The Sinful Heart 98

March 3, 2014

It is much easier to join one’s self to a sect than to God…The soul is naturally frightened, and shrinks from the thought of living only upon God and to God.    (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)

A sect may offer much for the natural self of man. It is easy to respond in a positive way to those we think like us and will comfort the self when it is bothered in some way. On the other hand, God is determined to do what is good for the soul and that will require much suffering of self and even death to self. A sect will accept a person if they follow certain rules which the self can usually do fairly easily, but God will only accept a person if that person denies self, takes up the cross, and follows Him. This is why there may be more people in sects and people will fill the mega-churches and the buildings where error is taught. A sect is easily joined and easily impressed, but God alone can change the heart to where it can enter at the narrow gate and follow the narrow road. A sect can be joined with little commitment, but to be joined to God requires the submission of the whole soul.

The soul does indeed shrink from the thought of living solely upon God and solely to God. It not only shrinks from that, but it utterly hates the idea unless it is born from above. It is hard for a proud heart to even think of totally living upon God and to God much less actually step out and try to do it, but doing it is far harder than thinking about it as well. The soul is faced with many conflicts within and without day after day and it forces it beyond what it can do in the natural man. The natural man can try to be religious and it can try to rely upon God for all things, but the natural man cannot rely upon God for grace in all things. The natural man will find that he will always be excusing himself for trusting in himself, but the true believer finds that the battle must continue. This is a fight for holy thoughts and holy desires. This is a fight and a battle to the death over self and pride.

The thought of living totally upon God is devastating to the proud man and to the self-reliant. The thought of having to receive all by grace is more than the proud and self-reliant can handle. No, they think, they can do this themselves. But reality will set in sooner or later if they really and truly try to rest in grace alone for all things. Admittedly this is a foreign thought among professing Christians in the modern and self-sufficient world, but God does not desire for us to live for self because that is to the glory of self which is to be like the devil. The believer is to receive all from God on the basis of grace so that the glory of God will shine forth from Himself and then to Himself before Himself, the angelic realm, and the human beings who see.

It is also impossible for the fleshly man or woman to think of always living to the glory and honor of God rather than for self. The Great Commandment teaches us that all we do is to be done out of love for God. We are even commanded that whether we eat, drink, or whatever we do we are to do all to the glory of God. This appears so daunting and overwhelming, not to mention undesirable, that it is thought that surely God cannot mean that. So we think we are to do the best we can. But the commands of God should teach us what we ought to do and not what we can do in our own strength. The commands of God teach us to live by grace rather than to live by the strength of self. The command to do all for God teaches us that we must live totally upon His grace in order to do all for His glory, which is again so hard for proud and self-sufficient people to consider.

The proud and self-sufficient heart has a totally different conception of Christianity than does the Bible which teaches dependence upon God, humility, and brokenness. The proud heart will be religious as long as it can gain honor and have people watch the religiosity of it, but true Christianity teaches that we can only believe if we seek the honor God rather than the honor for self. The proud and self-sufficient heart wants people to look upon it as self-reliant, as strong, as moral, and as determined and tenacious. But the humble heart wants people to see its weakness so that whatever it does the glory will be God’s. The self-sufficient heart is really religious based on the fleshly nature, but the humble heart seeks Christ by grace and also for more grace. The soul is frightened at the thought of living only upon God and to God because it wants to trust self and do what self wants which is easy on self in reality. The cross calls us all to death to self that we may live in dependence on God and unto God.

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The Sinful Heart 97

March 3, 2014

We confess our emptiness to God in very strong terms; and when we have done praying, are apt to depend altogether upon ourselves… It is a vain and impious thought to imagine that I can do any thing by my own strength. Dependence on God, in every single act of thinking and willing, is both my duty and security.     (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)

The soul that has an eye on its own motives and desires will notice that the above statements are right on the money. The soul will cry out to God in prayer and confess how vile it is, how empty it is, and then how utterly impossible it is for it to do one right thing. However, it will rise from prayer and looking to itself it will then set out to do the tasks it sets before itself and in its own strength. It is far easier to recognize the sinfulness and helplessness of the soul in theory than it is in practice, but the problem is that we can also recognize it in prayer to some degree and yet the prayers also seem to be nothing but theory.

