Conversion, Part 57

March 14, 2010

As we think through the issue of what biblical conversion really is, the ramifications of this are enormous. The Great Commission is usually just tossed out to people in an effort to get them to go out and do evangelism. But the Great Commission does not explicitly command evangelism. It does not command people just to go out and share with others or just to go out and tell others about Jesus. It commands people to make disciples. In other words, the Gospel we preach needs to be in line with people becoming true and whole-hearted followers of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ that we preach must be one that by the power of the Spirit actually converts sinners from being children of the devil to children of the living God. The Gospel of Jesus Christ that we preach must be the Gospel that is the power of God for salvation to those that believe (Rom 1:16-17). The Gospel that is the power of God is the Gospel that saves people from hell and from sin itself. There is no Gospel and no salvation of God that leaves people in the power of their sins.

But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21 “You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.” 22 “Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 “For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity” (Acts 8:20-23).

In the passage above we have the story of Simon. He made a great show of turning from his magic which is a demonstration of some form of repentance. He believed and was baptized. But Simon’s heart had not been changed and he was still in his sin. He was told that he had no part or portion in the matter because his heart was not right before God. Simon of others did not charge Peter with judging his heart as people today would. Peter then went on and judged the intentions of the man and told him that he needed to repent of his wickedness so that the intention of his heart may be forgiven. Peter didn’t even promise forgiveness, but he said “if possible” and then “may.” Peter told Simon that he could see that he was “in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.”

What we see then is an application of the Great Commission. The disciples did not rest in the fact that the man had made a profession and was baptized. They did not rest in the fact that the man had a great outward repentance. Instead, when they saw that this man was still in bondage to his iniquity they stopped considering him as a believer. When Peter saw that the man was in bondage of his sin he told the man that he had no part or portion in the matter. That is what happens when the Great Commission is taken seriously and people stop being so focused on adding numbers to their charts. We can keep count of how many have prayed a prayer, have walked aisles; have been dunked in water, and who take classes. But Jesus commanded us to make disciples of all the people groups. Disciples are to be baptized. Disciples are to be taught to do (not just taught about) all (not just what tickles their ears) that Jesus commanded. When a person has made a profession goes on to show that his or her heart is still in bondage to sin, that is a demonstration s/he is not a disciple of Jesus Christ. That person is still a follower of self.

If the Great Commission would only be carefully read and prayed over the professing Church might begin to see some great evils that have been brought into the “Church” by a false type of thinking about the Great Commission. If we think of our goal as fulfilling the Great Commission, then what we think it commands is what we will do to some degree. If we think that the Great Commission is fulfilled by massive amounts of dollars and efforts toward a form of evangelism that is based on an easy prayer, then that is what we will do. But that has nothing to do with the Great Commission. The Great Commission instructs us in many ways how to do evangelism. Our evangelism must be based on the true conversion of the soul by God. It is only the souls that have been truly converted by the power of God who will truly be followers of Christ. Souls who have decided for themselves and follow Christ in their own power will not obey all that Christ commanded. They will follow what they want to follow or what is in their own power to do. That is pretty much what the Pharisees did as well. They limited the commands of God to outward things to be done and then set about doing them. The followed self and not God.

For anyone to set out to actually do all that Christ commanded in his or her own strength shows that the person has not been truly converted. As Simon’s greed came out when he desired the ability to give the Holy Spirit so many people’s true hearts are seen when it comes time to actually do all the commands of Christ. The half-hearted person will stop at some point. Those who are doing in their own strength will begin to fade or water down the commands of Christ following the time honored way of saying that God would not command what we cannot do. We should also note that it is far easier to study the commands of Christ than it is to do them. Many people are happy to set around and speculate on the commands of Christ, but when it comes time to actually do them they will find other things to keep them busy. But Jesus commanded His people to teach others to actually do what He commanded. So we can simply say that when we see large “churches” full of people not doing what He really commanded we can know that they have not been evangelized and taught to do what He commanded. One can fill old sports coliseums with a smile and easy stories, but those people are not being taught to do all that Christ commanded so they are not true disciples. That may sound judgmental to many, but so be it. Those people are not being taught the commands of God and are certainly not being taught to actually do what He commanded.

It is also easy to talk about evangelism, but it is much harder to actually do it. It is also comparatively easy to do what is known as “cold turkey evangelism.” It is easy to walk up to a stranger and dump a little information on the person. But what is harder (much harder) is to actually begin to deal with a person about the sin of the heart which is rebellion against God. It begins to take time if we are called upon to actually begin to teach a person what Jesus commanded, but it is far harder and takes a lot longer to teach a person to actually do what Jesus commanded. It is at this point, I would think, that personal evangelism must begin to be seen in a different light. If we take the Great Commission and really begin to look at it, personal evangelism must then be seen in light of the ministry of the whole local church. People grow in the faith and are taught to do the deeper things of God in the context of a local church. The Great Commission is not given to a group of excited people who have the energy to go out and throw out some Gospel bombs; it was given to those men who were later called the foundation of the Church.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22).

Jesus specifically gave the Great Commission to His eleven disciples (Mat 28:16). How did they obey it? They went out and evangelized in such a way that biblical churches sprang up. Paul was added by Jesus as an apostle and he went out, preached the Gospel, and churches formed. While Jesus is the foundation in one sense, the text above teaches us that in another sense the apostles and prophets were also a foundation. It was upon them, their work, and their writings that the Church is built on. From the book of Acts through the book of Revelation we see the beginning of churches and the work of churches. Believers were added to the Church. Believers were baptized into the Church. The Great Commission was given to the disciples and they went out and baptized believers and then taught them all that Jesus commanded them to do. Making disciples is the job of the local church.

