Informal Talk — Paul Washer

And I don't really have one thing that I want to share, but I want to point out a few things and then later on if there's any grounds for discussion or things like that.

There's just several things that are on my heart.

Joy in the Goodness of God

One thing is this morning as I was reading through Psalms 47, we will just turn there for a second. In Psalms 47, as all the psalms, it's amazing, the psalms are so spiritual and so full of food and so full of strength.

It says in verse 1, O clap your hands, all people, shout to God with a voice of joy. It could also be translated with a voice of celebration, a striking voice. That we ought to be a people who celebrate.

We should, in our hearts, have a constant celebration, even in the midst of trials over the goodness of God. My life, in some ways, as I've grown older, I've seen how wrong that I have been. Fundamentally wrong.

In my life and in my ministry, I have fought a lot of battles and I've carried a lot of burdens. But there's a great problem. It's like the Lord opened up my eyes and showed me my face, which is not really a pretty thing to behold.

But all I saw in my face was burdens. And I realized that what most people see, even family, friends, they can admire dedication, they can admire standing for the truth. But after a while, it just gets tiresome being around a person who is constantly burdened.

And carrying those burdens without Christ and without His strength. But even though in this world we're going to have struggles, and in this world we should carry burdens. Burdens for the lost, burdens for the state of the church.

We should be a people who celebrate. Now, how does that happen? How can we be serious about our Christian faith? How can we be serious about the great needs of the church and the world? How can we carry burdens and yet at the same time have a heart and mind of celebration and radiant faces?

Only by beholding Christ. Only by beholding His strength. And it goes back to the beholder God, doesn't it? I want to tell you something. You can become so fixed on the battle and so fixed on the problem that your face is no longer fixed upon Christ.

And that is dangerous. Because dedication can take you a long way, but every step you become more tired, more burdened. And when people look at you, they may admire you, but they won't say, I wish I could be like them.

One of the things that so amazed me about the life of George Mueller is that he, even though he was a frugal man. He never lived in luxury. He died basically with nothing in a sense, materially. Yet, he always wore clothing that was clean and not tattered.

He was always careful to be joyful. He was always careful not to present a burden in his face. And someone asked him one time, why was this so? And he said, I would not want anyone to think that my master was unkind.

I want them to be able to see my face and realize that my master is kind. He's the kind of master that any reasonable person would want to have. Notice that one of the great marks of the fruit of the Spirit, immediately after love, most of us would think that the next thing that should come would be holiness or something like that, or practical righteousness.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy. Joy, unspeakable and full of glory. And so we say this, oh clap your hands all people, shout to God with the voice of joy. And in verse two, for the Lord most high is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.

He subdues people under us and the nations under our feet. Now I want you to look at two things. Why should we celebrate? Why should we have joy? And why should that joy be manifested? You know, don't ever buy into the thing, you can't read my face.

You don't know what's in my heart. Because what's in your heart is going to come out everywhere. Why should we be a joyful, celebrating people? Verse two, for the Lord most high is to be feared, the great king over the earth.

Because of who He is. Because of who He is. Even if we had no relationship with Him that was personal, we should still be a celebrant people in the fact that the One who made the world and governs it is a righteous and worthy God, worthy of all praise, worthy of all honor, worthy of all glory.

But then it says, a great king over the earth. He subdues people under us and nations under our feet. We should not only be joyful and celebrating because of who He is, but also because of His works on behalf of His people.

Because of what He has done that enables us to have such a relationship with Him. He has fought for us and primarily He has done so through the cross of Calvary. He has fought against our sin. He has fought against everything that could separate us from Him and He has triumphed.

Then it goes on and He says this, and this is the point I really wanted to get to. He chooses our inheritance for us, the glory of Jacob whom He loves. Many times we become despondent, depressed, sad about our lives.

Or if not our lives, a certain part of our lives or a certain time in our lives or a certain struggle or certain things that we're going through. We lament that we are who we are or we lament that we are where we are.

Or doing what we're doing or suffering what we're suffering. But look carefully, He chooses our inheritance. Now I can apply this generally and I want you to look at this. He fought for us on Calvary and in His sovereignty He has chosen an inheritance for us.

And that's not just heaven, but that's every aspect of our life. He has chosen for us. He has marked out a way that He wants each of us to go. It's His doing. Whatever we pass through, wherever we are in this earth and in this time, it is His choosing, His doing.

And then He says here, it says the glory of Jacob whom He loves. And this choice He has made for us, this inheritance that He has given us, it's our glory. And so to despise or be despondent or be depressed about where we are at this point in time or the providence of our God working in our life to shun our glory.

It's to despise our inheritance. God has a perfect plan for John Snyder's life. He has a perfect plan for my life. He has a perfect plan for your life. He knows what each one of us must go through in order to be conformed to the image of His Son.

And He will conform us to the image of His Son. And therefore we ought to rejoice in that, in His goodness. And you can get off so quickly. And we see this when He's speaking to the churches in Asia Minor.

Some of them were fighting the good fight that they had lost their first love. They were looking in the wrong direction. They were too focused on the problems and the things of the day. And they were not beholding God and Christ.

And because of that, they could not live the Christian life that He had placed before them, that He had destined them to live. Now, I don't want to make this sharing time about me, but I've gone through in the last year some very crucial things in my life.

You reach stages in your life, young people, where you look back and you wish that things had been different. Or you look in the mirror and you wish that you had made more progress. And what I want to tell you is this.

Lay aside all the minor ambitions. Even minor ambitions of ministry. Even minor ambitions of changing the world. And lay hold of the prize that is really yours. The main thing of the Christian life. And that is to know God, the knowledge of God.

But also to experience God, to behold God. To grow in the vision of His beauty and His majesty and His power. To grow in the vision of what He has done for you. To seek to be conformed to His image. Because the greatest way that the people of God can be used to transform this world is not politically.

It's not even evangelistically. It's through our transformation of being something that the nations would desire. Of being something that, in a sense, others would be envious of. I'm not talking about wealth.

I'm not talking about looks. I'm not talking about health. But I'm talking about joy. And true life springing up in us. Over the last years, I've preached many sermons. I've fought many battles. I've believed God for many things.

But in a sense, not in my devotion. Not in my dedication. But in my ability to reflect the life that He truly wants us to have. In many ways, I've failed. I've failed. What I desire more than anything is that the life of God.

The life of Christ. The Spirit be evident in my life. In these things. In love. Truly love. To look across the table at my wife. To look across the table at my children. To look across the aisle at a stranger on an airplane.

And that my heart genuinely be moved for them. To feel compassion. To use the Greek word. It's very ugly. Splachnos. The idea of my vows. To the depths of me. Feel for that person. To love them. And to have joy.

I discovered, man, this. It doesn't matter how joyful my wife is. It doesn't matter how joyful my children are. The atmosphere of my home will be set by me. It will be set by me. If there is joy in me, it will be contagious to those around me.

To my children. To my wife. To my co-workers. To everyone around me. It will be contagious. It's an amazing way the Lord has designed this. That we should have such an impact on people. We may have to die for Christ.

But we're not to walk around as martyrs. There are times of mourning and blessing of the poor in spirit. But this is redefined in Christianity so that joy is not removed. We should be the most joyful people on the planet.

And that joy can only come by us knowing the love of God. And knowing what He's done for us in Christ. And knowing that it is secure. And knowing that nothing can change it. And knowing that we stand before Him right now as righteous as we will ever be.

Because it's a perfect righteousness we have. And He loves us with a perfect love. And whether we are used to climb great mountains in Christianity. Or whether we are to live our entire life without anyone even knowing our name.

It doesn't matter. Our standing before God is secure. His love for us is eternal. And that should fill us with such overwhelming joy. That even in the midst of the small battles that we may lose every day.

The war has been won. He has conquered. And we have been given a glorious inheritance. An unchanging inheritance. Joy. Peace. Knowing that the work of Christ is perfect in our lives. And that peace will bring patience.

Peace, Patience, and the Fruit of the Spirit

One time my wife asked me. After being married for several years. She looked at me and she asked me this question. And what was amazing is a co-worker had asked me the same question a year before. And this is what she asked me.

She said, Paul, who's chasing you? And I said, what do you mean? She said, you're constantly running. Constantly trying to do more. Constantly trying to do more for Him. But why? Why are you running and running and running?

I'll tell you why I was running. Because I wanted Him to love me. Do you see how wrong that is? Do you see how wrong that is? We have His love. And when we come to understand how much He loves us. And that that love is unconditional.

It's not based on us. It brings peace. It brings peace. Where you know is you don't have to move a quarter of an inch to the left or the right to be more loved by God. You don't have to ascend up into heaven.

You do not have to fall down into the abyss. You do not have to climb great mountains. You simply are loved because of Him. It is settled. And that brings peace. And then patience. Knowing how many times you have failed.

And yet His patience, His long suffering, endures and endures and endures. Enables us to live with a patience in our own life and towards others. And then simple kindness. To be honest with you, I didn't have time for kindness.

There were nations to be reached. There were lost people. Don't talk to me about, I don't have time to go out and drink coffee with you. There are things to be done. If you want to talk to me about ministry, if you have any need, I will be there.

But to be your friend, I don't have time for that. I don't have time for kindness. Trivial matters. We must go. We must work. We must do the mission. We must reach the nations. No one should die in our lifetime without first hearing of Christ.

You see how wrong that is. But there's always time for kindness. There's always time for tenderness. Yes, it's a war, but you don't always have to act like a general. Barking orders. Pushing. Making sure that the jobs are getting done.

There are times to just be kind. Just speak with people. To just commune with people. Goodness. The idea of goodness, throughout the scripture, using different terms. It's not just a moral goodness. There's a health.

There's a solidity to the Christian life. There's a wholesomeness. If your guts are being eaten up by the fact that the church is not as she should be, or the nations are still without Christ and haven't heard, then it's not a real reflection of the life of God.

One of the most amazing, there's a picture of George Muller when he's in his 90s, and he's sitting in a chair something like this, and his legs are kind of like this, and he's kind of looking this way.

And you can see he's in his 90s. But his face is glowing, and it almost looks like there's a child there. It's almost childlike. Even though he's 90, balding, gray, wrinkled, it almost seems like you're looking at a winsome little boy that is skipping down a lane.

Our lives should not be eaten apart. It should not be nervous. It should not be tense. There should be a goodness, a soundness, a wholesomeness, and faithfulness. Not just, again, faithfulness in the big things.

Like, will you go into that area and preach the gospel even though they're killing Christians? Yes. You may be faithful to do really big things. That's amazing. That's impossible. He was wondering that.

You may be willing to be faithful in the big things, but will you be faithful in the small things? Now, usually when that's said by a preacher, the idea is, well, he's faithful to preach, but he's not faithful to watch his finances.

Well, that's true, but that's not the way I mean it. I think the idea that I would want to convey here is, it's not just faithfulness to the church at large, but faithfulness to individuals. To see the needs of your friends, your co-workers.

Maybe of someone weaker than you. And simply being faithful to be their friend. And sometimes to do that means that you're going to have to miss opportunities to fight a battle, because you have a friend to whom you need to be faithful.

And then gentleness. Gentleness. I had a friend. I have a friend. He's a dear friend. And he is a godly man. Maybe some of you would even know his name if I were to mention him. And no, it's not Anthony.

He told me one day, he said, he said, I always thought that I was a gentle man. And he goes, one day, I was real upset about something. My wife didn't meet me at a certain time or place or something. So I called home.

And then she wasn't home, and she didn't answer. And so I left a message on the telephone voice box thing. And he said, and then I came home, and I got home before she did. And I played it. And when I played it, he said I wept.

When I heard the way that I talked to her, totally unaware of that in my life. There is a great need for gentleness. For gentleness. You know, sometimes, you know, I'm not known probably for being the most gentle guy in the world.

And I will tell you this, over the years, there have been many things that I have said that are true, and I said them the right way. But I also want you to know that there were many things that I said were true that I could have said a different way.

There's a sense of being gentle, even in the midst, even in the midst of a raging battle, being gentle. Another thing, self-control. Here's the thing that I want you to see, is that if you are a Christian, you are a new creature.

You are a new creature. And although all of us must pass through a lifetime of sanctification, you have a new relationship with sin now. You can overcome sin. You can obey the scriptures. You can and will grow in Christ.

You know, so many times, at least, again, I'm sharing from my own personal experience, these last couple of years, you hear that the Christian life is a struggle. Usually when we hear that, it's a struggle against sin.

A struggle against sin. But if you don't also see it, and maybe more so, as a struggle to believe the promises of God, you're going to be in trouble. We have great and precious promises given to us with regard to our transformation, with regard to the life that we are now enabled to live, and we must grab a hold of those promises.

You look at things like what I've just quoted from Galatians, and you think, you know, love, joy, peace, patience, so on and so forth. You say, that's just so much not me, or it's not my character. We know that.

But it should be, it can be, and you need to believe God for it. You need to see this as the standard of your life. That your life should be a reflection of love. To be honest with you, the last several, I can't tell you how long, most of my Bible study, most of my meditation, most of my prayer life, has just dealt with the fruit of the Spirit.

I've preached in conferences all over the world. I've heard everything you can possibly hear. It just, as I get older and older, so much of it to me is just rhetoric. What do I truly, I want to die being a man who bears the fruit of the Spirit.

Who reflects this life of Jesus Christ. And to be honest with you, I would trade everything else for that. You see, this is to behold Him, and to be changed by Him. Someone asked the other night, after we were doing the Behold Your God thing, they said, how do we know that it's not just all intellectual in our lives?

And my answer was this, when we are truly growing in the knowledge of God, there will be transformation of relationship, and transformation of character. We should behold Him, to worship Him, to know Him.

And it is in that beholding, it is in that longing to see more and more of Him, that we are transformed to be like Him. To be like Him. I have seen over the last months, because I've had my doctors and everybody else kind of put me on forced sabbatical things, so that I don't die.

And it's given me time to look at certain things. And the most amazing thing that I've seen, is as I have drawn nearer to Christ, as I have concerned myself more with love, joy, peace, patience, I have seen, without saying a word to my family, I have seen a transformation in my wife.

I'd say more than anything, a transformation of joy and hope. I have seen a transformation in my children, and in that seeing the power of God. Young people, the one thing that I would tell you, is that this life is something that we should desire.

That we should believe God for. That we should make at least a number of priorities. Somewhere high on our list, it would not just be knowledge, it would not just be so-called usefulness with our gifts, but our great need is the transformation of our lives.

Now, that's not done by memorizing the fruit of the Spirit. That'll help. But just by memorizing that and going over it every day, isn't going to help you. What's going to help you, is saturating yourself in the full counsel of God, and seeking the full counsel with regard to who God is, and the full counsel with regard to the Christian life.

See, so many times when there's a problem in our life, we look at a certain verse, we think if we memorize it and we try to apply it more and more, it's going to fix us. I have found that that rarely works.

But I have found that if I will seek to know comprehensively what the Scriptures tell me about God, about everything, that all the areas of my life start conforming in life. Not to deal with one specific issue, but just seek to know Him, to know what He is like, to saturate my life in the knowledge of that, to cry out to God for greater and greater measures of the knowledge of Him, and the power of Him through the Holy Spirit, to be changed.

To be changed. The world, there's just so many words that the world has heard. There's so many sermons that the church has heard. And sermons are extremely important. That's the means through which God is determined to proclaim His truth.

But a transformed life. Not a life that's saying, how long is the scourge, or should we only eat healthy food that's grown organically. Not what I'm talking about. Not a legalism that says, do this, don't do that.

But life springing forth that transforms us with love and joy. Do you have joy? Would someone look at you and observe in your life, do you see a joyful person? If you say no, cry out to God. Cry out to Him.

Because this is something of our inheritance. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things, there is no law. There is no law. That was one thing that I wanted to share.

God's Righteousness and the Problem of Sin

I wanted also to take a look at something, just an unusual passage. Go for a minute to Micah. Before we go to Micah, does anyone have any questions about what I just said? Let's look at Micah. In verse 18 of chapter 7, it says, Who is a God like you who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His people, of His possession?

He does not retain His anger forever because He delights in unchanging love. Now, this text presents a theological problem. That theological problem is found throughout the scriptures. Look what it says.

He pardons iniquity and He passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession. Do you see the theological problem? How can a righteous God simply pass over iniquity? How can He do that? How can a righteous God simply pardon?

Now, maybe many of you have heard this before, but it's so important that I try to share it, especially to young people in their Christian life, to get a grasp of what is the heart of the gospel. Here we see the fundamental issue in all of Christianity, and Christianity happens to be the only religion in the world that deals with this issue.

If God is truly good, He cannot pass over iniquity. Do you see that? If He's truly good, He cannot simply pardon. I was talking to a group of university students in Romania. It was a secular university, and they were there, I think, to eat Christians that night.

They were all out in Fort Worth. So I'm back behind the curtain, and I'm asking myself, Lord, what do I do? Now, I know I've gone out there and preached the truth, but I'm not just wanting to preach the truth and go back to the hotel of martyr.

I want to help these kids. So I was praying, Lord, what do I do? What do I do? And I walked out on the platform, and this is what I said. I said, I'm going to share with you tonight the most terrifying truth in the Scriptures, the most terrifying thing that the Bible teaches that will literally shake the thinking man down to the very foundations, terrify him to the point of death.

Well, immediately, what did all of them think that I was going to talk about? Hell, or the second coming, or rocks and mountains falling upon the wicked. But I said, all right, are you prepared? I am now going to share with you the most terrifying thing that the Bible teaches us.

This is it. God is good. Now, there was a snicker through the whole crowd. They kind of started laughing, and finally, even one person voiced it. Well, what's the problem with that? And I said this, the problem with that is this, you're not good.

So what does a good God do with someone like you? You see, you'll hear preachers say, man has only one problem, it's sin. Well, it actually goes a lot deeper than that. It goes back to the character of God.

Because if God was like us, sin wouldn't be a problem. The great problem is not our sin as much as God's righteousness. That's the problem. Because He is righteous, He cannot simply forgive sin. And that's something that you need to understand.

I could give it to you in a common illustration, that a wicked man, a murderer, a thief stood before a judge, and the judge simply pardoned him or covered his iniquity. Would everyone in the world say, what a wonderful judge?

Or would they say, what a corrupt and wicked judge, he ought to be impeached. So the great problem that we see in the gospel, in the scriptures, is not just that man is wicked. The great problem is, God is not wicked.

God is righteous. So what does a righteous God do with someone like us? And this is a fundamental issue that's missed by all the other religions. Look for a moment at modern day Judaism, which is a far cry from the faith of the Old Testament.

Look at modern day Judaism. What is the basic tenet there? Do good. But see, at the same time, they will all acknowledge that in their doing good, they do not do perfect, that they sin. So what must they do?

They must lower God's righteousness. They must lower God's standard. They must make God something other than He is. You see, that's why it's so important, the Behold Your God series, studying the doctrine of God.

Do you realize that works salvation is not the result of a misunderstanding of salvation? That's where people get it so wrong. Well, they believe in works salvation because they misunderstand what the Bible teaches about salvation.

No, that's not the problem. They believe in a works salvation because they misunderstand who God is. God is righteous. Adam and Eve sinned one time. The entire universe was cast into chaos. You sinned more times than you could count with a calculator.

Now, what is He going to do with you? You see the problem. If you look at the Muslim faith, it's the same thing. It is a lesser God because it is a God who can be earned, a God who can be gained by works, a God whose standard is just a little higher than man's because He doesn't require moral perfection.

He only requires that you just try to do good. But the God of the Bible isn't that way. He is perfectly righteous. All His works are righteous and therefore His demand upon us are righteous demands. Perfection.

Now, let me just hold your place in Micah for a minute and go back to Exodus for a moment. Look in chapter 34, verse 5. The Lord descended in a cloud and stood there with him, Moses, as he called upon the name of the Lord.

This is one of the greatest revelations of God in the Old Testament. I mean, this is on par with Isaiah 6. Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, low to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgressions and sin, yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.

Now, look particularly at verse 7 and the seeming contradiction that's there. He forgives iniquity, transgression and sin. He's not trying to lay out for us the three different types of sin. He's doing something very common in Hebrew literature.

He's piling one term upon another to tell us that God pardons all types and kinds of sin. All types and kinds of sin. And for that, we rejoice. But in the same verse, look what else He says. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.

Do you see the problem? He forgives every sin. He punishes every sin. Now, how do you do both things? How can this God who punishes every sin at the same time forgive every type and kind? Now, go for a minute to Psalms.

Or let's just go to Romans where it's laid out for us very clearly. Go to Romans 4, verse 7 or verse 6. Just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works.

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered. Now, I want to ask you a question. What do we say about a judge who covers sin? Sweeps it under the carpet. Hides it.

Puts it away. What do we say about a judge like that? Do we applaud him? Or do we condemn him? We condemn him. But look what it's saying about God. It says He covers sin. He covers it. He hides it. He puts it as far from the criminal as the east is from the west.

Now, here's the great question. It goes back and forth throughout the entire Bible. And it's the heart of the Gospel. How can this God be righteous and yet forgive unrighteous men? How can this God punish all types and kinds of sin and yet forgive all types and kinds of sin?

He lets not one sin go by unpunished and yet He does not punish us. How can He do this? Let's go back to Micah. Who is a God like you? Verse 18 of chapter 7. Who is a God like you who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession?

He does not retain His anger forever because He delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. Yes, You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

Now, you say, well, how can He cover our sin? Because He's treaded underfoot. How can He put away our sin? How can He forgive us? Because He's cast our sin into the sea. I've heard so many songs and so many preachers talk about God rolling up our sin in a ball and throwing it into the sea.

There's a problem with this. In my opinion, at least. It needs to be interpreted Christologically. You see, do you think that God just took your sin and threw it on the ground and stomped it? Do you think that God just took your sin off of you, rolled it up in a ball and cast it into the sea?

No. As the Puritans used to say, your sin had to be punished as it laid upon the same stock. As man did sin. It's you that has sinned. A substitute must take your place. A brother. One of your flesh and your bone.

And so when it says here that God has tread our iniquities underfoot, what it means is this. He took your iniquity, laid them on His Son and tread His Son under His foot. When it says that He rolled up our sin like a ball and cast it into the sea, no, He took our sin of us and laid it upon Christ and cast Christ into the sea of His wrath.

And that is the thing that brings the great reconciliation. You see, if you do not understand the character of God, you can't understand the Gospel. Because the Gospel is all about not the sin of man primarily, but the character of God.

How can God be just and yet justify the wicked? And it is only in the person of Jesus Christ. And when He casts your sin or He treads it or destroys it or whatever else He does, He punishes it, He does it in His Son.

And that's what makes our redemption so very, very special. Because it costs the life of one most precious. And you see, that's the thing that holds at least my part to Christianity. I'm not an extremely religious person.

I'd rather be running like a wild man out in the woods hunting things. I'm not a very kept person. I'm not a very orderly person. And to be honest with you, sometimes in all the battles and struggles, I literally, I think I would walk out the door.

If it was just the church standing in the door or if it was just morality standing in the door, I think I would walk right past it and walk straight out the door and leave it all behind. But the fact of the matter is, the one standing in the door is the one who died for me.

It is the one upon whom my sins were placed and He was tread under the foot of God's wrath. The one upon whom my sins were placed and He was cast into the sea of God's wrath. This amazing person, Jesus Christ.

He's the reason, not only for living the Christian life, but staying in the Christian life. He's the reason for putting up with whatever you must put up with in this thing called Christendom. He's the reason for not giving up and not giving in under external battles or the weight of your own failure.

It is Jesus Christ. And you are not going to be strong in the faith unless you have this view of who He is and what He's done for you and the fact that your redemption lays upon Him entirely. You know when I see this passage and it says, you will cast all their sins in the depths of the sea.

Christ’s Finished Work and the Believer’s Assurance

I think a lot of times about Jonah when I hear this. And I think about Christ with His disciples. And the great storm comes up in the sea. It seems like it's going to be swallowing the boat down. I want you to think about this.