Tag: Providence Reformed Church

The Danger of Comfort

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I live in a nation that worships comfort and recreation. I live in a city that makes its fortune off of the wealth of people who worship comfort, recreation, and indulgence. And if I am not careful, I’ll go with the flow and allow my own comfort to lull me to sleep.

That is why reading about God’s judgment in the book of Amos is a very helpful thing for modern folks. Whether you live here in Las Vegas or anywhere else where life is full of comforts, you need to remember that there is a danger to being at ease for too long in this world.

In Amos 6, we find a judgment from God coming to the people of Israel. We see a nation that, for years and years, has been strong and successful. Their success and their comfort has only served to highlight their lack of a heart for God. Their wealth has served to emphasize their rebellion. And the Lord is clear that this is not a good thing.

Amos 6:4-6

4 “Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory

and stretch themselves out on their couches,

and eat lambs from the flock

and calves from the midst of the stall,

5 who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp

and like David invent for themselves instruments of music,

6 who drink wine in bowls

and anoint themselves with the finest oils,

but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!

The woes in those verses are woes that could be pronounced on us. The people are lazy and comfortable. They love their music and their wine and their fancy perfumes. But they as a people do not care about the fact that the nation around them is in utter rebellion against the Lord. O, friends, does this not speak to you?

The great danger that comfort presents to us is the danger of numbing us to the reality of the evils in our land. We are in good shape. Our houses are air-conditioned. Our cars are not broken down. Our food supply is abundant. Our phones entertain us more today than our TVs ever could decades previously. And what do we ignore because all this is true? What are we willing to compromise or pretend is not there because we are at our ease in our land?

May we be a people who thank God for the graces and comforts he gives us. No, I do not want to push us toward a legalistic moralism that demands we never watch a movie or enjoy a nice meal. But may we not let that put us to sleep so that we forget about the evils of our land. Our nation is broken and rebellious in so many ways. And we must care. We must cry out for God’s mercy. We must walk toward repentance. We must battle against the kinds of immorality rampant in our land that will bring the judgment of God. We must care about our ruin before it overtakes us.

Meeting God Is Terrifying

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One of the effects of poor proclamation of the gospel is that people no longer fear the presence of God. Of course the gospel does much to soothe our fears as we find ourselves under the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christians have been given the freedom to approach the Lord as his children.

The problem is that, as many present what they would call the gospel, there is no element of fear in it at all. Many preachers and many who follow those preachers have bought into something far less than the gospel. These folks are genuinely concerned for the eternity of their hearers. They deeply want to see people saved, as do all faithful Christians. But their desire for the salvation of the lost has led them to a place where they focus more on the lost person than they focus on the glory and holiness of the God to whom they are supposed to be calling the lost. They paint a picture of God as a sad, desperate, weepy character who so wants those people just to give him a try. They present a God who will compromise any standard so long as the lost will give him a nod so he can save them.

But, such a picture is not a picture of the true God of the Bible. Yes, God is gloriously gracious. God is loving beyond our wildest dreams. God’s grace is overwhelming. But he is not willing to compromise his character even an ounce to bend to our will.

Consider the ending of Amos 4. In that chapter, God had been pointing out that the people of the nation of Israel were cruel, nasty to the needy, selfish, idolatrous, and faithless. Those people had been refusing to repent of their sin even though they were experiencing God’s chastening.

Amos 4:11-13

11 “I overthrew some of you,

as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,

and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning;

yet you did not return to me,”

declares the Lord.

12 “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;

because I will do this to you,

prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”

13 For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind,

and declares to man what is his thought,

who makes the morning darkness,

and treads on the heights of the earth—

the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!

Stop, go back, read that slowly, and tell me if it makes you tremble. “Prepare to meet your god, O Israel!“ God tells these people that he has pointed out their sin. He has shown them what is required for their repentance. He has commanded. They have disobeyed. And now his judgment is coming. And the most frightening thing of all that the Lord could say to a rebellious people is “Prepare to meet your God!”

This is not, by the way, God saying he is going to kill them. It is far scarier than that. God is telling them that, in times past, he has been sending judgments to call them to repentance. Now, he is coming. Now he, the Holy One, will do the work himself. Now the Lord will come, and there is no one in creation who has the power to stay his hand.