The whole issue of baptism is also at stake here. It is not just anyone that is to be baptized, but it is disciples who are to be baptized. In the New Testament times it meant something to be baptized. This is pointed to by the fact that a person was commanded to be baptized in “the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Baptism is not just a mark of identification, but it is taking the name of the Trinity upon a person. It is a covenant with God that the person being baptized is no longer his own but is now owned by God. It is not just repeating the names of the Persons of the Godhead over the person being baptized, but it is a covenant that is being performed inwardly when it is done with the right heart. In the New Covenant God says He will put His law in their minds and write them on their hearts (Heb 8:10). But then the same verse goes on to say this: “AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.” In baptism a person takes God to be their God and to be His. In other words, in baptism as person agrees to actually do all that Jesus commanded them to do. How do they know what to do and then how to do it? His Law is in them and His people will be teaching them what to do and how to do it.

The Great Commission is so far from a cheap and popular form of evangelism that it should chill us to the depths of our souls that it has been reduced to such a cheap imitation. But let us face the facts; it has been. If Jesus commanded His disciples to teach disciples to do all that He commanded them, then that command comes to us as those taught to do all that He commanded (should have been) and so we are to teach others to do all He commands. One of His commands is to teach others to do all that He has commanded. But let us learn to evangelize in such a way as to pursue the true conversion of souls or we will practice the true deception of souls. Let us learn to start and/or build churches that teach disciples to do all that Jesus commanded. If not, we will show ourselves to be like Simon who was excited at first, made a great show, but when it came time to deny self he followed the commands of self rather than the command of Christ. He had made a great external change, but he was not willing to actually do all the commands of Christ.

The professing Church is so willing to do evangelism because it increases the numbers in the church (honors us before others) and the offerings (increases our pay and honor in the denominations). But in our day it is not willing to obey the command of Christ to make disciples by teaching them to do all that He has commanded. The professing Church of our day, therefore, is not keeping the Great Commission no matter how much it supports an easy form of evangelism and other good works. The command of the Great Commission (once again) is to make disciples by teaching them to actually do all of His commands. We have fallen far short as we are not even teaching people what the commands are much less teaching them to actually do them. We have much mourning and repentance to do. After all, Jesus commanded those as well.

Posted in Conversion | Leave a Comment »

Provocation to Prayer, Part 31

March 14, 2010

The following quotes are taken from A History of the 1859 Ulster Revival, Volume 1.

The moment in this immediate neighborhood has assumed the startling character of unexpected and instantaneous ‘conversions,’ accompanied by the physical and spiritual operations of some overwhelming power upon the minds and bodies of the parties so converted…A spirit of genuine religion appeared to have fallen upon many of the people; and the work was regarded as the power of godliness upon the human heart. Men of irregular habits became suddenly and permanently changed; institutions for prayer were established throughout the parish, and very numerously attended; drunkards became peaceable, sober, and religious members of society; houses, once the habitations of wickedness, became sanctuaries of praise, and roofs that formerly echoed with sounds of obscenity, now cover altars of family worship, and resound with the anthems of the royal psalmist….

The word of ‘conversion,’ as it is called, here assumed the form of a supernatural intervention and miraculous agency. Men were suddenly ‘struck’ with an overwhelming and terrifying conviction of their sin and danger, and directly thrown into a state of intense bodily excitement, and mental phrenzy -in short, they became, as it were, ‘possessed.’ In this state the whole frame is shaken by some species of uncontrollable convulsion; every muscle quivers, and the entire nervous system is completely deranged. The party so affected feels impelled to by some irresistible influence to pray-and does pray, loudly, unceasingly, and with desperate earnestness-for pardon of sin and acceptance by the mercy of God through Jesus Christ. In this extraordinary agitation of mind and body, the penitent continues to struggle for an indefinite period-generally less than two days; and finally becomes impressed with a gladdening sense of peace and grace, quite as suddenly as he had previously been impressed with fear.

In revival things are different. This is to be expected in many ways, though when revival comes to a church the intensity and power of the presence of God takes prayer and worship to a different level. One pastor spoke of the Spirit coming to a group of people in a room praying while he was not present. When he went to the room and saw the people acting strangely, he rebuked them. But then the Spirit came while he was there and He saw that God changes things. When a soul is being worked on by the living God that there are bodily reactions and things don’t always go according to the rules manners of men. The presence of God shakes things up and changes things. We have biblical testimony to the fact that the soul must be strengthened by the Spirit so that Christ may dwell in it (Ephesians 3:16-17). Christ cannot dwell in a soul unless it is strengthened by supernatural power.

When this power comes upon a soul the body will display certain behaviors that are not in accordance with good manners and civil religion. But in true revival the overwhelming power of God is what comes upon the souls of human beings. Scripture tells us of all kinds of reactions to the presence of God as well. We have people falling on their faces as if dead. The sense of the holy brings sensations to the soul and body that leaves the body without strength. Daniel lay before an angel as if dead. In the book of Revelation we have John falling as if dead. When Jesus stilled the storm the disciples were even more afraid of Him than they were of the storm. Isaiah (ch 6) was in agony when he saw the Lord in the glory of His holiness. A holy God is terrifying to unholy souls.

