Podcast Episode: Isaiah 5 Judgement And Woes

Posted on by Adrian Clark

Pip: There is something quietly relentless about the book of Isaiah — it keeps finding us wherever we are, even in the twenty-first century, still doing roughly the same things the people of Judah were doing in 700 BC.

Mara: Adrian Clark has been working through Isaiah 5 this week, and the posts cover territory that stays uncomfortably relevant: divine justice and what it demands of us, and the specific catalogue of sins Isaiah names as woes against his own society.

Pip: Let's start with the justice side of things — what righteousness actually means, and what happens when it runs out.

Judgement and divine justice in Isaiah 5

Mara: The central question here is what God's justice looks like when it finally arrives — and what it requires of people in the meantime.

Pip: The post on Isaiah 5 opens with a passage that sets the stakes plainly. The verse reads: "Humanity will be destroyed, and people brought down; even the arrogant will lower their eyes in humiliation. But the Lord of Heaven's Armies will be exalted by his justice. The holiness of God will be displayed by his righteousness."

Mara: What that means in practice is that the wealth and revelry of Judah's ruling class had a shelf life. Historical record confirms it — foreign invaders entered, the land was emptied, and the partying stopped. Pride gave way to humility, not as a spiritual exercise but as a consequence.

Pip: And the post is careful to define what righteousness actually is, not just what it punishes. It draws in Micah 6:8 — "to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God" — and Proverbs 21:3, which puts righteous action above religious ritual.

Mara: The follow-up post, "The Judgment to Come," extends the same argument into the present tense. It quotes Isaiah 5:24-25, with its images of fire consuming straw and mountains shaking, and connects that to Jesus's words in Matthew 24 — that no one knows the day or hour, but the call to keep watch stands.

Pip: The remnant thread is what gives it shape. Jeremiah, offered safe passage to Babylon, chose to stay with those left behind. That choice frames the question put to readers directly: are we warning our generation, or are we huddled quietly in the pews?

Mara: The post puts it this way — pilgrims today are effectively that remnant, the faithful lineage through which restoration moves forward. The responsibility that comes with that is not passive.

Pip: Which brings us neatly to what, exactly, the people of Judah were actually doing that warranted all this.

The six woes: a catalogue of sinful living

Mara: Isaiah 5 doesn't just pronounce judgment in the abstract — it names specific behaviours, and the post on the six woes works through each one.

Pip: The anchor passage covers several of them at once: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."

Mara: That inversion of moral categories is the one the post treats as most urgent for today — the point where a society stops being confused and starts actively recategorising what God condemns as acceptable, and what God approves as ridiculous.

Pip: The post on hedonism in Isaiah 5 fills in the social backdrop — wealthy people in Jerusalem who had turned drinking and pleasure into a full-time occupation, from early morning to late at night, to the point where they simply stopped noticing God at all.

Mara: And the six woes post ties the alcohol culture directly to injustice: those who are "champions at mixing drinks" end up acquitting the guilty for a bribe and denying justice to the innocent. Excess and corruption travel together.

Pip: Paul's line from Romans 12:2 gets the last word — don't let the world squeeze you into its mould. The J.B. Phillips version is the one quoted: "let God re-mould your minds from within."

Mara: Righteousness as a daily practice, judgment as a present reality, and a faithful remnant called to be visible — that's the thread running through all of it.

Pip: Isaiah was writing to people who couldn't see what was coming. The question for next time is whether we're any better at looking up.

Understanding Righteousness in Isaiah 5

Posted on by Adrian Clark
A large tree glowing with warm golden lights in a meadow at twilight with a crescent moon and starry sky

“Humanity will be destroyed, and people brought down; even the arrogant will lower their eyes in humiliation. But the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will be exalted by his justice. The holiness of God will be displayed by his righteousness. In that day lambs will find good pastures, and fattened sheep and young goats will feed among the ruins.”
Isaiah 5:15-17 NLT

Isaiah wrote about a time coming when “humanity will be destroyed”. Such an event must have seemed a long way off for the rich and partying people in Judah. People who were rich landowners were made richer by the misfortune of their poorer neighbours, who were forced to sell up in their poverty. People who had no concern for God and His ways, having abandoned their part of the Covenant God had made with them. So what was going to happen to them? We know from historical evidence that foreign invaders entered their land, and those who were not killed were taken away into exile. Their pride and arrogance were replaced by humility. What happened to their wealth and partying then, as they discovered that God was real and was seeking justice? Earlier in Isaiah 5 we read, “But I have heard the Lord of Heaven’s Armies swear a solemn oath: “Many houses will stand deserted; even beautiful mansions will be empty” (Isaiah 5:9). In those days, the sins of rebellion against God, idolatry, injustice, oppression of the poor, and so on were the signs of a ticking clock, counting down the time to when God would finally act, bringing justice, holiness and righteousness back to the land he had given His people. 

