Theology – Page 5 – That… Which Matters Most

A Subtle Judgment

SUBLTE BUT NO LESS SEVERE.

One of the greatest curses we face in the American church today is spiritual blindness. It would be one thing if the blindness existed because we lacked God’s word. But we don’t lack God’s word. We have it in abundance. Yet the spiritual blindness that plagues the church, and the broader society is rampant. This is clearly God’s judgment.

Martin Luther writes:

“No greater mischief can happen to a Christian people, than to have God’s word taken away from them, or falsified, so that they no longer have it pure and clear. God grant that we and our descendants be not witnesses of such calamity.”

Calvin wrote similarly in his commentaries on Isaiah, specifically Isaiah 29:11 which reads:

¹¹The whole vision has become to you like the words of a ^[c]book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, “Read this, please.”

And he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”

¹²Then the book is delivered to one who ^[d]is illiterate, saying, “Read this, please.”

And he says, “I am not literate.”

Calvin writes:

“In the same sense he now shews that, from the highest to the lowest, they will derive no benefit from the word of God. He does not say that doctrine will be taken away, but that, though it be in their possession, they will not have reason and understanding.

Subtle judgment like this is the worst of judgments. The people of Israel had the word of God, but having it and deriving benefits from it are not the same thing. They had been given the greatest light of all mankind. They were YHWH’s chosen people, and He was their God. He raised them up out of nothing and planted them on the solid rock. He guided them, provided for them, spoke to them, corrected them and rebuked them. Yet, in their prosperity, they turned away to other Gods.

The blessing of the word was no longer a blessing. Because of their obstinance, it became their curse. They closed their own eyes, and God brought even more blindness, as we will see below.

Calvin continues:

“In two ways the Lord punishes the wickedness of men; for sometimes he takes away entirely the use of the word, and sometimes when he leaves it, he takes away understanding, and blinds the minds of men, so that ‘seeing they do not see.'”

This is the most subtle judgment, in that those who have the word of God, are blind to its meaning, and are the most spiritually trapped, since they think they have no need of anything at all.

I remember a Baptist preacher saying that the hardest person to reach for Christ is the one who grew up in the church, thinking of themselves as a Christian and in favor with God, never realizing their own wickedness and their need for Christ. They can quote Scripture with the best of them, but the word of God does them no good. It might as well be a poem by Byron, Shakespeare or Rudyard Kipling. Interesting thoughts, but no life giving power.

Calvin elaborates on the two ways that God brings this subtle judgment on a people:

“First, therefore, he deprives them of the reading, either by taking away the books through the tyranny of wicked men, as frequently happens, or by a false conviction of men, which left them to think that the books were not delivered to be read universally by all.

This is not quite the problem we have in modern evangelicalism. While Calvin doesn’t say so, I would say that our problem is a proliferation of the Bible, to the point that we wrongly hold it in low esteem. There are so many Bibles, that we can toss them aside as if they lack value, simply because we don’t like the cover. (It hasn’t helped that the Christian publishing companies have added to this belittlement by coming up with the “fill in the blank” study Bibles.)

Calvin gives the second reality of this subtle judgment:

“Secondly, although he allows them to handle and read the books, yet, because men abuse them and are ungrateful, and do not look straight to the glory of God, they are blinded, and see no more than if not a single ray of the word had shown upon them.

I believe one of the biggest abuses of the Bible today occurs when those who come to God’s holy writ, asking: “what does it mean to me?” These people are coming to the word in judgment, not in humility. They seek to use the word to justify their sinfulness, and no matter how much we try to show them that their sinfulness is actually sinful, they cannot see it. They have been blinded. Instead of coming to the word, and letting it sit in judgment of their lives, they come to the word, and seek to judge it as it seems fit. This is blindness that leads to more blindness.

As Isaiah 29:9-10 show us, not only are they guilty of their own blindness, but God Himself has added to their blindness.

Pause and wonder!
Blind yourselves and be blind!
They are drunk, but not with wine;
They stagger, but not with intoxicating drink.
For the Lord has poured out on you
The spirit of deep sleep,
And has closed your eyes, namely, the prophets;
And He has covered your heads, namely, the seers.