When human beings come into the presence of holiness they see their sin and they cry out to God for forgiveness of sin and their prayers are real and are from souls with an inner fire. The desire to pray is irresistible because the inner fire is burning with a conviction of sin brought on by the Holy Spirit or by a joy so deep the body cannot handle it. A soul in the presence of a holy God must pray and it will pray. Souls in the presence of the fire of God don’t act the same way they do as when they are cold and hard. In revival prayer flows from souls with an intensity because they have an intense awareness of God. In revival the very entertainment of people is prayer. In times of coldness it is hard to pray and prayer meetings are sparsely attended. Do our churches desperately need hundreds of visitors? What we really need is for the Lord to give us hearts to pray so He will visit our churches. Revive us oh Lord!

Posted in Prayer | Leave a Comment »

Humility, Part 71

March 13, 2010

One of the great puzzles that thinking on humility and pride brings is how religion can express a proud heart in ways that God seems to hate more than the openly sinful heart. When we see this, it shows the utter necessity of the soul having humility for salvation and then for sanctification. It seems as if God was more wrathful on the Israelites than He was on openly sinful nations. He would use openly wicked nations to punish the Israelites. Habakkuk 1:5 records the words of the Lord to the prophet about the Israelites: “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days– You would not believe if you were told. 6 “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth To seize dwelling places which are not theirs.” Habakkuk had been praying about the sinfulness of the nation of Israel just before, but this answer from God shocked his sensibilities beyond his ability to understand.

Habakkuk’s answer showed how he could not believe what he was hearing: “12 Are You not from everlasting, O LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. You, O LORD, have appointed them to judge; And You, O Rock, have established them to correct. 13 Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they?” He could not believe that God would punish the Israelites with a people that he judged to be worse than the Israelites. He could no believe that God could and would do this. It was in the context of Habakkuk waiting on the Lord for a reply that the words of 2:4 are given us: “Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith.”

God hates pride. When a person with pride tries to use the things of God to further his own pride and selfish heart, it appears to be a sin that is worse than other sins. Even the unforgivable sin seems to be something that only very religious people can commit. It was the Pharisees that Jesus warned about committing the unforgivable sin. The Pharisees also received the strongest and harshest words from Jesus for their religious activities done from a proud heart. We can see how God hates pride in Proverbs 8:13 and its clear teaching: “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate.” God is determined to fight the proud and to bring them down in His way and His time. “Thus says the LORD, ‘Just so will I destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem” (Jeremiah 13:9). So it is clear from Scripture that God hates pride and there is an especial hatred of it in people who practice religion. The things of God, when in the hands of those who is proud in heart, are things that arouse His anger more because they are closer to Him than other things. It is the heart of a person who would dare use the things that He has especially made to be used to magnify the glory of His grace and people use them to try to earn something, bring Him under their control, or to earn merit from Him. It is a heinous sin that is directly against God in a closer way than even open sin. We must beware.

We must ask a tough question in light of God’s opposition to pride. Can a soul be redeemed from if it has not been delivered from pride? We tend to think of salvation in terms of eternity, but a soul is saved in this life and then enters eternity. If pride and self are the sin or perhaps the sin of the heart that is most opposed to God and He is most opposed to, can we really say that a person has been converted if that person has not been delivered from pride and has the life of humility? Habakkuk 2:4 tells us very clearly that the proud person does not have a right soul in him. Jesus tells us that unless a person is turned to become as a little child that person will not enter the kingdom of heaven. The proud heart must be broken or the religious person will remain under the wrath of God and even more of the wrath of God than the open sinner. We must beware of pride in the heart all the while knowing that pride in the heart hides our own pride to us. Apart from that pride being broken our use of the things of God will do nothing but bring more and more condemnation upon our souls. Apart from our souls being broken from pride all the religious things we do is treasuring up wrath for the day of wrath as set out in Romans 2:4-5.

But let us remember that we must hear the Word of God if we are going to have true faith. So we must not run from the things of God out of fear that they will increase our condemnation. Instead we must learn to use them correctly. They are only used correctly when with humility we seek God Himself in them. We must read the Word of God with humility asking Him to teach us spiritual wisdom. We must humble ourselves and pray and seek His face. We must know that the things of God are meant to teach us about God and to teach us to seek His face for His glory rather than things for our own purposes and pride. It is hard to imagine how a person can be saved if s/he has not been delivered from pride and self-sufficiency. After all, we are to trust and rest in Christ alone.

Posted in Humility | Leave a Comment »

Provocation to Prayer, Part 30

March 7, 2010

In praying for revival each person that prays has some idea of God that drives him or her and some reason for wanting revival to occur. The question, however, is whether our idea of God is correct and whether our desire for revival accurately reflects the nature of God. If we think of God as essentially mean, sour, and severe then we think He would be reluctant to send revival. That is a different idea of God than One who lives in perfect pleasure within the Trinity and loves to see His glory manifested. That would bring the issue back to our own hearts. Perhaps human beings have to be conformed to His image for Him to send revival through us. Perhaps revival is not something that God is reluctant to send, but perhaps we are not like Him “enough” for Him to work His true glory through.

Isaiah 66:4 tells us that it is sin to choose that which God does not delight in: “So I will choose their punishments And will bring on them what they dread. Because I called, but no one answered; I spoke, but they did not listen. And they did evil in My sight And chose that in which I did not delight.” On the other hand, Psalm 37:4 commands us to “Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.” We are commanded here and in many places to rejoice in Him and delight ourselves in Him. Are we to rejoice in a God who has no capacity for rejoicing in Himself? Can we really delight ourselves in God if He is morose and sullen Himself?

