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Back to the Bible

I remember reading the assembly instructions as a kid for something my dad was putting together and was told that we didn’t need them.  My protests over a handful of screws when the contraption was built were dismissed with the explanation that companies always put in extras.  The product worked, yes, but not like it should.

The Manufacturer of mankind has left us a manual, God’s Word, the Bible.  So, it would make sense, for maximum effectiveness, to follow the guidelines set forth by the One who designed you, created every cell, breathed life into you, and then “beforehand” planned works for you to do (Ephesians 2:10).  This is why Jesus, the Word made flesh, came—to give us life abundantly (John 10:10).  Underscoring its importance, every time Jesus said a version of “Have you not read …?” He was bringing His listeners back to the Bible.

Now I know that each of us can point to neighbors, coworkers, and friends who have never followed the Bible or perhaps live its precepts in a randomized way, picking and choosing tasty tidbits like dishes on a buffet, and they all seem to have pretty good and functional lives.  This can be particularly hard on preacher’s kids (PKs) in small churches in the Northeast as they see their friends in public school seemingly having life more together than the handful of kids in their Bible classes and VBS.

But, do they really?  Even though I ministered to others from the Bible, I realized pretty quickly that I had a compromised version of my Christianity early in my wife’s ongoing eight-year battle with cancer—but especially in the past six months.  My foundation of faith was not as solid as it needed to be to endure the trials that forced us to live separately since January and unable to help each other with the other’s battle front.

Just as Moses was told to build everything according to the pattern shown to him on the mountain (Hebrews 8:5), I dug deep to return back-to-the-Bible to build up my prayer life and trust in Him.  Reasoning that God, who loved us unconditionally and was working for our good (Romans 8), knew what was best for my life and was entirely in control of the circumstances, I have flourished in my faith where many believed I should have floundered.

‘Back to the Bible’ is more than just an academic exercise or pithy saying.  It is a deep and determined commitment to delve into doctrine that saves and enriches your life.  It fortifies the foundation of your faith so that you may function well in the best of times and are prepared to fight during the worst.

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The Old Rugged Cross

We are to let the Word dwell in us richly, Colossians 3:16 tells us, and one of those ways to teach and admonish with thankfulness in our hearts is by singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to one another.  “The Old Rugged Cross” is a beloved hymn that proclaims Jesus’ death for our sins and then gives us a glimpse of our glorious future if we not only obey but live out the gospel.

I. Romans 3:21-25.  After describing the place of Jesus’ vicarious sacrifice (John 19:17-19), the song tells us that the cross is an “emblem of suffering and shame” (Galatians 3:11-13).  And yet we “love that old cross.”  How?  Because, we discover, that the “dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain.”  As we realize that Jesus died for us, we want to live for Him (Galatians 2:19-21) … and the horrific cross takes on new meaning.

II. John 15:18-19.  The world doesn’t get it, and in the best of its wisdom despises the cross … and so us who have obeyed the gospel and are living it out in our lives (1 Corinthians 1:18-25).  But to us, the cross is the power of God and the wisdom of God.  That the “dear Lamb of God” would leave His “glory above” to “pardon and sanctify me” (John 1:29; John 17:4-5) is the “wondrous beauty I see.”

III. 1 Peter 4:12-13.  Then promising that living out the principles of the gospel will be hard, we’re encouraged in the song to persevere to one day share in Jesus’ glory.  If we “cling to the old, rugged cross,” we will one day secure a crown (James 1:12).

Since Jesus gave all for you, won’t you give all for Him?

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Between You and Your God

The impact of the gospel becomes real at the moment Jesus cries out with “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” while on the cross.  This is the whole reason for the “good news” in the first place.  Man, who is separated from God because of sin, can not pay back the debt he owes, so God becomes a man, who does not sin, to pay back man’s debt to God.

I.  1 Corinthians 15:1-4.  From incarnation to intercession, Jesus’ redemptive work at the cross and the tomb is called a matter of first importance and works together to save us (Hebrews 7:23-25).  We each choose to obey or not obey the gospel (Romans 6:1-18) as Jesus overcomes our sin problem (Isaiah 59:1-4) by having our sins punished in Himself (2 Corinthians 5:21) and then solving our grave problem by resurrecting from the dead.

II.  Romans 7:18-20.  Sins are either those we commit (when we do what we shouldn’t) or omit (don’t do what we should).  Even the smallest hint of either will separate us from a holy God (Ephesians 4:17–5:7).  If we just look at the seven deadly sins (although every sin is deadly!), we can see how they all overlap in and work to destroy individuals’ spiritual, physical, and emotional/mental realms.  We need Jesus’ redemptive work of the gospel to remove the separation that sin has made between us and God.

III.  Romans 14:10-12.  We must own our sins before Jesus can take them away.  This means letting their devastating impact to our souls and the awaiting judgment for them truly strike us.  Then, we can appreciate what Jesus has done for us and can obey the gospel by believing (John 8:24), repenting of our sins (Luke 13:3), confessing Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:9), and being baptized into His Name for the forgiveness of sins (1 Peter 3:21).

But the gospel doesn’t stop there … as those who have come into Christ must continue to live obediently (Philippians 2:12-13).  Jesus has died for you.  Are you living in Him?

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In Him is No Darkness

If asked, many would say that Lincoln is on the penny … but it is only his likeness.  Jesus states that He and His Father are one (John 10:30), but how does that oneness come about?  And how can we get in on that perfect fellowship with God?

I.  1 John 1:5-7.  God’s character is that there is no darkness at all.  Light throws off no shadow.  God is good, for our good (Romans 8:28-29), so that we will do good (Ephesians 2:10).  We can live a lie and tell others that we are in fellowship with God, but we will only fool ourselves and some others.  We will never deceive God, who knows our true nature and motives.

II.  Colossians 1:15-20.  The Son, who claims oneness with the Father, is an exact representation of the Father’s character and radiance.  He has that because He in the flesh abides in the Father and the Father in Him (John 14:8-11).  We are told to abide in Christ by living His commandments (John 15:4-11), a process which comes as a result of much discipline (Hebrews 12:7-14) but allows us to be perfected in holiness to share in fellowship with Him.

III.  1 John 1:8 — 2:6.  Fallen from the image of God in which we were created, Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross renews that image in Him (Colossians 3:5-10) through the discipline process (Ephesians 4:20 — 5:2).  To share in oneness with God is to take on His perfect nature; then we can have fellowship with Him and other Christians who are also walking in the light as Jesus does.

To truly be Jesus’ disciple, our walk needs to match our talk.

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The Two Shall Become One Flesh

It’s often said that God created two institutions: marriage (and so the family unit) and the church.  Hebrews 10:1 indicates that the Law is the shadow of the reality to come.  Since the overall theme of the Bible is a holy God redeeming sinful man, then Ephesians 5 describing marriage as the shadow to understand the reality of Jesus’ bride, the blood-bought church, being presented to the Bridegroom at the wedding supper of the Lamb makes sense.

I.  Ephesians 5:22-33.  In figurative language, something that is unknown is described by what is known.  In this case, the relationship between a husband and wife is explained as the one between Christ and His church … and vice versa.  The marriage verse of Genesis 2:24 is quoted and then is directly applied to Jesus and His bride.  We know that earthly marriage only lasts until death or judgment (Matthew 22:29-30; Matthew 24:38-39).  Therefore, to help us better understand the oneness we need to have with God, our heavenly Father gave us the shadow of earthly marriage here.

II.  John 10:30.  Several are described as walking with God (Genesis 3:8; Genesis 5:24; Genesis 6:9).  In Enoch’s case, his fellowship with the Almighty let him escape death (Hebrews 11:5).  The Son, who was sinless (Hebrews 4:15), was in perfect oneness with the Father.  Through His redeeming work at the cross and tomb, Jesus makes it possible for us to live in a restored relationship with Him once again (1 John 2:6).

III.  John 14:9-14.  In Revelation 21:2, the church is presented as a bride adorned for her husband.  Blessed are those who are at the wedding supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6-9) when the two become one flesh.  To be one with God, we first need to be baptized into Him (Galatians 3:26-27).  Then we need to continue to abide in Him through obedience and continual repentance.

Earthly marriages fail because of wedges in the oneness.  Christians fail because they allow wedges of sin and selfishness to come between them and their Bridegroom and cease to remain in the bride.  God wants all to come to repentance.  Are you heading to a wedding?

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And Sent Her Throughout … Israel

I don’t believe the USPS or FED-UPS would have shipped it.  The contents were definitely ‘fragile,’ ‘liquid,’ and ‘perishable.’  As terrible as the Levite’s actions were in cutting up his dead concubine after she had been abused by the Benjaminites the whole night and sending the pieces to the twelve tribes of Israel, it did have the effect of waking them up to their spiritual drifting from God’s Law.

