The Vine is a Tree (Ezek. 15)

In this minute chapter in Ezekiel (the shortest in the book), we learn a great truth: the vine is not just a plant, but an actual tree.  Note vv. 2 and 6, where the vine is explicitly called a tree.  Other cross references to support this are Num. 6:4 and Judg. 9:12-13.  So what?  Well, maybe the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the vine tree.  Tradition says that Adam and his wife ate an apple, but what is the scriptural support for that?  Think about this: Noah was naked when he sinned, and his sin had to do with grapes (Gen. 9:20-21).  Also, he was a progenitor of the human race like Adam was: both men were told to "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth..." (Gen. 1:28; 9:1). Since Noah was told this after the flood, and Adam seems to be his antitype, maybe there was a flood before Adam too (Gen. 1:2; 2 Peter 3:5-6)...?  One reason that "the gap" is so important is that it shows why God had to recreate the heavens and earth in Gen. 1:3-31 (cf. Gen. 2:1): Lucifer ruled the original earth (the one created in Gen. 1:1 and which no one but God and perhaps the angels know the exact age of; cf. Job 38:6-7), and when he rebelled against God, the Lord destroyed the original earth with a flood and started over with Adam, a picture of what he would do with Noah.  The earth was full of wickedness and rebellion before Noah's flood, so we may safely assume that something like that precipitated the flood of Gen. 1:2 and 2 Peter 3:5-6.  Amazing what a tiny chapter in Ezekiel sheds light on, amen?  "Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men..." (1 Cor. 1:25a)

The Big Four? (Sword, Famine, Pestilence, and...)

Reading further into Ezekiel than I did for my previous post on "The Big Three," I found an interesting reference in Ezek. 14:21, "For thus saith the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?" So another category of judgment that might be added to the previous three is the noisome or harmful (noisome = grievous in Rev. 16:2) beast. Even though pestilence typically comes from pests (living creatures; hence its name) as I mentioned in "The Big Three," its context is disease, whereas that of the noisome beast is animal aggression (cf. 2 Kings 17:25).  In light of this, maybe there's a Big Three at the core of God's types of judgments, with a fourth added sometimes depending on the circumstances. "...how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" (Rom. 11:33b)

Did Noah Really "Save" His Family?

According to 1 Peter 3:20, eight souls (i.e. Noah's family) were indeed "saved" from the flood. I would assert, however, that seven of them were saved on Noah's behalf, not because they too were just, perfect in their generations, and walking with God (Gen. 6:9) like Noah, "a preacher of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:5) was.  Note God's command to Noah in Gen. 7:1, "Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation."  Note "thee"--singular, not "ye"--plural.  Noah's righteousness is credited or imputed to his wife, his three sons, and his three daughters-in-law.  I would like to think that he converted his family, but I really think that he's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only truly righteous man in the world (Rom. 3:10-12).  For a more thorough discussion of typology surrounding Noah, please see A.W. Pink's excellent work, Gleanings in Genesis.  

The Big Three: Sword, Famine,and Pestilence

This frightful trio of judgments appear together numerous times in scripture, mostly in the old testament (references are provided at the bottom of this post).  If you think about it, these are perhaps the three primary ways that God judges men in this life:

1. Sword (trouble from other men)

2. Famine (trouble from the elements)

3. Pestilence (trouble from other creatures, "pests")

In other words, I'm saying that these three judgments represent full judgment, since they cover the three primary sources of trouble we face in this life (other men, the elements, and other creatures). Something to think about AND....comment on if you wish. 

Remember when David foolishly numbered the children of Israel in 2 Sam. 24:10-14 and 1 Chron. 21:9-13?  How did the LORD respond?  He sent the prophet Gad to David and let him choose his own judgment.  Remember what the three choices were?  You guessed it--the three judgments listed above.   David said that the LORD's mercies were "very great" (2 Sam. 24:14; 1 Chron. 21:13), and that is proven not only by the limited losses in the subsequent pestilence, but also in God only inflicting one of these three judgments on Israel.  God could have hit David with all three of these things, couldn't he have?!  Ps. 116:5, "...yea, our God is merciful."

References:

Lev. 26:25-26

2 Sam. 24:13

1 Kings 8:37

1 Chron. 21:12

2 Chron. 6:28; 20:9

Jer. 14:12; 21:7, 9; 24:10; 27:8, 13; 29:17-18; 32:24, 36; 34:17; 38:2; 42:17, 22; 44:13 [most--15!]

Ezek. 5:12, 17; 6:11-12; 7:15; 12:16; 14:21; 

Amos 4:6-10

Mt. 24:7

Luke 21:10-11

But whom say YE that I am? Affirmations of Christ's Deity and Identity in the Gospels

Two apostolic confessions of Christ's deity that stood out in my mind this week were Peter's in Mt. 16:16 ("Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God") and Thomas' in John 20:28 ("My Lord and my God").  Then another came to mind: Nathanael's in John 1:49 ("Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel").  Finally, I decided to check the gospels for all the affirmations of Christ's deity or identity while he was still upon earth. Here is what I've come up with so far and the specific titles given to Jesus.  If you have any others to add, please let me know and I will credit you accordingly.

