A Guilty Conscience

Psalm 32

How many of you are familiar with Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Tell-Tale Heart?  Very briefly the story tells the tale of a man who kills the old man who lives with him, and hides his body under the floorboards.  However, his guilty conscience keeps attacking him, making him think that he can hear the heartbeat of the dead man’s heart under the floor.  His sense of guilt grows so strong, as the sound of the heartbeat gets louder and louder, and he eventually confesses his crime.  Our psalm for today tells of a similar attack of guilty conscience when one doesn’t confess one’s sins.  Let’s take a look.

Psalm 32 is a companion psalm to that of Psalm 51.  Both psalms were written in response to King David’s sin of adultery with Bathsheba and then having her husband killed.  As we recall this incident in Scripture, David committed adultery with the wife of one of his military officers.  Then when they find out she is pregnant, he deliberately orders her husband, Uriah, put in a dangerous spot in the battle, and then has the other soldiers withdraw, leaving him to die.  David then took her as one of his wives.  That was a horrible and grievous sin.  About a year passed and David did nothing about confessing this sin, and getting his life right with God.  Yet, we know that his conscience must have been greatly bothering him, as God will not let one of his children go unconvicted of their sins.

After he took Bathsheba as his wife, month after month passed, and David refused to confess the sin.  This guilt that lay upon him, though, started to take its toll on his health (vs. 3-4).  An unforgiven conscience can be just as unrelenting as the pounding and maddening heartbeat in Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart.  David was in just such a situation.  The longer he refused to confess his sins, the more he became physically ill and emotionally distraught.  Only God’s forgiveness can remove that.

No load is heavier to bear than that of unconfessed sin.  The longer we wait, the heavier it gets.  Old wrongs have a way of catching up with us, and old sins that have not been dealt with can lead to serious consequences.  Through confession, though, we can enjoy God’s forgiveness.  When Nathan the prophet came to King David and strongly confronted him about these grievous sins, David  humbly and honestly confessed them.

We are sometimes reluctant to confess our sins to God because it makes us feel like a failure.  However, confession is an expression of faith.   Confessing sin is agreeing with God, acknowledging that He is right to declare what we have done is sinful, and that we were wrong to do it.  It is to affirm our intention of abandoning that sin, and following Him more faithfully.  When we confess we find the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds us.

Though a lot of our mistakes can never be undone, such as the sins David committed by having Uriah killed after committing adultery with his wife, God can, and will forgive our sins if we come to Him through His Son Jesus Christ.  Although we are guilty, the Lord will not impute iniquity to us, providing our faith is in Jesus Christ, because He took the guilt of penalty upon Himself on the cross.  Then, in God’s eyes, it is as if those sins had never been done.

We all commit sin throughout our life.  Some may be quite serious, like David’s, and many may not be.  However, all sin is an affront against God, and they all need to be dealt with.  The best thing is not to prolong our confessing those sins.  Don’t carry the burden around till it affects our walk with the Lord, till it affects our health, till the pounding of the heartbeat drives us mad.  Come to Jesus for forgiveness, and He will cleanse us from every sin.

What Can Wash Away My Sin?

Isaiah 1:10-20

Do you have an item of clothing that has a terrible stain on it, one that has just been impossible to remove?  Perhaps you spilled red wine on a white dress or light colored suit.  Or maybe tomato sauce dripped on a shirt or blouse, or blood stains on an article of clothing.  All of these stains are difficult to remove, and sometimes the best one can do is just lighten the stain, as it will never completely come out.  Today we will read about another type of stain, not one from food, that is impossible for us to remove.  Let’s take a look into God’s Word.

As our Scripture begins in the first chapter of Isaiah, the prophet is bringing the message from God to the people of Judah and Jerusalem.  Rather than calling them Judah and Jerusalem, he calls them by the names of Sodom and Gomorrah, two ancient cities that God had destroyed because of their sinfulness (Genesis 19:1-29).  Both Judah and Jerusalem thought they were the pinnacle of holiness because of the Temple, yet God called them Sodom and Gomorrah, cities so sinful that God had destroyed them (vs. 10).  God was repulsed by Judah and Jerusalem’s religious rituals because they practiced these rituals but they also persisted in sin.

