Taking God Seriously

Profanity has found its way into every nook and cranny of modern day conversation. At one time it was not tolerated in public life, but now it is written into television and movie scripts as much as punctuation itself. Taking God’s name in vain is even practiced by Christians who, of all people, should know better. I have even heard preachers bring God’s name into their own dramatic oratorical flourishes by way of exclamation, not worship. How is this being done? God’s name is profaned every time it is out of keeping with who He is and what He does. When a person says “my God” in a flippant way they are showing contempt for God’s greatness and goodness. The way we talk about God reveals what is in our heart, and how seriously we take God.

If we love God, then our adoration of Him will flow within the banks of worship and obedience. A growing, loving relationship with God demands right thoughts about God. These thoughts will be defined and shaped by what God says about Himself, not by what we might imagine Him to be. Our adoration of God will express itself in the way we think and speak about God. But, in the words of Fred Catherwood, “It is odd in this so-called secular age, when so few people believe in God, that the name of God is always on their lips. If there is no God, what is the point of cursing God?” These comments are made in reference to the third commandment which says, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain” (Ex. 20:7). The concern is the protection of the Name of God and issues a warning to those who would attempt to use God, all that He is, and all that He stands for in a belittling way. All who desecrate God’s name and reputation will have to answer to Him.

Those who love God will take Him seriously. They will not treat His name irreverently or attempt to use God to further their own agenda. “There is none like Thee, O Lord; Thou art great, and great is Thy name in might” (Jer. 10:6). Taking God seriously is the evidence that one knows God. To know God is to take His name as one’s redeemer. This is more than just a means of identification. When a woman takes her husband’s name in marriage a new relationship is forged. To take God’s name is to become His child by faith in Jesus Christ. God’s name reveals who He is. He is a person. He is self-existent. He is self-sufficient. He is eternal. He is holy. He is a Savior to all who put their trust in His Son. People who know and love God will reverence His awesome and wonderful name. The beauty of His perfections will captivate their thoughts. Their thoughts about Him will give them great joy and the utmost respect for Him.

When we take God seriously we refuse to misuse His name. This includes perjury (Lev. 19:12; Matt. 5:33-37). To swear that something is true which one knows to be false and to use God’s name to “co-sign” is to take God’s name in vain. We can commit perjury by making vows, oaths, and promises and then breaking them. “But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but let your yes be yes and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment” (Jas. 5:12). To use God’s name as a cover for a lie makes God out to be what He is not, namely, either nonexistent or indifferent to the truth. Trustworthiness is part of God’s image, which He wants to see in us. God’s name is dishonored when promises are made and broken, when vows are made to God and not kept (e.g., marriage vows are not to be taken lightly. To break a marriage vow is to treat God with contempt.), and when claims are made that God will do something that actually the Bible teaches otherwise. There are those who stoop so low as to involve the name of God to disguise a personal project with the intent to defraud.

God’s name must not misused by playing with the things of God. A flippant and frivolous attitude toward God and things sacred is to trifle with God. This can be done when we pray piously and don’t mean it or when we sing Christian songs while our minds chase things other than the truth we are singing. Some people will attempt to use God’s name to achieve power and control. This is reprehensible. Beware of those who approach you saying, “The Lord told me to tell you that you are to….”

We must come back full circle to that culturally acceptable desecration of God’s name, profanity. To treat something as profane is to regard it as unholy. To profane God’s name is to treat it with contempt and show disregard for God’s infinite worth. For example, when God is asked to damn some person or thing, one is actually uttering a prayer. It puts God in the damning business and intentionally deflects attention away from His offer of forgiveness and eternal life. The use of “O my God”, “my God,” “Jesus Christ” and other such irreverent exclamations are an attack upon the person of God. His name is not a name to damn anyone. Watch out also for “polite” swearing by using “golly,” “gosh,” “gee,” and other minced oaths which could be misunderstood. It is the only name that can save sinful human beings. His name is not to be used to exalt one’s own exalted opinions or an attempt to be a drama queen. If you are inclined to use God the Father’s and God the Son’s name to heighten the impact of your communication, why not work on improving an impoverished vocabulary? May all our words declare that we are awed by a holy, righteous, loving, and sovereign God.

