WALKING OUT ON THE DOCTOR

They were not faithful to the covenant I made with them, and so I paid no attention to them.  Heb. 8:9, T.E.V.

A very ill patient went to an outstanding specialist for treatment.  Following a careful examination, the doctor prescribed a complex but promising course of treatment.  There was every indication that in a reasonable short time the patient would have been entirely well.

But part way through the therapy the patient simply quit coming to the doctor, in spite of the doctor's urgings.  His condition worsened and in time he died.  His doctor noted in his files that since the patient had terminated the healing relationship by his own choice, the doctor could not be held accountable for his demise.

The Bible writers often used the term covenant for what we might call the healing relationship between God and man.  It is prescribed by God as a powerful remedy for the ills that are caused by alienation from God.  As the Great Physician, He would never prescribe a faulty remedy.  Thus when the Bible writers (note especially Hebrews 8) speak of the "old covenant," they are not speaking of a remedy that is inherently faulty or inadequate.  For it is nothing more than an expression of God's eternal covenant--His promise to take care of His people if they will let Him.

But the problem was that the patients walked out on the Doctor.  They removed themselves from the healing relationship, from their close involvement with the only One who could cure them.  And the Doctor noted (as we read in today's verse) that--being an ethical gentleman--He would not force a cure on them.  Respecting their freedom, He let them walk away, even to their own death.

The new covenant, then, is not a new means of salvation.  It is a renewed plea from God to come back into that life-giving union with Him that has always been His prescribed remedy.  Somewhat in contrast to the heavily legal relationship between a physician and a patient, with all the concerns about malpractice and insurance coverage, the "covenant" relationship with God is a warmly personal involvement.  It is so life-changing that as we remain in it our very thoughts and desires come to reflect His own (see Heb. 8:10, 11).  Who in his right mind would ever want to walk away from that relationship when the cure is not only so sure but so delightful?

REJECTED BY A FORGIVING GOD

But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.  Therefore you did not desert them, even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf.  Neh. 9:17, 18, N.I.V.


We often hear the phrase "Whatever works!"  If what you are doing doesn't work, try something else.  Is this God's approach?  For six thousand years He has patiently worked through forgiveness to bring the reign of sin to an end.  He has been patient and forgiving.  Maybe He ought to switch to wrath.

Consider ancient Israel.  God rescued them from Egypt.  He kept them from being hungry or thirsty.  Their experience with Him was in some ways far more tangible that any other community of believers has experienced since.  Yet they murmured, complained, and doubted everything about Him they possibly could.  They accused Him of contemplating their murder; they said they were better off as slaves then they were as free men under His guidance.  At the borders of Canaan they wanted to choose another leader who would take them back to Egypt!  Yet He consistently forgave them.

Recounting Israel's flagrantly disloyal attitudes, Nehemiah said, "They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles [God] performed among them.  They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery" (Neh. 9:17, N.I.V.).  But God still did not desert them.  "For forty years [He] sustained them in the desert; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen" (verse 21, N.I.V.).

For another fifteen hundred years He pleaded with them to accept His will for their lives.  Yet history reveals that God had no lasting success in bringing them to their senses.  In the end He finally did reject Israel as the nation through which He would reveal Himself to the world, though individually anyone still may accept Him as his Redeemer.

Did God switch to rejection because acceptance and forgiveness didn't work?  May I suggest that God has never ceased being "a forgiving God" to Israel.  He did, however, finally set them free from their calling as His chosen people--a privilege most of them considered an unpleasant burden.  His rejection of them was only in acknowledgment of their final rejection of Him in the person of His Son--His Son, whose dying words were of forgiveness.

GOOD BUT DEADLY COMMANDS

For the written law condemns to death, but the Spirit gives life.  2 Cor. 3:6, N.E.B.

A popular bumper sticker on cars around Yosemite Valley says in bold letters, "Go Climb a Rock."  The fine print at the bottom identifies it as the sentiments of a well-known rock-climbing club.  I saw it one day as I drove to the base of El Capitan, that overwhelming rock monolith that rises abruptly several thousand feet from the valley's floor.  I stood there looking up at the sheer cliffs, not even needing to wonder what would happen if I were to try to "go climb a rock."  A few hardy spirits, with special training and exotic equipment, attempt to scale its face every year.  Most of them make it.

But what if the command, instead of the cute jargon of rock climbers, were the explicit imperative of God Himself?  What if it read, "Go Love Your Neighbor"?  How would you feel as you stood contemplating a rather obnoxious neighbor, hearing the command to love him ringing in your ears?  Worse yet, what if you looked for the special "equipment" of finding delight in the fulfilling of the command and found none?

Just as most of us flatlanders wouldn't have thought about climbing El Capitan until we saw the bumper sticker, so most of us who blindly ignore our neighbors aren't aware of how unloving we are until we hear the command "Love them!"  Merely to look at the command is to know the keenest sense of failure and of condemnation.  No wonder, then, that Paul could say that the written law condemns to death.  To hear a command and not have the inner resources to fulfill it is to hear a pronouncement of failure and of death.

But the Spirit, Paul proclaims, gives life.  That is, when the Spirit sheds God's love abroad in our hearts, we begin to find unsurpassed delight in actually doing  what previously was an absurd impossibility.  We behold our neighbor from a surprising new perspective, finding the "old crank" to be a valuable person with understandable, even crying, needs.

The experience described by Paul in Romans 7 is the "written letter" variety.  One is aware of what the law demands and convicted that it is right.  But outside of a relationship with Jesus Christ, one has no inner resources to respond.  The Romans 8 experience, however, is the glad rejoicing of one whose focus has shifted away from the letter of the law to the adequacies of Christ.

READY FOR THE UNREADY

I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.  I said, "Here am I, here am I," to a nation that did not call on my name.  Isa. 65:1, R.S.V.


If you have taken a water safety instructor's course, you have learned that drowning people cannot always be trusted.  In the desperation of what they fear will be their final moments they will sometimes attack their rescuers, shoving them underwater in their own frantic attempts to stay on top.  The experienced lifeguard is careful to approach the victim in such a way as to avoid being endangered himself.  He attempts the rescue in spite of apparent resistance.

Being lost can lead people to do some rather ludicrous things.  In retrospect, how foolish it is for doomed sinners to ignore, even despise, the only One who can rescue them.  But in the frantic thrashing of sinners about to drown in the guilt, pain, and confusion of their folly, level-headed judgment seldom rises to the top.  We ignore Spirit-led friends, shut out of our memory the sweet recall of our former dedication, and avoid any spiritual meetings that might let Jesus tug at our hearts.

But a choice insight into the character of our God is that He does not take us seriously at such times.  Like a lifeguard, He continues to offer His strong hand, saying, "Here I am!"  For He is wise enough to understand what rebellious people do when they come face-to-face with their folly.  He knows that we dodge and squirm and flee until, exhausted, we fall at His feet.

Because of His vantage point of both wisdom and compassion, He can say, "I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices" (Isa. 65:2, R.S.V.).  He is not put off by our resistance nor offended by our rebellion.

Some might fear that such infinite patience and persistence on God's part would lead to presumption on our part.  We might come to indulge His goodness and walk our ways, always counting on His rescuing hand.  Yet the goodness of God, not the dread that He might walk away from us, is what leads to repentance and to lasting trust.

LIMPING WITH TWO OPINIONS

Elijah came near to all the people, and said, "How long will you go limping with two different opinions?  If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him."  And the people did not answer him a word.  1 Kings 18:21, R.S.V.


Even though our teachers had told us not to play "crack the whip" while skating in the old gymnasium, the game was popular to try when the teachers were not looking.  The large pillars that broke up the floor area--part of the reason for our teachers' warnings--just served to make the game more challenging.  But I'll never forget watching one young man as he snapped at blurring speed from the end of the whip, to find himself heading straight for a pillar.  For a split second he thought he would steer to the left.  Then he changed his mind and tried to pass it on the right.  From all appearances, however, his final decision was to go on both sides at once.  He limped very painfully off the skating floor.

A young girl was portraying among her friends the image of a worldly-wise, liberated former Christian.  Yet she was careful to live in her parents' presence as a sweetly docile model of innocence.  It was a painful day for her when her friends came for  a visit and, within her parents' hearing, began discussing the recent wild time they had shared with her.

Trying to try to hold two conflicting opinions at the same time is painful, even downright crippling.  Living with one foot planted firmly in the value systems of the world and the other foot dangling within the supposed shelter of the church door is wrenching to one's integrity, as well as to one's reputation.  This will always produce dysfunctional people, silly parodies of the strong, purposeful men and women God is capable of producing.

It is no wonder, then, that when Elijah pointed out to his people how foolish they looked limping along with one foot on either side of the fence, they had nothing to say.  There is no defense for self-inflicted pain, no sensible explanation for mental and spiritual duplicity.  There is something very inspiring about Elijah's straightforward manner of dealing.  He sets before the people the two clear alternatives: God or Baal.  Getting off the fence, even on the wrong side, makes more sense than the painful, integrity-shattering fantasy that one can walk both sides at the same time!

