Reflections on and Admirations of God 18

March 15, 2014

Isaiah 53:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? 9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. 10 But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. 11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.

The passage above is a passage of glory if we have the eyes to see. In it is a display of the glory of God at the cross of Jesus Christ where He suffered and died for the sins of sinners across history. In the prayer that Christ prayed and we have recorded in John 17, there are many places where the glory of God shines ever so brightly. In verse 1 of that chapter Christ said this: “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You.” This chilling verse tells us how Christ viewed His work on the cross. He saw it as the Father glorifying the Son so that the Son could and would glorify the Father. In verses 4-5 of John 17 He said this: “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” The work of Christ was all about complete and total obedience to the Father and in doing so shining forth the glory of God.

Verse 10 if Isaiah 53 tells us that “the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief.” If we are not numbed by hearing this passage to much or simply by darkness of heart, we would be shocked at this. Just before the text says that it tells us that “He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.” This is to say that Christ was completely and totally innocent in and of Himself and there was no guilt on His part. Yet the LORD was pleased to crush Him and to put Him to grief. How can the LORD take pleasure in crushing the Son and put Him to grief? Can the LORD do something so unjust as this and yet take pleasure in it?

Before we accuse the LORD of being unjust we should take note that this passage in Isaiah says over and over again in different ways that it was for the sins of others that Christ suffered for. In New Testament language, the sins of the people of God were imputed to Christ and He willingly took them to Himself. When the LORD beheld the Son on the cross the Son was guilty of the sins of all those who would be saved. It was because the LORD hated sin and loved righteousness that He crushed the Son. It was because the LORD loved His own glory that He put His own glory on display through the Son at the cross and there we can behold the beauty and glory of righteousness, holiness, wrath, and love. It was at the cross where the Son’s love for the glory of the Father is seen at its very brightness, but it is also where the glory of the Father and love for the Son’s glory is also seen. If the Son had taken on the guilt of sinners and the Father would have withheld His wrath, that would not have been a display of love but instead of sentimental feelings.

We can see the glory of the LORD’s pleasure as He loves perfect justice and the display of His holiness. We can see the glory of the LORD’s pleasure in His Son’s obedience. We can see the glory of the LORD’s pleasure in the people He would save by pouring forth His wrath upon His Son. We can see the glory of the LORD’s pleasure in satisfying His own wrath and as such making a way for sinners to become objects of His mercy, grace, and love. The love of the LORD is put on display at what He was willing to do in order to save sinners. The glory of such grace is put on display as we can see what sinners deserved at the cross. The cross shines forth His glory.

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Reflections on and Admirations of God 17

March 14, 2014

Isaiah 53:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? 9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. 10 But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. 11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.

The Gospel of the glory of Christ is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God shining in the face of Christ. This cannot be unless the sufferings and death of Christ on the cross shone forth the glory of God as well. While it is easy for people to think of the cross and the propitiatory work of Christ on that cross as being all about them, if we fail to look for and behold the glory of God we have yet to see the real issue of the cross. Scripture tells us that sin is falling short of the glory of God, so if the sufferings and death of Christ did not fall short of the glory of God and in fact fulfill the glory of God in the place of sinners, then He failed to make up for the failure of sinners. But Christ did not fail and in the Gospel in general and on the cross in particular the glory of God shines. The darkness in the hearts of men want to think of themselves when they think of the cross, but in doing so they miss the point.

The text in Isaiah 53:6 tells us that “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way.” This is certainly parallel to Romans 3:23 which tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Sinners seek themselves and seek to do what they want to do according to their own wisdom and they seek their own honor and glory, but all of that is contrary to doing all to the glory of God. It is not just that sinners fall a little short in doing what they do for the glory of God, but they don’t do anything for the glory of God and this shows that they don’t love Him.

In contrast to those who like sheep go astray and go their own way, the Lord Jesus was the Lamb of God. Even though He was like a lamb led away to slaughter, yet He came for that and He did not open His mouth in protest or in complaining. Instead of that, He showed the world how much He loved His Father by going to the cross to suffer and die. His perfect obedience was our of love to the Father and was to the glory of God. “But so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here” (John 14:31). This was in the last few days of the life of Christ and He knew exactly where He was going and what He was heading for.

The beauty and glory of perfect love that the Son had for the Father was on display. His love for the glory of the Father was far more than His love for safety, security, and no pain. He was keeping the commandment to love God with all of His being. His love for the glory of God was such that He turned down the demands of the people to be king over them and instead went to the cross where the glory of God shown forth with much glory. It is something like the resurrection of Lazarus when He told Martha that if she believed she would see the glory of God. For those who believe and look to behold the glory of Christ at the cross, they see a glory there that makes them love the cross of Christ and never tire of hearing more and more of Christ and the cross of Christ. This is so much more than just a story with facts about Jesus, but instead it is all about the glory of God shining forth in and through His Son. We must behold Christ and in that behold the glory of God.

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Reflections on and Admirations of God 16

March 13, 2014

Isaiah 53:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? 9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. 10 But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. 11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.

There are at least three ways of looking at this glorious passage of Scripture in Isaiah 53. One is to think of it as a metaphor as some type and treat it as if it had no real fulfillment in Christ. The second way to treat it is to treat of it in a humanistic way or in a man-centered way. The third way is to look at it in a God-centered way and look for the glory of God on display. I would argue that since Christ told the men in Luke 24 that the Scriptures spoke of Him that the God-centered approach is correct. Since Paul also said that he preached nothing but Christ and Him crucified that the God-centered approach was Paul’s approach as well. Then, thinking of what Paul said of the Gospel in II Corinthians 4:1-6 that it was the Gospel of the glory of Christ and that God “is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ,” we can know that the central points of the Gospel and the cross of Christ have to do with the glory of God.

If Christ was pierced through for the transgressions of others and crushed for their iniquities, then who did this piercing and who did the crushing? If Christ was scourged so that sinners could be healed, who did the deepest and most real of the scourging? The text says “the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.” This is to say that the supreme and majestic God of all glory poured forth His wrath for the sin of others on His Son. Men deserved this wrath and yet the Lord Jesus Christ was willingly crushed and scourged for it. But how in the world does this shine forth the glory of God?

Acts 2:22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know– 23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. 24 “But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.

The Lord Jesus Christ was not killed by men in such a way that there is no glory of God involved, but instead God testified to who this Christ was by working miracles, wonders, and signs through Him. Men wanted to take Him out and make Him king at times, but God had a predetermined plan to have this Christ nailed to the cross by the hands of godless men who put Him to death. Behold the glory of our God. This was what He had planned from eternity past and He carried it out by the willing actions of others. Behold the glory of our God in this eternal plan where His perfect wrath was satisfied that sinners could go free. Behold the glory of our God in His perfect mercy and grace toward sinners in that He sent a Savior who was a perfect Sacrifice in the place of sinners. Behold the glory of our God who hates sin so much that He poured out His wrath on His Son so that He could be just and the Justifier of sinners. Behold the glory of our God in providing the only true and perfect propitiation for the sins of wicked and vile sinners. The cross should bring all to their knees in worship before this God of all glory.

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Musings 40

March 12, 2014

In their fallen condition men are so taken with the physical things of life. When a person has problems of certain kinds, we just naturally think that they are having mental problems. When a person has physical problems, we are so concerned and ask many kinds of questions. But why are people so blind and unconcerned about the spiritual condition of people? Why are people more concerned about the body which will last at the most (generally speaking) less than 100 years and yet the immaterial part of man which will exist in heaven or hell for eternity is virtually ignored? Are human beings so blind to spiritual things and so open to physical things that they are almost to a person virtually insane in light of the far greater importance of the things that are not seen over the things that are seen?

Men and women in our day are given to great efforts to the foods they eat and to exercise for strength, looks, events, and health. Billions of dollars are spent annually on those things. But the same people are utterly blind to their eternal souls and are not willing to spend anything or take any great pains for their soul. One rich man in the Bible was going to build great barns in order to store up his goods and take life easy, but he was told that his soul would be required of him that night. How many people in the modern day spend their lives in using their intellectual gifts, athletic gifts, or any other kind of gifts and ignore their souls? Spiritual blindness is assuredly a great, great judgment that God sends on people.

Matthew 10:28 “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matthew 16:26 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

The Scriptures also sets out and compares the value of the soul of man versus the body alone. The reason for this, clearly, is because the present body lasts for a very short duration and the soul lasts for the rest of eternity. The believer is to live in light of the fact that the body can be killed by human beings and yet the soul cannot be harmed by other human beings, though God can destroy both. This shows that eternal things are what should determine our actions and our loves.

