Person of Interest: Lamech

Throughout history, the world has been filled with people who never make the "headlines."  Many of these people lived their lives in obscurity yet had a profound impact on the world as we know it today. Who taught Martin Luther his theology and inspired his translation of the Bible from Latin to German?  Who spoke to a young Dwight L. Moody in the shoe store that day; a conversation that ultimately led Moody to Christ and eventually countless others through his evangelism?

To bring it a little closer to home: what is the name of the person who changed the brakes on your car that you trust with your life every time you press on that little peddle?  What about the airline mechanic who repairs the plane you're about to fly on?  How about the soldier who stands watch at a base in Afghanistan while you sleep peacefully in your bed at home?  Each of these individuals are what we might refer to as often overlooked lives of significance.

The Bible is filled with stories of people who are often overlooked by hurried readers; men and women who lived their lives in the shadows away from the limelight.  Yet, their lives - for better or for worse - are etched forever in the pages of God's Word.

Although we are separated by thousands of years, the 2,390 people mentioned in the Bible struggled with the same pains and experienced the same joys that you and I face on a daily basis.  We must learn from their mistakes, strive to model their successes and allow ourselves to be challenged to live lives of significance for eternity.

One of the first individuals we are tempted to overlook in the Old Testament is a man named Lamech.  There are actually two Lamechs mentioned in Genesis but the one I'm referring to is found in Genesis 4:17-24. (Listen to my sermon from last Sunday on Lamech here)  Lamech is the 7th generation from Adam through the line of Cain (the guy who killed is brother out of jealously). Lamech is the first of serveral men mentioned in the Bible that took more than one wife.  While it may not seem like a big deal it reveals a major issue in Lamech's life.

God's design for marriage from the very beginning is one man and one woman joined together in an inseparable union (a plan that Jesus affirmed in the New Testament).  Anything other than the one man and one woman relationship is a distortion of God's plan and always involves some sort of sin.  Lamech's sin of taking two wives opened the door for evil to overrun his life.  Like an ingested poison that slowly kills it's unsuspecting victim from the inside-out, Lamech allowed sin to corrupt his thinking.  The next thing we know, Lamech is bragging to his wives about killing a young man (Genesis 4:23-24).

Sin is a slippery slope.  As God told Lamech's great-great-great-grandfather, Cain, "sin is crouching at the door.  Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it." (Genesis 4:7) Sin is like a wild animal crouching in the bushes waiting for the moment to pounce on it's prey and kill it. 

Thanks be to God that he has given us freedom from the bondage of sin and death through Jesus!  Through the work of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit that indwells every believer we have the power to fight off the attacks of sin on our life.  Like the great Puritan John Owen said, "be killing sin or it will be killing you."

Will we ever live perfect sinless lives this side of eternity?  No.  Should we as Christians expect non-Christians to say "no" to sinful desires?  No.  In fact, Romans 8 tells us that the person without the Spirit can't say "no" to sin.  God calls us to extend grace AND truth to those who are far from God and by loving them and gently pointing them to the Truth of God's Word.  Ultimately, we need to realize we must be different than the world around us.  We are to live lives worthy of the One who has saved us. (1 Peter 2:12)

Remember Lamech and don't allow sin to corrupt your thinking.

Next Sunday's "Person of Interest" - Jethro (and not the Beverly Hillbilly)

Godly Grief or Wordly Sorrow?

When we sin it is fairly easy to determine if we are experiencing true godly grief or just worldly sorrow because we know our own thoughts.

The real challenge comes when a believer sins and is lovingly disciplined by their church family to direct them toward repentance and restoration.  When the disciplined person expresses sorrow and claims to have repented how can the church best assess whether the person has genuinely repented or is merely experiencing worldly grief?  

The passage I've spent a lot of time studying trying to answer this question is 2 Corinthians 7:5-13.  The Apostle Paul is quite clear when he reveals worldly grief produces death (vs. 9) but godly sorrow produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret (vs. 10).  In the case of the Corinthian church, their godly sorrow led to eagerness to clear themselves by doing what was right.  Sadly, many people stop here because they are simply trying to "clear their name."  The Corinthian believers did not stop there.  They also expressed righteous indignation over their sin, fear of God, zeal, and willingness to expel from their midst the one who had caused them to stumble.

While it's impossible to offer a perfect set of principles for discerning between worldly sorrow and true repentance, here are a couple general guidelines I've pulled out of my study:

(1) What is the person's attitude toward the church's act of discipline? Does the person heartily agree that the church was right to exclude him or her because of the sin, or does the person harbor bitterness and resentment?

