The Man of Mystery

Hebrews 7:3 He is without father or mother or genealogy,…..but resembling the Son of God.

One of the most intriguing characters in Scripture is Melchizedek. He entered Abraham’s life for a brief moment and then disappeared (Genesis 14:18-20). Hebrews says that he had no parents or genealogy. In this respect, Melchizedek was a type of Christ. Christ had a genealogy, but He could stand apart from it because His birth was miraculous.

The first thing we should learn from the story of Melchizedek is that salvation in the Old Testament included more than a few favored Israelites. Melchizedek was not an Israelite.

This is not to say that there is more than one way of salvation than through Jesus Christ. But who are we to tell God how he has to save any of us through the Savior? Hebrews insists that Jesus is king of the universe, not just king of the Jews. Everyone who is saved is saved by Him; anyone who refuses light from the Light of the World is lost.

The story of Melchizedek reminds us that salvation does not depend on one’s background or genealogy. We cannot inherit salvation. As it has been said: “God has no grandchildren.” Each of us is called to personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus, we can become prophets, priests, and kings who serve God no matter what our background may be.

Prayer: Great God, we are awe-stricken by the greatness of salvation. Please open our eyes to its fullness, that we may see the importance of living in you. In Christ, our only Savior, Amen.

God is Talking to You

He has spoken to us by a Son. Hebrews 1:2

In some ways it is good that we do not know the author or authors of Hebrews. Often we may be tempted to say of some parts of Scripture, “Well, those are just Paul’s ideas,” or “That was written only for the Corinthians.” The namelessness of the author of Hebrews emphasizes that God is really its primary author.

What is more, Hebrews is addressed to each one of us. That we have this special message addressed to each of us personally is extremely encouraging because each of us needs a special message from God. As we follow Christ, each of us is at a certain stage in his or her spiritual development. And each of us is required to advance in his or her spiritual life.

It is true, of course, that everyone who has been saved in Christ is saved completely; no one is merely “half saved.” Every child of God is filled with the Holy Spirit, who is “given without measure.” Still, we must grow in the Spirit to achieve full awareness of our salvation. Many Christians have only a vague idea about what being saved means, and they do not consciously enjoy their salvation.

We must increase our fullness daily. God speaks to us personally through the book of Hebrews so that we can learn more about His perfect salvation.

Prayer: Dear Lord, you have not only saved us through Christ, who is our sanctification, but you have given us His Spirit so that we can grow. Give us more of yourself, as we learn to grow in you. In Christ’s name, Amen.

Monopoly

Many readers will promptly deny it but one great explanation for our lack of evangelism is not the conviction that God does not love the people “out there,” but our fear that perhaps He really does. Predestination tells us plainly that God does have some sheep “out there” whom we must urge inside (John 10:16), and it is that thought which disturbs us. It was not fear of the Ninevites the caused Jonah to go AWOL, but the fear that God had some love for these Assyrians.

Such an attitude is altogether understandable; nobody likes to buy an “exclusive” garment and find countless others wearing the same thing. Especially liable to this desire for distinction are those of us who do not have much other claim to exclusiveness or specialness; unconsciously we salve our souls by saying to ourselves that we may not be smart or rich, but after all, everybody isn’t saved! And sharing our faith with others, especially if they already have brains and money, means that they continue to have an earthly advantage over us and can look forward to heaven too. That thought is just too much.

What we forget is that when it comes to salvation the more you “give it away” the more you get. It is by sharing our faith that it grows. This is the whole point of such a statement as Luke 17:33. The person who tries to preserve what he has by keeping it all to himself will find that even what he thought he had is slipping from between his fingers. In short, the person who is not eager that everybody should have what he has, may well begin to wonder whether he ever had it himself.

Words to the Cross

Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!”     Mark 15: 29, 30.

During the Lenten season we are reminded of the sufferings of our Lord.  They began at the beginning of his ministry.  He was rejected by those who were dearest to him when he needed them most.  He was granted an illegal trial without a proper hearing.  He was scourged until his back was bloody.  They spit on him.  They laid upon his shoulder a cruel cross and made him carry it to Calvary.  Having driven nails through his hands and feet they hailed him to the cross-bar.  Often-times at this season of the year we think of the words that he spoke, but certainly he must have had anguish when he heard the words that were spoken to him while he was on the cross.

