NORTHSHORE CHURCH OF CHRIST

As I was reading my Bible this morning, I came across the seventh plague in Egypt, a mighty and terrible hailstorm. God gave Egypt plenty of forewarning, and it records, “Then whoever feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the LORD left his slaves and his livestock in the field” (Exodus 9.20–21).

Meditating on this, two truths spring to my mind.

Fearing the LORD Is Good

When we fear the One True and Living God, the thrice-holy God, the Holiest of Holies, we listen to Him! His word is not frivolous nor simply suggestive but rather emphatic and commanding. Just as balls of solid ice fell upon those dismissive Egyptians, so God’s word does not fall to the ground void—it always accomplishes what He intends with irresistible power.

When God said He would harden Pharaoh’s heart, there was no way his heart could not have been hardened. When God said He would deliver His people from Egypt, there should have been no question He was able to accomplish His purpose; Israel could trust His word. So many accounts are recorded in Scripture in which God proves Himself; we should be ashamed to ever doubt His faithfulness. Let God be true and every man a liar.

Fearing the LORD Means Acting in Faith

Also, in the text above, I saw Egyptians who acted upon God’s word because they feared His wrath and power. They believed. After all, this was the seventh plague! They had seen terrible things over the past few months, and even if their Pharaoh wouldn’t budge, some of them were convinced. They pulled their animals and their slaves out of the field and sheltered them because God had warned.

This is what it means to fear the LORD. Solomon said the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep His commandments (Eccl. 12.13), and in the next verse he explained we should fear God because God will bring every matter (everything we say, do, and think) out into the open in the Judgment. Do you believe it? Does your daily walk show it?

Fearing Man Is Bad

A few days ago, I read Luke 12, and Jesus there taught His disciples, “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” (Luke 12.4–5)

Jesus’ disciples are frequently faced with enemies who push us to go against the word of the Lord, and we must decide whether we fear them or God. This choice comes before us more often than we would care to admit. Someone pushes the perspective of the enemy, preaches falsehoods in our face, argues for some corrupt cause, and we have a choice. Do we remain silent? Do we walk away? Do we go along to get along? We find champions of faith who we should imitate, like Daniel and David, Ruth and Rahab, who faced lies, temptations, and demands from God’s enemies and replied in word and deed: “We must obey God rather than man.”

Fear can be good, and fear can be bad. It depends upon the context. It depends upon the object of our fear.

Whom do you fear?

John 6.26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate some of the loaves and were filled. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” 28 Therefore they said to Him, “What are we to do, so that we may accomplish the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”

Jesus baffled these Jews with His talk of food that lasts for eternal life. That sounds lovely, doesn’t it? So they wanted to know how they could accomplish the works of God. Jesus said the work of God was that “you believe in Him whom He has sent.”

I thought Paul, especially, pointed out that faith and works are not the same. How is believing a work?

This is a good question out of this context.

Notice Jesus did not say just “a work” but “the work.” And it is singular, so He’s not talking about all the possible good works we can do but only the primary work. And that work is “of God,” meaning it either belongs to God or comes from Him. The context shows their question is about doing “the works of God” (verse 28), so when they said, “of God,” they meant the works belonging to Him. It’s not the work that God does, but the work we do which is from Him, commanded by Him, pertaining to Him.

It is THE WORK because faith in Jesus as the one the Father sent is the key to eternal life, the food that endures to eternal life. You can perform no good work outside of faith by which you can earn eternal life. Even as you obediently do the good works which God commanded and created you to do, it is not the doing of those works which saves you. On the other hand, you are not saved without doing good works because they are the fruit of your genuine faith, just as you bear fruit when you genuinely repent.

In this way, we understand we are saved by faith apart from works (Eph. 2.8-9; Tit. 3.5).

As Jesus calls faith “the work of God” here, He differentiates it from other works. Belief is a work done internally, in our minds and hearts. It’s a change of attitude when one graduates from unbelief to belief, and it is not simply our human effort of trying really hard to believe. God breaks into our lives in some way, breaks us down, knocks us off our donkey (like Paul), shows us His glory (like Peter in the boat), shines the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4.6). In other words, God always acts first in some way to call us, and all who are converted to Him can look back and see God’s work in our lives and give Him the glory for our faith and salvation.

Do you want to know God? Get to know Jesus. Do you want to see God? Look at Jesus. Do you want to be saved? Believe in Jesus as the one whom God made both Lord and Christ. Do you want eternal life? Work for the food which lasts unto eternal life. Feed on Jesus.

Life is all about Jesus!

According to Romans 5, there are two kinds of people: those who are in Christ and those who are in Adam. We cannot necessarily tell who is which, but God did give us external fruit by which to judge and evaluate.

From Jesus’ parable in Matthew 13, you might say there are four kinds of people because of His story about four soils. But how many of those soils supported plants which bore fruit? Only one. The other three describe three flavors of being unfruitful sons of Adam.

The next parable in Matthew 13.24ff compares good seed with weeds sown by an enemy. The land owner said to let both grow together until harvest, at which time they would be separated—the good to be saved and the weeds to be burned. “The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one” (Matt. 13.38). Jesus was describing two kinds of people in the world. But hadn’t Jesus begun His parable, “The kingdom of heaven is like...”? Indeed, Jesus reigns over the world, and His kingdom comprises all nations under heaven.

Jesus also told the parable of the dragnet in Matthew 13.47ff, in which a net gathered fish “of every kind.” Then they sorted the fish, but only into two sets: good ones and bad ones. Saving the good ones in containers, they threw the bad away. Possibly this parallels the parable of the weeds, but it seems more likely the net represents the visible church, for these fish were gathered out of all the rest of the fish of the sea. Even within what we understand to be Christianity, the Church, the Body of Christ, “the angels will come forth and remove the wicked from among the righteous” (Matt. 13.49).

