The Only True Measure Of Love - John 14:23

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. - John 14:23

    Love, or should I say the misconstruction of the concept, permeates the said spirituality of an incredibly large number of people today. We’ve all heard the Beatles’ mantra for a decent and noble human life, “All You Need Is Love.” And perhaps this is where the divergence between the true definition of love and this “hippie-peacenik” notion comes from. The fact is; they aren’t completely wrong but like an unfinished puzzle, far too many of these proponents of love are missing the bigger picture. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” - 1 John 4:7.  That means that if we say we have love then it follows that we must also have God!
    The Apostle John further proclaimed, “And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.”- 1 John 4:21. The picture that emerges from the darkness is one of the God of the Bible as both the recipient of our love and channel of our love for others.
    The pseudo-spiritual person will extol him or herself as unconditional lovers of mankind. They will profess their kind of love as the cure for the human condition (fallenness) and continue to declare that all you need is love. Yet in reality, their philanthropic care for all of mankind comes to a screeching halt when confronted by the true measure of love as described in our title verse. These humanitarians will reject John 14:23 on the grounds that obedience to “a god” is not essential to their humanist goal. They are like the Pharisees in Jesus’ time - “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.  Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” - Matthew 23:27-28. They declare their righteousness and “love for others” by their behavior toward their fellow man. And, as I have often used this analogy in the past (and will again in the future) - because a serial murderer holds the door open for someone does not make him a good person. Simple “good deeds” do not make a person good.
    Still, we know all about righteousness. “As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” - Romans 3:10-18.
    Jesus puts the measure of love on our doorstep -“If you love Me, keep My commandments.” - John 14:15. Do we love Christ? Do we keep His word?  Not perfectly, of course; we are, after all, fallen humans. But if our love of God is not evident through our obedience to Him then we must by virtue of such a position love the world rather than God. “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” - 1 John 2:15-17. This sentiment was expressed in the words of Bible-teacher and contemporary of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Arthur W. Pink, when he said, “Our respect for God is judged by our conformity to His law.”
    Pray we must that we always meet the true measure of love: that we love and obey God. Then and only then can we truly love our fellow man. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.” - 1 John 5:2. And regardless of superficial platitudes, this is the only true measure of love.
                                           

The Sparing Rod Of the Lord - Revelation 3:19

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. - Revelation 3:19

    I will turn 64 on my next birthday but it wasn’t until the ripened age of 50 that I was born again into the life God had always chosen for me. “ . . . just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love . . .” - Ephesians 1:4. For fourteen long and sometimes very painful and difficult years I have traveled in the direction of Bunyan’s “Christian.”
    Like a healthy stock-market chart, my progress has been marked by peaks, valleys, and times of stagnation. There have been both “bull markets and bear markets.” But my direction has always been forward to greater heights. I strive in spite of my old self and pray for strength, both physical and spiritual. The fight that I engage in now is not against physical threats but the pernicious effects of the world, the flesh, and the devil. “Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” - 1 Corinthians 9:26-27.
    This spiritual fight I have endured since I was 50 began when Jesus dealt with me in my utterly depraved state by throwing me a divine beating of the first order. Up until that moment I had run my life according to my own agenda. I was my own boss. I was in charge of me! Wrong or right were relative terms. And, I could excuse or give a reason for everything I ever thought, said, or did. “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” - Judges 17:6. I had no king; I had no God and I had no master . . . until the night that Christ crushed and broke my ego along with my sinful spirit in His saving act of love. Jesus then helped me to my feet, embraced me and forgave me.
    Scottish theologian, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson, recently wrote, “Christ’s deconstruction always has reconstruction in view.” I must admit that it was the first time I had ever heard of a spiritual chastening referred to as “deconstruction,” but that is exactly what it is or was in my case. You see, when Christ throws you a beating, you never forget it. If you walk away from it unscathed and unchanged, then rest assured - it wasn’t Christ. The rod that God uses on us actually “spares” us from a worse fate - eternity without Him! The rod that God uses on us begins our reconstruction as men and women of “His own heart.”
    I will not insult your intelligence by suggesting for a moment that I still don’t have sin in my life. Sin is the eternal condition of mankind without Christ but there is a hope that Christians have exclusively - “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, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” - 1 Peter 1:3-5. I said this hope is the exclusive promise made to those who believe in Christ Jesus. This promise is made to no one else. Christ is the one way, the only way. “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” - John 8:24.
    Many have come to know Christ through less arduous and painful means than I, but all of us at one time or another will feel the sting of God’s rebuke and chastening of in our lives . . . because He loves us. “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest His correction; for whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights.” - Proverbs 3:11-12.
    May we always be grateful for God’s lordship over our lives, His discipline, and His eternal love for us. It is only through Christ that we can ever come to everlasting glory.

