Walking in Light

 

AUGUST 31 Walking in Light

If we walk in the light, as he is in the light . . . 1 John 1:7

“As he is in the light”! Can we ever attain to this? Will we ever be able to walk as clearly in the light as He is whom we call “Our Father,” of whom it is written, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (verse 5)? Certainly this is the model that is set before us, for the Savior Himself said, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”;1 and although we may feel that we can never rival the perfection of God, yet we are to seek after it and not be satisfied until we attain to it. The youthful artist as he grasps his newly sharpened pencil can hardly hope to equal Raphael or Michelangelo; but still, if he did not have a noble ideal before his mind, he would only attain to something very mean and ordinary. But what is meant by the expression that the Christian is to walk in light as God is in the light? We conceive it to convey likeness but not degree. We are as truly in the light, we are as heartily in the light, we are as sincerely in the light, as honestly in the light, although we cannot be there in the same measure. I cannot dwell in the sun—it is too bright a place for my residence, but I can walk in the light of the sun; and so, though I cannot attain to that perfection of purity and truth that belongs to the Lord of hosts by nature as the infinitely good, yet I can set the Lord always before me and strive, by the help of the indwelling Spirit, to conform to His image. The famous old commentator John Trapp says, “We may be in the light as God is in the light for quality, but not for equality.” We are to have the same light and are as truly to have it and walk in it as God does, though as for equality with God in His holiness and purity, that must be left until we cross the Jordan and enter into the perfection of the Most High. Notice how the blessings of sacred fellowship and perfect cleansing are bound up with walking in the light.

Matthew 5:48

Spiritual Doctor

 

AUGUST 30 Spiritual Doctor

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed. Jeremiah 17:14

I have seen his ways, but I will heal him. Isaiah 57:18

It is the sole prerogative of God to remove spiritual disease. Natural disease may be instrumentally healed by men, but even then the honor is to be given to God who grants wisdom to doctors and bestows power to enable the human frame to cast off disease. As for spiritual sicknesses, these remain with the Great Physician alone; He claims it as His prerogative: “I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal”;1 and one of the Lord’s choice titles is Jehovah-Rophi, “the Lord who heals you.” “I will heal your wounds” is a promise that could not come from the lips of man but only from the mouth of the eternal God. On this account the psalmist cried unto the Lord, “Heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled,”2 and again, “Heal me, for I have sinned against you!”3 For this also the godly praise the name of the Lord, saying, “[He] heals all your diseases.”4 He who made man can restore man; He who was at first the creator of our nature can re-create it. What a transcendent comfort it is that in the person of Jesus “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”5 My soul, whatever your disease may be, this Great Physician can heal you. If He is God, there can be no limit to His power. Come then with the blind eye of darkened understanding; come with the limping foot of wasted energy; come with the disabled hand of weak faith, the fever of an angry temper, or the fit of shivering despondency; come just as you are, for He who is God can certainly restore you. No one can restrain the healing power that proceeds from Jesus our Lord. Legions of devils have attempted to overcome the power of the beloved Physician, and never once has He been hindered. All His patients have been cured in the past and shall be in the future, and you may be counted among them, my friend, if you will but rest yourself in Him tonight.

Deuteronomy 32:39 Psalm 6:2 Psalm 41:4 Psalm 103:3 Colossians 2:9

5 Marks of a Hard Heart

 Keep Believing Ministries

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Ray Pritchard
Keep Believing Ministries
Shawnee, Kansas
  5 Marks of a Hard Heart
Exodus 7-12
 So how is your heart today?
Did you know there is such a thing as spiritual heart disease?
 
That disease is real and dangerous and can afflict us at any time. That’s what I want to talk to you about in this message. The Bible says a great deal about the heart and its spiritual condition. For instance, the Bible says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7 KJV).
 
Whatever is in your heart must come out eventually.
 
What you are on the inside won’t stay there forever. Sooner or later, the thoughts of your heart will be on your lips. That’s why the Bible exhorts us to “guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life” (Proverbs 4:23).
 
Stephen Covey said it this way:
 
“Sow a thought, reap an action;
sow an act, reap a habit;
sow a habit, reap a character;
sow a character, reap a destiny.”
 
That’s not just good advice. It’s the bottom-line truth about your heart. So that brings me back to my original question: “How is your heart today?” Hebrews 3:7-8 offers a warning we must heed:
 
“Today when you hear his voice,
Don’t harden your hearts.”
 
