Unlike every other religious book, the Bible is rock-solidly based on historical facts, and perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in Luke’s writing. In both the gospel of Luke and in the book of Acts there are many historical facts that crowd the chapters of those narratives. Luke writes of real, historical people and even tells about details of their lives and the specific dates when they lived. He also writes of real historical places which either still exist today or have been found in archaeological digs. And it must be remembered that Luke’s gospel was in circulation when the people he mentions were still known. In other words, if these were not real people, then the ones hearing the gospel account or reading the gospel record would know that the names were fictional people and thus the entire account would also be suspect.

This means that Luke’s gospel can be shown to be either truth or fiction. The facts could be validated by those early readers or hearers and they would also be denied if they were false. And the facts prove to be true in every case. Why is this important? It is important because if every historical fact in the gospel account proves to be true, it means that what Luke writes about Jesus is also true. Luke proves himself to be a trustworthy and accurate historian so that his readers will trust what he writes about Jesus. This is Luke’s goal, to arrange his gospel account in such a way that the truth of Jesus, of what He said and did, will be understood and believed (Luke 1:1-4).

As an example of Luke’s meticulous attention to historical detail, read Luke 3:1-2 carefully. Luke gives us at least eight verifiable historical facts of real people to establish the precise time when John the Baptist preached in the wilderness. The timing of this is important because Jesus immediately follows John. Thus Luke establishes the timing of the baptism, temptation and initial ministry of Jesus the Messiah, but more than that, by giving a host of historical facts that prove to be true, Luke is giving no reason to doubt the rest of what he writes.

So what are these historical facts? First, Luke mentions that these events took place during the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar. Not merely sometime during the reign of one of the Caesars, but in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius is when these events take place. Next we read of Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea. Here is a name that would have been unknown to history except for his meeting with Jesus. So Luke mentions Pilate. Then Herod, the wicked and sensual ruler of Galilee is mentioned, to further establish the historical setting. Herod’s brother Philip is another historical figure, as is the otherwise unknown Lysanias. Further pinpointing the exact time of these events is “the priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.” This is especially noteworthy, since it speaks of an unusual joint high priesthood, which may have been unique in Israel’s history. By including this minute detail, Luke not only shows an intimate knowledge of the state of Judaism at that specific time, but he also further showcases the painstaking efforts he has taken to capture with precise accuracy the historical context of the events he is going to describe. It is as if he is shouting, “These events really happened. There is nothing that is even slightly fictional about these accounts. There is no way I made this stuff up!” Real names; real dates; real places; thus, real events.

Finally, Luke re-introduces John the Baptist, the son of Zachariah as his last historical marker. John was well-known during his ministry and also after his ministry and his life ended. He thus serves as an historical figure and as the forerunner to the Messiah.

Again, all this verifiable, reliable historical information established Luke as a completely credible writer and witness. His testimony is true and the events he describes really happened. Yes, the Jesus he describes is the Jesus who lived. Jesus taught with authority, He called sinners to Himself, He lived a sinless life, He died on the cross and He rose from the dead. And one day He will return. Will you be ready?  SDG  rmb  4/17/2016

With the death of Christ, the sinless Son of God, death itself became subject to death, for in the death of Christ, death became a transgressor. How did this come about?

From the beginning, our holy God has had a settled hatred of all sin. Sin, all sin, is an offense against the holiness of God and represents cosmic treason against the Holy One, the Creator God. Thus in the beginning, the LORD God appointed death as the appropriate end of all who sinned. In this sense, death became the obedient servant of the LORD, because the LORD demanded death as punishment for sin and death dutifully obeyed. As such, death could make a legal claim on any and every human being who sinned. In fact, death was appointed by God to carry out that role. God had told Adam, “The day you eat of it (the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil), you SHALL SURELY DIE.” When Adam and Eve sinned, therefore, according to God’s command and according to His word, death staked its claim on the first two humans. “Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin . . . (Romans 5:12).” Because of God’s decree and Adam’s sin, death entered the world. “Death reigned from Adam until Moses even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam (Romans 5:14).” And death reigned because all had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). As soon as any human being transgressed for the first time in their life, they became subject to death and death could legally claim that person. When death claimed anyone who sinned, death was, in essence, being obedient to the role for which God had appointed it. “The soul that sins, it shall die (Ezekiel 18:4).” “The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).” “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness . . . (Romans 1:18).” “Transgressors will be altogether destroyed (Psalm 37:38).” Yes, death had a divine command from God to take all who sinned. As such, death was the dreaded, faithful servant of the LORD God, obediently taking away all sinners in death.

