To Love God - sermon notes

In case you haven’t noticed yet I often preach things that I need to learn.

Jonathan Edwards, a great preacher of the period in American history known as the Great Awakening, said in his sermon entitled, “The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners,” that;

There is a great deal of difference between a willingness not to be damned, and a being willing to receive Christ for your Savior. You have the former; there is no doubt of that: nobody supposes that you love misery so as to choose an eternity of it; and so doubtless you are willing to be saved from eternal misery. But that is a very different thing from being willing to come to Christ: persons very commonly mistake the one for the other, but they are quite two things. You may love the deliverance, but hate the deliverer. (1)

(1)   Jonathan Edwards, “The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners,” www.jonathan-edwards.org, (accessed 7.16.2014).

So people can love the idea of being saved but really have little regard for their Saviour. I am wondering how many Christians truly love their deliverer.

I need to learn how to truly love my Lord, love my Saviour, love my Creator.

Moses said to the Israelites and had written down for posterity;

Deuteronomy 6:4 ¶  Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 5  And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

And God told Moses to also tell the people;

Leviticus 19:18  Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

The Lord Jesus Christ reaffirmed when a lawyer asked Him what the great commandment in the Law was;

Matthew 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38  This is the first and great commandment. 39  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

What does it mean to love God with all of your heart, soul, and mind, and as Mark recorded in Mark 12:30 Jesus as adding, with all thy strength?'

What does the very first principle of the Christian life entail? Do we have a complete understanding or one that just satisfied our mean-spiritedness in that we’ve done enough by doing what God has said to do and not doing what He has said not to do and condemning other people who fall short? Or is our understanding limited to merely reverence or awe so we can put God on a shelf and take Him down and dust Him off on Sunday to satisfy our desire to justify ourselves and feel holy?

We can find verses to limit ourselves to a definition that makes us feel justified if we want.

But what about a complete understanding of what it means to love God, one that doesn’t violate the spirit and intent of what the Holy Spirit has given us through the men who wrote the Bible?

In one aspect God is our parent. As Paul noted in quoting a pagan poet;

Acts 17:27  That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: 28  For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

We are His offspring? In the form He took as a man, the Lord Jesus Christ, fully man and fully God the Old Testament also talks about how we are His offspring. Jesus quoted the first line of Psalm 22 from the Cross to direct us to it. In that Psalm it says.

Psalm 22:30  A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.

How do you love a parent? How is that love expressed? Well, there are several things that seem to follow the profession of love for someone who gave you life and sustained you in your helplessness. 

The first evidence of a love for God I want to talk about is obedience. Moses said to the Israelites;

Deuternomy 7:9  Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;

See how and connects two like things; loving God and keeping His commandments?

Jesus confirmed;

John 14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.

It is kind of interesting how Jesus defined the essence of the Law given to Moses in those verses in Matthew and then capped it all off with a new commandment that affirmed the essence of the old ones.

John 13:34  A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Just think about those verses again in Matthew 22, Mark 12, John 13 and 14. Christ’s commandment for us and our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ is so intertwined as to be indivisible as John also wrote;

1John 4:15  Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 16  And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

    17 ¶  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 18  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 19  We love him, because he first loved us. 20  If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 21  And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

    5:1 ¶  Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. 2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. 3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 4  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5  Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

 So, let me ask you. Is proof of our love for God, we Gentile Christians, a rote following of the Law given to Moses and our condemnation of everyone else who falls short? Or is the proof of our love for God the love we have for our brothers and sisters in Christ and how faithful we are to the doctrines of Christ; who He is, what He came for, and how we will spend eternity with Him?

 Remember what Paul said about the Law given to Moses?

Galatians 3:23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. 26  For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

Is Christ talking about obedience to the Law given to Moses or obedience in faith to Him? He told the Jews very clearly;

John 6:28 ¶  Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

Now don’t get me wrong. The Law, the Ten Commandments, are very important. They represent God’s standard of righteousness in the sense of the moral laws. That has not changed. But, you aren’t proving you love God, love Christ, by simply saying; I go to church, I tithe, I pray, I read my Bible, I don’t curse, drink, smoke, look at porn or do immoral things, and I vote Republican, and give to the NRA. You could be totally cold to God and do all those things and look pretty good to others who believe like you do. You don’t have to love Him to do those things.