We must come to understand that God is a God that does as He pleases (Psa 115:3). In the context of the text this is what it means to be God. Not only does He do all that He wants, but He does all He is pleased to do. If God does all He is pleased to do, then He is pleased with all that He does. He tells us that part of His glory is to be gracious to whom He will be gracious (Exodus 33:18-4:7). He shows grace and saves sinners to the good pleasure of His will to the praise of the glory of His grace (Eph 1:5-14). God will send revival when it is His pleasure to do so. While the Lord hides behind frowning providences at times, our faith must learn to pierce the dark clouds and rest in the God who does all for His own pleasure. Scripture tells us that God has delight and pleasure in His Beloved Son (Mat 3:17), that the Son is the tabernacle of His glory (John 1:14), and is the shining forth of His glory (Heb 1:3). It is the very pleasure of God to shine forth His glory in Christ Jesus because He loves the Son who is the shining forth of His glory. Therefore, God will not be pleased to send revival until His people learn to seek Him for the emptiness of self needed to preach Christ crucified rather than themselves. He will not send a revival of His pleasure and glory until His people are humbled so that Christ will shine forth in them. That is His work of pleasure in them.

Until souls are praying with a true desire for His glory in the face of Christ (II Cor 4:4-6) they will not be praying out of love for the Gospel. Until souls love God enough that they want Him to be pleased and for His pleasure to be done, they will not be praying for revival with a heart that has the same reason that God will send revival. When we pray for revival we are to pray for what is the pleasure of God. It is not that God hates revival and it is not that He is neutral about the things we pray for. Rather than that, it is His pleasure to shine forth His glory in Jesus Christ and it is His pleasure to save souls to the praise of the glory of His grace.

We are told that whatever we do we are to do to the glory of God (I Cor 10:31) which is to say that we are to live to the pleasure of God. Instead of finding pleasure in the world, we are to find pleasure in His pleasure. This means we should seek revival simply because we seek His pleasure in Christ. We are to deny the sinful self in order to seek the pleasure of God which should be the pleasure of our spiritual self. If our spiritual self is what receives all from Him and is like Him, then we should have our greatest delight in spiritual things. Revival is God shining forth His glory in Christ and so spiritual things become the true delights of His people. Prayer is no longer a burden but a delight because it is a joy to seek those things which please the Father. Longer prayer becomes more joy. Colossians 1:19 tells us that it was “the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.” Galatians 2:20 says Christ is our life. Psalm 149:4 tells us that “the LORD takes pleasure in His people.” Philippians 2:13 says that “it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” When God begins to work in His people to truly pray and seek revival, His good pleasure is working in them. When God shines out and manifests His glory in Christ to the delight and pleasure of His people, revival will be close if not here. Let us pray to hasten that day.

Posted in Prayer | Leave a Comment »

Conversion, Part 56

March 6, 2010

The Great Commission is a term or concept that is being used a lot these days. However, the very heart of the Great Commission has to do with true conversion. The Great Commission is not a mandate to go out and tell as many people as you can a watered down version of something about Jesus Christ in order to get them to say a prayer or to join a religious group. The Great Commission has to do with true conversion and discipleship. In other words, for the past several months this newsletter has focused on what Scripture has to say about conversion and then about conversions that Scripture gives an account of. But it also had a lot to do with the heart of the Great Commission. The Great Commission does not command us to go out and make converts of ourselves with our own peculiarities and in our own methods and ways; it is to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

As we look at the text that gives us the words of the Great Commission, the first thing that we should note is that it does not even mention evangelism. If nothing else, that should get our attention and perhaps trouble us. When we read the Great Commission we have learned to read it in a certain way. If we have been taught that this commands evangelism, then we read it with that in mind and think that this verse commands us to go and evangelize every person in the world. If we think of evangelism as simply telling people some canned message about Jesus and lead them in a prayer, then we think we have to get all the people in the world to hear our canned message so that they will say a prayer. We usually come to this text with many presuppositions that determine how we view the text rather than letting the text itself determine how we should view these things.

Jesus came to the disciples and told them that “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” This is a massive theological statement. He just made the claim that He had been given all power and all authority over the entire planet. In Mark 3:14-15 we note that when he appointed the twelve to go out and preach and He gave them the authority to cast out demons.” Before that Jesus Himself cast out demons which is evidence He had authority to do so. Now He gave the disciples the authority to do so. In Matthew 28 all authority had been given to Him and He told people what they were to do in light of that authority. In Mark 3 the disciples were given authority to cast out demons so now they could cast out demons. In Matthew 28 it is on the basis of the authority of Jesus in the whole earth that His disciples were to go out and do what He commanded and gave them authority to do.

What we must see is that the authority of the disciples of Christ begins and ends with the words and commands of Christ. When we do more or less than what He has commanded, we are taking the authority to do so from a place other than Christ. Some call that idolatry. Jesus never commands anyone to do anything in this text except to make disciples. It is in light of who He is and the authority over all the earth that had been given Him that He tells the disciples to go and make disciples of all the nations. That is the Great Commission. The rest of what is in the text has to do with describing what is to be done in making disciples and what disciples are to do. Acts 11:26 is very instructive in this context: “and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.” The very term “Christian” is for disciples. It is the disciples that were first called “Christians.” Only true disciples are Christians and only Christians are true disciples. A non-disciple is a non-Christian.

The word “disciple” is last used in Scripture in Acts 21:16. No other term seems to have replaced it, but instead of being individual followers of Christ it seems as if believers were part of churches. Nevertheless, the concept of disciple is found throughout the pages of the New Testament. Paul uses the word “saint” many times in a way that could only mean people who were disciples. We have the term “believer” used as well. In the New Testament we have the word “saint” (singular) only used once while the words “saints” (plural) is used 67 times. The word “disciple” (singular) is used thirty times while the plural “disciples” is used 241 times. A disciple or a saint is a follower of Christ who follows Christ with others in a New Testament Church. Jesus Christ stated that disciples are to make disciples. That teaches us that saints are to be working in churches to see others grow as saints in Christ.

