Conversion, Part 45 – The Ethiopian Treasurer

December 9, 2009

As we look at the conversion of the Ethiopian Treasurer, it will become clear that this is not the usual method of outreach. The first thing that we are confronted with is that Philip was sent by the angel of the Lord to a specific location. It was a location that was a road that came down from Jerusalem to Gaza. Another interesting point is that the account of the conversion of the Ethiopian Treasurer follows immediately from the story of the false conversion of Simon. He too heard the Gospel preached by Philip, believed, and was then baptized. In verse 25 we have the preachers (Peter, John, and Philip) starting “back to Jerusalem, and were preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.” Verse 26 then starts with the word “but.” The Lord had a specific job for Philip.

Acts 8:26 – “But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, “Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) 27 So he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” 30 Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this: “HE WAS LED AS A SHEEP TO SLAUGHTER; AND AS A LAMB BEFORE ITS SHEARER IS SILENT, SO HE DOES NOT OPEN HIS MOUTH. 33 “IN HUMILIATION HIS JUDGMENT WAS TAKEN AWAY; WHO WILL RELATE HIS GENERATION? FOR HIS LIFE IS REMOVED FROM THE EARTH.” 34 The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. 36 As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?” 37 And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” 38 And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing.”

The man was coming from Jerusalem because he had traveled there to worship. He was a man with an interest in religion and evidently recognized that salvation was from the Jews. But he was not a converted man despite all of his interest and effort. As he came from Jerusalem he was sitting in his chariot and reading Isaiah. The angel of the Lord commanded Philip to go to a certain location and so he was in the right spot at the right time. He was told by the Spirit to go and join the chariot. Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading (out loud) Isaiah. As an experienced evangelist he recognized that he had been sent to this chariot this man by God. But he started off with a question and asked the man if he understood what he was reading. The man responded and asked Philip to come up into the chariot and have a seat. The man was reading from Isaiah 53 which speaks of Christ as the Lamb of God who gave Himself in sacrifice for the sins of others. The man wanted to know what that meant. So Philip preached Christ to him from that Scripture. Evidently he preached more than just the words of the text because the man wanted to be baptized and stated that he believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

There are questions that can’t be answered now as to why this man came to Jerusalem. Without knowing the exact reason, we do know that it was God that was drawing the man. In Acts 9 Saul, even in the midst of his religious persecution, was sovereignly converted by God. In Acts 10 Cornelius was a man who worshipped God in some way though he did not know the truth and God sent Peter to him. In Acts 11 we see the hand of the Lord moving at Antioch and many were brought to the faith there. It seems to be in line with the thought of the Divine Author of Acts to set out how God is able to draw people from long distances to Himself (Acts 8), meet up with those who hate the Person and works of Christ (Acts 9), to send His people to those whose hearts He has prepared (Acts 10), and then to send His people to start churches that at least include the non-Jews in Antioch. When God designs to save a soul, He can draw that soul to Himself as He pleases. He drew this Ethiopian eunuch to Jerusalem and then sent Philip to him to preach Christ. What we have then, is the conversion of a man alone, but the glory of God is shining forth here. There is no explanation but a God determined to shine forth His glory in grace and truth.

The rudiments of how God brought about this man’s conversion are in the text. God took this man from a land of great darkness as He brought Abram from the land of Ur of the Chaldeans to the Promised Land. The Divine pressure and drawing was strong in his heart so he was willing to take a carriage trip of greater than 1,000 miles which was not an easy in those days. As a court official of the Queen who was in charge of “all her treasure” (v. 27), he was undoubtedly a man with a lot of wealth and influence. Yet he left that to travel all the way from Africa to Jerusalem to worship. Somehow, though surrounded with heathen beliefs and idolatry, he was drawn to the light on the hill. Somehow, though surrounded with idolatry and heathen beliefs and lifestyles, he was drawn to the truth. He was not satisfied with all that went on around him and so we can see the work of God in his soul.

The Spirit was working in him and he would not rest until he found God. What we want to see is that this man was not just smarter than others, and it was not just that he was a better and more intense seeker than others, but he was being drawn by God. This man was converted, but God is the One who brought this man to Himself and converted him. The man appeared to be broken to a degree as he left Jerusalem and Philip was sent to him. He was a man who had enough of a craving in his soul he went to Jerusalem to find the truth. But he left without finding it. He went to Jerusalem to inquire after the things of God, yet he left without a true conversion. It is not hard to imagine that the sinking in his soul matched the descent of the chariot down the hill from Jerusalem. He did not care if those around him knew of his seeking because he was reading out loud. Then Philip arrived to preach the Gospel. Here was a man of great importance and power and a man just shows up and asks him what he is reading and if he understood it. The man said that he could not unless someone explained it to him. In this we can see that his soul had been humbled and that his own inability to reason to the truth of Scripture was clear to him. He knew that someone needed to teach him or he would not be able to understand. God has been working on this man’s heart.

