no escape

If they dig into Sheol, from there shall my hand take them;

if they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down. Amos 9:2

No one can escape the fate God has decreed. Sinners have been running and trying to hide from God since The Fall in the Garden of Eden. We’ve been wrapping our loins in fig leaves and hiding among the bushes. But God always sees. He knows. His righteousness shines a flood light on our dark disobedience. His truth exposes our error.

We cannot descend into the coldest cavern of the earth to hide. We cannot ride the fastest rocket into space to avoid God. There is no place to escape His gaze, evade His justice, or outpace His coming wrath. We will be seen, known, and every sin will be accounted for.

Sinners instead need to run to Christ and not from judgment. In Jesus all my descent into sin and hiding was carried to His cross, there to be borne and to be held subject to wrath and justice… and grace. I can only ascend to heaven because Jesus will carry me there by His mercy, grace, and righteousness. I must always embrace a Savior and cease my soul’s failed covert operation of running. I instead run to a Savior and not from a Judge. I run to life and not from death. I run to deliverance and not to judgment. I run to salvation and a home and am saved from separation in hell.

essential elders

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— Titus 1:5

God wants an orderly local church. And this little pastoral postcard of Titus provides a kind of bullet point checklist of what that looks like. Paul left Titus on Crete to make sure the local churches in each town were kept in order. It took time. The first task on the checklist: elders needed to be appointed for each town’s local church. And that sort of leadership training and development takes deliberate effort and serious time commitment for the trainer and the candidates.

Some thoughts about elders from this first priority in the first chapter of Titus:

1. Local churches need a plurality of elders to truly be a New Testament church. That is why your Bible Study or your “home group” or your “household” are not local churches. It is popular today to avoid this biblical pattern. It is perilous as much false doctrine and practice erupts from such places. No surprise… they aren’t biblical in structure. Titus was commanded to appoint a plurality of elders in each town.
2. Elders are proven leaders at home (Titus 1:6). The fruit of their leadership is shown at home and backs up character, commitment, and calling.
3. Character predominates elder qualification (Titus 1:7-8). In the long list is nothing about organizational acumen, business success, or charisma. It is all about the character of Christ.
4. Word skill is essential as a teacher (Titus 1:9). The primary call of the elder is to teach the Word and direct the life of the church around it.
5. Elders will face opposition by false teachers within the church (these false teachers are always non-qualified by the first three things on the list). They face persecution from outside the church (Titus 1:9b-16).

God, help us to raise up and appoint Your qualified and called men for Your local churches! Amen

my grateful prayer

For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. Psalm 86:13

A wealth of grace has been poured over my soul by Your faithful love to me, O God! Like David, I too am loved by a covenant-keeping God Who has given all to save me from death. Jesus, You poured out Your life in love for my soul. Could there be any greater display of love? I was Your enemy, far from God, enslaved to sin, and rebellious to Your holy truth. And yet You came to save sinners and fully paid my sin-debt with Your sacrifice.

My soul is saved from hell by Your redemption, proven forever by Your resurrection from the dead. I am loved. I am saved from the penalty and power of sin. I am given new life and will inherit eternal life. Sin and death no longer master me! Your steadfast love has captured me and in the New Covenant celebrated at Your table I feast as I remember Your great love, Lord Jesus!

Amen

Seek Me

For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: “Seek me and live…” Amos 5:4

A gracious God

stands ready to forgive

”Seek me and live!”

…but you did not believe

In mercy

He will full pardon give

”Seek me and live!”

…but you did not believe

Look to a cross

at what Jesus did

”Seek me and live!”

…but you did not believe

”Come to me…”

Jesus patiently says

”Seek me and live!”

He stands ready to forgive

”Seek first my kingdom”

Holy gifts He gives

”Seek me and live!”

believe and be His!

Eternal life

to His people instead

”Seek me and live!”

beat death and truly live

A perfect life

remade in Him

”Seek me and live!”

