Exhortation | A People for His Name

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Is The End of All Things Near?

August 5, 2013

Is the end of all things near? If it is, what should Christians be like and what should they be doing?

Scripture answers both of these questions definitively: “But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer” (1 Pet. 4:7). We must heed this teaching diligently!

The End of All Things is Near!

Probably around 65 AD, the apostle Peter wrote to encourage believers who were suffering for their faith in Jesus Christ. Under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he declared, “The end of all things is at hand” (1 Pet. 4:7a).

Even though 1,948 years later, the end of all things has not yet come, what Peter wrote is still as true today as it was when he wrote it. His statement is true because time is different with the Lord than it is with man:

“But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet. 3:8).

Although the end of all things has not yet come, we can be certain that it is near! By faith, we must accept this teaching from God and reject our own ideas to the contrary.

Furthermore, we must not be presumptive and think that the end will not come at least for some unspecified time. Because it is at hand, we must be mindful every day that the end of all things is near.

We must reject as unbiblical any theological viewpoint or teaching that is contrary to what Peter wrote. Because the end of all things is near, our thinking and living must be radically different from that of the world (1 Pet. 4:2-4) and from false teachers in the Church (2 Pet. 3).

We would do well to stress to ourselves daily the reality that the end of all things is near! Moreover, we ought to exhort one another continually with this truth so that we do not relapse into worldly thinking and living that is contrary to this truth to any extent.

What Christians Should Be Like and What They Should Be Doing

Because the end of all things is near, Christians must be sober and watch unto prayer (1 Pet. 4:7b). These commands direct us infallibly about what we should be like and what we should be doing because the end of all things is near.

When we lack sobriety, we show that our thinking is unbiblical. We show that we are not living rightly in view of the end of all things being near.

When we are not watching unto prayer, we are not right with God. We are not living properly in view of the end of all things being near.

The poor attendance in the prayer meetings of many local churches is a telling sign that the Church today is seriously lacking a proper perspective on the end of all things being near. Christians who regularly skip prayer meeting at their church without just cause (such as serious illness, unavoidable providential hindrance, etc.) need to repent and stop forsaking the assembling of themselves together to “watch unto prayer” (Heb. 10:25; 1 Pet. 4:7).

Scripture plainly distinguishes between being at home and assembling as a church (cf. “when ye come together in the church” [1 Cor. 11:18] vs. “have ye not houses” [1 Cor. 11:22]; “at home” vs. “in the church” [1 Cor. 14:35]). Neither staying at home and praying as a family nor leaving church before prayer time to pray at home is, therefore, a valid substitute for assembling yourself together with your church during the regularly scheduled prayer meeting time of your local church (cf. Acts 2:42).

Yes, various people will have extenuating circumstances on occasion that necessitate their missing prayer meeting or leaving before prayer time, but doing so regularly will certainly undercut you and your church’s heeding the teaching of Scripture concerning watching unto prayer in view of the end of all things being near. Apart from truly exceptional situations, every Christian should make every effort to be at his church to pray during the time that his church sets aside for praying in their prayer meeting (Acts 2:42).

“But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer” (1 Pet. 4:7).

In Discipleship, Exhortation, Theology

Is This One Key Reason That Many Christians and Churches Today Are Weak?

June 24, 2013

Acts 15 and 20 record two instances of ministry in the early churches that many Christians and churches today think would not be proper for believers in most cases. In many churches, such ministry would be strongly unwelcome, and many people would not tolerate it if their pastors or other ministers would choose to minister to them in this way.

A close look at these accounts, however, suggests that such ministry would be highly profitable for all believers in every church. The following treatment of these passages examines whether the lack of such ministry is one key reason that many Christians and churches today are weak.

Acts 15

Following the Jerusalem Council, the church at Jerusalem sent Judas and Silas along with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch (Acts 15:22). They sent with these men a letter that related the Council’s determinations (Acts 15:23-29).

