David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die.” 2Sam 12:13.

            I imagine you recognize the above scripture.  David’s statement immediately follows Nathan’s indictment, “Thou art the man.”  But do you know what immediately follows David’s confession?

            Because God through Nathan declares that David’s punishment will be the death of his child, David immediately begins a week long vigil asking God to spare his son.  “Who knows,” he says, “whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live?”

            How many times have you found yourself sorrowing over a sin in your life, even after a heartfelt repentance, but then felt it presumptuous to even ask God for the smallest thing in your prayers that same day?  How many times have you said, “Not now.  I need to show some real fruit of repentance before I ask God for anything at all.”   How many times have you thought, “Surely He won’t listen to me yet?”  Or even worse, “How can God forgive me?”

            David knew better than that.  He not only recognized his sin and his utter unworthiness (Psalms 32 and 51), he recognized the riches of God’s grace.  We may sing about “Amazing Grace,” but David knew about it.  Maybe it takes just as much faith to believe about grace as it does to believe in God.  I know this:  if you deny that God will forgive you and answer your prayers, you may as well deny Him.
 
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Eph 2:4-7
 
Dene Ward

As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. Gen 19:15-16
 
              Here the Lord offers salvation to Lot who, by what we have previously seen, truly believes in the coming destruction and truly hates the sin in Sodom.  But what does he do?  “He lingers…”  And finally, and only because God is merciful and that probably because of Abraham (Gen 19:29), the angels grabbed them all by the hands and pulled them out of the city. 

              How many times do we linger where we have no business being, even after we know we should be gone?  Sin has a pull of its own, and if God were not pulling in the opposite direction, many of us would be gone without a fight.

              But we have talked much about sin in this short series.  How about things that are not necessarily sins?  How about those resolutions we make, not just at the New Year’s dawn, but when suddenly we realize we are not what we should be?  When a lesson suddenly slaps us in the face and we recognize our failures.  How many times have I heard things like, “I am going to start studying more.  In fact, I am going to come to your classes.”  But when reality hits, when they find out it takes work and commitment and maybe canceling a few other things that are a lot more fun, suddenly it is not a priority.

              Most of the members of my classes are older women.  Don’t tell me, “Well, they have the time.”  When we started this class almost thirty years ago, they were the young women with families, and some had jobs too.  Yet they also had their priorities in order.  It is as simple, and as damning, as that.
​
              So you need to make a change of some kind, be it more study, more prayer, more service, or some other neglected virtue.  Then make it, but recognize from the get-go that you will have to leave some things behind in order to make the time.  Don’t “linger” in Sodom.  It will only make the transition more difficult. Jump in with both feet, whatever the change you want to make, and don’t look back.  Before long you will love the new you.
 
When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies; I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments. Ps 119:59-60
 
Dene Ward

So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting. Gen 19:14
 
            “And the second is like unto the first,” as the scripture says in another place.  Lot told his sons-in-law of the coming destruction and they laughed in his face.  I can just hear them saying, “Are you crazy, old man?” 

            And that is not the first time that accusation was wielded.  Noah comes to mind.  Maybe this reaction is even older than the one we discussed last time.  Peter warns against it in 2 Peter 3.  “Mockers” will come and make fun of your belief in a final judgment and the end of the world.  Any time you preach something that demands accountability of the sinner, you are a lunatic, an old fuddy-duddy, a spoilsport, a prude, or any of a dozen more rude epithets.  It is yet another universal and timeless attitude, another instance in which we are living in Sodom today.

           But we can ask the same question we did last time.  Has anyone called me those names lately?  Have I talked about God, my Lord, my salvation, my church family, and my hope of Heaven enough that it bothers them?  Have I mentioned Hell at all?

           God expects people to know who we are.  He does not want us hiding in plain sight.  What is important to us should be in our hearts and on our tongues.  Maybe that is the problem:  those things are not really that important to us.  Our faith is an embarrassment.  Remember what Jesus had to say about that?
​
So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. Matt 10:32-33.

           At least Lot acknowledged God, the reality of His authority over us, and our accountability to Him in the coming destruction to those sinful people.  Do we?
 
Dene Ward

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Eccl 1:9
 
           I was reading through Genesis 19 preparing for a class on Lot’s wife and daughters when suddenly the verse above sprang to mind.  Over and over I saw things I have seen all my life and the thought came unbidden, “We are living in Sodom.” 

