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How do we know what God is telling us in our lives? How do we discern his will? If you look into this topic, you will find several schools of thought. But in many of them, interpreting our life circumstances is often at the center. When a good thing or a bad thing happens, many people believe that they can understand that God is telling them something by their life’s ease or hardship. But, this is seldom reliable.

When the apostle Paul was shipwrecked on the isle of Malta, he was bitten by a snake. Those who saw it happen interpreted Paul’s circumstances as a supernatural sign. But, if you’ll take note, you’ll see that they missed, twice.

Acts 28:3-6 – 3 When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand. 4 When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.” 5 He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. 6 They were waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw no misfortune come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.

So, the first time the people saw that Paul was snakebitten, they assume he is a murderer. He must be, after all, because how could God allow a good man to have a viper latch onto his hand after he survived a shipwreck? But then the people change their minds. When Paul survives the bite with no ill effects, the people decide that Paul must be deity.

The people of Malta misinterpreted the snakebite two times. They did their best to interpret the circumstances in front of them, to figure out what God might be saying or doing, and they missed badly. Why? We are not equipped, apart from Scripture, to let our life circumstances tell us anything about the Lord or the Lord’s will.

Consider the fact that, in Scripture, we see time and time again people misreading the situation and failing to know or do what God wants. In Exodus and Numbers, the people grumble and complain against God, believing that God must be out to destroy them simply because their desert trek is hard and their enemies are big. In Joshua 9, the nation of Israel is tricked by the Gibeonites because they only look at the circumstances without seeking the word of God. In Job, Job’s 3 friends assume that Job must be on God’s bad side because of his suffering. Elijah assumes that he is the only man left in the land who is committed to God simply based on his personal experience. In Luke 24, the disciples walking to Emmaus complain to the resurrected Jesus that they clearly misunderstood who Jesus was because he died—missing the point about as badly as humanly possible.

No, people are not good at interpreting our circumstances. Without Scriptural guidance, we will miss and miss badly. We cannot assume that, if something is hard to accomplish, it is not God’s will. We cannot assume that, because something is easy, it must carry God’s blessing. We cannot assume that, because something is successful, it has honored God. We cannot assume that, because something is unsuccessful, it has dishonored God.

What then do we do? We rely on what God has actually said. God has told us what to do. He has told us how to please him. He has told us what honors him and what dishonors him. All this is found in his holy word. Peter reminded us that God has given us all that we need to live a godly life (2 Pet. 1:3) and then pointed us to the supreme reliability of Scripture (2 Peter 1:19-21). Paul told us that it is Scripture which God has exhaled and which equips us for godliness (2 Tim. 3:16-17). So, if we want to live life without overinterpreting or misinterpreting our circumstances, the only way to do so is to base our actions, our beliefs, and our standards solely on the Scriptures. Nothing else works. Nothing else is reliable and without error. No interpretation of a life circumstance is infallible. But, the word of God, properly handled and trusted, is totally reliable.

Sometimes it is worth just writing down some of my little musings as I read through a chapter. Here are some from Deuteronomy 4.

Deuteronomy 4:2 – You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.

Sola Scriptura is not only a reformation principle, it is a biblical principle. I find it fascinating that, as Moses sends the Israelites into the promised land, just 40 years after the Exodus from Egypt, he is adamantly clear that no person is to tinker with, change, add to, or subtract from the word of God. The Lord has given his commandments to his people, and no person has the right to mess with the word of God.

This is a principle still in play today. While we understand that the New Testament has shown us that many Old Testament laws are fulfilled in the person and completed work of Christ, the word of God still stands. We should not mess with it. We should not attempt to reshape Scripture to fit our culture. We dare not hide from Scripture for social popularity. God’s word is sound. We must hear it and obey it for God’s glory and our good.

Deuteronomy 4:8 – And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?

God’s people were given God’s law, and that set them apart from every other nation. All nations out there which are not a nation of the people of God have laws that are not as wise and not as righteous as the laws of God. God taught his people how to live righteously. But only the people of God carry with them the laws of God given to them by the revelation of God.

Today, we live in societies which are not the people of God. Our laws in our lands do not all reflect the glory of God. We should be reminded that, only when Christ returns and reigns as king, will we really have perfect laws. At the same time, we should pray for and work toward helping our laws inn our land be laws that honor the principles of the Lord’s commands. We want the righteousness of God’s law to cover our land, because the law of God is good. No, I’m not a theonomist. I do not believe that we should try to institute formally Old Testament laws for a non-Israelite, modern context. However, I will say that we should, as a people, pray that God grant us the grace to have righteous laws rather than laws that formalize support of things that are evil, dangerous, and dishonoring to God.