You certainly don’t prove you love God by being mad-as-all-get-out because others on TV do wrong and you think they ought to be exiled to Mars. I’m not saying you’re wrong. I’m just saying you aren’t proving your love for God that way.

No, you prove your love for God, for Christ, loving your brothers and sisters in Christ through Him and believing what He said about Himself.

John 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him…9  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

The first proof of your love for God is your obedience in loving your brothers and sisters in Christ all over God’s green earth and here in your presence and your belief that He is God, your faith in Him, and trusting in His righteousness and not your own to get to Heaven.

The next evidence I want to talk about in showing that you love God is trust.  When I was a small child I completely trusted my Dad. He could do no wrong and I believed that anything he did for me was for my benefit.

Even though I screamed and cried after being spanked I never once thought my father spanked me because he hated me. When he taught me to Box and would beat the living snot out of me I never thought he was being cruel. I craved his attention. One of the things he used to say to me when I was older about what he loved when I was his little boy was me standing in the car seat next to him (this was before car seats when a stiff arm was the only thing between a kid and eternity in a car crash) one of the things was me saying happily, “We has lots o’ time togedder don’t we Daddy?”

I just wanted to be with him and I trusted him completely. If he said it, it was true in my finite mind even if he was fudging the truth a bit like telling me that I got here when a buzzard dropped me on a flat rock and the sun hatched me.

One of the things I’ve loved about my animals; from the Belgian Shepherd named Rinnie who was my companion as a child to my cats in my old age has been their trust. They want to be with me. They expect kindness and gentleness from my hand. And if I must force them to take medicine they forgive me quickly. It is a precious thing to me for my old cat to rest her head on my arm and throw her paw over it, just feeling safe and secure from all alarm.

Trusting God has always been difficult for me. I fear Him. I don’t always think that this or that will turn out okay. I assume that at the end of every struggle or challenge there will be a lot of pain. I am not an optimist. But, God promises things when we trust Him.

First, there is something call perfect peace, something I crave.

Isaiah 26:3  Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

He promises wisdom and guidance if we trust Him.

Proverbs 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Trust isn’t just optimism though. It is accepting that sometimes what God causes or allows to happen to you hurts. The word evil is sometimes used for trouble, disaster, pain, suffering, and calamity.

Matthew 6:34  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

So, here we have an indication of how painful life can be.

Job 2:10  But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

Lamentations 3:37 ¶  Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? 38  Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?

I pray for God’s mercy every day. But, I need to learn to trust Him even when things happen I don’t want to happen.

Job 13:15a  Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him…

Then, there is this scene with the Hebrew young men threatened by Babylonian Emperor Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel 3:14  Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? 15  Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? 16  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. 17  If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. 18  But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

The idea that you may have to trust Him to your death or that while you know He could deliver you from something horrible, He might not, is a terrifying prospect.

Trusting that God knows what He’s doing and that, in the end, He knows what He’s doing in all issues that He allows to happen even ones that rhyme with cancer, car accidents, and your kid having a drug overdose is a terrifying thought, just terrifying.

And yet, He tells us not to worry about anything, to not be full of care;

Philippians 4:6  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

He has blessed us with so much, protected us in so many situations we are not even aware of, and so many times not let us suffer the consequences of what we so richly deserve and yet, in the end we may suffer a great deal. But, we must trust Him. He loves us, He has everything in His power, and we have an eternity with Him waiting on us when we cross death’s threshold.

I obeyed my father, when I obeyed him, because I loved him and feared him. I trusted him because I knew he loved me even when what he did didn’t make me feel very good.

I wanted to spend time with my Dad. How much time do we spend with God? That is another way you show your love for your Creator, by spending as much time in prayer as you can talking to Him and as much time as you can reading His words in his Bible, letting Him speak to your heart of hearts.

History tells us of famous men like John Wesley or George Washington spending as much as two hours per day in prayer. The Bible tells us to be in a constant state of prayer.

1Thessalonians 5:17  Pray without ceasing.

