Over sixty years and sixty pounds ago, I was typically the fastest guy in my school.  In the city, there was only one other sprinter my age that was competitive with me in the hundred.  We ran against each other frequently and it was always close.  We began to develop a friendship because we knew we were the best.  One spring afternoon we had a track meet that was open to some of the smaller rural schools in the Texas panhandle.  I still remember lining up with eight of us in the blocks.  My friend was two lanes to my left.  The only question would be which of us would win that day as we showed the country boys how we ran in the city.  

The gun sounded, we leaped from the starting blocks and as we crossed the finish line we both looked each other in the eyes as we humbly tied for last place.  The country boys had smoked us…not by inches but by feet.  We both recognized at the same time what had happened and could only laugh.  We spent the rest of the afternoon in the stands licking our wounds.  Here was the thing…we had measured ourselves against the track teams in our city and grade level and assumed every other track team in the country was like those we competed against each week.  We had a false measure of comparison.  It cost us a race.

From time to time, I visit with people who have a problem with God.  They get how he might send really wicked people to hell, but cannot accept a God who would send “good people” to torment simply because they had not accepted Jesus.  I think that issue is worth a response.

In the first place, God is not sending them to hell, but is feverishly trying to rescue them from the hell they are sending themselves to.  Our problem is, like my friend and I, a false measure of comparison.  We measure the righteousness of men against the righteousness of men rather than the righteousness of God.

We look at an Adolph Hitler or a Jeffrey Dahmer and determine that they were evil and deserve some form of extreme punishment.  But then we look at our neighbors who work hard, pay their bills, go to the lake every weekend with their family, and volunteer to coach little league.  These are “good people.”  They give little thought to God and do not follow Jesus, but they are “good people.”  We make that comparison on the basis of the other people we know who live in   this very perverse world.

In doing so, we assume God grades on the curve and if you are in the top 30-40 %, you get in.  But that is not how it works.  The standard for righteousness is God’s holiness not ours and he is a God who dwells in unapproachable light.  The judgment of heaven is that all have fallen short of the glory of God and that there is none righteous, no not one (Romans 3:10).  In fact, Isaiah declares, “How then can we be saved? All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isa. 64:5-6).

Isaiah is pointing out, that based on our own righteous acts none of us can come into the presence of God because the best that the best of us can do is like filthy rags (the rags women sat on during their menstrual cycle in the days of Isaiah) compared to God’s holiness. Isaiah should know because, even though he was a great man of God, he was overwhelmed with is own sense of sinfulness when he received a vision of God. He cried out, “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty” (Isa. 6:4-5).  The word translated as “ruined” here means destroyed, devastated, or to cease.   When Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, he thought he was going to die because of his own sense of unworthiness and sinfulness compared to the holiness of God. Likewise, Ezekiel, Daniel and other prophets found themselves face down, unable to move or even breath when they encountered the holiness of God or even his representatives.  

The point is that none of us are “good people” by the standards of heaven.  We have just lived in the swamp so long we no longer smell or notice the decay all around us. Some parts stink less than others, but every part stinks. Even people who look good on the outside have all kinds of ungodliness on the inside and God judges not only our actions but our hearts and thoughts as well.  Even the best of us have pockets of pride, lustful thoughts, judgmental hearts, selfish ambitions, jealousy, envy, unforgiveness, lies, and self-justifications.  It is our fallen nature.  So, by heaven’s standards of goodness and righteousness, none of us are “good people.”  

But God, knowing that none of us could stand in his presence on the basis of our own righteousness, provided a righteousness by faith through Jesus Christ who became sin for us that we might be the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:21).   By our own sin we condemned ourselves to hell, but God in his righteousness and love provided a way of escape, a rescue plan for those who would acknowledge that at their best they fall short, but who trust God to make a way through his Son.

Our own rebellion has condemned us.  God has gone to extreme lengths to save us from our own wickedness.  Our problem is we don’t know wickedness when we see it because we have never seen true holiness.  And yet the grace of God is abundant and he has no desire to see anyone cast into hell.  He declares, “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign Lord. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? (Ezek.18:23).  God is not the bad guy in this equation…Satan is.  We need to remember the extent to which God has gone to save us from ourselves.  For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son (Jn.3:16).  There are no “good people” by heaven’s standards, but there is certainly a good God.


 

 

In the latter years of King David, we are told that “the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying,”Go and take a census of Israel and Judah” (2 Sam. 24:1). As the account is laid out, David commanded Joab to go throughout Israel and Judah and count all the fighting men. Joab immediately objected, but David insisted.

The issue seems to have been that counting the fighting men was either motivated by pride or was a sign the King was trusting in the strength of his army rather than in the God of Israel. Either way, even Joab was offended by the idea and he was not a particularly spiritual man. Whatever the issue, it opened up David and, consequently, Israel to the attacks of Satan.

