Illustration: One of my favorite illustrations follows. You may’ve heard it before. It remains for me one of the powerful anecdotes I know: “Charles Francis Adams, nineteenth-century political figure and diplomat, kept a diary. One day he entered, “Went fishing with my son today—a day wasted.” His son, Brook Adams, also kept a diary that is still in existence. On the same day he made this entry: Went fishing with my father—the most wonderful day of my life!” (quoted in Making Sense of Your World, W. Gary Phillips, William E. Brown, and John Stonestreet, p. 234).
Teaching: Do we recognize the delicate responsibility we have to invest in the souls of men? It’s clear we address the externals of folks. We PT; we tend to the visible elements, etc. But what about the inner man, the spirit, the soul, the persons we are when we’re most ourselves?
Encouragement: I bet when we reflect on those who mean the most to us, I would venture to say that those who mean the most to us are the ones who feed our souls. For me, it was often my grandparents. They’ve since passed on, but their impact remains. I think of some professors, too, with whom I clicked; they invested in me, and I worked hard to please them. I think, too, of fellow elders-pastors, with whom I’ve deep spiritual kinships. I think of men who’ve served nobly in uniform and/or still serve today–men that influence me via their testimony. My list, like yours, could go on and on. The point? May we be a people who speak to others’ souls—not just to their veneers.
Quote from a Founding Father: “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly unfit for any other” (John Adams).
Questions:
What standard does the mob go by?
Do you think the mobs will suddenly lay down their arms if the U.S. government folds?
Is it possible the mob’s ultimate standard is power?
If mobs get what they want, what message does that send to the citizenry?
Remember what Solomon asked God for? It’s relevant for us today, too. Here’s the text:
“Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?” (1 Kings 3:9, ESV).
For what did Solomon ask the Lord?
Wisdom
Discernment
To be able to distinguish good from evil
To be able to govern wisely
Does this not seem relevant in our day?
I tell my class almost every time we assemble that we flounder when we lack discernment. Why? Because folly and evil then triumph. Wisdom gets banished by the wicked.
But in addition to discernment, we also need courage.
Solomon petitioned the Lord, and the Lord answered him.
Would that we, too, had the discernment and courage of a Solomon in our land today–wisdom from God, a discerning people, and the transcendent unchanging standard by which a moral and Christian people might not only distinguish good from evil, but have the courage to love the good, and thereby govern themselves and their land with sagacity.
Text: “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun” (Eccl 1:9, ESV).
Connection to Today: Literally, America is aflame. The nation’s flag is being burned. Law enforcement personnel are under assault. Mexico’s flag is being paraded through the streets of Los Angeles, CA.
Does any thinking person think it’ll be long before the same violence plays out in Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, et al?
It’s so predictable.
Like clockwork.
Scripture’s teaching: “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen 6:5, ESV).
In short, don’t say God didn’t tell us. He did–over and over again.
Questions: Do we learn? Do many care to learn? The questions answer themselves.
This is why I find Ecclesiastes germane each day. Human history is the same bloody and foolish story, again and again.
“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun” (Eccl 1:9, ESV).
Introductory Question: How should the Christian view the intentional shattering of law and order?
Connection to Daily Events: Don’t worry; I’m not going to go on a political screed. I only want to ask the above question and take you to Scripture. First, I think it is incumbent upon all to tell the truth. The Christian and non-Christian alike should admit what is obvious—namely, that there is a civil war underway by certain elements on American soil.
Exhibit A: When I read the news this morning on my laptop, America’s flag was being covered in lighter fluid and set on fire in downtown Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the Mexican flag was being held high on staffs and run through the streets. One of America’s largest cities where the American flag is desecrated? Regardless of our political affiliation, does anyone deny that this is serious? Some illegals demand the abolition of ICE and at the same time herald Mexico’s flag. If the flags of other nations represent your values, why not live there? Why destroy L.A. and harm law enforcement officers and destroy property in the city to which you have fled? If it’s so horrendous here, why come? Why stay?
