–John 16:7 (NKJV)
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Why are you suffering?  Is it that God is disciplining you because of sin, or perhaps it is just life?  Maybe, upon chance, God is using you to thwart the plans of Satan, to use you as an example as He did Job.  It is important to check out the possible causes, but remember that “hardship is not always the evidence of disobedience” (George Wood).  Keep those thoughts in mind as we finish the final portion of Psalm 107.

          33 — He turns rivers into wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground;
          34 — A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
          35 — He turns a wilderness into pools of water, and dry land into watersprings.
          36 — There He makes the hungry dwell, that they may establish a city for a dwelling place,
          37 — And sow fields and plant vineyards, that they may yield a fruitful harvest.
          38 — He also blesses them, and they multiply greatly; and He does not let their cattle decrease.
          39 — When they are diminished and brought low through oppression, affliction and sorrow,
          40 — He pours contempt on princes, and causes them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way;
          41 — Yet He sets the poor on high, far from affliction, and makes their families like a flock.
          42 — The righteous see it and rejoice, and all iniquity stops its mouth.
          43 — Whoever is wise will observe these things, and they will understand the lovingkindness of the LORD.  (NKJV)

     Why do bad things happen to good people?  I don’t have the complete answer, but it may just be that they are “along for the ride” of God’s punishment because of the wickedness of the people.  When the storms come they will come upon the wicked and the righteous alike.  There were righteous people in Judah when the Chaldeans came to destroy the city and take the people captive among them Jeremiah and Daniel.  They became victims along with those who caused the invasion from the hand of God.  My wife and I watched recently the old version of “The Hiding Place.”  A Christian family, the Ten Booms, faced the onslaught of fascism and went to the concentration camps where they died except Corrie.
     However, God’s discipline is only for a season.  When His people cry out He restores them.  When the righteous suffer, God will call their oppressors into account.  God will bring punishment upon them. (Lawson)  And here I’ll bring a little sidenote:  ponder verse 40.  Those who have made themselves “princes.”  That means all those who set themselves above God, refuse His guidance, commandments, and counsels, He will cause them to “wander in the wilderness where there is no way.”  Those who do right in their own eyes are thinking that they are princes and kings of their lives, but will find themselves lost…wandering.
     Psalm 107, was the psalm read by William Bradford when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.  He used it to describe their plight prior to coming ashore, then he read the climax of the psalm–verses 42 and 43.  In all things, loss and gain, good and bad, we can learn something of the goodness of God.  F.B. Meyer wrote, “Love broods over the weary caravan that faints in the desert; visits the prison house with its captives; watches by our beds of pain; notices each lurch of the tempest-driven vessel; brings the weary hosts from the wilderness into the fruitful soil.  Detected everywhere is the loving-kindness of the Lord.”  
     Go back and reread the complete psalm, then consider the prayer of George O. Wood, “I’m considering Your great love for me today, Lord, and I admit it’s way over my head.  You heard my cry when I was lonely, trapped, sick, and in a storm.  My unworthiness didn’t stop You for a moment.  You, who touch untouchables, also took firm hold on me and I thank You.”

               “My times of sorrow and of joy,
               Great God, are in your hand;
               My choicest comforts come from you
               And go at your command.
               If you would take them all away,
               And all my world be gone,
               I’d still seek lasting happiness
               In you and you alone.”
                        –Benjamin Beddome

                    –Jesse Storm  (Last Stand at Redwood)

       “Keep a close watch on yourself and on your teaching.  Stay true to what is right, and God will save you and those who hear you.”

                    –1 Timothy 4:16 (NLT)
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               “Faith deconstruction is a postmodern process of rethinking your faith without regarding Scripture as a standard.”
                         –unknown

               “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”
                         –Galatians 1:8 (NKJV)