Our culture is sick and dying. Sinful human beings oblivious to the fact that they need God’s salvation are busy coronating themselves the kings and queens of the universe. God is reduced to a subject for a panel discussion, on which men and women sit in judgment. If you are in any doubt about the slide in our nation in its diminishing view of the majesty and glory of God start counting the times you hear His name treated with contempt. Christian reader, let us watch ourselves. In the words of the late A. W. Tozer, “Are we losing our ‘Oh!’?” We can begin checking our thoughts about God by memorizing and repeating daily the words of Scripture, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?’ ‘Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:33-36). Marinate you minds in these delectable truths and rejoice that this is “my God.”

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church

The Book of Love

“I wonder, wonder who wrote the book of love?” That’s the way a song of days gone-by starts out. It is a rather shallow song but it does present us with an opportunity to think about what real love is like. After all, Valentine’s Day is coming up this week (men have you forgotten?) and you may be one of those hapless males who will stand in front of the card rack trying to find the right words to say “I love you,” wondering how it can be said in a meaningful way.

The best place I know to get a handle on the meaning of love is found in 1 Corinthians 13:4-6. To read the apostle Paul’s prose opens up a treasure chest of truth about love. But notice the direction being taken here. There are those who would have us to believe that love is indefinable. How can an emotion as mysterious as love be captured in words? The fact is that if love can’t be defined and described then we are left with bubbles of feeling that evaporate into thin air. Love can be lost as easily as it can be found. Tragically, many marriages have broken up on the reef of self-love, disguised as marital love. And it doesn’t take long for this kind of love-boat to sink. So let’s visit the features of real love.

Love is patient. It chooses to persist creatively when suffering at the hands of someone else. It does not retaliate when wronged. Love is kind. It chooses to reach out to others in order to make their lives richer. It seeks to bring help to the hurting. Love is not jealous. It chooses to refuse resentment because someone else has something I don’t. Love does not brag. It chooses to avoid self-promotion (trying to look good when we suspect we are not good). Am I trying to create an image that is contrary to reality? Love is not arrogant. It chooses not to indulge in power plays. Do I use people to achieve my goals? Love does not act unbecomingly. It chooses to treat others with respect. How indifferent am I to the effect that my behavior has on others? Love does not seek its own. It chooses not to place self-satisfaction above service. Am I willing to sacrifice my rights for the benefit of the one I say I love? Love is not provoked. It chooses to absorb irritations and offenses out of concern for others. How tolerant of annoyances am I in the interest of others? Love does not take into account a wrong suffered. It chooses to let God keep the moral scorecard of life. Do I keep a private file of personal grievances? Am I willing to let God settle the score? Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness. It chooses not to delight in the sins of others. Do I enjoy endless discussions about what is wrong with others, my spouse, my friends, my children? Love rejoices with the truth. It chooses to delight in those things that please God. Do I excuse lust and adultery in the name of love? Love bears all things. It chooses to put up with all kinds of hardships. Do I run from problems and people? Love believes all things. It chooses to not be gullible and cynical but wise. Am I willing to take risks in seeking to help others? Love hopes all things. It chooses to be confident about the future. Do I take the failure of someone else as final? Love endures all things. It chooses to not stop loving. Do I live with my bags packed?

Hopefully, the above will be some of the stuff of your valentine card. But better yet, make it the way you love. Love is not simply propositions to be contemplated. It is a relationship that looks like our relationship to Jesus Christ. He loved us so much that He gave Himself in a violent death so that we might live with Him forever. It was a love that considered our dreadful condition and did not remain passive. Jesus spilled His blood so that we could have the forgiveness of our sins and be free to love Him. Is that your kind of love? Men, I have a word for us. Not that our wives are where they ought to be in this matter of love, but our love in a special way is to emulate that of Christ’s love for His church. Allow the following questions to filter out the spiritual and moral toxins that are limiting our love.

• Do I provoke my wife to wrath and discouragement by my angry and critical spirit?
• Does my lack of spiritual discipline frustrate my wife?
• Do I show her affection and give her my full attention?
• Do I frequently tell her I love her and back it up with actions?
• Do I give her the freedom to pursue her interests, to seek God, to study the Bible, to have friends?
• The world, the flesh, and the devil – My wife has to contend with these. Am I adding a fourth?
• Did I violate my wife’s sexual purity before marriage? If so, have I repented of that and asked her forgiveness?
• Am I remaining loyal to my wife both physically and mentally? Do I flirt with other women? Am I kinder and gentler with other women than I am with my own wife?
• Do I have another life that is filled with sexual fantasy, pornography, and lust after other women?
• Am I living as a spiritually diminished person and don’t care?
• Do I seek revenge when my wife avoids me, ignores me, or is cool to my romantic advances?
• Do I pull my wife away from church because of my projects, toys, play, and other interests?

