C.H. Spurgeon – Free Grace

August 23, 2007

FREE GRACE NO. 233
DELIVERED ON SABBATH MORNING, JANUARY 9TH, 1859,
BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE MUSIC HALL, ROYAL SURREY GARDENS.

“Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.” – Ezekiel 36:32.

THERE are two sins of man that are bred in the bone, and that continually come out in the flesh. One is self-dependence and the other is self-exaltation. It is very hard, even for the best of men, to keep themselves from the first error. The holiest of Christians, and those who understand best the gospel of Christ, find in themselves a constant inclination to look to the power of the creature, instead of looking to the power of God and the power of God alone. Over and over again, Holy Scripture has to remind us of that which we never ought to forget, that salvation is God’s work from first to last, and is not of man, neither by man. But so it is, this old error – that we are to save ourselves, or that we are to do something in the matter of salvation – always rises up, and we find ourselves continually tempted by it to step aside from the simplicity of our faith in the power of the Lord our God. Why, even Abraham himself was not free from the great error of relying upon his own strength. God had promised to him that He would give him a son – Isaac, the child of promise. Abraham believed it, but at last, weary with waiting, he adopted the carnal expedient of taking to himself Hagar, to wife, and he fancied that Ishmael would most certainly be the fulfillment of God’s promise; but instead of Ishmael’s helping to fulfill the promise, he brought sorrow unto Abraham’s heart, for God would not have it that Ishmael should dwell with Isaac. “Cast out,” said the Scripture, “the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.” Now we, in the matter of salvation, are apt to think that God is tarrying long in the (page168) fulfillment of His promise, and we set to work ourselves to do something, and what do we do? Sink ourselves deeper in the mire and pile up for ourselves a store of future troubles and trials. Do we not read that it grieved Abraham’s heart to send Ishmael away? Ah! and many a Christian has been grieved by those works of nature which he accomplished with the design of helping the God of grace. Oh, beloved, we shall find ourselves very frequently attempting the foolish task of assisting Omnipotence and teaching the Omniscient One. Instead of looking to grace alone to sanctify us, we find ourselves adopting Philosophic rules and principles which we think will effect the Divine work. We shall but mar it; we shall bring grief into our own spirits. But if, instead thereof, we in every work look up to the God of our salvation for help, and strength, and grace, and succor, then our work will proceed to our own joy and comfort, and to God’s glory.

That error, then, I say is in our bone, and will always dwell with us, and hence it is that the words of the text are put as an antidote against that error. It is distinctly stated in our text that salvation is of God. “Not for your sakes do I this.” He says nothing about what we have done or can do. All the preceding and all the succeeding verses speak of what God does. “I will take you from among the heathen.” “I will sprinkle clean water upon you.” “I will give you a new heart.” “I will put my Spirit within you.” It is all of God: therefore, again recall to our recollection this doctrine, and give up all dependence upon our own strength and power. The other error to which man is very prone, is that of relying upon his own merit. Though there is no righteousness in any man, yet in every man there is a proneness to truth in some fancied merit. Strange that it should be so, but the most reprobate characters have yet some virtue as they imagine, upon which they rely. You will find the most abandoned drunkard pride himself that he is not a swearer… Human nature with regard to its own merit, is like the spider, it bears its support in its own bowels, and it seems as if it would keep spinning on to all eternity.

It is against all human merit that I am this morning going to speak, and I feel that I shall offend a great many people here. I am about to preach a doctrine that is gall and vinegar to flesh and blood, one that will make righteous moralists gnash their teeth, and make others go away and declare that I am an Antinomian, and perhaps scarcely fit to live. However, that consequence is one which I shall not greatly deplore, if connected with it there should be in other hearts a yielding to this glorious truth, and a giving up to the power and grace of God, who will never save us, unless we are prepared to let Him have all the glory.

I. I shall endeavor to EXPOUND THIS TEXT. “Not for your sakes do I this saith the Lord God.” The motive for the salvation of the human race is to be found in the breast of God, and not in the character or condition of man.

Two races have revolted against God – the one angelic, the other human… However, the God who in His infinite justice passed over angels, and suffered them forever to expiate their offenses in the fires of hell, was pleased to look down on man. Here was election on a grand scale; the election of manhood, and the reprobation of fallen angelhood. What was the reason for it? The reason was in God’s mind, an inscrutable reason which we do not know, and which if we knew probably we could not understand. Had you and I been put upon the choice of which should have been spared, I do think it probable we should have chosen that fallen (page 170) angels should have been saved. … But God, who doeth as He wills with His own, and giveth no account of His matters, but who
deals with His creatures as the potter deals with his clay, took not upon Him the nature of angels, but took upon Him the seed of Abraham, and chose men to be the vessels of His mercy. This fact we know, but where is its reason? Certainly not in man. “Not for your sakes do I this. O house of Israel, be ashamed and be confounded for your own ways.” Here, very few men object. We notice that if we talk about the election of men and the non-election of fallen angels, there is not a cavil for a moment. Every man approves of Calvinism till he feels that he is the loser by it; but when it begins to touch his own bone and his own flesh then he kicks against it. Come, then, we must go further. The only reason why one man is saved, and not another, lies not, in any sense, in the man saved, but in God’s bosom. The reason why this day the gospel is preached to you and not the heathen far away, is not because, as a race, we are superior to the heathen; it is not because we deserve more at God’s hands; His choice of
Britain, in the election of outward privilege, is not caused by the excellency of the British nation, but entirely because of His own mercy and His own love… Because it seem’d good in thy sight.”…

Now, in the great decree of election, the only reason why God selected the vessels of mercy must have been because He would do it. There was nothing in any one of them which caused God to choose them. We all were alike, all lost, all ruined by the fall; all without the slightest claim upon His mercy; all, in fact, deserving His utmost vengeance. His choice of any one, and His choice of all His people, are causeless, so far as anything in them was concerned. It was the effect of His sovereign will, and of nothing which they did, could do, or even would do; for thus saith the text: “Not for your sakes do I this, O house of Israel!”

As for the fruit of our election, in due time Christ came into this world, and purchased with His blood all those whom the Father hath chosen. Now come ye to the cross of Christ; bring this doctrine with you, and remember that the only reason why Christ gave up His life to be a ransom for His sheep was because He loved His people, but there was nothing in His people that made Him die for them. I was thinking as I came here this morning, if any man should imagine that the love of God to us was caused by anything in us, it would be as if a man should look into a well to find the springs of the ocean, or dig into an anthill to find an Alp. The love of God is so immense, so boundless and so infinite, that you cannot conceive for a moment that it could have been caused by anything in us. The little good that is in us – the no good that is in us – for there is none, could not have caused the boundless, bottomless, shoreless, summitless love which God manifests to His people. Stand at the foot of the cross, ye merit-mongers, ye that delight in your own works; and answer this question: Do you think that the Lord of life and glory could have been brought down from Heaven, could have been fashioned like a man, and have been led to die through any merit of yours? Shall these sacred veins be opened with any lancet less sharp than His own infinite love? Do you conceive that your poor merits, such as they are, could be so efficacious as to nail the Redeemer to the tree, and make Him bend His shoulders beneath the enormous load of the world’s guilt? You cannot imagine it.

