What Child Is This? - Matthew 1:21

 “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” - Matthew 1:21

    Assurance. By any definition the word means certainty. And in this day and age certainty is hard to come by. With the fleeting pace of modern life we can never be sure what the next moment holds for us. Relativism has humanity wrapped in the grasp of its gnarly talons and those who are without Jesus Christ know nothing of their future. Is it any wonder that so many people’s live are filled with fear, anxiety, an indecisiveness?
    Joseph, the husband of Mary, found himself in a similar predicament. It was revealed to him by Mary that she was with child and they had not yet “been together.” The situation was precarious for his wife. Who, after all, would believe that she had conceived a child through the Holy Spirit? What was he to do in an age when women who found themselves in such circumstances were routinely “put away” by their husbands? This was the biblical way of describing a divorce and the public shaming of the woman. But Joseph was a just man and not quick to shame his young wife. Thus, he was full of fear, anxiety, and indecisiveness. Enter, an angel of the Lord: “But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.’” - Matthew 1:20.  An angel of the Lord? A heavenly being authorized by God to give Joseph the go ahead in his betrothal to Mary. How much more certainty would you need to accept that the message received was from God, Himself? God knew of Joseph’s human dilemma and He sent word to him that THIS was His will!
    Joseph was assured by an angel of the Lord to set his mind at ease. That assurance preceded something even more certain: the Child would be a Son and that Son’s name was to be “Jesus.” And that particular Son was to be named that particular name for great reason - He was to be the “Jesus ,”  - “And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6b) the Savior, the Messiah of His people!
    I can only speak for myself but I am certain that if an angel of the Lord told me that my wife would give birth to the Son who would be the Savior of His people it would certainly create a “assurance” in me that would relieve me of all fear, anxiety, and indecision for the rest of my life.
    What that angel had to tell Joseph was not a suggestion. It wasn’t optional. It wasn’t discretional. It was a series of three commands from God Himself! She WILL bring forth a Son. You WILL call Him, Jesus. And He WILL save His people from their sins! Still need assurance?
    What is in a name? Scripture makes the promise of God crystal clear - “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” - Acts 4:12. “For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’” - Romans 10:1.
    This Christmas let us remember the assurance and the certainty of the only name by which we can be saved: “Jesus”: the Son of God, the Christ, our Savior!

Joshua’s Spear - Joshua 8:26

 For Joshua did not draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. - Joshua 8:26

Sin. It is the hated enemy clawing at our gates. Temptation scouts out our most vulnerable places and sin rushes forward, an army of death attacking us in our vulnerability.
John Owen once said, “Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.” ( John Owen, “The Mortification of Sin.”) It was Owen’s point that sin, even in the saint, still has deleterious effects on our lives.
Yes, we must be constantly at it . . .the determined and deliberate destruction of sin in our lives. Utterly destroying it just as certainly as Joshua destroyed the inhabitants of Ai.
“Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.” - Colossians 3:5-8. We know that sin is of the world, the flesh, and the devil. We know it. We recognize it; so we must do everything within our power to eliminate it from our lives. We must not draw back Joshua’s spear until sin is utterly destroyed. The importance of the mortification of sin in our lives can never be over-emphasized. “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” - Romans 8:13.
While it is true that we are saints being sanctified, sin remains a part of our humanity until we are joined to Christ’s everlasting love in our eventual and certain glorification. “Moreover whom He predestined, these He called; whom He called, these He justified; and who He justified, these He also glorified.” - Romans 8:30.
To live and enjoy communion with our Lord and Savior we must be mindful that sin will forever condemn us and separate us if we are not in Christ Jesus and He, in us. Listen not to the world and its silvery promises of our best lives being here and now. Promises of “the here and the now, of the world and the flesh” are fulfilled only by the guarantee of the devil: spiritual death and eternity in hell!
Let us mortify our sin before the Lord.  “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Romans 6:23. May the power of the Holy Spirit give us the strength to hold forth our spears until we have utterly destroyed sin in our lives.

“Access . . . Denied” - Deuteronomy 29:29

 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” - Deuteronomy 29:29

    The Holocaust, 9-1-1, war, famine, pestilence, disease . . . death - why does an almighty and loving God allow such tragedies? We hear accusations of unfairness leveled at the Creator of the universe. Is He unfair? Is He unjust? What is fair? What is justice? We want justice? Believe me; justice is not what we want. Justice places us all squarely in the jaws of hell for all eternity. Why? “As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one . . .’” - Romans 3:10. No, justice isn’t what we want. We want “grace,” undeserved and unmerited grace because without grace we would all be given the harsh and hellish justice we deserve!
    So beyond erroneous notions of justice we wonder why God sometimes allows the worst possible outcomes to some of the most unexpected situations involving people who, for the most part are relatively benign. From unexpected childhood diseases to natural catastrophes to local, national, and global disasters the nagging question remains - why? I can’t tell you why because I don’t know why, but I can tell you this: there is no access code to God’s hidden will. There is no password that will allow us to see inside the mind and heart of God. The error message continues to flash: “Access . . . Denied!”
    Certainly, sometimes what takes place in our world is a judgment from God; sometimes it is not. The fact is: we just don’t know and no matter how hard we search for an answer or accountability - there is none. Access . . . Denied!   
      “ . . . then I saw all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. For though a man labors to discover it, yet he will not find it; moreover, though a wise man attempts to know it, he will not be able to find it.” - Ecclesiastes 8:17
    Our title verse explicitly tells us that God’s hidden will remains hidden, but we are not without certain knowledge of God’s revealed will. It has been given to us through His holy scripture. Perhaps our time would be better spent immersing ourselves in His revealed will rather than stumbling along, attempting to decipher His sovereign or decretive will.
    “But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?” - Romans 9:20-21.
    Let us all pray for the wisdom to understand that we cannot presume to know the mind of God nor the reasons for His will. Let us instead learn to accept it.