When the census had been completed, the text says that David was conscience stricken and asked forgiveness from the Lord (2 Sam. 24:10). However, things were already set in motion. The Lord sent Gad the prophet to David saying that David was to choose one of three punishments for Israel: three years of famine, three months of fleeing before their enemies, or three days of plague. David chose plague because it was totally in the hands of God, rather than choosing war and placing the nation in the hands of some human enemy. Before the plague ended, seventy thousand Israelites died over a three day period. Three are several spiritual principles that we should draw from this story.

1. A rebellious nation, at some point, will bring judgment on itself. God is patient and long suffering, but even that has limits. God is full of grace and love but he is also holy and righteous. He is very clear through scripture, that his love and grace abound toward those who love him and keep his commandments, but discipline and judgment will eventually come on those who rebel. He warns, he pleads, he sends partial judgments, but when the people insist by their continued rebellion, he will release the fullness of his judgment. Like any loving parent, he does not desire to punish his children, but he will do so when necessary for their sake.

2. Sometimes, God punishes a nation through its leaders. If you have ever wondered how in the world certain men were elected to high office when they were obviously unfit by lack of capacity or character, you might consider the sovereignty of God in the matter. We often blame political leaders for the woes of our nation, but the nation may well be the problem more than its leaders…especially when the nation elects its leaders. Poor leaders make bad decisions that cost those they lead…sometimes in disastrous proportions. During the Bill Clinton presidency, some raised the question as to whether character really mattered in a president as long as the was a shrewd politician. The biblical response would be absolutely. Scripture declares that thrones are established (maintained, secured) through righteousness (Pr. 16:12). Unrighteousness will undermine the throne and the government and people it represents.

In 1 Chronicles 21:1, when the same incident is reported, we are told that “Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.” Here we have an account where God doesn’t cause a man to sin because God cannot be tempted nor does he tempt anyone (Ja. 1:13), but because of Israel’s rebellion, Satan procured a legal right to attack the nation through its king. In this case, Satan prompted the sin, but God determined the judgment. The “2 Samuel version” that says. “God incited David,” simply recognizes the ultimate sovereignty of God…that God allowed Satan to incite David. God allowed it because he is a just God and Satan brought the charge of rebellion against Israel. In doing so, God’s justice demanded that Satan be given the right to bring judgment on the nation.

3. Trust in God, not in men. When God told David to choose the judgment for the nation, David gave a wise response. He simply said, ” Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great, but do not let me fall into human hands” (2 Samuel 24:14). It is always better to trust God than to put your fate in the hands of men. God will bring judgment and discipline, but it is always measured and its purpose it to turn us or a nation back to him so that he can bless again.

It is a bad idea to try to avoid God’s discipline. When I was a kid, my parents would warn me. “Tell the truth. You may get in trouble, but it won’t be as bad as the trouble you’ll be in if we find you are lying to us.” In the Old Testament, God scolded Israel on several occasions because they tried to avoid his discipline and the second round of discipline was much harder than if they had simply submitted to the punishment God had directed toward them initially.

4. It is not a sacrifice, if if costs us nothing. As this story unfolds, seventy thousand Israelites die from a plague in a period of three days. As David was crying out for God’s mercy on behalf of the people, he was enabled to see the angel of the Lord standing over Jerusalem with a drawn sword that was releasing the plague. In a moment of mercy, God relented and called off the angel and the judgment before it took its full measure.

As God relented, David was instructed to offer a sacrifice on behalf of the people. He was instructed to build an altar on the threshing floor of a man called Araunah the Jebusite. David asked to purchase the threshing floor, wood, and oxen for the sacrifice. Araunah offered to give it to David for free, but David concluded, “No, I insist on paying for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” David paid full price, offered the sacrifice on behalf of the people, and the plague was stopped.

In the days of David, people had not forsaken the temple or the sacrifices. However, after “worship” and offering their obligatory sacrifices, they lived as they wanted to and their hearts were far from God. We can go through the motions of worship and sacrifice and yet not be doing those things as a sign of our love and surrender to God. In the days of David and there after, Israel often would sacrifice the sheep and cattle they didn’t want – the lame, the blind, the blemished.

Sometimes we only give God the leftovers instead of the first fruits or the best of what we have. We only serve when it is convenient, we only give when we have already bought everything we want. We only show up to encourage our spiritual family when we don’t get a “better offer.” We may be surprised to discover that those are not acceptable sacrifices because they were only tokens and cost us very little or nothing at all. God gave his best. We honor that sacrifice by giving our best.

When a nation who once knew and honored God begins to offer only lip service to God or says all the right things but then lives like the devil, judgment is on the way…not because God is unkind but because he is holy and just. The flaws may be noticed first in the leaders, because media may place them under the microscope, but the leaders may simply be a reflection of the heart of the majority of men and women in that nation and God has given the people what they wanted.

There may well be a core of God’s people who hate what the culture is doing, but judgment may still come and they will be effected. Remember Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? They were righteous men who loved the Lord, but were still deported to Babylon and separated from their homes and families. God was with them, but they still underwent severe trials because their nation as a whole, had abandoned God.

Politics will not save us. Only re-evangelizing America will do so, so that righteous people will elect righteous leaders. God desires to bless, but he is also holy. Only revival in America, in the church and the nation, will keep Satan from retaining a legal right to devastate this nation through its own leaders and foreign enemies. Even now, many American leaders are sponsoring laws that promote and protect the very things for which God has destroyed nations. Pray for the nation by praying for the church to once again preach the gospel in America with boldness and righteousness…a sacrifice that will cost us something.

There is a truth that I believe we need to heed as followers of Jesus. First of all, we are saved and our salvation is quite secure in Christ. However, there are things we can do or not do as believers that will give the enemy access to us so that he can torment us, afflict us, or oppress us. I’m not saying that we lose our salvation if we are under demonic attack, but that the enemy can make this life harder than it needs to be if we give him an opening.

I think we understand that principle when it comes to obvious sin in our lives that goes unconfessed and unrepented. If we are living a life of sexual sin, we might recognize that as an open door for the enemy. If we begin to dabble in witchcraft or new age thinking, we might agree that those pursuits would open us up to the enemy as well. A lifestyle of drunkenness, drug addiction, adultery, theft, pornography, etc. can do the same. Most of us would recognize the spiritual danger in those lifestyles.

However, there are three verses that really challenge me and I think three things we might do or fail to do as believers that often go unnoticed while giving the enemy a legal right to afflict us. Let me quote these verses and then make a few comments.

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6:14-15

Do not judge or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Matthew 7:1-2

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment. James 2:12-13.

All three of these scriptures apply to believers and, ultimately, reflect the condition of our hearts. When I take time to review my day, I often find that I have been guilty of these things in subtle ways. Have I really forgiven a person who I feel has wronged me or slighted me or do I maintain my distance as a subtle message of offense? Have I even tried to reconcile any issues between me and that person or do I prefer to just keep my distance? Oh, I can certainly justify my distance and my refusal to warm up to that person, but am I actually violating Christ’s commands to forgive, show mercy, and refrain from judgment? If I am failing in those areas, even though I have “my reasons,” Satan can use that in the courts of heaven to gain legal access to me.

Judging others can also be a tricky business. Is that just when I have judged someone I know (a spouse, a boss, a pastor, a neighbor) so that I put myself in a position of assumed moral or even intellectual superiority over another? Or is it at other less noticeable moments? How often do Christians sit in restaurants and even church and judge those around them whose children or unruly, who are dressing somewhat immodestly, who are too loud, etc. If we sit there and make snide or critical comments to our companions about those people we don’t even know, we have judged them to somehow be less than we are. Jesus says that our judgment against others will come back to us. To some degree, it may come back as demonic affliction because I am living out a subtle lifestyle of judgmentalism without repentance.

And then what about mercy? Mercy is an extension of grace and compassion to those who don’t have it coming. It is the story of the unmerciful steward who could not repay his master, was on the verge of being sold into slavery to pay the debt, and the master, in moment of mercy, simply forgave every cent that was owed. Do we withhold a generous tip because the waitperson didn’t refill our tea or got our order wrong? Or do we go ahead and tip well because we are going to be generous without cause because Jesus has been generous to us without cause? When someone borrows money from us and can’t repay, do we ever just forgive the debt because Jesus has forgiven our debt? That is the nature of mercy and Jesus warns that if his mercy has not touched our hearts so that we gladly extend it to others, we may face judgment without mercy.

That judgment may be in this life as a form of discipline, rather than when we stand before the Lord, but I would rather avoid the discipline of the Lord and would rather keep the enemy from gaining some legal access to harass me or my family. We live in such a culture of open criticism, pride, slander, and unrestrained verbal outbursts that we sometimes fail to recognize our own more subtle actions as sin. In comparison to the world around us, we feel pretty good about our thoughts and words, but the Word of God is our standard of comparison, not the people of the world.

I need the Holy Spirit to give me a solid nudge when I fall into a mindset that rationalizes withholding forgiveness, judging others, or withholding mercy. Those are open doors for the enemy that I can often fail to recognize. I know I am vulnerable to those things and, perhaps, you are too. I thought I would just run up the flag on this one and see if anyone else needed the reminder. I personally need to extend a great deal of mercy in this world because I have received so much from the Lord and so many others in my life. Remember, mercy triumphs over judgment.

Blessings in Him.