It is much harder to live by grace than it is to think about what it means to live by grace. The soul can see and think about the theories of these things and agree that these things are true and good, but actually doing them is quite a different thing. The soul can also strive to live by grace in its own strength and even think that it is living by grace in its own strength, but that is also a terrible deception. Grace can only be received by faith alone and that faith cannot be in the strength or wisdom of self to receive grace or to walk by grace. It is a fundamental and a huge mistake to trust in self to walk in grace.

Each person must learn to look at his or her own heart as they live and not just as they pray. A person can say many things and say them well in what that person may think of as prayer, but the professed prayer may not be the real prayer of the heart and even to a lesser degree reveal the real state of the heart. It is easy to do a good deed in order to make ourselves feel good about ourselves and to do it before men to gain honor for it. It is easy to do a good deed because we know it is the proper thing to do, and it is also easy to do a good deed because we know that we should do it for the sake of God. But it is impossible for the flesh of man to receive grace from God and then to do an act out of love for God. This is what happens when we depend on self to do an act or to depend on grace.

It is a very impious thought to depend on my own strength to do any one thing, but it is far worse to depend on my own strength and live the whole day that way. Even worse, it is a terrible thing to have lived an outwardly good life during the day and then feel satisfied that I have pleased God with the day. The duty of man, though far beyond his own strength, is utter dependence on God in every single act of thinking and willing. This is to say that to depend on God is to depend on grace alone. How this very thought sticks a dagger in the pride of human beings as it shows them that they must have grace to even think a good thought and that every true thought that is good is from grace alone. There is no room for pride because a good thought comes to the mind of the human being, but instead there is room for adoring the grace of God.

The soul that sees itself as utterly dependent upon God for its entire amount of true willing must look to grace for strength for all that it does. Jesus told His disciples that apart from Him they could not do one thing (good or spiritual). He told them that in the middle of His teaching on the vine. Christ is the vine, true believers are the branches, and so any fruit that comes from the branch in actuality comes from the vine. It is impossible for the soul to learn from its flesh that it must be completely and utterly dependent on God for every single act of thinking and willing, so it must learn this from the inner teaching of Christ. The mind can see the command to live by grace alone in all that it does, but it cannot learn the practice of this apart from the inner teaching of Christ.

Not only is this the duty of the believer, but it is the security of the believer as well. The believer that lives by grace that it receives from Christ is a secure believer. This is not a believer that falls into sin and stumbles around in unbelief, but instead this is the believer that has learned the secret of living upon a true manna and a true spring of living water. This is the believer that is truly living by Christ alone and grace alone. This is the believer that is led to springs of living water and feeds on the green grass. Living for Christ is for more secure than living for self.

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Reflections on and Admirations of God 14

February 28, 2014

Who is regulating affairs on this earth today—God, or the Devil? That God reigns supreme in Heaven is generally conceded; that He does so over this world, is almost universally denied—if not directly, then indirectly. More and more men in their philosophizings and theorizings are relegating God to the background…But who is regulating affairs on this earth today—God or the Devil? Attempt to take a serious and comprehensive view of the world…Sin is rampant; lawlessness abounds; evil men and seducers are waxing “worse and worse” (II Tim 3:13)…After nineteen centuries of Gospel preaching, Christ is still despised and rejected of man. Worse still, He (the Christ of Scripture) is proclaimed and magnified by very few. Despite frantic efforts to attract the crowds, the majority of the churches are being emptied rather than filled…Who is regulating affairs on this earth today—God, or the Devil? What saith the Scriptures? If we believe their plain and positive declarations, no room is left for uncertainty. They affirm again and again that God is on the throne of the universe; that the scepter is in His hands; that He is directing all things “after the counsel of His own will.” A.W. Pink

Psalm 46:8 Come, behold the works of the LORD, Who has wrought desolations in the earth.

The earth is full of crime and evil. The church appears to have virtually disappeared in terms of purity of doctrine, morality, and worship. Can God still be the sovereign of the universe? Pain, even agonizing and unrequited pain (both physical and mental) seem to be there no matter where we glance. So many point at things like that and declare that God cannot be both good and omnipotent and allow things like that. But instead of being an argument that God does not exist, this shows the glory of God in punishing sin. No, it is not a pleasant sort of doctrine to set out and explain, but it does set forth the reality of God instead of a children’s story about Him. The perfections and glory of God shines through in His wrath, holiness, and justice, though it must be admitted that these are the attributes of God that people hate the most. But the hatred of people toward the true God should not surprise anyone who has read the Bible.