Notice the progression. “Blind yourselves and be blind!” That is what it is like for those who have the word of God, and turn from it. Or have the word of God, and deny what it says. They start out blind, by not coming to the word in humility, and have blindness added to them.

I love the picture Isaiah gives us: “They are drunk, but not with wine, they stagger, but not with intoxicating drink.”

It would have been better for them to actually be drunk with wine or intoxicating drink. At least in that case, they would have become sober over time, and returned to their right mind. But alas, their drunkenness is not temporary. Why?

For the LORD has poured out on you, the spirit of deep sleep… God has become active in keeping them drunk, keeping them blind. He is active in bringing about this judgment.

Please note: this judgment was on the leadership, the nation and the individuals. It was effecting everyone. We are seeing the same thing in our day.

“But the Bible was written by men!”

Often times we hear objections from non-believers that we cannot trust the Bible because it was written by men. The implication is that the Bible is fallible because men wrote it, men who were simply giving their opinion, or worse, conspiring to say something that God never said. It is the quickest way to stifle conversation or thought among non-believers. Never mind the fact that men are making this judgment that we cannot trust the Bible. Which means if men are so fallible that we cannot trust the Bible, then how can we trust their opinion that we cannot trust the Bible because men made it, and they are men, and men are making opinion statements… wow, that was confusing. But you get the idea.

There are several problems with this objection. The first is, who else is God going to use? The purpose of the Bible is showing God’s plan of redemption throughout history. He is out seeking to redeem a people to Himself, and in doing so, He has not only communicated man’s great problem, that of sin, but the solution to that problem, a redeemer in Jesus Christ. Therefore He uses fallen men in this process to reach and speak to those who are His. He uses fallen men because that is all that there is. There are no righteous people for Him to use in writing the Bible because there are none. This is why it is so important that we understand that the Holy Spirit was moving the prophets along as they were writing the Bible. Peter tells us in his second letter, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21).

The men who wrote the Bible were not writing in a vacuum. They were writing in a specific time and place and the Holy Spirit was carrying them along as they did so. This doesn’t remove the men from their earthly setting or situation, it doesn’t remove their personality from them. God was using the fallen men, made holy by His calling on their lives and the righteousness of Christ to come, to pen what He wanted them to say. They were not robots, but men who were being redeemed telling others about the God who is and the redemption necessary and found only in Christ. All 66 books of the Bible either point to that reality, or say it specifically. So in this sense, the Bible has only one author: the Holy Spirit. The writers are in agreement with one another because the Holy Spirit is involved in giving what is written.

This leads to another proof that the Bible is God’s word. The Bible never candy-coats the men who wrote it. What I mean by that is that if the Bible were actually written by “just men” and not the Holy Spirit as well, we would never know that Moses murdered an Egyptian before becoming God’s mediator for the people. I’m quite certain that he would have glossed over that little bit in his history. But he doesn’t because he is being moved by the Holy Spirit to give an accurate and reliable account of what took place. It is for this reason we also know about King David’s transgression with Bathsheba, and Paul’s aid to those stoning the first Christians. So a majority of the Bible is written by three murderers showing God’s rich grace toward His people and showing that there are none He cannot reach with the righteousness of Christ.

Another aspect of this, which also helps us to see that we can invalidate other supposed holy books, is that there were those to testify to what was written. When Moses wrote about the fact that he murdered an Egyptian man, there were Jews there who knew this to be true. He wasn’t writing the first five books of the Bible in a vacuum. There were those who could testify to its truthfulness in that day. This is not true when it comes to the writings of cult leaders like Joseph Smith or Mary Baker Eddy. There was no one who could testify to the truthfulness of what they wrote. No events to prove the case. They were writing in a vacuum. The same is true for the writer of the Koran.

Finally, we also have hundreds of places in the Scripture where the writer was quoting directly from the LORD. For instance, when Moses gives the Ten Commandments, he does so by quoting the LORD directly. He gives in the preamble to the Ten Commandments what the LORD said: “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, you shall have no other gods before Me.”

This happens throughout Scripture, especially in the New Testament when Jesus is quoted as saying something. We are hearing directly from the LORD when He speaks.

