Surrounded by Insanity

This weekend I listened to Tim Conway teach from Hebrews 11:6 which reads as follows: 

“And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”

While my wife and I listened to the sermon, I commented that the very first sermon I ever preached over 30 years ago was from this passage.  I look back on that now and cannot believe how badly I mangled the text.  Isn’t God gracious? 

I’ve heard it said over the years that the 3 laws of real estate are “Location, Location, Location.”  If you get the right location, you end up with a valuable piece of real estate.  Similar, but much more important, are what I call the 3 laws of the Bible, “Context, Context, Context!”  My mangling of the text 30 years ago was mainly due to the fact that I took the text out of the context it is in.  Now, my sermon didn’t go down the road of what is called the “Prosperity Gospel” that was so prevalent in the early 1980’s, because even then, I knew something was wrong with that, but it was not what it should have been.

Look back in verse 4 and you will read that:

“By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks.”

Men have been giving offerings since the fall in the garden.  Some have been accepted of God, most have not and the question is why.  Let’s go back to Genesis 4 where we read:

So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
  Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground. Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is too great to bear! Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” So the LORD said to him, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him.
  Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

According to this narrative, Cain and Able brought their offerings “at the appointed time:  Abel brought ‘fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock’, for he was a shepherd, and Cain, who was an agriculturist, brought ‘some of the fruits of the soil’.  While each offering was appropriate to their respective vocations, the biblical text states that ‘The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor’”.[1]   John Calvin, in his commentary on Genesis 4 says:  “God is said to have respect unto the man to whom he vouchsafes his favor. We must, however, notice the order here observed by Moses; for he does not simply state that the worship which Abel had paid was pleasing to God, but he begins with the person of the offerer; by which he signifies, that God will regard no works with favor except those the doer of which is already previously accepted and approved by him. And no wonder; for man sees things which are apparent, but God looks into the heart, (1 Samuel 16:7) therefore, he estimates works no otherwise than as they proceed from the fountain of the heart. Whence also it happens, that he not only rejects but abhors the sacrifices of the wicked, however splendid they may appear in the eyes of men. For if he, who is polluted in his soul, by his mere touch contaminates, with his own impurities, things otherwise pure and clean, how can that but be impure which proceeds from himself?” So what was it that caused God to look on in favor of Able and disfavor of Cain?  While I have heard time and again that the reason was because Cain didn’t bring an animal sacrifice, scripture does not explicitly state that.  If we turn back to Hebrews 11 and look at the context, I think we could come to a different conclusion.

Hebrews 11:6b states: “for he who comes to God must believe that He is.”  According to F. F. Bruce, “Belief in the invisible spiritual order involves, first and foremost, belief in him who is ‘King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God’ (1 Tim 1:17); and belief in God carries with it necessarily belief in his word.  It is not belief in the existence of a God that is meant, but belief in the existence of the God who once declared his will to the fathers through the prophets and in these last days has spoken in his Son.” Basically, we have to have a correct view of God.  This is where Cain failed.  He, just like many today, invented God in his own image, which is why his offering was rejected.

What is amazing is that Cain had a discourse with God.  He actually talked with God.  But Cain did not believe what God had revealed Himself to be.  Paul makes this same indictment in Romans 1:18-31.  God’s wrath is revealed to man because men suppress the truth of God’s righteousness.  God’s righteousness is evident because God made it evident!  But because man refuses to see God as He is, Paul says 3 times that “God gave them over.” 

In Hebrews 11:8, we start reading about Abraham and his faith.  Think about it for a moment; God told Abraham to take his son, his only son, the son who was to be the heir of Abraham that would be a blessing to the nations, and sacrifice him.  The next day, according to Genesis 22:3, Abraham set off to obey the command of the Lord.  As Abraham and Isaac walked alone up Mount Moriah, Isaac asked where the offering was and Abraham said, by faith, “God will provide for Himself the lamb.”  Abraham, even with all his faults and sins, had a proper perspective of who God is and that God is faithful to what He had revealed about himself.  Even to the point of believing that God would resurrect Isaac if need be to fulfill His promise to Abraham.