WHAT MAKES PARENTS REJOICE

I was overjoyed to find some of your children living the life of truth, as the Father himself instructed us.  2 John 4, Phillips.

Only another parent could ever appreciate the thrill that parents know when their children grow up embracing the wise and loving values they have sought to instill in them.  There are many deceptive side trips, many Satan-designed inducements, to hurt these precious lives that are an extension of our own.  To see them pass through the formative years into settled Christian adulthood brings a deep satisfaction to parents that perhaps nothing could equal.

It is interesting to notice, however, the words that John chose to use when he spoke of these early believers whose youth, or new converts, made the right choices.  He didn't say that they had chosen to obey the rules, or to join the right church, or to submit to their parents' authority.  He didn't commend them for being nice people, or for wearing the right clothes.  Rather, John rejoiced that they were "following the truth" (R.S.V.), or "living by the truth" (N.E.B.).  His focus is upon truth, not upon any lesser reference point.

The apostle John, more than the other Gospel writers, built the story of Jesus around the conflict between truth and error.  He often used the metaphor of light and darkness, and thus was fond of calling Jesus the Light of the world.  John knew that the crux of the great controversy is a battle for the loyalty of men's minds and that God's ultimate weapon is truth--truth about Himself.

Children who merely conform to their parents' wishes for fear of offending them bring their parents no lasting consolation.  Children who join "the right church," perhaps because all their friends have joined the same fellowship, are also on shaky ground.  Enduring confidence in the spiritual life of our children, however, will come when we see that they are excitedly aware of the beauties of Jesus and, with intelligent reflection, have chosen to live as He lives.

My teenage daughter told me recently, "I am listening carefully to what my teachers are saying about who God is; and I'd be willing to speak out if I question what I hear, because I don't want my classmates to get a wrong picture of Him!"  I had a sudden thrill very much akin to the one John expressed in today's text.  There isn't a more reliable and rewarding guiding star for one's life.

WILL JESUS COME SOON?

As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because...they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.  Luke 19:11, R.S.V.

You can read it on bright-red bumper stickers, "Jesus Is Coming Again!"  You can hear it in many sermons, "Jesus is coming soon."  You can read it spray-painted on brick walls, "Are you ready for Jesus to come?"

Though millions of Christians share the blessed hope in the soon return of Jesus Christ, some of us have deceased grandparents, and even great-grandparents, who were absolutely convinced that Jesus would come in their lifetime.  The word soon takes on very vague meanings when some denomination has been saying for more than 140 years that He will come soon.  It was evidently a cause for concern for Jesus Himself when some people in His own day believed that He was going to return sooner than He knew He could.  So He told them a well-crafted parable, specifically designed to stir them to deeper thought about His coming.

The parable, curiously enough, has virtually nothing to do with the time of His return.  But it has everything to do with what they should do with their time until He does return.  It has even more to do with who He is that is returning.  You remember; it's the parable of the servants who are each given a sum of money and told to use it responsibly.  Those who did so were highly esteemed by the Master.  The one who hid his money complained that he was afraid of the Master for being "a severe man" (Luke 19:21, R.S.V.).

The point of Jesus' parable is that He wants us to get our eyes off the calendar and unto the Person.  The good news is not that Jesus is coming soon, but that Jesus is coming soon.  If He is "a severe man," even a million years is too soon!  He wants a people who are delighted with the One who is coming, that they might be motivated to use the valuable treasure of truth to great advantage.  Rather than a panic-stricken cry, "Jesus is coming soon, therefore get ready!" our privilege is to say, "Be ready so that He can come soon.  Be ready to tell the truth about Him with gladness so that the world can make informed choices about Him."

THE KISS OF LIFE

Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.  Ps. 85:10.


Some people think that in order to show mercy you have to ignore truth.  "We'll just pretend it never happened!"  Forgiveness becomes a mind game: when you say you're sorry, it cancels out what really happened.  You no longer have to deal with the facts; you just "pick up and go on."  The problem is that the unhappy incident is likely to recur, because pretending does not change people.

Can you show mercy and still embrace truth?  Our text today declares that God has done just that in the plan of salvation.  He has shown great mercy to our fallen world in giving us His Son.  And in the giving He also proclaims the unbiased truth about the sin problem.  When, in Christ, He covered our sins, He was not pretending that we were never really separated from Him.  He showed us what happens to people who choose to turn away from God, their life source.  However, He mercifully enacted it out upon Himself so that we could live to benefit from the lesson.

