Robert J. Morgan's Blog, page 20

I’ve Got This–How To Improve Your Relationships

A Study from the book of Ephesians

Introduction: Maybe it’s just our politics, but
everything is so divided today—our nation, our homes, our churches, our
friendships. People are having a hard time getting along. Things would go
better if we could grasp Ephesians 4:1 — As a prisoner for the Lord, then,
I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received….

The apostle Paul was writing from prison to Christians in the city of
Ephesus. His letter has six chapters, and the first three are about the calling
we have received—the special, supernatural, heavenly-fueled, upward life of
those who meet Jesus Christ. In chapters 1-3, Paul gives us the most stirring
and sterling description of the deeper Christian life to be found in the Bible.
People call the book of Ephesians the Switzerland of Bible because this letter
soars to such beautiful high altitudes and attitudes. Then in chapter 4, Paul said,
“Now because of all I have just been telling you, here is how you are to live
toward others.” Chapters 4, 5, and 6 tells us how to live with others in the
church, in the world, in the home, and in the workplace.

It’s biblically impossible to bypass chapters 1 – 3, and to start with
chapter 4. It is not impossible, but it is biblically
impossible. If we want to live out the conduct we find in the last part of
Ephesians, we have to understand the calling we have received in the first part
of Ephesians.

1. Our Calling (Ephesians 1 – 3)

After Paul’s normal introduction, he begins the essence of his letter
in verse 3—Ephesians 1:3: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing
in Christ.

The phrase “in Christ” (or “in Him”) occurs 22 times in this epistle,
and that’s the key to the book. The apostle Paul is writing to a mature church.
He doesn’t have to deal with any problems or dysfunctions, and so he uses this
opportunity to tell us what it means to be in Christ—that is, to be a genuine
Christian. Though he is sitting in a primitive Romans prison, he’s so excited
he begins by bursting out with this verse of praise: Praise be to the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms
with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

When you are in Christ, you are the recipient of every blessing. Not
just one or two of them. Not just one or two hundred of them. Not just one or
two thousand of them. Every blessing God can think of—and He can think of all
of them—belongs to the person who belongs to Jesus. Every blessing you need to
today, tomorrow, and forever.

A. We Are Included in Jesus Christ

Verse 13 says: And you also were included in Christ when you heard
the message of truth, the Gospel of your salvation.

When you hear and receive the message of salvation, you’re included in
all God has for all His people for time and eternity. You’re included in every
bit of it. Have you ever seen a child in the school or playground who wasn’t
included in the other children? Or have ever felt excluded from a group of your
friends? When you come to Christ, you’re included in every spiritual blessing.
Most of those blessings are in the future, but many of them are for now. Look
at that verse again:

B. We Are Secured by the Holy Spirit

And you
also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the Gospel of
your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the
promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the
redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of His glory.

At the moment you give your life to Christ, the Holy Spirit comes
flooding into you in a dramatic way. You may feel the exhilaration or you may
not. The Holy Spirit begins working on your deepest interiors, and He begins
giving you love, joy, and peace. He gives you the ability to understand the
Bible. He helps you live by faith and obedience. He conveys the interior blessings
of heaven into your life. The Holy Spirit is simply God’s way of giving you a
deposit guaranteeing what is to come.

C. We Are Empowered by the Heavenly Father

We are also empowered by the Holy Spirit. Verse 18 says: I pray that
the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope
to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people,
and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as
the mighty strength He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated
Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority,
power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age
but also in the one to come.

The writer, Paul, says that we ought to know about the incredible power
and strength God provides for His people. It’s the same power He exerted when
He reversed the process of death, returned Christ to life, glorified and
eternalized His body, hailed Him heavenward at the moment of the Ascension, and
reestablished Him on the highest throne in the universe.

That same sizzling high voltage power is available for us to live out
the kind of life God wants us to live.

In my utility closet I have a heavy-duty extension cord. Suppose I took
one end of it and swing it around and I threw the end of it upward toward the
sky. Suppose an angel caught it and drew it upward, up through the skies,
through the universe, all the way into the highest heaven and plugged it into
an outlet in the very throne of God Himself. Suppose I plugged the other end
into my chest, into my life. Suddenly I would be operating on this planet with
supernatural power. I think that is what Paul is saying. We are included in
Christ, sealed by Holy Spirit, and empowered by God the Father who raised Christ
the dead and enthroned Him.

Now, let’s turn to Ephesians 2. The first ten verses are a little
miniature book of Romans. You can take the entire book of Romans, and fit it
into these ten verses. This is Paul’s condensation of his own book. We are
saved by grace through faith.

D. We Are Planted in the Church

In the last half of chapter 2, Paul tells us that here on earth we have
a community of people called the church. From the middle of chapter 2 to the
middle of chapter 3, we have a remarkable description of what a church is that
has ever been written or ever will be written.

Look at verse 14: For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two
groups (Jew and Gentile) one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall
of hostility.

Have you ever wondered why there is so much warfare in the world? We
are all here on one tiny planet, along in the universe, one human family—and
yet wars are raging everywhere. Why is that? It’s because there is in
deep-seated hostility within us toward God and toward other people. We are
essentially proud and selfish and rebellious. When Jesus died on the cross, He
not only provided the means of reconciliation between us and God, but between
us and each other.

Look down at verse 19: Consequently, you are no longer foreigners
and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of His
household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ
Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. In Him the whole building is joined
together and rises to became a holy temple to the Lord. And in Him you too are
being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.

If you don’t understand this, chapters 4, 5, and 6 about human
relationships is all for naught. Jesus Christ did something on the cross that
allows us to overcome all that divides us and become members of His family—His
church.

Last Sunday I flew home from Tampa, and my Uber driver was a young man
from Jamaica. I asked him if he was a Christian, and he said he grew up in a
Christian home and still read the Bible, but he didn’t go to church. He said,
“I think I’m one of those people who should be out in the world doing things
for people instead of sitting in church and listening to sermons.”

“Well, I can understand that,” I said. “A lot of it has to do with the
church you attend, but do you realize that when Jesus died and rose again and
returned to heaven, He only left behind one group of people—His church. The
entire New Testament is about these little groups all over the world that come
together to sing His praises, pray, and study His Word. that’s what gives you
the morale to go out into the world each week to do good.”

Look at verse 20—Ephesians 3:20: Now to Him who is able to do
immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to His power that
is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.

And that’s Paul’s powerful stirring doxology or song of praise as He
ends the first half of his book.

2. Our Conduct (Ephesians 4)

With that brief recapitulation of Ephesians 1 – 3, we come back to our
text in chapter 4: As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a
life worthy of the calling you have received.

How do we do that? Paul gives us five essential attitudes at the
foundation of all our human relationships: As a prisoner of the Lord, then,
I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be
completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Notice the Lord’s five essential attitudes.

A. Humble

When you realize how high is your calling, it’s easier to be humble. Humility
is the key to all our relationships because it means we aren’t putting
ourselves first. We’re willing to serve the other person. Over the years I’ve
seen so many husbands who had a proud spirit and they weren’t willing to serve
their wives or seek counsel or admit when they were wrong. And I’ve seen many
wives the same way. We have to be willing to give up that stubbornness.

Joshua Rogers writes about marriage for Fox News, and he said in a
recent article that he used to pick a lot of fights with his wife. They
quarreled a lot. But over time, he said, he came to see three things very
clearly. First, that he was often wrong and he had to learn to say, “I’m
sorry.” Second, he began to realize that his wife was actually right most of
the time. And third, he said, he learned that most things were worth arguing
about to begin with.

B. Gentle

When you grasp your high calling, you can be gentle. Have you ever gone
shopping for avocados? I love avocados, and you’ll frequently see me in the
grocery story squeezing the avocados. But remember this. Wherever you press, it
bruises the fruit. That’s true for life too. Everywhere you press, it leaves a
bruise. How many things we say or do sharply, and it always leaves a bruise.
When we realize our high calling, we can be gentle.

C. Patient

The third quality is patience. Patience is not slowness. It is being
slow in getting irritated. A patient person may sooner or later get irritated,
but they do so slowly. An irritable spirit has done more to damage
relationships than anything else. I’ve battle irritability over the years, and
now every time I realize I’ve gotten irritable with someone I ask myself, “How
could I have handled that better?”

D. Bearing with One Another in Love

I was trying to think how to describe this,
and I remembered a rather private and personal moment that happened sometime
after my wife, Katrina, passed away. I wouldn’t tell you this if it didn’t
illustrate the point so well. One night I just had a breakdown over it, and I
was having a very hard time. I was a mess. My two older grandchildren came
downstairs and our friend Ben Almassi who lives in the apartment beneath us
came up. Ben took it all in and he saw how pitiful he was. He looked at the
grandkids and he said, “Go on upstairs. I’ve got this.” And that man helped me
up and talked with me and gently pulled out of my downward spiral.

What does it mean to bear with one another in
love? I think it means we see someone who is having a hard time and we say,
“I’ve got this.” And we get down there and help them.

E. Make Every Effort to Keep the Unity of the Peace

The last of the five foundational attitudes is
making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

Look at verse 1 again and see how these
unfold: As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy
of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient,
bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the
Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you
were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, who is over all and in all.

God has already created the unity for us. We
have to make every effort to preserve and protect it. How do we do that? Well,
let’s skip down to the end of the chapter. Look at verses 29-32: Do not let
any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for
building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who
listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for
the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and
slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to each
other, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

As we review the book of Ephesians—remember,
we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus: We are included in Christ, secured by the Holy Spirit, empowered by the
Father, and planted in His church – what a high calling!

We’ve got to live worthy of that calling by
being completely humble and gentile; patient, bearing with one another in love;
endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And we do
that in the practical ways God tells us here, being kind and compassionate to
each other, forgiving each other, just as in Christ Jesus God forgave you…

As we contemplate all of that, does someone
come to mind? Is there someone to whom you can be kinder? Someone who needs
more patience? Someone who needs an extra dose of love and help.

For the glory of God, why don’t you say, “Go
on upstairs. I’ve got this. I’ve got this.”

“I Have Found the Book!”

“I Have Found the Book!”

A Study of 2 Chronicles 33 – 35

I want to
tell you the story of a great leader, a man whose example can change our lives.
He was one of the greatest leaders of history, though you may not even know his
name.

It
isn’t Alexander the Great, who conquered the world and died at age 32.It
isn’t Napoleon Bonaparte, who tried to conquer the world and died in exile.It
isn’t George Washington, who was a Christian and the father of our country.It
wasn’t Abraham Lincoln, who most likely became a Christian before his death.

This is
the story of the biblical king Josiah, whose story is told in 2 Chronicles 33 –
35.

Notice the
way chapter 33 begins: Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king,
and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. He did evil in the eyes of the
Lord….

This chapter tells us about King Manasseh of Judah, who was the Adolf
Hitler of his day, diabolical, savage, ruthless and brutal—evil in every way. I
don’t have time to describe the terrible atrocities he committed, but here’s
the interesting thing. He was invaded and captured by the Assyrians.

Look what happened to him. In his distress (Manasseh) sought the
favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his
ancestors. And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty and
listened to his plea; so he brought he back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom.
Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.

In the Old Testament there is one man we never would have expected to
come to faith in God—Manasseh. In the New Testament there is one man we would
never have expected to come to God—Saul of Tarsus who became the apostle Paul.
We have these two great examples in the Bible to tell us that no one is beyond
the power of the grace of God. If you’re worried about someone, don’t give up
on them. Keep praying. The Lord is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than
we can ask or imagine. The worst of sinners can become the greatest of
testimonies.

After Manasseh came to faith in God, he had six years with his
grandson, who was named Josiah. I can’t prove it from the text, but I can infer
that Manasseh poured his newfound faith into his grandson. Don’t ever
underestimate the power of a grandparents faith. How many people are servants
of God today because of the influence or prayers of a grandmother or
grandfather.

Manasseh died, his son became king but was shortly assassinated, and
little Josiah, who was only eight, rose to the throne of Judah. He obviously
had a regent or prime minister who exercised power. But the text focuses on
Josiah. Look at chapter 34:

Josiah
was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one
years. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed the ways of
his father, David, not turning aside to the right or to the left. In the eighth
year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his
father David.

He was sixteen. As he began to assume real power, he decided to do it
as a spiritual man. Where did he get that impulse? There’s only one place I can
think of—from his grandfather, who must have told him, “One day you will the
king of this land. Don’t do what I did or make the mistakes I made. From your
first day on the throne, serve the Lord Jehovah-Yahweh.”

People often ask me if there will be another revival in American
history, and I believe it could happen with young people, as it often does.

Look what happened when Josiah was twenty-four. Look at verse 3: In
his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah
poles and idols. Under his direction all the altars of the Baals were torn
down; he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them, and smashed the
Asherah poles and the idols….

It’s very interesting how the writer points out Josiah’s age at every
point. Look at verse 8: In the eighteen year of Josiah’s reign, to purify
the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah and Maaseiah the ruler
of the city, with Joah son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the temple of the
Lord his God.

On the acropolis above Jerusalem, Solomon had built the great temple of
Jehovah, and there God’s presence dwelt in the Most Holy Place. But during the half-century
reign of Manasseh, the site had been desecrated. King Manasseh had promoted
satanic worship, child sacrifice, and he had built some kind of demonic image
and placed it in the temple. According to biblical prophecy this is what the
antichrist will do during the Tribulation. Manasseh apparently moved out the
Ark of the Covenant and put in a demonic statue. The entire complex fell into
deterioration and dilapidation.

It’s easy for the work of the Lord to deteriorate and become
dilapidated in a church or in a nation, but the right person can come in the
power of the Holy Spirit and change things. Look at verse 9: They went to
Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that had been brought into the
temple of God, which the Levites who were the gatekeepers had collected from
the people of Manasseh, Ephraim and the entire remnant of Israel and from all
the people of Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Then they
entrusted it to the men appointed to supervise the work on the Lord’s temple.
These men paid the workers who repaired and restored the temple. They also gave
money to the carpenters and builders to purchase dressed stone, and timber for
joists and beams for the buildings that the kings of Judah had allowed to fall
into ruin….

The same thing is happening right now at Notre Dame in Paris. As you
know, it nearly burned down and restoration experts have launched a long term
renovation process. Now suppose as the workers in Paris were exploring all the
areas beneath and above the destruction, they made a great archaeological
discovery?

Well, that’s what happened in this chapter. Look at verse 14: While
they were bringing out the money that had been taken into the temple of the
Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord that had been
given through Moses. Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the
Book of the Law in the temple of the Lord.” He gave it to Shaphan.

Biblical scholars are uncertain about the exact nature of this book,
but I have a theory. I believe this might have been the original copy of
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—the first five books of
the Bible, known as the Pentateuch or the Torah or sometimes just as the Law.
These books had been written by Moses during the forty years of wandering in
the desert. He probably wrote it on animal skins or possibly papyrus, using a
homemade ink.

That original copy would be call the original autograph and it must
have been carefully preserved. Copies of it had been made, of course, but they
were few and far between because of Manasseh’s reign of terror. I’m sure
Manasseh had sought to destroy every copy of the Word of God. But some brave
priest had hidden the original copy in some ingenious place within the temple.
I suspect this is what the builders found.

Look at verse 16: Then Shaphan took the book to the king and
reported to him: “Your officials are doing everything that has been committed
to them. They have paid out the money that was in the temple of the Lord and
have entrusted it to the supervisors and workers.” Then Shaphan the secretary
informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read
it in the presence of the king. When the king heard the words of the Law, he
tore his robes.

He broke out weeping and sobbing. To see those precious scrolls, to
hear the words, and realize how far his nation had sunk, to realize the judgment
they were facing—it broke the king’s heart and he tore his robes and cried a
baby for the sins of his people.

He gave orders to his aids: “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and
for the remnant in Israel and Judah about what is written in this book that has
been found. Great is the Lord’s anger that is poured out on us because those
who have gone before us have not kept the word of the Lord; they have not acted
in accordance with all that is written in this book.”

Hilkiah
and those the king had sent with him went to speak to the prophet Huldah, who
was the wife of Shallum son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the
wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem in the New Quarter.

In the Bible, there were times when great women of God played a
critical role, and here was the wife of the man who kept the wardrobe, either
kept the royal wardrobe for the king or the temple wardrobe for the priests. This
woman had a special relationship with God. Look at verse 26:

Tell
the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, ‘This is what the Lord,
the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: Because your heart was
responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke
against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before me
and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the
Lord. Now I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be buried in peace.
Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place on
those who live here.’”

So they
took her answer back to the king.

The king did something extraordinary. He called together all his people
and stood by one of the great columns of the temple and raised his voice as
loud as he could and read from the ancient words. The people—from the youngest
to the oldest—dedicated themselves to Jehovah-Yahweh, to love Him, to serve
Him, and to obey Him forever.

Imagine if the President of the United States gathered the members of
Congress together, and the governors, and the mayors, and all the people tuned
in by television, and he said, “I have just discovered in my own life the power
of the Bible, and this Book is at the heart of America’s story, and if we don’t
rediscover it, our blessed nation will be judged like ancient Sodom, ancient
Judah, ancient Rome. And what if the entire nation began singing, “Have Thine
own way, Lord, have thine own way.”

It may not happen exactly like that—but America needs a spiritual
awakening before she sinks beyond redemption point. If it happened in the days
of Josiah, it can happen now.

But the story’s not over. In chapter 35, the entire nation followed up
on their commitment by celebrating the festival of the Passover. Look at verse
1: Josiah celebrated the Passover of the Lord in Jerusalem, and the Passover
lamb was slaughtered on the fourteen day of the first month. He appointed the
priests to their duties and encouraged them in the service of the Lord’s
temple. He said to the Levites, who instructed all Israel and who had been
consecrated to the Lord: “Put the sacred ark in the temple that Solomon son of
David king of Israel built….”

Apparently wicked Manasseh had taken the sacred Ark of the Covenant out
of the Most Holy Place and replaced it with his vile image or statue. Josiah
had the Ark restored to its rightful place.

Verse 7: Josiah provided for all the lay people who were there a
total of thirty thousand lambs and goats for the Passover offering….

This festival commemorated the night the Children of Israel escaped
from Egypt because the blood of the slain lambs protected them from death. The
Passover Lamb is the Bible’s great preview of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. On
that day in Jerusalem, there were 30,000 reminders that Jesus Christ was coming
into the world.

Verse 10 says: The service was arranged and the priests stood in
their places with the Levites in their divisions as the king ordered. The
Passover lambs were slaughtered and the priests splashed against the altar the
blood handed to them.

This is predictive of the spilled blood of Jesus Christ, as the hymnist
has said:

Would
you be free from your burden of sin?

There’s
power in the blood.

Verse 18: The Passover had not been observed like this in Israel
since the days of Samuel; and none of the kings of Israel had ever celebrated
such a Passover as did Josiah, with the priests, the Levites and all Judah and
Israel who were there with the people of Jerusalem. The Passover was celebrated
in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign.

Josiah was only twenty-six, but he had brought spiritual reformation to
his people. He had another thirteen years to lead his people politically and
spiritually before he was tragically killed in battle at the age of
thirty-nine. From that point, the nation of Judah spiraled downward like
airplane out of fuel. Josiah was their last, best hope—and he provided hope for
his generation.

Three Propositions

Let me leave you with three propositions. Our nation and our state and
our city and our schools and our homes are in trouble, and we need a revival
like that of Josiah. What were his secrets.

First, rekindle the burden. Even as
a boy, Josiah was burdened for the Lord and His work. He wanted God to use him.
We can’t do anything without a burden, and God gives each of us a different
burden or set of burdens. I’ve been reading a book by my friends Jim and
Shirley Combs. They were serving as missionaries in Brazil when a little
poverty-stricken boy named Marcos showed up at church to get a chocolate Easter
egg. Like Josiah, his heart was tender and he wanted to learn more about what
he heard in church that day. He found Jesus Christ as his Savior and was
baptized.

One day Marcos didn’t show up at church, and Shirley went looking for
him. She found his ramshackle dirty little home and knocked in the door and
went in. He was standing there silent. His mother sat in the only chair,
covered with blood. The boy’s father was in a rage, and Shirley had to leave.
But Shirley said, “I have never been able to leave that scene. It influenced
personal decision and personal commitments” as it related to their future
ministry. Marcos was rescued and became the first of many. That’s how God gave
Shirley a burden.

Let God give you a burden for His work, and don’t bury your burden.
Without some kind of burden for this world, we can never change it. Josiah had
the burden.

Second, rediscover the Book.
Everything changed with the rediscovery of God’s Word. Without the Bible,
there’s no revival—no global revival, no national revival, no personal revival.
I’ve devoted my life to the supposition that this Book is the Word of God incarnate
in human language.

The American Bible Society told of a man who was a patient in an
American hospital in the nation of Turkey, and while there someone gave him a
copy of the Bible. He was released and went back to his home town and showed it
to his friends. A Muslim teacher snatched the book out of his hand, tore out
its pages, and threw them into the street. A grocer was passing by, and he
picked up the papers and started using them as wrapping paper for his produce,
and in this way the pages of that Bible were spread all over town. People read
the page they had and wanted more. Sometime later, a Bible colporteur came into
town and was amazed to find a hundred people lined up to purchase a copy of the
Bible.

