The Acts of the Apostles 54

Subtitle: The Justification of Believers

Acts 13:33-41.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on September 10, 2023.

We are picking up today part of the way through Paul's address in the synagogue of Pisidian Antioch.  They had joined the group's meeting on the Sabbath, and have been asked to share with the assembly.  Paul takes advantage of the situation to declare that Jesus is the Messiah.

However, Paul emphasizes their, our, spiritual need, the need to have our sins forgiven, and to be justified before God.  We will talk more about what this means.  Yet, imagine having all of the sins of your past removed from your account before God because of Jesus!

It is amazing to me how many Western people have some kind of belief in karma.  They think that if they do enough good things to outweigh their bad things, then they should be acceptable.  Of course, the Eastern religions posit reincarnation because they know that such a work would be difficult to achieve.

However, the Bible says that we will only have one mortal life to live and then we will face judgment.  There will not be an innumerable number of attempts to get it right.

Rather than the image of scales, we should see the image of cleanliness.  I grew up in central Idaho where there is not much pavement and lots of dirt.  I loved the look of white clothes, and white shoes.  However, they would very quickly be stained with dirt, pitch, etc.   The real question is this.  How can I get it sparkly clean again?

It is good to do good things, but that cannot clean the stain of the bad things you have done.  How can I be cleansed?  How can I be justified before God so that, when I'm standing before God, and I've done all of this, He may justify me?

This is why Paul's sermon was important to them that day, and is still important to us today.  It is through Jesus that we can be forgiven and justified.  You can have the help of Jesus by the Holy Spirit to battle sin in your life and move forward justified.  For the Christian, death itself becomes the final stroke against sin in our life.  It is God's final help to us.  "Here son, let Me help you."  For the believer, death is not a loss; it is a gain, a promotion, a victory!

Let's look at our passage.

Paul continues preaching in Antioch of Pisidia (v. 33-41)

Paul had earlier revealed that the man Jesus had come forth as had been promised by God to David.  Jesus was the One that God promised David would come from his offspring.  This Jesus was the ultimate Seed of David, and was now God's Savior for Israel, and even for the Gentiles.  They were there that day to tell them this good news.

Yet, the good news also has some attendant bad news.  The rulers and those who dwell in Jerusalem crucified him.  What?  But, don't fear.  God has raised Jesus from the dead.  He now has provided salvation for all who will believe on him. 

This is all as the Old Testament Scriptures had promised.  God had promised to send a Savior and, even in the face of their faithlessness, He had done it.  In fact, God did it in a way that actually used their sinfulness to accomplish it.  Jesus had to die in order to pay the price.  It wasn't right what they did, but it accomplished a good thing because of the love of God.

This is part of our human condition; it is not just a Jewish thing.  Christianity was never intended to be a list of 10 things you have to do, or 7 sacraments that will keep you good.  It is a relationship with God where He puts His Spirit within you.  We are now enabled to walk with God because Jesus has laid down his life for us.  In fact, Jesus has laid himself down for us as a foundation that we build on, or a road that we walk on.  Each step I take in Christ, I am walking on him.  It is holy ground, and I had better take my shoes off.  That is how much he loves us.

Paul uses the phrase "raised up" 7 times in this passage.  One time about David, and six times about Jesus.  It starts out by referring to him being raised up as a Savior, just like God raised up David to be a king in the place of Saul, just like God raised up prophets to speak to the sins of Israel.  It is a metaphor that refers to the power of God coming on a person and enabling them in any particular task.  However, it has a double meaning.  It also hints at the raising up of the resurrection, which God did with Jesus.  In fact, Paul could have gone on to emphasize that Jesus was raised up even higher at his ascension, into the heavens and at God's throne! 

Paul then reminds them of some of those Old Testament prophecies starting with Psalm 2:7.  This psalm opens with the kings and rulers of the earth planning to cast off the LORD and His Anointed One (Messiah).  It doesn't detail their plan, but quickly moves to a rebuke from God. 

By the way, the Apostles in Acts 4 quoted these first three verses as talking about their day: Herod, Caiaphas, Pilate, and others plotting to get rid of Jesus.

Yet, Psalm 2:4-9 shows us that God will not change His mind, regardless of what the kings and rulers do to cast off Messiah.  Verse 6 literally says, "I, I have set My king on My holy hill!"  The word for set has the sense of being poured out, and in this context, would be a reference to the installation ceremony, coronation, of the king where he is anointed for the position he now takes.   Yet, also notice the emphasis that God gives to Himself.  He doesn't care what the great powers of the earth think.  He is the great God whom no one can overrule.  Four times He emphasizes His activity, His choice for Messiah, and His place for Messiah to rule.

Verse 7 then has the Messiah declaring what the Father has told him.  "You are My Son, Today I have begotten you."  The begotten language is not saying that Jesus is a created being, or that God literally procreated and made him.  In the context, you can see that the Anointed One is being rejected and cast off.  He already exists, and is even made to be king.  The begetting is connected to his installation as king.  Something has happened during the rebellion of the kings of the earth that has brought Messiah into a new relationship with the Father.

All of this is a direct connection to God's covenant promise to David in 2 Samuel 7.  He told David that one from his line would not only inherit the forever kingdom from God, but he would be a son to God and God would be a father to him.  Upon the resurrection, Jesus now stood as the immortal, but human, son of David who could inherit all things.  He had become the perfect Redeeming King for Israel and the Nations of the earth.