In God’s providence this man was focused on Isaiah 53, as others have been when the Lord opened their eyes to His glory in Christ. This sounds like a heart that knew its sin and longed to find real answers. Philip began with that text and preached Christ to him, likely something like his Lord did in Luke 24:13-32 when He went through the Scriptures to explain the about Himself to listening men. Philip probably preached the same things the Lord spoke to His disciples and the ones standing around. He would have told him that salvation was impossible with men but possible with God (Mat 19:26) and that Jesus called all those who were weary and heavy-laden to Him (Mat 11:28). Most likely Philip preached Isaiah 53 to the man along with John 1:29 where John said that Jesus was the Lamb of God and of Christ Himself coming not to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom (Mark 10:45). Surely Philip preached of Christ coming to be sin on the behalf of sinners (II Cor 5:21). But whatever his exact words were, Philip started from that passage of Scripture and preached Christ to that man.

We will not get into the baptism issue, but in the space left focus on why we think this man was indeed converted man despite the relatively scant biblical material. The man knew enough to go to Jerusalem to worship, so he had been exposed to the teaching of the God or the Jews. The angel of the Lord sent Philip to the path of this man and was then told to go to that specific chariot. The man was reading about the cross of Christ and of His suffering the wrath of God in that text, so the man was exposed to that aspect of the Gospel. The man had Philip preach Christ to the man so that he came to believe that Jesus the Christ (Messiah) was indeed the Messiah and was the very Son of God. The man asked what would prevent him from being baptized and was told that “If you believe with all of your heart, you may.” He then confessed Christ in accordance with Romans 10:9 that says: “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

The Lord Himself prepared this man and his heart. The Lord Himself drew this man to Jerusalem and sent Philip to his location and then specifically to his chariot. The Lord had this man wrestling with the cross of Christ and of His satisfying the wrath of the Father. He then gave this man ears to hear when Philip preached Christ to him and then confessed Christ in truth. God is the main part of this story from beginning to end. The Gospel is all about His glory and it is His glory that shines here. He set His love on this eunuch and saved him. There are no evangelistic methods or tricks of men that got in the way here. Here was a man that God took and brought to hear the Gospel of His glory in the face of Christ. No one was there to steal the glory and so it is all God’s. We do not see anyone trying to convince this man to do an act of belief or to say a prayer. What we see is a man that went to great length to find the truth, and was then found by God on his way home. We see a man preaching the Gospel and we see a heart that was converted and so now Christ was the primary belief in the soul. God saved this man and His glory shines. We would do well to learn from this story that perhaps the way many do evangelism is actually getting in the way of the truth of how God saves souls. Human beings are to be messengers of how God saves sinners to the praise of the glory of His grace. Too often we think sinners are saved because we did something. If we think that, most likely we have not stressed their need to turn from their own sufficiency to look to Him alone. The way we proclaim the Gospel matters. If we want sinners to look to us, we will not be telling them truth in a truthful way.

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Humility, Part 37

December 9, 2009

The last BLOG (Humility 36) consisted mainly in a quotation from Jonathan Edwards and his efforts to distinguish between a legal humiliation and an evangelical humiliation. It ended with this quote: “They that are destitute of this, have no true religion, whatever profession they may make, and high soever their religious affections may be.” This quote gets at the importance of true humility and then of how awful it would be if the devil in his deceitful scheming brought a false idea of humility in the Church. Edwards also said that “This is a great and most essential thing in true religion.” That which is essential to true religion will change that religion if it is absent. For example, we are told that the doctrine that the Church stands or falls on is justification by faith alone. That is true. However, if true humility is necessary for there to be true faith, then we can see how deceitful it would be for some to have an idea that they can have faith apart from true humility. It can also be seen how it would change the whole idea of justification if sinners could have true faith and yet retain their pride. In the next several BLOGS we will look at how the quotes from Edwards in the prior BLOG (Humility 36) point to a great lack in our day.

“Evangelical humiliation is a sense that a Christian has of his own insufficiency, despicableness, and odiousness, with an answerable frame of heart. There is a distinction to be made between a legal and evangelical humiliation. The former is what men may have while in a state of nature, and have no gracious affection; the latter is peculiar to true saints. The former is from the common influence of the Spirit of God, assisting natural principles, and especially natural conscience; the latter is from the special influences of the Spirit of God, implanting and exercising supernatural and divine principles…”

Edwards first sets out to give an idea of what evangelical humiliation is for this is most essential to true religion. A person must have, then, “a sense of his own insufficiency, despicableness, and odiousness, with an answerable frame of heart.” To be true to the bigger context of Edwards’ work on Religious Affections, he is saying that this is a necessary sign of conversion. True and gracious affections will always have an evangelical humiliation. If a person has not been humbled so as to have evangelical humiliation, then that person’s affections will be for self rather than flow from and to God through Christ. True gracious affections will be for God primarily. Romans 7:24, as it gives us this from the heart of Paul, seems so stress this in him as well: “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” This is also the teaching that Paul gave in Romans 4: “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness” (v. 5).

While this type of thinking does not fit with the modern approach of always trying to say good things about people to make them feel good about themselves, it is nevertheless far more biblical to esteem Christ rather than self. Until a person is driven from his own sufficiency to see that s/he is utterly insufficient for anything spiritual from self, that person will not trust in the sufficiency of Christ alone. One can stress the sufficiency of Christ for years and years, but until a man sees his own utter insufficiency he will not look to Christ alone as fully sufficient. The proud heart will always look to self for some sufficiency in self, but once it is broken from its own sufficiency it knows that it must have another who really is sufficient. This is true Christianity and this is what the modern generation must learn from the older generations. We must teach people that they need to go to Christ but we must also teach them how God draws them to Christ. Part of His drawing grace is in working in people the knowledge and then felt knowledge of their own utter insufficiency. This is part of His means of grace.