Righteousness is a character trait that reflects what God desires from His people. Righteousness is defined as being morally right, and synonyms include goodness, uprightness, morality, integrity and honesty. That is who God is, and He demands that everything we think or do is founded on righteousness. In Micah 6:8 we read, “No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God”. Proverbs 21:3 reads, “The Lord is more pleased when we do what is right and just than when we offer him sacrifices”. And of course we mustn’t ignore the role the Bible has when we look for help about righteousness: 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right”. 

Righteousness is something that we have to work at and apply in every part of our lives. When we do what is right, we are aligning ourselves to God’s way. 1 John 2:29, “Since we know that Christ is righteous, we also know that all who do what is right are God’s children”. Early on in the Beatitudes, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6).Other translations use the word “justice” instead of “righteousness”, and the two meanings can be synonymous. And those who find a life filled and directed by the pursuit of righteousness will find a reward. Matthew 13:43, “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear”. 

Are we pilgrims “shining like the sun” in our families and communities? I’m sure we are, as we stand in our sinful world, displaying and upholding God’s righteousness and justice. Isaiah 5:17, the last of our three verses today, reads, “Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture; lambs will feed among the ruins of the rich”. After God’s justice was applied to Judah, the land quietened. No sounds of music and drunken partying. No revelry and debauchery. Just peace and tranquillity, as once again the land returned to God’s ways. I’m sure there were a few righteous people left in the land to tend the sheep and set the scene for a future, aligned to God and His ways.

Dear Heavenly Father. You require Your people to seek righteousness and justice. We commit ourselves to that today and look to You as the Source of all we are. Amen.

Judgment Day: Lessons from Isaiah’s Warning to Israel

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Israel is full of silver and gold; there is no end to its treasures. Their land is full of warhorses; there is no end to its chariots. Their land is full of idols; the people worship things they have made with their own hands. So now they will be humbled, and all will be brought low— do not forgive them. Crawl into caves in the rocks. Hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord and the glory of his majesty. Human pride will be brought down, and human arrogance will be humbled. Only the Lord will be exalted on that day of judgment.”
Isaiah 2:7-11 NLT

Isaiah’s prophecy continues with a statement about the materialistic nation that Israel had become. Silver and gold, and treasure reveal that prosperity abounds, and they lack nothing. Warhorses and chariots define a nation that relies more on its own abilities than on God. Such a military buildup was forbidden by God, as we read in Deuteronomy 17:16, “The king must not build up a large stable of horses for himself or send his people to Egypt to buy horses, for the Lord has told you, ‘You must never return to Egypt’”. The plethora of idols, handmade figures that skewed and violated their desire to worship, sealed the fate of the people. Of course, such idolatry is still alive and well today, with people worshipping their own achievements, ingenuity, and cultural creations instead of the Creator, and that includes even Christians. 

But there is a time of payback coming, Isaiah warned. The “people” include all levels of the Israelite society, and none will escape the judgement that is to come. Pride and arrogance displayed by the people through their materialism and military might will disappear and will be replaced by humility, fear and terror, as the Lord and His glory appear on “that day of judgement”. 

Isaiah’s prophecy preceded the demise of Judah in 586 BC, and the people were exiled to a foreign land, Babylonia. The exile took place in three waves, the first in 605 BC, when royal hostages, including Daniel, were exiled. The second wave took place in 597 BC, when thousands of skilled craftsmen were removed from Judah. Finally, in 586 BC, the remaining people were exiled, and the temple was destroyed by the invading army. They could never say that they had received no warning! What happened to their silver, gold and treasure? Or their warhorses and chariots? Or even their idols? None of them mattered in a foreign land, where they mourned the loss of their native land. Psalm 137:1-2, 4, “Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept as we thought of Jerusalem. We put away our harps, hanging them on the branches of poplar trees. … But how can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a pagan land?” A bit late to mourn what they had lost?

