All Things New

 This morning as I look out into the day, I see the sun is shining. The past several days have been dark and dreary filled with many periods of rain. It has been hard to get motivated. I think it could be easily said, it’s been a bit depressing.

But the way God works in the lives of His children, those who call Jesus Lord, is to work in the times of despair and suffering. Romans 5:3-5 explains this to us saying,  “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

We are called to rejoice in our sufferings, because it is in them that we are becoming like Christ. The Apostle Paul has written about suffering and resurrection in Philippians 3:8-11. Take a look.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

In order to know the power of resurrection, we must share in the sufferings of Jesus and become like Him in death. The transition of winter to spring is a picture of that process. Just as the seasons come and go here in the Midwest, so our lives have seasons of suffering and seasons of resurrection. But we have to die to be resurrected. 

The promises of God as found in the Bible are many. One of those promises is that we will have suffering. Jesus gave this promise in John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Suffering is simply part of life. But we need not lose heart, for in the suffering and the death, comes resurrection. 

Just as winter is making way to spring, so is God working in the lives of His children. I close this morning with a promise from God.

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Revelation 21:5 

This morning look out and see how God is making all things new. 

Death Comes Before Resurrection

Maybe the  greatest mistake we make as Christians, is that we fail to understand that death has to come before resurrection. It’s sounds so simple, yet so many miss it. We come to church looking for help. Our lives are a mess. Addiction, broken relationships, loneliness, fear, and a wealth of other things have beaten us down. We reach that point where we just cannot go on as we are. So, we show up looking for Jesus to heal us and to make our lives better. We want to be born again and have new life.

But we don’t come willing to die first. 

There cannot be a resurrection of the living. For a resurrection to happen, there must be a death first. I am not talking about physical death of our earthly body here, though in the final end, that is exactly what will happen. We will die physically, and Jesus will raise us up with new bodies in which we will live eternally.

But that is the future, what about today? Tomorrow?  

No, I am speaking of spiritual death and resurrection. Death must come to our old nature, which the Bible is clear about; we are dead spiritually in our sin.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Ephesians 2:1-3 

Technically, we might say we are already dead before we come to Christ. The Bible says we are. But what’s not dead is our addiction to self, the passions of our flesh. Our sins are a direct result of our desire to please ourselves. We live for our own pleasure and seek to have the glory that only God deserves. 

It is the death to self that must occur. Look around at the world today. Almost everywhere we  go, we see that people are mostly concerned with themselves. They demand what they want, when they want it. For that matter, look inward at yourself. How many of the conflicts you find yourself in are a direct result of you not getting your way? 

Self must die. It’s all over scripture. 

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Philippians 2:3 

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23 

Jesus is the perfect example.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-8 

By the way, the use of the word servant in this translation is better rendered slave. 

If we say we are Christians, then we are supposed to be disciples and followers of Jesus. This means it is our primary hope to become like Him. We must become slaves to Him, not to ourselves.

To do that, self must die. Until “self” dies, resurrection cannot happen. 

The bottom line is that none of this is about us. It is about God. His glory. When we live for ourselves, we are trying to rob God of His glory. That, my friends, is a bad idea.

I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Isaiah 42:8 

Let us die, so that we can live in the resurrection of new life that Jesus has offered to us. He will raise us up to new life.

Leaving the Past to Live in Christ

We all have made mistakes and sinned in the course of our lives. Some of them are serious and the consequences of those sins make our lives, hard to bear. Or maybe it was our parents, whose sins in raising us left us hurt and living life in the shadows of abuse and neglect. Maybe in a past relationship, we were damaged severely by someone else. Or maybe we were the one who has inflicted great hurt upon those we love or were supposed to love the most. But the answer to these things is not to spend the rest of our lives with anger, bitterness, shame, or self-pity. Not to the one who lives by faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Listen to what God says to us in His Word about the past.

Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing, now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. - Isaiah 43:18-19

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. - Philippians 3:13-15 

Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” - Luke 9:62 

When we become Christians, everything changes. Everything.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. - 2 Corinthians 5:17-19

No longer need we seek the approval of men. No longer are our sins held against us, thus we have no right to hold the sins of others against them. Reconciliation is the theme of salvation and this must become our message as well. And we will do more for the Kingdom of God by living our lives out in the joy of our salvation and by offering the same type of grace and mercy that God showed us by sending Jesus to the cross, to others than if we devote our lives to being a witness through our words. Our words matter, but if our lives do not show the lost world Jesus, then we are simply going to ignored.

Whatever and whoever we were before Jesus, is to be forgotten and now our identity is in Him.  Take some time today to dig into your Bible and see who you are in Christ. Then ask yourself this; Am I who God says I am? Or am I who the world says I am? 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. - 2 Corinthians 5:17-19

Let us live with hearts of reconciliation. 

How To Come Against the Attacks of Our Enemy

 

Reading this morning in Isaiah 36:13-15, “Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us.”

