Monthly Archives: January 2010

Psalm 68:1 (ESV)

God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered;

and those who hate him shall flee before him!

Does the hatred and abuse and sorrow and disease and pain and warfare and cruelty and selfishness and greed and hunger and homelessness and emptiness and hollowness and idolatry and deception and godlessness and meaninglessness and fruitlessness and immorality and lust and faithlessness and hopelessness and lovelessness and lack of joy, lack of peace, lack of patience, lack of kindness, lack of goodness, lack of self control, lack of gentleness, lack of unity and horizontal vision and atheism and agnosticism and polytheism and pantheism and cultism and lying and stealing and adultery and murder and covetousness and family strife and divorce and domestic violence bother you?

Do you sometimes wonder if the promises of God to put an end to all that sin has done to the world are really going to be kept? Does the preponderance of evil and tragedy in the world make you wonder if God really is there? Does it make you wonder if He really has spoken?

Does the power of sin in your own life make you think that maybe you don’t have what the gospel promises or that the Gospel itself is a sham?

Look at the promise of Psalm 68:1. Remember that this promise was made over three thousand years ago. This is precisely why many do not believe. Mankind has been waiting a long time for the promises of God for a better world, to be realized. Doesn’t the fact that David was longing for a better world the same as we are indicate that his hope for God to intervene is all just vanity? Not in the least.

The Bible is the unfolding of a plan hatched in the eternal secret counsels of the Almighty. The triune God planned for the eternal Son to come and undo what sin had done.

The Old Testament maps out the need for the coming of Christ. The New Testament shows His life and death and victory over sin and tells those of us who know Him how to live in this world and then it shows us that He indeed will keep the ancient promises.

Time is not the factor that proves that God is a liar or worse, that He is not there. The time for the restoration of all things is set. God cannot lie. He is not slack concerning His promise. The reason He has not put an end to all things yet is because He is gracious and full of mercy. He is going to save more people. You want to see the end of this horribly sin infested system? Give the Gospel.

The fact that David longed for the Lord to come and put an end to evil does not mean God is lying or non-existent. It simply means that sin has always bothered the faithful. Cruelty has always been a concern for those who are created in the image of God and have not fallen into the depths of depravity as deeply as others have. It is not a discouraging thing that David longed for God to intervene and we are still praying the same prayer. It shows that the world really does need God to do something and it directs us right to Jesus.

Rejoice that you have more knowledge than David had when he wrote these words. And rejoice that God waited long enough for you to hear and believe the Gospel. And rejoice that there are hundreds of thousands yet unborn who will come to Christ and know the peace that you pray for and will be used by God to bring even more in.

God’s plan cannot be improved upon. Get in on it. Instead of just mourning the darkness, light a candle and be part of the solution. Be part of what God uses to consummate His coming when all evil will be destroyed once and for all. Oh what will we see when the promise is finally brought to pass.

Hebrews 7:23-25 – The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, [24] but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. [25] Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Our great high priest lives forever. He lives to make intercession for us – forever. Jesus is able to save us completely because He has triumphed over death and as the One who lives forever is constantly before the throne of God interceding for the saints.

If you are a believer, you can start worrying if the work of Jesus is sufficient for you, when Jesus dies. And when will that be? Never. Your salvation and cleansing by God is guaranteed for as long as Jesus is alive. Since He lives forever that is how long He will stand before the throne of God and plead your case for you.

Our confidence before God is not a matter of our performance. It is bound up in the life, work, and acceptability of Jesus Christ. Obedience to Christ is not the ground of our salvation. It is the inevitable result of our salvation. The ground is Christ, His death and resurrection and His eternal intercession at the right hand of the Father as our great high priest. This is liberating stuff. We do not save ourselves. We trust Christ to save us. He does all the work. We hide in Him and trust the power of His work on our behalf.

What the writer to the Hebrews is telling us here is that Christ has done all that could be done and now presents His death for us as a sufficient atonement for our sins. And it is sufficient. And it will always be sufficient. And we are saved as long as Jesus is alive. What a great salvation.

Psalm 22:1-3

To the choirmaster: according to The Doe of the Dawn. A Psalm of David.

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.

The most obviously prophetic Psalm in all the Psalter. Jesus cries the words of the this Psalm from the cross and there are obvious references to His death throughout the Psalm. Yet we should not forget that David was not merely prophesying about Christ on the cross. He was writing out of his own experience. There were people who were trying to kill David and he feels like God has abandoned him. God has not.

We would do well to remember also that the feelings he is expressing here were more true for Jesus than they were for him when he wrote the Psalm.

David felt abandoned by God. Jesus was abandoned by God.

David felt the absence of God’s care and intervention. Jesus experienced the absence of God’s care and intervention.

David believed that the trouble he was going through was not because of any wrong that he had done. Jesus knew that He had never done anything wrong His entire life.

David knew that if he got what he deserved from God he would have much more trouble than whatever it was that caused him to write this Psalm. Jesus knew that if He got what He deserved then He would never have been placed in such a horrifying position.

David knew that if he called on God then God would hear him and do something to help him. Jesus knew that when He called out to God, God would ignore Him and let Him suffer more in three hours than anyone else has ever suffered in a life time.

