The Simple Message of the Gospel

Paul had instructed the Corinthian believers how that the world, i.e. unregenerate mankind, could never find God by its own wisdom (I Corinthians 1:21).  God had ordained it so.  The knowledge of God begins with receiving the testimony concerning his Son, Jesus Christ.  And so, Paul writes “it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (I Corinthians 1:21, emphasis added).  To know God one must believe his message and trust in him. 

It is from this vantage point that Paul ministered to the Corinthians when he was among them at the first.  He tells them plainly that he “determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (I Corinthians 2:2).  Avoiding the “enticing words of man’s wisdom” (I Corinthians 2:3), he kept his message simple and focused on the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This was done that the faith of the Corinthian believers would “not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God (I Corinthians 2:4).

Faith finds its object in a Person – nothing else – and this Person is Christ Jesus, God’s Son.  It was his resurrection that demonstrated the power of God spoken of here by Paul.  He wrote to the believers in Rome about this very truth when he wrote “concerning his (God’s) Son…which was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:3-4, emphasis added).  His prayer for the Ephesians reflected his desire that they may know “the exceeding greatness of his (God’s) power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:18-20, emphasis added).

Paul did not want the message of the gospel which is bound up in Jesus Christ and which finds its zenith in his resurrection to be muddied up by extraneous fluff.  The person of Christ is inseparable from the gospel of Christ.  His work on the cross, i.e. suffering death for every man (Hebrews 2:9) and offering his shed blood for the redemption of our sins (Ephesians 1:7) is forever united with his identify as God’s only begotten Son.  To preach the gospel is to preach Christ and to preach Christ is to preach the gospel.

So many churches have today abandoned this simple message.  But in so doing these churches have lost their relevance.  They have nothing to offer a lost and dying world burdened by sin and filled with despair.  The gospel alone gives hope and peace and life. It is the message God has given us and it is the only message worth sharing.  What message does your church preach?  If Christ is not the central theme; if the gospel has become nothing more than a community supper; if your worship is empty of gratitude for sins forgiven, then, my friend, you are going to the wrong church and listening to a dead message.

Is the LORD Among Us?

Not long after God had delivered his earthly people, the Jews, from Egypt by his great power and led them by Moses through the parted waters of the Red Sea and after He had sweetened the waters at Marah and provided manna for them in the wilderness to eat daily, the people once more became thirsty and complained against the LORD.  In fact, Moses records for us the exact nature of their sin, “They tempted the LORD, saying, is the LORD among us, or not?” (Exodus 17:7).  To put it succinctly, the people looked at their circumstances and doubted God’s promises to them (Exodus 6:1-8).  They wanted more than his promise.  They wanted to see evidence of his working on their behalf.  Looking back at this event, the author of Hebrews relates that this behavior “grieved” the LORD (Hebrews 3:10). 

God’s people today are oftentimes not much different in their conduct.  The Lord himself has said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5).  Yet, somehow his promise is not sufficient, even though in all things we are taught otherwise.  The Scriptures pervasively teach that his presence is provision enough.  His loving care directed by infinite wisdom and executed by sovereign omnipotence is ever at work.    But when our circumstances do not somehow fit our expectations, we question God’s presence rather than trust his promise.  In essence, as the Jews of old we too question, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Perhaps, the greater problem to address is that these expectations by which we interpret our circumstances are shaped by our own desires.  In essence what we really want is for God to conform to our expectations and desires rather than us choosing to conform our expectations to him and to his will.  Understand this, that peace and contentment will never be ours by the former – only by the latter!  The Psalmist wrote, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).  That is, he speaks of knowing God’s presence by ceasing from his own agenda. 

The pursuit of our own desires blinds us to God’s presence and resists the exercise of faith in his promises. David had an answer for this care.  He exhorted himself, “My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him” (Psalm 62:5).  God determined and controlled the unfolding of the events in David’s life and David trained his soul to wait and to rest in the care of his God.  May we do likewise.  Let me encourage you with a few stanzas from an old hymn of the faith, “Be Still, My Soul:”

Be still, my soul: The Lord is on thy side;

With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain.

Leave to thy God to order and provide;

In ev’ry change he faithful will remain.

Be still, my soul: Thy best, thy heav’nly Friend

Thru thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

 Be still, my soul: Thy God doth undertake

To guide the future as he has the past.

Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;

All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul: The waves and winds still know

His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

There is a God!

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).  Many of us would recognize that this is the first verse in the Bible.  That is, this is how the Scriptures open or begin.  It is interesting to note that the Bible does not begin by arguing for the existence of God.  In fact, nowhere in the Scriptures will one find such an argument or proof text.  The fact that He exists is a presupposition to His revelation.  The Scriptures are written from this perspective, i.e. that those reading them understand and accept that He just is.

