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Meditations on Various Scriptures 4

January 1, 2016

Colossians 1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. 25 Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, 26 that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, 27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. 29 For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.

Paul was made or appointed a minister by God for the benefit of His saints, yet the greatest benefit to any believer is to have God made known in Christ. He was appointed as an apostle and a minister so that he could fully carry out the word of God, and he did that by preaching, teaching, and by the way he lived. The context, however, is more focused on the fact that Paul was preaching and teaching the word of God. In particular, the word Paul preached had to do with the mystery that was hidden from the past ages and generations. This is a fantastic truth of God. The New Covenant has truths that were not seen, but also hidden from the past ages and generations. Whatever covenant theology a person holds, this text tells us without shame that there is a great truth here that was hidden in the past and that only in Paul’s time (and perhaps by Paul as an apostle) this great truth was opened up and set out. This great truth was opened up, set out, and plainly revealed.

This is not just a simple truth that Paul is building up to and setting out, but he speaks of it as the riches of the glory of this mystery and how God now wills for it to be made known. This should teach us how utterly dependent we are upon God to understand the real intent and meaning of the Scriptures. That which was hidden in the past, and when God hides no one can find it, has now (in Paul’s time and by Paul) been manifested. This appears to have been a main point in the teaching and preaching of Paul, though it also appears to be hidden in the modern day as people no longer focus on these things. This mystery is said to be a mystery so great that it is the riches of the glory of this mystery. I can only say that I have never heard anyone even come close to preaching this great mystery much less actually preach it.

If this is such a great mystery, one would think it would be expounded from the pulpits in our land on a frequent basis. This great mystery seems to encompass the great teachings of the Old Testament and actually explain what they really meant. This great mystery is that of Christ in the believer and He Himself is the hope of glory. Modern versions (or perversions) of Christianity seem to view it as either intellectual or moral or both, but the riches of this great mystery is that the indwelling of Christ in the souls of His people is glorious and the heart of Christianity. The teachings of both the Tabernacle and the Temple where the glory came and met with the High Priest was a picture that pointed to Christ and His people. All the sacrifices that were in the Tabernacle and the Temple pictured the cleansing needed in the soul for Christ to dwell there. The bread of fellowship pointed to how Christ would have fellowship with His people.

When the soul is united to Christ and Christ dwells in that soul, then the glory of God dwells in that soul to some degree and yet Christ is the hope of that soul to behold the glory of God. The Lord Jesus is the hope of glory in the soul both in this life and for eternity. God displays and manifests His glory in Christ and as such Christ is the hope of the soul to behold the glory of God. The whole nation of Israel revolved around worship in the Tabernacle and then the Temple, so Christianity should revolve around Christ dwelling in His Temple which is the Church. The Church, which is the body of Christ, must learn to recognize what She is and who it is that dwells in Her. The Church must learn to pursue holiness that Christ may dwell more and more in Her. The Church must learn to love free-grace as this is the only way He gives Himself to His people. In one sense Christ Himself is grace to the Church and Christ gives Himself to His people as the long for more grace. As the glory of God tabernacled among men in the body of Christ, so the glory of God tabernacles among men in the Church.

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Meditations on Various Scriptures 3

December 30, 2015

Colossians 1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. 25 Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, 26 that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, 27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. 29 For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.

Paul rejoiced in his sufferings, which is not the usual approach in the modern day. He rejoiced in his sufferings because they were for the sake of the church (the people that the body consisted of) of the Colossians, but he also rejoiced in suffering for the sake of the body of Christ which is the church. This is quite a profound teaching on the nature of the Church. The Church is not what it is because of a fancy building, or because it is a particular denomination, or because it is of a particular form of organization. The Church is the Church because it is the body of Christ. A church is not a church because it is Presbyterian or Baptist or whatever, but because it is united to Christ, dwelt in by Christ, and dwells in Christ.

The Church is what it is because of its being the body of Christ and nothing else. This is the essential definition of the Church which we must not lose sight of or the essential definition will be swallowed up by things that men have come up with or which are not essential. It is not necessarily wrong to be part of a local church that is part of a denomination in and of itself, but that local church must not lose sight of what it truly means to be part of the Church. This has enormous ramifications for what it means to be part of the Church and what it means to be a Christian. All Christians are united to Christ, but not all members of a local church are united to Christ. When the two are confused, as it often is, many people can be deceived.

