Conversion, Part 33

September 16, 2009

As we have been traversing the waters concerning conviction of sin and its place in conversion many people have been quoted so far. The reason for the multitude of quotes from individuals and confessions is to show that this is how conversion was viewed by the giants of the past who preached and wrote when God was moving in the land. Today it seems as if the majority simply want people to intellectually believe a few things and then to say a prayer or make a commitment. That is directly opposed to the Gospel that was preached and is directly opposite of the teaching that God works in souls to actually convert sinners from being the sons of the devil to children of God. The conviction of sin must not be minimized as only a way to get people to say that they need to be saved, but a true conviction of sin is necessary in order for the person to be broken from pride and self-sufficiency. Scripture tells us that “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Psa 34:18).

James Buchanan, the writer of the classic work on justification, has some instructive words for us today:

“Any doctrine, therefore, which excludes the gracious operation of the Holy Spirit in order to our Justification-either by representing faith as a mere intellectual belief, and ascribing it to the natural exercise of our faculties on the truth and its evidence,-or by describing it as the product of man’s free-will, acting spontaneously and without the effectual influence of divine grace,-is at variance with the express teaching of Scripture, and should be rejected, as it was by Augustine, because it does not sufficiently recognize, either the natural depravity of man, or the efficacy of divine grace.”

The contrast that is drawn is the work of the Holy Spirit who is the power of divine grace to work and give the soul true faith and not just a mere intellectual belief or as an exercise of the free-will. We must remember that this is the classic work on justification by faith alone and in it he is showing us how justification can be attained through faith alone and by grace alone. It is only if the Holy Spirit works in the soul through conviction of sin in order to deliver the soul from any hope in itself and look to grace alone to deliver it from sin and hell. The teaching of the Bible on conviction of sin is not superfluous, it is utterly necessary in how the Holy Spirit works in the soul to save it.

The 1689 Baptist Confession and the Baptist Catechism has been quoted several times in past weeks. The quote that follows will be by Benjamin Beddome’s exposition of the Baptist Catechism which was originally written between the years of 1693 and 1695. It is answering question 34: “What is effectual calling? A. Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing out wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gospel.” “Are all that are effectually called convinced of sin? Yes…Are they convinced of sin in the heart? Yes…Are they convinced of sin in the life? Yes…Do they see sin to be exceeding sinful? Yes…And exceeding hateful? Yes…And is such a conviction of sin the fruit of the Spirit? Yes…Is such a conviction necessary? Yes…

Beddome, from his exposition, believed that the work of the Spirit in conviction of sin was part of the effectual call. The quote from above is only a small selection of the fuller quote, but he goes on about the types of sin that people are convicted of. He clearly teaches here that all that that are effectually called are convinced of sin. Not only just convinced of sin, but of sin of the heart and life. Not only that, but they see their sin as exceedingly sinful and hateful. That conviction of sin is not a work of the will or the mind, but instead it is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Thomas Goodwin, in his work on the Holy Spirit in Salvation, sets out humiliation for sin as a necessity for faith. Not only that, he refers to this as one of the three parts of regeneration. Here is a short quote which is a heading for a chapter: “In which it is proved that to convince us of sin, and to humble us in the sense of it, is the work of the Holy Ghost in converting us to God.” In other words, without taking away all the mystery of regeneration in conversion, he is telling us that in working faith in the soul the Spirit works humiliation for sin in that work. This is very instructive for modern day evangelists. Instead of only trying to convince people of the intellectual truth about Christ, they should use the means of grace toward conviction of sin because that is how faith comes.

Thomas Shepard, a minister in America in the 1600’s and founder of Harvard University, writes in The Sound Believer that there are four acts of Christ’s power in conversion. He says this: “It is true, Christ is applied to us next by faith, but faith is wrought in us that way of conviction and sorrow for sin; no man can or will come by faith to Christ to take away his sins, unless he first see, be convicted of, and loaded with them. Once again we can see the pattern that was prevalent in the older Reformed writers and preachers. It was that faith is worked in the sinner by conviction of sin. It is not that the conviction alone produces faith, but until a person sees his sin and is broken from all hope in himself that person will not come to Christ alone to take away the sins. Until the person is heavy laden with the sins that person will not look to Christ to bear the yoke. Until a person is weary with sin that person will not want Christ to deal with sin. But the work of conviction in the soul by the Spirit shows the sinner his weariness and his burden so that he will want Christ. The work of conviction in the soul breaks the soul from self-righteousness and assists in emptying the soul of its pride. This is a necessary work.

Shepard goes on to show the four acts of Christ’s power in the conversion of sinners. 1) The first act of Christ’s power is conviction of sin. 2) The second act of Christ’s power is compunction (deep sorrow) for sin. 3) The third act of Christ’s power is humiliation or self-abasement. 4) The fourth act of Christ’s power is to work faith in the soul. Notice that these follow the same line of thought as the Confessions in attributing these acts to the power of Christ. The Confessions follow the train of thought from the office of Christ as King. In this way we can see that salvation is by Christ alone and yet includes far more than the cross alone. This is not to denigrate the cross at all, but it shows how Christ as King subdues the heart and makes it His temple.