Under the Mosaic covenant, God’s judgement took place within a generation or two, but in the New Covenant judgement will be before a Great White Throne at a time we call “the Day of the Lord”. But the warning in Isaiah’s prophecy still stands today. Pride, arrogance and idolatry will one day be judged, and God will deal with such sins in accordance with His Word. The Israelites were humbled by their experience of exile, and they tried to hide in the dust and amongst the rocks, hoping to avoid what was about to happen to them, as the fear and terror of the Lord overwhelmed them. In Revelation 6:15-17 we read, “Then everyone—the kings of the earth, the rulers, the generals, the wealthy, the powerful, and every slave and free person—all hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they cried to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to survive?’” A time of terror where none escaped “from the terror of the Lord and the glory of his majesty”. 

 Isaiah concluded our verses today with, “Human pride will be brought down, and human arrogance will be humbled. Only the Lord will be exalted on that day of judgment”. This verse hangs over time as a stark warning that humanity will come to nothing in the face of the Lord’s judgement. Every great man and woman on earth may try to present their wonderful and creative exploits before God, but they will be of no consequence, because one day “…  at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11). 

The Apostle James wrote, “… As the Scriptures say, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. … Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honour” (James 4:6-7, 10). We pilgrims must always evaluate ourselves, asking God to shine His light into our very souls. And then we must deal with any pride and arrogance that we find there. There is no other way.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for Your grace and patience. We have a tendency to rely on our own abilities instead of on You. Please forgive us, we pray, and teach us Your ways, day by day. Amen.

Walking in the Light: Lessons from Isaiah 2

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord! For the Lord has rejected his people, the descendants of Jacob, because they have filled their land with practices from the East and with sorcerers, as the Philistines do. They have made alliances with pagans.”
Isaiah 2:5-6 NLT

Following an invitation for the “descendants of Jacob” to “walk in the light of the Lord”, we find about their parlous state because the Lord has rejected them. Why is that? Because they have “filled their land with practices from the East and with sorcerers”. And the reason for the Lord’s rejection of them? Because “They have made alliances with pagans”. The Jews were supposed to be a nation set apart and holy for the Lord. God had provided them with instructions for how they must live under the Mosaic Law, and He made a covenant with them to ensure their prosperity as a nation. God promised them a land that extended all the way from the river of Egypt to the great Euphrates river, as the Lord promised Joshua, “I promise you what I promised Moses: ‘Wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you— from the Negev wilderness in the south to the Lebanon mountains in the north, from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, including all the land of the Hittites’” (Joshua 1:3-4). The exact boundaries encompass all or parts of modern-day Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, so Israel today only possesses about 10% of the land that God promised them. And they lost it all at various times in history due to their continual rebellion against the Lord.

Isaiah was one of several (many?) prophets who emerged in history to warn the Jews about the consequences of their idolatry and sin, and here he presented another prophetic vision, warning the people that, because of their behaviour, the Lord had rejected them. Was God’s rejection of His people permanent? No, as we see time and again how He continued to fulfil His part of the covenant that he had made with them. Over successive generations, it seemed as though one would return to God only for the next to lapse into sin and rebellion against the Lord.

What can we pilgrims learn from all this today, if anything? We live in the days of the New Covenant, which is the promise that God will forgive sin and restore fellowship with those whose hearts are turned toward Him. Jesus Christ is the mediator of the New Covenant, and His death on the cross is the basis of the promise. Jeremiah prophesied about the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-33, ““The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord. “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people”. But regardless of living in the new, there is still a place for sin, rebellion and idolatry. The same choice facing the Jews is facing us today. The difference is that God has delayed judgement until a future time rather than bringing about immediate calamities, such as punishments from the peoples and nations around them. 

Of course, there are people today who claim that certain human ailments or national disasters are the result of rebellion or disobedience to God’s precepts, such as the AIDS or Covid epidemics, or floods and earthquakes, but I’m not so sure. His grace prevails, as Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent”. So there is an opportunity for all to repent of their sins even with their dying breaths. But one day there will be a time of judgement and people will face the eternal consequences of their sins. 

