GIDEON: MIGHTY MAN OF VALOR

#043                                                    GIDEON: MIGHTY MAN OF VALOR                                                                           

Scripture  Judges 6:11-18, 22-23 NIV                                                                                           Orig. 11/4/62 (11/77)

                                                                                                                                                                                  Rewr. 10/4/85 

Passage:  ¹¹ The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. ¹² When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”  ¹³ “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”  ¹⁴ The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”  ¹⁵ “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

¹⁶ The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

¹⁷ Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. ¹⁸ Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.”  And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.”

 ²² When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”

²³ But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”

Purpose: To lead my people in an in-depth study of Gideon and his spiritual resolution, and what we may learn thereby.

Keywords:          Character            God                       Power                   Missions

Timeline/Series:               Old Testament Characters

Introduction

                Gideon is called here a “mighty man of valor.”  It is a term that can be misapplied. We usually go through a relatively simple process when we make such judgments about other people.  Compared to another, how does that particular person measure up?  Is Gideon such a “man of valor,” or is it that compared to those around him, he left such an impression?

                Tennyson had to resort to fiction to find one who accommodated his own characteristics of human supremacy. He wrote of Sir Galahad

“My good blade carves the casques of men.

My tough lance thrusteth sure:

My strength is as the strength of ten,

Because my heart is pure.”

                It is far easier to find those whose “hearts” are not pure, who are not “men of valor.”  During New Orleans days, a young seminary friend stopped by my office.  He was serving a church in the Bogalusa area, and was in the pastor’s office there.  A church member came in with an armload of mops.  He began to berate the pastor for allowing such a budget travesty.  “Why had they bought so many mops that could only be used one at a time?”  After the man had his say and left, someone in the room commended the pastor for keeping his cool under such an unnecessary outburst.  My friend said that the pastor’s reply was a classic.  “It really isn’t that hard to understand his feeling, when one is aware that the total sum of his contributions for the year is tied up in unused mops.”

                Compared to Tennyson’s Galahad, few of us would be considered as “people of valor,” but compared to the “Bogalusa Badman” most of us could smile and be happy about what we are.

                Gideon is clearly a “man of valor.”  His are characteristics which God often chooses to bless.

I.             It is to a Prepared Man that God Comes.  There can be little doubt that Gideon spent long lonely hours at his vigil.  He has poured out his soul beseeching God for an answer to Israel’s dilemma.  Note his reply to the angel (v13) “O my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all of this happened  to us?”

                How often people are prepared for spiritual challenge by their distresses.  Isaiah—“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord.”  Hosea—Understood and revealed Israel’s infidelity by experiencing it in his own family.  Martin Luther—Climbed the 52 steps of the “Scala Sancta” on his knees and spoke out against the church, fellow priests, and scholars; as a separated clergyman, in his arms little Magdalena lay dying—it nearly destroyed him, until he received God’s peace.

                For others, it is the challenge alone that prepares them for their work.  Too many of us think in terms of why we can’t accomplish something.  There are some who consider only what they must.  Gideon knew why this would be a most difficult undertaking.  The Midianites were determined and ruthless.  Israel was in a state of confusion.  Even Gideon’s own house was torn down for idolatry. V25 tells of the statue of Baal in Gideon’s father’s house.

                200 years ago, William Carey, the father of modern  missions, had not yet gone to the mission field, had not yet begun to pastor, had not yet been baptized.  We must remember that mission is a recent concept.  His major challenge was to overcome not the hardships of the mission field, but the excuses of the people on the home front. It was too great a distance (but not for commerce); the people were uncivilized (but Paul went to Gaul and the Britons); the discomforts—but that’s for the missionary to decide; the language barrier—that didn’t stop the East India Company.

                Yet others were prepared by vision. Against Gideon’s excuses the Lord responded 6:14, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

II.            It is to One with Purpose that God Comes.  It is not with only the sense of a purpose that God comes, as if the man alone is what God needs. It is the purpose, linking the man’s life with some noble cause.

                God offers His strength to implement that of Gideon.  V15 “So he said to Him, ‘O my Lord, how can I save Israel?  My clan is the weakest, and I am the least in my father’s house.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.’”  We see a nation come to grief.  A family is described (Gideon was the son of Joash the Abiezrite whose own father was a Baal worshiper):  Gideon is a man who views himself as an unlikely candidate for honor.

                God’s strength is offered for God’s purpose.  God has already given unconditional promises.  Genesis 9:13 “I set my bow in the clouds as a sign of covenant between me and the earth.”  Judges 2:1 “I will never break my covenant with you.”  God never wills to leave us in distress except to our good.  Gideon is that chosen vessel for good.

                Gideon is a proof text for people caught in the mire of Spiritual lethargy.  Perhaps we see characteristics that are reminiscent of Gideon in us.  What would be our reaction to an angel? “You’ve come to the wrong house.  Let me get a roadmap and help you on your way.”  But God chooses to use us in His cause.  There are injustices. You do feel unworthy. “Accept my purpose and I will use you.”

                Gideon would succeed where others had failed because God’s purpose would become his purpose.

III.           Finally, it is to Anoint with Power that God Comes.  Gideon reaches out for some tangible evidence that he has not dreamed this.  He prepares an offering (v19).  A rock becomes an altar of proof (v21).  The first test came quickly.  God said “cut down the grove belonging to your father.” Gideon selected men of his own servants as others were not to be trusted.  When Gideon’s life was endangered, his father said “If my son has offended Baal, let Baal act.”

                Still, Gideon needed assurance.  Gideon challenges God to show by a particular sign that it is His work he is doing.  If the fleece is wet with dew and the ground around it is dry, “I will know your intent.” V37.

                When the day of battle comes, Gideon is instructed to disarm and go into battle with 300 who drink water funny. (Chapter 7)

                How like us this is.  Of all the ages we think ourselves the least likely candidate; of our father’s houses, I find me the least able.  We unite our voices in asking God, “Why?”  Do we hear Him say, “Go in this thy might”?

As a physicist said, “If there is no law in physics between me and my goal, I can get there.”

Conclusion

                Herbert Lockyer wrote that, without doubt, Gideon is among the brightest luminaries of Old Testament history.  His character and call are presented in a series of tableaux.  We see:

1-Gideon at the flail—the young man was threshing wheat when the call came to him to become the deliverer of his nation.  History teaches that obscurity of birth is no obstacle to noble service.  It was no dishonor for Gideon to say “My family is poor.”

2-Gideon at the altar—Gideon was God-fearing. His own father had become an idolater but Gideon vowed to remove the idols. No wonder they called him Jerubbaal, meaning “discomforter of Baal.”

3- Gideon and the fleece—Facing the great mission of his life, he had to have an assuring token that God was with him. God condescended to grant Gideon the double sign.

4-Gideon at the well—How fascinating is the incident of the reduction of Gideon’s army from 32,000 to 10,000, then to only 300.  The few, choice, brave, active men and God were in the majority against the swarms of Midian.  God is not always on the right side of big battalions.

5-Gideon with the whip—The men of Succoth and Penuel made themselves obnoxious, but with a whip of thorns Gideon meted out to them the punishment they deserved.

6-Gideon in the gallery of worthies--It was no small honor to have a place, as Gideon has, in the illustrious roll named in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, where every name is an inspiration, and every character a miracle of grace.

THE THREE-FOLD GRACE OF GOD

#042                                                     THE THREE-FOLD GRACE OF GOD                                                                            

Scripture Matthew 5:5-13; 26:39 NIV                                                                                Orig. 7-5-64 (10-75) (4-85)

                                                                                                                                                                                  Rewr. 4/22/84 

Passage:  V5-13 5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9 “This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,[a]
    but deliver us from the evil one.[b]’

V26:3939 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Purpose:              Using Jesus’ teaching and example in prayer to remind us of the parameters of God’s grace in our lives today

Keywords:          Commitment                     Grace of God                     Prayer                   Christ Mediator                 Communication

Introduction

Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian leader of peaceful resolution, gained many of his most significant insights from Christ.  He is quoted as having said that he would have given more serious consideration to having become an avowed follower of Christ had it not been for some of the Christians that he had known.  It is still so, that the greatest hindrance to the Kingdom of God is usually found in the discordant events in the lives of those who are presumably members of the kingdom.

Dr. R.G. Lee entitled one of his favorite sermons, “The Menace of Mediocrity.”  In it he writes “Mediocrity is somebody with diamond and ruby talents, worth as little to God’s cause through the church as a punctured Japanese nickel is worth at a Chinese bazaar.”  In that message, he mentions another sermon entitled “Bantam Baptists.”  Dr. Lee said he could have preached the same message to any gathering.  He would only have had to change the name: “Midget Methodists, Peewee Presbyterians, Lilliputian Lutherans, Puny Pentecostals, Miniature Mennonites, or Diminutive Disciples.”

Too many of us as Christians seem content to go through life with some such spiritual mediocrity as that mentioned in the child’s verse that many of us read to our children.

                “Solomon Grundy

Born on Monday,

Christened on Tuesday,

Married on Wednesday,

Taken ill on Thursday,

Worse on Friday,

Died on Saturday,

Buried on Sunday.

And that was the end of Solomon Grundy.”

I.             Grace is First Considered in Communication with the Father.  V6 “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place.”

It acknowledges the practiced humility.  It means to practice prayer.  It means that we are to do so even though we are not advantaged in the world’s eyes.

Charles Schultz has cartoon books for teens. Girl to Sunday School classmates: “I had to give up my secret closet of prayer.  Every time I went in there, all those cashmere sweaters made me feel guilty.”  Think how many of the world’s problems could be resolved if more of us were willing to be disadvantaged.  Ireland could become a land of religious harmony.  Central America could offer struggling third world nations a chance to be free and economically secure.  South Africa could resolve racial hostility.

It acknowledges practical meditation.  Clearly, we are to search for answers.  We are to do so with resolve in what the Father already knows. V8 “Your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask.” 

Jesus not only taught us so to pray, he exercised this option to the fullest.  Recourse to this grace is extended to each of us.  Job 13:15 “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”  II Chronicles 32:8 “With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us.”  We seem to want Him removed out of our politics and government, out of our schools and homes. All that will be left is churches.  All that will be left is some social stigma, or worse, against believers.

Mediocrity is but a step away when we fail to be in touch with God’s grace through prayer.  It is to claim other resources than God.  It is to claim dependence on our own wit and charm. Luke 18:11 In Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector: “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, [I thank Thee that I am me.]”

II.            Grace Extends to Companionship in the Father.  V8 “Be ye not therefore like unto them; for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him.”  It pertains to a day-by-day awareness of God, and His help.  Norman Vincent Peale: “Millions of men and women are creeping through life on their hands and knees merely because they refuse to rely on any power but self.”  Too many of us are too distracted by the myriads of things in our lives.  V7 Admonishes us “not to use vain repetition as the heathen do.”  It is to put the Lord first, and to know where we stand with Him. 

Remember the old radio ad of the dog sitting before an old timey speaker.  The caption says it all: “His master’s voice.”  It is to be obedient to Him.  “Too many Christians spend six days sowing wild oats, and the seventh praying for a crop failure.” 

Such companionship offers not only daily help, but also delivering help.  V13 “Deliver us from the evil one.”  People who are insensitive to Satan’s zeal, tend to discount his power.  It is amazing how many people respond to exercise, diet programs.  They eat the right foods.  They work out strenuously.  But these same people give no consideration to spiritual needs.  James 1:4 “Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts and enticed.”

The promise of God’s help is in accord with the practice of faith.  I Corinthians 10:13 “God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able.”

Daily help, delivering help, becomes determined help.  V10 “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  We don’t come into the kingdom grown.  We grow in the pursuit of God’s will as we nourish our interest in it.  Our Daily Bread told of a tribal chief where missionaries were working.  “If you become better men and women by being Christians, you may remain so; if not, I forbid you to be Christians at all.”

III.           Beyond Communication and Companionship, there is Commitment.  Matthew 26:39: “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

No person ever wanted to live, or had reason to live, like Jesus did.  “Let this cup pass.”  He thought of needs: hunger, disease, injustice. He thought of meaningless religion: unbelief, cynicism, error. He thought of misguided zealots: Jewish and pagan.  He thought of the disciples and their wavering faith: Judas’ rejection, Peter’s denial.

Jesus wanted to live.  “Let this cup pass from me.”  But greater than His desire to live was His determination to do God’s will.  Thus, grace is given: Grace opening to us the door to communing with the Father; Grace enabling us to experience companionship in the Father; Grace motivating us for commitment in the Father.

Conclusion

                The French painter, Emile Ranouf, has depicted on canvas what he calls, “The Helping Hand.”  It is of an elderly man in fishing gear, rowing a boat with a small girl at his side.  Obviously, there is great love between them.  Her small hands are also on oars.  He looks at her fondly.  The child has desire, but the strength is the grandfather’s.  Thus is a renewable parable of our relation to God.

THE LORD'S INTERVENTION

#040 (continued from #035)             THE LORD’S INTERVENTION                                                                                  

Scripture Joel 2:18-3:21, NIV                                                                                                               Orig. Date 11-14-71

                                                                                                                                                                                  Rewr. 4-26-89 

Passage:
¹⁸ Then the Lord was jealous for his land
    and took pity on his people.

¹⁹ The Lord replied^[a] to them:

“I am sending you grain, new wine and olive oil,
    enough to satisfy you fully;
never again will I make you
    an object of scorn to the nations.

²⁰ “I will drive the northern horde far from you,
    pushing it into a parched and barren land;
its eastern ranks will drown in the Dead Sea
    and its western ranks in the Mediterranean Sea.
And its stench will go up;
    its smell will rise.”

Surely he has done great things!
²¹     Do not be afraid, land of Judah;
    be glad and rejoice.
Surely the Lord has done great things!
²²     Do not be afraid, you wild animals,
    for the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green.
The trees are bearing their fruit;
    the fig tree and the vine yield their riches.
²³ Be glad, people of Zion,
    rejoice in the Lord your God,
for he has given you the autumn rains
    because he is faithful.
He sends you abundant showers,
    both autumn and spring rains, as before.
²⁴ The threshing floors will be filled with grain;
    the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

²⁵ “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—
    the great locust and the young locust,
    the other locusts and the locust swarm^[b]—
my great army that I sent among you.
²⁶ You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
    and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,
    who has worked wonders for you;
never again will my people be shamed.
²⁷ Then you will know that I am in Israel,
    that I am the Lord your God,
    and that there is no other;
never again will my people be shamed.

