Spain once controlled both sides of the Mediterranean Sea at the Straits
Of Gibraltar. On her coins were stamped the two Pillars Of Hercules. They
represented the two great rocks, and the words NE PLUS ULTRA=no more beyond.
As far as they were concerned, Spain was the end of the world. Paul wanted
to get to Spain, for that was the end of the known world, and he wanted to
touch the whole world for Christ. But then, brave men developed the courage
to sail beyond these pillars, and they discovered a whole new world. Spain
was forced to change their coin. They just took off the first word and left
PLUS ULTRA=more beyond.
There is always more beyond, because God has written the principle of
progress into His plan for man. Progressive revelation characterizes the
Bible. God does not tell man everything all at once. He first gives the
law, and later the Gospel. Jesus said to His disciples, "You are not yet
ready for all the Holy Spirit will teach you. It will come when you are
ready." They first followed Him and became loyal to Him as Lord. Then they
were filled with the Holy Spirit, and empowered to carry the good news into
all the world. The body of Christ started small, but grew until it was a
world wide organization. The principle of progress is everywhere in the
Bible. We start as babes in Christ, and then press on to become mature
servants in Christ. Growth, advancement, development, improvement, and
progression are the very essence of the Christian life. Jesus said to His
disciples that they would one day do even greater things than He did.
Every Christian is to be pressing on to gain that more in Christ that
can never be exhausted. Progress is to be a permanent part of the Christian
life. There is no level where we have arrived at the end of our potential.
Paul said we know only in part. In fact, progress is eternal so that even
in heaven we will be guided by the motto-more beyond. The idea of a static
heaven where there is no more progress is contrary to the nature of God. It
would be mean we would exhaust the infinite creativity of God, and be stuck
in a perfection where nothing new and exciting could be added to our
experience. This is a denial of the infinite, which by definition has no
level beyond which it can not go. If it cannot go further, it is finite and
not infinite. By definition progress is eternal with an infinite God.
The saints and theologians of history have all agreed that heaven will
be a place of progress. For progress to cease we would all have to become
equal with God, and that can never be. We will, however, be ever moving in
that direction. The poet was right who wrote-
Thank God! There is always a land beyond
For us who are true to the trail;
A vision to seek, a beckoning to peek,
A farness that never will fail.
I like that phrase, for those who are true to the trail. This is one
of themes of Psa. 84. Progress in Psalm 84 is portrayed as a pilgrimage in
verse 6. They are called blessed who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
These are people who have determined their lives will be a journey, which
will draw them ever closer to God. That is their goal says verse 7, to
appear before God in Zion. For the Old Testament saint this meant getting
to Jerusalem. For the New Testament saint it is getting to the New
Jerusalem in heaven. In either case, life is a journey through some tough
places, like the valley of Baca, but they never quit. They go from
strength to strength, that is, they get stronger with every challenge they
face and overcome. They keep on keeping on, making progress until they
arrive at their goal.
So the main thing we see about Biblical progress is-we need a goal.
You cannot define progress without a goal. If you are on highway 35 heading
South at 65 miles per hour you are making good time, but there is no way to
know if you are making progress until your goal is known. If your
destination is North, we know you are not making progress, no matter how
fast you are going South. If you are only going 20 miles per hour, but you
are going North, you are making progress. It is not the speed, but the goal
that defines progress. It is the goal that makes any race meaningful.
Without a goal you only have motion and action, but no progress, for a goal
is necessary to measure progress.
The goal is the motivating power that keeps you on the journey. It has
to be something you really want to achieve, or you will turn back when you
come to the valley of Baca. The key to progress in your Christian life is
to set goals that you know are consistent with the will of God, and then,
like Paul, press on until you reach that goal. We need to do it as
individuals, as families, and as churches. Goal setting is a crucial
process in the journey of making progress for the glory of God, and our own
pleasure in living for God.
The question Christians so often debate is whether the world is getting
worse or better. The fact is, every new person on the planet adds to the
sin level of life on this planet. So with over 5 billion more people on the
earth since the New Testament was written, you have billions of more sins.
The crime and immorality of man is multiplied by the billions of more
sinners. Of course, the world is worse today than it ever was. But it
always has been, for every generation produces more sinners. Paul Harvey
said, "In times like these it helps to recall there has always been times
like these."
