Seeing the Invisible

“By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” (Heb 11:27 AV)

What a thought!  Moses did not fear what Pharoah could do because God was more real to him that a king who wanted him dead.  One might muse that if we would see a burning bush and hear the voice of God, perhaps we would respond in the same way.  But we have the word of God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  Moses may have seen God.  But we personally can dwell with Him.  Endurance through the trials or challenges of life is directly tied to how real we think God is.  The more real God is, the easier it is to endure.  It is often assumed that Moses fled Egypt out of fear.  Yet the author of Hebrews contradicts that idea.  He did not flee because he feared Pharoah.  He fled because he saw God as more real than the threat that existed in Egypt.

If you think of many of those whom God greatly used, they share this one event as a common experience.  David met with God, and God called him a man after his own heart.  Isaiah saw God.  Elijah experienced the still, small voice.  The disciples walked with the Son of God.  And Paul saw Jesus on the road to Damascus.  All of these people had a personal and life-changing experience with God.  They met Him is a very special way that resulted in a deeper understanding of who and what He is.  In short, those who endure can do so because God is not a mere belief.  God is not an impersonal deity.  God is not an idea.  He is not a force.  God is a person.  He is real.  He exists just as sure as all other things exist.  He is eternal.  His nature is spirit.  His nature does not make Him less real than that which we can discern with our five natural senses.  Just because God is invisible does not mean seeing Him is impossible.  No, the LORD will not come in a vision.  There is no need to.  The word of God and the Spirit of God are more than adequate to testify of His reality.  I’ll say it again.  Those who endure do so because they see a God who cannot be seen.

Seeing the invisible is more than seeing His existence.  Seeing the invisible God is also seeing what God is.  He in all-knowing.  He was from eternity.  There is nothing we will ever experience that He doesn’t already know.  He is all-powerful.  There is nothing He cannot do that is consistent with His character.  God is the master planner, and nothing will frustrate His purposes.  God is all-present.  There is nowhere that we will ever be where God is not already there.  Seeing the invisible God is seeing what He is and not merely that He is.  This is what Moses saw.  BTW, he saw the reality of God before he fled.  Seeing the invisible caused him to flee Egypt.  If Moses did not see the invisible God prior to his flight, he would have seen the burning bush as nothing more than a burning bush.  Once we see the invisible God, then it is much easier to see Him in the things that He does.  Either God exists or He does not.  Whether we perceive Him or not does not determine His existence or nature.  Seeing the invisible is the power behind finishing our course well.

Forgotten For Good

“And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” (Heb 8:11-12 AV)

If verse twelve doesn’t motivate you to shout, then there is something wrong!  This promise is to wayward Israel upon their acceptance of Jesus as their Messiah.  One might ponder why the LORD would be merciful to the unrighteous.  Why not punish the unrighteous?  Are not iniquities to be visited by the judgment of a Holy God?  The thing is, they have been!  When Jesus cried from the cross, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me”, the Son of God testified that the wrath of God the Father was satisfied.  The wrath we deserve was wrought out on the Son of God that we might have forgiveness of sin.  The statement above is a proof that all that God requires for our sin is paid in full by the blood of Jesus Christ.  Furthermore, the passage above is a great verse for eternal security.  The statement above is a prophetical one regarding the future redemption of Israel and the Gentiles.  Note there are no exceptions.  All will come to know Jesus as Messiah and Savior and thus all will be forgiven.  This happens only once in all of human history.  At the beginning of the millennial reign of Christ, all who enter will have trusted in Christ as Savior.  There will be no need to evangelize at the inception of the millennial reign, for all will know Him!  Why does this prove eternal security?  Because those who trusted in Christ prior to His second coming are secure at His coming.  None are lost.

