REFLECTIONS

Romans 8:18

⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

There is a place in the Christian’s life for divine accounting.  In the text for today, Paul uses a word comparing and drawing a reasonable or a true conclusion.  In the King James Version “consider” is translated “reckon”.  In the NASB it is “consider”.  It is “count, reckon, calculate, credit, evaluate, and even think on or reflect upon.”  But principally it points to an accounting process.  It is this thought.  “When all the accounting is done and the sums are finished, this is what they equal.”  Any suffering that I experience is nowhere to even be compared to the future glory I can expect.”  That should always be the result of a Christian’s reflections.

There is a practical way to approach our considerations of life as a whole.  Three questions will help to explain my intent in Spiritual inspection.

I.                    What is your love in this life?  We need not be in doubt what the answer is to be.

a.      I Corinthians 16:22 NASB, ²² If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed. Maranatha.

The curse of God is extended to all who do not love the Savior.  This is no less the wrath of God in its eternal application.  This love for the Savior which he has not seen is the unique ability of those Kingdom citizens born into this privilege.

I Peter 1:8 NKJV ⁸ whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,

II.                  What is your rule of life?  Ecclesiastes 12:13 KJV  ¹³ Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.

No one’s life is without some guiding principle.  The Psalmist in 1:2 describes this in the believer, “His delight is in the law of the Lord.”  This for us in this day has faint resemblance to what is taught in Christian churches.  If the law is taught at all it is a necessary evil.

The law as only a duty is the theme with which we are familiar.  We are to “delight” in the law and have the assurance that it is not “burdensome”.  ³ For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. I John 5:3.  I say this without equivocation, it should be the confession of every believer as it was of the Old Testament saint, “O how I love your law, it is my meditation all the day”, Psalm 119:97.

III.             What is the end you look for?  So often at funerals II Timothy 4:7-8 is quoted and applied to the life of a diligent saint.  It is not my purpose to criticize this.  But the great reward is in 4:7. ⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  This is a commendable motive for us.  We should live our lives to accomplish this great end.

1.      “Fight the good fight”

2.      “Finish the course”

3.       “Keep the faith”

4.      “Love his appearing”

Revelation 22:20-21 KJV  ²⁰ He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

²¹ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

And Amen!!

THE CLARITY AND PURITY OF SCRIPTURE

Psalm 85:8

I will hear what God the Lord will speak,
For He will speak peace
To His people and to His saints;
But let them not turn back to folly.

The lesson to be learned from the Hubble telescope is that space, as far as measurement is concerned, is infinite.  There are millions, even billions of galaxies and billions of stars in each galaxy.  Faced with this staggering fact, non-creationists cannot believe our small insignificant planet can be the only residence of life as we know it.

If there is no Creator, if there is no intelligent design, I must agree with the materialist.  But the same sheer magnitude of the universe that requires the thought of other spots of life must also, with the information we have, deal with our uniqueness.  And until we get an intelligent answer that there is someone else, this uniqueness holds the floor.

So we say, “yes there is a God.”  “It is He that has made us and not we ourselves.”  That brings us to the next question, “Has He communicated with us?”  It seems until this is answered the first question is meaningless.

There are two sides to communication from God and with God.  The Psalmist speaks of both.  “I will hear” and “He will speak.”  So we must know that to those who have no intention of hearing--God is not speaking.

The Psalmist in this verse describes those to whom God speaks, “His people and His saints.”  The sheer magnitude of information in Scripture that supports this description of those who receive God’s communication is overwhelming.  The understanding of this fact and the answer of the question that follows that of God communicating, can we understand Him, is given us in I Corinthians 2:9-11, 14.  Paul’s description of those who hear and receive the speech of God is not difficult.  It is really quite clear.  There is a prerequisite to hearing God.  That is a spiritual one.  Jesus tells what this is in John 3:3, ³ Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  Jesus continues this heavenly instruction in vs 12, ¹² If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?  There is in this well- known discourse an absolute.  This is in vs 7, ⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’  The “must” stated to Nicodemus is a universal necessity.  Without a Spiritual birth there will be no communication from God.  The natural man can think as he chooses, it does not affect God or our holy religion.  The God of holy writ has spoken and He does not change. 

I am including again Westminster Confession of Faith I:5.  Please read it carefully.

5. We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the church to an high and reverent esteem of the Holy Scripture. And the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is, to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God: yet notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts.

THE QUESTIONS OF A THINKING MAN

Psalm 14:1

The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt,
They have done abominable works,
There is none who does good.

First matters first.

1.       Who speaks?  The fool: Nabal is the Hebrew word used here.  In I Samuel 25:25 Abigail says of her husband, “He is a scoundrel” and “folly” is his practice.  The original King James Version writes “he is a churlish man.”  The identification of the speaker will help us determine the meaning of his claim.

2.      The center of the conversation:

A.     In his heart is to say with thorough conviction.  This is what he believes and what he will practice.

B.     It is not particularly a matter for discussion.  It is internal, not through lack of conviction, but because it is more a matter of conviction than conversation.

3.       What he says!  No God.  No Elohim.  No lawgiver, judge, or supreme ruler.  An evangelist I heard speak years ago, Rolf Barnard, described this as a rejection of God’s control of his life or right to his service.  He understood the Nabal to be saying “No God for me.”  I think the context of this Psalm and the description of the Biblical fool lends itself to this understanding.

The Puritans distinguished between the philosophical atheist, of which there are not many, and the practical atheist, which overwhelms the earth.  This man is the practical atheist, “No God for me.”

But what is the importance of God to man?  The answer is one of eternal significance no matter what the intellectual convictions.  There is an eternity to face.  If there is nothing, then that is an answer that must be found.

The great question posed to man, “Is there a God?”  This poses the problem of the origin of our environment and man in that space.  I watched again today, June 2, 2016, the Nova film on the Hubble Telescope.  The woman who is considered to be the “mother” of the Hubble finished the program by saying the hope that the Hubble and science from it would help us to determine “where we came from, what we are, and what we are to do.”  Certainly these are important questions, but I doubt Hubble science will give us the answers.

Again, another of the Hubble scientists said the Hubble teaches that the universe is expanding and that it has a beginning.  We say, “yes” and we know the Beginner.

Man cannot see effect without thinking cause.  Who caused all this--the world around us, and the world above, and certainly the world beyond us?  There are but three choices:

1.      The world is uncaused.

2.      The world caused itself.

3.      God did it.

Please not the question and answer in Psalm 115:2-3.

²Why should the Gentiles say,
“So where is their God?”

³ But our God is in heaven;
He does whatever He pleases.