Fighting Persistent Sin

[Not long ago, a friend asked about fighting a persistent sin. Here is an edited version of my reply – Coty]

After God makes us a new creation in Christ, certain sins disappear. They never rear their ugly heads again. Often this happens immediately upon being saved, sometimes much later. He graciously gives us these tokens as a down-payment of the complete transformation that He promises in the new heavens and the new earth.

With some other sins, the temptation to give in may disappear for a time. But God has not removed our susceptibility. The disappearance is temporary. Satan waits “until an opportune time” to tempt us again (as Satan did, unsuccessfully, with our Lord – Luke 4:13). In this case, the period of zero temptation is a strategy by the Enemy to get us to let our guard down, to remove boundaries – as in a war, a general might withdraw his troops and temporarily not engage in any action, all the while preparing for a surprise major assault.

Then there is a third type of sin. These are constantly with us. We feel the temptation every day until we die or Jesus returns. Scripture calls us to battle these continually, putting to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit (Romans 8:13).

How do we do that? How can we put this third type of sin to death when the temptation keeps popping up every day?

The battle takes place on three fronts: In the mind, in the affections, and in actions.

The Battle in the Mind

1) Satan is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). What lies has Satan used successfully against you in the past in tempting you into these sins? Once you’ve identified the lies, arm yourself with the Word of Truth to fight those lies. This link provides some examples.

2) Fight desire with desire. Sin is not the way to love, joy, peace, security, or fulfillment. It is the way to death, to the destruction of all that is good, even all that is pleasurable.

3) Don’t downplay the importance of any sin. Never excuse it or claim it is not so bad.

4) Preach the Gospel to yourself, listen to the Gospel preached, and ask others to speak it to you. Satan will try to condemn you and to make you think that you are His slave. In Christ you are not. 1 John 1:5-2:2 is helpful here.

So points 2, 3, and 4 together say: Your sin is great. And the Gospel is greater.

5) Remind yourself regularly: This fight is temporary. God has placed you in it, requiring you to depend on Him to fight it. He will glorify Himself in the fight, and, in the new heavens and the new earth, He will make you perfect practically as you already are perfect positionally before Him in Christ.

The Battle in the Affections

1) Cultivate a hatred for this sin. Reflect on ways this same type of sin has destroyed the lives of others and dishonored our Lord. Reflect on the way Jesus did resist (if there are biblical examples) or must have resisted this temptation. Remind yourself regularly that sin is completely antithetical to who you are in Christ (1 John 2:28-3:10 is especially helpful, particularly verse 9. The KJV is quite literal: “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” We cannot sin without denying our new birth.)

2) Cultivate love of God, love of Jesus, especially a longing to be like Him.

3) Cultivate a love for your family and the family of God around you, thanking God always for each of them. Every sin will have an impact on them.

The Battle in Actions

1) Be quick to confess and repent, making no excuses.

2) Be quick to pray when tempted

3) Identify those situations and moods that lead you to be tempted, or to let your guard down, avoiding such situations when possible, and watching yourself even more carefully when you can’t. Develop a strategy for what you will do in those cases.

4) Seek help and prayer from others and develop a regular plan for who will ask you about your battle against such temptations.

5) Pray every day for each person in your family and for several in your church, asking God to use you in each of their lives.

Note that this is not a way to put the sin behind you once and for all. For sins in this third category, there is a daily – even hourly – fight the rest of your life. But the fight itself can be God-glorifying. That’s why God hasn’t taken away the temptation.

Love you, brother. You are indeed a new man in Christ. Live it out through the fight to depend on Him, the fight to love Him, the fight to love your family and the family of God.

In Him, Coty

 

The Foundation for a Thankful Heart

What leads to “spontaneous” gratefulness?

The middle of the night. Wakened – barely – by the sound of raindrops, I turn from my back to my side. My hand accidentally touches Beth’s shoulder. Resting it there, I pray, “Thank You, Lord, for this precious woman.”

The prayer was not the result of a logical chain of reasoning. It simply welled up within me in the moment. It was spontaneous in that sense.

However, if the same sequence of events had happened forty years ago, that prayer would not have occurred. So what has changed in me over these decades that leads my heart to thank God spontaneously?

