Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the challenges that faced you? Have you felt that the decisions you had to make were just too great or the responsibilities were too difficult for you to bear? In those moments, did you long for rest and quiet in your soul? How should the believer respond when confronted with intimidating circumstances or with opponents that are much stronger than they are?

In Psalm 131, David teaches the believer to trust the Lord, especially in those areas that are beyond his area of control or responsibility.

O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty,

Nor do I involve myself in great matters,

Or in things too difficult for me.

Surely I have composed and quieted my soul.

Like a weaned child rests against his mother,

My soul is like a weaned child within me.

O Israel, hope in the Lord, from this time forth and forever.

It seems to me that this psalm was written when David was in distress. Whether the adversaries are real or imagined, or whether they are objectively overwhelming or just appear to be overwhelming at this time, David’s faith is being tested in this trial. So, like many of David’s psalms, the context here is distress. The Lord has led David into circumstances that are causing him to be anxious and to fear and to worry.

And doesn’t that same thing happen to us? Are there not many times when the Lord places us in circumstances where our stomach tends to get tight and our throat becomes dry and our voice begins to quiver just a little? The Lord has led us to a place of distress to see if we love Him or not. He is always asking, “Do you trust Me now?”

Notice, however, the way David responds to the distress and the testing. David first realizes that his sin of pride is at the root of the problem and is hindering his trust of the Lord. It is always the case, that sin always hinders trust in the Lord. Sin always weakens our walk with Christ and always causes us to depend more on the flesh and less on the spirit. David, therefore, reminds himself that he must smother his pride. He willfully tells himself that he will not involve himself in great matters or in things too difficult for him. It is these great matters that cause the godly man to stumble, either causing him to swell with pride because he handled some great matter or causing him to shrink back in fear and anxiety and unbelief because the matter is too overwhelming.

But what is the result when David chooses to trust the Lord? When David chooses to simply rest upon the Lord as a weaned child rests against his mother, his soul is composed and quieted within him. David has humbled his heart and has trusted the Lord and the rest and the peace come to him from the Lord.

David concludes the psalm with an exhortation based on his own experience of the Lord’s faithfulness. “O Israel, hope in the Lord . . .” If the believer will trust in the Lord, even in those circumstances where the enemies are overwhelming and the responsibilities are much greater than your own resources can address, then your soul will be composed and quieted and your faith will grow and God will be pleased. The Lord is always pleased by our faith and trust in Him (Hebrews 11:6) and will always reward those who trust Him and fear Him.

I want to suggest one quick practical applications for the lessons from this psalm.

First, I personally rely on this psalm and recite this psalm to myself when matters that are “above my pay grade” or are way outside my area of responsibility begin to fill my mind with fear and dread. These fears occur at those times when I do not take every thought captive (2 Cor. 10:5), but rather allow my mind to muse and to meditate on threatening situations in my world. When my thoughts drift to things like the stock market or like how my financial future will turn out, my fears naturally grow. What will the President do next? Or what will some other world leader do next? Will the world economy collapse? Is my health failing? Is my job threatened, and if that is the case, could I ever get another job again? If I am not careful about this and alert to this type of thinking; if I allow my mind to dwell on these “great matters” or on these “things (much) too difficult for me,” then I will quickly become discouraged and depressed and my soul will be anything but composed and quieted within me.

But if I instead say to myself, “Roy, Stop! Do not get involved with these ‘great matters!’ These are things too difficult for you. These are things that are way outside your area of responsibility. These are all matters that you must cast onto the Lord (1 Peter 5:7) and entrust to Him. These great matters are things you cannot influence and things above your pay-grade. Trust the Lord with them and cease worrying about them and stop thinking about them at all. Entrust these to the Lord and then concentrate all your energies and efforts on those things that you can influence and that you should be influencing. Focus on obedience (doing those things that you are commanded to do) and on trusting the Lord (on those things that only He can do).” When I do this, then my soul will not be anxious or fearful, but will be composed and quieted within me and will be at peace.

SDG rmb 3/16/2016

 

After seeking the LORD, the psalmist says that the LORD answered him. There is something amazing and awesome about this, that the glorious and infinitely powerful Lord of the universe, the Creator-God, actually listens to the voice of His children and answers them. But before we hurry on, I want to take some time to consider this and meditate on this.