Oh, that you will believe!

rejecting sound doctrine

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 2 Timothy 4:3-4

Paul describes the motivations people have in rejecting the preaching of the Word as he exhorts Timothy to faithfully continue to do so with patient teaching. There are five characteristics of those who reject the clear exposition of God’s Word when there is Christ-centered, gospel-saturated, doctrinally driven preaching.

1. They don’t endure. They want quick and easy answers, will not work at listening to the truth, and applaud platitudes and Reader’s Digest condensed talks.
2. They want something novel and exciting that is the opposite of sound doctrine. Itching ears are tired of hearing gospel truth. They trade the wonder in salvation with wandering to new and opposite message.
3. They collect teachers like Pokémon cards. It’s about the latest craze and the accumulation of novel messages and messengers. They focus on men, not the message.
4. They suit their own passions. False teaching de-emphasizes sin and exalts the flesh. It craves affirmation and not confession.
5. They turn away from truth. This implies that they hear it and reject it. The gospel is both replaced AND ignored by choice.

Lord,

help us stay true to the command to preach the Word, always ready with clear exposition of the text, gospel application of the text, and Christ-centered focus in the truth of the text!

Amen

R E S T O R E

Restore us, O LORD God of hosts! Let your face shine, that we may be saved! Psalm 80:3, 7, 19

Remember, O God that we are dust.

Redeem us from the pit.

Return to us our joy.

Restore us, O Lord God.

Everyone has turned away.

Even the righteous stumble.

East winds scorch and parch us.

Eternal power must save us.

Spare us, O Lord God!

Sanctify us to Yourself.

So many are our sins.

Salvation belongs to the Lord!

To return to You, our hope…

To know again Your peace…

To prosper in You love…

These things we desire.

Over sin You have dominion.

On our side, You help us.

Overcome the weights that sink us.

Overpower sin, death, and hell.

Remember us again in mercy.

Redeem us and make us Your possession.

Return to us in power and glory!

Restore us, God, is our heart’s cry.

Each of us in great need,

equal with inability to save ourselves,

ever aware of Jesus, our only Savior,

eternally we will sing Your praise!

moral incompetence

“They do not know how to do right,” declares the LORD,

“those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.” Amos 3:10

What an indictment! God says of His people Israel that they do not know how to do what is right. The nature of the covenant God made with them was that they would be a nation uniquely devoted to Him. By keeping His law they would show God’s holiness and love to the world. They were meant to be a holy light to the nations to draw them to God. Even though they possessed the covenant and had God’s Law they failed miserably. They had become incapable of doing good… instead hoarding violence and sin in their actions, character, and national reputation.

Israel’s failure proclaimed by God through the prophet Amos reminds us that sinners cannot keep God’s Law under their own power. That is why Christ came to perfectly fulfill God’s Law. This proclamation reminds us that sinners cannot do right. That is why the righteousness of Christ needs to be applied to us. Sinners are filled with iniquity. That’s why we must be clothed in Christ’s righteousness. We do nothing good. That’s why we come to Christ in repentance, confession, and faith so that His work transforms us as we turn FROM wrong to embrace His righteous gifts!

Lord, “They do not know how to do right…” But transformed by grace through faith, Christ’s righteousness can live in Your redeemed elect. And that is really true in me by faith! Thank You! Amen.

Creeps in households

For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 2 Timothy 3:6-7

Paul warned Timothy that men driven by selfishness and sin will infiltrate the church. The danger is not of a full assault. The danger is a household trickle that turns into a bigger debacle. And in my experience through four decades of loving the local church, this is the most insidious and common way that error enters the church. It starts small. It hits households first. A false teacher finds a susceptible home and emphasizes the exclusivity of their “doctrine”, the uniqueness of the belief, and attacks orthodox truth in the gospel.

But notice what Paul says… by abandoning apostolic doctrine the false teachers never come to truth. They usually have a personal reason to downplay sin, deny the need for confession and repentance, and claim secret insights that the rest of the church “didn’t get” for thousands of years. And then they LOVE to flip the script saying that ALL THE REST OF CHRISTIAN TEACHING is wrong. Only their little household has it right.

