November 4, 2007

Genesis 37:29  -36
 Simply Do Nothing

Reuben was in misery. Curse the weakness that had not allowed him to stand up to the others in this matter of Joseph. Oh how horrible he felt and now, if he were to tell Father the truth, he would be as culpable as the rest. Better to let Father grieve and get over it than to be reminded constantly that his own sons had sold their brother into slavery.
And so he had remained silent, choosing just to let things go, what was the point anyway.

Now as he watched the continued sorrow of his father, he realized what he should have done from the very beginning. He should have said “This is sin and I will have no part of it. I will take the boy home and we will talk to Father about the problems but I will not allow you to harm him.”

How easy to think NOW about what he SHOULD have done.

Then instead of doing that he had tried to set up a situation in which Joseph was in a pit and he could come back and rescue him. He remembered the fear that had come over him as he returned and realized what the others had done.

Now he took all the blame, all the guilt and it ate at him. Would the God who sees ever make things  right? There was no use now in fretting over what was done though. Ah, if only he’d had the courage to act.

Micah 6:8 lays out a plain record of what God finds good and what it is that He requires of His children.   He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

It is a mark of our day that self-pleasing,self-centeredness takes the place quite often of other or God-centeredness.

Reuben could have acted to keep Joseph from prison and slavery, but he simply did nothing. Even when the father saw the robe Reuben could have said, “Father, he is not dead but on his way to Egypt in a caravan as a slave.” But he chose silence.

There are several fronts where we as Christians take stands and get active, we rally around a cause,use our political clout to elect or effect change. But in the one arena where we are told to shine,we have become dull.

I want to note a strange thing from scripture and see if it will prod our conscience a bit. First note An injunction of silence.

Mark 1: 40 -45 And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth [his] hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.  cleansed.
  
And he straitly charged him, and forthwith sent him away;
 
And saith unto him, See thou say nothing to any man: but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.   But he went out, and began to publish [it] much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in desert places: and they came to him from every quarter.

Mark 7: 31 -37 And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.   And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.   And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;    And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
 
And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.  And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published [it];     And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

In Mark 3: 12 we see that even the evil demons from the pit were unable to be silent about this great LORD    And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God.    And he straitly charged them that they should not make him known.

It is a puzzle to me how this works. When something good happens, I cannot Help but tell you. (Have I mentioned that I was a grandpa?)

I wonder how Jarius and his wife felt when Jesus came to their funeral service and sent the mourners away, then raised their 12 year old daughter to life and then said ...don’t tell anyone.

My wife likes to imagine that scene. The parent go outside and say to the remaining mourners and the crowd, “uh, the funerals off,we can’t say why but its off.”

Real honest to goodness good news is hard to suppress.

In the instance in Mark 1 with the leper, the man had been doomed. He had leprosy and it was rotting his body. Jesus came along and BOOM the disease and its effects were outa there . And he may actually have heard Jesus say “Don’t tell anyone OK?” But it obviously didn’t register. He took out an ad in the local paper,got on AP UPI and the internet and told EVERY ONE.

You see it was good news it was life instead of death and he couldn’t keep it to himself.

In Mark 7 we read that a man who was deaf and speechless was given speech and hearing. This is a fabulous miracle, he had never learned to speak and Jesus not only healed him, he taught him to speak. And then having taught him to speak he said be quiet. But listen, this guy was so filled with wonder at his new ability to speak that he could NOT keep his mouth shut.

You see if something wonderful takes place you can’t shut up about it.
Ok so Jesus gave An injunction of silence and people couldn’t keep quiet about it.

Now note that the next thing He gave was An imperative against silence.

Looking at Matthew 28 :we see a command, an imperative of our Lord, and it involves not silence abut Him, but speaking about Him. He tells us there to “  19  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, [even] unto the end of the world. Amen.”

And in Mr 16:15 .. he said to them, Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”

Now keep in mind when he said BE QUIET, the recipients of wonderful news had TROUBLE keeping quiet, now when we read this SPEAK UP we do just the opposite. We have clever ways around it too.

”That’s not my gift” We say. No it may not be BUT it is Jesus’ command to ME and to YOU. And we say “I don’t feel led” Funny Jesus didn’t say “wait ‘til you feel led” He just said GO AND TELL.

We live in an age when there is much emphasis on evidence of the Spirit. Much of it is contrived I am afraid, BUT WE AVOID the MAIN EVIDENCE and MAIN PURPOSE OF THE SPIRIT. Acts 1:8 ( You will be witnesses).

There is power and wonder there that will thrill your soul if you get committed to Christ.But we keep silence.

I think there are reasons for this, One is we are self centered and want an easy life and are not very committed disciples.

But the one I want to see here is one that would have caused Reuben to speak up if He’d have thought about it.

We saw the injunction to silence, the imperative against silence, and now we will look at a strong motivator,

THE IMPLICATIONS OF SILENCE.
One implication of silence is that nothing that great has happened. If you are not sure of your standing with God you will be reticent to talk about it.

If nothing has happened to you you can’t pass it on.
But there is another implication of silence; With Reuben it was the horrible condemnation of a brother into slavery and prison and the descent of his Father into misery. But with us it is far worse.

Conversion is a necessary, crucial message for this world.

The first reason  is that God created us for His glory. Isaiah 43:
 6 -7 ... bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;
 every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.