I think that we have a misunderstanding about Jesus.  We can think that his interpretation of the Old Testament came out of left field and was completely unforeseen.  However, it is clear, as you walk through David's psalms, the prophets of the Old Testament, and certain portions of the Law of Moses, that some of these people understood far more than we give them credit.

Of course, Jesus was always the Son of God in that He dwelt with him from the beginning in relationship.  Yet, something unique happened on the event of His resurrection that no amount of being divine could replace.  He was now the perfected, immortal son of David, son of Abraham, Son of Noah, Son of Adam, who could inherit all things.

Of course, any age since the first century can be seen as raging against God and His Anointed.  We can see this today in our republic.  Why do all the powerful people in our land rage against God and His Messiah, Jesus?  Why do they imagine a vain thing, that they can cast off any restraints of godliness in our society?  They project that they shall cast off Jesus, his people, and any restraint on their future plans.  That is today's spirit, and that is an antichrist spirit, an anti-Christ spirit.

Yet, today as well as in the first century, the God of the heavens laughs.  You don't have a say in this, no matter how powerful you are among humans.

Verse 12 of Psalm 2 warns the kings of the earth to kiss the son lest they perish in the day that his wrath is kindled just a little.  So, we live in a time where the wrath of God is paused, and men, both small and great, are given opportunity to make their peace with Jesus, to come to terms with God's choice of Jesus, which we cannot overturn.

The next passage that Paul quotes is Isaiah 55:3.  Though he is continuing to talk about Jesus, this begins the explanation of what he means by the "sure mercies of David."  Paul clearly sees it speaking of the resurrection of the Messiah, which Psalm 2 doesn't reveal.  Notice that Isaiah 55:3 speaks of us coming to God in a way that our "soul" will live, and we will receive an everlasting covenant with Him.  Whatever the sure mercies of David are, Isaiah saw them as connected to our souls living and entering into an everlasting covenant with God.

Paul then goes to Psalm 16 to show us what David would have considered to be the sure mercies that God had promised him.  This psalm has David praising God for the hope that he has.  He particularly has the belief, a promise from God, that his soul will not be left in Sheol, or the grave (vs. 10).

Just like Job (see Job 19:25-26), David believed that he would be resurrected some day.  His destiny was not to be stuck in a spiritual holding place called the grave.  Yet, he also believes that God will not allow His Holy One even to see corruption.  Either David is speaking of himself as God's holy one, or he is referencing the promised one that was to come from his line, the Messiah.

Of course, Paul argues that the people of Israel know that David died, went into the grave, and decayed.  Either God's sure mercies to David failed, or David spoke of himself being released from the grave some day and the Messiah not even seeing decay, which implies a death.

The Psalms as a prophetic collection lays forth the idea that the promises of God to David would be filled in one of his seed who would be the perfect Anointed of God.  The Psalms lay out the case of God raising up David, the failure of David, the promise of God to David of an Anointed Son, and the promised fulfillment.  This is why the Psalms end in a collection of praises, Hallelujah Choruses!  Jesus is the Greater David, just as he is the Greater Moses, the Greater Adam, etc...  He is just Greater!

It was Jesus who saw no corruption.  On top of this, at the resurrection of Jesus, we are told in Matthew 27:52-53 that many Old Testament saints were resurrected at that time as a kind of first fruits of the resurrection of the righteous.  Most likely, David was in this group.  So, God kept His word completely to David in the person of Jesus.

If David knew that these things would happen, how come the religious leaders of the days of Jesus didn't?  It is the same for us.  When you spend too much time going after the things of the flesh (but in a religious way, mind you), you start to lose and forget God's word.  You stop understanding the things of God and hand down confusion to the next generation, and it continues.  Lest we become despondent, remember that the world isn't falling apart.  It is simply falling into place.  God is teaching us through the events that happen, both good and bad.

Having established the facts of what Israel has done, what God had promised them, and then what God had done in their day, Paul moves to what this has to do with them, or anyone for that matter.  They were 500 miles away from Jerusalem.  How does this impact them.  We are not only thousands of miles away from Jerusalem, we are also separated from these things by nearly 2,000 years.  So, what does this mean?

God has a message for Israel and for the nations of the world.  That message has not ceased to be relevant all of these years later.  Through Jesus, anyone can put their faith in him and be forgiven of all their sins.  The word is literally to have your sins removed, like something that is so sticky that only God can get it off of you.  Jesus has become the perfect Savior, and the good news is that he is a savior for Israel and the Gentiles.

In verse 39, he also speaks of justification.  The word essentially means to be made right, or just, in God's sight.  Some have used the play on words, just-as-if you had never sinned, to define it.  However, the biblical picture of us standing with God on the shores of the New Heavens and the New Earth (see Revelation 21-22) is not so much that it is as if we had never sinned.  It is more that we have come out of a conquered place, and have been restored.  That restored place is much stronger and powerful than the place Adam and Eve stood in back in the Garden.  They were innocent of the knowledge of good and evil.  We will not be innocent children, easily tricked.  Rather, we will be powerful sons of God, full of the knowledge of what evil has to offer, and what the love of God means to us.  There will be no Satan in that day, but if there was, no one would listen to him.  This is justification. 

