YOU and GOD

In part 1 of this lesson on entering into our faith-rest now, we saw from Hebrews chapter 3 that the reason why a whole generation of redeemed Israelites missed the rest that God had waiting for them in the promised land of Canaan was because of “an evil heart of unbelief.” (Hebs.3:12) It manifested itself in the promised land bound saints by a discounting of God’s might and miraculous works. (Ps.78:12-32) Further, they disregarded His Word. (Hebs. 4:2) That was evidenced in their hearts that were hardened (Hebs. 3:8), their hearts then erred from the truth, (Hebs. 3:10) and finally their hearts had become just plain unbelieving. (Hebs. 3:12) So, when one discounts the works of God and disregards the Words of God, that person has all the characteristics of an evil heart of unbelief.

We noted also the causes of the evil heart of unbelief. (Hebs.3:13) In a word, the cause of one’s heart being disaffected toward God is “the deceitfulness of sin.” (v.13) When one believes the lies of a Devil’s demon or of one’s own depraved nature, then that deceived person will suffer from an evil heart of unbelief.

Now, the consequences of such an error, and among the worst of the consequences is that such an one will fail to enter into the rest that God has provided for them. (Hebs.3:19) This should not be confused with the “rest from” our labors of life awaiting those who will eventually be received into heaven to spend eternity with the triune Godhead and all who have believed in Jesus Christ (Rev. 14:13); but the “rest” that Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 speaks of is the rest that all adults 20 years of age and over when they left Egyptian bondage missed because of the evil heart of unbelief that they were smitten by in their desert wanderings causing them to miss the victories that awaited them in the promised land. As Paul carefully noted in I Cor.10, these were redeemed people:  all were “under the cloud”—led by God’s presence; all passed through the sea—delivered by God’s power; all were “baptized unto Moses” in the cloud and in the sea—having identified with His message and mission; all did eat the same spiritual manna—i.e., the Word of God; and all did drink of the Rock—Christ Jesus. So, many were saved, Paul reasons, but many did not enter into rest, i.e., the promised land of conquest and victory. They in mass committed what we know as the sin unto death. (I John 5:16; I Cor. 11:29,30) Paul further depicts their sin as lust, idolatry, fornication, tempting Christ and murmuring. (I Cor. 10:6-10)

We are encouraged, though, to learn that there is a cure for an evil heart of unbelief. That cure starts with appropriating the victory (Roman 7:24) that God has already provided and promised us through faith. (Hebs. 4:2) We can realize this victory as we appropriate the Word of God. (Hebs. 4:12) and the intercessory work of Jesus on our behalf before the very throne of God. (Hebs. 4:14,15) Finally, we can enter into rest NOW by appropriating the power that is available to us through prayer. (Hebs. 4:16)

It’s a matter of the heart. “You need not seek rest in the mountains or by the sea if you do not have it in your heart,” someone has said. We can enjoy rest now. “Today,” was the emphasis of the warning raised in Hebrews. “Today, if you will hear His voice, Harden not your hearts as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness.” (v. 7) “But exhort one another daily while it is called Today,” and “While it is said, To day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts….” (vss. 13,15)

A few concluding thoughts. We should fear lest any of us should seem to come short of entering into this rest. (Hebs. 4:1) We should know that God does want us to “rest,” (v.9) and that the key to entering into this faith-rest is “believing,” and “ceasing from our own works.” (4:3,10)

So, right here and now, if you are a believer and have not allowed an evil heart of unbelief to grip you, you can and should be enjoying the rest God wants you to enjoy. It is a rest of faith. It has abandoned trying to please God by self-efforts. It is a rest of victory, victory that overcomes the world. (I John 5:4) It is the rest of walking by faith and not by sight, free of worry and full of trust. It is not the eternal rest after time that God wants you to have now but it is the rest of a victorious Christian life. 

The alternative is a life of works that are fruitless because they are flesh driven not faith-based. Entering into this rest will change the course of your life. The requirements: salvation by grace through faith; surrender by faith through grace, appropriating His Word, His Work and His Wonders through prayer.

“There is a place of quiet rest,
Near to the heart of God.
A place where sin cannot molest,
Near to the heart of God.
O Jesus, blest Redeemer,
Sent from the heart of God.
Hold us who wait before Thee,
Near to the heart of God.”

	Cleveland McAfee, 1908
(Written after two of his nieces
died of diphtheria.) 

Drop out, cop out Christianity might be an accurate way to characterize the mainstream of professing Christendom in the early decades of this 21^st century. From the pulpit to the pew there is evidence of a widespread defection from the ranks of those who were once counted as Soldiers of the Cross.

Men and women who for years have been on the front lines for the Lord have left their posts and have gone AWOL from the Lord’s army.

With the passing of every year, we can understand more clearly what Jesus said when he spoke those words: “When the Son of Man cometh, will he find faith on the earth?”

Though this widespread defection from the faith (which has been going on for forty years or more) is alarming to all of us, we ought not be caught unawares. God’s Word is full of warnings that such would be the case.

Men shall depart from the faith in the latter times, Paul told us in I Tim. 4:1.

The severest warnings in all of the Word of God are found in the book of Hebrews, especially chapters 3,4, and 10. The Hebrew believers to whom this epistle was originally penned, having suffered many afflictions for following Christ with the people of “the way,” were tempted, looking back over their shoulders, to return to their bondage under the law that they had been delivered from when trusting Christ as Lord. The author of the book of Hebrews pleaded with them to “go on to perfection (maturity)” warning that to turn back, as the Children of Israel wanted to when looking back to Egypt from their wilderness hardships, would only bring severe chastening from God. 

God does not want us to drop out! He wants us to hold fast our profession. He wants us to keep on keeping on. He wants us to enter into REST.

No, not the rest that we look forward to when we get to heaven, but the rest realized NOW that comes when we are living victoriously by faith.

“There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” (Hebs. 4:9)

That rest can come NOW, but with the greatest urgency the writer of Hebrews warns 1^st century saints that if they are not careful, they will miss that rest. That which would rob them then and us today of this rest is an evil heart of unbelief. It robbed the saints in the wilderness—many of them; it has robbed many saints since; it is robbing many today, and if we are careless, it will rob us of our faith-rest. 

One tell-tale sign that a person is in danger of not entering into faith-rest is that he or she has embraced “an evil heart of unbelief.” (Hebs. 3:12) Forefathers in faith, as they wandered 40 years in the wilderness leaving Egypt and traversing to Canaan, a journey that might have been completed in 11 days, discounted God’s works. (v.9) Their swift and almost unanimous departure is catalogued in Ps. 78:12ff.  “Marvelous things did He in the sight of their fathers….” He divided the sea while they passed through, making the waters to stand as an heap; He led them by His presence by a cloud in the daytime and a pillar of fire at night; He brought water out of rocks to give them to drink in the wilderness; He rained down manna from heaven so that they ate “angels’ food”; He rained flesh of fowl upon them as the sand of the sea so they had meat to eat; He led them 40 years in the wilderness and neither their clothes nor their shoes waxed old upon them. “For all this they sinned still and believed not His wondrous works.” (Ps. 78:32)

They discounted His works and disregarded His Word (Hebs.4:2) They had a bad case of heart trouble. Their hearts were hardened (3:8); their hearts erred from the truth (3:10) and their hearts were unbelieving. (3:12)

These were not infidels or heathen people who had never been exposed to God’s person and power. They had witnessed the mighty hand of God as He did miracle upon miracle in demonstrating to a brazen Pharoah the answer to his question, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go?” (Ex.5:2) 10 awesome plagues culminating in the death of every Egyptian first-born was God’s unmistakable answer. 2 million Israelites witnessed these mighty miracles first-hand yet 40 years later, because of unbelief, all of those who left Egypt on the night of redemption who were 20 years of age and older had died in the desert. No wonder in Hebrews 10:31 the writer exclaims “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” They discounted His works and they disregarded His Words. But why?  

Hebrews 3:13 gives us the answer: “But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” The deceitfulness of sin says “Just this one time won’t matter;” “Everybody else is doing it;” and “God is a loving God therefore He will understand;” or “You owe it to yourself, if you don’t look out for # 1 who will?” It may whisper to you “I’m only hurting myself by doing this;” or quite possibly “This is just a little sin, it’s not any big deal.” The deceiver may try to get you by convincing you that “It’s not right, but look at the good that could come of this;” or “OK, just promise to do it this one time only and never again.” Then he may have lied by saying “It’s all right, nobody will ever know;” or “All you want to do is make yourself happy, so what’s wrong with that?” The one whom Jesus said was a liar from the beginning and the father of the lie has a bag full of tricks to pull on anyone who will give him the time of day. To those who yield to any of his deceitful lies the Word says “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.” (Gal.6:7)

(To be continued)

The title of this post just might bring to memory Yogi Berra, famed catcher of the New York Yankees back in the years when I was a pre-teen devouring everything baseball. Yogi became known for what I would call linguistic conundrums such as “baseball is 90% physical and the other half mental,” or “No one goes there anymore, it’s too crowded,” or “A nickel isn’t worth a dime anymore,” or “It’s like de ja vu all over again,” or “When you come to a fork in the road, take it,” and scores of others that have been attributed to the baseball hall of famer. 

