Standing Firm

Assorted Scripture from Mark 13

In the last days, many deceivers will come in the name of Christ, even claiming to be him – and many will indeed be deceived (Mark 13:5)

In preparation for standing firm in the midst of such days – last days, (and any day after the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ is a “last day”), Christ’s disciples are called to “watch out” (Mark 13:5, 35, 37), “be on guard” (Mark 13:9, 23, 33), and “be alert” (Mark 13:33).

Jesus goes into detail about these false “Christs” by adding that these deceivers will even perform signs and miracles in an effort to mislead Christ’s followers. So our Lord tells us things ahead of time (Mark 13:23) so that we can be ready, be prepared, be on our guard.

And in these last days we will be hated because of Christ. He promises that truth in many places (Mark 13:13). In our day that hatred may come in the form of mere tolerance of our existence, or outright rebellion against our Lord’s revealed ethics of the Kingdom. It may come in a variety of forms, but for those who are faithfully following Christ, it will come.

But he who stands firm to the end will be saved (Mark 13:13). And we are able to stand firm by preparing ourselves ahead of time – being alert, on guard, watching out. Christ’s followers prepare in several ways.

First, we can’t be alert and on guard if we aren’t grounded in the truth – God’s truth. A man won’t recognize a false Christ if he doesn’t know the real one. Both a personal acquaintance with as well as a thorough knowledge about our Lord is a fundamental prerequisite for standing firm in the last days.

Second, we must be alert to our surroundings for we not only need to protect ourselves, but to truly love our neighbors we must also watch out for them. That may mean our family members, our co-workers, or literally our next-door neighbors. When false Christs and false prophets come on the scene (Mark 13:22), touting new morality, religious tolerance (by which is meant everything is equally valid) and humanistic reasoning for all areas of life, Christ’s shepherds are required to be ready and thus become militi Christi – soldiers or knights of Christ.

In the face of such spiritual attack, we certainly must cover the situation in prayer. But we mustn’t merely sit on our hands in our prayer closets. We are also called to be militant… in a manner of speaking.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. [4] The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. [5] We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor. 10:3-5)

 

We must stand up for Christ’s truth, his honor, and his glory as well as on behalf of our neighbors whom we are called to love as we love ourselves. And because we trust in the name of the Lord our God we will rise up and stand firm (Psalm 20:7-8)

Grace and Truth,
Dale

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Watch Out for Deceptive Words

Jeremiah 7 (selected verses) and Galatians 5 (selected verses)

As was often the case in the life of Israel, God was not happy with them. They brought it upon themselves. Israel’s history went something like this: God would first save them and then establish or reestablish a covenant with them. In response, Israel would repent, and then, after the good times were rolling, Israel would commit spiritual adultery (i.e., run off after foreign lovers). Predictably, after her disobedience (and the subsequent punishment for said disobedience), Israel would routinely cry out to God, be mercifully heard by him, and the whole process would start all over again.

It is Israel’s response to idolatrous and adulterous false teaching that our texts deal with today. The Lord, through Jeremiah, tells his people that if they are going to be allowed to continue to live in peace, then they are going to have to reform their ways and their actions (v. 3).

Verses 5-7 serve as a warning against wrong behavior and an encouragement for right behavior.

If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, [6] if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, [7] then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever.

 So why would God’s people act disobediently? Verse 8 gives us a clue: They were trusting in deceptive words that were worthless.

Again, God says to them in verse 23,

…Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you.

 God wanted so much to bless them, but he wasn’t kidding about what would happen if they didn’t obey him. However, they must have thought he was, for we read these sobering words in verse 24,

But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.

God’s people were stubbornly committed to their sin… and for that sin we discover God’s indictment about them. Verse 28 tells us that truth had perished…that it had vanished from their lips.

Because they were no longer trusting in God’s Word, but trusting in the deceptive words of false teachers instead, they were soon to experience the wrath of God.