Romans 12:12  Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

When I was a kid we were taught little prayer poems, like some kind of magic chant, I suppose we expected would protect us but I don’t remember much meaning or heartfelt emotion behind them.

“God is great. God is good. And we thank Him for this food. Amen.”

Or;

“Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.”

They would have been good prayers if they were heartfelt and earnest, but they seem pretty lame to me now, being repeated mindlessly each day.

I always appreciate a heartfelt prayer, one that comes from deep inside a person, rather than just something to fill the air when they are asked to pray.

Matthew 6: 5 ¶  And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.6  But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. 7  But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Jesus gave us two model prayers at different times which show just how direct and concise God wants prayers to be.

Matthew 6:9 ¶  After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11  Give us this day our daily bread. 12  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Luke 11:1 ¶  And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. 2  And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. 3  Give us day by day our daily bread. 4  And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

Understand that a temptation can be anything that tries or tests your faith, from sickness to your own sin, while evil is trouble or disaster, even just a bad day but here they are synonymous. A temptation is an evil in that it can call your faith into question. For instance, the pagan Roman or fundamentalist Muslims’ demand that a Christian renounce Christ or die. That is a temptation that they faced and many Christians around the world face daily.

In these prayers we see that God wants to be our acknowledged source of life and safety and peace. Centuries ago common people believed that every moment was a miracle and that God’s hand could be seen in virtually every event, every second of every day, in some way. Then, Isaac Newton and his colleagues came a long and reduced God to a sort of benign first cause. They started looking at everything from its smallest part on up rather than looking at the big picture, looking at God and the majesty of His creation on down.

It did not take long for wicked, sinful mankind to simply remove God as the first cause and blame it all on random chance or just the nature of the way things are without intelligence behind it.

We need to spend more time in prayer, talking to God, and we need to spend more time in the Bible, listening to God, and we need to spend some time in silence, contemplating God. This brings me to the next thing I wanted to discuss with you which, as I said, if you only take this alone without the personal dimension of love and joy you, too, will reduce God to a first cause and then push Him out the door entirely.

The next way we show God our love for Him, the next way it is expressed is in our awe of Him, our reverence of Him, and, yes, our fear.

The Bible says;

Psalm 111:10  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.

Proverbs 1:7  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

What is the fear of the Lord? Shall we spend all our time hiding under a table in the toolshed? The Bible defines itself.

Proverbs 8:13  The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

Proverbs 9:10  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

Paul talks about Godly fear as reverence;

Hebrews 12:28  Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

Psalm 33:8  Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

His name is holy, not something to be spoken lightly or part of a curse.

Psalm 111:9  He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.

What He has done and is doing is beyond the understanding of the finest minds of men.

 Psalm 19:1  « To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. » The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

In the book of Job, when God answers Job out of a whirlwind, He explains that the reality we know and even that we have no experience of comes directly from Him. I’ll just use one part of His declaration to make a point here.

Job 38:25 ¶  Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder; 26  To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man; 27  To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth? 28  Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew? 29  Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it? 30  The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen. 31  Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? 32  Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? 33  Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? 34  Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee? 35  Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are? 36  Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart? 37  Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven, 38  When the dust groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together? 39  Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions, 40  When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait? 41  Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.

In God’s rhetorical interrogation of Job He asks several questions which may seem perplexing to us. In verse 25 a connection is made between lightning and thunder, which we now understand more clearly. Aristotle, as late as the third century BC, attributed thunder to a collision between clouds.  The disturbing, again, implication in verse 25 is that even when there is flooding, God disperses overflowing water as He sees fit. This is a frightening prospect if we consider what the Bible is telling us that even in a seemingly random process God is in control. Did you ever imagine that?

Here, God speaks about how He causes all things, even where man is nowhere around to witness the things. It rains in places where man is not to soak the parched ground and cause plants to grow that man will never see. Think about this. From the dense forests of Borneo to the jungles of Brazil there is life and there are events happening that we will never know about experientially. There are things happening a million light-years from us that we have no knowledge of now or at any time in our lives. Man is not the measure of all things as the Greek philosopher, Protagoras said. The universe God built for Himself. We are a part of His plan. But, we are not the only part.