The preaching of the Gospel is necessary for someone to be born again into the family of God and be a saint. All true believers are saints and all true Christians are saints. A saint is one that God has called out from the world and declared to be holy on the basis of the work of Christ. The preaching of the Gospel must look toward that goal. The preaching of the Gospel is for the purpose that God sets it out to be. The Gospel is the means by which God saves sinners from the world and makes them saints or disciples. The Great Commission includes the preaching of the Gospel, but it is preaching the Gospel in such a way as to make saints rather than false converts. A true convert is one that is a true saint and that person becomes a disciple (learner and follower) of Christ. A person that makes some sort of commitment and prays a prayer and yet does not truly follow Christ is not a converted person.

The Great Commission must not be used to excuse forms of evangelism that have nothing to do with discipleship or of people being true followers of Christ. True enough it does not make for numbers that are as impressive, but it does make for following Christ in the way His authority has set out. It does mean that in striving to do things this way that we are following Christ and not ourselves. True obedience to the Great Commission is to seek to make true disciples of Christ. We are not practicing biblical evangelism if we are not looking to make true disciples in our evangelism. A true disciple is baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is more than just the repeating of words and the application of water, this is a confession that the person is taking the name of God and is giving up his or her own rights to self. It is an act of obedience but it must also be an act of the heart in bowing to the Lord and denying self its rights and taking Christ as Owner, Master, and Lord. Anyone who will not do that is not a disciple of Christ and is not a converted person.

The Great Commission includes teaching disciples to do all that the Lord commanded the disciples to do. It is not a command to have a nice Bible study with people and call it good, but it is a command to teach disciples to do and not just to know. Until disciples have learned to do what the Lord has commanded they have not been taught as Christ commanded. A converted person is a person that has been rescued from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Beloved Son (Colossians 1:13). This is a description of true conversion and it is also a description of what it means to be a true disciple. A converted person (disciple, saint) is one that is no longer in the bondage of sin and of the devil. But a converted person is now under the reign and rule (what a kingdom is) of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul’s admonition or question to the Corinthians in his first letter (6:19) must be taken seriously by people today: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” A person that has been converted is a person that no longer belongs to himself but is now a slave of Jesus Christ. We are either slaves to sin and the devil or we are slaves to righteousness and of Christ. A disciple or saint belongs to Christ. True conversion is also a change of ownership.

The Great Commission is given by the authority of Christ and we have no right to change it or anything about it. If we are true disciples of Christ we must desire to follow His command as He commanded. After all, His promise to be with us seems to be tied with obedience to making true disciples as the Great Commission declares. But if the Great Commission is really focused on making disciples that should change the modern focus on evangelism, missions, and of the way we view Church. True conversion is at the heart of this. Let us stop pretending that the Great Commission is being kept in our day unless we are striving to make biblical disciples. Let us stop pretending that we want to keep the Great Commission unless we desire to see people converted according to Scripture and be real disciples. Let us stop pretending that the Great Commission is kept by missionaries unless they are making true disciples as the Great Commission says. Let us stop pretending that our evangelism is keeping the Great Commission unless it is obedience to the actual words of Jesus. The Gospel cannot be separated from discipleship.

The study of true conversion is not just some intellectual thing that people may or may not engage in depending on how they are inclined. If we are to practice true evangelism, we better know what the Bible teaches about true conversion. If we are going to strive after the fulfillment of the Great Commission, we must know what the Bible teaches about being a true disciple. So often today what people mean by the Great Commission is to go out and tell people something about Jesus and then get them to pray a prayer and then to dunk them in water. Apart from true conversion, there is no obedience to the Great Commission because no true disciples would be made and true baptisms would not be occurring. Apart from true conversion we are getting people to make external acts and then getting them wet. Apart from true conversion, we are deceiving people and blinding them all the way to hell. What Jesus actually said and meant in the Great Commission is of vital importance. We ignore them at the peril of many.

Posted in Conversion | Leave a Comment »

Humility, Part 70

March 6, 2010

In the previous BLOG we looked at how pride/self is the heart of sin. It is the soul’s desire to be god to itself and to do all it does in its own power guided by its own wisdom. Humility is what the soul needs in order to be an instrument of God. However, as one thinks back through all the passages of Scripture it appears that Jesus saved His worst or harshest words for the Pharisees and some of His kindest words for those coming out of deep sin. The Pharisees were very religious and stringent in their writing and keeping of laws, yet Jesus called them hard names and directed His hardest teachings toward them. It would see that a proud heart in religion is even worse than a proud heart given over to open sin. One would think that Jesus would not be as hard on the religious people, but instead He was even harder on them. In modern language, what is up with that?

It seems counterintuitive that very religious people are worse than open sinners to Jesus in some way. But if we come to understand that pride is the heart and the fountain of sin, even making a person like the devil, then this opens a door to understanding the issue. This shows the utter necessity of a heart being changed and the life of humility being in the soul. It is not the religion and it is not the external works that God is pleased with, but it is a matter of the heart. The external sin is still not the worst of sin, but it is the degree of pride in the heart. So a person that prays thinking that it is a way to please God has a high level of the wickedness of pride to do so. Those who live in external sin do in fact sin against God, but they don’t assume that God is pleased with them and their actions. Those with pride in their religion not only displease God with their actions because they are not from Him, but their hearts are far from Him and they are proud of what they are doing and of their sin.

