El Diario del Pastor en la Red trimestral es producido por el Dr. Roger Pascoe y el Instituto para la Enseñanza Bíblica.

Esto también está disponible en los siguientes idiomas English, French, Russian, Romanian, Simplified Chinese, y Traditional Chinese.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “I sometimes think that the whole art of the Christian life is the art of asking questions.” (Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure [Eerdmans], p. 224.) Here are a few questions to ask yourself and others you are working with in the Lord:

1. What spiritual goals are you currently working on? If you haven’t thought about it, begin by picturing what God would want to accomplish through you by the time you’re 75. Then, write out a one or two sentence purpose or mission statement for your life. In light of that, what are one or two goals (specific, measurable) that God would have you work on in the coming six months that would move you in that direction? Put them on your calendar. In what single way would you like most to grow spiritually in the coming year? (Use another sheet of paper for this.)

2. In an average week, how many days do you spend at least 20 minutes in Bible reading and prayer?

3. What do you do to keep your love for God fresh and vital?

4. What are some of the books you have read in the past year and how have they helped you grow in the Lord? If you’re not reading, what one book should you begin soon?

5. What is your biggest hindrance to spiritual growth? How do you fight it?

6. How are you using your spiritual gift(s) to serve the Lord? How would you like to see Him use you in the coming year?

7. Are there any hidden or open sins that you need to confess?

8. How are your relationships with others, especially those you live with? Is your heart free from bitterness toward those who have mistreated or wronged you? Is there anyone you have offended and need to ask his or her forgiveness?

9. Which spiritual discipline do you most need to cultivate in your life? What do you need to do next to begin working on it?

10. Do you honor God with your stewardship of the time and money He entrusts to you? What two or three changes in each area (time/money) do you most need to make?

November 27, 2022

A man had always been proud of his black, thick head of hair. But it began thinning out until finally only one lone strand was left. One morning he awoke, looked at his pillow, and was horrified to see lying there that last single, precious hair. Leaping out of bed, he ran downstairs crying, “Martha, Martha, I’m bald!”

Of course it doesn’t happen that way, does it? No man fails to notice his own baldness until the final hair falls out. I speak from experience. In the early 1980’s, I looked in the mirror and noticed a few hairs that were quite a bit lower on my forehead than all the rest. My first thought was that I was growing new hair down there. But then the sickening reality hit me: Those hairs were not pioneers into fresh territory. They were the few struggling survivors. The rest had retreated to higher ground!

The same thing is true about turning gray. Nobody turns gray without noticing it. Do you remember when you discovered your first gray hairs? Maybe you plucked them out. But you soon realized that if you continued to do that, baldness would be your next problem. So perhaps you chose the Clairol solution, or else you told yourself that it made you look more mature. But nobody turns gray without knowing it.

Or do they? The prophet Hosea wrote about just such a thing happening to the nation Israel (Hosea 7:9b): “Gray hairs also are sprinkled on him, yet he does not know it.” The prophet was not speaking about physical grayness, but rather, spiritual grayness. The nation was in spiritual decline. The signs of weakness and old age were obvious, and yet the nation was oblivious to the situation.

It’s easy to deceive myself about how old I am. I’ll remember a hike that I did years before and think, “Yeah, I can do that again.” Then I try it and my aching body screams at me, “What do you think you’re doing? You’re not young anymore!” I often joke with Marla as we hike on a trail we’ve done a few years earlier that they made a trail a lot steeper than the last time we hiked it!

But whether with increasing gray hair (which should be obvious) or with my brain deceiving my aging body about how old I really am, Hosea’s point is that people who profess to know God can in reality be in spiritual decline, and yet they don’t know it. He is asking us, “Is it possible that you are turning gray spiritually and yet have not noticed?” The apostle Paul exhorted the Corinthians (2 Cor. 13:5), “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” And so it is helpful at times to take a careful look into the mirror of God’s Word and ask, “Have you noticed your gray hair?”

Hosea prophesied shortly before the northern kingdom fell to Assyria in 722 B.C. The last half of the eighth century B.C. “was the most turbulent and trying time in the history of Israel prior to the captivity” (ESV Study Bible [Crossway], 1619). Of the six kings who reigned in the northern kingdom (which Hosea calls “Ephraim”) during the 30 years before Assyria conquered it, four assassinated their predecessors. The nation professed to be God’s people. They went through all the outward motions of religion. But they were morally and spiritually bankrupt. They worshiped gods of their own making. They defiled themselves with adultery and violence. And yet they claimed to know God. So the prophet asks Israel, “Have you noticed your gray hair?” He makes the point that ...

Mixture with the world and half-baked commitment lead to unconscious spiritual decline.

“Mixture” and “half-baked” are baking terms. Ephraim had become mixed or kneaded together like dough with the nations. Or, they had become like a half-baked pancake. Because of that the nation did not recognize the signs of spiritual decline.

