Hope or Chaos?

 

Then you will begin to say, ’We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’  But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’    Luke 13:26-27 (ESV) When the truth is revealed, there will be many who will be shocked. There are many who think that they can do something that would make them worthy of God’s love. There are many who are trying to impress both God and man by their religious fervor. There are many who are focused on what they can do, and they begin to believe that it is their efforts that please God. Instead of placing their trust in Christ’s finished work, they have placed their trust in their incomplete works. They may have admitted that they are the problem, but now, they are acting like the solution as well. One cannot be both the problem and the solution. It cannot work that way. In the end, those who have trusted Christ are secure in Him. Those who have played the game under their own “house rules” need to hope the rules to their game have been acceptable to God. In the end, they will find that the house rules they have applied to their game are not the real rules. In Christ we have hope. In man we have chaos. For now, the choice is mine.

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Helpful Questions

 

And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” Luke 13:23-24 (ESV) “So the text teaches us. It does not say, “a few may be misled,” but many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able. That many professors are deceived is clear enough from the language of Christ Himself, both here and in other places.” (C. H. Spurgeon.) The academic world seems to enjoy posing questions that leave people dangling for answers. The educational elite often portray their thought process as extraordinary, even infallible as they implore students to discuss the problem of whether or not a tree that falls in a forest makes a sound if no one hears a sound. There are discussions and questions that can be helpful in discovering truth, but the motivation for those questions needs to be the discovery of truth. If the motivation is something other than truth, then we are set up to be deluded. Charles Spurgeon said of this verse “...this delusion may last through life, and be sustained by many specious arguments, but IT MUST ALL BE DISPELLED.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)

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Discovering or Convincing?

 

And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”  Luke 13:23-24 (ESV) “The question is put in very general, and seemingly inoffensive, terms; yet probably a great deal of Jewish pride and uncharitableness couched under it. This busy man’s inquiry proceeded from an ill-natured hope of being confirmed in the national persuasion, that God was not the God of the Gentiles; but had reserved future happiness for the Israelites alone. But supposing there was no ground for imputation either of ill-will or vanity; still all such questions—for this is a leading one to many others—are useless and irreverent. Since, then, God is just, He will make none miserable farther than they deserve; since He is good, He will both pardon and reward in such degree as is fit; and since He is wise, what appears disorder and confusion to our short sight will appear in the end perfect regularity and proportion. But why was our nature formed so liable to fall short of it, in the sad degree that we often do?” (T. Secker ) We have often heard people say there are no dumb questions. Yet, in reality, there are some dumb questions. Christian scholars have often been asked questions that either have no answer, or were just asked to justify one’s viewpoint, or to catch the other off-guard. Questions such as “Can God make a rock bigger than He can lift?” may sound intelligent, but really are nothing more than arrogant banter. It is far better to spend time discovering God rather than time trying to convince ourselves and others that we can outthink God.

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One Way

 

And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”  Luke 13:23-24 (ESV) “The man that asked this question has long been dead, but the character lives, and it is not among the rarest exhibitions that we see. We carry to the Bible, if not the very same question he put to the Savior, yet questions as unpractical and irrelevant, or if not in every sense irrelevant, yet premature and of minor importance; and so it is when you have the opportunity of conversing with clergymen and others, for whose theological knowledge and science in the Scriptures you have some respect. Your questions are such as these, “What is likely to be the future condition of such as die in infancy?” Cannot you trust them in the hands of God? Are you afraid that He will do them injustice? “What is the probability of the salvation of the heathen?” And why do you wish to estimate that! Is not this one thing clear, that their condition for the present life, and their prospects for the life to come, would both be far better, provided they had the gospel?”  (W. Nevins) There is one way to God, and those who seek it, find it. We need not complicate it anymore.

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Compartmentalize

 

And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”   Luke 13:20-21 (ESV) Both the Kingdom of God and sin are compared to leaven. Leaven permeates and affects the whole loaf of bread. Leaven cannot be isolated to sectors, and it changes the shape and function of whatever it is a part. When we deliberately allow sin in our lives, we need to realize that that sin will permeate every area of our lives. When we allow God to “permeate” our lives, that will affect every area of our lives. That is why, when we think correctly and align our lives with the truth, we see the fruits of the Spirit. When we live in sin, the fruits of the spirit are forced, if they are there, and we live an exhausting meaningless life. God makes it clear that walking with God and living in sin will affect everything about our lives. We need to make certain we do not compartmentalize our lives, for those who do so will never truly live in the context of the way we were meant to be.

Environmental Adjustment

 

He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it?  It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”  Luke 13:18 (ESV) We come to Christ rather simply by understanding that we are sinful, that our sin separates us from God, and our sin must be paid for by trusting Jesus to be our Savior. On that day, our focus is simple, the Gospel is simple, and our small world is changed forever. As we continue to spend time with God, enjoying and obeying Him, what started out as a simple relationship becomes an ever-present influence in every area of our life and the lives we touch. What starts out small, in time, gets to be all-encompassing. There is always a growth process that comes after birth, and the wise enjoy the process and relish any opportunity they have to be involved in the process. New or immature believers will act like immature believers. The tragedy is when those who claim to be in the faith for years have not grown, and they continue to act as immature believers. For them, a radical adjustment in their environment would be a wise decision, for we were meant to grow, and cannot enjoy life until we do.

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Religiosity

 

But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it?  And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.  Luke 13:14-17 (ESV) It seems logical that this woman would go to the synagogue on the sabbath. She had no hope, and if there was even a shred of hope, it would come from a miracle that only God could do. Yet it looked like the religious leaders were not interested in giving hope on the sabbath. Often our religiosity gets in the way of our relationships and our purposes. Obviously, that is not the way it was meant to be.

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