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Who We Must Not Be

pastortravislv

In the life of the church, there are a lot of things we want to get right. We want to be doctrinally sound. We must be biblical. We want to honor the Lord in our worship and with our lives. We certainly want to stand against error and sin.

But there is a failing that we can run into if we sharpen ourselves to oppose the wrong without also being made gentle by the grace of God. I think that error is something Jesus condemns the religious leadership of his day for in Matthew 23.

Matthew 23:4 – They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 

This is who we do not want to be. There are Christians who are great at burdening other people. Many of us are wonderful at telling you what you must not believe or what you must not do. Many of us are great at piling on other people guilt and man-made standards of righteousness. And when we do it, we often do so because we think we are helping the ministry by smacking others with the truth.

But the Savior does not seem to love the idea of loading people down with burdens if you are not also getting under that burden with them to help them move along. That kind of religion is not Christianity. True, biblical, Christ-honoring faith is a faith that will most certainly call people to faith and repentance and obedience to the word of God. But true Christianity is also a faith in which we love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ and where we all know that we are in this life together on purpose.

Christianity should include a relationship of fellowship, mutual edification, and progressive sanctification. You most certainly should help me know when I’m messing up or missing the point. I most certainly should call you away from error and toward truth. But in our lives, we should also be walking together, side-by-side, helping each other toward that faithfulness. I do not help you if all I do is smack you with the truth and walk away from you without helping you. You do not help me if you tell me all that I should be that I am not, but then you do not actually come help me become what God wants me to be. This is why Christianity is lived out in the local church and not solely on the Internet. We need each other. We need to be in each other’s lives. May we learn to press forward with truth, but never to press without grace too.

Unconditional Forgiveness is not Biblical Forgiveness

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Is forgiveness unconditional? No, not if you are keeping with the actual teaching of Scripture. The Bible neither presents to us a picture of forgiveness as unconditional nor does it call us to such a thing. And, yes, I realize that what I have just written goes completely against what is often taught.

 

First, let’s talk about what unconditional forgiveness means. The concept of an unconditional forgiveness is not found in Scripture, but is, rather, a product of modern psychology. The call is for you, if you have been hurt by another, not to allow that hurt to dominate you. So, you, by an internal act of your will, choose to forgive rather than to be eaten up with a desire for revenge. This choice on your part is not at all necessary for you to communicate to another. It is simply what you do, unilaterally, internally, in order to live in a state of mental health.

 

Often, in this discussion, proponents of an unconditional, unilateral forgiveness will cite Scripture verses that threaten the judgment of God on those who will not forgive. One such example is the parable of the unforgiving servant at the end of Matthew 18. There we see that a man unwilling to forgive another is in danger of hell itself.

 

Matthew 18:35 – “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

 

On the surface, this looks to uphold the idea of internal, unilateral, unconditional forgiveness. But, let’s go deeper into Scripture to think this through. Another commonly repeated phrase in Scripture is that we are called to forgive others as the Lord forgave us .  

 

Ephesians 4:32 – Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

 

Colossians 3:13 – bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

 

How are we forgiven by God? Is our forgiveness something God just does, unconditionally, unilaterally, with no requirement on the part of the one forgiven? No, it is not. Christ commands that we repent and believe to be saved; that is how we are forgiven. No person is going to be saved without a willingness to confess their sin, turn from their sin, and seek the grace of God through the finished work of Christ. The only sins that God forgives are those covered by the blood of Christ. The way that we have that blood applied to our lives is by God’s grace, yes, but through saving faith. Faith and repentance come before the process of our forgiveness is completed.

 

But even if this picture does not work for you, consider the Matthew passage in its context. Yes, at the end of the chapter, Jesus commanded that we forgive our brother from our heart if we do not want God to judge us. But in the very same context, just a couple paragraphs earlier, Jesus made it clear that forgiveness is not automatic and unilateral.

 

Matthew 18:15-17 – 15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

 

Note that, in this passage, Jesus did not command immediate, internal, unilateral, unconditional forgiveness. Instead, he commanded a process of confrontation seeking repentance that could then lead to restoration. Jesus did not say, “If your brother sins against you, just forgive.” Instead, Jesus said to go, confront him, and seek reconciliation. If he will not repent, Jesus does not say to just forgive in your heart anyway. Instead, Jesus says to bring witnesses to help resolve the issue. Jesus even points to formal church discipline and the removal of an unrepentant sinner from the fellowship. This is not unconditional forgiveness by any measure.

 

When we think of forgiveness, I believe that there is a wisdom in us thinking of forgiveness from two dimensions—I’ll call them vertical and horizontal. The vertical dimension is how I think of another person between myself and the Lord. As I stand before God, I know that I too am a sinner. I know that I have done things to offend an infinitely holy God. Thus, I am more guilty before God of sin than any other person is guilty before me. And thus, before the Lord, I can declare a willingness to extend forgiveness to one who has hurt me. Before the Lord, I can declare that I am not better than the one who has hurt me. And before the Lord, I can make a decision to not allow myself to be eaten up with a desire for personal retribution or revenge. I can know that the just and sovereign God will handle all rightly by the time eternity arrives.

 

But, on the horizontal dimension, between myself and the one who has wronged me, I do not, in a situation of a significant wrong, simply declare them forgiven. That is not God’s command. Instead, I show them where I have been hurt. I tell them that I am willing to forgive. But that forgiveness, the transaction that puts the situation to rest and restores our relationship, is based on their willingness to repent—owning responsibility for their wrong and desiring to turn from it. No, we dare not require perfect repentance on another person’s behalf. After all, how perfect is your own repentance before the Lord? But we do not magnify the gospel at all if we grant forgiveness to one who refuses to admit a wrong, who refuses to turn from a wrong, and who would willingly continue to do that wrong.

 

In truth, forgiveness is a complicated issue. I happily recommend to people that they read Unpacking Forgiveness by Chris Brauns in order to dig in here. But for our purposes today, I simply want to remind us that biblical forgiveness is far greater than unconditional. Biblical forgiveness is you extending an offer of grace to me because you have been forgiven by Christ. Biblical forgiveness is not you automatically ignoring my sin. Instead, biblical forgiveness is you helping me to become more like Christ as I repent of my wrong and turn from it. Biblical forgiveness is you restoring our relationship because you have, upon my repentance, chosen to put away your right to seek revenge. Biblical forgiveness looks like the gospel.

The Most Dangerous Thought Ever

pastortravislv

What is the worst thing you can allow yourself to think? What is the kind of thinking that is destined to lead you to destruction? What is the worst possible thought to chase in your mind?

 

OK, there are actually a lot of really dangerous thoughts out there. And so I’ll not try to make them battle this morning. But, there is a thought, a kind of thinking, that always leads us to extremely deadly, extremely dangerous spiritual ground. And, as I watch our world, I am becoming convinced that this very well may be the most dangerous thought ever.

 

Watch this little confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees to see an example of the thought.

 

Matthew 15:1-9 – 1 Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” 3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 5 But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,”6 he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. 7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

8 “ ‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me;

9 in vain do they worship me,

teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”

 

The story is easy to understand. The religious leaders want to confront Jesus for not following their traditions on how to ceremonially wash before eating. Jesus points out that these men are willing to condemn him for ignoring their preferences when they are willing to ignore the word of God.

 

And it is in that ignoring of the word of God we find the dangerous thought. It is dangerous, deadly, and destructive to allow yourself to think that you, in your wisdom, have the ability to come up with truth that is equal in weight or superior in value to the word of God. Whenever we allow ourselves to think that we can evaluate Scripture by our own standards or evaluate the actions of god by our own preferences, we are thinking in the most dangerous way possible.

 

How do we know God is good? He tells us in his word. How do we know that God’s judgment of the lost is right? He tells us in his word. How do we know that Jesus is the only way to God? He tells us in his word. How do we know what marriage is supposed to be? God tells us in his word. How do we know what a church is supposed to do? God tells us in his word.

 

If God has indeed revealed himself to us in his word, how dangerous must it be for us to have that revelation, and then hold it up to some other standard to see if we approve of it? What are you saying when you do such a thing? If you take the word of God and measure it by your own standard to determine whether or not you approve of it or will obey it, you are declaring yourself and your standard to be above the word of God. To declare yourself and your standard to be above the word of God is for you to declare yourself to be above God. For you to declare yourself to be above God is for you to actually declare yourself to be deity.

 

All through the Bible, God makes it clear that he will not stomach idolatry. God will not allow anyone or anything to get away with pretending to be God. That includes you and me. So we should be careful not to ever elevate ourselves to the level of deity. And thus, we cannot measure God’s commands and God’s ways by our own standards as if we have the right to approve or disapprove of anything God has said or done. To assume that you can judge the commands of God, the ways of God, or the actions of God is for you to think one of the most dangerous thoughts people can possibly think.

The Unfair Dishonesty of Unbelief

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In Matthew 11, Jesus was confronted by the unbelief of many. John the Baptist had questions, doubts, and fears. And while Jesus could send comforting words to John, not all around him were willing to hear him or believe his words or his miracles.

 

Matthew 11:16-19 – 16 “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates,

17 “ ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;

we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’

18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

 

Jesus compares the people around him to children. They try to play a happy game, but people complain that the game is too happy. They try to play a sad game, but people complain that the game is not happy enough. And in that illustration, Jesus shows the dishonesty of unbelief.

 

You see, many who do not want to follow God will tell us that they do not want to submit to someone who would ever judge evil. That is, of course, until something they do not like happens. Then they say that they do not wish to follow God because he did not judge or prevent the evil thing that bothers them. Which is it? Do you want God to actually judge sin, or not? Do you want a God who will only judge the sins that offend you? That, dear friends, is not you wanting God to be different. Instead, that is you wanting to sit on the throne of God.

 

The Bible reveals to us the true God who created the universe. The Scriptures show us Jesus, God the Son, the only way that any of us can be right with our Creator. We should recognize that, in truth, it does not matter if we understand or even approve of all of God’s ways. He is greater than us anyway. But we should instead be willing to submit to the perfections and the holiness of the God who made us, whose ways are not ours, and who has all right to judge.

Is the Mission Accomplished?

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What did Jesus come to do? What was his intent in his ministry and in his atoning sacrifice? Did Jesus in fact accomplish what he intended? What would it mean if he did not?

I was reading recently about the doctrine of the atonement, and I saw a fascinating little way of speaking of what Jesus came to do. In many ways, it helps us to grasp the extent of the atonement. The point ran something like this: Jesus died either for all the sins of all people, for some of the sins of all people, or for all of the sins of some people. Which is it?

If Jesus died for all of the sins of all people, then all people must be saved. If Jesus died for all of the sins of all people, yet all people are not saved, then the death of Jesus for those people somehow failed to accomplish the purpose for which he died. We reject this, and thus we must reject the notion that Jesus died for all of the sins of all people.

Did Jesus then die for some of the sins of all people? That would mean that Jesus died for all of the sins of some with exception, that there are some sins for which he did not die. Is there any biblical evidence that Jesus died for, let’s say, 99 out of 100 sins. But you and I have to make up for that last sin in order to be saved? This is clearly not the teaching of the Scripture. And, of course, if this were the teaching of the Scripture, then we would know that Jesus only died to provide the possibility of saving a people, but his death would have actually secured no salvations, not one.

Universalists believe the first possibility, that Christ died for all of the sins of all people and thus all will be saved. Those coming from an Arminian position logically must hold to something like the second position. Christ died for all of our sins except for the sin of unbelief in him. We must make up for that sin on our own by believing in order to have all of our sins covered. Because, if Christ died to pay for your unbelief, that sin would be covered and your salvation would necessarily be guaranteed.

But the third position, Christ died for all of the sins of some people, is another view entirely. There we present the idea that Jesus, in his death, perfectly and successfully accomplished all he intended. Jesus came to rescue a particular people for the Lord. His death paid the penalty for all of their sins, including the sin of unbelief before their repentance. There would thus be no way that those would not be saved, for they have all of their sins perfectly atoned for in Christ.

I thought of this little argument when reading through my daily reading plan in Matthew. Look at a simple verse that I think almost every Christian knows.

Matthew 1:21 – She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Note two things that the angel says to Joseph about Jesus. He will, emphasize that will, save his people, emphasize that his, from their sins. Will means it is a sure thing. There is no saving effort of Jesus that fails. He will save. Whom will he save? He will save his people. He will not save all people. He will save people who are his.

I believe that this verse that we only read around Christmas time is a pointer to the fact that Christ sovereignly, effectively, totally accomplished the work he came to accomplish. He came to save his people. There is nothing in this text that would indicate that he tries to save others, but they will against him and thwart his work. There is nothing in this text that indicates that all are his people and he is trying to save them. Instead, the text, in its most natural reading shows us that he will—a certainty which cannot fail—save his people—a people who are a definite and determined group—from their sins—which he accomplishes by perfectly paying the penalty for every last one of those sins. And there is nothing to indicate, in this text, that the group known as his people is merely a potential group that is as yet undetermined. Thus, the verse appears to indicate that Christ dies for all of the sins of some people, not some of the sins of all people or all of the sins of all people.

Oh, I know, many reject this notion. And, I most certainly will not have us argue these points in a comment thread. However, I read this, and I see something beautiful and worthy of praise. He will save his people. He will accomplish his mission perfectly. He will not fail, not even once, in any way. His people will be saved. And this is a glorious testimony to the power of God, the perfection of God, the perfection of the work of Christ, and the extreme glory of grace.

I could not be saved on my own. I could not contribute to my salvation. I would, had God left me to myself, have opposed him in the depths of my heart. But God is gracious. God changed my heart. God brought me salvation. God did this through the perfectly complete work of Christ. And because that work is perfect, I know that the grace of God on my life is totally secure. There is no sin of mine for which Christ did not die. Thus, there is no sin of mine, past, present, or future, which could ever separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. And all this gives me joy and hope.

And there is no true argument of injustice against this position. Do you want the death of Christ to have applied to you and covered your sins? Come to Jesus in faith and repentance. If you do, then you can know that he died for you. If you refuse him, you can know that he did not die to cover your sins. But this is not him treating anyone unfairly. In fact, it is him being gracious, giving forgiveness to those who do not deserve it. And it is him leaving to themselves those who, by their refusal, show that they want nothing to do with him or his grace.

The mission of Jesus is accomplished. He will not have failed in any regard to do what he intended to do. All for whom Christ died will be saved, they must be.

Not One

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The past faithfulness of God is a glorious hint to us of the future grace he will bestow. When we look back in our own lives, or even better, when we look back in Scripture, we can see times when the Lord has proven himself to be faithful. God is able to do what we would never expect. God is able to give us kindnesses that we could never deserve.

Consider the story of Israel from Genesis through Joshua. In Genesis 12, God selects a man, Abram, to be the father of a nation. God promises Abram, later Abraham, offspring and a land in which his offspring will live. God made a promise that God said he would not break, no matter what.

Think of all God overcame to fulfill his promise. God gave Abraham and Sarah a son, Isaac. God gave Isaac a pair of sons and preserved the life of Jacob, later Israel. God gave Jacob 12 sons, and showed special favor to Judah and Joseph. God preserved the life of Joseph and made a way for Jacob’s family to live in Egypt, but to live there in a way that would not have their family absorbed into Egyptian culture.

Four hundred years later, God brought Moses to the forefront and brought Israel up out of Egypt. They had come to Egypt as a family of 70; they left Egypt as a nation of two or three million. And God protected and preserved Israel in the face of enemies, in spite of their own rebellion, and in the harshness of the wilderness.

Then, when Joshua becomes leader of the nation, God sent Israel into the land of Canaan. There the nation would face violent enemies. There the nation would again struggle with her own rebellious disobedience to the word of God that could have brought upon them the judgment of God. There the nation would face as impossible a challenge as any of us have ever faced. What did God do then?

Joshua 21:43-45

43 Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. 44 And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. 45 Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.

God kept all his promises. God’s word did not fail. God’s power was sufficient. God’s grace was magnified. God showed that he makes promises and keeps them as part of his character.

And now we sit here three-and-a-half millennia later, and we should learn from this. If God has been faithful to carry out his word in the past, he will carry out his word in the future. We serve the same sovereign and faithful God as did Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph,  Moses, and Joshua. God will complete his work that he began in the hearts and lives of his people. No human failing and no evil attack against God’s people will cause his plan to fail. His graces are assured. His promises will be carried out. And when all is said and done, When we look back on eternity, we will all praise God with the truth that everything he swore to do, everything he promised—every single thing—came to pass just as he said it would. God has been faithful. God will be faithful. Not one thing God promises will fail.

T4G 2018 Session 1 Notes

pastortravislv

Mark Dever

Holiness Together

 

God is holy.

God calls us to be holy.

But in a fallen world, it is hard to be holy.

The world does not like us or our message.

At times, the church in the past has defended sin as virtue—slavery, etc.

We are tempted to hypocrisy.

Many of us do not seem interested in God.

We show we are more interested in what God can do for us rather than who God is.

Romans 6:7 tells us we are freed from sin.

We are free to live holy.

We are freed from the bitter taskmaster that is sin.

 

The local church is not only the focus of our alternative life that we live, it is also the means God has given us to live that alternative life.

 

Point 1: Commit yourself to preach through the Bible.

The way to make sure you keep preaching the gospel is that you keep preaching the Bible.

We only get the message of the gospel from outside of ourselves, from the revealed word of God.

Nobody would have ever thought up the message of the gospel.

Preaching through the whole Bible makes sure that we do not end up with a gospel that is misshapen.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable.

Jesus told his disciples to teach people to obey all he has commanded.

We must teach doctrine and practice.

 

Point 2: Emphasize what the Bible teaches about God.

We need to teach people about the Holy One if they are to be excited about holiness.

Holiness is godliness, being like God in our character.

Romans 3:25-ff

Why did God send Jesus and save people?

He did so to demonstrate his own righteousness.

Jesus came to die and rescue people because God loves himself—yes he loves us, but the Scripture shows us that this is about the glory of God first.

God’s righteousness is the moral core of his character.

God wants his righteousness to be known.

That is clear in the entire storyline of the Bible.

And in that, we get wisdom as to what we are to be like as we better know what God is like.

We want to keep God before the minds of our hearers.

The world is constantly conspiring to erase the truth of God from our minds.

The Old Testament constantly tells God’s people to remember.

Why? Because we constantly forget.

 

Point 3: Emphasize how you become a Christian and what it means to be one.

How do we teach them to avoid false teaching?

We have to teach them the true gospel.

We need to share the gospel like we see in the Bible if we want to see conversions like we see in the Bible.

The holiness of the local church should both intrigue and convict someone who visits but who does not know Christ.

 

Point 4: Teach Christians to commit to love.

We are not telling you just to love, but to commit to love each other.

Help your members to cultivate the desire to love God’s people.

God loves his people.

We are not, in and of ourselves, loveable; yet God loves us.

When we are saved, we are reoriented.

We get a new ability to love the people of God.

We begin to love more like Christ loves.

We love because he first loved us.

The commitment to love Christians, especially our own local church, helps us to love those we would not be predisposed to love on our own.

Church covenants matter here.

We promise before God and each other to love and care for each other.

 

If you know all about good theology, but it does not change the way you act toward other Christians, you are not saved.

 

Point 5: Pray that we are more concerned about our members than the number of our members.

In the parable of the lost sheep, would we care about the one who wandered away if we got a few more to come in?

Our work does not end when somebody joins our church. That is often when our work begins.

 

Point 6: Teach the congregation that they must choose between hypocrisy and church discipline.

You will have either, but you cannot have neither.

Church discipline is all the ways that we teach each other.

It is formative, as we learn from each other.

It is corrective, as we call people to repentance.

The Lord’s Supper forces this question upon us.

Church discipline is the antidote that the Lord has given us for hypocrisy.

Failing at church discipline means our church misrepresents God.

As a Congregation, we have to choose holiness that calls us to repent.

Hypocrisy – You will tolerate unrepentant sin.

 

Point 7: Teach the church how to find the right pastors.

Pastors are not best identified by resumes, personality inventories, business practices, or weekend assessments.

They are best attested by pastors who know them and who are respected by the church.

Holiness is best seen over time.

It is our role as pastors to teach the church what a pastor is.

Today’s sermons are preparing your members to pick tomorrow’s pastors.

Help those who show a desire to enter ministry.

Train them. Send them to seminary, raise them up for service in your church or in another.

No decent pastor you know is self-made.

The world is taught to connect authority to authoritarian.

Satan’s trick is to tell us that God cannot tell you no without saying he does not love you.

The world believes that no means you do not love me.

But this is not the way of God.

 

Point 8: Pray publicly and specifically about hopes and problems

Prayerlessness is self-confidence.

We need to show our understanding of our weakness.

We teach our congregations by what we pray about every Sunday.

How do we reorient our people by prayer?

Praise God.

Confess sins.

Pray for the regular preaching of God’s word.

Pray for people of other people groups to be saved.

Pray for missionaries.

