Mark 10 - 2012.05.26

THE SON OF GOD ON DIVORCE

“And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.” — Mark 10:11-12

In few areas has the evangelical church (so called!) become more ambivalent, inconsistent and compromising of the word of God than on this subject with which the Pharisees sought to ensnare the Savior. It is common practice in “fundamental” circles today to rail against abortion and homosexuality, but little is taught regarding what the Bible says about sex outside of marriage (adultery), and there is thunderous silence on the subject of divorce and remarriage.  This deterioration (and it is that) has been marked and steady over the seventy years since I came to Christ and identified with “Bible believing” churches. Yet on few ethical matters is scripture more emphatic and clear.

The issue was raised by the Pharisees to “tempt” or test the Lord Jesus. Then, as now, the matter was subject for debate, and, since it is referred back to Moses, so it has been for many, many generations. It has ever been the Adversary’s strategy to raise the question, “Yea, hath God said…” It worked “in the beginning,” to our continual sorrow, and it still works today. These despisers of the doctrine of Christ aimed to bring the Savior into conflict with the multitudes and undermine His popularity. The Son of God was never moved by culture or custom, but only by “thus saith the Lord.” The revealed word of God wis His lodestar and it should be ours.

The Savior’s answer to the charge that Moses allowed divorce was to attribute it to a concession to the sinful heart of man, not to the revealed will of God (v.3-5). He then carries the subject back to the Divine order as evident in creation where Adam was given a wife formed of his own body, and thus illustrative of the nature and intimacy of marriage. He notes that the union of a man and wife is more intimate than the relation between a man and his parents (v.7) and constitutes, in the Divine order, one new entity; they become “one flesh,” so that to “divorce” is to destroy a union that He defines as “one flesh,” literally tearing it apart. God views marriage (sexual union) as an identification; the world sees it as merely an association. 

This principle is reiterated in the epistles (see I Cor. 6:16; Eph. 5:31) and is the ground upon which fornication, adultery and homosexuality all are treated with equal judgment in scripture. There is no relationship on earth more significant and binding than marriage, in the mind of God.

In addition to the natural order, however, there is another reason why marriage is so significant. Marriage is the ultimate type, or representation, of the relationship between Christ and the church. “For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church [Eph. 5:30-31 - study the whole context, Eph. 5:21-33].” Divorce destroys the type. 

The union between Christ and the church is permanent; so should be the union between a husband and wife. Believers are commanded to love one another; where should that love be more evident and practiced than between a man and his wife? If we are to illustrate the truth of the relationship between the church and the Savior, marriage is where it should begin.

 And, lest there be any doubt, the disciples privately asked the Savior “again of the same matter.” His answer is crystal clear, as our text for today reveals: “And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery [Mark 10:11-12].” Because it takes a joint effort to maintain a marriage, divorce is sometimes inevitable. The clear teaching of scripture is that in such cases the one who seeks to glorify God will remain single while the departed spouse lives. This, too, is reinforced in the epistles: “And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife [I Cor. 7:10-11].”

There is, it must be  noted, an exception, and that is in the case where a marriage is dissolved by the death of one’s spouse. “The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord [I Cor. 7:39  See also Rom. 7:3].” Why this exception? Because death is an act of God, Who makes the rules; divorce is an act of man in defiance of the law of the Lord. So, the widowed believer is free to remarry “in the Lord” (i.e. to another believer); the divorced believer is not, if he or she would enjoy God’s favor.

Surely someone will raise the question, “Doesn’t God want me to be happy?” To that we offer a two-fold answer. First, God is less concerned with our being “happy” than with our being holy. (I Peter 1:15-16)  Second, if a professing Christian can be happy in violation of the revealed will of God there is a fundamental problem with his/her relationship with Him! The church, in its contemporary attitude toward this issue, has gone with the flow of our deteriorating culture,  first tolerating divorce and remarriage, now practically endorsing it. What that is costing us in the lives of our people, and especially our children and young people, is incalculable. What it is costing the testimony of Christ, only He can measure. If this teaching were given more emphasis in  our churches, believers would think more seriously and pray more earnestly about the whole matter of sexual purity and if, when and whom to marry. 

One more word, however, remains to be said. For all the tragedy of this sinful trend, those who discover what the Bible teaches after the fact, that is, already caught in the snare of a divorce as a sponsor or as a victim, or already divorced and remarried, it must be understood that this is not the unpardonable sin. Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ will bring forgiveness and healing. Then the trusting soul must settle down and make the best of the situation as it is. Since Adam’s transgression in the beginning, God has had to work with broken things. He does it still. Some broken things, for now, cannot be “fixed,” but all can be forgiven, where repentance and faith are genuine. That is what the cross is all about.