Yet, on the other hand, there are more people to respond to the Gospel
than ever before. Billy Graham can see more people come to Christ in one
crusade than Paul saw in his whole ministry. There are more churches in
the Twin Cities than there were in the whole world in Paul's day. There are
more Christian schools, Christian organizations, and Christian missionaries
fulfilling the great commission than Paul could have ever imagined. Of
course, the world is better than ever before. There are more Bibles, more
Christian videos, and more Christian resources of all kinds flooding the
world than ever before in history.
There is more sin, and more holiness today than ever before. Both good
and evil have made great progress in our world. This is not surprising
since that is just what Jesus said would be. He said the wheat and the
tares would grow together until the end. So you a right to be pessimistic
about the growth of evil, but you also have an obligation to be optimist
about the growth of the wheat. The great commission of Christ to His church
is being carried out. The Word of God is reaching millions every day, who
before, had no light. The goal of the church is to give everyone on the
planet a chance to hear of Jesus, and that goal is being achieved.
This goal never would be happening if Christians had not gotten
together to set goals. Many Christian organizations have set goals to reach
the worlds unreached peoples by the year 2000. The year 2000 is a time
goal, and the unreached peoples are a number goal. Whether all are reached
by that time or not, there will be progress toward that goal just because
the goal was set.
Do you want more pleasure in your Christian life? You need to set a
goal. Do you want to grow? You need to set a goal. Do you want to please
God? You need to set your hearts on pilgrimage, and get on a trail leading
to a goal. You need to be persistent, and not quit when you go through the
valley. Progress means change for the better. It is not progress if
cannibals eat with folks and knives. It is just more efficient and more
sophisticated, but it does not make the evil less evil. The crook who
steals millions by means of a computer seems less threatening than the thug
with a pistol, but it is not really progress, for the evil heart is not
changed, and God's will is being disobeyed just the same.
Technology makes radical changes in our lives, but they are not
progressive unless the better means to reach a goal are aiding us to reach
goals that are pleasing to God. G. MacDonald said, "All growth that is not
toward God is growing to decay." The Prodigal Son thought he was making
progress. He was independent, free of his father's house, and he could do
as he pleased. He could spend his money on wine, women, and song,
and nobody could tell him to stop. He, no doubt, felt really grown up and mature.
He interpreted all this change as progress, but he could not see he was heading
for the pig pen. His goals were not God's will for his life, and the result was, he
was regressing and not progressing.
The paradox is, he had to go back to get ahead. Progress for him was
to back track and get on the right trail. If you miss the road, and take
the wrong turn, you can't make progress no matter how far or fast you
travel. You have to be on the right road, and so progress sometimes means
going backwards. He went back home and got on the right trail. The story
ends happily because he set new goals that were consistent with the will of
God. Here was a case of getting back to the future. He had to get back
to his past, and get on the right trail to have a good future. The good
news is, nobody has to stay on the wrong road. They can get off a road of
regression, and get on the road of progress anytime they choose to set goals
that are pleasing to God.
Paul was on the road to Damascus with the goal of arresting
Christians, and punishing them for being followers of Christ. But when he
was confronted by the risen Christ, he changed his goals, and became a
servant rather than an enemy of Christ. Conversion involves a change of
loyalties and goals. Paul changed from desiring to wipe out the body of
Christ to being the greatest builder of the body of Christ. He was zealous
as an angry Pharisee persecuting Christians, but he was not making progress
for his goals were out of God's will. You can only make progress when you
are moving toward a goal that is in God's will. Paul was building fires in
the valley of Baca before his conversion, but when Christ was Lord of his
life, he began to make it a place of springs, for he brought good news and
comfort to both sinners and saints all over his world.
Every Christian is obligated to be a pilgrim with the long range goal
arriving at heaven, but with a host of short range goals that make the
journey a constant taste of heaven on earth. The famous sculptor,
Thorwoldsen, was asked, "Which is your greatest statue?" And he replied,
"The next one." He expected to do better and better, always making
progress. More beyond was his motto. He never stopped improving, and that
is to be the goal of every Christian. The practical issue we all need to
deal with is not, is the world getting better or worse, but am I? Am I
making progress in the Christian life? Am I setting goals and moving toward
them? Am I on a pilgrimage for the glory of God?
In striving to be a progressing Christian we have to wrestle with the
tension between the sacred and the secular. There is a secular progress
going on all around us. It's goal is to do everything faster and more
efficiently. This, however, is not enough to make it progress pleasing to
God. You can go further and faster to reach goals that are not in God's
will. Alexander Solzhenitsyan said at Harvard in 1978,
"All the glorified technological achievements of progress, including the
conquest of outer space, do not redeem the 20th centuries moral poverty."
20th century technology has been used to enslave and kill people more
swiftly. The tyrants have used modern technology to do their evil. This is
the problem with so-called progress. It is often just the opposite.
In the fascinating book, Peace Child, the Sawi people gaped in awe as
one of their own brought back, from the outside world, a metal hatchet.
Stone axes is all they ever had, and they could not believe their eyes when
he felled a tree with four blows. For three minutes the people danced and
shouted in amazement. It would take forty blows with their stone axes to do
the same thing. The men sat around passing the wondrous instrument from one
to another, caressing its hardness and sharpness. Here was glorious
progress! Or was it? On one level it clearly was, but when you hear of the
cost of this advance, it is doubtful. The man who had it sold one of his
children into slavery to purchase the new ax. Thus the tension between
technology and morality. It is not enough that a goal be good and
consistent with the will of God. The means of getting there must also be
consistent with the will of God.
This is where the Christian gets caught in the tension between the
secular and the sacred. The secular world around us makes great progress in
technology, but does not care if it makes you a better person or not. You
can use it to be a more effective sinner if you so choose. This is the
tension we see in verse 10, "I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of
my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked." The implication is, it may
seem more progressive to be in the tent of the wicked, and really be with
the times, but if it takes you off the road leading to the presence of God,
it is regressive. You are like the Prodigal, going off to the far country
to enjoy the worldly life, but you are not making progress. You are going
downhill away from God. Better is the lowly job of opening the door of the
house of God than worldly success that robs you of the goal of being close
to God.
The point is, if wealth, position, technology, or any secular advantage
takes you away from Christian growth, it is not progress. It is just
change, and change that does not lead you closer to God is change for the
worse. All improvements in the secular life need to be evaluated in the
light of how they affect our passion to praise God and serve Him. If they
lessen that passion they are enemies of the soul. If they enhance it they
are friends of the soul. This is the criteria by which we measure the value
of secular progress.
Too often in history Christians have opposed change and progress just
because they were convinced the present state of things was the best. This
has often been shown to be folly. When Benjamin Franklin invented the
lightening rod there were some Christians who were outraged. They said he
was trying to prevent the judgment of God. The Rev. Thomas Prince of Boston
published a lengthy sermon in 1755 charging that an earthquake in Boston
that year was the result of God's anger at Americans who had erected
lightening rods. In England no church was protected by a lightening rod
for nine years after Franklin's discovery because they were seen as a means
of trying to prevent God's judgment.
It took a great tragedy to change the minds of the clergy. In 1767 a
lightening bolt crashed into the church of San Nazaro in Brescia, Italy.
The church was also used as a storehouse for 200,000 pounds of gun powder.
It was ignited and the explosion leveled a 6th of the town killing over
3,000 people. Lightening rods on the church could have prevented the whole
tragedy. This made Christians more open to the value of new technology.
History is filled with examples of Christians being on the wrong side of
progress, and changes that could benefit people's lives.
This should be a warning to us not to oppose change just because it is
change. The issue is not change, for change is built into history by God
Himself. The issue is, is the change a step in the right direction. Does
it move us closer in our journey toward God, or does it take us off into the
far country where we abuse and misuse our freedom, and do nothing for the
glory of God. Any change that aids us in our praise of and service to God
is progress.
Anna Mow in, Say Yes To Life, tells of being on a ship in the
Mediterranean Sea when a terrible storm stuck. The ship had three engines,
but it only needed one to move forward at normal speed. In the storm,
however, all three were used and they still could not move forward at all.
It took all their power just to stand still in the storm. But she said, it
was still progress, for by standing still they were not smashed against the
rocks of the North African shore.
It may sometimes take all of your energy just to stand still in a
stormy period of your life. The Psalmist in Psa. 84 is stalled somewhere,
and cannot get to his destination in Jerusalem to worship in the presence of
God. But he does not give up, for his face is pointed in that direction,
and his heart is set on pilgrimage. He has a goal and he will not forsake
it, for he knows God will not withhold any good thing from those who walk is
blameless. If you never cease to aim for goals pleasing to God He will
guarantee progress, and this is one of life's greatest pleasures-the
pleasure of progress.