²⁸ “And afterward,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your old men will dream dreams,
    your young men will see visions.
²⁹ Even on my servants, both men and women,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
³⁰ I will show wonders in the heavens
    and on the earth,
    blood and fire and billows of smoke.
³¹ The sun will be turned to darkness
    and the moon to blood
    before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
³² And everyone who calls
    on the name of the Lord will be saved;
for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
    there will be deliverance,
    as the Lord has said,
even among the survivors
    whom the Lord calls.^[c]

3 ^[d]“In those days and at that time,
    when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
² I will gather all nations
    and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.^[e]
There I will put them on trial
    for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel,
because they scattered my people among the nations
    and divided up my land.
³ They cast lots for my people
    and traded boys for prostitutes;
    they sold girls for wine to drink.

⁴ “Now what have you against me, Tyre and Sidon and all you regions of Philistia? Are you repaying me for something I have done? If you are paying me back, I will swiftly and speedily return on your own heads what you have done. ⁵ For you took my silver and my gold and carried off my finest treasures to your temples.^[f] 6 You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, that you might send them far from their homeland.

⁷ “See, I am going to rouse them out of the places to which you sold them, and I will return on your own heads what you have done. ⁸ I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away.” The Lord has spoken.

⁹ Proclaim this among the nations:
    Prepare for war!
Rouse the warriors!
    Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.
¹⁰ Beat your plowshares into swords
    and your pruning hooks into spears.
Let the weakling say,
    “I am strong!”
¹¹ Come quickly, all you nations from every side,
    and assemble there.

Bring down your warriors, Lord!

¹² “Let the nations be roused;
    let them advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat,
for there I will sit
    to judge all the nations on every side.
¹³ Swing the sickle,
    for the harvest is ripe.
Come, trample the grapes,
    for the winepress is full
    and the vats overflow—
so great is their wickedness!”

¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes
    in the valley of decision!
For the day of the Lord is near
    in the valley of decision.
¹⁵ The sun and moon will be darkened,
    and the stars no longer shine.
¹⁶ The Lord will roar from Zion
    and thunder from Jerusalem;
    the earth and the heavens will tremble.
But the Lord will be a refuge for his people,
    a stronghold for the people of Israel.

¹⁷ “Then you will know that I, the Lord your God,
    dwell in Zion, my holy hill.
Jerusalem will be holy;
    never again will foreigners invade her.

¹⁸ “In that day the mountains will drip new wine,
    and the hills will flow with milk;
    all the ravines of Judah will run with water.
A fountain will flow out of the Lord’s house
    and will water the valley of acacias.^[g]
19 But Egypt will be desolate,
    Edom a desert waste,
because of violence done to the people of Judah,
    in whose land they shed innocent blood.
²⁰ Judah will be inhabited forever
    and Jerusalem through all generations.
²¹ Shall I leave their innocent blood unavenged?
    No, I will not.”

The Lord dwells in Zion!

Purpose: Continuing a study in the Prophet Joel, here describing God’s response to His people’s repentance.

Keywords            Bible Study         God, Sovereignty             Repentance

Series/Timeline                Minor Prophets                Sequential

Introduction

                The concluding part of chapter 2 gives much of the weight of choice to those who believe the book to be apocryphal.  He speaks of “wonders in heaven,” of “blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke” in the earth.  The sun is pictured becoming dark, the moon, bloodlike.   It is the terminology of the doomsayers.  But Joel is a simple prophet who loves God, and who loves his people, and his wish is to call these people “back” to God.

I.             He Holds Out to Them the Prospect of Intervention.  V18f “Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity His people.” V21 “Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice; For the Lord will do great things.”

                What will be seen first are material blessings (vs 18-27): An abundance of crops, v19; deliverance from military peril, v20a; restoral of what they lost, v25—the stripped catalpa tree would be restored, the frost-bitten potatoes rejuvenated.

                The second consideration is of spiritual blessings (Joel 2:28-32),  when God’s Spirit comes to bring grace to His people (V28): on sons and daughters, on old and young, on bond and free.  In a day of utter darkness, there will be light, v31.  In a day of wasting, there will be a remnant to carry on, v32.

II.            A Final Word Describes a Judgment of World Proportions.  Joel 3:2 “I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people, . . . whom they have scattered among the nations.”  It is a temporal judgment because of the mistreatment of God’s people: “They have scattered my people;” “they have parted my land;” “they have abused the guiltless.”

                The judgment will be thorough.  There is accusation, v3, “They have cast lots for my people.”  There is investigation: They have taken treasures, v5—not of God’s house, but of God’s; they have abused God’s people, v6. As they have done, so will it be done to them. 

                There is condemnation, v9, “Prepare war, wake up the mighty men”; they are to make plowshares into swords.  Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3 use the imagery, but it is reversed, and it is to God’s own people.

                Joel paints a vivid picture of the final confrontation of the forces of flesh and the power of God.  V11 “Assemble yourselves and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together, round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord.”  The heathen will appear in the valley  of decision (Jehoshaphat).  A day of terror is described.

III.           The Concluding Thought Is of Blessing Upon Believers.  V16b “The Lord will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel.”  God will be their hope.  V16b “The Lord will be the hope of His people.”  God is their dwelling. V17 “I am the Lord  your God, dwelling in Zion.”  God  is their sufficiency. V18 “And a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord.”  God is their protector. V1--Egypt and Edom are described as desolate. Is the mention of Judah post-exilic? V20-21 “But Judah shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.  For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the Lord dwelleth in Zion.”

FAITH MADE PERFECT

#036                                                                FAITH MADE PERFECT                                                                                       

Scripture  James 2:19-26 NIV                                                                                                                         Orig. 10-14-62

                                                                                                                                                                                  Rewr. 10-8-87 

Passage:  ¹⁹ You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.  ²⁰ You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless^[a]? ²¹ Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²² You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. ²³ And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”^[b] and he was called God’s friend. ²⁴ You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.  ²⁵ In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? ²⁶ As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Purpose:   Beginning the new church year with an emphasis on faith and church organization in conjunction with the Lord’s Supper

Keywords:          Church                  Activity                 Faith                      Ordinance                           Lord’s Supper

Introduction

                Tomorrow is a special milestone in our great Baptist Heritage.  It represents a very special anniversary for Louisiana Baptists.

                On October 12^th, in 1812, the first Baptist work was begun in our state.  That was the date, in Washington Parish, on the Bogue Chitto River, that the Half Moon Bluff Church was organized.

                For 175 years, the gospel has been proudly proclaimed by Baptists of Louisiana.  Those earliest believers, because of their location in extreme southeastern Louisiana, were for some years affiliated with Mississippi Baptists, but they were, nonetheless, the forebears of Louisiana work.

                It was the same year, by the way, that Adoniram Judson left to go to Burma as a missionary.  If you recall the story, you recall that he changed to his life-long Baptist faith on the ship that took him to a land that knew nothing of Christianity.  He went, then, without support.  His former denomination withdrew support.  And it was before we Baptists were known for our missionary vision.  These struggling churches, not unlike Half Moon Bluff, in the early Nineteenth Century, supported what missionaries that there were, on butter and egg money, by the women of the Ladies Aid Society, the forerunner of our Women’s Missionary Union.

                It has been people of vision, working together organizationally, who have reared up this great Baptist heritage. It seems that some of us are satisfied to let some parts of it die.  In the name of our Lord, and in His covenant with us in his own blood, I challenge you to be a strong arm of influence in our town and Parish, for our Lord, and for His church.

I.             Faith Demands an Effort Put Forth.  V22 “…by works was faith made perfect.”  Make no mistake, they were not saved by works.  Abraham faithed God. God imputed (deposited to his account). Those with children away at school have to impute solvency so that these young people will appear secure. That depositing of worth expects a response of concern.  In other words, the works don’t save, but they prove the faith.