There is no greater sound than a judge’s gavel striking his desk with the words, “Case dismissed” uttered from his mouth!  I know of what I speak.  Praise the LORD, I have only had to do this twice.  Both were traffic tickets.  The first time I was not so lucky.  The judge was offended that I had brought a lawyer for a moving violation.  Had I not, he might have let me off.  The second time was a bit more serious.  I was charged with running a red light even though it was yellow at the time.  The person in front of me stopped in the middle of the intersection, thinking she would be cited for running a red light.  I was following her too close and rear-ended her.  The police came and confiscated my license.  I drove on the ticket until my court date.  I arrived promptly at 9am.  Sitting there all day, I was the last case called.  There were no witnesses present.  The policeman never showed.  So, with no witnesses, the judge had no choice but to dismiss the case.  All I had to do was pay the court fees.  There was no lovelier sound that the striking of the gavel and the declaration of those words!  It was like I got saved all over again.

Imagine when we arrive in heaven.  Some of us will try to answer for our sins.  We will offer some excuses.  We will try to give some reasons.  The thing is, the LORD will simply testify that He has no idea to what we are referring.  He has no recollection of our past sins.  None.  Only the LORD can have selective memory loss like that!  All our accounts will not exist.  There will be no record of what we have done or failed to do.  It will all be washed away by the blood of His cross.  Even if we try to bring it up, the LORD will deny the existence of such a record.  “Yeah, but I did this, and I am asking You to forgive me” might be our statement.  To which He will reply, “I have no idea what you are talking about, and if you had done such a thing, it is already forgiven and expunged”.  Our sin and any record of it simply do not exist.  The LORD is not holding over our heads the things we have done just in case He needs to play that card for some other reason.  All transgression is remembered no more.  It is gone.  Hallelujah!

Limitations

"Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” (Heb 4:7 AV)

According to the writer of Hebrews, Psalm 95, from which this quote comes, is written by David.  Yet, the context is Israel’s charge to enter the land of Canaan.  The comparison is to the older generation that lacked faith.  They turned back from the challenge of God when first offered the land of Canaan.  Fresh out of Egypt, the former generation was charged to enter Canaan from the south.  They sent out Joshua, Caleb, and ten others to spy out the land.  When they returned, ten of the spies reported that the people of the land were too great and mighty for them to take the land without suffering significant losses.  The nation took the advice of the ten faithless spies and rejected the advice of Joshua and Caleb.  So, the LORD took from that generation the opportunity to enjoy a life of liberty and growth.  Psalm 95 calls that life a rest.  Now, the writer of Hebrews is comparing that event to the offer of salvation in Christ.  Especially as it concerns Israel.  The suggestion is that God’s offer of grace is not without limit.  There is a time limit to the offer.  In the Old Testament, when the former generation realized their mistake, they attempted to take the land.  God was not with them, and they suffered great casualties.  When God makes an offer, it is prudent to take it without balking at it.  The offer may only stand for a short while.  Limited opportunity is understood by the phrase, “he limiteth a certain day”.

Opportunities define us all.  Our willingness to take risks and seize the opportunity at hand will shape what our lives will become.  Have you ever been offered something that sounded too good to be true?  Most of the time, these opportunities are just that.  They are too good to be true.  If you have an email account, you probably get dozens of these offers a day.  I love how one store put it.  They mark everything up and then put it all on sale.  That way, when you check your merchandise, cashier can show you “how much you saved today”.  The thing is, if I had never stepped foot in that store, I would have saved even more.  I didn’t save anything because I spent money in the store.  A sale here.  A sweepstake there.  Opportunity abounds.  Most of it is not worth the attention one pays it.  However, there are times when something genuine comes along.  Many years ago, a friend of mine bought me a discovery flight for my birthday.  He had heard that I spent a great deal of time on flight simulators, so he gave this to me as a thank you.  The thing is, I am deathly afraid of heights.  Getting me up in a plane is a great undertaking.  Flying it myself even more so.  Here was an opportunity.  I could have cashed it in use the funds for something less anxious.  Nonetheless, we took the flight, and it is a memory I will never forget for as long as I live.

