Author: pastortravislv

Romans 14:23 – But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
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Listening to a message this morning, I heard John Piper use this passage to explain at least one way that man is totally depraved in his lostness. And, since this is a topic of some interest to many and of some difficulty, I thought it would be worthwhile to summarize the argument that I heard made with a few additions of my own.

Here is the question: How can we say that every action of lost people is evil in its nature? For example, can we honestly say that it is evil when lost people do deeds that we all know to be good? If a lost person funds the building of a hospital in a third-world community or serves a meal for the homeless, how can we call that evil? And let’s not even begin talking about Extreme Makeover Home Edition or Oprah’s Big Give.

First let me say that the act of building a hospital, feeding the homeless, building a house, or whatever other charitable act that truly helps another person without violating another moral principle is not evil in itself. No one is arguing that the hospital ought not be built or the meal ought not be served. And, in this category, lost people do such good things regularly.

However, there is a question that comes to mind regarding whether or not the deed is good in the sight of God. Specifically, the question needs to be asked, “Is this deed something that God considers to be a good or righteous action on the part of the lost person?: And it is when this question is asked in that way that we can determine from the scripture that, no, even though the lost person does a good deed, the lost person is still doing evil.

This argument can be made from Romans 14:23. If whatever action does not come from faith is sin, any action of a faithless person is sin. Though the context of Romans 14:23 is in the debate over the issue of eating food sacrificed to idols, there is still a grand point to be made. If an action does not proceed from a faith in God, a trust in Christ, then that action is dishonoring to God even if the action itself is not a wrong action.

Let’s add three more passages of scripture to the mix to see that what I have claimed from Romans 14:23 is true in other places in scripture.

Jeremiah 17:9

The question is not with the goodness or evilness of an action itself; instead, the question is with the heart of the one acting. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that there is no way that the lost person, regardless of what he or she believes is his or her motivation, can truly see into his or her heart to know the truth. Isaiah 64:6 tells us that, in our sinful state without redemption, all of our righteous acts (not our good ones but our righteous ones) are like filthy rags in God’s sight. James tells us that, if we do everything right but fail at one point of the law, we fail altogether. Thus it is impossible for someone who does not know Christ to actually perform any deed that is not, because of the lostness of the person’s heart, at its nature corrupt.

One might ask, “How then can even a Christian do anything right?” My answer to that is that we do nothing right or good that is not first sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ. The only way that I do anything good, anything good at all, is because Christ has forgiven me, set me apart for his service, and made me able by his power to act for his glory. Even then, I can take no credit for my good deeds, because I know that, apart from Christ’s righteousness, I could do nothing of any good whatsoever (cf. John 15:5).

Does this discourage good deeds? Not at all. On the contrary, I am encouraged to do good things because I know that anything good that comes out of my life will serve as a testimony to God’s glory. Nor will it discourage the humanitarian works of lost people, since they are not interested in whether or not their deeds please God.

Am I not simply being judgmental and hypocritical? No. God is the one who has said that whatever is not of faith is sin, not me. God has said that all our righteousness is like filthy rags in his sight, not me. And I do nothing to elevate myself above this description. If I were left to myself, I would be able to do nothing at all that would please God. All my actions would be evil. The only reason that I have any good that I can do is because God has chosen, by his power and for his glory, to take me, a dead-hearted sinner, and make me alive for his purposes (cf. Ephesians 2:1-10). Yes, God’s purpose for saving me includes the doing of good works; but those works are only good when they proceed from faith in Christ and are done for his glory. And the only way that works can be done for God’s glory is for those works to be done by one who is redeemed.

If you are reading this and do not have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, I would urge you to think it through with sobriety. There is nothing that you, I, or anyone else can ever do to make ourselves do good deeds before God. We have already been too corrupted by our sinfulness. Our only hope of being right with God does not come from doing good actions. Instead, our hope of being made right with God comes only through the redemption he offers us in Christ. If you want to be made right with God and made able to please him, you must come to Jesus, believe in him, trust in his finished work, receive his grace, and then God will make you a new person able to please him. None of this will be done by your power. None of it will be anything for which you can take credit. But, if you trust in Jesus, God will give you the ability to, for the first time, do things that please him.

Psalm 47:1-4

1 Clap your hands, all peoples!
Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
2 For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared,
a great king over all the earth.
3 He subdued peoples under us,
and nations under our feet.
4 He chose our heritage for us,
the pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah
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Preparing for my Wednesday evening Bible study, I find myself looking at Psalm 47. This little 9 verse psalm is full of joy, full of praise, full of honor for God. But as I read this psalm, I find my heart convicted, and I know that God wants me to change.

Let me explain that I am no fan of chaos. I never have been. Thus, in general, my denomination’s style of worship often suits me just fine. We are pretty reverent, pretty non-expressive, pretty solemn. In our particular church setting, we do not find ourselves getting very much excited during the singing time. And, though I love to play guitar and love to hear the people sing with gusto, I also like the fact that we are orderly and, well, self-controlled

So, imagine my chagrin when reading this psalm. Verse 1 above calls for clapping, shouting, and loud singing. This does not look like my church, not at all. We might sing loudly if it is a tune we really enjoy, but the clapping and shouting is just right out. Perhaps we think ourselves more reverent than all that. Perhaps we think it not a part of our own culture. But we do not look like verse 1 of the Psalm, and I’m guilty as much as anyone.

Let me quickly address my own objections to verse 1. Clapping and shouting is a part of my culture. I love going to ballgames. I will clap and cheer and shout with the best of them. This is especially true when Albert Pujols blasts one over the boards in left-center. So there is no truth to the concept that we are simply not a people of clapping or cheering. Instead, it is simply that we do not think these things to be appropriate in worship.

The second objection that I had was that I want to be more reverent than all that in worship. The answer to this little objection is found in verse 2. Right after calling us to sing, clap, and shout to God, the psalmist tells us why we should do these things. Look at the words: “For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.” Why clap, sing, and shout? Do this because God is a king to be feared. That does not compute in my brain. When I think of God as a King to be feared, I want to get quiet and reverent. God, however, tells me that, because he is a King to be feared, I am to clap, shout, and sing really loudly.

By the way, look at verses 3 and 4 to see that this all applies to us and not just Israel. They worshipped God because God was a King in verse 2, but now look. He has won great victories for them in verse 3. HE has given them an inheritance in verse 4. This is stuff that is all true of believers.

Has God won great victories for us?

Colossians 2:13-15

13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Has he promised us a glorious future inheritance?

Ephesians 2:4-7

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

So, we know that God is a great King worthy of fear and honor. We know he has won great victories over our enemies. We know that he has given us a glorious heritage. How then can we ignore verse 1’s command to clap, sing, shout, and generally give him jubilant praise?

Let me be honest, I struggle here. I’m not overly expressive. Yet, if I am to give God proper glory, I need to become more expressive. I’m not saying that I will pretend some sort of newfound charismatic shift in myself. Instead, I need to simply remember to worship god with all that I have within me. I need to understand who he is as he has identified himself in the scripture, and I need to allow that revelation to lead me to worship God passionately.

Two caveats as I close – First, let me again say that my goal is not to here tell people that they should feel more or less spiritual based on their comfort with outward expression. While I would argue that this psalm makes it clear that some level of noisy and joyful outward expression is appropriate, it does not define to what extent or how often these things are to be a part of our worship. Second, I certainly would not want this post to become ammunition for someone who is both judgmental and expressive. There are far too many people who sit in our sanctuaries and who look down their noses at others who are not as expressive as they would have them to be.

So, what do we do. Let’s be genuine and joyful. Let’s express joy, but not some sort of false and contrived stuff. If our hearts do not lead us to such joy and expression, let’s seek God, asking him to fill us with joy and with proper expressions of worship. Let’s realize that sometimes worship will be quiet and reverent (think Psalm 95:6) and other times it will be loud (think Psalm 47:1 or 95:1-2). In all, let us learn to worship God with a heart that is free, joyful, and filled with his glory.

Genesis 15:13-16

13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
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While reading Genesis 15, the passage where God first makes his covenant with Abraham that is so important to our understanding of the scripture, I was reminded of aspects of God’s character and sovereignty. Right in the middle of promising that he will grant to Abraham’s descendants a particular land and a particular standing with him, God also promises two very strange things: the exile in Egypt and judgment on both Egypt and the Amorites.

God first tells Abram (later Abraham) that his descendants will spend 400 years in a foreign land. Not only will they be separated from the land, they will suffer. There is no hint here of God preventing difficult times or preventing his people from suffering greatly. However, there is comfort that God gives in that, when the time is up, his people will be brought out of that land by God’s mighty hand.

Second, God promises, well in advance of it happening, that he will bring judgment on the land and the captors of the Hebrews. God knows that Pharaoh and the Egyptians are going to do to the Hebrews, and God is planning to let his judgment fall upon them for that future action.

Third, and most interesting to me this morning, is that God says that this all will happen because the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full. So god is telling Abram and his posterity that one of the reasons that all of this will happen as planned is in order to allow the Amorites time to so totally rebel against what is good and right that God’s justice will be demonstrated when he commands Israel to destroy them upon their return to and settling of the land.

Now, there is much to think about here, and I do not intend to work through all the implications of this passage. But let me point out two simple points that we must see. First, God’s foreknowledge is perfect. He knows the future from A to Z. There is no chance, no possibility that God will miss what will happen. He knows it all. Though it is becoming fashionable to attempt to limit God’s foreknowledge in order to defend man’s freedom, the Bible knows nothing of such a view. God knows the future, and it shows from right here in Genesis.

Second, God’s sovereignty and justice are on display. God knows whom he will judge. He planned to display his glory by judging Pharaoh and by judging the Amorites. God sovereignly moved his people where he wanted them, and, as he did so, he accomplished his plan both to rescue his children and to judge those who oppressed them. He proved that his justice would be done.

Genesis 15 reminds us that we do not serve a wimpy little deity who is wringing his hands, shielding his eyes, and hoping that things will work out. God will work out all of human history for his glory. He knows the end from the beginning, and he has the power to make happen what he desires. This is our Lord, and we should praise his name.

Genesis 5:22-24

22 Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
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Enoch walked with God and God took him. In an era when men were living to ages of over nine hundred years, Enoch only lived to be 365. Was this good for him or not?

Genesis 5 tells of the blessings of God poured out on mankind. Even though humanity had rebelled against God and rightly should have been under his wrath, God continued to allow the race to be fruitful and to multiply. With each major entry into the lineage of Adam’s children through Seth, God also saw fit to have Moses record for us the ages that each man attained before his death.

And again I ask, did Enoch get a good deal? Take the numbers, which are ten times the life spans of people today, divide them by ten, and tell me what you would think if you heard this story today. A man is a follower of God, faithful to the very core of his being. He is committed to God and to the growth of God’s kingdom on earth. God takes him home at age 36 while many of his peers are living into their nineties.

When we pause to think about the Enoch question in the way described above, we actually have to check our hearts and see if we believe a few things to be true about God. If I asked a Christian about these truths, he or she likely would affirm them very quickly. However, when the rubber hits the road, not as many would still come along and agree with the truths they proclaim.

For Enoch to be taken home to be with God at age 36 in a normal human life span would stir up images of tremendous regret and sorrow in the lives of many Christians. (Yes, I recognize that I’m not dealing with the aspect of God simply taking Enoch but rather am treating his situation as an early death; however, this is useful as an exercise.) Can you imagine the statements that would be made by his friends and family. “What a loss?” “What a tragedy?” “How could God do this?” “How could a loving God do this?” “I don’t understand, he had such a bright future ahead of him.” “He won’t be able to see his grandchildren.” “He had only begun his ministry.”

All of those quotes would reveal one thing about the hearts of Enoch’s friends and family who would mourn his loss in our fictional example: They are thinking in a this-worldly way. Enoch had been taken by God out of a world of pain, suffering, and sinfulness to enter into the highest possible joy in the presence of the all-glorious, all-loving, all-beautiful God who created him. Enoch, who had served God for the early years of his life before it was cut short was spared much pain and much sorrow. He was ushered immediately into a place of total peace, total happiness, total perfection. Yes, he would miss out on certain temporal joys in this life, but none of those joys would ever, even for a minute, make him regret the fact that he stood in the presence of his Almighty Lord.

Did Enoch get a good deal? Oh my, for the Christian who truly hungers for God and longs to be in his presence, Enoch got a wonderful deal. The apostle Paul knew that it would be better by far for him to be taken out of this life and to be brought into the presence of the Lord Jesus (c.f. Phil 1:21-23). And we, if our claims of belief in Christ are true, must allow the reality and joy of heaven to far outweigh any temporal blessings that a young man like Enoch would have experienced because he had entered into the glory of heaven.

Now, let me be clear, God is the one who determines when we should come home to him, not man. We should do nothing to end our lives in order to enter more quickly into eternity. Such action is sinful. So don’t think that I’m suddenly leading us down a, “Let’s drink the Kool-Aid and escape this world” sort of philosophy. God does not want us to escape this world, but to live in it, glorify him, and change it by spreading the joy of knowing him to all peoples.

What I am arguing for this morning is simple. We need to let our theology of heaven cause us to long for that time and to rejoice when a believer of any age is brought home to Jesus. Of course we will mourn the loss of any of our friends, family, or children; but let us never mourn as though they have lost something. I believe that no Christian who enters into heaven is regretting what he or she leaves behind here. No young Christian is sitting around in heaven today saying, “I only wish I had gotten married.” No, those in the presence of the Almighty are filled with joy and total satisfaction. So we mourn our loss, but not theirs.

In this I mean no harsh words for parents who have lost children or others who have lost loved ones. My heart is not to cast condemnation on anyone who has, for a moment, lost sight of eternity in his or her grief. Instead, my desire is to offer encouragement for us all to have an eternal focus. There is great joy in realizing that the death of any Christian of any age is the opening for that Christian of a portal into the greatest glory imaginable.

Christians, today check your heart and ask yourself how you would respond if you knew of a young Enoch who was taken home by the Lord. Would you rejoice at his entrance into God’s glorious presence? Would you celebrate his total joy? Or, would you feel sorry for him because of the things of this world that he would be missing out on? Let’s be sure that we understand that there is no way that Enoch thought he was getting a raw deal.

Zephaniah 1:12 – At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps,
and I will punish the men
who are complacent,
those who say in their hearts,
‘The Lord will not do good,
nor will he do ill.’
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When we think of the issue of the punishment of God, we often think that his punishment is reserved for those who commit crimes which we consider heinous. We generally have no problem with God punishing murderers, rapists, and other such evil folks. In recent days, we may even have a new category for God punishing corporate executives who give themselves golden parachutes while their companies seek government bailout monies.

The problem is, we do not have God’s mind on what is an offense and we fail to grasp what God will punish. But here in Zephaniah 1, we see something that most of the world would think is unconscionable. God is not only going to punish the offenders we consider vile. God is also going to punish people who are simply apathetic toward him. Those who do not consider God are in danger of his wrath. Those who do not think God takes action in the affairs of humanity are targeted by God for judgment.

The Bible is the perfect revelation of God. If we turn away from the Bible to try to come up with who God is or how he chooses to work, we deny God and come up with a false god of our own imagining. When we try to subject the Bible’s depiction of God and his ways to our own approval or disapproval depending on what we like or dislike, we arrogantly attempt to stand in judgment over the Holy One. Such arrogance is deadly.

Though many in the world will not approve of God judging those who are complacent toward him, they are not the ultimate authority. God is our Creator, our Master, and the only Righteous Judge. He will judge based on his standards, not ours. And he will, as he promises, judge those who do not care about him one way or the other.

Christians, this passage of scripture should grab our attention and pierce our hearts. There are far too many people around us who simply do not care the least little bit about the Lord. They are not safe in their apathy. They are in grave danger. It is our job to continually warn the apathetic that God is, that he is our judge, that he is willing to forgive, and that we must come to him through Christ to be forgiven. Indifference is not allowed. We need to do all in our power to get their attention, to present the truth of God’s word to them, and to plead With God to bring their dead hearts to life.