Deuteronomy 4:12 – Then the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.

Moses reminded the people of Israel that, when God spoke to them out of the fire on top of the mountain, they saw no form. They only heard the word of God. They did not see any shapes.

One of the glorious recoveries of the protestant reformation is the understanding that the church is a word-centered people. We are not a people who focus our lives and worship on visual images. True worship is always first and foremost focused on the clear, perfect, powerful, life-changing, binding, authoritative word of God. We are a word people, not a drama people or an image people.

Deuteronomy 4:15-19 – 15 “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 16 beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, 17 the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18 the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. 19 And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. 

We are a word-based people. And the Lord has commanded his people not to become focused on developing images to depict him. Why? We can’t do it. No matter how good of an image we can produce for the Lord, we will always fall infinitely short of his glory. God chose not to give us a visual representation of himself. We should be wise enough not to try to come up with one for him.

While that passage obviously applies to the use of images in worship, idols and the like, it also should give us a strong reminder about how we represent God. God is very passionate about being properly represented. When a person says, “I like to think of God as…,” they are in danger of developing an image of God that is false. We must only represent God as God has represented himself. We must only depict God as the God of Scripture, the God who reveals himself to us, not in pictures or images, but in his perfect and holy word.

Deuteronomy 4:29-31 – 29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. 31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

I find it fascinating that, here in Deuteronomy 4, God spells out for the nation what they will face. They will rebel. They will be scattered. And, in the latter days, they will return to the Lord. Christians do not believe that this return has occurred for Israel, but look forward to that return as Paul promised in Romans 11. The return will not be to the old temple system, but will be a return to the Lord as they recognize Jesus as the promised Savior. 

Deuteronomy 4:35 – To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him.

What has God done? He has shown his glory through his perfect word and his mighty deeds. God proved to Israel and to all who read and understand his word that he is the Lord, there is no other. There is only 1 God, the God of the Bible. He proved that by doing things that only he can do. Later, he affirmed it by not only rescuing Israel from Egypt, but by raising Jesus, God the Son, from the grave. There is no room in Scripture for people to believe that there are multiple paths to heaven. Such is not Gods word or way.

When the apostle Paul was being transported, under guard, to the city of Rome, he found himself in a nasty, storm-tossed sea. In fact, the ship itself was put at risk. They might sink.

When the ship neared land, the sailors thought to escape the doomed vessel by taking the ship’s boat. But, Paul, who had been given confidence of what was to come by a message from God, spoke up. If the sailors left the ship, for whatever reason, many would drown.

Acts 27:30-32 – 30 And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, and had lowered the ship’s boat into the sea under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow, 31 Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” 32 Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship’s boat and let it go.

When Paul spoke to the Roman soldiers who guarded him, he was quite clear. If they did not stop the sailors from escaping, none of the soldiers would survive. And the soldiers believed Paul. They took action. And, eventually, all on the ship were able to get to land safely.

What fascinates me with this passage is the parallel to salvation. No, I do not assume that this is the intent behind this passage, but simply that it provides a nice, illustrative parallel. Paul says that they cannot be “saved” if they let the sailors escape. Of course, he is there talking of physical salvation. At the same time, we can see some very real truths in parallel with spiritual salvation.

Like the people in the ship, we are all in a doomed situation. We are destined to sink. We have no hope of survival on our own. This is because of our personal sin against a holy God, and not because of a stormy sea.

Like the sailors, many of us believe that we can come up with a way out of our predicament. We think that we can either do enough good works to earn God’s favor, be better than others around us, or take part in enough religious rituals to be OK with God. Others decide that they simply refuse to believe in God and his commands, and they convince themselves that this will allow them to not have to face the Lord.

Paul said to the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” There was a very clear and simple condition placed on the salvation of the soldiers. We are not given the reason why. But, there was exclusively one way for the Roman soldiers to survive the shipwreck. They had to keep the sailors on board.

This parallels the exclusive call of God on the lives of all people. Jesus told us that, unless we come to the Father through him, we will not come to the Father at all (John 14:6)Jesus told a crowd in Luke 13 that, unless they repent, they will all perish (Luke 13:3, 5). Jesus told a prominent Jewish scholar that, unless he is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3); and then the Savior made it known that those who believe him are the ones who have eternal life (John 3:16).