How hard it is for the proud soul to admit that s/he is despicable in the sight of God. How hard it is for the nice, proper, and polite person to admit that self is odious to God. But even more, the soul needs to arrive at the point where the self (natural man, sinful self, proud self) is despicable and odious to itself in the depths of its own soul. This is when we begin to see sin as sin. This is when we begin to see that the very worst thing that can be said about us is that we are sinners. This is when we begin to understand that the worst thing a human being can say to us is far better than what we are in the eyes of God in and of ourselves. The heart of humility can only begin when a person sees him or herself as a creature with no rights in the presence of its Creator. The heart of the person that sees what true humiliation before God is sees itself as a sinful creature in the presence of its Creator with no rights at all. God owes that sinful creature nothing but His omnipotent and eternal wrath. The humbled creature recognizes that as true because it now sees itself for what it is in His sight. Until the soul sees how insufficient it is as a creature and then sees itself as being truly despicable and odious to God because of sin, it will not understand grace. The intellect can grasp the doctrine, but until the heart is humbled it will not have grace dwelling in it.

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Humility, Part 36

December 8, 2009

The proud love their own humility and hate the pride of others, but the humble hate their own pride and love humility when it is seen in others. It is also true that the proud can hate being thought of as proud and so hide their pride from others and even themselves with an external form of humility. When people are proud of self, it is hard for them to think that their view of self is inflated or overly exalted. Pride is what blinds us to our own pride. Yet there are differing kinds of humility and one that unbelievers can have without being converted. It is a necessity that people be careful in thinking through these things. If humility is necessary to true faith and salvation by grace alone, then the devil will be hard at work to deceive people about what true humility really is. It is a way that he can attack the Gospel itself without even mentioning the Gospel by word. In this men can hold to the great truths of the Reformation in doctrine and yet be deceived by their own hearts because they do not have a true humility.

In his classic work Religious Affections, Jonathan Edwards sets out that true humility is a sign of true conversion.

“Evangelical humiliation is a sense that a Christian has of his own insufficiency, despicableness, and odiousness, with an answerable frame of heart. There is a distinction to be made between a legal and evangelical humiliation. The former is what men may have while in a state of nature, and have no gracious affection; the latter is peculiar to true saints. The former is from the common influence of the Spirit of God, assisting natural principles, and especially natural conscience; the latter is from the special influences of the Spirit of God, implanting and exercising supernatural and divine principles… In the former, a sense of the awful greatness of his law, convinces men that they are exceeding sinful and guilty, and exposed to the wrath of God, as it will convince wicked men and devils at the day of judgment; but they do not see their own odiousness on account of sin; they do not see the hateful nature of sin; a sense of this is given in evangelical humiliation, by a discovery of the beauty of God’s holiness and moral perfection. In a legal humiliation men are made sensible that they are nothing before the great and terrible God, and that they are undone, and wholly insufficient to help themselves; as wicked men will be at the day of judgment; but they have not an answerable frame of heart, consisting in a disposition to abase themselves, and exalt God alone. This disposition is given only in evangelical humiliation, by overcoming the heart, and changing its inclination, by a discovery of God’s holy beauty. In a legal humiliation, the conscience is convinced; as the consciences of all will be most perfectly at the day of judgment; but because there is no spiritual understanding, the will is not bowed, nor the inclination altered. In legal humiliation, men are brought to despair of helping themselves; in evangelical, they are brought voluntarily to deny and renounce themselves; in the former, they are subdued and forced to the ground; in the latter, they are brought sweetly to yield, and freely and with delight to prostrate themselves at the feet of God.”

“Legal humiliation has in it no spiritual good, nothing of the nature of true virtue; whereas evangelical humiliation is that wherein the excellent beauty of a Christian grace does very much consist. Legal humiliation is useful, as a means in order to evangelical; as a common knowledge of the things of religion is a means requisite in order to spiritual knowledge. Men may be legally humbled and have no humility; as the wicked at the day of judgment will be thoroughly convinced that they have no righteousness, but are altogether sinful, exceeding guilty, and justly exposed to eternal damnation-and be fully sensible of their own helplessness-without the least mortification of the pride of their hearts. But the essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility as becomes a creature in itself exceeding sinful, under a dispensation of grace; consisting in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious; attended with a mortification of a disposition to exalt himself, and a free renunciation of his own glory.”

“This is a great and most essential thing in true religion. The whole frame of the gospel, every thing appertaining in the new covenant, and all God’s dispensations towards fallen man, are calculated to bring to pass this effect. They that are destitute of this, have no true religion, whatever profession they may make, and high soever their religious affections may be.”

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Humility, Part 35

December 5, 2009

True humility is perhaps spoken of some in the modern day, but true humility is not stressed as it should be in the places that it should be. Chesterton once said something to the order that the modern day has misplaced humility. It has put humility in the realm of knowledge (epistemology). In other words, we are taught to be humble by saying that we can’t be sure that we have the truth. But the Bible teaches us that “the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life” (I John 5:20). Pride kills true understanding and knowledge. True humility gains access to the truth because God loves the humble and shows them His ways.

