Back to the Basics, Part 3
Selected Scriptures
The last few times together on Sunday night, we've been looking at the subject of God's will, the basic, bottom line perspective of all of Christian living as seen in reference to glorifying Him. We have seen how important it is to live to the glory of God. We've talked about its relationship to God's will, to spiritual growth, to obedience, to purpose in life and eternity. And in our last session together, we started a little bit of a list, really, of practical ways in which we as Christians glorify God. If indeed that is the singular purpose for which we live. And it is as we have seen in great measure in our study together. Then we need to know how to do that. We want to give you some handles. If we are made for the glory of God, if our purpose and intention on earth is to be to the praise of His glory then we need to know how to do that. And there are some very pragmatic ways in which we can glorify God.
Remember last time, we began with two very basic ways that a believer glorifies God. First of all, by confessing Jesus as Lord. In fact, in Philippians 2, you remember that great passage in verses 9 to 11, which says that we are to bow the knee, every knee will bow ultimately, whether people be on earth or whether they be under the earth, every living thing will bow the knee to Jesus Christ and everyone will confess Jesus as Lord. And then comes that important statement, "to the glory of God."
And we outlined the fact to you from Scripture that salvation is primarily not for us. It is primarily for him. It is primarily not for our joy and our blessing and our eternal life, but for God's glory. That we might be, instead of sinful, that we might be righteous to the praise of His glory; that we, instead of rebelling against Him, might praise Him and honor Him and give Him adoration forever and ever. And so God redeems us for His own sake more than for our sake. The benefits, which accrue to us, are byproducts of God's primary purpose, which is His own glory.
And that is why the apostle Paul in Romans says, "We preach obedience of the faith among the nations for the sake of His name." It is for His sake. Because it is an affront to God that anyone should exist and not give Him glory. It strikes a blow in the face of Christ that anyone should be alive and not praise His holy name. And we have been made and are redeemed to that very purpose. And when we acknowledge the sovereign Lordship of Jesus Christ and His perfect sacrifice on the cross, His saving power, and set our lives in motion to give Him praise for time and eternity, we glorify God and that is our purpose.
Now the second of this list that we looked at, was not only do we glorify God by confessing Jesus as Lord but by aiming our lives at that purpose. In other words, by coming to the realization that we live for no other reason than the glory of God. So that, in the words of the apostle Paul to the Corinthians in chapter 10, "Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, you do it all," what? "To the glory of God." So the very point of our life is directed then, at glorifying God. When Jesus, who set the example, articulated His purpose in John 8:50, He said, "I am here to give honor to the Father." And that should be the goal and objective of our lives. We are not like the hypocrites of Matthew 6 who sought glory for themselves. But we are of the genuine believers who seek glory for God. So that in all we do, whether we do things as mundane as eating or drinking, or whatever we do, we seek to glorify God.
That means--you'll remember I told you--that means preferring Him and His Kingdom above all else. That means that we really do mean what we say when we say, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven." It also means that we are content to do His will at any cost, doesn't matter what the price is. And you remember in John 21 how Jesus confronted Peter and told him that he would die. Only the terms Jesus used were very unique. He spoke of his death signifying by what death he--that is Peter--should glorify God. God is glorified in the kind of obedience that is so resolute and so faithful and so unwavering and uncompromising that it goes even to death, if need be. So living to the glory of God means then, that we prefer Him and His Kingdom above everything. That we are content to do His will no matter what it costs.
I also told you last time, that glorifying God as a focus in life means suffering when he suffers. In other words it means being so zealous for His name that when He is dishonored, we feel the pain. Psalm 69:9, "The reproaches that fall on Thee, are fallen on me," said David. When You are maligned, I hurt. I am wounded because I'm so identified with Your glory.
And then, one final thought regarding focusing your life on the glory of God was that we, who are living to the glory of God, are therefore content to be outdone by others who do exactly what we do better than we do, as long as God gets the glory. In other words, it's no contest. We're not in it for our own self-glory. We're not competing against other Christians. We are content to be outdone by others who do exactly what we do better than we do it, as long as He gets the glory.
Now I want to bring you tonight to a third, and a very, very essential way in which practically, pragmatically we glorify God. And that is by confessing sin ... by confessing sin. This is a direct way of glorifying God. The thief on the cross, for example, dishonored God all his life. But in the final moments of his life, he gave God glory in the way he exalted Jesus Christ. In Luke 23:41 the text records that he said to the other thief, "We indeed suffer justly." In other words, he recognized that Jesus was innocent but that he was guilty and so was the man on the other cross. He acknowledged his own sin and he acknowledged his own just punishment, such glorifies God.
I'll show you why. Let's look in our Bibles at the seventh chapter of Joshua. Back to the Old Testament, the seventh chapter of Joshua. A somewhat familiar incident, though this particular point from within that incident may be not as familiar. In Joshua chapter 7, you remember the story of the people of Israel coming into the Promised Land. And you remember that in the conquest of Jericho, recorded in chapter 6, the Lord God told the Jewish people not to take anything from Jericho. Remember that? Don't take any garments or any plunder. No loot. Come out empty-handed.
In spite of the command of God there was a man named Achan, and it must have been also that his family was to one degree or another, voluntarily or involuntarily, a somewhat of a coconspirator in his disobedience. But nonetheless, after the conquest of Jericho, this man named Achan took some booty. He took some things that he had no right to take. And those things are indicated to us in the text of Scripture.
Let's look at chapter 7 and begin at verse 19. "And Joshua said unto Achan," confronting him about the sin that had caused Israel to be defeated at Ai because they were disobedient at Jericho, "my son," now watch this language used here, "I pray thee, give glory to the Lord God of Israel." How? "Even make confession unto him and tell me now what thou hast done. Hide it not from me." And Achan answered Joshua and said, "Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and thus have I done. When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylon-ish garment and 200 shekels silver and a wedge of gold of 50-shekels weight, then I coveted them and took them and behold they are hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent and the silver under it."
Now that is a full confession. He held nothing back. It speaks of an evil deed: taking what he was not to take. It speaks of an evil motive: coveting. He really didn't hold anything back. He openly confessed his sin. The result then, "Joshua sent messengers and they ran to the tent, behold it was hidden in his tent, the silver under it. They took them out of the midst of the tent, brought them unto Joshua and to all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the Lord. And Joshua and all the children of Israel with him, took Achan, the son of Zerah, and the silver and the garment and the wedge of gold and his sons and his daughters and his oxen and his asses and his sheep and his tent and all that he had, and they brought them unto the Valley of Achor. And Joshua said, "Why has thou troubled us?" In other words, your sin has brought consequence on the entire nation in the defeat at Ai. "The Lord shall trouble thee this day and all Israel stoned him with stones and burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day, so the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger, wherefore the name of that place was called the Valley of Achor," which, by the way, means trouble, "unto this day."
This is a very fascinating incident. The one thing that I want you to understand in this incident is this: the glory of God was at stake because God was about to give Israel a very firm and stern lesson about the consequences of sin and disobedience. Now is it not true that any act of disobedience against God is worthy of death? Is that not so? And is it not also so that the question in the Old Testament: why do certain people die for their sin, is really the wrong question. The right question is why does anybody ... what? Live, because all of us are guilty sinners. And so we look at this incident and the glory of God is at stake because as sure as God comes in, and kills Achan and all coconspirators in his family and everything they possess, someone is going to say, "God is unjust and unfair and unloving and ungracious." And so the issue here was God was set to punish sin. And if Achan would acknowledge that God was just in that punishment, by confessing his sin, he then frees God from any thought of impunity or injustice. So that when God acts against him, everyone knows that God acts righteously. His glory is saved any reproach.
And so the issue of confession here, frankly, had minimally to do with Joshua and didn't alter the circumstances, but freed God from being accused of being unkind, unfair, or unjust. For, in fact, out of the mouth of Achan came the testimony, "I have coveted and I have disobeyed God." And in so saying, he is affirming what all Old Testament saints knew to be true, the soul that sinneth, as it was worded by later by Ezekiel, it shall die.
I don't know that we understand that about the confession of sin. I think that for many years in Christianity, people have assumed to confess our sins in order to get the power back on. And I suppose all of us have been to seminars or conferences or heard messages where somebody said, "Now if you want to the power of the Spirit of God in your life and you want to get your act together and be useful to God, confess your sin and get back on track." And that is true. But that is a very narrow and limited and incomplete perspective on the reason for confession.
What this text is saying to us is that we ought to outwardly and openly and honestly confess our sin so that when God chastens us, when God reacts in a holy way to our unholiness, there is no thought on anyone's part that God is unjust. So His glory is spared from any unwitting human reproach.
On the other hand, when people run around excusing their sin, then the chastening of God may appear to others to be unfair. And may I suggest to you that this is the commonest way for even Christians to behave. I was thinking back the other day, when is the last time a Christian that was caught in major sin and had to be confronted about that sin, really fully acknowledged the sin, fully acknowledged the evil, fully acknowledged whatever chastening God wanted to bring was just. And in thus, that way, gave God glory. When is the last time that's happened?
I thought a long time before I could remember such a time. The usual response is, "Well, it wasn't handled right. Well, it wasn't my fault. Well, there were circumstances. Well," and so forth and so on. And, "poor me." And then when the chastening comes, everyone is down on God. Why are You letting this happen? Why are You allowing this to be going on? When the miracle of miracles is that God hasn't just snuffed out the life instantaneously. That's only of grace.
I mean, it's just part of humanness to deny responsibility and if you deny the responsibility of your sin, who are putting it on? Well, look at Adam. God created Adam, created Eve. Eve sort of led into the sin. And then when Adam fell into the sin and was confronted in Genesis 3:12, you remember Adam's response? "The woman You gave me." Who did he blame? He didn't blame the woman. "The woman," what? "You gave me." I didn't even know there was such a thing as a woman. I didn't even know what a woman was. You could have picked any woman, what did I know? You picked her; she did it, Your fault. That was the implication of it. He blamed God.
And when we blame others for our sin, when we blame circumstances or Satan or demons, the devil made me do it, we fail to accept the responsibility that we act on our own. Those certainly somewhat victimized by the world, the flesh, and the devil in our humanness, we nonetheless make choices on our own for which we are responsible. And when we won't do that and God moves in to chasten, and I see this in the church all the time, there are people who are undergoing trouble, and people all around them, because these people will not acknowledge the sinfulness of their lives which is no doubt the reason for the trouble, everybody around them begins to question why God is allowing this to happen and the character of God is brought into question.
So I want you to understand something that maybe you haven't understood about confession. Confessing your sin is not just so you can keep the fellowship sweet. It's not just so that you can have the joy that 1 John 1:4 writes about. It's not so just that you can be useful to God and know the power. It is also so that when God wants to chasten you, He will not be thought unjust because it will be known that you deserved what comes. You say, "But I don't want anybody to know about my sin." You would rather hide your sin and have others suspect the righteousness of God? See, this is a real important question that will demonstrate where your true affections lie. Are you more zealous to protect your reputation or the reputation of God? Is that a fair question?
Let's look at 1 Samuel chapter 4 and let's learn a lesson from some pagans ... 1 Samuel chapter 4. And, of course, the children of Israel were seemingly always in some kind of a battle with the people around them. And this particular occasion, as on many other occasions, it was a battle with the Philistines. And they were involved in this battle. And the children of Israel were losing. For the most part, for a long time, they had been somewhat irreligious. Oh, they went through a form but there was not real heart in it. In fact, they hadn't, for any real period of time, even acknowledged God. But when they started to lose the battle they panicked.
And so in verse 3 somebody said let's go get God. We can't handle this on our own; we got to have God. And they were getting slain. And so they said in verse 3, "Fetch the Ark of the Covenant out of Shiloh." They had almost come to the point where they were idolatress, in so far as they attached the presence of God only to the little box known as the Ark of the Covenant, which was symbol of His omnipresence, really. And so they said let's go get the box that represents God. We got to have God on our side. And they were looking at God as if He were a utilitarian genie: you rubbed your lamp, God jumps out, and says three wishes; anything you want. Without respect for how you may have treated Him in the past.
