“On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: Ask the priests about the law: “If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?”’ The priests answered and said, ‘No.’ Then Haggai said, ‘If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?’ The priests answered and said, ‘It does become unclean.’ Then Haggai answered and said, ‘So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the LORD, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean. Now then, consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the LORD, how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the LORD. Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid, consider: Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you.’” [1]
When I first began working on this message, last December, I was suffering with a severe flu. My wife was not eager to share my illness, so she carefully avoided touching anything that might be contaminated. She wiped counter surfaces with disinfectant, even going so far as to wipe down the channel changer if I had handled it. She refused to allow me to do any cooking, something I truly enjoy doing, lest I inadvertently sneeze on the food and contaminate her. Actually, she was being quite sensible, acting as would anyone concerned for their own health.
We do all we can to avoid catching a virus, don’t we? In modern society, we are trained to avoid shaking hands during the cold and flu season. Instead, we touch elbows, admittedly a weird action, but necessitated by the fact that we recognise that colds and flus are communicable. We have been introduced to “social distancing.” Talk about keeping people at arms length! You can come to within six feet of me, and no farther. We wipe down the bathroom and kitchen counters, using chemicals which will kill “99% of the viruses that cause colds and flus.”
Though we seldom articulate the principles involved in our actions, the principles are biblical, though few would know that. The message today is an appeal to reason, an appeal to common sense, if you will. If what we shall be considering this morning is not common sense, then, surely it qualifies as biblically sensible. The question raised by the message is simple—can one catch health. I’ve phrased the question in this way: If I can catch the coronavirus, can I catch health? The answer is obvious; and, yet, people, even professing Christians, seem baffled when we focus on the realm of spiritual health.
PRINCIPLE NUMBER ONE: HOLINESS IS NOT CONTAGIOUS — “Ask the priests about the law: ‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’ The priests answered and said, ‘No’” [HAGGAI 2:10-12]. The principle is—you can’t catch holiness! Holiness is not communicable. Hanging around godly people will not make you godly.
Let’s restate this principle in language that has been used on other occasions by numerous individuals. You are not a Christian because your mother was a Christian. Because your granddad was saved doesn’t mean you are saved. Being born in a bagel factory doesn’t make you Jewish. Living in a garage doesn’t make you a Mercedes Benz, and going to church services doesn’t make you a Christian. A right standing with the Living God, must be attained by each individual. Salvation is not transferable; you can’t “catch” salvation. Sanctification is not contagious; holiness doesn’t rub off.
To be certain, there are benefits to being raised in a home with Christian parents. In the First Letter to Corinthian Christians which was written by the Apostle, we read this insightful instruction to believers, “To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy” [1 CORINTHIANS 7:12-14].
Wait a minute! A believing wife makes her unbelieving husband holy? A believing husband makes his unbelieving wife holy? A believing parent makes her or his children holy? This is contrary to everything I have been arguing! Let’s clear this up, shall we? When I speak of not being able to “catch holiness,” I’m using the concept in the sense that Haggai presents the matter; I’m speaking of one’s standing before the Lord. It is impossible to be declared righteous on the basis of your relationship to a parent.
Paul is speaking of something quite different. He was writing to people who had been outsiders, unsaved, when they married. Subsequently, one of the members of that marriage has been saved. The issue arising is that some thought that the redeemed individual should leave the unsaved individual because the marriage would not have divine sanction in the eyes of some. The supposition was that marriage is contaminated.
The Apostle puts that idea to rest when he says that in such a case the marriage is holy in the eyes of the Lord because the presence of a redeemed individual makes it so. Moreover, children in that home are the product of a sanctified marriage. The unbelieving spouse has an advantage in that she or he is able to see the grace of God working in the life of the redeemed spouse. There is an advantage for the children in that they have the advantage of a parent who is living for Christ before their eyes, just as they have a parent who prays for them and seeks to lead them to faith in the Son of God.
