Our Motives in Prayer Must Be God-Centered

May 27, 2008

In history the Reformed have taught a lot on and about prayer. Today we think of prayer as consisting of a bit of praise to God for what He has done for us and then asking for more things that He can do for us. But notice that when we praise God for what He has done for us, we are very centered upon ourselves. When we ask for more things that He will do for us, we are again asking Him to do things centered on self. In prayer it seems as if all the selfish things of the heart will arise and plead for God to give it to them. This selfishness and self-centeredness are given religious expression and even said to be a good and holy thing as long as it is “prayer.” We have sanctioned selfishness and pride within the Church in the name of prayer. Let us hear the words of Stephen Charnock on this matter of prayer being an expression of our self-centeredness and practical atheism:

“When we entertain a high opinion of ourselves, and act for our own reputes, we dispossess God from our own hearts and while we would have our fame to be in every man’s mouth, and be admired in the hearts of men, we would chase God out of the hearts of others, and deny his glory as a residence anywhere else, that our glory should reside more in the minds than the glory of God; that their thoughts should be filled with our achievements more than the works and excellence of God…It is evident, in performing duties merely for a selfish interest; making ourselves the end of religious actions, paying a homage to that, while we pretend to render it to God…Things ordained by God may fall in with carnal ends affected by ourselves; and then religion is not kept up by any interest of God in the conscience, but the interest of self in the heart; we then sanctify not the name of God in the duty, but gratify ourselves; God may be the object, self is the end; and a heavenly object is made subservient to a carnal design… in the actual aims men have in their duties. In prayer for temporal things, when we desire health for our own case, wealth for our own sensuality, strength for our own revenge, children for the increase of our family, gifts for our own applause; as Simon Magus did the Holy Ghost; or, when some of those ends are aimed at, this is to desire for God not to serve himself of us, but to be a servant to our worldly interest, our vain glory, the greatening of our names… when pardon of sin is desired only for our own security from eternal vengeance; sanctification desired only to make us fit for everlasting blessedness; peace of conscience, only that we may lead our lives more comfortably in the world; when we have not actual intentions for the glory of God, or when our thoughts of God’s honor are overtopped by the aims of self-advantage… how is it with our confessions of sin? Are they not more to procure our pardon, than to shame ourselves before God, or to be freed from the chains that hinder us from bringing him the glory for which we were created; or more to partake of his benefits, than to honor him in acknowledging the rights of his justice? Do we not bewail sin as it hath ruined us, not as it opposed the holiness of God?”

We can see from these words of Charnock what idolatry it is for man to have himself as his highest motive in prayer. When we pray and our desire is for ourselves rather than God, though indeed we might have some fleeting thoughts of God in the so-called prayer, we are in the midst of idolatry and call it religious duty. We should know that it is the height of arrogance and sin to pray in an effort to use God for our own selfish intents and motives. We should know that in prayer as in all of life we are to do all to the true glory of His name and we are to love Him with all of our beings while we pray and in the intents and designs of the prayer. Could it be that in the “prayers” of the professing Church we see idolatry and self-love as much if not more than anywhere else?

Instead of the focus of prayer being asking God for things for our own purposes, we are to pray in His name and for the sake of His name. In other words, true prayer is when the soul of a human being loves God above itself and loves itself only for the sake of His name and begins to plead with God for the sake of His own name. After all, we are to love Him more than ourselves. After all, if we loved Him more than ourselves and ourselves only for His sake, we would pray for all that we prayed for in order that His glory would be manifested. If a holy prayer is only the prayer that is truly out of love for Him and for His glory, then what is God’s intent for prayer? Is prayer a way for God to show how focused He is on human beings or the way for human beings to manifest how focused they are on God? Could it be that human beings in true prayer are really signs of changed hearts so that their prayers are really the breathings forth of God’s love for His own glory? Our prayers themselves are to be God-centered in all ways and in that they show union with God and His own centeredness upon Himself. Even in (perhaps especially so) our prayers we are to show the glory of God’s focus on and love for Himself. If not, we do it for pride and self.

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Can God Love Sinners More Than Himself?

May 23, 2008

We are looking at what it means to be truly God-centered. In the last post we tried to look at what it would mean for God to be God-centered. In other words, the way we perceive God is fundamental for our view of God. In order for a human being to be truly God-centered, s/he must see that God is God-centered. Here are some more reasons why this is true. For God to be truly holy and to be love itself, He must love Himself more than any human being and all human beings together. A holy love will love true love and true holiness and a true holiness will always be devoted to true holiness rather than sinful beings. The Great Commandment as given in Holy Scripture does not command human beings to be like something that God is not. Human beings are incredibly wicked and idolatrous in the violation of the Great Commandment if they love people or things more than God. Hopefully most professing believers would admit that. However, are we willing to apply that to God? What is the Great Commandment that God follows? Are there people and things that are okay for Him to love more than Himself? Are we like God in loving Him with all of our being or are we commanded to love Him while He does not? We are so inoculated to the true God in our day that we are willing to say that God does not love Himself in all that He does and is His own primary motive in all that He does while we say that human beings should love God as their primary motive in all things. If we assert that it is our position, therefore, that what is pure holiness for man is not holiness for God, then to be consistent we must say that in order for man to be holy he must be unlike God.

On the other hand, Scripture tells us that we are to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength and we are also to be holy as He is holy. How do these things fit together in God and then in human beings? The modern approach (applied consistently) appears to be that God is perfectly holy and His love is focused on human beings more than Himself. Human beings, however, are to love God with all of their beings and to focus on human beings out of their love for God. From that position, then, holiness for human beings is to be something that is unlike God. If God who is perfectly holy is focused on human beings and loves them more than Himself, then to be holy as He is holy shows that human beings must be focused on human beings more than on Him. But we know that it is idolatry for any human being to love something more than God. But even more, following the thought of Augustine, “he loves Thee too little who does not love all things for Your sake.” The people and the things we love are to be loved for His sake. This, then, gives us a completely new thought of what it means to love God and others. But it also teaches us that God’s very holiness in some ways consists in a love for Himself.

We know from I Corinthians 13:1-8 that nothing a human being can do apart from love is of any use at all. We know from these verses that no matter what we do in terms of giving money or even our own lives is of any benefit apart from love to God. Did Jesus Christ love human beings more than the Father when He went to the cross? You see, then, how modern Americans can preach and teach sheer idolatry when they teach precious truths about the Gospel in the wrong way. The Gospel does not primarily consist in how much God loved human beings and sacrificed Himself. It is primarily about how God loved Himself first and foremost and puts His love in the hearts of human beings and shares His love for Himself with them. The Gospel cannot be that God loved human beings more than His Son and so sent His Son to die for their sins, because that would be idolatry of the Father to love human beings more than God. Instead it is more in line with His triune glory that He loved His Son in a way that His Son went to die for sinners to demonstrate the love of the Father for the Son and the Son for the Father. The Gospel is the Gospel of the love of God for God and then from that for sinners.

