This is now the second week that we are considering the writing of our Bro Cary Cox about God's sovereignty especially in our suffering. It is important that we have this truth down before we go through our trials and hardships so that God's promises in our suffering can serve as an anchor for our souls. Sovereignty in the Scriptures Again, consider the multitude of examples in Scripture of God not shying away from his sovereignty over bad things. In the flood, he drowned to death thousands of lives (“I will blot out man” Gen 6:5-7). Or the firstborn children in Egypt – God says “I will kill your firstborn” (Ex 4:22-23; 12:29). Or consider the conquest of Canaan. It was Israel who killed the men, women, and children who lived in the land. But God takes the credit – “I will give over all of them, slain, to Israel” (Josh 11:6), or “It was the Lord’s doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction” (Josh 11:20). Or when God killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night (2 Ki 19:32, 34-35). The selling of Joseph into slavery was a tremendous act of evil by his wicked brothers, but Joseph understood that, though they meant it for evil, “God meant it for good” (Gen 50:20). Good Intentions It doesn’t say that God used it for good, or turned it for good, or somehow made it work for good, but that God “meant it” for good. It was his purpose that they sin. God is able to be sovereign over sin without himself doing sin. This seems like a contradiction, but is not. We make real choices, and are responsible. But God is somehow working in and behind those choices, directing them according to his will. That’s just how good, wise, and powerful he is! God is sovereign over our real choices. An illustration of this is the crucifixion of Jesus. The greatest evil ever committed by man! To murder the very Son of God! The Jews made real choices to cry for Jesus’ death. Pilate made a real choice to hand him over to the cross. The soldiers made real choices to drive the nails. But the Bible makes it clear that it was God’s will to crush him (Isa 53:10). Acts 4:27-28 leaves nothing unclear: “for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus…both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.” The apostle Peter speaks of our suffering according to “God’s will” (1 Pet 3:17). Paul told the Philippian believers that we should work out our own salvation (we are responsible), “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil 4:12-13). God works in us to will! !!!!!! James instructs us to leave all our decisions up to God’s will – don’t say you will do this or that, but say “if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:13-15). If God wills, we will live!
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The next three weeks we will be working our way through Bro. Cary's treatment of the complex and glories truth that God is sovereign even over the bad, the ugly and the hard things in our lives. May we be blessed by the Lord as we are instructed from His word. All Things Jesus said that not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from the will of the Father (Matthew 10:29). God is sovereign over the death of every bird in the entire world. Was Jesus intending us to believe that this is the limit of his sovereignty? No, he was encouraging his disciples as he sent them out into a scary and dangerous world, that God is in control over all that happens, even, and especially, the dangerous and bad and deadly. Would we be more encouraged that the devil sometimes wins against God and is able to bring danger, sickness, and death to God’s people, with God wishing that he was able to somehow stop it? How could we sleep at night if that were the case? No, the encouragement is found in the Biblical truth that whatever happens has been decreed, sent, or allowed by God himself, who is good, kind, trustworthy, and for his people in Christ – so that we may trust that temporary sufferings serve our eternal joy in him! Therein is our hope! Jesus told his followers not to fear man, who can only kill the body; “But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” (Luke 12:5). Here is Jesus, in the New Testament, telling us that God kills. More than that! He sends to hell. Our fear is not of the devil, but of the Lord. Our times are in His hands! God is not ashamed of His sovereignty over human suffering, pain, sickness, disease, danger, or death. He freely takes credit for it throughout the entire Bible. Though He uses secondary means, such as Satan, humans, or nature, He clearly and continually declares that He is in ultimate control of all that happens, directing it toward an end that is for our ultimate good in Him, and for His glory (though our limited understanding may not see how this is so; that’s why it is by faith). Yes, He is the God who “works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Eph 1:5). All things! The Good & the Bad Things The Lord freely confesses to Moses that it is he who makes man “mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind” (Ex 4:11). He does not cower in shame when he declares, “I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal” (Deut 32:39, see also Isa 41:4; 43:10, 13, 25; 48:12; 51:12). Paul declares to the Greeks that it is God who “gives to mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). It is God who opened Sarah’s barren womb (Gen 21:1-2), but Scripture also says that it was God who had closed her womb in the first place (Gen 16:2)! He had a purpose when he closed her womb, and a purpose when he opened it. Naomi, when she lost her husband and sons, knew that it was from “the hand of the Lord” (Ruth 1:13). Job understood that, when he lost his children, was smitten with sores, and lost his possessions, that – even though Satan was the tool in God’s hand – it was the same Lord “who gave,” who had now “taken away” (Job 1:21). And Scripture makes it clear that Job was correct (“In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong” Job 1:22; and the book ends with the inspired Scriptures declaring that Job was comforted “for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him” 42:11). God does not owe us pleasure and life; the wages of sin is death. It is appointed unto man once to die, and this will many times happen through sickness and death, even for the believer. Otherwise, the early church Christians would still be walking around in good health! At least one or two of them? No, death came to all men through Adam’s sin (Rom 5:12, 18). Life and healing are ours in Christ, but, just as our full sanctification will not be realized until glorification in heaven, so will our healing not be complete until we receive our new body in glory. Continued… Last week I included this sentence in the blog on conviction. This kind of brokenness should result in us being more faithful in fellowship, more fervent in prayer, and more fearless in our evangelism. This week, I would like to go a little deeper on each one of these aspects and make some practical applications of what these concepts look like in real life. Faithful in Fellowship By speaking about fellowship, I am specifically talking about the relationships we have and cultivate in the local church. The Bible describes these relationships in covenantal terms. This means that these relationships have definition, privileges, and responsibilities. We are not called to loose and transient connections as Christians, but rather to deep bonds of love and commitment (Ephesians 4:1-6). Remember that in the Scripture we are instructed to weep and rejoice together (Romans 12:15). But we will only do that if we are truly connected to one another, loving, and caring for one another. Covenant relationships are not just about the definition; they also require investment. We must begin spending quality time together speaking with and focusing on one another. If the only time we spend together is the time when we are all focused on worshiping the Lord in song and scripture then we will not develop these relationships. We need to talk to each other and eat with each other and enjoy one another's company and comradery. This means that you need to linger when the service has ended and visit with others. This means that we need to have one another over to our homes for meals and games. This means that we need to attend the smaller gatherings of our church with less formality and more authenticity. By smaller gatherings, I am referring to Sunday school, Thousand Hills, and our Wednesday evening meeting. Of course, if none of those work for you then gather some brethren and create a group! The point is that we need each other! Fervent in Prayer In this we need to be more vulnerable in our times of corporate prayer. What I mean is that we must be willing to dispense with the meaningless language of vain repetition and cry out to God together. We must begin to confess to one another and pray for one another without even a hint of gossip or slander. I long for a day when our church is marked by times and seasons of passionate prayer. This kind of prayer should be fueled by our conviction that our sovereign God has already ordained the ends, and, by the means of our heartfelt prayers, He is going to save the lost, heal the sick, and build His church! Remember we are told by God that fervent prayer is effective! It really works (James 5:13-18)! We also need to plead with God in private prayer. I know that we are all different in the way that we process and express emotion but we must beg God to move among His people. When we read the Psalms we hear desperate pleas for God! I started to refer in the last sentence to God’s love or grace or protection, but the cry of the Psalmist is for God and thus it should be for us! Fearless in Evangelism Boldness is necessary in sharing the gospel. We know this because even the Apostles were in need of boldness (Ephesians 6:18b-20). This courage means that we must love people enough to put relationships in danger to proclaim the message of the gospel to those who see it as a message of judgment and condemnation. But if we truly love the people and not just ourselves we will tell them the truth. However, there is one kind of fear that should motivate us in evangelism and that is our fear for what will happen to the unbeliever. Paul states that because we know the fear of God we persuade men (2 Corinthians 5:11). We ought to persuade men that God’s wrath is coming on all the ungodly in retribution for all their ungodly deeds (Jude 15). We ought to persuade men of the kindness and love God has demonstrated toward them to lead them to repentance (Romans 2:4). Finally we ought to persuade them that hope and peace will only be found in and through the Lord Jesus Christ! Integrity We all have some way that we think or hope that other people see us. I don’t mean that we are all so fraudulent or disguised, only that we want to be perceived in a certain way. As a matter of fact, to truly live without any type of social inhibition would actually make a person a psychopath. What I’m talking about is the “you be you” philosophy. In Scripture, we are not told to aspire to just be ourselves, but rather, to be conformed into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29) and to be holy like God (1 Peter 1:14-16). However, who are we when no one else is around? Integrity is the level of honesty that we have with ourselves and with God. We need to be people who are not driven to an ethic of pragmatism that conforms to the shifting standards of culture. Rather our lives as believers must have foundations that are built on the bedrock of God’s revealed truth in the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 7:24-27). This kind of genine integrity is only the result of cultivating a biblical fear of the Lord. So long as we continue to presume upon God’s grace to excuse selfish and sinful lifestyles we cannot be people who have real fear of God. Without this kind of biblical fear we will be ignorant and foolish because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7). Passion But, for integrity to bring forth true conviction and not just mere opinion, there must be a genuine pathos. By using the term pathos, I mean that this must go beyond just the intellectual level to the emotions and the will. This kind of intense affection can be motivated positively or negatively. On the positive side we can be deeply moved by our love for others. We can develop a firm conviction based on a proven relationship that we have with someone. This is also true of the way we can have trust in the honesty of an individual. For instance, we have infinite evidence of the truthfulness of God and so we ought to have a conviction whereby we trust in the Lord and His promises regardless of our situation or circumstances (Hebrews 6:13-20). However, conviction can also be the product of deep brokenness. When we look around at the sin and godlessness of the world and even our own culture we ought to be moved to plead with God for mercy. Do we not believe that God will judge us? We ought to be broken over the rampant abuse, wickedness, pride, and evil that has become common in this evil generation. This kind of brokenness should result in us being more faithful in fellowship, more fervent in prayer, and more fearless in our evangelism. Unction As a preacher and teacher I am often asking God to grant me unction. This is the convergence of solid truth with power conviction. When we share the good news of Christ or the great truths of Scripture what should be evident to everyone is that we truly believe what we are saying. I have heard a story that a famous atheist was on his way to hear the great evangelist George Whitfield preach in the open air and someone asked him why he was going since he did not believe in Whitfield’s God. He responded that he was going to hear Whitfield because Whitfield believed in God! The point is simple: we must be utterly convinced of the truth and veracity of what God has revealed in the Bible if we are to be any earthly good to the heavenly goal! |
AuthorEddie Ragsdale Archives
May 2024
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