THE TRENTON BULLETIN

THE TRENTON BULLETIN

Trenton Church of Christ, Trenton, Florida

What comparison can we ever give or try to give or imagine that would help us understand the kind of God we serve? It is not in the best prose to begin an article with a question but when faced with the declaration of Micah 7:18 what can man say? The best commentary on the verse would be without words for there are no words to convey the enormity of the thought. Who is a God like Jehovah? How do you measure His stature? How do you behold His glory? What is man to be mindful of Him?

“The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind” (Job 40:6) and what a storm that was. How do you compare the feeble ant like features of man to the universal expanse of the greatness of the Almighty? Reading Job 40-41 man is placed in his subservient role of the creation before the mighty hand of the Creator. O Lord, how large your ocean; how small my boat.

“Who is a God like you” demands answers in regard to the insignificance of man. We are not left without answer as Micah gives cry to the likeness of the Lord in His mercy, love, compassion and forgiveness. “Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:18-19).

What can man raise up to rival the pardoning of God? How often we rebel against Him and His word and yet He offers remission of sins. In Jesus Christ we have the blessing of redemption. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). We fail to live up to the will of the Father and yet He is longsuffering (1 Timothy 1:16). Unlike men of earth in our rebellion the Lord does not retain His anger forever but releases our sins through His Son and holds no charge against us (Isaiah 57:16; Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 8:12).

The Almighty loves to give grace and mercy to His people (Ephesians 2:4,5). His compassion brings about the breath of forgiveness and peace (Philippians 4:6,7). How do you compare what God does with our sins? In a figure the Lord cast our sins “into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19). The psalmist defines this ‘deepness’ when he wrote, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalms 103:12).

“Who is a God like You” is not a question but a declaration of truth. The answer is self-evident. There is nothing man has done or will ever do that can compare to the slightest hint of the border of the hem of the expanse of God’s love and forgiveness. R. M. Lehman wrote, “Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made; were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade. To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry; nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky” (Hymn, The Love of God).

"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends … For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again … For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 15:13; 10:17; 3:16). WHO IS A GOD LIKE YOU?

Life is filled with many challenges. In any length of time decisions will be made that will bring about sadness and regret. The reality of life is not that there will be no regrets but that those regrets will be few. Adam and Eve lived with the regret of one decision that forever changed their lives and the destiny of mankind (Genesis 3). Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and was a just man, perfect in his generations. He walked with God and moved with godly fear, prepared the ark for the saving of his household (Genesis 6-8; Hebrews 11:7). Yet he got drunk one day and indirectly led to the curse upon his own son, Canaan (Genesis 9:18-29).

Abraham is the father of the faithful (Romans 4:16) but his life is marred by the regret of his lack of faith when he lied to Pharaoh (Genesis 12) and Abimelech (Genesis 20). Moses, the great leader of the people of Israel, accomplished so much in his life and remains the image of the Old Testament covenant that bears his name (Joshua 8:31). The greatest tragedy of Moses’ life was not the killing of the Egyptian (Exodus 2:11-15). Sadly when in anger he fails to give the Lord glory at Kadesh (bringing water from the rock) the Lord tells Moses he would not bring the people of Israel into the land of Canaan (Numbers 20:1-13).

King Saul would live to regret his decision to offer an unlawful sacrifice (1 Samuel 13:1-5) and for sparing King Agag (1 Samuel 15). His kingdom was taken away from him and David ruled in his place. The giant killer David lived a life worthy of following as he shows courage before Goliath, mercy to King Saul and friendship to Jonathan. However, he is also remembered for the decision he made that would haunt him the rest of his life and be inscribed on the pages of God’s words until the end of time. Who does not know the story of David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11,12)? His regrets were numerous as he caused the death of a noble man (Uriah), the death of the child born through the adultery with Bathsheba and the punishment from the Lord as Nathan explained in 2 Samuel 12:10-15). Later, Matthew would record the following words: “Jesse fathered David the king. And David the king fathered Solomon of her who had been wife of Uriah” (Matthew 1:6). Life with regrets.

The rich young ruler would regret his decision (Matthew 19:16-22), the Jews would regret their denial of the Messiah (Acts 2:36-39), Peter denied the Lord (Luke 22:54-62), Paul persecuted the church (Acts 26) and the list is legion of those who lived every day with regret. The only one who lived a complete life with no regrets was Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:21-24).

What is the value of the lesson? Because we are frail creatures of dust and disobey the Lord we will experience times in our lives when the event can never be changed and we will carry the burden of that knowledge our whole life. The victory is found in Jesus Christ who does not suggest there will not be failures in life but the ability to work through those failures. Through forgiveness, we can know that our mistakes will not be eternal (1 John 1:5-9). We must strive to live life with fewer regrets! With all the people of God that lived with regret the one decision they made that had eternal consequences was to be obedient to the Lord. Failure to follow that pattern will lead to a regret that has eternal consequences (Matthew 7:21-23).

For the last century, a sexual revolution has been taking place in our culture. This is not all bad. The subject of human sexuality is not at all foreign to the Word of God. Neither is Scripture's handling of this topic limited to a bunch of "thou shalt nots." However, there are many who, not liking the Scripture's clear limitations on sexual expression, prefer to characterize the Holy Bible as, at best, hopelessly out of touch with the present culture and, at worst, oppressive and hateful.

Yet these people forget that Jesus and His disciples came with the gospel into the culture of the Roman Empire, which, if compared to our own, would likely make our culture look rather sexually tame. In other words, the message of God's Word was presented to a culture that was much more libertine in its sexual mores than is our own. If the high ideals of God's plan for human behavior were not softened for the immoral culture of the first century, then there can certainly be no cultural argument for softening it now. The fact is, the Scriptures do not have archaic values but values which transcend time and culture.

The Scriptures not only permit sexual activity; they promote it and command it (Genesis 1:28; 2:24; 9:1; Proverbs 5:15-19; Song of Solomon; Matthew 19:4-6; 1 Corinthians 7:1-9). The reason the Bible is vilified by the sexual libertines of our culture is that the Scriptures are equally clear that the sexual activity that God authorizes is limited to the husband/wife relationship of marriage. Indeed, marriage is honorable and the bed is undefiled, but any sexual union outside the committed relationship of marriage is fornication (immoral sex) and is condemned (Hebrews 13:4; 1 Corinthians 6:9,10).

God has always made it clear that He is holy, His Word is holy, and we must be holy (1 Peter 1:15,16) if we are to have fellowship with Him. Though our physical bodies are created of the same elements which comprise the rest of God's creation (Genesis 2:7; 3:19), we are distinctly superior to the plants and animals. We are created in God's image (Genesis 1:26,27). While sex is a natural physical behavior, God expects us to control our flesh with the spirit that is in His image. When we act on our physical urges without the control of the spirit, then we behave like animals rather than humans (Galatians 5:16-25). That is not holy.

Sexual activity outside of marriage dishonors God's will for man. Certainly, humans are capable of copulating with whomever, whatever, whenever; but such behavior is not holy. While it might be understandable that those who reject God would resort to sexual activity that is as promiscuous as the animals from which they believe they evolved, professing Christians cannot endorse such immoral behavior, no matter how it is labeled (1 Corinthians 6:13-20).

It is becoming popular among many who profess faith in God to redefine everything from marriage to love. A favorite argument in the current debate over homosexuality is to observe that Jesus never condemned homosexuality. While at first glance that may appear formidable, it crumbles when it is observed that He also never specifically condemned polygamy, prostitution, pedo-philia, or numerous other specific sexual relationships. When a debated position finds its strongest argument in what Jesus never specifically condemned, then it is indeed weak; for authority to act is not found in the absence of condemnation.

The toleration of heterosexual sin has opened the door for the toleration of homosexual sin. If we are going to ignore the standard of God's Word, then there is absolutely nothing to stop the continued degradation of human sexuality to the level of animals in all respects. God has called us to a higher and holier standard. That some (or even most) people refuse to acknowledge or abide by that standard does not change that standard. As a society we may amend our laws to suit the will (or whim) of the people, but this does not change the standard.

The opposition to sexual immorality is not rooted in hatred or some sort of phobia. It is rooted in respect for the authority of God's Word and His divine order. As Creator, He knows what is best for His creation. To disrespect God's design, order, and revelation is to disrespect Him and is certainly not holy. Elevating our lusts to being as acceptable and valid as God's Word is exactly what Eve did in the garden (Genesis 3:6).

It does not matter how many times lust is called love; it does not make it love. The cavalier warping of the meaning of love is being used in an attempt to justify all kinds of perverse behavior. Sexual immorality is not love (1 Corinthians 6:13,18). God is love (1 John 4:8). He defines love and He defines what is morally upright.

While the foregoing absolute statements are enough to exasperate those who wish to have the sexual freedom of animals, such people have no basis on which to object to any kind of sexual expression, consensual or otherwise. The inability to see beyond their own lusts have them sowing the wind and reaping a whirlwind (Hosea 8:7). That observation in not motivated by hate but by love combined with hope that beings created in the image of God might come to see the folly in ignoring the will of God.

§ James Black, formerly of Free St. Georges in Edinburgh, describes a trip he took through the tulip fields of Holland. He says that the beautiful beds of flowers were divided by canals which were crossed by foot-wide planks. As Dr. Black and his party visited the various beds of brilliant flowers, they had to cross these little canals on the narrow planks. When they came to a canal that was twelve feet wide, they hesitated. The plank seemed so narrow. Would the owner of the field make a wider bridge for them across the canal? NO. He blew a whistle and a man came and handed them a thin pole which made it easy to cross the canal on the narrow plank. Dr. Black says that he then made a marvelous discovery. “How easy you can cross the narrowest plank if only you have something to hold on to.” You can go through life with all its tensions, all its uncertainties and all its changes if you have something to hold on to. “My times are in Thy hands.” (William Austin)

Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)