As Jesus hung on His cross in the supernatural darkness (Luke 23:44), He screamed in His agony, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46).

 

He was the only man in our 6000 plus years of history who was permitted to feel total forsakenness by God. It is lethal to feel that way; and no one else has ever felt that way and died that death except Jesus.

 

Someone may object, “Don’t suicides feel that forsakenness?” and the answer is No, for they always have the option given them of believing in God’s love and in His acceptance, no matter how sinful they may have been.

 

They can always cry out with the distraught father of Mark 9, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief” (vs. 24); that is a prayer that is answered one hundred percent. You can’t go wrong, praying that prayer!

 

But Jesus hanging on His cross in darkness cannot have that option; He must drink that bitter cup and drink it to its dregs of despair, for He must die the death that is “the wages of sin” (Rom. 6:23), the same death that everyone else has deserved but that no one has ever “tasted” except Jesus alone.

 

When John the Baptist begged us to “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world,” He was inviting us to share with Christ the bearing of His cross. “Beholding” means more than a casual look; the definition of the verb is made clear in the story in Numbers 21 where we read of how the “fiery serpents” were biting the complaining Israelites with a bite that involved their death.

 

You can appreciate the anguish with which the believing Israelites would look long and earnestly at that serpent on a pole that Moses had been directed to make; that is an illustration of how we are to “behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.” You “look” with such intensity as alone you can feel if you know that your eternal life depends on that “look.”

 

The serpent’s bite is lethal; the look at the cross is life.

 

On your knees, the TV off, the newspaper laid aside; stay kneeling—l-o-o-k.

That tiny little book snuggled away in the New Testament—Titus, brings the superlative New Covenant truth to everyone in the earth.

 

As is true of all the Bible which is “inspired of God,” Titus focuses in on the much more abounding grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. It directs our attention to “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

 

Not “behold” the horrors of legalism; no, “behold” the joys of Jesus, who takes away our sin.

 

True biblical forgiveness is always a taking away of the sin (the Greek word for forgiveness is aphiemi; the “a” meaning away from, and phiemi, to carry).

 

It’s not a mere “pardon,” that implies that you may do the sin again; no, it is imparting to the repentant soul a new hatred for the sin.

 

And that hatred is not fear-induced, for it is the realization that it is the sin which crucified the Lord of glory on His cross.

 

Thus the new hatred of sin which the Holy Spirit gives us is not craven fear-related, but is the ministry of Christ’s agape in the human soul.

 

Anything which brings pain to the Lord Jesus (yes, which crucified Him!), now is what you abhor forever after.

 

Whenever temptation assails you, your first reaction is that of Joseph in Egypt, when Potiphar’s wife tempted him: “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God!” You remember, he ran (see Genesis 39:9).

 

Uppermost in Joseph’s mind was not fear of retribution against himself; no, he thought of the pain that this sin would bring to the Lord Himself. Imagine! If Joseph had given in, how terrible the whole story of Genesis would have become! Unnumbered unfallen hosts of heaven were watching on their counterparts of “TV,” and how they rejoiced when Joseph won the victory!

 

And we have been rejoicing over it ever since!

There is a tiny book of only three chapters tucked away within the New Testament that may easily be overlooked—Titus.

 

But it packs a powerful message of glorious Good News, especially valuable for those who are struggling with our powerful modern, alluring temptations to pornography.

 

This is what Paul wrote to the young pastor in Crete, the island in the Mediterranean then world famous because the people were self-proclaimed “liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons” (1:12, NEB).*

 

Titus could well have wished as a young pastor that he might be moved to a better pastorate. But this was where the Lord wanted him, and Paul’s counsel to him is just what many sincere men need today as they wrestle with viciously powerful temptations that the Internet throws at us today.

 

The NIV has a powerful insight: “The grace of God that brings salvation ... to all men (Greek) ... teaches us to say ‘No!’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age” (2:11, 12). Note:

 

(a) It’s not craven fear of punishment that motivates these victories over lust; it’s a heart appreciation of the Lord’s much more abounding grace.

 

(b) This is seen at the cross of Jesus where He “gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness” (vs. 14). That giving of Himself was total—even to His dying our second death for us.

 

(c) That “grace” motivates us to an appropriate heart-response: a choice to serve the Lord forever. The saying “no!” is a 24/7 choice for us to make; a never-ending refusal to yield to the passions of our fallen human nature.

 

(d) When your will is allied with the Lord’s will for you, all the devils in hell cannot overcome you. That is Good News!

 

More on Titus tomorrow.

__________

* We are only quoting what the Bible says about the Crete of Paul’s day; there is no reference to the people of Crete today.

Habakkuk is a tiny little book tucked away in an obscure spot in the Old Testament where few people ever see it.

 

The prophet had a very serious question which he asked the LORD: Chapter 1, vss. 1-4: why do You protect and prosper the wicked?

 

The LORD did not answer him all at once—good lesson for us! The prophet said, “I will take up my position on the watch-tower, keeping a look out to learn what He says to me, how He responds to my complaint” (2:1).

 

The prophet’s question was eternal in its significance; it is just as up-to-date now as ever. The LORD welcomes our sincere questions that trouble us. Ask those questions of Him seriously; don’t be like a child who asks for something today and then forgets tomorrow that he asked. Bring your serious questions regarding how the Lord has treated you in your life, why this or that disappointment may have come to you, why He permitted it; pour out your heart before Him, hold nothing back.

 

Vs 1: note, he waited for an answer. He was not impatient with the Lord. See how often the Psalmist brings his “complaint” before the Lord (55:2; 102, title; 142:2. Be honest and straight-forward with the LORD (after all, isn’t He your “heavenly Father?”).

 

Vs. 2: “And the LORD answered me ...” He will “answer” you, too. It may be by a “still, small voice.” But He will not despise your sincere prayer! Remember David’s lesson he learned in deep repentance: “A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:17). So, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).

 

“Boldly”? Even though you have sinned?

 

Yes, for His forgiveness is great, as is His love (agape).

Have you ever prayed about a difficult situation, and the more you prayed and “obeyed” the worse it got? If your answer is No, then welcome to the always-sunny skies. But some of us have met the storms that Moses met. For 40 years he had prayed for God to deliver his people Israel from slavery in Egypt, and nothing had happened. Finally the Lord met him at the burning bush and commissioned him to go back to Egypt and deliver them. “Face the king and demand emancipation for My people.” The story is in Exodus 4, 5.

 

So, what happens? A miracle? Pharaoh suddenly collapses in front of Moses and says, “Let them go!”? No, far from it; the more Moses demands freedom, the meaner Pharaoh becomes, and in a fit of anger he actually makes their slavery worse, doubling their work loads.

 

 The irate Israelite “officers” meet Moses and chew him out: “The Lord will ... punish you for making the king and his officers hate us. You have given them an excuse to kill us” (5:21, GNB). Sunny skies? Not for Moses! His own people resent him for doing exactly what God has told him to do. The more he prays and “obeys,” the worse the situation becomes.

 

Moses has asked God for a piece of “bread,” and it looks like the opposite of what Jesus promises: God has given him “a scorpion” or “a stone.”

 

What about your prayers when things get worse? (1) Don’t go off in a huff and give up on the Lord. Moses did the right thing and so should you: the next verse says, “Then Moses turned to the Lord again” and laid the problem out before Him. “Ever since I went to the king to speak for You, he has treated them cruelly. And You [God] have done nothing to help them!” (vs. 23). (2) Next, listen to what God tells you then. “He that cometh to God must believe (a) that “He is,” and (b) that “He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Heb 11:6). Time’s up; thank God, we can learn from Moses!

There are sincere people who are scared almost out of their wits by reading Hebrews 6:4-6. The passage says: “It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.”

 

It is indeed serious business! The Father was happy to hear the prayer of Jesus, to forgive us for crucifying His Son when we did it “not knowing what [we] do.” But if we do it again in full knowledge of what we are doing, that’s it; no more repentance. But many sincere people misread the text and bring darkness upon themselves. They realize that since they were originally converted they have backslid, and they assume that now God has turned against them. But the text doesn’t say that. It does not say that God will not forgive, again and again; it merely says that those who crucify Christ afresh are refusing to accept the gift of repentance. You can be forgiven for any sin that you repent of. That gift of repentance is yours for the taking.

 

The Greek text uses the present tense: the problem is a willful, ongoing process of re-crucifying Christ “afresh,” on and on, that is, refusing to repent. If you can read these words; if you see ever so tiny a ray of light shining somewhere, do not give up; tell your dear heavenly Father that you want to repent; ask Him to give you the precious gift; receive it; accept it. And rejoice in His pardoning love. Then go right to work to help somebody else with a word of Good News. Happiness is yours!

It so happens that I have neither a cat nor a dog just now, so the quail have made my back yard their home. They feel safe. It’s interesting to watch the submission of the little quail to their parents’ leading. The Lord Jesus tells us that the infinite Father in heaven cares about even them: “One of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father [caring]. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many” little birds (Matt. 10:29-31).

 

Did the infinite Father in heaven care about the Lord Jesus? He said plaintively, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head” (Matt. 8:20). Did “we” care?

 

It’s a terrible feeling to be a grown man and have not even a square inch you can call your own “nest,” nor the means to provide one or rent one. You can feel so utterly alone.

 

So did Jesus, when He was among us. Yet He was 100 per cent human; He felt His aloneness—not physically so much as the constant realization that His closest friends, the disciples, were spiritually “strangers.” I have often felt so ashamed for them (and at the same time felt their shame is mine for I am as corporately guilty as they were)—not one of them came up to the cross where He was hanging in agony, and gave Him even a drink of water! Nor was even one of them able to share the burden on His heart.

 

We cannot say that the Father really forsook Him when He screamed in agony, “My Father, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46) but the Father was forced to appear to forsake Him and to leave Him to feel the utter aloneness and condemnation that sin has brought on the human race.

 

The “condemnation” we have all received from our fallen “father Adam” has always been only judicial. No human in 6000+ years has ever endured it actually—except Jesus only.

 

On your knees, thank Him that He has not left you alone; let your worldly, egocentric heart be warmed by the realization of His “much more abounding grace” that saves you from eternal aloneness, and gives you a place in His eternal kingdom of sunlit fellowship (cf. Rom. 5:20).

King Hezekiah was one of the best men who ever lived. He did everything just right.  The Bible says nothing evil about him.

 

In his days, he led the nation to celebrate the finest Passover they had observed in centuries.

 

There is not the slightest whiff of evidence that he will not find a place in the Lord’s eternal kingdom, when the resurrection occurs at the second coming of Christ (“the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first,” 1 Thess. 4:16).

 

But when he is resurrected, he will have to learn about the history that followed him.  Revelation 21:4 does not say that there will be no tears on the resurrection morning—there won’t be any tears in the earth made new.

 

When Hezekiah was only 49, the Lord sent him a message by the prophet Isaiah that he should “set [his] his house in order,” for the time had come in the Lord’s infinite wisdom that he should die (2 Kings 20:1).

 

But this time the good king rebelled against the Lord’s will, set his face against the wall to cry; he told the Lord that it’s not fair—he’s been a good king, etc.  So the Lord added 15 years for him to live.

 

During that added space of grace, he sired a son, Manasseh, who became the worst king the nation had ever had. Hezekiah would have been wise when the Lord said, “The time has come for you to die,” if he had said, “Amen, Lord! I trust You. Thy will be done”(see the story in Isaiah 38:1-3).

 

The word of the Lord, even if it comes with disappointment, is always the word of love that the Lord has for us. May He give us of His much more abounding grace to believe it.

 

If, for that grace, He extends our life, may we use it for His glory. Then we will be happy in the resurrection morning.

There is absolutely nothing easier that a human being can do than to look at something. Eternal salvation requires that one thing—to LOOK. There it is, plainly taught in the Bible—”LOOK unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (Isa. 45:22). The Hebrew word means to turn the face toward. Perhaps you have noticed how often the word BEHOLD occurs in the Bible—hundreds of times. When the poisonous snake would bite the Israelite, all he had to do was to BEHOLD the snake Moses lifted up on a pole. John says, “BEHOLD, what manner of love (agape) the Father hath bestowed upon us” (1 John 3:1). It’s as though God keeps saying to us, “See, look, watch what I’ve done!”

 

Christianity is a religion of look and live, behold and be saved. But is it possible that people won’t look, see, watch, or consider? Is God doing something wonderful that won’t get the world’s attention? Wouldn’t it be terrible if the Son of God is sacrificed on a cross and most people never even bother to LOOK? But let’s remember—God knows how to get the world’s attention!

 

(1) Paul says, “Have they [the world’s population] not heard? Yes, verily ... “ (Rom. 10:18). And John says that Christ is “the Light that lighteth every person who comes into the world” (1:9).

 

(2) In these last days a special message, never previously so clear, is to lighten the earth with glory, not just a candle flickering in an obscure way (Rev. 18:1-4). Revelation shows how that message will be an unveiling of Christ as the Lamb of God—the crucified Son of God, whose cross is the revelation of the agape of the Father that we are to BEHOLD. That message will arrest the attention of the world.

 

(3) What about those who refuse now to LOOK and live? In the final judgment all will see that cross and each individual will see the part he had in crucifying the Lord of glory. And that final looking will be torture to the lost—more awful than any physical pain of fire could be. Why not LOOK now?

There are times when everything has seemed to go wrong, and deep, dark disappointment overwhelms us.

 

The temptation is fierce—for us to think that the Lord has forsaken us.

 

But He has promised solemnly, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb. 13:5).

 

The Father was forced to withdraw His beams of light from His only Son while He hung on His cross. Jesus screamed in agony, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). The Father never truly forsook His only Son dying on His cross; but He was forced to permit Jesus to feel totally forsaken, so that we should never have to feel that way!

 

To feel totally forsaken by the Lord is a terrible experience; and for one to believe it, would be a sin, for He has promised never to “leave us nor forsake us.” Yes, to disbelieve what the Lord has promised would be a sin which we would want to repent of immediately.

 

To be tempted is not itself sin; thus, it is not a sin to feel forsaken by the Lord. The sin comes when we believe Satan’s lie to disbelieve what God has promised.

 

What Satan wants is to break our hold on the Lord and thus to separate our souls from Him. Satan wants to drag us out into the cold dark emptiness of hell—which is eternal forsakenness by the Lord.

 

Jesus has saved us from that—forever. Now make your heart choice to believe that truth; pray with the distraught father in Mark 9, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief” (vs. 24). You can never perish while you cling to that desperate prayer.

 

Why does the Lord permit you to go through this desperate experience?

 

So you can from now on work side by side with Him to help other people who are so tempted. There are many! And He needs you to work with Him! The only “voice” He has is your voice; the only “hands” He has are yours.

As we come nearer to the end, a change comes in the “Christian experience” of God’s people. Their deepest heart concern ceases to be that of saving their own souls, to a concern for the glory of Christ in the closing hours of the “great controversy between Christ and Satan.” (When I was a boy, some silver-haired elders in the church told me that the greatest question is that of my own soul’s salvation.)

 

These people of God in the last days turn away from their previous concern for their own salvation to a concern for Another—that He emerge victorious from the “battle” He is in.

 

This change in “Christian experience” can be described in the terms the Lord Jesus uses in John 15: “Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you” (vs. 15).

 

As we come closer to the end, these “friends” concern is for that “battle” that Christ is in, and not for self.

 

This change in “Christian experience” orientation can also be described as graduating out of the Old Covenant “Christian experience” into the New. It’s coming out of the shadows into the bright sunlight of “present truth” (a term in 2 Peter 1:12).

 

The “present truth” is New Covenant living, not Old.

 

This change is also passing from Revelation 18 into Revelation 19 where we find those four grand Hallelujah Choruses, each greater than Handel’s (vss. 1-17). It can at last be said that “the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour unto Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready” (19:6, 7). At last!

 

Although the Lord is “omnipotent,” He cannot force the nuptials. It cannot be said that He “reigneth” until her nuptial devotion to Him as to a divine Husband is real. Thus there is a “woman” whose marital devotion He can only wait, and wait, to see. The good news that rejoices one’s heart is that this change in spiritual growth is actually taking place. Don’t be left behind!

There are many who are bewildered. They do not know where they are going, and they are afraid.

 

The message of the Bible is just what they need. There are two things that the Lord says they must do—not some difficult to-do thing, but something to believe:

 

(1) “He that cometh to God must believe that He is ...” (Heb. 11:6, first part).

 

That’s the “work” you must do! Not something to “do” that is beyond you to accomplish, but a simple step in choosing to believe that God is, He exists. You may be an atheist, but you can take this step by choosing to believe. You must! And you can, for it’s only simple truth.

 

The atheist may say, “That’s too difficult!” No, it’s the easiest thing any human can “do”—to believe God exists. Just look at the world around you, from the tiniest leaf (that no human can ever “make”) to the unnumbered worlds in the Milky Way.

 

(2) Step number two, what you MUST believe: “that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (second part).

 

Step number one is that of the “deist,” the person who believes that some mysterious power made the universe and then walked off and left it to care for itself. That kind of “faith” is not good enough.

 

No one can truly believe in “God” without recognizing that “God IS love [agape]” (1 John 4:8). And right there we go to the cross on which the Son of God died the second death of every human.

 

The truth is all one package, complete; you can’t select and choose.

 

Difficult? No; listen to John the Baptist: he says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world “ (John 1:29). “Behold” means to take a l-o-n-g look; stay on your knees with your “closet” door closed as Jesus says to do in Matthew 6:6: “When thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” He is the same “Father” who notices when a little sparrow falls in the forest floor (Matt. 10:29). Believe, appreciate, revel, in the truth that that same heavenly Father notices you personally.

When the Lord Jesus saves a man, He doesn’t expect the man to help save himself, because he can’t. Jesus Christ is a Savior 100 percent.

 

But He does expect the sinner to cooperate with Him.

 

Psalm 130 expresses the cry of any who knows he is lost: “Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord. ... If Thou Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” (vss. 1, 3).

 

The answer of course is ... no one.

 

But then comes the comforting word: “But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared [reverenced]” (vs. 4).

 

The Psalmist experienced the down-and-out despair of feeling lost, but only a taste of what Jesus experienced on the cross when He cried out in despair, “My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). The Father did not answer His Son, because Christ must be left to experience to the full this lethal despair; if He had not experienced it for us, we would have to experience it, and therein is eternal death. Jesus felt as if the Father had truly forsaken Him forever!

 

If sinful man were left to experience to the full this lethal despair, he would not be able to “cry” unto the Lord; no human soul has ever in the 6000+ years of earth’s history had to experience that total despair except the Lord Jesus. It kills ... forever.

 

Some may object, “Suicides experience it!” Not so, really; they always had the option left them to “cry unto the Lord.” And the Lord was ready to hear for Jesus promised, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). Any time, no matter how sinful.

 

If the Lord has permitted you to experience Psalm 130, be happy. In knowing Him, you will know that “with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities” (vss. 7, 8).

 

There are the 144,000 of Revelation 14:1-6; they who “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth” (Rev. 14:1-5)!

A wise writer wrote a stupendous statement: “The books of heaven record the sins that we would commit if we had the opportunity.”

 

This at first sounds like bad news; the Lord must have a tremendous lot against us: but no, that’s not the meaning of the statement. It is really very good news.

 

Proverbs 28:13 says that “whoso confesseth and foraketh [his sins] shall have mercy.” Wonderful! That “mercy” is what we all need so much.

 

But how can you “confess” and “forsake” your sins if you don’t know what they are? That’s why the Holy Spirit is so full of mercy when He convicts us of our sins; Jesus says that is His first work:

 

“When He [the Comforter, the Holy Spirit] is come, He will convict the world of sin” (John 16:8). Thank God!

 

The Holy Spirit is a Person; He loves us just as much as the Father loves us, just as much as the Son who gave Himself for us, loves us.

 

Tell Him, “Thank You!” What to do is simple:

 

(1) The moment He convicts you of sin, that moment “confess” it; don’t wait. Tell the Lord, “It’s true! I dare not try to deny it!”

 

(2) And then, that moment, forsake that sin. If it is something that is dear to your heart, forsake it; do exactly what Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He cried out to His Father, “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: not as I will, but as Thou wilt” (Matt. 26:39).

 

(3) The Lord never asks you to do anything difficult on your own, by yourself: always you are invited to do it with Jesus; you are never left on your own, alone! You are joined to the Son of God by a “yoke” that binds the two of you together.

 

(4) And He says, “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30). The greatest, the most joyous adventure, any human can have!

The fact that we mentioned “the second death” has stirred up some interest on the Internet.

 

The Bible is clear that man is by nature mortal; the doctrine of the immortality of the soul has been adopted from Roman paganism; the Bible teaches a more comforting truth: death is a sleep in which we rest until the resurrection morning. When Lazarus died, the Lord Jesus said, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth” (John 11:11), “but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said His disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that He had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead” (vss. 12-14).

 

This comforting truth is taught throughout the Bible. The “sleep” of death is awakened by the coming of Jesus in the resurrection: “We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:15-18).

 

Those who have trained themselves to be unhappy in the Lord’s holy kingdom will sleep on until at the end of the 1000 years of Revelation 20. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power” (vs. 6). The fact that “God IS love [agape]” is taught throughout Scripture; He will never force people who have spent their lifetime seeking the sinful pleasures of the fallen, evil world, would be miserable to live in the New Jerusalem: the Lord will simply give them what they want—to be eternally separated from the “face” of the One who is their Savior who loved them so much that He died the second death so that they might share eternity with Him. The doctrine of the “second death” is a part of the doctrine that God IS love [agape]. Everywhere we look, that is the theme of the Bible.

 

When our eyes are opened and we finally comprehend this truth, His love [agape] “constrains us” to live “henceforth” unto Him who so “loved us and gave Himself for us” (2 Cor. 5:14, 15).

 

Maybe more tomorrow, the Lord willing.