Notice what did not happen when Paul talked to the Centurion. The Roman guard did not say, “Hey, how dare you try to say that our plan for survival is not good enough!” He did not complain about the exclusivity of Paul’s command. He did not try to argue that all survival plans ultimately lead to the beach. He did not try to point out that, in his mind, Paul’s plan did not make logical sense. No, the centurion simply gave the order, the soldiers cut the ropes, and the lives of all were saved.

This is perhaps the best part of the parallel. At the end of the day, all who want to be spiritually saved, forgiven by God and granted eternal life, must place their entire trust for their entire souls in Jesus. They must both believe in the Savior and yield mastery of their lives to him—repentance. There is no other way to go to heaven. There is no other way to be forgiven. God saves those who come to Christ in faith and repentance. To be saved requires a genuine belief that will naturally lead to an action—the soldiers believed and then cut the ropes; Christians believe and repent of sin, yielding to Christ. This does not have to make sense to us. We are not required to be more open-minded or to prove God’s point. Our job is to, like Paul, tell the truth. The right response of the one who wants salvation is to , like the soldiers, hear the command and obey it.

As we have studied Matthew 10 at our church over the past couple of weeks, we have taken note of some of the variety of difficulties that Jesus promised would face the fledgling church. He promised hardships and persecutions along with Godly provision and reward for those who would remain steadfast. Jesus warned of rejection, but he only began to spell out what Christians might face.

Consider what Christians face in the U.S. today. Seldom do we face violence. We are not subject to imprisonment for our beliefs, at least not yet. Telling people about Jesus is certainly not the capital crime that it is in other countries.

But, there is a strategy that those who oppose Christianity employ that is powerful, dangerous, and not at all new. At this point, Christians face ridicule from a watching world. Media, Hollywood, and other sources like to paint the faithful as simply dumb, or even worse, crazy.

The apostle Paul faced such opposition in his ministry. Paul was put on trial before a set of rulers in the city of Caesarea. There Paul presented a defense for what he preached and why he preached. But, as Paul described his faith in the resurrection of Jesus, one ruler could no longer hold his tongue.

Acts 26:24And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind.” 

Festus simply could not let Paul go on without calling him nuts. Festus understood, of course, that Paul was a very bright man. Paul was widely respected as a learned man. So, Festus took a shot at Paul’s credibility by simply calling him mad.

Today, Christians face this charge as much as any. Now, the world might not call us nuts, though some refer to people of faith as the weak-minded. But, the world also loves to paint Bible-believing Christians as closed-minded, backward, or on the wrong side of history. The world likes to depict Christians as unhinged as they dismiss our views from the public square. Newspapers put Christian concern for religious liberty in scare quotes, showing a watching world that no person in their right mind would agree with us.

What should we do? What did Paul do?

Acts 26:25-26 – 25 But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words. 26 For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly. For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner.

Paul says he is not nuts. He points to evidence of his claims. And he just keeps telling the truth. He does not try to find any position that would earn him popularity. He does not compromise God’s truth for the sake of being accepted. He just keeps telling the truth and pleading with others to trust in Christ.

And, Christians, this is what we must do too. We need to stop worrying who thinks we are nuts. If we are faithful, we will not be the most popular group in town. But that does not matter. Nor does it matter if people think our faith in the supernatural, in the resurrection of Jesus, in the exclusivity of salvation in Christ, or anything else is crazy. We can live with them thinking we are backward if, by the grace of God, we may please our Lord and continue to tell the truth to the world.

It can be a funny line in a movie. A man’s wife commits him to do something he does not want to do. Maybe it is a hard job that needs to be done, but he does not want to. Or, maybe it is a dinner with some folks he really would rather avoid. In mock exasperation, he will look at her and say, “You hate me, don’t you?”

Maybe that is funny in a comedy, but this is a big problem when it is the people of God grumbling about the ways of the Lord. In Deuteronomy 1, Moses is reminding the people of Israel of all that they have been through over the past 40 years. Included in that account is the account of the grumbling of the nation. And one particular gripe that catches my attention is the way that the Israelites groaned about the call of God to go in and take the promised land.

Deuteronomy 1:26-29 – 26 “Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. 27 And you murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28 Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.” ’

Israel took one look at the land, and it was all God had promised. It was lush and fruitful. But there were some big, tough guys there. There were cities with big walls there. And the people of Israel decided that, even though they had just seen God extract them from Egypt, he would not be able to help them to walk into Canaan victorious.

In perhaps the most troubling part of this discussion, the people said about God, “Because the Lord hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt.” Get how sad that sounds. God rescued them from cruel, murderous, harsh task masters. God brought them out and provided for them to travel through the wilderness to head to the land. They had what they needed. They had seen God’s miracles. But, the moment something looked hard, they turned to God and cried, “You hate me.”

And I wonder, how often do we let ourselves feel this way? How often do we let our self-pity get the better of us? How often do we face hard circumstances, decide God has not treated us fairly, and whine about it? How often do we decide that, if things do not go according to our plan, God must be treating us wrongly?

Christians, let us remember the things that the Lord has revealed about himself. The Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever. The Lord is holy, holy, holy. He cannot do us wrong. But his plans are bigger than we are. His vision sees further than we can. His sovereign hand can accomplish what we cannot even dream of. His power is unlimited. His wisdom is so far beyond us it is like trying to go from earth to the highest heavens to measure the gap.

Can we doubt God’s love? God demonstrated to us his perfect love when he gave his own Son to die to rescue us (Rom. 5:8). May we not question God’s plan for good in our lives. May we not question God’s wisdom or ability. May we not grumble when life is hard. Instead, may we remember who God is, what he has already done to rescue us, and trust him. May we obey him instead of fearing the big cities and tough guys we face. May we know that the Lord’s plan will always prevail.

Often when we try to come to a common ground of conversation with those with whom we disagree, we will seek out the main point of disagreement. What is the crux of the matter? Where is the one place where we cannot come together? Is that point a point of such significance that it should divide us? Is the division worthy of the point of division?

When the apostle Paul was on trial at Caesarea, he spoke the beginnings of his defense before Governor Felix. Paul’s accusers had declared that he had defamed the temple and caused a public scene in his opposition to the Jewish religion. In his response, Paul pointed out the very issue that divided himself and the Jews, the crux of the matter.

Acts 24:20-21 – 20 “Or else let these men themselves say what wrongdoing they found when I stood before the council, 21 other than this one thing that I cried out while standing among them: ‘It is with respect to the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you this day.’ ”

Paul understood that at the central point of his differences with the Jews was one topic: resurrection. In a clever way, Paul had made the point an almost philosophical one, as if the idea of resurrection was the core of their differences. In fact, this is somewhat true, though it could be more properly said that the core difference between Paul and his critics was one, particular resurrection.

In truth, the central difference between all Christians and the rest of the world comes down to the very thing that Paul declared. The issue is one of resurrection. If Jesus Christ rose from the dead, everything that is declared by the Bible is true. If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, none of it matters (c.f. 1 Cor. 15:17-19). Everything hinges on the simple question of resurrection, of Jesus’ resurrection.

If Jesus is alive, right now, today, then he has proved his identity as the Son of God. If Jesus is alive, his sacrifice for the sins of all he would save was clearly accepted by God. If Jesus is alive, his words are true, including his claim to be the only way that any person could come to God (John 14:6). And, if Jesus is alive, all his commands for right human behavior, morality, and for submission to the Lord are valid, powerfully true claims.

Paul was right, he was on trial because of the resurrection from the dead. He was on trial for his preaching of the resurrection of Jesus. That resurrection showed the completion of the Jewish temple system. It showed the openness of the family of God to gentiles as well as believing Jews. It showed the ugliness of the fawning of the Sadducees over the power of the Roman Empire. It showed the folly of the Pharisees adding man-made requirements to an Old Testament law that Christ had fulfilled.

And, today, Christians are on trial before the world because of our belief in the resurrection—at least we should be. It is the resurrection of Jesus that is central. If Christ is risen, than his sacrifice for sins on the cross is the only possible way for a human being to be forgiven. If Jesus is alive, he commands all people everywhere to repent of their sins and to come to him in faith for life. If Jesus rose from the dead, he has every right to define the parameters for salvation, and he has. But if he is not alive, then nothing about him matters.

The main difference is the difference of resurrection. A living Jesus calls us to repentant faith and obedience. There can be no compromise over this point. The issue is too central, too valuable to be discarded. It is, at the end of the day, what will separate Christianity from every other world religion. It is what makes Christianity exclusivistic. It is what makes Christianity not able to be open-minded as the world would want it to be. The fact that Jesus is alive is the proof of all of the faith.

