The God Who is for Us

 In Romans 8:26-39 we have the greatest section of Scripture that deals with the security of our salvation and our secure relationship with God through Jesus Christ. In this section of Scripture there is so much richness to meditate upon, so much great truth to let feed our soul and wash over our heart, but the high water mark of this passage is verses 31b-32, "If God is for us who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all (those who trust in Christ and His completed work on our behalf), how will He not with Him freely give us all things?"

Think about it, if God is for us, who can be against us? The truth assumed here is that God is for us, and since He is for us, who, in all the created universe both seen and unseen can stand against us with God on our side.

The God who is for us is:

The God who spoke all things into existence.
The God who upholds all things by the word of His power.
The God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
The God who has declared the end from the beginning.
The God who daily bears our burden.
The God who accomplishes what concerns us.
The God whose thoughts toward us are as numerous as His wonders.
The God who has stretched out the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth, and has formed the spirit of man within him.
The God who has fashioned the hearts of us all.
The God who removes kings and establishes kings.
The God who has determined the time and boundaries of the nations.
The God who has ordained our steps, and ordained the number of our days.
The God who delights in the way He has chosen for us.
The God who lifts us up on eagles wings.
The God who is our rock, fortress, shelter, and refuge.
The God to whom nothing is hidden from His sight, and to whose eyes all things are open and laid bare.
The God whose throne stands in the heavens.
The God whose train of His robe fills the temple.
The God who does not sleep nor slumber.
The God who keeps us.
The God who is the shade at our right hand.
The God who is the lover of our souls.
The God who makes us bold with strength in our soul.
The God who delights in the prosperity of His servant.
The God whose word is truth.
The God whose word stands forever.
The God who knows all the stars by name.
The God who tends us like a shepherd does his sheep.
The God who regards the nations as a speck of dust or a drop from a bucket.
The God for whom all the nations are as nothing before Him, and are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.
The God who is everlasting.
The God who does not become weary or tired.
The God who knows what we will say before the word is on our tongue.
The God who holds all things in the hollow of His hand.
The God who is the Almighty.
The God who is righteous and just.
The God who judges all things.
The God who knows all things.
The God before whom all must appear.
The God who acts and it cannot be reversed.
The God whose purposes cannot be thwarted.
The God who wipes out our transgressions, and does not remember our sins.
The God who stands with us as our Dread Champion.
The God who gives us grace.
The God who is merciful to us and compassionate toward us.
The God before whom there was no God formed, and after whom none will exist.
The God who is our Savior.
The God who delights in our salvation.
The God who causes rivers of living water to flow from our innermost being.
The God to whom we are His beloved.
The God who loves us with the same love with which He loves His Son.
The God who indwells us.
The God who abides with us.
The God who will never leave us or forsake us.
The God who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.
The God who gives us all things richly to enjoy.
The God who will lavish the riches of His grace on us in the age to come.
The God who has loved us with an everlasting love.
The God who has in kindness drawn us to Himself.
The God who is good and does good.
The God who is holy, holy, holy.
The God who is the Giver of every good and perfect gift.
The God who never changes because from age to age He is the same.
The God whom we can trust and depend upon.
The God who has given us the gift of salvation.
The God who has redeemed us.
The God who has made us alive in Christ.
The God who has caused us to be born again.
The God who has given us a living hope.
The God who was in Christ reconciling us to Himself.
The God whose hand we cannot be snatched out of.
The God who has given us to His Son for safekeeping.


This is the God who is for us. So as we meditate on this great section in Romans, let us meditate in the light of who this great God is, this great God who is for us, this great God in whom our salvation and relationship is secure; and when we gather with others whom He is for, let us all joyfully, gratefully, and confidently open our hearts and our mouths to praise Him for who He is and what He has done.

Who is Good?

 

And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone."

Luke 18:19

The goodness of God is goodness in its original and untainted form. Since God is impassable and immutable, then His goodness is unchanging and unaffected by anything outside of Himself. Therefore God is good in a complete sense, in an absolute sense, not in a relative sense. His goodness is pure goodness, untainted, undefiled, unaffected, untempered, and without degrees. It permeates all that He is and all that He does, which is why the Psalmist declares that God is good and does good. Therefore, God's goodness is true goodness, the goodness by which all other goodness is measured, and goodness is defined in God Himself.

When men call each other good, we do it in a relative term, as compared to other men. What we see as goodness in men is the vestige of the image of God, as all men were created in the image of God (Genesis 2); and that image has been marred and defiled by sin, it has become compromised and disfigured. When what we call goodness in men is seen in the light of God and His true goodness, we see that what we call goodness is not really goodness at all, not goodness in its true sense, in its God likeness; but is a goodness of degree as compared to other men, as in contrast to what men would call bad or evil as related to the times or culture they live in.