I.  Judges 19:1-30.  In a scene reminiscent of Sodom in Genesis 19, the Levite found his host’s home surrounded by men in Gibeah (where King Saul would come from) wanting to sexually abuse him.  In a decision that is heinous to today’s sensitivities and not better explained away by ancient hospitality laws, the Levite’s concubine was given to them instead.  Sending her body parts into Israel provoked outrage and war as this woke the nation up to their spiritual slumber since Moses had mediated the Law on Mt. Sinai many years before.

II.  John 15:18-21.  Throughout Scripture, God used extreme acts to awaken His people, but the result was to bring them back into a right relationship with Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24).  Today, it seems that many calling themselves Christian use these extreme actions to protest against truth and groups they feel are stodgy or reactionary.  They call for Christians to blend in with the culture and water-down the gospel to feel-good emotions that are reliant on experience.  Spiritual discipline is hard to market (Hebrews 12:5-11), and Jesus said that His followers were not to blend in with the world.

III.  Matthew 25:1-10.  It takes work to be and stay prepared spiritually (1 Thessalonians 5:5-6), but true worshipers will determine to put this effort above all else.  This is yet another purpose for the church as we each encourage another and spur on to good deeds (Hebrews 10:24-25).  The alarm clock is set (Matthew 24:42-44), but we may be hitting the snooze button.

What would it take to awaken you to your spiritual slumber and urge you to awaken others?

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Is It Better For You …?

In the Calvin & Hobbes cartoon strip, Calvin often played calvinball, a game in which the rules were always changing to benefit him.  That’s how “Christian chameleons” often treat the truth, changing it to appeal to a wider audience, blend in better with the culture, or benefit themselves in some way.

The question we need to ask is: are we seeking to please self or God?

I.  Judges 18:3-20.  When Joshua divided the promised land among the tribes of Israel, God scattered the Levites throughout the tribes to remind them of His covenant and Law.  In the previous chapter, the Levite was so glad to be employed by Micah that he never says anything against his master’s carved image, household gods, or the location of worship.  When 600 armed Danites ask him if it was better to serve one man or a whole tribe, the Levite goes with them, never mentioning God, the tabernacle, proper worship, what God desired, or the need to be holy as God is holy.

II.  1 Timothy 4:16.  When we don’t watch our life and doctrine closely, we fall into selfishness and sin or compromise truth because of cultural pressures.  In both cases we stray from being a true worshiper in spirit and in truth (John 4:24), become a friend to the world (James 4:1-4), and seek to please self rather than God (2 Corinthians 5:9).  Rather, we must seek first His Kingdom and righteousness (Matthew 6:33) and do everything in word and deed in His Name (Colossians 3:17).

III.  Ezekiel 22:23-30.  During the Babylonian captivity, Ezekiel tells us how those who should have been standing firm on truth had strayed in their duties.  He lays God’s charges against the priests, princes, prophets, and people and ends with the lament that there was no one to stand in the breach.  This was true in the time of judges, captivity … but not today.  Jesus stood in the breach for us by the cross and then turned His work over to His followers to be the light of the world (John 9:1-5).

Are you?  Will you stand in the breach to tell a sinful world the saving message of the gospel?  Or will you compromise with the culture?  Will you do what is pleasing to you or God?  You cannot live your live by “Is it better for you …?”  Rather, it should be “Is it better for God …?”

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That She Might Be Holy

In the Beauty & the Beast, it is the beast who changes over the course of the story.  That’s how we would like wedding supper of the Lamb to go.  “Just As I Am” means that Christ ought to accept His bride without any change on her part while the Lion of Judah must be transformed into our image.

The Bible, however, shows a very different picture–one that describes a process of perfection that we must undergo to share in Jesus’ holiness.

I.  Ephesians 5:25.  Like God’s people of the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 7:6-8), there’s nothing special about us that the Bridegroom would choose us (1 Corinthians 1:26-28).  We are the nothings of this world, despised and rejected (Ezekiel 16:4-7), yet God loved us, and Jesus gave Himself for us (John 3:16-17).

II.  Ephesians 5:26.  We are not okay the way we are but dirty, sinful, and separated from Him.  Jesus perfects His bride, the church, through a sanctification process (Ezekiel 16:8-12).  This was made possible through His sacrifice on the cross and involves much discipline on our part (Hebrews 12:7-14).  The result, however, is that we share in His holiness if we are trained by it (Ephesians 4:20-24).

III.  Ephesians 5:27.   Once perfected, we advance to royalty (Ezekiel 16:13-14) as the King of Kings presents the church to Himself (1 Peter 2:9-10).  There is no doubt that the sanctified bride will be presented to the Lion of Judah (Revelation 21:1-4).  All that is to be determined is if you will be part of the bride.

We are given the opportunity to share in Christ’s character–holiness, but many do not work out their salvation with fear and trembling.  In describing how God’s people of the Old Testament did not go through the sanctification process, Ezekiel gives us a bleak picture of their end in Ezekiel 16:15-22.  May we remember where we’ve been, recall the price of our sanctification, and live our new lives as the bride of Christ.

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The Lord Will Prosper Me

Little Jack Horner

Sat in a corner

Eating a Christmas pie;

He stuck in his thumb

And pulled out a plumb, 

And said, “What a good boy am I.”

Why did Jack isolate himself to the corner?  Was it to eat a pie he had stolen?  Or so he didn’t need to share it with anyone?  The lack of utensils would point to this.  And, is just declaring himself ‘good’ mean that he is now indeed good despite his behavior?

That’s how sinners and others who stray from God’s Word would like to have it, especially in this politically correct culture in which each person develops his own standard of conduct and declares it ‘good.’  But, God has a standard recorded in the pages of Scripture that He tells us to follow.

I.  Judges 17:1-13.  Five wrongs don’t make a right.  Micah steals from his mother, but to his credit returns the silver.  His mother then has it made into an idol, which Micah puts into his home, makes a shine, other gods, and articles of worship for it, and installs his sons as priests to it.  The writer interjects an explanation here that everyone at this time did what was right in his own eyes (Matthew 7:6-13).  Then, Micah gets a Levite to be a priest to the idol and declares that God will now prosper him because he has made a sad attempt at restoring his actions to God’s Word.

II.  2 Chronicles 34:15-21.  But, is ‘good enough’ good enough for God?  We can fool ourselves, but God knows our true motives (Proverbs 16:1-3).  James 1:5-8 tells us that He’ll help us with wisdom, and James 4:3-4 reminds us that we can’t compromise with the world.  While the world tells us that truth is whatever we make it, God says that’s not so (Proverbs 30:20).  Instead, we need to repent and return to God’s Word like Josiah or like the church at Ephesus was encouraged to do (Revelation 2:4-6).

III.  2 Corinthians 5:6-10.  Cain was told that if he did what was right, he would be accepted (Genesis 4:6-7).  The prodigal son needed to come to his senses and get up and return to his father (Luke 15:17-20) to be pleasing.  So, we must repent and submit to God’s will (James 4:7-10) if we are to please God.  We can’t just declare ourselves pleasing to God with the plumb from the stolen pie on our thumb and expect Him to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Perhaps we should rewrite the nursery tale:

Little Jack Horner

Got up from the corner

Returning his Christmas pie;

He repented of sin

Was restored from within, 

And said, “What a good boy am I.”

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And His Strength Left Him

Like Superman, Samson had great strength, but he had his kryptonite–women!  Many like to blame Delilah (and she was certainly evil), but Samson, like us, was lured and enticed by his own evil desire.

I. Judges 16:1-30.  Though the text says “loved,” there’s no indication that Samson had anything but a very shallow relationship with Delilah, perhaps not much more than he had with his “heifer” who was burned (Judges 14) or the prostitute.  But like that first wife, Delilah worked with the Philistines to undo Samson by using her feminine wiles four times to discover the secret of his strength.  Now, Samson’s thickheadedness in not recognizing what she was doing each time he fought off men doesn’t excuse his giving in and telling this evil woman (she tormented him in his sleep!) and thus throwing away God’s gift.

II. James 1:1:13-15.  We too cannot blame others or circumstances … or the devil (Sorry, Flip Wilson) for giving in to temptation.  Like the foolish youth of Proverbs 7:6-23, we get lured and enticed by our own desire.  We must fight against it.  While in the flesh and made like us in every way, Jesus did in Gethsemane when he committed to following His Father’s will and not his own.  David didn’t do so well (2 Samuel 11), but Joseph resisted Potiphar’s wife’s advances (Genesis 39).  We must submit to God and resist the devil who is fanning the flame of our desire (James 4:7-10).

III. 2 Corinthians 7:10-11.  In Casting Crowns “Slow Fade,” the husband and father doesn’t realize how he is giving himself away.  Samson certainly didn’t get it.  But Judges 16:18-20 tells us that when he gave in, his strength left him … because the Lord left him.  The ending of Samson’s story shows that he went for vengeance rather than repentance.  Let that not be our end as God is willing to forgive and restore if we turn our hearts and minds back to Him through godly sorrow and right actions.

Each person’s Delilah is constantly there, working at us until we are vexed to death.  How we handle these temptations will determine if we hold onto our strength or die with the Philistines.