Given to Change

Proverbs 24:21-22 My son, fear thou the Lord and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change: For their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the ruin of them both?

Progressives are reformers who labor to move organizations or nations “forward” and seek progress toward a vision of a better world. But, if I'm standing on the edge of a cliff, moving forward is the last thing I want. Progressives presupposes change is always in the right direction, or a change in any direction is needed at all. They also assume their vision of the future is not only the best way, but the righteous way, and opposition to "progress" and their agenda is a moral evil. It was said of President Calvin Coolidge, "Nobody has ever worked harder at inactivity... thwarting political activity wherever there are signs of life.” As Coolidge knew, too often political movement is usually pushing boundaries, tearing down fences, and moving in the wrong direction. There are times and ways in which people, organizations, and countries must change - but those given to change are rebels against authority and the Bible warns against such revolutionaries and reformers.  

Our proverb tells us to fear the Lord and the King, to respect and honor authority. Fearing the Lord is conforming our lives to his instructions, and our hearts to His law. Fearing the king is to honoring the laws and his authority as long as they do not conflict with the laws of God. Our concern should not be to “get with the times” or to “be on the right side of history” but to be right with God. The revolutionary's vision of a future utopia trumps everything else, sometimes even reality, to obtain progress by any means necessary.

Sometimes, the best way is backwards. Sinners are called to repent, to turn away from sin and unto God. There are standards of truth and when you stray from what’s right, the only sensible way to go is back. If you were swimming in the ocean, and look up and realize you have drifted too far from the shore, “Onward!” is not the wisest move. You may come from a long and noble line of people who have been wrong for generations. For you, "progress" would be to stop, turn around, and go back.

Sometimes, the best move is no move at all. God’s people are told to stand fast in the faith, to hold fast to the doctrines we have received. Just because something is old doesn’t mean it’s outdated. God defined marriage, it’s purpose, and it’s participants, so any deviation from God’s eternal truth will be the ruin for all involved. 

If you get caught up in the fashions of the day, dismiss truth from previous generations, and follow the trends of the progressives, you'll be able to get with the program and move the accepted direction. Progressives are in the business of tearing down the old to make way for the new. But realize, there’s a generation of toddlers right now, future reformers, waiting their turn to topple over today’s progressives.

Fear the Lord. Follow the God who does not change. Stand for truth. Hold fast to sound doctrine. Don't be given to change. 

I am Persuaded

If you grew up with a hymn-book similar to mine, you are familiar with 2 Timothy 1:12, “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” I sang this song so much as a young man, when I read this verse, I usually say, “I know whom I have be-lie-ved…” playing pronunciation gymnastics to make it fit the tune. But what a glorious verse and no wonder the hymn writer, Daniel Whittle took up this theme. 

I know whom I have believed. Paul suffered for the gospel because he knew whom he believed. Not “what” he believed, but in “whom”. The object of the believer’s faith is the person of Jesus Christ. Paul knew him. He knew him savingly. He knows Christ is faithful. He knows Jesus is true. He knows the Lord is wise. He knows Jesus saves to the uttermost.

Because our faith is in the perfect person of Jesus Christ, I am persuaded he is good to his word. Faith includes not only belief but assent to that belief. Knowing Jesus lived and died is a historical fact. But you also must have affiance to the truth. It's having confidence and being persuaded with the truth. Many know Jesus died and rose from the dead, but don't care. A person persuaded that Christ is able to save is one who repents, humbles themselves before God, obeys the Lord, and loves Him with all of their heart. A persuaded person acts on their true faith and is persuaded of the facts.

Since Paul knows Christ, he know Jesus can keep his soul which he has committed to him unto the last day. Paul’s soul is anchored to the Rock. Christ is able to do what he promised. Jesus is able to save, to cleanse from sin, to keep unto the last day, to raise up this mortal body and change it to a glorified body.  The Lord Jesus is able to do all that he promised, so he is trustworthy to believe in and follow after.

When facing persecution, hardships, tribulations, and struggles in serving Christ, the Christian can press on in faith, knowing the Lord will not forsake him. He can live under the reproach of man and not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ because it is Christ’s gospel, and he is able. Samuel Rutherford, whose faith persuaded him to be banished and imprisoned for Christ said, “Forward then, dear brother, and lose not your grips. Hold fast the truth for the world sells not one dram-weight of God’s truth, especially now when most men measure truth by time, like young seamen setting their compass by a cloud…" If you know Christ, your faith is in one stronger than you, able to save, true to His word, and faithful to keep his promises.