People who read and study their Bibles every day with a prayerful,
humble heart and qualitatively different from those who don’t. If our nation is
going to experience an awakening, it will only come through the faithful,
steady, accurate, piercing study of the Word of God.

Third, rely on the blood. After Josiah developed the burden and discovered
the Book, he instituted the Passover where the blood of the Passover Lamb was
shed, forecasting the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross and the
redeeming blood that flowed from His back, His brow, His hands, His feet, and
His side. And without the blood, there is no remission of sins.

You cannot recover your life for God without
going through the blood of Jesus. I don’t know what it’s that way. I have some
understanding based on the teachings of Scripture, but we can never fully
fathom the purpose and the power of the blood of Christ. It resides in the
deepest mysteries of the counsel of the Triune God.

But this we know–His precious blood is

a
medicine that cures us from every everlasting ill.an acid
that burns away our deepest stains.an
ointment that heals our deepest scars.It’s the
fuel of our faith.A
liniment of life.An
elixir for joy.A lotion
for peace.It’s a
vaccine that immunizes us against all the diseases of the devil.Most of
all, there’s a foundation filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins, and
sinners plunged beneath that blood lose all their guilty stains.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

When you combine the burden, the Book, and the blood, you have the
blessings of God on your life, your family, your city, your nation.

Is there one of those elements missing in your life?

If it’s the burden, ask God for it until He gives you the specific
burden that reflects His will for your life.

If it’s the Book, make a renewed commitment to read and study it every
day.

If it’s the blood, you can do something about that right now by asking
God to forgive your sins, wash your inward stains, and give you everlasting
life through the Lamb of God.

The Robert J. Morgan Podcast | Episode 2: The Puritan Migration (Transcript)

The Puritan Migration

Hello, this is Robert J. Morgan talking about my book 100 Bible Verses That Made America. Trying to explain American history without its Bible is like the Statute of Liberty without its pedestal. Had there been no Bible, there would be no America as we know it. Many revisionist historians are trying to erase the Bible’s influence on American history, but no eraser on earth can truly do that. The story is too deeply embedded and too amazingly wonderful.

Liberty-Loving Congregations

The British colonization of America began with the ill-fated Lost Colony on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and then the dismal Jamestown experiment in the Tidewater region of Virginia; and then here came the Pilgrims who landed on Cape Cod in 1620 and established the town of Plymouth. That paved the way – or to change the metaphor – that opened the floodgates to the great Puritan Migration. 

Over the next twenty years, 1620 to 1640, some of the best educated, most godly, and greatest men and women Britain ever produced came to the New World, being driven out of their own land by religious intolerance and persecution. These were not the tired, poor, huddled masses, the wretched refuse of England’s shore. These were brilliant minds, noble hearts, gifted leaders, biblical expositors, liberty-loving congregations—the cream of the crop of British population.

It happened because England’s King James 1 had refused all the demands of the Puritans except one. He did agree with them to authorize a new translation of the Bible, later to be called the King James Version. But except for that, he had no time for the Puritans, especially the Separatists. These were the godly leaders who wanted to bring real Reformation to the corrupt state-supported Church of England. They wanted to get back to the Bible. Back to Biblical exposition in the pulpit. Back to Scriptural theology. Back to holiness among the clergy.

Many of them had been trained at Cambridge College, which was a hotbed of Puritan thinking. But King James 1, and then his son and successor, King Charles 1, bitterly persecuted them. Between 1620 and 1640, an whopping 80,000 men, women, and children left England—driven out by persecution and the monarchy. Some whet to Ireland or the West Indies or Holland. But many of them followed their brothers, the Pilgrims, to New England. 

They arrived in New England by the boatloads and founded the City of Boston.

The Journey of John Winthrop

One of these Puritans was a lawyer – not a preacher, but a lawyer — named John Winthrop. He was born in England in the late 1500s and attended the aforementioned Cambridge University. He married his sweetheart, Mary, but she died. He married again, but his second wife died in childbirth. He married a third time, and his new bride, Margaret,  became pregnant just as the pressures on Winthrop were forcing him to flee the country. As a lawyer, he defended the Puritans, but at the risk of his life and reputation. He and Margaret thus endured a period of separation as he left for America while she stayed to have a baby. No one can fully understand the difficulty, of that but they agreed to keep their love and passion alive by devoting an hour every Monday afternoon and Friday afternoon to thinking about each other.

Winthrop fled England with 700 other Puritans on a fleet of eleven ships that left April 8, 1630. Winthrop was on the ship Arbella. Just before, or during, or just after the voyage, Winthrop wrote a sermon—it’s been called the most famous lay sermon in American history. The title of the sermon is “A Model of Christian Charity,” but we know it today as the “City upon a Hill Sermon.” 

A Spiritual Blueprint

Winthrop cast a vision for the kind of society the Puritans envisioned in the New World. It was, in effect, a spiritual blueprint for a new nation. It was filled with Scripture. Here is a portion of it:

The only way to… provide for our posterity is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. For this end we must be knit together in this work as one man; we must entertain each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to abridge ourselves of superfluities for the supply of other’s necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience, and liberality. We must delight in each other; make others’ conditions our own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in this work, as members of the same body. 

So shall we keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us as His own people and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways. So that we shall see much more of His wisdom, power, goodness, and truth than formerly we have been acquainted with. 

We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies; when He shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding [settlements], “The Lord make it like that of New England.” For me must consider that we shall be a City upon a Hill. The eyes of all people are upon us…. 

Beloved, there is now set before us life and good, death and evil, in that we are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His ordinance and His laws… that we may live and be multiplied, and that the Lord our God may bless us in the land wither we go to possess it.

Truth for Christ and the Church

In 1629, John Winthrop became the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. These people were lovers of Christian education, and so they established America’s first public school, The Boston Latin School, and the first college, Harvard, which was started for the training of ministers. It wasn’t feasible for young ministerial students to return to Cambridge University in England, and so Harvard was established. It’s motto was “Truth for Christ and the Church,” and the college’s key verse was John 8:32, “And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

These Puritans could no longer function under the authority of the State Church of England, which they had fled. They had no bishop. They had no church structure. So each congregation was autonomous. Meeting houses were built in every town and village, and each congregation hired its own pastor. Thus these churches came to be known as Congregationalists. 

The Puritans not only stressed church life and congregational worship; they emphasized the importance of a living, daily relationship with Christ, nurtured by private devotions and  personal time in prayer and Scripture. They learned to meditate on God’s Word when they arose in the morning and when they retired in the evening. They emphasized family devotions and neighborhood prayer meetings. Many of them kept journals and diaries. Puritan sermons tended to be published and spread abroad, and out of that came pamphlets and books.

I’ve already mentioned John Winthrop and his sermon about a city upon a hill. Let me mention two other great American Puritans. 

The Greatest of the American Preachers

One of the greatest preachers who came to America was Thomas Hooker. He was born in Leicestershire, England in 1586, studied theology at Cambridge, and became one of the most powerful and popular preachers in England. But he was driven out of his native land and fled to America as part of the great Puritan migration. 

In 1633, he became the pastor of a small church near the present site of Cambridge, Massachusetts. His pulpit skills were extraordinary, and he has been called “perhaps the greatest of the seventeenth-century American preachers.”

Hooker believed in extending the right to vote to more people, and that put him at odds with some of his fellow Puritan leaders. In 1636, Hooker, his wife, his congregation of about a hundred, plus 160 cattle, left Cambridge and Boston, migrating south to establish the city of Hartford. Here on May 31, 1631, Hooker preached a midweek sermon from Deuteronomy 1:13, which has been called “among the most important sermons in colonel New England.”  A manuscript of the sermon doesn’t exist, but one listener took notes in shorthand, recording thirteen short paragraphs giving Hooker’s key points, which include:

The choice of public magistrates belongs to the people by God’s own allowance…. The privilege of election belongs to the people. It must not be exercised according to their humors but according to the blessed will and law of God…. They [the People] who have power to appoint officers and magistrates, it is in their power also to set the bounds and limits…. The foundation of authority is laid firstly in the free consent of people.

Hooker’s concept of democracy was considered radical in a world dominated by monarchs and emperors. While his sermon had to do with scriptural matters, many historians believe the ideas he expressed set the stage for Connecticut to adopt a new constitution the following January, which is known as “The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut.” This is considered the first written constitution to embody a democratic tone, and it became the model for constitutions in other colonies. Ultimately, it paved the way for the Constitution of the United States. That’s why Connecticut is known to this day as the “Constitution State.”

The “Fundamental Orders of Connecticut” represents the beginnings of democracy in America. Some have called Hooker the “Father of Democracy,” and his ideas were firmly rooted in the priesthood of the believers based on the Gospel of Christ.

The Village of Rejoicing

Another great Puritan was John Eliot. He too was born in England and attended Cambridge. He actually came to Christ under the ministry of Thomas Hooker and emigrated to Boson where the church of Roxbury hired him as pastor in 1632. He kept the job 57 years. 

In 1646, Eliot, 42, grew burdened for nearby Native Americans and began studying Algonquin. It was a daunting task, especially because of the length of their words. Eliot persevered till he could speak the language well enough to preach with the help of an interpreter.

In a short time, a number of Native Americans confessed Christ as Savior. The converts established their own village and named it Rejoicing. As time went by, other villages arose and Eliot traveled up and down the coast, all the time maintaining his primary ministry as a pastor in Roxbury.

In a letter dated December 29, 1649, he wrote, “I was not dry night nor day, from the third day of the week to the sixth; but so travelled; and, at night I pull off my boots, wring out my stockings, and on with them again, and so continued… yet God stept in and helped: I considered…2 Tim. 2:3, ‘Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.’”

Native American churches were planted in places like Plymouth, Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard. Eliot lived to see fourteen praying villages, between 2,500 and 4,000, and 24 Native American preachers—all while serving his church in Roxbury.  The school he founded, Roxbury Latin School, is today the oldest school in continuous existence in North America.

John Eliot: A Man of Prayer

Eliot’s most prodigious feat was the production of the first Bible published in America. The New Testament came out in 1661, and the Old Testament three years later. It’s hard to imagine how Eliot accomplished such a thing—reducing a near-impossible language to writing, training Native Americans to read, then translating the entire Bible for them—that is, as one scholar said, “a work which excited the wonder and admiration of both hemispheres, and has rendered his name ever memorable in the annals of literature and piety.”

While in his 80s, Eliot grew too weak to preach at his church in Roxbury, and he asked the church to seek another pastor. “I wonder why the Lord Jesus Christ lets me live,” he said. “He knows that now I can nothing for Him.” As he sought some final work to do for Christ, he heard of a youth who had fallen into a fire and been blinded. Eliot invited the child to live with him, devoting many hours to helping him memorize chapters of Scripture and learning to pray. Eliot was a man of prayer. When confronted with distressing news, he would say, “Brethren, let us turn all this into prayer.”

