"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”!

His Feet

Part 6 in a series on Jesus’ Body

We conclude our look at Jesus’ body by gazing down at His feet. And I remind you of three wonderful truths concerning those feet:

First, Jesus' feet are “lovely”. In Isaiah 52:7 we read this memorable exclamation:

How lovely on the mountains
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who announces peace
And brings good news of happiness,
Who announces salvation,
And says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

And, oh, does that ever describe the feet of our Lord Jesus as He proclaimed good news to sinners! “How lovely” were Jesus’ feet as He trekked across Galilee and Judea, “announc[ing] salvation” to the people there! And, though that earthly task is now complete, “how lovely” the feet that performed it remain! And “how lovely … are the feet of” those, today, who carry on in Jesus’ mission! Let us be among them! And let us praise God for Jesus’ own “lovely”, gospel-carrying feet!

And then, secondly, let us remember that, at Golgotha, Jesus' feet were pierced. “They pierced my hands and my feet” (Psalm 22:16). Why? “He was pierced through for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5). The same feet that carried Jesus from place to place “bring[ing] good news” were eventually staked to a Roman cross in the event that is the very centerpiece of the good news! His feet were pierced in order to pay the penalty for all the sins of all His people for all time! That is good news, indeed! Praise God that He loves sinners that much!

Finally, let us remember that Jesus’ feet will return (along, of course, with the rest of His body!). Seeing into the future, the apostle John wrote that he “looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion” (Revelation 14:1). And Job said of Jesus that “at the last He will take His stand on the earth” (Job 19:25). Jesus will, “at the last”, plant His feet, once again, “on the earth”! May you be ready for His second coming by repenting of your sins and believing in this same Jesus whose feet, at His first coming, were “pierced through for our transgressions”!

The Olympics, the Nations, and the Gospel

The games of the 23rd Winter Olympiad are just a few days away. And the Strassner family loves the winter Olympics! Every four years, we huddle together in front of the television for those 2-plus weeks, delighting in the artistry of phenomenal athletic skill brushed across the brilliant white canvas of winter scenery. I can’t wait!

One of our family traditions is that each of us chooses a different country (in addition to the USA) for which to cheer. And, since we want to actually see the teams and athletes for which we have chosen to cheer, we choose countries that tend to do well in the Winter Games. This year we’ve got Norway, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands – eight of the top ten medal-winning countries from 2014 (the others were Russia and the USA). 

But how fares the gospel in these eight countries? That’s the question that occured to me recently. For answers, I turned to the 2010 edition of Operation World (a must-have Christian resource, by the way). And the statistics I turned up were striking. Of the eight countries for whom we are cheering, none of them (as of the 2010 statistics) is more than 8.4% evangelical. In France, evangelicals make up only 1% of the nation’s populace. In Austria, the percentage is half that! And even in nearby Canada, there are less than 8 evangelicals per 100 people! This is striking. In fact, of the 26 nations that won medals at the 2014 Sochi Games, only four (the USA, South Korea, Australia, and Finland) have evangelical populations that number above 10% (percentages, again, according to Operation World). 

What this means is that, if and when you watch the Winter Games, chances are (first of all) that you’re going to be watching a great many men and women whose athleticism marvelously demonstrates the image of God in man … but who do not know that God, and who do not know “the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” Pray for them. Pray, too, for their countrymen who have travelled to see them (and who are part of the same statistical milieu). Pray for Christian athletes, coaches, and officials to be witnesses for Christ. And pray for the witness of local South Korean believers, of missionaries in the area, and of others who may come in on short-term mission trips specifically to share the gospel with those in town for the Games. The statistics indicate there will likely be plenty of folks who need evangelizing.

The statistics also mean that, if and when you watch the goings on in PyeongChang, you are also going to be seeing the regalia and hearing the names of a whole host of nations whose countrymen, back home, desperately need evangelizing as well! America is the most evangelized of any nation that won a medal at the last games … and you know how much we need the gospel here. So what must be the need in a place like Austria, or China, or Slovenia (0.1% evangelical!), or Japan? Think of this when you watch the games. Root for these nations, as it were, in prayer! And maybe someone who reads these lines will even be moved to go to one or other of them, carrying the gospel, and pursuing a prize even greater than Olympic Gold!

Post Tenebras Lux

Or in English: ‘After Darkness, Light.’ This became a motto the Protestant Reformation. For, after centuries of unbiblical, superstitious, soul-destroying Roman Catholic darkness … God, through the reformers, made His gospel light to shine clearly once more. Post Tenebras Lux.

But this phrase, famously connected with the Reformation, could equally be described of other great periods in the history of God’s dealings with mankind, could it not? And it could be written as the caption beneath many lesser-known interventions of God, as well.

We might hang this beautiful Latin phrase as a banner over the great reformation and revival that took place under King Josiah of old (2 Kings 22-23), when God’s book was (literally) rediscovered, and God’s worship was rightly restored. Post Tenebras Lux.

We might also inscribe these lovely words on the record-books of the great Evangelical Awakening that overspread Great Britain in the 18th century. The clouds had grown dark, spiritually and morally, by the early 1700’s. But, through the preaching of men like Whitefield, Wesley, Rowlands, and others, the light of Christ dawned once more. Post Tenebras Lux.

Your own story, too (if you are in Christ) is an example of this same theme, is it not? Your sins left you shrouded in darkness. But God, in the gospel of His dear Son, “called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Post Tenebras Lux.

And, of course, the greatest bursting of light into darkness came when Christ Himself, “the Light of the world”, entered into the darkness, not only of “Galilee of the Gentiles” and Judea of the Pharisees, but of an entire world fallen into sin … so that “the people who walk in darkness” (the Galileans, in Isaiah 9:2; but not limited to them, in the grand scheme of things) would “see a great light.” Post Tenebras Lux.