Who is this God who answers? The Bible declares that the Lord is the only true God and that all the other gods are mere idols and of no account (Psalm 96:5; Isaiah 43:10-13; 44:6). God dwells in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16). He is the One who created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1; Col. 1:16). He is light, and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). He is the thrice holy God (Isaiah 6:3), the One who is so holy and so glorious that the angels hide their faces from Him. None of our sin can hide before His piercing gaze (Hebrews 4:13). He is high and holy and pure.

And who am I? I am the one who with Job must repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:6). I am the one who has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). I must cry out to Him for mercy (Luke 18:13). I am the one who is wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked (Revelation 3:17). I am the helpless one (Romans 5:6) and the one who is an enemy of God (5:10) and who must somehow be reconciled to God before He will even listen to me.

What we see is that the LORD is infinitely distant from me and is vastly different than me. The Lord is great (Psalm 86:10) and holy (Isaiah 6:3) and so very “other” than me. The Lord is ultimately significant and I am insignificant. The LORD is the Creator of the universe (Col. 1:16-18) and I am but dust in His universe (Psalm 103:14). The Bible declares that this distance and this difference between me and the Lord are true realities, and then the psalmist declares another astounding truth. David “sought the Lord and the Lord answered him.” And we as believers have also experienced this ourselves in our walk with the Lord, that we also have sought the Lord and the Lord has answered us.

But wait a minute, for here we have two truths which seem impossible to reconcile. First the Bible declares the truth that the Lord (YHWH) is infinitely high and holy and cannot look on wickedness (Habakkuk 1:13) and at the same time the Bible also declares the truth that this great God will answer the cries and prayers of sinful men and women. And my question is, “How can these things be?” How is it possible that a creature as weak and as insignificant and as sinful as I am can receive an answer from the Creator-God? What has happened that has bridged the immense chasm between us and that has brought my request to the ear of the living God and has moved Him to answer me? Why would a God so high have any regard for one so low?

The only possible answer to this mystery is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. There on that awful cross we who were far away were brought near by the blood of Christ (Eph. 2:13). Before we knew Christ we were separated from God by our sins so that He did not hear us (Psalm 66:18; Isaiah 59:1-2). But now we have been redeemed by Christ’s blood (Ephesians 1:7) and have been reconciled to God through the death of His Son (Romans 5:10) so that the Lord’s eye is toward us and His ear is open to our cry (Psalm 34:15).

Now through faith in Jesus, God the distant and different One has become my heavenly Father. Now because of Jesus’ blood, the Lord of the universe has become the God who will hear and answer my prayers. Now I can approach the throne of grace with boldness to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16). Now my seeking is not in vain, but now when I cry out to the Lord, I can anticipate an answer.

And the result of this is that, when I seek the Lord, I can anticipate His answer. I can say with the psalmist, “I sought the Lord, and He answered me.” The high and holy God will hear and answer our cry because of our faith in His Son Jesus.  SDG  rmb  3/5/2016

“For I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.”

Paul is speaking to the Corinthians believers and he is making the clear statement that he is compelled to preach the gospel. He is under compulsion. He must. “For woe is me (this can also mean ‘disaster’ or ‘calamity’) if I do not preach the gospel.” Paul has been called by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself to proclaim the gospel (Acts 9:15). As a possessor of the gospel, Paul is obligated to tell others about Christ. Therefore, to not proclaim Christ is not an option. Paul does have the option as to HOW he preaches the gospel: willingly, and he will be rewarded with joy, or unwillingly, and he will be fulfilling his stewardship – but to not preach Christ is not an option. Paul has a stewardship that has been entrusted to him by the risen Lord Jesus and he will be faithful to that stewardship, no matter how he feels.

But as I thought about Paul’s stewardship, it occurred to me that, as in most of the New Testament, Paul here is serving as the model Christian for you and me. In his stewardship of the gospel, Paul is serving as our model, but he is not alone in being a steward of the gospel. In fact, every Christian is a steward of the gospel.

First, let’s consider what it means to be a steward. A steward is responsible to the owner and accountable to the owner for what has been entrusted to him. Having been entrusted with something of value, the steward is then responsible to the owner for seeing to it that the value is increased and multiplied. As long as the steward is managing the owner’s resources, he is under obligation to be a steward.