The people of Judah and Jerusalem continued to practice some of the rituals of the Old Testament Law, such as offering the animal sacrifices in the Temple, and keeping the religious festivals, however their hearts were not right with God.  They mixed their religious practices with that of pagan religions, and worship of their false gods.  They also randomly broke God’s Law, doing whatever felt good and what would profit themselves.  Sacrifices are meaningless and abhorrent to God if the person is not obedient (vs. 11-15).  Gifts, offerings and sacrifices mean nothing to God if they come from someone with a corrupt heart.  He hates hypocritical religious activity if one is in sin.

God then, through the prophet Isaiah, called the people to wash and cleanse themselves from the sin that was making them spiritually filthy (vs. 16).  When a child gets dirty after playing outdoors, or someone gets filthy after hours of physical work, they always take a bath or shower to wash off all the dirt.  God wanted the people to cleanse themselves from all of the sins that were making them even more filthy and abhorrent than just dirt from play or work.  They were doing evil.  They were not practicing justice in their daily lives.  They oppressed others, and were unfair and unjust to those who were unable to defend themselves, such as widows and orphans (vs. 17).

As God looked at these people, He saw that not only were they dirty with sin, they were permanently stained (vs. 18).  Their sins were as stained as a red wine stain on a white dress or spaghetti sauce on a white suit, red, bold, and even more impossible to remove.  Some food stains are difficult to remove, but sometimes we can find a good solution or a skillful cleaner that can remove them.  However, our sin stains cannot be removed by anything we do.  God’s Word describes them as being red like scarlet and crimson, bold and noticeable, and impossible to get out.  No amount of good works can scrub those stains clean.

Only God can remove the sin that separates us from Him.  He does this through His Son, Jesus Christ.  If we are willing to turn to Jesus, calling upon Him for salvation, He will forgive and remove even the worst of sins.  The sinner must accept the cleansing offered by the Lord, a cleansing of the heart, resulting in true repentance.  Only the Blood of Jesus can take away those sin stains.  Come to Jesus!  Apply His Blood to your life, and be cleansed from your sin.

As the old-time hymn says:

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.

O precious is the flow,

That makes me white as snow;

No other fount I know,

Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.

Who Went Home Forgiven?

Luke 18:9-14

Feeling proud of oneself to the extreme where one believes that they are better than others has been part of fallen human nature from the beginning.  We see this characteristic a lot in the business and academic worlds.  Unfortunately we also see it in the religious community, as well.  We don’t have to look too far in church to see some people who feel they are the spiritual elite.  They are always so busy, figuratively speaking, polishing their halos, thinking they are God’s special little angels and so much better than their neighbor.  Jesus had something to say about these folks, which is the subject of our Gospel reading today.

Jesus frequently visited the city of Jerusalem, and was often in and around the Temple, where He would teach the crowds.  While being around the Temple so often, Jesus would observe the people who came there, and especially noticed their attitudes.  All throughout His ministry, the Lord had pointed and called out the Pharisees on their hypocrisy and religious pride, and this short parable was another instance where He showed their true character before God.

As the parable begins, Jesus told of two men who came to the Temple to pray (vs 10).  One was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector.  As most of us know, the Pharisees were a Jewish religious group, and they were very meticulous in following the Old Testament Law.  They were often very quick to point out anyone who failed to keep the Law as strictly as they did, and they were also very critical of Jesus and His disciples.  The Pharisees had a lot of power and authority in the local synagogues and among the people.  They were held in high esteem and considered very righteous, religious, and spiritual.   Tax collectors, on the other hand, were generally despised by both the Pharisees and local people.  They were known for being corrupt, and looked upon as traitors to the Jewish nation because of their association with the Romans.

As Jesus told this parable, the listeners would have expected the Pharisee to be extolled, and the tax collector condemned, not the other way around.  Jesus described the Pharisee, pointing out how he came into the Temple, and gave God a review of how good and holy he was, and how scrupulously he kept the Law, even to the smallest matters (vs. 11-12).  Jesus told of how proudly the Pharisee felt, as he compared himself with others, particularly the tax collector who entered at the same time.  Then Jesus described the tax collector’s actions when he came into the Temple.  This man, with his head bowed and contrite, knew and readily admitted to God that he was a sinner (vs. 13).  He cried out to God for His mercy.