There’s a similar story in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul was bewildered with the Galatian Church. They had heard and responded to the pure Word of God as Paul had preached it. But, like God’s people in an earlier generation, many of the Galatians began trusting in deceptive words. They were being enticed to mix the finished work of Christ with their own works as a means of salvation. Paul was dumbfounded at such a move. We read in verses 7 and 8…

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? [8] That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you.

 God, through Paul, was warning them (and us) that such deceptive words were (are) like a little yeast, which works through a whole batch of dough (v. 9). It infects it like a disease. In the Bible, yeast often symbolizes evil or a false teaching.

When people begin to listen to deceptive words rather than the Word of God, trouble is sure to follow. Satan, the father of deceptive words, is not stupid. He will show us the worm, but not the hook. He will never show us the consequences that must follow his deceptive words. Instead, his words will always appear quite enticing, beautiful, practical, and relevant.

That is why everything must be tested against God’s Word – the Word properly understood. Even the best of intentions can be marred by deception. The church must constantly be on her guard against such yeast that seeks to contaminate her whole body. Whether it is what is preached from the pulpit, what is taught in a Bible study, the administration of a committee, or what programs are being implemented for evangelism, service or mercy, the church must always make sure she is taking her cues from God’s Word.

This may seem like a no-brainer, but today’s texts reveal that the church has not always gotten this right. In fact, the history of the church shows us over and over again what a little yeast can do. Even a cursory glance at the contemporary church scene shows plenty of evidence of the very idolatry and adultery that Jeremiah and Paul warned against.

So stand firm against all deceptive words. Cling to God and his Word as the only sure light by which to navigate through the world, the flesh and the devil. Only with and through God’s Word may we know the one true God and his Son, Jesus Christ, whom he sent. That alone is eternal life (John 17:3).

Grace and Truth,
Dale

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Discipleship Is Hard, Part 2

Some, if not many, continue to turn away today when Christianity proves too tough, too ordinary, too unexciting, too demanding, and so on. Some folk are honest and actually turn away and leave the faith, as well as the church. Others are less honest – with themselves and others – and remain in the church, but have long-since left the Jesus of the Holy Scripture and his hard teachings.

The Apostle Paul understood this truth from his own personal experience. One of Paul’s co-laborers in the gospel ministry betrayed him. After a far-reaching missions tour and much fruit for the Kingdom (Colossians 4:14 and Philemon 24), Demas abandoned Paul as Paul sat in prison – at the very end of Paul’s ministry and life. Perhaps the demands were too severe. Maybe the cost was too high. Possibly the thought of sitting in a prison cell didn’t seem like a proper reward for all his efforts. We’re not sure of the details, but Paul offered this insight regarding Demas’ desertion.

Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. (2 Timothy. 4:9-10)

 

What does this mean for us? Well, if this committed Christian missionary and personal companion of the great Apostle Paul can desert his beloved brother in Christ out of love for the world, just imagine what can happen to us if we do not stand firm in our faith and end up falling back in love with the world.

It is not too difficult, in light of that, to understand why John would later write in 1 John 2:15-16:

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does–comes not from the Father but from the world.

 

Obviously, when the biblical writers use the word “world” in this way they are not talking about the earth as a planet or even the world of people (after all, remember who it was that God so-loved in John 3:16). Instead, “world” in this context is that dark dominion of sin that John describes in 1 John 2:16 (cf. James 4:4). The world depicted in this way is that realm of the City of Man that is under the direct dominion of Satan and against whom is our real battle (Ephesians 6:10-13).

But for those who follow Christ, the Bread of Life, we have life indeed – and light. The darkness is falling (1 John 2:8) because of this Light and one day will be done away with completely (Revelation 22:5).

Are we of and in the light or are still enslaved in darkness? It is possible to know the answer to that question. John tells us how we can know in 1 John 1:7 and 1 John 2:3-6.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

 

We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

 

When we turn our backs to the fallen, darkened and decaying world in which we were born, actively resided, and participated – when we shun its allurements and temptations – when we reject the dominion of its dark king and his fleeting rule – then and only then can we call ourselves subjects of the Kingdom of Light that knows no end. It is in doing the will of the one, true King that we will live forever in his presence (1 John 2:17). For it is this King who has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and ushered us into his own glorious Kingdom (Colossians 1:13).