                Our faith calls us to organize our concern.  We organize a Bible teaching program called Sunday School for the teaching of the Word of God.   A Church Training emphasis was organized years ago to personalize youth involvement and growth.  Today it provides opportunity for growth in Christ, in Bible study, in ability, for all.  Missions organization is just that, a means to share with all the prospect of service to the needs of humankind.

                The 2^nd Sunday in October represents World Hunger Day.  Are you aware that 730 million people remain hungry every day?  The wafer and juice we consume is more than many will have all day.  In Ethiopia, 5-10 million may starve this year.  In America, there may be as many as 3 million homeless.  People working full-time at minimum wage are $1800 below the poverty line for a family of three.

                Thus, faith is an instrument in our lives for good.  Faith is belief.  But it is belief to train, to work, to serve.  And we begin where we are.  Too many Christians assume that they are excused from such service.  No person in this room is little qualified to serve Christ, none too old, or too feeble.

                Rahab (v25) served, simply by becoming a relocation agent for God’s people passing through.

II.            Faith Made Perfect is a Process Through Which We Grow in Our Understanding of God’s Will and Way.  V26 “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”  As a believer, I have a responsibility: To stay as close to the Lord as I can through Bible study, service activities, and mission involvement (Camp Harris), and to walk by faith—to  live by faith—to work by faith.

                As a believer, I have a responsibility to share.  We share readily with those we love.  When will our hearts be open to love those less fortunates for whom Christ died?  We have been successful in the Georgia Barnette State Mission Offering. We will soon endeavor to opportunize the Lottie Moon Foreign Missions Offering.  What can we do for hungry people?

Conclusion

                Let me remind you as we turn our attention to the Lord’s Supper, that stewardship is a faith venture also. In the great text of II Samuel 24:24 about David and Araunah the Jebusite, Araunah was prepared to give whatever it might take in the King’s name.  David’s reply is a classic.  “Nay, but I will surely buy it of thee at a price; neither will I offer . . .  offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing.”

                What better time, than now, can we offer to our Lord, that which comes of dedication and even sacrifice?

WHO CAN ABIDE THE DAY OF THE LORD?

#035                                             WHO CAN ABIDE THE DAY OF THE LORD?                                                                    

Scripture  Joel 1:1-2, 11                                                                                                                         Orig. Date  1/20/65

                                                                                                                                                                    Rewr. Dates  4/26/89 

Passage:  The word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Pethuel.² Hear this, you elders;
    listen, all who live in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your days
    or in the days of your ancestors?
³ Tell it to your children,
    and let your children tell it to their children,
    and their children to the next generation.
⁴ What the locust swarm has left
    the great locusts have eaten;
what the great locusts have left
    the young locusts have eaten;
what the young locusts have left
    other locusts^[a] have eaten.

⁵ Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
    Wail, all you drinkers of wine;
wail because of the new wine,
    for it has been snatched from your lips.
⁶ A nation has invaded my land,
    a mighty army without number;
it has the teeth of a lion,
    the fangs of a lioness.
⁷ It has laid waste my vines
    and ruined my fig trees.
It has stripped off their bark
    and thrown it away,
    leaving their branches white.

⁸ Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth
    grieving for the betrothed of her youth.
⁹ Grain offerings and drink offerings
    are cut off from the house of the Lord.
The priests are in mourning,
    those who minister before the Lord.
¹⁰ The fields are ruined,
    the ground is dried up;
the grain is destroyed,
    the new wine is dried up,
    the olive oil fails.

¹¹ Despair, you farmers,
    wail, you vine growers;
grieve for the wheat and the barley,
    because the harvest of the field is destroyed.
¹² The vine is dried up
    and the fig tree is withered;
the pomegranate, the palm and the apple^[b] tree—
    all the trees of the field—are dried up.
Surely the people’s joy
    is withered away.

¹³ Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn;
    wail, you who minister before the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
    you who minister before my God;
for the grain offerings and drink offerings
    are withheld from the house of your God.
¹⁴ Declare a holy fast;
    call a sacred assembly.
Summon the elders
    and all who live in the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
    and cry out to the Lord.

¹⁵ Alas for that day!
    For the day of the Lord is near;
    it will come like destruction from the Almighty.^[c]

¹⁶ Has not the food been cut off
    before our very eyes—
joy and gladness
    from the house of our God?
¹⁷ The seeds are shriveled
    beneath the clods.^[d]
The storehouses are in ruins,
    the granaries have been broken down,
    for the grain has dried up.
¹⁸ How the cattle moan!
    The herds mill about
because they have no pasture;
    even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

¹⁹ To you, Lord, I call,
    for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness
    and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.
²⁰ Even the wild animals pant for you;
    the streams of water have dried up
    and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness.

2 Blow the trumpet in Zion;
    sound the alarm on my holy hill.

Let all who live in the land tremble,
    for the day of the Lord is coming.
It is close at hand—
²     a day of darkness and gloom,
    a day of clouds and blackness.
Like dawn spreading across the mountains
    a large and mighty army comes,
such as never was in ancient times
    nor ever will be in ages to come.

³ Before them fire devours,
    behind them a flame blazes.
Before them the land is like the garden of Eden,
    behind them, a desert waste—
    nothing escapes them.
⁴ They have the appearance of horses;
    they gallop along like cavalry.
⁵ With a noise like that of chariots
    they leap over the mountaintops,
like a crackling fire consuming stubble,
    like a mighty army drawn up for battle.

⁶ At the sight of them, nations are in anguish;
    every face turns pale.
⁷ They charge like warriors;
    they scale walls like soldiers.
They all march in line,
    not swerving from their course.
⁸ They do not jostle each other;
    each marches straight ahead.
They plunge through defenses
    without breaking ranks.
⁹ They rush upon the city;
    they run along the wall.
They climb into the houses;
    like thieves they enter through the windows.

¹⁰ Before them the earth shakes,
    the heavens tremble,
the sun and moon are darkened,
    and the stars no longer shine.
¹¹ The Lord thunders
    at the head of his army;
his forces are beyond number,
    and mighty is the army that obeys his command.
The day of the Lord is great;
    it is dreadful.
    Who can endure it?

Purpose:  Beginning a Prayer Meeting series dealing with the Minor Prophets, here introducing Joel’s call to repentance.

Keywords:          Bible Study         Judgment            Repentance

Timeline/Series:               Minor Prophets                Sequential

Introduction

                One thing is sure, the author, Joel, called the “son of Pethuel” has witnessed a frightsome event and he likens it to the “day of the Lord” (2:1).  Little is known about him other than his fixation on the priesthood, and the region surrounding Jerusalem.  There is no scriptural documentation.  Other Joels are mentioned (I Chronicles 5:54), but nothing is found to tie them to this Joel.

                The name means “Jehovah (or the Lord) is God.”  His name probably does mean that he came from a family, whether out of Reuben as some believe, or out of Jerusalem herself, that worshipped the Lord God.

                When he wrote is anybody’s guess.  Pre-20^th Century scholarship favored a pre-exilic view.  He is positioned with Hosea and Amos among first mentioned prophets.  Amos and Hosea are  known from the 8^th Century B.C..  The enemy nations are the Philistines, Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Edomites.  However, these were enemies after the captivity as well.

                The lack of a reigning king fits the time when Joash was made king at age 7 (II Kings 11:21f).  The priests actually governed the people.