Such a scene should be a part of a faithful gospel presentation and understanding. A presentation of the gospel that only has softness and pleading is less than biblical. A true gospel presentation includes the love and grace of the Lord, but it must also include the fact that, should any person turn his or her back on the Lord and his ways, they are in danger at a level they do not understand. They are called to repent. They are called to get under the love of Jesus. They are called to mercy. But if they will not come to that call, the only remaining element is, “Prepare to meet your God!” And they must understand, a faithful presentation must help them see, that meeting their God while unprepared is utterly terrifying.

Please do not hear me deemphasizing the love of God or his mercy here. ON the contrary, we only grasp the greatness of grace when we see the infinite judgment we deserve. Salvation means something when you have something to be saved from.

Stop Asking Dishonest Questions

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We have all heard people ask questions we know they do not really want to have answered. They like to make demands of us. They like to ask for explanations. But there are certainly people who will ask us things that, no matter how we answer, they will be unsatisfied.

This also happens when people say that they have questions about God and his ways. Often people will say that there is something they are bothered by concerning the Lord, the Bible, and theology. They act as though, if this one question was answered, they would be willing to follow the Lord. But Scripture and real life experience show us differently.

In Luke 20, Jesus was approached by religious teachers with a question. They wanted to know by whose authority he was teaching. Of course, their goal was to trap Jesus and make him look bad. So Jesus put a question in front of them. If they answered it honestly, he would answer them honestly. They refused.

Luke 20:7-8 – 7 So they answered that they did not know where it came from. 8 And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

Notice that, when they refused to be honest with Jesus, the Lord refused to answer their question. I think we need to recognize that this indicates to us that God is not at all interested in our dishonest questions.

So, as people raise questions about God and his ways, perhaps you might ask them to seriously consider if they actually want the answer. Will the answer to this question satisfy you? Is there any possible answer that you think would help you? Help them to see that their questions are not often as real as they think. Instead, go ahead and help people to see that what they package as a question may be simple rebellion.

And be careful if this is you. God is not in any way obligated to answer even an honest question. He is God and we are not. How much less is he obligated to answer our questions when our questions are not even honest? Let us yield to God first. Sure, ask questions, but ask the Lord from a heart already submitted to him, and you will find the answers you receive far more satisfying.

They Need Scripture, Not Miraculous Evidence

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When we have friends, neighbors, or family members we want to see saved, we may find ourselves wishing for a supernatural occurrence to help them to believe. I’m not here talking about the work of the sovereign God on a heart to draw someone to Christ. Rather, I am thinking about something that is considered amazing, miraculous, and somehow a proof of the truth of the gospel. We want our family members to see a healing, to have a dramatic impression of the presence of God, or be miraculously preserved from a car accident. Then we think that they will let that evidence lead them to faith.

But such a belief is not in accord with the very words of Jesus. Our Savior did not say that the lost need a dramatic experience of evidence. Nor did he say that they need a really good argument. Jesus said that the lost, if they are to be saved, need Scripture.

In Luke 16, Jesus gives us the story of the lost rich man and the beggar, Lazarus. The rich man is in hell and Lazarus in paradise. The rich man has a conversation with Abraham, and that conversation represents the teaching point. First the rich man asked for relief from his torment, but that was not possible or proper. Then the rich man asked for Abraham to send Lazarus to be a miraculous witness to his brothers so they could avoid hell.

Luke 16:2931 – 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”

Note what is said here. The rich man wants something miraculous, something dramatic, something that feels like irrefutable evidence. Abraham says they have Scripture. The rich man does not think Scripture is enough. Who would ever expect that just continuing to quote the Bible, continuing to preach verse after verse, would somehow have an impact.

But what does Jesus tell us through the mouth of Abraham in this account? If they will not hear the word of God in Scripture, nothing will make them believe. They will not believe, even if a person rises from the dead. Of course, Jesus knows a thing or two about people rising from the dead in front of the lost.

Christians, may we see that the word of God taught by the Son of God here tells us that what the lost need is not a sign. The lost do not need to talk with the dead. The Lost do not need an irrefutable argument. After all, you and I have all seen people ignore irrefutable arguments. What the lost need is the clear presentation of the word of God. Because, if they will not believe the word of god, they would not believe if they saw a dead person resurrected before their eyes. That is what Jesus said, and it is still true today.

