Humility, Part 14

October 14, 2009

It is humbling in one sense of the word to think of just how utterly dependent the soul is on God and His grace. It is humbling in the sense that it makes one see just how weak and powerless the creature is. But humility is the emptiness of self. A person can be humbled in a modern sense of the word and still be full of self. To truly be humbled, then, is for the creature to be emptied of self to the degree that it now lives by grace received each moment from God. Indeed the humbled soul knows that God upholds it each moment, but it also lives by grace received each moment since the power of God for the strengthening of the soul comes to the soul only by grace.

“God wished to reveal Himself in and through created beings by communicating to them as much of His own goodness and glory as they were capable of receiving. But this communication was not a giving to the creature something which it could possess in itself, a certain life or goodness, of which it had the charge and disposal. By no means. But as God is the ever-living, ever-present, ever-acting One, who upholdeth all things by the word of His power, and in whom all things exist, the relation of the creature to God could only be one of unceasing, absolute, universal dependence. As truly as God by His power once created, so truly by that same power must God every moment maintain. The creature has not only to look back to the origin and first beginning of existence , and acknowledge that it there owes everything to God; its chief care, its highest virtue, its only happiness, now and through all eternity, is to present itself an empty vessel, in which God can dwell and manifest His power and goodness.”

It was God that brings each soul into existence. It is mysterious to the human mind of how souls come into existence, but that does not mean that just because it is mysterious that we cannot know anything about it.

“13 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; 16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.” (Psalm 139).

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5).

God knew more than the physical features of those who were writing, He knew them and had even ordained all their days before they were born. The same power that created these bodies and these souls is the same power that keeps them in existence each moment. The same power that brought them into existence is the same power that has ordained each day and each event of each day. The same power that brought them into existence is the same power that has to regenerate them and bring spiritual life into their souls:

18 “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly place” (Ephesians 1).

This power that brought spiritual life is also the same power that Paul prayed for the believers to have in Eph 3:

16 “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.”

It is clear that it is the power of God that works to create souls and then it is His power that gives them spiritual life in regeneration and then upholds them each moment. This power only comes by grace. The soul that truly sees these things and bows low before this God is one that lives by grace alone which is to say that it lives by the grace it receives. Receiving the power and love of God is grace. The soul must be humble to live in utter dependence.

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Humility, Part 13

October 12, 2009

Humility is not something that a soul can do to or for itself, but rather it has to do with the emptiness of self in the soul. Apart from this definition or concept of humility at some point we will run into the problem of self being the master of the soul. What does it mean to deny self if it is nothing but self doing the denying? That would be nothing but an act of self doing something for and by self. There can be no true denial of self apart from the soul being emptied of self so that it is not self doing what is thought to be a denial of self. Does the soul have to deny self and take up the cross daily in order to follow Christ as Luke 9:23 clearly tells us? Does the soul have the power in itself to do this or does it need to be emptied of self by grace in order to receive grace to obey?

“God wished to reveal Himself in and through created beings by communicating to them as much of His own goodness and glory as they were capable of receiving. But this communication was not a giving to the creature something which it could possess in itself, a certain life or goodness, of which it had the charge and disposal. By no means. But as God is the ever-living, ever-present, ever-acting One, who upholdeth all things by the word of His power, and in whom all things exist, the relation of the creature to God could only be one of unceasing, absolute, universal dependence. As truly as God by His power once created, so truly by that same power must God every moment maintain. The creature has not only to look back to the origin and first beginning of existence , and acknowledge that it there owes everything to God; its chief care, its highest virtue, its only happiness, now and through all eternity, is to present itself an empty vessel, in which God can dwell and manifest His power and goodness.”

Do we live in the conscious awareness that God is the origin and source of life? Do we really believe what Paul preached to the people at the Areopagus in Acts 17?

24 “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.”

The humble soul (has been emptied of self) knows that it lives physically each moment by the breath and hand of God. The humble soul realizes that it lives in the same utter dependence upon God in the spiritual realm as well. God made the world and all things in it and that includes the inward part of human beings which is the soul. He is not served by human hands or human souls because He does not need anything. He is the one that gives people their life and breath and all things in the physical realm, but He is also the one that give life to sinners so that they are now believing sinners and now they live each moment by grace alone. As the awakened soul sees that its every breath is by the mercy of God so the believing soul knows that every truly spiritual act is from the grace of God.

For the believer to truly walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8) is for the believer to walk in utter dependence upon God each and every moment. In one sense we live by our breath and by water and food in the physical realm, but God is sovereign over those and we only receive those by His mercy. In another sense we live by faith which receives grace in the spiritual realm. Surely it is obvious that for grace to be grace we are utterly dependent on God to give grace each moment. If it is “in Him” that “we live and move and exist” in the physical realm, then how much more so is it true in the spiritual realm? It is our spiritual nature that is most like God and must have grace each and every moment. We are commanded to worship Him in spirit and truth because He is Spirit and He is truth. As our bodies are upheld each moment by His sovereign hand, so our souls are upheld each moment as well.

