Hold Fast To the End

When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he said it was not a tedious task to remind and exhort them to rejoice in the LORD.  If it was not tedious or irksome (Phil. 3:1) for him to write as led by the Holy Spirit, it should certainly not be tedious to read and study the same Word so we too might hear God speak.  Because I believe the Bible is proven to be literal God-breathed truth, it is rich and exciting in itself.  I wonder when people are driven to conjecture to somehow make the Bible more interesting, as if it was a dull and boring book devoid of power.  The Bible alone contains the words of life, and there is nothing dull about that!

Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4 with commands, warnings, and exhortations.  He wrote in 2 Timothy 4:1-5, "I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: ² preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. ³ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; ⁴ and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. ⁵ But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."  A day will come when Jesus will judge the living and the dead.  Paul charged Timothy to remain faithful to preach the Word of God - not opinions, conjecture, or stories.  A time would come (and now is) when even professing Christians will refuse biblical truth and be led astray from Christ according to the desires of their deceived hearts.  Regardless of their protests or opposition from the world and the prince of it, Timothy was to keep to the truth of the Bible.  This is a good exhortation for all Christians alike.

I found useful an article titled "A Heart That Burns" by Chuck Smith in the April 2014 edition of Decision magazine.  By God's grace, I know something of what Chuck speaks when he writes:

I get so excited just reading the Word of God.  There are times when I can hardly contain myself, as God's Spirit begins to open up the Scriptures to me.  I can't describe to you just how exciting it is to be taught by the Spirit the truth of God's Word and suddenly have understanding given to you, the Scriptures opened up to you.  There are some people who get excited when people speak in tongues or when people utter prophecies.  I get excited over the Word of God.  Some people get excited over visions or dreams.  I get excited over the Word of God.  "He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures" (Luke 24:45).  That's a glorious gift, when God opens your understanding that you might understand.  And that happens when you're born again. (Smith, pg. 40)

As we progress in our Christian walk, we never lose our need for the fundamental truths of God's Word.  It seems many people in the church seek after experiences and emotional stirring rather than seeking Christ.  They become dissatisfied with their walk with Christ because they have stopped looking to Him to be their all in all.  He was never their God, so a worthless idol easily fills His rightful place.  They are caught up in flavour rather than substance.  When the foundation of Christ and obedience to His Word is abandoned for the slippery sand of personal experience or sinful desire, destruction is the result.  God is not a means but the End.  Jesus said He is the Alpha and the Omega, and His judgments are the only ones that count.  Let us hold fast to sound doctrine as we love one another as Jesus loves us.

Redemptive Value and Divine Exchange

There are rich of blessings for all who avail themselves of God's divine exchanges.  These exchanges must be done intentionally in faith according to God's Word.  I have continued to consider something spoken about in the sermon yesterday at Calvary Chapel Sydney, the fact God has placed redemptive value upon our sorrow, mourning, pain, and depression.  When we commit them to God in faith, He gives us a wonderful blessing in exchange.

God never promised to keep Christians from pain and sorrow in this life on earth.  In fact, Jesus promised in this world we will have tribulation.  We will all face consequences from sin in this world, and our experiences can be bitter indeed.  Though God does not insulate us from sorrow and pain, we are invited to be those who are casting our cares upon Him because He cares for us.  He has not promised to still every storm, but He offers us peace, comfort, and solace in the storm.  Our role is to admit our pain and weakness in humility, and entrust our life, well-being, and our future to Him.

Because recycling yards were conveniently located in my suburb when I lived in San Diego, I would save aluminium cans, plastic containers, and copper scraps to exchange for cash.  The redemption value was clearly marked on the sides of soda cans and bottles.  I would collect these containers until I had a couple bags full of crushed cans and then bring them to the recycling yard to redeem them.  As long as they sat in the corner of my garage they had not been redeemed.  There was cash value in those cans only realised after I loaded them into my truck, drove to the recycling center, separated them, and rolled the carts to the scale for weighing.  At that moment I gave them to the attendant, they were no longer mine.  It was a bit of work, but walking away with money instead of those stinky, sticky cans was well worth it!

Consider the divine exchange God has promised us through the Messiah Jesus Christ in Isaiah 61:1-3:  "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; ² to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, ³ to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified."  Before we are born again, the Bible says we are spiritually dead in sins.  We are bound in iniquity, awaiting judgment and everlasting punishment.  If we confess our sins in humble repentance, trusting in Jesus, we are born again through Jesus.  Our deadness is exchanged for eternal life, and confinement in sin and death is exchanged for freedom and eternal glory.  But that is not the end of the exchanges God offers!

Our hearts of stone can be exchanged for one of tender flesh.  Our blind eyes are exchanged for spiritual perception.  There is great redemptive value in mourning, depression, even our ashes.  Imagine that!  When your best efforts are turned to ash, we can take our failures to God and He will redeem them with unfading beauty.  Are you sorrowful or in mourning?  In exchange God offers comfort and consolation.  Is your heart heavy and laid low through depression?  God will provide in exchange the oil of joy and the garment of praise.  God will not force these exchanges upon us.  We must admit our need, confess our unbelief and lack of faith, and exercise faith in bringing each of our cares, worries, and sorrows to Christ.  When we are willing to part with those things forever and entrust them into His capable, loving hands, then we will receive the consolation.

Don't store up sorrows, pains, worries, guilt, and sadness when God has assigned great redemptive value to each one.  Bring them to the cross, casting your cares upon Jesus.  Once made, you will never regret this divine exchange.  No one has ever thought, "Oh, what I would give to have those cans back again!  To possess those old crusty, smelly milk cartons would be far better than what I received for them.  I used to have quite a collection built up, complete with ant trails."  As long as we live on earth, these exchanges will need to be done as we embrace our sanctification.  Cans pile up, milk continues to be consumed.  The dark corners of our garages and hiding places in rubbish bins start to accumulate.  It is time to cash in on the redemptive value of your cares for God's glory.  Let us avail ourselves of God's divine exchanges, for their value is greater than gold!  

Meeting God's Conditions

Jesus called the temple a "house of prayer" (Matt. 21:13, quoting from Is. 56:7), and when God spoke to Solomon He referred to it as a "house of sacrifice." (2 Chron. 7:12)  Since the institution of the new covenant in Christ's blood, Christians are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19).  This is suggestive of things that ought to mark our lives, even as they did the life of Christ on earth:  prayer and sacrifice.  God does not dwell in temples made with hands, but indwells those redeemed by faith in Jesus Christ.  Consider the implications of believers being the temple of the Holy Spirit as God spoke to Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7:13-16:  "When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, ¹⁴ if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. ¹⁵ Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. ¹⁶ For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually."  Amazing truth, this!

The fulfillment of God's promises often are contingent upon our obedience.  He does not give carte blanche blessings, for His conditions must first be met.  Anyone who has a grave illness, experienced the heartbreak of broken relationship, even a nation which has experienced plague or been ravaged by war, healing and restoration is God's desire.  God has the power to heal people, broken relationships, destroyed cities, and defeated nations.  The healing will come after we - those who are called by God's name, Jew and Gentile who are in Christ by grace through faith - meet His conditions.  It may start with one person, but it will take a people united to bring about this healing God desires for His glory and our good.

There are four conditions given in this passage.  God entreats His people to humble themselves, pray, seek His face, and repent (turn from their wicked ways).  It is possible we can do one without the other.  It is possible to pray without humility, or repent without seeking God's face.  But I say if we neglect any of these four requirements, we cannot bring any of them to full completion.  We can humble ourselves and pray for healing and forget to seek God's face.  What point is there to seek God's face without humility or praying without repentance?  We can make the healing our end when it is simply a means of God revealing His power to the world!  I have been asking myself:  are there any conditions I have not been intentional to fulfill?  We all want the positive final result, but do our souls draw back to fully accomplish any of these conditions?  We must walk in faith, believing that God will not leave undone one word of His promise.

