Clough Genesis Lesson 78

Principles of authority, obedience, submission, and appeal – Genesis 31-33

… kind of neat things to watch as the Word of God is taught, and taught in a method which hopefully reaches people of different kind of interests instead of just the kind, the narrow range of interests that are present in most fundamental churches, that we can have Christians who have artistic interests and literary interests begin to appreciate the ramifications of our faith. We have a person in our congregation interested in the arts who has taken it upon herself to provide us with great paintings that have been done down through the ages of the events that we’re currently studying. This one is the painting by Rembrandt, Jacob wrestling with the angel, and she’s got it incased in some plastic print copy and I’ll read what she has put on it: Rembrandt, a Christian artist and product of the Reformation, here portrays both struggles Jacob has with the angel of the Lord, the physical one and the spiritual one. The physical combat is made clear by the angel’s knee being locked around Jacob’s side. Although we may object to the portrayal of the angel with wings and a certain lack of mannishness, he is nevertheless very physical as opposed to the allegorical interpretation that Jacob only wrestled with the Lord spiritually. The second struggle, the spiritual one, is expressed in the contrast between Jacob’s broad shoulders and obvious strain and the appearance of an embrace. Something about the angle of the head hints that it may soon be at rest on the angel’s breast, i.e. he is wrestling with God to give him rest, rest in the Promised Land.

And then she has added an artistic commentary: Although Rembrandt never considered himself committed to any school, he has been characterized as Baroque, because of the characteristic dramatic lighting in most of his works. This characteristic is called chiaroscuro, a dramatic high contrast between light and dark. Note how Rembrandt places the angel in light but Jacob is in darkness, yet it still appears to be natural lighting rather than the unnatural halo or ghost-like effect often used in picturing angels. The technical aspects of good composition are evident in the crossing pattern, the line on the angle of Jacob’s body forms an X with a line on the angle of the angel’s body, wing and leg. This may also reflect the fact that Jacob was crossing the Lord determined to gain a blessing.

I’ll leave this at the front for those of you who would like to look at it more closely as to what Christians of the past who took the Word of God seriously and didn’t amputate themselves at the neck when they walked into a church and used the Word of God to throw out into every area of life.

Turn to Genesis 32 and just look at that scene pictured here in Rembrandt’s work. I show you this to remind you as a Christian don’t be so defensive about the Christian faith; remember the culture of the west is ours; the current humanists who are in charge are usurpers; they have taken over from us. It was the Christians who gave art and it was the Christians who gave music and it’s our heritage and it’s our civilization. We don’t have to take backseats to people; in our day our lines and ranks have grown thin but just remember, the roots for the west are ours, not someone else’s. Don’t let the humanist fool you; he’s not the heir of the west, we are.

In Genesis 32 we have this encounter of Jacob and the angel and this encounter, we said, is very important because of the three encounters that God set up for Jacob. God set up these three encounters. Number one, He set it up in Genesis 31 with Laban; He set it up here in chapter 32 with the angel of Jehovah; He set it up in chapter 33 with Esau. Why? Because though Jacob was a man who was a model, a fallible model, not perfect, but he was a model of a believing man, chiefly because of his perseverance. Jacob also had sin, like we all do, and had –R learned behavior patterns. So these three encounters were to chip away at his problem in dealing with appeal to superior authority. Jacob had this as his chief problem; he didn’t know quite how to go about appealing to superiors. So Laban was his superior in two ways: Laban was his employer and Laban was his father-in-law. Then the angel of Jehovah obviously was a superior, the angel of Yahweh. And then Esau was his superior because Esau was his older brother.

Here’s what we want to do today, since we’ve spent 3 or 4 Sundays in chapter 31, 32, and 33, we want to stop in the forward progress of the text for this Sunday and next, and summarize the principles of authority, obedience, submission, and appeal, and by appeal we’re going to make a parallel between appeal which we’ll use human/human type encounter and prayer, God/human encounter because the nature of prayer and the nature of appeal are pretty much the same. So we’ll be jumping from text to text because it’s topical, not verse by verse. Today we’re going to start with one major concept, the concept of authority itself. What do we mean by this—the concept of authority.

Turn to Matthew 8. One of the problems we have as Americans, we’ve always had it, you can see traits of it, even in the American Revolution, is a part of our national culture, great though it is and borrowed though it is in many regards from the Word of God, it has certain seeds of just very unbiblical human viewpoint type stuff in it. And one of those seeds is that we really have a hard time comprehending authority. An example of this is that names which in your mind denote authority, if I mention these names it immediately causes reaction on the part of people, not necessarily because these men sinned, because all men sin. But somebody’s always got some sort of resistance and probably, thinking through the possible names that I could name to represent the authority figures for our generation, it would be military figures because of all the institutions in our society the one that just bugs the most people, because it seems to epitomize authority, is the military.