Arriving in Antioch, these men gathered with the congregation there and brought joy to them through the encouragement that the letter provided (Acts 15:30-31). Because Judas and Silas were also prophets, they further ministered to the brethren (Acts 15:32).

Luke specifies that these two men “exhorted the brethren with many words, and confirmed them” (Acts 15:32). Through proclaiming a lengthy message to the congregation, these ministers encouraged and strengthened them.

In many churches today, however, long messages are not welcome. Some church leaders even assert that if you cannot say what you have to say in a fairly short amount of time (for example, some say messages should be about 30 minutes long), you are not properly ministering the Word to people.

The example of Judas and Silas in Acts 15 refutes such viewpoints and supports holding that believers today need lengthy messages to encourage and strengthen them. An account of Paul’s ministry in Acts 20 confirms this assessment about what we need as believers today.

Acts 20

In Troas, Paul and eight other men who had accompanied him (Sopater, Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius, Timothy, Tychichus, Trophimus, and Luke; Acts 20:4 cf. “we” in Acts 20:6) met with other believers on the first day of the week to observe the Lord’s Supper (“break bread”; Acts 20:7a). Paul began preaching to them, with the intent that he would leave the next day (Acts 20:7b).

Paul prolonged his message until midnight (Acts 20:7c). Undoubtedly, Paul, therefore, preached to them for at least more than an hour and probably for much longer than that.

A young man named Eutychus fell asleep during Paul’s lengthy message and fell out the window from the third floor (Acts 20:8-9). Although the believers thought that he had died (Acts 20:9), Paul “fell on him, and embracing him” assured them that he was still living (Acts 20:10; cf. 20:12).

Amazingly, Paul then returned back upstairs to observe the Lord’s Supper with the brethren (Acts 20:11a) and then continued to minister to them “for a long while, even till break of day” (Acts 20:11b) and then departed (Acts 20:11c).

In most churches today, if a preacher were to preach for an hour before observing the Lord’s Supper with the congregation, many people in the churches would complain about the length of the message and many likely over time would stop coming to those churches. Paul, however, did not just preach for more than an hour before observing the Lord’s Supper with them—he continued to preach to them for quite some time after eating the Lord’s Supper with them!

What’s more, the near tragic fall of a young man in the congregation who fell asleep because of the length of Paul’s initial message did not deter Paul from further ministering to the believers after the young man had fallen. In most churches today, the occurrence of something even remotely similar to what happened with Eutychus would be prime evidence that many believers would use to argue strongly that the preacher should not preach so long that young people in the church fall asleep because of the length of the message.

Christians Today Need Lengthy Messages to Encourage and Strengthen Them

The scriptural record in Acts 15 and 20 of preaching ministry in the early church shows that the apostolic company believed that Christians back then needed lengthy messages to encourage and strengthen them. Similar indications of an apostolic viewpoint that people need lengthy ministry include the following:

(1) “And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation” [Acts 2:40], which shows that Peter continued preaching for a long time after preaching the message that we have recorded in Acts 2:14-39.

(2) “And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation: for I have written a letter unto you in few words” [Heb. 13:22], which reveals that the writer of Hebrews considered the entire book of more than 300 verses to be a brief message! What, then, must he have thought would comprise a lengthy message?

Based on this biblical data and the widespread consensus that the Church has great needs among its people today, I believe that a key reason that many Christians and churches are weak today is because they are unwilling to endure lengthy preaching of the Word. Let us allow these passages from Scripture to renew our minds so that we will eagerly embrace lengthy ministry of the Word to us from God’s appointed ministers whenever He directs them to minister in such a way to us!

In Exhortation, Exposition, Preaching

How Numbers 11:17 Helps Us Understand How to Bear One Another’s Burdens

June 21, 2013

Numbers 11:17 provides profound revelation about Moses that we are not given in any of the preceding accounts about Moses in the Pentateuch. It appears also to give us important insight about how we are to bear one another’s burdens.

God’s Provision of Seventy Elders to Assist Moses

Numbers 11 begins with a report of God’s judging His people for their complaining about some unspecified hardships that they were experiencing (Num. 11:1-3). Following that sobering account, Moses tells of how the mixed multitude and the Israelites complained about their no longer having some of the foods that they used to enjoy in Egypt (Num. 11:4-6).

After three verses describing the manna and what the Israelites did with it (Num. 11:7-9), Moses records how he himself complained to God about the difficulties he was having to endure because God had laid the burdens of all these sinning people on him (Num. 11:10-13). He told the Lord that he was unable to bear all these people alone because the burden of doing so was too heavy for him (Num. 11:14).

Moses even asked God to kill him because the strain was so great upon him (Num. 11:15)! The Lord responded by instructing him to gather unto him 70 elders from Israel and bring them into the tabernacle with him (Num. 11:16).

The Lord then made a striking statement about what He was going to do so that Moses would no longer have to bear the burden of the people by himself:

“And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone” (Num. 11:17).

Saying this, He revealed key information about Moses that merits close attention for several reasons.

The First Revelation in Scripture That the Holy Spirit Was Upon Moses

Scripture first speaks of Moses in Exodus 2. From Exodus 2 to Numbers 10, Scripture provides far more information about Moses than about any other person—Moses is mentioned by name 394 times in these 76 chapters.

In spite of that wealth of Scriptural revelation about Moses, we are not told that the Holy Spirit was upon Moses until the statement recorded in Numbers 11:17. Undoubtedly, the Spirit was upon Moses and others long before the incidents that are recorded in Numbers 11 took place (cf. Is. 63:9-14), but for reasons about which we have no information, God chose not to reveal that fact in Scripture until this point.

The Holy Spirit Was the One Who Had Been Enabling Moses to Bear the Burdens of the People

Numbers 11:17 does not just teach us that God’s Spirit was upon Moses; it also shows us that the Spirit was upon Him to enable him to bear the burdens of the people. Sound theological reasoning would imply this truth even if we did not have this statement, but these words make that truth clear.

Moreover, because God had decided that He would provide 70 additional people who would help Moses bear those burdens from this point onward, He said that He would take of the Spirit that He had put upon Moses and put Him on them as well. Through their also having the Spirit upon them, they would have the enablement necessary for them to help Moses bear the burden of the people so that he would not have to do so alone.

The Holy Spirit Is the One Who Enables Us to Bear the Burdens of Others

The teaching of Numbers 11:17 reveals that the 70 men who would help Moses bear the burden of the people would do so through the Spirit’s being upon them. Based on that teaching, the closely parallel New Testament teaching in Galatians 5-6 suggests the same is true for us, as follows.

At the end of Galatians 5, Paul commands believers to walk in the Spirit so that they will not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Gal. 5:16). He reiterates that teaching with a mutual exhortation to walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:25).

He then commands those who are spiritual to restore anyone who is overtaken in a fault (Gal. 6:1). The flow of thought from 5:16-25 and the nature of this ministry to fellow believers requires spiritual in 6:1 to mean more than just a person who is a believer.

Rather, it means someone who is walking in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25), being led by Him (Gal. 5:18), and manifesting His fruit in his life (Gal. 5:22-23). Only such a person is able to restore those who have yielded to temptation (implied in Galatians 6:1 by the words, “lest thou also be tempted”), even as the Israelites spoken of in Numbers 11:1-10 had fallen into complaining against God.

To such spiritual people, Paul further commands, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2). This command appears to parallel conceptually the role that the 70 elders had in aiding Moses.

Through the Holy Spirit, We Must Bear One Another’s Burdens

Numbers 11:17 in its context compared with Galatians 6:1-2 in its context points to the key to our being enabled to bear one another’s burdens—the fullness of Holy Spirit’s work in us. Let us actively care for those who have been overtaken in faults by being the people of the Spirit that God commands us to be (Gal. 5:16-6:5)!

In Discipleship, Exhortation, Exposition, Theology

Are You Profiting From the Old Testament the Way God Wants You To?

