Tag: Providence Reformed Church

The grace of God is a marvelous thing. To be under the grace of Christ is to be free to enter the presence of the Lord in safety, knowing that the perfection of the Son of God and the  full work of his sacrifice is there to protect you and to bring you into God’s family. We must rejoice in that grace. We should feel free and confident if we are in Christ.

 

But, I fear that we so often talk about the freedoms of grace that some forget the significance of the holiness of God. We must not forget that what makes grace so amazing is not just the benefit of joy but also the terror of the judgment we deserve for offending the holiness of God.

 

I thought of this while reading through 1 Chronicles 13. This chapter tells the account of David and the men of Israel moving the ark of the covenant of God. The ark, if you remember, is a gold-covered box that represented the presence and holiness of the Lord. In the process, a man named Uzzah saw that the ark was in danger of falling off the cart it was sitting on, and he reached out to keep the ark from crashing to the ground.

1 Chronicles 13:9-10 9 And when they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzzah put out his hand to take hold of the ark, for the oxen stumbled. 10 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and he struck him down because he put out his hand to the ark, and he died there before God.

 

That, my friends, is a frightening holiness. Uzzah had good intentions. Uzzah was trying to help. But, Uzzah came into contact with the holiness of God without proper protection. And when he did so, Uzzah’s life was forfeit.

 

Holiness is deadly. We cannot be in the presence of holiness while we are in our sin without our lives being destroyed. God is pure, and he cannot and will not allow his purity to be compromised by ignoring or accepting sin. He must punish sin properly, and that punishment is an infinite wrath which matches god’s infinite perfection. Even our good intentions leave us short of God’s perfection, guilty, and judged. This is why Uzzah died.

 

It is only if you grasp the significance of god’s holiness that you will grasp the significance of the grace of God in Christ. Jesus is our propitiation. That word means that Jesus is the sacrifice who can both cover our sins and reconcile us to God. The anger of God over our sins against him is fully satisfied in Christ’s offering and he can now look upon his children, those in Christ, with only favor that fits the perfect life that Christ lived.

 

So, holiness should terrify us. And holiness should make us unbelievably happy about the grace of God in Christ. Only in Christ can we enter the presence of God without being immediately destroyed as Uzzah was. Only in Christ can we live in the presence of God. Only in Christ can we survive for eternity in the joy of the Lord.

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Sometimes in my daily reading, I catch myself wanting to be sure that I’m “going deep.” I want to find those big and hidden truths that make me feel like I’ve really spiritually gotten somewhere. I want to feel smart. I want to feel like I have discovered something.

 

But, if I am really going to be a faithful reader of Scripture and a wise believer, I have to learn to let the simple truths of Scripture, especially the ones that God clearly has made prominent, stand out to me. I must not let the quest for depth cause me to miss the incredible significance of the simple and yet eternal points of the text. And one of those hit me as I was reading through Luke 9.

 

Luke 9:23-25 – 23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?

 

Jesus calls on those who would follow him to do so with a cross. Following Jesus has never promised to be an easy life. Jesus repeatedly tells believers that this is a hard path, a road through suffering and death to glory. Jesus promised his followers persecutions, hardships, betrayals, and eternal life.

 

But, the big point, the big truth behind it all for me this reading was the simple, obvious, we’ve-seen-it-a-thousand-times-question: For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? This is a pretty binary, on or off, kind of question. Where do you want your life to be? Do you want to fight for comfort and ease in the here and now, or do you want life that lasts forever? Do you want a moment of peace with an eternity of pain? Or can you handle a moment of pain with an eternity of joy to follow?

 

Like I said, that is so obvious. But, it is also the actual point of the Savior. He wants us to think like this. He wants us to realize that our lives are either about this temporary life or the eternity to come.

 

How differently does this all make us think about our present circumstances? We are not made to try to get the most out of this short, shallow, sin-filled life. That does not mean that life here is irrelevant. It does not mean that we are not allowed great pleasures and tremendous joys. What it means is that, if you make this world during this lifetime your focus, you will miss the point. We are created for eternity.

