Pride, Part 62

August 20, 2009

It is so hard to see our own pride apart from having it shown to us by God in His Word or His opening our eyes to see His glory shining out. This is why the method of setting out a true and God-centered Christianity is necessary. No one will ever see his or her own sin until s/he sees something of God shining forth in His truth. A true sight of our own pride and the sinfulness of that will only come when what happened to Job and Isaiah happens to us to some degree. “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; 6 Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6). Before Job was claiming that he was innocent and righteous before God. God never really answered Job’s questions directly, but once Job saw something of the glory of God he had no more questions. It was enough that God was God. This is what has to happen to the soul today as well. We must see God and His truth in order to see the depths of our own pride.

Then there was Isaiah. He was a prophet and a well-known man in the land. Surely he was a righteous man if there was one. However, everything changed the day or time he saw God.

“6:1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and said, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.’ 4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. 5 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.'”

This text shows us what would happen in our day if God would open our eyes to see Him in His glory. He is not a safe God that we can just casually get along with, but He is the God of glory that if we saw Him without Him hiding Himself to a great degree we would die. It is in the light of God that our own sin and pride becomes obvious. It is like letting light into a dark room so that we can now see the dust and the dirt. Isaiah saw himself for the first time and he cried out in anguish that he was unclean.

“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)

True Christianity is theocentric as the heart of all truth and love. Luther’s opposition to Roman Catholicism was due to its inherent man-centeredness. Would Luther oppose the professing Church of today? Would he oppose so-called evangelical Christianity and would he oppose what passes today as Reformed because of man-centeredness? I believe that he would. But let us not forget that Luther’s view of God was also developed by a dark view of his own sin. In our day we have virtually done away with sin and have replaced it with a few mistakes of people. This would not happen if we saw ourselves in light of the glory of God. During the Reformation we also had the teaching of John Calvin. He said this: “We must infer that man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God’s majesty.” And again, “it is certain that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God’s face, and then descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself. For we always seem to ourselves righteous and upright and wise and holy-this pride is innate in all of us.” Man is full of pride in religion and in all areas until he sees something of the truth and glory of God. Christian practice can be nothing but the efforts of self and pride until a person sees God. Roman Catholicism was swamped with the pride of man-centeredness in Luther’s day and needed to be awakened by a God-centeredness. The same thing is true today. Christianity would hardly be recognizable by Luther and Calvin because of its man-centeredness. We must have God come down to show us our pride.

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Pride, Part 61

August 17, 2009

We are somewhere in the thick of looking at the true nature of pride. The effort is to show the pride of man in relation to what true God-centeredness is. If we try to judge pride by its effects on human beings or by how it appears in human beings in relation to other human beings, we will miss what it is by virtually an infinite distance. Pride is only seen in relation to the glory of God and His rights and demands on human beings. Pride is seen in human beings by how they do all for self and the love of self rather than doing all out of love for God and His glory. Pride is the worship of self and it is idolatry, yet this is hard for religious people to see in themselves. They think of themselves as doing things commanded in the Bible and they think this is done in love and for God. What they might not see, however, is that the feelings they feel are really feelings for themselves rather than God. They only love Him because they think He has done something to benefit them and so in reality they love themselves.

“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)

For Luther, who found this idea in Scripture, man must become centered and focused on God in and for all things. Man does not do things for God because God will do something for man, that is nothing but an idea that destroys the truth of grace and makes salvation and sanctification out to be by works. If man does things for God in order to get something from God, then regardless of what else man believes or does that man is in a system of works rather than one of sheer and glorious grace. The pride of the heart is seen in that self determines man’s whole outlook rather than God which is man choosing self rather than God. Man’s outlook on God and the things of God can be nothing more than ways that the self can look out for self. It is impossible for human beings to be anything else but man-centered in their outlook unless God changes their hearts by grace alone. The outlook cannot be changed by a self-centered human being to be anything other than self, and grace will not change a human’s outlook to be anything but according to grace which is a thorough God-centeredness in all of its parts.

This is a vital point that cannot be missed. There is nothing in all of Christianity that cannot be believed or done that is not self acting for self. This is perhaps the greatest way that people are deceived. The ringing words of Paul in Philippians 2:21 concerning those who were ministers: “For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus.” These were evidently men who were quite religious and quite interested in the things of God, but evidently they were only interested in the things of God in order to further their own interests. They were like Simon in Acts 8 who was interested in purchasing the power of the apostles to give the Holy Spirit. He was very interested in giving people the Holy Spirit, but it would have been a way to make money or gain honor. What a beast a person must be to try to make money by giving the Holy Spirit. What pride it must take to do that sort of thing, but probably no more pride than it is to preach in order to be honored by men. That which must determine the whole outlook of a preacher must not be self in looking to obtain honor, prestige, applause, and even larger pay packages, but it must be a love for God in all things. Without this the man will do nothing but serve self.

When we see the Bible commanding us to do all things out of love for God, it is not commanding us to find the strength within self to love God. It is commanding us to deny self so that God will be loved. But once again, it is not commanding us to deny self with self because that is still nothing more than the efforts of self. What should be clear, then, is that the proud soul must be humbled which is to say that the proud soul must be emptied of self. Humility is the emptiness of self and not the work of self in bringing self down to a point of lowliness. It is only when the soul is emptied of self can the soul be full of the living God and then and only then will it be God-centered in all it does. Only God can work God-centeredness in the soul that He lives in and that is only by grace.

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Pride, Part 60

August 15, 2009

The motive of the heart in being God-centered in one sense can be nothing but self-love and self-preservation. The heart can see how biblical it is to be God-centered and so talk that way and set out theology in that way. But the heart can have its own motives in doing things that way. The real love of that heart may be nothing more than self. In the last BLOG part of the quote from Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther was this: “In Luther, the theocentricity of primitive Christianity returns; and it is the determining factor of His whole outlook.” The assertion that I am making is that anything but that is pride. All things are from God and all things are to be to the glory of God. Anything less than the glory and beauty of God being the chief love of the heart and intent in what is done is pride and self. The following quote is from Samuel Rutherford.

“Oh, what pains, and what a death it is to nature, to turn me, myself, my lust, my ease, my credit, over unto “my Lord, my Savior, my King, and my God, my Lord’s will, my Lord’s grace!” But alas! That idol, that whorish creature myself is the master-idol we all bow to. What hurried Eve headlong upon the forbidden fruit, but that wretched thing herself? What drew that brother-murderer to kill Abel? That untamed himself. What drove the old world on to corrupt their ways? Who, but themselves, and their own pleasure? What was the cause of Solomon’s falling into idolatry and multiplying of strange wives? What but himself, whom he would rather please than God? What was the hook that took David and snared him first in adultery, but his self-lust? And then in murder, but his self-credit and self-honor? What led Peter on to deny his Lord? Was it not a piece of himself, and self-love to a whole skin? What made Judas sell his master for thirty pieces of silver, but the idolizing of avaricious self? What made Demas go off the way of the Gospel to embrace the present world? Even self-love and a love for gain for himself. Every man blames the devil for his sins; but the great devil, the house-devil of every man, the house-devil that eateth and lieth in every man’s bosom, is that idol that killeth all, himself. Oh! Blessed are they who can deny themselves, and put Christ in the room of themselves. O sweet word; ‘I live no more, but Christ liveth in me!'”

Rutherford points out the deadly and wicked enemy of each soul. It is that devil in each of us that is termed “self.” The same self that leads unbelievers to drink iniquity like water is the same self that leads unbelievers to seek honor in religion. The Pharisees were rigid in their religious beliefs and activities and yet they were all about the self. The self that Rutherford speaks of that drove Eve, Abel, Solomon, David, Peter, Judas, and Demas is the same in all souls. Those souls driven by that self will seek honor and credit in the world and/or in religion depending on where it can find it first or perhaps even most. The self is simply another way of stating that a person that is proud. It is the heart that is proud and lifted up against God that is the heart of self. One could take the whole Rutherford quote and use the word “pride” in place of “self” and it would mean the same thing. Those who seek self do so because of pride in the heart and those who are proud seek self instead of God. What is it but pride in the heart of a piece of dust from the earth that would seek self rather than the living God?

It is quite fashionable in certain circles to be Christ-centered or God-centered. But because it has become fashionable it is also a way for some to seek honor from others. That horrid self can use words that seem to be God-centered for the purpose of seeking its own honor and credit. While it is an awful thing to have a heart that is so proud that it will seek self in the world, it is far worse to seek the things of self in the things of God. Yet, this is seemingly encouraged in the modern “Church” with so many activities regarding salvation, sanctification, the Bible and other things seemingly focused on the advantage of self. If we teach people the truths of Christianity in doctrine and in morality and never teach them the hideous nature of pride and self, we are doing nothing but leading them in the way that God hates more than anything. It has been noted by many people in many ways that Jesus was harsher with the Pharisees than anything else. It is easy to point the finger at the Pharisees and see just how focused on the self that they were. But it is far harder to see that in myself because of the blinding influences of pride. The churches are full of many gods and many idols because they are full of many selfs. The churches are full of people who want to have taught what their itching ears want to hear, but that is nothing but self. How awful it is when we try to get people in church with the ways of self and then try to keep them with even more of the things of self. It is nothing but pride in us and does nothing but increase the pride in them. Luther’s God-centered outlook must become ours. If ours is not truly God from the heart in all things it will be self in all things. Pride is so despicable that it will try to appear God-centered to others and self in order to obtain honor for self.

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A Provocation to Prayer

August 14, 2009

We live in a day where methods have replaced seeking the Lord’s face and true prayer. While no one can manufacture true prayer in the heart, we must at least seek the Lord for hearts to pray. Our nation is indeed being shaken at its foundations in the political world, but the professing Church has been shaken for far longer. Those within the professing Church must begin to repent of all that God leads us to repent of and cry out to Him for longings and desires to seek His face. The call to prayer for true revival (just below) is part of a longer piece that can be found on the Spurgeon website. In it there is a condensed version of Jonathan Edward’s call to pray for true revival. May we be challenged and convicted to seek the Lord in true prayer.

A Call to United Prayer for True Revival

In 1744 a group of ministers in Scotland joined together and issued a Memorial to continue in a Concert of Prayer which was intended to encourage people to pray for true revival in Scotland and other nations. Jonathan Edwards responded to this by writing what was published as a book in 1747 and was an extended call to people to pray for God to cover the earth with the knowledge of His glory. The book of Edwards was edited by John Sutcliff and published in England in 1789. In Sutcliff’s preface to the book, regarding an association of Baptist churches, he noted that in 1784 “a resolution was formed to establish through the association, a meeting of prayer for the general revival and spread of religion.” In 1786 “another Baptist association, commonly called the Midland… entered into the same resolution. Many other churches, particularly in Yorkshire, have adopted, and now follow, the above practice.” (See http://www.sbaoc.org/blog/?page_id=762 or go to www.sbaoc.org, click on the “BLOG”heading and then “A Call to Prayer.”

This is indeed a call to prayer, but it is not just a call to utter words and sounds toward the heavens and be satisfied to call that prayer. This is a call to repentance, to humility, to solemn assemblies, or to whatever it takes in order that the Lord would turn our hearts to Him again. We are in desperate times in all ways, but especially in spiritual things. We have no ability in ourselves to change things and must seek the Lord to do the work of changing. WE must learn to pray from the depths of the desires and longings of the soul rather than words that conform to a standard that we have come up with. The eyes of God are upon our hearts and we must seek Him to put His desires in our hearts so that with longing and love we will seek His glory and His presence. Prayer is not just a duty that is to be performed, but it is that which the Lord must grant us hearts in order to fulfill the duty according to His desires. What follows is from a book published in 1802 by Thomas Haweis. It is about the heart in prayer.

Prayer is the desire of the soul after God, arising from a sense of want [lack], and expressing a dependence on his promises for a supply according to our necessities.

It is evident that the heart must be engaged, or there can be no prayer. The words of the lips or the bending of the knee are hypocrisy without this. The finest produce of the understanding, whether the composition of others or our own, is no better than the sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal, it the spirit of prayer be wanting [lacking]. Whilst, on the other hand, the simplest expressions, yea, perhaps the most ungrammatical language, may convey the fervent desires of effectual prayer most acceptably before God who trieth the heart and the reins.

The most natural method of prayer is the artless language of the soul, dictated by want [lack] and warmed with desire; and I suppose every soul really awakened to feel his necessities, will be able, for the most part, to speak what he feels without any assistance.

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Conversion, Part 28

August 12, 2009

In the last newsletter article we looked at the Westminster Shorter Catechism and the Baptist Catechism. The interest was in the older understanding of the Gospel. The Gospel of grace includes the application of Christ and His work to and in the soul. When we speak of Christ, even highly of Him, we are not teaching the whole Gospel of Christ unless we speak of how the Gospel is applied by grace. The Scriptures speak to this issue though it is largely forgotten today. The Gospel, regardless of words, is about the triune God and must not be limited to one or two of the Persons. Many dwell on election, but that is to be unbalanced if the work of Christ and of the Spirit are not brought in. Many dwell much upon the work of Christ, but even that can be quite unbalanced if the electing work of the Father and the Spirit’s work are not taught. Others focus on the Spirit without dealing with election and the true work of Christ. All are needed for the Gospel to be presented as from and about the triune God.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism in Modern English:

Q 30. How does the Holy Spirit apply to us the redemption Christ bought? A. The Spirit applies to us the redemption Christ bought by producing faith in us and so uniting us to Christ in our effective calling.