I know my case here will not change the mind of the skeptic, atheist and spiritual ne’er do well. But hopefully my brothers and sisters in the LORD will be encouraged and know that the Bible we have been given was not done so in a vacuum, but given to us through time from God, using fallen sinful men, to reach a fallen and sinful people for His glory.

60 Years!

60 Years

Wow, it’s hard to believe. 60 years ago today, I was born into this world in a hospital in Houston, Tx.

It’s only by the grace of God, that I have been given this many days on earth. In fact, if you do the math, I’ve been on the earth for 21,915.6 days (365.25 x 60). That .25 adds an additional 15.6 days. That is also about 66,000 meals, countless clothes, many roofs over my head, hundreds of friends who have come and gone, and thousands of experiences.

Every breath, meal, and day was a blessing from the Triune God, even that difficult moments. I don’t say that lightly. I fully recognize that all I’ve been through these 60 years were ordain long before the foundations of the world, by our Creator. There has not been a single moment of chance in all those 60 years. I don’t believe in luck, or chance. If God has not decreed it, it doesn’t come about. He will not share His glory with another, and believing in chance is believing in another god all together.

30 Years

I am also grateful for the past 30 years, for it was 30 years ago that the Holy Spirit moved in me, made me born again, and I went from being a child of wrath to a child of Christ. I was a passive recipient in the process, just like I was a passive recipient of my natural birth 60 years ago.

The last 30 years have been far better than the first 30 years. Not that I have been more prosperous, but I came to know Christ as my LORD, and He knows me as His child. There is no better relation for a man, woman, or child to have. Christ gives us ultimate purpose in life, so that when we face the trials of this life, we know He has ordained such trials for our benefit and His glory.

6 Years

The LORD has also blessed me with the most wonderful woman, Heidi Ann. The last 6 years of the last 60 have truly been the best because He has given me a true friend, and a true wife to walk with. Having a wife who is just as born again as I am, has been the ultimate blessing from the Father.

The Next 30?

If you follow my blog, you know that my family just celebrated my father’s 90th birthday. Not that God will give me another 30 years, but He could. And if He does, my hope is that I will continue to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of Christ and His ways. There is no better gift, especially with the reality that we all have a day appointed for us in which we will meet Him in judgement.

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment (Hebrews 9:27).

The best advice I can give you, on the 60th anniversary of my birth, is to know Christ and be known by Him. Turn to Him by faith and in repentance. Quit trusting in your own self-righteousness and look to Him for His, for there is no other way to be accepted in the presence of a righteous God without the righteousness of His Son.

So we all have an appointment with death, whether today or in 30 years. We cannot change that. It’s in His hands. Therefore, we should be ready. I am. Are you?

Praying the Lottery?

The Rev. John Newton, the 19th Century pastor an author of Amazing Grace, fell into the temptation of playing the lottery in his day. It was shortly after he was married, and he was called back to his ship, where he was a captain. It so pained him that he was leaving his new bride, that he decided to play the lottery in the hopes of winning, and not having to return to sea.

He writes about his prayers to the LORD over this. (Please note, the way he phrases things is unfamiliar to our ears. But work through it. It’s worth it):

“This prayer includes all that I at that time knew how to ask for; and had not the LORD given me more than I then knew how to ask or think, I should now be completely miserable. The prospect of this separation was terrible to me as death: to avoid it, I repeatedly purchased a tack in the lottery; thinking, ‘Who knows but I may obtain a considerable prize, and be there by saved from the necessity of going to sea?'”

We have all felt the same way, although, probably over different issues. We have a desire to win the lottery so that we may be free of having to work, and be able to do what we want to do. Sadly, today’s modern evangelical would probably say: “but doesn’t God want me to be happy? And winning the lottery would certainly make me happy.”

That is not what Newton discovered.

“Happy for me, the lot, which I then considered as casual, was at thy disposal. The money, which I could not with prudence have spared at the time, was lost: all my tickets proved blanks, thought I attempted to bribe Thee, by promising, if I succeeded, to give a considerable part to the poor.”

Sound familiar? How many of us have thought the same thing?

Now the surprise.

“But these blanks were truly prizes. Thy mercy sent me to sea against my own will. To thy blessing, and to my solitary sea-hours, I was indebted for all my temporal comforts and future hopes.”