After Christ’s death, there comes, in the next place, the work of the Holy Spirit. Those whom the Father hath chosen, and whom the Son has redeemed, in due time the Holy Spirit calls “out of darkness into marvelous light.” Now, the calling of the Holy Spirit is without any regard to any, merit in us. If this day the Holy Spirit shall call out of this congregation a hundred men, and bring them out of their estate of sin into a state of righteousness, you shall bring these hundred men, and let them march in review, and if you could read their hearts, you would be compelled to say, “I see no reason why the Spirit of God should have operated upon these. I see nothing whatever that could have merited such grace as this – nothing that could have caused the operations and motions of the Spirit to work in these men.” For, look ye here. By nature, men are said to be dead in sin. If the Holy Spirit quickens, it cannot be because of any power in the dead men, or any merit in them, for they are dead, corrupt and rotten in the grave of their sin. If then, the Holy Spirit says, “Come forth and live,” it is not because of anything in the dry bones, it must be for some reason in His own mind, but not in us. Therefore, know ye this, men and brethren, that we all stand upon a level. We have none of us anything that can recommend us to God; and if the Spirit shall choose to operate in our hearts unto salvation, He must be moved to do it by His own supreme love, for He cannot be moved to do it by any good will, good desire, or good deed, that dwells in us by nature.

it is simply and only because of God’s mercy. He is not moved to anything He does for you by anything that you do for Him; His motive for blessing you lies wholly and entirely in the depths of His own bosom. Blessed be God, His people shall be kept.

“Nor death, nor Hell shall e’er remove His favorites from His breast; In the dear bosom of His love They must forever rest.”

But why? Because they are holy? Because they are sanctified? Because they serve God with good works? No, but because he in his sovereign grace has loved them, does love them, and will love them, even to the end.
We shall feel that we did nothing, and that we were nothing, but that God did it all – that we had nothing in
us to be the motive of his doing it, but that His motive lay in Himself; therefore unto Him shall be every particle of the honor forever and ever. Now, this, I take it, is the meaning of the text; distasteful it is to the great majority, even of professing Christians in this age. It is a doctrine that requires a great deal of salt, or else few people will receive it. It is very unsavory to them. However, there It stands. “Let God be true, and every man a liar.” His truth we must preach, and this we must proclaim. Salvation is “not of men, neither by man; not of the will of the flesh, nor of blood,” nor of birth, but of the sovereign will of God, and God alone.

Why, if left to yourselves you will laugh at the message – despise it. It will glance off from you like an arrow from a man that is girt about with mail, and you will go away to despise God again, as you have done before. Do you not see, then, that if God ever shall save you, it cannot be for your sakes; but must be from His own infinite love; it cannot be from any other reason, since you have rejected Christ, despised His gospel, trodden under foot the blood of Jesus, and have refused to be saved. If He saves you, it must be free grace, and free grace alone.

Remember, then, this must be true: if God shall save thee, it must be because He will do it. It cannot be because there is anything good in thee, for thou deservedst now to die, and if He spare thee it must be sovereign love and sovereign grace.

III. And now, having thus preached this doctrine, and enforced it, I come to a very solemn PRACTICAL APPLICATION. And here may God the Holy Spirit help me labor with your hearts! First, since this doctrine is true, how humble a Christian man ought to be. If thou be saved, thou hast had nought to do with it; God has done it. If thou be saved, thou hast not deserved it. It is mercy undeserved which thou hast received…

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C.H. Spurgeon and Man’s Inability

August 21, 2007

In light of some of the confusion regarding what has been writte on this blog, the following are excerpts from a sermon by Charles Spurgeon regarding the doctrine of man’s inability. We will continue the review of Morris Chapman’s articles in the coming days.

HUMAN INABILITY. NO. 182
A SERMON DELIVERED ON SABBATH MORNING, MARCH 7TH, 1858,
BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON
AT THE MUSIC HALL, ROYAL SURREY GARDENS.

“No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him” -John 6:44.

Where there is not this coming to Christ, it is certain that there is as yet no quickening; where there is no quickening, the soul is dead in trespasses and sins, and being dead it cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. We have before us now an announcement very startling, some say very obnoxious. Coming to Christ, though described by some people as being the very easiest thing in all the world, is in our text declared to be a thing utterly and entirely impossible to any man, unless the Father shall draw him to Christ. It shall be our business, then, to enlarge (page 128) upon this declaration. We doubt not that it will always be offensive to carnal nature, but, nevertheless, the offending of human nature is sometimes the first step towards bringing it to bow itself before God. And
if this be the effect of a painful process, we can forget the pain and rejoice in the glorious consequences.
I shall endeavor this morning, first of all, to notice man’s inability, wherein it consists.

I. First, then, MAN’S INABILITY. The text says, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” Wherein does this inability lie. First, it does not lie in any physical defect…. Nor, again, does this inability lie in any mental lack. The defect, then, does not lie either in the body, or, what we are bound to call, speaking theologically, the mind. It is not any lack or deficiency there, although it is the vitiation of the mind, the corruption or the ruin of it, which, after all, is the very essence of man’s inability. Permit me to show you wherein this inability of man really does lie. It lies deep in his nature. Through the fall, and through our own sin, the nature of man has become so debased, and depraved, and corrupt, that it is impossible for him to come to Christ without the assistance of God the Holy Spirit.

…Now, the reason why man cannot come to Christ, is not because he cannot come, so far as his body or his mere power of mind is concerned; but because his nature is so corrupt that he has neither the will nor the power to come to Christ unless drawn by the Spirit. Coming to Christ is so obnoxious to human nature that, although, so far as physical and mental forces are concerned, (and these have but a very narrow sphere in salvation) men could come if they would: it is strictly correct to say that they cannot and will not unless the Father who hath sent Christ doth draw them. Let us enter a little more deeply into the subject, and try to show you wherein this inability of man consists, in its more minute particulars.

1. First it lies in the obstinacy of the human will. We assert that no man will come to Christ unless he be drawn; nay, we do not assert it, but Christ himself declares it – ‘Ye will not come unto one that-ye might have life;’
and as long as that ‘ye will not come’ stands on record in Holy Scripture, He shall not be brought to believe in any doctrine of the freedom of the human will.” It is strange how people, when talking about free will, talk of things which they do not at all understand “Now” says one, “I believe men can be saved if they will.” My dear sir, that is not the question at all. The question is, are men ever found naturally willing to submit to the humbling terms of the gospel of Christ? We declare, upon Scriptural authority, that the human will is so desperately set on mischief,- so depraved, and so inclined to everything that is evil, and so disinclined to everything that is good, that without the powerful, supernatural, irresistible influence of the Holy Spirit, no human will ever be constrained towards Christ. With common consent, all believers affirm the truth, that men will not come to Christ till the Father who hath sent Christ doth draw them.