June 14, 2013

After 23 years of reading through the Bible at least once each year, I marvel even more at its incomparable and inexhaustible profundity! It is amazing to me that God continues to teach me and show me glorious things from passages that I have read carefully so many times.

In fact, I now genuinely believe that I actually know only a very minute fraction of the truth that the Spirit has given in His word. This growing awareness of how little I know at times stirs a deep longing in my soul for wishing that I knew so much more than I do.

My sense of limited knowledge is especially keen right now concerning the Old Testament. Studying numerous passages in the Old Testament, I have found glorious truths that have spoken powerfully to me and provided answers to concerns that I have (for example, see this post about how God’s dealings with a Philistine king should affect our praying).

The Immense Importance of the Old Testament for New Testament Believers

Through what God has been showing me from the Old Testament recently, He has rekindled in me a profound sense of the importance of the Old Testament for us as New Testament believers. Several New Testament passages speak directly to this matter.

Romans 15

Although most believers know that Paul provides vital teaching in Romans 14 about how to handle questionable matters among believers, many overlook that his teaching on that subject continues into Romans 15:1-7. In this overlooked teaching, Paul asserts that the entire Old Testament was written to profit us as New Testament believers:

Rom 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

Apart from our thorough reception of the entire Old Testament, we will thus lack what we need to know in order to handle debatable matters properly (for example, see this post concerning the issue of abstaining from alcohol). We also will not have the patience, comfort, and hope that God wants us to have.

1 Corinthians 9:9-10; 10:1-6

In his even longer treatment in First Corinthians of how to handle issues of Christian liberty (8:1-11:1), Paul similarly asserts that what was written in the Pentateuch was written for us:

1Co 9:9 For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?

¹⁰ Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.

Based on this Mosaic teaching, Paul argues for what was right for the Corinthians to do for him and others who had ministered to them spiritually (1 Cor. 9:11-14). He thus teaches us again that handling issues of Christian liberty properly requires that we profit properly from what the Old Testament teaches us!

Furthermore, writing about many events that happened to the children of Israel in the Exodus and during the wilderness wanderings (1 Cor. 10:1-5), Paul later reveals a crucial function of the examples in the Old Testament:

1 Co. 10:6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

New Testament believers are supposed to learn from their example not to lust after evil things, as they did! If I, therefore, do not read repeatedly about what happened to them, I will be lacking vital instruction given by God to keep me from lusting after evil things that I encounter in areas that pertain to Christian liberty.

Hebrews 12:5-6

Like Paul, the writer of Hebrews declares the value of the Old Testament for New Testament believers:

Heb 12:5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

⁶ For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

In verse 5a, the writer of Hebrews says that his readers have forgotten the exhortation that speaks unto them as to children. He then quotes Proverbs 3:11-12. Based on this teaching, we know that Proverbs 3:11-12 is our Father’s exhortation to us as New Testament believers and not just teaching that was for the Old Testament believers to whom Proverbs was first written!

We Must Profit Fully from the Entire Old Testament

The passages treated above reveal that the Old Testament is of essential importance for New Testament believers. This is especially true for us concerning the debatable matters that so vex God’s people today.

Many believers today lack fullness of knowledge about sinful things that they must not partake of or do because they do not receive properly the full value of the Old Testament. Paul makes clear that the New Testament does not exhaustively list all the evil deeds of the flesh (cf. “and such like” [Gal. 5:19-21]), and we learn of many such evil things only by thoroughly profiting from the Old Testament.

For example, in the area of music, it is the Old Testament, and not the New, that gives us clear understanding that there are sinful styles of music that God does not accept in the worship of His people (see Is Scripture Silent about Musical Styles That are Inherently Unacceptable to God?). Through unawareness of or lack of thorough attention to this Old Testament teaching, many believers today lack this vital understanding.

We must profit fully from the entire Old Testament the way God wants us to (2 Tim. 3:15-17). The only way we will do so is if we individually read the entire Bible over and over again throughout our lives.

Are you profiting from the Old Testament the way God wants you to?

