“You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders, and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

The context of this verse is that it immediately follows instructions that Peter gives to his “fellow elders” (1 Peter 5:1-4), and so it is clear that he is speaking to the elder as an officer of the church (Greek word “presbuteros.” = ‘elder’). This verse under consideration (5:5), then, is in a passage explicitly about biblical elders and how they are to lead and how the congregation is to follow.

The first part of this verse (5:5) is expressly addressed to youth and is rendered “younger men” in the NASB and “you who are younger” in the ESV. The noun is in the masculine plural, but this is not conclusive that it means “men,” since that could apply to all who are younger, both men and women. Nevertheless, “younger men” is the preferred translation, because younger men are the ones who most need to be admonished to be subject to elders. The young men are the ones with fire in their bones. It is the young men who charge into the fiercest battles and it is also the young men who have the strongest opinions. Consequently, it is the young men who must heed this instruction most carefully.

Note that the command to “be subject to your elders” is unqualified; that is, it has no conditions attached to it which might provide some exceptions to the command. This places the weight and the emphasis on obedience to the command, “be subject.” Therefore, when the Scripture calls the disciple to “be subject” or “to submit,” the disciple is to expend their energy in their effort to obey the command, rather than spending their time and energy looking for an exception (a loophole?) that might permit them to not submit. Barring circumstances where your elders are themselves disobedient and have effectively disqualified themselves through unbiblical leadership and mishandling of the word of God, the command to be subject is to be the primary attitude and response of the disciple of Christ.

Be subject to your elders.

Peter goes on in this verse with instructions to the entire flock (“all of you,” not just younger people), that they are to be clothed with humility toward one another. This verse is similar to Ephesians 5:21 (“be subject to one another”) and I think it is conveying not specific responsibilities but is conveying the attitude that is to exist within the body of Christ. It is the attitude of Phil. 2:3-4, the attitude that others have wisdom and they, too, are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Humility says that I could be wrong, or at least my view could be the weaker view. I think, however, that the context demands that even if I remain convinced that my view is the correct view, I will concede and submit to others for their sake (their encouragement and the unity of the fellowship) and for my own sanctification, in willingly subjecting myself to others and in actively exercising humility.

Now the statements in the previous paragraph are not to be taken rigidly. It probably doesn’t need to be said, but for the purpose of not being misunderstood, if there are serious errors that need to be refuted or if the gospel is being compromised, then obviously concession and submission would be wrong. This, however, is the exception rather than the rule, as most healthy churches do not have a lot of errant teaching that needs to be refuted. In the “normal” situation, I believe the mindset should be weighted toward grace and love for one another and a willingness to exercise humility and concession.

Humility is usually a mark of years of sanctification and, because our fleshly pride is such an immense obstacle to our holiness, it is always a good idea to seize opportunities to exercise humility. “God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.” I want to be on the side that receives grace from God, so I want to develop humility and repent of pride. And would not the greatest opportunity for gaining humility be in a situation where you were convinced you were right and you chose to acquiesce?

In summing up, the clear command to be subject to my elders and the command to clothe myself with humility combine to give me a clear path to follow when disagreements arise in the local fellowship.

SDG      rmb      4/5/2018

Although to the outside observer there appears to be no real change when a man or woman comes to Christ, within the converted soul there are seismic, foundational changes that alter every part of that person. For just as sin had previously grown and poisoned and infected all of their life, now the new life in Christ will begin to sanctify and purify. Light has shone into darkness, and thus light will begin to shine out of what was darkness. There may be no better pair of verses than 1 Peter 2:9-10 to show what has taken place as the believer has passed from death to life (John 5:24).

NEW KINGDOM: In coming to Christ, the believer has joined the great cloud (Hebrews 12:1) of those who have been captured by the Lord and bought with the price of Jesus’ blood. Regardless of how wretched your past was, you are now part of “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession” (1 Peter 2:9a). All the stains and shames of your past are cast away (Psalm 103:12) and abolished. The blood of Jesus has made you a citizen of heaven (Phil. 3:20-21), a holy king-priest forever, held in God’s righteous right hand (Isaiah 41:10; John 10:28-30).

MISSION: Before you came to faith in Christ, you had no real mission in life. Oh, you may have had some goals and some ambitions, but you had no God-given purpose. Since man is made to seek out a purpose, you did the best you could to find some direction or accomplishment that would justify your existence (Harold Abrams, running rival to Eric Liddell: “Ten lonely seconds to justify my entire existence.”), but in the end all man-made purposes, however grand or compelling, remain hauntingly hollow. For the man or woman outside Christ, there is no answer to the “why” question. The more we accomplish down these artificial paths to self-glory, the emptier we feel.

But then Christ invades! Repentance and faith lead to a bowing of the knee to Christ as Lord of my life and with His lordship comes a glorious mission that is context-independent. Now I am an ambassador for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20) and I am His herald. Now I have been called to Jesus “so that I may proclaim the excellencies” of my great Savior, and I will continue this mission till the end of my earthly pilgrimage and then forever in heaven with the Lord.

FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT: Prior to our faith in Christ, we were stumbling in the darkness. Our minds and our mouths and our hearts were darkened by sin. Our pleasures were perverse, and our imaginings were stained with lust and wickedness.

But now we walk in the light with Christ. Having been cleansed by the blood of Christ we now joyously live in His holy light. The shameful things we used to do in the darkness have been vanquished by repentance and now we run into the light and pursue righteousness and obedience.

FROM NOT A PEOPLE TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD: Before I was an orphan amidst a throng of strangers. Although we shared a common humanity with others, there was nothing that truly bound us together. Where was love to be found? Did anyone care for me? I was completely alone on the earth and any success or even survival was up to me and fell crushingly on my shoulders. Who would share my joy? Who would share my pain? Who would love me and care about me?

“For once you were not a people . . . (1 Peter 2:10a)”

“For my father and my mother have forsaken me . . . (Psalm 27:10)”

“There is no one who regards me; there is no escape for me; no one cares for my soul.” – Psalm 142:4.

Alone. On my own. Part of a mongrel people. Orphan. Refugee. Alienated from God.

“But now you are the people of God” (1 Peter 2:10).

In Christ I have become part of an elect multitude that will be gathered into heaven from all time and will be gathered from all nations (Revelation 7:9). Jesus Christ is my Brother (Matthew 12:48-50) and God is my Father. I am part of an eternal family that is commanded to love one another. All members of the people of God still on earth have a fellowship with one another that is sealed and enriched by the Spirit of the living God. I am now part of a people beloved by God (Colossians 3:13) and a people who love one another in the Spirit of God as we together glorify Christ and encourage one another in love.

MERCY HAS COME: This is the greatest news and also the most difficult to explain. Before I knew Christ, I was under the judgment and wrath of God because of my sin. God is a holy God and His holiness and justice required my condemnation and I was excluded from mercy. And what is mercy? Mercy is not getting the punishment I deserve. In my case, however, God’s justice, which is expressed in His Law, effectively prevented God from extending mercy to me, for God, by His law has obligated Himself to punish all sin. If He ignored the law and gave me mercy and forgave my sins without exacting the punishment for those sins, then God Himself would violate His own word and would Himself become a transgressor. Legally giving mercy to a sinner and thus removing condemnation and wrath from that sinner necessitates that the sin be removed from that sinner.

But here in 1 Peter 2:10, the Scripture says, “but now you have received mercy.” All followers of Jesus have received mercy. Now it is appropriate to ask the question, “How is that legal?” It is a violation of the Law to forgive those who are guilty, and believers are self-confessed guilty sinners. By His Law, God must punish the guilty or else their sins are without consequence and without recompense. If “the soul that sins shall die (Ezekiel 18:4, 20),” then mercy for the sinner is unlawful. So how is this not so? How can it be that God’s mercy is not a transgression of His Law?

Here then is the amazing news of the gospel. God can lawfully grant mercy to the one who has faith in Jesus because Jesus Christ has died on the cross for all repentant sinners who trust in Jesus’ name. There has been a great exchange. When I placed my faith in Jesus as my Lord and Savior, all my sin and unrighteousness was transferred onto Jesus to be nailed to the cross and all of His perfect righteousness was transferred to my account so that I can stand before God on judgment day. (See Romans 3:21-26; 2 Corinthians 5:21)

Thus God can pour out His mercy on me because He has already poured out His wrath on His Son. The wrath I deserved was propitiated by the death of Christ and now I can lawfully receive God’s mercy.

“You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” 1 Peter 2:10b

Peter, then, in these two verses speaks of a new kingdom, a new mission, being called from darkness into light, of once being estranged and orphaned and now being the people of God, of once being under wrath and of now receiving God’s mercy. Hallelujah!

SDG       rmb       3/28/2018

This is a writing that I recently found in my “archives.” It was written in 2009, but I think it captures the essence of Psalm 25 and the cry of David’s soul as he calls to YHWH.

Here is another psalm from David that is devoted to the shepherd-king crying out to the Lord in the midst of his affliction and distress. The psalm is divided into five stanzas.

In the first stanza David lifts his soul to the Lord and pleads that the Lord would not let him be ashamed. Then he reminds himself that the Lord will not let those who love Him be ashamed, but it is the treacherous who will be ashamed. David is setting the tone for the psalm by crying out to the Lord. This will be a psalm in which David is asking the Lord to again be gracious to him and to not let him be ashamed.

After the initial cry for help, David turns in the second stanza to seek guidance and direction from the Lord. “Make me know Thy ways, O Lord, teach me Thy paths. Lead me in Thy truth and teach me,” David is acknowledging that he needs the Lord’s direction. He is in a place where he must plead for the Lord to be his guide. This is a plea also for wisdom. That plea is coupled with a need for forgiveness of David’s sins. David acknowledges that part of the reason for his distress is his own sin and he needs the Lord’s forgiveness before things can really be put right. The sins of his youth and his transgressions must be wiped away by the Lord’s grace and lovingkindness. I can identify with this completely. Not only do the sins of my youth need to be removed and wiped away, but also the foolishness of my recent past and maybe all of my past must be erased. Yes, Lord, I have been foolish and have made a terrible decision that has resulted in virtually every measurable aspect of my life being worse off than it was before. What will You do, Lord, for Your servant who makes a foolish decision? I suppose You probably won’t do anything except let me reap the consequences of my decision. I come to You, Lord, and ask You to wipe out the regret and the shame of making such a stupid decision. Will You do that, O God?