The doctrine of irresistible grace must be true if salvation is to be by grace alone. If salvation is not by the drawing and working of grace in all of its parts, then something other than grace (human will) has a part in salvation. Part of this drawing of the Spirit is conviction of sin. Sinners do not deserve to be shown the truth of their sin. Sinners deserve to be hardened and given over to darkness. But conviction of sin, when it is done in drawing the sinner to salvation, is the work of grace in working in the sinner to give saving grace. In this work of the Spirit we see the light of grace overpowering the darkness of sin and opening the soul to see its true state. If the sinner simply sees his own sin apart from the work of the Spirit, that is not a work of grace. But the Spirit works in the soul and opens it to see its true state which is a step in overcoming the darkness of that soul. That is a work of grace.

Romans 8:30 points to something very important: “these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified.” All those who receive the call of Romans 8:29-30 are justified. This is one reason why so many used to think of this call as being so powerful. To repeat, all who receive this call are justified. There is something about this call that takes the sinner from being dead in sins and trespasses and brings them to being justified in the sight of God. This also helps us to see why Jesus said that it was such good news or an advantage (John 16:7) that He was leaving and that the Spirit would come and convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment (John 16:8-11). It was in this context that Jesus said that the Spirit would guide them into all truth. After the Spirit was given we see that the conviction of sin was powerful. In previous newsletters we have looked at Acts 2:37 where the people were pierced in heart and were driven to inquire what they were to do. In Acts 16 we have another case of this: “And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (vv. 29-30). When the Spirit convicts of sin, people begin to fear and to seek how to be saved. When the “evangelist” just tries to tell people intellectual information about Christ to get people to people to say a prayer or profess faith, we can know that way cannot lead to a saving faith by itself. A soul must be convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit.

The Gospel of grace, then, includes the conviction of sin which is part of the effectual calling of God in bringing sinners to Himself. Sinners do not deserve to have a sight of their sin in this life as the power of sin and the just desert of sin is that it hardens the soul to sin, the holiness of God, and to its own pride. But it is the grace of God to convict them of their sin and use that to show them their helplessness and their utter need of Christ in all ways. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not just good news about the bare news of the cross, but it is good news that God can call sinners and bring them to Himself by grace. Repentance and faith are beyond the powers of the natural man and if they are properly instructed they will see that. The good news is that God will draw them to Himself and make them willing and able to believe. Now that is the good news that is of grace alone. “Our object should not be to have scripture on our side but to be on the side of scripture; and however dear any sentiment may have become by being long entertained, so soon as it is seen to be contrary to the Bible, we must be prepared to abandon it without hesitation” (William Symington).

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Humility, Part 1

September 14, 2009

Humility is a very hard subject to deal with for at least two main reasons. 1) It is thought that it may take a lot of pride for one to think that he is humble enough to write on humility. 2) If one does ever think that s/he is humble that is the point one can know that s/he is not humble. Perfect humility will never be obtained in this life and so one can only realize that s/he is growing in humility rather than obtaining it perfectly. It does not necessarily take pride to write on humility, though that can certainly be the case, but can simply come from an awareness that it is a misunderstood subject and that the one writing needs to grow in it as well.

I have read several modern books on humility and found them to fall quite short of what humility really is. Older works, however, get to the real issues. Humility is not something that man can work up and it is not a virtue that we have or can just put on. It is how we receive all we have from God. Pride and faith are opposites, yet humility and faith are inseparable. The true believer walks by faith and receives all by faith because the “job” of faith is to receive grace. This is why salvation is by faith alone. It is by faith alone so that it may be by grace alone (Rom 4:16). We walk by faith when we live by the grace that faith receives. All that the believer does is to receive grace from the Lord because apart from Him we can do nothing spiritual (John 15:4-5). Pride opposes grace because pride is self-centered and wants to do something to earn it or believe that self can merit it. But faith receives grace and grace alone. It is the humble soul alone that receives grace. Grace is the motive of all that God gives the soul. We receive the love and joy of God only by grace, yet He only gives grace to the humble. So we have to understand that humility is at the very root of the Christian life.

Not all aspects of humility are necessarily related to how sinful a person is. That was a very profound thought I read several years ago (Andrew Murray) that really changed my thinking and the way I viewed myself and especially my heart. There is a humility that is related to the fact that human beings are creatures in the presence of their Creator. If all humility were related to sin, then Jesus Christ could not be the perfect standard of humility as He was perfectly sinless. He was without sin in His Divine being and yet humbled Himself to clothe Himself in human flesh. While clothed in human flesh the sinless Christ humbled Himself to go to the cross to take the sins of others upon Himself and suffer for their sins. This humility that He had, beyond question, was apart from His own sin. This shows us that all human beings at all times and in all ways are to be humbled before God.

But what is humility? Sure it is the proper position of a creature before its Creator. But what is that? If pride in the human creature is to be full of self-love, self-sufficiency, and self-centeredness, then humility is the emptiness of self in the creature. Pride is the spawn of the devil, but to be emptied of that is humility and God fills the humble with Himself. God dwells with the lowly and the contrite in spirit (Isa 57:15). The world thinks of humility as one that is not so dogmatic and thinks that s/he may be wrong and cannot have a conviction of a strong view on anything. The world that has invaded the Church thinks of humility as those who will not stand for anything. But we must remember that Jesus Christ was perfect in humility and He strongly stood for truth. Humility is not weakness, but it is strength or leads to strength since it is the emptiness of self that leads to God filling the creature. The believer is one that has power dwelling in him or her, though that power is of God and is for His glory.