Friends, there are evil forces at work out there and they have drifted into the church.  There are those of the man of lawlessness at work in our midst, and as Paul was concerned, in his day, we should be even more concerned as the day of the Lord draws nearer.  Paul wrote concerning this, “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3, NKJV)
     Years before I developed my course in Apologetics I saw the ideas slowly being accepted into the church.  I thought of the three deadly “Cs”:  curiosity, complacency, and compromise.  Tolerance became a keyword, and anyone who was not tolerant was said to be a bigot.  We had the Emergent Church Movement, a product of Postmodernism.  It sought to bring about a safe environment rather than preach the truth of the gospel.  Conversation was to be sought rather than dogma.  Now, I understand that there are things we should not be dogmatic about, but there are a host of things in God’s Word that we must be dogmatic in regard to them!  
     The group states that the Bible is historical, metaphorical, and narrative in nature rather than the inspired, authoritative Word of God.  Christian “jargon” is to be done away with, a product of deconstructionism, which is a major tenet of Postmodernism.   The Bible is to be used to find meaning for society rather than to teach redemption.  Compassion, justice, mercy, and tolerance are the foundation rather than that man is sinful, needs a Savior, must repent and then can be saved through the blood of Jesus Christ.
     Now we see a new “church” emerging from this same worldview.  They are calling themselves “Progressive Christians” and are part of the “Woke” crowd.  The idea is to remove the resurrected Savior, Jesus, and reinterpret Him as a Jewish mystic removing Him from divine claims and miracles.  “Progressive Christians say their ‘modernizing of Jesus’ makes Him a more friendly and accepting figure for self-identified Christians.  They say they are simply ‘refreshing’ Jesus (sort of like Subway keeps refreshing its sandwiches).” (Jason Jimenez)  They see themselves as more enlightened and having a better way and “as a recovery–a rescuing of Jesus from the dogmatic rigidity of traditional Christianity.” (Jimenez).
     This is the church at Pergamos seen in Revelation 2:12-17.  This was the compromising church–accepting the doctrine of Balaam.  Remember it was Balaam who suggested that Israel could be defeated by compromising their standards with those of the people around them, accepting culture rather than obeying the truth of God’s Word.  The Nicolaitans were a heretical group whose teaching was immoral and idolatrous.  Compromise, be more tolerant, be more like the culture around you.  If you are more tolerant the more people will accept you.
     Friends, it’s here!  What will you do with this heresy?  Barna states that two out of every three Americans believe that all religions basically teach the same thing.  Four out of every ten say that when Christians, Jews, Buddhists, or others pray to God they are actually praying to the same God.  The new guru, the religious idol states, “One of the biggest mistakes we make is to believe there is only one way to live.  There are many, many ways, many paths to what you call God.” (Oprah Winfrey)
     Paul tells us to turn away from these people (2 Timothy 3:5).  He continues in the same chapter to exhort us, “But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them.” (2 Timothy 3:14, NKJV)  He tells Titus to hold “fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict” (Titus 1:9, NKJV)  Oh, by the way in a little side note, the progressives teach that the original “hijackers of Jesus belong to the Pauline movement.” (Jimenez)
     Hold on, my friend, to the truth of the Bible and pray “even so,come, Lord Jesus.”

                    –Lou Bradshaw  (Teton)

       “And even when he [Abraham] reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith–for he was like a foreigner, living in a tent….”

                    –Hebrews 11:9 (NLT)
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Last week we took time to contemplate one of the simple, yet profound statements in the New Testament, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” (John 2:5, NKJV)  Today, I want to look at another one of those little, yet often overlooked verses:  Luke 17:32, “Remember Lot’s wife.” (NKJV)
     This verse is tucked into Jesus’ teaching about the coming of the Kingdom.  The question was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come.  Jesus goes on to expound on this and puts right towards the end of His discourse some warnings, one being to “remember Lot’s wife.”  To get this in proper perspective we need to look back at a few verses.

               “Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot:  They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.  Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”
                         –Luke 17:28-30 (NKJV)