Another thing to consider is that the Pharisees thought of themselves as teachers. Indeed they taught, and even things about the Bible, but they did not teach the truth of God. They taught their own reprehensible system of trying to please God in their own strength by keeping the laws that they had set up. This is seen in Matthew 25:2. When a person uses the Bible to teach his own morality and religion rather than God’s, this is an attack on God Himself. It is to use His Law to set up one’s own law. It is to use His Word to establish one’s own word. It is to use His authority to establish one’s own authority. This is what a proud heart does. The humble heart wants to know what God’s morality and religion truly are and would tremble that others follow it rather than God. The humble heart wants people to follow God’s law and would tremble to change the least part of His law. The humble heart is established on the authority of God and only wants others to bow to His authority.

Another principle that is involved in this is that teachers will be judged with a harder judgment. What we see, then, is that those who claim to speak for God need to speak accurately or they misrepresent God. Those who claim religion in some way represent God and those who are leaders teach in a way that represents God. A proud heart that tries to represent God is actually trying to represent God by the heart and mind of the devil (pride). Teachers and preachers who try to teach about God and yet do so with a proud heart are serving themselves in the place of God and represent the devil teaching Eve about God. A proud heart is in no condition to take the covenant of God and try to teach about it. A proud heart has no business trying to speak of a humble Messiah. A proud heart knows next to nothing in reality about God and is doing the work of the devil. A proud soul takes the law of God and turns it into what the devil wants it to be. A proud soul teaches morality just like the devil wants it to be. A proud soul tries to establish the religion of the devil in the name of God. A proud soul uses the name of authority in an effort to establish its own authority which is the authority of the devil.

Christianity is the heart of true religion because in it the truth and glory of God are manifested in and through Jesus Christ. Christianity is the heart of true religion because it has the message of the glory of God and the Church is the very body of Christ to the world. A proud heart knows nothing of the truth of these things and whether the person tries to or not a proud heart is the devil’s effort at gaining control of a church and of the message of the glory of God. The devil can use a proud heart to deceive others about the Gospel. The devil can use a proud heart to distort the truth of the real God. The devil uses proud hearts to gain the service of many who think they are serving God.

There is no wonder that God hates the proud who are religious more than those who are simply openly sinning. Humility, then, is not just something extra, it is utterly vital in order to have the truth of God in the soul and for the establishment of true Christianity. God does oppose the proud even in their religion (ask the Pharisees), but He gives grace to the humble. The humble have God dwelling in them so He sees His own glory in them.

Posted in Humility | Leave a Comment »

Humility, Part 69

March 3, 2010

The last BLOG ended with some discussion over the root and heart of sin based on Genesis 3:5. It is the promise that Satan made to Eve and which she bought into. It was promised to her by Satan that she would be like God. The desire to be like God is pride and in some sense it is the root of all sin. It can be seen in Romans 1:18-32 very clearly. Much of the battle in the human heart is over who will rule over and in it. The battle, then, has to do with pride and humility. The proud heart wants to deny that which it does not love and so it suppresses the truth about itself and about God in unrighteousness (Rom 1:18). Verse 19 goes on to say that is true “because that which is known about God is evident within them.” Creation itself puts enough of the very character of God on display to render all without excuse. In light of that, the suppression of the truth (v. 18) occurs in the heart of man in suppressing the truth about God and not honoring Him as God or in giving thanks.

The very lie of Satan (be as God) is brought out and displayed by human beings who do not want this God to be over them and instead they want to run and rule their own lives which they think is their own to run. In these actions their very speculations become futile and their foolish hearts are darkened. When the God who is light is suppressed there is nothing left but to fall deeper and deeper into darkness. When hearts love their own wisdom enough to suppress the wisdom of God, the pursuit of that wisdom sinks those hearts deeper and deeper into foolishness and speculation. In this very drive for wisdom according to self rather than God that is exchanging the glory of God for an image of man. It is not that one has to bow down to a wooden or metal image, but in serving self one has exchanged the glory of God for an idol because self is an idol at that point. In doing this God hardens their hearts and turns them over to more and more darkness and foolishness. When they serve self rather than God, they have exchanged the truth of God for a lie. This is deep darkness.

When these proud souls that serve self do this, God sees it for what it is: “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper” (v. 28). The refusal to “acknowledge God” is really a suppressing of the truth about God and a rejecting of the knowledge of Him. The “natural” downward trend of this sin is that God turns a person over to a mind that is depraved and growing even more depraved by its rejection of Him. It is a mind that is being filled with all sorts of the sin that is really the soul being turned over to the love and service of self. It is a hatred of God (v. 30).

Humility is the only answer for such a person and such a heart as that. It is the proud heart that rejects God and it is by that pride that such wickedness enters the soul. A proud heart is one that rejects God and His sovereign rights over it. While it might be obvious at this point, it should be pointed out that the human soul is either descending into darkness and sin or it is descending into a deeper and deeper humility. On the one hand the proud heart rejects God and continues to reject Him and so it descends into deeper and deeper darkness and wickedness. The other side is the soul that God has delivered from its pride and so it is growing deeper in its humility. The proud soul is growing in being full of self and the so-called wisdom of self while the humble soul is being filled with God and His wisdom. The proud soul becomes consumed with self as Satan is and the humble soul becomes consumed with God and His glory as God is. The proud soul becomes more and more consumed with self and ends up in hell where the soul if hardened to self and given totally over to self. It is in hell that the soul hates all others and God. In hell the soul is given over to the wrath of God and to the total misery of hating all other beings. The humble soul becomes more and more consumed with God and ends up in heaven where it will be full of God for all eternity. For all eternity it will share in the love God has for Himself and all other beings in heaven.