He was realizing God’s blessings in not winning the lottery were much greater than the promises of riches.

“Thou wert pleased likewise to disappoint me, by Thy providence, of some money which I expected to receive on my marriage; so that, excepting our apparel, when I sailed from Liverpool on my first voyage, the sum total of my worldly inventory was–seventy pounds in debt.”

Like many believers, he was thinking God was about to open the door of material wealth in his life because he was now married. He was expecting, smooth sailing, so to speak. But that wasn’t what the LORD gave him. He would go on to write that this separation caused him to become more dedicated in prayer, and he began a period of self-denial, “which I was afterwards taught to improve a better purpose.”

God saying “no” to us concerning creature comforts, should be the norm, and we should rejoice that He denies our every whim. It reminds us of what is truly important: our fellowship with Him. The greatest gift for the Christian is not worldly goods, fellowship with other believers, or even heaven itself. Those things are truly His blessing to us. But the greatest gift for the Christian, is Christ. He is the pearl of great price. He is worthy of all other things. Those other things are good and a blessing, but not compared to Christ Himself. He is our real treasure and in Him, are over flowing.

Is This Our Hope?

31 Chances? Really?

There are no “chances” with God’s Sovereign certainty. Which means, you really only need to play it once, to find out His will for you. That’s all it takes. If you lose, you know He didn’t want you to win.

Broken Dreams

Found in the trash on the way out the door. That should be a warning to those who think it might be different for them. Those who bought the Tylenol were better off than those who bought the tickets.

He Humbled Himself

who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, ⁷but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a slave, and coming in the likeness of men. ⁸And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

One of the greatest realities of the gospel of Christ is that He truly did humble Himself on our behalf. The Scripture reveal to us that He is the One who spoke all of creation into existence. He is the One who breathed into man on that sixth day and gave us all life. He is the One that met with Abraham, brought down the plagues on Pharaoh, led the people out of Egypt, gave us the Law, and on and on and on. He knew how rebellious we were. He knew what we truly deserved. Yet, He humbled Himself, descended Jacob’s and became one of us so that He could save us from God’s wrath.

For Christ, this condescension, was the truest humility. From a human perspective, He should never have left His exalted position. He deserves that exaltation. He deserves all worship, praise, and honor. Yet, He laid it aside, for us.

This is different than the humility we experience. When we humble ourselves, we merely come into alignment with what is true about us, throwing off our false views of our own estimation. When Jesus humbles Himself, He truly does have to lower Himself from who He really is. We humble ourselves from who we think we are. He humbles Himself from who He truly is. This is monumental when we begin to understand this truth.

The below photos are of Jacob’s Ladder at a nearby park.

AS FOR THE PASSAGE ABOVE: It is from Philippians 2:6-8. It is the clearest statement of Christ’s deity by Paul in his epistles. Paul is showing Christ’s equality with God, having the same form of God. This equality comes in that He did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. Many misunderstand this verse, thinking Christ would actually be committing robbery by considering Himself as equal. But the phrase is just the opposite. It was/is not robbery for Him to consider it because equality with God belongs to Him already. Before His condescension , He was seen in all His glory. During His condescension, that glory was laid aside, while His divinity was not. He could not lay aside His essence. That would be like us laying aside our humanity. We cannot do so, neither can He lay aside His divine nature. But He can and did lay aside His glory, taking on human flesh, in the form of a slave (the lowest position in all of humanity), going to the cross on our behalf.

If a Tree Falls…

If a tree falls in the forest, does anyone hear?

Does it make a sound, when no one is around?

That was, at one time, a great philosophical question put forth by many seeking to sound wise. How you answer the question, determines a lot about your worldview. In fact, asking the question also shows your worldview, as I hope to demonstrate.

If your view of life, the world, and all things that are in it dictate that man is the center of all that there is, that there is no supreme being, or even beings, behind it all, that all things are just random and without explanation, then no one heard the tree in the forrest unless they were within a good 75 yards of it. The tree, just fell.

