“Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now I have kept thy word.” Verse 67
“It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn from thy statutes.” Verse 71 “Afflict” is defined in my New Webster’s Dictionary, “to give continued pain to; cause distress and grief.” Therefore to live in affliction is to live in continual pain. This can be physical pain, emotional pain, spiritual pain, or all three of these at the same time. It appears that affliction is a bad thing, but in our two texts, the psalmist had good things to say about it. He seemed to be telling us that affliction is good for us – thus my title. The two verses written above, give us some information about this. First, I want to point ;out that we are not expected to go out of our way to be afflicted. I’m sure the psalmist would agree with that. In my bout with cancer in 2011-2012, I did not tell God that I wanted cancer so that I could learn from it. I met a lot of people in the infusion room where we got our chemo treatments, and I did not meet one person who was shouting for joy because he or she had cancer. I just want to make it clear that we do not learn from affliction because we want it, but because when we are afflicted, we do not have a choice. How we react to it is up to us. We can either react to it with faith or with complaints, but how we react to it will make a difference in our faith; therefore, it will make a difference in our lives. . Second, I want to point out that the psalmist was going astray, and then when he was afflicted, he ceased straying. Because of his affliction the psalmist kept God’s word. In other words, he went to the scriptures that he had and not only learned from them, but also kept them. Affliction of any kind will cause us to draw closer to God, or move us away from Him. We can either blame God for allowing our affliction, or we can go to Him for help in our affliction. We can whine and complain and ask why, or we can accept the reality of the affliction and turn to the Lord and to His word and learn from it. In my own affliction, I leaned on Christ and His word like I have never leaned on it before. This doesn’t mean that I ignored the Bible and prayer before my affliction, but that both meant more to me in my affliction, because His presence was evident in my life. Whatever your affliction at the present time, do not let it make you bitter, but let it make you better. (I know, I know. That is a cliché, but I couldn’t help it.) Run to your Bible and to your prayer closet and let God go through it with you. Third, I want to point out that the psalmist wrote in verse 67 that he learned from his affliction. What did he mean that he learned from his affliction? When we are going through afflictions of any kind, we will either learn from God or we will not learn from Him. We might as well use the moments of affliction to let God teach us instead of whining and complaining. Paul wrote about his affliction that he referred to as his “thorn in the flesh” in 2 Corinthians 12. He asked Jesus three times to rid him of that affliction but Jesus told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) What did Paul learn from this? He tells us in the remainder of the verse: “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Paul’s “thorn in the flesh,” whatever it was, taught him more about the power of Christ. Paul reminds us in verse 10 of another lesson he learned from his affliction: “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then I am strong.” I don’t know what afflictions you are encountering in your life now. Your affliction could be emotional, spiritual, physical, or all three, but whatever your affliction is, Jesus wants you to know that He is going through it with you, and, like the psalmist, you can glean more from God’s word, or you can learn some things about God and yourself. It is really your choice. If you have no afflictions, thank God, and get ready for afflictions to come when you least expect them. Bro. Joe
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The entrance of thy words giveth light: it giveth understanding to the simple.” “Take away the dross from silver, and it will go to the silversmith for jewelry. 5. Take away the wicked from the before the king, and his throne will be established in righteousness.” "Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous, but who is able to stand before envy?”