It is so easy for some to intellectually know that God is sovereign over the physical things of the world and over other people. It is harder to recognize and submit to His sovereignty over our bodies and circumstances. Then we move to how hard it is for people to submit to the fact that God is gracious to whom He will be gracious in the realm of salvation. But it seems even harder for people to submit to the fact that God is sovereign for each and every movement of the soul as well. We live like grace depends on us and our behavior. But in reality our every spiritual motion depends completely upon Him. Our souls live by grace each moment and humility receives grace.

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Humility, Part 12

October 10, 2009

Humility, while vastly misunderstood and hardly sought after, is at the heart of Christianity. Apart from a humble heart the Christian will not receive grace and so will not grow in grace. Apart from humility there is no love in the soul. Apart from humility there is no true blessedness in the soul since humility is at the heart of the Beatitudes. Without humility there can be no following of Christ who is the Humble Lamb of God. Apart from humility there can be no taking up the cross daily which is necessary to following Christ.

“God wished to reveal Himself in and through created beings by communicating to them as much of His own goodness and glory as they were capable of receiving. But this communication was not a giving to the creature something which it could possess in itself, a certain life or goodness, of which it had the charge and disposal. By no means. But as God is the ever-living, ever-present, ever-acting One, who upholdeth all things by the word of His power, and in whom all things exist, the relation of the creature to God could only be one of unceasing, absolute, universal dependence. As truly as God by His power once created, so truly by that same power must God every moment maintain. The creature has not only to look back to the origin and first beginning of existence , and acknowledge that it there owes everything to God; its chief care, its highest virtue, its only happiness, now and through all eternity, is to present itself an empty vessel, in which God can dwell and manifest His power and goodness.”

In the last BLOG (Humility 11) we started looking at the statement by Andrew Murray from his book on Humility. We looked at how God’s desire in created human beings was to reveal Himself. This should give us a great clue as to the nature of true humility. Another statement which should give us a clue as to the nature of humility is Murray’s point that when God communicated Himself to them He was not giving the creature something which it could possess in the sense that it had charge of it to dispose of it as it pleased. This is truly an insight which strikes at the heart of the modern professing Church. It seems as if people think that God gives them gifts and then it is up to them to use the gift in their own strength and in their own way to make Him look good. People seem to think that they have to force themselves to study the Bible and then to do what it says in their own strength. They seem to think that the balance of the whole world is upon their shoulders. But it is simply not so. God does not give us things to possess for ourselves and He does not give it to us as something that we have charge over and is at our disposal. No, we are to walk by faith each moment. We are to live by the grace we receive through faith.

If God did give us our gifts and even grace in the soul which would be under our own charge and at our disposal, then He would have given Himself and His sovereignty over to the whims of human beings. We would be something like Simon in Acts 8 who wanted the gift to give the Holy Spirit in his own power. We would be able to give grace to ourselves whenever we wanted it. We would not need to walk by faith because we would simply live by what we had already received. If Simon had what he said he wanted, then he could simply be the sovereign over who received the Holy Spirit. That would simply be another way of wanting to be like God. But the Christian is blinded to the ways that s/he wants to be like God. When we want to live by our own strength rather than grace, we want to be like God. When we think that faith is something we can come up with in order to get God to do what we want, that is another way we want to be like God. When we think that if we can be good as a way to get God to do something for us, that is a way we want to be like God. When we think we can live the Christian life by our own strength plus some grace, that is a way we want to be like God. When we study the Bible looking to our own spirituality or intellectual abilities to give us understanding, this is a way we want to be like God. When we pray in such a way as to inform God what He needs to do or what we want Him to do, that is a way we want to be like God. When we “do” church according to our own desires and methods, we are being like God.

Humility, on the other hand, is when the soul is emptied of self and so it looks to God to do what He commands it to do. The humble soul sees its own nothingness and looks to God for the strength to do even the smallest of things. The humble soul looks to God to give it understanding when it studies the Bible because it is His Word and He alone can give us a true spiritual understanding. The humble soul prays to God for His own glory and desires to be full of His glory on the basis of grace alone. The humble soul is truly emptied of self and so looks to God for its strength in all things. The humble soul recognizes its poverty and knows that it can do nothing apart from Christ (John 15:4-5). The humble soul knows who works in it “both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). The humble soul looks to God for grace to do all things because He alone is the strength of the soul for all.

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Provocation to Prayer, Part 9

October 9, 2009

For a condensed version of Jonathan Edwards’ call to prayer go to http://www.sbapc.org , click on “BLOG,” and then “a call to prayer.”

James 5:16 – “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. 18 Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.”

Isaiah 64:6-7 gives us some important and yet extremely neglected elements of prayer. “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. 7 There is no one who calls on Your name, Who arouses himself to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities.”

There is a clear link between verses 6 and 7. Verse 6 teaches that our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment and then that our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. In light of our sin we are told (v. 7) that there is no one who calls on His name and who arouses himself to take hold of God. Why is this the case? It is because He has hidden His face from us and has delivered us into the power of our iniquities. We are a nation and a professing Church without prayer because we have been delivered into the power of our iniquities. The power of sin is the love of sin and the blinding influence of our pride. We can be preachers and very religious people who say a lot of words that we think is prayer and yet we do not truly take hold of God because He is judging us.

A people that God has hidden His face from are those that cannot truly pray. They may get together for religious activities and may spend a lot of time saying words toward the ceiling, but if God has hidden His face from a people they are not truly praying no matter how many words they are offering up. The priests of Baal danced and prayed for hours and yet they were not truly praying. When God has delivered people into the power of their iniquities they cannot truly pray. When God hides His face from a church it might be growing numerically, but they are not a people that can pray and do not have the presence of God. We may lament the lack of prayer in our own hearts and in the life of churches, but it is not because men and women do not put forth enough effort. It is because God has hidden His face from the people and has turned them over to the power of their iniquities.

It is no accident and it is not just a formula that II Chronicles 7:14 gave the Israelites the steps to seeing their nation healed. 1) The people must be God’s people. 2) They must humble themselves. 3) They must pray. 4) They must seek the face of the Lord. 5) They must turn from their wicked ways. In other words, in some ways the passage in Isaiah 64:6-7 is what we need II Chronicles 7:14 for. The passage in Isaiah tells us of the judgment of God in hiding His face and the passage in II Chronicles tells us how to return to God by seeking His face. Our churches and our nation will never see true revival apart from the steps outlined in II Chronicles 7:14. But we must be careful not to assume that these things can be done apart from the work of the Spirit in our hearts. It is not that the passage just gives us some easy steps to be done, but it prescribes what must be done by God in our hearts.

Before men and women can rouse themselves to take hold of God, the judgment of God must be removed. This means that they must be deeply humbled in heart for there is no true prayer apart from humility and no deep prayer apart from a deep humility. There is no taking hold of God until the grip of self is loosened by a deep humiliation of soul. The depths of prayer are determined by the depths of humility that the Lord works in the soul. The face of God cannot be seen apart from a deeply humbled heart that seeks His face and nothing else. The face of God that has been hidden in judgment cannot be sought apart from a people that are turning from their wicked ways. But know that it is the Lord that has turned us over to the power of our iniquities and so it is the Lord alone who can grant repentance from those iniquities. If we desire the presence of the Lord in true revival, it will cost us much humbling of heart and repentance. If we are not ready to deny our very selves and reputations to seek Him, we are not ready to truly pray. We must get beyond our external religious veneer which is the judgment of God on us and seek an ever deeper humility that we may pray in an ever deeper way to grab hold of God and seek His face.

“I… do not feel sufficient emptiness in my soul to receive God” (Howell Harris).

“But now the more I did in prayer or any other duty, the more I saw I was indebted to God for allowing me to ask for mercy; for I saw it was self-interest had led me to pray, and that I had never once prayed from any respect to the glory of God” (David Brainerd).

He learned that a deep humiliation of soul was needed in order to truly pray. That is true of us as well.

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Conversion, Part 36

October 7, 2009

If it is true, as the Bible, the older Confessions and Catechisms teach us, that sinners must be convicted of sin and receive new hearts; then why is it the case that this is so ignored in the modern day? Jesus taught that all must be turned and become as children to even enter the kingdom (Matthew 18:3). He also taught that the one who was humbled as a little child would be the greatest in the kingdom (Matthew 18:4). But again, why are these things so ignored today? Could it be that our very standards of orthodoxy are hiding these things from our eyes? The Pharisees had also developed a standard of orthodoxy that hid the truth from their eyes as well.

The standards of orthodoxy today have redefined justification by faith alone so that it is thought that conviction of sin is to add a work. But as has been shown in previous articles, that is not what the older Confessions and Catechisms teach us. In fact, they taught that conviction of sin is part of how the grace of God draws sinners to salvation. We have also swallowed whole the modern teaching that if we preach on sin too much we will run people away. We even say that we must preach Christ rather than pound people over their sin. It may be true that we are not to pound people over their sin, but that is far different than preaching on sin in the heart so that men and women will be deeply convicted of their sin in a way that can be used by the Spirit to draw them to Christ.

Expository preaching can also stand in the way of preaching on sin in a way that produces conviction of sin. Expository preaching can be an excuse for some not to preach on sin (“I preach the text”) while for others it may simply hide the issue. This happens when we are so interested in the text, what the words mean, and the context that we preach the text and never get to a real meaning of the text. Underneath each text the glory of God and the sinfulness of man are always there. It is not just that they are underneath, but in fact the glory of God in Christ is always the main point. If we are missing the main point of the glory of God in Christ, then we are going to miss man’s sin which is in opposition to God. Whatever else we are doing, if we are going to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it has been historically understood we must preach about the sin of human beings. If we have defined justification by faith alone in a way that gets in the way of preaching on sin, then we need to repent. If we have drawn back from preaching on sin because of fear that it will run people away, then we must repent. If our style of expository preaching has kept us from preaching on sin to the heart of sinners, then we must repent.

One way that God brought judgment on Israel was to give it priests and prophets who would not preach on sin. When external sin is not exposed, people go on in external sin. When internal sin is not exposed, people go on in internal and external sin. Listen to the words of Ezekiel 3:25 in the context of not preaching on sin: “As for you, son of man, they will put ropes on you and bind you with them so that you cannot go out among them. 26 “Moreover, I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be mute and cannot be a man who rebukes them, for they are a rebellious house.” What a judgment on the nation when God made the tongue of the prophet stick to his mouth so he could not rebuke them. They were a rebellious house and part of their punishment was to have a prophet that could not rebuke them. We can preach justification by faith alone and do that by expository preaching, and yet if we do not reach the heart of sinners with the news of their sin we have not truly declared the truth of who God is and of who man is in light of that.

Hear the words of Jeremiah: “How shall I admonish you? To what shall I compare you, O daughter of Jerusalem? To what shall I liken you as I comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is as vast as the sea; Who can heal you? 14 Your prophets have seen for you False and foolish visions; And they have not exposed your iniquity So as to restore you from captivity, But they have seen for you false and misleading oracles?” (Lamentations 2:13). When a positive form of Christianity is preached it is nothing different from the Old Testament prophets who preached false and foolish visions. When they did that, they did not expose the iniquity of the people. They preached a positive message that the people wanted to hear but they did not preach what God commanded and so the people were left in bondage. The same thing is true today. People are in bondage to their sin and the devil and we have “preachers” who will not deal with the sinful hearts of the people. Instead they say soothing things of how much God loves them and not mention the sin. But as long as they do not expose the sin and tell people of true repentance, the people will remain in bondage to their sins. Sure they may hang around and tithe as long as the “preacher” declares soothing things, but that is not what the Lord commands. This is not conducive to conversion.

The prophet Jeremiah gives us the words of God on this: “But if they had stood in My council, Then they would have announced My words to My people, And would have turned them back from their evil way And from the evil of their deeds” (23:22). A preacher is to be one that declares the words of God. But the Word of God tells us that sinners are born dead in sins and trespasses and that they must have new hearts. The Word of God tells us that sinners have proud and stubborn hearts. It tells us that all men are given over to pride and sin and that all fall short of His glory. We are also told that men must repent or they will perish. The teaching and preaching on sin is not an option if we are going to listen to the council of God and declare His words to the people. If we are to be faithful to the Word of God in terms of preaching the Gospel to the unsaved and the saved alike, we must deal with the sin of the hearts of people. We must preach in a way that brings conviction of sin if the Spirit is pleased to do so. How are the churches going to be salt and light if it does nothing but preach the positive things?

When preachers will not preach on sin and on sin in such a way that opens the hearts of people to themselves, they are not just shirking their duty, but they are encouraging the wicked as Ezekiel 13:22 tells us: “Because you disheartened the righteous with falsehood when I did not cause him grief, but have encouraged the wicked not to turn from his wicked way and preserve his life.” Perhaps the hearts of the people are not reached because the hearts of preachers have not been reached. Perhaps the hearts of people are not opened because the hearts of the preachers have not been opened. Perhaps the people don’t want the sins of their hearts opened to them and the preacher does not want the sin of his heart opened either. If the sin of the heart is not opened up then the wicked are encouraged not to turn from their wicked ways. It is hard to hear, but it could be that a major problem in our nation is that preachers are encouraging the wicked in their sin. The problem is perhaps not so much with the world but with the professing Church that is not doing its duty to expose sin from the pulpit.

While this particular series is on conversion, we are not far off the path of that subject. What happens when preachers do not try to expose the heart of sinners to themselves? What happens when the message of the Gospel is close to orthodox but not quite there? What happens when preachers preach expository messages but do not get to the hearts of sinners in exposing their sin? It leads to the same situation that Jeremiah speaks about: “Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail. 9 “Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known, 10 then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’– that you may do all these abominations?” (7:8-10). When we cast the Ten Commandments aside and simply preach what we call “a simple Gospel” or “a simple message of Christ,” we are causing people to trust in deceptive words. If we are not preaching the nature of sin when we preach what we think is the Gospel, then we are providing ways for people to break the commandments and to follow idols and then come to church and say that “we are delivered.”

Apart from a true conviction of sin and a true conversion of soul people are left in the pews with something very close to an orthodox message of the Gospel, will not hear much of sin, but they hear expository sermons that are filled with historical references, good illustrations, catchy stories, and a lot about what words mean. But their hearts are left untouched and so they are able to steal in legal ways, murder in their hearts, commit adultery in their hearts before their computers and magazines, and offer sacrifices to other gods (greed and the love of money are idolatry) while smiling on Sunday morning and thinking that they are saved. As long as people say a prayer and make a relatively orthodox profession, we assume that God has saved them. They are trusting in deceptive words and the deceptive words are those of preachers. The nation of Israel was led astray and left in its sin by its priests and prophets and the professing Church has been led astray and left in its sin by its preachers and its scholars.

What is the only real answer even in this very dark hour? What must be done? Isaiah 58:1 points the way: “Cry loudly, do not hold back; Raise your voice like a trumpet, And declare to My people their transgression And to the house of Jacob their sins.” We need to think again about what the orthodox Gospel and conversion really are. We have turned from what was taught in Scripture and history. We have to think again about preaching God’s glory and on sin even if people leave. We will have to think again about what true preaching is. Expository preaching can be a method of avoiding the truth and hiding behind the words of the Bible. The only real answer is to be broken in heart before God and to return to His methods and His words. The Word of God must be preached to the hearts of sinners so that they will see their wickedness and their sin. We must get back to preaching what true conversion is and leave the results to God. We must listen and bow to God rather than the polls and the “experts.”

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Humility, Part 11

October 7, 2009

There is no power in the human soul that can cast out self unless it is the power of the living Christ and the fruit of the Spirit. If we think we can humble ourselves past the point of giving up trying to humble ourselves and bowing to Him alone who can humble us, we have yet to see the power of pride and self in our own hearts. When Scripture says that we are to humble ourselves, it does not mean that we have the power to humble ourselves to the depths that is needed. But to humble ourselves is when we give up our own efforts to drive out self and cast ourselves (so to speak) into the arms of Christ to do this work Himself.

In opposition to the above paragraph, however, we find many modern people telling us that humility is nothing but a choice. We simply make a choice to choose others over self or to think lowly of self. But it should be self-evident that a person that chooses others over self could be proud of that if s/he has not been emptied of self. It can be a very selfish and proud choice to choose others over self. It can also be a sign of a very proud person that is proud of how s/he thinks somewhat lowly of self. Even the Pharisees could not have missed all the teaching in the Bible about humility. But in some way they defined it so they could accomplish it and even think they were humble. A soul that is proud enough to feign humility when fasting is a soul that is very proud and wants others to see its humility. The spirit of the Pharisee is alive today and it is alive in every son and daughter of Adam. It is only by the work of Christ in the soul in emptying the soul of self that true humility can be in the soul. But the Pharisee lives today in the professing Church and seeks greatness for self by trying to be the most humble. When self seeks greatness for self, it can know that it is not truly humble.

One of the great errors of the modern day is the thought that human beings can serve God by doing something for God. That is totally bogus. The issue is whether the human being has power within self to do something for God or whether it is only the soul that is empty of self that God fills with Himself to manifest Himself through. “Listen” to these profound words of Andrew Murray:

“God wished to reveal Himself in and through created beings by communicating to them as much of His own goodness and glory as they were capable of receiving. But this communication was not a giving to the creature something which it could possess in itself, a certain life or goodness, of which it had the charge and disposal. By no means. But as God is the ever-living, ever-present, ever-acting One, who upholdeth all things by the word of His power, and in whom all things exist, the relation of the creature to God could only be one of unceasing, absolute, universal dependence. As truly as God by His power once created, so truly by that same power must God every moment maintain. The creature has not only to look back to the origin and first beginning of existence , and acknowledge that it there owes everything to God; its chief care, its highest virtue, its only happiness, now and through all eternity, is to present itself an empty vessel, in which God can dwell and manifest His power and goodness.”

This statement is full of theology and is dripping with experiential Christianity. It also shows the beauty and the wonder of humility. Jesus told us more than once that the greatest is the most humble. Murray answers the question of why that is true here. The reason that the most humble is the greatest in the kingdom is because the purpose of a human being is to be empty of self so that God can manifest His glory through that soul. The humble soul has more of God and the glory of God shines through the humble soul far more than proud souls who despite their great gifts think highly of themselves and their giftedness. God did not and does not give human beings gifts in order to exalt themselves, but He gives them gifts so that they may exalt Him. After all, they are to love Him with all their being.

Notice the reason for creation in the first sentence. God created human beings in order to reveal Himself. To do that He communicates Himself to them in accordance to what they are capable of receiving. Souls that are full of themselves have no capacity for the glory of God because they are full of their own glory. Souls that are full of themselves have no room (so to speak) to receive the goodness of God. Souls that are full of their own spiritual works and abilities have no room to receive true grace. We can understand Micah 6:8 which teaches us what God requires: “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?” When the soul walks humbly with God it is emptied of self and God fills that soul with Himself. It is the humble soul alone that can walk with the God who will not give His glory to another to be used for man’s self-centered purposes in man’s self-love. True humility leads to true glory.

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Humility, Part 10

October 5, 2009

If God would open the eyes of our soul and let us see what the works of pride have wrought in the earth during the history of man, we would also see our own hearts in a new way. We might begin to see how our own pride has brought a lot of destruction into the lives of others and our own, though to see pride in its ugliness is to see it as it is against God. All the things that we have blamed on others we might see our own self and pride as enough blame to bring us to our knees. We would begin to understand that we have used others as a way to serve self. We would see that we have used all things in the service of self. We would see that we have used religion in the service of self. We would see that we have used God in the service of self. Our hearts would be amazed to see how wicked our hearts are in their pride. We would then begin to beg God to tear pride from our hearts and grant us humility. Humility is not just something that we can add on to make us better people, it is to be emptied of pride and self and then to be filled with the life of Christ. When Christ is present self and pride must be gone, yet where self and pride are Christ will be absent. The quotes below are from a recent but unnamed book that I am using as a background in an effort to show how the world has infiltrated the professing Church. These are ways for pride to take on the appearance of humility and yet still live and control the soul.

“[1] In this study, you’ll be learning about the character trait of humility…[2]You’ll learn that God rewards humility. [3] You’ll study about an angel and some people who allowed pride to enter into their hearts, and you’ll see what happened to them because of it….[4] You’ll also study about the punishment for pride…[5] To humble yourself means to make yourself low. How do you make yourself low? You make yourself low by not thinking more highly of yourself than you think of others. You make yourself low by putting others first-above yourself…[5] Humble people are selfless people….[6] Humble people admit that they have faults and weaknesses. [7] Humble Christian people admit that they are nothing without God. They admit that apart from God, they can do nothing.”

In quotes [5] – [7] above it has some appearance of Philippians 2:3-8:

“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Indeed humble people are selfless people, but then again if it self trying to appear selfless it is still nothing more than the pride of self in the presence of God. It is true that humble people admit that they have faults and weaknesses, but truly humble people do more than just admit it. Even the most wicked men in the world will admit that they have faults and weaknesses. It is no measure of spirituality or humility for people to simply admit that they have weaknesses. Humble people also admit that they are nothing without God and admit that apart from God they can do nothing. But this is also what a lot of wicked people admit as well. Madonna used to pray (perhaps still does) that God would bless her and help her as she performed. I have heard of a bank robber who would pray that his robberies would be successful. They were admitting that apart from God they could do nothing.

The real issue is not just admitting it, but actually living it. Jesus did tell us very clearly that apart from Him we could do nothing (John 15:4-5). This teaching is in the story of the vine and the branches. There is no spiritual fruit worked in and through our souls that does not come from Christ. No human being can do anything spiritual unless it is given to him or her from Christ. The spiritual life is not in studying the Bible enough, praying enough, and then doing some good things, it is in being dead to self and having the life of Christ in the soul who then works His fruit in and through us by the Spirit. Spiritual pride is able to do virtually anything the Bible commands in terms of the externals. But it can never die to self so that all that would be done through it would come from Christ in true love. When Christ went to the cross He went there out of perfect love to the Father or it would not have been perfect obedience. For that Christ to live in us, we must die to self and pride. For us to die to self and pride means that we must give up trying to kill self and pride and simply look to grace alone to empty us of ourselves.

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Conversion, Part 35

October 3, 2009

In past weeks Confessions and Catechisms have been quoted many times. The point has been to show that this is what has been taught by those who wrote the major Confessions and Catechisms in history. The point is that this view is neither a new view nor an extreme point of view. It is simply what has been taught by both Baptists and Presbyterians in history. While it may be the majority (even vast majority) view today that a person must come to a point to make a choice or to have an intellectual belief in a stated view, that was not the majority view in history. In fact, in history it was considered to be a dangerous view if someone taught that a person must simply make a choice or to have an intellectual belief about some facts of the Gospel. It used to be taught that a person must be deeply convicted of sin as the way the Holy Spirit brought a person to faith and conversion.

This week’s article may be somewhat on the offensive side for some. However, the effort is to point to the fact that it is the Holy Spirit that converts sinners. It is the Holy Spirit that convicts people of sin and it is the Holy Spirit who regenerates and renews sinners. A sinner will not and cannot come to Christ in his or her own power. Christ taught us a very important truth if we are willing and able to listen: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 “It is written in the prophets, ‘AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me” (John 6:44-45).

What does it mean to be taught of the Father? After Peter’s confession that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God in Matthew 16:17, “Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” One part of the teaching that the Father does is to reveal spiritual truths. It is the inward teaching of God in the soul that we must recognize and even seek. This was, after all, what Paul prayed for in Colossians 1:9: “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.” There is a spiritual wisdom and a spiritual understanding that God alone can teach. He teaches spiritual things by the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 1:21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

2:7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; 8 the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; 9 but just as it is written, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.” 10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13 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. 14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

This is not some hyper-mysticism, but it is simply recognition of the undeniable fact that Scripture speaks of an internal teaching that no man can do. But there is also another side that must be pointed at. It is the nature of the call of Christ to sinners. A lot of ink and perhaps blood has been spilled on this issue. Some say that the call to come to Christ is to be issued to each and every person without distinction. Others say that the call to come to Christ has some distinctions or qualifications set out in Scripture. What is to be our guide and how are we to come to a decision on this matter? The motive of even approaching this subject, though it will not be given a thorough treatment, is simply to show the importance of striving with men and women and being used as means to convict them of sin as a priority. While it is true that the Holy Spirit’s work is to convict them of sin, it is also the work of human beings to be used of the Holy Spirit in that work. While we carry the external message, we must pray that the Spirit would apply the internal message and even point sinners to the work of the Spirit.

Mark 2:17 And hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Luke 5:32 “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

The two verses given above show us that there are some people that Jesus did come to call and some that He did not come to call. This is what is hard and perhaps offensive to some, so let me set it out that we are to preach repentance to each and every person. We are to preach the truth of who God is to each and every person. We are to tell each and every person the way of salvation. But what we must also understand is that Jesus specifically tells us that He did not come to call anyone but sinners. That is perhaps something that may be hard for some to swallow, but that is the clear teaching of those texts. We must not understand that as a way that prohibits the declaration of the Gospel to each and every person, but it must instruct us on the way we are to teach and preach the Gospel. If Jesus did not come to call the righteous but sinners, then we must be at work showing people that they are sinners.

Matthew 11:28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

John 7:37 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.

The previous two verses should also instruct us in our views of conversion and evangelism. Jesus calls all those who are weary and heavy-laden to come to Him and that He would give them rest. A person that is not weary of sin does not want rest from his or her sin, but simply wants to get out of hell. The person that comes to Christ must not just know about sin, but be weary and heavy-laden with sin. This is pictured for us by John Bunyan in Pilgrim’s Progress. Sin was pictured as a large burden on a man’s back and which only fell off when the man knelt at the cross. The Holy Spirit has to convict sinners of their sin and show them what sin really is for them to see and feel sin as a burden. Until the Holy Spirit convicts a sinner of sin and gives understanding of what it is, the sinner may know that sin is wrong to some degree but simply go on in it. But when the Spirit has worked on that sinner, sin is no longer a pleasure but has become a burden. The sinner now understands sin to be a bondage and slavery. The sinner now sees that sin is not just a decision; it is part of the sinner’s nature. Sin is not just something that can be cast off with a mere decision; it is something that takes the Divine power to do so.

In the New Testament we don’t have a lot of people just making intellectual decisions about Christ. We have people pleading with the Apostles to tell them what to do in order that they may be saved. We don’t see that in our day because we don’t see people being brought under deep conviction of sin. We don’t see that in our day because at the slightest hint that a person sees his or her sin we stop working on their hearts about sin. But what we must understand is that many times a person needs to come to deeper and deeper points of conviction. It is also true that a person under conviction will begin to make excuses for sin which shows that s/he needs a deeper conviction. After all, Romans 3:19 tells us one purpose of the law: “so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God.” True conviction has only reached its appointed goal when the mouth of the sinner has been shut except to confess that God is righteous and just to do with him or her as God pleases.

We have Jesus calling sinners who were weary and burdened of their sin to Himself and we have Jesus calling those who were thirsty to Himself. Those who were thirsty were those who thirsted for eternal life. The context teaches us this. Souls who are weary of sin not only want to be relieved of the burden of sin, but they want life. This has also been pictured to us by Bunyan who pictures the man running from the things of the world with his fingers in his ears crying out for eternal life. The soul that has been taught the things of God knows that it must have Christ to deliver it from the burden of sin but that it must have the Holy Spirit to give it life. A soul that is deeply convicted and burdened with sin cannot imagine giving itself life, but instead it knows that the Spirit blows as He pleases (John 3:3-8). A soul that is deeply convicted and burdened with sin longs to be freed from the bondage of a sinful nature and thirsts for a new heart.

The doctrine of conversion is not just something we need to hear about and then go on in our religious ways; it is something that should deeply influence all that we do. It should teach us that we start by grace alone and that we can only continue each moment by grace alone. It should teach us that in evangelism we are to teach sinners in a way that they know that it is by the grace of God that sinners can have their burdens taken away and to be given a new heart. It should teach us that we are to preach to each and every person but that the way we are to do that is to seek for men, women, and children to be deeply convicted of sin. That is, after all, what the Bible teaches.

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Humility, Part 9

October 3, 2009

The issue of humility is so vital that a step in the wrong direction at this point is a step away from Christianity because of the inextricable link between humility and the glory of all that God does by grace. The world has transported its false and man-centered thoughts about humility into the professing Church. When humility is left in the hands of human beings to work in themselves as a virtue, then what is called “grace” is also left in the hands of men because God gives grace to the humble. We are working with a few quotes from a recent but unnamed book that I am using as a background in an effort to show how the world has infiltrated the professing Church. The results and ramifications have been enormous, are presently enormous, and will continue to be enormous.

“[1] In this study, you’ll be learning about the character trait of humility…[2]You’ll learn that God rewards humility. [3] You’ll study about an angel and some people who allowed pride to enter into their hearts, and you’ll see what happened to them because of it….[4] You’ll also study about the punishment for pride…[5] To humble yourself means to make yourself low. How do you make yourself low? You make yourself low by not thinking more highly of yourself than you think of others. You make yourself low by putting others first-above yourself…[5] Humble people are selfless people….[6] Humble people admit that they have faults and weaknesses. [7] Humble Christian people admit that they are nothing without God. They admit that apart from God, they can do nothing.”

It is very dangerous to think of humility as simply making yourself low as in [5]. It is simply something that self does. According to that line of thinking, it is to make yourself low by not thinking more highly of yourself than others and then to put others above yourself. This is nothing but another way that pride can hide itself in the hearts of human beings. As long as we think of self doing the work, it is self doing the work. This is something that has been stated several times before and will be stated over and over. It is something that our hearts must learn and must be reminded of over and over. As long as it is self doing the work it is not the Spirit of God. So when the self is making itself low, it is self still doing the work and admiring itself in being low. It is one way that pride can hide itself in the heart in the form of humility.

Another way that pride hides itself in the form of humility is when it tricks itself into thinking that it is not thinking more highly of itself than it thinks of others. Pride is such a chameleon in that it will change into any color and anything in order to hide itself from others and then self. When self in its pride hears that to be humble it must not think more highly of itself than others, it sets out a way for its pride to attain humility. Now, of course, that is not how self presents these things to self, but that is the reality of it. The pride in our hearts does not want to admit pride because it hurts our pride to think of ourselves as prideful. So we find ways to keep our pride by hiding it in some form of humility. If we are working hard at not thinking more highly or ourselves than others, then pride will be hidden except when it escapes and makes us proud of ourselves for thinking of others before self. But of course if it is just pride hiding itself we are simply using others as a way to hide our proud hearts from ourselves.

The last point from [5] above is that “You make yourself low by putting others first-above yourself.” This one is again rather obvious. Pride wants to humble itself and so it simply puts others first. It allows others to go before it in a line at a store. It looks after certain things of others first. However, unless God has put pride to death in our souls and the life of humility which can only be the life of Christ in the soul is there, pride will feed on putting others first. It is still a way for self to be first. Our pride will be built up and grow at a rapid rate while it deceives us into thinking that we are putting others first. Apart from the life of Christ in the soul there is no way for self to put others first because it will be self doing it. It is also true that a human being should never put others first, but it is always out of love for God that we put others above ourselves. But we are never to put others before God.

Philippians 2:3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

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Provocation to Prayer, Part 8

October 2, 2009

Remarks from William C. Burns (1815-1868) on prayer and/or about his prayer life:

* “O for a spirit of humble wrestling prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that sinners may be awakened, and saints greatly edified and advanced!”

* Burns knew that when he was close to God, when he was and had been dependent upon him, was when he felt God’s strengthening most. If his prayer-life wanted at all, even if was due to the ongoing duties created, he was quickly aware of the lack of closeness of God’s Spirit. Prayer then became all-important to Burns and he would do all he could to spend time alone with God even in the midst of his busy days.

* I spent the day chiefly alone, seeking personal holiness, the fundamental requisite in order to a successful ministry.

* …prayed, “and in doing so I felt…as if a direct communication were opened between my soul and the Divine Mind. My heart was truly drawn out and up to God for the advancement of Emmanuel’s glory, even more than for the salvation of guilty worms, as a heart-satisfying end.”

* But those who were so minded could learn from him the greatest lesson of all for the work of the ministry-the omnipotence of faith and prayer.

* Many were cut to the heart on that day, and Islay remembered seeing a white-haired man in the gate weeping bitterly, and saying, “Oh! It’s his prayers.: I canna stand his prayers!” “No matter what he did, or had to do, whether of importance or of a nature you might call trivial, he made it a matter of prayer. This prayerfulness of his seems to me to be the outstanding feature of his Christian life and missionary work.”

* Home to my studies at a quarter-past eight; got some humiliation, or rather some discovery of pride in prayer.

* I was led in a great measure to preach without writing, not because I neglected to study, but in order to study and pray for a longer time.

* I was alone during the greater part of the day seeking humiliation before the Lord, and began through grace to discover how far, alas! I have fallen from that contrition of soul for sin which I once enjoyed.

* I generally found that when the Lord meant to pour out his Spirit, he first made both preacher and people sensible that without him they could do nothing.

* I went out and getting down among the rocks by the river side, where the voice was lost in the noise of the gushing flood, I was enabled to cry aloud for help to the Lord.

* Are there those who feel for us in this unbroken land if heathenism, and cry to God with spiritual agonizings for the descent of the Spirit in his life-giving and converting power?

Burns saw revival in place after place that he went. His “method” was to seek a broken heart and humiliation from God by prayer and to pray from a heart that looked to God alone for the conversion of sinners. He was not satisfied to utter words, but instead he sought a broken heart that could seek the Lord in prayer. He was not satisfied with a broken heart either, but beyond that he sought the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. He was not a man of prayer because he spent time uttering words to God, but because he spent time seeking a heart that was emptied of self so that he would be full of the presence of God. We will not see revival until we desire the glory of God so much that our heart’s desire is to be truly broken of self and pride. Even this desire will not come apart from a true breaking of our hearts and our being filled with the presence and power of the living God. Do we really desire revival? Is it our one great desire to be full of God so that His glory would shine through us? The question is not if we sort of want that desire, but is it what our souls crave? If not, we need to seek His face for that. Do we desire to be so broken that we have no hope or help but from God? If not, we are not ready for revival. If we pray for revival as a way to get people in the doors rather than God in our souls, we have no clue what true revival is. If we long for revival to gain attention of men, we have no clue what true revival is. We need to seek Him for broken hearts.

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