Is the image your church projects only one of strength and progress?

Spend so much time praying in the service that the people who only pretend to believe in God get bored.

 

Point 9: Explain how holiness does not compete with missions but is essential to missions.

The self-denial that is cultivated in holiness is necessary for missions.

We must learn not to sacrifice missions to our own comforts, and this is the same self-denial.

Your most important contribution to others is your knowing God in a way that makes you different from others.

A church that tolerates the unholiness of unrepentant sin today is a church that will not be sending missionaries tomorrow.

 

If you are not at odds with sin, you are not at home with Jesus.

WE have to be humble and hopeful.

Holiness must not become a threat to us or a license for a legalistic  pride.

Start with humility.

Church members are dear to us because they are dear to Jesus.

Let this make you be hopeful.

Let your identity be taken, not from sin you still fight, but from the promised holiness that is coming.

Do Not Miss the For

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If we are not careful in our Bible reading, we will miss little grammatical things that have big lessons for us. One such lesson is the use of cause words like “because,” ““for,” or “therefore.” These words remind us that what we are reading is the reason for something in the mind of the inspired author. And such things teach us how to live and how to pray.

Notice the simple cause word in this verse:

Psalm 57:1

 

Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,

for in you my soul takes refuge;

in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,

till the storms of destruction pass by.

The psalm opens with a cry, “Be merciful to me.” The writer is pleading with God to help him. Later in the psalm, we will see that he is facing the attacks of opponents who would destroy him. And so he is asking for help, for protection.

In the second line of the verse, we see the word “for.” That is a cause word. What our minds need to do is recognize that the line to follow will be the psalmist giving God a reason why he should help. Why would God want to have mercy on the psalmist? Why would God protect him from harm?

The psalmist says that he is asking God to help for this reason: “in you my soul takes refuge.” The reason that the psalmist gives that God ought to help is that the psalmist has taken refuge in God. The writer has already run to God in relationship. He has hidden in God, sheltering in the Almighty. He is not asking for help because he deserves it or because he is better than his attackers. No, the psalmist makes the basis of his request that he has a relationship with God.

 

Do not miss the “for.” In that, we learn something of how to pray for ourselves too. We need God to help us. We are in pain or trouble. We cry to him for mercy. But why ought he to help us? Our answer should be quick. We ask God to help, not because we deserve it, not because we are good, not because they are bad, but simply because we have come to Jesus for mercy and found our refuge in the Lord. This is a wise way to pray, making our request not be about our goodness, but about the faithfulness of God to shelter his own.

The Raw Reality of the Psalms

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God is so good to us. He gives us indications in his word that he understands us in ways that we might never imagine. Because God inspired real people, real human men, to write his Scripture, we gain insights into how God cares for us in our weakness.

Those thoughts came to me as I was reading through Psalm 55. In that text, David is talking to God about his own hurts, his own fears, his own discouragement. David expresses things to God that we are not often honest enough to say. Yet David moves to trust in the end.

In the first 2 verses of the psalm, David pleads with the Lord to listen and hear him. He is praying. He is desperate. He wants God’s help.

Then, from verses 3-8, David expresses his deep, human emotions. The wicked are causing him trouble (v3). David’s heart hurts and he is afraid (vv4-5). He wishes he could run away (vv6-8). This is not the false face of the modern Christian pretending to be OK while being eaten up inside by sorrow or fear.

In the next section, David identifies the cause of his pain. IN verses 9-11, he highlights the trouble all around the city. But in verse 12, David lets us know that the worst part of it all is that the one who is attacking him, the one trying to destroy him, that one is a former friend. David has been betrayed by a friend.

Psalm 55:12-14

12 For it is not an enemy who taunts me—

then I could bear it;

it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me—

then I could hide from him.

13 But it is you, a man, my equal,

my companion, my familiar friend.

14 We used to take sweet counsel together;

within God’s house we walked in the throng.

How sad is that? How familiar is it? I would love to know that we have not experienced such things. But it just is not true. If you have lived long enough, you know what it feels like to have someone you consider a friend suddenly strike against you to do you harm, betraying a confidence, breaking a promise, or simply trying to do you in.

In verses 15-19, David prays, expecting God to bring justice. But then, by verse 20, he again expresses the hurt he feels.

Psalm 55:20-21

20 My companion stretched out his hand against his friends;

he violated his covenant.

21 His speech was smooth as butter,

yet war was in his heart;

his words were softer than oil,

yet they were drawn swords.

Do you feel this? My friend used kind words. Even when betraying me, he spoke softly, sweetly, deceptively. How much this must have hurt. How deep these wounds must have been.

At the end of the Psalm, David seems to summarize and come to a conclusion.

Psalm 55:22-23

22 Cast your burden on the Lord,

and he will sustain you;

he will never permit

the righteous to be moved.

23 But you, O God, will cast them down

into the pit of destruction;

men of blood and treachery

shall not live out half their days.

But I will trust in you.

David knows God can be trusted. He knows that God will protect his own in the end. David knows that God will do justice, being the final judge over the betraying friend.

The final phrase is lovely, “But I will trust in you.” With all the hurt, all the pain, all the fear, David still says that he will, in the end, trust in the Lord.

God is good. He shows us that he understands our experiences. He shows us, through inspiring this song to be written, that he has a better grasp of pain and betrayal than you might ever imagine. Then, of course, Jesus lived this out. Jesus was betrayed by a friend too.

Christians, get this truth: God understands. He understands it when you are afraid—he has seen it before. He understands when you feel betrayed. He understands when you have a supposed friend speak sweet words and then turn against you. And God understands your need of his protection and your desire for justice. And God would call on you to trust him. God would call on you to see that he is just, and ultimately, in the very end, he will handle all this rightly.

That understanding from the Lord, the emotional turmoil that David expresses, that all should help us to see the grace of God. God did not have to show us that he understands our hardships. God did not have to let us know that we are not alone in these feelings. But God did so. And in doing so, God shows us that he is wonderfully kind, wonderfully good, and perfectly able to keep us, even through hard times.

Our Danger in the First Temptation

pastortravislv

When Adam and Eve fell in the garden, committing the first sin, they fell prey to a scheme of the devil. There are actually several things that occurred as that scheme unfolded. But one thing in particular stands out to me this day.

Genesis 3:1 – Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

God had placed Adam and Eve in a perfect home. God had provided for their needs and only given them one rule, one limitation. God had told them not to eat from one particular tree.

Of course, all of this is familiar, but do not give up on this thought yet. See what the devil did in his question. There is more going on here than we realize. Yes, the devil lied, and many have pointed that out. But have you also noticed that, in the question he asked, the devil was trying to get Eve to evaluate the character and actions of God?

Picture the thought process. The devil asks, “Did God really say… ?” in that question is more than a desire for content. The devil is trying to show God in a bad light. He is trying to make it look like God’s command about the tree is unkind, unloving, unrighteous. “Did he really command such a thing? How could he? Are you really going to let him do that?” And Eve answers fairly well. She is not willing to believe, at this point, that God has made a bad command.

But the problem is this: She did place herself in a position to say whether or not she felt God’s command was good or bad. The devil wanted to get the woman to put herself in a position to judge the goodness or badness of the commands of God. And while he did not trick her with his falsehood about the command, the devil got her used to thinking about whether or not she approved of the commands of God. Thus, when he came back by highlighting the fruit, the woman was in great danger.

Thus, the oldest trick in the devil’s book is the trick of convincing you or me that we have the knowledge, the wisdom, and the ability to measure the rightness or wrongness of the actions of God. The moment that we decide whether or not we approve of one decision of the Lord’s, even if we approve, we have attempted to usurp God’s position by making ourselves judges of the righteousness of God.

But remember, God is God and we are not. God is holy and we are not. God is all-knowing, and we are not. God is perfect in every way and we are not. God’s ways are as different from ours as the heavens are far from the earth. There is no comparison. We could never determine whether God should or should not have done something.

If you want to fight against the devil’s oldest ploy, you must surrender to the absolute supremacy and holiness of God. He is the Lord and his ways are perfect. When we do not understand him, we must take it as a given that he is good. God is not measured by a rule of good that is outside of him. Good is good

because it is what God does; but God will not and cannot be measured against some external standard.

So, the next time you feel like pondering whether or not you like the ways of God, be careful. Down that path lies danger. The devil used that as the first shot in his war against the Lord. Adam and Eve fell, and this was one of the nudges the devil gave them to help them crash. But true worship of the Lord, true following him, always includes our willing submission to the fact that the Lord is holy and his ways are perfect.