And then if I look at the military and I think what names in the military would denote authority taking two, General George Patton and General Douglas MacArthur, people, Americans have largely reacted to both of those men the same way and I find it very interesting to watch. The common complaint against both men is that they’re authoritarian and aristocratic. This has been a repeated… a repeated criticism of both of those men, that they basically were not real American. Now it’s [can’t understand word] to have written studies of these men’s characters to note that there’s tremendously un-American about both of those men. They don’t react, they don’t respond like Americans, neither MacArthur nor Patton. A usual American response to both of those kind of men is that they’re arrogant and so on. But it’s interesting because it tells you about us. Those two men, in a way, reflect something about the American soul.

The American soul never come to terms with basic authority and the reason is is because we profess to be a democracy, and in a democracy it’s wrong to have aristocracy; it’s wrong to have classes; it’s wrong to have hierarchies. Theoretically a democracy ought to operate with everybody at the same level and the moment somebody excels above the main level then they’re hated and they’re vilified and everybody does everything they can to pull them down because they can’t stand the idea of aristocracy or rank. And it just turns out that both of these men knew they were ranking and as one… Manchester’s latest biography of MacArthur entitles it American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964. That’s an interesting American response, that anytime somebody has authority that they’re a dictator or they’re a Caesar.

I find it amusing, therefore, that in Matthew 8 who is the authority figure that Christ single-handedly and uniquely commands for faith? A Roman military officer. Let’s watch this, Matthew 8:8. Remember the story is, back in verse 5, “And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion,” not a sergeant, a centurion was an officer, “beseeching him, [6] And saying, Lord, my servant lies at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. [7] And Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him.[8] The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof; but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. [9] For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me; and I say to this man, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it.”

Now look at the response of Jesus and I challenge you to find another place in the gospel where He responds to anybody this way. Verse 10, “When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great fiat, no, not in Israel.” Now isn’t that interesting. What was it about this sort of MacArtharian type personality of the centurion, or this Patton idea of authority? What was it that instead of reacting negatively Jesus reacted positively to it? It was the fact that this man understood authority and it’s interesting that if you look in verse 9 as to what he understands about authority it’s this, and here’s the first principle of the concept of authority, and that is:

Authority expects obedience. It doesn’t go out and give a 500 word theme on why obedience ought to take place, it expects obedience. Authority expects obedience and this expectation, notice in verse 9, the centurion says I have soldiers under me, but notice he knows authority because he himself is under authority. See the two under authorities in verse 9? One of them is over the centurion, the other one is under the centurion. The centurion is used to operating in an authoritarian environment and he says I have “soldiers under me and I say go and he goes,” he expects compliance with his authority. Now it’s that expectation which, in verse 8, he uses to anticipate Christ and the Word. He says, “Lord, I am not worthy…speak the word and my servant shall be healed.” In other words, the centurion transfers his idea of authority, with the Lord’s benefit and blessings, from an area of physical military life over to the spiritual life and he says just as I in my authority expect compliance on lower ranking officers and enlisted men, so also I understand that when you give the word, your word expects compliance, in this case the diseased tissue in the body, this palsy described in verse 6, “home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.” All right, in this situation we have decay; we have a physical destruction of the body and so this physical destruction is going to be challenged by the word of verse 8. Let’s look at this and get it down: authority expects obedience. If it expects obedience, then the military situation is the great picture of it.

Let’s go to a second principle; turn to Hebrews 5:8-9. The second principle is that obedience can’t come automatically, it has to be learned. In this case it’s an ideal illustration because it’s Christ Himself. “Though He were a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered; [9] And being made perfect, He became the author of eternal” life. Now the word “perfect” doesn’t mean Jesus was sinful and kind of shed sin as He slowly improved. The word “perfect” there is the word “mature” and it means that Jesus Christ became mature or became sanctified; by that we mean that He learned obedience to the first and great commandment, “Thou shalt love the Lord they God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy soul.” But you’ll notice that Christ had to learn it, verse 8. Moreover, He had to learn it through suffering, verse 8; it didn’t come by just reading and taking notes. It came because he was put under pressure, and there under pressure learned compliance to authority. So there’s a second valuable lesson.

