W. A. Criswell defined teaching (from the pulpit) as “instructing a man in the will and ways of the Lord,” and preaching as “seeking to drive a man’s will God-ward.” There is a raging debate today over how much freedom people really have. A renewed fascination with Calvinism has brought this debate to the forefront. I’m not opening the whole can of worms here - just this one point. Preaching should be directed to the will of a person. Decisions count.
If you carry Calvinism as far as many, you’ll begin to say that there is no free will or free agency with man. This morning I read from Spurgeon’s evening sermon from December 27th, 1874 called Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth. Spurgeon never started a sermon softly. The second sentence declares “This every Christian minister must do if he would make full proof of his ministry, and if he would be clear of the blood of his hearers at the last great day.”
What Spurgeon said just moments later, however, issues a clarion call for addressing the will of our human hearers…
Remember, dear hearers, if the preacher does not push you to this–that you shall be converted, or he will know the reason why; if he does not drive you to this–that you shall either willfully reject, or cheerfully accept Christ, he has not yet known how rightly to handle the great ’sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.’
We all do what we want every moment of the day. We make choices and decisions that impact eternity and preaching that does not appeal to the will of man fails to satisfy the expectations of the Great Commission. In case you wonder where I stand on the issue of God’s grace and His role in our salvation, I agree just as strongly with what Spurgeon said later in the same message:
The Lord alone must save you as a work of gratis mercy, not because you deserve it, but because he wills to do it to magnify his abundant love.
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The sovereignty of God is an ever-mysterious issue that we must struggle with and come to terms with as we seek to have an understanding of God’s role. Salvation is all of Him and not of us at all. But there is a receiving, an accepting of Him that must be decided in the human heart upon the call of one sent with the gospel.
Preach to change the mind. Preach to move the emotions. And preach to drive the will of man God-ward.
Find Spurgeon’s Expository Encyclopedia at Amazon.com
I must confess, as a Baptist, it took me a rather long time to come to understand the healing nature of God. We Baptists, as Adrian Rogers put it, “believe in miracles, but trust in Jesus.” I still believe this is best. But I also freely admit that in our reaction to the extremism of “healing evangelists” like Binny Hinn and other obvious hucksters and false prophets, that we have a tendency to write off all supposed healings as a mere charade.
Scripture, however, clearly teaches that the Great Physician, through His miraculous touch, heals the bodies of many people. Such was the case for the entire camp of Israelites in the wilderness when they reached the bitter waters of Marah. I’m inclined to believe that these poisonous waters made many of the people quite ill. So God steps into the picture, sweetens the waters, and heals the people. So He reveals to them another title for Himself - Jehovah who heals you.
Fast-forward about fifteen hundred years to Matthew, chapter fifteen. A Gentile woman comes to Jesus and His disciples, begging for a demon to be cast out of her daughter. I am especially moved by her form of worship. First, the text declares that she “cried out to Him, saying, ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! My daughter is demon-possessed.’” Amazingly, “He answered her not a word.” She chases God and He delights in the pursuit. She was apparently persistent for the disciples asked Jesus to dismiss her, saying, “for she cries out after us.”
Jesus continues to stonewall her by explaining that He was sent with Israel as His first priority, so why should He perform miracles for a Gentile woman? His remaining just beyond her reach is really an attempt to lead her on in her pursuit of the Almighty, and of course it works. “Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, ‘Lord, help me!’”
Instead of responding to her cry, Jesus argues that He really shouldn’t be casting such great miracles before the dogs of the Gentiles. She wisely continues her pursuit, presenting a responding argument that as a dog, she’ll gladly take the crumbs that fall to her. What a great lesson she teaches us. Our worship must always have a heartfelt ring of “Whatever, whenever, however God, just bless me!” to it. So He gives in and heals her, thrilled at her great and faith-filled pursuit. Oh, for such demanding hunger that argues with God for His blessings!
In the next paragraph, Matthew records for us that multitudes came to Him and were healed, “so the multitude marveled when they say the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.”