In God's Son, "righteousness and peace have kissed each other"--the very kiss of life!  For we see that God is at peace with the human race and that we have been brought back into right relationship with Him in the person of Christ.  But it is no mind game; it is genuine and attainable.  In Christ we see how the Father and mankind may relate to each other.  We see how easily the Son of man entered into discourse with the Almighty, and how very good and satisfying Their friendship was!  It was not as one god to another, it was you and I and the Sovereign of the universe!

God can and does deal with the reality of our separation from Him.  The very reason He desires us to confess our sins is that we might come face-to-face with reality.  When we have done so, He quickly assures us that He still loves and accepts us.  He then counsels us, guiding us into new social patterns and better ways of living.  Our broken relationship with Him is healed, and we are ourselves at peace with God and with one another.

As Psalm 85:11 says, "Truth shall spring out of the earth,"--we shall know God and understand ourselves--"and righteousness shall look down from heaven," for God shall be pleased with us.

A SIGN OF BELONGING

Moreover I gave them my sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I the Lord sanctify them.  Eze. 20:12, R.S.V.

People from many cultures have found it helpful to come up with some kind of "shorthand" to define how one ought to relate to new acquaintances of the opposite sex.  A man wants to know, for example, if a woman is available for further friendship or whether she already belongs to someone else.  Most Western societies have adopted the wedding ring for this purpose.  While as a symbol it has often been abused, at least it can be a quick way of saying "I belong to someone!"

Since "belonging to God" is the essence of true spirituality, God wanted to give His people a meaningful symbol by which they could tell the world. "We belong to our Lord!"  Even more than just a symbol of belonging, God wanted that experience actually to deepen the value of belonging.  And so God repeatedly gave to His people the very thing He had given them in the garden: He gave them time--sacred time, set aside from all lesser distractions, just to enjoy fellowship with their heavenly Father.

I know of several husbands who regularly take their wives on "dates," special times alone, even after they have been married for many years.  When they turn down other invitations because they say, "I have a date with my wife!" their friends know that they have a very rich relationship going between them.

That is precisely what God had in mind with the Sabbath.  He wanted His people to be known worldwide as being unavailable for other appointments on the Sabbath because they were so joyously engrossed with the One to whom they belonged.  Sadly, He had to report that "my sabbaths they greatly profaned" (Eze. 20:13, R.S.V.).  They gave counterfeit messages with the Sabbath, flaunting it as a sign of belonging, while their hearts were far away from Him.  Or they became absorbed in the ritual itself to the exclusion of the relationship.

In the final showdown of history, those who remain loyal to God will have discovered the joys and meaningful symbolism of this sign of belonging.  They will be living out God's desire to "hallow my sabbaths that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God" (verse 20).

NOT JUST SENTIMETALITIES

If you never overlooked our sins, Yahweh, Lord, could anyone survive?  But you do forgive us: and for that we revere you.  Ps. 130:3, 4, Jerusalem.

What would you think of a nurse who said, "I'm going to take your blood pressure," then endeavored to do it by placing a thermometer under your tongue?  Would you trust a mechanic who checked the points on your engine by reading the oil pressure gauge?  Even though these are all vital measurements, it can be dangerous to confuse them one for another.

What if someone were to ask you, "Have you been forgiven?"  What would you measure as a means of determining your answer?  Could that, perhaps, depend on what you feel to be the problem that forgiveness is solving?

In checking their forgiveness, many would first measure to see whether they have any remaining feelings of guiltiness.  They would recall feelings of shame and unworthiness in the presence of a holy God.  They would recall a sense of rejection, of being unloved, and of bruised self-worth.  Then they would check to see whether all these feelings were gone.  If any such feelings ever surfaced, they would conclude that God had not forgiven them.

But may I suggest that the very fact that you are alive is more than just evidence, it is proof, that you are forgiven.  Guilt and forgiveness are more than just feelings.  They are more than sentimentalities.  Even though separation from God will always bring bad feelings, they are not the sum total of the guilt problem.  Separation from God brings death; every living person must acknowledge that he is living in grace.  He is living because God has held off that second-death consequence.

To be unforgiven, then, is not to be having bad feelings.  To be unforgiven is to be dead!  If the Lord had dealt with each of us as He rightly could have, who could survive?  But He has instead offered forgiveness to all mankind.  Because Jesus has borne that death-consequence in our place, we all live!  This, of course, does not mean that all mankind shall be saved, for not all mankind has come to trust the Forgiver.  Those who are ultimately lost will give evidence of their stubborn rejection of Him.

Every heartbeat, every breath, is a reminder that our Father "does not deal with us according to our sins" (Ps. 103:10, R.S.V.).  What better reason could we find to revere Him?