But there came a day when death overstepped its bounds and did that which it had no divine command to do. For when Christ came, He lived a sinless life. The Lord Jesus Christ never transgressed the Law of God even one time. He perfectly obeyed the Law of the Lord in His every thought, word and deed. The word of God testifies to the sinlessness of Jesus Christ. “He (God the Father) made Him WHO KNEW NO SIN (Jesus) to be sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21).” Peter declares that Jesus was the One “WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, nor was any deceit found in His mouth (1 Peter 2:22).” The author of Hebrews says, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, YET WITHOUT SIN (Heb. 4:15).” Of course Jesus Himself was aware of His own perfect obedience, for in a dialog with His adversaries (John 8:46) He said, “Which one of you convicts Me of sin?” After this question there was no response, because Jesus had no sin of which He could be convicted. In his first epistle, the apostle John says, “And you know that He appeared to take away sins; AND IN HIM THERE IS NO SIN (1 John 3:5).” The conclusive witness of Scripture is that Jesus Christ had no sin.

So “the wages of sin is death” and “the soul that sins, it shall die,” but what is to be done with this Jesus Christ, for He has no sin? The theological fact is that, since Jesus was not a sinner and had lived a sinless life of perfect obedience, death had no claim on Jesus. God had commanded death to take all sinners, but God had given death absolutely no right to claim a man who had never sinned. For death to take a sinner was for death to be obedient to its divinely appointed role, but for death to take a sinless man was for death to transgress. And so when death claimed the sinless Son of God, death overstepped its divinely ordained bounds. Thus in the moment that death took Jesus Christ away, in that exact moment death became a transgressor. Death sinned in taking away a sinless, innocent Man, and so death, as a sinner, became unrighteous and thus was subject to God’s wrath (Romans 1:18). In the death of Christ, death itself became subject to death, for “the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)” and “transgressors will be altogether destroyed (Psalm 37:38).” Do you see what Christ has accomplished? He fulfilled the Law of God perfectly and thus became our source of imputed righteousness (Isaiah 61:10; Jeremiah 23:6). He died on the cross to pay the death penalty (Romans 3:25) for all who would believe on Him. He destroyed the works of the devil by robbing death of any fear (1 John 3:8; Heb. 2:14-15). But here in this study we have also seen that by allowing death to take Him, He condemned death to death. Now because of the death of Jesus, death must surely die. And we see this brought to pass at the end of time: “And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14).” Death will be thrown into the lake of fire because of the sinless life and the death of Jesus Christ. SDG   rmb   4/12/2016

Jeremiah 13:23 – “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil.” Here Jeremiah speaks to one of the most profound conditions of fallen man. Can anyone really change? O, this is a question that deserves some thought.

First it must be acknowledged that the natural man cannot change. We will forget for the moment the fact that he does not desire to change and we will ignore the fact that he loves his evil practices and his lusts and he eagerly wants to continue in them. For now I just want to talk about the natural man’s complete inability to change. The unbeliever cannot change anything about himself. O yes, a person can change locations and they can change their hair color and their style of running shoes, but the natural man is powerless to change anything within himself, anything of substance. He is trapped in the Cage, the place where his experiences, his environment, and his natural genetic makeup have put him. Thus “the Ethiopian” cannot change his skin, and everyone is born “an Ethiopian,” trapped in his skin. Everyone is born in a cage and is unable to change his behavior. So the first answer to Jeremiah’s question is: “No, the Ethiopian cannot change his skin, the leopard cannot change his spots, and the one who does evil is unable to do good.”

But what happens when God changes the Ethiopian’s skin? The Ethiopian cannot change his own skin, but God can change his skin and can make him new (2 Cor. 5:17). Thus God does the impossible every time a person comes to faith in Christ. The “Ethiopian” (that’s everyone of us) has been changed and thus he can now be transformed, because the Ethiopian has new skin. The Cage that contained and constrained him has been shattered and the chains have been loosed. When Christ sets you free (John 8:34-36), you become free to change and you also receive with your new skin a deep desire to be holy. Thus the believer begins to change from the first moments of their reborn life and he continues to grow and change as he draws closer to Christ. Therefore the believer can change and he or she will change, because the Cage has been shattered and because they have been born again to a living hope, which will certainly result in a changed life. Now, after God has changed his skin, the Ethiopian can begin to do good. SDG  rmb  4/9/2016

In the opening chapter of the book of Daniel we find Daniel and his three companions in Babylon in the midst of a pagan culture with pagan religion and pagan practices. So what is a devout Hebrew to do in this situation? We can learn from Daniel here, because we live in a similar situation. Let’s see what Daniel chose to do and what the results were of his decision. We will see that Daniel had a strategy in mind and the LORD also was going to use Daniel and his three friends to work a great work in the life of Nebuchadnezzar.

“But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine that he drank.” – Daniel 1:8

When Daniel comes to Babylon, he is brought into the court of the king of Babylon, to King Nebuchadnezzar. He has been brought into the highest court in Babylon because he had no defect, he was good-looking, was intelligent and had understanding and knowledge. The Hebrew youths with these qualities were hand-picked for an indoctrination program so that they could be taught the literature and the language of the Chaldeans. The program almost certainly involved introducing the Hebrew youths to the pagan gods of the Chaldeans as well. Another part of this program was eating the choicest of the king’s food and the best of the king’s wine. Nebuchadnezzar planned to make these Hebrews into good Chaldeans to serve him in his court as prizes of his conquests. He would have the best and the brightest of the Hebrews in his service and he would gradually turn them into Chaldeans, with Chaldean thinking and with Chaldean gods.

It would be good to pause here and see that this is exactly what the world would have the follower of Jesus become. The world tries constantly to press us into its mold and to have us eat the choice food of this world. The world would have us lose all those things that make us distinct and set apart to the LORD and would have us instead compromise and blend in with the rest of the perishing. The believer must vigorously resist compromise and resist losing the distinctives that make us holy to the LORD, while at the same time we need to maintain our platform for witness and not be so distinct from the world that we lose touch with the world we are trying to reach with the gospel. It is this balancing act that Daniel performs brilliantly. Let’s see how Daniel does this.

Daniel and his friends are Hebrews, just like all the other hand-picked youths from Jerusalem, but they are not just ethnically Hebrew. They are true followers of the LORD and they intend to live as followers of Yahweh no matter where geographically they live. But also I believe that Daniel and his friends were aware that their lives were being ordained by the LORD and that ultimately it was Yahweh who had sent these young men to Babylon for His purposes. (See 1:2 – “The LORD gave Jehoiakim . . .”) Again offering my opinion, I believe that the LORD intended to make Nebuchadnezzar into one of His followers and He was going to use Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael to do it. These men had been sent to Babylon by the LORD as His ambassadors and, as wise ambassadors, it was their duty to determine how to make the wishes and the glory of their King known to the nation into which they were sent. So while Nebuchadnezzar had hand-picked these fine Hebrew youths for his service, the LORD had long before selected these young men for His service and for the service of His kingdom.

Once again it would be a good idea to pause here and consider what is going on. For just as these Hebrew youths were selected by Yahweh to be His ambassadors in this pagan place of Babylon, even so today He has selected you and me as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ to be His ambassadors in the places where He sends us. And as Daniel and his friends considered how they could be effective ambassadors in pagan Babylon, so we need to seriously consider how we can be effective ambassadors in our own Babylon. Your workplace is one of your Babylons, for the LORD has placed you there to be His light in that dark place (Matthew 5:16). How can you be an effective ambassador there? Maybe your school is a place where you are maligned and maybe even persecuted for being a Christian. Take courage and begin to see your situation as your assignment as an ambassador. What is my strategic plan for reaching this school for Jesus or at least for reaching a few of the people in this school for Jesus? Begin to think strategically as an ambassador. “How do I begin in this place? How can I make sure that these people know that I am not just a nice guy/girl, but that I am a follower of Jesus? And once they know that, how can I use that as a platform for telling them about Jesus?” How can we make it clear that we are a Jesus-follower without making them think that we are some out-of-touch religious weirdo? And once we have raised the awareness that we are distinct because we follow Jesus, how do we then use that as an opportunity for the gospel? What we will see with Daniel is that he established the fact that he was not just a Hebrew, but he was a worshipper of Yahweh, and then, when the LORD acted in a mighty way (Daniel 2, 3, 6), Daniel could give all the glory to the Lord.