In Bible reading, Discipleship, Exhortation

The Precious Priceless Potential Value of Every Small Church

May 23, 2013

Applying the teaching of a remarkable passage in Genesis 18 to the world today reveals a profoundly encouraging aspect of the priceless potential value of small churches.

The Judge of All the Earth Reveals the Profound Value of Righteous People

Genesis 18 records a remarkable exchange between Abraham and the Lord, the Judge of all the earth:

22 And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD.

²³ And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?

²⁴ Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?

²⁵ That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

²⁶ And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.

²⁷ And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:

²⁸ Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it.

²⁹ And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty’s sake.

³⁰ And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there.

³¹ And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty’s sake.

³² And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.

This conversation reveals that the Judge would have spared Sodom, despite its exceeding sinfulness, had there been even ten righteous people in it. Thus, the presence of even ten righteous people among a vast number of exceedingly wicked people in a contemporary city, state, or country potentially could have a profound sparing effect on the entire population!

The Incomparable Potential Value of a Small Church

By applying this truth to our world, we learn that a small church of as few as ten righteous people could have a precious priceless value for a community that no other group could have for it. This reality should profoundly encourage all believers in small churches to persevere in walking worthily before God regardless of how small their ministry may be!

Because the revelation of this remarkable exchange in Genesis 18 was in the context of intercessory prayer by a righteous man, we should also learn of the immense potential value of even one righteous person who intercedes faithfully for his city, state, and country. Moreover, we should allow this passage to motivate us to be faithful to attend prayer meetings in our small churches, and we should make intercession for our communities one regular aspect of our praying for them.

May God grace all of us in every church to be true to Him, especially in private and corporate prayer for our communities.

In Exhortation, Prayer, Theology

Beware This Widely Overlooked, Deadly Type of Hypocrisy

April 8, 2013

In the thinking of most people, being a hypocrite probably means something along the lines of saying one thing but doing another. In Luke 12, we learn that Jesus challenged people about a much more deadly type of hypocrisy that is widely overlooked.

Jesus Instructs His Disciples and the People about Hypocrisy

Speaking to a vast multitude of people (Luke 12:1), Jesus warned His disciples about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees (12:1-13). On that same occasion, he challenged the people about hypocrisy by pointing out a glaring discrepancy in their lives:

Luk 12:54 And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is.

⁵⁵ And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass.

⁵⁶ Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?

⁵⁷Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?

Jesus sternly chided these people because they capably assessed some indicators of their time but did not do so with others that were equally obvious. John A. Martin explains their hypocritical failure:

Jesus taught the crowds that they needed to be sensitive to interpret the things they were seeing. Though they had been observing His ministry they were not able to ascertain that He was truly the Messiah. He made the point that they, with no trouble, could interpret natural signs (western clouds and south winds—the appearance of the earth and the sky). But they could not discern spiritual signs. They should discern what was going on right in their midst—He was offering the kingdom and they were not responding properly to His offer.—BKC: NT, 239; emphasis in original

Jesus thus reproached people for being hypocrites by their rightly discerning specific weather indicators but not doing so with spiritual ones.

Darrell L. Bock summarizes Jesus’ forceful challenge:

Jesus then turns to the crowd. He rebukes them for not spotting the obvious. They can read the weather, but they are blind to what God is doing. Jesus clearly reveals the nature of the time; yet they do not respond. —Luke 9:51-24:53, 1200

Based on Jesus teaching here, Norval Geldenhuys gives this sobering warning:

To-day also there are for us all many signs pointing to the seriousness of life and to the necessity of right living. Especially those who have the opportunity of reading the Bible and listening to the preaching of the Gospel have the fullest opportunities of discerning the signs of the times and of knowing that Jesus is the Redeemer. He who is blind to this and who does not take heed, while the period of grace continues, to have peace with God through the Saviour, must await a dark future.—Luke, NICOT, 369.

These commentators reveal that Jesus challenges us all to be sensitive to judge rightly the valid spiritual information that we have been exposed to in our lives. Failing to do so, we will be guilty of a deadly hypocrisy that is much more serious than what people often complain about concerning the so-called hypocrisy of religious people.