The Pharisee did not really come to pray to God.  He came to talk about himself, not to thank God.  He came to declare how glad he was that he was not like other people.  The Pharisee went home just as he had come, unrepentant and full of himself.  The tax collector’s action showed deep contrition, and a sense of personal unworthiness.  He did not look for any good works of his own, but rather he looked to God for His mercy.  He alone of the two went home forgiven and justified.

The Pharisee revealed that his entire hope lay in his not being as bad as someone else.  He lacked any sense of his own unworthiness and sin.  A sinner, utterly devoid of personal righteousness, may be declared righteous before God instantaneously through an act of repentant faith, such as with this tax collector.  Even the most fastidious of human righteousness, such as the Pharisee’s, falls short of the divine standard.  Sinners are justified when God’s perfect righteousness is imputed to their account.  That was how the tax collector was saved and the Pharisee was not.

Don’t fall into the comparison trap.  Self-righteousness leads to pride, causing a person to despise others, and prevents them from learning from God.  A sense of personal superiority is not a good reason for thanking God.  The Pharisee thought that because of his “good” life, he was justified before God.  His posture demonstrated his pride and arrogance.  In contrast, the tax collector humbly confessed he was a broken man and a sinner.  D. L. Moody rightly said, “He who kneels the most, stands the best.”  Only those who come to God with an authentic, repentant heart will obtain a right standing with the Lord.

Paul's Final Thoughts

II Timothy 4:6-18

How many of us, when the end of our life comes around, will be able to look back and say that we have no regrets, that we have “fought a good fight”? As we look into today’s Scripture, we see Paul at the end of his life.  In a matter of a very short time he faced being executed for his faith in the Lord Jesus, and it was at this time that he wrote his final letter to his frequent missionary companion Timothy.  What words would we say at that time?  II Timothy is Paul’s last known epistle, and our Scripture is the final words of that letter.  Let’s take a look at his final thoughts that he shared with Timothy.

Paul had been imprisoned several times during the years that he brought the Gospel message throughout the Mediterranean world.  During many of those times the imprisonment was not very harsh, but rather more like being under house arrest with a guard, and he was able to receive visitors.  This time, however, was very different, being in a cold, dank cell, probably with shackles.  At other times, he expected to be released from prison, and he was.  This time, though, he knew the end was near.  Paul was able to look back on his life without regret or remorse (vs. 6-8).  He was ready for death.  He had been faithful to the Lord since the day he was saved, and he looked forward to his heavenly reward.  Paul had been faithful in carrying out that which had been assigned to him by God.  Throughout his missionary journeys and preaching he had been beaten, imprisoned, shipwrecked, and stoned and left for dead, but Paul never lost his faith.

Paul wrote and shared with Timothy his loneliness and disappointment in some people he had counted on to stand with him during his time of need (vs. 9-16).  Some, like Crescens, Titus, and Tychicus were sent by Paul to their respective locations for further ministry.  Then there were others that were a disappointment or hurtful to him, such as Demas (vs. 10).  Demas had at one time been a close associate with Paul (Colossians 4:14; Philemon 24).  Now he had forsaken Paul, utterly abandoning him, because he loved this world.  He loved worldly values and worldly pleasures.  He loved what the world had to offer.  He was a fair weather disciple, who never counted the cost of genuine commitment to Jesus.

Another person who was causing grief to Paul was Alexander.  He opposed Paul’s teachings, and possibly spread his own false doctrines (vs. 14-15).  He possibly was instrumental in Paul's arrest and/or bore false witness against him.  Paul was going to leave all vengeance in God’s hands.  All he had now was faithful Luke, and desired to have Mark, as well (vs. 11).  Mark had, as a young man, gone with Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey, but had backed out part way through.  Paul had not been happy about that, and even separated with Barnabas over that issue.  Now, years later, he had forgiven Mark of that immaturity, and saw that Mark was a valuable partner for the Lord.