The only god that the unregenerate world will tolerate and/or like is a god that is the god of their own making. The unregenerate world is full of the nicest and even most religious people around. The unregenerate world is full of the most popular and the cleanest and even richest people around. They are most likely the most respectable and perhaps the most educated, but they will come up with the most specious arguments and show their hatred of God when He is presented to them in truth. But the Scriptures are plain to those who really want to know God and His ways. The world today is what it is precisely because it has been ordained to be that way according to the eternal plan of God and He has poured out His wrath upon it by hardening hearts turning people over to sin as punishment for their previous sin.

The world is the way it is because of the wrath of God being poured out on it for its rejection of Him and for its enmity toward Him. While that is not a popular view, in reality it is the only view that leaves us with any hope at all. The Gospel is for sinners and for helpless sinners. The Gospel is not for those who think of themselves as having failed at a few things here and there, but it is for those who have been complete failures at earning the righteousness of God. The Gospel is not for all the nice people who think that they are good because they are nice, but the Gospel is for those who know that they have never loved anyone and especially God as they should have in their whole life. The Gospel is not for the religious people who think that they have a righteousness of their own in following their sacraments and rituals, but the Gospel is for those who have no power and no ability to earn a right standing before God.

The Gospel, then, is exactly fitted to a world of people who are in reality sinners and really bad sinners. The Gospel is the only answer to a world where no one has the ability to repent of his or her own power. The Gospel is the only answer to a world that has no way of obtaining righteousness at all much less enough to enter the gates of heaven. The Gospel is for the chief of sinners and for the lame. It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of the power of an omnipotent God to save sinners for His own sake by grace and grace alone. Only those who come to the knowledge of their extreme sinfulness and inability will see how glorious this Gospel really is, but more importantly they are the only ones who will want it. For the rest, they will remain proud and want to contribute something to their own salvation and righteousness. But the Gospel will not allow this at all and people hate that.

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Reflections on and Admirations of God 13

February 26, 2014

Who is regulating affairs on this earth today—God, or the Devil? That God reigns supreme in Heaven is generally conceded; that He does so over this world, is almost universally denied—if not directly, then indirectly. More and more men in their philosophizings and theorizings are relegating God to the background…But who is regulating affairs on this earth today—God or the Devil? Attempt to take a serious and comprehensive view of the world…Sin is rampant; lawlessness abounds; evil men and seducers are waxing “worse and worse” (II Tim 3:13)…After nineteen centuries of Gospel preaching, Christ is still despised and rejected of man. Worse still, He (the Christ of Scripture) is proclaimed and magnified by very few. Despite frantic efforts to attract the crowds, the majority of the churches are being emptied rather than filled…Who is regulating affairs on this earth today—God, or the Devil? What saith the Scriptures? If we believe their plain and positive declarations, no room is left for uncertainty. They affirm again and again that God is on the throne of the universe; that the scepter is in His hands; that He is directing all things “after the counsel of His own will.”     A.W. Pink

If we truly believe that God is sovereign over all things, then we must see that all the problems in the world are in His hands. The world appears to have been taken over by sin and more sin. A flood that appears to have come from a large moral sewer is about to cover the earth. It certainly appears that the deniers of Christ and those who preach a false Christ or a moral or historical Christianity are a vast majority in the world today. While this does shake the faith of some, the Bible tells us with great clarity that God works all things after the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11). How can it be, people say, that there is so much suffering in the world among animals and among innocent people, even children? How can it be that there is so much immorality that is flooding the world? Is God really on the throne of the universe?

Instead of backing off from that question, this should lead us to reflect on and admire the living God. Romans 1:18-32 is a powerful text to study in this regard. What we learn is that God shows His wrath from heaven “against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” If you care to read deeper in the text of Romans 1, what you see is the unsettling truth that answers many of our questions. God punishes sinners for their sin by turning them over to more sin. Sinners are blinded by their pride and so they think that they are going free, but in fact their sin is punishment for their previous sin. Their present sin will be punished by hardness of heart that will turn them over to more sin.