And so they thought they could just bring God in as if He were a sort of magic charm. So the people sent to Shiloh in verse 4, "That they might bring from there the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of Hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the Ark of the Covenant of God," two wretched, deviated, perverse young men, by the way, "and when the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout so that the earth rang again." The shout was a shout of triumph. We're going to win now; God's here! They rubbed their magic lamp, God jumped out, and now He would save them.
And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout they said, "What means the noise of the great shout in the camp of the Hebrews. And they understand that the Ark of the Lord was come to the camp. And the Philistines were afraid for they said, 'God has come into the camp!' The word was out about that little box. I mean that thing was representative of the God who parted Red Sea, the God who had done many, many mighty miracles in Egypt to free them from their bondage. The reputation of that Ark, that God-representation, for in the pagans' eyes, that little box was their idol. And so they were afraid. In verse 7, God has come into the camp, and they said, "Whoa unto us for there hath not been such a thing here to fore whoa unto us. Who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues, in the wilderness."
And there was instant panic throughout the whole Philistine army. And then there was a pep talk because there was little else they could do but fight. In verse 9, "Be strong and acquit yourselves like men, o you Philistines, that you be not servants unto the Hebrews as they have been to you. Acquit yourselves like men and fight." Get your act together. Somebody became instantly the coach and called for everybody to get going. And the Philistines fought and Israel was smitten. Amazing. "And the Israelites fled every man to his tent and there was a very great slaughter for there fell of Israel 30 thousand footmen." And look at this, "And the Ark of the Lord was taken. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain."
Imagine this turn of events. They're all excited. The Ark of the Covenant arrives. They start to shout and scream so much that the earth rings and the Philistines are afraid just because of the shout. God is here; we're going to win. What happens? Not only did they lose. But the Philistines stole the Ark; they took God, an unbelievable turn of events. Now if you think that's a disaster for the Israelites, imagine what it is for the Philistines who now have God on their hands. That's frightening.
Let's see what happened ... chapter 5. So the Philistines have the Ark of God. The Ark of God is now in the hands of the pagans. "And they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod," and here we have a series of Philistine cities. Philistine or Philistia is the ancient name from which we get Palestine and it speaks of those early dwellers in that place. The Philistines took the Ark of God and, of course, they thought it was an idol, it was the Jewish God, which now they thought was no big deal because they had defeated the Jewish God. This was a real coup for them. But they had known that this God had a good reputation so they wanted to at least show some respect.
So this took this box, which they thought was the God of Israel, rather than a representation of Him. And they brought it into the house of Dagon. Now Dagon was the Philistine god, half fish and half man. It was a man with fish head. Now Dagon was their main God. And so they went into the temple of Dagon and put this God in there. Now they had Dagon and they had this God that they had captured, as it were, from Israel. And they no doubt set the Ark of the Covenant alongside Dagon to show that it was now subjection to Dagon. And when they of Ashdod arose early the next day, and went back, they found Dagon fallen on his face to the earth before the Ark of the Lord. What happened? They went back in and this half man/half fish thing is bowing down to this little box. And they took Dagon and set him in his place again. It must have been a strong wind blow through here in the night.
And when they arose early the next morning, this time Dagon was fallen on his face to the ground before the Ark of the Lord. Only this time, his head and palms of hands were cut off and only the stump was left. And they knew there was no wind doing this. Now his head and his hands are hacked off. Well, verse 5 gives you a very obvious consequence, "Neither the priests of Dagon nor any that come into Dagon's house, tread on the threshold of Dagon and Ashdod unto this day."
That wasn't all. "The hand of the Lord," now the Lord is not looking kindly on being compared to other gods, right? And certainly is not going to accept the fact that they had put their god Dagon before Him, "for He would have no other gods before Him," says the Decalogue in Exodus 20. "So the hand of the Lord then moves on them of Ashdod and He destroyed them and smote them with tumors." And all around Ashdod there was death and there were tumors. "And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, 'The Ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us.'" You understand that. Get that box out of town. Get it out. "For His hand is heavy on us and on Dagon our god. So they sent therefore, gathered all the Lords of the Philistines, and they said, 'What are we going to do with the Arc of the God of Israel?'" They said, "Let the Arc of the God of Israel be carried about to Gath." Now Gath is another Philistine town not far away from which a very famous man came by the name of Goliath.