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.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism is being used because it is in modern English. Within the realm of orthodoxy most all say that the Holy Spirit must apply redemption to the sinner. But that is nothing more than words if we do not get to how this is done. When was the last time that you heard or preached a sermon, or perhaps taught a class on how the Holy Spirit applies redemption? What we hear (at most) is that the Spirit must apply it and perhaps that faith is from the Spirit, but we don’t hear how that is done. We prefer to say those are mysterious and assume that the Spirit has worked that in a person if he claims to believe. This is confusing and brings many unconverted people into the local assemblies. There is a huge difference between the faith that a natural man has and the faith worked in the soul by the Holy Spirit. Only converted souls will have the kind of faith worked in it by the Spirit.

According to the Catechism, when the Holy Spirit produces faith in the soul that person is also united to Christ in effective calling. This is something to work with. The faith of a converted soul can be seen because it is united to Christ and now the life of Christ comes through that person. A natural man claims to have faith but is not united to Christ by that faith. The truly converted soul has true faith and is united to Christ. Faith cannot be seen, but the life of Christ will be seen in the soul by His Spirit. This should teach us how to speak to sinners about conversion and the evidences of conversion. Paul told the people in II Corinthians 13:5, in regards to salvation, that they were to examine themselves to see if they had Christ in them rather than to see if they had prayed a prayer.

In our modern day we look at faith as if it could be seen rather than looking at faith as the work of the Spirit who unites sinners to Christ. The difference is massive. James 2:18 says this: “But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” Faith is seen by something else than words or a claim. The faith that the Holy Spirit produces is a faith that works by love since that is the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:6, 22). A true faith has true love and will have works. Christ’s life in the soul always manifests itself in true love because God is love and will work love in His people by the Spirit who sheds love in the hearts He is in (Rom 5:5-8). A converted soul no longer lives in malice and envy, hateful and hating (Titus 3:3), but now it loves with a true love. The truly converted soul is known by what its faith is united to and what it receives from Christ by the Spirit. A soul with faith is a soul that if full of Christ Himself. Only a truly converted soul has a faith that is worked in it by the Spirit and so that soul has Christ Himself.

The Catechisms and the Scriptures are quite clear that converted souls are souls that have faith and are united to Christ in effectual calling. Just these things alone should be enough to show us that the modern methodologies are leading souls astray as to what faith really is. It is also true that we can say that we believe in effectual calling according to our creeds and then go on with our evangelism as if that made no difference at all. Let me be clear, if we simply tell people to pray a prayer after they admit that they are sinners we are denying the truth of effectual calling and the truth of how faith and Christ are worked in the soul by the Holy Spirit.

What is effective calling? It is the work of God’s Spirit. We must get clear on this. Effective calling is not in the hands of men, but in the hands of the Holy Spirit. When we urge people to pray certain prayers for salvation as if that applies salvation, we act as if effective calling is in our hands or those being evangelized. According to what the historical confessions and catechisms teach about the Bible, this is not how the Holy Spirit works. The Holy Spirit converts people and brings life into their souls. Preaching and evangelizing are not made effective by human zeal and activities, but by the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul. It is important in preaching and evangelizing to show the work of the Holy Spirit and how He does this rather than lead people in ways different than that.

In the times of the Reformation and then for a few hundred years evangelism was practiced a lot differently. Today many look at the older evangelists and think of them as “Preparationists.” There were some that thought that souls could be prepared for salvation by taking steps, but that is not the true older way. It was built on Scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit in effectual calling. It is the work of the Spirit to prepare the soul to be the temple of God. While this is far different than today, it was the way that the Gospel was preached and taught by Reformed people until Finney and his Pelagian methodology. It seems that today many say that they adhere to Reformed theology and yet practice evangelism more like Finney who was a Pelagian. The Gospel of Christ is that of Christ carrying out His offices “in subduing us to himself, in ruling, and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies” (Baptist Catechism). It is Christ who subdues the sinful hearts by the effectual call which is the work of the Holy Spirit in conviction, enlightening, and renewing souls in a real and actual conversion.

Justification by faith alone can be a far different doctrine depending on the view of the work of the Holy Spirit in the effectual call. The view that the will is free enough to have an act of faith by itself or with some assistance of grace is far different than the view where faith is worked in the soul by the Holy Spirit. The faith that the Holy Spirit works in a soul is preceded by His work in conviction of sin which is far more than just agreeing that one is a sinner. The faith that the Holy Spirit works in a soul is preceded by an enlightening of the mind to sin, the character of God, and of the work of Christ in His offices. The faith that the Holy Spirit works in a soul flows from a new heart and unity with Christ. A soul that has been effectually called knows his or her sin as David did (Psalm 51:1-4). This soul now sees the true glory of God in Christ and the glory of grace. This is a person that has been persuaded and enabled to receive Christ and whose faith has been worked in him or her by the persuasion and enabling of the Holy Spirit in His work of applying the redemption of Christ. The words “by faith” in justification have a totally different meaning to those who believe in the teachings of the Confessions and Catechisms on the effectual call than those who do not believe it whether they profess to be Reformed or not.

What we must see is that conversion by the Holy Spirit is vital to understanding salvation in accordance with the work of Christ in His offices and of the Holy Spirit in applying the redeeming work of Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is to be proclaimed to all people, but we must make them aware of the true work of the Spirit in bringing redemption to them. Apart from Christ working this in His offices by the Spirit applying redemption we have a Gospel of grace that is not received and applied by grace. When we proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ that is by grace alone the application of it must be by grace alone as well. The doctrine of conversion teaches us that the soul must be truly converted and truly transferred from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of the beloved Son (Col 1:13). This is something that only Jesus can do in His offices as a whole and in His office as King in particular. Salvation does not hinge on a decision of man, it hinges on the work of Christ in all of its parts.

The following is a quote from a man about lifting weights and illustrates to the professing Church the importance of truth in evangelism and church growth. When the professing Church is more concerned with numbers than truth (whether in membership or money), the truth of the Gospel slides away. We must listen to the earlier Confessions on conversion as they teach us from Scripture. If not, we will end up with snake oil salesmen as preachers rather than those who truly preach the Word of God. If not, we will end up with those who are more concerned with appearance in themselves and in the church rather than true substance. We are already there. We must repent.

When commercial interests and business gain the upper hand, truth is usually the first casualty. I guess it’s human nature after all – to believe the snake oil salesmen, to believe in miracle solutions that work without time and effort, and probably the worst of them all – to give all the importance to appearance, and almost none to substance. (From the website of Brooks Kubik)

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Pride, Part 59

August 11, 2009

When one examines a theologian or a system of theology, one will usually find one driving thought or perhaps just a few driving thoughts that form the core of the theologian or the system of theology being examined. While some think of Luther as being focused on justification by faith alone, there are reasons to think that Luther had something even deeper driving him. If the author of the quote below (Philip Watson) is correct, then what drove Luther to the Gospel that had justification by faith alone at its core was a driving theocentricity or perhaps an insatiable appetite for soli deo glory (to God alone be the glory). The core of true Christianity is at precisely this point and the core of false theology is its exact opposite. It is true that various theologies differ in many ways, but the heart of all false theology regardless of its external adherence to a creed is that of man-centeredness. What is needed today is not just better creeds or men returning to Reformed theology, but men returning to the heart of true Reformed theology which is to be centered upon God and His glory in all things and in all ways.

“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)

In the modern day Christianity is virtually unabashed in its man-centeredness. God is thought to be good only if He is centered upon man and is more concerned to make man comfortable than with His own glory. God is sought in order to make men healthy, wealthy, and wise. God is said to save men from hell because He cannot bear to see them suffer. Men set up meaning that they find in the sacraments and in the activities of the church from man-centeredness rather than that from a thorough and exhaustive pursuit of the glory of God. The God of the Bible forgives sins in order to be just and to justify sinners. This is a God that saves sinners in order to manifest the glory of His own name. This is a God that those who love Him pray and cry out this: “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, But to Your name give glory Because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth” (Psa 115:1). The kind of God that we are to proclaim is the God who “is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases” (Psa 115:3). The God who created all things created for His own glory and pleasure. “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created” (Rev 4:11). The command of Scripture is for men to do all things for His glory (I Cor 10:31). We can deduce that since all things were made for His glory all things are to be used in a way that manifests His glory.

The determining factor in Scripture does seem to be of the God of all glory who does all things to manifest His glory. Luther discovered the God-centeredness of Scripture and from that the doctrines of the Reformation boomed forth from his pen and his mouth. We have not discovered the God of Luther or his understanding of the Gospel until we have discovered in our hearts the God-centeredness of God and therefore of all things. It is only when we begin to grasp the true nature of all things that we can begin to understand the nature of pride. The heart of man was created to love God and do all things out of love for God, yet man has loved himself and uses all things for himself. Humanity has become so man-centered that its conscience is seared as with a hot iron and thinks that humanism and man-centeredness is what Christianity is all about. Instead of that, its teaching is from the pit of hell. How utterly wicked it is for man in his pride to do what is called worship when it is based on what man wants. How utterly vile is the pride of man to think that God would save sinners for some other reason than the glory of His own name. How utterly despicable it is to measure the love of God by what He has done for human beings. Man has simply done what his father the devil has done. He has sought himself rather than God. He has turned it all upside down and now tries to be as God in seeking self from his own wisdom.

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A Call to United Prayer for True Revival

August 10, 2009

In 1744 a group of ministers in Scotland joined together and issued a Memorial to continue in a Concert of Prayer which was intended to encourage people to pray for true revival in Scotland and other nations. Jonathan Edwards responded to this by writing what was published as a book in 1747 and was an extended call to people to pray for God to cover the earth with the knowledge of His glory. The book of Edwards was edited by John Sutcliff and published in England in 1789. In Sutcliff’s preface to the book, regarding an association of Baptist churches, he noted that in 1784 “a resolution was formed to establish through the association, a meeting of prayer for the general revival and spread of religion.” In 1786 “another Baptist association, commonly called the Midland… entered into the same resolution. Many other churches, particularly in Yorkshire, have adopted, and now follow, the above practice.”

The present intent with this very condensed work of Jonathan Edwards is to encourage people to seek broken hearts and the Lord for true revival. What follows is an attempt to get at the core of what Edwards wrote, to encourage people to read his whole work, and above all to seek the Lord in prayer. Prayerless people are powerless in the spiritual realm and God does not move in the midst of a prayerless people. Prayerless preachers are powerless preachers in the spiritual realm. If even the best of our prayers are dead we can see that we must ask the Lord to teach us to pray. Unless something is done in our day, the United States and other countries will continue their quick descent into spiritual darkness and judgment even while there are glowing reports given by religious organizations.

It is beyond question when the professing Church in America is set beside Holy Scripture that the judgment of God is upon us. The judgment He has sent is one that is spiritual and bears awful consequences. We have not seen a true revival in the United States since the time of the Civil War. It is certainly possible if not probable that we have been in spiritual decline since that time as well, though there may have been small revivals in certain places. God has sent upon us a famine of hearing and understanding the Word of God (Amos 8:11). He has turned His face from us and has turned us over to the power of our sin (Isaiah 63:17-64:7). The professing Church has added great numbers in terms of people and of offerings, but despite those things we are in great darkness in terms of spiritual things.

“So, brethren, think what you and I would be without the light of God’s countenance. Picture a church growing, as some churches do grow, without any light from heaven, a cavern full of strange birds and blanched vegetation. What a terrible place for anyone to visit! There is a cave of that sort at Rome, and there are others in various parts of the earth’ but woe unto those who go to live in such dismal dens!” (Charles Spurgeon). This is the state of the professing Church in our day. The outward form of Christianity is carried on in some ways and yet the very heart of Christianity has been lost because God has turned His face from us. There is nothing we can do to merit the Lord to cause His face to shine upon us and His desolate sanctuary. All we can do is to plead with the Lord for His name’s sake to return and shine forth His glory. There is nothing we can do but seek the Lord and pray and there is nothing better to do but to truly pray. Unless the Lord gives us a heart to truly pray, the professing Church will continue to go down into a deeper and deeper darkness. We must be awakened to even see the depths of our distress. It should not be imagined that by working up a few desires here and there and committing some time to utter words before the Lord that true revival will come. Instead we must begin by searching our hearts and asking the Lord to search our hearts with the Divine spotlight. The Lord only dwells with the contrite and lowly. Unless He is pleased to break our hearts from our pride, we will not see our sin and will continue in our religious observances in love for ourselves rather than for Him. We must begin to ask the Lord to break us from ourselves so that we may truly pray for His glory for His name’s sake.

This is a call for each church and each person to start by at least seeking the Lord on the first Monday of each month around 7:00 that night. It is hoped that individuals will at the minimum make this a weekly event and then a gathering for corporate prayer once a month specifically to pray for God to shine His face upon us and grant us His light. This is not a time to pray for anything else but for God to shine His glory upon His desolate sanctuary. When the Lord begins to move in a heart or hearts there may be a time of confession and even great brokenness. Those things are to be seen as the beginning of the Lord moving in His people, but the great end or goal is for the Lord to return to His people. It is to be hoped that at some point churches will meet together for the purpose of seeking the Lord together. It is also to be hoped that if the Lord begins to move that each church will begin to meet more often.