‘After darkness, light’ is God’s modus operandi, you see! He loves to rescue, redeem, restore, and revive. And the Reformation, whose 500th anniversary is nearly upon us, is one of the greatest examples of this love! And there are many more examples, too – each of which should add to our confidence in the Post Tenebras Lux God! Each of them should urge us – when we think of the spiritual night that seems to be descending upon our land, or the deep darkness in which some of our family or friends continue to walk – “to pray and not to lose heart.” God is still the God of Post Tenebras Lux!

"He Himself is our peace"

I’m from the American South. The place where racial tensions have often been at their height. The place where slavery, Jim Crow, and ‘separate but equal’ had their heyday. But also the place where I saw the gospel of Jesus Christ, in stunningly beautiful ways, quietly transcend the ethnic divide which is so much on the forefront of current cultural dialogue.

The place was Tunica County, Mississippi – in the northern tip of that beautifully unique region known as the Mississippi Delta. This is a region where cotton was once king; where huge-scale agriculture is still the order of the day; where magnificent yellow crop-dusters buzz like giant dragonflies overhead; and where, in many localities, the majority population is African-American. It’s also the place where, eager to get my feet wet in pastoral ministry, I was called as a mission pastor (in the little crossroads of Robinsonville, in the northern part of Tunica County) during the summer before my second year of seminary.

Robinsonville, once a sleepy collection of mammoth cotton, rice, and soybean fields, was in a state of flux in the early 2000's.  Nine large casinos had recently been built along the Mississippi River, and both African-Americans from elsewhere in the county, as well as out-of-the-area transplants of various backgrounds and ethnicities, were moving into the area to work at the casinos (and at the hotels, restaurants, and so on that follow, like hungry seagulls, in the casinos' wake).  And the idea behind my coming was that this burgeoning population in northern Tunica County needed to be reached with the gospel. And, indeed, it did (and still does!).

In the two years we were there, we were able to touch a few of the out-of-the-area transplants with the message of Christ. But it turned out that most of those we touched with the good news were from among the African-American folks who had lived most of their lives in Tunica County. And it was glorious! Gathered together around Jesus Christ, the congregation there became, truly, a family!  And within the church family, if my assessment is correct, there was little to-do made over the oddity of a white, suburban preacher-boy and his wife serving, and immensely loved and welcomed by, a congregation of mostly rural-background African-Americans.  For, in the midst of studying the Bible together, and considering the gospel of Christ together, and singing hymns together, and caring for each other, and just doing life together, I don’t think any of us thought too much about whether we were white, or black, or rural, or suburban. And we certainly didn’t experience any racial tension within the congregation. Were we different in some ways? Absolutely! Did we realize that fact? Of course (sometimes comically!). But it never became a point of contention, or even really much of a point of discussion. We had other, more pressing, things to be doing and discussing! Jesus was bringing us together around Himself!

This was not a part of any strategy or master plan for racial harmony. I was too wet-behind-the-ears to have had any ideas for tackling something like that (and, honestly, too naïve to know that it could even have been an issue). But Christ and His gospel really do make a difference when it comes to questions of ethnicity, heritage, culture, and so on! Writing about gospel unity among Jews and Gentiles, Paul said something that, I think, also applies to all sorts of other differences and potential divisions in the church: “He Himself [Jesus] is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall” (Ephesians 2:14). “He Himself is our peace” (emphasis added)! And how true we found that to be! Where people truly gather around Christ, and know Christ, and worship Christ … no matter how different from one another they may be in many respects, they will, by a new spiritual instinct, genuinely love each other! And their differences will seem fairly small in light of what they have in common in Jesus.

So, brothers and sisters, in this day of ethnic tension and dialogue, let us lift up Christ above all else. “He Himself is our peace.”

Paul's Letters

The apostle Paul (also known as Saul) is famous for his letters – to Christians in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, and so on. But, before Paul wrote any of these famous letters, we are told that he “asked for letters” (emphasis added) of a very different sort:

Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Acts 9:1-2

These were very different letters, indeed, which Paul had tucked into his satchel as he made his way down the road to Damascus! These were letters meant, not to instruct, encourage, and correct the churches … but to destroy them. These letters, unlike those for which he later became famous, had their inspiration in hell rather than in heaven! But praise God that, before Paul was able to execute the permission these letters granted, heaven intervened … not only on behalf of the Christians in Damascus, but on behalf of Saul himself!

Saul met Jesus on that trip to Damascus, and was forever changed! Now, instead of Saul “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” … now, through Paul’s letters, the Lord Himself would breathe out His very own words … “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). Saul went from carrying letters for the devil, to writing letters for the Lord!

And isn’t God’s mercy rich? Isn’t His grace great? And isn’t “Jesus Christ … the same yesterday and today and forever”? He is! And that means that He is still saving souls … and even Sauls! So pray for them! Pray for the seeming ‘tough nuts to crack’ in your life – the people who, though not hateful or militant like Saul, still seem (to our weak faith) like they are among the least likely people who would ever turn to Christ, and to begin serving His kingdom. For, if Christ saved Saul, He can save the seemingly ‘unlikely candidates’ in our lives, too!

And He can save the militants, as well! So pray for the conversion, even, of people who hate the church, and wish to see her destroyed. “Is anything too difficult for the LORD?” Are members of ISIS, or the persecutors in North Korea, too difficult for the Lord to save? Absolutely not! So pray for them! Pray that they might be saved, and that they might be useful to God’s kingdom! They won’t, of course, write inspired letters, like the apostle did. But they might begin to preach from them!  They can go from handling the devil’s business, to delivering the Lord’s gospel mail!  Pray that it might be so!

'Thine eclipse'

In his excellent biographical message on John Newton, John Piper quotes the following marvelous words from Newton's pen, on the occasion of an eclipse (albeit, of a different sort than today's):

Tonight I attended an eclipse of the moon. How great, O Lord, are thy works! With what punctuality do the heavenly bodies fulfill their courses. . . . I thought, my Lord, of Thine eclipse. The horrible darkness which overwhelmed Thy mind when Thou saidst, “Why hast thou forsaken me?” Ah, sin was the cause — my sins — yet I do not hate sin or loathe myself as I ought” (Richard Cecil, The Life of John Newton, edited by Marylynn Rousse, p. 134).

