What Kind of a God? A Brief Rationale of the Gospel.

It shouldn't be too controversial to say that if ANY God is to be worshiped and adored, that God must be worth worshiping.

It might also seem reasonable to say that any God worth worshiping must necessarily be "Good". (In fact, if this were not so, Atheists would not be attempting to demonstrate that God is "Not" good.)

What do we know about someone who is "Good"?

Someone who is Good is not indifferent to pain, oppression, wickedness, or suffering.

Someone who is Good AND possesses Authority will prevent and/or adequately punish those who have done such things.

If God judged "greater" evils (mentioned above), but not "lesser" evils, then He could not be perfectly Good, and would become unworthy of worship, love, or adoration.

Problem -- if God fully judged EVERY wicked thought, word, and deed, His Goodness would be vindicated. But that same Goodness would sweep up our own guilty thoughts, words, and deeds (and us with it) in judgment.

Solution -- Mercy is provided. A choice is offered.

THIS is the Good News: Those who would recognize both the Goodness of God, and their own wickedness are offered a Saviour.

They are offered a Saviour who loved and valued them while they were "still wicked". Jesus Himself was morally innocent, but accepted our guilt. He is worthy to Judge, but submitted to Judgment. He is worthy of Worship, but accepted the Wrath due Our sins.

We can trust in Christ as the one who "stood in our Law-place", and died the death or sins required. We can share the New Life that his Resurrection promises, and (most importantly) we can be Reconciled to God in Christ.

The sin we are guilty of is not simply dismissed, or waved away. It is fully punished in the obscene trial, humiliation, beating, mocking, and crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The Cross is evidence of just how committed God is to remaining Good, even while providing a means of Mercy to sinful men.

Those of us who trust in Christ, stand forgiven. The Holy requirement of justice against sin is satisfied in Christ Jesus. That is why we esteem the work on the Cross so highly. The Christian has been Adopted into the Household of God, and knows the Love of God.

Some, sadly, will fail to recognize the Goodness of God. Others will deny and excuse their own wickedness. These will see no need to embrace God's mercy.

And yet, God will still be Good.

But consider this: a Good God whose mercy has been scorned has only one other card to play.

Righteous judgment of Evil.
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Christ's head, or yours?
When the time comes to account for your sins, where will the judgment fall?

Jesus said (Luke 12):

⁴"I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. ⁵But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.

Moses and our Modern Mandate

The Church Militant.

You don't really hear that term anymore, but there was a time when the phrase itself would stir hearts. Why? What does it mean?

First, what it does NOT mean. It does not mean politically or economically dominating a population and coercing them to adopt your beliefs, customs and cultures. When preachers reduce spreading the gospel to a Coke vs. Pepsi, marketing battle they've got it about as wrong as it can be.

The Church militant is comprised of those people standing upright on Terra Firma, who are standing in the Here and Now, and look forward to the Hereafter. They have been Redeemed by Christ, and do (or should) contend for the faith, to persuade "whosoever will" to trust in Christ.

No armies, no bullets. Just an eternal and infallible Word proclaimed by temporal and fallible men.

Let's look in Deuteronomy 7 for a glimpse of how this looks.

(As you know, today we are not fighting to win territory but the hearts and minds of men.)

Verse 1: When the Lord brings you into the land you are entering to take possession of it and clears away many nations before you (names them) seven nations more numerous and mighty then yourselves...

When ... brings ... are entering... take possession ... clears away

There is no ambiguity in this language. There is no IF, of possibly, or conditional promise. There is a directive, and they have been thrust into it. In fact, at this point, it has already begun, because God ordained that 2 other nations initiated hostilities with Israel, that God could hand them over to Israel. (Deut 2:30-32, 3:1-11) Which can remind us that often when someone picks a fight with us, it's because God wants us to win it.

The Lord is also taking an ownership role in verse 1. He is bringing, and He is clearing away therefore, this promise is not a function of our method, our tactics, our manpower, our budget or whatever else we might trust in. The odds are against us, and that's exactly the way God wants it so He can be recognized as the ultimate architect of the victory. Two Thousand years of Church history with Empires and Ideologies falling like dominoes show us that God is still doing this today.

V. 2 "And when the Lord gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.

Working from the assumption of success prior to the attempt, Moses is telling them what to do with their victory. Defeat them. Destroy them. Do we destroy them today? Not the people, since our battle is for the hears and minds of men. But we must clash with ideas and ideologies. No covenant, no mercy. We do it in the same way that MADD (for example) is aggressively targeting the practice of drunk driving with the intention of thoroughly destroying it. We offer the olive branch to people, but not to poisonous ideas.