Let me hasten to add that this does not excuse the believer who chooses to marry an unbeliever. We have a clear prohibition of that action when Paul writes this same church, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God” [2 CORINTHIANS 6:14-16a]. Choosing to marry outside of the Faith is rebellion.
Nevertheless, there are benefits to being in an environment of righteousness. However, we must avoid the error of imagining that being in that environment will impart God’s grace to your life and thus result in salvation for you. Salvation, freedom from the consequences of sin, freedom to walk with God, and freedom to live a righteous life, comes only because the individual deliberately chooses to receive the gift of life through faith in the Risen, Living Son of God. God has no grandchildren.
There are definite benefits accorded us who are privileged to live in Canada; but no one is a Christian because that person happens to live in Canada. Canada is not a “Christian nation” in the sense that anyone who was so fortunate as to have been born here or that anyone who has been permitted to immigrate here can lay claim to be a Christian. A Christian is a follower of the Christ because that person has chosen to believe the message of life in Christ the Lord. A Christian is one who has been born from above because she or he has received Jesus as the perfect, infinite sacrifice for sin.
Nevertheless, Canadians have the benefit of a heritage built upon the Faith of Christ the Lord. Canadians have the benefit of the message of life declared on an ongoing basis. Many hotel rooms and motel rooms still have Gideon Bibles in them. The Word of God is available, whether travellers agree to read that Word or not. Churches and religious organisations broadcast sermons and Bible studies via radio and television, and a growing number of churches post audio and video files of sermons. God’s message of grace is perhaps more available than anyone could have imagined even a mere five decades past. There is an advantage to living in Canada. However, one is not automatically a Christian because he lives in Canada. You don’t become holy because you hang out with good people.
People seem to imagine that their relationship to godly family members is meritorious, that somehow God takes into account their relationship to godly family members. I suppose we have each heard someone defend their right to heaven because they had a godly mother, or because their grandfather was a godly man. Our Imagination leads us to think that we can dictate to God the conditions that will compel Him to accept us. We appear to think that we can set the rules by which God must act toward us. However, we make such attempts at the peril of our own eternal destinies.
I want us to focus for a moment on the admonition of the Lord delivered through Peter. I’ve referred to this passage previously, and I will point to it yet again, even in this message—it is that important for the people of God. The passage is 1 PETER 1:13-16. “Preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’”
Focus on what Peter has written. Peter tells us that if we will prepare our minds for action, we must be sober-minded and always focused on what lies ahead at the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The means by which we accomplish these preparations is through being holy, living as separated to the Lord. He calls the child of God to think about what we do, assuring ourselves that we are not dishonouring the Living God. Peter is admonishing us to review our language to ensure that we are not speaking as the world speaks. The Apostle is challenging us to properly assess our thought life to ensure that we are not dishonouring God by the thoughts we allow to enter our minds.
The Christian must always work at being holy. None of us can live above sin, as some communions teach. Because this is our situation, the Word teaches us, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” [GALATIANS 5:16-17].
This admonition is based on what is written elsewhere, when the Apostle writes, “I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” [ROMANS 7:21-23].
Writing these words, I look forward in anticipation of what Paul will write in just a few short paragraphs. We struggle because the old nature is very much a part of our present condition. Therefore, we are cautioned and encouraged by this affirmation. “Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God” [ROMANS 8:5-8].
In emphasis of this admonition, hear the strong testimony of Paul who writes, “This I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” [EPHESIANS 4:17-24].
Painful though it may be, each of us struggles with the flesh. We know that we make concession to the natural condition from time-to-time, perhaps more often than we realise, and certainly more frequently than we could wish. However, the Spirit of God remonstrates with us, urging us to move toward pleasing the Father. Then, He strengthens us and equips us to please the Master through the choices we make. Perfect? Not in the least! But we are moving steadily toward being conformed to the image of God’s own Son, our Saviour.
We live in anticipation of being changed into His likeness, just as the Apostle has written. Remember how Paul has testified to what lies ahead. “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” [ROMANS 8:26-30].