Have you ever heard our faith described as a battle? That is an apt description of what we face in the Christian life. We are at war with our own sinful natures as we fight the fight of sanctification. No, we do not do good things to be saved. But, once we are saved, we battle to do good for the glory of God. Sadly, if we are not careful, we will have blind spots to our sin. We will do battle, fighting hard against an area of weakness, but then turn right around and give our weaknesses power again.

Let me illustrate. In the book of Numbers, God instructed Moses and the Israelites to destroy the Midianite people because of what they did in trying to destroy Israel. You might remember the story of Balaam. Balaam wanted to pronounce a prophetic curse on Israel, but he was not allowed to do so by the Lord (c.f. Num 22-24). So, Balaam helped the Midianite king to craft a destructive plan. King Balak would send Midianite women to the Israelite camp to seduce Israelite men into sexual immorality and to the worship of false gods. Thus, the Israelites would bring upon themselves the judgment of God that Balaam was not allowed to pronounce.

Balaam’s plan worked to a point (c.f. Num. 25). The Midianite women seduced Israelite men, and brought a plague on the people as God judged the nation for its unfaithfulness. But, at the end of the day, God brought the nation to repentance. Phinehas, Grandson of Aaron the high priest, helped put a stop to the immoral behavior of the Israelites and turn the people back to the worship of the Lord.

So, ,in Numbers 31, God sent Israel to do battle against Midian. In general, things went well. The Israelites utterly defeated the Midianites, not losing a single Israelite soldier in the process. This was clearly a supernaturally given victory from God. But, the Israelite soldiers made an interesting decision.

Numbers 31:9And the people of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones, and they took as plunder all their cattle, their flocks, and all their goods.

Simply note that the soldiers chose to capture the Midianite women. Remember those ladies from Numbers 25? Obviously Moses knew this was a bad decision. He spoke out harshly against the soldiers, saying, “Behold, these, on Balaam’s advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord” (Num. 31:16).

What was Moses so upset about? The soldiers won the victory. But, in their victory, they preserved for themselves the very objects of their greatest rebellion against the Lord. They fought against people and things they did not treasure. But, the soldiers rescued for themselves the very ones who drove them away from the Lord.

Now, I’d prefer not to make this all about battles, captives, and all the rest. There is far too much cultural baggage in that discussion. But there is a spiritual principle that we all need to take seriously. How often, when we are called by God to repent of sin, do we do battle against the little things, the things we do not deeply care about and which do not tempt us to major sin, but somehow foolishly preserve for ourselves the things that are most likely to lead us to death and destruction? How often do we put away and speak out against sins that do not tempt us all the while we treasure sins that eat at our very souls?

Before making applications, let me say two important things. First, I am a sinner, so do not believe I hold myself in high esteem or think I am better than any human being on the planet—I do not. Second, all who are guilty of sin have only one hope, the forgiveness of God offered in Jesus Christ. We dare not find hope in the fact that we are all just as bad as each other as if that makes us OK. Instead, know that God calls us to his perfection, and the only way to be OK with God is to get under his grace by turning from self-rule and turning to Jesus Christ.

Let’s draw two applications. First, Christians, how often do we make the most noise against sins that do not tempt us? Those of us who are not at all tempted by same-sex attraction rail loudest against homosexuality. Those who are not interested in sports, shopping, movies, or video games speak out against the wasting of lives on such “useless” entertainment. Of course, homosexuality is a sin, clearly opposed by Scripture. Wasting our lives on the frivolous dishonors God greatly. But, why is it that we speak out loudest against sins that don’t tempt us? Are we not like the soldiers happily cutting down the Midianite men while capturing the tempting women?

So, the proper first point of application is for us to be wise in our tone and in our denouncements. Again, let me be clear, we must oppose all sin. We are for the word of God. We are against that which opposes the word of God in all forms. We will battle for the Lord’s definition of marriage, for the lives of the unborn, against the evils of human trafficking, against the brutal acts of persecuting governments, and all the rest. But let us also speak out against divorce, something which cannot occur without grievous sin on the part of at least one party—and something of which far too many Christians are guilty. Let us speak out against pornography, but also against Christians being entertained by all sorts of immorality. We must not be such hypocrites as to only shout out against the sins that do not tempt us while quietly accepting sins that hold us in thrall. May we not pretend things are not sin that the Lord has called sin. But may we also not pretend that we are not guilty of sin ourselves. May we never expose the sin of others without both acknowledging our own sinfulness and pointing them to the grace of God offered in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

And, a second point of application comes in how we repent. When we repent of sin, we need to be steadfast and ruthless. When sin attacks our hearts, we need to put to death in us all that would oppose the Lord. We cannot halfway repent of a sin while we save for ourselves the very root of temptation. When Jesus told his disciples to be ready to cut off a hand that leads them to sin (Mat. 5:7-29), he was calling us to be willing to cut out of our lives anything that tempts us to ignore or disobey the Lord. We must not be willing to protect in our lives things that will come back to bite us in the end.

I would love to define for you what things you need to cut out of your life that are those little temptations you protect, but I cannot. I do not know in your heart what gets you. But, if you are honest, you know. You know what things lead your mind to sin, but for whatever reason, you excuse them in your life. You know what things you are, for no good reason, willing to cry and fight to keep in your life even though their abuse leads you to destruction. For some it is an entertainment category. For some it will be possessions. For others it is recreation. For some it might be extravagant eating or drinking. For some it is pride in appearance. I cannot tell you, but if you ask the Lord, he will show you through his Spirit in his holy word.

Let us learn from the folly of the Israelite army. Let us battle to conquer the enemies of sin in our lives. But let us not then go and protect in ourselves the very things that could destroy us. Let us speak out against not only the sins that we easily avoid but also the sins that lay us bare. Let us join in the work of sanctification as we do battle against all in ourselves that dishonors the Lord. 

As we continue to move toward the 500^th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant reformation, we will often find ourselves thinking about the writings of Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin. These men and their followers had a tremendous impact on the church as they recovered many a biblical doctrine that had been seemingly lost over the previous centuries. Of course, chief among the most important of these doctrines is the doctrine of salvation by Grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

One of the key theological differences between Protestants and Roman Catholics is the understanding of that repeated word, “alone.” Protestants believe that, biblically, God has revealed that we are saved by God’s grace, not by our own ability or worth. We are saved through faith, not through the performance of any sort of religious ritual or sacramental ceremony. And we believe that we are saved through the perfectly finished work of Jesus Christ  alone, without any merit added by ourselves or the goodness of others from the past. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

Interestingly, a look at the first century church and a major early controversy brings to light at least some of these principles. Not long after the apostle Peter took the gospel to the home of a gentile, a Roman centurion named Cornelius, some of the Jews in the early church began to demand some extra requirements of gentiles. The Jewish Christians had a hard time believing that a gentile, a person who had never submitted to the laws of Moses in any form, could simply be allowed into the church by God’s’ grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Instead the Jews believed that the gentiles must be circumcised, that is given the sign of God’s covenant with Abraham, and they also should be required to obey the dietary laws that the Jews lived under for centuries. Eventually, this controversy made its way to a counsel of apostolic church leaders. The decision of these men on this doctrine would shape the course of the church for all the future.

Now, at that time, the apostles could not turn to Scripture to get a clear command as to what to do. Why? These men were the ones God was inspiring to write the Scripture. So, the Jerusalem counsel was in a unique position to determine biblical doctrine in a way that future church counsels would not be. What these men would say would become inspired Scripture.

Take note of the presence of grace alone and faith alone in Christ alone in the words that Peter used as he presented his case before the counsel.

Acts 15:5-11 – 5 But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”

6 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. 7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. 10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

Peter’s words are a great example of the principle of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. In verse 11, Peter points out that the gentiles would be saved by God’s grace. In verse 10, he opposed the addition of any sort of legal work or even legal prohibition relating to salvation. In verse 9, Peter pointed out that this gracious salvation came to the gentiles through faith.

If you read the rest of the chapter, you will see that the church, led by the Spirit of God and in keeping with the revelation of Old Testament Scripture, agreed with Peter’s argument. They even wrote a letter to the churches that had been confused by the people who tried to apply extra requirements for salvation beyond faith alone in Christ alone.

Now, I will admit that the early church did impose a set of four requirements for the gentiles. But those four things included important revelation for the gentiles as to how to respond to the worship of idols. New Christians in idol-worshipping communities needed to have help to know if they should continue to go to pagan temples or not.

Acts 15:28-29 – 28 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: 29 that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

Now, if you recognize that all 4 of those things were a part of the worship of idols, a sexually immoral, blood-drinking, violent mess, you should not be surprised that the apostles felt the need to communicate this to the gentile converts. Christians are supposed to be changed by God to obey his commands. But even this was not placed on the level of a salvation doctrine. These are not things that they said would bring a Christian into salvation, but they were things that, when a Christian avoids them, he does well.

The early church did not add any works to salvation. The apostles understood that, for any person, Jew or gentile, to be saved is a gift of God’s grace alone. That salvation comes to all who are saved through faith alone. The faith that saves is in Jesus Christ alone, his death and resurrection. And the requirements given are simply the requirements that those who know Jesus turn from worldliness and the worship of idols to trust and obey the Lord who has saved them.

May we love the doctrines of the reformation, because they are the doctrines of the New Testament. May we see that salvation is a gift of grace alone, and it has nothing to do with us performing actions of any sort. Salvation comes through faith alone, and it has nothing to do with me earning it by a ritual of any sort. Salvation comes through the finished work of Christ alone, as Jesus is the only sacrifice for our sins and his righteousness must be given to us as a gift if we are to have God’s righteousness.

Do you ever feel like life is not fair? Does it ever bother you that people who seem to love the Lord and desire good struggle to make it through life while those who oppose the things of God at times seem to flourish? Does it bother you that the cultural influence of the faith in America seems to be waning?

In Scripture, the problem of justice is a common theme. Often, especially in the Old Testament, we will read very honest poetry decrying the fact that people who hate God seem to succeed while those who follow the ways of the Lord seem to struggle. Consider, of course, that the book of Job is all about bad things happening to a pretty good guy while the book of Ecclesiastes is all about seemingly bad folks getting all the good stuff. It just does not seem fair.

Psalm 37 is a psalm that appears to deal with this topic. At first glance, however, the psalm feels unrealistic. David here writes about how God will bless the righteous and how the wicked do not succeed. He writes about how the Lord will never leave the righteous to beg for bread. But, is what David says really true? Do the righteous never struggle to get by? Do the godly never hunger? Are the wicked always doomed to failure without success in this life? Something feels wrong.

I think, however, if we give Psalm 37 some more realistic thought, we will grasp that the author is not only speaking of life in the here and now. He is hinting to us about the ultimate destiny faced by the righteous and the wicked.

Psalm 37:35-38

35 I have seen a wicked, ruthless man,

spreading himself like a green laurel tree.

36 But he passed away, and behold, he was no more;

though I sought him, he could not be found.

37 Mark the blameless and behold the upright,

for there is a future for the man of peace.

38 But transgressors shall be altogether destroyed;

the future of the wicked shall be cut off.

Note how the language of this psalm, as it draws near its close, is not all this-worldly. O, there was a man who was wicked and successful. He spread his branches wide like a big tree. But, that man, like all humans, was cut down. If you seek him in a hundred years, he does not stand. The grave is his future. And, in the grave, the judgment of God will set all things right.

Similarly, the Lord has a future for the righteous man. The one who loves the Lord has something ahead of him that is far better than what he faces in this life. There is a genuine reward of life eternal for the person under the grace of God.

I would argue that the only real way to understand a psalm like Psalm 37, the only real way to handle the problem of the seeming unfairness of life, is to view it with an eternal mindset. In Colossians 3, the apostle Paul reminds the Colossian church of our need for a forever mindset.

Colossians 3:1-4 – 1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

The way that we handle the injustice of this life and avoid losing heart is to remember that God is always going to rightly judge. He will always do rightly. He will not fail to properly care for those who have surrendered to his will, even if those folks have struggled mightily in their earthly lives. Christians face hardships. Christians face poverty. Christians face persecution and death. Nobody would say that such things look like success in this life. But, Christians also face a glorious eternity of great joy, perfect peace, sweet happiness, and eternal reward. The reward for the Christian is something that outweighs all the sorrow, all the hardship, and all the pain that this life can throw at us.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 – 16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

So, as David wrote in Psalm 37, we can believe. God will not ultimately leave his children to struggle. God will not forever leave us to hurt. The Lord has a plan that lasts forever, and in that plan, he will judge and he will reward according to his righteousness and grace. And all who are under his grace, a grace that comes to us through faith in Christ, we have confidence that the Lord will eternally do right and will eternally set all things right.