Ponder these two statements:
 

1. Any Christian may develop a hard heart.
2. That happens gradually, over time.

 
You can start out with Christ and have a heart filled with love toward the Lord. But the trials of life and the temptations of the world may steal your joy and make you hardened toward the Lord. When that happens, you lose your zeal for Christ. Apathy leads to disinterest, and disinterest leads to hardness. You become stagnant spiritually, but it happens so slowly that you hardly notice it.
 
When we read Exodus, we soon meet the Pharaoh of Egypt. Twenty times the Bible tells us he had a hard heart. His story offers an unforgettable portrait of the high cost of untreated spiritual heart disease.
 
Using Pharaoh as our example, here are five marks of a hard heart.
Reader, these words are for you!
 

#1: You Reject God’s Authority.

 
Pharaoh didn’t know God, and he didn’t want to know him.
 
A hardened heart always starts right here. When you reject God, things never get better. They can only get worse. Pay attention to Pharaoh’s arrogant answer to Moses and Aaron:
 
"Who is the Lord, that I should obey him
             and let Israel go?
I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go” (Exodus 5:2).
 
When Pharaoh said, “I don’t know the Lord,” he was right. He didn’t know God, but he was about to meet him!
            
The ultimate issue is the same for us as it was for Pharaoh: Who’s running the show? Pharaoh will soon find out the answer.
 
We can know the Lord in two ways:
 
As Deliverer, or
As Destroyer.
 
There is no third option.
 
Because Pharaoh did not know him as the Deliverer, he would soon know him as the Destroyer. The people of Egypt would pay a terrible price for the king’s insolence.
 
The Lord is your best friend, or he is your worst enemy.
Which is he to you?
 

#2 You Have No Concern for the Pain You Cause.

 
Do you know where the word “ruthless” comes from?
 
The word “ruth” originally meant “compassion” or “pity,” especially toward the needy. To have “ruth” meant you grieved over the suffering of others. Therefore, to be “ruthless” means you go through life thinking only of yourself. You see the pain of others, and it doesn’t move you at all.

That’s Pharaoh.
His “ruthlessness” was especially heinous.
He caused the pain of others, and he felt no pain of his own.
 
We see this most clearly in the first plague when the Nile River was turned into blood. For a week the people of Egypt had no fresh water. The fish died, creating a stench that filled the land. “Blood was everywhere in Egypt” (Exodus 7:21). When the magicians somehow duplicated this miracle, Pharaoh decided to ignore what Moses and Aaron had said.
 
Exodus 7:23 reveals his callous response: “He turned and went into his palace and did not take even this to heart.” This means he didn’t care about the suffering of his people. As the king, he could drink wine if that’s what he wanted.
 
Here is an early mark of Pharaoh’s hard heart. He didn’t care what his people were going through. He cared only for himself. After all, the Egyptians considered Pharaoh to be a god. As such, he saw himself as far above people.
 
Choices have consequences. Pharaoh made his choice very early; as we will see, he never changed. Very soon his nation will be devastated because of his arrogant dismissal of the suffering around him.
 

#3 You Try to Make Deals to Avoid Punishment.

 
We all try to bargain with God when hard times come.
 
Like soldiers in the proverbial foxhole, we promise to shape up and change our ways. We’ll do better, work harder, pray more, read the Bible, and we promise to be kind to others.
 
So we try to make a deal with the Almighty.
It never works because God doesn’t make deals.

Four times Pharaoh offered a compromise to Moses:
 

1. He offered to let the Jews sacrifice in Egypt (Exodus 8:25).
2. He offered to let the Jews go a short distance into the desert (Exodus 8:28).
3. He offered to let only the men go (Exodus 10:11).
4. He offered to let all the people go, but they must leave their animals behind (Exodus 10:25-26).

 
But Moses was not in a deal-making mood. God intended to deliver his people from Egypt—all his people, along with their animals and tribute from the Egyptians.
 
There would be no compromise. That’s why Moses said regarding the cattle: “Not a hoof shall be left behind” (Exodus 10:26). When God’s people leave Egypt, their animals must go with them. Because everything belongs to the Lord, we must leave nothing behind on the devil’s playground.
 
