HOW I BATTLE MY SIN OF FEAR

I confess that the greatest battle in my life is the battle of fear. There are times that I have been so fearful that I have lay in bed shaking in my dread. I have suffered many sleepless nights, troubled days, wasted hours imagining outcomes, and I have devoted countless hours at times to allowing fear to darken my mind and cloud my soul. I have also seen some of my biggest fears come to pass. That most certain weighs deeply in my struggle with fear. My biggest fears center around people and the future.

Many times in my life I fear people. People often times seem very big to me and God seems small. Here are some of my fears Perhaps some of you can relate:

Abandonment
Rejection
Betrayal
Hurting me
Giving up on me in my imperfections
Not accepting me once they know me
Trying to control me
Disapproval

Here are some of my fears of the future:

Ministry failure
Being left to myself and my own decision making ability
Old age
Unhappiness
My worst fears all happening
Utter poverty
Loneliness
Uselessness
Wasting my life
God forsaking me.


I am glad that I am not alone in my fears. Even in the Bible, we can see where men were stalked by their fears:
-Abraham lied about Sarah out of fear - Genesis 12:11-13
-Jacob displayed fear of Esau - Genesis 32:6-8
-Moses feared Pharaoh - Exodus 2:14
-Moses feared Rejection - Exodus 4:1
-The Disciples feared the storm - Matthew 8:24-26

What makes fear even more difficult for me in my struggle with fear is that over and over in scriptures we hear God demanding us to “be not afraid”(ex. John 6;20;14;27; Acts 18:9; 27:24; 1 Peter 3;14; Revelation 1:17). Often times when I am afraid I will hear this demand and all I can feel is more discouragement because God demands of me something that is the opposite of what I am feeling and how can I stop feeling fear when I feel fear? God says, “Be not afraid’ but I feel that “I am afraid.” What’s the way to overcome fear and to obey His command to not fear? Is there a solution?

Please reread what I wrote on October 10 titled LEARNING TO TALK TO YOURSELF INSTEAD OF LISTENING TO YOURSELF. You deal with fear by battling unbelief. And you battle unbelief by confessing your fears to God, meditating on God's Word, speaking it to yourself, and asking for the help of his Spirit. The windshield wipers are the promises of God that clear away the mud of unbelief. And the windshield washer fluid is the help of the Holy Spirit. Without the softening work of the Holy Spirit the wipers of the Word just scrape over the blinding clumps of unbelief. Both are necessary—the Spirit and the Word. We must read the promises of God and speak them to yourself; and then we we pray for the help of his Spirit. So I want to receive the promises of God, and promises from God are the key that leads from the dungeon of fear. So consider these and do not be afraid.

1. We will not die apart from God's gracious decree for His children.
If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. (James 4:15)
"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows." (Matthew 10:29–31)
See now that 1, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. (Deuteronomy 32:39) (See also Job 1:21; 1 Samuel 2:6; 2 Kings 5:7.)

2. The plans of man including your enemies do not succeed apart from our gracious God.
The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. (Psalm 33:10)
Take counsel together [you peoples], but it will come to nothing; speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us. (Isaiah 8:10) (See also 2 Samuel 7:14; Nehemiah 4:15.)

3. Man cannot harm us beyond God's gracious will for us.
The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? (Psalm 118:6)
In God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? (Psalm 56:11)

4. God promises to protect His own from all that is not finally good for them.
Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. (Psalm 91:14)

5 God promises to give us all we need to obey, enjoy, and honor Him forever.
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?" or "What shall we wear?"...Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:31–33)
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

6. God is never taken off guard.
Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. (Psalm 121:4)

7. God will be with us, help us, and uphold us in trouble.
"Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." (Isaiah 41:10)
"For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, `Fear not, I am the one who helps you."' (Isaiah 41:13)

8. Terrors will come, some of us will die, but not a hair of our heads will perish.
Then [Jesus] said to them, ". . . there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.... and some of you they will put to death.... But not a hair of your head will perish." (Luke 21:10-11, 18)

9. I am immortal till it is God's appointed hour.
So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. (John 7:30) (See also John 8:20; 10:18.)

