Behold! The Beauty of the Cross – John 19:1-30

• April 3, 2021
• Pastor
• 0 Comments

John 19:1-30

Behold!  That’s an old biblical word that means, “Stop and look.”

There are a couple of times a year when the body of Christ comes together to stop and look.  To sit.  To stare.  To stop and gaze.  Christmas and Easter are two of those quiet, holy, time-stilling moments of the church.  Holy Week is a time for stopping.  When you read the Gospel of John, you find Jesus talking a lot about “His hour” and the “time that is coming.”  John tells us over and over again, “His hour had not yet come.”

But beginning in chapter 12, the narrative slows down and crawls through the next 36 hours.  Jesus talks to His disciples in the Upper Room.  He comforts them.  He challenges them.  He provokes them.  And then the hours pass by as Jesus goes from the Garden to the palace and then to the hill where His heart will stop beating.

Can I encourage you tonight – with all that’s on your mind – to simply sense the stopping of time, and to remember the moments at the heart of our faith.  To marvel at the Word of God…  To listen for the Old Testament echoes…  To catch the Old Testament overtones…  To look at Jesus – the One crucified in our place, who loved us and died for us.

In the precious few moments left this evening, I want us to simply consider the three “Behold” statements that we encounter in John 19.  Hopefully, we will find a new beauty in the cross as we hear these three statements and what they mean.

Behold the Man!

That’s what Pilate says in John 19:5.  And strangely enough, we ought to obey Pilate this week.  We ought to stop and stare at the Man he’s pointing to.

Put yourself in the sandals of a first-century Jew.  There you are in the throng of people outside the palace.  It’s Passover.  You’re celebrating the deliverance of your forefathers from Egyptian oppression.  You’ve been hearing about this Jesus, the One everyone says is the Messiah.  But it appears to you that He’s just a man.  You’re disappointed.  He’s a man of skin and blood.  (And presently you see a lot more blood than you do skin, now that He’s been flogged!)

The soldiers have whipped Him and lacerated His skin.  They’ve mocked Him by placing a crown of thorns on His head.  They’ve put Him in a purple robe.  And now He stands before you… before Pilate… before the crowd… and Pilate says those three words: “Behold the man!”  Do you see Him in your mind’s eye?  Look at Him.  Here’s the guy – the One they say is the Messiah.

Hold that image in your mind for a moment and let’s go back to the beginning of the Bible – back to Genesis.  After all, that’s where John’s gospel begins.  Remember?  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  That’s where John started, so that’s where we’re going – back to the opening pages of Genesis.

God, the Creator, makes the sun and moon and stars, the birds and fish, the plants and animals.  On the sixth day of creation, God made man in His image.  He created Adam, named him, and commanded him to rule wisely over the rest of creation.  He breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living being.  Here he was!  The glorious fulfillment of all God’s creative plans and activities.  A real, live human being!

You can imagine (can’t you) God stepping back on that first Friday, admiring His handiwork.  That first Friday of human history was the first of the seven days of creation when God said that His work wasn’t just good, but very good.  Something about the creation of humanity changes the description from a good world to a great world.  “Behold the man!”  The masterpiece of God’s creative work.

Of course, it wasn’t long after this creative work that this first man and his wife disobeyed the Creator and sin entered the world.  So, God, in His infinite mercy, told our original parents that He would give them a son – a man, a true human being, who would come to crush the head of that crafty serpent.  A second Adam would come to put right what went wrong.

That brings us back to John.  The Word would take on human flesh and dwell among us.  Live like us.  Live with us.  All of His life would be a preparation for His death.  Now go back and grab that first image – the one of Jesus standing there with Pilate in front of the crowd.  Do you know what day of the week it is?  It’s Friday.  The same day that God created the first man, Adam.  And now the second Adam was undoing the first Adam’s sin.  What did God say about that first Friday in human history when He created man?  He called it very (what) good.  What do we call this day?  Good Friday.  Coincidence?  Not a chance.

Adam was always meant to wear a crown.  Now Jesus would wear one.  Adam had been sentenced to toil among the thorns.  Now Jesus would have those thorns twisted into His brow.  Adam was ashamed of his failure and sought to hide behind fig leaves.  Now Jesus would wear the purple robe and hear the taunts of the mockers.  The hands of humanity that reached out for the forbidden fruit were the fists that beat the face of the precious Savior.  “Behold the man!”

Behold your King!

The history of the world is told in the tales of kings and kingdoms, people grappling for or holding onto power.  The authority God invested in Adam is twisted into abuse and domination, with everyone doing what is right in their own eyes.  We need a king.  Someone to put things right.  Someone to lead us.

On that Friday the crowd cried, “Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar!”  What they failed to realize was that everyone has a king.  We all live according to the dictates of someone or some thing.  It may be money.  It may be pleasure.  It may be reputation.  It may be power.  It may be ourselves.  But make no mistake.  We have a king.  The only question is – who is the rightful king?  Who should be king?

The Jews didn’t see Jesus as the kind of king they wanted.  So, they decided He should be put aside.  If they couldn’t get Pilate to crucify Jesus by claiming He made Himself God, then perhaps they can convince him by saying that Jesus made Himself a King.  A king who rivals Caesar.

But Jesus didn’t make Himself a king.  He was a king before He came… He was a king as He stood before Pilate… and He’s the King of Kings today.  That’s why it’s no surprise that Pilate again says more than he realizes: “Behold your king!”

Usually, a king would say “Away with them!” when he wanted the hall cleared of his subjects.  But this time, it’s the people that want to put the king away.  “Crucify Him!  Enthrone Him on the cross!  Show the world we have no king but Caesar.  Show the world that this is what happens to all who challenge Caesar’s throne.”

So, King Jesus is judged and condemned by His people.  He’s enthroned on the cross, with other criminals on His right and left.  A sign is placed over His head that says “King of the Jews” in three languages – Aramaic, Greek, Latin.  Greek, because it was the language of the world.  Latin, because it was the language of the empire.  Aramaic, because it was the language of God’s people.

John also wants us to remember that this was the Day of the Passover.  This was the time of day when the lambs were being slaughtered.

In the book of Revelation, we’re introduced the striking image of a lamb on a throne.  The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world is the King who deserves to sit on the throne as judge of all people.  He’s the Lion and the Lamb.  That image of a lion’s authority, paired with a lamb’s meekness – the weakness of a bleeding lamb, paired with the strength of a powerful throne.  That’s the image we see at the cross.  This is where Jesus redefines power and authority.

Consider the irony of this moment.  The night before He died, Jesus called His disciples “His friends.”  Now, the Jewish leaders tell Pilate to condemn Jesus in order for him to be Caesar’s friend.

Who’s the stronger friend?  Jesus or Caesar?  Who would you follow?  Who would you bet on?  Surely, in the moment, Caesar looks strong and Jesus looks weak.  But it’s through this weakness that Jesus will conquer the world.  No one is worshiping Caesar today.  But billions bow the knee to King Jesus.

Caesar ruled by conquering lands and subjugating people.  Jesus ruled by conquering sin, death, and the grave.  Our King bore the full weight of God’s anger and judgment towards the evil and sin of this world.  Then He rose again to new life.  “Behold your King!”  The Lamb slain for your redemption.

Behold the Son!

The final picture…  The final image…  The final canvass takes us to the Son’s final breaths.  At the foot of the cross where the sins of the world are being condemned and judged and the Savior is down to His last breaths, the soldiers are casting lots for His clothing.  They divide and rip up His clothes, but they take care not to sever the tunic.  Meanwhile, the body of Christ hovers over them, torn and bloodied.

What love!  Christ stripped naked on the cross, so that we might be wrapped in His robe of righteousness.  Our sin for His righteousness.  His death for our life.  And it’s in this moment…  In this snapshot that Jesus forms a new family.  He looks down at His mother.  The frightened teenager who told the angel, “May it be as you have said.”  She’s now the widow watching the life of her beloved Son slowly slip away.  But Jesus doesn’t leave her without a family.  He says, “Behold your son!”

And for a moment, I suppose Mary must have thought, “I am beholding my son.  I’m watching You now, wishing I could hold You in my arms the way I used to, wishing I could sing to you the songs of our people’s hope the way I once did, wishing we could go back to Nazareth and pretend none of this ever happened, wishing the prophecy of old Simeon in the temple that a sword would pierce my heart too was never spoken.”

But Jesus wasn’t talking about Himself.  He was talking about one of His disciples.  “Behold your son.”  And then to the disciple He loved, “Behold your mother!”  A new family was born.

As Jesus died upon the cross, all those who trust in Him become part of His family.  We are one with Him, united to Him in His death and resurrection, ushered into the family of God.  Jesus didn’t die merely to save you as an individual.  He also brought you into the fellowship of His family.  United to the Son, we have a relationship with the Father.  We’re brothers and sisters in Christ.  We have fathers and mothers in the faith.  We’re not alone.

Behold the Son of God, thirsty and dying.  At the beginning of John’s Gospel, we saw Jesus turn water into wine.  The wine was so good everyone commented on it.  But now, here at Calvary, the wine that’s offered is sour.  It fails to soothe the pain, and it certainly doesn’t delight the tastebuds.  The contrast is palpable: Jesus gave us His best and now He’s taking our worst.

Later, we see Him meet the woman at the well, a Samaritan who offered Him a drink.  Jesus turned the tables and said, “Drink from Me and you’ll never thirst again.”  Little did she know that the only way for her to never thirst would be for Him to experience her thirst by dying in her place.

Then, in the middle of John’s Gospel, Jesus stands up at a celebratory feast and says: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink!  Streams of living water will flow from the one who drinks from the well I offer.”

This is the One who turns water into wine, who offers water that quenches thirst forever, water that never runs dry.  Yet now, He thirsts.  His lips are parched.  His throat is raw.  He’s thirsty, so that we don’t have to be.

“Behold the Son” who completes the work of new creation.  Remember, it was the sixth day when all of creation was complete.  Now Jesus – the spotless Lamb – cries out from the cross, “It is finished!”  The price for humanity’s sin had been paid.  And God saw that it was good… or was it Friday… let’s just call it Good Friday.

A New Commandment – Maundy Thursday Reflections

• April 2, 2021
• Pastor
• 0 Comments

John 13:1-17, 31-35

Like millions of Christians around the world, we’re gathered this evening to celebrate Maundy Thursday.  For folks like me, that grew up in a church tradition that didn’t recognize Maundy Thursday with special worship services, it wasn’t until I was older (in college, in fact) that I learned the significance of the day and the service.

If you’ve never heard the term, it’s not Monday-Thursday (a conversation that Parker and I had on Tuesday night).  It’s Maundy Thursday, as in mandatum Thursday.  Mandatum is, of course, the Latin word for “command” or “mandate.”  We call it Maundy Thursday because it was on this night – before His death – that Jesus gave His disciples a new mandate, a new command.  In John’s gospel, Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (13:34).

It seems strange that Jesus would call this a “new” command.  After all, the Old Testament instructed God’s people to love their neighbors.  Jesus, Himself, even summarized the law as love for God and love for others.  So, what’s new about it?  What’s new about this love?  Most folks would point to the footwashing that took place just before the institution of the Lord’s Supper as the “thing” that makes it new.  In fact, some church traditions still practice footwashing as part of this night’s worship service.  (I’m going to be selective and simply claim COVID-19 restrictions on that one.)

