Sunday, October 8, 2017

Just Who are the Good Guys?



Our Scripture passage for today in our continuing series on spiritual warfare is Ephesians 6:14.  It begins:

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist

A Roman soldier prepared for battle by first putting on his armor.  He would begin by putting on an armored belt around his waist.  It was not only part of his armor to protect his midsection and his groin area, but it also served as a place to hang the rest of his armor and some of his weapons.  The apostle Paul, who had spent a long time as a Roman prisoner, was familiar with this process.  He used this analogy of putting on armor to describe how to be strong in the Lord and His mighty power in order to take a stand over the schemes of the devil by first putting on the belt of truth.  Remember Satan is the father of lies, so in order to stand up against him Paul exhorted the Ephesians to have truth as the foundation of their defense against his schemes.


Truth may not always appear to be good news at first.  We find a perfect example of this in the prophet Isaiah’s confession of the wickedness of God’s chosen people. Isaiah writes:

Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, but behold, darkness, for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope along the wall like blind men, we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at midday as in the twilight, among those who are vigorous we are like dead men. All of us growl like bears, and moan sadly like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none, for salvation, but it is far from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities:”—Isaiah 59:9-12

Isaiah goes on to say that their iniquities are:

Transgressing and denying the LORD, and turning away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving in and uttering from the heart lying words. Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the street, and uprightness cannot enter. Yes, truth is lacking; and he who turns aside from evil makes himself a prey.—Isaiah 59:13-15a

Isaiah’s confession of wickedness is just as true today as it was in his day. This could be the script for today’s evening news.  But before we get into today’s bad news, I wanted to pause here from Isaiah’s confession of truth lacking.  I recently obtained this copy of the little league baseball Official Regulations and Playing Rules.  This is what is written on the back cover titled the Little League Pledge:

“I trust in God. I love my country and will respect its laws. I will play fair and strive to win, but win or lose I will always do my best.”

On the symbol below these words is an emblem with the words “Character, Courage and Loyalty”          printed around the perimeter. Across the symbol is written: “From the rank of youngsters who stand now on the morning side of the hill will come the leaders, the future strength and character of the nation.”

I think we would all agree that this little league pledge is a good pledge and that character, courage, and loyalty are good virtues to teach our youth. The pledge itself was written 63 years ago (in 1954), and it has not changed since then, but it like other Christian principles and words of virtue this pledge is under attack. 

Here is what a mother wrote on the website mothering.com forum who heard her son’s little league recite this pledge:
         
“I was totally shocked!!  We are Atheist and it is bad enough that my kid has to say the P.O.A. at school but this was something else.  Nothing in the signup material prepared me for this. 

DH is totally PO’d (as am I).  I said nothing to DS   am sure that he had no idea what he was saying (but that is not the point).
I guess I am wondering if anyone else has kids in LL and do they say this pledge?  What should we do about this? 

Does LL receive public funding, or is this like a Boy Scout situation?

Oh BTW, I am not really looking to debate about why my kid should be “trusting in God” you know?  I don’t & won’t & don’t particularly want my kids to, either, so don’t try converting me! (However, you have my permission to pray for my rotten stinking soul.)”

Well since she gave us her permission let us take a minute to pray for this woman’s soul because the truth is she needs our prayers.

The truth was lacking in Isaiah’s generation, and Satan had won a lot of battlefield victories, and it is also lacking in my generation and Satan’s has won a lot of battlefield victories in it.  I am sad to say that prayer was taken out of school in my generation and abortion was legalized. In some states, same sex marriages, euthanasia, and smoking marijuana were also legalized.  Try as we may to stop it, the enemy has succeeded in taking ground in these battles.  In my generation, “Merry Christmas” was changed to “merry xmas” and then it was later morphed into “happy holidays.”  In my generation, the Nativity scenes were removed from public places and displaying the Ten Commandments that were written by God became illegal in court rooms and other public places.  In my generation, a demented artist was allowed to display a picture that he painted of someone urinating on Jesus Christ on the cross because he was protected by the freedom of expression laws. In my generation, the Boy Scouts originally had a longstanding policy that prevented homosexuals from becoming Boy Scout leaders.  That has changed a couple of years ago when their policy fell under attack by the LGBTQ group urged Scout sponsors to stop funding them over this policy.  As a result, more than 70 affiliates from United Way stopped funding local Boy Scout councils because of it, as did Walt Disney World and Lockheed Martin.  Even though the Boy Scouts had a legal right to continue their righteous policy based on an earlier Supreme Court decision that upheld it.  (The court determined that the Boy Scouts is a private organization therefore they had the right to have this policy.)  However, the leaders of the National Boy Scout Organization finally caved in to the radical LGBTQ pressure and changed their policy to permit both homosexual Scout Leaders and homosexual scout members in their ranks. I am sad to say that the United States Military branches did the same thing. 

Not satisfied with all of these victories the public bathroom policies across the nation are now in the crosshairs of the LGBTQ radical agenda, and they have succeeded in North Carolina and this battle rages on in other states.

This picture of Isaiah’s generation and my generation seems dark (and it is) but all is not lost. As the famous radio announcer Paul Harvey would say “Now for the rest of the story.”

