Lift Up
Your Head
My title is Lift Up Your Head. My husband
came into the room when I was on the telephone, and he usually does not
ask me whom I'm talking to or what it is about, but when I finished he
said, "Who were you talking to?'' I said, ``I was handing in my sermon
title.'' And he said, "Oh, I thought you were encouraging somebody, "lift
up your head'.'' And I was sorry that wasn't the case at that time.
I've come across what to me is an interesting
idea and that is that as the church of Christ, and in fellowship and unity
one with another, we need to help each other lift up our heads so that
we can lift our eyes to the Lord. You may have some other ideas, and I'd
be glad to hear them later. But I'd like you to try something. Everybody
in the congregation put your head down, your chin down as far as you can.
Now without moving your head, lift your eyes to the Lord. Everybody look
up without moving your head. It's not easy is it? You may look up.
Jeremiah
And so I was reading in the Old Testament
about Jeremiah and I got so thrilled with this saintly man. In the place
I was reading, Jeremiah 38, he was dropped down into a dungeon in mire,
the Bible says. (cf Jr 38:6) Not water, just mire! and he sunk in the mire.
I kept reading on, thinking, "Isn't this terrific. There's Jeremiah and
he's not complaining about being in the mire, and when he finally gets
out he doesn't even say a word about it.'' It was thrilling to me and I
read on and on.
Then I came to a most unusual account,
I thought, of a couple of people. One was the son of Nebuchadnezzar, and
the other was the king of Judah. He had become king when he was eighteen.
His name was Jehoiakim. He was Jehoiakim's son, very wicked young man,
followed in the steps of his father, idol worshiper, just a bad fellow
all the was around. Well, these two interesting people met in prison, in
the dungeon, and got to be pretty good friends. Why was Nebuchadnezzar's
son there? Well, he had spent a couple times in prison. He sat on the throne
during the seven years when Nebuchadnezzar was out of his mind and eating
grass and going around like a wild animal. And the Bible tells us that
he really did not mind that his father was going through all of this. In
fact, he made fun of him, made light of him. When Nebuchadnezzar came back
to his right senses and found all of this out, he threw him in the dungeon.
He stayed there for quite awhile. Then he came out when his father died
and he went back on the throne.
At this time we find Nebuchadnezzar's son
on the throne, and he remembers this young man who had been the king of
Judah, this idol worshiper. And so he sends for him, and the Bible says
in Jeremiah 52:31,
[He] lifted up the head of
Jehoiakim, . . . and [he] spake kindly unto him and set his throne above
the thrones of the kings that were with him in Babylon, and changed his
prison garments: and he did continually eat bread before him all the days
of his life. And for his diet, there was a continual diet given him of
the king of Babylon... (Jr 52:31b-34a)
So he lifted up his head. That was interesting
to me how one sinner could lift up the head of another sinner. Looking
up this phrase I found out that it is really Jewish, a Jewish phrase, and
it means to encourage, to lift up just as the word indicates. We first
hear about it in the book of Genesis (Gn 40:5-19) when Joseph interpreted
a dream. The dream was the one when he was asked to interpret two dreams,
and it was the butler and the baker. We read that Joseph told the butler,
Pharaoh shall lift up thine head in three days. It was true. He brought
him out; gave him back his position and so forth. So he lifted up his head.
Encouragement
When I thought of encouragement, encouraging
one another, and how these sinners would encourage one another, and how
kind they were to one another, I remembered a scripture that I've heard
many times in Isaiah. You probably think of it right now. Isaiah 41:7;
it starts,
So the carpenter encouraged
the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the
anvil saying, It is ready for the soldering: and he fastened it with nails
that it should not be moved. (Is 41:7)
Now I've heard this all my life, and heard
it as an illustration of how we should encourage one another. And looking
into this, I find out they're making an idol, and they're encouraging one
another, making this idol. Let's get it done so that we can fall down and
worship it and get better times coming to us! So here again are some more
sinners encouraging one another. Let's get this business out of the way
and let's get this done. And the Lord said they are all vanity. Their works
are nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion. That's the end
of that chapter, talking about what they had made and what they had done.
And so again sinners encouraging one another.
Then in the book of Psalms sixty-four,
the fifth verse, we have,
They encouraged themselves
in an evil matter. (Ps 64:5)
Well, this isn't what I need, and I'm sure
it isn't what you need.
Job
But I might ask the question, if sinners can
go around and encourage one another, what does the Lord have for us to
do? I thought of Job and I turned back to Job ten, the fifteenth verse,
and Job says,
If I be wicked, woe unto me,
and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion;
therefore, see thou my affliction. (Job 10:15)
Now we have a righteous man. I know he's righteous,
and you know he was righteous. He says, ``I know in whom I have believed.''
And he had an insight into the resurrection of the body that even the followers
of Christ did not understand until after Christ rose from the dead. And
he says, ``I know my Redeemer liveth.'' (Job 19:25)
So Job was a righteous man, and he had
faith in the Lord. But he says, I'm full of confusion; I can't lift up
my head. Well, why is he confused? He is used to the idea of the saintly
men in the Old Testament, that if God were blessing them, then they would
be blessed financially, spiritually, blessed with old age, blessed with
health, long years and so forth. Look at the patriarchs and so forth. They
all had that kind of testimony and that kind of life. Here is Job; he says
I'm confused, and even if I'm righteous, I can't lift up mine head. I would
like to have seen his three friends put him in a clean bed, and bath his
wounds for him. The dogs liked his wounds. I saw a picture the other day
in a Bible book of a man with boils all over his face. And the boils extended
out until they were even with his nose. You can imagine a man with this
all over his body, and his friends letting him lie in the ashes and in
the dirt, and sitting on the ground around him. I would think that would
be the first thing to do, get him into a clean bed.
And then his wife. . . Couldn't she have
said, "God has never failed you in the past. Can't you be encouraged now
in Him and keep trusting Him? He'll answer your prayer.''? He needed to
have his head lifted up somehow as he lay there suffering like this. But
they didn't do it. They didn't give him the kind of encouragement he needed.
But Job with the Spirit of the Lord in His heart began after a number of
days to pray for these friends. I don't know what he said, but I know in
the New Testament we are told (cf Mt 5:44) to pray for those who despitefully
use us, and we are to talk kindly to those who do not talk the same way
to us. I don't know how he prayed, but the Bible says as he prayed for
his friends, things turned around for him. Indeed, I suppose his head did
lift up, and he was able then to look up and praise the Lord. For the Lord
changed everything around as he prayed and took an interest in his friends.
Something magical about that it seems. As he prayed for his friends, this
all changed.
Stress
and Love
Well, what responsibility do we have in the
New Testament, as New Testament Christians? I'd like to mention an article
I came across recently. I'll just give you a little tiny bit of it. It
is an interview by Arthur Gordon of a very famous scientist who spent forty
years studying stress -- the thing that disturbs people in this day in
age, gives them high blood pressure, put them under tension, causes them
to die an early death sometimes. He end up with he feel is the solution
to stress, and he calls it four words to live by. Mr. Gordon, interviewing
him says, ``A guideline for successful living?'' "Yes, I have one. It's
based on almost forty years of work in the laboratory, but it can be condensed
in four words.'' Shall I tell you what they are? They keep you in suspense.
You have to go and read the end of the article before you finish reading
the beginning, because you want to know what this is.
He says that he found out that perhaps
there is such a thing as original sin that the Bible talks about. He thinks
that there can be no doubt at all that it's the instinct and perhaps the
obligation of every organism to look out for itself.
Self preservation, selfishness
-- call it what you will. Now in human society if this built-up selfishness
is not modified and controlled, it's dangerous. All great religions have
known this and tried to combat it with principles like "love thy neighbor
as thyself.' Great good has come from such a principle. But men can never
really fully do it. It's almost impossible to love on command. Furthermore,
the principle can run counter to the great laws of biology.
Then he says,
Years of experimentation in the
laboratory have taught me that when an organism is subject to any kind
of stress from which it can't escape, it reacts in one of two ways. Either
it mobilizes its defenses and fights or it tries to adjust and live with
the stress. And there's a parallel on this level. Two great emotions that
cause the absence and presence of stress are love and hate. The Bible makes
this point over and over again. the message is that if we don't somehow
modify our built in selfishness, we arouse fear and hostility in other
people, not a very favorable environment in which to exist. If we modify
that self-centeredness, the more we can persuade people to love us rather
than hate us, the safer we are and the less stress we have to endure.
Do you think, I asked the doctor, that
along with this built in selfishness most people also have an instinct
to be helpful to others? And he thought they did.
Now, we are talking here about how to get
along with one another. I'm a scientist, so I look for a natural code of
behavior. As children of nature, we're not likely to go wrong if we understand
her laws and fallow them. It is my observation that the most effective
key to living is to persuade others to share our own wish for our own well
being. This can be done only be making a constant deliberate effort to
win the affection and gratitude of our fellow men. And the four words to
live by are: earn thy neighbor's love.
Well, the question was asked, if your neighbor
does not respond, then what? He says well, if he doesn't respond, you shouldn't
continue to struggle. Now, that's a good idea, but he says it's very hard
to do this. And the only way that you can keep the golden rule is to turn
it around, sort of a mirror image. Earn thy neighbor's love, and cash in
on it, work at it, and then it all comes back to you. They love you and
there's a good feeling there, and the stress goes. Well, as he said, it's
impossible to keep some of this without the Lord's help. How can we go
about earning our neighbor's love, if we don't love our neighbor in the
first place? How can you turn it around and earn your neighbor's love if
you don't love?
Love
of the Brethren
I thought of I Peter, the first chapter, and
beginning with the twenty-second verse.
