3:12.)

In summary, genuine, unshakable assurance is obtained through obedience and by doing what the Bible calls believers to do.

SDG       rmb       4/26/2018

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

The gospel of Mark tells the story of the earthly ministry, the death and the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Mark’s account presents the events in his gospel under two broad headings which divide the book into two fairly distinct sections. The first part addresses the question, “Who is Jesus?” and covers Mark 1:1 through 8:30, and the second part answers the question, “What did Jesus come to do?” and goes from Mark 8:31 to the end of the book. Of course, there is much more to the story than these two simple divisions but reading the gospel of Mark with these general headings in mind will help the reader understand the basic flow of the narrative and will aid in grasping the main points that Mark is conveying.

It also needs to be understood that Mark is not writing a biography of the life of Jesus. Because Mark is writing a gospel and not a mere biography, Mark is intentionally selective in what he has included in his narrative. No doubt there were many other events in the life of Jesus that could have been included but were not. Like the other three gospel writers in the Bible, Mark is not writing a simple biography about a famous man he admired. Rather, because of his personal encounter with the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, Mark’s life has been profoundly changed and he is communicating this story so that others may have an encounter with Jesus and thus may experience Jesus’ life-changing power.

My ambition is that I will eventually be able to selectively go through the entire gospel and answer the two big questions from the events and words of Mark’s gospel. For example, in this first blog of the series, I will cover Mark 1:1 and ask, “According to Mark, the author of this gospel, who is Jesus?” Future blogs would follow the pattern, “According to ________, who is Jesus?” I think that you will quickly see the pattern. Then for the second part, the question will be something like, “Based on this event / Based on these words, what did Jesus come to accomplish?”

INTENDED AUDIENCE

There are two intended audiences for this study of Mark. One audience is that of believers who want to be more effective in their evangelism. It is hoped that the comments in these blogs on the identity of Jesus and on His accomplished work will fuel more informed and more passionate gospel conversations and will give guidance for my fellow evangelists about how to use the gospel of Mark in evangelistic Bible studies of their own.

The other intended audience is readers who are not yet followers of Jesus, but who genuinely desire to know the truth about this amazing Man. My hope is that, by reading these accounts and comments on the gospel of Mark, you would see that Jesus of Nazareth is, indeed, the glorious Savior and you would repent of your sins and believe in His name.

ACCORDING TO MARK, THE AUTHOR OF THIS GOSPEL, WHO IS JESUS?

Mark 1:1 – “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

Here in this first verse of his gospel record, Mark reveals who he thinks Jesus is. For us to get the full impact of what Mark is saying, we need to go through this verse and considering the key words.

GOSPEL – Mark writes that this is the beginning of the GOSPEL. Gospel is the English word that is translated from the Greek word “euangellion,” which means “good news.” Notice that Mark does not say, “the beginning of the story or biography,” but “the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Mark directly links “good news” with the name of Jesus Christ. Ponder this question: “Is there anyone else in all of human history whose name would be directly associated with good news?” Anyone? The answer is a resounding, “No!” No one else’s name evokes the thought of good news. But here Mark is claiming that even the name of Jesus should produce the hope of good news. In fact, the word ‘gospel’ was invented to describe Jesus Christ and we will discover that Jesus is worthy of that lofty title. Jesus is good news. Notice that Jesus does not bring good news; rather, Jesus IS good news.

JESUS –The name ‘Jesus’ is from the Hebrew name ‘Jeshua,’ which means “the Lord is salvation.” Jesus’ very name pointed to God’s salvation. In the gospel of Matthew, Joseph, the husband of Mary, is commanded to give Mary’s Son the name of Jesus “for it is He who will save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21).” Even before Jesus was born, Mark is making clear that His name and His life are pointing to the work of salvation that He will accomplish on the cross

CHRIST – While ‘Jesus’ is the name of the Man from Nazareth, ‘Christ’ is His title. For centuries the Jews had been waiting for their promised Messiah, the great champion who would defeat Israel’s enemies and set the Jews free from the Romans. ‘Messiah’ is the Hebrew word which means ‘anointed one.’ In Greek the word for ‘anointed one’ is ‘christos,’ which has been changed to ‘Christ.’ Mark is making clear that he believes that Jesus is the promised Jewish Messiah, the long-expected deliverer. According to Mark, Jesus is also the Christ.

THE SON OF GOD – Perhaps the most remarkable of all the claims of the identity of Jesus is this one: Mark declares that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. This claim is much more than a claim to being one of God’s special creatures. In other words, Mark is not intending that Jesus, as a human being, is a noble creature, one who is special, like a son of God. What Mark is intending is that Jesus is divine. Mark is stating that Jesus is deity, that Jesus is actually God in human flesh. Jesus is unique, in that He is the only begotten Son of God. He is the invisible God made visible. Jesus is the incarnation of God. Not only is Jesus the Son of God, but also intended here is that Jesus is God the Son, the second Person of the Trinity. This is what Mark has in mind when he introduces Jesus in this opening verse of his gospel.

MEDITATION ON THIS VERSE: According to Mark, Jesus is the Christ, the good news from God, the very Son of the living God. What is the significance of these things? Consider that no one else in all of human history has had the audacity to claim to be God and also that there is no one else in history who has ever, even for a moment, seriously been considered to be God. For anyone else to make any claim of deity would be immediately dismissed as the absurd ravings of a madman, nonsense not worth the slightest consideration. But over the course of the last two millennia, many people have spent much of their lives in vain trying through any means possible to somehow convince the world that Jesus is not the Christ and is NOT God in human flesh. Yet despite many books and speeches and false teachers and classes and seminars which all aim to make Jesus seem like just an ordinary person, Jesus Christ remains alone as the Man who towers above all other men, the God-Man, the One sent from heaven, the divine Visitor, the Master, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Judge of all the earth, the Righteous one, the Holy One, the one who will one day soon return to end human history, the One who is rightly worshiped as God by hundreds of missions of people.

According to Mark, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the One who is good news.

SDG       rmb       4/22/2018

Every disciple will acknowledge that to disobey a clear command from the Scriptures is an act of sin. All disobedience is sin. Thus, when the word of God commands us, “to be anxious for nothing” (Philippians 4:6) and we are, nevertheless, anxious and fearful, we are guilty of sin. That statement is not intended to oversimplify fear inside the human breast, but it is intended to identify fear for what it is – sin. “Through the Law comes the knowledge if sin (Romans 3:20),” and when the Lord Jesus Himself and His apostles and the LORD and His prophets in the Old Testament all repeatedly command followers of the Lord not to fear, we must confess our fear as disobedience to the clear commands of Scripture, which is sin.

Fear is sin! This necessary confession orients us rightly to our fear. Our fear is sin, and fear not only disobeys the Lord’s commands, but it also reveals distrust of the Lord, which further calls into question His power and His ability to keep His promises to His children. All fear is sin and is the result of sin and will lead to further sin if not confessed and repented of.

What I want to do with this article is to offer thoughts and Scripture verses to provide the disciple of Jesus with weapons to fight against fear and to put fear to death.

First, then, much of our fear is the product of not taking every thought captive to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5) and instead allowing our thoughts to go where bad habits of thought take them. This leads the mind into places that remind us of past failures and that produce anger and regret and frustration and worry in our mind. The prowling enemy (1 Peter 5:8) finds us as an easy target, because we are already moving toward the pit. What to do? Arrest the trajectory of your thinking! Immediately interrupt your thought pattern and instead drive your mind into a place of biblical obedience. When thoughts head down toward the abyss, have a ready command of Scripture to obey. The Bible is full of commands to obey and it is the disciple’s responsibility to have several paths of obedience to walk to arrest poor thinking. As one simple example, immediately meditate on 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “rejoice always! Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks.” Force your mind and your will into these three simple steps of obedience. “Rejoice always.” Consider all the places in the Scripture that call us to rejoice. Lift up your voice and cry out with joy to the Lord. “Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 12:6).” “Pray without ceasing.” Focus on praying – NOW! Force out all distractions and pray for the souls of those lost people that you know. Pray for your pastor. Pray for your local church. Pray that God will make you more useful to Him and to others. Pray that God would teach you humility or generosity. Pray that God would vanquish your pride. “In everything give thanks.” Spend time thanking God for all that He has given you that you did not deserve and certainly did not earn by your own efforts. List as many things as you can think of for which to thank the Lord, then spend time thinking Him for these. The point is that the mind must be controlled and the thoughts captured so that energy and thought are directed into obedient channels and prevented from going into dead ends and into an abyss of uselessness.

Second, confess your fear as sin and REPENT! This combination of confession and repentance is a powerful tool in the disciple’s arsenal. CONFESS fear as sin and agree with the Lord that fear is so. Explicitly confess fear as sin. “I have done what the Lord specifically commands me not to do; that is sin!” Agree with the Lord about your sin. You have violated His law and you again need the cleansing of the Savior. Now REPENT of the sin. Turn away from this sin and resolve to not repeat it. Create a strategy for future obedience and then carry out the strategy. Discipline yourself for godliness.