So what does Daniel do first? He politely asks the commander of the officials if he can be excluded from the king’s choice food and from the wine the king drank. Why does he do this? Daniel does this so that he can make it very obvious to those who are watching that he is serious about obeying the God of the Hebrews. This does several things. First, it makes it relatively easy for Daniel and his friends, when the time comes, to declare that they must obey the LORD and cannot bow down to other gods (Daniel 3). The Chaldeans may object, but they should not be surprised. It also makes clear that not all ethnic Hebrews are true followers of Yahweh. Just because you dress like a Hebrew and talk like a Hebrew does not mean you are a true Hebrew. A true Hebrew is one who is holy and set apart to Yahweh. Thirdly and most importantly, it brings the LORD into the conversation, because it is the LORD that determines what Daniel and his friends will and won’t do. Because Daniel has established that he is a follower of the God of heaven, it is only natural that he is going to talk about that God.

Daniel and his friends, then, accomplish a lot just by refusing to eat the king’s food. The LORD sees to it that they remain healthy and so they are promoted to the personal service of King Nebuchadnezzar. Thus they have direct and personal access to the man they are seeking to win to Yahweh. They have established that they are serious about their service to their God and that they will not compromise and worship the Chaldean gods. This, however, is done in such a way that there is no offense given to the Chaldeans or to the king. Thus Daniel and his friends are in the royal palace as worshippers of the Hebrew God, but they are respected and accepted. They have laid the foundation for their evangelistic ministry to Nebuchadnezzar and have also opened the door wide for the LORD to move in this situation.

THE LESSON TO US: We also need to take this kind of a strategic approach. How can we raise the flag and make clear that I am a Jesus-follower without creating a wall between me and those I am trying to reach? One thing that we must do is live a holy and a righteous life before those who are watching, and we must be careful to do this all the time. We must establish that we are not just nice people, but that we are followers of Jesus and it is Him that we worship. Jesus is the one that changes lives. And once we have established the beach-head (so to speak) of our own personal holiness, we must then consider how the Lord will use this to further the gospel in our world. By following the strategy of Daniel and his three friends in their captivity in Babylon, we can be effective ambassadors for Jesus in our situation.  SDG  rmb  3/31/2016

The book of Leviticus is a treasure of what the LORD commanded to His people regarding sacrifices and offerings. The main theme of Leviticus is the holiness of God and much of the book conveys the clear message that the LORD is holy and anyone who would approach the LORD must come to Him on His terms. Leviticus also contains many pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ in foreshadows and types. Since this is the case and since many believers are unfamiliar with Leviticus, I wanted to begin some blog posts that I am calling “Lessons from Leviticus.”

In chapter 17 the LORD again speaks to Moses and says, “This is what the LORD has commanded.” The LORD then gives commands about the slaughtering of sacrifices and describes what must be done for any sacrifice to be accepted. (Leviticus 17:1-9) Every sacrifice must be “brought to the doorway of the tent of meeting to offer it to the LORD” and the priest must approve the sacrifice and the priest must offer the sacrifice. If the exact procedure commanded by the LORD was not followed, “bloodguiltiness is to be reckoned to that man” who offered the sacrifice and the one making the sacrifice “shall be cut off from among his people.”

Several observations should be made here:

1. The sacrifices were governed by the LORD through His priest;
2. The LORD determined what was an acceptable sacrifice;
3. The worshipper can only bring an acceptable sacrifice or he will be cut off from his people.

In any case, it is obvious that the LORD takes these sacrifices very seriously. But here is the question: Why does the LORD make this a big deal? That is, why does the LORD command that all sacrifices must be approved? This is even more curious when we know that the blood of all these bulls and goats could never take away sins (Hebrews 10:4). So why did the LORD command that every one of these ineffective sacrifices; every bull and goat and lamb and ram and calf and pigeon has to be brought to the tent of meeting and had to be approved as an acceptable sacrifice?

The answer is that all the acceptable, approved sacrifices offered in the tabernacle and in the temple by all the priests pointed forward to the one perfect and final sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Every sacrifice had to be approved by the priest and then had to be offered to the LORD in the way that the LORD had prescribed because of the perfect sacrifice that was foreshadowed by every sacrifice. The cumulative blood of all the lambs, rams, bulls and goats slaughtered in the temple could not take away one single sin (Hebrews 10:4), but nevertheless the LORD required that every one of these imperfect and ineffective sacrifices be approved by Him through the priest, because each approved sacrifice pointed to the final perfect and supremely approved sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross. SDG  rmb  3/20/2016

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