(497) "The Outcasts Received" Sermon: Isaiah 56:1-8 - YouTube
Sunday, May 30, 2021
"The Outcasts Received" Sermon: Isaiah 56:1-8 (manuscript)
“The
Outcasts Received”
[Isaiah
56:1-8]
May
30, 2021 YouTube
To all those who fill the call to
believe – those whom God draws to Himself – God calls His people to obedience
and reveals who these people are.
First, God calls His people to
obedience.
We know this – it is not a surprise
to us or to Jerusalem. God commands us
to keep His commandments.
Jesus says, “If you love me, you will
keep my commandments” (John 14:15, ESV).
“Thus says the LORD: ‘Keep justice,
and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my righteousness be
revealed.’
God tells His people to keep justice.
There are two senses of justice: justice can be impartially punishing of someone
according to the law, or justice can be working to restore someone who has been
oppressed or wronged – it is a restoration of someone.
It is the second sense of justice
that God refers to here. One of the
things that believers are called to do is to restore one who has been
persecuted, wronged, cheated, hurt, and so forth. We are to use the gifts we have in whatever
way we can to make things right for this person.
We remember Zacchaeus – after he
meets Jesus, he says, “And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord,
the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of
anything, I restore it fourfold’” (Luke 19:8, ESV). This is one type of this justice.
And we who believe in Jesus
throughout time and space are called to do righteousness. This means our
actions are to be morally correct – that they are justified – that nothing we
do is out of sin.
For example: if we give a donation to the church, it
should be done privately, quietly, so no one knows it. We ought not to become prideful and say, “I
just gave enough money to do this and that and isn’t the church lucky to have
me?” – that would be sin.
Why should Jerusalem and we believers
seek to be just and righteous? Because
salvation is coming, and God’s righteousness will be revealed.
Peter writes, “Since all these things
are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of
holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God,
because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the
heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are
waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (II
Peter 3:11-13, ESV).
The Exodus and Jerusalem’s
deliverance from the Babylonian captivity are foreshadowings of what Jesus will
do in saving His people and revealing His righteousness.
“Blessed is the man who does this, and the son
of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps
his hand from doing any evil.”
So, the person who keeps justice and does
righteousness is blessed – the one who does these things consistently in the
Name of God is blessed.
The person who is blessed by God
keeps the Sabbath, he does not profane the Sabbath, and he does no evil.
This might surprise us: why would God make a point of naming the
Sabbath as the law to keep or the representative law of the whole law? Might we not think that the first commandment
to have no other gods be more important and more appropriate for a representative
command?
After all, there are plenty of
Christians today who say that the keeping of the Sabbath doesn’t apply to
Christians – that it was for those people before Jesus came. Didn’t Jesus say that the Sabbath was made
for man and not the other way around?
Let’s remember what this law says:
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it
holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a
Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your
son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your
livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD
made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the
seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus
20:8-11, ESV).
The Sabbath – one day in seven – is
to be kept holy. It is to be set apart,
other, different – a day in which our common work is put aside. The Sabbath is the first duty we are given
because it is the day that we proclaim that God is the Creator of all things,
and we proclaim what He has done through the Servant Savior, Jesus, that we
would be saved. It is the day that the
people of God gather together to profess their belief and to worship together. It is a time of our waiting on the Lord. The
other nations do not have a Sabbath – a time when believers gather together
under a God-centered theology.
As the author of Hebrews writes, “So
then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has
entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his” (Hebrews
4:9-10, ESV).
And, if we are to be obedient
people, we are also to do no evil. We
are not to do those things that God has forbidden, nor are to neglect doing
those things that God has commanded.
God calls Jerusalem and all those
who believe in the Savior throughout time and space to believe all that God has
said and to obey Him and to not do evil.
Second, God receives believers who are
outcasts.
While Israel is in the wilderness,
God tells her that certain people are not allowed in the Tabernacle – and,
eventually, in the Temple. God says:
“No one whose testicles are crushed
or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the LORD.
“No one born of a forbidden union may
enter the assembly of the LORD. Even to the tenth generation, none of his
descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD.
“No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the
assembly of the LORD. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the
assembly of the LORD forever, because they did not meet you with bread and with
water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against
you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. But the
LORD your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the LORD your God turned the
curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loved you. You shall
not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever.
“You shall not abhor an Edomite, for
he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a
sojourner in his land. Children born to them in the third generation may enter
the assembly of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 23:1-8, ESV).