Today, the words NAZI and KKK are so thoroughly stigmatized and repulsive that people want to distance themselves from any association with these ideas. That is the objective here.

v. 3 is a warning against intermarriage, and v. 4 explains why: because their children would turn to worship other gods.

Much of Israel's historical problem came from Syncretism. That is, a blending of Jewish and pagan religious beliefs and practices. Not much has changed today. We have imprecise belief, and do-it-yourself theology. We've got golden calves popping up all over the place. We make judgments about what scripture we will or will not accept based on what we assume about God.

What happens when you've become a god-crafter, when you tweak Him to suit your tastes? What is he trying to avoid by putting such a strong emphasis of not merely co-existing with these ideologies? v. 4 goes on to say that God's wrath would include ourselves.

Illustration: your city's rickety apartment block that even the rats and cockroaches have abandoned for safety reasons is scheduled to be knocked down. Signs are posted. Explosives are set. You ignore them and hop the fence in the dark of night, sneak into a bedroom on the top floor, and congratulate yourself on your room with a view. You took up residence in a condemned building, knowing that you risked being caught in the destruction, but ignored the warnings. The building comes down with you in it. Who is responsible? You or the city? You, naturally. That's more or less what this is trying to convey.

(Notice the shift from "I" to "you". God is responsible for verses 1 and 2a. Israel for 2b through 4.)

God gives the solution: BUT...

Doesn't the goodness of God just blaze through that one word?
Danger. Don't go there. Don't cross that line. Stay out of harms' way. I'm going to tell you what you can do to avoid it. Hear me. Heed the warnings.

What does he say we must do?

Break down their altars. Dash in pieces their pillars. Chop down their Asherim. Burn their carved images with fire.

Target the idols and ideologies. Reduce them to nothing. Do not let them hold sway over people. Do not make peace with them or keep them as trophies. Do not adapt them to your culture. If it strives to rival the position and place of God, hunt it down.

Why? (v. 6) Because you are a people holy to the Lord.

If we truly value the righteousness and holiness of God, if the souls of men are precious to us, we do them no favours by playing patty-cake with the very ideas and convictions that enslave them and hold them back from knowing and loving Jesus Christ.

If we saw a child about to drink a bottle of drain cleaner, we would intervene. Yet we see people drinking the spirit of this age all the time, and do nothing. Which has the more far-reaching effect?

Jesus Christ lived the perfect life, and conquered sin, and suffered death, and rose to life eternal, so that we too, could share in His victory over sin, and the eternal life He offers.

The way we participate in the Holiness that makes us His treasured possessions, isn't from keeping score on an ethical check-list. It's by accepting that His death in my place and yours is sufficient to satisfy the same wrath of a holy God that verse 4 warned of, and that his righteousness is freely given as a gift to us. One we can never earn and could never repay. We are not his debtors, but his children, if we trust in Jesus, and turn from our sin.

Christian Imperative

Imperative.

Noun:

-	a command.

-	something that demands attention or action; an unavoidable obligation or requirement; necessity

The Church in the West needs to rediscover the word "imperative".

When we represent the Gospel, we need to be careful not to reduce our must to a mere should.
To moral relativists in our age, we need to speak plainly about what God Commands.

We cannot be shy in proclaiming His message. Simply put, because it is not ours to modify. Where God says Must, we cannot say 'should' without changing the message, and being unfaithful ambassadors of Christ.

Christ has been given all authority.
He has given the same authority to us. Why?
So that when we speak, we have the confidence that we (insofar as we are aligned with his revealed will in his Word) speak with the same imperial confidence.

Policemen do not urge people to reconsider the robbing of a bank. They command the criminal to stop. Why? Because they have been invested with the authority to do so. Furthermore, they have the means to do so.

Ambassadors have a more urgent task. We are to "go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in..." That's no passive invitation. We are to speak from a position of authority, as Jesus, Peter, Paul did.

You Must be born again.

You Must take up your cross daily.

There is no other name under heaven by which men Must be saved.

Whoever is great Must be a servant.

You Must be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

You Must forgive ...

Scripture Must be fulfilled.

We Must obey God rather than men.

We Must not put Christ to the test.

You also Must help us by prayer.

We Must ALL appear before the Judgment seat of Christ...

One who is taught the word Must share all good things with one who teaches...

