Manslick Road church of Christ » 2007 » August
Not long after Israel departed from Mt. Sinai, Miriam and Aaron came forward and challenged Moses. They said their complaint was about his Cushite wife, but the real problem was that they were jealous of his position.
The Lord summoned them to the tent of meeting where He rebuked Moses’ siblings. When the cloud depicting God’s presence departed, Miriam was left leprous. Aaron acknowledged their sin and asked Moses to pray for their sister. Moses did, and God agreed to heal her. But not immediately. He explained, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut up for seven days outside the camp, and afterward she may be received again” (Num. 12:14 ). The entire camp of Israel was held up for a week, awaiting Miriam.
This is just one of many Bible illustrations of an important principle: forgiveness does not remove all the consequences of one’s sin. It takes away the worst one—severed fellowship with God and its eternal implications. But God never promised that forgiveness, by Him or by man, would remove all of sin’s effects.
A liar loses credibility. He may apologize and be forgiven, but that does not make others instantly trust everything he says from now on.
An adulterer violates the trust of mankind’s most intimate relationship. His sin is such that it is the lone basis on which the Lord said one may divorce (Mt. 5:32 ). His mate may forgive him, but that does not necessarily translate into a continued relationship. Even when it does, that relationship will not be the same, at least for a long time.
Civil penalties do not disappear simply because one repents. Neither do the physical effects of sins such as drunkenness and drug abuse. Forgiveness does not remove the remarriage restrictions on one who disregards divine law about divorce. Any publicly known sin damages one’s reputation, at least for a time.
Remember what Moses warned Israel: “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Num. 32:23 ).
Churches that are all about numbers gladly alter their activities to accommodate popular demand. While music usually gets special attention, preaching is no less targeted. Perhaps it would be timely to remind us all what God intends preaching to accomplish.
Preaching is to instruct. In His wisdom, God arranged things so the world through its wisdom could not come to know Him (1 Cor. 1:21 ). Man does not know the things of God intuitively, either (1 Cor. 2:9 ). Spiritual truth was revealed by God to the apostles, and it must be preached to mankind (vv. 11-13). Are you learning anything from the preaching you listen to?
Preaching is to convince. Preachers must do more than assert spiritual truths. At Thessalonica, Paul “reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence” that Jesus was the Christ (Acts 17:2-3 ). Does your preacher prove what he professes?
Preaching is to command. The gospel is the good news that Christ died for us. It is also God’s requirements of us, both for salvation and our daily walk. Paul reminded the Thessalonians, “For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus” (1 Th. 4:2 ). Preachers who do not relate Christ’s commandments are not doing their job.
Preaching is to rebuke. Not everyone is immediately receptive to the truth. Some stubbornly hold to sin and error. These need a rebuke. Paul told Timothy, “Preach the word; . . . reprove, rebuke, and exhort with great patience and instruction” (2 Tim. 4:2 ). He told Titus, “These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority” (Ti. 2:15 ). The all-positive folks do not fully grasp the aim of preaching.
Preaching is to remind. Not every sermon has to cover new territory. Peter wrote two letters primarily designed to remind Christians of what they already knew (2 Pet. 3:1-2 ). Both Timothy (2 Tim. 2:14 ) and Titus (Ti. 3:1 ) were instructed to remind the brethren. Given the vastness of spiritual truth and the ease with which we forget, reminding is a vital part of preaching.
Preaching is to encourage. At the end of his first preaching tour, Paul returned to the places he had just been, “strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith” (Acts 14:22 ). Some accuse the preacher of being soft if he is not constantly “bearing down” on error or immorality. Though opposite the all-positive crowd, these share with them an imbalanced view of preaching.
Preaching is to admonish (Acts 20:31 ), warn (Lk. 12:5 ), exhort (Acts 2:40 ), stir up (2 Pet. 1:13 ), etc. While no single lesson accomplishes all these things, balanced preaching to hearers who are regularly present does. Interestingly, entertain is not in the Bible description of preaching. That is not God’s view of a good sermon.
“. . . abhor what is evil; cling to what is good” (Rom. 12:9 ).
This short verse (actually it is just the second part of the verse) would be a fine one to commit to memory. It states or implies at least three vital points.
First, there is such a thing as good and evil. People used to understand that. We used to know that one is supposed to keep his word, that greed is a bad thing, that marriage is for life, and that homosexuality is perversion.
Now, several generations have grown up listening to denominational preachers say it does not matter what you believe, thereby undermining Bible authority; we have heard libertarians rationalize any and every kind of conduct; our courts rule on the basis of what judges think the law ought to be instead of what it is; and we have grown accustomed to comedians making daily fodder of sin of every kind. Is it any wonder people are confused?
Come to think of it, this is nothing new. Long ago Isaiah wrote, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; . . . who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight” (Is. 5:20-21 ).
Second, it is both possible and necessary to discern good and evil. Personal preferences and moral relativism leave us adrift. There is a fixed standard. It is God. He is right or righteous. “A God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright is He” (Dt. 32:4 ). His word, His self-revelation, is the yardstick by which all conduct is measured. It is the standard by which we shall be judged (Jn. 12:48 ).
Discerning right and wrong begins with the “thou shalt/thou shalt not” passages. We must also take into account principles of conduct, such as maintaining a clear conscience (Rom. 14:22-23 ), not putting other things before God (Mt. 6:33 ), leaving off questionable things that would lessen our influence for good (Mt. 5:16 ), etc. Paul often prayed that Christians would grow in this area of distinguishing conduct (Ph. 1:9-11; Col. 1:9-12 ).
Third, we must act in keeping with the quality of any given behavior. If a thing is good we are to cling to it. The original verb in our text is from the Greek noun for glue; be glued to it. On the other hand, if conduct is bad, we are to abhor it. Abhor is from the Latin word for horror, which literally means to shudder. We should shudder at the very idea of some kinds of behavior [misbehavior].
Simply put, this text tells us to use God’s word and draw the line between good and evil. Once that line is drawn, do not see how close to it you can get without stepping over; stay as far away from evil and as close to God as you can.
Some people do not want to hear the Bible’s prohibitions of homosexuality, divorce, drunkenness, immodesty, and the like. They dismiss the conclusion that such things are wrong as a matter of a conservatives’ “reading” or “interpretation” of Scripture. That implies that “readings” or “interpretations” which reach opposite conclusions are equally valid.
I wonder what such a one would do with this statement: “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Gen 2:16-17 ). If a liberal wanted to eat of the forbidden tree, or if he wanted you to feel good about doing so, he would somehow interpret the instruction to mean that death would not be the result. (After all, God is a God of love, forgiveness, and tolerance. Surely He would not condemn someone just for eating the wrong thing. Besides, God gave us our appetites!)
But wait! Someone in the garden actually did view the instruction this way. His name was Satan. And he was wrong — dead wrong. So were Adam and Eve when they were deceived by him and disobeyed God.
Folks, “God does not mean what He says” is the oldest lie in the world. Do not fall for it.