1. Mixture with the world leads to unconscious spiritual decline.

When God called Israel to be His covenant people He declared over and over to them, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (Lev. 11:44, 45; 19:2; 20:7; also, Exod. 34:12-16). To be holy means to be set apart unto God, to be conformed to His character, to be separate from known sin, to be distinct from the behavior and thinking of those who do not know God. But instead of being distinct, Israel had drifted into the pagan lifestyle of the nations around them. They worshiped their gods. They adopted their immoral ways. They disregarded the law of God (see Hos. 4:1-3, 11-14).

But before we cluck our tongues and say, “for shame, for shame,” we need to acknowledge that holiness is as much of a problem for us as it was for them. Perhaps even more so. The New Testament repeatedly warns about this danger:

2 Corinthians 6:14-15: “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?”

James 4:4: “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

1 John 2:15-17: “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives [lit., abides] forever.”

These verses draw a pretty distinct line in the sand! Either you love God, or you love the world, but not both. Worldliness is, at its core, a matter of the heart. If your heart is captured by the world, you will love the things of the world. If your heart is captured by the love of God, you will be drawn to Him and to the things of God. The only way that our hearts can be transformed so that we love God is by the supernatural new birth. To be worldly is to operate on the same principles as those who do not know God. It is to think and act out of selfishness, lust, greed, pride, and personal ambition. It is to have selfish desires for the things that you do not have and sinful pride in the things that you do have. Rather than living to please God, who examines the heart, the worldly person tries to impress people, who look on things outwardly.

David Wells (God in the Wasteland [Eerdmans], 86) describes worldliness as “that set of practices in a society, its values and ways of looking at life, that make sin look normal and righteousness look strange.” Years before the internet and cell phones were invented, Dave Branon wrote (RBC Discovery Digest [May-June 1985], 20-21):

Suppose you wanted to change the thinking of an entire nation. Let’s say, for example, that you wanted to make the people think that red is green. How would you do it?

One idea would be to have about 60 percent of the citizens meet together once a week in some little-used buildings and take about an hour ... to convince them of your idea. But that probably wouldn’t work ....

A better plan would be to have them spend 8 to 10 hours a day sitting in front of a television set. Make the folks watch a lot of programs in which famous people demonstrate that red is green. In addition, make sure the citizens are plugged into a radio the rest of the time so you could have some ... people sing some loud songs about the lovely green shade of red. Also, set up thousands of theaters where people could relax and be entertained by laughing at the absurd idea that red is red. As a supplement, get your message into books, magazines, and newspapers.

That’s exactly what has happened with almost the entire world and homosexuality! Through TV, videos, the internet, and other media, the world has bombarded everyone with the message that this sin is normal and those who think that it is sin are the weirdos. The United States Congress is about to legislate that homosexual “marriage” is the law of the land. And many supposedly “Christian” churches are joining in by installing unrepentant homosexuals as clergy and as members! That is to be mixed with the world!

As Isaiah (5:20) proclaims, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” Both Isaiah and Hosea want us to examine our lifestyle, values, goals, and relational patterns to determine whether they come from God’s Word or from the world. If we allow ourselves to be kneaded together with the world, we will gradually grow spiritually gray without even knowing it.

As you think about our text, ask yourself, “Am I growing in holiness before the Lord?” And if not, then examine your priorities and your schedule. Cut back on those things which are squeezing you into the world’s mold and replace them with things that will help you to grow in godliness.

There is a second factor involved in unconscious spiritual decline:

2. Half-baked commitment leads to unconscious spiritual decline.

Hosea 7:8b: “Ephraim has become a cake not turned.” The cake referred to was like a pancake. It was cooked on hot stones. If not turned over, it became burned on one side while remaining doughy on the other. Can you imagine ordering pancakes in a restaurant, and they are served burned on one side and not cooked on the other? They would be totally worthless!

Hosea says, “That’s what Israel is like.” They were half-baked in their commitment to the Lord. They had the garb of religion, but underneath they had a heart of perversion. They had profession without practice, belief without behavior, and creed without conduct. In other words, their religion didn’t affect their daily lives. As the Lord says (7:14), they wanted God to give them grain and new wine, but they didn’t want God Himself. They cried to Him, but not from their hearts. They were like a cake half-baked. They professed to know God, but by their deeds they denied Him (Titus 1:16).

There is no worse place to be. In the Book of Revelation, the church of Laodicea was like that. It wasn’t that they were against God; they just weren’t wholeheartedly for God. But God says (Rev. 3:15,16), “I would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” A lukewarm Christian is like a half-baked pancake: totally useless to God. How can you be a testimony for Jesus Christ if you’ve got one foot in both worlds? The world sees the hypocrisy, even if the lukewarm believer does not.

Remember the story of Jonah? God said, “Go to Ninevah and cry out against it.” Jonah said, “No way,” and took off on ship for Tarshish. So the Lord sent a great storm. In desperation the sailors finally cast lots to figure out who was at fault for the storm. The lot fell on Jonah. So these pagan sailors ask Jonah, “Who are you? What do you do for a living? Where do you come from?” (See Jonah 1:8.)

So Jonah tells them, “I’m a Hebrew. I’m a prophet of the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land. I’m trying to flee from His presence.” Their response is classic (Jonah 1:10): “How could you do this?” Jonah didn’t see how silly his behavior was, but these pagan sailors saw it clearly! He didn’t realize the hypocrisy of his half-baked commitment, but the pagan sailors could see it clearly. Half-baked commitment leads to unconscious spiritual decline.

Hold up God’s mirror to yourself. How’s your commitment to Jesus Christ as you look back on the past year? Look at your schedule: how do you spend your time? Look at your spending: how do you spend your money? Don’t become a cake not turned!

3. Unconscious spiritual decline is marked by several telltale signs.

I’ll mention five:

A. Unconscious spiritual decline involves a gradual loss of strength.

Hosea 7:9a: “Strangers devour his strength, yet he does not know it.” Hosea is referring to the surrounding nations which exacted tribute from Israel. It was a sad state of affairs compared with the nation’s days of strength under David and Solomon. But it had happened gradually over the years, so that nobody noticed. It just seemed normal now. The nation was like me when I think that I’m just as strong as in my younger days, even though I’m not.

Are you strong in the Lord, and the strength of His might (Eph. 6:10)? Do you experience consistent spiritual victory over sin, beginning on the thought level? Do you consistently rely on the promises of God’s Word for strength? Is your communion with God fresh and vital? Or could you be like Samson, who had dabbled with the world for so long that when Delilah cut his hair and called out, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson,” he did not know that the Lord had departed from him (Judges 16:20).

B. Unconscious spiritual decline involves a watered-down view of sin and holiness.

These people were involved in horrible sins (4:11-14), and yet they claimed to be following the Lord. The evil spirit of the age even affected the priests. Hosea charged (4:8) that the priests delighted in the sins of the people because it brought them revenues in sin offerings!

Whenever people are in spiritual decline but don’t know it, they water down God’s holiness and rationalize their own sin. They compare themselves with others and they re-fashion God into a god after their own liking.

But when you draw near to God as He is revealed in His Word, you become more aware of the depths of your own sinfulness. Like Isaiah when he saw the Lord seated on His throne, with the angels crying, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts,” you cry out (Isa. 6:5), “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

If spiritual decline involves a watered-down view of sin and holiness, revival always involves a serious resolve to deal with personal sin. One important reason you need to be committed to frequent observance of the Lord’s Supper is that it forces you to examine your own heart before you partake.

C. Unconscious spiritual decline involves deafness to God’s rebuke.

Hosea 7:10: “Though the pride of Israel testifies against him, yet they have neither returned to the Lord their God, nor have they sought Him, for all this.” The NIV and many commentators interpret “the pride of Israel” to be Israel’s arrogance. This is a possible meaning. Although Israel’s pride should have been a witness against them, they didn’t return to the Lord or seek Him.

But the Hebrew word can have the meaning of exaltation or majesty. C.F. Keil (Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes [Eerdmans, 1975], X:88, 108), the learned German scholar, interprets this phrase to be a reference to the Lord, who is Israel’s glory (the same phrase occurs in Hos. 5:5). If he is right, then Hosea is using irony to make his point. He is saying, “Israel boasts in being God’s people, and yet they refuse to listen to the God in whom they boast.” But either way, Israel was deaf to God’s rebuke.

One way to determine whether you are headed up or down spiritually is to gauge how you respond to correction from God’s Word or from His people. If you shrug it off or apply it to someone else, but not to yourself, you’re in decline.

D. Unconscious spiritual decline involves ignorance of spiritual need.

“Yet he does not know it” (twice in verse 9). It is obvious to everyone else that the person is in spiritual decline. But if you ask him, everything is great. The lukewarm Laodicean church said (Rev. 3:17), “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.” But God’s evaluation of them was that they were “wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.” They needed to see their sad spiritual condition.

G. Campbell Morgan wrote (in connection with Hosea 7:9, Hosea: The Heart and Holiness of God [Baker], p. 79): “Gray hair is not a tragedy; but failure to see it is.” Are you increasingly aware of your neediness before God? If not, maybe you are turning gray spiritually, but don’t even know it.

E. Unconscious spiritual decline is revealed when you turn to the world rather than to God for help in a time of trouble.