Tree huggers everywhere are now lamenting the fallen tree. But why? Why lament that it fell and will now begin to break down, via weather and various insects and rodents? If things are nothing but random, then why show any emotion whatsoever to the fallen tree. It just happened. There is no explanation. There is no reason to ponder it. There is no reason to honor the tree. To do so, would be to give it some level of deity, and by doing that, we would no longer be true to our belief in a random universe.

I don’t hold this view.

If your view of life is that there is a supreme being, and that he set things in motion, and stepped back so that we could take care of everything, then it was our responsibility to hear the tree falling so that we could do something about it. In other words, all the ills in the world must be corrected by those who brought the ills into the world. Those who hold this view, try to say that we are responsible for the ills, but since we were born with some goodness, we then have the responsibility to fix those ills.

This is the predominant view today. This is why politics becomes religion for so many. We have the belief, on some level, that we can fix the things of the world with the right legislation, the right leaders, the right something.

How are we doing? Are our efforts in the world resulting in fewer trees falling in the forest all alone, and without notice? Not really. It seems we are reminded every year that our efforts to prevent the trees from falling, results in them being burned up through the yearly forest fires that would not have happened had we taken care of the forest, and the trees, properly.

Those who view the world this way should see their efforts for what they are: futile.

I don’t hold this view.

Then there are those who look to the God of Scripture for their view of the world. They don’t ask the question: “if a tree falls in the forest, does anybody hear?” because they know the underlying assumption is wrong. The foundation of the question is that things happen in the world that no one notices.

Jesus, in talking about the need for the fear of God said, “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.”

The foundation of Christ’s statement is the God is sovereign over all things. He rules over all, and not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from His will. He had determined the number of days that the sparrow will fly, and when it will fall. There is no one square inch of the universe that He does not rule over, and direct, and govern.

This truth applies to the tree that fell. It fell in the forest exactly when He determined it to do so before the foundations of the world were laid. Before anything was set in motion, He planned the trees make up, its nature, its fruit, and the number of days it would grow, mature, and die.

These same truths apply to mankind. He has determined the number of days we will live. He knows exactly when we were to be conceived in our mother’s wombs, the number of days we would live, and the day in which we die. He is not sovereign over the trees and birds, but us as well.

Here is the reality that most would absolutely reject: He is our Creator. He can do with us as He pleases, and we, as His creation, really have no rights to question Him regarding this truth. We were all Created by Him, for His good pleasure.

“Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they ^[a]existed, and were created.” Revelation 4:11.

I do hold these views.

So what should we ask about the tree in the forest? There are a lot of questions? Why did it die? What caused it to fall? Why is there death in the world?

But to assume that the tree made no sound if no one was there to hear it, is to hold a faulty view of the world and the universe. It assumes that there is no God, no purpose, no order.

There is a God. He has ordered things as they will fall out with purpose, even though we may not see it or understand it. There is no randomness.

Since there is a God over all things, it would behoove us to learn His word, His way, and understand His righteousness because His declaration to us has also stated that He will judge us some day according to His standards of righteousness, not our own. Therefore, we should truly find out what that standard of righteousness is, and see where that takes us.

But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully… 1 Timothy 1:8

Newness in a Number?

I’m sitting here early on New Year’s Day, long before most people will get up, thinking about the beliefs that so many people put into this day. Technically, at it most basic point, today’s date change is just a number. It is an accounting system to keep track of time. That’s it.

But many people place a lot more into than we should. I include myself because even I have had the thought that maybe the accounting change would bring about better times than the last set of numbers. We think that we can start over on this day. We lie to ourselves to believe that every thing is now new, and it’s time for a fresh start. But, it is just that, a lie.

We are not new this morning. The same sins and problems we had yesterday, are still with us today. The evil that ran rampant in society, has not magically gone away. It’s still there, waging war on mankind.

It’s worse than that though. The evil in our hearts, that plague the soul, is still there, warring against the very Spirit that gives us hope. The battle continues. The gospel of the New Year is a false gospel, a false hope. It is powerless to change us, or our world.

Ah, but there is hope because there is a true gospel that does bring about real change. That is the gospel of Christ. This is the gospel that so few people want, but it is the only gospel renews us in the spirit, brings us peace with God, and eventually our fellow man. It is the only gospel that deals with the wicked heart, and our sins that eternally damn us. It is a true gospel.