Wise men from the east
Mt. 2:2; King of the Jews

John the Baptist
John 1:29, 36; the Lamb of God
John 1:34; the Son of God

Devils
Mt. 8:29; thou Son of God
Mark 1:24; the Holy One of God
Mark 3:11; the Son of God
Mark 5:7; Jesus, thou Son of the most high God
Luke 8:28; Jesus, thou Son of God most high

Samaritan woman
John 4:29; the Christ

Samaritans
John 4:42; the Christ, the Saviour of the world

Galilean multitude
John 6:14; that prophet that should come into the world

Peter
Mt. 16:16; the Christ, the Son of the living God
Mark 8:29; the Christ
Luke 9:20; the Christ of God
John 6:69; that Christ, the Son of the living God

Andrew
John 1:41; the Messias...the Christ

Philip
John 1:45; him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph

Nathanael
John 1:49; the Son of God..the King of Israel

Thomas
John 20:28; My Lord and my God

Apostolic company
Mt. 14:33; the Son of God

Judean multitude
Mt. 21:9-11; the son of David...Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee

Pilate's wife
Mt. 27:19; that just man

Pontius Pilate
Mt. 27:37; Jesus the King of the Jews
Mark 15:26; The King of the Jews
Luke 23:38; The King of the Jews
John 19:19; Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews

Centurion at Calvary
Mt. 27:54; the Son of God
Mark 15:39; the Son of God
Luke 23:47; a righteous man

The Example of Jeremiah

(Transcript of a message preached at Bible Truth Baptist Church, Griffin, GA, on 28 December, 2014.)

 

 Text: Mt. 16:13-14

The old testament is a great resource for “learning…comfort” (Rom. 15:4) and “instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16) as Paul tells us in his epistles. It’s also replete with pictures of the Lord Jesus, since he told the Jews in John 5:39 regarding the scriptures, that “they are they which testify of me.” And since, as the Lord tells us, we live by “every word of God” (Luke 4:4), it behooves us to study the OT, since it’s about 75% of our spiritual diet. Even though parts of it are boring, we need to make friends with it and give it its proper place if we want to grow properly in the Lord.

An outstanding figure from the OT that I’d like to study today is the prophet Jeremiah. I’m finishing up this long book in my daily reading, and I was impressed about how much that we can learn from his life and example, even apart from what he actually prophesied. You know that he’s a significant figure for a number of reasons. One is quite obvious: God inspires him to write the second longest book in the Bible (word-wise, next to Psalms). Another reason is found in our text. When the Jews were trying to identify the Lord Jesus, one of the men he reminded them of was Jeremiah. What a godly, honourable man he must have been, for people to compare the Lord Jesus to him. In this message, I’d like to point out seven things about Jeremiah’s character that are good examples for us and that connect him with the Lord Jesus Christ. Since there are seven, we’ll have to be fairly brief with each, but I hope that they are edifying to you and will encourage deeper study., 

1. Jeremiah had an intimate personal relationship with God. In Jer. 12:1-4, what strikes me was Jeremiah’s reverence for God and his boldness with him. He acknowledges God’s righteousness (v. 1) and omniscience (v. 3), but he feels liberty to express his doubts about God’s ways to the Lord himself. He’s not being rude with God at all. He begins by exalting the Lord, but then he expresses his weakness to the Lord, that he can’t understand God’s ways. He’s not finding fault with God at all…he’s just trying to understand. And God respects that. “For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust” (Ps. 103:14). Where did this intimacy spring from? 

Firstly, Jeremiah loved God’s word. Jer. 15:16, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.” You can’t be intimate with God and not love his word. Scripture is God’s primary means of communication with us, so if you don’t love what God communicates to you with, you don’t love the Communicator. Think about the people you know who are intimate with the Lord. Don’t they invariably love the Bible? If they don’t, they’re not intimate with the God of scripture, who primarily uses his word to relate to us. [God, including the Holy Spirit, will never do anything contrary to his word; so, in a sense, God has subjected himself to his word. That is why he is said to have “exalted it above all [his] name” in Ps. 138:2.]

Secondly, Jeremiah communicated with God passionately through prayer. In Jer. 7:16, God tells Jeremiah not to pray for the Jews, “neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me…” So evidently that’s what he had been doing. What were his prayers like? I think that 13:17 gives us a glimpse into his closet: “But if we will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD’s flock is carried away captive.” His prayers were earnest, intercessory cries for those he loved, including the disobedient. That’s why he’s often referred to as “the weeping prophet.” He speaks openly of his weeping here and elsewhere (cf. also 9:1), as a part of his ministry. Christ prayed so earnestly in the garden that he not only sweated but also wept (Heb. 5:7).