            No, I was not thinking about modern issues.  None of the things that I noticed in the text that afternoon had anything to do with that, at least not specifically.  In fact, the things I noticed had been happening through my entire life, even as far back as the 1960s when everyone thinks we were still innocent and relatively godly.  Let’s see if you see what I did.
 
Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly…But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge!” Gen 19:6-9
 
           Whenever any moral issue comes up, if you express any sort of disapproval--even if all you do is refuse to participate—suddenly you are accused of “judging.”  Never mind that is exactly what is done to you by this accusation.  That does not matter.  It happened all those thousands of years ago and it happens now.  People have not changed.  If you behave differently than others, you are “judging.”  No one can tolerate being seen as less than righteous, even when righteousness is the last thing on their minds.

            Since it is such a universal, and timeless, reaction, maybe we should ask ourselves this:  Has anyone accused me of being judgmental lately?  If not, why not?  Is it just that I only associate with Christians, with good moral friends and neighbors?  Or is it that I have not expressed any disapproval lately, nor refused to participate, whether it be in gossip, slander, drinking, pornography, foul language, immodest dress, or any other acts a Christian needs to abhor. 
 
           Paul said:  and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them; Eph 5:11.  We do a whole lot better with the first half of that command than the last.  I think it is because we do not want even the mild persecution that comes along with it.  We want to be liked—by the world.  We don’t want to be accused of “judging.”

           Even “righteous Lot” was accused of judging.  Peter says he “was greatly distressed by the conduct of the wicked” (2 Pet 2:7).  Given the rest of his life, do we really want to be viewed as less righteous than he?
 
Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful: who, knowing the ordinance of God, that they that practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also consent with them that practice them. Rom 1:29-32
 
Dene Ward

He never gets any attention; she gets it all.  Any sacrifice on his part is not mentioned.  Any responsibility placed on his shoulders is not recognized.  You would think he was unnecessary to the plan, but you would be wrong.

            In a Jewish family, the man was definitely the head of the house.  He was responsible not only for providing for his family, but for their protection and their religious upbringing. This man did it all, without complaint and without receiving any glory, other than an almost casual mention.  He evidently died young and never even saw the promise come to pass, even after a lifetime of bearing ridicule or shame, depending upon who was talking about him, in order to help it happen.

            Like another Joseph before him he was the son of Jacob (Matt 1:16).  He thought he had chosen well, a young lady--very young by our standards--from a good family, also in the lineage of David.  The kiddushin had begun, the year of betrothal, and suddenly his world turned upside down.  His wife, for so his betrothed one was called though they as yet were not married, had turned up pregnant, at least three months by the time he found out.  Now what?

            He was a kind man who would not shame her, so he was ready to seek a quiet divorce (1:19), the only way to end a betrothal.  But God sent the angel Gabriel to reassure him.  Mary was not lying, she was not hallucinating.  She really was pregnant, but not by another man.  She had not been unfaithful to him.  God was the father of this unborn child, and he was putting that child’s safety and well-being into the hands of Joseph.

            So Joseph was faced with this horrible shame for the rest of his life.  Either people would think he had no self-control, that he and Mary had committed fornication as many were still saying thirty-three years later (John 8:41), or they would think he was a cuckold, too weak to put her away.  Joseph could have been consumed with pride in either case and simply said no, but he didn’t.  He took Mary as his wife.

            Almost immediately he found himself in danger of King Herod, a cruel and ruthless man who had no problem killing his own sons, much less someone else’s.  Joseph found himself fleeing to a land several hundred miles distant to save the life of a child that not only delayed his marriage but put his own life in danger, a child that was not even his.  Yet he fulfilled his duty to protect and provide, finally returning to his home town Nazareth, where all the gossips lived, and working his whole life to provide food, clothing, and shelter, and teaching this child a trade, just as if he were his own.  Somehow he managed to overlook the problems this woman had caused him, and raised a large family with her, at least four more sons and uncounted daughters (Mark 6:3).

            They tell women that men have fragile egos, that we should be careful of the things we say and do, things that might make him feel less a man.  No one watched out for Joseph’s ego.  He took it all, evidently without a word, simply because he was a righteous man who lived by faith.  He fulfilled his duty, never expecting and never receiving any glory in this life.  He took care of a child who changed the world.  He kept him safe, and helped raise him to be able to fulfill his own duty, one even harder than Joseph’s. 

            We often point out the great humility of Jesus.  Seems to me he “got it honest” as we so often say.  He had a great example in his “father.”  What kind of example are you leaving your children—that of someone who needs praise in order to feel manly, or someone who simply fulfills the obligations God has laid on his shoulders, regardless the inconvenience and pain, and whether anyone else notices or not?
 
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned, Rom 12:3.
 
Dene Ward

Sometimes the people who become involved in prison ministries are too idealistic.  They wind up being taken advantage of by the very people they are trying to save, usually because those people see that idealism and know exactly how to exploit it.  Either those idealists become disenchanted and leave the field entirely, or they learn a little pragmatism—they become adept at recognizing the signs and usually avoid being manipulated.  Keith has been working with convicted felons for a long time, so he knows exactly how to deal with them.  First as a probation officer, then a classifications officer, and now as a volunteer Bible class teacher, he has learned to read his audience fairly well.

            “But has all this work ever resulted in anything good?” someone asked once.

            Well, besides the lives that he has influenced for the better, the young men who have learned a little self-discipline and gotten good jobs and become good citizens—and there were a few—besides that, we are worshipping with one of them right now.  You should see the surprised looks when I mention that.

            And here is the thing that might surprise you more.  The larger problem when this happens is wondering how the brethren will receive such a one.  In one place we lived, the church found out we might possibly have a newly released, and newly baptized, ex-convict among us and they were not happy at all.  We heard comments ranging from, “I won’t ever allow myself to be alone with him,” to, “I don’t want him around my children.”

            Reminds me a little of Acts 9:26:  And when he was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: and they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.  Yes, a murderer had come into their midst and they didn’t want to have anything to do with him.  In fact, this man had seen to the deaths of their very own friends and relatives.  Their fear and loathing sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?

            But not to Barnabas.  He took that man around and assured everyone that he had changed.  Did he know him better than they?  Not that I can tell from any reading I’ve ever found.  He did not know Saul of Tarsus from Levi of Persepolis.  What he did know was his Savior and the power of his gospel.  For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes… Rom 1:16.

            And the more our culture becomes like the culture of that time, the more likely that we will not be dealing with upstanding middle class nuclear families when we evangelize, but with people who come to us with immoral backgrounds, with addictions, and with criminal records.  Or know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you… 1Cor 6:9-11.

            And it will be up to us to show them that we truly believe the rest of that citation:  but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. 

            We talk a good fight when we talk about “God saving me, the sinner,” and how we don’t deserve our salvation and need the grace of God, “just like everyone else.”  But too often there is an exception clause in our thinking.  The Lord has made it perfectly clear through his brother James, murder equals adultery equals prejudice (James 2:8-11).  The same law says they are all sin.  None of us will be a step ahead of our brothers with convictions on their records when we stand before God.  We have all been washed, sanctified and justified, and we will all be judged “as we judge others.”
 
For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Jas 2:13
 
Dene Ward

You know the story so I won’t go into much detail here.  Pharaoh had ordered the Hebrew baby boys killed and one mother had enough faith to put her infant in a lovingly woven and waterproofed basket in the Nile River.  Pharaoh’s daughter came to the river to bathe and found him, and his alert and very smart big sister offered to get him a Hebrew nurse—one who just happened to be his mother.
 
           And so Moses was raised by two mothers.  Jochebed kept him close to her those first years, probably as many as five to eight, before she weaned him.  But nursing was not all she did.  She taught him who he was, who his people were, and who his God was.  She did an amazing job.  In those few years she made him strong enough to stand against the temptations of wealth the like of which we have probably never seen.  And that wealth was not just contrasted with poverty, but with some of the most oppressive slavery imaginable. 

            After that Moses lived in the palace with his “foster” mother for thirty years or more.  She undoubtedly lavished him with luxury and provided him with one of the best secular educations of the time.  Just look at the pyramids if you think those people were ignorant.  He became so much an Egyptian that he even looked like one (Ex 2:19).

            So here is our point today:  Which mother am I?  Do I check on their schoolwork, but never make sure their Bible lessons are done?  Do I even know if they have their lesson book and Bible with them when we leave the house Sunday morning?  Do I teach them how to make a budget and live within their means, but never teach them how to make time for prayer and Bible study?  Do I make sure they get to school but actually give them a choice about whether they go to church or not?  Do I teach them the social etiquette of what to wear at which occasion but never teach them about modesty?  Do I teach them the Bill of Rights but never talk about giving up those rights for the sake of the gospel and peoples’ souls?  Do I teach them to save for their financial security but never teach how to keep their souls secure?

