Lesson 1: Knowing There’s A Threat.
“Knowing is half the battle.”
-G.I. Joe
Here’s another quote, “To be forewarned is to be forearmed.” When we know the threat we can plan for fighting it. We must not be complacent or ignorant. We must be on our guard.
“I’m fine. Deceived, me? I got the assurance of salvation and the Holy Spirit in me. Nothing can turn me wrong.” Ever heard anyone say that? I have. Me. I was of the opinion for a very long time that a Christian is incapable of being deceived.
Let me start out by pointing this passage out…
John 10
1 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.
I’m no where about to say that a true, elect, saint of God can be deceived out of salvation. Jesus here is speaking about those who are His and those who are not. Those who are His know His voice and follow Him in salvation. God’s elect will come to Him, (John 6:37), and a true saint cannot be fooled out of salvation.
Be that as it may, can a Christian be deceived?
2 Corinthians 11:2-4
2 For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!
Paul uses the word “deceived” here. He says, “...as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted...”
Here is Paul warning of a danger. “...as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness...” How did that happen to Eve? It happened, “…by his craftiness...”
Let’s go back to the story.
Genesis 3:2-4
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
Is that what God said?
Genesis 2:15-17
15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
God was very specific (God said the name of the tree), Eve was vague (“That tree in the middle of the garden.”)
Eve added to what God had told Adam. God did not mention touching the fruit.
My point is that she didn’t rightly know what God said. (Whose job was it to tell her what God said?)
Satan does know what God has said and he can very easily confuse someone that doesn’t.
Matthew 4
5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘ He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘ In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’”
Is that what God had said?
Psalm 91
11 For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.
12 In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
Satan took a piece out didn’t he? So when we read Paul saying, “...as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness.” We can see that part of his craftiness is to confuse people who have a lack of knowledge of what God said. That is a problem far too common amongst true Christians, (Hosea 4:6).
It is painfully true that a child of God can be confused and driven into misuse and failure. By failure I mean spend huge amounts of time wasted on false information and false doctrine that keep them away from growth and effective service.
2 Corinthians 11:3-4
3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!
As Eve second guessed and made a horrendous mistake “...so your minds may be corrupted...”
In what way? Paul says, “...from the simplicity that is in Christ.” The gospel is simple and has no need of the confusing add-ons and laws and other false doctrines that Satan and false teachers bring into it.
This is important to keep in mind because the Christian can easily waste time and growth burdened by “religion” and false doctrine. We are prone to becoming judgmental and legalistic and then, on the opposite side, we can violently snap back and become apt to be too “open” and “nice” and allow too much in with the hope of showing the love of Jesus. After all, we don’t want to “judge” anybody. We want people to “like” us so they’ll “like” Jesus and we end up with false Christians who came in with a false gospel.
Oh, yes. This is a deadly serious deception happening to truly saved Christians all over.
And look, Paul is scared! Look what he says, “But I fear, lest somehow you may well put up with it!”
Put up: # 430 “anechomai”
1) to hold up
2) to hold one's self erect and firm
3) to sustain, to bear, to endure
This is Paul saying, “I’m scared you’ll tolerate this false teaching.”
2 Timothy 4:3
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
“endure”... Same word, #430 as “put up” in 2 Corinthians 11:4.
Revelation 2:20
'But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.
“Toleration”, “Put up”, “enduring” of false teaching is a sin. Toleration of sin is a symptom of a deceived Christian.
CAN the child of God be “deceived”? Not to the point of losing salvation or not coming to salvation, no.
But the Christian CAN be confused and distracted. That is a serious threat but the Christian who is on guard will know the Shepherds voice and what The Shepherd has said.
We need to know that there is a threat. That is the first lesson in growing and overcoming sin in your life and pressing on. We need to understand that the threat is drop dead serious and WILL hit you hard if you’re not ready. The Christian CAN be suppressed and waste years of their life in disuse and defeat. But there are weapons that we are equipped with to both defend ourselves and attack. Understanding the simplicity of the gospel and the fact that you didn’t GET yourself saved so you can do nothing to get yourself “un-saved” will bring the Christian victory and strength to return to duty. This return is daily. “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” - Luke 9:23
Too many Christians suffer a defeat, submit to a temptation or stumble in a mistake and they chuck their sword, point down, unto the dirt and sit there. Did they think there would be no trials or temptations or mistakes? That is a lie from hell.
When I was in the Air Force I served in Iraq. The base I was at was attacked at least three times a day. I stopped counting after 150 mortar and rocket attacks. You know something that no one ever said around there? Not one single person ever mentioned this question. “I wonder why they’re shooting at us?”
All of us knew why they were shooting at us. Because we were in their territory. Because they wanted us out. Because they wanted us to be scared and worried and de-moralized.
If you are going to make any attempt to “…seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness…” you can best believe you are going to get shot at. The Bible guarantee’s it, (Matthew 5:10-12, 1 Peter 4:12-13). You are a threat. A soldier. You do yourself no favors by refusing to believe that you can’t be fooled, lulled, or lied to. We need to be alert, guarded, suspicious, and “…wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” (Matthew 10:16)
1 Corinthians 10:12
Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
Lesson number one, you need to understand that you will be attacked. Attempts will be made to deceive you. These attacks are real and as deadly as poison.
These attacks will be coming from all sides, up and down and, this is profound… Right next to you.
These attacks are trying to surprise you. They are meant to confuse you. Their goal is to make you stop. Stop fighting, stop studying, stop witnessing, stop praying, stop growing, stop running.
And, this is important too, if you’re not going through attacks perhaps that’s not a good thing. Perhaps you’re not much of a threat to worry about. Or perhaps you are of more help to the enemy doing what you’re doing.
The Christian can be deceived. The Christian can be lulled to sleep, conned into legalism, mislead into over tolerance or duped into idleness. Watch out.
You get that fact right and you’re already ahead.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Spiritual Weapons And Tactics
I have had, for the past two or three years, a growing pre-occupation with examining my own walk with Christ. I have been, (off and on, strong and weak, two sets of foot prints/one set of foot prints, “through many danger, toils and snares”), a Christian for thirty three years. But in the last three years I have felt a growing gnawing that I haven’t learned a thing. I know the Bible. I’m one of the few people that I personally know that has read the Bible straight through. But, yet... The things that the Bible routinely warns me about I continue to do. I’m not just talking about sexual lusts and foul language. In all honesty, I am pretty good at concealing those things. I am able to keep from the porno web sites. I can turn the channel on cable TV. I am very good at keeping a clean mouth. You ask my wife. She’s never heard me use foul language. (She claims she heard me utter, years ago, one expletive in a panic moment but I know I didn't. It has been a disagreement between us for years. Either way, the event in mind was twenty three years ago when we were dating. Ask her if she has ever heard a foul word from me in all that time.)
No, I’m pretty good at that. But, that said, you know what? I have an extremely foul mouth in my head. Oh, yeah. All the major league swear words are all right there when I’m thinking to myself. And the lust is still there. Thirty three years of studying, listening, attending, serving, and they’re still there.
I’m not so distressed with the lust. I’ve got a happy marriage. It’s the rest of the things. It is just frustrating to no end how I still get so angry. I still brood about silly things. I still run scenarios over and over in my head about what I should have said or how I shouldn’t have been spoken to like that. And I know that in a month I won’t even remember what happened that got me so angry.
Lately I feel like me getting so wrapped around the axle is worse that whatever happened that got me there.
There are other issues. Fear of showing my faith at work. After all Christ has done for me I still get that hesitancy. And worry about things I have no control over. Anxiety over what others think about me. Insecurity over ability in service to the Lord. These things come as a brooding gloom that plays like a tape in my head that I can’t turn off. I compare it to a sun burn. A pain that I’m just going to have to put up with until time passes to make it go away. I’ve had these for years but only recently realized that the only time I step up to battle them is when they are happening. That was a profound realization for me. I’m still awed that I never thought of it before. It’s a very simple thing to notice.
In the Air Force I had to run a PT test every year. I had to run a mile and a half in twelve minutes. Every year most of us, out of shape, Air Force, sergeants would get out there and run ourselves close to death. Make our 11.53 mile and a half and then go off to the side and hack our guts out. “Good for another year.”
It was said at the time, and nobody thought it was untrue, “This would be a whole lot easier and less painful if you just ran regularly and were prepared and fit when PT test time rolled around.”
Jesus said...
Luke 9:23
Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
The anger, the worry, the lies, the profanity, the greed, arrogance, pride, insecurities, doubt, cowardice, gossip, sloth, gluttony, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, are all these “PT tests” that just kick our butts because we’re out of shape and not prepared.
I haven’t been.
That’s what’s been going on in my walk over these past two or three years. The workouts have been slow going. It’s been hard to grasp what the exercise must be to strengthen the spiritual muscles against anger or worry or pride. (Actually the same mindset can combat all three.)
