Walking in Faithfulness

Luke 17:25-30.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on October 17, 2021.

Last week, we talked about the perils of refusing to repent.  Today, we are going to focus on the positive side that has been chosen by every godly saint of the past.  They chose to walk in faithfulness when most around them refused to repent.  May God help us to be faithful to Him in this generation.

Let’s look at our passage.

Most continue life like normal in the face of judgment

In this passage, Jesus teaches his disciples about his 2^nd Coming.  The day will come when they long for it.  However, in that time, deceivers will come trying to take advantage of that desire.  False christs and false prophets will try to feed upon the flock, the people of God.

Our section begins with a phrase, “but first.”  This pulls the disciples back from the 2^nd Coming into the days that were immediately in front of them.  Jesus would suffer many things and be rejected.  His disciples would also suffer many things and be rejected because they belonged to him.

Historically, we see that though the Gospel has been accepted by many, the majority of the world has rejected Jesus and his true followers.  Some places have outright rejected it and follow false religions, and wishful philosophies.  Here in the West, many still give lip service to Christianity, but the truth is that those who hold the power in our land hate the truth of Christ, and those who will follow him.  The Church Age has been a mixture of acceptance and rejection, but it must be clear to us that world does not want Christ to rule over it.  Thus, many religious leaders play the prostitute with world power and become unfaithful to Christ, leading their followers to be unfaithful too.

One of the reasons this world rejects the message of Christ is because they want to continue life like normal.  They want to keep sinning, whether in outright rejection of God, or within the costume of a Christian.  In the face of a Judgment Day that God has warned will come, we still cling to life like normal.

It is funny how we will embrace change in things that are not for our good, and yet we will dig in our heels regarding things that are for our good, like repentance.  Change that strokes my flesh is easy to embrace, but change that requires trusting God and walking in faithful obedience to Him does not stroke the flesh, and is hated by most.

The enemy of your soul is a spiritual being who knows your weaknesses.  He knows that you have a powerful desire to just enjoy life.  Change, repentance, always threatens that.  So, he operates to get us to reject repentance, all the while embracing other changes that only pull us deeper into rejection of God.  Do not kid yourself.  The powers of this world have rejected God and His Anointed One, Jesus.  They will use your desire for “life like normal,” to bait and switch you into a place where you allowed the enemy to take over our families, our cities, our country, and our world.

Jesus uses two historical events of God’s judgment to teach those who desire to be righteous how to proceed.  The first is a global event (the Great Flood), and the second is a regional event (the destruction of Sodom and its area).

There was nothing wrong with the people of Noah’s day getting married, eating, and drinking.  Noah’s sons were all married, and I am sure that they ate food while working on the ark.  Though I am sure that the world was sinning in the way they married and ate, there was something more that was different about Noah’s family compared to the rest of the world.  They did more than just do life (marriage, food) in a godly way.

They remembered God and had a relationship with Him

The world had left God behind, pursuing their own vain imaginations, and the false gods of the pre-flood world.  However, Noah and his family had not forgotten God.  They had not abandoned His Words and commands. 

Noah remembered that God had warned of judgment, and so he remained faithful to the Lord each day.  We don’t know who first warned of judgment, but Jude 1:13-15 tells us that Enoch warned the world of God’s judgment.  2 Peter 2:5 tells us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness.  This was in the face of such great wickedness that God’s word tells us that “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”  You can’t tell such people to turn to righteousness without warning of the Judgment that Noah knew was coming.  Most likely, Noah received ridicule and scorn for his trouble, but if he hadn’t been faithful to do so, he may have even lost his family to the world.

Sodom is in the same boat.  Before the exploding meteorite took them away, we see that they had a witness of the God of heaven.  First, in Genesis 14, we are told about an attack from Mesopotamia that sacks the city of Sodom and its surrounds.  These nations took the plunder and many people as slaves and headed back to where they came from.  When Abraham heard what happened, and that Lot had been taken, he and some friends pulled together a small force and caught up with the marauders.  God gave Abraham victory over those nations and he brought back all of the plunder of Sodom.  There is a whole scene where the king of Sodom watches as Abraham and Melchizedek give honor to the God of heaven who gave victory to Abraham.  This was a powerful sign to Sodom that the gods that they served were useless, and the True God of Heaven had saved them through Abraham.  This was the last grace that God gave to them.  It was urgent that they repent of their wickedness and turn back to the God of heaven, but they wouldn’t.  And so, they pursued the things of life that become meaningless (marrying, eating, drinking, planting, building, etc.) when we pursue them without God.

On top of this, in Genesis 19:9, the men of Sodom complain that Lot kept “acting like a judge” even though he wasn’t one of them.  In other words, Lot continually proclaimed what was righteous in the face of their wickedness, and I am sure, warned of God’s judgment.  The previous attack had been a shot across the bow.  They could still repent and be saved an eternal judgment.  They continued on with “life like normal” even though it was terribly urgent that they do the works of repentance.

There are things that are urgent, but they are not the most important.  Repentance may never “feel” urgent, but it is of utmost importance.  The pre-flood world didn’t see the urgency in making things right with God and so they perished.  Sodom didn’t see the urgency in repentance and so one day they were gone.

Christian, we must warn this world of the judgment to come, like Noah, Lot, and Jesus.  However, for everyone who embraces the message many others will hate it.  We must steel our nerves for an increasing rejection of Jesus and his Word in this world.  All the while, being faithful to sow the Gospel, water the seeds, and bring in the harvest that God supplies.

The wicked in both events are taken away from the earth in a final judgment.  It is not a warning shot that warns them to repent.  It is a final extinguishing of life, and as they enter into the grave, they are in a place in which it is too late to repent.  The chance for repenting was over (this life), and nothing was left but the meting out of punishment.

It is interesting that the “taken away” phrase that Jesus uses can also be used of the righteous.  Noah is put in an ark and taken away from the place of judgment.  The world perishes, but he and his family are safe because they obeyed the instructions of God.  The same is true with Lot.  He is led by angels to flee to the mountains.  They were taken away from the place of judgment. 

The key is not the ark, or the mountains.  These things cannot in and of themselves deliver.  The key is God’s instructions.  Imagine Lot saying to the angels, “I don’t have to go to the mountains.  I can just build a boat like Noah did.”  That may sound silly, but we can do this all the time as Christians.  God is telling us what to do to navigate the days that we live in, but we persist in trying to cling to things that saved in the past.  Let us not forget that God has both temporal judgments that serve as shots across the bow.  Definitely, this Republic is experiencing this, and for some individuals it has proven to be a final judgment as they have left this world in death. 

The righteous walked in faithfulness to God when few others did

If you have rejected God then you will not be able to enjoy “the good life.”  It will be an empty joy that continually pulls you down into destruction.  The righteous of every generation walked in faithfulness to God when few others did.  We cannot look to the world to teach us what is right and wrong.  We must look to God and His Word, to Jesus and his apostles.

Perhaps you are reading this thinking what should I do?  Has God told us to build an ark?  No, He hasn’t.  Has He told us to flee into the mountains and build a refuge?  Not that I am aware of.  However, let me say that God is capable of doing different things with different people.  The key is having a relationship of faithfulness with Him.  What he says to one person may not be what he says to another.  Of course, I am not talking about moral issues, but about the practical matters of what we put our hands to do.  Jesus has told us to proclaim the Gospel.  Until he shows up and tells us to stop, we need to keep doing that, even when the world is crazy all around us.  We may be afraid in the flesh, but God has promised to be with us.  If you need further instructions, He is quite capable of giving them to you.  The repentant who are faithfully walking with God will be preserved and remain to enjoy life, and the wicked will be swept away in judgment.  This is what Revelation 19 is telling the world.  Repent now before it is too late. 

Christian put your trust in Christ and he will see you through.  Simply do what he has told you to do.  The ark is a metaphor for being in Christ through your trust in him.  Don’t let the world talk you into getting out of the ark, out of relationship with Jesus.  The mountains are a metaphor as well.  The person who continually turns to God in prayer is fleeing to the Mountain of God, greater than any mountains, or powers of this world.  Satan is raising up a powerful mountain over the earth and you will be tempted to flee into his mountain.  It will take a person focused on the mountain of God to escape the fire that will fall upon the false mountains of this world.  Keep doing the mission.  This time, the Lord has promised to catch us up to his side while the world perishes under the weight of its own decisions, and refusal to repent.

Faithfulness Audio

Refusing to Repent

Mark 1:14-15; Matthew 11:20-24.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on October 10, 2021.

Repentance in the Bible is not just a word that means to change your mind.  The etymology of the word breaks down into that concept, but the biblical texts make it clear that a change in mind needed to include a change in action, i.e., a real change of mind that involved remorse over error and desire for the righteousness of God.