David would have avoided this calamity if he could have. Jesus and His Father orchestrated events to make sure that His suffering became a reality.

David hoped that this wouldn’t kill him. Jesus knew that this would kill Him and wanted to make sure that it did.

But there are comparisons of agreement as well as difference in the sufferings of Jesus and David.

David knew and hoped that this episode in his life would produce something good that would bring glory to God (Verses 25-31). Jesus knew that His voluntary act on the cross would result in a vast numberless multitude glorifying God forever.

David knew that if this killed him God would take him to glory and all would be well. Jesus knew that this would kill Him and that God would take Him to glory and He Himself would make all things well, forever.

David knew that God is incomprehensible and that in some truth not revealed to him good would come out of this. Jesus knew that the secret councils of the Almighty were being accomplished and that this was the thing that would guarantee the final defeat of evil.

David may have hoped that others would see his poem or his experiences and remember how he suffered. Jesus knew that His Father would send the Holy Spirit to the world and cause people to know about the cross and all it stood for and worship God forever.

David knew that even this crisis was temporary and that one day he would be living in peace and safety again. Jesus looked to the joy that was before Him and endured His cross.

What a marvel the Word of God is. What a work the cross of Christ is. The whole Bible tells us of the work of Christ to save His people from their sins. Christians read this and are struck with awe at what God has done for them. Non-believers read or hear the Word and are convinced of their need for Christ. Thank you Lord for weaving this account for us.

Hebrews 6:17-20 (ESV)

So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, [18] so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. [19] We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, [20] where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Hope – a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. Where there is no hope there is the welcoming of death as the only solution to a difficult problem. Where there is no hope we will have despair and failure and a sense of not even wanting to try.

The athlete who knows that he cannot beat his opponent will become a self fulfilling prophecy. Since he knows he cannot win he will not play as well as his opponent. But listen carefully to sports interviews. As the athlete is questioned about his or his team’s chances against all the odds the response will be that nothing is certain. “If we really manage to control the big star” or the yet to be defeated defence or manage to break free and get that pass down the line. If the opponent has a bad day or takes his eye off the ball. If it rains or snows or gets too hot. There is no end to the scenarios that the one being interviewed can project as helping them to beat even a seemingly unbeatable foe. If those scenarios are not run through the mind then the play will be lethargic and poor and lacking any attempt to win. Why bother? The end is decided anyway.

Hope in Jesus Christ is an anchor for the soul. The Christian is never without hope. We despair when we take our eyes off Him and look around at the situation.

God promises Israel a Messiah. Years go by, centuries go by. Millennia go by and Israel still waits and still hopes. And more than four thousand years after the first promise of a Saviour was made He is born. Hope is realized. Jesus came as promised. He lived and died as promised. He rose as promised. He left as promised.

He has promised to come again and bring in a new order where there will be no more death or pain or suffering or tears. It has been over two thousand years. But the God who was faithful to His first promise and sent Him after four thousand years plus, is the same God who will honour this promise as well.

If we have no hope of it happening then we will abandon God and go our own way. If there is no hope of God keeping His long awaited promise then that is what we should do. But God is faithful. He will keep His promise. He is not bound by our timetable. We have this hope that God will do for His children as He said He would. This keeps us from drifting away from Him. It secures us. It keeps our souls from drifting away from Him. It is an anchor for the soul.

Our security is based upon the truthfulness of the One who gives it. If God cannot be trusted then we have no anchor for the soul. But God is faithful and by two immutable things – the promise of God and the oath He made to Abraham – we have certainty that He will save us. Look nowhere else. Know the promises of God and find great hope.

Psalm 3:1-2 (ESV)

A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.

O Lord, how many are my foes!

Many are rising against me;

[2] many are saying of my soul,

there is no salvation for him in God. Selah

The superscription to this Psalm says that it was written by David when he was being pursued by his son Absalom. This may have been the low point of David’s whole life. His own son wants to murder him, his throne is in jeopardy, and the people are generally favourable to his enemies. Times could not be darker.

The interesting thing in the first two verses of this Psalm is the response of the people regarding David’s chances. David has many enemies. His popularity is waning. Looking around, people surmise that not even God can get David out of this mess. What a small God they think David has.

But the opinion is not far off from that of many Christians today. When things are going well some believers hardly think that prayer is required and when they are going badly they opine along the lines that this thing is too big for God to handle. This is rank unbelief.

One wonders how a person can believe that his eternal soul’s fate can be trusted to God but his cancer or debt or wayward children are too big for Him to rectify. The thinking of the people in Psalm 3 and similar thinking among those calling themselves believers have several characteristics that relate to their faith in Christ.

1) They think that their inability to see a solution to the problem means that there isn’t one. “Not even God can fix that!”. This is hubris. It is hubris because it says that there cannot possibly be a way out of this that I don’t know about or cannot foresee.

2) Faithlessness. “We cannot trust God in this situation because God can’t do anything to get us out of it.” This, of course will lead to taking matters into one’s own hands and become a self fulfilling prophecy. Since they know God cannot handle it they forsake God and things do truly get out of hand. This proves to them that they were right in not leaving things with God in the first place.