No, what makes the command “new” is the standard that Jesus sets.  His passion was something unheard of then and still today.  There’s a new example, a new commandment, a new kind of love on the market.  It’s the kind of love that sacrifices itself for others, that dies that others might live – and not in a G.I. Joe fashion or first-responder way (as noble and needed as those folks are) – but giving eternal life.  There was never any love like the dying love of Jesus.

Think about it.  Jesus had nothing to gain from us by loving us the way He did.  There was nothing in us to draw us to Him.  Yet He loved us still, while we were yet sinners (the Bible says).

At the Last Supper…  In the garden…  At His betrayal…  Facing the Jewish leaders…  Before Pontius Pilate…  Being scourged…  Carrying His cross…  Being nailed to the tree…  Breathing His dying breath…  Forsaken by God…  To the end…  To death…

In all of those places and at all of those times – He loved us.  He loves us still.  Love shone best and brightest at Calvary.  A new commandment I give you…  A new standard I set for you…  Love as I have loved you.

Christ was all anguish that we might be all joy.

Christ cast off so that we might be brought in.

Christ was trodden down as an enemy that we might be welcomed as a friend.

Christ surrendered to hell’s worst that we might attain heaven’s best.

Christ was stripped in order that we might be clothed.

He was wounded that we might be healed

He was thirsty that we might drink.

He was tormented that we might be comforted.

He was made shameful that we might inherit glory.

He entered darkness that we might have eternal life.

Jesus wept that all tears might be wiped from our eyes.

Jesus groaned that we might have endless song.

Jesus endured all pain so that, one day, our bodies would be imperishable.

Jesus bore a thorny crown that we might receive a crown of life.

Jesus bowed His head that we might uplift ours.

Jesus experienced reproach that we might receive welcome.

Our Savior closed His eyes in death that we might gaze on unclouded brightness, and expired that we might forever live.

(adapted from The Valley of Vision, “Love Lustres at Calvary” by Arthur Bennett)

Songs of the Cross – Palm Sunday

• March 28, 2021
• Pastor
• 0 Comments

Palm Sunday Worship

On this first day of Holy Week, as the global body of Christ gathers to celebrate Jesus as the true King of kings, the sanctuary choir of Mountain Hill Community Church leads our congregation in a collection of songs arranged by Jay Rouse called Songs of the Cross.  We hope you enjoy this worship service and invite you to join us for our Maundy Thursday service and Lord’s Supper at 6 p.m., Good Friday service at 6 p.m., next week’s Easter Resurrection Sunday service at 11 a.m.

The Dangers of Jealousy – Proverbs 14:30, 27:4

• March 21, 2021
• Pastor
• 0 Comments

Proverbs 14:30, 27:4

 

Let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to Proverbs 14:30 and 27:4.  We’re finally at the end of our journey in the Book of Proverbs.  We certainly didn’t cover all the wisdom that’s contained in Proverbs, but I believe we gained a deeper appreciation for some of the basic and guiding wisdom – some might say “common sense” – that God provides to His people through the pen of King Solomon.  And if there’s something that’s missing in our day and that we need more of it’s wisdom: godly wisdom.

The last several sermons have been more topical in nature – not my usual approach to preaching, but nevertheless, when you’re dealing with the content of Proverbs that’s what you end up with.  And today is no different; we’re going to consider jealousy.

As turkey season is just around the corner, I was reminded of a hunting story that Johnny Walker, Buzz Cleveland and Todd Edge told me.  They all went turkey hunting together last year, and one afternoon as they were calling this tom from the safety and camouflage of their blind this turkey walks in and says, “Hey guys, there’s this turkey that has the most perfect tail fan and beard you’ve ever seen.  He gets all the ladies and I was hoping you could kill him for me.”

Buzz and Todd looked at each other (rubbing their eyes) and said, “Did that turkey just talk to us?”  John Walker said, “I knew that ‘mountain water’ that Jim Moore gave us for this trip tasted a little funny.”

Well, the guys wanted to help this turkey but they needed feathers for their arrows.  So, the turkey pulled out a feather and offered it to Buzz.  Buzz tied it to the back of his arrow and shot, but it didn’t quite reach the other turkey.  “He’s too far away.”  Not wanting to go another season without a turkey, John said, “It’s my turn.”  So, the envious turkey pulled out another feather and offered it to John.  John shot but the wind blew the arrow off course.  Todd said, “Let me show you fellas how it’s done.”  Once again, the turkey pulled out a feather.  Todd shot, but another bird walked into the path of the arrow.

Well, Johnny and Buzz and Todd continued taking turns, but eventually the turkey pulled out so many feathers that he couldn’t fly.  At this point the guys had worked up a bit of an appetite, so they killed the turkey and had a fine meal.

Now there are at least three (3) morals to this story.  First, don’t go hunting with John Walker, Buzz Cleveland and Todd Edge, otherwise you might end up dead.  Second, if Jim Moore offers you a glass of “mountain water”, you might want to pass.  Third, and most importantly, like our turkey friend, if you’re jealous, the only person you hurt is yourself.

Well, have you found your spot (Proverbs 14:30; 27:4)?  Let’s consider what the Bible has to say to us in these verses concerning jealousy.

“A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but jealousy makes the bones rot.” (Proverbs 14:30)

“Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?” (Proverbs 27:4)

Heavenly Father, we recognize that it is an immense thing that we would be able to take the pages of Scripture and discover that by the Holy Spirit they come alive to us and they stand as a mirror in which we see our faces, often to our shame – but not to confound us; rather to change us and to conform us to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.  We thank You for reminding us just how precious our days are, how valuable friendship is, what a futility it is to waste time with laziness.  And now, help us to think seriously about this matter of jealousy.  For Jesus’ sake we ask it.  Amen.

Jealousy.  It can decimate a friendship.  It can dissolve the young romance between a man and a woman.  It can destroy a marriage.  It can shoot tension through the ranks of business organizations.  It can quickly nullify any sense of unity on a sports team.  It can foster bitterness and ugliness around the family dining room table.  It can create total havoc in a university classroom.  In fact, there’s virtually no place in which jealousy is unable to do its dreadful work.

We live in a very competitive world.  In fact, we find ourselves right in the middle of one of college sports most competitive seasons – March Madness.  All the teams that have made it to the tournament will now be looking over their shoulders, because you don’t make it to “the dance” unless you’re one of the best.  And one of the great dangers, especially for those smaller schools from smaller conferences, or even larger schools that haven’t been to “the dance” in quite a while, is that they can become paralyzed by the sideways jealous glance rather than the straightforward gaze.  (And this year’s tournament has proven to be anything but predictable.)

The Bible speaks very clearly concerning jealousy on a number of occasions.  Not only here in Proverbs, but again, all throughout the pages of Scripture, the Bible is very clear in warning against allowing jealousy to gain any foothold in our lives.

Now, obviously, there is a positive kind of jealousy, because the Bible describes God as a jealous God.  What that means is that God has a zeal, a passion, a fervor for the well-being of those that are His own.  He exercises a jealous, protective love over those who are His people.  It’s the same kind of jealous care that we would exercise over our children or our spouses.  But that’s not what’s being spoken of here, and it’s definitely not what we think of as the normal understanding of jealousy.

No, in fact, what we tend to think of as jealousy is actually envy.  Most of us think of jealousy as wanting what someone else has, but that’s envy.  Envy is what gives rise to covetousness.  According to the Oxford English Dictionary, jealousy is “the state of mind arising from the suspicion, apprehension, or knowledge of rivalry.  Fear of being supplanted in the affection, or distrust of the fidelity of a beloved person.”  Think about the jealous boyfriend who’s afraid of losing the girl he’s dating to another guy.  There’s fear as a result of insecurity.

Even though most of us don’t think of jealousy in those terms, there’s definitely no denying that we understand the emotions and feelings associated with it.  I often think of the Apostle Peter, as he got to the end of his journey – even after his restoration – he was still concerned about what was going on with John.  And Jesus had to say, “Peter, don’t you worry about John.  If it’s My will that he remains until I return, that’s none of your business.  You just follow me” (John 21:20-22, paraphrased).  And Peter – despite the attention of Jesus, despite the affection of Christ, despite the Lord’s devotion to him, as an apostle – was still paralyzed by wondering about this disciple whom Jesus so clearly loved.

What I’d like to do this morning is what we did a few weeks ago.  I want us to consider some of the characteristics of jealousy, then some of the consequences of jealousy, and finally the cure for jealousy.  First of all, how does it express itself?  How will I be able to detect it in my own heart?  We don’t have time to go to all of these references; I’ll just mention them to you and you can do the follow-up later, if you choose.

 

Characteristics of Jealousy

Number one: jealousy cannot stand it when others are doing better.  You see this, for example, in Genesis 26:12-15 in one of the stories concerning Isaac.  We read how Isaac was able to plant crops and reap a blessing in the land to which he had gone – so much so that the Bible says “he became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became [exceptionally] wealthy.”  And “he had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.  So, all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth.”

The Philistines came with their little backhoes, as it were, and they said, “Oh, so you think you’re doing well, Mr. Wealthy Isaac?  Well, let’s show you what this feels like.”  And they filled up his wells.  Why?  Because they couldn’t stand that he was doing better than they were.

Number two: jealousy is sad at the happiness of others.  We see this on display in the parable of the prodigal son (in Luke 15).  You remember the story.  The youngest son had gone away, left home, left his older brother behind, gone off to a distant country, wasted everything that his father had given him, made a mess of things, ending up in a pigsty, and he finally decided to go home.

So, with a penitent heart, he headed for home and figured he would serve his father.  But instead, his father determined that he would provide the best of parties for him, a whole new outfit for him, shoes for his feet and a ring to wear, and this amazing killing of the big fat calf.  And when the elder brother heard the music and the dancing, he refused to go in.  Why?  He was sad at the happiness of others.

Number three: jealousy makes us hostile towards those who have never harmed us.  In the story of Joseph (from the Old Testament), you’ll remember that when the brothers saw how their father loved their younger brother Joseph, “they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him” (Genesis 37:4).

To be fair, there were extenuating circumstances involved in the process.  For example, Jacob showed favoritism towards his youngest son; and Joseph didn’t know how to keep his dreams to himself.  But the point is clear – Joseph hadn’t done anything to harm his brothers, yet they hated him.  And the reason they hated him was because the seeds of jealousy were deep in their hearts.

Number four: according to Solomon’s other book (the Song of Solomon), “jealousy is [as] cruel as the grave” (8:6) and may seek to bring about the ruin of the one whom we envy.  We need only to go to Genesis chapter 4 and the story of Cain and Abel to see this.

Abel kept flocks.  Cain worked the soil.  Cain brought some of the fruits as an offering.  Abel brought portions of the firstborn of his flock.  The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but not on Cain and his offering.  So, what did Cain do?  He became angry, and his face was downcast.  And Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.”  And while they were in the field, he attacked his brother Abel, and he killed him.  What was the root of the murder?  Jealousy.

And within the church, it’s possible that we kill one another without actually physically ending people’s lives – all as a result of allowing jealousy a place within our hearts.

Finally, in at number five: jealousy fails to recognize that God knows what He’s doing in apportioning gifts.  When I’m jealous of the success of another, what I’m saying is this, “God, you don’t understand.  I’m supposed to have that.  I’m supposed to be there.  I’m supposed to be as tall as that.  Why am I this size?  I’m supposed to look like that.  Why do I have this gift and not that gift?”  The Apostle Paul says, in Romans 9:20, “…shall the clay then say to the potter, ‘Why have you made me like this?’”