As we continue in our text, it would
seem as though God changes His mind about these people being outcasts – as
their being banned from entering the Temple of the Lord.
“Let not the foreigner who has joined
himself to the LORD say, ‘The LORD will surely separate me from his people’;”
God tells the foreigner that if he
has joined himself to the Lord, if He believes in the One True God and the
Coming Savior, he is not only not separated from God’s people, but he is one of
God’s people.
“and let not the eunuch say, ‘Behold,
I am a dry tree.’ For thus says the LORD: ‘To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in
my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and
daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.’”
To those who have had their genitals
mutilated either in an accident or in a pagan ceremony and are now unable to
bring forth a child, God tells them not to think of themselves as a dry tree –
as dead for their inability. Rather, God
says that if these eunuchs keep the Sabbath – remember we have seen that the
Sabbath is the center and summary of the Law as it shows Who God is, what He
has done, and the end for which all things are created – so if these eunuchs
keep the Sabbath, if they obey God and hold fast to the Covenant – to the
agreement that God made with humanity – they are welcome into the Temple, and
though they cannot have children, they will have an honored name.
Again, God speaks to the foreigners –
some of whom would have be forbidden to enter the Temple:
“’And the foreigners who join
themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and
to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and
holds fast my covenant—these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them
joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will
be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all
peoples.’ The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, ‘I will
gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.’”
God chose a people to be His – holy and covenanted to
God, but some of them turned away and blasphemed against God – which is what
God planned – God was not surprised, and He did not change His Mind or His plan. All things happen according to the eternal
plan of God. God, indeed, chose the nation of Israel to be His people, but He
also chose people from the outcasts – from those who were not of the nation of
Israel. They will keep the Sabbath, hold
to the covenant, and bring their sacrifices to the Temple. God will gather His people from all the
peoples, and they shall worship in His house of prayer.
Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my
own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down
my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must
bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock,
one shepherd” (John 10:14-16, ESV).
Jesus came to save His people from the nation of Israel
and the spiritual Israel – all those outcasts who are drawn to believe in the
One True God and the Savior He sends.
Paul explains:
“They
are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the
giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the
patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is
God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
“But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For
not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are
children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but ‘Through Isaac shall
your offspring be named.’ This means that it is not the children of the flesh
who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as
offspring” (Romans 9:4-8, ESV).
The children of promise are considered offspring of God –
even those outcasts who believe in the Savior, Jesus, for their salvation.
All peoples are called to believe, repent of their sins,
and obey God, having been saved by Jesus as the spiritual Israel – His people. These people include those who believe and
obey – who were once outcasts according to the Law of God.
That being the case, we need to believe that no people is
beyond God’s salvation. In fact, God
will save people from every tribe and nation and people, though we do not know
who they are in this life. So, we
continue to be called to preach the Gospel and the whole Word of God, praying
that each one would believe to salvation.
This is an encouragement to Jerusalem as she prepares for
the Babylonian exile: God has not
forsaken His people. God will even widen
Israel to bring in other members of the spiritual Israel – even some they will
meet in Babylon.
We never know who God will call to faith: John Newton was a slave trader. Charles Watson was a murderer. Chuck Colson was the “hatchet man” for the
Nixon cabinet.
And then there is you.
You still have much racing to do – and striving after holiness. But what were you? What could you have been? If you keep the Sabbath, and keep to the covenant,
and obey the Word of God – even if you were an outcast, if you are one for whom
Jesus died, you are welcomed into the Temple Who is in the Kingdom.
And then there is me.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You that You do not leave us to
our own devices, eternally cutting off those who sin and the outcasts. We thank You for receiving outcasts like us –
peoples of Jesus’ other sheep. Strengthen our obedience by the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Sunday, May 23, 2021
"The Servant's Success" Sermon: Isaiah 55:1-13 (manuscript)
“The
Servant’s Success”
[Isaiah
55:1-13]
May
23, 2021 YouTube
God whets the spiritual appetite of His people in
describing the Kingdom that is to come for all those who believe in Jesus
savingly. Now God turns to speak of
those who should come and those who do come to Him.
First, God provides for His people.
“Come,
everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy
and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”
Does
this sound at all familiar?
Jesus
speaks to the woman at the well, “Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of
this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will
give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will
become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14, ESV).
And
again, “And he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water
of life without payment’” (Revelation 21:6, ESV).
