The prophet Isaiah wrote powerful prophecies not only of the events of Jesus’ first advent, but also about the events of that day, the final day when the glorified Jesus Christ, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the resurrected Lamb of God, returns from heaven on a white horse (Revelation 19:11ff) to judge all the earth.

It is Isaiah’s eschatology that I want to explore with this study, from one brief passage of four verses, Isaiah 26:19-27:1. Here the prophet tells us of things to come at the end of time. As we have seen in the post of December 1, Isaiah has told us about the great final resurrection of the dead when the tomb will become a womb and the dust will give birth to those who will sing for joy. In this post, we will read about the time of tribulation of God’s people, although it will not be as clear as the passage about the resurrection.

PART 2 – THE TRIBULATION OF THE RIGHTEOUS – 26:20

“Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the fury has passed by.”

I will admit that, at first reading, this is not the classic ‘tribulation’ passage telling of the distress of God’s people, but a careful reading of the verse, especially in light of the verse’s context, will reveal this to probably be a verse about the suffering of the righteous at the end of the age.

Consider the verse’s context. As we have seen, the preceding verse (26:19) tells of the final resurrection of the dead using almost the same words and images that Paul later uses to describe the Resurrection in 1 Thessalonians 4:14ff. The verse that follows (26:21) is about “the LORD coming out of His place” and could be compared to Revelation 19:11ff or 2 Thess. 1:7-10. What other eschatological event happens around the time of the resurrection and the return of Christ? From other passages of Scripture we know that just before the return of Christ there will be intense distress and tribulation for God’s people as the unsaved world seeks to destroy the church. Consider Matthew 24:21-22, where Jesus describes a “great  tribulation” that must be cut short to spare the elect. Then “immediately after the tribulation of those days” we will “see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky (Matthew 24:29-30).” A great tribulation followed by the coming of the Lord – this sounds a lot like “God’s people hiding themselves for a little while until the fury passes (Isaiah 26:20),” followed by, “Behold, the LORD is coming out of His place (26:21).”

Another similar passage to consider is 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10, in which the saints are being afflicted severely, but are suddenly relieved and avenged as the Lord Jesus comes from heaven “inflicting vengeance” on unbelievers and bringing “the punishment of eternal destruction . . . when He comes on that day.” It doesn’ take a seminary professor to see that the context of 2 Thess. 1 is similar to Isaiah 26:20. Paul and Isaiah had received a similar vision about the end of the age, and both men had seen that the end times will be a time of distress for God’s people.

Although full of visions that are often difficult to understand, the book of Revelation agrees with Isaiah 26:20 in that, as the time of the Lord’s return approaches, God’s people will need to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). They will need to be bold in their witness, but also wary of their adversaries. There will be times when they need to “hide themselves for a little while until the fury passes.” In other words, John on Patmos received a similar message to the one Isaiah had received 700 years before. For example, in Revelation 6 the martyrs under the altar must “rest a little longer,” until the number of martyrs should be complete (Rev. 6:11). Obviously this is a time of great distress. In chapter 11, the “two witnesses” (probably representing the Law and the Prophets, and so symbolizing the church) are killed by the beast, then come back to life and ascend to heaven and escape from their enemies. The point is that the end times will be difficult for believers. Chapter 12 gives more of the same type of thing as “the dragon” (certainly representing Satan) pursues “the woman” (representing the church, in my opinion), but she escapes into “the wilderness.” So then “the dragon” goes off to make war with the woman’s offspring. Very difficult to interpret this passage and that is not my goal here. What I want to point out is that, according to the book of Revelation, there are times when believers at the end of the age will need to flee from the adversary and find a hiding place, just like Isaiah said in 26:20.

To sum up then, so far in our two studies of verses from Isaiah we have seen that Isaiah foresaw the final Resurrection of the dead when those who are in the dust will arise and sing for joy, and we have seen that the end of the age will be a time when God’s people will need to seek refuge from the fury of a hostile world.

In our next study of Isaiah’s eschatology, we will examine Isaiah 26:21 in which the prophet saw the LORD coming out of His place to punish the earth for its wickedness. Join me then.

SDG        rmb        12/13/2019

The prophet Isaiah wrote powerful prophecies not In his powerful prophecy, Isaiah ben-Amoz writes not only of the events of Jesus’ first advent, but also about the events of that day, the final day when the glorified Jesus Christ, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the resurrected Lamb of God, returns from heaven on a white horse (Revelation 19:11ff) to judge all the earth. This is what I am calling “Isaiah’s Eschatology.”

As I was writing about Isaiah’s eschatology regarding the Resurrection on the last day as expressed in Isaiah 26:19 (posted December 1, 2019), my attention was drawn to the word “dust” in that verse: “You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy.” It turns out that the word dust appears in some very significant contexts in the Scriptures, so I have captured some random thoughts on dust in the ASIDE below.

ASIDE: A study on “dust.” The LORD God created man out of the DUST of the ground (Genesis 2:7). When Adam sinned, the LORD God said, “For you are DUST, and to DUST you shall return (Genesis 3:19).” In Psalm 103, David declares that the LORD “is mindful that we are but DUST.” This means that the LORD is aware that we are weak and sinful and are bent toward failure, and so the LORD has pity on His children because of their weakness. He has mercy on them, because though they are weak, yet their Savior is strong. In 1 Corinthians 15 (ESV), Paul reminds us that “as was the man of DUST, so also are those who are of the DUST.” We now have bodies that bear “the image of the man of DUST (v. 47-49).” Paul’s point is breathtaking: Every human being is born with a body that is made of DUST and that will certainly return to the DUST. As Adam, our first father, was made of DUST, so we, too, are made of DUST. As Adam must return to the DUST because of his sin, so our bodies, too, must return to the DUST of the earth because of our sin. Our first body is made of DUST, and to DUST it shall certainly return. But those who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ will receive a new glorified body that is of the likeness of the Second Adam in His resurrection. We will lay into the DUST our body of DUST, but in the Resurrection, we will receive from heaven the glorified body of heaven. We will lay aside our body of DUST and receive our new body of GLORY. As Christ laid aside His earthly body and was raised with His glorious body, so we will lay down our body of DUST and will be raised with our body of GLORY. We now have a body that must die, but on that day, we will receive a body that will never die. The body of DUST must surely die, but the body of GLORY can never die.

SDG        rmb        12/2/2019

As I converse with unbelievers and try to talk to them about the Lord Jesus and about the salvation from the wrath of God that He offers, I consistently find that people in our culture have scant awareness of sin and have no consciousness of their own personal guilt before our holy God. The primary reason for this, in my opinion, is that the Bible, the word of God, has been methodically and systematically driven out of our American culture such that most people in our culture have never read the Bible. In earlier times in our history, the Bible was respected by most and revered by many. The people knew what the Bible said, at least in general if not in specific, and there was a national agreement on right and wrong; if the Bible condemned it, then it was wrong. Obviously, this is not so now, and we have a lawless nation that delights in wickedness and is ignorant of God’s coming judgment on our sin.

And so, we have become a people who are ignorant of how lost we are. The apostle Paul addresses this point directly in the second chapter of Ephesians. This epistle is written to those who are now in the church, but who, prior to the arrival of evangelists proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, were entirely pagan and were desperately lost. In Ephesians 2:12, Paul enumerates the lostness of these people when they did not believe the gospel.

“Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in this world.”

First, they were “separated from Christ.” “Separated from Christ” means separated from all that Christ offers. They had no peace with God, indeed, no relationship with God because they were separated from the only Mediator. They had no redemption, because they were separated from the Redeemer. They had no salvation, because they were separated from the Savior. These people who were outside of Christ were ignorant of the terrifying judgment that awaited them because of their unrepentant, unforgiven sin.

Second, these people were “excluded from the commonwealth of Israel.” Israel was the nation that God had chosen to be His people and there were definite privileges to being part of national Israel. “First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God” (Romans 3:2). Israel had received the Law and the word of God and were aware of Yahweh and of what He demanded from them. They had received the earthly temple and they had the sacrificial system and the priests and the Davidic kingdom. Israel was a people that had been set apart to serve and worship the one true God, Yahweh. By contrast, those who were excluded from Israel were a scattered group of godless nations who had no divine Law and who did not know Yahweh. Outside of Israel, there was no knowledge of the Lord’s holy laws and thus no knowledge of their violation of those laws. They were excluded from God’s people and this added to their lostness.

Thirdly, these people were “strangers to the covenants of promise.” The word of God had given to God’s people various promises by covenant. Hearing and understanding these promises would give God’s people great confidence in the face of threat and tremendous courage in the face of fear.  The LORD had made these astonishing promises and what God has promised, He is able also to perform (Romans 4:21). Prior to trusting in Christ and before being brought into the church and being taught the word of God, these people had been strangers to the covenants of promise. They were in darkness, with no awareness of any of God’s promises.

Fourth, people that are outside of Christ were “without hope and without God in this world.” Paul declares that these Ephesian church members had been without hope. Some may naively argue that unbelievers have hope even though it may not be the Christian hope. I must disagree with this. Biblical hope is not a baseless wish that all the stars will align and somehow all things will turn out well. This hope is the world’s kind of hope, a vague wish based on chance and good luck. Biblical hope, by contrast, it a rock-solid certainty that what God has promised in His word will occur, but that it has just not happened yet. This biblical hope is waiting for the inevitable to come into being. Unbelievers have no basis for their “hope.” It is a mere wish that their dreams would come true, which is no hope at all. So, prior to their faith in Christ, these people were lost without hope.

Paul also adds that they were “without God in this world.” It is possible that these people worshiped false gods before they came to Christ, but these gods are nothing. They have mouths but they cannot speak (Psalm 115:6). They are scarecrows in cucumber fields. They can do no harm and they can do no good (Jeremiah 10:5). The more frightening reality is that, by worshiping false gods, they incur the fierce wrath of the one true God. Outside of Christ, they had been without God in this world.

As you read this description of four-fold lostness, realize that all people are in this state prior to coming to faith in Christ Jesus. Although Paul is here directly addressing this church of Gentile believers, he is indirectly addressing all believers of all times and everywhere. As all believers were once “children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3), so they are here described as “without hope and without God in this world.”

APPLICATIONS/THOUGHTS ON THIS TRUTH:

• When we realize that we who now believe in Jesus were once lost in at least these ways, we are led to praise and worship the Lord who exercised His great power to save us. “Blessed be our God and Father . . .” It is good to “remember how we were at that time” (2:12a) and praise the Lord for bringing us to faith in Christ.
• As we share our faith and consider how we can evangelize others, it is sobering to remember that all unsaved people, regardless of external appearances and no matter their moral uprightness, are equally lost in at least these four ways. If the person we are speaking to does not know Christ as personal Savior, they are “without hope and without God in this world.” This truth should give us a sense of urgency to persuade them to come to faith in Christ (2 Cor. 5:11).
• As we share our faith with others, desiring that they would come to Christ, we can be confident that the same gospel that made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with Him (2:5-6) has the power to raise anyone up with Christ. No matter how lost a person is, we know that “the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). So, we proclaim the gospel with confident urgency.

SDG                 rmb                 11/30/2019

Jeremiah is one of my personal heroes in the Bible. He was just a youth when the LORD called him to his lifelong task of prophesying to disobedient Judah and he fulfilled that task, despite constant opposition. Jeremiah was given the command to declare the LORD’s judgments against Judah because they had forsaken the Lord. They had made offerings to other gods and had worshiped the works of their own hands (1:16) and the LORD’s patience had run out. Now the LORD had appointed Jeremiah to recite to Judah all their evils and to announce the coming disasters. As we read the prophecy of Jeremiah, it seems that the prophet almost stood alone against the people and against the king. Friends were few. His was a solitary assignment of harsh prophecies of disaster and Jeremiah faithfully discharged his duties for more than forty years against constant and often angry opposition. He was a man to be admired and emulated.

What I want to look at in this article is the calling of the prophet and see what we can learn from this episode. As we examine this, I think that we will see several points that will give us reason to be encouraged.

“Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying . . .” (1:4)

This is how Jeremiah begins the description of the LORD’s calling on his life. We may think, “Well, Jeremiah may have heard the word of the LORD, but I know I never have. These things don’t happen anymore.” But let’s think about that.

Was the LORD’s call NECESSARILY audible? No, I don’t think so. The LORD is able to communicate with His people in many ways, not just through audible words. The LORD could have spoken to Jeremiah in his spirit.