When the Lord becomes our standard of goodness, our definition of goodness, as He should be, then how we use that term takes on a whole new meaning. All of a sudden we realize that we can't consider ourselves good in any way, and what we have called good in ourselves is not good at all; and we realize our dependence on this goodness as our ticket to heaven has been a false hope, a self-deceiving hope.

Because God is good, He came down and took upon Himself the mantle of man in the person of Christ. Christ as God and man was good, good in our stead, good in our place. His goodness has become our ticket to heaven, not for all men; but for all men who place their faith in Him and His vicarious life and death on their behalf. He becomes the ticket to heaven for all who renounce their own goodness and by faith cling tenaciously to His goodness and receive it as their own.

My friends, don't compare yourselves to other men, to the rest of mankind, to determine your own goodness. Compare yourselves to the only One who is truly good and see your goodness for the filthy and soiled rag that it is (Isaiah 64:6). Confess to God that your goodness is not good enough and that you will rely on it no longer, and by faith ask Him to cover you with the goodness of His Son, who was good in your place. And Christ, who took on the mantle of man, will place upon you the mantle of His goodness, and you will have the true ticket to heaven; and you will taste and see the goodness of God in His salvation of your very soul.

The Measure of a Church

The measure of a church is the measure of its people. As its people go, so goes the church. What is it that we as a people of God must possess and practice to be spiritually healthy, vibrant, and effective, so that our church(s) can therefore be the same way? In I Corinthians 13 Paul gives us three eternal spiritual qualities that I believe we must be strong and growing in as individuals so that the church we belong to will be strong and growing as well. These are faith, hope, and love. As believers we have these attributes, yet we may be weak in one or more of them. For example, the church at Corinth was spiritually immature and was especially weak in love (I Corinthians 13), and you can see the many problems it had as a result. The believers written to in II Peter needed to be diligent in developing their faith (II Peter 1:5-11) so that they would not be not only fruitful, but also not susceptible to the cleverly devised tales of the false teachers. The believers in Hebrews needed to leave behind the elementary teachings about the Christ and press on to maturity so as to anchor their hope more securely (Hebrews 6:19-20, 10:35). In his epistle to the twelve dispersed tribes James describes what real faith looks like.

Faith, hope, and love are mentioned in almost every New Testament book; and out of all the churches and groups written to there are only two that are commended for all three of these qualities. They are the churches at Colossae and Thessalonica. In the first chapter of both epistles Paul says that he is thankful for them and praying for them. He commends the Colossians on their faith in Christ Jesus, the love which they had for all the saints, and their hope laid up in heaven. He commends the Thessalonians for the work of their faith, the labor of their love, and the steadfastness of their hope. Also, in the first chapter of both epistles, he talks about the reception and power of the gospel, which is the tool God uses to develop faith, hope, and love in His children, and as His children are, so is the church.

Even though these attributes are spiritual and intangible, they are not inconspicuous. They are evident in the life, the attitude, and the actions of the people of God. They are the ground of our motivation, the core of our spiritual life, and the evidence of our salvation. So we in the church must look to make sure these qualities are ours and are increasing, and those of us who preach, teach, and lead the flock must be diligent to develop these qualities in the flock that God has assigned to us, so that the flock will be spiritually healthy, vibrant, and effective (I Timothy 1:5, Ephesians 4:11-16, Philippians 1:9, 25-27, I Thessalonians 4:1, 9-10, Galatians 4:19).

God's Greatest Joy

One of my favorite parables is found in Luke 15:1-7, as I believe it shows the true heart of God. In fact, this parable is located right before the parable of the prodigal son. The parable of the prodigal son is meant to illustrate the great truth shown in verses 1-7. Here are those verses. 

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming

near Him to listen to Him. Both the Pharisees and the

scribes began to grumble, saying, "This man receives 

sinners and eats with them." So He told them this parable 

saying, "What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep

and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine

in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until

he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, 

rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his 

friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, 

for I have found my sheep which was lost!' I tell you in the 

same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner 

who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who

need no repentance."

What these verses tell us is that God's greatest joy is when someone turns from their sin and turns to Him. This great and wonderful truth is illustrated in the story of the prodigal son (vs 11-24) by the father who, from a distance, sees his lost son coming to him and runs to him in joy, embracing and kissing him, and holding a celebration for him.  

In a sense, this great joy of God should not surprise us, for because of His great love for us He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice on the cross for our sins. However, so many of us labor under a couple of popular misconceptions of God that veil our eyes from this truth. 