So let’s go back to where we left off with Isaiah’s confession in Isaiah 59 and hear the rest of the story:

Now the LORD saw, and it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice. And He saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no one to intercede; then His own arm brought salvation to Him, and His righteousness upheld Him.  He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.—Isaiah 59:15b-17

The function of the breastplate is to protect the chest and the vital organs that lay beneath it.  The most important of these vital organs is the heart.  In verse 17, the Lord puts on righteousness like a breastplate.  If we want to be like Him, then we will imitate Him by putting on our own breastplate of righteous living.  
Paul encouraged the Ephesians in Ephesians 6:14 to stand firm with the belt of truth fastened around our waist and have the breastplate of righteous living in place to protect them from an enemy’s attacks, against their hearts.  He spoke similar exhortations to the Corinthians when he wrote I Corinthians 15:58

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable [i.e., standing firm], always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.—I Corinthians 15:58

Paul also warned and instructed his disciple Timothy in a letter of what was to come.

But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them,--II Timothy 3:13-14

Interestingly, after Isaiah’s confession and the Lord’s response, the prophet Isaiah breaks out in praise.  In chapter 60 he writes:

“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the LORD will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you.  Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.—Isaiah 60:1-3

Later in chapter 61 he writes:

I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, he has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.—Isaiah 61:10-11

So in God’s eyes who are the good guys?  Well, we are if we have heard and believed the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (not the lies of the enemy). By believing this true Good News, we have put our faith in Jesus, and He has in turn put His Spirit in us.

Who else are eligible to be one of the good guys? Well, our friends and family members who are just like we were when we were bad guys (before we heard and believed the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ).

What other bad guys are eligible to hear the Gospel and become one of the good guys? Well, all of the nations are eligible.  Isaiah says in 60:2b-3: “But the LORD will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”

Who are the nations to whom Isaiah is referring? Well as some of you may or may not know I am geographically challenged when it comes to identifying where countries are located around the globe, but here is a limited list of some of the people of the nations:

Americans, Russians, Canadians, Europeans, Chinese, African, Australians, Mongolians, Koreans, Japanese, Cambodians, Laotians, Taiwanese, Burmese, Indians, Indonesians, Filipinos, Islanders, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Syrians, Jordanians, Saudis, Iranians, Iraqis, Egyptians, Ukranians, Eskimos, Icelanders, Mexicans…and the list goes on.

All of the people of the nations are eligible good guy candidates in the future no matter what they believe today. They could be practicing terrorists, drug lords, evil dictators, black militants, white supremacists, neo Nazis, atheists, agnostics, Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Mormon, Jehovah Witnesses, or belong to any other group, organization, or religious faith.

All of these and anyone else that I missed listing are eligible candidates to be one of the good guys according to the scriptures.  Actually, according to the scriptures, everyone is an eligible candidate except for Satan and the other fallen angels that joined with him to oppose God.

So what are our responsibilities?

1. To share with these eligible candidates the truth of the Gospel of Salvation that we believed by faith and were saved.
2. To put on the belt of Truth to withstand the schemes of the devil.
3. To protect our hearts by practicing righteous living so as to become a light to the darkened world who are still lost.

Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.—I Peter 2:12

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.—Ephesians 2:10

What does it look like to walk in good works? Well it will look different for each of us, because God has prepared different works for each of us while we await His return. Here are some examples and this list is not all inclusive:

1. Being kind and showing hospitality to strangers. 

Let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body.—Hebrews 13:1-3

2. Visiting the prison to encourage those incarcerated there, reminding them that it is not too late to put their trust in the Lord, or caring for the children of prisoners.  Donating time and money to rehab houses of hope.  (At a minimum we can all remember those in prison and those who are ill-treated by lifting them and their situations and circumstances up in prayer, especially for the cases of the persecuted church worldwide.)

3. Visiting nursing homes and assisted living facility to remind and encourage the people who live there that they have not been forgotten or forsaken by the Lord, and reminding them that if they believed the Good News of the Gospel, then He will soon return to give them glorified bodies and to take them to be with Him forever.

4. Assisting the handicapped or underprivileged children to give them a hand up in their education.

5. Donating food to the poor. 

6. Helping out at crisis pregnancy centers.

7. Assisting in the hurricane recovery efforts by donating time and or money.  

There is one thing that will be common to all of us as we walk in good works and that is: we will not be merely looking out for our own personal interest but we will also be looking out for the interest of others. 

Here are two take-away items to remember from today’s message:

1. We need to combat erroneous news and partial news with the Good News of the Gospel and the Whole Truth. The Whole Truth is that we as a nation have lost some battles (and we may lose some more battles before it is all over), but Jesus Christ has already gained the total victory, and He has won the complete War at the cross. We should start each day being firmly grounded in this whole truth.

2.  Our righteous living is an essential part of our armor that protects our hearts from the weapons of the evil one. Ask yourself this question each day: “Is my righteous living protecting my heart from Satan’s evil schemes today or have I forgotten to put on my breastplate of righteousness?”    

Let’s pray.

No comments: