Happy Rules

January 7, 2015  David Murray   0 comments

If man were infinitely wise, and could draw up a code for himself, which would involve no hardship, and entail all that was happy, he could devise no regulations more healthful, more profitable, or more pleasant than those of the Savior. Charles Spurgeon

For many people, the existence of God’s law is proof that He opposes human happiness. “If God really wanted me to be happy, He wouldn’t put all these laws in my way.” Thus, every day, billions of people try to throw off God’s law, cast it behind their backs, and run away from it as fast as possible. What they don’t realize is that instead of escaping hardship, they are escaping happiness.

Here are four reasons why we should trust and obey God’s laws as designed for our happiness.

1. God knows us. As our creator, He knows what is best for us in our bodies, minds, relationships, lifestyle, communities, and so on. He has observed billions of human lives over the years and knows what works well and what doesn’t.

2. God knows our world. He knows the dangers of this world better than we do and has designed His laws as boundaries, as fences to keep us in safe places and away from the danger zones. He knows what damages and what destroys us.

3. God knows the future. When men change God’s law, they cannot foresee the consequences. If politicians could look down the road and see all the implications of their legislation, they often would change their plans. God sees down the road, views all the possible consequences, and therefore has never had to change one of His moral laws.

4. God knows the Gospel. God also designed the law to show us our sin and our need of a Savior. The law not only shows us the best way to live, but also that we cannot live that life, that we need Someone who did, and that we need the Holy Spirit to fuel our obedience.

“For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3)

R. C. Sproul Defends The God of the Old Testament

January 6, 2015  David Murray   1 comment

It’s not only old and new atheists who have struggled with the God of the Old Testament. As R. C. Sproul admits in chapter 6 of The Holiness of God, some of the greatest Christians, including Martin Luther and the Apostle Paul, have wrestled to reconcile God’s holy justice with the seeming brutality of God’s judgments, especially in the Old Testament.

Before facing the difficulties head on and “staring the Old Testament God in the face,” Sproul rapidly dispatches some of the common yet unacceptable solutions to this problem. Then, instead of choosing some of the easier passages to explain and defend, Sproul takes head-on the most difficult and offensive passages in the Bible:

  • The judgment of Nadab and Abihu for offering an unauthorized sacrifice (Lev. 10:1-3).
  • The judgment on Uzzah for touching the ark (1 Chron. 13:7-11).
  • Capital punishment for multiple crimes.
  • The command given to Israel to slaughter thousands of Canaanites.
  • The killing of Christ on the cross.

This chapter on God’s holy justice is the most outstanding chapter in an outstanding book, and, I believe, one of the greatest chapters Sproul has ever written. Although he deals with each of the above passages in turn, here’s my attempt to gather together and summarize the common threads in each section:

God’s Judgments Were Pre-announced
In the cases of Nadab, Abihu, and Uzzah, God cannot be accused of unexpected, whimsical, or arbitrary judgment. Rather, God gave clear instructions and unmistakeable prohibitions and, in the case of Uzzah at least, clear and unmistakeable sanctions for disobedience (Ex. 30:9-10; Num. 4:15-20). These were not innocent men and these were not sins of ignorance.

God’s Judgments Are Holy
As God’s justice is according to His holy character, His justice is never divorced from His righteousness. He never condemns the innocent, clears the guilty, or punishes with undue severity.

God’s Judgments Are Delayed
Although the New Testament seems to reduce the number of capital offenses, even the Old Testament represents a massive reduction in capital crimes from original list – instant death for each and every sin.

The OT, therefore, is a record of the grace of God, because every sin is a capital offense and deserving of death. The issue is not why does God punish sin, but why does He permit ongoing human rebellion and ongoing human existence? The OT is a record of a God who is patient in the extreme with a rebellious people, delaying the full measure of justice so that grace would have time to work.

God’s Judgments Are Against Sin
We don’t understand God’s judgments because we don’t understand sin. Sin is cosmic treason – treason against a perfectly pure sovereign. It misrepresents God whose image we are called to bear, and it violates others – injuring, despoiling, and robbing them. In commanding the Israelites to slaughter the Canaanites, God was not giving injustice to Canaan and justice to Israel; He gave justice to Canaan and mercy to Israel. The Canaanites were not innocent, but a treasonous people who daily insulted God’s holiness (Deut. 9:4-6).

God’s Judgments Were Approved by Jesus
Christ called the Old Testament God, “Father.” It was the Old Testament God who sent His son to save the world, and the Old Testament God’s will that Jesus came to do. It was zeal for the Old Testament God who slew Nadab and Abihu that consumed Christ (John 2:17).

God’s Greatest Judgment Was Experienced by Jesus
The most powerful act of divine vengeance in the Bible, and the most violent expression of God’s wrath and justice, is seen at the cross. If we have cause for moral outrage, let it be focused on the cross. Yet, the cross was the most beautiful and the most horrible example of God’s wrath. It was the most just and the most gracious act in history.

God’s Judgments Destroy Entitlement
Since we tend to take grace for granted, God reminded Israel through His judgments that grace must never be assumed. God’s judgments challenge our secret sense of entitlement, and changes the question from “Why doesn’t God save everybody?” to “Why did God save me?” But if we insist on insisting on what we deserve, we will get justice, not mercy.

 

The Holiness of God by R. C. Sproul

The Solution To Racial Injustice

January 5, 2015  David Murray   4 comments

ED’S STORY Grateful from Flannel Staff on Vimeo.