2. Jeremiah’s intimacy with God, coupled with personal failure, produced a humble, broken spirit. When you read Jer. 20:7-18, it reminds you of Rom. 7. Jeremiah is down (vv. 7-9), then he’s up (vv. 10-13), then he’s down again (vv. 14-18). Isn’t that comforting?—that the holiest men in scripture were “men of like passions with you” (Acts 14:15), who struggled with the flesh and had their ups and downs. Jer. 20 is sort of “rock bottom” for Jeremiah. He accuses God of deceiving him (absolutely impossible; cf. Tit. 1:2, Heb. 6:18) and then curses his day, indirectly cursing God for giving him life. But before you jump on him, as we’re so quick to do, consider the agony of his ministry, y’all. He was literally a one-man army against the apostate Jews and the nations of the world, whom he prophesied against as well (ch. 46-51). It’s not easy standing alone, is it? Look at Moses and Elijah, the two witnesses in the tribulation and the Lord’s companions on the mount of transfiguration. Both of them collapsed under the strain of the ministry, but you know what happened? The same thing that happened to Jeremiah, Peter, Paul, and others. They were broken and humbled, and God picked them up in his strength and used them for his glory. The longer I live and the more believers I meet, the more I’m convinced that God uses the broken and humble the most mightily. True, God can use a fool like Balaam for his purposes, but don’t forget these principles: “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble (1 Pet. 5:5c).” And, “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit” (Ps. 34:18). Jeremiah was one of this elite group, the brokenhearted; God touched the spiritual “hollow of his thigh” (Gen. 32:25), and he was never the same thereafter. 

As believers in Christ, we have a choice to follow the Spirit or the flesh from moment to moment (Gal. 5:17), but there are milestones in our Christian life; for example, when we grow out of our carnality into spirituality. Now overall that’s a process, but there is a point of transition. I think that the same is true of brokenness, or, to use the more Pauline term, humility. It’s a process overall, but there are points of transition. You see that here with Jeremiah. This failure doesn’t make him bitter; rather it makes him better. The trial of persecution breaks him and humbles him before God, but he gets up and God uses him, I might argue, even more mightily than before, since he trusts himself less and God more on this side. So failure is not always a bad thing; it’s often what makes us spiritually, rather than ruins us. Our God is fully able to turn the darkest valleys of our lives into the greatest triumphs. If you’ve never seem him do that, just keep your eyes open. It’s still going on all the time and will until the rapture, I believe.

3. Jeremiah obeys God first, then the powers that be. Since he has God in his proper place through intimate fellowship and brokenness, he also has earthly powers in their place. He never ceases to respect the office of his political superiors, even though four of his five sovereigns were wicked men. A great example of his balance is found in 37:16-21. Zedekiah presses him for a word from the LORD, and Jeremiah prophesies to him and reproves him; but note his respect for Zedekiah in v. 20, “…I pray thee, O my lord the king…” And God rewards that respect by moving Zedekiah to transfer him to a better prison and providing him rations. It never pays to disobey or disrespect earthly powers, folks. Paul tells us in Tit. 3:2 to “speak evil of no man,” and the context of that statement is v. 1, “principalities and powers…magistrates.” I know that most of our political leaders are not good men and women, but they still deserve our respect for their office; and if you disagree, that just proves your carnality and rebelliousness, not your spirituality. Have you ever written an evangelical letter to your political leaders? Or do you just sit around complaining about them? I have letters from Dick Cheney, Sonny Perdue, and others that I wrote to, telling them that I was praying for them and including some salvation scriptures for their consideration. Do you really care about these men’s souls, or do you just want to criticize them? I don’t think that Jeremiah would join you, unless you were trying to reach them in meekness, like he did those God put over him. 

4. Jeremiah stays faithful in good and bad times. His ministry begins in the days of Josiah (1:2), very prosperous times for Judah spiritually. But the seeds of wickedness are still in the hearts of the people (1:11-16), if not in their righteous king, and God inspires Jeremiah to warn them even during better times. Jeremiah is deeply touched by Josiah’s death (2 Chr. 35:25), but he’s not derailed by it; to the contrary, he continues preaching through the reigns of Josiah’s four successors, with much opposition. In Eccl. 11:4, we read, “He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.” The context here is giving as pictured by sowing; if you look at circumstances, you’ll be less likely to give, but the encouragement throughout, I think, is to go ahead and do it and leave the results to God. Jeremiah rose above his circumstances, good and bad, and stayed faithful no matter what times he found himself in. Did you know that good times can be more dangerous spiritually than bad times? What do we tend to do in good times? Relax, become lazy, become indifferent, even turn away from God. So we must be on our guard even in good times, lest we become useless to God because of them. 