How does this idea of stewardship apply to the gospel? Paul had received the gospel, the gospel of his salvation, and was called to be a steward of the gospel as he proclaimed it to the Gentiles and to kings. But this same calling really describes every believer. Every believer has received the gospel and has been called to proclaim Christ. Consider Acts 1:8; Matthew 28:19-20; 1 Peter 2:9; 2 Corinthians 5:20. Each of these verses applies to every believer of every age and thus we have the same options that Paul had. We can be willing or unwilling stewards and we can be faithful or unfaithful stewards, but we are and always will be stewards of the gospel.

Indeed, the Christian life is a life of stewardship. When we were unbelievers, we were not accountable to anyone but ourselves. (Consider Romans 6:20) We could do what we wanted to do with whatever stuff that was in our sphere of control with apparent impunity. It was our money and our time and our life and our fill-in-the-blank, and no one could tell us otherwise. But then Christ invaded our life and changed the course of our forever. We met the Lord and we beheld His glory and we bowed the knee and gave Him a blank check on our lives. Thus we became His bond-servants. And His stewards. And so now as followers of Jesus, we see that all that we have we have received from Him (1 Cor. 4:7). Since it is all His, we are accountable to Him. We are to take care of the valuables which He has entrusted to us and to see them increase and multiply. That is our obligation as stewards.

Now the gospel is the most valuable thing that God has entrusted to His people. Why do I say that? First, the gospel is the most important stewardship because it cost the most. The gospel cost the very death of the Son of God. To earn the salvation of His people (Isaiah 53:10-11; Acts 20:28), the Lord Jesus poured out His life-blood on the cross. All other costs pale into less than insignificance in comparison. Second, the gospel is the most important stewardship because it has the greatest impact. The gospel is “the power of God for salvation for all who believe” (Romans 1:16). The stewardship of the gospel means the salvation of multitudes of people “from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues” (Rev. 7:9). Third, the gospel is the most important stewardship because unless God’s people proclaim the gospel and are good stewards of the gospel, the nations will never hear. God’s people must be stewards of the gospel because God has entrusted His message entirely to us. God’s Plan A for reaching the nations is for His called people to proclaim the gospel to the nations, and there is no Plan B. We are stewards of the gospel because of the cost, the impact and the necessity.

With the apostle Paul, then, we have a stewardship entrusted to us, a stewardship of proclaiming the gospel until they have all heard. Let’s be good stewards of the gospel. SDG rmb 2/23/2016

Perhaps the most distinguishing mark of a true follower of Jesus Christ is an active and consistent quest for holiness in every area of their life. Thus the true child of God possesses an observable desire for moral purity, for holiness and for righteousness. The other side of that coin is that the true disciple of Jesus hates and attacks all remaining, indwelling sin. The disciple actively seeks to have less and less sin in their life, and when sin is discovered, the disciple repents and seeks to drive out the sin.

The psalmist says, “Hate evil, you who love the LORD.” Psalm 97:10

This instruction is given as a command. This hatred of evil is not optional. “You who love the LORD” is an Old Testament expression for a true follower of YHWH. If you love the LORD, then you are to hate evil. And if you do not hate evil, but continue to cherish and to indulge and to tolerate evil, it is evidence that you do not love the LORD, regardless of what you may say. This was true in the Old Testament before Jesus Christ appeared in the flesh, and it is more emphatically true now that Jesus Christ has come and died on the cross. “Hate evil, you who love the LORD.”

A number of Scriptures come to mind, which I will briefly cite and give comment.

2 Timothy 2:19 – “The Lord knows those who are His and let everyone who names the name of the Lord abstain from wickedness.” While the Lord will never be confused or fooled about those who are true believers, the human is to give evidence, is to bear fruit of their conversion and of their allegiance to Jesus Christ. Here Paul tells us that the one who names the name of the Lord in truth is the one who actively and intentionally abstains from wickedness. In other words, the disciple hates evil.

Matthew 5:6 – “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” The one who would be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven should thirst for righteousness. Jesus is here speaking of a burning desire, as of a man dying of thirst longing for a drink of water. There is nothing casual about this hunger and thirst. Just so the true disciple of Jesus longs to be righteous.

Matthew 5:29-30 – Jesus says that the one who would enter life (heaven) must be willing to forsake all known sin so that nothing will prevent them from entering. If your hand is evil, cut it off and throw it away. Another way of saying this is for you to hate evil.