Do you know that as a Christian God's eyes are open and His ears attentive to your prayers?  He has chosen you, with your cooperation will sanctify you, and He has claimed you as His own forever!  It is God who works in us both to will and do for His good pleasure.  Our world is sick and dying due to sin, but take heart in Christ, dear Christian!  Hebrews 10:35-39 says, "Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. ³⁶ For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: ³⁷ "For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. ³⁸ Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him." ³⁹ But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul."

Let us embrace the will of God for our lives by humbling ourselves, praying, and seeking His face in repentance.  The day is coming when our Saviour will return and make all right.  Until then, let's be about His business, providing a temple dedicated to prayer and sacrifice for His glory.

Teaching, Preaching, and Healing

How natural it is for us to value the gift over the giver!  When speaking about miraculous healings performed by Jesus Christ or Holy Spirit-filled disciples, we can miss the point of the exercise of spiritual power.  The healing of the body was not the end but a means:  a means to demonstrate the power of God so He might be glorified.  People can fall into the trap of seeing the exercise of spiritual power as the end, rather than the glory of God.

When we focus on a spiritual gift as an end in itself, we miss the purpose God has in giving and the exercise of the gift.  We are like babies who chew on extension cords, not even comprehending there is power flowing between our gums for a better purpose than our teething.  When Jesus healed a blind man, His disciples asked "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"  John 9:3 says, "Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him."  The man was a sinner just like anyone else.  His blindness was not a punishment from God for sin in his family.  He was born blind so the works of God should be revealed in him.  Healing was a tool Jesus used to prove His redemptive power, divinity, and truth.  It would be a grave mistake to think Jesus just went around healing people without teaching and preaching.  Healing was coupled with the preaching of God's Word.  If someone is healed without explanation, the man who did the healing will be honoured.  Jesus did not come to honour Himself, but to glorify His Father in heaven.

The scriptures connect teaching, preaching, and healing.  Matthew 9:35 reads, "Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people." (Matt. 4:23 also)  What better way to illustrate the power of the Gospel then through healing people?  We see this connection when Peter through the name of Jesus healed the lame man begging at the temple.  After the lame man went into the temple walking, leaping, and praising God, a crowd of curious onlookers gathered.  Seeing the crowd, Peter addressed them concerning the means of this man's miraculous healing in Acts 3:12-15:  "So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: "Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? ¹³ The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. ¹⁴ But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, ¹⁵ and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses."

My favourite verse to show this critical connection is contained in the disciples' prayer after being threatened for preaching in Christ's name.  Acts 4:29-31 reads, "Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, ³⁰ by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus." ³¹ And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness."  Peter, John, and the disciples did not pray for the gift of healing because there were a lot of sick people around.  God has compassion on the sick, don't misunderstand.  But did you see the reason why Peter and the disciples prayed that healings, signs, and wonders would be done through Jesus?  So they with boldness would speak forth God's Word!  I say this is not a primary reason why people want to be healed or see people healed today - that the Word of God would go out with power or that God would be glorified.  Our motives can be far less biblical and even blatantly selfish.  The disciples were described not as going around healing people - though they certainly did - but that they spoke the Word of God with boldness.  God answered their prayer!

God has the power to heal, and it is His will to do so.  When we walk in faith by the Holy Spirit, guided by scriptural motives, desiring God's glory and the promotion of His Word, we will see healing according to His perfect will.  Let's make sure we do not take healing out of the context of scripture and consider God's deep purposes for spiritual gifts.  More than simply alleviating symptoms or improving our lives, healing is a scriptural way to create an attentive audience for the Gospel.  May we with all boldness speak forth God's word as God stretches out His hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of God's holy servant Jesus - not for our enjoyment, convenience, amazement, or honour, but the glory of God.