“If you are the Son of God come down from the cross.”  In the first place, these people wanted a religion that they could understand.  The people passed by wagging their heads; that is, they said “no” with their heads and with their mouths they said two different things.  “If they will destroy this temple in 3 days I will build it up again.”  They wagged their heads as if to say “nonsense.”  “You who predict the destruction of the temple and you who say you are the Son of God, come down from the cross and we shall believe.”  They knew who Jesus was for they could quote his words.  Today many see the Christ hanging on the tree, they come to a church where the word is preached and they are uncomfortable.  “Come down from your judgments,” they say.  Make it more palatable.  I want a religion which I can understand, and they say to the church, “let me alone.”  Let me work out my own salvation.  Permit me to bask in what I want.  I want a religion but don’t tell me how to live.  The Jews remembered that Jesus was to be a shepherd and that he would relieve them of the burdens of the day and deliver them from Rome and all of their oppression.  Outside the church we also have those that are impinging on the message of the cross.  They call themselves the humanists of the day.  They want God without justice.  Jesus held his popularity until he said, “You must take up your cross and follow me.”  When he told the crowds that, his miracles were over and they turned and rejected him, and he found himself with only a handful of his disciples.

We as a nation want to help the nations if it won’t hurt us too much.  What this world really needs are men who are willing to help one another and who will speak the truth even through it costs and means getting hurt.  The first temptation that Jesus experienced in the wilderness was when Satan said, “Why don’t you change these stones to bread?”  Satan told him how to use his power, how he could rule by jumping down from the temple and proving to the people he was great and powerful.  The long road by the way of the cross was the hard way and Satan tempted Jesus to follow the easy road.  Salvation without a cross – no calvary.  The cross was the only way he could deal with sin.  The wages of sin is death.  What kind of love would it be if he had turned his back and come down from the sufferings and the cross.  To the Christian comes the command “take up your cross.”  Christ could not redeem without a cross and you cannot be a Christian without a cross.  Did you ever think of what it means?  The cross we bear is the  cross that we take upon ourselves.  He was a volunteer and he decided to stay on the cross.  What have you volunteered to do for God because you love your neighbor as yourself?  Do we too want a religion without a cross?  People today are still asking for a religion without a sacrifice.  They want a religion with quick results.  “Give us a sign and we will believe you.”  “Certainly you should not hang on such a cross, you who did all these miracles, raised the dead, ,healed the sick.  Demonstrate for us.”  People today are looking for that same thing.  The work of the church takes time.  Peoples’ lives are changed one by one.  There is no such thing as a mass conversion of an individual.  Every soul must be taught.  This comes from within the heart. But in answer to the prayer of Jesus, “Forgive them for they know not what they do,” the thief confessed, and those who stood by said, “Surely this was the Son of God.”  He transforms lives and it is done through the cross.

Some day he will return without a cross and people will stand before him without an opportunity of forgiveness.  Then it will no longer be the day of salvation — for this is the day of grace.  What kind of a religion have you?  What are you saying in this season to the Christ who hung on a cross?  Are you bowing in adoration to Him who loved you even unto death and now lives to offer you life?

 

Neglect

“Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good words, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some….”           Hebrews 10:24, 25

The Christian life is such like riding a bicycle or flying an airplane; unless a person keeps going forward he will fall.  There is no standing still.  Many think of salvation as a kind of gift that a person possesses, like a package or a ticket.  But salvation is a living, growing thing; it must be kept alive.  A plant will not last long without care; much less a human body.

The same thing is even more true of eternal life, the new life in Christ Jesus.  A man may say:  I have been born again; I have faith in Jesus Christ.  But unless that faith is fed and taken care of, it dies.  That is why Hebrews is so full of warning about falling away from the faith.  And Peter adds that it were better not to have known the way of righteousness at all than, having started out on it, to turn back.

A devout Scottish minister quietly began his sermon one Sunday by saying, “There is a question in the Bible that I cannot answer; the angels cannot answer it; even God Himself has no answer.  That question is found in Hebrews 2:3, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?”

This warning is not addressed to people who reject the gospel, but to professing Christians.  It is addressed to people who neglect church-going, who are irregular in their Bible-reading.  “Neglect not the gift that is within you.”  That gift is more costly than anything you own, even the most luxurious limousine.  It is far more fragile than your body.  It is more important than your own children.  Take care of it.