Ed Dobson, retired pastor of Calvary Chapel in Grand Rapids, and Pastor Clifton Rhodes, developed a bond so strong over 20 years that they consider themselves brothers. That friendship has deepened even further as first Ed, then Clifton, developed ALS.

Two lines in particular stood out for me in this film:

Ed Dobson (6.32): In the Epistle, the verse says, “In everything give thanks,” not, “For everything give thanks.” I’m not thankful for ALS, but in the midst of it, I can be thankful.

Clifton Rhodes (7:18): My jar has got some cracks in it. Ed’s jar has some cracks in it, but the real treasure cannot be damaged.

A Holy And Happy 2015 To You

January 1, 2015  David Murray   3 comments

2014 is now covered with the blood of Christ.

2015 now waits to be written.

What will your story be?

According to Twitter, the top aspirations and intentions people are sharing online include:

#1. Work out
#2. Be happy
#3. Lose weight
#4. Stop smoking
#5. Unplug

“Be happy” doubtless appeared on the first ever set of New Year resolutions carved in stone; it’s likely been on every list since then; and, presumably, it will also be on the last list ever to be written.

But how? How to be happy? Here are some hints.

Never cease to show your people that to be holy is to be happy; and that, to bring us to perfect holiness and likeness to God, was the very end for which Christ died. Andrew Bonar

For if sin is misery, sinners can only be made happy indeed by being made holy. The process of redemption, then, is one whose design throughout is holiness. Robert Dabney

There will three effects of nearness to Jesus, all beginning with the letter h—humility, happiness, and holiness. Charles Spurgeon

If the question be asked, why we should seek the good of mankind, the answer is, from a regard to our everlasting happiness; and if the question be, why we should make the will of God the rule of our conduct, the answer must be the same; So that really all virtue is resolved into a regard to our own happiness. Archibald Alexander

O that all the world but knew that holiness and happiness are one! O that all the world were one holy family, joyfully coming under the pure rules of the gospel! Andrew Bonar

They’re not hunger and thirst…hungering and thirsting after happiness. They’re hungering and thirsting after righteousness, that’s why they’re happy. John Macarthur

Authentic obedience comes when happiness and holiness meet such that holiness becomes the source of happiness rather than its alternative. Holiness is meant to ignite, not eliminate, joy. Dane Ortlund

I wish you all a very holy and, therefore, a very happy 2015.

A Most Reasonable Happiness

December 31, 2014  David Murray   0 comments

“Gospel mourning is no way inconsistent with holy joy. Though it must be granted that the love of sin and true joy are inconsistent, and that the reign and dominion of sin and true joy are inconsistent, yet it must be confessed that mourning for sin and holy joy are consistent in one and the same heart.” Thomas Brooks

When Jesus pronounced eight happinesses on the way of holiness in Matthew 5, He didn’t just declare it, He explained it. And it certainly needed explanation because it didn’t look like a very happy way of life. That’s why he added a “because” or a “for” to every beatitude. He wanted to further reason with us and persuade us into the way of holiness.

How can you be happy when feeling spiritually bankrupt? Because God gives the kingdom of heaven only to such people.

How can you be happy when you are sad over sin? Because God promises a spiritual comfort that will not only restore but improve your spiritual health.

How can you be happy about meekly giving up your rights? Because God will give you the earth.

How can you be happy when hungering and thirsting? Because this is a God-given and God-satisfied hunger and thirst.

How can internal purity make you happy? Because it allows you to see and savor the most beautiful sight in the universe – God.

How can giving mercy to the undeserving make you happy? Because it assures you that you will receive mercy too.

How can peace-making make you happy? Because despite all the names you’ll be called by people, God calls you His son or daughter.

How can being persecuted make you happy? Here he gives three reasons: it’s for Christ’s sake, it secures a great heavenly reward, and it puts you in the best of company – the previously persecuted prophets.

“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:11-12)

8 Happinesses Promised By Jesus

December 30, 2014  David Murray   0 comments

“Take warning this day, that you never will be happy till you are converted. You might as well expect to feel the sun shine on your face when you turn your back to it, as to feel happy when you turn your back on God and on Christ.” J C Ryle

When Jesus promised happiness eight times at the beginning of His Sermon on the Mount, He did not promise it to everybody. Rather, He identified the marks, the characteristics of those who will experience this blessedness.

  • They don’t find happiness in themselves. Poor in spirit, they recognize, “I am nothing.”
  • They don’t find happiness in their sins. Rather they mourn over them.
  • They don’t find happiness in their achievements. They are meek not boastful.
  • They don’t find happiness in lusting after the pleasures of sin. They hunger and thirst for righteousness.
  • They don’t find happiness in asserting their rights. They are merciful, dealing with people in ways they don’t deserve.
  • They don’t find happiness in mere outward reformation. They seek cleansing of their hearts.
  • They don’t find happiness in beating people. They find happiness in making peace with people.
  • They don’t find happiness in popularity. They find happiness in pleasing God even if it means suffering personal pain and loss.

In other words there is no happiness in being self-confident, self-accepting, self-assertive, self-righteous, self-seeking, self-centered, or self-protective. There’s only happiness in turning from self to the Savior by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit.

“Happy are the people who are in such a state;
Happy are the people whose God is the Lord!”
(Ps. 144:15)