Month: February 2015

And Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God…”
Acts 14:12-15

On the surface, the scene presented to us in Act 14 may seem foreign.  The truth though is that this same worship of men goes on today in houses of religion, and these men love to have it so!  In 1Jo 4:1, we are instructed to “not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”  When men testify they speak on behalf of God, we need to test their words to see if they are indeed faithful ministers of the gospel.  Not all who name Christ are of Christ!  There is another Christ set forth in many assemblies today who has little semblance to our Savior.  There are those who would preach “another Jesus” and a “different gospel” like the men who sought to take advantage of the Corinthian church and turn them away from the truth. (2Co 11:4) Jesus warned of such a day in Mat 24:5 stating that “many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.” Don’t be deceived, dear one. Just because they use our Lord’s name doesn’t mean they know Him as their Lord!

So, how do we recognize these charlatans?  Our text today reveals the key difference between the true ministers of God and those who are “deceitful workers,” servants of Satan who likewise “transforms himself into an angel of light”. (2Co 11:13-14) The apostles in Act 14 had great opportunity for advantage over the people of Lystra.  God had used Paul and Barnabas to heal a man who had been cripple from birth.  These people served many gods, and when they saw this miracle, they began to exclaim, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!”  They were getting ready to sacrifice to these supposed gods in human form when the apostles ran in to stop them.  The point is that Paul and Barnabas were in a position to profit greatly from the people of Lystra.  They could have enjoyed great honor and great wealth as a result of this attention that had been drawn to them.  But, Paul and Barnabas were not interested in exalting themselves.  They had one singular desire–that God be glorified!

Aren’t you tired of men taking God’s glory for themselves?!!  How many name Christ today but place themselves in the spotlight?  How often have preachers taken advantage of the people, manipulating them by twisting the scriptures in order to fill their wallets?  Do you want to be able to recognize these imposters?  Then look for the pattern of the apostles in our text!  Paul and Barnabas had no desire to take advantage of these people for their own personal gain when they could have easily done so.  Rather, they wanted them to turn from “these useless things to the living God”!  True ministers of the gospel want to draw men to Christ, not to themselves.  When Paul spoke of his work of planting and Apollos’ work of watering in 1Co 3:7,  he didn’t speak of this work for his own recognition but rather to confess that “neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.”  His message concerning Christ was “that in all things He may have the preeminence”. (Col 1:18)

Since Old Testament times, we have read of men that used religion to maintain control of people and prosper personally.  There are many that do the same today.  The instruction to us from Jud 1:3-4 is “to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Many in our day are caught up in this false gospel!  As God provides opportunity, let us be faithful to warn these souls, exposing this great deception, that our Lord rather than men might be exalted.  May John the Baptist’s desire be that of our own hearts: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (Joh 3:30)

Jamie

“In that day I will cause the horn of the house of Israel to spring forth, and I will open your mouth to speak in their midst. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.”
Ezekiel 29:21

Our verse today comes at the very end of the text we considered last week.  We saw in v. 17-20 that Ezekiel received word on New Year’s Day that God would reward Nebuchadnezzar and his army for their seemingly fruitless labor for 13 years against Tyre.  God said He would give them the land of Egypt because “they worked for Me”.  We compared this long warfare to the believers labor in service to God which is often unnoticed and may have very little evidence of visible fruit, but we were encouraged in Gal 6:9 to “not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart”!  That ultimate reward and fruit of our labor will be fully revealed at the coming of the Lord Jesus when the steadfast and obedient laborers are glorified and hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant…Enter into the joy of your lord.”

With those thoughts in mind, our text today may seem a little out of place.  What does Eze 29:21 have to do with the saints’ faithful service to their God?  Absolutely everything!  To see this more clearly, we need to understand what (or rather Who) the horn of the house of Israel is.  The Septuagint, the oldest Greek version of the Old Testament, uses the same Greek word for “horn” in our text as is used in Luk 1:69.  Here, there can be no mistake Who this Horn represents.  John the Baptist’s father, Zacharias, is full of the Holy Ghost and praises God that He “has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David.”  This Horn of salvation that descended from the natural lineage of David is none other than the Lord Jesus!  As our text in Ezekiel reveals, “In that day,” i.e. the day of the saints’ glorification, “I will cause the horn of the house of Israel to spring forth”.  To understand this springing forth, we again look at the Septuagint to find that the Greek word translated “to spring forth” is rendered “rises” in 2Pe 1:19.  eter is writing to believers in this letter–“those who have obtained like precious faith with us” in v. 1–so when he encourages them to be faithful and look toward that future time in v. 19 “until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,” He is speaking of the day of the Lord’s second coming!

What will happen in that day when the horn of the house of Israel springs forth?  Our text continues, “I will open your mouth to speak in their midst.  Then they shall know that I am the LORD.”  In the day of the Lord’s return, though the saints will be rewarded, that will not be the focus.  Php 2:10-11 says “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  You see, the emphasis of the saints being crowned is not the crowns themselves any more than the emphasis of Nebuchadnezzar being rewarded for his labor is the reward.  Though the saints will receive a “crown of righteousness” (2Ti 4:8), only one head will remain crowned when the Lord is revealed.  In that day, the twenty-four elders (who represent the church throughout all ages) will “fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne”. (Rev 4:10) Though we labor in the Lord, the faithful servants testify “We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.” (Luk 17:10) The Lord receives all the glory even when we are rewarded for our labor!

May we never lose sight of that truth, dear Christian.  Paul acknowledged in 1Co 3:8 that he and Apollos had labored and would therefore be rewarded: “Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.”  But in the previous two verses, he reveals his heart in the matter: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.  So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.”  We say with the apostle–we are what we are by the grace of God! (1Co 15:10) In closing, I want to share a quote from Joe Stowell of which the founder of this Bible study group, Chuck Burleson, frequently reminded us:

“If Christianity is dull and boring, if it is a burden and not a blessing, then most likely we are involved in a project, not a Person – a system, not a Saviour, rules rather than relationship.  Followership is not a religious thing, a list of rules, a host of rituals, a philosophy of life, or the best choice among other possible lifestyle. Authentic followers do not live for liturgy or liberation. Following is not a celebration. It is not contemporary or traditional. It is not jubilant dance or compelling drama. It is not preaching. It is not praising. It is not obeying or conforming.  It is Christ, and Christ alone.  All the rest is because of Christ and for Christ.”

Love in Christ,
Jamie

And it came to pass in the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to labor strenuously against Tyre; every head was made bald, and every shoulder rubbed raw; yet neither he nor his army received wages from Tyre, for the labor which they expended on it. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Surely I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; he shall take away her wealth, carry off her spoil, and remove her pillage; and that will be the wages for his army. I have given him the land of Egypt for his labor, because they worked for Me,’ says the Lord GOD. ‘In that day I will cause the horn of the house of Israel to spring forth, and I will open your mouth to speak in their midst. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.’ “
Ezekiel 29:17-21

For a few weeks now we’ve been considering what the word of God has to say about the new year.  As we’ve examined these texts in the order they appear in scripture, it’s been interesting to see how these New Year’s Day passages have followed the path of the spiritual experience for the believer.  We first looked at two events that pointed us to “salvation in the new year” as the flood waters dried up and the tabernacle was first raised on New Year’s Day.  As we noted in the last post, our spiritual experience doesn’t stop at salvation.  Though justified before God now, we are still being continually conformed to the image of Christ through a process called sanctification.  We saw “sanctification in the new year” as King Hezekiah began to cleanse the temple on New Year’s Day.  Today, we see the final step in our spiritual journey, namely “glorification in the new year”!

In our text above, God gives revelation to His prophet Ezekiel on New Year’s Day concerning the lengthy warfare of Nebuchadnezzar and his army.  In Babylon’s battle against Tyre, the Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge has this to say:

“Nebuchadnezzar was thirteen years employed in the siege. During this long siege, the soldiers must have endured great hardships; their heads would become bald by constantly wearing their helmets; and their shoulders be peeled by carrying materials to and from the works.  St. Jerome asserts, on the authority of the Assyrian histories, that when the Tyrians saw their city must fall, they put their most valuable effects on board their ships, and fled with them to the islands, and their colonies, ‘so that, the city being taken, Nebuchadnezzar found nothing worthy of his labour.’”

After all that long labor, Nebuchadnezzar had nothing to show for his work!  Doesn’t it feel like that in our Christian battle often times, dear soul?  We labor and strive, yet we wonder if it does any good.  No one seems to notice and there appears to be no benefit though the effort we put forth was great.  No wonder Gal 6:9 encourages us to “not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”  God wouldn’t put that in the Book unless we were often tempted to feel like our effort was in vain, but we must remember that when no one notices the labor, the Lord does!  In fact, Mat 6 instructs us to labor in a hidden fashion in charitable giving, prayer, and fasting because “your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly”. (v. 3-4, 6, 17-18) In contrast, those who labor in such things to be seen of men “have no reward from your Father in heaven”. (v. 1) That’s good reason to rejoice and not grow weary in seemingly fruitless and unnoticed service!

God certainly pulls back the curtain at times and gives us a glimpse of what he’s accomplishing through and for His children, but even if we never see the fruit of our labor in this life, we are assured in Rev 22:12 by our Lord, “behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.”  God said Nebuchadnezzar would be rewarded for his tireless warfare against Tyre “because they worked for Me”.  Likewise, all who serve for the Lord’s sake will realize the full reward for their labor in the day of glorification.  What is the expected reward?  Rom 2:3-11 says those who patiently continue in well doing, those who work good, will receive rewards of “glory, honor, and peace”.  Words like “immortality” and “eternal” in this passage show that these rewards will never fade away for these heirs of everlasting life!  So, remember believer, no matter how things look outwardly, God is at work and rewards the labor of those who serve for His glory.  In light of such glorious truths, “my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (1Co 15:58)

Jamie