Hope in the Lord …. and go and sin no more

What is the worst sin you’ve ever committed? I have spent a lot of time thinking about this recently; maybe too much, but I cannot always control what thoughts enter my head. Spurgeon said, “All sins are great sins, but yet some sins are greater than others.” I am still unsure how to judge the seriousness of my sins. Should I consider which sins had the worst consequences? Is the amount of harm I caused to myself or to others most important?  How much worse are repeated sins compared to one-time sins? Is the amount of embarrassment and shame I would experience if my sin became known important? Should how much I broke someone’s trust matter? How wicked are those sins of unrepentant disobedience where I do not feel particularly guilty or repentant? Are public sins worse than private sins? My list is long, and no matter how much I hated and repented of my past sins, I could not seem to completely break free of the guilt and disgrace of what I had done. It took a while, but I finally found comfort in Jesus’ words to two sinners.

In John 5, Jesus heals a lame man and tells him to “sin no more”. In John 8, Jesus saves an adulterous woman who was about to be stoned. When the woman departed, He told her to “go and sin no more.” Jesus did not tell either sinner to “think about what you’ve done.” He did not tell them to make amends or to unburden their heart to others. Jesus did not demand that they offer sacrifices to God. He did not recommend a multi-step plan. All of these responses to sin may have their place, but none of those activities can change the past. Too often our response to our sin causes us to dwell unnecessarily on the past. But Jesus commanded these sinners to accept God’s grace and focus their hatred of their sin both on the here-and-now and on the future.

So how do I respond in a hopeful and helpful way to my guilt and regrets? One passage has been quite helpful. In 2 Corinthians 7 Paul contrasts godly guilt that leads to repentance and greater intimacy with God against worldly grief that lacks any redemptive purpose and leads to death. Also, throughout the Psalms, God’s people have prayed for God to examine their hearts and show their hidden faults (Psalms 139, 26, 19). But finding and pointing out my sins is the easy part. Praying for God to “lead us not into temptation” (Matthew 6) and to “lead me in the everlasting way” (Psalm 139) is a reminder of the priority of living in the present and looking to the future without reliving the past.

In hindsight, if I had spent more time reading the Bible, listening to godly preaching, and participating in Christian fellowship and small group study, then maybe I would have been reminded of Jesus’ words of comfort sooner. Then again, perhaps my months of struggle prepared me to listen and to obey the Word of God when I was reminded of what Jesus said. All I know is that focusing the hatred of my sin on what I am currently thinking and doing (or not doing) is a much more hopeful response to Jesus’ command to “go and sin no more.”

 

What Pastor Stern is Reading This Week (Last Week of January 2020)

Finding Forgiveness for Religious Hypocrisy (Isaiah 6:1-8)

This might shock people, but I am a sinner. I know, this is difficult to comprehend, but stay with me for a minute. I can be a hypocrite that relies on ministry opportunities to prove my love for God. Too often, my justification sounds a little too close to the Pharisees: “We are descendants of Abraham, and we have never been enslaved to anyone” (John 8:33, CSB).

Of course I’m close to you, God: I’m a student in seminary; I’ve always been in church; I’m a pastoral intern at two churches! Sometimes, we can rely a little too close to our external fruit, and we forget to look at our own hearts.

 This isn’t just Jonathan Hatt’s problem. Isaiah, a man in ministry, spent many years thinking the same thing. As God’s mouth-piece, Isaiah did all the external action of calling Israel to repentance. He was a “man of God”; he was calling people to repentance; he did everything external to please God. Did you know he was also a hypocrite?

Look at Isaiah 6, chapters after Isaiah’s beginning of ministry. In this passage, Isaiah becomes face-to-face with the LORD Himself, Isaiah comes into the presence of this holy and righteous God. How does Isaiah respond? “Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Armies” (Isaiah 6:5, CSB). Isaiah was a religious hypocrite; he saw his sin of hypocrisy before anyone else. Even biblical writers could go through the motions, forgetting the absolute holiness and glory of our Lord.

