Issue: Godly Distinction: Christian Beauty in a World Cursed by the Ugly

Slice of Life: Yesterday at PT, I was jogging my favorite trail on post. The reason it’s my favorite is because much of it parallels a creek that runs almost all year. In the driest days of summer, it will sometimes stall; but when the next thunderstorm comes, it’s running again. To the sides of the creek are some of my favorite trees and shrubs and vines: myriad oaks, dogwoods, magnolias, and massive sycamore trees. And along the edge of the trail, currently the honeysuckle, jessamine, and blackberries are growing. The May air is thick with the scents of honeysuckle and yellow jessamine. I imbibed both each time I passed that side of the creek. And when I ran under the massive sycamores, my memory took me back to Grandma and Granddaddy’s place, where Granddaddy had a massive sycamore on the east side of his house, and it’s still there today, towering over that property, even though Grandma and Granddaddy have since passed. But I’ve many fond memories of hunting Easter eggs under that tree and around all the azaleas and monkey grass they throughout the yard. Such simple pleasures and simple memories.

Two Ways of Being: There is much beauty about still, but you must be able to see it. When I checked the news this morning online, the first headline was of two murders in our nation’s capital city. Two Jewish employees were murdered by another Islamic terrorist. This scenario gets played out so often, I suspect many have grown cold to it. The tragedy gets politicized, lots of shouting and cursing one another’s sides occurs, and the headline fades as quickly as it appeared. Meanwhile, two more young people have been murdered. The temptation is to give in to the forces of darkness, to throw up our hands and gasp, “It’ll never change. This is just our world now.” Well, it will be if good people remain silent. My prayer is that we won’t, however. You don’t conquer darkness by hiding the light. Christ teaches clearly on this theme.

Text: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16, ESV).

Encouragement: We were told in that in this world we would battle trouble (John 16:33) due to the Fall. The cosmos groans under a curse; again, we were told this up front (Romans 8:22-23). Nevertheless, the Christian is called to be a light in the darkness, (Matthew 5:14-16), a fragrant aroma (2 Corinthians 2:15-16). Rather than succumbing to the forces of evil, rise above them, much like those giant sycamores and majestic oaks I love so much, rise far above the floors of the forest, making the jogs that much sweeter.

Context, Context, Context: Will We Notice the Motives of the Enemies of Christ?

The Pharisees’ Stated Issue: Divorce

The Real Issue: Sin

Text: Matthew 19:1-12

Historical context: Jesus was closer and closer to his crucifixion. He had completed his public ministry in the northern parts of Israel (Galilee) and had set his face towards Jerusalem, where he would give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). The confrontations with Pharisees and scribes and others hostile to the truth were approaching a boiling point.

V. 3 of Matthew 19 is so important to read carefully: “And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” (Mt 19:3, ESV). Did you catch it? To test Jesus.

Their motives were not about theological accuracy. You don’t have to do a whole lot of research of 1st century Judaism to see that divorce was rampant, that women were of little value in Judaism, that divorces under Rabbi Hillel’s teachings were permissible for a wife even burning her husband’s breakfast or for anything the husband deemed an indiscretion. In the stricter Rabbinical teachings of Shammai, the conditions for divorce were more limited to what the husband considered sexual immorality. The sects within Judaism were in conflict with one another. So, what was the motive of the Pharisees? To test God.

The same Moses to whom the Pharisees refer in Matthew 19 also wrote this: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah” (Dt 6:16, ESV). Interesting how those whose motives are to trap Jesus fail to cite that verse. Why might that be?

So, what did Jesus do? He took them right back to God in the creation, back to the Scriptures, not to extrabiblical Rabbinical traditions of sinful men. Here was Jesus’ response: “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female . . .” (Mt 19:4, ESV). In other words, Moses came much later in the history of redemption. The Fall happened in the garden, and it changed everything that came afterwards. Man’s sin is the underlying reason that God allows divorce. Moses provided reasons for it; Jesus provided reasons for it; Paul provided reasons for it, etc.

Jesus drives the point home further in v. 8: “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so” (Mt 19:8, ESV).