            Your child knows what you think is most important.  He will take his cue from you.  Are you a Pharaoh’s daughter or a Jochebed?
 
By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he looked unto the recompense of reward. Heb 11:24-26
 
Dene Ward

He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first, Gen 28:19.

            Jacob had just wakened from his dream of a ladder.  God had earlier confirmed the blessing on him that his father Isaac had given him by mistake, proving that while Isaac might have been blind, God certainly was not—the right son received the blessing.  And so Jacob called that place “Beth-el,” the house of God.

            Fast forward several centuries and Hosea goes to Bethel, where Jeroboam I had set up one of his golden calves by which the people could worship Jehovah, “the god who brought you out of Egypt.”  At this point most of them weren’t even pretending to worship Jehovah any longer.  This was full-fledged idolatry.  Hosea refused any longer to call it “Bethel.”

            …Enter not into Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-aven, and swear not, “As the LORD lives.” Hos 4:15.

            Three times Hosea addresses the place that way.  It was no longer “the house of God.”  It was instead “the house of vanity,” or deception, or iniquity, or evil, or several other translated words, all of which made Hosea’s point quite plain.  Bethel was supposed to be a description of who was worshipped, adored, respected, and revered in that place, and it no longer qualified.  Instead of “Beth-el,” it had become “Beth-aven.”

            So let’s think about this today.  We use a similar description for ourselves:  “church of Christ.”  That means we belong to Christ, we obey him, we worship him, his is the opinion that counts, not ours.  Can you still say that about the group you are a member of?  Or has it become a social group with its own rules and its own “politics?”  Has it become a place where men get together and vote on things that have nothing to do with the mission Jesus left his disciples to complete?  Can you find authority--His authority—for everything you do?  Jesus himself said in Matthew 20 that authority can only come from two places—God or man, and his acceptance of that proves that he expected you to have it.

            Too many times we ask the wrong question:  what is a church of Christ?  The question we ought to be asking is this:  when is a church of Christ?  Is it time to change the sign on your door?
 
And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Eph 1:22-23
 
Dene Ward

Was there ever a church with as many problems as Corinth?  We can easily make excuses for them.  Corinth was one of the most sinful cities in the world at the time.  In fact, “Corinthian” was an adjective describing a licentious lifestyle.  Certainly it was difficult to be a Christian in such an environment.  I have said before that if a person could remain pure in that city at that time, anyone can live a pure life today.
            Yet the apostle Paul obviously expected more out of them, and he told them their faults plainly. 
            They were factious (1:10-14); they were carnal and immature (3:1-3); they were arrogant (3:18,19; 8:10); they were selfish (6:7; 14:26-33).  They had little regard for one another and put their own interests ahead of the mission God gave them as His people (6:5-8; 8:9-13).  They glorified sin in their presence instead of removing its leavening influence so their worship could be pure before God (chapter 5).  They even corrupted the memorial meal that should have unified them, reminding them that they all came from the same humbling circumstance of sin, dependent solely on the grace of God for their salvation, (11:17-34).
            Yet despite all this, how does Paul end that first letter of rebuke?  With hope.  Yes, they had been “fornicators…idolaters…adulterers…effeminate…abusers of themselves with men…thieves…covetous…drunkards…revilers…extortioners,” but they had also been “washed…sanctified…justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (6:9-11).  Paul scolds them over and over, but he ends with the hope that they could change their lives, overcome their problems, and be “raised incorruptible” on that final day (15:52).
            Paul told even these bad boys and girls of the New Testament that they could live righteously and inherit eternal life.  Doesn’t it make you stop and think a minute before you consign someone to Hell by refusing them the opportunity to even hear the gospel because of their sinful, problem-filled lives?  Doesn’t it make you cringe a little at how carelessly we label congregations of God’s people “sound” and “unsound?”  And most important of all, doesn’t it give you hope when you fall yet again and have to pick yourself up and repent?
            Most of us would have simply bypassed Corinth if we had been making Paul’s itinerary for him.  To paraphrase Nathanael, “Can any good thing come out of Corinth?”  Yet Paul knew that where there is the greatest need, there will be the greatest response.  It may be tough going.  It may be that these folks will be “high maintenance Christians,” people who need a little more help, a little more support, and a whole lot more of our time, but who is to say that one soul is worth more than another?  We all stand before God as helpless sinners.
            And God holds out for us the same hope he gave those early Christians who had to fight their upbringing in a libertine culture even worse than ours. 
            O death where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Wherefore my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not vain in the Lord, 1 Cor 15:55-58.
 