But the main takeaway from Isaiah 2 must be that God will reject those who fail to follow His ways. Does that include those who once had a relationship with Him, but who have subsequently turned their backs on Him and returned to their lives of sin and rebellion? Some would say, “once saved always saved” but in Hebrews 6:4-6 we read, “For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame”. This is perhaps a sober reminder that we pilgrims must stay the course and complete our journey with Jesus. Yes, we will have times of doubts and difficulties. Yes, we may even lapse into times of sin. But God is patient and kind, and He sees the end from the beginning. We grow under God’s grace and produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives day by day, always in the light of God who helps us every step of the way.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your grace and mercy. Please forgive us for our waywardness and tendency to drift into places where we shouldn’t be. We declare again, “I have decided to follow Jesus”. Amen.

In Conclusion

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Or do you think God’s word originated with you Corinthians? Are you the only ones to whom it was given? If you claim to be a prophet or think you are spiritual, you should recognise that what I am saying is a command from the Lord himself. But if you do not recognise this, you yourself will not be recognised. So, my dear brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and don’t forbid speaking in tongues. But be sure that everything is done properly and in order.”
1 Corinthians 14:36-40 NLT

In these verses today, Paul is wrapping things up, and he gives weight to what he has written by the phrase “what I am saying is a command from the Lord himself”. Chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians is all about speaking in tongues, messages of prophecy, and how these gifts should be used in a public context. Rather tongue in cheek, Paul suggested to the Corinthians that, actually, when it came to spiritual matters, they were not the centre of the universe. In those days, there were other churches dotted around the Middle East who were also bringing messages in tongues or prophetic utterances, and they were probably facing the same challenges but without getting things so wrong as the Corinthians did. But the main message to the Corinthians was about worshipping in a Christ-honouring way, and preferring one another in the process. 

The previous parts of Paul’s letter have addressed several ways in which the Corinthians have got things wrong. There were the church divisions in chapter 1. The factionalism emerging in Chapter 3. The importance of supporting those who minister amongst them in Chapter 4. Sexual immorality and pride in Chapter 5. Lawsuits amongst fellow believers and the wrong attitude to sins, particularly sexual, in Chapter 6. Thoughts on marriage in Chapter 7. Food sacrificed to idols in Chapter 8 followed by more instructions concerning supporting those who work in their midst but who don’t receive any reward in Chapter 9. Idolatry in Chapter 10. A first look at public worship and how to share the Lord’s Supper in Chapter 11. Then we read what Paul had to say about the Holy Spirit gifts in Chapters 12 and 14, interspersed with those wonderful words describing love in Chapter 13. Paul took the Corinthians on quite a journey, but the picture that has emerged is of a church in disarray, one that has got so much wrong, and with much correction needed. 

So why did Paul have to include the statement that the Lord Himself endorsed his instructions? Probably because there were some in the Corinthian church who didn’t like what Paul had been writing. Perhaps as his letter was read out for all to hear, they were squirming a bit in their seats, and some internal rebellion was welling up inside them. Perhaps these people were thinking, “Who does he think he is – after all, he’s just a man like us”. Sound familiar? I think we have all been there at one time or another. Being teachable is an important quality found in believers, particularly those who are more mature in the faith. But if Jesus Himself were adding His approval to Paul’s message, there would be no argument. 

But as we bring our thoughts forward from two thousand years ago in Greece to churches in the UK and other Western countries, what can we learn? What sort of letters would Paul write to us and our churches today? This in itself is a topic that would fill more than a few chapters. There is such a plethora of different church liturgies and expectations. There are more than 29,000 church buildings to be cared for. We have so much technology. Bibles are a common feature on most people’s bookshelves, or on their smartphones, whether they read them or not, eliminating excuses such as “we never knew”. And, of course, why do we have to make things so complicated? At times, I return to the final verses of Acts 2, which start, “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). Of course, our enemy the devil will want to make things complicated, because he fears the stripped-down simplicity of the Gospel and what it means for believers. Some denominations enjoy bobbing up and down in a pew, following a liturgy by rote, but this is something never found in the Bible. I wonder if Paul would have anything to say about it!

Dear Father God. You never made believing in Jesus a complicated affair. It is our human tendencies that complicate matters. But we reach out to You this morning, grateful for Your grace and patience, as we stumble through life’s journeys towards our promised eternal home. Amen.