In light of the previous paragraph, the fact that there is a lot of sin in the world and that this sin appears to be getting worse is no argument against the sovereignty of God, but in fact is an argument for the glory of His holiness, righteousness, justice, and wrath. The world is a theater of and for His glory, but we have to have spiritual eyes to see these things and humbled and broken hearts to praise God for them. Our great and glorious God is not ashamed of His wrath and of His punishments upon sin, but instead calls for His people to worship and Him while He does these things. He is glorious in His wrath as well as His grace and love toward humans.

Psalm 46:7 The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah. 8 Come, behold the works of the LORD, Who has wrought desolations in the earth. 9 He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariots with fire. 10 “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” 11 The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold.

We see in verse 8 that the people are called to behold the desolations that God has wrought on the earth. He is exalted among the nations and in the earth, but how? In the text it appears that it comes about by His wrath. In reading Psalm 136 the people sing of praise to the Lord for His great lovingkindness. How is that lovingkindness seen? In the facts that He smote the Egyptians in their firstborn, killed Pharaoh and his army by drowning them, and other events like that. The Israelites praised in song God for those things. Is this to say that we are to make up and sing songs about our enemies being killed now? No, but it is to say that God is sovereign and He is on the throne. As the world is given over to more sin or perhaps if God chooses to bring a great revival, let us know that He is worthy of praise and adoration. We are to live humbly before Him and seek His glory regardless of what goes on around us. We can know that He is sovereign over all and is glorious in all that happens. Let us worship.

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Edwards on The God Centeredness of God 13

February 24, 2014

At least, a great part of the moral rectitude of God, whereby he is disposed to every thing that is fit, suitable, and amiable [i.e., pleasant, admirable] in itself, consists in his having the highest regard to that which is in itself highest and best. The moral rectitude of God must consist in a due respect to things that are objects of moral respect; that is, to intelligent beings capable of moral actions and relations. And therefore it must chiefly consist in giving due respect to that Being to whom most is due; for God is infinitely the most worthy of regard. The worthiness of others is as nothing to his; so that to him belongs all possible respect. To him belongs the whole of the respect that any intelligent being is capable of. To him belongs ALL the heart. Therefore, if moral rectitude of heart consists in paying the respect of the heart which is due, or which fitness and suitableness requires, fitness requires the greatest respect to be paid to God; and the denying of supreme regard here would be a conduct infinitely the most unfit. Hence it will follow, that the moral rectitude of the disposition, inclination, or affection of God CHIEFLY consists in a regard to HIMSELF, infinitely above his regard to all other beings; in other words, his holiness consists in this.      Jonathan Edwards

The above statement by Edwards (or at least the thought) should be considered to be the fountain of all things and all theology. Since the heart of theology is the study of God and living unto God, it would appear obvious that the study of theology would be at the heart of all things. This would also show how the nature and character of God would be absolutely vital to all things. While it may not be obvious to fallen man, how God relates to Himself as triune and the reasons for which God does things are absolutely in how things are to be viewed.

There is a huge theological and conceptual divide regarding God and how He relates to His creatures. On the one side we have people thinking that to some degree how God acts toward His creatures is related to their value and/or merit or works. In some regards historical Protestantism seems to think that this does not point toward them at all, but in fact it does. While many will hold to some theoretical concept of justification by faith alone, yet in many ways they have the idea of merit in their thinking when it comes to sanctification or answers to prayer. This is also seen in how people react in the hard things of life. We have a hard time believing (at times) that something happened to us, so our response is to think that we have done something wrong or God has not seen our good behavior. In all of these occasions we tend to think that God does what He does to us and toward us because of what we have done. This can be and often is a works based system.

The biblical system is that God works all things for Himself and based on Himself. When we are told to pray in the name of Christ, what this means is that we are to pray for the sake of the glory of Christ and on the basis of the merits of Christ. His name is not some magic word that we add on to the end of prayer in order to talk God into giving us what we want, but instead it is to pray with a God-centered motive and on the merits of Christ.