When we think about the Garden of Eden, we see that Adam and Eve are place in a paradise and have perfect fellowship with God.  However, they are cast out of this paradise because they rebelled against God.  On top of this separation, a curse is placed upon the world, Adam and Eve, as well as the devil.  The Bible calls mankind to repentance, and proper repentance will involve turning away from our ways, and back to God and His ways.  When we do that, God helps us to get back “home.”  Yes, a person may have never been a believer when they turn to faith in Christ, but in a very real sense, salvation is coming back home where we were meant to be and what is good and right.  Only God can help us know how to get back home as an individual or humanity as a whole.

Easier said than done, eh?  Let’s look at our first passage today.

Jesus calls us to repentance

When Jesus started preaching, he called people to repentance (vs. 15).  In fact, repentance was the core of the message that he proclaimed.  He is essentially saying, “Change your mind and believe God’s Word!”  We will come back to this in a moment.

First, let’s ask ourselves, “How many things am I doing because I don’t really believe what God’s Word says?”  This is important because many people who say they believe in God’s Word fail to actually do what it says.  When you ask them why, it always boils down to some kind of excuse.  “God can’t expect me to …”  Anything that follows those words is just me rejecting God’s Word.  Let’s put that on the back burner for a bit and let it simmer.

In the first century AD, the times were changing.  They were changing specifically because God was beginning to do something different.  Israel’s service under the law was coming to an end.  They needed to step into a “mature son” status.  You see, God’s goal is not for mankind to be laboring under 613 laws on into eternity.  Like parents giving their children a bed time, it is not their intention that their kids will always go to bed at 9 PM, or whatever, when they become adults.  Instead, they hope to train them in good habits so that they can make good decisions for themselves later.  This is the picture of a mature son, one who is able to step into the family business and even run it, without running it into the ground.

The times were changing for the Gentiles too.  For over a millennium, they had been stumbling in the dark of false religion, worshipping false gods, and chasing false hopes.

How did they get in that situation?  When 8 humans stepped off Noah’s ark, all mankind knew the truth of God.  Over the years, different families began to wander away from the truth of God, until they were seduced to reject God’s command and build a tower to the heavens.  In an attempt to connect with “gods” other than the true God, they rebelled against the King of Heaven.  This brought judgment and scattering.  Like the casting out of the original parents, the Gentiles are cast out of favor with God.  He gives them over to their faulty thinking, and the doctrine of demons.  They end up in a place of letting go of the truth and embracing lies, walking in darkness, and their minds debased.  God was gearing up to change this through Jesus.

Israel and the Gentiles were actually in the same boat spiritually.  We would expect the Gentiles to be lost and far from God, but Israel had the truth of God and gave lip service to it.  Yet, Israel had become lost like the blind nations around them.  They did so by layering their own reasoning over the top of God’s Word.  Little by little they had created a false system that only paid precious little tribute to the blazing truth delivered by Moses.  Yet, despite this, God was ready to bring the grace of truth to them.  Always remember this, in your life, or the life of a nation, the world, there always comes a day when God steps in.  He does so to change the situation.  The question is, “What will you do in that critical time?”  Listen, friend, none of us can change ourselves, but we can believe God when He purposes to change us.  This is what Jesus, and John the Baptist, were doing.  They were telling people to come and receive from God the grace of the changing of their situation.  They could go from being lost without hope, eating pig slop, in destitution, to coming home to the Father where they belonged.

Jesus tells us to repent, and believe in the Gospel.  The Gospel, the good news, is that both Jews and Gentiles can now enter into the Kingdom that God had promised through the prophets.  It was happening in their day!  Imagine how incredible this must have sounded.  For 400 years before John the Baptist, Israel had not had a true prophet give them a new word from God.  For 600 years, they had been under the thumb of the Gentile powers.  Even before that, their kings had been mostly evil and the nation languished under the lack of righteousness and favor from God.  It was during this time that God promised Israel through His prophets that an Anointed King would come forth to save Israel and even the Gentiles.  He would fix all that is wrong with the world under the administration of a global messianic kingdom.  However, precious few qualified to enter this kingdom because most people had quit truly believing.

Israel and the Gentiles represent two classes of people.  Those who have the truth, some believing, but most not.  And, those who are trapped in the lies and ignorance that they have inherited from their father, who inherited it from their father, on and on.  Both classes can be boiled down to the essential problem: they are not believing God.  So, the bad news is that our sins separate us from God and His coming Kingdom, but the good news is that we can participate in it if we will repent.

The key to the Kingdom promised by God is to repent and believe Him.  Change your mind about all the ways in which you have not believed Him, and start believing Him in your life.

Repentance is a little different for each one.  A gentile would have to leave his religion and embrace a new religion, the truth.  Whereas, an Israelite would have to let go of some tradition, but others they would keep.  In essence, they would get back to the simple truth of God’s Word instead of following the human reasoning of rabbis.

In the first century AD, God was giving a new prophecy, a new decree.  The Law of Moses was ending with its sacrificial system, dietary laws, and laws of cleansing.  It was time to enter the Kingdom of God.  No one would get in (gets in) because of their race, religion, or pedigree.  Jew and Gentile alike can only get in through repentance and believing God’s call to enter the Kingdom.  Particularly, He requires all men everywhere to believe that Jesus was sent by Him to be the Anointed King over that Kingdom.  To believe this is to become something radically different than you were the day before.

Now, let’s go to Matthew 11:20-24.

Jesus rebukes the squandering of grace

When you don’t take advantage of grace, you don’t realize how important it was when you had it.  Like the prodigal son, most in Israel had wasted the immense grace that God had given them as a people.  They were headed the wrong way and would miss out on the Kingdom if they didn’t change.

Jesus points out that the cities of the Galilee had received a large measure of grace in the fact that Jesus did most of his ministry and miracles in them.  If you were to plot the ministry of Jesus geographically and by amount of time, you would see that the cities of the Galilee received the lion share of it.  Why?  Most likely because Jerusalem rejected him and tried to kill him when he went to it and its surrounds.  The grace of God was there for them, but they kept pushing it away, and therefore others received more grace than they would have.

It is not enough to be the recipient of a lot of grace.  We can make our prayers focus on asking for more grace, but we should be careful.  What are you doing with the grace that He is giving you?  Are you pushing it away like Jerusalem, or are you sucking it up like the cities of Galilee and yet not truly believing in Jesus?  The cities of Galilee were fortunate because of the hardness of other cities, but that just puts them in a place of being even more accountable.

Jesus warns Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum that they are headed for a harsh judgment.  There are two aspects to the judgment of God.  There are temporal judgments that happen throughout life and attempt to draw us back to God.  Like a shot across the bow, they are to get our attention, and warn us of a greater judgment looming over us.  The second aspect is eternal judgment.  This is a final judgment and it is too late to repent when you receive it.

These temporal judgments are times when God holds us accountable for our choices, good or bad.  I believe that America is in such a time.  We are under the temporal judgment of God.  What we do today, repent or continue in obstinacy, will determine what we experience next.  Yes, this is a dangerous time because choices have consequences.  However, even now God is offering us grace by showing us how great our sin has become.

Clearly, Jesus is looking ahead to the eternal judgment because he speaks of Sodom.  Sodom was no longer in existence.  There could be no more temporal judgments for Sodom.  She was in Hades awaiting the Judgment Day in which they would receive their eternal judgment.

So, what is meant by this statement?  “It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”  I believe it is left cryptic on purpose.  It is intended first to shock the hearer, and second to warn them of harsher judgment.  How could it be harder for a person from Capernaum to survive The Judgment Day than a person from Sodom?  And, what would that look like; what does that mean?  Again, it is not spelled out.  However, the power is in neutralizing that inane ability of people to look at others and think they are better than them for all the wrong reasons.  Sodom is surely in big trouble when it comes to The Judgment Day, but Capernaum was in even bigger trouble.  Are the cities of America in any less trouble?

We didn’t have the physical ministry of Jesus like they did, but we have received far more grace than Sodom, and many other cities of this world.  In fact, we should not take credit for the great amount of grace we have received.  Like Capernaum, we have received such great grace because it was actively being rejected and pushed away by other places.  To have received great grace is to be held to a much higher standard at Judgment Day because God is just and hands down judgments that are righteous.

Repentance is better late than never.  We have received a great light.  The Gospel has been powerfully preached all across this great land.  However, we have been rejecting the truth of Christ and his rule.  We have been refusing to enter the Kingdom of God as decreed by the Father, and we have attempted to blaze our own path to an alternate Kingdom of our own making.

