1 Peter 4 - 2011.06.25

WATCHING UNTO PRAYER

“…the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.” — I Peter 4:7

Our nugget today begins with an alert; a disclosure: “The end of all things is at hand.” Some years ago a woman asked, “Do you think the Lord is coming soon?” My response was, “I don’t know. But, I know this; Scripture teaches that He was coming soon then, and His return is two thousand years nearer today than it was then!” It is a matter of perspective, and from God’s perspective, He is coming soon, and we are to be ready for His return all the time.

That leads to a directive on the part of the Holy Spirit through the apostle: “Be sober.” This is not a call to be joyless or depressed, for such counsel would contradict many other scriptures; it is rather instruction to take life seriously, not frivolously and superficially. It is an exhortation in agreement with the teaching of the Lord Himself who instructs us, “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh [Matt. 25:13].” There are many such warnings in the word of God. Life, especially viewed from an eternal perspective, is serious business.

The directive is followed by what amounts to the Christian’s duty in light of the above: “Watch unto prayer.” Or, if you will, be serious about prayer. The two greatest weapons in the believer’s arsenal are the word of God and prayer. The word of God gives us direction and prayer provides dynamic. When the early church was distracted by partisan “murmuring” over the daily dole for widows, the apostles initiated deacons to handle that mundane matter and declared, “we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word [Cf. Acts 6:1-4].”

Here, faced with the prospect that “the end…is at hand,” the whole church is called to prayer as its great resource for victory. Sadly, many professing Christians seldom pray. That is like a marriage in which husband and wife rarely communicate. Or, like an army that fails to wait on the instruction of its commander before going out to battle. Sadder still, many who do pray often “pray amiss.” It is the apostle James who charges, “…ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts [James 4:2-3].” That is as true today as it was when it was written. Prayer in our churches, corporate prayer at least, is more likely to be address temporal and material concerns than spiritual issues. We are far more likely to pray for the healing of physical cancer than for the ills that make the church weak and powerless, or the appropriation of that which will make it “strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might [Eph. 6:10].”

Certainly scripture gives us the right to pray for the sick (See James 5:14, 15,) but even this in the context of spiritual well being. Search the rest of the New Testament for instruction and examples of prayer and you will find little that addresses physical and material well being. The emphasis is nearly always on spiritual considerations.

When the Savior prayed for Peter, it was that his “faith fail not.” Many a Christian needs prayer to that end. When He prayed for “His own,” (John 17) it was for their preservation and unity with one another (v.11, 21-23), for the manifestation of the joy of the Lord (v.13), for their preservation from evil (v.15), for their spiritual health and well being (”sanctification” - v.17), the effective impact of their testimony on the unbelieving world (v.23), their successful journey to glory (v.24) and the infusion of the love of God in their lives (v.26).

Studying the prayers and prayer requests of the apostle Paul will yield a similar emphasis.

Unlike Paul, Peter records few prayers or prayer requests as such, but a consideration of his concerns for those to whom he is writing will give at least a hint of how he must have prayed for them. It was a suffering community of believers, as just the chapter at hand will indicate (v.4, 12-16), yet there is no suggestion of seeking relief or redress. Instead believers are again admonished to live transformed lives, even when it brings mockery (v.1-4, 15), to love one another (v.8), to exercise spiritual gifts to the glory of God (v. 9-11), to exhibit joy and spiritual integrity in the face of opposition (v. 12-16) and to find their resources in God alone (v.19). Their survival and prosperity was not the issue; the triumph of their testimony was the real concern, and must have been the substance of his and their “watching unto prayer.”

Thus should it be with us, and so much the more as we “see the day approaching.”

For a divine perspective in prayer,

"Pastor" Frasier

1 Peter 3 - 2011.06.18

ORDER IN THE HOME

“…Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.” — I Peter 3:6-7

Out of this rich chapter some will no doubt think it strange that we have chosen this for our “nugget.” But in an hour when marriages are failing at a precipitous rate, in the church as well as outside of it, the subject is one of considerable significance, and the rejection of biblical values and principles is as much a factor as any thing.

First to be noted is that God has established an order in society which was to be reflected in the family. You are no doubt conversant with the more familiar passage on this subject, where we read, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church [Eph. 5:22-23].” The principle could not be more clearly or emphatically stated. And, there are those who despise it. The cry for “equal rights for women” is loudly affirmed in the modern world, and defined in the popular mind as affording equality of authority as well as opportunity.

