The "IF-THEN" Statement

Introduction

These past couple of weeks, I’ve been working with a good friend of mine on a little project for his wife’s side-business.  The project is one that involves something I haven’t done in a while and it’s good, I think, to be able to get back to it. 

I’m actually writing computer code. 

I started writing programs back when I was still in high school (nearly forty-years ago) when my Physics instructor assigned us to figure out a simple game of “Battleship” using a Texas Instruments 55 calculator and writing code in binary (or machine) language to determine the coordinates of each enemy ship in order to sink it.  Since then, I’ve learned nine other computer programming languages.

I tell you all this because there is a basic tool that is used in most programming, regardless of the language you’re using.  The “IF-THEN” statement is simple logic which says if a certain criteria is met, then something will happen.  For instance, “If the gate is left open, then the horse will get out.”  Or, “If you don’t fill the tank, then, the car will run out of gas.”  I know that may seem like simple common-sense type statements, but that’s really all an IF-THEN statement is: simple common-sense cause and effect logic. 

The reason I bring all this up is because about the time I started on this project for my friend, we were also covering Romans chapter 8 in our Sunday School class, and it was mainly Romans 8:31 that caught my attention.  As most of you can probably recite from memory, Roman’s 8:31 says:

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”

You see, that is a perfect example of an “IF-THEN” statement:  IF God is for us, (THEN) who is against us?  I particularly caught on that word “if” because, when you stop and think about it, saying IF God is going to do something, especially if it’s something for us, that little two letter word becomes extremely huge in it’s importance and it’s something that we’d better pay attention to.

Well, this got me to thinking how many other times in the Bible do we see the “IF-THEN” statement and what was the meaning of their application?

“IF-THEN” in the Bible

Well, I can tell you, the Bible is filled with “IF-THEN” statements.  In my research, Strong’s Concordance lists the word IF as appearing over 1400 times.  Now, admittedly, some of those are not applicable in the context I’m discussing today but here are just a few examples of some that I did find:

In Exodus 19:5-6, the “IF-THEN” tells us about obedience:

“Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”

In I Samuel 12:14-15, it tells us about listening to God’s voice :

“If you will fear the Lord and serve Him, and listen to His voice and not rebel against the command of the Lord, then both you and also the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God. If you will not listen to the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the command of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you, as it was against your fathers.”

In Job 31:5-8, Job uses it to ask God for judgement:

“If I have walked with falsehood, And my foot has hastened after deceit,  Let Him weigh me with accurate scales, And let God know my integrity.  “If my step has turned from the way, Or my heart followed my eyes, Or if any spot has stuck to my hands, Let me sow and another eat, And let my crops be uprooted.”

In Job 34:16, the “IF-THEN” is used, again, to tell us to listen to God:

“But if you have understanding, hear this; Listen to the sound of my words.”

:As it does in Malachi 2:2:

“If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My name,” says the Lord of hosts, “then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings; and indeed, I have cursed them already, because you are not taking it to heart.”

In Luke 17:6, it is used by Jesus to measure our faith:

“And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea’; and it would obey you.”

In Matthew 15:24, it is used by Jesus to show the price of discipleship:

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”

In a lot of cases, the “THEN” part is implied and not specifically there, as you can see in some of the cases I pointed out.  In other cases, the “THEN” portion comes before the “IF” part.  For instance, in Deuteronomy 4:29, where it is used to show how much we are to seek out the Lord:

“But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.”

But I am only scratching the surface of the number of “IF-THEN” statements there are in the Bible and it’s really amazing the number of times Jesus used it.  In the New Testament alone, nearly half of the approximately 600 IF’s that appear are in the four Gospels.

Still, in our own lives, we sometimes have problems with this little word, regardless of the number of times our Savior used it or the number of times it appeared in the Word.

Changing “What If” to “Even If”

For both Christians and non-Christians alike, bad things are bound to happen.  Even when times are good, we find our thoughts wandering to that little word and asking that question “What if…?”.  “What if I lose my job tomorrow, then what?”  “What if the bank closes before I make that deposit and that check I just wrote goes in?”

While “IF-THEN” statements normally have a conditional response, that doesn’t mean the response is always going to be what we want to hear.  Even in the Bible, we saw people who asked that question “What if…?”

In Exodus, when God asked Moses to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt, Moses argued that he was not the right person for the job, in Exodus 4:1:

Then Moses said, “What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say? For they may say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’”

Like Moses, we fear the “What if…?” scenario because we are uncertain of the outcome.  In Genesis 24:6, Abraham’s servant believed there was a possibility that Isaac’s future wife might not return with him:

“The servant asked, “But what if I can’t find a young woman who is willing to travel so far from home? Should I then take Isaac there to live among your relatives in the land you came from?”

Today, our society tells us to worry about so many things.  And judging by what I see in social media, it could replace baseball as our national pastime.  But, as Christians, that doesn’t mean we need to partake in such activities.  We need to find the strength in our faith to rise about our worries.

In the book of Daniel, when King Nebuchadnezzar set up his golden image and ordered all the people to bow down to it, Shadrack, Meshach, and Abed-nego refused to do so.  Facing their punishment of being thrown into the fiery furnace, in Daniel 3:17-18, they said:

“If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.  But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

These three men, facing certain death, showed that their faith was strong enough to deliver them, but even if that was not enough, they would still not bow down to the king’s golden idol.

At the greatest heights of our own worries, we need to have that same strength and turn our “What if…?” in to “Even if…”.  “Even if I don’t get that job I was hoping to get, God has provided for me and my family so far and I have faith He will continue to do so.”  “Even if my doctor comes back with a bad prognosis, it just means I’m that much closer to meeting Jesus.” 

“Even if…” can allow us to put aside our fears and worries because, as Christians, we know that God is still in control and He will not forsake us.  There is a liberating freedom in “Even if…” because the “What if…?”’s that fill our hearts and our minds, literally making us slaves to our own fears, those things no longer matter.  To change our “What if…?” to “Even if…” requires a strength in our faith that is beyond our own ability.  The question, then, is where can we tap into that strength?

IF’s on Pentecost Sunday

For those you who aren’t aware or didn’t remember, today is Pentecost Sunday.  This is the day that, historically, Christians celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit, ten days after the ascension of Jesus into Heaven, upon the Apostles and the followers of Jesus Christ.

:Luke describes it in Acts 2:2-4:

And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.  And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

On this day of Pentecost, or Shavuoth as the Jews called it, Jews from all over had come to Jerusalem to worship at the temple.  When the Apostles and the followers of Jesus went out among them, they were surprised to hear these men speaking in these traveler’s native languages.

Then, Peter stood out and began to give his sermon.  Because he was filled with the Holy Spirit, his words spoke directly to their hearts. We pick up again in Acts 2:37-41:

“Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?”  Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”  And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!”  So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.”

Pentecost Sunday is a day to celebrate because it was the day that truly established the church of Christ’s followers.  But more than that, it showed the power of the Holy Spirit as it moved so many to express their belief in Jesus Christ.

It is this power that gave a man like Peter, a simple fisherman, the ability to stand before such a large crowd and deliver a message for the ages.  If it were not for this power of the Holy Spirit, then the Apostles and the followers of Jesus would have undoubtedly been forgotten. 

And it is that same power that gives us the strength to turn our “What if…?”’s in to “Even if…”’s and provides us the knowledge that our “IF-THEN” situations are only so if God says it will be so.  The conditional response to the “If” isn’t always the “Then” that others expect it to be.

Conclusion

I started out this message telling you about the “IF-THEN” statement and how it applies in computer programming, but more so, I also showed how the “IF-THEN” is used so much throughout the Bible.  One of my favorites comes from 2 Chronicles 7:13-14:

“If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Like many of you, I’ve seen this scripture on billboards out on I-44 between Sarcoxie and Springfield.  While it is an “IF-THEN” statement, as well as a scripture from the Old Testament, I believe it applies to our lives today in a couple of different ways.

First, if you take the word “land” and apply it to mean our own country, then it’s meaning couldn’t have any greater call.  The events in Santa Fe, TX this past week, as well as the wide-spread acceptance of abortion, pornography, and other vices too numerous to list here, show that our land is in need of healing.

But, in another way, if you take the word “land” and replace it with the word “bodies”, then this scripture takes on a whole new meaning.  The sins that people commit each day, both Christian and non-Christian, that go unrepented is staggering.  There isn’t a day that goes by when I look at social media and see the acts that people do that doesn’t shock me.  It is only when I receive a request from someone asking for prayers, or wanting to know more about religion that I makes me continue going back to it.

In each of our own way, we must be able to rise above the anger and pettiness of this world and become that beacon of light for those in the darkness.  We must overcome the belief that the “IF-THEN” condition has only one outcome and put that out there for everyone to know.

Finally, I’ll leave you with this, it comes from the book of Habakkuk in which the prophet saw the Chaldeans punishing Judea.  In the depths of his despair, Habakkuk describes a great many horrible deeds, but still, he gives us this wonderful example of an “Even if…” that we should all take to heart.  In Habakkuk 3:17-19 :

“Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls,  Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.  The Lord God is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet, And makes me walk on my high places.”

What’s your situation this morning?  Do your “IF-THEN”’s only have one possible outcome?  Are you being weighed down by all the “What if…?”’s in your life?  Would you like to find out how to turn them into “Even if…”’s?  If so, I invite you to contact me. We can discuss your situation and I can show you what you have to do to find forgiveness for your sins and redemption for your life. Until then, I'll be praying for you.