Whether it is service, career, relationships, etc, God may limit a day.  He may offer an opportunity at grace only so many times.  He could be offering us a change in direction.  He could be offering something as simple as forgiveness.  Whatever the offer, the day is limited.  Not only does He limit a day.  He limits a certain day.  We often see the offer of God’s grace as ongoing until He runs out of patience.  They may be true is certain applications.  However, the verse above would seem to indicate an offer of rest was for a certain time.  Not before.  Not after.  In other words, the plan of God is on a schedule.  Some things may span the entire timeline.  Most does not.  Most of God’s plan is on a schedule.  There is a time and a place for everything.  This is David’s point here.  There was a day when the LORD wanted Israel to enter Canaan.  They refused.  Now that Jesus has come and died for them, there is a certain time period where they can accept Him as Messiah.  Yet the time is limited.  When it comes to the saint, the opportunities of God may come around only a few times.  They come at a certain time of the plan.  They do not come earlier.  They will not come again.

Appropriate Suffering

“For it became him, for whom [are] all things, and by whom [are] all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” (Heb 2:10 AV)

The word ‘became’ means to stand out or be eminent because it is seemly and appropriate based on the criteria for such an act.  The author of Hebrews raises an interesting consideration here.  Suffering for our salvation was the eminent and comely thing to do for His creation because it was made by Him and He is responsible for it.  He is the power behind the existence of all that He created.  Therefore, if He created it and sustains it, according to the Apostle, it would be his ethical duty to redeem it.  This gives us more understanding into the predestined plan for the Son of God to give His life as a ransom for beings as yet to be created.  The Godhead determined prior to anything being spoken into existence that Jesus would die on a cross and redeem all mankind. 

That does not suggest His creation is entitled to it.  This is the reasoning of the adolescent.  He or she figures that since mom and dad are the reason he or she exists, he or she is entitled to whatever that person feels they need, whether genuine or not.  In part, that is true.  But it is not completely true in all senses of the word.  If a child is ungrateful and disrespectful, he forfeits the parental care due him.  If he honors his parents, then his parents are obligated to make every reasonable accommodation for the needs of his child.

This gives us a better understanding of the love of God.  Imagine two people who are planning to marry never consider that children are part of the deal.  They get married and do what married people do.  They are surprised with a little child a year or so later and resent this little bundle of responsibility.  After all, they had liberty as two young married adults.  They could enjoy their marriage relationship and a home of just two without having the work and dedication it takes to care for a child.  They treat that child poorly.  They do only the bare minimum.  They resent his very existence.  What would be the counsel to these two people prior to the altar?  Get married and never worry about children?  Your home is all about you!  Have the time of your life and never vest your love into someone outside of your relationship?  Would we suggest to them that children are never part of the deal and even if you happen to have one, you can ignore it as though it doesn’t exist?  We would never counsel a couple preparing for marriage that way.  We would do just the opposite.  In fact, one of my pre-marital counseling lessons is on child-rearing.  Children are part of the deal, and your responsibility as two consenting adults must be accepted.

In the same manner, the LORD did not create life to abandon it.  He was not irresponsible in forming the human race.  Some would like to assert as much.  But a loving, all-knowing, all-powerful God provided for the needs of His creation before He spoke it into being.  Jesus Christ took upon Himself the responsibility of a benevolent Creator because it became Him.  It was required of the position.  If He was going to create beings who would fall in sin, and He knew that ahead of time, then ethically He must make a way to fix it.  No, we are not entitled to it.  We went astray of our own volition.  But as Creator, it became Him to provide a way of redemption.  That is love!  Before God created you, he assumed the responsibility for your existence.  He assumed the duty of Creator/Redeemer before Adam and Eve stood upon the earth.  This is eternal love.  This is love before the fact.  This is love that we should learn to appreciate.

Maintenance

“[This is] a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.” (Tit 3:8 AV)

The Christian life is often made to seem more complicated than it really is.  Note Paul’s phrase, “I will that thou affirm constantly”.  The truth that Titus is to constantly affirm is no great theological mystery.  The truth that Titus is supposed to preach regularly is not some obscure doctrine.  The content of his sermons is not to mainly contain self-help or encouragement.  Rather, that which Titus is instructed to affirm constantly is the need for God’s people to live Christlike.  One thing I know about maintenance is that maintaining anything is boring and hard work.