Seeing ye have purified your
souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the
brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: being
born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of
God, which liveth and abideth forever. (1 P 1:22-23)
Martin Luther made a wonderful comment on
this scripture. For instance, he said that "Christian brotherhood flows
from our new birth in an imperishable seed, the abiding word of God.''
The seeds that we plant in the ground die, they blossom perhaps, and then
die. The seed that the Lord implants in our heart lives forever. It's imperishable
according to this scripture, as long as we do His will. Then Martin Luther
says, "For what end must we lead a chaste life?'' He asks the question,
that we might be saved? Is that why we should get all of the love of the
Lord that we can in our hearts, that we should be saved? Martin Luther
says, "No, but for that we may serve our neighbor.'' Laying aside hypocrisy,
be sincere. Brotherly love is different from common love.
Now, here you have something that's a lot
different from what we spoke about in the beginning, encouraging the blacksmith.
Hello! How are you today? That's a good job you're doing there. Peter is
talking about a love that is springing up from in the heart and flows to
our neighbor, and that we should love with unfeigned love, that is without
hypocrisy. Really love, not holding anything back, not anything unforgiven.
An unforgiven occurrence will keep us from loving. Unfeigned love of the
brethren -- see that you love one another with a pure heart. So that is
the first requirement. We can't really love our brethren unless our hearts
are pure, unless we come to the Lord and been emptied of all sin, of all
corruption in our own hearts and get a pure heart. Then we are able to
really love our brethren.
Then the word is used, "fervently''. That
is a very strong word. Can we love each other fervently in church? Something
to think about. That is more than just saying, hi, as we go by, and say
well, there's love. I loved him now. I said, Good morning, How are you.
Now I've loved that brother today. "Loving from a pure heart fervently.
But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this word which by the gospel
is preached unto you.''
John
There's just a little bit of it to think about.
Let's go to I John 3:14. "We know that we have passed from death unto
life because we love the brethren.'' (1 Jn 3:14a) I was interested
in that young Mike read from the scripture tonight. I appreciated that.
We know because we love the brethren. The comment was made in my commentary,
your brethren is anybody that you meet, who loves the Lord, or who you
think will love the Lord, or who the Lord want him to love. So it ends
up that we have to love everybody. Just might as well get used to it. It's
not just the dear people that we seem to understand, and they understand
us. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the
brethren. I think Job had this. I believed he loved those three poor souls
that came to comfort him. He had a love and he saw a need in their hearts,
perhaps, and he prayed for them. He had a New Testament love.
"He that loveth not his brother abideth
in Death.'' (1 J 3:14b) That's a very strong test. The suggestion was made
that we just go aside and test ourselves. Do you love your brother or not?
If you don't, you're abiding in death. You're not even saved if you don't
love your brother.
Whosoever hateth his brother
is a murderer. And ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in
him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he lay down his life for
us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. (1 J 3:15-16)
I jotted this down. I thought you might want
to know if the Lord wants you to go out and take your own life, or jump
in front of a car and say this is for all the people who were in church
tonight. Lay down your life for the brethren. The comment was made that
we can give our time, our care, our labours, our prayers, our substance.
Our lives ought not to be dearer than God's own Son felt His life was to
Him. So that is a holiness point of view. To feel that we are willing to
go the very end of ourselves for somebody else. That takes the love of
Christ, the root springing up, the seed of love from God Himself springing
up in our hearts to be able to do that. We can't do that on our own. And
not even a scientist with forty years of study can help us do that.
I found a comment about this dear John,
John that I am quoting from in the New Testament. This dear man that lived
to be very old, Jerome says of him -- this account isn't in the Bible,
but the historian Jerome says,
When the venerable John could
no longer walk to meeting of the church, but was born thither by his disciples,
he always uttered the same address to the church. He reminded them of that
one commandment which he had received from Christ Himself, as comprising
all the rest and forming the distinction of the new covenant. My little
children, he would say, love one another. And when the brethren present
asked why he repeated the same thing so often, he replied, "because it
is the commandment of the Lord, and if this one thing be attained, it is
enough.'
Bear
Ye One Another's Burdens
I was thinking then of this verse with which
I will close,
Bear ye one another's burdens,
and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Ga 6:2)
What does it mean? How can we do that? We
want to fulfill the law of Christ. I think perhaps, this little illustration
will help us to come to some idea of this. It is said that Dr. Halbeck
who was an English missionary in South Africa, stood on top of a hill one
day looking down at the leper colony. He noticed two men who had leprosy
out in the field. One had no legs, and one had no arms. The one who had
legs picked the other one up on his back, and he in his hands picked up
the bag of peas and they walked along the furrow planting peas. And the
man with the arms held the bag, and he dropped the peas in the ground.
And the man carrying him who had the feet walked along and covered the
peas over with his feet.
And so, I believe in the New Testament
church the union of the members of Christ's body in which we are all the
members should have the same care one for another. And I believe in doing
this we lift up one another's heads.
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