Category: Saturday Study

Saturday Study

Judges 10-14 (8.4.18)

This week we read Judges 10-14. As Israel continues to struggle with denying God and choosing sin instead of obedience, God is forced to bring punishment to them, as per the terms of the covenant He made with them. Let’s read Judges 10:10-14 again and hear the Lord’s response to them:

Judges 10:10-14 And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.” And the Lord said to the people of Israel, “Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I saved you out of their hand. Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more. Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.”

Wow. What a sobering thing to hear God say. While God is completely justified to hold a sinful and rebellious people accountable for their treason and disobedience, we all too often read God’s judgment as being too hard. Why is it that we want to make God soft when it comes to his judgment of sin and lawlessness? I think it is our flesh and its proneness to make little of God’s holiness and righteous justice and to make too little of our guilt and deserved wrath.

To clarify, God is completely within the terms of the covenant He made with Israel. Let’s take a moment to review the Old Covenant God made with physical Israel.

The word covenant can commonly be used in social, marriage, and theological contexts.

A divine covenant is initiated by God. In this, we need to see that God is the sovereign One. God has decreed what covenants He would initiate and enter into. This happens by His eternal will. When God enters a covenant, it was not a good idea of someone else. Rather, it was His decree to do so, and the terms are set by Him. So for the covenants that God has made with man, it was God who initiated them, for wise and excellent purposes, and He sets the terms.

A divine covenant may include obligations, rewards, and/or punishments from God.

Some covenants require specific obligations be met by another party in order for the covenant rewards to be experienced. Some covenants include rewards for one party or another based solely on grace to them. And some covenants include various punishments for the breaking the terms of the covenant.

That is what we see here. God tells Israel they will be held accountable for not keeping their part of the covenant.

The sobering part of this is that it can’t help but feel like our lives at times. Even as Christians, we still fight the temptation to sin and often give into the sin for which our flesh longs. The good news is that we have a better covenant in Christ–a new divine covenant between God and His elect, called the church. This New Covenant has replaced the terms of the Old Covenant that God had made with Israel. While many Jews who were under the Old Covenant have been given saving faith in Jesus and thereby entered into the New Covenant in Christ, many Jews have not. This is a sad reality when we see Jews reject the Messiah and therefore stand condemned. This is an important clarity that many modern-day Christians get wrong. Jesus was clear saying, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

We must rightly understand that God has not provided another way for people to be saved outside of Christ. This includes the Jews. Any Jew who denies Christ as Lord and Savior is not saved according to Christ and the fullness of God’s word. We must understand that the Old Covenant pointed the true believers of God to the New Covenant and ultimately to the Christ. Any of God’s people who were under the Old Covenant who would be ultimately saved from their sin to reign with God forever put their faith in the future-coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. No one comes to the Father unless through Christ.

Now, this all leads to good news for those of us who truly have placed our faith and lives under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Not only are we saved by His blood from our sin, but we are secure in this salvation and cannot be separated from God once saved.  Paul says it most famously in Romans 8:37-40: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The Scriptures tell us again and again that the blood of Jesus is enough to cover all our sin. This means that nothing we can do can separate us from God’s saving us in Christ. The Scriptures are clear that those whom the Father has chosen, He will have; and all those He has saved, He will not lose.

Jesus speaks again of our security in His protection and power. For example, we see this in John 10:

John 10:27-29. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”

Our security is in God’s infallible commitment to fulfill the conditions of our eternal standing with Him.

By grace, He caused us to be born again by creating our faith; and, by grace, He protects us on the way to heaven by preserving our faith.

Jesus has and will guard His chosen and redeemed ones to the end.

This is the good news I want us all to understand in light of reading Judges 10 this week. Yes, the conditions of the Old Covenant were that if the people did not obey, God would punish them.

But the conditions of the New Covenant are that all that God truly saves through the perfect blood of Jesus are eternally secure in the power and promise of God and cannot be snatched, lost, or removed from His perfect choice and atonement in Christ on their behalf.