Verse 28 places God squarely as the author of every drop of dew. Think of that. Imagine it, if you will. Every snowflake, the ice on a pond, the frost on the ground, all of it, every microscopic piece of it created by God, not just the result of a random process, an, “accident of nature,” but a direct execution of divine will. It staggers the modern mind.

The anthropologist, Susan Friend Harding, wrote, “The membrane between disbelief and belief is thinner than we think.” (2) Most Christians in America seem to believe in a caretaker God, like a gardener, watching over life processes and natural events that He can only affect in a minimal way by exerting Himself from outside of the process, by interrupting the process, like a landlord we call on to fix the plumbing in our apartment when it leaks. American Christians, even fundamentalists, can’t wrap their minds around the God presented in the Bible. They can wrap their minds around the God presented in their culture. That God is a sort of manager, or at times a warrior-king, or at times a big brother, and at times even a benefactor, but He is most certainly not the God presented in the Bible who controls every moment everywhere in His universe. He is neither surprised nor at a disadvantage when a thing happens. He either made it happen or permitted it to happen. Period. And that is just and right and as it should be, your fear, your grief, your pain, your discomfort notwithstanding.

God now moves masterfully in His speech to the farthest reaches of outer space, to the nearby atmosphere of earth, and into the human heart, the spiritual heart of understanding, emotion, and reason, to underscore His sovereign reign over the sum total of reality. He even speaks of causing clods of dirt and providing food for wild animals and birds. He does this, Himself. He is the author of it.

This is a different earth, a different universe, than what we are used to imagining. Be honest with yourself, when the snow piled deep in your yard you didn’t think of it being a direct act of God any more than when you started your car did you think that. 

We have lived for several hundred years in a universe we thought was governed by blind forces. The only difference between many Christians and atheists have been that Christians thought there was a benevolent and powerful entity who wound up those forces and who would intervene occasionally to interrupt those blind forces on the Christian’s behalf. Both are wrong. Dead wrong.

(2) Susan Friend Harding, The Book of Falwell: Fundamentalist Language and Politics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000), 58.

Are you in awe of God? Do you bow your head in reverence to the mind, the Spirit, capital S, of such a being? Can you even imagine His thought processes, His reasoning, in the things He is capable of doing and does?

When we think about it we should be stunned. Unbelieving people will tell you that something came from nothing by random chance or rather, a “quantum fluctuation” but common-sense tells you that something does not come from nothing without an intelligent mind involved.

Not only did God create the universe but He holds it together. Unbelievers can not understand why if attraction is based on gravitational pull and that on mass why 99% of the mass of the universe must be missing. What holds it together, they fret? They imagine things they cannot see or experiment on like Dark Matter. But, then they add Dark Energy to the list of things they fantasize about in order to avoid God. And yet, our own Bible tells us what, who rather, holds things together.

Colossians 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

This God who simply is;

Exodus 3:14  And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

…is unbelievably amazing in every aspect. We should be on our faces in complete and utter astonishment all the time. But, we are finite creatures and like a bug or bird we must go about the task of living in this reality. But we are missing out on the most wonderful thing of all, thinking about His glory and who He is.

Finally we should be in awe for the fact, in wonder, that the God who forms stars in the furthest reaches of space looked down into the earth and picked, “a certain man,” or, “a certain woman,” as the Bible so cleverly labels those anonymous people who performed a certain function as a part of God’s will. He picked you to spend eternity with Him. He offered you His unlimited and undying mercy and you received the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior, trusting in His righteousness only and not your own for your salvation and eternal life. But, He loved us first at the Cross, an event so awesome it has boggled men’s minds. The God who created us, this awesome being came to live as one of us, died, paying the penalty for our sins at our own hands, and then rose again for our justification and eternity with Him.

He is simply astounding and there are no words to describe the God of the Bible. If you don’t love Him now I hope you can learn to love Him. It is what He wants from us. Even under the Old Testament Law He wanted to walk with us.

Micah 6:8  He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Obedience, trust, spending time, and awe are some ways we show our love for God in our hearts.

I hope you will consider what I’ve said. It is incomplete as I am sure you can think of other things to say. I just want to love my Lord and to keep that in the forefront of my mind. Christians can get so wrapped up on the doing of things that we don’t stop to contemplate and experience a love for our Creator, our Saviour. God bless you all.

The Gospel according to Luke 1:1-4 comments: Luke, the historian

Luke 1:1 ¶  Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, 2  Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; 3  It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, 4  That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.

Who was Luke? He was the physician who accompanied Paul.

Colossians 4:14  Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.

Luke and Lucas are the same person, being two different forms of the same name as Timotheus and Timothy.

Philemon 1:24  Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellowlabourers.

Luke wrote in an educated style and did the work of an historian. When someone says they have studied, for instance, the American Civil War or the history of the Federal Reserve Board in our time they usually mean they’ve read other people’s opinions and accepted those opinions if they agree with them, rejecting those they don’t. But an historian regards eyewitness accounts, testimonies and writings as paramount to getting at the truth, not just someone else’s opinion.

He or she collects many testimonies and sorts through them, considering what has been confirmed by other eyewitnesses. We believe that this was all done under the direction and guidance of the Holy Spirit, the wisdom given to Luke by God, to give us what God wants us to have.

The twin doctrines of inspiration and preservation are very important to our faith and are usually discounted by those who do not believe. First, God gave wisdom and understanding to the men who wrote our Bible and then to the churches that preserved those writings down through the centuries, filtering, eliminating, and consolidating what was written. Preservation means that the action of God was not limited to the original autographs like fundamentalists and evangelicals like to believe.

First, the Bible is given by inspiration and just what is that? It is not word-for-word dictation.

Job 32:8  But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.

What is understanding? Words linked by and are typically synonyms.

1Kings 4:29  And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore.

And so, inspiration is also wisdom.

2Peter 3:15  And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;

Often these words were written down by a third party, an amanuensis, as the giver of the words spoke them, moved by the Holy Ghost, the very mind of God.

2Peter 1:21  For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Now that Luke feels his understanding is perfect or complete (see Colossians 4:12 for a definition of perfect as complete) on the entire matter of what happened he writes to an acquaintance or friend named Theophilus. Luke’s writing doesn’t end with his gospel. He wrote the Acts of the Apostles as well.

Acts 1:1  The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

Theophilus is a name that means, “lover of God.” While Luke was writing, perhaps, to a Roman official who was a Christian by the use of the epithet most excellent the Holy Spirit was writing to all believers. This account is for you.

2Corinthians chapter 13 comments: Paul's closing remarks

13:1 ¶  This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. 2  I told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, if I come again, I will not spare: 3  Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you. 4  For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. 5  Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? 6  But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.

Paul likens his visits and letters to the Corinthians to eyewitness testimony. He gives a warning to those who are still engaging in the sins he has warned about. Apparently, some there keep questioning Paul’s spiritual authority. He tells them to examine themselves, to be self-critical. Do they have Christ in them? He assures them that he and his fellow-ministers do.

As these letters and Paul’s visits are a testimony to convict the Corinthians of sin so does the Bible serve that purpose as one of its uses. In this regard it is like a mirror we look into and see our faults and our weaknesses. In its characters and in its statements,  it reflects us. If we are not too proud and full of ourselves we can see how God can change us to reflect His will for our lives and His purpose for us.

Reprobate is defined in Romans 1:28 and context as an attitude that seeks to sin, to defy God. Reprobates would imply unsaved persons and as in Titus 1:16 someone professing to know God but in reality a hypocrite. In the only Old Testament reference in Jeremiah 6:30 it is like the refuse that comes from refining silver, the dross in other passages. It is rejected silver. Just think of those with a false profession of faith that Jesus refers to here;

Matthew 7:21 ¶  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Or think of the false ones in the parable of the tares and the wheat in Matthew 13. There were many people, even in those early days, who worked at cross-purposes to God even while professing to be representing Him. Paul had to deal with Judaizers of the Jews and Gnostics of the Gentiles.

    13:7 ¶  Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. 8  For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. 9  For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection. 10  Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which

the Lord hath given me to edification, and not to destruction.

