The Seeking Church, Part 24

December 19, 2008

For the modern Church to be turned from judgment will require it to recognize where it is seeking itself rather than God. We will not be turned to the Lord until we are seeking Him from the heart as our greatest love in truth. This will require us to wake up and see that we have replaced God with trust in things. God only blesses by grace and grace alone and not on account of works and morality. This must be understood from the depths of our souls. True morality does not result in the blessing of God, but is in fact the blessing itself. True works do not result in the blessing of God, but is a blessing of God. The false idea that God will bless us if we do certain things has so saturated the churches of today that it is accepted without question. What is less understood, however, is that if we seek the blessings of God by our works and by our morality we are doing nothing more than the Pharisees did. Like the Pharisees, then, we might have a religion set up based on self, morality and works rather than grace. It can be a subtle thing because of our use of orthodox words and cry out a salvation by grace and say that it is by faith apart from works. Yet we can still trust in a salvation that is not truly by grace and is not by a true faith.

In previous newsletters I have used the wooden peg analogy. As a reminder, or to someone that might not have read it, the picture is of four large pegs at the bottom of a peg tower. On top of the four pegs is a board and on top of the board there are eight pegs. On top of the eight pegs there is another board and on top of that board there is a group of sixteen pegs. This goes on and on until there are hundreds and thousands of pegs at the top level. Each peg represents a belief. To replace a belief at the very top is not a major deal. But to replace one of the lower pegs is a major trauma because so many other beliefs rest and rely on it. If we change a lower peg belief all the beliefs that rest on it have to totally change or at the least change in a significant manner. The Gospel of Jesus Christ must be one of the bottom pegs on which all other pegs and beliefs rest. If we teach a gospel that simply requires grace and faith in the upper tier, then we have a gospel that rests on other beliefs and loves rather than all other things resting on the gospel. The true Gospel is one where all of our life and beliefs rest on Christ alone.

What can happen, then, is that individuals and churches can have orthodoxy (right belief) and to some degree orthopraxy (right practice) and have all of it in the upper tiers. They can believe in something called grace, and indeed have some right ideas of grace, but the true bottom tier belief can still be a trust in self. The bottom tier faith is in self to trust in grace and in self to do the works that should come by faith in Christ and His grace. We maintain these beliefs in the upper tier of the belief system while the beliefs that support all the other beliefs remain the same. That is also what the Pharisees did. The Pharisees had many true beliefs and many true practices. But the bottom pegs in their belief system on which all of their beliefs and all of their practices came from was self. They were indeed living by faith, but it was a faith in themselves. They were indeed living a moral life, but it was a moral life that they had come up with rather than finding it in Scripture in all of its parts. Indeed they founded their beliefs and morality in some way on Scripture, but they were not fully from Scripture and they were certainly not living by grace. They had the right beliefs and a stringent morality. However, we can do the same things. We can also have moral practices that we find in the Bible if we made the right deductions from the right verses. We can also tell ourselves that we are living by faith, and indeed be living by some form of faith in something, when we are not living from what is received by faith in Christ. We can also tell ourselves that we are being blessed by God and yet be totally confused on what a blessing of God really is.

Individuals and churches must learn to take faith and grace as the Bible sets them out rather than interpret them in non-biblical ways. This is exactly where many of those who have gone astray in history have missed it. It is also where we miss it so badly in our day. The Bible demands a true faith and belief in Christ. By that, using the wooden peg analogy, it means the deepest level of belief in the human soul on which all other beliefs and practices rest and come from (John 8:31-32; Mat 22:36-40). We have replaced that type of belief with an upper tier peg belief. It is just one belief among many and does not threaten the true system of trust and love we have in self. The Bible tells us that unless a person is converted that person will not enter the kingdom (Matthew 18:3; John 3:3-8). We have settled for uttering a prayer or making some sort of choice. The Bible tells us that our righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees or we will not enter the kingdom (Mat 5:20). But we have settled for many outward acts that make us comfortable in our external morality. The Bible tells us that all we can do, even giving all we have to feed the poor and giving our bodies to be burned, is of no profit apart from love (I Cor 13:1-3). Yet we have replaced true love with external actions and a general form of niceness. In other words, we have the same principles of the Pharisees in that we have lowered the commands of God so that we can keep them apart from a total reliance upon the grace of God. The human heart is always trying to do this despite the teaching of Jesus in John 15:5 that apart from Him we can do nothing (spiritually). Any true spiritual fruit must come from Jesus the vine to us or the fruit is of our flesh and is not true spiritual fruit. Our deceitful hearts must learn this daily.

In order for the modern Church to be turned again to the Lord will require much searching of our hearts. Individuals and churches must search and get to the very bottom of the heart and hearts. The judgment of God remains on our nation and on the churches and yet we are satisfied with greater numbers. Like the Pharisees we will travel over land and sea to make a convert (Mat 23:15). However, has that person been converted by the methods of men to unbiblical standards (in the name of the Bible) or has that person been converted by and to the Lord? There are many people who are converted in a sense but are not converted to God. When we have changed the standards and call them biblical, we are in dangerous territory and are in dangerous times. We must always remember that the Pharisees and virtually all heresies have used biblical language. However, they did not have the biblical intent and the biblical meaning with that language. We must search our own hearts in prayer and earnestly desire the truth about ourselves and God rather than just assume that all is well in Zion.

How are modern churches like the Pharisees rather than Christ? How many professing believers are like the Pharisees rather than Christ? Do we really want to know? Do we really care as long as the numbers and the money comes flowing in? If we desire the presence of God in Christ in our churches and in our hearts, we must search our hearts with all diligence. We must begin or continue ransacking our own motives and intents. We must learn to look at what the Bible says is the blessing of God rather than assume He is blessing what we do. The blessing of God is when He gives Himself and not when He gives us things. God gives riches and material things to those His wrath is on, but He does not give Himself to those His wrath is on. What we must ask and seek from the Lord in His Word and in prayer is if He is in our hearts in reality and if it is truly His glory that we desire and seek.