Now an application of this second principle to a Christian home: where, in the fabric of life, does one learn authority? God says in His Word that we learn authority in the home situation first, under parents. This is why in the Ten Commandments it is the commandment that has to do with the parents that is the first one of expectation or promise, “Honor thy father and thy mother that” what? “that the days in the land may be long.” Now why would the days be shortened if you didn’t honor your father and your mother? Then the days would be shortened because you’d be a fool and you’d be a fool because you’re basically rebelling against wisdom and so parents become the source of this authority in chronology; granted, the Lord is the spruce of the authority legally but I’m talking about chronologically learning. The first place we learn it in our lives is in the home.

Let’s turn to Deuteronomy 6 and see how God suggests that parents maintain authority in the home. How do believing parents establish aurthority in their home? Do they do it because they slam people through the wall? In other words, physically compel everyone in the home? No! Do they do it by merely praying about it? No! Deuteronomy 6 gives you the Lord’s wisdom on how Christian couples can establish authority in their home; it’s very practical, very specific, very simple to grasp and I might say a little hard to carry out but nevertheless…. Let’s look.

Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “[Hear, O Israel:] The LORD our God is one LORD: [5] And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” There’s the first and great commandment. Verses 4-5 are considered so crucial in Jewish life that there is a name for that, it’s called the Shema, and that is the word that means, it comes from the Hebrew imperative from shema, to hear, the first imperative verb you hear in verse 4. And it’s considered a pledge of allegiance and it’s done by orthodox Jewry and I believe it’s done by the other strands of Judaism and it’s considered very, very important. In other words, if a Jew were to deny every other part of his faith and say summarize for me the spirit of Judaism it would be Deuteronomy 6:4; that is the seed of all Judaism. If that’s the case, and that was given as a central axiom in the Old Testament; that is the first and great commandment.

Then you would expect to find somewhere in the context wisdom principles on how to carry that out and sure enough, look what we find; verses 6-7. “And these words, which I command thee this day,” literally it means “let them be in thy heart.” It’s not just “they shall be” because they’re not going to just automatically be in your heart. They’re going to be in your heart through effort. “Let them be in your heart.” Well, that’s nice but how do you let them be in your heart? And remember, the “your” in verse 6 is nations, it’s plural, it means let them get in the heart of the nation. It’s not talking about families yet. Verse 4, verse 5, verse 6 are talking to the nation as a nation. Now how do you saturate the culture of a nation with the Word and this kind of obedience to the Word of God? Answer: verse 7. Just look at that answer, key point of how authority is learned.

Deuteronomy 6:7, “Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children,” now we’re talking about families; families are the classroom in which the nation’s culture is built. “You will teach them diligently unto your children, you will talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. [8] And you will bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they will be as frontlets between thine eyes.” Now when you first look at verse 7 it looks as though it’s talking about talk of them, talk Bible stories from dawn to dusk in the home. That’s not what it means for the preposition “of” is an English translation of Beth, which is the Hebrew letter “B” and when Beth is prefixed to some word it carries the force of being instrumental, talk with [can’t understand word] with means, or talk with this as a source from which you build, like if you build a house with bricks, you’d put a Beth in front of “the bricks.” It’s called the Beth of material. Or, you can say the Beth refers to location: in. Well, you eliminate the “in” because “you shall teach them diligently …and shall talk of them when you sit in your house,” well, sitting in your house is the location, so that leaves only one other way of interpreting the preposition “of” and the preposition “of” therefore becomes instrumental and here’s what it means: it means you will talk by means of these teachings.

“You will talk by means of these teachings.” Well, what does this mean? It means that whatever the problem at hand is, whether it’s money, whether it’s a job, whether it’s a dispute in the home, that it’s bracketed by the divine viewpoint framework. In other words, principles of the Word are brought regularly and systematically to bear on day by day problems. It’s not talking about just a curriculum of Bible teaching. It’s not “just,” it includes that but it means something greater in scope than merely that.

All right, here at Lubbock Bible Church we have a program to do that; it’s called the family training program. And the Christian parents in our congregation that are serious about verses 4, 5, 6 and 7 have over the years worked in their family units to make this program go. And in the years to come they will reap the results of it; maybe not right away but they will because in these homes the fathers are doing the work, they are the ones that are the commissioners that carry this out. And by the way, when you get a nominating committee, some of you may be asked to be on nominating committees, I’d say take a look at the men who want to be on the board and ask yourself whether they have participated in the family training program because that would be a good classroom forum to manage their own homes before they go and manage the church’s business. So we find this as a means.

The third principle of authority; we’ve looked at the first principle of authority is that it expects obedience. The second principle of authority is that obedience must be learned and the chief place for learning it is in the home as a child. And when that doesn’t take place then it takes years and years and years to redo what should have been done in the home.

The third principle of authority is found in 1 Peter 5:5. I picked this verse because it fits right next to a famous promise, so when you get over to 1 Peter 5, before you look at verse 5 too much, look at verse 7 and you’ll notice that 1 John 5:7 is a very famous memory verse. A lot of Christians that have been Christians for some time have memorized verse 7: “Casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you.” It’s one of the great demands in the Bible to cast our care upon Him and stop worrying. Well, how does somebody get in a position where they can cast their cares upon the Lord and stop worrying. The key is they would have had to have learned the principle of authority and submission. Verse 5-6 precede verse 7 and give the context of learning how to use verse 7. Verse 5, “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.” That’s just like Jacob and Esau; Jacob was the younger, Esau was the older. We just saw how Jacob submitted himself. “Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility; for God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble. [6] Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.”

Now there’s the principle of submission to authority which shows an interesting point and that is, God resists violation of chains of authority, that’s verse 5. God resists the proud and in context… in context, it’s not abstract pride that God is resisting; it is pride that shows itself in violation of authority structure. In particular verse 5 is talking about younger people, sassing, violating the authority of older people. And God says there’s a sign of pride. Now that pins it right down to a specific. So you look at the word “proud” in verse 5 and you wonder what it means and contemplate your navel for four hours to figure out what it means; you don’t have to do that because in the context it tells you exactly what is on the apostle’s mind, and that is violation of family relationships. Obviously he’s talking about the church but he’s talking about it in the metaphor of the family, the elder and the younger; primary reference to family, application metaphorically to the local church.

And so we find the third principle is autonomy; the third principle is autonomy will be resisted or violation or defiance of authority will be resisted by God. In other words, it brings down the judgment of God upon you when you violate authority. For example, you may have a righteous cause; you may be perfectly right, but in the context of an employer/employee relationship, in the context of divine institution number three, in the context of divine institution number four, it may be that righteous though your cause and position may be, you’re exerting it in an unrighteous way and the result is God fights you and you wonder well why is it we’re not blessed when we have a righteous cause. Maybe it’s because, not always, maybe its because God is allowing Satan to put the pressure on. But it also may be that God Himself is resisting us because we’re going about it in an unrighteous way.

Now an example of this and how easy it is to get involved in this. From time to time throughout the history of the congregation there have been Christian men in our congregation who have given employment opportunities to various other people in the church. And largely I’d say it’s worked out pretty well. But from time to time it doesn’t work out well because we have people taking advantage of those situations; by taking advantage I mean being sloppy, being unteachable, being unreliable and so on. Now when that takes place two things occur (many things occur, but two things). According to this verse you begin to have an overturning of authority and I’ll show you by a parallel reference to another one later. Therefore God begins to resist the person who’s in that state. Moreover, because of the bad testimony created it destroys opportunities in the future for others who do want to do a good job. So particularly in employer/employee relationships this principle of authority applies.

Since we’ve covered those three principles of authority, let’s go to another concept. We’ve dealt with the concept of authority, now we want to deal with the concept of balance. The balance between authority on the one hand, obedience—authority and obedience, and submission and appeal on the other. In other words we have be obedient to authority; on the other side, be submissive but yet at the same time you have the right of appeal. God does not erase people simply because they’re subordinate. That’s the problem, I think, in the women’s lib movement. They think just because the Christian gospel says that the man is the head of the home that makes the woman a zero. That doesn’t follow. Look at the Trinity: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Is the Father and the Holy Spirit zeroes? The biggest zeroes I ever saw! Are they subordinate? You bet they are. Then how do you argue that subordination turns people into zeroes? To argue with your argument you would have to deny the whole structure of the Trinity, a rather minor stumbling block for some people. But nevertheless, it shows you subordination of roles does not imply subordination of essence or value. And when we talk about authority we’re talking about a role; we’re not talking about a person’s ultimate worth. We’re talking about the position in a game, a role playing situation, and if it’s not demeaning for the Holy Spirit and the Son to play a subordinate role to the Father, then it can’t be demeaning for us to play subordinate roles to other authorities.

All right, now this matter of obedience. We’re going to look at two verses for each one of these balancing items, so hopefully everyone here this morning has two hands; if you don’t you’re excused. We are going to turn to turn to one passage, hold it with one hand and turn to the other passage and hold it with the other hand, then we’re going to compare.