God ordained marriage between one man and one woman (Gen 1:27-28; 2:24; Mal 2:14; Mt 19:6). And God hates divorce (Malachi 2:16). And yet God allows it under certain circumstances. The point Jesus makes again and again to the Pharisees is that divorce, like other sins, is a consequence of man’s moral rebellion against God; we are hard-hearted (sklērokardia). That’s the word Jesus uses in v. 8.

Some people would like to make divorce the unforgivable sin. Or they labor to put a scarlet letter upon divorce, such that it’s “the really bad sin” but their own sins of legalism and pride are mere trifles, of course. They’re experts at seeing the speck in others’ eyes, but blind to the beams in their own eyes (Mt 7:3).

Again and again, Jesus drives home the point: Our fallenness, our hard-heartedness, is the crucial sin for which we need new hearts. And that heart transplant comes by way of the gospel of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 5:21).

Encouragement: I know many, many people who have been divorced. And you know what? They’re sinners–just like you and I are. But they’re not less valuable people. Let us not forget that. Christ came into the world to save whom? Sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). Let us not erect barriers to forgiveness that Christ has demolished. Otherwise, we’re just like the ghastly Pharisees Jesus rebuked in the gospels.

Issue: Praying Against Evil & Evildoers

Questions: Do we have warrant for praying against evil and evildoers? Do we have historical examples of praying against evil and evildoers? Are we not in fact instructed to pray against evil and those who perpetrate it? Yes, we have warrant. Yes, we have historical examples. And yes, we are instructed to pray against evil and those who perpetrate evil. Below are two examples from David and two examples from Christ:

• “Deliver me, O LORD, from evil men; preserve me from violent men, who plan evil things in their heart and stir up wars continually. They make their tongue sharp as a serpent’s, and under their lips is the venom of asps” (Psalm 140:1-3, ESV).
• “Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked; do not further their evil plot, or they will be exalted!” (Psalm 140:8, ESV).
• “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15, ESV).
• “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him” (Matthew 4:10-11, ESV).

The first two examples are from David. David, though a fallen man, a man who had one of his own military men (Uriah) set up to be murdered, a man who was an adulterer, a man who failed as a dad, especially with his son Absalom, was nonetheless a contrite man, a broken man, a man redeemed by God. One cannot read the 51st psalm, e.g., without feeling the depth of David’s humility and brokenness before the Lord. And in Scripture, David is called a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22). David, though fallen, was redeemed. And as a redeemed sinner, he prayed against evil and evildoers (Psalm 140).

The second two examples are from Christ himself. Jesus, the second person of the triune God, had taken on flesh in the incarnation. The holy One of God had condescended to us sinners. In his prayer from John 17, in what’s often called the High Priestly Prayer, because one of Jesus’ mediatorial roles is that of the High Priest who intercedes on behalf of those he represents to God, he prays protection from the demonic.

Christ is our mediator, Scripture teaches (1 Timothy 2:5-6). Jesus prayed that his followers/disciples/Christians would be kept from the evil one, i.e., Satan. And when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, part of his model prayer for them included to pray to not be led into temptation but to be delivered from evil (Luke 11:1-4).

Encouragement: So, should we pray against evil and evildoers? Yes. Do we have multiple examples in Scripture of Christ, the disciples, Old Testament saints, apostles, and believers praying against evil and workers of iniquity? Yes. Has God promised that all who are in Christ will be kept by God’s power against the forces of hell? Yes (John 6:37-40).

In my own life, I have found that God draws me to himself often through the crucible of suffering wherein I will see the evil that is pervasive. If people don’t see the spiritual warfare we are all in, they are blind (2 Corinthians 4:4). Therefore, we should align with the spirit the disciples had that day when they said to the Lord Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Bottom line up front: Responses to the truth-tellers

Illustration: On my way to post the other day, I had a 3-hour drive. It had recently rained. The roads were wet across much of the state. But that did not seem to slow enough drivers down. I witnessed the wreckage of multiple crashes on the drive down. Maybe it’s because I’ve driven these roads for so many years, but I can almost guarantee that you’ll see crashes and skid marks and ambulances and firetrucks on just about any day you drive in or around metro Atlanta, especially if it’s raining or has recently rained. Many folks just refuse to slow down.