David begins the third stanza with truths about the Lord and about His amazing goodness. He instructs sinners in the way. Consider that the Holy One, the Lord God actually instructs sinners and leads them into the way. This could easily be understood as a verse about God’s sovereignty in salvation, that He guides sinners into the way of salvation. He leads the humble in justice and teaches the humble His way. Notice that the Lord is drawn to the humble. He ministers to and leads the humble, not the proud and the mighty. And who are the humble? How can we recognize them? We can identify the humble as those who keep His covenant and His testimonies. The humble are those who love the law of the Lord and who obey the Lord’s commandments. Then again David appeals to the Lord’s mercy and grace to pardon his iniquity, which he acknowledges to be great. David so longs to please the Lord and to obey Him and this is reflected in his frequent pleas for pardon.

Stanza four asks, “Who is the man who fears the Lord?” In some of his psalms, David answers this question with a definition in terms of the behavior of the one who fears the Lord. In other words, he answers the question so that you can identify the man who fears the Lord (Psalm 15 for example). Here, however, David assumes that we know the type of man who fears the Lord and instead of a definition, he tells of the blessings that come to the one who fears the Lord. The Lord will instruct him in the way he should choose. When he seeks for direction and guidance and listens, the Lord will make his paths straight. “His soul will abide in prosperity.” The man who fears the Lord will have a sense of prosperity and this will often manifest itself in material terms. There will often be material blessing for those who fear the Lord. David looks to the Lord for his protection and his deliverance, because the Lord has promised to pluck his feet out of the net.

The fifth and final stanza is, in many ways, the climax of the psalm and is the most impactful stanza. David’s cry to the Lord becomes pointed and urgent. In the simple words of the psalm we can sense the psalmist’s deep anguish. He is in distress and needs deliverance. How many of us can identify with David in this hour of distress? How many of us have even very recently experienced this sense of despair and panic as something that we thought was fixed and reliable gives way and launches us into emotional and psychological freefall? “Turn to me and be gracious to me, For I am lonely and afflicted.” O Lord, turn to me and ignore me no longer. Let me know that You are there and that You care about me. Lord, let me see Your hand in motion so that I know that You hear my cry! “Be gracious to me for I am lonely and afflicted.” I feel all alone and so I suffer alone. There is no one who can share or understand my anguish. But Lord, You know! So come to me, Lord, and be my comforter and deliverer! “The troubles of my heart are enlarged; Bring me out of my distresses.” In my anxiety and my fear, my troubles grow larger and more ominous. Their malevolence is almost tangible. Lord, protect me, because my troubles threaten to overwhelm me. Come quickly to my aid, O Lord, my deliverer. “Look upon my affliction and my trouble, And forgive all my sins.” As David cries to the Lord, he also remembers that he must have a pure heart and clean hands, and so for the third time in the psalm he asks for forgiveness. Central to the idea of deliverance is the reminder that the Lord rescues the pure and the righteous. He comes to the aid of those who fear Him, and those who fear Him are repentant and long for clean hands and a pure heart and seek the cleansing grace of forgiveness at all times. Lord, because You delight in repentance, I will ask You to cleanse me. Many enemies surround me “And they hate me with violent hatred.” David’s enemies were probably the visible kind, those who held swords in their hands. Mine, on the other hand, are those that attack not my body but my mind. There are the demons of doubt and regret, of despair and loneliness, of fear and worry and anxiety. Those who hate me with a violent hatred are the devils that attack me at night when all is silent or assault me when I think too long about all the obstacles I have to overcome. With merciless violence they demolish my self-confidence and cause me to question the love of my God and thus they render me useless. Lord, defend me from their attacks! Rise up, O Lord, and protect me from these evil and foul thoughts. Give me the courage to trust in You in spite of all the demonic lies and the flaming arrows of affliction. Lord, let me be refined and come forth as gold. If You try me and test me, Lord, give me the grace to persevere and to remain as a testimony to Your amazing grace. “Do not let me be ashamed, for I take refuge in Thee. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, For I wait for Thee.” Then David concludes his psalm by asking for the redemption of Israel.

SDG      rmb      3/10/2009

In the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, our Lord tells a story of a man who is going on a long journey. The master entrusts his slaves with differing amounts of money, “each according to his own ability (25:15).” When the master gets back from his journey, he expects a return on his money. He expects that the slaves will have used the master’s money to make more. There are a number of lessons to learn from this parable.

MEANING OF THE PARABLE: The Lord Jesus tells the parable to show that, just as this master entrusts his money into the hands of these slaves so that they will produce a return while he is gone on his journey, even so the Lord has entrusted the gospel and the joys of the Kingdom into the hands of His saints so that they will spread the fame and the glory of Jesus throughout the earth and so that many will come to faith in Him and will be His worshipers forever. Having been called into the Kingdom, we have the responsibility to proclaim Jesus Christ. The Lord will reward or punish us based on how we have carried out that responsibility.

DIFFERING ABILITIES: The parable makes clear that not all people have the same ABILITY and the same OPPORTUNITY, but all have the same RESPONSIBILITY to use all our time, talents and treasure to glorify the Lord Jesus with all of our lives. It is obvious that people have differing levels of ability. Some have strength and eloquence and power and are able to lead and influence multitudes, while others simply blend in with the crowd and are barely noticed. Some are placed in positions of prominence with many opportunities to impact other people, whereas others live in relative obscurity and have a small network of very ordinary people. But regardless of ABILITY and OPPORTUNITY, we all have the RESPONSIBILITY to proclaim Jesus to the world (1 Peter 2:9). We are called to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8) and we must be intentional in finding out how to do that and in bringing that proclamation to pass.

NO EXCUSE FOR NO RETURN: Observe carefully that the slave who was given one talent returned to the master exactly one talent. The master, who praised the other two slaves for their efforts and their results, severely rebukes the one-talent slave for his lack of return. He calls that slave wicked and lazy, he takes away the one talent that he had, and he throws the one-talent slave into the outer darkness. The symbolism is clear: The human being who is given the gift of life will have no excuse on the day of judgment. The Lord has given life, and on that day we will all give an account for what we have done with our lives to glorify the great King of kings. (Hebrews 9:27) Believer or unbeliever – all will be judged. Where will you stand on that day? Are you using your “talent” to spread the fame and the glory of the Lord of all the earth?

We have differing levels of ability and so we will have different quantity and quality of results, but the Lord will judge us based on what we did with the abilities and opportunities He gave is.

HOW TO HAVE THE GREATEST IMPACT: The difference is not how many talents I have, but it is rather how fully yielded I am to the One who has ALL POWER.  A one-talent believer who is fully yielded into the hands of the Lord and fully obedient to the commands of the Lord and fully committed to the service of the Lord will make a mighty impact for the Lord. It is not the power of the instrument, but the power of the One wielding the instrument that makes all the difference.

SDG      rmb      3/20/2018

We are in a series of blogs about Genesis 19, the Old Testament narrative story which tells of the judgment and destruction of Sodom and of the rescue of Abraham’s nephew Lot, who flees to a place of refuge and thus is saved. In this story are all the elements of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ and the purpose of these blogs will be to show how this story foreshadows the gospel and how closely this story of Sodom parallels our own place and time.

To review, here are the elements that we can observe in the story in Genesis 19:

• The LORD has determined to judge the city of Sodom because of their sin;
• Before He destroys the city, the LORD sends messengers to warn of the coming judgment and to urge people to flee from the city to a place of refuge;
• Many in the doomed city never hear the message at all and so do not run to the place of refuge; thus, they perish in the judgment;
• Some hear the message, but refuse to believe it and to act upon it and so they do not run to the place of refuge; thus, they perish in the judgment;
• Some hear the message and act upon the message and flee to the place of refuge; thus they are saved from the judgment.

In this blog we will see that some clearly hear the message of coming judgment, but they refuse to respond to the message. Hearing the alarm, they choose to do nothing and thus perish in the fire and brimstone.

Surely it is an astonishing thing to see people who ignore a clear warning of deadly danger and defy all attempts to rescue them. It would be remarkable for someone who lived in a straw house to ignore a fire alarm or for someone who lived in Kansas to laugh at a neighbor or friend who told them that a tornado was closing in on them, but in the case of Sodom we see a response exactly like that. We see those who were warned of the coming destruction of Sodom and who not only ignored that warning, but who also laughed at the one giving the warning.

As we have done previously in this series of blogs, we will take time to review the gospel and see how this refusal to heed the warning fits into it. The gospel declares that judgment and hell await men and women because of their sin. All have sinned (Romans 3:23) and so all are subject to the coming judgment of God. But while God is perfectly holy, He is also merciful, and He has sent Jesus into the world to be the substitute for sinners. Jesus has died on the cross to pay for sins and has risen from the dead to prove that His sacrifice was accepted as payment for sins. Now God has sent out His heralds into the world to proclaim the good news of the gospel, that all who repent of their sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will be forgiven of their sins and will have eternal life.

We can see that this narrative of Sodom is an illustration of the gospel. For just as Lot went to his sons-in-law and urged them to flee the city (Genesis 19:14) because it was going to be judged because of its sin, so Christian evangelists proclaim the gospel to warn men and women who are subject to God’s judgment and destruction that they must flee to Christ for rescue and salvation. And just as Lot’s sons-in-law mock Lot and laugh at him and believe that he is just joking around, even so many of those who are told of Christ and who hear the gospel clearly proclaimed ignore the warning and continue to live life without any repentance or faith in Christ and mock the very ones who told them about Jesus’ salvation. These hearers continue to live as if nothing will happen, as if the Lord Almighty, the Holy One of Israel will never judge sin and they continue as if that they will never be condemned and as if hell is where “other people” go. As Lot’s sons-in-law perished in the destruction of Sodom because they did not flee to refuge when they heard the voice of warning, even so those who refuse to believe the gospel warning about God’s eternal judgment for sin and who refuse to flee to Jesus Christ for refuge will perish and spend eternity in hell for their sin.

Thus the key for the herald, for the one who would proclaim the name of Jesus Christ, is to announces the coming destruction and to warn that people under condemnation must flee to Jesus, the only place of refuge from God’s judgment, and, in so doing, the herald must fully expect that those he warns may very well scoff at the message and ridicule the messenger because the hearers do not want to hear the message.

APPLICATION:

• The herald must be ready to proclaim the message “in season and out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2), in friendly groups and in hostile. Potential ridicule cannot deter.
• Since the message is a matter of eternal heaven or eternal hell, the messenger must be serious about their task of proclamation and must communicate with urgent sobriety.
• Lot was ignored and thought to be jesting because he had not set his life apart from the lust of the world. He blended in to the evil life of Sodom. When it came time to be deadly serious about a life or death matter, his sons-in-law thought he was jesting. To avoid this pitfall, build a reputation that is founded on sober truth and eliminates all possibility that you are perceived as trivial or frivolous.

SDG        rmb        3/11/2018

Have you noticed that the psalms are full of passages where the psalmist is crying out to the Lord and they are at least as full of passages where the psalmist is waiting for the Lord? From these two ideas, the cry to the Lord and the waiting for the Lord, comes a strategy for prayer that I want to explore.

There are some prayers that need an immediate answer from the Lord. When Peter cried out to the Lord Jesus to save him as he was slipping under the waves, he needed an immediate answer, and the Lord graciously pulled His bold disciple out of the deep and into the boat. But when Job wrestled with his friends and argued with the Lord out of the midst of his misery and pain and confusion, the Lord waited a long time before even entering the conversation. He allowed Job to seek Him and to not find Him. He allowed Job to cry out and to receive no answer for a long time. Why does the Lord do that?

I do not claim to know with certainty the answer of why the Lord allows us to wait and wrestle and continue to cry out while He delays His answers, but I can offer some thoughts. But first, let’s remind ourselves that waiting on the Lord is the normal pattern for the disciple. Think about how much more time is spent in waiting for the Lord in persistent prayer than is spent in rejoicing in thanksgiving. And the psalms are full of waiting.

“Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.” Psalm 27:14                              “I waited patiently for the LORD; He inclined to me and heard my cry. He pulled me up out of the desolate pit, out of the miry clay.” Psalm 40:1-2             “I wait for the LORD; my soul does wait, and in His word do I hope; my soul waits for the LORD more than the watchman for the morning; indeed, more than the watchman for the morning.” Psalm 130:5-6

The psalmist waits for the LORD because he desires the presence of the LORD. He desires to be in relationship with the LORD. He desires to enjoy the LORD, and for all these pleasures, he is willing to wait. Therefore, one possible reason that the LORD delays His answers and causes us to wait is that He earnestly desires our presence and our attention. He enjoys our company, and to get more of our company, he prolongs our times of earnestly seeking Him.

But there are also many passages where the psalmist is urgently crying out to the LORD for immediate deliverance or relief. Psalm 142:1 says, “I cry aloud with my voice to the LORD; I make supplication with my voice to the LORD.”     Psalm 86:1 says, “Incline Your ear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am afflicted and needy.”        There is a demand for an answer that can be made, even between the insignificant creature and the Almighty, because the greater one, who is the Great One, has chosen to enter into intimate relationship with the lowly creature. From the safety and the intimacy of this relationship, the lowly one is allowed to cry out to the Great One with tones that, outside this relationship, would be blasphemous. But because the LORD has drawn us near in Christ and has adopted us as His beloved children, we are allowed to cry out; more than that, we are invited, even commanded to cry out to Him.

Thus our prayer strategy is simple: Cry out to the LORD with reverent urgency, then wait for Him to answer as you persist in prayer. And as you pour out your heart to Him, enjoy Him and enjoy the amazing privilege and pleasure of resting in the Lord our God.

SDG        rmb        3/7/2018

“Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of the time, for the days are evil.” The apostle Paul in the letter to the Ephesians, 5:15-16

Here in this section of the letter to the Ephesians, Paul is giving practical instructions to all believers about how to live out the Christian life, how to walk as followers of Christ. The Apostle is urging us to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called” (4:1), and he is describing that worthy walk with this succession of commands. The specific verses of our attention right now, 5:15-16, serve both as a summary of all the instructions and as a clear exhortation of how the disciple of Jesus Christ is to use his or her time.

Time is the issue. How is the disciple to view time? How is the follower of Jesus to use their time? Since time cannot be saved, but can only be spent, how do we spend it so that we please our Master and son that we are more useful to our Master? Time is very important, for how we use our time determines whether we are walking wisely or unwisely. Let’s examine these verses carefully.

First, Paul tells us to “be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise.” Clearly there are two ways to walk: There is the walk of the unwise and, contrasted with that, there is the walk of the wise. These two walks are intentionally contrasted to each other, for they are opposed to each other. You are either walking wisely or you are walking unwisely, and there is no way to “straddle the fence.”

“Be careful” – Paul commands that the disciple “be careful” because the default behavior is to be careless. The unsaved is careless in how they walk. This is how “the Gentiles also walk” (Eph. 4:17-19) and it is a way of life that is given over to the flesh and to the desires of the flesh. Being still slaves of sin, the unsaved are controlled by their flesh and so exercise little discipline in their lives. Their life is not compelled by any great purpose, so they spend their time in futile and trivial pursuits. This is the unwise walk, the walk of no direction and no self-control.

This is contrasted with the wise walk. The walk of the wise is an obedient walk, being diligent to seek the commands of the Lord and to obey all the commands that are found. Those who walk wisely walk in the fear of the Lord, “trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord (Eph. 5:10).” The disciple who would walk wisely does not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness (Eph. 5:11), but in contrast lives a disciplined and self-controlled life. The Lord has called us out of the idleness of wasting away in the marketplace (Matthew 20) and has called us into full time service (Matthew 4:19; Acts 1:8; Luke 9:62) and has given us a purpose for our lives, a purpose worth living for and, if necessary, a purpose worth dying for.

Next, after commanding how we should walk, the Apostle says that we should be “making the most of the time.” As we said before, the issue is time. Once used, time can never be retrieved. Time cannot be saved or slowed down. Since, then, time can only be spent, the wise disciple will “make the most of the time.” The disciple is governed and controlled by a mindset of usefulness and of mission. At its longest, our time here is short. We are but a mist that vanishes away, so we must channel our energies and we must be careful stewards of our choices so that we are using our resources for Kingdom purposes. The task is urgent; the time is short; choices must be made and discipline must be exercised so that we make the most of the time.

Finally, Paul says that the days are evil. This is increasingly obvious in our immediate culture in America, but the Bible makes clear that the entire age between Jesus’ ascension and His soon-coming return is an evil age. These days are evil and they are marked by bitter opposition to Christ and to the kingdom of God. This world has been given over into the hands of the “prince of the power of the air (2:2)” and since that is the case, then our wise walk will be opposed and attacked by the world and the flesh and the devil.

APPLICATION: Examine your life and see if you are being careful how you walk. Are you walking wisely or unwisely? Are you intentionally focusing your energies into Kingdom activities? There is all of eternity to rest; now is the time to proclaim the name of Jesus. Are you being careful how you walk? Are you making the most of the time? Start today to focus your available resources into one small, narrow Kingdom channel.

SDG       rmb        3/5/2018

We are in a series of blogs about Genesis 19, the Old Testament narrative story which tells of the judgment and destruction of Sodom and of the rescue of Abraham’s nephew Lot, who flees to a place of refuge and thus is saved. In this story are all the elements of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ and the purpose of these blogs will be to show how this story foreshadows the gospel and how closely this story of Sodom parallels our own place and time.

To review, here are the elements that we can observe in the story in Genesis 19:

• The LORD has determined to judge the city of Sodom because of their sin;
• Before He destroys the city, the LORD sends messengers to warn of the coming judgment and to urge people to flee from the city to a place of refuge;
• Many in the doomed city never hear the message at all and so do not run to the place of refuge; thus, they perish in the judgment;
• Some hear the message, but refuse to believe it and to act upon it and so they do not run to the place of refuge; thus, they perish in the judgment;
• Some hear the message and act upon the message and flee to the place of refuge; thus they are saved from the judgment.

In this blog we will look at the people of Sodom who never heard the angelic messengers’ message and thus were never actually warned about the coming judgment and destruction.

Sodom was an exceedingly wicked city and the outcry of the city had risen up all the way to heaven. The LORD Himself had come down to judge the city and to meet with His friend Abraham. After Abraham negotiates the required number of righteous people down to ten, the LORD leaves and the angels go down to Sodom to destroy it.

Let’s pause here just for a moment. We have said that this story foreshadows the gospel of our Lord Jesus and has all the elements of the gospel. But what is the gospel? The gospel is the good news to perishing humanity that declares that God is holy and therefore must punish and condemn all sin. The gospel also maintains that man is inherently rebellious against God and is bent toward sin and that, because of his sin, he is under the condemnation of God and is subject to the eternal judgment of God in hell. In fact, all are condemned by their sin and so all rightly deserve hell. But the good news of the gospel proclaims that God is a gracious God and He is merciful, and because of His mercy and grace, He has provided a way that sinful man can be justified before a holy God. In His grace, God has sent His Son Jesus Christ to the earth to die on a cross to bear the penalty for man’s sin, and all who place their trust in Jesus Christ will be forgiven of their sin and saved from eternal hell and will go to heaven when they die. Every sinner who repents of his sin and believes in the Lord Jesus Christ will receive eternal life and will become a child of God, bound for heaven.

