Isaiah 7:9b
If you are not firm in faith,
you will not be firm at all.’ ”
Isaiah 8:11-13
11 For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: 12 “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. 13 But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
Ahaz was one of the most wicked kings that Judah ever had. He led the nation away from the Lord, and he brought upon them the chastisement of God. He participated in some of the worst pagan and idolatrous practices including child sacrifice. Ahaz reshaped the temple and brought foreign religious practices into the very holiest of places.
In that context, it is no surprise to see God bringing on Ahaz and Judah enemies who would threaten their very existence. Yet, as we know from a faithful understanding of the word of God, he would not let the nation be completely destroyed. God was still going to use that nation, as messed up as they were, to bring Messiah to the world.
Ahaz and the people of Judah were scared. Syria and Ephraim had teamed up to destroy Jerusalem. But God says that he would not let it happen. And God spoke to and through Isaiah to remind him of how the people were supposed to deal with the fear they were facing.
In chapter 7, Isaiah simply told Ahaz from God that if he was not firm in his faith in the Lord, he would not be firm at all. In chapter 8, God told the people to stop fretting about all the talk of all the people about who was conspiring with whom. Instead, God told the people that the way to survive this troublesome time was to put their fear where it belongs, in the Lord.
There are lessons here for us as American Christians. The world is going nuts. People are opposing the word of God and the ways of God left and right. It looks like groups are working together all across the nation to make things harder for people of faith to survive in our nation, a nation founded on the concept of religious freedom. What do we do?
If our faith is not in the Lord, we will not stand firm. If we put our hope in anything else we are in trouble. The government is not going to fix our problems. The courts are not going to stop legislating from the benches. The media is not going to suddenly shift and start treating us fairly. At least none of this is going to happen on its own. But there is a God in heaven who is still on his throne. He will not let his people be destroyed.
“If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.” “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.” These words are as good for us today as they were for the people who were dreading the consequences of the godless Ahaz messing up their nation.
So, what do we do? Stop fearing the mean old world out there. Stop fearing the government or the courts or the media or the entertainment industry. Fear God. Set your hope in God. He is faithful. He will not lose. He will not fail. Yes, we may face hardships. We may face persecution. But Christ will reign. God will not ultimately let this world fall apart. He will be glorified, and we will rejoice in that glory.
The Pastor’s Justification – A Review
Jared C. Wilson. The Pastor’s Justification: Applying the Work of Christ in Your Life and Ministry. Wheaton: Crossway, 2013. 192 pp. $14.12.
Jared Wilson has rapidly become one of my favorite authors of powerful, gospel-filled, and helpful books for pastors (and others I’m sure). Wilson writes with an honesty and clarity that make his books easy-to-read while presenting just the right balance of challenge and encouragement.
In The Pastor’s Justification, Wilson speaks from his own pastoral experience to remind pastors that the gospel matters in great ways. The message of Jesus is not only the message that we preach to others. If we are to pastor well, we must see that the gospel impacts every aspect of our ministry from our calling to how we handle ministerial hardships.
As I read this book, I found myself encouraged in so many ways. Wilson seems to have lived through some things that I have also experienced. He reminded me that, though preaching the gospel may seem counter-productive in some settings, it is still the only real way to preach. He reminded me that a pastor who does not have friends in the church is in real danger–an encouraging thing for me since I have seen pastors without friends, and they terrify me. Wilson showed in the book time and time again that pastors are greatly in need of the grace of God and that, thankfully, they have that grace.
This would be a great book to give to a pastor as a gift, for a seminary student to read, or for a deacon or elder to look over as a means to find ways to encourage other elders.
I would encourage any pastor or elder in any church to give this book a try.
Even Apostles Read (2 Timothy 4:13)
2 Timothy 4:13
When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.
Here Paul continues to ask Timothy for help as he comes to see him. First, Paul asks for a cloak. It’s cold in that dungeon, and Paul is getting old. As winter approaches, Paul knows that he will want that simple garment for his own comfort.
But then we get the request for the books and parchments. This verse is utterly fascinating to me. No one has ever shed more light on it than C. H. Spurgeon, the famous baptist Preacher of the nineteenth century. Listen as I share with you a few lines from Spurgeon on this text:
We do not know what the books were about, and we can only form some guess as to what the parchments were. Paul had a few books which were left, perhaps wrapped up in the cloak, and Timothy was to be careful to bring them.