This is a picture of how Satan comes against us. Just as Rabshakeh calls out to the people and tells them not to trust their king and what he says, Satan, the deceiver and liar by Biblical definition, calls out to us in the midst of our trials and sufferings and tells us not to trust God. 

Notice how the enemy twists the truth, turning it around to make it seem it is our king we cannot believe. 

But if we continue on in this narrative from Isaiah, listen to what the king says.

But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's command was, “Do not answer him.” - Isaiah 36:21 

The king, Hezekiah tells the people to simply be silent and not answer the enemy. But he doesn’t stop there. Read on.

It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’” - Isaiah 37:4

Hezekiah reminds the people that God hears the rhetoric of the enemy. And then Hezekiah gives them an explicit command saying, “lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.”

Just as they had an enemy whose method was to cast doubts upon their faith in God, so we have the same enemy. And his tactics are the same today. Satan will implant in our minds doubt in the midst of our sufferings. 

The story we read of here in Isaiah speaks of a literal enemy which threatens a literal invasion by a literal army. But behind it all is a spiritual attack. Whatever we face today, at its core we are involved in a spiritual battle. And God has provided us with a specific scripture reading that is our battle instruction.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.Read that through carefully. - Ephesians 6:10-18

We are not called to advance against the enemy, calling out rebukes and engaging in battle. No, we are called to “stand against the schemes of the devil.” So that “you may be able to withstand in the evil day.” And “having done all, to stand firm.” We put on the whole armor of God so that we may “stand.”

It is “the Lord and in the strength of his might” by which the devil is defeated. Not by our power displayed by making a full-frontal assault on the enemy. The only action we are to take is be “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.”

Our God is sovereign over all, including the enemy, Satan knows this. Read the Book of Job. So, what he will do is just as in this OT reading, he will attempt to cast doubt in our minds and hearts. We must use the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s Word, to cut down the lies of the devil, while praying at all times, in the Spirit.

That’s how we do battle. We stand. And we let God. 

One of my all-time favorite passages is the prelude to the parting of the Red Sea. 

And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” - Exodus 14:13-14

Again, what was the command? “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD.”

Brothers and sisters, yes, we are in a war. But we can and must stand firm and trust in our God. We cannot win these battles. But He can.

The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent. And in that silence, we pray. Then we stand.

It’s worth repeating.

Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today.

Understanding the Holiness of God

 

I’ve been doing a Bible study on the attributes of God and this week we looked at one that may be as misunderstood as any other attribute. As Christians it must be our goal to study God’s Word with an extreme passion for knowing God. This task is in one way an impossible goal to fully attain, for God Himself says this in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Yet, because the Christian faith is about a restored relationship with God, through Jesus, we need to know God to love God. 

Though God’s ways are higher than ours, we can still learn of who He is through His Word, in which God Himself has revealed all we need to know about Him in order to love Him and have a relationship with Him. We must open our Bibles and we must seek the greatest possible understanding. When Jesus ascended back to sit at the Father’s side, He sent us the Holy Spirit, who lives in each believer. The Holy Spirit is our teacher and according to John 14:26, “he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” God has provided us with all we need.

So, what does it mean that God is holy? When we think of that word, we often picture it to mean perfect in the sense of never sinning. Certainly, that is true of God, He is without sin, as was Jesus when He walked the earth as a man. But the word means more than just that. 

The Hebrew word used to describe God as holy is qadosh and the meaning of that word speaks of something that is separate. R.C. Sproul defines this as “primarily that God is transcendentally separate. He is so far above and beyond us that He seems totally foreign to us.” That description lines up with Isaiah 55:8-9, quoted above. Every single aspect of God is above anything we can do or even think of. God’s love? It is a love that is so much greater than ours. No one loves like God. God’s justice? Well, all one has to do is look at man’s justice system and we can see that it is a far cry from true justice. But God’s justice is perfect in every way. Try and compare God’s creative efforts with man’s. God speaks things into existence. Man cannot touch that. 

The truth is this, God is so far above us in every single aspect, that we really don’t have words to describe it. This is why He deserves our worship. God is above all things. Way above. The only word that I can think of that helps me grasp this truth is the word infinite. God is an infinite being and man and all of man’s world is finite. We keep looking at God and questioning things. We ask questions about why suffering and get frustrated because we can’t find answers that satisfy our minds. The truth is this; God is Holy, capital H. His ways are so much higher above ours that we simply cannot try and apply our finite understanding to an infinite God. 

This is why the Christian life is to be a life of faith. God tells us that in His Word. 2 Corinthians 5:7 reminds us that “we walk by faith, not by sight.” Hebrews 11:6 says that “without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” So, we must seek Him and seek Him by faith. 

But we must seek the God who is above all things, who is transcendentally separate from everything we know. And we must worship Him in a way we have never done so. We must worship Him for who He is. 

God is holy. God is holy, holy, holy. And I cannot even find words to explain this. I sat down this morning to try. I wanted to share with all of you reading this, the power of the truth of God’s holiness. I see now I cannot. I am inadequate for such a task. But please, please use this as an opportunity to seek to know as much as you possibly can about who God is and what it means that He is holy. 