I’ve been hard pressed to find a quality Bible study written about it. I’m sure there might be several out there but I have yet to get the time to get through all of them to find out. Let alone pay $8.00 for it only to be told...
Matthew 5:22
But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.
I already knew that! What I’m looking for is how to keep from getting angry. I have no doubt all of us can sit around at a home group Bible study and rattle off half a dozen passages that tell not to have an ungodly anger or the consequences we can expect. I’m talking about coming to a maturity where we don’t get angry and sin over these daily things. What’s the exercise? What’s the plan to get there? (Not perfection, just maturity.)
I think we are given an exercise. A plan. A diet and workout. In searching and reading I see that the Bible teaches to look at why the anger comes...
James 4
1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
We get angry because we don’t get our way. And what is “our way”?
We have profanity because it’s there in our hearts, (Matthew 12:34-35, Matthew 15:18-19).
We need something else in our hearts to lock everything else out.
If that ain’t a daily, regular, routine, workout at the gym... The PT test is going to be a painful experience.
I’m preaching to myself here. This is what I’ve been meditating on more and more.
So... As we all know, a fantastic technique to learn is to teach. All these things have been going through my mind.
The phrase I keep coming back to is, ‘Spiritual Warfare’.”
Not, necessarily, spiritual warfare in just learning the weapons we have (Eph 6:10-18) but also in what makes the war (Rom 7:23) and the preparation and warning that we have to be ready. We can call it “Spiritual Warfare” or “God’s Gym” (Y’know the tee shirt? The one with Jesus doing a push up with the cross on His back?)
How about “Spiritual Workout”? Or, another title idea I have is “Weapons and Tactics”. In the Air Force all fighter and bomber squadrons have a “Weapons and Tactics” branch. These are a whole team of folks who do nothing but study enemy weapons and the tactics they’ll use against our weapons. Obviously they also have to be smart on what our own weapons and tactics are to combat these things. Their job in the squadron is to act as a training tool for the rest of the pilots and crews. They keep them up to date with briefings and classes. In an operational squadron it’s typical for all crews to receive a daily, “Threat Of The Day” brief. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
I want to study traps, weapons, attacks, exercises, warnings, escape routes. I want know when to hold’em (2 Tim 1:13), know when to fold’em (Titus 3:9), know when to walk away (2 Tim 2:23) and know when to run (1 Tim 6:11).
Jesus fought Satan with “It is written”. That’s true and we all know it. But I’ve seen too many Bible studies leave it at that. It’s even more important to know what was written to combat the temptation Satan had. And to realize that Jesus knew those passages long before Satan came with an attack. That’s important. I think that’s the key.
I’ll tell you where this is headed. I’ll tell you the answer to this whole Bible study right now and up front. We’re all headed somewhere...
Romans 8:28-29
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
It should be at the top of the list of what we want. (Philippians 3:10)
And God has promised we can get what we want...
Matthew 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Deuteronomy 4:29
But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Proverbs 8:17
I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently will find me.
Jeremiah 29:13
And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
And that is the answer to the whole study. No secret.
No, I’m pretty good at that. But, that said, you know what? I have an extremely foul mouth in my head. Oh, yeah. All the major league swear words are all right there when I’m thinking to myself. And the lust is still there. Thirty three years of studying, listening, attending, serving, and they’re still there.
I’m not so distressed with the lust. I’ve got a happy marriage. It’s the rest of the things. It is just frustrating to no end how I still get so angry. I still brood about silly things. I still run scenarios over and over in my head about what I should have said or how I shouldn’t have been spoken to like that. And I know that in a month I won’t even remember what happened that got me so angry.
Lately I feel like me getting so wrapped around the axle is worse that whatever happened that got me there.
There are other issues. Fear of showing my faith at work. After all Christ has done for me I still get that hesitancy. And worry about things I have no control over. Anxiety over what others think about me. Insecurity over ability in service to the Lord. These things come as a brooding gloom that plays like a tape in my head that I can’t turn off. I compare it to a sun burn. A pain that I’m just going to have to put up with until time passes to make it go away. I’ve had these for years but only recently realized that the only time I step up to battle them is when they are happening. That was a profound realization for me. I’m still awed that I never thought of it before. It’s a very simple thing to notice.
In the Air Force I had to run a PT test every year. I had to run a mile and a half in twelve minutes. Every year most of us, out of shape, Air Force, sergeants would get out there and run ourselves close to death. Make our 11.53 mile and a half and then go off to the side and hack our guts out. “Good for another year.”
It was said at the time, and nobody thought it was untrue, “This would be a whole lot easier and less painful if you just ran regularly and were prepared and fit when PT test time rolled around.”
Jesus said...
Luke 9:23
Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
The anger, the worry, the lies, the profanity, the greed, arrogance, pride, insecurities, doubt, cowardice, gossip, sloth, gluttony, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, are all these “PT tests” that just kick our butts because we’re out of shape and not prepared.
I haven’t been.
That’s what’s been going on in my walk over these past two or three years. The workouts have been slow going. It’s been hard to grasp what the exercise must be to strengthen the spiritual muscles against anger or worry or pride. (Actually the same mindset can combat all three.)
I’ve been hard pressed to find a quality Bible study written about it. I’m sure there might be several out there but I have yet to get the time to get through all of them to find out. Let alone pay $8.00 for it only to be told...
Matthew 5:22
But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.
I already knew that! What I’m looking for is how to keep from getting angry. I have no doubt all of us can sit around at a home group Bible study and rattle off half a dozen passages that tell not to have an ungodly anger or the consequences we can expect. I’m talking about coming to a maturity where we don’t get angry and sin over these daily things. What’s the exercise? What’s the plan to get there? (Not perfection, just maturity.)
I think we are given an exercise. A plan. A diet and workout. In searching and reading I see that the Bible teaches to look at why the anger comes...
James 4
1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
We get angry because we don’t get our way. And what is “our way”?
We have profanity because it’s there in our hearts, (Matthew 12:34-35, Matthew 15:18-19).
We need something else in our hearts to lock everything else out.
If that ain’t a daily, regular, routine, workout at the gym... The PT test is going to be a painful experience.
I’m preaching to myself here. This is what I’ve been meditating on more and more.
So... As we all know, a fantastic technique to learn is to teach. All these things have been going through my mind.
The phrase I keep coming back to is, ‘Spiritual Warfare’.”
Not, necessarily, spiritual warfare in just learning the weapons we have (Eph 6:10-18) but also in what makes the war (Rom 7:23) and the preparation and warning that we have to be ready. We can call it “Spiritual Warfare” or “God’s Gym” (Y’know the tee shirt? The one with Jesus doing a push up with the cross on His back?)
How about “Spiritual Workout”? Or, another title idea I have is “Weapons and Tactics”. In the Air Force all fighter and bomber squadrons have a “Weapons and Tactics” branch. These are a whole team of folks who do nothing but study enemy weapons and the tactics they’ll use against our weapons. Obviously they also have to be smart on what our own weapons and tactics are to combat these things. Their job in the squadron is to act as a training tool for the rest of the pilots and crews. They keep them up to date with briefings and classes. In an operational squadron it’s typical for all crews to receive a daily, “Threat Of The Day” brief. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
I want to study traps, weapons, attacks, exercises, warnings, escape routes. I want know when to hold’em (2 Tim 1:13), know when to fold’em (Titus 3:9), know when to walk away (2 Tim 2:23) and know when to run (1 Tim 6:11).
Jesus fought Satan with “It is written”. That’s true and we all know it. But I’ve seen too many Bible studies leave it at that. It’s even more important to know what was written to combat the temptation Satan had. And to realize that Jesus knew those passages long before Satan came with an attack. That’s important. I think that’s the key.
I’ll tell you where this is headed. I’ll tell you the answer to this whole Bible study right now and up front. We’re all headed somewhere...
Romans 8:28-29
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
It should be at the top of the list of what we want. (Philippians 3:10)
And God has promised we can get what we want...
Matthew 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Deuteronomy 4:29
But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Proverbs 8:17
I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently will find me.
Jeremiah 29:13
And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
And that is the answer to the whole study. No secret.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Why Not Gay Marriage?
Why can’t two people of the same sex get married? It’s an easy question for the Christian to answer because the Bible talks in several places about marriage being only between a man and a woman but what if you don’t care about what the Bible says? What if it’s no more a guide for your life than “Huckleberry Finn” and what it says is irrelevant to your way of thinking? Christians know that someone with that attitude has got bigger problems than how they feel about gay marriage but it doesn’t help the debate in the court rooms. What exactly do you say in front of the judge or the congressman or the liberal activist that is supposed to change their minds or at least consider the bigger picture in the gay marriage debate? Because pointing out that the Bible says it’s wrong isn’t convincing them. But who ever said it would? The preaching of the cross is foolishness, (1 Cor 1:18), and I’m here to tell you that presenting the commands of Christ will meet with defiance and laughing scorn. Does that surprise you? It shouldn’t because that is how it’s supposed to affect the world.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to give everybody a pep talk about how we need to find a sales pitch that the world will accept to get these gay people to see the cause of Christ. I’m not even going to waste your time and mine by arguing that the Bible ain’t working and we need to find a better pitch to sell the world on keeping gay marriage illegal.
