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Many people read the Bible, but turn away from it because they don’t understand it. A lot of people struggle to comprehend what the Bible is saying. In fact, so go so far as to say the Bible is a book that CANNOT be understood; either because it’s so old and archaic or because it is veiled in obscure language and vague symbols. Neither of those statements is true. I believe the Bible CAN be understood. I don’t claim to understand everything there is to understand about it; I suppose I’ll study it all of my life, and will continue to learn more about it as long as I live. But I do believe that the Bible is a practical book and its message and its precepts can be understood by anybody. I don’t believe that you have to have some kind of a priest or church order to interpret it for you. It is a message that is placed in the hands of ordinary men and women that can understand and follow it and be saved.

2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

Paul is telling the young preacher to apply himself. That’s what the word “study” in this passage really means. Paul says for him to apply himself to understanding or “rightly dividing” the scriptures. That is such a needful admonition to a lot of preachers and teachers today, to a lot of Bible students in general. A lot of people can do a very good job of dividing the Bible; they just have a hard time putting it back together again.

I heard about an old farmer years ago, who decided that he wanted to become a preacher. So, the story says he went down to the elders at the old church where he attended, and he told them he felt like he ought to be out preaching. They were a little skeptical to say the least, and one of them asked him, “Do you know enough about the Bible to be a preacher?” He said, “Oh, yes sir.” Another one asked him, “What part of the Bible do you know the best?” He said, “Oh, well, I love the book of the parables.”

The elders knew what a parable was, but they were a little puzzled by that expression, so one of them asked, “What do you mean by ‘the book of the parables?’” The farmer said, “You’ve never read the book of the parables? It goes something like this: A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and as he went on his way, he fell among the thorns and the thorns sprang up and almost choked him half to death. And the man said, “I will arise,” and he arose and as he went on his way, he found a donkey. He climbed up on the donkey and continued his journey until he came riding under the low-hanging branches of a tree and got caught there by his long hair. He hung there for forty days and forty nights, and the ravens fed him. Finally, Delilah saw him and she took out her shears and cut him down. He fell on stony ground and great was the fall thereof. And he said, “I will arise,” and he arose. As he went on his way, he came to a wall and there sat Jezebel on the wall. The man said to those standing around, “Cast her down!” and they cast her down. He said, “Cast her down again!” and they cast her down again. He said, “Cast her down seventy times seven!” So they cast her down seventy times seven, and twelve basketfuls of fragments remained. And he said, “Verily, I say, whose wife will she be in the resurrection?””

Well, you know, ALL of that—in one form or another—is in the Bible. But, of course, it’s not exactly that way. We laugh, but that’s just about how some people treat the word of God. They fail to rightly divide it. As I said a moment ago, they know how to divide the Bible, so to speak, but they don’t know how to get it back together again. They don’t know how to study and interpret the scripture. As a result, they make it contradict itself or cause it to not make any sense. But, you know, when you sincerely open up the pages of God’s word and you simply allow it to speak, it has a beautiful, simple, yet powerful message.

There are people who devote their lives to theology, to a study of God’s word. Any Bible student is, in a sense, a theologian: we all want to study, learn and understand the word of God. Some people devote their entire lives to that, and their level of understanding, ability and skill with the word of God might exceed somebody else’s. But I believe that the Bible is a very practical book and that anybody can understand its teachings for our everyday lives. I want to give you five basic guidelines for understanding what the scriptures are telling us. If you will heed these things, you’ll come a lot closer to truly understanding what the Bible writers meant when they wrote what they did.

By the way, it is not that the Bible was written in confusing and convoluted terms; it’s merely the fact that we live 2,000 years after it was penned. We live in a different culture. There is a language barrier. We have to overcome those hurdles and transport ourselves, as it were, back to that time to understand what those words, which were actually very common and practical to those people then, meant to them and thus, in translation, what they mean to us.

First of all, to rightly divide the word of God, it is vitally important that the Bible reader understand the division of the Old and New Testaments. That division exists in the scriptures for good reason. It’s not only a chronological line that essentially divides the history of man into the time before Christ and the time when Jesus came and afterwards. You’re likely already familiar with that fact. But, unfortunately, that fact is lost when some people begin to actually interpret the teachings of the Bible.

The Old Testament is the portion of scripture that catalogs the early history of man, and the development of God’s scheme or plan for mankind and his redemption. The Old Testament sets the stage if you please, for all that came to pass when Christ ultimately came and established the new covenant. The Old Testament shows us how man sinned beginning with Adam; how mankind became lost and condemned in the eyes of a holy and righteous God. It also reveals God’s promise to redeem man from his sin.

From the time of Abraham on, we see where God began to develop a nation, through whom He would work to bring His plan to pass. That nation was Israel and they were a special and a chosen people to God, and God worked through them in order to bring the Messiah into this world and bring His plan to pass. In order to keep it that way, God gave unto His people back then a law. He gave them the Ten Commandments in the wilderness, and that law was to be a moral code for them to live their lives by.

Moses also revealed God’s ceremonial law, which governed Israel’s daily life and religious practice, the specifics of their religion. It established the Levitical priesthood, it refined the sacrificial system of limited atonement, as we call it. One of the results of that law was to put a wall or fence around the nation of Israel and to keep them separate from every other nation on the earth. God made a promise to Abraham, and thus to the Jews, to bring the Messiah into this world through Abraham’s lineage. The law separated them from all other nations, thus keeping the bloodline of Abraham pure by keeping His peoples separate from the other people of the earth. All of this was so that the promise might be fulfilled.

The law also pointed forward to the need of a savior to come into the world and redeem man from the sin he found himself in. How did it do that? Well, that cumbersome law only reinforced the fact that man could not be saved by his own strength. God had to step in–in His grace and mercy–and provide what man could not provide for his redemption.

Galatians 3:19 “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made…”

In other words, Paul is arguing in this passage that since the law and the law’s authority over God’s people is now a thing of the past, what good is the law? Why do we have the law? Why read and study the law? The law was given, he says, until the seed of Abraham would come into this world and establish a NEW covenant. The word “till” indicates that something would be the case only until a certain point in time. That’s a very basic and common word. If I say I’m going to preach until 7:00 that means that by 7:01 I will have stopped preaching. It marks a point of cessation. In the same way, the scripture tells us that the law was given (and remember, it was given to the Jews, not Gentiles) until Christ came into the world and fulfilled it. That law was given to point forward to Christ. Once Christ came, we no longer need a law to point forward to Him. Now, the New Testament reveals Him. Once Christ came, He fulfilled the purpose of that Mosaic economy and that law was taken out of the way.

Now, a lot of folks disagree with that, but that is what the Bible plainly declares.

Galatians 3:23-25 “But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.”

“Before faith came” is talking about before the system of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, before the gospel came, before Christ came and died, and so forth. Paul is simply saying that the law was only intended to be a temporary system or arrangement until the time was ready for Christ to come into this world and accomplish the redemption of mankind. Once that took place, we would no longer be under that law.

Colossians 2:14 “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.”

So, when Jesus died, He fulfilled the Old Testament law and He “took it out of the way,” and in its place, He established a new and a better law, a better covenant. Yet, men try to go back to that old law today. At least, they do when they want to. Nobody is trying to perform the animal sacrifices of that system. People don’t keep all of the feasts and observances of that law today, except for the ones they choose. But that’s not how it works in reference to that very law.

Galatians 5:3 “For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.”

Paul is telling them that if they were going to keep part of it then they needed to keep all of it. That would certainly include all of its sacrifices and ceremonies. Well, people aren’t doing that. You can’t simply go back and pick the things that you want to bring forward into the church out of that old economy. Some people try to justify instrumental music in Christian worship, not because there’s a New Testament passage that teaches it, but they will cite instances where it was used back under the law. Well, that won’t work. If you want to find Bible authority for a practice in this day and age, you will find it in the New Testament. And if you’re going to sanction one thing out of the Old Testament, then sanction the burning of incense and the sacrifice of animals and the priesthood and all of the other things that belong under that economy.