“This Is A Test” - Matthew 10:34-37

  “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” - Matthew 10:34-37

     “This is a test.” I remember hearing these words when I was a child. It was the TV network’s way of testing the EBS, or Emergency Broadcast System. It was a system designed and used during the Cold War (I’m sure some of you remember . . .) to alert us to an impending nuclear attack. I’m not even sure it’s used anymore. Nevertheless, the system was tested daily to insure that it worked. It was tested daily because an attack could come any day, unannounced, and unprovoked, not necessarily when we were “on guard”, but at anytime. We had to be prepared for what could possibly come.
    God still employs the EBS. Of course it’s not the kind that we hear over a TV or radio but a spiritual variety and it’s not the kind that warns of an impending nuclear attack, but of the satanic variety.
    When Christ told His disciples that He came to bring the sword and set a man’s household against him, He meant it in a figurative sense. Luke’s gospel is even more perilous -  “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” - Luke 14:26. Obviously we aren’t being called to hate our family members or anyone for that matter but we must be prepared to make a stand in case division arises within our homes over the gospel of Jesus Christ! We must be ready to defend the faith even to our own mothers, fathers, children, and spouses. Matthew 10:34-37 is our spiritual EBS. Be prepared. For if we fail to defend the gospel in our own homes how can we ever hope to defend it anywhere? And if we fail to defend it, we fail ultimately. Let us not forget the warning of Jesus Christ in the previous verse - “But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” - Matthew 10:33.
    As I said, we are not being literally called to hate our mothers and fathers, etc. but we must always be ready to defend the gospel . . . even to our families!  “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.” - 2 Timothy 4:2.   
    May we be granted peace within our homes and families at all times but especially when we share the word of God.

The Gift - John 4:10

  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16

    I overheard someone the other day complaining about Thanksgiving. He shrugged his shoulders and asked what we had to be so thankful for. I didn’t know the man personally so I reserved any thoughts of judgment. Then it struck me like a bolt from the blue. I didn’t know him personally! And therein lie his problem. Not that he and I weren’t personally acquainted but that perhaps he had yet to receive the gift of grace from God and the contentment that proceeds from the gift of  “knowing Christ, personally!” He certainly didn’t talk like he was blessed by the gift of salvation through Christ. His discontentment gave me pause to think more about my own disposition and if I were resolute enough in my own thankfulness.
    Grumbling about our lives is far too common, even among those of us who are saved through the gift of God’s grace. I catch myself complaining about “this or that” far too often. And it is only the refocusing of my attention on that unmerited gift of grace that stems the tide of my discontentment. Careful inventory of our blessings will often quell our tumultuous hearts. “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” - Matthew 6:27. I find I am most at ease; I am most content, when I forget my anxieties and rest in the Lord.
    May we all find our place of “rest in the Lord” through God’s gift of grace on this Thanksgiving Day. And may we learn to extend that contentment to each and every day of our lives. “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” - Psalm 118:24. Happy Thanksgiving!