Outsiders sometimes deride Christians because of their struggles. “Why, those Christians are no better than me! They sin; they may even be bigger sinners than I am.” Of course, the argument has merit if for no other reason than we who are redeemed are not perfect—we do sin. Here is the difference. We know we sin, and we don’t enjoy our sinning ways. Among the reasons we gather into communities of faith is because we accept the accountability that church membership imposes upon us. We have to answer to our brothers and sisters. We must always remember that we answer to one another.
I don’t mean to imply that we have licence to pry into the private regions of each others lives, but I do mean that a major responsibility imposed upon all the redeemed is the constant responsibility to encourage one another, to comfort one another and to build one another. Collectively, we have every expectation of urging one another to excel in our Christian walk. I have often said, and I repeat it now—we don’t go to church, we are the church. We must always keep this responsibility in the forefront of our service and of our mutual worship.
PRINCIPLE NUMBER TWO: SIN IS CONTAGIOUS — “‘If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?’ The priests answered and said, ‘It does become unclean’” [HAGGAI 2:13]. Again, grasp the import of what has been said—sin is contagious! Sin is communicable! Even giving tacit approval of wickedness is participating in that wickedness. Anyone who would be holy must avoid contamination with sin. This is especially evident throughout the Old Covenant. Let me provide a few examples.
Among the laws concerning priests are these which seem strange. “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, No one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people, except for his closest relatives, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, or his virgin sister (who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may make himself unclean). He shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself. They shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts on their body. They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. For they offer the LORD’s food offerings, the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy. They shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled, neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. You shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I, the LORD, who sanctify you, am holy. And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by whoring, profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire.
“The priest who is chief among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose nor tear his clothes. He shall not go in to any dead bodies nor make himself unclean, even for his father or for his mother. He shall not go out of the sanctuary, lest he profane the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him: I am the LORD. And he shall take a wife in her virginity. A widow, or a divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry. But he shall take as his wife a virgin of his own people, that he may not profane his offspring among his people, for I am the LORD who sanctifies him” [LEVITICUS 21:1b-15].
Clearly, the LORD was teaching the people by example that those who approach Him must be separated from anything that would be questionable. The key to understanding what is taught is found in statements such as, “the priest is holy to God” [VERSE 7], or “that he may not profane his offspring among his people, for I am the LORD who sanctifies him” [VERSE 14]. The LORD was concerned that people understand that those who represent Him must live as those who are separated to Him. This means that the LORD found separation from sin to be essential.
The laws for priests were not dramatically different from laws for a Nazirite. Refresh your memory of the Nazirite vow. “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the LORD, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried. All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins.
“All the days of his vow of separation, no razor shall touch his head. Until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the LORD, he shall be holy. He shall let the locks of hair of his head grow long.
“All the days that he separates himself to the LORD he shall not go near a dead body. Not even for his father or for his mother, for brother or sister, if they die, shall he make himself unclean, because his separation to God is on his head. All the days of his separation he is holy to the LORD.
“And if any man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles his consecrated head, then he shall shave his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he shall shave it. On the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two pigeons to the priest to the entrance of the tent of meeting, and the priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because he sinned by reason of the dead body. And he shall consecrate his head that same day and separate himself to the LORD for the days of his separation and bring a male lamb a year old for a guilt offering. But the previous period shall be void, because his separation was defiled” [NUMBERS 6:2-12].
The Nazirite was marked out by all who would see this individual as separated to the Lord; and, because the Nazirite was separated to the LORD, he was to be separated from what was generally identified as representative of sin. Specifically, the Nazirite was to drink neither wine nor strong drink, nor even to drink grape juice or eat grapes. Strictures such as this may seen confusing to us today, but the reason for this prohibition, strange as it may seem to us, is that the yeast that naturally occurs on grapes, the same yeast that produces alcohol during the fermentation process, spoke of the invasive nature of sin. For this reason, during the days of the Passover all yeast was to be discovered in the house and thrown out [see, e.g., 1 CORINTHIANS 5:6-8]. This was a reminder that the people were holy to the LORD, and the separation from these products by the Nazirite was acknowledgement that he was to be separated from sin and separated to the LORD.