I say all of this to say that our perspective of God needs to be faithful and true to what God has revealed about Himself in His Word.  If we major on just one attribute to the detriment of all that are revealed in Scripture, we will have a flawed view of God.  There are those that say God is a God of love, and He is.  But love requires justice.  There are those who say that God is a God of blessings, and again, He is.  But He is also a God who is ruthless in His desire to be glorified and honored and He will strip everything away if that is what needs to be done so that one might acknowledge Him properly. Nebuchadnezzar, learned this by spending 7 years living like a beast of the field only to finally acknowledge and bless the “Most High” (Dan 4:34-35).

God is sovereign and He will share his glory with no other.  We who call upon his name must realize this and the implications that come along with it.  We must study the attributes of God!  We must acknowledge that at times the attributes of God are not easy to accept and cause us to chafe.  But, to ignore them is to our peril.  So many times we think ignorance is bliss and sometimes that is true.  But when it comes to eternity, ignorance will lead you straight into hell.  God has revealed himself to man and for man to remain willfully ignorant is insanity, which, by definition, is what most people in this world are.

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[1] O’Brien, P. T. The Letter To The Hebrews. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010. 403. Print.

A special thanks goes out to Pastor Kent Harding of Sovereign Grace Reformed Church for graciously proofing this for me!

Daily Roundup

Why God is Against Interracial Marriage – J. D. Hall will get a little under your skin with this post!  Hall claims to be from Arkansas, and with an attitude like this, he just might be.

When Christians Sin Part 1 – I’ve been listening to Tim Conway the last couple of days and these three sermons are incredibly relevant.  I highly recommend you give up 3 hours to listen to them. 

When Christians Sin Part 2

When Christians Sin Part 3

Joel Osteen, and Others, On The Prosperity Abomigospel – It is called the Prosperity Gospel, but it is an abomination to God’s Gospel, hence my renaming it to the Abomigospel.

What I Am Doing You Do Not Understand Now – Much of the Christian life is spent trusting Jesus now and understanding him later.  This is as hard for us to grasp today as it was for Peter in the upper room.

Classic Articles on Reformed Theology – A collection of articles and some complete eBooks on the Monergism website dealing with Reformed Theology.

Quote:

Our closeness to God is connected to how much sin we hold on to.  Jesus stresses this very point in John 14:21, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Don’t you ever forget that there is a direct correlation between keeping Christ’s commandments and receiving expressions of love from the Father.  There is a direct relationship between the smile you perceive from Christ Himself and obeying His commandments.  There is distinctly a connection between submission to Christ and your ability to feel the reality of Christ’s presence. – Tim Conway from When Christians Sin Part 2.

Sometimes it Costs

Over the last few months, my wife and I have had many discussions regarding our Christian faith.  Last night we went to a local Braum’s ice cream shop and sat for a while eating ice cream and talking about what we had listened to over the last couple of days (we both listen to podcasts of Paul Washer, Tim Conway, Art Azurdia, Steve Lawson, etc through the day).  My wife made the comment that I have changed and grown so much over the past couple of years and I told here that I had seen a lot of growth and change in her too.  That is the way our Christian life is supposed to be.  It is a continual state of growth and change or we aren’t really regenerated Christians.

As we were talking, I mentioned to her that I really didn’t want to be there at Braum’s eating ice cream.  She gave me that “hurt” look so I knew I’d better hurry up and clarify my statement since we were out on a date without the kids.  After a second of regrouping, I told her that it wasn’t that I didn’t want to be with her eating ice cream, it was just that we in the Western world are so comfortable.  It is nothing to us to go to Braum’s and have an ice cream, it is nothing to think about going out to eat.  We in the Western world spend a lot of time and resources doing things like that.  We just don’t know what it is like to do without, to sacrifice.  I can’t remember the last time I’ve missed a meal for any reason other than I just didn’t want to eat.  As best as I can remember over the last 40+ years I’ve never had to worry about shelter or clothing.  The point I’m making is that that attitude seems to creep into our Christian life and we take things for granted, we don’t seem to realize that there is a price to pay for being a Christian.

Now what makes this all the more interesting is that shortly after we got home last night, my wife came to me with something from one of her Facebook friends.  I don’t remember exactly what it was that her friend posted, but it was something along the lines of:  “I just look forward to the TV show Modern Family, but what makes it even better is that my kids can sit and watch it with me and we all love it so much.”  Now I don’t know what you know about the show, but it is supposedly a comedy about the happenings of 3 related families, one of which is a gay couple who are raising a child, or maybe two, I don’t know enough about it.  Anyway, my wife made the comment that she just couldn’t accept that a person who claimed to have a relationship with Christ and had been a Christian for at least the 3 years she had known her would, 1)watch a show like that, and, 2) talk about how great it was to enjoy that show with their children, who, by the way, are not even teenagers yet.  I asked my wife what she felt she needed to do and to make a long story short, she did respond to her Facebook friend who was very unappreciative of my wife’s judgmental attitude and her lack of ability to understand this persons relationship with Christ. 