We know that salvation is a glorious thing that was planned by God for all eternity. We know that Ephesians 1:5 tells us that salvation is “to the praise of the glory of His grace.” In this we see the motives and purposes of God in the Gospel. Without doubt the glory of His grace includes the beauty of His grace. God has saved sinners to the praise of the beauty and loveliness of His grace. If we do not see the beauty of His grace which is based on His love for His own name and glory, then we don’t truly understand the glory/beauty of the Gospel. In the Gospel and by the beauty of His grace in the Gospel God has set forth the majestic beauty of His whole character. Surely we can see that it is far better and glorious for God to be more concerned about the holiness, glory, and beauty of His own name than the welfare of sinners. Surely we can see that if God was not concerned about the glory and beauty of His name He would not have been just in justifying sinners and He would not have sent His Son to be the propitiation for the sins of sinners. There is no way that God the Father would send His Beloved God the Son for sinners who deserved nothing but hell apart from a desire to shine forth the beauty and glory of His own holy name out of love for His name. After all, we are to pray that our sins would be forgiven for the sake of His name.

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The State of the Church, Part 20

May 21, 2008

Ezekiel 13:22 is an alarming verse. It tells us why those who teach in the Church will have a stricter judgment. “Because you disheartened the righteous with falsehood when I did not cause him grief, but have encouraged the wicked not to turn from his wicked way and preserve his life.” Here is a concept that should be driven into the hearts of every minister, teacher, parent and probably all others as well. If we teach what is false, whether it is in the local church, the Church in general, or at home; it might dishearten the righteous and encourage the wicked not to turn from his wicked way. Teaching what is false is not a light matter, it is deadly serious. A driver of a car may believe something false and it might lead to a wreck. An engineer may believe something false and a building or bridge may collapse. But if a teacher of Scripture is wrong on the way of life, there are eternal consequences.

We live in a light and glib day where sin is scoffed at and dealt with as something wrong with a person’s self-esteem or a chemical imbalance rather than as sin. This is not to say that people don’t have self-esteem problems, but that is because all people love and esteem themselves too much and love and esteem Christ too little. There are physical problems with brains that cause behavioral issues. However, we must also know that sin in the heart is the real cause of sin and it tries to explain itself away. We explain sin away in our day by looking for causes in all places but the sinful heart in an effort to excuse the sinner. We say that a person has had a tough life or is in tough circumstances, but we hide our eyes from their heart as the real problem for sin. The sinful heart uses circumstances as an excuse to do what it wants and then to justify its own behavior. Ministers, counselors, and friends must be aware that what they are doing is possibly encouraging people not to turn away from wicked ways.

Rather than to encourage people in their sin and their idolatry, we must learn what the Word of God tells us to do: “‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Repent and turn away from your idols and turn your faces away from all your abominations” (Ezekiel 14:6). This sounds hateful and certainly is not considered gracious and winsome in our day, but the ministers in modern America are unfaithful to God and to their congregations when they do not proclaim repentance to people. We see what will happen in v. 7 of Ezekiel 14 when repentance is not done: “For anyone of the house of Israel or of the immigrants who stay in Israel who separates himself from Me, sets up his idols in his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to the prophet to inquire of Me for himself, I the LORD will be brought to answer him in My own person.”

This text shows us the gravity of the situation we have in America and the world. Ministers will not deal with the sins of their own hearts or with the sins of the hearts of the people. God has turned His face from the professing Church and has left us to our own devices. We have come up with various methods for church growth, evangelism, discipleship, prayer, and all other things that one can imagine. We are simply following our own wisdom and think that God is blessing that when the numbers increase rather than realizing that judgment has arrived. As long as the professing Church does not turn away from its idols of the heart, then each time a person or group goes to pray those people are bringing idols with them to prayer. Even worse, we pray to God for our idols. We have idols in religious circles and mistake them for the desires of God and so we pray for them. When we pray for the idols of our hearts it is evidence that we are praying to an idol of our own imaginations rather than the true God.

An unrepentant ministry is a horrible judgment upon a professing Church and an unrepentant professing Church is a terrible judgment upon a nation. If it is true that God operates on the church through the true prayer of His people, then what a judgment for Him to turn His face and give them over to the power of their sin and idolatries! It is a terrible judgment for people to think they are praying to God and yet bring the idols of their hearts and then pray for the idols themselves to an idol of their imagination. God hates idolatry and hypocrisy. Both of these are done in the hearts of people when they pray with idols in their hearts. How awful for a ministry to be given over to prayer for idols and then not speak in a way that reveals idols in the hearts of the people. It is the spiritual equivalent of doctors not diagnosing illness or disease. We live in famine conditions regarding our spiritual state.

In modern America the professing Church has lost its authority to preach the Word of God and is now given over to the consumer model. The minister is a hired hand or CEO who is to make the church grow and keep the people happy. He is to give positive and uplifting sermons that are as short and comfortable. He is to be gracious and charming from the pulpit and in person and have a winsome personality. It is okay for some conservatives to preach about sin as long as it is about other people or perhaps some behavior modification that can be tweaked with the few helpful steps. While this sounds good to many and is certainly good for numbers in a time of spiritual famine, it is nothing but idolatry. Ministers are to preach the Word of God and to expose sin. Ministers are to search hearts with the Word rather than to hide the sin of the heart with gracious sounding words.

As we have seen in Ezekiel 13:22, when this is not done the wicked are encouraged to keep on living like they do rather than turn from their wicked ways. In our day the biblical teachings on sin and repentance have become lost. Sin is now just an outward act and repentance is an external stopping of the outward behavior. But how is this idolatrous? Let us do a short study on idolatry from primarily the New Testament. First, however, a verse from the Old Testament that shows idolatry as more than just bowing to an external idol: “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king” (1 Samuel 15:23). In this text we see that insubordination (disobeying a command of God) is as idolatry. The text in its own context tells us what that means. When a person rejects the word of God and chooses his own way, even if it appears pious, that person has chosen something over the Word of God and that is idolatry. It is obeying self rather than the Word of God. Saul rejected a clear command of God and followed his own heart. When ministers reject the Word of God for their own wisdom or some guru on a subject, they are idolaters. When a minister who has an idol of his own wisdom or the words of some expert or guru in his own heart when he goes to “pray,” that minister is inquiring of the Lord while having idols in his heart. We are told to “guard yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21), yet we drink them down like water. The Word of God is being rejected for all sorts of models of the church and of church growth. It is nothing less than idolatry.