My fellow soldiers are deployed to try and restore some semblance of law and order. This is a civil war. When you have (un)civilization that refuses to manage itself; when America’s flag is burned on the streets; when law enforcement officers are under attack; when public and private property are destroyed by thugs; when America’s military has to be activated to quell violent criminals from destroying the very nation to which they’ve come illegally, how should the Christian view this? Below are some initial thoughts from Scripture:
All of us are fallen; all men are sinners (Rom 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”)
All cultures have a “God of the system”; if and when cultures abandon the true God, God’s judgment falls (I’ve linked Deuteronomy 12:29-32 below for you.)
When evil is not punished, ruthless power is the idol, the “God of the system.” (Hosea 4:2-3 reads, “there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. 3 Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away.”
God calls all men to repent and believe (Acts 17:30 says, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent …”)
Text: 29 “When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30 take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ 31 You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
32 “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it. (Dt 12:29-32, ESV)
Encouragement: Again, this is not a political cheer for any party; there’s more than enough culpability by every political identity. This is meant to go deeper—to the heart of the issue. How should the Christian respond? Prayerfully, winsomely, courageously, and with biblical conviction. Everyone surely knows the bromide about what happens when good men do nothing. Evil triumphs. May we not be a people like that. I hate it when I see my country ripped asunder by violence, by people who ostensibly have no sense of self-discipline or commitment to much of anything but the god of their appetites.
I don’t know what it will take for Christians and non-Christians to admit the reality of man’s depravity, man’s fallen condition. Most folks simply don’t grasp it until it comes to their doorstep. But that may be much closer than you think. There’s wisdom—always—in doing things God’s way. When we fail to address human fallenness properly, a democratic republic can be replaced by a thugocracy. I, for one, do not want that; we are a better people than that, sinfulness notwithstanding.
Introduction: In preparing to teach Sunday, I’ve gone through Matthew’s gospel again and again. Each time I read through it, I discover what I believe to my core: God’s wisdom is unending. He cuts to the heart of the matter, which is the matter of the heart.
The text for Sunday is Matthew 20. Specifically, Christ is nearing Passion Week, his week of suffering in Jerusalem, Israel, where He would give His life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). But in Matthew 20, Jesus continues to teach on how human pride is rooted in something even worse–envy. God hates it because it destroys everything it touches.
Context, context, context. Look at the last verse of Matthew 19: “But many who are first will be last, and the last first” (Mt 19:30, ESV). The same principle Jesus repeats in Matthew 20: “So the last will be first, and the first last” (Mt 20:16, ESV). Important? Yes.
In Christian theology, one of the most deleterious sins, one that corrupts everything and everyone it infects, is envy. It’s one of seven deadly sins, in certain traditions. It is, of course, addressed in the Decalogue: “You shall not covet . . .” (Ex 20:17, ESV). Envy reveals a spiritual insecurity that God detests.
Rather than finding one’s identity in Christ, envy reveals that one is looking to fellow sinners for approbation. It reveals that one is being a, to use biblical language, man-pleaser (Gal 1:10). Envy reveals a longing for praise from men rather than commendation from the Lord.
That’s why Christ hammers this point to His people. He is saying via gentle rebuke: “Who is your audience? Who are you aiming to please?”
When Jesus teaches via the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard (Mt 20:1-16), he’s teaching that Christians are not to envy others’ giftings, influence, or blessings. Rather, be content with God’s grace towards you. Rejoice for those whom God is using to grow His kingdom; don’t envy them. The Lord does not need any of us, so just be faithful in the area of influence God has for you, be that vast or small. That’s the whole point: Many who think they’re first are actually last, and vice versa.
In one of the books I read recently, the author wrote the following: “The antidote to envy is security, the kind of security that allows us to rejoice in the strengths of others while realizing our own uniqueness in Christ.” That’s bull’s-eye, spot on.
Encouragement: It is understandable why the unbeliever would envy. He has no transcendent standard to which he thinks he is answerable; therefore, he measures all things via fluctuating preferences. That’s secularism in a nutshell.
But for the believer, for the man who is a true disciple of Christ the Lord, he knows that his giftings are by the sheer grace of God. “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Cor 4:7, ESV). Humility, therefore, not envy, is the posture of the Christian. God invariably brings the proud low and exalts the humble. Just ask Herod, Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, Ahab, Jezebel, Saul/Paul, etc. The list could go on and on.