We were made to be prisms to reflect the light of God’s Glory.

He created us in His image so we would shine that image forth in the world. That puts a duty on EVERY person created to live for God’s glory. 1 Cor 10:31 “whether you eat or drink or whatever...you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

Glorifying God is the duty of all creation. Those who have heard the gospel,yes, but further, those who have only the witness of nature and their own conscience.Rom 1:20-21

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, [even] his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:    Because that, when they knew God, they glorified [him] not as God, neither were thankful
 
God will not judge a person for not performing a duty if that person had no access to knowledge of that duty. But even without the Bible people have access to the knowledge that we are created by God and depend on him for everything. Thus we owe him the gratitude and trust of our hearts.
 
BUT WE HAVE FAILED TO GLORIFY GOD AS WE OUGHT.Rom 3:23 says we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Romans 1:23 best explains rom. 3:23 It says that those who don’t glorify God “ became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image”

That is how we fall short of God’s glory we exchange it for something of lesser value. All sin comes from not putting supreme value on the glory of God.  That is the very essence of sin. And we all have sinned,none is righteous no not one (3:10).None of us has trusted as we should, none has felt the deep gratitude we should, none of us has obeyed him as we should. we have turned away from his commandments because we thought we knew better.

In this way we have held the glory of God in contempt. That's what sin does, though it hurts others its real destruction is the disdain for God. The Bible says that all sin is against God. David had Uriah killed and took his wife and God said in 2 Samuel 12:10&14 “You have utterly scorned the Lord.”

So we choose to sin and deeper than that we are sinful The Bible describes our hearts as Blind (2 Cor 4:4) and hard (Ezekiel 11:19;36:26)and Dead in Ephesians 2:15. Also as unable to submit to God in Romans 8:7-8. We are by nature the children of wrath (Eph 2:3)

Because we were created to glorify God,and because it is our duty to do that, and because we have failed to do that then (4)we are all subject to eternal condemnation by God. 7  And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,

8  In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 9  Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;

Having held the glory of God in contempt by ingratitude,and distrust and disobedience,we are sentenced to be excluded from the enjoyment of that glory forever and ever in the eternal misery of Hell.

The word for Hell (gehenna) occurs 12 times in the new testament. 11 of those times it is referred to by Jesus himself. It is no myth created by angry ministers. It is the solemn warning of the Son of God who died to deliver sinners from its curse.

Hell is a place of torment not just the absence of pleasure. It is not annihilation. Jesus repeatedly describes it as an experience of fire.Matt 5 22:whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

And in Matt 18: 9  And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast [it] from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

Mark 9:47-48  And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire:  Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

It is a place of torment but it is also everlasting. Not just a remedial place where you go to get purged.Matt 25:41&46 say

“ 41  Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:... 46  And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”

And John in Revelation 14:11 says that “the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever.

Jonathan Edwards shows why infinite and eternal punishment is just:

“The crime of being despising or holding contempt for another is by proportion greater or lesser crime according to the obligation of obedience. If we are under infinite obligation to anyone them to hold him in contempt is infinitely faulty.

Our obligation to love honor and obey any being is in proportion to his loveliness honorableness and authority.  God is infinitely lovely because he has infinite excellence and beauty.

So, sin against God,being a violation of infinite obligations, must be a crime infinitely heinous, and so deserving infinite punishment."

Listen, when every human stands before God on the day of judgment God will not have to use one sentence of scripture to show us our guilt and the appropriateness of our condemnation. He only needs to ask 3 questions

1)Was it not evident in nature that you had a creator to whom you owed all you have,life breath everything?

2)Didn’t the judicial sentiment of your heart always hold other people guilty when they lacked the gratitude they should have had in response to the things you did for them?

3)Has your life been filled with gratitude and trust toward me in proportion to my generosity and authority? Case closed.

When we understand the implications of our silence it will make us speak up will it not?  When we understand that the pit that our friends and neighbors must endure,the slavery and misery they must endure is eternal and tremendously horrible,will we not then speak?

Because what's needed is speech about this :Even though we all are sinners and fall short of the glory of God,In God’s great mercy he sent his son Jesus Christ, to save sinners by dying in their place on the cross. 1 Timothy 1:15 says “this is a faithful saying and worthy of full acceptance that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.”

So contrasted with the terrible news that we are under condemnation by the creator and that he is bound by his own righteous character to preserve the value or worth of his glory by pouring out eternal wrath on our sin,There is the wonderful news of the gospel. This truth is learned not through nature,it is learned as YOU tell it, as I tell it.

That Good news is that God himself has decreed a way to satisfy the demands of his own justice without condemning the whole human race. Hell is one way to settle accounts with sinners and uphold his justice.

But there is another way. Jesus Christ the perfect son of God,accepted the wrath of God against sinners on himself .(2 cor 5:21 but he made him to be sin...)

Romans 8:3 sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin he condemned sin  in the flesh) And whoever receives Jesus Christ, repents of his or her sins gains the benefits bought by Jesus’ Death on the cross.

Conversion is a repentance,a turning away from sin and unbelief, and faith,trusting in Christ alone for salvation.

Have you done that?

If you have, then you are to be a bearer of that good news.

Reuben remained silent when he should have spoken;

will you? Will I?

Think about that..Amen