Dene Ward

I learned a long time ago that any position of authority comes with more responsibility than the right to wear the title is worth.  As head of the string section of our district competition, having to deal with teachers who would stalk the judges if their students did not get the ratings they thought they deserved (anything less than a superior regardless how they performed), I had to learn how to confront those same teachers while cajoling judges to return even after the word had spread about the unprofessional behavior in our district.  I had to deal with parents who wanted their child to be the exception to every rule.  I had to decide when an exception was truly warranted and when it wasn’t, then live with the flak my decision caused. 

            When I was appointed head of the vocal department for the state competition, things just got worse.  Everyone knew how to do my job better than I did, even if they had never had a voice lesson in their lives.  They might think that diphthongs were women’s underwear, but they could judge a voice better than a man with a doctorate in vocal performance and 20 years experience on the stage.

            The more authority you have, the more responsibility you have, and the more troubles are laid at your door.  Anyone who goes around looking for it had better love the cause since s/he will get far more grief than s/he ever bargained for.  And that is only right because headship is not about privilege; it is about doing what is best for those in your charge, even when it isn’t what you really want to do.

            Miriam forgot that.  Miriam found herself leader of those Israelite women who fled Egypt along with their men.  After the victory at the Red Sea, she led them in song, praising God for their victory.  God also made her one of His prophetesses.  Micah makes it plain that God considered her a leader:  For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage; and I sent before you Moses, and Aaron, and Miriam, (6:4).

            But Miriam was not happy with her calling.  In Numbers 12:2 she and Aaron came before God and dared to say, Has Jehovah indeed spoken only with Moses?  Has he not also spoken with us?  Notice in verse 1 that Miriam’s name is listed first, which usually means something in the scriptures.  In addition I found at least one commentary that says the literal Hebrew in that verse is, “And she spake, Miriam and Aaron, against Moses,” making it clear that Miriam was the ringleader of this little rebellion.

            Miriam was not satisfied with the place of honor God gave her—it wasn’t enough.  She could tell that God held Moses in higher esteem, even than her brother Aaron, and she was not happy about it.  Yet she had proved that she was not capable of handling the responsibilities of the job.

            In Exodus 32, when Moses left the people in her and Aaron’s charge, she allowed them to make the golden calf.  How did she allow it?  By saying nothing.  As a leader she should have spoken out against their sin.  God expects that of any leader, and she failed miserably.  No, Aaron did not do any better, but then was he the one who complained in Numbers 12?  No, he just went right along with it like he did in Exodus 32.  Nothing about Aaron changed from one time to the next.  Miriam’s complete failure to even try to stem the tide of idolatry at the foot of Mt Sinai showed her unfit to be a leader of God’s people.  For her to then come along and demand that position in Numbers 12 showed that she wasn’t even perceptive enough to see her own failures, much less lead a group that failed over and over in the years that followed.  It also shows that she sought the honor rather than the responsibility of leadership.

            So what does God expect of us? 

            How does a man react to his selection as an elder?  Does he follow the path of least resistance when it is time to make a decision?  Does he avoid making a decision at all, hoping to dodge unpleasant consequences?  Or does he make the tough decisions that are best for the good of those he shepherds, even knowing it will cause him problems with those same people?

            How does a man handle the headship of his family?  Is it all about getting to do things his way, and only his way?  Is it about telling everyone else what they should be doing, while sitting around being waited on?  Or does he do what is best for each member of his family, even if it makes more work and worry for him?  Does he understand that God holds him accountable for the success or failure of his family?

            How about an older woman in the church, in a family, in a community?  Does she stand for the truth in whatever capacity she finds herself?  Is she strong enough to do right even when it isn’t popular, or when it causes her personal pain?  Can she remove herself and her feelings far enough from a situation to see the problems and help solve them, even if it means others will disagree?  Can she stand for the truth even when it breaks her heart?

            Too many people desire the perks and not the works.  Jesus came looking for servants at every level, not just the bottom rung of the ladder, and those servants are judged by the deeds they do, not the glory they receive from men.  Be careful what you wish for.
 
Likewise you younger, be subject to the elder.  Yea all of you gird yourselves with humility that you may serve one another.  For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble 1 Pet 5:5.
 
Dene Ward