Reliable Truth

So much has been written on the issue of evil, but today I'd like to take all that I have read over the last six weeks on evil and try to distill it down into a 45-minute presentation. I pray that it will be enlightening to you. If at any point you get hung up with anything I’m saying, just hang on with me because we’ll keep going.I've taught a two-part series on “Why Does God Allow Pain and Suffering?” where I discussed evil in a general way. There’s a difference in natural evil, like a natural disaster or physical disease and what I want to cover this morning, which is human or moral evil.  The issues that I raise this morning about moral evil are crucial for any thinking person to understand. I ask you to hang with me as I go through this, and I think when we get to the end, you will see that there is a critical application to every single one of us. My prayer is that each of us would be open to see what God would show us about our own hearts.

Today I'd like to talk about something that's very important to me - I call it the Great Paradox of Life. The apostle Paul addresses this in I Corinthians 1:18-24, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Paul is contrasting the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of men to the wisdom of God. I am sharing this with you because I believe there truly is an art to living this life, and because life is governed by certain principles. Wisdom is seeking to live your life in harmony with these principles. So many of God's important truths are foreign to the world because they are counter-intuitive. Yet the truth and the wisdom of God is often paradoxical.

The topic that I want to address this morning is fascinating.  And, I believe that it will be of real benefit to you. One would think this concept is just common sense.  Unfortunately, many modern people don’t seem to use common sense. I'd like to start with some words that I know you’re familiar with: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  These are the opening words of the Declaration of Independence.  Of course, that was 1776.  From those words, we in America as a nation seem to have this foundational belief that there truly is a connection between liberty, or freedom, and the pursuit of happiness, and finding happiness. Now, fast-forward 13 years from the signing of the Declaration to 1789, when George Washington gave his first inaugural address. In that inaugural address, he added a little something to that thought.  Washington said, “There exists, in human nature, an indissoluble union between freedom, virtue, and happiness.”  He threw in that word virtue.  So here, 13 years later, Washington realized that in order to have a free society, there has to be a certain character quality in the people.  There has to be an ability to have self-restraint.  He says, “This is necessary for any culture to flourish.”  But, as you know, we seem to have lost this understanding of what it really means to be free.

What is it about the human condition that causes us to want to “one-up” someone else all the time? What is it that causes us to, and it makes us feel superior to others? What causes us to always compare ourselves to other people and why is it we’re always worrying about what other people think about us? This is what’s called the pride of life. C.S. Lewis says that each of us have this great flaw within, and though we see it in other people, and we loathe it, we have a hard time seeing it in our own lives. He says it’s like a spiritual cancer that eats up our souls. It keeps us, he says, from being able to love, or ever find any real contentment in life. You’re probably thinking, isn’t there a positive side to pride? Yes! There are two definitions. The first is, “justifiable self-respect”. It’s the idea of taking pride in what you do. Seeking to be the very best you can be in what you do, and that’s a positive definition of pride. But what I’m going to be talking to you this morning about is, the simple definition of pride as arrogance or self-conceit - the Greeks called it hubris. To have a too high view of yourself. And Lewis goes on to say that pride, if you really want to get to the heart of it, is really kind of, it’s competitive, so to speak. He says it’s rooted in comparison, where a person wants to be better and superior to you. We all face this dilemma deep within our souls. So, what does a person do? What am I supposed to do?Tim Keller says that all of us are starved for glory because we have this deep sense in our souls that our lives just don’t really matter. He says the worst thing for a human being is not to be disliked, or to be vilified. He says the worst thing for us, particularly for us as men, is to be ignored. To be overlooked. To feel like my life is just not very significant. And he says, this is why, in the deepest recesses of our hearts, we are seeking for glory out in the world. Out in our sphere of influence. And this is why so many men have instability in their hearts because they are desperately seeking to impress and win the approval of others. And, for this reason, and we see this often in our work, we as men are constantly looking for ways to convince the world, and ourselves, that we matter, and that our lives are really important.

Today I am discussing Jesus' parable about the pearl of great value, taken from Matthew 13:44-46."Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which a man found and hid, and, for joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”Is there anything out in the world that you would sell everything you have for: your house, your cars, any investments you have, liquidate your retirement account, take all of that and sell it so you can get something of great value? You know, in order to do that, it would have to make everything you own pale in comparison to whatever that object is.So today, I want to look at two things 1) What does it mean, to sell everything you have in order to get this treasure? and 2) What is the parable of the pearl merchant all about?Then we’ll look more specifically at the parable of the pearl merchant and what that parable is all about. One thing in context to the parable - pearl merchants were wealthy people. They had to have some degree of wealth because they were always buying and trading pearls which had great value. And so, they had to have some degree of financial wealth in order to stock their inventory.