This
Water comes from God Alone through Jesus.
Who is the Water in passages like these?
“On
the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If
anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the
Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now
this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive,
for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified”
(John 7:37-39, ESV).
The
Water in these texts is the Holy Spirit.
All believers are told to come and receive the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit in “greater” measure day by day and throughout all of eternity.
And
those Who receive the Water from the Father and the Son receive Him
freely. We cannot offer anything for the
salvation and the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit – it is a gift of God, not
of works. No one is holy enough to offer
God anything – in fact, we sinners are totally reliant on God and His Grace and
Mercy for everything we have.
“Come,
you are being filled with the Holy Spirit, receive what He gives as He directs
our gaze to our Savior, Jesus Christ.”
God
needs nothing from us, and we have nothing to offer.
And
because we live in the now and not in the before or the not yet, we still sin
and turn away from God. We convince ourselves
that this little bit of tinsel is of more value than the refulgent glory of the
Holy God.
So,
God asks with incredulity, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not
bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me,
and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear,
and come to me; hear, that your soul may live;”
We
are called to love the Lord our God with all of our heart and all of our soul
and all of our strength and all of our mind – giving every part of who we are
to God for His Glory and our enjoyment.
Still, we turn to sin instead and waste our money – we waste our lives,
we raise the question if we have ever truly received – and receive – the Living
Water from Jesus.
God
tells Jerusalem and us that if we eat the good and the rich foods that God
gives us – in the indwelling of God the Holy Spirt – if we listen diligently to
all God says, if we hear Him – and we find listening and hearing God our
priority, we will live eternally.
If
we listen and hear the Word of God and do not turn a deaf ear to Him, but
rather believe in Him and obey Him, we will live eternally in a world without
end.
We
can understand, as Jerusalem begins the long preparation to be taken into the
Babylonian exile, she could find God’s promise of a Kingdom for all a little
hard to believe. So, God points out to
them that God has covenanted with David and his generations that there will
always be a descendant of David on the throne in Jerusalem.
“and
I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for
David. Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for
the peoples.”
And
we might question this agreement that God gives to Israel: is there a king who is a direct descendant of
David on the throne in Jerusalem right now? Perhaps a better question to ask,
as we see the bombs falling on Israel once again, is, where is the throne of
David and his sons?
The
Sanhedrin asks Jesus if He is the long-awaited Messiah, “And Jesus said, ‘I am,
and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming
with the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:62, ESV).
Jesus tells them, “Yes, I am the Messiah, and
not only that, I Am the Sovereign God, and you will see Me return to my throne
next to the Father, having all authority over the Creation, just as You will
see Me return in power and glory from Heaven.
Kings
from the line of David reigned over Israel and died time and time again, until
Jesus came to earth. As the angel says to Mary, “He will be great and will be
called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne
of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of
his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:32-33, ESV).
Jesus
is the legitimate heir and final King to sit on the throne of David, and He reigns
eternally.
And
God chose the send the Son to incarnate and be the Savior of all those who
believe, not just from Israel – but from every nation of the world: “Behold,
you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know
you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, and of the Holy One of
Israel, for he has glorified you.”
God
has provided us with the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit and all we need to
follow God in righteousness, and God chose to make the gift of salvation known
to the world through our telling people the truth we have come to know. And God will draw all those who are His to
Himself, and God will be glorified for choosing to save people from every
nation throughout time and space.
Thus,
God has provided for His people. We are to
grow in faith and obedience and shout the Good News from the rooftops, and God
will draw people to Himself.
Second,
God calls all people to repent.
“Seek
the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the
LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will
abundantly pardon.”
At
the end of the first section, we see that God has called all peoples to Himself
– the Jews and the Gentiles. The Jews –
Jerusalem – is going into exile because she is loitering in the Presence of the
Lord, whereas the Gentiles are running into the Presence of the Lord.
And
so, we have this general call to repentance – which is to all peoples. Seek the Lord now – you don’t know how much
more time there is for you or the world.
Don’t think you can come to God at a time that’s more convenient or when
you are older and have nothing better to do.
No, now is the time for salvation.
The Lord is here now, so the wicked should repent of their ways and the
unrighteous of their sinful thoughts.
Jesus
speaks of the household servants and their master: “Stay dressed for action and
keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to
come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once
when he comes and knocks” (Luke 12:35-36, ESV).