Pride is the very heart of sin while humility is at the very heart of holiness and love. Pride is at the heart of sin because it is the suppression of the truth of God in the pursuit of self. Humility is the very heart of holiness and love because it is the emptiness of self and pride so that God who is love can fill the soul with Himself and His love. Humility is the heart of holiness since self is the very nature of sin and the heart that is emptied of self will be a partaker of the holiness of God (Heb 12:10). When the heart of sin is pride and self, it is obvious that when God humbles the soul He is taking out the very heart of sin. When God fills the soul with Himself, He is giving the soul that which is the very best which is Himself and He fills it with true love and holiness. Humility is so vital that a person cannot be saved apart from some humility and a person cannot grow in sanctification apart from it either. A humble heart is at the heart of the Christian life. After all, it is the life of Christ who was perfectly humble.

Posted in Humility | Leave a Comment »

Humility, Part 68

March 1, 2010

Since humility is the emptiness of self which leaves the soul in utter dependence on God to work in it and through it by grace alone, this should instruct us on how to live to the glory of God. The humble soul will arrive at the point that there is nothing in it and of itself that can bring glory to God. As the humble soul knows that the command to love God cannot be kept other than to first receive the love of God from God, so the humble soul realizes that the command to glorify God cannot be kept unless one receives what is needed to do that from God.

Some older theologians (John Smith, Jonathan Edwards) spoke of God as having an internal glory (glory ad intra) and then that internal glory when expressed was referred to as the external glory (glory ad extra). Here, once again, we can see where the teaching on the character of God and true humility are parallel to each other. God exists in perfect love and glory within the Trinity. There is no one who has access to that glory unless God Himself decides to express it. So the command of I Corinthians 10:31, which is really an expression of the Great Commandment, is a command that the humble should hear and know that it can do nothing to keep it in its own strength. God commands us that whether we eat, drink, or whatever we do we are to do to the glory of His name. The proud soul sees that command and sets out to fill its head with knowledge and to do things which make God look good. But wait a minute, says the humble soul, how am I to reach into the Godhead and extract glory in order that He would be manifested? The proud soul simply smiles and says that if God commands it then it must have the power to do so. So it sets out to do all these external things while thinking that it is doing them to make God look good.

The humble soul cringes at the proud soul and knows that it is not really the glory of God being expressed by the proud soul but in reality it is the pride of the soul that is being seen. God will not give His glory to a proud person even if they say they are doing what they do to the glory of God. The humble soul knows that if it is going to keep the command to do all to the glory of God it must die to the desires and works of self so that it may be filled with the glory of God in order that the glory of God may be manifested through it. It has no illusions that it can do anything to make God look good or that any of the glory of God will shine in and through it apart from God filling that soul full of Himself. A soul only truly glorifies God when it is emptied of self and when the glory of God (Christ Himself is the shining forth of the glory of God, Heb 1:3) fills the soul and the Spirit fills that soul with the fruit of the Spirit (which is really the character of God). It is only then that the soul that is full of Christ and the
Spirit can glorify God because it is God who is manifesting His own glory through the soul.

With the previous thoughts in mind, it is easy to see how pride is the root of every sin and evil. It is only the humble soul that receives grace and so is used as a vessel and instrument to the glory of God. Romans 3:23 tells us that sin is to fall short of the glory of God. It is not as if they barely missed the glory or only did it on occasion, but the whole soul of the person has a bent away from the glory of God and don’t even aim at it. In all that the person does the person seeks self instead of God. People seek themselves in whatever they do and seek for glory and honor from others and in their own estimation. They do this in the things of religion as well. We have to be very careful or we will fall under the condemnation of the Pharisees. They prayed for themselves (though they used the name of God) and they fasted for themselves (Matthew 6:9ff). In other words, they were using what God intended as means of grace (grace always glorifies Him) to be ways to glorify themselves in seeking their own honor before human beings. They tried to use God to honor themselves. They tried to use what God intended as ways to glorify Himself and twisted them as means to bring honor to themselves. That is to be just like the devil.

The very root and heart of sin is in the soul’s desire to be like God: “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5). The soul wants to do its own thing and do it in its own wisdom and strength like God does rather than be emptied of self and wait on God to do what He wants to do in and through the soul. Self-righteousness is hated by God because it is the soul trying to be self-sufficient in its own righteousness which is an attempt to be like God. The humble soul knows that it has no righteousness in and of itself and knows that all righteousness needed to stand before God is granted it by the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. It also knows that any righteousness it lives by is a righteousness that will come from the throne of God and be worked into it by grace. The devil wants to live by what it derives of self and not receive all from God based on self. That is what his children do as well, even if they are very religious. The humble bow in their own nothingness and receive all righteousness and all good by grace.

Posted in Humility | Leave a Comment »

Humility, Part 67

February 27, 2010

God originally created human beings to manifest His own glory and not the glory of any other. But Satan injected his poison of pride and self-centeredness into human beings and now all are born dead in sins and trespasses and are by nature children of wrath (Eph 2:1-3). Out of pride and self fallen human beings now glory in themselves and seek their own honor and glory in all they do. This is exactly what Satan wanted in that he is at war with God over who gets the glory. Each human soul that is full of pride and lives for self demonstrates that it is a child of the devil. It is true that many human beings devote themselves to doing charity work or to religion in another name and many in the name of God. But that is not the same thing as doing those things from the grace and strength of grace that comes from God. It is easy for a human being that is devoted to self to give self to the things that would honor self in the ways of religion or the work of charity. The human heart is seemingly boundless in finding ways to gain attention to self for its so-called devotion to good works. Even the good works of human beings shows us the need for true humility so that it may be the glory of God working those things in and through us.