Anyway, when I had gotten through the city and was on I-85 south, I thought I had seen all the crashes I was going to see for this Sunday. But I was wrong. When I neared the 85 and 185 split, a driver headed north had apparently hydroplaned with his car on the interstate. His car had turned 180 degrees and crashed into the median, but not before a line of drivers behind him crashed into one another like dominoes. Flames issued from the first car, even in the still-humid thick air. The traffic headed north was at a complete standstill, except for the GHP, firetrucks, EMS, wreckers, and ambulances. They were all racing up the side of the highway, trying to get to survivors and to whatever/whomever else remained.

And it all got me thinking: If people died in that horrible incident, had they given any thought to ultimate matters that day? Had they even crossed their minds–questions about God, about their souls, about the brevity of life? I don’t know, but is it not worth asking?

Teaching: In Isaiah 62:6, God says there, “On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they never be silent” (Isaiah 62:6a, ESV). Much of Isaiah is written in poetic, figurative language, but all he is saying there is this: God sends truth-tellers into his world, into our lives. But we’re not promised them indefinitely. In other words, we’ve all got a due date. And I think it is only wise for us to face that reality while we can and get things right.

Encouragement: I have no idea if or how many people died Sunday on the interstate that I (and thousands of others) drive every week. But I cannot shake the image of those burning cars from my mind’s eye. The cars were just metal and plastic and rubber, but they contained men and women, boys and girls, who were created in God’s image, and I wonder if they knew the truth and heard the truth savingly, before it was too late.

God has sent his prophetic truth-tellers to us, again and again. How did we treat them? God says it this way through his prophet Jeremiah: “I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them persistently, saying, ‘Turn now every one of you from his evil way, and amend your deeds, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to you and your fathers.’ But you did not incline your ear or listen to me” (Jer 35:15, ESV). Cemeteries are filled with folks who thought those are just for other people. We should listen and heed God’s truth-tellers, for we know not when the rains may fall.

Questions: How important is our spiritual foundation? How important should it be?

Context: In Christian theology, one of the core attributes we see revealed repeatedly in Scripture is that God knows everything (omniscience). Is it not both prudent and wise, therefore, for us to look to the One who is omniscient? Asked another way, should not the wise person build upon the foundation of the One who knows all, the Creator of all things?

Text: I love the way David phrases it in Psalm 139:1-18:

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.

Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
f I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.

Teaching: What we see in Psalm 139 are the heart and mind of a man who has been gripped by God. God is not just a name David throws out there like Hollywood actors might throw out a pittance of appreciation when accepting a prize. God is not a t-shirt slogan or lettering on a rubber bracelet. In Psalm 139, we see a man with a heart and mind renewed by God such that the tone and timbre of David’s theology here are those of benediction. David knows that God sees him through and through. And so, David is a humble man. Why? Because he knows God is holy and that none of us escapes God. We cannot outrun God.

David, in talking to the Lord, says that the Lord “formed [his] inward parts” and “knitted [him] together in [his] mother’s womb” (v. 13, ESV). That’s an intimacy that staggers the mind. I remember when I was in graduate school many moons ago, and where I went to university, we were just a few miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway. We would hike the trails often that wind through the Smokies and much of the Appalachian Trail. But if night came sooner than we planned for, when darkness fell upon us, and those stars became visible on clear nights, and the moon glowed in its ghostly light over those magisterial hills and forests, it all humbled us. Why? Because we realized—time and time again—that God is so much bigger and more majestic than we often understand. The stars and planets and galaxies stretched on and on. Their Author is greater still. Who laid the foundation of all that we beheld on those starlit nights in western NC? It wasn’t us. It wasn’t David in Psalm 139.

Encouragement: When it comes to our spiritual foundation, we often don’t know how desperately we need it until we’re amidst times of duress or suffering. And those times invariably come. How vital, therefore, for us to build upon the Rock rather than shifting sands. As David penned in v. 14 of Psalm 139: “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14, ESV). David knew the Foundation was not wish fulfillment, or psychological mumbo-jumbo, or pep talks, but rather the One who says, “ Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, ESV). The Foundation is not only there, but He welcomes us pilgrims all the way home.