As noted by Edwards: “We should unite two things which our Savior united in His precept: PRAYING and NOT FAINTING. If we pray for years and it should appear that God has not heard and answered, we would act in a way very unbecoming to believers if we should be disheartened and grow dull and slack in seeking God. It should be considered that it’s a poor business if our faith and patience is so short-winded that we cannot be willing to wait upon God for years in seeking a mercy so infinitely vast.” This is not a call to pray for a few months and see what happens; this is a call to pray for revival until it happens or until we die. We live in times where true Christianity is in dire straits. Let us begin by asking the Lord to give us light and break our hearts from all loves but a love for Him and His glory. Let us also remember Paul’s words as breathed by the Spirit: “pray without ceasing.”

“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)

An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God’s People, in Extraordinary Prayer, for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ’s Kingdom on Earth.

By Jonathan Edwards
(Abridged)

Zechariah 8:20-22 – “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘It will yet be that peoples will come, even the inhabitants of many cities. ‘The inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, “Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts; I will also go.” ‘So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD.'”

PART 1

THE TEXT OPENED, AND AN ACCOUNT GIVEN OF THE AFFAIR PROPOSED IN THE MEMORIAL FROM SCOTLAND.

SECTION 1
Explanatory Introduction.

In this chapter we have a prophecy of a future glorious advancement of the church of God. It is evident that something further is intended than was ever fulfilled to the Jewish nation under the Old Testament. For here are plain prophecies of such things as never were fulfilled before the coming of the Messiah. In particular, what is said in the two last verses in the chapter of many strong nations worshipping and seeking the true God and of so great an accession of Gentile nations to the church of God so that by far the greater part of the visible worshippers should consist of this new accession so that they should be to the other as ten to one. There never happened any thing to answer this prophecy from the time of the prophet Zechariah to the coming of Christ. It has no fulfillment either in the calling of the Gentiles in and after the days of the apostles or in the future glorious enlargement of the church of God in the latter ages of the world so often foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament. It is most probable that the Spirit of God refers to the last and most glorious advancement of the church of God on earth.

SECTION 2
Observations on the text.

1. The duty of prayer. Prayer is to be taken here as a synecdoche (one word standing for a whole) for the whole of divine worship since prayer is a principal part of worship in the days of the gospel. If so, this is to be understood only as a prophecy of a great revival, of the true worship of God among his visible people, the accession of others to the church, and the turning of multitudes from idolatry to the worship of the true God. But something more special is intended here, with regard to the duty of prayer, considering that prayer is here expressly and repeatedly mentioned. Notice also how parallel this place is with many other prophecies that speak of an extraordinary spirit of prayer as preceding and introducing that glorious day of religious revival and advancement of the church’s peace and prosperity. This is agreeable with what is said afterwards (12:10) of the pouring out of a spirit of grace and supplication as that with which this great revival of religion shall begin.

2. The good that shall be sought by prayer: God himself. It is said once and again, “They shall go to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts.” This is the good they ask for, and seek by prayer, The Lord of hosts Himself. To seek God as the expression is sometimes used in Scripture may signify no more than seeking the favor or mercy of God. And if it is taken that way here, then praying before the Lord and seeking the Lord of hosts must be synonymous expressions. This is a common thing in Scripture to signify the same thing by various expressions for the greater emphasis. But certainly that expression of seeking the Lord is very commonly used to signify something more. It implies that God Himself is the great good that is desired and sought after and that the blessings pursued are God’s gracious presence. His presence is the manifestation of Him along with union and intercourse with Him. It is, in short, God’s manifestations and communications of Himself by his Holy Spirit. Thus the psalmist desired God, thirsted after him, and sought him. (Psalm 63:1, 2, 8; 73:25; Psalm 143:1) This is the distinct character of the saints that they seek God (Psalm 24:6; 69:32). By seeking the Lord of hosts we must understand this to be a seeking of God who has withdrawn and hid Himself for a long time. We would seek Him to return to His church and grant the tokens and fruits of His gracious presence which is the blessed communications of His Spirit to His people. It is seeking the Lord and His being found by them (Jer 29:10,14; Isaiah 45:15; 52:6-8; 57:17; Hosea 5:15).

3. Those who will be united in seeking the Lord of hosts. This will be the inhabitants of many cities, countries, and strong nations. Great multitudes in different parts of the world shall unite in prayer. In this prophecy it will be fulfilled by God giving a spirit of prayer to God’s people and disposing them to come into an express agreement to pray with unity to God in an extraordinary manner. Then He will appear for the help of His church and in mercy to mankind will pour out His Spirit, revive His work, and advance His spiritual kingdom in the world as He has promised. This disposition to prayer and the union of God’s people will lead to true worship which will be the means of awakening others to what is lacking in their souls. This will lead them to a great concern for their spiritual and everlasting good. Whole nations will be awakened and many of the chief nations of the world will be added to the church of God.

4. The mode of their union in this duty. It is a visible union and an explicit agreement of a joint resolution. The inhabitants of one city shall apply themselves to the inhabitants of another saying, “let us go.” Those to whom the motion is made shall comply with it and it shall spread and others shall go also.

5. We may observe the manner of prayer agreed upon. Let us go SPEEDILY (continually) to pray. This is a very strong expression in Hebrew. It implies the superlative degree of a thing as the holy of holies signifies the most holy. It signifies the utmost degree of a thing and its great certainty. It points to the peremptoriness and terribleness of a threatening, the greatness and certainty of a promise, the strictness of a command, and the earnestness of a request. So when it is said in the text, “Let us go in going, and pray before the Lord,” the strength of the expression represents the earnestness of those that make the proposal and their great engagedness in the affair. And with respect to the duty proposed, it may be understood to signify that they should be speedy, fervent, and constant in it. In other words, it should be thoroughly performed.

PART 2

MOTIVES TO A COMPLIANCE WITH WHAT IS PROPOSED IN THE MEMORIAL.

SECTION 1
promises of future glory

It is evident from the Scripture that there is yet remaining a great advancement of the interest of religion and the kingdom of Christ in this world by an abundant outpouring of the Spirit of God that is far greater and more extensive than has ever been seen. It is certain that many things which are spoken concerning a glorious time of the church’s enlargement and prosperity in the latter days have never yet been fulfilled. There has never yet been any propagation and prevalence of religion of that extent and universality which the prophecies represent (Psalm 65:2; 72:11, 17; Isaiah 2:2; 11:9; 40:5; 45:23; 66:23; Jeremiah 3:17)

SECTION 2
The future glory is unspeakably great.

