The Terror of the LORD

One of the things I have been musing about for a while is the fact God nor His Word has changed from the beginning.  But from books I have read, sermons I have heard, and conversations I have shared I have observed it seems the view of God by His people has changed greatly even in the last hundred years.  Perhaps the depiction of God from the pulpit has changed.  Maybe the truth of God's Word has been watered down like gulag gruel.  The fearsome aspects of God's character have been carefully glossed over:  His terror, ferocity, and infinite power.  It was in 1741 when Jonathan Edwards delivered the masterful and incredibly fruitful sermon titled, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."  The views of many in the church today struggle futilely to reconcile an angry God with one of love.  Yet this is exactly how the Bible describes Him.  If I cannot see God the way scripture reveals Him, then I must admit I do not know God as I ought.

The thought has crossed my mind recently that the modern view of God is more a caricature than according to His true character.  Years ago I remember going to an amusement park and walking past the booth where caricatures are drawn.  Pictures of well-known celebrities were plastered across the walls, recognisable yet drawn intentionally with ridiculous facial disproportion.  Jay Leno's chin was way too large and Michael Jackson's ever-transforming angular nose was far too small.  Madonna was sporting her classic microphone and coned bra while Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler looked like he could eat his entire miniature body with a single chomp.  Maybe because of the "fire and brimstone" and guilt-mongering styles of preaching in the past the modern church has gone too far in the opposite direction.  The caricature of Jesus emphasises his regal grin, long hair, white robe with blue sash, and nail-scarred hands.  He hugs lambs and cavorts with children, hardly the picture of the conquering ruler we read of in Revelation riding on a horse with His robe dipped in blood.  Jesus held children in His arms and blessed them.  He also is depicted as a valiant warrior, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.  By some Jesus has been emasculated to a point where it is impossible to imagine Him conquering nations.

Man is a master of making a god out of his own image.  It should be expected people therefore tend to cling to a perception of God they see as comforting and non-threatening.  The truth is this:  even professing believers might be more comfortable with idolatry than the reality of God as revealed through the totality of scripture.  That should make us very uncomfortable!  That is one reason why the misconception of an "Old Testament God" and "New Testament God" is prevalent.  There is one God and He is the same throughout scripture.  The Old and New Testament hold forth varying degrees of aspects of God's character.  Because the Old Testament contains the Law, one sees an added emphasis on the righteousness of God and the penalty for sin.  But God was as much a God of love, grace, and mercy in the Old Testament as the New.  His grace is a constant throughout.  The New Testament ushers in the New Covenant through the Gospel and shed blood of Jesus Christ.  We are taught that God loved the sinners of this world so much that He sent His only Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.  We are also told that the Day is coming when Jesus will also judge this world according to righteousness in the fierceness of God's wrath.  Unless He was gracious, none would survive.

Psalm 7:11 reads, "God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day."  Only gross wickedness allows wickedness to continue unpunished.  Justice demands satisfaction.  God's love is revealed through making a way for all men to be purified and delivered from the power of sin at work in them.  1 John 1:9 affirms, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  God paved a way to eternal life for all sinners with the blood of His own Son.  When Jesus died on the cross, the sins of the world laid upon Him, He once for all satisfied the righteous requirements of the law.  Those who reject the Gospel will face the just wrath of God for every sin they have committed.  The greatest sin of all is trampling the pure blood of Christ as an unclean thing, the sacrificial Lamb of God lovingly provided so all might be saved.

Does the thought of God being angry make you uncomfortable?  It should.  I think if God would pull back the veil so our eyes might behold His majesty and glory, the very cells of our body would scatter in all directions out of fright!  We would do more than merely kneel and tremble!  Writing to Christians in 2 Corinthians 5:9-11 Paul says, "Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. ¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. ¹¹ Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences."  Let me ask you:  when is the last time you heard a sermon on "Knowing the Terror of the Lord?"  There is something about terror that makes a man persuadable.  Tyrannosaurus Rex is known as the "Terrible Lizard," and the God who designed and knit him together is far more terrible.  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, but fools hate instruction - especially from the Word of God.

What do you know of the terror of God?  Paul said in Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."  Paul also knew firsthand the terror of the LORD.  "Phobos" is the word used in 2 Corinthians, the root of the English word "phobia."  Unlike the word "phobia" which suggests an "irrational fear," the fear of God is most rudimentary and sensible.  Those who do not know or believe in God cannot fear Him any more than a fictitious mythological figure.  But as Christians who are convinced of God's reality and infinite power, we should fear and reverence Him.  For those who believe the fear of God is an antiquated, Old Testament and ignorant view, I beg you reconsider.  Jesus says in Matthew 10:28:  "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."  Hear Him!

