Psalm 32 is one of the Bible’s great passages on the heaviness of sin and on the joy and relief of forgiveness. David begins the psalm with shouts of joy: “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity!” David then concludes the psalm with another outburst of praise: “Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones, and shout for joy all you who are upright in heart!” The psalm is about the blessing of forgiveness.

But what sin is it that David has in mind? We can speculate that David is celebrating his forgiveness from his sin with Bathsheba and with the murder of Uriah. While those may very well be the sins that David has in mind, I think it is significant that David does not mention any particular sin. Notice that all the references to sin in the psalm are general references. There is no specific sin identified. Why is this significant? It is significant because it allows the psalm to apply to all sinners. If the psalm mentioned adultery or murder, then the covetous man or the thief could find no joy in the psalm, because the sins mentioned would not apply to him. There would be no sense of conviction for the idolater or the liar, because the sin identified was not their sin. But there is intentionally no sin identified in the psalm and thus the psalm applies to all sins.

Because of the way that Psalm 32 is written it can apply to any sin. Do you have any transgression that needs to be forgiven, or do you have any sin that needs to be covered? In Psalm 32 you will find that even your sin can be forgiven.

All sin causes you to waste away as with the fever heat of summer. All transgression and iniquity bring the LORD’s hand of heaviness and guilt pressing down upon you. This is the case no matter the sin or transgression. But if you will acknowledge your sin and if your iniquity you will not hide, then no matter what the sin is the LORD will remove the guilt of your sin.

This is the beauty of the Scripture and this is evidence of divine authorship because the Bible brings conviction, no matter the sin and it brings the hope of forgiveness, no matter the sin that is plaguing a person.

Because no sin is specified, all sins are included.

SDG       rmb       6/27/2018

Read Psalm 32 and we realize that 1) in this text the gospel is clearly proclaimed, for David writes of forgiveness and imputation of sin and righteousness and confession and repentance, and we realize that 2) this psalm and countless other passages in the Old Testament require the death of Jesus on the cross.

As we read the Old Testament and consider the writings of these godly men, it is apparent from the way that they wrote that Old Testament saints knew that they were righteous before the LORD and that the LORD loved them and defended them and forgave them of their sins, but they did not, they could not understand how this could be. By that I mean that they sensed a deep intimacy with the LORD and they enjoyed a close and personal relationship with Him without being able to explain how that intimate relationship had come to be. They could not explain how God forgave them of their transgressions when He did not forgive others. The OT saints could not articulate any reason why they sensed that they were righteous before the Holy One when at the same time they knew of their own sins and iniquities. There must have been at least some tension within the mind of the OT saints as they knew of the evil thoughts and sinful words and acts they had done, while unshakably sensing an acceptance and an intimacy with YHWH. And what is remarkable is that this tension never seems to have created any doubt in the mind of the OT saint. The fact that they could not explain or defend their sense of righteousness before the LORD does not lead to any doubt about that righteousness, even when the saint fell into great sin (David) or was fiercely attacked by his closest acquaintances because of their “unjustified” claim of righteousness (Job). David falls into great sin and there are severe consequences from the LORD for his sins of adultery and murder (2 Samuel 12), but never is there even a hint that David has lost his relationship with the LORD or that the LORD has rejected David. The LORD disciplines those He loves, but He never releases or abandons those He loves. In the example of Job, Job insists on his righteousness even under fierce accusation and rebuke from his three friends. Job cannot explain why he is righteous when he and his three friends all know that all men are sinners, but Job will not let go of his absolute conviction that he is righteous before the LORD and that the LORD has fully accepted him. Taunt, ridicule and character assassination from his friends will not persuade him that he is unrighteous and that now he needs to confess his sin and work his way back to a right standing with God. Job knows that the LORD loves him and nothing will change his mind.

Another observation is that no Old Testament saint ever appeals to the Law for his justification. The saint does not point to their performance of the Law to justify their right standing before God. The reason for this is evident: The Law condemns and only a fool would appeal to the instrument of condemnation for their acquittal. It is interesting that the Pharisees appealed to their law-keeping as the reason for their right standing before God.

The points I am trying to make are these two: 1) the Old Testament saints were completely convinced of their right standing before God and were at the same time aware of their own personal sins and transgressions and were nevertehless confident that God was going to reveal a way that their justification was accomplished; and 2) the fact that God justified the ungodly (Romans 4:5; 5:6) required the death of the sinless Son of God on the cross to provide the necessary atonement for sin. That is, the cross of Christ is necessary if God is going to ever forgive even one sin of one Old Testament saint.

So when David say, “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered; How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity,” we know that the LORD is going to send Jesus Christ to pay for those sins. When David confesses his sin to Nathan after Nathan has just told him of his heinous sins, his subsequent forgiveness (2 Samuel 12:13) requires the death of the Lord Jesus. When Job claims righteousness and also acknowledges his own sin, the sacrifice of the Son of God is required and thus guaranteed. Every mention of forgiveness in the Old Testament requires the death of Jesus Christ. If there is any mention of any person being forgiven or any person being righteous or good, be assured that these declarations require the death of Jesus.

The salvation of every Old Testament saint requires the agonies and the punishment of Calvary. “Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22) and there is only one pure and sinless blood that will be accepted as atonement for sin, and that is the blood of the Lord Jesus.

SDG       rmb       6/24/2018

The primary task of the disciple of Jesus Christ is to proclaim Him and His salvation to the entire world. As followers of Jesus, we are to manifest His saving power by living holy lives and, from that essential foundation, we are to tell of His glory so that men and women everywhere will worship Him both now and for all of eternity.