Water

“Jesus said to them….He who believes in me shall never thirst.”       John 6:35

If it is true, as the poet (Thompson) insisted, that we should see God in every tree and rock, surely we think of him when we see water.  It is perhaps the greatest symbol of spiritual truth in the world.  If it is true, as Paul says, that even the Bible-less heathen will have no excuse for ignorance because God speaks in the silent sun, surely every babbling brook preaches to believer and unbeliever alike.

Water often is a regular reminder of that great destruction by which God punished the world of Noah’s day.  The person who reads in the newspaper of drownings, tidal waves, shipwreck and other aquatic disasters without thinking of sin and its consequences is quite blind to God’s so-called general revelation.  Repeatedly the Bible warns that as certain as is the fact of the first flood, so sure is the final conflagration.

Happily, water was created by God as a symbol also of salvation.  The same flood that destroyed the godless saved Noah and his family, while the same sea that drowned Pharaoh ransomed God’s people.  Every time we wash or enjoy a refreshing drink we can, by right, give thought to Him who said, “Every one that is thirsty: come to the waters.”  And again, “Wash, make yourself clean.” “Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

People are said nowadays to thirst for power, for knowledge, for fame.  And so they do.  But the Christian knows the satisfaction of which Jesus spoke when He said that whoever enjoys Him will not know thirst of any kind.

Now

“….Behold, now is the acceptable time;  behold, now is the day of salvation.”                II  Corinthians 6:2

Most of us are prone to put off and postpone the unpleasant as long as we can.  We hate to get up in the morning and we are reluctant to go to bed at night.  We defer going to the dentist until our teeth begin to ache.  We wait to put anti-freeze in the auto radiator until the first frost catches us unprepared; and the storm windows stay up half the summer.

The Bible lays great emphasis upon promptness, especially in the eternal matter of repentance and conversion.  The “day of salvation” is not tomorrow or even today: it is this very minute, right now.  “Behold, now is the acceptable time.”  The reason for this is that if a person postpones such a decision till tomorrow, tomorrow is harder than today, and the next day harder still.  Sometimes we assume that a man can become a Christian at any time in his life.  “While there’s life there’s hope,” we say, and use such expressions as “eleventh-hour” long before his deathbed.  The Bible speaks of a sin for which there is no forgiveness, a hardening of heart that makes repentance impossible.  Psychology confirms this in saying that there is a “point of no return” in a person’s life in which he cannot change if he wants to, and he doesn’t want to because he can’t.

But there are many other things we ought to take care of promptly.  The Holy Spirit puts pious impulses in our hearts every day, and we sincerely intend to carry them out, some day, but not right now.  And often the opportunity has passed by the time we get around to doing something.  And the danger is that the more we ignore or defer the promptings of God, the less frequently He whispers holy suggestions; He might stop speaking altogether.

Origin of Sin

All of us take it that God made this universe perfect.  “Behold it is very good.”  God must be incapable of making  anything imperfect.  Here is the problem – Why didn’t God leave well enough alone?  None of us would go so far as to say, “Why did God make sin?” And yet we say, “Why did God let it happen?”  We say, “God allowed it.”  Whether he commanded, or planned it, it is not just a theological thing; we must think over this meaning.  It involves our will.  If it isn’t our responsibility we can say, “Well, we can’t help it.  God is responsible.”  That is why we have to answer this question to see if God is responsible or not.  When we say “Why didn’t God leave well enough alone,” we think that Adam was apparently perfect, but he wasn’t.  For example, a pediatrician would say about one of the babies in the nursery, “This baby is perfect,” and not one of the parents would say, “I hope this child stays this way.”  This is a relative thing.  They wouldn’t want that baby to stay a perfect 2 months old, but would want it to become a perfect 4 month old, etc.

Adam was spiritually a child.  If you will permit an illustration:  Our high school and local colleges recently had their examinations, and they aren’t particularly pleasant for the student or for the teacher.  It means a lot of extra work for both the teacher and pupil.  Why do it then?  It is by means of these tests and examinations that they grow and learn more — so it is by means of the possibility of failure that Adam would grow and become a man.  I think every one of us feels that a person who has resisted temptation is a better man thereafter.  I don’t know whether one can logically speak of more perfection, but Adam would have become more perfect if he succeeded in this temptation.  If he had not sinned he would have been confirmed in holiness.  Even the least thought of evil would not have entered his mind, just as the Lord Jesus while he was here on earth – like the angels, who are finite creatures, are incapable of the least sin, they would have worked out their claim to heaven, eternal salvation.