No, just us Christians talking here. Why can’t a man marry his gay boyfriend? Why not? Because the Bible says? The Bible says eating shrimp is a sin, (Lev 11:9-12). Yes, yes, I know there’s more to it than that and the association is faulty logic but by the time you’ve given them a Bible 101 lesson you’ve used up all your time. You have to give these guys a whole life time of Sunday school lessons before you can even get to why something is wrong. The whole world has fallen that far out of the knowledge of God. Let me present that Sunday school lesson now. Let me also make our case to the secular mind with why we see gay marriage as a threat. Hear us out. If you don’t agree maybe at least you can understand. Because it’s not about hate. It’s all about the truth and what the big picture of life is all about.
Why can’t a man marry a man? Why can’t a woman marry a woman? May I submit to you that I can’t think of any earthy reason why not. This is America. Consenting adults can do whatever they want. Marry your dog. Marry your car.
Against the law? Come on now. Something being against the law makes it no more than that. Against the law. It means if you violate it you get punished but being a law doesn’t make something right, moral, or wise. Those who want same sex marriage don’t have to go far to point out that slavery was perfectly lawful in our country at one time. Once again I’ll repeat this as many times as you might need to hear it. Moral absolutes are transcendent of any law but the people violating this do not recognize that. Are they wrong? Of course they’re wrong but it still remains the problem. How do we pull down that stronghold and deal with this lofty thought of so-call knowledge, (2 Cor 10:3-5)? They want same sex marriage. What are you going to say to somebody that doesn’t give the slightest care that it is a violation of God’s law and precepts?
You want to know what they should do if they want to get married? Go get married.
Oh, but... How? By whom? In what way?
They want, they say, to get “married” in the same way that you and I got married. Well, my wife and I got married in a church in the sight of other believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I got news for same sex marriage activists, they will never get married the way I was. Let me say that again. The true church of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ will never recognize any sinful marriage of any same sex couple. Oh, sure, you’ll see them “married” in some building that might have “church” on the sign out in front. They might even have the service officiated by a “minister” but... Whereas before we had a situation of homosexuals giving no weight to the authority of the Bible now the scriptural backing becomes a huge player. What do they want? They want to get married. How do you go about getting married? In a church service? Why? Anybody can go to the county courthouse or Justice of the Peace and co-sign a marriage license. Well, in some states, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire and in Washington, D.C. That’s the issue. That’s no more than a contract. We’ve actually already had such things called “civil unions” legal for a while. Got a live-in lover? Want them to get your stuff when you die? Make up a contract. Want your lover to have medical benefits? Take it up with the company you work for. That’s not a marriage.
No. That’s not enough for them. They want the legal ability to get “married”. Why? To destroy marriage of course.
I submit to you that marriage is a religious rite. It is a religious institution. Not a legal formality. As a legal formality I don’t think we are far at all from partnering with anybody we want. What’s the fuss? But, no. They don’t want that. They want to get married and there is no one out there who has any kind of objection other than those who have religious objections. Well, perhaps the military for “morale” purposes but I don’t think they’ll be able to get away with that argument for long. Now, there are those with spiritual backgrounds who have no objections at all, liberal theologians for example. But this is still my point. The debate is in the forum of doctrine and scriptural teaching and never stays in the courtroom. It can’t. Sooner or later it will always transfer over to a religious issue because marriage is a religious issue. Being out of the closet and keeping your job in spite of your sexual preference can be decided in the court room. The scripture has something to say about that sin but whether or not you keep your job, your property, your pension, or your children can be decided in secular court with no thought or input from the Word of God.
Oh, but marriage, that is God’s territory. At least it’s religion’s territory. Granted, Islam, Hinduism, Mormonism, all those have religious rites in the institution of marriage. Anything with no religious accent to it is a legal contract. It’s not “marriage”.
So then, at the core of the issue is not whether gay people have the right or ability to get married it is really whether or not we have the right and ability to take issue with this invasion of an area we live in and refuse to recognize any perversion of a God given mandate that is ours alone. This isn’t about hate it is about the objective truth of the word of God that we have all been told. You want to dispute that? I’m ready for that but where do we hash this out? In the church or in the courtroom? If it’s in the courtroom then what can I say? If you’ve taken God and His ten commandments out then what leg have I got to stand on? You folks go sign a contract. Good luck with that. But no, you want to come into our church and perform our sacred observance mandated by our God and you think we’re dumb enough to be alright with that? Never going to happen. Why? Because the Bible says it’s not alright. You don’t care what the Bible says? We do. You want to cut that part out of the Bible? Where does that end? Why take any of it if we ignore some of it? We might as well sleep in on Sundays.
For even those who recognize it as a religious institution, I don’t think they understand what it’s for. What’s marriage for? Is it for the wedding? I have an idea that there are many people both heterosexual and homosexual who are just craving the ceremony with no real concern about what’s going on in or behind that ceremony. It reminds me of a lady we had in our church many years ago who wanted our pastor to baptize her new-born baby. The pastor and the elders took her aside and explained that we’re Baptist and we believe in believer’s baptism and not infant baptism and why that’s important . They were very patient with her. One of the elders was telling me later that it was very bizarre. None of this was sinking into her head. She could not understand at all why nobody at our church would baptize her baby. She just didn’t get it. The couple eventually left us and went to another church that would baptize her baby on the spot. You see, this baptism meant nothing at all to her about doctrine or teaching from the Bible. It was about her wanting to go through this tear jerking ceremony for her baby. Well, not really for her baby. This was all for her. She didn’t care what baptism is for. She didn’t care what water baptism is an evidence of. All this talk about the doctrines and Biblical reasons were just getting in the way.
Why would gay people want to get married? Why do they care? I think the motivation is different for each person but by and large I think it stems from a couple of root desires. The first one being they want the ceremony and if they can get the ceremony they think they can get the acceptance. For some reason standing there in a ceremony previously forbidden to them now means they have shattered the proverbial glass ceiling and achieved victory over their enemies. As I said before, it is the furthest thing from their minds whether the true God of the Bible approves of this ceremony. They just don’t think like that. A church “minister” has done the ceremony, ergo, they beat the dirty ol’ bigoted “church” that kept them enslaved all their lives. Right? Wrong. What they don’t get is that it’s like the Grinch who stole all the presents and Christmas trees and decorations and thought he had stolen Christmas. But you’ve all seen how that story went. He stole the stuff, he never stole Christmas. You can have all the wedding’s you want. Go ahead and even have them in a church building with some man or woman wearing a backward collar and “Rev” in front of their name. The Lord God of the Bible., the only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob does not accept any of it.
This brings me their second motivation, which is to destroy the institution of marriage. How is gay marriage an attack on marriage? Gay marriage attacks the holiness of the institution. It destroys what marriage is made for. It is an attack on what marriage is a picture of.
Allow me to break something down for you. God works a whole lot in His word with “types”. Do you know what I mean by a “type”? When I say type you can understand me using the word to mean “an example” or a “model”. I mean something that is in the Bible that is an object there but is also a lesson God is teaching us of a bigger, overall, truth. Take for instance the Tabernacle that Moses and the Hebrews made in the wilderness. There were many “types” in there. The incense in front of the curtains signified prayers. The lamp stand was Jesus as the light of the world. You follow what I mean? Look at Passover. The angel of death “passed over” any Hebrew that had what? The blood of the lamb on his door posts. A male lamb, a lamb without blemish. They weren’t allowed to break any of the lamb’s bones. All this was a type of what Jesus would do on the cross. Joseph, in Genesis, was a “type” of Jesus. He was sold out by his own brothers. He went to the gentiles, in this case, the Egyptians. He took a gentile bride just like Christ took a gentile church as his bride. When his brothers saw him again they did not recognize him just like Israel doesn’t recognize Jesus as the Messiah today.
There are many types in the Bible. I really don’t want to go through all of them other than marriage. I say to you marriage is a “type” that God instituted. It is an earthly “picture” to signify a higher, heavenly reality, the marriage of Christ and the Church, (2 Cor 11:2). In practice, in this world, marriage is given a mandate to be fruitful and multiply just like the Church. The heavenly picture is not Christ marrying Himself or the Church marrying the Church. This is why it’s wrong and a sin. Because it’s a blasphemy and perversion of what God intended the institution to be. Not just sex. The sex is prohibited in other places, (Lev 18:22). We’ve already talked about that. No, it’s the marriage part that they’re messing with now. They think they can muscle into the picture that marriage is and by doing that they will accomplish something... Break the heavenly reality that marriage is a model of. Nobody here made gay marriage wrong. God made it wrong when He devised the whole divine marriage that our earthly marriage is only a picture of. Marriage is only for this present world.
