That It Might Be Well With You – Part II

Introduction

Man, I was feeling so good. I didn’t even have a nap this afternoon, and about five minutes ago. Daylight savings time is trying to win. So let’s hope I can endure for a little while here tonight and continue the presentation of this lesson from 2 Peter chapter 1, where we looked in some detail, and closed with some thoughts as he talks about the prophetic word being made more sure. And I’m not sure I explained that exactly how I wanted to this morning. It’s the idea of everything coming into focus. All that the prophets had talked about in relation to the Messiah and hopes associated with him would now come into focus because of the things that he experienced and saw during Jesus’ ministry, because of the morning star himself, Jesus Christ.

And his desire was for Jesus to be in them. For his word to dwell in them. For Christ in you is the hope of glory. And this shining light is a lamp shining in a dark place. And so he says, You would do well to pay attention. It was that phrase that we focused on, and simply those words, you do well. And how often the scriptures talk about that from the standpoint of our not just our spiritual wellness, but the wellness of our lives, period. And Sherry pointed out to me on the way home that she thought of Genesis 4 and verse 7 when I was talking about this, and it’s another verse we could have added to this in Genesis 4 and verse 7. When Cain is confronted before he ever kills his brother Abel, and God says, If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?

And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is for you. But you must master it. And so I want to spend a little bit more time talking to you tonight about doing well by paying attention to these all important things. And I’m going to give you sort of a hodgepodge of points that you can take home and think about this week. That it may be well with you, the recipe of a successful life or a life well lived. The expression probably comes from a short story written by James Thurber in 1942, way before my time. Some of you, though, were around when James Thurber pinned his tail. And in that short story, Mrs. Barrows keeps using an expression, the catbird seat.

Have you ever heard of that? Do you know what that is? And that was the title of Thurber’s short story. And one of the other characters in the story, Joey Hart, surmised that the reason why Mrs. Barrows was continually using that expression is because she listened to renowned sportscaster Red Barber. And this was a time when people actually listened to baseball on the radio. And Red Barber would use the expression, he’s sitting in the catbird seat. If the hitter, and this is something, of course, Robert Banning, our baseball proficionado here, could tell you. If a hitter is 3-0 in the count, that is three balls and no strikes, he is in good shape at the plate. He is at the advantage. He is sitting in the catbird seat.

But that doesn’t mean that everything is always going to turn out wonderful for the hitter. But he is sitting in the catbird seat. And so I want to talk to you about sitting in the catbird seat of life. Because some of these expressions that we saw this morning about this is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth. He’s not guaranteeing a long life if you honor your father and mother. But you’re putting yourself in the catbird seat. This is the best possible position. And certainly in terms of eternal well-being, it’s not a precarious position at all. To do well by the instruction of God. And so, as we’re always talking about in regard to our respect for the scripture, let’s be careful to treat it with the respect that it deserves.

Now, this title, Don’t Blow Off What Is God Breathed, happened to be a title that was used a couple of weekends ago in college station by Brian Orr. And that name might sound familiar to some of you. Amber Storm isn’t here tonight. You make the connection. Brian was asked to preach on this topic, and I was looking through Graceway Media, and I saw this graphic. And so I had occasion to talk to Chuck Durham this week. I said, Chuck, you got that from Graceway Media, didn’t you? And he said, Yeah, he goes, isn’t an interesting play on words? Because the scriptures are God breathed. It is all scripture is given by inspiration, and the word in the Greek actually contains that concept of being God breathed.

And so we have this modern term of blowing something off. And so we should be careful not to blow off what God has blown from his lips, that he has breathed from his lips. And that’s what Paul is telling Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 3. And I know you’re very familiar with this text, but I want you to look at what surrounds it. In 2 Timothy chapter 3, Timothy is being urged to continue in the things that he has been taught since he was a youth, and that’s that prophetic word that Peter was talking about, the Old Testament Scriptures. And that they were able to make him wise unto salvation. It says in verse 15, and then he talks about Scripture generally, as inspired of God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and righteousness, that a person or a man of God, man or woman, would be adequate, equipped for every good work.