John Eliot passed away on May 21, 1690 in his 86th year. His last words were: “Welcome joy! Pray…pray…pray!”

This represents the beginnings of life and democracy in America. This is the wonder of how this nation started.

One historian wrote, “This is sure: no religious experiment in the New World has had a more enduring impact on our nation’s education, literature, sense of mission, church governance, ethical responsibly, or religious vision.”

The Robert J. Morgan Podcast | Episode 1: The Mayflower (Transcript)

The Mayflower

Hello, this is Robert J. Morgan talking about my book 100 Bible Verses That Made America. My thesis? Trying to explain American history without its Bible is like trying to understand the human body without its bloodstream. Had there been no Bible, there would be no America as we know it, and perhaps there would be no United States of America at all. Many modern revisionist historians are erasing the Bible’s influence on American history, but no eraser on earth can truly do that. The story is too deeply embedded and too amazingly wonderful.

Let’s begin at the beginning.

Finding The New World

We sometimes think the Pilgrims who came to America were the first Europeans to colonize the New World, but, of course, that isn’t not true. The Spanish came first, and the French, and the Dutch. The Spanish actually founded the city of Saint Augustine, Florida, in 1565, over a half-century before the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims were not even the first English settlers. In 1587, over 100 English men and women came to America and established a colony on Roanoke Island on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, not far from where the Wright Brothers would later test their airplane. But when British ships visited the area later, all signs of the colonists were gone. What happened to them is something of a mystery. When I was a boy, our family visited the Outer Banks, and we went to the outdoor drama about the event. The Lost Colony is America’s longest-running outdoor drama. It started in 1937 and is still going strong on Roanoke Island. They still haven’t found those settlers.

Exactly 20 years after the Lost Colony, the British tried again. This time the colonizers landed in the Tidewater area of Virginia and established Jamestown, close to modern day Williamsburg. This was a commercial venture and it was the scene of terrible suffering for years to come. At one point, colonists were reduced to alleged cannibalism. 

The third significant British attempt to colonize America was the coming the Pilgrims, the immigrants on board the Mayflower that landed on Cape Cod in 1620. This is the group Americans know the best. Why is that? What was so special about them? Why is it we celebrate them so much, revere them so deeply, and reenact their stories in thousands of school plays and skits every Thanksgiving?

I believe the difference was spiritual. The other ventures were commercial, but the Mayflower passengers involved Christians who risked their lives to seek religious freedom for their families. They were born along by faith. They risked everything for the opportunity of raising their families without fear of religious persecution. 

Let me tell you their story.

Pursing Religious Freedom

In the 1500s and 1600s, the Protestant Reformation spread across Europe like a great revival of faith. People got back to reading the Bible for themselves. People got back to the essential doctrines of the Scripture. People got back to being saved by grace through faith. But in England, the changes didn’t go very far. King Henry VIII declared himself to the head of the church, displacing the pope. But that was a political move. The British state church operated just about the same, only under the oversight of the British monarch, who was corrupt.

But there were some within the Anglican Church (the Church of England) who wanted to purify the church and bring about true revival. They were called Puritans. And some of those Puritans wanted to completely separate from the official state church and have their own autonomous congregations. They were called Separatists. 

The Puritans and Separatists were fiercely persecuted by the government. They inevitably offended the king or the queen or whoever was in power. They were fined. They were rounded up and jailed. They were tortured. They were slain. And many of them fled for their lives, crossing the English channel and settling in Holland, where there was greater freedom of religion.

Up in Scrooby (pronounced Screw-bee), England, well north of London, there was a congregation of about a hundred members led by, among others, Pastor John Robinson. The church met in the manor house of a local official named William Brewster. That very house, Scrooby Manor still stands; it’s a private home now but there are great pictures of it online. 

In the fall of 1607, this church – the entire congregation – realized they would have to leave England or lose their freedom of worship. King James I was determined to drive the Separatists out of the land. So they were among those who decided to flee to Holland.

A Brave Congregation

It took a while and there were dangers and disappointments along the way, but eventually the congregation settled in the university city of Leiden, Holland. There they formed the “English Separatist Church at Leiden.” John Robinson was the pastor and William Brewster was the ruling elder. The church grew to several hundred. John Robinson became involved in the theology department of the local university, and he wrote several essays, pamphlets, and books, some of them defending the Separatist doctrine and the right of Christians to be free of governmental control.

But it was difficult for an entire, growing congregation of English immigrants to exist in a foreign culture. There were language problems. There were occupational struggles. And they were especially concerned that their teenagers were becoming more Dutch than English. That’s when someone had a radical idea. Why not America? 

It was not feasible for the entire congregation to relocate across the ocean all at once, to an unexplored and dangerous continent, but about a hundred of them committed to the trip—though in the end only about half that number actually made the journey. Pastor John Robinson wanted to go, but it was impossible. So he led his congregation to the harbor and held a service, sending off those who were going. 

This was one of those services that should never be forgotten – the send-off service in which a brave congregation sent out 41 of their number on a very dangerous mission—to establish a town and a church in another world.

The Embarkation of the Pilgrims

Pastor John Robinson preached from Ezra 8:21, which was very appropriate. In Ezra, chapter 8, the great Hebrew scholar, Ezra, led a group of exiles back to Jerusalem and back to Judah. Before they left Babylon, they had a worship service. Ezra 8:21 says, “There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves to our God and ask Him for a safe journey for us and our children with all our possessions.”

The famous scene has been immortalized in a painting – The Embarkation of the Pilgrims – in the rotunda of the United States Capitol Building. It shows Pastor Robinson with a large open Bible, surrounded by men, women, and children, who are kneeling in prayer as they prepare to set off on their journey. 

One of the passengers, William Bradford, later wrote about the send-off service at the Dutch harbor, saying “With mutual embraces and many tears… they left that good and pleasant city which had been their resting place nearly twelve years; but they knew they were pilgrims….” 

That’s where the term Pilgrims comes from in relation to this group. The English word “Pilgrim” means someone who is not at home. They are traveling. They are on a journey, especially over a long distance. They are wanderers, especially in a foreign place. The Bible says of the heroes of Scripture, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).

The group sailed for a British port, and then boarded a little creaky ship in Plymouth, England, called the Mayflower.

The Voyage of the Mayflower

But the Pilgrims were not the only ones on the Mayflower. There were 41 of the Pilgrims, or Separatists. But there was another group of about sixty people traveling just for adventure, or perhaps in hope of financial gain, or maybe to escape their situations in England. And then, of course, there was a crew. In all, 135 souls were crammed and jammed aboard the little ship.

The Mayflower should have sailed during the summer when the weather was better, but there were delays. She didn’t sail out of Plymouth, England, until Wednesday, September 6, 1620. September isn’t a good time to begin a transatlantic crossing.

It would take over two months — 67 days to be exact – to make the voyage. As I said, this was a small ship. It was only twelve feet longer than a tennis court, and the Mayflower had never been designed as a passenger boat. There were no rooms and beds and bunks and berths. It was a cargo ship, and the only place for the passengers was the gun deck. And it was quite small and almost totally dark. It was only 25 feet by 15 feet at its widest point, and wasn’t high enough for an adult to stand upright. This is where the passengers slept, changed the babies, cooked their food on top of carefully watched flames, went to the bathroom, and everything else.

Even worse, the weather was treacherous this time of year, and the waves were high enough to make the ship roll and pitch. Virtually everyone became seasick, and they also became wet and cold, because it was impossible to keep the ocean water from draining into the cargo hold. And some of the storms were terrifying.

Kevin Jackson, in his little book, Mayflower: The Voyage From Hell, said, “The constant noise was another torment. A powerful storm can be alarming enough on land, but at sea the air is torn with the sound of wind screaming through the rigging, the crashing of water against timber just feet or even inches away, the sickening groaning of the hull as the elements batter it, and the booming of unsecured sails. At night, for our travelers, the terrors were all the greater.”

There was also a sizable population of rats and cockroaches making the voyage.

It sounds to me something like being imprisoned in a foul, dark, smelling, unsanitary dungeon for two months—one that constantly lurches and pitches and spews forth unexpected showers of cold, salty water. 

But these Pilgrims were sustained by the Scripture. Every day they read the Bible, and one day the passage was so timely and incredibly appropriate that the passengers knew it was providential.

The Psalms of the Sea

It happened halfway through the voyage – on September 22 – when they were in rough waters.  The Psalm for the day was Psalm 107, and these words.

Some went out on the sea in ships;
    they were merchants on the mighty waters.
24 They saw the works of the Lord,
    his wonderful deeds in the deep.
25 For he spoke and stirred up a tempest
    that lifted high the waves.
26 They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths;
    in their peril their courage melted away.
27 They reeled and staggered like drunkards;
    they were at their wits’ end.
28 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
    and he brought them out of their distress.
29 He stilled the storm to a whisper;
    the waves of the sea[b] were hushed.
30 They were glad when it grew calm,
    and he guided them to their desired haven.
31 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
    and his wonderful deeds for mankind.

Well, the Mayflower finally came within sight of the New World. On Friday, November 10, one of the sailors cried, “Land Ho!” They had expected to be farther to the south, at the mouth of the Hudson River in the general vicinity of modern Manhattan, but they had arrived instead to the north. They were at Cape Cod. That meant they were going to establish a colony outside of Great Britain’s territorial boundaries in the New World. They would be establishing a town without an overseeing government. And so they drew up a remarkable document aboard ship—the Mayflower Compact, which has been called America’s first constitution. 

It said:

IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. IN WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini; 1620

In other words, they gave tribute to King James, but they said they had come to America for the advancement of the Christian faith and they were going to organize and govern themselves.

The Beginning of America

They disembarked and called their colony Plymouth, which was the name of the port from which they had sailed. Their voyage took them from Plymouth, England, to Plymouth Harbor in New England. 

The days to come were terrible. They arrived just as winter arrived, and how they survived and how the Indians helped them and how they later celebrated Thanksgiving together is a well-known story. But behind the story is a Christian—a biblical, an incredible—act of faith and courage.

It was also the beginning of what we now call the Puritan Migration. Over the next 20 years some of the most godly, best educated, and most remarkable British citizens—the Puritans—would be driven to the New World by persecution. More about that in the next episode.

But for now, think of this: That a group of Christians would risk everything to establish a home on a new continent where they could worship in freedom; that they would be sent off with the words of Ezra the scribe and be sustained by the words of Psalm 107; that they would establish a covenant for the advancement of the Christian faith; and that they would forever be enshrined in our national memory by their feast of thanksgiving with their native American friends – that is why we remember them.

And in so many ways, this was truly the beginning of America.