Let me show you something. Turn in your Bibles to Luke, chapter 20. It might interest you to know that we will not be married “forever”. The Mormon’s are wrong. When we get married even in a godly, Biblical, blessed by God, union before the church and God, it is still only a union that is applicable in this world and on this side of eternity.
Luke 20:34-37
34 Jesus answered and said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage;
Someday, in the Kingdom of God, after we have been resurrected as John 6:40 says all in Christ will be, there will be several institutions that will be a thing of the past. Our marriages to each other being one of them. Is marriage a thing of the past? No, the perfect marriage that our marriages on earth were a picture of will have come so the picture is no longer needed. This isn’t new or something that was never mentioned before. Turn to Hebrews chapter 8. It works exactly like other Passover. Do we celebrate Passover in the Church? We do not because the Lamb, the true Lamb, the Lamb that Passover itself was only a picture of, has been slain for real and now we have a perfect sacrifice for our sins and not a picture. This was the writer of Hebrews’ point in much of the book...
Hebrews 8:4-6
4 For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; 5 who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
Do you get his point? He’s saying the Tabernacle was great but it was only a model. If I may, it was a prophecy of the true Tabernacle that would come. We do not see a Tabernacle any more. The perfect Tabernacle of Jesus has come. We do not see a Temple any more. You are the Temple of God now. We are not the perfect Temple but one day we will be.
1 Corinthians 13:9-12
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
This goes on and on. This is not the real world. The better perfect one is coming and is almost here and we have certain pictures and institutions that we have been given for this world that we will not need when the perfect is come. Communion. Do you think communion will go on forever? What did Paul say?
1 Corinthians 11:26
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
We proclaim the Lord’s death with communion until... He comes back. Communion, the celebration of the last supper, is a temporary institution for the Church to do in this world.
Colossians 2:16-18
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
Communion, baptism, marriage, they are all shadows of a reality that is coming and will do away with the “picture”. Violating the “type” is very serious. In Leviticus 10:1-2 we read of the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, bringing “… profane fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them.” What exactly they were doing wrong, whether they were drunk or not, (Lev 10:9), it was not what the Lord had “commanded them”. God has these ceremonies, offering, sacrifices and orders with much deeper meaning than just giving His people things to do. They teach His people about Him and His plans. Violating these lessons has had profound consequences. In 2 Chronicles 26:16-19 we read of King Uzziah taking it upon himself to go into the Temple of God and burn incense on the altar of incense. Kings of Judah were not of the Priestly tribe of Levi and not allowed to do this. God has a picture and a type of Holy, sanctified, people who serve Him and Uzziah was violating this type. God struck him with leprosy for this sin. Violating the type is very serious. In Numbers 20:7-12 God told Moses to speak to a rock and it would give water. Moses took it upon himself to strike the rock instead to bring the water. Moses disobeyed. Perhaps God had wanted to make a type from speaking to the rock but now the lesson learned is to do exactly what God says, exactly the way He says it. Moses sin kept him from continuing into the promised land, (Num 20:12). Violating the type that God has established to bring His people into deeper understanding of the government of the Kingdom Of God is deadly serious. It always has been and always will be.
Gay sex is a sin because ALL sex outside of marriage is a sin. None of us were put here for “sex”. None of us are put here for self gratification or hedonism or pleasure. The point of our lives is not physical gratification. The point of our lives is to become like Christ.
Romans 8:29
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Wilfully living a life in contrast to the decrees God makes for His Kingdom and His family will lead to destruction, (1 Cor 6:9). Marriage is a type for Christ and His bride, the Church. Family is a type for the growth of God’s Kingdom. Violating these will not be accepted by God. Call a ceremony anything you like. It will never be any accepted “marriage” in the sight of God or His true church.
That all being said... Why would gay couples still fight so hard to be “married”? As I said, who can stop anybody from having a ceremony? Who can stop two consenting adults from living together in the same bed? Who can stop anyone from writing a will and leaving their possessions to anyone else and who can stop anyone from pressuring their employers to recognize their partner as their dependant for employee benefits? None of that can be stopped for long in a free country like we have now. And without Biblical knowledge and guidance how long can anybody justify denying equal rights to homosexuals that heterosexuals have? Why not? Because the Bible says? They don’t care what the Bible says and that is why it is an attack on God and His Word. It will soon be an attack on His church when gay couples come into churches all over the country and demand to have their ceremonies performed by true believing pastors. When they refuse there will be legal trouble planned. Sex between two adults is an issue between their sin and God. Demanding a “marriage ceremony” from a Bible believing pastor is an outright attack on God and His Church. It now has nothing to do with freedom to do what one wants. It now has nothing to do with gaining legal rights. From a secular point of view I can’t think of any argument that can hold off their plans for long. Our objections are from chapter and verse and that is where they are targeting. Not to get the acceptance. Not to get the ceremony. Not to get the rights. Not to get the benefits. They do it to burn the Church down.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to give everybody a pep talk about how we need to find a sales pitch that the world will accept to get these gay people to see the cause of Christ. I’m not even going to waste your time and mine by arguing that the Bible ain’t working and we need to find a better pitch to sell the world on keeping gay marriage illegal.
No, just us Christians talking here. Why can’t a man marry his gay boyfriend? Why not? Because the Bible says? The Bible says eating shrimp is a sin, (Lev 11:9-12). Yes, yes, I know there’s more to it than that and the association is faulty logic but by the time you’ve given them a Bible 101 lesson you’ve used up all your time. You have to give these guys a whole life time of Sunday school lessons before you can even get to why something is wrong. The whole world has fallen that far out of the knowledge of God. Let me present that Sunday school lesson now. Let me also make our case to the secular mind with why we see gay marriage as a threat. Hear us out. If you don’t agree maybe at least you can understand. Because it’s not about hate. It’s all about the truth and what the big picture of life is all about.
Why can’t a man marry a man? Why can’t a woman marry a woman? May I submit to you that I can’t think of any earthy reason why not. This is America. Consenting adults can do whatever they want. Marry your dog. Marry your car.
Against the law? Come on now. Something being against the law makes it no more than that. Against the law. It means if you violate it you get punished but being a law doesn’t make something right, moral, or wise. Those who want same sex marriage don’t have to go far to point out that slavery was perfectly lawful in our country at one time. Once again I’ll repeat this as many times as you might need to hear it. Moral absolutes are transcendent of any law but the people violating this do not recognize that. Are they wrong? Of course they’re wrong but it still remains the problem. How do we pull down that stronghold and deal with this lofty thought of so-call knowledge, (2 Cor 10:3-5)? They want same sex marriage. What are you going to say to somebody that doesn’t give the slightest care that it is a violation of God’s law and precepts?
You want to know what they should do if they want to get married? Go get married.
Oh, but... How? By whom? In what way?
They want, they say, to get “married” in the same way that you and I got married. Well, my wife and I got married in a church in the sight of other believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I got news for same sex marriage activists, they will never get married the way I was. Let me say that again. The true church of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ will never recognize any sinful marriage of any same sex couple. Oh, sure, you’ll see them “married” in some building that might have “church” on the sign out in front. They might even have the service officiated by a “minister” but... Whereas before we had a situation of homosexuals giving no weight to the authority of the Bible now the scriptural backing becomes a huge player. What do they want? They want to get married. How do you go about getting married? In a church service? Why? Anybody can go to the county courthouse or Justice of the Peace and co-sign a marriage license. Well, in some states, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire and in Washington, D.C. That’s the issue. That’s no more than a contract. We’ve actually already had such things called “civil unions” legal for a while. Got a live-in lover? Want them to get your stuff when you die? Make up a contract. Want your lover to have medical benefits? Take it up with the company you work for. That’s not a marriage.
No. That’s not enough for them. They want the legal ability to get “married”. Why? To destroy marriage of course.
I submit to you that marriage is a religious rite. It is a religious institution. Not a legal formality. As a legal formality I don’t think we are far at all from partnering with anybody we want. What’s the fuss? But, no. They don’t want that. They want to get married and there is no one out there who has any kind of objection other than those who have religious objections. Well, perhaps the military for “morale” purposes but I don’t think they’ll be able to get away with that argument for long. Now, there are those with spiritual backgrounds who have no objections at all, liberal theologians for example. But this is still my point. The debate is in the forum of doctrine and scriptural teaching and never stays in the courtroom. It can’t. Sooner or later it will always transfer over to a religious issue because marriage is a religious issue. Being out of the closet and keeping your job in spite of your sexual preference can be decided in the court room. The scripture has something to say about that sin but whether or not you keep your job, your property, your pension, or your children can be decided in secular court with no thought or input from the Word of God.