Don’t wait. We don’t know when
the Master is returning. Come sincerely
and piously now. Come as you are but be
prepared not to remain as you are – in Christ you shall be changed.
This
is the message – the call to all peoples – the call to each one of us. And if anyone does come to the Lord and
confess his sin, and forsakes his way, we have the promise that God will have
compassion on him and abundantly pardon him.
What
does this mean for the person who answers the call to repent?
We
are not to doubt but believe that God has lots of compassion. We are to believe that God’s ways are
incomprehensible.
Paul
writes, “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased,
grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might
reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”
(Romans 5:20-21, ESV).
Our
sin is cosmic rebellion against God, and the sin of the unbeliever has him
hanging over the bottomless pit – eternal death – but if he repents and
believes savingly in Jesus, he is met by a grace that is greater than his sin. He is met by the infinite compassion and
willingness to forgive of our God and Father through Jesus Christ.
It
is incomprehensible to unbelievers and believers alike that God has infinite
compassion and forgiveness for all those who repent and believe – like the
father in the parable of the two brothers, whose younger son took his
inheritance and blew it in sinful living, broke down, understanding his sin and
returned to his father, not looking to resume his place with the father, but
merely to be a servant in his father’s house.
But the father runs to his son and restores him and rejoices in him in infinite
joy and compassion and forgiveness.
And
so, we receive what God says here, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither
are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than
the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your
thoughts.”
God
says, “You understand a little bit in repenting and believing in the Savior and
striving to live a holy life, but I am still so much greater than you in every
way, you can only begin to understand what it means that ‘God so loved the
world.’”
God
is sending Jerusalem into the Babylonian exile, but He tells her to repent and
believe in the Savior, and God will have compassion on her and forgive her and that
will leave her mouth hanging open in disbelief and lack of understanding.
But
let us be careful – our text does not mean we cannot understand God at
all. R. C. Sproul writes:
“What
can we know about God? That’s the most basic question of theology, for what we
can know about God and whether we can know anything about Him at all determine
the scope and content of our study. Here we must consider the teaching of the
greatest theologians in history, all of whom have affirmed the
“incomprehensibility of God.” By using the term incomprehensible, they are not
referring to something we are unable to comprehend or know at all.
Theologically speaking, to say God is incomprehensible is not to say that God
is utterly unknowable. It is to say that none of us can comprehend God
exhaustively” (https://www.ligonier.org/blog/god-incomprehensible/)
So,
we can understand God’s call to all people to repent and believe in the Savior,
yet the infiniteness of His compassion for believers and the fulness of His
willingness to forgive believers – is beyond our comprehension.
We
understand that God calls all people everywhere to repent of their sin and
believe in the Savior – and the time to respond is now.
Third,
God sends His Word out and it returns full.
“For
as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but
water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and
bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall
not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall
succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
Do
we hear what God is saying? The Gospel –
Who Jesus is and what He did – will go out through the world and accomplish
everything that God intends it to do.
In
explaining the parable of the sower, Jesus speaks of those who truly repent and
believe: “As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word
and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a
hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty” (Matthew 13:23, ESV).
Listen
again: The Gospel goes out through those
who preach, and God causes the sending out of the Gospel to bear fruit. In fact, everyone that God intends to save
will believe the Gospel and repent. No
one is lost that God intends to save.
The Gospel – the Word of God goes out – and it accomplishes everything
God intends it to accomplish, including the saving of everyone for whom Christ
died.
God
is also Sovereign over the whole Creation.
“For you shall go out in joy and be led forth
in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into
singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”
Here
we have the imagery of the Exodus again – just as God’s people were led out of
Egypt in joy and peace – so in an even greater sense on the last day – we with
the Creation will exit the fallen world and follow God into the restored world
– the Kingdom without end.
In
response to the Word of God going out and the belief and repentance of all
those God intends to have believe, the Creation rejoices. Metaphorically, the mountains and hills break
out into song and the trees clap their hands.
Paul
writes, “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the
sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but
because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set
free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the
children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together
in the pains of childbirth until now” (Romans 8:19-22, ESV).
The
Creation “knows” that when all those for whom Christ died believe and repent –
filling the Kingdom – the Creation will be delivered for its punishment that it
has been under since the Fall in the Garden.
The
Creation will be freed from all of its corruption and returned to its state in
the Garden: “’The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat
straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or
destroy in all my holy mountain,’ says the LORD” (Isaiah 65:25, ESV).