I’m sure that all of us have been guilty of envy for one reason or another. We intrinsically know that it is a sin because of the way it makes us feel when we surrender to it. We will all have to admit that envious moments are not among the highlights of our lives. Proverbs 27:4 records that envy is worse than cruelty or anger. Since we are prone to envy, we need to discover its sources to keep it from taking over our lives. Envy, like everything else, is born in our hearts; therefore we need to keep it out of our hearts.. Envy is born in a selfish heart. When we envy someone else, we are not thinking about them, but about ourselves. When we envy people we fail to rejoice with them in their successes. We selfishly wish that their success was ours. We need to guard our hearts against failing to rejoice with others. Envy is born in an unloving heart. Envy and Christian love cannot live comfortably together in our hearts. We do not envy people that we really love. For example, if one of our children, or grandchildren, does something we obviously do not envy them. However, if someone else’s child does something great we, unfortunately, might envy them. Why? We love our own children and grandchildren, but we might love our neighbor’s children and grandchildren enough not to envy them. If we will see envy as a lack of love, we will, or should, want to do something about it. Jesus said that people would know that we are Christians by the love that we have for each other. When envy enters the picture, people cannot see Christ in us. The next time envy rises up in your heart and mind ask yourself if you love the one that you envy. Envy is born in a prideful and strife-filled heart. I put envy and strife/troublemaking together because, according to the Bible, they belong together. Proverbs 13:10a: “Only by envy cometh contention….” 1Timothy 6:4-5: “He is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes by words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmising, perverse disputing of men of corrupt minds….” James 3:16: “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” The Bible definitely connects envy, pride and strife. We need to see that connection in our own hearts. A prideful heart is intrinsically given to envy. It cannot help but envy. We need to ask ourselves if we have prideful hearts. Look into your heart and root out every vestige of false pride Envy is born in a bitter heart. James 3:14: “But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie against the truth." Hebrews 12:15: “Looking diligently lest a man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up and trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.” We need to guard our hearts against roots of bitterness. Only sincere, honest prayer can keep bitterness from taking root in our hearts. Bitterness causes all kinds of defilement, and chief among them is envy. Frankly, we are slow to recognize bitterness in our own hearts. We cannot confess what we will not admit. We might feel justified in our bitterness. We might say: “If you knew that I person like I do, you would be bitter too.” Or we might say: “If you had to endure what I had to endure, you would be bitter too.” As long as we excuse bitterness, it will do its wicked work in our lives. Check your own heart for envy, and if you discover it confess, repent and go on with your life. Bro. Joe “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. 2. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Verse one portrays the Christian life as a foot race. Like the racer, we are to rid ourselves of anything that will hinder us from running as effectively as possible. Verse two tells us Who the goal is. A race has a finish line, a goal for the runner to reach. As we endeavor to lead a Christian life, serving Jesus, we are to keep our eyes on Jesus, for He is our goal. Why? The first reason is that Jesus is the “author…of our faith.” The fact is that without Jesus there would not be a race. He is the “lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” It was intrinsically woven into the fabric of the biblical narrative, and of the world, that Jesus would be the “author” of our faith. If we are to run the race of the Christian life effectively, we must keep our eyes of Jesus, knowing that He is with us every step of the way. Jesus will be there for us at the end of the race; then we will be with Him throughout the ages. The second reason is that Jesus is the “finisher of our faith.” At the moment just before His death, Jesus said, “It is finished.” (John 19:30) “The lamb slain from the foundation of the world” had accomplished what was in the heart of God from the beginning, i.e., that people would be saved by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. What had been prophesied throughout Old Testament prophecy and typology, came to fruition in Christ. Our goal is the One who made salvation possible. When we lose sight of Jesus, we stumble and the race becomes meaningless to us. We become tired and irritable, doing “church work” for its own sake and not for Jesus’ sake. We are not effective in our service for Jesus when the ultimate reason for the race is blurred. The third reason is that Jesus is “at the right hand of the throne of God.” When Jesus “endured the cross,” He became the finisher of our faith. Crucifixion was the most painful form of capital punishment ever devised by man. In order to be our goal, Jesus had to endure the pain and anguish of the cross. We should never forget the price that was paid to get us into the race in the first place. Paul was right when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:20: “For ye are bought with a price…” Jesus also “despised the shame of the cross, because He knew that the outcome would be our salvation. He was willing to make Himself a public spectacle, and to endure the taunts of the hostile crowd, in order to do for us what needed to be done for our salvation. For this reason, we should never be ashamed of belonging to Jesus and serving Him. The drama ended in glory, however, for Jesus arose from the grave and ascended to “the right hand of the throne of God.” Our goal is not on this earth but in heaven. Our ultimate goal is to believe in Jesus and be saved, then to serve and please Him here and to finally be with Him in heaven. Whatever our spiritual gifts for Christian service are, our goal for using them is Jesus. What or who is your goal? Why do you continue to “run”? Why do you continue to serve? If the reason is not Jesus, you need to change your goal and look to Him. No one other than Jesus could be the “author and finisher of our faith.” No other goal could be “at the right hand of the throne of God.” No other goal is worthy of our effort. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Bro. Joe “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. 16. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.”