There is a God.  This we know and that truth, settled in our hearts, need not be shaken in our minds by questions we cannot answer.  After all, what kind of God would he be if we understood his ways?  He would be a god of our own making – one that we could change to suit our purpose as each circumstance required or feeling dictated.  Pathetically, he would be no greater than our own limitations.  Thankfully, this is not the case.    The Scriptures declare, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).  This God – our God – is infinite.

Yet he has chosen to make himself known to us.  Through his word and by his Son he has declared himself and invites all to know him.  Take that in – he wants us to know him and has made it possible for us to do so.  This great God who, the Scriptures tell us, “inhabits eternity” willingly chooses to dwell with” those of a contrite and humble spirit” (Isaiah 57:15).  But we live our lives from day to day scarcely acknowledging his presence.  We live in his world and enjoy his benefits often with ungrateful hearts.  We ignore David’s admonishment, “The earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1).

We ignore him at our own peril.  Rather, may we acknowledge his presence, submit to his purpose, and embrace his person.  Knowing him begins with coming to him on his terms (not ours) by his Son.  That requires faith.  Those who so come will not be disappointed.  The author of Hebrews relates to his readers, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). 

Follow Truth!

Over 2,500 years ago God sent Isaiah the prophet to his people to condemn them for their hypocritical worship and disobedience to his covenant.  The people had out of convenience spurned God’s truth and followed their own pernicious ways.  On one occasion of censoring Israel’s impudent self-righteousness, Isaiah proclaimed woe on their wicked posturing. “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!  Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!  Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink, which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!” (Isaiah 5: 20-23)

Those who despise truth will suffer the consequences.  Israel’s sin led to their destruction and captivity by the invading Assyrian armies in 722 B.C.  The danger in rejecting truth is real though, perhaps, not immediate.  God does not settle his accounts at the end of every day, but neither will he be patient with a man’s sins forever.  “Be not deceived.  God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7)  The law of the harvest is both sure and trustworthy.

Our nation is in the throes of great confusion.  Isaiah could have spoken his message of woe today.  As a people we’ve exchanged God’s truth for convenient relativism while ignoring, even scoffing at the examples of history and the warnings of his messengers.  Be assured, there is no safety when truth is abandoned and folly is embraced.

But let’s make this teaching more personal and, consequently, something that each of us can lay hold of.  Let’s set aside our contemplations of the nation to considering our own behavior.  After all, the footprint of a nation is made from the paths of each individual.  What is your view of truth?  Is it something that you determine or is it something you discover?  There is a vast difference.  To determine one’s own truth is to be one’s own god.  When I consider that my own heart is, as Jeremiah tells us, “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,” to serve as my own god is truly a frightening posture.

On the other hand, to recognize that truth is external to ourselves and declared unto us by the God of truth prepares us to follow a path that is trustworthy and safe.  That path is not one necessarily that will never encounter danger nor does following it make us exempt from the difficulties common to man. But as Christ said in his sermon on the mount, “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock.” (Matthew 7:24-25)  Follow his truth – not our own folly!

Thou God Seest Me

God had promised Abram (He had not yet changed Abram’s name to Abraham.) a seed yet Sarai, his wife, was barren.  She schemed to secure that seed through Hagar, her maid, by giving her to Abram.  When Hagar conceived, Sarai dealt harshly with her and Hagar fled into the wilderness.  There God spoke to her and instructed her to go back to Sarai and submit to her.  She would bear Abram a son and his name would be Ishmael.  It was there in the wilderness that Hagar “called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me” (Genesis 16:13).  It was there in the wilderness that Hagar came to know the omnipresent God, i.e. the God who is everywhere at all times.

David, the great warrior-king, was overwhelmed by this particular attribute of God.  He wrote “Whither shall I go from thy spirit?  Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?  If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there:  if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.  If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea: even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.  If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.  Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee” (Psalm 139:7-12).  It is, indeed, an awesome thought to comprehend that God ever watches over me!

Understand that God’s presence everywhere is not pantheism.  The idea behind pantheism is essentially all things are God.  That is not the God of the Bible.  God created the trees, but he is not the trees.  The Creator stands apart from his creation.  Yet, he is present in all places at all times.  There is no place where we can go that he is not there.  The implications of this truth are staggering.  For example, he sees our troubles.  When he sent Moses to deliver the children of Israel from Egypt, he said to Moses “I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows” (Exodus 3:7).  How comforting to know that the God of all comfort sees my difficulties and is present to see me through them.

But his presence has other implications as well.  When David committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband, God sent Nathan, the prophet, to him.  Nathan asked David “Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight?” (II Samuel 12:9) God sees our sins – every one of them!  The writer of Hebrews records “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight:  but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13). Yes, God sees all of our lives and doings.  For the child of God this can bring great comfort and aid in difficult times.  But for those whose sins are not under the blood of Christ, their works shall be judged by the One who has seen them all. 