Colossians 3:5 – “Put to death, therefore, whatever is in the members of your earthly body of immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed, which amounts to idolatry.” This is the old idea of mortification. Put to death any evil discovered in yourself. Slay it without mercy. There can be no tolerance for any indwelling sin, because to do so provides the devil with a foothold (Ephesians 4:27). Hate evil such that you put it to death.

The believer is holy in speech, in thought, in deeds and in actions. 1 Peter 1:15-16 (which is spoken to new believers) states: “Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior, because it is written, ‘You shall be holy for I am holy.’“ Even those who are beginning their walk with Christ are called to be holy. Holiness is to begin when your walk with Christ begins.

While there may still be remaining sin, there remains no tolerance of sin in the believer.

So the disciple of Jesus Christ is not only to hunger for righteousness and to abstain from all wickedness (1 Thess. 5:22), but he or she is also to actively hate evil.

Consider Romans 7:15-25, especially 7:15. This passage is about the disciple’s ongoing and lifelong battle against the flesh and against the indwelling sin produced by the flesh. (“Flesh” is used in a technical sense here, not in the sense of the physical body.) Notice that in the passage Paul hates the evil produced by the flesh. Paul longs to be holy at all times, but because he is of flesh, sold into bondage to sin (7:14), his practice is not always holy, and he laments that shortfall. But there is more to it even than that, for in 7:15, when he is not holy, he is “doing the very thing that he hates.” The entire passage is about a man who hates the evil that he sees remaining in him and about his war to rid himself of this remaining sin. “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from this body of death?” (7:24) Paul hates evil and therefore longs to be set free from even his physical body, because the flesh in his body leads him into evil.

Just so, all disciples of Jesus Christ are to hate evil and to war against it.

As a result of this, the disciple of Jesus is on an ongoing seek and destroy mission, in which the disciple persistently examines his/her life to discover any remaining indwelling sin. When the hated sin (evil) is discovered, the disciple acts swiftly and decisively to eradicate the foul thing from his/her life.

“Hate evil, you who love the LORD.” Let us be holy, for He is holy.   SDG  rmb 2/3/2016

How blessed is he who considers the helpless; The LORD will deliver him in the day of trouble.

The LORD will sustain him on his sickbed; In his illness, You restore him to health.

I was meditating on this psalm and considering the goodness of the LORD, that He will deliver and sustain and restore His godly ones who are compassionate and consider the helpless. But as I was meditating on this, the LORD also reminded me of the trouble that comes to those who desire to live godly lives. The same LORD who here promises to restore and sustain in other places promises all His godly ones affliction and suffering. The true paradox, however, is that the LORD gives the blessing of affliction and suffering especially to those who bear them to His glory. Indeed, suffering comes to all men without regard to faith, but suffering for the name of the Lord Jesus is reserved for the faithful, for those chosen by the Lord for sanctified suffering. Think of the examples of Job, Joseph, Jeremiah, Paul, and the Lord Jesus Himself. All suffered to the glory of God, but the mystery of Jesus is that God Himself suffered in the flesh. Is not one of the greatest privileges of being a Christian the joy of sharing in “the fellowship of Jesus’ sufferings?” (Phil. 3:10)

But there is a privilege beyond suffering for the Lord, and that is the honor of being persecuted for the name of the Lord (Matthew 5:10-12; 2 Timothy 3:12). For suffering comes on all men, but persecution must be earned and it is given by the enemies of the Lord. Persecution is allowed by the Lord to come upon only those who have been so bold and vocal in their proclamation of Jesus Christ that the enemies of the Lord have to do something to stop them or to silence them. Are you so bold that the enemies of Christ are compelled to silence you? Do you have it as your aim to be so dangerous to the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ that persecution is a likely consequence? This is the boldness that we need in this age of wickedness and compromise. Be bold and be dangerous, for the Lord has promised to sustain and restore His godly ones and to give them the crown of life (Revelation 2:10). SDG  rmb  1/28/2016

What can we learn from the apostle Paul about the matter of warfare? What can Paul teach us about The Art of War? There is a famous book by that title, but we want to learn what the follower of Christ can know about the subject of warfare.