As you view the eclipse today, think on Christ , "the Light of the world", entering into the darkness of death and judgment on behalf of us sinners.  And thank God for His eclipse.

"Arise!"

So said Jesus to a young man in the seventh chapter of Luke: “Young man, I say to you, arise!” But the most interesting thing about Jesus’ hearer, in this instance, is not that he is young, but that he is dead! Indeed, it is his funeral day. His widowed mother is there, walking along with the coffin. The funeral procession inches along to the graveside. And there is the young man, to whom Jesus spoke, being carried along by his pall-bearers. And what sort of person interrupts such a procession? What sort of person comes from the outside and stops a funeral party on the way to the graveside? What sort of person, indeed, not only interrupts a grieving funeral party, but actually begins speaking to the corpse, and expecting lifeless ears to hear? This had better work! The dead man had better be able to hear, and to arise, or the whole thing is going to be incredibly embarrassing … and quite impertinent, and hurtful to the grieving company.

But, of course, the voice is that of Jesus! And so it does work! The dead young man does indeed hear the Master’s voice; and he does indeed sit up in his coffin! Praise God! Praise the Son of God whose voice is so powerful, He can make even the dead to hear!

You’re probably familiar with the story. So familiar, in fact, that we know that it is inevitable that the dead man will hear Jesus’ voice and respond to it. That’s what happens in the New Testament, right? But does it occur to you to apply this same logic to that person in your family, or your workplace, or among your friends … that person who is spiritually dead, and seems like the last person on earth who would actually listen to the word of Christ, and heed it?

The reason why such people seem so unlikely to respond is because they are, indeed, dead! Dead to God. Dead to spiritual realities. Dead to the life that is in the Son. And so of course he or she is uninterested in your gospel, and in your Savior, and in coming to church with you. He or she really is, spiritually, dead! And, perceiving that to be so, we may sometimes hold out very little hope that they will ever listen, or that they will ever believe. And we are right in ascertaining their deadness to our message! But let us not forget that the voice of Jesus is so powerful that, whenever He chooses, He can speak to dead ears (and hearts, and minds) and cause them to hear, and to arise! As it was with the young man being carried by the pallbearers in the ancient city of Nain, so it is with young and old in your city, and in your family. Yes, they really are spiritually dead! But that is no impediment if Jesus deems that they should hear His voice and live! So keep giving them His word! Keep speaking to them His gospel! Keep warning them of their sin, and of hell. And keep attempting to woo them to the Savior, and to His heaven. Time may come when He will interrupt their slow march to an eternal grave, and bid them arise from the dead … to the rejoicing of mothers, friends, and the crowds round about!

The Verbs of Our Salvation

Often times, in our Christian vernacular, we use the word ‘saved’ in the past tense – ‘I was saved on such and such a date.’ Or we might say, ‘I date my salvation to such and such a time.’ This is how we often speak of the concept of salvation – in the past tense – such that that the words ‘save’ or ‘salvation’ refer to the point in time, in the past, at which we were brought to repentance and faith in Christ, and were forgiven and declared righteous in God’s sight. We were ‘saved’ (past tense) at that point in time. And that is a right use of the term.

It’s also right to speak of salvation in the present perfect tense. We have been saved – meaning that we were forgiven and justified at some point in the past, and that those statuses (forgiven and justified) are ongoing. If we were ever forgiven, well then we are still forgiven, right? And, in the same way, God’s declaration that we are righteous in Christ happened once, at a moment in time … and such that our standing in this blessings continues! We remain forgiven and justified. And so it’s right to speak of having been saved.

But, though we often use the words ‘saved’ and ‘salvation’ as shorthand for forgiveness and justification (which happened at a past moment in time, with continuing effect) … these words (‘saved’ and ‘salvation’) can be used to describe even more than that. Our complete salvation from sin, in other words, includes more than just our initial coming to faith, and being once-and-for-all-time delivered from sin’s penalty, at some wonderful point in our past. We can also use the word ‘salvation’ to refer to the process of progressive sanctification, whereby God is presently, gradually molding us into the image of His Son. In sanctification, we are being saved (in the present) from sin’s power! And, further, the words ‘salvation’ or ‘saved’ can also be used in reference to our glorification – that future moment in time when, at death or at Christ’s return, we will be completely made like Him; when will be saved, finally, from sin’s presence in our lives!

To distill all that down, here is how theologians and Bible teachers have put into words this multi-tense unfolding of our salvation:

• In justification, we have been saved from sin’s penalty.

• In progressive sanctification, we are being saved from sin’s power.

• In glorification, we will be saved from sin’s presence.

And so, yes, it is right to say ‘I have been saved,’ or to refer back to the date of your ‘salvation.’ But it is also right to realize that, while we were forever saved, at a point and time, from sin’s penalty … God is not finished with us. He is still saving us, no longer from the penalty of sin (which has been forever done away, if we are in Christ), but He is still saving us from sin’s power! And, when our lives in this world are complete, He will finally save us, even from sin’s very presence in our lives!

We have been saved in justification. We are being saved in sanctification. And some day, marvelously, we will be saved, finally, in glorification!

And, if you like grammar, you’ll notice that those are all passive verbs! It’s not that we have saved, are saving, and will save … but that we have been saved, are being saved, and will be saved! These passive verbs refer to things done for us … not by us! “Salvation is from the Lord” (Jonah 2:9). And therefore “blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3)!

Sermons from Zephaniah

We recently completed a four week study of Zephaniah.  Listen in:

Zephaniah 1:1-2:3 - "Near is the great day of the LORD" - mp3
Zephaniah 2:4-3:7 - "He will starve all the gods of the earth" - mp3
Zephaniah 3:8-13 - "My worshippers" - mp3
Zephaniah 3:14-20 - "He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy" - mp3

Light Bulbs for Lottie Moon

You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone; for even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs. Philippians 4:15-16

These are the words of a grateful missionary. Paul was out in the far reaches of the earth, preaching and praying and loving the people with all the strength that God would give him. But he knew that he was desperately dependent on those back home who supported him financially. There were times when he didn’t have that support, so he had to work a secular job to keep himself afloat. But there was this one church—the church at Philippi—which he knew he could count on. There was this one church that, when everyone else seemed to forget about the missionaries, didn’t forget. There was this one church that, again and again, sent Paul supplies and monetary support. So Paul’s letter to the Philippians is, in large measure, a thank you note.

Wouldn’t it be gratifying to get a letter like that from someone so committed to and successful in missionary endeavors as Paul? Wouldn’t it be gratifying to know that your giving was leading to the conversion of precious souls in some far-off corner of the globe? Just think about how many people came into the kingdom because the Philippians’ financial support enabled Paul to devote himself to full-time ministry! When you think of it like that, giving to missions becomes very exciting!

This is what I hope our Lottie Moon Christmas Offering® (100% of which supports our Southern Baptist international missionaries) is for our congregation—exciting! One of my most prized childhood memories is the Lottie Moon® offering in our church. I didn’t know who Lottie Moon was. I didn’t really know how all the money was gathered and disbursed. But somehow this money was going to help people hear about Jesus. And the church folks seemed to be excited about it!

We collected our offering throughout the month of December … and every year we had a church-wide goal—let’s say $2000. On the wall, just to the left of the baptistery, there would be a Christmas wreath with ten big Christmas light-bulbs on it. Each bulb represented $200. For every $200 dollars that came in, another light would be lit up. So every week through advent season, it was a delight to arrive in the church auditorium to see how many lights were lit up this Sunday. And I think many of the adults enjoyed it as much as us kids. Giving to missions was fun! I can assure you, I look back with much more joy on that Lottie Moon wreath than on any Christmas present I ever got. More importantly, in heaven I’ll rejoice more in those $200 light bulbs than in all my earthly possessions put together!

What about you? Do you love the cause of world missions? Do you get excited about being a part of it through “giving and receiving”? Is the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering®; (or your church's equivalent) fun for you? You don’t need a wreath to make it so. You don’t need light bulbs, either. You just need a Philippian heart. You need an eternal perspective on your money. You need a compassion for souls and a passion for the fame of Jesus. Then giving to missions will be a delight! And the more you give, the more delightful!

"In everything give thanks"

It is such a good thing that we have this national holiday, every fourth Thursday of November, to remind us to give thanks to the One who “gives to all people life and breath and all things” (Acts 17:25). Indeed, the Thanksgiving holiday itself is another one of those things for which we should give God thanks! And, of course, we can readily think of many other blessings for which to thank Him this late November. Some of us have had very signal blessings in the last year … or very timely deliverances. Many of us have family reasons for praise, or business reasons, or health reasons, or church reasons, or reasons of God drawing especially near to our own souls. God does indeed “satisf[y] your years with good things” (Psalm 103:5).

But what about those years and seasons when the good things seem to be overshadowed by events which, at least on the raw surface of life, seem not so good? Or what about the times when those things for which we normally give thanks around the Thanksgiving table seem to be few and far between? Even then, the apostle Paul would remind us, we can and should give thanks. “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:18, emphasis added). Not just when the reports are rosy; not just when you have the typical Thanksgiving round of reasons; but “in everything give thanks”!

Is that realistic? Is it just phony? How do the bereaved give thanks when a loved one’s place is now empty at the Thanksgiving feast? How do the lonely give thanks when they have no one to feast with at all? How do the unemployed give thanks? Or the cancer ridden, or those discouraged in their dead-end job? Should we just plaster on a smile and ‘say the right thing’? Or is there something even more to genuine thanksgiving than just the obvious reasons why most Americans (rightly) give thanks?

Well, there is the simple fact of the gospel, isn’t there? So that, if you belong to Christ, even if you cannot think of anything else for which to give thanks, you can give thanks for His shed blood, and for the forgiveness and eternal life that you have in Him! Because of Him, you can be thankful in spite of your circumstances!

But 1 Thessalonians 5:18 calls for something even more, it seems to me – not just thanksgiving in spite of our circumstances, but actually giving thanks in those circumstances. And that means that we must thank God for what He is doing in our trials, in our bereavement, in our discouragement. And what is He doing? Well, we don’t always know the fine print! And sometimes we can’t even seem to read vast sections of the large print! But, if we are in Christ; if we “love God”; if we “are called according to His purpose”, then “we know” that, even if we cannot see it, God is working every trial and heartache for our everlasting good (Romans 8:28). And we know (Romans 8:32), that if God was willing to give us His very best – His own Son! – then surely He will not withhold anything else that is needful. And we know that “the LORD is near to the brokenhearted” (Psalm 34:18) and that “the angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him” (Psalm 34:7). And so we can thank God, not just in spite of our trials, but for what He is doing in our trials – upholding us, encamping round us, drawing especially near to us in sorrow, wisely working good that we cannot yet see … and promising, with His Son as the earnest payment (Rom 8:32), that He will continue doing these things every moment of our lives!

So then, thank God around the tables at Thanksgiving! Thank Him for family, and friends, and health, and safety, and all that is going obviously well in your life. But thank Him, too, for how He is wise and good and faithful and strong even when “the mountains slip into the heart of the sea.” Even then, He is “a very present help.” And so, even then, we may give thanks.

A Category for Grace?

As an assignment for a college course, one of our members recently found himself taking an online survey. I imagine it was, in many ways, like any one of the plethora of online surveys that we and our co-workers talk about in the break room – the kind in which you answer a host of various questions, and then get an answer, at the end of it all, telling you what sort of personality type you have, or where you’d probably like best to live, or whether you’re a true Yankee or a genuine southerner, and so on.

