James 2 (pt 13) - 2011.12.31

The COMMANDMENTS (13)

“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”  —James 2:10

If one has followed this series of messages on the commandments, two things should be obvious. First, “…by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in [God’s] sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin [Rom. 3:20].” Second, believers are not sanctified by “keeping the commandments.” No more can we attain to the divine standard after salvation than before. We said at the outset that the underlying issue is not one of obedience, but of love. And love cannot be cultivated by keeping the law. In fact, it is the other way around. Where love is, there will be an aspiration to obey the Lord, but seeing the Law through the magnifying lens of God’s word, even the “saintliest” of Christians “come short of the glory of God.” “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness.”

“Good works” add nothing to our standing with God. “…All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags…” (See Isa. 64:6) Unfortunately “religion,” even evangelical religion, too often cultivates the idea that there is something we can do to “please God,” and seeks to whip us into some kind of “service” as though through it we might obtain merit with God. The fact is, only as we surrender in love to His Lordship can He work through us to accomplish His will. Then all that is accomplished will be His doing, not ours, and all the praise and glory will belong to Him, not to us. Loving our neighbor is valid only as it flows out of our love for God, and our love for God is evidenced not by singing in the choir, “serving” in the church or witnessing to the lost. All these things can be done out of false motives and self-righteousness that undermines all merit. 

To illustrate:  Speaking of the day of divine reckoning the Savior said, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity [Matt. 7:21-23] .”The “good works” of these empty professors are by Him characterized as works of iniquity.

The Son of God went one day to dinner where two sisters hosted Him. One labored diligently for Him, the other simply sat and listened to Him:

“Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” —Luke 10:38-42

Martha’s dutiful service is not discredited, but it is subordinated to Mary’s loving devotion. “If you love Me…”

These two women are brought to our attention again:

“Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein. Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.” —John 12:1-6

Martha is still occupied for Him; Mary is occupied with Him. And the egocentric disciple charges Mary with waste and irresponsibility. For all his words of “caring for the poor,” (loving your neighbor) the Spirit of God reveals that his real motive was false. “By the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight [Rom. 3:20].”

Our root problem is heart trouble—that we have little or no heart for God. “Out of [the heart] are the issues of life [Prov. 4:23],” and “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it [Jer. 17:9]?” And “…The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” God is looking for those who have a heart for Him, who will seek Him and sit at His feet and listen. Who will pour out their richest and best, indeed, their all on Him. Insofar as that love prevails for Him, the spirit of the commandments will be evidenced in and through us. And, borrowing a fragment of scripture out of context, “Against such there is no law.”

“Oh to grace how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be!”

"Pastor" Frasier

Christmas Letter - 2011.12.24

Dear Friends in Christ:

THANKS for the welcome greetings and kind words from so many of you. It is great to hear from you.
As for me, life goes on… The year has been routine, except for time out for kidney surgery in late May, which went very well. I continue to work in the supermarket four or five hours a day two or three days a week on average. It is my exercise and social life aside from the church fellowship.
The family are all well and busy as usual, Ange, my son-in-law in France included. Sue and Doug came for a week over Thanksgiving and we all got together at Dave and Linda’s (my son who lives nearby) for the holiday, a happy reunion. Sue (my daughter) also came for two weeks to assist me while I was recovering from surgery in June.
The first three Sundays of each month I continue to minister to a tiny handful of seniors in an assisted living facility nearby, and send out the weekly devotional by email. That is pretty much the extent of my “ministry” at present. The Lord is good, and I praise Him for His grace and love.
May He give you and yours a blessed holiday, a spiritually profitable new year and a glorious eternity through the Son of His love.

Exodus 20 (pt 12) - 2011.12.17

The COMMANDMENTS (12)

“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's..” — Exodus 20:17

“Thou shalt not covet…anything that is thy neighbor’s. A preacher acquaintance of mine many years ago developed a rather quaint phrase defining the word “covet,” calling it “the desire to acquire.” It has remained unforgettable for me, and serves as a broad general description of the term in its negative aspect in the King James Version of the scriptures. This in turn agrees well enough with the Oxford dictionary’s definition of “covetous”: “having or showing a great desire to possess something, typically something belonging to someone else.” Vine’s dictionary of New Testament words offers as parallels “desire, envy, jealous[y].”