We often speak of paradise as a picture of heaven, but that is just what it is; a picture.  Heaven would have been a step ahead.  They would have gained glory.  That is what God arranged.  Adam and Even were completely capable of that.  They could have said to Satan, “Get thee behind me,” as Christ had done.  Let us not blame God for what he is not responsible.

That is all good and nice, but you are just talking, “Might have been.”  “Why didn’t God make it so that they couldn’t have sinned?”  If God had done that there would not have been free choice, and man would have been merely a puppet in God’s hands.  The very fact that man did not do what God wanted him to do shows how free and independent he was.  Otherwise God would be like a ventriloquist.  An English writer says that sin or failure in the garden of Eden is the risk God ran in order that God could make a creature like himself, self reliant.  The problem of free will as over against predestination comes in here, and the answer is that man is free.  The Bible says that deliberately, lest some people escape their responsibility.  The fact is that there isn’t a soul here that doesn’t act deliberately.

It is true that God knew that man would disobey, and allow me to say, that God planned it that way, but God planned beyond that too, that out of this tragedy would come something better.  The Chicago fire long ago was a blessing because it was through this that better and stronger buildings were built, etc.  Out of the fall came a saved saint, which is an advantage.  If the first Adam hadn’t fallen, Jesus would have never come.  We wouldn’t know anything about the wonderful attributes of Jesus.  We wouldn’t know that we are on a higher level then Adam and Even were in Paradise.  We have eternal life in our hearts.

 

The Greatest Glory of Our Home

I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.                      Genesis 17:7

Many fine things can be said about a home, but the most marvelous thing is the fact that God chose, in His perfect plan of salvation, to work along family lines.

God did not have to.  Salvation is a sovereign work of God alone.  Obviously He saves whomever He wishes, and in various ways.

And God might have decided that in His choice of the subjects of salvation He would favor those whose parents were His enemies, rather than His friends.  After all, there is nothing that we inherit from our parents that bends us toward believing in God.  God can just as easily change a heathen heart as well as one of a person born in a Christian home.  Christianity is not something in our blood: our parents do not create faith in us.

Oh how good of God that He should have chosen to make happy the hearts of His friends by saying, “Thy children shall be my children.  I will be a God unto thee and thy seed after thee.”  What peace has come into countless lives because of this self-imposed promise, this self-imposed system of God.

But when God established such a system, He was not acting arbitrarily.  God is a God of reason and of order.  There is more to salvation than just the regenerating change of a human heart.  There must be conversion.  There must be instruction of that new mind.  Grace must grow.  And how would all this happen in a heathen home?  In the great work of salvation God is in partnership; “covenant,” we call it, requiring of Abraham and us that we walk with Him [as he works through us].

Anxious Thessalonians

Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, bothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed…    II Thessalonians 2:1,2

It is difficult for us Christians to keep our balance in religion.  Some people emphasize man’s responsibility, and others emphasize predestination.  Some stress the importance of doing good works to the neglect of salvation by grace, and others do just the opposite.

It is because of this tendency to swing from one extreme to the other that Paul had to write a second letter to the church in Thessalonika.  When Paul assured them in his first Epistle that Christ will come back suddenly and unexpectedly some day, immediately the Thessalonians became excited and wanted to drop everything and stand waiting for the second coming.  when Paul heard of this reaction he immediately sat down and wrote them another letter, reminding them that certain important things have to take place before Jesus’ return, and that therefore they should keep right on working faithfully at their customary employment.  If we remember these simple facts, it will be easy to recollect what the first and second Epistles to the Thessalonians are about, and to remember at the same time how the two are different.

A number of important events must take place before Jesus’ return, but the one that Paul mentions in II Thessalonians is the appearance of “the man of sin,” whom we ordinarily call the Anti-christ, a terrible opponent of Christianity in a very religious form, “sitting in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God.”  We have signs of his appearance today in unbelieving preachers, in the popularity of false religion in America, the spread of sects, and the counterfeit Christianity that is preached and professed by millions.  It is the work of Satan.  Examine your heart, whether you have true faith.