We should not be wondering who wrote the book of love. God did. He has written it in His own blood.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church

Polished Brass and a Sinking Ship

There is a particular view of eschatology (premillennialism) which has been criticized for its so-called pessimistic view of the present and future. The premillennialist position believes that Jesus Christ is coming again and will, after a time of Great Tribulation, set up His kingdom on this earth. However, before Christ returns, moral, social, and spiritual conditions will worsen significantly. There will be a time of apostasy in the church (1 Tim. 4; 2 Tim. 3). This apostasy is defined as “a departure from truth previously accepted, involving the breaking of a professed relationship with God.” It is dispensational premillennialists who are especially singled out for criticism. Dispensationalists believe that the kingdoms of this world will fail and come to an end before the millennial kingdom, which is a literal kingdom of a thousand years (Dispensationalists hold to such core teachings as keeping the church and Israel distinct, a consistently literal interpretation of Scripture, and the glory of God in His kingdom plan). During the Great Tribulation the professing church will align itself with ecumenical and anti-God forces (Rev. 17). This scenario is in stark contrast to the dreams of a one-world ecumenical brotherhood of modern globalism One well known evangelist, a premillennialist, from a generation past is widely reported to have said that we should not bother to polish the brass on a sinking ship. The sinking ship is this world which is doomed to be judged by God. The brass polished would be efforts to make this world a better place to live. That is an over simplification, but the idea is, why waste one’s time trying to save the world, when it is sinners who need to be put in the life boats of eternal life?

Those who espouse other eschatological systems prefer to see themselves as more optimistic about the present and the future. Postmillennialists, who believe that Christ will return after the Millennium (but not a literal thousand-year time period) see this world as becoming better and better as the gospel is spread throughout the world. A Christianized world is expected according to this view. But premillenialists have been accused of being unnecessarily gloomy for other reasons. There are those who believe that Christians have a cultural mandate to establish the Lordship of Christ over every area of life; politics, medicine, education, literature, economics, etc. The basis for this view is found in Genesis 1:26-28. Since many Christians who are premillennialists have not been particularly socially active and have concerned themselves primarily with evangelism and world missions, they are seen as having contributed to the secularization of society.

How is the Christian to live in this world in view of his belief in the Second Coming of Christ? A survey of the New Testament yields keys to understanding how the believer in Jesus Christ is to live in a world destined for judgment. The key word is “watchfulness,” which is being alert to the times in which the believer lives. There is the danger of becoming intoxicated with the spirit of the age and of becoming complacent and careless in the seasons of life (Mk. 13:5, 9, 13; 2 Tim. 3:1-9; 1 Pet. 1:13; 2 Pet. 3:4). Watchfulness involves commitment to a fervent, consistent, and biblically informed prayer life (Lk. 18:7; 21:36; 1 Pet. 4:7). Watchfulness means that the tears of our grief and earthly sorrows fall into the hands of a loving and returning Savior (1 Thess. 4:13-18; Phil. 3:20-21; Rom. 8:18-23; Jas. 5:7). Earthly affliction is the waiting room for our entrance into the delights of Christ’s kingdom. Watchfulness means that the truth of the coming Messiah and His coming kingdom is to be taught with clarity and consistency, and power (Acts 28:31; 2 Tim. 4:1-2). Watchfulness means that we are to be resolved in our warfare against the tyranny of sin (Rom. 13:11-14; 1 Thess. 5:1-11; 2 Pet. 3:11-15). God’s children will fight sin in the hand-to-hand combat of their personal lives and in the world around them. They will not look the other way while innocent infants are killed and ripped from the womb. The social evils of racism, child abuse, and the break-down of the home will not be allowed to strut around on the stage of life uncontested. Christians owe everyone, saved and unsaved, the debt of love. Watchfulness means that we are to be sobered by our accountability to the returning Savior and driven to please the one who will reward the faithful (Matt. 25:14-29; Heb. 2:5; 10:37, 38; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 22:5).

Yes, this world is a sinking ship (1Jn. 2:17; 2 Pet. 3:7). It has a rendezvous with the holy God of heaven. This is reason enough for Christians to call all sinners to the life boats of eternal life. Is caring for AIDS patients, adopting orphans, holding up a standard against the pornography industry, challenging the pernicious evil of Darwinism, and helping unwed mothers merely polishing the brass on a sinking ship? No. It is the self-sacrificing love of Christians calling desperate, soon-to-drown sinners to the hope that is in Christ Jesus. Christians, man the life boats - the Savior is coming.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church