Playing Dumb!

A mate and I woke early and headed out for some fishing off a pier at Como, a picturesque spot.  Boats were docked to the left, and a large swimming area with the perimeter secured with a shark net was to the right.  A public pool, park, clean toilets, and a cafe were all close by.  As we spent the morning fishing, many people brought their dogs to the swimming area and let them splash around.  On my way to the toilet I found this sign on the pier most amusing.

It does not take a genius to see that the sign had been tampered with!  Obviously the sign was provided with the intent to prohibit dogs using the swimming area.  Someone who disagreed with the council decision to prohibit dogs spent much time and energy carefully scratching out the red line which once stretched over the dog pictured.  What was intended to keep dogs out of the area could now be used as an encouragement!  The absence of the red line eases the conscience of those who bring their dogs along for a morning dip.  The spirit of the law has been dissolved by the scratching away of a little red line.

This is a prime example of what could be simply called, "playing dumb."  Anyone with a brain knows the purpose of the plaque's existence is to convey that dogs are prohibited.  But the defaced plaque gives everyone an out:  if called upon to answer why they are breaking the rules, they need only point to the sign and say, "Oh!  I didn't know!"  This goes way deeper than breaking the rules for a cheap doggy bath in revealing the depravity of the human condition!  People do this all the time with God's laws.  Perhaps they think they can "play dumb" on the Day of Judgment and credit themselves before God because there are people worse than them, everyone was doing it, or by pleading ignorance.  It will not work!  God's laws were written in stone by the finger of the Living God, and He has also written his laws upon our hearts and conscience.  God gave us His law so we might see our need for forgiveness and salvation.  "Playing dumb" is dumb.  God isn't fooled by our clever ploys to dodge His eternal laws of righteousness.

So are dogs allowed or prohibited at the beach?  What is the spirit of the law?  We don't need to wonder about what God's standards are, for they are written with a diamond point on plates of iron:  Revelation 21:8 says, "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."  This standard cannot be washed away by playing dumb.  Without the forgiveness of sins and righteousness through Christ, certainly all would perish for all have sinned.  Instead of working to scrub out God's laws, may Christ wash our hearts clean through repentance and faith.  The law is good when used lawfully.  How good God is, to wash our sins away!

Humans Made to Hunger

"They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; ¹⁷ for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

Revelation 7:16-17

It's hard to imagine living without hunger or thirst.  Because our bodies need food and water for survival, we have been created to desire what we need.  After the fall of Adam and sin passed to all men, our desires have been tainted by sin.  Instead of drinking for the health of the body we have descended into drunkenness, and our appetites have led us to gluttony and all manner of excess.  Even though it is not a sin to eat or drink, after we are glorified in heaven we will no longer hunger or thirst.  We will be able to eat and drink but it will be voluntarily, not out of necessity.

When God created man, He created man without sin.  Yet in His wisdom, God saw fit to create man with a hunger and thirst within him.  Adam experienced a physical hunger and thirst.  But it went far deeper than that.  Adam hungered for love, acceptance, and companionship.  Adam and Eve both longed for knowledge and significance - before they chose to sin.  In trying to satisfy their hunger with the fruit from the forbidden tree, they hungered to be as God.  After their willful rebellion against God, man's insatiable hunger has continued to gnaw at him continually.  Man lusts after control, power, possessions, honour, and everything else the world can offer.  These are all deceptive foods.  All of what we hunger and thirst after in this world is actually found in a relationship with the Living God by faith in Jesus Christ.

Humans hunger and thirst by design.  Unlike brute beasts, we are not governed by uncontrollable instinct.  God has given us His Word, a conscience, and a will of our own.  We can choose the foods we put in our mouths and the drinks we put to our lips.  We can decide what we will place before our eyes or what we will listen to with our ears.  Above the din of this confused world Jesus says in Isaiah 55:1-3:  "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. ² Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. ³ Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you-- the sure mercies of David."  Jesus is the giver of Living Water, water that will quench all thirst for eternity.  Jesus is the Bread of Life, bread that if a man eats he will live forever.  All our hunger and our thirst can be swallowed up in the satisfaction and contentment found only in God.

John 6:35 records this truth so we might read, believe, and receive:  "And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst."  You were made to hunger and thirst.  Find satisfaction and rest in Christ!

Light Without Heat

We've been experiencing record-breaking heat in Sydney of late.  Last Friday the Sydney CBD went over 45 degrees Celsius!  The hot breeze fueled over 100 fires throughout New South Wales that burned simultaneously.  We are seeing temperatures hotter than ever recorded in Australia.  After one of our hot days, during my nightly reading I came to this passage in Revelation 7:16 which ministered to me on multiple levels:  "They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat..."  The Bible tells us that after the final judgment the heavens and earth will pass away.  God will create a new heavens and new earth with no need for the sun.  Revelation 21:23 says of the heavenly New Jerusalem, "The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light."  Jesus is and will forever be the light of the world.