If and when we come to understand our sufficiency in Christ, envy will recede and be replaced by humility, selfless service, and our identity being in the One who came down to us to rescue us from ourselves.
Bottom line up front: Keeping the main thing the main thing
Historical context: Paul’s last words in Scripture (2 Timothy 4). There are entire libraries filled with books about the Apostle Paul, about the New Testament (almost 2/3 of which Paul penned), about profound theological works like Romans and Colossians, etc. But for me, the heart of Paul comes across perhaps most powerfully at the end of his second letter to Timothy. How can one be unmoved by such a mind and heart as Paul had in these closing words? Indeed, these were Paul’s final words before he was martyred in Rome, Italy:
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound[a] teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
9 Do your best to come to me soon. 10 For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia,[b] Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. 12 Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. 13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. 14 Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds. 15 Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. 16 At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! 17 But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
19 Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. 20 Erastus remained at Corinth, and I left Trophimus, who was ill, at Miletus. 21 Do your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers.
22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you. (2 Timothy 4, ESV)
Pauline Wisdom:
Daily loyalty (2 Tim 4:1-2)
Expect opposition (2 Tim 4:3-4)
Embrace suffering (2 Tim 4:5-7)
Entrust yourself to God (2 Tim 4:8)
Work hard developing yourself & others in Christlikeness (2 Tim 4:-9-22)
Encouragement: I have preached/taught/written/spoken from 2 Timothy 4 many, many times. Why? Well, because they’re Paul’s last words, yes, but also because he knew his death was close. He was about to pass the theological baton to the next generation of elders (men like Timothy), and he was urging Timothy to keep the main thing the main thing, to not lose focus. Focus beats talent. Keeping faith with the truth is what matters. We can so easily become distracted from the mission. In military circles, we term it “mission creep.” In theological parlance, it would be akin to having a façade of truth but being cancerous underneath the veneer. We’re not to be like that. We’re to be the genuine, the real deal, knowing that the Lord sees and will do what is right. Our duty is fidelity to His revealed will.
In some of my studies this week I came across a real keeper from Dorothy Sayers. What struck me so powerfully was the recognition that throughout history, we see the same trends and pendulum swings recur. We go from strong voices in the pulpit (one thinks of Edwards, Whitefield, and Spurgeon) to those who know neither the message they’re to proclaim nor how to proclaim it.
Just listen to this from Sayers:
“[We are] constantly assured that the churches are empty because preachers insist too much upon doctrine–dull dogma as people call it.
The fact is the precise opposite. It is the neglect of dogma that makes for dullness. The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man–and the dogma is the drama.”
Historical Context: The Apostle Paul was writing to his child in the faith, Timothy (1 Timothy 1:2, ESV). Paul was writing from his prison cell in Rome, Italy. This is one of the pastoral epistles—a letter from an elder-shepherd to a fellow elder-shepherd. And it is filled with warnings, nuggets of wisdom, for the elder-shepherd Timothy, and for all who are to be elder-shepherds.
Here is just some of the wisdom Paul provides Timothy:
You are in nothing less than a battle of good vs. evil, light vs. darkness (1 Tim 6:12)
Many will demand soft sub-biblical leaders instead of the unvarnished truth of Scripture; expect this (2 Tim 4:3-5)
Conceit, pride, and envy of others characterize false elder-shepherds (1 Tim 6:4-8)
Machinations for wealth and status characterize false elder-shepherds (1 Tim 6:4-10)
Keep first things first (1 Tim 6:11-16).
Teaching: “But as for you, O man of God, flee these things” (1 Tim 6:11, ESV).
Encouragement: The Apostle Paul, arguably the greatest follower of Christ to have ever lived, a man responsible for about 2/3 of the New Testament, a man who endured persecutions that stagger the mind, loved his child in the Christian faith, Timothy; therefore, he warned him. And he warned him with this beautiful coordinating conjunction: “But as for you . . .” In other words, he was saying, “Timothy, my dear son in the faith, you are headed into warfare. Know your enemy is Satan and his legions. Know that up front. Resist the allures of the world and keep Christ foremost in your thoughts.”
Bottom line up front: Is there not a cost? Yes, more than one, in fact.