We could go on, but those are a few characteristics of jealousy.  It can’t stand it when others are doing better.  It’s sad at the happiness of others.  It makes us hostile to those who’ve never harmed us.  It’s as cruel as the grave and may seek to bring about the ruin of others.  And it fails to recognize that God knows what He’s doing in apportioning gifts.

 

Consequences of Jealousy

What about the consequences of jealousy?  Can you be jealous, and just say, “Hey, I’m jealous, there’s nothing to worry about”?  No.  Number one: jealousy will rot your bones.  It will suffocate you.  It will trap you.  It will enslave you.  Proverbs 14:30 says, “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but jealousy/envy rots the bones.”  

In his book Come Before Winter, Chuck Swindoll says, “Like an anger-blind, half-starved rat prowling in the foul-smelling sewers below street level, so is the person caged within the suffocating radius of selfish jealousy.  Trapped by resentment … he feeds on the filth of his own imagination.”

Those of you that play golf…  If someone makes a good shot, you find out whether you’re jealous or not really quick.  Don’t you?  For example, the fellow you’re playing against hits his approach shot onto the green and it had a bit of speed to it.  Under your breath you’re saying, “Go on, go on, go on.”  It wasn’t going to the pin; it was going off the back.  It was going into deep rough.  As soon as it hit the deep rough, under your breath you’re saying, “Settle now, settle now, settle now.”  Isn’t that terrible?  That’s bad!  And then…  And then, to make matters worse you say, “Ah, don’t worry, you can get it up and down from there,” but underneath your breath you’re thinking, “I hope not.”  Why?  ’Cause we’re jealous of success.

You say, “Oh Lee, that’s trivial.  It’s just a game.  There’s no harm in that.  It just friends giving each other a hard time.”  May be…  But if we allow that to become a pattern in our lives, then we’ll be wishing for the worst every time we see anybody making any progress.  And jealousy will creep in subtly over time and one day we’ll wonder why we are the way we are.  It will rot our bones.

Number two: jealousy will also give birth to unwarranted suspicion and anger.  In 1 Samuel 18, that’s the problem with Saul in his jealousy with David.  You don’t need to turn to it right now.  Listen to what the Bible says, “As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments.  And the women sang to one another as they celebrated, ‘Saul has struck down his thousands, (ah, but the chorus changed, listen) and David his ten thousands.’  And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him.  He said, ‘They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom?’  And Saul eyed David from that day on.” (1 Samuel 18:6-9)  Jealousy will give birth to unwarranted suspicion and ager.

You’ll find yourself driving in your car, or talking on the phone, or seeing a person out somewhere, and you’ll begin to process information in your mind – unwarranted, suspicious stuff.  And if you trace it to its root, it’s often because I cannot simply rejoice in how lovely they look, in how well they’re doing, in how happy they are as a family, in the success of his business, or whatever else it is.

Number three: it breeds a destructive critical spirit.  When I develop, in my heart, a kind of reflex action that’s almost always critical, then it’s usually because of jealousy.

Daniel 6:3 says, “Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.”  Daniel worked hard.  Daniel did well.  Daniel found favor in the eyes of the Lord.  Daniel found favor in the eyes of King Darius.  He was in a political world.  He wasn’t tooting his own horn.  He was just being Daniel.  But when he distinguished himself in this way, then all of these administrators, seeing his exceptional quality, “tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs” (Daniel 6:4)  Why?  ’Cause they couldn’t stand his success.

Fourth and finally: jealousy will ruin our spiritual appetite.  If you find that your hunger for God’s Word has diminished, that your interest in studying it on a personal level, joining with others in the searching out of the Bible and so on, is just not there.  You come to worship; you’ve been coming here these past months, and somehow or another, your heart is heavy and cold.  Well, listen to Peter’s word: “Get rid of malice and deceit, hypocrisy, envy, slander of every kind.  And like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that you may grow up in your salvation, now that you’ve tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:1-3).  A jealous heart will short-circuit a growing maturity in the things of Christ.

Of course, it’s not possible by self-effort.  It’s not possible by just determining, “I won’t be jealous.”  We need an outside help.  And that brings us to the last consideration – the cure for jealousy.

 

Cure for Jealousy

The characteristics are clear.  The consequences are dreadful.  And the cure is straightforward.  How do we deal with jealousy?  Are you ready for it?  You won’t hear preaching like this at every church, but you will here.  Are you ready for how to cure jealousy?  You recognize it as sin.  You don’t excuse it.  You don’t whitewash it.  You don’t put some soft gloves on and pet it.  And you certainly don’t do what our world has become experts at…  You don’t rename it.  You call it what it is.

And, a with all sin, I think what we have to do is bring it out in the open, in the privacy of our own home, certainly in the quietness of our own hearts.  Jealousy is so often a secret sin, isn’t it?  I mean, it’s not normal for people to come up and say, “You know, I just want you to know that I’m horribly jealous of you.”

It’s a secret sin.  And where a sin is secret, it’s a secret between ourselves and God.  Therefore, how do you deal with it?  You deal with it between yourself and God.  You go to God and you say, “God, you put your finger on something today as I read the Bible.  I didn’t want to face this, but you’ve brought me face-to-face with it.  I can see in the consequential behavior that some of that has already become a pattern of my life.  And so, I’m coming to you asking you to help me deal with it.  I’m bringing it…”

And this is the second aspect of it: 1.) acknowledge that it’s sin, and 2.) then bring it into the light of God’s presence.  I find that it’s helpful for me, when I’m really confronted by something like this, to take something (a card or a piece of paper) and write down the actual stuff that I’m dealing with.  Not, “Oh, I’ve had a few vague, general feelings of jealousy sometime in the last twelve months, Lord.  Help me.  Good night.  And thank you for a great day.  Bless all the people around the world.  Amen.”

No, it’s gonna be something far more brutal than that.  It’s gonna be something far more painful than that.  We’re going in here for tumors.  We’re hoping that they’re benign, that they’re not malignant.  We’re going in very purposefully.  We’re going in ruthlessly.  And we’re not coming back until things are dealt with.

The other way to deal with it is, of course, to become a pastor.  ’Cause pastors are never jealous.  We never drive by larger churches and imagine what it must be like to have 300-1,300 attendees.  We never see some guy with more influence, or wish our name was mentioned in certain circles.  We never compare our sermons to the guy down the road.  Pastors’ conferences can be some of the worst places you could ever spend three days of your life.

Jealousy.  It’ll rot our bones, destroy our church, tear friendships apart, marginalize marriages, and make the best of friends lie in their bedrooms at night and think rotten thoughts about those for whom they ought to be praying.  May God deal with us gently, purposefully, profitably.

Warnings Against Laziness – Proverbs 24:27-34; 26:13-16

• March 14, 2021
• Pastor
• 0 Comments

Proverbs 24:27-34; 26:13-16

 

Well, let me invite you to take your Bibles again and turn to the Book of Proverbs (24 and 26)?  We’re going to consider the sin of laziness and procrastination this morning.  I’ll be referring to a number of places.  If your fingers are nimble, then you can let them do the work.  If they’re not, then perhaps you’ll get the person sitting beside you to do it for you or you can look at the screens.  Yes, I know that many of you prefer looking at the screens because the font is larger and it’s easier to read.  Don’t worry, I won’t think of you as a sluggard.

 

The Book of Proverbs is fantastic.  There’s no question of that.  You can read it and read it and read it and never think that you’ve learned it.  Someone once described the Book of Proverbs as “godliness in working clothes.”  When you read the Book of Proverbs it would appear that a godly life is somehow or another part and parcel of the everyday events of our journey.  It’s intensely practical, it’s distinctly uncomfortable, and it’s immensely profitable.

 

Now, I don’t want you to nudge the person next to you, this morning, as if somehow today’s message was perfect for them.  That kind of deflection will come back and bite you.  In my case, I’m also reminded to resist the temptation to immediately call out my teenage sons by saying, “I told you that you should come this morning.”

 

I’m going to be reading just a brief portion of Proverbs 24, and then perhaps three or four verses from Proverbs 26.  Beginning with Proverbs 24:27-34

 

²⁷ Prepare your work outside;

    get everything ready for yourself in the field,

    and after that build your house.

²⁸ Be not a witness against your neighbor without cause,

    and do not deceive with your lips.

²⁹ Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me;

    I will pay the man back for what he has done.”

³⁰ I passed by the field of a sluggard,

    by the vineyard of a man lacking sense,

³¹ and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns;

    the ground was covered with nettles,

    and its stone wall was broken down.

³² Then I saw and considered it;

    I looked and received instruction.

³³ A little sleep, a little slumber,

    a little folding of the hands to rest,

³⁴ and poverty will come upon you like a robber,

    and want like an armed man.

 

And now, flip over two chapters to Proverbs 26:13-16

 

¹³ The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road!

    There is a lion in the streets!”

¹⁴ As a door turns on its hinges,

    so does a sluggard on his bed.

¹⁵ The sluggard buries his hand in the dish;

    it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.

¹⁶ The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes

    than seven men who can answer sensibly.

 

The Word of God for the people of God, thanks be to God.  Let’s take a moment and ask for God’s help, shall we?

 

Our gracious God and Father, we want to acknowledge before You now that our need of Your help is not partial, it’s total.  In view of everything that clamors for our attention and every distracting influence that grabs for the custody of our minds, we know that we need Your help both to speak and to listen, to understand, and to have the truth of Your Word applied to our lives in such a way that it would be life-changing.  Therefore, to You alone we look.  It’s an immense futility to gather in this way simply to listen to me ruminating.  And we’re not here to do that.  But we do believe that when Your Word is truly preached that the voice of God is really heard.  So then, we come to wait upon Your Word.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

 

The Book of Proverbs describes the lazy person as “the sluggard.”  Not a very contemporary word, mind you, but a good word nonetheless.  Its modern equivalent would be the “slacker” or the “bum.”  In either case, being identified as a “sluggard” or a “slacker” or a “bum” isn’t something we want to put on our resumes.  It may well be, however, that up to this point in our lives some of us have managed to qualify for that designation.  And indeed, it may be, if we’re perfectly honest, that it’s one of the besetting sins which we find ourselves facing.

 

I suppose it would be hard for me to believe, however, that any of you would be in that situation, given how hard you’ve had to work in order to secure a place here – although I know there are ways around that as well.  So perhaps there are just one or two sluggards who would join your pastor in seeing a very clear imagine of yourselves in the mirror of God’s Word.

 

What I want to do, then, is to look at this individual who’s described as “the sluggard.”  First of all, we’ll take a look at his lifestyle.  We can’t say everything about him, but we’ll consider a few things.  Then we’re going to drive past his house and look at his vineyard.  And then, finally, we’re going to ask ourselves the question: What does the sluggard’s life have to do with me?

 

The Sluggard’s Lifestyle

 

Well, first of all, then, let’s consider his lifestyle.  We could summarize it under a number of headings.  I’ll give them to you; if you take notes, you might find it helpful.

 

First of all, the sluggard is hinged to his bed.  Proverbs 26:14 says, “As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed.”  He doesn’t merely enjoy his bed; he’s stuck to his bed.  He’s hinged to his bed.  He can turn to his left, or he can turn to his right, but that’s about it.  He makes movement but no progress.  Where you found him at 7 a.m. is the same place you find him at 3 p.m.

