Count Your Days to Make Your Days Count, Sermon from Psalm 90, Part 2
Howard Hendricks mentioned a colleague of his who studied Psalm 90 and “figured his age from that point until age 70. He counted the number of days, and every day he subtracted another day from his calendar. Doing that would transform every day, because most of us have been living in the past or living in the future” (Confident Living, January, 1988, pages 51-53). He literally counted his days to make his days count.
I. Moses first answers the question, “WHY should we invest our time wisely for God’s glory?”
A. Because life is uncertain and death is imminent, we ought to invest our lives (Psalm 90:1-8)
First, Moses talks generally about all people in Psalm 90:3-6.
Moses gives three illustrations of the sinner’s brief existence on earth.
1) Man’s existence is like a flood in Psalm 90:5a. The Christ rejecter’s life is just as quickly ended as the generation of scoffers that the flood inundated and swept away in judgment in Noah’s day.
2) Man’s existence is like sleep in Psalm 90:5b. The apathetic and unconcerned are brought to an end like the person who pillows his head at night and instantly it seems the alarm sounds in his ear. To these Paul warned, “Awake you that sleep.”
3) Man’s existence is like grass in Psalm 90:5c, 6. Just as living, green, dew covered grass is cut and withers and dies and browns in 24 hours so is our life cut short because of the Fall.
Next, Moses writes more specifically about believers in Psalm 90:7-8.
Moses uses the words “we” and “our” in these verses.
Israel’s premature death stemmed from rebellion. All over 20 years of age were placed on death row and the wilderness became a huge cemetery. Our already short life can be shortened even more by our sins. The Corinthians are one example. 1 Corinthians 11:30: “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.” We might be shocked to know how many believer’s lives are reduced 20-30 years because of sin. Moses gives us the next reason why we should invest our time wisely for His glory,
B. Because life can be wasted, we ought to invest our time (Psalm 90:9-10)
Their judgment was 40 years of killing time in Psalm 90:9. They were as unproductive as a nonsensical story told. Like the husband flopping down in front of the TV each evening watching story after story going to bed empty having done nothing for God. The epitaph on one man’s head stone read, “Died, age 24, Buried, age 67.”
Moses warns in verse 10, “Don’t let your life of 70 to 80 years be a life of wasted opportunities.”
Howard Hendricks wrote, “The significance of a life is not determined by its duration—it is determined by its donation.”
II. Moses next answers this question, “HOW should we invest our time wisely for God’s glory?”
Moses intercedes for his generation: “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” The rest of the Psalm is the answer to this request. God is challenging each of us: “Do the math!” How much time do you have left to glorify God with your invested life.
A. Repent of the unwise use of time (Psalm 90:11-12)
Perhaps Moses thinks back to Exodus 18:13 when he was working 16 hour days. Moses had to say “No!” to some activities. Solomon as an old man reflecting back on his life wrote, “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecc. 3:1). With God’s wisdom there is time for all that is God’s will: Work, family, church, and God.
B. Start each day with God (Psalm 90:13-14a)
When Adam sinned in the Fall, God, as it were, turned His back on man. Moses cries out in verse 13, “Return, O Lord.” What can get God’s attention? Seeking Him first in ours lives.
Listen to David’s prayer: “O God, you are my God; early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is” (Psalm 63:1).
This was Jesus’ habit as well: “And in the morning rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed unto a solitary place, and there prayed” (Mark 1:35).
Look at your calendar for this week. Is God part of our scheduled. If necessary, write in time with or for God for this week.
C. Finish your life for God (Psalm 90:14b-17)
Moses, at or near 120, wanted the balance of his life to count for God. Spending time with God each day will help you to “rejoice and be glad all our days.” Moses concedes, sure we are living under the curse of the Fall and perhaps our own sins, but “make us glad according to the days wherein you have afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.” Show us your will for the rest of our lives so we can impact our children: “Let your work appear unto you servants, and your glory unto their children.” In the remainder of our lives “Let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, the work of our hands establish you it.”
As a result of living longer, people are working longer. Leadership is becoming older as the babyboomer age. In 1984, Ronald Reagan was seeking reelection for a second term as United States president. Reagan was seventy-three years old, and his opponents had been deriding him for what they labeled the ‘senility factor.’ If elected, Reagan would be the oldest president in U.S. history. During a televised debate with his opponent, former Vice President Walter Mondale, a reporter asked Reagan whether his age would be a handicap in the campaign. Reagan responded: ‘I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.’ Reagan’s quick rejoinder even forced a chuckle out of his opponent on national television and helped diffuse a potential landmine on his path back to the White House” (Henry and Richard Blackaby. Spiritual Leadership. Broadman & Holman, 2001, 169).
Dave Ramsey says that being 60 years old today is what 40 used to be. Thankfully we are living longer and able to serve the Lord longer, if we invest our time wisely for God’s glory.