No, this does not make me anti-apologetics. What it makes me is one who recognizes what apologetics can and cannot do. Apologetics might make someone stop yelling at you long enough to listen to you. Apologetics might make a person think you less of an idiot than they originally thought you to be. Apologetics might gain you a hearing in a person’s mind. But, friends, at the end of the day, the only thing that will bring a person to salvation is the word of God spoken and the power of God sovereignly bringing a dead heart to life.

A Better Response Than Demanding to Know Why

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Our reflex, when things go hard, is to act as though we must know why God chose to let things happen the way that he did. Some folks will pretend that they know, assuming that they can figure out the ways and plans of the Lord. Others just howl in frustration as they demand answers from God that they do not receive. And, of course, if this all continues, some will walk away from their claimed faith because they are unsatisfied with how God does things and then refuses to explain himself.

Job experienced this, of course. He hurt, demanded answers, and had the Lord respond. But God’s response to Job did not ever answer his question. Instead, God showed Job that God is infinitely above him, and thus Job cannot rightly begin to question God.

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon questions and questions why the world works the way that it does. He gets to a place where he feels like life is meaningless. Bad people get good things. Bad things happen to good people. And it takes until chapter 12 for him to remember that fearing God is what makes life meaningful.

And in my read through the Bible, Jesus shows us that he is the same God who will not be forced to explain himself to people who cannot possibly understand his ways. Watch as a group asks Jesus about a tragedy, Jesus brings up another tragedy, and then we get what we are to learn.

Luke 13:1-5 – 1 There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Why did these bad things happen? All Jesus gives is that the people who suffered a great hardship did not suffer it because they were worse sinners than others. But then, in both cases that Jesus spoke of, the Savior told us one simple piece of advice. Instead of thinking we can figure out why God does the things he does, instead of thinking we can demand he answer us, we should repent. We are sinner. We deserve far worse judgment than any of us have ever received. We should rejoice in the mercy of God in the fact that we are still breathing, repent of sin, and find mercy and lasting grace in him.

How different would things be for us, Christians, if we stopped demanding answers and instead fell on grace? How different, how much more godly would we be, if we simply refused to think that we have the right to judge whether or not God’s actions are OK. The Lord always does rightly, whether we understand it or not. And the pains of this life are reminders that we need the mercy of God if we are to survive in the now and in eternity.

Blessed more than Mary

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When we think of people in the history of Christianity, there are some folks who stand out. Peter and Paul, Daniel and Isaiah, Abraham and Moses, Ruth and Esther. We know that these people experienced God in some great ways and served him well.

Of course, Mary, the mother of Jesus, has to be included in that list of significant Christian historical figures. She was humble. She willingly served the Lord when it cost her greatly. She was favored by God in a special way, an experience that no other person will ever receive. And we should honor her just as we honor any saints of the past who faithfully served the Lord.

But should we reverence Mary in a way that is above other human beings? Should we consider Mary something just this side of deity? Should we think of her more highly than any other character in Scripture who faithfully served the Lord? Should we treat her differently than we treat faithful saints of today?

What would you say if I told you that the Bible speaks of someone, not Jesus, who is more blessed than Mary? Who would you guess it would be? Would you think of Paul or Peter? Would it be a spiritual giant?

Look at this exchange between Jesus and a woman as he taught.

Luke 11:27-28 – 27 As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” 28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

As Jesus spoke with great wisdom and spiritual authority, a woman in the crowd clearly intended to declare his mother a blessed woman. one would think that, if Mary holds a special and sacred office, Jesus would say, “Yes, she surely is.” Had this woman said, Blessed be God,” I can only imagine that Jesus would have responded with, “Amen.”

But here, Jesus offered an alternative. If this lady in the crowd wants to declare somebody truly blessed of God, Jesus wants to give an alternative. There is another person who is blessed that Jesus feels is more important to mention. Who? Jesus said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

Who is more blessed than Mary? Jesus says that all who hear and obey the word of God, who hear and keep it, are blessed. Jesus is not putting Mary down in any way. But Jesus is saying that, if we want to think of the blessed, we should not single her out. Instead, we should understand that the one who is truly blessed of God is the one who hears and obeys Scripture.

