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They won’t listen to me. They will never believe me. They will think I’m crazy. They will be offended by my words. They are not open. I’m not special. I’m not smart enough to challenge them.

 

On and on our excuses flow for not obeying the call of God to speak the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. We come up with reason after reason that we should not be the ones to tell the truth to people in desperate need. This is not because we do not want to see them forgiven by God. It is not because we do not think it matters. But the bottom line is, we are afraid.

 

The interesting thing is, this is not  a new problem. Moses had it too.

 

Exodus 4:1- Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’ ”

 

When God commanded Moses to go and tell Pharaoh to let his people go, Moses had the kinds of fears that many of us face. Moses felt that he could not carry the message of God in a way that would make Pharaoh believe him. A look at the context shows us the kinds of excuses Moses makes. He worries about his ability to speak, his ability to persuade, his knowledge of theological truth such as the name of God. It all culminates in Moses pleading with God to send somebody else.

 

But the Lord has none of it. God sends Moses. God empowers Moses. God tells Moses that speaking to Pharaoh is his job, no matter how well or poorly Moses speaks. God is the one who will do the work. God will provide the power. Moses simply must obey.

 

What are your excuses for not talking to friends, family, or neighbors? Do those excuses sound like Moses here at the burning bush? Perhaps it would be good for you to remember that God is with you, his Spirit living inside all Christians, and he can empower you to do what you are not at all able to do on your own.   

What motivates you more to believe? Do solid, factual claims motivate you? Do beautiful, emotional pictures motivate you? We are all wired differently here. But God has chosen to show us reasons to follow Christ that fall into both camps. Sometimes, he even does so in the same breath.

 

Mark 16:6-7 – 6 And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”

 

Do you want reasons to believe in and follow Jesus? These 2 verses contain for you hard facts and sweet emotions. Whichever motivates you more should ring out.

 

On the factual side, there is the simple claim, “He has risen; he is not here.” The Bible tells us that Jesus, on Sunday, walked out of his tomb and was alive again. There was no longer a body in the grave. Jesus is not dead but alive. That is a simple, historical claim of fact. It is either true or false. It cannot be neither or both. Either Jesus is physically alive or he is not.

 

If Jesus is not alive, there is no reason to follow Christianity. All of the Bible’s claims are simply unreliable if Jesus is dead. But if Jesus is alive, then he has the right to command our repentance and faith. If Jesus is alive, all the Bible claims about itself and about Jesus is true. And if Jesus is alive, you owe him your very life and very soul.

 

On the emotional side, there is the little phrase, “and Peter.” It requires some context to see the beauty there, but it is not hard. Peter had denied Jesus. In front of hostile folks, Peter pretended that he had never met Jesus and was certainly not a follower of the Savior. How would Jesus respond to Peter now that he was alive again? Is it not beautiful to hear the angel instruct the women specifically to tell Peter that Jesus is alive. Jesus is not writing Peter off. There is grace for a man who failed Jesus miserably.

 

Why this should speak to our hearts is obvious. We fail the Lord. WE are not as strong as we should be. How lovely to know that Peter was not turned away. The God who would love Peter enough to specifically speak of him in the message to call the disciples together and encourage them is a good, loving, and gracious God. We, who have failed him over and over again must find courage that God would love us in the same way, with the same grace, that he showed his love to Peter.

 

What strengthens your faith more? Is it that Jesus is alive and the tomb is empty? Is it that God would graciously include a failure like Peter—like you and me—in his call to the disciples? Either way, the word is encouraging you to believe in Jesus and follow him with your life. He is worth following because he is gracious. He is worth following because he is alive.

How do you evaluate the actions and choices of the Lord? I wonder if you ever think of that question. God has shaped the world in a certain way. God has chosen to save people by a particular means. God has chosen that his worship will involve certain actions and exclude others. And many of us look at those things and evaluate, in our own minds, whether or not we approve.

 

Psalm 18:30-31

 

30 This God—his way is perfect;

the word of the Lord proves true;

he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

31 For who is God, but the Lord?

And who is a rock, except our God?

 

When David speaks of the Lord in Psalm 18, he gives us something to think about as we consider the ways of the Lord. According to verse 30, God’s way is perfect.

 

Now, stop and think. Based on what measure is the way of God perfect? Is God’s way perfect because it fits our approval? Is God’s way perfect because it is in keeping with societal norms and expectations? Is God’s way perfect because it is measured by an external rubric of perfection?

