The glory of God is displayed (for better or for worse) through those who are called by His Name. When those called by His Name walk in rebellion (their way versus God's way, aka sin) God's glory takes the hit.
David knew this well. He lusted after Bathsheba, a married woman; had an illicit affair with her; and after she is found pregnant by him, plots to have her husband killed on the battlefront, just so that he can cover his sin. His plot succeeds.
Yet, after all that he has done to others (Bathsheba and her husband) it would seem odd, when he finally repented, that he never speaks of what he has done wrong to them, but
speaks instead of what he has done wrong to God:
"And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord." (2 Samuel 12:13)
Released from sin's deception and back in his right mind again, David could see clearly what shame his sin had brought to the Name of God and to God's glory. A reminder to those of us today that are also called by His Name that it is never about us, it is always about the Lord.
In another example, when the children of Israel were sent into a second captivity to Babylon for their rebellion against God, the Word tells us that God's strength also went into captivity and His glory into the hand of the enemy:
"And He led them on safely, so that they feared not; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. And He brought them to the border of His sanctuary, even to this mountain, which His right hand had purchased. He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not His testimonies: but turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow: for they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images. When God heard this He was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel: so that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men; and delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy's hand." (Psalm 78:53-61)
It can be nothing other than that God is calling Israel "His strength" and "His glory"! That's an amazing revelation of the intimacy that is entwined between the Father and His children!
Prior to this second captivity (to Babylon), at the time of their deliverance from their first captivity (to Egypt), God provided to Israel "the Way" in which they were to walk in order to let His glory shine through them to the lost world around them. The Way was called the Covenant and the Law then. The Word of God at that time was the pre-incarnate Jesus; the pre-incarnate Way.
But:
"They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law; and forgat His works, and His wonders that He had shewed them." (Psalm 78:10-11)
It was the deception of their lusts that led them to such an attitude of apathetic complacency in the presence of a miracle-working God; lusts that led to their choosing of the familiar over the glorious; lusts that limited God's power from being seen in their midst. He offered them the everlasting food of angels; they preferred to stick with more familiar food - that which eventually decays and becomes worm-ridden:
"And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against God; they said, 'Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold He smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams over-flowed; can He give bread also? Can He provide flesh for His people?'" (Psalm 78:18-20)
"Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel." (Psalm 78:41)
God gave them what they lusted after: meat. But "they sinned still, and believed not in His wondrous works." (Psalm 78:32)
It was only after they began to feel the effects of God's wrath that they finally "sought Him: and they returned and enquired early after God. And they rememberered that God was their rock, and the high God their Redeemer. Nevertheless they did flatter Him with their mouths, and they lied unto Him with their tongues. For their hearts were not right with Him, neither were they stedfast in His covenant." (Psalm 78:34-37)
How much of the above sounds like us today? How quickly do we thank God with one breath and in the very next extol the virtues of some marvelous new technology or car or movie or anything else of the world that raises itself to a higher level than God? How quickly are we turned aside by our lusts?
Yet we are without excuse even more so than the Israelites. Therefore, judgment should be greater for our rebellion. Why so?
Because we have been given the Holy Spirit: the power of the Spirit of grace by which we are to overcome the deceptions of lust. The miracle-working power of God has been given to us not in a cloud by day or a fire by night; but an ever-present (residing within us) help in time of need.
It is by grace that God provided a Way for us out of death and into life through His Son Jesus Christ. It is by grace that our sins have been washed clean in His blood.
But it cannot stop there.
For the Spirit of grace has been given to us, the power of God residing in us, so that we can "resist the enemy" that wants to keep us captive to our lusts.
It is the lusts of the flesh that cause complacency in us. We will continue to walk in the lusts of the flesh (drunk on the "life" that the world offers us) if we do not make a conscious and daily choice to walk instead in the overcoming power of the Spirit of Grace.
In this we must be vigilant. Our light cannot shine when the bulb is smeared with the muck and mire of sin.
Complacency chooses what it considers to be safest; but when we reject the powerful and uncomprehendable and turn instead to the familiar, we have to realize we have chosen death...that which will soon decay and rot.
But there is still more to the grace that we have been given. Grace is not just what we have been saved by. It is divine empowerment from God grace that not only enables us to endure to the end, and empowers us to do even greater works than Jesus did.
The power of the Spirit of Grace in us chooses GOD'S GLORY to be manifested in us and through us. There is nothing "familiar" and "safe" there....not safe as the world knows it at least.
The glorious things of God will look like nothing the world has ever seen or will ever be able to comprehend. The glorious works of God worked first in us and then through us will SHOCK the rest of the world out of its apathetic lustful deception.
If we view grace as only that by which we are saved and by which our sins are forgiven, and nothing more; rather than using the empowerment of grace to "resist the enemy" in order to advance the kingdom of God on this earth; then we are soldiers in a war who have been sent to the frontline of battle armed with the most modern and powerful artillery and the most costly and elaborate training, but never use them; and are astounded when we are suddenly attacked by the enemy, and confused as to what we should do.
A very expensive grace has been given to us to conquer and subdue.
"And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force." Matthew 11:12
What will the Lord say to us on the day that He judges our works, and finds that we took His costly grace and turned it into a soft cushion to sit on for most of our lives?
"Then Jesus said unto His disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake will find it." Matthew 16:24-25
The same Father who provided His Son to save us from our sins and its punishment, giving us an undeserved eternal life, has also provided power to take up our crosses and follow Jesus. Not grace to sit back and relax, but grace to continue on what Jesus Himself began.
We must be relentless in advancing the kingdom of God, not according to our own ways, our own thoughts, or under our own power....but by utilizing to the fullest measure the Spirit of grace within us as we surrender our lives to Him for HIS purposes, never taking our eyes off the goal that lies ahead.
David knew this well. He lusted after Bathsheba, a married woman; had an illicit affair with her; and after she is found pregnant by him, plots to have her husband killed on the battlefront, just so that he can cover his sin. His plot succeeds.
Yet, after all that he has done to others (Bathsheba and her husband) it would seem odd, when he finally repented, that he never speaks of what he has done wrong to them, but
speaks instead of what he has done wrong to God:
"And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord." (2 Samuel 12:13)
Released from sin's deception and back in his right mind again, David could see clearly what shame his sin had brought to the Name of God and to God's glory. A reminder to those of us today that are also called by His Name that it is never about us, it is always about the Lord.
In another example, when the children of Israel were sent into a second captivity to Babylon for their rebellion against God, the Word tells us that God's strength also went into captivity and His glory into the hand of the enemy:
"And He led them on safely, so that they feared not; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. And He brought them to the border of His sanctuary, even to this mountain, which His right hand had purchased. He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not His testimonies: but turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow: for they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images. When God heard this He was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel: so that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men; and delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy's hand." (Psalm 78:53-61)
It can be nothing other than that God is calling Israel "His strength" and "His glory"! That's an amazing revelation of the intimacy that is entwined between the Father and His children!
Prior to this second captivity (to Babylon), at the time of their deliverance from their first captivity (to Egypt), God provided to Israel "the Way" in which they were to walk in order to let His glory shine through them to the lost world around them. The Way was called the Covenant and the Law then. The Word of God at that time was the pre-incarnate Jesus; the pre-incarnate Way.
But:
"They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law; and forgat His works, and His wonders that He had shewed them." (Psalm 78:10-11)
It was the deception of their lusts that led them to such an attitude of apathetic complacency in the presence of a miracle-working God; lusts that led to their choosing of the familiar over the glorious; lusts that limited God's power from being seen in their midst. He offered them the everlasting food of angels; they preferred to stick with more familiar food - that which eventually decays and becomes worm-ridden:
"And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against God; they said, 'Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold He smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams over-flowed; can He give bread also? Can He provide flesh for His people?'" (Psalm 78:18-20)
"Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel." (Psalm 78:41)
God gave them what they lusted after: meat. But "they sinned still, and believed not in His wondrous works." (Psalm 78:32)
It was only after they began to feel the effects of God's wrath that they finally "sought Him: and they returned and enquired early after God. And they rememberered that God was their rock, and the high God their Redeemer. Nevertheless they did flatter Him with their mouths, and they lied unto Him with their tongues. For their hearts were not right with Him, neither were they stedfast in His covenant." (Psalm 78:34-37)
How much of the above sounds like us today? How quickly do we thank God with one breath and in the very next extol the virtues of some marvelous new technology or car or movie or anything else of the world that raises itself to a higher level than God? How quickly are we turned aside by our lusts?
Yet we are without excuse even more so than the Israelites. Therefore, judgment should be greater for our rebellion. Why so?
Because we have been given the Holy Spirit: the power of the Spirit of grace by which we are to overcome the deceptions of lust. The miracle-working power of God has been given to us not in a cloud by day or a fire by night; but an ever-present (residing within us) help in time of need.
It is by grace that God provided a Way for us out of death and into life through His Son Jesus Christ. It is by grace that our sins have been washed clean in His blood.
But it cannot stop there.
For the Spirit of grace has been given to us, the power of God residing in us, so that we can "resist the enemy" that wants to keep us captive to our lusts.
It is the lusts of the flesh that cause complacency in us. We will continue to walk in the lusts of the flesh (drunk on the "life" that the world offers us) if we do not make a conscious and daily choice to walk instead in the overcoming power of the Spirit of Grace.
In this we must be vigilant. Our light cannot shine when the bulb is smeared with the muck and mire of sin.
Complacency chooses what it considers to be safest; but when we reject the powerful and uncomprehendable and turn instead to the familiar, we have to realize we have chosen death...that which will soon decay and rot.
But there is still more to the grace that we have been given. Grace is not just what we have been saved by. It is divine empowerment from God grace that not only enables us to endure to the end, and empowers us to do even greater works than Jesus did.
The power of the Spirit of Grace in us chooses GOD'S GLORY to be manifested in us and through us. There is nothing "familiar" and "safe" there....not safe as the world knows it at least.
The glorious things of God will look like nothing the world has ever seen or will ever be able to comprehend. The glorious works of God worked first in us and then through us will SHOCK the rest of the world out of its apathetic lustful deception.
If we view grace as only that by which we are saved and by which our sins are forgiven, and nothing more; rather than using the empowerment of grace to "resist the enemy" in order to advance the kingdom of God on this earth; then we are soldiers in a war who have been sent to the frontline of battle armed with the most modern and powerful artillery and the most costly and elaborate training, but never use them; and are astounded when we are suddenly attacked by the enemy, and confused as to what we should do.
A very expensive grace has been given to us to conquer and subdue.
"And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force." Matthew 11:12
What will the Lord say to us on the day that He judges our works, and finds that we took His costly grace and turned it into a soft cushion to sit on for most of our lives?
"Then Jesus said unto His disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake will find it." Matthew 16:24-25
The same Father who provided His Son to save us from our sins and its punishment, giving us an undeserved eternal life, has also provided power to take up our crosses and follow Jesus. Not grace to sit back and relax, but grace to continue on what Jesus Himself began.
We must be relentless in advancing the kingdom of God, not according to our own ways, our own thoughts, or under our own power....but by utilizing to the fullest measure the Spirit of grace within us as we surrender our lives to Him for HIS purposes, never taking our eyes off the goal that lies ahead.
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