Although this passage is self-explanatory I think it is interesting how Paul reinforces that whether he be harsh or not it is for the Corinthians’ edification not their destruction. This should remind us of the purpose of God’s sometimes hard reality we face. He never wants us to fall but to grow. Notice in the following verse that by its construction God never tests anyone of his people with the intention to make us stumble, with malicious intention.

James 1:13  Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

For tempting as testing see Revelation 3:10 and compare Genesis 22:1 with Hebrews 11:17.

    13:11 ¶  Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you. 12  Greet one another with an holy kiss. 13  All the saints salute you. 14  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen. « The second epistle to the Corinthians was written from Philippi, a city of Macedonia, by Titus and Lucas. »

   

In this final goodbye to the Corinthian church Paul gives a clear statement of what people call the Trinity, the three parts of God, although the word itself is not in the Bible. Here in 14 it is listed as the Lord Jesus Christ, God, suggesting God the Father, and the Holy Ghost.

In the following verse the Trinity is listed as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Matthew 28:19  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Again, in the following verse it is listed as the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost.

1John 5:7  For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

By comparing the word substitution in these three verses we see the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son and the Word by which all things were created as well.

John 1:1 ¶  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.2  The same was in the beginning with God. 3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

There are many references to these three parts of the same God in the Bible; Matthew 3:16-17, Matthew 12:28, Luke 3:22, John 14:26, John 15:26, Acts 1:4-5, Acts 2:33, Acts 10:38, and others. One of my favorites is Romans 8:9 which shows that Christ is God.

Romans 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

The references in the Old Testament are to the plural nature of the Godhead which is in evidence even though God is one such as Genesis 1:26 and 11:7.

In Genesis we have the three parts of God; the Father, the Word by which all things were created, and the Spirit, working together.

Genesis 1:1 ¶  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

    3 ¶  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

This is the end of my discussion on Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. I hope to revisit it again to look for the things I missed on this go-round.                  

An Implacable Spirit - sermon notes

In the religious history of the world given to Paul by the Holy Spirit he lists many things that God gave men and women over to because they turned their backs on Him. One section of this list, one verse, says;

Romans 1:31  Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

What does implacable mean sandwiched as it is between without natural affection and unmerciful?

The word is only used once in the Bible but the Lexicons of Early Modern English Database online informs us that in 1611 it meant obstinate, can’t be appeased, can’t be pacified, can’t be reconciled, and cannot be pleased. Do we know someone in our personal lives, perhaps even ourselves, who is possessed of an implacable spirit?

It is sin and wickedness, not just a personality quirk. It is listed in a long line of things mankind is given over to by God for their rejection of Him. It is something we who are implacable need to repent of, not something that you who are not need to walk around on eggshells because of lest you incur our unreasonable and unrighteous wrath. Let’s read the entire history of mankind’s self-worshipping religious impulses carefully to get a better understanding of what we are talking about in context of unrighteousness.

Romans 1:16 ¶  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17  For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. 18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

    19 ¶  Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23  And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24  Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25  Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26  For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27  And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 28  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29  Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30  Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31  Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32  Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

    1 ¶  Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. 

Paul noted that someone who is implacable is worthy of death. Does that underscore the seriousness of this sin mentioned in context with murder and homosexual behavior?

An example of an implacable person in the Bible is the churlish fool, Nabal, who died of a heart attack of some kind. You can read about him in 1Samuel 25 starting in verse 2 up until his heart died and he became as a stone in 38, dying ten days later.

David did Nabal’s sheepshearers a kindness but Nabal was not only ungrateful he insulted David and would have suffered for his indiscretion had not his wife, Abigail, intervened on his behalf. His response to David’s kindness was the following.

1Samuel 25:10  And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master.11  Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?

We can call him ungrateful, ungracious, arrogant, stupid, and even self-righteous, all symptoms of implacability.

Nebuchadnezzar shows us another side of implacability when he gives his magicians an impossible task, recorded in Daniel, chapter 2, which he knows is impossible and then commands their deaths when they cannot perform. The implacable person you know, perhaps it is you, sets up conditions that cannot be met and no reasonable person expects them to be met. You have no chance of pleasing them and they know this.

In these two examples we have clues as to what an implacable nature is like. It is ungrateful, ungracious, even arrogant, stupid, self-righteousness, and sets up conditions that it knows cannot and will not be met thereby making it impossible to please them, to gain their approval.