10. When God Almighty is your helper, none can harm you beyond what He decrees.
So we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?" (Hebrews 13:6)
If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)

11. God's faithfulness is based on the firm value of His name,not the fickle measure of our obedience.
And Samuel said to the people, "Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil.... For the LORD will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake." (1 Samuel 12:20—22)

12. The Lord, our protector, is great and awesome.
Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome. (Nehemiah 4:14)

13.The battle is the Lord's
“Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s” (2 Chronicles 20:15).

14. God loves to comfort us in scary times.

I, I am he that comforts you; so are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass?” (Isaiah 51:12)

Warring over my fear for my peace and his glory,
Pastor Bill

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING THAT YOU CAN PRAY

I am always desiring to pray more effectively. On reason is that so many of my prayers as I listen to them come out of my mouth are all about me. So this week, I have gone back to the word of God to help hear the Father’s heart and what He would have me to pray for. Thankfully, He does not leave me to try to figure it all out. There are things that He considers very important. People ask me all the time about what is the most important thing that they should pray for? The best way to find out what is the most important thing to pray for is to learn to pray the heart of God that is revealed through the scriptures. It actually simplifies things when you stop trying to figure it out and begin simply praying the heart of God as revealed to us.

It seems that the apostle Paul was very concerned about love in his teachings and in his prayers (Read 1 Corinthians 13). He fervently prayed that God would make love grow in the hearts of Christians. "I pray that your may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment" (Philippians 1:9). "May the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for
one another, and for all men, just as we also do for you" (1 Thessalonians 3:12). "[I pray] that you [would be] rooted and grounded in love" (Ephesians 3:17)." May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ" (2 Thessalonians 3:5).

It was an urgent plea when Paul prayed this way. Why? Because what is at stake in "increasing and abounding in love to one another and to all men" is immense. What is at stake is a compelling, supernatural demonstration of God's reality in world and the reality of God's nature is that He loves. "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love" (1 John 4:7-8). Jesus described the impact of the unity of love like this: "[I pray, Father] they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they may be in Us; that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory You have given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We one; I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have I Me" (John 17:21-23). We may not fully understand this. But it is clear something tremendous is at stake in the practical unity of love in the body Christ.

Or consider John 13:34-35, where Jesus says, "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love one another." This is the one indispensable public mark of the Christian: visible, tangible, authentic. real love for other Christians. Jesus assumes that the world is watching this and that judgments are being made. He means it to be this way. He gives the world the seeming right to make these judgments about us.

Or consider Matthew 5:16: "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." The glory of our heavenly Father is at stake in the pattern of good deeds that out from our lives. When the light of God is seen in deeds wrought in His power and love, men and women will treasure God and give Him glory.

On the basis of all these texts, it seems that growing in love is of paramount importance in these difficult days. Paul prays in Ephesians 3:17-19, "...that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." To grow in love is to grow in evangelism and missions and caring for others and marriage and relationships and how to get along people you disagree with; and virtually everything else Is it no wonder that Paul calls love "the greatest of these" (1 Corinthians 13:13)?

So, the most important thing that you can pray is to make a name for Jesus Christ by the radical difference of your love for Him, your neighbor, your brothers and sisters, your enemy, and your friends.

To that end I pray in the words of Paul, "May the Lord cause you [and me] to increase and abound in love for one another. ant for all people" (1 Thessalonians 3:12). This is the great work of God. The great and first fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22). "Now faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13).

May the Lord encourage you by His Word and His Spirit what to pray for and to begin praying big sweeping things about his love. May you know that you can boldly and confidently ask for from the Father and know that He will answer!.

Praying for us to love more than ever,
Pastor Bill

LEARNING TO TALK TO YOURSELF INSTEAD OF LISTENING TO YOURSELF

"Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation 6and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. 7Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls;all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. 8By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. 9I say to God, my rock: "Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?" 10As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, "Where is your God?" 11 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God." Psalm 42:5-11 ESV

What do you think about during the day? Do you finding your mind saying things to you that strengthen you or weaken you? What emotions do your thoughts produce? Are your thoughts producing faith and trust and comfort and hope and peace and security and assurance? Or do they produce sorrow, grief, fear, anxiety, despair, hopelessness, fear, insecurity, anxiousness, and doubt? I have thought much about these matters because I have warred so much these past seventeen months. There have been days of great inner peace, tremendous resolve, confident hope, deep heartfelt gratitude, expectant faith, and inexpressible joy. But there have been other times of complete despair, utter darkness, feeling completely abandoned and alone, tremendous fear and anxiety, and totally lost. It always has to do with what is going on in my mind.