Third, meditate on Scripture and immerse your mind with the word of God. Fill your thoughts so full of the Bible that no stray and vicious thought can insinuate itself into your head and drag you into the abyss or into despair. Have ready at hand the sharpest arrows of the word of God that you know. When the enemy pulls you down or when circumstances threaten to overwhelm and to cause pangs of fear, “Cry aloud with your voice to the LORD; Make supplication with your voice to the LORD (Psalm 142:1).” Bring your favorite passages from the Word to bear on the fear and watch the fear fade and melt away. Indeed, the Word is like a fire and like a hammer that shatters a rock (Jeremiah 23:29). Take the sword of the Spirit out of its sheath and wield it as a potent weapon and you will prevail.

Fourth, I offer a “shotgun” of different ideas that will hopefully take you away from the place of anxiety and worry and fear.

• Are there places you will not allow your mind to go because those thoughts take you into depression? (2 Corinthians 10:3-6) Put up guardrails and stop signs for your thoughts and then obey all traffic laws! When you are going in that direction, do you actively STOP and then replace unhelpful thoughts with positive and obedient and helpful?
• Meditate on Psalm 131 and realize that there are many things that are “great matters” and “things too difficult for me.” Since that is the case, be ready to acknowledge the Lord’s power and allow His might and power to descend upon you as a source of peace and comfort. Pride leads to pressure, but resting in the Lord leads to peace.
• Remember the Bible’s commands and then hunger for righteousness and obedience. Romans 8:28-30; 8:31-39; Phil. 4:6-7; Matthew 6:25-34; Psalm 34:4-6; Isaiah 41:10; 43:1-7.
• Are you actively praying against all your fears? The Lord has promised to vanquish our enemies and to bring us to heaven. Are you living in that light? When you sense that you are growing fearful and you are feeling the tightness in your gut, are you actively and consciously and reflexively beginning to pray to the Lord?

I think that, if you will continually do these simple things, your fears will be driven away.

SDG       rmb       4/18/2018

Recently the Lord has impressed upon me the importance of submitting to my elders. Part of my covenant with my local church is loving and supporting and submitting to my elders “as those who will give an account (Hebrews 13:17).” They have assumed the responsibility for my soul as those who will give an account to the Lord for how well they have shepherded me. They have shouldered the burden of guarding the flock and making sure that wolves and heretics are kept out. And yet they are men, mere mortal men like me, men beset with weakness and sin, just like me. They are men who are prone to discouragement and are men whom the devil would delight to damage. The Bible commands me to support them and to submit to them, not because they are perfect leaders (for how hard would it be to submit to perfect leaders?), but because they need my support and I need to support them for my spiritual growth. How can I best show my love and support to men such as these? Is it not in listening to them and in following their godly leadership? When they show their love for their Savior and their love for us through faithful teaching of the Scripture and through diligent prayer for the sheep, should I not respond to that with  a spirit of submission and respect? May it never be said that I was an accomplice of the devil by being one of those who discouraged my elders and who created discord and disunity in the flock.

The following are some thoughts that I had in this regard that may be worth considering:

“Submitting to elders is a Scriptural commandment and is, therefore, a mark of sanctification. It is also for my spiritual good because it promotes humility. The nature of submission is that it is uncomfortable and hard. The flesh hates submission, which in itself is one great reason to submit.

The unity of the fellowship is a very high value (1 Corinthians 3:17). It is the church for whom Christ died (Ephesians 5:25, etc.). The local church submits to godly leadership.

Submission, even obedient, appropriate submission, is hard and militates against our fleshly pride. Because this is the case, we should SEEK OUT opportunities to submit as a means of vanquishing or at least subduing our persistent pride.

Of the four submission commands in 1 Peter, the one that brings with it the most joy is the submission to our beloved elders. We love these men. They will most gladly spend and be expended for our souls (2 Cor. 12:15). They have voluntarily chosen to love and care for and shepherd us so that we know Jesus and will go to heaven when we die. It is a joy for me to make their work a joy for them.

The responsibility before God for leading the local church falls on the shoulders of the elders. The congregation may give input, and should give input, but at the end of the day they are to submit to the elders, even if they disagree with the elders specific decision or teaching.

Finally, there are several Scriptures that should be considered in this regard. In addition to the ones already mentioned (Hebrews 13:17, 1 Peter 5:5), it is also instructive to study carefully 1 Timothy 5:17-18 (elders are worthy of double honor) and Numbers 12, in which Aaron and Miriam rise up in protest against their brother Moses and are severely rebuked by the LORD. I think there is a lesson here that we should be very cautious when protesting against or rebelling against those who are appointed by the Lord.