That means, dear friends, that you and I can be the blessed people in this account. We have been given the word of God. We have the commands of God in clear and understandable language. For the most part, we know exactly what the Lord wants of us. He wants us to turn from sin and trust in Jesus. He wants us to live to the glory of God. He wants us to put away unrighteousness and shine like a city on a hill. He wants us to be about the task of making disciples. He wants us to love one another in the church. And he says that people who do things like that are blessed more than any individual who played any other role in Christian history.

A Great Logical Argument from Jesus

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Most Christians remember the story of the man whose friends carried him to Jesus. The Savior was teaching in a house, and these men actually removed some of the roof tiles over Jesus so as to be able to lower their friend down before him. They could not get through the crowd, but they found a way to help their buddy.

What we sometimes miss is the logical claim that Jesus makes in this healing. When the man is lowered before him, Jesus first tells him, not that he is healed, but that his sins are forgiven. That, of course, sparks a response. That is what Jesus wanted to do.

Luke 5:21-25 – 21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” 22 When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” 25 And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God.

The religious leaders, hearing Jesus’ words, accuse him of blasphemy. They see that Jesus has claimed to forgive sins. And they know that only God has the right to forgive a man his sins against God.

Jesus responds to the thoughts of these men with a simple, Hebrew-logical argument. Jesus asks which is more difficult to do. Is it more difficult to claim to forgive or to heal a man we know is really in need? The assumed answer is that it is more difficult to do the healing. Why? The claim to heal can be proved or disproved immediately. But a claim that a man’s sins are forgiven cannot be proved or disproved on earth.

Then Jesus heals the man. With a word, the Savior commands a man who had to be carried to him to get up and carry his own bed home. And the man does. The crowd sees that Jesus has supernatural power. Jesus has the ability to do what only God can do. And Jesus just did so in a verifiable way.

And the point that Jesus was making with his argument is significantly made. If Jesus has the power to do what only God can do with the healing, Jesus also has the power to do what only God can do by forgiving a man of his sins. Jesus did what the teachers would have seen as more difficult in order to prove that he has the ability to do what is eternally more significant. And in doing so, Jesus stakes one more clear claim to deity, because he claims and does what only God can do.

The Initial Response We Seem to Lack Today

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IN Luke 5, Jesus had used Simon Peter’s boat as a platform for teaching. Jesus then commanded Simon, after the teaching, to put out and cast the net for some fish. The obviously miraculous catch of fish that followed stirred something visceral in Simon.

Luke 5:8-10 – 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”

Simon was terrified. He was fall-on-your-knees shaken. He recognized something about Jesus and something about himself that, as the old writers may have put it, turned his bowels to water.

Simon saw that Jesus is holy and that he, Simon, was sinful. And when he realized that he, a sinful man, was in proximity to one who is truly holy, he was in great danger. Simon knew that Jesus would be well within his rights to utterly destroy him. Simon knew that he had nothing he could do to make himself good enough to impress Jesus. Simon knew he was helpless and guilty, and he had no reason why Jesus should show him kindness.

In verse 10, Jesus calms Simon’s fears and tells him that his life is about to change. Jesus extended gracious kindness to Simon, and that is how we see Simon following Jesus around for the rest of the book as a disciple.

What grabs my attention here is the difference in Simon’s response to Jesus and the typical modern response to God. Simon understood holiness. Simon was terrified by the concept of being touched by the holy, because Simon understood that such a touch is deadly to sinful men. But today, few people grasp that such an encounter is anything to tremble at or shrink from. Most people believe they have every right to make demands of God. Few people understand that, if God unveiled his holiness, they would be utterly consumed.

Sadly, this lack of understanding is not merely in the lost world. I think I see it in the church. I hear Christians ask questions about the ways of God, and there is no fear of God in their mouths. I hear people ask questions that, if they were honest, would come out something like, “How dare God do things this way?” But we must understand that God is holy and we are not. We must understand him to be the Creator while we are creation. We must understand that God is infinite in his wisdom while we understand so very little. And we must grasp that God is God and we are not. WE have no right to question him or demand from him explanation.