First, there is much that we can review about the Bible’s teaching on warfare. The believer knows that they are to put on the full armor of God to be able to stand against the schemes of the devil (Ephesians 6:10ff). Thus we know how to put on our spiritual armor. The one who follows Jesus knows that no weapon formed against him can prosper (Isaiah 54:17) and that we are protected by the Lord’s pinions (Psalm 91:4). Even though a thousand fall at our side and ten thousand fall at our right hand, evil will not approach us (Psalm 91:7-8). Those who believe in Jesus are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37-39) and can never be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

But second we know that the Bible also has warnings to give us about warfare. Most importantly, we know that we must not go to the battle without the LORD by our side, for to go to battle without the LORD is disastrous. The children of Israel went up against the Amalekites after refusing to enter the land and were struck down (Numbers 14:40-45). Again during the time of Joshua, the children of Israel were defeated by the people of Ai because there was sin in their camp and because they had stolen what was under the ban (Joshua 7:1, 10-12). So there is teaching available to us in the Scripture about how to fight the Lord’s battles.

Now we are new creatures in Christ and we have been given new spiritual weapons which are unfamiliar to us. And just like any soldier who is using unfamiliar weapons, the Christian must learn to use the weapons which the Lord has provided and must no longer rely upon the world’s weapons. Indeed, the one who would engage in the Lord’s battles must forsake the weapons of the world, for they are useless in the spiritual battle, and must learn to wield the weapons of the soldier of Christ.

[ASIDE: In thinking of unfamiliar weapons, there is perhaps no clearer picture for us than when David tried on Saul’s equipment as he was preparing to fight the giant (1 Samuel 17:38-40) Here in this passage King Saul, the weak and worldly leader, the one who has already been rejected by the Lord, offers his garments and his weapons to David, the Lord’s anointed, but David wisely rejects them. David was going to fight Goliath the giant in the name of the Lord of hosts with the weapons that the Lord would give him, and he had no need of Saul’s weapons, weapons that could not even prevent Saul’s own destruction on Mount Gilboa. Just so, we enter our spiritual battles in the name of the Lord of hosts and we do not rely on some earthly set of weapons.]

And so here in this passage, the apostle Paul gives instruction to all those who would take up spiritual weapons in order to do damage to the kingdom of darkness. Here the Christian soldier learns “The Art of War.”

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

PRELIMINARY THOUGHTS:

The spiritual battle begins in the mind as we defend our thoughts against the enemy. The goal of the believer is to have a mind that is always alert to defend against the enemy attack; a mind that is saturated with the word of God; and a mind that is fixed on Jesus Christ.

The believer must realize that we are to resist THE SCHEMES OF THE DEVIL (2 Cor. 2:11). We must realize that we have such an adversary and that he has such schemes. The believer must understand THE GOALS OF THE DEVIL. His aim is to neutralize, disarm, render harmless, silence and discredit every believer, beginning with the boldest and most vocal. The believer must also discern THE MEANS AND THE TOOLS OF THE DEVIL. He employs any and all cruel and wicked means to achieve his goals. So he uses discouragement, deception, isolation, lies and feelings of hopelessness to bring about his intended ends. Finally, we must defend against THE PATHS OF ATTACK OF THE DEVIL, which are the world and the flesh.

EXEGESIS OF THE PASSAGE:

10:3 – We are mere men, limited in power by the weakness if our flesh. In our flesh, we are no match for our spiritual enemies and no threat to the kingdom of darkness. But as wise warriors of the Lord Jesus Christ, we do not wage war “according to the flesh.” That is, we do not rely on the dull swords and the blunt arrows of the physical warfare.

10:4 – Because our enemies are spiritual, we forsake the physical weapons of this world and instead wield the divinely powerful spiritual weapons issued to us by the Captain of the Lord’s host (Joshua 5:14-15), Jesus Christ. When we came to faith in Christ and joined the armies of the Lord, our great King of kings gave us His Spirit and gave us heavenly weapons specifically designed to destroy the strongholds of the enemy. God “trains my hands for battle (Psalm 18:34).” “He trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle (Psalm 144:1).” That is, since the day that I came to faith in Christ and entered the battle with the adversary, the Lord has been training me in the use of the weapons of spiritual warfare. Now in prayer and in worship, in fellowship and in fasting, in praise and in persecution, in witnessing and in meditating on and proclaiming the Word, the fortresses of the enemy are being destroyed.

10:5 – Ours is a spiritual battle for the minds of men and women and there are offensive tactics and defensive tactics that must be employed in this battle. “We are destroying speculations.” This is clearly an offensive tactic, for one rarely destroys anything when on the defensive. “Speculations” (NASB) is the translation of “logismos” in the Greek. Now while the exact meaning of these speculations is difficult to determine, the context of 2 Corinthians and the context of the city of Corinth itself would suggest that Paul is referring to the musings of the wise and the influential and the powerful, musings and philosophies which obscure the truths of the gospel that God has made plain in His word. Consider that Paul intentionally forsook eloquence of speech and philosophical wisdom (weapons of the flesh and of the “old man”) when he first came to Corinth (1 Cor. 1:18-2:5) so that he could proclaim the gospel, proclaim Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and nothing else. Speculations, then, are the ongoing reasonings of worldly-wise people seeking to obscure the gospel with more eloquent or more erudite or more spectacular options for what God has already established as truth. As an offensive tactic in the battle, the believer seeks to destroy these speculations by refuting them with the truth. (Titus 1:9) We oppose these speculators and seek to stop them in their tracks so that their talk will not spread like gangrene (2 Tim. 2:17) and will not confuse and hinder those who are coming to Christ (Matthew 23:13; Acts 13:8, 10).

10:5 – We are also to be “(destroying) every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God.” The Greek word for “lofty thing” could also be translated “lofty tower” or “fortress.” If “speculations” OBSCURE THE TRUTH OF GOD by making it appear as just one simple option in the midst of many educated and sophisticated possibilities (“Any religion will get you to heaven” and “Christianity is just one possible option;” “There have been many religious leaders like Jesus, so He’s just one of many;” “The God of the Bible is just one god, but there is also the Allah of Islam and the many gods of the Hindus and so every person must make his own choice.”), then the “lofty things” OPENLY OPPOSE AND DENY THE TRUTH OF GOD, which has been uniquely revealed in the Bible and by the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. These “lofty things” are constructed and are defended by those who know the truth that has been stated by God on a matter and who nevertheless willfully and consciously oppose God’s truth with their own lie. As an offensive tactic, the believer must directly oppose those who defend these lofty towers by discrediting the ideas they endorse and by discrediting these people as false teachers. These fortresses must be torn down and demolished so that the truth of the gospel and of Christ may shine clearly. This is an offensive tactic that involves confrontation and it must be fought with the spiritual weapons of the proclamation of the Word and of being on our knees in prayer.

What are some examples of these “lofty things?” evolution vs. creation; no resurrection of Jesus; relative, moveable morality vs. God’s definition of sin.

SUMMARY:

The believer appears to be just like everyone else, since their outward appearance and manners hide the radical transformation that has taken place in their life. The believer has been born again and everything has changed, including the battles they fight and the way they fight them. Using the powerful and divine weapons of prayer, holy living and proclamation of the Word, the believer is actively destroying the “speculations” which obscure the profound truths of the word of God; he is opposing the “lofty things” which are raised up by the philosophies of the world to directly oppose the truth of the gospel; and he is controlling his own thinking so that only those thoughts which honor Christ and which reflect the truth of God are allowed to dwell in the mind. SDG rmb 1/26/2016

Over the last few months I have been working on a passage from Hebrews 12:15-17 that describes Esau as a godless and immoral man who lost first his birthright and then lost his eternal soul when “he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.” How is it that Esau could find no place for repentance? How is it that his tears made no difference? The warning of the author of Hebrews seems to be this: There is apparently some point beyond which a person’s most fervent and tearful cries for repentance go unheeded. Is there some point beyond which the Lord will not listen to a perishing man’s cry? And if there is such a point, what do we do to make sure that we are never found in that terrifying place of “no repentance?” That is what I explore in a paper I have written and added to the site as a page.

The basic idea is that the Lord’s offer of salvation (the opportunity for repentance) is extended to sinners as an expression of His grace, but it is not extended forever. The Lord is gracious and compassionate and great in lovingkindness, but nevertheless He can and sometimes does withdraw His offer of salvation, and when He does withdraw His grace, it is forever withdrawn and the person without Christ is thereby doomed. God is sovereign in salvation and the sinner needs to come to Christ as soon as the offer is recognized, for you do not know when you will find yourself in the place of ‘no repentance.’ Esau trifled with the Lord and indulged his own sinful flesh and ignored the opportunity for repentance until his condemnation was sealed and there was no longer any hope of turning to the Lord. Thus Esau serves as a warning to us not to do the same thing.