The Rhythms of Revival

Introduction: Last month my grandson and I went to New York for a few days. We visited the 9/11 Memorial, which is at the end of Fulton Street. Fulton Street not a long street. It runs crosswise across lower Manhattan. We walked the entire thing looking for some monument, memorial, or plaque that would show tell how that street changed America long before 9/11. I didn’t find a monument there, but I do know the story.

In the middle of the 1800s a Christian tailor named Jeremiah Lanphier moved to Manhattan and established a clothing business. Soon a local organization engaged him In evangelistic work. He became a sidewalk evangelist in the Wall Street district. America was in bad shape at the time. The politics of the nation were divided – a civil war was coming—and Wall Street was in freefall.

Lanphier advertised a prayer meeting to be held on Wednesday, September
23, 1857, at a room on Fulton Street. When the day came, six people showed up.
The next week, twenty came. The next week forty. And after that the floodgates
broke. Soon churches all across New York overflowed. Fire departments and police
stations opened their facilities for prayer, and local businesses set aside
rooms for their employees to pray. The headline in the New York Press was: “Revival Sweeps the Country.”

The movement swept over the eastern seaboard and pushed westward into the nation. One historian said, “A canopy of holy and awesome revival influence—in reality the presence of the Holy Spirit—seemed to hang like an invisible cloud over many parts of the United States.” For two years, approximately 50,000 people a week came to Christ. Within a year of the start of the Fulton Street Meetings, over a million converts joined America’s churches.

I’m eager for the Lord to do that again, aren’t you? Our nation needs it.

Scripture: The Bible’s handbook about revival is 2 Chronicles, and in this blog I want to look at the revival under King Asa in 2 Chronicles 14. Asa’s life is very instructive. The writer devotes three chapters to King Asa—. There were three stages in his life.

Chapter 14: Asa as a young man

Chapter 15: Asa at midlife

Chapter 16: Asa in old age

The Great Lesson of Chapter 14 – I don’t have time for a three-part study, so let’s focus on the first stage of Asa’s life, which is found in 2 Chronicles 14, when he was a young man. For ten years, Asa had peace in his realm, and he worked on promoting revival and shoring up his defenses. Then came a sudden military invasion, and Asa was ready to deal with the crisis through prayer and faith. In reading this chapter, the great lesson seems to be: Whenever a crisis comes into your life, you have to deal with it from a position of spiritual strength. That means the rhythms of revival must be woven into your daily life starting now.

What Are The Rhythms of Revival?

First, you have to start living for the Lord as soon as you can (verse 2). Asa was a young man, probably 18 or 19 years ago, when he became King. Verse 2 says, “Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.”

My message to young people is: You don’t have to mess up your life before you figure things out. It isn’t necessary to make wrong choices and ruin your life. The Bible says, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come” (Ecclesiastes 12:1). Many of the great revivals in history have started on college and university campuses. There is something about a young person who is zealous and totally committed to Jesus Christ that can do more for the Kingdom than we can imagine.

Second, you can’t be afraid of the prevailing culture (verse 3). Asa confronted evils that went back for generations, to the days of his great grandfather Solomon. The passage goes on to say, “He removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles.” I’m sure he had a lot of opposition. Imagine the outcry! But to stand up for biblical values in today’s culture isn’t for the faint of heart. We can’t change our society by conforming to it. We’re in the business of pleasing God, not a fallen society.

Third, you have to learn how to
seek the Lord (verse 4). Verse 4 says, “He commanded Judah to seek the Lord,
the God of their ancestors, and to obey His laws and commands.” What does it
mean to seek something? Have you ever lost your billfold or purse or keys or
diamond ring or something like that? You forget everything else and you become
preoccupied with finding it.

To seek the Lord means we are preoccupied with finding Him and developing the personal habits that will let us draw closer to Him—habits like daily prayer and Bible study and those basic habits that make up the Christian walk.

Fourth, you have to discard self-destructive patterns (verse 5). Verse 5 says: He moved the high places and incense altars in every town in Judah. The people of Jerusalem heard a lot of things crashing to the ground and being chopped to pieces—idols and idolatrous images and shrines. Some of them were very valuable in financial or artistic terms, but Asa cleared them out of the land. For you to live in a state of personal, perpetual revival, you have to clear some things out of your life. The Bible calls this process confession and repentance.

There are a thousand things that can hinder the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and we have to acknowledge them and confess them and take steps to discard these patterns the way we’d haul old, musty, flea-infested mattresses to the dump.

Fifth,
you have to shore up all your defenses (verses 7-9). In verse
7, Asa said, “Let us build up these towns, and put walls around them, with
towers, gates and bars.” In verses 7-9, Asa fortified his strategic locations,
built up his army, and prepared for the any attack that may come from an enemy.

The best way I know to do this is by Scripture memory and biblical mediation—which is a constant theme of mine. When you internalize Scripture, it becomes your own personal spiritual and emotional armory.

Sixth and finally, you have to turn bad problems into big prayers (verses 9-15). Verse 11 says, “Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, ‘Lord, there is on one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, Lord our God, for we rely on you….” One of the greatest secrets of personal revival is the ability to turn problems into prayer. God answered Asa’s prayer, and his forces routed the enemy and became rich with the plunder. The crisis became a blessing.

Conclusion: Now, if we incorporate the rhythms of personal revival into our lives, is it possible—is it really possible—that another revival will sweep over America? Well, there are indications that are encouraging. It could start with our military. I believe we should pray for the men and women in our forces, and we should pray for revival.

At Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri in the past six months alone, Army Chaplain Jose Rondon has seen hundreds and hundreds of soldiers make professions of faith. It’s hard to explain. A revival has been taking place on that Army base.

Retired Major General Doug
Carver said, “The current spiritual awakening at Fort Leonard Wood is
indicative of a great move of God taking place within the Armed Services today.”

He went on to day, “Historically,
God has often used the military as a catalyst for revival. Many attribute the
spread of Christianity in the first century to Roman soldiers deployed
throughout the Roman Empire. The Lord is answering our prayers for revival
within our military communities. I’ve prayed for over 40 years for our troops
and their families to experience the reality of Jesus Christ in a new and fresh
way.”

You and I are soldiers in the Lord’s army, and the Bible says God is the business of reviving and restoring our souls. How we need it! So remember:

Whenever a crisis
comes into your life, you have to deal with it from a position of spiritual
strength. That means the rhythms of revival must be woven into your daily life
starting now.

Examine Yourself to See if You’re In the Faith

A Study of 2 Corinthians 13:5-14

One day while George H. W.
Bush was president, a woman slipped into the White House wearing an elaborate
disguise. She made it all the way to the Oval Office, where she briefed Bush,
the CIA director, and the national security advisor. Then to their astonishment
she grabbed her lifelike face and peeled it off, just like in the movies. The
woman’s name was Jonna Mendez, the chief disguise expert for the CIA. She was
showing the President how thoroughly the Agency can disguise agents when
needed. During the Cold War, Mrs. Mendez went to Hollywood to study the
techniques of the best makeup artists and magicians, and today her work is
displayed at the National Spy Museum in Washington.

In most churches, people
show up every week disguised as Christians. But they are deceiving us; maybe
they’re even deceiving themselves.

Sometimes I’m haunted by
the thought there might be people in my church who think they’re saved and
going to heaven when, in fact, they are lost and hell bound. This was on the
mind of the apostle Paul as he finished his letter to the church in Corinth.
The congregation there was troubled with a lot of issues, and Paul grew
concerned that perhaps some of the people were not truly saved. He ended his
letter with an appeal to them in 2 Corinthians 13:5-14.

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith;
test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus in in you—unless, of
course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not
failed the test.

Now we pray to God that you will not do anything
wrong—not so that people will see that we have stood the test but so that you
will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do
anything against the truth, but only for the truth. We are glad whenever we are
weak, but you are strong; and our prayer is that you may be fully restored.
This is why I write these things when I am absent, that when I come, I may not
have to be harsh in my use of authority—the authority the Lord gave me for
building you up, not for tearing you down.

Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full
restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God
of love and peace will be with you.

Great one another with a holy kiss. All God’s people here
send their greetings.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of
God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Background

Some in the Corinthian
church had been very critical of Paul. They had been examining him and putting
him under the microscope. Now at the end of his letter, Paul turned the tables.
He said, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test
yourselves.”If we do this
today, we’re apt to find there are groups in any church.

1.
People Who Are Saved and Know It

First, there are people who are saved; they
are born again; they have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ; and
they know it. They are fully assured.

First John, chapter 5, says: This is the record. These are the facts. God
has given eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does
not have life…. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of
the Son, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Romans 8:16 says: The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are
children of God.

In John 10, Jesus said no one is able to
snatch His children out of the Father’s hand. God’s children have been sealed
by the Holy  Spirit for the day of
redemption.

Paul said, What can separate us from the love of 
Christ…? For I am persuaded that neither life nor death nor angels nor
things present nor things to come nor height nor depth no anything else in all
of creation shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.

Our salvation doesn’t depend on how we feel.
It depends on what Christ has done for us, and if we confess with our mouths
Jesus Christ as Lord and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the
dead, we are redeemed by His blood and kept by His power. We can know for
certain we’re going to heaven.

2. People Who Are Saved,
But They Aren’t Sure About It

But that brings us to the second group: Those
who are truly saved, redeemed, committed to Christ, and heaven-bound, but they
don’t feel sure about it. If someone asks them if they know for sure they’re
going to heaven, they say, “Well, I hope so.” They need to find confirmation
and security of their salvation.

As a child, I don’t remember a time when I
wasn’t trusting Christ as Savior. I grew up in a home and church where it was
natural for me to pray and read my Bible and walk with the Lord from infancy.
I’m blessed in that way. But when I was eleven or twelve, an evangelist came
for a revival meeting. He challenged us about whether we were truly saved. His
message caused me to worry I wasn’t really a Christian, especially because I
didn’t recall a specific time when I had asked Christ to be my Savior. I was
too shy to talk about it, but when we came home I went in the bathroom, locked
the door, knelt by the bathtub, and said something like this: “Lord, I believe
I’m a Christian, but if I’m not I want to become a follower of Jesus right
now.”

The same thing happened to my wife, Katrina.
During the last few months of her life, I found her distraught in bed one day.
She was weeping. I knelt beside her and said, “Honey, what’s wrong?” She said,
“I’m afraid I may not really be a Christian.” Well, that was just the devil
plaguing her through the weakness of her disease. She was converted to Christ
at a summer camp on Cape Cod years ago. I lived with her forty-three years, and
she was a powerful person of faith and prayer. But I said, “Well, let’s just
rededicate ourselves to Christ.” And we prayed together and we recommitted
ourselves to the Lord, and her peace and assurance returned full force.