The Confession Of Our Hope - Hebrews 10:23

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
 - Hebrews 10:23

    When we are convinced of a due outcome, even when no clear or compelling evidence of that outcome is present, to what do we owe this die-hard conviction? We may look to the past concerning our hope for the future. Past performance is often a key consideration for what we dare to expect for the future. But how much more can we dwell in our hope when we have the clear promises of God to support that hope? “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” - Jeremiah 29:11.   
    Think of all the ways God has fulfilled His promises to us. The number of occasions is staggering. From each and every new morning to every good blessing; we receive only what God has reckoned to us. And what He has not reckoned to us, we do not receive.
    The obvious elephant in the room demands that we consider the hurtful and evil things which have transpired in our lives. Is God the author of our pain as well as our comfort? Clearly, Holy Scripture denies that such an accusation against the providence of God can even be considered. “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” - Genesis 1:31.  Everything God made was good. So where do the heartaches, physical ailments, abuses, and death come from? Scripture is abundantly clear in this regard also - “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned . . .” - Romans 5:12.
    This is an even more compelling reason to trust in God’s faithfulness. For it is only through Him that we have hope in the faithful promise. Where else can we seek hope? In mankind? Never! If we trust in God and God alone to be faithful to His promise we will find that comfort follows all events. “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.” - Romans 8:28. There may be pain but there will be relief. There may be anger but there will be peace. There will be death but there will be life. This is the promise of God  - “He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces; the rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken.” - Isaiah 25:8.
    This is the hope that we must maintain “without wavering.” The hope for He who is promised faithful. “And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.” - Psalm 39:7.
    Let us all confess our hope in the living Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

When God Doesn’t Deliver? - Lamentations 3:22-23

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. - Lamentations 3:22-23


    Far and away the most inconceivable idea ever proposed by the pathologically limited mind of man is the notion that God could ever fail to achieve His own divine will. In other words, God isn't God! And this is quite possibly the most dangerous characteristic of the “prosperity gospel;” the gospel that puts man at the center of the universe and God at his beckon call. “For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.” - Romans 16:18.
    There are churches where the  preacher/pastor/minister declares, without caveat, that if “you will just (fill in the blank), God will shower you with His unlimited blessings (i.e. financial, health, marital, etc).” And in these theologically toxic environments, there are literally millions of dissatisfied and disappointed congregants. They become bitter in the face of the blessings God has already bestowed upon them. Despite the facts that they currently enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they grouse about something or things that they feel God failed to deliver on. “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.” - 1 Timothy 6:9.
     “But Reverend Al said . . .,” is often heard as they voice their discontent about their circumstance. They should not feel short-changed or disappointed and the reason should be obvious: God is not a genii or a magician who grants our every wish or magically makes our problems disappear. So whenever I hear an apostate say that he or she no longer believes in God because He failed to deliver, I must ask, “deliver what?” “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; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” - 2 Timothy 4:3-4.   
    The problem in these situations always comes down to three basic theological errors :
1) the notion of “an arraignment” between man and God; some quid pro quo of sorts;
2) the notion that God is duty bound to perform as per contract; and
3) the notion that we can bargain with God.
    Much to the disappointment of these callously misled souls, three cold hard facts quickly emerge from a basic textbook on systematic theology:
1) God’s grace is a gift to us, not a present awarded to us for our spiritual valor;
2) God owes us nothing; that’s why we call His gracious providence a “blessing,” and
3) God is sovereign; there is no bargaining or haggling; it will be His way . . . period! “Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure . . .” - Isaiah 46:9-10.
    Yes, we are commanded to pray but pray according to His will, and often times God’s will does not match our own. We must never make the mistake of thinking that God did not deliver. He always delivers, perhaps not to our address or in our time frame, but He always delivers. We may not be particularly thrilled with the contents of the package but it is what God has willed for us. God is not compelled to fill our order; He fills His own order for us, and it is the right item in the right place at the right time, every time! “And He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.’” - Acts 1:7.
    So if in our finite minds God has failed to deliver according to our vain imaginings, one should ask, “who put those irrational concepts into our heads?” Perhaps Rev. Al has fed us a poisoned gospel. And therein lies the problem with the prosperity gospel - it’s an outright lie and the pastor who spreads it is a liar! “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” - John 8:44
    Here’s the bottom line - God is sovereign and that means His divine will is what is going to take place regardless of our hopes, dreams, or desires. True, there are times when God’s will matches our own. When it does, we receive His gracious blessing - when it doesn’t, we don’t. If we’re coming at this from the premise that God should reward our good behavior then we’re coming at it from a faulty and theologically false premise. There is simply never a time when God fails to deliver.
    May we always pray from the perspective that Christ Himself laid out for us in the Lord’s Prayer. “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10.