We should note that Paul speaks about things that the Law of Moses could not justify.  The Law was not intended to justify anyone, but there is a certain kind of justification within it.  Yet, the justification that Jesus offers justifies everything about us.

Paul ends with a warning to the people about rejecting Jesus.  It is interesting that Psalm 2 also ended with a warning to the kings and rulers of the earth.  The last line of that psalm reads, "Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him [God's Messiah]."  Of course, that is the question isn't it.  What will you do with Jesus?  Paul quotes from Habakkuk 1:5, which addresses those who are despising God and His work.  Am I a despiser?  No matter how gracious God is, and how far He goes to remove our sin and make it possible for us to be right with Him, there is no grace for those who despise God and His Anointed Savior, Jesus.  Isaiah says, "There is no hope for the wicked."  Habakkuk says to the despisers, "marvel and perish."  These are strong words, but when you realize all that God has suffered and gone through in order to save them, and yet they reject Him, then it makes complete sense.

We cannot have salvation, the sure mercies of God, redemption, forgiveness, and justification without true repentance.  The door to repentance is the presentation of the person and work of Jesus.  To reject Jesus is to take your stand against God and His Anointed King.  It is also to take your stand against your own hope of salvation.

"Eternity, eternity, where will you spend eternity?"  Another song says, "What will you do with Jesus?  Neutral you cannot be.  Some day your heart will be saying, 'What will he do with me?' "  Now is your turn to judge Jesus, but know that some day very soon it will be him judging you.  Yet, in his mercy, God gives us time and many chances to come to our senses.  O praise God for all of His mercies!

Justification of Believers audio

The Acts of the Apostles 31

Subtitle: The Stoning of Stephen I

Acts 7:51-56.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 15, 2023.

As Stephen's defense comes to a close, we come to a bitter sweet event.  In some ways, this is an awesome story.  Stephen is standing up for Christ like a mighty warrior.  He is a good image of Jesus.  This here is some good imaging of our Lord.  At the same time, Stephen is winning the martyr's crown.

Yet, this story is also sad.  It is sad because he will be executed for believing in Jesus Christ as the Anointed Savior for Israel and for the whole world.  It is sad because the grace of God was rejected that day.

It is sweet because Stephen dies, and death holds no terrors for the believer.  O, yes, it does hold terror for our flesh.  We may all want to go to heaven to be with Jesus, but it is the dying part that makes us squeamish.  Not all deaths are equal.  Some pull their feet up into bed at night, go to sleep, and never wake up.  That's almost cheating!  However, others come to death through great torture and pain.

I have been reading about the Scottish Covenanters in the AD 1600s.  They were tortured greatly before being put to death, simply for not yielding to a king's demand that they worship Jesus in a particular way.  Yet, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord where there is no pain and suffering.  To be die is to be free from the battles against sin and wickedness.

Yet, we must be careful.  Yes, I long to be with Jesus, but the battle for saving souls is important.  It was important enough for Jesus to come down and fight it with us.  In fact, he fought for us when we were without strength.  There is something good in the battle.  It helps us to be more like him.  Our day of vindication will come from the Lord in due time.

It is sad because in this one moment they will prove the words of Stephen, and in this one act, they will make his case for him.  They could have repented, but instead, they did to him what they had done to Jesus before him.

Let's look at our passage.

The conclusion of Stephen's defense (vs 51-56)

Stephen comes to the end of his defense with a very hard conclusion.  He tells them that they are resisting the Holy Spirit like their ancestors before them.  On top of this, he declares that they are uncircumcised in heart and ears.

These men would be shocked by such a statement.  Circumcision was an outward sign that they were a part of the covenant of Moses, a son of the law.  Not to be circumcised would be to have no inheritance in Israel.  Neither was this just a male thing.  Women were part of the inheritance through only marrying circumcised men.   

Yet, in Deuteronomy, Moses made it clear that this pointed to a spiritual thing.  God wanted them to circumcise their hearts.  Stephen adds the idea of circumcised ears here.  What does it mean?  It is a part of my nature that keeps me from hearing and being touched by what God is saying and doing.  It needs to be cut away so that we can be sensitive to God.  If I want to be able to hear God, then I must remove from myself that flesh which keeps me from hearing God.  We could use any of the senses, such as eyesight.  If I want to see God, feel God, then I need to take up the sword of the spirit and do my own spiritual circumcision.

When Stephen mentions that they are resisting the Holy Spirit just like their ancestors, it reminds me of times when one parent will say to the other, "Do you know what YOUR child did?"  These are Stephen's ancestors too.  Also, we can note that not all of their ancestors resisted the Holy Spirit.

It might be good to go back through Stephen's defense and not all the people who resisted the Holy Spirit and all those who were obedient to the Holy Spirit.  In fact, you could say that Israel came about as a nation because Nimrod led a rebellion against the Spirit of God.

Stephen's argument starts with Abraham.  God cast away the nations because of their rebellion, but then turns around and says to him, "Abram, come follow me!"  Abram believed God and receives the promise that will lead to the nation Israel, and the promise to bless the nations.

What about the patriarchs?  God raised up Joseph and gives him some special dreams.  The Spirit of God was on this boy!  But, what happens?  His brothers don't like it.  They persecute him, and no doubt, in their minds they are only persecuting a spoiled brat kid who thinks he is better than them.  However, they are resisting the Holy Spirit.  They could have said, "Hallelujah, God is really working through our little brother!  Maybe, I should get to a place where God can use me too."  Or, they could have said, "God is with our brother.  Let's help him and we will participate in the great thing that God is doing through him."  Instead, they hated "Little Joe," and wanted to kill him.