First turn to Hebrews 13, then turn to Colossians 4. We’re going to look at a balancing. In Hebrews 13:17 we have one side of the balance. This is talking, and this side of the balance has to do with the authority and obedience side; why should you be in obedience to authority? Because in verse 17 it says, “Obey them that have the rule over you,” now in context it’s talking about elders in the church; in application it’s talking about any authoritative social relationship. “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves;” why? Now a reason is given and pay attention to the reason. Why? “Because they must watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief; for that is unprofitable” not to them, “that is unprofitable to you.” Now what does that mean? It’s saying that if I am a subordinate to a superior authority, that superiority looks down and checks on me and as that superior authority looks down and checks, under God that superior authority gives a report.

Now that doesn’t mean that the local courtroom under the fourth divine institution is having a big prayer meeting down there but what it means is that the principle is they’re under God’s authority. If God holds you responsible for something, then something goes wrong down there and you have discipline problems, you can’t make them follow you, you have all the right in the world to go upstairs and say hey, you put me over these people down here and they’re not tracking. That’s giving a report to God. That is the superior, crying out to God for help against insubordinate subordinates. And that’s what verse 17, “that they may do it with joy,” so when they do pray they say God, everything’s going fine, You have given me authority, the people are following my authority, I have no gripes, no requests. That’s doing it with joy; but with “grief,” he’s being sarcastic, that’s not very profitable for you. Do you know why? Because God resists and He’s going to listen to this authority’s cry and He’s going to come down here and clobber you, or clobber me if I happen to be there. So Hebrews 13:17 shows an interesting principle; that you are obedient to a superior because that superior in turn has a right to call on God against you for disobeying him. There’s an application in marriage; the husband who is faced with a disobedient wife in a situation, he has the right to go before God over that situation, saying that she doesn’t follow me; You put her under me, now come on, do something.

But the balance to that… the balance… turn to Colossians 4:1. Here the same truth is used but watch how it’s reversed 180 degrees. Colossians 4:1 in the context is talking about business relationships but in principle can apply. “Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.” So, here’s the concept of appeal. Here’s the subordinate and the subordinate sees the superior and the subordinate asks the superior for something and the superior is out of it; now Paul says you watch it, if you happen to be here, not on the lower rung, but on the upper rung of the authority ladder, you’re here and the subordinate appeals and you disregard it and it’s a righteous appeal, just remember, you’ve got a big [can’t understand word] over you and it’s not Superman.

So the concept of authority goes all the way upstairs. So watch, looking at these two verses, how the authority is played off in a perfect balance. On the one hand grasping this picture it protects the superior against insubordinate subordinates. But then grasped the other way it protects the subordinates against an out-of-it superior. That’s one balance.

Now let’s look at another balance. Turn to 1 Timothy 6; balance it with Matthew 6:1, this is the employer/employee relationship. “Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and His doctrine be not blasphemed. [2] And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but, rather, do them service because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. [3] And if any man teaches otherwise….” Verse 4, “He is proud, [knowing nothing, but doting about questions and disputes of words, of which comes envy, strife, railings, evil suspicions.]” See how the pride again is not an abstract pride; it’s pride directly related to specific human relationships and in the context it’s talking about Christian employees taking advantage of Christian employers, being sloppy; just because they’re Christians they’re going to be forgiving, just because they’re Christians they’re going to do this; just because they’re Christians they’re going to do something else. Well, just because they’re human beings they’ve got to make a living too, and they’re paying you to help them do it. And 1 Timothy 6 is saying the result of this, verse 1, is the name of God is going to be blasphemed.

Here’s the principle: the principle is that in this kind of a relationship why would the name of God be blasphemed? Because all men, believer or unbeliever, know something’s screwy with this arrangement. It does not take a believer to see that; all it takes is a sensible person. The name of God will be blasphemed all over the place; Paul’s concerned about the report of Christian behavior by the non-Christian around him and he’s concerned that this not blight the gospel. He says you act like this and all men out here know, all men know in general the principle of authority. They may not know specifically but they know in general. Do you know why? It’s part of their God-consciousness. And they will blaspheme and they’ll ridicule the name of God because they’re saying hey look, look at this, this is wrong by even unbelieving standards.

So this principle: on one side of the balance we have the idea that all men intuitively know general concepts of authority. But that doesn’t mean you’re to be totally passive either. Matthew 6, believers on the other hand know things unbelievers don’t know, and that is they know something of God’s will. So in Matthew 6:10, the middle of the Lord’s Prayer, here’s the principle. There is the desire on the part of the believer that God’s “will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” Or we can take that as a general principle that if the subordinate sees something the superior is doing that is out of the will of God, he’s not just to remain passive, he is to be obedient in spirit and attitude; it doesn’t mean he tolerates everything. A husband asks his wife to go out to a local wife swap club, well now something’s going to happen and the wife is in a position where she knows what God’s will is. So she’s not a doormat. There’s the balance. We’ve seen the balance here; the balance here was using the truth of superior authority over both superior and subordinate. Here we see the principle, all men know in general but the Word of God is the final authority. So those will come into tension. At times the crowd will say this is right but at times the believer has to step out, even against his superior and say I’m sorry, based on what I know of the Word of God, this is right and I disagree, totally disagree.