Israel was being overrun by the pagan Assyrians, but instead of turning to the Lord, they turned to their enemy for help! Hosea 5:13: “When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to King Jareb [or, “the great king”]. But he is unable to heal you, or to cure you of your wound.” This may refer to when Israel and Judah paid tribute to Assyria (2 Kings 15:19-20; 16:5-9). Sometimes these methods work in the short run. But they are godless solutions. God brings trials into our lives so that we will seek Him more diligently and go deeper into the unfathomable riches of Christ (Ps. 50:15; Eph. 3:8).

Conclusion

What is the solution to spiritual decline? First, evaluate yourself honestly. (See “Spiritual Diagnostic Questions” on my church blog.) How mixed up with the world are you? Is your commitment half-baked or done on both sides? If you become aware of spiritual decline, then return to the Lord. Seek Him (Hos. 6:1-3; 7:10). Psalm 130:7 declares, “For with the Lord there is lovingkindness, and with Him is abundant redemption.”

Hosea is not your typical hard-nosed prophet of doom. He is a prophet who portrayed in his life God’s love for His wayward people. God gave Hosea a strange command (1:2): to marry a prostitute. Imagine how that would hit the news in our day: “Well-known Pastor Marries Prostitute!” When Hosea’s wife strayed from him and eventually ended up on the slave-block, God told Hosea, “Go, buy her back.” So Hosea went and paid the price to buy back his own adulterous wife. But then he did not treat her as his slave, but he loved her tenderly as his wife (Hos. 3:1-3).

That’s a beautiful picture of God’s love for His wayward people. G. Campbell Morgan wrote (Voices of Twelve Hebrew Prophets [Baker], p. 51), “Sin in the last analysis, in its most terrible form, is infidelity to love. It hurts God.” God has paid the ultimate price—the death of His Son—to redeem you from the slave market of sin. He did it in love to make you His bride. So remind yourself often of God’s great love in sending His Son to rescue you from your sin.

Have you noticed any gray hairs this morning? God will take care of them for you if you will return to His loving arms.

Application Questions

1. What is worldliness? Is it primarily external, internal, or both?
2. Worldliness is so subtle and pervasive. How can we gauge it in our own lives?
3. How would you describe a committed Christian? What would this person’s life be like? Can a “layman” be just as committed as a “full-time Christian worker”?
4. Can a true Christian backslide? Will he ever lose his salvation? What will happen to him? Can he ever go so far as not to be able to repent? Support your answers with Scripture.
5. How can we avoid spiritual decline? What practical steps would you give to a person who really wanted to make his or her life count for God?

Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2022. All Rights Reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

Answer

Dear ******,

Thanks for your note and question.

To be honest, I’ve written quite a bit, and don’t recall the specific article that you are referring to. So, some of what I say will probably be a repetition.

The belief that all people who commit suicide go to hell is held by the Roman Catholic Church, among others, but it is completely without biblical support. There are those saints who wished they had never been born (like Job – Job 3:1, 11; 10:18-19), and there are those who asked God to let them die (like Elijah – 1 Kings 19:4). Jonah did his best to bring about his death (Jonah 1:12; 4:8-9). God never told a suicidal person that they would lose their salvation if they killed themselves. NOWHERE IN THE SCRIPTURES IS IT EVER SAID THAT THOSE WHO COMMIT SUICIDE GO TO HELL. Yes, Judas committed suicide, and he went to hell, but it was because he did not believe in Jesus, but instead betrayed Him, resulting in His death.

We need to start by considering several verses of Scripture:

Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began (Psalm 139:16).

28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:28-39).

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6).

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 “I and the Father are one” (John 10:27-30).

Some might reason that anyone who commits suicide does so because they have lost their faith. It would certainly be true that a Christian who commits suicide has failed to trust God’s hand in suffering, and in His good purposes for suffering:

For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake (Philippians 1:29).

1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Romans 5:1-10).

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 7 so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1:3-9).

12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; 13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. 14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you (1 Peter 4:12-14).

In my experience, I have performed at least one funeral for a person who was reading Revelation 21 and 22, and then he put the gun to his head and killed himself. For the believer, there is an added temptation, especially when their life is going badly (at least in their mind). Assured of heaven and that they will enter into the presence of their God, they may choose to “escape” the trials of this life. That would be sin, but it is never identified as the unpardonable sin (see Mark 3:22-30).

And so, suicide is actually a greater temptation for the Christian than it is for the unbeliever, who must deal with this truth:

And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27).

There is no “second chance” for the unbeliever. Suicide seals their fate, and they will go to hell, not because they took their own life, but because they did not believe in Jesus for their salvation.

What I tell folks who are contemplating suicide is that if they do so, they will have to explain to Jesus why they did not trust Him to be with them in the midst of their troubles.

You might also reflect on Psalm 73, and note that the ultimate “good” is experiencing the nearness of God, which often occurs in times of trouble.

Blessings,

Bob Deffinbaugh