True knowledge and understanding only come from God. This can be seen by the prayers of the writers of Scripture as well as the writings of Scripture. The proud study Scripture as if depends on them and on their own wits and labor. A proud person who is religious enough may offer prayers to God to help him in his studies, but he does not do the study in prayer. He may recognize the need to pray for help, but he does not pray and study in a way that demonstrates that he really understands the need to seek understanding from the Lord. The proud may see a need for the help of the Lord, but they don’t understand that all spiritual understanding comes directly from the hand of the Lord and His work in the soul. All the bread of life comes from Him. All truth comes from Jesus Christ who is Truth Himself. All spiritual knowledge is from the Spirit. We are utterly dependant on Him for truth.

Psalm 25:9 He leads the humble in justice, And He teaches the humble His way.

Psalm 119:34 Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law And keep it with all my heart.

Paslm 119:73 Your hands made me and fashioned me; Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.

Psalm 119:125 I am Your servant; give me understanding, That I may know Your testimonies.

Psalm 119:169 Let my cry come before You, O LORD; Give me understanding according to Your word.

Proverbs 2:6 For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.

Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Humility is utterly necessary for spiritual knowledge because the Lord only teaches the humble. The proud can come up with a lot of academic knowledge of religion and of God, and they can also come up with a lot of morality and personal ethics. But to know the ways of the Lord and to truly see His glory a person must be emptied of self in true humility. The proud are blinded to truth and to the glory of the Lord. The proud see a certain glory in the things of God but it is not the glory of God, but rather it is the glory of self. So the proud can have a delight in knowledge gained as the Bible and religious and moral things are studied, but the delight is from the things of self rather than the things of God. The proud loves those who love him, and surely this does not stop at just people. But since the love of the proud is all about self, anything that contributes to the self in the eyes of the proud that person will love. For some reason spiritual (religious) pride is the worst kind of pride, yet it is the kind of pride that inundates churches. People are proud of being members, of how long they have been members, of how long they have supported missions, how long they have had this or that duty. One can be proud of almost anything. But one thing that is utterly necessary for spiritual understanding and practice is humility. We see this from the prayers of the Psalmist in the verses above. It if from the Lord that understanding comes and He must give it.

The humble have been taught of God to seek Him for true wisdom and understanding. They know how each passage of Scripture has walls set around it to hide the true meaning of it from the proud and no one but the Lord Himself can open doors through those walls. The proud assume that they can just study the word with some tools they have learned and they will learn all they need to know. They don’t see any real walls there that their tools (language, hermeneutics) cannot overcome. But the humble know that true spiritual knowledge and understanding will only come from the Lord when the soul has been broken from its self-interests and self-sufficiency. The humble know that pride is like wearing blinders or a hood to understanding, and so they have learned to pray and seek the Lord for humility in order to understand His word. Humility is an utter necessity to reading the Bible.

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Conversion, Part 44

December 4, 2009

In this article we will be moving from the thief on the cross that was converted (last article) to the day of Pentecost. Once again it is noteworthy to see how the people were instructed in that day as compared to what is popular in our day. It is also true that this is not an ordinary event in that this was the day that the Holy Spirit was sent, but still the message of the Gospel is the same. It was good news that Jesus came to deliver His people from the punishment for their sins. It was good news that Jesus came to deliver His people from the dominion of their sins. But it was also good news that Jesus came to save His people “from this perverse generation.” Jesus was and is a complete Savior. The Gospel that rang forth on the day of Pentecost was a Gospel that delivered people from sin in many ways and not focused or limited to the punishment due after death.

32 “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. 33 “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. 34 “For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: ‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, 35 UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET.”‘ 36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ– this Jesus whom you crucified.” 37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” 40 And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” 41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. 42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer (Acts 2:32-42).

Clearly the promise of the Father was the Holy Spirit. Peter preached Jesus the Christ to them, but he also preached the Holy Spirit. It was the sending of the Holy Spirit that led to his quote of Psalm 110:1 in verse 34. He shows that it was Jesus who ascended and sat down until His enemies were made a footstool for His feet. It is in light of the Holy Spirit being sent and verse 36 that Israel could know for certain that God make Jesus both Lord and Christ. The next two verses after Psalm 110:1 are also of interest: “The LORD will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying, “Rule in the midst of Your enemies.” 3 Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power; In holy array, from the womb of the dawn, Your youth are to You as the dew.”

Jesus Christ will rule in the midst of His enemies, and one way He does this is by the Spirit when people come to Him in the day of His power. That very day in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit was sent three thousand souls were put under the reign and rule of King Jesus. The One that the house of Israel had crucified was indeed the risen King who was now at the right hand of the Father and His enemies were being put under His feet. The way this was being done was that the Holy Spirit was taking the hearts of these enemies and was convicting them of their sin and showing them the truth of Christ. He then gave them new hearts and the power of holiness because the New Covenant is the promise of the Spirit to be in His people working love and obedience to the Law in them.

We can see the steps of the Holy Spirit in taking all of these people who were at one point cheering for Jesus to be crucified not too long before they heard this sermon from Peter. The people heard the preaching of the word of God from Peter, and then the Holy Spirit convicted them of their sin. These people did not just feel a little guilty, but they were pierced. This piercing sorrow and guilt is the same language that the Bible uses when it speaks of the spear being thrust into the side of Jesus while He was on the cross. No longer were they jeering at the Christ or at the apostles for being full of wine, but the Spirit had deeply convicted them of their sin. This is a point that we see over and over in Scripture. The work of God begins with the work of conviction of sin. But it is interesting to note how they became so convicted of their sin. Indeed Peter preached to them that they had crucified Christ, but his sermon was also full of teaching on the Holy Spirit and how that demonstrated the truth that Jesus was the Old Testament Messiah and how He had been crucified and was now risen from the dead. It was not just the facts that Peter presented to them that day, but he preached the Scripture to show that this activity of the Spirit was connected to the Messiah and what He was going to do.