In this blog, the key point to remember is that, in the gospel, all of us deserve hell because of our sin. Whether we know about our sin or not does not change our position before a holy God one tiny iota. The issue is the existence of our sin, not our knowledge of our sin. A person who has terminal cancer growing inside them is dying of cancer, whether that cancer is ever detected by a doctor or not. Romans 2:12 speaks directly to this point: “For all who have sinned without the Law will perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law.” Again, we see that we are condemned by our sin, whether we know about our sin or not, and whether we have heard about the way of salvation or not. You will die inside the burning building, whether you hear a fire alarm or not. It is the existence of the fire that will kill you, not whether anyone told you about how to escape the flames.

What does that have to do with the gospel and with this episode in Sodom? We see in Sodom people who were condemned because of their sin. All who were in Sodom were doomed because of their sins, whether they knew that the city was going to be judged or not. There were messengers who were telling of a way of safety and salvation, but most of the people in Sodom did not hear the angels or know about the coming judgment. But despite the fact that many never received the message of rescue and therefore never had a chance to flee, they still died in the destruction of the city.

The concept to grasp is that, because of God’s holiness and His justice, the default destination for all sinners (which is all people; Romans 3:23) is hell and wrath. Unless there is something that interrupts that journey to hell, then every individual will go to hell, and it is there that they deserve to go. Our sin merits eternal death (Romans 6:23) So all the people of Sodom deserved to perish because of their sin. So if every person in Sodom had perished and gone to hell, perfect justice would have been served. And if God never sent a messenger and never gave hope through the gospel and every person perished without ever having heard, perfect justice would have been served.

But God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and great in lovingkindness (Psalm 145:8) and so He has given us the gospel and has proclaimed it to us through faithful witnesses and by His grace we have believed. (Romans 10:14-15) In the story of Sodom, this is pictured in the angels who came to proclaim salvation to Lot by telling him to flee to the mountain for refuge. God’s grace sent the messengers to deliver those who would believe.

When we ask the question, “What about those who have never heard?” we find that those who have never heard the gospel will certainly perish, as is made clear by Romans 2:12 and by Romans 10:14-15. The many who have never heard will perish without the gospel (paraphrase of Romans 2:12). The many in Sodom who never heard the warning still perished in the destruction of the city with fire and brimstone.

Therefore, what must we do? We must be obedient to our task and make His salvation known among all nations (Psalm 67:2). We must preach to everyone so that they may hear and believe and call upon the Lord (Romans 10:13-15). We must be His witnesses (Acts 1:8; Isaiah 43:10,12) and His ambassadors (2 Cor. 5:20) so that we can beg people to be reconciled to God.

SDG       rmb       2/28/2018

There is in all of us a very human fascination with perfection. In a world marked with brokenness and failure, there is something immensely compelling about the idea of a perfect performance. Because it is so quantifiable, the field of sports has many examples of these things. In baseball, there is the perfect game. In bowling there is a perfect score of 300. In golf, there is the hole-in-one.  There is a score of 1600 on the SAT or graduating from college with a 4.0 GPA. All of these have the illusion of perfection about them, something about them that temporarily fills our longing for a return to that long-ago time before the Fall when the shame of failure did not weigh us down.

I have presented relatively positive examples of perfect performances, but there is in history a performance that, while dark and ominous, nonetheless represented thousands of years of perfection. I am speaking of the perfect performance of death. Beginning with the death of Abel at the hands of his brother Cain and lasting from there for thousands of years, there had been no failure of death to keep its every victim. While life may last long, the end was always and inevitably the same, and once death’s icy grip had closed upon the soul, no one escaped. There was not a single exception, not even a small chink in death’s armor. There was not the slightest blemish of death’s perfect record. Everyone, EVERYONE who went to the grave stayed there, and the power of the grave left death undefeated.

But then was incarnate the eternal Son of God, who declared that He had the power to lay His life down and He had the power to take it up again. Here was the humble God-Man, the one who came not to be served, but to serve, who claimed that on the third day after His crucifixion He would rise from the dead. Here was Jesus who came to destroy the works of the devil. God the Son had put on human flesh and willingly died to render powerless him who had the power of death.

And so on the third day, the empty tomb revealed that in the glorious resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ death had been forever defeated. Not only was death’s perfect record ruined, but death was rendered impotent. When Christ the Champion rose victorious from the grave, the threat of death was removed for all those who would embrace Christ. From perfect record and source of immense dread to instant impotence, death’s descent from perfect performance had been affected by one glorious resurrection.

Also realize that in Jesus Christ there is an answer to our longing for perfection, for Jesus is the perfect Man, the one who never sinned and the one who cannot be defeated. All authority has been given to Him and in Him all things hold together. He is our perfect Champion. Amen.

SDG       rmb       2/27/2018

My last blog was about Genesis 19, the Old Testament narrative story which tells of the judgment and destruction of Sodom and of the rescue of Abraham’s nephew Lot, who flees to a place of refuge and thus is saved. In this story are all the elements of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ and the purpose of my next few blogs will be to show how this story foreshadows the gospel and how closely this story of Sodom parallels our own place and time.