Simon got it right when he trembled before Jesus. Do we?

A Caution Against Clever Interpretation

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This will be short, but I think it is important. Watch out for teachers who attempt to show you they are clever in how they find meaning in things that the Bible does not declare. Watch out for your own temptation to find meaning in something that the Bible does not define.

Let me give an example. In a daily reading, I found myself in Luke 4, which begins with the temptation of Jesus immediately after his baptism. What caught my attention rather quickly was the fact that Luke and Matthew present the temptations in a different order. Matthew begins with the devil telling Jesus to turn stones to bread, continues with the devil calling Jesus to throw himself from the temple in front of people, and concludes with the devil calling for Jesus to worship him. Luke reverses the order of the latter two.

Natural human curiosity makes us wonder why. What was God up to there in his inspiration of the text? Is there a message there? And if you go read sermons or commentaries, you will surely find people who will give you an answer.

But here is my caution. God does not tell us why he inspired these authors in the way he did. There is no biblical context clue to tell us why Matthew and Luke have differing orders. There is no other biblical author that indicates to us what this might be about. And there is no guarantee that this is about anything at all. Thus, any answer any preacher or scholar gives is a guess. The guess may be accurate. The guess may be dead wrong. But it is a guess.

We are unwise, friends, to make anything like a real doctrine or even a real sermon point out of a guess. It seems clever. It scratches an itch to have our curiosity satisfied. We love to have something to say that others have not said before. But there is no real reason to do this. If Scripture does not tell us why something happened, if there is nothing like a context clue here to define it, we are just talking to talk at that point.

Let me remind us that the Scripture has a clarity to it that God intends we not lose. We have enough work cut out for us in understanding and applying clear doctrines, things that are taught but not easily accepted or understood, that we do not do ourselves any favors by finding doctrines in passages that make no claims to teach us something. Let the Scripture speak for itself. Do not give into the very understandable desire to be clever by teaching the reason that the two authors changed the order of the events when nothing else in Scripture tells us why they did so.

We’re In Trouble Now

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When Josiah took over as king in Judah, it had to be like a breath of fresh air. Finally, on the throne of David, there was a king who, like David, desired to follow God with his whole heart.

During Josiah’s reign, he was presented with a book. It turns out that the book of the law of God, what we now think of as the first five books of the Bible, had been lost. The priests were doing their own thing in the temple, but the Bible that should have guided them was forgotten, misplaced, gone.

2 Kings 22:11-13 – 11 When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. 12 And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying, 13 “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

When Josiah heard about what had happened, and when he finally understood what was in the book of the law, he was terrified. Josiah realized that, for years, decades, maybe longer, the people had been living according to their own standards and violating the covenant that Israel had agreed to with God at Mount Sinai. But that covenant, the covenant with national Israel, contained in itself judgments for the nation when she violated the terms of her agreement with God. So Josiah knew that the nation needed to repent right now.

Josiah, of course, makes great changes in the nation. But his changes come too late to stop the judgment that the nation had earned under leaders like King Manasseh. So, though much changed, at Josiah’s death, the nation would begin its fall toward captivity in Babylon.

What got my attention as I read through this account in my daily reading is this question: How many churches have lost the word of God just as Judah did before Josiah? I wish that was a ridiculous question, but it is not. The sad difference is, the priests of Israel actually physically lost the book. In our day, churches and supposed Christian groups are led by people with Bibles in their hands. But it appears that many groups have lost any concept of the meaning and authority of the Bible they hold and even quote from time to time.

If we are to be the people of God who please the Lord as his church, we must never lose his word. That means that the Bible has to be front and center in all we do. It means that we need to know the word, respect the authority of the word, and obey the word. Even when the world around us rejects the word, we need to unashamedly proclaim the word of god as truth and authoritative, even if our culture thinks it outdated or offensive.

Has your church lost the word? Think well. Are the messages you hear preached actually fully dependent on the word, or are they dependent on the preacher’s own cleverness and advice? Is your pastor preaching through books of the Bible, or are his sermons borrowed from books by human authors? Is the Bible your standard for all things, or does your church compromise her actions based on what will make the church look good to the culture around her? May we not be people who have lost the word.