Do you remember Moses?  The people resisted Moses from the beginning even unto the end.  This same thing happens throughout their history.  God shows up and calls prophets, priests, and kings, and the nation resists.  This pattern of small groups touched by God and faithful to him, a repentant remnant, countered by a large group who are resistant and rebellious.

By the way, we should pay attention to the parable of Ishmael and Isaac.  The whole point is that it is not enough to be genetically descended from Abram.  The blessing would be upon those who were born of a miracle of God.  This child of the flesh contrasted to the child that is a miracle from God is meant for us to understand what God is doing.  What Abraham could not produce in his flesh, God produced by His Spirit.  We are all born of the will of a man and woman, of the flesh, an Ishmael.  But, the good news is that we can choose to be born again by putting our faith in God, in Jesus.  The physical birth cannot save us, only the spiritual birth can. 

Stephen is making the same spiritual point that Jesus made in John 8:37-47.  Go ahead and read it.  I will wait for you.....

Essentially Jesus tells them that they claim to be from Abraham, but they don't do the things that Abraham did.  Nothing went wrong in their genetics.  They are biologically descended from Abraham, but Jesus doesn't even bother with that part of the point.  He jumps right to the problem.  You are imaging your true father the devil.

This is not a physical thing that you are stuck in.  Some people try to make a big deal about the serpent-seed and people literally being children of the devil.  Or, some through theology make it out like you have no choice.  You were either born a child of the devil or of God.  You can't do anything about it.  That is not what I see in the Bible.  If you give the Bible to a farmer, or a shepherd, and they read the Bible, they will come to the conclusion that we have a real choice.  These guys had the Law of God and the witness of the prophets, but they refused to come into a spiritual relationship with the God of Abraham.  They remained children of the flesh instead of children born of a spiritual act of God.

I don't think any of the men on the Sanhedrin that day were purposefully choosing to image the devil, although it is possible some were mere posers.  Most likely they had fallen into it because they refused to have that relationship with God where they believed Him with all their heart.  They had been born into a system and a way of doing things that they didn't build.  I am sure that God was poking and prodding their hearts along the way.  Yet, they continued on without finding out what God was trying to say.  If you don't image God, you will automatically fall into imaging the devil.  You may start out trying to image your "true inner self."  However, the devil will manipulate you all day long.  He is the father of all rebellion.

This same dynamic exists in the Church.  It is not enough to be physically born into a church, or physically go to a church.  It is not enough to say with our lips that we love Jesus.  We must embrace Him in our heart and learn from him by taking his yoke upon us.  "Yes, Lord.  I will quit pulling my way, and will start pulling your way."  A young ox who is not used to using a yoke will be yoked in with an older experienced ox.  I wonder who the older experienced ox is with whom we are yoked?  It's Jesus!  And, believe me; he does the heavy lifting!

You may not like choosing sides, but sometimes God forces the issue through moral dilemmas that come our way.  Don't wait until you get into the moral dilemma.  Start today drawing near to God in prayer and seeking His readiness for the trials that lie ahead of us.

In verse 52, Stephen points out the unsavory truth.  Those ancestors persecuted the prophets and killed those who prophesied the coming of the Righteous One, the Messiah.  This was a common occurrence.  Later they would gather the writings of the prophet and decorate their grave like a shrine.  They might even have a holiday to remember old Saint Elijah et. al.  One might make the argument that none of these prophets were perfect.  How could God blame them for persecuting them.  Of course, we will embrace the Righteous One when he comes.  This bluff came to an end with Jesus.  He was the ultimate litmus test.  They had practiced so well with all of the prophets.  How could they not persecute and kill the Righteous One?

Had these guys learned the lesson?  Of course not.  They are now doing the same to the disciples of Jesus, and Stephen here.

Then we have the charge again.  You have betrayed and murdered Messiah (vs 52).  It is one thing to persecute or kill a servant of Messiah, but quite another to kill the Messiah.  It is not like God has a six-pack of Messiahs that He can send if we fail to recognize the first, second, third, etc.  They had been drawing near to God with their lips while their hearts remained far from Him.  Yet, the Lord is faithful in every generation.

How can you process the reality that you just killed the only Hope that God sent to fix everything wrong with this earth?  Sometimes we think that we are boxed in, that we can never yield and confess just how wrong and sinful we have been.  We might develop a kind of cognitive dissonance that fights against us accepting the impossible truth.  However, this is the very path of salvation.  God is so loving that He simply wants us to quit posing long enough to be truly converted.  Converted simply means to turn around.  It begins with the revelation of the Truth that I have not been in right relationship with God.  What will I do with that?  What should I do with that?  I should have a change of mind where I agree with God's Word, with God's Spirit, and I should confess with my mouth that His way is righteous and the only way for me.  I should turn around and follow Jesus by doing those actions of repentance to which he leads me.

Then in verse 53, he accuses them of not obeying the law that they pretended to be upholding and teaching others to obey.  In essence, they were frauds.  No one likes being called a fraud in public, and those who have power don't like it even more.  If someone were to stand up within the State of the Union speech in the House of Representatives and declare that everyone in that building were frauds, that they were not obeying the Constitution of these united States of America, it would not be received well.  That person would be bagged and tagged within seconds and the long knives would come out in every facet of our society.

