Thursday, April 28, 2016

The Mercy of our Loving Lord!


“Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, 36 and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. 38 If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! 39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” (Luke 12:35-40)
Preparation seems to be the key thought here. We are to be expectantly waiting for our Lord's return. And not simply in expectation, but ready to go, a workman who is not ashamed at his coming. Will the Master find you eagerly preparing and looking for him, or will he find you unprepared and careless?  Prove what sort of disciple you are!

Prove yourselves therefore to be men and women of God who are not only ready when he comes, but able to be set to a task in the regeneration, and faithful to complete it.

Another portion of scripture has come to mind in 2nd Peter chapter 3. This passage is eschatological and also speaks of those who consider the Lord's delay as license to blaspheme and sin.

Are you growing weary in well-doing? Do you sometimes think your portion in this life is too great to bear? Is bitterness over our Lord's patience getting the best of you?

When Peter asked if this parable was for all or just for the disciples, Christ answer was, in a sense, Be patient in your work and faithful to the end for bitterness can creep in. The answer is found and Peter’s comments in 2nd Peter 3:9 when we see the great patience of our Lord with us, and remember His kindness to us, we can be patient in the work, even if the work be hard and the day be long. We serve a loving God.

If he was so loving to you, even in your hatred of him (Rom 5:6-10), to save you, we ought to be the same to others. Peter tells us the same, in this way, “What manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.  14 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; 15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation.” (2 Peter 3:11b - 15a)
Finally consider the justice of our God. He sees through the hypocrite (v.46), his punishment is meted out fairly – to some more deserving of it more stripes, to others deserving but not aware they had crossed the line, few stripes. Even think on this: Because our God is just (by definition) His Son died on the cross, the just for the unjust (1st Peter 3:18).

The net result this transaction is God can appear to justly ‘bend’ the rules. Not that he does not fairly apply it, but the letter of the law may demand many stripes yet the party may receive a few. How can a just God do so and still be just?
Read Psalm 85.
All our sin – covered forgiven in Christ.
All His wrath – Removed and turned toward Christ


This is all in verse 2-3.  The golden verses on this Psalm are 10-13. 

10     Mercy and truth have met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed.
11     Truth shall spring out of the earth,
And righteousness shall look down from heaven.
12     Yes, the Lord will give what is good;
And our land will yield its increase.
13     Righteousness will go before Him,
And shall make His footsteps our pathway.

God can indeed be merciful to us, and justly, because His Son met the demand of the law.

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Riches toward God


13 Then one from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

14 But He said to him, “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” 15 And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”

16 Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. 17 And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ 18 So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’

21 “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:13-21)[1]

In the occasion of a man calling out to Christ about his dispute with his brother this is Christ's response and it is rich with meaning.
Verse 21 struck me, in light of the truth that one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.  It reads, ‘
So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God’ – A fool...
Oh, how often we find ourselves in the way of a fool!

And what made him a fool?
It's what he planned to do which was bad. Verse 19 says, ‘
And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” 

Here we see the motive and at first glance it is not so evil. He didn't plan on taking his wealth and burdening others over it. He only looked at it, and considered it his. He made his plans in exclusion of God. He failed to acknowledge Him to whom he owed it all. In the very first verse we see him described as, 'a certain rich man'.  His pattern was established, God had blessed him with fertile ground and many fertile growing seasons, yet he did not pay God even a passing compliment.

What could he have done?

He could have given his wealth and been rich toward God as the Rich Young Ruler was told to do (Luke 18:18-23). This does not mean that to give it all away is some automatic work to get you in the door.

Salvation is not measured in money. Rather, what a man does do with his wealth is a measure of his love for God. Does he do anything for the kingdom?  

Salvation is a gift of God, often it is said to be free, but it is not really free. It took the very Son of God to become the Son of man, keeping the law we broke by living in perfect harmony with it, and taking our punishment by dying on the cross. By all this we are saved. So salvation is not free but it is freely offered to all though most (being dead in their sins) will not come. This rich man never gave a second thought to the God Who blessed him with years of perfect crops.

The measure of our love toward our God is this: How freely do you offer forgiveness to those who have wronged you? How loosely do you hold on to the blessings he gave to you? And this is how love, God's love, is shown to a lost world.

How are you doing? Feeling stingy with that which God freely gave you?
Consider that, and consider the cross. It is easy to be generous to others when we see how generous He has been to us. It is far easier to forgive others their petty faults when you look at what your sin did to the Savior on Calvary.

Amen




[1] The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Lk 12:13–21.

Friday, April 8, 2016

The Way of Love

The fear of man or the fear of God?  Such is the subject of Christ's teaching in Luke,

“And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.  But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!

“Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God.  But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Luke 12:4-7)

Why is it that we so little fear Him and so readily fear men? I think because we see quite readily the threat of a man and God's merciful way we often misinterpret as a forbearance of Eternity.

We think, “He is eternal – he knows we are but dust (Psa. 113:14) – so he won't punish but will bear up with us.” But is that true?

We forget that even in his great mercy he does not overlook sin forever. We forget that his forbearance is tied to his having poured out wrath upon his Son for us. And somehow we think Christ's sacrifice will cover for, or account for, the sin of all men – even those who never repent.

That is the problem. And how do we overcome such thinking?

Consider our worth and the cost of our sin.  This is what we learn in Verse 6-7.  We see it in Christ’s death on the cross.  He did not die for mere birds – and his death was not only to show our worth, but also the horrible malignity of sin as it was so bad in us that it necessitated Christ’s death to reconcile us with God. Both ideas are true.

I think the answer of the Scriptures is that love covers a multitude of sins – and we see that most vividly in the cross.  But it does so in our lives as well. 

·        Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:17-18).  Though our love for others is flawed - His love works through us, his children, so we must find our hope in His ability, not ours. Then we must love them with all our might!

·        Love never fails (1 Cor. 13:8). Keep this truth in your heart, and be motivated by it - to do and say good things to all whom we encounter.

·        Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  (Rom. 8:37) It is His love for us, shown in the Cross (Rom. 5:8) which effectuates the conquering.

·        And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.” (1 Pet. 4:8) A most wonderful promise!

·        God is love (1 John 4:7-8). We often think of the Great Commission (Mat 28:18-19) as evangelism only.  Yet as we communicate Him to those around us, that is to say as we teach who God is, Love incarnate – Christ on the Cross, we are reminded that His commandments, which we are to obey, are not hard and difficult.  They teach us more of who He is, and how we are to love. 

Let me simply quote John to close this devotional.

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot, also loves him who is begotten of Him.  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.  For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.  For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.  Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:1-5)