Shut in by God

Greetings All, 

     This week's "thought" is called "Shut in by God"  It comes from a book of daily devotions complied from the writings of James Montgomery Boice, who served at 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia for over 30 years before his relatively early death in 2000 at the age of 61.  Boice was a  gifted and well-known Bible teacher who held degrees from Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Basel in Switzerland, and whose "Bible Study Hour" radio program can still be heard on air and online. This is the devotional entry for - January 8th (today!) -- and offers three lessons we can learn from the biblical narrative regarding Noah and his family. Enjoy.

Shut in by God

"And the Lord shut him in..." 

Genesis 7:16

     

     "Consider these three lessons.

     FIRST, when the Lord shut Noah and his family up in the ark, they were totally secure and thereby become an illustration for us of the believer's perfect security in Jesus Christ. The rains    would come. The floods would rage. But nothing would touch these who had been sealed in the ark by Jehovah.  The Lord does not place the safety of his people in the hands of others. He himself throws the bolt-lock. It is said of him, "What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open" (Rev. 3:7 NIV) The shutting in of Noah was the equivalent of our being sealed with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30).  Like him we are not only saved; we are secure as well.

     SECOND, there is a lesson of God's great grace. The last thing we are told in this story before the waters actually begin to come is that, 'the Lord shut him in" (v. 16).  Presumably this was done at the last possible moment.  Noah had been preaching God's righteousness, man's sin, and warning of the great flood for years and years, but no one had believed him. They were still refusing to believe. Yet the door to the ark remained open, and any who wanted to could have gone inside. What great grace!  What magnificent forbearance on the part of God!  Since Noah had believed and had gone in, no one still outside could say that the possibility of belief was closed to him. "Whoever willed" could come. So it is today. All who will may come. Many do not, but none of these can say that the possibility of repentance from sin and turning to Christ are beyond them. 

     FINALLY, there is a lesson in that there is an end to grace. Grace is great, but it is not unending. If it is spurned, the day of reckoning eventually comes. For one final week the door stood open. But the week ended, the door was closed, and the flood came. The same God who opens doors is himself the door (John 10:7 & 9).  He also closes doors and refuses to open them when the time of grace is gone.  For you it is not yet past, whoever you may be.  This is still the day of grace, and though it will end, it has not ended yet.  Won't you come while there is still time?  God said to Noah, "Come... into the ark" (Gen. 7:1). At the end of the Bible we read, "The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' And let him who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price" (Rev. 22:17)." 

     Grace is the most wonderful thing! Nothing in all the earth compares with it!  And though it is God's nature to be gracious, and the riches and glory of His grace will be (and should already be) the source of endless praise among the recipients of it, the Bible makes clear (as Boice rightly notes), that God's offer of grace will one day end.

     Isaiah 61:2, in speaking of the ministry of Jesus, states that He was to: "proclaim the year (or time) of the LORD's favor (grace), and the day of the vengeance of our God."  And Jesus did just that. He fulfilled this prophecy about Himself by proclaiming the "year" (the time, season, or epoch) of God's grace in light of the coming day of judgment. He did not preach that grace did away with God's justice and judgment forever, but that God in His great mercy was offering grace to all now in light of the impending Day of Judgment which is to come.

     The Gospel declaration (like Noah's message to the people of his day) was, "Come for safety and salvation now!  Hurry! For the day is coming when the door of God's grace and mercy will close, and the time of judgment will begin for all who have not entered in."   Peter proclaimed that  message in Acts 2:38-41 on the Day of Pentecost.  And Paul proclaims it as well in II Cor. 5:20 - 6:2.

     It assures us that the call of the Gospel must always have a sense of urgency to it.  For it's message is not, "Grace to everyone now and forevermore," it is, "Now is the time of God's favor! Today is the day of salvation! Come to Christ for mercy now, for the day of wrath and divine judgment is coming" (II Cor. 6:2, I Thess. 1:9-10, II Thess. 1:3-10).  Yes, Scripture assures us that there will come a day when the door of God's grace -- like the door on the ark -- will one day be shut and all left outside (all who spurned His offer of grace in Jesus) will experience God's great wrath.

     So come now, says Scripture!  Whosoever will, come!  Be sure you come to Christ before the door of God's free offer of grace is closed to you forever.

     If any of you have not yet come, I pray that by God's grace you would, and without delay.

In the Service of the Gospel, Pastor Jeff

The Reason for God - Belief in an Age of Skepticism

Greetings All,

      Today's "thought" comes from Tim Keller's bestselling book, "The Reason for God - Belief in an Age of Skepticism."  Keller, if you know him, is a deep thinker who filters all he sees through a solid Gospel grid.  Alongside Ravi Zacharias, Os Guiness, D. A. Carson, and a few others, he  ranks as one of the most astute Christian apologists and preachers of our day. Most anything he has written is well worth your time in reading, including the above mentioned book.
     This particular thought addresses the common complaint of many non-Christians that, "If God is a God of Judgment He Can't be a God of love."   In fact, that is the heading for this particular subsection of the chapter dealing with God's more unpopular characteristics -- His justice, judgment and wrath. It is well worth the minute or two it will take you to read it.  It really is rather profound.  Enjoy.

       "In Christianity God is both a God of love and of justice. Many people struggle with this. They believe that a loving God can't be a judging God. Like most other Christian ministers in our society, I have asked literally thousands of times, "How can a God of love be also a God filled with wrath and anger? If He is loving and perfect, he should forgive and accept everyone. He shouldn't get angry."

     I always start my response by pointing out that all loving persons are sometimes filled with wrath, not just despite, but because of, their love. If you love a person and see someone ruining them -- even they themselves -- you get angry. As Becky Pippert puts it in her book 

"Hope Has It's Reasons":

"Think how we feel when we see someone we love ravaged by unwise actions or relationships.

Do we respond with benign tolerance as we might toward strangers? Far from it... Anger isn't the opposite of love. Hate is, and the final form of hate is indifference... God's wrath is not a cranky explosion, but his settled opposition to the cancer...which is eating out the insides of 

the human race he loves with his whole being."

     The Bible says that God's wrath flows from his love and delight in his creation. He is angry at evil and injustice because it is destroying its peace and integrity. "The Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made... The Lord watches over those who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy" (Psalm 145:17-20).  It is at this point that many people complain that those who believe in a God of judgment will not approach enemies with a desire to reconcile with them. If you believe in a God who smites evildoers, you may think it perfectly justified to do some of the smiting yourself.

     Yale theologian Miroslav Volf, a Croatian who has seen the violence in the Balkans, does not see the doctrine of God's judgment that way.  He writes:

If God were not angry at injustice and deception and did not make a final end to violence -- that God would not be worthy of worship... The only means to prohibiting all recourse to violence by ourselves is to insist that violence is legitimate only when it comes from God...My thesis that the practice of non-violence requires a belief in divine vengeance will be unpopular with many... in the West... [But] it takes the quiet of a suburban home for the birth of the thesis that human non-violence [results from the belief in] God's refusal to judge.  In a sun-scorched land, soaked in the blood of the innocent, it will invariably die...

[with] other unpleasant captivities of the liberal mind." 

       In this fascinating passage Volf reasons that it is the lack of belief in a God of vengeance that "secretly nourishes violence." The human impulse to make perpetrators of violence pay for their crimes is almost an overwhelming one. It cannot possibly be overcome with platitudes like, "Now don't you see that violence won't solve anything?"  If you have seen your home burned down and your relatives killed and raped, such talk is laughable -- and it shows no concern for justice. Yet victims of violence are drawn to go far beyond justice into the vengeance that says, "You put out one of my eyes, so I will put out both of yours." They are pulled inexorably into an endless cycle of vengeance, of strikes and counter-strikes, nurtured and justified by the memory of terrible wrongs.

     Can our passion for justice be honored in a way that does not nurture our desire for blood vengeance? Volf says the best resource for this is the belief in the concept of God's divine justice. If I don't believe that there is a God who will eventually put all things right, I will take up the sword and will be sucked into the endless vortex of retaliation. Only if I am sure there is a God who will right all wrongs and settle all accounts perfectly, do I find the power to refrain." 

     Those who are biblically astute will have already noticed this is nothing more than what Paul tells us in Romans 12:19 where he writes: "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge, I will repay says the Lord." 

     In the context of that verse it is both sincere love (v. 9) bolstered by the belief that God is a God of justice who will one day right all wrongs, that gives people the power to refrain from feeling the strong  urge to right them themselves.  It's not just love alone that restrains retaliation.  It is love combined with the assurance that God will one day (and not always in this lifetime) right all wrongs. As many of you can attest: If we don't believe God will avenge all evil, we will feel the nearly irresistible need or compulsion to avenge it ourselves. That is, when we let go of belief in a God of justice and wrath -- in the face of terrible violence and injustice -- we will seek to execute that justice, judgment and wrath ourselves. It is only the assurance that God will do it, as Paul points out, that frees us from the deep inner compulsion to do it ourselves.

     Thank God we can trust Him to avenge such things -- as His Word assures us He will -- or this world would be an even more violent place to live.

With prayers for the blessing of God upon your day, Pastor Jeff

The Wrath of God

Greetings All,

     This week's 'thought' comes to you from J. I Packer, and is found in his superb book, "Knowing God."
     It deals with a topic many people (believer and non-believer) struggle with -- the concept, or better yet, the reality of God's wrath. Packer, knowing the confusion people have in regard to this common biblical subject seeks to explain, clarify and clear up some of the common misconceptions with regard to it.

     I have also added a second helpful thought from A. W. Tozer.  Years ago I found them very helpful. I trust some of you might find them helpful as well. Enjoy.

The Wrath of God

     "The modern habit throughout the Christian church is to downplay this subject. Those who still believe in the wrath of God (and not all do) say little about it. To an age that has unashamedly sold itself to the god's of greed and pride and sex and self-will, the church mumbles on about God's kindness but says virtually nothing about His judgment.

     How often during the past year did you hear (or if you are a minister did you preach) on the wrath of God? How long is it, I wonder, since a Christian spoke straight about this topic on the radio, or television, or in one of those half-column sermonettes that appear in the national dailies or magazines.  And if they did so, how long would it be before they were asked to speak or write again. The fact is that the subject of divine wrath has become taboo, and modern society, and Christians by and large, have accepted the taboo and agreed never to even bring the subject up....

       [Yet] the theme of God's wrath is one about which the biblical writers felt no inhibitions whatever. Why then, should we?  Why, when the Bible is vocal about it, should we feel obliged to be silent?  What is it that makes us awkward and embarrassed when the subject comes up; that prompts us to soft-pedal it and hedge when asked about it? The root cause of our unhappiness seems to be a disquieting suspicion that idea of wrath is, in one way or another, unworthy of God.

     To some, for instance, wrath suggests a loss of self-control, an outburst of "seeing red" which is partly, if not wholly, irrational. To others it suggests the rage of conscious impotence, or wounded pride, or plain bad temper. Surely, it is said, it would be wrong to ascribe to God such attitudes as these.

     The reply is: Indeed it would.  But the Bible does not ask us to do this.  There seems to be here a misunderstanding of the anthropomorphic language of Scripture - that is, the biblical habit of describing God's attitudes and affections in terms ordinarily used for talking about human beings. But when Scripture speaks of God anthropomorphically, it does not imply that the limitations and imperfections which belong to the personal characteristics of us sinful creatures belong also to the corresponding qualities in our holy Creator. Rather it takes for granted that they do not.

     Thus, God's love, as the Bible views it, never leads Him to foolish, impulsive, immoral actions in the way that its human counterpart too often leads us.  And in the same way, God's wrath in the Bible is never the capricious, self-indulgent, irritable, morally ignoble thing that human anger so often is.  It is, instead, a right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil.  God is only angry where anger is called for.  Even among humans, there is such a thing as righteous indignation, though it is, perhaps, rarely found.  But all God's indignation is righteous.

     Would a God who took as much pleasure in evil as he did in good be a good God? Would a God who did not react adversely to evil in His world be morally perfect?  Surely not.  Yet it is precisely this adverse reaction to evil, which is a necessary part of moral perfection, that the Bible has in view when it speaks of God's wrath."

It might also help to know that God's "wrath" is often devoid of "anger" altogether. It is, rather, a very intentional and "calm" determination to "give people over" (let them have) the sin they want (along with the consequences of that sin). Paul speaks of this when he tells us that "the wrath of God is being poured out" -- not in fire from heaven, or cataclysmic disasters -- but in simply letting people have the sinful things they want (see Romans 1:18-32, and especially verses 24, 26, and 28). In this sense His wrath is a "calm" form of judgment upon people who stubbornly persist in their sin and rebellion.

     A. W. Tozer's words from his book "The Knowledge of the Holy," are also helpful here.  There he states:

     "Holy is the way God is. To be holy He does not conform to a standard. He is that standard. He is absolutely holy with an infinite, incomprehensible fullness of purity that is incapable of being other than it is. Because He is holy, His attributes are holy. That is, whatever we think of as belonging to God must be thought of as holy.

     God is holy and He has made holiness the moral condition necessary to the health of His universe. Sin's temporary presence in the world only serves to accent this. Whatever is holy is healthy; evil is a moral sickness that must end ultimately in death. The formation of the language itself suggests this, the English word holy deriving from the Anglo-Saxon halig, or hal, meaning "well, whole."

     Since God's first concern for His universe is its moral health, that is, its holiness, whatever is contrary to this is necessarily under His eternal displeasure.  To preserve His creation God must destroy whatever would destroy it. When He arises to put down iniquity and save the world from irreparable moral collapse, He is said to be angry. Every wrathful judgment in the history of the world has been a holy act of preservation.  The holiness of God, the wrath of God, and the health of the creation are inseparably united. God's wrath is His utter intolerance of whatever degrades and destroys. He hates iniquity as a mother hates the polio that takes the life of her child."

     I hope -- if nothing else -- you may have gained insight into what God's wrath is; why it is a necessary aspect of His being as God, and thus be less hesitant to affirm it, speak of it, or explain it to others.

To the end that we might worship God as He is and must ever be, Pastor Jeff