The reality is that people like this have come to believe their own press.  They would say...  "The Constitution is what we say it is," just as these men would say, "The Law is what we say it is!  Who do you think you are?"

Yes, being exposed is never easy, but it is the only path back to life, to repentance, to Jesus.  Only the Truth can set you free!

At this point the leaders are gnashing their teeth at Stephen.  It is not going well.  If you were a preacher,  you would be praying, "Lord, what can I say to turn this around?"  It is at this point that God does a strange thing.  He gives Stephen a vision of the throne of God in heaven.  He see the Glory of God on the throne and Jesus standing at His right hand.  Stephen is so caught up in the surprise of it that he blurts out what he sees.  Like young Joseph who was excited to share his dream, but didn't understand completely the implications of sharing it, so Stephen goes from life to death.  God knew the hearts of the patriarchs and if they really knew God then they would have gladly bowed down to their little brother.  Why?  We would do so because we would know beyond the shadow of a doubt that whatever God has for me to do will make me more like Him.  It will increase my resemblance to Him and give me communion with He who is Life itself!  This Sanhedrin could not accept what Stephen said he saw.  If he wasn't already a dead man, this would seal the deal.

Why would God do that?  Jesus had warned the leaders of Israel in Matthew 23:34 that he would send them prophets and wise men, and that they would kill some of them.  If they thought Jesus was a one and done thing, and that they wouldn't have to make such a hard choice again, they were wrong.  God in His mercy will keep bringing us back around to repentance.  We may not like it, but He loves us too much not to try!  No one will be able to say on that day, "God, You didn't try hard enough!"  No, God puts us in a tighter and tighter place, forcing us to make a decision.  Which side am I on?

It doesn't matter who God uses to deliver.  What matters is that our God is great and can give us victory through anything.  He can use the guy who isn't even in the army.  He's just a young man bringing lunch for his older brothers.  Then he hears the big giant bellow while all of Israel is shaking in their tents in fear.  Perhaps they are all saying, "When is Saul going to go out and fight him?"  Yet, Saul is no doubt saying, "There is no way I can go out there and fight him!"  Saul who was head and shoulders above the men of Israel did not have enough of God to stand up that day.  Yet, the Spirit of God rises up in the young man David.  "Who is this uncircumcised (pause and think about that for a minute) Philistine to slander our God?"  Was there not 1 circumcised male in Israel who could have stood up to Goliath that day?  Why did God have to bring forth a young boy with lunch for his brothers?  Isn't the story greater because God uses an untrained fighter to take out a giant?  Doesn't it make the God of Israel even more awesome?  The truth is that it is kind of fun when God uses the least of us to spoil the enemy.  It shows His power instead of ours.  It puts fear in the hearts of our enemies in a way that defeat at the hands of Saul could have never done.

In our flesh, we become stuck on things like this.  Perhaps, it is because we just aren't quite converted yet; we haven't been bold enough to circumcise our heart yet.  Praise God that He is always working to bring us back to Him.

You might feel like God isn't doing you any favors, or only making it worse.  "Why did You let that happen, Lord.  Why did You do that?"  However, at the same time, it is the greatest grace of God to us.  Stephen was a blessed angel of Truth to this Sanhedrin.  The blazing, white-hot Truth about how they could participate in the Kingdom of God!  If we could only surrender to Him, we will later look back and see His great love drawing us in the perfect direction.  How blind am I?  Saul didn't know how blind he had been until Jesus knocked him off of his high horse, and blinded his eyes.

Maybe, I am fighting the very thing that is God's grace in my life.  Perhaps, this is the wisdom behind the verse, "In everything give thanks!"

Let's be honest.  Everyone of us has resisted and rebelled against the Holy Spirit at one time or another in our life.  Yet, the love of God didn't quit on you, and He doesn't quit on others.  It is His mercy.  He is not easily offended.  In truth, He cannot be offended.  He can only be rejected and lost forever to us, He who is the greatest good, the very definition of good!  Let us turn to God with a whole heart today and not resist the Holy Spirit!

Stoning I audio

The Things that God Hates 5: A Heart that Plots Wicked Plans

Proverbs 6:16-18; 1 Samuel 18:8-27; Esther 8:3; Psalm 51:10-11.

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on September 12, 2021.

We have made it to the fourth thing that God hates.  I would take a second to remind those who balk at the concept of God hating something to read the first sermon on this topic dated August 13, 2021 on this blog.

God hates a heart that plots wicked plans

Proverbs 6:18 moves to the heart and the wicked plans that are often plotted in it.  We have many examples of such in the Old Testament.  Let’s start with Saul plotting against David in 1 Samuel 18:8-27.

By this time, Saul has already been told by Samuel that God has rejected him as king because of his rebellions against God.  It is in 1 Samuel 15 that Saul is confronted by the prophet and two things are pointed out.  First, Saul’s problem began when he ceased to be “little in his own eyes” (1 Sam. 15:17), aka pride.  Second, Saul’s rebellion was like the sin of witchcraft, and his stubbornness was like idolatry.  Of course, Saul is king.  Such things are not always evident to the common people in a nation or republic.  God rejected Saul because Saul had continually rejected His words and instructions.