Why does God forgive sins? It is for the sake of His name and for the glory of His name. We tend to think of forgiveness as related to ourselves and how we long to be forgiven in order to obtain something we want, but God forgives sins because of Himself. “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; And deliver us and forgive our sins for Your name’s sake” (Psalm 79:9). It leaves man without any hope or strength in self so men resist the idea that God is self-centered and does all for Himself, though man wants all to be done for himself. In reality, however, there is no firmer foundation than the fact that God does forgive for the glory of His own name. If He forgives on the basis of man’s merit or worth, then there could be no forgiveness at all since man has no merit or worth before God. But since God does all for His own name and glory, He can forgive sins on the greatest of all foundations. Again, the greatest aspect of all Christian theology is that God does all that He does for the glory of His own name. If we begin to see and love that, we will see the firmest foundation is in fact that very truth.

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Reflections on and Admirations of God 12

February 23, 2014

“In the beginning, God” (Gen 1:1). There was a time, if “time” it could be called, when God, in the unity of His nature (although subsisting equally in three Divine Persons), dwelt all alone. “In the beginning, God.” There was no heaven, where His glory is now particularly manifested. There was no earth to engage His attention. There were no angels to hymn His praise; no universe to be upheld by the word of His power. There was nothing, no one, but God; and that, not for a day, a year, or an age, but from “everlasting.” During a past eternity, God was alone: self-contained, self-sufficient, self-satisfied; in need of nothing. Had a universe, had angels, had human beings been necessary to Him in any way, they also had been called into existence from all eternity. The creating of them when He did, added nothing to God essentially. He changes not (Mal 3:6), therefore His essential glory can be neither augmented nor diminished. A.W. Pink

It seems that words can almost hide the glory of God when we attempt to use them in certain ways, such as trying for an exhaustive description, rather than simply trying to point toward the glory. In this section (and in the context) Pink uses language in such a way where he simply points at the glory of God rather than try to be exhaustive in his descriptions, which should bring the soul to worship. Instead of thinking that we can comprehend God, we are to stand back and apprehend knowing that there is infinitely more to God than we can comprehend or have a comprehensive knowledge of. There is more to the glory of God than our finite minds and beings can contain and that includes growing in knowledge for all eternity.

It is hard to comprehend, though we can admire, a God that was totally and utterly alone in His Divine glory. It is hard enough for human beings to be locked up in a solitary confinement for extended periods of time, but God was alone for eternity past. This shows that He needed nothing, never has needed anything, and will never need anything or anyone. This also shows us that God has no need of earth, the planets, angels, or human beings. As He existed from eternity past self-sufficient in Himself and His own love and glory, so He had no need of the praise of any being at any point and will never need the praise of any being. This should set forth and exalt the living God in His absolute freedom to create when He pleased and how He pleased. No human power, intellect, or wisdom can limit Him in any way.

It is vital to recognize this essential self-sufficiency of God in all things. It is in light of that that we can understand the true plan and goal of creation, but also in sending the Son to save sinners in the Gospel. In creation and in the Gospel we see the eternal plan of God to manifest His glory. He planned this from eternity to manifest His glory to Himself, to created beings in the heavens, and then to and through human beings. He uses the weak and the ignoble (primarily) to manifest His glory through rather than the strong, the wise, and the noble. This living God had no need at all when He created and there was no way for Him to increase or diminish He essential glory, so we are left in utter admiration and wonder that He did these things to manifest His glory to the praise of His own name.

Human beings should bow in utter humility and with broken and contrite hearts cry out for grace that they may be used of Him to shine forth His glory, rather than trying with all their might to do things to make God look good. When you look at what the churches are in light of God’s eternal plan, all of the human works and endeavors must be viewed in that light. He does not need human beings to add to His glory, but instead human beings should seek the Lord that He would use them to manifest His glory through. God is totally self-sufficient and without any need of help or assistance, but in His sovereign beauty and glory He uses frail and dependent human beings as instruments of His glory. The fact that human beings are used to glorify Him teaches us of the nature of grace. It is not because of the merits of man or anything about man, but instead it is all about God. How beautiful and delightful is this grace that is displayed because it is God that is on display through Christ. How amazing is this grace that was not only moved by God when man did not deserve it, but man ill-deserved it. This grace and love of God totally depends upon Him and there is nothing a human being can do to earn or merit it in any way. This grace is amazingly free and uncaused by human works or merit, but is because God is moved by His own glory.