Count Your Days to Make Your Days Count: Sermon from Psalm 90, Part 1
At the moment of our birth, God turns the hour glass upside down, and our time starts running out. Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made.”
Moses wrote Psalm 90 near the end of his 120 year life. He also penned this Psalm during or at the end of the 40 year wilderness wanderings. This was God’s judgment of wasted years because of Israel’s refusal to obey God and go into Canaan from Kadish-Barnea.
In Psalm 90:12, Moses is requesting God’s help to more wisely use his time for God’s glory. Because Moses lived in the context of death, he was time conscious.
According to Numbers 26, all the men over 20 who refused to obey God and go into the Promised Land totaled 600,000 and were sentenced to die in the wilderness. That means that Moses spent 40 years superintending 1,200,000 funerals (the men above 20 and their wives). That is approximately 87 per day or 3 to 4 each hour. To borrow Donald R. Sunukjian’s title, Moses admonishes us to Count your days to make your days count (Donald R Sunukjian. Invitation to Biblical Preaching. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007, 140).
I. Moses first answers the question, “WHY should we invest our time wisely for God’s glory?”
A. Because life is uncertain and death is imminent, we ought to invest our lives (Psalm 90:1-8)
Moses contrasts man’s brevity with God’s eternality.
1. God is eternal.
God existed before man in verse one and before creation in verse two. God gave birth to creation. The word “brought forth” means “birthed.” Maybe in the context of 87 funerals a day, this thought of a birth was comforting to Moses.
2. Man is temporal.
First, Moses talks generally about all people in Psalm 90:3-6.
The reason for man’s short life on earth is given in Psalm 90:3: the Fall of man into sin. The word translated “destruction” can also be translated “dust.” God told Adam, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat, you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Adam disobeyed God and Adam that day died spiritually and began to die physically. Then God added, “You will return to the ground; for out of it you were taken: for dust you are, unto dust shall you return” (3:19). Moses quotes God saying in Psalm 90:3, “Return, you children of man” to the dust just as I warned Adam. Paul wrote of the Fall in Romans 5:12: “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”
The brevity of man’s life is contrasted with God’s eternality in Psalm 90:4. A thousand years to man is like four hours to God or that middle watch in the Jewish night. A year to God is like the tick of the second hand on our watch. God is timeless. God doesn’t grow older. Time does not diminish God’s strength or memory. Even if we could live a thousand years our memory would only cover maybe 100 years and with age that span would greatly decrease.
Erma Bombeck told the funny story about a older woman who was in bed and asked her husband to get her some ice cream with some chocolate sauce on it. Then she admonished, “Write it down so you don’t forget.” He said, “I won’t forget.” Then she added, “Oh, and put some whipped cream on it and sprinkle it with nuts. Are you writing this down?” He said, “I can remember.”
A little time later he handed her a brown paper bag with a hot dog in it. She stared at it for a minute and said, “I told you to write it down. You forgot the mustard.”
God never forgets anything, except our sins when we get saved. In Hebrews 10:17, God promised, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” God doesn’t forget our sins because of memory loss but He no longer holds our sins against us believers. “Remember” means to respond. In Ecclesiastges 12:1, Solomon advised, “Remember now your creator in the days of your youth” or respond to God while you are young. God doesn’t respond to our sins because all of our sins have been forgiven.
In our next post, we will continue this sermon looking at Moses’ three illustrations of man’s brief existence on earth.
How to Resist the Devil, Part 4: The Hermeneutic of Humility
I think it was Andrew Bonar who first imagined a situation in which a Christian dies and goes to heaven and there meets some of the authors of the biblical books: Ezekiel, for example, and next to him Malachi and Amos and Habakkuk, and maybe Isaiah. They manage to strike up a conversation, and the Christian is glad to meet these men God used to write the Bible. “Ah, Ezekiel, what a pleasure to met you!” he says.
“I am pleased you are glad to meet me,” Ezekiel replies. “Tell me, what did you think of my book?”
The Christian has to answer, “I’m afraid I didn’t really read it.”
Malachi is there, so he chimes in. “Well, my book is a lot shorter than Ezekiel’s. Certainly you read it! What do you think of what I said.”
Again the Christian has to admit that he has not read it. “Malachi? Is that in the Old Testament or the New Testament” (James Montgomery Boice. Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1988, 245).
Paul has given us three battlefield strategies for standing firm against the attacks of the Devil:
1. By Depending on God’s Strength (Ephesians 6:10-11a)
2. By Knowing our Enemy (Ephesians 6:11b-13)
3. By Putting on God’s Spiritual Armor (Ephesians 6:14-20)
Paul begins by describing the pieces of armor attached to the Roman soldier’s body.
The First Piece of Armor the Christina Soldier must put on is the Belt of Truth.