This is the context of David’s great deliverance over Goliath, and his subsequent rise to public glory.  The women had been singing a song that said “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”  Saul becomes jealous of David’s popularity that has risen above his own.  In his jealousy, he flat out tries to kill David with his spear.  When this doesn’t work, he talks David into marrying his daughter with a steep dowry.  He hopes that David will be caught in a Philistine trap with his own daughter as the bait.  Despite Saul’s hopes, David is doubly successful and Saul became David’s enemy “continually,” or literally “all the days.” (verse 28).  Saul begins to publicly slander David as a rebel and an outlaw to the people of Israel, when this is exactly what Saul was.  He had become a rebel against God plotting plans that were against the Law of God (shedding innocent blood).

Another example is found in the book of Esther, and is mentioned specifically in 8:3.  Haman plotted against Mordecai and the Jews.  Notice that this story begins when Haman’s pride (ceased to be little in his own eyes) was wounded by the fact that Mordecai the Jew did not bow in his presence.  Haman plots against Mordecai in order to hang him on gallows that he had specially made for the occasion.  Yet, this was not enough for Haman.  Haman wants to exterminate the people that Mordecai belongs to, the Jews. 

It is worth noting that Haman is called an Agagite.  This means he is descended from Agag the Amalekite king who Saul did not kill when he was instructed to do so by God.  That is an interesting twist in the story.  However, through Esther, God moves the heart of the King of Persia to be against Haman and with the Jews.

When you compare this plotting to Saul’s, you find that Saul’s plotting is focused on one man, David.  Yet, he is also plotting against the Lord, and the interests of the people of Israel.  He may not be trying to kill the Israelites, but he is injuring them by his actions.  Haman is actively plotting against the people of God out of wounded pride.  Perhaps, he knew the history of the death of his ancestor, and that fueled his hatred.  Ultimately, even though he wouldn’t think so, Haman is plotting against the plans of God.

Always remember when you are worried about the plans of the wicked that the High King of heaven has plans as well.  The plans of the wicked will eventually come to nothing, but the plans of the Lord are established forever!

Lastly, I would point to the plotting that the chief priests and elders of Israel did against Jesus.  It is the same story as before.  Their pride is injured because Jesus exposes their sins.  Instead of choosing repentance, which is the proper action, they plot to kill him.

Even today, the world is plotting against the Word of God, and King Jesus whom the Father has installed as the authority above all in heaven and on earth.  It is not just “wicked Jews,” or any other ethnic group, that we should be pointing the finger at.  Just as God has people from every tribe, nation, and tongue who are his, so Satan has workers from them all.  They are a proud people who bristle at having their sin exposed, who even hate that the things they love are called sins.  They imagine that their plans against God’s people will be successful, but they walk the path of Saul the Benjamite, and Haman the Agagite, men who are like the wicked one.

Many are the designs of the wicked, but those plans are all an abomination to God, and He will destroy them.  Choose this day whose side you are on, the Lord’s or Satan’s. 

Yet, many who are going along with these plans are unwitting.  They are unaware of the wicked plotting and slander.  They are duped in speaking for the cause by the one who disguises himself as an angel of light.  Our job is not to hate even those who plot.  Our job is to spread the Gospel.  God does not delight in the destruction of the wicked.  He would rather that they see their coming judgment, repent, and be saved from it, and so must we.  Now is not a day to get offended and hurt.  It is a day to take a kiss on the cheek and a knife in the back, all the while sharing the good news that they can be saved from their sin and guilt.

This is what God hates.  So, what is it that He loves?  Psalm 51 teaches us that God loves a clean heart.

God loves a clean heart

It is interesting that David had been hated and abused by King Saul.  God delivered David from the wicked plans of Saul, but He did not deliver Uriah from the wicked plans of David.  This mystery, of when God steps in and when He doesn’t, often angers people, but the true issues of life are not about getting justice.  The ultimate issue of life is my heart, what is in it, and what am I becoming.  David ends up becoming the very thing that he prayed God would save him from.

When David was faced with his sin by the prophet Nathan, David was forced to make a choice.  He could kill another man, and add to his guilt, or he could stop and repent.  This is the setting of Psalm 51, which begins with the cry, “Have mercy on me, O God!”  This is a cry that should rise up from every person around the globe and in every language on earth. (Hebrew) חָנֵּנִי אֱלֹהִים. (Greek)  ἐλέησόν με ὁ θεός. 

In verse 10 of Psalm 51, David recognizes that his heart needed cleaning.  It had become defiled.  That defilement began when he contemplated, plotted, to sin.  His plots grew until he was trapped by his sins.  Everyone would know when Bathsheba began to show her pregnancy.  He then plotted to neutralize the trap by adding to his sins the murder of Uriah the Hittite.  How ironic it is to see that Uriah the Hittite, that is not an Israelite, had more integrity at this juncture than David who had been the poster-child for integrity in his youth.

David had no one to blame, but his own heart.  Saul was no longer around to blame.  Jesus reminds us in the New Testament that a man is not defiled by what goes into his body, but by what comes up out of his heart.  Adultery, murder, and deception (lies), came up out of David’s heart and flowed into his life.  David is proof that even the most righteous among us are faced with a heart that gravitates to sin.  Unless we are daily vigilant at keeping it clean of those “gravitations,” we can do the basest of things.  My heart, your heart, needs cleaning.  All the hearts on this planet need a clean heart more than they need justice for the sins done against them.

David recognizes that he can’t do this cleaning by himself.  He needs God’s help.  This is not the cry of a man on the couch asking God to get him a drink from the fridge (I.e., do for me what I don’t want to do).  This is a man who is broken over his sin and realizing that he cannot remove it by himself.

Throughout this whole Psalm, there is wording that makes it clear that David recognizes that he has become what Saul had been.  In verse 11, David begs that God will not cast him away (as a rebel), and also remove His Holy Spirit from him.  When Saul was rejected by God, an evil spirit began to bother him.  David recognized what comes next.  He should be cast away and harassed by an evil spirit.  Such is the lot of those who rebel against God.  Yet, this is not God’s desire for Saul or David.  David begs for mercy where Saul only doubled down on his insolence.

Let us not fool ourselves.  If we fail in embracing God’s heart-cleansing program through pride and arrogance, then we will eventually come under the judgment of God.  It is not enough to be a church member, or to have been a Christian for decades.  Each time we are faced with defilement in our heart, we must humble ourselves and take our medicine.

Cleaning begins with a broken spirit and a contrite heart.  In verse 16, David points to the sacrifices that God is not looking for, those that could be done on a public altar, but are not from the heart.  Interesting, Saul had several times used public sacrifices as an excuse for his sin.  One time, he did the sacrifice himself instead of waiting for the prophet.  The second time, he tried to justify his disobedience to God by saying he wanted to make a big sacrifice out of it.  Saul tried to create a moral fig leaf for his sin, but God saw through it to the heart behind the actions. 

God has not called us to do what we want for Him.  There are a lot of Church leaders today who have great plans they are promoting for God, but they are not doing what He told them to do.  In short, they are rebelling.

May God stop us from only seeing their sin and their defilement.  May He help us to first deal with our own through a broken spirit and a contrite heart.  My heart must be broken, not because I am devastated to learn that I can sin, but because I realize that God’s love is only by His grace, that I never deserved, and even now only deserve His wrath.  It must be contrite.  Contrition requires two aspects: a sense of guilt over our sin, and a desire for God’s cleansing.  May we come to Him today with contrite hearts, and may we learn to do the actions of repentance in every aspect of our life.

Our Strong Foundation

2 Timothy 2:19. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 31, 2021.

This world seeks to build a future that can bring about peace, safety, and greatness for humanity.  The problem is that the world is building upon a foundation that is not God’s foundation.  Instead, it is being misled by their own sinful desires, and the devil, a fallen spiritual being who hates mankind.  We are led into through an unhealthy trust in our own human reasoning and wisdom.  Such people are manipulated by spiritual forces in ways that they often do not realize.

God’s people have always understood this about the world.  We must not yield for one second to the spirit of this world, and step off of the foundation of Jesus.  We must not join them in their great campaign to reject God’s foundation and make their own.  This endeavor will only be like the man who built his house upon the sand.  A great trial is coming upon the whole world, and this foundation of the devil and humanity will not hold.

Let’s look at our passage.

The solid foundation of God

Our verse comes on the heels of a list of actions and people who were causing troubles in the churches that Timothy was overseeing, no doubt, this also happened elsewhere in Paul’s travels.  Paul warns Timothy not to strive over words to the ruining of those who are hearing it.  He also warns him to avoid worldly and empty chatter because it will increase to more and more ungodliness.  Lastly, he warns that those who promote such will spread their message like cancer.  They will resist the truth, even to the point of some teaching that the resurrection was already past.  This was leading to the overthrowing, conquering, of the faith of some.

It is in this context that Paul reminds Timothy that there is a solid foundation of God despite the long list of negative things happening.  The word “nevertheless” operates in opposition to that negative list that Timothy is to avoid.  No matter how great the forces arrayed against God’s people, we still have a solid foundation that is from God Himself.  That is a great comfort in such times and has been demonstrated over and over again throughout history.

Paul does not define the foundation here, but it is made clear in many other verses.

For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building…For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  -1 Corinthians 3:9,11 (NKJV)

Here, we see that the people of God, His Church, are a building that God is building in cooperation with the apostles and leaders of the Church.  Paul clearly states that Jesus as Messiah is the foundation upon which the Church is built.  It is unlikely that it means the external institution.  He speaks of the spiritual body of Christ throughout the world, and throughout all time.  Let’s look at another verse regarding the foundation of God.

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.  -Ephesians 2:19-22 (NKJV)

In these verses, we see that the building in mind is a holy temple.  The people of God, both individually and collectively, are a temple in which the Spirit of God dwells and works.  We are built together and upon a foundation that is now described as being the apostles and prophets with Jesus being the chief cornerstone.  A similar image is given in Revelation 21 where the 12 foundations of the New Jerusalem are named after the twelve apostles.  This is not in contradiction to 1 Corinthians 3:11, but expands the imagery of a foundation.  In one sense, Jesus is the foundation, period.  However, it is also true to see him as being the most important stone within a foundation that had been laid over centuries by God through the prophets.

The historical record that we can read today has been faithfully delivered by the prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles, who were the prophets of the New Testament that were sent by Christ with his message.  This strong foundation is all possible, and built upon, God Himself.  We must remember that the foundation of what we believe and how we live is built upon God Himself.  And, because it is built upon God Himself, it will stand firm regardless what assails it.  The Spirit of God wants us to know that, regardless of what comes against us personally, or against the faithful as a group, we have been given a foundation that was set by God Himself.  It will not be shaken, and it will not fall, period.  Our true danger is in somehow getting off of that firm foundation.