Historical context: Deuteronomy was penned by Moses as the last book of the Torah. It’s the last of the five books (the Pentateuch). Its name means essential the second (deutero)heralding of the law (nomos). In short, it’s Moses restating the law to Israel. But it’s replete with foreshadowings of the New Testament and for Christians of all ages.
The Matter of Disobedience: Moses reminds his hearers of God’s faithfulness but also of their duty to obey via action, not just words. In the first chapter, Moses is so clear with the people about the issue:
“Then we set out from Horeb and went through all that great and terrifying wilderness that you saw, on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, as the Lord our God commanded us. And we came to Kadesh-barnea. 20 And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. 21 See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed.’ 22 Then all of you came near me and said, ‘Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.’ 23 The thing seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from you, one man from each tribe. 24 And they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and spied it out. 25 And they took in their hands some of the fruit of the land and brought it down to us, and brought us word again and said, ‘It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.’ (Dt 1:19-25, ESV)
In sum, Moses reminded them of their history. The goal? To remind them of God’s trustworthiness and faithfulness as reasons to trust Him going forward. They were to go in and possess the land promised to the forefathers. But you know what happened, right? They failed to believe God and failed to obey via action.
Here’s the way Moses phrased it to them:
“Yet you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. 27 And you murmured in your tents and said, ‘Because the Lord hated us he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to give us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28 Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to heaven. And besides, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.”’ 29 Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. 30 The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’ 32 Yet in spite of this word you did not believe the Lord your God, 33 who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day, to show you by what way you should go. (Dt 26-33, ESV).
Moses rebukes them for their fear. They were intimidated; they didn’t trust the Lord; they feared man; and thus, they were judged by God for their disobedience. Verse 35 is tragic: “Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh.”
God was looking for faithfulness from His people, and the people had failed. How would the covenant promises ever be fulfilled? Who would be the faithful one? Is there not a cost to fearing man and not trusting God?
God judged them by saying via Moses, “But as for you, turn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea” (v. 40, ESV). In other words, you’re going to wander in the recesses of the desert because of your fear of man and failures to trust God.
Encouragement: I do not know where my readers are spiritually; that’s not wisdom I have. But I do know this: It is so easy to fear people and not fear the Lord as we ought. We tend to think too highly of people and too little of Yahweh. When we fear men, we reveal a failure to trust the Lord. One of my heroes penned this in one of his many volumes: “When you go through a trial, the sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which you lay your head” (Spurgeon). Be of good courage, Christian; the Lord sees.
Bottom line up front: Obedience to God is never wrong.
Historical Context: Like a lot of Soldiers, I’m a history nerd. I love to read history, and military history fascinates me. I especially love war memoirs. You can see into the lives of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines from each generation, and you see life through their eyes as they fought in their times, too. And I love biblical history, too, especially the history surrounding Jonah and what God labored to teach Jonah.
If it’s been a bit since you read Jonah, it’s set in the 700s B.C. in what in present-day Iraq and Kuwait. God was determined to save a rebellious people, then as now. And then as now, God sent his man to proclaim a simple message: Repent of your sins and look to the promise of the gospel. There was one huge obstacle, however. Jonah was self-absorbed man and a bad prophet. He wanted grace for himself but judgment for others.
He fled God, but God had to remind Jonah that He was smarter than ole Jonah. Eventually, Jonah fulfilled his mission in Nineveh, but only after a lot of bellyaching (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun). Jonah was preserved for three days and nights in the belly of the great whale. And just like Christ would experience, after three days, Jonah was delivered upon the land again. Even after Nineveh repented and God saved thousands of former rebels, Jonah was still self-absorbed and angry. It is not inaccurate to say that Jonah acted like a petulant child; Jonah worshiped Jonah much of the time.
Encouragement: Obedience to God is never wrong. Does God send His people difficult missions? Of course. Going into the hedgerows and highways with the message of repentance and faith is not an easy thing, not if you do it faithfully. But God is a Savior by nature. He saves us from His wrath via of executing His wrath upon God the Son, the Christ. That’s the whole point of the doctrine of the substitutionary atonement. We’re to obey the Lord and trust Him for the results.
MIND & MATTERS 