Sproul

ON FEARING THE LORD

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Of all the Old Testament verses I’ve memorized over the years, I have to say Proverbs 9:10 is among my favorites! It’s a succinct summary of the entire book of Proverbs — and of our call as the children of God! The New International Version renders this passage as follows: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

The late Dr. R.C. Sproul’s Tabletalk magazine put forth the following explanation of the meaning of this passage — one worth quoting!

“Fear, in this context, is not the fear one has of an enemy; rather, it is honor and love for the Lord. Such fear is manifested in reverence and awe, a disposition to apply what God has revealed in order to live a life that pleases Him in gratitude for His salvation.” (Tabletalk, 1/2/15)

In short: To live an upright life is the fear of the Lord! Though our shortcomings are great, God’s grace is greater yet. The children of God are called to live a life of surrender to the will of God as revealed in the Word of God. When we fall short we simply and reverently acknowledge our sin, thank God for His forgiveness (secured by Christ on Calvary’s cross), turn from that particular sin, then get on with our life, our walk with God.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” Isaiah 43:18-19a

WHERE WAS GOD?

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My dad passed away on June 29, 1996 — a victim of Alzheimer’s Disease. He was only sixty-six years old. It’s human nature to ask the question, “Where was God? If He exists and is all-powerful and loving, why did He allow this tragedy to occur?”

I don’t believe we can know the “why” of these kinds of tragic losses, at least now. I am convinced, however, that there is ultimate purpose to all that happens — and that what God ordains works for the good of His own.

Christian theologian and apologist R.C. Sproul offers the following perspective on God’s providence and the problem of evil. It is a bit lengthy (and brain-stretching!) but is a worthwhile read: “The atheistic philosopher John Stuart Mill argued that if God is all-powerful and also good, then God could not allow a world of evil and suffering. If God is all-powerful but does not stop evil, said Mill, then God is not good. If God is good but does not stop evil, said Mill, then God must not be omnipotent.

“There is, however, a third alternative: God is all-powerful and good, but allows man to be sinful. In Christian terms, evil is defined as the lack of conformity to God’s standard of righteousness and perfection. Evil is, thus, by its very definition a negation of God’s goodness. It is simply the rejection of God, and the cause of all evil events.

“By creating man outside of Himself, God ordained the possibility of this wrong relationship; in other words, God ordained the possibility of evil. Man chose that wrong relationship, in the providence of God, and in this sense God ordained evil. But when God ordains anything, His ultimate purpose is always good. The Bible tells us that all things, even evil things, work together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). All things are not good, but all things work together for good in God’s plan.

“In the quest for purpose, we must distinguish between proximate and remote purposes. The proximate refers to that which is close at hand. The remote refers to the distant, far off, ultimate purpose…[The] proximate must always be judged in light of the remote. Our problem is this: We do not yet possess the full light of the remote. We are still looking in a dark mirror. We are not utterly devoid of light. We have enough light to know that God has a good purpose even when we are ignorant of that good purpose.

“It is the good purpose of God that gives the final answer to the appearance of vanity and futility in this world. To trust in the good purpose of God is the very essence of godly faith. This is why no Christian can be an ultimate pessimist. The wicked aims of mice and men that surround and beset us daily may incline us toward pessimism — but only at the level of the proximate.”

I share Dr. Sproul’s perspective and hope you will draw encouragement from that which we can know — in this world we will suffer heartache and loss, but every event, every circumstance is working toward His glory and the good of His people.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” Romans 8:28.

YOU ARE THE CHRIST

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“All religions lead to God.” Baloney! That is one of the most ludicrous statements man can make. They can’t all lead to God because they contradict each other! This being the case, either they are all false or only one can be true. The wise individual will examine the claims, study the evidence, then make a sincere “head and heart” commitment.

Jesus denied the pluralistic ideas of man by stating categorically that He is the only way to God (see John 14:6).

Commenting on this claim Christian theologian and apologist Dr. R.C. Sproul writes: “Christ’s declaration of being the only way must be considered seriously. Who else has God attested by the resurrection? Buddha is dead. Mohammed is dead. But Jesus Christ is alive. Only Christianity deals with man’s guilt through an atonement. Only Christianity has a Savior who is sinless. This point is unique to Christianity. Christ is a worthy sacrifice because He is perfect and righteous — no other person can make that claim. Jesus Christ is the only one who qualifies as a redeemer.”

