"Then there will be a future"

Article 2 of 2

13 My son, eat honey, for it is good,

Yes, the honey from the comb is sweet to your taste;

14 Know that wisdom is thus for your soul;

If you find it, then there will be a future,

And your hope will not be cut off.

Proverbs 24:13-14

Wisdom, “if you find it”, will ensure you “a future” and maintain “your hope” (v.14b-c). Surely these are among the reasons why wisdom is so sweet! How could something that provides “a future” and protects “hope” not be sweet, right?

But how does this work? How does wisdom work for those who find it, so that “there will be a future” and so that their “hope will not be cut off”?

Well, let us first note that the word of God is true wisdom. If we want to gather the honey of wisdom, we must open the Bible! And, with that said (and with the question of ‘how’ from v.14b-c in our minds), listen to how the apostle Paul spoke to Timothy about biblical wisdom in 2 Timothy 3:15 –

from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

It is “the wisdom” of the Bible “that leads to salvation” in Christ! And it is by this salvation that sinners gain “a future” with God in eternity. And it is by this salvation that this eternal “hope will not be cut off”! Therefore, “if you find” the biblical “wisdom that leads to [this] salvation”; if, in other words, you hear and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ …

then there will be a future, 
And your hope will not be cut off.

And that is sweet indeed!

So … have you found wisdom? Have you heard and, by faith, eaten the sweet honey wisdom of the good news? “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures … and … He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4), and “whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). That is good, sweet news! It ensures “a future” to, and maintains “hope” of, all who take it in, by faith! And so I urge you – “eat [this] honey, for it is good”!

"Imperishable"

We know the difference between perishable and non-perishable, right? Bananas are perishable. So is sweet tea (as evidenced by the moldy specimen on our kitchen counter after returning from vacation Wednesday night!). Canned goods, however, are called non-perishable – because they will last a good, l o n g time in your cupboard.

And yet even things that we call non-perishable are not completely so. Because canned beans, peas, and chicken noodle soup will all eventually turn to waste. And so, also, will much longer lasting things like gold (1 Peter 1:7, 18)! For this earth and its goods will eventually be destroyed.

But there are some things, the apostle Peter reminds us, that are truly beyond perishability! Have you ever noticed this theme in his first epistle, chapter 1 – imperishability?

In verse 4, Peter speaks of the believers’ inheritance, and calls it “an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away.” The present world will eventually be no more. But we will receive an inheritance “in heaven” (and will continue enjoying it in the new earth) which will never perish. We will be in God's presence forever!

And not only is the believer's inheritance imperishable, but so also is his faith! In verse 7, Peter compares the Christian’s faith with “gold which is perishable” – and the comparison seems to indicate that our faith, unlike gold, is not perishable. It will be “tested by fire” – and will remain. If you truly trust in Christ today, then you will always do so! Praise God!

In vv.18-19, Peter makes a similar comparison between precious metals and “the blood of Christ.” “You were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold … but with precious blood.” And again, the comparison seems to indicate that while silver and gold are perishable, the blood of Jesus is not. And so what Peter is getting at, with that comparison, is that the payment that redeemed God’s people was not taken from the realm of temporary things, but from a much more significant source – from the very veins of Christ, who “always lives” (Hebrews 7:25).

And then, too, Peter speaks of the Scriptures as “imperishable” (v.23). “You have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.” The word of God will never go to rot; it will never cease to be true, living, powerful, and relevant. We are still feeding, in 2018, on the same word of truth that sustained the ancient Israelites millennia ago! And God’s people will continue to feed on it until the end of the world, and on into an endless eternity! The word of God is imperishable! And because the seed is imperishable, is it any wonder that the faith (v.7) which springs from that seed is imperishable as well?

Imperishable! Remember this theme from 1 Peter 1 the next time you find mold on your bread, or rottenness in a piece of fruit. Think of it when you see rusted metal, or a rotting tree, or something reduced to ash in a fire. So many things all around us are turning to waste – or someday will. But, praise God, there are some things that really are imperishable!

Hope in Wormwood Days

I hope, from time to time, to be posting some of my articles over at servantsofgrace.org (check them out for a great deal of other helpful content, too).  When I post there, I hope to link here.  Here's the first installment:

"Hope in Wormwood Days" new today from Kurt Strassner https://t.co/SnO4MVGb9H

— Servantsofgrace (@Servantsofgrace) March 21, 2018

Farewells

Farewell. It’s a word we don’t use terribly often in modern English. But it’s an activity in which we must all engage … farewelling those who pass from the scenes of our lives, or at least from the everyday scenes. And we’ve become quiet experienced at it here at PRBC. For, in the decade-and-a-half that this has been my church home, the Lord has seen fit, both to gather a handful of our number into His heavenly presence, and also to send a great many handfuls of PRBCers to live, work, and worship in other earthly locales. And so we’ve had to wish a great many people God’s blessings as they have gone on from our fellowship. And we do so again this coming Sunday.

Now, in this day of phones, email, automobiles, and airplanes, farewelling a moving friend is not nearly so stark a goodbye as it once would have been. I am able to stay in quite easy touch with former PRBCers in Washington, and in Florida, and in many places in between. And so maybe we don’t feel these sorts of farewells as keenly as we might have if we’d lived in the days of the covered wagon. But it’s still hard to see people go. And it’s hard to be the one who goes (probably harder, in many cases).