“Instead
of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the
myrtle; and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall
not be cut off.”
All
of the Creation will be restored -- not the animals only, but all of the plants
will be restored as well.
All
this will be a witness to the Lord and His glorious work.
God
provides for His people and calls all people to repent and believe the Gospel, and
as He sends out His Word – the Gospel – it accomplishes everything God intends
it to do – including the restoration of the entire Creation.
Let
us pray:
Almighty
God, You have called a people for Yourself and given them to Your Son. You provide for all of Your people – all each
one of us needs for this day – and You call all the world to belief and
repentance, knowing that some will never believe and repent – some will continue
to hate You. We are amazed at Your work
of salvation and only begin to understand it – and You have given us minds to
hear and read Your Word so we would know You there and in the Creation. We understand that our first parents brought
sin into the world and the world was cursed for their sin. So, we look forward to the coming of the
Kingdom in all its fullness, and we rejoice in knowing that we who believe will
be eternally restored in our bodies, and the whole Creation will be restored as
well. Lord, forgive us for our sins, for
Jesus’ sake, Amen.
Sunday, May 16, 2021
"Blind for God's Glory" Sermon: John 9:1-7 (manuscript)
"Blind for
God's Glory”
[John 9:1-7]
April 3, 2016
Second Reformed Church; May 16, 2021 YouTube
Why
are some children born with "birth defects"? Why are some children born without limbs,
blind, deaf, or with Down's Syndrome, bi-polar, and other diseases? Who or what is the cause of these children
being born disabled -- or "differently abled"?
Jesus is walking along the road with the disciples as we
hear this text.
And
we see first, the disciples held to a false dichotomy.
A
"false dichotomy" forces a choice between two options, when there are
more. For example: Is the sky green or red? The correct answer is neither -- it's blue. Another example would be: Are you dumb or just incompetent? When it may be that you are neither dumb, nor
incompetent.
And
so we read:
"As
he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him,
'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?'”
Jesus
and the disciples passed a man -- an adult -- who was born blind. His blindness was not caused by an
accident. It did not happen later in
life. He was born blind.
The disciples held to the common false dichotomy that if
a person is born with a physical imperfection, it is due either to the sin of
the child in the womb or due to the sin of the child's parents.
Let's consider these options:
One possibility is that the sin of the man's parents
caused him to be born blind.
We can understand this:
if the parents engaged in excessive drinking, smoking, illegal drugs --
even prescription drugs, there is a chance that the abuse -- the sinful use of
these substances could -- cause damage to the child in the womb -- including
his being born blind.
Another biblical expression of the parents' sin bringing
injury to the child is that other sins may be held against future generations:
About idols, God warns "You shall not bow down to
them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation
of those who hate me," (Exodus 20:5, ESV).
And Jeremiah says, "You show steadfast love to
thousands, but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them, O
great and mighty God, whose name is the LORD of hosts," (Jeremiah 32:18,
ESV).
God, indeed, has said that He may punish the descendants
for their fathers' sins.
What about the child in the womb? Can a child in the womb sin and be punished
for sin in the womb?
The answer must be "yes," at least in this
sense: we are conceived as sinners.
David writes, "Behold, I was brought forth in
iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 51:5, ESV).
David
is acknowledging -- not that his mother sinned in his conception -- but, from
the moment of conception, the child in the womb is a sinner, because of the sin
nature we inherit from our first parents.
Adam and Eve were our representatives in the Garden, and they sinned,
and the guilt and the corruption that followed from that sin is borne by every
mere human being. This is what we call
"Original Sin" -- the results of the sin of our first parents is that
every mere human being is a sinner at the moment of conception and, therefore,
under God's Wrath.
Paul writes, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one
understands; no one seeks for God. All
have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not
even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and
bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to
shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have
not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes” (Romans 3:10-18, ESV).
Due to the sin of our first parents -- who were our
representatives -- at the moment of conception, every mere human being is
conceived, in the womb, a sinner inclined towards sin, having a sin nature.
So, God may, indeed, punish children in the womb for their
sin.
This false dichotomy is seen in the way the Job's
"friends" respond to his suffering -- their basic argument is,
"Job, you are suffering horribly, therefore, you must have sinned
horribly." God takes them to task
at the end of the book and tells them that they were completely wrong -- Job's
suffering had nothing to do with his sin.
It is often the way we think in our culture: "What goes around comes around. Karma, baby."