   

Raised Up With Christ - Romans 5:10

For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. - Romans 5:10

    For many people the understanding of Christ’s crucifixion hinges on the idea that “Christ died for our sins.” Beyond that fact, the theological implications elude most. Yes, Jesus did indeed die “for our sins.” It was the only way that we as sinners, transgressors of the law, could be reconciled to God. “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.” - Colossians 1:21-22.
    As fallen sinners, there was no way for us to regain a righteous standing with our heavenly Father. No good works, no serendipitous awakening or enlightenment, and certainly no “grading on a curve” could do for us what only the death of Christ accomplished. Jesus lived His life in perfect obedience to His heavenly Father, something we have never been able to do. His perfect life is our salvation, but He needed to reconcile us with the Father first!
    The reason is simple: we are born in alienation from God and without the loving self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ we remain in the sinful state of spiritual death until or unless we believe in Him as our Lord and Savior. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Romans 6:23.
    At the Last Supper, Jesus took each of us by the hand and reassured us -“For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” - Matthew 26:28. Christ reconciled us to His heavenly Father through His atoning death. His death and His alone was powerful enough to end the threat of death for those who come to believe in Him.
    But there is a second aspect to Christ’s death; one that does more than reconcile us with God; one that blesses us with eternity in heaven, without which we would remain dead in sin - His resurrection. “For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.” 1 Corinthians 15:21-22.
    On this Resurrection Day, let us all be grateful for the atonement provided for us by the one true Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” - Ephesians 2:4-6.
    Lord almighty, let us all be humble enough to admit our need. “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus . . .” - 1 Timothy 2:5.
    May we all have a joyous Easter!

Why? They Ask. - Jeremiah 17:9

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”
- Jeremiah 17:9

    Troubled young men walk through school buildings shooting randomly at anyone they see. Other men fashion bombs and detonate them where they can kill or maim the most people. Another man telephones his ex-wife and taunts her as he murders their two daughters. Still another man allegedly shoots down at a crowd of concertgoers, indiscriminately killing as many people as he can before taking his own life. And the question screams to be answered, why?
    One particularly astute and intelligent woman declares that “men” are the problem, that it is in our nature as the males of the species. This is apparently one time when there is no confusion about gender identity. Another crowd of impassioned individuals insists that the weapon of choice is at fault. Still another crowd maintains that all we really need to stop the slaughter are more laws; as if we currently have no laws against wanton murder! But still, we all seek the motives behind these stunning displays of madness, as though the answer is that elusive. Yet in truth, we know the juggernaut of human depravity is the locomotive that drives this unending chain of death. We know but we refuse to acknowledge the truth! “Professing to be wise, they became fools . . .” - Romans 1:22.
    For every explanation that enlightened man hangs upon his kindred beings for their murderous behavior there are others who passionately disagree, insisting the motivation lies elsewhere. All the while these proverbial prophets and their colleagues blindly ignore what rises insidiously right before them: simple slithering human depravity. “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” - Genesis 6:5. This and this alone is the perditious pedigree of man.
    Perhaps Arthur Pink, a contemporary of Martin Lloyd-Jones and one of the most influential Christian writers of the 20th Century, put it best, “Look at human nature as it now is: depraved, wretched, subject to death. Ask philosophy to account for this, and it cannot do so. None can deny the fact that men are what they ought not to be, but how they became so, human wisdom is unable to tell us.”
    There has never been a better and more definitive answer to the whys of man’s evil ways. It explains the condition of human suffering better than any of the psycho-babble we are continually bombarded with. Total human depravity explains it all, yet advocates for other excuses can’t seem to grasp the reality. From attorneys to jurists to law officers to psychiatrists to social engineers, they all close their eyes, ears, hearts, and minds to the answer that looms before them yet eludes their simplistic thinking. “But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.” - 2 Corinthians 3:15.
    Clearly, two can come from the same household and while one lives in humble obedience to the law,  the other disdains the law and continually acts against it with derisive contempt. Why?
    The emptiness, idolatry, hatred, and culture of death in the world will not go away, ever! The world, like any void, will always be filled with something. It will be either the darkness of sinful tragedy or it will be filled with Jesus Christ. All the pain, heartache, and darkness we witness and experience is what the world is in the absence of Jesus Christ. Until all that we are becomes subject to Him as Lord and Savior, this is what we are and this is what we remain. We can never be more without Him. Why? Because of our total depravity and its vanguard: sin!
    Humankind does not have the power in itself to become more than the corruption and decaying corpse that we are without Christ. The dead cannot raise themselves. We are all dead in our transgressions against God. Everyone is and remains guilty without Christ! Even innocent children must be taught right from wrong because the stain of depravity exists from birth. “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” - Psalm 51:5.
    Mankind will stay on this road to perdition as long as we continue to reject the Biblical God who created us and sustains us. He is the only God who can complete us. We must all remember the words of Jesus Christ - “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” - Mark 1:15.
    No amount of misguided hope or social engineering will ever change the blackness of the human heart. It has been tried and it has failed ignominiously! The pervasive darkness that we exist in without Christ cannot and will not be legislated away. Our hearts must change or we will forever remain in this contemptible darkness. Why?
    Jesus Himself has already given us this seemingly elusive answer - “Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” - John 8:43-44.
    The world will continue in its own ways as long as we continue in ours. And thus the world is the flesh and the devil. And so we will continue to ask, “Why?” Never recognizing that Christ and Christ alone is the answer to that perennial question -  “Jesus answered them, ‘Do you now believe? Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. 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.’” - John 16:31-33.
We know the answer to why. Let Christ be our response.