Whet the Edge

Ecclesiastes 10:10  If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.

I packed my weed eater across the creek, and up the hill before realizing I forgot the gas. Back down the hill I went, across the creek, grabbing the gas can, and back up the hill. I then spent the next several minutes  pulling the rope hopping to hear the thing start. After making another trek to my tools and a few adjustments, I did get it started, but not before enduring an existential crisis. Am I really going to have to go through this struggle for the rest of my life? How many more times am I going to have to pull on that rope hoping to hear the rumble of the motor? I set the weed eater down, whet to my computer and ordered a mowing scythe.  

As a boy, I worked on my Grandpa's apple orchard in Kentucky. He had us mow under the trees with scythes. The men hated mowing. I actually thought it was cool, swinging a giant blade around, chopping and hacking. The first time I tried, I grabbed a scythe and started swinging for the fences like Griffey, Jr. in a homerun derby. My Grandpa stopped me and said I was going to kill myself. He sharpened my blade then told me to let the scythe do all the work, that's what it's made for. He just barely moved the blade through the grass at his "grandpa pace" but then I realized how he cut the grass down like it was nothing. He took down a lot more grass in a lot shorter time than I had because used the tool and took time to prepare for the work.

Harkening back to simpler times, I took my scythe to the hill side this summer and went to town, forgetting everything I knew and started hacking at the grass and swinging for the fences. After the newness wore off and the soreness came in, I remembered the blade needs to be sharp, and the tool needs to do the work. If the blade isn't sharp, you can still cut some of the grass, but it won't' do a good job, and takes much more effort, and you'll tire out before you get very far. With a sharp blade, it takes less effort and you'll be able to do more work with less effort. No grass falls while you are sharpening, but in the long run, you'll get more done and with less effort if you stop ever few minutes to sharpen the blade.

There are countless applications, but I'll just take a few. Do you tire yourself in study and Bible reading without whetting the edge with prayer? Do you have so much to do, that you don't have time to pray? Do you take time in prayer before church, asking for wisdom? Perhaps you preach or teach Sunday School. Do you spend hours crafting a homeletically sound outline, but labored all week without prayer for the sermon?  Perhaps you have searched the commentaries and read the works of authors down through the centuries and you haven't seen your desk since Tuesday, since it's covered in a mountain of books. You've consulted the lexicons and diagrammed sentences, and still struggling with a message, but have you come to God in humble prayer? Have you talked to your children about a particular sin, and fussed and cried and pleaded for them to hear you and to listen and yet, you neglected to go the Lord in prayer for wisdom, strength, and that your words would be effectual? Wisdom is profitable to direct.

Conference on the Attributes of God

Last weekend, Buffalo Valley Baptist Church hosted our annual Bible Conference. Our theme was on the Attributes of God. We hosted 9 preachers from around the country to preach on various aspects of God’s perfections. Each message had direct application to the life of the believer. Subjects such as, “The Immutability of God and His Word” and “Comfort for Christians in the Sovereignty of God,” and “The Goodness of God Demonstrated in the Life of Paul.” The attributes of God are not for our vain curiosity, nor simply a matter of theological debate or scholarship. Every believer should desire to know more about God, but also understand this knowledge is for our good. Knowing God is knowing the person of the Father, through the Person of the Son, by the power of the Person of the Spirit. Knowing God impacts your life now and the life to come. Knowing the attributes of the true and living God is practical when you are lying in a hospital bed, when you're sitting in a funeral home, when you are witnessing to your lost child, or changing a diaper at 3:00 am.

Have you ever dedicated yourself to studying the doctrine of God? If not, you should because it pleases God (Colossians 1:10). The study of God’s perfections, by faith, is an honorable pursuit (Jeremiah 9:23-24).  We don’t have anything of ourselves to glory in, but our boasting is in Christ, and by His grace, we can know God. It’s possible to know God! Indeed, the Almighty is beyond our finite minds to exhaust, but we have His self-revelation in the Bible for the purpose of knowing Him. This weekend, men stood up behind our pulpit and told us about God and that is only possible because God has revealed Himself to us and provided us all things that “pertain unto life and godliness” in the Bible. The knowledge of God we have, in the great and precious promises of Scripture, are a source of peace and sanctifying grace (2 Peter 1:2-3). God has called us to both know him and grow in our knowledge (2 Peter 3:18). The 19th century Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon well said, “Plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in His immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.” Knowing God is a blessing of the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:33-34) and the positive side of the first two commandments (Exodus 20:3-6). We are commanded to have no other gods and if you are worshiping a god that is NOT the god of the Bible, you have a different God altogether. There is no god like our God in the Earth – so fill your heart, mind, and souls with thoughts of the LORD God.

Hating Grace

A lot of people hate the gospel. Do you? Timothy was called to suffer for the sake of the gospel, because the good news of salvation is rejected by the world. Timothy was persecuted for telling people that God saves sinners by grace through Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 1:8-9).  Jesus doesn’t try to save us, or give the opportunity for salvation, but does save us, finally, fully, and freely. Mankind naturally hates the grace of God. Those who are saved by Jesus Christ are called by the Holy Spirit and those who are called are saved. God doesn’t save and not call, nor does he call and not save. Don’t mistake this holy calling as God looking for and calling men unto salvation who live holy, and act holy. On the contrary, it’s a holy calling despite our works, as Paul says, “not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” Grace.

Do you rejoice in God’s grace or recoil? If you are saved, it’s not because you are a good person. If you are a Christian, it’s not because of how much you work, how much you deny yourself, and how unspotted from the world you remain. If you are going to Heaven, it’s not because you are a decent person who tries their best and goes to church as much as you can. If you are redeemed, it’s not because you are a member of a church, because you were baptized, or even because you said the sinner's prayer the preacher told you to repeat. Christians are not saved by their works, but according to God’s “own purpose and grace.” If you are saved by works, you are not saved by grace and vice versa. Grace is an underserved gift. If you work 40 hours a week, your boss doesn’t give you a gift on payday. He pays you what he owes you. If God saves because of your choice, your works, or you good deeds, then you are not saved by grace. And, if you are not saved by grace, you are not a Christian. Salvation is in the work of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world, purposed in God, to save his elect, from all of their sin. We are the recipients of God’s grace in Christ, whom we receive, not by works, but by faith alone.

Do you recoil at sovereign grace? There is no other gospel. The Bible, from beginning to end, tells of the sovereign God, doing as He pleases, saving undeserving sinners by His grace. There is no good news in being saved by works, because the law cannot justify you it only condemns. God saves sinners by grace through faith. We don’t need help, we need saved. We don’t need reformed, we need regeneration. The pride of the human heart hates the confession of our inability, thus hates grace.

A Heart Deceived

2 Timothy 1:8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;

Rather than feeling ashamed for the gospel, Paul urges Timothy press on past those wrong feelings and join the fight. It’s a simple command – don’t be ashamed. Shame is an emotion and our emotions are not infallible, and that’s why they make terrible guides. I’m a Christian, not a stoic, so I don’t believe humans should act like emotionless droids, but I know you should not be ruled by your emotions. If you feel shame, the first thing you need to do is ask yourself why? Have you committed a sin against God, according to Scripture? Have you done something or left something undone which smote your conscience? Then shame has done a worthy work in your life, and now repent and find forgiveness in the blood of Christ. But, if you feel shame, and have done nothing wrong (according to the Bible, not according to your feelings), then you know your emotions deceived you. The best course of action, after you have determined your heart has deceived you, is to not be ashamed anymore. 

Sitting on the fence or trying to play both sides will make you awfully uncomfortable and practically useless in the work. Wanting to serve the Lord, but not wanting to offend the world will make you ineffective for God’s work, and undesirable to the world you want to think highly of you. The best way to overcome the fearful timidity Timothy had is to jump in the fight and be all in for Christ. If you give in to the wrong emotion of shame of the gospel, you are feeding this bad emotion and making it stronger. President John Quincy Adams wrote, "Highly as I reverenced the authority of my constituents...I would have defended their interests against their inclinations, and incurred every possible addition to their resentment, to save them from the vassalage of their own delusions." A Christian should rather stand for truth and be hated for it than to go along with a lie and live in peace. What good is a man of God whose only goal is favor with the world? What worth is a preacher who will only tell you pleasant things? What value is there in a witness for Christ being afraid to take the stand? And, what do you gain by not taking criticism from the world who hates your Lord? There isn’t really an upside. Some of the most miserable people I’ve ever known were backslidden Christians. They couldn’t enjoy their rebellion because they were God’s people and He wouldn’t let them and they couldn’t recreate the joy of the Lord out in the world. They were double losers because of what they gained in the world made them miserable and what they lost in fellowship with Christ made them desolate.