Five Words

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“I thank God that I speak in tongues more than any of you. But in a church meeting I would rather speak five understandable words to help others than ten thousand words in an unknown language. Dear brothers and sisters, don’t be childish in your understanding of these things. Be innocent as babies when it comes to evil, but be mature in understanding matters of this kind.”
1 Corinthians 14:18-20 NLT

Paul was apparently a great tongue speaker, but the Corinthians would have known that because he started the church there and pastored them for the first few months. Paul started in the synagogue, found much opposition, and so ended up meeting in a place right next door. But the people in the church had become believers in Jesus, responding to a message which had been the central thrust of Paul’s evangelism. They found that when they believed the Gospel message and were baptised for the forgiveness of their sins, they received the gift of the Holy Spirit in a way that astounded them with its power and its impact on their lives. Apart from when he used the other gifts, Paul was a great tongue-speaker, and that fact wasn’t lost on the Corinthian believers. 

But Paul had to address the overabundant use of the gift of tongues, and he laid out the necessary balance in a church meeting. Great to use the gift of tongues for their personal devotions, he said, but not in a church meeting, please! Instead, he encouraged them to seek God for five helpful words to build up the church. 

Fast forward to today and our church meetings. Whatever and wherever they are, there is always an opportunity to help other believers. Sadly, when we encounter another person, a negative situation often develops. There was a lady I used to know who got to church, which was a miracle in itself, because when she arrived, she unburdened herself of all her family problems. Negative after negative came up in conversation, but in return, a message in tongues would have been no help to her at all. Instead, she needed some words of encouragement to lift her and give her hope again. Sometimes five words would have been sufficient. 

“[God] will never leave you nor forsake you”

As we pilgrims go out and about, there are plenty of opportunities to bring five words of encouragement. It will probably be appropriate to say a few more words than five, but sometimes all another person needs to hear is that God loves them and cares for them. We need to have a word of Scripture ready and waiting. Something like 1 Peter 5:7, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you”. Or how about Philippians 4:6-7, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus”? Or there is Deuteronomy 31:6, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you”. As we read our Bibles every day, we must squirrel away useful and encouraging verses for future use so that when we meet people, we have a few words to edify them. We live in a sad and bad world, but we have a Heavenly Father who loves us, and He hates to see His children struggling unnecessarily with worldly burdens. 

Dear Heavenly Father. We love You and praise You today. We are so grateful for all You have done for us, for the times when You have lifted us up out of the miry clay and put a song in our hearts. Please help us to be Your mouthpiece to bring encouragement to the discouraged in our churches and neighbourhoods. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

We Need Each Other

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part! Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.””
1 Corinthians 12:18-21 NLT

Paul continues with his analogy, using the human body, with all its constituent parts, as a comparison to the body of Christ, the church. In the verses we are considering today, Paul notes the interdependence of the various parts of the human body, something that we take for granted. In fact, if most parts of the body are removed, both they and the body from which they have come will die. Take, for example, a stomach. Not a very nice and visible part of the human body, but if it is removed, then the person will die. Other parts can be removed without a terminal result, and the body will continue to live, although its capabilities will be restricted. All of this is implied in Paul’s analogy, and the same sentiments apply to our churches and fellowships today. 

Human beings need each other, whether we like it or not. We look around our congregations, seeing the diverse backgrounds, nationalities, ages, employment statuses, and all, and often wonder how such a motley crew could ever function in the way that God intends. But Paul wrote, “God has put each part just where he wants it”. Right back in Genesis 2:18, we read about God’s plan for Adam. “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him””. With the arrival of Eve, the basis for God’s plan for families was established. Genesis 3:20, “Then the man—Adam—named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live”. Over the page we read, “Now Adam had sexual relations with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. When she gave birth to Cain, she said, “With the Lord’s help, I have produced a man!” Later she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel. When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground” (Genesis 4:1-2). Families and communities are all parts of God’s plan for human beings. They can, of course, be separated from the body of people of which they are a part, but most will then suffer from loneliness, and their lives will be the poorer for it. 

“Father to the fatherless, defender of widows— this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy. But he makes the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land”.

Psalm 68:5-6.

From these two verses, we note some principles that apply to our churches and fellowships as well as our communities. 

Firstly, we note God’s interest in the disadvantaged, such as orphans and widows. James wrote about this in James 1:27, “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you”. In our fellowships, we will have those who are on their own, and not just the widows and orphans. God’s plan is for the church to look after them, because the disadvantaged are still part of the body of Christ. 