At some point in life one has to grow up. The same is true of Christians, because at some point we have to grow up in the faith. Paul wrote this about growing up in 1 Corinthians 13:11: “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man (adult), I put away childish things.” He wrote this in the great “love chapter” of the Bible. He grew up when loving God and others became one of his priorities in life. I don’t think that we can claim growth until we learn the importance of love in our lives. We are given no choice in the New Testament but to love people. This does not mean that we will love the way all people behave, nor, for that matter does it mean that we will always love the way we behave. Though it is scoffed at today, I think that “love the sinner and hate the sin” is a good philosophy to adopt in a grown up Christian’s life. This does not mean that we can demean and belittle people, but it does mean that we that we will lovingly disagree with people about various things. We Christians even lovingly, and sometimes not so lovingly, disagree among ourselves, but that doesn't mean that we do not love each other. When we grow up as Christians we become settled in our Christian beliefs and are not easily fooled by what Paul described in another place as “wolves.” There are always people who try to push off almost anything as Christian belief. When we mature in Christ, we realize that anything that detracts from the centrality of Christ in our lives, or against biblical morality, will be detrimental to our faith. We should grow up to the point that we can be no more, “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine.” At some point, we just need to wise up. Here comes that word “love” again. Paul doesn’t leave room for us to be insulting and self-righteous with people, because he points out that we should “speak the truth in love.” This means that when we grow up in Christ we become more Christ like in our approach to people. Christ did not hesitate to speak negatively to people who really deserved it. The Pharisees come to mind. But Christ’s negative input was due to the love that He had for the Pharisees. He loved them enough to try to get them to see the error of their ways. “Speaking the truth in love,” is not always positive, but it is always grounded in serious loving concern for the people to whom we speak. Of course you know that prayer and Bible reading have a part in Christian growth. There is no way that one can grow up in Christ without prayer and Bible reading. These are two disciplines practiced by every great Christian who has lived over the last two-thousand years. They disagreed about a lot of things, but they certainly agreed on this. Another thing about our Christian growth that is an outgrowth of our prayer, Bible reading and love, is accepting all of the circumstances of life in a Christian spirit. I have heard it said that “time and circumstance happen to all people.” This is true, and we have to learn to “roll with the punches.” This is what Paul meant when he wrote that he had learned to be content in all things – whether good or bad. Like growing into adults in life, it is the same in our Christian lives. We have a lot of stops and starts, ups and downs, and we have to cope with them in faith. It is my prayer that you and I have learned it well. Bro. Joe “Who can say I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?” KJV and NKJV
“Who can say I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin?” NIV Solomon was a genius in a lot of ways, and using words to make a point was one of those ways. A lot of the pithy proverbs that he wrote can be expanded to write a book if one really puts his or her mind to it. For example, there is a lot of theological, sociological and personal wisdom in Proverbs 20:9. Solomon points out some things in this proverb that are covered in the Old and New Testaments. This proverb is about personal pride, self-righteousness and faulty thinking. Throughout the Bible we are warned about the "I" problem. Paul alluded to this problem in Romans 12:3: “For I say through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.” If we are not careful, we will be our own worst enemy in this matter. The “I” problem is borne of pride and pride is dealt with harshly in the Bible. In fact, Solomon mentioned pride a lot in Proverbs. In Proverbs 16:18-19, he wrote: “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. 19. Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.” There are other verses I could cite from Proverbs, but the one I cited covers the issue. Ironically, one of the greatest evidences of the proof of the destruction of personal pride is Solomon himself. We need to see our own egotistical needs and live humbly before the Lord. Give yourself an “I” checkup, and see if you have the “I” problem. Notice the problem of self-righteousness that Solomon alludes to in the text: “Who can say I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin.” That sounds an awful lot like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable in Luke 18. We see the Pharisee’s self-righteousness in verse 11: “I thank thee that I am not as other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.” That is, indeed, evidence of an “I” problem. When people see themselves as righteous, they are lying to themselves. What they usually mean is that they are doing better than other people. The Pharisee measured himself against the publican, because he knew the reputation of publicans, that they were selfish and sinful people. In the parable, the publican looks more righteous than the Pharisee. We should never forget what Paul wrote in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Paul wrote in verses 9-10 of Romans 3: “What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin, 10. As it is written (Psalm 14:1), There is none good, no not one.” (I added the parentheses.) We need to live righteously, but that does not mean that we can claim self-righteousness. Notice the faulty thinking that Solomon refers to in this verse: “I have made my heart clean.” The faulty thinking is in the words, “I have made my heart clean.” No human being can make himself or herself clean. When we are cleansed from sin, it is because we have repented, confessed and been forgiven. At that point we are cleansed by the blood of Christ. ( see 1 John 1:7-9) The Christian life is not a “self-help” project. We cannot save ourselves and we cannot live the righteous life on our own virtue alone. It is Christ who died for our sins. It is Christ who forgives us for our sins. It is Christ who has given us His righteousness. It is Christ who cleanses our hearts. We did not save ourselves, and we cannot cleanse ourselves from sin. “Turning over a new leaf” only gets us to the other side of the leaf. Give Christ the glory for any victories that you have over sin. If you have an “I” problem, go to the Lord now and confess and be cleansed. Bro. Joe "But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Jesus. 4. For if he that comes preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which you have not received, or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him.”