Jesus said to His Father in prayer, “Your Word is truth. Sanctify them through your Word” (John 17:17).
The first piece of armor the Roman soldier put on was his belt. Roman soldiers wore a tunic as an outer garment with a hole for the head and two holes for the arms. The tunic was like a dress. The belt kept the tunic from flying around and making it easy for the enemy to grab and defeat the soldier. The belt made the soldier’s armor like the football running back’s skin tight uniform that protects him from easily being brought down.
Paul in Ephesians makes much of both the objective truth of God’s Word in 1:13; 4;15, 21; 6:14 and subjective truthfulness in 4:24, 25; 5:9; 6:14. Today’s postmodernism’s rejects absolute truth. The preacher or teacher with a hermeneutic of humility says, “I am to humble to claim to have the right interpretation or that your interpretation might be wrong.” Paul was not so humble. He told the Galatian heretics if they misinterpreted the gospel God would judge them (Galatians 1:6).
The Next Piece of Armor the Christian Soldier must put on is the Breastplate of Righteousness.
Roman soldiers wore woven chain interlinked rings of metal to protect the most vulnerable portion and his vital organs. The breastplate was called “The heart protector.”
Paul was not talking about imputed righteousness but practical righteousness. Of course there can be no personal righteousness without justification or imputed righteousness. Sin puts a clink in this armor thus making us more unprotected against the attacks of hand to hand combat with Satan.
Confession of sin, however, can immediately repair the defective breastplate.
The Last Piece of Armor the Christian Soldier must put on is his Feet Shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace.
Roman citizens normally wore lightweight sandals. Roman soldiers, however, wore thick soled, boot like sandals studded with hobnails like football cleats.
Christian soldiers have prepared before the battle by receiving the gospel that gives them peace with God (Romans 5:1). The gospel gives you peace in the battle because you are saved and sealed or kept by God as Paul discussed in 1:13.
This piece of armor is not the preaching of the gospel but the preparation of the gospel that enables us to stand our ground in Christ. Paul in Ephesians 6:15 is not talking about going into all the world to preach the gospel as he did in Romans 10:15, but rather being prepared by the gospel to stand firm against the attacks of Satan.
Have you put on the belt of truth? If not receive Christ who is “the way, the truth, and the life” and be saved. Child of God do you need to tighten the belt of truth a notch or two and get more serious about studying and hiding God’s Word in your heart that you might not sin against God when Satan comes tempting?
How to Resist the Devil, Part 3
Charles Spurgeon, the great British Baptist Defender of the Faith, said, “The Devil never beats a dead horse.” He knew whereof he spoke. Spurgeon was embroiled in three great battles in London at Metropolitan Tabernacle. Ian Murray in The Forgotten Spurgeon, records the three famous conflicts Spurgeon fought as England’s leading pastor. The three confrontations were with preachers of Arminianism (works for salvation), preachers of baptismal regeneration (works for salvation by water baptism) and the Downgrade Controversy (Liberalism in Spurgeon’s denomination, the Baptist Union). Spurgeon earnestly contended for the faith and probably went to an early grave as a consequence.
If you and your church preach and defend doctrine, the emphasis of Ephesians 1-3, and practice what you believe, the point of Ephesians 4-6, you can expect “to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Paul in the final section of Ephesians equips us to “resist the Devil” (James 4:7).
1. By Depending on God’s Strength (6:10-11a) see How to Resist the Devil, Part 1 and 2
2. By Knowing your Enemy (6:11b-12)
First, we must comprehend our enemy’s “wiles” or methods.
Satan’s methods are based on lies in order to deceive. Jesus identified the Devil as “a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44). The first time we see the Devil after his fall, he is lying to Eve (Genesis 3:1ff). Those controlled by Satan lie (Acts 5:1ff). For example, Peter said to Ananias and Sapphira, “Why has Satan filled (controlled) your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit.”
Satan lies to sinners in a church service at the invitation. I remember as an unsaved youth being convicted by the preaching of God’s Word and wanting to respond at the gospel invitation and Satan whispering, “You don’t have to go forward this Sunday morning. You have plenty of time to get saved.” Satan does not try to get the sinner to put off salvation forever, just one day at a time.
Satan lies to believers like he did to Ananias and his wife Sapphira. The father of lies says, “You can sin and get away with it. “ Then when the believer sins, Satan accuses the brethren, “You can’t get away with that sin.” Even we preachers of the Word of truth must be on guard against embellishments and becoming the hero of all our personal illustrations.
Next, we must know our enemy’s instruments.
If Satan is the Commander-in-Chief, his demons are his boots on the ground. The organization of Satan’s army is found in 6:12. But first Paul says that our enemy is “not against flesh and blood.” That sounds impossible because most of our conflicts are interpersonal. Paul has just spent twenty five verses instructing us how to get along with our wives/husbands, children/parents, and employees/employers. If you have gone through a divorce, the pain of a wayward child, or the difficulty of an abusive boss, you are thinking, “flesh and blood” is a real enemy.
These relationships will defeat us only as we allow our greater enemy to use them. We don’t battle these people with the carnal weapons of arguing, manipulating, bulling, or retaliating. Rather we battle our greater enemy by putting on the spiritual armor provided by God which is Paul’s third tactical instruction for resisting the Devil.
3. By Putting on God’s Spiritual Armor (6:13-20)
Some divide the seven pieces of armor (I am including prayer as the last piece) between the armor attached permanently to the soldier’s body (belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, and the shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace) and the pieces not attached but which must be taken up in the battle: Shield of faith, helmet of salvation, Sword of the Spirit and prayer.
Others divide the armor between the defensive pieces (belt, breastplate, shoes, shield, and helmet) and the offensive pieces (sword and prayer). In our following posts, we begin to examine each piece of armor.
How to Resist the Devil, Part 2, “Be made strong in the Lord”
The battle is real and urgent as described by Paul in Ephesians 6:10-20. Paul begins this final section in Ephesians on spiritual warfare with “finally brethren.” This signals not so much the conclusion of the letter as the climax. In Ephesians 1-3, Paul defined doctrines that teach the unity love can bring to a church: The doctrines of the Trinity and the Church. If an individual believer or church teaches and holds to sound doctrine, there will be demonic opposition.
On the other hand, if a believer or church is weak doctrinally, they will become easy prey for the devil. Paul made this very clear in Ephesians 4:11-14. If believers do not study seriously God’s Word they will be undernourished and spiritually gullible. Jesus said it this way, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
In Ephesians 4-6, Paul showed how doctrine must be practiced in his 5 “Therefore Walk” sections. If we walk our talk we will also incur the wrath of Satan. The early church was not persecuted just for what they believed but for what they believed and lived out in the market place. They were persecuted when they hit the streets of Jerusalem with the gospel in Acts 2 and 3. In Acts 4, Satan started outwardly attacking the church and inwardly in Acts 5. Recently Brit Hume took his Christianity to the national airwaves and was plummeted by the secularists in the public media. On the other hand, if we fail to live doctrine we can “give place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27).
Paul began Ephesians exulting in our spiritual blessings we enjoy in Christ in “heavenly places” in 1:3. Paul will mention “in the heavenlies” five times in Ephesians. As is seen in all five references, there is a connection between the heavenlies and believers on earth.
1) The Trinity has bestowed upon believers on earth spiritual not necessarily material blessings as a result of their involvement in our salvation.
2) We also can experience the same spiritual power on earth that resurrected and exalted Christ to the right hand of God the Father in “heavenly places” according to Ephesians 1:18-23.
3) Paul continues developing the theme of “heavenly places” by reminding us in 2:6 that positionally believers are seated together with Christ in “heavenly places.”
Positionally in Christ we are ”far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion” (1:20-21) which includes evil and good angels. Because we are positionally above evil angels we do not need to be defeated by them here on earth.
4) The new truth that all believers are equal in the Body of Christ that was uniquely revealed to Paul and others apostles by God, called the mystery of the church, was not revealed to angels.
Angels “in the heavenlies” learn this great truth by observing the unity in the local church on earth in Ephesians 3:1-10.
5) But in the last section, Paul also warns that our enemies are in “heavenly places” in 6:12.
Like our blessings, power, and position, our enemies are spiritual rather than physical or material. Their goal is to rob us of our spiritual blessings, power, and position. In Job 1, Satan goes to God in the heavenlies for permission to attack Job on earth. In Daniel 10, God sent an angel to answer Daniel’s prayer which was intercepted by an evil angel. Michael the archangel intervenes so Daniel’s prayer on earth can be answered.
There is a spiritual warfare waging in the heavenlies that impacts us on earth. But greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4). Paul is going to equip us to do hand to hand, face to face combat with our arch foe and defeat him in the power of God’s might.
Paul begins the final section of Ephesians by instructing us how to resist the devil.
First, by depending on God’s strength in verses 10 and 11 a.
There is a very important balance in these verses. We are made strong with God’s might. When Paul wrote “be strong in the Lord” he employed the passive. Be made strong by the Lord. We can only be victorious with God’s strength and help. The same power that resurrected and seated Christ in the heavenlies is resident in us. We must, however, appropriate that power.
Next, Paul commands, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Did you catch the balance? We must actively put on what God has provided to stand in the battles of life. When Jesus was tempted for 40 days he stood against Satan by quoting Scripture he had committed to memory. He had on the belt of truth and the wielded skillfully the sword of the Spirit. Jesus stood. He did not retreat. He did not lie down in defeat. Are you taking advantage of every opportunity to be skillful with God’s Word in order to stand in the battle?