For both Katrina at the end of her life and
for me as a child, we had a momentary fear about our salvation, which we dealt
with immediately by rededicating ourselves to Jesus. It’s not that we’re saved
a second time. It’s just resolving a moment of doubt. But some people live in
an ongoing state and condition of insecurity. They go to bed at night wondering
whether they are truly saved and on their way to Glory. There is no reason for
that at all. In fact, it is an insult to the power of the blood of Jesus
Christ, the Lamb of God as we’re doubting and discounting the very last verse
of 2 Corinthians, which talks about the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

3. People Who Are Not Saved
and They Know They Are Not Saved

There is a third group of people in the
church—those who are not saved and they know it. Sometimes a person comes to
church to observe, to see what’s going on, maybe to make fun, maybe because
someone has invited them. They know they’re not a dedicated follower of Jesus
Christ. But some of those people have a spiritual hunger.

I recall one Sunday night many years ago when
we were observing the Lord’s Supper. A man had been attending for several
weeks. He was a learned man, but he had never really been exposed to the
Gospel. Week by week, he had listened to the preaching of. Scripture and that
evening just as we were about to share communion, he got up and came to the
altar. I prayed with him and he was wonderfully saved. He got up from his knees
and his first act as a Christian was partaking of the Lord’s supper.

Maybe there’s someone like that here today.
You know that if you died today, you’d drop into hell like a pedestrian falling
into a manhole. But you’re closer than you realize to making a decision to
receive the Lord Jesus Christ into your heart and making Him the Lord of your
life.

But there’s a fourth group of people, and
they’re the ones I most worry about.

4. People Who Are Not Saved
But They Think They Are

In
virtually every church in America there are people are as lost and  hell-bound as they can be, but they don’t
realize it. They think they are Christians. This is the group Paul is
addressing when he said, “Examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith.”
When you grow up in a culture where going to church is something of a national
custom, it’s easy to think you’re saved because you attend church regularly.
But I remember hearing someone say years ago that being in church doesn’t make
you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a mechanic.

Some
people think they’re Christians because they grew up in church, or because they
were baptized, or because they read their Bibles, or because they give their
money, or because they try to do good works and to be a good person. All of
those things are good to do, but none of them can save you.

Only
the cross of Jesus Christ can save you. Only His shed blood can redeem you. The
Bible says, “Not be works of righteousness that we have done, but according to
His mercy.”

Recently
I read the testimony of a woman named Dominie Bush. She lives in Florida where
she is an editor and also a church musician. She battles disability, and she
has quite ministry to others who face chronic illness. Her testimony illustrates
what I’m talking about.

I was born into a Christian home and attended church faithfully. I was baptized by immersion when I was twelve. I made straight A’s and was active in school organizations. I could quote many Bible passages. As a college student at UCLA in 1968, I became involved in campus Christian groups. I later attended Bible college and served as a missionary. Then I began teaching in a Christian school and playing the piano for various churches. However, there was one problem: I was not born again.

How could this be?

When I was growing up, I thought that sins were things like drinking, dancing, smoking and playing cards. I did not know anything about having a loving, personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. When I was a 16-year-old college freshman, I heard the words “God loves you”“ for the first time while attending Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and Campus Crusade for Christ meetings. This was unusual and refreshing to me, because I had always thought of God as a stern taskmaster in the sky with a big stick, ready to hit you if you did anything wrong. Many of my college friends seemed to have a close, warm relationship with God. When I was around them, I felt like an outsider. I was with God’s family, but not part of the family.

After college, I discussed this feeling of not being saved with two Christians whom I respected. They said that I was a good person and just needed the assurance of my salvation. That didn’t satisfy me. I still had doubts. People couldn’t see the hidden sins in my life, particularly unforgiveness toward people who had wronged me. I had no joy in hearing of the salvation of others. I felt that I knew more than new believers because of my knowledge of the Bible and deeper life teachings. I guess you could say that my Christian experience was all in my head.

At the age of 36, I was a busy career woman. On May 11, 1988, I was attending a revival service at Temple Baptist Church in Tallahassee, Florida where Evangelist Al Lacy was holding meetings. I sat in the back of the auditorium on the ground floor under the balcony. In front of me were a row of rough-looking men from the rescue mission that our church operated downtown. The evangelist spoke on “The Contrary Christ” – how Jesus had defied every law of nature. He was born of a virgin, He healed the sick, He walked on water and He even ascended into heaven, defying the law of gravity! I noticed that the men from the rescue mission were saying a lot of enthusiastic “Amens” and “Hallelujahs.” In my heart I looked down on them because of their unkempt appearance, and some even had needle marks on their arms from long term drug use. But I also observed their joy and obvious connection with God, something I did not have. I had an intellectual faith and didn’t like emotional Christians. They made me uncomfortable.

As we stood to sing the invitational hymn, the Holy Spirit suddenly and powerfully gripped my heart with the absolute conviction that I was not saved. I could hardly breathe! There was no denying it…. I was NOT SAVED! The thought went through my mind that if an explosion were to destroy the building we were sitting in, the men from the rescue mission would go to heaven and I, “Miss Goody Two Shoes,” would go to hell. 

I nearly ran down the aisle to the front of the church. I was crying. A lady met me at the altar and asked if I knew Ephesians 2: 8 and 9, “For by GRACE are ye saved THROUGH FAITH; and that not of yourselves: it is the GIFT OF GOD, NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should boast.”

I told her that I had learned those verses as a child but had never understood them until just then! I realized for the first time that I couldn’t get to heaven on my own merits. I needed a Savior! Right there I made a “business transaction” with the Lord. I gave Him my sins and He gave me His righteousness. What a great deal! As the old hymn states: “‘Tis done, the great transaction’s done; I am my Lord’s and He is mine!”

My life was forever changed! I now belonged to Jesus! I was eager to tell others! I shuddered at how close to death I had come several times (car accidents, major surgery, etc.) before I was saved. I loved the Lord and wanted to obey Him in every area of my life. I wrote to the evangelist and asked him if I needed to be baptized again, since I had already been baptized as a child in order to join a church. Al Lacy wrote back with a thundering “YES!”

He said  it is BELIEVER’S baptism, and now that I was a believer, I needed to be baptized! He said that I had been RELIGIOUS BUT LOST, and that he had met many people like me.

It took some convincing to get my pastor to baptize me, but one night I wrote down ten things that changed in my life from the night of my salvation. I read these to my pastor on the phone, and he said joyfully, “Sister, you’ve been saved!” I said, “I know!”

I was baptized by my pastor in September. I now felt ready to serve the Lord, and I loved Him so much for saving me! 

It continued to amaze me that I could have been in church all my life and not been saved! I had many questions about this. I told my pastor that I could have died and gone to hell on a number of occasions, and it was frightening to contemplate! My pastor said that God knew I would live to be 36 and spared my life.

I now understood how others had testified to being saved after years of Christian service: a youth pastor at my mother’s church, a prominent deacon, a seminary student, and a man in our church choir. All were saved when the Holy Spirit moved upon their hearts during a church service. What I learned is that we can’t save ourselves. We are born again “not by the will of man, but by the will of God.”

On Christ, the Solid Rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.”

If a person is depending on anything other than the atoning blood of Jesus Christ to get to heaven, he is not born again. The Holy Spirit can open a person’s eyes to their need of a Savior, just as He did with me – when I was religious but lost!

Conclusion

The Bible that says, “Examine yourselves to
see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that
Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” I don’t want to
bypass that verse, because it’s so serious, so vital.

Eternity is forever. Our lives here on earth
are brief, and we’re all subject to sudden death at any time. We don’t know if
we’ll live another day, and that’s why the Bible says, “Today is the day of
salvation.” We have to peel away the mask, drop the disguise, and come to the
Lord just as we are.

The Puritan Migration

Did you know the best Christian thinkers, preachers, and scholars–many coming out of Cambridge in England–migrated in droves to America? Did you know the nation’s first democratic constitution was established by a Puritan minister in Connecticut? Learn the fascinating story about the providential migration of these wise and committed Christians who built the foundation for a democracy of free individuals and autonomous churches derived from Biblical principles.

Check out this week’s new Podcast Episode, picking up where I left off last week, and be sure to subscribe through your favorite Podcast provider!

Image Credit: Arrival of the Winthrop Fleet, painting by William F. Halsall
https://historyofmassachusetts.org/the-great-puritan-migration/

New Resource: My Podcast!

I’m excited to announce my new FREE resource, The Robert J. Morgan Podcast.



First Up: A Biblical Tour through American History



Episode 1: The Mayflower

LISTEN NOW

My first set of weekly podcast episodes will be based on my upcoming book 100 Bible Verses that Made America (available in February or for preorder now). I’ve was so inspired by the way Scripture influenced every key event in our nation’s history, that I didn’t want to stop researching! My upcoming book tells 100 stories, but I’ve expanded on a select few for this podcast.

In my first episode, released this Thanksgiving week, you’ll learn how two specific Scriptures inspired and carried along the Pilgrims through their Mayflower voyage.

Future episodes will lead you through subsequent American History perhaps as you’ve never understood it before, through the veins of Biblical Inspiration. Head over to the Podcast Page to subscribe or find your favorite podcast provider and search for The Robert J. Morgan Podcast.

What Can You Expect in Future Podcast Episodes?

Is your understanding of the Bible weak or fragmented? Do you understand and appreciate the heritage Christians have because of the Bible? The Bible can be intimidating with its 66 books written over thousands of years, just like the rich heritage born from its pages. How can we understand Scripture as a whole as well as its parts? How do we know it can be trusted? How has it changed the world?

These issues prompted me to begin this podcast focused on two things.

Believe and Cherish the Bible

I’ve spent a lifetime educating and energizing Christians through every medium possible: books, sermons, lessons, stories, and personal interaction. A passion of mine is to help people gain a grasp on the Bible as a whole and each of its 66 books, their chapters, and verses — the whole and its parts. So expect to see future podcast episodes aimed at bolstering your understanding of Scripture and its implications to your life.

Learn and Love Christian Heritage

Christian History and Hymnity are vital to our faith. The more I’ve researched, learned, written, and taught, the more I’m convinced of the need to preserve and proclaim Christian heritage. I’ve written multiple books on stories behind the great Christian Hymns. Alongside these, other volumes tell stories from church history related to key figures, dates, and great Biblical passages.

You can expect that future Podcast episodes will involve hymn stories, as well as stories from the rich history we have as believers in a God who acts in history on our behalf.

Subscribe to the Free Podcast Today!

Stepping Stones or Stumbling Blocks?

Becoming A Stepping Stone—Not A
Stumbling Block

A Study of 2 Corinthians 6:3 – 7:1

The boy
should never have been hiking at that hour of the night in that neck of the
woods. At 14, he was already an experienced hiker, having grown up in the
mountains. But it was rainy. The ground was slick and the night was dark. He
should have been in bed, but his father, an elder and an usher in the church,
had gone on another rampage, yelling, screaming, threatening, throwing things and
blowing up his family. The boy, listening to all in his bedroom, climbed out
through the window; and he was still hiking at midnight, trying to figure out
why his father, a professed Christian, was always so angry, violent, and out of
control. In the darkness, the boy didn’t see the fallen log. He stumbled,
tumbled, grabbed a branch and swung to his lift. The next moment, he was
plunging through the air down the side of a quarry, all the way to the grave.

Today
we’re coming to a sober passage that warns Christians to live so as to never
cause anyone to stumble on their pathway to Christ by our negative behavior. We’re
to be stepping stones, not stumbling blocks.

Everyone who
professes Christ as Savior carries around a certain influence. We identify as a
Christian. People are watching to see if our faith is real and if we live
according our beliefs. None of us are perfect. But whenever we grievously or
repeatedly fall into sin or create a scandal, it can be stumbling block to another.
It can make people cynical and cause them turn them away from the Lord. The
Bible calls that being a stumbling block.

We cannot
let that happen to us personally—and that’s the subject of the passage we’re
coming to today—2 Corinthians 6:3-10.

Scripture
Reading: We put
no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be
discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in
great endurance; in troubles, hardships, and distresses; in beatings,
imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity,
understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love;
in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in
the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good
report; genuine, yet regarded as imposters; known, yet regarded as unknown;
dying, and yet we love on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always
rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing
everything.

Introduction:
The theme of this
passage is in verse 3: We put no
stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited.
In the verses that follow, Paul gives a list of 28 behaviors he is
committed to follow. His list falls into three natural sections. We become
stepping stones, not stumbling blocks:

1. In The Way We Handle Pressures of Life (Verses 3-5)

The text says: We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that
our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend
ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships, and
distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless
nights and hunger….

He begins with the word endurance. Today
this term designates an entire field of athletics—endurance sports, like
marathons or triathlons. Endurance is the ability to bear up and keep going
despite pain, hardship and fatigue. Paul was saying life was harder than he
expected it to be. People are watching us to see how we handle adversity and
problems.

When people see us coming apart the seams, collapsing in depression or
exploding in anger—it’s a poor recommendation for the Christian life.

Paul says that he has endured through troubles, hardships, and distresses,
including beatings and

imprisonments. He endured riots. On several occasions in the book of
Acts, Paul’s preaching or his very presence caused crowds to riot, threatening
his life. These are not riots like you see on television, in which
demonstrators are protesting a political issue. These are moments when large
crowds become so enraged by Christians that they surrounded them, attacked them;
and on one occasion Paul was nearly killed and left outside town as good as
dead.

In the middle of verse 5, Paul goes on to talk about hard
work, sleepless nights, and hunger.

Many years ago when I was a teenager I asked Billy Graham’s wife,
Ruth—I was just a kid and didn’t know what I was asking—“Does Dr. Graham
realize how great and glorious his work is around the world?” She said, “Oh,
it’s not that at all. It’s just hard work. Bill works to exhaustion, and
there’s nothing glorious about it. God doesn’t share His glory with another. We
would have been just as happy to have been assigned to an obscure place on some
forgotten mission field. Wherever God puts you, it’s simply a matter working
hard for His glory.”

I learned a lot from that answer. Serving the Lord isn’t about fame and
fortune; it’s just hard work.

For Paul, that sometimes included sleepless nights and hunger. The point of all this is that life
is full of hardships, problems, pressures, and uncomfortable situations. But
people are watching to see how we handle the pressures of life. Do you handle
difficulty with the faith and confidence and stability and even the joy that
represents Jesus Christ? When people see us defeated by the difficulties of
life, it’s a poor reflection on our Savior. When we see them sustained by grace
during life’s difficulties, it’s a powerful testimony.

2. In The Way We Maintain Purity of God (Verses 6-7)

In the
next two verses Paul shifts gears. He said he wants us to be a good
representatives of Christ, not only in the way we handle difficulties but in
the way we maintain purity. Verse 6 says, “(We commend ourselves) in purity. Nothing
can damage our testimonies more than failing to maintain personal holiness in
our lives. If you’re allowing something to violate your personal holiness and
purity, it’s bound to negate your testimony and bring some degree of reproach
to the cause of Christ.

Later in
this chapter, the Lord is going to drill into this more, saying: Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.
For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can
light have with darkness?… Therefore, come out from them and be separate,
says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. And I will be a
father to you and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Therefore,
since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from
everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of
reverence for God.

Is
anything contaminating your body or your spirit? That could be a stumbling
block for another person, so let’s endure in purity and holiness. The Bible
says we must endure in holiness and purity.

The
passage goes on to say we must endure in understanding. Some
translations say “knowledge and spiritual insight.” When we encounter struggles
in life, we have an advantage. We have a Book that sheds light on whatever
we’re going through.

Verse 6 says
we must continue in patience and kindness. A few weeks ago, my sister,
Ann, told me about a time when the Presbyterian minister and TV host, Fred
Rogers, checked into a hotel. Everything went wrong and they took him to a room
that didn’t even have a television in it. It was actually a candid camera
sequence, and they were pulling a prank to see how he would react to a bad
hotel experience. Mr. Rogers never showed the slightest irritation. He just
smiled, and said, “Well, that’s all right. That’s all right. I don’t watch TV
anyway.” No one could have been more patient or kind.

As it
happened, the next day I checked into a hotel and several things were wrong
with the room. I don’t remember what they were. I don’t think the TV or the
lamp worked; but I said to myself, “Well, that’s all right. I don’t need a TV.
I can do without the lamp.” The next morning when I stepped out of the shower, I
realized there were no towels, not even a washcloth. I had to dry off with my old
clothes from the day before and with the hairdryer. For a moment, I felt
irritated. But then I thought of Mr. Rogers, and I just said, “Well, that’s all
right. I don’t need towels anyway.”

Believe it
or not, that little episode has stayed with me and helped me to be more patient
and kind. We’re never too old to learn from Mr. Rogers, are we? Enduring in
patience and kindness predates Mr. Rogers. It goes all the back to 2
Corinthians 6 and to many other passages in the Bible.

And then
verse 6 goes on to say that commend our lives and ministries in the Holy
Spirit and in sincere love. Earlier this fall, I had the opportunity of
speaking to Christian workers from Middle East and Asia. When I finished, a
young man came up to me and hugged me as if I were father. I asked him his
name, and I said, “Where do you live?” He said, “In Pakistan.” “What do you
do?” “I evangelize terrorists.” “You do what?” “I evangelize terrorists. I live
in the town where a very famous terrorist was tracked down and killed. We have
DASH. We have ISIS. These terrorists have family and children and they need the
Lord.”

“Are you
in danger?” “Yes.” Then I asked him, “Are you afraid?” He said, “No! We have
the Holy Spirit!”

I’ll never
forget that answer. That’s exactly what Paul said here. “I commend my ministry
in this—that I have the Holy Spirit.” You have the Holy Spirit, and the Holy
Spirit always glorifies Christ. So when we go about our day in the Holy Spirit,
we’re lifting up Christ.

Verse 7
continues truthful speech and the power of God, and with weapons
of righteousness in the right hand and in the left. What does that mean? We
can cross-reference this verse with Ephesians 6, about the shield of faith and
the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. A Roman soldier kept his
shield in his left hand for defense, and his sword in his right hand for
attack.

This is
the way we keep from being a stumbling block to anyone else—by the way we
handle pressure and the way we maintain purity.

3. In the Way We Embody the Paradoxes of Faith

There’s
another series of words here, and that leads to the final thing. We commend
ourselves when we embody the paradoxes of life. Look at verses 8-10:

[We
are] genuine, yet regarded as imposters; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying,
and yet we love on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always
rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing
everything.

The apostle Paul gives us a list of seven paradoxes of the Christian
faith. Jesus said in John 3 that His followers are as mysterious as the wind.
No one knows where they came from; no one knows where they are going; but
everyone can sense their presence as they pass by.

I don’t have time to dissect each of these seven phrases, but I’ll give
you an illustration of them. For many years I went to Texas each fall to speak
for a certain group, and over the years I became friends with a couple named
Jerry and Shirley Horne. Jerry was an Air Force pilot as a young man, and he
was also a Gideon. He passed away a couple of years ago, and Shirley has been
declining for some time. A couple of weeks ago, her daughter wrote to me that
her mother had passed away. But here is what the daughter told me.

For the past 6 weeks she
has shared God’s love through giving out Bibles to doctors, nurses, everyone
that walked in to her room.  Over 60 Bibles – she told me when the last
one she had with her was gone she knew God was ready to take her home. The
verse that comes to my mind for the past several weeks, “Well done, my good and
faithful servant.” She did exactly what God calls each of us to
do. Do it well and do it until your last breath on this Earth. Even
when  she could no longer speak this past week she would point and people
knew she wanted them to have a Bible.

I received a phone call
today from a nurse that was saddened to hear the news that she had passed
away. She had been out for a week and upon returning heard that Shirley
had passed away. She was very upset because she had wanted to share the
news that God had touched her life in such a way that upon reading the Scriptures
she was saved and live was different because Shirley prayed for her and gave
her a Bible.

I would call that 2 Corinthians 6 living!

Conclusion: Here is what the Lord is
telling us. He doesn’t want us to create any scandal in our life that would
cause others to be disillusioned with Him. Instead, He wants us to commend
ourselves and our message to the world, and we do that by handling the
pressures of life, maintaining the purity of holiness, and embodying the
paradoxes of Christianity.

Therefore We Do Not Lose Heart

A Study of 2 Corinthians 4:1

Introduction: If you’ve ever gotten discouraged with your life or your work, I have a Bible verse for you, which, once you understand and learn it, will never leave you and never fail to uplift you. It’s 2 Corinthians 4:1: Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Notice it’s clear outline:

ThereforeSince
through God’s mercyWe
have this ministryWe
do not lose heart.

1. We
Have This Ministry

The heart
of this sentence is in the middle: We
have this ministry. I wish I could pound the professionalism out of the
word “ministry.” We tend to think it refers to people who are employed by a
church or Christian organization. We say, “That person is in the ministry.” But
the word means service and it applies to every follower of Christ. The
word ministry is the life we live and the work we do for Jesus.

The Lord
Jesus has a life for you to live and a job for you to do – and that is  ministry. He has it all planned out. He has
thought it through in advance. It is interwoven with your life. It involves
being a dad or mom or brother or sister. It involves being an entrepreneur, a
homemaker, a schoolteacher, or whatever you are. It might or might not involve
being a pastor or missionary.

