A Marriage God Hates

    “When you come to appear before me,
        who has required of you
        this trampling of my courts?
    Bring no more vain offerings;
        incense is an abomination to me.
    New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—
        I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
    Your new moons and your appointed feasts
        my soul hates;
    they have become a burden to me;
        I am weary of bearing them.
    When you spread out your hands,
        I will hide my eyes from you;
    even though you make many prayers,
        I will not listen;
        your hands are full of blood.
(Isaiah 1:12-15 ESV)

The Lord created marriage.  He loves marriage.  Yet, there is a marriage that the Lord abhors; the marriage of Mr. Iniquity and Ms. Solemn-Assembly.  The Lord cannot endure such a union.  Apart from the hypocrisy and insult of the thing one reason the Lord hates such a union is because of what it does to both parties involved.  It deceives and destroys Mr. Iniquity and it ruins Ms. Solemn-Assembly

The human heart has a tremendous way of deceiving itself.  Worse yet the human heart will go to great lengths to self-justify and perpetuate this blindness.  That seems to be what is happening with the people spoken of here in Isaiah 1.  They are hiding behind their religiosity and refusing to repent.  They are using their religious rituals to convince their deceived hearts that they are doing their part. 

I have been awakened to this sick cycle in my own life.  As a believer, whenever I sin the Spirit of God graciously convicts me of it.  The aim of His conviction is that I would take my sin and accompanying guilt and shame to Christ and find restoration.  Yet, at times I do the opposite.  When convicted I run away from the work of Christ and go through a rigorous process of self-atonement.  The deceptiveness of sin encourages me to wear the fig leaves of religiosity to cover my guilt. 

Yet in all my religiosity sin continues to rot away at my soul.  But from the outside and even to my own deceived eyes I am doing everything I need to do to rid myself of this feeling of guilt.  I’m going to church.  I’m reading Scripture.  I’m giving away possessions.  I’m doing ministry.  I’m passionately singing worship songs.  I’m studying.  I’m writing.  I’m praying.  I’m pleading with the Lord.  I’m doing everything I can…

Almost. 

It is in this almost that we discover one of the reasons the Lord hates the marriage of solemn assembly and iniquity.  This marriage allows Mr. Iniquity to hide behind the beauty of his bride.  At the end of the day Mr. Iniquity enters into false rest because he thinks that he has married his savior.  So he never deals with the reality of his family name.    

Eventually Ms. Solemn Assembly turns into Mrs. Iniquity.  Their union gives birth to Hypocrisy, Apathy, Pride, and eventually Despair.  After a period of time Mr. Iniquity decides that Ms. Solemn Assembly is not working out for him.  She hasn’t helped him.  He’s still feeling the pain of his family name and his deceit causes him to blame his bride. 

It’s not her fault.  She cannot flourish unless she is married to Mr. Repentance.  Until Mr. Iniquity surrenders his pride and his identity and becomes Mr. Repentance he will never find healing and redemption.  Yet he keeps trying and trying and trying and wondering why his marriage to Ms. Solemn Assembly is not working.  All the while the problem lies in him. 

And this is why the Lord hates this marriage.  Solemn Assembly has stunning and breathtaking beauty.  She is meant to lead people to awe and wonder at Her Maker.  Yet, she only flourishes when she is married to Mr. Repentance.  Anything else will tarnish her beauty and cause her to merely be used as a cover and a shield.  She is not created to bear such a load. 

Brothers and sisters, if sin is the problem the only cure is repentance.  You cannot marry yourself to solemn assembly and hope that somehow your religiosity will cover your shame and take away the rotting effect of sin.  She cannot do that.  She is meant for basking not for covering up.  You haven’t “tried everything” until you’ve engaged in heartfelt repentance. 

Mr. Iniquity don’t blame your failed marriage on Ms. Solemn Assembly.  Blame it on your family name.  Humble yourself and get a new name; Mr. Repentance.  You’ve got a very merciful Judge that shed His own blood to secure that new name. 

Rend Your Hearts Not Your Facebook Status

“Yet even now,” declares the LORD,
        “return to me with all your heart,
    with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
        and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
    Return to the LORD your God,
        for he is gracious and merciful,
    slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
        and he relents over disaster.

In Joel’s day (and even still today) a sign of great mourning and grief was to tear your garments.  It wasn’t that they’d bust out into Hulk Hogan’s “I’m a Real American Hero” and rip up their camel-haired cloaks to shreds.  It was usually a slit from bottom to top that indicated deep grief. 