5. Jeremiah fulfills his ministry, despite lack of support. When you look at the book as a whole, only four people could really be called his friends: (1) Ahikam, a ruler or scribe (cf. 36:10) who saves his life (26:24); (2) Baruch, his secretary (Jer. 36:4ff.); (3) Ebed-melech, the Ethiopian eunuch who saves his life (ch. 38-39); and (4) Seriah. the “quiet prince” (51:59-64) who carries a book of judgments for Jeremiah to Babylon. Only Baruch was an actual companion of his, while the others assist him at certain points of his ministry. So his ministry, like that of most of the prophets, was a lonely one. James says in Jas. 5:10, “Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.” Part of their suffering, I think, all the way up to the greatest Prophet, the Lord Jesus, was rejection. Truth has never been popular and never will be. Even our apostle, Paul, was forsaken by all but a few of his friends at the end of his ministry. But his last words are words of encouragement to Timothy to fulfill his ministry, just as Christ gave Paul the grace to finish his. Jeremiah seems to have minimal support from start to finish, but I think that he’s a fine example of the song lyric, “Though none go with me, I still will follow…” and that’s exactly what he does. 

6. Jeremiah stays with his people, despite their errors, but admonishes them for them. When Jerusalem falls, the captain of Nebuchadnezzar’s guard, Nebuzaradan, offers Jeremiah safe escort to Babylon and sustenance there (40:4). But Jeremiah declines and stays with Gedaliah the governor until his assassination, then with the fugitives led by Johanan, who drives Gedaliah’s assassin into exile. The fugitives stubbornly decide to emigrate to Egypt, against Jeremiah’s warnings (42:7-22), but he meekly accompanies them, rather than striking out on his own (43:5-7). With both Gedaliah and Johanan, I think, he shows that his heart is with the people, rather than on his own self-interests. Nebuzaradan had told him “all the land is before thee” (40:4); i.e., he could dwell wherever he wished, but he chooses to join himself to Gedaliah. I think that he could have justifiably parted with Johanan, since Johanan rejected the word of the Lord, but Jeremiah again puts the people before his own self-interest, even though he knows that they’re headed for trouble. To apply this to believers today, you’re not going to find a perfect church, and most of the time you’ll have to lay aside your own views on non-essentials to keep unity. When Paul speaks of the unity of the Spirit in Eph. 4:1-6, the aspects of that unity are core things like the Trinity and salvation, not minors like diet and holidays (Rom. 14). To get along with the body, folks, you have to give up some things. You can’t have everything your way. So many spoiled, selfish Americans make lousy church members. But Jeremiah, who was more spiritual than all of the Jews put together, laid aside his personal interests in the interests of the group. Does that remind you of someone else? But we’ll get to that in a few moments…

7. Jeremiah is honoured by his people as a whole, in the end. In Mt. 16:14, he’s mentioned with the best, as one of them. So if Jeremiah wasn’t revered by his people during his lifetime, he was thereafter, since hindsight is always clearer than foresight. As a believer in Christ, this reminds me of the future judgment seat of Christ: even if the church doesn’t honour you down here, they will up there. You will get the honour you deserve from a perfect, righteous judge (2 Tim. 4:8), no matter what anyone thinks or says about you down here. What a comfort that is! Because of the weakness and sinfulness of our flesh, even as believers, we don’t treat one another right much of the time. Some of your deepest wounds may come from other believers rather than unbelievers. But up there, God will set everything straight. So be of good cheer, Christian soldier. There somebody up there watching everything going on, inside the church as well as outside, and your work will not go unrewarded. “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shown toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister” (Heb. 6:10).

So that’s a sevenfold survey of the Jeremiah’s exemplary character, but this message wouldn’t be complete without pointing out how all of these things are pictures of a greater prophet to come, the Lord Jesus Christ.

• Christ had the most intimate communion with God that man has ever seen. He said before raising Lazarus that the Father “hear[d] [him] always” (John 11:42) and that he did “always those things that please him” (John 8:29).
• Although Christ had no personal failure, as such, he did learn “obedience by the things which he suffered” (Heb. 5:8), which took self-humbling, according to Phil. 2:7-8.
• Christ obeyed God first, then the powers that be. He was not a rebel or revolutionary by any stretch of the imagination. He came to fulfil the law, not destroy it (Mt. 5:17) and to “confirm the promises made to the fathers” (Rom. 15:8); he paid his taxes, even though he was so poor that he had to get them from a fish’s mouth (Mt. 17:24-27); and, when put on the spot about submission to earthly powers, he struck a perfect balance between heavenly and earthly obedience (“Render unto Caesar…”; Mt. 22:21).
• Christ was faithful in good times and bad times. In his public ministry, he ministered at feasts and when he didn’t have time to eat, when the public praised him and when they called for his blood. Even before he went public, he faithfully labored as a carpenter in a Podunk town (John 1:46, “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?”)
• He fulfils his ministry despite lack of support. His closest followers desert him in Gethsemane, and even though John the Beloved is present at Calvary, he’s not crucified with Christ. Seems like he and Peter should have been hanging beside Christ rather than two thieves, doesn’t it?
• He stays with his people, the Jews, despite their errors, but admonishes them for it. Christ was a Jew among Jews, born under the law, and he never dissociated himself from his people. He was primarily sent unto them (John 1:11), just like the other prophets before him, and he faithfully admonishes them, even unto death.
• Christ is honoured by his people, as a whole, in the end. Though rejected by them the first time he comes, the next time he comes it will be “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the LORD” (Mt. 23:39). The Jews will realize their error and give him the honour due unto his name. 