Oh, but marriage, that is God’s territory. At least it’s religion’s territory. Granted, Islam, Hinduism, Mormonism, all those have religious rites in the institution of marriage. Anything with no religious accent to it is a legal contract. It’s not “marriage”.
So then, at the core of the issue is not whether gay people have the right or ability to get married it is really whether or not we have the right and ability to take issue with this invasion of an area we live in and refuse to recognize any perversion of a God given mandate that is ours alone. This isn’t about hate it is about the objective truth of the word of God that we have all been told. You want to dispute that? I’m ready for that but where do we hash this out? In the church or in the courtroom? If it’s in the courtroom then what can I say? If you’ve taken God and His ten commandments out then what leg have I got to stand on? You folks go sign a contract. Good luck with that. But no, you want to come into our church and perform our sacred observance mandated by our God and you think we’re dumb enough to be alright with that? Never going to happen. Why? Because the Bible says it’s not alright. You don’t care what the Bible says? We do. You want to cut that part out of the Bible? Where does that end? Why take any of it if we ignore some of it? We might as well sleep in on Sundays.
For even those who recognize it as a religious institution, I don’t think they understand what it’s for. What’s marriage for? Is it for the wedding? I have an idea that there are many people both heterosexual and homosexual who are just craving the ceremony with no real concern about what’s going on in or behind that ceremony. It reminds me of a lady we had in our church many years ago who wanted our pastor to baptize her new-born baby. The pastor and the elders took her aside and explained that we’re Baptist and we believe in believer’s baptism and not infant baptism and why that’s important . They were very patient with her. One of the elders was telling me later that it was very bizarre. None of this was sinking into her head. She could not understand at all why nobody at our church would baptize her baby. She just didn’t get it. The couple eventually left us and went to another church that would baptize her baby on the spot. You see, this baptism meant nothing at all to her about doctrine or teaching from the Bible. It was about her wanting to go through this tear jerking ceremony for her baby. Well, not really for her baby. This was all for her. She didn’t care what baptism is for. She didn’t care what water baptism is an evidence of. All this talk about the doctrines and Biblical reasons were just getting in the way.
Why would gay people want to get married? Why do they care? I think the motivation is different for each person but by and large I think it stems from a couple of root desires. The first one being they want the ceremony and if they can get the ceremony they think they can get the acceptance. For some reason standing there in a ceremony previously forbidden to them now means they have shattered the proverbial glass ceiling and achieved victory over their enemies. As I said before, it is the furthest thing from their minds whether the true God of the Bible approves of this ceremony. They just don’t think like that. A church “minister” has done the ceremony, ergo, they beat the dirty ol’ bigoted “church” that kept them enslaved all their lives. Right? Wrong. What they don’t get is that it’s like the Grinch who stole all the presents and Christmas trees and decorations and thought he had stolen Christmas. But you’ve all seen how that story went. He stole the stuff, he never stole Christmas. You can have all the wedding’s you want. Go ahead and even have them in a church building with some man or woman wearing a backward collar and “Rev” in front of their name. The Lord God of the Bible., the only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob does not accept any of it.
This brings me their second motivation, which is to destroy the institution of marriage. How is gay marriage an attack on marriage? Gay marriage attacks the holiness of the institution. It destroys what marriage is made for. It is an attack on what marriage is a picture of.
Allow me to break something down for you. God works a whole lot in His word with “types”. Do you know what I mean by a “type”? When I say type you can understand me using the word to mean “an example” or a “model”. I mean something that is in the Bible that is an object there but is also a lesson God is teaching us of a bigger, overall, truth. Take for instance the Tabernacle that Moses and the Hebrews made in the wilderness. There were many “types” in there. The incense in front of the curtains signified prayers. The lamp stand was Jesus as the light of the world. You follow what I mean? Look at Passover. The angel of death “passed over” any Hebrew that had what? The blood of the lamb on his door posts. A male lamb, a lamb without blemish. They weren’t allowed to break any of the lamb’s bones. All this was a type of what Jesus would do on the cross. Joseph, in Genesis, was a “type” of Jesus. He was sold out by his own brothers. He went to the gentiles, in this case, the Egyptians. He took a gentile bride just like Christ took a gentile church as his bride. When his brothers saw him again they did not recognize him just like Israel doesn’t recognize Jesus as the Messiah today.
There are many types in the Bible. I really don’t want to go through all of them other than marriage. I say to you marriage is a “type” that God instituted. It is an earthly “picture” to signify a higher, heavenly reality, the marriage of Christ and the Church, (2 Cor 11:2). In practice, in this world, marriage is given a mandate to be fruitful and multiply just like the Church. The heavenly picture is not Christ marrying Himself or the Church marrying the Church. This is why it’s wrong and a sin. Because it’s a blasphemy and perversion of what God intended the institution to be. Not just sex. The sex is prohibited in other places, (Lev 18:22). We’ve already talked about that. No, it’s the marriage part that they’re messing with now. They think they can muscle into the picture that marriage is and by doing that they will accomplish something... Break the heavenly reality that marriage is a model of. Nobody here made gay marriage wrong. God made it wrong when He devised the whole divine marriage that our earthly marriage is only a picture of. Marriage is only for this present world.
Let me show you something. Turn in your Bibles to Luke, chapter 20. It might interest you to know that we will not be married “forever”. The Mormon’s are wrong. When we get married even in a godly, Biblical, blessed by God, union before the church and God, it is still only a union that is applicable in this world and on this side of eternity.
Luke 20:34-37
34 Jesus answered and said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are counted worthy to attain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage;
Someday, in the Kingdom of God, after we have been resurrected as John 6:40 says all in Christ will be, there will be several institutions that will be a thing of the past. Our marriages to each other being one of them. Is marriage a thing of the past? No, the perfect marriage that our marriages on earth were a picture of will have come so the picture is no longer needed. This isn’t new or something that was never mentioned before. Turn to Hebrews chapter 8. It works exactly like other Passover. Do we celebrate Passover in the Church? We do not because the Lamb, the true Lamb, the Lamb that Passover itself was only a picture of, has been slain for real and now we have a perfect sacrifice for our sins and not a picture. This was the writer of Hebrews’ point in much of the book...
Hebrews 8:4-6
4 For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; 5 who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
Do you get his point? He’s saying the Tabernacle was great but it was only a model. If I may, it was a prophecy of the true Tabernacle that would come. We do not see a Tabernacle any more. The perfect Tabernacle of Jesus has come. We do not see a Temple any more. You are the Temple of God now. We are not the perfect Temple but one day we will be.
1 Corinthians 13:9-12
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
This goes on and on. This is not the real world. The better perfect one is coming and is almost here and we have certain pictures and institutions that we have been given for this world that we will not need when the perfect is come. Communion. Do you think communion will go on forever? What did Paul say?
1 Corinthians 11:26
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
We proclaim the Lord’s death with communion until... He comes back. Communion, the celebration of the last supper, is a temporary institution for the Church to do in this world.
Colossians 2:16-18
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
Communion, baptism, marriage, they are all shadows of a reality that is coming and will do away with the “picture”. Violating the “type” is very serious. In Leviticus 10:1-2 we read of the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, bringing “… profane fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them.” What exactly they were doing wrong, whether they were drunk or not, (Lev 10:9), it was not what the Lord had “commanded them”. God has these ceremonies, offering, sacrifices and orders with much deeper meaning than just giving His people things to do. They teach His people about Him and His plans. Violating these lessons has had profound consequences. In 2 Chronicles 26:16-19 we read of King Uzziah taking it upon himself to go into the Temple of God and burn incense on the altar of incense. Kings of Judah were not of the Priestly tribe of Levi and not allowed to do this. God has a picture and a type of Holy, sanctified, people who serve Him and Uzziah was violating this type. God struck him with leprosy for this sin. Violating the type is very serious. In Numbers 20:7-12 God told Moses to speak to a rock and it would give water. Moses took it upon himself to strike the rock instead to bring the water. Moses disobeyed. Perhaps God had wanted to make a type from speaking to the rock but now the lesson learned is to do exactly what God says, exactly the way He says it. Moses sin kept him from continuing into the promised land, (Num 20:12). Violating the type that God has established to bring His people into deeper understanding of the government of the Kingdom Of God is deadly serious. It always has been and always will be.
Gay sex is a sin because ALL sex outside of marriage is a sin. None of us were put here for “sex”. None of us are put here for self gratification or hedonism or pleasure. The point of our lives is not physical gratification. The point of our lives is to become like Christ.