 

Also, recognize that you will exist eternally no matter what choices you make. However, your eternal condition is determined by whether or not you are under the grace of God. If you want life and peace forever, you must be reconciled to God. We have rebelled against our Creator, and we must be forgiven and made clean before him or we will face his eternal wrath. The way to be cleansed and forgiven is to trust in the finished work of the Lord Jesus and to turn your life over to him. Jesus has perfection to cleanse us and he made himself a sacrifice to forgive us. He is our only hope.

 

Following Jesus contains joys. But following Jesus can also lead us through hardships in a godless world. But, in the end, following Jesus is about our eternal lives. We want to be forgiven. We want the grace of God. We want eternal joy. And that is found in Jesus, not in the petty pleasures this world has to offer.

2 Timothy 1:6-7 – 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

 

The call to fan into flame the gift of God is for all Christians, you and me too, because the same Spirit of God who gave Timothy his gift for ministry is the Spirit of God who lives within all of us. Every last one of us has the Spirit in us that Timothy has in him if we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Romans 8:9 – You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

 

Ephesians 1:13-14 – 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

 

1 John 3:24 – Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

 

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 – 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

 

Stop and truly let this truth sink in. If you are a Christian, God has made his Holy Spirit to come and live in you. You have access to the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-sufficient, all-perfect Holy Spirit of God. God lives in you if you are his.

 

If you are a Christian, you have a Spirit given to you by God that is not a Spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

 

1 John 4:18 – There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

 

When you feel the grip of fear coming on, trying to prevent you from doing what God wants you to do, as a Christian, the first thing that you should remember is that your fear is not from God. God has given you a Spirit that is not one of fear. In fact, the perfect love of God drives out fear. So when you feel fear, stop, pray, and say both to God and to yourself, “Lord, I know that the fear that I am feeling is not coming from you. When I fear man instead of obeying you, I dishonor you and I dishonor the Spirit you have sent to dwell in me. Please forgive me for this fear, and drive out that fear with your perfect love.”

What does Paul mean in the book of Colossians when he uses the word “firstborn” to refer to Jesus? That is an important theological question. Is Paul suggesting that Jesus is created by the Father? Is Paul suggesting that a time in eternity exists when the Son of God did not exist?

 

Colossians 1:15-16 – 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

 

That phrase, “firstborn of all creation,” is a tough one if it is lifted out of context without biblical light shined upon it. If a person from a religious cult lifts that phrase out on its own, they make an argument that the Son of God does not exist in eternity past. But there are many reasons not to think that the phrase means that Jesus was created.

 

Simplest among the reasons not to be confused by “firstborn of all creation” is the fact that the next lines from Paul’s pen indicate that all things that have been created are created by Jesus, through Jesus, and for Jesus. If Jesus created all things, if nothing was created that he did not create (c.f. John 1:1-3), it makes no sense to call Jesus created. If he created all, he cannot himself be created.

 

The other argument comes from the differing uses of the word “firstborn,” and it was this thought that came to my mind during my daily reading. You see, I was reading through Psalm 89, and was reminded of another biblical use of the word.

 

Consider the fact that the same word or phrase can mean multiple things in our language. What does the word “run” mean? It might be how you move quickly. It might mean to try to be elected to an office. It might mean what your nose does when you have a cold. It might mean that your car’s engine is on or your refrigerator is working properly. It might mean how you oversee your business. It might be what a river does. It might mean a number of different things, though it is actually only one word.

 

If we can easily understand that a word can have more than one meaning, we can be content not to let the word “firstborn” throw us for a loop. Yes, in my family, when I think of my 3 children, I know who the firstborn is. And, in my family context, that means that my firstborn is the first child to enter our family. But there is another biblical use of that phrase that has nothing at all to do with coming into existence. An alternative biblical use of the phrase firstborn means to be of the highest rank.

 

Psalm 89:27And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.

 

In Psalm 89, God speaks of David. He says that he will make David his firstborn. He says this, though David had clearly already been born. What does he mean? He means that David will be given the highest rank among the kings of the earth. David will be given a special rank in the relationship between God and national Israel. It has nothing to do with David coming into existence. It has everything to do with the position that God will allow David to occupy.

 

Similarly, when Jesus is called firstborn of all creation, it has nothing to do with Jesus beginning to exist. Jesus is eternal, the Creator God. But Jesus is also the firstborn, the highest ranking human ever. Jesus is the number 1 human even as he is eternally God. Jesus is not a creation of the Father. Jesus is, however, granted by the Father to be the one who rules over all creation too. That is what it means that Jesus is “firstborn of all creation.”

The parable of the sewer is one of those parables that I have heard well-meaning Christians debate fervently while both sides of the debate missed the point entirely.

 

Luke 8:5-8 – 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

 

This is a pretty familiar passage to believers. It is easy to remember because of the simple imagery. We can all imagine a farmer planting seed. WE can easily imagine some seed growing and some not making it. And we can see that Jesus makes multiple parallels to real life.

 

The argument that I have heard that misses the point has to do with what this parable may or may not say about salvation and eternal security. If you have been around believers for a while, you may have heard them discuss which groups of the seeds represent saved people. Should we assume that the seeds that were scorched and choked by thorns are saved people who did not grow? Or should we assume they were lost? Or, even theologically worse, do those two categories hint at a loss of salvation (they do not, as the Bible is clear that saved people remain saved and grow)?

 

It is at this point that I want to call on us to stop asking the wrong question. Jesus did not present this parable to share with us highly nuanced categories of believers, non-growing believers, and the lost. Nor did Jesus offer this as a way to teach on the truth of eternal security, perseverance of the saints—at least not in the way that many bring it up. Jesus had a simple point he wanted to make. And if we miss it because of our questions, we do not help ourselves or anybody else.

 

The point is simple: true Christians grow. That is it. There are lots of people who will claim to believe in God. Good for them. True Christians grow. There are lots who will claim religion so long as religion costs them nothing. I’m not worried about that. True Christians grow. True Christians learn to obey Jesus. True Christians repent of sin, worship the Lord, and share his message with the world. The point of the parable is that true Christians grow.

 

So, reading that parable, stop trying to make every little part speak to a theological concept of salvation. Why would you worry about whether the thorn-choked seeds represented saved people? Instead, why not point out that our goal is not to be those folks? Our goal is to grow in Christ. Our goal is to bear fruit. Our goal is to not let the cares of this life or a fading initial joy wipe us out. We are to be in it for the long haul. We are to be committed with our entire lives through any circumstances, joys, pains, poverty, etc.

 

The point of this parable is to teach us that true Christians grow. Are you growing? Are you sticking with your commitment even when the initial joy is a distant memory? Are you sticking with the faith even when it hurts your prospects for worldly success? Are you sticking with the faith even when it is hard? Are you communicating the faith to the next generation? Are you setting down deep roots in the word of God and in obedience to the Savior? Those are the questions we should be asking when we read the parable of the sewer. 

Why do Christians talk about sin all the time? Isn’t that just discouraging? Isn’t it negative? Someone from outside the faith might think such things. Of course, the world makes fun of us for talking so much about what is wrong with us (see Ned Flanders).

 

But have you ever stopped to consider how understanding our sinfulness helps us? There is actually a tremendous joy in grasping just how messed up we are. Without it, we cannot grasp grace.

 

In Luke 7, a woman came to Jesus in great sorrow over her sin. A religious leader looked down on Jesus for allowing himself to be in the presence of such a sinner, but Christ rebuked the man. Jesus pointed out that the woman was loving God much because of how great was her forgiveness.

 

Luke 7:47 – Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.