A third balance, just looking up these balancing things. That’s what makes it difficult to apply in practice is to keep these balances working. Let’s look at a third balance; this is the extremes. What happens if you go overboard on obedience, obedience, obedience, obedience, blind obedience to authority destroys conscience. 1 Corinthians 8, blind obedience destroys the conscience. We needn’t turn there because we’ve gone through that on Sunday evening and in that passage the apostle said I am an apostle, yet I will not use my apostolic authority to override people to the point of ruining their consciences. So blind obedience is not Scriptural and for the women’s libbers to say that’s what we’re teaching is wrong. That is not what we’re teaching and I have just taught it to you. Blind obedience destroys the conscience of the individual and even Paul, the apostle, did not exercise or demand of his followers that kind of blind obedience. If somebody had qualms over the idol blessed hamburgers in Corinth, he didn’t say oh come on boy, we’re going in, it’s all right. No, he said if you can’t go in here, fine.

To balance that, on the other side if you go too much on the side of appeal, challenging, always arguing with the authority, then what you do is you destroy the system, you destroy the structure. The structure is only going to take so much appeal and then you have revolution into chaos, and that’s what we’ve got in nation after nation today. The system can only tolerate so much challenge from the law and then it just ruptures and craters. So there’s the balance.

Now in the remaining time what I’d like to do is go through some four major aspects of how appeal and prayer take place. Before I do, however, I want to just repeat briefly six illustrations, or six Bible people that you can refer to on your own for details, where there was this balance preserved between obedience and yet not being a doormat. These six were given by Bill Gothard in his basic institute, and I think I can’t improve on them, they’re just perfect. There are six women, and I use the women and I’m sure he must have used the women because that’s exactly where the crunch comes today because being fed all over the place that it is the fundies and the fundamentalist pastors who are in a big plot against the welfare of the nation and so they have to be ripped off or something, they have to be taken care of. That’s not true. All of these following six women did fantastic effects with appeals. Three of them were righteous women and three of them did it disobediently but all six of them had tremendous influence.

And lest anybody say women in submission don’t have influence, let’s pick off the evidence. Esther and the king; the girls have been studying it in the womanhood course. Esther could appeal to the king because she was under the king, and the king wasn’t threatened by her and therefore the king would listen to her. A lot of women have never learned that principle, that no man is going to give you his full attention as long as he thinks you are trying to undercut him. And when a man realizes, finally, and he’s at rest that you’re not there to cause a revolution, then he’ll listen to you. But I’m telling you ladies, he’s not going to give you a dime’s worth of attention as long as every time the appeal comes it’s a confrontation situation where he can’t really respond because he’s got to protect his God-given authority and if his mind is on protecting that he can’t loosen up over here. And that was the trick of Esther. She placed herself completely under the king and then got him to do exactly what she wanted him to do, the marvelous skill of the human female.

Bathsheba and David; same kind of thing; read the story for yourself in the first chapters of Kings, when it dealt with the problem of dynastic succession, who would follow in that situation. And it was Bathsheba, and she wasn’t the smartest woman that ever walked the face of the earth, but Bathsheba… you can tell this because she doesn’t know some of the court etiquette, she almost gets her head whopped off for being so stupid, but Bathsheba did have a few principles going for her and one of those was she respected David’s authority and therefore David listened to her.

Third illustration: Ruth and Boaz. Boaz listened to Ruth when Ruth came to him because he wasn’t threatened by Ruth when Ruth came to him.

The negative side of the ledger; this shows you the destructiveness of women. Lest again the argument, oh, you’re teaching submission of the woman as a doormat. All right, look at the evidence. Eve—Eve got the most innocent man that ever lived to sin. That’s not influence? Delilah got the strongest man in the Bible to sin; that’s not influence? And finally, Solomon’s wives got the wisest man who ever lived to sin. Don’t tell me that’s not influence, that’s powerful influence. The most innocent man who ever walked the face of the earth met his doom by the appeal of a woman. The strongest man reported in the Bible met his doom because of the appeal of a woman. And the wisest man who ever walked the face of the earth, next to Christ, met his doom because of the appeal of a woman. See, men, it’s dangerous living.