And so when the temporary and illegitimate “king” of this world and his enslaved servants seek to lead us astray, remember two things. First of all, that as they are now, you once were. It is by sovereign grace alone that you were rescued and released from such bondage to the dark lord of this world. It is by the pleasure of God’s will that you saw your depraved nature for what it was and was made sick by its very sight. Second, stray but a little to the left or to the right and you may very well find yourself on another path altogether, for the path of our new King is straight and narrow. We needn’t be tempted to wander off. Remember the words of the Apostle Paul regarding those who did in his day:

Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith. (1 Timothy 6:20-21)

 

In light of all of this, let us uniformly and with great courage declare with Peter and the other faithful disciples of our Lord when asked by him if they too wanted to leave him (John 6:67):

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69)

 

Any profession other than that about our Lord is a lie and the Father is not a part of it (1 John 2:22-23).

True Christianity is not easy. The tough times and hard teachings reveal a person’s real motives in following Christ. Biblical and Christian history is littered with those who could or would not stay true to the end. But before we cast judgment on them we better take a long, hard look in the mirror and recognize the grace of God that stares back at us. It is only in his strength that we can stand firm. But stand firm we must – for God’s glory and our good.

Stand Firm,
Dale

Let us stand firm in our faith. For if we don’t, we will not stand at all (Isaiah 7:9).

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The Legacy We Leave to Our Children

What legacy are we leaving to our children and our children’s children? 2 Kings 17:40-41 gives us a frightening glimpse of what it could be if we are not vigilant. Take in these sobering words…

2 Kings 17:40-41 – They would not listen, however, but persisted in their former practices. [41] Even while these people were worshiping the Lord, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their fathers did.

 We can commit idolatry, even while professing the Lord. How shocking is that? Our legacy can be for good or evil, righteousness or wickedness. But make no mistake: we will leave a legacy. How are you influencing your children?

Our children tend to believe what we believe, behave the way we behave, and have the same attitudes as we. We will either draw them closer to God or drive them farther away.

Israel believed what they did and behaved how they did because the world was too much a part of them. They were called to be a set-apart (holy) people. They were to think, speak, act, and worship differently than the surrounding culture.

And yet, 2 Kings 17 is a horrific tale of the worst forms of human depravity. God’s very own people practiced everything from idolatry to child-sacrifice to everything in-between. The depths to which the children of Israel fell and became like their ambient culture is staggering.

Perhaps, however, the last two verses of Chapter 17 are the most somber of all. Even after the Lord called his children to repentance and emphasized that his love was still available to them, we read these words in verse 40…

They would not listen, however, but persisted in their former practices.

 Then, in verse 41, we learn of the consequences that can destroy a family, a church, or a nation.

Even while these people were worshiping the Lord, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their fathers did.

 The example of the parents and grandparents had been firmly set in place. Their legacy was playing out. It’s no wonder that James reminds us that friendship with the world is to become an enemy of God (James 4:4).

To be a holy, set apart people means that we have an allegiance to God and to God alone. It means to declare our loyalty to him while living in a foreign land. When we do, we pass along a godly heritage – a godly legacy – that can last for a thousand generations. Yet, when infidelity to our King is our memorial, the consequences can be perilous.

How do we let the world in our hearts and let its fallen, sinful patterns influence us? There seems to be no end to the number of books written to answer that very question. Yet, for my part, I would want us to ask at least this question: What is our goal in the raising of our children? Success? Happiness? Wealth? Status? Education? The right social connections?

If “godliness” is not our automatic, reflexive answer to that question, then perhaps the world is too much with us. Perhaps it is the world, and not our Lord, who is setting our agenda. So too, and more importantly, it’s not merely what we’re trying to pass on to our children, but who we, as parents and grandparents, essentially are. For if we talk like the world, walk like the world, and look like the world, then it may not be much of a stretch for our children and grandchildren to assume that such worldliness is how “good Christian children” should talk, walk, and look.

Is that the legacy you want to leave to those you care most about in this world?

May God turn (and keep) our hearts toward him.

Blessings,
Dale

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Choose This Day

Joshua 24:14-15

“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. [15] But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

James 4:4

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

The road of life is filled with many choices:

• Whom will I marry?
• Where will I live?
• What will I do for a living?
• How will I raise my children?
• Who will educate my children?
• Will I believe in God? And if I do, is there more to it than simply believing he exists?
• What will be the standard of my moral conduct?

Today’s Scripture highlights the most important choices we must make. And, as the rock group, “Rush,” observed, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”

In the preceding verses of Joshua 24, Joshua took the children on an historical reconnaissance in order to remind them of who God is and what God had done for them in the past. Implicit in this was the covenant that God had made with Israel and how they could, therefore, also look to the future fulfillments of God’s promises…IF.

When God made covenant with Israel, it included blessings and curses. Obedience, faithfulness, and loyalty would be rewarded with divine blessing beyond their wildest imaginations. Disobedience, unfaithfulness, and treason, on the other hand, would result in God’s curses. It seems so obvious as to which should be preferred.

And so, after laying out the history of God’s love for his people, Joshua presented the people with a choice. He told them to serve God only and to throw away the idols of their past. Whom would they serve – the gods of their ancestors or the living God? Joshua answered as the covenant head of his home by declaring publicly, “…as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

It is interesting, and quite telling, to see how this theme of choosing between the Living God and the god of the age – between covenant-faithfulness and spiritual adultery – is repeated over and over again in God’s Word. The fact is, we will all bow before something or someone, simply by the living of our lives. Who will be the object of our worship is the choice ever before us.

James lays out the choice before us with crystal clarity. He says that friendship with the world is hatred toward God. What exactly dos he mean here? Well, he’s not talking about loving people and desiring to minister to them. Instead, he has in mind what Paul had in mind in Romans 12:2 – love for and conformity to the sinful, fallen, disobedient patterns of this world, this present age of man and its ruler, this kingdom of darkness (as Paul puts in Colossians 1).

James follows by saying that “anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world [in the way described in the previous paragraph] becomes an enemy of God.” James is essentially putting before God’s covenant people in the New Testament the same choice that Joshua put before God’s covenant people in the Old Testament: Who will they bow their knees to: the gods beyond the River, the gods of the Amorites, the state, secular worldviews, modern American materialism, Hugh Hefner’s Playboy hedonism, the falsehood of neutrality in education propagated by secular humanists, the superficial entertainment mentality of much worship in today’s churches, selling out the gospel (compromise?? Embarrassment??) by watering down the message, and on and on and on?

James calls people who do this “adulterous.” They have left their first love to cozy up to the gods of the Amorites and the gods of Egypt.

People cry out for their free will, their rights, and their autonomy. God gives them that option, but not with impunity. There are consequences to foolish choices. This seems to be so patently obvious, that it needs no examples. People may choose Baal or Molech or Ra or the god of this age if they so choose. They can exercise their moral choice to their heart’s delight. They can revel in their “free will.” But the wrath of God will be leveled against all such unrighteousness and ungodliness as a manifestation of the curse.

This curse can come in countless ways. After all, its dispenser is an infinite Being. A corrupt culture, pagan children, radical illiteracy, increased levels of crime, escalating godlessness in the public square, countless babies born to unwed mothers and into extreme poverty, babies who never make it outside the womb, drugs, violence, sexual and monetary hedonism, the worship of self (even in…or especially in the church), etc. Don’t misunderstand me: God is not going to curse us for these things. These things are the curse.

Had God’s covenant people not spent the last 100 years committing spiritual adultery with the temptress of the age, we might not be experiencing all that we are.