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Musings 37

February 23, 2014

It is difficult to estimate or know the damage that “the self” has done to each human soul. While Jesus taught and teaches that a person must deny self in order to follow Him, it appears that the most popular message is that Jesus is there to help people fulfill themselves. What we end up with, then, is that brand of pseudo-Christianity is actually harming people and is but another religious way to serve self rather than Christ. It is a particularly virulent sort of harm in that it tries to teach that God wants for man what sinful man wants rather than man needing to be regenerated and become like God. This leads to all sorts of books and media products that are nothing more than the building up of self.

In Philippians 2 Paul told the church there that he had no one to send them. “For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare. 21 For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus” (vv. 20-21). This is to say in order for a man to be a true shepherd of the flock of God that man must not be a seeker of the interests of self (literal translation), but instead be a seeker after the interests of Christ. It is only possible to be concerned for the spiritual welfare of souls if a person loves Christ and seeks the interests of Christ. The seekers of the interests of self may appear to have a spiritual interests in others and may even be self-deceived in some manner, but those who seek self in the depths of their hearts do all that they do out of self-interests. Their preaching may be orthodox, but it is for self rather than Christ and therefore will not truly be for His people either. They may have the services lined up perfectly and in order, but it is for self rather than Christ and His people.

When a people are taught that God loves all people and seeks their good by giving them what they (as fallen or natural men) want, this is simple and bold heresy. People must be taught that they must repent and seek God for Himself rather than the world. People are taught that God will give them what they want if only they will do certain things, but this is again to make God out to be a genie of some sort. The living God is to be bowed to and served according to His pleasure. The living God is to be bowed before and submitted to as a sovereign and glorious Being who gives to people as He is pleased to give them. The living God is to be wholly submitted to as clay in the hands of a potter with self given over to Him to be done with as He pleases.

It is the self in its likeness to the devil that fights God and wants to be served and wants self to be fulfilled. It is self that gets angry when it is denied what it wants. It is self that will blast away at people in anger and instead of loving the neighbor it will seek to do harm. It is self that hates others because they do not honor self as self wants. It is self that will trample on others in order to get what it wants and to climb a ladder to gain a position or honor. But all of this is still true of the religious self as well. Oh how that wicked heart will strive in the things of religion to gain honor and esteem for self. How that wicked heart will appear to deny self in many things, but that apparent self-denial is really for the sake of self and as such self is not truly denied.

When the self is not denied, it will grow worse and worse as God turns that heart over to sin and hardness of heart. As the sin of self increases, so does the blindness of self to self. The self is what part of man opposes God at each and every point. It is the proud self what rebels against God and His perfectly wise and holy will. It is the proud self that wants all things as it wants and is angry at God when He does not give self what it wants. It is this proud and self-centered self that wants to love self rather than God and the neighbor, which shows that even the best of what self can do is nothing but sin. The soul that is given over to self is in the hands of a fool and a vicious person who would kill God if s/he could get hands on Him.

The self, though it may feel good when it is being filled with its own selfish desires, is doing an unimaginable harm to the soul. Each sin that self does (which is everything that a person does) is as a child of the devil and that soul is doing nothing but treasuring up wrath for the day of wrath (Rom 2:4-5). With each thought, desire, and act the self is choosing itself and love for itself rather than for God and neighbor. Even when self does something that benefits others, it is still for the purposes of self. It is a horrible act of idolatry to want others to honor me rather than Christ, yet that is the nature of the sinful self. It lives a life of doing all things for self and the honor of self. In doing so, it is in direct opposition to all the commandments of God and God Himself.

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Regeneration by God 12

February 22, 2014

John 1:13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” James 1:21 Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.

This great doctrine of regeneration is so radical (in one sense) that not many are prepared to accept the implications of it. The doctrine of regeneration has tentacles (of grace and love that reach into all aspects of theology, but these glorious tentacles are centered and focused upon God and God-centeredness. Regeneration is either a doctrine of sovereign grace or it is something that man can attain to in some way by what he does. At this point the doctrine of total depravity and inability are seen in contrast to the sovereign grace of God who regenerates according to Himself and not according to anything found in man or done by man.

One of the biblical teachings that men hate is that all men are born dead in sins and trespasses and by nature they are children of wrath (Eph 2:1-3). This is to say that men must be made alive by some power outside of themselves and that their nature must change. The Scriptures also teach us that all men are born as children of the devil and that they must be changed by regeneration in order to become children of the living God. Another way to put this teaching of Scripture is that men are born with a nature of self-centeredness and self-love (selfishness) and must be born again in order to be God-centered with a love for God. The only people that love God are those that have been regenerated or born again.