There are a lot of strivings over words that are ruining God’s people.  There are a lot of profane and empty babblings that are increasing our people into more and more ungodliness.  Many are having their faith overthrown, or supplanted with a faith in untruths.  God help us to be careful in these last days that we not have our faith overthrown, or shipwrecked.  His solid foundation was given especially for times like these.  Countless generations before us have entered the fires of trial, and have found it to hold firm, and so will we, if we courageously stand upon it.  The purpose of God and the strategy, or mission, of God will prevail over the enemy!  This is the flip-side of standing with Jesus and making the Good Confession.  We not only stand beside Christ speaking the same thing as he, but we also stand upon Jesus, his word, and the apostles that he authorized to establish his teachings.  We must refuse to be moved off of him.

Paul mentions that the foundation of God has a seal on it.  This is important because the attacks upon our faith come from outside the Church and from inside the Church.  A seal functioned to show who something belongs to, and it also functioned to show that something was authentic or genuine.  Both are important for Paul’s purposes.  Those who truly belong to the Lord will stand upon, and be built up upon, the foundation of Jesus.  This foundation is both the written Word of God, and the person of Jesus called The Word of God.  The written is an expression of a being called the Word of God.  We must never isolate the written word from the person of Christ himself through our fellowship with his Spirit.

These last days will challenge you.  Are you going to stay upon the foundation and belong to God, or, will you lay your faith aside and step onto a false foundation that is not firm?  God help us to stay faithful in these times.

We are told that there are two statements upon this seal, which is actually a spiritual seal.  The first statement is, “The Lord knows those who are His.”  The second is, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”

Let’s deal with the first statement.  It appears that Paul has the confrontation of Numbers 16 in mind since this first statement is a direct quote from Numbers 16:5. It may not look like it at first because most translations have Numbers 16:5 as, “the LORD will show who is His.”  The verb translated “will show” is literally “will cause to be known,” i.e. the Lord will cause to be known who is His.  The translation is good, but the different tack taken by the New Testament translators masks this connection.  Let’s talk about the Numbers 16 episode.

Moses had led the people to the Promised Land, but they had refused to enter in because of fear and unbelief when they saw the giants.  The people did not like the fact that they then had to go back into the wilderness for 40 years, so they tried to attack the giants and lost.  So, into the wilderness they went. 

Korah, a Levite who was related to Moses and Aaron, led a rebellion against Moses.  Why should Moses and Aaron have the say about where they go, and who gets to minister in the tabernacle?  Moses then tells Korah to prepare censers with incense and show up the next morning before the tabernacle.  Aaron and his sons would be there too.  Moses declares that, as they minister before the tabernacle, God would make it known who is His (or on His side).  Do you know what happened?  First, the ground opened up around the tents of those in league with Korah’s rebellion and they all fell in with their tents.  It is not clear if this was an earthquake event or a sinkhole event.  At the same time, fire went out from the Lord and killed Korah and 250 men who were offering incense before the tabernacle with him.

Ultimately, Korah and his followers represent those within God’s Church who are not happy with where things are and where they are headed.  Instead of trusting in the leading and foundation of God, they seek to take control of God’s Church.  However, God not only knows those who are His, but He will cause it to be known who are His at particular junctions.  You could say that the Second Coming of Christ will be such an event par excellence. 

The times of trials and shakings are for the very purpose of revealing who really belongs to Christ.  The Big Lie will be that those who stand on God’s foundation are the problem that is holding the world back, but God will shake this earth once more, and fire will go out from the Lord once more, and He will show who belongs to Whom.

Now, let’s look at the second statement.  “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”  This is connected to Numbers 16 as well.  Moses warned the people to get away from the tents of those in the rebellion, or they would perish with them.  To remain close to Korah would be to participate in his judgment.  Paul’s instructions to Timothy to avoid such people is not just good wisdom.  It is existential wisdom.  God’s people are to avoid those who claim to be Christians, but are caught up in iniquity.  We must not let them influence us.  Not all who claim to have the truth are of God.  This is why it is so important to be a student of God’s Word and to have a relationship with the Spirit of God through prayer.

This theme is an important end-times theme.  Revelation 18 speaks about the destruction of Mystery Babylon the Great.  In verse 4, it warns, “Come out from her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.  For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”  This is even a reiteration of Jeremiah 50:8, which speaks of the judgment of Babylon.

Listen, the world is trying to build a modern, but spiritual, tower of Babel whose foundation is anything but Christ.  Don’t let yourself be sucked into it, and deceived.  Those who truly believe in Christ and carry his name to the world will not fellowship with those who love iniquity.

Final Thoughts

There is a tension that exists between reaching the lost out of God’s compassion, and not fellowshiping with those trapped in iniquity out of love for God.  The separation is always a spiritual separation, and, from time to time, becomes a literal separation.  In fact, I believe this is exactly what God does in the rapture.  He removes his people because there will be no safe place on this earth to separate ourselves to, and so He takes us up to Himself.  It is our duty to remain spiritually committed to Christ and Him alone, to His Word and it alone, all the while warning people to flee the wrath hanging over this world.  May God strengthen our resolve to stand upon His strong foundation in the days ahead.

Strong Foundation audio