On earth, it is understood that the sun is our chief source of light.  It is also the earth's major source of heat.  But in heaven, things will be different.  We will no longer be sunburned or uncomfortable under the heat of the sun.  As far as I know, all the light sources that utilise combustion or electricity grow warm or even untouchably hot during and after use.  When God is our sole source of light both in the physical and spiritual realm, no longer will we be scorched by the sun.  Did you know that God spoke light into existence on earth before the sun?  After speaking the world we know into existence, Genesis 1:3 reads "Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light."  We read that in six days God created the heavens and the earth and on the last day He rested:  seven actual 24-hour days.  This is nothing for God to do.  He could have created all things in less than a blink of an eye, but in His creation of the universe He chose to utilise the seven-day week as it remains until today.  We know this because after each day it reads, "Evening and morning were the first day."  It was not until the fourth day that God made the sun, moon, and stars (Gen. 1:14-19).

So the next time you feel the searing heat of the sun upon your skin or experience the uncomfortable pain of a sunburn, know that it will not always be so for those who are born again through repentance and faith in Christ.  For those who die in their sins, however, they know nothing of the heat they will experience forever, separated from God in the outer darkness being consumed in the undying flames of hell.  Jesus expresses this truth over and over in Mark 9:43-48:  "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched--⁴⁴ where 'Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.' ⁴⁵ And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched--⁴⁶ where 'Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.' ⁴⁷ And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire--⁴⁸ where 'Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'"

Heaven and hell are both real.  It is only through Jesus Christ we can live eternally in heaven, where sun and fire cannot scorch us.  Hell was designed for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:31), yet man chooses to go there if he remains in sin.  The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our LORD.  How great that life Christ offers is far beyond our natural ability to appreciate.  It is a perfect life, life as it was intended by God:  free from sin, death, pain, sickness, and the deceptions of this world.  It is a life governed by love, grace, righteousness, and goodness.  It is a life in the presence of the eternal God, who created us, sent His own Son to die as a sacrifice for us, has washed us clean, and adopted us as sons, making us kings and priests unto Him.  He will provide light without darkness, light without heat.  He indeed makes all things new!

Miserable for the Right Reason

I started reading Spiritual Depression by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones today, a collection of his sermons preached on causes and cures of depression from a biblical perspective.  He has a lot of good insight on a tricky topic.  One thing I read today that I found especially relevant and wise is this:  "You must be made miserable before you can know true Christian joy.  Indeed the real trouble with the miserable Christian is that he has never been truly made miserable because of conviction of sin.  He has by-passed the essential preliminary to joy, he has been assuming something that he has no right to assume." (Spiritual Depression, Lloyd-Jones, pg. 28)  So true.

It is safe to say that everyone in their lives will face degrees of misery over seasons of their lives.  Some might be due to a troubling event or a physical illness.  This misery can range from an itchy sunburn to the death of a loved one, a breakup or even losing a valued possession.  Misery can be fleeting or chronic.  Everyone faces obstacles and difficulties which could potentially bring much misery to our lives.  Yet there is also misery of a spiritual kind:  a conviction of sin and the unbearable weight of condemnation.  For much of my childhood I had a belief in God.  Though I had faith in the Word of God and the power of Jesus Christ to save, even into my early adulthood I found myself powerless over several sins which kept me bound.  It was not until I became miserable in my sin and was broken because of my terrible offense before God that I found deliverance through repentance.  Misery was the path to reconciliation before God and empowerment by the Holy Spirit.

It is a rare thing today, to see people miserable because of their great sin before God.  There is no shortage, however, of miserable people!  Most people are miserable because their prime focus is on themselves.  Their eyes are blinded by unbelief.  They are disappointed and frustrated with the circumstances and the people in their lives.  They lust and covet and cannot obtain.  They are miserable due to sin, but they cannot see it.  In their eyes, they are miserable because their desires remain unfulfilled.  Only God and the conviction brought through His Word can open our eyes to this truth personally.  Those who have been most miserable in their sin are the least likely to return to that vomit.  They also seem to be among those greatly used by God in His service.

Dr. Lloyd-Jones speaks of miserable Christians:  "They are in the realm of the Church, and very interested in Christian things; and yet when you compare them with the New Testament description of the new man in Christ you see at once that there is a great difference.  Indeed they themselves see that, and this is often the main cause of their depression and their unhappiness...They take up Christians biographies and read the lives of various saints who have adorned the life of the Christian Church, and they admit at once that they are not like them...They read books which are meant to give instruction about the Christian way of life, they attend meetings and conferences, always seeking this something which they do not find.  And they are cast down, their souls are cast down and disquieted within them." (Spiritual Depression, pages 24-25) Lloyd-Jones observed that people who feel this way often have never felt themselves to be sinners.  They know they are sinners in an almost theoretical sense, but have not felt it in a personal way.  They have never been buried under the weight of conviction and guilt and felt they would die unless they were somehow relieved.

That is where the Gospel of justification by faith in Christ comes into play.  I believe we can make the mistake of offering the peace and consolation of the scriptures to the selfish and unrepentant.  We make a great error to rush them to the cross for salvation before they had been brought to absolute misery by their sins.  They cannot appreciate the love, grace, and sacrifice Christ has made for them.  Somehow they feel they deserve such love.  Praise the LORD it is not my job to make someone feel guilty!  We are called to speak the Word in love, and the Holy Spirit will open the eyes of the blind.  He is the One who convicts and judges in righteousness.  Unless a man is under conviction, he cannot repent.  And when a man is without repentance, salvation through faith will elude him.  That is why God gave us the truth of His Word and the Holy Spirit to convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment along with our conscience.  After we have been freed from the miserable weight of guilt through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, we have fulness of joy.  Miserable circumstances will come and go, yet we are more than overcomers through Christ.