In the end such heresy is opposition to truth, corruption of the mind, and a disqualification of saving faith (2 Timothy 3:8). That’s right… denying the gospel for salvation and sanctification is the mark of unbelieving, hell-bound false teaching. In the end it gets nowhere but judgment (2 Timothy 3:9). So be on the guard! Know biblical theology. Look out for the creeps in the households!

how firm a foundation

But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.” 2 Timothy 2:19

Faith in Christ rests on a foundation of truth that is under assault by false teachers. There are two pillars of a foundation mentioned by Paul to Timothy in this verse. And these are under attack. I’ve seen it all my ministerial life. Knowing and believing these pillars leads to joyful Christian practice that honors our Savior. Refuting the attacks that try to land on these pillars defends the truth of the faith once and for all delivered for the saints.

FIRM FOUNDATION PILLAR ONE: “The Lord knows those who are his.” This is the sovereign grace of God in action. It is more than election to salvation. This is intimate, sovereign knowledge that works for our good and the glory of God in both triumph and trial. God knows us, saves us, and within His sovereign grace directs every part of our lives as Christians. Any person uncomfortable with a God Who is in total control is speaking against a God Who is clearly sovereign in BOTH salvation and sanctification, in our difficulties as well as our delights. Such a denial is a false profession of the faith of the apostles. God saves and knows His own at all times and in all ways.

FIRM FOUNDATION PILLAR TWO: “Everyone who names the name of the Lord departs from sin.” Confession of sin is the mark not only of our entrance into salvation, but also in our working out of it in sanctification. We ruthlessly repent of sin. The gospel is for every day until THE DAY when we are with Christ. To deny my constant need to repent, confess, and trust in Jesus is to, like Satan, let pride rule in my heart. Christians must readily and consistently repent. We must put to death what is earthly in us. We depart from sin, never holding a light view of it, for even the erring thought sent our Savior to the cross.

”How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. What more can He say than to you he has said, to you who to Jesus for refuge have fled!”

not ashamed to suffer

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God… 2 Timothy 1:8

In a day

where the name

of my Savior

is mocked and defamed

I am not ashamed

to claim His name

as Christian

In some way

every day

the world scoffs

and heaps shame

on whose who claim

the holy name

of Jesus

But today

I will stay

bolding speaking

the gospel same

as the apostles proclaimed

true to His name

a preacher

So I pray

in the name

of the Lord Jesus

and unashamed

I will stay

faithful in His way

of suffering

Fear not… the Lord has done great things!

Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done great things!. Joel 2:21

In a promise that a land that had once been laid waste by a locust scourge would blossom anew with abundant provision of food, there is this command to “fear not”. Yet fear would be the first natural response. There had been famine: Fear not! There had been failure in all the farms of a nation: Fear not! There was extreme hardship: Fear not! There was real suffering: Fear not!

Why this command in the face of pain? Because the promises of God are certain. They are greater than any pain. He will take care of His people. God will honor His promises. His Word will succeed. His care will prevail. He has done great things!

It is a great, loving, and powerful God Who calls and empowers us to “fear not”, to be glad and rejoice in His goodness, and to remember that He does great things. He always has done great things. He always does so even now. God always will do great things for those He has rescued from sin and called His own.

Lord,

I will rejoice, be glad in You and reject fear. Although there have been real seasons where my life has been stripped bare by what the locusts have devoured, You have been faithful to sustain and restore. I never lost it all. You do great things! The pastures grew back green, the tree now bears fruit, and the vines yield wine in abundance. You are great in saving me and all those who trust Christ. You, Lord Jesus, are my sustaining vine now and forever! Amen

“different” doctrine is false doctrine.

If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. 1 Timothy 6:3-5

Christian leadership MUST take false doctrine seriously… whether it is prosperity theology, outright denial of the deity of Christ, or a false gospel that emphasizes either the extreme of legalism or the excess of lawlessness. Those drunk on false teaching will exhibit these characteristics according to Paul’s warning to Timothy:

1. They are conceited (1 Timothy 6:4). They are full of themselves. They are proud. They judge others by a false standard and condemn all the rest of Christianity, reviling the truth in their disdain of scriptural orthodoxy. They are full of conceit, and well… full of… other stuff.
2. They understand nothing (1 Timothy 6:4). Yep… Paul says false doctrine advocates are… well… dumb. His words. Inspired by the Spirit of God. They. Are. Stupid.
3. They are contentious (1 Timothy 6:4-5). They see themselves as the only ones who get it right. Everyone else is wrong. They live in constant friction (again those are Paul’s words) with other Christians… a sure sign of doctrinal division and unorthodoxy and frankly, rejection of the gospel. Why? The Apostle John says true Christians “love the brothers”.
4. They give into depraved (sinful) minds because they refuse the truth (1 Timothy 6:5). Again, this is Paul speaking with strong words. They relabel sins that they struggle with. Sins become “mistakes”, or “misunderstandings”, or “difficulties”, or “poor decisions”. They fail to confess their daily need of the sustaining gospel because… well… see point 1! Conceit keeps them depraved. They try to live under their own power, deprived of the eternal power of the truth of the Word of God, the grace of forgiveness over confessed sin, and the Spirit of God’s fruit born out in their redemption.

Sadly, these kinds of Christian defectors are increasingly given cyber-influence and social media platforms that only harden their conceit as they pontificate their loathsome brand of bull.

I have seen two types of regular responses to my call as a church leader to point out false doctrine. One response: looking at the Word, reading it for what it says, coming to the conclusion that the point of view once imbibed was unbiblical and wrong. Praise God, the Spirit of God and the Word of God bring repentance from sinful false doctrine and love for the truth!

The second response is not so good. Scriptural examination is refused. This saddens me, because the false doctrine espoused is tied so often to deep personal misery. In real life, heresy looks a lot like the four things Paul says here. And these four things DO NOT bring joy. Heterodoxy creates a living hell that despairs of life in this world and loses out on loving God and loving people well. And so I pray that the Spirit of God will do work to break through the refusal of truth and that in His mercy He will call to repentance all who have strayed from the truth.

church leadership

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality. 1 Timothy 5:21

What was so important that Paul invokes the reminder of the constant presence of God the Father, Christ the Son, and unseen angel forces? Answer: The call for Timothy to stay impartial and clear-headed in administering the conduct of church leadership. He needed to keep some clear rules, avoid prejudicial thinking, and remain impartial.

What were the “rules” about elders?

1. Those who were gifted preachers should be supported when possible (1 Timothy 5:17-18).
2. Any charge of sin against an elder needs to be established with the evidence of multiple witnesses (1 Timothy 5:19).
3. Elders clearly caught in unrepentant sin should be rebuked before the other elders and the church (1 Timothy 5:20).
4. Appointing elders should be a careful process to maintain doctrinal and personal purity (1 TImothy 5:22-25).

Lord,

Leadership is so very important in Your church. May the men I serve among see their task as the most important leadership ever. May we labor to support gospel preaching, seriously guard our hearts and Your church, and make the right choices for gifted elders to continue leading Your Church, Lord Jesus!

Amen

commands to teach

Command and teach these things. 1 Timothy 4:11

C - Conduct yourself with the authority of scripture so that you speak confidently.

O - Over every aspect of life let God’s Word have complete clarity to overrule.

M - Many men will despite what God commands; Make it clear they will answer the King meekly.

M - More will be needed than you have to give… immerse yourself in the scriptural river’s motion.

A - Admonish those with the gift of teaching to keep to sound doctrine alertly.

N - Never give up for you save yourself and your hearers nonetheless.

D - Doctrine is only divisive for those who despise.

T - Train yourself to teach through public reading and private tutoring.

E - Encourage elders to lead from the Word enthusiastically.

A - Admire the progress as God honors faithfulness to His Word’s accomplishments.

C - Closely watch your life and your doctrine so that you don’t crash.

H - Hear from God in His Word and make God says what you always herald.