 

I do not think that God and his ways are evaluated as perfect because God is conforming to an external measure of perfection. Instead, as the verses tell us, there are a couple of things that demonstrate to us that God is perfect. His word shows him to be perfect. And his identity as the one God, the only God, is what shows him to be perfect.

 

Perhaps consider this concept as you compare your actions to those of God. If you and I do wrong, what makes it wrong? It is not society, as the values of society change. What makes human action moral or immoral, according to Scripture, basically is a question of whether or not our actions accurately reflect the character and ways of God in accord with his word. If we do things that match the values of God, we are right. If we do things that oppose the Lord, we are wrong.

 

But what about God? By what is he measured? The answer is actually the same as in our case. God cannot be measured by an external rule, because that would set the external rule above the Lord. Instead, God is measured by God. The ways of God are right because they are the ways of God. Right is right because it matches the character of God. God is good because he is God, not because his ways are measured by anything outside of God.

 

So, how do you and I evaluate the ways of God? We dare not hold up to God a standard that is our own. God will not conform to your will or mine. God, his ways are perfect. God is the one and only measure of righteousness. And so we should make our evaluations of God’s actions by submitting ourselves to the ways and word of the Lord and not by attempting to measure God by our own thoughts and standards.

What is the message of Jesus? What is his point, his command, his running theme? To miss this would be tragic. And, sadly, I think many do.

 

Look here at the first preaching Jesus does.

 

Mark 1:14-15 – 14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

 

Jesus came into the public spotlight with a simple message: repent and believe. That simple message has not changed. Many have tried to make Jesus about other things. Many have tried to shape Christianity around politics, social issues, self-esteem, or a thousand other things. But to look at Jesus, the message is simple. Repent and believe.

 

What is it to repent? To repent is to have a change in how you think that leads to a change in how you act. It is to see yourself in sin, feel genuine sorrow over who you have been and how you have behaved, and change. Repenting is to turn away from living a life that is against God and to turn toward living a life submitted to the lordship of Christ.

 

Repenting will ultimately work itself out in a number of ways. Our feeling that we, as individuals, have the right of ownership over our lives will go away. We will recognize that we are the servants of God who is our King. We will see that we have no rights other than those he grants to us in his word. Repenting is to stop doing what is wrong, to acknowledge Jesus as your Lord or Master, and start doing what is right in obedience to him.

 

Believing in the gospel is also not complicated. We are sinners who deserve the judgment of God. Jesus, the Son of God, came to live, die, and rise from the grave in order to purchase our pardon and make it possible for us to be forgiven. All who will put their faith in Jesus and his finished work alone for salvation will be forgiven, saved, made into children of God.

 

Believing and repenting go hand-in-hand. You cannot believe in Jesus and approach him for salvation without also, simultaneously letting go of control of your life. To believe is to repent and yield. To turn from sin and yield to Christ is also to believe. They are two sides of the same coin. Genuine faith leads to repenting. Repenting only happens through genuine faith.

 

Have you followed Jesus’ first sermon? It only has two points: repent and believe. Have you repented, understanding that you cannot be the master of your own life and continue to do things according to your own judgment? Have you believed, entrusting your soul to the Lord Jesus through his perfect life and death and resurrection? Turn from sin. Cry out to Jesus for mercy in faith. That is and has always been the message of God. 

When we think of the sovereign hand of God at work, we often see it in big, sweeping moves in the Scripture. We watch the Lord perform miracles to move people from place to place like parting the Red Sea. We see the Lord do mighty works in the hearts of people to bring them to repentance as he did in Nineveh in the days of Jonah. But sometimes the sovereign hand of God is far more subtle.

 

God had a plan in the Old Testament to grow for himself a nation. God chose Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to be the nation that would carry his promise of blessing for the world. This nation would be a people for the display of the glory of God and for bringing the Messiah into the world through their bloodline.

 

Part of how God chose to do this was to grow the nation away from the promised land. God would form Israel into a people while in Egypt. But how would God do that without seeing the nation influenced and changed by Egyptian culture and religion? How could God place the nation in an incubator for growth in its infancy?