3) Denial of the Scriptures. The Bible is plain that all things work together for good to those who love God and are His called ones. But these people know better than that. They know that nothing good will come of it because not even God can make it turn for good. The Bible was wrong in this particular situation, as far as they are concerned.

4) Ignorance of the Scriptures. They need to read the story of David and see who won between him and Absalom. They need to see that the cross is a great victory. They need to read of Joseph and see the mighty providence of God at work through great distressing events. They need to read of Daniel and Jonah and Hosea and Habakkuk and The Apostle Paul and Peter. They should Hebrews 11 and then spend time in the Book of Revelation, not to figure out the future, but to see the sovereign hand of God bringing history to its designed end. And they need to read biographies of Christians who saw great things for good come out of great lives of difficulty.

The true believer will never say “there is no hope.” There is always hope as long as there is God and there will always be God.

Hebrews 6:17-18 (ESV)

So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, [18] so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

Psalm 103:14 is a stupendous piece of truth. It says that God remembers that we are dust. The eternal Father who can do whatever He pleases remembers that we cannot. It is never out of His sight that we are temporal, frail, ignorant, doubtful, uncertain, liable to pain and easily destroyed, easily distracted and easily fooled. And the fact that He remembers it means that He is concerned for us. He will use His resources for our good. He will speak to us in ways that we can understand. He will bring Himself to our level and communicate understandably. He who is incomprehensible will make Himself to be understood.

And this is what we encounter in Hebrews 6:17. God makes a promise to the Old Testament patriarchs (this most likely is the renewal of the covenant to Abraham in Genesis 15) and confirms it with an oath in order to show them the unchangeable character of His purpose.

Astounding. All God had to do was say “I am God and you have no need to question me. Now sit down and be quiet.” But He did not. He made a promise and to accommodate those to whom the promise was made He confirmed it with an oath. He remembers that even the patriarchs are made of dust. He is conscious of the weakness of man’s faith and to help them have confidence in what He has promised He uses a human instrument of guarantee.

But this does not just have implications for the original recipients of the promise. Because of God confirming the covenant by two unchangeable things – His word and His oath, verse 18 says that we now have a strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. All who believe are children of Abraham (Galatians 3:7) and the confirmed promise is as much ours as it was Abraham’s.

Have you fled to God for refuge from the due penalty of your sin? Have you fled to Him for salvation? Are you trusting Him to do for you what you cannot do for yourself? He turns none away who flee to Him. You can have the same encouragement that Abraham had. Doubt yourself if you must, but you need never doubt the Word of the One who promised to save you and confirmed it with an oath.

What a liberating thing this is!! Get on with the business of living for the praise of God’s glory. He has you. You do not need to stare at your navel and wonder if He will save you. Go live for God. Attempt great things for God for He has promised to grant you far greater than you will ever do for Him. Your faith is as secure as the promises of God. And that makes all other security look pretty fragile. Wrestle in His power for He uses it for you.

Hebrews 6:11-15 (ESV)

And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, [12] so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. [13] For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, [14] saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” [15] And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

The faithful will inherit the promises made to them. Period. The author has said to some in the church in verse 11 that he desires them to show earnestness and inherit the promises. If they do not it will not be the fault of the promise Maker. God has made the promise. If there is anything that we can be sure of it is that the promise will be kept. God is faithful. God cannot lie. God has sworn an oath by the greatest thing possible – Himself.

If you do not receive a reward from God it will not be because He broke His word. That is impossible. It will be because you did not meet the conditions. He uses Abraham as an example. Abraham received a promise from God and waited twenty-five years before he saw it fulfilled.

Do you ever doubt that God is going to keep up His end of the bargain? Abraham waited a long time before he saw the promised son born and he died never having seen the Messiah that was promised and for which he also waited (Hebrews 11:39).

Are you willing to serve Christ here knowing that your reward will not come before you die? Do you believe that God will not lie to you? Do you work with joy because you really believe that God has in store for you a reward that is magnificently great and worth dying for; worth living all your life and not seeing the reward this side of glory? Must you see God come through now in this life in order for your faith to remain? Then you have no real faith at all. You need to get to know God better.

“Waiting patiently” does not mean for a week or a year. It means a lifetime. If you serve God for the benefits you receive here you are going to be disappointed. Of course there is the peace with God, the joy of sins forgiven, the satisfaction of living a God pleasing life, the wonder of grace, and the wonder of helping someone come to know the Saviour. These things grip us daily and they are rewards beyond description.

But they are not the rewards that this text is talking about and they are not the rewards that we are called to patiently wait for. We wait for our reward with great joy because we know that God is faithful.

The teaching that says that God never desires for you to be sick and will make you materially rich is a curse from the pit. It is a denial of the self-denial that we are called to. It is a surrendering up of the permanent which is far better, for the temporary which is to be burned up in a fervent heat. We an do immeasurably better than the trinkets and bobbles that those who sell this snake oil have to offer.

Persevere to the end dear ones. We are going to inherit the promises. God has said so and that is enough for us.