And so they said take it to Gath. And they carried the Ark of the God of Israel to Gath, which was no particular favor for the people who lived in Gath. The hand of the Lord, in verse 9, was against the city with a very great destruction. "And He smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had tumors in their secret parts." That means internal tumors, very deep within them. Cancerous tumors divinely authored by God.
Well the Gathites said we got to get rid of this box too. And so they sent it to Eckron. "And it came to pass as the Ark of God came to Eckron, that the Eckronites cried out. And they said, "They have brought the Arc of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people." And it's really getting ridiculous 'cause every new town, becomes victimized by God. "So they sent and gathered together all the lord of the Philistines and said, 'Send away the Ark of the God of Israel, let it go again to its own place that it slay us not, and our people," there's a deadly destruction throughout all the city. "The hand of God was very heavy there and the men that died not," the ones that weren't killed in a plague. And we find out in the next chapter the plague was a plague carried by rodents. Like a bubonic plague or a black death and went through the whole population. And the ones that didn't die from that plague were smitten with these internal tumors. And the cry of the city went up to Heaven.
Now what's going to be the response? Are they going be like the people in Revelation pictured in the time of the tribulation when God comes down with a heavy hand of judgment, they shake their fists and curse and name of God? Are they going to curse God for His unjust act, for His lack of fairness, for His lack of love and grace and goodness and mercy and kindness? Are they going to wave their fists at God, like so many people? Let's find out.
It was in their country, it says in verse 1 of chapter 6, for seven months. And they called all the priests and the diviners, all the soothsayers, all the prognosticators, and stargazers, and everybody else who could figure out was going to go on. And they said, "What do we do with Ark of the Lord? Tell us what way, we shall send it to its place." How do we get rid of it? How do we stop this? And they said, "If you send away the Ark of the God of Israel, sent it not empty." Don't send it back empty. Why? "But by all means," underline this, "by all means return Him a trespass offering," so significant. What does a trespass offering acknowledge? Sin. In other words, we need to confess that the reason this has happened is because of our ... what? Sin.
I commend these pagan people for having the integrity to acknowledge the fact that they had violated the Holy God of Israel. And that what had happened to them, had happened to them not because God was unjust but because they had ... what? Sinned. "Then you shall be healed and it shall be known to you why His hand is not removed from you." And they said, "Well, what shall be the trespass offering which we shall return?" And they said, "Five golden tumors." Can you imagine? Five golden tumor and five golden mice for that how many lords of the Philistines there are. And one plague was on you all and on your lords.
So, they would set about to take gold and shape five golden tumors and five golden mice. You say, "What is this?" This is what, in ancient times, was called a votive offering. It is given because, by virtue of its very design, it acknowledges that the tumors and the plague of the mice was due to the violation of the God to whom they offered they offering. See? Very specific.
I remember being in Corinth, the ancient city of Corinth. And while I was looking through the museum at Corinth, the guide said to me, "Would you like to come into a private room? I want to show you something." Now in Corinth in ancient times, they worshipped the god who was known as the god Esculapius. And Esculapius was the god of healing. And people would come to Corinth in the temple of Esculapius to receive their healings. And they would acknowledge when they came that their diseases were a result of offending this god Esculapius, in order to demonstrate that, they would bring votive offerings.
And when I went into this room, I saw for the first time what they were. All over this room were feet and knees and elbows and arms and noses and ears and fingers and internal organs, every imaginable limb and organ of the human body, and by the thousands in there, all formed out of clay. They would literally make a clay replica of the diseased part of their body, as they understood it, and they would bring it in and lay it at the feet of this god in this temple, acknowledging to that god that the disease in that part of their body was due to an offense against him. And they knew that was offense against him and they wanted him to know they knew it by presenting that very diseased part of their body as a recognition that they had violated him.
That's essentially what you have here. It was a common pagan way to acknowledge to a deity or a god, whether the true God, as in this case, or an imaginary god like Esculapius, that you knew your trou