Men Ought Always to Pray

Solomon, universally agreed to be a very wise man, made this simple observation, “If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small” (Proverbs 24:10).  The strength he speaks of is an inner strength, a strength that both motivates and sustains even in the midst of great difficulty.  Adversity conversely has a way of fueling uncertainty, marginalizing the value of our efforts, and ultimately quenching the flame of hope.  When we succumb, we give up.

Let’s move a 1,000 years from Solomon’s days to the earthly ministry of Christ.  He taught his disciples, “men ought always to pray and not to faint” (Luke 18:1).  Christ, too, understood the dissipation of strength through adversity.  But he would teach us that prayer is the antidote for discouragement, dismay, and defeat. Prayer brings our appeal before the heavenly Father who is eager to hear the prayers of his children.  While there may be a delay in his answer or an answer not conforming to our expectation, we understand it is because of his goodness operating in harmony with his infinite wisdom. God always does what is best for his children and what is best always accrues to his glory and our good.

David understood well this truth.  He declared, “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.  Wait on the LORD:  be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart:  wait, I say, on the LORD” (Psalm 27:13-14).  Where there is God, there is hope.  It was this hope in an all powerful and loving God that sustained him. More importantly, it was a hope in his God, his heavenly Father, a hope forged by relationship.  The strength that adversity would seek to snuff out was renewed by the supply of a personal God who cared infinitely for his soul.

This was not the only time the adversities of life plagued David.  Much like ourselves, he found himself moving as it were from one difficulty to the next.  Life is made up of such hardships and God’s children are not exempt from experiencing them.  But he consoled himself with this exhortation, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?  And why art thou disquieted within me?  Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God” (Psalm 43:5).  He found that his God’s goodness could not be exhausted and so shall we.

Paul testified to the believers in Rome of the unwavering and limitless care of the heavenly Father for his own children, i.e. those who have come to know him by faith in Christ.  “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things” (Romans 8:32).  Dear child of God, we must never doubt the intentions of our Father.  He ever invites you as David learned and would teach us so, to wait on the LORD and he shall strengthen your heart.  The God who works “all things after the counsel of his own will” (Ephesians 1:11) is too good to be unkind and too wise to make a mistake.  Hope in God.  Pray and you will not faint.

Dealing With Uncertainty

Uncertainty seems to blanket the landscape of our lives no matter where we turn.  We are uncertain when the virus’ cloud shall be lifted from our society.  Frankly, we are uncertain as to how we shall even recognize its removal and how we shall go about restoring order once more to our communities.  We wonder what our lives will be like then and whether the “normal” that we’ve known in the past shall be returned to us.  Jobs have been lost and financial stability rocked.  Businesses have closed and may not come back.  Even the way of doing business and conducting our daily affairs has been substantially disrupted and modified. We are left wondering whether or to what extent the very quality of our lives has been jeopardized.

Such uncertainty leaves an empty feeling in each of us to one degree or another.  We feel as if we are merely plodding along without a clear sense of direction.  It is as if we were awoken from our beds in the black of night only to grope along in the darkness not quite knowing what our next step may encounter.  We wait for the cloud to lift that light might once again shine upon our path and make our way clear.  Such persistent and relentless uncertainty reveals most certainly just how little of substance we actually control and, perhaps, that is what discomforts us the most!  Uncertainty leads us to confront our true helplessness and we don’t like that. 

How do we cope then with this floundering, this forced suspension of our lives, this unwelcome intrusion to our order?  We need to be listening to the right voice.  Jesus said, “I am the light of the world:  he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).  Following Christ gives light to our path and hope for our journey.  We may not know where the road will lead tomorrow, but we know that the right road leads out at the right place. 

The LORD’s earthly people, the Jews, had entered into their own dark period having been carried to Babylon in captivity.  Yet in the midst of that darkness, he quieted them with this message, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (Jeremiah 29:11).  The “expected end” was the culmination of his promises to Abraham concerning a nation, a land, and a dynasty.  The LORD was telling them to rest in his promises for all shall be fulfilled.  Christ offers the same assurance today to all those who follow him – an expected end characterized by peace.

Asaph captured this sentiment perfectly when he declared of the LORD, “Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory” (Psalm 73:24).  He will lead me through this life and preserve me safely unto his presence.  That, my friend, is all the certainty we need.  Follow Christ now and you shall not walk in darkness.

Stretch Forth Thy Hand!