Jesus is the Great Physician, the mighty Healer of the children of men. I find it sad how we overlook the miraculous nature of God. We like to bring Him down to our level. “Well, you know I just think that in modern times, He heals through modern medicine…” Yes, He invented all of it and yes, He uses it, but let us never forget to look for the miraculous and to ask, to beg, to plead for His blessing.
I had a conversation a couple of years ago with a good friend who used to sit under my preaching every week, but who had moved to another town, gotten married, and attended a church of a different denomination. He related to me the story of a funeral that he attended. As he watched the mourners pass the casket to pay their last respects, his heart cried out within him, “Why did nobody ask God even once to heal her?”
Our answer, as good traditional Baptists, might be, “Well, it was just her time, it just wasn’t God’s will to heal her.” Though my friend and I may not agree on all things, I support his question. Why do we no think to ask, to beg, to plead with a worshipful heart to the Almighty Healer to perform miracles. I don’t believe He will always heal, for people do get sick and die, but shouldn’t we at least ask Him?
The theological argument that has arisen from this issue relates to the atonement, and whether or not physical healing for all of God’s people was purchased at the cross or not. I think it’s a moot point either way. The cross proves He heals in the ultimate way, spiritually and eternally. Healing didn’t necessarily have to be purchased, in the sense of a financial transaction, by His atoning death. He was already able to heal, but His atoning death was the ultimate picture of the great work of an Almighty Physician to heal the diseases of the spirit, the soul, and the body.
I think we have naturalized God and have forgotten that He’s a God of tremendous power, who is overwhelmed with compassion, and who desires to give unspeakable peace and joy to His children. He is just as alive and well today as He was in the days of Moses and Jesus. As the old song puts it, “He is able to deliver thee!” So ask, pray, beg, be an intercessor, anoint with oil, believe that He will work miracles, but ultimately trust His decisions no matter what.
“As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: So the Lord alone did lead him,… To me belongeth vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.” -Deuteronomy 32:11-12, 35
Isn’t it amazing that God can be both the mother eagle, caring for her young, and also the awesome God who takes vengeance on those who reject Him at the same time? It isn’t in our natures to be like God, so it’s difficult to understand, but notice that in the very same chapter of the Bible there is a picture of God as Provider as well as a picture of God as Destroyer. The first passage describes Him in His tender care for Israel. The second passage was the text of Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
This is our God. He’s the One who knew us before the foundation of the world, set His affection upon us, brought us into the world, provides for our needs, protects us from the enemy, grows us spiritually, and secures us in Christ for all eternity. But He’s also the One who cannot leave sin unpunished, created a lake of fire for those who sin against Him, and who will someday sit upon a throne in final judgment. If I’m His child, He’s my caregiver. If I’m His enemy, He’s my ultimate Judge.
What is God to you? Your Father? Your caregiver? Or is He your Judge, the One who will take vengeance on your life? He has a right to punish our sin, so He did so in Jesus for all who will look to Him for salvation. Look to Him today, and live!
“By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.” -Proverbs 16:6
We all want mercy when we’ve messed up, but we rarely want truth, but it is truth that really keeps us clean. Because of God’s mercy, He forgives us and wipes the sleight clean. But by speaking His truth to our lives through His Word, we are kept clean. We often make the assumption that when someone shows us mercy, they should then refuse to speak harshly with us. God handles our iniquity otherwise.
Remember the woman crumpled at Jesus’ feet who felt the mercy of God as the men dropped their rocks? Jesus then gave her a word of truth - “go and sin no more.” God’s mercy says, “Yes, I forgive you, but you’re going to have to change.” And it is in hearing these harsh truths from God that we revere Him and therefore, depart from evil.
Most of us want to be “off the hook” but we don’t want to learn anything from our experience. God, however, wants to change us through His truth so that we fear Him, and so that we depart from the evil of our pasts.
“Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshipped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.”—Acts 16:14 (NKJV)
Sometimes we fall into the trap of accidentally humanizing the miraculous. When a person is born again, for example, we deduce that they simply turned to the Lord strictly out of their own volition. The Scriptures clearly indicate, however, that salvation is a work of God in the heart. It is a miracle! No one could be saved if God had not decided to give His Son and open the doors of heaven. In the same way, no one could be saved if God had not sent His Holy Spirit to convict, convince, and convert the heart.