In the next post, we will look at the seven pieces of armor provided by God that we must put on to stand and resist the devil.
Week 10: The NEW Bible Institute on Ephesians: How to Resist the Devil, Part 1
Week 10 Assignment: Read MacArthur and Ephesians 6:10-20. Read and comment on the four posts for week ten.
A pastor tells an amusing story about a man who was on his way to attend a costume party one Sunday evening. He was wearing a red suit with a tail and a skintight mask with horns. He looked like the false, but widely accepted picture of the devil.
As he hurried along, he was caught in a sudden rainstorm, so he took shelter in a church where the service was just ending. As he entered the building, he shocked the members who thought he was the real thing. A flash of lightning and a clap of thunder added to the illusion.
The congregation panicked and rushed for the exits. The intruder thought the church had been struck by lightning and was on fire, so he raced after them. Everyone got out except an elderly lady. Turning in fear, she stretched out her hands and pleaded for mercy, “Oh, devil, please don’t hurt me. I know I’ve been a member of this church for 30 years, but I’ve really been on your side all the time.
Sadly, many church members have no more insight as to who their greatest enemy is. There are certainly extreme views on the devil and his demons.
1. One extreme view on demons is to obsess over demons.
An example is “deliverance ministries” as represented by Frank Hammond’s book Pigs in the Parlor: A Practical Guide to Deliverance. According to Hammond, nearly every problem in life can be attributed to a demon. Hammond has a three-page list of three hundred demons: demons of resentment, stubbornness, bickering, faultfinding, envy, procrastination, pride, self-righteousness, greed, gossip, shyness, daydreaming, discouragement, headache, retardation, forgetfulness, heartache, embarrassment, sexual frigidity, and intellectualism. Hammond also teaches that demons enter a person before birth or during infancy. A child’s stuffed frog could attract demons. Robert M. Bowman, Jr. states Hammond’s book is a very influential manual among the deliverance ministry genre (Kenneth D. Boa, Robert M. Bowman, Jr. Sense & Nonsense About Angels & Demons. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007, 130).
Jimmy Swaggart had the so-called demon of lust cast out of him by Oral Roberts only to fall back into that sin again. Oral Roberts said he saw demons with long fingernails digging into Swaggart’s flesh and had cast them out (Huntsville Times, Huntsville, Alabama, AP report, March 31, 1988; reported from Calvary Contender, April 15, 1988). Three years later Swaggart was stopped by police in Indio, California who found that the woman riding with him was a prostitute. The devil and demons get falsely accused alot.
The earthquake in Haiti this week got blamed on the devil by Pat Robertson who said the Haitian slaves made a “pact with the devil” and have been cursed ever since. Jesus attitude more accurately is seen in Luke 13:1-5.
2. The other extreme view on the devil and demons is to deny their existence.
Sigmund Freud said the devil was a personification of evil. He took the “D” off of devil. Stephen F. Noll wrote that “people are now talking about angels. But does anyone think about them seriously.” Other scholars consider angels “superstitious nonsense” and “endangered species” (Bowman, 15).
3. The Biblical view is to acknowledge that the devil and his demons exist and can be resisted in God’s strength.
Paul writes his most extensive treatment of the devil and demons in Ephesians 6:10-20 and informs and challenges the church to resist them in God’s strength.
The method for resisting the devil and his demons is not exorcism in Ephesians 6. In contrast to Paul, theologian Wayne Grudem explains five steps in exorcising demons (Systematic Theology, 431-432). Mark Driscoll lectures on Spiritual Warfare and gives intricate details on casting out demons. Both Grudem and Driscoll refer to Ephesians 6:10-20 as a text that justifies exorcism. In Ephesians 6, Paul explains seven pieces of spiritual armor to wear to defeat Satan and his organized army. No steps or intricate instruction on exorcism are ever mentioned in the Epistles.
See our post Is There a Gift of Exorcism Today? for a refutation of Grudem’s and Driscoll’s views.
Pat Robertson’s Quote about the Devil and Haiti
Pat Robertson’s statement about Haiti’s earthquake being the result of a “pack with the devil” was ill advised as well as unbiblical. Robertson said this pact between the Haitian slaves and the Devil was a “true story.” How does Dr. Robertson know this historical fact? I already have some friends who said that the unsaved they are trying to win are having a field day with Robertson’s comment. This would be a good opportunity to contrast Robertson’s attitude with that of Jesus.
The attitude of Jesus on this issue is the opposite of Robertson’s. In Luke 13:4, Jesus said the 18 on whom the tower in Siloam fell were not worse sinners than the ones not killed in the tragedy. There are catastrophes today, like the one in Haiti, not because of the sin of the Haitians, but because of the sin of Adam and the consequent curse from God on the entire planet and not any particular race or people. We all die and suffer because of Adam’s sin and because we inherited a sin nature from him (Romans 5:12).
Here is how CBN responded to the fallout from Robertson’s statement:
CBN.com – VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., January 13, 2010 — On today’s The 700 Club, during a segment about the devastation, suffering and humanitarian effort that is needed in Haiti, Dr. Robertson also spoke about Haiti’s history. His comments were based on the widely-discussed 1791 slave rebellion led by Boukman Dutty at Bois Caiman, where the slaves allegedly (Dr. Robertson said this was a true story) made a famous pact with the devil in exchange for victory over the French. This history, combined with the horrible state of the country, has led countless scholars and religious figures over the centuries to believe the country is cursed. Dr. Robertson never stated that the earthquake was God’s wrath. If you watch the entire video segment, Dr. Robertson’s compassion for the people of Haiti is clear. He called for prayer for them. His humanitarian arm has been working to help thousands of people in Haiti over the last year, and they are currently launching a major relief and recovery effort to help the victims of this disaster. They have sent a shipment of millions of dollars worth of medications that is now in Haiti, and their disaster team leaders are expected to arrive tomorrow and begin operations to ease the suffering.
Chris Roslan
Spokesman for CBN
It might be worth mentioning to your unsaved friends that are reeling from Robertson’s quote that he is also the founder of Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation, International Family Entertainment Inc., and The Flying Hospital, Inc..
I disagree with Robertson’s view of the Haitian earthquake and as well as much of his prosperity gospel theology. I do, however, commend his generous humanitarian help of millions of dollars around the world, including Haiti, that Jon Stewart and others will fail to mention. This may be some relief to the sceptical unsaved.
Does “The husband of one wife” disqualify all divorced men from pastoring?
Robert C. Anderson writes, “For centuries it has been debated whether or not the biblical injunction that an elder or overseer be the ‘husband of one wife’ means that a divorced person may never have any place within the professional ministry” (The Effective Pastor: A Practical Guide to the Ministry. Chicago: Moody, 1985, 5).
The different views on the “husband of one wife” (mias gunaikos andra), literally translated “one woman man” in 1 Timothy 3:2 reveals the difficulty of being dogmatic in one’s position. “This ambiguous but important phrase is subject to several interpretations” (A. Duane Litfin, Bible Knowledge Commentary, page 736).
Here are various views on “husband of one wife” or “a one woman man.”
1. Marriage to the church view.
This is a Roman Catholic Church view to protect the doctrine of celibacy for priests. This is not the official RCC view. Another RCC view is that this statement is a prohibition against polygamy.
2. Prohibition of remarried widowers view.
Paul admonishes young widows to marry in 5:14. Why is this view wrong? Because Scriptures allow widows to remarry. When I was a young Christian, my pastor’s wife died. After an appropriate time, my pastor started dating a fine Christian widow. One of the men in the church caused a fuss because he believed our pastor should not remarry because 1 Timothy 3:2 forbad him. Although this is a minority view, it is still out there.
3. Exclusion of unmarried overseers view.
“Such an understanding does not properly represent the force of the adjective “one” (mias) which is placed first. The overseer must be the husband of “one” wife, not “many.” Paul does not say he must be “husband of a wife.” The latter expression could be easily stated in Greek by the mere omission of “one” (mias). Furthermore, to take this as a demand that the overseer be married logically obligates the interpreter to understand that verse 4 demands that the overseer have children. Yet most expositors hesitate to go that far. Finally, we have the example of Paul himself who was an elder (cf. I Tim.4:14 with II Tim.1:6, where Paul is one of the presbytery), and yet was unmarried. (Kent, The Pastoral Epistles, page 128-129).
“This cannot be meant since Paul says ‘one’ not ‘a’ wife man” (D. Edmond Hiebert, First Timothy, page 65).
4. Prohibition of divorce or any other marital infidelity view.
This is Homer Kent’s view. Even one act of infidelity or a one night stand before conversion disqualifies a man from pastoring, according to Kent. After all, he is no longer a “one woman man” is the sense he has only known one woman sexually (Kent, Pastoral Epistles, pages 129-130). This is the strictest but most consistent interpretation of 1Timothy 3:2.
5. Prohibition of polygamy or divorce on insufficient grounds.
Hiebert represents the view that divorce is forbidden which is on unbiblical grounds (D. Edmond Hiebert, First Timothy, page 65). Grudem argues for this passage being a prohibition of polygamy not divorce:
A better interpretation is that Paul was prohibiting a polygamist (a man who presently has more than one wife) from being an elder. Several reasons support this view: (1) All the other qualifications listed by Paul refer to a man’s present status, not his entire past life. For example, 1 Tim. 3:1-7 does not mean “one who has never been violent,” but “one who is not now violent but gentle.” If we made these qualifications apply to one’s entire past life, then we would exclude from office almost everyone who became a Christian as an adult, for it is doubtful that any non-Christian could meet these qualifications. Paul could have said “having been married only once” if he had wanted to, but he did not. The Greek expression for “having been married only once” would be hapax gegamemenos, using the word “once” (hapax) plus a perfect participle, giving the sense, “having been married once and continuing in the state resulting from that marriage.” (Such a construction is found, for example, in Heb. 10:2, and similar construction is found in Heb. 9:26) (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, page 917).
6. This is not a prohibition but a positive qualification that demands a pastor be exclusively devoted to his wife.
This is my position. A pastor may have been a virgin when married and never have committed adultery since his wedding, and violate this qualification by being married to his church or ministry rather than his wife. I would the meaning this one step beyond or in addition to view five.
Again, Anderson gives some wise advice: “Personally, I do not think that is what the passages mean. Having stated that, however, let me assert what I say elsewhere in this book, that ‘divorce’ isn’t even a Christian word. I believe in the sanctity of marriage and that true Christian marriage is ‘till death do us part.’ A pastor, as a model for his people, should work the hardest of all people to keep marriage intact and flourishing….Except in the most rare of cases, if divorce becomes a fact, a pastor should step down from his pastoral position and, if he intends to continue in professional Christian service, should plan to serve in some area other than the pastorate” (page 5).
Baptist Minister Criticizes Brit Hume’s Witness to Tiger Woods
I agree with Michael Gerson at The Washington Post when wrote, “after urging Tiger Woods to accept the ‘forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith‘ — and comparing Buddhism unfavorably to that hope — journalist Brit Hume insisted he was not proselytizing. In this, he is wrong. His words exemplify proselytization. For a good defense of proselytization see Trevin Wax article at The Gospel Coalition.
For this, Hume has been savaged. Post media critic Tom Shales put him in the category of a ‘sanctimonious busybody‘ engaged in ‘telling people what religious beliefs they ought to have.’ Blogger Andrew Sullivan criticized Hume’s ‘pure sectarianism,‘ which helps abolish ‘the distinction between secular and religious discourse.’ MSNBC’s David Shuster called Hume’s religious advice ‘truly embarrassing.’
The assumption of these criticisms is that proselytization is the antonym of tolerance. Asserting the superiority of one’s religious beliefs, in this view, is not merely bad manners; it involves a kind of divisive, offensive judgmentalism.
But the American idea of religious liberty does not forbid proselytization; it presupposes it. Free, autonomous individuals not only have the right to hold whatever beliefs they wish, they also have the right to change those beliefs and to persuade others to change as well. Just as there is no political liberty without the right to change one’s convictions and publicly argue for them, there is no religious liberty without the possibility of conversion and persuasion.”
I was not surprised when Tom Shales, Andrew Sullivan, David Shuster, Jon Steward and Keith Olberman roast Hume for actually speaking positively about Christianity or Jesus Christ and suggesting that Christianity could help Woods whereas Buddhism could not. There is an insurmountable difference between these two faiths. Tiger Woods adequately described Buddhism as a religion of works that is based on the effort of the adherent.
In 2008, Woods told Reuters about his religious practices.
“I practice meditation,” he said. “That is something that I do, that my mum taught me over the years. We also have a thing we do every year, where we go to temple together. In the Buddhist religion you have to work for it yourself, internally, in order to achieve anything in life and set up the next life. It is all about what you do and you get out of it what you put into it.”
Buddhism is a religion in which one works his way up to God. Christianity is not a religion. In Christianity, God reaches down in grace and supernaturally saves and enable the believer to live the Christian life. The difference is striking and eternally separating.
But criticism was not limited to political pundits but a Baptist minister of 50 years. Keith Olbermann interviewed the Reverend Welton Gaddy, an ordained Baptist minister, of the Interfaith Alliance and Air America,
Gaddy told Olbermann: “I`ve been a Christian minister for 50 years almost. I talk about Jesus. I talk about Jesus with people who are members of other faiths, but I do that with respect for them, ready to listen to them, as well as them listen to me. What Mr. Hume was doing was trying to impose a kind of pseudo established religion on someone else. And that is not in the spirit of religion generally or Christianity specifically.” Here is the conversation:
Did he just call Christianity a “pseudo established religion?” Christianity is the only faith that clearly proclaims the exclusivity of Jesus’ own words, “I am the way, the truth, the life, no man comes to the Father but by me.”
Derrick G. Jeter insightfully observed that as Peter Wehner argued convincingly in the National Review Online, Christopher Hitchens, when he was touting his atheistic screed, God is Not Great, damned Christianity with nary-a-peep of criticism from the like of Keith Olbermann or Welton Gaddy. Yet, Brit Hume’s placid comments about Buddhism in comparison to Christianity have damned him.