Well, no, not in this life. In this life, some people suffer horribly for
no known reason, and some people get away with terrible evil and do not seem to
suffer at all.
Justice says that if you sin, you should be
punished. But God is merciful and
patient. So God does not immediately
give us the punishment we deserve for our sin -- thank God -- but He is
merciful and patient -- for if anyone repents and believes in Jesus savingly,
Jesus bears the penalty for our sin and credits us with His righteousness, and
we are saved.
The disciples ask Jesus, "Was this man born blind
for his sins or his parents'?"
But the sin of the parents and the sin of the child
aren't the only options, are they?
A third possibility is that, due to the fact that all of
Creation has been corrupted by the sin of our first parents, a child may be born
with an infirmity, not for a sin of the child or his parents, but due to the
general state of the fallen world.
"Everything is broken," as Bob Dylan sings. In a broken world, things are broken because
it is a broken world.
And there is still another possible reason:
We see, second, some children are born disabled that the
works of God might be displayed in them.
"Jesus answered, 'It was not that this man sinned,
or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.'
And we might find that disturbing: sometimes God gives a child disabilities that
God would be glorified in him and through him.
Paul explains it this way:
"But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will
what is molded say to its molder, 'Why have you made me like this?' Has the
potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for
honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show
his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels
of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his
glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us
whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?"
(Romans 9:20-24, ESV).
God can justly do whatever He wills with His creation --
including us.
Do we want to be used by God -- for the Glory of
God? Do we trust our Heavenly Father to
use us in the best way -- in the way that will bring Him the most glory -- and
us the most joy?
Some of us are familiar with the story of Joni Ericksen
Tada. In 1967, the 17-year-old Joni was
swimming, and she dove into the water.
She broke her neck and has been a quadriplegic ever since. She married in 1982. She is a world renown painter, author of over
fifty books, traveler and speaker, CEO of Joni and Friends -- an organization
which advocates for the disabled, and she is a profound, sound, joyful, and
thankful Christian.
One of her favorite quotes is from the Rev. John Newton,
the author of the hymn, "Amazing Grace":
"Some Christians are called to endure a
disproportionate amount of suffering. Such Christians are a spectacle of grace
to the church, like flaming bushes unconsumed, and cause us to ask, like Moses:
'Why is this bush not burned up?' The strength and stability of these believers
can be explained only by the miracle of God's sustaining grace. The God who
sustains Christians in unceasing pain is the same God -- with the same grace --
who sustains me in my smaller sufferings. We marvel at God's persevering grace
and grow in our confidence in Him as He governs our lives." — John Newton
(http://www.joniandfriends.org/jonis-corner/jonis-favorite-quotes/).
Joni lives in extreme and constant pain, but the way she
lives has been an inspiration and a help and an encouragement to those who
suffer in many ways, and God is given the glory, because she says she can only
continue and have hope and bear with her disabilities because God is Glorious
and Gracious.
Would she prefer not to be a quadriplegic? Of course.
But, if her being wounded is the way others are drawn to see the
glorious salvation of God through Jesus Christ, then she is thankful and
satisfied.
We,
as Christians, understand suffering and the Sovereignty of God in a way that
non-Christians don't. We can be thankful
and have joy in great pain and frustration when they cannot, because we know
that God does all things according to His wise plan, and He sustains us now
through all tribulation, and promises to restore us in the Kingdom.
Would
I prefer to have never had sarcoidosis?
Yes. Am I joyful and thankful
that I have sarcoidosis? Yes. Because God has shown me His Grace through my
suffering, and He has turned others to Him and been glorified by them through
what God has done and continues to do through me.
Now, that does not mean that we should not pray to be
well or to seek medical treatment. We
should -- I do. And if it pleases God, I
know He can heal me.
And we see at the end of this passage that it was God's
intention to heal this man of his blindness to bring glory to God and to give
this man joy, thankfulness, and the hope of salvation.
But first, we see Jesus tell the disciples that He has
work to accomplish while He is on earth.
"'We must work the works of him who sent me while it
is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I
am the light of the world.”
What is Jesus telling them?
First, He is telling them that God the Father sent Jesus
to accomplish His miraculous ministry with the disciples during a certain time
limit.
