The Old Stories Were Parables

“I will open my mouth in a parable.  I will utter dark sayings of old,

which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.”

Psalm 78:2–3

This is the Son of God talking through the prophet, stating that he will do two things at the same time.  He will speak in parables, but with those parables, he will be repeating familiar stories that had been told in Israel for generations.  When Jesus spoke of Jonah being in the whale’s belly for three days, he was doing this.  The story of Jonah was a familiar story in Israel, but it was, at the same time, a parable of Jesus being in the “belly” of the earth for three days.

Jesus also spoke of Abraham, Moses, David, and others.  All those ancient stories were familiar to Israel, but they were also mysteries, parables if you will, which no one had ever understood – not even Abraham, Moses, or David.

Jesus came to show us the knowledge of God.  Part of that knowledge was that every ancient story had been designed by God as a parable of His hidden Son.  The Son was God’s “second Adam”; he was Abraham's Isaac, the beloved sacrifice; he was Moses’ “prophet like unto me”; and he was the son of David who would sit on the throne forever.  And he was the meaning behind countless other ancient stories as well.

From the foundation of the world, men of God had prophesied of the coming Son of God, but Jesus revealed that those men themselves were symbols of him.  Their lives, directed by God, also prophesied of him.  When Jesus told those ancient stories, it was the first time in history that they have been told the way they were intended by God to be understood.

Only in Judah; Only in the Spirit

“In Judah is God known. . . .

In Jerusalem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion.”

Psalm 76:1a–2

These simple truths came as a revelation from God to David, and we assume that everyone in Israel believed them to be true.  But in David’s time, only a small percentage of Israelites did.

To be sure, the Israelites believed that God could be known in the tribe of Judah, but they did not believe what David meant by that statement; to wit, God had chosen Judah as the only place where He would make Himself known.  Nevertheless, it was true, for if an issue arose in Israel that no one could resolve, the people had to go to Jerusalem in Judah, the place where God’s high priest was, to learn God’s answer.

Likewise, when David said that God’s earthly dwelling place was Mount Zion in Jerusalem, he meant God’s only earthly dwelling place was in Jerusalem.  The false teachers of that time responded, “God is everywhere!” and most of Israel followed them.  David, of course, knew that God was everywhere, but it had been revealed to him that God had chosen Jerusalem as the one place on earth where He would dwell in a temple.

Because only a few in Israel believed David, it was easy for Absalom, and after him a man named Sheba, to persuade the vast majority of Israelites to rebel against David as their king.  And when David was dead, the tribes in the north rebelled and separated themselves permanently from Judah and Jerusalem.

Today, few among God’s people believe a different revelation, just as true and simple as the one God gave David.  This revelation says that God is known in the Spirit, instead of “God is known in Judah.”  God’s people today agree that God can be known in the Spirit, but as in David’s time, they cannot agree that the Spirit is the only way one knows God.  They have been persuaded to believe that souls also “come to know the Lord” by “getting saved”, without receiving, or being baptized with, the Spirit.

In David’s time, it was Judah and Jerusalem; now it is the body of Christ and the Spirit.  Israel’s downfall was the result of denying that God had chosen Jerusalem as the one place on earth where He would be known.  What will be the result of modern saints’ refusal to believe that only by the Spirit can one come to know God?

An Influence for Good

“Remember this, that the enemy has reproached, O LORD,

and that the foolish people have blasphemed your name. . . .

Rise up, O God!  Plead your own cause!

Remember how the foolish man reproaches you every day.

Forget not the voice of your enemies; the tumult of those

who rise up against you increases continually.”

Psalm 74:18, 22–23

I found myself praying these same things recently when I remembered seeing certain famous entertainers mock God, using vile language as they did so.  I called their names out to God, appealing to Him to show His power again so that His Son’s name would be honored again by men.

A body of Christ without miracle-working power, such as the body of Christ is at this time in history, is an invitation to the world to blaspheme the name of Jesus.  The body of Christ is supposed to act like salt, preserving society from going bad as quickly as it will without that salt.  But a body of Christ without power has no preserving influence on society.  When the world sees a body of Christ without the power of God, such as the body of Christ is at this time in history, it thinks there is no reason to fear our God.

The next time we hear a news report about how bad matters are among the nations, instead of just shaking our heads and criticizing the world, let’s get alone with God and ask for the power to be an influence for good.  We do not want God to see us as part of the reason the world is in as bad a condition as it is in.  We want Him to see us as “faultless and innocent, children of God, without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation” (Phip. 2:15).