Scripture tells us again and again that we must be grateful:

  • Psalm 52:9: “I will thank you forever.”
  • Psalm 105:1 (and seventeen other verses): “Give thanks to the LORD.”
  • Colossians 3:15: “Be thankful.”
  • 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
  • 2 Timothy 1:3: “I thank God … as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.”

Why are we to be overflowing in thanksgiving to God? Because He is the source of everything good:

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (James 1:17).

In particular:

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).

Yet I deserve neither good gifts nor everything needed for life and godliness. Rather, I deserve the opposite: punishment from God:

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”… All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…. The wages of sin is death (Romans 3:10-12, 3:23, 6:23).

Yet in His mercy He shone the light of the Gospel in my heart, enabling me to see Jesus for Who He is (2 Corinthians 4:6); He laid my iniquity onto Jesus (Isaiah 53:6); and He therefore declared me righteous “by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).

A gift! And how should we respond to gifts?

So salvation alone should lead to our giving abundant thanks to God.

Now, I understood the gift of redemption many years ago, and have thanked God for it regularly. That is the base of the foundation of “spontaneous” thanksgiving. But more layers were needed before such thanks would well up within me.

I had to see – and not only see but take to heart – that everything good in this world as well as anything good in me is the result of the grace of God through Jesus Christ.

I had to learn that apart from Him I could do nothing (John 15:5); apart from Him I could not succeed in any business or profession (Deuteronomy 8:17-18); apart from Him there are no beautiful sunsets, no glorious galaxies, no creative people; apart from Him there is no love, no hope, no joy, no peace. For the heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1), and when we display any goodness, we are reflecting the remnants of His image in us (Genesis 1:26-27).

When, through daily encounters with the Word of God over decades, the Spirit builds these truths in our hearts on to the foundation of redemption, we then thank God spontaneously when we notice a snapdragon in bloom, a chicken pot pie in the oven, or a loving spouse next to us in the bed. Spontaneously – but not so spontaneously. For the foundation was built up over many years.

So now I remind myself every morning and at every meal: This food, this day, this breath, even the ability to move – all of these are mine only because of Jesus. So I thank You, Lord, in His Name.

Do realize – I am not yet fulfilling Ephesians 5:20, “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” I must continue to grow in thankfulness, to God and to others. But I can look back forty years ago and say with John Newton, “Though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be– I can truly say that I am not what I once was…. ‘by the grace of God I am what I am!’” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

You too can grow in this grace. Go to the Word. Ask the Spirit to lay this foundation. Remind yourself daily of these truths. And then open your eyes! Notice His gifts! They are all around you.

Come to the King!

God is King!

Yet Psalm 95 emphasizes something unusual about this king. Who can approach a king?

In the book of Esther, recall that no one was allowed to enter the kings presence without his explicit invitation. If you did come in, you would die – unless the king leaned his scepter towards you.

In contrast, three times in Psalm 95 we read: Come!

  • Come to the king
  • Let’s come into His presence
  • Come let us worship

Jesus issues similar invitations to all:

  • “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28)
  • “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37)
  • “Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst…. Whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:35, 37)

Despite these extensive invitations, many do not come. Jesus says to some of them: “You refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:40).

Thus, nothing is more important than coming to God, than coming to Jesus.

So let’s examine this psalm that exhorts us to come to God again and again, and listen to its explanation of why we should come.

We’ll examine this psalm under three headings:

  • Come to Him!
  • Why?
  • Oh That You Would Hear His Voice!

Along the way we’ll see three different ways we are to come to Him.

Come to Him!

The psalmist commands us to come in Psalm 95:1-2 and again in verse 6. At first reading, these may appear to be similar commands. But both in ancient Israel and today, these commands refer to two distinct purposes behind our coming to God. The first:

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! (Psalm 95:1-2)

We come to do what? To sing, to make a joyful noise, to thank Him, to praise Him. But note: we are doing all this while coming into His presence.  The picture is of procession approaching the tabernacle or temple, praising Him along the way.

These verses describe a rambunctious, joyful, noisy procession, praising God for being the “rock of our

So this is first of the three ways we are to come to Him: Come with joyful praise.

Psalm 95:6 is rather different:

Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

Now the procession has entered the tabernacle or temple. The joyful praise changes to awe at His presence. So the worshipers now come to bow and kneel rather than to make a joyful noise.