The Scriptures also shows that if anyone could possibly gain the whole world it would be of not profit that person if that person lost his or her soul. This is to say that the whole world is not worth the soul and as such people should live for eternal things rather than the things of this world. What would a person give in exchange for his soul? While it appears that some have sold their soul to the devil for various things, what a horrible exchange that is if even the whole world is not worth the soul. If even the whole world is not worth the soul, then why do people basically and essentially sell their souls for various pleasures and possessions? One reason is that they are blind to spiritual things and eternal realities.

Even in the modern professing “Church” present and physical things are given far more weight than the soul. This is seen in the things people pray for and the ways that they live. People seek God to give them more things rather than seek God to give them Himself. People seek God for physical health rather than for spiritual health. People seek God to give them financial blessings rather than spiritual blessings. People seek God for things that can be seen rather than the things that cannot be seen. People seek God in order to be spiritual rather than to seek Him for the Spirit. People seek God to be saved from the guilt of sin rather than to be saved from the power of sin. People seek God so that they can escape hell rather than that they can see His glory in heaven. People seek God so that they can have mansions in heaven rather than have Christ in heaven. People seek Christ so that they can have manna on earth rather than have Christ both now and forever. People seek Christ for life rather than for eternal life. People seek the Holy Spirit for gifts rather than for holiness. People seek the Holy Spirit for all kind of abilities rather than the ability to love Christ. This is simply to say that worldliness has taken over in the professing “Church” and eternal things have largely been forgotten. The professing “Church” has largely sold its soul (so to speak) for the things of the world.

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Musings 39

March 11, 2014

1 Corinthians 2:1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

If it is true that Jesus the Christ is the testimony of God and is the very Truth about Him and from Him, then we must look to Christ as set forth in Scripture to know God. The Scripture declares that eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ whom He sent (John 17:3). The Scripture also declares that Christ is the One who explains God to human beings (John 1:18). The study of Scripture and preaching, then, if the study and preaching are going to be in accordance with eternal life and the truth of God, must be a setting forth Christ as the truth of God. It is a severe neglect in the study of Scriptures to look for truth in them apart from the truth of who God is and how He reveals Himself in and through Christ. That would also reflect a great neglect in the area of preaching as well.
Jesus the Christ is the manifestation of the glory of God incarnate, which means that we cannot know the glory of the Gospel apart from beholding the glory of God in the face of Christ. While it may be interesting or not and it may be scholarly or not, yet the study of the Bible and the preaching of Truth must involve something of the glory of God rather than just some dry thinking about some abstract truths about God. Preaching is far more than just setting out some basic truths (even biblical truths) before people, it is supposed to be about setting out and pointing to the very glory of God. The souls of the people should be hungry for God and the very good of their souls require them to be feasting on Christ Himself, so surely that is what preaching should do.
If it is true that the cross of the Divine Son of God and the blood of God is the center of history and the Gospel, then there is a lot more about Christ and the cross than can be declared in a lifetime of preaching. It may be the case that for eternity in heaven the glory of God in the face of Christ and the cross will be what captures the attention, affections, and adoration of saved sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ is more than some facts about Him, but He was God incarnate moving around on this planet shining forth the glory of God for all who had eyes to see. In the parables and the miracles the point was (and is) to set forth the glory of God. The glory of the cross was not in Christ saving sinners in and of itself, but it was that God saves sinners for His own glory. The glory of the cross is all about how the Father loved the Son and the Son loved the Father and the cross sets out and displays that.
The wonder of the cross and the preaching of that should be all about the glory of God rather than the glory of man. It appears that men have lost sight of the true glory of God in the cross and have made it all about man, which is a humanization of the cross rather than seeing the Divine glory and truth of the cross. If we focus the cross on how Christ died for me, then we have just (by deduction) demonstrated how Christ was an idolater in loving a human rather than God. If we point to how God the Father loved human beings so much that He sent the Son to die for them, then we have just (by deduction) demonstrated how God the Father loved human beings more than the Son. Apart from the cross being where the glory of God shines in and through Christ, the cross will be humanized to the point where humanity becomes the focus rather than God.
The preaching of the churches, then, must learn to preach Christ and Him crucified if they are going to preach the Bible at all. While it is sad, preaching can take the stories of the Bible and turn them into little more than humanized Bible stories that we tell kids. Apart from preaching Christ and Him crucified in the context of the Gospel of the glory of God, we will humanize the Gospel and make it no more than a Bible story as well. Instead of the Gospel of the glory of God being the focus of all history and the whole of Scripture as it should be, it is now not even the center of preaching and it is not even mentioned much either. This is to say that the professing churches have humanized the teaching of Scripture and so it is no wonder if the world has humanized all things.

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Musings 38

March 10, 2014

It is shocking how little Christ is preached in our day. Despite the clear and unequivocal teaching by Paul on this subject, Christ is not the subject or focus of much of the preaching of today. Despite the fact that there is salvation in no other name, Christ is not the primary focus of preaching today. Despite the fact that Christ is the wisdom of God and of His people, Christ seems to be virtually ignored in churches today. Despite the fact that Christ is the sanctification of His people, He is not the center of sermons on sanctification. Despite the fact that Christ is the only righteousness acceptable to God and human beings must have Him to have a perfect righteousness much less any righteousness at all, Christ seems to be rarely set forth in that way. Despite the fact that each sinner must be redeemed and that Christ is the only redemption there is, He is not set forth as the Redeemer of His people. I would venture to say that the name of Christ is used in an irreverent way by the world than He is spoken of in a Christ-centered and reverent way by the professing churches of our day.

1 Corinthians 2:1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

Paul is so clear that his preaching was not using words with man’s wisdom, but he preached Christ and Him crucified. To the natural man the cross is foolishness and weakness, which may be why it is so ignored or barely mentioned here and there, but Christ is the wisdom and the power of God unto salvation. One aspect of the preaching of the cross is the demonstration of the Spirit and His power, which is to take men and show them how the Gospel of Jesus Christ is by grace alone and it is by the work of the Spirit alone. God commands people to repent and believe, but only the Spirit can give them saving repentance and saving faith. Preaching of the cross of Christ, then, shows men how the Spirit does this and so proclaims the power of God to men so that they may be turned from their own works and efforts.
Jesus the Christ must be set forth as the centerpiece of the glory of God in all things and in all texts if He is to be preached in truth and love. In Luke 24 Jesus took the Old Testament and showed the men how those things were written about Him. In order to preach the Old Testament, then, one must preach Christ because according to Christ Himself the Old Testament was written about Him.
Jesus the Christ is the very shining forth and revelation of the glory of God and so is should be the center of the revelation of God’s Word. The Scriptures are the revelation of God and Christ Himself is the revelation of God as well. The Spirit breathed forth the Scriptures and He is the Spirit of Christ and He is to reveal Christ and His glory. The Gospel is not just a few words about some things in history (with some apology for putting it that way), but the Gospel is about the resurrected Christ who is on His throne and rules and reigns in His kingdom. The Gospel of the glory of Christ is the Gospel of the glory of God and we cannot preach the Gospel apart from showing the glory of God in the face of Christ.
This is to say that there is no real declaration of the essence of the glory of God apart from Christ and there is no declaration of the Gospel of grace alone apart from the glory of God found shining forth in Christ. When preachers preach a text and that apart from Christ as the main point and meaning, they have not preached the real meaning of the text. When preachers preach a historical Christ and miss the glory of Christ, they have missed the historical Christ as well. When preachers preach a lot about Christ and even His cross but don’t show how the glory of God shines in Christ, they have missed who Christ really was and is. One could argue, then, that apart from preaching as Paul set forth that there is no true preaching. The only hope for unbelieving sinners and believing sinners alike is Christ and Christ alone. There is no hope in humor, in the wisdom of men, in great scholarship, in rhetoric not in conservative morality and doctrine. The only hope is the glory of God in the face of Christ. Without Christ-centered preaching there is no real reason for preaching.

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The Potter the Clay and Prayer 15

March 8, 2014

Jeremiah 18:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying, 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. 4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, 6 “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.”

Matthew 16:24 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. 25 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

The Scriptures tell us with great clarity that we cannot follow Christ unless we deny self, take up the cross, and follow Him. Surely, then, if people are not following Christ there is no true prayer from them. This is rather sobering to say the least. If a person cannot follow Christ it seems self-evident that a person cannot seek Christ in prayer. If a person is not willing to deny self and take up the cross, a person is not willing to follow Christ and as such a person is not willing to do what it takes to pray. In life a person is either wanting to save his life and way of life or is willing to lose his life or way of life for His sake. In prayer the same thing is true. A person that is either willing to save his life and way of life or is willing to lose his life or way of life for His sake is showing that s/he is willing to be clay or not be clay in prayer.

There is no following Christ until self has been denied, and there no real following Christ until self has really been denied. When self has been really denied, then self is clay in the hands of the Potter and He will make us into what He pleases rather than us trying to get Him to do our pleasure. Until self has been really denied and the cross has been taken up, a person wants to gain the world and as such will pray in that way. A worldly prayer can be from a very religious person as well as the Pharisees demonstrated quite well. The self will always stand in the way of true prayer and until self is denied there will be no true prayer. Until the self has been denied and the soul has taken up its cross, that soul is not ready to be clay in the hands of the Potter and as such it is not ready to pray.

The heart that is involved in true prayer is completely resigned to Him and His will and longs to be whatever God wants it to be in order that His glory would shine through it. While this may sound impossible to people who have not sought the Lord in truth but instead have sought Him for the things of self and of the world, it is not impossible for God to work this in human souls be grace. It is by grace alone that a soul can die to self and it is by grace alone that a soul will seek to take up its cross and follow Christ. It appears that many do take this passage seriously to some degree, but they forget that self must be denied in order to carry out the rest of the passage. If we are to deny self we are to deny self its rights before God and seek for it to die. Self cannot and will not cast out self, though it may try to trick others or self into thinking that it has. If self casts out something, it is still self doing the casting out and so it is not self that is being cast out.

This death to self and a seeking of Christ in life and in prayer can only happen when a heart has died to self and takes a position of clay before the Divine and sovereign Potter. The soul must deny self all of its rights (supposed rights) and even deny it a right to live. The soul must take the place of clay in the hands of the Potter and ask Him to do with it as He pleases. This is the soul that can truly pray and this is the soul that can truly seek the face of God. This is the soul that is seeking the Lord in order to be conformed to Him and this is the soul that is not seeking self but the glory of God. It is this soul that the Potter works in and works on in order to teach this soul how to truly pray and to truly seek His face and His glory in prayer. Until this happens, regardless of a person’s theological knowledge or eloquence, there is no true prayer. The people who have denied self by grace and are seeking His face are those that God teaches to pray. He does not just give them words to say, but hearts that desire to pant after Him and are willing to be like Him in order to pray and seek His glory.

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Reflections on and Admirations of God 15

March 6, 2014

God all-sufficient must needs be His own happiness; He has His being from Himself, and His happiness is no other than His being radiant with all excellencies, and by intellectual and amatorious reflexions, turning back into the fruition of itself. His understanding has prospect enough in His own infinite perfections; His will has rest enough in His own infinite goodness; He needed not the pleasure of a world, who has an eternal Son in His bosom to joy in; nor the breath of angels or men who has an eternal Spirit of His own; He is the Great All, comprising all within Himself; nay, unless He were so, He could not be God. Had He let out no beams of His glory, or made no intelligent creatures to gather up and return them back to Himself, His happiness would have suffered no eclipse or diminution at all, His power would have been the same, if it had folded up all the possible worlds within its own arms, and poured forth never an one into being to be a monument of itself. Edward Polhill

The understanding and view of the beauty and glory of God manifested by this statement (above) is simply breathtaking. The one and true God is absolutely and utterly self-sufficient and all-sufficient. He needs nothing and no particular person and not even all together. He has His being from Himself and is perfect in all things and in all ways and no one can add anything to Him. He reigns supreme in, though, and above the world and all creation.

This infinitely glorious God exists in tri-unity (Trinity) and as such exists in perfect love within Himself and has perfect and infinite happiness within Himself and His own perfections. His happiness, as noted by Polhill, is simply the radiance (shining forth) of His excellencies. As He shines forth in His excellencies, He has “amatorious reflexions.” The word “amatorious” is derived from amatory, which has the idea of relating to or being expressive of love, but particularly if sexual love. The word “amatory” can be described as have a relation to a stirring of sexual desire. What this points to, then, is not the idea of sexual relations within the spiritual nature of God, but it points to the nature of the love within the Trinity. God the Father shines forth out of Himself and that shining forth is the Son Himself (Hebrews 1:3). But the Son also loves the Father and so we have this strong and expressive love between the Father and the Son. This is a demonstration of at least one aspect of why God is said to be love.

This idea of God having perfect love and joy in Himself shows that “He needed not the pleasure of a world, who has an eternal Son in His bosom to joy in.” The Father existed from eternity and will exist for all eternity future with the eternal Son in His bosom and they have lived in this perfect amatorious love. In this love there is the shining forth of the perfections and infinite excellencies of God and in that shining forth, dwelling in, and admiration of the perfect and infinite joy and pleasure of God did not need an addition, but even more it could not have an addition to it. What could a created world add to a God that had infinite joy and pleasure in Himself? What could a created world do to fulfill a so-called need in the One who had and has and will never have a need? What can a small speck of dust one a planet that is itself a planet in the universe that is called man add to such a perfect and infinite Being?

What can a human being who has ever breath given to him or her do for a God that exists of Himself and holds the very being and every breath of every being in His hands to be given or not given as He pleases? However easy it may be for a human to fall on his or her face in utter fear of such a great God, this great God from a grace that is motivated by Himself and not the sins of men has decided to manifest His glory to these humans and to bring human beings (some) to rejoice and delight in Him and His glory. This God who had and has and never will have a need has created the world and all things in it because it pleased Him to do so and because it is an expression of the love God has within Himself and for Himself. This great and glorious God created all things because the Father loved the Son and the Son loved the Father and they lived in this great and infinite love and in some way this love created all things to display this glory to themselves.

We should just stand back or fall on our faces in admiration of a God such as this. Yet despite all the glory that shines forth in this created world, the cross of Jesus Christ is the roadmap of His glory and is the place where the greatness and glory of God is manifested the most. This great and eternal God has in some indescribable way has manifested His love for His own glory and perfections at the cross and it is there that poor and helpless sinners may behold God and His glory by grace and grace alone.

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The Potter the Clay and Prayer 14

March 5, 2014

Jeremiah 18:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying, 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. 4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, 6 “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.”

Submitting to the Spirit’s operations is like being laid naked upon a table to be cut for the stone.—Mortification carries death to the enemy of it, and is a stab at the heart. Nature’s conclusion is, “Therefore, not today.” (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

In the picture God gives His people of the clay and the potter, the clay has no feelings and is simply worked on as the potter pleases. God is the Potter and can do with His people as He pleases. However, the people (the clay) do feel this work and it is painful. To pursue the Potter with a heart that longs to be as the Potter would have it is to pursue what will bring trials and hard things. One picture is indeed the Potter forming the clay as He pleases, but the other side of the picture is the person being taken with nothing on and in the hands of another to take out that which is really hurting (a stone) though it will take surgery to do so.

But involved in this is a lot of self-deception. The soul tells itself that it is not really hurting that bad and it will get better if it is just left alone. But the Potter may let loose the raging passions of the soul and perhaps stay His hand and the soul “feels” like God has left it and has left it forever. But the Divine Physician has infinite wisdom and a steady hand in the work of the scalpel, so the cutting is always in just the right spot. The patient may not want this to happen and flee from it and the pain that it will cause, but God knows what He is doing and the patient should submit completely in His hands and know that despite the suffering and the pain it is best.

In prayer the soul is to seek the face of God, though many mistake prayer for a simple asking God a list of things. In prayer the soul must come to God as the sovereign and it must learn to seek Him regardless of what He asks the soul. The soul must learn to seek the sovereign God even when the soul is being buffeted by trials and hard things in life. The soul must learn to seek the sovereign God even when the soul feels like the person on the hard table without medication and being cut open by a scalpel. The soul must learn to seek the face of God even when the soul feels like it is a small boat on the open water in the middle of an ocean in a fierce storm. The wind and the waves are far more powerful than the little boat and it has the sense that it has not hope, but the wind and the waves are exactly the force that the sovereign God has assigned to it. The wind and the waves cannot overcome the smallest vessel if the Lord upholds it.

Those who love the Lord must come to Him in prayer as the Potter, but also they must come to Him as those who are going to the surgery table. Those who love the Lord will shrink at times from the mortification of sin, but this must happen. Those who love the Lord will look at themselves in great horror as the thoughts and desires of their hearts and mind seemingly overwhelm them, but they must look to the mighty power of the grace of God in the blood of Jesus Christ. There is no help in anyone else and much of the time it seems as if no one else can understand the dying throes of self, but regardless of that the soul must seek Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ went toward the cross out of His infinite love for the Father and He loved the Father the whole time He was on the cross. The pain and the suffering that He endured during His life and then while on the cross cannot be imagined by a finite mind. When all the blackest and most horrible of sins of the elect were imputed to Christ, He was the guiltiest criminal that the world has ever seen. He was the guiltiest of all since He bore all the sins of all the elect. How horrible must it have been to His holy soul to have had sin counted as His own and He must pay for them if they were to be paid for. How utterly unimaginable must it have been for such a perfectly holy being to be guilty of the most vile of sins. Who can imagine what must have went through His holy mind and heart to have those vile things counted as His. He alone can understand how some are tormented by their own sin. But He alone suffered and died for them so that the elect would never suffer for them in hell.

This is the Savior that we go through in prayer. He alone is our great Mediator and He alone can sympathize with our vile hearts when we don’t feel like we can pray. But even in those times Christ understands and Christ calls us to pray. It is in those times that the people of God are being fashioned into instrument of glory in ways that they cannot understand. So we must look through the pain and agony of our own sin and look to Christ in prayer and know that we are our own worst enemies and yet God is using these things to mortify the flesh. We learn a lot in prayer, but many times we also suffer in prayer and yet that is to teach us to truly pray.

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The Sinful Heart 99

March 4, 2014

It is a sore trial to the soul, which knows anything of itself, to come close up to God; He is light and
truth, all love and purity, the soul dark, selfish, and polluted with sin. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts
on Religion)

“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

It is entering deeply into the experience of the soul to write words like Adam wrote above. Oh how the deceitful heart wants to think that it wants God when in fact it is fleeing from Him. How hard it is for the soul to come to a deep awareness of how much it wants to flee from God and not see how selfish and wicked it really is. The soul may complain to God about how cold it is and how far God seems to be from it, but the real issue may be that the soul does not want to be close to God because it will have to give up all to have Him. The closer one gets to God the closer one is to the light and the closer one is to the light the more the dark, selfish, polluted soul is seen.

Even after the soul is regenerated the soul still has far too much pride and self-love or it to simply die to self with ease day after day. The soul is in a battle with itself, sin, and the devil. The regenerate soul loves God, but it still has that horrid self-love that it hates and yet is so easy to obey and follow. While God is pure and holy Truth, the soul is still uncomfortable the closer it gets to the light. While God is perfect love, the soul is not and in the light of the perfect and holy love of God the soul sees how little love it has and how deformed it is with such a great amount of non-love.

The holiness of God is His beauty and He shines forth in a blazing holiness, but the soul which is so polluted with sin does not always see the beauty of God’s holiness and shrinks from it. This is something like the children of Israel at Mount Sinai. The sight was fearful to them and they shrank back. The soul that has some taste like that in it knows the tearing sense in it as it wants to be closer to God and yet it shrinks back at the same time. The soul knows that the true theory is that the souls should long for God and seek for God with all of its heart and mind, but the sinfulness of the soul is a reality as well and it keeps the soul from seeking God as it should. The Lord brings to the mind of the soul that the pure in heart will see God, but this can also cause the seeking soul some anguish. How, it wonders, can I who am so polluted and vile ever have a pure heart? But the Lord in His great kindness teaches the soul in the inner man that it does not have to have a perfect heart in its own strength, but it must have more of Christ and its seeking Him must become more and more pure.

The Lord uses the soul’s sight of self as a way of showing the soul its sin and then through the anguish of that soul granting it a deeper repentance and a deeper love. This is something that can be thought of as cyclical in the sense that God shines light into the soul, the soul sees its darkness and vileness, and then the soul despises itself and cries out for grace to deliver it from itself. This is the time when the soul is seeking the Lord with some intensity and that is when it is seeking the Lord to be delivered from self. It is the soul seeking the holiness and love of God and finding that far more worthy, delightful, and beautiful than the hideous sin of self. Yet the soul is not perfect in its practice and so the Lord begins the cycle again.

Thus it can be seen that we are to seek the Lord with all of our being and those who love the Lord will seek Him, but at the same time the souls that seek the Lord will flee from His presence at times when they are overwhelmed by the light He is pleased to shine into their souls. Sensitive souls will even wonder if they are converted at times like that when they see so much darkness and vileness in their own hearts, but the Lord in His persevering grace will work in them so that they are granted repentance and will begin to seek Him again.

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