Hear Instruction!

What did you give thanks for this last week? Many of us gave God thanks for our families and friends. But what about for the counselors and guides He has put into your life? Did you thank Him for them?

Some of us did. Some of us readily acknowledge our need for advisors, our need to hear instruction from those who have experience and wisdom. Others of us balk at that: We’re thankful for friends, but we think we can guide ourselves, we think we can make our own decisions.

The book of Proverbs emphasizes time and again our need for guides. Let’s consider a few verses from Chapter 19.

Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future. (Proverbs 19:20)

The implication is: You don’t have wisdom now – or at least not sufficient wisdom to guide yourself through the maze of life’s choices. You need help. God provides His grace to us in part through granting us His church; within the church are those who have walked wisely with Him for more years than we have, as well as those older or younger who have walked similar paths to ours.  We learn wisdom by listening to them, and by sharing life with them.

This chapter then warns of the danger facing the stubborn among us, those who are wise in their own eyes:

Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge. (Proverbs 19:27)

Note that this verse is not speaking primarily to those who have never listened to instruction. Such folks have never walked in wisdom and thus can’t stray from the words of knowledge. Rather, Proverbs 19:27 warns those who once listened but no longer do. For we never outgrow our need to gain wisdom from the advice of others. We may have experience and wisdom in one area of life, which is valuable for us personally and helpful to share with others, while simultaneously needing help in other areas of life. God therefore puts us together in the Body of Christ, His Church, so that together we might “spur one another on to love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24), so that together we might be built up and “attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”  (Ephesians 4:13).

When we quit listening to God’s truth through others, however, we deviate more and more from His path. We may have heard those truths numerous times in the past, but without that regular reminder from His people, we drift away. We close our ears; we are responsible for our wandering.

And yet who do we blame? In such situations, do we take responsibility ourselves?

When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the Lord. (Proverbs 19:3)

Do you know people like this? Those who have been blessed with a witness to the Gospel, who have read God’s Word, who have had every opportunity to follow Him – and yet angrily reject the Jesus of the Bible and try to turn others away from Him? This proverb tells us: Expect to encounter such people. They have ceased to hear instruction. They have strayed from the words of knowledge. In their anger against God they are driving themselves further and further from Him.

Pray that our gracious Lord may have mercy on such folks, granting them humility and repentance before Him. But then all the more, examine your own heart: Are you seeking out instruction? Or are you implicitly acting as if you have arrived, you have become wise, you don’t need instruction?

God has provided us with all that we need to know Him, to follow Him, to grow in Him, to take on His character, and to play our role in helping others to grow in Christ. May we therefore feed on His Word; may we seek out instruction and guidance from those wise in Him; and may He thereby conform us to His likeness more and more through these means, day by day, month by month – so that on Thanksgiving Day 2019 we may have many counselors, advisors, and guides to praise Him for.

The Arrogant in Heart

God hates human pride. He detests human arrogance. Indeed, one could argue that pride and arrogance are the fundamental sins according to Scripture, for all other sins result from exalting our own judgments, our own opinions, our conceptualization  of our own best interests, above God’s Law.

Consider some examples of the ways pride and arrogance cause us to act:

  • Pride keeps a struggling couple from seeking help in their marriage.
  • Pride keeps a father from confessing to his child that he acted harshly.
  • Pride causes us to lash out when others confront us with our sins.
  • Pride causes us to look for and find even imaginary weaknesses and faults in those who oppose us.
  • Pride causes us to label those who differ from us on theology or politics or public policy as morons or morally corrupt or unworthy of being listened to.
  • Pride causes a pastor to care more about his reputation than about those in his care.
  • Most of all, pride keeps us from humbling ourselves before God, acknowledging that He created us, He knows us, He knows what is best for us – and that He alone can tell us how to be right with Him.

So we can see why God hates pride. But Scripture tells us He not only hates the sin of pride. He also detests those who exhibit pride:

“Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished” (Proverbs 16:5 ESV). Or, as the NIV renders the first clause: “The LORD detests all the proud of heart.”

Those of us brought up on platitudes like, “God hates the sin but loves the sinner” shrink back from such harsh statements. We’re tempted to slough them off as characteristic only of the Old Testament. But it is Jesus Himself who says, “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:41-42). It is Jesus Himself who tells us that He will say to many on the Last Day, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). Just so with the arrogant in heart; they will not go unpunished. Jesus will see to that on the Last Day. For they are an abomination to Him, and their sin is not atoned for. “And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day” (Isaiah 2:17).

But praise God there is hope for the proud – or none of us would be saved! Our gracious Lord invites us to confess our sins, to humble ourselves before Him, to admit that we are not worthy now to come into His holy presence and we can never make ourselves worthy. He commands us to repent of our arrogance and to acknowledge Jesus as our Savior, our Master, and our Treasure.

Have you made that most important confession, that humbling of yourself before God? Guess what? Your battle against pride and arrogance has only just begun. Welcome to the continual, day-to-day, hour-by-hour fight.

Engage in this fight by, first, testing yourself regularly: Do I think of myself more highly, or simply more, than I ought? Am I humbled today by the glory, majesty, wisdom, love, power, and mercy of the Lord? Do I see myself today as deserving of God’s condemnation, yet embraced by Him solely because of His mercy? Am I thinking today, “How can I be served?” or, “How can I serve?”