 

So, the question is: How much have you been forgiven? That will help you to know how much joy you should have over grace. If you have not come to Christ for forgiveness, you have no reason to rejoice over grace with the exception of being grateful to God that you are still alive, and thus forgiveness is still available.

 

But if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, consider how great is your forgiveness. At this point, you may be tempted to go over your life and think of the worst sins you have committed—a very unpleasant task. Or, it is even possible that, if you have nothing major in your past, you will wonder if you are bad enough to love much as Jesus said. But both of those are the wrong direction for thinking of how great is your forgiveness.

 

Start your thinking with the Lord. God is perfect. God is endlessly, eternally, infinitely perfect. It is not that my goodness is a 2 and God’s is a 10. God’s goodness is infinity times infinity as the kids like to say. So, regardless of how good or bad I have ever been, the difference in measure between my goodness and God’s goodness is infinity. Now, sin is to fail to live up to God’s level of righteousness. So, my sin is equal to the gap between my goodness and God’s: infinite. Regardless of whether I am a former murderer or a lovely little church kid, my sin before God is an infinite gap.

 

Now, add in the justice of God. WE all know that the proper punishment must fit the crime. But our crime against the Lord is infinite, as we have fallen infinitely short of God’s perfection. Ponder that, let it sink in, and you will start to understand some majorly important things. Because of my sin, I deserve infinite punishment. No matter how big or little my sin is, my failure to live up to God’s perfection merits infinite wrath from God. This, of course, is why hell is a forever punishment for sin.

 

With that understood, I can now go back and reflect on how much I have been forgiven. Jesus, God the Son, the infinitely perfect one, came to earth to pay for my sin. Jesus took upon himself the proper penalty for my wrong. Jesus, because he is God in flesh, could successfully bear the wrath of God on my behalf, a wrath that would have cost me forever in hell. Jesus died and rose from the grave to prove that he fully paid the price for my sins and now I am forgiven by God’s grace alone through faith alone in the finished work and person of Christ alone.

 

When I recognize that my sin merited hell, no matter how bad it was or was not, and when I recognize that Jesus took a penalty I could have never finished paying for all eternity, I have reason to love much. I have been forgiven much. I have been forgiven just as much as any human being with any past. I have had an infinite judgment lifted from my record because of the grace and mercy and love of Jesus. And that should make me respond to Jesus with incredible, life-changing, soul-rejoicing gratitude.

It can do us good from time to time to be sure that we think about the things that are being said in simple Scriptural statements. If you are like me, and you have been reading through the Bible year after year for a while, you will let phrases that ought to grab your attention slide past if you are not careful to pick them up.

 

I thought of this while reading through Luke 6. Jesus had allowed his disciples to pluck some heads of grain and eat them on a Sabbath day. The religious leaders protested, saying that Jesus was letting them break the Jewish law. But the Savior pointed out that the actions of the disciples were in keeping with other things we see in the Scriptures. The disciples were not violating the biblical commands, but were simply in conflict with the interpretations of the scholars of that day. They broke the leaders’ rules, not God’s.

 

Then Jesus makes a statement that, if we consider it, is stunning.

 

Luke 6:5 And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

 

Jesus was talking about himself and calling himself the Son of man. That is big enough for a whole post. But then Jesus claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath. That should make us tremble.

 

Consider, the Sabbath was a rule of God’s for his people set forth in the Ten Commandments. Moses carried those commandments to the people down from the mountain after they were carved in stone by the finger of God. These were a big deal. The Ten Commandments were God’s covenant terms with national Israel. They were God’s laws.

 

Jesus claims to be Lord of the Sabbath. That means that Jesus claims to be the Lord over one of the Ten Commandments. God gave those commandments. Thus, Jesus is claiming to be equal with God. But there is only one God. Thus, to claim to be equal with God is for Jesus to claim to be God. Here, in a simple sentence, Jesus let’s the Jews know that he is the very God who gave them these laws, who made the rules, and thus who is Lord over them.