                But such circumstance fits a post-exilic date as well.  There was no king.  The priests ruled.  The enemies were no longer Assyria and Babylon.  But the message does not depend upon the selection of a date.

                It is important to decide if the text is apocalyptic, allegorical, or actual.  Those who take the first position say the locusts represent the enemies of God’s people in the end times.  The allegorical view would represent these locusts as the traditional enemies of Israel.  To see an actual locust invasion is to see Joel describing a natural event as an actual intervention of God to bring the people to repentance.

                II Chronicles 21-22 may describe the period.  Jehoram, fifth from Solomon, was a wicked king.  There was a carrying away of people and possessions by enemies (II Chronicles 21:17).  At Jehoram’s death, Ahaziah, his youngest son, became king.  He was assassinated by Jehu, and his mother, Athaliah, ascended the throne.  It was she who killed the royal sons, only to have Joash hidden by the priests.

I.             Successive Plagues and Drought, Joel 1:1-20.  V4 “That  which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.”  It is a scene of total destruction.  Who has seen it before? Who will see its equal again?

                The different names are thought to be the various stages in the life cycle. William Thomson was a 19^th Century American missionary who worked for 25 years in Ottoman Syria.  He writes in The Land and the Book: “Their number was astounding; the whole face of the  mountain was black with them.  On they came like a living deluge. . . .  It was perfectly appalling as we watched this animated river as it flowed up the road, and ascended the hill above my house.  For four days they continued to pass on toward the east . . . they devoured every green thing . . . .  The noise they made in marching and foraging was like that of a heavy shower on a distant forest. . . .  They all pursue the same line of march, like a disciplined army.”

                The effect of all of this will be felt throughout  the land.  Desolation was as of a drunkard denied  his bottle, v5.  Despair was as of the young bride whose husband-to-be dies on her wedding day, v8.  Desperation was as that of the farmer  whose crops are destroyed at harvest, v11.

                Thus, Joel issues his first call for repentance, v13-15.  It is directed first to priests.  The elders are to be brought together.  The people are to assemble in “the  house of the Lord.”  It would be a “solemn day,” v14, a day to “cry out” danger.

                Don’t lightheartedly pass over the semblance of the “house” of God.

                Thus, in this context, Joel perceives “a day of the Lord.”  He was given “the word of the Lord,” v1.  He senses that word has directed him to an event, and the people are to be warned.  Is it the activity of God’s righteous indignation?  Is it man’s abuse bringing recompense on his own head?

                The news told of the plight of an Australian sheepherder.  Animals were dying by the hundreds. There was a caption with a picture of thousands of  thirst-ravaged livestock: “Why doesn’t God hear their prayer? Who brought them to a dire land in such numbers that their needs could not be met?”

II.            This “Day of the Lord” is Imminent, v 2:1-11.  “For the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand.”  The meaning of the phrase:  The prophets used this term of deliberate intervention by God—popularly, it was used of God’s intervention to bless Israel, curse their enemies.  Amos used it as Joel here: “Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! . . . The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.”  It is a day of judgment and justice.

                Joel uses the phrase five times: In relation to an event (1:15); as a symbol of a coming judgment (2:1,11)—also v31:  “The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into ‘blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord’”; as a warning that personal response is required, v3:14—“Multitudes,  multitudes in the valley of decision or the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.”

III.           A Parenthetical Call to Repentance is Issued.  V1f “Turn ye even to me with all your heart, . . . rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful.”  Disasters of the gravest magnitude may be circumscribed, v13.  Their “turning” must be acceptable—from the Hebrew “shub,” for returning. It appears over 1000 times in the Old Testament, 111 by Jeremiah.  The same word is used in v14 of God.

                Religious pretension without heart performance is hypocritical and useless.  God has the power to act in response to our faith.  The people of faith and covenant must act: Observe a feast (v15); gather together for declaration of unity (v15, 16); forgo personal liberties and pleasures, v16b. Let the priests express before God the will of the people for intervention.

*continued at #40*

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

#034                                                               POWER TO THE PEOPLE                                                                                     

Scripture  Deuteronomy 8:1,2,16-20 NIV                                                                                        Orig. 5/3/64 (3/79)

                                                                                                                                                                                  Rewr. 3/21/87 

Passage: ¹ Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. ² Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. . . . ¹⁶ He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. ¹⁷ You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” ¹⁸ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.  ¹⁹ If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. ²⁰ Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.

Purpose:    To examine the spiritual motivations of the people of God in light of His blessings and His expectations

Keywords:          Blessing                God, People of                  Judgment

Introduction

                Many of us have seen awesome generational changes taking place in our lives and the lives of our children.  So many particular advantages have come, and are coming, to the youth of this present age.

                Both of our girls have already become world travelers.  Fritha has been out of the country three times: Canada, Europe, Liberia.  She is presently planning a Russia trip.  Rhonda has been away three times: Canada, Europe, Brazil.

                Both returned from their travels to share great moments with their parents.  I remember vividly the slides taken in Europe.  I particularly remember the great cathedrals.

                The architects of the 12^th and 13^th centuries had great confidence in their technical skills.  They continued to press for higher and higher monuments of praise, and of self-glory.  In 1163 A.D., the vault of the nave of Notre Dame reached the then record height of 110 feet.  At Chartres, 31 years later (1194), a new record of 114 feet was achieved.  At Rheims in 1212, a height of 125 feet was recorded.  Then, just nine years later, in 1221, the cathedrals of Amiens stood at 140 feet.  By this time, competition between the cities had become the driving force in these construction displays.  The people vowed to raise their cathedral 13 feet higher than at Amiens.  Three times they tried.  It fell each time.  In 1500, gigantic transepts were begun, and in 1552, the lantern tower reached the unbelievable height of 500 feet.  The tower collapsed one year later, and with it came the end of this great period of architectural competition. Such enterprises had become monuments to the praise of men rather than the praise of God.

                It was not always so intended.  At Chartres for instance (LinLib1583), without proper stones nearby, nobles and peasants, abbots and abbesses with their subservient bodies of monks and nuns, allowed themselves to be harnessed to the heaviest of carts, which they pulled from quarry to building site.  Then, on that site, they built, with their own hands, the walls of the “House of God.”  How easy for such labors to degenerate to desire for self-esteem.  So it was for Israel.  So it is for us, too often.

I.             Act One in This Drama of Power to the People Is Persuasion. 8:1 “All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore unto your fathers.”

                The initial concept in Persuasion is the authority of the persuader.  All of us have been recipients of promises that could not be kept.  The greatest single factor in the breakdown of many marriages, is in promises not kept.  Many parents cannot give liberally to their children, but promises broken are the destiny provokers.  And, we have all been guilty of making promises that we could not or did not keep.

                I still remember some promises not kept while still a youth.

                I remember preaching the funeral in Oakdale, Louisiana, of a young man who was killed in a car wreck directly attributable to a broken promise.

                The lagoon of life is filled with the decaying hulks of broken promises and broken lives.

                The persuader here is God Himself, who would not and cannot deceive.  Listen to 8:7f: “For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, . . . a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.”

                Such sufficiency was the promise of God to Israel for their good.  It was a promise He intended to keep.  It was a promise to guide them in their will to follow.  It was a promise, if kept, that would have been the supplier of power for Israel.  It is a promise God makes to his people in any age.  Psalm 27:8 “When thou saith, ‘Seek ye my face;’ my heart said unto thee, ‘Thy face, Lord, will I seek.’”  Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”

                It is in the context of promise given to persuade, that we learn of Jesus as Saviour.  The Old Testament, you remember promised that ONE would come.  The New Testament teaches us the story of His life and death.  Old Testament, New Testament, and 2000 years of Christian history certify that He is going to return.