Misconception #1.

God is a God of wrath, who is eager and waiting to punish you, strike you down, and send you to hell because of your sin. We always hear the line about not standing to close to someone in case God zaps them for doing something wrong. You see, even using that line, which almost all of us have used, shows that we do have a sense that punishment for wrongdoing is right, and must be carried out for there to be true justice. Yes, if God is holy and righteous there must be and will be ultimate justice for any and all wrongdoing, but that doesn't mean that God just can't wait to get even or that He delights in some kind of barbaric punishment or that He chortles over the eternal damnation of anyone.

What the Bible tells us about God's heart and attitude toward men, all men, is just the opposite, not only do the parables mentioned above illustrate this truth, but here is what else the Bible (God speaking) reveals to us about it:

Ezekiel 18:23 "Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked," declares the Lord God, "rather than that he should turn from his ways and live."

Ezekiel 18:32 "For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies," declares the Lord God. "Therefore, repent and live."

Ezekiel 33:11 "Say to them, 'As I live!' declares the Lord God, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die?"

I Timothy 2:3b-4...God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

II Peter 3:9 The Lord is slow about His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.

So what we see here in these verses is God's desiring for all men and women to turn from their sin and come to Him for salvation and forgiveness of their sins and eternal life. 

Misconception #2.

God is a benign God who is somewhat detached from this world, but loves us as we are, and lets us set our own moral code and use our own guidelines for entering heaven (whatever our version of that may happen to be). This misconception totally misconstrues what the real love of God is. Let's see what the Bible tells us about this:

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Ephesians 2:1-8 And you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in  Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no man may boast.

II Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 

The real love of God is the love that moved God to have mercy and compassion on us by providing the means of forgiveness of our sins (the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ on the cross), and salvation (our acceptance by faith and our corresponding trust in the work that God has done on our behalf through Jesus Christ). God does not love us as we are, but loves us in spite of who we are (wicked, vile, disinterested, sinners, and His enemies). If God loves us like we are then there would have been no need to send Christ as the sacrifice for our sins.

The common thread that binds both of these misconceptions together is a faulty view of sin, not just sin in general, but our own sin in particular. Both views really downplay the heinous nature of all sin and how egregious sin is, all sin, any sin, to God. We all know what sin is, and we all know that we have sinned. However, have we grasped how serious even one sin is? Again, let's take a look at what the Bible says.

Leviticus 11:44 "For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Ezekiel 18:4 Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Psalm 14:2-3 The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. they have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. 

Because God is holy, any sin and all sin, is an affront to His holiness and is worthy of death. Because He is just, no sin can be overlooked or swept under the carpet. Because He is righteous all sin(s) will receive a just judgment, a right recompense, and a proper punishment.

Because of His great love He has placed all the sins of those who will come to Him in faith upon Christ, and Christ has born the punishment for those sins in our stead.

So, at the cross we see the justice of God, the mercy of God, and the love of God on full display.

Because of God's understanding of the justice and its right recompense that awaits all who sin, and because of God's love providing a way for the payment of the penalty due for every sin, God therefore takes great pleasure and has unbounding joy in the salvation of those who by faith in Christ and His finished work on the cross turn to Him for forgiveness and salvation.

Have you heard His voice calling you to come home to Him? Will you answer that call and turn to Him? Will you forsake all else for His salvation? Will you trust in what He has done to save you from the right and just consequences of a life that is lived apart from Him? Will you call your sin as that which it is and call out to the Lord for His forgiveness? For when you do there will be great joy in heaven among all its hosts for the salvation and preservation of your soul; and the Father Himself, the God and Creator of all that is, will run to meet you.

Truth--The Responsibility of the Pulpit

Truth, by its very nature, is confrontational. It is such because it is absolute and concrete. Therefore it is unassailable, unshakable, unrelenting, immovable, and unchangeable. Truth is always a force to be reckoned with. Truth is the most powerful moral force in the world; in fact, truth is what makes morality moral, as it is the under girding of all morality. Truth is discriminating as it reveals all that is not true.  

The inherent power in the Scriptures is that they are true, they don't merely contain truth, but are truth in and of themselves. Jesus asked the Father to sanctify His disciples in the truth, and then went on to say, "Your word is truth." (John 17). Psalm 119:160 tells us, "The sum of Your word is truth." Psalm 12:6 says, "The words of the Lord are pure words; like silver refined in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times."

Because it is truth is why the Bible is confrontational. It shows us the truth about God, the truth about ourselves, the truth about life, and the truth about eternity. Because it is confrontational, it is also controversial. It is why it is attacked, mocked, derided, and considered out of step with modern morality. 