It all comes back to Jesus, doesn’t it? Any goodness or virtue that we see in the OT and NT saints all traces to him. Jeremiah was a great man, one of the greatest who ever lived, but he, like so many others, was only a shadow of the greatest man, the man Christ Jesus. Let me close by asking you a question. Has your spiritual hunger led you to Jesus Christ? We’ve all met good men and women in our lives, but admit it—none of them are perfect, and none of them can satisfy you completely. That place in your heart, dear one, is reserved for Jesus Christ. The sooner you realize that and come to him, receiving him as your Saviour, the one who died for your sins and rose again, the more blessed you will be. We’d now like to give you an opportunity to do that, as we sing a song of invitation.

A Biblical Survey of Settling for Less

(Transcript of a sermon preached at Bible Believers' Baptist Church, Madison, AL, on 30 November, 2014.)

Text: 2 Timothy 4:1-10

I recently read a passage from literature that stirred me deeply and turned my mind toward these things. I’ll talk about that passage at the close of this two-part message, but the thrust of it was that a saint had to be content with less in heaven because they were content with less on earth. That’s the general idea I’d like to explore, though my survey won’t be limited to saints. Paul said in 1 Cor. 10:11 that “all these things happened unto them [Israel] for ensamples: and they are written for our [the church’s] admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” So I’d like to look at numerous examples of this decision in scripture for our admonition, learning (Rom. 15:4) and application. 

     Let me start off with a quote from Christian literature that highlights the magnitude of this decision to settle for less. This is taken from C.S. Lewis’ The Weight of Glory:

“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and [lust] and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” As I take you through examples of settling for less in scripture, see if things are not exactly as Lewis asserts.

OLD TESTAMENT EXAMPLES

1. Adam (Gen. 3). The head of the human race certainly settled for less. He put a woman before God, a very common sin among men. Much, if not most, of popular music through the ages is the idolization of women by men. Bro. Ruckman made a great point in his notes on 1 Cor. 11, where a woman is referred to as “the glory of the man” (11:7). So if you find a society glorifying women, you know that they are declining from God, since a woman is man’s glory, not God’s. When you hear men sing, “You’re all I need,” you should cringe. That’s idolatry, folks, and utterly false! No woman can satisfy a man totally, since man’s spirit can only be satisfied by its creator, God. Perhaps that’s how Adam tried to console himself after the fall, but he soon found that Eve was a sinner just like him, full of faults and imperfections. Richard Chartres, the Bishop of London, preached at Prince William’s wedding several years ago, and he said that as “the reality of God has faded from so many lives in the west,” more and more people are seeking fulfillment in human relationships. According to Chartres, this puts too great a burden on the partner, which is as incomplete and in need of forgiveness as the other. Adam chose falling with Eve versus abiding with God, and here we are today, because he settled for less. As an addendum, I would like to assert that the patriarch Adam was not saved: (1) when Jesus mentions the righteous blood shed from the beginning to end of the old testament, he begins with Abel, not Adam (Mt. 23:35); (2) the “Hall of Faith” in Heb. 11 begins with Abel, not with Adam; (3) he was a contemporary of Enoch for 314 years, and scripture never says that he walked with God or pleased God like Enoch (Gen. 5:22-24; Heb. 11:5), and it is Enoch, not Adam, who is translated (Heb. 11:5). It seems fitting that the man who brought condemnation on the whole race should be condemned, but maybe the grace of God kept him his whole life; however, it doesn’t look good to me. 

2. Cain (Gen. 4). Adam’s terrible firstborn, who was “of that wicked one” (1 John 3:12), chooses self-righteousness (the foundation of false religions) over a relationship with God. His brother Abel sought fellowship, so he brought blood, which he knew had restored his parents to fellowship with God. Cain, however, like Frank Sinatra and Elvis, “did it my way” and God rejects him. You can tell by Cain’s pouting and impudence that he was not seeking God, but wanted God to accept him no matter what. If he truly wanted God’s favour and fellowship, he would not have been wroth but, upon discovering his error, corrected it and did what God required. God stands his ground with Cain, however, and says, in effect, “My way, not your way, Cain.” But, as we see in Jude 11, Cain goes his own “way” and likely ends up in hell, attending church all the way home. I’ve no doubt that the Cainites were religious. If you look at the names of his progeny, some of them contain “-el” or “God” (Gen. 4:18). The trappings mean little, folks, if God doesn’t have your heart, and he never got Cain’s, even after his horrible murder. 

3. Esau (Heb. 12:16). This “fornicator” and “profane person…for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.” He grossly exaggerates his exhaustion upon returning from hunting, and he’s so carnal that he willingly sacrifices the permanent upon the altar of the temporary. Whether Esau understood the spiritual side of his birthright or not, he had to understand that the birthright included his father’s wealth. But the future meant nothing to this fool, only the present, like SO many men after him. Their whole life consists of gratifying their lusts as quickly as possible, with great frustration when they’re the least bit hindered. If you don’t believe that, visit any restaurant in America and see how impatient Americans are with service and how particular they are about their food. Join me for lunch one day at the Subway near my office for an object lesson. These ingrates are Esau’s children, in my opinion. They settle for less, just like he did. 

4. Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh (Num. 32). Oh didn’t they settle for less! Numbers 32 is the story of their poor choice. These carnal Israelites put their cattle before fulfilling God’s word. Seems to me like their God was their belly, and they are not exalted in Israel’s history. No one from Reuben ever reigns over Israel, and the Gadites and Manassites have only minor roles in Israel’s national affairs through the years. But didn’t they help the other tribes conquer Canaan? Yes, they did…upon threat of judgment. We use the verse “be sure your sin will find you out” in our dealings with others, but the context of that was judgment upon the two and a half tribes if they didn’t help with the conquest of Canaan. The sad truth is that even sharing in the conquest of Canaan didn’t change their hearts and give them a taste for their real inheritance. They were set on living outside the best that God had for them. Know anyone like that? Sad to say, that’s where most believers live. Their hearts are in this world, not heavenly places where they ought to be (Col. 3:2) and actually are (Eph. 2:6). If your heart is down here, it’s in the wrong place, because your true spiritual location is up there, and one day you’ll be up there physically. That’s why Paul says what he does in Col. 3:2: so our lives down here will be consistent with our life up there, until we’re taken there physically (Phil. 3:20-21).

5. Achan (Josh. 7:1; 1 Chron. 2:7). This covetous Judean loses not only his own life for a stylish garment and some cash (Josh. 7:21), but the lives of his entire family and the 36 soldiers who die in the failed attack upon Ai (Josh. 7:5). Achan, known to posterity as “the troubler of Israel” (1 Chron. 2:7), is a classic example of the folly and price of sin for oneself and others. Note Joshua’s last words to him: “Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day” (Josh. 7:24). Here we see a solemn example of the law of sowing and reaping, and since you reap more than you sow, Achan dies a dishonourable and horrible death, since his entire house and possessions are right there with him. Oh what a terrible price for settling for less!

6. Eli (1 Sam. 1-4). What great potential! Seems like his progeny would have continued in the priesthood, but with Abiathar’s ejection under Solomon in 1 Kings 2:26-27, over 100 years later, all of them are eventually put out of it. Why? Because this man put his sons—and food—before God’s word. God’s charges against him with honouring his “sons above me” (2:29) and “mak[ing] [them]selves fat with the chiefest of the offerings of Israel…” So although Eli reproves his sons for their sins, he does not restrain them when they ignore him (3:13, 2:25), and it appears, due to his heaviness (4:18), that he may have partook of the offerings extorted from the Israelites. How many have settled for pleasing their children rather than being right with God! How can your children have God in his proper place if you don’t have them in theirs (1 Tim. 3:5)?! Small wonder that Hophni and Phinehas ignore Eli’s reproof. Their disrespect as adults began and was tolerated during their upbringing. What a solemn warning for us as saints! Here is God’s priest, someone close to him, losing his family and ironically Samuel, who witnesses all of this, makes the same mistake, since his sons are low-lifes like Eli’s boys. True, all four sons chose their own path, but there seems to have been some disconnect between fathers and sons in both families, with tragic results. 

7. King Joash of Israel (2 Kings 13:14-19). When word reaches this evil king that Elisha is dying, he comes weeping over the departure of the true strength of his kingdom, what is meant by “the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof” (v. 14). Quite a humbling admission for this king, that it was the prophet of God who was keeping his country together. So he makes a good decision to seek him out before he departs. True to form, God rewards the king’s humility, just like he rewarded Ahab’s many years before when he repented under Elijah’s final rebuke. Elisha, in figure, shows him that he can be delivered from Syria, to the degree of his choices. The first act shows him clearly what the arrows stand for. So when it comes time for him to strike, the expectation is that that he’ll do it numerous times for complete deliverance from Syria (v. 19). But for some reason, likely unbelief, he only strikes three times, provoking Elisha (and indirectly, God) to wrath. He settles for less, and his triumph over Syria is only partial. Isn’t that the way it is with us too? God tells us that our triumph over sin is complete in Rom. 6, but we balk at full conquest and congratulate ourselves that we don’t drink and smoke. Let me tell you, folks, in the long war against sin, ceasing from tobacco and liquor is only a skirmish. Your biggest battles are going to be with pride, covetousness, envy, laziness, gluttony, and a host of other enemies. When you think about it, drinking nasty firewater and breathing smoke are not natural to begin with. But pride and covetousness sure are, aren’t they? John Paul Jones said, “I have not yet begun to fight!” Neither have you, if you’re not trying to subdue your inner sins as well as your external. 