 

This individual doesn’t like to be approached directly.  He doesn’t like people asking, “Will you do this?” and then followed up by, “When are you planning on doing it?”  He doesn’t like someone coming to him with the words of Proverbs 6:9 and saying, “How long will you lie there, you sluggard?  When will you get up from your sleep?”  He never actually refuses to do anything; he just puts it off bit by bit.  He deceives himself into thinking that he will get around to it.  But by minutes and by inches this individual, he or she, allows opportunity to just to slip away.  He’s hinged to his bed.

 

Secondly, this individual is happy making excuses.  In fact, as you read Proverbs, you discover that he’s quite ingenious at inventing excuses.  We see this in all kinds of ways.  Our children come dashing home from school on the last day of school, throw their bag down, never want to see it again in their lives, and immediately launch themselves into the opportunities of summer.  It isn’t long before one of them emerges at breakfast time, which can be anywhere between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. and they say, “You know, I’m bored.”  And so, we say, “Well, why don’t you cut the grass?”  I don’t know about you, but I’ve found that cutting the grass cures boredom immediately and it also produces the most ingenious excuses.  Of course, I was guilty of this from time-to-time, as were some of you.

 

The individual who has no mind to work – the individual who doesn’t want to work – never lacks for excuses for their idleness.  And incidentally, in the New Testament, Paul says in 1 Thessalonians that part of the responsibility of the pastor is “to admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all” (1 Thessalonians 5:14).  Paul says to Timothy, “Make sure the people understand that if they don’t work, they shouldn’t eat,” so this call to endeavor is not unique to the book of Proverbs or to the Old Testament; you find it all the way out.  And when you look at the lazy individual, they’re ingenious in excusing their indolence.

 

For example, still in chapter 26:13: “The sluggard says, ‘There’s a lion in the road, a fierce lion [roaming] in the streets!’”  No, there’s not!

 

“Why don’t you cut the grass?”

 

“There’s a lion in the backyard!”

 

“No, there isn’t!  Where did you get that from?”

 

See, the lazy person has managed to convince himself or herself of facts that are completely nonexistent.  And the longer they go on filling their mind with that kind of thing, they have imaginary reasons for their inactivity, and these imaginary reasons finally convince them not to get up and get on with things.  Of course, the real danger is not the imaginary lion in the street.  The real danger is the roaring lion, the devil, who’s roaming the streets looking for some poor soul to devour (1 Peter 5:8).

 

Hinged to his bed.  Happy to make excuses.  Thirdly, he’s hopeless at completing things.  Proverbs 12:27 says, “The lazy man does not roast his game, but the diligent man prizes his possessions.”  Why doesn’t he roast his game?  Perhaps it’s because he never got his game in the first place!  He set off to hunt, and as he began to hunt, he may have even shot the thing, and then he said, “Ah, I’m not going over there for that.  It was enough fun firing at it.  Let somebody else pick it up.”

 

Or perhaps he dragged the sorry carcass home and laid it against the side of the shed, and his wife asked him, “Are we ever going to eat this?”  And he said, “Yeah, we’re gonna eat it.  Don’t bug me!  I shot it, didn’t I?  I’ll get around to it.” And somewhere in the heart of winter, a skeletal carcass sticks its head out over the snow as a silent testimony to the fact that the lazy man gives up opportunity moment by moment, inch by inch, and he’s confronted by the fact that he’s hopeless at completing things.  Guys, how many garages are filled with projects that got started but never finished?  Ladies, how many closets remain stuffed full awaiting another spring clean?

 

If you look at Proverbs 19:24, then you’ll find the same statement that’s in Proverbs 26:15: “The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he will not even bring it back to his mouth!”  What a picture!  He’d rather enjoy his laziness than his food.  So, you sit him down to eat, and there he goes, and he digs in, and he says, “Oh, I don’t know if I want to eat this.”

 

Now, let’s be honest, it may not be grandma’s cooking or even our wives’ cooking, but microwaveable meals have come a long way from the frozen TV dinners of the past.  And the local grocery store has banks of freezer chocked full of frozen meals that can be whipped up in a moment’s notice.  All you need to do is take it out of the cardboard container, pierce the plastic film, put it in the microwave, and hey!  Before you know it, you’ll be eating wonderfully.  I saw a frozen entrée the other day and you don’t even need to cut the film.  So that’s one less step.

 

Yet, you go in a house populated by five college students and open their refrigerator, and what do you see?  Nothing!  Some old jar of grape jelly, an old cardboard pizza box from Papa Johns, and a bottle of water.  You say, “What do I give you money for?”  (I know the answer you’re thinking of…beer.)  It’s a picture of laziness.

 

And without wishing to be crass or indiscreet, the classic illustration of being unwilling to complete a simple task is surely to be found in the average bathroom.  You sit down, you look at the toilet paper holder, and what’s there?  A cardboard tube!  Now I ask you, what is so difficult about this?  In our house, there’s no magic to it.  We don’t even have to stand up; it’s a right-left movement.  You go here, you bring it there, you unhook that, you drop it in the trash, you put it on, you’re done.  Everybody knows that!  And yet there it sits, a silent testimony to laziness.

 

Hinged to his bed, happy making excuses, hopeless at completing things, and fourth he’s also hungry for fulfillment.  The lazy person will always be hungry for fulfillment.  His cravings will always be unfulfilled.   Proverbs 21:25 says, “The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.”  He knows that he would love to have that, he knows what’s involved in getting there, but he doesn’t want to do it.  And it’s his laziness that short-circuits him.  Proverbs 13:4 says, “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing.”  Not because he can’t but because he won’t.  He’s made a habit of the soft choice.  He says, “I can’t plow; it’s too cold.”  And yet, he hopes that he might reap.  You can’t reap if you don’t sow and you don’t plow.

 

Hinged to his bed, happy making excuses, hopeless in completing things, hungry for fulfillment, and finally, he has a haughty self-assessment.  That’s the significance of Proverbs 26:16: “The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who answer discreetly.”  In other words, he regards himself as something of a genius.  He scorns his friends who are working hard.  He believes himself to have found the key to learning without any inconvenient exertion.

 

And if you stay there in verse 16, you’ll notice that he’s the last to see it.  He’s got a blind spot here.  He has no idea that he’s lazy.  In verse 13, he says, “I’m not a shirker; I’m a realist.  There’s a lion in the streets!”  Wrong.  In verse 14: “I’m not self-indulgent; I’m just not at my best in the morning.”  That’s funny; you didn’t look enthusiastic in the afternoon, and when I saw you in the evening you weren’t looking particularly filled with endeavor then either.  Never mind that, though.  In verse 15, his laziness in feeding himself is just an objection to people hustling him: “Don’t hustle me!  I’ll finish when I’m ready.  There’s no rush.  What’s the big problem here?  I’ll get around to it.”

 

So, there you have it.  Both a comic and tragic image.  And we shouldn’t allow the comedic aspect of it to prevent us from recognizing just how tragic it is: hinged to the bed, happy making excuses, hopeless at completing things, hungry for fulfillment, and ultimately, haughty in my opinion of myself.

 

The Sluggard’s Vineyard

 

So, his approach to life has paid its dividends.  Now, we drive past his house and we say, “Either there is no one living in that house, or the person is sick or otherwise unable to tend to things, or the person is, frankly, lazy.”  Any one of those deductions would be valid.

 

And laziness is an equal opportunity offender.  While other vices might require something in order for it to be a sin – take for example drunkenness or adultery or murder, in each of these sins there’s the need for something or someone else – but not laziness.  You can be lazy anywhere, anytime, without any help at all.  Because laziness is nothingness.

 

Samuel Johnson, a devoted Anglican of the 1700’s said this in a little book titled The Usefulness of Advice.  He said, “But the desire of ease acts equally at all hours, and the longer it is indulged it is the more increased.  To do nothing is in every man’s power; we can never want an opportunity of omitting duties.  The lapse to indolence is soft and imperceptible, because it is only a mere cessation of activity; but the return to diligence is difficult, because it implies a change from rest to motion, from privation to reality.”

 

Everybody who’s ever engaged in an exercise program knows this to be true.  It takes no difficulty at all when the time comes around, whether it’s an alarm ringing or whether it’s somebody coming and calling on us, to say, “Ah, I think I’ll just stay here.”  It doesn’t matter where “here” is!  You can be in your house, you can be on the road, you can be in a hotel: “Ah, I think I’ll just stay here.”  And the more that we develop patterns of, “Ah, I don’t think I’ll do this; oh, I don’t think I’ll apply myself; oh, I think I’ll get around to it later,” whatever else it is, we begin to establish a track for ourselves.  On the day we determine to change, what a mountain we climb.

 

And here’s the thing: the real issue about this, and the real tragedy of the man’s house, is that laziness is not an infirmity.  Laziness is a sin.  God made us to work.  Indeed, “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh … is a Sabbath to the Lord” (Exodus 20:9-10).  The contemporary quest for leisure feeds on laziness.  It feeds on a mentality which says, “Nobody’s gonna tell me what to do or when to work.”  And my desire in life is to reduce these six days to as small a number as I can.  And I’m certainly not interested in this one day of worship and rest and study and so on.  The Christian is supposed to be radically different from that.

 

Laziness is a sin.  It affects the whole of our manhood and womanhood.  It has an unperceived power.  It needs to be rooted out.  As parents, we have a great responsibility in this.  And in a totally leisure-consumed society, the challenge for us is to breed children that are known for the quality of their work, for the consistency of their attendance, for the honesty of their endeavor, for the extra mile given in the place of their employment.  These simple things will increasingly be the marks of the godly as our world gives up on the standards of God’s Word.  That’s the sluggard’s vineyard.

 

The Sluggard and Us

 

Finally, let’s say a word or two by way of application.  His characteristics are clear.  His house is a shamble; it’s all overgrown.  So, what’s the application to us?

 

Well, first of all, we need to recognize, as I’ve said, laziness is not something to be joked about, ultimately.  It’s a comic picture, yes.  But, it’s ultimately tragic.  It’s something that God wants to deal with in our lives in order that we might be our best.

 

Some of us, this morning, would say that we know Christ and we follow after Him, and therefore, it’s legitimate for us to ask if there’s any sense in which laziness is intruding into our walk with Christ: How am I doing in the things of God?  How am I doing in my personal devotional life?  What happens in my reading of the Bible, my own personal prayer?  What about my commitment to the people of God, not forsaking the assembling of myself together?  How am I doing loving others, and serving others, and caring for others?

 

How are you doing?  Has laziness crept into your soul?  Are you as devoted as you were a year ago, two years ago, five years ago?  Is your zeal burning bright?  Is the lamp lit in your home and in your heart?  Do those who know us best say, “There’s someone who’s listening to Romans 12:11: ‘Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.’ I can see that he/she is doing that.”

 

There may be others here, this morning, or watching this sermon online and you’re not a Christ-follower.  You’ve been investigating this Christianity thing.  You’ve been looking into religion in all of its various forms.  Your friends or family have encouraged you to give it some real consideration and you know what your response has been?  “I’ll do it when I’m ready – if I’m ready.  I’ll get around to it.  Don’t rush me.  I’ve got time.”  Well, be very careful, because the one thing about the sluggard is that he’s never on time.  His favorite day is always tomorrow.  He tells himself there’s always going to be a later opportunity: “Give me a little longer.  Don’t press me now.”  Let me ask you: What would it profit a man if he was the most diligent man in business, and his diligence was such that he gained the whole world, and his laziness in spiritual things was such that he lost his own soul? (Matthew 16:26)

 

Let me quote this poem from Edgar Albert Guest and I’m done:

 

He was going to be all that a mortal should be

Tomorrow.