In the beginning God made the woman out of Adam and under his authority to be a “help meet for him.” That was the divine order and has never been rescinded. The New Testament notes in another passage affirming the subordination of women, “Adam was first formed, then Eve [I Tim. 2:13 (see v.8-15)].” When Eve overstepped her God given role, taking initiative over her husband, she opened the door to chaos. Violating God’s order will always have that consequence.

The issue is not one of value or equality; it is one of administrative order. Such an order is manifested even in the godhead. The Father, Son and Holy Ghost are equal in character and glory, but even a cursory study of God’s word will reveal that there is an administrative order there. The Father is over all, the Son is under His authority and the Holy Spirit is subject to them. The Father sent the Son into the world, for example, and the Father and the Son jointly sent the Holy Spirit. Administratively their roles are different, and were it not so the divine program would suffer paralysis.

However, returning to the matter of marriage, it is to be noted that the husband, who is to be head, is to exercise his authority for the well being of the wife, “giving honor unto the woman as unto the weaker vessel,” and to “love [their] wives even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it [Eph. 5:25].” Again, for emphasis, the Holy Spirit teaches us, “So men ought to love their wives as their own bodies… [Eph. 5:28].” The Christian husband is to be as considerate of his wife as he would naturally be of himself. The divine intention is not that women should be enslaved, but cherished, cared for and honored.

When a woman submits to her own husband “as unto the Lord,” and a man exercises leadership in love “as Christ loved the church,” a relationship is formed that is impregnable. The two have become one not only biologically, but in every way. Each is living for the other, and that is what God designed for marriage. When Adam was created he was under God’s authority, and God took responsibility for him. When he insisted on being independent, he ultimately lost everything. We cannot improve on God’s order.

This relationship does not make, nor imply, that the woman is inferior to her husband. It simply defines her role. Her equality is evident in the reference to husband and wife being “heirs together of the grace of life.” God has the same glorious destiny in store for the believing wife as for the Christian husband. From the spiritual perspective “there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus [Gal. 3:28].” That will be wonderfully apparent “in the resurrection [where] they neither marry, not are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven [Mat. 22: 30].” Till then the believer is responsible to observe God’s assigned order.

The solemnity of all this is evident in the concluding phrase of our nugget: “that your prayers be not hindered.” Too easily glossed over, the inference here is that if we fail to submit to God’s authority in our marital relationship, we will undermine our relationship with Him and jeopardize our prayer life. For professing Christians who do not pray, that will hardly seem a serious matter, but for those who recognize something of the importance and potential of prayer, it is cause for alarm.

Much of the impotence in present day Christianity may be traced to indifference on this all important matter.

For order in the home,

"Pastor" Frasier

1 Peter 2 - 2011.06.11

THERE’S A WAR ON

“Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.” — I Peter 2:11-12

One thing every believer needs to learn is that faith in Christ introduces us to conflict. While we may know this in a general way, the Holy Spirit would introduce us specifically to the conflict between the flesh and the spirit. Parallel to this the Christian needs a keen awareness of the nature of his “calling” once he comes to Christ. Both are defined for us in scripture, and illustrate the reason why a working knowledge of the word of God is so important.

From the moment of the “new birth” we are called of God to live holy lives. Writing to the Romans, for example, the apostle declares, “Now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life [Rom. 6:22].” Simply put, a holy life is a life pleasing to God, both in outward conduct and inward motive. We are called not only to do the right thing, but to do it for the right reason. Insofar as we succeed, we are walking “after the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:1) The power to live God’s kind of life does not come from our own resources, but from the indwelling Holy Spirit and in scripture is called “fruit,” because it stems from our union with Christ and is produced not by us, but in us.

No sooner is the passion ignited and the process begun than the conflict arises. If the Enemy cannot keep us from becoming Christians, he will do his best to keep us from being the kind of persons God wants us to be, and the battle will be lifelong. One of the great elements in this battle is “the flesh;” the soul governed by “the desires of the flesh and of the mind.” Thus we are alerted here and warned to “abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” The conflict is elaborated on in the epistle to the Galatians, where we read, “The flesh [makes war] against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would [Gal. 5:17 my paraphrase].”

Satan knows our weaknesses and makes every effort to exploit them. Perhaps at no time in the history of mankind has he had more tools at his disposal to excite our unholy desires than in this era of instant communication. “The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life,” make their appeal to us in a kind of “saturation bombing” that is often unsolicited and hard to resist. Yet to yield is to suffer loss, not only to ourselves, but to the testimony of our Savior.

Our defense involves at least three things: The first is recognition of the danger. My experience in the U.S. Navy many years ago involved courses in what might be summed up in the phrase, “know your enemy.” In aircraft recognition we were trained to distinguish between friend and foe, so that under the pressures of combat we might be able to spare the one and strike the other. The Bible is the believer’s handbook for the same in our ongoing spiritual warfare. It warns us who the adversary is, what his tactics are and what steps to take to withstand them.

The second factor is resistance. Here, for example, we are warned to “abstain from fleshly lusts…” In another place we are admonished to “make no provision for the flesh, to obey it in the lusts thereof [Rom. 13:14],” where the key word is “no.” And again, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you [James 4:7].” Unfortunately, our resistance is too often half hearted and our abstinence only occasional. The enemy creeps in through the gaps in our wall. To be victorious in this battle, our resistance must be whole-hearted.

But there is more. The scripture teaches us, “Ye cannot do the things that ye would [Gal. 5:17].” Spiritual victory over fleshly lusts is not a do-it-yourself affair. An acquaintance of mine, a superb bible teacher, often employed the phrase, “It takes God to be godly.” Every true believer in Christ is a god-inhabited person. “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” Paul writes to the Colossians. He by His Holy Spirit is the only one equipped to do battle with the enemy and win. Believers need to be conscious of the Spirit’s presence in our lives and exercise a conscious reliance upon Him if we are to emerge victorious from the fray.

The goal in the life of every believer is to cultivate a life of good works that will demonstrate the power of God’s grace to the “watching world.” That will identify us as the “strangers and pilgrims” referred to here, and ultimately rout the critics who delight to say that “Christianity doesn’t work.”

For victory,

"Pastor" Frasier

1 Peter 1 - 2011.06.04

THE PROSPECT OF GRACE

“Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." - Peter 1:8-9

If you were presented with a tray of gold nuggets and invited to choose just one, you might have a hard time making your selection. That is our case here today. The chapter is very rich, and making a selection is, indeed a challenge. One can only trust the Lord to superintend this feeble effort, both in selection and in development.

The believer has in Christ what the apostle here calls “a living hope.” It is the same hope the apostle Paul refers to
when he says, “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it [Rom. 8:24-25]. Writing to Titus he calls it the “hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began [Titus 1:2].” And the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews declares, “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil [Heb. 6:19].”

This hope is not a vague uncertainty, as our word “hope” commonly suggests: it is “hope” only because it is as yet “unseen.” Our hope, in all its aspects, centers in Jesus Christ. He is it ground and assurance. If Christ is trustworthy, this hope is sure. If this hope is not sure, the Lord Jesus Christ is a deceiver.

For now “we see Him not,” but believing that He is Truth (John 14:6) eventuates in three things suggested by our text. The first is love for the Son of God Who loves us and gave Himself for us. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him,” and “We love Him because He first loved us [I John 4:9, 19].” The word declares, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends [Jn. 15:13].” Christ’s love is greater than this, for “when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son [Rom. 5:10a].” Who, understanding and believing this, would not love Him back! We are moved to cry with the Psalmist, whose vision of the redeemer had not yet the cross to look back to, “I will love thee, O Lord, my strength [Psalm 18:1].”

The second thing resulting from this conviction is faith. Faith is both the ground of our hope and the sustaining power of it. “In Whom…believing.” Generally our concept of what is certain is based upon our senses—what can be seen, heard, touched, etc. Faith gives substance for the believer to “things not seen as yet [Heb. 11:7].” “Now faith is [that which gives substance to] things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen [Heb. 11:1, my paraphrase].” It is wondrously illustrated in the account of Noah’s spiritual experience: “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith [Heb. 11:7, my italics].” Faith is the window through which we are given a glimpse of things eternal!

Thirdly, this grace results in joy; inexpressible, irrepressible joy. The scripture puts it, “joy unspeakable and full of glory.” There is a false and superficial excitement in some quarters of professing Christendom ofttimes stirred up through the flesh. That is not the kind of joy referred to here. This is the reflected glory of the Savior Himself registering in the soul and running deep, where true faith is found. The Savior prayed, “And now I come to Thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves [John 17:13].” His joy is referred to when we are encouraged to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God [Heb. 12:1-2].” It is a joy that comes from “seeing Him who is invisible” (Heb. 11:27) and maintaining faith in Him.

This love, faith and joy leads to assurance in the end result of trusting Christ, “the salvation of your souls.” We live in a world, and in an hour where from many quarters “doubts arise and fears dismay.” Here is our “life raft,” if I may say it reverently. “Stayed upon Jehovah hearts are fully blessed, finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.”

Get a fix on “the Bright and Morning Star,” and you will never be thrown off course!

For a secure future,

"Pastor" Frasier