And again, we repeat it, until these affections be renewed, and turned into a fresh channel by the gracious drawings of the Father, it is not possible for any man to love the Lord Jesus Christ

4. Yet once more, –conscience too, has been overpowered by the fall… Or if conscience did do that, did it ever lead any man to feel an abhorrence of sin as sin? In fact, did conscience ever bring a man to such a self-renunciation, that he did totally abhor himself and all his works and come to Christ? No, conscience, although it is not dead, is ruined its power is impaired, it hath not that clearness of eye and that strength of hand and that thunder of voice, which it had before the fall; but hath ceased to a great degree, to exert its supremacy in the town of Mansoul. Then, beloved, it becomes necessary for this very reason, because conscience is depraved, that the Holy Spirit should step in, to show us our need of a Savior, and draw us to the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Still,” says one, “as far as you have hitherto gone, it appears to me that you consider that the reason why men do not come to Christ is that they will not, rather than they cannot.” True, most true. I believe the greatest reason of man’s inability is the obstinacy of his will… My text does not say, “No man will come,” but it says, “No man can come.” Now, many interpreters believe that the can here, is but a strong expression conveying no more meaning than the word will. I feel assured that this is not correct. There is in man, not only unwillingness to be saved, but there is a spiritual powerlessness to come to Christ; and this I will prove to every Christian at any rate…

Now, if the quickened child of God finds a spiritual inability how much more the sinner who is dead in trespasses and sin? If even the advanced Christian, after thirty or forty years, finds himself sometimes willing and yet powerless – if such be his experience, – does it not seem more than likely that the poor sinner who has not yet believed, should find a need of strength as well as a want of will? But, again, there is another argument. If the sinner has strength to come to Christ, I should like to know how we are to understand those continual descriptions of the sinner’s state which we meet with in God’s holy Word? Now, a sinner is said to be dead in trespasses and sins. Will you affirm that death implies nothing more than the absence of a will? Surely a corpse is quite as unable as unwilling. Or again, do not all men see that there is a (page 134) distinction between will and power: might not that corpse be sufficiently quickened to get a will, and yet be so powerless that it could not lift as much as its hand or foot? Have we never seen cases in which persons have been just sufficiently re-animated to give evidence of life, And have yet been so near death that they could not have performed the slightest action? Is there not a clear difference between the giving of the will and the giving of power? It is quite certain, however, that where the will is given, the power will follow. Make a man willing, and he shall be made powerful, for when God gives the will, he does not tantalize man by giving him to wish for that which he is unable to do; nevertheless he makes such a division between the will and the power, that it shall be seen that both things are quite distinct gifts of the Lord God.

Then I must ask one more question: if all that were needed to make a man willing, do you not at once degrade the Holy Spirit? Are we not in the habit of giving all the glory of salvation wrought in us to God the Spirit? But now, if all that God the Spirit does for me is to make me willing to do these things for myself, am I not in a great measure a sharer with the Holy Spirit in the glory? And may I not boldly stand up and say, “It is true the Spirit gave me the will to do it, but still I did it myself, and therein will I glory; for if I did these things myself without assistance from on high, I will not cast my crown at his feet; it is my own crown, I earned it, and I will keep it.” Inasmuch as the Holy Spirit is evermore in Scripture set forth as the person who worketh in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure, we hold it to be a legitimate inference that he must do something more for us than the mere making of us willing, and that therefore there must be another thing besides want of will in a sinner – there must be absolute and actual want of power.

I thought I could come one day as well as another; that I had only to say, ‘Lord, have mercy upon me,’ and believe, and then I should be saved. Now you have taken all this hope away for me, sir; I feel amazement and horror taking hold upon me.” Again, I say, “My dear friend, I am very glad of it. This was the effect which I hoped to produce. I pray that you may feel this a great deal more. When you have no hope of saving yourself, I shall have hope that God has begun to save you. As soon as you say ‘Oh, I cannot come to Christ. Lord, draw me, help me,’ I shall rejoice over you. He who has got a will, though he has not power, has grace begun in his heart, and God will not leave him until the work is finished.” But, careless sinner, learn that thy salvation now hangs in God’s hand. Oh, remember thou art entirely in the hand of God. Thou hast sinned against him, and if he wills to damn thee, damned thou art. Thou canst not resist his will nor thwart his purpose. Thou hast deserved his wrath, and if he chooses to pour the full shower of that wrath upon thy head, thou canst do nothing to revert it. If, on the other hand, he chooses to save thee, he is able to save thee to the very uttermost. But thou liest as much in his hand as the summer’s moth beneath thine own finger. He is the God whom thou art grieving every day. Doth it not make thee tremble to think that thy eternal destiny now hangs upon the will of him whom thou hast angered and incensed? Dost not this make thy knees knock together, and thy blood curdled If it does so I rejoice, inasmuch as this may be the first effect of the Spirit’s drawing in thy soul. Oh, tremble to think that the God whom thou hast angered, is the God upon whom thy salvation or thy condemnation entirely depends. Tremble and “kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way while his wrath is kindled but a little.”

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Beatitudes 39: Peace 1

August 17, 2007

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:8)

We have reached the last beatitude that we will deal with. This should take a few weeks as there are several issues that need to be dealt with. First, however, we need to try to clear the air and ask what kind of peace is being spoken of here. The United Nations seems to think that peace between the nations is what is being thought of here. Liberals within external Christianity seem to think that outward peace is the issue as well. But we must realize that Scripture must speak on its own terms and this beatitude will only make sense in light of Scripture as a whole.

What kind of peace is spoken of here? It could be peace between nations, peace between friends, peace in the church, or perhaps peace with God. Without trying to make an argument as to which one this text is speaking of directly, I will simply set out that if there is no peace with God there is no true peace with anything or anybody else. Peace with God is required for there to be true peace at any point in the whole of life. Therefore, I will argue that we cannot even speak of peace in any other way apart from having peace with God in reality.

In Scripture the big issue is that people hate God and are at war with Him. That means that people are at war with others made in His image, so they go around hating and being hated. To speak of being a peacemaker presupposes that people are at war in some way. Until people are reconciled to God, they will not really be reconciled with each other. It is laughed at in the world when it is said that unbelievers hate God and human beings made in His image. It is laughed at in the church when it is said that unbelievers hate God and human beings made in His image. It is hard to imagine these outwardly nice people hating God, but in truth when a person does not love God that person hates Him. Let me list several verses that will show this position.

Colossians 1:21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death.

Tit 3:3 4 we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts & pleasures, spending our life in malice & envy, hateful, hating one another

James 4:4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Rom 8:7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Romans 5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

John 15:23 “He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.

2 Tim 3:4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God

Romans 1:30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,

Psalm 81:15 “Those who hate the LORD would pretend obedience to Him, And their time of punishment would be forever.

John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.

Exodus 20:5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
Deuteronomy 7:10 but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.

Deute 32:41 If I sharpen My flashing sword, And My hand takes hold on justice, I will render vengeance on My adversaries, And I will repay those who hate Me.

While it may be hard to accept or believe that men hate God and human beings in His image, it is hard if not impossible to deny that Scripture teaches this. One may reject Scripture because it teaches this, but it does teach this without apology and without watering it down. But back to the issue at hand which is the beatitude concerning peace. All of these verses give demonstrable and irrefutable evidence that Scripture shows that unbelievers hate God and human beings made in His image. It is in this light that the real intent of this particular beatitude becomes clear. The real peacemaker is one that is an instrument of making peace with God and other human beings.

A true peacemaker, then, is one that has the Gospel. No matter how nice a person is and how good a person is at helping people who are at odds with each other, that person is not a peacemaker in the biblical sense if she or he does not have the Gospel. True peace is only found when one has peace with God. True peace between human beings is only found where there is peace with God first. We will never be at peace with God until we love what He loves and seek what He seeks. The world is His and all things in it. We will never have true peace with other human beings until we are seeking the same things with them either. Until both sides have peace with God there will be no true peace with each other because no two people will ever truly seek the same thing with the same motivations unless they are seeking God and His glory out of love.

One cannot really be a broker of peace until one brings people to God. There can be no real peace until we lay down our weapons of pride, self, and selfishness. Then Christ is in the heart and is the umpire or ruler. Then people have the same Umpire instead of a different one. It is hard for there to be real peace when people do not have the same love and the same Umpire. We must not be people who cry “peace, peace” when there is no peace. We must not be people that settle for a cheap peace when people have not thrown down their weapons of pride, self, and self-centeredness. Within this beatitude there are lessons for true evangelism as well. The practice of true evangelism is the practice of being a peacemaker.

The list of Scriptures given above should impress upon us the real issue in peacemaking and evangelism. It is not that people have done a little wrong here and there, but that they are enemies of God. It is not just that they have violated a law by a little, but in breaking the holy laws of God they have hated God and demonstrated that they are His enemies. It is a vital issue to get the fact that people hate God and are His enemies across to them. Sure that will mean less people will want to listen to us when there are times without revival and true spiritual understanding, but it will also mean that less people will be deceived. It seems that many of God’s enemies are running loose on the earth today believing that they have peace with God while they act with hatred for Him. They are also running around teaching a false gospel and convincing others that they have peace with God too. It is vital to get this issue across.

It is important to understand what two things keep people from seeing that they hate God. First, people will not understand that they hate God until they understand something of the character and glory of God. Second, people will not understand that they hate God until they understand the doctrine of original sin and the doctrine of the nature of sin. Without some understanding of these things people will go on in their blindness about who God is and about who they are. They will walk around in their hatred of God living in enmity toward God all the while thinking that they have peace with God and are living in holiness to some degree.

Those who are peacemakers, interestingly enough, must start off with telling people who the God they hate really is. Then they must describe to people who they really are. Teaching these issues can be enough to show people that they don’t like you and don’t like what you teach. Instead of taking this personally, we need to understand that people who hate God do not want to see what He is really like. They also, being people who love themselves instead of God, do not want to see what they are really like. However, to be a true peacemaker that loves God and others we must teach these things. There can be no other way to true peace and there is no other way to believing the good news of peace.

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Beatitudes 38: Seeing God 7

August 14, 2007

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8)

This is the last article on this beatitude. We have looked at several things regarding purity of heart and what it means to see God. This week the focus will be on growing in our vision of seeing God and motives to seek the sight of His glory. With that in mind, let’s remind ourselves that the blessedness that is spoken of is the sight of God and the soul’s taste of God. We must desire God for Himself rather than thinking that we can pursue God for a blessedness other than Himself. To put this a different way, if we are going to pursue a growth in our vision of God, we need to make sure that we are pursuing God for God. If we are going to pursue God, we need to check our motives in what we do. If our motives are wrong, we are trying to use God to obtain something we love more than God.

The first thing to understand is that to see God we must have a pure heart. Cleaning up the outward person is not a bad thing, but what Jesus taught us is that it is what comes out of the heart that defiles us. No matter how much we clean and apply whitewash to a tomb, inside that tomb are death and bones. We must never mistake outward morality with a clean heart. That is exactly one of the errors that the Pharisees fell into. It is the inward person that we must primarily deal with and that will take prayer and meditation. It will take much self-examination and much dwelling in the sight of His glory which transforms us into His image. It will take much prayer, humility, and brokenness to be cleansed and for Christ to dwell in the heart with glory. That point must be burned and driven into our inward person so that we may look at the depths of our hearts. It takes a pure heart to see God and that is far different than just outwardly moral behavior.

Two, we must know seek to be done with sin in all ways. Jesus says to cut off the hand and foot and even to pluck out the eye. Without going into what that means, we know that it means that we are to cut to the depths of our being in order to repent of sin. We must seek to be done with sin of the body and of the heart. Whatever it is that displeases our God, we must be done with it and that at all costs. If it is what the older writers called a darling sin or a beloved sin, then that is something that we are not repenting of and so love it more than God. If we truly desire God, we must repent of all known sin and then any sin that the Lord reveals to us. Jesus said to deny ourselves (Luke 9:23ff) which is to deny anything of the self and take up the cross as a slave of Christ to follow Him.

Three, we should seek a devoted heart to God. While we must flee from sin, we must realize that this cannot be truly done apart from pursuing God Himself. If we are not pursuing God, we are leaving one sin for another sin. It has been said that we should be too full of God to pursue sin. II Timothy 2:22 gives us this principle: “Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” A proper fleeing from sin is only done when we are pursuing God. Notice that this also includes a pure heart. There is no pursuing true faith, love and peace without a pure heart or without growing in the purity of heart. But our hearts must be fully devoted to God and not the world if we are going to truly pursue the sight of God and His glory.

Four, we cannot see the glory of God apart from Christ. Last week I tried to set out the truth that we will never see God’s glory apart from seeing Him in Christ. There is no other way. However, there are many ways of being sidetracked from this. We are told that God can be seen by reason or by moral issues. We are told that the glory of God can be seen in other religions. Without disputing that entirely since God’s glory is seen in all things in some way, there is no way to the Father but through Christ. We must never get away from the basic truth that God is to be sought through Christ and cannot be seen in truth apart from Christ. As Jesus in John 17 tells us, He manifested the name of the Father to men: 5 “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. 6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.” We must continually study the Person and works of Christ in the hope that the Spirit will open our eyes to the glory of God in all of His ways and attributes.

Five, it is not that we can earn the sight of God by our scholarly actions in the pursuit of an academic knowledge of Christ. No, all that we do must be done in prayer for the work of the Holy Spirit in this. No man can understand the things of God unless God shows Himself to that man. God alone reserves the right to open the hearts and eyes of men so that they may see Him and His glory. I Corinthians 2 sets out the truth of this for us: 10 “For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God.” We must seek the sight of the glory of God in total dependence upon the Spirit. He alone can reveal the thoughts of God and God has given the Spirit in order to show men His glory.