Paul realized, though, that even if literally everyone forsook him, all he would need would be the Lord Jesus.  He will always stand with the believer, especially in their hour of need (vs. 16-17).  Though friends and family may leave us, Jesus will never abandon us.  Just as He promised, God never leaves nor forsakes His children (Deuteronomy 31:6, 8; Hebrews 13:5).  When all else fails, the Lord stands solidly at our side.  He gives us strength.  He steps in and helps us to finish what He gave us to do.  He is faithful, and will never leave us.

Sometimes in our Christian life, we may find a Demas who disappoints us, or an Alexander who opposes us and even does us harm.  We may find that other Christians have moved on to other ministries for the Lord, such as Crescens, Titus, and Tychicus did.  We may feel abandoned and alone.  However, we need to remember, like Paul did, that as long as we are doing His work, the Lord will always be standing with us.

When our final hours are coming upon us, and we are able to say like Paul did, that we have fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith, we can then know that the Lord has a crown of righteousness waiting for us (vs. 8).  That crown is given to all those who live each day, loving and anticipating Christ’s imminent return, to all those who conduct their earthly lives with eternal values in view.

Where Do You Want To Be?

Psalm 84

Is there some place that you have been wanting to go to for years, some place that you would give anything to visit?  Perhaps you’ve really been wanting to go visit Hawaii or perhaps to England, and the opportunity never came about, either for financial or health reasons.  Perhaps the place you have been wanting to go has been to take a long trip to visit some friends or family you haven’t seen in awhile.  How about going to church, and being in a place to worship the Lord God?  What?!  If there was one place somebody could go to, how many would choose going to church?  As we read our psalm today, we find that is the one place the psalmist wants to be, in the house of worship.  Let’s take a look.

As our psalm opens the author expressed to us how deeply he longed to be at the tabernacle, worshiping God (vs. 2).  He longed, he fainted, his heart cried out to be with God in worship.  Compare that with how many of us feel about going to church.  We have hundreds of excuses all lined up and ready to use to keep from going.  We’re too tired!  Sunday is our only day to sleep.  We have loads of ailments, some of them legitimate, but so many that wouldn’t keep us from going anywhere else.  Yet here our psalmist was, longing, fainting, and crying out to be in the place of worship.

His desire was so great that he even envied the birds who were able to nest by God’s tabernacle (vs. 3).  Solomon’s Temple was built during the 10th century BC.  Prior to the great Temple building of Solomon in Jerusalem, the Ark of the Covenant was kept in the Tabernacle, in tents, primarily in the city of Shiloh, until the time of David, when it was moved to Jerusalem.  Depending on when this psalm was written, the psalmist could be referring to either the tents containing the Tabernacle, or the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem.  Birds could easily fly in and out of tents and build their nests there, or they could easily build a nest in some rooftop corner of the Temple.  Either way they would be close to the Lord, and that was where the psalmist wanted to be.

As our psalm continues, the author described the pilgrimage, the journey he took to worship at God’s altar (vs. 5-7).  If he was traveling to the pre-temple location in Shiloh, that location was just under 20 miles north of Jerusalem.  More likely he was traveling to Jerusalem.  Depending on his home location, the journey could be long and possibly dangerous.  The days could be quite hot, the nights chilly.  There could be roaming bandits, and possible encounters with some dangerous animals.  And the trip was often taken on foot, or if lucky, on the back of a donkey or mule.

He described the trip as going through the Valley of Baca (vs. 6).  The word “baca” means weeping.  The psalmist’s spiritual journey was often through a valley of weeping, a valley of tears.  There are times of struggle and tears through which we often must pass on our way to meet God.  Growing strong in God’s presence is often preceded by a journey through difficult times, or barren and desert times, just like the pilgrimage the psalmist made to God’s Temple.  However, our psalmist turned that difficult and barren journey into a festival of worship.  He turned the valley of weeping into a place of joy in the Lord.

