24 March 2013
Dear Phyllis,
Well, we are one more week closer to
the moment when Jesus shall appear, and receive the crown on earth
that He so justly deserves. For my part, I have done very little to
advance His Kingdom here in Chiang Mai this past week. Yesterday was
the graduation for the kindergarten where we have been teaching. I
have no idea why, but the director asked me to sing a cowboy song and
yodel for the program. I desperately refused, but he would not take
no for an answer, and I found myself standing in front of several
hundred people making an idiot of myself. I am willing to be a fool
for Christ's sake, but I'm not sure how my performance advanced the
cause of Christ.
On a more positive note, I was speaking
at Kichikun's church last Sunday. The story is told that there was
another famous preacher in London in the days of Charles Spurgeon,
Joseph Parker. A visitor from the states had heard of Parker and went
to hear him one morning. He came away raving, “What a preacher! I
never heard such a message in my life.” Then the next Sunday he
went to hear Spurgeon. He came away from that meeting raving, “What
a savior! I never knew that Jesus was so wonderful.” Needless to
say my goal is to be like Spurgeon. But for 55 years I have done very
little preaching in that vein. I am very good at preaching about sin.
I have an abundance of research material right under my chin. I
frequently preach about principles of the Christian life.
Occasionally I preach about prophecy. But seldom do I speak, holding
Jesus up to show forth His luster. In an attempt to change my message
I have decided to speak about the beauty of Christ as found in Song
of Sol. 5:10-16. (I have told you all about this several times
before.) There are twelve points and last Sunday I was on the 4th
point in verse 11 – His head I like fine gold. It
doesn't take too much exegesis to figure out what that means. As far
as I know, the expression, “he has a good head,” means, he is
pretty smart, in any language. That is certainly true in Japanese –
“atama ga ii desu” – and it is also true in Thai. Obviously,
this verse is referring to Christ's head; and that means, He is
pretty smart. In typology, fine gold, always speaks of deity. So
quite obviously, this verse means that Christ's head is the wisdom of
God.
To talk about the wisdom of Christ
would be like taking about the expansiveness of space. The entire
life of Christ is an exhibition of brilliance. One of the best
incidents was the engagement Jesus had with His enemies during the
last week. They got together to try to trap him. Perhaps the
cleverest trap was the issue of tax. Should they pay tax to Caesar?
That was a lose-lose question. Whichever way He goes they have Him.
His answer was one of the most brilliant response ever recorded. He
asked for a coin, and then said, “Whose inscription is this? Give
to Caesar that which is Caesar's, and give to God that which is
God's.” Brilliant!
In talking about the head of Christ I
suggested that Jesus was a very intelligent man for two reasons. One
was by DNA. Medical science has learned that, in a pregnancy, the
baby's blood comes exclusively from the male seed. Because of the
virgin birth, Jesus was the only baby that has ever been born without
the contaminated blood of Adam in his veins. During pregnancy, there
is not a drop of the mother's blood mixed with the fetus. Because the
conception was exclusively the work of the Holy Spirit, there was
none of Adam's or Mary's blood in Jesus. Therefor the Blood of Jesus
was absolutely unique. This would have made Him a very unusual child.
The only glimpse that we have of Jesus' adolescence was the incident
that happened when He was 12, and was sitting with the greatest
intellects in Israel discussing several topics. Everyone was amazed
at this unusual child. He must have been a very easy child to raise,
and a very good learner. It is safe to say, Jesus had a very good
head. But that doesn't help us. We are struck with the DNA that was
given to us; and some have a better head than others.
But there was another feature about
Jesus and His brain that does help us. He obviously was bathed in the
Word of God. To what degree Jesus had memorized the Scripture is not
recorded, but we cannot read the gospels without noticing how much
His mind was saturated with the Word of God. It is significant, in
His dealing with the devil in the wilderness, that the first thing
that came out of His mouth was, “It is written”. Throughout His
entire ministry, the Scripture was dominant in His thought process
and everything He said.
It has been suggested that there is
something about the Word of God that if anyone saturates their mind
with it, the Bible can make you smarter. In Acts 20:32 Paul says, “I
commend you to God and the Word of His grace which is able to
BUILD you up.” The Greek word BUILD that Paul uses here
is actually construction term. It literally means to construct, or to
build. This seems to be true. John Bunyan may be a good example of
this. Bunyan was an uneducated man. It is doubtful that he had much
more than an elementary education. But he was a man steeped in the
Bible. In commenting about Bunyan, in the cover sheet of The Holy
War, Wilbur Smith said, “There is something about the Bible that
had a profound effect on Bunyan. In his writings he speaks
knowledgeably about a wide spectrum of subjects ranging from
astronomy to military maneuvers. He accurately speaks of Greek and
Hebrew texts. He writes on a par with any intellectual. Somehow,
because of his devotion to the Word of God this man has received
and education.”
In making a subjective appeal in my
message I suggested that there were three things the Lord could do
for them. The first being that if they immerse their minds in the
Word of God that could improve their brains like it did for Jesus and
John Bunyan.
Secondly, the Lord could give them
wisdom. 1 Cor. 1:30 says “...Jesus Christ, who of God is
made unto us wisdom”. It is a pretty common phenomenon that
most people get a whole lot smarter when they get saved. My goodness,
if the very Spirit of Christ lives on our hearts, it would stand to
reason that that should make us a little smarter than we were before.
I remember when I was first saved, stationed in Grenville Miss.,
there was a family of four boys of a low intellect young mother
living in a car in a junk yard. Richard Ore was about 12 when he
asked Jesus to come into his heart. Three months later a friend told
me he saw Richard sitting on a stool in a dinner with his Bible open
talking to a man like a preacher. We were amazed how the Spirit of
Christ gave that young man such a brain. Here in Thailand, Paul
reports that his 14 year old daughters are dumbfounding their
teachers, and have led two of them to Christ. The brilliant surgeon,
Dr. Ben Carson, says that anyone can have knowledge, but wisdom
comes from God. All it takes is study to accumulate knowledge.
Any college graduate should have a fair amount of knowledge about
their major; but we all know that some of the brightest minds in
Harvard are some of the most stupid people in America. Anyone who is
a US senator is supposed to be a smart man, but we wonder if most of
them aren't brain-dead.
In critical circumstances the Lord has
promised to give us special wisdom (Mt. 10:19,20). In 1935, the
Shinto military government was tightening the screws on churches in
Japan. The restrictions kept getting tighter. The police in Ogaki
told Mino Mission that they couldn't sing on Sunday. The founder of
the mission, Sadie Lee Widner, said, “Here is where we draw the
line.” The next Sunday, her house was filled with Christians on
their knees worshiping the Lord, when Miss Widner looked up to see
the police standing in the middle of the room writing down the names
of those there. She got up off her knees, and went to confront them.
She demanded, “Look at them! They are worshiping the true God in
heaven. More than that; we are not going to stop!” She went on, “I
have been in Japan 20 years and the only time we were asked not to
sing was when your emperor was dead lying in his casket in Tokyo. Out
of respect to your emperor we refrained at that time. The other day
you gave the same order that you did when your emperor died.” The
police suddenly turned ashen gray and bolted from the house. Mino
Mission never stopped singing. Betty Whewell askded Miss Widner,
“That was brillinat. How did you thnk of that?” Obviously that
was the Holy Spirit that answered the police.
Thirdly, there is something more
wonderful than the Lord just giving us wisdom. He has promised to
lead us. We all know Prov. 3:5,6 – “Trust in the Lord with all
thine heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In all thy ways
acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy path”. Oh, me, that is a
good word! When we talk about the head of Christ, it is good to
remember that he not only is smarter than we are, but He sees the big
picture. He sees things that are hidden to us. It is pretty stupid to
think that we are smarter than God. But that is a common phenomenon.
It is almost universal that young folks
think that they are smarter than adults. When I was 20, getting my
pilot's license, my instructor told me never to get in clouds. He
said you can't tell up and down. I had never flown in clouds, and
couldn't believe you couldn't tell up and down. Unbelievably, I
thought I was smarter than him. One Sunday morning, I checked out our
little bug smasher, and took off to fly to an airport about 30 miles
south. There was a light cloud deck at about 1,500 feet and I had
little difficulty climbing through it to get VFR (Visual Flight
Rules) on top at 2,500 feet. I could see the sun was above me.
Flying south for 20 minutes, I thought I must be close to the field
and looked for a way to get down. There was a small hole in the
clouds, and I tried to spiral down. Half a turn later I was in the
clouds and learned an important lesson in life. The instructor was
right. I totally lost control of the aircraft, and was helpless to
break an out-of-control spin. Miraculously, I came out the base of
the clouds at 900 feet right in a valley. Four hundred yards either
way I would have crashed in a mountain. Once I saw where the ground
was I was able to recover from the spin, and my admiration for my
instructor soared.
Unfortunately, an enormous number of
people think that their way is better than the Lord's. I challenged
the folks last week, “If you were lost, and yet had a very reliable
GPS with you, don't you think it would be the essence of wisdom to
follow the GPS?” But we have something much better than a GPS. We
have the wisdom of God, along with the heart of a loving Father, who
is willing, and capable, of directing our lives.
My favorite position, and the bottom
line for guidance, is the 23rd Psalm. To recognize that,
at best, I am little more than a stupid sheep. But I have a wonderful
Shepherd who has committed Himself to watching out for me. What a
blessing to be able to say, “He leadeth me”. I wish I was better
at subjective guidance but, I make so many mistakes I frequently have
to pray, “Lord, You know You have an exceptionally errant sheep on
Your hands here, that needs special guidance. Lord I don't know the
way, but You do. Please lead a blind man.”
It is wonderful that Jesus not only
shed His Blood for us, but He also has a head like fine gold and is
capable of making the right calls for us. At the close of my message,
I asked the folks how many wanted Jesus to direct their life. The
first hand that went up was Pammy's. Then slowly nearly everyone
raised their hand. It would be great if that happens, but I fear only
a few will actually be in a position to follow.
Sayonara,
bill
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