Separating Iniquity From The Sacred - Isaiah 1:13

Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. - Isaiah 1:13

    God speaks to us in Isaiah in terms we simply cannot mistake, yet we so often do. Speaking on the wickedness and apostasy of Judah, God declared that He could not bear the association of the profane with the sacred via the rituals and ostentatious liturgies of His chosen people. Their sins went before them like heralds of iniquity, much the same as ours do today. Yet they tried to mask their sin in lavish, albeit improper worship. Their sacrifices were as worthless as Cain’s. Their  incense, rather than raising the sweet smell of herbs and spices produced a stench that God could not bear. Despite observing the acknowledged days of adoration, given to them by the law of Moses, their worship was rejected by God for their failure to come forward cleansed of their sins. It is in this setting that God declares that He cannot, He will not endure the meeting of sin and the sacred.
    “And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.” - Genesis 1:4. We too must be able to discern and divide light from darkness in our lives. Just as surely as God will not tolerate spiritual darkness within the light neither should we, neither can we. We certainly cannot bring our sacrifices to God tainted with our willfully unrestrained and sinful lifestyles. Talk of futility! We must separate iniquity from the sacred before we dare bring the sacred to God. We can only do this within the context of repentance. “Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel. in the gospel.” - Mark 1:14-15.
    This is the proper manner for us to come into the presence of and worship our most holy God: in a humble and contrite spirit of repentance. We owe Him more that we could ever pay. We dare not provoke Him with any less.

The Promise Of Eternal Life - John 6:37

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. - John 6:37

    Christ, speaking to His disciples often used parables. He sometimes used analogies. He spoke in simile and metaphor. But sometimes His words were simple, succinct, and to the point. “ . . .the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” Is this not a bold invitation by our gracious Lord to flee the world and accept His loving and forgiving mercy; to accept His substitutionary sacrifice; to accept Him as Lord and Savior through the blood He shed for us?
    No one will be cast out! No one. Not your philandering neighbor, not your wayward brother or sister, not the brutish stranger, not even you or I. But we must first come to Him. We must come to Him with our sinful baggage and drop it off at the foot of the Cross. We must leave it there and return to it no more. “She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.’” - John 8:11.
    But there is more here than first meets the eye. Why? Why won’t Christ cast us out?
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” - John 6:38. Jesus came here to do God’s will. But what is God’s will? “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” - John 6:40. This, in effect, is the summation of why Christ will not cast anyone out. Everyone who believes in Christ (everyone who believes Christ) will be raised up into eternal glory on that last day. This is the conditional promise of God! This is the gospel within the Gospel. In his commentary on John, Dr. R.C. Sproul explains it this way - “It is God’s will that those whom He has given to the Son - whom the Bible over and over again describes as the elect, or those who are called and chosen by God - should not be lost but have everlasting life.” or those who are called and chosen by God - should not be lost but have everlasting life.”  This is the promise of eternal life that only Christ can make. “ . . . I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” - John 14:6. May we praise God in all His glory for the promise that only Jesus can keep.

Non Sit In Nobis Infideles (Let There Be No Unbelievers Among Us) - 2 Corinthians 6:14-15

 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?
- 2 Corinthians 6:14-15

    Perhaps one of the most difficult hurdles for a Christian today is that of amicable association or that of choosing our friends. Ideally, we would have an abundance of friends and colleagues who are like-minded Christians. Unfortunately, that is not very often the case. We have childhood friends who chose different paths in their lives. We have associations and acquaintances through school or work who come from different backgrounds. In effect, not everyone we associate or socialize with share our Christian beliefs. It becomes even more tenuous when we include among that number members of our own families; people who we do not get to choose. So what are we supposed to do?
    One of the first things we can do is to understand what the Apostle means in the title verse. In essence, he echoes  Deuteronomy 22:9. “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.”  The reason for this bit of Old Testament logic is manifold; the primary point being that each animal’s strength and gait is different or unmatched. Christians and unbelievers are different, unmatched. And so they should be. It is difficult to walk in the way of the Lord when we are bound with another who is constantly tugging and pulling us into the mire of sin.
    I am of the school of thought that the great commentators have it right. Calvin, for one, says to be yoked with unbelievers means nothing less than to have fellowship with them. While we can seldom refrain from such fellowship completely we are in danger of appearing to “stand with them,” rather than “opposed to them.” Spurgeon takes it a step further when he suggests that we should not socialize with them by choice, nor seek pleasure with them. Kretzmann strikes home with the point that we should not associate with them in such a way as to “erase the essential difference between Christian and heathen.”
    There is yet a more profound reason for Paul’s admonition to the Corinthian Christians - “Can a man take fire to his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?” - Proverbs 6:27. In our experience with unbelievers how much of their personal philosophies are rubbing off on us? Are we going to places that they choose to go? Are we doing the things they choose to do? Are we thinking thoughts that they put in our heads?  The answers to these questions are exactly why Paul cautioned the Corinthians. And is the inverse ever true? Can we see the effect our Christian walk is having on them? Is our Christian example altering their behavior in a positive way? Have they expressed a desire to believe? To pick up their cross and follow Jesus?
    So you see we do we have a duty to be the light-bearers of the faith. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” - Matthew 5:16. But we must remain vigilant even among our own family members. We must never allow the Gospel of Jesus Christ to become compromised by our words, deeds, or our associations, no matter who they are.
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” - Ephesians 5:11. May our words and deeds always glorify the Lord and let our light remain visible to all around us.