Jesus had many encounters with the Jews’ religious leaders, the Pharisees, over their interpretations and applications of the Mosaic law.  They had replaced the commandments of God with the traditions of men.  Consequently, they were far from the truth.  On one occasion the Lord came upon a man with a withered hand in one of their synagogues on the Sabbath.  The Pharisees, in an effort to trap Jesus as a violator of the law, asked “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days?” (Matthew 12:10-13)

Jesus turned the tables on them and confounded them with a simple illustration.  He related that if a man had a sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath day he would lift the sheep out of the pit. He then made the point that a man is better than a sheep: therefore, it is “lawful to do well on the Sabbath days”. In other words, showing mercy is always in season!

At this point Jesus turns to the man with the withered hand and says “Stretch forth thy hand.”  The Scripture goes on to say that “he stretched it forth and it was restored whole, like as the other.” What a remarkable truth bound up in these four words!  First, we must understand that the man could not move his hand at all.  It simply hung limp at his side.  Christ speaks to the man and commands him to “stretch forth thy hand,” that is, to lift it up and reach out.  In response, he does so and is healed.

We are very much like the man with the withered hand.  We cannot serve God as we should for, as Paul said, “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing.  For to will is present with me; but to perform that which is good I find not” (Romans 7:18).  But with every divine command that the Lord gives, He provides the divine enabling.  In the incident above, Christ commanded the man to stretch for his hand, i.e. something he could not do on his own.  But, as he responded to the command, the Lord provided the enabling to go with it.

So it is with us.  If Christ is our Savior, then He has called us to let our light shine before men.  What God calls for us to do, He provides the enabling to do it!  Child of God, what task lies before you that seems too great, too difficult, too overwhelming to do?  Stretch forth thy hand and glorify your Father, which is in heaven!

He Made the Stars, Also!

In the creation account of Genesis, the Scriptures declare “God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also” (Genesis 1:16, emphasis added).  Almost as an inspired afterthought, the author tells us, “Oh, yeah, he made the stars, too!”  The Psalmist actually relates “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth” (Psalm 33:6).  Not only did God merely speak the stars into existence, “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names” (Psalm 147:4).  Wow!  Let that sink in for a moment.

Astronomers estimate that the observable universe has more than 100 billion galaxies and that our galaxy, the Milky Way, has about 300 billion stars!  That is quite a few.  Even if they are off a few billion here or there, it is still a lot of stars.  God knows the exact number.  He created each one of them by merely speaking them into existence AND he has given each one of them a name!

Yet in all the myriad of celestial bodies, God chose planet earth to be inhabited by his special creation, man.  David, overwhelmed by this consideration, declared “When I consider thy heavens…what is man that thou art mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:3-4)  He saw in this immense universe the handiwork of an infinite and all powerful Creator – and it took his breath away to think that God was mindful of him.

Yet this God, who inhabits eternity, is indeed pleased to dwell with those among men who humble themselves before him.  It is man alone that is made in God’s own image and it is this image, marred by sin, the Creator wants to restore.  He did this by sending his Son to redeem us from our sin through his death, burial, and resurrection.  You see, the glory of God revealed in his stellar creation is nothing compared to the glorious image of God revealed in his only begotten Son. 

It is the Son’s glory, who is the express image of the Father that becomes our prospect through the new birth.  Those who receive him by faith shall share in that glory when he returns for his own to this small yet singularly important creation among billions and billions of stars.  How big is your God?  My God is big enough to create billions of stars, yet small enough to dwell within my heart!  If this God is not your God, he can be.

The Sovereignty and Goodness of God

The reach of COVID-19 has been daunting – it has touched virtually every part of our lives.  Yet we are assured from its Author that it can and will only go so far as its intended purpose.  God reminds us, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7)  Both tranquility (“peace”) and calamity (“evil”) are of the LORD and they each serve Him Who “works all things after the counsel of His own will.” (Ephesians 1:11)

What can be said then about God’s purpose in the ebb and flow of this virus in our community?  We can say with scriptural authority the same of which we can say of all the threads that are woven into the tapestry of our lives, i.e. “…that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)  Here, again, we are reminded of God’s sovereign control working in perfect harmony with His goodness to accomplish His purpose and His purpose is always good.

We can add a further dimension to His purpose by reflecting on Paul’s remarks to the believers at Rome.  “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!  For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or, who hath been his counselor?  Or, who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed again?  For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things:  to whom be glory forever.  Amen.”  (Romans 11:33-36)

We conclude that God created all things, sustains all things, and works all things according to His will for His purpose.  This purpose in all things accrues unto His glory first and foremost.  And, this glory is uniquely and necessarily manifest in his goodness to those who love Him for it has pleased Him to make us like unto His dear Son.

For the child of God, the crisis of the moment is part of God’s eternal plan and we can be assured that He is too wise to make a mistake and too good to be unkind!  Therefore, we give thanks in all things for “this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”  (I Thessalonians 5:18)