Was the call audible? Don’t know. Maybe. The point is, the LORD communicated to Jeremiah and Jeremiah was sure that it was the LORD who was talking, and he knew what the LORD was saying. And we, too, can have this same experience.

Note what is said in verse 5:

• Jeremiah was formed by the LORD in his mother’s womb (universal);
• The LORD knew Jeremiah before he was conceived (universal, esp. believers)
• The LORD consecrated the prophet before he was born (universal)
• Jeremiah was appointed as a prophet to the nations (unique).

What can we learn from this calling of Jeremiah that we can apply to our own walk with the LORD?

• As the LORD formed Jeremiah in his mother’s womb, so all believers can likewise be confident that the LORD has left nothing to chance in our lives. The LORD Himself has formed you and has made you exactly as you are. Therefore, we should accept ourselves as we are, because it is the LORD who has formed us. (NOTE: The same Hebrew word used in Jeremiah 1:5 is used in Genesis 2:7, when the LORD forms the man out of the ground. It is also this same word that is used in Isaiah 49:5 to describe the forming of the Incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ, as He was being formed for His earthly ministry. As the LORD carefully and lovingly formed Adam and formed the Lord Jesus, the Second Adam, so the LORD has lovingly formed you.)
• As the LORD knew Jeremiah before he was conceived, so the LORD knew you before you were conceived. While your physical existence began at your conception, the Bible teaches that the LORD has always known you and, if you are a follower of Jesus, the Lord of this universe chose you to be His special possession before He formed tou in the womb. You have always been the object of His love, so be encouraged!
• As the LORD consecrated Jeremiah and set him apart for a specific purpose, so the LORD has brought you to salvation and consecrated you for a specific purpose. Each member of God’s people has been chosen and consecrated for a unique role, a unique task. The Lord fits us together in His body as each member fulfills his own role (Ephesians 4:16, Romans 12:6). The key is to discern how God has created you, and where and how He wants to use you for His glory. Our joy is greatest when we are fulfilling the role for which God consecrated us.

SDG                 rmb                 11/20/2019

If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness;

In the land of uprightness, he deals corruptly and

does not see the majesty of the LORD. – Isaiah 26:10 (ESV)

In this verse, Isaiah speaks to the condition of all the unsaved of all ages; they are blind and deaf to the work of God in their lives. This is true of all those whose eyes have not been opened to see the glory and the beauty and the holiness of God (2 Cor. 4:4) and so these all remain under the Lord’s judgment and condemnation. Trapped in their spiritual blindness, these “do not learn righteousness,” but instead they continue to “deal corruptly.” They cannot “see the majesty of the LORD,“ even though God has made it evident to them (Romans 1:19).

“All of them have turned aside; together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one (Romans 3:12).”

So, all the unsaved are blind and deaf to God’s involvement in their lives. They do not see Him because they CANNOT see Him. And so a consequence of this is that “If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness,” but still “deals corruptly.”

For example, Pharaoh was shown favor nine times as he rejected one opportunity for true repentance after another. Nine plagues came upon him, and nine times the LORD did not destroy him for his arrogance and his blasphemy, but instead showed him favor by removing the plague. But Pharaoh would not bow the knee to YHWH, so YHWH destroyed all the first-born of Egypt.

Herod was shown favor in that he actually got to meet the Son of God in person. Despite this act of grace, Herod continued in his corrupt ways and he was eventually eaten by worms (Acts 12:23).

But ordinary men and women do this every day as well. I had a conversation with a co-worker about 15 years ago. He told me about the time he was at a home-owners’ association meeting and began to feel hot and light-headed. He had gotten up just to stretch his legs and the next thing he remembered was opening his eyes in the hospital with emergency room doctors staring at him with hopeful eyes. His heart had stopped, and they put the paddles to his chest twice before his heart started beating again. And the man that was talking to me was a walking heart attack. He smoked and lived on peanuts and Coca-Cola and was probably 50 Lbs overweight. “Don,” I said, “do you know the Lord?” I shared the gospel with him and urged him to consider his eternity, but he was not interested. Two years later he was dead. Favor had been shown to him by giving him several years of life after his heart attack, but he did not learn righteousness.