This Generation - Proverbs 30:11-13

There is a generation that curses its father,
And does not bless its mother.
There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes,
Yet is not washed from its filthiness.
There is a generation—oh, how lofty are their eyes!
And their eyelids are lifted up.
Proverbs 30:11-13

    As our society and culture surely and slowly slip into crassness and greater sinfulness are we not compelled to look for the contemporary force behind the slide? Recent news stories are appalling, to say the least, and in some cases too bizarre for Godly men and women to even process. From the vestiges of our society diving headlong into the sinfulness of same-sex marriage to the full faith and support of transgender issues to a softening of the public conscience on pedophilia to a recent rash of reports of bestiality. All coincidental? I think not. “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves . . .”
 - Romans 1:24.
    Sadly enough, the push behind this wave of debauchery seems to be the Millennial generation. It appears that there is simply no criminal or moral perversion that they will not somehow defend as a human right. And certainly there will be voices that place the blame firmly on the sin-nature of mankind. While this is true an even more worldly deflection places the drift on the popular culture, liberal educators, and what-not, but despite their part in the downward drift there is still the need for a class of acolytes or minions. This is where the Millennials firmly fit in. Education : In this most fragile area of life we parents of this generation have failed miserably by allowing the liberal educators to infect our children’s minds and hearts with the poisonous doctrines of worldly pursuit rather than the pursuit of God! And what child will not seek his own desires if, not only allowed to, but encouraged to?
    “Ours is peculiarly an age of irreverence, and as the consequence, the spirit of lawlessness, which brooks no restraint and which is desirous of casting off everything that interferes with the free course of self-will, is rapidly engulfing the earth like some giant tidal wave. The members of the rising generation are the most flagrant offenders, and in the decay and disappearing of parental authority, we have the certain precursor of the abolition of civic authority.” - A. W. Pink. The Calvinist, Arthur W. Pink, made this assessment of the generation of youth during the early part of the 20th Century. As anyone can plainly see, the successive generations have continued the downward drift into today’s most pestilent sinful lifestyle.
    In the title verse we see very clearly three components of this perverse generation’s pedigree. First, there is a general contempt among them for any traditional values handed down by their parents’ generation. Within the hearts of these corrupt children nothing of their parents’ generation is worth keeping alive - all of it must be slain. To one degree or another this may be the parents’ fault.  “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” - Proverbs 22:6. As I stated earlier - we parents have failed in our duty to our children. We can not instil with words what we don’t live up to by our actions. Children must be properly “churched”; so must parents. However, this still doesn’t release children from their 4th Commandment duties. They are still bound to honor their fathers and mothers; something this generation wouldn’t even consider.
    Second, these self-absorbed delinquents are convinced of their righteousness before the great cosmos despite their lowing and rooting in evil ways. “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” - Judges 21:25.
    Thirdly, and finally, they are of a high opinion about themselves and their causes. In their minds, they are the most enlightened generation to ever come along. The generations of Aquinas, Da Vinci, Shakespear, Galileo, Newton, Jefferson, Beethoven, Lincoln, Einstein, Churchill, and King fall short of the vain imagination of a generation that worships at the altar of Nietzsche, Bakunin, Marx, Che . . . and Jay Z.
    The sinfulness of this generation is their  badge of honor. In their present state they are merely fodder for hell awaiting condemnation which will surely come at the hands of an angry God! “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” - Proverbs 16:18.
    Perhaps the Puritan, John Trapp describes this generation better than I ever could.
He says they are, “An evil and an adulterous generation, doubtless; a bastardly brood, as were those in the gospel; "a generation of vipers," that make their way into the world by their dams’ death. These monsters of men are doomed to destruction. Hell gapes for them . . .” Of their claim to purity Trapp is even more contrary - “they wallow in sin like swine, and welter in wickedness, which is filth and blood, the vomit of a dog, the excrement of the devil, the superfluity or garbage of naughtiness, and the stinking filth of a pestilent ulcer . . .” And finally, of the loftiness in their eyes he says, “The eyes are the seat of pride and disdain.”
    This Millennial generation, in my estimation, has no further to go to live up to Trapp’s commentary! They currently ride in the contempt Trapp had for them, and they are working very hard to supercede even his estimation of their sinfulness! Where can we turn away from this generation? If they achieve their ends Christianity will be outlawed and persecution will rule the day; this will be the future! Let us pray that an act of God puts the plans of the devil and this generation far away from us. Anathema maranatha.   

The Dark Region Of Despair -1 John 5:16

If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. - 1 John 5:16

A most curious verse.  Doesn’t all sin lead to death? What sin are we talking about here? Are there sinners we should pray for and sinners we should abstain from praying for?
True, all sins leads to death - “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Romans 6:23. Repentance and belief in Jesus Christ rescue us from the sin that does not lead to death, but what of the sin that John speaks about?
Obviously, John is speaking of the “unpardonable sin.”  “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.” men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.” - Matthew 12:31-32. Clearly, even Jesus saw at least one unpardonable sin. What is the defining difference between a sin that does not lead to death and the sin which does lead to death? Charles H. Spurgeon addressed this quandary perhaps better than anyone else - “He who has committed the sin which is unto death have no desire for forgiveness, he will never repent, he will never seek faith in Christ but he will continue hardened and unbelieving; he will henceforth never be the subject of holy influences, for he has crossed over into that dark region of despair where hope and mercy never come.”  The sin of unbelief is the sin which defies forgiveness because it defies belief in Jesus Christ! The Holy Spirit is the witness to the glory of Christ. To refuse to believe in His witness is blasphemy and as Jesus tells us it will not be forgiven the unbeliever in this age or the next. Prayers offered for the soul of an unbeliever who has consistently denied the glory of Christ are prayers which will not help that individual since his unbelief accompanied him throughout his life and across the threshold into death. But how can we know beyond a shadow of doubt who has committed this unpardonable sin? The fact is only God can know for certain - “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
 - 1 Samuel 16:7.
Since it is impossible for us to discern the heart within our fellow man, or “brother” as the title verse suggests, we cannot know for certain. We should err on the side of grace and pray without ceasing for all mankind. You see, at the end of the verse John merely says that we are not obliged to pray about it, but he doesn’t say we shouldn’t. May we always pray that the glory of Christ is illuminated in the heart of every man, woman, and child. Let there be no unbelievers among us.

A Forge of Idols - Isaiah 43:24

   
You have bought Me no sweet cane with money, nor have you satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices; but you have burdened Me with your sins, you have wearied Me with your iniquities. - Isaiah 43:24

“The human soul will find an object to worship, either on the shelf, on the altar, in the mirror, or in heaven. We are born idolaters.” - Dr. Albert  Mohler, “Words From The Fire.”

The 1st Commandment is terse in terms of its perspicuity -  “You shall have no other gods before Me.” - Exodus 20:3. A reasonably sane person should need no more than those eight concise words to understand his or her duty toward God. Yet we see a myriad of idols being created and worshiped daily throughout our cities, our nation, and the world. Sometimes the idols are even within our own Christian homes.
There are two things that every idol have in common: material and finitude. They are both made of some material common to all men and they all have a shelf life. From the notion of a common material we can extrapolate that the material may be as tangible as a new car or as fleeting as celebrity. In either case these idols are finite by their very being. Only God is infinite!
Most idols today require but three things to exist. First, they demand our minds, then our hearts, then our cash. As ignoble as that sounds the three are inextricably tied together.
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” - Matthew 6:21.
Calvin once remarked, “The human mind is, so to speak, a perpetual forge of idols.” And so we are. “For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God , boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God . . . .” - 2 Timothy 3:2-4. Whether it be our football team, our sports-car, our trophy wife, our favorite entertainers, our toys or what-have-you, we always seem to give our attention, or money, and in many cases that which is reserved for God to these idols of choice. But as I said - all these idols have a shelf-life. None of them live forever. There is no eternity in them as there is in our holy God.  After all, what is more fleeting than something that is here today and gone tomorrow? For the idolater, the ultimate source of power is their cash; it keeps his or her idol within reach. For the God-worshiping Christian our source of power is the Holy Spirit. And here’s the defining difference: idolater’s will eventually run out of cash but God is forever.
May we always praise God and glorify Him as we should . . . and keep the world at arms length, as we should.

Rejoice! - Matthew 28:9

And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him. - Matthew 28:9

The weekend had been particularly brutal in every aspect. On Friday, Jesus’ disciples had witnessed the utter destruction of the man they called “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And here they were on Sunday morning, wondering what the future held for them. Their expectations ranged from confusion to stark raving fear. Their consternation was further aggravated by their sense of loss and hopelessness. What would be come of them now that “He” was gone? The darkness gave way to dawn as two of the women disciples were hurrying back to the others with news of the empty grave when the Messiah approached them. His first word to them was,”Rejoice.” “REJOICE,” He said. Crucified for our sins and risen from the dead for our salvation - Rejoice! “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” - Psalm 118:24. Every sin forgiven; every iniquity forgotten. Our dirty rags exchanged for robes of righteousness. “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” - Philippians 4:4. By grace our debts have been forgiven and a room in God’s mansion awaits us. By the blood of Jesus Christ we have our inheritance in heaven. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” - 1 Peter 1:3. This is why we must all rejoice! A living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ! 
“Rejoice always!” - 1 Thessalonians 5:16. May we all have a blessed Resurrection Day!
Happy Easter!