This second type of coming expresses similar sentiments to Habakkuk 2:20:  “The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”

So Psalm 95 commands us, first, to come to God with joyful, loud worship, and, second, to come to Him with quiet, reflective, contemplative worship.

Although we today don’t come into the tabernacle or temple, both ideas still hold. In worship, we express joy in Christ. There is a place expressing that joy in noise, in loud singing, in celebration. And there is a place for expressing that joy in quiet contemplation, as we consider our sinfulness and His great grace, the judgment we deserve and the cost to Jesus of taking that judgment on Himself.

The great King calls you to come to Him, into His very presence, in both ways. So come to God in joyful praise! Come to God in quiet confession, considering how you deserve His judgment.

Both are important. Do you love both? Do you respond to both?

We still must consider the third way to come to God. But first let’s see why we should come to Him.

Why?

Why should we come in both ways? The psalmist gives three reasons Psalm 95:3-7.

First: He is a great king above all gods:

For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods (Psalm 95:3)

He is the greatest king, the greatest god – there is no comparison.

But most of us are not tempted to worship Baal or Molech or a block of wood. So replace “gods” with “idols.” Aren’t you tempted to idolatry? That is: Aren’t you tempted to look to something other than God for identity, for security, for joy? This verse tells us that God is far greater than all these alternatives:

  • Nothing else can satisfy us and give us true joy
  • Nothing else can protect us
  • Nothing else can tell us who we really are
  • Nothing else endures

The second reason we should come to Him: He created and controls all.

In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. (Psalm 95:4-5)

The psalmist uses extremes to communicate how extensive God’s work is: He controls the depths and the heights, the sea and the dry land.

To show God’s intimate involvement, the psalm uses the metaphor of God’s hand thrice (two times here and again in verse 7). He made everything by His hand – and all things remain in His hand. God thus controls all.

The third reason we should come to Him: He is our Maker, and we are His sheep

Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand (Psalm 95:6-7a).

What does the psalmist mean by saying that God is our Maker?

Surely that God creates us, as He creates the seas and  mountains.

Surely that He controls us, we are in His hand, as is the case with the dry land and the depths of the earth.

But there’s a third level to God’s relationship with us that does not hold for inanimate creation: We are not only made by His hand, we not only are in His hand, we are sheep of His hand; we are people of His pasture. So He not only created us, He made us to be in relationship with Him. He is our God.

Throughout history God has been working to create, protect, and complete His faithful remnant, His perfected people, Christ’s spotless bride. As Romans 8:28-30 tell us, God works all things together for good of His people, so that the very ones He foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son; these very same ones He then calls at specific points in time – calls them to come to Him; these very same ones He justifies, He declares righteous by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross; and these very same ones He glorifies, making them like Himself. Furthermore, all this is so certain that it is as good as done.

That’s what it means to be the sheep of His hand. The good, all-powerful shepherd loves you. Amidst all the apparent threats to the flock – the roaring lion of Satan, the wolves of disease and danger, the foolishness and stupidity and wandering that we sheep are prone to – His hand guides us and holds us, lifting us up on His shoulders to bring us back when we wander, fighting off attackers, hindering and ultimately destroying the lion, Satan. By His hand, He brings His entire flock into the fold. And we remain His for all eternity.

Indeed, by His hand He brought you here to read or listen to this sermon.

So come to Him:

  • He is the great king who offers you what no idol can ever grant
  • He created and controls all – including all that happens in your life
  • He can be your You can be His sheep, guided and protected by His hand.

Join that flock. For Jesus says: “Come to me – however weary and burdened you may be. Come to Me – and I will give you rest.”

O That You Would Hear His Voice!

In the second have of verse 7, the tone of the psalm changes dramatically. Indeed, it changes so much that some have wondered if this should be considered a different psalm. But this change of tone is a powerful way to communicate the third command to come. To help us see that, let’s consider briefly a New Testament passage in which Jesus commands a man to come.

In Mark 10:17-22, a man runs up to Jesus – he comes. This man kneels before Him – as Psalm 95:6 tells us to do before God. The man praises Jesus, calling Him “Good teacher.” He then asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus tells him that he already knows the commandments, and then lists several. The man replies, saying he has always kept them.