No one should be kinder or braver than he

Tomorrow.

A friend who was troubled and weary he knew,

Who’d be glad of a lift and who needed it, too;

On him he would call and see what he could do

Tomorrow.

 

Each morning he stacked up the letters he’d write

Tomorrow.

And thought of the folks he’d fill with delight

Tomorrow.

It was too bad; indeed, he was busy today,

And hadn’t a minute to stop on the way;

More time he’d have to give to others, he’d say

Tomorrow.

 

The greatest of workers this man would have been

Tomorrow.

The world would have known him had he ever seen

Tomorrow.

But the fact is he died and he faded from view,

And all that he left here when living was through

Was a mountain of things he intended to do

Tomorrow.

The Problem of Pride – Proverbs 16:5, 18-19, 25

• March 7, 2021
• Pastor
• 0 Comments

Proverbs 16:5, 18-19, 25

 

Let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word, this morning, and turn with me to Proverbs 16, Genesis 3, and also Matthew 6 and Luke 18.  I was not particularly fond of Literature and Grammar in my primary education.  Instead, I rather enjoyed History and Math, and some of the Sciences.  However, with every passing year, as your pastor, I’ve grown more and more in my affection for some of the old writers of previous generations.  For example, consider this excerpt from Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation of a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer in 1863:

 

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown.  But we have forgotten God.  We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.  Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

 

If I hadn’t told you otherwise, you might have been tempted to think this was the result of contemplations and musings and journaling from a contemporary author or commentator regarding our present day and age.  But no, tucked away in the archives of history, among the dusty and dingy volumes of books on a shelf is this masterful expression of lament and humility over pride.

 

You know, despite its difficult and hard passages, despite the geography and names and places, despite all of the history and cultural elements, the Bible has some pretty amazing things to say too.  In fact, we’re going to open the pages of this old book and see what God has to say to us this morning about pride.  But first, join me in a moment of prayer.

 

“Father, now, as we turn again to Your Word, our dependence is upon the Holy Spirit to enable both speech and listening, to quicken our understanding, to give us grace to respond to what You might say to us in these moments.  And so, we ask that You would help to free us from every distracting influence and that Your Spirit may wash over and amongst us, and that You will write Your name upon our hearts as we read Your Word together.  For we ask it in Jesus’ name, amen.”

 

“Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished” (Proverbs 16:5).

 

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.  It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor than to divide the spoil with the proud” (Proverbs 16:18-19).

 

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (Proverbs 16:25).

 

This morning, I want us to consider the sin of pride.  And it will be of no surprise to those of you that are regular here that I’ll address it from three perspectives: the source of pride, the showcase of pride, and solution for pride.

 

Source of Pride

 

Genesis 3 gives us the account of sin entering the world and also reveals that pride lays at the root of those events.  So, when we talk about the fact that pride exists and we want to know why pride is in our hearts, we find ourselves here, in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve and the serpent – that is the devil.  And we read:

 

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.

 He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden”?’  And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”’  But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die.  For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’  So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3:1-6).

 

Notice what happens here.  Eve followed her impressions rather than God’s given instructions.  She made self-fulfillment her goal.  She made prideful attainment her aim.  Notice, particularly verse 6.  She looked at the tree and saw that it was good for food (not sin).  She took delight in what she saw (not sin).  But notice this next line, “and that the tree was to be desired to…make…one…wise” she took and ate (sin).

 

Eve’s actions, based upon what she saw and what she perceived was missing in her life, brought forth sin into her life.  And Adam’s doing the same brought forth sin into his life, and into the lives of all mankind.  In essence, it’s as if Eve said to God, “I know better than You, God.  I don’t want Your instruction.  I can be wise on my own.  I don’t need You, God. I…  I…  I…”  “There is a way that seems right to a man/woman, but its end is the way to death” (pride).

 

And this doesn’t take the Bible by surprise.  Beginning in Genesis and continuing all the way through to Revelation, that prideful response is repeated day in and day out.  Listen to this from the apostle John in his first epistle near the end of the New Testament, and notice how these words parallel the very same experience that Eve was confronted with: “For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions.  These are not from the Father, but are from this world” (1 John 2:16, NLT).

 

So, the source of my haughty look, the source of my proud statements, the source of my arrogance, the source of my condescension is sin – plain and simple – which is as real in my life as it is in yours.  Part of the problem of our dealing with the sin of pride is that we’re able to disguise it.  We’re able to hide it behind the façade of more noble and righteous acts.

 

Is it any wonder, then, why the Westminster Shorter Catechism begins the way that it does?  What is the chief end of man?  “Man’s chief end is to glorify God (not ourselves), and enjoy Him forever.”  There, we meet the problem head on.  The reason for human existence is to give God glory.  The reason that we stumble and blunder through our world is because we do not give God glory.  And the reason that we do not give God glory is because we are proud.  The reason we are proud is because we were born in sin and shaped in iniquity.

 

So, the source of pride cannot be shifted to some “external other,” but can be discovered by looking within.  Pride is the elevation of self.

 

This is a great quote by C.S. Lewis.  Admittedly, it’s a wee bit long, but Lewis has a way of cutting through and saying things exactly as they need to be said and the way most of us think anyway.  He writes:

 

“The essential vice, the utmost evil, is pride.  Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.  [P]ride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.  We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not.  They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others.  If someone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about.  It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. 

 

The source of our pride is in our sinfulness.  And rather than shift blame to God because He’s the One that made us, we need to consider humanity’s parentage and see that we are guilty of the same thing.  And just in case you’re thinking to yourself, “I surely wouldn’t have eaten the fruit of the forbidden tree” then check your attitude, because that’s a prideful statement indeed.  We elevate ourselves rather than give glory to God.

 

Showcase of Pride

 

Now, lest we begin to pat ourselves on the back because we are church-goers, and we read our Bibles, and we pray, and we serve others, and we give, and on and on we may go, thinking that this sermon is really meant for the man/woman sitting in the next pew, let me invite you to turn (in your Bibles) with me to Matthew 6 and Luke 18.  Some of the worst pride has a religious face.  Some of the most prideful people are those attending worship services.

 

If there was ever a person that exposed pride it was Jesus.  He never had time for those that were trying to impress others.  It’s interesting to me that the longest sermon Jesus ever preached wasn’t to struggling sinners, and it wasn’t to discouraged disciples, but was reserved for religious showoffs.

 

Matthew 6 begins this way, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them…”  Notice what Jesus is saying and what He’s not saying.  He’s not saying don’t go to church.  He’s not saying don’t pray.  He’s not saying don’t read your Bible.  He’s not saying don’t give to the needy.  He’s not saying don’t serve others.  He’s not negating the necessity of doing righteous acts.  Rather He’s reminding us to do it within the right context.  The problem for many of us is not that we’re doing the wrong thing, but that we’re doing the right thing in the wrong way.

 

One of the greatest perils of having the privilege that I have (and others like me) is that imperceptibly one’s motivation may move from a genuine desire to preach the Word of God in order that men and women may come to faith in Jesus Christ, and that others may grow in maturity of that same faith, and then begin to teach it as an unbelievable ego trip.  It will become apparent over time, but in the immediate context only I and God would know the real issue – and sometimes we (pastors) have deceived ourselves and don’t even know our hearts have changed.  The title “celebrity pastor” or “popular preacher” is an unfortunate reality in many churches today.  So, Jesus says, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them…”  Why?  “…for [if you do] then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”

 

Do you see what Jesus is saying there?  He’s saying that a lot of people are going to go through life doing a lot of righteous deeds, but at the end of the day there will be no reward.  They may arrive in heaven like a shipwrecked sailor but there will be no reward.  They will be saved, perhaps, but only as through fire (1 Corinthians 3:15).  They may have published many books.  They may have had their names in many magazines.  They may have been invited to speak here and there and everywhere, but the God who judges the motivations of men’s hearts will – on that Day – reveal what was really going on.  What Jesus is saying in 21^st century language is this: Stop showing off!

 

When I was growing up I was taught three kinds of basketball passes: the chest pass, the bounce pass, and the overhead pass.  Do you know how many hands I was taught to use?  TWO!  Today, these kids are making one-handed bounce passes and weak rainbow lob-passes and the result is a steal.  Why?  Because I know better…  Because I want to show off…

 

It used to be that when you played football and you scored a touchdown you handed the ball back to the referee and went to celebrate with your teammates.  Today, you make all kinds of gestures and dramatic antics in order to show off – assuming, that in the midst of your prideful run or catch you don’t actually drop the ball before you cross the goal line.

 

Jesus uses the rest of Matthew 6 to illustrate three righteous acts that religious people, and church-attenders, and Christian people tend to fumble the ball on: giving, praying, and fasting.  Again, He’s not saying don’t do these things.  He’s just saying be careful how you do them.

 

This past Friday, I received word that Dr. Peter Cotterell, former Dean of the London School of Theology and founder of the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology and long-time missionary to Ethiopia died, at the age of 91.  He was such a humble academic leader.  Part of a poem he wrote in his book Church Alive! A Fresh Look at Church Growth, goes like this:

 

Have you seen William Braggins while toiling in prayer,

How he’s pleading and weeping and tearing his hair?

You can hear him all night, famous Bellowing Bill,

’Cause he shouts all his prayers from the top of a hill.

Bill has had his reward in the praises of men,

And God’s not going to give him it over again.

 

That’s why Luke records for us the parable that Jesus told of the Pharisee and the tax collector (in Luke 18), where He sets forth for us the standard of God in relationship to the sin of pride.  Look at Luke 18:9, “Jesus told a story to some people who thought they were better than others and who looked down on everyone else” (CEV).  They had haughty eyes.  Do you remember the six things that God hates (from Proverbs 6), yeah even seven are an abomination to Him?  The first in that list is haughty eyes – a prideful disposition.

 

And in Luke 18:11, the Greek text is clear that the Pharisee was praying to himself.  In fact, some of your Bibles might even have a footnote related to verse 11 telling you that.  Listen to how the original Greek text reads: “The Pharisee, having stood, thus toward himself was praying…”  He was praying to himself.  His prayer wasn’t upward; it was inward.  “God, I thank you that I am not greedy, dishonest, and unfaithful in marriage like other people.  And I am really glad that I am not like that tax collector over there.”

 

In contrast (v. 13), “The tax collector stood off at a distance and did not think he was good enough even to look up toward heaven.  He was so sorry for what he had done that he pounded his chest and prayed, ‘God, have pity on me!  I am such a sinner.’”  Again, let me remind you.  Jesus wasn’t saying do not pray.  Both men were praying.  They were both doing something that God calls us all to do.  Nor was Jesus saying do not going to church.  Both men were in the temple.  This parable isn’t about the what (prayer) or the where (temple/church).  It’s about the how.  It’s about our attitude.  It’s about our motivation.  It’s about the disposition of our hearts.

 

Benjamin Franklin once said, “There is perhaps none of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride.  Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive.  Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.”

 

The source of our pride is the sinful heart.  The showcase of our pride is the selfish heart.  And lastly, the solution for pride.