                Are you persuaded?

II.            Act Two in This Drama Is Provision.  V2 “And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness to humble thee and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep His commandments or not.”

                What happened to Israel happened, to the end that they would better become a power of God.  He is able to bring His people through struggle.

                The misdeeds of His people are another matter.  The Jim Bakker debacle is a case in point.  We were in New Orleans when Bob Harrington left his ugly mark on the Baptist name.  I have a friend in Morgan City who has recovered from this heinous wrong.

                Have we stopped recently to contemplate what God has given over to us as His people?  We are 7-8% of the world’s people.  We occupy 6% of the world’s land mass.  We control nearly 50% of the world’s wealth.  We do struggle, over energy, marketing farm products, etc., but we are still, uniquely, the chosen people of God to the end that the gospel be proclaimed.

                In such provision, we discover what a nation’s safeguards really are.  Someone reminds us, “A nation’s safeguards are not in commerce or Tyre would not have fallen; not in art or Greece would have stood; not in political organization or Rome would have lasted; not in military power or Germany would have triumphed; not in religious ceremony,  or Israel would not have collapsed.”  Amos 5:21f tells us that assemblies were rebuked, offerings unacceptable, ceremony a defilement. Amos 5:24 “Let justice run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”

III.           Finally, Act Three in the Drama Declares Their Probation.  V18, 19, “But thou shalt remember . . . . And it shall be that if thou do at all forget, . . . you shall surely perish.”  This is not the threat of an angry, surly, self-seeking God.  It reminds Israel and us that He is not intimidated by our intellectual uniqueness.  Even with that superiority,  how evident is our record of failure. 

                Upon examination, His commands have always been consistent with this experienced probation.  Look at the Ten Commandments and acknowledge their societal advantage.  However, Jesus reminds us that they can be simplified.  Mark 12:30-31 “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength; and thy neighbor as thyself.” 

The probation given is directed against  human pride. V12f “Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God. . . .”

One of the clear indications of this time is  that the world’s people are on spiritual probation: Nations.  Churches,  Individuals.

A pilot discovered that his instruments were not working.  He told the passengers, “I have good and bad news.  The instruments are out.  I don’t know where we are going.  The good news is we are getting there at 600mph.”

Conclusion

                A National Geographic article on Brazil concluded with the story of a man from the interior of the Amazon who had made his way to one of the cities.  For 15 years he had worked separating tin cans from garbage.  “Which do you like better?” the author asked.  “It is better here,” the man said.  “There I was a slave.” (NG—March 1987).

THINKING SOBERLY

#033 (use with #784)                                   THINKING SOBERLY                                                                                          

Scripture  Romans 12:1-10, 21 NIV                                                                                                Orig. 9-20-64 (11-75)

                                                                                                                                                                                   Rewr. 9-28-90 

Passage:              Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

³ For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. ⁴ For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. ⁶ We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your^[a] faith; ⁷ if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; ⁸ if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead,^[b] do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

⁹ Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. ¹⁰ Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Purpose:              On the last Sunday of the church year, to remind my people of our need to give freely of ourselves for the glory of God in the new year.

Keywords:          Commitment     Offering               Sacrifice               Suffering

Timeline/Series:               New Year

Introduction

                It was Victor Hugo, I believe, who once described heaven as a place “where all the parents are young, and all the children are small.”  I think I can understand the point that he was making.

                The ones who are least likely to grasp this are young parents themselves.  For others of us, however, it is quite impossible to look with anything other than nostalgia upon those days when our own children were small.  What a treasure trove of delights those days now bring to mind.  Oh, yes, there were days made weary by the wants and waywardness of those little ones. And, yes, the nights were sometimes made long with wakefulness.  There are even some who have had to look death in its ugly face. 

                But surely, there are none of us so insensitive, that this lovable bundle of frail humanity was not a constant source of surprise and joy.  The truly loving parent,  however, would be the last to deny to this child the right and privilege of growing to personal fulfillment in adulthood.

                If, as the Bible suggests, we get our start in the kingdom as “babes” (I Peter 2:2), as spiritual infants, then, the object of our being is to mature.  The “Will of God” for His every child is for this one who was a baby to grow to become what they are capable of becoming.

                While it may be nostalgic to smile with the concept of  “child-like faith,” it is realistic to see grown-up people dealing with grown-up problems, from a Christian perspective.  That’s what “thinking soberly” is all about.

I.             We Begin with an Appeal to Sensitivity.  “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.”  The appeal takes note that individual freedom is not denied.  You see, our response to God does not come mechanically.  It is not automatically in-bred.  We don’t get it from our genes.  At her school in New Orleans, Ann was teaching about basic genetics.  She had Terry and Jerry, identical twins, in her class.  She said, “Terry and Jerry are twins because their genes match.”  An eager student helpfully said, “And their shirts!”

                We do,  however, learn a great deal, positive and negative, from moms and dads.

                Paul does not here assume that they are doing all they can.  He affirms from personal experience.  He remembers out of his pilgrimage.  “Beseech” is the verb form (paraclesis) of parakletos (John 14:26), or “Comforter.”  In Luke 2:25 Simeon is “waiting for the Consolation.” 

It is a call for willful response based on one’s redeemed heart’s longing.  It is such response that purges the heart of unworthy thought and motive.  Remember that Paul went “into Arabia” (Galatians 1:6) after his conversion.  The question with which we must deal is of the desire of our hearts to sustain our professions as Christians. 

We remember great Cowboy teams of the 1970’s.  Coach Landry had two superstars sitting on the bench, Bob Hayes and Craig Morton.  A reporter asked “Why?”  Landry gave three reasons: “They do not stay current on plays.  They are not consistent when they perform.  They are not committed to winning.”

You see, the nature of the appeal assumes that an experience with Christ has occurred. 

The first perspective of living the Christian life is our perspective of Christ.  Tell me what you think of Christ, I will know what kind of life you live.  Jesus defines hypocrisy (Matthew 23), saying that the one not at peace with God is like a whitewashed sepulcher, a death vessel.  Without the converting experience, the appeal would have been to dead men.

We are free: But Christ holds the key TO PEACE WITH GOD.

We are free: But Christ holds the key to growth as Christians.

It is the desire of God’s heart.

II.            We Must Next Describe the Affirmation of Sacrifice. “I beseech  you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies, a living sacrifice.”  Admittedly, this is in the context of a message to an entire church.  It will not be resolved by a committee.  A highfalutin Board of Deacons will not authorize it.  The staff will not scrutinize programs and work toward this one.  It is a decision to be made by individual believers.

                The language used here is that of animal sacrifice.  I remind you that the Old Testament practice was based on offering a life to God, not a dead carcass.  That’s why the emphasis is on the blood.  Of the many vulgarities of Satanism, it majors on death, not life.

                The mind of God is ours to know in relation to sacrifice.  Isaiah 1:11 “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?”  Hosea 6:6 “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.”  Amos 5:21f “I hate, I despise your feast days. . . .  Let judgment run down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

                The death of Christ becomes a case in point.  God was willing to surrender His own son’s life for a greater good.  So, begin to listen with your heart as with your ears.  John 1:29 “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”  I Corinthians 5:7 “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” I Peter 1:19 “With the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without a blemish, spotless.” 

The death of Jesus begins to have meaning only as we give of ourselves in response.  The measure of our sacrifice is the MEASURE of our faith.