The Kingdom of God is both present and not yet.  Those who truly believe can participate spiritually in the Kingdom of God, while we await the physical return of Jesus.  Meanwhile, we live out our faith in Jesus through daily repentance.  To enter the people of God is to join a group of repenters, penitents.  The problem is that we are blind to all the ways we are rebelling against God’s truth.  In His grace, He works by His Holy Spirit to open our eyes.  Thus, we are to be walking in repentance daily.  Always humbly keeping our eyes on Him.

I hope that you are part of the repentant remnant in this land that is believing God.  The beauty is that during temporal judgments you can still repent and believe God.  If you tarry too long, temporal judgments become eternal judgments for some.  Even now, many are dying and entering into eternity.  What will their judgment be?  Those who believe God will do the works of faith, the works of God.  May the Lord help us!

Repent audio

The Things that God Hates 8: One Who Sows Discord among Brothers

Proverbs 6:16-19; 1 Corinthians 3:1-4; Matthew 5:9-12.

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on October 3, 2021.

This morning, we will look at the last thing on the list of things that God hates in Proverbs 6.  It ends with describing a person who sows discord, or strife, among brothers.

God hates the sowing of discord among brothers

This image of sowing begs the question, “How does one sow discord, strife, and conflict among brothers?”  Or, we could also ask it this way.  “Just what does a discord seed look like?”

Perhaps it is simply a question about another person in their absence, perhaps about their motives, or a remark about them.  We might tell a story about them that we have heard, maybe even completely slandering them.  It might be less aggressive by stirring up the irritations that others already have against the absent person.  We really are only limited in this hated sin by our imagination, and people have honed this craft to an art.

Today, I want to look at the passage in 1 Corinthians 3 to bring out some things involved in this issue.  Paul is speaking to the conflicts and strife that were going on in the church at Corinth.  He puts his finger on their main problem: spiritual immaturity.  Though a person cannot become any more saved than they are, we may or may not become spiritually mature.

Paul pictures spiritual maturity as receiving nourishment from God’s Word.  Just like a newborn baby cannot digest complex foods and must drink milk, so a new Christian cannot immediately digest much of God’s Word.  They need to feed on the simple milk of the Gospel until they have grown enough to take in the deeper things of God.  The proper effect of God’s Word will be spiritual growth, as opposed to remaining carnal, or focused upon the flesh and its desires.  Thus, spiritual maturity involves putting off carnal motivations, carnal thinking, and the actions that come with them, and putting on the mind of Christ taught within God’s Word.  A spiritually mature person has motivations and thinking that come from God and His Word.  They do the actions that have good spiritual impact upon themselves and others.  Many in the Corinthian church were sowing seeds of conflict among the body of Christ, and Paul knew that this was breaking God’s heart, something that He hated.

Though spiritual immaturity is the main problem for the Corinthian church, there are other possible reasons why a person might sow discord.  A person may simply not be saved.  Jesus speaks in a parable (Matthew 13:24-40) about his enemy sowing “tares” in among the wheat.  These would be people who are carnal because they are not born again by God’s Spirit.  They have not been regenerated spiritually.

Of course, this is often the first accusation against others when you are carnal.  It is easy to always believe the other person must not be saved when there is conflict.  The spiritually mature person recognizes that even godly people can disagree on issues.  However, we would be asleep at the wheel if we didn’t recognize that the external Church has many tares that have been sown into it by the enemy, and some of them are leaders.

Sometimes the sowing originates within the group as we have described, and sometimes it comes from outside of the group.  Paul spoke of this in his farewell message to the elders of the Ephesian church.

“For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.  Also, from among yourselves, men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.  Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.”  -Acts 20:29-31 (NKJV)

The savage wolves can come in among you, but they can also be government leaders giving decrees that cause problems in the group.  It is easy to miss the true source of conflict and only see the surface reasons.  It is important for us to step into spiritual maturity by checking our own motives first.  Line them up against God’s Word so that they can be purified.  Then, look for any deeper causes for the conflict that are not readily obvious.  Conflict always pushes us to rush our judgments, but this is not the will of God, nor the character of Christ.

In the end, we must learn to see through the schemes of the devil.  Our true enemy is him and his evil spiritual forces.  They are arrayed against the Church, and they use all manner of people: power hungry secular leaders, spiritually immature believers, con-artists, false prophets, etc.  The devil has schemes and a mode of operating that become more evident as we spiritually mature.  Whether whispering into the ear of Cain about his brother Abel, or catching Ahab’s eye with Jezebel, his strategies are generally the same, but his tactics are manifold.