Take time today to just sit in awe of our God. Look out at the snow and the sun. Find some birds. Look at the people around you. Look in a mirror. God created all this by merely speaking it into creation. It defies logic. It defies science. It is simply transcendent. 

Then open your Bible and read of Him. Read the miracles. The stories of deliverance. Look at how many times Israel failed Him. But even in those failings, God keeps loving them through it all. His mercies are new every day. His love for us is a holy love.

My worship of God never succeeds to the place it ought to be. But I must worship the infinite God with everything this finite body and mind has. One day I will fall before Him in pure worship, devoid of this sinful body, and all of the stuff I thought was important will be left behind. I will see His glory. 

God is Holy. Let us worship Him in spirit and truth.

Return to the Lord

 Come, let us return to the LORD;

for he has torn us, that he may heal us;

he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.

After two days he will revive us;

on the third day he will raise us up,

that we may live before him.

Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD;

his going out is sure as the dawn;

he will come to us as the showers,

as the spring rains that water the earth.” 

Hosea 6:1-3 

The answer is clear in scripture as to what we must do. We must return to the Lord. 

This is how we must respond to Covid. Return to the Lord. To the violence. We must return to the Lord. To the division. To the oppression and to the injustices of the world. Return to the Lord.

Revival starts within our own heart. 

God has made the path clear and easy to see. We don't need a better president, we don't need more riots and protests or any of the other things we keep doing in our society. We need to return to the Lord.

These words are from the OT but they are just as relevant to us today. God does not change.

Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.

Let us press on to know the LORD.

How Big Is Your God?

The God of the Bible is an amazing god. From the beginnings of Genesis 1, until the end of Revelation, we find story after story of God doing things that our science and our logic would call impossible.

Listen to opening of scripture. Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Science has yet to offer an explanation for the creation of the world that proves this statement to be untrue. Even more amazing is how the Bible says He did it. 

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. - Genesis 1:3

And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. - Genesis 1:6-7

And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. - Genesis 1:9 

And on and on it was so. God said, and it came to be. Even man was created because God created him. 

Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. - Genesis 2:7

As the history of the world is recorded in scripture, we see God doing things that defy nature. He floods the earth, saving only a handful of people and animals to repopulate the earth in a restart of unbelievable magnitude. 

He chooses one man to be the start of a group of people to be His chosen ones and from whom the world will be saved from its sin. He does this by promising a child to a woman well past the age of childbearing. This feat was so impossible that the woman laughed when God said it.

The LORD said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” - Genesis 18:10-14 

Scripture is replete with examples of God doing impossible things by human standards. He parts the Red Sea so that only His people can pass through while their enemies are destroyed as they seek to follow them. God puts men into positions of authority and removes them as He sees fit. He makes a donkey speak. The miracles of scripture go on and on. And they don’t cease in the New Testament. 

We see Jesus born to a virgin. We see men raised from the dead and people healed, sometimes by merely touching the cloak of Christ. We see that Jesus controls the weather. He can stop a storm merely by commanding it to stop. We find Jesus not only resurrected from the dead, but we see Him ascend back into heaven. 

We find the Apostles given the power over sickness and death. An earthquake open jails for the apostles and angels show up to break prison chains.

I could go on and on. The Bible is filled with the stories and the miracles of God. 

Many of us have experienced miraculous events in our own lives. As Christians, we say we believe that God sent Jesus to earth to save us from our sins and that we are saved by faith alone to receive eternal life. We tell others that we believe this, and we use scripture to show why we believe this.

But in the day to day struggles of our own life on earth, we worry and fret and far too often live this life without joy and in fear. 

Why?

Because we simply don’t really believe God is big enough, strong enough, or willing enough to help us. We reduce God to a small god and in doing that, we make ourselves or others our god.

If what we say we believe, is really what we believe, then our God is big enough, strong enough, and gracious enough, to not only save us from our sins, but He is big enough to bring us through every single trial or storm we face. 

The fact is we need to believe what scripture teaches. God is sovereign. We must understand what that word means. It means He is over all things. Everything. Nothing moves on this earth, unless God has ordained it and allowed it.

The problem we have is that our finite minds cannot understand the how or the why of God’s movement. Scripture answers that question for us. 

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. - Ecclesiastes 3:11 

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. - Isaiah 55:8-9 

Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. - Psalms 145:3 

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! - Romans 11:33 

We must stop reducing God to our level and instead begin to worship a God who is so much more than we can even imagine. We must believe what He says about Himself. 

“Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” - Jeremiah 32:27 

Nothing is too hard for God. Nothing. We must believe that. Then we must trust that all things are under His control. It all comes down to what may be my favorite verse.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. - Romans 8:28

How big is your God? I can promise you this; He is big enough. I pray we would all begin to live with that God as the one we truly trust in for all things. But we must also understand this life isn’t about us, it’s about God’s will and purpose. That’s the key to being able to rest in faith, knowing that God’s purposes aren’t ours. We don’t pray to change God’s mind; we pray to change ours. 

So today, look at the God you say you believe in. How big is He?