As we continue in our praying, thinking, and searching of our hearts, we must know that God is different than we are. The way to return to the Lord is to become like Him by His grace and not seek Him to become like us. We can certainly pray and ask God to bless our plans rather than seek Him for His plans. We can pray asking for Him to give us His plan and then just assume that our plans are His. We can pray and ask Him to give us what we need to carry out our own plans and indeed those plans may be fulfilled. But unless God gives Himself He has not blessed a person or a group of people. We must learn to understand the deceptive nature of our own hearts (Jer 17:9) and know that our own hearts are more deceitful than all else. Our hearts have a high opinion of ourselves and we are so prone to think that God is in whatever we do. But we must learn to seek God to open the deception of our hearts to us and to give us grace in order to seek Him in truth and love.

In the 1920’s the stock market crashed and our nation was plunged into a depression. The market crashed because of certain influences and certain practices that had been carried on for many years. In our day our nation has been plunged into another economic crisis. This was also precipitated by years of corruption and bad (and perhaps illegal) business practices. Corporations had leaders cook the books (change the numbers around) in order to give the impression that they were making more money and had more money than they did in reality. These things can only go on so long before a crash occurs. This is also true in the professing Church. We can practice many so-called “biblical” things and give the appearance that great things are going on. We can pad the church roles with false converts and give the impression that great things are happening. We can give ourselves to many activities and many moral practices and give the impression that great things are happening. But when we do those things apart from the presence of God we are just like the corrupt businesses that set themselves up for a great fall.

The professing Church in our day has been cooking the books and giving an impression that things are going well when in fact the judgment of God is upon us. God has withdrawn His presence from us and yet we are going along in our programs as if nothing has happened. The crash is happening and there may be a final crash in the days ahead. God judged Israel many times before He sent them away a final time. It is time to search our hearts with the Word of God and on our knees. We have settled for so many things without God and deceived ourselves into thinking that God is surely blessing us and is among us. That leads us to think that things are okay. They are not okay and we are blinding ourselves to the reality. We must repent from seeking things to seeking God in truth and love. We must see what we are doing and what is happening. May God grant us all eyes that see and ears that hear.

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The Power of the Gospel, Part 5

December 17, 2008

Romans 1:16 – “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

Far too often the Gospel is thought of as a weak and effeminate message for people who need to choose Christ for themselves. It is thought that if we present the Gospel to people in a gracious and winsome way they will not be offended by us and perhaps make a decision for Christ. Other think that if we do good things for people they will see what we are doing and that will help convince them to decide for Jesus. What we must be reminded of over and over in order to tell the truth to others about their sin and the Gospel is that they are slaves to sin and under the dominion and power of the evil one. It takes a Savior with great power to rescue sinners and take them out of the kingdom of evil. This is beyond the power of sinners themselves, so it is all by the grace of God Himself.

The following verse shows us one aspect of what it means to be a slave to sin and of the type or kind of power that is needed to free those who are slaves. “Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin” (Romans 6:6). According to this text, if we follow the line of thought, the slavery that we are in is to the old self. The flow of thought is this: The old self was crucified with him that the body of sin might be done away with. In other words, the old self or the self-centered and prideful self must be crucified so that the body of sin would be done away with. The purpose or result of this is so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. It is only when our old self is crucified that the body of sin is done away with. Only when the old self is crucified are we no longer slaves to sin.

The text actually tells us that the old self “was crucified with him.” The cross of Christ is to be seen by the believer as where the old self was crucified when Christ was crucified. The old self must die and in Christ one will die to that old self. But what we also must see is that as the blood of Christ was shed and now must be applied, so the self that was crucified on the cross must in some way be crucified and died to now as well. The fact that Christ was crucified one the cross is the guarantee that the old self of sinners will be crucified now so that they may be free from the body of sin and no longer be slaves to sin. What Christ did in the past will certainly be carried out in the present for those that His death was efficacious for. He was crucified which shows that some will beyond doubt die to self and be delivered from the slavery of sin now.

For the moment, however, we must look at the promises of the Gospel in this regard. The good news of the Gospel is the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is also the good news of the Gospel of the kingdom of God. If any person is awakened to the depths of his or her sin by the mercy of God and the illuminating work of the Spirit that person will see that s/he is not just a sinner, but is a sinner that is in slavery to sin. That person will see the self-centered nature of self and realize that self does not have the power to cast out or kill the power of sin that resides in self. Here is the testimony of Paul: “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24). Without debating the question of whether Paul was speaking about himself as a converted man or not in this passage, the point is still clear. Paul wanted to be set free from the body of death and of sin. He knew that the only Deliverer was Jesus Christ. The applied cross of Christ was the only way for this to happen.

Paul continues his thought in Romans 8:3: “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh.” The Law cannot ever free the soul from the power of self and the flesh, because it was never made to do so. It is only the Lord Jesus Christ who can free the soul from sinful flesh. The thought is continued in Romans 8:13: “for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” One must be freed from the slavery of sin in order to put to death the deeds of the body.

Colossians also makes the same point: “and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead” (2:11-12). The body of flesh must be removed in and by Christ. This death to self must occur in order to be set free from the power of sin and of self. It is Christ alone who can accomplish this by the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. No human being can do a work this mighty, but instead it takes the power of Christ Himself to do it.

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The Power of the Gospel, Part 4

December 15, 2008

Romans 1:16 – “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

In the last BLOG we looked at the words of Jesus in John 8:31-36 and what it meant for sinners to be enslaved to sin and the need to be set free by the Son who is the power of God in salvation. The Gospel is the power of God for salvation because it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ who is the power of God for salvation (I Corinthians 1:21-24). Acts 8 gives us another view of what Jesus was teaching when He said that those who commit sin are slaves of sin. “For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity” (Acts 8:23).