“Humility is the only soil in which the graces take root; the lack of humility is the sufficient explanation of every defect and failure. Humility is not so much a grace or virtue along with others; it is the root of all, because it alone assumes the right attitude before God and allows Him as God to do all….From the beginning, let us admit that there is nothing so nature to man, nothing so insidious and hidden from our sight, nothing so difficult and dangerous, as pride. Let us feel that nothing but a very determined and persevering waiting on God and Christ will disclose how lacking we are in the grace of humility, and how weak we are to obtain what we seek. Let us study the character of Christ until our souls are filled with the love and admiration of His humility. And let us believe that, when we are broken down under a sense of our pride and realize our inability to cast it out, Jesus Christ Himself will give us this grace as a part of His wondrous life within us.”

Pride in our soul is far worse than any form of cancer in our body. We must have the Great Physician deal with this pride by cutting it out with His discipline so that He may in His great mercy and grace give us the grace of His humility in our souls. The Great Physician would have us die to pride and self and we must seek that from Him.

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Pride, Part 72

September 12, 2009

Prov 16:5 – “Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Assuredly, he will not be unpunished”

Prov 21:4 – “Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, is sin.”

Isaiah 2:11 – “The proud look of man will be abased And the loftiness of man will be humbled, And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. 12 For the LORD of hosts will have a day of reckoning Against everyone who is proud and lofty And against everyone who is lifted up, That he may be abased.”

The insidious nature of pride is such that it hides itself in the human heart in such a way that the pride of others may be noticed while it hides pride in its own heart. Nevertheless, what we must notice is that Scripture tells us that God is opposed to all the proud in heart whether they recognize it or not. As Proverbs 16:5 says so clearly, “everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD.” It is not just those that profess to be unbelievers or those who are heretics whose pride is an abomination to the LORD, but the verse includes everyone. It is not just the proud heart that is an abomination to the LORD, but those who are proud in heart are an abomination to the LORD. We can smile and think that surely this is for heathen nations or for the Muslim nations, but this was written by an Israelite for Israelites. But within the Church it is thought that as long as a person has said a prayer or walked an aisle that person is fine. No, no, and a thousand times no. The text tells us that “everyone,” that is, every single one “that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD. Each person must tell him or herself that if “I am proud in heart I am an abomination to the LORD.” Even if I am a preacher, a seminary professor, a denominational worker, one who has taught in a church for fifty years, pride in my heart makes me an abomination to the LORD.

Just in case one might wonder what an abomination to the LORD is, it is something that is detestable and an object of loathing. Scripture lists idolatry and homosexual acts as things that are abomination to the LORD. That means that if I have pride in my heart then I am on the level with idolatry and homosexuality. These things are abominations to the LORD and so am I if I have pride in my heart. Pride in the heart spoils and ruins everything it touches and has anything to do with. Pride in the heart means that all that I do comes from pride in the heart and that would include my religious actions and beliefs. Pride in the heart means that the lamp that gives me light or that which directs my path is my pride. In other words, pride in the heart means that all that I do is guided by the pride in my heart. If I am guided by pride in my heart, then I may preach orthodox messages but all that I say will be guided by pride rather than love for God and His glory. If I am guided by pride in my heart, then even my orthodox messages will be for self-centered ends rather than that which is for the good of God’s people which is His glory in them.

The heart is so deceitful because of its pride that it will get very angry rather than admit it. But of course it can also admit pride from pride and be proud that it can admit its pride. One can also be quite proud of its humility, though of course that would not be a true humility but one that is put on like a shirt. What this should teach us is that Christianity is opposed to all pride of the heart because the heart is where God dwells and reigns. He will not dwell in a place where things that He despises are. He does not rule and reign in a heart that is full of pride because pride is ruling and reigning in that heart. When the Lord Himself decides to dwell in a heart, He must cast out the pride and cleanse it with the blood of the Perfect Lamb of God. That Lamb was perfect in humility and all He did was guided by perfect humility. The Lamb of God lived in perfect humility and went to the cross in perfect humility in order that by His sacrifice the proud hearts of sinners could be broken and their sins forgiven.

It took a perfect humility which was necessary for perfect love to go to the cross to be a sacrifice for the sin of pride. The reason for this is that the heart that is full of pride is a heart that God looks in and sees the devil. The devil is full of pride and self-love. When the fall occurred he brought the poison of pride and self-love into the human race. When God looks upon the soul of the proud person, He sees the devil and what he has spawned. However, when He looks upon the soul that has been humbled and has Christ in it, He sees His own glory shining there. Pride is not just a little speck of something in the human soul; it is the very vomit of hell. Humility is not just a human work, but it is instead the work of God in emptying the soul of the vomit of hell and then God Himself takes up residence in that cleansed heart. Pride and humility are not just things in the control of human beings to walk in and out of like doors, but they are the very fruits of the war between the devil and God.

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Provocation to Prayer, Part 5

September 11, 2009

For a condensed version of Jonathan Edwards’ call to prayer see http://www.sbaoc.org/blog/?page_id=762 or go to www.sbaoc.org and go to “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.”

“It should be pointed out that there is still another aspect that ought to take precedence over thanksgiving and petition, namely self-abhorrence and confession of our own unworthiness and sinfulness. The soul must solemnly remind itself of Who it is that is to be approached, even the Most High, before whom the very seraphim veil their faces (Isa 6:2). Though Divine grace has made the Christian a son, nevertheless he is still a creature, and as such at an infinite and inconceivable distance below the Creator. It is only fitting that he should deeply feel this distance between himself and his Creator and acknowledge it by taking his place in the dust before God. Moreover, we need to remember that we are by nature; not merely creatures, but sinful creatures. Thus there needs to be both a sense and an owning of this as we bow before the Holy One. Only in this way can we, with any meaning and reality, plead the mediation and merits of Christ as the ground of our approach.” (A.W. Pink)

Calvin wrote about how it is only in the sight of God that we can see ourselves. Isaiah found out about this in chapter 6 of his work. “Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts” (v. 5). Here is the response of a man that has seen something of God and then has seen self in the light of who that God really is. Let us not assume that true prayer is done in a flippant manner and as something casual to get done. While that may be common in many churches, that type of prayer just shows that God is not present. Where God is present in His glory men are on their faces rather than flippantly offering words of supposed prayer.