Most of mankind hate that which brings true change in us. Our flesh doesn’t want to submit to a Holy and Just God. We don’t want to bend the knee, and confess our sins to the Holy One of Israel. We hate that. This is why there are so many false gospels in the world. We want to find hope in any thing but Christ. It won’t happen. Any hope we may find, is fleeting. Only God’s Spirit in our lives can change that.

This is my hope for the coming year. I hope that God’s Spirit and His Word will have its way with us, and we will be renewed, made knew, cleaned but still being cleaned. We will learn to love Christ, and not this world. We will live for His Kingdom and not man’s kingdoms. We will see joy in His word, and not the so many falsehoods the world puts before us.

Do I want newness? Yes, I do. But I want that newness to be found in the mercies of Christ, which is true mercy, true grace, not the mercy put forth in an accounting system.

LORD’s Day Meditation — November 8, 2020

Someone quoted Psalm 94 on Facebook this morning, and that led Heidi and me to read it. It is probably not a psalm that many people know, given that it is focused upon God’s judgment against the wicked of the world, and His comfort toward the righteous. But it is most appropriate right now with the level of evil we see displayed in the world.

For a bit of clarity, when the word of God speaks about those who are evil, and those who are righteous, it doesn’t do so from our perspective since we are fallen and sinful. It does so according to God’s Law. This is why the Ten Commandments are so important not only for our personal lives, but for culture as well. If we want to understand true righteousness, we must look at it in light of God’s Law.

Psalm 1 shows that the righteous are those who mediate on God’s Law and delight in it. To them, it is a joy, not a burden. It is a guide as to how we are to live. It shows us how it is that we are to love THE LORD our God, with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and our neighbors as ourselves. We delight that God has given us such a guide for living.

It is also a delight to the righteous because when we read His Law, and see our shortcomings in light of His Law, we are driven back to our need for Christ, and to the atoning sacrifice He made on our behalf to pay the debt of sin we owe. This, in turn, leads to more joy.

Go to Psalm 2 to see the evil world’s response to God’s Law. For the wicked, God’s Laws are shackles that keep them from living out their fleshly, evil desires. They seek to throw off all vestiges of God, and His Law, so they live in unrestrained debauchery. The Triune God laughs at them in derision. He will bring them to justice.

I point this out because so many in our world have no concept of true righteousness and true evil. They are confused, mislead, and misguided by our culture and our courts, which makes that which is evil good, and that which is good evil (Isaiah 5:20).

Back to our Psalm. It was reading through Psalm 94, which is comforting for those of us who cling to the LORD, that we were a bit perplexed by the first part of verse 15. See the photo:

But judgment will return to righteousness.

It wasn’t exactly clear what that meant. How was it that judgment would return to righteousness? How did it leave righteousness? Upon reflection, I think the writer of the psalm is writing from the perspective of those going through national turmoil. To them, it seems that judgment has left righteousness for a time and we are to take comfort in knowing that it will return. I’m not sure about that, but this seemed like a possibility.

We were also comforted in the reality that whatever it meant, those who were upright in heart, would follow it. They would delight in it and rejoice. In other words, those in Christ can take comfort in the world that is filled with evildoers and iniquity.

We did look to Charles H. Spurgeon for help, and his classic work, The Treasury of David. He reminds us that this verse is about the coming Lord who will judge.

“The great Judge will come, the reign of righteousness will begin, the course of affairs will be turned into the right channel, and then all the godly will rejoice.”

I believe that reign clearly started at Christ’s ascension, where He was seated at the righthand of God, to rule with all authority over all things, until His enemies are made a footstool. And while we live in dark days, this does not mean these things are not taking place.

And all the upright in heart will follow it.

Spurgeon continues:

A delightful hope is here expressed in beautiful poetic imagery. The world’s government has been in the hands of those who have used it for base and vicious ends, but the cry of prayer will bring righteousness back to the throne. Then every upright heart will have its portion and joy.

And that should be our prayer, that true righteousness should return to our country. That only comes about in one way: through the preaching and teaching of God’s word, both Law and Gospel. This means we need men who are willing to preach the hard truths of the gospel. Again, let’s look at what Spurgeon has from his comments on verse 16, which reads:

Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Who will stand for me against the workers of iniquity?