Even an apostle must read. Some of our very ultra Calvinistic brethren think that a minister who reads books and studies his sermon must be a very deplorable specimen of a preacher. A man who comes up into the pulpit, professes to take his text on the spot, and talks any quantity of nonsense, is the idol of many. If he will speak without premeditation, or pretend to do so, and never produce what they call a dish of dead men’s brains—oh! that is the preacher.
How rebuked are they by the apostle! He is inspired, and yet he wants books! He has been preaching at least for thirty years, and yet he wants books! He had seen the Lord, and yet he wants books! He had had a wider experience than most men, and yet he wants books! He had been caught up into the third heaven, and had heard things which it was unlawful for a man to utter, yet he wants books! He had written the major part of the New Testament, and yet he wants books!
The apostle says to Timothy and so he says to every preacher, “Give thyself unto reading.” The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains, proves that he has no brains of his own.
Brethren, what is true of ministers is true of all our people. You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritanic writers, and expositions of the Bible. We are quite persuaded that the very best way for you to be spending your leisure, is to be either reading or praying. You may get much instruction from books which afterwards you may use as a true weapon in your Lord and Master’s service. Paul cries, “Bring the books”—join in the cry.
Is that cry not profound? Paul found it necessary for him to continue to read and write. Paul, the apostle who wrote the majority of our New Testament felt it appropriate for him to keep studying until the very end. How much should this convict our generation? We can be so very lazy. We can take our responsibility to read and really dig into God’s word so lightly. Be convicted by Paul’s words. If Paul read until the day he died, surely you can do something in your life to do more to educate yourself, to grow, to press on in your knowledge of the word of God.
Two Thoughts from Proverbs 12
Proverbs 12 (ESV)
4 An excellent wife is the crown of her husband,
but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones.
25 Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down,
but a good word makes him glad.
I highlight the two verses above from today’s Bible reading. This is not at all because I think they have anything to do with each other. But, they are words that spoke to me as I read this text.
First is verse 4, “An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones.” As I read this verse, I recognized how true it is. An excellent wife is wonderful. A wife who brings her husband shame must be a terrible challenge. And, as I read this verse, I find myself so very grateful to God for my wife. Mitzi has been and continues to be an excellent wife for me. She is faithful. She is a sweet wife and wonderful mother for my kids. She works hard, cares much, and is wise. I have never, not even once, ever feared that she would bring me or the family shame. She is, of course, a beautiful gift from God.
Then, I look at verse 25, “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.” Over this past week, I have found myself weighed down with anxiety. I have let myself be burdened by fears for the future, fears for finances, fears regarding church growth, fears regarding the purchase of a new home. But God is stronger and greater than my fears. Even this morning, he challenged me with, as the Proverb says, “a good word.” I have been reading Jared Wilson’s book, The Pastor’s Justification. In the chapter I was reading, Wilson reminded me of the sin of King David when he sent Joab out to perform a census, counting his potential army because he would not trust in the power and provision of God. That reproved me and called me to trust in the Lord and in his power and promises. I do not need to fear, as God is far more faithful than me and far more able than me to accomplish his will for his glory.
Why Johnny Can’t Preach – A Review
T. David Gordon. Why Johnny Can’t Preach: The Media Have Shaped the Messengers. Phillipsburg: P & R Publishing, 2009. 112 pp. $9.75.
I’ve long believed that the preaching responsibility of pastors is the area in which most pastors are least willing to learn and grow. It is far too easy for us to assume we are doing a good job, especially if people keep showing up and telling us happy things as they leave the building. Yet, if we are honest, few of us spend a proper amount of time developing the craft of creating solid, biblical, and beautiful sermons.
In Why Johnny Can’t Preach, T. David Gordon laments the state of modern preaching and offers some very helpful challenges for those whose task it is to regularly present God’s messages to God’s people. Gordon believes that many pastors in modern churches lack three major skills needed to be prepared to present powerful homilies. These skills include the ability to closely examine a text (reading), to wisely compose a message (writing), and to recognize what is actually important in life (a sense of the significant).