Over the years, however, the practice itself became more cathartic than symbolic.  In other words whenever they would begin feeling guilt or grief they wouldn’t actually experience deep heart anguish.  Instead they’d very quickly go to their garments and start tearing.  They had developed what Michael Horton rightly calls a therapeutic worldview, where:

there is no sin and guilt to be forgiven by God but only burdens and feelings of guilt for failing to live up to the expectations of oneself or other human being.  (Horton, Christless Christianity, 43)

I often wonder if things like Facebook and blogging aren’t similar to rending our garments instead of our hearts.  How often do we see Facebook statuses that are merely a means to “get something off my chest”?  It’s the modern day rending of the garment. 

And just as it was in the day of the Joel rending a garment is a way to communicate to others that junk is going on in your life.  Usually a good number of people will leave comments and condolences.  And if you aren’t susceptible of your own heart you can become a pity junkie.  You can find solace and camaraderie around elements of the Fall instead of finding hope and joy in light of our ever increasing Redemption. 

If there is real sin and guilt in your life then you need to deal with by taking it to the Cross and not to your Facebook or Twitter account.  No matter if it’s real or false guilt you need to know that a pity party and encouragement from all of your Facebook peeps isn’t going to help you in the end.  The shame you feel is too deep of a wound to be healed by a “like” button, a pithy statement, or a couple of shares.  You need real redemption from a real God that is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and saves you from a very real hell. 

Therefore, rend your hearts and not your Facebook status.  The temporary catharsis of getting something of your chest won’t cut it.  The Lord is actively engaged in rescuing your entire heart and not just those little follies and foibles that you are comfortable enough to make public.  Jesus intends to conquer every sin that He died for.  Now, that is something worth blogging and tweeting about. 

All of Life is Repentance

Steve McCoy has done the church a service by making available in one location everything Tim Keller.  One such article he links to is this one: All of Life is Repentance.  In this article Keller compares religious repentance to gospel repentance. 

Religious repentance, says Keller, is "selfish, self-righteous, and bitter all the way to the bottom”.  It is selfish because we only do it to avoid punishment.  It is self-righteous because we can be duped into doing it as a means of atonement.  And it is bitter because, “in religion our only hope is to live a good enough life for God to bless us.  Therefore every instance of sin and repentance is traumatic, unnatural, and horribly threatening.  Only under great duress does a religious person admit they have sinned because their only hope is their moral goodness.” 

Contrast this with gospel repentance that hates sin because of love for God.  Gospel repentance receives grace rather than trying to earn it through self punishment.  And finally a firm understanding of the gospel does not produce bitterness but rather joy in repentance.  As Keller nicely sums up, “The more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God’s grace appears to you.  But on the other hand, the more aware you are of God’s grace and acceptance in Christ, the more you [are] able to drop your denials and self-defenses and admit the true dimensions of your sin.”

When you understand the difference between religious repentance and gospel repentance then, and only then, can you begin “to profit from a regular and exacting discipline of self-examination and repentance”.  Keller then uses a statement by George Whitefield to put together a few questions to foster gospel-centered repentance:

• Deep Humility v. Pride
• Burning love v. indifference
• Wise courage v. anxiety
• Godly motivations (a single eye)

You’ll have to read the whole article to see how Keller expounds upon these…it’s only two pages and well worth your time. 

The Ripple Effect of Humble Confession

I have a confession to make I sometimes struggle with doubt. Deep doubt. Sinful doubt. One of the greatest areas that I battle is in regards to God's ability to change believers. The sinfulness of believers (myself the chief) causes me to question whether or not God really is able to sanctify his followers. Yes, I know that we have to choose holiness over sin and I know that this is a huge part of the slowness of our progress in holiness.

One of the greatest areas that causes me pain (as I am sure it does Christ as well) is when believers are involved in ridiculous slander and pride. I can be horrible about this myself. I know that I stand guilty of slander and deep pride. Of this I must confess and repent anew.

This is proof that God is in the process of redeeming a people for Himself and that He is able to conquer our sinful hearts and bring unity where there once was discord. Only God could have done what is taking place in the heart of Steve Camp as it concerns Mark Driscoll. You have to read Steve Camp's humble confession and repentance. It caused my heart to leap for joy and my confidence in the power of God to grow. Grace truly does reign.

Isn't it amazing the ripple effect that a humble confession can have? It really proves the truth of Scripture in regards to the unity of the body of Christ. Sin hurts every member and repentance heals! Oh, how I long for the day when the bride is in unity and we stand before Jesus pure and spotless.