 

Stop and think how it might sound if we heard someone claim to be the sovereign one over any other of the commands? If a person said they were fully in charge of the commandment of whom to worship, they would be claiming a position that only belongs to God. If a person claimed to be fully over, the Lord over, the command about murder, adultery, or stealing, you would know they are claiming to be fundamentally equal with the God who made that command. And in a similar way, we can see that Jesus, in one sentence that we often let slide by, declared himself to be the God of the Ten Commandments, the God of the Old Testament, the God who made and rules the universe.

 

This is not a violation of trinitarian theology. Jesus is God the Son. He is not God the Father. But the Father and the Son are equally God along with the Holy Spirit. It is a misconception to overly separate or to fail to distinguish these persons of the trinity. Jesus is as much the God of the Old Testament as is God the Father. God (not just the Father but the trinity) gave the Ten Commandments. Father, Son, and Spirit as one agreed on those laws as God gave those laws to Israel. And no person other than God could possibly have the right to declare himself or herself to be lord over that law.

 

Friends, let this simple reminder call you to praise the Lord Jesus, God the Son, God in flesh. He is Lord. We cannot please God without coming to God through the One he sent to be our Lord and Savior.

Holy is one of those Christian words that ,if we are not careful, we will not think much about. We know that holy means perfect, pure, and right in every way. We also know that holy has to do with separation or being set apart. Yet, when we hear the word, we simply think of it as a term that makes things religious—a holy book, holy place, or holy gathering.

 

It would do us good, however, if we paid closer attention to what happens when people in Scripture recognize holiness. In Isaiah 6, when the prophet understood the holiness of God, he feared that he would crumble to dust in its light. In nearly every human contact with an undisguised angelic being, the person trembles or falls to the ground. Even the Lord warned Moses that he could not look upon the full glory of God and live.

 

In my reading through Luke, I came across another picture of a human response to holiness. Simon Peter was in his boat, and Jesus used it as a floating platform from which to speak to a crowd on shore. After his presentation, Jesus asked Peter to move the boat out toward deeper water and cast the net for some fish. Peter knows that this is not going to work, but he obeys Jesus. Then the net is so full of fish that the weight threatens to swamp the boat.

 

Look at Peter’s response to these happenings.

 

Luke 5:8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

 

When Peter saw what happened, he recognized something that is not said in this verse. He recognized that Jesus is holy. Peter recognized that Jesus is above and beyond him. And this recognition terrifies Peter. Peter falls to his knees and asks Jesus to go away because he fears the holiness of the Lord.

 

Why is this the case? When human beings, in our sinfulness, encounter the true God who made us, in his holiness, we recognize that we are not at all equipped to stand in his presence. We know that, if God does not protect us from his perfection, we will be consumed, destroyed, in an instant.

 

I once tried illustrating this point with the concept of an absolutely pure liquid. Pretend that a substance exists that is perfectly pure in every way and is infinitely powerful. Thus, the substance will never, under any circumstances, allow itself to be corrupted. Then imagine what would happen if something impure was dropped into that liquid. If the liquid were to remain pure, it would simply have to destroy every trace of the impure that was dropped into it, otherwise the pure would be corrupted, made impure.

 

Apply that to our being in the presence of holiness. We are sinners, every last one of us (cf. Rom. 3:10-23; Isa. 64:6). If we are plunged into the pure holiness of God without God somehow shielding us from his perfection, we will be, we must be, destroyed. To stand in such a place would be utterly terrifying.

 

It is that fear that made Peter ask Jesus to leave him. It is that fear that made Isaiah cry out, “Woe is me!” It is that fear that caused prophets to fall to the ground at a vision from God as if they were dead. Holiness necessarily terrifies the sinful, and we are all sinful.