Then, second, think of those around you who seem arrogant and prideful. Some perhaps are hindering your work, hampering your ministry; some perhaps are even attacking you. Pray for God to grant them repentance, leading them to a knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 2:25-26). Pray that nothing in your response to their arrogance would drive them further from God. Know that God will punish that sin – so don’t be dismayed or disheartened by their opposition. He will bring down the proud – either through humbling them via salvation or through punishing them directly. Ensure that you don’t have a preference for their personal punishment.

So, Christian, be at peace. Serve faithfully. God will deal with all the proud, all the arrogant. Put to death that desire for self-exaltation. Continue to humble yourself before Him, without worries. Delight in your dependence on Him – and trust Him to exalt you at the proper time (1 Peter 5:6).

 

How To Make Your Heart Content

[From The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (1600-1646). Justin Perry of Covenant Life Church in Tampa quoted the third consideration in his talk this week at the Treasuring Christ Together Network’s pastors and wives retreat.]

CONSIDERATIONS TO CONTENT THE HEART IN ANY AFFLICTED CONDITION.

1) We should consider, in all our wants and inclinations to discontent, the greatness of the mercies that we have, and the meanness of the things we lack. The things we lack, if we are godly, are things of very small moment in comparison to the things we have, and the things we have are things of very great moment. … I will give you the example of a couple of godly men, meeting together, Anthony and Didymus: Didymus was blind, and yet a man of very excellent gifts and graces: Anthony asked him if he was not troubled at his want of sight. He confessed he was, ‘But’, he said, ‘should you be troubled at the want of what flies and dogs have, and not rather rejoice and be thankful that you have what angels have?’ God has given you those good things that make angels glorious; is not that enough for you, though you lack what a fly has? And so a Christian should reason the case with himself: what am I discontented for? I am discontented for want of what a dog may have, what a devil may have, what a reprobate may have; shall I be discontented for not having that, when God has given me what makes angels glorious? ‘Blessed be God,’ says the Apostle in Ephesians 1:3, ‘who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.’ It may be you have not such great blessings in earthly places as some others have, but if the Lord has blessed you in heavenly places, that should content you. There are blessings in heaven, and he has set you here for the present, as it were in heaven, in a heavenly place. The consideration of the greatness of the mercies that we have, and the littleness of the things that God has denied us, is a very powerful consideration to work this grace of contentment. …

3) The consideration of the abundance of mercies that God bestows and we enjoy. It is a saying of Luther: ‘The sea of God’s mercies should swallow up all our particular afflictions.’ Name any affliction that is upon you: there is a sea of mercy to swallow it up. If you pour a pailful of water on the floor of your house, it makes a great show, but if you throw it into the sea, there is no sign of it. So, afflictions considered in themselves, we think are very great, but let them be considered with the sea of God’s mercies we enjoy, and then they are not so much, they are nothing in comparison. …

8) Before your conversion, before God wrought upon your souls, you were contented with the world without grace, though you had no interest in God nor Christ; why cannot you now be contented with grace and spiritual things without the world? If you yourselves were content with the world without grace, there is reason you should be content with grace without the world. Certainly there is infinitely more reason. You see that many men of the world have a kind of contentment; they do not murmur or repine with the world, though they have no interest in God and Christ. Then cannot you have as much contentment with God and Christ, without the world, as they can, with the world, without God and Christ? It is an infinite shame that this should be so.

9) Yea, consider, when God has given you such contentments you have not given him the glory. When God has let you have your heart’s desire, what have you done with your heart’s desire? You have not been any the better for it; it may be you have been worse many times. Therefore let that satisfy you-I meet with crosses, but when I had contentment and all things coming in, God got but little or no glory from me, and therefore let that be a means now to quiet me in my discontented thoughts.

10) Finally, consider all the experience that you have had of God’s doing good to you in the want of many comforts. When God crosses you, have you never had experience of abundance of good in afflictions? It is true, when ministers only tell men that God will work good out of their afflictions, they hear them speak, and think they speak like good men, but they feel little or no good; they feel nothing but pain. But when we cannot only say to you that God has said he will work good out of your afflictions, but we can say to you, that you yourselves have found it so by experience, that God has made former afflictions to be great benefits to you, and that you would not have been without them, or without the good that came by them for a world, such experiences will exceedingly quiet the heart and bring it to contentment. Therefore think thus with yourself: Lord, why may not this affliction work as great a good upon me as afflictions have done before?

When Your Heart is Not Right

If our hearts are not right, should we avoid worshiping God publicly?

In Malachi’s day, the priests and the people were going through the motions of worship, yet all the while despising His Name (Malachi 1:6), thinking, “What a weariness this is!” (Malachi 1:13). So God says:

Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors [of the temple], that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 1:10-11)

God is great. And He is working together all the events of history to culminate in the grand, eternal, joyful worship of His Name by all peoples.

Worship today, in this age, is to foreshadow that final, glorious worship. But our perfunctory, going-through-the-motions worship does not do that. Instead, such obligatory worship degrades Him. Rather than the deserved honoring of the One who is holy, mighty, loving, and just, such worship makes Him look like some rich person who is not too bright, whom we need to fool and puff up so he’ll grant us what we really want. For we don’t want Him. Why should we? We just want what He will give us.

So God proclaims through Malachi that He would rather we not worship at all. He would rather board up the temple and cease all sacrifices. Today He would rather close the churches, disperse the choirs, and cancel Sunday School. We must halt any so-called worship that in effect distorts and dishonors His Name.

That leads us back to the opening question. We might think that we should apply this passage to ourselves individually, in saying, “I’m angry with God. I’m annoyed with Him. If I can’t get my heart right in time, I should just stay away. That’s what He would want. I shouldn’t be a hypocrite.”