Now – when we consider the way that Jesus understands the commandments, we know that statement is false (see Matthew 5:17-48). But instead of quibbling with the man’s statement and explaining what obedience to the commandments really means,    Jesus goes directly to the root of the man’s problem. Our Savior looks at him, loves him, and tells him he lacks one thing. Then Jesus gives him five commands:

“Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” (Mark 10:21)

Five commands. What is the one thing he lacks?

  • He has come to Jesus physically.
  • He has fallen before Him and acknowledged His goodness – thus he has worshiped Jesus in some sense.

But He is not following Jesus. He has not come to obey Jesus in all of His life. Indeed, he disobeys Jesus’ explicit command. So he walks away sorrowful.

He has not come to Jesus in obedience. He has not come to hear and obey.

It’s that sense of coming that Psalm 95 refers to in verses 7 to the end.

“Today, if you hear his voice” (Psalm 95:7b ESV)

Or “Today, if only you would hear His voice!” (Psalm 95:7b NIV)

Understand: In Scripture, hearing God implies obedience to Him. Thus Jesus repeatedly says, “He who has ears to ear, let him hear!” (for example, in Mark 4:9, 23). Jesus means: “Don’t just let the words go in one ear and out the other! Take them to heart! Obey them!”

So the NET renders Psalm 95:7b, “Today, if you would only obey Him!”

The psalmist is not saying, “Maybe you’ll hear His voice, maybe you won’t.” Rather, he says: “He has made Himself clear. Listen to Him! Come to Him and obey Him! Follow Him!”

This is thus the third sense in which we are to come to God – the same sense Jesus uses in the story in Mark 10:

  • Come in joyful praise
  • Come in quiet contemplation and worship
  • Come and obey. Come and follow

Verses 8-9 then state this negatively:

Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. (Psalm 95:8-9)

This refers to an incident recorded in Exodus 17. Consider what the people of Israel have experienced:

  • They have seen the ten plagues in Egypt that God used to orchestrate their release
  • They have walked through the Red Sea as if on dry land, while Pharaoh’s army was drowned
  • They have worshiped God joyfully as a result (Exodus 15)

God has proven Himself mighty; He has proven Himself faithful.

But now they are in place with no water. They grumble. They complain, saying to Moses: “Why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us… with thirst?” (Exodus 17:3)

God tells Moses to strike a rock with his staff – and water miraculously flows out of that rock. God does provide for them.

But they had hardened their hearts.

In what sense?

They had plenty of revelation concerning God’s character and love in both word and deed. Now was the time for faith – a time to remember who God is, to trust that He would once again work for them. This was not a time for demanding further proof that God was for them.

Aren’t we tempted to have similar hard hearts?

  • Hasn’t he given us everything pertaining to life and godliness in His Word?
  • Hasn’t He shown Himself faithful to us, His people over the centuries?
  • Don’t we have thousands and thousands of witnesses to His power, grace, and mercy among people we know and among those who have told their stories?

In 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, Paul refers to Exodus 17 and experiences of the people of Israel in the wilderness, saying they are examples for us, written for our instruction, so that we would not be idolators like them, or engage in sexual immorality like them, or put Christ to the test like them, or grumble like them.

Friends, don’t harden your heart against God. Soften it instead. He has told you who He is. He has told you how to be among His people. He has told you the path to life. He has commanded you to come to Him and to follow Him joyfully.

As Proverbs 28:14 tells us: “Blessed is the one who fears the LORD always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.”

The great majority of the Israelites kept hardening their hearts, kept going astray, and thus never knew God. So Psalm 95 concludes:

For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”

The very people He had brought out of Egypt and spoken to at Mt Sinai are under His wrath. They cannot come to Him (the Hebrew word translated “enter” in verse 11 is translated “come” in verse 6).

As Hebrew 4 tells us when the author comments on Psalm 95, we must make every effort to enter, to come to His rest. We must quit depending on our own resources; we must quit depending on other, alternate resources. We must come to Jesus for grace, for help, for joy, for fulfillment. We must follow Him in joyful obedience by His Holy Spirit. He provides us with the way to resist temptation. His hand leads us in His ways

Conclusion

“Oh that you would hear his voice!”

Friends: We preach the way we do – opening up passages, sticking closely to the text – so that the voice you hear is God’s, not the preacher’s. You have ears to hear. The sounds of His voice have gone out. Now: You must obey.

Come, then: Follow Him. Obey Him.

  • Don’t be like the Israelites, demanding signs when they have plenty of evidence, plenty of revelation of Who God is.
  • Don’t be like the rich young ruler, saying nice things about Jesus, but rejecting His command and walking away from the only possible Savior.
  • Don’t make excuses for your sin, claiming that God couldn’t expect you to overcome it.

Admit that you are at best the stupid sheep of His hand: Prone to wander – but guided by Him, loved by Him, protected by Him.

Come into His rest.

  • Come! Praise Him with thanksgiving, with lots of noise.
  • Come! Kneel, worship quietly before Him, confessing your sins and accepting His grace in Jesus.
  • Come! Delight to follow Him in obedience, delight to be His sheep – now and forever.

[This is a shortened write up of a sermon preached April 18, 2021. You can listen to the audio at this link.]

 

 

 

O God of Vengeance, Shine Forth!

On Wednesday afternoon April 7, Phillip Adams, armed with two firearms, approached the house of prominent Rock Hill physician Robert Lesslie. He shot two HVAC technicians working at the property. Adams then forced entry into the house, where he shot and killed Dr Lesslie, his wife, and two of their grandchildren, ages 5 and 9. Phillip Adams later killed himself. At this point, apparently no one knows why.

We live in a world where terrible events happen all too frequently. And many feel as if our world is getting worse.

Look around this world, this country, this city – what concerns you? (more…)

What God Tells Us About Himself 6,800 Times

[From Providence by John Piper (Crossway, 2020), p.90-92. Piper is speaking of the goal of God’s providence in the history of the exodus. Join us for our study of providence Thursday evenings, 7:30-8:30 via Zoom. The preparation guide is available here (a pdf file) – Coty]

God’s name is a message. And the message is about how he intends to be known. Every time his name appears—all 6,800 times—he means to remind us of his utterly unique being. As I have pondered the meaning of the name Yahweh, built on the phrase “I am who I am” and pointing to God’s absolute being, I see at least ten dimensions to its meaning: (more…)

The Discipline of Daily Declarations

Psalm 92 declares that the righteous will “flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him” (Psalm 92:13b-15).

What leads to that type of flourishing – flourishing not for a day or a year or even a decade, but flourishing in delight in God, in proclaiming His goodness and His support, through the end of your life, even if you should live to 90 or 100? That is: What can you do today to bring about such flourishing many years in the future?

In Sunday’s sermon on this psalm we considered its exhortations to give thanks to God, to praise Him for His love and faithfulness and justice, to sing to Him, to recall His works, and to remember how far He is above us. Indeed, the psalmist tells us it is good to “declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night” (Psalm 92:2). That is, we should make such declarations at all times.

In summary, I suggested we consider doing so also in the morning and evening of our lives – when we are young and old. We thus can commit ourselves to the discipline of daily declarations – stating four reminders every day that encourage us to depend on Him and not on ourselves.

The following four declarations are based on Romans 11:33-36 as well as Psalm 92:

  • First: I can never be God’s counselor – His wisdom is far beyond me. So when oftentimes feeling as if I know better than God how to run the world, or my country, or my life, or the lives of my loved ones, I will humbly acknowledge that He is all wise, and I am not.
  • Second: Everything good in my life is mine only because of Jesus, for I deserve only condemnation. All of us from the time of Adam – except Jesus – do not deserve even to take a single breath. Apart from God’s plan of redemption through His Son, Adam and Eve would have died upon their rebellion against God. To live, to breath, to eat, to grow, to see God’s creation, to have any joy or pleasure – these are all undeserved gifts. And the greatest gift is to be welcomed into God’s intimate family through the sacrifice of Jesus. He is the source of all that is good, whether in us or around us.
  • Third: All those who seem to thrive by turning their backs on Jesus will perish. Though they may flourish for a while, God raises them up only to bring them down – either in this life or in eternity. This reminder guards me from self-pity and envy – what we have in Christ far outweighs any lack we may experience that comes from following Him – and prompts me to witness to His grace.
  • Fourth: I will flourish today and forever only by depending on Him – He is my rock. My task is to depend actively on Him, to turn to Him, to pray to Him, to remind myself of the promises that are all Yes in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20). Apart from Him I can do nothing (John 15:5). This declaration helps protect me from self-righteousness and any sense of superiority over others. As the Apostle Paul says, “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).

I encourage you to modify these or add to them to effectively fight the fight of faith, the fight to depend on God through Jesus. May we all endure in joy in the Lord to the end of this present life – whether that’s tomorrow, next year, or many decades in the future.

 

Even the Wind and the Waves Obey Him

George Orjih, a pastor from the northeastern corner of Nigeria, in 2009 was studying for a Masters degree at a seminary in the city of Jos. In the break between terms, he traveled the 300 miles home, in cramped vehicles and on difficult roads, so that he could spend a few weeks with his family and home church. He is described as a loving pastor, “fearless, hardworking, and intellectually sound.” The day after he arrived home, a group of men calling themselves Boko Haram kidnapped him. This group wants Islamic sheria law to apply to everyone who lives in northern Nigeria. George was ordered to deny Jesus and accept Islam. He responded by preaching the Gospel. So he was beheaded on July 28, 2009.

Not 2000 years ago. This century.

Question: When such things happen: Is God really in control? Does He really never leave us nor forsake us? Can we trust Him when we know brothers and sisters in Christ lose their lives? (more…)

Providence: How and Why God Acts

Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. (Psalm 115:3)

Consider natural disasters and what we think of as the normal processes of nature:

  • A tsunami strikes Sumatra with overwhelming force, killing 250,000 people.
  • The sun rises every morning – indeed, the sun is always rising somewhere in this world.
  • Grass, trees, and crops grow.

Scripture tells us that God controls such events:

  • the wind and waves obey Jesus (Luke 8:22-25)
  • God makes the sun to rise (Matthew 5:45)
  • He causes plants to grow (Psalm 104:14)

Think of key points in biblical history:

  • Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery in Egypt.
  • Pharaoh refuses to let the people of Israel go.
  • Satan enters into Judas.
  • Pilate releases Barabbas and turns Jesus over to be crucified.

According to Scripture, in all these events, God is working out His perfect plan:

  • Joseph’s brothers act sinfully, but God intends that action for good – even their own good (Genesis 50:20)
  • God hardens Pharaoh’s heart so that he will not let the people go (Exodus 7:2-5, 11:10)
  • Though Satan enters Judas (Luke 22:2-3) and Pilate acts according to his perception of his self-interest (Matthew 27:15-26), the crucifixion and its surround events happen exactly according to God’s plan (Acts 4:24-28).

Or consider the acts of nations and individuals today:

  • Joe Biden becomes president of the United States and signs dozens of executive orders.
  • China incarcerates more than a million Uighurs in concentration camps and violates its treaty with Britain in cracking down on pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong.
  • An elderly atheist who has ridiculed Jesus for decades comes to faith.
  • You and I are breathing right now.

Scripture tells us that God is in control even of such events:

  • “The Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will” (Daniel 4:25)
  • “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will” (Proverbs 21:1)
  • God “has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. (Romans 9:18)
  • God gives us “life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25)

Such Scriptures paint a picture of a sovereign God ruling all events, moving all creation forward to His appointed end.

This raises a multitude of questions: What is God’s goal in all this? How is this sovereignty related to our responsibility for our actions? How is that sovereignty related to His commands to us – and our obeying or disobeying those commands? Does God’s control extend even to evil acts of evil men and all natural events? Does He providentially control all things?

These are not questions that we should leave for theologians to ponder. For we all face death, disease, and tragedy; we sin and others sin against us; and the world often looks to be spiraling out of control. We need to take to heart the assurances of Scripture that God is working all things together for His good and wise purposes. But if those assurances are to play their intended role, we need to understand what the Scriptures promise, and what they do not. We need to understand how and why God acts as He does.

I invite you to consider these questions together over the next several months. Over about twenty weekly lessons via Zoom, we will search the Scriptures to see if and how these things are true. Each week we will examine a passage or two in depth, studying the goal, nature, and extent of God’s providence. While we will use John Piper’s excellent new book, Providence, as a resource (with a portion assigned to read each week after you have studied the relevant Scriptures), this is a Bible study, not a book study. Indeed, we will assign only about half of Providence as required reading.