Someone may say, well, what is the Old Testament for then? Why even have it in our Bibles? Why should I bother to read the Old Testament? Oh, you need to read the Old Testament. You need to come to understand it and its general message and timeline. According to Paul, every Bible student needs a good knowledge of what happened before Christ came.

Romans 15:4 “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”

Paul says to New Testament Christians that the things written back in the Old Testament dispensation to the Jews were written even for our learning—even we Gentiles—and we DO learn from the Old Testament. In fact, it would be nearly impossible to understand the meaning and importance of the New Testament without some understanding of the Old Testament. Try reading and understanding the book of Hebrews without knowing something about the tabernacle and the Old Testament priesthood, with its sacrifices and ceremonies. Why, it would all make no sense whatsoever.

You see, the New Testament is simply the Old Testament revealed; the Old Testament was the New Testament concealed, as has been said. The Old Testament was a figure or a symbol or shadow of what would come to pass in Christ Jesus our Lord. That law has been taken out of the way, and thank God for it. Now, if we fail to understand that, we’re going to misunderstand the Bible, and we’ll make some grave and terrible mistakes of interpretation in the process. So, learn about the difference between the two major divisions of the Bible.

Second of all, if I want to understand what I read in the scriptures, I need to learn to keep what I read in its proper context. Context. We all know the danger of hearing or repeating something out of context. You can have a completely innocent statement that can be turned into something vile or malicious if it’s ripped from the context of the entire speech or conversation. Many times, politicians are misunderstood because the media takes a little sound bite out of a 10, 15, or 20-minute speech and they play 8 or 12 seconds of it. If that properly represents what the politician was saying, that’s right, and a good journalist strives to fairly represent what the subject was saying. But, if the journalist isn’t careful and he removes it from the context in which it was said, he can give it an entirely different meaning. You know, we don’t generally like it when someone quotes us out of context because it misrepresents what we intended to say.

It’s no less of an injustice when we do that to the word of God. Instead of letting the Bible interpret the Bible, if we just simply pull a statement out of its surrounding context in God’s word, we’ll make it say something entirely different than what the Holy Spirit was conveying. A beginning Bible student will naturally puzzle over a passage of scripture, until he learns to back up and read the surrounding chapter, or even the chapter before, or the entire book or epistle that contains that verse. And then and only then does it become clear what the writer was saying.

Many, many verses are twisted and abused by careless preachers simply because they do not recognize the context of the verse. Time would fail me today to even begin to enumerate the false doctrines and notions that are built upon scriptures that are totally taken away from the context in which they were written. Entire systems of false doctrines and denominations are built on taking a verse of scripture away from its context. Don’t forget this: a verse without context becomes a pretext, and that’s very dangerous. Let me give you a plain example of that. Let’s look at a portion of Mark’s account of the great commission.

Mark 16:17-18 “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

Now, if I just open my Bible and read those two verses with no surrounding context, what would I immediately assume? Wouldn’t I easily come to the conclusion that Jesus was saying that every single person who ever came to believe in Jesus Christ and became a Christian would be given the power to work miracles? But is that what He was saying? Are there people who believe in Jesus and are Christians who don’t have the power to drink poison and it not kill them? Or who can pick up deadly serpents and not be harmed by them? Or speak in tongues, heal the sick, or cast out devils? Just about anybody will acknowledge that in their own view of what a Christian is, there are Christians who don’t have those abilities. Well, if that’s the case and if that’s what Jesus was saying, then the word of God is not true.

But you see, when we look at the context, a whole new meaning emerges. What IS the Lord saying? We can see what the Lord is talking about by backing up and seeing who He is speaking to and under what circumstances. This conversation was at the close of Jesus’ earthly stay, and He had spent the last three years preparing His disciples for not only the events surrounding His death, but ultimately the events that would follow: His ascension back up to heaven, the establishment of His church upon this earth. This little band of disciples would be the beginning of His great kingdom on this earth. It would be up to them to tell everyone in the world about Jesus and the salvation that He brought to earth, to publish the gospel for the world of all ages.

Well, that was a pretty tall order for this little handful of unlearned, inarticulate, ignorant men, as the disciples were at this point. In fact, they had already shown their own weakness by failing to understand exactly what had happened when Jesus was crucified. They were under some very false illusions about the Lord and about His kingdom. It wasn’t that they didn’t necessarily believe that He was the Son of God; they just didn’t understand it. And their faith at times grew very weak and they were very perplexed by all of the events that had come to pass there in Jerusalem.

But you see, Jesus was going to use them to turn the world upside down by the testimony of His death, burial and resurrection. How would He do that? How could these men ever be capable of taking on such a monumental mission? How could it ever be left up to them to accurately document the testimony, message and mission of the Lord Jesus? Well, the Lord promises them some help. And that’s what this meeting with His disciples before His ascension back to heaven is all about. He commissioned them to go and testify to every person on earth what they had seen, that Jesus was risen from the dead, and that by believing in Him and being baptized, they could be saved.

Now, if we listen to the entire conversation, we can see who Jesus meant when He said they would have all of these powers and why. Let’s pick up the reading in verse 9.

Mark 16:9-14 “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdelene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept. And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not. After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.”

You see, there is where the unbelief was. Therefore, Jesus gives them the great commission.

Mark 16:15 “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”

Well, how would they do that? Jesus says that if they would just believe the message that He was giving them to preach, He would help them. He would empower them. They would have gifts to let them take that message to the world. He’s talking about the apostles—not believers in general. So, keeping that passage in context helps us to understand the word of God.

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An unfaithful wife leaves a husband devastated. But how he responds to her betrayal is a wonderful story of love told in God’s word, and it pictures for us the great love of God. Unrequited love is a common theme in many a life. Sometimes a person spends their entire life loving somebody else, and that love is never returned. Love That Went Unanswered is the true story of a man named Tom Mooney who lived in the 1900’s. He was involved in a bombing in 1916. The evidence led authorities to him; he was arrested and sent to prison. But his wife never stopped loving him. She began what proved to be a thirty year effort to get her husband out of prison. During those years, it was very hard. She had to work to support herself. She took on hard, menial labor and worked herself down during those thirty years. She watched her youth slip away and she aged prematurely because of her undying devotion to her husband, now imprisoned.

All the while, she was seeing anybody of any importance, anybody with any kind of influence, trying anything and everything to get her husband released from prison. Finally, after thirty long years, she had won enough support that he was allowed to go free. Would you believe, though, that within a year, he had left her behind, and had found and married another woman?

1 John 4:19 “We love him, because he first loved us.”

The love of God compels us to love Him in return, but in the lives of many, His love goes unrequited. I’m going to tell you a tragic, yet beautiful story of love from the Old Testament scriptures today.

Unrequited love is not always of a romantic nature, between a man and a woman. It can also be love by parents lavished upon their children. I’m reminded of a heartbreaking story about a single mother, a widowed woman who devoted her life to raising her little boy. She was determined that she would save enough money to send him to college, and it was difficult, but she did it. She took in people’s washing and ironing, she worked all kinds of little jobs in order to squirrel away enough money to be able to give her son an education. She sacrificed her youth just to see to it that he had a chance in life.

The boy grew up, went to a university and the day finally came for him to graduate. So, his mother went to the city to see him receive his diploma. She sat there so proud, admiring him. But as he walked across the stage and looked out across the audience, he saw his mother. She didn’t fit in. He found himself ashamed and unwilling to be associated with her because the shabby country dress that she wore didn’t fit in with the beautiful and costly clothing worn by the parents of his friends. The story says that after the graduation was over, he didn’t even go seek her out and proudly introduce her to his friends and thank her. Instead, he slipped off quietly to celebrate with his classmates.

That type of story angers us. That boy is a shame and a disgrace. That kind of unrequited love makes us rise up in righteous indignation. But such examples suggest a theme that one finds repeatedly in the word of God. Might I add that in many cases, it is a very personal theme. One of the most impressive and touching stories of the whole Bible is found in the book of Hosea.

Hosea was one of the minor prophets, in the sense that the book that he wrote was not as long as the books written by Isaiah, Jeremiah and some of the others. Thus, we call them the ‘major’ prophets. But Hosea certainly was not minor in what he said. He had a powerful message. He lived about 700 years before Jesus was born, and during that time, there unfolded a story in his own life that grips our hearts today. It’s the story of a woman named Gomer who became Hosea’s wife. Gomer ended up having a lot of problems—a lot of worse problems than having a name like Gomer. Hosea was madly in love with her, and he was devastated when she ultimately left him for other lovers. She became unfaithful to Hosea and their children, and her life spiraled out of control. It wasn’t long until the Bible pictures her standing with her head bowed in shame. This is where sin took her. She is being sold in the market as a slave.

The most remarkable part of that story is who showed up that day and bought her. Would you believe that it was Hosea? Her own husband, whom she had betrayed and sinned against! God told Hosea to go and do that, because God was painting a very powerful picture of His relationship to His people. In Hosea 3, Hosea goes to the market and buys Gomer back for himself for fifteen pieces of silver and some barley. Look at what he told her.

Hosea 3:3 “And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide with me for many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.”

The vows of marriage were renewed, and he thus began a new life with her. It must have taken a lot of humility for Hosea to be able to follow God’s instructions and take back that guilty woman. God begins to draw the parallel for us in the next verse.

Hosea 3:4-5 “For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.”

The reason Hosea’s story stands out so much is that as the prophecy tells us, he’s really not telling his OWN story as much as he’s telling GOD’S story. Some people think that this was merely a dream or an allegory just told as an illustration, but others believe that it was a real incident in the life of Hosea. It seems to me that the narrative indicates it was a true story, and I think that’s what makes it so compelling. But regardless, it was used as a parallel by God to say, “That’s the way My people have been.”

There are fourteen chapters in the book of Hosea, and the first three are used to tell Hosea’s personal story. Beginning in chapter four, there unfolds the parallel that God draws for His people: Israel, like Gomer, had not been faithful to her espoused husband, God, and the prophet lists the grievances that God had against them, and there were plenty of them. God had every right to put Israel away, totally forsake her and have nothing to do with her. But the beauty of this prophetic message is that just as it was in the life of Hosea himself—who loved Gomer though she was guilty and vile and unworthy of his love—the last chapters of the book show how that God, in patient and tender love, like Hosea, was willing to take His people back even though they had been unfaithful to Him.

Hosea 14:1 “O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.”

Hosea 14:4-7 “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.”

This ancient story should touch our hearts today because frankly, there is a great deal of unrequited love in OUR age. I’m not speaking of the love that a husband fails to return to a faithful wife, or vice versa. I’m not talking about the disappointment and heartbreak when children fail to love their parents. Rather, I’m talking about the love that you and I often fail to return to our God. The history of God’s dealings with man has really been a one-way street. The love of God has been poured out without measure, but it hasn’t been returned, to any great degree. This IS a love story. There are people who like to picture God as some horrible, mean, cruel, vengeful monster, but actually the Bible paints a different picture of God. He is holy and righteous; therefore He cannot countenance and have fellowship with sin. God is indeed a God of wrath, who punishes sin. God had every right to totally wipe out the human race, but instead He showed His love. You’ve not really read the Bible if you don’t understand that.

In the Garden of Eden, we get the first glimpse of God’s affection for His creation. He created a literal paradise for man to live within. He gave man a lovely place to dwell and enabled him to provide his livelihood without effort. He merely gave man one rule to live by: not to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He wanted man to remain innocent and pure. Man could not have been any more loved than he was in the beginning.

But man failed to love God as he ought to have loved Him, and he disobeyed God. The beginning of man’s degradation and decline into sin is described there in Genesis. Down through the Old Testament, the theme is repeated over and over and over again. It’s the story of wayward Israel and the wanderings that followed. Israel rebelled in the land of Canaan, and finally became so evil and ungrateful that they were carried off into Babylonian captivity. It’s also the story of the Jews’ rejection of their own Messiah. The life of Jesus is a story of unrequited love.

Isaiah 53:3 “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

He brought life and light to a dark, sin-cursed world, but that same world spit in His face and turned Him away. Christ loved man enough to walk the lonely last mile to Calvary and to lay down His life for him, but in reality, man hardly said thanks for the salvation that Christ brought. As they crucified Him and left Him to hang before the world as a spectacle of shame, Jesus so tenderly cried out, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34). But they didn’t take Him down from the cross. Instead, those calloused men sat and gambled for His clothes, they spit upon Him and mocked Him like a fool. The story of unrequited love, you see, runs deep in the history of the world.

Isaiah 53:6 “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

But thank God His grace was greater than our sin!

Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

But the story of unrequited love continues in our own generation. It comes down to people like us who do not necessarily live the kind of lives that God asks us to live; or we only live it in part, or when it’s convenient. When it comes to something we ought to do, we go our own willful way. You see, we too have returned only meager love and devotion to God. That brings up the question: how DO we love God? What does it mean to love God? Do you love God? Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ?

I have a feeling that today, if we could have a conversation, you would tell me, “Oh, yes, I love the Lord Jesus! You just don’t know how much I love the Lord Jesus!” I hope that’s true. I hope you love God with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength. But how do we REALLY love God? So many people talk about loving God, and they claim to do great things to show their love. But are they really returning the kind of selfless love that God asks us for?

First of all, we show God that we love Him by keeping His commandments. That’s really the bottom line. If you don’t seek to keep the commandments of the Lord Jesus, you don’t love the Lord. You’re deceiving yourself if you say, “I love the Lord, I love God,” but then you ignore what His word says.

John 14:21 “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him…”

1 John 2:4-5 “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected…”

1 John 5:2-3 “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”

So, can’t we see how hypocritical it is to claim to love the Lord, then ignore His word and do what pleases us instead of Him? We compromise His word, we don’t take it seriously. Man can’t claim that he loves the Lord and then, for example, refuse to follow the Lord in baptism, because Jesus made that a command of the gospel.

Mark 16:16 “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”

For the life of me, I don’t understand the objection that people have to baptism into the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, as the Bible says. Yet, they resist it, they dismiss it and minimize it. Friends, it is a command of the Lord Jesus Christ! Someone says, “Well, a person may not be baptized as you say the Bible says he ought to be baptized, but, oh, he loves Jesus, and that’s what really counts.” If he refuses to do what Jesus says, he doesn’t love Jesus. He’s deceiving himself.

A man cannot claim that he loves God and then refuse to be with God’s people and assemble with the church.

Hebrews 10:25 “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is…”

How can you love the Lord Jesus Christ and despise His bride, speak ill of His bride and refuse to have anything to do with His bride? A man can’t say he loves Jesus, and then refuse to give his time, money and energy to the kingdom of God.

Luke 9:23 “…If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”

A man can’t claim to love God and continue to live an immoral, sinful life.

Colossians 3:5 “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:”

“Mortify” means to put to death. You see, if I really love the Lord, I’ll humbly resign myself to do His will, regardless of what His word tells me to do. Are you showing the Lord that you love Him by the life that you lead? Will you show Him how much you love Him by meeting Him in worship today? By rendering to Him the praise that He is due?

Secondly, we show the Lord how much we love Him by telling others about Him. There is a famous conversation between the Lord and His disciple, Peter, recorded in John 21. After the Lord’s resurrection, Jesus asked Peter a soul-piercing question.

John 21:15 “So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?”

There is some dispute over to what the Lord was referring to with the word “these.” Let me tell you what I believe that the Jesus means: Peter was a fisherman by trade, and as such, he loves the sea. Peter doubtlessly loved his boats, his nets. That was the life that he knew before he began following Jesus. In fact, Peter was in his boat fishing when the Lord appeared to him this third time. I think He was asking Peter, “Where do I rank among the other things in your life?” In other words, did he love Jesus enough to lay down his nets and take up the cross that he would have to bear as an apostle in the church and as a preacher of the gospel? He asked Peter that question three times! Well, it got under Peter’s skin and he answered him very passionately the third time.

John 21:17 “…Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.”

What did the Lord mean by that? Peter had a job to do in the kingdom of God, and he showed how much he loved the Lord when he, possessed of such courage, stood up and condemned those hard-hearted men and women who had so cruelly crucified the Lord Jesus, and his fiery, passionate sermon melted their hearts like fire on ice, and they came to obey Him as their Lord and King. That’s a different Peter, isn’t it, than a few days before when he so cowardly denied that he even knew Jesus.

You see, the Lord was testing Peter. He would never be ashamed of the Lord again. He may have denied Him on that fateful night in that courtyard in Jerusalem, but from that day forward, he would tell everybody he met about Jesus. Let me tell you, if a man loves the Lord, he won’t be ashamed for others to know how much he loves Him. He will stand up for the truth and not be timid and embarrassed for his friends and the whole world for that matter, to know about his faith in God and His word, if he loves the Lord Jesus.

Thirdly, if we truly love Jesus, we’ll put Him first in our lives. FIRST. As I stated, I think that’s what Jesus was getting at with Peter the fisherman. Would his love requite Peter’s faithfulness and devotion? Would he put the cause of Christ above his boats and his nets?

Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

The divine imperative is that HE must come before anything else down here: your job, your education, your pleasure (yes, your golfing, fishing and hunting, your college football or basketball, your NFL, your trips to the woods, mountains or beach)—it’s FIRST, or it’s nothing. The Lord demands first place in our lives every day that we live, and He deserves first place in our hearts and in our affairs. His love requires of us no less of a sacrifice.

Are you requiting the love that God showed to you while you were yet a sinner? Are you reaching out and returning that love, by loving the Lord with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength?

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Long ago, the ancient people of God returned from years in captivity and began to rebuild the temple that had been destroyed. It wasn’t long though, when that work came to a stop. Consequently, it took years to build the second temple. But a series of visions came to the prophet Zechariah during that time, and one of them is recorded in our text for today’s study.

Zechariah 4:8-10 “Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.”

Well, this is an interesting prophecy that actually teaches a timeless lesson about God and His word. I want to consider the question posed by Zechariah in this passage: “For who hath despised the day of small things?”

Israel had been carried away into captivity by the Babylonians and spent seventy long years there. The glorious temple of Solomon had been destroyed. But now, more than a half century later, Israel begins to return home, and as you can imagine, there was a lot of excitement as Zerubbabel led the first wave of nearly fifty thousand Jews back to Jerusalem. There was a lot of work to do because Jerusalem had been utterly destroyed and laid waste. One of the first things they did was to resume the worship of God, which they did immediately. The next year, work began on laying the foundation of a new temple.

There were mixed emotions among the Jews about that: the old men who remembered the beautiful temple of Solomon actually wept, because as they built this temple, it paled in comparison. It was nothing like the glorious temple of Solomon. Nonetheless, Ezra tells us in his prophecy that others shouted for joy to see work on the temple get underway. Of course, there are always people who discourage the work of God, and you’ll find that even today, and it was no different back then. Eventually, the people who were opposed to construction of the temple got a government order to stop the work. So, the people instead started working on settling back into their homes, building their own houses and farms and so forth. But the temple foundation that they had begun just sat there for about fourteen years.

Then, along came the prophet Haggai. He preached and got the people all stirred up and they started back to work on the temple, but it just wasn’t the same. They worked for about a month and they realized they were short on resources, and that no matter what they did, this new temple would just not measure up to the glory of Solomon’s temple that had been destroyed nearly a century before. It was very demoralizing. The Jews were hated, they had been beaten down, their land was still in ruins, their wealth was plundered and gone, and only a small portion of their population even returned to Jerusalem. They were working, but the problems were great. They just didn’t have the wherewithal to put things back like they were.

About this same time, the prophet Zechariah came along and he began to prophesy. He had a series of visions, one of which is recorded in our text.

Zechariah 4:8-10 “Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.”

Do you know what God was saying in this vision of Zechariah’s? He was saying that they were not to be discouraged over their circumstance. The temple that their fathers had built was constructed using the enormous fortune of Solomon, but now they had virtually nothing. The temple they were building would never rival the first one in that respect. Even after Herod the Great renovated it before the birth of Christ, it did not rival Solomon’s temple. But, you see, there is a wonderful Messianic prophecy in what Zechariah is saying here. He was telling them that one day, the temple would be built, and God would fill it with His glory. What they were building here in Jerusalem was a type or shadow of the great and spiritual temple that our Lord Jesus would one day build: it was a picture of the church of Christ.

Keep in mind that the temple was central to Jewish life and it was the ultimate pride of their nation. While these people were downhearted and murmuring over their lack of resources and this pitiful temple that they were building by comparison, God was telling them that something far greater was coming. So, they may have despised the day of small things, but God was using those small things for a great, great purpose.

That’s a principle that is seen all throughout the history of God’s people. When God destroyed the world with the great flood of Noah’s day, He used one family of eight people to save and replenish the earth. Out of all the people who lived in the antediluvian age, he chose eight people to save the world.

1 Peter 3:20 “…when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”

We read about the story of Gideon and his army, who were sent to war with the Midianites. There were more than a hundred thousand Midianites and God ended up only letting Gideon put together an army of three hundred men to fight them, and he didn’t even give them any weapons! That’s a thrilling story in Judges 6. God used an ingenious plan to trick the more than one hundred thousand Midianites using just three hundred Jews armed with nothing more than torches and their loud voices. Go back and study that story. That little ragtag army ended up sending those strapping Midianite soldiers running into the night screaming like children into each other’s swords.

Later, in 2 Chronicles 20, we read about King Jehoshaphat and how he got word that a vast army of the Moabites and the Ammonites were coming to wage war with him. He didn’t have much of an army and he was unarmed, so he asked the Lord what to do. He declared that Israel fast and pray and he cried out to God:

2 Chronicles 20:12 “O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.”

Well, God dispatched the Holy Spirit to Jehoshaphat with this message:

2 Chronicles 20:15 “Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.”

In other words, God is going to win this battle for you and the size of your army doesn’t matter because, you see, God does great things with small things.

Isaiah 31:1 “Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord!”

What does he mean in that passage? Horses and chariots were great tools and resources and implements of war that were used by mighty armies, and Israel had a tendency if they weren’t careful to trust in those things. When they did, they were defeated. The armies around them were larger, more powerful and better equipped than the Israelites. When they won, it wasn’t because they were trusting in horses or chariots or whatever weapons that God might’ve placed in their hands at the time; they won because God was on their side. They were strong not because of their implements of war, but because of their heavenly captain.

Well, what does all of that have to do with us today? We’re not fighting any literal battles like the nation of Israel had to do way back then. God’s kingdom today is not a nation or a literal kingdom like the kingdom of Israel was. God’s economy has changed in that and other regards. But there is a great application of that principle, because in a spiritual sense, it is yet a day of small things. Consequently, there are many people who despise it. That is, they discount the work of God because it appears to the world to be small and insignificant. Sometimes people—even religious people, I hate to tell you—make fun of God’s way. They make fun of God’s plan of salvation. They ridicule the church. They may not think that they’re doing so, but by their arguments, they do. They mock the simple and scriptural New Testament worship of the church. They deride righteousness and holy living. Some refuse to accept the tenants of ‘primitive’ New Testament Christianity because they say it’s too simple, too primitive, too narrow, too dogmatic, too exclusive and not acceptable to the worldly and educated affluent crowd. In fact, you might say they’re ashamed of it. They think the church has to be something flashy and showy, and that we have to make it relevant to the carnal and worldly-minded people of our day. They think we have to make it impressive and palatable to the pagan culture around us. That’s why we have a lot of so-called “churches” today that are more like nightclubs than places of worship.

The apostle Paul wrote to a church that was situated in a place like that. Corinth was an affluent, educated, arrogant, sensually wicked city: in many respects, like our present culture. Those people—consequently even some in the church—looked down on Paul and they despised what he preached because it was ‘below them.’ All of God’s Word is as fresh as the morning dew, but the fact of the matter is that the book of I Corinthians especially is very applicable to our age today. Sometimes we get to thinking that the world is just so rotten and wicked and is worse by the day. Well, the Bible does say that evil men will wax worse and worse (2 Timothy 3:13), so that is true. But at the same time, our modern culture doesn’t have anything that they didn’t have in Corinth. Corinth was a very wicked, wicked city. The result of the lifestyles and the mindset of those in that city and how its pagan culture even influenced people in the church who had come out of sin and obeyed the gospel: they still had the influences of the culture out of which they had come. It was very tempting to them to see the gospel as foolishness, much like a lot of people today see it. In their minds, it couldn’t be right because someone so great as God wouldn’t inspire a man to preach something so simple and so crude. Listen to how Paul answered them.

1 Corinthians 1:25-28 “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:”

Now, why would God do that? Look at the next verse.

1 Corinthians 1:29 “That no flesh should glory in his presence.”

God, in other words, shows His strength by using our weakness. Our great and awesome God is found in the little things of life!

Allow me to ask you some questions. Do you attend a church congregation perhaps because of its size? Is that a big influential factor in your choice of where you go and assemble for worship? People say, “Oh, it must be right. Look at ALL of the people it attracts!”

Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

I remind you that Noah was in the overwhelming minority when he went INTO the ark, but he was certainly in the majority when he came OUT of it.

Another question: Do you attend a congregation because of the kind of people it attracts? Maybe there are doctors and professors and lawyers and noble people…sometimes that thought process even becomes a little subconscious. We get to thinking, “Those people down at that little church in the country or on the corner don’t amount to much. They can’t be right. Look at all of the successful, smart, educated and affluent people who attend here at the (fill in the blank).” Or, “Look at all of these culturally sophisticated and relevant people who attend this new cutting edge church in town. Surely, that’s what’s right!” Remember what Paul said:

1 Corinthians 1:26 “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise…”

The experts of Noah’s day scoffed and ridiculed him because of his doom and gloom predictions of rain and a flood. That boat that he was building looked ridiculous to them, and his theology was backwoods and unbelievable. But that’s not what they were saying when God shut the door of the ark and the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were opened up.

Maybe you attend a congregation because of its flashy and titillating worship. The strobe lights, fog machines, rock bands, coffee cafes and daycares and so on…that’s the appeal for you. “This must be where Jesus is because look at all of the excitement and the outpouring of emotion!” I remind you of what Jesus once said to a woman at a well:

John 4:22-24 “Ye worship ye know not what…But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

But, you see, to some people, a cappella singing isn’t enough. It’s not exciting. Yet that’s the kind of singing the early church offered in their worship to God.

Ephesians 5:19 “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;”

Colossians 3:16 “…teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

Simple and plain gospel preaching that convicts and instructs and edifies seems outdated, boring and irrelevant to some.

1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”

The simple observance of the Lord’s Supper, with one loaf of unleavened bread and one cup containing the fruit of the vine is base or even gross to many, even though Jesus said, when He used those very symbols as He instituted the very sacred feast with His disciples, “This do in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19, 1 Corinthians 11:24,25).

Do you attend a congregation because of its large, impressive building or facility? “God must be in here because it took millions of dollars to build it!” Yet Paul said that God doesn’t dwell in temples made with men’s hands (Acts 17:24).

On and on we could go. Listen to what Paul said about the church:

Ephesians 5:25-27 “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”

The church of Christ is a glorious thing! But its glory is not found in the size of its crowd. In fact, God is more likely to be found in a small handful of humble people than in a crowd of thousands of worldly, unsanctified even though ‘religious’ people. The glory of the church is not the social status of its crowd. Most of Jesus’ disciples were common and poor people even. The church’s glory is not in the size and opulence of its building. Many first-century congregations met in homes or even in places of hiding. The glory of the church is not found in any other standard or worldly measurement! The glory of Christ’s church is found in Christ Jesus Himself and in His truth, which His church believes and follows.

Elijah the prophet learned that lesson in a dramatic way. Remember what happened to him?

1 Kings 19:11-13 “And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave…”

The point of this passage is not about literal voices. God speaks to us through His word today—not through inner voices and so forth. But the principle is that God is not found in the things that people think He would be found in. For some reason, we always look for the BIG things: the BIG crowds, the BIG ministries, the BIG deeds with BIG impacts. But the religion of Christ, if you’ll look a little closer at the New Testament, is a religion of small things: one cup of cold water given in His name, two mites thrown into the temple treasury by a poor widow, a simple chat with one Samaritan woman at a well, a couple of loaves and a few fish…small things. But here’s the thing, as we have so often sung, little is much when God is in it! My friend, despise not the day of small things.

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Moses is a central figure in the word of God. He, of course, was a type or picture of the Lord Jesus, and God used him at a critical time in the history of His people, to deliver them from Egyptian bondage and to set them toward the land that God had promised their father Abraham, the land of Canaan. But, Moses’ life and his destiny really boiled down to one split second in time, and there are some decisions that we make in life that are just that critical and important. Moses made this decision, and it not only determined his destiny, but also the destiny of a nation, and in a sense, yours and mine as well. The Hebrew writer refers to this choice that we’re going to study today.

Hebrews 11:23-28 “By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.”

As I said, Moses’ destiny really came down to this great choice that the Hebrew writer is telling us about. Moses in this split second of time had to grapple with some major issues in his heart, and they are the same issues that confront you and me. We’re going to discuss four issues that we all must settle.

The life of Moses can be broken down into three distinct periods of forty years. The first forty years of his life, the formative years, were spent living as an Egyptian. Perhaps you remember the story of Moses’ birth. He was born during a time when the Pharaoh was very concerned about the Hebrews multiplying. They were enslaved to Egypt, and Pharaoh was concerned that their number would become so large and powerful that they could mount a revolt and break free. He didn’t want that, so he decided to have all of the baby boys born to the Hebrews executed. They were to be taken and thrown into the Nile River. But Amram and Jochebed had a little baby boy they named Moses, and the Bible says that he was a goodly child, a handsome baby. Jochebed could not bear the thought of giving her child up in death, so she hid Moses for a little while until she could hide him no longer. Then, that tender and famous scene unfolds where she takes the baby and puts him in a little homemade ark or cradle that she crafted, and takes him down amongst the reeds and the bulrushes and sets it afloat there at the edge of the Nile River. And she turns to go her way, thinking perhaps that she might never see her little boy again and wondering what would happen to little Moses.

While Jochebed went home, Moses’ sister stayed behind to see what would unfold. The princess of Egypt, the Pharaoh’s daughter, came down to the riverside to bathe, and something caught her eye. She saw that little ark floating there in the water and she dispatched her servants to go and get it. When they uncovered the child, Moses began to cry. That broke the heart of the princess. She fell in love with this little baby boy and she decided that she would adopt him to be her own. And so, Moses was taken into the palace of Pharaoh to be raised as royalty and to be the grandson of the Pharaoh as it were.

Well, during those formative years, by God’s providence, Jochebed—Moses’ own mother—was brought to the palace to serve as a nurse to the baby Moses. Reunited with her little boy! You can be assured that in those tender, impressionable years, she was whispering in his ear, “You’re not an Egyptian. You’re a Hebrew. We don’t worship the gods of the Egyptians here. We worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the one true and living God.”

Moses grew up and those lessons that his mother had instilled in his heart never left him, because one day when he was about forty years old and had had all of the luxuries of the palace and of Egypt at his disposal, while he was destined for great power and wealth and influence as an Egyptian, he ran across an Egyptian taskmaster beating one of Moses’ fellow Hebrews, a slave. Moses’ temper flashed, and he rose up in righteous indignation and slew that Egyptian and he buried him there in the sand.

Well, word got out, and Moses—in that very deed—was taking his stand with God’s people. In that one split second decision, Moses was denouncing his Egyptian heritage and embracing the heritage of his birth. He was embracing the God of the Hebrews. He was embracing the God of the Bible. Of course, Moses’ life became endangered because of that, and he went off into exile for a period of forty years. Finally, God brought him back to lead His people out of Egyptian bondage after that period of time, and with God working in him, he set the people free and marching toward the land of Canaan.

You know, in that very moment that Moses saw that Egyptian beating the Hebrew, that moment that he decided to rise up in indignation to kill the Egyptian and thus take his stand with God’s people, in that split second of time, Moses found himself at a very difficult crossroads in his life. His life could’ve gone in two very opposite directions. So, he faced a choice: he could remain in the palace of Pharaoh OR he could identify himself with the Hebrew people, thus serving the Lord. That may sound like an obvious decision, but the fact is, there were some major issues that had to be settled in the heart of Moses before he could truly make that choice.

So it is in the life of every person confronted with the gospel. The decision to be a child of God involves much more than just deciding to be baptized or to attend the services of the church. There are real issues that must be settled before any man or woman can really make that great decision of whether to live the Christian life. There are far too many people today who have never settled these issues in their own mind, thus they’re torn between Egypt and Canaan. Moses did not have that problem because he settled the issues at hand.

The first issue Moses had to settle was who he was.

Hebrews 11:24 “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;”

Essentially, that’s what Moses had known for the better part of forty years. He had grown up in the palace. He was considered the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, being adopted into the palace and into her family. Yet, when he comes to this critical point in life, he refuses to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He made a great choice and he settled the issue at this point in time, of who he was.

You know, Abraham once had to settle the same issue. The Bible pictures him as a sojourner who was ultimately looking for a city “whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10).

You recall that Joseph faced the same issue. He was raised in Egypt but he belonged in Canaan. Recall that at the end of his life, when he was old and near death, he gave instructions for his bones not to be left in Egypt, but carried back to Canaan with the Hebrews. Why? Because although he had spent all of that time in Egypt, in spite of all of the privileges and turns of event that had happened in his life, he knew who he was. He knew to whom he belonged and what his heritage was, what his legacy was. He didn’t want to be buried in Egypt. He wanted to be buried with God’s people.

Well, similarly, Moses was a man living in a foreign land who never forgot who he was and where he was really from. There are many who like to wear the name ‘Christian.’ They like to claim that their citizenship is in heaven; that is, they like to say that they’re going to heaven one day, but they don’t live much like their citizenship is in heaven. They refuse to sever the relationships of earth. Remember that Jesus said unless I hate father and mother, brother and sister that I cannot be His disciple (Luke 14:26). That doesn’t mean that I despise them in the sense that we think of hating people; what it means is that unless we come to understand that our relationship with God supersedes any other relationship, we can’t follow the Lord.

2 Corinthians 6:17-18 “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

You see, we’re in the world, but we’re not of it, and every person has to settle the issue of who he/she is because you cannot be the friend of the world and the friend of God at the same time (James 4:4, Luke 16:13). If you claim the name ‘Christian,’ do you remember who you are when you’re thrust into the middle of a worldly crowd? Do you remember who you are when you’re tempted to go places or do things or say things that are unholy? Do you remember who you are when you go to the closet to dress in the morning? Do you remember who you are when you’re alone among unbelievers and faith and righteousness are taunted and ridiculed? Have you settled that issue like Moses did?

There’s another issue, and that is the issue of life’s great reward.

Hebrews 11:25-26 “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.”

You know, to the worldly minded, Moses’ choice looked foolish and fanatical. Look at what Moses gave up! He gave up the power of a prince, the treasure of a very wealthy nation, the pleasures of living in a palace. At the time, Egypt was one of the great monarchies of the world. Her coffers were full of treasure. Moses could’ve had his hands on it ALL, but the golden dust of the nation and the crowns and diadems of the royal court did not corrupt his soul. Instead, Moses chose the rags of poverty. He chose the hard toil of slavery, the ill treatment of God’s people. The above passage tells us that Moses did this because “he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.” In other words, he considered what each life would really pay in the long run.

That’s one of the problems we have in this life, in exercising wisdom: we tend to look at the here and now. We look at what we think of as the short-term benefit instead of looking at the long-lasting and especially eternal ramifications of the choice that’s before us. You know, sometimes a job or a business deal or a real estate decision looks good at the time, but it isn’t such a good deal later on. There are a lot of people who buy into a lot of things in life, in their spiritual lives, that look good, but they will find out that it was NOT a good investment. So it is with our lives.

You know, first of all, in making this great determination about the rewards of life, Moses had to realize the cost of sin. He was very wise in that he understood that the pleasures that came along with Egypt and thus, the pleasures of sin, were only for a season. Mark this down: sin always promises one thing and delivers another. That’s the age-old deception of sin and it’s still as effective as it ever was. Think about it: what does sin do for a person? It might give you a good time for a few minutes or a few hours or a few days, but ultimately what does sin do for a person? It robs you of your health and happiness. David cheated with another man’s wife and conceived a child with Bathsheba, then murdered her husband in order to cover it all up. It didn’t take very long for David to come to regret that night of sin. Read Psalm 6 and you’ll see just how grieved and overwhelmed with remorse that David was, as a result of his sin.

Sin also makes promises that it won’t keep. Sin promised the prodigal son a life of freedom, autonomy and pleasure off in the far country. But what did it do? It left him in rags, feeding hogs, so hungry he could nearly die. Sin destroys your greatest possession and it leaves you with nothing.

Matthew 16:26 “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Are you throwing away the things that are really valuable in exchange for the things that will only bring disappointment and will one day turn to rust? You see, Moses settled that issue.

Moses also weighed the cost of serving God. Not only does it say that he realized the pleasures of sin were for a season, it says that Moses chose to suffer affliction. By rejecting the robes of royalty, Moses was choosing the sorrow of slavery, years of difficulty. Some live under the illusion that Christianity is easy when it is anything but. The Christian life requires sacrifice, consecration, dedication and self-denial. Yet, Moses saw that as “greater riches.” Moses is forgotten in Egypt. Think about it. There’s no sphinx carved in his image because he chose a different course. He may have been scorned in Egypt, but he’s honored in heaven. And when the great sphinx and pyramids of Egypt have crumbled to dust, men will still remember the faith of Moses. Moses settled the issue of life’s great reward.

Thirdly, Moses had to settle the issue of whom he feared.

Hebrews 11:27 “By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.”

He did not fear the wrath of the king. That’s saying something. You know, Pharaoh was a proud, fierce and hardened man as we come to see. He wasn’t about to relinquish his hold on the Hebrew people and allow them to leave. Moses knew that his relationship with the government of Egypt would instantly change, and that he would go from being the darling prince to becoming public enemy #1.

Now, I have news for you. If you’re a Christian, and I mean an all-out Christian, the world is NOT going to like the way you live. The world is not going to like what you say. In fact, the world is going to revile you for what you believe. We might have been a little spoiled, especially in the United States, for these past generations because we’ve lived in a culture where it was generally thought of as acceptable for a person to believe the Bible, to profess Christianity. But that is quickly changing in this culture in which we live. I can tell you, as it stands right now, if you truly live for the Lord Jesus Christ, the world is going to come down on you like a hammer.

2 Timothy 3:12 “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”

John 15:18-20 “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you…”

Jesus went on to say that they do it because they don’t know God. Friend, we’re living in a decisive age where the lines are clearly drawn. So the question is: do you fear the wrath of the world, or wrath of God? You’re going to have to make a decision where that is concerned. When you form convictions about moral, social and religious issues today, the question is, whom do you fear? You can’t fear both, and you can’t love both. Like Moses, you have to settle the issue of whom you fear and thus, whom you are going to follow.

Finally, Moses settled the issue of faithfulness.

Hebrews 11:28 “Through faith he kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.”

He endured, the Bible says. He went on the keep the Passover faithfully. It required faith to follow God’s instructions. Surely it was a frightening prediction that the angel of death would sweep through their land that night as Moses was told would happen. But Moses believed God. How strange to sprinkle blood on a door, but nonetheless Moses believed God, and he followed the Lord’s instruction. Does such describe your commitment and your fidelity to God? Have you settled those issues in your own heart and with the Lord? Have you determined to leave Egypt behind and head toward Canaan and not turn back?

Now, the people who Moses led were fickle. The people who Moses led grumbled and complained, especially when times got hard, and there were times when they pined for Egypt and the slavery even of Egypt! Can you believe it?! They wanted to go back! Not Moses. Moses didn’t say, “Well, I’m going to lead them out and we’ll go a little ways and see how it goes. We can always return.” No. Moses, when he made that decision that day, was setting his eyes on the prize and he was making a decision that he would be faithful and he would endure.

Perhaps you stand at a critical crossroads today: the decision between Jesus and heaven, or rejecting Jesus and eternal loss. That choice is yours to make, but it’s a choice that you MUST make. It’s an issue that you must settle. If you’re ready to repent of your sins, having believed in Jesus, you’re ready to confess that faith in Jesus and let somebody baptize you in water for the remission of your sins so the Lord can save you and add you to His church.

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It was nearing the Passover, and Jesus was ready to make His triumphal entry, as we call it, into the city of Jerusalem. At the summit of the Mount of Olives, a crowd had gathered as Jesus made His approach to Jerusalem on this particular Sunday on the back of a donkey. They welcomed and they hailed Him as the promised King, but a very different reception was awaiting Him inside the gates of the city. This would be the last mile of Jesus’ earthly life before His crucifixion. This was the final week and He knew what awaited Him at Jerusalem. Luke’s gospel sets the scene.

Luke 19:41 “And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it.”

Jesus could very well have wept over Himself and over His circumstances. He could’ve thought about His friends and disciples who would soon betray and desert Him, and wept over that. He could’ve thought about the unfair treatment He would soon receive, and had plenty of reason to weep. The horrors of the scourging and the crucifixion He would endure frightened Him as a man, and the thought of His heavenly Father leaving Him and turning His face away must’ve been weighing very heavily upon the mind of our Savior. But those weren’t the reasons that Jesus wept that day. Jesus looked out over Jerusalem and the Bible says that He “wept over it.”

The New Testament tells us about three occasions on which Jesus wept. We’re told about the day that Jesus wept tears of sympathy over the death of His dear friend, Lazarus. When word came to Him that Lazarus was sick and had died in the city of Bethany, Jesus went there to be with Mary and Martha, Lazarus’ family, and we’re told simply that, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). Now, Jesus knew that Lazarus would be all right. He went there to raise him from the dead. But when He saw their hearts filled with grief and bewilderment, he shed quiet tears of sympathy.

Then, we read about Jesus shedding tears of agony on the eve of His death. He went deep in the garden of Gethsemane and He wept tears of dread and sorrow. Luke vividly describes Jesus’ private moments, knowing what was ahead of Him.

Luke 22:44 “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly…”

The gospel writers don’t tell us that Jesus wept, but the writer of Hebrews does.

Hebrews 5:7 “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared…”

Those were hot and bitter tears, as Jesus shuddered to think of Calvary and the helplessness and abandonment that He would feel on the cross.

But there’s another time that Jesus wept. It should’ve been a great time for joy and triumph, but rather, it was a time for tears. The Lord was approaching the city of Jerusalem for His last week, the week of the cross, the week of His passion. Many miles, many miracles, many sermons, many memories were now behind Him, and with a great sense of determination, yet trepidation, Jesus sets His face toward Jerusalem and He prepares to make His royal entry into the holy city. We usually refer to it as His “triumphal entry.” Whereas a returning King would enter the city on the back of a warhorse in victory or celebration, Jesus, the prince of peace, enters on the back of a donkey. Kings and Generals might ride down a pathway strewn with flowers and ride beneath a golden banner, but there were no such things adorning the procession of Jesus on this day. A crowd of common people had gathered around Him. Many of them spread out their garments on the ground. Some broke off the branches of palm trees and laid out a path for the coming King to enter Jerusalem. That, consequently, made the Pharisees so mad that they could hardly stand it, and they told Jesus’ disciples to rebuke the crowd and make them stop (Luke 19:39). The people were crying out in celebration, praise and adulation as Jesus began this descent down the western slope of Olivet. Now, that would’ve provided a magnificent view. It was a wonderful panorama from that point of the beautiful city of Jerusalem and its temple. In fact, J.W. McGarvey and Philip Pendleton tell us that the summit of Olivet was about 200 feet in elevation above the nearest wall of Jerusalem and about 100 feet above the highest point in the city. So, Jesus could look down at all of Jerusalem like an open book. It must’ve been a stunning view! Then suddenly, the Bible tells us this:

Luke 19:41 “And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it.”

Scholars tell us that the verb “wept” here doesn’t mean that tears merely filled the eyes of Jesus and ran down His cheeks, like at the death of Lazarus. No. Rather, it means that He broke down and He sobbed. These were uncontrollable tears and convulsive sobs. Why? Jesus looks down and sees the city in a bright array. There was an air of excitement in the streets, as it was a time for Passover. Pilgrims from all over had come and filled the city. And there’s the temple, shining in the sun, the pride of Israel! It was breathtakingly beautiful, but Jesus weeps over it. When He looks down at the city and sees the houses, He sees them flattened and burned. When He sees that temple standing tall and glittering bright, He sees a heap of smoldering ruins. When He sees the people walking down the streets in Jerusalem, He actually sees the walking dead. He sees corpses brutally slaughtered. And when He looks down at the cobblestone pathways of that city that day, He actually sees rivers of blood, because He was looking into the future. He saw what the others did not, and could not see at the time, and He was so overcome that He burst into tears. I want to suggest some reasons why Jesus wept over Jerusalem, and consequently why Jesus must weep over many of us today.