Surely, you are thinking about those who seemed to be saved and then walked away from God. What about them? Well quickly, the Scriptures are clear time and time again that there are many who will look to be of Christ and even give much of their lives for the name of Christ but so prove to not be of Christ, in that they do not endure but walk away; thereby, they prove they were never truly saved.

A few quick examples:

1. Judas who looked like he was among the brethren but was not. In proving not to be truly for God and saved by God, he did not persevere to the end.

John 6:70-71 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

Jesus ordained from eternity past that 11 would be saved and endure, and one would be reject and betray Him.

Judas proved to be a false disciple—really, the most famous false disciple.

John 17:12 “… I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”

Jesus is speaking here of Judas, whom God foreordained to walk with Christ but to never be of Christ; he would prove to be an enemy of Christ.

2. John 6:66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

This describes the many disciples who, for a while followed Jesus, but eventually walked away. They proved not to truly have given their lives to Jesus; they were only interested in what He offered them, and in the end, they proved their god was their belly or something else in creation that they longed for more.

Understand that this is not special or unusual; it happens all the time. People come and go from the church all the time. They try religion, they try Christianity, and in the end prove to not believe. They prove they are false followers of Jesus. They don’t endure. You must see that this is normal. It is sad but true. In the end, they only had superficial faith.

Understand this: proximity to the gospel doesn’t mean you are saved by the gospel.

It is true and lasting fruit that proves true salvation. Will the saved sin and fall? Yes, but they will repent and return. They will grow and mature. These are the signs of the truly saved.

I pray that you are full of joy today if you have truly given your life to Jesus as Lord, because this means you are secure in Christ in the terms of the New Covenant that He has secured for you in His blood. The eternal commitment and power of God will ensure you remain His forever.

This is the beautiful doctrine known as Perseverance of the Saints.

God will not change His mind and reject them later. We did nothing to gain His love or acceptance. We can do nothing to lose it. We are forever His–forever secure in His power!

When the storms rage in your life, do you stand in this assurance?

Jesus said in John 6:39, “… I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.”

We cannot be lost. Every one of His sheep is precious in His sight.

Not only are we precious, but we will stand with Him in victory. He will raise us up on the last day.

John 6:40 “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Eternal life… Not eternal death and destruction.

This is truly good news. Now go and walk in these assurances and spread this gospel to all whom God puts in your path.  And if you are guilty of sin, repent and honor God with your life, and know that He has you forever!

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church

Saturday Study

Judges 5-9 (8.4.18)

1. Brought low

Read Judges 6:1-6

The Lord takes our obedience of Him and His commands seriously. He should, because He is God. When His chosen people blatantly disregard His commands and do not give Him the worship He is due, they are ripe for judgment. The oppression for seven years at the hand of Midian was brutal on the Israelites. Can you imagine? You can’t just sit and do nothing, so you labor and grow your crops and raise your animals and try to live, but just as the hard work ends, the harvest is ready, and the animals are fattened, the enemy comes and consumes it all, leaving you none.

With their tails between their legs, they come to God begging for mercy, and so God sends a prophet. The prophet reminds them all that God has done for them and that His command to worship Him alone and not the false gods of foreigners was clear, and yet they did not obey. We must take seriously the commands of God, because He is God. He is deserving of what He wants. He has been gracious to us and shown us great mercy. We must never forget that we were His enemies, and yet He sent His son to redeem us and make us His very own. What can He give us greater than that?  And so, why would we trade Him for anything else?

2. When everything seems to be against you

Read Judges 6:11-16

Gideon’s situation was terrible. He had a hard time believing the stories of his ancestors about a God who delivered them out of great struggle and slavery. His clan was the weakest among his people, and he was the least in his house. Nothing about Gideon makes sense, at least in human thinking, to send him as the leader of the uprising that would conquer the long-time oppressor.   Have you ever felt like Gideon? Like everything was against you? Like nothing was in view that gave you hope of getting out of your situation?  What Gideon heard next are the greatest words we could ever hear:

“I will be with you.” There is no greater words you and I could hear than the God of all creation saying, “I will be with you.”