If we do not know the terror of the LORD, how can we persuade men to repent and be saved from the wrath to come?

When the Wait is Long

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life."

 Proverbs 13:12

Waiting is a facet of life few people enjoy.  The western culture of today is under-girded with the idea that quicker is better.  We don't feel like waiting and we don't believe we should have to.  Yet in the Christian life we find that God is not in a hurry.  I would like to take short-cuts concerning my sanctification, but God is pleased with what appears to us to be the long, often very long way.  Waiting provides opportunity to trust.  How many times in scripture do we see God reveal something divinely to His people and then wait years to bring it to fulfillment?

Moses believed while he lived in Pharaoh's house that God would use him to deliver the Israelites from slavery.  It was not until he fled Egypt and tended his father-in-law's flocks for 40 years that God gave him directives from the burning bush.  Even after he obeyed God and went to Egypt it seemed everyone was against him:  Pharaoh would not let the people go, the Israelites were angry that their labours were increased, and it seemed at times like it would never happen!  But God was faithful to His promise.  Moses had to learn to wait.  God told Noah that He would cause rain to fall from heaven and flood the earth.  It was 120 years later when the raindrops turned to a torrent when the heavens opened and the depths were broken up for 40 days and nights.  One of the longest waits fulfilled according to scripture was for the promised Messiah.  Throughout the Old Testament, God said He would send an anointed One to save His people from their sins.  That prophecy was fulfilled thousands of years later when the Father sent Jesus Christ born of a virgin and the Holy Spirit to be the Saviour of the world.

How God rejoices to use the crucible of waiting to refine us!  He puts a desire in our hearts, over time we learn to embrace this desire as His plan for us, only for Him to draw it out seemingly for an eternity.  We become heartsick as our hopes remain unrealised.  We wonder when God's Word will be fulfilled and toy with how He might fulfill it.  Satan delights to shoot arrows of doubt and unbelief at us.  God is good to make us wait.  Sometimes the desire God puts in our hearts can even overshadow our view of Him because of our feeble, shortsighted flesh.  I find that when I am burdened with disappointment or impatience it is because I have allowed my gaze to wander from Christ and onto the unfulfilled promise.  It is only when my eyes, heart, and renewed mind are fixed upon Jesus that I see the promise is still valid and unshakable.  Even after this realisation the waiting goes on and on.  God has many more lessons for those who are patient to heed them.

When I allow my hope in anything other than God to rise up, the fall is inevitable.  This world will let us down.  People will fail us, but God never fails.  Jesus is like the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden.  Even as those who ate from it would live forever, those who partake of Christ through repentance and faith will never die.  Our bodies will someday perish, along with fleshly hopes and pursuits, but our relationship with God will last forever.  If we look for life in anything other than Christ, it will become old, dull, and empty.  Only in Christ do we find life refreshed day by day.  Show me a man who is perfect in patience and I will show you one who has learned to wait upon the LORD.  There's nothing wrong with a long wait.  It makes the fulfillment that much sweeter and precious.

A Done Deal?

Have you ever watched the show "Deal or No Deal?"  At the beginning of the show, a contestant picks a case without knowing the contents.  Hidden within the case is an undisclosed amount of money.  To play the game, other cases must one by one be opened.  The "bank" will make offers to buy the case the person has chosen.  If revealed cases contain large amounts of money, the offer will be very small.  Conversely, if the large amounts remain the offers from the bank become more and more lucrative.  The whole game hinges on the fact the contestant does not know the amount contained within his case.  If he knew that little bit of information it would completely dictate his every decision.  There would be no stress or hard decisions to make.  If you knew your case contained $200,000, you would never entertain an offer for less.  It would be relaxing to play the game because you know how it will end!

There is no shortage of people in this world whose lives resemble a game of "Deal or No Deal."  Even as the person playing the game does not know exactly what is in their case, most people live a life of uncertainty.  They are not sure what happens after life on earth.  They are not certain there is a God, heaven, hell, or absolute truth.  They do not even know if they have a soul!  It is sad when people are content to remain agnostic when God has provided absolute truth in the Bible.  People can be deceived to think, "Since I'm not sure about these thing I don't believe anyone could be sure."