Then a few verses later He says for us to remember Lot’s wife.  Of all the women mentioned in the Bible why did Jesus tell us to remember her?  From what I can gather she is the only woman in the Bible that Jesus ever told us to remember (Christine Caine)  What was it that Lot’s wife did?  She simply looked back.  Henry Harbuck, in his translation gives some added insight, “Remember that Lot’s wife was warned by God not to return to Sodom or look back.  She looked back and died.”  That should cause us to seriously think of her actions.
     First, she ignored the warning of God given by the angels.  She was explicitly admonished not to look back.  “But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.” (Genesis 19:26, NKJV)  The kingdom is coming, but there are those who are not really wanting it to happen.  I remember the many times that students would say that they want to live their lives before the Lord returns.  I felt pity whenever I heard what was being said.  The things of this world were holding them and I had to think would it continue to hold them firm?  The pleasures of the world entice us, but don’t look back.  Paul was grieved when he wrote, “For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world…” (2 Timothy 4:10, NKJV).  
     Another reason not to look back is the warning given by Jesus in Luke 9:62, “No one, having his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (NKJV)  People often get involved with the first part of this verse about putting the hand to the plow and looking back will cause you to make crooked furrows.  Someone said that in the kingdom of God, “no poor plowers are allowed.”  People must be dedicated to the Lord.  Looking back causes one to be unfit.  To follow Christ we must be committed.  Jesus said, “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38, NKJV)  Luke tells us that we must pick up our cross daily (Luke 9:23)
     So why did Lot’s wife look back?  What was she longing for?  Surely not the life of Sodom!  Was she a lover of darkness, and the deeds of evil?  She was saved from the destruction that was to come.  She was on her way to deliverance, yet…  Back to the scenario that Jesus is giving–He is speaking about what it will be like when He returns.  There will be those who are in the church, those who have heard the preaching of the Word all their lives, but when the Lord returns their hearts will long for this earth more than for heaven.  The NKJV Study Bible, “Lot’s wife represents those who are attached to earthly things, those whose hearts are still in this world.  Like Lot’s wife, such people will perish.”  
     We need to heed the words of the Lord.  Don’t look back; don’t long for the things of this world.  There is a better land ahead.  A home waiting for those who are pure and free and undefiled.  Look forward to the coming of the Lord!  Remember Lot’s wife.

                    –Proverbs 20:27(NKJV)
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               “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” –Matthew 5:8 (NKJV)

Contemplate that verse for a few moments.  Those with a pure heart will see God.  It seems that the intent of man’s heart is on evil, how can it then be pure?  Jeremiah writes that, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” (17:9, NKJV)  So if the heart is wicked and cannot be known how can it be pure?
       There must be more to this concept of purity than meets the eye.  The Greek word used in Matthew is “katharas” and it is used twenty-seven times in the New Testament.  It means “clean, free from contaminating substance.”  Barclay puts it this way, “free of unadulterated motives.”  Henry Harbuck states that those who are “pure in heart–act out of pure and genuine motives in their heart/mind.”
       Some theologians seem to think that this purity of heart means “inner purity as opposed to merely external piety” (D.A. Carson).  This theme of purity is seen in many places in the New Testament.  Others say that it means “singleness of heart; a heart free from the tyranny of a divided self” (Carson).    Carson pulls both of these views together, “The one who is singleminded in commitment to the kingdom and its righteousness will also be inwardly pure.  Inward sham, deceit, and moral filth cannot coexist with sincere devotion to Christ.” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)
       Is it then possible for anyone to have a “pure heart”?  Yes, in the sense that it is clean and to be clean it must be born again.  The grace that saves us is the same grace that inputs righteousness (i.e., purity, right living).  The Latin word for pure is “clean or unmixed.”  Strong renders it “clean, unstained.”  When we read the Beatitudes we see that Jesus is speaking against hypocrisy, therefore our heart must be “unmixed.”  There can be only one motive–to serve Jesus Christ.  Grant Ethridge states that pure of heart means that we are to be holy–that is, “separate, clean and unmixed–authentic and honest.”  
       When we read Job we see that he was called “blameless” by the Lord.  God did not say, perfect or without sin, but he was blameless in God’s sight.  Job had a pure heart.  His motives were clean.  He was focused on serving God with pure motives; God was his aim, focus, and goal.  What is the motive that dwells deep in our heart?   If we look at that verse from one perspective few could have a truly pure heart and that could strike fear within a person’s, shall I say it?, heart.
       I turned to Proverbs where the heart is mentioned eighty-six times (NKJV).  It seems that there are various kinds of hearts:  glad hearts, hard hearts, proud hearts, prudent hearts, foolish hearts, clean hearts, pure hearts, and others.  It is in the heart of man that reveals who he really is (Proverbs 27:19).  So take heart, my friend, we can have a pure heart, therefore we have the promise and the hope of seeing God.

               “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully.  He shall receive blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” –Psalm 24:4-5
               “How can a young man cleanse his way?  By taking heed according to Your word.  With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!” –Psalm 119:9-10