Bottom line up front: Faithfulness when no one’s watching

Text: Numbers 22

Context: It is too long of a chapter for such a forum as a blog/email, so here’s the summary: God is faithful to his covenant promises. Israel was camping in the plains of Moab, just north of the Dead Sea. The people of Moab had heard of God’s mighty works for Israel. So, the enemies of God (personified in the Moabite king Balak) tried to bribe one of Israel’s leaders (Balaam) so that Balaam would curse his own people (Israel). Initially, Balaam resisted the temptation. But after Israel’s enemies upped their offer of remuneration, Balaam opened the door to the enemies of Israel. But he was very sneaky in the way he did it. He cloaked it in spiritual-sounding language: “So you, too, please stay here tonight, that I may know what more the LORD will say to me” (Numbers 22:19, ESV). But here’s the rub: God had already told him clearly not to go with Israel’s enemies, not to give the enemies a foothold, and not ever to curse what God has covenanted to bless: “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed” (Numbers 22:12, ESV).

Encouragement: Balaam was ultimately humiliated. Why? Because he gave in to temptation. He gave in to the lure of wealth. He gave in to his lust for his own comfort. He put himself (i.e., his own self-interest) before those he was to represent. Rather than being faithful when he thought no one was watching, he tried to minimize the fact that the Lord is always watching. The Lord does not sleep or slumber. He sees all. And so, we should labor to be faithful when we might be tempted to think that no one is watching. Why? Because we’re called to the highest standard of fidelity—God’s. In short, there was more than one ‘donkey’ in Numbers 22. There was the four-legged beast who was saddled with leather, but also the one who sat upon the leather saddle. Faithfulness is all.

My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled,
Quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun,
All felled, felled, are all felled;
Of a fresh and following folded rank
Not spared, not one
That dandled a sandalled
Shadow that swam or sank
On meadow & river & wind-wandering weed-winding bank.

O if we but knew what we do
When we delve or hew —
Hack and rack the growing green!
Since country is so tender
To touch, her being só slender,
That, like this sleek and seeing ball
But a prick will make no eye at all,
Where we, even where we mean
To mend her we end her,
When we hew or delve:
After-comers cannot guess the beauty been.
Ten or twelve, only ten or twelve
Strokes of havoc unselve
The sweet especial scene,
Rural scene, a rural scene,
Sweet especial rural scene.

(G.M. Hopkins, “Binsey Poplars,” 1879)

Question #1: Have you ever seen something so clearly but others could not see it, and you felt frustrated? Up until my forties, I had strong eyesight, especially at long distances. When hiking, I would point out distant peaks or spot birds far out, and tell my buddies, “Look! See him? A peregrine falcon, just to the right of the cypress limb jutting out from that ledge!” And when my buds could not spot the bird, I would feel frustrated, thinking to myself, “How can you guys not see that? It’s clear as day.”

Question #2: How much more important, therefore, is it for Christians to be people of discernment? Just this week, another up-and-coming pastor was confronted by his own fellow elders at Pray’s Mill Baptist Church in Douglasville, GA after they had accumulated mounds of evidence about their own pastor. What had their own pastor been doing? Among other things, the lead pastor had established anonymous email and social media accounts wherein he would mock and troll those he was trying to sabotage, men of whom he was jealous. Let that sink in: this was the lead pastor doing this. Now the pastor is another ‘former pastor.’ What’s more, he only admitted his devious ways after multiple denials. He dug his heels in for a long time, despite being discovered. So that surely prompts us to ask, Is this genuine repentance now or just embarrassment over being discovered?

I find no joy in seeing yet another so-called pastor being revealed as a fraud and a snake. Scripture warns us of this repeatedly (Acts 20:29-30; John 10:12; 1 Cor 11:19; 2 Cor 11:13, etc.). In this case, Josh repeatedly tried to sabotage his fellow elders; he aimed to marginalize his own people. He labored furtively, surreptitiously, to freeze out his own staff. And why? For his own ambitions. Out of his own insecurities. That is shameful, and now the effects of his schemes are making waves throughout spheres of evangelicalism.