Life is not a game because there is much more than money at stake.  What we believe and how we live in this life determines where we will spend eternity.  All men will either spend eternity in the joyous, glorious presence of God in heaven or in everlasting torment in hell.  What if I was to tell you that we can know what case we're holding?  There are even professing believers who are not entirely certain they are ready for death.  The Bible informs us we do not need remain in suspense concerning the certainty of our salvation, nor should we!  1 John 5:11-14 reads, "And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. ¹² He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. ¹³ These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God."  One of the reasons the scriptures were written was so we might know that we have eternal life, and that eternal life is only found through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.  Heaven cannot be earned but is a gift received by the grace of God.  On the flip side, we know that the wages of sin is death.  The soul that sins shall surely die (Ezekiel 18:20) and be separated from God for eternity.  Praise God that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our LORD!

Are you worried that you might not be headed for heaven if you died tonight?  Why continue to live with uncertainty, fear, and worries when God has provided assurance through the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?  Lay the words of Jesus Christ to heart as He speaks in John 3:16-18:  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. ¹⁸ He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

Hasn't the LORD Been Good?

Do you ever sit back in awe of the things God has done in your life?  I remember going to a youth camp and pastor Chuck Smith led us all in a song that I learned over the course of the days we spent there:  "Hasn't the LORD been good to us?  Hasn't the LORD been good?  He's done all the things that He said He would.  Hasn't the LORD been good?  So love God, hate sin, reckon the old man dead.  Love God, hate sin, and by His Spirit be led."  I want to testify that God is good and has been so good towards me.  He has been true to His Word and has never left or forsaken me.  As I think back through the long road we have traveled together, I am absolutely amazed and struck with how awesome God is.

God has done things in my life that I never imagined.  Even ten years ago I would never have imagined God would have called me to be a pastor, took me out of my trade, brought me into the ministry, led me and my family to sell our home, and moved us to Australia for the purpose of pastoring a church.  All these steps in my life were unknown to me even as I moved towards them.  But God knew.  Along the way He opened my eyes to the fact that His hand was upon my life, guiding and leading me to undertake things I never thought possible.

I remember working in the back yard of my new house and praying.  God said clear as anything:  "You will preach, and you will be sent."  At the time I had no aspiration to be a pastor or preacher.  I honestly did not want to be a pastor, and I didn't want to go anywhere!  I was happy; I was comfortable.  I was active in a church leading a home fellowship and serving in various ministries.  It began with willingness, and God caused willingness to give birth to desire.  I finally embrace the idea that God had called me to be a pastor and to teach His Word.  But how would this happen?  When?  Then the waiting began.  Had God not divinely revealed His plan concerning the call to pastoral work, I would not have needed to wait on God.  It seems the more He reveals to us, the more we are called to wait in expectant anticipation of His answer.  Instead of fretting or worrying about the details, God equips us to place our situation in His hands, content and at rest.

Last night I read chapters of the Luke account which highlighted events of the life of Jesus Christ.  After Jesus was baptised by John to fulfill all righteousness, Luke 2:23 tells us that Christ was about 30 years old when He began His public ministry in Israel.  I remember well conversations Laura and I had about me quitting my trade of 10 years and entering into full-time ministry at our church.  We knew that if I were to quit my job and be supported by the church, my wages would be diminished to the point we might have to sell our home.  It was one thing to give up foreman status, benefits, and wages:  it was a more difficult choice to part with the house we had renovated.  But God brought us to a point we were able to give our home into His control.  We were willing to step through the door if and when our church invited us into the ministry.  The day finally came!  Though my wages were nearly halved, God enabled us to keep our house by supplying students who rented a room.  God was gracious and good to supply all our needs.

Consider the grace of God!  I put in a written notice and left the trade for the ministry.  I remember my last day at work, carting all my tools out of Nassco and handing in my identification badge.  It was a surreal moment.  But the most surreal moment of all occurred when I walked up to the church building for the start of my second career.  Would you believe that my first day of work at church, a Monday, just happened to be my 30th birthday?  When I read that passage last night about Jesus entering public ministry at the age of 30, it sent a thrill through my heart as I thought back.  God had plans for Jesus long before He entered the public eye, and He has plans for you and me.  We cannot see the big picture with our limited sight and little faith, but we can know God is working to accomplish the plans that concern each one of us.  God has not forgotten you.  He certainly remembers His promises and will be faithful to fulfill His Word.  1 Corinthians 15:58 says, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."

Instead of lamenting what God has yet to do, consider the wonderful things God has already done.  It will lift the clouds of doubt as the Son shines through.  Hasn't the LORD been good to us?