So, what does God love?  Let’s go to Matthew 5:9-12 for that.

God loves those who promote peace between others

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.  Jesus, the Unique Son of God, came to earth on a peace mission, and so we are sent forth as his ambassadors also offering peace.  We are to speak peace from God to those we meet.  It is when we have peace with God that peace with one another is possible.  Do not fool yourself.  True peace is not possible among those who reject God and His Anointed One, Jesus.

There is a kind of anti-peace that is promoted by the antichrist system of this world.  The anti-peace is not a peace at all, but it can result in a cessation of some strife.  The Pax Romana (peace of Rome) protected many nations from invasion by others.  However, they were always under the strife of Roman rule, and were conquered by them in the first place.  If this is your definition of peace, then you can keep it.

True peace is built upon the foundation of a healthy fear of God and His judgment.  It is not a fear that God will be capricious, but that God will not be mocked or fooled.  He is not swayed by our words to Him.  He judges in truth, reality.  Anti-peace is built upon the foundation of the fear of man, and the powers of this earth.

Jesus said that if you stand for true peace with Him, then the world will hate you.  The world offers a false gospel that delivers a false peace.  Look around you.  You see groups trying to build Utopia without God, without truth.  Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, “When they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman.  And they shall not escape.  But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief!”

When Jesus says that we shall be called “sons of God,” he leaves off just who will call us sons of God.  In fact, the next two verses talk about persecution.  Who is the “they” who will revile and persecute the peacemakers?  It is the world and all those who are one spirit with the false peace.  Christians are makers of true peace, and thus God is not ashamed to call them His sons, but the world that loves false peace uses worse epithets for us.  This persecution will come from outside of the Church and from within it.  It has always been so.  The early Jewish believers in Jesus the Messiah were persecuted by other Jews who claimed to love God.  In the Middle Ages of Europe, Christians were often persecuted by other Christians who had power and authority, both religious and secular.

Don’t kid yourself.  A new morality is being raised up even today that is not of God.  Slowly, but surely, many denominations and Christians are moving from God’s Truth, to the anti-truth.  May God help us not to be caught up in our conflicts with one another and lose sight of the true enemy and his tricks.  The enemy is even now coming after believers that cling to the old ways of Jesus.  The heat is being turned up.

Ultimately, Jesus promises a reward for those who promote true peace and pay the price for it in persecution.  Not only will they be called the sons of God by him, but a day of manifesting just who are the sons of God is coming.  We will share in the glory of Christ as he returns to earth in order to set up the kingdom that God has given him. 

Now, your reward comes from the one you are serving.  If we serve ourselves, and thus the world, we will receive the world’s rewards.  The world will call us peacemakers and sons of God, but it will all be a lie.  For those who fear God and work for true peace, God has a reward that outweighs any difficulties, tears, and trials on this earth.

Yes, in some ways, we are already sons of God who are participating in his kingdom.  However, the terminology is “reward.”  Rewards are handed out after a contest, or project.  Jesus is pointing us to a point after the Resurrection in which we will stand beside him in his kingdom, a true utopia that will last for 1,000 years.  The world that has rejected God’s peace offer sees His peace emissaries as those who are obstructing the peace that they envision.  Christian, you must get used to being labeled by this world the opposite of what you truly are.  No, it is not fair, but it is part of the path ahead of us.  We can ignore their aspersions against us not in a sinful obstinacy, but in a steadfast, faithful determination to please our Lord Jesus!

Sowing Discord audio

The Things that God Hates 7: A False Witness who Speaks Lies

Proverbs 6:16-19; 1 Kings 21:4-16; John 3:35-36; Revelation 3:14.

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on September 26, 2021.

This morning we will look at the 6^th thing on the list of things that God hates, and we find it in verse 19 of Proverbs 6.  God hates a false witness who speaks lies.

God hates a false witness who speaks lies

The word for “speaks” is literally breathing out, or exhaling, lies, which is a metaphor for speech.  It should remind us of the fact that breath, wind, and spirit are linked conceptually in the Bible.  Thus, it pictures a man who is breathing out lies.  His spirit is not a good spirit and is in league with the work of evil spirits, irrespective of the idea of possession.