The Greater Moral Good - Jeremiah 38:27

Then all the princes came to Jeremiah and asked him. And he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. - Jeremiah 38:27

    In a nutshell; King Zedekiah told Jeremiah to lie. That is the simple and unvarnished fact. Then, Jeremiah indeed lied. Now the question arises: is doing or committing an evil act ever excusable in the eyes of God?.
    Two major considerations must be made when contemplating this issue, “to sin or not to sin.” As to the backstory of the King’s command that Jeremiah lie to the princes; he commanded Jeremiah to deceive these men in order to keep them from killing him over the prophecy of the inevitable conquest of their land by the Chaldeans. But doesn’t the ninth Commandment demand that we should always tell the truth? “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” - Exodus 20:16. Perhaps the difficulty comes when we use the word “always.” Is there in fact ever a time when we can transgress the law of God?
    As to the first consideration - it is true; Jeremiah did lie to the princes. His motivation? To keep them from killing him. I can’t speak for you but I know what Scripture has revealed about those who would tell a lie to save themselves or the lives of others. “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.” - Hebrews 11:310-31. Here, the writer of Hebrews commends the actions of the prostitute, Rahab, for protecting the lives of the Hebrew spies by lying to the King’s inquisitors. In the case of Abraham - “Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife, ‘She is my sister.’ And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.” - Genesis 20:2. And what was his excuse for telling such a lie?  When it was revealed to the King that Sara was indeed Abraham’s wife -- “. . .  Abraham said, 'Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will kill me on account of my wife.'” - Genesis 20:11.
    In both the aforementioned instances Rahab and Abraham lied. There’s no confusion here; what they both did was bold face lie to those questioning them. So how could any expositor defend their actions? How could any commentator advocate for their transgressions? Well, the simple answer is that no one can defend or excuse the lies. However, when tested against the degree of harm, potential, real, or merely imagined; the weight of the lie did not match the dire consequences of telling the truth.
    Dr. R.C. Sproul once suggested that there are some people who simply “don’t deserve the truth!” Imagine for example the commander of an Einsatzgruppen ( an “operational group” or death squad ) of Nazis knocking at your door and asking you if you knew the whereabouts of your Jewish neighbors. You stare the commander in the eye and tell him you don’t know, when in fact you are hiding them in your basement. Ask yourself this question - is it more important to tell the truth and be honest or lie for the sake of saving human lives? Obviously, the commander doesn’t deserve to be told the truth, considering what his plans are for the family if he would discover their location. And while telling a lie is a direct transgression against God’s holy law, it must be a last resort, where no other alternative or option is available. It should only be considered when the greater moral good must outweigh the nuances of the law! Thank you, Dr. Sproul!
    Albeit, the example I just gave works well for those who experienced the tragedy of WWII. But what about now? What about today? Alright, let’s consider a possible 21st Century conundrum: your friend shows up at your front door, sobbing and bruised. She tells you she got into an altercation with her husband, got out of the house and ran to you for help and support. While you’re comforting her, there’s a loud pounding on the door. Her abusive husband, obviously infuriated, is waiting impatiently for you to answer. After sending your friend into another room, you answer the door. He demands to know if you have seen or heard from her. You stare him in the eye and tell him, “No.” He leaves in a huff, cursing as he gets into his car. What does your conscience tell you now? “Pray for us; for we are confident that we have a good conscience, in all things desiring to live honorably.” - Hebrews 13:18.
    I am in no way advocated for dishonesty in any shape or form, but I am suggesting that such strict and unforgiving views as suggested by many Christian legalists today are in fact simply convoluted views of commandments that neither Moses nor Jesus ever intended to be written in stone!
    We must always weigh the repercussions and consequences of omitting truthful responses or deliberately misleading others with our word. But the consideration must never be to keep ourselves from a righteous judgment or simply to allay inconvenience ( “Tell them I’m not home.”). God will always demand that His moral laws are upheld to the highest standard but never at the cost of the greater good or simply to meet someone’s twisted sense of legalism. “Then Paul, looking earnestly at the council, said, ‘Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.’” - Acts 23:1.
    May God always grant us the discernment to make the right choices and decisions.