Judgments Produce Fear, and Godliness

“You caused judgment to be heard from heaven.  The earth feared,

and was still, when God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth.”

Psalm 76:8–9

The fierce judgment of God alone can make this hedonistic world pause in its reckless pursuit of pleasure. “The fear of God is clean,” and even sinners, when they feel it, keep themselves cleaner than they would otherwise do.

Pray for God’s judgments to be revealed from heaven.  And pray to survive them when they are.

God Puts Down and Sets Up

“Promotion comes neither from the east,

nor from the west, nor from the south.

But God is the judge.  He puts down one, and sets up another.”

Psalm 75:6–7

Stay out of politics.  People vote, but God alone decides.  Daniel warned King Nebuchadnezzar that God was about to make him “know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever he will” (Dan. 4:25).

Leave this world’s politics to God, and concentrate on being a godly influence on your family, friends, and associates.  If you accomplish that, you will have fulfilled your purpose in this life.

The Enemies of the Lord

“Your enemies roar in the midst of your congregations. . . .”

Psalm 74:4

“And David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the LORD!’

And Nathan said to David, ‘The LORD has put away your sin;

you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have given

great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme. . . .’ ”

2Samuel 12:13–14

The “enemies of the LORD” to which God, through Nathan the prophet, was referring were not foreign nations.  They were Israelites who refused to believe that God had chosen David to be king and that He had revealed to David that Jerusalem was the place where all Israel should come to worship.  David’s tragic sin with Bathsheba made those rebellious Israelites confident that they were right not to believe David and were right to speak evil of him and his “revelation”.  For committing this crime against God’s people, David and his family suffered for the rest of his life.

May God save us from ever committing a sin that would make God’s enemies, His stubborn and rebellious children, feel justified in refusing the truth that He has shown us.

“We See Not Our Signs”

“We see not our signs.  There is no more any prophet:

neither is there among us any that knows how long.

O God, how long shall the adversary reproach?

Shall the enemy blaspheme your name for ever?”

Psalm 74:9–10

In our time, the body of Christ and the world are both in poor condition.  The precious name of Jesus is greatly scorned by the world, and the miracles and gifts of the Spirit which should be the norm among God’s people are rarely seen.  “We do not see our signs.” as the prophet said of his day, the signs that Jesus said would be among those who believe:

Mark 16

17. These signs shall accompany those who believe: In my name, they’ll cast out demons; they’ll speak with new tongues;

18. they’ll take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it won’t hurt them; they’ll lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

A body of Christ without power is a joke to this world.  The world is emboldened to blaspheme the name of Jesus and scoff at the gospel when God’s children lose their power and start preaching a “word only” gospel.  “The kingdom of God”, Paul said, “is not in talk, but in power.”

The prophet who wrote Psalm 74 knew why his generation did not see their signs: God had withdrawn His power from His people, and the prophet desperately wanted God to bring it back: “O God, why have you cast us off for ever?  Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?” (Ps. 74:1).

Let us seek God for a restoration of His glory among His people so that the name of His Son Jesus will again be feared and respected by men, and so that we might be healed and be true witnesses for Jesus.  Without God’s miracle-working power, none of that can happen.

God’s Laws

“The day is yours, the night also is yours.  You made the light and the sun.

You set all the boundaries of the earth.  You made summer and winter.”

Psalm 74:16–17

The “law of Moses” was God’s law, not Moses’.  God gave it to Moses; Moses did not write a single line of it, and Israel was preserved in peace when they obeyed that law.  Likewise, the “laws of physics” and “laws of the universe” are God’s laws.  God created this universe and the laws that are in it; the universe did not make its own laws.  And it is held together by the laws He instituted for it.

The Greatest Gift

“O bless our God, you people, and make the voice of His praise to be heard

who holds our soul in life, and suffers not our feet to be moved.”

Psalm 66:8–9

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.

He that believes in me shall live even if he dies,

and everyone who is living and believing in me will never, ever die.

Do you believe this?’ ”

John 11:25–26

The most desired, and desirable, object in all creation is life itself.  Every creature in every realm loves it.  However, “nobody can keep his own soul alive” (Ps. 22:29).  And so, to keep forever the most precious gift in all creation, we must ask mercy from the One who gave us life to begin with.  And He has told us how to keep it forever: believe in His Son and walk in His Spirit.  “For if you live after the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Rom. 8:13).

What a precious promise!  The gift of life – forever – if we will but walk in the righteousness, peace, and joy of God’s sweet Spirit!  Nobody but a fool would turn down such an offer.