NEW TESTAMENT

 

1. Rich young ruler (Mt. 19:16-22; Mark 10:17-22, Luke 18:18-23). This gentleman is an important figure, doctrinally and practically. When he asks Christ what good thing must he do to have eternal life, Christ does not say, Believe Paul’s gospel. Christ hasn’t even died at this point, and Paul hasn’t been saved or received the revelation of the gospel for this age. The gospels are under the old testament economy, though they are properly placed in our Bible since they institute the new testament. They have to go somewhere, and of course they’re in the proper place in our King James Bible. This ruler (Luke 18:18) is, of course, important practically as well. We’ve all heard about his dilemma of following Christ or keeping his possessions and of the sad outcome. He puts his possessions before God, and loses his soul for them. A very solemn warning. “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36-37) Paul adds in 1 Timothy 6:9, “For they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into divers and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.” Perdition is loss, not of eternal salvation in a saint’s case, but of other things like testimony, power, and peace. Don’t settle for this world’s trinkets like this young man did. He was so close to salvation, it said in Mark 10:21 that the Lord loved him. But he didn’t go far enough, he settled for less, and it cost him his soul.

2. Rulers of Israel (John 11:47-48). While Jesus was raising the dead, they were fretting about keeping their “place and nation,” i.e. their position of power and influence over the Jewish people. For that lust, they sell out the Son of God and, ironically, keep neither the place nor the nation, both being swept away by the Romans less than 40 years later. Their putting their “place” before the nation, which the Holy Spirit carefully records here, costs not just them their lives, but the life of the entire nation. See how awful it is to be selfish, folks, and how diligent we need to be in mortifying all of its forms in our lives and teaching our children these principles as well? Selfishness hurts, not just you, but those around you. If you want to bless others, you must deny and forget yourself. The degree that you do (or don’t) do that will determine your helpfulness (or harmfulness) in life.

 

3. Judas (Mt. 27:3-10). Judas gets his piece of land…the potter’s field. Which is probably what he wanted. The Lord gives you what you want, you know. He gave them their heart’s desire and…sent leanness to their souls. An old testament example of this is Gehazi. When he denies his extortion of money from Naaman, Elisha sees in a vision right into the servant’s heart and even what he wanted to use the money for (2 Kings 5:25-26). Wow! What a terrifying example of the omniscience of God! He knows what, deep down, you really want, for worse or for better. In Judas’ case, it was a piece of cursed ground, at the cost of innocent blood! How many other men have given their souls just for a piece of ground, like King Ahab for Naboth’s vineyard. Ahab meets a violent, premature end just like Judas for a piece of land at the cost of a righteous man’s blood, a type of the one betrayed by Judas!

 

4. Pilate (John 18:33-19:22). I think that the interview between Christ and Pilate in John 18 provides the most insight on Pilate’s heart of all the gospel accounts. Let’s begin with 19:11. Jesus told Pilate that to crucify him (v. 10) would be sin, and that is the last word that he ever says to Pilate. According to Christ, Pilate’s sin would not be as great as that of the Jews that delivered him to Pilate (“he” applies to the Jews generally; cf. Acts 3:13, John 19:12), but it would still be sin. Why? Because Christ revealed who he was to Pilate in chapter 18, and Pilate missed it since he was not “of the truth” (vv. 37-38). He has a conscience (look at 18:38), but he doesn’t follow it to salvation, so when he enquires as to Christ’s identity in 19:9, “Jesus gave him no answer,” since Pilate had rejected truth earlier and was not enquiring in sincerity this time either. So what was the problem with this man? How did he settle for less? Note the turning point in 19:13: “When Pilate therefore heard that saying…” What saying? Look at v. 12. “…but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.” Whoa! Now Pilate must choose between earthly loyalty and heavenly, since the man standing in front of him claims to be from heaven. “Whose friend will I be?” thinks Pilate. Per Mt. 27:24, he “saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made…” The Jews are not going to back down from this ultimatum and are beginning to riot, so he chooses to sell the Lord out rather than risk his own neck. Of course he did: “Skin for skin, yea all that a man hath will he give for his life” (Job 2:4); and, “…the friendship of the world is enmity with God (Jas. 4:4).” What a pity that Pilate chose to be Caesar’s or the world’s friend rather than God’s. He could’ve gone down as one of the greatest men in history, rather than one of the most infamous. 

 

5. Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11). This couple got off to a good start by believing Peter’s message on Pentecost and attaching themselves to the apostles, but they make a fatal error in Acts 5 (the number of death) by holding back part of the value of their land but pretending like they didn’t. If I read Peter’s rebuke in v. 4 correctly, both the sale and the offering were voluntary; it was the pretense that angered the Lord and brought swift judgment on both man and wife. Ananias and Sapphira are like so many of us, though, in that they can’t let go of everything; so they settle for less than the best, and wow does it cost them. Now in Acts 5, the kingdom is being offered to Israel, so there’s a dispensational difference in this context, but the principle is still there: settling for less has dire consequences, both in this life and the next, and should be avoided at all costs. 