The purpose of this series of articles/studies is to examine the various pictures of proclamation presented to us by the New Testament and develop those into practical ways to proclaim Christ to a world that is blind to His glory, deaf to His voice and indifferent to the work that He has accomplished by His death of Calvary’s cross. I hope that these articles will equip disciples of Jesus to think through how they can become bolder proclaimers of the Lord.

Part 1 – The Sower (Matthew 13:3)

In Matthew 13, the Lord Jesus tells a series of parables which describe different aspects of the kingdom of heaven, and He starts out by telling His disciples a parable about a sower of seed. “Behold, the sower went out to sow.” The parable goes on to tell of different kinds of soil into which the seed fell and of the different results that the seed produced, but for our purposes we are going to focus our attention on the sower of the seed.

Notice that the sower is defined by what he does. No other characteristic of the person is mentioned in the parable, other than the fact that the person sows seed. This defines the sower. The sower sows seed. Apart from this task, the sower has no definition. Although this is an obvious fact, it is far from trivial, especially when we realize that we are the sower. What I am suggesting is that the disciple of Jesus Christ is a sower of the seed. We are defined by the task of sowing the seed. I believe Jesus intends for us to understand that His disciples are the sowers. (But what is the seed we are to sow? See below.)

Now, if the Lord Jesus Christ intends for me to be a sower, then sowing of seed immediately becomes a high priority activity for me and other activities will receive less time and attention. I will commit to learning all I can about sowing and I will make it my aim to be the most effective sower of seed that I can possibly be.

Another fact may be obvious but needs to be stated at this point: The disciple of Jesus Christ is not sowing physical seeds, but rather is sowing spiritual seeds. In fact, if I am to be an effective sower, it is critically important for me to understand what the seed is. Here the Bible is very clear: “The seed is the word of God (Luke 8:11).” Now, while we know that the whole word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12), a thoughtful reading of this parable of the sower in Matthew, Mark or Luke makes it clear that the “word of God” that our Lord has in mind in this context is the gospel. So, before we go on to consider how to put this into action and into practice, let’s be sure we have the completed idea in mind:

Every disciple of Jesus Christ has been given the task of sowing the gospel and it is incumbent on every disciple to make it their aim to be the most effective sower they can be.

Since I am pre-occupied with the task of sowing, I must think about how I am to sow.

How do I sow?

I sow daily. Part of my daily activity is sowing. I look for opportunities to sow and, when there are none presented, I may even create those opportunities. Sowing is a daily routine. It is part of my daily life.

I sow persistently. I scatter seed whether it is good weather or bad weather. I scatter seed even if I do not think that the seed will sprout. I persist until I see a harvest.

I sow consistently. I do not sow for a brief season and then take a break or give up or slow down. Rather, I sow day in and day out, steadily scattering the seed on the soil anticipating a crop and a harvest.

NOTE: The GOAL of my sowing is not to empty my sack of seeds. I am not merely going through the motions just to accomplish a task or check off a box. Just as the purpose of the one who literally sows seed is to reap a harvest, so I sow seed with the objective of reaping a harvest of souls for the Lord Jesus. The goal of sowing is not to fill the ground with seed but is to reap a harvest. The goal is a harvest, but one of the means to reaping a harvest is to sow the seed.

I sow generously. One of the surest ways to reap a small harvest is to sow little seed. (2 Corinthians 9:6) Therefore, since I want a large harvest and since the seed can be endlessly replenished, I sow the seed generously.

I sow broadly. Since in the parable in the gospels the sower throws seed everywhere, not knowing which seed will find good soil and which won’t, I will likewise scatter seed everywhere and trust that the Lord will direct the seed to the good soil. This suggests that, while sowing the seed is definitely an evangelistic strategy, it is not strategic. By that I mean that sowing is large numbers, but low impact. The tactic throws out many offers but expects limited results. It is not relational but is informational. It is random messages seeking a few responses or a few seeking additional information.

I sow patiently. The seed takes time to germinate and to begin to grow and to reach maturity. These things are not in my control, so I must wait patiently for the seed to bear fruit.

I sow hopefully. I believe that the Lord will take some of my seed and use it for bringing souls to salvation.

Having explored what the seed is (generally, the word of God; specifically, the gospel of salvation) and how we are to go about “sowing the seed,” it would be good to spend just a little time suggesting some practical examples of sowing the seed. Remembering the nature of sowing, that sowing is large numbers with low impact and that It is not relational but is informational, two particular methods of sowing occur to me.

• Saturating a geographic area around a church with gospel tracts; and
• Going door-to-door in the geographic area around a church so that the populace is made aware of the church and is made aware of what the church does and believes. The point is to introduce the Lord Jesus by introducing the church. The purpose is to make much of Jesus Christ, but the most visible and most common means of doing that is through the local church.
• Obviously you could combine 1) and 2)

The gospel tracts and the conversations going door-to-door should focus on the person of Jesus Christ and should introduce people to the gospel. Consistently sowing these things will hopefully bring some seed to the point where it sprouts.

SDG       rmb       6/22/2018

BLESSED IS THE MAN – TWICE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SDG       rmb       6/21/2018

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

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

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

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

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

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

SDG       rmb       6/10/2018

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

APPLICATIONS:

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

SDG       rmb       5/31/2018

 

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

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

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

SIGNIFICANCE / APPLICATION

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

SDG       rmb       5/24/2018

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

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

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

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

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

SDG       rmb        May 16, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Assurance is not MANUFACTURED but is MANIFESTED.

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

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

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

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

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

SDG       rmb       4/26/2018

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

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

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

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

INTENDED AUDIENCE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SDG       rmb       4/22/2018