Some of us have had experience with a parent who would never be pleased. Nothing you could do ever satisfied them. A child living under those conditions has no foundation in what is acceptable behavior as nothing he or she can do will ever please that parent. It can become a lifetime pain in that child’s heart. It can give them a lifetime filled with anxiety and the doubting of every decision they make with a constant nagging in their hearts that nothing they ever do will ever be good enough. Or, they will just grow to hate that parent and do everything possible to avoid them.

Fundamentalist preachers often misrepresent God as in implacable parent. If you aren’t doing what that preacher wants you to do they will say you are cold towards God and need revival regardless of your relationship with God. They will call you worldly if you don’t have their convictions. They’ll say that you need to ‘get right’ with God when they have no idea of your prayer life or your time in God’s word or how you treat others.

The fact is, while we all need to draw closer to God, He loves us. We can do nothing to earn our salvation or to pay for it as we go. We’re not renting God’s love and in danger of being evicted from His kingdom for not paying. God has already performed all the parts of the drama and we are justified by what He has done not by anything we can do.

Romans 8:31 ¶  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. 34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ephesians 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Titus 3:5  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6  Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;7  That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Now, I am certain we disappoint God at times. It is certain that we can grieve the Holy Spirit and dampen its influence in us.

Ephesians 4:30  And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

1Thessalonians 5:19  Quench not the Spirit.

And while God, who often covers our debts keeping us from the consequences of our sins we commit after becoming a Christian sometimes leaves us to have to deal with our unfaithfulness to Him. But, that doesn’t mean He isn’t joyful when we sing a hymn to Him, pray to Him, or read His word believing. God is not an implacable being. He has placated Himself for His righteous wrath at our sin and He delights in our seeking a relationship with Him. Our faith pleases God. Propitiation is the act of appeasing God for His wrath at sins against Him.

Romans 3:25  Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

1John 2:2  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

1John 4:10  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Hebrews 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

God delights in showing mercy to us.

Micah 7:18  Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.

God wants to show you mercy and He wants to show you His love.

But, the person possessed of an implacable spirit only wants to show you judgment. And this, in spite of;

James 2:13  For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

An implacable spirit is a prideful spirit. The world revolves around them. In fact, the more helpless they seem, the more victimized they act, the more egotistical they are. This is evident in an implacable person who is dominant and oppressive and demanding as it is in one who seems weak and a victim. You cannot please them so they will hurt you physically or you cannot please them so they will hurt you emotionally.

Every glance, every word, every failed action reveals your disrespect for them or an attempt to hurt them. There is no winning with the implacable person.

King Ahab sought counsel from so-called prophets in 1Kings 22. The only condition was that they say what he wanted to hear. He even demanded of a prophet to tell him the truth and then punished him for doing so because it was not what he wanted to hear. This is another trait of the implacable spirit. They only want to hear what approves of their opinion, bigotry, hatred, and prejudice. Any information to the contrary is met with anger and wrath. You can’t win with these people. They are never satisfied with your response unless it is exactly what they wanted to hear. They will demand the truth and then lash out when the truth contradicts their own fantasy.

A person might be engaged in sin or dancing recklessly close to the edge. They will ask you about what they are doing or want to do and even though you might say it is none of your business they make it your business by demanding your opinion. But, when you call them on their sin they attack you for sticking your nose in their business, judging them, or being a hypocrite. It is impossible to satisfy their perverted need for self-justification.

A consequence of an implacable spirit is the infecting of others with the same. A parent, a spouse, or an employer even for that matter, can be so unreasonable that their victim becomes so suspicious and so wary of their dealings with them that they themselves start to doubt everything that is said or done. Everything begins to have a hidden motive represent an unseen agenda. This is a grave result of being oppressed by an implacable spirit.

Now, how do you deal with this implacable, unappeasable spirit?

Some people simply ignore the implacable person. But, you can’t do that if it’s a parent or an employer and you are dependent on them. And it takes a mighty thick skin to keep being told what you are doing or saying is not good enough, never good enough, or worse an attack on their importance, their dignity, or their authority.