There is a major battle going on in your mind every day. Paul speaks of it this way: "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses” (1 Timothy 6:12). He calls it the "fight the good fight of faith”. Fighting the fight of faith is the struggle to keep the faith. Every day is a battle in your mind to treasure Christ above all else, to keep on believing God, to keep on trusting his promises, to stay faithful, and to lay hold of eternal life over the promises of sin.

Paul Tripp writes,
The battle is in your mind where you are constantly involved in an internal conversation that greatly influences the things you decide, say, and do...What do you regularly tell yourself about yourself, God, and your circumstances? Do your words to you encourage faith, hope, and courage? Or do they stimulate doubt, discouragement, and fear? Do you remind yourself that God is near, or do you reason within yourself, given your circumstances, that he must be distant? Do you encourage yourself to run to God even when you don't understand what he's doing? Or do you give yourself permission to back away from him when you are confused by the seeming distance between what he's promised and what you're experiencing?....When others talk to you, is your internal conversation so loud that it's hard to concentrate on what they're saying?

So how do we fight these thoughts that lead to despair, anxiety, fear, and unbelief? We fight by preaching to ourselves the Word of God instead of listening to our unbelieving selves speak. I learned this from Martin Lloyd Jones in his book Spiritual Depression based upon Psalm 42. Listen to what he says. It has helped me greatly.

Listen to what he says. It has helped me greatly.

Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you.’… The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’– what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’– instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do.”

That is exactly what we must do. I have discovered that most of my unhappiness in life is due to the fact that I listen to myself instead of talking to myself! What we have each day is an internal conversation that never ends. It is ceaseless. It continues always within us. And so each day, throughout the day, we have two simple choices: We can either spend the day listening to ourselves, listening to ourselves in our constantly changing feelings and circumstantial interpretations, or we can spend each day talking to ourselves. We can talk truth to ourselves. We can preach the gospel to ourselves.

My mind cannot be trusted and my circumstances often lie to me. They informing me that God isn't sovereign, God isn't wise, God isn't kind, God isn't active, God isn't present, God doesn't love me, God won't help me, God isn't for me, in fact, he has forgotten me. Do you ever think that way?

THIS IS A BATTLE THAT I FACE EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE! Therefore, my only hope for victory is to preach to myself. I must talk to myself instead of allowing myself to talk to me! It is what I do when I am afraid, stressed, defeated, grief stricken, battling health, discouraged, depressed, tempted, losing hope, feeling useless, abandoned, lost, and overcome. I pull out my sword of God’s word, God’s promises and weld it against my mind.

Charles Spurgeon wrote the following about welding God's promises,

God's promises were never meant to be thrown aside as waste paper; He intended that they should be used.... Nothing pleases our Lord better than to see His promises put in circulation; He loves to see His children bring them up to Him, and say, "Lord, do as you have said." We glorify God when we plead His promises. Do you think that God will be any the poorer for giving you the riches He has promised? Do you dream that He will be any the less holy for giving holiness to you? Do you imagine He will be any the less pure for washing you from your sins? He has said, "Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins...be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Faith lays hold upon the promise of pardon, and it does not delay, saying, "This is a precious promise, I wonder if it be true?" but it goes straight to the throne with it, and pleads, "Lord, here is the promise, do as You have said." Our Lord replies, "Be it unto you even as you will." When a Christian grasps a promise, if he does not take it to God, he dishonors Him; but when he hastens to the throne of grace, and cries, "Lord, I have nothing to recommend me but this, You have said it;" then his desire shall be granted. Our heavenly Banker delights to cash His own notes. Never let the promise rust. Draw the word of promise out of its scabbard, and use it with holy violence. Think not that God will be troubled by your importunately reminding Him of His promises. He loves to hear the loud outcries of needy souls. It is His delight to bestow favors. He is more ready to hear than you are to ask....It is God's nature to keep His promises; therefore go at once to the throne with, "Do as you have said."