The Psalms tells us to “Worship the LORD with reverence And rejoice with trembling (2:11). The book of Hebrews tells us that since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe” (Heb 12:28). Let us not imagine that we are praying if we are not in the presence of God. If we are in the presence of God, we will have reverence and awe and we will not pray as giving a performance or doing some light and trivial thing. A minister must not pray to please the people, but to seek more of the living God for the people. The people do not need a minister that they can be pleased with and smile at; they need to be brought into the presence of the living God. We do not need the type of prayer that we can finish and then pick up the empty things of the world again, but we need the type of prayer that lets us know that we have been in the presence of God and that we are different after being in His presence.

When was the last time you were so broken over your inability to truly pray that you could do nothing but groan? When was the last time you were so broken in the presence of God that you cried out to Christ to cover you that moment or you would perish? When was the last time you were in prayer and God opened your heart to you so that you were so broken you could do nothing but weep? When was the last time in prayer that you hungered for God and a sight of His glory that you felt like your heart would burst? When was the last time that you prayed as if to a God that is alive and that you were doing more than uttering words to a floor or a ceiling? When was the last time you prayed to a God that lived in your soul and not just words to someone out there somewhere?

If we are going to see a true reformation and revival in our day, it will not happen by weak prayers offered by pastors and people too busy to truly pray. It will only happen when our hearts are broken in truth and we give ourselves to prayer. It will only happen if we are willing to suffer in our souls the sight of our own vile hearts in order to be broken more and more in His presence. While many flee from the first sign of discomfort in prayer, it may be that they are fleeing from the presence of God. We will not know what it means to pray until we know what pain in the soul really is. Do we really want revival? God knows if you do. Seek the Lord for hearts to truly pray. If we don’t, He won’t give them and we will continue on in our religious but irreverent ways.

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Conversion, Part 32

September 10, 2009

In the most recent newsletters we have been looking at conviction of sin. This is a matter that is perhaps of some dispute, but in past days it was no dispute. If one thought of conversion as God’s work (whether quick or slow) and that the Holy Spirit takes the soul from its deadness in sin, it appears self-evident that it would start with a period of conviction to bring the soul to a realization of its sin and its need of a Savior. But, as in the modern day, when faith is thought of as an intellectual agreement or assent to some degree to a set of facts, then conviction is not thought of as necessary. Once again let me quote from Chapter 7 of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith.

“It pleased the Lord to make a covenant of grace, wherein he freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in him, that they may be saved; and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life, his Holy Spirit, to make them willing, and able to believe.”

Q. 31. What is effective calling? A. Effective calling is the work of God’s Spirit, Who convinces us that we are sinful and miserable, Who enlightens our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and Who renews our wills. This is how He persuades and makes us able to receive Jesus Christ, Who is freely offered to us in the gospel. (Westminster Shorter Catechism in Modern English)

Solomon Stoddard, the grandfather of Jonathan Edwards, wrote A Guide to Christ. The purpose was to teach ministers how to guide seeking souls to Christ. We need to hear some of his very solemn warnings in our day.

“The work of regeneration being of absolute necessity unto salvation, it greatly concerns ministers especially, in all ways possible, to promote the same; and in particular that they guide souls aright who are under a work of preparation. There are some who deny any necessity of the preparatory work of the Spirit of God in order to a closing with Christ. This is a very dark cloud, both as it is an evidence that men do not have the experience of that work in their own souls, and as it is a sign that such men are utterly unskillful in guiding others who are under this work. If this opinion should prevail in the land, it would give a deadly wound to religion. It would expose men to think of themselves as converted when they are not.

If men understand that there is a work of humiliation before faith, then, if they get some common affections (love, sorrow, delight, yes, and a common faith too), they will say that these are not of the right kind; for men must see the plague of their own hearts, their helplessness, and that they are like the clay in the hand of the potter before they come to Christ, and so will be afraid and be searching themselves. But if they do not know of any necessity of preparation, they will take the first appearance of holiness for holiness; and, if they find religious affections in themselves, they will grow confident that God has wrought a good work in them. It would, likewise, expose them to bolster up others in false confidence.

A man who knows there must be a work of preparation will be careful how he encourages others that they are in Christ. He will inquire how God has made way for their receiving of Christ; but another who is a stranger to it will be ready to take all for gold that glitters and, if he sees men religiously disposed, will be speaking peace to them. He will be like the false prophets saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. So men will be hardened. It is a dismal thing to give men sleepy notions and make them sleep the sleep of death.

The truth of this opinion is much to be suspected from what has been left on record to the contrary by Arthur Hildersham, William Perkins, John Dodd, Richard Sibbes, Daniel Dyke, John Ball, John Preston, Thomas Hooker, Thomas Shepard, John Norton, and others of the like stamp, whose judgment in matters of this nature outweighs the judgment of thousands of others, though otherwise learned men. But, besides this, there is a great deal of light in the Word of God in this matter.”

What this quote from Stoddard does, in light of the Westminster and the 1689 Baptist Confessions, is give us how the older writers viewed this issue. Stoddard could have listed many more, but he only gave us a representative few. This is in no way a form of works for salvation, but is simply saying how the Holy Spirit persuades and makes souls able to receive Christ as the Confessions say. Again, if salvation is thought to be simply coming to an intellectual agreement or an act of the will to Christ, then this conviction will be seen as works. But here we have a united testimony of those used of God telling us that souls must go through a work of conviction and humiliation before they come to faith. It would seem that if we could understand the drastic difference of methods and of the Gospel itself that Charles Finney brought in during the 1800’s it would chill us to think that our modern methods may be more like his than the Gospel that God used during the great revivals of the past.

Finney did not believe in a thorough conviction of sin in which the soul was broken from its pride and self, but instead he pressured the soul to come to a decision. This method would be included in Stoddard’s dark cloud. He saw this as so serious that he said that “if this opinion should prevail in the land, it would give a deadly wound to religion. It would expose men to think of themselves as converted when they are not.” We live in a day where the churches are filled with the unconverted who think they are converted and so that opinion has prevailed. Could there be a link between those two things and so Stoddard was right? Could it be that because Finney’s method prevailed in our land a deadly wound has been given to religion? Is it not evident when we simply ask people if they believe facts (the devil does) rather than seeing if Christ is in them? Christianity is not just a matter of getting people to pray prayers and assent to a few facts; it is about the life of God living in the souls of human beings.

God tells us repeatedly in the Bible that the proud in heart are an abomination and that He opposes them. It is only the humble that receive grace. Can we, then, be honest in looking at the Gospel and think that God does not humble the pride of man so that the soul will receive Christ by grace alone? Can we honestly think that God saves the proud without saving them from their pride? The proud heart is nothing but an idol factory and does all for the great idol of self. The heart with pride cannot believe as pride and faith cannot dwell in the same heart (Hab 2:4). For a heart to truly repent it must repent of its pride and once that has happened it is a humbled soul. We know that Scripture teaches us that there are a few things that are impossible for God to do. It is impossible for God to lie and it is impossible for God to change. For God to save a proud person while they are still in their pride is for God to lie and for Him to have changed. It is impossible for God to save a proud soul apart from Him changing His nature and being opposite of what He has said. A saved soul is a soul that God dwells in and a soul that God has poured out His love in. A soul must be convicted of its sin and it must be humbled in order for those things to happen.

A few newsletters ago (Conversion 29-30) the conviction of sin from Acts 2:37 was discussed. That text describes conviction of sin as being “pierced to the heart.” The word for pierce is the same word used in John 19:34 when a soldier pierced the side of Jesus with a spear. A true conviction of sin will bring inner pain when the soul realizes that it has been convicted in God’s court and is awaiting sentencing to eternal torments. The soul is brought to see that it has sinned against God and that His judgment is just. The soul sees that there is nothing in it and nothing that it has ever done that can move God to show grace to it. Grace is that glorious attribute of God that tells us that the grace of God can only be moved from within God Himself. As the soul has been enlightened by God to sin and to the character of God and His grace, the soul sees that it has been full of pride and God will not show grace to the proud. It realizes that it must have grace or it will perish, but it knows that God views all the proud as an abomination to Him. It feels the weight of its sin and knows that if it is to have the life of God in its soul it will only come if God saves that soul to the glory of His grace. This is the conviction of sin that the giants of the past spoke of and what we must lead people to. If people do not have a true conviction of sin, then the Holy Spirit has not worked in them to persuade them and make them able to believe. This is simply His method of doing so.

A soul has not been convicted of sin as sin until it goes beyond the mere external wrong to the pride of the heart in the sin. The very heart of sin is that it is an act of enmity against God which is enormous pride. The heart must see that it is full of self-love and pride as what guides it. If the soul is not delivered from its self-love and pride then its self-love and pride will lead it to a false understanding of repentance and of the Gospel. That is exactly what so many of the followers of Christ did. They wanted to follow Christ for the benefits without bowing to Him as the supreme Lord and Messiah. It is the very nature of sinners to love those who love themselves (Luke 6:32). This is why it is so much easier to get people to pray a prayer if we tell them that God loves them. They will love those who love them. But if we tell them the truth that the wrath of God abides on those who do not believe, their natural and proud heart will rebel and hate that. The first method will produce many more supposed converts, but the second method will lead to men seeing their enmity against God and so see the true state of their sinful hearts. This is not a method of preparing souls for conversion as such, but instead it is what Spurgeon would call preparing souls by having them see just how unprepared they are. Conviction of sin is not preparing souls to be saved, but it is getting the soul to see just how unsaved it is and delivering it from the hands of pride to the grace of Christ.

Some who are misinformed and fearful call things like this hyper-Calvinism, yet it is nothing other than what the Westminster and the 1689 Baptist Confessions teach and what the giants of the past who preceded, wrote, and then came after those Confessions believed and practiced. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a simple thing, but must be taken from the whole of Scripture. Many will say that there is a free offer. Indeed, but what does that mean? It is true that the Gospel is to be proclaimed to all sinners. However, Jesus also said that He did not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners (Luke 5:32). In other words, there is a certain kind of call that is only given to those who see and feel themselves as true sinners. We must not be content to go along with the modern ways that have led us into the professing Church and the nation spiraling deeper and deeper into darkness. Do our hearts not bleed just a little at the following thoughts? How wretched are those people who will go out of this world thinking that God loves them and then find out that God is their enemy. How utterly awful it will be to the many who go out of this world saying “Lord, Lord” and then finding out that He will tell them to depart from Him because they practice iniquity. How terrible it is to think that God hears your prayers now and then you enter eternity where your cries for mercy are ignored for eternity. We need to shed our fears of men and seek the Lord for the true Gospel. The words just previous to this sentence undoubtedly refer to many ministers in our day who preach peace, peace that is no true peace to many across our land. May our hearts be broken.