 

With this in mind, there are two responses that should be almost immediate for the Christian of today. First, we should bow to the Lord, declare him holy, and offer him praise. We should be grateful to God for the perfect work of Jesus. Jesus lived a holy life on earth, a life none of us could possibly ever live. Jesus then died to actually take upon himself the proper punishment for our rebellion against God. Then Jesus rose from the grave proving that his work was done. In our salvation, God makes a trade: he credits Jesus with our sin(which was fully punished on the cross) and he credits us with the perfect life of Jesus so that we can enter his holy presence (cf. 2 Cor. 5:21). Thus, the grace of God in Jesus Christ becomes the perfect covering under which we may enter the holy presence of God and not be destroyed. Under the grace of Jesus, we can exist forever in the presence of God without being consumed, keeping our true selves, though without sin. How grateful to God we should be for this immeasurable gift.

 

Second, we should not lose sight of holiness. In our culture, in our worship services, inn our prayer times we risk missing holiness. We are familiar with other pictures of grace, being adopted into God’s family as his children, and we sometimes allow those pictures to make us forget God’s dangerous holiness. The Lord does welcome us. The Lord loves us. The Lord has fully paid for all of our rebellion against him if we have come to faith in Christ. But we should also not lose sight of the trembling and awe that must be ours when we consider the terrifying holiness of the God who saved us. He is utterly unapproachable if we are not under his grace. Even under his grace, we should approach him, yes in freedom and confidence (Eph. 3:12), but also in fear, trembling, and wonder. How do we cover both sides of confidence and fear? That, dear friends, is the mystery and beauty of true worship. That is the simultaneous mixture of joy and fear, of confidence and awe, of reverence and rejoicing.

 

C. S. Lewis tried to illustrate this concept in his children’s books. Lewis showed us Aslan as a mighty lion. The children could play with him, and yet the children also trembled at his roar. The children knew they were welcome with him, yet they could not gaze into his eyes without being aware that he was far greater than them, far more regal, far more dangerous. They learned early on that Aslan is not a tame lion, but he is good. And something of that picture should make its way into how we grasp the grace and holiness of God. And something of that joyful trembling must make its way into true worship for the Christian.

Just before the southern kingdom of Judah went captive to Babylon, God allowed a good king to reign over the land. His name was Josiah, and he is described as one of the most godly of the Judean kings. He ascended the throne at age 8, and he was godly from the start. But Josiah’s true greatness as a king began when he was 26.

 

Josiah had commanded that renovations be performed on the temple in Jerusalem. Some things had fallen into disrepair, and Josiah wanted the people of God to be able to worship the Lord as they should. And in the process of the renovation, the workers discovered the book of the law of God.

 

2 Kings 22:8-10 – 8 And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. 9 And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord.” 10 Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.

 

Josiah, after first hearing the words of the law of Moses, the covenant that God had made with national Israel, recognized that he and his kingdom were in great trouble. Both in Exodus and in Deuteronomy, the covenant language is very clear. When Israel followed the commands of God, they would be blessed by the Lord. But, when Israel failed to follow the clearly agreed upon commands, they would suffer the judgment of God. And Josiah knew that the people of Judah had not been obeying the commands of God. He knew they had lost their faithfulness. In fact, they had misplaced the book of the law so that none of them were paying attention to the inspired commands of God.

 

This discovery led to some fantastic reforms on Josiah’s part. He moved around the land, tore down idols, took out high places, and brought about, for a brief time, obedience to the Lord’s commands. Sadly, things would not end well. After all, reform from the top-down does not always reach the hearts of the people. The individuals in the nation did not actually change their personal allegiance throughout Josiah’s reforms. But, for a time, the people at least stopped blatantly rebelling against the covenant they had with the Lord.

 

What I wonder is how many of us are like Israel under Josiah’s early reign? How many of us are like Josiah? How many churches fit this picture? Do we have some basic goodness in our actions and attitudes while somehow not actually following the written commands of the word of God? Do we need to rediscover the book, the word of God?

 

Friends, let this story from Josiah call you back to Scripture. You and I will never obey the Lord rightly without that obedience coming from his word. WE must not allow our churches or our households to become places of general morality or basic spirituality without first being founded on and directed by Scripture. We must not do what is right in our own eyes. Instead, we must let what is right come to us from the Bible. Anything less will leave us unable to actually follow the will of the Lord.

 

What would it take for you to find the book again? Are you reading the Bible daily, or at least most days? Are you sitting under preaching that is intentionally biblical and passionately committed to exposition? Are the sermons you hear full of sound teaching or are they more focused on delivering a particular emotion to you? Are your worship songs full of biblical truth or of sappy emotionalism? Are the lessons you learn basic, legally oriented, to-do lists, or are you actually seeing the meaning of the text? We cannot live apart from the spiritual food of the word of God.

How biblical is your faith? How much is your faith influenced by worldly superstition? How much do you think your understanding of angels, demons, and spiritual warfare is based on Scripture versus based on Hollywood? Or how much do you allow yourself to think that there is power in particular places, signs, or religious symbols? Do you believe there is power in relics?

 

Throughout Scripture, we see that the spiritual battle that we are to fight has nothing to do with mysterious symbols or artifacts. In the early church, God never commanded that people grab for a lock of a saint’s hair or a drop of their blood. Yes, in Acts, we saw that people were miraculously healed in some amazing ways, even by carried handkerchiefs. But such has never been commanded by God as a normal practice of the church.

 

In truth, if you look at Scripture, what you will most often see is that people have a tendency to confuse the method God has chosen to use for one particular moment with the God who is the source of that method’s power. People will hear of a miracle done in the name of Jesus, and they will think that “Jesus” is a magic word to drive out the demons. The Judaizers tried to teach that the physical sign of circumcision was required for salvation. The later Gnostics taught that there were secret truths that one had to learn to progress through higher and higher spiritual levels. Later Roman Catholics taught that there was grace present in artifacts blessed by or touched by certain saints until many churches all over Europe claimed to have a thorn from Jesus’ crown or a vile of milk from Mary.

 

In the Old Testament, there is a great example of what happens when people focus on a symbol instead of the grace of God. During the wilderness wanderings, the people had some trouble with snakes. God commanded Moses to fashion a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then, any person who was bitten by a snake could simply look upon the snake on a pole to find healing. This, of course, would point to the glorious future truth of salvation by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone as Jesus himself pointed out in John 3:14-15).

 

But, once the snake problem was over, there were folks who believed that there was secret power in the bronze snake. Instead of simply glorifying God and understanding that the sculpture was a tool that God used to accomplish his will, the people began to deify the snake itself.

 

Look at this verse speaking of King Hezekiah, a man who reigned several hundred years after the incident with the snake on the pole.

 

2 Kings 18:4 He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan). 

 

For hundreds of years, the people of Israel had made offerings to the bronze serpent. They had violated God’s commands never to worship an image. But they superstitiously believed that there was power in the object rather than understanding that the power is in the Lord who commanded the object’s formation.

 

Friends, this story should teach us how easily people can be led into pure foolishness. WE gravitate toward what seems both spectacular and tangible. It is human nature to want a lucky charm or object of power. But we need to understand that God has always turned people away from such things. There are no such things as genuine lucky charms. There are no items that focus or carry in them the power of God. There are no items to collect to give you special protections or to ward off evil spirits.

 

And when we let ourselves give into the notion of relics and charms, we, like the people of Israel for hundreds of years after Moses, dishonor the Lord. We are not supposed to find our hope in any object. We cannot channel the power of god through any earthly sign, symbol, or relic. We are to trust in God by his word. We are to obey the commands of the Lord, pray to the Lord, and trust in the Lord. We are not to think we can discover secret codes or magic words that will bring us spiritual victory. Instead, we are to bow ourselves to the Lord, entrust ourselves to his care, and follow him as his word has commanded. Anything extra will dishonor the Lord as our trust is no longer simply in the Savior but will be divided between God and our lucky charms.