Sin and Death and Danger

If we know that there is the danger of death if you drink bleach or electrocute yourself or if you catch a certain disease, then you will do all you can to avoid it. It is the only sensible thing to do. Given that the Bible connects sin and death so closely, as it does in Romans 6:23, we must turn from it. Are you turning from sin? Are you making a daily conscious effort to turn from all known sin? That must be the way you live.

Mayor of Casterbridge

Now the Three Mariners was the inn chosen by Henchard as the place for closing his long term of dramless years. He had so timed his entry as to be well established in the large room by the time the forty church-goers entered to their customary cups. The flush upon his face proclaimed at once that the vow of twenty-one years had lapsed, and the era of recklessness begun anew. He was seated on a small table, drawn up to the side of the massive oak board reserved for the churchmen, a few of whom nodded to him as they took their places and said, "How be ye, Mr. Henchard? Quite a stranger here."

Henchard did not take the trouble to reply for a few moments, and his eyes rested on his stretched-out legs and boots. "Yes," he said at length; "that's true. I've been down in spirit for weeks; some of ye know the cause. I am better now, but not quite serene. I want you fellows of the choir to strike up a tune; and what with that and this brew of Stannidge's, I am in hopes of getting altogether out of my minor key."

"With all my heart," said the first fiddle. "We've let back our strings, that's true, but we can soon pull 'em up again. Sound A, neighbours, and give the man a stave."

"I don't care a curse what the words be," said Henchard. "Hymns, ballets, or rantipole rubbish; the Rogue's March or the cherubim's warble--'tis all the same to me if 'tis good harmony, and well put out."

"Well--heh, heh--it may be we can do that, and not a man among us that have sat in the gallery less than twenty year," said the leader of the band. "As 'tis Sunday, neighbours, suppose we raise the Fourth Psa'am, to Samuel Wakely's tune, as improved by me?"

"Hang Samuel Wakely's tune, as improved by thee!" said Henchard. "Chuck across one of your psalters--old Wiltshire is the only tune worth singing--the psalm-tune that would make my blood ebb and flow like the sea when I was a steady chap. I'll find some words to fit en." He took one of the psalters and began turning over the leaves.

Chancing to look out of the window at that moment he saw a flock of people passing by, and perceived them to be the congregation of the upper church, now just dismissed, their sermon having been a longer one than that the lower parish was favoured with. Among the rest of the leading inhabitants walked Mr. Councillor Farfrae with Lucetta upon his arm, the observed and imitated of all the smaller tradesmen's womankind. Henchard's mouth changed a little, and he continued to turn over the leaves.

"Now then," he said, "Psalm the Hundred-and-Ninth, to the tune of Wiltshire: verses ten to fifteen. I gi'e ye the words:

"His seed shall orphans be, his wife

A widow plunged in grief;

His vagrant children beg their bread

Where none can give relief.

His ill-got riches shall be made

To usurers a prey;

The fruit of all his toil shall be

By strangers borne away.

None shall be found that to his wants

Their mercy will extend,

Or to his helpless orphan seed

The least assistance lend.

A swift destruction soon shall seize

On his unhappy race;

And the next age his hated name

Shall utterly deface."*

"I know the Psa'am - I know the Psa'am!" said the leader hastily; "but I would as lief not sing it. 'Twasn't made for singing. We chose it once when the gipsy stole the pa'son's mare, thinking to please him, but pa'son were quite upset. Whatever Servant David were thinking about when he made a Psalm that nobody can sing without disgracing himself, I can't fathom! Now then, the Fourth Psalm, to Samuel Wakely's tune, as improved by me."

"'Od seize your sauce = I tell ye to sing the Hundred-and-Ninth to Wiltshire, and sing it you shall!" roared Henchard. "Not a single one of all the droning crew of ye goes out of this room till that Psalm is sung!" He slipped off the table, seized the poker, and going to the door placed his back against it. "Now then, go ahead, if you don't wish to have your cust pates broke!"

"Don't 'ee, don't 'ee take on so!--As 'tis the Sabbath-day, and 'tis Servant David's words and not ours, perhaps we don't mind for once, hey?" said one of the terrified choir, looking round upon the rest. So the instruments were tuned and the comminatory verses sung.

* Psalm 109:9-13 Tate and Brady new version

The Importance of Remembering

We have a rather high opinion of ourselves in certain areas and one of those areas is our memories. We imagine that we will always remember God's great acts. We will never forget that God created the world, that he brought his people out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, that Christ died on the cross, that we have been converted.

Sadly, all the evidence is that we are quick to forget and forgetfulness is one of the greatest enemies of faith. This is something politicians rely on. If you are in power then you do the unpopular things early on and the popular things later, if you can. One writer says that it is like in marriage where often the biggest danger is not infidelity but forgetting why you married in the first place.

A sinking boat and salvation

Philippians 3:8 I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage.

This is one thing that is so difficult for some to understand. It is automatic for us to put our trust where we shouldn't – in our prayers, in our knowledge, in our good deeds. Such confidence will save no-one. Who cares if you were on the cradle roll or if you went to Sunday School or Christian school or camps or conferences if you you don't trust in Jesus Christ? What good is there in being a Baptist but not a Christian, Reformed but not converted, a person who does his quiet time every day but has not come to faith? Or for that matter, being the prime minister or a king or queen, winning a Nobel prize or captaining England?

They are absolutely worthless when it comes to saving anyone. It is not that we despise such things and nothing more but we despise them as far as their being a means of salvation is concerned. Think of a man in a sinking boat. Paul himself was in one on more than one occasion. In Acts 27 we read of how they jettisoned the cargo first and then even the ship's tackle (the mechanisms for raising and lowering the sails), as important as that would normally be, in an effort to lighten the ship. When you are in a sinking boat you are willing to sacrifice everything, as long as you can get safely to shore. Everything gets thrown overboard. That is how it is if we want to be saved.

Assurance

When I was a boy I remember sitting in the church where I grew up and hearing the minister giving a children's talk. There was a boy there a little bit younger than me called Michael, Michael Derosaire. The minister asked if the children expected to go to heaven. Michael was a good little boy and so he said that he hoped to go to heaven - which I thought was a pretty good answer. You don't want to sound too confident. But the minister wasn't happy with that. He wanted the children to know they were going to heaven.

I once heard Sinclair Ferguson talking about Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621) Pope Clement VIII’s personal theologian and one of the most able figures in the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation movement in the sixteenth-century. On one occasion, Bellarmine wrote:

“The greatest of all Protestant heresies is _______ .” As Ferguson puts it "Complete, explain, and discuss Bellarmine’s statement. How would you answer? What is the greatest of all Protestant heresies? Perhaps justification by faith? Perhaps Scripture alone, or one of the other Reformation watchwords? Those answers make logical sense. But none of them completes Bellarmine’s sentence. What he wrote was: “The greatest of all Protestant heresies is assurance.”

Bellarmine absolutely hated the fact Protestants wanted people to know they were going to heaven. I think the fear is that if people know they are going to heaven they will become complacent and self-satisfied. And yet God wants us to assured of salvation. He want us to know it will all turn out well in the end.

Losing the dressing room

It is important that people retain confidence in their leaders. There is an expression in football "to lose the dressing room". This is used when a manager of a football team loses the confidence of his players and they stop listening to him and so things go from bad to worse. There is no football at the moment (June 2020) but back in January the Independent was saying that Norwegian Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United was

"losing the dressing room, with a number of squad members "irritated" by his drills and what is more, his wider tactical approach.

It's stated that while the players like him - and there's no denying Solskjaer is a very likeable character - they do not think he should have been appointed in the first place."

God was determined that Joshua would not "lose the dressing room" but would be exalted in Israel's eyes. Joshua, of course, points us to Jesus Christ our Leader and it is important that we see that in all that God the Father does he is determined to exalt Jesus Christ. We can expect to see that happening and should be on the look out for it.

Who is the leader?

Pop groups were very popular in the 1960s and there were lots of different ones - The Beatles, The Move, The Who, The Kinks. As child I always liked to know who was the most important person in the group. Sometimes it was difficult to know. In The Dave Clark Five, Dave Clark was the man on the drums not the singer. Or take Fleetwood Mac - that name is from the drummer Mick Fleetwood and the bass player John McVie not the singer or guitarist. In the group Manfred Mann, Manfred Mann was not the singer but the man on the keyboards. With the Spencer Davis Group, on the other hand, it was Steve Winwood who you needed to know about rather than Spencer Davis himself.

At this point in Israel's history (Joshua 3) it was important for them to know who was most important in this situation. God was the one they should be looking to not themselves or Joshua or even the priests. Thus the emphasis on looking to the ark and on consecrating themselves to God for Joshua tells them tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.

This brings us to the matter of having the right attitude and preparing ourselves as we should. One reason why gatherings for worship or our own time with our Bibles is less than rewarding is because we have the wrong attitude and are not prepared. We need to come to worship focussed on God and prepared to meet with him. $ You know the expression priming the pump. Some water pumps will only work once you get the air out of them - usually done by putting water into them. Priming simply means preparing. Sometimes we need to prime the spiritual pump if we are to know blessing.