No matter how you cut it, only two kinds of people walk this earth. Which group are you in? How can you tell? Can you be sure?

Jesus said good trees bear good fruit (Matt. 7.17–20). A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. The tree may be ugly, growing at an odd angle, split in half by a lightning bolt, but its fruit determines what kind of tree it is.

Maybe you have been through hell on earth, have a past riddled with trouble and sin, have walked in foolishness and darkness in years gone by—but what are you now? Are you bearing fruit for Jesus now?

What fruit is Jesus talking about? “The one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven,” Jesus said (not the one who merely claims to do it).

Are you doing the Father’s will? If your next questing is, “How much of the Father’s will must I do to qualify?” you miss the point! Do you want to do His will? Do you strive to do His will? Does your conscience prick you when you don’t do His will?

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6.8)

King Saul and King David illustrate these two kinds of people.

Saul started out looking good (handsome, humble, strong, went to battle for the people). He sinned, and when confronted, he became sorrowful.

David started out looking good (handsome, humble, strong, went to battle for the people). He sinned, and when confronted, he became sorrowful.

But God rejected Saul and loved David. What made the difference? Saul indeed sorrowed, but he had to be pushed into admitting his sin, and even then he seemed more upset in losing his position and taking his punishment than in losing his relationship with the Lord (1 Sam. 15.24–34). On the other hand, David’s heart immediately crumbled when confronted with his sin (2 Sam. 12.13). He wrote, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge,” and “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51.4, 11).

Paul later distinguished, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death” (2 Cor. 7.10). Saul had worldly grief; David had godly grief.

There are two kinds of people.

Clown World is in full swing these days, and craziness abounds everywhere. It’s easy to feel like the world is coming apart, our social fabric is ripping, and we can trust no one.

We have seen politically motivated upheavals at unusual levels over the past few decades. Rioters have burned cars and shops in some of our major cities, commandeered sections of those cities, swarmed the capitol building as elections were being counted. We have seen unrest on many major university campuses as young people protest the war waged by Israel against Palestinian terrorists.

We see injustice, and we cry out against it. It hurts our souls. We might say, alongside Solomon,

“When the righteous increase, the people rejoice,
but when the wicked rule, the people groan” (Proverbs 29.2).

Our hearts groan deeply, and we hear the cries around us.

“He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous
are both alike an abomination to God” (Proverbs 17.15).

Moses wrote:

“You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” (Deuteronomy 16.18–20)

When we see leaders and people in power who seem to blatantly disregard the rule of law and execute end-runs around the truth, we want to pull out our hair. We cry foul, but who is listening? Who cares?

The good news for Christians is we don’t have to worry about it. It is right to be upset about a travesty of justice, but we don’t have to worry in the sense of despair. God gives His people a peace the world cannot understand and a joy that cannot be stolen. How can we enjoy this supernatural peace? It is anchored in the knowledge of our God (Eph. 3.14–21), that He loves us and is for us and will never forsake us (Rom. 8.31–39). We don’t worry because our Father holds all things in His hands. We don’t worry because our Elder Brother is King over all nations. God reigns over Clown World.

Our little nation could crash down around us, cities could burn, the United States could become the Divided States, yet our Father and our King will always remain sovereign. They still love us. They still hear us. They still act on our behalf.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 4.4–7)

So let us ask God for His help in all these things. Ask Him to judge all the injustice and to keep His people in the palm of His hand. This is the way to eliminate anxiety and be at peace.

I remember my parents’ generation saying, “This world is getting worse and worse. I fear for our kids. What will they have to deal with?” I hear people of my own generation saying the exact same thing now. Most seem to have a rosy remembrance of their childhood years, but the glasses come off as they get older. Perhaps it’s better to say they replace the rose-colored glasses with gray-tinted lenses; they see this world with overly negative vision.

Just because you now know the world is bad doesn’t mean it hasn’t always been bad. Human beings are evil creatures in their natural state. “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2.14). Before God shines the light of the gospel into our hearts (2 Cor. 4.6), we are miserable men indeed!

God instructs us to “no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity” (Eph. 4.17-19).

Humans have been this way from the time Adam and Eve swallowed that prohibited produce. We are selfish, prideful, greedy, and sensual. We have twisted worldviews as we have attempted to find our own way apart from God’s direction and wisdom. We engage in sexism, racism, fascism, communism, authoritarianism.

But that battle has always raged, hasn’t it? God’s kingdom continues in pitched battle against the kingdoms of men, and we know who will ultimately conquer. The kingdoms of men continue to crumble while Christ’s dominion continues to increase. “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

I suggest we stop talking about how bad things are getting because…

1. It’s not productive. When you are pitched in battle against an adversary, it is useless to complain about his strength or that he seems to be winning. This is counterproductive, unhealthy, and generally causes unneeded, harmful fear.
2. It’s not the truth. If we listen to the Lord, we understand man’s heart is evil from his youth. It’s not like the world used to be a good place, but it’s been sliding. The battle between good and evil continues to wage.
3. It is a statement of unbelief. When we use this language, we teach our children the devil is winning here on earth, and that’s not a biblical picture. It’s a statement of unbelief. Remember Elisha’s servant who could only see the great army coming against them until Elisha prayed that his eyes be opened. Elisha said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Elisha’s servant could then see the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha (2 Kings 6.15-19)! Faith is knowing that God is winning here on earth even when we cannot see it, and we need to speak to our kids with language of faith. The good guys win!

Take heart, dear Christian, and speak confidently from a place of faith in the conquering King! Jesus has established His church to disciple the nations, and that’s the business we are in until He returns.