When Joseph Exell preached on this part of the story, he pointed out the inevitable consequences of trying to make deals to avoid obeying God:
 
1. It provokes painful judgments.
2. It is useless to contend with God.
3. Final overthrow is its certain outcome.
 
#2 reminds us of the familiar saying, “Your arms are too short to box with God.” Pharaoh was no match for the Almighty. And those “painful judgments” were destined to continue until Pharaoh’s will was broken. That breaking of the will is the “certain outcome” of every disobedience to the Lord.
 
Joseph Exell then offers these two lessons that ring true today, more than a hundred years after they were written:
 
1. Man will consent to any terms rather than yield a complete submission to the will of God.
2. God will only be satisfied by an entire surrender to his will.
 
It always comes back to the same issue, doesn’t it? God doesn’t make deals because he wants “entire surrender” to his will. Pharaoh would gladly give, say, 20% submission to God as long as he stayed in control of his own destiny.
 
But God doesn’t play that game.

As it was for Pharaoh, so it is for us today. We must say, “Lord, let your will be done even if my will is not done. You are God, and I am not.”

That’s a scary prayer because it means giving up your “right” to be God of your corner of the universe. But there are no “lesser gods.” There is only God who rules and reigns over the universe. He has no rivals, and he has no equals.
 
When a hard man like Pharaoh tries to bargain with God, it never works out in his favor. That’s a lesson as true today as it was in ancient Egypt 3500 years ago.
 

#4: You Admit Your Sin But Don’t Repent.

 
Pharaoh came close to doing right.
 
Twice he said to Moses, “I have sinned.”
Four times he asked Moses to pray for him.
Once he asked for forgiveness.
Once he asked Moses to bless him.
 
This tells us something important about Pharaoh. As wicked as he was, he knew the difference between right and wrong. Most of the time, he was able to keep his conscience quiet. But as the plagues added up, Pharaoh realized these terrible judgments were not just national. They were personal.
 
On the night when God struck down all the firstborn sons in Egypt, Pharaoh and Moses had their final meeting. Desperate to see the plagues end, Pharaoh tells Moses to take his people and leave Egypt for good. They are to take their flocks and herds and head into the desert. Pharaoh doesn’t know where they are going, and he doesn’t care. Then he adds one final word: “And also bless me” (Exodus 12:32). Those are the last words he will ever speak to Moses. The long struggle between these two men ends with a surprise request: “Moses, I know you are a man of God. Please take time to say a blessing for me.” 
 
Here is the ultimate irony. Hard-hearted Pharaoh desperately wants Moses gone, and he wants Moses to bless him on the way out. Pharaoh finally figured out that Moses’ God reigned supreme over the gods of Egypt. Why else would a pagan like Pharaoh ask for a blessing?
 
And yet, for all that, he never repented.
 
Let us all learn a lesson from this.
Confession is good. Repentance is better.
 
Like Judas, we may cry over our sins and still end up in hell. Without repentance, our tears will lead us nowhere. I imagine some people will enter hell crying and praying, but it will do no good. Only God can give us the spirit of repentance. If we want a new heart, it begins when we agree with God about our sin. We must start here because without repentance we will all perish like Pharaoh.
 

#5: You Refuse Repeated Correction.

 
Here is the whole sad story.
 
Moses went before Pharaoh at least 12 times. The first two times Pharaoh rudely rebuffed him. The following ten times happened in connection with the ten plagues.
 
At any point along the way, Pharaoh could have repented. But what about God hardening his heart? Well, that part is certainly true. But it is equally true that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. I don’t know of any way that we can clearly separate what God did to Pharaoh versus what Pharaoh did to himself.
 
But the end of the story is clear.
Pharaoh has no one to blame but himself.

Proverbs 29:1 could have been written about him:
 
One who becomes stiff-necked, after many reprimands
will be shattered instantly— beyond recovery.
 
His story illustrates a vital principle of the spiritual life:
 
Light received leads to more light.
Light rejected leads only to the darkness.
 
In one of his crusade sermons, Billy Graham painted a vivid word picture of how the heart grows hard:

 
The same sun that shines on the clay hardens the clay, but it melts butter. And the same Gospel will soften some hearts until they will yield to Christ, but it will harden others. And it’s possible for you to harden your heart by delaying to receive Christ until it is so hard that, when God speaks, you no longer hear Him.
 

Sometimes God’s judgment takes a very simple form. Romans 1 paints a picture of what happens in any culture that has no use for the Lord.
 
God gives them up for judgment.
Every time that happens, things get worse, not better.
 
God warns and calls and pleads with people to turn to him. But if, after many entreaties and many opportunities, a nation says, “God, we don’t need you,” then the Almighty replies, “Have it your way.”

God steps out of the way and leaves that nation to its own devices. The result is always the same. God will not stand in our way if we want to drive off the cliff. His judgment is often to do nothing as we plunge to our own destruction.
 
That’s where America is today.
We have decided we don’t need God, and we don’t want him.
The Lord says, “Have it your way, but you won’t like the result.”
 

God’s Promise to the Hard-Hearted
 

Did you know you can have a new heart?
You don’t have to stay the way you are.
 
Here is God’s promise to you:
 
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26 CSB). One translation gives us the last part of that verse this way: “I will remove your stubborn hearts and give you obedient hearts” (NOG).
 
My friend, this promise is for you! If you are tired of your stubbornness, but you can’t seem to change, claim this verse. Stand on it. Believe it. Ask God to make it come true in your life.

The first step is to admit your true condition: “God, I confess my heart is cold toward you. My sins have separated me from you. I’m coming to you asking for a new heart and a new start.”
 
Jesus died so you could have a new beginning. His blood covers every sin, including the sin of a hard heart. Could Pharaoh have been saved? Could he have been forgiven? The answer is yes. But he chose to remain hard and bitter and rebellious toward the Lord.

No one can sit on the fence forever.
At some point, you’ve got to make your move.
 
If you don’t come to God, you must inevitably move away from him. And if you move away, you won’t like where you end up.
 
I received a letter from a prisoner in Florida who had read my book An Anchor for the Soul. Let me quote a few sentences:
 

Pastor Ray,
 
How are you doing? I’m writing because I have chosen the wrong road in life. I do believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I read my Bible, and I also take time out of my day to read the Daily Bread.
 
I was raised up in the church, but as I got older I thought I knew everything. I left my parent’s house at a young age. My mother is a strong believer in Jesus Christ. She writes me all the time with encouraging words. I regret my path I’ve taken but I done the crime, now I have to do the time.

The Lord has been on my side through the whole thing. I have given my life to Jesus Christ. Without him I don’t know where I would be. I’ve given my life to the one and only friend I have. Through it all I can say God has not let me down.

 
The most important part of that letter is this sentence: “I done the crime, now I have to do the time.” The grammar might be wrong, but his heart is in the right place. God will bless a man who doesn’t make excuses for his bad behavior.
 
Run to the cross!
Put your faith in Jesus.
Ask God for a divine heart transplant.
 
You don’t have to stay the way you are.
 
The Lord Jesus can take your hard heart and by his grace make it brand new.

Hope in Barrenness

 

AUGUST 28 Hope in Barrenness

Sing, O barren one. Isaiah 54:1

Although we may have brought forth some fruit and have a joyful hope that we are abiding in the vine, yet there are times when we feel very barren. Prayer is lifeless, love is cold, faith is weak, each grace in the garden of our heart languishes and droops. We are like flowers in the hot sun, desperately needing the refreshing shower. In such a condition what are we to do? The text is addressed to us in just such a state. “Sing, O barren one . . . break forth into singing and cry aloud.” But what can I sing about? I cannot talk about the present, and even the past looks full of barrenness. I can sing of Jesus Christ. I can talk of visits that the Redeemer has paid to me in the past; or if not of these, I can magnify the great love with which He loved His people when He came from the heights of heaven for their redemption. I will go to the cross again. Come, my soul, you were once heavy-laden, and you lost your burden there. Go to Calvary again. Perhaps that very cross that gave you life may give you fruitfulness. What is my barrenness? It is the platform for His fruit-creating power. What is my desolation? It is the dark setting for the sapphire of His everlasting love. I will go to Him in my poverty, I will go in my helplessness, I will go in all my shame and backsliding; I will tell Him that I am still His child, and finding confidence in His faithful heart, even I, the barren one, will sing and cry aloud. Sing, believer, for it will cheer your own heart and the hearts of others who are desolate. Sing on, for although you are presently ashamed of being barren, you will be fruitful soon; now that God makes you hate to be without fruit He will soon cover you with clusters. The experience of our barrenness is painful, but the Lord’s visits are delightful. A sense of our own poverty drives us to Christ, and that is where we need to be, for in Him our fruit is found. Because of Jesus, Ted

 

The Gospel in a Godless City

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August 25, 2022

The apostle Paul’s sermon in Athens in Acts 17:22–29 is a masterpiece in Gospel contextualization. It is rhetorically skillful, it is culturally sensitive, and it is biblically faithful. It springs from a place of deep grief for the lostness of its hearers, it leads them to Jesus Christ through a deep exposition of who God is and what He wants with the world, and it does so in language that yields both clarity and goodwill. It is the exemplar of great evangelistic preaching in a world for whom God is, as He was to Paul’s Athenian hearers, “unknown.”

The Western world of today is not so different from first-century Athens. We may not have idle philosophers roaming the marketplace in togas, but like the Athenians, many today don’t know the first thing about the God of the Bible. Our culture is superficially Christian in some ways, but even in circles where religion is revered, it is often far from having a biblical understanding of the world. If we would share the good news of Jesus Christ, we must be prepared to teach others about a God they don’t know and do so with the same precision, sensitivity, and faithfulness that Paul brought to the Athenians.

By turning to Paul’s preaching in Acts 17, we can find a kind of roadmap for how to preach the Gospel in our own age. And we have to begin not simply by parroting Paul’s words but by modeling his heart.

Grief and Faith in the Godless City

Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. (Acts 17:16–17)

In verse 16, we follow Paul as he arrives in Athens after a journey of some three hundred miles from Berea. Athens was not originally on his missionary program, but as he waited for Silas and Timothy (vv. 14–15) and moved around the city, Paul’s “spirit was provoked within him.” Luke writes this sentence using a word that, over the centuries, has evolved into the English word paroxysm. It describes a sudden and overwhelming emotional response at the core of Paul’s being. And why? Because the city “was full of idols.”

If we would share the good news of Jesus Christ, we must be prepared to teach others about a God they don’t know and do so with the same precision, sensitivity, and faithfulness that Paul brought to the Athenians.

Paul was distressed because he was committed to the testimony of Scripture that there is one God. He knew the first and second commandments. He knew the testimony of Isaiah: “All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit” (Isa. 44:9). As Paul toured the city, he didn’t snap a few pictures and say, “I’ll need to take these home and show them to my friends!” Instead, he was grieved to find the Athenians in such a state of spiritual confusion and that the glory of the God he loved was being dragged down.

Notice, though, that Paul did not go on a diatribe against the city. He didn’t gather a group together to make banners and chant, “We don’t like idols!” Nor did he suggest reforming the courts or infiltrating the political systems. Instead, we read that “he reasoned,” because he actually believed that the truth of the risen Jesus has “divine power to destroy strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:4)—fortresses of godlessness—in individual lives, in families, in communities, in cities, and in nations. Paul’s firm grasp of the truth of the Gospel made him grieve at the lies the Athenians believed, but it also gave him the foundation to respond in faith and not in anger. He knew that the God who called him on the Damascus Road, even though he was “the foremost” of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15), would call others as well.

Next, Acts 17:18–21 describes how some Stoic and Epicurean philosophers took an interest in Paul’s reasoning and brought him to their philosophical gathering on the rock outcropping known as the Areopagus, or Mars Hill. The remainder of the chapter describes Paul’s effort to convince them of the truth.

Proclaiming the “Unknown God” in the Godless City

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.” (Acts 17:22–23)

What a start! Paul began not by attacking the Athenian intelligentsia for their idol worship but by showing them that he had seen their city and considered their ways. He began not by condemning their ignorance of God but by honoring their commitment to religion. Though he was grieved by their idolatry and ignorance, he still honored the virtues the Athenians demonstrated amid their sin.

Paul “reasoned” with the Athenians because he actually believed that the truth of the risen Jesus has “divine power to destroy strongholds.”

In Acts 17:3, Luke has already shown us Paul’s “custom” of reasoning in the synagogues: “explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.’” For the devout Jews who knew the Scriptures and believed in the God of Israel, Paul thought it best to begin with the Scriptures’ promise of a Messiah and a need for atonement.

But with Greeks in Athens, Paul had to preach a God who was—however much or little they understood their own inscription—“unknown.” Before he could condemn idolatry, he had to tell his hearers about the God whom idolatry offends. Before he could condemn their ignorance, he had to help them see that this God is worth knowing. And before he could preach that the Messiah suffered and rose again, he had to preach about their need for a Savior.

In our own culture, with its deep misconceptions about the God of the Bible, we would do well to lay the same foundation that Paul did. He did so in five steps, beginning with the creation.

1) God Is the True God and Creator

“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man.” (Acts 17:24)

Paul began by summarizing a worldview very different from that expressed by his audience. The Epicureans believed in a universe of chance, and the Stoics were committed to a form of blind determinism. In the face of these philosophies, Paul essentially said, “The God I want to tell you about is not a God that can be localized, limited, encapsulated, or enshrined, because He made everything in the world.” It was crucial for the Athenians to understand that God was not like their idols, who were part of the world. No, the God Paul was proclaiming was the maker of the universe, and His creating has important implications for everyone and everything.

2) God Is the Providential Sustainer

“Nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” (Acts 17:25)

Because God is the maker of everything, Paul says, He does not depend on us, but we depend on Him. He not only created life but sustains it. Not only does He deserve credit for beginning our existence, but also, He continues to maintain it. He is not a clockwork God who steps back from a self-sustaining creation. All that exists, Paul says, continues to exist because God wills it so.

3) God Is the Sovereign of History and Peoples

“And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.” (Acts 17:26–27)

God continually sustains the world He created, and He is also in charge of it. He has directed the course of history and the very bounds of geography to testify to Himself. Perhaps Paul even told the Athenians something like what He later wrote to the church in Rome: “What can be known about God is plain” to humankind, “because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:19–20). God wants to be known, and He has made it possible to know Him.

4) God Is the Loving Father

“Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’” (Acts 17:27–28)

The truth is, Paul said, that the God who made us, sustains us, and overrules us is far more accessible than we realize. We are not swept up in a tide of randomness, as the Epicureans believed, nor are we cogs in a machine of fate, as the Stoics claimed. We are rather creatures made to know and love our Creator. This God is so close to us, in fact, that it is appropriate in some sense to call Him the Father of all men and women. This fatherhood of the Creator over His creation is different from the particular adoption of believers by grace that Paul writes of elsewhere, but it is nonetheless true that there is a “God who so loved the world…” (John 3:16, emphasis added). Yet as Paul would go on to point out, that love is not without obstacles.

5) God Is the Righteous Judge

“Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:29–31)

Finally, having laid the groundwork by testifying to the fact that God is the Creator, the Sustainer, the Sovereign, and the Father of humankind and all creation, Paul turned to what we often think of first when we hear the word Gospel. Here, for the first time, he let the hammer drop on the idolatry and ignorance that so grieved him. The Athenians might have been able to follow along with him so far, saying, “Well, it’s an interesting concept, a creator God”—but now Paul brought them to the point of decision: This God is the judge of all the earth, and He has issued a call to all people everywhere to repent and believe, or else face judgment. And the key to understanding and being transformed by the Gospel, Paul said, is understanding and believing in the Messiah, whom God raised from the dead.

Proclaiming the God We Know in Our Godless Cities

Two millennia later, our world’s greatest need is the same as that of the Athenians and their neighbors. The streets of our cities are filled with shrines to ourselves, to materialism, to sex, to entertainment, to politics, and to countless other “gods.” The idols of our day are not represented primarily in the Buddha whose tummy you can rub on the restaurant counter or in the mantras some chant while practicing their yoga routines but in the worship of self. The issue is that so many fool themselves into thinking they are their own gods. But God tolerates no rivals. Until someone is prepared to get off his feeble throne, bow before the living God, and see Jesus enthroned in His rightful position, then the effects of religion and the passing fancies of culture will leave him cold and empty. Christians, like Paul, should be grieved by this.

But also as with Paul, grief can and should spur on faithful thoughts, words, and actions. The apostle responded to the Athenian context by seeking to understand their circumstances and worldview and addressing them on those terms. His sermon on Mars Hill, then, is not a template for every Gospel conversation we have; it was crafted especially for his first-century hearers. But it certainly helps us imagine what it looks like to share the good news of Jesus in a world where God is unknown. We, too, need to understand what our friends and neighbors believe, and we, too, need to declare who this God is whom we worship before we can warn of His intent to judge sin and before we can proclaim His mercies in Jesus Christ.

Until someone is prepared to get off his feeble throne, bow before the living God, and see Jesus enthroned in His rightful position, then the effects of religion and the passing fancies of culture will leave him cold and empty.

In broad strokes, if we were to imagine a kind of twenty-first-century version of Paul’s message on the Aeropaus, it might look something like this:

Friends and neighbors, I can see that you care a lot about doing right and being a good person. It’s encouraging to see you so concerned about finding your purpose in this world! Maybe you believe that you are the one who gets to define that purpose—but can I ask you a question? If you’re honest, wouldn’t you say that that burden, that responsibility, sometimes feels impossibly hard to bear? Don’t you get the sense that there’s something more worthwhile than finding and pursuing your personal purpose?

In fact, the Bible tells us that the same God who created the universe in all its grandeur and beauty created your life. He is also sustaining you—whether or not you realize it—through all of the seemingly random circumstances of this world. What’s more, this creator God wants you to know Him so much that He has ordered the world and the course of history in such a way as to make it possible for you to know Him. You are His child because He made you, and He is actually not far from you. The only thing that keeps you away from Him is the disobedience and unbelief that is as much a part of our rebellious human nature, yours and mine, as breathing.

You need to know that this God who made you and sustains you is also the judge of right and wrong. One day, He will judge the world and everyone in it with perfect justice. If that sounds intimidating, that’s reasonable! But here’s the good part: two thousand years ago, God sent His Son, Jesus, born as man, to live a perfect life and to die a criminal’s death on a Roman cross, paying the penalty for sin—then He raised Jesus from the dead to give us the promise of eternal life in Him. And the amazing thing is that if you repent of your sin and believe that Jesus died and rose for you, He will forgive you, He will invite you into His family, and He will show you your true purpose, for all eternity.

Of course, no script will ever quite fit the bill. Paul knew, as we must know, how to speak in words his listeners would understand, addressing the great longings that they shared. For that, we don’t need a prescriptive playbook or step-by-step instructions. The main thing we need is simply the Holy Spirit within us, stirring us to see people as Paul, and Jesus, saw them—with compassion, as “sheep without a shepherd” (Matt. 9:36; Mark 6:34)—and to present God’s love accordingly.

God has given us the responsibility to share His Gospel with a world that doesn’t know Him. Once we have done so clearly, sensitively, and faithfully, we can trust, as Paul did, that the Shepherd’s call will not fail to draw after Him those who are His own (John 10:27). Will we fulfill our part and make God known?

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This article was adapted from the sermons “City of Idols — Part One” and “City of Idols — Part Two” by Alistair Begg.

Your Choice Treasure

 

AUGUST 27 Your Choice Treasure

Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God. Psalm 31:5

These words have been frequently used by the godly in their hour of departure. We may profitably consider them this evening. The object of the believer’s interest in life and death is not his body or his possessions but his spirit; this is his choice treasure: If this is safe, then all is well. What is our physical condition compared with the soul? The believer commits his soul to the hand of God; it came from Him, it is His own, He has until now sustained it, He is able to keep it, and it is fitting that He should receive it. All things are safe in Jehovah’s hands; what we entrust to the Lord will be secure, both now and in that day of days toward which we are hastening. It is peaceful living and glorious dying to rest in the care of heaven. At all times we should commit everything to Jesus’ faithful hand; then even if life should hang on a thread, and difficulties multiply like the sands of the sea, our soul shall live in safety and delight itself in quiet resting places. “You have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.” Redemption is a solid basis for confidence. David did not know Calvary as we do, but even as redemption cheered him, so our eternal redemption will sweetly console us. Past deliverances are strong guarantees for present assistance. What the Lord has done He will do again, for He does not change. He is faithful to His promises and gracious to His saints; He will not turn away from His people. Though Thou slay me I will trust, Praise Thou even from the dust, Prove, and tell it as I prove, Thine unutterable love. Thou may chasten and correct, But Thou never can neglect; Since the ransom price is paid, On Thy love my hope is stayed.

Greater Than Moses

 

AUGUST 26 Greater Than Moses

The crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. Mark 9:15

How great the difference between Moses and Jesus! When Moses had been forty days upon the mountain, he underwent a kind of transfiguration, so that his face shone with exceeding brightness, and he put a veil over it because the people were not able to look upon his glory. Not so our Savior. He had been transfigured with a greater glory than that of Moses, and yet we do not read that the people were blinded by the blaze of His countenance, but rather they were amazed and ran to Him and greeted Him. The glory of the law repels, but the greater glory of Jesus attracts. Though Jesus is holy and just, yet blended with His purity there is so much truth and grace that sinners run to Him amazed at His goodness, fascinated by His love; they greet Him, become His disciples, and take Him to be their Lord and Master. Reader, it may be that just now you are blinded by the dazzling brightness of the law of God. You feel its claims on your conscience, but you cannot keep it in your life. Not that you find fault with the law; on the contrary, it commands your profoundest esteem. Still you are not drawn by it to God; you are rather hardened in heart and tending toward desperation. So turn your eye from Moses with all his repelling splendor, and look to Jesus, resplendent with milder glories. Look upon His flowing wounds and thorn-crowned head! He is the Son of God and greater than Moses, but He is the Lord of love and more tender than the lawgiver. He bore the wrath of God and in His death revealed more of God’s justice than Sinai displayed, but that justice is now vindicated, and it is the guardian of believers in Jesus. Look, sinner, to the bleeding Savior, and as you feel the attraction of His love, run to His arms, and you will be saved.

Meditations on Faith

 

AUGUST 25 Meditations on Faith

If you believe with all your heart, you may. Acts 8:36

These words may address any hesitations the devout reader may have about the ordinances. Perhaps you say, “I am afraid to be baptized; it is such a solemn thing to declare myself to be dead with Christ and buried with Him. I do not feel at liberty to come to Communion; I am afraid of eating and drinking judgment to myself, of failing to discern the Lord’s body.” Come now, trembling one, Jesus has given you liberty—do not be afraid. If a stranger came to your house, he would stand at the door or wait in the hall; he would not dream of entering uninvited into your home—he is not at home. But your child enjoys complete freedom in the house; and so is it with the child of God. A stranger may not intrude where a child may venture. When the Holy Spirit has given you to feel the spirit of adoption, you may be baptized and take communion without apprehension. The same rule holds good for the Christian’s inward privileges. Perhaps you think that you are not allowed to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; if you are permitted just to get inside Christ’s door or sit at the end of His table, you will be content with that. But you will not have less privileges than the strongest saint. God makes no difference in His love to His children. A child is a child to Him; He will not make him a hired servant. The son will feast upon the fatted calf and have the music and dancing as much as if he had never wandered away. When Jesus comes into the heart, He issues a general permit to be glad in the Lord. No shackles are worn in the court of King Jesus. Our admission into full privileges may be gradual, but it is certain. Perhaps our reader is saying, “I wish I could enjoy the promises and walk at liberty in my Lord’s commands.” “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” Loosen the chains at your neck and live in freedom, for Jesus makes you free!

Make Restitution

 

AUGUST 24 Make Restitution

If fire breaks out and catches in thorns so that the stacked grain or the standing grain or the field is consumed, he who started the fire shall make full restitution. Exodus 22:6

But what restitution can be made by one who throws the firebrands of error or stirs the coals of lust and sets the souls of men ablaze with the fire of hell? The guilt is beyond estimate, and the result is irretrievable. Even if such an offender is forgiven, he will still experience grief in recognizing that he cannot undo the effects of his foolish behavior! A bad example may kindle a flame that years of amended character cannot quench. To burn the harvest is bad enough, but how much worse to destroy the eternal harvest! It may be useful for us to consider how guilty we may have been in the past, and to consider whether, even in the present, there might not be evil in us that has a tendency to cause damage to the souls of our relatives, friends, or neighbors. The fire of conflict is a terrible evil when it breaks out in a Christian church. Where there are converts, and God is glorified, you will discover jealousy and envy doing the devil’s work most effectively. Where the golden grain of blessing was being stored to reward the work of the servants, the fire of enmity comes in and leaves little else but smoke and a heap of blackness. Woe to those by whom offenses come. May they never come through us, for although we cannot make restitution, we shall certainly be the chief sufferers if we are the chief offenders. Those who feed the fire deserve fair criticism, but the one who first kindles it is most to blame. Discord usually takes hold first among the thorns; it is nurtured among the hypocrites and empty professors in the church and leaps among the righteous, blown by the winds of hell, until no one knows where it may end. O Lord, the giver of peace, make us peacemakers, and never let us aid and abet the men of strife, or even unintentionally cause the slightest division among Your people.