Only this survey was about religion. Answer a series of questions, and the program spits out an answer as to which world religion your beliefs most resemble. And I suppose that the point of the assignment was to help college students who say that they are Catholic, or Evangelical, or Jewish to see whether or not they actually know and believe what their claimed religion teaches. A good exercise, it seems to me!

But here was the thing: In a question about how a person may obtain eternal life, there was no bubble to fill for grace. There was no option A, B, C, or D under which one might check a box whose answer was that eternal life is obtained, not by one’s own merit, but by the sheer mercy of God; by the merits of Christ, applied to our lives as a free gift, to be received by faith. There was, in short, no biblical answer; no Christian answer; no place for grace!

Why not? Well, I highly doubt that the reason was some sort of attempt at discrimination against Christians. My guess, rather, is that the designers of the test must not actually understand the Christian message! They must not understand salvation by grace, else it would have be included as a possible selection on their survey!

And, on the one hand, that is rather astonishing when you consider that the creation of such an online survey surely necessitated the creators knowing a good deal about many different religions! But, on the other hand, it’s not surprising at all, really. For “a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Which means that an unconverted man or woman may have the good news of salvation as a free gift staring him right in the face, and yet fail to see it. And, if that is true of a person who would venture to create an online religious survey, how much more of the man in the street? Or the woman next door? Or your child’s teammates on the ball team? All of which means that we must pray! We must ask God to do what only He can do (John 6:44)! We can put the gospel message before our lost neighbors’ eyes all day long. But they are spiritually blind (just like we once were). And only God can make blind eyes see!

***

But then let me make this observation as well: Namely that, while it is true that spiritual blindness is one reason (the deepest reason) people cannot comprehend salvation as a free gift … another reason may be that we have not always put the message of gospel grace before them with enough frequency so as to actually increase the possibility (humanly speaking) that, one of these times, they might actually see it! To return to our online survey maker, I wonder if part of the reason he or she seems to have no concept of the Christian message is because he or she has actually rarely come into contact with it; because very few Christians have come across his or her path and clearly explained it.

What does that mean for us? It means that we mustn’t assume that our friends have ever actually had the gospel message clearly and simply explained to them. We mustn’t assume that spiritual blindness is their only problem, but also realize that it is our responsibility to provide them with something to actually see! 

I wonder if our friends, and neighbors, and family members really understand basic Christianity as well as we might think they do. I’d venture a guess that many of them do not; that, if you asked them to explain what they think you believe about eternity … many of them, like the online survey, would have no category for grace.

So let us work hard to at least get the answer of grace onto the bubble sheets of their thinking! Let us do everything we can to make the gospel of grace available (and clear) to those around us. That doesn’t mean they will necessarily receive it, or even perceive it. But they certainly will never do either of those things if no one ever even explains grace clearly in the first place (Romans 10:13-15)! So let’s be on a mission of gospel clarity and proclamation. Let’s do what we can do to put the good news of grace before our neighbors’ eyes. And let’s pray earnestly (1 Corinthians 2:14), that God will grant them to see!

In Praise of Women

In view of our upcoming sermon on biblical motherhood, here is a reprise of an article originally published a few months back:

Have you ever listened to a woman heralding the gospel? Perhaps more often (and more appropriately) than you recognize! How can it be, you ask? Well, stay with me (and don’t jump to conclusions just yet about what I mean!).

I was recently listening to a helpful sermon (by Iain D. Campbell) on the resurrection of Jesus from John 20. And what stuck with me was when Dr. Campbell, taking a cue from the 19th century preacher T.V. Moore, paused to notice how unusual it appears when we consider that it was a woman, Mary Magdalene, whom Jesus selected as the first herald of His resurrection; the first one to proclaim that He was risen indeed!

How can this be? That’s the question Moore poses in his classic work, The Last Days of Jesus. After all, Moore points out, this is the same Jesus who commissioned the apostles who, speaking on His behalf, would soon make it clear that women are not “to teach or exercise authority over a man” in the church (1 Timothy 3:12). And so, since that is the will of Christ on the matter of women preachers, Moore ponders, how is it that Jesus makes this seeming exception by giving Mary Magdalene – and not the apostles – the privilege of being the first herald of the risen Savior?

The solution, of course, is not to throw out what is said elsewhere in the New Testament regarding the prohibition of women teaching men in the church. 1 Timothy 3:12 stands. “I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man.” But with that being said, why the seeming exception with Mary Magdalene?

Well, says Moore, it’s not actually an exception at all.

Now, of course, one reason it is not an exception (which I myself would add at this point) is that Mary was not teaching in an authoritative or church setting, but simply sharing the good news person-to-person … just like a woman might do, today, with male classmates or co-workers.

But Moore sees something even more profound happening in John 20. The fact that a woman was the first one to announce the good news of Christ’s resurrection is not an exception, he says, but actually the natural order in which a great many of us have first heard the same good news never since!

And so, seizing on and preaching Moore’s observation, Campbell asks his hearers: ‘Where did you first hear the story of the cross? Who first told you the story of the risen Savior? Where did you first hear that Christ was alive? Was it from a minister in a pulpit? Or was it, perhaps, from a woman – a godly mother, a godly grandmother whose heart was tender to your heart when you were in your childhood … so that the first person to tell you that Christ was alive was a woman, too?’

Here is Moore’s great observation, and Campbell’s stirring preaching of it: It was not strange that Mary Magdalene was the first to announce that Jesus was alive, because that is the pattern for so many of us, in every generation since – first hearing the good news from the lips of a woman! ‘We will never know,’ Campbell continues, ‘what we owe to the women who spent time with Jesus in the garden – our mothers and our grandmothers and our Sunday School teachers who impacted our lives to tell us that Christ was alive.’