 

Solution for Pride

 

If you want to know whether or not you’re prideful today; if you want to know the test for pride, then just consider the standard you’re using to measure yourself.  It’s right here in this parable.  The Pharisee was looking down, while the tax collector was looking up.  Scripture says “don’t look around you, but look up.”  See, if we look around we’ll always be able to find someone that we perceive is “less than” we are, and thus we’ll only continue in our pride.

 

If I may, let me go back and finish that earlier quote from C.S. Lewis, “[P]ride always means enmity…  And not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God.  [I]n God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself.  Unless you know God [in this way] – and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison – you do not know God at all.  As long as you are proud you cannot know God.  A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”

 

The solution to our pride is to compare ourselves to Jesus, who, “[knowing] that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.  During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper.  He laid aside His outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around His waist.  Then He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around Him.”

 

That’s the question.  That’s the point at which pride turns.  Prepared to set aside myself, my position, my reputation, my power, my authority, my riches, my everything, and wrap a towel around my waist and get down where it’s dirty, and dusty, and stinky and show that I really am walking in the footsteps of Jesus.  Or else we stand and look up and say, “Lord, you know how I’d love to wash ole Doug’s feet, but I have to be fasting.”

 

We have four vehicles at the Norris house.  Three of them are white.  My grey pickup truck is the sole standout among the crowd.  We like white because it’s not as hot in the brutal summer heat and because it doesn’t reveal dirt as quickly or as obviously as darker-colored vehicles.  That is, until you see them sitting in a fresh blanket of snow.  Then, you notice that they happen to be rather grey.

 

My friends, as I look at my own life this morning and I use my own criteria – because of that cruel and ruthless enemy of pride – I can conclude that my life looks pretty white.  But when I stand it up beside the blazing glory of Jesus Himself, it looks decidedly grey.  So, what’s the solution?

 

Isaac Watts, that great hymnwriter of the 1600-1700’s put it this way:

 

When I survey the wondrous cross

on which the Prince of glory died,

my richest gain I count but loss,

and pour contempt on all my pride.

 

“When the two men went home, it was the tax collector and not the Pharisee who was pleasing to God.  If you put yourself above others, you will be put down.  But if you humble yourself, you will be honored” (Luke 18:14, CEV).  Do you know Jesus as the remedy for your pride?  Have you evaluated your life in light of the perfect standard of the cross of Christ?  Have you ever come to Jesus, like a little child, and said, “Lord, Jesus, I’m a sinner – if for no other reason than I have a proud heart – and I need You to forgive me, to be merciful to me, to save me.”?  If you’ve never done that, then there’s a battle going on in your life.  I know there are some of you right now, maybe here this morning, others of you watching online, that are saying to yourself, “You’ve got to be kidding me.  I’m not going to admit to that kind of thing.  What would people think?  Besides, I’m plenty capable of taking care of myself.”  If that’s you, then be assured there will be no reward.

 

For others of you here today, the reason you aren’t as empowered by the Holy Spirit as you want to be, the reason you aren’t fulfilling your God-given purpose and meaning in life is because you think you can do it by yourself.  All the while forgetting that without God you can do nothing, but with God all things are possible.

 

“Father, look upon us this morning in mercy, we pray.  Grant that as we come to Your holy table and partake of this holy meal that we let go of our haughty eyes and our pride, and that we might gain a renewed perspective from which to see others.  Help me, O Lord, as I shepherd Your people, to do so as a humble servant.  In Jesus’ name, amen.”

The Importance of Friendship – Proverbs 17:17; 18:24

• February 28, 2021
• Pastor
• 0 Comments

Proverbs 17:17; 18:24

Let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to two (2) passages of scripture, this morning, in the Book of Proverbs.  The first is Proverbs 17:17, and the second is Proverbs 18:24.  The Book of Proverbs has an awful lot to say to us about the nature and importance of friendships, and I’ll be referring to several other passage along the way but these are the two that I want us to focus our minds on.

 

As you’re finding those two references (Proverbs 17:17; 18:24), let me just say that friendship is, of course, I think, vitally important to everybody who lives.  Somebody who says that they have no interest in friendship is, at best, either kidding themselves; or worse still, a rather poor soul with something deeply wrong.

 

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a friend is “a person joined by intimacy and affection to another.”  That used to be a good definition of friends, but with the advent and proliferation of the internet and social media platforms I’m not sure it’s accurate.

 

Most of the friends that people speak about today are unknown names and faces that populate a Facebook page, an Instagram account, or a Twitter feed.  But so much of that is superficial.  So much of that is built on things that are very ephemeral.  They’re not true friends.  When we think in terms of true friendship, the kind that Solomon talks about, we’re dealing with something far deeper and much better.  As one author put it, “Rich is the individual who has one genuine friend in the whole world.”

 

This morning, I want us to consider what it means to be a genuine friend.  And I want us to use these two verses from Proverbs as our springboard.  Hopefully, you’ve found your spot.  If not, follow along on the screens.

 

“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Proverbs 17:17).

“A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24).

 

Our Father and our God, we ask now that with our Bibles open before us that we might hear Your voice, that You will teach us, and that in learning we may not simply be those who store up knowledge in our heads but that this may actually transform the way we live our lives.  We ask this for Your glory and for our good.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

 

Today, as always, I want to deal with friendship on three fronts: first of all, to notice a couple of characteristics of true friendship; and then, secondly, to see how those characteristics are ultimately embodied in Jesus; and finally, to ask ourselves how we’re doing being a true friend.

 

Characteristics Of A True Friend

 

Well, then, what are some of the characteristics of true friendship?  I’m only going to mention three.  The list is so much longer, but these are some of the qualities that are repeated over and over in the Book of Proverbs.

 

First of all, a true friend is faithful.  True friends are marked by faithfulness.  Proverbs 17:17 says it: “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”  In other words, this friendship that exists between these individuals is not based on things that are passing away.  It’s not the kind of friendship that was known by the Prodigal.

 

You remember in Luke chapter 15, where, apparently, when everything was going swell, he had plenty of folks who were around him, and “when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.  So, he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs” (Luke 15:14-15).  To be fair, the text of Scripture doesn’t explicitly say that he had no friends, but you don’t normally hire yourself out to someone if you have friends that can help.

 

The real question about friendship has to do with faithfulness.  Being prepared to stay with the person through thick and thin, whether they’re successful or unsuccessful, whether they’re still to our liking or not, irrespective of whether they’ve offended us or not.  Friendship establishes faithfulness at all times.  When you’ve made a fool of yourself and a royal mess of things, you need at least one friend to go to who will say, “But you haven’t made a permanent mess of things.  There’s still hope.”

 

Secondly, genuine friendship is marked not only by faithfulness but also by frankness (or honesty).  It’s impossible to enjoy friendship or to establish friendship if dishonesty is part of what’s going on.  And dishonesty, of course, appears in a number of ways.

 

In Proverbs 27:6, we read the “wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.”  Now, doesn’t that seem contradictory?  We’d expect to come across that verse and read that “a friend multiplies kisses and you get wounds from an enemy.”  But the point that Solomon is making is that when you receive a wound from a friend, you can trust it.  But you shouldn’t trust the multiplications of kisses.

 

Now, of course, this is very important to understand in context.  And we don’t want to overstress it one way or another; otherwise, we may become quite skeptical and be afraid of anybody who would show affection to us at all.  But the warning is clear.  And indeed, the challenge is there: Am I the kind of person who is able, because of the well-being of my friend, to wound them, not in a way to discourage them or dispirit them or bring them down – but on the few occasions do I wound because I long for my friend’s best interest?  Do I inflict pain for their progress?  Or do I inflict pain just because I’m bad?

 

Proverbs 28:23 says that “he who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with his tongue.”  Listen to that again: “He who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with his tongue.”  Our whole society is put together in such a way that if you go and say nice things to people and butter them up, then that somehow endears you to them, that’s what makes the world go round.  And yet we know, deep down, that isn’t true.  In fact, Proverbs 29:5 says, “The man who flatters his friend spreads a net for his feet.”

 

So, a well-timed, well-spoken, well-placed rebuke may well transform us.  But flattery will only trip us up.  If you reflect upon those friends who’ve been the best of friends to you, I think you will probably find that this truth and this principle is borne out.

 

Now, in this respect, it is very, very important that you choose the right kinds of friends.  That’s why we teach our children that they should be careful in making friendships.  That they shouldn’t just be friends with everyone and anyone.  They should be kind and respectful to everyone, but to establish a relationship which is based on intimacy and affection needs to be done with great care and attention.  Because not everybody who wants to come alongside you, not everyone who wants to get into your space, not everyone who is interested in establishing some kind of interest in you necessarily is motivated by any genuine sense of friendship.

 

There was an English clergyman from the 1600’s named George Swinnock that wrote a book titled The Christian Man’s Calling, and in it he writes: “In the choice of a bosom friend [some respect] ought to be had to his prudence.  Some men, though holy, are indiscreet, and in point of secrets are like sieves – [they] can keep nothing committed to them, but let all run through.  A blab of secrets is a traitor to society, as one that causeth much dissention.  It is good to try him [test him] whom we intend for a bosom friend before we trust him.”

 

That’s rather important.  Because how in the world can you ever share your heart, your life, your mind, your hopes, your dreams, your fears, your aspirations with somebody who’s like a sieve?  Of course, that’s one of the great challenges for anyone who’s in a position of leadership.  Why is it so difficult for someone in pastoral ministry to form really deep and meaningful friendships?  Part of it is right there.

 

The third (and final) characteristic that I want to mention is fairness.  Not simply faithfulness and frankness, but also fairness.  Friendship must always carry with them a sense of what’s appropriate.  Proverbs 26:18-19 says: “A man who is caught lying to his friend and says, ‘I was just joking!’ is like a madman throwing around firebrands, arrows, and death.”  (Doesn’t Proverbs have some good guidance?)  Those of us who talk more than we ought (I’m including myself), sometimes we cannot get ourselves out of an awkward situation or dismiss hurtful words by simply saying “Ah, I was only kidding!” or “Oh, it was just a joke!” or “I didn’t really mean it!”  ’Cause once the word is out, it’s out, whether you meant it or not.

 

So, a fair disposition in friendship will say no to gossiping because gossip separates friends.  Proverbs 16:28 says, “A gossip separates… friends.”  You can take it to the bank.  Proverbs 17:9 has another staggering statement: “He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.”

 

Do you see what he’s saying?  Solomon isn’t saying that we shouldn’t call sin, sin or call something right that’s really wrong.  He’s expressing the New Testament understanding that love covers over a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8).  “Yes, I know you did that.  Yes, I understand that that was a disaster.  But let’s not dwell on it.  Let’s seek – by God’s enabling – to remember it no more.  After all, isn’t that how God keeps a record: no record at all!  Written clear.  So, you can look me in the eye, and I will tell you, ‘It won’t go any farther.’”  With that kind of friend you can have confidence.  But the person who “repeats the matter separates close friends.”

 

Faithfulness, frankness, and fairness are just a few of the marks of genuine friendship.  That’s the kind of friendship that sticks closer than a brother.