And yet, it is this same glory of God that turns Isaiah from his sin, because the next verse promises Isaiah that “your iniquity [i.e. evil action] is removed and your sin is atoned for [i.e. forgiven]” (V.7). Isaiah is not left despondent in guilt and shame; he is forgiven so that he can return to God again in loving obedience (v.8)!

You yourself may have experienced an Isaiah-moment, where you see the infinite magnitude of God’s glory and holiness, and you tell yourself: “God, I’m unworthy. I’m too guilty!” Yet our conviction is only the first step; God offers us so much more than just therapy for feeling bad about ourselves. He forgives that guilt of religious hypocrisy, going through the motions of “church” instead of daily coming to God in utter dependence.

You might feel like a hypocrite today; don’t worry, it’s you and me both. Praise God who offers us something so much more in Jesus Christ. Instead of only Isaiah seeing the glory of God, Jesus “became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Christ himself came in the flesh, and so often the presence of Christ alone is enough for people to fall at their feet and seek forgiveness. Thankfully, Christ came to live the perfect life in our place, died as the perfect sacrifice, and was raised again through the power of God. And it’s based on that fact alone that we can walk in newness of life today.

If you’re suffering from complacency, if you’re suffering from “faking Christianity,” if you feel the weight of guilt and shame, you can bring all of this to Jesus’ feet. The absolute glory of Christ’s death and resurrection for us will always be enough to cure us from religious hypocrisy.

HOPE IN THE LORD … with courage and boldness

Since 1904, the Carnegie Hero Fund has recognized individuals who knowingly and voluntarily risk their life to save another person. Recent heroes have risked drowning, animal attacks, fire, and criminal assault to rescue someone in peril; often someone they do not even know. These heroes act instinctively and impulsively without concern for their safety. They overcome their fears for someone else’s benefit, and we certainly admire their bravery. While God’s Word commends this momentary courage (think of David facing Goliath), God’s children are more often called to muster another type of courage and boldness. We are commanded to display a deliberate, thoughtful, and settled courage that comes from being faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ. Our obedience to God may cause us to confront risks and dangers to our physical or emotional well-being, to our loved ones or our relationships, and to our financial security or possessions. We are commanded to, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed”. (Joshua 1) Courage is not the absence of fear and danger but doing what is right even if there is risk and peril. We admire the people of God who personify this settled, deliberate courage. Esther with King Ahasuerus. Daniel and his friends in Babylon. And Jesus facing the cross utterly alone.

 

Even the world recognizes the importance of courage and admires those who overcome their fears. Maya Angelou said, “Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.” William Faulkner said, “Be scared. You can’t help that. But don’t be afraid.” Winston Churchill declared, “Of all human qualities, courage was the most esteemed, because it guaranteed all others.” C.S. Lewis stated, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.”

 

We might think courage is only for a few exceptional people, and that courage is not something that matters to me. What does it matter to the Kingdom of God if I live faithfully with boldness and bravery? Throughout the Bible various lists of sins are strongly condemned: Proverbs 6, Galatians 5, Ephesians 5, and Colossians 3. But Revelation 21:8 has an especially chilling description of the characteristics of those who will spend eternity in hell. “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” Cowards lead this list of people excluded from the Kingdom of God in heaven. It is unsettling that God groups cowards with killers, perverts, and deceivers. In God’s mind, living a faithful, courageous and bold live is no minor, insignificant matter.

 

OK, courage is important and admirable, but where do we find godly courage? I certainly cannot find the courage within myself to do what is right against all the people who oppose God and His Kingdom. And it does not matter if we are victorious in this world. Hebrews 11 recounts those who seemed to be defeated and yet received something far better from God. Thankfully, what God commands, He also graciously provides the strength and power to obey. In Deuteronomy 31 and Joshua 1, we are promised that because the Lord will be with us wherever we go, we can be courageous. In Psalm 27 and 31, we are promised that if we wait for the Lord, we will be strong and bold. In 2 Corinthians 3, since we have hope in the sufficiency of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be live boldly, faithfully and obediently to God in a world of dangers, threats, and risks.