Now we’ll come to the four aspects of prayer and appeal. I’m going to do this together. I’m going to take appeal, I’m going to take prayer as one because I want to do something a little different here and that is I want to show you that conversation and petition to God is really not categorically different from conversation and appeal to human superiors. I’m doing that to show you why lessons learned in the home, lessons learned by respect for parents, lessons learned in school, these kind of authority situations or in the military, that those lessons aren’t disjunctive from spiritual relationship with God. The two are linked in the Scriptures. What I learn over here applies to what goes on over here. So that’s why I’m tying the appeals of superior humans in one to one correspondence with appeals to God Himself.

And we usually teach the doctrine of prayer and the four points, it could be an acrostic fig, so we’ll go through that; we’ll only have time this morning to go through the first of these four; what does “F” mean. It means that we avoid fatalism; it means that we are to appeal. We are not to be doormats, we are not to sit there and say well God knows my needs so I don’t have to ask Him. That is wrong; that is like in the human realm somebody’s over you and you’re never mention to them… [can’t understand words] You don’t act that way in the human realm; why do you turn around and act that way in the spiritual realm? The two are not disjointed, that’s the point of the first step and that’s why real prayer involves appeals.

Now what do we mean by this. Let’s try to get some specifics. I’m going to take you to four biblical illustrations where people avoided fatalism with appeal that had backbone in it. Turn to Exodus 32:32, we won’t look at all the details of it except one part of one verse. Again, what are we trying to show? We’re trying to show that when I make my appeal to God, and therefore in principle when I make my appeal to a human superior, if it’s worth making an appeal then it’s worth having very strong moral reasons for making the appeal. See, we’re not just talking about a sweet hey, how about doing it this way kind of thing. That’s conversation, that’s not appeal. I’m talking about appeals when it gets right down to the nitty-gritty and something’s got to give somewhere along the line. That’s what I’m talking about. In that situation, where you have these desperate, intense prayers, then it has certain characteristics, it has what I’m calling backbone to it.

Now let’s look at an example: Exodus 32:32; here Moses is in the midst of a prayer where he’s trying to get God to change His mind. He’s trying to change His mind about the damnation of the whole nation Israel. Now verse 32, look at the backbone of Moses. “Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—,” and there should be a dash, or a dot, dot, dot in the translation indicating that sentence is never finished in the original grammar, “but if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.” Do you see what he says? That’s backbone, isn’t it? Do you know what he’s saying? God, if You are going to damn this nation You damn me along with them. If you’re going to send this nation to hell, then I’m the first one to go; that is how much I am with this nation. You touch this nation You’ve touched me. Now you talk about backbone, what more could you ask about seriousness of an appeal than to be willing to go to hell for it. Of course, the reason why Exodus 32 is set up the way it is, you know why, because when you get in the New Testament who was this intercessory prayer all about? It’s the picture of Christ, what Christ is going to do. Christ goes to the cross; He does catch hell; that’s what He did on the cross for you. Exodus 32:32 is an illustration. Moses asks to be damned with the nation if that’s what God is going to do, if God isn’t going to change His mind. That’s how serious an appeal it is; that’s backbone.

Turn to 1 Kings 3; when these kinds of appeals, when history and circumstances get this bad that these kinds of appeals have to be made, notice the strength of them. Yes these people are obedient; it’s done with a totally submissive and obedient attitude but it’s done with a serious attitude. 1 Kings 3:16, “There were two prostitutes that came unto the king, and stood before him. [17] And one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house,” the house of prostitution, “and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. [18] And it came to pass the third day after I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also, and we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, except we two were in the house. [19] And this woman’s child died in the night, because she lay on top of it. [20] And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me, while your handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. [21] And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold it was dead; but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, whom I did bear.

[22] And the other woman said, No; but the living child is my son and the dead one is your son. And this said, No; but the dead one is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spoke before the king. [23] Then said the king, The one says, This is my son who lives, and thy son is dead; and the other says, Nay; but thy son is the dead one, and my son is the living. [24] And the king said, Bring me a sword. [And they brought a sword before the king.]” Verse 25, “And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other. [26] Then spoke the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her heart yearned over he son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no way slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor yours, go ahead and slay it. [27] Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and by no means slay it; she is the mother of it.”

Now how did the king know that? Because he knew that the mother was willing to pay a price, to even lose the child rather than have the child destroyed. So what does this show? Again it shows appeal with backbone. Solomon, who was the superior, responded to the one who had the backbone, and the one who had the backbone was the mother. She was the one that was willing to pay a price to see that her appeal was carried out. The other woman wasn’t. That was a second example, let’s show a third one.

