Don't Play The Goat

    As some of you know, we have a few goats on our farm. Some month ago we bought a sheep. We hoped that the sheep and the goats would get along together. But the sheep was not accepted by the goats. The sheep has been here for a number of months, and she is still isolated from the goats. A couple of weeks ago we bought a male goat for breeding purposes. Right away, the goat was accepted into the small goat herd. Meanwhile the sheep is still ostracized. There is a good lesson here about spiritual things.

  Jesus told His disciples "If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out it, the world hates you." John 15:18-19.  Jesus  compared believers to sheep and unbelievers to goats. Matthew 25:31-33. So hopefully you can see where this is going.

  Goats and sheep don't mix. Neither do Christians and the world. We are different by nature. The Christian is born of God with the Spirit living within him. They are a new creation in Christ and so they love different things. Christians have different goals, ambitions, and purposes. We belong to a different family, kingdom and country.

   The world loves darkness and sin. They belong to the kingdom of darkness. Since they love darkness, they hate the light. They have no love for the true God. Men and women of all religions and beliefs can find some common ground. They all belong to the same family and kingdom. But there can't be fellowship between the sons of darkness and the children of light.

     A Christian must expect to be excluded from the world, like my sheep was excluded by the goats. We may be friendly with them and even enjoy their friendliness. But there is a world of difference between us.We don't mix well like oil and water or sheep and goats. If you can have deep friendships with unbelievers, if you can have no problems being partners together in some enterprise, if you are comfortable at the parties of the world, if you don't feel out of place in worldly discussions, then you have a problem.

    Christians that can feel at home among the people of this world have a problem. They may be weak spiritually and have an unhealthy appetite for the things of this world. These sheep act too much like goats to be an offence. But they are in great danger. For in this case the Christian is like a sheep among wolves who will tear them to pieces. These kind of sheep may not even be sheep. They may be goats that only pretend to be sheep at times.

   A Christian who lives a godly life, will be despised by the world. A healthy sheep is one who evangelizes the lost, who stands fast on truth in life and doctrine, and who lives for a heavenly purpose and kingdom. If you do this, you will shine in the darkness, and the darkness will run from you or try to snuff you out. When this happens, it is a good sign. Rejoice and be glad for great is your reward. So don't act like a goat, be a good sheep.

And by the way, we sold our sheep recently. Since it would not eat with the goats and it had to dig through the snow to find grass, we felt that it was time for it to go. Thankfully we found a good home for the sheep, with some other sheep friends. But I don't think there is any spiritual lesson to this part of the story.

Brad

Spiders And Sin

  Imagine for just a moment a scenario. As you walk into one of the rooms of your house to pick up your baby, you see a spider between you and your child. As you look closer, you realize in horror that it is a black widow spider. This poisonous spider is now moving closer to your child. What do you do? Hopefully you won't run away screaming or freeze in terror. You wouldn't want to scoop up the spider and let it play with your child. The best thing to do is to stomp on the spider and crush it to death. No mercy, no kindness, just a swift and gruesome death. You don't take chances with deadly spiders.

   While it is considered wise not to make pets of poisonous creatures like black widow spiders, yet when it comes to something more dangerous in the spiritual realm, people are very foolish. Sin is a poison. It is destructive, deadly and life threatening. Consider what is the destructive force of sin. Pornography devastates marriages, your spiritual health and countless lives. It is a black poison. Anger can destroy families, friends, and businesses. Gossip can destroy a whole church. Pride ruins souls and leads them into hell. I could list many other examples like drunkenness, gambling, slander, and laziness, but I think you get the point. Sin is destructive like a hurricane or a deadly poisonous spider. So don't take chances with deadly sin, kill it quickly.

  The truth is people by nature like sin. They make it their pet and invite it into their homes. People cuddle and feed their pet sins. Even when it bites them, people will often return back to their poisonous pet. Yet in the end their pet sins will destroy them. Even as Christians we can make a pet of our sins. Instead of seeing sin as some poisonous spider, we see it as if it was some harmless puppy or kitty cat. We may play with sin and dabble in it a little. We know it is dangerous, but our sinful flesh is strong and still wants us to hold on to the sin. We need to look at sin not as a nice puppy but a poisonous spider. We should become sin-crushers.

     This is what God calls us to do. In Colossians 3:5, we are told to "Put to death what belongs to your worldly nature."  How do we deal with sin? Put it to death! Don't have mercy on it. Killing sin is painful, difficult and dirty work. It isn't easy to kill what your flesh loves. But why would you want to keep something more dangerous than a black widow spider in your life?

  Killing sin is hard but thankfully God has given us some weapons to help us finish the job. We don't kill sin in our own strength. The Spirit of God lives in His people to give them the power to stomp on their sin. So we should pray about specific sins, calling on God to help us kill them. The Spirit uses His word to renew us and help in the fight. It is not enough to kill sin, but we must "put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, accepting one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another." Col 3:12-13. And even when we fail, there is forgiveness and grace through Jesus Christ.

 There is not enough space here to get into all the details of putting to death sin. But I hope you will see sin for what it is, a poisonous and deadly thing, and deal with it ruthlessly in God's power by stomping on your sins.

Brad

The Christian Test: Part 3

This will be the last post about assurance of salvation. I have been trying to show from the Bible that there are certain questions we can ask ourselves to determine if we are indeed saved and so gain an assurance of our salvation. In the last post we saw there must be repentance, faith, obedience, the work of the Spirit and answered prayer in the life of a Christian. Now without further delay, here are the next traits of a Christian.

1) Do you love other Christians?

 A true Christian loves Jesus Christ. The one born of God will love God and will love those who are His children. 1 John 5:1-2. Jesus Christ loves His church. He suffered and died for her. And so a Christian will love the church as well. "The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brothers is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes." 1 John 2:9-11.  Consider also this verse, "If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen." 1 John 4:20.  It is not enough to say that you love your friends at church. But do you love all of those born again because God loves them and saved them and adopted them into His family; the same family that you are now part of? Do you love Christians who disagree with you on points of doctrine and practice or are not very lovable at times? Do you love the church where ever she may be found and seek to do her good? If you truly love God and have been born of God, you will seek the good of His church.

2) Are you disgusted with worldliness?

"Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves, the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John 2:15. The world is the collective mass of sin and error of the people in this world. It is the kingdom of darkness over which Satan rules. The world's values, habits, beliefs and pleasures are seen on the movie screen, on TV, on the magazine rack, in liberal churches, in Buddhists temples and so on. Can you love sin? Can you love worldly wisdom? Can you be at home among ungodly friends?  If so, then there are some serious problems in your life and you may not be a Christian. Christians reject the world. The philosophies of this world are repulsive to the believer. The humor and entertainment of the world is nauseating. The Christian will walk against the grain of society, because he loves God, and truth, and holiness, and seek after His kingdom and righteousness first of all. "You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God ? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." James 4:4.

3) Are you persecuted for the sake of Christ?

   A Christian will hate the world, but the world also hates the Christian. The world loves darkness and hates the light. Since Christians are of the light, the world will hate them and persecute them. "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." 2 Timothy 3:12. Cain killed Abel. Why? "Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous. Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you." 1 John 3:13. And so this has been the case from then until now. The children of Cain hate the righteousness of the children of Abel because it bothers their consciences and condemns them. "This is the judgement, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed." John 3:19-20  Have you suffered for Christ? Maybe you have not been tortured or put in prison. But have you been excluded from others because you are a Christian? Have you been mocked or insulted because you bear the name of Christ?  Have you been slandered against because you are of the Light? Have you shared in the sufferings of Christ? If you have, you can be sure that you are part of the Kingdom of Light. The more godly you will live, the more people will hate you and the more joy and assurance you will enjoy.