But that is not what the passage implies. Indeed, the book of Malachi was written to change the hearts of those engaged in perfunctory worship. He deserves true, joyful worship – moving from perfunctory worship to no worship at all doesn’t solve the problem.

Rather, after recognizing that our hearts are in the wrong place, we must ask Him to change us: to change us through His Spirit working directly on us, through His Word showing us who He is, and through the songs, Scriptures, prayers, and preaching of our worship. We must beseech Him to enable us to see His greatness, to encounter His love, to be overwhelmed by His grace and justice. We must beg of Him to lead our hearts to respond rightfully to His revelation of Himself.

And time and again God graciously grants such requests.

So having a hard heart is not a reason to avoid worship. Rather it is a reason to seek His face, a reason to beg Him to change your heart. May He use our worship services to that end among us.

 

The God of Reversals

In the book of Esther, Haman plots to kill Mordecai and then wipe out the Jews; God turns that plan on its head, as the king has Haman hung on the gallows prepared for Mordecai, and the Jews win a great victory over their foes. Even more importantly in the storyline of Scripture, God saves the line of Jesus, the Messiah by destroying those who would kill His ancestors.

But when Mordecai refused to bow down before Haman, and when Esther approached the king without being summoned, neither knew what would happen. Both took dangerous actions that could have led to their imprisonment or death.

The Apostle Paul assures us that “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). All things. He causes our efforts to work for good; He causes the evil acts of evil men like Haman to work for good. He causes your struggles and trials to work for good – sometimes in ways you can see in retrospect, oftentimes in ways you will not see until eternity.

God informs us of that truth – and He graciously gives us examples in Scripture to show us what that looks like. Here are a few more of the many reversals in Scripture:

  • Joseph’s jealous brothers sell him into slavery, but God raises him to a position of power over those brothers – and Joseph’s leadership saves those very brothers, the entire line of the promise to Abraham, from dying in the famine (Genesis 37-50).
  • Pharaoh refuses to comply with God’s command through Moses and Aaron to let the Israelites go to worship Him; God sends plagues and so works in Pharaoh’s heart that the Israelites end up leaving with abundant silver and gold, the Egyptian army is destroyed, and God’s Name is proclaimed in all the earth (Exodus 5-14; see especially Exodus 9:13-16).
  • A young shepherd boy armed with a sling and a few stones has no chance in single combat with a giant, experienced warrior, but God gives the giant into David’s hand so that “all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel … [and that] the battle is the Lord’s.” (1 Samuel 17:46-47).
  • The most powerful army in the world comes to attack the Kingdom of Judah and its capital Jerusalem. King Hezekiah acknowledges that he cannot defeat them, but prays that God would save them “that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone” (2 Kings 19:19). God kills 180,000 soldiers in their sleep and the Assyrians retreat.
  • After centuries of warnings and prophecies about what will happen if the Israelites continue to rebel against Him, God sends the Babylonians to destroy the Kingdom of Judah and the very temple that pictures God’s presence with His people. The siege and its aftermath are horrible – read the poetic accounts in the book of Lamentations. Yet, as God assures Habakkuk after telling the prophet ahead of time that this will happen, the end result will be that “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).
  • Or think of the Fall itself: Adam and Eve reject God, choosing to trust in their own senses and to believe Satan’s lie instead of relying on the one who created them, who loved them, who provided everything for them (Genesis 3). Many millennia of tragedy follow, to the present day. Yet a time is coming when there will be “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages … crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7:9-10).
  • And all this comes about because of the greatest reversal of them all: Jesus – the only man ever to live a sinless life – is tried in a kangaroo court, sentenced to death, mocked, beaten, and hung on a cross where He dies. Evil and cowardly men bring this about. Yet God through that death pays the penalty for the sins of all those who trust in Him, and raises Him from the dead, “so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11).

Add to this list others you can think of in Scripture. Meditate on these reversals – and on the God who brings them about. Think of the ways God has effected similar reversals in your life, and in the lives of those you know. And consider your own present trials, difficulties, pressures, and sorrows – knowing that God is working in ways you cannot fathom to bring about obvious or subtle reversals, so that every pain becomes a means of bringing glory to His Name and good to His people.

Laid Aside: Why?

[By Charles Spurgeon. Excerpted from an article in The Sword and Trowel, May 1876. I read a quote from this article in the September 23 sermon – Coty]

Mysterious are the visitations of sickness. When the Lord is using a man for his glory it is singular that he should all of a sudden smite him down, and suspend his usefulness. It must be right, but the reason for it does not lie near the surface. The sinner whose every act pollutes the society in which he moves is frequently permitted year after year to spend an unabating vigor in infecting all who approach him. No sickness removes him even for an hour from his deadly ministry; he is always at his post, energetic in his mission of destruction. How is it that a heart eager for the welfare of men and the glory of God should find itself hampered by a sickly frame, and checked in its utmost usefulness by attacks of painful disease?

We may ask the question if we do so without murmuring, but who shall answer it for us? When the advance of a body of soldiers is stopped by a galling fire which scatters painful wounds on all sides, we understand that this is but one of the natural incidents of war; but if a commander should check his troops in mid-battle, and proceed with his own hand to render some of his most zealous warriors incapable of service, should we not be at a loss to conceive his motives? Happily for us our happiness does not depend upon our understanding the providence of God: we are able to believe where we are not able to explain, and we are content to leave a thousand mysteries unsolved rather than tolerate a single doubt as to the wisdom and goodness of our heavenly Father. The painful malady which puts the Christian minister hors de combat [“out of action due to injury”] when he is most needed in the conflict is a kind messenger from the God of love, and is to be entertained as such: this we know, but how it can be so we cannot precisely tell. Let us consider awhile. Is it not good for us to be nonplussed, and puzzled, and so forced to exercise faith? Would it be well for us to have all things so ordered that we ourselves could see the reason for every dispensation?