Without reviewing how Gordon makes his points, I will simply state that I agree with his major thoughts. Many pastors, I believe, do not regularly review their preaching for significance, quality, or effectiveness. Sadly, a pragmatic measure of attendance or a subjective feeling of how people are supposedly responding to the messages he presents are the key measures that the preachers I know tend to use. Often, these false measures can mask the fact that many sermons are arranged poorly, handle the text carelessly, slide into unbiblical thinking, end up moralistic or legalistic, or fall into a host of other problems.
Gordon argues that we will improve our preaching when we recover abilities that many have lost in our modern era. Preachers will improve when we learn to closely read texts in a way similar to the way that people from years ago knew how to closely read literature or poetry. We will also preach more beautifully when we learn to compose a sermon in ways similar to the way that people of old could thoughtfully arrange and compose speeches and correspondence. Pastors similarly should develop the discipline of putting away what is insignificant and learn to latch onto what matters–a difficult task in our media-saturated age.
This book is a short and easy read with some big challenges. I recommend it to those who would preach God’s word. Even if we think we are doing well, it cannot hurt us to let Gordon challenge us to go deeper and to not rest on our present state of preaching.
A Missing Thought in the Planned Parenthood Story
Many people, both pro-abortion and pro-life, have been appalled by the Internet videos showing leaders of Planned Parenthood and other organizations allegedly haggling over the prices of fetal tissue. Much has been written. Much more will be. But I think there is another thought that needs to be expressed that I’m not often reading out there.
The common debate going on has to do with whether or not the people from Planned Parenthood are actually “selling” baby body parts or if this is merely medical research and reimbursement. Are we dealing with Frankenstein-like grotesqueness, or is something more supposedly noble at the heart of the transactions? Is the video staged or edited to tilt the intent of those communicating? Are laws being broken? Again, I say, something more important needs to be said.
Even if the entire thing were a hoax and the folks were being completely taken out of context, there is still an issue here. Even if the activities of Planned Parenthood are completely legal, even if, in fact, body parts are not being shipped out from facility to facility, there is something more important here. What is it?
Regardless of all the accusations and the pandering going on, one fact remains: Babies are being dismembered and destroyed. We must see that, regardless of whether body parts are on the market, people are looking and seeing that intact hearts, eyes, livers, and legs are, in fact, being ripped out of baby bodies for the sake of the freedom or “health” of a woman who does not wish to be inconvenienced by a whole, human child.
Is it bad to think that we may have become a body-part-marketing people? Yes, it really is. But it is worse to realize that we are a people who, for years, have tolerated the dismemberment of healthy humans for the false ideal of “reproductive freedom”
I’m not anti-woman. I want freedom and equality in our society. But I do not want the freedom to dismember and destroy a child. Neither do I want anyone else to have that freedom.
I do not want anyone to stop writing and speaking out against the ghoulish practices of Planned Parenthood. I believe that the videos are likely accurate, the evidence is damning, and that Planned Parenthood really is the kind of organization that would collect funds trafficking in aborted baby organs. I believe that this practice should be stopped and those responsible for this monstrosity should be prosecuted. I believe that the organization responsible for so much human death should be immediately defunded by the American people. But, and this is important, I also believe that this should not horrify us nearly so much as the fact that those body parts, parts of real babies, have been ripped apart to begin with. We must continue to speak out against the whole process in which people, made in the image of God, are shredded for the sake of convenience.
Let me add, I am a sinner. I deserve the wrath of God for a million and more failings in my own life. I’m not claiming the personal high ground. My only hope is the grace of Christ. That grace is available for every woman who has made a wrong decision regarding human life. That grace is available for every man who has pressured a woman to do what so many now see as unthinkable. That grace is available for every abortion doctor and body-part-trafficker who is willing to turn from his or her sin and embrace Christ and his finished work.
My heart breaks for women who have found themselves walking back out of an abortion clinic with one less life to be carried. My heart breaks for those who have done things they wish they had not, and for those who have no regret for the things they have done. We are all guilty of sin and we all need forgiveness in Christ. By the grace of God, he commands all people everywhere to repent and to turn to Jesus for salvation. Let us embrace that salvation while graciously and firmly standing against the murder of children.
Exalted Above All (Psalm 148:13)
Psalm 148:13 (ESV)
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted;
his majesty is above earth and heaven.