And so it is probably true that many who read these lines owe more to the heralding of the gospel from feminine lips than we had really taken time to recognize – not as they usurped the God-given role of men, but as they took up the God-given role of women: nurturing little ones in the faith; helping them memorize scripture and catechism; singing gospel truth to them in the Sunday School room, and in the cradle, and even in the womb.

And so here is a little tribute to the godly mothers and grandmothers who read this little article. And here is an encouragement to those who are still in the midst of those formative years of bringing children up “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” God is using you! Christ is making Himself known through your lips – often the very first lips who herald His good news to the little ones in your life! So keep on! “Your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”

Sermons from Galatians

Listen in to our latest series of sermons from Paul's letter to the Galatians.

Gal 1:1-5 - “To the churches of Galatia” - mp3
Gal 1:6-9 - “A different gospel” - mp3
Gal 1:10-2:10 - “Not according to man” - mp3
Gal 2:11-16 - “Justified by faith” - mp3
Gal 2:15-21 - “Crucified with Christ” - mp3
Gal 3:1-18 - “The righteous man shall live by faith” - mp3
Gal 3:19-24 - “Why the Law then?” - mp3
Gal 3:25-4:11 - “Sons of God through faith in Christ” - mp3
Gal 4:11-20 - “My children, with whom I am again …” - mp3
Gal 4:21-5:12 - “Do not be subject again to a yoke …” - mp3
Gal 5:13-26 - “Walk by the Spirit” - mp3
Gal 6:1-10 - “Fulfill the law of Christ” - mp3
Gal 6:11-18 - “May it never be that I would boast ...” - mp3

The Cure for What Ails Us

Nearly every other day, lately, seems to bring some painful news. Baton Rouge, Minneapolis, Dallas, France, Turkey, Baton Rouge again, and all sorts of ‘lesser’ bad news sprinkled liberally in between. And none of that includes the frustration and disappointment that many Americans feel connected to the presidential election. Nor does it include whatever awful news stories may come across the ticker between the time I write this (Tuesday afternoon) and the time you read it. It really is a bad news world, this planet earth. And, while the outbreak of dark clouds seems to have increased in recent weeks, it always has been a bad news world, ever since Genesis 3:1-19.

And, ever since that day when the darkness fell in the Garden of Eden, the solution to man’s bad news has always, always (and, ultimately, only) been God’s good news – the news of a Savior who would crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:12), and right all that has gone wrong in the fall of mankind. And I submit to you that this idea – that the only ultimate hope in the midst of the world’s bad news is the good news about god’s Son – I submit to you that this idea is not just pie in the sky, nor is it merely somehow just generically true that the gospel would help the world. But it is specifically true in each of the specific situations that grieve us as they come marching, one after the other, across the daily newswire.

What is the hope in the cities of this nation that are torn by racial violence and fear? Better policing techniques would be a good thing! And so would the caution of citizens to avoid painting all police with a broad brush. But do you know what ultimately brings races together (and makes people really care about the above)? The news about Jesus, which breaks down the barrier between races, and makes black, white, Asian, Latino, and everyone else who is in Christ one (Ephesians 2:14, Galatians 3:28).

And what of the radical Islamic violence that continues to rear its ugly head on multiple continents? What is the solution for Orlando, Nice, and so many bombings in Africa and the Middle East.? It is the spread of the gospel, which turns militants into missionaries, and angry young men into lovers of peace (Acts 9:1-20). Are there important discussions to be had about immigration and border patrols? Certainly. But the ultimate solution for radical Islam, the thing that has the power to root it out altogether is not only figuring out how to keep radical Islam out, but (more importantly) sending merciful Christians in to Muslim regions and neighborhoods, proclaiming “liberty to the captives” in Jesus Christ!

And the same good news that has the power to convert the militants also has the power to comfort those (Muslim, European, Floridian, and so on) who are left to grieve in their wake; and those who grieve any and every other loss in this world. Because news of Jesus tells us that He is coming again, to right all that is wrong in this world, to make “all things new” and to “wipe away every tear” from the eyes of His people (Revelation 21:1-7).

And what of American Politics, and the future of our land? What is it that can make our nation what she should be? Not first of all jobs, or a good economy, or campaign reform, or what-have-you. What “exalts a nation”, according to the Scriptures, is “righteousness” (Proverbs 14:34). And how does an unrighteous nation – which America certainly is, on so many levels (abortion, sexual promiscuity, pornography, idolatry, etc.) – how does an unrighteous nation begin to be bend its collective will toward the ways of righteousness? Not first of all by enacting new laws (which sinful men will always find a way to skirt), nor even primarily by electing new politicians (who are sinners themselves, and work for a sinful constituency). No! Laws and leaders are important, no doubt. But the way a nation begins to adopt stances of righteousness is not first of all through new laws and new leaders, but as more and more of its individual citizens become new creatures in Christ. The laws and leaders will follow the transformation of the populous! And the populous is changed, one person at a time, through the proclamation of the message of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17-21)!

And so do you see? What our broken, cracked, decaying nation and world need most is not only better laws, better politicians, safer borders, better policing, understanding of one another, and so on. All those things are true. But none of them change the human heart. Only the gospel does that. And so the solution for bad news is not just better ways of doing things, but altogether good news – the news about Christ!

"He swears to his own hurt"

Here is one of the character traits, according to Psalm 15, of the person who may “abide in [God’s] tent” and “dwell on [His] holy hill” (v.1) – “He swears to his own hurt and does not change” (v.4) – which means that a godly man keeps his promises and commitments, even when it proves costly to do so. A wonderful trait, and delightful to behold when we see it in one of our friends!

But I wonder if that is a character trait of most modern men and women, even most modern Christians. Are we people of our word? Do we pay our bills and debts like we contracted to do? Do we show up for meetings like we said we would? Do we actually pray when we tell our friends that we will do so? Are we following through on our marriage vows? Are we people of our word? Or do we demonstrate, by our vacillations, that we do not actually belong on God’s holy hill? Think about it in your own life. Do people know you as the kind of person whose word is his bond; who doesn’t back out of her commitments; who always pays up; whom they know they can trust and call upon, no matter what? Or are you the kind of person whose promises prove fairly flimsy when ‘something comes up’ – particularly when that something that comes up is the realization that following through on your word might be costly?