For years, that is what I did for a living.  I maintained three different commercial properties.  The physical nature of the work was not particularly difficult.  Mostly composed of janitorial work and snow removal, my job was relatively easy.  However, there were other minor tasks in my daytimer.  Looking after minor HVAC issues was the primary need.  There were plumbing issues, changing lightbulbs, clearing rubbish from stairwells, squeaky doors, broken furniture, lock-outs, etc.  Each day, my co-worker and I walked the properties and made a list of things we needed to get done.  The daily stuff was not the hardest part.  It was the periodic maintenance tasks that got me down.  The daily stuff became routine.  Most of us wait until something becomes an issue too large to ignore before we tackle it.  We wait until the faucet drips before we tighten a screw.  We wait until the car battery cannot hold a charge before we replace it rather than change it every five years as recommended by the manufacturer.  My washer has an automatic self-cleaning feature.  After the sixth load, the light comes on.  However, sometimes it forgets.  So much for a smart appliance.  I wash four loads every week.  That means every other week, in the middle of my routine, I have to schedule ninety minutes for the washer to self-clean.  Rather than wait for that sixth load, I end my laundry day with a self-clean regardless of the load count.  Maintenance!

One of my regular maintenance items was changing out brass hinges on the heavy entrance doors of my main building.  This building is a historical landmark, and the fourteen-foot-tall doors were original to the building.  These doors easily weighed Several hundred pounds apiece.  This meant that the brass hinges would wear away quickly.  The floor underneath the doors was porous marble as opposed to polished.  The doors, if not maintained, would wear away the marble as they sank ever lower.  I had to use a car jack to lift the doors and replace the hinges one at a time.  That was how heavy they were.  This was done about four times a year.  This meant I had to check the doors on a regular basis against the clearance they had to the floor.  Maintenance.  Maintenance requires regular examination and micro adjustments along the way.  Again, boring work; but necessary work.  The hardest thing about maintenance work is that new things are the exception and not the rule.  Changing chemicals in a cooling tower is the same from one time to the next.  Changing filters on heat pumps every three months is pretty much the same process every time you do it.  Maintenance is hard because it is boring and routine.  Unless maintenance is done, the entire system breaks.  We want to be entertained.  We want the preaching or bible reading to be fresh and new.  Most of the time it is maintenance.  Most of the time, it is a reminder of things we already know.  Most of the time it is the LORD bringing to the forefront what has lapsed over time.

Don't Itch The Ear

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away [their] ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” (2Ti 4:3-4 AV)

The suggestion is that sound doctrine is available, known, understood, and repeated.  Yet, those who would reject it simply cannot endure it.  The definition for the word ‘endure’ is interesting.  It means to bear up with or under.  This would also suggest that those who reject sound doctrine see it as burdensome.  They simply cannot bear the weight of it.  This is sad.  The Bible tells us that law and doctrine are liberating.  Not burdensome.  Sound doctrine and commandments of the word of God are only too much to bear when we have differing values that compete with it.  The consequences of falsehood and wickedness are not always apparent.  But they are always costly.  Those that would heap to themselves self-serving preachers and teachers are playing with their futures.  The choice to reject sound doctrine will come back on them.  The choices we make now will determine our life hereafter.

What struck me was Paul’s statement of inevitability.  He seemed to intimate that those who would close off their ears to sound doctrine were a specific set of people.  Maybe Paul is referring to the church at Ephesus.  It might be the case because the closing of his letter to Timothy instructs him to come and names Timothy’s replacement.  Paul sends Tychicus to Ephesus.  The inevitability of a church’s reluctance to accept sound doctrine seems to be in view here.  This, unfortunately, is the life cycle of most churches.  They start out well.  They are planted with good intentions and sound doctrine.  For one reason or another, the world eventually has a greater influence on it than the word of God does.  There are many reasons for this.  In my first church, the great commission has a greater influence than the word of God.  Or, better said, growing an organization was the passion and not sound doctrine.  Eventually, the church went contemporary.  It had a boom.  But now is in the bust.  There could be other programs that are more important than sound doctrine.  Politics is often the poison that kills churches.  The list goes on and on.  Apathy and laziness can also erode a church’s dedication to sound doctrine.  Today, entertainment has replaced truth.  Sheep look for what pleases the heart or the flesh before they look for what pleases the mind.