And then he begins with a charge in chapter 4, and then in verse 2, he says, preach the word, because a time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, he says. And so one of the things that we should get from this context is a respect for the word and the God who authored it. And what we should also get from this is that we should trust the word implicitly. And that’s really what I want to talk to you about tonight is how strong is our trust in the Word. Did you see that in 2 Timothy 4 in verse 2 where it says preach the word, and you’ve heard this many times, be instant in season and out of season. What does that mean?

That means that sometimes the hearers won’t like what you have to say as you’re preaching God’s message. It will not be popular with some. It may not even be popular with those who claim to be in Christ. And so the message needs to be preached, whether it falls on welcome or unwelcome ears. Preach the word, be in some in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. And I was talking to Wayland about this on Wednesday night. About how we’re okay with the exhort part. You know, we want to be exhorted and encouraged, but it’s the reprove and the rebuke part that’s not really that popular. And let me just tell you something. When something comes from this pulpit and it’s hard-hitting, perhaps convicting of things that we need to change or do better.

Please be advised that I probably preach that to myself first when I was preparing. I’ve got to tell you, when I preach, the effect you get is not the same as the effect that I get.

You were looking a little sleepy this morning, but I’m going to blame that on daylight savings time. But some of you I know were right there with me. I get it. And you were fighting through the weariness and fatigue, and sometimes you’ve got to do that. I’ve been in that position. I’ve been sitting there during gospel meetings before, and I am just, for some reason, totally wiped out. And I remember forcing myself to buckle down and listen to every word. So I know how it is. Even if the guy does a very good job. But that’s not all I have to say. That, while the effect I get is different, because I’m just trying to execute what I prepared, and so I’m not getting the same effect.

That’s why sometimes I need to sit and listen. Because it is different sitting in the pew than delivering the message. But I’m getting it during the week. That’s what I’m trying to say. I’m back to it. During the week, I may be convicting myself as I write these lessons. Somebody says, Tony, how do you know what to preach about? I preach about things that I need. And so please understand from the standpoint of conviction and hard-hitting things that the preacher is often considering himself, as he should, as he’s delivering these difficult messages. And perhaps some of this will be like that tonight. I want to look at four significant areas where we need to be careful not to blow off what is God breathed. And the way Brian went with this two weeks ago, actually, Sherry and I talked to him about that sermon before he preached it.

1. Marriage and Divorce

And I might want to do something similar to what he did down the road. So you may see this graphic again. I may go a different direction with it, but I’m going different direction than he went with it. And I want to talk about some things that people might tend to blow off in regard to God’s word, where we need to have implicit trust and confidence in what he has told us. And I’m going to talk about marriage and divorce tonight. So here’s what I’m going to do. For the next two and a half hours. Martha, what do you don’t you don’t think I’m going to you wouldn’t mind if I did, but you know I’m not going to do that. I am going to unravel every possible scenario of marriage, divorce, and remarriage, and give you the answer for every one of them.

Two and a half hours wouldn’t cover it, would it? Well, I want to talk about some things in two passages of Scripture to give you some building blocks for providing answers for all of those scenarios. And the first, of course, is the familiar text of Matthew 19, where Jesus says, and it’s quoted in a lot of marriage sermons, if you go to see someone get married, especially at the end of the sermon, I will conclude with this. What therefore God is joined together, let no man put asunder. And people quote King James because that’s the famous phrase. Or let no man separate, asunder and separate, same idea. But that’s what the text says in Matthew 19 and verse 6, what God is joined together, and yet there’s also more attention given to verse 9, where Jesus said, and I say to you, and you won’t find a statement like this in the Old Testament.

Whoever divorces his wife except for immorality and marries another woman commits adultery. And of course, there’s been a lot of study of what that immorality involves. It’s the Greek word pornea, which involves illicit sexual intercourse. And there are several different kinds of behavior that fall under that umbrella of that term. And so there seems to be, according to this verse, a scenario where one could put away a spouse, it’s not demanding that they do so, but one could put away a spouse and marry another if this kind of treachery occurs. And there’s a lot of attention given to Matthew 19 and verse 9. But here’s what I want you to see in this context. All that Jesus says flows out of a question that he was asked in verse 3 is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause at all?

What Jesus is saying overall in this context is what? No. It is not lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause at all. And then he provides a single exception in Matthew 19 and verse 9. Of course, we all understand that if a mate dies, that one is freed from obligations in regard to that mate. 1 Corinthians 7 makes that very clear. So here’s what I want to tell you. What this passage teaches us is that God is involved in the approved marriage of two eligible people. God is involved in the approved marriage of two eligible people. For example, no binding occurs because God does not approve. No binding occurs in a homosexual union. And even if our government says we’re going to approve of homosexual marriage, God is not going to be involved in the binding of two people in a homosexual marriage or a marriage that he labels adultery or adulterous.

More on that in a second. Marriage, here’s the second point. Marriage is God’s institution. It originates with him, and he defines what it is and when it is approved by his infinite wisdom. Only an innocent party whose mate has died, or an innocent party whose mate has committed this sexual immorality is free to seek union with another. Now, I’ve said that to say this.

Because even if you’re in an unapproved marriage, you may find acceptance somewhere with a local church. We shouldn’t be concerned about that foremost, because we have limited knowledge. We do not have infinite knowledge as God does and a perfect understanding of what happened in that first or second marriage, as the case might be. God knows all the ins and outs of that. We have limited knowledge of that, particularly when people come to us from other places. And so just because a church says, okay, on the basis of what you’ve told us, we can accept you, that doesn’t make your marriage approved before God. This church can’t approve your marriage before God. It is either approved or unapproved on the basis of God’s instruction, not what men say.

I know of churches who are accepting people on the basis of what they have been told about the marriage that are not the facts of the case. People that are in adulterous marriages. But they didn’t consult me, they didn’t consult the people that had firsthand knowledge. And they took people at their word. And I’m not going to fault them for that necessarily. I don’t believe we have to be private investigators and dig up everything we can possibly find out. But neither should we stick our head in the sand and just say, okay, whatever you tell me is fine, I’ll go with it. We need to ask some hard questions. Because our job is to keep the church pure to the best of our ability. Because a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.

But I’ll tell you, sometimes people will just flat out lie about their circumstances. We live in a lying culture. And people will just flat out, oh, yeah, I was an innocent party putting away a guilty part. And then when you start talking to them more about it, well, maybe it wasn’t exactly like that. And so we’re going to have to make some decisions that, based on the information that we have, this union is either acceptable before God or it’s not. But here’s what I want you to know. God knows whether you had it right or not. And he ultimately will be the judge of that, and churches are going to be held accountable upon the basis of what they knew about that case. Now the other passage I want to take you to is Mark chapter 6.

In Mark chapter 6. This is an interesting passage in Mark 6, because it tells us about something that happened in the life of John the Baptist that led to his death. But what’s interesting in the way that Mark tells it is he’s recalling it later. After the fact.

John the Baptist has arisen from the dead. And this is why these miraculous powers are at work with him. And so Mark then takes this occasion to tell the story as to what happened with John in verse 16. But when Herod heard of it, he kept saying, John whom I had beheaded has risen. For, and here it is, Herod himself had sent and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. Because he had married her. Okay? So we have Herod married to Herodias, but Herodias was first the wife of Philip, Herod’s brother. Now that’s convoluted. He has taken his brother for a wife. And it says he married her. For John had been saying to Herod, It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.

I want you to mark 6, 17, 18. Very helpful passages on the subject of marriage, divorce, and remarriage. This is before Jesus spoke his words in Matthew 5.32 and Matthew 19 and verse 9. Okay? This is old covenant. These are implications of old covenant teaching and expectations that God would have of Herod, who should have known that he had no right to Herodias because she had been married to his brother Philip. Obviously, this was not a case of Herodias putting away Philip for sexual immorality. Or he may have had a right to her if he’d had no other spouses. This was egregious. And we don’t see Herod arguing, no, I really do have a right to her. He enjoyed listening to John, but didn’t like this part of what he had to say.

Now I want you to notice the courage, the courage that John has to speak to a ruler, an official, and tell him, your life isn’t right before God because of your adulterous marriage. And it cost him his life, as the daughter of Herodias danced and was offered whatever she wished, not thinking about what the results might be to that offer. And of course, Herodias tells her daughter, ask for the head of John the Baptist. And he was beheaded. And what I would say from this meeting legal requirements for marriage does not necessarily change God’s expectations. Now they met the legal requirements for marriage. We have Herod married to Herodias. It says he had married her.

That’s what we need to be concerned about. And John’s courage to speak needed truth got him killed. Remember we talked about upsetting the world last week? John upset the world of Herod and Herodias by this teaching. And silencing and eliminating the messenger doesn’t change the truth. You can get rid of John, but it’s still an adulterous marriage. And they stood in danger of the judgment. So just a few thoughts about marriage. And we need to respect what God has said on this subject. It is not difficult to discover if you have been given the facts of the case, who is bound to whom? Who has legal moral requirements as far as God is concerned to another person. It’s not difficult to figure out. What makes it convoluted are lies and deception and people who want to do something other than what God has instructed.

2. How We Raise Our Kids

That’s what makes it convoluted. It’s really quite simple and easy if given the facts of the case and there is a willingness to do God’s will. Okay, now that’s the point I wanted to make about that. I’ll talk about three other things very briefly tonight. I want to make a point about how we raise our kids. And that we need to be careful not to blow off what is God breeding. We must trust in the exceeding value of teaching our children to know the Lord and that all of their successes should be measured in light of first and foremost a relationship with God, and that he should be first above everything. And I’ve got to tell you, my heart goes out to see parents who wrestle kids during assemblies like this.

And I got to tell you, this is my firm belief that some kids come out of the womb with a genetic predisposition to be rambunctious. I mean, it’s not a matter of environmental training. That’s just the kid. The kid does not like to sit still ever. And that could be from the time that they’re a few months old. And so I sympathize with parents who are going to have it particularly difficult in assemblies with, as we would say, a wild child. What I can tell you is that it may take some time for them to accept the confining of this assembly. And I’ll tell you what some churches do to remedy this problem altogether. Let’s just take training out of the hands of the parents. Let’s have kids’ church.

Let’s have children’s church. And we’ll move all the kids out of the assembly, make this just for adults. Sure, parents can get a lot more out of it when they’re not having to wrestle an alligator. I understand. But we’re teaching our children something by bringing them into this room. We are training them about the importance, and that’s what we need to keep telling them. We’re here to serve God as a family. And one day you’re going to grow up and be an adult, and you’re going to learn to respect God and serve God in this way. And it’s going to require some training of the child. And so may I recommend that let this not be the only sit still time that they experience. If you just let them run like a wild Mohican all the time, without telling them, you know, there are some times where we need to be quiet and silent.

Have a quiet time at home. Train your child to get used to quiet time. Silent time. Because I tell you what happens in the lives of a lot of kids. Everything is always about them and what they want to do. And so they grow up and they’re still like that. It’s all about them and what they want to do. We spoil our kids rotten in these times. And you know what they’re doing now? Birthday parties, toy registries. Just like we have wedding and shower registries for, hey, I get those, but toy registries for birthday parties, let’s make sure the kid gets the toy that they want. Now, if you’re a parent that’s done that, I’m not indicting you necessarily. But I am saying it caters to the putting the kid on a pedestal, that the whole world revolves around them.

It’s okay if they get a toy that’s not the absolute thing that they wanted. It’s okay. Training our children. Teach them that every minute of their lives is not about them and about play. And they will not die. If the sermon is 40 minutes instead of 30, they will not die. If you have to go an hour without a drink of water, you will not die. Are you catching a theme here? Respect for God and his word is probably the most important thing we can teach our kids. Because I’ll tell you what happens when they get older. They’re going to be hearing a lot of voices that are not telling them that.

3. A Pattern for How the Church Functions

Or has He given us instruction to guide us in these decisions? What we’re going to do when we come together and what are we going to do as we work together and pull our resources into a common treasury, something that we read about in the New Testament. What are we going to do in our corporate work together? Has he given us a pattern for that? And some teaching and instruction on that we need to be listening to. Has he not always given patterns for his people to follow, build all things according to the pattern? Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 5. There’s a pattern as to how the church as a collective unit is to function. And there’s some simple principles that we need to understand.

That God has given the church to do some specific, limited things. And individuals and what they can do is a much broader area of good that we can do. There’s a difference between what the individual can do and what the church can do. And I know that from one statement of Scripture in 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 16, where Paul is talking about assistance to widows and what widows get on the list. Not every widow got on the list. In fact, if a widow had dependent children who could take care of her, they were supposed to take care of her.

Me as an individual, I can’t do that. I’m to be a person of compassion. But it is not given to the church to take care of all the needy people in this world. I’m going to tell you why I think that is. What are we instructed to do? To dispense the message of the gospel. 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 13. And I think partly it’s because of our affluent times, and we have the kinds of resources that we do that we get involved in all these other things. But I want you to think there’s a lot of organizations that take care of needy people, and that’s a great thing. But listen, there’s nobody else doing this work. Nobody who is doing the work of dispensing the gospel message in truth that saves people’s souls.

You know, I can feed someone, and that can satisfy their hunger for a few hours or a day. But our business as the Lord’s people, as a collective entity, is to disseminate the message that can fill them up for their whole lives and for eternity. That’s our message. And we’re the ones that are doing this work and no one else is. Let’s stay focused on what our mission is from the scripture. And one more thing.

4. How We Regard Our Elders

I want to talk about how we regard our elders for a minute. I want to look at one passage with you in Hebrews 13, Hebrews 13 and verse 17. As the Hebrew writer talks about this directly. He says, obey your leaders and submit to them. For they keep watch over your souls. As those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief. For this would be unprofitable for you. And I think what he’s saying there is make sure you’re encouraging these men and praying for these men, and make sure you’re not a problem that they have to deal with. Because you want them to serve with joy and not with grief. It’s a hard task that they’ve been called to do.

It is a task of great responsibility. And one of the things that we need to think about in regard to our shepherds is that they’re trying to watch out over an entire group of people and what is best for them. And so they make decisions about what is best for the entire group. And it doesn’t mean they lord it over the flock. We talked about that many times from 1 Peter chapter 5. But when I think about the work of being a shepherd, and I think about the work of being an evangelist, I’m not sure I can do both of those things. People have asked me about that. Because it is a great responsibility to take on. And because of that, they are worthy of double honor.

Paul says in 1 Timothy chapter 5, they may even need financial support to do the work, and that’s part of what’s going on in 1 Timothy chapter 5 and that instruction. But here’s what I want to say. Elders are not elders because they are perfect men or perfect in judgment. That’s not why they’re elders. Their judgment is not infallible. And so I want to ask: can I only respect them if they agree with me 100% of the time? For all of the criticisms that we might lay at the feet of our commander in chief, the president of the United States, as the things he does are under a microscope. And we hear about things that he says and does, and his unilateral action and all these things that we hear about and we criticize.

And maybe if we were in the office and qualified to do that, we would make different decisions and better decisions in terms of righteousness for our nation. But I’ve got to tell you, I don’t know that I would want his job either. Trying to please 300 million people.

Elders, preachers. And we get very good at sitting on our perches and casting out edicts on what other people are doing, particularly those in leadership roles. This passage is telling us we need to be careful with that. We deem them qualified to serve in this way because of the kind of men that they were. And we need to treat them with respect and dignity. And let’s be careful that we respect them for their character and their work’s sake and not contribute in any way to the undermining of their influence with others. I’ll tell you one of the things that has really gotten my ire of all the things that have happened to me in my 30 years of preaching are people who would unnecessarily belittle me to others and affect their perception of me and my work of preaching.

Conclusion

That bothers me. Think about that. You’re diminishing someone in their eyes who is trying to instruct them in God’s way. I’ve seen it happen. Need to be careful. What we say about our leaders to other people. What I want for all of us is that it may be well with you. What does sitting pretty or sitting in the catbird seat look like? It is pursuing God’s will to the end of your days. In Psalm 119, in Psalm 119 and verse 33, teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I shall observe it to the end. Trust him to lead you in the ways of salvation, goodness, and unto eternal life. And if there’s anybody that we can assist tonight in coming to the Lord and obeying Him and receiving His salvation and start walking the path to eternal life, we want to assist you.

Let’s stand and see you.