Question #3: How does one remain patient while at the same time praying for people to be discerning? Poole wrote of it this way: “God expects of us that we should so keep in mind his former dispensations of providence to us, under straits and difficulties, as to trust in him when his providence brings us again into the like difficulties.”

As I tell my fellow soldiers and Sunday school class often, “That’s easy to preach but hard to live.”

God sends judgments at times in ways we might not think. Sometimes those who are supposed to shepherd the flock of God instead divide it and devour it as part of their ambitions for their own name. We should heed Poole’s counsel. Why? Because God’s providence often means enduring the false in order to later discern the true. In the interim, keep praying for discernment–for oneself and for the sheepfold.

“If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under,” said President Reagan.

Those are words of wisdom, in my estimation.

Reasons why:

• I think those are words of wisdom because they acknowledge that man is noble but fallen (i.e., sinful).
• I think those are words of wisdom because they acknowledge that there is always a God of the system. In other words, if there is no God above the state, then the state becomes God.
• I think those are words of wisdom because they acknowledge that judgment is inevitable. That is, “going under” as a nation would be the result of hostile sinners scoffing at God, mocking the holy, perverting the sane, normal, biblical ways of morality and instead embracing identity politics, borderlessness, rogue judges, groupthink, and denials of reality. (Some people claim they don’t even know what a woman is. However, they simultaneously claim that people can ‘transition’ via medical castration, injections of hormones, and plastic surgery. But wait, if gender is just a construct, from what are you transitioning? And into what are you transitioning? Transition literally means “a going across or over from one to the other.”) Logic and the law of identity are such great levelers, n’est-ce pas?

Takeaway: It’s not whether but which. In plain language, man will invariably worship. He’ll either worship the one and only true God who created us either male or female (Genesis 5:2) or he’ll worship an idol–a false god, something that is not the only true and living God. False gods may be politics, groupthink, AI, sexuality, power, fame, wealth, the demonic, oneself, calves of gold, or comfort. The list could continue. It’s not whether but which.

President Reagan, one might say, nailed it.

I remember when I was filling in as teaching pastor to a congregation years ago. On Wednesday evenings, I taught through the gospel of John verse-by-verse. I was doing that for one main reason. John’s gospel is the clearest example of who Jesus is, especially to those who are baby Christians, or who are perhaps still unregenerate.

I love teaching through John. If a person’s mind and heart are being gripped by God, John’s gospel often seems to launch people into a clearer understanding of the person and work of Christ. That has been my experience, anyway.

I have found that people, after having the Word taught systematically and verse-by-verse, they find that verses and passages they had often heard cited mean something quite different than what they’d previously thought.

A Real Example: On one Wednesday night as I was teaching at this church, we had really slim attendance, and I think one of the men present picked up on how down I was because of low attendance. (It’s hard not to take it personally, if you care about your people.) Anyway, Tim said, “Well, pastor, where two or three are gathered in my name, Jesus is in the midst.”

Tim was trying to console me, of course. I knew that. So I took his offer of comfort and thanked him for it. But here’s the rub: That is NOT what that verse is about, not even close.

In Matthew 18:19-20 (ESV), Jesus says this: “Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.”

Context, Context, Context: Do you know what the context of Jesus’ words was there? It was about church discipline. It was about how to handle the situation when a brother sins against another brother (v. 15). It is about the efforts we should go to in order to restore a brother if and when he repents. It is about how the community of disciples, and later qualified elders, were to operate as those with authority from Christ himself in order to deal with sin in the church. And where two or three of said disciples and/or qualified elders are gathered, Christ’s authority was likewise among them insofar as they (the disciples and/or qualified elders) remained biblically faithful to Scripture. In short, it had NOTHING to do with slim attendance numbers at Bible study.

Encouragement/takeaway: “Text without context is pretext” is axiomatic for good reason. So much betrayal of the truth of God occurs because verses, phrases, words, etc. are divorced from their original contexts. This ought not be for Christians. We should abide by the NT’s teaching: “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15, ESV). More than two or three should be gathered around that clear command, and live it out, for then God’s authority would surely be in their midst.