Tag: Providence Reformed Church

When God was preparing to destroy the Egyptian army in the Red Sea, he let us know why this was happening. He showed Moses and the people of Israel exactly why it is that he chose to do what he did in the way that he did it.

 

Exodus 14:4, 15-18

 

4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.

 

15 The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. 16 Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. 17 And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”

 

Three times in Exodus 14, the Lord tells us that what he was up to in the whole incident with the Egyptian army was getting glory. The glory of God was at the bottom purpose of why the Exodus happened as it did. This is why God parted the Red Sea. This is why the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground and the Egyptian army drowned in a crush of water. This is why Pharaoh never took a hint that he was defeated. It was all for the glory of God.

 

Immediately, if we are not careful, we will begin to make a personal evaluation. Is it OK that God did this for his glory? Is that reason acceptable to us? Do we like it? Do we think that the glory of God is a legitimate reason for what took place?

 

Let me caution us with a simple reminder. The reason that the universe exists is for the glory of god. The reason that humanity came into existence is for the glory of God. The reason the sun rises, the stars shine, the moon moves through her seasons, and the earth turns is for the glory of God. The glory of God is the purpose for all things.

 

When you grasp that the glory of God is the purpose for all things, then you can understand why it is good that the Lord would do what he did to get glory. The morality of the Exodus cannot be measured by any greater standard than that of the glory of God. There is no other rule set out there. The glory of God is the highest good because the glory of God is why the universe exists. Thus, when god takes action for his glory, God does the highest good.

 

We face many things we do not understand. The Lord does things in his word that are not the way that we would do them. But we are not the Lord. Our wisdom does not match his wisdom. And, if we are not thinking well, we will forget that the reason for all things, the highest measure of right, is the glory of God. Thus, when God does what glorifies himself, he does the highest form of right.

 

Does your heart reject this notion? Do you think that the glory of God must not be the highest right? If not, consider this: What standard would you put in its place? How would you better measure perfection and righteousness than by a comparison with the glory of God? If you look closely, you will find that no other standard is as perfect, as high, as fitting in keeping with the purpose of the universe. No, it will not always make sense to us. Nor will it always feel right to us. But the Lord is infinitely greater than us. His holiness is something we can only begin to understand. And thus, his ways, his purposes, are things we must allow him to show us. We must trust that he is right instead of thinking we can measure his rightness by another external standard. Let the glory of God as the purpose for the universe help you surrender to his plans and purposes as perfect.  

No way will that idea ever work! No way can that plan succeed. These thoughts come to us a lot when we think about doing things for the glory of God. Perhaps it is evangelism. Perhaps it is church planting. Perhaps it is putting together something special for the church. But often we look at our world, see that something appears very difficult or highly unlikely, and we just declare it impossible.

 

But think of how impossible it was for Israel to leave Egypt. There is just no way that the nation of slaves would be released by the more powerful Egyptians. But God got his people out.

 

Even more unlikely is this thought:

 

Exodus 12:35-36 – 35 The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. 36 And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

 

God told the Israelites to ask their Egyptian neighbors for treasure. Just imagine. The Israelites were thought of as disgusting by the Egyptians. The Israelites were slaves, a dirty shepherding people who had been assigned to make mud and straw bricks for building. They had no class. They had nothing to earn them favor with the Egyptians.

 

Just imagine the Israelites going to their Egyptian neighbors. “Hey, I was just thinking; how about you give me a bunch of gold and jewels? How about handing over to me your family fortune?” That was not going to happen. No way.

 

But it did. How? God gave the Israelites favor in the eyes of the Egyptians, and the people handed treasures over to Israel. God used that treasure for the building of the first tabernacle and for the establishing of Israel as a nation. God did the impossible, because he was accomplishing his larger plan.

 

What do you think is impossible? Perhaps you should ask if what you want to do fits the large plan of God. Perhaps you should remember that God can and does change the hearts of people to bring them to places you might never think possible. There is no heart change that is impossible if God is involved. Politicians, authorities, banks, neighbors, family members, all have hearts that the Lord can influence. So take heart, pray, and trust the Lord. He provides in unbelievable ways.

When you hurt, how do you think differently? Do you tend to be harsh, even accusing, of others who are not in the same pain that you are? Are you rough with those whose emotional trials are not the same as yours? Do you even get snippy toward God, expressing bitterness for the hardship you are facing?

 

If we are honest, I think we all know that hardships often bend us toward dangerous ground. We allow our hearts to think that we have it worse than we deserve. We allow our souls to be upset with others who may simply not be able to understand our sorrow. Pain, physical or emotional, threatens to reshape us from the inside out.

 

Of course, we know that God is not above sorrow. WE know that the Son of God experienced tremendous emotional and physical pain as he went to the cross to pay for our sins. And in his suffering, the Son of  God reminds us of something to remember to keep our perspective in times of hardship.

 

When Jesus was on the cross, one of the phrases that he spoke is a citation of Psalm 22:1. In that cry of desolation, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” the Savior expressed his sorrow and hurt. But he also pointed the people who were watching to the 22^nd psalm. He pointed them to things that are significant truths for us all to know when we suffer.

 

Psalm 22:1-3

 

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?

2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,

and by night, but I find no rest.

3 Yet you are holy,

enthroned on the praises of Israel.

 

Verse 1, of course is the cry. It is a genuine expression of pain. When we suffer, God is willing to allow us to express truth. We should not put on a falsely brave face and pretend before the Lord that we are OK when we are not.

 

In verse 2, the psalmist expresses his lack of understanding. Not only is he suffering, not only does he not know why, but he also does not know why God has not shortened the time of his suffering. God understands that longer times of suffering wear on us. And he gives us a text to help us to see that we are allowed to express that hurt to him as well.

 

But then comes verse 3. This verse, right in the heart of the opening, refocuses us on a truth we must cling to in times of suffering. It is the truth of verse 3 that can prevent us from going over the edge from honest expression of hurt into sinful accusation against the Lord.

 

David writes of the Lord, “Yet you are holy.” In that line, he acknowledges that, though he cannot understand why he hurts as he does, nor can he understand why it has lasted for so long, he does understand that God is holy. The Lord is right and perfect. The Lord is set apart from us. The Lord is able to see our hurt and our sorrow from a perspective that we cannot. The Lord, in his holiness, in his infinite wisdom, knows things we do not and is accomplishing things we cannot imagine. The Lord is holy, never capable of sin. The Lord, thus, is not wronging us, even when our hearts want to scream out that he is.

 

Friends, it is wise for us to keep all 3 verses that open Psalm 22 in mind when we face hardships. Yes, we may cry out to the Lord. Yes, we must express our fear, our sorrow, our confusion, and our pain. Yes, the Lord hears and cares. But in the same breath, we must recall that the Lord is holy. He is never wronging us. He is seeing things from a perspective, an eternal perspective, an omniscient perspective, that you and I simply cannot match. There is a place in Christianity to tell God you hurt, to say you do not understand, and still to bow and declare that God, above all, is perfect, good, and holy.

When Moses was called by God to speak to Pharaoh, he was afraid. Moses feared that he was unskilled in diplomacy. Moses feared that Pharaoh would not believe him. Perhaps Moses even feared that, were he to try to step in, he would make the situation with Israel in Egypt worse.

 

But God told Moses that the Lord himself would be with him. God let Moses know that, by God’s mighty hand, the Lord would lead the people out of Egypt. Moses would be God’s instrument, God’s tool in the process.

 

Now, most of us would assume, were we given this calling from God and these promises of God, that things would go smoothly. We would assume that , since God is with us, our words would be well-received. We would assume that God would make it so that, if we are doing his will, people have stronger, happier, healthier lives. But that was not the case for Moses.

 

When Moses came to Pharaoh and spoke the word of God to the Egyptian king, Pharaoh lashed out against the Hebrews. If you remember Exodus 5, you will remember that Pharaoh made the slavery of the people far worse. He demanded they go out and scavenge for the straw they needed to make the bricks that were required of them. The work was easily doubled, but the quota was not changed. So, in that moment, the lives of the Hebrews got vastly harder, more painful, more difficult, more deadly; and it was because of Moses’ following of god that this happened.

 

 

 

 

Exodus 5:20-23 – 20 They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh; 21 and they said to them, “The LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

22 Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? 23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”

 

Look at the response of the people to Moses above. They were not grateful. They were angry. They wanted Moses to leave them alone. He and his message were making them miserable.

 

Moses himself cried out to the Lord. He wondered why God would have sent him in if all it was going to do would be to make things worse.

 

But, those who know the whole story will know that God was at work. God would eventually move the people out of the land. God would free the Hebrews from Egypt, establish them as a nation, build them over time, and bring the promised Messiah through them. But, in the day-to-day, they felt a great deal of pain because of Moses’ obedience.

 

Christians, we need to grasp that our faith is not a pragmatic thing. WE cannot assume that, if we make the right choices, everything will go smoothly. God does not and has never promised that faithfulness in our lives will lead to ease for us or for those who we love. We may cause our families, our friends, or ourselves pain simply by being faithful to God’s word. Because the world is fallen, when we cling to the commands of god, we may find that worldly opportunities are removed from us, that people look down on us, or that even persecution may occur. We must not be shocked by the concept.

 

Neither should we be discouraged. God is working his will. Whether we experience the success of his mission is irrelevant. What matters is that we trust the Lord, that we obey, and that we know that, in the end, the Lord will accomplish his will for his glory.

 

So, do not be shocked if your obedience to the Lord does not lead to immediate life success. In fact, do not be shocked if it hurts. But be aware that the Lord is faithful on an eternal scale, and if you serve the Lord, you will find him victorious.

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.