 

Christ As The Truest Friend

 

“Well,” you say, “I’m not sure that I have found that.  I’m not sure that I am that.  Where could we find this embodied?”  Well, the answer is, of course, in the Lord Jesus.  This is where the hymnody of generations past comes in handy.  There’s an old hymn that we don’t sing much anymore called One There Is Above All Others, by Marianne Nunn in which we sing,

 

Earthly friends may fail or leave us,

One day kind, the next day grieve us,

But this Friend will never deceive us,

 

The Bible says He’s the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).  Never in a mood.  Never letting us down.  Never treating us impulsively.  There’s another, more familiar hymn by Charles Fry called The Lily of the Valley.  In fact, we sang it just a few weeks ago

 

I have found a friend in Jesus-

He’s ev’rything to me,

He’s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul;

The Lily of the Valley- in Him alone I see

All I need to cleanse and make me fully whole.

 

Let me quickly offer you three ways that Jesus embodies the truest of friends.

 

First, is the scope of His friendship.  It was a constant nuisance to the Pharisees.  It was even a concern to His closest disciples.  Because He kept ending up with the strangest individuals.  Stopping under the wrong tree to speak to a little thief named Zacchaeus.  Remember that (Luke 19:1-10)?  “Zacchaeus, come down; we’re going to have lunch at your house this afternoon.”

 

Or how about this encounter from John 4, “Excuse me, ma’am, do you think that I could have a drink of water?”  “I beg your pardon?  Isn’t it kind of strange that you, a Jew, would speak to me, a Samaritan?  That you, a man, would speak to me, a woman?” (especially since I’ve had five husbands; I have a live-in lover; and, honestly, I have a problem with men, but I’m not telling you that.)

 

Who is this kindest of friends?  It’s Jesus.  And the Pharisees said, “You know, the Son of Man has come eating and drinking.  And we like to call Him a winebibber and a glutton, because He is the friend of tax collectors and ‘sinners’” (Matthew 11:19).

 

Second, Jesus’ friendship is the standard.  In fact, in John 15:14, Jesus puts it round the other way; He says, “You are My friends if you do what I command [you].”  In other words, the enjoyment of friendship with Jesus and all of His faithfulness, frankness, and fairness is directly related in the Christian pilgrimage to the issues of obedience.  That’s why disobedience, willful sin, and assurance never go hand in hand in the same Christian experience.  If you and I are flat out disobeying the law of God, if we’re living in disregard for His Word, if we’re playing fast and loose with His commands, if we’re becoming very skillful hearers and yet not doers of the Word, we should not wonder why it is that we feel such a diminished sense of His companionship.  Not that we earn it by obedience, but our obedience is on account of love.  His friendship is our standard; it’s our calling.

 

And finally, there’s a security in His friendship.  Human friendships are passing.  If for no other reason, death will separate us.  Geography may remove us from the intimacy of day-to-day affection.  Time may diminish some.  But it’s never true with Jesus.  If you make friendship with Him the first choice of your youth, if we sustain friendship with Jesus in the maturing years of our lives, if we look forward to His friendship for all of eternity, then no matter what we face, we can rest in Him.  Again, the hymn writers of the past offer us guidance.  James Small wrote these words:

 

I’ve found a friend, O such a friend!

[He] loved me ere I knew Him

He drew me with the cords of love,

And thus He bound me to Him;

And round my heart [so] closely [twined]

[These] ties that naught can sever,

For I am His, and [He] is mine,

Forever and forever.

 

And of course, who could forget Joseph Scriven’s hymn What a Friend We Have In Jesus:

 

What a friend we have in Jesus.

all our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry

everything to God in prayer!

 

Challenge To Be A True Friend

 

As we close let me borrow a line from the Kairos Prison Ministry.  There’s a theme we use with the inmates on the inside, and it goes like this.  Make a friend.  Be a friend.  Bring a friend to Jesus.

 

First, there’s make a friend.  It’s easy to wait for someone else to make the first move, to make the first phone call, to send the first note, to offer the first invitation.  The fear of rejection stimulates inaction.  Thankfully, God didn’t wait for us to approach Him, “We love because He first loves us” (1 John 4:19).  If there’s a friendship in your life that’s smoldering like an ember, rekindle it by taking the initiative.  If you know of someone that seems to be looking for a friend or needing a friend; follow Jesus’ example and take the initiative.

 

Second, be a friend.  Although Jesus enjoyed perfect friendship and community in the Godhead – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – nevertheless, He demonstrated His desire for relationship when He became one of us.  He took on Himself the cloak of our humanity, and through His redemptive work on the cross, Jesus made a way for us to become His friend(s).  This is a wonderful motivation for evangelism, yes!  And that leads me to my final point…

 

Finally, bring a friend to Jesus.  Most of us are fairly good at “making friends” and “being friends,” but we’re not generally as good at “bringing our friends to Jesus.”  That’s part of the reason for our 2021 evangelism initiative: Who’s Your ONE?  Sometimes, I wonder if our emphasis on “making friends” and “being friends” is actually our excuse for indefinitely postponing gospel proclamation.

 

Weeks and months (maybe even years) go by, and we’ve made friends, but no disciples.  We still haven’t spoken about our Christian faith and what it means to trust in Jesus.  And just in case you think your pastor must do this all the time, let me disappoint you.  I attend basketball games in high school gyms and church gyms and recreational leagues all over the upstate, and on most occasions, I don’t turn to the person or family sitting next to me or in front/behind me and tell them about Jesus.

 

No, just like them, I’m there hollering at the referees (absent the curse words, mind you), and coaching up my sons on what they need to do or should have done.  After the game I’m either joining the other parents retelling the wonderful shots and stories of the victory, or lamenting the bad calls and poor execution of our team.  I’m not saying that every conversation has to end with an altar call.  But it worries me when we can become “good friends” with non-believers without revealing our Christian identity.

 

When our Christian faith runs deep, Jesus has a way of making an appearance – sooner rather than later.  Our identity in Christ should be such an integral part of our lives that it’s impossible for someone to know us without also understanding how our Christian faith informs our lives.

 

Will you commit yourself?  Will we commit ourselves to being good friends?  To see Mountain Hill as a place that creates friendships that literally last for an eternity?  We can’t all be the bosom buddies of everybody.  That’s an impossibility.  We tyrannize ourselves if we say, “Well, I don’t know him or her as well as I might or may” or whatever.  Don’t worry about that.  But in the sphere of your influence, in the realm of your contact, say, “Lord Jesus, you who are the perfect friend, make me a friend.  Make me a friend.”

 

Father, we bless You again for the privilege of these moments.  And we thank You for the love that drew the plan of salvation, for the grace that brings it to us, for the great span that You have come across in redeeming us.  Grant, that the scope, the standard and the security of our friendship with Christ may challenge and encourage us, not only in the hours of this day but through life itself.  In Jesus’ name we pray.

Word Play – Proverbs 13:3

• February 21, 2021
• Pastor
• 0 Comments

Proverbs 13:3 (various texts)

Peter Marshall once said, “The use of the right word, the exact word, is the difference between a pencil with a sharp point and a thick crayon.”  So, if you had to choose the right word, the exact word to describe the last year, what would it be?  How would you summarize what we experienced in 2020?  As you’re thinking about that, let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to the 13^th chapter of the Book of Proverbs.

 

Every year the editors of Merriam-Webster online take up the task of identifying the “Word of the Year.”  Based upon a statistical analysis of queries and searches, the dictionary wordsmiths attempt to index key cultural concerns and societal trends.  And this past year there were concerns and trends aplenty!

 

Because of Joe Biden’s use of the word during one of the debates, thousands of would-be voters scrambled to the dictionary looking up the word “malarkey.”  Then there was the sudden spike of interest in schadenfreude, a borrowed word from the German.  It’s compounded from shaden, meaning “calamity” or “adversity,” and freude meaning “gladness” or “joy.”  When the new NHL franchise in Seattle announced that it had chosen kraken as its team name and mascot, searches for the word skyrocketed 128,000 percent in a single day.  Ultimately, the phrase “release the kraken” took on a life all its own.

 

Of course, the words most frequently looked up last year had to do with COVID-19.  Rarely have words moved from the professional medical field to everyday vocabulary as quickly as the words: coronavirus, asymptomatic, quarantine, epidemiology, herd-immunity, pathogenicity, and immunocompromised.

 

When the World Health Organization officially declared that COVID-19 was a global pandemic, that word, “pandemic,” earned the single largest spike in dictionary traffic, with an increase of nearly 116,000 percent.  The Greek root pan means “all” or “every.”  And demos means “people.”  So, taken together, the word literally means “among all people” or “of everyone everywhere.”  Obviously, we used it to describe a virus that had spread uncontrollably.  And so… in the end, Merriam-Webster’s editors realized that this was the right word, the exact word, to describe the last year.

 

This morning, we’re going to be looking at the power of words.  Proverbs has an awful lot to say about our words, and the focal passage this morning is Proverbs 13:3.  I’ll be referencing many other proverbs along the way; so, if you’re taking notes, you might want to jot them down.  Solomon writes, “He who guards his lips guards his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin” (Proverbs 13:3)

 

Father, we pray now that with our Bibles open before us, You will teach us from Your Word, that You will grant to us correction, that You will train us in the path of righteousness, that You will convict us of that which is displeasing to You, and that You will engender in us a genuine desire to become not only students of Your book but also those who, by Your divine enabling, put into practice what we learn.  Save us from being tasters without benefiting from the nutrition of Your Word.  For we pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

 

Words are seldom neutral, are they?  Think about this most recent week.  We employed adverbs, adjectives, verbs, and nouns – the whole deal.  We put them together in a way that had the potential for engendering strife and creating confusion, or we chose to use our words in such a way so as to encourage, to nourish, and to heal.

 

Some of us may have taught our children to sing a song that we grew up singing,

 

O, be careful, little feet, where you go,

O, be careful, little eyes, what you see;

O, be careful, little hands, what you touch,

And be careful, little lips, what you say.

For there’s a Father up above,

And he’s looking down in love.

So be careful, little lips, what you say.

 

We were simply, in verse, affirming the story of Hebrews 4:12-13 that every word that is spoken is heard by God, that nothing misses His gaze, that our lives are exposed before Him.  Thomas Brooks, one of the Puritans, said “We know metals by their tinkling, and men by their talking.”  And when coins were coins, you could flip a coin, have your eyes closed, and you could say, “That is a nickel,” or “That is a dime,” or whatever it is.  Some of you might still possess that capacity.

 

So, let’s consider this from three angles.  That’ll be no surprise to you who are regular attenders.  Why three?  I don’t know.  Perhaps it’s because the Bible seems to have an unusual preoccupation with that number (right?).  In any case, I want to view it from three perspectives: Using words to harm.  Using words to help.  Using words to hide.

 

Using Words to Harm

 

First of all, then, it’s an abuse of language when we use words to harm.  The Bible says that’s a sin we should avoid.  Indeed, it’s one of the distinctive facts of the fallenness of humanity that we don’t need to teach our children how to use words that will be harmful or hurtful.  They hear us and see us and they naturally follow suit.

 

What are the characteristics of words that harm?  Well, there are many, but let me just give you three.

 

First of all, reckless words.  I’m not going to give you every reference in Proverbs; it would be too tedious.  But consider Proverbs 12:18: “Reckless words pierce like a sword.”  That’s an interesting way of putting it Solomon.  It’s the image of somebody unsheathing a sword and moving it around in an unceremonious and unguarded fashion.  In the Wild West it’s the fellow that takes his guns out of his holsters and fires them indiscriminately into the dusty ground underneath the person, who’s forced to jump and run in order to avoid being killed or wounded.