When the psalmist arrived at the Temple or Tabernacle of the Lord he took notice of the Temple workers, and desired to be one of them (vs. 10).  Not only did he envy the birds, whose nests are by God’s altar, but he also had some envy for even the doorkeepers of the Temple.  Being a doorkeeper is not a grand job.  We see them at some fancy hotels or apartment buildings.  They hold the door open for the wealthy to enter, a rather humble position.  However, he would rather have that job at the Temple, than any more prestigious position somewhere else.  That way he would be in the courts of God every day.  A few moments in the presence of God is greater than anything Satan or the world would have to offer a thousand times over.  A humble place of service with God is better than an exalted position of power or fame in the world without Him.

The psalm closes with a promise that the Lord will be our sun and shield, and bless us with grace and glory (vs. 11).  God’s promise to provide here has a condition.  It is given to those who walk uprightly.  We need to make sure that there is no unrepented and unconfessed sin in our life, and that we are walking with Jesus, obeying His Word.

Until man finds God, and God’s dwelling place, they will have no real home.  That home can only be found by trusting in Jesus Christ.  Since God did not spare His only Son for us, why would He withhold anything good and needful for us?  So once we are a part of His family, He will bless us with grace and glory, and be our sun and shield.  

Standing In The Gap

Jeremiah 14:7-12, 19-22

Our Old Testament reading from the Lectionary of the Book of Common Prayer for this week comes from the prophet Jeremiah.  The prophet Jeremiah preached to the people of Judah shortly before and during the days when the Babylonians came and carried the Jewish people away captive, burning the capital city of Jerusalem, and destroying the Temple.  This was one of the darkest times in the people’s history, with war, destruction, famine, and death all around.  Even though this was a heavy burden due to the severity of the message, and though he faced personal danger from the people, Jeremiah remained faithful to the Lord and the calling he had to bring God’s message to the people.

Ever since the days following the death of Joshua, the Hebrew people had been prone to falling into the sin of idolatry, worshiping pagan idols, and disobeying God’s Law.  There were periods of revival, particularly during the reigns of David, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah, but following those times the people went back to their idols and evil ways.  Many pretended to worship Yahweh, but He knew that their hearts were not true to Him.  God has never, and will never accept worship of Him along with the mixing in of false and pagan practices.  The nation had continued in sin now for so long that their punishment and destruction was inevitable, and Jeremiah brought that message to them.

Jeremiah did not gloat knowing that the people were to be grievously punished for their persistent sins.  He had been told by God earlier to not pray for the people of Judah because of their sins (Jeremiah 7:16; 11:14), as God would not hear.  However, he couldn’t help but to pray for them, even in spite of the terrible things they had personally done to him.  He prayed for God’s mercy on them, as they were a nation called by His Name (vs. 7).

God, though, rejected Jeremiah’s prayer (vs. 10).  The Lord said that it was useless to pray for such obstinately sinful people (vs. 11-12).  It was not that God would not respond to a truly sincere and broken heart, crying to Him for mercy and forgiveness.  God was rejecting Judah’s heartless formalism and insincerity.  For centuries the people would sin, be punished, then return to the Lord, only to go back to their pagan idols and reject His Word again and again.  They could follow all of the religious rituals they wanted, but it was meaningless if their hearts were not right with God.

The prophet proceeded to pray for the people anyway.  He stood in the gap for them, vicariously confessing their sins, as if he and they were one.  Jeremiah had not fallen into idolatry himself.  He had not cast God’s Word aside, refusing to accept or obey it, yet he confessed as if he had.  We see that several times in the Bible, where a man of God vicariously confessed for the sins of the people.  Ezra did that shortly after some of the people returned to the land following their captivity (Ezra 9:5-15), and the prophet Daniel did, as well (Daniel 9:3-19).  Jeremiah pleaded with God not to destroy His people for the sake of His own reputation among the nations.  He reminded the Lord that His reputation was tied up with what happened to His people.  Jeremiah also pleaded because of God’s Temple in Jerusalem, and on the basis of His covenant with the people.  The Lord, though, had to judge the people of Judah for their chronic sinfulness.  Unrepentance needed to be punished.  Jeremiah would see with his own eyes the nation go into captivity and the Temple destroyed.