Perhaps you think such laws are extreme, but the purpose was to provide a constant reminder to all who were properly taught that sin contaminates and those who serve the Lord are to be separated from the ubiquitous sin that contaminates. It wasn’t that they were sinless, but it was that they were to conscientiously set themselves apart from that which contaminates in order to honour the Lord GOD.
Woven throughout the entire Law of Moses are constant and varied reminders for those who were under the Law that they were to separate themselves from sin in order to be holy to the Lord GOD. Perhaps someone is inclined to argue that we are not under the Law, and therefore this constant reminder is no longer necessary. Of course we are not under the Law; we are no longer required to maintain the dietary laws or to observe the formal proscriptions that mark us out as separated to the Lord. However, God has never done away with the requirement to be holy.
As one example of the requirement for all who follow Christ the Risen Lord to live a life marked by separation to the Lord, consider the admonition delivered by Peter. “Get your minds ready for action by being fully sober, and set your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. Like obedient children, do not comply with the evil urges you used to follow in your ignorance, but, like the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in all of your conduct, for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, because I am holy’” [1 PETER 1:13-16 NET BIBLE]. We may not have specific laws guiding our conduct under the New Covenant, but we are responsible to honour Him whom we call Father by being separated to Him and separated from sin. If anything, the necessity to avoid sin and to live to honour the Lord is even more essential for the child of God.
Paul is quite specific about the types of actions that war against holiness when he writes, “This is God’s will: that you become holy, that you keep away from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to possess his own body in holiness and honor, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God. In this matter no one should violate the rights of his brother or take advantage of him, because the Lord is the avenger in all these cases, as we also told you earlier and warned you solemnly. For God did not call us to impurity but in holiness” [1 THESSALONIANS 4:3-7 NET BIBLE].
Obviously, sex outside of marriage is unholy. Let me be specific so that no one misunderstands. Adultery is unholy. Premarital sex is unholy. Homosexual activity is unholy. Does it actually need to be said that pornography is unholy, as are all distortions of marital sex. How else are we to understand the admonition that instructs Christians, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous” [HEBREWS 13:4].
Clearly, it is unholy to take advantage of one another in the sexual realm. That this is the intent of what is written as emphasised when Paul cautions that men are to treat “older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity” [1 TIMOTHY 5:2b]. Permitting your mind to focus on salacious thoughts, whining inwardly that you are cheated in the realm of relations with your spouse, allowing yourself to think of what might be with someone who is not your spouse, can only lead to dishonouring Christ. Allowing your mind to go there can only lead to disgrace for the cause of Christ.
Near the end of his life, the Apostle was still concerned that all who follow the Master must strive to be holy. In his final missive to Timothy, Paul wrote, “In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work” [2 TIMOTHY 2:20-21]. Clearly, we who are worshippers of the Living God, followers of the Risen Christ, are to take very seriously this business of being holy.
DIVINE BLESSINGS ATTEND A HOLY LIFE — “Consider from this day onward. Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the LORD, how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, yet you did not turn to me, declares the LORD. Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid, consider: Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you” [HAGGAI 2:14-19].
This is a promise that can be verified. Before we begin honouring the Lord our God, does He bless us? To be certain, He is gracious to us; but the blessings which He delights to pour out on His people are withheld. Obviously, I’m not speaking of God’s grace that is extended to all mankind; I’m asking whether the child of God can point to specific blessings that she or he knows result from honouring the Lord? Do you have peace with God? Does He fill your life with joy? Has He provided what is needed to serve Him? Does He equip you to face every trial? If not, is it possible that you have exalted your desires over the will of God? If this is the case, when you begin to honour the Lord, do His blessings begin to flow?
God’s promise can be readily verified as you begin to honour Him! If we don’t have these precious blessings that were just enumerated—peace, joy, the provision of all that is needed to succeed in our service before Him, divine equipping required if we are to advance His cause, then is it possible that we have failed to honour Him? If your focus is solely on material acquisitions, how would you know if God was blessing you?