 

Genesis 46:33-34 – 33 When Pharaoh calls you and says, ‘What is your occupation?’ 34 you shall say, ‘Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we and our fathers,’ in order that you may dwell in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”

 

Joseph, in bringing his brothers into the land, highlights a curious fact for them to know. If the people of Israel refer to themselves as shepherds, they will be placed in the land of Goshen, away from the main culture of Egypt. Why? The Egyptians had developed a prejudice against shepherds. They simply thought of shepherds as gross, nasty people. Thus, if the Israelites were willing to claim that identity, they could have their own space, free from the influence of Egypt. The nation would land in its incubator.

 

This is a sweet picture of small-scale sovereignty. No person would think that the development of a prejudice against shepherds would be a picture of the mighty hand of God at work. But why not? Why not recognize that this repulsion, this white-collar looking down on the rednecks who keep sheep, is truly the hand of God at work. If the Egyptians do not think of shepherds as yucky, Israel does not have its own place to stay. But since they do, since that particular social prejudice developed, God had exactly the spot where Israel could grow totally free of Egyptian influence, at least for a few centuries. This is God making his plan happen, God being sovereign, God moving a nation, but doing it through a tiny, barely noticeable sovereignty.

Am I qualified for heaven? Am I a good enough person to be given a sweet afterlife by the Lord? I do not think enough people ask these questions. And the ones who do often do not ask them with anything like a biblical answer.

 

But look at the 5 verses of Psalm 15. Let it say something about our qualification for heaven.

 

Psalm 15

 

1 O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent?

Who shall dwell on your holy hill?

2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right

and speaks truth in his heart;

3 who does not slander with his tongue

and does no evil to his neighbor,

nor takes up a reproach against his friend;

4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised,

but who honors those who fear the Lord;

who swears to his own hurt and does not change;

5 who does not put out his money at interest

and does not take a bribe against the innocent.

He who does these things shall never be moved.

 

I think it is obvious that this is not an exhaustive measure of whether or not a person should go to heaven. But look at the qualities. If a person can ascend the holy hill of God, what must they be?

 

• Walking blamelessly (v2)
• Speaking truth (v2)
• Never slandering or speaking evil of friend or neighbor (v3)
• Despising evil (v4)
• Fearing the Lord (v4)
• Keeping promises, even those that hurt (v4)
• Never greedy (v5)

 

While many of us might look at that list and, in general, say that we do not fail in these categories all the time, we also should recognize that we have all failed in these categories. It may be the greed and harsh speaking that has gotten you in the past. It may be the dishonesty that has been your point of failure. Or, in the end, it may simply be the opening salvo, walking blamelessly. None of us has been fully blameless for all of our lives.

 

But recall that the psalmist was asking who can dwell on God’s mountain. Who can go to heaven? We need to be perfect to qualify. And none of us qualifies.

 

This is part of the beauty of the gospel. Not only do we understand that Jesus died to pay the price for the wrong we have done, but we also understand that Jesus willingly imputes to us, counts to our accounts, his perfect life. You and I do not qualify, but Jesus does. And the Lord in Christ is willing to count us as having lived the perfection of Jesus.

 

Colossians 1:11-14 – 11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

 

2 Corinthians 5:21 – For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

 

We are not qualified. But as Colossians 1:12 reminds us, God, because of the work of Christ, qualifies for heaven those who come to Jesus in faith. This is marvelous. This is beyond our ability. Yet it is a free and gracious gift from God.

Psalms are songs, poems, intended to teach and to aid in worship. The people of God would sing these to learn, to grow in the Lord, to honor their Creator, and to express their hearts. Psalms are good and useful to us as we worship and grow in the Lord.

 

But have you ever stopped to consider how different the psalms are from the things that we put forward for songs of worship today? Let’s take a look at Psalm 13 and see just how different it feels.

 

Psalm 13

 

1 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

2 How long must I take counsel in my soul

and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;

light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,

4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”

lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love;

my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

6 I will sing to the Lord,

because he has dealt bountifully with me.

 

In verses 1-4, the psalm does not sound like anything we sing today. The psalmist is hurt, afraid, even desperate. He is not pretending a fake happiness to impress his friends. Instead, he is asking the Lord how long it will be before God answers his prayers. The psalmist fears he will die. He fears that those who would destroy him will boast over his demise.

 

Only in the final 2 verses does the tone change, and not even then does it change to a ra-ra, happy clappy sort of thing. The psalmist declares that he will trust in the Lord. he acknowledges that God is faithful, and so he will expect and rest in the salvation to come. God has and will continue to deal well with his children, and the psalmist places his hope right there. His hard circumstances have not changed, but his hope is rekindled.

 

Now, let me make a couple of disclaimers. I am not at all a person who believes that only the Psalms should be sung in worship—in fact I think that to be a bad idea. Nor am I someone who opposes joy in our songs. Neither do I think that all modern worship music is messed up.

 

But what I see is that, for so many of us, a song like this one would have no place in our worship service. Can you imagine any song in a modern church service expressing our sadness, fear, or frustration? Can you imagine a “How long O Lord” from the platform in your local church? Can you imagine singing a song that is 2/3 sorrow with 1/3 hope at the end? In most congregations, this is unthinkable.

 

But here is the problem, do you think that the people coming into the church are living only happy, easy, fulfilled, safe lives? Do you think that we no longer, in the depths of our souls, need to express to God our pain and our desperation that he come rescue us lest we die? Do you think that there is not a need for the hurting to feel able to express their hurt in the congregation instead of putting on a falsely happy face and being encouraged to cheer along with the crowd?

 

Friends, our lives are not easy. Even in Christ, even with the Spirit of God, we hurt. Worship has room for that pain to be expressed. Worship has room for that sorrow to even be sung as we also express our courage and hope that the Lord is and will always be faithful. There is and should be time for great joy and celebration in worship. But shallow happiness is not all there is to our lives, and it should not be all there is to our song. 

I have always found the passage about Jacob’s wrestling match with the Lord to be fascinating, but also difficult to interpret. What is going on? What are we to learn? God wants us to know this story. But God does not spell out everything we are to get. And I cannot spell that all out yet either, though I think there are a few things worth noting.

 

Leading up to the main event that night, Jacob has proved himself a trickster, liar, and schemer. But he is not the only one. Laban has lied and lied again, tricking the trickster. Rachel, for her part, tricked her father and her husband in stealing his household gods and then successfully hiding them from his investigation. And the wives of Jacob scheme and scheme again for his affection and his children. This is a messed up family.

 

But now the Lord has told Jacob to return to the promised land, and Jacob knows that danger awaits. Last time Jacob saw Esau, his brother was plotting his demise. What will happen when he gets home. So Jacob again schemes, dividing up his family and sending Esau a present, hoping to appease his anger and survive.

 

Genesis 32:24-30 24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”

 

And there is the wrestling match. How very strange it is. But I think, with scheming and lying and self-reliance in the background, we can learn some very important truths. Jacob had lived under the care of God for years. But Jacob also likely saw himself living by his wits. Jacob had encountered the Lord before, but Jacob was not in any way a clear follower of the Lord. There is nothing that would indicate that Jacob, before this night was a convert.

 

Now, in the debt of the night, the Lord physically comes to Jacob and starts a wrestling match. For the night, the Lord wrestles with Jacob and does not use his might to defeat the man. But, as daybreak comes, the Lord, with a simple movement, dislocates Jacobs hip, clearly showing us that, at any time he wanted, he could have crushed Jacob.

 

Look at the change that comes over Jacob. Jacob begins by striving as if he might win. Then, after his injury, Jacob clings to the Lord and asks for a blessing. It seems that the confidence of Jacob is changed. He will not make it on his own. Now he sees that he only survives under the mercy of the Lord.

 

As Jacob asks for a blessing, the Lord asks Jacob a question, “What is your name?” Consider that when Isaac asked Jacob his name years ago, Jacob lied. Jacob means heel grabber, supplanter, cheater. Jacob is the name of a liar. But here, when Jacob gives his true name, the Lord gives Jacob a new name, a better one. God names Jacob Israel, a name which means to strive with God.

 

What do we see? Jacob has been a liar and a trickster. He has thought he would make it on his own, surviving by his wits and cleverness. But, when he comes face-to-face with the Lord, Jacob realizes that he is not at all able to make it on his own. He needs the blessing of God. He needs the mercy of God. His battle against God has to be over. And when Jacob asks for the mercy of God while confessing his true nature, God forever changes Jacob to Israel.

 

That is our story too. We are sinners before the Lord. We have all thought we would make it on our own. We have all schemed, hidden our faults, and tried to come out on top. But the truth is, when we face the Lord, we cannot win. The only way to have peace with God is by confessing, telling the truth about who we are and what we have done. The only way to have peace with God is to, in faith, yield to his authority, to stop fighting and to bow in humility.