 

6. Diotrephes (3 John 9-11). This shady character pops up in the shortest book of the Bible (299 words), and wow does he stick out like a sore thumb. He craves the preëminence among one of the churches that the apostle John is looking after, to the point of resisting John himself and “churching” anyone who wants to associate with John and his fellowlabourers. Nice fella, huh? But do you see where he settled for less? He wanted preeminence or praise from men rather than God. The Lord notes this about the Jewish elders who feared to confess Christ during his earthly ministry. He said that “they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God” (John 12:48). That must be one of the saddest verses in the Bible, when you consider who you’re seeking praise from. Is. 51:12 says, “I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and the son of man which shall be made as grass; And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth;” and Jesus said in John 5:44, “How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?” Why are we concerned one whit about man’s praise when we could have the praise of God. Oh yes, Paul says in 1 Cor. 4:5 that faithful men in this age “shall have praise of God” at the judgment seat of Christ (isn’t that what “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” is…praise?). But what happens sometimes is that men, including Christian men, want to be praised by others instead of striving to please God alone and for him to get all the glory. That’s where I believe Diotrephes settled for less and ruined himself. He started craving the preëminence that belongs to Christ (Col. 1:18) for himself, just like Lucifer wanted God’s glory for himself. Same agenda…and same results, I believe, since John mentions Diotrephes’ “prating…with malicious words,” and Proverbs 10 warns twice (vv. 8,10) that “a prating fool shall fall.” Remember the old hymn, Be Thou My Vision? “Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise…” Do you believe that? Your life will show who you are trying to please; please don’t follow Diotrephes and settle for man’s praise rather than God’s. 

 

7. Demas (2 Timothy 4:1-10). I don’t think that this survey would be complete without mentioning this brother. And he was a brother; in fact, Paul calls him one of his “fellowlabourers” in Phile. 23. So Demas wasn’t a rank and file believer. He achieved a place in the apostolic company, and was apparently successful at first. But somewhere between Paul’s release from Rome the first time and his imprisonment the second time, Demas departs from Paul, and Paul is obviously grieved by this. Now, Demas wasn’t the only person that Paul names as forsaking him. In 2 Tim. 1:15, we read about Phygellus and Hermogenes turning away from (good definition of forsaking) Paul, and if I read 4:10 correctly, it looks like Crescens and even Titus bail at the end. You have to study the circumstances, folks, to understand why these men who had labored with Paul previously turned away from him. This time it wasn’t like it was with Barnabas, when they were arguing about the practicality of bringing John Mark along. No, by now, Paul had testified before Caesar, been released, and locked up again. I really think that his suffering was an embarrassment to some, since he tells Timothy not to be ashamed of his suffering in 1:8 and says in 1:12 that he’s not ashamed of it himself. But I think that others were, and perhaps also afraid that continued association with Paul would land them in the hoosegow.  Paul’s complaint about Demas is that he “loved this present world.” That is a tragedy, since the world that he loved is called evil by his mentor (Gal. 1:4) and his Saviour (John 3:20, 7:7, 17:15, etc.). What business does a believer seated in heavenly places have loving an evil world? I think that we’re getting closer to the root of this thing. Look at v. 8. Paul says that he’s expecting an eternal reward for loving Christ’s appearing from heaven. Somehow Demas got his eyes off the blessed hope, folks, and the only other thing to love is this world, folks. Col. 3:2, Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. It’s one or the other. Paul also warns in Col. 1:22-23 about being “moved away from the hope of the gospel” or the blessed hope. The consequences are found in v. 22: blame and reproof at the judgment seat of Christ, instead of eternal reward. O Demas, why did you settle for less? You could’ve reigned with Paul and many others in glory if you’d kept your affection set on the right thing. Lady Georgiana Fullerton, an old-time saint, said, “Make me reach, my God, the degree of holiness to which Thou didst call me in creating me!” She wasn’t about to settle for less, but Demas was, God only knows why, and oh how he’ll regret it hereafter.

I’d like to close this sermon with my inspiration for it, a passage from Dante’s Paradiso. Many of you have heard of Dante’s Inferno, which is a long poem describing his tour of hell. Well, that’s just the first part of a larger work called The Divine Comedy, written 1308-1321. The Paradiso, which describes his tour of heaven, is the last. 

As Dante enters the lowest level of heaven, he meets a woman named Piccarda, who is assigned a lowly place in heaven because she broke her Catholic vow of chastity on earth, apparently for marriage. Now to us that’s trivial, since it’s natural for a woman to marry, but for a Catholic woman to break this vow was discouraged, though not sinful. But in Dante’s theology, this cost Piccarda greater rewards in heaven because she settled for less (in his mind) on earth. He notices that she’s content with her lowly place, and when he enquires why, she replies that “his will is our peace.” When I read that quote I was moved, because I believe that’s how it will be for us in eternity. There will be a divine peace about our reward, but also the awareness that we could have had more. Piccarda knew that, but God in his goodness will give us peace in our glorified state, unlike those in hell, who will remember with anguish for ever what they could have had.

Isn’t the Lord utterly kind? Don’t you want to give him everything? Does it frustrate you when you don’t? Why settle for less, dear one, while you still have the chance to lay up even greater rewards in heaven? Don’t let anyone deceive you, including yourself, that anything down here amounts to anything except what you’re doing for eternity.