As an ordained Baptist minister for over 30 years I applaud Brit Hume’s bold, politically incorrect witness for Jesus Christ. I am not surprised that this outrage from the media illustrates Jesus’ words in John 15:19-20.19, ”If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.”
Week 10: The Bible Institute on Ephesians: Slaves and Slave Owners, Part 4
To review, Paul has instructed concerning the
1. Christian Employee’s Attitude of Submission in Ephesians 6:5-8
First, as with the first two life-relationships, the subordinate partner is addressed first and then the one who is responsible for leadership (wives/husbands; children/parents; employees/employers.
Next, the command is stated: “Employees obey.”
True to form, Paul amplifies this command.
1) We obey with “fear and trembling.”
2) We obey with honesty or “singleness of heart to the Lord.”
Paul further elaborates on how to work with sincerity and not duplicity or hypocrisy. Obey “not with eyeservice as menpleasers.” This is the case when we produce quality work when the Boss is watching but slow down when he steps out of the room.
The contrast “but” is doing our best work all the time “as the slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.” The positive attitude in 6:6 is expanded in 6:7: “Rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man.” We can have a positive work ethic when we realize ultimately we are serving the Lord at work.
The work station is our mission station. Most believers have more contact with unbelievers at work than at church. When world renowned architect Sir Christopher Wren was overseeing the construction of his most famous work, St Paul’s Cathedral in London, it is reported that a stranger came to three of his workmen who were all employed on the same job. The stranger asked each worker, the same question, “What are you doing?” Growled the first man, “I’m breaking rocks.” The second said, “I’m earning a living.” But the third replied, “I’m building a cathedral.” All three were witnesses but only one was a good witness.
Paul writing to Titus states this same truth pointedly in Titus 2:9-11: “Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.”
Finally, Paul states the motivation for this positive Christian attitude of Spirit-filled submission.
The motivation for work has to be more than a paycheck which Paul now declares in 6:8: “knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.”
Diligent workers who work for the Lord with a positive attitude can be rewarded at the end of each day with a sense of satisfaction. Proverbs 14:23: “In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.” There is dignity in work whether the employer recognizes your accomplishment or not.
Paul stresses, however, the future reward of Christian workers who diligently labor for the Lord with a positive attitude. Paul is probably referring to the future Judgment Seat in 2 Corinthians 5:10: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”
“This future certainty rests not on the tense but God who makes the promise. This is important because masters sometimes promised freedom but never kept their promise. A story in Tacitus illustrates….He tells of the murder of a famous senator by a household slave…because the master had refused to manumit the slave on a previously agreed price … In other words, the slave served with ill will” (Harold W. Hoehner. Ephesians. Pages 810-812).
Before we move in the text to the employer’s responsibility, answer this question, “What kind of worker do you think Jesus was when he worked as a carpenter with His foster father, Joseph?” Was Jesus ever late for work? Did Jesus do sloppy work? Was Jesus easy to work with?
2. Christian Employer’s Attitude of Submission in Ephesians 6:9
Now, the partner responsible for leadership is addressed: “And you masters” and by extension to employers today.
There are fewer verses on the employer’s responsibility because there were fewer masters than slaves, not because the master’s responsibility was less important.
The command: “Do the same things unto them.”
Employers are to act on the same principle as the employees. If the employees are to render service to their employers as “unto the Lord” then the employers are to treat their employees as the Lord would. For example, when Boaz came to the field to greet his employees, he greeted them in the morning with the words, “The Lord be with you” and his employees responded, “The Lord bless you.”
The amplification: “Forbearing threatening.”
“This prohibition is appropriate, for there was a proverbial statement that ‘all slaves are enemies’ because masters were tyrants and abusive. Abuse was displayed in various ways such as threats of beating, sexual harassment of female slaves, threats to sell the male slaves ‘away from the household so as to part him forever from his loved ones’ to name a few” (Harold W. Hoehner, Ephesians, page 814).
Even today there are two kinds of abusive bosses 1) The incompetent superiors who possess the ability to make their failures look like the fault of others. These bosses are negative and discouraging 2) The intolerant superiors who are over qualified workaholic perfectionists who think the work place cannot survive without them. These you can never satisfy.
The motivation: “Knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.”
Paul refers to the future Judgment Seat again. This time it is the accountability of the employer to his Master in heaven who is also an impartial Judge.
How did Jesus lead His 12 disciples?
1. Jesus prayerfully hired them (Luke 6:12-13).
2. Jesus extensively trained His workers for three years. There was no hiring without proper training.
3. Jesus corrected them when they were wrong. He did not let problems go unaddressed (Luke 22:31-34). Jesus was not only the model worker but the model leader for each of us believers to emulate in our workplace. Just as Jesus depended on the Spirit of God to empower His humanity (Luke 4:18) so must we be Spirit equipped to live harmoniously for the glory of God in our place of employment.