Today is the last message in my 4-part series on pride and humility. I want to look at how God has special regard for the humble, and then I want to look at how to integrate this life of humility into our personal lives. I want to share a few verses with you and look at how God has special regard and honor for the humble.Psalm 10:17. “Oh, Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble. You will strengthen their heart. You will incline Your ear.”Psalm 25:9 “He leads the humble in justice. He teaches the humble His way.”Proverbs 11:2 says, “When pride comes, then comes dishonor, but, with the humble, there is wisdom.”Proverbs 29:23, “A man’s pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor.”And lastly James 4:10, “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and He will exalt you.” God has incredible regard and honor for the humble, and what’s interesting is, He doesn’t have that kind of regard for anybody else.This is Part 4 of my 4-Part series. I hope you enjoy it!

This morning, I want to share a few more words with you about pride so that we can truly see how destructive it is in our lives. And then I’m going to share some words on humility. As I’ve said before, pride is so insidious and that it slowly grows and develops in our lives and becomes well-established without our knowledge. God hates it because of what it does to us. And I want to look at one more aspect of pride and how it impacts our thinking in how we regard other people.This is Part 3 of a 4-Part series. In these final two episodes, we’ll look at God’s promises to those who live humbly as they walk through life. There will be a major application in Part 4, so you don't want to miss it.

Today I want to look at the pitfalls of comparison. Comparing ourselves to others impacts our lives, our behavior, our relationships with others, and ultimately it impacts our relationship with God. Now, I’ll start by looking at some scriptures that I think will be helpful, staring with I Thessalonians 2:4, where Paul says, “Just as we’ve been approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel, so we speak not as pleasing men, but God Who examines our hearts.”How is my life, my thinking, my behavior, and the motive of my heart affected by what others think of me? In other words, why do we allow other people’s opinions of us to be the gauge in which we measure our lives? And why do we think our lives don’t count very much, unless they count in the eyes of others?This is Part 2 of a 4-Part series. In the final two episodes, we’ll look at God’s promises to those who live humbly as they walk through life. There will be a major application in Part 4, so you don't want to miss it.

Today I am starting a new series on the issue of pride and humility. In the first two episodes we’ll look at the issue of pride and just how deadly it is in our lives, and then, in the final two episodes, we’ll look at God’s promises to those who live humbly as they walk through life. There will be a major application in Part 4, so you don't want to miss it. I want to start with the book of Isaiah, chapter two beginning in the twelfth verse. It says, “For the Lord of Hosts will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is proud and lofty, against everyone who is lifted up, that he may be abased. And it will be against all the cedars of Lebanon that are lofty and lifted up, against all the oaks of Bashan, against all the lofty mountains, against all the hills that are lifted up, against every high tower, against every fortified wall, against all the ships of Tarsus, and against all the beautiful craft. The pride of man will be humbled, and the loftiness of men will be abased, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.”Proverbs 16:5 states this in a similar way, “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. Assuredly he will not go unpunished.” Throughout the Bible you’ll see a phrase, which we’ll talk about in some of our future episodes, which is this, “God is opposed to the proud.” Now, I think we all have this desire to know, well, who are the proud? Surely not me. I know there are a lot of proud and arrogant people out there, but surely not me. There are two ways to define pride. One of them is "justifiable self-respect"; the idea of striving for excellence and being the best that you can be; the idea of taking pride in what you do. That is a positive definition. But the pride that God detests, the pride that is such an abomination in His sight is arrogance. And arrogance is nothing more than an internal feeling or impression of superiority over others. The Greeks called it hubris, which meant too high a view of yourself.This is Part 1 of a 4-Part series. I hope you enjoy it!

Today I'd like to share my Good Friday message I gave last weekend, focusing on Isaiah 53. It is interesting to note that chapters 40-55 of Isaiah have to do with what God will do in the future, yet Isaiah was written over 700 years before Christ even enters the scene. Many scholars contend that this is the best single chapter in the Bible to explain what will happen in Jesus' crucifixion."Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." - Isaiah 53:4-6Do you see the significance of this? The crucifixion was all about us. Jesus did it for us, and He did it voluntarily - for you and for me. Watch on YouTube here