 

Second, are unguarded words.  Solomon speaks of “he who answers before listening,” and he says, “that is [to] his folly and his shame” (Proverbs 18:13)  We know what it is to answer before the question, don’t we?  Doctors do it: “I wanted to tell you how I’m feeling.”  “Let me prescribe for you!”  “No, I’m sorry.  I didn’t…”  Pastors do it; they begin preaching before the person has shared their story.  Husbands do it; we begin answering before our wives have told us what their concern is.  It’s this unguarded talk that begins to volunteer information before the person has even time to listen.  And this unguarded, reckless, unbridled use of the tongue, is what English clergyman Edward Reyner called “the chariot in which the devil rides.”

 

Thirdly, words that are harmful are far too numerous.  Proverbs 10:19 says, “When words are many, sin is not absent.”  It really makes sense, doesn’t it?  Just consider the law of averages.  When we speak and we begin to speak too much, inevitably there will be things that are said that we wished we hadn’t said, things that we would like to take back and can’t, words that we let slip out that we really never intended to use, things that we said about another person that we really should have kept to ourselves.  Many times the problem is simply talking too much.  “When words are many, sin is not absent.”

 

Using too many reckless and unguarded words we can destroy our neighbor, crush the feelings of a friend, set fire to relationships between people – all by simply employing words!  Phenomenal potential for harm.  One wrong word may spoil a person’s character, smear a person’s reputation, or mar the usefulness of someone’s life for a very long time.  A poet once inscribed these words:

 

A careless word may kindle strife,

A cruel word may wreck a life,

A bitter word may hate instill,

A brutal word may smite and kill.

 

Now that’s straightforward.  It’s clear.  It’s unavoidable.  It’s dreadfully painful, because all of us understand it.  And when we use our tongues in a way that’s harmful, a number of things will inevitably follow.  One of them is that we will divide people who should be friends.  Proverbs 16:28: “A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates … friends.”

 

We all know people that can be in a room less than two minutes and they’ve got one person set against another person: “Did you hear about this?  Do you know what she said?  I was just talking on the phone to so and so, and she said such and such.  I’m only telling you this because it’s true.  I just have a little prayer request for you, in the corner.”  Yeah, sure!

 

Think about it.  It’s not difficult to estimate how many friendships are broken, how many reputations are ruined, the peace of how many homes destroyed through careless words – words that harm people.

 

Let me offer just two more quick results of harmful words.  Harmful words destroy the praise of God’s people.  Ephesians 5:18 “Be filled with the Spirit,” and Ephesians 4:30 “Do not grieve the … Spirit.”  How do you grieve the Spirit?  In part, by the use of words that harm.

 

It’s impossible to have a vibrant, meaningful, worship service with people who have spent the week harming others with their mouths.  Think about it.  That’s us each Sunday.  This congregation is a group of sinful people that are trying to bring praise and worship to our God and King, or Creator and Sustainer, or Lord and Savior.  That’s why James puts his finger on it, and he says, “With [the tongue] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.  From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.  My brothers, these things ought not to be so” (James 3:9-10).

 

Do you want to see the amazing grace of Jesus at work – just come to one of our worship services.  Jesus takes people that have used their words to harm people during the week and turns them to praise Him, and prayerfully, in the process, turns their hearts back to him and their mouths away from harm.

 

Finally – in this section on harmful words – not only do our words divide us and destroy praise, but they diminish the progress of the people of God.  In Jeremiah chapter 7, Jeremiah speaks to the people there, and he says, “You know, you folks think you’re going forward?  I’ve got news for you: you’re going backwards.  And the reason that you’re going backwards,” he says, “is because the plain instruction of God to you, you’ve got your fingers in your ears when it comes to listening, and you’ve got your eyes closed when it comes to seeing, and you’re moving in the wrong direction,” and at the heart of it all, in verse 28, he says, “[T]ruth has perished; it is cut off from their lips” (Jeremiah 7:28).

 

Using words to harm.  They’re reckless, unguarded, and too many.  And they result in division, destroying worship and diminishing our sanctification.

 

Using Words to Help

 

So, let’s turn to the positive side, see if that’s a little better.  How about using words to help?  If the speech of a scoundrel is like a scorching fire, (Proverbs 16:27) then “the mouth of the righteous,” says Solomon, “is like a fountain of life” (Proverbs 10:11).

 

Wonderful picture, isn’t it?  Scorching fire, burning everything in its way.  Fountain of life; people love to come to it and be refreshed.  Or the healing tongue, he says, is like “a tree of life,” (Proverbs 15:4) reminding us that the power of the tongue may be employed to encourage, to affirm, to enrich, to reconcile, to forgive, to unite, to smooth, to bless.

 

The other half of that anonymous poem that I quoted earlier continues with these words:

 

A gracious word may smooth the way;

A joyous word may light the day.

A timely word may lessen stress;

A loving word may heal and bless.

 

Well, what are the characteristics of words that help?  If the words that harm are reckless, unguarded, and too numerous, how about employing words to help?  Well, let me offer a few clues.

 

Number one, they need always to be honest words.  Proverbs 16:13 says, “Kings take pleasure in honest lips; they value a man who speaks the truth.”

 

Secondly, they need to be thought-out words.  Proverbs 15:28 says, “The heart of the righteous weighs its answers, but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil.”  What a great verb: gushes evil.  The difference between thought-out words and the completely unbridled, reckless use of terminology – just someone whose mouth is like the opening up of a fire hydrant on an afternoon, and all of a sudden, it’s everywhere and over everybody.  Somebody said, “Is it possible to get a glass of water?” and the answer was, “Watch this,” and it went everywhere!  Someone says, “I had a question about such and such,” and instead of simply getting a word, they get a dictionary.

 

Third, the words that help will also be few rather than many.  Solomon deals with this quite ironically in chapter 17 when he says, “Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue” (17:28).  We know this from school, many of us, don’t we?  You sit in a chemistry class, you’ve gotta make sure you sit next to the right person – somebody who knows what he’s talking about, an intelligent group.  Don’t sit with the Norris boys.  Learn the art of nodding, and shaking, and the look of deep contemplation of the ramifications of these great theories – and hopefully, volunteer nothing at all.  Because even a fool is thought wise if he stays silent, and you may be taken as discerning if you hold your tongue.

 

Words that help also need to be calm words.  Calming words allow for a fair hearing in a dispute; calming words allow tempers to cool; the calming, soft tongue that will “break a bone” (Proverbs 25:15).  What an interesting statement!  “The soft tongue has the power to break the bone.”

 

You say, “How can a soft tongue break a bone?”  You think about at the beginning of Romans 2: “Do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”  It’s God’s kindness in the face of our rebellion, it’s Jesus’ tenderness in the face of our resistance, that may be used to melt our hearts.  It’s Jesus’ soft words in the moment of our sin that lead us to say, “This kind of love is amazing to me!”

 

We’re all confronted by unfairness, unfriendliness, unkindness, and we’re a part of this same mixture.  It takes far more to respond in gentleness than it does to give way to unbridled passion and anger.   You’re driving the car: “Well, if I ever get the chance again, I’ll know what I’ll say next time.  ’Cause I was slow off the mark, but I’ve got it now!  I hope she says it again.  I hope she says it as soon as I get back, because I’m ready for her this time.”  Go ahead and gush.  Go ahead and be reckless.  Go ahead and stir up dissension.  Go ahead and defend your course. “A gentle answer turns away wrath” says Solomon.

 

So helpful words are honest words; they’re thought-out words; they’re few rather than numerous, and they’re calming rather than divisive.

 

Using Words to Hide

 

Finally, just a word about using words to hide.  What I’m referring to here is the temptation to hide behind empty words.  Solomon says, “Mere talk leads only to poverty” (Proverbs 14:23) – financial poverty, relational poverty, spiritual poverty.  He says, “Like a coating of glaze over earthenware are fervent lips with an evil heart” (Proverbs 26:23).  He says, “You can’t do it.  You can’t conceal it.  You’re not going to be able to disguise, before God, the reality of your character by thinking that you can take the earthenware part of your life and simply glaze it over with all the kinds of terminology that make people think that you’re in the know and that you’re on track.”

 

And there’s nothing that creates this more in the realm of hypocrisy than within the framework of a religious environment, and we become adept at hiding the poverty of our own spiritual life behind terminology – words that are a thin disguise.

 

Isn’t it amazing (it is to me) that when God reveals Himself in His searing, unblemished holiness to Isaiah the prophet – the prophet whose whole life is about his lips – when God makes Himself known to Isaiah, he falls on his face, and what does he say?  “I am a man of unclean lips!” (Isaiah 6:5).  In other words, Isaiah is admitting that it’s within the realm of his greatest giftedness where his deepest failure lies.

 

Jesus warns that we will give an account for these things.  And Paul says to Timothy, “I want you to be an example to the believers first of all in speech” (1 Timothy 4:12).  Not in preaching.  In speech!  Jesus said the same thing to the Pharisees.  He said, “You’re a bunch of talkers.  You love it when people say, ‘Oh, have you seen them doing their alms?  Oh, have you seen them attending the services?  Oh, have you listened to their prayers at the corner of the street?’”  He says, “If you live in such a way so as to hide behind the multitude of your words, enjoy your reward, because there will never be a reward on the day of judgment” (Matthew 6:1-2, paraphrased).

 

And if all of that is not demanding enough, listen to what Jesus said about our words, “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak…”  And then He lays it down hard and heavy, “for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:26-27).  What does He mean by that?  Simply this: that you know a metal by its tinkle, you know a man by his talk, and our words and our works achieve nothing for us before the gate of heaven but…  BUT our words and our works are the evidence that our profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is true and not fake.

 

Let me conclude with a story that I believe drives home the wisdom of words.  I don’t recall when I first heard the story.  I believe it was in seminary, but whenever it was it’s stuck with me through the years and I’ve often imagined how it might have played out.

 

In Corrie ten Boom’s book The Hiding Place, she tells the story of her father’s remarkable wisdom.  When Corrie was a little girl, preadolescent, she was traveling with her father on the train to Amsterdam from their home in Haarlem, in the Netherlands.  Her father was a watchmaker, and he traveled once a week for repair parts, for new watches that he sold in his story, and to get the accurate time from a special clock in Amsterdam so that he could be assured all of his clocks and watches in Haarlem were accurate.  He carried with him a large, heavy briefcase with spare parts and tools.  Corrie had read the word “sex” some time before, and could not imagine what it meant.  So she asked her father on the train.

 

“Father, what is sex?”

 

She writes, “He turned to look at me, as he always did when answering a question, but to my surprise he said nothing.  At last he stood up, lifted his traveling case from the rack over our heads, and set it on the floor.”

 

“Will you carry it off the train, Corrie?” he said.

 

“It’s too heavy,” I said.

 

“Yes,” he said.  “And it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load.  It’s the same way, Corrie, with knowledge.  Some knowledge is too heavy for children.  When you’re older and stronger you can bear it.  For now, you must trust me to carry it for you.”

 

I stand in awe of that kind of wisdom.  It’s almost as though the answer came from another world.  Then I think of the kind of man he must have been.  A faithful man.  A man of the Word.  A man of prayer.  A man of obedience.  A wise man.  His wisdom and articulate speech were an outgrowth of his close walk with the Lord.  That’s how it is with wise speech.