The list goes on and on and on.

We deny God as King if we cringe from stating plainly what the Author of Creation's imperatives are. We also cheat our hearers.

This is where the congregation needs to have two responses:
1) Recognize our need to pray for our leaders.

We hardly think of Paul as a coward, someone easily intimidated, or someone in need of any encouragement. In fact we tend to think of him as almost superhuman. But remember this: Paul solicited the prayers of the Church. Why? Here's the quote, Eph 6:18-20

To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, ¹⁹and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

Did you catch that? Paul was concerned he might not be as bold as he ought. If he needed these prayers, so do those Preaching and Teaching the Word of God in a corporate service. Pray for them.

2) We need to look inward, and prayerfully check our hearts, priorities and motives.

Are we so jealous of our glory that we are prepared to deny God his? That's called idolatry.

So many people stand ready to apologize (!) for believing some allegedly quirky archaic statements that are "obviously" not "really true" to an enlightened thinker. [How many 'sophisticated' Christians blush when an agnostic asks probing questions about New Testament references to the virgin birth, casting out demons, or walking on water?]

It is evidence of our own unbelief, and a hesitation to put our full confidence on the truth of His word. It illuminates lingering doubts that the detractors might be right. We are unwilling to seem like a knuckle-dragging idiot, and suspicious that we just might be one for believing it.

Jesus spoke about such things.

This is unbelief.
"An evil heart of unbelief," as Jesus termed it.

You need to repent of it. You Must.

And so must I.

New Birth

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. -- John 1: 12 & 13

Have you ever sat down to think about exactly what this means? This chapter has so much good meaty doctrine, that it is easy to scan past these lines without weighing their implications.

These verses depict relationship with Jesus (received Him), and show His authority in redemption (He gave).

Next, we are introduced to the concept of the "right to become children of God." This is an interesting phrase because of the ideas it links together. It does not say the right to be children of God, but the right to become. This subtle distinction places the emphasis not on the ongoing continuation of life as a child of God, but upon the very entry into it. Keep in mind the underscoring of Jesus' divinity in John's gospel, and this phrase makes more sense. This is, after all, the same gospel in which Jesus declares "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man comes to the Father except by Me." This squares neatly with the claim Jesus makes in John 5:21, that he gives life to whom he wills.

To whom did Jesus give this right? It tells us three times: (1) as many as receive him, (2) who believe in his name and (3) who were born. When the author said "believe in his name," what is meant? Five letters in English that together spell Jesus? No, something more. There is a step at this point that only the Holy Spirit can accomplish. We must go beyond simply affirming his divinity, death, resurrection, and ascension. Even Satan can affirm these things, but, clearly, he isn't a child of God. Those who truly believe will be aligning themselves with Him and His word (by thought, word, and deed), and allow Him to dictate the terms of rightly relating to Him, rather than trying to squeeze God into their world view.

If some can possess this right, it follows that some do not. Remember the banishment from Eden? Their purity gone, our first parents entered into toil and death. An angel with a flaming sword gave a sense of finality to their loss of rights previously enjoyed with God, particularly as relates to fellowship. Now, in the fourth gospel, the Son is restoring these rights (particularly relationship) to whosoever receives him.

They were born. This references John 3:3, and echoes 2 Cor 5:17. It is called birth, as it is the entering into life. This entails a life lived differently. There are different values, goals, ideas, purposes, passions that are not somewhat different from the old 'life', but radically and completely antithetical to the worldly way we once lived. By 'old life', I refer to being "dead in our trespasses".

Yes, this text fits the overall model -- believe, receive, confess -- and description of the convert's proper response to both the conviction of sin and the call to faith. He does not, as preachers today would, stop there. He sets boundaries. He explains what the new birth isn't before launching into what it is.

The new birth, sometimes called regeneration, is contrasted to three things which it is not.

1) The new birth is not of blood. You do not enter into life simply by reason of your family or (by extension) community relations. Being descended from Abraham isn't enough. Nor is it enough to be raised in a Christian home, or by being a preacher's kid. It isn't passed down like a surname or title. Similarly, attending a church, Christian school, Christian club, or even a Seminary does not necessarily equate to a genuine inward transformation. This is simply not how this happens.

2) The new birth is not of the will of the flesh. While flesh can mean several things in scripture, one meaning was covered by 'not of blood', and of the remaining uses, only flesh in the sense of carnality, or sin seems to fit the text.