To review, here are the elements that we can observe in the story in Genesis 19:

• The LORD has determined to judge the city of Sodom because of their sin;
• Before He destroys the city, the LORD sends messengers to warn of the coming judgment and to urge people to flee from the city to a place of refuge;
• Many in the doomed city never hear the message at all and so do not run to the place of refuge; thus, they perish in the judgment;
• Some hear the message, but refuse to believe it and to act upon it and so they do not run to the place of refuge; thus, they perish in the judgment;
• Some hear the message and act upon the message and flee to the place of refuge; thus they are saved from the judgment.

In this blog we will look at the element of the messengers – Before He destroys the city, the LORD sends messengers to warn of the coming judgment and to urge people to flee from the city to a place of refuge.

We read in Genesis 18 that the LORD has determined to destroy Sodom because of their great sin (18:20-32). Because of the LORD’s mercy and grace, however, He sends two angels to go to the condemned city with a message from Him.

Let’s pause to consider this scene. First, all the people of Sodom deserve to perish because they have all sinned against the LORD. Thus, the LORD would be perfectly just if He destroyed them all without a warning. It is an act of grace (undeserved favor) that the LORD sends these messengers to the doomed city. Also notice that these messengers are commissioned by the LORD Himself to deliver the LORD’s message. They are going to Sodom with the mission of declaring the LORD’s message to them.

What is the nature of the message that these angels are to proclaim? There are two main points to the message. Point number one is an urgent warning, that the city is doomed and is going to be destroyed and point number two is that the [LORD, in His mercy has provided a place of refuge and anyone who flees to that place of refuge will be saved from the judgment. Therefore, the] people in the doomed city must escape and flee to the place of refuge.

Let’s pause again to consider this situation. The messengers know something that the people of Sodom do not know; namely, that the people of Sodom are under God’s judgment because of their sin and that God is going to destroy the city. Therefore, the first part of their message is to tell the people of their sin and of God’s judgment on their sin. But the messengers are also to tell the people that the LORD, in His mercy, has provided a place of refuge where they can be safe and can escape the judgment. The messengers are to use whatever means are necessary to compel the people to leave the doomed city and to enter the place of refuge, because they know that to fail to do so will mean certain destruction. The word “escape” appears five times in this chapter to highlight the urgency of the message. “You must escape to the refuge or you will perish!” Thus, the heaven-sent messengers come to the doomed city to rescue those who will flee to the designated place of refuge.

How do these messengers and their message foreshadow the gospel of Jesus Christ?

GOD’S COMING JUDGMENT

In Genesis 18-19, the LORD declares that He will judge Sodom for their sin. But the the bad news of the gospel also makes clear that the Lord will not be patient with the wickedness and sin of man forever and that there is certainly coming a day when He will destroy the entire earth because of the sin of mankind. In that day His full wrath against sin will be fully expressed in the return of the Lord Jesus when He will tread out the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty (Rev. 19:15). We can see that, as Sodom was under the LORD’s judgment for their sin, so we are under God’s judgment for our sin. (See Romans 1:18; etc.)

THE MESSENGERS AND THEIR MESSAGE

As the LORD sent messengers to the doomed city to warn them of the coming judgment and to compel the people to flee to refuge, so in the gospel all believers have been commissioned by the risen Lord Jesus Christ Himself to warn sinners of the terrifying coming judgment and to compel sinners to repent of their sin and to flee to Jesus Christ, the Savior and the only refuge from God’s holy wrath and from His consuming fire.

Notice the similarities between the angelic messengers and the witnesses of the Lord Jesus: Like the angelic messengers, those sent out by the Lord Jesus know about the coming judgment, so they warn those who are ignorant of their great peril. Like the angels, the witnesses of the Lord Jesus have been personally sent by the Lord (Acts 1:8; Matthew 28:19-20; Luke 24:47-48; John 20:21) and are commissioned to compel men and women to repent and to flee to Jesus Christ for refuge from the coming judgment. (2 Corinthian 5:11-12; Luke 14:23 – Jesus in a parable). In His mercy and grace, the Lord has provided a place of safety and refuge for all who will flee there. In Genesis 19 the place of refuge is “the mountain,” but this is merely a foreshadow of the great and final refuge that is found in Jesus Christ.

APPLICATION 1: As you read the Old Testament, be alert for those stories that point toward the gospel and point forward to Jesus and His work and His kingdom. Here in this narrative about the gross sin of Sodom and its destruction we see the gospel clearly portrayed. Let this add richness to your Bible studies and you search for Jesus in the Old Testament.

APPLICATION 2: For the gospel to be obeyed, it must be proclaimed by faithful witnesses. The Lord is surely bringing a day of reckoning and terrifying judgment, and those who are perishing need to be warned. If you are a believer, how well are you serving as a heaven-sent messenger? Have you accepted your calling as an active, intentional witness for Jesus? Do you know the message about the coming judgment? Do you believe it? Are you adept and comfortable with sharing this message of coming judgment with sinners? Is this a part of your regular evangelism? Since the Lord Himself has sent you into the world to compel people to flee to the place of refuge, are you obedient to that calling? Are you calling people to Jesus as the only place of refuge from God’s holy wrath?

SDG       rmb       2/20/2018