I will obey the Bible’s commands to love and submit to godly elders as they lead us and follow Christ.     SDG     rmb     4/11/2018

 

As we examine this verse briefly, there are several other considerations to keep in mind.

This verse should be considered in concert with other biblical teaching on submission to leaders, particularly 1 Peter 5:5. It should also be remembered that SUBMITTING weakens the FLESH, demonstrates obedience and encourages the godly leader. In my own life, I find that my flesh is always in need of weakening. Here is a weapon against the flesh.

On the other hand, OBEDIENCE strengthens the spirit of the disciple and brings great reward.

CLEAR COMMANDS

In my own spiritual growth and study of Scripture, I have been struck recently by the simplicity of the Christian life. Life in Christ is a life of obedience to the clear commands of the word of God. Therefore, when the disciple of Christ discovers clear commands in the word of God, the reflex response should be to obey those commands.

Here in Hebrews 13:17, as in 1 Peter 5:5, we have a clear command to submit to the leaders of the church. It is important to note that this submission is not conditional. It is not conditioned on our assessment of the qualifications of our leaders or on my judgment of their biblical knowledge, nor is my submission based on my agreement with everything that they decide to do or ask me to do. In essence, I do not get a vote about what they do, and I am nevertheless called to do what they instruct me to do. That is what it means to submit.

MEANS TO HUMILITY

One of the rarest and most Christ-like of all spiritual virtues is humility; and submitting leads to humility. Submitting is one of the means God has given us to grow in humility, but it does so only with years of practice. Humility as a lifestyle does not come easily or quickly. Rather, humility is gained over time as the sin of pride is identified, is confessed and is repented of and as the flesh is gradually and consistently weakened. As has been said well, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but it is thinking of yourself less.”

All believers should seek out opportunities to humble themselves and should praise the Lord when He presents to us an opportunity to exercise humility.

IMPERATIVE VERBS

In this verse (Hebrews 13:17), “Obey” and “submit” are both imperatives. Thus these are commands. “Obey” is the action, while “submit” is the attitude. If there are other parts of this verse that are not crystal clear, “obey” and “submit” are clear. In the Scriptures, commands are first to be obeyed and then later to be understood. In fact, the only required action of the disciple is obedience to the command. Because we trust the COMMANDER, then we do not require a justification of the command. In other words, our trust in the Lord makes the question, “Why am I doing this?” unnecessary. I am obeying a command of the Lord because the Lord has commanded me to do so. I obey the commands of Scripture because I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a follower of Jesus obeys the commands of Scripture. My default, then, in this verse is to seek to obey and to submit to my leaders.

Now sometimes in God’s infinite mercy and grace, He will tell me why and give me further explanation. In fact, here is this verse, the author gives several justifications for the action that is commanded, and we will look at those in detail later, but my point here is that whether or not the Scripture adds reasons for a command, the command is to be obeyed. The disciple of Christ obeys the commands given in Scripture . . . period. And here the command is clear. “Obey your leaders and submit (to them).”

ACCOUNTABLE

“. . . for they keep watch as those who will give an account.”

Here we see that leaders in the church are responsible for the decisions they make because they will give an account. The leaders are accountable to God for the way they have shepherded those souls that have been entrusted to them.

“Let them do this with joy and not with grief for this would be unprofitable for you.”

This has applications for both the leaders and for those who are led by them.

APPLICATIONS:

For the leaders, the application is indeed sobering. The Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4) is watching to see if the “under-shepherds” are taking their positions seriously and if they are leading humbly and prayerfully. Are they making their decisions and leading their flock by studying the word of God and by praying without ceasing and by listening to the Holy Spirit?

For those who are led, their obedience and submission are motivated by a love for the leaders that Christ has placed over them and by a desire to see those leaders encouraged and to see those leaders filled with joy. My submission to my leaders strengthens the entire church and causes Christ’s light to shine brighter.

But also note that the verse ends with the phrase, “for this would be unprofitable for you.” So there is profit to be lost by not submitting to my leaders. God’s design is for godly leaders to lead the flock with joy and with humble boldness, guiding the flock into new paths of fruitfulness as God works in His people, and for the flock to follow their leaders, eagerly trusting that their leaders are listening to the Lord and knowing that they will give an account to the Lord for how they have led. When God’s design for the local church is carried out, then there is immense profit and “many will see and fear and trust in the Lord (Psalm 40:3).”

SDG       rmb       4/7/2018