By God’s grace, however, we learn that God’s people are always being called back to covenant faithfulness – to throw away all the other gods of our past and love, obey, worship, and serve the one true God… and him only. Each and every day that we are granted another day to live, we are given another opportunity for repentance and covenant-faithfulness. And like all covenants, it starts with an individual and his family.

So choose this day whom you and your household will serve. There’s only one right answer.

Stand Firm,
Dale

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War-time Mentality

Matthew 11:12

From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.

The second half of my personal purpose statement states that my purpose is to “extend the Kingdom of God into every sphere of life.” I like the word “extend” because it means to stretch, lengthen, prolong, continue, expand, enlarge, offer, put forth, give, impart, and present, just to name a few. And while each of those words is similar, each represents a slightly different emphasis. That’s just what I want to emphasize when talking about the Christian’s mission regarding the Kingdom of God.

But in our text today, Jesus focuses on the Kingdom “advancing.” This has a military-ring to it. Jesus also says that forceful men lay hold of this forcefully advancing Kingdom. My NIV footnote says,

“They enter the kingdom and become Christ’s disciples. To do this takes spiritual courage, vigor, power, and determination because of ever-increasing persecution.”

What is described here is what John Piper refers to as a “war-time mentality.” The kingdom of heaven is forcefully advancing. The kingdom of darkness resists this advancement. We are daily fighting for our lives and for the lives of those we love and those who have been entrusted to our care. The world, the flesh, and the devil are formidable adversaries. And if we don’t maintain a war-time mentality – being ever vigilant, standing firm, being prepared, growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ – then we should know that we will, in fact, suffer the ravages of war, the consequences of poor preparation and lax attentiveness, and all the collateral damage that attends war – even the loss of loved ones.

We must fight the good fight of faith. We must enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it (Matthew 7:13-14). Peter tells us that many have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness (2 Peter 2:15), which is death (Romans 6:23). So we must stand firm in the faith, or we will not stand at all (Isaiah 7:9). And we ought to know in advance that people will hate us for standing firm, but he who does stands firm to the end will be saved (Matthew 10:22).

But standing firm will take a war-time mentality. We cannot assume that we are ever safe from attack. We must be ever watching and on our guard. Our Defender is strong to be sure. We draw from his strength. He continually intercedes for us, and our cause would be lost if this was not the case. We would indeed be sifted like wheat. However, as true as that is, we are still called, commanded, and expected to fight, to persevere, to press on, to grow and mature, to stand firm, and so 0n. If we don’t, we could very well wander from the faith (1 Timothy 6:20-21), and become shipwrecked (1 Timothy 1:19). Jesus had his Judas. Paul had his Demas. We shouldn’t therefore think that we’re safe and secure. Our defenses are only as strong as our diligence.

And yet our hope is not in ourselves. Our hope is in the Lord. Does this contradict all that I just said? That matters very little to me for two reasons. First, the Bible affirms this. And second, I know that because the Bible teaches it, it is not, therefore, contradictory in the mind of God. Getting my puny little mind around it just doesn’t matter a great deal to me.

Forceful men lay hold of the Kingdom of God, which our Lord is causing to advance in and through his power. And yet he calls us to take it to the far reaches of our own hearts, as well as those of our families, our places of work, community, culture, and to the very ends of the earth.

This will not be a waltz. It is a battle. The enemy shoots his fiery darts at us daily (Ephesians 6:16). He hides and waits to devour us (1 Peter 5:8). The world sends out its false teachers to lead God’s people astray (2 Peter 2:1ff). Add to that the weakness of our own frame. We may indeed count ourselves dead to sin (Romans 6:11), but sin has not yet been utterly eradicated.

And yet the Kingdom advances still.

So “be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13). And to do so you must begin with faith and trust in our King, not by pulling yourself up by our own bootstraps. It will also end with faith and trust. It will also require being saturated with faith and trust all the way through. And because of your faith and trust, God will make you stand firm in Christ Jesus, our Lord (2 Corinthians 1:21). This is how we advance – or extend – the Kingdom of God into every sphere of life.

Stand Firm,
Dale

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