Note the promise that Peter preached. He told them that they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It was receiving the Holy Spirit that was the promise for them, for their children, and “for all those who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” Forgiveness of sin is a wonderful thing, but if we are still left in the power of our sin we will just be up to the neck of our souls in it again apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. We must also note that Pete never told them to believe, but instead he told them to repent and be baptized. This sounds problematic for many people, but that is the nature of the case. Many are scared to be charismatic and so want to hide from the teaching of Scripture on the Holy Spirit. Others are so afraid of baptism that they want to shy away from some plain teachings of Scripture on it. We must never shy away from any teaching of Scripture. The people who were deeply pierced in their soul for their sin called out to Peter and the apostles and asked them what they were to do. They were told to repent, to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and then they would receive the Holy Spirit. In this verse we have both baptism and the Holy Spirit. So this is where we should stop. Perhaps that would be the safest thing to do, but that is not what we should do if we want God and His truth over our traditions. It is not the safest thing to do if we want ourselves or others to be truly converted rather than deceived about salvation. We can go on blindly adhering to one tradition or another or we can go to Scripture and see what it really says in passage after passage. We need to be saved from many traditions rather than keep them.

Peter did not shy away from the teaching that God must draw sinners to Himself. In fact, that was used as an encouragement. He was there when Jesus said that salvation was impossible with men (Mat 19:26). This is in line with Romans 9:14-18 where we are told that it does not depend on the man who runs or the man who wills, but on God who shows mercy. The same truth is taught in John 1:12-13 where it is clearly taught that the new birth is not of a human will but is of the will of God. It is God who must draw sinners as they cannot bring themselves. It is the Holy Spirit who works in sinners as they cannot come in their own power. It is the Spirit working who brings the enemies of the Messiah down under His feet. It is the Spirit’s work to make the people volunteer in the day of the Messiah’s power. So on one hand those who repent and are baptized in the name of Christ will receive the Holy Spirit, yet on the other hand we see that the promise of the Holy Spirit is for all those that God will call to Himself.

Repentance is to give up on all the efforts of self to gain honor or stature in not living to the glory of God (Rom 1:21; 3:23) and bow at the feet of King Jesus. Repentance is to be turned from a proud heart to one that will receive the kingdom of God like a little child (Mat 18:3). When a Jewish person was baptized in the name of Jesus the Messiah that person took Jesus as Messiah, as King, as God, and as his or her absolute Lord. It was not that the application of water saved the person or washed their sins itself, but to be willing to be baptized in the name of Christ was to forsake the traditions of the Jews and take Christ in public demonstrated a true repentance. One had to turn away from the traditions of the Jews to take Christ as Messiah and to receive the Holy Spirit as the power of love and holiness rather than the keeping of the Law in their own power.

What were those Jewish people saved from? One thing they were saved from was their own perverse generation. They were a generation of people who were very religious, but they needed to be saved from that religion. Jesus blasted the Pharisees more than anyone else, including the liberal Sadducees. The greatest sins are not external sins, but internal and religious sins of the heart. Those Jewish people needed to be saved from their perverse religion. Those who had received his word were then baptized. Three thousand souls rejected the false religion of the Jews and bowed to King Jesus. This is seen in that now they were devoted to the teachings of the apostles and to fellowship. These are signs of converted souls. A converted soul loves the truth and the people of Christ.

We can learn many things from this passage. We must learn to preach Christ in a way where the Spirit works in the hearts of people. We must learn to preach in such a way that the work of the Spirit must be seen as what needs to be done in the soul. In the same passage (I Cor 2:1-5) where Paul said he preached nothing but Christ crucified, he also said that he did not preach with wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. That is exactly what Peter did. True salvation comes in true repentance and in being willing to give up religion, family, the world, and all other things. The Spirit is still a promise to those who do not try to will their own salvation or sanctification. Souls that are truly converted are converted from religion to Christ Himself. They become (must do so) devoted to the teaching and people of God. If a soul does not love His word or His children, that soul doesn’t love Him either. A converted soul leaves its false religion and bows to Christ and now loves God’s children for His sake. The Spirit converts a soul and then pours out a love for God in that soul. The one begotten of God loves the things of God.