The Apostle Paul tells us not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed through the renewal of our minds (Romans 12:2). Our society, our schools, our media, our government, and (sadly) even many of our churches minimize the role of God’s providence in our lives if they speak of it at all. We need to have our minds shaped by God’s Word on this issue, so that every day, whether we encounter victory or defeat, health or disease, joy or sorrow, prosperity or devastation, we can follow our Savior with confidence, trusting that He will use us for His glory, bring us safely to His heavenly kingdom, and fulfill His perfect plan for this world.

We meet Thursday evenings via Zoom, 7:30 to 8:30pm, beginning March 4. The study guide for the first week is available (Word file, pdf). Speak to me directly or fill out the DGCC Contact Form to express interest in the study. Anyone who is willing to prepare each week is welcome to join us. You can see the Table of Contents and read the first chapter of Providence here. Desiring God has partnered with WTSBooks to offer a pre-publication discount of 50%, with a copy of the ebook available for download immediately at no extra charge. Physical copies of the book should ship shortly.

 

 

Donald Trump and the Nature of Sin

January, 1977, western Kenya. Twenty-year-old Coty Pinckney arrives to begin teaching secondary school days after Jimmy Carter has been inaugurated president.

Students gather around to discuss the American election. One asks: “Why did Gerald Ford leave office?”

“Because he lost the election.”

“We know he lost the election. But why did he leave office?”

Thirteen years after Kenya’s independence, with their first president still in power, these students had never witnessed a peaceful transition between presidents of opposing parties. Indeed, the great majority of Kenyans had much more faith in a party or a leader than they had in the democratic system. When informed that 99 percent of Ford’s supporters would have abandoned him if he had tried to remain in office, the students were astounded.

Over the last 44 years many in the US have lost faith in that system. I have no idea what percentage of Trump voters would support his staying in office despite the election results, but it is surely several multiples of one percent. Similarly, had President Obama tried to remain in office in 2016, citing the dangers of a Trump presidency, several multiples of one percent of his voters would have supported him.

One of the primary strengths of the US constitution is its recognition of man’s sinful nature and the corrupting effect of power. Through constitutional checks and balances and, with the 22nd amendment, a limit on a president’s time in office, we weaken the authority vested in one man and encourage greater faith in the system for those holding opposing political views.

But over the last century, as the power of the presidency and the impact of the national government on our lives have grown, we have placed relatively more of our faith in political parties and particular leaders, and less in the democratic system. Thus the trends cited above.

Of all people, Christians should be especially wary of such trends. For we know that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We know that “there is no one righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). We know that “man in his pomp, yet without understanding, is like the beasts that perish” (Psalm 49:20). We know that our Lord Jesus says, “Apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5).  And yet many professing Christians saw Donald Trump as something of a savior – just as, eight years earlier, many professing Christians of a different political bent saw Barack Obama as something of a savior.

Scripture is clear: “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation…. Blessed is he … whose hope is in the LORD his God” (from Psalm 146:3-5).

These last few days provide us with a valuable spiritual lesson in this regard. Consider: What does Donald Trump love? His supporters believe he loves this country. Most recognize that he loves his children. His opponents say he loves power, and (to use biblical language) he loves magnifying his own name.

But in the weeks leading up to the assault on the Capitol, and especially in his speech to the protesters, what did he accomplish? He harmed his country. He seriously damaged his legacy. He effectively destroyed any chance of his receiving the Republican nomination for president in four years (unless the party splits and he’s nominated by the Trump rump for a quixotic final campaign). Compared to a week ago, today his family members are much less likely to hold future political office.

That is: Donald Trump harmed what he loved most.

Some are deeply disappointed in the man. Others point to these events, saying, “He acted as I always knew he would! He is evil and dangerous!”

But, friends, these last days just give us a very public example of what all of us sinners do. We harm what we love most. We think that sin will lead to joy and fulfillment – but it always, always leads to the destruction of joy, and, left unchecked, to the loss of what we love most.

For me that became apparent when I almost destroyed my marriage five years after my students asked about Gerald Ford, during my second period of residency in Kenya. As a confident and accomplished PhD student in my mid-twenties, I was forced to acknowledge that sin was not just breaking a few rules. Sin was a deep part of me, affecting the core of who I was. Furthermore, my wife Beth was similarly stained. Our marriage had no hope if it depended on either of us. We both wanted this marriage, we both loved this marriage – and we were both destroying it.