Or think of it like this: Which sort of friend, spouse, parent, child, co-worker, or client do you want  in your life? The one who is rock solid? Or the one whose word to you may falter when keeping it proves inconvenient? What sort of person do you want as a spouse; as a friend; as a brother or sister in Christ; to call upon when you are in a pinch? Isn’t it wonderful to have a friend, a customer, a co-worker, a deacon, an elder, or a family member on whom you know you can always count? Such people are like oak trees, are they not? You can lean on them. You can always be sure that they will be there, steady, on the horizon of your life. And, when need be, you can rest in their shade. And isn’t a comfort to know they are there? “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you” (Matthew 7:12).

Indeed, even further: Isn’t this commitment to one’s word, even when it hurts, precisely the example that Jesus Himself has left us, so that we might follow “in His steps”? The difficulty, for Jesus, was not that He made a promise which He later discovered was going to be painful to keep. No! He actually knew, when He made the commitment to be our Savior, that it would cost Him His blood, His dignity, His earthly life, and (for a season) even His fellowship with His Father. But He entered into “the eternal covenant” just the same … and kept it all the way through. “He [swore] to His own hurt and [did] not change.” Jesus knew all the times we would renege on our promises to God and to others. He knew all the other ways we’d break God’s law, too. And He knew how much it would cost Him to make payment for all these offenses. He knew that it would be “to His own hurt” – greater hurt than anyone else ever endured – to make such a payment. And yet He followed through!

And, because He did, Jesus is not only our example, but also our hope if we read these few lines from Psalm 15 and discover that we are among those who do not deserve to abide in God’s tent because we have not been men and women of our word. Christ died to cover our sins, praise God! And He also died so that, in Him, we would have the power to leave them behind, as well. So that Jesus is not only our example when it comes to keeping our word, and our hope when we realize that we have not always done so … but also our help to begin to walk with integrity as we go forward! So look to Him in all these ways, my friends – and (v.5) you “will never be shaken.”

When the Guardrails Come Down

I read Psalm 2 recently, and it struck me how much it sounds as though it could have been written in the United States, some time in the last year or so. Just notice the first three verses:

“Why are the nations in an uproar

And the peoples devising a vain thing?

The kings of the earth take their stand

And the rulers take counsel together

Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,

‘Let us tear their fetters apart

And cast away their cords from us!’”

Doesn’t that sound like what we have been reading about, and hearing in the news, in recent months? From the common folks, right on up to the rulers, what we have in this nation is a meeting of the various minds, and a conferring as to which of God’s laws we can cast aside next. The common man wants this breaking of God’s yoke. State, local, and federal authorities are often in agreement. And the money and power brokers of our culture are forcing the hands of the government officials whose feet aren’t quite so quick to spread the revolution. And so the nation is “in an uproar.” The peoples are “devising a vain thing.” And the rulers are “tak[ing] counsel together” as to how to make it all law.

And all of it is against, not only good morality and historic precedent and often just plain good sense … but these things are being devised, even more seriously, “against the LORD and against His Anointed.” And so it is all utter folly. And self-destruction. Because what does the psalmist say in vv.4-5?

“He who sits in the heavens laughs,

The Lord scoffs at them.

Then He will speak to them in His anger

And terrify them in His fury …”

God is not in heaven, with His head spinning, His hands wringing, and His finger on the panic button. He laughs at those people who think they can overthrow His moral law with the stroke of a legislative pen, or with the power of the media and the cultural establishment. Picture the smile on an NBA player’s face when he is challenged to a game of one-on-one by a gangly high school sophomore. God laughs at us small-timers when we think we have cast off His yoke. And we are foolish if we do not realize it. “He will speak to [us] in His anger."

And not only is our nation taking counsel against the Lord foolish because God can crush us like so many ants in His garden, but because the yoke which our culture is so quick to throw off is an easy yoke (Matthew 11:28-30). Or, as the apostle John put it, “His commandments are not burdensome.” They are actually good for us (and even for non-believers who live in a culture that accepts them as the moral norm) … like the guardrails that keep wayward cars from veering into oncoming traffic.

When I was in college, I remember driving home one Friday afternoon and seeing an old beat-up truck, barreling down the left-hand lane of interstate 65 and, perhaps in a moment of dozing, sideswiping the concrete barrier that lay between the north and south-bound lanes. Sparks flew. And the driver bounced off the barrier, kept control, and kept driving (the blessing of already having a beat-up truck, I suppose). But what would have happened if the barrier had not been there? Both that man, and perhaps a few other people, would have been dead in the melee.

This is what is happening in our culture. The guardrails have been coming down for some time now. And it’s no surprise we have the drug addiction, the fatherless children, the abandoned elderly, and so on with which our government is constantly trying to keep up. And yet the same government (which is, of course, “of the people” – so that we are responsible, too) keeps tearing the guardrails even further down to the ground. Indeed, the barriers are nearly all the way gone. And so life in this country will only become more debauched. And the have-nots and the ne’er-do-wells and the abused will become even worse off than they are now. And the sword that hangs over our national head is only getting sharper and sharper.

And what is the solution, according to Psalm 2? Not that the godly people murmur, or go into hiding. And not that we simply rely on the political system to try and enact better laws (though that is necessary). But that those in the system (which includes “we the people”) “take warning” (v.10), and tremble before the Lord (v.11), and “kiss the Son” (v.12, KJV).

In essence, the solution for a culture that has thrown off God’s yoke is good old fashioned repentance (vv.10-11) and faith in Jesus Christ (v.12)! What our culture needs is the gospel – which proclaims God’s judgment upon sinners, and his mercy upon those who will kiss His Son, and entrust themselves to Him in faith!