Each one of us is given an assignment by God. Sometimes our ministries are unusual. I read about a nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. One of her jobs was to dress babies who passed away and prepare them for burial, and to help heartbroken families through the bereavement process. She discovered there was a lack to tiny gowns for babies who passed away, so she thought of an idea. Most brides buy a wedding dress and it stays in their closets for years. This woman started asking for wedding dresses. She would cut them up and make gowns for the babies who had died. In this way, she had a way to comfort the parents and talk about how their babies had arrived safely in heaven. That became her personal ministry.

The
apostle Paul said, “We have this ministry.” God has given us a life to live and
a work to do for His kingdom. He has called us to serve Him, and we all have
different roles to play. Our lives are not insignificant.

2. Therefore

Now look at the first word in verse 1. I’ve spent weeks thinking about it: Therefore we do not lose heart. Last month, I had the opportunity of traveling to Asia on a preaching assignment, and I prepared this sermon in my hotel in Rangoon, Burma. My room had an amazing view. The waters of a lake were beneath me, and across the bay in my direct line of vision was the Golden Pagoda, which rises like an inverted cone. It’s a Buddhist shrine, made of bricks covered with gold. The crown is topped with over 5,000 diamonds and over 2,000 rubies. At the tip is a 72-carot diamond. If the gold in this pagoda were hammered out, it would amount to 22,000 gold bars. The entire building glows and shimmers. It’s called Myanmar’s Fort Knox.

Before leaving Nashville I’d highlighted 2 Corinthians 4 with a yellow pencil and underlined the word Therefore…. I kept looking out the window at that towering golden structure across the lake worth billions of dollars and then back at my Bible and the bright yellow highlighted words of verse one. There was no comparison. The richest and most golden thing before my eyes was this one verse of Scripture and its fourteen words, especially that word Therefore.

I thought
of Psalm 19:10, which says the words of God are “more precious than gold, than
much pure gold.”

I wouldn’t trade anything for this word Therefore. It’s worth far more than all the Buddha’s gold. Why is this word so rich? It links verse 1 with the concept of glory in the prior paragraph. The apostle Paul is building his thoughts one upon another. He is making his case. He is advancing his line of thinking. His statement at the beginning of chapter 4 is connected to his content in chapter 3. Therefore because of what I have just said, and since, through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.

Here, I believe, is what the Lord is telling us: When the Children of Israel left Egypt, it was glorious. They were singing, shouting, and celebrating their freedom.  They were unstoppable; the very waters of the Red Sea split before them. When they converged on Mount Sinai the lightning flashed and the earth quaked and the trumpet sounded a blast that rose to a sustained crescendo and the Lord God Almighty Himself came down and settled His glory above them on that mountain. It is as if the atmosphere was charged with enough electricity to light up the entire earth. The angel of the Lord was there as a pillar of fire by night and a column of fire by night. That glorious cloud, which served to protect the Israelites from the blinding brilliance and pure light of God’s presence, settled on top of that mountain. Moses hiked up the hill and disappeared into the cloud. He saw the glory on the mountaintop. He saw the glory of God, and it surged into his body so that his face took on a glow that was almost blinding to see. God gave him the Ten Commandments, which represented the very attributes and character qualities of God, summarized and codified to show us how we should live in a way that reflects His glory.

Oh, how
glorious! Oh, how wonderful!

But wait!
All that was glorious in the book of Exodus appears as rusted pipes compared to
the exceeding glory that came when Jesus Christ appeared on earth. The
Gospel of John says, “The Word became flesh and dwelled among us. We have seen
His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of
grace and truth” (John 1:14).

There was
the glory of His birth, when all of heaven was vacated as the angels flooded
the skies to sing great anthems of inexpressible praise over the shepherd
fields over Bethlehem… the glory of His life, pure and sinless and righteous…
the glory of His transfiguration when His face lit up a thousand times more
brightly that that of Moses… the glory of His resurrection, when death itself
was finally and fatally dealt with… the glory of His ascension, when He flew
back up to heaven and resumed His omnipotent place on the throne of the
universe… the message of the Gospel that He left us with its power to transform
the life of every single person on earth who will respond to it! He Himself is
the personification of glory. He does not just reflect glory or bask in glory
or possess glory. He is Himself all glorious.

Moses saw
God’s glory and he literally soaked it up. He experienced God’s glory and it
made His skin shine. He glowed so brightly he put a veil over his face. But it
was a glory He experienced extrinsically. It was something similar to a suntan.
It came from outside, affected his skin tone for a while, and then faded away.
It was wonderful, but extrinsic and temporary. But we have the privilege of
experiencing the glory of God in a way that internally, intrinsically illumines
our lives and makes our faces shine from the inside and transforms us into His
very image—into the personality of Christ. And it is lasting.

Look at 2
Corinthians 3:7: Now if the ministry that
brought death [the Mosaic Law], which
was engraved in letters on stone [the Ten Commandments] came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the
face of Moses because of its glory, transitory thought it was, will not the
ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious.

The
ministry of the Spirit is the life of Christ conveyed to us by the Holy Spirit.

If the ministry that brought
condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings
righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the
surpassing glory! And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater
is the glory of that which lasts.

The writer
says, “Moses experienced the glory of God and it make his face shine as he
received the Ten Commandments. It was glorious. But it cannot compare to the
glory we have in receiving and transmitting the Gospel.” And down in verse 18: And we all, who with unveiled faces
contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with ever
increasingly glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

This was
the favorite Bible verse of one of my mentors and friends, Dr. Robertson
McQuilkin. I heard him quote it over and over. As we look on the face of the
Lord Jesus Christ, we are transformed into His image, from one degree of glory
to the next.

Our ministry—the
life we live and the work we do—flows out of the ocean of God’s glory. Therefore,
since our lives and work are illuminated by the golden glow of the glory of God
in a way that not even Moses could have imagined, we do not lost heart. We
radiate hope and joy as we contemplate the face of Jesus and as the Holy Spirit
daily transforms us step-by-step into the image of His wondrous personality.

3. Through
God’s Mercy

But now,
notice the next phrase: Therefore since
through God’s mercy we have this ministry. Why does the Bible say this?
We would have thought the verse would have said, “Therefore, through God’s
grace….” There is a difference between mercy and grace. Grace is when
God gives us what we don’t deserve. Mercy is when He doesn’t give us
what we do deserve.

We don’t
deserve the joy and privilege and opportunity of serving God, but He gives it
to us anyway. That’s grace. But the Bible doesn’t say grace here. It
says mercy. In what way does our ministry represent an act of God’s
mercy?

Mercy is
when God delivers us from some distress we deserve and are experiencing. So
what distress does God deliver us from by giving us a ministry?

When I was
a boy, I spent a lot of time with my Aunt Louise who lived on Fairmont Avenue
in Bristol, Virginia. She had a neighbor across the street named Miss Ballard,
and Miss Ballard cared for her elderly mother. But when her mother died, Miss
Ballard didn’t have anything to do. She sat in her house all day long,
unoccupied, trying to figure out how to pass the time. I suppose about once a
week she walked around the house and dusted off her collectables, but there
wasn’t much for her to do. Sometimes Aunt Louise would say, “Why don’t you go
over and visit poor Miss Ballard. She’s bored.” 
So I’d run across the street, ring the doorbell, and Miss Ballard was
just thrilled to see me. I’d sit down in her living room and in about five
minutes I’d be bored too. That house just exuded boredom. I’d run back across
the street and Aunt Louise would say, “Well, how was poor Miss Ballard.” “She’s
bored,” I’d say.

God in His
mercy does not want us to live a bored, insignificant, meaningless life. Boredom
is, in its essence, being unaware that Jesus Christ has something special that
He wants you to do—and that only you can do. He placed you on this planet for
ministry. He has a special life He wants you to live and a special work He
wants you to do. God, in His mercy, has taken away the futility and vanity of a
meaningless life. He gives us a ministry to do.

4. We
Do Not Lose Heart

And that
brings us to the end of the verse: Therefore
since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.

That is, we don’t allow ourselves to become discouraged and to lose our motivation and enthusiasm in life. Both here and in verse 14, the apostle Paul puts this in the negative. Why does he do that? Why doesn’t he put it in the positive? Why doesn’t he said, “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we are encouraged. We are enthused. We are passionate and full of motivation and fervor and optimism.” In essence, that is exactly what he was saying, but he put it in the negative. Why is that?

Because he
was acknowledging that after what he had been through he should have
lost heart. No one would blame him for losing heart. When you read 2
Corinthians, there are two times when the apostle Paul goes into great detail
about the physical and psychological pain he had absorbed. He talks about his
rejection, his persecution, his beatings, his anxieties, his sleepless nights,
his constant concern for the churches. There are very few human beings on
earth—maybe there is no one—who could have endured so much without losing
heart.

But Paul, “I did not lose heart.” Because of God’s glory and because of God’s mercy, he could never lose heart. And neither can we.

Conclusion: What is your ministry? You say, “I don’t know.
How do I find out?”

In the book of Acts, chapter 22, the apostle Paul gave His testimony.
He said he was headed toward the city of Damascus, Syria to persecute the
Christians there when the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ broke in through the
sky with such brilliant light that he was immediately blinded. He fell to the
ground and he asked two questions: Who are You, Lord? and What
do You want me to do?

Those are good questions, and we can ask them over and over. We want to get the Lord better and better, and we want to continually be in His will, engaged in whatever work He wants us to do. And it makes a difference.

Last week,
I was with my friend Reese Kauffman, and he told about visiting in a refugee
camp filled with thousands of homeless, hungry children. A handful of Christian
workers there had gained permission to hold Good News Clubs, and they gathered
a good group of children and said, “Let’s begin with some games.” But the
children said, “We don’t want to play games.”

“Why not?”
asked the workers.

They said,
“Everyone comes and has us play games, but you come with the Bible stories and
we want to hear the Bible.” So these Christian workers were teaching the Bible,
and Reese was watching the whole thing. And then he stepped outside and saw the
thousands of children whom they were not reaching. The workers did not the
permission or the resources or the ability to reach the children. Reese said and
heart sank and a great feeling of sadness came over him. And one of the workers
saw him and understood the expression on his face. She came over to him and
said, “I know what you’re thinking, Reese. We cannot save the whole world, but”
– looking over to one of the children – “we can save the whole world for that little
girl, for that little boy.”

The life
God wants you to live and the work He wants you to do is truly glorious. It is
illumined by the Holy Spirit of Christ, who is being formed within you. He has
given you this ministry by His mercy, and it can change the world for unknown
numbers of people who cross your path. You have significance. You have purpose.
You have a personal ministry in life if you’ll do it. In fact, as we go through
life the Lord brings us many opportunities to serve Him—and they are all
glorious. The last verse of our paragraph says: All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more
and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

Therefore, since through God’s
mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.