Could the scheme of divine love be indeed supremely, infinitely, wise if we could measure it with our short line of reason? Should we not ourselves remain as foolish and conceited as spoiled and petted children, if all things were arranged according to our judgment of what would be fit and proper?

Ah, it is well to be cast out of our depth, and made to swim in the sweet waters of mighty love! We know that it is supremely blessed to be compelled to cease from self, to surrender both wish and judgment, and to lie passive in the hands of God.

It is of the utmost importance to us to be kept humble. Consciousness of self-importance is a hateful delusion, but one into which we fall as naturally as weeds grow on a dunghill. We cannot be used of the Lord but what we also dream of personal greatness; we think ourselves almost indispensable to the church, pillars of the cause, and foundations of the temple of God.

We are nothings and nobodies, but that we do not think so is very evident, for as soon as we are put on the shelf we begin anxiously to enquire, “How will the work go on without me?” As well might the fly on the coach wheel inquire, “How will the mails be carried without me?” Far better men have been laid in the grave without having brought the Lord’s work to a standstill, and shall we fume and fret because for a little season we must lie upon the bed of languishing? If we were only put on one side when apparently we could be easily spared, there would be no rebuke to our pride, but to weaken our strength in the way at the precise juncture when our presence seems most needed, is the surest way to teach us that we are not necessary to God’s work, and that when we are most useful he can easily do without us. If this be the practical lesson, the rough schooling may be easily endured, for assuredly it is beyond all things desirable that self should be kept low and the Lord alone magnified.

May not our gracious Lord design a double honor when he sends a double set of trials? “Abundant in labors” is a high degree, but “patient in suffering” is not less so. Some believers have excelled in active service, but have scarcely been tried in the other and equally honorable field of submissive endurance; though veterans in work, they have been little better than raw recruits as to patience, and on this account they have been in some respects but half developed in their Christian manhood. May not the Lord have choice designs for some of his servants and intend to perfect them in both forms of Christly imitation? …

A change in the mode of our spiritual exercises may also be highly beneficial, and avert unknown but serious evils. The cumbering engendered by much service, like a growth upon the bark of a fruit tree, might become injurious, and therefore our Father, who is the husbandman, with the rough instruments of pain scrapes away the obnoxious parasite. Great walkers have assured us that they tire soonest upon level ground, but that in scaling the mountains and descending the valleys fresh muscles are brought into play, and the variety of the exertion and change of scene enable them to hold on with less fatigue: pilgrims to heaven can probably confirm this witness. The continuous exercise of a single virtue, called forth by peculiar circumstances, is exceedingly commendable; but if other graces are allowed to lie dormant, the soul may become warped, and the good may be exaggerated till it is tinged with evil. Holy activities are the means of blessing to a large part of our nature, but there are other equally precious portions of our new-born manhood which are unvisited by their influence. …

May not severe discipline fall to the lot of some to qualify them for their office of under-shepherds? We cannot speak with consoling authority to an experience which we have never known. The suffering know those who have themselves suffered, and their smell is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed. The “word to the weary” is not learned except by an ear which has bled while the awl has fastened it to the door-post. “The complete pastor’s” life will be an epitome of the lives of his people, and they will turn to his preaching as men do to David’s Psalms, to see themselves and their sorrows, as in a mirror. Their needs will be the reason for his griefs. As to the Lord himself, perfect equipment for his work came only through suffering; so must it be to those who are called to follow him in binding up the broken-hearted, and loosing the prisoners. Souls still remain in our churches to whose deep and dark experience we shall never be able to minister till we also have been plunged in the abyss where all Jehovah’s waves roll over our heads, If this be the fact – and we are sure it is – then may we heartily welcome anything which will make us fitter channels of blessing. For the elect’s sake it shall be joy to endure all things; to bear part of “that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church” shall be bliss to us.

Alas, there may be far more humiliating causes for our bodily afflictions! The Lord may see in us that which grieves him and provokes him to use the rod. … It can never be superfluous to humble ourselves and institute self-examination, for even if we walk in our integrity and can lift up our face without shame in this matter, as to actual sin, yet our shortcomings and omissions must cause us to blush. How much holier we ought to have been, and might have been! How much more prevalently we might have prayed! With how much more of unction we might have preached! Here is endless room for tender confession before the Lord.

Yet it is not good to attribute each sickness and trial to some actual fault, as though we were under the law, or could be punished again for those sins which Jesus bore in his own body on the tree. It would be ungenerous to others if we looked upon the greatest sufferer as necessarily the greatest sinner; everybody knows that it would be unjust and unchristian so to judge concerning our fellow-Christians, and therefore we shall be very unwise if we apply so erroneous a rule to ourselves, and morbidly condemn ourselves when God condemns not. Just now, when anguish fills the heart, and the spirits are bruised with sore pain and travail, it is not the best season for forming a candid judgment of our own condition, or of anything else; let the judging faculty lie by, and let us with tears of loving confession throw ourselves upon our Father’s bosom, and looking up into his face believe that he loves us with all his infinite heart. “Though he slay me yet will I trust in him,” — be this the one unvarying resolve, and may the eternal Spirit work in us a perfect acquiescence in the whole will of God, be that will what it may.

 

How to Have Riches and Joy

People long for riches and joy in their lives. They study. They work hard. They save and invest. They try to marry well. They buy good houses, nice cars. They try to overcome bad habits.

They also fall for get-rich-quick schemes, quack medical cures, and government lottery advertisements.

Jesus turns all this on its head – and then tells us how to find true riches and true joy. Let’s delve into what He says in chapter 10 of Mark’s gospel.

A rich young man has just approached Jesus, asking what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him to obey the commandments, which he claims to have done. Jesus looks at him, loves him, and tells him to go, sell all he has, give the proceeds to the poor, and to come and follow Him. But the man goes away sorrowful, because he has great possessions (Mark 10:17-22).

Material riches were not the way to joy for this young man. Indeed, they were not even true riches.

Jesus then says, “How hard it will be for the rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:23).

In virtually every culture, the rich are looked up to, are seen as lucky or blessed by God, and most people desire to be rich. But Jesus says we are to pity them, for it is impossible for them to enter the kingdom of God.

Why do riches make entering the kingdom of God so difficult?

The most important barrier for entering the kingdom is the illusion of control provided by wealth. Poor people in poor countries (including all countries in the ancient world) acknowledge that they are at the mercy of the elements. Illness, natural disasters, even a bad rainy season can mean suffering or death for members of the family. Today in the poorest countries about one child in five dies before age five; in the ancient world, those numbers were undoubtedly higher. So the poor know that they cannot control these powers that determine their fate.

On the other hand, the rich tend to think that they can protect themselves, that they can use their money and influence to make sure that they do not suffer. As Jesus relates in Luke 12:19, the rich fool says to himself, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’ He thought he was in control; he thought he was now safe from the influence of random events. But that very night God took his life.

And who can fall prey to such an illusion of control? The great majority of Americans – including you and me. Put yourself in the position of those who are listening to Jesus say these words. How would they label someone who:

  • Lives in a house with central heating and indoor plumbing;
  • Has clean cold and hot water flowing through taps;
  • Is in no danger of going hungry;
  • Has more than 2 sets of clothes;
  • Has access to cures for all of the most common diseases.

Imagine! Wouldn’t such a person be considered rich indeed? So in comparison to those listening to Jesus, we all undoubtedly are incredibly rich.

So Jesus’ warning is for us: How hard it is for us to enter the kingdom of God – because of our supposed self-sufficiency, our security.

Furthermore, possessions enslave us. We become used to our possessions; we start calling our desires “needs” – and then we won’t even consider following Jesus in a way that would lead to:

  • A less prestigious job, or no job
  • A lower salary, or no salary
  • A smaller house, or no place at all to call home

We begin to require God to support us in the manner to which we have become accustomed.

Sometimes we justify this attitude by referring to our children: “I can’t do that; what would become of my children?” But what do our children need more than a parent who follows Jesus, wherever He may lead?

Ray Stedman uses an apt phrase to describe our condition, saying we are “addicted to comfort and ease.”

So if we are addicted to comfort and ease, if we depend on riches, if we find our security there instead of in our relationship to God – mightn’t Jesus be saying to us what He said to the rich young man: “Give up what you are addicted to! Come, follow Me!”

What happens if you hear that, and do it? Do you lose security? Do you lose out on joy? This brings us to Mark 10:28-31:

Peter began to say to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You.” Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life. “But many who are first, will be last; and the last, first.” (NASB)

Focus on these profound statements. Meditate on them. Pore over them. Let them sink into you.

  • No one.
  • Who has left anything, anything material or relational.
  • For what reason? Not to make oneself look good, or to win applause, but for Jesus’ sake and for the gospel.
  • Who will not have how much? One hundred times as much! Listen, this isn’t the 25% annual return you might get for a few years in a booming stock market: the promise is that you will get one hundred times as much.
  • When? When will we get this? In heaven, after we die? No! We will get one hundred times as much NOW! In the present age!
  • Is that all? No, plus you will have eternal life, what the rich young man wanted all along.

Jesus says in effect, “Whatever you give up for me now, you will receive one hundred times as much now – and billions times as much in the age to come.”

I think we expect Jesus to make the eschatological promise, the promise of future joy in eternity with Him. We don’t comprehend all that entails, we certainly can’t grasp what that will be like, but we know that promise.

We know, furthermore, that we are better off risen with Christ than we can ever be in this life; as Paul says, “For me to live is Christ, to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

The promise of eternal joy is great and precious. But Jesus promises more than that here. He says that whatever we give up, we will receive one hundred times more in the present age. What could He possibly mean by that?

Does He mean that if I give the church $4,000, I’ll get back $400,000? Some health, wealth, and prosperity preachers use these verses as a proof text for that idea. But clearly if that’s what Jesus meant, there was no reason for the rich young man to walk away. Jesus could simply have said, “Look, give all this away, and within a few years you’ll have one hundred times as much money, wealth, and prestige. That’s quite an investment!” Such a promise would appeal to his greed – the very problem he faced.

Part of the promise surely is that we have eternal life right now. We have “joy unspeakable” (1 Peter 1:8) because of our relationship to God; we have the love, joy, and peace the world longs for because the Spirit dwells in us. We have a true intimacy, a true fellowship with one another because He has made us brothers and sisters in Him. All this is much more valuable than anything we may give up.

But Jesus’ statement can’t mean only that our brothers and sisters multiply in the family of God, for He includes material goods in His promise: farms and houses.

This is what Jesus is saying; this is the key truth we need to take to heart: If you give all you have to the Lord, you will receive one hundred times more joy and pleasure from the material possessions you have than you would have received from the entire hoard if you had given nothing away.

Think about that statement. Some of you might be thinking, “Oh, is that all He means? I thought by giving I was going to get more!”

You are going to get more – more of what you really want! Why do we want possessions anyway? Because of the joy, pleasure, and security they give us, right? God promises us complete security; nothing can harm us until we have completed His calling on us in this world, and then we will be received by Him with great rejoicing. And in this life, He promises us the joy and pleasure we really want, that we try to get from hoarding possessions.

Why will we get more joy and pleasure from a few possessions when we follow Jesus, than we would get from vast hoards of possessions if we don’t follow Him? Consider these reasons:

(1) Our possessions can easily become our master. We worry about losing them, we devote time and energy to amassing them, and, in the end, they can make us miserable. Many wealthy men have been among the most miserable who ever lived.

(2) Even more importantly, we now enjoy what we have because we know it is all a gift from someone who loves us dearly. Think, now: What possessions do you value most? For many of us, we value most not the expensive item we bought for ourselves, but some little trifle that was given to us by a loved one. Perhaps a picture drawn by a three-year-old, perhaps a ring, or necklace, or a letter from your husband; perhaps the gift your parents gave you when you left home. These may not be worth much monetarily, but they are most valuable because they represent the love of another.

The Christian knows that everything we own is a gift from the One who loves us more than we can imagine. So even a few possessions can generate in our hearts unspeakable joy, because they all represent His love. So instead of considering these possessions as things we’ve earned, as things we deserve, we consider everything a special gift of love from the King of the Universe. We deserve nothing – rather, we deserve eternal punishment in hell — yet look what He gives us! Air to breath, warmth at night, food to eat, covering for our bodies! Every minute we live, then, we can thank God for His great mercy, for the love He shows us in everything that we used to take for granted.

Everything around us tempts us to pursue a type of life that, in the end, will never satisfy. Jesus calls us to give up that false life so that we might find true life, true joy, true love in a relationship with Him. And when we do that, we find that we now have all the love, joy, peace, and security that we used to seek through the ways of the world – at least 100 times as much as we had before. And our hearts are overflowing in thanks and praise to the One who gives us so much that we don’t deserve.

There is one note of discord in Jesus’ statement, however. He says this gift of 100 times as much as we give up will be accompanied by persecutions. Why does He say this? How is it consistent with a life of love, joy, and peace?

Paul writes 2nd Timothy shortly before his death. In chapter 4 he writes: ‘I am already being poured out as a drink offering” – an apt figure for one who would be beheaded. But then later in the chapter he writes, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack” (2 Timothy 4:18). Paul writes this even though he knows he will be executed. The inescapable conclusion: His execution is not an evil attack.

Just so with us:

  • When it is for our good and His glory, he lavishes safety and relationships and possessions and worldly success on us.
  • When it is for our good and His glory, he lavishes persecutions and trials and troubles on us.
  • When it is for our good and His glory he lavishes physical death on us.

God constantly uses what men intend for evil for His own good purposes. Whatever happens, He is in control; His purposes are beyond us, but He is always good, and always wise.

So this is Jesus’ command to us: Lose your false life; give it up. Yield all your plans, all your earthly desires, all your security to Him. Lose your life for Jesus, for the gospel. Then step forward – knowing that God will be with you. You will face trial, troubles, and tribulations. But amidst all that, He will give you a joy beyond measure even in this life, as you overflow with thanksgiving for the uncountable good gifts, the true riches, He gives you daily. So follow Him – and find true riches and joy.

[This devotion is an edited version of part of this sermon preached in 1999.]

God Fulfills His Purpose for Me

[This devotion is an edited version of one section of the September 2, 2018 sermon on Psalm 57. The audio for the sermon will be available soon at this link.]

Does God have a purpose for you?

David writes Psalm 57 at a low point in his life. King Saul is trying to find him in order to put him to death. He tried escaping to the Philistines, but found his life to be in danger among them too. So he has fled to a cave – which provides little protection or comfort.

But in the midst of danger and uncertainty, David writes:

I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me (Psalm 57:2).

To understand David’s cry, we must first note what the verse does not say. David does not write, “God fulfills my purpose for me.” For God never promises to fulfill your plans for yourself. We often make plans that fail – even plans that we think will be to God’s glory. We may imagine how God might use us and then take steps to bring that about – and those plans may well fall apart completely. My plans, my purposes, even my conception of God’s purpose for me, may end up being completely wrongheaded.

But God does have a purpose for you, and for all of His people. What is it?

First, He has a common purpose for all redeemed humanity. He makes this purpose clear in Scripture. If you are in Christ:

  • He intends for you to be like Him, your heavenly Father (Ephesians 5:1). That is, He intends for you to be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).
  • He purposes for you to be set apart for Him – not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed through the renewal of your mind (Romans 12:2).
  • He purposes for you to be His ambassador, imploring those who don’t know Jesus to be reconciled to God through Him (2 Corinthians 5:20).
  • He purposes for you to stir up other Christians around you to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24-25).
  • He purposes for you to forgive the person who sins against you 70×7 times whenever he repents (Matthew 18:21-22).
  • He purposes for Jesus to be your treasure, your joy, your Lord (Matthew 13:44-46, Philippians 2:9-11).

We could go on and on – but you get the point: God has a common purpose for all believers, and He is working that out in your life.

But second, God has specific plans for individual Christians, which He is working out. In Acts 16, the Apostle Paul thought God’s plan was for him to preach the Gospel in Bithynia. But in some unstated way, God prevented that from happening and then revealed through a dream that Paul and his band were to go to Macedonia. The Apostle immediately obeyed by traveling to the city of Philippi – and shortly thereafter he was arrested, beaten, and jailed.

So note: God’s specific plan for the Apostle Paul included his being arrested, beaten, imprisoned – and then, as the narrative continues, to be freed miraculously, with saving effect on the jailor and his family. Indeed, the jailor’s family and the handful of others who come to faith during Paul’s brief time in the city are the foundation of the church of the Philippians, to whom Paul writes his letter.

In that letter, the Apostle says, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion” (Philippians 1:6). That’s another way of stating what David says in Psalm 57: God will fulfill His purpose for you.

So when we suffer, when we are in danger, when it seems that we are prevented from serving God as we would like, we are right, like David, to cry out to God. But we need not worry, “Will this enemy prevent me from fulfilling God’s purpose?” Or, “Will my frightened response prevent me from fulfilling God’s purpose?” Or, “Might I mess up and have to live with God’s Plan B for my life?”

That can’t happen. It won’t happen. For God is in control. He will fulfill His purpose for you.

In David’s case:

  • He will become king.
  • He will become a picture, a type of the coming Messiah.
  • He will become the ancestor of that Messiah.
  • His mistakes and sins along the way will not, cannot derail God’s plans for Him.

Just so in your case; just so in my case. We can know with certainty that He will fulfill the common purpose He has for all of His people in us. While we don’t know the specifics of God’s individual plans for us, we do know that we have a role in His filling the earth with the knowledge of His glory as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14). He will use us to accomplish that purpose. Our responsibility is to step out in faith, to work to fulfill our calling by His grace as best as we can perceive it – and then to trust Him with the results. The individual purpose we fulfill in the end may be quite different from what we thought. But trust Him: He has begun a good work in you. He has His purposes for you. He will fulfill those purposes.

Now, perhaps you’re thinking: “I thought God’s purpose for me was to make me healthy and prosperous – to give me success, a victorious life. I thought Jesus would solve all my problems so that I can be joyful in Him.”

No, my friends, that is not what the Bible says. That is not what God promises us. Quite the contrary. Jesus says, “In this world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). The Apostle Paul says, “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12).

Instead of earthly ease and success, God promises us something far better: He promises us Himself. That’s what David found while writing Psalm 57 (Psalm 57:7-11); that’s what Jesus promises those who trust in Him (John 17:3). God promises us that in Christ we have Him; and God plus nothing is worth more than having all the world and not having Him.

So humble yourself before Him. Come to Him, and find that His purpose for you is far greater than you could imagine. And know: He is certain to fulfill that purpose. You will know Him. You will make Him known. To the praise of His glorious grace.

Dealing With Trials in Marriage

[By Carrie Vaughns. Carrie gave this devotion at Angela Otchere’s bridal shower on August 25. ]

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” – James 1:2-4

I’m sure many of us have heard sermons related to James 1:2 when James said to ‘count it all joy’ when we encounter trials. Typically, those sermons focus on the “joy” part. But what is ever said about the “when” part?  Notice that James doesn’t say “if” you meet trials. He says ‘WHEN you meet trials’. And then he follows that up by saying ‘trials of various kinds’. So in other words, you MOST DEFINITELY will face ALL types of trials in this life. And in marriage with two sinners in covenant relationship with each other for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, til death do they part, the trials will be multiplied. So Angie: with this being said, I felt it would be good to talk about how best to prepare, before the trials in marriage come.

  • ELIMINATE “NEGATIVE THINKING” – When trials in marriage come our way, it’s very easy to entertain a negative thought, it’s very easy to justify a bitter attitude, and it’s very easy to harden our hearts toward our husbands. Those of us here who are married know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s not like we pray for negative thoughts and bitter attitudes towards our husbands. In the spur of the moment when the trial rears its head, these thoughts and attitudes just pop up out of nowhere! And if they aren’t dealt with, they could lead to hardness of heart, long term hardship and marital strife, and enmity against our husbands. But praise God that we have a remedy in scripture. In 2 Corinthians 10:5, Apostle Paul tells us to “take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ”. Take EVERY single thought captive. Are we filling our minds and hearts with the Word of God or with ideas that are destructive?  Are we looking to apply biblical principles to everyday circumstances, or do we choose worry or condemnation as our default response?
  • CHECK YOUR PRIDE AT THE DOOR – Pride and insecurity form the root of many struggles in marriage. They manifest themselves in a number of ways: an unyielding desire to be right, not wanting to lose face with my spouse or others, a reluctance to admit needing help or wise counsel, a refusal to look at my own inadequacies and inconsistencies. Proverbs 16:18 says “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” When the heart is filled with pride, you will fall over and over and your marital struggles will increase more and more. We must always be examining our hearts; we must always pray and ask the Holy Spirit: Are there areas in our hearts that stubbornly refuse to bend to the Lord’s instruction due to pride? Also, constantly ask yourself: “Am I trusting the accountability partners God has placed in my life when they see a red flag that needs my attention?”
  • FORGIVE AND APOLOGIZE FREELY – Piggybacking off the pride theme from the last point: everyone in this room has at one time or another struggled with pride because our hearts can be very prideful. Pride causes us to not want to admit and apologize when we sin and causes us to not want to forgive and move on when we’ve been sinned against. So therefore, in marriage we have to LEARN how to apologize quickly and forgive our spouses. The ability to forgive and apologize is absolutely VITAL in marriage because when you have two flawed sinners living life together under one roof day in and day out, you are going to sin against one another. Over and over and over. So, you’ve got to be able to admit and apologize when you sin against your husband and you’ve got to be able to forgive and move on when he sins against you. And how do we do this? By being humble. Scripture tells us in James 4:6 ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ As we grow in humility, we will grow and learn to forgive when we’ve been sinned against and to admit, apologize, and repent when we’ve committed sin.
  • HONOR YOUR SPOUSE WITH YOUR WORDS – Always seek opportunities to honor, build up, and praise your husband because God has entrusted a lot of responsibilities to him as the head of the home and the leader of the family. He has a lot on his plate and he’ll need constant encouragement because this is not an easy path that God has called him to walk. However, there will come times in your marriage when you’ll have to confide in someone about issues, problems, and struggles that you and your husband are going through. And sometimes there may be things that are discussed that will cause your husband to be put in a negative light. While Scripture teaches us to seek wise counsel (Proverbs 12:15), it also warns us that, “a gossip goes around revealing a secret, but a trustworthy person keeps a confidence” (Proverbs 11:13). It is wise to choose a small group of trusted advisors for accountability and counsel. However, failing to guard what you say about your husband to others (especially if it’s negative) is not wise at all.
  • SUBMISSION and UNITY – Ephesians 5:22 says, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” Pastor John Piper describes biblical submission like this: “Submission is the calling of a wife to honor and affirm her husband’s leadership, and to help carry it through according to her gifts.” As wives, we are to come alongside our husbands and to honor and affirm their leadership. We are also to make them feel appreciated, admired, respected and loved. It may sound easy but it can be quite challenging to do, especially in those moments when he’s not leading well and not loving you well. But that’s the call for us wives. And the beauty of the call is that our Sovereign God calls us to it and He provides us wives with sufficient grace to live it out. Our husbands get the encouragement, we get the joy, God gets the glory.
    Along with submission is unity. Two become one; you are equal with him. He is your ally, not your enemy. Theologian Matthew Henry beautifully describes marital unity like this: “The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.”

Angie, these are just some things that I wanted to share with you as you get closer to the big day. Three weeks from today, you and Rob will say “I do” and commit to each other for life. And praise God that many of us will have the privilege of witnessing that! But rest assured, the marriage trials WILL come. So get ready. Hopefully there are things from this devotion that will help you prepare for them. And even though you have an adversary who hates marriage and would like nothing more than to see you fall from the trials and to try to separate what God has joined together, you serve a Sovereign God who loves you and Rob unconditionally and is faithful to uphold and sustain you through any trial and tribulation that you will face. May the Lord bIess you and keep you, sister!

The Path to Honor, the Path to Disgrace

What is the path to honor?

We don’t have to look far in our society to find those who have achieved considerable earthly honor through their hard work combined with their self-promotion. Whether in business, in politics, in sports and entertainment – and even within the Christian church – we see example after example of people working on their craft, marketing themselves, and thereby acquiring some degree of fame. There are many coaches, consultants, and schools who – for a fee – will teach you how to be among those who successfully exalt themselves.

But Scripture warns us, “God opposes the proud” (1 Peter 5:7); “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled” (Luke 14:11).

Yet God’s Word also gives us a promise in these same verses: God gives grace to the humble; he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Jesus tells a brief story to illustrate this point:

Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?  And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. (Luke 14:31-32)

You are the first king. You have resources: Your physical abilities, your intelligence, your training and education, your experience, your skills, your contacts, your finances. Perhaps these are quite impressive compared to others. Like the first king with ten thousand, you can look at who you are and what you have and think: “I can go somewhere! I can exalt myself! I can achieve something!”

If you take the world’s advice and exalt yourself, you may well achieve a degree of honor for a time. Perhaps in a worldly sense you will acquire considerable fame because of great accomplishments.

Yet whether you realize it or not, by acting in this way you are advancing in war against the second king. And that second king is God Himself. For you are acting in pride – and as we saw, God opposes the proud. Furthermore, His fighting force is far beyond yours. If He opposes you, you will be humbled; you will be thrown down; in the end, you will lose all the fame, all the status, all the honor that you thought you had gained.

So like that first king going out to war, you have two options. The first option is to sue for peace. He will demand unconditional surrender to Jesus. This means that you will have to renounce all that you have (Luke 14:33). All that is yours becomes His: All your goods. All your family. All your time.

However, He then will give you His grace. He will exalt you. He will give you Jesus Himself – the greatest treasure, the greatest honor, the greatest joy.

That’s the first option. The cost is high. But the benefit is incalculable.

Your second option is to enter into battle with Him. To fight Him. To oppose Him.

If you choose option two, you will hold onto your fame and your resources a little longer compared to option one. While the battle is engaged, you can continue to be impressed with yourself. But your 10,000 cannot fight His hordes. The end is inevitable. He will overwhelm you. He will humble you. Option two is the path to disgrace. One day you will lose everything. And you will have to confess what you refused to acknowledge before: Jesus is indeed Lord (Philippians 2:10-11).

So note: Whether you choose option one or option two, eventually you lose all that you now have. That cost is the same.

But under option one, He exalts you. He lifts you up. He gives you what you never earned, what you clearly don’t deserve, what you can never be proud of: one hundred times more joy than you had from what you gave up, as well as the greatest gift of all: Himself, for all eternity (Mark 10:28-31).

So acknowledge what is true. Realize your position. You have no ability to achieve any lasting honor; if you resist Him, you will lose all. Humble yourself under God’s mighty hand. This is the path to honor. And the greatest honor is that He will give you what you could never earn: Himself.