In the last BLOG we looked at how human beings are utterly dependent on God each moment for all things in the physical and spiritual realms. He is the One that upholds us each moment and gives each breath and all things. The soul must learn this in order to understand true humility. The life of God is imparted to and shared with the soul (of true believers) moment by moment for no other reason than grace. We say the words “saved by grace alone” and we think that it simply means that we are delivered from hell based on His help which we don’t deserve. Rather than that, however, true salvation is also to be saved from self and the power of sin. True salvation is to have the life of God in the soul. All of these things comes to us each moment by His grace. Now since we know that Scripture teaches us that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, we know that we only obtain grace to the degree that we are humble. The proud live by self even though they may think they have humility, but it is truly pride that they live by. But the true believer lives by grace each moment which means that the true believer must be seeking the emptiness of self so that is may live more and more by grace.

Surely, then, we can see something of what true holiness is then. Hebrews 12:10 tells us that we are partakers of His holiness and so holiness is something that comes to us from Him. The proud seek to do outwardly good things and find a form of self-righteousness in them. But the humble know that they can do nothing apart from Christ and so all that is good that comes from them is really that which originated in Christ and came to them through Christ. True humility is to see that all that comes from the self is in fact sin regardless of whether it is externally good or not. True humility seeks to be full of Him so that what comes from the person is in fact the life of God being expressed through it. The humble person understands that the command to be holy as He is holy (I Peter 1:13-16) is not a command to do something in the strength of self. When Jesus commanded the disciples to give the thousands around them food, He did not command them to do what they could do in their own power (Mark 6:37). Instead, He took five loaves of bread and two fish and broke them and then had the disciples set the food before the people. He commanded them to do what only He could provide and enable them to do. The command to be holy as He is holy is something like that. If we try to be holy as He is holy in our own strength, we will see very quickly that we cannot do so. This should drive us to be partakers of His holiness and so have true holiness.

The soul that learns that it is only grace that enables it to live in holiness, love, and truth is the soul that is beginning to learn what true Christianity and true humility is all about. True humility will only come to the soul that reaches the point of not living for self and doing all in the strength of self. This is the person that recognizes deep within its soul and not just intellectually that every command of Scripture is beyond its strength to keep as God would have it kept. This is the soul that understands that it must live by grace each moment or it is living by its own strength and pride. If the soul is to live by grace each and every moment, then we must realize that the soul must be humble each and every moment because God only gives grace to the humble. This soul has begun to awaken to the fact that being saved by grace also has to do with being saved from the life of self so that the life of grace may live in it. This soul has begun to understand what it means to die to self and that the life of Christ in the soul is the life of grace. When this soul runs into temptation, it knows that it must die to self and that the fight is by and through grace. This soul lives by grace each moment and so it knows that it must seek true humility each moment as well. Where the self is, grace is not. Where grace is, self is not. The humble soul seeks a deeper and deeper humility so that it may partake more and more of Christ who is grace to it.

Posted in Humility | Leave a Comment »

Provocation to Prayer, Part 29

February 26, 2010

Psalm 25:11 For Your name’s sake, O LORD, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.

Psalm 79:9 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 106:8 Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of His name, That He might make His power known.

Psalm 143:11 For the sake of Your name, O LORD, revive me. In Your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble.

Isaiah 43:25 “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.

Isaiah 48:9 “For the sake of My name I delay My wrath, And for My praise I restrain it for you, In order not to cut you off. 11 “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned?

Ezekiel 20:9 “But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made Myself known to them by bringing them out of the land of Egypt.

Ezekiel 36:22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went.

Eph 1:5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

1 John 2:12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake.

The above verses could be multiplied many times over. But in the verses given, we see another way of praying for the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer. We are to pray first and foremost for His name to be hallowed, exalted, revered, and glorified. Instead we pray for the things our wicked hearts desire or what we have been taught we should pray for. Our hearts long for what they love and we pray for what we love the most. When we pray for ourselves and our less than spiritual desires, though we may put a spiritual twist on them, we show that we love ourselves. If our hearts were truly taken with God and His glory first we would pray for His glory first.

What we can see from the verses above and point out in a short amount of space is that God always acts for the sake of His own name. We can also see what the hearts of saints longed for and loved the most. Perhaps we never thought of it this way before, but we are to love God and His glory so much that we should desire for our sins to be forgiven in order that His name would be glorified. How our hearts must learn to pant for and desire that His name would be exalted in the earth. We love little so we pray like this but a little.

The verses above teach us how to pray. We should pray for God to restrain His wrath upon us for His name’s sake. We should pray for revival so that His glory would shine forth. We should pray that He would save sinners so that the beauty of His grace would shine forth. We should pray for hearts that would love Him and His glory so much that our hearts, desires, and prayers are focused on Him and His own name. The verses above also serve as a mirror to show us our hearts. Do we desire revival in order that His glory would be seen? Do we desire revival so that His name would be honored? What else would God send revival for? We need to pray for hearts that would be taught by the Spirit to long for and love Him enough that His glory and honor is what our hearts really desire and pray for. When He gives us hearts that plead with Him in truth and love for His name’s sake, revival is close.

Posted in Prayer | Leave a Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »