Should God Reward You On Your Own Terms?
Mitch King (2022) . . . We have just completed two full years of the Corona virus pandemic. We have experienced, extended lock-downs, masking and double-masking, vaccinations, and now booster shots - all designed to combat one specific virus out of a multitude. My point is to consider what the world has done in its attempt to deal with a singular virus that has a survivability rate well into the 99th percentile for the vast majority of groups. Yet at the same time, the majority of people are ignoring a virus that has a staggering 100% death rate on the population - no one escapes the effect of this virus, but it is largely ignored and dismissed by multitudes. This virus or condition is sin and it is 100% deadly. Out of billions of people who have ever drawn breath on planet earth, only 2 persons - Enoch and Elijah did not experience physical death. Why is sin so deadly? Why does it affect every single person? Why do we have to die? Is there any hope for us when we die? Is there are cure for sin? If there is a cure, what is it? How do I get it?
Relevant Scripture
Isaiah 55:6-9 . . . Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
John 3:16-18 . . . “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
John 10:7-9 . . . Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.”
John 11:25 . . . Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.”
John 14:1-6 . . . “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that where I am you also may be. You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Romans 3:19-22 (NLT) . . . Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.
Cross at Carmel River Beach - Larry Ricksen
Pride Catechized
Excerpt from Charles Spurgeon Sermon Preached October 19, 1882
Job 34:33 . . . Should God then reward you on your terms, when you refuse to repent?
I am going to speak, this evening, to those who have a quarrel with God concerning the way of salvation. They are unwise not to take salvation just as God brings it to them; but they do not. They have some difficulty or other, so they raise a dispute, and they have been, perhaps for years, quibbling at the Savior whose infinite goodness has provided a way of salvation exactly adapted to their needs. I am going to use Elihu's words, and apply them to their case.
Well, then, if salvation is to be according to man’s mind, whose mind is to decide it, and on what day, and at what hour of the day is the verdict of that man’s mind to be taken? It is vacillating, changing like the moon, never twice in the same mood on the same day, so salvation cannot be according to our mind, for it would be chaos, it would be destruction, if that were the case.
I believe in the free agency of man as much as anyone who lives, but I equally believe in the eternal purpose of God. If you ask, “How do you reconcile those beliefs?” I answer—they have never been at variance yet, so there is no need to attempt to reconcile them. They are like two parallel lines, which will run side by side forever—man responsible because he does what he wills, and God infinitely glorious, achieving His own purposes, not only in the world of dead, inert matter, but also through those who are free agents, without changing them in the least degree, leaving them just as free as they ever were, He yet, in every jot and tittle, performs the eternal purpose of His will.
There are many who say, “It should be this, or it should not be that,” but they do not ask, “What saith the Scripture?” Yet that is the all-important point, for whatever you may say as to what it should be or should not be, makes no difference to God. He will take less notice of you and your opinion than you do of a gnat or a fly that flies about you on a summer’s evening. He is so infinitely great and good that any opposition you and I may think that we can raise against Him shall be less than nothing, and vanity. Shall twigs contend with fire, or wax with the flame? Shall nothing oppose itself to omnipotence? Shall the creature of a day attempt to wrestle with the Eternal? No, this cannot be, therefore God will have His way, and He will punish sin.
And further, my friends, though you may object to God’s way of salvation, others will be saved by it. Christ did not die in vain. He will rejoice in every one whom He purchased with His blood. He will not lose one of the jewels that are to deck His crown forever. You may strive against His kingdom, but that kingdom will come when He pleases. The King eternal, immortal, invisible, shall surely reign forever and ever, and Christ shall be glorified to the highest possible degree, whosoever may oppose Him.
Just once more, upon this point, let me say that God will certainly magnify His own name, whoever may oppose Him, “Whether thou refuse, or whether thou choose,” shall make no difference to Him. His grace comes like the dew, which tarries not for man, neither waits for the sons of men. Oftentimes, He is found by them that seek Him not, and to those who were not His people, He says, “Ye are my people,” thus magnifying His own amazing grace. Whoever may stand out against Him, He shall lack none of His honor and glory, world without end.
Learned men may dispute as much as they like about Him, but we bow humbly at His feet. We question nothing that He does, we believe it to be right even when we do not understand it, and it is our hope that others will do the same, but if they will not, it will not affect our own decision.
Conceit Rebuked
Excerpt from Charles Spurgeon Sermon Preached July 5, 1877
Should everything be arranged just to suit your whims and wishes? Should everything in the world be fashioned according to your taste, and the whole globe revolve just to serve your turn, and please your fancy? Should it be according to your mind?
First, there are some people who would have God Himself according to their mind. Now, as a matter of fact, all that I can know of God I must learn from God revealing Himself to me. I cannot discover Him by myself, He must unveil Himself to me, and that He has done in Holy Scripture. All that He intends us to know about Himself, He has revealed in the written Word and in the Incarnate Word, His ever-blessed Son.
The true God—the God of Scripture—thus revealed Himself to His ancient people, “I am the LORD thy God, which have brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” This God is our God, “the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” “the God of the whole earth shall he be called.” Many a man refuses to accept this God as his, but I would like to ask him, “Should God be according to your mind?”
That would be a strange god indeed. Should He have no other attributes but such as you would give to Him? Should His character and conduct be only such as you can comprehend and justify? Must there be nothing in Him that shall puzzle you? Are there to be no divine deeps that shall be beyond the reach of your finite mind? Are there to be no heights beyond your power to soar? That is what seems to be your notion, and if there is anything that staggers you a little, you say, “I cannot believe it.” If it were possible, you would eliminate from the character of God everything that is stern and frightful, though these attributes clearly appertain to the Most High as He has been pleased to reveal Himself in Scripture.
I beg you, dear friends, never to attempt to mold the character of God with the fingers of your own fancy. Worship Him just as He is, though you cannot comprehend Him. Believe in Him as He reveals Himself, and never imagine that you could, by making any change in Him, effect an improvement in Him.
By toning down His justice, you think that you are increasing His love, and by denying His righteous vengeance, you imagine that you are honoring His goodness, but instead of doing so, by the removal of these things which alarm and annoy you, you would take away part of God’s grandeur and strength which make His goodness and His mercy shine so brightly. Leave God just as He is, remembering how He has said, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” The infinite God must be past finding out by the creatures whom He has made.
I confess that it is one of my greatest joys to find myself completely baffled when I am trying to comprehend the character of God. Sometimes, when I have tried to preach upon the deity of Christ, I have been staggered under the burden of that stupendous truth, and I have felt the utter uselessness and poverty of human language to describe our great and terrible yet loving Lord, and I have been glad to have it so, for verily, God is altogether above our comprehension. None of us can speak of Him as He deserves to be spoken of, but never let us try in any way to diminish His glorious perfections.
Well, beloved, after all, “should it be according to your mind?” Will you, like Jonah, sit pining, and mourning, and complaining? Does not the eternal Ruler understand the politics of nations, and the best way of governing the world, infinitely better than you do? Do you not attempt to drive the horses of the sun. Don’t you realize your puny hands are unfit for so tremendous a task as that? Leave all things with God, as all things are ordered well by Him.
There are some who carry this difference between them and God into another sphere, for they do not approve of the Gospel as it is taught in the Bible. You know that the Gospel, as revealed in the New Testament, is so simple that a child can understand it, and you may go and teach it to the poorest and the most illiterate, and many of them will leap at it, and grasp it at once.
But there are others who think that it should be something which is much more difficult to understand, something which would need a higher order of intellect than the common people possess. Do you really think so, my dear friend? “Should it be according to your mind?” Would you shut out the poor, and the needy, and the illiterate from the privileges of the Gospel, and keep them to yourself, and to a few others who have been highly educated?
We have known some people take a text of Scripture, and because it did not square with the system in which they were brought up, they tried to cut it down to make it fit in with their notions, but sirs, is not the Gospel grander than any of our comprehension of it? Are there not in it great truths that cannot be cut down to fit any system that the human mind can make? And ought we not to be thoroughly glad that it is so? For, surely, it is better that the Gospel should be according to God’s mind than that it should be according to the mind of Toplady, or the mind of Wesley, or the mind of Calvin, or the mind of Arminius! The mind of God is greater than all the minds of men, so let all men leave the Gospel just as God has delivered it unto us.
“Should it be according to your mind?” Then there would be universal strife. If this were the case, think what a terrible condition the church of God, and the world too, would soon be brought into, because, if it were according to your mind, why should it not be according to my mind, or according to the mind of every other body? Then what chaos, what confusion there would be! How would the world be managed if you, and I, and fifty others, each one with a different mind from all the rest, must have it according to our minds?
Should it be according to your mind? “No, Lord never let it be so except when you have made my mind to be filled with Your mind, and then it shall be well.” “I always have my way,” said a holy man. “How is that?” asked one who heard him, and the good man replied, “Because God’s way is my way.” “I always have my will,” said another, and he gave a similar explanation, “because it is my will that God should have His will.” When God’s will gets to be your will, then it may be according to your mind, but not till then, thank God, not till then.
I know that I have been speaking to some who do not love the Lord. I wonder what it is that keeps them where they now are—out of Christ. You want something to be altered, you say. Well, ask the Lord to alter you, for that is the alteration that is needed. The plan of salvation does not quite suit you. Well, there will never be another. Does not Jesus Christ please you? God will never lay another foundation for a sinner to build his hopes upon, so you had better be pleased with God’s way, and build upon Christ Jesus, the sure foundation stone.
He says that whosoever believes on the Lord Jesus Christ shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life. May the Eternal Spirit bring you now to believe in the Lord Jesus, and if you do so believe, you shall be saved at once. But do not think that the plan of salvation will be altered to please you. It will not be made according to your mind. This is the Gospel, have it or leave it, but change it you cannot. May the Lord grant that you may accept it, and rejoice in it, for His dear Son’s sake! Amen.