Another grammatical thing that we should look at is the phrase “false witness.”  The word false can refer to the testimony itself, but it also speaks to the intent and character of the person who is witnessing.  This is a witness who is not committed to the truth and God.  They are a deceiver.  If a false witness says anything that is true, it is twisted and part of a deception, even if just to throw you off the scent of their deception.

In order to highlight this abominable issue, we are going to look at an event that is recorded in 1 Kings 21.

Ahab is king of the northern tribes of Israel.  About sixty years earlier 931 B.C., Israel had split into two kingdoms with the southern portion taking the name Judea, and the northern portion taking the name Israel.  The Bible tells us in 1 Kings 16:31 that Ahab was more wicked than any other northern king before him.

What did he do to deserve such a description?  He continued the worship of the golden calves at Dan and Bethel to keep his citizens from going to Jerusalem and its temple.  He also married Jezebel who was the daughter of a Sidonian King, a Baal worshipper.  This leads to Ahab building a temple to Baal in his capital city Samaria, and promoting Baal worship.  In fact, he begins to persecute the true prophets of Yahweh by imprisoning them and putting some to death.

Our problem in this chapter has to do with a vineyard next to Ahab’s summer palace in Jezreel.  He offers its owner, Naboth, either money or another field in trade, but Naboth refuses.  We will talk more about why later. 

Now, Ahab is a wicked man, but through his wife, we see that there are different levels of wickedness.  Ahab is more apt to pout and throw fits when people don’t go along with his plans.  Whereas, Jezebel has no boundaries and no qualms with using lies and murder to get what she wants.  When Jezebel finds out what Ahab is pouting over, she upbraids him and promises to get the vineyard for him.

A couple of week ago we talked about people who devise wicked plans in their hearts.  Well, this is exactly what Jezebel does.  Of course, Ahab knows what kind of woman he has married, and later God holds him accountable for her actions.  Jezebel is a leader who sees her position (and Ahab’s) as a means for her own benefit, and not for the people’s.  The people are just sheep, food, and assets to leaders like this.  Everyone is expendable for the sake of the great ego of such a leader.  Jezebel’s plan involves two scoundrels, worthless individuals, who will lie and say that they heard Naboth blaspheme God and the king.  This is a capital crime in Israel, and notice how she uses a cloak of morality to keep the populace going along with the ruse.

Wicked plans often need others in power to go along with it.  These others didn’t hatch the plan, but they knowingly carry it out.  Some do this out of fear because they don’t want to lose their life, power, and authority.  Others may simply do it out of their own lusts.  Perhaps they see themselves getting ahead or getting in the favor of the king, which could come in handy down the road.  Jezebel uses the kings seal to send a message to the elders of Jezreel.  This message tells them to have a fast and seat Naboth in a very public place where to scoundrels can accuse him of blaspheming God.  They are then to take Naboth out and execute him.  Regardless of what they were thinking, the elders of Naboth’s town sell him out in order to please the king.  They know it is all a lie, and yet they go along with it. 

Such wickedness is bad enough between nations, but for a leader to do such a thing to their own citizen is unconscionable.  God deliver us from such leaders, but it is not only kings that can abuse their power.  Every level of power over others down to our job and families can be abused in wickedness.  The wrath of God is coming for such things, and woe to the person who is found by him doing it.

Wicked plans always crush innocent people in order to satisfy the lusts of the wicked.  However, Naboth is not just innocent of the lies against him.  The story pictures him as a godly man.  In general, it would be his right not to sell to Ahab, but in Israel land was a birthright that was passed down from your ancestors, and ultimately it was a portion given by God.  To sell it would be seen as the same as Esau selling his birthright for a bowl of beans.  Naboth knows that the land has been given to his family by God, and he will not sell it for any price.  A gift from God meant more to him than mountains of money.

Ahab and Jezebel have nothing on Naboth because he has lived a godly life.  They then concoct bald face lies to pin on him.  Did anybody from Jezreel protest that day?  Who were these scoundrels accusing their friend Naboth of something they knew could never be?  In fact, although it is not mentioned in this story, 2 King 9:26 makes it clear that Naboth’s sons were killed with him, so there would be no heirs.  All of this because Ahab thought it would be nice to have a vineyard that was close to his palace.

Ahab didn’t enact the plan, but he knew it was going on, and was all too happy to rise up and take possession of the land after the heinous deed.  This was an abomination to God on Jezebel’s part, Ahab’s part, on the part of the leaders of Jezreel, and on the part of everyone who remained silent in the face of obvious wickedness. 