Jesus calls the time of His ministry
"day." He, as the Light of the
World, is shining in the world, exposing the darkness, preaching the truth,
doing those things to break the power of darkness over people -- such as
healing them. All sickness, suffering,
infirmity, etc., is a result of our first parent's sin, and Jesus had a mission
to heal certain people as a sign that He is, indeed, God the Savior.
Second, He is telling them that the time is coming when
He will no longer be physically on earth, and His ministry of healing to prove
that He is the Savior will end.
While Jesus is in the world, He is the Light of the World
-- He exposes people to the Light through His earthly ministry. But that will come to an end -- He will not
always be on earth proving Who He is as the Light through His ministry. Once He is ascended back to the Father, He will
not be on earth again to witness to Himself.
This is not to say that God no longer heals. He does!
But Jesus is not here on earth healing anymore -- and when He returns,
it will not be necessary.
Jesus is telling the disciples that He still has works of
healing to do that will expose Him for Who He is -- and this man was born blind
and lived all these years as a blind man, so the day would come when Jesus
would come by and heal him and make Himself know through healing him.
So, does this mean anything for us? We are not first century disciples. Jesus is at the Right Hand of the Father.
Much like the "Parable of the Good Samaritan,"
we can take this away from Jesus' statement:
we ought not be so concerned with how a person came to be in need as we
are concerned with what may be done for him in Jesus' Name.
Job's friends might have been useful to him if they
looked for ways to comfort him in God, rather than trying to figure out what
the sin was that made him suffer.
We do well to do what we can to help people with
disabilities in a way that they know that what we do is for the sake of Jesus
Christ and His salvation, rather than trying to tell people what their problem
is or what they did wrong.
Finally, Jesus healed the man in a way that revealed Who
Jesus is.
"Having said these things, he spit on the ground and
made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said
to him, 'Go, wash in the pool of Siloam' (which means Sent). So he went and
washed and came back seeing."
Jesus spit on the ground and made mud and spread it on
the man's eyes. Why?
We're not told.
Couldn't Jesus heal the man with a word or a touch?
Yes, we have seen Him do that elsewhere.
Here we are not told why Jesus uses this method for
healing the man -- except, perhaps, that it fit well with the pun that Jesus
wanted to use to reveal Himself.
We will remember that Jesus had been teaching -- again
and again -- that He was sent by the Father to do the Father's Will -- that He
did not come on His own to do His Will, but He was sent by the Father.
Now, some will argue that Jesus' saliva had healing
properties, which is heresy. Or that the
mud was a special medicinal mud, which is highly unlikely. Most likely, Jesus wanted to make this pun:
Jesus -- the One Who is Sent -- sent the blind man to the
pool named "Sent" to receive his sight. The Sent sent the man to Sent to be healed.
And he was -- the man's eyes were opened and he was able
to see.
Jesus
was sent to earth to heal as a means to people understanding that He is God the
Savior. Jesus only healed on earth in
His physical body while He was here.
Although God continues to heal, it is not as Jesus on earth.
There are many reasons people are born with disabilities,
including God's desire to use them with their disabilities to glorify Him.
So, let us pray to find ways to help and encourage those
with disabilities -- especially to give them hope in Jesus and His Gospel. Let us be quick to listen and hear the
stories of those in need and slow to judge the reasons that they have need.
And let us pray that we -- in whatever way we might
suffer or have pain or disability -- would be able to see God's Grace in those
things and know how we might glorify Him through our disability and find joy
and thanksgiving in Him as well.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for this history of the man
born blind -- that You make clear that You are Sovereign over whatever
condition we might find ourselves and that You may even use suffering and
disability to draw us and others to You and to glorify You through those
infirmities. Help us to be patient and
to look to You in hope in all that we live through on this earth. And may You be glorified in all that we say
and do. For it is in Jesus' Name we pray,
Amen.
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Review: "Gwendy's Button Box" (manuscript)
Gwendy
is a teenage girl who is overweight. Her
classmates tease her, and she has had enough.
She is dieting and runs up and down the “Suicide Stairs” for exercise.
One day, Gwendy meets a man who says he has something for
her – a button box. He explains that it
is her’s for the time being. There are
two little cranks – one produces a little chocolate which controls her appetite. The other crank delivers an 1891 Morgan
dollar. The buttons in the box are for
different continents, and then there is the black button. He warns her to be careful about using the
buttons .
So beings the enjoyable novella Gwendy’s Button Box
by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar.
What would you do with a button box?
[This review appears on my blog, my YouTube channel,
Amazon.com, and Goodreads.com.]
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