FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS, volume 7, number 14, April 3, 2008

This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, Ephesians 4:17.

Acting Like Those Who Do Not Know God

I did not respond very well to a series of setbacks which hit me a few weeks ago. I was to fly from Hartford to Brunswick, GA to preach the following day but the flight was delayed, causing me to miss my connecting flight in Atlanta, causing the airline to fly me to Jacksonville, and shuttling me to St. Simons Island, arriving at midnight. Of course I did not have my bags and had no suit in which to preach the next morning. When I opened my laptop early in the morning to catch my e mails I had a blank screen and a clicking noise in the hard drive. I was told that my computer had crashed. I scrambled around that morning to find a shirt, tie, and sport coat and preached without incident. Then I determined that I ought to purchase a new laptop. My plan was to stay at St. Simons Island for another three days to do a great deal of writing- three of these devotionals, two articles on revival, to add to our church’s officer training manual I am writing, etc. For those of you who know me well, you know that I know very, very little about computers. But I spent the evening working my way around the new computer, realizing that I could download a software package for writing. By the next morning, however, I had burned several hours trying to figure out how to make it work, and my frustration and anger grew by the minute. I was seething with frustration. This was wasting my valuable time! I could see my plans for the week being sabotaged. I was acting like a heathen. Then I realized that my response was nothing but sin. More specifically, my anger and frustration were sinful because I was failing to trust God with my life. Was He not in control of everything, including the flight delays and redirections, the lost luggage, and crashed computer? I have had problems with anger and frustration on such things for a long time, but God met me very powerfully, showing me the hideous nature of my sin, moving me to repent and seek Christ afresh and anew.

Paul, in Ephesians 4:17-19, is calling the faithful to be the church by not acting like godless, pagan people who do not know God. He states this calling in the negative and in verses 20-24 he commands the same thing in the positive. Paul puts forth this strong admonition in verse 17. We see a good picture of what it means to live like heathens in I Kings 18 when Elijah is taking on the prophets of Baal. Their idolatry has moved them to cut themselves with lances so that blood gushed from the wounds. To live in the vanity of one’s mind is to live with emptiness in one’s mind, heart, soul, and will. It is to live like the heathen, treating store clerks, parents, siblings, fellow workers with disdain. Paul, in verse 18, notes the character of such vanity, saying that it leads to being darkened and excluded (the perfect passive participles refer to action done to us in the past, the effects of which are still felt today). Living devoid of Biblical faith is so very dangerous, leading people into more and more darkness and death. And why does this darkness and exclusion come? Because of ignorance of Biblical truth, Acts 17:30, and hardness of heart, Mark 3:1ff. The hard of heart can sin without considering the consequences. This is what makes an Eliot Spitzer gamble his promising career, wife, and children for a tryst with a prostitute. Hardness of heart causes people to do foolish things, plunging them into ruin. And then Paul states the results of such ignorance and hardness of heart, verse 19, saying that it leads to being callous, I Timothy 4:1, 2, where one’s conscience is seared, not even feeling the destruction he brings on himself or others. That’s why abortionists can murder unborn infants during the day and be good fathers or mothers and church members after hours. Those with seared consciences finally give themselves over to sensuality, sinning without restraint (King David with Bathsheba), which leads to impurity fueled with greediness. Are you acting like a heathen? Do the words of Psalm 73:21, 22 describe you, "When my heart was embittered, and I was pierced within, then I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a beast before Thee."

What are you to do? I suggest four marvelous truths for your serious consideration. First, remember who you are, I Peter 2:9, 10. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, called by Him to proclaim His mercies to the world. If you are in Christ, then this and so many other glorious things are true about you. Now live like it. And when you fail, and you will fail everyday, just like I do, then repent, and plead the blood of Jesus over you. Aren’t you glad God is not like you or me? If you were God, then you would look at my latest failure with sinful impatience and say, "Okay, that’s enough. I gave you 1112 chances to get it right, and you have now failed one too many times. You are out of My kingdom." God is not like us. His grace is always greater than our sin. This is truly astounding, beyond comprehension to feeble, short-sighted humans.

Second, remember who you are not, I Corinthians 6:9, 10. Paul says that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God, and such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. You have been set free from slavery to sin, and been made slaves of righteousness to Jesus Christ, Romans 6:15ff. Never forget God’s mercy to you in Christ.

Third, remember who you serve. The continued and progressive unveiling of God’s plan of redemption makes increasingly clear that God always provides for His people. At times it may be when their backs are to the Red Sea. It may be when they are dying of thirst in the wilderness. It may come through daily provision of manna from heaven. God’s provision may not be in the way you anticipate. You may pray for healing and God chooses not to heal you, bringing suffering and then death. Has he failed to deliver you? Not at all. He promises to take you to heaven. Furthermore, He promises to give you His grace in every needy circumstance, I Corinthians 10:13. What does this mean? This is not always easy to explain, but you have seen Him sustain you, encourage you, provide for you, give you a peace which passes all understanding in terribly difficult times. This is God’s grace.

And fourth, remember where you are going. Your citizenship is in heaven, from which you eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself, Philippians 3:20, 21. Jesus is the manna which has come down out of heaven, John 6:32ff. He is the One who feeds you, sustains you, who gives you His grace by the Holy Spirit. Get a big picture of this God of grace.

FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS is a weekly devotional by Reverend Al Baker, pastor of Christ Community Presbyterian Church in West Hartford, Connecticut.

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