 "Pastor" Frasier

Mark 9 - 2012.05.12

TO GOD BE THE GLORY

“But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest.” — Mark 9:34

Few things are more hazardous to one’s spiritual health than the desire for self glory. Sometimes this sinful tendency is overt; I want the first place in line, the best fruit in the display, the most impressive house in the neighborhood, the “chief seat in the synagogue.” Sometimes it is more subtle as, for example, when someone else tells an attention getting story, and I have to chime in with my account of a similar incident. Ofttimes we do not even recognize the vanity that directs our behavior.

It was this tendency to egocentricity that snared Adam in the beginning and brought immeasurable tragedy to the human race, and the cross to the Son of God in His endeavor to remedy the tragic situation that resulted. It was the ground of the Satanic appeal when the adversary said to Eve, “God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods…” The tempter’s suggestion was, you can be more than you are, you can have more than you now possess, you can be first and greatest.

Life in this present evil world is essentially driven by this passion to “get ahead,” to “be somebody,” to obtain position and honor for ourselves. It drives the business world, fires the passion for “higher education,” and threatens to make one vulnerable to all kinds of evil. It is astonishing to find this unholy ambition fueling a passionate dialogue among the apostles who had now sojourned for a season with the Son of God. Or it would be were it not that we see so much of it in the churches of which we are a part, and among Christian workers aspiring to “a place in the sun.”

It is interesting to consider how much of New Testament teaching is directed against this flaw in human nature. Consider some representative passages:

“Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.” —Psalm 138:6

“…seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not:” —Jer. 45:5

“The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility.” —Prov. 15:33

“For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” —Luke 14:11, 18:14

“…Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:” - I Pet. 5:5

And there are many, many more. 

The instruction is clear, and consistent. To these disciples the Savior taught, “…If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all (v. 35). Interestingly, this advances on a note sounded earlier in this chapter. Allowed the privilege of seeing a glimpse of the glory of the Son of God in the transfiguration, impulsive Peter had suggested, “Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.” (v. 5)  The divine response to that suggestion was, “…a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him. And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves.” (v. 7-8, italics added)

The whole point is this: as believers we are not to be preoccupied with ourselves, nor with “man” in general. All that we are and all that we have that has any real worth is not ours, but His, bestowed upon us by His grace and for His glory. “Jesus only with themselves,” is all one needs. All the rest is in His hands, subject to His will and designed for HIS glory. 

“Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee… For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another —[Isa. 48:10-11]. Nothing else matters this side of eternity.

If God chooses to use you in some service for Him, pursue your calling with humility. If He chooses to put you on “the back side of the desert,” be content with your role and glorify Him in your body and in your spirit, which are not yours, but His. “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's [I Cor. 6:20].”

"Pastor" Frasier

Mark 8 - 2012.05.12

THE PRICE OF DISCIPLESHIP

“Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.” — Mark 8:35

The Son of God had made inquiry of His disciples regarding popular opinion as to His person. Various suggestions were offered, suggesting the speculation of the multitudes. In contrast, when He asked, “Whom do you say that I am,” Peter boldly replied, “Thou art the Christ,” or, the prophesied, long awaited Messiah. And of course he was right!

On that platform Jesus began to teach them what lay in store for Messiah; that He “must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” Peter, if not the others, recoiled at that idea, a concept inconsistent with the popular view among the Israelites that Messiah would come as a conquering king. When Peter “began to rebuke Him” for the notion of suffering and death, Jesus rebuked him in turn and declared that his conception of the redeemer was Satanic in its origin, manifesting his ignorance of the ways of God. (See vs. 27-33)

Almost immediately it would seem, the Savior called those within His hearing, along with the disciples, and began to disclose to them “the things that be of God.” Like His rebuke of Peter, His teaching cuts across the prevailing view of the price of discipleship, then and now. It begins not with self exaltation, but with self denial.

There is an invitation to discipleship veiled in His words; “If any man will come after Me.” That invitation embraced both “the people” and those already identified as His disciples. (v.34)  If self preservation and advancement (in this world) is our goal, we have an inverted view of the things of God. A candid individual said to me today, “My immediate goal is to buy a bigger, better home, and if I get a better home I will need better cars to park in front of it…” He saw himself driven by what a radio preacher some years ago referred to as “the desire to acquire,” and was remarkably candid about it. Sadly, many professing Christians are driven by the same wind and fail to recognize its inconsistency with “the things that be of God.”

The Lord then probes the issue, first with a telling declaration, then with a penetrating question.

The declaration, our text for today: “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.” Interestingly, the word translated “life” in this verse is the same word that is rendered ”soul” in the following verse, The soul consists of intellect, emotions and will. It is, in a manner of speaking, the CPU of personality; the place where information is processed, decisions made and actions initiated. It is, in fact, the essence of “life” as we know it, determining values and dictating behavior to the body. It is the real “self” of man, and makes a man what he is. It is that in man which will survive after the body dies, and give account to God. We can cherish our souls (life) and squander them on our own interests, but only to “lose” them. Or, we can surrender our souls to Christ and to God and preserve them forever.

The question, then, is this: “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” It is a rhetorical question, and the implied answer is, the person who makes that deal is a fool. Jesus tells the parable of “the rich fool,” who made it big and determined to secure his wealth in a ‘bigger barn’ and to “eat, drink and be merry, But God said to Him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be which thou hast [acquired?]” (See Luke 12:16-21!) 

The price of discipleship is high. Hudson Taylor called it “the exchanged life.” It is my life for Him in exchange for His life for me. It involves a cross, the potential for suffering, the surrender of my plans for His will. For “what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (v.37)  The preservation of life is beyond our power. It is given to us one day at a time, Today is all we have that we can be sure of, and that only one moment at a time. “Our times are in His hands.” 

The Son of God ends this discourse on a sober note: “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (v. 38)  The implication is this: Jesus is coming again and it behooves us to be ready if we would save our souls from the wrath to come. That can only be done in and through the Lord Jesus Christ—first received by faith as Savior, then surrendered to as Lord. If He is, indeed, “the Christ,” the dividends will offset the cost by an immeasurable margin!

“If I gained the World but lost the Savior  Were my life worth living for a day?

Would my yearning heart find rest and comfort,  In the things that soon must pass away?

If I gained the World, but lost the Savior,  Would my gain be worth the life-long strife;

Are all earthly treasures worth comparing,  For a moment with a Christ-filled life?”

"Pastor" Frasier

Mark 7 - 2012.05.05

VAIN WORSHIP

“Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” — Mark 7:7

Biblical Christianity is not a religion. There are, however rituals—religion—that parade as Christianity. These come under divine indictment. It is this disparity between religious formalism and genuine faith that the Son of God confronts in our text for today and its context.

The Pharisees had developed and formalized many rituals that had no connection with the Law of Moses, and published them as essential elements of religious practice. One of them was a ritual washing of the hands which had no connection with sanitation, but was merely symbolic—and empty of meaning. We might call it “going through [the] motions.” So committed were they to this ritual that when some of Jesus’ disciples failed to follow their tradition, they found occasion to “find fault” with them, and with Him. 

The Savior’s response was to charge them with hypocrisy, expose their inconsistency and expand upon it, and to penetrate the issue to its heart—no pun intended. He charged them with “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men,” and in the process undermining truth, ”Making the word of God of none effect through [their] tradition.” (v. 7, 13) And on another occasion He declared, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity [Mat. 23:27-28].” It is most important to understand this in its relation to the gospel of the grace of God.

Immediately following this confrontation He called the people to Him and proceeded to instruct them in the great central fact that a right relationship with God is not realized by the observance of religious ritual, but is an affair of the heart, a truth often emphasized in the Word of God. His disciples sought further enlightenment (v. 17) to which He responded, in essence, defilement (moral and spiritual corruption) is not the result of things external, but of the condition within—an affair of the heart. “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” (v. 21-23)

The externals reach us not because of what they are, but because of what we are—sinners by nature! There is no ritual nor religion on earth that can cure that condition. The remedy, if there is to be one, must come from a source much deeper than can be realized by any kind of religious exercise.  Hear the word of the Lord:

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings [Jer. 17:9-10].”

“…out of [the heart] are the issues of life. [Prov. 4:23b].”

For as [one] thinketh in his heart, so is he: [Prov. 23:7a].”

Man’s greatest need is not a new religion, but a new relationship with God. It is for this that the Father sent the Son, and Son of God came into the world. And now, with sinful man as with sinful Israel, God’s plea is “Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye  Ezek. 18:31, 32].” And this is not a “do it yourself” exercise accomplished by mere church attendance and/or the rituals associated with it, (in whatever denomination) but by a direct appeal to God’s grace revealed in and through “the Son of God.” A new heart can only be obtained from the hand of God Himself, Who promises, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them [Ezek. 36:26].” In New Testament terms, the need is for “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Cf. Acts 20:21)

On yet another occasion Jesus exhorted His hearers, His critics, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life [John 5:39, 40].” Where do you stand in relation to “Jesus Christ, the Son of God”? Have you come to Him for a spiritual heart transplant, or are you still, for all your religion, a “whited sepulchre…fuil of dead men’s bones,” appearing outwardly righteous before men, but inwardly full of hypocrisy and iniquity? The answer to that question has eternal implications.

"Pastor" Frasier