For us who are saved in Jesus Christ, He has said this to us in His great commission:

Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

May our Lord’s words to us give us the same vigor and faith as Gideon to trust in Him despite what we face!

Read Judges 6:17-21

Gideon showed great faith in his offering to the Lord. This was not like you and me going to the fridge and giving up our steak dinner. This kind of sacrifice cost him something significant. And the Lord saw this and was satisfied in it.

3. The Lord is peace

Read Judges 6:22-24

Gideon was in awe at the fact that he saw the Lord face to face. “Peace be with you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” These are the very words Jesus would say to His people, as He prepared to die in their place and rise to victory over death, so we would have true peace and not fear, for we are victorious in Christ forever. Praise God!

In Judges 6:25-40, the Lord gives Gideon a test, which Gideon completes, and then Gideon asks the Lord for more confirmation, and He does it. So the table is set for Gideon to trust in God and do what He asks, even though his leading the uprising is an unthinkable reality by humans’ measure.

4. God gives us more than we can handle

Read Judges 7:1-18

The only thing working for Gideon humanly speaking was the large number of men he was poised to take into battle against their enemy. 32,000 men is not a small number of soldiers, but God wanted to be sure He would rightly receive the praise and adoration of his people. So, He only sent 300 men.

The next time someone says that God doesn’t give us more than we can handle, point them to Judges chapter seven.

God instructing Gideon to take on over 100,000 enemy soldiers with just 300 fits in the “more than you can handle” category. Imagine how Gideon and his servant, Purah, must have felt trying to come to grips with a humanly impossible assignment.

When people say, “God doesn’t give us more than we can handle,” what they mean is that God’s redeemed will endure to the end. The hardships we face will not undo us. But what it doesn’t mean is that God only gives us things we can handle. God gives us more than we can handle all of the time. WHY?  So we will rely on Him. So He gets the credit when we endure. So our faith is put on display.

Picture this scene with me: Standing on the side of Mount Gilboa, Gideon gazed over the Plain of Jezreel, which sprawled beneath him northward toward the Hill of Moreh. The plain was a sea of tents, teaming with more than 100,000 Midian warriors.

With renewed faith, Gideon and Purah roused their mini army and launched a night attack. This threw the Midians into a panic, and as a result, they slaughtered each other in confusion. It was a rout. Not one of Gideon’s 300 men perished in the battle. God gave them more than they could handle to force them to rely wholly on Him. To God be the glory!

When we’re confronted with an impossible situation or trial, Gideon’s 300 men preach to us that “salvation… is from the Lᴏʀᴅ” (Psalm 37:39), and “if God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). God really intends for us to rest on these massive truths and for them to give us more-than-conquerors’ confidence and peace (Romans 8:37), no matter what we face.

The defeat of our sin that Jesus accomplished on the cross dwarfs Gideon’s victory. Compared to overcoming God’s wrath against our sin, defeating 100,000 Midianites was very small. And if God “did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will He not also with him graciously give us all things” (Romans 8:32)?

God certainly does give us more than we can handle. And He does it “to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:9). If you’re facing some overwhelming adversary or adversity, and you wonder how God could possibly deliver and work it for your good (Romans 8:28), then take heart. He is granting you the joy of experiencing the reality of Judges 7, Romans 8, and 2 Corinthians 1. We must trust in Him despite how the situation is stacked against us.

Judges 7:9-8:32 tells of the great victory and conquest of Gideon’s army against their enemies. Gideon had a huge family and many offspring and died at a ripe old age in peace. But how quickly Israel forgets all they have seen and runs back to their flesh:

Judges 8:33-35 As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal- berith their god. And the people of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side, and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel.