Anyway, I have put that new page on the site for you to read. Let me know what you think.

The name of the page is: “Hebrews 12:15-17 – No Place for Repentance”

I have just added a page to the site that is a fairly lengthy study of Genesis 27, where Jacob and Rebecca conspire together to deceive Isaac and get him to give the family blessing to Jacob instead of to the first-born, Esau. In this narrative that tells how Jacob gets the blessing by lying and deceiving, I maintain that the gospel is hidden and awaiting discovery. Here is a short excerpt from the page: Isaac asks Jacob, “Are you really my son, Esau?” Jacob is wearing a clumsy Esau-disguise, but Isaac is willing to believe that the person before him is really Esau. And likewise, God the Father allows the robe of righteousness that Christ has wrapped around us (Isaiah 61:10) to disguise Him from our true identity. “Are you really My Son Jesus? Because you look to me and you sound to me an awful lot like that sinner, Roy Britton. But if you confess to Me that you believe in My Son and that you will obey Me forever, then I am willing to accept this clumsy disguise as good enough to merit My blessing. If you have on a Jesus-disguise, then I will give you His blessing regardless of how sinful you are.”

This captures the idea pretty well. Go to my pages and read the entire study. I think you will enjoy it. SDG rmb 1/16/2016

“I sought the LORD, and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces will never be ashamed. This poor man cried and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.” Psalm 34:4-6

January 6, 2016 quiet time:“I sought the LORD . . .”

What does it mean to seek the LORD? And what is it that you seek when you “seek the LORD”?

You are to seek the LORD Himself, not what the LORD gives or what the LORD is able to do. Here is the command: Seek an eternal relationship with the most amazing and wonderful Person that exists! If you will seek the LORD Himself; if you will seek a relationship with Him and will come to Him on His terms and if you will worship Him as Almighty God, then you will receive not only the richest relationship that a human being can have, with immense joy and love and peace, but you will also receive all the benefits of what the LORD can provide to those who fear Him (which is Old Testament language for “those who love Him”).

BUT if instead you “seek Him” so that you can get from Him His benefits, and if you only call out to the LORD for what He can provide; if you only need the LORD to change your circumstances and give you a “blessed life;” ***

[ASIDE: 1) In Exodus 33:15, Moses says to the LORD that if His presence does not go with the people of Israel, then Moses does not want to leave that place. “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.” Moses was declaring that all the temporal blessings of place and possessions would be utterly meaningless if the LORD’s presence was not there with them. “If You don’t go with us, then I am not leaving this place!” 2) The Bible declares that it is the LORD Himself who gives us all our circumstances. Since that is the case, why should the LORD change your circumstances just to get you out of trouble, when He brought that troubling situation into your life in the first place?]

*** if you are indifferent to the LORD and are not ready to love Him at all times and regardless of circumstances (Matthew 22:37-40), then you will get neither His benefits nor His fellowship. Instead, your sky will be bronze and your land iron, etc. (Deuteronomy 28:23) and there will be no blessings from the LORD.

David “sought the LORD.” What did David mean by this? His soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the LORD (Psalm 84:2). David stretched out his hands to the LORD as a parched land (Psalm 143:6). There was nothing restrained or cool about this seeking. David passionately and unreservedly sought the face of the LORD and he would not be denied. David wanted to know the presence of the LORD, to know the voice of the LORD, to know the strength and the peace and the power and the glory of the LORD. David wanted to be as close to the LORD as a human being could be. “I sought the LORD . . .” The LORD answers those who seek Him with their whole heart. The LORD honors those who call upon Him and who trust in Him.

And what does David seek? David seeks a relationship with the most overwhelming and awesome Person in the universe. David indeed seeks an intimate relationship with the Creator of the universe! It is not what the LORD can give that David seeks. Rather, it is the LORD Himself that David seeks.

Does this passion for knowing the LORD mark your life? The true believer’s life is marked out by a passionate seeking after the LORD of glory Himself. The one who will seek the LORD in order to have a relationship with Him will find that the LORD’s other benefits will also come into their life. Do you seek the LORD passionately? Do you seek Him so that you may know and enjoy Him as your God, and may obey Him as the sovereign LORD?

This is what it means to seek the LORD. Do you seek Him? SDG rmb 1/6/2016