Because of its confrontational nature, because it raises the ire of those on whom it shines the light of truth upon, because when confronted with the truth people will typically fight or flee (John 3:18-21). This is why many who occupy the pulpit will not preach the word in all its fullness, seeking to make it more palatable to those who hear. Such preaching neuters the word, and promulgates a form of godliness that denies the true power of the gospel. 

Those who occupy the pulpit have a responsibility to preach the whole counsel of God, to preach the word in all of its fullness, to preach so that the sharp edges of truth are not blunted, to preach so that the truth is not veiled, to preach so that the truth of God is brought to bear on the minds and the hearts of those who hear. This understanding, this sense of responsibility, this allegiance to the truth is the great need in the preaching of our day, and indeed, if you follow church history, this is the great need in the pulpit in every age. This has never been nor will ever be a position of great popularity; but those who preach the truth are beloved by those to whom they preach, as well as the One for whom they preach. 

Let those of us who occupy the pulpit pledge our allegiance, our fidelity, to the One who is the truth; and as such preach His truth...unashamedly and unapologetically.

The following is from Tom Ascol, in his blog at www.founders.org. I will let him have the last word.

"Discriminating, expositional preaching is a great need in our day. We must be willing to show from the text what God says is right and true and then distinguish that from all of the counterfeits that plague the world and church today. Failure to preach and teach like this leads to a mongrel religion that may fly under the banner of Christianity but has missed Christ altogether. It is a frightening prospect. Where there is no discriminating preaching, it has been and remains a tragic reality."

A Pastoral Prayer for Sunday

 

Lord, love Your people through our worship.

May Your truth be spoken in prayer and praise.

Attend Your word to their mind and heart;

And may mind and heart and soul be lifted

up to You.

Lord, love Your people through the preaching.

May Your truth be in every word spoken.

Attend Your word to their mind and heart;

And may each piece of dross be removed,

  each facet of godly character be refined, each godly

 motive be reinforced, and each stain

of soul be cleansed through repentance.

Lord, love Your people through Your presence.

May Your presence be in our prayer, and praise, and preaching.

Take away all other thoughts than You.

Make Yourself our only desire, and Your will

our greatest delight.

We Should Strive to be Faithful

In our roles as pastors/spiritual leaders we should strive to be faithful, not seek to be famous. There is a striving, a working, even an agonizing that is required in the pursuit of faithfulness. Striving is required if we are to remain faithful to the call of God upon our life. Striving is required because there will be obstacles to overcome in order for us to remain faithful. Striving is required in order for our faithfulness to be tested and measured. Striving is required in order for our faithfulness to be considered just that...faithfulness. Striving is required for us to be truly God glorifying.

On that day the Lord will say, "Well done my good and faithful servant." not "Well done my good and famous servant." as we enter into His joy.

Fellow pastors, let us strive together to be faithful, and may His joy be full in us.

A Monday Morning Word of Encouragement to Pastors

 

There is a sense in which putting together a sermon is much like editing a movie. Just like much of what is shot for the movie is left in the computer or cutting room floor, so it is for a sermon. After prayer and study a preacher almost always has to leave out thoughts, insights, and information either because they do not fit the context of the sermon, or he just doesn't have room to fit them in.

There is also the preaching moment, which sometimes is editing on the fly, in which the preacher adds things he did not intend to say and had not thought about, or leaves out things he had intended to say, things that he considered important and necessary,  things that were even in his notes or preaching manuscript.

In either of the above scenarios the preacher can always second guess himself, and get into the, "Oh, I could have said this...Oh, if only I would have said that... Oh, I should have said this...game with himself, and many of us do. Now, I am not saying the preacher should never examine his sermons or think critically about them, or that we should not get upset in those rare occurrences (and they should be rare) when we preach that uninspired and unaccompanied by the Spirit clunker of a sermon; BUT I am saying that at some point we have to trust the Lord with His superintending of the process of preparing the sermon and His superintending our preaching of the sermon. If we are working hard in the preparation and are praying for His illumination, His revelation, His guidance, His making His thoughts our thoughts and His words our words, then we must trust Him with what is left in the study and with what actually comes or doesn't come out of our mouth when we are delivering His word.

When we know that we have done the best we could, then we must trust the Lord that it was enough; and that just as the Lord took the fish and the loaves and fed the five thousand, He will take our meager thoughts and words and by His power multiply them to feed those to whom we preach.

The Pastor's Personal Life

Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching;

persevere in these things, for as you do this will ensure

salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.