There are some verses that, if we really see them as true, completely change our lives. The above, though it may not seem like it, is just such a verse. If this verse is true, everything, absolutely everything, about your and my worldview has to change.
What is so significant? The verse above declares that God’s name, the name of the LORD, alone is to be exalted. There is no other name under heaven which is higher or greater. There is no other name that compares. The name of the God of the Bible, the God revealed to us in the persons of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, is the true name above all things.
You say, “Of course this is true. We know that already.” Great. Then ask yourself what changes if it is something you believe is true rather than simply acknowledging as an abstract fact. If God’s name alone is exalted, how does that impact your decision-making? What do you exalt? How does what you exalt compare to the name of the LORD? How does your praise shift away from God? How might you better make your life and help the lives of those around you magnify the God we know?
Growth and Love (2 Thessalonians 1:3)
2 Thessalonians 1:3
We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.
As Paul opened his second letter to the people of Thessalonica, he gave God thanks for two specific things about the church. Interestingly, especially when compared to the measures of church health often offered today, the reasons for which Paul gave thanks were not numeric or evangelistic. While I love when the church grows, and I love sharing the faith with others, I have to stop and notice that the reasons that God inspired Paul to give thanks for the Thessalonians church were their spiritual growth and their love for each other.
These two marks, spiritual growth and love for each other, should be present in any church of the Lord Jesus. We should be growing spiritually. We should be studying and applying God’s word to our daily lives. Our learning should go deeper. Our obedience should become more and more joyful. Whatever it means to grow in the faith, our churches exist for us to do those things.
We also should be loving each other. When you look at texts regarding the local church, there is a constant call for us to exercise godly love one for another. We are to care for each other and help each other out in hard times. We are to aid each other in our Christian walks. Genuine love for one another, in fact, is the way that Jesus said that the world will know that we actually belong to him (cf. John 14:35).
So, Christians, let us set our hearts in our churches on spiritual growth and love. Without question, those areas will also lead us to mission, to outreach, and, by the grace of God, to numerical growth. But first and foremost, we are to be people who love God and love each other like crazy.
Eternity and Perspective (Psalm 144:3-4)
Psalm 144:3-4 (ESV)
3 O Lord, what is man that you regard him,
or the son of man that you think of him?
4 Man is like a breath;
his days are like a passing shadow.
The question asked in the psalm above is one that is not often enough asked by people of today. What is man? What makes us special? Why would God ever pay attention to us?
The next line of the psalm does not tell us why God would pay attention to us, but it does give us something to think about to help us to rightly put ourselves in place when we consider our Lord. In verse 4, the psalmist refers to the shortness of human lives. We come and go. Our lives pass in what appears to be only a moment. Whether you live for 10 years or 100 years, what is that when compared to the thousands of years of human history? Even more, what is that when compared to eternity?
It would do us good, even today, to consider the brevity of human life. We often live as though we will stay here and do what we are presently doing forever. But that is a false way to live. God did not create us to live forever in a sin-darkened, fallen world. God has something much greater for us than this. And our lives will pass. They will pass quickly, before we know it.
How should these thoughts make us respond today? We should look at the brevity of our lives and we should be amazed that God would pay attention to us (just like the psalmist in verse 3). We should see that, compared to God, we are insignificant. We are as nothing when compared to his might, his holiness, and his eternality. We are creatures, he is Creator. We are finite, he is infinite.
May these thoughts challenge us to worship our Lord. He is great. His greatness reminds us of our weakness. We need him. We exist for him. May we honor him with the lives that he gives us to live on this earth.
The First Psalm – a Poem
The First Psalm
By Travis Peterson
How blessed the man who walks not in
The counsel of those led by sin,
Who does not stand where sinners might,
Nor join the scoffer’s foolish din.
Instead he has for his delight
The meditation day and night
Upon the word of God that he
May stand in righteousness and light.
He firmly planted, like a tree
Beside a stream, shall faithfully
Put forth his fruit and strongly stand
With guaranteed prosperity.
But wicked men, an evil band,
Will fall beneath God’s mighty hand,
And much like chaff is blown away,
Are cast out of the righteous land.
The Lord is watching o’er the way
Of those who love him and obey;
But wicked men who go astray
Shall be destroyed that final day.
Pastor Travis Peterson 