The concern is being a church where fidelity to truth is the passion of the hour.  This requires ears that will hear as well as a heart that will trust.  The preacher can articulate the truth of the word of God.  The sheep can hear the truth.  What they do with it determines whether they live or die.  So, what was Paul’s advice?  It was not to capitulate to the desires of the sheep.  Rather, Paul told Timothy to continue doing what he had always done.  The reaction of the sheep does not determine the call of the preacher.  He is to preach sound doctrine.  He is not to give in to those with fungal ear infections.  He is to preach the truth regardless of how many willing ears are attending.  The truth should never be compromised.  Paul gave Timothy an opportunity.  Timothy was not to quit.  He was to fight on until his last breath.  Itching ears never dictate the sermon preached!  Church is not a full-service restaurant where we order off a menu.  It is an emergency room where doctors examine and treat what ails the patient.  Those who have itching ears need the medicine of truth.  They don’t need more pleasant words that never convict the heart.

Quite A Mark

“I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ:” 1 Timothy 6:13-14 (KJV)

Easier said than done.  But we should try nonetheless.  Paul is challenging his young protegee.  Timothy, Paul’s son in the LORD, is pastoring his first church.  Timothy was the first pastor at Ephesus.  Paul won Timothy and then trained him to serve in the ministry.  This young man was special to Paul.  More so than John Mark, Barnabas, and even Silas.  The standard is set very high here.  As it should be.  Paul has very high expectations for Timothy.  Expectations that came to pass.  Setting the bar high while encouraging him to succeed even when he failed was the key to this young man’s success.  Without spot and unrebukable is difficult to accomplish.  For anyone.  But especially for someone so young.  It takes a great man to live in the word of God, striving for Christlikeness, and having a testimony of doing such a thing.  It is the above standard of spotlessness and without rebuke that strikes at my heart.

I am into a show called The Repair Shop.  This show is a BBC production.  It takes place at an old homestead/workshop.  The skilled tradespeople fix family heirlooms.  The mantra that makes this program attractive is highlighting the history and emotional attachment placed on the item.  It could be great grandmother’s first teddy bear, an old WWI helmet used by a long-deceased relative, or a satchel used by a well-known patriarch.  For the most part, the owners want the object repaired to a useable form.  Rarely do they want the item restored to a like-new condition.  The idea is to preserve some of the history appearing on the item that tells the story of a people's life.  I get it.  But in reality, the first owner of the item received it brand new.  Some things cannot be fully restored.  They are one of a kind.  Usually, pieces of art or crafts are repaired as best they can be.  But there remain marks of history imbedded on its surface.  Perfection is not the objective here.  Memories are.  However, every once in a while, an item is restored to its original condition.  The original paint is applied.  An old pair of WWI field binoculars, a carnival machine, or a pedal car are a few of those items.  They looked like the day they came out of the factory.

When Paul is referring to the character of Timothy as without spot and unrebukable, he is not speaking of preserving the history of his past sinful life.  Timothy is a new creature.  He is made in the image of Jesus Christ.  Paul is challenging Timothy to continue that process.  Just as we should.  We will fail.  Sin will happen.  We will disappoint the LORD.  I am sure that Timothy did as well.  Paul failed to heed the counsel of God and went to Rome in shackles rather than a free man.  His pride got the better of him in his later years.  But failure is not an excuse.  Failure is not a way out.  Failure is merely a road bump on our journey of Christlikeness.  As long as the standards of spotlessness and without rebuke are the standards before us, then we will always be marching forward.  We may stub our toes.  We may trip over temptation.  But we will journey in the right direction toward holiness and Christlikeness.