Let me touch on just one issue that many consider to be controversial. The LORD confronted His ancient people through Malachi, saying, “I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the LORD of hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts” [MALACHI 3:6-12].
We practise grace giving, built on the instructions the Apostle Paul provides in his Second Letter to the Church of God in Corinth [see 2 CORINTHIANS 8:1-9:15]. Grace giving emphasises worship, voluntary giving, anticipation of divine blessing, sacrifice, generosity, forethought, proportionate giving, systematic giving, and faithfulness. In short, grace giving is not tithing. However, the principle of honouring the Lord who gave everything that we might share in His grace is revealed in what Malachi says. Consequently, if our giving does not reflect gratitude to God, fails to honour Him, then why would we anticipate that He will continue to bless us? The point is, when followers of the Master begin to give generously, voluntarily, the Saviour does bless them.
Do you not remember the promise of the Master when He said, “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you” [LUKE 6:37-38]. The principle may be stated that God’s generosity is revealed to those who honour Him. Divine blessing attends a holy life.
Because of the wickedness of the human heart, it is necessary to note a serious distortion that takes place among many who profess to be followers of Christ. The Master promises to supply our needs. God has never promised to supply our wants. Tragically, we transform the promises Christ has made into a blank cheque to fulfil our personal base desires. We hear supposed teachers of the Word telling us that if we tithe—and almost always the tithe is to be handled by those calling us to give, God is obligated to give us cars and even airplanes, or He will even give us houses and lands. Somehow, God ceases to be the Lord whom we worship, being transmogrified into a sort of cosmic banker, or a celestial sugar daddy who gives us whatever we want.
The Lord does bless us; He does fill us with good things. However, His promise is not focused on material goods.
The same LORD who holds us accountable for our neglect is the same LORD who blesses the one who turns to Him for mercy. God delights to bless His people, and He does bless all who seek His glory. That is the essence of Jesus’ encouragement to His followers when He encourages us with those wonderful words recorded in Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus promised, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” [MATTHEW 11:28-30].
Coming to the Saviour, we can know that He blesses us with what the world can never give—peace! Is that not a precious promise that Jesus has given to His disciples? The Master promised us, “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” [JOHN 14:26-27].
Focusing on this latter portion of the text, I am encouraged to note that there is a beginning for blessing. God emphasises the beginning of blessing when He says, “Consider from this day onward;” and He also emphasises this truth when He states, “From this day on I will bless you.” God is saying there is a point from which His blessings begin to flow. What has changed when compared to the days that preceded this divine blessing? Haggai says there was scarcity and hardship because God was not blessing. Then, suddenly, divine blessings would begin to be poured out on the nation. What could have changed? The answer to this question is that an axiom of the Faith is evident—obedience to the Living God brings His blessing!
Perhaps you will recall this promise which is found among the Proverbs:
“When a man’s ways please the LORD,
He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.”
[PROVERBS 16:7]
God is prepared to compel even those who stand opposed to us to be at peace with us. This is the heritage of the Lord for those who love Him, for those who serve Him. While it is true that the devil wants to kill the one who follows the Christ, our God is more powerful than the devil. And the Living God will never permit the devil to have free rein to harass and destroy the child of God. Satan can do no more than God permits. Though the trial may be demanding for Christ’s follower, we may be assured that God will bring glory to His Name when we have passed through the trial.
I don’t dare attempt to know your heart, I only barely know my own heart. However, I do say with a desire to honour the Lord who has appointed me to His service and a desire to do you good, if there has been even a hint of rebellion against the will of the Risen Saviour, let this be the day you renounce all rebellion and seek to again walk in the path of righteousness. Determine that from this moment you will do what God has appointed you to do. Come before Him in the quietness of your own heart and ask Him to restore you to full service and to full blessing. Has not our Lord promised, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” [1 JOHN 1:9]. Does He not know the heart? And will He not restore us? Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