The Great Boston Molasses Flood

One hundred years ago, Boston was a thriving center for molasses trade. Ships would come from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the West Indies to unload their sweet syrup into large storage tanks at the port. While some molasses was used for cooking, most was fermented and distilled into alcohol for either consumption or World War I munitions. In January 1919, a large storage tank (50 feet tall and 90 feet wide) filled with over two million gallons of molasses burst. A wave of warm molasses surged through the streets of Boston. It was 25 feet high traveling at 35 mph. Buildings were swept off their foundations. A streetcar was tipped off its tracks. Several blocks were flooded to a depth of up to 3 feet. Soon the molasses cooled and became viscous, trapping people and animals, hampering their rescue. Twenty-one people were killed and 150 were injured. The cleanup lasted for weeks. Boston Harbor was stained brown until the summer. The sweet smell of molasses lingered in parts of the city for years.

God blesses us every day with many wonderful gifts. The pleasure of delicious food. The security of prosperity. Time to rest. The intimacy between husband and wife. Speaking words of encouragement and kindness to one another. God also warns us that we are only to enjoy His blessings within certain boundaries and limits. When the molasses sat in the storage tank, it was a valuable commodity with much benefit to its owners and many uses for the community. But as soon as it left the boundaries of the storage tank, the molasses lost all of its value and actually became a hazard to everyone nearby.

We see God’s warnings for the importance of self-control in Scripture (Proverbs 25) and in the general revelation of the law of reaping-and-sowing. (Galatians 6) Overeating leads to gluttony and obesity. Preoccupation with money leads to greed. Too much leisure leads to poverty. Sex outside the marriage covenant ruins relationships. Angry words harm others. It is important to keep all of these good and wonderful blessings contained within their God-given limits. When we don’t, God’s wonderful gifts become worthless to us and dangerous to others. Thankfully, we do not have to rely merely on our own power. The Fruit of the Spirit includes self-control. (Galatians 5) And God graciously empowers His children to flourish under His care and direction, and to increasingly think and act more like Jesus. 


Safeguarding Our Valuable Future

Philip Poniz learned the hard way that a bank safe deposit box is not a secure place to store valuables. When he moved across the country, he needed a new place to store his collection of expensive, rare watches. Philip had been collecting watches since he was a teenager. He had become an international expert in the history and restoration of high-end timepieces. He secured a safe deposit box in a reputable bank to protect his collection worth several million dollars. Over the years, Philip went to his safe deposit box to check on his collection many times without any problems.

Then one day he opened his box to find it empty. After much investigation, Philip learned that the bank had mistaken his box for someone else’s box who had failed to pay their fees. In accordance with bank policy the box was opened, and the contents sent to general storage. When they learned of their error, the bank returned the watches they still had to Philip, but several watches were lost forever. Bank policy limited their responsibility to just a few thousand dollars; a small fraction of Philip’s loss. The moral of the story is that we should be extra careful with whom we trust our most valuable possessions.

When we are looking for someone to guard what is precious to us, we require them to be both honest and competent, willing and able to fulfill their promise. Perhaps our most important treasure is our future. We can endure anything for a little while when we have hope that whatever we’re suffering will be worth the pain and sacrifice in the end for ourselves and those we love. We must trust our future to someone. Not finding someone trustworthy to safeguard our future is essentially just trusting in our own strength and wisdom. We may do OK on our own when life is going well. But there are times when we must call in experts to dealing with something that’s way bigger than we can handle, for example a life-threatening illness, a major lawsuit, or storm damage to our home.  In those moments, we need to know the character, abilities, history, and reputation of who is planning and controlling our future so we can know if they are worthy of our trust.

When we consider if God is ultimately trustworthy to safeguard our future, what is God’s character and abilities? What is God’s history and reputation when others have entrusted their futures to Him? Abraham left his home and traveled to a faraway land at God’s command. Job continued to trust God even after he lost everything and everyone that mattered to him. William Tyndale, best known for his translation of the Bible into English, was martyred for his faith. Jim Elliot was a missionary killed while attempting to evangelize in Ecuador. The world was not worthy of the faithful men and women who suffered for their desire to live a godly life. But in the end, their faith was richly rewarded.

And of course, Jesus gave up everything to bear the sins of His people on the cross, trusting and obeying His Father’s will for His life. The witness of the saints is that trusting God has always been worth it in the end, and their experiences give us confidence in the promises God made in His Word. Here are a few examples. Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory. (2 Corinthians 4, all ESV) Entrust your efforts to the LORD, and your plans will succeed. (Proverbs 16) And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. (1 Peter 5) Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. (Psalm 34) For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29) These and many more promises remind us of the hope and blessings awaiting us if we trust in Jesus to completely safeguard everything that is truly important and precious to us.

Plankton and Nekton

Are you tired of being tossed around by an ever changing view of what’s supposed to be important?

Dividing the world into two groups has been a longstanding human activity. In 1891, a German biologist identified two groups of marine aquatic organisms: plankton and nekton. Plankton are passive creatures that are carried along by the water. All they can do is drift along with the currents and waves. Examples of plankton include microscopic animals and plants. Nekton are active swimmers that propel themselves through the water regardless of the direction of the currents, winds, and waves. Examples of nekton include fish, whales, and turtles.

Scientists no longer use this classification because the diversity of marine animals and plants is much more complex than anyone in the 19th century could have anticipated. One such complexity is that some organisms begin their life as plankton and then transition to nekton when they develop. These plankton-to-nekton animals are unable to swim when they are very small and young, but then as they mature and grow, they become nekton. Some examples include fish larvae, squid, and the man-o-war jellyfish.

When we were younger, all of us were spiritual plankton. We went along with the world’s values and judgments. Even in our youthful rebellion, we rebelled against what we were told to rebel against. But Jesus calls His disciples to spiritual maturity and to no longer strive for what most others say is precious and important (Romans 12). Being deceived by the world’s trickery is compared to being blown back-and-forth by the wind (Ephesians 4). When God’s people try to please both the world and our Lord, we are compared a boat tossed up-and-down by ocean waves (James 1). But as we grow and mature in our faith, we become spiritual nekton who, by God’s grace, effectively resist whatever circumstances and temptations might pull us away from achieving the virtuous characteristics of our Lord Jesus.

One way we can know we are on God’s narrow path to all the blessings He has promised is that we find ourselves disagreeing more and more about what or who we are told is important. Thankfully, God is not just leaving us alone to do the best we can and cheering us on from the sidelines. Our Heavenly Father provides enough grace for every day’s challenges. Along the way we will find a few others to encourage us and to be encouraged by us. When we intentionally and consistently pursue what God has revealed in His Word, we will be blessed with His peace, joy, and hope, and we will avoid the uncertainty and insecurity of following the crowd to chase the latest fad or trend.

Hope in the LORD: So Everything Works Well Together

Do you know anyone (maybe yourself?) who has one aspect of their life firing on all cylinders, while other parts of their life are falling apart? Maybe their career is going great, but their family life is a mess. Or they take every opportunity to travel and see the world, but their debt is unbearable. Or they have found the one person they have waited for their whole life, only to sacrifice their other friendships. We all hope and expect that there are answers to all our worries and all our troubles and all our challenges. But we only have limited knowledge of what’s the right thing to do. We often look for answers to fill in the blanks in our life as we go. In these circumstances, it can be helpful to think about how life can be like a Sudoku puzzle.

Sudoku is a number-placement puzzle played on a 9×9 grid. Solving a Sudoku puzzle requires placing each of the digits from 1 to 9 exactly once in a column, exactly once in a row, and exactly once in each of the nine 3×3 mini-grids. There is only one way to correctly solve any Sudoku puzzle. In solving a Sudoku puzzle, sometimes a number fits perfectly in a column and a mini-grid, but is completely out of place and inconsistent with the row it’s placed in. Once you see a number doesn’t fit all three requirements, you must erase it. Ignoring the mistake and continuing to fill in more numbers does not get you any closer to solving the puzzle. A Sudoku puzzle is solved only when all the numbers fit in their row and in their column and in their mini-grid.

Life can be like a Sudoku puzzle. We can have a few aspects of our life completely figured out, and we don’t want to change a thing. But other things we value are a mess and are out of control. If we’re honest about our situation, we realized we made a big mistake somewhere. We must accept that we have to change what we thought was working well in our life. We have to start over and try something different in our careers, relationships, families, finances, or health. But this time we want to make better choices so that everything works well together our life.

Throughout history, people have asked for God to fix what’s wrong, to know what’s true, and to find the right answers to fill in the emptiness and face the challenges in their lives. Thankfully, God has revealed Himself and His truth to His people through His Holy Word. God has told us that there is one answer, and only one answer, to living life in accord with all aspects of His created purpose for each of us. And God has promised that anyone can know His answers. Whatever mess we find ourselves in, all He asks is that we admit our mistakes, and begin to follow Jesus. As our life becomes more like Jesus, all the blanks and emptiness in our life will be properly filled in. All our challenges will seem a bit smaller, and everything in our life will begin to work together for good. It may take time, but by His grace we can continue to walk by faith and hope for an increasingly wonderful future if we truly desire to know and obey Him.

While the big questions of life may appear diverse, God give us one and only one consistent answer to all the big questions of life. Jesus said, “follow me.”

·         How can I know what’s true?

o   Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8)

·         What does God require of you?

o   “To do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6)

·         What is the greatest commandment?

o   Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and…you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22)

·         What must I do to be saved?”

o   “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16)

Fake Medicines Endanger Health

Counterfeit medications are a major worldwide problem. In 2013, over 122,000 people died in sub-Saharan Africa from the use of poor-quality antimalarials. The World Health Organization estimates that up to 30% of all the medicines sold in parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America are counterfeit. Worldwide, an estimated 10% of all medicines are counterfeit. Fake drugs have been found which were supposed to treat heart disease, cancer, arthritis, anesthesia, vaccines, infections, and mental illness.

Patients can experience a variety of problems from the use of counterfeit drugs. If the counterfeit drug that contains no active ingredient and no impurities, then the fake medicine provides no benefit, but does no additional harm. If the counterfeit drug contains some active ingredient mixed with toxic contaminants, then the medicine may provide some benefit, but the accompanying poisons may also do great harm. If the counterfeit drug contains the correct active ingredient but in the wrong amount (too much or too little), then the medicine may be too diluted to provide any real benefits or may be an overdose that does a great deal of harm. With counterfeit vaccines and antibiotics, the ineffective medicine affects both the patient and the outbreak of the illness for an entire community.

How heartbreaking for victims of fake medicines! They have received a proper diagnosis of their illness. The appropriate remedy has been identified to treat their disease. They purchase and administer the medicine as directed. But because of dishonesty or incompetence, their health does not improve, and may actually worsen. And by the time they realize the medicine they were taking was a counterfeit, it may be too late.

Jesus tells of the agony many will experience on judgment day because they did not realize that their faith was counterfeit. These people will stand before Him, call Him “Lord”, recount their good works, and confidently expect to join Him in heaven. He will say to them, “Depart to Hell. I never knew you.” (Matthew 7) We are constantly warned in Scripture about false teachers and others who try to lead us astray. Knowing our condition (sinners) and understanding the necessary cure (faith with repentance and obedience), we must be extra careful to only trust those who proclaim the genuine Gospel with honesty, integrity, and competence, and to be alert of those who can cause of great spiritual harm due to their dishonesty or incompetence in handling God’s revealed truth.