There was another co-worker that I knew who worked in the plant. He was proud and angry and immoral and lived for things that were exciting. Then he was in a horrible motorcycle wreck where 80% of his body was burned. He spent almost a year in the burn unit, and the first four months he hovered between life and death. But against all odds he survived and is alive today. He has been shown almost miraculous favor, and yet he has not learned righteousness. He continues to live without regard to the Lord.

I have shared Christ with another co-worker who is from an atheistic culture. He has listened to me politely, but he has not indicated a serious interest. A couple of weeks ago, he was cut off by a reckless driver on the interstate. His car ended up spinning at 65MPH and crashing into the concrete median. He was knocked unconscious and he cut his head, but otherwise he was unhurt. What I heard as God showing him great favor by sparing his life he saw as just a lucky turn of events. For now, he has not learned righteousness, but perhaps the Lord will yet open his heart.

“If favor is shown to the wicked, he (still) does not learn righteousness.” Since this is a true statement, what do we do? We preach Christ and Him crucified. Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men to come to faith. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and so we proclaim Christ and trust that the Lord will save some.

SDG                 rmb                 11/1/2019

In Psalm 147:19, the LORD says, “He declares His words to Jacob, His statutes and His ordinances to Israel.” The main idea of this meditation is that the Lord has not given His word so that it can be stored and archived, but so that it can be proclaimed by those who possess it. If you will not proclaim the Word, then you will atrophy and decay.

In the Old Testament, the LORD entrusted His word to the nation of Israel so that the word of God would be preserved for all time. Paul mentions this in Romans 3:1-2, when he says that one of the great privileges of being a Jew was that your nation had been entrusted with the oracles of God. Only Israel of all the nations on the earth possessed the word of the living God. Only Israel knew of the Ten Commandments and of the deliverance from Egypt and of Mount Sinai and of the holiness of God and the commandments of God and of the coming judgment of God. Israel was indeed the steward of the Holy Bible and they preserved it well (Romans 3:1-2; 9:4; etc.).

The nation of Israel preserved the word of the Lord and they studied the word of the Lord, but that was not the end for which the Lord had given His word. The Jews preserved and studied and revered the word of God, but they did not PROCLAIM the word of God, nor did they OBEY the word of God. This last statement is not intended to be entirely a rebuke. It is more an observation, for it must be admitted that the Jews of the Old Testament did not have much good news to proclaim to the Gentile nations, nor was there a divine mandate telling the Jews to proclaim to the Gentiles about the LORD. There was, therefore, a lot of knowledge of the Bible, but there was no outlet for that knowledge to be put to use. As a result, the Jews became very enamored with their knowledge of religious things while they spent almost no energy calling people to faith in God and to repentance of sin. They became puffed up (1 Corinthians 8:1) and of very little use for the Kingdom.

The net result of this accumulation of knowledge with no witnessing for the Lord was that the Jews’ faith withered and they developed a religion of ritual and works and outward appearances. Instead of faith, a great deadness smothered the Jews. They had the word of God that told of the coming Messiah and that declared the works of the Lord and that announced the penalties of sin and the availability of forgiveness and yet with no proclamation of these things to the nations, the people grew bored with their studies and they grew fat in their knowledge. Since they sensed no compelling mission, they invented their own. They grew spiritually fat and useless. They “had a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.” Paul declares that they did not know about God’s righteousness and so they sought to establish their own. (Romans 10:1-4)

It is the same for God’s people for all time. We are called to PRAISE the Lord and to PROCLAIM His word. If we are obedient to that calling, then there is immense blessing and joy and fullness of life (John 10:10). But there is another edge to that sword, for if we are not faithful to that calling, then we face the great peril of being religious and joyless and dead while we live. The glories of God and the amazing story of His sending His Son, the Lord Jesus, to rescue His people by His sacrifice on the cross; the power of the resurrection and the anticipation of His return in glory; even these astounding stories will eventually leave us unmoved.

And thus we come to the point of this meditation. Because they did not proclaim the glory of the Lord to the nations and did not praise the Lord with fervor and passion, the Jews became a people of religious rituals and of dead external duties. They were called to tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples (Psalm 96), but instead they spent their time remembering their own past and endlessly discussing the Law. And they withered away in religion.