We dare not approach God for any selfish reason and expect he will answer. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4.3) God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. (James 4.6; I Peter 5.5) Repentance is not merely a nice thing to include, it is pre-requisite to receiving grace.

If the reason you approach God is to be accepted in a group, or to assuage bad feelings about wrong behaviour, or to impress someone, or to appear less wicked, or even as a hedge against the possibility of Hell, you have not yet approached God. You remain in your sin and your soul is in peril.

Instead, approach God because, he is greater than we are. Approach him because there is no person, and no pursuit more worthy of our affections. When you do approach him, do so humbly because we have wronged him above all others by our thoughts, words, and deeds. He owes us nothing but judgment, but because of Jesus' work on the cross, he offers us grace.

3) The new birth is not of the will of man. You and I cannot decide one day to approach God. Jesus told us no man comes to the Father except by Him. (Redemption in Christ alone.) But Matthew 16:17 also states the necessity of revelation of who Jesus is by God the Father. We cannot choose today to ignore the call of God to repentance, and delude ourselves into thinking that once we are finished our own carnal living, just one more week-end, just one more shady business deal, just one more day of the shallow pursuits of life, and then turn back to God.

If this has been you, Today is the day of salvation. You have no promise of tomorrow. A man or woman with all this world has to offer, yet without God, has nothing.

What, then is the new birth?
The new birth is of God. It is God calling us to himself. All things are By him, to him, through him, for the praise his own glory. God, alone, exerts his right to give us life. It is the Holy Spirit that convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment. It is God who regenerates the dead soul. It is God who chose us in Christ from before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. He predestined some to be like his Son, and called, and justified, and glorified. None of these things are left to us. He does it. It is offered to you.

Take it, and live.

Babel Revisited

Genesis, very early on, spells out God's intention for man: Man is to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it, exercising dominion. (Gen 1.27,28)

After the flood, this same principle was reiterated. God blessed Noah and his sons, saying "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth."

Fast forward two chapters. Their descendants became numerous. They forgot the commandment to spread out and fill the earth. Worse, they did the inverse. They centralized. They looked inward. They concerned themselves with glorifying their own name, not His. They abandoned their role in the world around them. They built monuments to their own supposed greatness.

In short, they were content where they were.

Why pioneer? That sounds like work. Why leave friends and family? Why leave the familiar behind, and push into the great unknown? Life's pretty good here, just the way it is.

Just enough would have been enough, if we had no one and nothing greater than ourselves to live for. But the ones who wanted to 'settle down' had been commanded to fill the earth, to the glory of God.

God needed to get their attention by disrupting the comforts of life which chained them. True, they would not seem to be chains by those who enjoyed them. Such comforts, however, tend to dull the heart and blind the mind. So, He intervened and scattered them.

What happened in the New Testament?

After Pentecost, people were being added to the Church daily. Like before, they had been sent out. (Here and here.) It was in no way unclear that they were to go.

Read a little further to Acts 8. What happened? Persecution arose. The Church, except for the apostles, were scattered. Net result? Christians were scattered, bringing their faith with them, as they had originally been commanded to do.

How does this help us? We are in exactly the same situation. We, too, have our large buildings. We, too, have our comfortable lives, so clean and orderly. We're busy with paying off renovations on our houses, or the general busyness of life.

We will be forced to choose. We will pursue the plan of God. We will value, and declare His glory. We will spend and be spent in the purpose of God. Or we will face the alternative.

If we push God to second (or less) place in life, if we dedicate ourselves to lesser endeavours. If we make ourselves the center of our worlds, God's pattern will continue.

God has a way of making rebellion unbearable. If we trust in riches, we lose them. If we are proud, He humbles us. If we refuse to associate with "those" people, "those" people may come to us. If we refuse to take dominion, to live out "Thy Kingdom Come ON EARTH as it is in Heaven", in His strength and by His grace, He may give dominion to some tyrant until we fix our priorities. If we start complaining that the world is more worldly than it was, we have only ourselves to blame.

Contrast these to what happened where God saw faithfulness. The Church in Philadelphia was spared the persecution that other Churches faced. They had the right priorities, and God, in turn, honored them. This also showed God's final control over who faces (and is spared) persecution.

Is it uncomfortable enough yet that we are willing to pray with passion? To declare Jesus? To live and model love, and forgiveness, and courage, and selflessness? Are we willing to direct some of our hard-earned-money to a cause greater than ourselves?

I really hope so. That would be so much better than waiting for God to ratchet up the persecution level.