There Is Indeed A King - Judges 17:6

 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. - Judges 17:6

    Ochlocracy: the rule of the mob. This archaic term is seldom used anymore. Most people mistakenly confuse it’s concept with that of anarchy, which is no rule or order of law at all, i.e. chaos, disorder, mayhem. Don’t be confused. In an ochlocracy there is most definitely a rule of order. As it’s definition states; it is the rule of the mob. And that rule is anything that runs counter to a systematic rule of order either via legislators or individual ruler. As opposed to such systematic paradigms, the ochlocracy ostensibly runs about on its own power rather than that of well-defined moral principles or a subjective rule of law; in our case, the bible. Certainly ochlocractic rule manifests itself in a variety of ways, depending of course, on what “the mob” sees as tolerable, in the least respect, or desirable at worst. But one thing is for certain: no ochlocracy has ever or will ever use the holy law of God as an manifestation of their behavior.
    As our title verse states, “In those days there was no king .  . .” This is a prerequisite for an ochlocracy: there can be no individual ruler, otherwise it’s a dictatorship. So there is no ruler present in a ochlocracy. In such a situation it is inevitable that men will then do what is right in their own eyes. Herein lies the fallacy that an ochlocracy runs about on its own power. It does not, for we know from Romans 14:23 that whatever does not proceed from God is sin. If God is not the prime motivator of your thoughts, words, and deed then Satan is! There are simply two ways and only two ways. The mob sees the worship of God as some type of pathological sickness. But there is nothing pathological about worshiping God; it is man’s greatest purpose!
    The problem inherent to ochlocratic thinking should be obvious, especially to believers. Since man has walked the earth he has not known a day when there was no king! “For the Lord is the great God, and the great King above all gods.” - Psalm 95:3. Therefore, we indeed have a sovereign king and we must obey Him. We cannot afford the mistake of doing what is right in our own eyes? If we believers know what God’s law demands it is just as certain that unbelievers know the law too; it is their choice, their deliberate choice to disobey Him and do what is right in their own eyes. Whether it is abortion, same-sex marriage, sexual promiscuity, or moral relativism in general they know the law of God and still refuse to obey.“But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,  for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine . . .” - 1 Timothy 1:8-10.
    We know what God has ordained. We know what God expects from us. All of humanity does. We have seen His revealed will. “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” - Micah 6:8.
    Make no mistakes: there is indeed a King, a King of kings, Jesus Christ. And we know that those who prefer to do what is right in their own eyes rather than obey the law of God will wage war with the King of kings, but they will not prevail. There is no God-given right for a woman to kill her unborn child. There is no God-given right for men to have sexual relationships with other men. “You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.  You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.” - Leviticus 18:21-22. No matter how loud they scream. No matter how many law-suits they initiate. No matter how many judges they have in their pockets. No matter what their celebrity-gods declare . . . they will not prevail! “These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.” - Revelation 17:14.
    Let us continue to pray for their souls that they may see what the called, the chosen, and the faithful see, that Christ is King! May the Holy Spirit of God fill their hearts as He has done ours and may we always bow down on bended knee to Christ Jesus, our Sovereign Lord, Savior, and King of kings.

“Go . . . AND SIN NO MORE!” - John 8:10-11

  

 When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”  She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”
 - John 8:10-11

    In the social media there has been a recent spate of posts suggesting that Jesus hung around with tax-collectors, drunkards, and prostitutes. “Hung out?” I’d suggest that such a description is hardly scriptural. Jesus didn’t commune with unrepentant sinners; allow me to offer the scriptural evidence.
    No where in the bible do we get a picture of Christ running around with sinners. No where! We see Him in encounters with sinners and when our lord Jesus Christ encounters the sinner in his or her sin He demands they cease and desist their sinful lifestyle; as the example in our title verse clearly depicts. Where the said sinner repents Christ welcomes them into His Holy company. But no where in scripture do we see Christ welcoming and continually communing  with unrepentant sinners. . . no where! Just as Jesus washed the dirt from the feet of His disciples (John 13:3-5) we are washed clean of our sins by His holy blood. What, to return to our worldly filth again? And then what: Christ is to die that agonizing death for us over and over again because we want to remain in our filthy circumstances? Christ even admonished Peter that he must be washed to enjoy the salvation He was to provide for him - “Peter said to Him, ‘You shall never wash my feet!’ Jesus answered him, ‘If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.’” - John 13:8. No! Jesus did not “hang out with sinners!”
    The woman about to be stoned left her sinful life behind as did Levi (Matthew) the tax-collector. They left their sins behind to follow Christ! Consider how she responded to Christ when He asked, “Has no one condemned you?” She replied, “No one, LORD.” “Lord,” she said. In her moment of tribulation she recognized Christ as the Lord! What fool would dare suggest that this woman left the scene that day and returned to the life she had before Christ’s intervention? And an “intervention” is exactly what it was. Christ intervened in a life  that cried out for forgiveness and that is why He said, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”
    In another instance of Christ’s “questionable associations” we find Him calling upon Zacchaeus , yet another tax-collector and sinner. “And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”  So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully. But when they saw it, they all complained, saying, “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.”- Luke 19:5-7. Zacchaeus made hast, came down, and received Him joyfully. Again, here is a sinner who recognized Christ as the Lord and not merely received Him but received Him joyfully! Verses 8 thru 10 detail the effect of Christ on the man and the salvation that accompanied his faith in Christ: “Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham;  for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.’” Zacchaeus restored what he had taken unjustly; he didn’t remain in his sin.
    Again the scriptures tell us - “And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, ‘How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?’ When Jesus heard it, He said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.’” - Mark 2:16-17. This was the very reason Christ came into the world - to save us!
    If your will is to save someone from a raging inferno you have go to the fire. You can’t save them from afar as you watch the flames consume them. Jesus seeks to save those who need saving, so in effect, He goes to where the fires are burning. “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.” - Matthew 18:11.
    Christ’s first words in the Gospel of Mark set up the purpose of His entire ministry here on earth: “Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to 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.” - Mark 1:14-15. Jesus never said or suggested that it would be just fine for us to remain in our sins. He never said he would accept us in our sins. He came to save us from our sins. And anyone who preaches another gospel is a liar and a wolf in sheep’s clothing!
    May the Holy Spirit of God grant us discernment enough to know the one true Gospel of Jesus Christ from the post-modern heresy that tells us Jesus accepts us and our sins and does not require repentance from us.