May we not be like Israel, but be like Gideon: faithful and willing to put our lives on the line to trust in God and fight for His glory to be the center of our praise!

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church

Saturday Study

Romans 16- Judges 4 (7.28.18)

This week we will dig into the first four chapters of Judges. The book of Judges breaks down into three main parts. The first two chapters are an introduction of sorts and lay the groundwork for the rest of the book. Chapters 3-16 show the downward spiral of judges through this time in Israel’s history. What we see is the leaders or judges going from okay to bad to worse. Chapters 17-21 show the total corruption of God’s people and there’s a popular refrain that stands out in these chapters.

Judges 17:6 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

This very phrase will be repeated as the closing verse of the book of Judges. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. The people of God had desired to be their own rulers and therefore they played the part of God and did whatever they thought was right. This is in stark contrast to what God had commanded them to do. What we must see here is that when we give up God and His objective truth as found in His word, we end up taking the throne of our lives and in our utter foolishness we do what is “wise in our own eyes”. Oh, that we might repent of this foolish position and return to the One True God in submission and obedience to His word!

As we dig into the first two chapters of the book of Judges, we see an interesting repetitive story. God’s people, the different tribes noted in chapter one, are living in areas and instead of totally removing the Canaanites they have left a remnant in every location that they have begun to settle in. Joshua had won many battles, but there was still more left to be done. At this point in our journey, it is helpful to know why God had commanded His people to remove the Canaanites completely from their midst. You see, the Canaanites were a morally corrupted people. They worshiped their false gods and even did so by sacrificing their own children to them.

We see chapter two begin with a rebuke from God:

Judges 2:1-3

Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”

God punishes His people’s failure to keep their covenant by allowing the inhabitants of the Promised Land to become thorns and snares to His people. Now we see the people of God immediately weep and repent but this really does become the cry of the rest of the book of Judges until we reach the end. There is a familiar cycle shown in chapter two and lived out in the remaining chapters of the book of Judges. The cycle looks like this: sin, suffering, crying out to God in repentance, God providing deliverance, and peace for a short while until the cycle repeats beginning back at sin again.

Does this cycle of Gods people in Judges look like the cycle of your own life? What we will unfortunately find throughout this book are the similarities it shows in relation to our world now and even our personal lives. I hope you see the beauty and design of God through this book to remind us of our desperate need for a savior. The only hope the book of Judges offers, is that it’s pointing us to our failure (especially when we do life with a wise in our own eyes attitude) and to our only true hope, our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ!

We will dig into this more in a bit, but for now let’s look back at chapter two. The people of God repent and they live out the rest of Joshua’s days and the elders of Joshua’s days serving the Lord. However, we see the tragic lesson of either failure to teach the next generation about our God or the failure of the next generation to hear the teaching.

Judges 2:10

And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel.

You see, there was some breakdown here either in the elder generations to pass along the faith or the new generation to receive and treasure these truths. Whatever the case, we see that God’s people did not know Him or what He had done to rescue them. So they turned to the people who the previous generations failed to remove from the land and they adopted the culture and its practices.

Judges 2:11-13

And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger. They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.

Remember this was the reason God wanted His people to remove these inhabitants from His promised land but what we see here is that cycle I mentioned. God’s people forget Him and turn to the culture to worship its gods. When this happens, God rightly punishes His people as we see in the next verses.

Judges 2:14-15

So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had warned, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.

So the cycle turns from sin to suffering and God graciously raises up judges to lead the people out of the hands of those who have plundered them, BUT Israel would not listen to their judges.

Judges 2:16-19

Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the LORD, and they did not do so. Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.