Turn to Joel 2:12, a major passage on national repentance. It was problematic in Joel’s day what was going to happen to the nation and so God said look; if you will turn to me with all your heart I’m going to do some things for you. Very fine, but God, how do I know when I turn to you with all my heart; what are some manifestations of this, what are some evidences that I’m turning to God with all my heart; then he lists them. And he lists them in verse 12, “[Therefore also, now, saith the LORD, turn even to Me with all your heart, and] with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”

Now what about this fasting. Fasting down through church history has often been taken as brownie points with God; you sort of do your fast and this gets more blessing. That’s not the spirit of fasting. In the Scripture fasting is simply because I need to concentrate on my relationship to God so intently I can’t be bothered, (a) with getting food and (b) preparing food, and (c) eating food, it gets in the way, and I’ve got other priorities at the time and so I fast. Now I’m told by those and some who are in this congregation, who have fasted and prayed, they say another peculiar effect happens; that as fasting takes place they find themselves able to pray much clearer, recall Scripture far more clearly than under normal circumstances. The only way we can explain that, it may be physiologically, is because the body isn’t being distracted, you’re not having body energies being consumed digesting food; the body, so to speak, is being shut down, basically, into a passive mode while the spirit is able then to concentrate and doesn’t have, so to speak, so much noise in the background of physical machinery doing its job. But something does take place and men down through years who have fasted and prayed all report the same thing; that after 243 to 48 hours of fasting their minds become extremely clear and can focus upon the Scriptures like they’ve never focused before. So there is something to that.

The fasting, however, in this case, along with the weeping and the mourning spells commitment; the weeping and the mourning is over the sin; it’s over the seriousness of the sin being repented of. It’s not that the weeping can give forgiveness; that would be salvation forgiveness by works. It’s rather that that’s an attendant circumstance or an outward evidence of commitment. So there again is the third illustration of appeals that have backbone that mean business.

Finally, a fourth illustration, we do not need to turn there because we’ve turned there before, and that’s the parable of the importunate woman in Luke 18 , where she knocks on the judge’s door, knocks on the judge’s door, knock’s on the judge’s door, knocks on the judge’s door, finally the judge says gosh, just to get rid of this woman, I’ll go to the door and find out what she wants and Jesus says if the judge will get that response, and he’s an unjust judge, how much more will your father who loves you come to the door and answer your request.

So our first major position here in this avoiding fatalism means appealing with backbone, that means with perseverance, keep on, don’t just say it once, twice, keep on keeping on about it until you get some things resolved.

Let me apply this in conclusion to two areas, one in the human level, one in the spiritual level for people in Lubbock Bible Church. On a human level we said, and you’ll read it in the prayer worksheet today, that is that the government is at it again and although Christians sent 133,000 letters into the IRS in October about this episode, now they’ve turned around and re-written their legislation innocuously but it’s the same legislation, and so another letter writing campaign is needed. Why do I bring this up? Because it’s a form of appeal and what do we mean by appeal with backbone? We mean persistent appeal. Dripping water is more effective than one-shot hyper-charged appeals that are hear today and gone tomorrow. You see, this is where we Christians have been out-maneuvered every time because the other side just keeps on, keeps on, keeps on, keeps on, keeps on, over and over and over and over and over. And do you know why they do that? Because they’ve learned, those Christians, they’ll get upset for a week, then they’ll forget about it and we’ll have our way finally. What we’ve got to say is no, you are not going to have your way, we have just as much endurance as you do. The issue, if it was wrong in October is wrong in April, isn’t it? Do morals change between October and April? So now they have a regulation that’s interesting; they have a set of criteria that Christian schools are automatically guilty until proven innocent. Do you know what one of the criteria of a guilty school is? That your school was designed to take students out of the public school system. Where else would private schools get their students except from the public school system? A brilliant criteria, and it goes on, the legislation has 14 of them, but this is the kind of thing that keeps on and we Christians in our day, and when we make our appeals we can’t make it once, we have to make it again and again and I know, every letter takes pages so be our guest at the copy machine because the bureaucracy wants six pages.

The second appeal that we will be making as a congregation is praying about the new building. The contractor informed one of the men on the building committee that construction costs have gone up 20% in the last six months. Well now, one doesn’t have to be a student of advanced math to know that we can’t even keep our giving up to inflation, so something has to take place and you’ll be informed as soon as the men make decisions about what. But whatever is made basically is going to involve long, extensive petition over the next 9 to 12 months for resources and materials, no accidents, as skillful use of materials as possible, etc. etc. etc. or we are never going to see new facilities. Now that’s just laying it out the way it is. So that is not going to require one shot appeals. So you’ve got two practical areas illustrating this first principle that you have to make appeals with backbone and backbone appeals involve perseverance.

We’re going to close our service….