Please take a few moments and read the good news that God has for all people and believe: The Good News for All

In Exhortation, Exposition, Quotes

What If Almost $6,000,000 Worth of Books Were Burned at One Time Today?

March 5, 2013

Acts 19 records an occasion when people who became Christians showed their genuine repentance in a remarkable way:

Act 19:18 And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.

¹⁹ Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.

²⁰ So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.

To put these numbers into some perspective, consider that one of the pieces of silver mentioned in this account was worth roughly “a day’s wages.”[1] According to the US Social Security Administration, “the national average wage index for 2011 [was] [$]42,979.61” (http://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/AWI.html; accessed March 5, 2013). This works out to an average US daily salary of $117.75.

For books to be burnt today that roughly would be worth the equivalent of what was burned in the account recorded in Acts 19, people would burn $5,887,617.81 worth of books ($117.75 x 50,000)! Such a public display of true repentance would be an amazing testimony of the power of God’s word.

Although I did not do so publicly, after I was saved, God led me to destroy a large amount of ungodly music items that I had accumulated over more than two decades. I have no way of knowing what the total value of that material was, but I am sure that it was worth a fair amount of money.

If you profess to be a Christian, have you truly repented by ridding your life of any ungodly material possessions that you may have had over the years that were a vital part of your past sinful ways?

May God grant us all the grace to do whatever we may need to do in this respect in our lives today.

[1] “A drachma was a silver coin worth about a day’s wages.” (Footnote in The Comparative Study Bible, 2831)

In Exhortation, Testimony

Let Us Sing to the Lord All Our Days in His House!

February 9, 2013

King Hezekiah was one of Israel’s best kings (2 Kings 18:5). Faced with divine revelation that he was soon certainly going to die (2 Kings 20:1), he entreated God for mercy (2 Kings 20:3) and was heard (2 Kings 20:5-7).

After he had recovered from the illness that originally was going to end his life, Hezekiah wrote a song to thank God for healing him (Isa. 38:9-20). He climaxed that song by saying,

The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD. (38:20)

Because the Lord saved him, Hezekiah purposed that he (and others with him) would sing his songs accompanied by stringed instruments throughout the rest of his life and do so in the house of the Lord.

This marvelous resolve points us to multiple truths that every believer should profit from:

1. In gratitude for His saving us, we should sing to the Lord all of our days.

2. Singing to Him individually is not enough; we should do so corporately (“therefore we will sing my songs . . . all the days of our life” (38:20; bold added).

3. Our corporately singing to Him should be accompanied by the playing of stringed instruments.

4. Singing corporately to Him with such accompaniment in our own homes is not enough; we should sing corporately to Him with such accompaniment all our lives “in the house of the Lord” (38:20).

Surely, God intends these truths from Hezekiah’s resolve to profit every believer to the end that we all would praise Him faithfully in grateful corporate singing to Him in our local churches, which are His house today (1 Tim. 3:15). If God has saved you, be faithful to worship Him in singing in the services of a local church all the rest of your life.

Let us sing to the Lord in His house all our days!

In Exhortation, Music

Learning from Isaiah’s Remarkable Dedication to Divine Service

January 30, 2013

Isaiah 20 provides a striking account of the willingness of a servant of God to do His will:

Isa 20:1 In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it;

² At the same time spake the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

God spoke to His servant, Isaiah, to walk around naked and barefoot! Was Isaiah, in fact, actually required by God to be naked to in his service to God? The following verses explain the remarkable dedication that he had to have at this time:

Isa 20:3 And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia;

⁴ So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.

That Isaiah’s service to God involved actual nakedness at least to some extent[1] is made clear by the comparison that the Lord makes (“Like . . . So . . .” [20:3-4]) between what he did for three years (20:3) and what would happen to the Egyptians and the Ethiopians who would be taken captive by the king of Assyria—they would go into captivity “even with their buttocks uncovered” (20:4) to their shame!