WITHOUT EXCUSE

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I recently had an interesting, insightful dialogue with a bright young man, a 31-year-old doctoral student with an undergraduate degree in philosophy. After exchanging pleasantries, I sensed the Lord’s prompting me to turn our conversation in a truly meaningful direction. My segue was his somewhat aimless life-direction. Pretty confident he was not spiritually “acclimated” — and hoping to open up some type of dialogue related to spiritual matters — I asked him if he’d considered getting direction from God. In so many words he said he didn’t really believe in God. What followed was a common line of reasoning used by the typical younger person on the street today.

I want to share with you the essence of our dialogue so you can prepare an effective, loving response (witness) when God opens a door for you to share Christ with such a person.

I can only skim the surface in this devotional; you can fill in the gaps by doing your own follow-up study. So as to keep the continuity I feel it’s best not to break this devotional up into several parts. It will therefore be longer than usual!

First off, this young man said he didn’t really believe in God (as I was presenting Him, the God of the Bible). He then said he purposed simply to live a good life, doing and being good. That way, if there is a God He would probably be merciful when He evaluated his works; God would surely excuse his ignorance as to what He expected of him. “If I’m wrong,” he reasoned, “I guess I’ll find out then. It won’t be my fault because I really didn’t know — and I did the best I knew how.”

My response was that ignorance of God’s moral law (revealed in the Bible) will not excuse us from the consequences of breaking it. We’re all transgressors, be it in ignorance, in secret, or overtly! The Good News is if we recognize our need for God’s forgiveness and then receive His pardon through faith in Christ alone, we are then justified — and ready to meet our Maker (Romans 1:17; II Corinthians 5:21).

Next, we dialogued a bit about Jesus. I quoted Him as saying “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). I explained what Jesus meant, and then the young man responded with a particularly good point: “Anyone could make that claim!” I said, “Very true — but nobody has the credentials to back up that claim — nobody except Jesus of Nazareth!” I then presented an abbreviated apologetic for Jesus’ resurrection, noting Josh McDowell’s famous quip: “Men will die for something they believe to be true — even though it may actually be false. They will not, however, die for something they know is a lie!”

I hastened to note the martyrdom of ten of Christ’s original twelve Apostles — as well as the many thousands who followed in their footsteps, placing their trust in the testimony of Christ’s early followers.

This young man’s response is critical to hear because it is quite popular today: “We don’t even know if Jesus was a real historical figure! No Roman historians, for instance, wrote about him. The only record we have is the Bible — and it has been translated and re-translated so many times it has lost all semblance of accuracy and dependability!”

I began by addressing his statement that Jesus was not a real, historical person, noting that historians use the birth of Jesus Christ as the reference point for our calendar — significant I’d say! I proceeded by noting that besides the historically impeccable testimony of Luke’s gospel (touted even by secular scholars as perhaps the greatest, dependable historian of the ancient world), several non-Biblical sources do in fact confirm His existence: the Jewish historian Josephus (A.D. 37-100); Jewish Rabbinical Tradition (A.D. 70 and 200); Pliny the Younger (Imperial Roman Legate); Tacitus (Roman historian); Suetonius (Roman historian); Thallus and Julias Africanus; Mara bar Serpion; Justin Martyr; etc.

As to the historical reliability of the Bible, I made the simple observation that thousands of ancient manuscript copies of both Old and New Testament Scriptures exist today and when compared to our modern translations, they say the same thing! We can also completely reconstruct the New Testament (except for a few verses) from letters of correspondence, theology, etc. written by the early Church Fathers of the first several centuries of the early Church. In these letters, they quote New Testament passages!

So, dear reader, be ever ready (and able!) to share your faith, to give reasons why you believe (I Peter 3:16-17; Jude 3). Above all, be a man, be a woman of the Word! In addition, do some outside reading! A great, short “primer” for you might be Josh McDowell’s “More Than A Carpenter.”

It’s a classic, still in print — one I read as a young college student. Very compelling, insightful, helpful. Dr. R.C. Sproul’s “Objections Answered” can also prove useful.

Remember: God saves; we simply sow His seeds; remember what Terry Scott Taylor sang years ago (Daniel Amos band): “Hit them with love — words have their place — hit them with love but live what you say!”