And so will you go forth, bearing this good seed in the spheres of your influence? And will you pray for those who have access to the nation’s power brokers – that someone will have the courage of the preachers of old, and will call these men and women to account before a holy God, no matter how much the culture may deride them for doing so? Pray that God would raise up a series of John the Baptists, to preach truth to all the Herods in Washington, and a whole host of John’s, also, in the Columbuses, Frankforts, and city halls of our land – proclaiming God’s righteous judgment, and issuing the invitation to kiss God’s Son, to the “nations … peoples … kings … rulers” who “take counsel together against the LORD.” And would you be something of a John the Baptist in your own sphere … having the courage to sound the alarm, and offer the Son, to your neighbors and family who are veering over the center line in a culture with no guardrails?

In Praise of Women

Have you ever listened to a woman heralding the gospel? Perhaps more often (and more appropriately) than you recognize!  How can it be, you ask? Well, stay with me (and don’t jump to conclusions just yet about what I mean!).

I was recently listening to a helpful sermon (by Iain D. Campbell) on the resurrection of Jesus from John 20. And what stuck with me was when Dr. Campbell, taking a cue from the 19th century preacher T.V. Moore, paused to notice how unusual it appears when we consider that it was a woman, Mary Magdalene, whom Jesus selected as the first herald of His resurrection; the first one to proclaim that He was risen indeed!

How can this be? That’s the question Moore poses in his classic work, The Last Days of Jesus. After all, Moore points out, this is the same Jesus who commissioned the apostles who, speaking on His behalf, would soon make it clear that women are not “to teach or exercise authority over a man” in the church (1 Timothy 3:12). And so, since that is the will of Christ on the matter of women preachers, Moore ponders, how is it that Jesus makes this seeming exception by giving Mary Magdalene – and not the apostles – the privilege of being the first herald of the risen Savior?

The solution, of course, is not to throw out what is said elsewhere in the New Testament regarding the prohibition of women teaching men in the church. 1 Timothy 3:12 stands. “I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man.” But with that being said, why the seeming exception with Mary Magdalene?

Well, says Moore, it’s not actually an exception at all. 

Now, of course, one reason it is not an exception (which I myself would add at this point) is that Mary was not teaching in an authoritative or church setting, but simply sharing the good news person-to-person … just like a woman might do, today, with male classmates or co-workers. 

But Moore sees something even more profound happening in John 20. The fact that a woman was the first one to announce the good news of Christ’s resurrection is not an exception, he says, but actually the natural order in which a great many of us have first heard the same good news never since!

And so, seizing on and preaching Moore’s observation, Campbell asks his hearers: ‘Where did you first hear the story of the cross? Who first told you the story of the risen Savior? Where did you first hear that Christ was alive? Was it from a minister in a pulpit? Or was it, perhaps, from a woman – a godly mother, a godly grandmother whose heart was tender to your heart when you were in your childhood … so that the first person to tell you that Christ was alive was a woman, too?’

Here is Moore’s great observation, and Campbell’s stirring preaching of it: It was not strange that Mary Magdalene was the first to announce that Jesus was alive, because that is the pattern for so many of us, in every generation since – first hearing the good news from the lips of a woman! ‘We will never know,’ Campbell continues, ‘what we owe to the women who spent time with Jesus in the garden – our mothers and our grandmothers and our Sunday School teachers who impacted our lives to tell us that Christ was alive.’

And so it is probably true that many who read these lines owe more to the heralding of the gospel from feminine lips than we had really taken time to recognize – not as they usurped the God-given role of men, but as they took up the God-given role of women: nurturing little ones in the faith; helping them memorize scripture and catechism; singing gospel truth to them in the Sunday School room, and in the cradle, and even in the womb.

And so here is a little tribute to the godly mothers and grandmothers who read this little article. And here is an encouragement to those who are still in the midst of those formative years of bringing children up “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” God is using you! Christ is making Himself known through your lips – often the very first lips who herald His good news to the little ones in your life! So keep on! “Your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”

God was no longer a 'foreigner'

Do you value the blessing of possessing the Bible in your own heart language?  And do you value the task of getting it to other people in theirs?  Listen to this true story, passed on to me by my friend Allen (*original sources below):

Sebastian was 55 - quite elderly for his small Mexican community - when he began translating the Scriptures into his Tezoatlan Mixtec language. He had no training, only a second grade education, no help, not even an alphabet beyond the Spanish one he’d learned in school, but he saw a need. He bought a notebook and set out to translate the resurrection story in Luke 24. It was hard to spell Mixtec words using only Spanish letters. It was even harder to understand the biblical concepts and express them in his own language. He took his beloved notebook to every Bible study, but he didn’t read from it out of fear that he might have mistranslated the precious Word of God.

Then one night with trembling hands, he opened his notebook and began to read. Several people gasped as they realized that he was reading in Mixtec, their heart language. Then the room grew quiet. Sebastian read on for a long time, and when he stopped, he knew that no one present would ever be the same again. God was no longer a “foreigner.” God spoke Mixtec, and the words went straight to Mixtec hearts. 

Four years after Sebastian began translating, Wycliffe member John Williams came to Sebastian’s village. As Sebastian and John worked together, Sebastian eagerly contributed to every aspect of the translation and literacy work. Thirteen years later, with joy and thankfulness, Sebastian held in his hands a draft of the whole New Testament in Tezoatlan Mixtec.*

I hope that makes you thankful for your own Bible, and desirous to pray and give so that others might have it, too.  If so, let me plug to you Wycliffe Bible Translators, with whose work this story intersects ... along with some friends who minister through Wycliffe in various ways: Allen and Rebecca, Hasso Pape, and Colin and Dianne Lord.

______________
*This story was has been previously told in the Wycliffe magazine In Other Words, and by John Williams, the missionary mentioned above.  It was then summarized by Bob Creson, President of Wycliffe (see the previous link or Creson's book, The Finish Line, pp.61-64). The above quotation is a shortened version of Creson's summary.