What we see happen is this cycle of sin–repentance–deliverance–returning to sin again. It can be easy for us to read this while shaking our heads at Israel’s failure, however lest we become prideful, this is almost always the story of our lives on a personal level. We turn from God to sin and the lies that tempted us prove to be dishonest so we suffer for our disobedience. We, by God’s total grace and Holy Spirit-wrought work, see our sin and repent and God reminds us of our security in Christ and the salvation He has already purchased through the good news of His gospel. By God’s grace, this cycle gets smaller and smaller as we become more and more sanctified but we will and must do battle till the end of our lives if we are in Christ. Sin will not be gone until Christ returns and so we have a battle ahead of us to turn from sin to repent when we fail and to treasure God above all other things that we may not be so easily falling into sin again.

My prayer and hope for us is that while we read through Judges and see the failure of God’s people we will be reminded of what happens when we depart from God and turn to sin instead. May we learn from those who have gone before us and cling to the trustworthy Lord of all!

As a summary and something to chew on, let me leave you with this similarity of the Canaanites and our current world. They worshiped false gods–this is never more prevelant in our world than when we see people worship the false god of SELF. Our current culture worships itself as god and does what is right in its own eyes. The Canaanites sacrificed their children to these false gods. The number one reason given for abortion today is if to allow the child to live it would negatively affect the mother’s life. This category explains that the mother is unready for the responsibility, unable to afford the child, and concerned about how the baby would change their life. You see, when something endangers the god of this world (self) then people sacrifice their children at the altar of convenience for themselves.

We are nearing if not already passed the 60 million babies murdered in the womb since Roe vs. Wade in 1973 and this is in the United States alone. If we don’t see the similarities between the Canaanites in the book of Judges and the world we live in now, we are given to continually repeat this horrible history. We have become like Israel adopting the values and practices of the culture around us instead of trusting God and His word as given to us in the Scriptures. We must repent and lay our lives upon the solid foundation of God’s word!

Praise God for His forgiveness, but let us not take God’s grace for granted and go on sinning. May the love of God and the grace of God drive us to turn from sin and live for Him!

* Special thanks to a faithful gospel partner, Steven Obert, for writing this weeks study.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church

Saturday Study

Romans 11-15 (7.21.18)

Romans 12 is the turning point in Paul’s letter to the Romans. It is where Paul moves from our need for the gospel and the gift of the gospel to the application of the gospel in our lives. This chapter is chock-full of wonderful exhortation for the Christian life, especially around the topic of how Christians should love others.

To jump into our study today, read Romans 12:14-21 again.

First and foremost, we must understand that we cannot do these things if not for the Holy Spirit indwelling us, God’s grace enabling us, and Christ’s atonement for us.

To better understand the foundation Paul is building on, go back and read the opening verses of chapter 12 again, Romans 12:1-3!

It is God’s mercy that even gives us access to a restored new life.

It is God’s power that TRANSFORMS us from the inside out.

It is God’s grace that shapes our hearts to love others.

So, when the Apostle calls on us to do the things we read in verse 14-21, bear in mind that the Apostle himself understands that it is only God’s grace at work in us that enables us to live this way.

The result of God’s work in us is found in verse 9: “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.”

With that under our feet, let’s go back to verses 14-21 and break them down more.

Love others = Love when offended

Romans 12:14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

The biblical principle is that Christians who are walking in Christ will love as He loved, which is to love their enemies. We are saved and set free because Christ loved His enemies.

Romans 5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Jesus helps us see what truly LOVING OTHERS is in His teaching found in Luke:

Luke 6:32-35“If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.”

Anyone can love that which is lovely, but it is extremely difficult to love those who are unlovely. Again, hear this clearly: You and I do not do this by our own strength.

Loving our enemies is only genuine if it is out of the overflow of a life in Christ, where He is flowing through the believer to others.  Loving others is a supernatural way of life; .it is not a mandate to work really hard at keeping by your own power and might.

Romans 12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

Loving others is having empathy for people by meeting them where they are.

It is a real mark of Christian maturity when one can rejoice with those God has blessed, because without Christ changing our hearts, prideand jealousy are our natural responses.

When God has given someone wealth or talent or some other provision, it is difficult to rejoice with him because of our selfish hearts’ petty jealousy.