In the end, my wife lost a friend.  But, she did share the Gospel with her friend in a way that it needed to be shared.  When God truly regenerates your heart, he starts bringing about changes in your life that are noticeable.  Paul Washer made the comment in a sermon that I listened to the other day and shared with my wife last night.  He said, “If there is no work of separation in your life recognizable at any point in time, then you are lost.”  While I realize that all of us grow in sanctification at different rates, what it boils down to is a matter of obedience on our part.  If regeneration in our hearts does not cause us to hate what God hates and love what God loves, we are not a Christian.  I’m not saying we are perfect and without sin, but we certainly cannot continually celebrate about a TV show that glorifies a lifestyle that God hates.  

God calls us a Christians to take a stand for the truth.  He doesn’t ask us if we would like to, He commands us to do it.  Sometimes that stand will have an associated cost with it.  Are we more concerned with our comfort, our prestige, our standing before this world, or do we tremble knowing that we answer to a Holy God?  The Word says:

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17 ESV).

Where do your affections lie?  Are your affections costing you anything?  Just something to think about.

Justification, Sanctification, Holiness, & Legalism

This is a hard blog post for me to write for the following reasons:

• Few want to talk about, let alone understand, what justification is.
• Fewer still seem to want to work out what it means to go through the process of sanctification.
• Even less want to understand that a life of holiness is a conscious decision to walk in the light of God’s sanctifying grace.
• If you choose to delve into the above with your heart, soul, mind, and being, you will most likely be labeled as legalistic.

Several months ago, I sat with a group of individuals who were talking about how great the latest Batman movie was. I was just listening to their conversation as I really wasn’t interested in the conversation because I was trying to prepare my heart for the upcoming Sunday School lesson. Then they started talking about who was the best actor to portray Batman. Somehow the conversation drifted to video games and how much one guy spent on his game collection and how much time he played them. Then things quieted down and we began our lesson.

Low and behold, the lesson was over the following passage:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21 ESV)

We talked about this in the class for a moment and then I raised my hand to speak. I mentioned that the pre-class discussion was kind of a reflection of what seemed to be the most important thing that week in several lives. I wasn’t condemning as I even mentioned that I wasn’t always focused on Christ like I should have been through the week. But you would have thought I had called everyone heathen sinners or something from the blow back I got. “Well, you may not go to the movies, but you can’t pin that on me, I don’t think it’s wrong.”

That day has troubled me for quite some time now.  But lately, I’ve been reading The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges as well as listening to When Christians Sin by Tim Conway (links to the 3 part sermon series) and I’ve come to the conclusion that most people that call themselves a Christian do not want to progress in holiness.  Oh, they want the benefits of being a Christian, but they don’t want to put in the discipline that comes along with it.  What?  You mean to say that I have to work for my salvation?  No, that is not what I’m saying at all.  Our salvation is as complete as it will ever be when our hearts are regenerated and we come to hate the sin we used to love and love the righteousness we used to hate.  But, there is a caveat included.  As we delve deeper and deeper into the Word of God, we begin to see His holiness and righteousness in a new light and the Word exhorts us to “Be holy as I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16).  In this life we will never attain that in it’s entirety, but that does not mean we can just skate by and not even try.  Sure, we will fail, sometimes spectacularly.  But that does not mean we are not to strive by the power of the Holy Spirit that now lives within us and has made us a new creature.

I guess what I see is the biggest shortcoming is that very few preachers, and even fewer laity because so few preachers preach it, understand what it means to be holy. Hagios is the Greek word from which we derive the word holy.  The connotation is hard for us today because we don’t understand the temple of the Old Testament much.  But in the temple, there were items set apart as separate from the common things.  There were tables, lampstands, even garments that the High Priest wore that were separate from your run of the mill, everyday clothing.  That is a picture of God.  He is separate or ‘other’ if you will.  He is not like us and no matter that since the first man, Adam, tried to be like God, mankind is still trying to make God in our image, He will never be like us and we are certainly not like Him.