It is a huge deception to people to tell them or invite them to pray a prayer or walk an aisle to become a Christian, but it is at least as deceiving to confuse being a member of a local church with being part of the true Church. No one can come to the Christ unless the Father draws him or her, but hordes of people can walk to the fronts of the local church buildings or answer simplistic questions from pastors and elders. This basic definition of the Church (be a part of the body of Christ, joined to Christ) must be kept in mind or the institutions and denominations will be thought of as the Church rather than churches and people will think that if they join the one they are part of the true Church. A person must really and truly be united to Christ, be indwelt by Christ, and be in Christ to be a member of the Body of Christ, which is the true Church.

Paul was given the primary duty and privilege of preaching to the Gentiles, though clearly he preached to the Jews as well. He also said he wanted to make the Jews jealous by his preaching. He suffered and preached for the body of Christ, that is, the true Church and not just for one congregation here and there. He preached and he sent letters to local churches, or the local church gathered in one town. But his ministry was from Christ to the body of Christ. He was an apostle of Christ (sent one from Christ) who was guided by Christ where to go and his letters were breathed forth by the Spirit. But again, he did not do these things just for a local congregation, but for the Church at large. This is a vital distinction to hold as people think of local churches and the best way to function and operate in them. This does not detract from the local church, though indeed it may keep some from rising to the position of dictator or pope in the local congregation, but instead it should inform the local church that it is but one aspect of the Body of Christ. It is to preach and teach so that sinners would become members of Christ and not just get people to join the local congregation. It is free-grace that makes people members of the Church, but any sinner can join a group that calls itself a “church” as s/he wishes.

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Meditations on Various Scriptures 2

December 29, 2015

Hebrews 1:1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. 3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. 5 For to which of the angels did He ever say, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU”? And again, “I WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM AND HE SHALL BE A SON TO ME”? 6 And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, “AND LET ALL THE ANGELS OF GOD WORSHIP HIM.”

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Prophet, but is not a mere prophet. He is far greater than all the prophets. All that the prophets did, Jesus did greater things. All that the prophets said, Jesus said with far greater insight and far better wisdom. We should expect this, for after all the prophets came into being through Him and were sustained by the word of His power. It is the Son who is the very radiance/effulgence/brightness or shining forth of His glory. In other words, we must not think of the Divine Son in terms of having a body only, but also in terms of who He was by nature and He was that from all eternity.

The picture we have of the triune God is that He exists in and of Himself in perfect glory and that is an internal glory within Himself. Only He can shine that glory out of Himself at His good pleasure. The eternal Logos (Word) is how God shines His internal glory out of Himself. Christ is, then, as to His Divine nature the very shining forth of the glory of God. As the very shining forth of the glory of God we behold God Himself in the sense that we see the exact representation of His nature. Jesus said to Philip, “he who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Christ is such an exact representation of the Father that we behold all of the Father that we can take in when we behold Christ in His glory.

When we think and meditate on Christ and who He is we should be amazed to think on the absolute reality that it was Christ who went to the cross and suffered for the sins of sinners. It was the eternal Son of God who alone could suffer the full weight of the wrath of God for each sin of each sinner that would ever be saved. If all the angels and all the human beings who ever lived came together to suffer for one sin they could not do it. But because Christ is the shining forth of the glory of God and the exact representation of His nature, He could suffer in a way that fully satisfied the justice of God in its demands on sinners. Because of who Christ was He could glorify the Father fully for all that sinners should have done in glorifying the Father.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, is such a glorious and excellent being that He was able to satisfy the full character of God. All of the attributes of God were fully exalted and satisfied in the place of all the sinners He was sent to redeem. This glorious Lord also purchased the Holy Spirit for His people and the Spirit regenerated them and in that regeneration they were washed and renewed (Titus 3:5). This Lord of glory who was the very shining forth of the glory of God could do no other than be the glory of God and glorify God perfectly in all He did. In this He glorified the Father perfectly and earned a perfect righteousness for His people. He did not fall short of the glory of God at any point and at any way.

As we think of the gloriousness of His sacrifice, it should be noted and then noted again that after He made purification for sins, He sat down. In other words, it was a perfect work and a completed work. The work of Christ was so perfect that it lacked nothing and so it left nothing for sinners to work for salvation. The Gospel of grace alone teaches us that Christ has left nothing to do for salvation and so the Gospel is the glory of Christ and the glory of God. It is all to their glory and the glory of their free-grace and nothing is left for sinners to accomplish in terms of earning salvation. There is not one work that is left to be done. There is not one prayer that is left to be done. Christ was and is fully sufficient. Sinners need Christ and His work by free-grace and not one work at all.

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Meditations on the Scriptures

December 29, 2015

Hebrews 1:1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. 3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. 5 For to which of the angels did He ever say, “YOU ARE MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU”? And again, “I WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM AND HE SHALL BE A SON TO ME”? 6 And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, “AND LET ALL THE ANGELS OF GOD WORSHIP HIM.”

The living God speaks in this world in His Son even today and will do so forever. It is Christ Himself that is the proclamation of God and His glory in this world and will do so to the end of the world and for eternity. It is through Christ that God made the world, thus it is said that He spoke and what He spoke happened. He created through His Word, that is, Christ. It was in and through Christ that He spoke and things came into being. Colossians 1:16-17 tells us that it was through Christ that all things were created, but also that all things were created for Him. John 1:3 tells us that all things came into being through Him and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. There are aspects of who Christ is and of His glory that cannot be separated from the creation of the world and the reason that it was created.

It is Christ who is the heir or all things, which is to say all created things. All things came into being through Him and for Him and as such He is the heir of all those things. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is also the One who upholds all things by the word of His power (Heb 1:3). This is not what the Pharisees expected nor anyone else as far as that goes, but it is written in the Scriptures and that settles the issue. The Lord Jesus Christ reigns over all the earth and He upholds anything and all things that are upheld. He upholds the life of men and the very breath of men. He upholds what we think of as “natural laws” and He is the One that keeps all things hanging together. He is the One that not only was all things brought into being for but He is the One that keeps them in being according to His good pleasure.

When we consider who this Jesus really is, all talk of Arminianism and Pelagianism should cease immediately. If it was through this One that we were brought into being and it is this One who upholds all things by the word of His power, then any talk about the freedom of the will is nonsense. For a will to be free it must have the power and ability to carry out what it desires. But if Christ is upholding us each moment and upholding all things each moment by His power, then nothing can happen that He does not will to happen. When we think of John 15:5 and the words of Jesus that “apart from Me you can do nothing”, we should remember that we are upheld by Him in all ways at all times. We are in the hands of Christ both physically and spiritually. He is the author and the sustainer of our faith as well. He sustains us by free-grace and not because we earn His sustaining us or any part of His wonderful mercy and love toward His people.

How this should humble our proud hearts that want to look to self for something. How this should break our hearts from pride and self and move us to look to Christ for faith and all things based on grace and nothing else. As the King of old could not lower his arm after raising it until God permitted it, so we can do nothing unless He permits it. Our battle is not with flesh and blood as such, but we do fight with our own sinful hearts as they long to be free enough to do as they please. We should seek the Lord for Him to give us hearts that bow in humble submission and love it the lower the heart is in His presence.

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Musings 97

December 24, 2015

A Solemn Warning To The Secure World,
From The GOD of Terrible Majesty or
The Presumptuous Sinner Detected,
His Pleas Considered, and his Doom Displayed

Being an essay, in which the strong proneness of mankind to entertain a false confidence is proved; The causes and foundations of this delusion opened and considered in a great variety of particulars; The folly, sinfulness and dangerous consequences of such a presumptuous hope exposed, and directions proposed how to obtain that scriptural and rational hope, which maketh not ashamed.

In a Discourse from Deuteronomy 29:19, 20, 21. By Gilbert Tennent, M. A.

But more particularly, the truth is, Such be the miseries of presumptuous and impenitent sinners, in this, and especially in the next world, that what I have offered comes far short of an equal, much less of an excessive description of them. It is a just and received maxim that heaven and hell don’t admit a hyperbole. Indeed a cherub’s tongue or quill could scarce expand or display them sufficiently. Conceive of GOD perfectly, and then you may perfectly conceive of and describe his anger. But this is impossible for a finite understanding, as Zophar informs us, Job 11:7, 8, 9, Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is high as heaven, what canst thou do? Deeper than hell, what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea! Friend, thou shalt know by experience, either by a sound conviction here, or by a dreadful condemnation hereafter, that I have not equaled, much less exceeded, the sorrows and pains of the damned state, in the description I have given of them. (Gilbert Tennent, A Solemn Warning to the Secure World, From the God of Terrible Majesty, International Outreach, 2014)

In thinking of the days we live in, the words of Gilbert Tennent (from the title and Introduction to his original 1735 book) are at least as applicable to our day as to his. The world, despite the problems of terrorism and morals that are spiraling to the pit from which they came, seems to be quite secure in its liberalism and general view of the world as opposed to the true God. It is with a sick heart that I see family members and people I know to some degree so easily and carelessly live in direct opposition to the words of the living God. Regardless of what is said to them my words appear as nonsense to them, even when they are spoken with true and apparent concern.

While Tennent did not write his wonderful book to bring comfort, it does bring comfort in a backwards sort of way. My efforts toward others are not necessarily because of my great weakness and inability to communicate as such, but instead they are prone to great delusions and are deadened to spiritual truth of any kind. True enough they are spiritually dead, but the rational mind can understand something of the truth of these things when it is not deluded. It would appear that God has poured a deep sleep upon our nation.

The awful teachings of hell are written in the hearts of men to some degree, yet so many have hardened their hearts and been hardened by God to the point where they laugh at these doctrines. People can be hardened by these from being around very worldly people or by being around professing churches. It would seem that we live in perilous times and that to a far greater degree than I have recognized. Even the professing friends of truth seem to be deluded to a great degree themselves.

The great doctrines of the depravity of men along with their utter inability and that of free-grace alone are perhaps given lip service by professing Reformed, but I never seem to be around when they are taught (if indeed they are). We live in a nation full of buildings that profess to be Christian in some way and yet are in direct opposition to the great truths of the Bible. It is true that only God can harden people to such a degree and only God that can soften the hearts of those He has hardened to any degree, but this does not make it easy. Oh how the world has infiltrated the professing Church and has replaced the heart of its theology by changing some words here and there and thereby changing what people think of the Bible and holiness. It is simply sickening to read, watch, and listen as the Word of God is butchered time after time and the Gospel of the glory of Christ is changed to the Gospel of the power of the free-will of man. Free-grace is no longer taught but conditions are given to men at all points. The necessity of man to have his heart humbled and broken by grace is simply a relic of history, so proud men made a free-will choice for Christ and are deluded that they are saved. It is truly heart-wrenching, but God is doing it. May He be praised.

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Christ Glorifies the Father 1

December 23, 2015

Hebrews 1:1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. 3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.

In this passage of Scripture we see that God has spoken to us in His Son. This concept of God speaking should be understood as God communicating Himself or something of Himself rather than an audible voice. The Father has spoken in His Son and as such we should take note on the actions and the words of the Son. The Father is glorifying Himself in the Son and we need to behold His glory in the Son if we are going to behold His glory at all.

Why is it so important to take note of how God speaks in the Son? In the context (v. 3) we see that the Son is the radiance/brightness/shining forth of the glory of God. Some would even argue that the Son is the glory of God or that the glory of God is the Son shining forth. This is vitally important to take note of. This is God speaking in the Son and speaking through the Son as it is God communicating Himself and His glory. But for the moment, we should consider the passage in II Corinthians 4:4 which tells us that “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” We see, then, how important it is to preach and teach the glory of Christ rather than just some words about Christ. If we do nothing but set out the facts of the Gospel, the devil can take it easy. It is in seeing the glory of Christ that men are converted. It is in beholding the glory of Christ in the Gospel of the glory of Christ that men see the glory of God and are converted as God is pleased to do so.

This passage of Scripture points out the glory of Christ in a context which makes things easier to see than many others do. We see that all things were created through Christ, yet we also see that Christ is the very shining forth of the glory of God who upholds all things by the word of His power. It is this Christ that who not only satisfied the glory of the wrath of the Father on sinners, but this Christ made purification for sins as well. He took away the wrath of the Father and purified sinners by His work in human flesh to the glory of the Father. Jesus told His disciples that if a person had seen Him that person had seen the Father. This should describe for us just how perfectly Jesus was the very image of the living God.

We also see that the work of purification was perfect in that He sat down after He had made purification for sins. In sitting down we see that the work was finished. There is no work for sinners left to do in that regard. The work of salvation has been finished by Christ and He has fully glorified the Father in what He has done. This does not mean that sinners should not give themselves to seeking the Lord, but instead they should give themselves to seeking the Lord even harder. In light of the human heart and its nature of doing all for the glory and honor of self and in doing so the selfish heart is the great I-dol before God, the heart must be broken before it can and will rest in Christ alone. Sinners should behold something of the glory of God and see that their only interest in Christ is so that they can get out of hell and not because the love Him for who He is.

The fact that Christ did all He did to the glory of the Father should show us how far we fall short of the glory of God and how much we need Him to give us a new heart which will have true faith in and love for the glory of God as seen and beheld in Christ. The Lord Jesus saves sinners to the glory of the grace of God and not because of anything man can merit or do. However, men should seek the Lord in order to have their hearts humbled and broken. Until the heart is broken of its selfishness it will see no real glory in Christ but instead will only view Him through the selfish eyes of those who love others only for what they can get. True conversion, however, is when souls are humbled and they see the true glory of God in Christ and they love the Father of glory for who He is and not just for what He has done.

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Selfishness as Sin 31

December 22, 2015

Luke 6:31 Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. 32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 “If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. 35 “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

There is no evil affection, and no evil conduct, but what selfishness will, under certain circumstances, produce. It is the directly opposite affection to true benevolence, and therefore the root of all moral evil. It is the carnal mind, which is enmity against God, and not the subject to His law, neither indeed can be. It seeks personal interest, which is diametrically opposite to the glory of God and the general interest of His kingdom. It opposes the good of sinners themselves, and makes them, as the apostle says, “hateful, and haring one another.” It tends to spread misery and destruction through the universe. It makes creatures as bad as they can be, and would destroy them all, were it not for the power and wisdom of God, which are employed in restraining, directing, and overruling its pernicious influence. (Nathaniel Emmons, 1745-1840, Selfishness, International Outreach, 2009)

The selfish heart will always oppose the Law of God in the heart, if not the outward man as well. It is not subject o the law of God which at the heart of it is love for God and others. In always seeking its own personal interest, it is always opposite of the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom. By definition (Romans 3:23) sin is defined as falling short of the glory of God. What this shows us is that the selfish heart that always loves self and seeks its own glory, honor, and fleshly well-being is always opposite of the glory of God and as such sins in all that it does. Not only does it sin, but it has not a drop of good in it and so is completely and totally opposed to God and His glory. The selfish heart is completely full of selfishness and has no true love and no true goodness in it. All it does is out of an undiluted selfishness and is restrained by nothing but self-love and the sovereign hand of God.

The selfish heart is completely and totally opposed to others and itself. Titus 3:3 describes the selfish heart and that is precisely what it shows us. “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.” This should chill us to the depths of our souls when we see what is going on around us if not in us. The selfish heart is foolish, so those who are guided by selfish hearts are foolish. This means if we have selfish hearts we are guided by fools. If we are around those with selfish hearts, we are in the company of fools. The selfish heart is clearly disobedient to all the commands of God as it has no true love at all, but the selfish heart is also deceived. It is deceived by virtue of that heart being full of selfishness always interpreting everything by the selfish heart.

The selfish heart is opposed to the good of sinners themselves and all others around them. The selfish heart is so deceived that it does not see that it is enslaved to the lusts and pleasures it indulges its selfish heart and flesh with. The selfish heart (as seen in the eyes of God and His truth) lives in malice and envy toward others. The selfish heart is opposed to the true good of others (spiritual good) and seeks its own good. The selfish heart will use others for its own selfish and sinful pleasures and not think a thing about it. The selfish heart is hateful toward others even when it is hiding behind niceness and a big smile. The selfish heart lives in the hate of others and it is also hated by other people with selfish hearts, which is all unconverted people regardless of their profession.

As the Westminster Shorter Catechism teaches us, sin brings man into an estate of sin and misery. When men are governed by selfish hearts which means that they are opposed to all true good, then men live in sin and seek sin and as such they bring misery upon themselves. When you have a nation full of selfish people, you will have a nation that is full of misery. When you have a planet that is full of selfish people, you will have a planet that is full of misery and as such the hearts of selfish men will covet the land and property of other nations and this will bring war. Selfish hearts will desire to use others and as such disease and illness will spread. Plainly put, we would self-destruct if God did not restrain us. There would be no salvation unless the free-grace interrupted us in our mad and hateful pursuits in bringing misery upon ourselves. Apart from free-grace there would be on true good in the human race. While sin is hateful in and of itself, it is the backdrop that sets out Christ and His grace as beautiful.

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Selfishness as Sin 30

December 21, 2015

Luke 6:31 Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. 32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 “If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. 35 “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

There is no evil affection, and no evil conduct, but what selfishness will, under certain circumstances, produce. It is the directly opposite affection to true benevolence, and therefore the root of all moral evil. It is the carnal mind, which is enmity against God, and not the subject to His law, neither indeed can be. It seeks personal interest, which is diametrically opposite to the glory of God and the general interest of His kingdom. It opposes the good of sinners themselves, and makes them, as the apostle says, “hateful, and haring one another.” It tends to spread misery and destruction through the universe. It makes creatures as bad as they can be, and would destroy them all, were it not for the power and wisdom of God, which are employed in restraining, directing, and overruling its pernicious influence. (Nathaniel Emmons, 1745-1840, Selfishness, International Outreach, 2009)

In our day selfishness is thought to be a person who may take more of the pie than s/he should during the holiday parties. It may also be thought of those who live for themselves and are not very considerate of others. However, there is no evil in the world but comes by the evil of a selfish heart. There is no evil conduct that a selfish heart cannot produce. There is no evil affection that is beyond what can come from a selfish heart. When God turns a selfish heart over to more sin, He turns it over to a greater degree of selfishness. It is a terrible judgment to be turned over to self since that means a person is now even more opposite of true love. The more a person is turned over to a selfish heart the more that person becomes selfish and without concern for God or others.

The selfish heart by definition is full of self rather than full of the glory and love of God. The selfish heart may try to appear benevolent, but it has nothing of the truth of benevolence in it. The selfish heart has one interest and that is the interest of self. As long as there is some good to be obtained for self, or perhaps the selfish heart sees a greater good for self in appearing benevolent, self can give things in order to appear benevolent. The selfish heart wants to appear as one with love, but it has no love but for itself. The selfish heart, then, as without true love is the root of all moral evil. The Ten Commandments can only be kept to any real degree out of true love and the selfish heart has no true love at all. Instead of true love, the selfish heart is constantly looking for ways to enhance the kingdom of self.

The selfish heart is really the carnal mind in reality. The selfish heart is always looking for the earthly good of self and as such it will covet the things of others and excuse that because it thinks it has a right to those things. The selfish heart is constantly looking for ways to obtain honor from others and that from the world of those in the professing Church. In this respect, as in other respects also, the selfish heart is at enmity with God. The selfish heart longs for the honor of others, yet God commands all men to honor Him. There is a war between God and the selfish heart in that way. The selfish heart wants the things of the world in accordance with its own pleasure and desires, yet God gives worldly things according to His pleasure. How the selfish heart chafes at this. The selfish heart wants to use other people for itself, but God commands each person to love others and to seek their true good. The selfish heart wants to use God for itself and the things of God to obtain honor, but God will only do what is for His own glory. There has been, still is, and will always be enmity between God and the selfish heart.

When we think of how God created the world and all things in it for His own glory and pleasure, we can see how He would be at enmity with the selfish heart when the selfish heart wants all things for its own glory and pleasure. When God seeks His own glory this includes the greatest good for His people, yet those with selfish hearts are limited to their own good as their primary love and interest. All selfish hearts want all things for themselves and are restrained by God or they would all want to rule the world. Clearly and without question the selfish heart wants free-will to obtain what it can and will oppose God’s sovereign will. The selfish heart will set out free-will in the realm of salvation so it can control that as well (it thinks), but grace is sovereign or it is not grace at all.

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Selfishness as Sin 29

December 19, 2015

Luke 6:31 Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. 32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 “If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. 35 “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

The selfish love of sinners has no moral goodness in it because it is no obedience to the divine law. The law requires them to love God with all the heart, and to love their fellow men as themselves. But when they love themselves because they are themselves, and love others only because they have received or expect to receive benefit from them, do they obey the divine law? Do they feel towards God as they would that He should feel towards them? Or do they feel towards others as they would that others should feel towards them? Does their selfish affection in the least degree answer the demands of that law which requires pure, disinterested love? It is morally impossible for sinners to love God supremely, and their fellow men impartially, from a selfish heart. Let their love to God or man rise ever so high, it can have no moral goodness in it, because it is not obedience to the divine law which requires nothing but pure, holy, disinterested love. (Nathaniel Emmons, 1745-1840, Selfishness, International Outreach, 2009)

In this BLOG I would like to focus on the last sentence from the quote above. It is true that some of this was covered or touched on in an earlier post, but this sentence is pointed and convicting. When understood, some major points of Scripture are seen in a different light and the horror of our own hearts can be made known if the Spirit opens our eyes to see. Now, the sentence before the last sentence was dealt with (to some degree) in the last post. It shows that those with a selfish heart (all are born with it) which is full of self-love and that sinful love cannot love God or man. The heart that loves self supremely (as all unregenerate human beings do) cannot love God supremely. Since the Great Commandments teach us to love God with all of our beings and our neighbor from that, and the Ten Commandments flow out of the Great Commandments, it should be evident that fallen human beings have no capacity for a pure and holy love.

When a soul begins to see this and the light begins to shine on the darkness of his or her own heart, the awful sense of the reality of the utter lack of righteousness and of the presence of a host of sins that have not seen before begins to sink in. All that which we saw as love in the past is now seen to be nothing other than vile idolatry. All the things that I thought (says the soul so self) were good are now seen as having no moral goodness in them at all. Now those proud thoughts and feelings come back to my heart and I see what I did not see before. I did not have love for God in those actions and I was proud of those actions which were sin. Oh, the soul cries out, how can it be that I was so proud of my heart that was so full of self-love and pride and did not love God at all? The soul sees that all of what it though was its righteousness had and has no moral goodness at all (at best) because the divine law requires “nothing but pure, holy, disinterested love.”

When the soul has its selfishness discovered to it that soul is now a soul that has nothing to boast about and nothing to cling to and its only hope is in the free-grace of God if He is pleased to show that. The divine law requires a pure love, not a selfish love. The divine law requires a holy unto the Lord love and not a selfish love which is as unholy and idolatrous as it can be. The divine law requires a disinterested love rather than the proud love of self that is as high as the natural man can go. A disinterested love is not that the sinner has no interest in the good of self at all, but that the sinner’s interest is not focused on self and the selfish heart. A disinterested love does not mean that there is not a high degree of interest in loving God and the neighbor and even the soul’s interest in his or her spiritual welfare, but it simply points to the opposite of the selfish love or selfish heart where all the soul’s interest is really self and the love of self.

What we see, then, is that the doctrine of sin as taught in Scripture is in perfect accordance with the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is wholly and only of free and sovereign grace. When men see by the Spirit that they have done nothing but loved self and served the idol of self they will be broken from any hope in their past actions. When men see by the Spirit that God only saves by free-grace they will see that they have no hope in themselves and no ability in themselves at all. They must have Christ alone and He must come by the sovereign grace of God alone or they will be unconverted for eternity. There is nothing in a selfish heart that can possibly earn anything but more damnation from God. There is nothing in a selfish heart that has any power of love for God and as such there is nothing that the soul can do to obtain salvation. All this soul can do is to find a faithful minister (very hard in our day) who will set forth free-grace and earnestly cry out to the Lord to show grace.

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Selfishness as Sin 28

December 18, 2015

Luke 6:31 Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. 32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 “If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 “If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. 35 “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

The selfish love of sinners has no moral goodness in it because it is no obedience to the divine law. The law requires them to love God with all the heart, and to love their fellow men as themselves. But when they love themselves because they are themselves, and love others only because they have received or expect to receive benefit from them, do they obey the divine law? Do they feel towards God as they would that He should feel towards them? Or do they feel towards others as they would that others should feel towards them? Does their selfish affection in the least degree answer the demands of that law which requires pure, disinterested love? It is morally impossible for sinners to love God supremely, and their fellow men impartially, from a selfish heart. Let their love to God or man rise ever so high, it can have no moral goodness in it, because it is not obedience to the divine law which requires nothing but pure, holy, disinterested love. (Nathaniel Emmons, 1745-1840, Selfishness, International Outreach, 2009)

In this BLOG I would like to focus on the next to last sentence from the quote above, though some of it will be covering some of the same ground as earlier. However, this is utterly vital information and information that men and women should realize describes their moral and spiritual state, which is to be dead in sins and trespasses and by nature a child of wrath (Eph 2:1-3). It tells them that they have no ability to do the least thing that pleases God in their hearts. A selfish heart which is shorthand for a heart full of sinful self and pride and a heart that out of that self and pride is full of sinful and idolatrous love for self and as such does all out of sinful self-interest. The selfish heart loves itself and revolves around itself and does all and intends all to serve self. Clearly, then, a selfish heart cannot keep the Great Commandments nor any of the Ten Commandments.

The selfish heart is full of love for sinful self and self-centered self, so this selfish heart is devoid of the love of the true God who commands that all things be done out of love for Him and His glory. The selfish heart loves self rather than God. The selfish heart loves all for self and whatever it does in the realm of religion or in civil things is out of love for self rather than God. While this selfish heart may appear as righteous and good in the eyes of the world, this person is a gross idolater in the eyes of God and is at enmity with Him in all those outwardly good things that are done. The selfish heart may appear as righteous and good to those in the church, but once again that selfish heart does all its religious activities out of love for self and so it is attempting to use the things of God to build itself up in its own eyes as well as to gain the admiration and honor of others. Oh how wicked this selfish heart really and truly is.

We can now look at the first two of the commandments as examples. The selfish heart is in fact its own god and as such it always has another god in the presence of the true God. How wicked it is to do all for self rather than the true God. How wicked it is to serve the self-god in the presence of the living God. How utterly vile a person must appear in the eyes of God (who is a jealous God) to always be in the loving embrace of the idol of self and to bow down and worship self in all that a person does. We must see how our hearts appear to the true God in light of Scripture and the enlightening work of the Spirit or our self-love will blind us to our vicious idolatry. While a selfish heart is too proud to bow to a wooden idol or it may not bow to the idol of money in its own mind, a selfish heart is blinded to the idol of self as it serves self with love and adoration. This self has no true love to the true God and no true love to neighbors, but instead loves for its own good and honor.

The selfish heart is also at odds with the 2nd Commandment. It does not truly worship the living God, but instead it worships itself. As seen in the paragraphs above, the idol of self is indeed the idol that the selfish heart worships which is a direct violation of this command. It is also true that the selfish heart will “worship God” as it sees fit and in accordance with the desires and inclination of its own heart. We are to worship the true God as He sets out and when we change that to ways we like it is in reality a worship of self. When preachers preach what they want instead of the Word of God they are in reality guilty of false worship since God commands true preaching of the true God in worship.

Finally, the only thing that can deliver sinners from such wicked hearts is God Himself and He only does this by free-grace. This is why Arminian preachers and professing Reformed preachers don’t preach free-grace as they are always leaving room for sinners to have something to do. Leaving sinners something to do in their own power is a false gospel and as such is false worship and leads to a false god. Selfishness, then, destroys all morality, the true God, and the true Gospel in its own mind and heart as it grasps and clings to the throne of the self-god. Self is a hideous and wicked sin that is far more evil than we can imagine, but it is to be like the devil rather than the living God who made men as His own image.

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