Is it possible that we could do the same thing? Is it possible that, like the Jews, we would spend too much time in Bible studies and in fellowship groups and not spend enough time obeying what we are called by the Lord and instructed by the Bible to do? For even more than the Old Testament Hebrews, we are called by the Lord of glory to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8) and to be Christ’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20). We are invited to be fishers of men (Matthew 4:19) and to be sowers of the Word (Luke 8:5-15) and to warn the nations of the coming judgment (Ezekiel 33:1-20; the sword). We are given the opportunity to bring the light of Christ into the dark world (Matthew 5:16). The believer is called to PRAISE and to PROCLAIM, but do we do that? Are we intentional about that? Do we structure our lives and arrange our days so that we can find ways to PROCLAIM, or do we spend much more time in Bible studies and fellowship amongst ourselves without actively furthering the gospel?

Don’t misunderstand what I am saying. Reading and meditating on the word of God is what we believers are supposed to do. Of course we do that! But if we do that only to the exclusion of actively proclaiming the word to the world, then we are in danger of decaying and we run the risk of our faith becoming dull. Our God has created the universe and everything in it from nothing, and we need to proclaim that to the world, or we will lose our wonder at His power and wisdom. Our God has devised a plan of salvation whereby condemned sinners can be rescued from their deserved judgment and can be adopted as God’s own children, and this should be declared from the lips of every believer. God has visited this fallen planet in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this should be announced to the world. But more than that, God the Son has not only visited this planet, but He has also died on the cross to ransom His people from their deserved condemnation. This must be proclaimed! Jesus said that, if the people are silent, the very rocks will cry out (Luke 19:40). The fruit of proclaiming God’s glory to the world is greater boldness and greater usefulness and the opportunity to bear fruit – 30, 60, 100-fold. By contrast, the consequence of shrinking back from proclamation and of refusing to speak boldly of Jesus is that you will grow comfortable with silence and you will not respond when God calls you to act. If you do not proclaim Jesus, you will slowly drift into dead ritual and you will go through the motions of religious activity with no power (2 Tim. 3:5) and soon your faith that was once so vibrant now looks to the watching world like just another religion.

So be intentional about telling the world about Jesus. Plan this into your daily and weekly schedule. Be alert for God’s promptings and for His invitations to proclaim His glory, and when they come, immediately accept His invitations with joy. If you are a follower of Jesus, you have first-hand experience with the most amazing story that was ever told about the most amazing Person to ever live. So proclaim, and watch your power and usefulness increase.

SDG                 rmb                 10/24/2019

My wife, Lisa, drives a 2014 Toyota Highlander. It is a fine automobile and it has given us great service now for more than five years.

A little while ago, while I was driving the car to church, I noticed that there was a warning light that came on every time the car was started. “Maintenance Required,” said the light. I pressed the button on the steering wheel that switched off that light and asked Lisa, “When did that light start coming on?”

Many of you have probably had this same experience. The warning light comes on in the car telling you that it is time for some maintenance. What do you do? Like most people, including myself, you note the light and then quickly turn it off and forget it. Every time you turn the car on that silly light comes on and you diligently turn it off and forget about the warning light.

Pretty soon two things have happened: first, turning off the light has become an unthinking, automatic reflex as the warning light has just become so much unheeded and barely perceived noise; and second, you have long since forgotten when the light first started coming on. “Was it two weeks ago? Or was it two months ago? Or more? Oh, well.” The urgency for action that the warning light was designed to create has become an unconscious response to ignore the light and to take no action. This is the “warning light syndrome” and it can have serious consequences.

The problem is that there is a reason why the car’s manufacturer programmed that warning light. Something about the car’s design mandates that you respond to the light and take the action that the light urges you to take and, if you don’t, there is a good chance that something may go very wrong. But you are busy, and this is a good car from a reputable manufacturer, and you will get around to this warning light someday. Just not today.

Then one day when you are off on a desert road between Needles and Palm Springs, CA, the car just stops running. The warning light is on and it won’t go off and the engine is still as a stone. Maybe it would have been a good idea to do something about that warning light when it first came on rather than when it was way too late to do anything about the problem.