Let this truth bring great joy to your heart. If you’re saved today it is because of the miraculous working of God in your life and in your spirit. As Paul put it, “you were dead in trespasses and sins… but God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us… made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
When you witness to others, invite the Holy Spirit to work actively in their hearts. Knowing that salvation is a miraculous work of God should move us to depend on Him more through prayer than ever before. And when you see someone coming to faith in Him, rejoice over watching the miraculous take place before your very eyes!
“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.” –Psalm 51:1-2
King David had committed adultery, murder, and had concocted a cover-up that lasted for a year. In God’s timing, Nathan the prophet came to the King with those stinging words. He told the King a parable of a rich man who oppressed a poor man and the King was wroth. After passing sentence on the rich man (death and four-fold repayment), Nathan then brought the indictment – “Thou art the man.” A year had passed since David’s crimes and no doubt the guilt and shame had taken their toll. Psalm 51 is the record of David’s confession, cleansing, and renewed consecration.
Notice how David begins, not with his past record of goodness nor any other merit in himself, but rather calling upon the merciful nature of God. “According to thy loving-kindness: according to the multitude of thy tender mercies…” David knew well that God was a merciful God. Mercy is a part of God’s nature just as love, holiness, and power are part of His nature. So David begged forgiveness because God is forgiving.
The specific ways in which David asks forgiveness provide a wonderful basis for prayer today. First, blot out my transgressions, which means to erase the record of my breaking of God’s law. Second, wash me from the ways in which I have fallen short as a launderer would vigorously beat a stain out of a garment. Third, cleanse me from the disease that makes me so different (and separate) from God, just as the priest would pronounce a leper cleansed from leprosy.
How can we trust God to forgive? Because of what God has said about Himself… “And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…” (Exod. 34:6-7)
“And they found Adoni-bezek in Bezek:… and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. And Adoni-bezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.” (Judges 1:5-7)
The Buddhist idea of karma teaches that “what goes around comes around” and that all is equitable in the universe. Christianity agrees that all is equitable in God’s economy. However, what ought to come around to us has come around to the cross that we might be forgiven, spared, and spoiled by God’s mercy and grace. There is, however, still much truth in the old adage, as King Adoni-bezek learned the hard way.
He had spent his days in cruel and tyrannical oppression over his people. He confessed at the end of his life that he once maimed seventy kings and humiliated them in front of his own dinner guests as a sign of his pride and power. Now, through the advancing nation of Israel, God was exacting revenge for his crime. Not only was God delivering the promised land to Israel, He was in the meantime using them as His instrument of judgment against the wicked and idolatrous Canaanites.
Because Adoni-bezek lost his thumbs and his big toes, we can learn the big lesson that cruelty has a way of coming back to us. God always remains righteous as He judges sin and though we may not always understand His ways, we can trust that He is a just and fair judge. He is displeased with unecessary cruelty toward others and He handles vengeance in such matters. If you can’t learn this lesson then perhaps God will someday say to you, “I ‘toed’ you so!”
”And (God) said unto (Lot), See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken.” –Genesis 19:21
Lot is what we might call a lukewarm believer. Though Peter calls him “righteous” (2 Pet. 2:7-8) he obviously had made some serious compromises of his faith. He had spent many years living in Sodom and yet had won no one to Christ. His sons-in-law laughed at his message of judgment and his wife looked back toward the city of sin and was turned into a salt statue. Nevertheless, Lot was an intercessor.
When God’s anger was aroused against the cities of the plain, Lot prayed for a small town called Zoar. We know that Zoar wasn’t a nice neighborhood not only because of God’s intention to destroy it but because Lot fled the city later on for fear of his life. But Lot prayed that God would spare this city and God responded.
We live in times of great moral testing and wickedness. We live in a nation that often values the wrong things and excuses sin, even laughing at that which is vile and rebellious. But God desires to show mercy to America and He’s looking for prayer warriors who will stand in the gap for the land and cry out for God to spare the nation so that others might hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Why not pray for your nation, for your city, your neighborhood and even your household today?
