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If you have a question for Dave and Tom to address in a future Contending for the Faith, stay tuned, we’ll have our contact information at the end of the program. You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. We turn now to our final segment:
UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES
We resume our excursion through the gospel of Matthew. Here again are Dave and Tom: This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment, we are in the gospel of Matthew Chapter 5, and we’re going to pick up with Verse 4: “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” Dave, do you want to take one at a time or do you want to—
Dave:
Let’s take them one at a time.
Tom:
Okay, well, that sounds like a downer, mourn and, there’s much to be grieved over, Dave. I didn’t mean to be a little flippant about this, but there is a great deal to mourn over, because we see what’s going on in the world, just things that we have articulated, yet we will be comforted.
Dave:
Tom, I have to confess in my own life, how much do I feel of the pain of other people. How much do I empathize with them? Everything is going okay for me. Yeah, okay, and to have real compassion—it’s better to go to a funeral, the Bible says, it’s the end of all life, and the living will lay it to heart. But I need to have some sympathy, some empathy with those who are in— Oh Tom, I mean, we get so many prayer requests, and how can we deal with all of them? How can we pray sincerely from the heart? How can we feel with these people, their distress, their anguish, their problems that they are enduring? It speaks to my heart, Blessed are they that mourn. Do I really mourn with those who mourn?
Tom:
Dave, based on some of the things—the last couple of segments we refer to Rick Warren, and I’ve been chided myself for being critical of him, his Global PEACE Plan, what he’s trying to do, solve the problems of the world, poverty, sickness, AIDS, I mean, all of these things. Now, we are to show compassion, we are to reach out to other people, but Dave, does the Bible give a program, a model for solving these issues of the world?
Dave:
No, it does not, there is not way that we can solve them, and they will never be solved until the new heavens and the new earth.
Tom:
But what can you do? What can I do? You know, we talked about compassion, you’re going through some physical problems, okay. You just had a recent surgery on your back, along with some other issues. The same with me, I can tell you this, I’m more compassionate right now than I’ve ever been in my life as I see what I’m going through, and then I’m thinking, Wait a minute! I mean, this has got my attention, but I see people that are my heroes with regard to how they are putting up with the suffering that they are having to go through. But how can we help them, how can we aid them? Is there a peace plan, is there some kind of a global plan to eradicate these problems?
Dave:
The best thing we can do, and it’s not the hospice program, the hospice program, you know, that’s where you go when you are going to die. That’s the final end, trying to comfort you, oh you put your mind on something else. Never about salvation, never about the Truth, never about the reality of judgment, the day of judgment awaits. And Tom, I think I can do it very quickly. I remember, I may have mentioned it before, but here is a young man, it says, this is William Law, he’s dying in his 40 th year, and his friends come to commiserate with him. And he says, What are you trying to do? My thoughts are no more like your thoughts than my condition is like your condition, you can’t even imagine. You come here to comfort me because I’m dying so young that I won’t be able to—he was a merchant—I won’t be able to make any more deals. Our good friend Lepidus died on his way to a feast, do you think it is any trouble of his now that he didn’t live long enough to eat of those dainties? He said, The things of this life are vanity, they are nothing. And then he says: What really troubles me the most is that I didn’t always think this way. That I was so deceived by so much else and I forgot eternity. That’s one of the things we should be mourning about, Tom, that people are going to hell. But what can we do? Well, all we can do, Tom, I mean the best thing we can do, we can comfort them, we can give them medication and whatever, which was all that Mother Theresa ever did, but she gave them inadequate medication. They need the gospel, Tom.
Tom:
Of course, the other is addressing symptoms. Dave, I know what has comforted me going through—you know, the physical issues that I have had. Reading the Word of God, the truth! This is reality, this isn’t just some positive mental attitude thing. And one verse, a number of verses, but what I’m thinking about right now is 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 16, 17, 18. You know these well, but let me read them: “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”
Dave:
Tom, sometimes you don’t think it’s a light affliction.
Tom:
No, but we know, in contrast to eternity, it really is light.
Dave:
You know, my father-in-law, a very godly man, never read anything but the Bible, served the Lord all of his life. And as a traveling, itinerant preacher, never got a salary, and no promise of anything except from the Lord. I remember sitting with him by a lemon tree, not under a lemon tree, pretty hard to get under a lemon tree, most lemon tree, and here’s the way he would say it: It worketh for us glory. No, it worketh for us a weight of glory. No, it worketh for us at eternal weight of glory. No, an exceeding great and eternal weight of glory. Wow!
Tom:
Yeah. That’s comforting, and again, it’s from the Lord, and he works through His saints, believers, to minister and He uses us when we are going through these things. “All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” So, we have the comfort of the Word of God, and we’re to minister.
Dave:
There is no other comfort.
Tom:
So, “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” Going on, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”
Dave:
That’s not the way the world thinks of it, Tom. I’m going to bull my way through this world—I’m going to take control of my life. This is one of the things people want.
Tom:
Take a course in self-assertion.
Dave:
Right. I want to have control of my life.
Tom:
The captain of your ship, the master of your fate.
Dave:
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Moses, we are told, was the meekest man on the face of the earth, and God used the meekest man on the face of the earth to confront the mightiest emperor in his palace to deliver his people. So no man would get the glory, only God would get the glory. And Tom, It’s not easy. I’ve been in situations where to be meek just gall you, they are so wrong. We’ve got a whole movement of people making false accusations against me. What am I going to do? Well, I’m not going to defend myself, they have already made up their minds, but to be meek—wow! That is not easy. And I often think of Christ and being led as a lamb to the slaughter. And I think one of the most triumphant things Christ did was, He answered not a word! To hear false accusations, and okay, I’m not going to defend myself, I’m going to let the Lord defend me. That is not easy! Blessed are the meek, they will inherit the earth.
Gary :
Dave and Tom will continue their discussion on the topic of salvation next week, we hope you can tune in. This is Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. We offer a wide variety of teaching materials that will help you expand your knowledge of God’s Word, from books and tracts to audio and video recordings, CD-ROM, our website and much more. For a complete list of materials, or to get a copy of today’s broadcast, write to us at POB 7019, Bend , Oregon 97708 , call us at our toll free order number 1-800-937-6638, that’s 1-800-937-6638, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org . If you would like a copy of this broadcast on compact disk, ask for Program #3408, and be sure to mention the call letters of this station. And if you would like to watch Dave and Tom, our weekly broadcast is available on DVD, ask about a subscription when you contact us. You can also download both audio and video podcast at our website. Get a pen or pencil ready, we’ll repeat our contact information in just a moment.
Next week, we continue our series of programs based on Dave Hunt’s book, Seeking and Finding God , and Why must we obey God? In Religion in the News, A victory for home schooling, we’ll take a look at that story and address the question: Is suffering good for Christians? We hope you can tune in. If you have questions or comments about this program we urge you to contact our offices. Search the Scriptures Daily Radio Ministry is made possible by God’s grace, your prayers and your financial support. I’m Gary Carmichael and for Dave, Tom and everyone here at The Berean Call, I would like to thank you for tuning in, and invite you to join us again next week. Until then, if you desire to know God’s truth, search the scriptures daily. For more information about The Berean Call, contact us at POB 7019, Bend , Oregon 97708 , call our toll free order number 1-800-937-6638, that’s 1-800-937-6638, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org .