1 John 3:9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

I John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

John 13:35 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

There is something unique and quite different from biblical love and what the natural man (whether religious or not) thinks of as love. The natural man thinks that when you are nice to someone and try to do nice things for them that this is love. In terms of romance, this is seen in giving things so one can obtain the feelings of others in return. But Divine love is far different. It is concerned about the glory of God and then how other human beings will love and glorify God. Divine love is not so much about doing nice things and getting nice things in return, nor is it concerned so much about the rush of feelings that the natural man is concerned about. This Divine love is focused on love for God and His glory. The greatest act of love that one human being can do for another is to direct them toward God and to love Him.

From I John 3:9-10 we can see that there are children of God and children of the devil and that a sign of being a child of God is loving a brother (spiritual brother, a Christian). From I John 4:7-8 we can see that the only people who love are those who are born of God and know God. No one who has not been born from above truly loves God or others. Then we see in John 13:35 that it is only the disciples of Christ who truly love. True love is the mark of a Christian and without this one cannot see that others are disciples of Christ. What should be noted again, however, is that the world and the religious world have their own ideas about the nature of love. Just because a person thinks that s/he loves does not mean that the person has true love. Just because a person is very nice does not mean that the person has true love. Just because a person is very religious and very nice does not mean that the person has true love. Religiosity, niceness, and human love can come from the natural man. True and Divine love can only come from God and will only be in regenerate souls.

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The Potter the Clay and Prayer 13

February 21, 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.”

The Old Testament sacrificial system pointed to Christ, but also to those who are to be like Christ. It was Christ who offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice, but His people are to be living sacrifices (Rom 12:1-2). Christ, who is the very life of His people, lives His life in them and works in them to be living sacrifices that grow out of His perfect sacrifice. The sacrifice of His people, then, is not something they can boast about and it is not about works that they can obtain merit through.

The only sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken and contrite heart. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise” (Psa 51:17). No human can ever sacrifice self or anything that can be obtained by a human and expect God to accept it apart from a broken and contrite heart. It is not the amount or the quality that God looks at, but He looks at the heart. A humbled heart which is one that is broken and contrite is a heart that is full of Christ and so God sees His own perfect image as He beholds the true believer. It is the believer that is united to Christ and as such is a broken and contrite heart that manifests the glory of God in what the believer does, and it is this way because it is Christ shining through the believer.

The word “sacrifice” in our text does not teach us to go out and do things that are costly or perhaps cause us pain, but instead it teaches us to be completely and totally given over to God. The sacrifices in the Old Testament were not costly to the people in one sense, but the sacrifice was a total giving over of the animal to the purposes of God. The life of the animal was His and all the parts of the animal were His to do with as He pleased. In other words, if we look at a sacrifice as an utter and irrevocable giving over to the purposes of God, we can see how the sacrifice of Christ pleased God. We can also see what it means to be a living sacrifice which is part of what it means for a human being to seek to be clay in the hands of the Divine Potter. The clay is in the hands of the Potter and it is totally given over for His purposes. The broken and contrite heart is a heart that is totally given over for the purposes of God as well. This is another reason why the Lord loves the true sacrifice.

When we think of what a broken heart is, the teaching of John Bunyan on this subject comes to mind. He taught that we can learn much about a broken heart from thinking of a broken leg. When a leg is broken (a compound fracture), it has no ability to support any weight on it. It is basically a helpless limb and cannot help a person with anything. So a heart that is broken is a heart that realizes how weak and helpless it is before the living God. A broken heart sees that it is utterly unable to do anything, but instead it must lean on another. As such we can see the clay in the hands of the Potter. The clay has no ability and no strength to do what the Potter wants, but instead the clay must be clay (helpless and without strength) so that it can be molded into an instrument that the Potter desires.

