Warning So much of the wisdom literature in the Scripture, particularly in Proverbs, is concerned with warning the people of God to steer clear of foolish and sinful snares. Essentially, wisdom is knowing how to rightly apply knowledge and information to make the best decision possible. The warnings in Scripture are not meant to make believers timid people who will not ever take a risk, but rather courageous people who do the righteous thing regardless of the risk. The warnings in Scripture are to protect the person from the seductive lie that sin presents. Sin almost always presents itself as something we should desire. But that desire can turn into the foolish person’s undoing. The progression can even lead to the grave (James 1:14-15). Jesus also warned those who were spiritually blind and arrogant of the danger not only for this life but the next. The Lord particularly pointed out the danger of leading others into the same kind of error (Matthew 23). Warnings in Scripture are serious pleas for those who are in great danger of both temporal and eternal destruction. Wisdom A part of the problem is that it takes a level of humility and wisdom, not only to be able to give wise counsel, but also to accept it. It is truly a sad reality that many people do not have the advantage, and dare I say privilege, of people that will wisely, honestly, and lovingly give them good counsel. In many cases, it is because of a lack of truly wise people. In some cases, there are wise people who unfortunately do not have the courage or the love to confront the person with the advice they need. However, even more common is the person who does have access to this sage advice, but does not have the wisdom and humility to receive it. Oh, please do not misunderstand me, I am not saying that these individuals are not experienced or intelligent. It may actually be the case that their worldly experience and high intelligence is the barrier keeping them from taking such good instruction. The reason for this is because this advice usually comes from someone that these people would consider rather simple, unsophisticated, and not really aware of current trends. My point is that this kind of wise advice usually comes from grandma or grandpa and many fools can’t see the timelessness of the truths they are telling. The irony is that these foolish people are blinded by their sight. They can see so well the enticing glimmer of the trap. And they can hear so well the alluring serenade of the siren that they just can’t believe that there is a deadly catch in the deal. They have already grabbed hold of the promises before they even considered reading the fine print. Watchfulness Caution does not mean always taking the safe path or the better straighter road. But it does mean counting the cost and assessing the risk and rewards of the decisions we make in our lives. This does not only mean considering the wrong things, but also the good opportunities that come our way. The Lord Jesus taught that even in response to His preaching, people should count the cost of whether or not they should be His disciples. Just think about that! Often we say everyone should worship Christ because He is worthy of everyone’s worship, and this is true. We say everyone should trust in Christ because no one should want to go to a place of torment and suffering called hell, and that is true. We say everyone should look to Christ and receive the love, joy, and peace that we can have in Christ, and that is true. But Jesus said that everyone should consider the cost of following Him (Luke 14:25-33)! Much of modern day evangelism is built on a kind of salesmanship that focuses simply on getting the person to make a hasty and emotional decision. But Jesus doesn’t receive disciples that way! Jesus makes disciples who have come to the end of themselves and are His from the inside out. This only happens when we turn from our sin and surrender ourselves to Christ fully and completely. What has it cost you to follow Christ?
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Born Again The Lord Jesus told the Pharisee Nicodemus that he must be born again (John 3:1-16). It is important that we understand Nicodemus is a moral man seeking to obey the laws of both Moses and tradition. Nicodemus is also a theologian and teacher. Jesus even points this out referring to Nicodemus as the “teacher of Israel”. But Jesus still tells him that he must be born again. Jesus' point is really that being born again is the only way to see or enter the Kingdom of God. Since this is the case not only for Nicodemus but also for us, the most important question is have you been born again? If your answer is yes, then how do you know that you have been born again? Many people relate this with some experience or feeling but we have all had experiences in our lives that later proved false and we have all had feelings that were not valid. So is there something more objective that we can use to validate our subjective experience and give us confidence in our spiritual life? New Hearts In Ezekiel 36:25-28, the Prophet proclaims the coming new covenant that God will make with His people. God promises that in this new covenant He will cleanse away all uncleanness and idolatry and give the covenant people new hearts. God is going to perform spiritual heart transplants on those who are brought into this new relationship with God. This is the same thing as the new birth that Jesus is telling Nicodemus about in John 3. So if Ezekiel tells us about the fruit of these new hearts then we should be able to conclude that we have been truly born again from the consequences of the new heart being evident in our lives. The Holy Spirit The text in Ezekiel tells us that with the coming of the new heart we also receive the presence of the Holy Spirit in us. In the New Covenant, we have the Holy Spirit living us as believers. The new living heart is a hospitable home for the Holy Spirit. We are no longer spiritually dead people but we are made alive by the Holy Spirit who lives in us. If you have the Holy Spirit living in you then you have been born again. Holiness The second thing that the scripture tells us about the effect of having a new heart is that the presence of the Spirit will cause us to walk in God’s statutes and keep His rules. This means that those who have been truly born again are also people who are growing in obedience and holiness. While born again people do not live in sinless perfection, we must sin less. Those who continue in willful rebellion against God’s commands and character are not born again. A New Relationship God’s promise in this new covenant is that those who are born again are now His people and He is our God! Just imagine how amazing this is! God is bringing us back into the right relationship with Him through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and the victory of Christ from the grave. In this we are now able to enjoy a fully restored relationship with our thrice holy God and even be called His people. Not only do we have a new relationship with Him but He has a new relationship with us as our gracious Lord! But how are we born again and receive this new heart? In short, this is a miraculous gift from God that He gives to us of His own will. But we receive it by faith. In the famous verse from Jesus' discussion with Nicodemus we are told that the hearts belong to whosoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ! Politics So often, in the church, we say that we do not want to get involved in politics. However, it really is not possible to be truly severed from politics while holding any genuine convictions. What is really meant by “not getting politica”l is that we don’t want to get into partisan division. In truth, I don’t trust either party or very many politicians, regardless of their party affiliation. With that said, the real issue is do we as God’s new covenant people have anything to say to the political entity of our local, state, and national governments? The answer is yes! We should bring the truth and ethical stipulations taught to us in the word of God and call out to the government to enact laws that are in keeping with the moral equity of the word of God. I believe that we can call on the government to enact moral laws in keeping with the Scripture without the government establishing any preference or prejudice toward any religious entity. Governance I can hear ‘theonomists’ now saying that they were right with me up to the point when they would see it as a claim to moral or religious neutrality. But I am not granting neutrality. We as Christian citizens certainly are not neutral in arguing for moral and just laws and our Christian legislators and political executives are not to act in a neutral manner either. They should call for and vote for moral and just laws and state that they do so because Christ is King and Lord! But the state itself is not an entity with a soul and as such the state cannot become a disciple of Jesus, cannot be baptized, and cannot be taught to observe everything that Christ commanded; only individuals who are a part of the new covenant through regeneration can do that.(Matthew 28:18-20) This means that to see the kind of just and moral legislation that we all long for in our land we must be proclaiming the gospel and seeking the salvation of our families, friends, acquaintances, and even strangers. Only if God is so pleased to grant that many more individuals would become born again disciples would we see the government coming under the general influence of a true Christian majority. Our goal is not for the state to become Christian, but for the people of our country to become Christians who are baptized and taught to obey everything commanded by Jesus and enjoy His promise even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20). The Gospel This means that the hope for our nation is not a quasi-christian political movement or moral majority coalition of co belligerents but rather our hope is the proclamation of the gospel by individual believers who are under the Lordship of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3:15), the raising of godly families under the Lordship of Christ (Ephesians 5:22-33), the building and strengthening of local churches under the head of the church the Lord Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:15-20), all influencing the governing authorities who regardless of their affirmation or submission are under the sovereign reign of the Lord Jesus Christ! Fellowship In the last installment of this blog, we discussed the importance of the home and family for the passing on of the faith generationally. Of course we want to see the gospel go far beyond already believing families, but we certainly desire to see those brought to the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4) following Christ faithfully for generations to come. But our immediate families are not the only group where we should find close relationships in the Lord. It is amazing how two people who have never met can connect almost instantly when they discover that they are both true believers in Christ. I am sure sociologists could offer many theories relating our mutually held beliefs and common lifestyles to explain this phenomenon. However, I think it is the fact that both people are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and even if parts of their lifestyles and cultures may be different, the unity is found in their shared love for Christ, trust in His word, and experience of saving grace. In the Scripture, we are told that at the very beginning the church was focused and devoted to fellowship. I know we love to emphasize doctrine and we should! But in the book of Acts (2:42) it seems that doctrine, breaking of bread (Lord’s Supper), prayer and fellowship are equal in importance and devotion by the church. The reality is that no church can be strong and healthy without devotion to the truth of God revealed in the Scripture and taught authoritatively in the church, but neither can a church be a healthy, organic, spiritual body without genuine biblical fellowship. This is one of my favorite topics so I may end up repeating some things you have heard before, but we all need to hear it again I’m sure. Dr. Donald Whitney has a very helpful definition of Christian or Biblical fellowship in his book on Spiritual Disciplines. He says that biblical fellowship is more than Christians socializing because it involves talking about God and the things of God. The church is where like minded and life hearted believers enjoy true fellowship which is a blessing to the believers and glorifying to God. Meeting Together The church can be defined in terms of the universal or invisible church which consists of all believers of all time. But in terms of our experience and the usual way that the New Testament is speaking about church the emphasis is on the local church. Believers ought to think first about the brothers and sisters with whom they meet weekly when we think about the church. The church is these people whom I love and who love me. The church is these people who we pray with, and sing with, and study with, and share with, and eat with, week in and week out. When the Apostle Paul is dealing with the problems in the Corinthian church surrounding their observance of the Lord’s Supper (remember their sin concerning the Lord's Supper had even the punishment of death), in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 Paul keeps pointing to when you “come together.” The sin of the Corinthians was not a blasphemous dismissal of the bread and wine but a breakdown of fellowship and sharing in the body of the church. We also see that in the letter to the Hebrews we are instructed to keep meeting together and even more as we see the day approaching (Hebrews 10:24-25). Regardless of how we interpret the day that we see approaching, this text is certainly an encouragement for Christians to meet together more not less. And when we meet together I see no good reason from the Scripture why we would not devote ourselves to the Apostle’s doctrine, the Lord’s Supper, fervent prayer and deep biblical fellowship (Acts 2:42). The Temple of God Again, the issue in understanding the church involves a right view of the shift from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. The Old Covenant was marked by physical forms, functions, and facilities that pointed forward to greater spiritual realities contained in the promises given by Christ. This means that while God met with His people in specific places in the Old Testament such as the Tabernacle and later the Temple in Jerusalem, now we are the temple of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 6:14-18) and the spiritual house in which the Lord dwells on earth (1 Peter 2:4-10). Since this is the case, then we all need to regularly and weekly (at least every Lord’s day) gather with our local church for the unique fellowship of the saints and the unique presence of our Lord! |
AuthorEddie Ragsdale Archives
May 2024
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