Noting the extremely humiliating nature of the service that God called Isaiah to render to Him should challenge us to do readily whatever God may call us to do for Him, even though it may be quite challenging in various ways.

[1] “For three years Isaiah did not wear his outer garment of sackcloth (also the attire of Elijah, 2 Kings 1:8), or his sandals. (He was not completely naked.)” (John A. Martin, BKC: OT, 1067; emphasis in original). “Isaiah is to walk about partially naked and barefoot, v. 2.” (Peter A. Steveson, A Commentary on Isaiah, 167).

In Exhortation

Behold! Jesus Has a Profound Relationship with His Churches!

January 25, 2013

Revelation 2-3 provides striking information about the ongoing relationship between the glorified Jesus and His churches. Walking among His churches (Rev. 2:1), He knows them profoundly (Rev. 2:23).

If you belong to any kind of church that professes to be one of His churches, you would do well to meditate on all that Jesus knows about you and your church:

He knows the leaders of the churches (Rev. 2:1; 3:1)
He knows the works of all those who are in His churches (Rev. 2:2, 9, 13, 19, 22, 23; 3:2, 8, 15)
He knows of those who cannot bear evil people (Rev. 2:2)
He knows of their efforts in dealing with false teachers in the churches (Rev. 2:2)
He knows the profound dedication to His name that some in His churches have (Rev. 2:3, 13; 3:8)
He knows their minds and hearts (Rev. 2:4, 10, 23; 3:16)
He knows the causes of the problems that all who are in His churches have (Rev. 2:4, 20; 3:2, 15, 17)
He knows the solutions for their problems (Rev. 2:5, 10, 16; 3:2, 3, 18, 19)
He knows their righteous hatred of the deeds of evil people (Rev. 2:6)
He knows the importance of their overcoming (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26: 3:5, 12, 21)
He knows their past, present, and future (Rev. 2:4, 10, 13, 19; 3:5, 10)
He knows their enemies, both human (Rev. 2:2, 10) and supernatural (Rev. 2:10, 13)
He knows the blasphemies of their enemies (Rev. 2:9)
He knows their sufferings (Rev. 2:13)
He knows those among them who hold to false doctrines (Rev. 2:14, 15) and those who are false teachers (Rev. 2:20)
He knows who are His bondservants (Rev. 2:20)
He knows those among them who have accepted the false doctrines of the false teachers among them (Rev. 2:22, 23)
He knows those who have not known the depths of the false teaching that some have taught among them (Rev. 2:24)
He knows who among them are not true believers (Rev. 3:1)
He knows the weaknesses of those who are in His churches (Rev. 3:2)
He knows their failures (Rev. 2:4, 14, 20; 3:2)
He knows what they have received and heard (Rev. 3:3)
He knows when those who refuse to get right with Him will not be watching for His coming (Rev. 3:3)
He knows those who have not soiled their garments (Rev. 3:4)
He knows those who will be worthy of walking with Him in glory (Rev. 3:4)
He knows those whose names are in the Book of Life (Rev. 3:5)
He knows what open doors He has set before those who are in His churches—doors that no one can shut (Rev. 3:8)
He knows what their enemies know and who they really are (Rev. 3:9)
He knows the faithfulness of those who have devoted themselves to Him (Rev. 2:13; 3:10)
He knows what all the people who are in His churches do not know about their own true state before Him (Rev. 3:17)
He knows those who are zealous for His sake and those who are not (Rev. 2:3, 19; 3:15, 16, 17, 19)
He knows the glories that await those who are truly His, which they have no ability to know about apart from what God has revealed to them in His Word (Rev. 2:7, 10, 11, 17, 26, 27, 28; 3:4, 5, 9, 11, 12, 21)

Because of Jesus’ amazingly profound relationship to His churches, we who are in His churches should commit ourselves wholly to the cause of Christ’s glory in the world through His churches!

In Exhortation, Exposition

Archives For Exhortation

The End of All Things is Near!

What Christians Should Be Like and What They Should Be Doing

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