But this “WARNING LIGHT SYNDROME” is not just true for cars. This phenomenon can occur in other areas of life that are even more critical than your car’s health. One of those critical areas of life involves a person’s response to the hearing of the gospel. The gospel declares a warning from the Bible about God’s wrath and about His coming judgment against sin and urges the hearer to flee to Jesus Christ for refuge and salvation. Thus, the warning light has flashed on, but will the hearer respond, or will they ignore the light until it is too late?

In Acts 24, we have a biblical example of this “warning light syndrome” as it relates to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Felix is the presiding Roman governor in Caesarea, and he has the unfortunate task of hearing the case against a zealous Jew from Jerusalem named Paul. This Jew-become-Christ-follower is on trial for some unspecified crimes and so is given the opportunity to present his defense before Felix. In his speech, Paul makes his defense and declares his innocence, but he also speaks about the gospel of Jesus, and concludes with a statement about being on trial for the resurrection of the dead. Felix apparently has some knowledge of this religious movement (“the Way”) and decides to end this preliminary trial and wait till the Roman commander comes from Jerusalem (24:22-23) before making any decision.

A few days later, Felix and his wife Drusilla decide to send for Paul to hear him speak again. This time the apostle preaches to Felix the pure gospel about righteousness, self-control and the coming judgment (24:25). The “warning light” of God’s coming judgment is now burning brightly and Felix is frightened, so he silences the message and sends Paul back to his prison cell. What will Felix do now that the “warning light” has been turned on? God has shown the piecing light of the gospel into this man’s life, but Felix, like so many, refuses to repent and believe. Instead, having dismissed his initial fear of judgment, Felix gradually becomes indifferent to Paul’s warnings about sin and becomes skillful at dodging Paul’s calls for commitment to Christ. For two years (24:27), Paul’s persuasion (2 Cor. 5:11) falls on deaf ears as Felix avoids and ignores the warning light of the gospel. In the end, Felix leaves Caesarea and thus leaves the sphere of the gospel forever. For two years Felix heard the gospel from God’s chosen evangelistic instrument (Acts 9:15), but he never committed to Christ. He never repented. He never passed from death to life. The warning light went unheeded, and Felix finally perished.

From this passage from the Scripture and from the concept of the “warning light syndrome I offer two applications.

First, there is the possibility that you are a lot like Felix, in that you have heard the gospel message many times, but you have never really responded to it as the Bible demands that you respond. For example, you have gone to church many times, thinking that surely going to church is all that God requires. Surely that will turn off the warning light. Or perhaps you have tried to be a hard-working employee and have sent your kids to good schools. You usually obeyed the speed limit and you didn’t cuss nearly as much as some people. You rarely drink to excess and you never drink and drive. You think to yourself, “What more could God possibly require than that? Surely, I have taken care of the warning light of guilt! I know I am okay. I am a LOT better than most people; I can tell you that!”

Well, I have bad news for you that can lead to incredibly good news. None of your attempts at being good will do you any good before our holy God. “All your righteous deeds are as filthy rags” – Isaiah 64:6. “For by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified in His sight.” – Romans 3:20. God is not impressed with your attempts at righteousness. Your sins have condemned you and your only hope is to find a savior who will deliver you from your sin. That is the bad news. But, the good news is that Jesus Christ has died on the cross to provide a way for you to be reconciled to God and to be forgiven of your sin. The only way to be saved from your sins, to “turn off the warning light,” so to speak, is to repent of your sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Second, there is a possibility that you are like Paul, in that you have done your best to tell others about Jesus Christ and about His saving gospel and have gotten no response. You have tried your best to “turn on the warning light,” and you have encountered people who are content to turn off the warning light any way possible and then just move on with the conversation or move on with their life. What are we to do in those situations? My encouragement to you is that you continue proclaiming Jesus and proclaiming His gospel and trust that the Lord will save some of those. Some (not all, but some) of those people for whom you declare the truth of sin and righteousness and judgment and for whom you proclaim the salvation that is found only in Jesus will eventually repent of their sins and will place their faith in Jesus as Lord. Therefore, persevere! Persevere in obedience and tell of Jesus and trust that God will save those whom He will save.

SDG                       rmb                        10/12/2019

Today I was once again lamenting the trials that I seem to face daily, with the difficulties of training my son and the frustrations with myself and my shortcomings and failures, and it occurred to me that the author of Hebrews was addressing the same things with his congregation. They were admittedly probably facing far more trying tests of their faith as they were being persecuted, at least in some ways (Hebrews 10:31ff), but they were repeatedly exhorted to come all the way to true faith in Christ and to persevere in that true faith. Hebrews 11 is all about those who endured to the end, about those who were given promises that they never saw realized and who were tried severely in their faith and who nevertheless persevered to the end, and we are exhorted to do the same thing. Then the author turns to chapter 12 and gives us the ultimate example of endurance in the face of the most severe testing in the Person of the glorious Lord Jesus Christ and reminds us that the Lord disciplines all those who are His own (12:5).

This is a reminder that I need, because I am very forgetful. I forget that the Lord is sovereign over all circumstances and all events and has designed these trials and this discipline for my sanctification and for my greater usefulness. I am being disciplined for His purposes, not my own, so that I will be prepared for every good work. I forget that the Lord Jesus Himself learned obedience from the things that He suffered (Hebrews 5:8). If my sinless Savior learned obedience from suffering, how much more do I need to submit to the trials the Lord sends into my life and allow them to sanctify me! I forget that I am a fallen creature and that my very flesh is indwelt by the malevolence of sin. I forget that I come from a broken home and that my father, who was a sinner like me and was also fallen with heavy baggage of his own from his life experiences, left our home when I was eleven years old and left me without a role model for my adolescent years. I am forgetful. I forget that I was lost until I was 31 years old. I forget that I live in a fallen world where the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now, so that everything in the created order now militates against my godliness and my obedience to the Lord and His commands. I forget that every person I meet in this world is likewise fallen and that most of them are unredeemed and are, as such, bent completely toward their own selfish desires and are in the grip of the evil one. I forget that the Lord Jesus told His followers that the world would hate them because of His name and that in this world we would have tribulation. I need to be reminded because I am forgetful of these things.

Therefore, I need to thank the Lord that He is at work in my life in evident ways and that He is disciplining me. My flesh hates discipline and craves ease and instant success, but it is discipline that I need. I want to escape the winnowing fork of discipline and I want to run from the Lord’s scourge, but it is this very discipline and scourging that prove my sonship and it is those that will bring me increased holiness. It is holiness that I now crave, and this craving is stronger than my flesh’s desire for ease and comfort and for its own lustful passions. I crave holiness and must therefore embrace the Lord’s appointed means to that end. When the Lord’s scourge cuts into my flesh, I will welcome the destruction of my flesh and will lean harder into the Lord and will anticipate the time when His discipline is no longer needed.

And so, I am susceptible to forgetting the exhortation which is addressed to me as a son, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him.” I often regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. I do not want it and I try to ignore it or to get around it or to put it behind me as soon as I possibly can. If I cannot ignore or avoid or brush past the discipline, then I am likely to “faint.” My fainting is not passing out or collapsing from exhaustion, but rather sounds a lot more like complaining and moaning about the perceived miseries, but it is fainting, nevertheless. It is lacking the courage to endure the Lord’s discipline and persevere through the Lord’s training. This is “fainting.” Therefore, my desire is to embrace the discipline of the Lord and to endure and to accept correction when I am reproved by Him.

I need to remember that, “Those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” This discipline is the Greek word “paideia” and can mean anything from “train” to “whip” to “scourge” to “discipline.” The word, in its noun form and in its verb form, appears multiple times in this passage. The idea is that the Lord is involved in the lives of His children to train them. His training involves severe discipline because His children need to have the evil driven out of them just as the Cretans did (Titus 1:13) and just as David did (Psalm 51:7 – “purify me with hyssop”)

The God of this universe is carefully training me using the means of His school of discipline and adversity and the occasional school of scourging. The evil runs deep in me and the Lord refuses to let me remain as I am. He thus raises the lash of adversity to teach me endurance. He confronts me with people who intentionally and unintentionally wrong me to teach me to forgive. He places me in situations that try my patience to train me to be patient. I am being carefully trained through life’s challenges by the Lord of glory who wants me to be like Him (Romans 8:29).

“Lord, let me embrace Your discipline as training from Your divine hand, and let me endure the adversity and the scourging until I come forth as gold. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

SDG                       rmb                        originally written in November 2009 – 10/5/2019