Six, we must understand that we must have strong cravings for this, though those are also the work of grace in the heart. The writers of the Psalms spoke of the longing soul as one that craved God as a deer in the wilderness would pant for water (Psalm 42:1-4). They also spoke of the lovingkindness of God as being better than life itself (Psalm 63:3). We must learn that this is the true language of love. If we are to love God with all of our being, then we must seek God for love in order to love Him. There must be the craving and aching of the soul in its desire and pantings after God. But this cannot be worked up, it must come by grace. We must look at our little desires after God and begin to cry out to Him for greater desires. It is not until we ache and long with strong cravings will we begin to see more of His glory. God does not reveal Himself to those who are lukewarm.

Seven, we must preach to ourselves and others that there is nothing greater in life or in eternity than the blessedness of seeing God. We are surrounded with the world and the things of the world, but we must tell ourselves constantly that those things will perish and we must know God and we must see God. This sight of God is the blessedness of the Beatitudes. It is in this that we will find true happiness which is to share in the joy of God. It is in this sight and taste of God that we find life that is truly life or the abundant life. We must preach to ourselves and pursue purity of heart because there no thing in the world is worth more than a glimpse of the glory of God. God alone can fill the soul with that which satisfies it because He alone created the soul and He created it where it could not be filled with anything but Himself. There are the deceptions and lies of sin and the world, but the greatest blessedness is the sight of God.

Eight, we need to tell ourselves that when we follow the lusts of the flesh and eyes we are given over to sin. When we choose those things we are trading the sight of God which is what is best for the soul for sin which is the very worst for the soul. When we are given over to selfishness or coveting we are actually pouring filth on the heart which is like throwing dirt on our spiritual glasses. When our glasses or hearts are covered with filth, we have no way or seeing the glory of God. What we are doing, then, is exchanging the glory of God for idols. Oh how we need to look at the depths of our hearts and our motives in this. We may always rationalize and excuse our sin, but we need to fight through that and realize that our hearts are motivated by the very things that God hates and that Christ died for. Christ died in order to give us the knowledge of God and we go out and do the things that hide the sight of the glory of God.

Nine, we need to remind ourselves that heaven awaits all who have a pure heart, a sight of God, and then those that love that sight of God. What is heaven but to see His glory and to have Him shining His glory in and through us? What can heaven be but a filling of our souls with a sight and taste of His ravishing glory? We must also tell ourselves and others that if we truly don’t desire a sight of the glory of God now, what makes us think that heaven will be a place that we would enjoy? Heaven is a place where God alone shines and His glory alone fills all that are there in all of their being. Those in heaven are filled with the love of God which gives them a love for God and they re ravished with Him. If we don’t long for a sight of God now, heaven would be an awful place. Yet the rewards that we seek are not monetary riches, but a greater sight of God. What we are to work for on earth is a greater sight of God now and also for eternity. Jonathan Edwards pictured our time on earth as developing a capacity for heaven. When we arrive in heaven we will be filled with the love of God to our capacity. That should motivate us to pursue God now.

Ten, the doctrine of hell should motivate us too. People in hell will see God to their eternal displeasure. They will never have a pleasant view of God, but instead the God they hated on earth will fill the sight of their soul with His perfect justice, holiness, and wrath. The more of God they see the more they will hate Him. This should motivate us to seek a true sight of the glory of God from pure hearts always remembering that people earn hell from their works while those in heaven obtain all that they have by grace. We must run the race with endurance fixing our eyes on Jesus, yet knowing it is all by grace. There is nothing but unpleasant things if we do not obtain pure hearts by grace in order to see and taste of His glory. There is nothing but glory beyond our present conception if by grace we obtain pure hearts and a sight of God. What do you really love? Your pursuit of a pure heart or of the world (though maybe in a religious way) will show you the true nature of your soul and eternal destiny. Don’t be deceived.

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In Pursuit of the True Gospel, Part 21 – Words and their Meanings

August 6, 2007

There is at least one other question that must be dealt with, or at least dealt with a little more fully. What of those who claim to be saved by faith alone through grace alone? In the modern day we are willing to accept people as brothers in Christ based solely on the fact that they say they believe in justification by faith alone or that they say that they believe they are saved by grace alone. While this appears to be a charitable way to treat others, it is not the most loving way we can treat them and it is certainly not the most honoring to Christ.

Let us say that a person applies for church membership. That person gives lip service to the Gospel as stated. Do we then simply allow the person to join? I certainly hope not. We want to see if the life of the person fits with his or her profession and what the person means by the words. People can profess the Gospel and simply be deceived. People can profess the Gospel and not know what the words really mean. If we allow that as possible and, in fact, happening on a regular basis, shouldn’t we be more careful of those we say we want unity with? Shouldn’t we be more careful of those we receive as brothers and speak of glowingly in public?

Just because a person says that he is saved by grace means virtually nothing today. Roman Catholics and Antinomians believe that too. But the word is defined differently and the concept is a different idea in virtually every way. Does the Arminian mean the same thing as the Reformed person when he says that he is saved by grace alone? It is possible that a professing Arminian and a professing Reformed person do mean the same thing. However, if one person truly holds to the Arminian system and the second truly holds to the Reformed system, the two must mean something different. It is even possible to be mostly Pelagian and still use the same language.

The real issue is what Scripture says about being saved by grace and whether or not the person holds to that. We must never seek unity that is apart from the Gospel of grace and grace alone. Even if a person professes a Gospel like that, it does not mean in and of itself that the person really believes in the biblical Gospel. There are also differing conceptions of what justification by faith alone means. That is, a person can profess a belief in justification by faith alone and still not believe the Gospel. Many people are raised up with the facts of the Gospel and so they will profess to being saved by grace through faith without knowing what that means or ever having a change of heart.

Before the hand of fellowship should be extended in doctrinal unity around the Gospel we must make clear what the Bible teaches, what we mean by that, and then what others mean by it. Men can go around speaking highly of other people when they in fact do not even hold to the same Gospel even though they use the same language about the Gospel. We must first be clear about what the Gospel really is and then deal with others. Those who are Reformed must not simply take the word of man that others hold to a true understanding of justification by faith alone. By that I mean that we should not assume that professing Reformed people hold to a biblical teaching and we should not assume that professing Arminians hold to the biblical Gospel either. There will be some who are Reformed in name who in reality hold to the Arminian teaching and perhaps some who are closer to the Pelagian system. There will be some who profess to be Arminian but might actually be Reformed while some are most likely Pelagian. Let us not hold to a unity of words while the Gospel is not begging.

We live in very dangerous times. The Word of God is said to be inerrant but is not treated as the Word of God. Many people claim to believe in justification by faith alone but have no idea what is really meant by that. To be frank and to the point, I have heard conferences on justification by faith alone by Reformed men and did not hear the core issues dealt with.

Romans 3:24-31: “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. 28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. 31 Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.”

Some deny the utter freeness of grace by asserting free-will and others assert that grace does not establish the Law. We must get clear on these things to agree in truth. If we cannot agree on these things, we do not believe the same Gospel. It is by grace and nothing but grace.

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In Pursuit of the True Gospel, Part 20 – The State of the SBC

August 4, 2007

Without attempting to water things down, it is my belief that the SBC is in big trouble as a denomination in terms of the truth and Gospel of the living God. For years the SBC was liberal in its leadership and institutions. That was a horrid thing. There was then the conservative resurgence and now they have control. But what do they have control of? What was the heart of the conservative resurgence? Wasn’t it a battle over inerrancy and moral issues? Was it ever a battle over the Gospel? In other words, the resurgence was not the same thing as the Reformation. It was simply a conservative resurgence. That is not the same thing as a fight for the Gospel. It is not even close.

Liberalism is not Christianity and is not even a version of it. It is a denial of Christianity and nothing short of it. Let us not be so tolerant and gracious to declare that. But what teaching has replaced Liberalism in the offices and other positions of leadership? Has it been a thorough return to the Gospel of grace? We have seen many efforts at evangelism of some sort and baptism. Matthew 23:15 tells us that one can give a great effort at evangelism and it does nothing but condemn both the evangelizer and the one evangelized: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” A great effort at evangelism is not a good thing if one does not have the Gospel which alone truly converts. Could it be that many conservatives have a false gospel and as such their converts are made into sons of hell too?

Without question virtually every leader in the SBC is Arminian. What does that mean in light of what the pioneer Reformers wrote during the Reformation? Arminianism [semi-Pelagianism] was seen to be a rejection of NT Christianity and in a sense a return to NT Judaism “for to rely on oneself for faith is no different in principle from relying on oneself for works, and the one is as un-Christian and anti-Christian as the other” (Bondage of the Will, p. 59). What would Luther think of the SBC? Am I attacking the SBC? I don’t think that I am, but I am pointing out that there needs to be a real Reformation and not just a conservative resurgence.

When Luther took up his pen in writing the Bondage of the Will, he said that he took up his pen in order to stand for grace. Reformed theology takes its stand on the five sola’s of the Reformation because all those points are closely linked to the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is grace alone. The five sola’s did not come out of nothing; but all were points that were all about the main issue and that was the Gospel. The doctrine of free-will is virulently opposed to the doctrine of grace alone and Christ alone and at some point all the sola’s of the Reformation. Can Arminian theology really be that which a modern Reformation can be built upon?

Evangelism and total depravity are teachings which cannot be separated which means that evangelism and the bondage of the will cannot be separated. Just because someone does what they call “evangelism” does not mean that they are proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Just because someone is getting people to pray a prayer and then be baptized does not mean that those people are converted. Evangelism is founded in doctrine and cannot happen without it. Without the true Gospel there will be no true evangelism. If the doctrine of man’s total depravity is true, then we cannot approach man as if he still has a spark of life in him. If the doctrine of depravity is true, then man is indeed dead in sin and in bondage to sin. That changes everything about evangelism. Those who do not really believe man is dead and in bondage to sin will not evangelize people in the same way than will those who believe those things are true. If a person is dead and in bondage to sin, that person must be made alive by the grace of God and delivered from the bondage to the devil. Those who deny that will teach a person that s/he needs to make a choice to be saved. Those two positions teach a different Gospel.

The SBC is still in a war for its soul though many think that the war has been won. It has not been won and perhaps it has hardly even started. Until men will deal honestly with the souls of others in evangelism, baptism, church membership and discipline, have we really dealt with the primary issues? Liberalism is an obvious departure from the Gospel. Conservative teaching is not so obvious which makes it more deceptive. Can we love the truth and grace of God with our whole being and then be tolerant of those that deny the truth and grace of God whether liberal or conservative? The SBC can survive for years as a conservative, religious institution without the Gospel. The Pharisees sure did. It might survive with a group of people calling themselves “Reformed” in it as well. That would be a deceptive unity. What must happen is for God to break some from love for anything but Himself and begin to teach the real Gospel. The kingdom and the Gospel will continue with or without the SBC.

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Beatitudes 37: Seeing God 6

August 2, 2007

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8)

Last week we looked at how it is a sovereign God that must open our eyes to see and also to shine His glory in our hearts. In other words, it is not that we are to pursue a pure heart and think that it is something we can work up to merit a sight of God. Seeing God is the work of His grace in the hearts of His people. God alone can cleanse the heart by faith and God alone can sanctify the soul by His continued and sustaining grace. While human beings are to seek a pure heart, they are to seek it by way of grace and not by works or merit. It is much the same thought of Augustine who said that God rewards His grace with more grace. Believers never obtain anything spiritually beneficial from God based on anything but grace. We are saved by grace, cleansed by grace, and then enter and enjoy glory by grace.

This week we will look at the lens we need to see God. The real lens that we must have to see God is Jesus Christ. It is true that the Spirit must illuminate our minds and the Word, but the lens that needs to be focused in order to bring in the sight of God with sharpness and clarity is Jesus Christ. There is no sight of the true and living God in His beauty and glory apart from Christ. It is true that unbelievers know God and see something of God. What they see should give them nothing but sheer terror, though it is true that they have suppressed the knowledge of God so far that they are no longer afraid and have the idea that He is something like a God of love that they have imagined and worked up in an effort to suppress the truth of God.

We will start off with John 1:14 and how it explains this truth to us: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The eternal Logos, the Word, took human flesh to Himself. In this, then, what the text is teaching is that the divine Person took flesh and in that flesh the eternal Logos is said to tabernacle or dwell. The fleshly body of Jesus Christ was the very tabernacle of God. It was through that flesh that all who were there were seeing something of God, but those that had eyes to see saw the very glory of God. That glory was a glory full of grace and truth. That is exactly what Moses saw when God shined forth His glory in response to the cry of Moses to see His glory. Exodus 33:18 has the cry of Moses and verse 19 has God’s response: “Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!”19 And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.”

What God was telling Moses was that He would show Moses His glory. That glory consisted of grace. In Exodus 34 we see what happened when God came down and shone forth His glory to Moses: 5 “The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD. 6 Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” In this text the Lord adds the word “truth” to what He shows to Moses. Without any real question, then, the glory of God in the book of Exodus is the glory that shone forth in Christ in the New Testament. However, in the New Testament the glory of God takes on a different luster. We are now enabled to see the glory of the Lord in action in a different way in the life of Christ.

John 1:18 leaves no doubt as to how one comes to know God: “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” It is only through Christ that God is explained and seen. While Moses saw God in one sense, the text goes on to tell us that “no one has seen God at any time.” In some way, then, Christ explains the Father and gives His people a sight of God that is superior to what Moses saw. In fact, in Hebrews 1 we are told that God had spoken or revealed Himself in many ways in former times. But now in Christ He has spoken in a new and different way. It is in Christ that God has shined forth His glory because Christ is the shining forth of His glory. “1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. 3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.” One must see the glory of God in Christ to get a true sight of God in His glory.

John 14:4-12 teaches us the same thing in a different way. “And you know the way where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” Here Jesus is clearly teaching that He is the only way to the Father. But what does He mean by that in this context? Indeed there is no way to the Father apart from the cross and resurrection of Christ, but is that what He means in this text? Again, we must remember back to Exodus 33-34 that we mentioned earlier. God shone forth His glory in grace and truth to Moses. Here we see that Christ is the way to the Father. He is the way of understanding the Father and the only way to love the Father. He is also the truth in the sense that He is the truth of and about the Father. He alone has explained who God really is. He is also the life in the sense that apart from Him there is no life of God in the soul of human beings. Christ is the only way to the Father because He is the truth of God and the life of God. No one will ever see the glory of God apart from Christ because they will not have the truth or life of God apart from Him.

Jesus continues on in verses 7-11 to verify the interpretation given above: “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” 8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father ‘? 10 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. 11 “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.” What powerful and searching words. What He said was that if Philip had really and truly known Him he would have seen the Father. To truly know Christ is to know the Father and in fact is the only way to know the Father. Christ was saying that both His words and His works were in reality the Father speaking and working through Him.

We see these words in terms of the Gospel and of eternal life from John 17:3: “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” This gives us more insight from John 14:6-11. Not only is Jesus Christ truth and eternal life and not only does one have to know Christ to know the Father and the way to the Father, but it is in knowing the true God through Christ that one has eternal life. Jesus tells us there that eternal life is to know the only true God. But we cannot know that God apart from Jesus Christ who is the truth of God and the life of God. There is no escaping the basic and foundational truth that God can only be seen and known through Christ. Jesus Christ is the very outshining of the glory of God and the very explanation of God. How can anyone claim to know or see God apart from Christ? People do claim it but they are quite deceived.

What we must see, therefore, is that the blessing of the sight of God is only found in Christ. If we want this blessedness promised in the Beatitudes we will never find it by seeking it by works or in any other way than through Christ. It is the glory of God that makes the soul blessed and not some sight of the physical eyes. While God can manifest Himself in physical ways if He so desired as He did in the Old Testament, He has given us the perfect sight of Himself in Jesus Christ. We are to look for no greater sight of God than found in Christ. While God is “eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever” (I Timothy 1:17), He is visible in one sense in Jesus Christ. It is Christ who is the perfect “image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15) and so we do not need pictures, idols, or anything else to see God in His glory. To see God is to see Him in Christ and Christ alone.

Seeing God is an immediate understanding of God’s glorious excellencies. We cannot give others or ourselves a sense of the beauty and delightfulness of God in His holiness. Rather than giving it to ourselves it is an understanding of His love and an apprehension of His presence in Christ. We see in the Old Testament that it is a blessed thing to see the face of God. In the New Testament it is in the face of Christ that we see the glory of God. Man might think that this sight is speculative and notional, but it is far more than that. It is the sense of the heart; the sense of beauty, sweetness, amiableness and delight in the presence of the glory of God. The difference is between reading in a dictionary about chocolate and then tasting it. In Christ by grace we can taste it. The way of obtaining spiritual sight is a pure heart. A pure heart is humble because God gives grace to the humble. We must be humble not to rest in our own wisdom and pursue the knowledge of God in the foolishness of Christ and His cross. Humility is necessary because a humble heart will not want knowledge to lift up itself with and God will not give His glory to another but focuses that glory and access to the sight of that glory in and through Christ. In Christ and by the indwelling Christ we see and taste the blessedness of His glory. That is the sight of the soul and the experience of eternal life.

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In Pursuit of the True Gospel, Part 19 – Deceptive Appearances of Unity

August 2, 2007

In the Historical Introduction to Luther’s Bondage of the Will the writers say this: “These things need to be pondered by Protestants to-day. With what right may we call ourselves children of the Reformation? Much modern Protestantism would be neither owned nor even recognized by the pioneer Reformers. The Bondage of the Will fairly sets before us what they believed about the salvation of lost mankind. In the light of it, we are forced to ask whether Protestant Christendom has not tragically sold its birthright between Luther’s day and our own. Has not Protestantism to-day become more Erasmian than Lutheran? Do we not too often try to minimize and gloss over doctrinal differences for the sake of inter-party peace? Are we innocent of the doctrinal indifferentism with which Luther charged Erasmus? Do we still believe that doctrine matters? Or do we now, with Erasmus, prefer a deceptive appearance of unity as of more importance than truth?”

Is a deceptive appearance of unity more important than the truth of the Gospel in the SBC? Does doctrine matter anymore? Does Reformed theology and Arminian theology teach the same thing about grace and justification by faith alone? If they don’t, any unity based on something other than vital doctrines will be a deceptive appearance. Could it be a deception that is about the Gospel? Could it be that as the SBC strives for unity that the Gospel will be obscured by that very unity? A true unity can only happen around a true Gospel. The differing parties within the SBC must not be unified apart from the Gospel or it will be a deceptive appearance of unity and perhaps a denial of the Gospel itself. We are not talking about matters that can be minimized and glossed over.

For many years Roman Catholicism has talked about wanting unity. For years previous to the Reformation it wanted to keep its unity. But the unity it kept was a unity in denying the Gospel. This is not to say that there were no people within Roman Catholicism that did not believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But it is to say that for Rome, unity was the goal and the unity they kept was at the expense of the Gospel. Rome had a semi-Pelagian theology and it was unified around it. Luther came on the heels of Wycliffe and a few others and thundered forth a Gospel that was all of grace and which destroyed the pride of man and established the glory of God in the Gospel. Luther and Rome had a lot of conflict and along came Erasmus as the champion of unity and peace. He tried to minimize and gloss over the differences in order to have unity. Luther would have none of it and his volume in reply to Erasmus was a display of the glory of God in a whole grace toward fallen and sinful humans.

There are many parallels within the SBC and other denominations to what went on during the time of the Reformation. The cry to increase baptisms is not the same as the cry to proclaim the Gospel of grace so that that God’s glory in the Gospel would be declared. The cry to get the people down the aisle and get people to make decisions is not the same as calling people to deny themselves and cry out for the mercy of a holy and sovereign God. Tetzel sold indulgences which gave people a card which paid for their sin before they committed it. Forms of theology in the SBC and other denominations right now have people come up an aisle, pray a prayer, apply the water, and then tell them that they will be lost no matter what they do. Which is worse? Can anyone who holds to the Gospel of Jesus Christ be united to a perversion like that? This is not to say that a person who is truly saved will ever be truly lost, but it is to say that when people are saved from hell they are saved from the power of sin. Jesus Christ is Lord over all that He saves and He will not allow His people to live a life of unrepentant sin.

The SBC and other denominations have had and still have trouble with people misusing money. Perhaps that is minimizing and glossing over the issue, but there has been trouble with that. Can we stand around and point at Rome without dealing with our own house? What the SBC needs is a true Reformation. Bringing conservative men into leadership is better than having liberals there, but that does not mean that a true Reformation and revival have taken place. A unity that takes place without a thorough Reformation will be nothing but a deceptive appearance. There is no way that any form of unity should take place within the differing groups of the SBC apart from a thorough Reformation. The “good ole boy” system must be thrown out and men must begin to seek God for godly leadership that is solid in doctrine. Many conservatives must cast out their legalism and others need to cast out their libertine doctrines. The only way for that to be done is for some Reformed men to stand up and declare the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ. “Unity” is but a word without Reformation and solid doctrine.

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In Pursuit of the True Gospel, Part 18 – Reformation

July 31, 2007

If indeed the Arminian system is a denial of the Gospel as Luther claimed (he called it semi-Pelagianism), then this is a serious difference to minimize and gloss over. Does the doctrine of the will matter in our day? Luther thought that it was the essential issue that set out what grace really meant and that grace and the teaching on the will really interpreted the Gospel. If we gloss over the issue of the will and simply say that others believe in salvation by grace, what have we really done? Roman Catholicism says that it believes in salvation by grace too. What do people mean when they say that they believe in salvation by grace? Are we being faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ if we simply assume that they mean what the Bible means on the subject?

Roman Catholicism says that salvation is by grace but means that God gives grace that we then have to cooperate with and then apply through the use of means. Does the Arminian system teach anything different in principle than that? What does the Arminian mean by saying that salvation is all of grace? The system would say that salvation is provided by grace but a person must believe of himself in order for that grace to be applied. For the Arminian to say anything else is to deny the system that is built on free-will and that is a denial of Arminianism. The Arminian might say that God gives all men a measure of grace in order to believe, but that leaves them in the same position. The remaining movement of the will comes from the person and so is not all of grace but instead is just mostly grace. It also denies that man is dead in sins and trespasses.

The conclusion is then that Roman Catholicism and Arminianism do have the same principle at the heart of it. Both have Christ providing grace for salvation and yet both have man applying grace to himself in some way. Both deny the total depravity of man because the will has something good in it that does not need to be redeemed and so can choose God. Both have man doing a work or doing some works in order to be saved. Both deny by their doctrine that grace alone does really saves and that faith itself is the work of God and purchased by Christ. The pioneer Reformers saw what semi-Pelagianism (Arminianism today) was and they were strong in their denunciations of it. Has Roman Catholicism changed today? Has Arminianism changed today? If Roman Catholicism changes, it is no longer Roman Catholicism. If Arminianism changes, it is no longer Arminianism. To change is to change from the system and not the system itself.

The Reformed system was set out by the Reformers as the theology of Holy Scripture. They taught that to teach free-will as Roman Catholicism does and what Arminianism does today is a denial of the Gospel. I know that I have said that several times in differing ways, but this concept must be grasped. This is not a small difference that is going on within the SBC. This is not just a small issue, but according to Luther and the pioneer Reformers this issue is over the Gospel itself. If this issue is minimized and glossed over by anyone, it is either in ignorance or on purpose. Either way it works out to be the same. If anyone thinks that there can be unity within the SBC without discussing this issue and that the Gospel is not compromised by the refusal to discuss this, that person has missed the whole point of the Reformation. If people who call themselves Reformed are willing to unite with others without this being perhaps the most substantive issue, then those people are greatly deceived. The Gospel cannot be discussed without this issue. That means that any unity apart from this issue will be a unity that is apart from the Gospel as taught by the Reformers. The SBC needs a true Reformation and not one that is without the theology of the Reformation. Is that theology taught in Scripture? If it is not brought up and discussed, will others know?

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In Pursuit of the True Gospel, Part 17 – Standing Firm on the Gospel of Grace

July 29, 2007

In the Historical Introduction to Luther’s Bondage of the Will the writers say this: “These things need to be pondered by Protestants to-day. With what right may we call ourselves children of the Reformation? Much modern Protestantism would be neither owned nor even recognized by the pioneer Reformers. The Bondage of the Will fairly sets before us what they believed about the salvation of lost mankind. In the light of it, we are forced to ask whether Protestant Christendom has not tragically sold its birthright between Luther’s day and our own. Has not Protestantism to-day become more Erasmian than Lutheran? Do we not too often try to minimize and gloss over doctrinal differences for the sake of inter-party peace? Are we innocent of the doctrinal indifferentism with which Luther charged Erasmus? Do we still believe that doctrine matters? Or do we now, with Erasmus, prefer a deceptive appearance of unity as of more importance than truth?”

Are Reformed people in the SBC trying to minimize and gloss over the differences for the sake of inter-party peace? That is a very Erasmian thing to do if it is being done. In one sense it is true that some people are “atheological,” but in another sense that is very wrong. All people are inescapably theological at the heart level. All men know that there is a God by the way they were created and through nature, or at least that is what Romans 1:18-32 tells us. Men suppress the truth in wickedness and one way to suppress the truth is by avoiding theology. Men have to be theological in order to suppress the truth about God and by avoiding theology they are avoiding that which they hate. We must be direct in dealing with the differences and show others what they are suppressing.

What the above paragraph shows is why some people want to gloss over theology. Glossing over and minimizing theology is one way for the heart to suppress the truth. People hate the light and love the darkness. Another reason that we minimize and gloss over differences is because men like to be liked and love to be loved. It is hard to step out and stress what some people consider fine points if it irritates other people, especially if the other people are known, respected and liked in many circles. However, a love for the glory of God and for the Gospel requires that we get down to the fine points and drive them home. We should not assume that just because a person is a respected denominational leader or pastor that the person is truly converted.

Let us be very blunt and get down to the crux of the issue. Another way to put it would be to say that we must not minimize and gloss over the differences in order to obtain inter-party peace. Martin Luther said that he would be willing to keep the pope if the Gospel would just be preached. He did not want to divide from Rome but he had to over the Gospel. His real issue with Rome was over the Gospel and in particular the real issue for Luther was over the bondage of the will and salvation totally by grace. Let us make no mistake about this point. This was the crux of the issue at the time of the Reformation and it is still the dividing line today. We must never minimize this issue or we will be minimizing the Gospel. It matters not whether one goes under the title of “Reformed” or “Arminian”. What really matters is whether Christ has saved that person wholly of grace and lives in that person’s heart.

The Arminian system in name is the prevalent system of thought in the SBC. It is preached far and wide that man has free will and can use that free will to choose Christ as he wills. That was a denial of the Gospel to Martin Luther. That makes man depend on himself for faith and is no different in principle from relying on oneself for works. The difference between works for salvation and works after salvation is on whether man is depending on himself or Christ to do them. Can one really believe in Christ alone if he is trusting in himself to come to Christ? Can one really trust in Christ alone if he has come up with the faith himself? Can one really trust in Christ alone if he trusts in his own work to be saved? We see then that it does no good to gloss over the Arminian system at all. It does no good to minimize the differences. However, what we must be aware of is that there may be many people who are Reformed in name who are really Arminian in reality and practice. There might also be some who are Arminian in name and are Reformed in reality and inconsistent in practice. The pioneer Reformers were adamant that the Arminian system was a rejection of New Testament Christianity. If it was then, it still is. If we don’t face up to that issue, then we are minimizing and glossing over the differences. We must stand for the truth of Gospel and let the chips fall where God causes them to fall. We must stand here or we will not be standing at all. What are we standing for if not the glory of God’s grace in the Gospel?

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