Ministers and congregations are guilty of idolatry because of their immorality, greed and evil desires. “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry (Col 3:5). We can have greed in our hearts and think of it as success. We can desire success as preached today and yet it is nothing but greed as the text says. We can have all sorts of impurities and passions which are idolatry also. These things can be part of our religion and part of the so-called ministry. We can desire religious things from greed and evil desires. When what we call “ministry” flows from idolatry, we know that we are under the judgment of God. Ephesians 5:5 says the same thing. “For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” An immoral person’s immorality is his idol. The object of the covetous person’s lusting and coveting is an idol. Even more, this text tells us that we can know with certainty that the idolater (immoral & the covetous) does not have an inheritance in the kingdom. If ministers are idolatrous, are they in the kingdom? Does God use non-spiritual people to build His spiritual kingdom? Each person must examine his heart to see if he is an idolater from Colossians 3:5 and Ephesians 5:5. They teach us that idolatry is really coveting. We covet a person sexually which is lust and covet property which is stealing. Coveting, then, refers to the passions of the soul and of the desires. We can covet people or possessions. We can also covet position, power, and honor. These things are not just for worldly people; these are for ministers and denominational leaders too. Idolatry is rampant among us because we see so much unfaithfulness to the Word of God and so much immorality and impurity. We see so much greed in the name of ministerial packages and we see the desire for honors. We see men not willing to preach the Word of God for fear of offending other men with no fear of offending a holy and living God.

Ministers are idolaters when they will not preach and apply the Word of God to the heart sins of the people. Saul the Pharisee, though he knew the words of the Bible well, did not understand the Word of God and so did not understand his sin. “What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET” (Romans 7:7). How many people do we have in the world with vast amounts of biblical data stored in their heads while they are in total darkness? How many keep the externals and have no idea of the sin of their hearts? How many ministers are there with degrees and advanced degrees with “successful” churches (large numbers) because they will not preach to the hearts of men regarding their sin? How many people believe they are in the kingdom and yet are totally lost in darkness because men will not preach the Word of God?

Because of the idols in our hearts expressed in covetousness toward numbers of people and larger packages we water down the Word of God which is rebellion against God and a rejection of His Word. We can be orthodox and conservative regarding the inerrancy and authority of Scripture and yet our motive in it all is to gain a larger following and perhaps larger offerings. This is nothing but idolatry and an encouraging of the wicked not to turn from his wicked ways. If any church or denomination is going to truly turn from its wicked ways and not just liberalism, it must have men who fear no one but God and will preach His Word in truth and love rather than the effeminate American substitutes. Can we escape the conclusion that we are under the judgment of God and are in a terrible spiritual famine? Are we to the point where we can cry out with the disciples, “surely not I, Lord?” (Mat 26:21-22). Do we even think that we might have idols in our own hearts? Do we really care to find out as long as the numbers are steady or perhaps up? If the numbers go down, what is our real concern? Some of us might even have pride in small numbers and so think that this does not apply to us. If that describes anyone, then that person has pride in other areas and covets honor in a different way. Our hearts are so deceptive and we are so full of love for ourselves that our idol factories (covetous hearts) continue to pour out idols. If we will not deal with them through preaching and repentance, God will continue to deal with them in judgment. “Surely not, I, Lord?”

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God Must Shine His Beauty into Our Souls

May 21, 2008

In the last post I gave a quote from Jonathan Edwards regarding the beauty of God. “His infinite beauty is his infinite mutual love of himself.” This quote, if true, is a massive paradigm shift from what we hear in our day. If it was indeed the paradigm in days past, it also shows what a massive paradigm shift we have had previous to our day and one that has brought destruction and judgment to the professing Church. If we do not truly see the beauty of God until we see to some degree His infinite mutual love of Himself, then we are blind to the beauty of God in our day. This includes orthodox theology and modern versions of Reformed theology as well.

Reformed theology in the modern day is highly exegetical in some circles and highly logical in others. It is focused on by some historians and by professional theologians. But where are those who are speaking of God as if He is truly beautiful to the soul in the manifestation of His glory now? Reformed theology appears to have been mostly captured and trapped by an intellectual alone version of it. This type of theology can appear rationally beautiful in some ways but still miss the essence of Christianity and of the Gospel. If we do nothing but speak of God as if He is bound to proper hermeneutical rules as we exegete the text, we have God bound to rules of human invention and origin. If we bind God and speak of Him only as if He worked in history and write treatises on historical issues, we have nothing but things that happened in the past. While what was true in the past about God is also true today, we must get beyond history to God Himself. We can set forth historical truths about God and simply miss who He is in His beauty and glory today. We can only give information about history, but what we must do is strive in prayer and speaking to see God in His beauty and glory today. If we are blinded to the truth of God by history and orthodoxy, what will bring light to our souls?

It will not do to simply repeat the maxim by Edwards in speaking of God that “His infinite beauty is his infinite mutual love of himself.” It is a fact that Edwards said that. It is a fact that I believe that Edwards was right. We can repeat this statement ad nausea and yet no one will really understand what he meant and no one will understand what is meant by the statement. In order for the hearts of people to see and understand the manifestation of the glory of God, this statement must be explained. But even more, the sheer beauty and glory of God must shine in the souls of people. Until a person sees something of what the statement truly means and God opens his or her eyes to it, this statement will not be understood. But we do not hear of things like this in our day. We believe that the glory of God is seen in His focus on human beings. Let me put this bluntly, though I am sure it is offensive to many as well. If God is in truth as He is presented and talked about in modern America (and that includes the Reformed), then God is as idolatrous as human beings are. If I am correct in that statement, then chills should sweep up and down our spines as He has hardened our hearts and delivered us into the power of our sins. He has hidden His face from us and we are serving false gods in the name of orthodoxy.

Let me try to explain this for the rest of this blog and then in future blogs as well. We all know that something is wrong. We try to explain it in our own lack of something, or perhaps we blame others. What we must see is that when there is a problem in the professing Church, the problem is that God is judging it. When the professing Church awakens to that, it will see that as always the real problem is its view of God. The professing Church in modern America has a frightening view of God in regards to how it views God as essentially a servant of human beings. It pictures God as looking upon those poor people who fell and then, out of nothing but concern for them, planned a way to rescue all of those poor people. It goes out and tells people that God loves them so much that He gave His own Son to die for them and He would have done so for one person alone. They then tell the people that all they need to do is to pray a prayer or exercise a choice and the God who loves them more than they can imagine will save them. Again, sad to say, this is also practiced by people who profess to be Reformed.

The view of God that is presented in the above statements is one of a God who is focused on human beings more than Himself. I say that is idolatry and is a vicious view of God. If we saw a professing believer who focused on the “good” of human beings without a supreme love for God we would consider that person an idolater. If we saw a professing believer who “loved” and wept over human beings without a specific focus on God we would consider that person an idolater as well. Why, then, do we preach and teach about a god that is focused on human beings with all of his love and might and does not focus on himself with all of his love and might? Any professing God who does not love Himself more than all human beings in accordance with the Greatest Commandment has fallen short of His own glory. That would not be a true God, but a pretend one. It also leaves us without a Savior.

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The Beauty of God & the Gospel

May 18, 2008

Today I would like to try to get at Jonathan Edwards’ thought on what is essential in Reformed theology and Christianity as a whole. We can be as precise as we can be with our theological precision and our creeds and still miss the real issue. Doubtless there are those who rest their hopes for salvation in their theological precision and conservative belief. But if Warfield’s and Edwards’ teaching on the central theme of Scripture is right, we see that a profession of faith is not enough. There is a vast difference between believing certain truths about the Gospel and having the light shine in the heart that gives the very knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

“Wicked men and devils will see, and have a great sense of everything that appertains to the glory of God, but only the beauty of his moral perfection. They will see his infinite greatness and majesty, his infinite power, and will be fully convinced of his omniscience, and his eternity and immutability; and they will see and know everything appertaining to his moral attributes themselves, but only the beauty and amiableness of them: they will see and know that he is perfectly just and righteous and true; and that he is a holy God…and they will see the wonderful manifestations of his infinite goodness and free grace to the saints; and there is nothing will be hid from their eyes but only the beauty of these moral attributes, and that beauty of other attributes, which arises from it. And so natural men in this world are capable of having a very affecting sense of everything else that appertains to God, but this only.” (Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections, p. 264)

This is truly a disturbing view of things while beautiful in another sense. Surely it is self-evident that this teaching has major ramifications for the Gospel. Edwards tells us that wicked men and even the devils can see and sense everything pertaining to the glory of God except the beauty of His moral perfection. In other words, the devil and perhaps theologians, biblical scholars, and pastors have some sight of the glory of God and are deceived by it. These people can see something of His greatness and majesty. They can see enough about the physical universe to be amazed at His power and knowledge. They can see that this perfect God cannot lie nor do anything that is not perfectly good. They see great things by the light of academics and rationality, but they did not see the true beauty and delightfulness of God and His glory because they are spiritually dead. These are men that see something of the greatness of the free grace of God and of His love, but they don’t truly see the utter beauty of what His love and grace truly are. They have a system of theology that is rational and to some degree biblical, but they do not see the beauty of God in terms of who He really is. All the beauty they see has to do with their own minds and their own self-love. Unbelievers have some delight in the intellectual study of many things, so it is not surprising that unbelievers (though professing believers) will have some delight in the intellectual study of theology, the Bible, and the creeds. But the delight is not in the beauty and true glory of God, it is in the study and the delight of the mind in intellectual things.

It is not surprising when we read of the Pharisees and others in the history of the Church that have been largely orthodox in their theology and yet have been cold and dead. Scripture tells us that the letter of the Law kills and that is true no matter how great the intellect that teaches it nor does it keep from killing when the person is orthodox. Even the teaching of very orthodox men can be dead if there is not the true beauty and glory of God in it. Quite frankly, one can go to many conferences in our day and find many orthodox men talking about things in orthodox ways. There are men who will speak highly of God. Yet what we don’t really see is the greatness and glory of God taught in such a way that the beauty and glory of God comes down and ravishes the hearts of the people there. Indeed the music might be such in some places that men will weep and shout, but music can make unbelievers weep and shout as well. What we must seek is for the beauty and glory of God to come down from heaven so that there can be no denying of Who has come into the room. Edwards is very clear in the above quote (and many others too) that natural men can have a very affecting sense of anything regarding theology and the teaching of God. They might weep and see things that exalt God and lift Him up in many ways. But they lack the true sense of His beauty and glory. Why is that? Because men still teach about God from a man-centered viewpoint. Jonathan Edwards taught that the beauty of God is “His infinite beauty is his infinite mutual love of himself.” In other words, until we see that the beauty of God is the relation of God within the Trinity and of His love for Himself as triune, we are missing what is truly beautiful about God and the Gospel. When we miss that, we are missing the true beauty of theology and are selling our birthright of His beauty and glory for a bowl of man-centered pottage.

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The Gospel of the Glory of God (Not Man)

May 15, 2008

Last time I tried to get at the issue of God-centeredness. The real issue is not that man thinks a lot about God and commits himself to God and things like that, but the real issue is over the God-centeredness of God. If God is God-centered then it changes everything in terms of what God-centeredness means for human beings. Man can be God-centered in a different sort of way if down deep he thinks that God is really focused on man. While this may sound silly to some and perhaps to many, it is perhaps the deepest and most profound difference between modern theology and at least some historical theology. It is the heart of the issue between what is Reformed and Arminian theology, but also between modern Reformed theology and true Reformed theology in history. Reformed theology has been given over to academics and scholars to state what it is and to defend it, but the reality of historical theology is that a man was Reformed if he had met with and saw the glory of God. When Reformed theology is presented in an academic way alone it is a rational system and has missed the real heart of the issue. A person that has truly seen God will see the true beauty of God. “His infinite beauty is his infinite mutual love of himself” (Jonathan Edwards in vol 6, Yale edition, p. 363).

If we take that statement as a way of understanding or at least giving insight into “God is love” (I John 4:8, 16), then we have just been given a far deeper insight into the nature of the love of God than we will ever have if we think of His love as being shown toward human beings alone. A man-centered approach to the statement “God is love” can leave man with swelling thoughts of himself, thinking that he defines whether God is love or not. That is utter nonsense and openly idolatrous. Who is puny man to think that he could possibly be the central focus of the infinite love of God when God is a triune Being who is love within three infinite Persons? Surely it is obvious that if holiness in man consists in love for God (Great Commandment) that God would not and could not love man more than Himself. If that is true, then surely it is obvious that God the Father could never love a human being or the whole mass of human beings more than His beloved Son and the Son could never love the mass of human beings more than the Father. If we but see into the glories and beauties of the living God, we will be delivered from human-centered thinking into seeing Scripture unfold the beauties of God’s love for Himself.

There are many Reformed people today wanting unity with other theological groups. But if a Reformed person is correctly defined by B. B. Warfield as one that has seen the glory of God, then we can see that the issues are different. The issue at hand is not just whether a person believes a few facts about the Gospel, but to have unity in truth we must know some things a person believes and loves about those facts. What I am trying to get at is the issue that there is a massive difference in the Gospel taught by a God-centered person than one who is man-centered. One might even be led to believe that the two are different Gospels. Let us compare the two.

Imagine the difference between a Gospel that declared the Gospel of the glory of God and one that declared the gospel of the glory of man. “Well,” one might argue, “no one really declares a gospel of the glory of man!” Perhaps not in name, but it is rampant in other ways. The facts of who Christ is and what He has done can be declared to a person by one who holds to a man-centered gospel. The one can plead with other to believe in Christ for all the wrong reasons. The person can be told that s/he is of such value to God that Christ died for him or her. The person can be told that God is standing by and weeping over how people will not accept Him. The person can be told that the only thing s/he must do is to ask Jesus into his or her heart or pray a prayer. All of these things reflect nothing but man-centeredness at the core of the message. Nothing is really said of the reality of who God is and of His true love and holiness and how by grace He changes hearts. It is all about man and what God did for man.

In contrast to that II Corinthians 4 gives us a different picture:

“(4) in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (5) For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. (6) For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

In these verses we see a focus on God and His glory. The true Gospel is all about the Gospel of the glory of Christ, not of the glory of man. The true Gospel is all about the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ and not about the glory of man. Any claim to present the Gospel that focuses on man instead of God is a false gospel. The Gospel is referred to in Scripture many times as the Gospel of God. The Gospel is all about the glory of God being manifested and His glory in justifying sinners by grace apart from works. If we trust in ourselves as worthy instead of His glorious grace, it is a different gospel.

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The State of the Church, Part 19

May 14, 2008

Ezekiel 14 starts off with the elders of Israel coming to Ezekiel. We can imagine quite easily what the easy thing was for him to have done. He could have given them a message that was soothing to them and have tickled their ears. However, instead of listening to what was surely something that came up in his heart, he listened to the word of the Lord. There is a massively important lesson in this for all ministers and leaders in the professing Church. When important people or people with power come to us, we are to speak the word of the Lord rather than what people want to hear. We can follow the trends and encouragements of the world and of the religious world to be gracious and winsome, yet the word of the Lord is quite the opposite of those things most of the time. We can preach and teach most anything today and there will be a group that will like what is said until the word of God begins to strike at the idols of their love. This was true of the Pharisees in the days of Jesus and it is true in our own day now. People will hear almost anything until you begin to get at the idols of their hearts.

The word of the Lord spoke to Ezekiel and told him what was going on in the hearts of the elders of Israel. These leaders were perhaps even blind to their sin, as indeed many are today, but that is exactly why they needed a prophet to declare it to them. Until the ministers in our day have the guts (spiritual fortitude, true love to God and men, honesty) to stand up and begin to search the hearts of the people and declare the word of God in its fullness, the wrath of God will continue in our day. Until the ministers of our day become more concerned with the glory of God and the true spiritual welfare of people rather than their own positions of influence and finances, the wrath of God will continue in our day. Until ministers are more concerned with the truth of the word of God as it shines with the glory of God rather than the idolatrous comfort of sinners against God, the wrath of God will continue in our day. Until ministers are more concerned to penetrate the hearts of sinners instead of tickle their ears with gracious and winsome words, sin will reign in the hearts of sinners and the wrath of God will continue in our day.

We can see from Ezekiel 14:1-4 that the real problem with the elders of Israel was idolatry in their hearts. The elders were to be leaders of the people in spiritual and political things. The nation had priests as well, but they were corrupt and looked after their own welfare and did not teach the truth either. The people were left in darkness because no one proclaimed the word of God to them and they remained in their sins. Instead of nice preaching, even if it is orthodox and in perfect accordance with the 1689 Baptist Confession or the Westminster Confession, we must have preaching that pierces hearts and exposes idols. God does not and will not dwell with people who have idols in their hearts. Doctrinal preaching apart from searching and spiritual application to the soul does nothing but build people up in their pride and idolatry of self because knowledge makes arrogant (I Cor 8:1-2). If all we do is give people biblical knowledge without piercing application, we have not only disobeyed God in preaching to the people what is good we have actually contributed to that which God hates in them the most.

Let us think through this some more. If all we do is teach orthodoxy, what have we done? Is Christianity just something that is learned in the head? Is Christianity something that can be memorized? Is Christianity complete if we know our confessions and have the Bible memorized? No, all of those things apart from a changed heart lead to more pride and more idolatry. Could it be true that in conservative churches the ministers have idolatrous hearts in wanting to please the people and build large churches? With that goal they preach nice sermons that are orthodox on how to live better and all they are doing is building the pride in the hearts of the people along with more idolatry? Could it be that even when conservative ministers go to conferences to hear encouraging words, all that really goes on is that they are encouraged in their idolatries? Could it be that when we hear that what we need to do is be more gracious and winsome that the real thing behind that is that we are being encouraged to be nice and not preach the truth of God in a way that pierces to the hearts? Could it be that we have become so gracious in our presentations that people nod their heads to the orthodoxy while their souls nod to sleep in their idolatry?

The ministry in the modern day (all of us) must wake up to the fact that we have idols in our own hearts as well. The people in the pews and chairs have idols in their hearts too. Until we begin to get at the idols in our own hearts and the idols in the hearts of the congregation, we have nothing to say to the world without hypocrisy on our part. The ministry of the modern day must begin to have some prophetic part to it as well. We can no longer just be nice and teach what is historically true, we have to preach to the hearts of the people and expose their virulent idols and that their opposition to having those exposed is enmity toward God. Ministers need to go to conferences where their own sin is exposed and the rottenness of their own hearts is brought to the surface. Ministers are good at saying about the congregations of other ministers that “The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own authority; And My people love it so!” (Jeremiah 5:31). But do our own people love to hear us prophesy falsely when we don’t search their hearts with the word of God? Do we love it so when we go to conferences and hear nothing but pleasing and orthodox things? Will we be honest and say that our own sermons leave the hearts of people cold toward the real God because they leave them in love with their idols and they think that their idols are blessings from God? Will we be honest with our own hearts and know that we are quite comfortable with our religious idols of esteem and the kind words of others?

Let us also remember that the flattering tongues of others work ruin in our own souls while our flattering tongues work ruin in the souls of others. It is so hard to the idols of our hearts to speak the truth to other ministers and to the souls of people. We want them to like us and esteem us. So in order to maintain the idol of self in our hearts we simply say good and gracious things and then go off in the glow of being liked and esteemed. Idolatry was a problem with the priests, prophets, and elders in Israel. What fools we are to think we are different than they were. The human heart is the same factory of idols now as it was then. The human heart is as opposed to God now as it was then. The human heart is as full of self and self-love now as it was then. We cannot pretend to be faithful to the living God and His word until we turn from this mass of idolatry that has swept and is sweeping through religious America and the world in the guise of church growth and graciousness to being willing to suffer and die for the truth of God. We have turned from God and the faithful proclamation of His word as the way to build churches in truth to man-centered methods that allow us to be gracious and live in ease. That is idolatry.

Holy Scripture describes with explicit language a main part of the ministry: “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. 29 “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 “Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears” (Acts 20:28-31). How can we claim to value the blood of Christ when we will not shepherd the church of God which was bought with that blood? In fact, the text tells us that it is the blood of God that bought the church. The idolatry that reigns in the hearts of ministers and leaders that will not shepherd the church of God in such a way to defend it from savage wolves cannot be measured according to human categories. Indeed those savage wolves are in sheep’s clothing and are very gracious and winsome, but in fact they are teaching things about God and the Bible that will cause spiritual destruction to the sheep of God in the way that the teeth of wolves cause physical destruction as they tear the flesh of lambs.

The Church of the living God that has been bought by His blood is not something that can be shepherded by men with idols in their hearts. If they do not truly love His glory, they will not truly love the sheep of His glory. If they believe that God is focused on them and wants what is best for them by their definition and idols, they will not watch over the sheep for the sake of the glory of God in truth. We must always remember that the Church is spiritual and there can be terrible destruction in spiritual things while all has the appearance of calm and good on the outside. When ministers and leaders have idols in their hearts, they are blinded by those idols to spiritual realities and see nothing but what is conducive to their idols. While they gaze on their idols in spiritual sleep or death the sheep are torn to pieces. This is the judgment of God and we must understand it to some degree.

Since Charles Finney the professing Church has been plagued by innovation in an effort to find numerical results. The professing Church in America is operating under many innovations rather than the word of God. There are many new innovations that are coming out and many more soon to come. It is true that many ministers and leaders will swallow those things whole in the name of God that fit with the idols of their hearts, but we must remember that Scripture tells us that people will kill those who love Christ in the name of God also. We live in perilous times while ministers have idols in their hearts and the sheep are being torn to shreds by gracious acting wolves that are nice and winsome and yet have spiritual death and destruction in their teeth. It is time for ministers and leaders to cry out to God for illumination of their own idols and for Him to grant us repentance. If not, we will continue our slide into the pit while thinking that God is pleased with us. We have already become like the world in the church and there is no need for the world to become like us. We follow their ideas of niceness, graciousness, and of how to love in a way that leaves sinners at ease. In doing so it leaves our own idols comfortable, intact, erect, and loved.

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God is Not Man-Centered

May 13, 2008

The term “God-centered” can have differing connotations to differing people. While one could probably do an entire thesis on the subject, I will try to keep this fairly short. I have contended in past posts that Reformed theology was historically God-centered. One could understand that as simply meaning that men are to be focused on God in what they do. For some, it might simply mean that man is to refer to God in all he does and do things with some thought of honoring God in what he does. That can lead a person who is still dead in his sins to thinking that he is doing good things for God. What I mean by the term, however, is that not only is man God-centered but God is God-centered. This is a Copernican revolution in theology once a person grabs a hold of this or rather is grabbed by it. Another way to state this is to say that God is the most God-centered being that exists. Yet another way to put it is that it is only when man is God-centered that he is being like God. It is perverted and wicked to have a theology that demands God to be like man in being man-centered and to judge Him and the Gospel according to how man loves himself.

There are those in the modern day who claim to be God-centered and yet end up with a man-centered view. Without naming names, I have heard one speaker who spoke of God very highly and used many verses about God. The reason that he spoke highly of God was for man-centered reasons. The result was that he ended up with a man-centered God, which in reality leads man to being man-centered as well in the final analysis. The claim that I am making here is that until we set out God as being God-centered we are essentially presenting a God who is man-centered. When we do that our theology may be Reformed in creed and yet miss the very heart of what Reformed theology has stood for. When people who are Reformed in name without the heart of Reformed theology, which is of a God who is God-centered, those people end up trying to be gracious to men rather than speaking the truth of God and in reality distort (at best) the Gospel of the glory of God.

At this point I want to be very plain. If we think of God only in terms of what He does for man, we have a different God than Scripture. When Reformed people have a God that is man-centered, they have a different core and god than their creeds and historical theology. They also have a different gospel than the Gospel that thundered forth from Luther and the Reformers during the time of the Reformation. Let us make no mistake about the real issue during the time of the Reformation. It was over the character of God. Certainly there were the vital issues over the authority in the Church as to whether it was the Pope and councils or Scripture. There was also the issue of justification by faith alone. But at the real heart of those issues is the very character of God and whether He is centered upon Himself and His own glory or whether He is man-centered. We have much the same issue today, though it is in different language. There are the issues of the New Perspective and of the theology of the Federal Vision movement, for example. The real issue behind those has to do with the character of God and of grace. We can argue about details in exegesis, but the real issue is over God and His focus and ultimate commitment.

“And by this rule one may try his own religion. If it began in a belief that God loved him, and had bestowed salvation upon him, etc., and all his religious joy and sorrow, and darkness and light, respect his own interest in God’s favor, etc., it has the appearance of false religion. He who comes to the knowledge of the truth fixes on something infinitely more important than self, and his own personal interest, as the object of his regard and pursuit. He from that moment devotes himself to the glory of God, and the greatest general good, in the advancement of his kingdom.”

The quote above is from Samuel Hopkins a student of Jonathan Edwards. Let us reflect upon this statement for a moment and see just how important something like this is for the heart of the Gospel. Does true repentance and regeneration just leave a person in the throes of love for self and now that person has help from God in his or her self-centeredness? No, we know from Scripture that the very focus of Christ and of His people in history has been the glory of God. A person that is left in the throes of self and of self-love has not repented of the very heart of sin and has not become like Christ who did all to the glory of God the Father. The Gospel of grace is glorious in that it transfers a person from the kingdom and dominion of darkness and places that person in the kingdom of the Beloved Son and of grace. A kingdom is the place where the reign of the king is. Christ is King in the hearts of His people and He works in them so that they will walk as He walked (I John 2:3-6). If a person has joy in his or her religion and it never goes beyond his or her selfish interests, even though it may be of heaven, that person is centered upon self and has not been saved from sin.

If it is true that Christ and His people are delivered from self to where their chief love and desire is for the glory of God in all that they do, and if it is true that a person is not delivered from self is not saved, then what does that tell us about God? Is the God who saves sinners from themselves in order to become God-centered Himself no different from unregenerate and unconverted sinners? The very height of sin is to be lovers of self (II Tim 3:2), which is men loving self rather than God. It is a horrible sin to love others and their opinions more than God and His “opinion.” Is God then a lover of men more than Himself? Is God more concerned about man’s opinions of Himself than of His own? Does God need to take a public opinion poll to decide how He should behave? No, the assertion of this post is that God is not like sinful man in being man-centered. Instead, God is God-centered and the true Gospel and true sanctification are about making man like God in being God-centered. When the Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached, it is about a God who is centered upon Himself and His own glory. When the Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached, the proclamation of repentance from self and to God and His glory is part of that. When the true Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached, man is left with no hope in himself and no hope that God will love him as he is. Instead God changes man from what he is to a person that loves God as God loves God. One can preach a doctrinally correct message about a gospel and miss the heart of the true Gospel. The true Gospel is all about a God who loves Himself and does all for His own glory. Without that, grace is graceless in reality.

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God-centeredness the Root of True Life

May 9, 2008

[Note: This post is the first in a new series called “Historical Reformed Theology.” To view all the posts in this series, you can use the links on the right under the Categories heading.]

The last few posts have been on how theology must be God-centered. This is the missing element in modern theology and biblical studies. It is the missing element of preaching and the function of the local church. It is the missing element in all that goes on. It is somewhat understandable to note the missing element of God-centeredness in society due to the fallen nature of man, but it is surprising to see the depths that the professing Church has fallen into man-centeredness as well. This is true of both Arminian and Reformed theology in our day. After all, the very word “theology” starts off with “theo” which is “theos” the Greek word for God. Theology is the study of God. It does not matter the branch of theology that is being studied, God is to be the center of that study. Indeed the old phrase of “the proper study of man is man” seems to have taken over in the modern professing Church. Instead of looking at man from God-centered studies, we look at God through man-centered studies. Instead of judging man by the truth of who God is, we try to study God through the lies about who man is. Without starting with God-centeredness in all things we end up with man-centeredness in all things.

For a while on this blog I have been trying to look at what people in history have said about Arminian theology. In the modern day Reformed theology has been so weakened that there does not appear to be much of a difference. That means that I had to go back in history to find out what people in centuries past thought of it. Now I would like to look at Reformed theology in light of its lack of God-centeredness. I will make a provocative assertion at this point. Reformed theology and Arminian theology can only meet at the point where and when both are man-centered. When Reformed theology is truly focused on God and is centered upon Him rather than man, the divide between the two cannot be surmounted. When Arminianism becomes God-centered, it is not longer Arminianism. Arminian theology cannot be maintained from a God-centered and God-oriented perspective. Reformed theology as set out, loved and practiced in the past was God-centered in all that it thought and did. These statements will be argued against quite strenuously, but it is something that is relatively self-evident. If a person, no matter how much s/he uses the name of God to buttress his or her argument, starts with man and argues about who God is in light of who man is, that person is a man-centered individual. Any person who holds to the creeds of Reformed theology and yet down deep is man-centered is truly Arminian if not Pelagian at heart. In our day external and creedal Reformed theology is being used to cover over Pelagian hearts. That is being said as one who thinks that creeds are important and should be used.

Another issue at hand is that we can speak much of God and of theology and yet have a central focus on man in what we are doing. Another way to state that is to say that we can use God’s name a lot and still be focused on man in the way we are speaking of God. The way we speak to human beings and the way we treat human beings can also reflect our true focus. No pastor, theologian or biblical scholar wants to admit being man-centered and so most if not virtually all will deny that s/he is that. The biblical scholar approaching the Bible from a scholarly position and wanting to determine what the text means according to scholarship is different than approaching the text as the Word of God and determining what it means in light of Scripture being the revelation of God. Even when a scholar says that s/he believes highly in the text that does not mean that the text is being dealt with as the very words of God and as the revelation of God Himself. The text must always be approached as God’s Word and as a revelation of God Himself and not just as being about a subject matter.

When a theologian or pastor is looking to write or preach, what is the core thing that s/he is looking for? Is it something to help people? Why does that person want to help people and what is it that will help people? Helping people can be idolatry too. If we approach the issue as if God is concerned about man as a man is concerned about man, we have just committed idolatry. Our hearts must be changed to where we want to help people out of love for and from God. We must have our mindsets and hearts changed to where we know that only if we are focused on the glory of God can we then truly help people to focus on the glory of God, which is true help. We can use Scripture God’s name in man-centered ways and commit idolatry in our conservative and gracious approach. For theology to be biblical and centered upon God it must realize that God is God-centered and all that is dealt with must be dealt with in that regard and with that in mind. Reformed theology can be nothing more than an intellectual way of approaching theology in man-centeredness without the God-centeredness of God in all things taken into account. Reformed theology can be using the name of God to hide our deceitful man-centered hearts from us. Without the God-centeredness of God as in the older Reformed theology, Pelagianism hides itself in deceitful hearts that focus on self in the guise of truth and Reformed theology. This is a horrible judgment of God.

Boiled down, we can put it this way: we can talk about God a lot and we can speak of Reformed theology in an intellectual way and even with much feeling without being truly God-centered in our approach. We can speak with great feelings of Christ and the Gospel in accordance with Reformed doctrine and creeds, and yet our hearts can be focused on man instead of God. We can speak glowingly of God according to accepted theology and still be focused on man in our hearts. After all, Scripture does tell us that we love those who love us. If we are deceived into thinking that God savingly loves us when He does not, we will have what we call love toward Him. Out of that mistaken love for God, which is nothing but a virulent form of self-love and idolatry, we can pursue a theology that is Reformed in its externals and yet be built on nothing but self. God-centeredness is not just another option in the modern buffet line of theology, it is life itself.

Posted in Historical Reformed Theology | 2 Comments »

The State of the Church, Part 18

May 8, 2008

In most articles I deal with a passage of Scripture and have it at the center. In this particular newsletter I am going to write in a general way. A more accurate way to say it would be that I have been reading Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea and I have also just spent two Sunday morning preaching from Isaiah 64:7. I have a burden on my soul and I am very concerned to see what is going on in the modern professing church and see it as a certain sign that the judgment of God is upon us. I cannot analyze everything and come up with precise causes, but I can simply tell you that according to the Word of God we are under His judgment and have been there for a long time. There is no way out of this judgment by our own works, morality or anything else we can do. We must seek the face of the Lord for broken hearts in order to truly seek His face for grace. The ministers in this land are not the cure; they are part of the problem. I am not just speaking of liberal “ministers,” but I am speaking of conservative ones as well. It is possible to be conservative and not be saved. It is possible to be conservative and be a Pharisee. It is possible to be a conservative and have a hard heart. It is possible to be a conservative and be under the judgment of God.

There is no place to hide but in the real Christ Himself and there is nothing we can do to remove this judgment. We are in the hands of a sovereign God. Indeed many claim to be Calvinists, but they minister and function as if God is not sovereign and can be manipulated. Our hearts are so hard and we are so blinded by programs and methods that we cannot see the judgment that is upon us. God has turned His face from us and has given us into the power of our own religious iniquity. Our best sermons, best works, and our best prayer meetings are as unclean to Him as a menstrual cloth was unclean and a ceremonial separation from God in the Old Testament. In biblical words, our works of righteousness are as filthy rags (Isa 64:6). What kind of life can dead sermons bring? A dead sermon can be very gracious and very active, but it does not have the life of the Spirit of God in it. A dead sermon can use the name “Christ” over and over and not preach Christ at all. A dead sermon can even speak much in words of the glory of God and yet not have the smallest amount of God at all in the sermon. A dead sermon can display marvelous exegetical prowess and have nothing of the life of God in it. One can analyze the text with great skill and miss the very glory of God in the text. We can preach our expositional sermons and speak of being good moral people and all the time speak nothing that has the life of God in the text and say nothing that the Spirit will use that will bring the life of God to the souls of the people.

We have all kinds of movements within the visible Church. There are evangelistic movements, movements for missions and programs along with movements for prayer and on and on. But where is the movement of God? We get people to say prayers and walk aisles by our charming words, but are they going to God? Where is He in all of that? We are able to get people motivated to buy and build buildings, but where is the movement of God? We have mistaken movements and religious activities for the blessings of God. We have turned mission trips into pious vacations. We have heated speaking (yelling) and call it true preaching. We have turned evangelism into church growth movements which have nothing to do with who Christ really is. Where should we look to see the problem? Instead of blaming others, we should look to Scripture and then our own hearts. It tells us the real problem and it tells us the real cure. If we do not understand the real problem, whatever we do will be like applying band aids to help the victims of the guillotine. We have got to understand that we cannot do one thing for the self-sufficient God in our own power. One of the most basic things we have forgotten today is that we cannot do anything for God that He cannot do for Himself and do it infinitely better.

We have started groups to stress Reformed theology. There can be conferences and much writing on Reformed theology and they can be carried out entirely apart from the life of God. Reformed theology can be nothing more than a historical movement or a theological slant without the life and love of God. It too can become nothing more than a replacement for the true God and a focus on husks instead of kernels. We have groups started up to stress various religious things. But where are the groups that have a heart for the glory of God? We have many conferences on programs and theology and this and that. Where are the conferences on prayer and seeking God? Perhaps there are some of these around, but these things would be talked about instead of actually done. Do ministers get together to pray these days? Getting together to offer up some words skyward is not prayer, but to actually seek the Lord is true prayer. What would it take to get ministers to come together to seek the Lord in prayer and truth? What would it take for the hearts of ministers to be broken in our day? What would it take for ministers to be broken from methods, programs, and themselves and to look to the glory of God in Christ alone?

In times past ministers came together to confess their sins and seek the Lord for His blessing. Today we come together wanting music that we like and someone to tickle our ears with our favorite theological issue. We want to go to a conference that is easy to get there and convenient in all ways while giving us free books and good deals on all sorts of other books and media materials. Could that be a way of shepherds feeding themselves rather than the people? But why don’t we go to seek God? While some of us blast ministers who tickle the ears of their people, we want that to happen to us at conferences. Going to conferences is such an easy thing and we can pretend to be spiritual while in reality we don’t have to deal with God while there. Instead of going to conferences on how to start churches and do this and that we need to come together to have the real Word of God driven like spears into our own hearts to show us our own idols and wickedness. Until ministers hear the Word of God as it is driven into their own souls and they are awakened to their own sins, how are they going to preach the truth to the people?

It may be true that conference organizers are afraid that no one will come and their conference will be a failure. So what! What we are doing now is at the very best a total failure in the sight of God and most likely just continuing on in our soothing of others and ourselves in our sins. A burdened soul will be sick of gracious, winsome and encouraging words and desire to hear someone declare the glory of God to his soul so that in His light his own blackness and then glory can be seen. We can pay any quack of a physician to tell us how healthy we are, but what we need is one who will tell us what is really wrong so that there is real help. Jesus came as a physician of souls and He only deals with those who are sick. We can listen to recordings of Robert Schuller and Joel Olsteen if we want to listen to heretics who will tell things that will make us feel good. What our souls need along with every other person in the world is to be awakened to the glory of God and to our sin. What our souls need is God Himself and not someone speaking soothing words that will continue the state of ice in our souls.

Pastors go to conferences and talk about how bad the sheep are. The sheep talk about how bad the pastors are. What we should be talking about is God Himself and His judgment upon us all. God judges churches by giving them inept pastors and He judges pastors by giving them a people with hard hearts and minds. Pastors and the staff are more concerned about their packages and salaries than the glory of God. We pursue higher degrees because they pay more. The pastorate is indeed a profession rather than a calling of God for others though we would not say that about ourselves. We have become a group of hirelings who are climbing ladders in the denominations for the good of our own honor and wallets rather than those who feed the sheep of the living God in the pursuit of His glory. We may not think of it in this way, but the Word of God needs to be applied to our hearts because we have modern methods and ways of committing idolatry that we are blinded to. How can we claim to be ministers of the living God while we come before Him and His people with idols in our hearts?

Pastoral searches resemble a beauty contest more than a group of people seeking the Lord for a man of God (not perfect) who desires to feed the sheep with the Word of God. The searches might have certain noble things about them, but people really want a CEO with a charismatic and charming personality as a hired gun to do the work for them. When the minister makes people uncomfortable, he is fired. Ministers understand that and so their greatest goal in life is to make people comfortable in their sin. We have forgotten that a minister is to be a man of God who knows God and proclaims the Word of God to the people in order to wake them up and to repent of their self-centered ways in order to pursue God in love and truth. The minister is to be first and foremost one who speaks for God to the people rather than doing what he can to make the people feel good about themselves. The minister is to be freed from other activities in order to seek the Lord in prayer and the Word and then teach the people of God to do the work of the ministry. But what we have instead are men who are paid to do the work and let the people sleep in their sins. This is judgment on both the people and the ministry.

The Word of God is quite plain in Isaiah 64:7: “There is no one who calls on Your name, Who arouses himself to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities.” What it tells us is that when no one is calling on His name (in truth and love) and who is arousing himself to take hold of God, then God has hidden His face from them and has delivered them into the power of their sins. We must remember that this was to the Israelites and they had continued on with their religious activities. The judgment of God in their case as well as ours is that it was the very religious actions that were as filthy rags (Isa 64:6). They were just continuing on in their religious actions oblivious to their idolatry and sin because the Lord had blinded them to it. Could that be happening in our day? Could that be happening in the SBC and other places? Do we see people broken for their sin as against God and seeking Him out of nothing but love for Him and His glory? Do we see people arousing themselves to take hold of the true God? I don’t think we see that at all, but instead we have religious action and that is also with the conservative and Reformed.

What we must understand is that the light of the countenance of the Lord is absent. Instead of increasing our programs and activities, we must repent of them as they are replacements for God. Instead of increasing the outward success of conferences, ministers need to be broken from self-centeredness and busyness in order to seek the Lord. If our churches are going to see true revival, then something like what happened in Scotland in 1596 must happen in our associations. A national Assembly of ministers met and a thorough catalogue was prepared of the sins of every class of persons. More space was given to the sins of ministers than to all the other classes of people put together. John Davidson preached on lying prophets and shepherds who feed themselves. Hundreds of ministers were broken and sobbed and cried before the Lord on the dirt floor. Until ministers repent of their idolatrous practices and sin, the people will remain in darkness and the judgment of God will remain upon us. Until the people repent, the Lord will judge them as false shepherds. Each of us must learn to cry out to the Lord for the grace of a broken heart and the grace to seek His face so that the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ will be seen and His light will shine in the churches to His glory.

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