The context of Acts 8:23 starts with verse 9. We are introduced to Simon in that verse as a man who formerly practiced magic in the city of Samaria. He would astonish the people of Samaria and claimed to be someone great. He was called “the Great Power of God” (v. 10). However, when the people who had paid attention to Simon heard the Gospel when Philip preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ to them, things changed. Even Simon himself believed and was baptized. Notice that Philip preached the good news of the kingdom of God. The kingdom is the reign and rule of God, so Philip was preaching the kingdom of God that had great power. Simon began to follow Phillip and it was Simon who was now constantly amazed as he observed signs and great miracles taking place (v. 13).

The apostles heard that Samaria had received the Word of God and so sent Peter and John. They came down and prayed that the people would receive the Holy Spirit. When the apostles began laying hands on them, the people were receiving the Holy Spirit (vv. 14-17). When Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the hands of the apostles, he offered them money for this gift. Peter responded like this: “20 But Peter said to him, ‘May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21 You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. 22 Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.'”

Peter’s response to Simon was straight to the point and would not have been considered gracious in our day. However, it was just what Simon needed. We must remember that the text said that Simon had believed (Acts 8:13). This is another time when the Bible tells us of people who believe after hearing the Gospel but were not yet converted. We must wake up to this fact in our day that people can believe the facts of a message (assuming that they hear what is being said) and yet not be converted or saved from their bondage to sin. Evidently Simon believed enough that he had left his magic and so had a moral transformation. But he was still in bondage to sin. Luke, the writer of the book of Acts, takes the time to show us how highly Simon thought of himself and apparently loved the attention he obtained through his magic. When the Spirit of God began to work on people it was even better and more powerful than his magic. He believed, but his sinful heart that loved the attention and adoration of others had not been changed. Simon was still in the bondage of iniquity.

Simon had heard the message of Christ and believed in some way, but he had not been delivered from the bondage to iniquity. Simon had a moral transformation, but he had not been delivered from the bondage of iniquity. Simon could not deny the greater power of the Holy Spirit and the miracles that were being done, so he believed the message as to the facts of it. However, Simon had not escaped the death of sin and its death grip of selfishness and pride on his heart. He still wanted the applause and admiration of others. His heart had not been turned from its love of self to a love of God. He was still in the bondage of iniquity. This shows us the power of sin and the utter necessity of the new birth. Sinners are born dead in sins and trespasses and are by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:1-3). As long as they do not see their helplessness in their sin they will continue to think that they can deliver themselves by believing and a moral transformation. What must happen to sinners is that a power greater than their self-love and pride must come and deliver them from the bondage of iniquity/pride. As we can see with Simon, he believed and had a moral transformation but he was not delivered from the very power of pride and self-love. He could not deliver himself from himself and so he remained in bondage to pride and self. The Pharisees were very religious but still in bondage to self. How many today have heard something of Christ and have believed in some way and made a moral transformation and yet are still in the bondage of self/pride? It makes one shudder.

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The Seeking Church, Part 23

December 12, 2008

The great burden of this particular series is for people to realize that the judgment of God is spiritual and what must be done in order to return to God. We cannot be satisfied in doing our religious duties and practices. We must not be satisfied in simply doing the externals of religion. We must begin to seek the face of the Lord in spirit, truth, and love or the judgment will continue. The church will never do anything of spiritual significance apart from seeking the face of the Lord out of true love for Him. It has been said that at times younger children will unwrap a present and play with the box rather than appreciate the present. The professing church appears to be doing the same thing. It is playing with music, preaching, teaching, prayer, Bible study and so on (the box and the wrapping) rather than seeking the face of the living God. Music is not to be appreciated as music alone, it is to be used to worship the living God or we are satisfied with the box. Preaching is to be a means to seek the face of God or we are satisfied with the box. Bible study and prayer are means to seeking God, and yet if we develop religious duties around them rather than using them as means of seeking God we are playing with the box.

The issue of a seeking church is a church that is seeking God from the heart. A church that is seeking God is seeking the face of God in truth from the depths of the heart. Seeking God is not the activity or activities in and of themselves; those are simply the boxes (so to speak). We must pray for the Lord to take our hearts from the boxes in order to seek Him by means of the box. The Pharisees were satisfied with the externals of religion. We like to think we are not and so we say and write words that condemn the Pharisees for what they did. Yet how many people in the churches are truly seeking God from the desires and longings of their hearts? How many churches have prayer meetings where God Himself is the true object of desire? How many churches have prayer meetings where no one is prayed for but God Himself is sought and anything that is prayed for is a means of seeking God Himself? When we pray for others without a primary love for God we are seeking something other than God. We are to love Him with all of our beings. The greatest thing that we can pray for another, after all, is for them to know God day in and day out which is eternal life.

The evangelism and discipleship of the churches must be to make true seekers and lovers of God. We must not be satisfied with external morality and an easy religious life. We must not be satisfied that people say prayers and walk aisles, but instead we must seek God and do what we do in such a way to see hearts changed. If a church is going to seek the face of God in its meetings, then the individuals that the church consists of must be seeking the Lord in that way. After all, the church is the body of Christ. What does the life of Christ in His body do? That life of Christ will always seek the face of the Father and to seek to please Him in all it does. We must know that what Christ did on earth He will work to fulfill in the hearts of His people. All that He did was to please the Father and to seek His will. What He will do in our hearts as our life is to seek to please the Father and seek His will. The same Christ who was sweating blood in His prayer to the Father and said “not My will, but Yours be done” is the Christ that will not rest satisfied until His people are seeking the will of His Father to be done on earth as it is in heaven. He is the Lord of the heart and His kingdom reigns to the degree that it reigns in the hearts of His people.

For a church to function as a body of Christ seeking the Father through and by the life of Christ, that will require a people to have hearts that love God. The goal of evangelism and discipleship is not to have people pray a prayer and profess to be delivered from hell; it is to have a people united to Christ with the same heart of Christ. It is to have the people be saved from the power of sin on this earth so that the living God will dwell in their souls. The blood of Christ does not deliver from hell alone, but it cleanses the soul so that the living God may dwell in that soul as His holy temple. The church must learn to pray for the glory of God to dwell in the souls of the people and to pray for others in that manner and with that goal. That is, after all, how Paul prayed (Ephesians 3:14-21).

What we must begin to see with renewed eyes is that the church is not just a group of people that meet together to perform religious things together. It must meet together as a body of Christ to do what its Head directs it to do. It must meet together as a bride in order to love and please its Husband. The church is not just an organization, it is the very dwelling place of the living God and it is from His dwelling place that His glory will shine. The tabernacle in the Old Testament was where the glory of God dwelt. The tabernacle in the book of John we the physical body of Jesus Christ because that is where the glory dwelt. The tabernacle or temple after Christ is the Church because the true Church is the body of Christ. Its purposes all relate to being an instrument in shining out God’s glory.

All of these things are related to the peg analogy from the past few newsletters. Each local church has to revisit what it means to be a church. The present belief of what a church is may be pegs in the upper levels, but the beliefs of what a church is must be at the deepest roots. Local churches must wake up to what a church is. The following two verses show this: “He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything” (Colossians 1:18). “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Colossians 1:24). What does Christ think of a local church that gets involved in activities without having Him as its first love and having first place in everything? What He said to the Pharisees in Matthew 7 is a clue: 22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'”

Here we have a picture of busy people who were busy in their religion on judgment day. These were not just the nominal believers as we call them. These were not just those that attended once a month or most of the time except when they were busy with other things. These were people who had their theology correct (called Jesus “Lord”) and went about preaching or proclaiming the name of Christ. These were also those that not only cast out demons and did miracles, but they did them in the name of Jesus. Yet they were sent away because they practiced lawlessness. This text should send chills down our spines as well. Here were orthodox people doing outwardly great things and even doing them in the name of Christ. Yet they were told that Christ never knew them. They were told to depart because they practiced lawlessness.

Let us imagine a local church that can be described by Matthew 7:22-23 and is busy about getting people busy. That is a church growth technique in our day. The things these people were doing are done in the name of the Lord. The things these people are doing are thought to be great. The things that people are doing orthodox and perhaps even miraculous. Can there be local churches that have great evangelistic practices that Christ would call lawlessness on judgment day? Can there be local churches that have discipleship programs that are seen by Christ as lawlessness now and will on judgment day? Are there local churches with great and thriving music programs that Christ sees now as and will term then as lawlessness on judgment day? Are there local churches that are having large numbers come through its doors for things that Christ sees as practices of lawlessness? Could it be that people will flock to conservative churches to have their ears tickled with conservative morality that is lawlessness because it is morality apart from love for Christ? The Pharisees were also conservative in their morality. Could it be that people flock to hear certain people preach because they like to have their ears tickled with a theology that they agree with? The Pharisees were conservative with their theology too. What does the Word of God teach us is the ultimate lawlessness? It is violating the Great Commandment of loving God with all of our beings. Conservative theology and morality do not guarantee a judgment where Christ will declare all as well done. Those are also things that can be declared as lawlessness.

If we reflect back on the wooden peg analogy we can see that the people in Matthew 7 had their religious beliefs and practices built into what they were. However, what they did not have was Christ as their very foundation and life. Each church must know that there is no other foundation other than Christ and that there is no life other than Christ. The church must begin to look and examine itself to see if what it is doing goes to the deepest supports in all it is doing. We can do many things to please people and keep people coming in the door, but if in bringing them in we are, so to speak, driving God out the door what we are doing is lawlessness. We must be preaching, teaching, and evangelizing in a way that God will use to convert people. All of this is pictured by the deepest levels of the wooden peg analogy. We must not be satisfied with our own professed belief or the professed belief of others. Many profess belief but are not converted in truth. A professed belief may be just one of many beliefs that a person has. A saving faith is a faith that is the deepest conviction of the soul and comes from being united to Jesus Christ. If we are to be faithful people and faithful churches, we must learn to get to the deepest issues of the heart. Until Christ has converted the deepest issues of the heart, people do not truly believe and are not truly converted. Until Christ has converted the deepest issues of the heart, all that we do is lawlessness because He is not dwelling there and His Spirit is not working in us the fruit of love. We can know the facts that God opposes the proud, but until we are deeply humbled we will not understand that He opposes the most we can do and the very best we can do in His name apart from true love. We must be converted in the deepest recesses and parts of our hearts.

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The Power of the Gospel, Part 3

December 12, 2008

Romans 1:16 – “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

In the previous two BLOGS I set out several verses showing how human beings are slaves of sin and in bondage to iniquity. This is in direct contradiction with the modern approach to evangelism and preaching, which is to set out some basic truths and tell people to choose between heaven and hell as if all depended on their free choices. The Scripture tells us that sinners must be translated from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of the Beloved Son by God Himself (Colossians 1:13). This should be demonstrative evidence that the Gospel is one of the power of God and not simply the weak and ineffectual action of the power of the human will left alone.

We have come to think of power as very strong human beings lifting large and heavy objects. We might also think of power as that which politicians have in making decisions that impact others. The idea of power is the ability to effect something or have an ability that is able to accomplish something against resistance. Romans 1:16 tells us that the Gospel “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” It does not say it is the power of man to do as man wants to do, but it is the power of God for salvation. Whatever else is said the Gospel must always be in the sphere of the power of God to save sinners and so it is not sinners who save themselves.

“Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin'” (John 8:34). This verse should be thought through in its own context rather than just dismissed out of hand. A slave is the property of a master and is under the power of that master. A slave is one that is to obey his or her master at all time. All the actions of a slave are to be under the authority of the master. A slave has no power over him or herself. Jesus is teaching us that a person that commits sin is the slave of sin. The word “commit” is a present active participle that could be accurately translated as “continuing to commit sin.” The idea is not that one sin means a person is a slave of sin, but that the continual practice of sin shows that one is a slave to sin. The context of the verse is a discussion Jesus had with the Jews over freedom and being the descendants of Abraham. He told them that His disciples knew the truth and that the truth would set them free (8:31). They responded by telling Jesus that they were the descendants of Abraham and had never been enslaved to anyone.

Jesus’ response to the Jews was that anyone who committed sin was a slave to sin. Notice carefully what He is doing here. He is giving a specific answer to a specific point. They asserted that they had never been enslaved and so did not need to be set free by Jesus. He told them that they were slaves to sin and needed to be set free by Him. In fact, He told them that it was the Son who could set them free so that they would be free indeed (John 8:36). What is clear from this text is that Jesus saw the Jews as being enslaved to sin and that He was the only one that could set them free. The Word of God is seen in the case of the Jews that argued with Jesus: “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). What Jesus told the Jews seemed foolish to them and they saw no need of the power of God to set them free.

I Corinthians 1 goes on to say the same thing in other ways as well: 22 “For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Jesus Christ presented Himself as the One who could set sinners free from their bondage. He was rejected. Paul sets out for us in I Corinthians that Jesus Christ is the power of God. The Gospel is the power of God precisely and only because it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The message of the Gospel is about Jesus Christ who is the power of God for salvation. The Gospel is not a mere message that is given to people; it is a message about Jesus Christ Himself who is the power of God to save.

If we are to be faithful to the Gospel and to the Christ of the Gospel, we must not just give people a message and leave all up to them and their free wills to make a choice to save themselves. We must present the Gospel in its context as Jesus did which involved telling people that they were slaves of sin. It is only if a person sees him or herself as a slave of sin will s/he understand that s/he needs the power of Christ for salvation. We present such a weak and anemic gospel when we leave it in the hands of human beings. We at least demonstrate the power of the Gospel in some way when we show that Christ alone can set human beings free from their bondage to sin.

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The Power of the Gospel, Part 2

December 9, 2008

Romans 1:16 – “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

Last time we looked at the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel that appears to be the majority report in the modern day that is set out before people seems to be very weak as it is utterly reliant and dependant upon the power of the will of human beings. The Gospel of the Bible is powerful because it is utterly reliant and dependant upon the will and power of God. The Gospel in Scripture is the Gospel of the omnipotent God who alone can take human souls and deliver them from the state of spiritual death and bondage that they are in. It is God alone who can raise those who are in spiritual bondage to one far more powerful than they are and can raise human beings from the spiritual dead. James 1:18 sets this out very clearly: “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.”

In light of the above paragraph, the preaching of today is far too man-centered. The preaching of today preaches to man as if something was in his own power to do and does not address human beings as dead in sin and unable to raise themselves from the dead. It does not address human beings as in spiritual bondage and utterly helpless to help themselves. Instead people are preached to as if these things were in their own power. But human beings must be born again and raised from the dead and the power of God alone can bring people forth by the word of truth. Instead of preaching to the will of man as if it has power to do what is needed to be saved, the Word of God points us to look to the will of God as what is needed to be saved. The Gospel is powerful because it is God Himself who is powerful and works through His word.

In the previous BLOG several verses were given to show that sinners are dead in sin and in bondage and slavery to sin. Instead of just giving these verses a nod of the head and continuing on as if they were not true, we need to look at them a lot closer and others a lot closer. The first three verses give us the same thought: Ephesians 2:1: “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.” Ephesians 2:3: “Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” Colossians 2:13: “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.” If we are to be faithful to Scripture and the Gospel, we must understand these verses and utilize them as they are necessary to understand what the new birth really is. These verses clearly show us that salvation is beyond the power of human beings and is more than a mere act of the human will. The spiritual nature of man is dead. In other words, when a believer is telling people the Gospel of Jesus Christ, those people need to know that they are dead in their sins. They are spiritually dead and cannot just make a decision or exercise an act of the will in order to be saved. What must happen to them is that God must make them spiritually alive which is to bring them forth from the dead.

What will happen if we bring a Gospel to people and ignore this basic fact? We will be bringing a message to those who are spiritually dead and so we will water the message of the Gospel down in order to have something for them to do. If we do not teach them that they are dead, they will think that all they have to do is to exercise their will in a prayer or act of belief and they will be saved. They will not recognize that the Gospel is all about an omnipotent God who must exercise His will in order to bring them forth from the spiritual dead. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is good news to those who see that they are dead in their sins and that they are by nature children of wrath. It is good news to those people because they can see that they don’t have the power to raise themselves from the dead, but instead they need to be emptied of their pride and self-centeredness so that they don’t try to save themselves by an act of their will. It is good news to these people because it takes their eyes off of themselves to see the living God who alone can raise them from the dead and also give them life that is everlasting.

We can see this in Colossians 2:13 as well as in Ephesians 2:4-10 (not quoted). Dead sinners are not just given a ticket that allows them into heaven, but they are raised from their spiritual deadness and given life. This is a life of great power because it is the life of God in their souls. This is a life of grace because that is the only way God operates toward anyone and especially toward dead sinners. This is of the power of God because the life that begins by grace is a life that is sustained at all points by grace and even through eternity. This Gospel is a Gospel of great power because it is the Gospel of the omnipotent God who does as He pleases. What a powerful Gospel.

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The Power of the Gospel

December 7, 2008

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is something that is disputed and fought over. It is that way because the hearts of men are wicked and do not want to bow in utter submission to the true Christ. It is far easier to think of salvation as Jesus doing something and then all I have to do is to pray a prayer and exercise an intellectual belief and then I am saved from hell. We think of that as good news because it delivers us from hell. But what we don’t often think of is that sin itself is the punishment for sin (Romans 1:18-32). When God judges sinners, He turns them over to hard hearts and they are given over to more and more sin. If God just saves people from a place called hell and does not deliver them from sin itself, then they would have a living hell within them. There is no hell apart from sin and one is not saved from a future hell until s/he is saved from the power of sin in the present.

In the past several blog posts I have set out some things about how we use time and then the thoughts and words that we use. We are going to give account to God for all of those things. Our thoughts will be judged and even every careless word will be brought into judgment (Matthew 12:26). Can we be said to be delivered from hell if we are not delivered from the power of sin regarding our thoughts and words? The Gospel of Jesus Christ delivers from the guilt of sin but also the power of sin. A heart that has been changed by the living God is one that longs to be delivered from its own sinful thoughts and words. It is a heart that has been changed by the grace of God. In fact, Paul told us that we are to take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ (II Corinthians 10:5). This should not be a burden in doing something we don’t want to do, but it should be a burden that we have not perfected it any better than we have. Do we have the love of God in us if we are not striving after holier and holier thoughts?

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is also the Gospel of the kingdom of God in the hearts of His people. When a sinner has been transferred from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of the Beloved Son (Colossians 1:13), that sinner is no longer the same ole sinner but is now a completely different person. The Gospel of the omnipotent God is a Gospel of power to change hearts and to change the focus and intents of hearts. The Gospel is not just a bunch of facts that we have to be convinced of or convince ourselves of, but it has to do with the Person of Jesus Christ dwelling in the hearts of believers. The good news of the Gospel is that no longer am I completely a slave of sin and a slave of the devil, but that now Jesus Christ lives in me and He works love and holiness in my soul because He is now my life. The Gospel is about the fact that the Lord God omnipotent reigns and His kingdom is in the hearts of all true believers in and through Christ. What kind of weak Savior is Christ if He is unable to deliver His people from the power of sin now? Could He deliver His people from hell later on if not from the power of sin now?

In our day what is called the Gospel is hardly even recognizable as even close to the same Gospel in the Bible. The Gospel of the Bible is one of great power. The Gospel of the Bible is one of great glory. The one today is weak and focused on man and has little to nothing of the glory of God in it. The Gospel of the Bible is one where the glory of the beauty of God shines brightly in and through it. The so-called gospel of today shines forth with the darkness of a focus on man. But the power of the Gospel is seen in delivering the sinner from the power of sin which is the love and glory of self. When a semblance of the gospel is preached and yet it still leaves men centered on themselves, it is a weak and erroneous gospel because those people are not delivered from the power of sin.

Matthew 1:21 sets out this thought in terms of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” The Lord Jesus Christ is indeed the Lord who will deliver His people from the bondage of sin. After all, John 8:34 tells us very clearly that sin is a form of slavery: “Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”” Other verses also set this out as a clear truth from Scripture: “For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity” (Acts 8:23). “Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin” (Romans 6:6). “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness” (Rom 6:20). “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin” (Rom 7:14). “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another” (Titus 3:3). If the Lord Jesus Christ who is King of Kings came to deliver His people from the dominion of darkness, Satan, and sin (Col 1:13), then a person only has Christ if that person is broken from the bondage of sin. This does not mean that a person will be perfect, but simply that the Gospel of Jesus Christ does deliver a person from bondage by the power of the Gospel or the power of God in Christ.

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The Seeking Church, Part 22

December 6, 2008

We have been setting out a peg analogy and the idea of a dominating belief in order to show that there can be major problems in a church even among people that profess to believe. If people believe they are converted and are not, that means that a professing church is functioning according to unbelief. This is destructive to individuals and would not be a biblical church. This is certainly a sign of the spiritual judgment of God. When the Lord withdraws and leaves a people to themselves, they come up with their own idea of what faith and salvation really are. If justification comes through faith and the idea of faith is not biblical, then the results would be obvious. If salvation is not just a deliverance from a future hell but involves a true conversion of all the aspects of the human soul now, then we can see how utterly disastrous that would be to individual souls and to churches. There would be people deceiving themselves into thinking that they were delivered from hell while they were not new creatures in Christ. A person will not be delivered from hell if s/he is not made into a new creature in this life.

In a recent conversion with a person (referred to as person A) these things became very apparent. I was talking to person A about the need to receive grace for salvation. The person became angry. Person A said that they had been told that all a person needed to do was believe in order to be saved. They then said that now I was telling him or her that s/he needed to be saved by grace and that God had to do that. In other words, instead of being taught that salvation comes through faith, that person had the belief that s/he only needed to exercise some form of belief that came from him or her. No change of heart was required for that. The biblical teaching that a person is saved by grace alone through faith alone was not considered. Perhaps this person would have went on thinking that s/he was saved because of an intellectual belief when in fact s/he did not even know the Gospel of grace alone and that it was a work of God. If that person would have joined a church at a later date, it would have been an unconverted being allowed into membership on the profession of faith but it would have been an unbiblical faith. That is deceptive to the individual and harmful to the church. These are important matters.

If the professing church is going to be turned from its present judgment, it must look at the teaching of Scripture on conversion. We need to hear about conversion and we need to think deeply and pray about what conversion is. We need to understand that there is the message of the Gospel, but there is also the conversion of the sinner. A person must be converted from being a child of the devil to a child of the living God. A person must be converted from being one that hates God to one that loves God. Conversion is when a person is turned from a self-centered mind to having the mind of Christ. Conversion is when the heart is turned from being a heart where even the intents of the thoughts of the heart are evil and nothing but evil to one that has intents that love the true God. Conversion is when the whole inward person is changed from living out of pride to one that receives all it obtains from the grace of God. Conversion is when a person is turned from doing all for the honor of self to doing all to the glory of God. Conversion is when a person is turned from the self-life to the life of Christ in the soul. Conversion is when a person is turned from bearing the fruits of the flesh to bearing the fruit of the Spirit. Conversion is when a person is turned from sharing in the life of the world to sharing in the life of God. Conversion is when a person is turned from such self-love that other people are only loved for the sake of self to being enabled to even love enemies. Conversion is when a person is turned from being a temple of idols to being the temple of the living God.

The above list is not exhaustive, but it is an attempt to show that we must learn to take the teaching of the Bible on conversion very seriously. The Bible speaks of people who are truly converted as being new creatures in Christ (II Cor 5:17). The Bible does not know of a salvation from a future hell apart from a person becoming a new creature in Christ. At the risk of sounding arrogant, until churches return to the teaching of Scripture on conversion they will be weak and inept in the spiritual realm. It is God who changes people rather than people changing themselves as the Pharisees evidently believed. People cannot change their own hearts and instill the life of Christ in themselves. People cannot make themselves new creatures. People cannot sanctify themselves because Christ Himself is our sanctification (I Corinthians 1:30-31). As long as the professing church continues to teach of a salvation from hell apart from the conversion of sinners by God Himself to being saints in Christ Jesus the church will continue to be a place where people are damned through the church. How deceptive it is when churches are full of people who hate the true God while they are deceived about loving Him because they have been taught that they are saved from hell while having no idea of what true conversion really is. We should not be surprised that the wrath of God has come upon us in a terrible spiritual famine.

When the focus of modern evangelism is to get people to pray a prayer or walk an aisle in order to escape from hell, we will say things and do things to get them to do that. But if the focus of the church is to see men and women truly converted and become true disciples of Jesus Christ, then the focus in proclaiming the Gospel will be much different. If our focus is on greater numbers in the church and greater numbers through the baptismal waters, our evangelism will be watered down and be nothing but an attempt to get people to go through certain acts. But if we proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that knows that people have to be truly converted and to become disciples, then we will preach and teach on sin, true repentance, and what a changed heart and life is really like.

The situation in modern America is dire in the spiritual realm. An analogy from the medical realm might be very useful in pointing this out. Let us imagine that the vast majority of doctors in America stopped treating diseases and began to only treat the symptoms. They begin to think that patients are going to stop coming to them if they tell them the truth about their diseases. So they decide that they will have more patients if they make people feel better and not tell them the truth about their diseases. The patients will be given medication to make them feel better and will receive counseling in order to have a positive outlook on life. They would do nothing but make the patients feel better with promises of what this would mean for the future. The patients would be deceived about reality because of how they felt which when combined with promises of the future they will go on in a deceived state. The symptoms are dealt with so the patient thinks all is well. They patients are given promises about the future based on how they feel rather than the nature of the disease. It would be easy to see that the results of something like this would be catastrophic to the health of the nation as well as trust in doctors.

We live in a time when this is exactly what is going on in the churches of today. People began to feel a bit guilty or think something is wrong and so they attend a local church where the pastor or leaders are concerned about the numbers of people coming. So the person is told positive things and encouraged to keep coming back. Sure enough the person begins to feel better and might even make a profession of faith. After all, s/he feels better and knows new people. What is the problem? The symptoms were dealt with to some degree but not the disease. The disease is still there and is growing though the person feels better. The person thinks that all is well for the future based on the fact that s/he feels better now. Whenever some doubt begins to creep in, they are told to remember a prayer they prayed or a decision they made at some point in the past that inoculates them against all doubt.

The professing church (orthodox ones also) is taking people and is only treating (though not in truth) their symptoms. But the radical disease of sin is not being dealt with by the teaching of true repentance and true conversion. We can imagine what we would do if a doctor told us that we have a disease and it must be cut out if we are going to live. We might get a second opinion, but we would not settle for a person that told us to just take a few pills and live better. Yet when the Great Physician of souls tells us that unless we are converted and become like little children we will not enter the kingdom (Mat 18:1-3), we are satisfied with a few pills of a prayer and perhaps some behavior modification. The Great Physician of souls tells us that we must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven and we are again satisfied with a few prayers and some behavior modification.

The professing church in the modern day is much like a helper to a physician that would tell the patients that come to the office that all that they needed was in the office and they needed to apply it to themselves. The medicine is set out and they are told to believe that the medicine will work and they need to learn to apply it themselves. The patient might wonder about this since the physician is trained to apply medicine and the patient is utterly ignorant of these things. But the patient is simply told to believe and it will be applied that way. What if a patient went to a heart surgeon and was told to give him or herself a new heart? In much the same way people are being told that about salvation today. Instead of telling them that they need to go to the Physician of souls who alone can change hearts and who alone can apply the balm to the souls and salve to the eyes, people are told to apply salvation to themselves. They are told just to believe that the Physician can do it and to believe that He has done it. What they need to do is to go to the Physician and ask Him to treat their diseases. He alone can cut out that old heart and give them a new one. He alone can take out their old mind and give them a new one. He alone can begin to treat their disease by causing them to die to the disease itself. Sin is not to be suppressed but it is to be cut out by the Physician. Until the professing church learns to point people to the Physician for radical surgery and not tell people that they are to cure themselves by the medicine made available, the disease of sin will be rampant.

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The Importance of Thoughts, Part 2

December 5, 2008

Last time we focused on the intent of thoughts as seen in Genesis 6:5 and how men can have wicked intents of their thoughts while they have what they think of as good thoughts. If we move for the most part past the intent of the thoughts, in dealing with thoughts at all we are still in a place where the vast majority of Americans are unwilling to go. Surely, it is thought, our thoughts don’t matter and it is simply how we live. That in itself is a wicked thought. It is saying that a holy God does not care about the holiness of thoughts. Scripture is also devastating to the attitude that thoughts are not that important. We are commanded not to have any other gods in the presence of God and we do that primarily in our thoughts. We are commanded not to have idols and yet if we have wrong thoughts of God those wrong thoughts would be idols. We are commanded not to use His name in vain and certainly we use His name in our thoughts. We are guilty of murder if we hate (includes the thoughts). We are guilty of adultery if we lust and think after other people. We are guilty of stealing if we covet other people’s property. We are guilty of lying if our thoughts do not line up with our words. Thoughts are not just thoughtless or thoughtful; they are utterly wicked if they are not moved by the life of Christ in the soul in love for God.

Matthew 9:4 tells us that that at least some of our thoughts are evil and that Jesus knew them: “And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, ‘Why are you thinking evil in your hearts?'” Matthew 15:19 tells us the source of our thought and again that at least some of our thoughts are evil: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.” Isaiah 59:7 speaks of the sins of certain people that the thoughts are included: “Their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity.”
Isaiah 65:2 goes even further and shows that one definition of rebellion is when people follow their own thoughts rather than listening to God: “I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, Who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts.”

If we look at the verses in the above paragraph, a chilling realization should come upon us. Our thoughts are in the presence of God and are known by Him. Our thoughts can be evil and evil thoughts are judged by the God we are in the presence of. The heart is the source of evil thoughts and so when we have evil thoughts it shows that our hearts are evil as well. Regardless of our outwardly good acts and deeds, we may be rebelling against God by following our own thoughts. We may be living for an idol that we have conjured up by the idol of self in suppressing the truth of God. We may have hearts that are evil and from that very evil we may be living a religious life that appears good to those who see our outward person. But God know our hearts thoroughly.

Jeremiah 4:14 is a hard verse to deal with if we view it as the mirror that we are to hold up before our hearts. “Wash your heart from evil, O Jerusalem, That you may be saved. How long will your wicked thoughts Lodge within you?” The heart needs to be washed from evil because there are wicked thoughts lodging in them. It is not just that wicked thoughts pass though our minds as fleeting thoughts or as unwelcome guests, but they actually lodge within our hearts. The wicked thoughts are like those who lodge at certain areas for long periods. Could it be that we have so many wicked thoughts because they lodge within us? Could it be though we see some of our thoughts as sinful we simply turn our attention to other thoughts and let the wicked thoughts continue their lodging within us? If our heart is not washed from evil, the wicked thoughts continue to lodge there and be at home. Instead of looking at the source of those thoughts as our hearts, we look to other things or try to ignore them and push them away as much as possible. If we ignore sinful thoughts rather than evict them from lodging in our hearts by repentance and a cleansing of the heart, we are toying with sin as if it is nothing but a trifle.

There is no pursuit of holiness if there is no pursuit of holiness of heart and holiness of the thoughts of the heart. People are utterly deceiving themselves if they think they are holy and do not pursue holiness of thought. It is only if the heart is washed from evil will the wicked thoughts be case out from their lodgings within us. We must learn to deal with our wicked thoughts by going to the root of them which is the wicked heart. If we try to deal with our thoughts by doing mental gymnastics and suppressing thoughts, we will be dealing with the symptoms and not the disease. When we deal with the symptoms we might feel better for a while, but meanwhile the disease continues to grow and spread. Regardless of our profession, wicked thoughts are proud thoughts. God deals with those firmly and even fiercely: “He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart” (Luke 1:51). God opposes the proud and that would include those who are proud in the thoughts of their hearts. These are things that we must take to heart and seek the Lord to cleanse our hearts from them.

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The Importance of Thoughts

December 2, 2008

We have looked briefly at the importance of time and words. Now we will look at the importance of thoughts. We are told that nothing matters but what a person does, but this is not a thought found in Scripture. While it is true that what we do is important, yet what we do springs from and is driven from our thoughts and desires. If we had no other verse but Genesis 6:5 we would know that the thoughts of a human being are very important: “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” This is a verse to be meditated on again and again. It tells us the very depths of our sin and of our enmity to God. It tells us of how wicked the very best of our actions can be if it is driven by evil thoughts and evil intents of those evil thoughts but also evil intents of outwardly good thoughts.

When people read this verse for the first time, they are shocked. When God set out how wicked men were on the earth, He said “that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Here we go past the thoughts to the intent of the thoughts. People have intents of the heart for the thoughts they think. Even if a person has what would be called good thoughts, that person has good or evil intents for those thoughts. Not only do people have evil intents of the heart, but the Scripture above says every intent of the thoughts of the heart was evil. The unbeliever must know that not only will his or her actions by judged, but his or her thoughts will be judged. But even more than that, the very intent of the thoughts will be judged. When the numbers of sins are counted on the last day, it will be seen that the unbeliever’s thoughts were evil and the intent of the thoughts of the heart was only evil continually. The numbers of sins will most likely be beyond what the human mind can conceive. Indeed the heart is desperately sick and who but God alone can know it.

Hebrews 4:12 speaks of how the word of God judges the inner person: “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” We don’t like to think of the degree of judgment that we will face, but this text should make us face up to it as well. Genesis 6:5 tells us that every intent of the thoughts of the heart is evil and only evil continually. Hebrews 4:12 reminds us that the thoughts are judged by the word of God now. This surely tells us that they will also be judged later on as well.

But we have even more verses that show us how important the thoughts are: “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever” (1 Chronicles 28:9). What will it take to seek the Lord? We are told today that if we are nice and do religious things these will please the Lord. We are told today to seek the Lord by doing certain things, but this text tells us that the LORD searches all hearts and understands every intent of the thoughts. That is in the context of serving and seeking the Lord. He knows our intent in what we think and in what we do. Our thoughts flow from hearts that either love God or hate Him. We can try to deceive ourselves and flee from this thought itself with other thoughts, but know that God knows the intent of that thought as well. He knows why we want to have certain thoughts and why we want to keep some thoughts out. He knows why we are really seeking Him and if we have love for Him or just want Him to do something for us.

How are we who have such wicked thoughts supposed to return to the Lord? “Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:7). Why must we forsake our thoughts to return to Him? “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD” (Isaiah 55:8). Until we forsake our unrighteous thoughts and the wicked intents of those thoughts, we will not think the thoughts of God. If we are going to be holy as He is holy, we must have to some degree a likeness in us of the thoughts and the intents of the thoughts of God. Until our thoughts are patterned after His thoughts, our ways will not be patterned after His ways. How vital are the thoughts of a person and how vital it is to have a Savior who died for the sin of our thoughts and yet is now the life of the soul giving us the mind of Christ. How delightful it is to have the Spirit who can open our minds to understand to some degree the thoughts of God. The Gospel is to be preached to the thoughts and is to pierce our intents and thoughts. The Gospel is so thoughtful.

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