And yet I am reminded today, as our brother and sister and their children depart from us, that even if they were heading out on the Oregon Trail, never to see our faces again in this life; or even if they were departing this life altogether … the farewelling would only be for this life. Because, for the believer in Jesus Christ – in addition to being “always … with the Lord”, and being finally rid of our sin forever – the eternal world that lies before us will also be a grand reunion of the saints, will it not? As my friend Eileen once told me, on her way into surgery, ‘I will see you soon … either here, or there!’ And she was right! If we are in Christ, we will see our Christian friends again! Perhaps face-to-face, thanks to automobiles or airplanes. Maybe on FaceTime or Skype. But assuredly in glory!

Now, I doubt there will be a Pleasant Ridge seating area in eternity. But we will all be in the same congregation together once again! And I feel confident we will track one another down, and fellowship together, once again, just as we did here at the crest of this hill in Cincinnati (only, in that day, we will do it without time constraints or sin!). And so, in this day of farewells, we look to that day of reunions. And thus we can be “sorrowful yet always rejoicing.”

"We shall always be with the Lord"

There are multiple reasons to be excited about your wedding day. One is, perhaps, just the sheer relief of having the weight of all the preparations and stresses finally coming to an end. Another, of course, is the joy of having the people you love most (and who love you most) all together in one place. And then there is simple delight in the beauty of it all … the dresses, the flowers, the table cloths and candles, the culinary fare. But most of all (as I have lately been reminded by listening to a recently married couple!) … most of all, the bride and groom long for and look forward to that day because, finally, they will get to be together! Finally they will wake up, every morning, to each other’s faces! Finally they will live together in the same dwelling!

And we can speak similarly about “the marriage of the Lamb” – about the coming of Christ to receive His bride. There are multiple reasons to long for and look forward to that day! In that day, the weights and stresses of this life will finally, mercifully have come to an end! In that day, there will be a family reunion of family reunions! And the beauty of that banquet? Well, let us just say that the beauty of our earthly weddings is only a foretaste of the beauty on which our eyes will feast in the new earth! And not only these things, but (unlike in our earthly marriages!) sin will have been forever abolished from the earth – “a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.”

But, as with earthly brides, what Christ's bride longs for the most (it is to be hoped) is the pleasure of finally getting to be with her bridegroom; finally sharing a dwelling together; finally living together ‘happily ever after!’

“The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, emphasis added).

Oh, let us look forward to that day – all the stresses of this life ended, all the family of God gathered together in one place, all the beauty we can imagine (and more), all our sins forever banished, and all of eternity to live in the presence of our Bridegroom, our Redeemer, our King, our Friend!  Praise God, in that day, “we shall always be with the Lord”!

"Sawn in two"

“They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy).” Hebrews 11:37-38a

These and other sufferings (vv.35-38) were the excruciating fates of some of our forefathers in the faith. Great opposition and persecution are sometimes the lot of God’s faithful people. And among the most shocking forms of persecution listed in Hebrews 11 (or anywhere else, for that matter) is the torment of being “sawn in two”. Read it again, soberly: “Sawn in two”. That’s not a grisly scene from a fictional horror movie. It actually happened, says the author of Hebrews. Indeed, there is a tradition that states that it happened to that great and eloquent prophet of God, Isaiah. And all these other great pains and trials actually happened, too – to real people! And some of them still do! The people of God didn’t just suffer in biblical times, but they have suffered greatly at various points since (read, for instance, about the Covenanters or the Huguenots); and they are suffering still (see The Voice of the Martyrs). And thinking about the severe suffering of our fathers and brothers in the faith (and perhaps our own severe trials, still to come) should come with at least four upshots, it seems to me:

1. Let us not murmur about our current, light sufferings. Do we sometimes experience opposition or discrimination for our faith? Yes. Have we been stoned or sawn in two? No. And so, while we rightly recognize, and pray about, and groan under whatever pushback we may receive for our faith … let us not make it out as though we are some great martyrs. And certainly, let us not murmur (Philippians 2:14).

2. Let us pray and act on behalf of the sufferers. “Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body” (Hebrews 13:3). Don’t forget the people who are suffering, even today, after the manner of Hebrews 11:35-38! Remember them in your prayers, and in your generosity, too. The Voice of the Martyrs is a good organization to help you do both.

3. Let us be serious about our faith. If our forefathers (and many of our contemporaries, too) have been committed enough to the Lord to have ended up stoned, sawn in two, and persecuted in many other ways … then this Christianity thing is serious business! And if the devil is so opposed to Christ that he incites people to carry out such torture of Christ’s followers, then this Christianity thing is serious business! Let us be sure we treat it that way in every area of our lives … whether it results in us being respected, rejected, or rent in two. “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us [in Hebrews ch.11, that is], let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus” (Hebrews 12:1-2a).

4. Let us hope in eternity. “Here we do not have a lasting city” (Hebrews 13:14). And, indeed, sometimes we have, in this life, a hostile city, or nation, or culture. Perhaps we are just on the cusp, in this culture, of finding that out, first-hand. But this life is not all there is; this city is not the lasting one! And “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). And so, while I do not say that we should not groan under our trials, yet we must not fixate on our trials … but on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2), and on “the glory that is to be revealed to us” when all these difficulties will be ended forever. Let us fix our minds on “the city which is to come” (Hebrews 13:14), where “they will hammer their swords into plowshares” (Isaiah 2:4) … and their saws, too! “Here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.”