 This is the end of the Christian test. I know it wasn't exhaustive, but I think I covered most of the questions. If there was something I missed, let me know. A good resource is  the book 'Biblical Doctrines' edited by John Macarthur and Richard Mayhue. See pages 649-653.

  Hopefully, after looking over these questions, you will gain greater assurance. If you did, then praise God and continue to make your calling and election sure. But if you don't see these qualities in your life, then maybe you aren't a Christian. Or you could be an immature Christian who needs growth. I would advise you to talk to a mature Christian for further counsel.

Brad

Praising the Wrath of God

We sing of God's love and grace. Songs are written about His mercy. People praise His holiness. But how often have you praised God for His wrath against sin? As I worked through Isaiah in my morning devotions, I came across these verses:

 "Look Yahweh comes from far away, His anger burning and heavy with smoke. His lips are full of fury, and His tongue is like a consuming fire. His breath is like an overflowing torrent that rises to the neck. He comes to sift the nations in a sieve of destruction and to put a bridle on the jaws of the peoples to lead them astray." 

Isaiah 30:27-28 

( I am quoting from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, which I just received as a gift.)  

 Isaiah uses some very vivid language here to describe the wrath of God against Assyria. But this wrath of God is toward all who are sinners as well. Maybe that is why we don't praise God for His wrath or talk about it much. I have yet to see Psalm 5:5 on a frame in someone house. "The boastful cannot stand in your presence; you hate all evildoers." Psalm 7:11 has yet to be written on a Christian greeting card. "God is a righteous judge and a God who shows wrath every day." Now this is understandable, but still we need to think more of the wrath of God. For if we praise God for His holiness then we should praise him for His wrath. His wrath is only an expression of His holiness. His black wrath against sin brings out the glorious light of the good news in Jesus Christ.

Last week I was listening to the radio where it was reported that a violent and perverse man was allowed to go free even through he was likely to commit the same offence. On this radio program, people called in to express their outrage and frustration at this injustice. No one called to defend the criminal. If anyone did, I am sure there would be much anger directed to them. It is right and noble to  be angry at this crime and the injustice. If sinful unsaved people are rightly allowed to be angry over injustice, then why not God? I think this anger over injustice in people is a small reflection of the anger of God over sin. Every sin is an infinite act of injustice. Every sin is a horrible outrageous act against a good God. If God was not angered by sin, He would not be holy or good. We should be thankful that God is angry at sin and will punish it. Praise the Lord for His wrath on sinners.

 The problem for us, Christians, is that we are still sinners living in a sinful world. For us to praise the wrath of God against sin, would mean we need to praise God for His wrath toward our sin. We kind of like our sin and our commitment to holiness is not so firm. We get used to sin. We have very dim perceptions of the holiness of God. Thus we have a hard time seeing how black and evil sin is. We are so accustomed to sin that we trivialize it. We are slow to put to death our sin. So we have a hard time with the infinite wrath of God against sin. But it is good for us to understand and praise the wrath of God. For it will help keep us from a low view of sin. It will help us to desire to be rid of sin. How could I sin, when that sin makes an infinitely holy God angry? Thus we need to spend more time in God's word to teach us who this holy God is.

Here is another motivation to forsake our sins. Jesus Christ suffered the infinite wrath of God that we deserved so that we could be forgiven and counted as righteous. If God the Father unleashed His wrath on His beloved Son to redeem poor unworthy sinners who will never fully understand the depths of this sacrifice, shouldn't those sinners hate those sins that still cling to them? For us to hold on to sin is as gross as someone who keeps a rotten corpse in the house. Or it is as unthinkable as keeping the bloodied knife that killed your friend in a display case. If we love Jesus, we will hate sin and remove it from our lives. 

      What love the Savior has for such poor sinners that He would drink the full cup of the wrath of God on their behalf! 

-Brad