–Make it personal: How have you had resentment for someone else as you see them experience victory or success? Do you see your flesh motivating these feelings?

God’s love causes us to rejoice with others, and their victory is our victory!

The second part of verse 15 says we are to weep with each other, too.

When do we typically choose not to weep with others who weep?

It is a common RELIGIOUS response to people who hurt or struggle to look down on them and say, “You deserved that.” We keep our empathy and pity to ourselves, because they do not deserve to have people join them in crying over something they purposely did.

The key to this is found in verses 3 and16 of this chapter:

Romans 12:3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Only by the grace of God is my heart changed to look at others differently, to have sober judgment over them, and not to elevate myself to a position where I am better than they are. THIS AFFECTS WHY AND HOW I LOVE PEOPLE.

Romans 12:16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.

Loving others means loving people who are not like you, including people who are outcast.

Again, Jesus models this for us all throughout His life. We see him charged by the Pharisees of eating with outcast sinners in Luke 15 and showing compassion toward and fellowshipping with a prostitute in Luke 7.

If ever we say, “I’m not going to waste my time on that rebellious man,” we have lost the true meaning of love.

The only remedy is more of Jesus which is needed to change the heart.

Love others = Reject revenge

Romans 12:17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

Loving others means your heart is moving from self-centered to other-centered.

Our sin causes us to want to hurt those who hurt us. Christ in us causes us to want to heal relationships with those who caused hurt. We counter their evil with God-honoring good and grace. This won’t happen if left to our flesh. We are desperate for Christ to fuel us with His selfless love.

Romans 12:17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

Evil is God-dishonoring; righteousness is God-honoring. We are to be a righteous people who do good and not evil.

In this, we honor God and put His name on high.

Love others = Pursue peace.

Romans 12:18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Loving others means to pursue PEACE!

Now it says, “as it depends on you,” and this is because it takes two to tango.

So, the part of the relationship you can influence needs to be peaceful, but this doesn’t mean that you will have peace with everyone, because they can stir things up against you.

On this note, let’s move on to verse 19:

Romans 12:19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

Only God can move other people’s hearts, and so we have to trust in His judgment to shape them and judge them and grow them, as He determines.

Now, this rails against our flesh because the foremost trait of human nature is self-defense.

If someone thrusts an object toward your face, your eyes close immediately by instinct.

If an object falls toward you, your arm rises to ward off the blow. By nature, when we are offended, we automatically put up a defense mechanism and want to fight back.

àIn Christ, we do something contrary to our nature: We love and don’t fight back when offended. A person may ask, “Don’t I have the right to stick up for my rights?” Sometimes, the act of defending oneself or another is an act of love.
But the supernatural work of Christ through us means that many times the answer is NO.

Christ’s love in and through you means you will not fight back.

Instead…

Romans 12:20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Loving others = Loving your enemy the way God loved us when we were His enemies!

We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).

The only vengeance Christians can inflict on others is the red-hot coals of love.

This part of verse 20 is odd when read alone, but it makes sense when understood that it is a quote from Proverbs 25:21-22: If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.

The coals on the head is a reference to a ritual in Egypt in which a person showed repentance by carrying a pan of hot burning charcoal on the head. So, when we respond with love and not hate, this can cause the other person to be repentant for his/her actions.

Love is the only antidote for hate! When the Christian loves his enemies, they are either melted into repentance or hardened even more. It is up to God how they respond–not us. We are simply called to let love move! TO LOVE OTHERS!

Love others = Overcome evil with good.

Romans 12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

“Overcome evil with good.” Paul is saying that in our personal relationships with the world, the cycle of evil can only be broken by good.

The key to overcoming evil is to employ the good of Christ that is at work in us. The cycle of evil can only be overcome, can only be broken by good: THE LOVE OF GOD.

We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).

It is the love of God that was made manifest in the flesh through the perfect life and sacrificial substitutional death of Jesus for a people that were against Him, but a people He would win over and make new. We–the church, the redeemed, the born again–are that people. May we love others as God intended every day for His glory and their good.

