“Genesis: A Deeper Look, Part 2"

“Genesis: A Deeper Look, Part 2:” by Romans

At our last Discussion, we reviewed the Book of Genesis. We focused in on the Account of the Flood as it is found in Genesis, and contrasted it with the Epic of Gilgamesh. In that Flood account, as you may recall, the gods decided, on a whim, to wipe out humanity because it was too noisy, interrupting the gods' rest. I also talked about the building of the Tower of Babel, and how God confused the common language so that mankind would spread out and replenish the earth, as God had intended.

But tonight I would like to share something with all of you that I saw on the 700 Club at least 20 years ago. The amazing thing is that I never heard, again, ever referred to by anyone at any time. And that is not because it is controversial or unfounded. It is a startling confirmation of the events that took place in the Book of Genesis, but from a completely unexpected source. That source is the ancient Chinese language. The Chinese language has been a written language for thousands of years. Rather than use letters to form words, they use symbols called pictographs.


These pictographs are used singly to convey ideas, or they can be combined to make compound new words to describe more detailed ideas. For example, and this is just an example not actual Chinese, the word “duck” might be a combination of the pictographs for bird and water. But here is why I bring this up: ancient Chinese pictographs reveal a surprising reference to themes and occurrences familiar to us in the Book of Genesis, that reveals an unexpected  . The Chinese culture would not have been exposed to these these details thousands of miles from where they took place, and thousands of years before Christ sent out missionaries to preach His Word. These pictographs cannot be written off as mere coincidence.

Now let me share with you some of the details of these amazing pictographs.

Think of this: The ancient Chinese pictograph for the word safety was a layered combination of three seemingly unrelated pictographs. They started out pictograph for the word ship. The second symbol they added was the symbol for the word “people.” And that follows. Unless the ship is mysteriously abandoned and floating in the Bermuda Triangle, you expect to see people on a ship when it is out at see. But think of this: How many ships have been built with safety in mind. They are built to be safe on the water, but not to be safe from the water. Ships are built, exclusively,  to transport people and cargo from points A to B, when water divides those two points. But, remember, I said the ancient Chinese symbol for safety had a third added pictograph. And it's that third symbol that makes this so interesting. It is the symbol for the number 8. You may consider one person traveling safely on the water in that the ship is seaworthy. Maybe two people. But 8 people on a ship? And this pictograph is not the symbol for seaworthiness. The ancient Chinese pictograph for the word “safety” are the combined symbols which would read in sentence form: “8 people on a ship.” How many people were on the Ark? There was Noah and his wife. That's two. Noah's three sons. That's five. And Noah's son's three wives. That's  eight! Eight people on a ship, picturing the ultimate expression of safety... the safety of the Ark, while the entire population of the earth drowned all around them.

As I said last week, The Babylonian “Epic of Gilgamesh” also described a worldwide Flood. Was it just a fictitious Babylonian Myth on which the Genesis Account was based? Some 4,000 years after the Flood is supposed to have taken place, Jesus referred to it as an historical event: Notice His words beginning in  Matthew 24:38: “For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away;”

Noah entered into the Ark. Safety. Eight people on a ship while the entire rest of the population of the earth “knew not until the Flood came, and took them all away.” Jesus was alive when that event took place. He existed as a not only a member of the Godhead, but as THE member Who was the God of the Old Testament!  When we read in 6:6: “And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart,” we are reading the reaction and emotions of the very One Who became Jesus Christ to die for our sins. Jesus knew that the Genesis Account of the Flood was not based on the pre-existing myths of any pagan culture. He knew that the Flood was a genuine historical event because He was the One in His pre-human God in Heaven state of existence Who sent it to wipe out mankind!

And the children of the survivors of the Flood, whose languages were confused by God to spread them out over the face of the earth, took that knowledge of the Flood with them in all the various languages that spoke in. And that is why sociologists have never encountered any culture, no matter how remote, that did not have an awareness that there was a Flood, a worldwide Flood. And that is also why and how we can see, recorded in the ancient Chinese language when they were developing written language, the unexpected and completely incompatible layer of symbols for the word “safety,” combined into a pictograph that reads, “Eight people on a ship.”

We will come back to the Flood Account, again, shortly, but I want to continue to share with you a few other amazing ancient Chinese pictographs. How about this one? The word is “create.” The pictograph for the word create is a combination of four pictographs: First there is the symbol for clay, added to the symbol for breath, added to the symbol for walking, added to the symbol for alive. If this were a sentence, the pictograph for “create” would read “Clay man received breath, and walked alive.” The very name, “Adam,” means “red clay.”This pictograph is the very scene portrayed in Genesis 2:7: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Is this also just another bizarre coincidence? Is this another accidental reflection of an event described in Genesis, but portrayed in an ancient Chinese pictograph? No. The knowledge that the children of the survivors of the Flood had, went out with them. Those who spread to Asia also developed written language. They were able to put their knowledge into writing, and incorporate what they knew into pictograph characters that comprised their language. These are not coincidences.

Here's another one: The pictograph for word temptation is a combination of the pictographs for a woman, added to the pictograph for tree, and the pictograph for serpent.

The pictograph for the word, “flood” are the pictographs for “eight,” “united,” “one earth,” and  “water.” Certainly the pictographs  for “water” and “one earth” might be expected to represent a flood.
But there's that number “eight” again, this time merged with the symbol for “united.” There was   knowledge among those who migrated to Asia when language was confounded, knowledge that there was a Flood, and that only eight people survived.

Here is one last pictograph that refers back to the Tower of Babel. The Genesis account tells us in Genesis 11:3: “And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower,” The ancient Chinese pictograph for “tower” is a combination of the pictographs for “bricks” “clay,” “grass,” “mankind,” and “mouth.” The first three, bricks, clay and grass easily point to a tower. But mankind and mouth add the element of speech being associated with a tower. And the Tower of Babel, of course, is where the language of mankind was confounded.

These pictographs are amazing. Their existence in ancient Chinese writings, before they had any contact with the West, really makes one stop to think about the veracity of the Bible, and the stories that are conveyed there.

There are other truly amazing pictures that the Book of Genesis presents as foreshadows of Jesus Christ that, can be easily read over and missed. I would like to review some of these with you now. These are the things that I have read from various authors who took the time let the Word of God speak to their hearts and minds on a deeper level. One of these authors is one whom I regularly quote, namely Matthew Henry. But there is another I would like to quote, tonight, whose name is likely new to all of you: Ada Habershon. She wrote a book that a friend of mine from the Church I was attending in Philadelphia told me about. The book is titled, “Study of the Types.” A type is a foreshadow of Christ found in the Old Testament which A type could be portrayed by a person or an event that highlights a facet of Christ, or something to do with Messianic events, or His Ministry.

Jesus, Himself, acknowledged and endorsed their existence. Notice, for example, Jesus' own words beginning in Matthew 12:38: :Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Most people, believers and unbelievers alike, are aware of the story of Jonah being swallowed by a whale, or as it says in the Book of Jonah, a “great fish.” But few are aware of Jonah's having spent three days and nights in the fish's belly is actually a type of Christ's burial, and resurrection three days later.
 
In the book, Study of the Types,  the author displays keen perception and insight as she brings to light some amazing Messianic foreshadows. I would also like to bring to your attention something else about this author: She was born in 1861... yes, that's not a typographical error... 1861... in London. Abraham Lincoln was President when she was born. She died in 1918, so her book was written at a time when such a Bible Study reference was the exclusive domain of men. Her work, nonetheless, is a marvelous and edifying piece of writing. She was also a prolific author, as demonstrated by the page from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/191-9470092-9182051?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Ada+Habershon
Let me share with you from her book, how somwthing we have been reviewing for several weeks was a type of Christ, namely, Noah's Ark.

The Apostle Peter writes about Noah's Ark. Breaking into a thought, we read  in 1 Peter 3:20: “when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” Peter, here, tells us that “few... were saved.” Of those eight who were saved, it was their faith in God's Provision of the Ark, and their being on board that kept them alive, while everyone else perished. Christ is so pictured in a strikingly similar way. The Apostle John wrote in his first epistle in 1 John 5:12: “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”
Peter added to that thought in his first public sermon, delivered on the Day of Pentecost, after being filled and empowered with the Holy Spirit. We read beginning in Acts 4:10: “Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

Just as there was no other way outside the Ark for any of the pre-Flood world to be able to saved, so Jesus Christ is the only Way to Eternal Life, and to the Father. The Ark had but one door. Notice God's instruction to Noah on the Ark's specifications in Genesis 6:16: “A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door {singular} of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof;” Jesus identified Himself as “the only door” in John 10:9: “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

Let's go to “Study of the Types” so I can give you an example of the author's insights. On the first page of the chapter titled, “Types of the Resurrection,” Ms. Habershon refers to the reference in Genesis where the waters of Flood have receded, and the Ark comes to rest. But Genesis tells us not only where the Ark came to a rest, but also a specific date. The average reader would simply look at this specific date and just move on to the next verse. Instead, Ms. Habershon writes, “It is remarkable that the date is given on which the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat... We are told that the Ark rested on the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month. The seventh month was the month Abib; but from the time of the first Passover, it became the beginning of months, and the “first month of the year.”

Let me interrupt the text for a bit of clarification. Before the observance of the Passover, Abib was the seventh month. Notice in Exodus 12:1: “And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.” Later in that same chapter, details about observing the Passover during the month of Abib, are given. Exodus 12:5: “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.”

Back to Ms. Habershon's comments: “The lamb was killed on the fourteenth day of the same month; and the third day after this was the seventeenth, the day on which the ark rested.” Do you see what she is saying? Jesus was crucified on the daylight portion of the fourteenth of Abib. As He said He would, fulfilling the type established by Jonah, Jesus rose from the dead three days later... on the seventeenth, the same day that the Ark rested. Ms. Habershon continues, “The resting of the ark on Mount Ararat, and Noah stepping forth on to the new earth, would prefigure resurrection life.”

There are many other details and references in the Book of Genesis that can easily be missed as either types or powerful direct references of Jesus. Take this one pointed out by Matthew Henry. It is in reference to something most of us are familiar with. When Adam and Eve sinned, God imposed a number of penalties because they had sinned: One of the penalties that I never gave a second thought to was when God cursed the ground.  We read in Genesis 3:17: “And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee... ”

Of this Matthew Henry writes, “God put marks of displeasure on Adam. 1. His habitation is cursed. God gave the earth to the children of men, to be a comfortable dwelling; but it is now cursed for man's sin. Yet Adam is not himself cursed, as the serpent was, but only the ground for his sake. 2. His employments and enjoyments are imbittered to him. Labour is our duty, which we must faithfully perform; it is part of man's sentence, which idleness daringly defies. Uneasiness and weariness with labour are our just punishment, which we must patiently submit to, since they are less than our iniquity deserves. Man's food shall become unpleasant to him. Yet man is not sentenced to eat dust as the serpent, only to eat the herb of the field. 3. His life also is but short; considering how full of trouble his days are, it is in favour to him that they are few. Yet death being dreadful to nature, even when life is unpleasant, that concludes the punishment. Sin brought death into the world: if Adam had not sinned, he had not died. He gave way to temptation, but the Saviour withstood it. And how admirably the satisfaction of our Lord Jesus, by his death and sufferings, answered the sentence passed on our first parents! … Did thorns come in with sin? He was crowned with thorns for us. Did sweat come in with sin? He sweat for us, as it had been great drops of blood. Did sorrow come in with sin? He was a man of sorrows; his soul was, in his agony, exceeding sorrowful. Did death come in with sin? He became obedient unto death. Blessed be God for his Son our Lord Jesus Christ.”

I had not previously realized that the very thorns that appeared as a curse in response to our first  parents' disobedience, became the crown used used by the Roman soldiers to mock Jesus as a king. The thorns were a curse for sin, and Jesus, Himself, became a curse when He accepted the punishment of death that Adam brought on all of mankind. We read in Galatians 3:13: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:”

Only God could have know the day and date that the Ark rested on the mountains of Ararat. Noah could not have been keeping track of the passage of time on the Ark. But God knew the significance of that date. And that is why the Holy Spirit inspired Moses to record it. After all, Jesus, the Lamb of God is said to have been “slain from the foundation of the world,” (Revelation 13:8)  All of these foreshadows can be seen as being woven into the picture by God, Himself.

The Church is pictured as being the Bride of Christ. Under what circumstances did God present a bride to the first Adam.  We read in Genesis 2:21: “And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;” Sleep is a symbolic way that the Bible refers to death. Paul speaks of Jesus' resurrection with this symbolism in 1 Corinthians 15:20 “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” After Adam was asleep, God open Adam's side to take a rib. In like manner, after it was known that Jesus was dead, or asleep, we read in John 19:33: “But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side...” The Bride that Christ will take as His wife at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb, was given Him by the Father after He caused Him also to “sleep,” and then be awakened, or raised, from that “sleep.” The Second Adam, as the first Adam, was awakened with a scar on his side, a scar necessary in order for Him to receive a Bride.  After His resurrection, Jesus said to Thomas in John 20:27: “Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.”

The rich foreshadowing symbolism is simply too significant and meaningful to be coincidental. It is written for us by a God Who knows the end from the beginning. The events of Genesis are not the product of an ancient writer with nothing more than a vivid imagination. Neither is the Bible a homogenized re-write of pagan myths. The Bible is like no other Book that has ever been, or can ever be written, where man is both the source and the author of what is written. Today, some of the most brilliant minds on the planet have rejected God's Word as myth, giving it no more respect than than stories from Greek Mythology. Yet, impossible details regarding the Creation and Flood Accounts found in the Book of Genesis, have been found, recorded in within the very picture-alphabet of ancient Chinese writing. God left us these wonderful little pieces of evidence to uncover and be uplifted by, and they defy the taunting doubt of the critics. Equally amazing and unmistakable Messianic foreshadows prove beyond any doubt that the Bible IS the inspired Word of the Living God Who Created us, Who loves us with an everlasting love, and Who longs to establish a relationship with us that will last into Eternity. It is the only Book on Earth that has revealed that Good News to mankind. And it is the only Book on Earth that could reveal to us the otherwise unknowable Truths of God.

This concludes this evening's Discussion, “Genesis – A Deeper Look”
Originally delivered "live" on December 5th, 2013

"Genesis: A Deeper Look"

“Genesis: A Deeper Look:” by Romans

Last week we reviewed the entirety of the Old Testament, summarizing one book at a time. I found it to be a most inspiring and edifying review as I prepared my Discussion Notes. For all of you who were hear for that, I hope the hour we spent together was also profitable to you.

Tonight, I'd like to take a closer look at the Book of Genesis, and examine the Account of the Flood:

First, there are many reservations  about Scripture, and rejection of the Bible as the Word of God from
many circles. During the the Nineteenth Century, the Bible came a under close scrutiny from scholars, especially from Germany. This is generally referred to as the “Higher Criticism” that went from interpreting Scripture from the perspective achieving a deeper understanding of it, to questioning it, or more accurately distrusting it from every angle. It was not only the inspiration of Scripture came into question, it was the authorship, and the time of authorship. What had been accepted as prophecy suddenly was basically being called a hoax, claiming that it was written AFTER the events happened.

In addition, other ancient writings came to light that included events that were similar to those found in Scripture. Has anyone ever heard of The Epic of Gilgamesh? It includes, among other things, an account of Flood that wiped out almost all of mankind. As I understand it, when the Epic of Gilgamesh was originally found, critics started accusing the Bible of plagiarism. The charge was that whoever wrote Flood story in the Bible, stole it from the Epic of Gilgamesh, and just changed a few of the details to make it look like the original. The account was changed from gods flooding the earth to one God. This was the beginning of monotheism, or the worship of one God. But there were a few other “details” that differentiated Genesis from the Gilgamesh Account of the Flood, as well.

From an article I found at the website http://www.voices.yahoo.com, about this subject, we read thus about the varying Flood accounts found in each: “Both tales include one man chosen by the gods (or God) to survive the flood, and this man builds an ark, which he fills with his family and pairs of all living creatures. The rest of mankind is eliminated because God (or the gods) was displeased with them. In Gilgamesh, the gods found the people to be too noisy, interrupting their rest, so, on a whim; they decided to bring forth the flood to rid them of their nuisance. In Genesis, God was displeased with mankind because he found them to be wicked, and decided to eliminate them by means of a flood.”

There is a significant difference between the motives for the Flood found in Genesis as compared to the Gilgamesh account. In Gilgamesh, humans were “noisy,” and interrupted the gods' sleep. The Flood which destroyed almost every human being on earth, was sent on a whim. In stark contrast, the motivation in Scripture for the Flood was not over something petty like noisiness, or even over mere wickedness. It was a all-encompassing wickedness that almost defies the imagination. We read beginning in Genesis 6:5: “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth...”  

“Noisiness,” on the one hand, and “ every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” on the other. That is quite a contrast.

Y'all know that sooner or later I am going to bring Matthew Henry into this mix, so it may as well be sooner.
Here is what he wrote regarding God's motivation for the Flood, and the description of the state to which  mankind had sunk:

“The most remarkable thing concerning the old world, is the destroying of it by the deluge, or flood. We are told of the abounding iniquity of that wicked world: God's just wrath, and his holy resolution to punish it. In all ages there has been a peculiar curse of God upon marriages between professors of true religion and its avowed enemies. The evil example of the ungodly party corrupts or greatly hurts the other. Family religion is put an end to, and the children are trained up according to the worldly maxims of that parent who is without the fear of God. If we profess to be the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, we must not marry without his consent. He will never give his blessing, if we prefer beauty, wit, wealth, or worldly honours, to faith and holiness. The Spirit of God strove with men, by sending Enoch, Noah, and perhaps others, to preach to them; by waiting to be gracious, notwithstanding their rebellions; and by exciting alarm and convictions in their consciences...”

Continuing, “But the Lord declared that his Spirit should not thus strive with men always; he would leave them to be hardened in sin, and ripened for destruction. This he determined on, because man was flesh: not only frail and feeble, but carnal and depraved; having misused the noble powers of his soul to gratify his corrupt inclinations. God sees all the wickedness that is among the children of men; it cannot be hid from him now; and if it be not repented of, it shall be made known by him shortly. The wickedness of a people is great indeed, when noted sinners are men renowned among them. Very much sin was committed in all places, by all sorts of people. Any one might see that the wickedness of man was great: but God saw that every imagination, or purpose, of the thoughts of man's heart, was only evil continually. This was the bitter root, the corrupt spring. The heart was deceitful and desperately wicked; the principles were corrupt; the habits and dispositions evil. Their designs and devices were wicked. They did evil deliberately, contriving how to do mischief. There was no good among them...”

Continuing: “God saw man's wickedness as one injured and wronged by it. He saw it as a tender father sees the folly and stubbornness of a rebellious and disobedient child, which grieves him, and makes him wish he had been childless. The words here used are remarkable; they are used after the manner of men, and do not mean that God can change, or be unhappy. Does God thus hate our sin? And shall not we be grieved to the heart for it? Oh that we may look on Him whom we have grieved, and mourn! God repented that he had made man; but we never find him repent that he redeemed man. God resolves to destroy man: the original word is very striking, 'I will wipe off man from the earth,' as dirt or filth is wiped off from a place which should be clean, and is thrown to the dunghill, the proper place for it. God speaks of man as his own creature, when he resolves upon his punishment. Those forfeit their lives who do not answer the end of their living. God speaks of resolution concerning men, after his Spirit had been long striving with them in vain. None are punished by the justice of God, but those who hate to be reformed by the grace of God.”

The story of the Flood is not just a story invented by pagans. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written after the Flood, by descents of Flood survivors, namely the children and great grandchildren of Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah's children who were on the Ark, itself. The similarities between the two stories were because they Flood actually happened. The major difference is the trivialization of the motive for the Flood from the Genesis Account to the Gilgamesh account. In Genesis, it was described as wickedness on an unprecedented scale. In Gilgamesh it was making too much noise, and interrupting sleep. Genesis is not an embellished version of what happened. Gilgamesh is a trivialized down-playing of the grievous nature of sin, at a time of rampant and ceaseless evil so out of control that God had to intervene and put an end to it. The charge from critics of the Bible, that the fabricated Gilgamesh account was the original,  implies that there was no Flood, nor anyone named Noah whom God called upon to build an Ark to save mankind and land animals.

But in the New Testament, Jesus Christ, Himself, spoke of both the Flood as an historical event, and the Ark as an actual ship was built to preserve life. Notice Jesus' words in Matthew 24, as He responds to a question about the signs that would accompany His return to earth: We'll begin in Matthew 24:37: “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”


I know a man who is an agnostic. He does not accept the notion that the Bible is inspired. One day he told me something that I found fascinating for several reasons which I will explain in a minute. He said that anthropologists, or scientists who study the cultures and social environments of people all over the world have said that they have never encountered a culture, no matter how remote, that did not have a knowledge of the Flood as a part of their history of folklore. We're not talking about some local flood that happened in their own lifetimes, I mean THE Flood... the Flood that wiped out all of mankind.
So my agnostic acquaintance asked the following question in light of that statement about the Flood. He asked, “IF there really was a Flood that wiped everybody out... then how can it possibly be true that remote cultures  all over the earth are aware of it, thousands of years later? I thought the Bible said that everyone was wiped out.”

Before I answer his question, I would like to throw it out to all of you. How can the Flood be universally known in the remotest cultures all over the world?

Yes. Here is the answer. My friend hopes that when he asks a question like that, that he is talking to someone who just believes the Word of God because someone told him to. He thinks I was led to the water, and so I just started drinking without asking questions. Well, I DO believe the Bible. But I also ask plenty of questions, not from the point of you of disproving it, but putting it through its paces, and allowing it to speak to me. I have found the Bible to be a inexhaustible mine of precious jewels. When you start digging into Scripture, you find more and more and more wealth of every description.

Let's get back to my agnostic friend's question. If you look at world history as it is presented in the pages of Genesis, you see the Flood in Chapter Six. The Flood did not wipe out everyone. Noah, and his wife, his three sons, and their three wives, along with all land animals, were all saved by boarding the ark. And the ark touched down on the peaks of Mt. Ararat, and all the people and all the animals got off the ark.

But something else happened that you don't read about until five Chapters later in Genesis 11. Verse one tells us, “Genesis 11:1 “And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.”
This, as you may already know, is the account of the Tower of Babel. We read in Genesis 11:4: And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”

As I said earlier, these were people who would have been aware of the Flood, but not because they read about it in a book; they had living parents, grandparents or other close relatives (uncles and aunts) who had survived the Flood. The people build that Tower  were told first-hand accounts about how every person and land animal died in the waters of the Flood. But their relatives were spared death by drowning by being a passenger on the Ark which was able to just float away when the waters rose. We read a pre-Flood description of what human society had degenerated to, in Genesis 6:11: “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.”

There is another description that almost defies the imagination in its scope of depravity and rebellion against God that was rampant on the earth at that time: We read in Genesis 6:5: “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Everyone on earth who chose to go their own way of rebellion against God's rule over man, was drowned.

Let's focus in on the descendents of the survivors building of the Tower, first. What purpose do you suppose the Tower was supposed to serve?

Bible commentaries have suggested a variety of purposes. The first one that came to my mind was this: When a Flood threatens, where is the place that people are always advised to seek? Higher ground, or at least a place above the water level. A tower could serve that purpose. Not everyone could be saved, but certainly more than were saved when the first Flood wiped out everyone but eight people. Other commentaries suggested that the Tower may have been a religious idol dedicated to the sun in the heavens, (the Tower was supposed to reach the heaven) for drying up the waters of the Flood.

Consider: Flood waters abated, and dry land appeared. When the eight survivors of the Flood left the Ark, God blessed them with the very same words with which He blessed Adam and Eve, the only humans on the earth. We read beginning in Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.”

Notice, now, in Genesis 9:1, God's words to the only human beings on earth: “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” From the Online Merriam-Webster dictionary, we read the following definition for the word, “replenish.”

Replenish: transitive verb: a. to fill with persons or animals; b. archaic: to supply fully

In blessing the survivors of the Flood, it is apparent that He wanted them not only to have children, but to spread out over the face of the earth and fully populate the waste places of the entire planet. That is what it is to replenish. God blessed the survivors to both multiply, and fully supply the earth with people.  

Let's take a deeper look, and see what Matthew Henry had to say about the activity by mankind at the time of the building of the Tower: “How soon men forget the most tremendous judgments, and go back to their former crimes! Though the desolation of the deluge were before their eyes, though they sprang from the stock of righteous Noah, yet even during his life-time, wickedness increases exceedingly. Nothing but the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit can remove the sinful lusts of the human will, and the depravity of the human heart. God's purpose was, that mankind should form many nations, and people all lands. In contempt of the Divine will, and against the counsel of Noah, the bulk of mankind united to build a city and a tower to prevent their separating. Idolatry was begun, and Babel became one of its chief seats. They made one another more daring and resolute. Let us learn to provoke one another to love and to good works, as sinners stir up and encourage one another to wicked works.”

Keep in mind that, at this time, a city as well as a tower, was under construction. Some other commentaries suggested that the Tower would provide a point of reference that people could see from far distances, and, in so doing, keep them from wandering off, and becoming separate from the population. The reference that “they were of one voice,” implies more than mere similarity of language.  The leadership of the day wanted everyone marching in locked step to established and approved customs. Separation and migration could lead to conflicting beliefs, and the rise of distant local leaders who could then challenge the new world order. We read of one such leader in the Chapter previous to the account of the Tower being built.  Nimrod was the grandson of Noah, and the son of Ham. Of Nimrod we read in Genesis 10:9: “He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.” The term “before” in the phrase “before the Lord,”  has a variety of meanings. In Hebrew, the word is  “paniym”  -- pronounced: paw-neem.' Besides meaning “before,” translations into English from the Hebrew “paniym” have included the words  “against,” “anger,” and “battle.” This puts a whole new face on understanding how Nimrod is being spoken of. The people may well have given their allegiance to Nimrod “before the Lord,” or “in defiance of the Lord,”  as it also might have been transliterated. If you think this might be a stretch of the Hebrew on my part, consider Young's Literal Translation of the Bible, and how he described Nimrod, and his position in established society: We read in Genesis 10: 9: “he (Nimrod) hath begun to be a hero in the land; he hath been a hero in hunting before Jehovah;”

Let's continue in the account of their building the Tower of Babel. We discover further, beginning in Verse 5: “And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.”

The confounding of their language brought about what God had wanted the survivors to do all along, namely, replenish or fully supply the vacated earth with people. But it was only their language that was confounded. As they spread out upon the face of the earth, their memories of the first-person accounts of the Flood, spoken to them by their relatives who had survived it, went with them. And that is how it can be true that thousands of miles and thousands of years removed from the time and location of the Flood, every Culture on Earth has an awareness of a great Flood.

Apparently, my agnostic friend never applied the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel which took place soon after the Flood, and the resulting dispersion of people, to explain how every Culture on Earth knew about the Flood. No Western missionaries had been to visit them. They had not been given copies of Gideon Bibles. Billy  Graham never held a revival meeting in their village. They never saw a Bible. They never read Genesis. But they all know about the Flood. And that is true all over the earth.

It is our responsibility, as individuals, and collectively as the Body of Christ to know the Word of God. It is available to us in such a wide variety of formats: It is everywhere in paper book form, it is online, we can download it into our smartphones, we can get it in pocket-sized MP3 Players, we can get it on CD's and DVD's.

The entire Bible is available right here at the4gospels in a dramatized format for you to listen to daily. Go to

         http://the4gospels.net/current/audiobible/ipadplan2.php

Click on that day's assigned portion, and you can finish listening to the Bible in a year. Then, simply start over. You may have heard it once, but there is MUCH more to learn! The Bible will always be a Source of NEW revelation and understanding when you review what you thought you already knew and understood! I have been studying it for over 40 years, and the lights are STILL coming on for the first time, illuminating things I never saw before, or fully understood before!

The Word of God is everywhere, AND more than affordable! They make it so you cannot afford NOT to have it! There are websites like http://www.biblos.com, that provide it for FREE!! They offer multiple translations so you can use that one that is clearest to you. And there are automatic cross-references so you can see what other verses apply to what you're reading. This website also offers a variety of Bible Commentaries. And it is all FREE!

You have no excuse to not know what God wanted you to know in His Word!

The Bible is an inexhaustible gold mine! The more you dig, the richer you WILL get!
Get into the Word of God, and get the Word of God into you.

This concludes this evening's Discussion, “Genesis: A Deeper Look”
This was originally aired by Romans “live” on November 21st, 2013

Jealousy

Jealousy
James 3:16
New King James Version (NKJV)
16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.
James 3:14
New King James Version (NKJV)
14 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.
Joseph Dreams of Greatness
37 Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. 2 This is the history of Jacob.
Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors. 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.
5 Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more. 6 So he said to them, “Please hear this dream which I have dreamed: 7 There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf.”
8 And his brothers said to him, “Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.
9 Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, “Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.”
10 So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?” 11 And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
Joseph Sold by His Brothers
12 Then his brothers went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem. 13 And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.”
So he said to him, “Here I am.”
14 Then he said to him, “Please go and see if it is well with your brothers and well with the flocks, and bring back word to me.” So he sent him out of the Valley of Hebron, and he went to Shechem.
15 Now a certain man found him, and there he was, wandering in the field. And the man asked him, saying, “What are you seeking?”
16 So he said, “I am seeking my brothers. Please tell me where they are feeding their flocks.”
17 And the man said, “They have departed from here, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.
18 Now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him. 19 Then they said to one another, “Look, this dreamer is coming! 20 Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, ‘Some wild beast has devoured him.’ We shall see what will become of his dreams!”
21 But Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands, and said, “Let us not kill him.” 22 And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit which is in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him”—that he might deliver him out of their hands, and bring him back to his father.
23 So it came to pass, when Joseph had come to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him. 24 Then they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty; there was no water in it.
25 And they sat down to eat a meal. Then they lifted their eyes and looked, and there was a company of Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead with their camels, bearing spices, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry them down to Egypt. 26 So Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh.” And his brothers listened. 28 Then Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.
29 Then Reuben returned to the pit, and indeed Joseph was not in the pit; and he tore his clothes. 30 And he returned to his brothers and said, “The lad is no more; and I, where shall I go?”
31 So they took Joseph’s tunic, killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood. 32 Then they sent the tunic of many colors, and they brought it to their father and said, “We have found this. Do you know whether it is your son’s tunic or not?”
33 And he recognized it and said, “It is my son’s tunic. A wild beast has devoured him. Without doubt Joseph is torn to pieces.” 34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days. 35 And all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and he said, “For I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning.” Thus his father wept for him.
36 Now the Midianites[a] had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.

Galatians 5:19-21
New King James Version (NKJV)
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery,[a] fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders,[b] drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
There is another person in Scripture that comes to mind who displayed ,Jealousy!  WE will however touch on that later.
When we use the word “jealous,” we use it in a sense of being envious of someone who has something we do not have. This kind of jealousy is a sin and is not characteristic of a Christian; rather, it shows that we are still being controlled by our own desires (1 Corinthians 3:3). Galatians 5:26 says, “Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other

The Bible tells us that we are to have the perfect kind of love that God has for us. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-5). The more we focus on ourselves and our own desires, the less we are able to focus on God. When we harden our hearts to the truth, we cannot turn to Jesus and allow Him to heal us (Matthew 13:15). But when we allow the Holy Spirit to control us, He will produce in us the fruit of our salvation, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).


Today Brothers and sisters we are going to discuss and see how we can overcome jealousy ,of which everyone has experienced from time to time in thier Christian walk. God is a jealous God , was it wrong for Him? NO. He has a righteous jealousy. He did not want His people worhipping idols! They were however , were  prostituting themselves to false God's. Even a golden calf! King Saul was a bad example of jealousy, as he hated and was jealous of David becoming the New King. He had no right to be jealous of him, as he brought on his own demise. He disobeyed God and put people before God's orders, so he himself could be worshipped by the people. He wanted to be noticed for himself and not for the glory of the Lord. This kind of jealousy is sinful!

⦁ In  order to overcome something , we have to first , admit what we are doing when  , God is showing us what we are doing, 2nd , we have to ask for forgiveness and third we need to strive with God's help to over come this sinful act.




Being jealous indicates that we are not satisfied with what God has given us. The Bible tells us to be content with what we have, for God will never fail or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). In order to combat jealousy, we need to become more like Jesus and less like ourselves. We can get to know Him through Bible study, prayer, and fellowship with mature believers. As we learn how to serve others instead of ourselves, our hearts will begin to change. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).
Rebellion against God is all the sins named in Galatians 5:19,  Therefore my brothers and sisters, we must take a look at this further, rebellion is a form of witchcraft, which leads to many other sins as mentioned there.
1Sam 15:23--- Who is Samuel talking to here? Saul ,king Saul, who was more concerned with himself than serving the Almighty God who chose Him to be KING> what were the results of this sin that Saul would not let go of!??
God turned him over to a spirit of heaviness. what is this heaviness? lets take a look.
Hopelessness, gloominess, depression,
Self-pity, (the self-indulgent feeling that your life story is harder and sadder than everyone else's), Desolation, (feeling pitiful through being without friends or fellowship), dashing hopes, (a notion of sadness or defeat because something was not as good, attractive, or acceptable as expected, or because something hoped for did not happen) insomnia, (inability to fall at rest or to stay at rest long enough to experience rested, particularly when this is a problem that continues over time), internal hurts, (relating to somebody's individual feelings or happening in somebody's head), and bruises, (emotional injury - an injury that is not physical, e.g. hurt feelings or discredited self-pride.)
Wow! did He bring this on himself? Yes why < cause He refused to give up His fleshly desires and give God All the Glory and also for disobeying God and refusing to do what He was asked . He was serving HIMSELF.

1 Samuel 15:23
New King James Version (NKJV)
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
He also has rejected you from being king.”




What ever happened to the days when people were genuinely happy for one another? Do you remember those days when nobody ever wanted something that someone else had? Oh, wait! Those days never existed.
Jealousy is probably one of the world's oldest emotions. It's been around since the beginning of time. Look at Cain and Abel. Now there's a prime example of jealousy run amok.
Many times we place unrealistic expectations on ourselves and the people around us. Often times we feel things should come easier and faster to us. Then if things don't happen when we think they should, we inevitably run into someone who already has what we want. All of a sudden, we feel this surge of ugly, green emotion called jealousy.

It is so easy to look at other people and wish we had what they have. And so many times it doesn't stop there. We start berating ourselves for not having what they have. Then we begin to believe negative junk ourselves. The next thing we know, we've developed insecurities in our relationships
⦁ Stop comparing yourself to other people. You were created as a very unique and special person. God had a plan for you long before you took your first breath. Relish that thought. Love the fact that you're special. What God has in mind for you isn't the same as for someone else. So you don't have to feel bad that you don't have all the qualities, features, money, or anything else that someone else has. Your journey is just that — yours.
⦁ Stop worrying about you all the time. Find a way to be a blessing to someone else. When you change your focus away from yourself, all of a sudden your self-image improves. You get to experience the feeling of satisfaction that only comes when you're a blessing to someone else. Your priorities start changing, and one day you realize that the things that used to make you so jealous and so nuts, don't bother you so much anymore.
Stop wanting what other people have if you're not willing to go through what they did to get it. When you see a person who is physically fit and looks positively great, it's easy to feel really jealous. But are you willing to work out every day? Are you willing to eat healthy and look for ways to be healthy? If you're not, then there really is no reason to feel jealous, is there?
Start focusing on all that's positive in your life. God has given you so many wonderful gifts that many other people don't have. Focus on using those gifts to help someone else. Since your mind can only consciously think about one thing at a time, doesn't it make sense to make sure that "one thing" is positive and is moving you toward the really great things in life? Breaking free from jealousy starts with your thoughts. When you change the way you think, you change the way you feel and act. The easiest way to change your focus is to begin by helping others. It will definitely be time well spent.
Folks Jealousy is like a cancer it feeds off of other things that you have not dealt with in your life and you think you have , such as insecurities. Jealosuy is not righteous . God's Jealousy is righteous , it protects us from idols! His love for us is so evident there.
Joseph was rewarded for hIs perseverance                all the while He was treated with hate by his brothers , and gotten rid of, there jealousy was cancerous , it hurt them , not Joseph, in the long run God Blessed Joseph for his service to Him and for His forgiveness of what they did to him. Joseph is a perfect foreshadowing of Christ here. They treated Jesus ,sold his clothes , turned him over to  jealous people, he was even put to death. He forgave them, and He as like  Joseph  sat at the right hand of a KING!  A pharaoh is not a King of Kings , he was an earthly king, lets clarify that! If you want to go even further Joseph fed them as well! Jesus fed the hungry ! Awesome or what? Clear foreshowing for me.
God’s character is perfect, above reproach. He is holy, just, loving, merciful, and long-suffering, but is He also jealous?
Humans are adept at expressing jealousy with selfishness, suspicion, and distrust. We find jealousy repulsive because it creates tension and discord while damaging relationships. How does God display an intense emotion such as jealousy?
The marriage relationship is one way to understand the difference between sinful jealousy and righteous jealousy. A husband who responds with anger simply because he sees his wife talking to another man shows unreasonable domination and self-centeredness—sinful jealousy. Selfishness and insecurity control his possessiveness, rather than a commitment to his wife and the sanctity of their marriage vows.

Now suppose another person is trying to alienate a husband or wife’s affections, tempting either spouse to violate the purity of their marriage relationship. Just as God has established holy standards for marriage, He takes every commitment as binding (Hebrews 13:4). He expressed His devotion and dedication to Israel as permanent. “I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord” (Hosea 2:19-20).

No dedicated husband or wife having integrity wants to share their spouse with a substitute—neither does God. God
expects our exclusive devotion. When we give preference to anything instead of God, it is idolatry. We are committing spiritual adultery and God displays divine jealousy. “. . . Do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God” (Deuteronomy 4:23-24). God is zealous for His holiness. Both in His wrath and His love, God remains holy.
God’s jealousy serves to guarantee His people’s ultimate deliverance and security, even during the harsh discipline the Israelites had to endure from time to time. Although the Israelites frequently displayed their spiritual infidelity towards God, He spared them because He is merciful, even though He is a jealous God.

God’s name exemplifies who and what He is. He is holy, deserving of glory. “. . . Among those who are near me, I'll show myself holy so that I'll be glorified before all people” (Leviticus 10:3). Jealousy is not a capricious mood with God. It is the ultimate expression of His being. In His infinite holiness, God is supremely dedicated to preserving His honor with exclusive devotion and worship. To require less would relegate Him to a lesser position of glory. “I, the LORD, am the one, and I won't give my name and glory to another, nor my praise to idols” (Isaiah 42:8).

This concludes my lesson for today , I pray that you will let it settle into the tablet's of your heart and know that God is speaking to all of us ! He is still busy reigning us , so we can experience the joy and Peace He has to give us. God is so giving even in a fallen , world that is getting worse , He still alive and on His throne , taking care of You and I! Teaching us to stop wanting to be #! . Stop trying to share the Mercy seat with God and . God
expects our exclusive devotion. When we give preference to anything instead of God, it is idolatry. We are committing spiritual adultery and God displays divine jealousy. “. . . Do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God” (Deuteronomy 4:23-24). God is zealous for His holiness. Both in His wrath and His love, God remains holy.
God’s jealousy serves to guarantee His people’s ultimate deliverance and security, even during the harsh discipline the Israelites had to endure from time to time. Although the Israelites frequently displayed their spiritual infidelity towards God, He spared them because He is merciful, even though He is a jealous God.

Pray for one another !

The Wrath of God Against Ungodliness and Unrighteousness

The Wrath of God Against Ungodliness and Unrighteousness

Romans 1:18

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
"There Is None Righteous"

Today we take a major turn in the letter of Paul to the Romans. Romans 1:16-17 is the theme of the letter: the gospel is the power of God to save believers from the wrath to come. And this gospel - this good news of Jesus' death and resurrection - has that power to save believers from God's wrath, because in the gospel, day by day, week after week, year after year, God keeps on revealing his righteousness as a gift to be received by faith and for faith, so that those who have their righteousness from God (and not themselves) will not perish but have everlasting life.

Now having described the greatness of his theme, which he will come back to and unpack in wonderful and profound ways in future chapters, Paul enters on a description of human sin and God's wrath in Romans 1:18-3:19. In Romans 1:18 to 32 Paul speaks of the condition of the gentile world apart from the gospel and apart from saving grace. Then in Romans 2:1-3:8 Paul deals more or less directly with the Jewish condition. Then in Romans 3:9-10 he draws his summary conclusion like this: "What then? Are we [Jews] better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, 'THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE.'" That is the point of Romans 1:18-3:10. Then Paul piles Scripture upon Scripture in Romans 3:10-19 to support his point of universal sinfulness and guilt and rebellion against God in every human heart.

He wraps up the section with this summary in Romans 3:19, "Now we know that whatever the Law [the Old Testament Word of God] says, it speaks to those who are under the Law [the Jewish people], so that every mouth [all the nations, all the Gentiles] may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God." We will talk later in this series about why God chose to silence the world by dealing mainly with the Jews. But that is the truth. Paul seems to mean if the Jews, with all their advantages of divine revelation, have not been righteous before God, but only sinful and guilty (3:9), how much less will the Gentiles be able to open their mouths and protest that they have been righteous before God.

Then Paul explains in verse 20: no matter how beneficial the Law of God should have been, when it is misused the way many in Israel misused it, it only compounds the problem of sin. He says, "[Jews and all the world are under silence in their guilt] because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin." Neither Jewish Law nor Gentile idolatry gets anybody right with God.

Then in Romans 3:21 Paul returns to the theme of 1:17, "But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested." You see how similar this is to Romans 1:17 - in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. And from here on Paul is unpacking the greatness of the gospel of God's gift of righteousness.

So what we have in Romans 1:18 to 3:20 is a demonstration of sin and guilt in the heart and life of every human being, both Jew and Gentile. The beginning of that section is what we are taking up this morning at Romans 1:18.

Why Several Sermons on Sin?

Now what should I respond if someone were to say, "Oh no! We are going to be slogging our way through sin and guilt for months. This is going to be really oppressive"? To that person I want to say three things:

1. Superficial diagnoses lead to false remedies.

Superficial diagnoses lead to false remedies and no cures. If you want to find true remedies for a disease, and if you want to bring a lasting cure to the people who are diseased, then you need more than a superficial grasp of the disease itself. Those who care most about a cure for AIDS or cancer, spend almost all their time studying the disease.

2. Understanding sin and wrath will make you wiser.

Profound understanding of sin and wrath will make you a far wiser person about human nature - your own and others. And if you are wiser about the nature of the human soul, you will be able to fight your own sin more successfully, and you will be able to bless others more deeply with your insight and counsel. I have pled with women and men in this church in recent months that what we need to nurture and cultivate here at Bethlehem over the next decades is sages -men and women who ripen with years into deeply sagacious people: wise, discerning, penetrating, deep lovers of people and deep knowers of human nature and God's nature, who can see deeply into the tangle of sin and sacredness that perplexes the saints and threatens to undo us. If you run away from the study of sinful human nature - if you say, I don't like to think about sin - then you run away from yourself, and you run away from wisdom, and, worst of all, you run away from the deepest kinds of love.

3. Knowing the nature of sin and wrath will cause you to cherish the gospel.

Probably the most important thing I would say, and the most firmly rooted in Romans 1:18, is that knowing the true condition of your heart and the nature of sin and the magnitude and justice of the wrath of God will cause you to understand the mighty gospel, and love it, and cherish it, and feast on it, and share it as never before. And this is crucial because this is the way the gospel saves believers. If you don't understand the gospel, if you don't cherish it and look to it and feed on it day after day, it won't save you (see 1 Cor. 15:1-3; Col. 1:23). Knowing sin and wrath will help you do that.

"For . . . "

Which brings now to the beginning of Romans 1:18. Look at the connection between verses 17 and 18 (which the NIV inexcusably omits), namely, "for" or "because" - Verse 17: "[In the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." (18) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." Why does Paul introduce verse 18 with the word "for" or "because"?

He does this in order to show that everything he is going to say about sin is meant to support the gospel of verse 17. He does not mention the gospel for the sake of sin. He deals with sin for the sake of the gospel. Understanding sin is the foundation that upholds the preciousness of the gospel, not vice versa. His main aim is not to lead us from gospel to sin, but from sin to gospel. If you have been caught in a crime and are facing trial, and I say to you, "I have a letter here from the Hennepin County Court that they have dropped the charges against you, because you were guilty and liable to severe punishment," what's the point? The point of saying that you were guilty is to help you understand and cherish the good news that the charges are dropped. That's the point of "for" at the beginning of verse 18.

So the way I hope to deal with all the sin in Romans 1:18-3:20 is to let it point us back again and again to the preciousness and the glory and the necessity and the freeness and the joy of the gospel of the gift of God's righteousness. My prayer is that we would escape superficial diagnoses, and that we would cultivate a profound understanding of fallen human nature (which we all struggle with), and that we would come back again and again to the necessity and beauty and freeness of the gospel of justification by faith alone. If these three things can happen, I don't think our time in these chapters will be oppressive, but rather gospel-exalting, hope-giving, and love-producing, as we grow to know ourselves and our God and our gospel more and more deeply.

We Need the Gospel Because the Wrath of God Is Being Revealed

Now how does Paul begin this section in verse 18? He begins it by giving the reason that gospel and a gift of God's righteousness is necessary. It's necessary "because the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." We need the gospel of Romans 1:16-17, we need the gift of God's righteousness, because God's wrath is right now being poured out on the whole world of ungodliness and unrighteousness. Notice the double use of the word "unrighteousness" in verse 18. God's wrath is being revealed against "unrighteousness" and the truth is being held down in "unrighteousness." Surely Paul means for us to see that in relation to the revelation of the righteousness in verse 17.

In other words, the reason we need God to reveal HIS righteousness to us in the gospel and give it to us as a gift through faith is because we are unrighteous and resist the truth in unrighteousness and, therefore, God's wrath is against us. We need righteousness. We don't have it. God's wrath is being poured out on us in our unrighteousness. Is there any hope? Yes, the gospel is the power of God to save because in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. We can have a righteousness that is not our own, namely, God's.

Three Ways the Wrath of God Is Being Revealed

Now we should ask, "How is the wrath of God being revealed?" The first thing to notice is that the word "is revealed" is the very same word and tense as in verse 17. There "the righteousness of God is being revealed." Here "the wrath of God is being revealed." In both cases it is a present tense, continuous action. In other words it is happening now, not just in the future. There is a day of wrath coming (Romans 2:5, 8-9; 5:9). But in advance of that final outpouring of wrath, God's wrath is also present.

How? In three ways at least that we learn about in Romans.

1. Universal human death is revealing the wrath of God.

From Romans 5 we see that universal human death is a revealing or a manifestation of the wrath of God. Death is the judgement of God on the ungodliness and unrighteousness of the human race rooted in Adam. In the middle of Romans 5:15 we read, "by the transgression of the one [namely Adam] the many died." Then in the middle of verse 16 death is called a judgment and a condemnation: "For on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation." So you can see that death is seen as a judgment and a condemnation, that is, as an expression of God's wrath against sin. Then in the middle of verse 18 you see it again: "Through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men." So the first answer is that the wrath of God is being revealed against human sin in universal human death.

2. Universal futility and misery are evidence of God's wrath.

From Romans 8 we see that universal futility and misery are evidence of God's wrath against human sin. Start at Romans 8:18: "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (19) For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. (20) For the creation was subjected to futility." Stop there and consider what that means before we read on.

I think it means that the sufferings he speaks of in verse 18 are inevitable in this fallen world. And specifically it means that you may plan well for retirement, and the year before you plan to enjoy it you have a stroke, and all the planning seems futile. You work with your own hands for years to build a simple home, and the week before you move in, lightning strikes, and it burns to the ground. You labor all during the spring to plant your crops and when the grain is just ready to sprout, a flood takes it all away. The creation was subjected to futility. In verse 21 it's called "slavery to corruption."

Now read on in Romans 8:20 to see where that subjection to futility came from: "The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope." This means that God subjected the creation to futility. Satan and Adam could not be the one who did this, because Paul said it was done "in hope." Neither Satan nor Adam in the Garden of Eden was planning for the hope of the human race. They simply sinned. But God showed his wrath against sin and subjected creation to futility, not as the last word, but in hope. There would come a day when the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15). But the misery and futility of the world we live in is owing to God's subjecting creation to futility, and is a testimony to his wrath against sin.

3. The sinking degradation of human behavior reveals the wrath of God.

So the first way God's wrath is revealed against ungodliness and unrighteousness is in universal human death. The second way is in the futility and misery and suffering of creation. The third is the one most immediately in Paul's mind here in Romans 1, namely, the sinking degradation of human thinking and behavior. You see this three times in Romans 1:24-28.

After describing the ungodliness and unrighteousness of man in Romans 1:19-23 Paul says in verse 24, "Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them." In other words, God reveals his wrath against sin by giving people up to be more sinful. Again in verse 26: "For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions." And again in verse 28: "And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper."

So these are three of the ways that the wrath of God is being revealed now in this age against the universal (3:9) ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. He has consigned all to death, he has subjected all to futility, and he has given many over to the degradation of their own minds and hearts.

Wrath Mingled with Mercy

There remains time perhaps for one burning question: Is that God's only response to the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men? The answer to that question is No - neither in the case of unbelievers or believers.

Take the case of unbelievers. Wrath is always mingled with mercy in this age of hope. Look at Romans 2:4-5. Here he speaks to those who are missing this great truth: "Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? (5) But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God."

Yes there is kindness in the midst of wrath. God is always doing more than one thing. Jesus said, "He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Matthew 5:45). Paul said to the pagans of Lystra, "[God] did not leave Himself without a witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14:17). He said this to people who were dying and suffering and sinning under the wrath of God.

God warns with his wrath and he woos with his kindness. He speaks both languages: severity and tenderness. Do you recall how Jesus interpreted the coming of John the Baptist as a severe, leather-girded, locus-eating, desert-living, adultery-condemning prophet, on the one hand, and his own coming as a party-going, wine-making, child-healing, sin-forgiving savior, on the other hand? He said, "We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn." Instead, you said, "John has a demon and Jesus is a glutton" (Matthew 11:17). The gospel came with both languages, but they would not hear.

O, unbeliever, God is speaking to you in your pain to warn you, and God is speaking to you in your pleasure to woo you. Don't misread the voice of God.

Death and Suffering and Sin in the Life of a Believer

And to believers, what is our case? According to Romans 1:17 we have the gift of God's righteousness by faith. God's punishment of us was poured out on Jesus who died in our place (Romans 8:3). Romans 8:1 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:9 says, "God has not destined us for wrath." What then are our death and our suffering and our sin? Are they still the wrath of God against us? If not what are they?

The answer is that death and suffering and sin are not the wrath and condemnation and punishment of our heavenly Father. Each one is fundamentally altered by the gospel of Christ crucified in our place.

1. Death is a gateway into paradise.

For believers, the sting and victory of death have been removed. "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). For believers, death is not the wrath of God toward them; it is the last gasp of a defeated enemy who unwittingly opens a door to paradise.

2. Futility and suffering are pathways to holiness.

For believers, futility is removed from suffering. For those who love God and are called according to his purpose "all things work together for our good" (Romans 8:28). Punishment is transformed into purification. Destructive forces become disciplinary forces. And the seeming chaos and futility of life's calamities become the severe, but loving, hand of our Father in heaven, as we learned last year from Hebrews 12.

3. The power of sin is replaced with a love of righteousness.

Finally, not only is the sting of death replaced with hope; and the futility of suffering replaced with meaning; but the dominion and degrading power of sin is replaced with a love of righteousness (the point of Romans 6). God does not give us over to a depraved mind, he gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore let us awaken to the truth of Romans 1:18 that the wrath of God is being revealed now in this age against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. We can't understand the world or the gospel without that truth. But let us also awaken to the truth that God is revealing something else at the same time. He is revealing the gift of righteousness for all who will believe on Christ. And with that righteousness there is no wrath or condemnation on us any more. For you (whoever you are!), who believe, death becomes a gateway to paradise; suffering becomes a pathway to holiness; and sin becomes a dethroned enemy that we fight by the power of God's Spirit.

So let us flee the wrath of God, and take refuge in the precious power of the gospel of God. Amen.

By John Piper. ©2013 Desiring God Foundation. Website: desiringGod.org

Reasons Why People Are Afraid To Trust God

Synonyms

Trust, faith, and belief are synonyms that we interchange frequently in our Christian conversations.

Webster’s Dictionary Definition

From a technical perspective, the dictionary definitions are:

Faith

believing without proof; trust;
unquestioning belief, specif. in God, religion
complete trust or confidence
Trust

firm belief in the honesty, reliability, etc. of another;faith
Belief

state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing
something believed; especially :a tenet or body of tenets held by a group
conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence
Faith in God:

unquestioning acceptance as true or real, without proof, in the honesty and reliability of God
If you trust in God, then you must also believe and or have faith that God is able to accomplish whatever it is you trust him to do.

Proverbs 3: 5-6

5 Trust in the LORD with all you heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He shall direct your paths.

Hebrews 11:1

1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Trust – To trust God is to act on what you believe. Faith is trust in action. You can have faith, and you can trust God,but you can’t say you have “Faith in God” without being faithful and trusting God.

Think of “Faith in God” as water.

Faith is oxygen.

Trust is hydrogen.

You can have each element separately, but you can’t have water without both together!

Faith In Action

Anyone can believe God is capable of doing something. But believing God is capable of doing something and putting yourself in a position so that you must trust God to do something you can’t do for yourself, is more than just believing in God.

Sometimes there is a price or risk with trust. It may be danger or some other potential for loss. How you react is an indicator of your level of trust. Your reaction may be fear, on one extreme or calm assurance on the other.

To trust in the Lord means we need to let go of our own abilities and surrender our thoughts and actions to be guided by Him.

A good example of complete trust and confidence in God is portrayed in 1 Samuel 17 as David is facing off with Goliath, the Philistine champion.

1Samuel 17:45-7


45 David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORDS, and he will give all of you into our hands."

In this story David is completely outmatched in size and experience. From an external perspective, there is no chance of victory for David. But David had an immeasurable faith in his Lord, and he put that faith in action as he charged forward into victory against the giant.

We can have faith in our own abilities, belief in ourselves to be able to accomplish certain tasks. But faith in God should stretch beyond anything we have of ourselves.

Peter Walks on Water

Matt. 14: 28-32

28 And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”
29 So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. 30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”
31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

This is such a beautiful illustration of simple faith in action. “Lord, if it is You, command me to come…” Peter immediately climbs out of the boat and begins to walk towards Jesus. Now do you suppose he slowly climbed out of the boat testing the water to make sure it would support him? No! I don’t think so. Peter was a little impulsive. I would be more inclined to believe once Jesus called to him he leaped over the side with both feet and started walking towards Him. However, once the reality of what he had done hit him, he became afraid and began to sink. The point I would like to make is that Peter put his faith in action. As long a Peter kept his focus on Jesus, and what He could do for him, he was able to walk on the water. Once he became distracted and began to doubt Jesus’ ability to keep him safe is when his faith was weak, and he began to sink.

This same principle is true with any of the promises of the Bible. Believing we can have any of the promises, and living your life so that you trust God to deliver those promises is more than just believing he is capable.

I can say I trust God, but unless I am actively involved in “trusting” God, I might better say “I would like to trust God.”

Anyone can say: “Yes, I trust God to be true to his word.”

But to make that statement and actually putting trust in God to keep His word are two totally different things.

Do you "trust" God?

Have you gotten out of the boat?

Have you faced insurmountable odds, overcome the nay Sayers and thrown the stone anyway?

Our action, the measure of faith that we demonstrate by trusting God when all outward signs say it is impossible to accomplish are a testimony to those who witness our behavior.

Especially now in a world of such uncertain times, our trust and or faith in God is one of our strongest witnesses. We need to demonstrate to people that trusting God is more than just believing that he exists or going to church, it’s a state of mind that displays a sense of peace in the worst of times, and or humility in great success. It’s a behavior that proclaims that we are living in the world, but not controlled by the influences of the Evil One who roams about causing havoc and misery in every ones life.

Peace and contentment is not found in material prosperity or for that matter in perfect health. True peace is found when we realize that we are on this earth for only a short time, just a single grain of sand in a beach of eternity; When we are convinced that Satan is a defeated foe, and that Jesus has prepared a place for us to spend eternity that is far greater than our wildest imagination could ever picture; It’s when we realize that by accepting Jesus Christ as our savior and have committed to repenting from our sinful nature, that even though we may stumble, there is still a place reserved for us in that beautiful, glorious place called Heaven.

It’s when we accept the simple fact that while we are on this earth, life will be filled with ups and downs, good times and bad, sickness and health, and that how we deal with each of these cycles is part of our training that makes us better servants for God. He knows the weaknesses of all our hearts. He knows exactly what we need to learn to overcome those weaknesses. He will provide us with various trials to teach us what we need to know. Trials can come in the form of great blessings or in tragedy. How we respond to each of these trials is the path that we choose to follow that forms our lives. We can choose to live with anxiety and stress or with peace and tranquility as we trust that God is in control.

Every person is precious to God. Every action or word we speak plays a role in the fulfillment of time. Each action has the potential to affect the life of another individual and or create a ripple effect that could impact as many as hundreds or even thousands of people over time. So no matter how insignificant you think your part is it may be the seed that grows into tremendous accomplishment in the life of someone else. Therefore, demonstrate your trust in God. Turn your ear to hear his voice and respond in such a way that gives glory to Him. Surrender your talents to God. Let them be instruments for His glory.

If you find yourself desperate – faced with unbeatable odds, with the appearance of no chance of success, or despondent – void of any hope, call upon God.

Remember, God is never early or late, he arrives precisely when He means to. He is omniscient. He knows exactly when and where He needs to make His presence known. Even though we may not be able to see beyond our own struggles, God knows what is best. The burden is heaviest when we try to carry it alone. Trust God! Put it in His hands and let it go. Letting go is not giving up, it’s more a change of leadership. It is trusting God at a level beyond what is visible or within our own understanding.

Let go! Let God!


What I'm talking about today is not just for those of you who are seekers but for those of you who have been Christians 20, 30, 40 years. You've never really given everything in your life to God. You've held back your finances. Or you've held back your career. Or some other area. Your sexuality. "I know better than God in this area. I can't afford to do what God says." On the day when you jump into His arms and say, "One hundred percent God, I'm going to do whatever You say. You tell me the truth and You love me. I don't care if it's popular. I don't care if it's hard. I don't care if I don't understand it. I don't care if it's difficult or there's problems with it. I'm going to do what You say in my finances, in my relationships, in my time, with my life, with my dreams. And God, I give it all to You. I give You all the things I'm ashamed of in my past. And I give You all my hopes and aspirations for the future. I'm jumping into Your arms." It will be a rush you've never known.

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We Exult in Our Tribulations

Romans 5:1–5

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Faith in God
What happens to make a person a Christian - a child of God? First, the gospel is made known to him - the historical fact that God sent his Son into the world to die for sinners and to rise from the dead triumphant over death and hell for all who believe in him. The Holy Spirit opens the heart to see in this gospel that Christ is trustworthy and more to be desired than all human treasures. And so the heart trusts in Christ for all that God promises to be for us in him. When that faith happens, we are justified before God. In other words, by that faith the Spirit of God unites us to Christ so that his death becomes our death, and his life becomes our life. God laid on him the iniquities that we performed, and God laid on us the righteousness that he performed. He takes our sin, though he didn't perform it. And we take his righteousness, though we didn't perform it. And so by the faith that unites us to Christ we stand before God forgiven for all our sins and righteous with the imputed righteousness of Christ.

On the basis of that great foundation that makes us Christians, Paul says in Romans 5:1 that we have peace with God - and calls us to enjoy that peace (best manuscript tradition says, "let us have peace with God") - and says that we now stand in grace (verse 2), and says that we exult (and ought to exult) in the hope of the glory of God. The glory of God and our exulting enjoyment of it, is the goal of justification by faith. This is where all of Christian life is moving. Justification by faith is designed to help us exult in the hope of the glory of God. We are reckoned right before God so that we can finally be with God and see him and enjoy him as the infinitely satisfying Reality forever and ever.

Tests to Your Faith
But before that eternal day, something else comes in the Christian life, namely, tribulations. This is what verses 3-5 are about. How shall we understand them and respond to them? Paul's answer is that they have a gracious and purposeful place in the Christian life and that we should therefore exult in them.

Now I don't take this lightly or say it easily. Today, as God would have it, is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. One brief look at the brochure in our worship folder will take away all flippancy and levity and superficiality from our talk about afflictions. At the bottom of the first page it says,

Christians who aren't killed are often subjected to brutal torture and brainwashing - attempts to force them to recant their faith. In some parts of the world, Christian women are brutally raped to break their allegiance to Christ, while children are sold into slavery for as little as $15. Thousands more languish year after year in prisons or hard labor camps.

When Paul says in Romans 5:3, "And not only this (that is, not only do we exult in the hope of the glory of God), but we also exult in our tribulations" - when he says this, he is not speaking as a spectator but a fellow-sufferer. Paul's sufferings were long and hard. But in 2 Corinthians 12:9, he said, "[Christ] has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.'" Notice, just as it says, "We exult in tribulations" here in Romans 5:3, he says in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that he "most gladly" boasts or "exults" (same word) over his weaknesses. Paul practiced what he preached.

And what he means by "weaknesses" in 2 Corinthians 12:9 he shows us in the next verse: "Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong." The whole array of distresses and weaknesses and sicknesses and difficulties are meant by these afflictions in Romans 5:3, not just persecutions. And Paul says he exults in them, instead of murmuring and complaining about them.

So as we look at the role of afflictions in the Christian life, keep in mind that they are any tests to your faith. They could be tribulations from loss of health, or tribulations in broken or strained relationships, or tribulations in vocational hardships and disappointments, or tribulations in accidents or natural disasters, or tribulations in verbal or physical assaults, or simply everyday inconveniences from traffic jams to plumbing problems. Anything that makes life harder and threatens your faith in the goodness and power and wisdom of God is tribulation.

These are normal, not abnormal. It would be abnormal for a Christian not to have them, because Paul taught all the churches, according to Acts 14:22, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God."

"Exult in Tribulation"
Now he says in Romans 5:3 the astonishing thing: "Exult in them." This is what he does. This is what he calls us to do. How can this be? The answer from verse 2 is that we are standing in grace. This is God's omnipotent power to help us though we don't deserve it. You don't hold the key to this wonderful, supernatural way of life that should set Christians off from the world, God does. The power to rejoice and exult in tribulation comes from omnipotent grace that we receive by trusting in God's promises.

Here's an illustration of it from 2 Corinthians 8:1-2. Paul is talking about the way the Macedonian Christians rejoiced in their afflictions even in great poverty. Notice the key: "Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality." Do you see the key: "the grace of God" was given to them. And that produced an indomitable joy in a great ordeal (or test) of affliction. And that joy in affliction overflowed in love.

How are we doing today when things go bad for us? Do we rest in the grace of God and experience joy in God and keep on loving people? Or do we forget the grace of God, overflow with complaining and become self-absorbed and critical instead of loving? So omnipotent power of grace is the key. We stand in this grace, Paul says in verse 2.

But grace does not work like magic. It works through truth. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free (John 8:32) - from complaining and from paralyzing frustration and from a critical spirit. Grace opens the eyes of the heart to truth and inclines the heart to embrace it and live by it.

Grace Works through Truth
What truth? That is what the rest of this text is about. There are four truths that Paul wants us to know and meditate on. That is how grace will change us into peaceful, joyful people who exult in our afflictions.

1. Tribulation brings about perseverance.

Romans 5:3 says, "And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing [that is, because we know] that tribulation brings about perseverance." Another word for "perseverance" is "endurance." In other words, if something happens in your life that is hard and painful and frustrating and disappointing, and, by grace, your faith looks to Christ and to his power and his sufficiency and his fellowship and his wisdom and his love, and you don't give in to bitterness and resentment and complaining, then your faith endures and perseveres. It becomes stronger. How is it stronger? It's stronger the way tempered steel is stronger: it takes more to break it. Tribulation is like the fire that tempers the steel of faith. So when Paul says, "Tribulation brings about perseverance," he means that the fiery tests of trouble are meant by God to make your faith unbreakable.

That's the first truth that grace uses to make us into joyful people who exult in tribulations and love others. The second truth is this:

2. Perseverance brings about proven character.

Romans 5:3-4a, "We also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance [brings about] proven character." The focus here is on this word "proven" (dokimen). The idea is that when you put metal through a fiery testing and it comes out on the other side persevering and enduring, what you call that metal is "proven" or "authentic" or "genuine." That's the sense here. When you go through tribulation, and your faith is tested, and it perseveres, what you get is a wonderful sense of authenticity. You feel that your faith is real. It has been tested. It has stood the test with perseverance. And it is therefore real, authentic, proven, genuine.

That's the second truth that God's grace uses to make us into the kind of people who exult in tribulation. The third follows from it:

3. Proven character brings about hope.

Romans 5:3-4, "We also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; (4) and perseverance [brings about] proven character; and proven character [brings about] hope." Now how is that? How does "proven character" bring about hope?

Isn't the answer that when your faith has been tried in affliction, and persevered, and thus proven genuine and authentic you know you are real and not a fake Christian and that gives you hope that you really are a child of God and will inherit his glory. In other words, one of the great obstacles to a full and strong hope in the glory of God is the fear that we are hypocrites - that our faith is not real and that we just inherited it from our parents and have been motivated by things that are not honoring to God. One of the purposes of afflictions in our lives is to give us victory over those fears and make us full of hope and confidence as the children of God.

So God takes us through hard times to temper the steel of our faith and show us that we are real, authentic, genuine, proven, and in that way give us hope that we really will inherit the glory of God and not come into judgment.

Now there remains one more truth that the grace of God uses to make us into the kind of people who exult in tribulations. Actually it's not just a truth but an experience:

4. The hope that is inspired by proven character will not disappoint us, because God gives us the experience of his love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Romans 5:5, "Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

Now what shall we say about this? Well, we should say a lot more than we have time to say this morning. So what I am going to do is say something and then continue with this verse and fold verses 6-8 into the answer the week after Thanksgiving.

God Means for Christians to Have Assurance
But this morning I will say only this: If you are a Christian, God really means for you to have assurance that you are going to inherit the glory of God. You are going to go to heaven when you die, not hell; and you are going be a part of Christ's future kingdom, and live forever in the new heavens and the new earth with unbroken joy and no affliction. The truth of verse 5 is that God gives assurance to us through the Holy Spirit.

Paul knows that there is more than one enemy to our assurance. One is the fear that we might be hypocrites. We might be fake Christians, no Christians at all, even though we are religious and belong to the Church. He teaches us here that affliction is God's great proving ground for the genuineness of faith. And he graciously takes us through trials so that our faith will be seen as genuine and we will have hope because we are not hypocrites.

But there is another enemy to our assurance. What if the object of our faith is false? Not just our faith, but what we put our faith in. What if we make it through tribulation with proven faith and growing hope, and in the end that hope proves to have been built on sand? We thought God loved us, but it turns out he didn't. He may not even exist. That too is a great obstacle to our assurance.

And Paul's answer here to it is not an argument, but an experience. There are arguments, and Paul is willing to use them. But here he simply says, your hope, rooted in the genuineness of your proven faith, will not disappoint you. And you can know this because the Holy Spirit has come into your life and has begun to pour the love of God experientially into your heart. This is not mainly an argument. This is mainly a personal experience of God's love flooding the heart with an immediate sense of God's reality and love.

You can see how big and wonderful this is, and why I feel the need to linger on it longer. So in two weeks I am going to pick it up here. Then in the meantime, would you join me in praying that God increase this experience in our lives. That he make it unmistakable. That there be a great movement of the Spirit in us and among us to give not only the assurance that our faith is genuine, but that it is well founded in the love of God for us.

And as you pray, don't count it strange when the afflictions come. They will come. But rejoice and exult in the love of God to use them to temper the steel of your faith and confirm in your heart that you are indeed the child of God through faith.

By John Piper. ©2013 Desiring God Foundation. Website: desiringGod.org