According to Spurgeon, the psalmist doesn’t see anyone coming to his aid.

“No champion of the right was forthcoming; the faithful people had failed. This is a bitter trial and a troublesome evil. Yet is has it purpose. It drives the heart completely to the LORD, compelling it to rest alone in Him. If we could find friends elsewhere, God might not be so precious to us… we are led to prize God and rest on Him with undivided trust.”

He adds that this verse is perfectly appropriate now that the church is being assaulted from all sides.

“Faithful ministers are few, and fewer still are bold enough to stand and defy the enemies of truth. Where are our Luthers and Calvins? A false charity weakened Israel’s valiant men (think ‘false love’ of our day). One John Knox would be worth a mint at this hour, but where is he? Our great consolation is that the God of Knox and Luther is still with us, and in due time He will call His chosen champion. “

The beauty for us is that we know the name of the chosen champion the psalmist was waiting for. He is Christ. He is bringing judgment, and will bring justice. The darkness we see all around us is judgment to those who cherish darkness. Yet, there is light as well. The Light of the World has not been extinguished. His light still shines forth through His word, to His people. He still comforts. He still protects.

Just as His judgment will be complete and thorough, so too, will His deliverance for His people.

UPDATE: After writing this post, came across the following sermon that makes the underlying point of the need for the Law in the believer’s life, and culture.

New Bible

I tried this several years ago, shifting from the Bible I have had since 1999, to a newer version. The only reason I wanted to do so, is that when I’m in the pulpit preaching, the Bible I have is difficult for me to read. Part of that is simply not having adequate glasses for the distance. In fact, I’ve found that the Bible is easier to read, as it is resting on the pulpit, by taking off my glasses.

My first attempt at a newer version didn’t work. I got an English Standard Version. I kept finding I had too many disagreements with the translators. I know. Who am I to disagree with such a fine panel of scholars and translators? But I do have my preferences. When the Greek text says that we should “gird up our loins,” which is an act made by men preparing to go into battle, I don’t want it translated…”be ready.” Kind of loses its emphasis.

I also didn’t like the fact that the ESV, and a host of other translations, didn’t capitalize the divine pronouns. That is lazy and disrespectful.

So I went back to using my New King James Version, which some of the most respected Greek scholars absolutely despise. I only actually know two Greek scholars, and of the two of them, I’ve only heard one say he didn’t like that translation. But I do.

That’s why I ordered a new one. The difference is the font is slightly easier to read and text is laid out in columns. That seems to make the difference.

Of course, we ordered it almost 3 weeks ago, and it was about 4 days later than expected. When did I get it? On Monday, which was Labor Day. Apparently, the US Post Office decided to pay my carrier time-and-a-half to get it to me.

It came in very fine packaging. As should be the case with God’s word.

Notice the silver seal?

I love that they decided to put “Holy Bible” on the spine. We should go back to using the adjective in referring to the Bible… the Holy Bible.

One of my favorite passages from the Old Testament.

This is what the older version looked like.

Travesty of Pastoral Visitation

From Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley:

However, it’s a travesty of pastoral visitation to engage in nothing more than casual conversation. After listening and learning about what is going on in the lives of the people whom you visit, open your Bible, read some pertinent verses, provide pastoral wisdom and counsel, and pray with them. Go with them to the throne of grace and pour out your heart in holy desires for their temporal and eternal good.

(From Pastoring and the Art of Balance).

I love that they used Jeremiah 3:15 as one of their proof texts.

And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

The more I study Jeremiah, the more I find how applicable it is for today’s church. The very problems he faced in his day, we face in ours. When I preached from Jeremiah 23, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” earlier in the year, I realized how the problems of the church today, were the problems in Israel’s history. There are far too many false teachers/shepherds who spout “peace, peace” but only bring destruction. The false teachers are men who have raised themselves up, and declared themselves experts on God. God has not called them, therefore they speak falsely on behalf of God, claiming “love, love” all the while bringing destruction on those who hear them.

The true shepherd feeds the flock with God’s word, not entertainment, not platitudes, not trickery. This sounds boring to many. But to the sheep, it’s manna from heaven.