God then sends Elijah who just happens to catch Ahab as he is in Naboth’s field.  What is God’s message?  In short, Ahab will die in the same place that the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth and his sons, outside the city like an outcast.

Of course, the Pharisees tried this ploy on our Lord Jesus.  In their midnight phony trial, several witnesses were put forward as false witnesses against Jesus, but their testimony didn’t match and would stand the light of day.  However, the Lord knew what would give them the charge they sought.  When he declares that they will see him sitting at the right hand of the God, and coming on the clouds of heaven (a direct reference to Daniel 7:14), they believe that he has blasphemed, and that is what he was tried for, blaspheming God and the king (Caesar). 

Yes, in this world, wicked men seem to get away with wicked plans.  However, do not go along with them, no matter how afraid you are, or how much you will get ahead in this life by it.  This is an abomination to God and a righteous man will do his best to expose them.

So, what does God love?  I want to look at John 3:35-36 and then Revelation 3:14

God loves one who witnesses to the truth

If we are to carry out the imagery in Proverbs, we see that Jesus is animated by a pure spirit, wind, breath.  It is a holy spirit that is truth itself, and gives witness to the truth without fault.  This is the one who is loved of God.

Yes, it seems obvious that the Father loves the Son, but He loves us too because we have put our faith in the Son.  Jesus is the perfect image of God.  For all of the lies that Satan has spread against God, Jesus hanging on the cross shuts the mouth of all accusations for all eternity.  How can you question God’s love and motives after that?  Jesus became our template, but he also is our leader.  We will never get to being like him without his direction and help.  He is also the one who empowers us by his Holy Spirit.

The main purpose of this life is for us to learn to become more like God the Father through Jesus.  Of course, there are many who are trying to be gods in this world, and it will only get worse until the One True God ends it.  You cannot separate God’s power from His character.  You can’t try to obtain that power and reject His character.  It will never work.  There are two paths presented to us in this world.  The first is from the spirit of this world and it encourages humanity to follow its lusts, and pool its gifts in order to make ourselves gods.  God’s path requires us to turn away from our lusts and to embrace Jesus.  Of course, we won’t become God, but we will be like Him; we will be the Sons of God.  No matter how god-like humans become, we will one day have to give an account to the One who truly is God.  No one who is unprepared can survive that moment. 

Christians must not become tempted by that path, no matter how successful it may look.  Keep your eyes upon Christ and become more like him, not this world.  If we believe in the Son, we will see eternal life, and the wrath of God will not remain upon us, but His love will rest upon us.

In Revelation 3:14, I want to focus on two of the Titles that Jesus uses for himself.  The first one is The Amen.  It may seem to be a strange title, but it really isn’t.  “Amen” basically means that something is true and trustworthy.  Jesus used this to emphasize his statements to his disciples.  It is translated as “verily” in the KJV, and “most assuredly” in the NKJV.  Twice, Jesus doubles up the word, “Verily, verily I say unto you.”  This is a way of doubly intensifying the meaning.

Jesus is a metaphorical Amen to the Father’s will.  He not only assents that the Father’s plan is true and trustworthy, but he gives his strength to carrying it out.  He is not just declaring true and trustworthy things.  He himself is the Truth and Trustworthiness!  When we stand in Christ, we stand alongside the greatest one of all creation declaring a cosmic “Amen!” to the Father.  When we follow Christ and obey his commands, we are shouting “Amen!” to the Father in heaven with our lives.  Father, we praise you for you are True and Trustworthy regardless of what we see and experience down here!

He is also called The Faithful and True Witness.  I mentioned this earlier, but think of all the slander that the enemy whispered about God the Father throughout history.  Jesus came down to set the record straight.  His death on the cross makes it clear that the Father does not want people to die in their sins and go into the Lake of Fire.  Jesus did not just give a faithful and true witness about God.  He was Faithful and True in all that He said and did, faithful and true to his Father in heaven.

Yes, you and I have a lot of work to do to become like Jesus, and there are many in this world who are witnessing of Jesus, using his moral credentials, but they are not being faithful and true to God’s Word.  With the help of Jesus, this work will be finished in us, if we will just believe him and his word.  Let us be faithful and give a true witness of Jesus, and in so doing, become more like our Father in heaven!