Remember before how I said that in Paul’s letter to the Romans, in chapter 1, that implacable was sandwiched between without natural affection and unmerciful?

A person without natural affection shows contempt for those they should love and cherish, for instance, their own family. We don’t need an explanation of what unmerciful is and I’ve spoken at length about how damaging being unmerciful can be. The implacable person is between those two, lacking in the natural care and love they should feel and being unmerciful.

An implacable spirit is caused by an angry heart, a wrathful disposition, and even envy. What has God said about those things?

We are warned not to dwell on our anger, that it surrenders us to the Devil.

Ephesians 4:26  Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: 27  Neither give place to the devil.

We have been warned about the twisted power of envy.

Proverbs 27:4  Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?

These things can rise up from a root of bitterness that we let fester in our hearts. There are warnings about bitterness, the disappointment and anger that comes from frustrated and usually false and unreasonable expectations.

Colossians 3:19  Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.

Continuing in Ephesians, chapter 4 we find;

Ephesians 4:29  Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. 30  And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 31  Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32  And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

Part of the problem is pride, the ultimate sin of Satan. The tyranny of the weak or the dominant personality is that the entire universe revolves around them, their needs, and their desires, their expectations, their frustrations, their disappointments.

Proverbs 16:18  Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

“Who do they think they are? Not showing me the respect I deserve! After all, I’ve worked so hard, given so much, had to put up with so much. I’ll show them.”

Now, that we’ve laid the groundwork let’s take this airplane out of the hangar.

You cannot honestly consider your behavior as glorifying to Christ and evidence of your faith with an implacable spirit.

Are you possessed of an implacable spirit? Are you possessed by it? What does it take to please you? What do other people have to do to satisfy you that their words or behavior are not threatening, insulting, or filled with contempt?

If it is a matter of just showing decent respect and consideration for you then most people are going to fall short. For instance, I hate surprises; surprise parties, surprise visits, surprise anything. But, a lot of people love surprises. They might want to throw a party to show their affection or stop by unannounced when they are in the neighborhood. It is not meant to be insulting or demeaning or controlling or disrespectful even if it makes you feel dreadful. I don’t handle surprises well but go into fight or flight mode.

We who have an implacable spirit tend to be paranoid, ascribing mean motives to people around us. The implacable employer has contempt for his employees. The implacable mother has contempt for her children, sons and daughters in-law, and husband. The implacable father can never be pleased by any action his children or wife take, any words they say, as they all fall short of his expectations, which are always moving away from them.

The implacable pastor is always telling you that you don’t measure up and that you are a big disappointment to God.

So, the next time you feel righteously indignant because someone didn’t show you what you consider proper respect or even just decent consideration or the next time you feel your spouse didn’t show you the respect that even a roommate deserves think about it. Are your feelings truthful, the true result of a hateful and mean-spirited action by another? Or are they a consequence of your own inability to be pleased, appeased, and satisfied?

The next time your employer makes a decision that impacts you negatively was it an effort directed at making you want to quit? Or was it just something he felt was necessary based on the information he had that you didn’t and wasn’t even thinking about you when he decided it?

The next time your neighbor’s dog relieves himself in your yard was it an expression of contempt by your neighbor through his dog or was it just one of those things that really had nothing to do with you at all?

The next time a child spills a glass of milk in the living room was it them showing their rebellious spirit in defiance of you or was it simply a matter of you allowing things in your home that are a disaster waiting to happen and the child wasn’t even thinking of you or anything else, for that matter.

Examine yourself. Then, plead with God for deliverance from the sin that so easily controls you and hinders your relationship with Christ and with those around you.

If you live with a person possessed of an implacable they need your prayers. But, they do not need your acquiescence. Don’t be an enabler. Don’t encourage them in their sin. You wouldn’t encourage them to lie or commit adultery so why help them in their festering implacable spirit that leads to bitterness, envy, and contempt for others? When that implacable spirit rises up it is imperative that you stand against it.

There are many more things that can be said about the implacable spirit having to do with the sins of envy and wrath and other things that God has condemned in our lives but each of them merit a separate discussion. So, please consider this rough outline. Consider what I’ve said and ask God to deal with it in your life.