I Timothy 4:16

Pastors, when you pray for your people, pray for yourself as well. Your prayers for the people under your watchcare should include you as well. Yes, we are shepherd's of the flock that the Lord has assigned to us; but we are undershepherds who have been called out from among the sheep to shepherd the sheep, so we share the same weaknesses and proclivities that our people do. So the admonition to pay close attention to himself that Paul gave Timothy goes for us as well.

Paul was not telling Timothy to be self-absorbed or narcissistic, but to be self-aware. It was a warning to be on the look out for his own spiritual well being, to be on guard for his own holiness, to be sensitive to his own weaknesses. He was telling Timothy not to be so focused on those he was ministering to, so as to miss his own sin.  

Our personal holiness not only affects us, but it affects our ministry as well. It affects those to whom we minister, and those whom we lead. The leaven that begins with us can affect the whole flock, and can have a ripple effect into the broader church. This is another area that James 3:1 speaks to.  

So how do you watch over yourself? Here are a few ways:

1.  Pray for yourself, just like you pray for your people. Pray for discernment. Pray for your own heart. Pray for sensitivity to sin. Pray for protection from temptation. Pray that evil will not ensnare you. Pray for your own spiritual growth and your own spiritual needs.  

2. Don't become enamored with your own holiness, or think that you are above sin. The admonition that he who stands should take heed lest he fall is particularly applicable to pastors. Humility regarding our own spiritual condition is a safeguard here, which means you must never think you are above temptation, never think certain sins will have no draw upon your flesh.  

3.  Never become content with where you are spiritually, never think you have arrived spiritually, but seek to be constantly growing. A growing faith is a flourishing faith, and a flourishing faith is more sensitive to sin, and therefore less prone to fall prey to temptation.

4.  Stay fresh in the word, so that the word will stay fresh in you. The continual treasuring up of the word in our heart, the continual exposure to the word provides a protective shield for our heart and mind against sin.

5. Be on your guard, and be aware of the schemes of the enemy. He is constantly on the look out for whom he can devour, whom he can cause to fall, so we must be constantly vigilant against his wiles. Do not let yourself be put into situations where temptation will lurk. Part of praying that you will not be led into temptation is the realization of the areas in which you can be tempted.

Fellow pastors, the bar is set high for us because the spiritual stakes are so high, not only for us, but for those the Lord has assigned to our care. So let us be diligent in our own spiritual life so that the example we set will be equal to the word we preach.

Reminded by God

 He who made the Pleiades and Orion

And changes deep darkness into morning,

Who also darkens day into night,

Who calls for the waters of the sea

And pours them out on the surface of the earth,

The Lord is His name.

The Lord God of hosts,

The One who touches the land so that it melts,

And all those who dwell in it mourn,

And all of it rises up like the Nile

And subsides like the Nile of Egypt;

The One who builds His upper chambers in the heavens

And has founded His vaulted dome over the earth,

He who calls for the waters of the sea

And pours them out on the face of the earth,

The Lord is His name.

Amos 5:8, 9:6-7

Two times in the midst of His dirge against Israel, God stops and reminds the Israelites of who He is and His great power. He not only does this in Amos, but this is a pattern throughout the Old Testament.  He starts this in Genesis 17:1 when He tells Abraham, "I am God Almighty, walk before Me and be blameless." He does this in the last few chapters of Job as He confronts Job with His power and majesty and starts off by saying, "Now gird up your loins like a man, and I will ask you and you instruct Me!"  There are myriads of other times in the Old Testament where God has to remind those with whom He is dealing of exactly who He is.  

Sometimes today, with us, He has to remind us of who He is. Sometimes it is to put us in our place as we have become a little too big for our spiritual britches, and we need to be brought back to reality.  Sometimes it is because we need to see that He is bigger than our situation, or the people we are facing.  Sometimes it is to remind us that He is more than capable of delivering what He has promised.  Sometimes it is to remind us that He is God and we are not, or that He alone is God. Sometimes it is to remind us that we are not the captain of our ship or the master of our fate, but He is, and as such we are answerable to Him. Sometimes it is for comfort and sometimes for correction. Sometimes it is to remind us that He is bigger than life and all that it holds. All the time it is to give us the proper perspective on life, His perspective. 

We are forgetful by nature, and are often deceived by sin; and sometimes we have to be reminded of what we already know. That is why daily devotionals or consistent bible study is so good for us.  Through His word He speaks to us to remind us of all that He is and all that He has done. It is refreshing to be reminded. It is soul stirring to be reminded. It is necessary to be reminded. It is good for us to be reminded. Thanks be to God that He has not forgotten that.