We may consider here the reason for the commandment as it stands in the Old Testament, suggested by the Savior’s summary of the second table of the law, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Lust is the opposite of love, and wars against the character of God and His will for His children. To fulfill the spirit of this commandment is to prefer others before ourselves and to rejoice in their well-being rather than to desire their benefits as our own. Lust centers in self; love centers in others, “does not envy,” and “seeketh not her own.” (I Cor 13:4,5)

The price of passionately desiring that which is not legitimately ours (that is, whatever God withholds or forbids) is  vividly illustrated in the case of Achan in the Old Testament. When Israel went up to conquer Jericho the people were expressly prohibited from taking spoils therefrom (Joshua 6:18), but Achan disobeyed and as a result the Israelites were defeated in their next campaign, all the people suffering because of the transgression of one. When the problem was rooted out Achan confessed, “Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done: When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it [Josh. 7:20-21].” The “desire to acquire”—against the revealed will of God—can be costly. It cost Achan and his family their lives.

We are led, then, to consider the New Testament implications of this commandment. Jesus warned, “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” (See Luke 12:13-31) Here the Savior lifts the commandment from merely desiring what our neighbors have to an inordinate desire for anything the world has to offer. It is a prohibition against making “stuff”—even “necessary” stuff our goal in life. This is further explained for the believer in Colossians 3:5 where we are admonished to “put to death [our] members which are on earth,” including “covetousness, which is idolatry.” It will thus become evident that covetousness is a violation not only of the tenth commandment, but also of the first! Covetousness moves God out of center and makes a god out of “stuff.”

In other words, one does not have to have an idol on the shelf to be guilty of idolatry. When earthly “treasure” consumes us, we have set up idols in our hearts, invisible, it may be, to others around us, but clearly evident to our omniscient Lord. The prohibition reaches its zenith when through the apostle John the Holy Spirit warns, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever [I John 2:15-17].” And we hear the echo of the Savior’s words, “But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you [Luke 12:31].”

It is most interesting, in conclusion, that the apostle Paul offers this commandment as the one that tripped him up. “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet [Rom. 7:7].  

What really drives our lives, shapes our ambitions and determines our actions? Is it the “desire to acquire,” or simple, uncompromising faith that “[God] is, and that He is [the] rewarder of those that diligently seek Him?” With that question projected against the background of this commandment in its Old Testament roots and its New Testament revelation, any thoughtful and transparently honest person will be moved to cry out, “Thank God for Calvary!”   

“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” —Rom. 3:20

Saved by grace alone,

"Pastor" Frasier

Exodus 20 (pt 11) - 2011.12.10

The COMMANDMENTS (11)

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." — Exodus 20:16

The Lord Jesus said, in a very familiar verse, “I am the…Truth.” And of God it is written, “God…cannot lie [Titus 1:2].” We have suggested that the commandments are a reflection of God’s character, and this ninth is no exception. The God who is Truth and cannot lie counsels His own that we should “walk as He (Christ) walked,” hence we should walk in truth (II John 4). “Lying lips are abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are his delight [Prov.12:22].” 

When the Savior distilled the second table of the law into  single statement He said, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” It is interesting that this terse phrase first occurs in the review of the law in Leviticus, in the context of this very commandment. “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour. Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the Lord. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord [Lev. 19:15-18].”

The perversity and power of false witnesses is amply illustrated in scripture. False witnesses, acquired under the evil genius of ungodly Jezebel, resulted in the murder of Naboth (I Kings 21:9-14). The Psalmist cried, “False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge things that I knew not. They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul [Ps. 35:11-12].” Godly Stephen was stoned by an angry mob after false witnesses charged him with blasphemy. (Acts 6:9-15; 7:54-60) Certainly the ultimate illustration is in the person of the Son of God, of Whom it is written, “Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death; But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses, And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days. And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee [Mt. 26:59-62]?” These false witness provided the flimsy ground upon which the Savior was condemned to the death of the cross.

Of course the outcome does not have to be so radical in order to be guilty of breaking this commandment.  False witnessing may include gossip if one repeats things that prove not to be true, and injures the reputation of another, as the above passage from Leviticus would indicate. Those preachers who deny the resurrection of Christ are false witnesses. (See I Cor. 15:14-15)  All lies and deceit told to or about others, compromising truth, fall within the scope of this commandment.

The root of all lying is Satan. Jesus said to those who opposed Him, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it [John 8:44].” Those who choose to lie are not only out of favor with God; they are in league with the devil. 

Lest there be any question about the seriousness of the commandment, we have only to consider the conclusion of the matter. In Revelation 21 the beloved apostle gives us the glorious description of the new heavens and the new earth, and the city of God that is central in it. Concluding that description he declares, “And there shall no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie…” (v.27) And lest there be any doubt or uncertainty he adds in the following chapter, “For without (the holy city) are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolators, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie [Rev. 22:15].” Such are the companions of liars!

Our tendency, I believe, is to think that lies are not always as serious as other sins. The word of God will not allow that distinction. And when we take this commandment seriously, we are once again confronted with the stunning truth that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” We will never achieve citizenship in the commonwealth of heaven on our own merits. We stand in need of a Savior, and Jesus Christ, “Who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree,” is the One through Whose stripes [we may be] healed.” (I Peter 2:24) Have you fled to Him for refuge?

Thankfully “free from the law,”

"Pastor" Frasier

Exodus 20 (pt 10) - 2011.12.03

The COMMANDMENTS (10)

“Thou shalt not steal." —Exodus 20:15

Here, on the face of it, is a commandment that seems pretty simple, easily understood and not too difficult to obey. But, as is true of many things, and especially the scriptures, the first glance does not always capture the whole picture. Paul asks the question which we may well ask ourselves, “Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? (Rom. 2:21) His inference is, perhaps, twofold. First, it is easier to recognize wrong in others than in ourselves; second, there is a scope to the commandment that we do not immediately see, and we may be guilty without awareness.

A contemporary dictionary includes two interesting variations in its definition of the word “steal.” (1) To “take (another person’s property) without permission or legal right and without intending to return it.” (2) To “dishonestly pass off (another person’s ideas) as one’s own.” This latter is the stealing of another’s reputation and/or rights. In fact in Leviticus 19, a kind of reiteration of the commandments, stealing, lying and fraud are rather intertwined (Cf. Lev. 19:11, 13).

The severity of the crime, from God’s perspective, is amplified in the elaboration in Exodus 22:1-5, and in v.5 stealing is expanded to include allowing one’s beast to feed in another man’s field! The thief caught in the act and unable to make restitution was to be sold into slavery. If slain in the act of stealing, there was to be no charge leveled against the manslayer, overriding the sixth commandment. When God issues a decree, it is no light matter!

In scripture, however, there are other aspects of stealing. “If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and maketh merchandise of him, or selleth him; then that thief shall die; and thou shalt put evil away from among you [Deut. 24:7].” This is echoed in the New Testament when the apostle Paul writes to Timothy, “…The law is not made for a righteous man, but for…menstealers… [I Tim. 1:9-10].” The crime is stealing another’s freedom and making merchandise of him - slavery. 

There is yet another kind of theft mentioned in the inspired word. “Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbor [Jer. 23:30].” While opinions vary in the interpretation of this passage, it would appear that any who pervert the word of God or hinder its transmission to others are guilty of stealing God’s word from his fellows. Many are those who over time have been guilty of this infraction of the commandment.

It is the prophet Malachi who takes this sin to a yet higher level and a much broader spectrum. “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation [Mal. 3:8-9].” Scripture says categorically, “the tithe…is the Lord’s.” (Lev. 27:30) When a believer fails to tithe, keeping for himself that which belongs to God, he is charged with stealing from God, thus breaking the 8th commandment at the highest level. 

As always, the New Testament takes the believer to a higher level. “…Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive [Acts. 20:35].” The key word for the Christian is not “take,” but “give,” whether with reference to man or to God. And in this we all still “come short.”

Careful reflection on these thoughts will, it is hoped, deepen the wound of the “the sword of the Spirit,” and increase our awareness that “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin” [Rom. 3:20].” It should drive the unconverted to the fountain of God’s grace, “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,…that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified [Gal. 2:16, my italics].” And, it should send the redeemed to the heights of praise!

Free from the law, O happy condition, Jesus hath bled, and there is remission;
Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall,  Grace hath redeemed us once for all.
Now are we free—there’s no condemnation, Jesus provides a perfect salvation;
“Come unto Me,” O hear His sweet call, Come and He saves us once for all
Cho: Once for all, O sinner, receive it; Once for all, O  brother, believe it;
Cling to the cross, the burden will fall, Christ hath redeemed us once for all!
—P.P Bliss

"Pastor" Frasier