Are we praying for our own nation and the world, as they head further and further away from God and His Word, the Bible?  Do we plead for them with tears, as Jeremiah did?  The false prophets and religious leaders of Jeremiah’s day repeatedly told the people that everything was alright, and that God would never judge them, just like so many preachers do today.  The Bible is clear, though, that the day of judgment is coming.  We need more men and women like Jeremiah today, who will pray and plead with tears for their people.  It was too late for the people of Jeremiah’s day, but is it too late for my country, for your country?  Can we be another Jeremiah, or another Ezra and Daniel who will stand in the gap and pray for our people and nation?

Be Persistent!

Luke 18:1-8

Nag!  Nag!  Nag!  Nobody likes it when someone nags them over something, and probably a lot of people don’t enjoy nagging others, either.  I certainly don’t.  However, with some people, that seems to be the only way to get them to do something that they had either promised to do, or were supposed to do.  You have to keep after them, telling them over and over again to do what they need to, before they finally get up and act.  In today’s Gospel passage we read of a woman, who persistently kept after someone, nagging if you will, till she got what she needed.

Sometimes we might feel that nagging seems to be necessary.  A spouse or older child promised that they would attend to something, but days pass and it never gets done.  Or a parent has to nag their child to get a chore done, their room cleaned, or their homework done.  Maybe workmen you have contracted to do a project aren’t getting it finished promptly, and you have to repeatedly call them about it.  We’ve all had situations where we’ve done some nagging, and maybe, if the other person is hard-headed enough, we might just give up.  We ask.  They don’t respond.  We ask again.  Still no response.  We nag.  We nag again.  Still no response.  We finally give up.

Do we ever feel that way about God?  We come to Him in prayer over some important or urgent need, and we get no response.  We pray again, and still see no answer.  Do we just give up?  Jesus told His disciples a brief parable about such a scenario.  In His parable there was a widow who had someone who was bothering her.  The specific problem wasn’t told, but this person was an adversary, coming against her unjustly about something.  So the widow took the matter to court to seek justice.  However, the judge at first didn’t do anything.  After her repeated pleas and nagging, though, he finally decided to attend to her case, if only just to get her off his back (vs. 2-5).

Jesus gave us this parable to encourage us to not give up when we are praying.  How often do we come to God with a prayer need, not one which is misguided or selfish, and we pray and pray, but get no answer or response?  What do we often do?  We just give up.  Jesus, though, tells us not to give up (vs. 1).  Despite the afflictions and hardships of life, we should continue to pray and not lose heart.

This judge was a godless man, even by his own admittance (vs. 4).  He is not given as a symbol of God, but rather, in contrast to Him.  If an unjust man would respond to persistent pleas, would not God, who is just, loving, and merciful?  Since we know He loves us, we can believe He will hear our cries for help.  God, who always does right, and is filled with compassion for believers who suffer, will certainly respond to their cry for help (vs. 7).

To persist in prayer and not give up does not mean endless repetition or long prayer sessions.  Always praying means keeping our requests constantly before God and living for Him each day, believing He will answer.  When we live by faith, we are not to give up.  God may delay answering, but His delays always have good reasons.  There may be many reasons why God does not answer our prayers quickly.  But until He lets us know that we should stop praying about something, He calls us to persevere in faith and keep asking.  Sometimes it may take years of praying before a prayer is answered, especially when praying for the salvation of someone.  One on one communication with God is how we strengthen our relationship with Him.  Prayer can bring cataclysmic changes in heaven and on earth (Revelation 5:8; 8:3-4), and can turn any situation around.

The issue and point of the parable is not so much God’s faithfulness.  It is whether believers will persist in supplication, or whether their patience and perseverance will give out by the time Jesus Christ returns (vs. 8).  When Jesus returns, those holding to the true faith will be comparatively rare, as in the days of Noah (Matthew 24:37-39).  It will be marked by persecution of true believers, apostasy of most denominations, and outright unbelief.

It is precisely when tempted to give up that Christians ought to be strong in their resolve to pray.  Don’t lose heart!  Believe and keep praying!