The battle in my mind is a battle to believe the promises of God. And that belief in God comes by hearing the Word. And so preaching to ourselves is at the heart of the battle. You must take yourself, talk to yourself, question yourself, and preach God’s word to yourself. The victory comes not by looking at our grief, nor back to our past, nor round at our problems, nor projecting upon our future; but away and up to the living God. He is our help and our God, and if we trust Him now, we shall soon have cause to praise Him again. Thus, as one writer sums up, "faith rebukes despondency and hope triumphs over despair". Why restless, why cast down, my soul? Hope still, and you shall sing the praise of him who is your God, Your health's eternal spring. (Tate and Brady, 1696)

So stop listening to yourself; turn on him, speak to him; condemn him; rebuke him; turn on him; exhort him; encourage him; remind him of the truth; and don’t let him drag you down and depress you. Turn your outlook into an up look.

Let me give you some of my favorite weapons I use to preach to myself against my unbelieving thoughts:
• Psalm 16:8 have set the LORD always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.
• Psalm 23:1-6, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.
• Psalm 27:13 – 14, “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD! “
• Psalm 31:14-16, “But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD; I say, "You are my God." My times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, And from those who persecute me. Make Your face shine upon Your servant; Save me for Your mercies' sake."
• Psalm 46:1-2, “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear.”
• Psalm 50:15, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me."
• Psalm 55:22, “Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.”
• Psalm 57:2, “I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.”
• Psalm 73:25-26, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
• Psalm 112:6-8, “For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD. His heart is steady; he will not be afraid.”
• Psalm 121:1 – 8, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.”
• Psalm 123:1-3, “To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he has mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us.”
• Matthew 28:20, “behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
• Matthew 7:7-8, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened."
• Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
• John 6:35 “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
• John 14:1-3 , “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
• Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
• 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, “We do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
• Philippians 1:21, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
• Hebrews 13:5-6, "I will never leave you nor forsake you” So we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?"
• 1 Peter 5:7, “Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

These are but a few of my weapons that I use to preach to myself and fight the good fight of faith.
Pastor Bill

GOING DEEPER IN THE SCRIPTURE IN ORDER TO LET GOD BE GOD

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9)

In a time of distraction by entertainment, technology, and the media the church needs deep thinking and deep feeling Christians. Growing and maturing Christians are always reading, exploring, and learning; especially in regards to the scripture. This is one of the reasons that I have started a new ministry. I have an ongoing frustration with weak, shallow, glib, overly simplistic, and lazy approaches to God and His word. I often hear pronouncements about the nature of God that if they were paid attention to, would raise more questions than answers. Not only that, would have profound practical, pastoral, and personal implications in our lives if thought out and many that are not good. I know, I have seen at times during my journey in my own immature teaching, the effects on the lives of those I have taught and counseled.

I have been studying the Bible for 37 years. Yet the more I read the scripture, the more I realize how little is my understanding of God and His ways. I am not so quick to make simplistic and glib pronouncements about God these days as I once was. Sometimes I listen to myself when I make shallow pronouncements and remind myself that a preacher can sometimes say things that he does not understand and make it seem like it's your fault. Reading God's word raises many questions for me that demand prayerful reflection and thought, careful analysis, humility, teachability, and openness to what God really says and means even if I do not agree with Him, like it, or understand. I often times use the analogy of a man who has a yard full of leaves and a buried treasure in the same yard. He can either quickly rake leaves and have a nice yard or he can work hard and dig for the gold and acquire that buried treasure! I am after the treasure not the nice yard.

The Bible is both simple, yet complex; light, yet weighty; easy to understand, yet extremely difficult. Did not the apostle Peter himself say that there are some things in Paul’s writings that are hard to understand (2 Peter 3:16)? Yet, we are also told that if we think, ponder, and reflect upon God’s word, that God will give us understanding (2 Timothy 2:7). Add to that, we have been given the gift of the holy Spirit to teach us, illuminate us, and guide us into all truth. When we pray like David in Psalm 119:18, "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law." The Spirit of God does His eye opening illuminating work.

This is the great challenge and joy for a lifetime of studying the scriptures (2 Timothy 2:15) which are profitable for teaching and training ( 2 Timothy 3:16). I am thoroughly committed to allowing the scriptures to set my beliefs, ideas, and understanding about God and His ways excited that God has revealed Himself to us (Deuteronomy 29:29). I Agree with David that the truths of God's word are wondrous things! But they are deep and demand effort in order to glean understanding. After all, they are from the infinite, eternal God!

For example, the longer I know Christ and the more that I understand His ways, the more that I am astounded at how He thinks and feels and wills. God's will is not a simple thing. He can will a thing in one sense and not will it in another sense. When we read that God wills a thing or that he does not will a thing; or when we read that he delights in a thing or that he has no delight in a thing, we must always be ready to admit that this simple statement of what he wills or delights in is not the whole story in our limited understanding. God's heart is capable of complex combinations of emotions infinitely more remarkable that ours. This is the great challenge of reading passages like Psalm 135:6; Ezekiel 18:23,32; and Deuteronomy 28:63. These verses need much prayer, reflection, openness, humility, and illumination in order to understand who God is and how that He operates in this universe.

When I read Psalm 135:6, “Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. ” I discover that God always acts according to and for His own “good pleasure,” following the dictates of his own delights. He never becomes the victim of circumstance, or Satan or human decision. He is never forced into a situation where he must do something in which he cannot rejoice. This is a glorious picture of God in his sovereign freedom—to do whatever he pleases and to accomplish all his pleasure. God is not constrained by anything outside himself to do anything he does not want to do. If God were unhappy, if he were in some way deficient, then he might indeed be constrained from outside in some way to do what he is not pleased to do in order to make up his deficiency and finally to be happy. But, because he is complete and exuberantly happy and overflowing with satisfaction in the fellowship of the Trinity, all he does is free and uncoerced. His deeds are the overflow of his joy. This is what it means when the Scripture says that God does something according to the "good pleasure" of his will (Ephesians 1:5).

Psalm 115:3 says the same thing: "Our God is in the heavens;
he does whatever he pleases." This verse teaches that whenever God acts, he acts in a way that pleases him. God is never constrained to do a thing that he despises. He is never backed into a corner where his only recourse is to do something he hates to do. He does whatever he pleases. And therefore, in some sense, he has pleasure in all that he does. Isaiah uses the same Hebrew word (haphetz) in Isaiah 46:10 where the Lord says, "My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my pleasure."

In Ezekiel 18:30 God is warning the house of Israel of impending judgment: "Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, says the Lord." And he is urging them to repent: "Repent and turn from all your transgressions." At the end of verse 31 he says, "Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I do not have pleasure in the death of any one, says the Lord God; so turn, and live."

This seems to be a very different picture than the one we saw in Psalm 135, where God does whatever he pleases. How can God say that he does not have pleasure in the death of any impenitent person, if in fact He accomplishes all his pleasure and does whatever he pleases?” The very same Hebrew verb is used in Psalm 135:6 (“he pleases”) and Ezekiel 18:32 (“he does not have pleasure”).

So what does this mean? Here God seems to be cornered. It seems that he is forced into judging them when he really does not want to. He seems to be about to do something that he is not pleased to do. Is he going to accomplish all his pleasure or not? Is God really free to do everything according to his good pleasure? Or does his sovereign freedom have its limits? Can he do whatever he pleases up to a point, and then after that is he forced into doing things he only grieves to do?

Let’s add to this. What does it mean that God who takes pleasure in all that He does yet allows Satan to attack all that Job has? But then in Job 1:19 “a great wind” levels the house where Job’s children are and kills them all. The text does not say who caused the wind to blow. But in Job 1:21 Job himself says, “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” So even if Satan has a hand in making the wind blow, Job knows that behind Satan is the real Ruler of the world and the wind, namely, the Lord. So he says, “The LORD has taken away.” Should Job have said this? The writer takes away all doubt that Job is right to say this, because in the next verse (1:22) he says, “In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.”

What does it mean that God who takes pleasure in all that He does yet says in Isaiah says, “ I form light and create darkness, I make comfort and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things” (Isaiah 45:7). Or “Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and evil [i.e.,calamity] come?” (Lamentations 3:38). Or “Does evil befall a city, unless the LORD has done it?” (Amos 3:6). So when Psalm 135 says that the Lord does whatever he pleases, it has to include the taking of personal life through natural forces which he alone controls. This can cause us to be deeply disturbed and confused by God both theologically and practically. It gets deeper.

In Psalm 135:8–10 it says that God’s sovereign freedom was shown most vividly in the Exodus when he delivered Israel from Egypt: “He it was who smote the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and of beast…who smote many nations and slew mighty kings.…” Therefore when the psalmist says in verse 6 that “whatever the LORD pleases, he does,” he refers explicitly to the destruction of rebellious Egyptians and nations and kings. This is the scope of what God does when he does all he pleases.

So going back to Ezekiel 32, it says that God is not pleased with the death of unrepentant people, and in Psalm 135 it says that God does whatever he pleases including the slaying of unrepentant people, for example, the enemies of his people in Egypt.

I would direct attention to Deuteronomy 28:63 where Moses warns of coming judgment on unrepentant Israel. But this time it says something strikingly different from Ezekiel 18:32: "And as the LORD took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the LORD will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you."

So what are we to make of all this? Is the bible confused? Is God confused? Are you confused? Are you angry? Are you disturbed? Do you negate one passage or the other?

Here is the truth as far as I can see: We are brought back to the inescapable fact that in some sense God does not delight in the death of the wicked (that is the message of Ezekiel 18), and in some sense he does delight in the death of the wicked (that is the message implicitly of Psalm 135:6–11 and explicitly of Deuteronomy 28:63).

Or to put it another way, there is a sense in scripture where even acts of judgment which in one sense do not please God in another sense do please him. Let us let God be God! Better yet, let us submit to the God of the bible in all of His God-ness and mystery, yet who has revealed wondrous things about Him that make Him God! Let us not be locked into reasoning's, speculation, and our finite logic; let us humbly let the scripture speak even if we are not fully able to understand. Our method is not to choose between these texts, or to cancel out one by the other, but to go deep enough into the mysterious mind of God to see (as far as possible) how both are true. How shall we account for this apparent tension?

The answer I propose (and I borrow from John Piper and Jonathan Edwards) is that God can be grieved in one sense by the death of the wicked, and can be pleased by the death of the wicked in another sense. God’s emotional life is infinitely complex beyond our ability to fully comprehend. Who of us could dare say what complex of emotions is not possible for God? All we have to go on here is what he has chosen to tell us in the Bible. And what he has told us is that there is a sense in which he does not experience pleasure in the judgment of the wicked, and there is a sense in which he does.

From this I conclude that the death and misery of the unrepentant is in and of itself no delight to God. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked! (Ezekiel 18:32,24).God is not a sadist. He is not malicious or bloodthirsty. He grieves over these things.

But...when a rebellious, wicked, unbelieving person is judged, what God delights in is the exaltation of truth and righteousness, and the vindication of his own honor and glory. When Moses warns Israel that the Lord will take delight in bringing ruin upon them and destroying them if they do not repent (Deuteronomy 28:63), he means that those who have rebelled against the Lord and moved beyond repentance will not be able to gloat that they have made the Almighty miserable. God is not defeated in the triumphs of His righteous judgment. Quite the contrary. Moses says that when they are judged they will unwittingly provide an occasion for God to rejoice in the demonstration of his justice and his power and the infinite worth of his glory. Romans 9:22-23 says, “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory.”

Jonathan Edwards tackled the problem of how God and the saints in heaven will be happy in heaven for all eternity knowing that many millions of people are suffering in hell forever by proposing that it is not that suffering is pleasant to God and the saints in itself, but that the vindication of God’s infinite holiness is cherished so deeply.

In other words, God can view an event from these different sides and see in it something horrific and from another angle say that I ordained it for these holy purposes by which I rejoice with infinite approval and delight. God can see things that way. So can we in a far lesser measure in our own experience in life. We can look in our own life from different angles and see an event momentarily as undesirable and on another angle as exactly right. God has the capacity to view the death of the wicked from different angles and grieve, take no pleasure in it for itself; but also He can step back and approve and delight in it because of what it accomplishes.

It is so important that we see that God is not miserable in this world. Those who rebel in this world are unable to gloat that they have made the almighty miserable or have robbed Him of His joy. Or to put it another way, Satan will not be able to rejoice through all eternity that at least he has robbed God of His joy because people are in hell that God put there. This wonderful truth of Psalm 135:6 pulls that possibility right out of the devils hand! He cannot say that "I have a frustrated God because I have so many of His creatures in hell". No Satan, you do not have that power!!! Psalm 115: ,"Our God is in heaven, He does whatever He pleases."

So let us stand in awe and wonder at this amazing, unique, deep, profound, awesome, sovereign, purpose driven, and infinitely happy God, —eternally happy and infinitely exuberant in the wisdom of his work; free and sovereign in accomplishing His purposes!
"Our God is in heaven; he does whatever he pleases." Psalm 115:3

Pastor Bill