Secondly, there are prisoners among us, and God has promised to set them free. We are, of course, all redeemed sinners, set free from the consequences of our sins by Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary. Galatians 3:22, “But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ”. But for the others still bound up by their sins, or those who are prisoners of addictions and other lifestyle choices, God will set them free with our help. And their joy will know no limits. 

Thirdly, we read that those who are rebellious and who may even leave their church or natural families will find themselves in a place where they don’t want to be, wallowing in their loneliness and misery. A “sun-scorched land” indeed. Such people may not want to be part of a family, particularly God’s family, but by leaving, they will be the poorer. After all, one day we will be in Heaven, and we are told that the souls there will be countless in number, a big family indeed!

So, in conclusion, we need each other. This is how God has designed us, and going against His design will not end well for us.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your care and provision, particularly with respect to Your family, the church. Please help us to look out for one another at every opportunity. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

One God, the Father

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many Lords. But for us, There is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created, and for whom we live. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, and through whom we live.”
1 Corinthians 8:4-6 NLT

I met a lady the other day, standing outside Dunfermline Abbey. She was listening to the organ being played, the soft tones carrying through a quiet but rather autumnal day. We started a conversation, during which I mentioned the God worshipped by the congregation that met in this ancient building, probing for an opportunity to share the Gospel. She mentioned that she believed in God but expanded on what she meant, explaining her understanding of a “god” who was in all world religions, and who was embedded in the very fabric of nature. She explained that to her, the adjacent tree was also “god”. Where do people get such weird ideas, ideas impregnated with a false understanding of God that has become so skewed and wrong? As we discovered yesterday, within every human being there is a “God-shaped” void that only He can fill, but without a voice declaring who God is, people create their own “god” in the hope that the empty ache inside will be somehow filled. In Paul’s day, created gods were called idols, and they obviously still exist today.

People have always created their own gods because something within them needs a spiritual being, a god, and it is far less hassle for most to worship a “god” that makes no demands of them. A “god” within them rather than a deity outside. And if they can include the possibility of pandering to their many human lusts, then even better. So, a popular “god” in ancient Greek days was Aphrodite, the goddess of love and procreation, but there were others in the Greek and Roman pantheons of deities. We won’t find temples dedicated to such deities in our towns and cities today. However, their influence lives on in the sinful practices of those in our societies, and we even still use words derived from their names, used to describe lustful acts associated with them and their ancient worship. But Paul wrote to the Corinthians saying that, even though there were so many idols, there is only “one God, the Father”.

The Jews were commanded to worship the one and only God. Exodus 20:3, “You must not have any other god but me“. And then we have the Shema prayer from Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength“. These verses establish the foundational belief in the absolute oneness and uniqueness of God, refuting the polytheistic beliefs of surrounding cultures and affirming that only the Lord (Yahweh) is the true and singular God. 

Paul expanded on God the Father as being the One “by whom all things were created”, something we know from Genesis 1. However, there is another sad religion, which has emerged in our schools and places of learning, and that is evolution. The high priests of this religion are people such as the prominent atheist Richard Dawkins, who say they believe in no god at all, and they have spent much of their lives promoting their beliefs, rubbishing the one true God in the process. But the evolutionists believe that given the right mix of chemicals, a flash of lightning, and billions of years, a living entity will emerge from the sea somehow, and then stand up on two legs and walk the land. Someone once described to me that the beliefs of an evolutionist are like putting all the constituent parts of an old-fashioned clockwork wrist watch, cogs and all, into a bag and then shaking it, and keep shaking it, because eventually, given enough time, a watch will emerge intact and fully functional. Really? There is much more that can be said, but what these people forget is that at some time all the chemicals and other matter had to be created, something they conveniently ignore. Many years ago, my teenage daughter, well-versed in the church’s Sunday school teachings, challenged her biology teacher about the evolutionary “facts” being promoted and got him to admit that the Theory of Evolution was just that —a theory.

Paul finally described God as not just a Creating God, but One “for whom we live”. Now there’s a challenge! Do we live for God or do we live to satisfy our own desires, and in the process, live for the god of this world, the devil. Jesus was asked by a Pharisaical religious legal expert the question, “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” (Matthew 22:36). We read what Jesus said in return, “ …  “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments”” (Matthew 22:37-40). That was what Paul was meaning when he gently reminded the Corinthian believers that they must live only for God. There is no middle way for a pilgrim, then or now. We are either totally for God or totally against Him. Yes, in our daily lives we will occasionally lapse back into the human world of “the lusts of our flesh”, but through Jesus we have forgiveness and the resources we need to continue our journey. 

Jesus said to the Laodicean church, “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realise that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” (Revelation 3:15-17). Do we pilgrims need the same wake-up call, or are we on fire for God, “hot” in all the things that we do? A little later, Jesus said to the Laodiceans, “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends” (Revelation 3:20). Can we hear a gentle knock at the door of our hearts this morning? Can we feel a hunger in our souls? Then all we have to do is allow Jesus to enter into our lives, our hearts, so that once again we can feast on His love, grace, and presence. He has done so much for us. Don’t let us ever lock Him out of our lives. We live for God and only God, this day and forever.

Dear Lord Jesus. Thank You for all You have done for us. We thank You too for this rich life we have found as we live for God. Please help us through the hard and difficult times, and show us the way so that we don’t take a wrong turning and lose heart. In Your precious name. Amen.

Gifts From God

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Dear brothers and sisters, I have used Apollos and myself to illustrate what I’ve been saying. If you pay attention to what I have quoted from the Scriptures, you won’t be proud of one of your leaders at the expense of another. For what gives you the right to make such a judgment? What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?”
1 Corinthians 4:6-7 NLT

Paul continues in his rebuke about preferring one leader over another and making judgments, both demonstrating worldly behaviour not appropriate for believers. We can just imagine the quarrels that had been going on as they discussed the merits and strengths of one leader, only to find disagreement from other believers who instead preferred another leader. Today, the same thing happens, with one congregant perhaps saying, “Good sermon from Fred today, the Holy Spirit was really moving”, only to hear someone else say, “Didn’t think much of Fred’s message today; it was rather boring, don’t you think?” And it is issues such as this that have caused people to quarrel and disagree with one another, and even leave one church to find another with a preacher who has a delivery style they prefer. But Paul said to them that they had to stop making such judgments, which is true both then and today. If we view the preacher as being God’s messenger, as Paul and Apollos were, then the responsibility for hearing what God wants to say rests just as much with the hearer as the deliverer. As an aside, perhaps today, should the preacher not be to our taste, then we must try all the harder to hear and understand what he is saying, and definitely we must not switch off and potentially miss what God wants to say. Taking notes of the sermon helps, as does an opening prayer asking for God’s help.

We must also remember what Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:11-12, “Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ“. Viewing our church leaders through the lens of these verses, perhaps, will help us to understand where the responsibility lies for our spiritual growth as believers. Many a message from these men will be uncomfortable to hear because they may expose what God wants to deal with in our lives. So a teacher one Sunday might base his message on Ephesians 6:4, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord“, but we men might possibly start to squirm in embarrassment in our seats because of our behaviour in the home. It would not be any good rubbishing the preacher just because we don’t like what he is saying. He is only delivering a message based on what God has said to him, something that he might have heard during his prayers that week. As is often said, “don’t shoot the messenger”!

But Paul continued to labour his point. The Corinthians were not just saying that they didn’t like a sermon. They went much further in judging its worth. For some reason, they believed that they had the right to assess the message and, from that, make judgments on the ability and character of the preacher. And in the process, they totally missed what God wanted to say to them. The points in the message were drowned out by personal feelings, judgments and arguments. So sad. But Paul was having none of this and said so quite forcibly. But he went on to make the point that although he and Apollos were gifts to the church in Corinth, the Corinthians were boasting about this not being the case. What gave the Corinthians the right to judge the merits of their leaders? It’s the same today – what gives us believers the right to make judgment over another believer, let alone the church leaders? The only criterion for judging a preacher or leader about what they had said was if the message being delivered was not in alignment with the Scriptures. Something like this is easier today because we have the full Canon of Scripture, but that didn’t stop the Berean Christians, who only had what we refer to as the Old Testament – Acts 17:11, “And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth”. 

The Corinthians didn’t really recognise Paul and Apollos as being gifts to the church in Corinth. But that didn’t change anything, because these faithful men continued to do their best in delivering God’s message. They lived in the light of Ephesians 4:11-12 through the power of the Holy Spirit, gifts to the Corinthian church, whether or not the people there believed it. But we believers have many gifts granted to us by our Heavenly Father. The Apostle James wrote, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17). We mustn’t forget the best and greatest gift of all though, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Paul wrote that everything we have is a gift from God, and we must be continually grateful.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for this life that You have granted to us. Please forgive us for our grumblings and lack of gratitude, and help us instead to look to You as the Source of everything that is good in our lives. When sickness or difficulties come our way, we look to You and pray because You have the answers and the remedies. We trust You, Lord, and thank You for Your love and kindness. Amen.

Unimaginable God

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.””
1 Corinthians 2:8-9 NLT

Worldly people, unbelievers in God, have no idea about God and His wisdom. A human being has no natural contact with the spiritual world, a super-natural place which we cannot see, touch, smell, taste or hear using our natural senses. And so anything a human being tries to work out about a mystical and elusive world beyond their senses is bound to fail. But a person rooted in a world driven by their senses bolstered by human reasoning and logic, comes up with a wisdom that falls far short of what God has made available. There is of course nothing wrong with human wisdom when properly utilised. That is why God has created humans with a brain that is amazing in its capabilities, but imaginative scientists and philosophers come up with much that pushes boundaries but inevitably finds limitations. Hardly a day goes past without some new discovery about our natural world, be it an atomic particle, or a new vaccine. Sadly, theories regarding the origins of the universe and the purpose of life itself change regularly and we find that human wisdom is woefully lacking, with significant limitations.

But what about God’s wisdom? Inaccessible although it is to mere unbelieving humans, we pilgrims are allowed a glimpse of the thoughts and plans of God. They are not available to people who fail to recognise Him and believe that He exists. But in those thoughts and plans we find God’s wisdom, and in His Word, the Bible, we find hints, glimpses, advice and assurances about this Heavenly world that we will one day find. Paul quoted a verse from Isaiah 64 in his Corinthian letter, which in the original reads, “For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!” (Isaiah 64:4). Paul’s memory came up with slightly different words, but the meaning is much the same. We have a loving Heavenly Father who is working for us and preparing a world, an environment, something and somewhere, but we cannot even start to imagine what it will be like. And even though the prophets of old were given tantalising hints of what was to come, no one can get anywhere near discovering what lies ahead. Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah and even the old Apostle John all had thoughts and visions inspired by the Holy Spirit, but there is a problem. What they “saw” is so far beyond anything seen or imagined that we will find they are not even close to what God has for us in His plans. 

So human wisdom, thoughts, imaginations, and discoveries are silent when it comes to God’s spiritual world. Jesus said to His disciples, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am” (John 14:1-3). We know that one day we will have a home where Jesus lives, because we know and believe that He is alive today, but what form that home will take we don’t know. Our imagination usually starts at the point of human knowledge but then ventures into unknown places. Places that “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined”. The Holy Spirit revealed something to Isaiah about God, ““My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). Human wisdom cannot bring us to the understanding that the Creator God loves His people and that He has prepared the glories of eternity to share with them. Our intellects will try and work it all out, but will come up painfully short. But we cannot trust in what God say He has for us without faith in Him. It is only by having faith in God, by believing the hints, glimpses and prophetic words contained in the Bible, that we will be able to be assured of our destination with our “unimaginable God”. The writer to the Hebrews wrote, “ … it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). 

But can we pilgrims start to feel a little excitement starting to build in our spirits? Are we feeling a little like a small child promised a trip to the seaside, feeling the anticipation starting to appear in our minds, our imaginations? What will the sea and sand be like? Will it be sunny? And so on. And of course we mustn’t forget the cry from the back seat – “are we nearly there yet?” The wise old pastor and expositor, John MacArthur, died recently and he will now be finding out if what he preached was in fact the reality he is now experiencing. Such revelation will also become available to all of us one day. But we pilgrims at least know where we are heading, having been given a glimpse of what is ahead. Pity all those who don’t believe because they are heading for a nasty shock and a future about which they can do nothing. All those poor people who have relied only on their human wisdom and knowledge, and who have rejected the King of Glory.

Dear Heavenly Father. Our human minds can never work out what plans You have for us in the future. But we believe in You and in the Words of Your Son Jesus, with a faith that will never be rocked by world events. We praise and worship You today. Amen.