When we think of what the concept of sacrifice has to do with prayer, it should be obvious that we are to come to God (Divine Potter) and present ourselves to Him as totally given over and an irrevocable giving over when we come to pray. We come before the living God without any rights and without any strength. We come before the living God to be dispensed with as He sees fit. We come before the living God to seek Him for strength, for wisdom, and for understanding that His glory would shine through us. When we come before the living God to pray, we come asking for hearts to love and desire for His name to be honored and glorified, because we cannot work those things up from our proud selves. In order to do what He commands we must have Him work those things in us. For us to pray as Jesus taught us to pray, we have to seek Him for true love and desires to seek Him for those things. We are truly helpless in prayer and in all things. A lump of clay is a good description, though even that does not take into account our sin.

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Musings 36

February 20, 2014

The great teachings of Scripture on the doctrine of justification have always been under attack and perhaps especially so in the modern day. Martin Luther wrote and spoke in justification by faith alone and in doing that he was defending the teaching that man is justified by the sovereign grace of God alone. But in the modern day the idea of faith has eroded as well as where faith comes from and what it does. Part of how the biblical teaching on faith has disappeared (seemingly) is that we now simply ask people if they believe something rather than examining them and helping them examine themselves to see if they are in the faith and if Christ dwells in them.

Much of this might have been avoided if Luther would have spelled out what he meant and referred to justification as justification by Christ alone. It seems to me that this has a greater clarity for the ages, though indeed the prophets and lovers of error who want to contribute something to their own salvation or to maintain some control over it would have and will twist anything to keep (they think) their free-will. Without trying to say Luther was wrong in saying what he said because he was fighting errors in his own day, yet in our day (at the least) it appears that justification by Christ alone is a better way to put things in contrast to the modern errors.

When it is said that a person is justified by Christ alone, there is no real doubt that this is a message of truth about grace alone. There is no argument about a person being able to add to anything that Christ has accomplished, but instead it is by Christ alone. What righteousness can a person bring to the fore and add to what Christ has fully accomplished? What suffering can a person bring forth and say that it adds to the suffering of Christ on the cross when He Himself declared that “it is finished”? Where can a new heart come from unless Christ has accomplished the purchase of a new heart in His live, sufferings, death and resurrection? Where can a living faith (since it unites to a living Savior) come from apart from the work of the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of the living Christ?

How can a full and free justification depend in any way upon my belief? If Christ has accomplished what the Father planned from all eternity and sent the Son to accomplish, then my belief of it has nothing to do with what Christ has actually done. My belief (actually, faith) can only be there if I am united to Christ Himself and He is my life and the very life of my faith. It is God who takes people from the kingdom of darkness, evil, and disbelief and transfers them into the kingdom of His Beloved Son (and unites them to the Son) and that does not depend on my faith/belief, but instead faith is given to the soul in regeneration and the soul is spiritually alive because it is united to Christ. As such faith must look to Christ alone and not to self for faith or for evidences of faith/belief. True faith/belief cannot be found as coming from self as faith does not come from being united to self, but instead it is only seen in whether it is united to Christ or not.

A true faith in Christ will always have evidences because Christ will always manifest Himself in some way, but this is not to say that a true faith will always be perfect and so absent from any doubts or even forms of unbelief. But a true faith, though it may take some period of time in great trials, will begin to focus on Christ rather than self. This great and glorious teaching of justification by Christ alone will begin to get the eyes of the sinner off of the sinner and back on to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The Scriptures teach us that all things are from Him, though Him, and to Him. Such is the true faith of those who have been justified by Christ alone. They may wander a bit here and there, but the living Christ who is live Himself will draw their wandering eyes and hearts back to Himself. He purchased their sanctification and He will apply it.

The Lord Jesus Christ has fully and completely satisfied the wrath of His Father in the place of His people and there is no sin that has the power to take their soul from Christ, though it may have the power to distract. The Lord Jesus Christ earned a perfect and complete righteousness for His people and there is no need of any other righteousness (and no other righteousness is acceptable either) to enter the gates of glory. The Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect Husband of His people and the perfect Head of the Church. The Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect King of those in His kingdom and no one can take them out of His hands. The Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect Mediator as He has offered a full and complete satisfaction for the sins of His people and He ever lives to intercede for them. The Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect Prophet and He will teach His people in His perfect timing. Oh how sinners need to recognize the beauty and perfection of the perfect justification which Christ has accomplished. It is indeed and will always be justification by Christ alone. A person’s belief accomplishes nothing, so no need to trust in it.

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