Paul suggests four ways to assess our own lives: How we live—as long as life remains; Sacrifice—my life for another’s; Holiness—duty to God, others, and self; Acceptability—judged by the JUDGE.

Recall the example of Lot.  With Abraham, decisions were made for him.  On his own, however, he faced the hard choice of dying with his hands full of emptiness, or living in response to God.

This will be a good place to say a word about the election.  The demand of the bramble of this world is always to “put [our] trust in” shadows.

III.           Thinking Soberly, then, Brings Us to the Attainment of Service.  “Present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”  Notice it says nothing about extraordinary commitment here.  It addresses reflecting faith in the way we live.  It speaks of the satisfaction of a morally upright life:  Psalm 69:6 “Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: Let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.”  Not only church staff members: deacons, teachers, others, as well.

                It is a lifestyle that is unattainable without being into the word.  That is the litmus test.  Philippians 2:13 “It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”  Psalm 62:11 “The Lord gave the word.”

Conclusion

                We are all familiar with the children’s story of the little Dutch boy who plugged the hole in the dike with his finger and thus spared his homeland.  There was epic drama behind that story, however, for there were times when Dutchmen hurled their own bodies into the gaps of the weakening dikes, averting real-life disasters.

                Spiritual dikes are being threatened today as never before.  Some of the storms are alien, from far, distant places.  Others are brought upon us by our own kind through apathy and indolence on our part.

THE IMAGE OF THE CHURCH

#029                                                          THE IMAGE OF THE CHURCH                                                                                 

Scripture  I John 1:1-10 NIV                                                                                                                            Orig. 10-18-64

                                                                                                                                                                                  Rewr. 10/7/86 

Passage:  That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our[a] joy complete.

5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 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[b] sin.  8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

Purpose:  Lead my people in the observance of the Lord’s Supper with a brief message about our image as God’s people.

Keywords:                          Church, Image                   Lord’s Supper                    Ordinance

Introduction

                I am not sure any longer what  happened to it, but I used to have a book in my library entitled Games People Play.  The author, Eric Berne, simply describes some of the ways that people pretend to be different than they really are.  They imagine the kind of person they wish to be, or what they perceive others expect of  them, and then they pretend to actualize that concept.

                Children grow up playacting.  In fact, it is one of the strong ways they have of perceiving the adult world of choices.  Perhaps many have gone into chosen professions, including church vocations,  who first playacted their way through some rainy day activity.

                This fantasy world stops being a game when deception is being practiced.  And remember, there are two kinds of deception: one, the kind when we deceive others; the second is the kind when we deceive ourselves.

                Churches have to be careful also.  We have a true image in our community.  We want to be sure that the image being portrayed to our community is accurate, and that it is Christ-honoring.

I.             The Church’s Image Is Seen in Her Fellowship.  V3 “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us.” 

Is it the image of compassion or compensation?  Who stands to benefit most?

Is it dependable or demoralizing?  Someone asked me recently, “Have you ever had a friend really let you down?”  “Yes!”

Is it indispensable or insensitive?  Do we really look for opportunities to share our faith through acts of ministry?

Is it peace-making or pageantry?  We by our attention, or lack of it, determine what our image is.

                Someone has suggested that the church has become a babysitter for delinquent parents, and organizer of discreet partying.  Even if that is accurate, we are not wrong if we continue other image functions that enable us to portray ourselves as the people of God.  Psalm 119:63 “I am companion of all them that fear Thee, and of them that keep Thy precepts.”  Ecclesiastes 11-12 is a treatise about human activity, and ends, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”

II.            The Church’s Image Is Seen in Her Spirituality.  V6 “If we say we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.”  Of what does the constituency of the church consist?  Is it socially prominent?  Is it wealthy?  Are its members educated?  Are they baptized Baptists?  Remember that our church covenant requires that shared baptismal encounter.  Is it a mecca of variant entities from throughout the community?

                What the church should reflect: Those led by the Spirit of God to receive Jesus as Saviour; those who have publicly professed their faith in Christ; and those who declare their faith through worship and witness and ministry.

                Regrettably, some speak of “The church within the church.”  This is a divisive concept.  Paul Tillich has defined faith as “ultimate concern:”  Concern for self; concern for others; and concern for the output of our lives in association with others.1

III.           The Church’s Image Is Seen in Her Purpose.  V7 “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.”

                This is not one upmanship—It is a worthy walk of faith.  It is Christ supreme in our lives that He might be perceived as supreme in all things.  It is to give expression to the transcendence of God.

Conclusion

                Someone tells the story of a new family that moved into the small town.  Needing groceries, the housewife called a local merchant and discovered that he delivered.  She placed her order, and soon a young delivery boy was at her door.  While there she inquired about his name.  “Humphrey Bogart,” he replied.  “Why, that’s a very famous name,” said the wife.  “It ought to be,” came the immediate reply, “I’ve been delivering groceries around here for years.”

                Our image needs to be true, it needs to be our own, and it needs to reflect a servant mentality.

1 Tillich, Paul. 1964. Theology of Culture. London: Oxford University Press. p. 6-7

CHANGES IN THE WIND

#023                                                               CHANGES IN THE WIND                                                                                      

Scripture  I Corinthians 15:35-58 NIV                                                                                                            Orig. 8-18-63

                                                                                                                                                                                  Rewr. 3-29-89 

Passage:  ³⁵ But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” ³⁶ How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. ³⁷ When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. ³⁸ But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. ³⁹ Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. ⁴⁰ There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. ⁴¹ The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

⁴² So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; ⁴³ it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; ⁴⁴ it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.  If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”^[a]; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶ The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. ⁴⁸ As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. ⁴⁹ And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we^[b] bear the image of the heavenly man.

⁵⁰ I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. ⁵¹ Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— ⁵² in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. ⁵⁴ When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”^[c]

⁵⁵ “Where, O death, is your victory?
    Where, O death, is your sting?”^[d]

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸ Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Purpose:   Continuing a study for Prayer Meeting out of the epistle to the Corinthians.

Keywords:          Bible study          Resurrection

Timeline/Series:               I Corinthians

Introduction

                Twice a year we notice instantly the changes taking place all around us.  Last Winter we observed the deterioration of nature.  Where there had been beautiful flowers, only spindly stalks remained.  Where vegetable gardens had produced food for our tables, only a few sparse weeds staked their claims under the diminishing sun.  Where trees had spontaneously graced our lives with shade, all that remained was leaf litter to be gathered and burned.  But change had occurred.

                Change has come once more.  From the lifelessness of Winter there is beginning to emerge the incandescent beauty of Spring.  Dogwood, azaleas, tulips abound, and share their joy all around.

                Change is natural.  But something beyond the natural is God’s gift to the redeemed.  Paul is determined to share the uplift of this victory.

I.             Raising Some Oft Asked Questions.  V35 “How are the dead raised? And with what manner of body do they come?”  The Jews deliberated such questions.  They are questions about the resurrection body.  The rabbis windily debated these.

                The  Greeks did not believe in a bodily resurrection.  They believed in the immortality of the soul.  The body of flesh was the house of sin. 

                The text exemplifies the resurrection body.  Such debating is foolish.  Death is the natural corridor through which such life begins.  Not speaking as a botanist, but a plant dies and produces seed, which germinates to form life.  There are variances throughout creation:  The flesh of man as beast leads to the glory of bodies terrestrial and celestial.

                Thus, resurrection is the ultimate hope. There are four antitheses:

a) The perishable vs. the imperishable—Romans 8:21 “The creature . . . shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”

b) Humiliation vs. glory—Philippians 3:21, “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body. . . .”

c) Weakness vs. power—II Corinthians 12:9, “My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

d) Physical vs. spiritual—There are two supreme thoughts here:  that the physical body belongs to all, and that the spiritual body belongs to the redeemed.

II.            A  Vital Difference Between the Two Adams.  V45 “The first man Adam became a living soul, the last Adam a life-giving spirit.” 

                The first Adam is a man of dust, destined to return to the ground, and with a nature that guarantees only a grave.  Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.  PBS’s Nova ran a story about the concentration, highest in the world, of Huntington’s Disease in villages along the shores of Lake Maracaibo. This neurological disease is always fatal, and the program was called “The Killer Gene.”

                Christ is not a man of such nature, but a man of heaven.  Spiritual bodies are for those who share His nature.  Romans 8:29 “to be conformed to the image of His Son.” 

III.           The Mystery of the End-Time.  V51 “Behold I tell you a mystery.  We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.”  There is a mystery to be declared. It has a different connotation from I Corinthians 14:2, which is about the mystery of speaking in tongues.  There the idea is secretiveness.  Here one thinks of unveiling.

                Here it involves immortality. In Greek, athanasia means to deny death, euthanasia means “easy death.”  Man’s immortality is not natural, but by grace.  Hosea 13:14 “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death.”

                Christ is the One in whom is victory.

A HOPE THAT IS WONDERFUL

#021                                                        A  HOPE THAT IS WONDERFUL                                                                               

Scripture  Romans 8:18-39 NIV                                                                                                                       Orig. 7-15-62

                                                                                                                                                                                  Rewr. 3-21-85 

Passage:  ¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that^[a] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. ²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. ²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. ²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who^[b] have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. ³⁰ And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. ³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”^[c]

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[d] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Purpose:  Continuing a series from Romans, define for my people that wonderful hope that is in Christ.

Keywords:          God       Sovereignty       Hope    Holy Spirit

Timeline/Series:               Romans

Introduction

                I read recently the story of a young writer who believed that he had composed the classic short story.  He was persuaded that it was the best that he could do.  Though the plot was not original, the young man felt that it was a masterpiece of realism.

                One day he was introduced to a famous author, and to his delight, the old man asked his new friend to come to his study and read his manuscript to him.

                The story was about the only son of a poor widow living in a cottage nesting in a Pennsylvania valley.  The boy decided to go to the city to seek his fortune.  The  mother, in true motherly form, saw him off saying, “Now remember son, if you ever get into trouble,  no matter how bad it is, you set off home and as you come over the hill, you’ll always find a light burning in this window—and I’ll be waiting to welcome you.”

                As the young author read his manuscript he told the young man’s story.  It was one of decline and fall into debauchery and crime.  After a time in prison, and after his release, he decided it was time to return to the old home place.  He came finally to the only hill that remained between himself and his home.  As he walked over the crest and looked down, there was the outline of the old cottage in the evening gloom, but no light burning in the window.

                The old author, who had listened intently all the while, leaped quickly to his feet and cried: “You young devil, put that light back.”  That light represented hope.   As long as it remained, then the remoteness of the story did not matter.

I.             A Hope that is Wonderful Defines the Human Struggle.  V22f “For we know that the whole creation groans in labor pains together until now.  And not only they, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit.”  We must first link with the prior message.  V16 The Holy Spirit confirms human spirit.  We are therefore God’s children—heirs. Heirship is fulfilled only at death.  As another thread in the tapestry of eternity, death becomes less frightening. In 1939 Lou Gehrig said of his illness:  "Fans, for the past two weeks, you've been reading about a bad break. Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” In 2 Corinthians 10:15 Paul wrote “When I am weak, then I am strong.”

Oneness with Christ is ours.

In this sense, Paul confirms human suffering.  Whatever the struggle, it is less overpowering beholding what is to be.  All of us know someone in the throes of some deep agony.  How much easier when there is a supportive family.  What a difference friends can make.

Paul says (V19) “creation” will be better off for man’s struggle to redemption.  Natural man brings nature to the brink.  PBS, in “Passion to Protect,” reported than 1 in 1000 animal species becomes extinct through a natural event, once a month through a man-made event.

Misuse of chemicals are creating a far-ranging problem. An article published 3-20-85 reported that it was a pesticide chemical that caused the death of 2,000 people in Bhopal, India. 

Man’s spiritual redemption, cosmos out of chaos, is nature’s hope also.  Hope (v20) is not God’s hope.  It is man’s hope, nature’s hope.  With God there can be nothing less than absolute certainly.  The struggle is of divine ordination.  The world may be in its birth pains, V22—tsunami, earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, etc.  Man is in his coming to oneness with God.

II.            A Hope that is Wonderful Describes the Spirit’s Intercession. (V26-27).  V26 “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses.  For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us.”  It is intercession in prayer.  He doesn't do our praying for us.  When burdens stymie prayer, He comes to our rescue.  It is not intercession when we are not praying, but when we can’t pray. 

It is intercession in weakness. We are trying to impress others with our strengths. But “when I am weak, then I am strong.” The Holy Spirit comes in our weakness. Helps (V26)—sunantilambanomai, “to take hold of with another.”  Ever tried to pick up a wheelbarrow by the handles?  Even if a friend takes one of the handles?  We need a helper who understands the problem.  For instance, the best marriages are often those where weaknesses are known, understood, and accepted.  It is intercession seeking compliance with the will of God.  “According to [the will of] God” V27 is surely the sense of the verse: 2 Corinthians 10:15: “Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men’s labours; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly.”

III.           A Hope that is Wonderful Explains God’s Sovereignty V26-28.  V28 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who are called according to his purpose.”  Not some pantheism by which we are elected if all goes well with us.  Not some theistic “chance.”  2 Samuel 7:28 “And now, O Lord God, You are God, and Your words are true, and You have promised this goodness to Your servant.” It is God active in the framework of history.  Acts 17:24-28 at Mars Hill: “He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their habitation” (V26).  God guides that history by those who cooperate with His purpose, just as we must seek to pray for the Spirit to intercede.

As we “faith” events around us, we are “working together” with God.  “Purpose” translates “a placing before.”  It is to establish priorities.  V. 29-30 contain God’s loving purpose for the Christian.  “Foreknew”—to know before hand; “predestinate”—horizon—to set a limit, “confirmed to the image of His Son”; “called”—all are called,  those who respond are certified; “justified”—legal and formal acquittal; “glorified”—bring to a promised place of honor.

IV.          A Hope that is Wonderful Exemplifies Christ’s Substitution (VV 31-39).  V32 “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also freely give us all things?"  We are redeemed by this substitutionary work of Christ.  In Him we are God’s own dear children.  He doesn’t love others less.  His love is personalized by response as John was “the Disciple whom Jesus loved.”  To be in Christ is to be uncondemned (V34).  To be in Christ is forever (V39).

Closing

                We had a couple of pianos tuned recently.  Did you ever wonder how they do it in big chuches where they have lots of pianos?  How would it be to tune the first, and then to tune each succeeding one to the one just finished?  Would the twenty be in harmony with the first? No, in no way!

                Our two were tuned with a tuning fork.  If one had two hundred to be tuned, they would all require tuning with the same tuning fork. 

                This wonderful hope, of which we have spoken, is “in Christ.”  It is up to each of us to rest in Him to have this hope.