(2) Does the person appear to be more upset about how the sin has affected himself or herself (focusing on the pain, shame, or hardship it has brought him or her), or is the person genuinely grieved to have sinned against God, harmed others, wounded the church, and brought Christ's name into disrepute?

Obviously, with the difficulty and sensitively involved in this kind of situation it requires us as church leaders to be godly, patient, humble, prayerful, Bible-soaked men.

An extremely helpful guide, which I relied upon heavily for my study and paraphrased above, comes from the 9Marks: Healthy Church Study Guide series.  It is entitled: Guarding One Another: Church Discipline  - Click HERE for a FREE PDF download of the first chapter.

Strive for Holiness

(The following blog is based on the sermon on Mark 9:42-50 I preached yesterday at Geist Community Church.)

At the end of Mark chapter nine Jesus clearly teaches about two dangers we face on a daily basis; two dangers that if unchecked in our lives will have dire consequences both now and for eternity.

The first danger is found in Mark 9:42:  The danger of causing other believers to sin.

Jesus warned anyone who would deliberately hinder someone from abiding in Him.  The damage to the work of God's Kingdom program is immeasurable because causing another believer to fall into sin effectively neutralizes their work for God.  1 Corinthians 8:12 explains that sinning against your brother in Christ and wounding their conscience when it is weak actually results in you sinning against Jesus!

The second danger is in Mark 9:43-50: The danger of our own sin.

Sin is a hideous, sly monster that seeks to devour us.  As a believer in Christ there is now no condemnation before God because of our sin (Romans 8:1).  However, sin is still incredibly dangerous because it can render us ineffective for the work God has prepared in advance for us to do.  Avoiding sin and living a holy life is hard.  It requires drastic measures, but it is the way that leads to life.  As a surgeon does not hesitate to cut off a gangrenous limb to save a life, so sin must be radically severed to save the soul.

That's the truth.  It's hard to be much more clear than Mark 9:42-50.  The question is: how do we put it into action in our lives?  How do we respond to this truth?

As Prof (aka Howard Hendricks) always used to say in my Bible Study Methods class at Dallas Theological Seminary: "to know and not to do, is not to know at all."  Thus, we must DO to show that we truly believe the truth of Scripture.

One of the clearest passages in the Bible that shows us what we must do is found in Hebrews 12:1-4; 12-14.  Specifically, the command given in 12:14 is "strive for holiness."

We must: Strive for Holiness

3 Reasons Why:
(1) it is a command of God - 1 Peter 1:15-16
(2) it is the only appropriate response to God's grace in our lives - 1 Corinthians 15:9-10
(3) without holiness "no one will see the Lord"  - Hebrews 12:14, Matthew 5:8

3 Ways How:
(1) Strive for holiness by dwelling on the Gospel

• Titus 2:11-15
• When we dwell on the truth of the Gospel it should drive us to live holy lives out of gratitude for God's gracious act of saving us.
• We should be driven to live holy lives when we dwell on the fact that we were dead in our trespasses and sin, unable to love God, unable to do anything good to try and earn a good standing before God until God intervened through His mercy and made us alive in Christ Jesus.
• When we dwell on the power of Gospel we will WANT to present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God as our spiritual act of worship (Romans 12:1).

(2) Strive for holiness by radically repenting of sin

• John Owen said it this way: "be killing sin or it will be killing you."
• We must get radical!  It is exactly what Jesus taught.
• Does your computer cause you to sin?  Get rid of it!  If your job requires you to use computers, get a new job!
• Does your television cause you to sin?  Throw it out!
• Does hanging around with your "friends" tempt you to sin?  Get new friends, for they are no friend.
• We must radically repent of sin if we are to strive for holiness.
• In Philippians 3:12-16 the apostle Paul likens perfection/holiness to a prize or a trophy.  He acknowledges God has given us the trophy.  It can never be taken away from us.  It is our free gift.  However, we must hold tightly to that trophy as if it depended on us, even though it does not.

(3) Strive for holiness by living under the Spirit's power

•  The Holy Spirit is power! (Acts 1:8)
• We are to live by the Spirit. (Romans 8)

When we strive for holiness by dwelling on the Gospel, radically repenting of sin, and living under the Spirit's power we will ultimately elevate and focus on the glory of God, the Holy One of Israel. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, "we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another."  In other words, we become what we behold.  If you truly behold "the Holy One of Israel" you will "be holy, as He is Holy."