A “primary source” is a source in research that goes back to the date of the incident, or the closest date, that is being written about. I was a history major in college and I used to love to go back to magazine articles that were about the subject that I happened to be researching. Primary resources are generally considered the most viable. Well, there is a primary resource for Jesus, and that is the New Testament. It is the only primary source. I think that it was by God’s design that nothing authoritative outside of the New Testament was written about Jesus. That’s why these movies and books about Jesus being married to Mary Magdalene, and other outlandish things, are ridiculous. Where did they get their information? Some of it came from apocryphal writings that are patently false.* What we know about Jesus is revealed in the four gospels and in other New Testament documents, e.g., Paul’s letters. You can see from our text, that preaching of “another Jesus” was a problem in the early church. It was something that the apostles had to combat all of the time. Satan knows that if he can distort who Christ is and make Him into something other than how He is portrayed to be in the New Testament, he can hinder the gospel message. The New Testament portrays Christ as the long-awaited Messiah, who came to earth, born of a virgin, and lived a perfect life. He died on the cross in order that people might be saved. He arose on the third day, ministered to His disciples for forty days and ascended to the Father. One day He will return to claim His people. That is who and what Christ is – the Savior of the world. There is no such thing as a “cosmic Christ” that I read about some time ago. This “cosmic Christ” is really whatever anyone wants him to be. If one wants him to be a roving revolutionary that is what he will become. If one wants him to be a libertine who says that anything and everything goes, that is what he will be. This is the “New Age” take on who and what Christ is. These philosophies usually take all of the power out of the hands of Jesus, and put it into the hands of humanity. (That’s a scary thought, given the history of humanity.) This “New Age” Christ smiles on everything. He would certainly never have cleansed the temple, because he would not have wanted to offend those who bought and sold there. He would certainly never have condemned the self-righteous Pharisees, lest he offend them. He would not have claimed to be “the way, the truth and the life.” He would not have claimed to be the only way to the Father, because he wouldn’t have wanted to offend the sensibilities of other religions. This “cosmic Christ” would be good friends with Buddha, Allah and all of the other assorted gods out there. In fact, he would just be “one of the guys,” lumped in with whatever people wanted to worship. Needless to say, this is not the New Testament view of Christ. We need to be aware that this “other Christ” which Paul had to deal with is still being preached today, and people are still buying it. They are buying it because it gives them a savior with no claim on their lives. A savior who would make no demands, have no will and who would have no moral compass. We need to choose the Christ who claimed the authority of Yahweh, and was able to say: “Come unto me all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” This is the Christ who is “the way, the truth and the life.” This is the Christ who has “gone to prepare a place for us.” Claim Him! Embrace Him! Believe Him! Bro. Joe *I refer you to The Real Jesus, written by Lee Strobel “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”
The first thing that I need to do is to define ritual so that there will be no doubt what I mean: “a manner of performing a divine service.” Ritualism is defined as: “adherence to and fondness for decorous ceremonial customs in public worship.” (New Webster's Dictionary) Hosea was writing to the northern kingdom of Israel about God’s judgment on them for the way they were living. The problem was that they were going through all of the rituals of animal sacrifices that God had prescribed through Moses, but that was not enough. The sacrifices were intended to remind the people of who and what God was/is and how they should live. In other words, Israel was going through the motions of religion, but their hearts and lives were not in it. What the people of Israel did not understand was that God did not just want their empty ceremonies as much as He wanted their hearts. He wanted them. It is the same with us. It is important for us to worship together in church, sing, pray, give and preach. But the act of doing those things in public worship does not mean much if the life that we bring to the worship experience is devoid of dedication to God. God wants us to let our rituals make a difference in the way we live our lives. Let me give a personal example. I have been in church most of my life, and I have sung the old hymns over and over again over the years. In fact, I know a good many, if not most, of the familiar hymns by heart. I sing them in the shower and to myself at night before I go to sleep. (I know verses 1, 2, and 4 of the four verse hymns, because we usually do not sing the third verse.) I guess that is commendable, but I am aware that when I stand before God to receive my rewards, He is not going to say, “Joe how many hymns do you know by heart?” He is also not going to condemn me because I don’t know third verses. What the Bible tells me is that I will be judged and rewarded by my genuine acts of service to the Lord. That will include my treatment of people. It is not enough to just “go to church.” Going to church is a good thing, but it is a means to an end. To just go to church and not let it have some effect on our lives, is like the Israelites taking their sacrifices to the altar without it touching their lives or making a difference in how they lived. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 10:25 to not forsake “the assembling of ourselves together.” Therefore it is important to attend public worship, but our mere bodily presence is not enough. I compare going to church to fueling my car. I do not take my car to the service station (usually convenience store) to buy gas just for the sake of buying gas. The church is our service station where we go to get fueled up to live each day for the Lord, just as I take my car to buy gas so that it will take me where I need to go. You can’t get what God has for you at your church if you do not go, but if you do not take away from the service a renewed faith in Christ, and a greater desire to serve the Lord, you have missed the point. It is not enough to just read the Bible. Reading the Bible can be an empty ritual if reading it does not help us to live better lives. One of my daily rituals is to read eight chapters from the Bible each day. But when I stand before the Lord, He is not going to commend me for arbitrarily reading eight chapters each day. He is going to be more interested in what reading the Bible did for my life. We can feverishly read our Bibles each day to keep up our quota of reading, but we need to let the words penetrate into the deep recesses of our hearts. We will not be commended for just reading the Bible, but we will be commended for the difference that reading it makes in our lives. Don’t misunderstand me, ritually reading the Bible is not a bad thing, for if we do not read it, we cannot know what’s in it. But the reading of it should make a difference in our lives. As you live your life today, remember that God “desires mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” Bro. Joe “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation.”
The context of this verse is that the Corinthian’s were not to let the grace of God slip by them. God acts in our lives in grace and He gives us opportunities in His grace to serve Him, to have better our lives, and to live more effective Christian lives. What we need to do with this verse is that we do not need put off doing what God has plainly given us to do. Now is the time to do whatever it is that God knows needs to be done in our lives. Paul wrote that “now is the day of salvation.” There are many people who have no interest in the salvation that God offers through Christ. They are busy with their mundane lives and do not want to take the time to surrender to God. They might say, “I’m too busy to worry about that.” On the other hand, there are many people who believe that they need to be saved, but they continue to put it off until another time. Both of these people need to heed the admonition in this verse, “now is the day of salvation.” yesterday is gone and there is no guarantee of tomorrow. What remains is now. I hope that you do not belong to either of these groups and that you have settled the matter with the Lord, but if you have not, now is the time. Confess your sins to God and ask Jesus to come into your life. Beyond being saved, “now” is always a pertinent word for us to heed. We need to realize that now is the time for us to do God’s will. Perhaps there have been people that God wants you to witness or minister to. You know that this is what God wants you to do, but you just keep putting it off. At this point, this verse whispers to you, “Now is the accepted time.” Perhaps there is something that God wants you to do at your church, but you keep putting if off until it is more convenient. No matter what the task is that you know God is calling you to, no matter how large or small, it needs to be done or God would not have put it in your mind and heart. There might be a sick, or lonely, person that God wants you to visit and share a little time with. That person desperately needs your time, or God would not have put them on your mind. Now is the time to do God’s will for you, whatever it is. There might be a particular job in your church that needs filling, and God is leading you to fill it. I remember a young lady came to me several years ago during the invitation and told me that she had intended to give up her Sunday School class. During the sermon, she heard something that reminded her that now was not the time to give up her class, that she was needed in that class. There are many things that go undone in churches because people are hesitating to do what needs to be done. Classes are going untaught, various tasks are waiting to be fulfilled, only because people will not heed the biblical admonition that, “now is the accepted time.” The reminder that “now is the accepted time,” is not just for church. It is for all of life. There are many things that God wants His people to do in their communities that only they can do. God’s people must not hide behind stained glass windows and ignore the needs of their communities. Christian people need to be involved in all of life. We need to develop a sense of urgency to take our Christian witness into our communities. Bad things happen because good people will not become involved. I don’t know what it might be that we can do specifically to be better witnesses to our communities, but God knows and we need to heed that still small voice that tells us what needs to be done. Christian people need to give positive input into the daily lives of their communities, not just to complain about bad things, but to point out good things. Now is the time for us to do whatever it is that God is leading us to do. If it wasn’t important, God would not be leading us to do it. Bro. Joe |
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