“Never Thirst Again?”

From a sermon by Pastor John

June 30, 2016

“Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Everybody who drinks this water

will get thirsty again, but if anyone drinks the water that I’ll give him,

he’ll never thirst again.  No, the water that I’ll give him will become

within him fountain of water, springing up into eternal life.’ ”

Jesus, in John 4:13–14

I used to think that the above words from Jesus meant that those who drank the water he gives would never again feel any thirst at all.  And I wondered what was wrong with me, for I was constantly “thirsting” for more of his water.  But thankfully, he let me know that the water that he gives doesn’t quench your thirst for him and his water of life; rather, it quenches your thirst for anything else.  Jesus’ water creates thirst for more of what Jesus is handing out, and removes from our hearts the thirst for anything else!

God Is at War with Death

From a sermon by Pastor John

June 30, 2016

God is at perpetual war with death.  Death is an enemy, Paul said.  “The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1Cor. 15:26).  And do you know how God fights death?  It’s not by railing against it, or shooting guns.  Every time the Spirit moves on you, God is fighting with death.  The life of the Spirit is the victory over death!  Every time you feel the Spirit, God is conquering the death that is in your flesh.

God doesn’t fight like people fight.  Peace is His weapon; joy is His weapon; truth is His weapon.  Every time God heals somebody, He is overcoming death; He’s fighting, and He’s winning.  It is no wonder Jesus said, “He that believes in me shall never die.”  Even if you “fall asleep in Jesus”, you will rise again.  “He that is alive and believes in me shall never die.”  People may say you’re dead, but you will not be dead.  

We feel it when God is fighting.  We are blessed when the battle is raging.  It’s “joy unspeakable” for us when God is overcoming death.  Every time God speaks to you, He’s fighting against death, and He’s winning in you.  That’s where God’s warfare is, in the Spirit, and when you feel His joy and peace, the Spirit is winning.  If you stay in the Spirit, you win with it.  Solomon said, “In the pathway of righteousness there is no death” – none.  Stay on that pathway!  There is no death in the holy Ghost; “the Spirit is life, because of righteousness.”

Let’s praise God and cheer Him on!  Win, God, Win!  Let Him win in you!

“Like Those Who Dream”

“O God, you have cast us off; you have scattered us;

you have been displeased; O turn yourself to us again.

You have made the earth to tremble;

you have broken it. Heal the breaches thereof, for it is shaking.”

Psalm 60:1–2

Believers have divided themselves today, and have done so for a long time, by joining different sects offered to them by Christianity.  They are “the earth” that God has broken into pieces.  Christianity is His curse for the rebellion of their fathers against His Son and His Spirit.

If and when they repent of their rebellion against the Spirit, God will heal the breaches He has made.  And the healing will happen like this: God will open His people’s eyes to see the beauty of life in the Spirit, and He will cause their hearts to desire it so much that they realize they will have to leave Christianity and its division behind in order to have it.

When God does this, when He restores His kind of love to His people, they will love one another too much to tolerate any divisions; they will “remember Zion” and long for it.  They will at last recognize the voice of their Shepherd lovingly pleading for them to “Come out of her, my people, so that you do not participate in her sins, so that you do not receive of her plagues.”  And when they obey that voice and come out of Christianity, they will come together, and be so amazed and happy that they “will be like them that dream” (Ps. 126:1).  In other words, their dreams will have at long last come true.

A Friend

“It was not an enemy that reproached me;

then, I could have borne it.

Neither was it one who hated me that puffed himself up against me;

in that case, I would have hidden myself from him. 

But it was you, a man my own equal, my guide, and my acquaintance.

We took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in company.”

Psalm 55:12–14

The cruelest blow Jesus ever received was delivered by a friend.  The greatest crime ever committed against him was committed by someone who did not hate him.

Be careful what decisions you make.

Abraham’s Blessing

“God is my helper.  The Lord is with them that uphold my soul.

He shall reward evil to my enemies.”

Psalm 54:4–5a

It is a precious thing to inherit the blessing of Abraham: “I will bless them who bless you, and him who curses you, I will curse” (Gen. 12:3).  Israel inherited it, and the Bible is full of stories of God blessing those who did good to Israel and cursing those who did them wrong.  But in this covenant, Christ Jesus is the foretold “seed of Abraham” (Gal. 3:16), and in God’s eyes, the children of Abraham are those who have the kind of faith Abraham had.

Be of good cheer, you who are in Christ.  God is your Father and your near-kinsman!

Atheism

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ ”

Psalm 53:1a

From a conversation with Preacher Clark in the late 1970’s.

Only God can judge a heart.  After He gave the Spirit to a group of Gentiles, Peter told the Jews, “God, who knows the heart, bore them witness, giving them the holy Spirit just as He gave it to us” (Acts 15:8).

But what if God does not give someone the holy Spirit?  How has He judged that person’s heart?  Preacher Clark pointed out to me that David said, “The fool has said in his heart,” not “The fool has said.”  Many a soul, including some who bear the title of “minister”, are not given the holy Spirit because God has judged them on the basis of what is in their heart, not by what comes out of their mouth.

Recently, a young man told a friend of mine that he was an atheist.  When I heard that, the thought came to me, “Everyone on earth is an atheist who does not have the holy Spirit.”  That is the truth that my father was pointing out to me.  Many fools say that they believe in God.  But if God has not given them His Spirit, He is saying that in their heart, they do not.   Whom, then, are we to believe?

For Your Name’s Sake

“For your name’s sake, O LORD , pardon my iniquity, for it is great.”

Psalm 25:11

“For you are my rock and my fortress; therefore,

for your name’s sake lead me, and guide me.”

Psalm 31:3

“Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name,

and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for your name’s sake.”

Psalm 79:9

“Give me life, O LORD , for your name’s sake!

For your righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.”

Psalm 143:11

Some people in the Bible, such as David, loved God so much that the best reason they could think of for asking God for mercy and help is so that His name would be glorified more.

Jesus was like that.  He thought that the best reason for us to live right is so that people around us would speak well of his Father: “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Mt. 5:16).  And so did Peter: “Keep your conduct honorable among the Gentiles so that, although they speak against you as evildoers, they will, having seen your good works, glorify God in the day of visitation” (1Pet. 2:12).

Let’s give our heavenly Father a blessing today.  Let’s live so that somebody around us will say something good about Him.

Remember These Promises

“Blessed is he who considers the poor.

The LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.

The LORD will preserve him, and give him life,

and he shall be blessed upon the earth.

And you will not turn him over to the will of his enemies.

The LORD will strengthen him on his sickbed.

Whenever he is bedridden, you will turn away his sickness.”
Psalm 41:1–3

According to the Psalmist, then, if we consider the plight of the poor among God’s people, God has promised the following blessings:

1) He will deliver us when we find ourselves in trouble.

2) He will save our lives and protect us.

3) He will make our lives in this world blessed.

4) He will not let evil people do what they would like to do to us.

5) He will use even times of sickness and suffering to make us stronger.

God cares about His people, especially those whose lives on earth are not easy.  And when we help them, God has promised to help us.

Being Honest with Yourself

“Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts.”

Psalm 51:6

“LORD, who shall abide in your tabernacle?

Who shall dwell in your holy hill?

He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness,

and speaks the truth in his heart.”

Psalm 15:1–2

The most important person for you to tell the truth to is yourself.  You cannot be truthful with others if you are refusing to admit the truth to yourself.  All honesty starts with personal integrity.

Men Will Praise You

“Men will praise you, when you do well to yourself.”

Psalm 49:18b

“He who speaks on his own is seeking his own glory.”

John 7:18a

One of the chief ways that men do well to themselves in this world, and receive praise for it, is to devise religions with deep-sounding doctrines and impressive ceremonies.  Jesus said that those who come up with their own doctrines are looking for worldly praise, and history shows that such men often find it.

Let’s look for ways to bring glory to God instead of ourselves.  The only praise we really need is the praise our heavenly Father will give us in the end, if we are faithful to Him in this life.

1Corinthians 4:5

5. So, judge nothing before the time, but wait until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and expose the intentions of hearts, and then from God will praise be given to each one.

Who Is Your Family?

“Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear;

forget also your own people, and your father’s house. 

So shall the king greatly desire your beauty.”

Psalm 45:10–11a

When Jesus said that those who obey God were His real family (Mt. 12:48–50; Mk.3:33–35), He was showing us how to “forget your own family, and your father’s house.”  When Paul said that a born-again person is “a new creature” (2Cor. 5:17), He assumed we would understand that as new creatures, we belonged to a new family – the family who obeys God.

If we follow Jesus’ example in just this one thing, if we truly embrace God’s family as our real one, the world will hate us and cast us out of their company, just as worldly-minded people hated and cast out Jesus.

If your family is Jesus’ family, if your family is those who obey God, and only them, then you are beautiful in the eyes of the King, Jesus, and he will someday come and take you to meet his Father.

    Who is your family?