God graciously saved our marriage and redeemed us by the blood of His Son – the only possible way to redeem the mess we had made. Here we are, happily married 38 years later.

The point: What is true of me, what is true of Donald Trump, is true of everyone, and thus of every political leader. One way or another, in obvious ways or not (1 Timothy 5:24), every one of us sinners harms what we love most.

So don’t put your trust in Biden or Harris or Pence or Haley or the next charismatic politician. Don’t put your trust in the Republicans or the Democrats. Put more trust in the democratic system than in individuals or parties. Help others to do the same.

But even that system will fail one day – maybe soon. We can and should love our country and work for its improvement – but in God’s providential plan it will not endure. Along with all of this creation, it will be shaken and removed (Hebrews 12:27). Yet in Christ we are “receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken” (Hebrews 12:28). He is the only source of eternal joy; His is the only Kingdom that will endure; He is the only remedy for the destructiveness of our sin.

Thus, in light of a public sin by our president and the subsequent harm to what he loves most, may we ask God with David: “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24).

2021 Is About Jesus

What are you anticipating in this New Year?

  • The end of lockdowns, mask-wearing, and social distancing?
  • A less rancorous political climate?
  • The birth of a child or grandchild?
  • Marriage?
  • A new job?
  • Professional advancement?
  • Beginning college?
  • Achieving personal goals – for reading, for exercise, for healthy eating?
  • Becoming a better person?
  • Healing relationships?

At the turn of the year, we do well to look forward with eagerness to what is ahead, and to discipline ourselves to work towards and pray for goals and events such as these.

But of even greater importance, we must remind ourselves as the calendar turns of the story in which we play a part.

Philosopher Alasdair Macintyre writes, “I can only answer the question, ‘What am I to do?’ if I can answer the prior question, ‘Of what story . . . do I find myself a part?’”

In the Bible, God reveals to us the Great Story – the story of His creation of a good world in which He placed the first man and the first woman; the story of their arrogant rebellion against Him, and the consequent corruption of themselves and creation; the story of His great plan, implemented over millennia, to redeem a people for His own possession from among fallen humanity, as He worked through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and the prophets, promising to bless all nations, to establish an eternal, righteous kingdom, and to send a suffering servant to take on Himself the punishment His people deserve; the story of the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of that Promised One, the Lord Jesus; the story of the partial fulfillment of  those promises at the cross and in the expansion of the church across ethnicities; the story of what is still to come: the fulfillment of every promise through the return of the Lord Jesus, God the Father summing up all things in Him, His people living for all eternity in the joy of their Master as they see Him face to face.

This is the story in which we play a part. Our goals, our marriages, our careers, our health – as real, important, and valuable as they are – all should aim at fulfilling our role in that one Great Story. Jesus is the center. Jesus is the goal. Jesus is the One carrying all creation towards its designated end. This year of 2021 is all about Jesus.

We must remind ourselves of this story daily – for the world around us proposes dozens of alternate stories: Stories with wealth at the center, or a political leader at the center, or societal reform at the center, or fame and accomplishment at the center, or despair and hopelessness at the center. Apart from constant reminders, we will drift into stories completely contrary to the One True Story.

How do we build such reminders into our lives?

God chose to reveal Himself to us through a Story. We must learn it.

Summaries of the Great Story are helpful. But nothing is more important in this regard than reading the Story itself.

For twenty consecutive years, I have read through all of Scripture annually, following a reading plan that takes me through this Great Story chronologically, while including daily readings from both Testaments. From “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” on January 1 to “Amen! Come Lord Jesus!” on December 31, the Story rings out repeatedly, year after year, decade after decade, shaping my thoughts, reminding me that Jesus is at the center, and that my role – as one worthy of condemnation but by His love and grace part of His Bride – is to display Him, to thank Him, to honor Him, to magnify Him.

Take this journey with me in 2021. Download the reading plan through this link, or pick up a printed copy on Sunday. For this year – as every year – is all about Jesus. Fight the false stories by reminding yourself daily of the True Story. He reigns in 2021 – and He will reign forever and ever. Make sure you are reminded of that truth every day.