 

The wrestling match Jacob had with God is one many of us have had. The way to victory is through surrender to Christ, the God-man, who came to rescue and bless us. We admit our sin. We believe in Jesus. We surrender to his mastery. And we ask him for his grace. Then, just as he did with Jacob, the Lord gives us a new identity as a forgiven child of God.

We get so busy, so distracted in life. We see what is in front of us. It all looks so solid, so important. And in our minds, if we are not careful, we can forget the truth that God is, that God made us, and that we exist for him and his glory.

 

In my Bible reading plan, I had two separate passages point me to this truth. One was a psalm asking God to stop the wicked who oppress the helpless and poor. The other is the story of Jacob traveling to the home of Laban. Both passages show us people who should know that God is there, but who miss that fact.

 

 

Psalm 10:4

 

In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him;

all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”

 

Genesis 28:16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”

 

The wicked brings himself to a place where he can say that he believes there is no God to call him to account. Jacob, on his part, got so busy with his life that he found himself surprised by the presence of the Lord.

 

Both passages call us to a simple place of remembering the Lord. We must slow down and look. WE must pause and think. We must remember eternity. We must seek and know the Lord.

 

If we fail to believe that God is, we will eventually have no basis for morality. If we fear no eternal consequences, nothing else will be strong enough to help us to turn ourselves from evil. If we focus only on this life, we will find that we miss the joys of the Lord and the purpose for our being.

 

How then can we remember the Lord? This is only done by spiritual discipline. Daily reading the word of God is crucial. Daily prayer is vital. Regularly speaking with the people of God about the things of God is part of the process. Sharing the gospel of Christ with those who do not know him is a must. And, of course, shaping our lives so that Sunday, gathering with the people of God for worship, is central to all that we are and do has to be of the highest priority. Without the word, prayer, believers, witness, and worship, we will forget the Lord. WE will start to live like this life is all there is. And in doing so, we will miss the good glories of God and we will turn toward that which dishonors him.

There are many elements of Christianity that appeal to almost all people. We tend to like the concept of love and mercy and kindness. Many like the idea of a happy afterlife. Most, I think, can happily go along with the idea of a deity who helps the oppressed, or at least a faithful people who do things to help those less fortunate than themselves.

 

And, of course, there are many things about the faith that are not so popular. High on that list is the concept of judgment. It is not popular today to speak of the concept of the justice of God, his wrath, the proper punishment for sin. It is not politically correct to allow the world to think that you might be judgmental, or even worse, that God might dare to judge people for their thoughts and actions. This, of course, is true except for the greatest of criminals or the worst of historical figures. We tend to be OK with saying that they face the judgment of God.

 

But, if we are going to be faithful to the word of God, we must also grasp that judgment is a major element of the revelation that God has given us. The Lord is righteous. The Lord is a judge. The Lord will judge.

 

Just look at these few verses from Psalm 9.

 

Psalm 9

 

3 When my enemies turn back,

they stumble and perish before your presence.

4 For you have maintained my just cause;

you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.

5 You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish;

you have blotted out their name forever and ever. … 

7 But the Lord sits enthroned forever;

he has established his throne for justice,

8 and he judges the world with righteousness;

he judges the peoples with uprightness. … 

16 The Lord has made himself known; he has executed judgment;

the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion. Selah

17 The wicked shall return to Sheol,

all the nations that forget God. … 

19 Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail;

let the nations be judged before you!

20 Put them in fear, O Lord!

Let the nations know that they are but men! Selah

 

Recall that the Psalms are songs of worship.
These are proclamations of the truth and character of God. These are things that show us the Lord’s greatness. And there is simply no way around it, judgment is part of the greatness of God.

 

When we talk about the Lord, we cannot accurately speak of him without including the concept of righteous judgment. The Lord will perfectly and properly punish every single sin, every offense to his holiness. God cannot be good and simply overlook sin, pretending that it either did not happen or that it is no big deal.

 

The good news, of course, is that god provided a way that he could both perfectly judge every sin and still show mercy to his own. That is what Jesus came to do. Jesus is punished by the Father for the sins of all God will ever forgive. Thus, all who come to Christ are forgiven, not because God ignores their sin, but because God properly punished that sin on the cross. All who refuse the grace of Christ, however, choose to face the judgment of God for their sin on their own. And if we do not point these truths out, we do not fully express the truth of who God is.

 

Some people are overly fascinated by the concept of judgment. Some hate any hint of judgment. But a proper look at Scripture gives us a picture of a God who is right to judge and who has provided a means, one means, of grace.