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church

Saturday Study

Romans 6-10 (7.14.18)

In chapters 1-5, we read Paul’s detailed description of our reality as spiritually dead and enslaved to sin. In chapter 6, Paul turns to our identity and reality when we have submitted our lives to Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Right out of the door, Paul is saying, “If you have received the forgiving, life-changing grace of God which frees you from the bondage and condemnation of sin, why would you still live in it?” This is like the butterfly who decides to wake up every day and, instead of flying, he crawls into his old, stinky cocoon and lives bound to the ground like he was in his old state.

God’s grace has set us free from the bondage of sin. While we are still at war with sin and temptation while still in this life, we are NOT bound by it anymore.

Paul goes on to stress who we are in Christ and what that means for us every day God gives us under the sun after our salvation.

Romans 6:3-4 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

The imagery of believers’ baptism is never clearer than right here. This is the ordained imagery God calls every believer to put on display by being baptized after conversion. When one goes under the water, it is symbolic of joining Christ, who went into the grave on our behalf. It is symbolic of the death of our old sinful self. As we are raised out of the water, it is like joining Jesus in His resurrection, by which He rose as the first born of many who would believe in and follow Him. It is raising to “walk in the newness of life” in Christ, and to no longer be bound by sin and condemned to death. In Christ, we are bound to Christ and blessed with new and eternal life with God.

How are you doing at waking up every day and putting on who you are IN CHRIST and not who you were in your old, sinful self?
It is critical that we live out who we are. If we don’t, we lie about the gospel and fail to enjoy the privileges of life in Christ.

Romans 6:5-11 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Paul makes it abundantly clear that in Christ, we are no longer condemned by our sin and no longer enslaved to sin. We have been set free from sin. We are, as he says, “dead to sin.” Do you know this? Do you live this?

I know many people over the years who have said they know this is true, but their lives do not live it out.

If this is you, then I would argue you do not really know it to be true. You say you understand, but that understanding is not taking root in your life. You are either set free and trust and obey Jesus or you are not.

If we are bought by His blood, then He owns our life. That means we walk and talk in a way that glorifies Jesus; we live lives that honor God and that don’t give into sin and our flesh. This is where Paul goes next:

Romans 6:12-14 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Paul gets very practical here in saying that Christians “do not present [their] members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness.”  Our instruments are our minds (thoughts), our eyes, our hands… essentially our lives. We do not engage or enjoy unrighteousness like we did when we were enslaved to sin in our former state. Now, we have been bought and redeemed and set free to honor God with our thoughts, our eyes, and our actions. We fight sin and turn away from temptation to satisfy the flesh. We make war every day and all throughout the day. This means we reform our lives in order to not feast on the world. This means redeeming the music we listen to, the shows/movies we watch, and all the practices of our former way of living.

Things that are good that we made idols of we begin to steward in a righteous way. One of the great ways to be encouraged and accountable is to invite in others who are mature in the Lord to help you evaluate your practices and daily diet of life, with the aim of not presenting our members to sinful or tempting things any longer.

Instead, Paul says we are to “present [ourselves] to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and [our] members to God as instruments for righteousness.”  As one who is blood-bought by God through the costly atonement of His Son, what are each of us doing with our new lives in Christ? What are we doing with our days? We have been given new life in Christ for a reason: to honor and glorify God and to put on display the gospel and the new life that Christ alone brings.

These are huge motivations and reasons for reformation and redemption in our daily practices and habits. How are you doing at reforming and redeeming these things? What a joyful privilege it is to belong to our good God. May we count it a great blessing to make war with the things of the flesh and to steward our lives in ways that honor God and point others to Christ.

May we repent of sin when we discover it and take up new practices or paths in light of the gospel.

May we head Paul’s wise clarity and instruction here and be who we are:   “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Joshua Kirstine

Disciples Church