Romans 8:29
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Wilfully living a life in contrast to the decrees God makes for His Kingdom and His family will lead to destruction, (1 Cor 6:9). Marriage is a type for Christ and His bride, the Church. Family is a type for the growth of God’s Kingdom. Violating these will not be accepted by God. Call a ceremony anything you like. It will never be any accepted “marriage” in the sight of God or His true church.
That all being said... Why would gay couples still fight so hard to be “married”? As I said, who can stop anybody from having a ceremony? Who can stop two consenting adults from living together in the same bed? Who can stop anyone from writing a will and leaving their possessions to anyone else and who can stop anyone from pressuring their employers to recognize their partner as their dependant for employee benefits? None of that can be stopped for long in a free country like we have now. And without Biblical knowledge and guidance how long can anybody justify denying equal rights to homosexuals that heterosexuals have? Why not? Because the Bible says? They don’t care what the Bible says and that is why it is an attack on God and His Word. It will soon be an attack on His church when gay couples come into churches all over the country and demand to have their ceremonies performed by true believing pastors. When they refuse there will be legal trouble planned. Sex between two adults is an issue between their sin and God. Demanding a “marriage ceremony” from a Bible believing pastor is an outright attack on God and His Church. It now has nothing to do with freedom to do what one wants. It now has nothing to do with gaining legal rights. From a secular point of view I can’t think of any argument that can hold off their plans for long. Our objections are from chapter and verse and that is where they are targeting. Not to get the acceptance. Not to get the ceremony. Not to get the rights. Not to get the benefits. They do it to burn the Church down.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Tale Of Three Brothers
All of us have read the stories of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. One of the lessons we get from these men is the choice God made of them over the cultural pecking order of rank and hierarchy. What about the “other kids”? What about Ishmael, Esau, the older brothers of Joseph? What about Leah? These people had legitimate claims to greater rank or honor but instead had their claims over ruled. God has good reasons for doing this and makes his point known that he chooses on a standard that is outside and above man’s fallen reasoning. I don’t really want to dwell on that fact. I want us to take it for granted and then move on. I want to talk about the ones who didn’t get picked. The ones born first who didn’t get the blessing of the firstborn from God. The ones who had God’s point learned at their expense. Where they hated people? Were they cursed? Are they lost and in hell? Some of their stories are sad and I think there is another lesson we can squeeze out of the story that involves these people. Ishmael was the first born son of Abraham. It is well known that he was not supposed to be. His birth was from an act of humans trying to push God’s will on the plan already decreed by God. What do you do when you’re not part of God’s plan? What if you’re not in the plan to be a big part in the play God has to teach a lesson? How do you react and what can you do before God? I want to look at several older brothers and see the different reactions they had when they suffered being passed by.
Ishmael was a son who probably shouldn’t have been born. God had made Abraham a promise that he would have a son, (Gen 12:2), but when time went on and on and no son was coming by Sarah the two of them decided to force the issue and have a child by Sarah’s handmade Hagar, (Gen 16:2). This resulted in a son being born by Hagar named Ishmael, (Gen 16:11). Ishmael was not the son of the promise. God told Abraham that the promise of fathering many nations would come through a son by Sarah. Eventually Isaac would be born to Sarah when she was 90 years old and the blessing and inheritance would go to him, (Gen 17:19-21). And what about Ishmael? The story goes that he and his Mother Hagar were banished to the desert. Without divine intervention they would have died, (Gen 21:8-21). What would your reaction be if your father did that to you and your mother? What would your reaction be if God did that to your inheritance and birthright? Ishmael’s story continued. God actually blessed Ishmael in his new land and he was the father of twelve tribes himself, (Gen 25:16). But still, would you have held a grudge? There doesn’t seem to have been. When Abraham died at 175 years Ishmael came to his funeral, (Gen 25:9). Back to also presumably stand next to his younger brother Isaac the younger brother who received all the blessings and inheritance but should have automatically gone to the firstborn. How many people would be willing to do that? How many more people would hold a resentment for the rest of their life over being treated like that? The text doesn’t really tell us about the emotions going on for this event. We just know for a fact that Ishmael made the effort of coming to the funeral of a father who cast him out to stand together with the younger brother who got his birthright instead of him. How many of us could do that? What kind of a person was Ishmael who could do that?
Another big brother was Esau. He was the older twin brother of Jacob and was actually the favored one of his father, (Gen 25:28). There was no intention to pass it over for his birthright as the first born. And mind you it was through deception that he lost his birthright. He was extorted out of it in hunger, (Gen 25:29-34). His father was lied to and it was stolen, (Gen 27). And yet still, that blessing went to the thief. The deceiver, (Gen 27:35). The birthright went to the younger brother. How would you feel about that? What would you do? Remember that in the Middle East the first born was the heir to not only money and possessions in inheritance but also responsibility and leadership. Family, business, clan, tribe, even kingdom. It would have carried as stigma if an older son was passed over in his birthright. The shame, the insult, the damage and the injury done to Esau is legitimate. He was robbed, he was publicly humiliated, he was taken advantage of. And yet, twenty years later Jacob returns to Canaan and is met by Esau for what? Revenge? No, instead he comes out and welcomes Jacob back, (Gen 33:4). Does that sound like an older brother that’s been robbed, insulted, and taking advantage of? Obviously something has changed in Esau. Also notice that Esau went on to be Ishmael’s son in law, (Gen 28:9). I wonder how many times the two of them talked about what happened to them and, if so, whether or not they had the change of heart we see later in their lives. We are not really told one way or the other their thoughts or emotions and scripture never commends them anywhere as examples to be copied. That alone makes for a sticking point in making it a point using these men as an example.
But another older brother can give us more to study. The older brother of Joseph, in this case, Judah. Joseph was hated by his ten older brothers. They were insulted by the stories he told of his dreams and they resented the favoritism Joseph got from their father Jacob. So one day when these brothers had had enough they grabbed Joseph and threw him into a hole and then sold him into slavery. Jacob’s oldest son, the one who held the rights to eldest son was Rubin, (Gen 29:32). But Ruben lost first son rights in a profane act of debauchery and insult to his father, (Gen 35:22). Next in line was Simeon and then Levi but they lost it too. In one passage of scripture we read how Jacob rebuked the first three of his sons, (Genesis 49:1-12). Simeon and Levi were over the murderous act of revenge over their sister Dinah’s rape, (Gen 34). It was a dysfunctional family and there can be debate as to whom the next one in line for first born son rights would go to. Rubin was first born son of Jacob and Leah and next born was Simeon, then Levi, and then Judah, (Gen 29:33). But inheritance rules did not always work like that. Jacob had another “firstborn” and that was the first born son from Rachel. That was Joseph. First born rights went to the sons of wives and not to the sons of concubines like Bilhah and Zilpah. So Rubin was the first born son, he loses that status, the next in line is actually Joseph not Simeon, Levi, or Judah.
Either way no matter how you think about it, Reuben through Judah were passed over. It’s important to note because later when Joseph sees his brother’s again he threatens to keep Benjamin. When that happens the one who steps up is big brother Judah. The speech he delivers to the prime minister of Egypt, whom he does not yet know is his little brother Joseph, is full of repentance, intercession, and humility, (Gen 44:18-34). This was not the same big brother that helped throw Joseph into a pit. None of the men were the same older brothers that deceived their father into believing Joseph had died.
There we have three older brothers. Passed over for birthright and inheritance. Again, passed over by God sovereign plan. The thought comes that these men might have been robbed. Perhaps we can think they were set up before they had any chance to show whether they would submit to God or not. In the case of Ishmael and Esau their names went on to be a curse and their descendants enemies of God and His people. But what about the older brothers themselves? Did they live on to cursed lives, lost and rejected? Actually Ishmael was blessed by God and made a great nation of his own, (Genesis 17:20). Esau went to join in his uncle’s nation and was greatly blessed also. These nations do not hold a high place in scripture but the point I’m trying to make is that the men themselves, Ishmael and Esau, we learn a very profound story of forgiveness and change of heart. Two older brothers demoted and passed over. These older brothers had found grace to forgive in the years later. And Judah? Passed over and pushed back its true. Yet when the time came to take a stand to prevent another of his father’s “favorites” from being taken he stepped forward and pleaded for his little brother. Judah would not be blessed as first born. Joseph’s son, Ephraim, would father the tribe that would grow to be the largest of all and become synonymous with the northern kingdom of Israel, (2 Chronicles 25:7). And Judah? Rejected, passed over, insulted Judah? His descendants would be King David and the Messiah. And there is an older sister in this story too. Leah was the older sister of Rachel, (Genesis 29:16). She was the “first wife” of Jacob. She had every reason to expect rank and honor yet she was rejected over her younger sister for attention and love. Yet she was the mother of Judah and so in the line of Messiah. Not Rachel or Joseph.
God does His will and very rarely is the reason known by the people witnessing the actual events. But there can be trust and faith in Him that He does nothing without purpose. There can be other examples of other colder brothers who were not so forgiving it’s true. Solomon’s older brother Adonijah is one and let’s not forget the most notorious big brother Cain. But still, I have yet to mention Aaron, Moses’ older brother, who was faithful for the most part in following his little brother. And all the older brothers of David who also obeyed him as king, (1 Sam 16:4-12). The lesson found in all three men can also be learned from Jonathan who, as first born son of Saul, was next in line to be king of Israel yet chose to follow God’s next anointed, David, (1 Sam 20:32-34).
What a powerful lesson we can learn from the hearts of these people. Again, keep in mind that we’re reading about people with legitimate claims and yet God over ruled them. What is there to learn here? God rewards trust and faith. He does not reward ego and vanity. What would many of us do if we were to be kept by God on the sidelines? How many are faithful students of the Bible and God’s teachings and yet are never asked to teach adults the scripture? How many times have all of us watched while someone else less prepared seemed to get the opportunity to teach, preach, or any of the other more “honorable” jobs? What if you are working in the nursery, or in the kitchen, or cleaning the church bathrooms, and nobody ever, even once, said “Thank you” or said you’re doing a good job? What if they never do? What if for the rest of your sojourn through this world you are never once given the opportunity to teach, preach, lead, direct, or mentor? Ever. Instead, you are asked to watch children, clean toilets, vacuum floors, make the coffee, or mow the lawn? I’ll say one more time that these big brothers I have mentioned had real, legitimate, claims over what they were denied. Do you love God’s word and read it and study it like an addiction? And then, have you ever watched helplessly while someone has taught a Bible study and completely missed the point of what the passage means? You have a choice when that happens. God is teaching you a deeper lesson than you may realize. You are being taught that He is one in charge of gifts and duties in His church. You will not be judged by whether you ever preached but how your heart is fixed. By what God was able to do through the words you say. God takes the humble and the contrite and does mighty things through the weak. You would know that if you really know your Bible and your God.
Ishmael was a son who probably shouldn’t have been born. God had made Abraham a promise that he would have a son, (Gen 12:2), but when time went on and on and no son was coming by Sarah the two of them decided to force the issue and have a child by Sarah’s handmade Hagar, (Gen 16:2). This resulted in a son being born by Hagar named Ishmael, (Gen 16:11). Ishmael was not the son of the promise. God told Abraham that the promise of fathering many nations would come through a son by Sarah. Eventually Isaac would be born to Sarah when she was 90 years old and the blessing and inheritance would go to him, (Gen 17:19-21). And what about Ishmael? The story goes that he and his Mother Hagar were banished to the desert. Without divine intervention they would have died, (Gen 21:8-21). What would your reaction be if your father did that to you and your mother? What would your reaction be if God did that to your inheritance and birthright? Ishmael’s story continued. God actually blessed Ishmael in his new land and he was the father of twelve tribes himself, (Gen 25:16). But still, would you have held a grudge? There doesn’t seem to have been. When Abraham died at 175 years Ishmael came to his funeral, (Gen 25:9). Back to also presumably stand next to his younger brother Isaac the younger brother who received all the blessings and inheritance but should have automatically gone to the firstborn. How many people would be willing to do that? How many more people would hold a resentment for the rest of their life over being treated like that? The text doesn’t really tell us about the emotions going on for this event. We just know for a fact that Ishmael made the effort of coming to the funeral of a father who cast him out to stand together with the younger brother who got his birthright instead of him. How many of us could do that? What kind of a person was Ishmael who could do that?
Another big brother was Esau. He was the older twin brother of Jacob and was actually the favored one of his father, (Gen 25:28). There was no intention to pass it over for his birthright as the first born. And mind you it was through deception that he lost his birthright. He was extorted out of it in hunger, (Gen 25:29-34). His father was lied to and it was stolen, (Gen 27). And yet still, that blessing went to the thief. The deceiver, (Gen 27:35). The birthright went to the younger brother. How would you feel about that? What would you do? Remember that in the Middle East the first born was the heir to not only money and possessions in inheritance but also responsibility and leadership. Family, business, clan, tribe, even kingdom. It would have carried as stigma if an older son was passed over in his birthright. The shame, the insult, the damage and the injury done to Esau is legitimate. He was robbed, he was publicly humiliated, he was taken advantage of. And yet, twenty years later Jacob returns to Canaan and is met by Esau for what? Revenge? No, instead he comes out and welcomes Jacob back, (Gen 33:4). Does that sound like an older brother that’s been robbed, insulted, and taking advantage of? Obviously something has changed in Esau. Also notice that Esau went on to be Ishmael’s son in law, (Gen 28:9). I wonder how many times the two of them talked about what happened to them and, if so, whether or not they had the change of heart we see later in their lives. We are not really told one way or the other their thoughts or emotions and scripture never commends them anywhere as examples to be copied. That alone makes for a sticking point in making it a point using these men as an example.
But another older brother can give us more to study. The older brother of Joseph, in this case, Judah. Joseph was hated by his ten older brothers. They were insulted by the stories he told of his dreams and they resented the favoritism Joseph got from their father Jacob. So one day when these brothers had had enough they grabbed Joseph and threw him into a hole and then sold him into slavery. Jacob’s oldest son, the one who held the rights to eldest son was Rubin, (Gen 29:32). But Ruben lost first son rights in a profane act of debauchery and insult to his father, (Gen 35:22). Next in line was Simeon and then Levi but they lost it too. In one passage of scripture we read how Jacob rebuked the first three of his sons, (Genesis 49:1-12). Simeon and Levi were over the murderous act of revenge over their sister Dinah’s rape, (Gen 34). It was a dysfunctional family and there can be debate as to whom the next one in line for first born son rights would go to. Rubin was first born son of Jacob and Leah and next born was Simeon, then Levi, and then Judah, (Gen 29:33). But inheritance rules did not always work like that. Jacob had another “firstborn” and that was the first born son from Rachel. That was Joseph. First born rights went to the sons of wives and not to the sons of concubines like Bilhah and Zilpah. So Rubin was the first born son, he loses that status, the next in line is actually Joseph not Simeon, Levi, or Judah.
Either way no matter how you think about it, Reuben through Judah were passed over. It’s important to note because later when Joseph sees his brother’s again he threatens to keep Benjamin. When that happens the one who steps up is big brother Judah. The speech he delivers to the prime minister of Egypt, whom he does not yet know is his little brother Joseph, is full of repentance, intercession, and humility, (Gen 44:18-34). This was not the same big brother that helped throw Joseph into a pit. None of the men were the same older brothers that deceived their father into believing Joseph had died.
There we have three older brothers. Passed over for birthright and inheritance. Again, passed over by God sovereign plan. The thought comes that these men might have been robbed. Perhaps we can think they were set up before they had any chance to show whether they would submit to God or not. In the case of Ishmael and Esau their names went on to be a curse and their descendants enemies of God and His people. But what about the older brothers themselves? Did they live on to cursed lives, lost and rejected? Actually Ishmael was blessed by God and made a great nation of his own, (Genesis 17:20). Esau went to join in his uncle’s nation and was greatly blessed also. These nations do not hold a high place in scripture but the point I’m trying to make is that the men themselves, Ishmael and Esau, we learn a very profound story of forgiveness and change of heart. Two older brothers demoted and passed over. These older brothers had found grace to forgive in the years later. And Judah? Passed over and pushed back its true. Yet when the time came to take a stand to prevent another of his father’s “favorites” from being taken he stepped forward and pleaded for his little brother. Judah would not be blessed as first born. Joseph’s son, Ephraim, would father the tribe that would grow to be the largest of all and become synonymous with the northern kingdom of Israel, (2 Chronicles 25:7). And Judah? Rejected, passed over, insulted Judah? His descendants would be King David and the Messiah. And there is an older sister in this story too. Leah was the older sister of Rachel, (Genesis 29:16). She was the “first wife” of Jacob. She had every reason to expect rank and honor yet she was rejected over her younger sister for attention and love. Yet she was the mother of Judah and so in the line of Messiah. Not Rachel or Joseph.
God does His will and very rarely is the reason known by the people witnessing the actual events. But there can be trust and faith in Him that He does nothing without purpose. There can be other examples of other colder brothers who were not so forgiving it’s true. Solomon’s older brother Adonijah is one and let’s not forget the most notorious big brother Cain. But still, I have yet to mention Aaron, Moses’ older brother, who was faithful for the most part in following his little brother. And all the older brothers of David who also obeyed him as king, (1 Sam 16:4-12). The lesson found in all three men can also be learned from Jonathan who, as first born son of Saul, was next in line to be king of Israel yet chose to follow God’s next anointed, David, (1 Sam 20:32-34).
What a powerful lesson we can learn from the hearts of these people. Again, keep in mind that we’re reading about people with legitimate claims and yet God over ruled them. What is there to learn here? God rewards trust and faith. He does not reward ego and vanity. What would many of us do if we were to be kept by God on the sidelines? How many are faithful students of the Bible and God’s teachings and yet are never asked to teach adults the scripture? How many times have all of us watched while someone else less prepared seemed to get the opportunity to teach, preach, or any of the other more “honorable” jobs? What if you are working in the nursery, or in the kitchen, or cleaning the church bathrooms, and nobody ever, even once, said “Thank you” or said you’re doing a good job? What if they never do? What if for the rest of your sojourn through this world you are never once given the opportunity to teach, preach, lead, direct, or mentor? Ever. Instead, you are asked to watch children, clean toilets, vacuum floors, make the coffee, or mow the lawn? I’ll say one more time that these big brothers I have mentioned had real, legitimate, claims over what they were denied. Do you love God’s word and read it and study it like an addiction? And then, have you ever watched helplessly while someone has taught a Bible study and completely missed the point of what the passage means? You have a choice when that happens. God is teaching you a deeper lesson than you may realize. You are being taught that He is one in charge of gifts and duties in His church. You will not be judged by whether you ever preached but how your heart is fixed. By what God was able to do through the words you say. God takes the humble and the contrite and does mighty things through the weak. You would know that if you really know your Bible and your God.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
A couple recently quit our church. They left because they were firm believers in prosperity on demand from God and naming and claiming health, wealth, and anything else they felt entitled to. I don't exactly understand why they came to our church as long as they did in the first place. We never taught any of that and it wasn't written on the door or anything. They were regulars at the Sunday afternoon prayer meetings and would typically come and bind Satan and claim God's healing in strong power for so and so. It was always a bit confusing to our pastor that they came with this technique although nobody else prayed in this way. The husband, Brian, would even come to our Wednesday morning men's Bible Study. This is where things began to sour as far as his opinion of us. The first study he showed up for was over trials in our lives. We read from James 1:2-3, "2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience."
And we were discussing how much frustration we can save ourselves if we just understand that God is using our trials to complete us. Brian was not liking what he was hearing. He made a small attempt to argue with us and convince us that prayer would deliver us from any of these trials. None of us that morning argued back because we didn't understand at the time that what Brian meant was that trials are nowhere in God's plan for us and that prayer would fight these evil attacks away from us and keep them back. Any trials in our life are Satan's plan, not God's, and lack of prayer will make us open to attack and hard trials.
This is not completely true. Anyone reading the book of Job will understand that the book is teaching that God, in His sovereignty, allows His children to experience tragedy.
1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
This word "temptation" doesn't mean enticement to sin. God will never do that, (James 1:13). It means "trials". It means "testing". God does allow His children to go through these things and James 1:3 says why, "... knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience."
All of us saved by Christ are headed somewhere.
Romans 8:29
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
We are being transformed into someone...
2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
The Lord builds us in discipline and that is seldom easy or quick...
Hebrews 12:5-6
5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:
"My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
6 For whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives."
When we embrace this teaching we can find the strength God gives for endurance. We can now rejoice in sufferings, (Colossians 1:24-25). We can be encouraged in them (James 1:2-3), and not defeated. Nothing is coming at us that is not filtered through God first, (1 Corinthians 10:13). We are headed somewhere.
The next week at the men's Bible study we gathered and spoke about persecuted Christians in Egypt. We talked about the great reward in store for those believers and considered that, when we look at the big picture of how much reward those who suffer for Christ will receive, perhaps we are not worthy to suffer so intensely for Him, (Acts 5:41). Brian appeared perturbed and was having none of this kind of talk. He and his wife have not come back.
In the end I feel sorry for them. I think they have a long, tough, road ahead of them. Tougher than someone who doesn't know the Lord at all. It's going to be a road where trials and hard times are going to be considered defeat and shame. Sickness will be their fault from lack of faith and constant penitence to a volcano god out to get them if they stumble. So many false teachers are loose on the streets teaching this exact false doctrine. True Biblical teaching is profoundly deeper.
John 16:33-34
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
It teaches that sin is allowed for a season and the devil is loose albeit on a chain and nowhere in all of scripture does it say we should just settle into this world and make ourselves at home. Not in our houses, not in our jobs and not in our bodies. The Bible doesn't teach us to be negligent. It just teaches us to not love this world, (1 John 2:15-16). We are looking for, "... a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1-3). If one were to maintain that catastrophes could never come to us because we are believers then I invite them to tell that to the Christians in Egypt, or Rwanda, or China, or North Korea.
Were God to take our health, our child, our livelihood, our spouse, our home and never tell us why. Could we still say, "Blessed be the name of the LORD." (Job 1:21)? Why or why not? We should consider that question and wonder at whatever answer we come to. God's goal for us to come to a place where we trust Him in anything He allows on us. How He gets us there is the point I am trying to make. We are not from here. We do not belong here. (We shouldn't belong here.) Things given to us are temporary. They always were and if you didn't know that then you were not paying attention to what the Lord has always said. We are not only not from here but we are not welcome here.
John 15:19
If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
We are illegal immigrants and the more we are despised by those who are "from" this world the more we are acting like our Lord, (Matthew 10:24-25, John 15:18). And what's the point in that?
1 Peter 1:7
that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
The trials are forming us into the image of Jesus.
And we were discussing how much frustration we can save ourselves if we just understand that God is using our trials to complete us. Brian was not liking what he was hearing. He made a small attempt to argue with us and convince us that prayer would deliver us from any of these trials. None of us that morning argued back because we didn't understand at the time that what Brian meant was that trials are nowhere in God's plan for us and that prayer would fight these evil attacks away from us and keep them back. Any trials in our life are Satan's plan, not God's, and lack of prayer will make us open to attack and hard trials.
This is not completely true. Anyone reading the book of Job will understand that the book is teaching that God, in His sovereignty, allows His children to experience tragedy.
1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
This word "temptation" doesn't mean enticement to sin. God will never do that, (James 1:13). It means "trials". It means "testing". God does allow His children to go through these things and James 1:3 says why, "... knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience."
All of us saved by Christ are headed somewhere.
Romans 8:29
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
We are being transformed into someone...
2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
The Lord builds us in discipline and that is seldom easy or quick...
Hebrews 12:5-6
5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:
"My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
6 For whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives."
When we embrace this teaching we can find the strength God gives for endurance. We can now rejoice in sufferings, (Colossians 1:24-25). We can be encouraged in them (James 1:2-3), and not defeated. Nothing is coming at us that is not filtered through God first, (1 Corinthians 10:13). We are headed somewhere.
The next week at the men's Bible study we gathered and spoke about persecuted Christians in Egypt. We talked about the great reward in store for those believers and considered that, when we look at the big picture of how much reward those who suffer for Christ will receive, perhaps we are not worthy to suffer so intensely for Him, (Acts 5:41). Brian appeared perturbed and was having none of this kind of talk. He and his wife have not come back.
In the end I feel sorry for them. I think they have a long, tough, road ahead of them. Tougher than someone who doesn't know the Lord at all. It's going to be a road where trials and hard times are going to be considered defeat and shame. Sickness will be their fault from lack of faith and constant penitence to a volcano god out to get them if they stumble. So many false teachers are loose on the streets teaching this exact false doctrine. True Biblical teaching is profoundly deeper.
John 16:33-34
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
It teaches that sin is allowed for a season and the devil is loose albeit on a chain and nowhere in all of scripture does it say we should just settle into this world and make ourselves at home. Not in our houses, not in our jobs and not in our bodies. The Bible doesn't teach us to be negligent. It just teaches us to not love this world, (1 John 2:15-16). We are looking for, "... a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1-3). If one were to maintain that catastrophes could never come to us because we are believers then I invite them to tell that to the Christians in Egypt, or Rwanda, or China, or North Korea.
Were God to take our health, our child, our livelihood, our spouse, our home and never tell us why. Could we still say, "Blessed be the name of the LORD." (Job 1:21)? Why or why not? We should consider that question and wonder at whatever answer we come to. God's goal for us to come to a place where we trust Him in anything He allows on us. How He gets us there is the point I am trying to make. We are not from here. We do not belong here. (We shouldn't belong here.) Things given to us are temporary. They always were and if you didn't know that then you were not paying attention to what the Lord has always said. We are not only not from here but we are not welcome here.
John 15:19
If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
We are illegal immigrants and the more we are despised by those who are "from" this world the more we are acting like our Lord, (Matthew 10:24-25, John 15:18). And what's the point in that?
1 Peter 1:7
that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
The trials are forming us into the image of Jesus.
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