The promised advancement of the kingdom of Christ is an event unspeakably happy and glorious. The Scriptures speak of it as a time wherein God and his Son Jesus Christ will be most eminently glorified on earth. It is a time when God, who till then had dwelt between the cherubim’s — and concealed Himself in the holy of holies, in the secret of His tabernacle, behind the veil, in the thick darkness — should openly shine forth, and all flesh should see His glory. God’s people have as great a privilege as the High Priest alone had once a year or as Moses had in the mount (Revelation 11:9; Isaiah 60:19; Jeremiah 32:39; Psalm 89:15)

SECTION 3
How much Christ prayed, labored, and suffered, for that future glory.

The sum of the blessings Christ sought and suffered in the work of redemption was the Holy Spirit. The heart of redemption is that the Father provides and gives the Redeemer. The price of redemption is offered to Him and He grants the benefit purchased. The Son is the Redeemer who gives the price and is also the price offered. The Holy Spirit is the grand blessing obtained by the price offered and bestowed on the redeemed. The Holy Spirit by His indwelling presence is the sum of all grace, holiness, comfort, and joy. In a word, the Holy Spirit is all the spiritual good Christ purchased for men in this world and the sum of all perfection, glory, and eternal joy that He purchased for them in another world. The Holy Spirit is the subject matter of the promises in both the eternal covenant of redemption and of the covenant of grace. This is the grand subject of the promises of the Old Testament, the chief subject of the promises of the New Testament; and particularly of the covenant of grace delivered by Jesus Christ to his disciples in His last will and testament as set forth in the 14th, 15th and 16th chapters of John. This being the great blessing Christ purchased by His labors and sufferings on earth, it was that which He received of the Father when He ascended into heaven and entered into the holy of holies with His own blood that He might communicate it to those whom He had redeemed (John 14:16-17; 16:7; 17; Acts 2:33).

SECTION 4
Precepts, encouragement’s, and examples.

The word of God is full of precepts, encouragements, and examples, tending to induce the people of God to be much in prayer for this mercy. The Spirit of God is the chief of blessings as He is the sum of all spiritual blessings which we need infinitely more than others and wherein our true and eternal handiness consists. He who is the sum of the blessings which Christ purchased is the sum of the blessings Christians have to pray for. The disciples came to Christ asking Him to teach them to pray in Luke 11. He gave them particular directions for the performance of this duty in verse 13. “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” From these words of Christ we may observe that there is no blessing we have so great encouragement to pray for as the Spirit of God. There is great encouragement to pray as in Isaiah 62:6, 7 where the people of God are called upon to be importunate for this mercy: “Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”

SECTION 5
Motives to excite us.

We are presented with many motives by divine providence to move us to be much in prayer for this mercy. There is much in providence to show us our need of it. The great outward calamities in which the world is involved should make us earnestly long and pray for that day when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the nations shall beat their swords into plow-shares. The spiritual calamities and miseries of the present time show our great need of that blessed effusion of God’s Spirit. For such a long time the Spirit has been withheld from the greater part of the Christian world and with dismal consequences. There has been a great decay of vital piety and the prevalence of infidelity, heresy, and all manner of vice and wickedness. How strong and deeply rooted are the prejudices that prevail against vital religion and the power of godliness. How are the hearts of people everywhere shut up against all means and endeavors to awaken sinners and revive religion? There is vice and immorality of all kinds increasing and unusually prevailing. May not a consideration of the state of things in our day by those who love Christ and His Church provoke and move us to earnestness to God in prayer for a general outpouring of His Spirit? The pouring out of the Spirit is the only true effectual remedy for these evils.

SECTION 6
The beauty and good tendency of such union.

How beautiful it would be for multitudes of Christians in various parts of the world unite by explicit agreement in prayer. Union is one of the most amiable things that pertains to human society and makes earth most like heaven. Union is spoken of in Scripture as the peculiar beauty of the church of Christ (Song of Solomon 6:9; Psalm 122:5. Ephesians 4:3-6, 16). It is the glory of the church of Christ that all her members be one holy society, one city, one family, and one body. It is becoming for Christians to pray for that mercy wherein consists the true good of the whole body of Christ of which they are members and for the good of all mankind. It is unbecoming of Christians to be of a narrow and selfish spirit and not unite in prayer for these things. An agreement in prayer is especially becoming when Christians pray for that mercy which above all other things concerns them as united and tends to the relief, prosperity, and glory of the whole body as well as each individuals member. Such a union in prayer for the general outpouring of the Spirit of God would be both beautiful and profitable (Mat 18:19).

Concluding considerations.

I desire every serious Christian who may read this discourse to solemnly consider whether s/he can be excused from complying with this proposal. God has stirred up a part of His church to seek and cry to Him in an extraordinary manner for His favor. Let us go speedily and constantly to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts. Will it not become us to say “I will go also?” I desire that it may be considered if we will not sin against God if we refuse to comply with this proposal. If we give it only a little attention, we are disregarding God’s call to us.

I think that none can be in the way of their duty by neglecting such an excellent proposal made with upright intentions (Scottish Ministers). How can we have one good reason to refuse a compliance with this proposal? The more disorders, extravagances, and delusions of the devil that prevail the more need we have to pray earnestly to God for His Holy Spirit to promote true religion. The more such prayer is proposed and then carried out, the more effectually will all that is contrary to sober and pure religion be exploded.

One would think that all those who love the Church of Christ would rejoice to hear that God is stirring up a number of His ministers and people to unite in extraordinary prayer for the revival of religion and the advancement of His kingdom. If we lay to heart the present calamities of the church of Christ and long for that blessed alteration which God has promised, one would think it should be natural to rejoice at the appearance of something in so dark a day which is so promising a token. If we can get our neighbors to join with us in praying societies, this would be most desirable. But if not, we should not neglect this. We can pray alone united in heart and practice with others in distant places who are engaged in prayer at the same time.

We should unite two things which our Savior united in His precept: PRAYING and NOT FAINTING. If we pray for years and it should appear that God has not heard and answered, we would act in a way very unbecoming to believers if we should be disheartened and grow dull and slack in seeking God. It should be considered that it is a poor business if our faith and patience is so short-winded that we cannot be willing to wait upon God for years in seeking a mercy so infinitely vast. Whatever our hopes may be in this respect, we must be content to be ignorant of the times and seasons which the Father hath put in His power and must be willing that God should answer prayer and fulfill His own glorious promises in His own time (Psalm 27:14; Hebrews 2:3-4; Micah 7:7; Isaiah 25:8-9).

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Pride, Part 58

August 9, 2009

Luther began seeking God out of the pride of self-love and when grace overcame him and gave him a love for God Luther lived out of that love. The Reformation was a song to the glory of God in all things. Luther was the one that found that song written in the Scriptures and set it to modern (for him) music. This is to say that the unregenerate sinner desires grace in the sense that s/he desires God to save him or her based on something other than total merit. The sinner might think that some merit must be obtained, but they know that they need something called grace to save them. Luther’s desire for grace brought him into the ways of seeking God and he then found the truth about grace. In his pride of nature he could not think beyond the way of obtaining merit or working for God, but God in His grace taught Luther the true nature of grace. The biblical doctrine of grace will not operate or function according to man, but it must be given according to who God is. Luther had to learn the true nature of grace.

“He himself began with an egocentric conception in his quest for a ‘gracious God.’ His problem was: ‘How can I attain such conformity with the Law of God that I may be sure of acceptance with Him and secure peace for my troubled mind and conscience? He found a gracious God, as we have seen, but not by the way he had sought, not by becoming worthy of God’s approval. Indeed, it was rather the gracious God who found him and took him to Himself, despite his unworthiness and sin. Luther did not win God’s favor by his merits, but God’s unmerited grace overmastered Luther and became the compelling force in his life. To his egocentric question, we might say, Luther received a theocentric answer, which became thenceforward his dominant and all-absorbing theme. We can certainly speak of a Copernican revolution here.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

The proud and self-centered heart of human beings wants to be saved, but it wants to be saved from hell on its own merits and in its own way. It will bargain with God to some degree, but ultimately it wants things its own way. Luther sought the grace of God as he understood it, which was from an egocentric way of looking at it, but in that pursuit God taught him from Scripture and experience about the true nature of grace. True grace is all about God. Pride wants to think that grace is all about self. It thinks of God’s greatness and grace as being great because it is focused on man and delivers man from hell. The Bible speaks of grace in differing ways, but one thing about grace is that it is always focused on God. The living and true God who keeps the Greatest Commandment by loving Himself as triune with all of His being will only show grace based on Himself and His own glory. God must show grace based on His love for Himself as triune or it would be idolatry. When human beings want grace based on what they do or on who they are they are asking God to commit idolatry for them. That is pride in its sheer ugliness and hatred of God. Pride is always opposed to God receiving all of the honor and glory.

Luther became God-centered in all that he did because he learned the Gospel at the hands of God’s sovereignty and grace. The Bible knows of no other Gospel than one that is fully centered upon God and His glory. In their pride human beings want grace to be about them, but that is not out of love for the glory of His grace (Eph 1:5-6). If we love God with all of our being we should want to be saved according to a grace that displays His glory in the fullest manner with His love for Himself as triune as the supreme love in the universe. So when “God’s unmerited grace overmastered Luther” it “became the compelling force in his life.” This grace is not one that saves from a future hell and nothing else, but this is a grace that has to do with actually changing the supreme love of the soul. This is a grace that has to do with God living in the soul as His temple and His activity of love for Himself is worked in and shared in the soul. The redeemed soul is one that the triune God dwells in and in some way makes the human soul a part of the activity of the Trinity which is love. This can be nothing else but a grace that is moved by God and His love for Himself. The redeemed soul would want it no other way. The redeemed soul knows that the proud soul is opposed by God and yet the humble soul receives grace.

The soul that has been mastered by grace is a soul that has had its pride defeated by Lord Jesus and will now humbly lay down at His feet. This is a soul that is dominated by grace and is a soul that is absorbed with this theme. After all, Christ was the tabernacle of glory and that glory was full of grace and truth. A soul that is mastered by grace will be a soul that has been mastered by Jesus Christ who is grace incarnate. The soul that is mastered by Christ is a soul that cannot be tired of the grace and truth that the glory of God in Christ was full of. But pride will always be opposed to God’s glory because it is always opposed to true grace and true truth.

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Pride, Part 57

August 7, 2009

In the beginning God created all things. If we begin to think about this and ask why an eternal God that exists in three Divine Persons in perfect love would create, we are left with only one answer. This God could only create out of love for Himself as triune and to manifest His own glory. The Scripture declares this as well: “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created” (Rev 4:11). Colossians 1:16 echoes this thought in a different way: “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things have been created through Him and for Him.” The Father, who lives in perfect unity and love with the Son, tells us by the inspiration of the Spirit that all things were created for Christ Himself. God is certainly God-centered in all that He does, and all things were created for God-centered purposes.

“He himself began with an egocentric conception in his quest for a ‘gracious God.’ His problem was: ‘How can I attain such conformity with the Law of God that I may be sure of acceptance with Him and secure peace for my troubled mind and conscience? He found a gracious God, as we have seen, but not by the way he had sought, not by becoming worthy of God’s approval. Indeed, it was rather the gracious God who found him and took him to Himself, despite his unworthiness and sin. Luther did not win God’s favor by his merits, but God’s unmerited grace overmastered Luther and became the compelling force in his life. To his egocentric question, we might say, Luther received a theocentric answer, which became thenceforward his dominant and all-absorbing theme. We can certainly speak of a Copernican revolution here.” (Let God Be God! An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther)

The love of God for Himself as triune is so great that He cannot do anything that does not have the primary motive of manifesting His glory. Human beings are commanded to love God with all of their beings and yet we are commanded to be holy as He is holy. If love for God is the Greatest Commandment for human beings, then it is clear that for God to love human beings more than Himself would be idolatry for Him too. The Greatest Commandment is given to human beings so that they may be like God in doing that but also that they may go to Him as the only origin and source for love.

God cannot give the greatest good to human beings apart from giving them a love for Himself. The greatest thing in the universe is love for God as God which is to say that God shares His love for Himself with human beings. The triune God lives in perfect love within the Trinity. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love (Gal 5:22) and the love of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5). The Gospel is not about just delivering people from hell, but it is also about delivering people into eternal life and having eternal life in them. Eternal life is to know God and Jesus and to know them is to share in their love for one another. The believer has Christ and is beloved for the sake of Christ. The believer has access to the Father and the love of the Father for the Son is then given to and shared with the believer. The Gospel is about people having eternal life which is to know God (John 17:3; I John 4:7-8). The Gospel is about having the Spirit who enables people to love the Father by sharing the very love that flows within the Trinity. The Gospel takes God-hating sinners and turns them into those who love God and do all out of love for Him and His glory.

Pride is living in the love of self, though it is not the pure love that flows from the throne of God. Pride is to be focused on self and doing all for the sake of self which ends up being nothing but enmity with God. Unbelievers live at enmity with God and doing all that they do out of hatred for Him. This is not according to what they think, but it is what they do when they live out of love for self. To love self is to be in direct contradiction to the Greatest Commandment that commands us to love God with all of our being. That means that the one that loves self is living in hatred of the living God. Living out of love for self is to love self rather than God and is an act of great pride. This is what the Pharisees did. They loved self rather than God when they prayed so that others would honor them when they prayed. Their very act of “praying” was the height of pride and an act of enmity with God. Salvation from that is to deliver sinners from pride and self-love so that now they would be God-centered.

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Conversion, Part 27

August 6, 2009

In one sense conversion is the beautiful work of God in taking a soul marred in all of its parts with sin and making it a new creation. It is God taking a soul that has the darkness of the devil going forth from it in its selfishness and pride and making it into a soul that has the light of the glory of God shining forth from it. In this work the might and power of God is seen in taking the soul from the dominion of darkness and translating it into the kingdom of His beloved Son (Col 1:13). In Colossians 2:15 the cross and salvation are seen as an act of God triumphing over rulers and authorities through Christ. Psalm 110:1 tells us that “The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” This is Yahweh speaking to Adonai and Christ is Adonai. What we have set before us, then, is the work of a King. The true King is King Jesus who is the King of Kings.

We have to work our minds and hearts to fight the modern idea of a weak and almost helpless Jesus in His mildness. No, it is in the great power of a mighty King that He went to the cross and became the Redeemer of souls. But the biblical idea of a Redeemer is one that the King carries out. We looked at some of the Baptist Catechism a few articles ago, but now we want to look at it in a different context. What has to happen to the soul in salvation and what does Christ by His Spirit do to actually accomplish this?

Q 26. What offices doth Christ execute as our Redeemer? A. Christ as our Redeemer executeth the offices of a prophet, or a priest, and of king, both in his estate of humiliation and of exaltation.

Q 29. How does Christ execute the office of king? A. Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling, and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.

Q 32. How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ? A. We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us by his Holy Spirit.

Q 33. How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ? A. The Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ, in our effectual calling.

Q 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 our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gospel.

Q 36. What is justification? A. Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.

The progression of the work of salvation is seen in these questions and answers. What we see is that while justification is received by faith alone, yet that is but a small part of the story. The reason behind the great doctrines of justification is that Jesus Christ is acting as King in order to redeem souls. When a soul is truly saved, that is the work of King Jesus in saving that soul. Justification by faith alone is not the work of a human soul in coming up with faith, but instead it is the work of King Jesus in executing His office of King. The soul partakes of the redemption that Christ purchased when Christ applies it to us effectually by His Holy Spirit. The Spirit applies the redemption that was purchased by Christ by working faith in the soul in effectual calling. Notice again that all of this starts with the work of Christ the Redeemer doing this as King.

So far we can easily see that the Baptist Catechism (copy of the 1695 edition) thinks of faith as being the work of the Spirit in applying the salvation purchased by Christ and as the work of His office as King. It then goes on to speak specifically and directly of effectual calling. This effectual calling is what the Holy Spirit does, though indeed this is also the work of Christ the King. The Catechism gives us the steps that King Jesus takes in this work of effectual calling which is carried out by the Holy Spirit. These are steps by which the Spirit persuades and enables the soul to embrace Jesus Christ. First, the Holy Spirit convinces the sinner of sin and misery. Second, He enlightens our minds in the knowledge of Christ. Third, He renews our wills. It is in these three things that the soul is persuaded and enabled to embrace Christ. These are the things that happen in the soul so that it will receive Christ and believe on Him in justification. When we say that a soul is justified by faith alone, we are looking at the end product of the work of King Jesus by His Spirit Who alone enables souls to embrace Christ.

The problem with the theology and practice of seemingly the vast majority of Americans is that they want the sinner to believe from his own strength and power without speaking of the work of Christ as Redeemer and King. We seem so ready to talk the sinner into believing and acting without giving any real thought to the work of King Jesus in applying His salvation that He has purchased by the Holy Spirit. When we evangelize as if all depended on man rather than the work of the Redeemer, we are not talking about the same salvation or the same Gospel as the one that depends completely on Christ as Redeemer and King. The faith that can be worked up by the power of the human soul is not the same faith that is worked in the soul and applied by the Holy Spirit in applying the redemption of King Jesus. Yes, sinners are justified by faith alone. But that can mean so many different things depending on how it is taken. Our Baptist fathers were very clear as they agreed with the Westminster Divines.

The Baptist Catechism is built on the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Here is a modern wording of the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

Q 30. How does the Holy Spirit apply to us the redemption Christ bought? A. The Spirit applies to us the redemption Christ bought by producing faith in us and so uniting us to Christ in our effective calling.

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.

The updated translation, while the older one is clear, makes things even more clear. The Redemption that Christ accomplished is applied to the sinner by the Holy Spirit in producing faith in us. The production of faith is part of the effectual call. The effectual call, in very clear language in the modern wording, shows us that this is the very way the Spirit persuades and enables people to receive Christ. I am taking pains to point this out (even repetitive?) because this is how the older works on conversion proceed. They labor at getting souls convicted of sin. They labor at getting souls to understand the Gospel and what are the signs of regeneration. These men were not teaching a works of salvation at all, but instead they were teaching the true Gospel of grace. They were not teaching the steps of men to salvation, but instead they were teaching the steps of the Holy Spirit in the salvation of men.

We can now see (as previously mentioned) why Asahel Nettleton was so distraught at the methods of Charles Finney and his followers. It was because Finney and his followers preached of a salvation that Christ had accomplished but did not speak of it as one that He had to apply by His Holy Spirit. Instead, he thought he could convince men by his reasoning and powerful persuasion. We can also see why the evangelism and preaching in our day are so weak. Men preach as if all depended on men though indeed some might give lip service to the Spirit. But it is a very different thing just to speak of salvation as being applied by the Spirit than it is to actually deal with sinners as if the Holy Spirit has to apply salvation to them so that they will not look to themselves but to God who must effectually do these things. If we think of salvation as having to be effectually applied by the Spirit, then if man tries to apply it that will be the ineffectual application of it. If the Spirit has to work with power beyond measure in order to work faith in human souls, then the works of man to come up with his own faith will be weak beyond measure. Romans 1:16 speaks of the Gospel as being the power of God for salvation, but now we teach as if man has power unto his own salvation. The power of the Gospel includes the application of it by the Spirit.

The conversion of souls is by the renewing work and power of God from its accomplishment in the earthly life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ the actual application of it to the soul by the work of the Spirit in producing faith in the soul. The soul that is “excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them” (Eph 4:18) cannot give itself spiritual understanding and life from its own spiritually dead self. But instead the steps of the Spirit must take place in that soul. It is not by the works of man, but it is by the works of the living God by the Spirit. The soul must have a true conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit. The soul must have its mind enlightened to the truths of the Gospel by the Spirit. The soul must have faith worked in it by the Holy Spirit. There is no other way and this alone is the application of the Gospel of grace alone. In coming weeks we will be looking at how the Holy Spirit applies the work of Christ to the soul. In this we will see the Gospel of the power of God in converting souls and bringing His life to them. A converted soul is different than just a soul that believes something in its own power, but a converted soul has had the work of God on and in it so that it is now a temple of the living God with the life of God in its soul. It has, therefore, eternal life because it has the life of God in the soul. It is truly saved.

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