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Provocation to Prayer, Part 17

December 4, 2009

“Many, if not most actions, materially good in the world, are done more because they are agreeable to self, than as they are honourable to God. As the word of God may be heard not as his word, I Thess 2:13, but as there may be pleasing notions in it, or discourses against an opinion or party we disaffect; so the will of God may be performed, not as his will, but as it may gratify some selfish consideration, when we will please God so far as it may not displease ourselves, and serve him as our Master so far as his command be a servant to our humour; when we consider not who it is that commands, but how short it comes of displeasing that sin which rules in our heart, pick and choose what is least burdensome to the flesh and distasteful to our lusts… He that doth the will of God, not out of conscience of that will, but because it is agreeable to himself, casts down the will of God, and sets his own will in the place of it; takes the crown from the head of God, and places it upon the head of self. If things are done, not because they are commanded by God, but desirable to us; it is a disobedient obedience; a conformity to God’s will in regard of the matter, a conformity to our own will in regard of the motive; either as the things done are agreeable to natural and moral self, or sinful self.” (Stephen Charnock)

Do we pray because we truly seek the face of God out of love or because we want something from God?
Do we pray because we want to be seen as spiritual and holy more than we want to actually be spiritual and holy? Do we pray with the strength of self because God commanded it rather than love God and His glory in the world?
Does it please us to pray because we have found the face of God and have seen His glory or to do our duty?
When we pray, do we really seek the things from God because they glorify Him or for some motive of self?
Do we pray for some things simply because we see that they are biblical rather than truly desire them?
Are there things we pray for that we really don’t want God to give because of selfish considerations?
Do we pray at times with fervor and feeling and yet confuse the things we are asking for with desire for God?
Do we pray for the things that are easy for us and not for the things that would be hard for us?
Do we pray for things for God to do them rather than willingness for Him to do them through us?
Do we use prayer as an excuse not to do things that we don’t want to do?
Do we pray to be holy and yet refuse to seek to die to self, self-love, and self-centeredness?
Do we pray for God to send revival because we want bigger churches rather than more of God and His glory?
Do we pray for revival for some excitement or so God can show that He favors us and we are right?

Praying for revival is easy if we think of it is just words offered into the air. But if true prayer comes from hearts that love and desire God and His glory, then it will be seen as a Divine activity in the soul rather than the exertions of self. True prayer for revival must be spiritual prayer and not the words that can come from the flesh or simply be turned on or off so we can be religious when we please. True prayer for revival will only begin when our hearts are broken from self, the things of self, and the religion of self in order to seek God. Revival is not just something that happens, it is when God Himself comes and walks in and among His people. We cannot truly desire true revival unless we desire God Himself. Until our hearts desire God above all things, we don’t truly desire revival. Until our hearts are willing to die to all else (even religious things) and seek Him as the true hunger and thirst of the soul, we will not desire or pray for true revival. The Great Commandment is to love God with all of the heart, mind, soul, and strength. Until we pray in keeping with the Great Commandment our prayers will be out of the love and strength of self. We are to have fervent prayers, but fervent with the love of God in our souls rather than love for the things of self. In Luke 22:44 we see Jesus in agony praying fervently. Until our hearts have enough discomfort to seek God’s glory in revival, God will not be moving in us as He does before He sends revival. We must seek Him to grant us hearts with a holy focus on Him to truly pray for revival. True prayer for revival will cost pain in the heart, death to self, and many trials. Do we really want to pray without any reserve for revival? In Jesus’ prayer of agony, He submitted all to God so the glory of God would shine. That was true prayer. We must learn it by experience. Christ is our altar now, but we must lay all (not some and not most) on the altar to truly pray. His agony of soul in laying all down to go to the cross must be worked in us to pray as He prayed.

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Humility, Part 34

December 2, 2009

John Gerstner once said that if you could be insulted you could not read the Bible. He didn’t mean that a person had no ability to read the words of the Bible. He didn’t mean that a person could not read the Bible with no benefit or that a person should not read the Bible. He was saying that the Bible is frank and straight. It speaks the worst things to human beings that can be said. It does take a humble soul to read the Bible if that person is going to take the Bible seriously and not try to avoid the meaning by turning and twisting things to avoid the brunt of what it says. It is hard for a proud soul to read about the glory of God as the central message in the Bible and then try to build up self with that, but many do that anyway. Humility is necessary for reading and understanding the Bible. Humility is necessary for a soul to be changed to be like Christ who was the most humble person in history.

Micah 6:8 – “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?”

The Pharisees thought that the requirements of God had to do with the lists of hundreds of laws that they kept. Perhaps they twisted this verse to a different meaning, and Jesus did mention the heart of this verse to them at one point. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others” (Mat 23:23). The scribes and Pharisees tithed from their gardens and yet did not practice justice, mercy, and faithfulness. A proud person is ultimately quite unconcerned about justice for others, though he desires what he would call justice in one sense for self. A proud person can keep the external laws of God and be very stringent in keeping those laws, but the proud person will not truly be concerned with things like justice and mercy. The proud person can be part of carrying out things like public justice and public mercy in certain areas, but that will only be for show. The person is a very self-centered person and God knows that heart. Only the truly humble walk with God and so actually do justice and love kindness and mercy.

Isaiah 57:15 – “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.”

Only the humble can walk with God. This is one of the basic and yet simple requirements in Scripture. Adam walked with God in the Garden. Enoch walked with God and then was taken. The disciples walked (literally) with the humble Jesus who taught them about humility in word and in life. In several places in the Gospels Jesus said that His words and the words of Scriptures were hidden to people. While He spoke in parables, Matthew 13:13 give us the words of Jesus on why He spoke in parables: “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” Without totally denying the modern view that Jesus spoke in parables in order to have simply stories from daily life to make things plain, He says clearly that He spoke in parables to hide the truth as well. He would give these parables in His public teaching and then in private He would say what they meant.

Jesus absolutely blasted the religious elite of His day (time on earth) for their hard hearts and not understanding the Scripture. They were a proud group. They were proud of their academic training in Scripture and they were proud of their outward works. They were so proud that they prayed in order to be seen by men and that was the motive in all of their other religious works too. It takes a lot of pride to blind a soul to itself to where it will pray in order to be seen by men rather than the God who sees in private. The Pharisees were so proud that their whole religious life was one of pride and self, but their pride blinded them to that. They memorized Scripture in order to wear a show of that on their garments. They were truly a group of self-centered and proud people .

All that the Pharisees did was for self. All that the Pharisees did was from pride and that pride blinded them. Their knowledge indeed puffed them up with self. When they studied the Bible it was not from love for God and so that they could know God and be conformed to His likeness. Instead, out of pride they studied the Bible for the purposes and ways of self. Apart from humility all people are like the Pharisees. We study to show ourselves approved and knowledgeable to men. We study in order to obtain honor from men or perhaps to think well of ourselves. Humility is absolutely necessary to read the Bible so that we will be changed instead of change it.

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Humility, Part 33

November 30, 2009

Humility is what the natural man cannot have at all and what the spiritual man must relearn many times a day. People wake up in the morning full of self and must learn to deny self on a daily basis and then to humble self several times a day. This is not as easy as making breakfast or going for a walk. It is a spiritual battle where the soul must learn to cry out to God each day and enter a state of emptiness or of helplessness in spiritual things while looking with confidence to the grace and sovereignty of God. The soul, when it is helpless in itself in terms of understanding, knows that it must have the Lord give it understanding or it will not have it. “Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (2 Timothy 2:7).

Humility is necessary to the preacher, to evangelists, and to those being evangelized. While the methods of evangelism today focus on getting a message across to people so that they can make a decision, it must be insisted on that this is simply not biblical. Faith is far more than an intellectual decision based on information. God opposes the proud and will not give grace to them. Salvation is by grace alone and if God does not give grace to the proud then all people must be humbled before they can be converted by grace. It is grace that converts a soul and not an intellectual choice or belief of some facts. True enough that God uses the truth to convert a soul, but it is by grace that the actual conversion is carried out. The new birth is by the will of God which is only moved to save souls by His grace. It is the Spirit who blows where He wills that breathes life into the dusty bones of dead sinners.

It is accurate to say that “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth” (James 1:18). Indeed God uses the word, but it is still the exercise of His will to bring sinners and make them new in Christ. As 1 Thessalonians 1:5 says, “For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.” The Gospel is not just a message with words, but it is a message that comes to sinners with power and in the Holy Spirit. Sinners are not changed simply because the sound of words that follow the pattern of the Bible are spoken into their ears, but because the Holy Spirit uses them to make sinners live. The Spirit is holy and will not work grace in proud hearts that resist grace and would use it for self and not God. It is a disgusting thought to think of God giving grace to the proud who would use it for self rather than His glory. It makes Him less than holy and makes man out to be sovereign in giving grace rather than God.

The word of God must be received into the heart and not just heard with the physical ears. As in Luke 8:13 which is part of the parable of the sower, “Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away.” The word is pictured as being received by some with joy, but they have no root. This parable might be better termed as the parable of the soil. What determined the growth of the seed was the nature of the soil. The proud and hardened heart that is busy with the world and the things of self does not have a heart that the seed will gain root in. It is the heart that has been ploughed and turned by humility that receives the words of God.

As previously looked at, James 1:21, it tells us that the word must be received in humility. “Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.” It is only the humble soul that receives the word of God implanted that can be saved. Humility is utterly necessary for these things. The self-centered and self-sufficient soul cannot receive the word of God which speaks of the glory of God and the utter necessity for humility to receive the gospel of grace. The soul governed by self may want the help of grace, but it will not die to self in order to receive grace alone.

Those who go out to teach others the Gospel need to know their own hearts and enough truth to tell others how to really be converted. A soul that goes out in pride and in the strength of self will have a different story and a different gospel to tell others. The heart that has not been broken from self will not tell others of the necessity to be broken from the strength and love of self in order to receive the word of God and grace. Only those who have been through some travail of soul with their own pride and self will know how to deal faithfully with other souls. The word of God is so clear on this issue. The word of God will only be received when the soul is humbled. It is only in the humbled soul that the Holy Spirit moves and works in power. It is only the humbled soul that will not resist with pride and so the word of God is received as the word of God. It is only the humble soul that truly wants to know the ways of God as the proud and self-centered soul only wants to do the ways of self and will twist the word of God to be according to self. But the humble soul wants self to be conformed to God and not to the world.

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Humility, Part 32

November 28, 2009

In thinking about the necessity of humility for understanding the word of God and of God Himself, the academic process has received the most attention rather than the spiritual process. Since God is Spirit, we must know that we must obtain spiritual understanding or we will know nothing but what the natural man can know without the Spirit of God giving that understanding. This has led to massive problems in the churches.

“For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light” (Col 1:9-12).

This text shows us what Paul prayed for others. He prayed that they would “be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” We can sneer at verses like this and say that it is nothing but a new form of Gnosticism, but that would not be dealing honestly with the text. It tells us very clearly that there is a spiritual wisdom and understanding. Not only that, but Paul gives us the reasons why he prays that. In fact, he gives us several reasons for this. I will only list four.

1. So that they would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord
2. So that they would please Him in all respects
3. So that they would bear fruit in every good work
4. So that they would increase in the knowledge of God

We can read 1 Corinthians 2:13 which tells us about the words we speak: “which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.” It clearly sets out and distinguishes between those things taught by the Spirit which are spiritual thoughts and human wisdom. The soul must have understanding as given by the Spirit in order to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. The soul must have spiritual understanding and wisdom in order to please Him at all and how much more to please Him in all respects. Can the soul bear spiritual fruit apart from the Spirit giving spiritual wisdom and understanding? Can the soul increase in the knowledge of God who is Spirit apart from a spiritual understanding? The answer seems obvious, and yet we seem to seek our knowledge at the hands of academic understanding rather than spiritual understanding. This is not to say that there is no place for academic study of the Bible, but the people of God can only obtain spiritual understanding from the Spirit of God.

Throughout Scripture we see that pride brings dishonor and the proud will be brought down. We also see that God dwells with the humble and shows them His secrets. As the disciples found out from Jesus Himself in John 6:63 and beyond, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” The Pharisees had words to speak and they had many laws about the laws of God. But it is the Spirit of God who gives life and it takes spiritual words to be words of life. A soul must be humbled and turn from a trust in his or her own reason and fleshly trust in self in order to look to Christ as the Prophet who teaches. How much the proud heart wants to look to itself, its reason, its understanding, and its own outlook as right rather than the words of God. As Paul said in 2 Timothy 2:7, “Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” The natural mind finds it easier to look to natural things that appear spiritual or religious rather than look to the Lord for understanding. To look for the Lord for understanding is to seek humility and emptiness of self which are again not in the power of the natural self. But for those who are weary of their own efforts and their own wisdom, they will seek humility and brokenness from self and self-sufficiency at all costs. After all, they knew John 6:68 was true because God said it, but now they have been taught by the Lord just how deep the truth is. “Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.” So the humbled soul knows that this is true both because it is the word of God and because the word of God is in that soul.

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Provocation to Prayer, Part 16

November 27, 2009

R.A. Torrey has been quoted as saying that he did not believe that even one in a hundred of the prayers of Protestant believers were truly “unto God.” This is something that sounds absurd, but we also know it is possible to pray to self because the Pharisee prayed to himself (Luke 18:10-11). Regardless of what the lips and tongue form and express, the heart is the true “organ” of prayer. The quotes below come from Lewis Drummond’s The Awakening That Must Come. They point to a great lack we have in prayer.

Stop and think for a moment. Are we not often guilty of being far more concerned over what we are asking or how we are phrasing our requests than the great God we are addressing? Even more trite, do we not at times find ourselves just stringing a series of clichés together that sound good but say very little? I despair over some of the prayers I hear in our worship services. I do not want to appear unkind, but our public prayers are often little more than the “vain repetitions” our Lord warned us to avoid.

When we take the name of God on our lips, we must be vividly conscious to whom we speak. He is the mighty Creator; he is the powerful Sustainer; he is the gracious Redeemer; he is God Almighty, the sovereign Lord. Much of our contemporary sentimental songs and caricatures of God have clouded the nature of this Lord of might and power. He is not “the Man upstairs,” nor “someone up there who likes you,” as the church crooners whine out. He is the mighty God of consuming holiness.

Therefore, we must pause before we rush pell-mell unto God. We should linger long enough to question whether we are even worthy to stand in the presence of the One of whom the cherubim cry continually, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isa. 6:3). Perhaps we should wait until we are ready to steal away, head bowed, heartbroken, saying, “I am not worthy, I have no right to be here. Woe is me.”… Yet it is at this point of a contrite heart that the Lord Jesus can say to us, “Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive.”

Prayer must always be to our Father who is in heaven (and everywhere else). Our prayers must always be primarily for His name to be hallowed, for His kingdom to come, and for His pleasure/will to be done. If our concerns and loves are not primarily for those things, it is hard to see how we are praying as Jesus told us and as Jesus prayed. There can be no true prayer for the hallowing of His name apart from a heart that hallows His name and desires to hallow His name. It is hard to pray for His name to be hallowed if we have rushed into His presence (so to speak) and in our manner, attitude, and words we are not hallowing His name at all. In fact, it could be said that much of the “prayer” that takes place inside buildings owned by churches is marked by such irreverence for God and self-centeredness in the ones “praying” that it is not true prayer at all. God can only be approached with reverence.

In John 5:44 Jesus said; “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” It can be asked how people can truly pray when they seek honor from others rather than the honor and glory of God. While this is obvious, it may not be terribly hard to get some people to change their words. But what must happen is that hearts must be broken from self and a true desire for the glory of God must be instilled by God Himself. As the quotes above teach us, until we are broken with a sense of our unworthiness we are not ready to pray in Jesus’ name. But until we are ready to pray in Jesus’ name from the heart, we are not ready to really pray for revival. Until our hearts have been broken from the selfish things we might desire from revival and we are truly longing for the glory of God to be poured out in true revival (that the glory of His grace would be manifested and magnified) we are not praying for true revival. It is impossible to pray for true revival apart from hearts that are broken (being broken) from self and love His name and glory rather than our own. A great hindrance for revival is that God has turned us over to the desires of our own hearts. Our hearts seek Him (in externals) to do things for self rather than for His name’s sake. True revival will not come until He breaks our hearts (by grace) and gives them panting desires after His glory. “Father, glorify Your name” (Jn 12:28).

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