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Pride, Part 71

September 10, 2009

There are many hidden things of pride. This horrible sin which is at the very root of sin hides itself in religious things if not especially religious things. It is obvious that heresy comes from pride but it may not be so obvious that pride is also present with orthodoxy. It is obvious that pride is present with humanists, but it is not so obvious that pride is what drives the modern professing Church in many if not most instances. Listed below is a list of some religious things that churches do that can come from pride. When churches seek God for self-centered reasons rather than for God Himself, they are being religious from out of proud hearts.

As long as a church seeks itself in honor and numbers and things like that, it will not seek God Himself.

As long as a church wants to be popular in the eyes of the world, it will not be popular with God.

As long as a church wants to be approved by the world, it will not be approved by God.

As long as a church wants have the world be pleased with it, God will not be pleased with it.

As long as a church wants its entertainment that it calls worship to draw crowds, it will not have God.

As long as preachers preach to tickle the ears of human beings, they will not have the ear of God.

As long as people pray for themselves instead of the honor and glory of God, they will have themselves rather than the honor and glory of God.

As long as a church focuses on evangelism to get the crowds in, all it will do is fill the Church with unbelievers who hate God.

As long as a church focuses on external morality, it will not have the inward power and presence of God.

As long as a church focuses on buildings, its focus will not be on the Temple of the living God.

As long as a church has a focus on prayer as a method, it will only pray to itself.

As long as a church only prays for the physical problems of people, it will remain blind to spiritual issues.

As long as the Church has a focus on tithing as a way to bring blessing, it will do nothing but give to self.

As long as preachers gather in conferences to entertain themselves and see friends, they will be entertained and see friends but not see God.

As long as preachers go to conferences just to have their minds instructed, they will just fill their brains while their souls starve.

As long as people just read the Bible as a duty or for reasons other than to know and love God, they will have only fulfilled their duties and God will be unknown to them.

As long as people do good works in order to be good people or to be seen by men, self will only be served.

As long as elders and deacons use the position they have to exalt self, God will not be exalted.

As long as elders and deacons use the position to do their own will, the will of God will not be sought.

As long as a church exists to make “me” happy, the pleasure of God will not be found.

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Pride, Part 70

September 8, 2009

What Luther fought against during the time of the Reformation was man-centeredness and pride. While many in our day think that Luther was wrong saying he split the Church, the real problem is that those who say that do not understand the underlying reasons for the Reformation. There are many who want to see all the factions of all who claim to Christian get together and have unity. One massive problem, however, is that it is nothing but the pride of man that wants unity rather than the truth of Christ. There are so many versions of so many things in our day it is hard for people to know what to do. There are multiple voices crying out on each corner and each with a man-centered message. Some say that they are Christ-centered or God-centered, but Roman Catholicism would have said the same thing in Luther’s time. The pride of man is so blinding it will blind man to his own man-centeredness while he is preaching a god of his own making. To be centered upon a god of our own making who had its beginning in our pride is nothing more than man-centeredness regardless of the name it is given.

“In Luther, the theocentricity of primitive Christianity returns; and it is the determining factor of his whole outlook. His opposition to Catholicism is due ultimately to nothing else but this. In the Catholic conception of Christianity, it is in the last analysis man who occupies the centre of the religious stage; in Luther’s reforming conception it is God. Luther seeks to eradicate every vestige of the egocentric or anthropocentric tendency from the religious relationship. There is no place for the slightest degree of human self-assertion in the presence of God. Here, man must be content to receive undeserved the gifts God wills to bestow on him.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

It may be thought that too much attention has been given to Martin Luther. But what I would like to point out is that this is also the theme that is all over the Bible. The battle has always been against man-centeredness and pride since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden. Eve believed the promise of the Serpent (Gen 3:5) that she could be as God and man has believed that promise ever since. When she believed the lie that she would be as God she actually became like the Serpent who wanted to be God. While it may be hidden from our eyes, this is the problem with Christianity in our day. Each wants to worship as self wants to worship and to be pleased as self wants to be pleased. We want preaching to please “me” rather than preaching that will please God and bring our souls to God. Too many preachers are concerned with nickels and noses rather than to know God and to proclaim the truth about Him. Throughout the Bible and history this has been the plight of true religion. People want to speak for God when they have not been sent and they want to speak what they think is right rather than the Word of God.

The prophets had to stand virtually alone many times in Scripture. They proclaimed the Word of God and virtually all the people would laugh at them and at times kill them. Jesus stood against the religious world to proclaim the Word of God. Paul stood alone at times and even took on Peter for the sake of the Gospel. In history God would raise up men who had to stand virtually alone against the whole world. Athanasius stood alone for the deity of Christ against the whole world. Luther stood alone against the Church and the State as he stood for the Gospel. Throughout Israel’s history their sacrificial system and worship fell from what God commanded it to be in order to be like men wanted it to be. This is nothing but the pride of man and the love of self. It is the same today.

Jeremiah 37:2 – “But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the LORD which He spoke through Jeremiah the prophet. 2:8 The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’ And those who handle the law did not know Me; The rulers also transgressed against Me, And the prophets prophesied by Baal And walked after things that did not profit. 5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own authority; And My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?”

The nation of Israel was brought out of Egypt and given the land they were to live in. Yet they did not follow the Lord despite chastisement after chastisement. They were a stiff-necked people who were full of pride and self. They wanted to be rich and to follow after the lusts of their own minds and hearts. They chose to follow those while trying to keep the externals of their religion. They hated it when people spoke the truth to them of a God who would not put up with their sin. The heart of man is the same as of all men throughout history. They will be religious or irreligious but the real issue is that they are oriented to pride and self. The proud heart will oppose the truth and yet do that in the name of truth. We must learn to hate our own pride or it will destroy us and the churches. The professing Church of our day has been brought very low by the pride of men in their man-centeredness. Will there be found any who will weep?

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Pride, Part 69

September 6, 2009

We live in a day where it seems that the pace of the world and the advancements in science and technology have made the Church irrelevant. The only reason it even seems that way is because of the pride of the heart in what appears to be human achievement. The nature of the heart that is born spiritually dead wants to shed its dependency on God and live by for itself and by itself. The advancements of technology combined with the pride of the heart have led many to renounce Christianity as outdated and superstitious. That is nothing more than the idolatry of the heart that is focused on self being unleashed to some degree. Another side of the problem, however, is that this has also happened in the professing Church. The professing Church wants to survive and has thought that it must turn to entertainment and focus on being relevant. It may be shocking to many to think this, but the focus on entertainment and relevancy is nothing more than another version of the same old man-centeredness that the Church falls into through the wiles of the devil. We want people to come to church and so we entertain them, but in doing so we forget that we are at a church building to worship God rather than entertain men. If men are entertained rather than brought to worship God, we join them in their idolatry. When we desire to be relevant to men, we forget that true relevancy is to show men the truth of God and of eternity. When we change things in a desire to be relevant, we have done nothing but join men in a man-centered focus. That is egregious pride on our part and does nothing to show them their own pride that they must repent of.

“In Luther, the theocentricity of primitive Christianity returns; and it is the determining factor of his whole outlook. His opposition to Catholicism is due ultimately to nothing else but this. In the Catholic conception of Christianity, it is in the last analysis man who occupies the centre of the religious stage; in Luther’s reforming conception it is God. Luther seeks to eradicate every vestige of the egocentric or anthropocentric tendency from the religious relationship. There is no place for the slightest degree of human self-assertion in the presence of God. Here, man must be content to receive undeserved the gifts God wills to bestow on him, and to obey without thought of reward the commandments God pleases to give him. In other words, he must let God really be God, the center around which his whole existence moves. This theocentric emphasis can be described as the fundamental motif of Luther’s entire thought.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

The Church is accused of being out of touch with reality, yet it is the world that is out of touch with reality since Christ Himself is the real reality that entered into the world (John 1:14-18). Reality has to do with what is real and there is nothing and no one more real than the source, foundation, and source of all reality and that is the living and true God. The Church must declare what is the reality behind much of the façade and false realities that the world wants to stand for and has brought into the Church. It is not humility and love that brings entertainment and so-called relevancy into the professing Church, but rather it is pride. It is pride in the disguise of humility that does these things. It is pride in the disguise of love that does these things. Perhaps it appears as humility and love to try to be relevant to human beings, but it is nothing but pride to try to reach men in ways that make them temporarily happy rather than to try to do what is good for their eternal souls out of love for God. What is truly good for human beings will offend them at first. The glory of God shining through the Gospel of Christ is offensive to fallen human beings, but it is that alone that will bring what is truly good to them.

Jude 1:16 speaks to our day: “These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.” False teachers in the days of Christ and just after Christ followed their own lusts. They spoke arrogantly and flattered people in order to take advantage. While men in fancy suits, perfect hair, and smooth words go around today speaking of God, they are flattering people in the name of God in order to take advantage of them and get their money. We need to have a new Reformation in our day where at least a few will arise and begin to pursue the truth and show others what is really going on. We must learn to look beyond the fancy suits, buildings, flattering language, and bold promises about what God will do if we do what these men say. We must begin to understand the real nature of pride and that it is not inconsistent with a lot of religious success in a fallen and deceived world in which God is withdrawing His restraining hand from. We must have biblical reality crash our false worldviews and begin to see that man-centeredness has taken over in the professing Church as well. It is under the guise of many things and done with the name of God and conservative uttered over it, but unless we have a true Reformation of true God-centeredness we will truly perish.

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Provocation to Prayer, Part 4

September 4, 2009

For a condensed version of Jonathan Edwards’ call to prayer see http://www.sbaoc.org/blog/?page_id=762 or go to www.sbaoc.org and go to “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.”

“We are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the Church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the gospel. This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man or to sink the man in the plan or organization… What the Church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use-men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men-men of prayer.” (The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds on Prayer, p. 447)

We say we believe in the inerrancy and authority of Scripture. Yet when it comes to action it appears that we believe in the inerrancy and authority of our own plans. Many claim to believe in the sovereignty of God, but by their actions it appears that they believe that God’s sovereignty is useful to carry out their own plans. As E.M. Bounds points out, however, God uses men of prayer. It is not that God uses men of prayer because they ask God to do more things and He is just setting around waiting until someone will start asking Him to do things He wants to do anyway. But God uses men of prayer because in true prayer men are seeking the Lord to change their hearts to be like Him and are seeking for the things He moves them to pray. Our prayers do not earn any merit or favor before God simply because we use His name and utter sounds into the air. But when our hearts are transformed to be like Christ in their desires and loves so that our prayers become expressions of the loves and desires of Christ, God sees His own desires and loves being expressed through us. When that happens, we are changed and become channels of His glory and He has now made us instruments of His glory in the world. When that happens, we pray for the things on His heart and are willing to suffer in order for them to happen. When His desires become our desires and when His loves become our loves, only then will we have prayed and will we truly pray.

Romans 8:26 – “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Romans 8:34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”

Hebrews 7:25 – “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. 9:24 For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;”

“It should be pointed out that there is still another aspect that ought to take precedence over thanksgiving and petition, namely self-abhorrence and confession of our own unworthiness and sinfulness. The soul must solemnly remind itself of Who it is that is to be approached, even the Most High, before whom the very seraphim veil their faces (Isa 6:2). Though Divine grace has made the Christian a son, nevertheless he is still a creature, and as such at an infinite and inconceivable distance below the Creator. It is only fitting that he should deeply feel this distance between himself and his Creator and acknowledge it by taking his place in the dust before God” (A. W. Pink).

We often just think we are doing our duty by saying things in a religious way asking God to do things for ourselves. But when we are brought into prayer by grace, we are sharing in the very actions and life of the Trinity. The Spirit is teaching us how to pray by His work in us and also intercedes for us. The Son is at the right hand of God appearing for us and interceding for us. Our prayers need the help of the Spirit and the intercession of Christ. True prayer is a Divine activity in our souls and in heaven. Shall we seek to really pray or just utter words?

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Pride, Part 68

September 3, 2009

If Luther thought of Christianity in terms of being God-centered and then man-centeredness as being in reality a different religion, then it would behoove us to seriously consider these things. If in fact his real opposition to Roman Catholicism was due to its man-centeredness, then we must know that Luther would oppose virtually all that goes on today under the guise of Christianity. As the quote below says about Catholicism, “it is in the last analysis man who occupies the centre of the religious stage.” That is an accurate description of most of what passes as worship, preaching, and activities in the churches in modern American. It is not that we are children of the Reformers because we are not Roman Catholic, but we are not children of the Reformers because we hold to the man-centered teaching which was the heart of Roman Catholicism though we have different rituals.

“In Luther, the theocentricity of primitive Christianity returns; and it is the determining factor of his whole outlook. His opposition to Catholicism is due ultimately to nothing else but this. In the Catholic conception of Christianity, it is in the last analysis man who occupies the centre of the religious stage; in Luther’s reforming conception it is God. Luther seeks to eradicate every vestige of the egocentric or anthropocentric tendency from the religious relationship. There is no place for the slightest degree of human self-assertion in the presence of God. Here, man must be content to receive undeserved the gifts God wills to bestow on him, and to obey without thought of reward the commandments God pleases to give him. In other words, he must let God really be God, the center around which his whole existence moves. This theocentric emphasis can be described as the fundamental motif of Luther’s entire thought.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

There were five points that came out of the Reformation. 1) Scripture alone 2) Faith alone 3) Grace alone 4) Christ alone 5) To God alone be the glory. It is true that many think that the Reformation’s main teaching was justification by faith alone, but there are underlying reasons for that as well. The last sentence of the actual quote from above seems to be right on the money. It was a thorough God-centeredness and emphasis that was “the fundamental motif of Luther’s entire thought.” What needs to be done, however, is to demonstrate that in the five points as listed above. We can call those the Five Points of the Reformation. Why was there such an emphasis on Scripture alone? It was because Scripture is the Word of God and men and their councils do not always follow the Word of God. Scripture was to be the authority that was appealed to because God spoke in His Word and He was and is the final authority to be appealed to. The reason that people reject Scripture alone is because they want to insert themselves or human authority in some way into the picture. Justification by faith alone is the Gospel that preserves the Gospel of the glory of God. When people want to assert free-will or some form of human authority, autonomy, or works as having to do with justification, that is rejecting the Gospel of the glory of God alone. Anytime the justification is moved from faith alone, it is moved away from a Gospel that glorifies God alone.

God’s glory is seen ever so brightly in His grace. The grace of God tells us how unworthy human beings are to receive the presence of God but also how God saves sinners and dwells with sinners based on Himself rather than human beings. The whole reason that justification is by faith alone is so that it would be by grace alone (Rom 4:16) and can be by the promise of God. Anytime someone tries to assert something of works into justification, even if it is under another word, that turns grace into something other than grace (Rom 11:6). God saves to the praise of the glory of His grace (Eph 1:5-6) and will not share His glory with another. The reason that He saves by grace alone is so that it will be a salvation to His glory alone. All of God’s grace comes to human beings by Christ alone. It is no contradiction to say that the love of God comes to human souls by Christ alone and then to say that the Spirit sheds abroad the love of God in human souls (Rom 5:5-8). The Spirit only sheds the love of God in human souls because of what Christ has done and because of who He is. Christ has purchased sinners and their release from their sins by His work on the cross. All that He did and all He does is to the glory of God. The primary motif in Luther’s theology was the glory of God. Because of that he was opposed to pride and self in all that he did as well. It is pride that opposes the teaching of Scripture alone. It is pride that opposes justification by faith alone. It is pride that opposes grace alone and Christ alone. That is because pride wants all things to be centered on it and because it wants the honor and glory for itself. Pride also wants to dispose of self and be in control of self. Pride and human self-assertion oppose the heart of the Reformation even if it holds the same doctrines in creedal form.

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