I thought of Yogi and his famous “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over” quip last Thursday night, August 12, when Major League Baseball recreated at the expense of $5,000,000 a regulation size baseball field in the middle of a corn field in northern Iowa, my home state, reminiscent of the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams,” with the now famous mantra “If you build it, they will come.”

 Well MLB did rebuild it for Thursday’s game that pitted the Chicago White Sox against the New York Yankees, bussing the teams in I believe from Chicago and Minneapolis to the small town of Dyersville, Iowa, where every one of the 8,000 bleacher seats were filled, each ticket costing about $1800. I did not watch much of the game except the 8^thand 9^th innings tuning in at the 8^th inning. After a see/saw scoring game played well by both teams dressed in their retro uniforms, it looked as though the Yankees had it in the bag going into the bottom of the 9^th inning with an 8-7 lead, but in the back of my mind was the Yogi Berra ism “It ain’t over till it’s over.” I thought I would brush my teeth, then turn off the TV and retire to bed for the night, but as I came out of the bathroom, I noticed a lot of players out of the dug-out and it looked as though the last three outs must have come quickly as I had only taken about a five-minute break; so, I put the tube to sleep and went to my bedroom thinking the Yanks had won 8-7. Was I surprised Friday morning to learn that a walk-on hitter, with a man on base, knocked one out of the park for the White Sox sending the Yankees home with another L in their column, the Sox winning 9-8! Again, I pinched myself and drew a line under the Berra ism that was then going through my mind again, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”

If I have not lost you by now (realizing some of my readers could not care less about the recreated Field of Dreams or a ball-game played on it by the Sox and Yankees) I want to share with you an obvious spiritual application to this real time illustration. I have recently tried to enter into the Apostle Paul’s final moments as he recorded his farewell words in 2 Timothy 4. The great missionary mentor and evangelist said plainly “the time of my departure is at hand.” For Paul, at that time, in a prison in Rome, he was no doubt expecting death by decapitation or by being impaled on a pole that would be placed in Nero’s palace garden where Christians, whom Nero blamed for the fire that destroyed more than half of the city, were routinely set on fire lighting the gardens for Nero’s night parties. Paul was reconciled and ready for his departure, affirming that he had “fought a good fight… finished my course… kept the faith.” For Paul now, it was over.

There was a time when Paul was not ready to concede that fact. When he met a few years earlier with the elders of Ephesus at Miletus Paul said that he was not moved by any of the afflictions that he had suffered, “neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy….” He had quite a way to go yet and he was looking forward to finishing in due time “with joy.”

I thought about my course. The idea of life as a “course” is used sparingly in the Bible. Paul used it in a sermon he preached in Antioch of Pisidia when on his first missionary journey he preached in the synagogue there, reaching back into Jewish history harkening to Israel’s bondage in Egypt, their wandering in the wilderness, their occupying Canaan, the period of the judges and then the kings, coming down to the advent of the Messiah and the preparation for that by the ministry of John the Baptist. Paul says “And as John fulfilled his course….” (Acts 13:25). The word course is used in extra Biblical literature at the time of the writing of the New Testament to refer to the heavenly bodies, the galaxies, that have been set in their courses. It suggests plan, purpose and providence. John and Paul and every servant of Christ by extension had/has a fixed course in the big picture of God’s world and work. As we, like Paul, fight the fight while keeping the faith, we can with Paul one day say by the grace of God, “I have finished my course.” When Paul and the 276 men on the ship heading toward Rome felt that they might well lose their lives after weeks in a fierce storm at sea, an angel of God appeared to Paul in the night assuring him that his course was not yet finished and that he would still be brought before Caesar. (Acts 27:23,24)

We may not have Christ appear personally to us affirming that we yet have work to do before we finish our course, but we can be certain that “…He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil. 1:6) Our job was summarized by the words of Christ to that 1^st century church at Smyrna when He said through John to the church there, “…be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” (Rev. 2:10)

So, in finishing his course, Paul was not expecting, as Nero no doubt was, an execution to happen but rather an offering to occur. He had alluded to it in Philippians 2 when he encouraged that model church by declaring that “…if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all.” (Phil.2:17) Paul borrowed the Old Testament language of a sacrificial offering to God, much as he did in Romans 12:1 when he exhorted the Roman believers to “present your bodies a living sacrifice….” Tomorrow, or the next day or whatever day they should lead me to the place of my departure, it will not be an execution, Paul reasoned, but rather an offering that will cause joy and rejoicing. This was the attitude of a man who said, “I am in a straight betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better….” (Phil. 1:23

How is it with you, my beloved brethren? Are you striving by grace to be able to affirm with Paul “I have finished my course (with joy); I have fought a good fight; I have kept the faith?” If you are reading this today, there is still something for you to do. Remember, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over!”

“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day:  and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.” (2 Tim. 4:8)

Revival meetings. Remember those days when an evangelist or “revivalist” would visit your church for a week or two or more of special meetings geared to getting God’s people “revived,” in hopes that when the meetings were concluded the church would be in a healthier state with a renewed burden for souls and with recharged spiritual batteries in order to remain “steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” (I Cor. 15:58). Those days are but a memory for most churches today as shorter and fewer revival meetings find their place on today’s church calendars. But they are not any less needed.

Ezekiel was given a look, by the Spirit of God, at a valley full of dry bones. (Ezek.37) It was, as one reads the chapter, a representation of the lifeless state of Judah and Israel about 600 years before the first advent of Christ. By the Spirit of God, Ezekiel learned that God would one day bring those bones together, bone on bone, stand them up straight and then, in time breathe new life into those lifeless, very dry bones. God gave to Ezekiel the interpretation of this vision when he said that he would one day make of Israel (the northern confederacy of ten tribes that split off after Solomon’s death) and Judah (the two tribes in the southern part of Palestine Jerusalem being the capitol), one nation putting them back again in their own land with David sitting on the throne. Of course, David was dead but Matthew 1:1 introduces the New Testament as the story of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham, indicating that David’s descendent, Jesus Christ, God’s Messiah would sit on that throne of David fulfilling in part that Old Testament prophecy as recorded in Ezekiel 37. (Ezek. 37:19-25)

In 1948, after more than 1900 years Israel once again became a State, situated in their own land. They have not yet become one, as the 10 northern tribes carried into captivity in 722 B.C. are still the “lost tribes” of Israel, but they will one day be one, possessing their own land, with the Son of David sitting upon His throne in Jerusalem. The prophecy has not yet been fully fulfilled but when Jesus returns with His church at the conclusion of the seven-year tribulation, the prophecy will be fulfilled as Christ Jesus sets His kingdom up in Jerusalem and rules and reigns in righteousness for a thousand years as a prelude to the eternal state. 

So, what does all of this prophecy about Israel’s future have to do with us now? Well, the primary interpretation of Ezekiel 37 has to do with Israel’s end-time future, but the application of this prophecy is appropriate to the church in these last days. Israel was pictured as down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones (Ezek. 37:1) The bones were very dry and their condition was characterized as hopeless. (v.11) All appearance of life had departed. (v.3) There was fragmentation of the body. (vss. 7,11) There was form but no power. (v. 8) The only solution for this desperate dry-bones, lifeless state was a breath of new life from God’s Spirit, and that is what God said would happen. (v. 14) When the spirit of God breathed upon those lifeless corpses which were nothing but dry bones put together again bone on bone, then there was new life, the bones stood upright and they were at once “an exceeding great army.” (v.10)

Churches today, in too many instances at least, are spiritually dry. There are no tears of compassion for lost souls. Few people are being saved so that too often there is a corpse but no appearance of life; there is form, but little or no power. There are creeds, but no Christ; sound but little substance; motion but no progress, a building but no church, sermons but no messages; pulpiteers but no preachers, froth but no faith, giving but little sacrifice, money but without missions and people but with meager signs of the kind of royal love of which James spoke in James 2.

The late Vance Havner set forth the characteristics of genuine revival: “We hear much about revival these days, but the heart of revival is the Lordship of Christ. A mere emotional upheaval, a spurt of religious excitement is not revival. When Christians become convicted of rebellion against the rule of Christ in their lives, confess their sins, renounce self, take the cross and let Jesus have the first and last word in everything, that is REVIVAL by whatever name you call it.”

The late evangelist and former Editor of the Sword of the Lord, Curtis Hutson, once said, “The church does not need new members as much as it needs old members made new.” Another sage said it this way, “The problem is not that churches are filled with empty pews but that the pews are filled with empty people!”

R.A. Torrey gave the key to having a revival today: “Let a few Christians get thoroughly right with God; let then bind themselves in prayer and then let them put themselves at God’s disposal in the winning of souls.” Evangelist Gypsy Smith was once asked how to have revival and his reply was, “Go home, lock yourself in your room, kneel down in the middle of your floor. Draw a chalk mark around yourself and ask God to start the revival inside that chalk mark. When He has answered your prayer, the revival will be on.”

When asked the secret of his spiritual power, Charles Spurgeon simply said, “Knee work! Knee work!”

Once in a while someone will say, “I don’t think there will be another great revival before the Lord returns.” Or, “These are such dark times; surely the Lord must be coming very soon.”

Well, these are dark times, but they have been dark before. One historian noted that in America, following the Revolutionary War, the days became dreadfully dark spiritually. Students at Harvard were typically atheists; at Williams College there was a mock celebration of a communion service. At Princeton, the Dean opened a Bible in chapel and a pack of playing cards fell out. Christians were so unpopular they met in secret and recorded their meetings in code. The last two decades of the eighteenth century were the darkest period, spiritually and morally, in the history of American Christianity.” (J. Edwin Orr, Campus Aflame, 1971). And then, the 2^nd Great Awakening came with the Wesleys and Whitefield shaking two continents for Christ and God gave with that dark backdrop a nation-wide revival. Our prayer is one that Oswald J. Smith prayed: “God of revival, meet us now as on Thy name we call; forgive our sin, and hear our prayer, let showers of blessings fall.”

Dry bones? Yes, as Israel as a nation was depicted in Ezekiel 37; but likewise, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, 2021. But oh! The breath of new life brought those dry bones to life again and it was like a great army.” So, too, Dear Lord, breathe upon us by your Holy Spirit the breath of life and make us a great army for God once again in this 21^stcentury. You have done it before; please God, do it again. Amen.”

“Wilt Thou not revive us again: that Thy people might rejoice in Thee?” Ps. 85:6

Jesus concluded a lesson in Luke 16:1-13 with the categorical statement, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Mammon is a word that has roots in Aramaic and Latin and Greek languages and generally means what one trusts and is commonly considered one’s wealth. Jesus referred to “the mammon of unrighteousness” (v.9) indicating that it is possible to use one’s material wealth in wasteful, unrighteous living. He was not indicating that mammon, or wealth, was an unrighteous thing but that it could be used in such a way and it might even be a substitute in one’s life for God, i.e., money could become to any person a god that is worshipped rather than the living God who alone is worthy of worship.

Having read the admonition that Jesus leveled at His disciples, one’s mind naturally turns to the issue of money, its use and abuse and its place in the life of a believer who is instructed by the Lord to lay up treasures in heaven where “neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal.” (Matt. 6:20) 

Thinking about mammon (wealth) for a moment, here are some tidbits that have surfaced that may introduce the subject of our attitude toward money:

“Christ is not against men making money, but against money making men.” Or, “It’s good to have money and the things money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure you haven’t lost the things that money can’t buy.” (George Horace Lorimer)

Whereas those previous two statements are worthy of serious contemplation, note the fallacy of this maxim on money: “Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make proper use of the other five.” 

So, having hopefully engaged your thinking on the subject of “The Believer and His Mammon,” please give consideration to the following Biblically based principles regarding money:

• Riches in and of themselves are not evil. Joseph of Arimathea who begged from Pilate the crucified corpse of our Christ was said of Matthew to be rich. Many of the Old Testament patriarchs and kings were wealthy; it was commonly thought by Jewish men and women of faith, based upon passages such as Deut. 28 and based upon life experiences that wealth was a sign of God’s favor;
• Riches are temporal and, as the wise King Solomon warned, they are apt to make themselves wings and fly away as an eagle to heaven. (Provs. 23:5) In 1923 it was said the seven most successful financiers in America met in Chicago and amongst themselves controlled more money than the United States had in its Treasury. But, a mere 25 years later, three of those men had committed suicide, two had died penniless, one had been released from Sing Sing prison, and the other had been sent home from the penitentiary because he was at the point of death;
• Riches cannot guarantee satisfaction. Read Ecclesiastes chapters one and two and note that King Solomon immersed himself into every luxury that could be experienced by the human senses, barring none, sparing no expenses for he had a limitless budget from which to draw and his conclusion was that though “whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them… (2:10) all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.” (2:11)
• Having riches is apt to make it harder for a person to get to heaven. Jesus said it so that no one need dispute it: “Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:24,25) A London newspaper offered a prize for the best definition of money. Here was the winner: “Money is an article which may be used as a universal passport to everywhere except heaven and as a universal provider for everything except happiness.”
• Using wealth wisely is a matter of being faithful. This was the point of a story Jesus told His disciples about an unwise and unfaithful steward who was called into account for his mismanagement of the owner’s business. Jesus applied this account when in verse 11 He asks His listeners “If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?” (Luke 16:11) A child once visited his grandparents in Haiti and witnessed an elderly woman at a missions post who had walked miles for a meal turn around to share her food with a young girl. Mentioning this to his grandmother, the veteran missionary replied, “Son, the very poor are much more generous than the very rich.” That lesson never left the child who grew up to be a faithful servant of the Lord Jesus. Faithfulness in what we have, little or much, is what is required of us and using what He has entrusted to us in a generous, unselfish way is how a believer can be faithful even in the use of “unrighteous” mammon;
• Using mammon wisely here will pay off hereafter, Matt.6:19,20. Jesus said in His sermon on the mount that it is possible to lay up for ourselves treasures on earth or treasures in heaven.  When we employ the “unrighteousness” mammon (wealth, money) that we have earned (not speaking of how we have earned it but that it is just mundane money used to pay bills and subsist in this unrighteous world where we receive “wages” of unrighteous mammon), we can either lay up treasures here on earth which will eventually be stolen or rotted with rust; or we can lay up treasures in heaven by the faithful and wise investment of that same money and in so doing lay up treasures which will never rust or rot. Did you ever see a $ on a tombstone? Probably not. Who wants to be eulogized for amassing money or for loving it?  But you probably have read on many a tombstone “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness….” (Matt. 6:33)
• One cannot serve God and Mammon, Matt. 6:24. Jesus: “…for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.”
• Jesus exhorts us to “make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” (Luke 16:9) Simply said, Jesus is telling us to use money honestly earned here in getting the gospel out, sending missionaries, printing tracts, supporting His church so that people will get saved through the wise investment of this “unrighteous mammon,” knowing that when you fail (die) they, the people (friends) who got to heaven because of your wisely invested mammon in getting the gospel to them will receive you there as a “welcoming committee” as you experience your abundant entrance unto your eternal reward and abode.

In conclusion: “Labor not to be rich….” (Provs. 23:4) “Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God.” (I Tim. 6:17)

“Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery, if riches increase, set not your heart upon them.” (Ps. 62:10)

Preachers often answer the difficult question about peoples in isolated places or third world countries that do not have a church and a copy of God’s Word to read.  How can they be saved?  Are they condemned then to eternal damnation for never having heard?  The brief but Biblical answer to that honest question is that natural revelation (“the heavens declare the glory of God…so that they are without excuse”) (Ps.19:1ff. and Romans 1:19,20) is enough revelation to leave all of mankind without excuse but it takes supernatural revelation (revealed truth, by His Spirit through His Word) to save a person for “…except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3) If a person born anywhere in the world responds to the natural revelation given freely to all men everywhere, then God will in His own providences give to that person more revelation and more as he responds and if that person responds to the Spirit’s call and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, confessing Him as Savior while repenting of his sin, then that person will be saved.  How does that work itself out in real time?  Read the following testimony of BIMI missionary Garland Cofield as one instance of God seeking that lost, remote sinner:

“Northern Ontario in winter can be a cold, white world.  Little, widely-scattered settlements are separated by miles of frozen lakes and forests.  The only roads are century-old trails connecting the water routes.  Who could ever forget the smoke of each cabin rising into the still, frosty air-catching the light of the fading smoke?

Oil lamps begin flickering, doors open, and figures step out in the vanishing light to pick up an armload of firewood for the night.  Voices are heard, and their tones are mixed—some happy, some sad—for joy and sorrow are the lot of all mankind.

It was to several such settings that an Indian brother in the Lord and I had flown before.  Sometimes a few days can seem like weeks, and that trip was one of those times.  We held gospel services at the villages and were on our way home when the weather took a turn for the worse.

My friend had a wife and baby waiting in his village and I had a family waiting for me so we were both a little homesick.  We were 80 miles from my friend’s village when the weather made it impossible to go on.  I searched the chart for a settlement within our fuel range.  Upon locating one, I turned the plane in that direction.

By the time we landed and had secured the aircraft, a full-fledged blizzard was blowing.  That night, after the storm, the temperature dropped to 40 degrees below zero!  In a sheltered area we built a fire, ate, then unrolled our sleeping bags.  My mind was filled with questions: ‘Where will we get fuel to fly on?   What am I doing here when I could be somewhere else preaching to crowds?  What if we cannot get out?  or get sick?  There’s not a phone or a doctor withing 360 miles of here!’

Then I checked myself.  ‘I am a child of God’ I thought, and remembered the words of Paul to the church of Thessalonica.  ‘In everything give thanks,’ he had said: ‘for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.’ (I Thess. 5:18) Just then my fellow laborer said we should try to hold a service in the village.

Moments later, we pushed open a cabin door.  There sat the oldest Indian woman I had ever seen.  She was alone and blind.  We proceeded with the ‘service’ and explained the gospel of God’s grace to our ‘audience’ of one.  Two hours later she had received Jesus Christ through faith in Him and we began to sing: ‘Amazing grace! how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!  I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see!’

We learned that she had heard the gospel before the turn of the century from a traveler and that all those years she had longed to hear more.  God had granted two men—one white, one Indian—the privilege of finishing that story of hope which had begun so many years before!  Her loneliness, blindness, and poverty, mixed with misery and guilt, were intensified that night by the fury of a white blizzard.

But my friend and I know that the God of heaven and earth had sent that storm to change the course of a little airplane with two preachers aboard and brought us to the very village, to the very cabin, where He, from before the foundation of the world, had chosen to save the soul of a dear Indian woman who had waited 70 years.”

“Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth:  for I am God, and there is none else.” (Isaiah 45:22)

Thanks to J.B. Godfrey, Vice President/Executive Director of BIMI, for permission to share this story.  You may read it and other accounts by going to www.bimi.org and look under the online magazines tab, then go to The Nations Magazine.

Except for his standard greetings in the two New Testament epistles that bear his name, the Apostle Peter does not have a lot to say about grace (“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you….).  But his last recorded words, 2 Peter 3:18 are pregnant with meaning: “But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  To Him be glory both now and forever.”

A student once asked Horatius Bonar how he could tell if a Christian was growing.  Dr. Bonar replied, “In proportion to his growth in grace he would elevate his Master, talk less of what he was doing and become smaller in his own esteem, until, like the morning star, he faded away before the rising sun.”

Pablo Casals was considered the premier cellist of the first half of the 20^th century.  He was still playing in his mid-90’s when a young person asked the artist why, at the age of 95, he would still practice six hours a day, to which the master replied, “I think I am making progress.”

There are no short cuts to growth; it must be systematic, disciplined, purposeful and practiced whether in the arena of sports or the stage of fine arts or in the realm of spiritual maturity.  Peter urges the scattered saints to whom he was writing, many of them no doubt displaced due to persecution who, if they had chosen to, might have found a ready excuse to put spiritual maturity on hold as they were trying to maintain and eke out a bare existence, to grow in grace and in the knowledge of their Lord and Savior.  If that was Peter’s message to those beaten down first century saints, it is still a message that resonates world-wide in this 21^st century.  So, the question is, “how does one mature in his faith and in his following of the Lord Jesus Christ?”  It is vital in answering that good question, to follow these basic steps:

•  Desire the Milk of God’s Word.  Peter had already urged this upon his readers in his first epistle, chapter 2 verse 2: “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby.”  In order to mature as an earnest disciple of the Lord Christ, one must desire the milk of His Word.  Milk doctrines are comparable to the nourishment that an infant receives from its mother’s milk (or from a healthy infant formula or cereal).  In Hebrews 5:12ff., the author, writing to Jewish converts who had been saved long enough that they should have been teaching new born converts the basics of the faith, says that their spiritual growth had been stunted so much so that they had need of milk and not strong meat in their spiritual diet.  They were characterized by a lack of skill in handling God’s Word so that they were likened to babes who, spiritually, could not discern between good and evil.  Immediately, in Hebrews 6:1, the writer speaks of the “first principles” or foundational doctrines of the faith, categorizing them as those having to do with repentance from dead works and of faith towards God (salvation or soteriological); doctrines of baptisms and laying on of hands (church matters or ecclesiology) and doctrines having to do with the resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgement (last things or eschatology).  These are all milk doctrines and are very important, but are “first principles/milk” from which a new born babe in Christ should eventually move on to stronger “meat” doctrines.  An example of meat doctrines can be found in the rest of the book of Hebrews beginning in Hebrews 6:13. So, step one in spiritual growth is to acquire an appetite for the sincere milk of the Word, allowing for the assimilation of this spiritual nourishment, then growing and gradually moving from the first principles of the doctrines of faith to “strong meat” doctrines.

• Digest the meat of God’s Word, learning how to use God’s Word skillfully so that you can discern between both what is good and what is evil, what God approves and what God disapproves of and why.  The mature believer will know what holiness is.  He will have a continually increasing faith, and an active prayer life.  He is able to withstand the fiery darts of the wicked one because of the defense of the shield of faith.   He possesses a values system that is not materialistically oriented.  He is careful to keep himself unspotted from the world, and his life manifests the fruit of the Spirit and he is walking in the Spirit.  He has cultivated a love for the Word, a need for and desire to worship and to be involved in the edification of Christ’s church. He enjoys messages on the last days and end times, but is not obsessed with them.  His spiritual sensitivities are trained to detect false teachings as he has learned and loved the genuine truths as taught by the Holy Spirit.  In a word, the strong in grace maturing believer is regularly digesting the meat of God’s Word and in the growing process is maturing as fruit is borne, then more fruit and finally much fruit to God’s glory.

• Delve into the ministry of God’s Word.  He loves evangelizing the lost through every possible means such as personal witness, tract distribution, missionary endeavors and internet communications.  Besides his evangelizing efforts, he is faithfully edifying the church as he ministers his spiritual gift(s) to build up His body, the church.

As has been said, this growing in grace is a process and it does not come to pass in a day or week or month or maybe even a year, but steadily in time.  A student asked the President of his school whether he could take a shorter course other than the one prescribed.  “Oh, yes,” the President replied, “but then it depends on what you want to be.  When God wants to make an oak, He takes a hundred years, but when He wants to make a squash, He takes six months.” (Copied, A.H. Strong)

Selah.

“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat:  for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.” (I Cor. 3:1,2)

The late ABC commentator Paul Harvey (1918-2009) wrote the following piece which has been posted and updated many times since its first presentation by the inimitable newscaster who always ended his news program with, “…Good day!”  His style and his honesty as a reporter were in stark contrast to what you will hear on almost any major news outlet today.  This offering first appeared in 1965 and though I am sure Mr. Harvey would make no claim of being a prophet nor the son of a prophet, as you read these lines if you are like me in the recesses of your mind somewhere you may hear the thought bouncing around, “this sure has the ring of a prophet’s voice!”

“If I were the devil… If I were the Prince of Darkness, I would

want to engulf the whole world in darkness. 

I’d have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population,

but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree.

So, I should set about however necessary to take over the United States.

I’d subvert the churches first—I’d begin with a campaign of whispers.

With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve,

‘Do as you please.’

To the young I would whisper ‘The Bible is a myth.’

I would convince them that ‘man created God,’ instead of

the other way around.  I would confide that ‘what is bad is

good and what is good is square.’  And the old I’d teach to pray

after me, ‘Our Father, who art in Washington…’

Then I’d get organized.

I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that

Anything else would appear dull, uninteresting.

I’d threaten TV with dirtier movies and vice-versa.

I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could, I‘d sell alcohol to ladies and

gentlemen of distinction, I’d tranquilize the rest with pills.

If I were the devil, I’d soon have families at war with themselves, churches at war with themselves and nations at war with themselves; until each in its turn was consumed.  And with promises of higher ratings, I’d have mesmerizing media fanning the flames. If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellects, but neglect to discipline emotions–just let those run wild, until before you knew  it, you’d have to have drug sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door.

Within a decade I’d have prisons overflowing.  I’d have judges promoting pornography—soon I could evict God from the courthouse then from the schoolhouse and then from the houses of Congress.  And in his own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and deify science.  I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls, and church money.  If I were the devil, I’d make the  symbol of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle.

If I were the devil, I’d take from those who have, and give to those who want until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious.

And what do you bet I could get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich?  I would caution against extremes and hard work in Patriotism, in moral conduct.  I would convince the young  that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging is more fun, that what you see on the TV is the way to be. And thus, I could undress you in pubic, and lure you into bed with diseases for which there is no cure.  In other words, if I were the devil, I’d just keep right on doing what he’s doing.

Paul Harvey… good day!”

Note:  You can easily find Paul Harvey’s reading of this classic on YouTube