First of all, I believe that Jesus wept over the spiritual condition of Jerusalem. When the Lord looked down at the city, He would’ve seen Mt. Moriah and Herod’s Temple. It was an architectural wonder. In fact, scholars wonder today how people of that time would’ve built such a thing. This was the second temple that was built, about 500 years before Jesus was born. The first temple was built by Solomon, and it was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. After some years in exile, some of the people were allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, but it paled in comparison to the first temple. But, shortly before the first century and the birth of our Savior, Herod set out to rebuild and renovate the temple. He wanted it to rival all of the temples of the ancient world. He spent a vast fortune and several decades dismantling and rebuilding it, and it was something to behold. The temple mount was built up and smoothed and massive walls surrounding the temple were built. The walls alone were huge, standing several stories high. The temple grounds would’ve covered the equivalent of several football fields, or about 35 acres. The temple building itself was made of massive and precious stones and was supported by columns or pillars, each of which was made of a single stone of polished marble, according to Josephus. It was, without a doubt, a breathtaking sight, as Jesus stands up on the slope of Olivet and sees it. But, He doesn’t see a beautiful house of worship. He sees a den of thieves. He would march into the courts of that temple the very next day, with eyes flaming with righteous indignation and He would cast those religious leaders out of that place for turning God’s house of prayer into a house of merchandise and corruption. The temple, the place where He, the promised Messiah, should’ve been most immediately recognized and worshipped, would instead be the seed of skepticism and the place where He would meet some of His fiercest opposition and rejection. It broke the heart of Jesus to see the temple of His father become such a place of corruption and false religion.

I would imagine that it grieves the Savior today, as He looks down from heaven and sees what ignorant and carnal men have done to His church: commercializing it, prostituting it, dividing it, perverting it. Make no mistake, we live in a day of counterfeit Christianity. We live in a day much like the Jews of old, where men have a form of godliness but they deny the power thereof, as Paul said would be the case (2 Timothy 3:5). Men have ignored Christ’s purpose, His plan, His mission for the church. They’ve turned it into something completely foreign to the pattern and teaching of the New Testament.

You know, Josephus tells us that there would’ve been as many as three million Jewish pilgrims in Jerusalem for the Passover. But Jesus didn’t see millions of people there repenting of their sins and seeking God. He saw people caught up in the superficial show of dead and meaningless and ineffectual religion. I mean, look at this very scene surrounding Jesus:

Luke 19:37-38 “And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.”

Do you realize this same crowd, who is here crying out, “Hail Him,” just five days later will be yelling, “Crucify Him!”? Jesus could see their hearts and He knew the hypocrisy and fickleness. He knew the ignorance and self-righteousness and the hard-heartedness that filled that city, and He couldn’t help but weep.

I believe there’s another reason that Jesus wept over that city. He saw their fleeting opportunity. Time was running out.

Luke 19:41-42 “And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it. Saying, if thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.”

What does He mean by that? He means that this should’ve been a jubilant time, because their King whom they had waited for hundreds and hundreds of years was now here! Their Messiah was standing here in their presence; the promised seed of Abraham was right before their eyes! If ever they should’ve believed and turned to God in repentance, it was now! They should’ve known all along, but especially NOW! After all, they had seen the miracles and acknowledged the great and mighty works that were done. They had seen the prophecy fulfilled. Here they were, headed into Jerusalem to observe the Passover like they had done for centuries, and who was the Passover all about? Jesus. He WAS their Passover, but they didn’t know it. This would be the golden opportunity of their lives, and they were absolutely blind to it. Jesus came to bring them peace with God, but instead, His peace would be met with their violence. His salvation would be met with their skepticism. Yes, they had been looking for Him for hundreds of years, and now were missing Him as He stood right before them. And now, it was a matter of days until they would commit the ultimate sin and crucify Him. If there was ever a time for them to repent, it was in these few days before they crucified Jesus, but their time of opportunity was almost up. The Jews, who should’ve been the first to receive Him, as a nation flatly rejected Him, and punishment awaited.

You know, God always gives a season of opportunity before He pours out His judgment. Always. Even when men are at their worst, God holds back His wrath and gives room for repentance. But God’s patience has a limit. Six hundred years before this incident, there was a weeping prophet just like the Lord Jesus, who came begging for God’s people to repent because the moments were precious; the sands of time were quickly slipping through the hourglass of God’s patience. Jeremiah wasn’t a ‘positive preacher.’ He preached to the people of Judah and warned them time and time again to repent or judgment would come. They wouldn’t listen to weeping Jeremiah, just like they didn’t listen to our weeping Savior. Finally, just as Jeremiah had warned, here came the Babylonians, who laid siege to Jerusalem and trapped the Jews inside. They literally sealed off the city and you know what happened? They starved. And with tears dripping from his cheeks, Jeremiah lamented over them and his words are haunting.

Jeremiah 8:20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”

What was he talking about? He literally meant that the city was surrounded by fields of ripened grain. There was plenty to eat, there was grain all around them, but they were starving. Their opportunity of harvest was gone. You see, the Babylonians had encircled the city and the Jews couldn’t get to the fields to harvest the grain. Starvation had set in, times became desperate. We’re told that mothers even cooked and ate their own children! God’s wrath and judgment was being poured out!

God had looked down in the days of Noah and said the following:

Genesis 6:3 “My spirit shall not always strive with man…”

That’s a warning to us today, as well.

Isaiah 55:6 “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.”

In other words, the harvest of life itself is passing away and we are not saved. You know, God opens a door of mercy before He closes it in judgment forever. We have enjoyed religious freedom in our part of the world for a long time. We ought to be ashamed. We have Bibles in abundance. We’ve had enough preaching to save the entire world a thousand times over, but what have we done with that opportunity? We’ve rejected the truth, gotten drunk on pleasure and pride. We’ve exchanged redemption for riches, and time is running out. Jesus now, six hundred years after Jeremiah, looks at that same city that would now, ultimately and finally reject Him to the point where they would murder Him, and He, like Jeremiah, weeps over it. He knows that time is running out. In what way was time running out?

Luke 19:43-44 “For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.”

Now, when Jesus said that, He was actually looking about forty years in the future, when one of the worst blood baths in human history would take place. Near the end of the Jewish war, the Roman Army, led by Titus, would surround the city and siege it and leave it in ruins. The secular Jewish historian, Josephus, paints the most chilling picture of what happened then. These people on the slope of Olivet who were leaping and dancing about Jesus on this day and shouting, “Hosanna, Hosanna,” Jesus knew that in just a little while, one million of them would be slaughtered by the Romans. They crucified Jews, we’re told, until they ran out of trees to crucify them upon! The blood ran down the streets like a river! That tall, beautiful, pristine temple that Jesus saw would be burned and toppled until not one stone was left upon another. That vista of beautiful Jerusalem with its lush gardens and trees would be turned into a desert when the Romans were finished with it. In a matter of a few months after Titus invaded it, that splendid city would be nothing more than smoldering ruins. Jesus would refer to it, as would Daniel, as “the abomination of desolation” (Matthew 24:15, Mark 13:14, Daniel 9). Jerusalem destroyed and the nation of Israel wiped away.

But did you know that not one single Christian died in the destruction of Jerusalem? They escaped. But 1.1 million Jews, who in that golden hour of opportunity rejected the Christ, died. Jesus wept over what was about to happen. It was a time for tears.

Mark it down. This world has a date with destruction. It’s not going to just keep going on and on and on forever. One day, it’s going to be judgment day. One day, the last grain of sand is going to sink through the hourglass of time and the world is going to meet the wrath of God. Now, Jesus doesn’t delight in that. He weeps over that. He weeps over your lost and undone condition today because He has given you a golden opportunity and you, perhaps, are wasting it. Judgment is coming.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

You don’t have to perish! But this world is bent on going to hell. It’s a time for tears. Fanny Crosby wrote that immortal gospel song:

Rescue the perishing, care for the dying. Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave.

Weep for the erring one, lift up the fallen. Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.